If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 16, and you can let it
sit right there. Our first verse will be verse
21. I want to call your attention
to our third installment on the subject of forgiveness. The title
of our message today comes from the apostle's exhortation to
the church at Colossae in the third chapter where he says,
having put on Christ, You know anything about grammar, you know
that's a past tense. Having put on Christ, be continually
forgiving one another. So the predication, the basis
for, the premise for, and the requisite for forgiving is that
we have put on Christ. We've been dealing with the series
now for two weeks. This is the third installment on the doctrine
of forgiveness and it has yielded remarkable manifestation, if
I might say so myself, of the Spirit of God working in the
lives of those who want to be more pleasing to their Savior
and their Heavenly Father. It's a tough topic, isn't it? It's a tough topic. But it really
is only a tough topic when we really don't understand the value
of relationship. When we understand the value
of relationship, forgiveness becomes for us that major commodity
in the resources of the kingdom by which reconciliation can take
place and restoration. That's the way God set it up
so that the man or the woman or the people who are not operating
out of the principles of forgiveness will not experience God's greatest
blessings in their life. This is a critical topic, and
we will be concluding today. I want to remind us of some fundamentals
of it as we make our way to Leviticus chapter 16. We talked about forgiveness
from the standpoint of it being the only way back to God. It's
a radical thought that in God's own mind, and he's infinite in
his wisdom and knowledge, says that the only way for lost sinners
to return to me is through what? And if God had not made a way
to forgive us of our sins, we'd be in hell. And so forgiveness
is a gargantuan, magnanimous concept that every believer must
understand because it came at a magnificent price. Forgiveness
is a consequence of a work of redemption by which God paid
the ultimate price by which people might be forgiven, and that's
the death of Jesus Christ. So what is forgiveness? It's
not a throwaway term. It's not a casual word. It's
the fruit of God having not spared his only begotten son, that he
might have grace and mercy on us all. When we're talking about
forgiveness, we're talking about the benefit of the atoning work
of Jesus Christ. That's a great, great, great,
great price to pay. And what it indicates is that
our sin, yours and mine, by nature have separated us from God. And
that God saw fit in his own prerogative and purpose to redeem you and
redeem me by the shed blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
That price that he paid was enormous. But for God, he valued the relationship
between him and his elect enough to pay the price to say to you
and me, what? I forgive you. indicated clearly
in the gospel of Luke chapter 23 34 where Jesus our Savior
is hanging on the cross and what does he say father forgive them
for they know not what they do this is the heart and essence
of the ministry of the gospel and Paul sets this forth in so
many terms so we're going to be revisiting fundamental concepts
around this today. And then we will land on our
last two points that I wanna address, the grace of forgiveness,
and then the significance of forgiveness coming out of Matthew
18, where Peter says to the Lord, how many times shall I forgive
my brother? Seven? He thought he was doing something
great. Seven? And I wanna work on that toward
the end of our message. One of the reasons why the scriptures
will give us very human persons, very human persons, whom God
uses mightily, and yet shows us their weaknesses and their
unique, peculiar tendencies as a human being, is to help us
all understand that we are no different than them. So Peter
has a lot to teach us as we close out our message. So then my first
point that I want to address, and you can follow me in your
pastor's commentary under this idea, is that the meaning of
forgiveness is threefold. We talked about this. The meaning
of forgiveness is to lift or to release. To lift or to release. That's the Hebrew term for take
the burden off. It also means to carry or send. Now these verbs are slightly
different, but they're both significant. When you lift a weight off of
someone, you ease them, don't you? When you lift that weight
off of them, you ease them. But the one that's lifting the
weight off is also going to be obligated to carry that weight.
That's our lovely Lord Jesus Christ, is He not? And if he
cares enough about us in relationship to reconciliation and restoration,
he will never bring that weight and set it back on our shoulders.
Leviticus chapter 16 therefore teaches us this under the Old
Testament priesthood model that represents us as the body of
Christ, Aaron as a great type of our high priest Jesus Christ,
and the scapegoat which is Jesus our sin bearer. Listen to the
language so I can reiterate once again the practical aspects of
forgiveness so that you and I might know how to practice forgiveness
and thus receive the benefits of the blessings. And Aaron shall
lay both of his hands upon the head of the live goat. Who is
Aaron? He's a great type of Jesus as our what? High priest. What
is the role of the high priest? To represent the people. Aaron represents the whole of
Israel. Aaron is not doing this for himself. Forgiveness is not a unilateral
project. Didn't I say that last week?
It is not a one-sided project. It is bilateral in nature Because
the community matters So the high priest is laying his head
on the scapegoat in behalf of who all Israel What we're looking
at in Leviticus chapter 16 verse 21 is what we call the day of
yom kippur You know what that day is the day of atonement What
is atonement? It's the day by which God, in
mercy, sacrifices a lamb through his priesthood in order to reestablish
unity with the people of God. Atonement at one minute. Atonement at one minute. What does it mean? To recover,
to cover, so that the relationship is sustained. And here's how
it goes. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the heads of the live goat, and do what? Confess over
him all the iniquity of the children of Israel. Is that the work that
our master did when he hung on Calvary Street? Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Who's doing the confessing? Our mediator. Who is he confessing
for? All the people of God. But are
the people of God confessing? Yes, they are. How are they confessing? Through their high priest. On
this day, all Israel gathered together at the tabernacle and
they anxiously waited for the high priest to execute his work
because if the high priest was not accepted with God, guess
what? The people remained in their
sins. This is a massive community event. This is why for God forgiveness
is so very, very, very important. and all their transgressions
and all their sins, putting them on the head of that goat. That
poor goat's in trouble, isn't he? And he shall do what? Here again is the verb to forgive. Send away. Do you see it? Send away by the hand of a fit
man. Who is that fit man? Jesus. He is the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. So you see John chapter one there
with regards to John the Baptist saying, behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world right there. We also see
first John chapter one verse nine here where it plainly tells
us if we confess our sins, He is just and faithful to do what?
Forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That is what Leviticus 16 is teaching. So I want to drive
home as we open up that the meaning of forgiveness is a idea that
we lift or release the burden of the guilt of the party who
has transgressed and that guilt is carried or sent away or let
go, removed permanently from that person so that they are
in a state of for Forgiveness this again. I want to reiterate
is the bilateral cooperation of the church and the priests
mark the people the priests and confession of sin Well, I was
saying last week that when you and I are working through the
idea of forgiveness that we don't want to be unbiblical There are
conditionalities to forgiveness that we have to work through.
Is that true? Conditionalities if someone actually sins against
you The only way that you can affect total forgiveness is for
them to acknowledge their sin. Is that true? Right, and it's
so with the gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ holds out to the
whole world forgiveness of sins, but forgiveness of sins is not
experienced except through those who believe the gospel and trust
Christ as Savior. So forgiveness is not an automatic
deal. It is there available, but men
and women must meet those conditions. You must believe the gospel in
order to enjoy the benefits of the forgiveness of sins. So we
come to now the second aspect of forgiveness, and that's what
we call the objective of forgiveness. And I stated this here a little
earlier. When you and I say to someone, I forgive you, we are
not saying to that individual, now just get out of my face.
Now that's the way we do it. Now that's the way we do it.
But that's not gospel forgiveness. Do you hear me? That's not gospel
forgiveness. And this is on the functional
level of forgiveness. This is where a lot of people
have problems on the functional level, because they will have
an unbiblical idea of forgiveness, not understanding the aim or
the goal of forgiveness is reconciliation. so that, as I've gotten a question
after the messages, Pastor, what if a person does this? What if
a person does that? What if a person doesn't wanna
receive forgiveness? Well, then you can't enact reconciliation,
which is the second stage. And you're certainly not gonna
experience restoration, which is the outcome of reconciliation.
If the other party is not going to agree to the terms, you cannot
affect full forgiveness. Am I making some sense? And therefore
you who are on the part of being ready to forgive as believers
ought to be ready to forgive because that's the character
of God, is it not? Ready to pardon. Thou art a God ready to pardon. If that other person is not ready,
all you can do is leave it there. The ball is in their court. and
you get to walk away partially free. What do I mean by that?
I mean this, when you and I are operating out of gospel forgiveness,
we want reconciliation. We don't want variance. We don't
want separation. We don't want people over here
and us over there and call that, well, I've forgiven them. No,
that's legal forgiveness. And I'm gonna talk about that
as we get to Peter's question. Lord, am I free to let this knucklehead
go after seven times? But you see, this is how we practice.
It doesn't, isn't it? This is exactly how we are. And
we're gonna learn something about it. So the objective of forgiveness,
ladies and gentlemen, is always restoration. Is that what God
meant when he sought and accomplished forgiveness of sins for us? First,
we read 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 and 19 relative to this. You
guys have heard it before, but it's important to see. The apostle
Paul actually calls the gospel ministry, the ministry of reconciliation. Isn't that amazing? That this
gospel that is given to us and entrusted to us has as its objective
reconciling sinners to God. Isn't that an amazing way to
pull it? And so what we say to men and women is what? Be reconciled
to God. Be reconciled to God and all
things are of God who have what? Reconciled us to himself by whom
Jesus Christ and has given us what the ministry of reconciliation
We went out a couple of weeks ago here at grace and did some
m1 Evangelism and we're gonna be doing some more I think on
the 18th couple two or three weeks You'll get a notice on
that and our brothers and sisters are out there sharing the gospel
with people What are we saying to lost sinners be ye? reconciled to God What are we
saying? There is forgiveness with God
that he might be worshipped. That's what we're saying when
we share the gospel. Because we want men and women to be reconciled
that they might also be what? Restored. Restored. The whole purpose of the coming
of Christ is to restore the kingdom. To restore the kingdom. Because
it's broken today. The kingdom is broken. I'm talking
about the world is broken. It was broken at the fall. And
the Son of God has come as a Redeemer and as a Savior to restore that
which was broken. Look at verse 19. Here it is.
To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, doing
what? Not imputing their trespasses unto them. You can mark that,
forgiving them. Right? Forgiving them. To forgive them
is to not impute their trespasses. To not hold it against them.
To not leave it on their head. to not leave it in their conscience,
to not leave them with the burden of having to pay for their sins.
When God does not impute our trespasses to us, it means he
has dealt with them. And he has dealt with them within
the framework of what we call the forgiveness. of sins. Listen to it. And he hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Verse 20. Listen to these words.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech
you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead
be what? Reconciled. Release, reconciliation,
with the prospect of being what? Restored. And if you're born
again, if we're born again, if we know something about regeneration,
are we not presently in a restoration process? We're being renewed
in our mind. We are being transformed by the
spirit of God. We are being constantly restored
into the image of the son of God that was lost at the fall.
This is a recovery process because God values relationships. So then let's move on, having
looked at the meaning, addressing the objective, which is restoration
through reconciliation. Let's touch now on the what?
The mandate. This is the area often where
Christians are also at want to understand that you and I don't
have the option of not, we don't have the option of not negotiating
forgiveness. Boy, we so much are like that
fella in the parable of Matthew 18 last week, aren't we? Well,
there'll be a person that we don't like in the church or anywhere.
And metaphorically and mentally, we got our hands around their
throat. You know what some of us will
do? We'll put our hands around their throat, choke them a little
bit. And once we see them going out, we let them go say, Lord,
I forgive him. I forgive him. I just wanted to choke him up
a little bit. That's good. You just don't know. It's just
good because practically, that's what you do. Listen to me. Practically,
that's what you do. We do that with our loved ones.
Practically, we put our hands around their throat. Practically,
we exercise law before we exercise grace. Practically, we exercise
justice before we exercise mercy. That's our conflict, because
we are not ready to forgive, because we don't believe actually
in the process. Am I making some sense? Can I
get a witness? Raise your hand. Can I get a witness? I'm telling
you the truth. And this is why this subject is so critical for
us, because your joy, your fruitfulness your productivity in the kingdom
of God is Constituent to how you relate to God and how you
relate to one another that's why it's a mandate. That's an
imperative It's a law. What do we read in Matthew chapter
6 verse 14? Our master plainly said if you
do not forgive men their trespasses what? your heavenly father will
also not forgive you. For if you forgive men theirs,
then your heavenly father will also forgive you. We saw this
at the end of Matthew chapter 18. Look again there, Matthew
chapter 18, where in verses 34 and 35, in this magnificent parable
that I gave, that the master gave to Peter, here's what it
says. And his Lord was angry with that
man and delivered him to the whom? tormentors until he should
what? Pay all that was due unto him.
And I stated to you last week, because that man did not exercise
forgiveness, he found himself right back at square one, right?
And what we mean by that is, he was simply pretending to be
a believer. And because he was pretending
to be a believer, he was acting in the church as a lawyer and
as a judge, punishing people who could not pay him, not realizing
he's acting very contradictory to who he is, a vessel of mercy. Now, if I'm a vessel of mercy,
shouldn't I be showing mercy? But if I'm pouring out justice,
I'm actually contradicting myself and the one I'm working for.
Is that not true? So the parable was designed to show you and
me, as we'll see when we get down to the grace of forgiveness,
is that when God has saved you, one of the marked changes that
will occur in your life is that you will be people of mercy.
I'm going to show you in a moment again that we're not runovers.
You don't get to just dog people. Didn't we talk about that last
week? When you're exercising forgiveness, this is not a vulnerable
thing where people who don't understand the privilege of being
forgiven get to just dog you. But it is a struggle. Because
forgiveness is designed to discover whether or not that other person
with whom you are trying to get it right really does understand
the blessing of forgiveness. Because if they're not saved,
they will not respect the fact that you have offered the benefit
of forgiveness and they'll continue to abuse you. No wonder Peter
said, Lord, I'm about good for seven times. I'm about good for
seven, Lord. He's just being honest. The brother
was just being honest. See, some of you need to be honest
about that too. Before you hit number seven,
go on vacation. Just go on vacation. I love the
word of God because it has no problem dealing with our human
weakness. Now, some of us in the house
have no real problem with forgiveness in terms of executing it because
there has been such a Such a massive Expression of god's mercy in
your life and the love of god is so dynamic in your experience
and awareness of your sinfulness to god That as jesus says to
whom much is forgiven the same does what love much There are
lots of saints that are like that who are quick to forgive
because they are so Acutely aware of god's mercy in their life.
We love them for them. This study is not a problem It's
for those of us who have a hard time both receiving forgiveness
and therefore executing it. Can I get a witness? It's very
important. And that's why this topic is
so important. I'm telling you what God has
revealed to me and show me through some of you how he has worked
through this series to break through that wall, that barrier,
that hurdle, that massive mountain that has impeded your capacity
to enjoy God at a fuller level. He's shown you that. This is
where my problem is. I've got to deal with it right
here to enjoy God. And you have been able to experience
what we call a breakthrough. and God has been good. And for
some of you, you still have to work through this aspect of it
because your relationship with God and your relationship with
your neighbor is poor right now because of not being able to
practice it. Mandate, what do we mean by mandate?
Look with me in Matthew chapter five, verses 23 through 25, where
our Lord Jesus Christ, using again this concept of forgiveness,
says these words. Now listen to the language. Listen
to the language. You'll see it show up again.
You guys have seen this. This is in what we call the Sermon
on the Mount. Therefore, if you bring your
gift to the altar and do, and there remember that your brother
has an ought against you. In this context, you are aware
that your brother actually has an ought or a fault against you.
Now you are the one who have potentially offended them, are
obligated to do what? Go to them before you come to
worship. Because God is saying, both of
you matter to me. I don't care how well you sing,
if your heart stinks, let's go get a washing because God hears
the heart. Am I making some sense? Listen
to what verse 24 then says with regards to this. Here's the metaphor
and this applied in Matthew 18. Leave therefore your gift before
the altar, go your way first, be reconciled to your brother
and then come and offer your gift. Verse 25, verse 25. He then begins to use the imagery
here again of the law. This should be Matthew 5, 25.
Agree with your adversary. Do you see it? Agree. Now take
that first line. Your adversary is the one with
whom you have a conflict. And the scripture says, find
a point of agreement. You know what we call that? Reconciliation.
You come to the table, you work it through so you two can agree.
You use all of the biblical decorum to do it. But you do it. Now,
granted, if you and I are passive, if you and I are runners, if
you and I are flight mode people, guess what? We won't go to that
person, will we? We just run. We just run. We just run. Because it's easier
to live on the other side of the universe than to work out
that issue with that person. Now, I'm going to just leave
him alone. Yeah, I forgive you. I'm going to leave you alone.
It's just not biblical though. We would have no congregation
if we were operating like that. I love the fact that God in his
economy set the chairs up where we got to sit this close to each
other. Only place I don't like it is on airplanes. Kills me.
Kills me that the seats are just getting smaller and smaller.
I get the middle seat and then there are two big brothers on
either side and it just kills me. I don't want to be that close
to you. But in the kingdom, we're supposed
to be that close. We're supposed to be that close.
If I got to sit by you and you and I got a problem, I can't
worship God while I'm sitting by you and I'm all jacked up
in my head because I know I got an issue with you. Agree with
your adversary quickly while you are in the way. What do you
mean in the way? In the way of the gospel. in the way of the
forgiveness of sins, in the way of mercy and grace, in the way
of the kingdom of God, in the way of Christ. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by me. In the way of biblical truth, we are in the way of the
light while you are in the light. Because if you and I sustain
an adversarial approach, we will walk into darkness. That's what
happened to that brother in Matthew 18. He finally ended up at the
hands of the tormentors because he did not find a way of agreement
with his neighbor. Is that true? Listen to it. Agree
with him while you are in the way, lest at any time the adversary
deliver you to the judge. Whoa. And the judge deliver you
to the officer and you be cast into prison. Now, a lot of people,
a lot of interpreters, a lot of scholars like to make this
more of an emotional, psychological judgment. Grant that. But really, contextually, what
our Master is saying is this. Forgiveness of sins coming from
on high actually deals with hell. Forgiveness of sin is not God
just being mad at you. It deals with your going to hell. Hell is typified by a prison
sentence. And guess how long it is? Forever. Bondage to sin leads to hell. And what our master is saying
is make sure you understand that this important commodity called
forgiveness is the thing you use as a continual option so
that when you die, you end up in glory, not in hell. That's what we mean by the mandate
of forgiveness. We get it, we get it, we get
it. Let's go on then, having looked
at both now the meaning of forgiveness, the objective of forgiveness,
and the mandate of forgiveness. Go with me in your Bible to Ephesians
chapter 4. Let's look at verse 29 through
32 on this particular topic. Ephesians 4. 29 through 32 the
reason why I'm going through these verses with you right now
Saints is so that you can know that your Bible Does not go long
before it is laying out the imperative once again for you and me Around
this matter of reconciliation and forgiveness and restoration
now listen to the context of the Apostle Paul's Exhortation
to the church at Ephesus verse 29. Are we there? Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth. I At the foundation
of many offenses is corrupt speech, but that which is good to the
use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the wet."
So if we're controlling our tongue, which takes the work of the Spirit
of God, we minimize offenses, don't we? I was talking to my
brothers the other day about how important it is to remain
objective when it comes to issues that are in your face, where
you have to try to work out those issues. Objectivity allows you
to see those issues for what they are apart from how you feel
about it. Because a lot of times we judge
things based on how we feel rather than on the objective outside
of us facts about what they are. And we make our feelings the
litmus test of right and wrong. Am I telling the truth? You can't
do that. You can have your feeling, but
your feeling must be distinct from the issue at hand. Because
what if you got the issue wrong? Your feelings are not God, and
they're not law. I know that at least once in
my life, my feelings have been wrong. I swore just because of
the wrath rising up in me, they got to be wrong. As hot as I
am, they got to be wrong. As mad as I am, they got to be
wrong. God wouldn't allow me to be this
hot. I'm as wrong as all get up. And that's why you cannot
judge things based on your emotions. You have to judge them objectively
and critically. This is what God's, John's gospel chapter
seven says, judge righteous judgment, judge not according to the appearance,
But you're going to have to analyze and determine whether or not
the things you are seeing or hearing are factual so that you
can deal with it on facts. If you don't deal with it on
facts, you're going to be in a witch hunt. And where Christians
don't have enough discipline to make a distinction between
witch hunting and facts, you ruin fellowship. This is what
we learned last week about not going up and down as a tail bearer.
Don't hate your brother letting them go up and down saying this
person said this and that person said that and the other person
said the other thing and we don't have enough discipline to say
to that individual, did he say it to you? Well, no, that doesn't
matter. Yes, it does matter because you're
passing on secondhand information that could hurt someone's character,
injure them because you are hearing it somewhere else. It does matter. Now, I know gossip is juicy for
some of us by nature, a lot of wallowing gossip, but it kills.
It kills relationship. It divides brethren. And if you
read Proverbs 6, one of the things the Proverbs says that God hates
schism and division amongst the brethren because we don't have
the discipline to know how to be objective about what we are
seeing. Am I making some sense to you? Very critical here. Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying that it may minister unto the
here. This is a critical point of assessment for us. You and I want to grow in the
gospel in a way that when we talk to people, they can trust
that we are operating with integrity rooted in a truth of God's word. That we're not simply functioning
according to the trends of the culture. Do you guys hear what
I'm saying? I'm talking about even in your
own households. Can I get a witness? We can tear it up at home. Can
we tear it up at home? Gossiping in the kitchen, gossiping
in the bedroom, gossiping like our homes have no kingdom light
in it whatsoever. Do you think God's going to bless
you outside your four walls if he's not blessing you within
your four walls? It's not going to happen. Please hear me, child
of God. And it becomes a pattern. We
become addicted to it, addicted to it. Addicted and you got to
break those patterns. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth verse 30. Here it is Does relationship
matter and grieve? not the Holy Spirit Listen to
what Paul says Whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption
know what the Apostle said the Holy Spirit right there Right
there, you know what it feels like when you grieve the Holy
Spirit and Tell you what it feels like immediately you get get
a check That's for those of you who are grounded in god's word
and you are Used to enjoying the joy of the lord because see
wherever whatsoever the spirit of the lord is there's what?
That liberty and freedom that we have in christ. We will forfeit
when we fail to acknowledge its value That liberty and freedom
that we have in christ. We will forfeit where we fail
to acknowledge its value. I love When ain't nothing going
on? Can I talk to you for a minute?
Because I've said this before. This is my last installment on
the issue of forgiveness. So I'm going to work this until
we get it. Immature people, ungrounded people, love to find issues to
fight about. Immature people, ungrounded people,
are not at peace when nothing is going on. I'm old enough to
know when I'm not getting bad reports, And when I'm not getting
good reports to rejoicing Christ, I'm old enough to know that I'm
in a good space where I'm not have to always deal with drama.
I'm old enough to know that when peace like a river attends my
way I'm old enough to know that's God's grace in my life where
I'm not always if some of it's the only way you feel alive if
somebody can call you and say guess what girl you in trouble
because you're nothing but a waste dump area for people's garbage
I'm telling the truth even if you don't like it you're nothing
but a sewage East Bay Mud. Just make your other middle name
East Bay Mud. When you like to hear it, woo
girl, I'm so glad you called. I'm bored. Give me some gossip.
East Bay Mud. And you and I are called to be
God's holy people. Sanctified, washed. To the pure, all things
are pure. And when our disposition is right,
our job is to cleanse, not add filth to the conversation. Am
I talking to you today? It's very important for you to
get this. This is critical to your walk in mind. And grieve
not the Holy Spirit whereby you have been sealed unto the day
of redemption. You want some practical tips on that if you
need them? And this is where application
of the gospel is critical. Don't ever think that you and
I are not called to walk in the way of the gospel. Learn how
to do it. As soon as you hear someone going
down a course that you know is suspect, questionable, that they're
dealing with innuendos or they're not actually dealing with the
facts and they're just kind of shooting off, immediately step back in
your spirit and go, okay, so how am I going to exit out of
this dialogue or conversation? And if I can exit, I'm going
to exit, particularly if I'm a runner. If I'm a runner, I'm
going to exit because when you're a runner, you don't know how
to fight. But if you're a fighter, then what you're going to do
is fight against it, not them. Say, hey, hey, honey. Hey, hey,
friend. Hey, sister, brother. Can I ask you something about
that? And you're ready to engage them until they own up that they
have been gossiping or slandering or whatever and say, listen,
you know, I love you, but our father didn't want us talking
like this. Let's clean this up now. That's
right. That's right. Very much so. Very
much so. Very much so. This is the way
that the apostle Paul sets it forth. Now watch what he says
in verse 31 and 32. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. We'll see that when we
get to Colossians verse 32. And be ye kind one to another. You see it? Have you ever defined
the word kind? I'm going to give you a practical
definition of it right now. The word kind can be defined
this way. Put your feet in the other person's
shoes and be like them. Kind begets kind. Put your feet
in the other person's shoes. Be kind to one another. In other
words, you think about the other person. Think about what they're
going through. Think about what they're struggling
with. Think about what you might not know about them so that you
can learn about them, so you can know them, so you can actually
be kind to them. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense here? One of the areas where we sustain
offenses is because we don't care about being kind one to
another. You think you already know all
the issues with them. No, you don't. It's so very important
for us to understand this and therefore be tenderhearted. What?
Forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven
you. See the parallelism? We forgive because we have been
what? Forgiven. All right, then let's move on
from mandate to scope. This is going to get difficult.
But forgiveness is difficult. The scope of forgiveness. God
doesn't forgive everything. God doesn't forgive everything.
So when you tell people, girl, God will forgive you for any
sin, anything you do, God doesn't forgive everything. This is our
Western culture with our sort of mystical notion that God somehow
has no boundaries and has no just and legal parameters around
things. But your Bible is very clear.
God does not forgive every sin or transgression we commit. Our
master said this in the gospel of Matthew when he deals with
this in Matthew's gospel chapter 12 verse 30 through 33. Look at this. Listen to this.
I want to explain what I mean by God doesn't forgive every
sin. It's not something for you to be overly apprehensive about,
but there's an absolute important truth around this idea of the
scope of forgiveness, because this is consistent with the way
God has been since the beginning of the world. He that is not
with me is what? And he that gathereth not with
me is what? This is who we call Adam 1. Haven't
I talked about Adam 1 as being Adam the what? Scatterer. Adam
the scatterer. Gossip scatters. Slander scatters. False ideas and reports scatter. Bad principles and relationships
scatter. Adam 1 scatters. If we're functioning
out of carnal principles and creating variants, we are operating
out of what? Adam one. Now watch what he goes
on to say in verse 31. Look at it. Look at what he says
in verse 31. Wherefore, I say unto you, all
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be given unto men, but, do you
see it? The way the Lord Jesus constructs
this, he first talks about the broadness of the scope of forgiveness. You see that? And this is the
pattern of God from the beginning of time. What do you mean, Pastor? When he set the first man up,
Adam and Eve, he put them in a garden. And this garden was
beautiful and massive, filled with foliage and trees. And you
know what he said to them? All manner of trees. Every tree
in the garden. See the same construction? See
the same pattern? Every tree of the garden. In
other words, his emphasis was on the largeness of his grace
for them to be partakers of the blessings of the kingdom of God.
But what he did not say was absolutely every tree in the garden you
can eat. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? There is one tree. Like there's one sin. That will
send you to hell. So our first parents fail. How
come? Have you ever thought about all
the trees that was in that garden? Stay with me for a moment. I'm
getting ready to milk this one. Have you ever thought about all
the trees that was in the garden? That was God's garden. He planted
that. And this is infinite God. Can
you imagine how many trees was in that garden? And what if Adam
Eve would have started on the furthest perimeters of the garden
and said, honey, we're going to work our way around the perimeter
And then inside the penultimate perimeters until we get to the
middle of the garden because the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil was in the middle. And the tree of life was in the
middle. What if they had taken their
time and did all of the external trees and made their way in?
I surmise, this is pure conjecture, but I surmise that they would
have grown in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and would
have so enjoyed the blessings of all those other free trees
that they were partakers of that by the time they came up close
to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they'd say,
I'm so full, I don't want to have nothing to do with this
tree. I'm still speaking in parables,
but some of you get it, don't you? I'm still speaking in parables,
but some of you get it because that's the way our Bible is written.
Narrative forms are to teach us in short order how God works. So now mark this, this is a warning.
We are so inclined to falling into hell that we will disregard all of
the bounty and largeness of the scope of God's goodness and make
a beeline to the thing that God says don't touch. One tree sent all of us to hell. You see our nature, how inclined
it is to evil. And when you say, well, Pastor, we're good to go
because the only sin that we have to avoid is blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost. True. but you better avoid it. Isn't that what our master says? Listen to the language. Against
it, there is no forgiveness in this life or the life to come. Wherefore, I say unto you, all
manner of sin shall be forgiven unto men, but blasphemy against
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven of men, verse 32.
And whosoever speaks against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him. But whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world or in the world to come.
That's your tree. That's your tree. That's the tree to avoid. That's the tree to avoid. Is that not so? And what's remarkable
to me as I'm working this through, which really burdened my heart,
is because you and I are often too smart for our own good. Why
would the son of the living God give us that one prohibition?
Because he is the last Adam, reestablishing a new creature
paradigm, bringing us back again to that Edenic state to let us
know there is a way to miss Christ. Are you guys hearing me? Because
the assumption again in the Western church is once you get your card
and you say, you're good to go. And this is where we have a faulty
interpretation of once saved, always saved. But your Bible
is clear, isn't it? Watch this now. Very few people
are saved. Compared to the masses who will
perish in hell, remember what the disciples said in the Gospel
of Luke, Lord, are there few that be saved? And you know what
our master said? You better strive to enter in
through that narrow gate. Isn't that what he said? In other
words, what I am sharing with you is the devil and fallen humanity
has made the one tree, the one sin so broad that most people
end up falling into hell through it anyway. The broad road that
leads to destruction is filled with masses of people who have
heard the gospel. and who have hardened their heart
against the testimony of the Holy Ghost concerning the sufficiency
and exclusivity of the work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom the Spirit of God has worked, worked intimately and
continually to let them know there is no other way to glory
but Christ. And they have broken out of that
merciful restraint and have taken up all sorts of other forms to
get with God. And the broad road is leading
them to hell. So that one narrow way to hell is broader than you
might think. And it's going to take everything
in us to find the narrow way first and then stay on it. Is that true, Saint? And then
stay on it. So don't play with the idea of
all manner of sin. But the Holy Ghost, if I wanted
to treat that subject of the Holy Ghost right here, I could
talk to you about how in stages the gospel is hardened in the
hearts of men who have such a vivid and overwhelming testimony of
the glory of God in Christ like Judas Iscariot. And the very apostles who are
not the apostles, but the Pharisees who are in front of Jesus right
now, to whom he is saying, if you continue to harden your heart
against the incontrovertible evidence of who I am in front
of you, doing the miracles that I do, preaching like I do, affirming
the Old Testament as I am, you will end up in hell. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? This is very important for you
and I to understand that we can't just tell people God will forgive
you for anything. The other thing I want to say
about the scope is this. Please listen to me. God doesn't hold
out forgiveness forever. Be very careful to hear me. There is a time when the gospel
will not be heard. You go all your life hearing
the gospel. Do you know there's a point at
which God allows your ears to be shut, your eyes to be shut,
so you cannot hear and you cannot see the glory of God in Christ?
Am I making some sense? It's what happened to Israel.
This is why the epitome of the gospel came in person and he
went and they still missed him. Do you know why? Having eyes
they could not see, ears they had but they could not hear.
and therefore they could not perceive the time of their visitation. It came and went. Moreover, Proverbs
chapter one will tell you, because I called and you would not hear,
but you refused all my counsel and turned away from my law.
Therefore, when you call on me, I will not hear you. Are you
guys hearing me? So we don't get to just tell
people, well, you can call on the Lord anytime you want to.
That's nowhere in your Bible. Nowhere in your Bible. Pastor,
then what does the Bible say? Call upon him while he is near. While he's near. And he's no
nearer than when the word of God is open and in power being
expounded to you. Christ is high and lifted up
as the only mediator of your soul and the Spirit of God is
working to convince us of sin and Righteousness and judgment
to bring us to himself. This is a great time for us to
draw near to Christ If you have it, are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? There's a reason why we come to church to hear
the Word of God expounded So that we can draw near to him
and he draw near to us Have you ever experienced some of you
drifting away from God? found yourself so impotent in
your walk with God, you couldn't even come to church. You couldn't
darken the doors of the church. Now, see, a lot of you haven't
had that severity of departure from God, so you don't have any
idea, but there are some folks in here so happy to be in the
house of the Lord today, so glad to be under the gospel right
now because they know what it's like to have drifted away, drifted
away, drifted away from God for years. The only way you come
back is in God's mercy, draw you to himself. And as David said it in the Psalms,
let the righteous smite me. Let the righteous smite me. It
will not break my head. It'll correct me. It'll admonish
me. But it has oil in it. It's going
to make me right with God. Sometimes we think we come to
church so we can hear happy messages that affirm us and make us feel
good We have a wrong understanding about how to hear the Word of
God Am I making some sense? Two weeks from now when I deal
with the issue of leadership in the church I'm going to demonstrate
that the fundamental objective of leadership who are called
to teach and preach is to explain God's Word To warn, to admonish,
to rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine, so that the people
of God have a healthy diet of biblical truth from Genesis to
Revelation, not a lopsided view of God. Am I okay right now? Because it's important for you
to understand that's the reason you come, to hear the Word of
God in total explained to you. And trust that the Spirit of
God will work in that. So, the scope of forgiveness? Ends with blasphemy of the Holy
Spirit and it ends where God in his own prerogative and we
don't know when that is When he stops talking to a person
we do not know Listen, we do not know when God stops talking
to a person We do not know because ultimately only the Spirit of
God can save All right. Let's talk about the process
of forgiveness the process. Are you there? I The process
is our difficult work Matthew chapter 18 verse 15 through 17
again I just want to go through that and mark the process so
that you can note that our Lord gave us specific in our culture
We love what we call pragmatic theology and practical theology.
That is give me a B and C on how to do a thing here it is
This is a B and C Okay, now watch a BNC. I don't think this is
too hard. I know we went to government
school, but I think we can get this Moreover if your brother
shall trespass against you not you think he trespassed Not you
made up a law Yeah, we can make up our own
laws, you know According to my rules you trespassed against
me Well, how much time I'm gonna have to do according to your
rules? Now, what this means, ladies
and gentlemen, is as we read in Luke 17 one, and we'll get
there before we close, because I'm gonna make sure we get there,
our master said offenses will come. Will you hear me? Are you gonna be with anybody
and them not rub you the wrong way? Are you gonna be with anyone
and they got to always do right by you? Are you going to be with
anyone and they got to act sure they cross their T's and dot
their R's with you? Or else you're going to be mad
at them. Well, you better hurry up and lock yourself up because
you do the same thing to other people. You rub people the wrong
way with your attitude, with your laws, with your rules, with
your programs, with your instigations, with your methodologies, with
your I think and I feel. You do the same thing. You're
not going to let this. Yeah, tell the truth. Tell the
truth, tell the truth. I'll tell you what the Holy Ghost
has to do in order to get us to listen to his word, is raise
a big old mirror up behind my head to show you, watch this,
you the man or the woman, you the man, because you know what
we'll do? We'll step outside of the subjective analysis of
the text, thinking that this is about somebody else. No, it's
about you. It's about you. You should be going away from
the preaching saying, Lord, is that me? Listen to what he says. If he
trespasses against you, go tell him his fault between you and
him. Well, maybe four or five of your friends that you can
trust. Is that what he said? You know what we call this? Valuing the relationship. Did you get that? valuing the
relationship. I think I heard it in part in
Sunday school this morning, a little of it. Joseph dealt with his
brothers alone. You know what I love about God?
He deals with us alone. When God is dealing with me,
he deals with me. And he ain't bringing y'all in
on it. That's not your business to come. Let me see what God
is doing, beating up on Pastor Jesse. Why are you beating up
on Pastor Jesse? That's not your business. Now, if God should,
now if he should, if he should give you an earshot of me getting
a whooping, if he should, you know what you better do? Run
and pray. Go run and pray. Whenever the
saints heard I hurt. Whenever the saints hurt, I hurt. When my wife is hurting, when
my children are hurting, that's why Joseph was hurting. That's
why Christ hurt. I hurt because they hurt because
I know that I am as vulnerable as them. I'm on no better plane. If they can fall, I can fall.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? That's the way we're
supposed to operate. Now, when you get to him, after you make
sure you delete all your girlfriends and boyfriends number out of
your phone, who you want to text and get their advice, how you
should approach this. Now, you know, I'm not starting
anything girlfriend, but I really want your view on how I should
talk to him about what he did. Now, let me explain to you what
he did to me. Now take your time, girlfriend,
and work through this, because I need your advice. I know you're going
to give me some good advice. But first, do you feel me, girlfriend?
Do you feel me? Do you feel me? He wrong, ain't
he? Ain't he wrong, girlfriend? Ain't
he wrong? Are you not ready to answer? OK, I'll get back with
you. I'm going to go call Sally now. Sally, are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Six things that the Lord hate,
yea, seven are an abomination to him. And so the text tells
us. You go to him and you tell him
his fault. Now, 90% of the reason for which
people don't actually go to the other person is because they
actually don't have a fault to tell. Will you hear me? If you start a controversy with
your neighbor, Proverbs 25, you better be sure of your controversy
so that when you go to him or her, that they don't put you
to shame. because you didn't cover your
basis in that controversy. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? People like to have controversies on one side, but if you really
got an aught with your brother, you should have concrete facts
so that when you lay them out to him, he will be won over by
your objectivity and by your carefulness of laying them out.
But if you're coming with opinions and innuendos and your feelings
and your notions, no one has to capitulate to that. They do have to capitulate to
saying, if you feel that way, I'm sorry. Are you hearing me? But I do not have to yield to
your half-baked argument that's not based upon solid facts. We
should never waste each other's time like that. Just operate
out of the first stage of forgiveness and let it go. That's good. You guys don't know. That's good.
That's good. That's good. That's good. That's good. until it becomes apparent
that you actually have an aught and fought with your brother,
let it go. Are you guys hearing me? Let
it go. Let it go. See, because what you are discovering
in this process is that you are more of a lawyer than you are
a mediator. You're more of a legalist and
a Pharisee than you are a gospel preacher. You're more of a judge
than you are an object of mercy. Enough with that. You got it.
If he shall hear you, condition O, you have gained your brother. If he has not heard you, you
can't move to reconciliation. Reconciliation is negotiating
the facts justly and rightly so that you can agree that this
was done wrong, that was done wrong. Let's forgive each other
and move forward because we want restoration. We want restoration. And that's my point. You're not
going to always get restoration. Because some people ain't going
to give in until they die. And don't you be holding your
breath. They're laying on their deathbed. And I'm going to the
hospital. I'm going to the hospital. Let
me in. Let me in. I've got to talk to
him. I've got to get this off my chest right now. He's sitting
there, all these tubes in his face. He's barely moving and
you're trying to get him. Now confess now, confess. Didn't
you do me wrong? Didn't you do me wrong? Didn't you do? Let that brother go. He's getting
ready to meet his God. Let that brother go. All right, let me hurry up and finish. So let's move to the grace of
forgiveness. Oh no, I got another one I have
to do. This is called the success of forgiveness. I want you to
see the 2 Corinthians 2, 6 through 11. This is called the success
of forgiveness. And the reason why I have to
share this with you is because God gave us a marvelous example
of how if we do it right, it works. If we do it right, this
is called the success of forgiveness. You guys remember that account
in 1 Corinthians where Paul said that there was a man sleeping
with his father's wife? Right. And this gets into issues
like church discipline and protocol and the witness of God's glory.
Now, I just know ain't nobody in this church sleeping with
a daddy's wife. But you're probably sleeping
with somebody else. And if we catch you, we're going to deal
with you. Did you hear me? If we catch you, we're going
to deal with you. Hope that the Holy Ghost catches you before
we catch you. Because if we catch you, we're
going to deal with you. Do you understand what I just
stated? Leaders in the church are not called to be witch hunters
and hunting down sinners and sitting on the rooftop with telescopes
looking at your bedroom. We don't send out special investigators,
private investigators to track what you're doing all week so
we can keep a list of your sins. You can sin around me all day
long. You can sin all around Pastor
Jesse because I'm not wasting my time looking for your sin. But the God I serve sees it all.
He sees it all. And you know what? When he wants
us to deal with it, like that little pop-up that comes on the
screen, boop, be sure your sin will spy you
out. But this brother had taken his
father-in-law's wife, one of his women, and was walking in
the church around his home. They walking in the church, sitting
right up front, sitting right up front, kissing and smooching
and all that, right up front, right up front, like a lot of
folk do. Bad decorum. All the hugging and kissing and
going on in church. Can I be pastoral right now? Forget it.
Forget it. If you're husband and wife, forget
it. Smooching and kissing and going on. Your boyfriend and
girlfriend, don't do it at all. Not in the house of God. Did
you guys hear what I just said? You can give a clap on that one
because it's important for you to understand. Look at me. This whole idea of we in love. Are we hugging and smooching
and kissing? Today you are, next week you won't be. Next week
he's sitting over there and you're sitting over there. We don't
wanna read your mail. See, see, can I keep talking? I don't believe you until you
put a ring on it. I don't believe you until you
put a ring on it. And if you get it before you
put a ring on it, she ain't worth it. I ain't going to that church
no more. I ain't going to that church
no more. Now, I didn't call you out. I
don't know your name. I don't know your address. I
don't know where you live. I don't know but god knows that
leadership in the church ultimately after the apostle Paul wrote
a letter representing this letter which god writes to us to let
us know he sees us. Amen. Okay. And as he wrote the Do you know the harsh language
he used? This is what we call accountability because we value
relationships. Give him over to Satan, 1 Corinthians
5, that the flesh may be destroyed, that the spirit might be saved.
That's what excommunication is aiming towards, restoration. When a man is going to operate
out of the flesh in a callous, open, defiant way against God,
we're going to give you over to that flesh and let the world
know that the devil is running your life. Since you don't want
to do it God's way, do it the devil's way. And we're going
to leave you outside of the doors of grace where the gospel is
preached and mercy is given and the saints enjoy the fellowship
of communion with the true and the living God because he's holy.
We're going to let you sit out there and engage in the field
uncleanness and hope that the Holy Ghost breaks your heart
over time and brings you to repentance and faith which is what happened
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and I want you to see the success
of the principle of forgiveness here verse 6 sufficient to such
a man was the punishment see the word punishment what that
means they dealt with it sufficient as such a man was a punishment
which was afflicted of how many the whole church at least the
leadership. Because see, once you are out
because you were excommunicated, or what we call put under discipline,
the whole church knows. The whole church knows. Look
at verse 7. Let's work through it. Here's what he says. So that contrary wise, him now
being brought to a point of repentance, and this is what the text said
he did, he cried, he wept, he repented, he acknowledged his
sin, And he was under the burden of having to follow the process
of restoration. There's a process of restoration
into the family of God. He went through all that. And
Paul is saying now, this is what you do. Forgive him and do what? Comfort him. Lest perhaps such
a one be swallowed up with overmuch what? See, he had already come
to a point of repentance and sorrow of heart for what he did. And yet went through that period
of time where the leadership had judged sincere repentance. Because see what Peter is talking
about, which I'm going to get to here in a second, is phony repentance
is not going to get it. I'm sorry. It's not going to
get it. Sincere sorrow. Sincere sorrow. Verse 8. Wherefore, I beseech
you that you would confirm your love towards him. That's called
successful forgiveness. You dealt with it. God dealt
with him, God brought him back, now we restore him. Successful
forgiveness. You guys see that? Successful
forgiveness. Let's move on. What's our last one? Our last
one is the grace of forgiveness. Colossians chapter three, verse
nine through 13. The grace of forgiveness. What we're dealing with now as
we close is an important factor around a process of forgiveness
if it's gonna work effectually It's going to require that you
and I have put on Jesus Christ in such a way that our character
is dominated by certain attributes that makes it easy for you to
forgive. I'm going to start at verse 9. No, I'm going to start
at verse 12 and read through the verse 13, which is my major
text that I'm going to close with. Put on, therefore, as the
elect of God. Are we God's elect? Put on is
the metaphor of putting on a garment. Paul has already said in previous
verses put off the old man Put off the old man. Now. He's saying
put on the new verse 10a and then verse 12 put on therefore
as the elect of God Here's what he wants us to put on here. Here
we go. Holy and beloved These are adjectives of who we are
as the elect of God. We are holy and we are what?
Now here's what we put on vows of what? The next word is what? Remember what I said kindness
was put your feet in the other person's shoes figure out who
they are, identify with them so that you can talk to them
on their level. Bows of mercy, kindness, what? Humbleness of
mind. You know what the proverb says?
Through pride come contentions. Through pride comes strife and
contentions. When people are constantly at
variance, which is where we're going, it's because of pride.
A humble mind wants to solve all those problems as quick as
possible. Listen to what he says. Humbleness
of mind meekness, you know what meekness is you have authority
you have power, but you never use it for the wrong reason Long-suffering
it's a godlike attribute You know what we must be with one
another and here's another word for bearing one another Do you
see that you know what that word really means helping each other
with their loaves? Helping each other with their
loaves and here it is and forgiving one another do you see and forgiving
one another The prerequisites to forgiving is making sure that
you carry manifest in your life these five attributes. Vows of
mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness and long-suffering
as we forbear one another, bear up with one another as we forgive
one another. Think about those two saints. If I'm helping you
and you're helping me, aren't we going to be quick to forgive
one another? If I'm helping you and you're helping me, if we
are collaborating as a unit to help one another, we're going
to be more quick to forgive one another because we value the
what? Relationship. We value the relationship. This is my partner. He's helping
me. She's helping me. We are teammates. She offended
me. She stepped on my toe. I stepped on her toe. I'm going
to forgive her. If she does it two times, I'm going to say,
hey. But we're going to still bear the load together. Please
just move over a little bit. You see the metaphor? I'm not
going to sit there while she's stepping on my toe and build
a case as to why I should cut her foot off. Good metaphor. Here's what he
says. And if any have a quarrel against
any, see it? That's a message in itself. It's
amazing. Here's what the apostle Paul
is saying with that. He's saying believers ought not be quarreling. The word means finding fault,
casting blame, making people wrong. That's literally what
it means. He says, if any have a quarrel.
I'm going, Paul, are you kidding? From Genesis to Revelation, we
all got these quarrels. He said, not those who have put
on Christ. But Cain had a quarrel with Abel.
Esau had a quarrel with Jacob. The 11 boys with Joseph. The
rulers with Jesus. Paul had his quarrelers. The
sisters in the book of Philippians, they quarreling. All my life,
all I know that people do is quarrel. Paul, what you mean? If any have a quarrel. We all seem to be quarreling.
Finding Paul. He says, God had a quarrel with
you. God had a quarrel with you. Did
God have a quarrel with you? Did God find fault with you?
Did the Holy Ghost come according to John 16, 8 and convince you
of sin? Did he show you his son's righteousness? Did he show it to you? Did he
reveal to you the solution to your sin by revealing to you
the glory of God in Christ? He showed you your sin and said,
now there's your solution. So he's telling us to do the
same thing with one another that Christ did for us. Y'all got
that? Let me finish out that last one.
Go to Matthew chapter 18. This is what Peter said, what
he said. I'll run through this quick and we'll have the table and
we'll close for the day. By the way, we're gonna have our rewards
class at two o'clock. And if you have any questions
on the matter of forgiveness, we can talk about it then. I know
you got a bunch of questions. You can bring it then. Here's what
Peter had stated in Matthew's gospel, chapter 18, when he had
heard our Lord lay out these instructions around forgiveness
and Peter thinking it through as we had read Also in Luke chapter
17, as Peter had thought it through in verse 21, Peter says these
words, then came Peter to him, that is Christ, and said, Lord,
how oft shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him.
And then his answer was what? Seven times? Now Luke 17 gives us insight. Verse five. I just want you to
see how the authors of the gospel did this. You have heard this
statement quoted before, haven't you? Lord, increase our faith. Haven't you? But you never have
heard it in its context. Today you have. Listen to it. Verse one. Then said our Lord
unto the disciples, it is impossible that offenses will come, right?
but warn to him through whom they come. It would be better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he
cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little
ones. You see how important relationships are? Look at verse three. Take
heed to yourself. If your brother trespass against
you, rebuke him. And if he repent, conditional,
right? Forgive him. And if he trespass
against thee seven times a day, And seven times a day, do what?
Turn again to thee, saying what? Conditional, isn't it? You shall
forgive him. The disciples fully understood
the impact of that statement, which I'm going to spend a few
minutes to close to explain to you. This is a corollary to chapter
18 of Matthew. Peter is listening to the master
telling him and the other 11, you guys got to learn how to
forgive. Peter is working through his
head seven times. I think I'm good with seven.
And our master said, if he comes to you seven times in a day and seven times in a day, he
says, you know what? I'm sorry. Your job is to be
ready to forgive for the purpose of reconciliation and restoration. Stay with me. It's upon this
premise that the apostles then turn to Christ and said, Lord,
increase our faith. Do you see it? It's because of what I taught
you last week. Forgiveness is a manifestation of faith. And
faith only works by love. And where our love is diminished,
our faith is diminished. and where faith is diminished,
you cannot exercise this greatest commodity. When Peter said seven
times, Lord, and then our master said in Matthew 18, 22, I send
to you seven times what? 70, which is how many times? 490, stay with me. Teach your
theological truth in close. Can I do that? Just have to do
it. Peter said seven times because
Peter understood Jewish culture and Jewish law. In the life of
the Pharisee, they believed that you could forgive a person four
times, which is in the book of Amos, Amos chapter two, where
God actually dealt with Israel on this principle. For three
transgressions and for four, I will not turn away your evil.
He said it three times in the book of Amos. For three transgressions
and for four, I will not turn away your evil. I will punish
you yet more. So the rulers thought, well, you can let people sin
against you four times and after the fourth time, you can handle
your business. Peter stretched it out to seven, being a good
theologian that he is, the number seven. But the Lord jacked that
up by saying, if he comes to you seven times a day, well,
that means at the end of the day, you get to jack him up.
Follow the logic? But then our master said to Peter,
no, no, not seven, seven times 70, which is 490 times. Now, most people will say that
means you're forgiven forever. Sorry, 490 doesn't even come
close to infinitude. 490 doesn't even come close to
infinitude. If I take Luke 17 and Matthew
18 and say that brother sinned against me seven times today
and I gotta let him sin against me 490 times? Okay, I can wait
two months and ten days. I can handle that. Learn something
here. Learn something here. Learn something
here. The process of forgiveness is
designed to teach us what God did in his patience to save our
wretched souls. Listen to me now, listen carefully
to me. It's not designed for us to say where you can forgive
him perpetually and unendingly, because we've already learned
that God's forgiveness has limitations to it, that it has a scope to
it. But watch this now. The term 490 is a very prophetic
term that has its roots in God's timetable
and calendar of forgiveness of Israel. That's Daniel chapter
9 verse 24 through 27 where it plainly says, and from the time
that God had called Israel to return, to rebuild and restore
Jerusalem, to Messiah the Prince would be how many years? 490
years. What are we talking about? God
was patient with Israel, calling them back to the land to rebuild
the temple so that the covenant Lord of the temple might come. Who is the Lord of the covenant?
Jesus Christ. God was patient with them through
that whole intertestament period. letting them transgress and sin
transgress and sin transgress and sin transgress and sin until
who came Jesus Christ who is the personification of forgiveness
and when he hung on Calvary Street according to Daniel chapter 9
25 he put an end of sin he put an end to transgressions He brought
in everlasting righteousness and he sealed up the Holy Covenant.
Saints, what am I saying? What Peter was taught by Jesus
was you ought to forgive men and women until Christ comes,
until he comes into their heart. until he comes with the only
forgiveness that can put away a sinner's sins, until Christ
comes, in the same way God dealt with Israel. Because if God stopped
short, Israel would have never been saved. Christ came in the
fullness of time. It was 490 years. He came at
the precise time, and God had mercy on the Israel of God then,
and God's having mercy on the Israel of God now. Is he not?
How long shall we forgive our brother or sister until Christ
comes? Until Christ comes. Until Christ
comes. Amen. Amen.