Have you ever been wronged? Have you ever been abused? Have you ever been slandered?
Have you ever been used? Have you ever been lied on? Have
you ever been thrown under the bus? Have you ever been wronged,
horribly wronged? Have you ever had things attributed
to you that just weren't true? There's a lot of painful things
like that. And what I'm called upon to do
in a situation like that, no matter what it is, is forgive. I'm going to try to preach on
forgiving others. The Lord said, forgive us our
sins, And he uses this as an argument that we're to use, for
we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. You see, sin
carries with it the idea of debt. You did someone wrong and you're
indebted to them. Sin is against God. It's a debt
to God that must be paid. And we're taught to pray, Every
day, forgive us our sins. Is there ever a time when you
don't need to pray that? Forgive us of our sins. You know, John says, if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. Speaking
of a sinful nature, they're the word sin is a noun. And he says
in verse 10 of first John chapter one, if we say we've not sinned
and they're the words of verb, if we say we've not sinned, well,
we make him a liar because he says we have. So there's never
a time in my experience when I do not need to pray this prayer,
Lord, forgive me. of my sins. As long as we commit
sins, we'll have a need of this prayer. Now, I've had people
ask me before, if I've been forgiven, do I need to continually be asking
for the forgiveness of sins? Yes. Yes, you do. This is what the Lord teaches
us to pray on a daily basis. Well, if I've been forgiven,
why do I need to pray it? Because you're always sinning.
That's why. And you always need to be asking. And I always need
to be asking, oh Lord, forgive me of my sins. And the Lord says, forgive us
for we forgive everyone that's indebted to us. And I asked myself
this question, do I do that? I cannot expect the Lord to forgive
me of my sins if I am unwilling to forgive those who have wronged
me. Forgive us our sins as we forgive
those who are indebted to us. Now, we ought to do something
simply because it's the right thing to do, shouldn't we? We
ought to be forgiving and forgive those who have wronged us because
it's the right thing to do. But I am going to appeal right
now to your own base self-interest and my own base self-interest
when I deal with this thing of forgiveness. First, if we do
not forgive, we will not be forgiven. And there's a good reason to
forgive. If I fail to forgive, the Lord Jesus Christ says, I
will not be forgiven. Let's look at this in the scripture. Matthew chapter six, and this
is the only part that our Lord commented on. when he taught
us to pray in Matthew chapter six. Now he said in verse 12,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now look
in verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
father will also forgive you. Now that's a promise. But if
you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive
your trespasses. Turn to Mark chapter 11. Verse 24. Therefore, I say to you, what
things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you shall
receive them and you shall have them. And when you stand praying,
forgive. If you have ought against any,
forgive them. that your father also, which
is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if you don't
forgive, neither will your father, which is in heaven, forgive your
trespasses. Now there aren't two different
ways to look at that. He says, if I do not forgive, I will not
be forgiven. Now here's a second reason to
forgive. We will be forgiven as we forgive. The Lord is gonna measure our
forgiveness in the basket that we bring. If we forgive, he promises
we will be forgiven. Now that's the promise of the
Lord. I'm not forgiven because I forgive,
I realize that. I'm forgiven for Christ's sake,
not because I forgive. But I will be forgiven as I forgive,
as I forgive like him. Here's the third reason, my appeal
to our own self-interest. We will be much happier people
if we're forgiving people. Much happier. Turn with me for
a moment to Luke chapter 17. The Lord says in verse three,
take heed to yourselves. Watch out, be on your guard here.
Here's where you're getting ready to get in trouble. Take heed
to yourselves. If your brother trespass against
thee, rebuke him. And if he repent, forgive him. Now notice how the Lord says,
take heed to yourself. You're the one that is on the
verge of getting in trouble when your brother trespasses against
you. If I've been done wrong, and
if I begin to harbor bitter and resentful thoughts toward that
person who has wronged me, thinking about how I've been abused and
been wronged, you know what that does? It makes me miserable.
That's all it does. It makes me miserable. And I'll
become so critical and judgmental of that person that it will call
her everything they say or do in my mind. And how miserable
that is, you become a victim, wallowing in self-pity. When you do not forgive someone,
you've been wronged and you're upset with that. But what a joy
it is when you're truly enabled from your heart to forgive somebody. What a blessed thing that is. You know, the happiest marriages,
I can tell you this, this is one of the great keys to a happy
marriage. The happiest marriages are the ones where the people
are the quickest to forgive. Quick to apologize and quick
to forgive. And fourthly, here's another
reason why we ought to forgive when we fail to forgive Satan. has the advantage over us. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
2. Verse 10. To whom you forgive
anything, I forgive also. For if I forgive anything to
whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of
Christ, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. And if I
have an unforgiving spirit, Satan has the advantage over me. He
says, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now, Satan is
a crafty devil. And he does not know infallibly
whether or not you were one of the elect or whether I'm one
of the elect. You know, if he knew for sure you were one of the elect,
he wouldn't mess with you. He wouldn't tempt you. There'd
be no point in it. You're going to be saved. But he doesn't know infallibly
whether or not you and I are true believers. So he's going
to do everything he can to get us to stumble and to fall. And
he knows that if he can get us to harbor a resentful, unforgiving
spirit, We won't be forgiven. And so that is Satan's goal. This is his way of working to
cause us to be unforgiving. He knows that that destroys the
unity among believers. Look in Colossians chapter three. Verse 12, 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 forgiving
one another. If any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Now that's the
language of scripture. Now, When the Lord taught us
to pray, forgive us of our sins, that tells us that there is such
a thing as the forgiveness of sins. Isn't that a wonderful
thought? There is such a thing as the
forgiveness of sins. First of all, there is such a
thing as sin. And sin is against God. David said, against thee. The only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. And remember, Uriah got murdered
out of this. Bathsheba was sinned against
greatly. He sinned against those individuals when he did that.
But still, when he confesses his sin, he says, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
And the reason sin is sin is because it's against God. Now,
if there's no God, who's to say that there is a right and wrong?
Who's to say that there is any kind of moral absolute? And who's
to say that we should act this way or that way? I mean, that's
just one man's opinion if there's no God. But if God is, Sin is
against him. But thank God there is such a
thing as the forgiveness of sin. Did you know that it lies in
the very nature of God to forgive sin? I've heard people say, maybe
I've said it, God doesn't have to forgive sin. He has to be
just, but he doesn't have to forgive sin. But I believe if
I've ever said that I was wrong, because it's his nature to forgive
sin. That's who he is. He doesn't
forgive everybody's sins, I know that, but it's his nature to
forgive sin. Listen to this scripture. When
He proclaimed His name to Moses, He said in Exodus chapter 34,
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 sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children and the children's children to the third and fourth
generation. Now somebody says, Does God punish People for their
parents' sins? Well, I'll tell you what, people
are affected by their parents' sins. There's no question about that.
Tell me somebody whose father or mother is an alcoholic and
all the things that they have to deal with, or somebody is
a thief and all the things that they have to deal with. I mean,
yes, people are affected, children are affected by the sins of their
parents, but here's the point. God forgives sins. He delights in forgiving sins. It's his nature to forgive sins. When David cried out, I've sinned
against the Lord, Nathan replied, and the Lord hath put away thy
sin. Don't you want to hear him say
that to you? The Lord. Oh, my sin. I really believe myself to be
the chief of sinners. Now, I realize that I'll probably
get upset if somebody says, well, I agree, I think you are too.
I mean, I realize that, but when I'm before the Lord, I believe
that about myself and what I need is for my sin to be forgiven.
to be put away. Thank God, He does actually forgive
sin. You see, before there was sin,
there was the Savior. Revelation 13.8 speaks of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And we read that
He by Himself purged our sins. Our sin was put in His... He
who Himself bare our sin in His own body on the tree. Christ
bore my sin. Now, how can I be forgiven? Well, let me show you. I read
this passage of scripture in Psalm 40 this week, and it's
like I've pointed it out several times. It was like it's the first
time I'd ever seen it. It came so sweet and powerfully to me.
Psalm 40, verse six. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt
offerings and sin offering hast thou not required. Who's speaking?
That's the Lord Jesus, isn't it? It's quoted in Hebrews chapter
10 as the very words of the Lord Jesus. Then said I, Lo, I come
in the volume of the book. It is written of me. I delight
to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refolded my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. That's the preaching
of the Lord. Now let's go on reading. He says, now the Lord
hadn't stopped speaking. This is still the Lord speaking.
Yes, it's David speaking. There's no doubt about it. David
wrote all these words and he meant them about himself. But
this is spoken primarily of the Lord himself. He says, withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have
compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. These sins I'm talking
about that I need to be forgiven of. The Lord calls them mine. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking from Calvary's tree. He says, be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Now, David was saying that about himself. There's no question
about that. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. Oh, David meant that. But here's how my sin can be
forgiven. My sin became His sin. And His righteousness becomes
my personal righteousness. And my sin is forgiven as a consequence
of that. As I said, It's the nature of
God to forgive sins. Clare read that passage of scripture.
If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who should
stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. You know, you've never really
feared God until you've been forgiven. There's no fear of God apart
from that. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. This is the very nature of God. Now listen to this statement.
The most God-like thing me or you can do is forgive somebody. I want you to think about that.
The most God-like thing me or you could do is to truly, from
our heart, forgive somebody. Shakespeare had it right when
he said, to err is human, to forgive is divine. I love the way the Bible describes
God's forgiveness. I think of Psalm 32, 1 and 2,
where David writes that Psalm after the issue with Bathsheba
and Uriah. He says, blessed are they whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Now, here's why they're forgiven.
They're covered. And when the Lord covers something,
that doesn't mean it's still there. That means when he covers
it, it's gone. It's gone. It's not there anymore.
Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. This
is how he forgives. He forgives, he covers so that
it's not there anymore, and he actually, literally, positively
does not charge me with what I've done. That doesn't take
away from the reality of what I've done. It's all real, but
he doesn't charge me with it. Now that's some kind of forgiveness,
isn't it? What glorious forgiveness. And I love what he said next.
And in whose spirit there's no guile. You know, this guileless
spirit is the new spirit. It's the new heart. It's the
new man that's honest before God. In Psalm or Isaiah 45 verse 22,
he says, I have blotted out as a thick plow thine transgressions. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. Now you know what blotted out
means. It means erased it. It's not there anymore. It's put away. It's gone. That sin that I feel
guilty of that I committed yesterday or today. It's blotted out. It's forgiven. It's not imputed
to me. It's covered. It's gone. It's
separated from me as far as the East is from the West. Let me
show you a passage of scripture in Jeremiah chapter 50. Verse 20. In those days, and
in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for. And what's it say next? What's
that say? There shall be none. Who's going to be seeking for
it? God. And you know, He can find anything. If it's there,
He'll find it. He's got the eagle eyes of omniscience
and omnipotence. If there's anything there, He'll
find it. And He says, there shall be none,
and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will
pardon them whom I reserve. Now this is all the result of
the justifying work of Christ for us. Now, the forgiveness
of sins, there is such a thing. There's such a thing as sin,
and there's such a thing as God forgiving sin. It's free. Now, the cost was infinite to
Him, but to us, it's free. It's full, not partial. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. All of them. It's continual. You know, there's never a time
when he stops forgiving. You know, there's never a time when
we stop sinning. Really, in reality. How do you believe that about
yourself? That everything that comes out of your heart is sin. And you know, he continually
forgives you nonstop. It's irreversible. I was talking
to this. I like what you said, Aaron.
This has been a couple of months ago. You said, I like justification
better than forgiveness. Because if you're just forgiven
without justification, it might come back up again. But if you're
justified, it's not going to come back up again. That's why
forgiveness is irreversible. And it's the restoration. There's no period of probation.
When God forgives, there's the restoration of full fellowship. Right then and always. I know
no probationary period, no time I got to wait, no time of cooling
down. No, I'm embraced completely for
Christ's sake. And I love what John says in
first John one, two, he says, if we confess our sins, What are the next words? He's
faithful. And he's just to forgive us our sins, not merely merciful
and gracious, but he's faithful. You see, when he forgives my
sins, it's because he determined to do it before I ever sinned.
And he's faithful to do exactly what he said he's going to do.
Not only is he faithful to forgive me of my sins because he determined
to do it, he's just to forgive me of my sins. It honors his
justice. You see, my sin has been dealt
with, paid for by Christ. Christ's righteousness is given
to me and God's justice is magnified in the forgiveness of sins. Now,
what does his forgiveness do to us? What effect does it have
on us? Well, for one thing, peace. The only thing that makes you
lose your peace is if you're not sure all your sin is taken
care of. That's the only thing. If you
really believe that all your sin is forgiven, has been washed
away, you have peace. Peace with God. And how comforting
it is, I love what The Lord said to the prophet Isaiah, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned. It's already been pardoned. Sins
you haven't even committed yet have already been pardoned. That's the truth, isn't it? That's
the truth. I think of what our Lord said
to that young man, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven
me. And you know, that fellow didn't
even come to the Lord. Some people brought him to the
Lord and set him down, brought him down through the roof. Remember,
he said, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins, all your sins are forgiven
thee. And then that passage of scripture,
Psalm 130 verse seven, there's forgiveness with thee that thou
mayest be feared. Now, the fear of the Lord is
the worship of the Lord. It's the reverent awe of the
Lord. And there's none of that until
there's forgiveness. There's forgiveness with thee.
Anything else is just a slavish fear and a dread. It's the fear
of mistrust and unbelief. But this is the fear of faith,
the fear of respect. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. And with the forgiveness of sins,
there is love. He that hath been forgiven much.
What? loveth much. Now forgive us of
our sins, for we forgive everyone that is indebted to us, that
has done us wrong. Not just people who have been
unthoughtful, but who have done us wrong. Now would you turn
with me to Matthew chapter 18? This is a familiar story. 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? Jesus saith unto him, I say not
unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Completely, all the time, doesn't
mean after 491 times, it's OK to start not forgiving him. No,
he means always. always. And then he gives us
this parable. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his
servants. And you know, the Lord's going to take account of me and
you. He is. He's going to take account. And
when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
owed him 10,000 talents. Now that's a lot of money. 10,000
is the largest number in the Greek language. That's why it
speaks of 10,000 times 10,000. You don't have larger numbers
than that. And I read somewhere where this means $92 million.
Now I don't know whether that's the case, but that's a lot of
money. If you owed $92 million, what could you do to pay it back?
You couldn't do anything, could you? You'd be in trouble. A vast
sum. Verse 25. But for as much as
he had not to pay, he didn't have anything. His Lord commanded
him to be sold. and his wife, and the children,
and all that he had, and payment to be made. That man was going
to be thrown into debtor's prison, and perhaps a small amount of
that money could have been paid back. But the scripture says
he didn't have anything. He would sell his kids as slaves,
sell his wife as a slave. That's all he had. Verse 26, the servant therefore
fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and
I will pay thee all. That was a lie. Now, I think he meant it. He
said, you know, the way we can lie to ourselves and say, well,
you know, if this happens and that happens, maybe I'll be able
to do it. But this guy didn't have any way of coming up with
$92 million. He said, have patience. I'll pay thee all. Nobody believes
him. And you can be sure that the
master didn't believe him. He didn't say, okay, I'm going
to give you another chance. Go ahead and try to come up with the money.
Nothing like that. But here's what happened. Verse
27. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion. Our God is moved by compassion
of the need of people. And he loosed him. He set him
free and he forgave him of that debt. That man now didn't owe
anything and there's one reason. The compassion of his great master. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I'll show compassion on whom
I will show compassion. Oh, the compassion of God. Oh, his tender mercies, his great
compassion. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. He saw
this miserable man who had all this great debt. No way he could
pay it back, didn't even have the potential to. He watches
him lie. Have patience with me and I'll
pay it all. Yet, he was moved with compassion
because he is compassionate. And he forgave that man of all
his debt. That's grace it. That's grace
as clear as you'll have it anywhere. Verse 28, but the same servant
went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him
100 pence. And I read with that would be
representative about $15. $15. You know, there's not much
you can get for $15 been Christmas shopping this year. I mean, $15
that used to be pretty good amount of money, but it doesn't get
much now. But that man who owed him $15,
100 pence, what did he do? He laid hands on him and he took
him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me.
I'll pay thee all. And he probably could do it.
Give him some time. He can come up with 15 bucks. I guarantee
you I can come up with 15 bucks somehow. This fellow thought
he could. And he had the same prayer, have
patience with me, I'll pay thee all. And he, verse 30, would
not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay that
debt. After he'd experienced this mercy,
after he'd been experienced being released from all of his debt,
the fellow owes him $15 and he has him thrown into prison. Then, verse 32, Verse 31, so
when his fellow servants saw what was done, They were very
sorry. And you understand why they were?
That is a grievous thing to think about, isn't it? How horrible
to be forgiven $92 million and to refuse to forgive somebody
$15? Of course they were very sorry. They were upset when they
observed this. And they came and told unto their
Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he'd
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 delivered
him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to
him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you
from your hearts Forgive not every man, every one his brother,
their trespasses. Now, if I've been forgiven, I will
forgive. And I know this, regarding the
person who's wronged you or wronged me, that perhaps I'm having a
hard time forgiving them. I'm struggling with it. Remember
this. My sin against God is infinitely greater than their sin against
me. I've done my Lord much worse than they've ever done to me. I love that passage of scripture.
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake. hath forgiven you." Now, God
didn't look for a reason for you to forgive you. He didn't
look to see how remorseful you were, or how sorry you were,
or how sincere your apology was, and how you promised you'd never
do it again. Nothing like that. I think of Adam, when he failed
and ran from God's presence, and the Lord came to him. He
didn't come to the Lord asking forgiveness. The Lord came to
him. Adam, where art thou? And he said, have you eaten of
the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? And
Adam's confession, the woman that you gave me, she gave me
of the fruit and I did eat. Now he confessed, I did wrong.
I shouldn't have done it, but it's your fault. If you wouldn't
have given me that woman, this would have never taken place. That's what you call an insincere
apology. And you know, an insincere apology
is worse than no apology at all. He was so terrible the way he
did, but thank God the Lord doesn't have to have a reason in me or
you to forgive. He does so for Christ's sake. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another. Now, language is very important.
Notice he did not say forgiving the other, but forgiving one
another. Now, the fact of the matter is,
I can speak with total conviction about this. If you're dealing with me at
any rate, I guess I don't want to say that about anybody else,
but if you're dealing with me at any rate, you're dealing with
a selfish person, self-centered person who will have a tendency
to use you to make things better for me. You do that? Are you guilty of that? Guilty
of using people? This is a true story. We were in Mexico and
we were riding back and Walter Groover said to Betty, you'll
appreciate this, he said, Betty, I want some quesadillas when
we get home. And she said, Walter, there's not enough quesadillas
for everybody. He said, well, I said, I want them. You give
them light bread and you give me the quesadillas. And she said,
Walter, that would be selfish. He said, that's not selfish.
I'm just thinking about myself. I love that. I've witnessed that. It's so innocent, too. But I'm
one of those innocent, selfish people, so y'all have to forgive
me. But the point I'm making is, if you and I are gonna have
a relationship, a real relationship, you know what we're gonna have
to do? Forgive one another. Forgive one another. Freely, from the heart. Notice
how the Lord said you're to forgive from the heart. We're to do the
will of God from the heart. We're to believe from the heart.
We're to forgive one another from the heart for Christ's sake. You forgive me and I'll forgive
you. We're sinners and we need to
forgive one another. And remember, however I've sinned
against you or wronged you or used you or even slandered you
or thought ill of you. That's a horrible thing if I
have. It's a horrible thing. But what you've done to the Lord
is infinitely worse than that, isn't it? Oh, how quick we should
be to forgive one another. And remember this about forgiveness.
Don't demand forgiveness from others. They ought to forgive
me. Where's their grace? I mean, where's their, they say
they're Christians. They ought to be quick to forgive me. Don't
ever say anything like that. That makes forgiveness is an
entitlement that you think you got to come into you. That's
not asking for forgiveness. That's a wrong attitude and be
easy to forgive by being quick to say, I'm sorry. I apologize. Will you forgive me? I've wronged
you. Forgive me. I apologize. An insincere apology is more
offensive than no apology at all. Be quick and sincere with
it. Forgive me. And remember this,
there is nothing more cleansing than being forgiven and forgiving. You know that so. There's nothing
more cleansing than knowing all your sins are forgiven. And there's
nothing more cleansing than truly forgiving somebody. What a blessing
that is. Now, I want to close by looking
at the You've heard me use the word the law first mentioned.
Find out where something's first mentioned in the scripture, and
then you can understand more about what it means. And the
first time forgiveness is mentioned is in Genesis chapter 50, but
let's start in Genesis chapter 45 for a moment. Now Joseph is somebody who had
been terribly done wrong. I mean, you think he, one thing
after another happened, his brothers sold him to be a slave, told
his dad he was put to death by an evil beast. They showed him
the coat of many collars with the blood on it. He is sold into
this place where he all of a sudden does well for himself. He's a
good manager for another man's money, and then that man's wife
kept coming at him, coming at him, wanting him to commit sexual
sin with her, and he wouldn't do it. And so she accused him
of that, and he was thrown into prison for something he didn't
do. You know, Lynn and I watched a show just the other day of
a man who spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. Well, Joseph is in prison for
a crime he doesn't commit. As he's in prison, you know the
story, he is able to interpret dreams and somebody tells the
Pharaoh about him being able to interpret dreams and all of
a sudden Joseph becomes, he interprets the dreams properly, becomes
the most powerful man in the world. Now, he was done wrong
terribly, wasn't he? He was done wrong by his brothers,
he was done wrong by that woman who did that to him. But now
his brothers come back to him. And you know, he had had a dream
that his brothers would come down and bow to him. You remember
that in Genesis chapter 37? He said, you're all gonna bow
to me. And they got mad. And I can see why they got mad.
You know, if you, you understand that. But here this dream is
coming to pass. And now is when he makes himself
known to his brothers. Genesis 45, then Joseph could
not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he
cried, cause every man to go out for me. And there stood no
man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
And he wept aloud. The Egyptians in the house of
Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph.
Doth my father yet live? And his brethren couldn't answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. I would be too.
They were scared to death. What's going to happen to us?
He's going to get his back. You can see that. And Joseph said
to his brethren, come near to me. I pray you. And they came
near. And he said, I'm Joseph, your
brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved
or angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For God did
send me before you to preserve life for these two years. hath
the famine been in the land. And yet there are five years
in there, which there shall neither be hearing nor harvest. And God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth
and to save your lives by great deliverance. So now it was not
you that sent me either, but God, and he's made me a father
to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. And that's why I said, you go
get your dad, bring him back. 17 years later, Genesis chapter
50. 17 years later, Jacob dies. He went there when he was 130.
He died at 147. And the brothers thought, well,
the only reason Joseph was having mercy on us was because of Dad. And you know, as a man is, so
he thinks others to be. That's the way they would have
thought. So they attribute that to Joseph. Now that Jacob is
out of the picture, Dad's out of the picture, he's going to
get us. Now, verse 15. Genesis 50. And when Joseph's
brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will
peradventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the
evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died. They
made this up. They made this up. They were going to do whatever
they could to save their own skin because they mistrusted
Joseph. So shall you say unto Joseph,
forgive. There's the first time the word
is used in the scriptures. Forgive, I pray thee, now the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto
thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And
Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went
and fell down before his face. And they said, behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear
not. For am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought
evil against me without question, but God meant it unto good to
bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. Now
therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones
and he comfort them and spake kindly, spake unto their hearts. That's what the Lord promises
us. Now in this thing of forgiveness, May the Lord enable us to forgive. Now, I hope the Lord's not going
to send a trial my way for where I have to practice it. You know,
that's, I hope, I don't ever have a reason to have to forgive
you. But if I do, may I realize that my sin against God is infinitely
greater than anything you could do to me. And may I be enabled
by the grace of God to forgive you as I have been forgiven. This is a gospel issue, isn't
it? This is a gospel issue. Let's pray together.