Forgiving and Forgetting, Part 1B

One of the prime characteristics of the believer is that they are willing and they are wanting to extend forgiveness to those who have wronged them. You see, if we struggle with forgiveness, if we have a hard time forgiving those who offended us, could it be we don't have the mind of Christ? Could it be that we are not partakers of that divine nature? It's important that we forgive. It's important that we forget. Today, we're going to talk to you about forgiving and forgetting. If we're going to learn to forgive, we need to examine the teaching of our Savior.

If we're going to learn to forget, Then we need to explore the testimony of the scriptures. In terms of forgiveness, there is a passage that we need to study. So, we're going to look at that this morning.

And as a result of that, there's a problem we need to solve. There's a prescription we need to seek. And lastly, there's a prospect we need to secure. The text is Matthew chapter 6, verses 14 and 15. And forgive us our debts as we also have for our debtors. For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. And then it says, but if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. The Bible says that God has forgiven our sins, past tense.

That is, that God has taken away all of our sins, not some of them, but all of them. So why is it then the Lord would say, but if you don't forgive your brother his transgressions, neither will I forgive you your transgression? How do we reconcile that? Well, certainly not in terms of our standing with the Lord, right? If we are a child of God, we are a child of God. Nothing's going to change that. You have forgiveness of sins, but you don't have fellowship with the Savior. You've got to have that communion.

You've got to have that intimacy. That happens when you confess your sin. That's why Jesus said: listen, if you forgive your brother his transgressions, guess what? There is forgiveness full and free from me. We have a great relationship. But if you decide not to forgive your brother his transgressions, we can't have a relationship. If you're unwilling to forgive your brother a sin, that means you're harboring sin in your heart. A bitter spirit, an angry spirit, an unforgiving spirit, and that's going to cause a breach between me and you.

God. Says. You see that? That's the passage we need to study. Number two, there's a problem we need to solve.

Problems are two areas. The problem that needs to be solved is: number one, communion with God is interrupted if I don't forgive my brother.

That means I'm harboring sin against my brother, which is sin against God. And number two, chastening from God is inevitable.

Inevitable. And you know what? This is where some of you are today. You're experiencing the chasing of God in your life. Now, that's not a very popular message today, but the chasing of God is inevitable. That's what happens. We come around that person. That person's name is mentioned, and inwardly we feel agon. We feel the resentment and the bitterness well up within us. And that has a great emotional effect on our lives because our soul is being tormented. That's why the writer of Hebrews says this over in Hebrews chapter 12, verse number 14.

Pursue peace with all men. and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many be Defiled. The word of Hebrews warns us that a root of bitterness does not spring up within us. Because if it does, many people, not just some, but many people are defiled because of it. How is that going to happen? Point number three.

A prescription we need to seek. A prescription we need to seek. Number one is this. The prescription centers around experiencing, number one, forgiveness from God.

I am absolutely convinced, absolutely convinced, that one of the reasons many people Are unable to forgive. Many people in the church are unable to forgive their brother is because they've never experienced the forgiveness of God in their lives. I'm convinced of that. It's not that, well, you know, I can forgive him, I just don't want to forgive him. No, it's the very fact that if you are a partaker of the divine nature of God and you have the mind of Christ. Because he dwells in your life. There's something that happens because of the Holy Spirit that convicts us and causes us to want to move that direction.

It might take us a while, we might have to go through some chastening. But God moves us that direction in order that we might freely forgive our brother his sin. We need to experience the forgiveness of God. The Bible says in Psalm 103, these words: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits, who pardons all your iniquities and heals all your diseases. The diseases Christ heals are not physical diseases, they are the diseases of the soul who heals all your soul's diseases. How does that happen? It happens because he pardons all of our iniquities. And because he forgives all of our iniquities, what he does is cause us to be a forgiving kind of people that we might extend forgiveness that keep our soul from being tormented day and night.

Because of the chastening of God in our lives. That makes sense? It says this. A little further on, Psalm 103. The Lord is compassionate, verse number 8, and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kind. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kind toward those who fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our trans from us.

Just as a Father has compassion on His children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him for He Himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. Number one, the prescription that we need to seek is to be able to experience, number one, the forgiveness of God.

Have you experienced that this morning? Have you given your life to Christ? Have you come to a point in your life where you realize that you're a sinner? And the only hope is to throw yourself on the mercy of God. And as the man would yell in Luke 18, God, be merciful unto me, a sinner. Be merciful unto me, a sinner. When you have a child, you're able to name your child. Mary and Joseph did not have that opportunity. God said, God the Father said, This is what you're going to name the child. You're going to name him Jesus, Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins.

They didn't have the opportunity to name their firstborn, like we do, because God named His Son, because His Son had a mission to save His people. From their sins. I trust that you've experienced the forgiveness of God. Number two, need to examine the forgiveness of God.

That's why you're here this morning. That's why we're spending time on the whole issue of forgiveness. And quite frankly, I didn't think it was needed as much as you have told me. It was needed. Many of you have expressed to me, this is the right time for me to hear what the Word of the Lord says about forgiveness. So we know that it's a much needed topic of discussion. And so we realize that we need to examine what the Bible says about forgiveness by looking at people in the Bible who were able to forgive their brother for the wrong done to them.

And to extend compassion and mercy and loving kindness to those who have spoken out against them. Now you need to experience God's forgiveness. You need to examine God's forgiveness. And then, thirdly, you need to ex God's forgiveness.

That is, you need to extend it to your fellow man, to your brother, to your sister. The Bible says in Luke 6: that we Are therefore to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful.

The Bible tells us in the book of Romans. That when we extend forgiveness, when we extend mercy, we are to do it cheerfully. Cheerfully. You see, for a lot of us, that's hard to do, isn't it? We'll extend forgiveness, but we don't do it cheerfully. We don't do it with a smile on our face. We don't do it with joy in our hearts. That's right, so Paul would write in Romans chapter 12 that we need to extend mercy cheerfully. But we need to extend it if you've experienced it. You will extend it. If you're not extending it, it could be you've never experienced it.

Experience at number one. Examine at number two. Extend it, number three. And number four, exemplify forgiveness. Exemplify forgiveness. Your life must be a demonstration of the forgiveness of God at work. Not only for you personally, but for those you come in contact with. The Bible says in Psalm 37 that the righteous show.

Mercy. They show it. They just don't speak about mercy. They don't speak about forgiveness. They demonstrate forgiveness. You see, for some of you, you're in a process right now where forgiveness is not really a big deal for you because there's nobody who's really truly wronged you. But God in His sovereignty has allowed you to be here over the last several weeks because something's going to take place. Wh you have to extend mercy and forgiveness to someone who wrongs you. You wait and see, it'll happen.

God is preparing you for that day in January, for that day in February, or March, or April, or next year, or the following year, by giving you the Word of God today to prepare you for what you're going to face. Tomorrow. You see, a lot of what you hear when you come to church has nothing to do with your past, necessarily, or nothing to do with what's happening today, necessarily, but God preparing you for tomorrow. Because God knows what's going to happen when you walk out those doors. You don't.

So God doesn't want you to miss anything. That's why I want you to come to church. That's why I want you to come to worship him, to hear his word. So you are prepared for the following week. So you can go back and say, oh, yes, I heard about this from the Lord on Sunday, that God spoke to me through his word on Sunday, that I need to exemplify a merciful. Kind, compassionate spirit. I need to be able to extend forgiveness and mercy to my fellow brethren because I've spent time examining it and I've experienced it.

Fifthly, you need to exclaim forgiveness. Exclaim it. In other words, proclaim it loudly. Proclaim it loudly. The Bible says in Psalm, I think it's Psalm 58.

I can't read my notes. I will sing al of thy mercy. I will sing aloud of thy mercy. That's what it means to exclaim the mercy of God. I will sing aloud of it, I will proc Why? Because mercy has been shown me, and therefore I will be merciful to others. That's why the Lord says, Blessed are the merciful, Matthew 5. Why? For they shall obtain mercy. It doesn't mean that if you do merciful, kind things to people, that God will show mercy to you. It means this: that because God has already demonstrated His mercy to you, You are merciful to others, and that's where the blessing li.

So important. Did you know? In Romans chapter 1, when God goes through the list of all the people that experience the wrath, the wrath of what we call abandonment. When God turns man over, Romans 1 describes the nature of man and how God through time has just turned man over to his his own sinful devices, his own error, so that it moves from one progression to another, to another. He gets further and further and further away from God. Do you know what the very last characteristic of the wrath of abandonment is?

Un. Can you believe that? The very last characteristic. That God uses to describe the unbeliever, and how God turns him over to his own devices, that God just turns him over to his own sin to experience the consequences of his sin. The very last characteristic in Romans chapter 1 is that they are un. Let me read it to you.

Because I know some of you are out there thinking, no, that's not what it says. So, let me read it to you.

Romans chapter 1, it says this. Verse 28, we'll start right there. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers. Haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, un. Wow. Let me tell you something, folks.

If there's anybody who should be merciful, it's the believer. Because God has demonstrated His mercy toward us. And therefore, we extend mercy. We extend kindness. We extend it in a way that people need it the most. They need to be forgiven. And so we forgive them. Last, there's a prospect we need to secure. Three things happen. Three things happen when I forgive my brother his transgressions. There are more than three. I'm just going to give you three this morning. You need to understand them. The first one is this.

There is the fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of comp. From God, the fruitfulness of comp from God The Bible says in Proverbs 2, verse number 13: He who conceals a transgression.

Shall not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion, will find mercy. Listen, when you forgive your brother, God extends to you the fruitfulness of mercy and compassion your way. That is so, so important. You see, when you confess your sin, you get right with God, you're giving glory to God. And when you give glory to God, God is honored. And when God is honored in your life, God honors you. 1 Samuel 2:3, right? He who honors me, I will honor. And God wants to show you His compassion.

He wants to be merciful to you. He has when He forgave you your sins. But He wants that compassion and mercy to continue on a daily basis, and He wants you to experience the fruitfulness. Of that compassion to do so. You confess your sin, you get right with your brother, and in doing so, You get right with God. Remember what God said? Matthew 6, verse number 12: Forgive us our debts, even as We have forgiven our debtors. Do you see what Jesus said? Make our forgiveness conditional. Make our forgiveness conditional, Lord.

As we have already forgiven our brothers, Lord, forgive us. Christ already said, listen, if you don't forgive your brother, I'm not going to forgive you. So, in the prayer, that everybody that I know who names the name of Christ can repeat it. Many people who go to church can recite it, but they don't remember what God said. Forgive us our debts, even as we have al forgiven our brother his debt. The prayer itself makes my forgiveness from God conditional. Isn't that true? That forgiveness in the relational sense Is conditional.

Forgiveness in the judicial sense or in the positional sense is not conditional. Why? Because I'm already forgiven. My standing with God never changes, but in the relational sense, there is a condition. I got to forgive my brother if I don't. God doesn't forgive me my transgressions. That is, there is communion with Him that's inter. Meaning that chastening from him will be inevitable. Therefore, I go to him. I ask his forgiveness. And in my heart, having already forgiven my brother, I go to him and extend forgiveness to him as well, and experience the fruitfulness of compassion.

From God. Number two, you experience the fullness of commun with God. The fullness of commun with God. Listen, when you turn from your sin, you are saying, God, I was wrong. You are right. And therefore, Lord, I'm going to follow you, I'm going to serve you. And that communion with God, that intimacy with God, that fellowship with God begins to escalate. You begin to experience the fullness of joy, right? The fullness of communion. Don't you want to have that? Sure, you do. Sure, you want to have that full communion.

It's like in a husband-wife relationship when you sin against your wife, or she sins against you, and there's that breach between you and her. There isn't that fullness, that sweetness of communion, is there? But when you get together, you confess your sins, you forsake your sins, what happens? The communion, the intimacy begins to swell. Right? The same way it is in my relationship with the living God. God wants us to have sweet communion with Him. When the prodigal son, we turn to Luke 15, there was a breach between He and His dad, right?

He rebelled against his father. Oh, his father wanted to have a relationship with his son, but his son didn't want to have a relationship with his father. But when his son came back, turned from his sin, did he experience the fullness of communion with his father? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it's the nature of his Father to forgive. It's the nature of our Heavenly Father to forgive. And so the prospect that we need to secure in our lives is the fruitfulness of comp from God. The fullness of commun with God.

And thirdly, the blessedness The blessedness in the conflict. The blessedness in the conflict with others. Say, what does that mean? In the midst of that conflict, there is blessing. We read it to you a number of weeks ago. Peter said it this way: to sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind-hearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. For you were called for the very purpose that you might inher a blessing. Listen, when you forgive your brother.

When you do not retaliate against your brother, when you don't seek to be vengeful towards your brother, Peter says you'll experience a blessing. Because you were called to experience a blessing from God. And God will bless your life. And what happens is that not only do you experience The fruitfulness of compassion and the fullness of communion, but the blessedness in the conflict with others. Because God wants to bless you, and He can't bless you if you're vengeful. He won't bless you if you seek eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

One author summed it up this way. I thought was so, so good. Revenge, indeed, seems often sweet to men, but oh, it is only sugared poison. Only sweetened gall and its aftertaste is bit as he itself. Forgiving, enduring love alone is sweet and blissful. It enjoys peace and the consciousness of God's favor. By forgiving, it gives away and annihilates the injury. It treats the injurer as if he had not injured, and therefore feels no more the smart and sting that he had inflicted. Forgiveness is a shield from which all the fiery darts of the wicked one harmless rebound.

Forgiveness brings heaven to earth, and heaven's peace into the sinful heart. Forgiveness is the image of God, the forgiving Father, and an advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world. Isn't that what you want? Don't you want to advance Christ's kingdom in the world? God's kingdom has come to earth in the form of his Son. He came preaching about that kingdom. And Christ says, Seek first my kingdom.

Seek first my righteousness. And as children of the kingdom of God, don't we want to advance his kingdom? Sure, we do. Don't we want people around us to be able to see and experience and ultimately enjoy the same king that we enjoy? Sure, we do. So we advance the kingdom of God. See, the problem is, when it comes to forgiveness, the reason we don't forgive is because we want to advance our kingdom. And not God's kingdom. But if you want to advance God's kingdom, you will forgive. And you will forget.

But that's next week's message. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word and the soundness of it, the simplicity of it. Thank you for what you've taught us today. May we learn to live in light of what you say. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.