That's one of the great hymns.
Thank the Lord for that. Would you turn back to Luke chapter
17? Our subject for this evening
is forgiveness. We're going to consider the Lord's
forgiveness. And our forgiveness. Forgiveness. The Lord said in verse three,
and this is an unusual way to introduce this subject, he says,
take heed to yourselves. He doesn't say watch out for
your brother, what he might do to you. He says, take heed to
yourselves. You're the one in danger. Take heed to yourselves when
your brother trespasses against you. Now, you may become bitter
and you may become resentful And you may hold a grudge, or
you may wallow in self-pity, or you may be overcome by hurt
feelings, or a sullen indignation at being wrong the way you feel
you've been. and you don't really deserve
to be treated that way, and you may just develop a bitter attitude. That's why he says, take heed
to yourselves when your brother trespasses against you. Now,
look what he says next. He says, rebuke him. Now, how
do we rebuke? Rebuke in such a way as would
promote goodwill. The scripture says, a soft answer
turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger. Rebuke in a way that will cause
somebody to say, I'm sorry. I wish I hadn't have done that.
Don't rebuke in a angry way. You shouldn't have done me this
way. I'm not going to do anybody any good. That's only going to
make people mad. But you rebuke in such a way as will provoke
this feeling of goodwill. And then the Lord says, if he
repents, forgive him. And this is a command. This is
not optional. If he repents, forgive him. It's a command to be obeyed immediately. Not tomorrow, but right now. If he repents, forgive him. And then he says in verse four,
and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, that's
a lot. If he trespass against thee seven
times in a day, and seven times in a day, turn again to thee
saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. I think this is
what led the apostles to say in verse five, when the apostles
heard this, they said unto the Lord, increase our faith. We
need an increase of faith to be able to conduct ourselves
in that manner. Now, with regard to forgiveness, most things don't need to be
forgiven. They need to be overlooked. You believe that? Most things
don't need to be forgiven. They just need to be overlooked.
Somebody treated you unfriendly or something of that nature,
and you don't know what they were going through. Maybe they
ignored you, but what were they going through? Just overlook
it. Overlook it. Somebody slighted you, just overlook
it. You have no idea what they were
going through. Most things simply need to be
overlooked. If I am easily offended, that's
a character flaw on my part. Things ought to simply be overlooked
for the most part, but there are things that can't just be
overlooked. You can be maligned. You can
be betrayed. You can be humiliated. You can be abused. Do you think
of the abuse some people have suffered from others that was
completely outside of their control? You can be cheated on. You can
be falsely accused. You can be thrown under the bus.
You can be misrepresented. Unfortunately, all this is a
part of life, isn't it? It's something we're all going
to experience all the time. And not only will these things
happen to you, you're going to do these things to people. You're
going to treat them wrong. You're going to misrepresent
them. You're going to mistreat them. It's called life, isn't
it? Some people have had people horribly
abuse them and mess up their lives completely in some ways
that they might not ever get over. What are they to do? Forgive. forgive. Now how important is
this thing of forgiveness? How important is it for me to
forgive? Well, how important is it for
you to be forgiven? That's how important this subject
is. How important is it for you to be forgiven? Now, I desperately
need to have my sins forgiven. I need God, for Christ's sake,
to forgive me of all my sins. Would you turn back a few pages
to Mark chapter 11? Mark chapter 11. Now, this subject
is a subject that I cannot emphasize the importance enough of this
subject. Verse 25 of Mark chapter 11,
and when you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against any,
forgive them while you're standing there praying. Don't continue
to pray if you're not forgiving. When you stand to pray, Forgive,
if you have ought against any, that your Father also, which
is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do
not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive
your trespasses. Now that's said two or three
times in the New Testament. That blows our minds, doesn't it? I mean, when I read that passage
of Scripture, I think, man, that almost sounds like works, but
you know it's not. I know that I will be forgiven as I forgive. The Lord taught us to pray that.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So how important
is this subject to us? Well, how important is being
forgiven? That's a subject of infinite
importance. I need the forgiveness of sins. How important is this? Well,
this is what God's elect do. Colossians chapter 3 verse 13
says, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering
for bearing one another and for giving one another. If any man
have a quarrel against any as Christ forgave you, so also do
ye. Now listen to this statement
very carefully. The most God-like, the most Christ-like thing me
or you can do to anybody is to forgive them. I want you to think about that.
The most Christ-like, the most God-like thing mere you can ever
do is to truly forgive someone. The wise man said the discretion
of a man deferred anger and it's his glory to pass over a transgression. Did you hear that? It's a man's
glory. It's what makes him like the
Lord. to pass over a transgression,
and the biggest thing that you and I can ever do is to forgive. And that person who will not
forgive, number one, will not be forgiven, and number two,
is a very little person, a very small person. It's the glory
of a man to pass over a transgression. Now, every believer is a sinner, Every believer is a forgiven
sinner. And every believer is a forgiving
sinner. Now, what is the gospel all about? The gospel. The message of this
book. What's it all about? Well, my
first answer is the glory of God. That's what the gospel is
all about. The glory of God. God does all
things for his own glory. Now I'm thankful we benefit from
that, but God does what he does for his glory. If He saves you,
He does it for His glory. If He passes you by, if He passes
me by and lets us go to hell, it's to the praise of the glory
of His justice. You see, whatever God does, He does for His glory. And we like it that way, don't
we? We wouldn't want it to be any other way. That's who God
is. He operates according to His
own glory. But the second word that comes
to my mind after I first think of the glory of God or the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think of the forgiveness of sins. Now here's something that I must
have. This is something that I must have. The forgiveness
of sins and somehow His glory is connected with Him forgiving
our sins. What did he say from the cross?
What were his first words from the cross? There's seven sayings. What was the first? Father, forgive them. And beloved, when he said to
the father, forgive them. You can count on this. Everybody
he prayed for was forgiven. That wasn't some generic prayer.
He's speaking as equal with the Father. He wasn't asking God
to do him a favor. Father, forgive them. And everybody he prayed for was
forgiven. And forgiveness is how God identifies
himself. In Exodus chapter 34, we read
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins, and will by no means
clear the guilty. Now that's the very nature of
God. He will not clear the guilty. and yet he forgives iniquity
and transgression and sins. That's the very glory of the
gospel, how God has made a way to be just. All sin is punished. and yet to forgive iniquity and
transgression and sins. I'm interested in this. I want
to know something about forgiveness, and I want to know that my sins
are forgiven. Let me read you a passage of
scripture from Micah. If you can turn there, go ahead.
It might take you a while to find it, but I'm going to go
ahead and read it. If you want to just listen, listen. It's
right before Nahum. But the prophet Micah said, Who
is a God like unto thee? that pardoneth iniquity. That's who he is. He pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.
He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. God delights in mercy. That's who he is. Now, I would like for us, for
just a few moments, to consider God's forgiveness, because we
can't understand anything about forgiving anyone unless we understand
God's forgiveness. Now, who makes this command? If your brother trespassed against
thee, rebuke him, and if you repent, forgive him. Who makes
this command? Now, it's the character of the
one who makes a statement that puts the authority behind what
is said. Isn't that so? If a man got up and said, I want
to deal with, from the scriptures, aging gracefully. Well, I want
to age gracefully, don't you? But if a man said, I want to
deal from the scriptures with aging gracefully, and he gives
all the right information from the Bible about aging gracefully,
it would be good. But what if the man was only
21 years old who gave this message? It really wouldn't mean much,
would it? I mean, he could give what the scripture says, but
when you listen to him, you think, what do you know about this?
You know very little about this. 21 years old, talking about learning
to trust the Lord in your old age, learning to trust the Lord
for all you need and all your infirmities and so on. And if
the guy was 21 years old, you'd say, man, you know, everything
he said was true. But what if a man 75 or 80 years
old got up and preached the same message? It'd be a little bit
different, wouldn't it? It'd be a little bit different. Now, the one who makes this command
is the one who has forgiven infinitely more than me or you know anything
about. Oh, how he has forgiven. He's been sinned against infinitely
more than you or I have. Here, the great practitioner
of forgiveness gives us this command. the one who has forgiven,
who has forgiven more than any of us can ever even imagine. He's the one who says, forgive. Now I repeat, it's the very nature
and character of God to forgive. When that prodigal was coming
back, And he had thought about how he was going to approach
his father. Father, I've sinned against heaven
and in thy sight, and I'm not worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he's coming back to his father,
rehearsing everything he's going to say. You know what he didn't
know? His father had already forgiven him. You see, salvation begins with
the complete, full, free forgiveness of sins. You're not forgiven
because of something you do. You're not forgiven even because
you ask to be forgiven. Salvation begins, this is where
my salvation begins, with the complete putting away of my sins. They're gone, they're gone, they're
gone for Christ's sake. There are no limitations to His forgiveness. Our salvation begins with the
forgiveness of sins and it's not because we did this and this
and this and this, therefore we have forgiveness. No, God
forgives. He forgives for Christ's sake.
He doesn't forgive for your sake or my sake or because we ask
to. He does it for Christ's sake. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. You know, that's music to my
ears. There's nothing I do to get this forgiveness. He gives
it to me for Christ's sake. And there are no limitations
to be put upon His forgiveness. He continues to forgive. Now,
how many times do you commit the same sin over and over and
over? And I could say, and over and
over and over a whole lot of times, couldn't I? The same sin. It could be that even while you're
confessing that sin and asking the Lord to forgive you of it,
you know in your heart that tomorrow you'll commit it again. How horrible,
how evil, how does God continue to forgive sin like that? Well,
it's because of who He is. He forgives sin. It's for His
glory. You see, He forgave us because
He justified us. And really, if I'm justified,
it's easy to forgive because all my sin's been put away and
I have a perfect righteousness before God. He forgives me because
I've been justified. He justified me. It's God that
justifies. He didn't offer me justification.
When Christ died on Calvary Street, this sinner was justified. This
sinner, all my sin was put away. So He forgives me. He continues
to forgive because the grounds of forgiveness is always the
same. It's always this, when I see
the blood. That's why I love that hymn you
just sang. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is always fresh and powerful and poignant before God. And
his reason for forgiveness is always the same. It's not because
you were sorry. It's not because you tried not
to do it and tried to strip. No, his reason for forgiveness
is the blood. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. That's always, always the ground
of forgiveness. He continues to forgive our sins
because they've already been forgiven. You see, there was a time when
all my sins were future sins that I'd not yet committed. And
they were forgiven by Christ, by God, before I was even born. And all my sins, the sins of
tomorrow, the sins right before I die, they've already been forgiven. There's pardon for the sins of
past. It matters not how black they're cast. And oh my soul,
with wonder view for sins to come, here's pardon too. He continues to forgive because
of the intercession of Christ. Brethren, these things write
I unto you that you sin not. I love that command. There is
never an excuse for sin at any time. These things write I unto
you that say you sin not when you do. We have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. I'm always forgiven
because of the intercession of Christ. Romans 8.31 says, and
we know that all things Or who shall lay, what's it say? If
God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall I not with
Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? If God's elect, God justified Him. Who is He
that condemned? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. For Christ's sake is the only
reason he needs. It's the only reason he has,
isn't it? But isn't it sufficient? Now,
how complete is his forgiveness? When David said, bless the Lord,
O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. We read in
Colossians 2.13, having forgiven you all trespasses. And he forgives in such a way
that those sins are not even remembered. Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. Now that is a very difficult
thing to get a hold of. How he can, God's got a good
memory. Matter of fact, he's got a perfect memory. And yet
he says with regarding my sins, they're never gonna be brought
up. They're never gonna be brought up. Not only are they not gonna
be brought up, they're not gonna be brought up because there's
nothing there to bring up. That's how much the blood of Christ
has actually put away my sin so that God can say regarding
my sin, their sins, and their iniquities, I will remember no
more. And he forgives faithfully and
justly. There's nothing unjust about
this. You know, if a judge just up and forgave some criminal
and put them back out on the streets, that'd be wrong, wouldn't
it? But the scripture says in 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just. to forgive us of our sins. He's
faithful because he'd already determined he was going to do
it, and he does it in a way that magnifies his justice through
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That sin was punished in Christ,
and God's justice is magnified. Now, with regard to this thing
of forgiveness, interestingly, the Greek word for forgive is
translated several other ways in the New Testament that shows
us just what this means. Remember when Simon Peter's mother
was sick with a fever and the Lord came into her house and
the scripture says he rebuked the fever and the fever left
her. That's the same word as forgive. The fever left her. It was plum
gone. It's not like she went from 105
degrees to a more manageable 100 degrees and she could get
up and kind of help them out. No, it completely left her. It
was no longer an issue. She got up and served them. It
left her. Now, when I forgive somebody,
that means I leave the sin that I'm offended by. It's no longer an issue. It's
gone. I've left it. I'm not holding
on to it. It's also translated forsake. The disciples forsook all. That's the same word forgive. The disciples forsook all and
followed him. Now, when you forgive somebody,
you leave, you forsake the way you were wronged, and it's no
longer an issue or a barrier. They're not to be punished for
their sin. They're not to be put on probation. There's complete
reconciliation, complete embracing. Now, that's what happens when
you forgive somebody. Truly, who is a God like unto
Him? That's the way He forgives. When
He forgives, He doesn't put me on probation. He doesn't wait
and see how I do. There's complete, full restoration
and reconciliation. Now, when we think of how we
have been forgiven, and may I add forgiven much, remember that scripture that
says, he that's been forgiven much. loveth much. Forgiving much, I don't even
know how to say it enough. But every second that I've ever
lived, I've sinned. Every second. I really believe
that. I believe that about myself. I've been forgiven much. And
you know, when you see how freely and completely the Lord has forgiven
you, it's not hard to forgive somebody else, is it? Not when
you see the Lord's forgiveness of you. Now, if I'm remaining
bitter and angry over the way I've been wronged, I'm obviously
not thinking of the Lord's forgiveness. Because if I see how freely he's
forgiven me, I'm going to be able to forgive others. It's actually something we'll
enjoy doing. Now turn to Matthew chapter 17.
Let's end with this great parable of forgiveness. Somebody may be thinking, well,
do we have to forgive if they don't repent? Do we have to forgive if they
never apologize? Well, did the people, when the
Lord said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,
had they apologized for that? No. No. The Lord forgave them
anyway. and you and I are commanded to
forgive. Now look in Matthew chapter 17,
beginning in verse... Matthew 18, I'm sorry, Matthew
18. Verse 21, then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times,
and I think Peter felt very magnanimous when he said this. Seven times,
I mean, isn't that a gracious, he felt good about it. And you
know, there is a scripture in Amos. that says, three times
I forgive you, fourth I won't. It says that several times in
that first chapter of Amos. And I don't know what all that
means, but I do know this, that the Jews actually thought, well,
three times is enough. And Peter was thinking, I'm going
way beyond that. Seven. And I'm sure he felt very
good about himself in making this statement. Verse 22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not
unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. Now, you know that doesn't mean
after 491, it's okay to not forgive. That means all the time, completely
all the time. And then he gives this parable. Therefore, verse 23, is the kingdom
of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants. And my dear friends, Lord's going
to take account of me and you. And he's going to deal with us
the way we come. We come needing nothing but grace.
He'll deal with us that way. We come demanding certain rights
that we've achieved. He'll meet us on that ground
if we want. It's not a good ground to meet him on, I can tell you
that right now. Verse 24, and when he had begun
to reckon, one was brought unto him that owed him 10,000 talents. Now, that figure is millions
and millions of dollars. There's different, I've heard
anywhere between 10 and 100 million dollars. It was a figure that
he could not pay back. It was totally impossible for
this man to pay this back. Verse 25, but for as much as
he had not to pay, he didn't have a nickel. He owed $10 million. He didn't have a nickel. He had
absolutely nothing. to pay this back with. Not a
thing. And beloved, that's me and you.
We don't have a penny's worth of merit. There isn't one thing
we could pay God for the debt we owe. Not one thing. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and
children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. Well,
I'm gonna get what I can out of him. Sell him as a slave. His wife, his children, he didn't
have anything to pay. Verse 26, the servant therefore
fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with
me and I'll pay thee all. Now, how do you think his Lord
felt at this time when he heard that? He didn't have anything
to pay. He didn't have a penny. And this is a lie. He says, have
patience with me and I'll pay every bit of it back. He was
completely incapable of doing this. Look how the Lord responded. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion and loosed him, set him free, and
forgave him all the debt. Now, is that the gospel? This
compassion that the Lord had for this man was not because
of the way the man apologized. The man was actually being a
hypocrite. He was lying. There's no way he could pay this
back. He was just trying to stay out
of jail. But the master was moved with compassion because that's
who he is. And he set him free. And he forgave him of all that
debt. What a glorious master he is. Verse 28, but the same servant
went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him
100 pence, $15, $15. He'd just been forgiven at least 10
million. And now somebody owes him $15. I got a lot more than
$15 in my wallet. I'm not going to tell you how
much I got in there, but I got more than $15. And $15 is easy to come up with.
Any kid in this room could come up with $15. The same servant went out and
found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence, $15,
and he laid hands on him, and he took him by the throat, saying,
pay me that thou ow'st. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him, saying, have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. He could come up with that 100
pence. Give me some, you'll get it back. And he would have. And
he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should
pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw
what was done, they were very sorry. If you and I would see
this kind of conduct, it'd make us sorry too. They were very
sorry. And they came and told unto their
Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he
had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou
also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had
pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and he
delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was
due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts Forgive not
everyone his brother their trespasses. Now, Christ commands us to forgive
and to forgive right now. This is not an option. This is
a command. Now, if we do not The Lord says,
we will not be forgiven. Now you can twist in your mind
whatever that means. I mean, it's a scary verse of
scripture, but the Lord says, if you don't forgive me in their
trespasses, your heavenly father will not forgive you your trespasses. Now I'm not forgiven because
I forgive. I forgive because I've been forgiven. That is why. And forgiveness,
I've already touched on this, but forgiveness is the most God-like
thing me or you can do. To truly from our hearts forgive
somebody, completely forgive them and leave it and forsake
it. It never happened. For me to fail to forgive, is
for me to practice hypocrisy, isn't it? Because I sure want
the Lord to forgive me. But if I fail to forgive someone,
I'm practicing grotesque hypocrisy. Well, you don't know what that
person's done to me. Well, I know this. What you and I have done
to the Lord is a whole lot worse than what those people have done
to you. You believe that? It's so, and I cringe to think
of how some people have been horribly abused, much more so
than I've ever experienced. But still, the call of Christ
is to forgive as you have been forgiven. And you know what?
We'll just be a whole lot happier people if we forgive. You go
around walking with a grudge and bitterness and anger and
resentment about the way you've been treated, that's such a waste
of time. If the Lord gives me grace to
just forgive, I'm gonna be a whole lot happier of a person, aren't
I? To fail to forgive is to give Satan the advantage, according
to 2 Corinthians 2. Paul said that gives Satan the
advantage. When we fail to forgive somebody in our life, we're opening
up the door for Satan. Now, Ephesians chapter four,
I've already quoted this, but let's look at it together. And
this is what we'll close with. Verse 31, let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another in the
precise same manner as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now, for Christ's sake, that
has power with a believer. For Christ's sake. Oh, my. I repeat this phrase once again. Every believer is a sinner. Don't you know that so? A sinner. That means an evil person. That
means a lawbreaker. Every one of the Ten Commandments
mean you break all the time. And if we think we keep them
any, all we prove is how ignorant we are of the holy law of God
and how ignorant we are of ourselves. Every believer is a sinner. But
bless God, every believer is a forgiven sinner. God has forgiven all my sins
for Christ's sake. And the only way I'm to think
of my sins is as forgiven sins. Every one of them. I'm to think
of my sins as forgiven sins. I'm not allowed to think of them
any other way. and every believer is a forgiving
sinner. May God enable me and you to
follow our Redeemer in this thing of forgiveness. It's such an
important issue. Let's pray.