The Forgiven Forgive - Craig Mussulman

Colossians 3.

It will be just two verses today.

Beginning in verse 12.

"Put on then (Paul says)

as God's chosen ones,

holy and beloved,

compassionate hearts,

kindness,

humility,

meekness,

and patience;

bearing with one another,

and if one has a complaint against another

forgiving each other,

as the Lord has forgiven you,

so you also must forgive."

Let's pray.

Father, You know.

Lord, You know our need this hour.

Father, I believe in the Holy Spirit,

and I pray You'd meet with
Your people this hour

and bless Your Word to us all.

I pray You'd use it

to help Your people.

Father, that we would genuinely be helped.

That You would speak to us.

Lord, perhaps there's even one here

who this very subject matter

is what stands between You and them,

and I pray You might bring that wall down

today, Lord, if it would please You.

We ask You to meet with us

and bless us by Your Spirit.

We ask it for Jesus' sake

and in His name, Amen.

Well, the last time we were in Colossians,

we were looking at verse 12 here

where Paul transitions from
this putting to death,

or putting off of those things associated

with the old man or the old self.

And we discussed how Paul presents

these five virtues,

as he calls them garments or clothing

that the Christian is called to put on.

And we discovered that these really

are none other than the virtues

of the Lord Jesus Himself

that flow to us and through us

by way of the Holy Spirit

as we set our minds and our eyes

upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Paul continues to
build upon these virtues here,

moving from what are
primarily attitudes to actions.

Really, that's what we have here in v. 12.

Heart attitudes.

Heart attitudes that really are essential

prerequisites if you will to these actions

or participles that follow in v. 13,

bearing and forgiving.

Bearing with one another

and forgiving one another.

In our text, the ESV says
"forgiving each other."

Bearing with another and
forgiving each other.

That requires a heart of humility.

That requires a heart of compassion.

It requires a heart of patience.

There's a progression in Paul's teaching

really at the beginning of the chapter,

but particularly from v. 12-13.

Paul takes us from the individual adorning

or putting on of Christ's virtues,

to the public application of them.

More particularly, the application of them

within the church body.

These "one another" statements

we find strewn throughout
the New Testament are unique.

They're unique to the church.

We would do well to do our own

little word study of all these

New Testament phrases,

these "one another" phrases.

I think Tim, at one point,

you made a list of those, didn't you?

There was quite a few of them.

There are like 50-something of them.
There's a lot of them.

I didn't look them all up.
But very significant.

Very significant in church life.

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.

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.

But these are two huge imperatives

here in v. 13.

These are not secondary items.

These are foundational
to Christian living.

They're foundational to
church relationships.

That's really what Paul's addressing here.

Although it certainly
has broader applications.

These are not optional.

They're commands.

We as the people of God

are commanded by God

to bear and to forgive.

Let's look at this first one briefly.

What exactly does it mean

to bear with one another?

The ESV folks chose to go
with the word "bearing,"

which has multiple definitions

depending on how it's used.

While the King James guys went
with the term "forbearing."

That's the English
language for you, right?

Where bearing and forbearing

can mean the same thing.

And they do.

The Greek word here is anecho.

It's a word that literally means

to hold up.

To hold oneself erect and firm

against something.

It's also a word that conveys this idea

of enduring or tolerating.

That is a load bearing wall.

That means it's a wall that holds up

under the weight that's placed upon it.

And it does so in an enduring fashion.

It doesn't give way.

At least, we hope it doesn't.

That's what the Greek word means here.

Relating to one another,

it means to enduringly hold up

what another places upon you.

Simply put, tolerating them.

Maybe you might be doing
that this morning with me.

In a more negative tone,

to put up with them.

In fact, a handful of translations

including the NASB,

actually use that phrase,

"put up with," in Matthew 17:17,

Mark 9:19, Luke 9:41.

When Jesus says,

"How long shall I put up with you?"

The ESV renders it,

"O faithless and twisted generation,

how long am I to be with you?

How long am I to bear with you?"

There it is. That's our term.

Bear with you.

Or put up with you.

Having clothed ourselves with the virtues

of Jesus Christ in v. 12,

Paul says now see to it that you

bear with one another.

Put up with one another.

Put up with each other's
faults and shortcomings.

Put up with each other's differences.

Put up with each other's dislikes.

Put up with each other's annoying habits.

Put up with people who are slow to learn.

Put up with people
that are just obstinate.

Put up with people that are
just plain difficult to deal with.

Put up with them Paul says.

How long, Jesus says,
am I to bear with you?

What was the answer?

His whole life, right?

You think about being the
holy Son of God on earth.

We're talking about pure perfection

personified in the midst of

just woefully imperfect people.

He calls them faithless and twisted.

Think about it.

This was every day of His life.

Every day of His life He was surrounded

by this constant reminder.

Everywhere He turned,

faithless and twisted.

Twisted and faithless.

Jesus lived daily bearing
with the likes of such.

Nobody had to bear more than Jesus.

No wonder He ran off to
the mountainside to pray.

Get away from it all.

Get this. The answer to His own question,

"how long shall I bear with you?"

The answer for Him is
the same for you and I.

Till we die.

That's how long.

Jesus states in a question

what Paul, by the Holy Spirit,

puts in a commandment:

Bear with one another.

Brethren, it's part of God's purposed

design in your life,

to put difficult people in it.

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.

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.

The command of bearing with one another

necessitates that such types of people

are placed in our life
that will require us

to bear or put up with, right?

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

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..."

Hallelujah!

"...The righteous for the unrighteous."

For what purpose? For what end?

"...That He might bring us to God."

That's it, brethren.

What a glorious reality that is.

You think about eternity.

You think about glory.

What do we know?

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.

Eternal relationships.

Those eternal relationships, however,

they don't start when we physically die

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

with one another that start right here

in the here and now.

And that's significant.
That's very important to grasp.

Church relations are not secondary -

not in God's Word.

Listen to this - Romans 12:5,

"So we, though many, are one body

in Christ and individually members

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?

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

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?

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.