-
Colossians 3.
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It will be just two verses today.
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Beginning in verse 12.
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"Put on then (Paul says)
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as God's chosen ones,
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holy and beloved,
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compassionate hearts,
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kindness,
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humility,
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meekness,
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and patience;
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bearing with one another,
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and if one has a complaint against another
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forgiving each other,
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as the Lord has forgiven you,
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so you also must forgive."
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Let's pray.
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Father, You know.
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Lord, You know our need this hour.
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Father, I believe in the Holy Spirit,
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and I pray You'd meet with
Your people this hour
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and bless Your Word to us all.
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I pray You'd use it
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to help Your people.
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Father, that we would genuinely be helped.
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That You would speak to us.
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Lord, perhaps there's even one here
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who this very subject matter
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is what stands between You and them,
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and I pray You might bring that wall down
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today, Lord, if it would please You.
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We ask You to meet with us
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and bless us by Your Spirit.
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We ask it for Jesus' sake
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and in His name, Amen.
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Well, the last time we were in Colossians,
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we were looking at verse 12 here
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where Paul transitions from
this putting to death,
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or putting off of those things associated
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with the old man or the old self.
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And we discussed how Paul presents
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these five virtues,
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as he calls them garments or clothing
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that the Christian is called to put on.
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And we discovered that these really
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are none other than the virtues
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of the Lord Jesus Himself
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that flow to us and through us
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by way of the Holy Spirit
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as we set our minds and our eyes
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upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so Paul continues to
build upon these virtues here,
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moving from what are
primarily attitudes to actions.
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Really, that's what we have here in v. 12.
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Heart attitudes.
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Heart attitudes that really are essential
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prerequisites if you will to these actions
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or participles that follow in v. 13,
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bearing and forgiving.
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Bearing with one another
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and forgiving one another.
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In our text, the ESV says
"forgiving each other."
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Bearing with another and
forgiving each other.
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That requires a heart of humility.
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That requires a heart of compassion.
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It requires a heart of patience.
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There's a progression in Paul's teaching
-
really at the beginning of the chapter,
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but particularly from v. 12-13.
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Paul takes us from the individual adorning
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or putting on of Christ's virtues,
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to the public application of them.
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More particularly, the application of them
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within the church body.
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These "one another" statements
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we find strewn throughout
the New Testament are unique.
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They're unique to the church.
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We would do well to do our own
-
little word study of all these
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New Testament phrases,
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these "one another" phrases.
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I think Tim, at one point,
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you made a list of those, didn't you?
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There was quite a few of them.
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There are like 50-something of them.
There's a lot of them.
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I didn't look them all up.
But very significant.
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Very significant in church life.
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If you thought church life
-
and your relationship with
your brothers and sisters,
-
it's kind of take it or leave it;
-
doesn't really matter.
-
I mean, they're nice people and all.
-
I like it. I enjoy spending
time with them.
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But my involvement or
interaction with them
-
is really not all that important.
-
Well, you'd be sadly mistaken.
-
We'll discuss that more in a minute.
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But these are two huge imperatives
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here in v. 13.
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These are not secondary items.
-
These are foundational
to Christian living.
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They're foundational to
church relationships.
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That's really what Paul's addressing here.
-
Although it certainly
has broader applications.
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These are not optional.
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They're commands.
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We as the people of God
-
are commanded by God
-
to bear and to forgive.
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Let's look at this first one briefly.
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What exactly does it mean
-
to bear with one another?
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The ESV folks chose to go
with the word "bearing,"
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which has multiple definitions
-
depending on how it's used.
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While the King James guys went
with the term "forbearing."
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That's the English
language for you, right?
-
Where bearing and forbearing
-
can mean the same thing.
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And they do.
-
The Greek word here is anecho.
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It's a word that literally means
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to hold up.
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To hold oneself erect and firm
-
against something.
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It's also a word that conveys this idea
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of enduring or tolerating.
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That is a load bearing wall.
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That means it's a wall that holds up
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under the weight that's placed upon it.
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And it does so in an enduring fashion.
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It doesn't give way.
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At least, we hope it doesn't.
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That's what the Greek word means here.
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Relating to one another,
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it means to enduringly hold up
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what another places upon you.
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Simply put, tolerating them.
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Maybe you might be doing
that this morning with me.
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In a more negative tone,
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to put up with them.
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In fact, a handful of translations
-
including the NASB,
-
actually use that phrase,
-
"put up with," in Matthew 17:17,
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Mark 9:19, Luke 9:41.
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When Jesus says,
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"How long shall I put up with you?"
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The ESV renders it,
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"O faithless and twisted generation,
-
how long am I to be with you?
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How long am I to bear with you?"
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There it is. That's our term.
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Bear with you.
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Or put up with you.
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Having clothed ourselves with the virtues
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of Jesus Christ in v. 12,
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Paul says now see to it that you
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bear with one another.
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Put up with one another.
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Put up with each other's
faults and shortcomings.
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Put up with each other's differences.
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Put up with each other's dislikes.
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Put up with each other's annoying habits.
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Put up with people who are slow to learn.
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Put up with people
that are just obstinate.
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Put up with people that are
just plain difficult to deal with.
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Put up with them Paul says.
-
How long, Jesus says,
am I to bear with you?
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What was the answer?
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His whole life, right?
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You think about being the
holy Son of God on earth.
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We're talking about pure perfection
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personified in the midst of
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just woefully imperfect people.
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He calls them faithless and twisted.
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Think about it.
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This was every day of His life.
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Every day of His life He was surrounded
-
by this constant reminder.
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Everywhere He turned,
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faithless and twisted.
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Twisted and faithless.
-
Jesus lived daily bearing
with the likes of such.
-
Nobody had to bear more than Jesus.
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No wonder He ran off to
the mountainside to pray.
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Get away from it all.
-
Get this. The answer to His own question,
-
"how long shall I bear with you?"
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The answer for Him is
the same for you and I.
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Till we die.
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That's how long.
-
Jesus states in a question
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what Paul, by the Holy Spirit,
-
puts in a commandment:
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Bear with one another.
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Brethren, it's part of God's purposed
-
design in your life,
-
to put difficult people in it.
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That doesn't happen by chance.
-
It doesn't happen by accident.
-
It happens by divine design.
-
It's God's methodology of fashioning you
-
more and more like His Son.
-
See, that's the problem
we have in life, right?
-
We're not enough like Jesus.
-
But God, you see, has set us in motion.
-
He has set us on this life-long mission
-
of becoming more and more and more
-
like Him.
-
And that is wonderful, isn't it?
-
I trust you can look back
-
and see from today going back
-
in your life, you can see those realities.
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Though it feels like we've
got a long way to go.
-
It's wonderful, but the process
-
can be, and I'd say, often is
-
a painful one.
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The command of bearing with one another
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necessitates that such types of people
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are placed in our life
that will require us
-
to bear or put up with, right?
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The same with forgiveness
-
which we're about to talk
about here in a minute.
-
But that reality of having such people
-
in our lives,
-
that's one of the major reasons
-
why "lone ranger" Christianity
-
is an unbiblical concept.
-
I don't need the church.
I've got a mission from God.
-
He's called me to preach
or He's called me to do this.
-
I don't need to commit
myself to the church.
-
That's not biblical.
-
Isolation is not God's
will for His people.
-
God created us for relationships.
-
He created us for relationship with Him
-
and relationship with one another.
-
And the great tragedy of the fall
-
was that relationship with Him
-
was completely severed.
-
And in our broken, fallen condition,
-
we've replaced that relationship
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with everything under the sun,
-
primarily to self-consumption
-
and self-worship.
-
Jesus came to fix that.
-
In fact, the chief end of the gospel
-
is to restore that relationship.
-
To bring estranged, separated sinners
-
to Himself;
-
into relationship with
God Almighty Himself.
-
Martin Luther said it was John 3:16
-
which I won't argue with.
-
That's a great verse.
-
But I think one of the greatest
-
one-verse summaries of the gospel
-
is 1 Peter 3:18.
-
"For Christ suffered once for sins..."
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Hallelujah!
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"...The righteous for the unrighteous."
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For what purpose? For what end?
-
"...That He might bring us to God."
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That's it, brethren.
-
What a glorious reality that is.
-
You think about eternity.
-
You think about glory.
-
What do we know?
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Not a whole lot.
-
We know this though,
-
God Himself will be there,
-
and His children will be there, right?
-
That's what matters.
-
Not a whole lot we know more than that.
-
But that's the glorious
reality we do know.
-
That's where God's going to be.
-
This thing is all about relationships.
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Eternal relationships.
-
Those eternal relationships, however,
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they don't start when we physically die
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in this life.
-
They don't start when we pass
-
into the next realm.
-
They start the moment we die with Christ
-
and are given the gift of eternal life
-
through faith in Him.
-
God in His gospel gives us eternal life
-
and thereby brings us
into eternal relationships
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with one another that start right here
-
in the here and now.
-
And that's significant.
That's very important to grasp.
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Church relations are not secondary -
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not in God's Word.
-
Listen to this - Romans 12:5,
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"So we, though many, are one body
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in Christ and individually members
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one of another."
-
That's pretty intimate.
-
There are several places
in the New Testament
-
that speak this way.
-
Christ laid down His life for the church.
-
God created marriage for
that primary reason,
-
did He not?
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To display His love;
-
to display this inseparable union.
-
Make no mistake about it,
-
homosexuality,
-
transgender,
-
same-sex marriage,
-
casual sex,
-
the porn industry,
-
divorce rates through the roof,
-
at the base of it all,
-
at the bottom of it all
-
lies one grand satanic design
-
to mar this beautiful, wonderful picture
-
of Jesus Christ and His bride;
-
of Jesus being made one
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with those undeserving people,
-
those undeserving individuals,
-
yet the most privileged
in the entire universe.
-
It's wonderful.
-
Yes, most certainly,
-
salvation is personal.
-
It's at an individual level.
-
But it doesn't stay there, you see.
-
It doesn't stay there.
-
When God saves a sinner,
-
He deals a death blow
-
to that old self.
-
And I emphasize self.
-
He transfers them out of
that kingdom of darkness.
-
He places them in the
kingdom of His dear Son.
-
In that kingdom, they're
pursuing His will.
-
It's a new realm.
-
Everything's new.
-
New life, new clothes,
-
new community.
-
God intends for His people
-
to function together
-
in this new community He calls the church.
-
And texts like this one
before us right here,
-
just these few sentences,
-
are reasons to be convinced
-
of the importance of church membership.
-
All of these one another
statements in the New Testament,
-
they point to a clear, identifiable
-
body of believers committed
-
and united in fashion to the service,
-
worship, and commission
-
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
One of the surest proofs
-
of regenerate church membership
-
is found in the ability of
the members within it
-
not to preach,
-
not to evangelize,
-
not even to pray.
-
Now, those things are
-
absolutely essential and very important.
-
But the devil has his cohorts doing that
-
all over the place.
-
The reality of redemption
-
is most clearly expressed
-
in the demonstration of God's grace
-
being worked out relationally
-
with His people in the church.
-
It is.
-
And so when difficult people are placed
-
in your pathway,
-
it's not for the purpose of teaching you
-
how to repel;
-
how to keep your distance;
-
how to avoid them;
how to run from them.
-
It's for the purpose
-
of letting God's grace -
-
these virtues of Jesus Christ here -
-
shine like the blazing sun
-
in the midst of a dark - in Jesus' words -
-
twisted and faithfless generation.
-
So the next time you're finding it
-
hard to bear with someone,
-
be it your brother or sister,
-
just remember the kind forbearance
-
that God has shown you.
-
Do you remember how
patient He was with you?
-
How long-suffering?
-
Oh, how He tolerated all your ugliness?
-
All your annoying, backward ways?
-
Not only did He bear with you
-
in all your overtly evil ways
-
prior to your salvation,
-
His forbearance has continued
-
throughout all your
stumblings and failures
-
that you have incurred despite all
-
the innumerable blessings that He's poured
-
over your head.
-
God's people have every reason
-
to bear with one another
-
in whatever fashion He calls us to do so.
-
And bearing with one another,
-
while it most certainly is
a virtue of Jesus Christ,
-
it's not exactly the most flourishing
-
demonstration of those virtues.
-
Douglas Moo points out in v. 12,
-
he suggests that "bearing with one another
-
does not even require the greatest display
-
of Christian kindness and patience.
-
But it is a necessary first step
-
in establishing community."
-
And it's a step that's followed
-
by this next progression.
-
Paul adds, "And if one has a complaint
-
against another, forgiving each other."
-
Some translations stick with the common
-
"one another" phraseology here.
-
They mean the exact same thing.
-
I prefer using the "one another,"
-
as the King James does.
-
But let me just stop here.
-
I'm going to grab this pen.
-
I just want to get three or four.
-
I want you to tell me.
-
I want to hear somebody tell me
-
what does it mean to forgive?
-
I want to write three or
four definitions down.
-
Anyone. What does it mean to forgive?
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Even if it's one word.
-
Yes, brother?
-
To let go.
-
Okay. We've got let go. Anyone else?
-
Reconcile. We've got that.
-
Two more.
-
Or one more.
-
Release a debt. That's a good one.
-
Release a debt/cancel. Okay.
-
We're all on the same page.
-
It's pretty much what we all were thinking
-
even though we didn't say it.
-
That's what we understand
the term to mean, right?
-
To pardon, to cancel, to excuse,
-
to let go, reconcile.
-
Forgiving here in our text -
-
the word translated forgiving -
-
is the Greek work charizomenoi,
-
which I'm probably not
pronouncing correctly.
-
Charizomenoi.
-
And it might surprise you -
-
it did me, it took up
a good part of my day -
-
the meaning of this Greek word is this:
-
to gratify.
-
To bestow in kindness.
-
Grant as a free favor.
-
That comes directly out of
my Mounce Greek Dictionary.
-
Thayer's Lexicon:
"to do something pleasant
-
or agreeable to one.
-
To do favor to;
-
(again), gratify,
-
universally to show oneself gracious,
-
kind, and benevolent."
-
Now, I didn't realize
before I got into this text
-
that there's actually
three Greek words
-
that get translated "forgive,
forgiving, forgiven, forgiveness."
-
And the primary one
is the word aphiemi.
-
That's our word forgive in about 80%
-
of the times in Scripture you see it.
-
And that's the word that primarily means
-
to send away, but it conveys the same idea
-
that was just aired, right?
-
Let go, reconcile, pardon, cancel, clear.
-
It's forgive as we know the term forgive.
-
But that's not our word here in the text.
-
It's the word charizomenoi.
-
And it's a word that shows up 23 times
-
in the New Testament,
-
half of which are translated forgive,
-
depending on the translation.
-
Most of the other times,
-
it's give or grant.
-
And that's what this
word primarily conveys.
-
To give or bestow kindness.
-
To grant free favor.
-
To do something pleasant, gracious,
-
kind to another.
-
As one Greek scholar stated,
-
"while it's not the common word
-
for remission and forgiveness,
-
it is one of richer content,
-
emphasizing the gracious nature
-
of the pardon."
-
Jesus uses this term
-
in sharing the story of forgiveness
-
with Simon the Pharisee
-
as he's sitting in his house, reclining
at table, you remember that?
-
Where He talks about the money lender
-
who had two debtors.
-
One who had a massive debt,
-
and one who had a small debt.
-
And he forgave them both,
-
and He asked him who's going to love most,
-
and of course, the one
who was forgiven most.
-
And using that word,
Jesus was underscoring
-
the gracious nature or kind bestowal
-
that the money lender
-
had towards these debtors.
-
(unintelligible)
-
It wasn't just a legal
act of removing debt.
-
It was heartless.
-
But a very gracious, kind act
-
of removing the obligation
-
for those men to pay him back.
-
And the response, of course, was
-
the one who owed the most,
-
loved the most.
-
And he was using that illustration
-
because a prostitute was
wiping her hair on his feet.
-
And the Pharisees in
their self-righteousness
-
were having some problems with that.
-
But Paul uses this word in Romans 8:32.
-
Well known verse.
-
"He who did not spare His own Son,
-
but gave Him up for us all,
-
how will He not also with Him
-
graciously give us all things?"
-
There's our word: give.
-
The word "give" is charizomenoi.
-
Charizomenoi.
-
In other words, how will God
-
not also with Christ,
-
graciously charizomenoi us all things?
-
And while the word there in that context
-
of that verse is not
communicating forgiveness,
-
it is communicating the magnitude
-
of the giving.
-
The magnitude of the kindness
-
and gracious favor God is extending
-
in this open-ended promise.
-
Another instance is Paul's letter
-
to the Galatians.
-
In Galatians 3:18, Paul says,
-
"For if the inheritance comes by the law,
-
it no longer comes by promise,
-
but God gave it to Abraham
-
by a promise."
-
The word gave - that's our word.
-
Gave what?
-
The inheritance.
-
Again, the word's being used to convey
-
an unbelievable bestowal of favor
-
and gifting.
-
Something that is just freely
-
and wonderfully given.
-
And I share those verses to help us
-
get a better taste of the breadth
-
and depth of this term here: forgiving.
-
And it is translated "forgiven"
-
even in this letter.
-
If you look over to chapter 2:13,
-
Paul says, "And you who were dead
-
in your trespasses,
-
in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
-
God made alive together with Him,
-
having forgiven us all our trespasses."
-
Paul here elects to use the word:
-
charizomenoi,
-
instead of aphiemi -
-
the word standardly used for forgiveness,
-
and I think he does so to underscore
-
the incredible kindness of God
-
in such an act as forgiving
-
all our trespasses.
-
Okay, so now we have a clearer scope
-
of this word "forgiving,"
-
used in the text before us.
-
Let's look again at what
Paul has to say here.
-
"And if one has a complaint
against another,
-
forgiving each other."
-
Paul rightly assumes there's going to be
-
problems in the church.
-
You gather a few hundred people together
-
on a regular basis,
-
and they're still dwelling
in their mortal flesh,
-
you're probably going to have a
problem or two pop up, right?
-
There's a pretty good
chance that someone's
-
going to have a complaint
-
as Paul calls it against another.
-
Legitimate or not,
-
complaints or going to happen.
-
If and when they do,
-
Paul doesn't say,
-
just seek to avoid that person
-
as much as you can.
-
No, he says forgive each other.
-
Have a charizomenoi mindset
-
with one another.
-
Be gracious.
-
Bestow kindness.
-
Forgive that thing and move on.
-
Not separate. Move on together.
-
Don't begrudgingly or mechanically
-
say the words, "I forgive you,"
-
and yet your heart is still
holding on to that thing.
-
That's not biblical forgiveness.
-
That's biblical bitterness.
-
The biblical term here is telling us
-
to return that complaint or offense
-
with something pleasant.
-
Freely give it. Don't withhold it.
-
Graciously grant the pardon.
-
Release that thing. Let it go.
-
Meet it with kindness.
-
Yeah, but if you only knew brother...
-
I don't.
-
But the Lord knows.
-
And He says let that thing go.
-
In fact, not only let it go, but do it
-
in such a fashion that it communicates
-
a gracious and a kind spirit.
-
Yeah, but this isn't the first time
-
they've done this to me.
-
"Seventy times seven," Jesus tells Peter.
-
When he asked Him, Lord,
-
how many times shall I forgive my brother?
-
Okay, well, maybe that's for little sins.
-
What about when they're big sins?
-
And they're multiple times?
-
Paul has the answer for that
-
right here in our text.
-
"As the Lord has forgiven you..."
-
"As the Lord has forgiven you,
-
so you also must forgive."
-
Wow.
-
That's a stunning statement.
-
You know, in a verse like this,
-
we're apt to focus on the
conclusion of the matter.
-
Okay. You also must forgive.
-
I need to be a forgiving person. I get it.
-
Not so fast.
-
Look at the beginning of the statement.
-
It's really most remarkable.
-
Notice the "as so" construction here.
-
As the Lord has forgiven you,
-
so you also must forgive.
-
As - in the same manner;
-
to the extent that God has forgiven
-
your sins against Him,
-
so you need to likewise
-
forgive other sins against you.
-
That's what's being said here.
-
This short phrase here:
"As the Lord has forgiven you..."
-
That phrase represents the basis
-
and foundation for all
Christian forgiveness.
-
Christians forgive
-
because they're a forgiven people.
-
Forgiven people forgive.
-
In fact, that's what I titled my message.
-
Forgiven people forgive.
-
You want an acid test as to who's real;
-
who's not.
-
Let a man or woman be wronged.
-
Before long, you'll find out the extent
-
to which they've been forgiven.
-
People who get all hung up
-
over little insignificant matters of life
-
and can't seem to let such things go
-
have a very, very small view of God,
-
and a very, very small view
-
of themselves before a holy God;
-
their sin before a holy God.
-
Now, I'm not saying -
-
I'm not even suggesting forgiveness
-
is an easy thing.
-
And I'm not saying
it's an automatic thing.
-
But by Scriptural authority,
-
I can assure you that forgiven people
-
do forgive.
-
We perform what we call
-
the adhesion tape test at work.
-
We build ground support equipment
-
for military aircraft.
-
And unfortunately, they fall under
-
the same specifications the aircraft does.
-
And some of the stuff we do,
especially the paint and finishes,
-
so we have all these hoops
we have to jump through
-
and all these certain
tests we've got to run.
-
And so, basically, what it
is is you get a test panel,
-
you mix up your paint.
-
There's all kinds of variables
that can throw this thing off.
-
The whole point of the
test is to determine
-
if there's true, genuine adhesion
-
of the paint to the component.
-
You've got to have that.
-
You can't have that flaking off.
-
It's got to be quality.
-
It's got to meet a certain quality.
-
So what they do is you spray this panel,
-
let it dry, apply this military grade
-
masking tape basically,
-
and you take a razor blade
-
and you start scoring that masking tape,
-
and you let it sit for awhile.
-
You come back and you pull that tape up.
-
You pull that tape up.
-
And if there's any paint on that tape,
-
it's not proper adhesion.
-
That piece needs to go
back and get blasted.
-
You start all over.
-
You pull that tape up and it's clean,
-
you have perfect adhesion.
-
A good, quality approved part.
-
It can move on.
-
I was thinking about that in
relation to the Christian life,
-
particularly this - forgiveness.
-
It seemed like a good analogy
-
of whether we have genuine adherence
-
to Christ.
-
When the Lord presses on you
-
the tape test of forgiveness,
-
and allows you to be scored and cut deeply
-
by another person,
-
are we adhered to Christ?
-
When the tape's pulled back,
-
what's the story?
-
When the tape's pulled
back, the testing's over,
-
are we holding fast to Christ?
-
Are we holding fast to Him?
-
And proving so by letting
all those offenses go
-
as Christ let ours go?
-
Or are we fixated back here on the tape?
-
Are we hanging on to the cuts?
-
Are we not properly bonded to Christ?
-
Christian, mark this down
-
and be fully persuaded
of this in your mind.
-
Because there's not any situation -
-
I mean any -
-
not any situation that could ever occur,
-
not one act of providence
-
that could ever befall you,
-
no matter how bad,
-
no matter how horrific,
-
that does not demand your forgiveness.
-
We had a woman -
-
I've told this story before.
-
We had a woman going to
Fatty's on a regular basis,
-
and we were helping her.
-
She lived over in our neighborhood.
-
And you know, you spend
time with somebody
-
and you get to know them.
-
We start digging a little bit,
-
and we finally got to the issue
-
that was keeping her from Christ.
-
It was a horrific story,
horrific background.
-
As a child, she was molested
-
and horribly, horribly abused
-
by her step-dad.
-
She told me with much sorrow and tears.
-
"I cannot do it.
-
I cannot forgive him."
-
And I told her, you have to,
-
or you'll never know
the forgiveness of God.
-
And I realize, I've been around enough,
-
in a room this size,
-
some of you have gone
through similar things.
-
So, I'm not belittling it.
-
And I understand that is
incredibly wicked and evil.
-
I'm sure it's an absolute nightmare
-
for anyone to have to go through.
-
But let me tell you,
-
it's not even close,
-
dear brother or sister,
-
it's not even close to the wickedness
-
and evil that you have willfully expressed
-
against a pure and holy God.
-
It's not.
-
You see, "I can't forgive him."
-
That flows from a heart that's never seen
-
its own filth and wickedness
before a holy God.
-
Because if it had, such a person,
-
they would see themselves no
different than that man.
-
They would quickly conclude
-
they're just as evil.
-
They're the same lump. The same guilt.
-
The same need.
-
You see, when the scales of self-deception
-
fall off and you see
yourself in such a light,
-
when you become aware that such
a thing as that can be forgiven,
-
such wickedness and sin can be forgiven,
-
such rebellion, such self-absorption,
-
one who is so guilty of really
-
the greatest treason in the universe;
-
if they can be forgiven,
that's a game changer.
-
That changes everything.
-
Mark it down. The failure to forgive
-
is a failure to see the enormity
-
of our own sin
-
and the enormity of God's incredible mercy
-
toward us.
-
Christian, if you're struggling here,
-
here's why.
-
You've got to get your eyes off you.
-
You've got to get your
eyes off that person.
-
You've got to get them on Jesus Christ.
-
And as you do that,
-
you will see in Him
-
reason upon reason upon reason
-
to shed any and all offenses toward you.
-
Like my dad used to say,
-
like water off a duck's back,
-
offenses will just roll.
-
The cross has the power to do such things.
-
This is huge.
-
Forgiveness is a really, really big issue.
-
So big, Jesus touches on it several times
-
in His ministry, especially in
His Sermon on the Mount.
-
Let's turn there. We'll scan through
-
the Sermon on the Mount.
-
Just look at the places where Jesus
-
at least makes reference to the concept
-
of forgiveness.
-
Matthew 5:7
-
"Blessed are the merciful,
-
for they shall receive mercy."
-
Here we find Jesus certainly
implying forgiveness, right?
-
If we are extending mercy to others,
-
we're showing kindness and compassion
-
to an offender, right?
-
Merciful.
-
That kind of rings with our
word charizomenoi, right?
-
Verse 23, "So if you
are offering your gift
-
at the altar and there remember
-
that your brother has
something against you,
-
leave your gift there before the altar
-
and go, be reconciled to your brother,
-
and then come and offer your gift.
-
Come to terms quickly with your accuser
-
while you're going with him to court,
-
lest your accuser hand
you over to the judge,
-
and the judge to the guard,
-
and you be put in prison.
-
Truly, I say to you, you
will never get out
-
until you've paid the last penny."
-
This is the same language
-
Jesus uses in another parable
-
we might look at here in a minute.
-
Is that time right?
-
But the simple teaching here in v. 23,
-
if you have an issue
with a brother or sister,
-
if there's an offense,
-
you need to get that thing dealt with.
-
And right now.
-
That's an A1 number one priority.
-
Leave your gift at the altar, He says.
-
Forget about worship.
-
Forget about God even
hearing your prayers.
-
As long as this thing's present,
-
that's an obstruction to God.
-
Go clear up the matter, He says, now.
-
Forgive. Reconcile.
-
Then, you're good to go.
-
But this thing of offense
-
has to be taken care of.
-
V. 39, "But I say unto you,
-
do not resist the one who is evil,
-
but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek
-
turn to him the other also,
-
and if anyone would sue you
-
and take your tunic,
-
let him have your cloak as well."
-
Wow.
-
Those are challenging verses.
-
Now that is the spirit of charizomenoi,
-
is it not?
-
That's somebody who's seen
-
something of themselves
-
in the blazing light of God's glory.
-
Mere flesh and blood can't do
those things right there.
-
Matthew 6:9,
-
"Pray then like this..."
-
Jesus gives instruction on how to pray.
-
Down to v. 12, "Forgive us our debts,
-
as we also have forgiven our debtors."
-
You see how Jesus ties
forgiveness to prayer here?
-
Praying with an unforgiving spirit,
-
you might as well be praying to that wall.
-
This thing is so important.
-
After Jesus finishes His
instruction on prayer,
-
He continues on with the subject.
-
V. 14, "For if you forgive
others their trespasses,
-
your heavenly Father
-
will also forgive you,
-
but if you do not forgive
others their trespasses,
-
neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses."
-
Whoa.
-
Now Jesus has a number of stunning,
-
blow-you-away statements in this sermon,
-
but this has got to be one of
the most shocking ones of all.
-
If those folks were sitting there
-
eating bread and fish
and He was preaching,
-
I'd venture to say several
men stopped chewing.
-
Or some might even start choking.
-
This world is full, and I mean full
-
of people like the woman I just mentioned
-
that used to go to Fatty's
-
whose father she could not forgive.
-
People are full of bitterness and anger
-
and resentment.
-
And they're people that
feel fully justified in it.
-
These words spoken by our Lord here,
-
they seem utterly absurd to them.
-
"What is that?
-
Surely He doesn't mean that.
-
I mean, I love God -
-
nobody's telling me any different.
-
Me and God, we got a thing going.
-
I was sick back in '98
-
on my deathbed in the hospital,
-
God brought me out of it.
-
He saved me from it.
-
I know I'm on good terms with Him.
-
I've always believed.
-
I believe John 3:16, you know.
-
I believe God.
-
And it says whosoever believes shall
not perish, but have eternal life.
-
Once saved, always saved."
-
I would say this verse does not at all
-
conflict with John 3:16
-
in any way, shape, or form.
-
And I would say, once saved, yes,
-
you are always saved. Hallelujah!
-
The problem is not with the Scripture.
-
The problem is with the assumption.
-
An assumption that my belief,
-
my believing, my "faith"
-
trumps all other realities
-
and truth of Scripture.
-
And the reality is, as Jesus
so clearly expresses here,
-
if you do not forgive others,
-
you will not know the forgiveness of God.
-
That's serious.
-
If you're sitting here this morning
-
and you're holding on to something
-
you can't forgive, you need to hear this.
-
Hear it again: Jesus says
you will never know
-
the forgiveness of God,
-
if you don't let that thing go.
-
Is it worth it?
-
Is it worth your never-dying soul?
-
And the reason why a person
-
who can never come to the place
of forgiveness in their heart -
-
the reason why they can't be forgiven,
-
it's not because God
forgave them at one time
-
and now they've
come to this place
-
where now they can't
forgive this person,
-
so He takes away their salvation.
-
No, that's not it at all.
-
The reason why they'll never
know the forgiveness of God
-
is because they've never truly seen
-
the forgiveness of God themselves.
-
And that's because they've never,
-
as I said, never really seen themselves
-
in light of who they really are
-
before a holy God.
-
They've simply laid hold
of a feel-good gospel
-
which is no gospel at all,
-
and ironically, it has them
feeling quite miserable
-
and discontent and full of hate.
-
Again, forgiven people forgive.
-
Those who understand something
-
of the magnitude of their
offense towards God,
-
they learn to forgive.
-
Matthew 7, "Judge not,
that you be not judged.
-
For with the judgment you
pronounce, you will be judged;
-
with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you."
-
This kind of echoes back to
the verse we just read, right?
-
If you can't forgive that brother
-
for speaking ill of you,
-
you will drown
-
in the absolute fury of God
-
poured out on you for profaning His name
-
with all manner of blasphemies
-
and perverted speech.
-
Verse 12, "So whatever you wish
-
that others would do to you,
-
do also to them."
-
Again, this is the spirit of charizomenoi.
-
An others- mindedness.
-
An others-mindedness to do them good.
-
And to shower them with kindness.
-
Verse 24, "Everyone who
hears these words of Mine..."
-
Jesus closes the message.
-
"Everyone then who hears
these words of Mine
-
and does them will be
like unto the wise man
-
who built his house on the rock."
-
And the ones who don't
do these words of Jesus,
-
well, you know, they just
won't get as many rewards
-
when they get into heaven.
-
That's not what Jesus teaches.
-
No, He likens those people
-
who do not do His words -
-
He likens them to houses that are built
-
on a shoreline in the aftermath
-
of a massive hurricane.
-
We've all seen those pictures, right?
-
Complete devastation.
-
Complete destruction.
-
That's how serious forgiveness is.
-
So serious Jesus draws attention
to it again in Matthew 18.
-
I was going to have us
turn there, but I'm not
-
for the sake of time.
-
But read that account,
-
where the man owes the king
-
a great sum of money.
-
In his hypocrisy, he goes to strangle
-
and throw those who
owe him far less money.
-
In the same statement He used
-
in that other verse we looked at.
-
You won't get out until
you've paid the last penny.
-
And the implication there
is that some amount,
-
100 thousand talents -
-
you try to compare the
currencies on google
-
and you get all kinds
of conflicting results,
-
but it is a massive sum of money.
-
Well into the billions.
-
The idea Jesus is trying to get across
-
is you'll never pay it.
-
You're never getting out.
-
You go in with the unforgiveness,
-
you get in that prison,
-
you get locked up with
an unforgiving heart,
-
you're never getting out.
-
So while you're not in, let it go.
-
That's the message.
-
Jesus ends it by saying,
-
"So also My heavenly Father
will do to every one of you
-
who does not forgive your
brother from your heart."
-
Wow.
-
From the heart.
-
He's looking at the heart.
-
It kind of makes complaining,
-
a complaining brother or sister
-
rather insignificant, doesn't it?
-
It makes that seemingly large offense
-
not so large at all.
-
It kind of makes Jesus'
debt that He paid for me,
-
that He delivered me from
-
rather glorious.
-
It ought to provoke our minds
-
to start counting all of the
hundreds of thousands of talents
-
that have been tossed into the sea
-
of God's forgetfulness.
-
Sent away as it were
-
as far as the east is from the west.
-
(I'm sorry, that's the east and
that's the west, isn't it?
-
So far, the Scripture says,
-
has He removed our sins from us.
-
That truth ought to melt our hearts
-
into this charizomenoi - that Greek term -
-
that kindness and graciousness
-
and it should pour out into the lives
-
of God's people in
relationships with others.
-
There's so much more
that could be said
-
about the subject of forgiveness.
-
I just can't get it all in in one message.
-
But I do want to wrap up here
-
by just appealing to anybody,
-
anybody in here who might
be struggling with this
-
letting go of offenses.
-
Perhaps you are holding
a grudge against someone.
-
And you know if you are.
-
I encourage you to take
a fresh look at the cross.
-
And the wonderful person
-
who was nailed there to it.
-
For crimes far, far worse
-
than those you're holding on to.
-
I stand before you today as one
-
who wrestled and
struggled with forgiveness
-
at a very deep level.
-
And by God's grace alone,
-
through some of these realities
I'm sharing with you today,
-
the Lord was pleased
to help me through it.
-
And I'm convinced this is one of those
-
working out your salvation
with fear and trembling.
-
Forgiveness has to happen.
-
It has to be a reality.
-
It has to be worked
out within you or else.
-
Oh, how everying in our flesh
-
cries out for vengeance and self-pity.
-
We want people to know we were wronged!
-
We want payback for that
-
which made us suffer.
-
Listen to these words:
-
"Consider Him who endured from sinners
-
such hostility against Himself.
-
When He was reviled,
-
He didn't revile in return.
-
When He suffered, He did not threaten,
-
but continued entrusting Himself
-
to Him who judges justly."
-
That's how Jesus handled
the injuries of others.
-
He didn't throw a pity party.
-
He didn't hold a grudge.
-
He didn't broadcast it to others.
-
He knew His Father knew
-
and trusted Him.
-
And that was enough.
-
See, when we're wronged by others,
-
it answers the question:
-
just how precious and
sufficient is the Lord to me?
-
Is it enough that God knows I was wronged?
-
Or do I need to let others know about it?
-
That's a real test, isn't it?
-
Dying to our own woundedness.
-
Praise be to God the cross dispels it all.
-
I'm going to end by
quoting Isaiah 53 here.
-
Just listen to this:
-
This is what the Lord
Jesus subjected Himself to
-
for the sole purpose of forgiving sin.
-
"He was despised
-
and we esteemed Him not.
-
Surely, He has borne our griefs
-
and carried our sorrows,
-
yet we esteemed Him stricken,
-
smitten by God and afflicted.
-
He was pierced for our transgressions.
-
He was crushed for our iniquities.
-
Upon Him was the chastisement
-
that brought us peace,
-
and with His wounds, we are healed.
-
All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
-
We've turned every one to his own way.
-
And the Lord has laid on Him
-
the iniquity of us all.
-
He was oppressed
-
and He was afflicted.
-
He opened not His mouth,
-
like a lamb is led to the slaughter,
-
like a sheep that before
its shearers is silent,
-
so He opened not His mouth."
-
That reality afresh within our minds
-
helps us die to our own woundedness.
-
That reality when it's registered within
-
helps kill an unforgiving heart.
-
Thank you.
-
Father, we ask You to
bless Your Word to us.
-
We thank You for being
such a forgiving God.
-
Oh, that those that know it not
-
might know it today.
-
We pray in Jesus' name,
-
Amen.