It is obvious that we live in a world where
forgiveness is desperately needed. We know from Scripture, and we know from experience,
that the heart of all sinful people is full of hostility. We are by nature prone to anger, prone to
resentment, prone to bitterness, prone to hate, and even prone to murder. The slaughters that have gone on in world
history are just really beyond comprehension, beyond comprehension. I always think about the killing fields between
Russia and Germany, a period of about ten years, when between the Russians and the Germans
they massacred thirteen million people; none of them in the military, just massacring people. That's just one little brief time in human
history that marks the depth of the anger, the resentment, the bitterness, the hatred,
and the murderous intent of the human heart. This is not hard to understand, because the
world is populated by people who are sons of Satan. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, the most
moral of all men, "You are of your father the devil; and he was, from the beginning,
a murderer. And so you seek to kill Me." There is so much hostility in the human heart
that it literally is erupting; and if it's not controlled, it will totally destroy the
world. It is a conflagration like no other. Hatred, anger, resentment has erupted over
the edges of the human volcano in our day, even today and in our culture, with a deadly
kind of violence that is threatening to bury the land in an avalanche of vengeance and
violence. We're starting to see violence as just a way
of life. It is not just religious hatred, such as we
see in the extremes of Islam, it is just the hatred of the human heart that seems to be
constantly reaching its erupting point and spilling out its vicious lava to consume all
who are in its flow. The world is characterized by anger. I don't think in my lifetime I've ever seen
so many people angry about so many things. And it all has been justified by psychology
for many, many years: you have a right to be angry, your anger is justified, you were
mistreated, everybody was abused, everybody is a victim. You need to be angry; anger is how you deal
with the way you were mistreated. Anger has been fueled in this society for
years by psychology. It's further fueled by narcissistic self-centeredism,
where everybody thinks they're the most important person in the world; and anybody who offends
them is worthy of the severest kind of repercussions, perhaps, even violence. In James chapter 4, we get a little insight
into this. "What is the source of quarrels and conflicts
among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage
war in your members? You lust, you do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious, you cannot obtain; so you
fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask
with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Your satisfaction, your desires, your possessions,
your pleasures consume you; and as a result of that, you do damage to the people around
you to get what you want." This is not surprising. Ecclesiastes 7:9, the wisdom says this, the
wisdom of Solomon: "Anger resides in the heart of fools." It lives in the heart of fools; and all those
without God are fools. Anger is a universal human emotion and driving
motivation. If any one corrupt attitude defines our culture,
it is anger. There's anger in our music, there is anger
in our films, there is anger in our television programs, there is anger in our schools, there
is anger in our universities, there is anger in our families, there is anger everywhere
in this society; and the absent virtue in all of this is forgiveness. The absence of forgiveness destroys relationships. It is, in the end, the destroyer of relationships. It's impossible to live in the world and not
offend someone; and that then demands forgiveness. And where there is no forgiveness, there is
just the marking up, the mounting up the accumulation of offenses that continues to escalate anger. Never is a person more like Satan than when
he hates. Never is a person more like Satan than when
he is angry, angry to the point that he wishes to kill. Not all anger leads to killing, because we
are restrained. We are restrained by the consequences. But you know as well as I do, that if there
was not the threat of arrest and trial and incarceration and the death penalty, if people
were actually free to do whatever they wanted to do without repercussions, mankind would
have slaughtered himself long ago. Never is a person more like Satan than when
he is angry, when he hates, and when his desire is to eliminate a life. On the other hand, never is a person more
like God than when he loves and forgives. That's how it is. The world belongs to Satan. They're of their father the devil, therefore
they hate, they are angry, they are violent, they do damage, they kill. But on the other hand, those of us who name
the name of Jesus Christ, those of us who are believers ought to be marked by our love;
and our love manifests itself in forgiveness. The hating, angered heart of the sinner is
applauded by contemporary psychology, which says its not healthy to forgive. "It's not healthy to forgive. You've been victimized, you should be angry. It's not your fault. You're not responsible. Vengeance is justified; get whatever vengeance
you need to satisfy yourself." But the price of that anger, the price of
that hate, the price of that unforgiveness, the price of that vengeance is extremely high. It devastates all relationships; and eventually,
as it accumulates, it literally destroys an entire society. We know that on a personal level, and we're
beginning to see it escalate in a way that we haven't in this country in the past: hostility,
hatred, anger, boiling over and being justified. So I want you to understand what the Bible
says about the importance of forgiveness; and we're going to look at that wonderful
little letter by the apostle Paul called Philemon, but not tonight. That's for next time, because I want you to
understand the big picture of forgiveness as presented in the Bible, and we'll take
the bird's eye view, and then we'll go down and get the worm's eye view in the Philemon,
which gives us a wonderful illustration of forgiveness. In fact, it's a whole book written on the
subject of forgiveness. But, first of all, I want to remind you that
Proverbs 19:11 says, "A man's discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is a man's glory
to overlook a transgression. A man's discretion makes him slow to anger,"
- discretion being wisdom - "and it is a man's glory to overlook a transgression." Man doesn't get any higher than when he overlooks
a transgression. That's his glory. That's the pinnacle of being a human being
when you rise above your anger and your hatred, your hostility, your bitterness. Proverbs 10, verse 12 says, "Hatred stirs
up strife, but love covers all transgressions, love covers all transgressions." And Peter referred to that in 1 Peter 4:8
where he says, "Love covers a multitude of sins." It is a man's glory to overlook a transgression. Of all the human qualities, of all the human
virtues, none is more godlike than forgiveness. None is more godlike than forgiveness. None of us would have any relationship to
God that would be considered at all positive if God were not a forgiving God. We who know God, we who have been redeemed
by God, we who have received salvation have received it because God forgives. Never are you more like Satan than when you're
angry, and you hate, and you desire to kill. Never are you more like God than when you
forgive; that is a man's glory. That should be on display in the church of
Jesus Christ in every relationship, and collectively in the community of believers. And I will just tell you this: I've lived
long enough to know that you can go to many, many churches, and you will find, if not sort
of smoldering below the surface, hostility, you'll find open hostility. And it comes down to the fact, not that people
were offended, but that when they were offended they refused to forgive. It splits churches. It harms the testimony of the gospel. "By this shall all men know that you're My
disciples, if you have love one for another." Love forgives. The price of not forgiving is very high. Let me approach it negatively at least for
a minute. The problem with not forgiving is that unforgiveness
imprisons people in their past. Unforgiveness imprisons people in their past. As long as you refuse to forgive offenses
and the offenders, you are shackled to their offense. As long as you refuse to forgive, you keep
the pain alive. In fact, you pour gas on the wound. As long as you refuse to forgive, it's like
picking at an open sore; you constantly keep it from healing. You're sentencing yourself to go through your
life feeling as bad as you do now, and likely worse, because you fuel that lack of forgiveness. You choose to love hate and to love anger,
and sentence yourself to bondage to that horrible reality. Only a fool would imprison himself in a past
offense by refusing to forgive in love and move on. Secondly, unforgiveness not only imprisons
you in your past, but it cumulatively produces a deep-seated bitterness. It's an infectious cancer in the heart, and
it metastasizes. Wherever that first problem was, wherever
that first offense was, it begins to grow, and it begins to grow and expand and take
over more and more of your life; and bitterness becomes malignant. Thoughts become malignant. Memories become harassing memories that distort
how you see life. Anger becomes out of control, and the people
who are around you become the victims of that out of control metastasizing anger that comes
as a result of a failure to forgive some offense some time ago. You entertain constantly thoughts for revenge. You become desperate about the fact that you
wish the worst on the person that you will not forgive. Every conversation becomes another forum for
your ugliness, for your hostility, for your criticism, for your defamation, for your slander;
and eventually it morphs into all kinds of exaggerations and lies about the reality of
that person; and you have passed on your own life a death sentence of bitterness and anger
that will follow you to the grave. One of our pastors was telling me last week,
he was counseling a couple, and the woman said, "I would rather go to hell than forgive
my husband." That is unbelievable. What a horrendous death sentence. Now Scripture speaks to the issue of forgiveness. There are at least seventy-five word pictures
of forgiveness in the Bible. I won't give you all of them; but there are
at least seventy-five of them. Let me give you a few. To forgive - these are metaphors. To forgive is to turn the key, open the cell
door, and let the prisoner walk free. To forgive is to write in large letters across
a debt "nothing owed." To forgive is to pound the gavel in a courtroom
and declare "not guilty." To forgive is to shoot an arrow so high, so
far, it can never be found again. To forgive is to take out the garbage and
dispose of it, leaving the house full of cleanliness and sweet-smelling fresh air. To forgive is to loose the anchor that holds
the ship, and set it free to sail. To forgive is to grant a full pardon to a
condemned and sentenced criminal. To forgive is to loosen a strangle-hold on
a wrestling opponent. To forgive is to sandblast a wall of graffiti,
leaving it looking brand new. To forgive is to smash a clay pot into a thousand
pieces so it can never be put together again. Those are biblical metaphors of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a marvelous, virtuous, liberating,
loving attitude and act. The attitude of forgiveness is behind Proverbs
24:17, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls or stumbles." Forgiveness is a virtuous, liberating, loving
attitude and act. It makes sense to forgive. It's healthy; it's wholesome; it's sensible. It frees you from tension, anxiety. It brings you peace. It solicits love. One philosopher said this: "Only the brave
know how to forgive. It is the most refined and generous element
of human virtue. Cowards have done good deeds and performed
kind acts. Cowards have even fought and conquered. But a coward never forgives; it is not in
his nature or his heart. The power to forgive flows only from a strengthened
greatness of soul, conscious of its own humility and security, and able to rise above all the
little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to steal its happiness." End quote. There's some truth in that philosophical prose. But we are compelled to a much deeper discussion. I think it is brave to forgive, and I think
there are people, unconverted people, who understand the benefit of being brave enough
to forgive so they don't sentence themselves to a life of bitterness. But I want us to think about it much more
deeply than just philosophizing; I want us to come to the Word of God. While forgiveness may by a virtue in some
unbelievers lives, because they want to void the death sentence of unforgiveness, and while
unbelieving people can tap into divine providence, they can tap into common grace, they can learn
some things about life that make life better and make life easier, Christians should be
forgivers as the normal course of our lives. Some nonbelievers learn the benefit of forgiving:
some, some of the brave ones. Every Christian should be marked by forgiveness. All of us should be forgivers. And there are some compelling biblical, theological,
spiritual reasons why we are to forgive. Now, tonight, get ready, I'm going to give
you ten. There could be more; I want to give you ten. I'm going to move the clock over here so I
can sort them out while I'm watching. Number one - and we've already made this statement,
but let me say it again: Forgiveness is the most godlike act a person can do. Forgiveness is the most godlike act a person
can do. And if we are the children of God, the sons
of God; if God has taken up residence in us; if God is our Father and we are His sons,
we therefore should manifest His nature. In Matthew chapter 5, as our Lord was preaching
the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 43, He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall
love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" Hatred, the lack of forgiveness was a part
of Jewish culture; and it was made noble in that culture, as it is in ours. Hatred was noble. There are some people you should hate, according
to them. But our Lord says, "But I say to you, love
your enemies. Don't have your enemies, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you," - and then
this, verse 25 - "so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven;" - you're
never more like God than when you forgive - "for He causes His sun to rise on the evil
and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward
do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more
are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you're to be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect." And the perfection that our Lord has in mind
is demonstrated in forgiving your enemies. No act is more divine than forgiveness. That is what marks God. If God was not a forgiving God, none of us
would know God. Never are we more like Him than when we forgive. In Exodus 34, God introduces Himself to Moses
on the mountain as the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, forgiving
iniquities, transgressions, sins, manifesting lovingkindness. God is a forgiving God. Psalm 32: "How blessed is the man to whom
the Lord does not impute iniquities." God is a forgiving God. Psalm 85 says essentially the same thing. Psalm 130, verse 4, the psalmist says, "There
is forgiveness with You." And then the wonderful words of the prophet
Isaiah, chapter 1, familiar to us: "Come now, let us reason together," - verse 18, says
the Lord - "though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they
are red like crimson, they will be like wool." God is a forgiving God. In the forty-third chapter of Isaiah - this
is a feature, obviously, of Isaiah's ministry to preach that God is a forgiving God. But in chapter 43, I think it's down in verse
25, yes: "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and
I will not remember your sins." Isaiah 43:25, that's a good one to write down:
"I wipe out your transgressions for My own namesake, for My own sake, for My own glory,
because it is to reveal My glory that I forgive you. I will not remember your sins." And, again, in the familiar words of Isaiah
55 that you know as well: "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him,
and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." God is a forgiving God. The New Testament makes the glorious statement
about the forgiveness of God of the worst of sinners in Luke 15 in the story of the
prodigal, right? The prodigal was the worst sinner that Jesus
could invent in the parable that He made up, the worst possible sinner. No respect for his father, no respect for
his family, no respect for his inheritance. Took his money, ran, went into the foreign
country, wasted his money with prostitutes. Ran into a famine, is destitute. He's eating the food, or trying to eat the
food that was fed to pigs, unclean animals. In the midst of the horror of that kind of
dissolution, he comes back to his father. And you know the story. His father runs to him when he sees him, throws
his arms around him, kisses him all over the head, put a ring on his finger and a robe
on his back, sandals on his feet, and celebrates his forgiveness. The parable of the prodigal is really the
parable of the forgiving father; and the forgiving father is God, Christ showing us His forgiveness. On the cross, what does Jesus say? "Father, forgive them; they know not what
they do." And Stephen following that as he's being stoned,
under the bloody stones, in Acts 7, cries out, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,"
following the same forgiving pattern of his Savior. And again I say, never are you more like God
than when you forgive. And that is why we read some very straightforward
instruction. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, the end of the
chapter. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31. This is to the believers, to all of us: "Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander" - and those are all related - "be
put away from you, with all malice," meaning all evil. "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving
each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." This assumes that there have been offenses
against you. When God says, "Don't be angry; forgive,"
He's assuming offenses against you. But it is godlike to fully and completely
forgive. And if you follow that into the next chapter,
chapter 5, verse 1 says, "Therefore be imitators of God." That's like an echo of Matthew 5:44, "Be imitators
of God, as beloved children' and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself
up for us." If you want to be like God, if you want to
be like Christ, don't be angry: forgive, forgive. That is basic Christian instruction. And were it followed, we wouldn't have the
devastated relationships we have in the church. Forgive; that is how Christians are to live
their lives. The assumption is, we will be offended. The assumption is, we will forgive. Colossians chapter 3, verse 12, "You are the
chosen of God. You are holy and beloved. Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone without
any qualification, whoever, anyone, you forgive. Just as the Lord forgave you, so also should
you." By the way, Paul was eager to forgive, wasn't
he? He forgave even the people who put him in
jail. He forgave even the people who tried to harm
him by telling lies about his faithfulness. He practiced that godlike virtue. So, number one, never are you more like God
than when you forgive. Number two, very important: It is not murder
only, which is forbidden by the sixth commandment. Sixth commandment back in Exodus 20 says,
"You shall not kill. You shall not kill." You say, "Well, I haven't killed anybody." Jesus said something about the Ten Commandments
something very specific. Turn back to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew
5, and this is what our Lord said, verse 21: "You have heard that the ancients were told,
'You shall not commit murder,' - you shall not commit murder, of course, that's Exodus
chapter 20, verse 13. It's repeated in Deuteronomy - 'you shall
not commit murder.' And then you have been taught that, 'Whoever
commits murder shall be liable to the court.'" And, of course, there's the death penalty
given back in the ninth chapter of Genesis for someone who murders. But Jesus says, "Let Me take you deeper into
that. But I say to you that everyone who is angry
with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You
good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court. Whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty
enough to go into the fiery hell." Those are shockingly strong words. The rabbis, the scribes of Judaism had devised
a tradition based on Exodus 20, verse 13: "Don't kill. Don't kill." The Jews were aware of the fact that murder
was forbidden, and that you could lose your life if you were a killer. They thought if they hated and were angry
and full of vengeance, but stopped short of killing, they had kept that command. Jesus said, "No. I say to you, there's far more in that command
than the actual act of murder. There is the intent of the heart. There is the intent of the heart." John wrote it this way, 1 John 3:15, "Everyone
who hates his brother is a murderer. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer." Jesus said, "If you're angry with someone,
you are guilty." He swept away all self-righteousness. He unmasked all the hypocrisy and revealed
what was under the surface: a murderous kind of vice of anger and unforgiveness. The translation "you good-for-nothing" is
a word rhaka . It's a vicious epithet that is intended to
have sort of a verbal power in and of itself: rhaka . A term of abuse, a term of derision, a term
of arrogant contempt and hate. "If you say that to someone, you're guilty
before God, you're a killer. Or if you say, 'You fool, you stupid one.'" By saying that, the intent is you have cursed
someone: "You godless one." "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is
no God.'" "If you do this, you are guilty enough to
go to hell." Now you say, "Is that true of Christians?" It is. It is true of Christians. You won't go to hell because your sins are
forgiven. But you are guilty enough with that in your
heart to go to hell as if you had killed somebody. You have to see God's law in the way that
God intended it to be seen. It was never to be a superficial fulfillment
that satisfied Him, some kind of external hypocrisy. You need to see the one you won't forgive
as the creation of God. You're to love that one, forgive that one. If he's a Christian, he bears the moral and
spiritual image of God. If he's a non-Christian, he bears the natural
image of God. The Bible says it another way: "Love your
neighbor as" - what? - "yourself." You see the image of God in you, see the image
of God in someone else. Recognize that lack of forgiveness is selfish. It is murderous in its intent. It is angry; it is hostile. It desires damage, and even death to its object,
when you as a believer should be characterized by love for your enemies and, certainly, love
for your friends in Christ. There's a third principle: Whoever has offended
you has offended God more. Whoever has offended you has offended God
more. And here's the point: If God, who is most
offended, has forgiven, why can't you? Have you now established yourself as a higher
court? Are you above God? Are you going to say, "God may forgive you,
but I will not. I have higher standards than God," or, "I
am more significant than God. You offended God and He forgave you; you offend
me, and I won't"? If God is the most holy and has forgiven the
greater offense, can't you, the least holy, forgive the lesser offense? By the way, any wrong done against a person
is done against God. Back in Psalm 41 - there's a couple of places:
Psalm 41 and 51, you may remember. But in Psalm 41 and verse 4: "As for me, I
said, 'O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.'" David says, "I've sinned against You." In reality, David had sinned against somebody
else, but he saw it for what it really was. Every sin against anybody is a sins against
God. It is an offense to another person to sin
against them; it is a far greater offense against God. Ten chapter later in the Psalms, in Psalm
51, verse 4, the psalmist David, going back to his horrendous sin of immorality with Bathsheba,
and then having her husband put in a compromising position in the battle so he lost his life,
he actually committed murder. He comes before God in verse 4. Though he had sinned against Bathsheba and
he'd sinned against Uriah and he'd sinned against his own family and he's sinned against
Israel, this is what he says: "Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil
in Your sight." Every sin that you ever commit may be a sin
against somebody else, every sin committed against you may be a sin against you; but
it is far greater a sin against God, who is absolutely holy. If God is the most holy and the most offended
and most willing to forgive, who are you not to forgive? Are you someone more important than God, with
a higher standard than God; someone who deserves more than God deserves? Shall we who really are in some ways incidental
to the sinful offense not forgive, we who are so unholy as to need constant forgiveness,
are we unwilling to give it? So we forgive. We forgive, because God forbids anger, He
forbids hate, He forbids attitudes of vengeance, and He commands us to forgive. We forgive, because He has forgiven, and He
is the most offended, and because we are never more like God than when we forgive and we
declare ourselves to be His children. Now number four in our progression: The Bible
calls on us to forgive, because it is only reasonable that those forgiven the greater
sins forgive the lesser ones. It is only reasonable that those forgiven
the greater sins forgive the lesser ones. Look, we have been forgiven by God, and we
have consistently sinned against Him. Every sin that every person ever commits is
against God. He is the one most offended and constantly
offended. If God forgives us this mass of sin, which
is inconceivable in its accumulated debt, which is unpayable, which cannot be undone
by us; but if God is willing to forgive us that great debt of sin, shall we not forgive
the small debts of the people in our lives. The illustration of this is in Matthew 18,
and again, it's the teaching of Jesus. Turn to Matthew 18. This is one of the most memorable of our Lord's
parables. Peter comes to Jesus, in chapter 18 of Matthew,
and says, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin again me and I forgive him? And I'm dealing with people," - Peter says
- "and they sin against me. How often am I supposed to forgive them?" And he thinks that he'll get an affirmation,
so he says, "Up to seven times?" There are some historians that tell us the
Jews said, "Three times you forgive, and after that you don't." So Peter thought he'd double it and add one. "Do I forgive seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up
to seven times, but up to seventy times seven: four hundred and ninety times." The point is, you just keep forgiving, and
forgiving, and forgiving, and forgiving, and forgiving. It's constant. And then He tells this parable: "For this
reason" - to explain this forgiveness - "the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king
who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who
owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him." A talent was fifteen years of labor; ten thousand
talents is an astronomical, unpayable, inconceivable debt. So this man has embezzled the king's money,
and has nothing to return. He was brought to him. "He didn't have the means to repay," - verse
25 - "his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children" - at least he
could get something by selling them all into slavery - "and to take all that was paid for
them as a small amount of repayment. So the slave fell to the ground, prostrated
himself before the king, saying, 'Have patience with me and I'll repay you everything.'" Well, that was ridiculous; that was not ever
possible. But he was desperate, so he made promises
he had no capacity to fulfill. Verse 27: "And the lord of that slave felt
compassion and released him and forgave him the debt." Now we know who the parable is about, right? This is an unpayable debt; the man has no
capacity to pay it back. But the lord, the king is compassionate, and
forgives him the whole debt. That's a picture of God. "But that slave" - verse 28 - "went out and
found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii;" - that's a hundred days
work - "seized him, began to choke him, saying, 'Pay back what you owe.' So his fellow slave fell to the ground and
began to plead with him and made the same speech, 'Have patience with me and I will
repay you.' - and that was possible - "But he was unwilling and went and threw him in
prison until he should pay back what he owed." How do you pay back what you owe when you're
in prison? This is insensitive ingratitude. This is ingratitude that's shocking. This man has been forgiven an utterly unpayable
debt, and he goes out and strangles a man who owes him a hundred days work and throws
him in prison. How can you receive such magnanimous and massive
forgiveness and not give a small forgiveness to somebody who offended you? Look, you can't receive the forgiveness that
you receive from God and be unforgiving over the petty things that offend you. God has given you forgiveness for an unpayable
debt. To go out and choke people, as it were, and
throw them into debtors prison, do damage to their lives because of small offenses to
you is to manifest that you are a disgusting person. You are disgusting, that you would take such
forgiveness and not give any in return. We deserve damnation; God gives us mercy. That should teach us that we give our debtors
mercy as well. Now there's a fifth point: The one who does
not forgive will not enjoy the fellowship and love of other believers. Watch what happens in this story, while you're
in Matthew 18. He's talking to the disciples, and He's in
this story, and He tells about how the man took the full forgiveness, then went out and
choked this man and threw him in debtors prison. In verse 31, he says, "So when his fellow
slaves saw what had happened, hey were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord
all that had happened." You know what happened to that man? He was cut off from his friends. You will be distanced from your friends. You are an unforgiving person; nobody wants
to do anything in your presence for fear that that attitude will come to them. You will literally end up isolated. If you are an unforgiving person, you are
leaven, you are sinful, you are a bad influence. You will be alienated from others, even in
the life of the church; they will stay away from you. You are a hostile, threatening, unloving person;
and you will forfeit the fellowship. No longer will people stimulate you to love
and good deeds; they will isolate you. These friends, in verse 31, turned on the
unforgiving man. And not only did they turn on him, but they
reported him to the lord, to the king, and they told the king that, "This man that you
have forgiven the unpayable debt has done this." They turned him in. This is a form of discipline; they're going
to report this man to the king. You do this in the church, be an unforgiving
person, and you're going to isolate yourself, alienate yourself, and the church is going
to turn you over to the Lord. What's that going to do? That takes us to the sixth point, and it comes
out of the same parable: Failure to forgive results in divine chastening, divine chastening. Verse 32: "Summoning him, his lord the king
said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with
me. Should you not also have had mercy on your
fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?' And his lord, moved with anger," - holy anger
- "handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him." And then this: "My heavenly Father will also
do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart." Wow. God will turn you over to the torturers. What does that mean? Well, it's what James said in James chapter
2, verse 13: "Judgement will be merciless to the one who shows no mercy." Serious chastening from the Lord. If you're not a forgiving person, the Lord
will chasten you. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, in
Matthew 5:7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain" - what? - "mercy." The unforgiving brother, the unforgiving brother
is isolated and brought under the chastening of God. It's a serious thing not to forgive for all
these reasons. And then number seven, and this is powerful:
The one who does not forgive will not be forgiven. The one who does not forgive will not be forgiven. When our Lord - again, back in the Sermon
on the Mount, laid out so many of these principles, He said this in chapter 6, verse 12, in teaching
His disciples to pray, "Pray this way. Say, 'Forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors,' - or - 'forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive those who
trespass against us.'" "You forgive us, and we'll forgive them;"
that's how it works. "You're the king who forgave us the unpayable
debt, and now it's our responsibility to forgive other as you forgave us. This is how we demonstrate that You're our
God, and You're our Father, and we're Your children, and we bear Your image." But then this warning, verse 14: "If you forgive
others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you do not forgive others, then your Father
will not forgive your transgressions." Is that hard to understand? You say, "Couldn't that apply to a believer?" It does. It doesn't mean that you're not justified,
it just means that in the present act of your unforgiveness, you will not enjoy the blessing
and the forgiveness of God on that level, because He will not give it to you. God deals with you in the way that you deal
with others. God deals with you in the way that you deal
with others. Yes, we have eternal forgiveness in our justification;
that settles the issue of our future blessing. But temporal forgiveness is an issue in our
sanctification, and that settles the issue of our temporal blessing. Heaven is settled, but life here is not; and
if you want to stay in the place of blessing, then you must forgive. Through the years of my life as a Christian
and as a pastor, I have seen the emptiness, I've seen the dryness, I've seen the insipid
dullness. I've seen the lack of joy, the lack of power,
the lack of meaning in relationship. I've seen the harm to a marriage and a family
that unforgiveness produces. You have the broken relationship based upon
the unforgiveness, then you compound that by the discipline of the Lord as He turns
the unforgiving person over to certain tortures. And then you have the reality that they remain,
in a sense, in their temporal life and the process of their sanctification unforgiven. Not a way to live your life. Not a way to live your life. So what have we said? We are to forgive, because it is like God,
whose children we are. We are to forgive, because it is forbidden
not to forgive, because the command to murder also encompasses forgiveness. We are to forgive, because the Most High,
the most offended has forgiven the most, and we the least should forgive the least. We must forgive, because all sins offend God
the most, and He forgives. We must forgive, because if we don't forgive
we'll isolate ourselves from Christian fellowship, we'll bring ourselves under discipline, and
we will live in a condition of stilted sanctification, because God will not forgive our sins. A few more compelling reasons to forgive. Number eight: The absence of forgiveness renders
us unfit to worship. The absence of forgiveness renders us unfit
to worship. That should be obvious, right? I mean, if you're in that condition where
you're under the chastening of the Lord, in a sense, you're under the discipline of the
people of God, you're in a situation where God is not forgiving you on an ongoing temporal
basis, you're in position to worship. But we don't have to simply imply that, because
Jesus said it explicitly. Go back to Matthew 5 again, and pick it up
in the Sermon on the Mount at verse 23, where He says, "If you are presenting your offering
at the altar," - you're coming to worship, coming to worship the Lord - "and you there
remember that your brother has something against you," - there is some unresolved issue - "leave
your offering before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, then come and
present your offering." No one should draw near to God with an intention
to worship. If he has any unsettled grudge with another
brother or sister, reconciliation, or an effort at reconciliation, may not be able to fully
do it; but, certainly, the forgiveness part of reconciliation must precede worship. Regardless of whose fault it is, the issue
of bitterness, hate, anger, unforgiveness cannot be brought to the place of worship. And if it's in your heart, don't be so concerned
necessarily to try to fix all of the things you've done and said in the past; confess
it, and ask the Lord to forgive it. Psalm 66:18 says, "If I regard iniquity in
my heart, the Lord will not hear me." God doesn't want worshipers who are filled
with unforgiveness, who haven't resolved the things that need to be resolved. Number nine: Not to forgive is to usurp the
authority of God. Not to forgive is to usurp the authority of
God. It is the ultimate ego trip. You are presuming that the sword of judgment
is in your hand, that it's up to you to wield that sword of judgment, and you're going to
wreak havoc in somebody's life. You're going to gossip about them, you're
going to slander about them, you're going to say terrible things about them, you're
going to foment lies as you exaggerate the realities. You are assuming the place of God. Look at Romans chapter 12, and just a few
verses in chapter 12 that address this. Romans 12, verse 14: "Bless those who persecute
you; bless and do not curse." Okay, bless those who persecute you. Whatever somebody does to you, bless them,
bless them. You're heaping coals of fire on their head. Bless them. And then verse 17: "Never pay back evil for
evil to anyone, never. Respect what is right in the sight of all
men. If possible, so far as it depends on you,
be at peace with all men." And there is the recognition that you forgive;
you seek peace whether that other person does or not. "As much as it is possible from your perspective,
as it depends on you, be at peace with all men." Then verse 19: "Never take your own vengeance,
beloved," - talking to believers - "leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written,
'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.'" Deuteronomy, Psalms. You're not God. You don't have to wish the worst on somebody
who offended you. God will take care of whatever needs to be
taken care of. You're not the judge. If you act as the judge, what you're saying
is, "God is too slow, God is too indifferent, God is too preoccupied, God is too weak, or
God is too unjust. I'm going to have to take this into my own
hands." That is blasphemy. God alone is able to deal with sin, and He
always does. He has the perfect and true understanding
of the offense, you don't. He has the highest standard, yours is lower. He has the full authority, you have none. He is impartial, you're not. He is omniscient and eternal, seeing the end
from the beginning; you're shortsighted and ignorant, seeing nothing beyond today. He is wise and good, and acts in perfect holiness;
you are blinded by the sin of anger. You are in no position to be a judge of anybody;
makes no sense. You're not qualified. Leave it to God. And then a final point, and here is something
you have to consider: The injuries against you and offenses against you are the trials
that perfect you. The injuries against you and offenses against
you are the trials that perfect you. Criticisms, injustices, offenses, false accusations,
persecutions, mistreatments, abuse, unkindness - all of those are within the providence and
purpose of God. James goes so far as to say this: "Count it
all" - what? - "joy when you fall into various trials,
because they are perfecting your faith." Peter said, 1 Peter 5:10, "After you've suffered
a while, the Lord will make you perfect." Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:10, said, "You know,
I prayed that the Lord would remove the thorn in the flesh, and I prayed three times, and
He never would do it." Then he said this, verse 10, 2 Corinthians
12: "I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions,
with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Those who injure you, those who falsely accuse
you, those who lie about you, those who offend you, those who criticize you, who bring injustice
against you, God uses to perfect you. So the injuries and offenses that come against
you are the trials that perfect you. Now when all said and done, the theology of
forgiveness is summed up on one person. Turn to 1 Peter 2; 1 Peter 2, and verse 19. Peter is talking about grace, sometimes translated
"favor," and about a person bearing up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. This assumes that an offense has come against
you, you're suffering unjustly. That's a very popular thing: "They're hurting
me. They're abusing me. They're doing things against me, saying things
against me. It's all unfair; it's all unjust." Here's the right response: "What credit is
there" - verse 20 - "if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?" - no credit there - "But if when you do what
is right and you suffer, you patiently endure it, this finds grace with God." And that's essentially what we just said. Your suffering, the accusations, the abuses
are the trials that bring the grace that makes you strong in your weakness. But here's the model, verse 21: "For you have
been called for this purpose." What is the purpose? Your perfection. You have been called to patiently endure unjust
suffering. "You've been called for this purpose," - and
here's the one to whom you look - "since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example
for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit fount in His mouth;
and while being reviled, he did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no
threats, kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our
sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds you were healed." Christ accomplished most when He was suffering
unjustly, right? That sums it up. And in the suffering, He said, "Father, forgive
them; they don't know what they're doing." Forgiveness is everything. It's the only thing that's going to sustain
love in a marriage, family, friendships, and the church of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank You that we've been able
to gather again tonight. What a wonderful day we have had. Our hearts are rejoicing in all that You have
brought to us through Your precious Word today and the fellowships with the saints. We thank You for the truth. We know the truth is not just beyond us, it
is in us; it is alive, and it is given life by the Holy Spirit, so that what we hear and
believe becomes the very force by which we live our lives. May we be known as people marked by forgiveness
for all the reasons that we've looked at, culminating in the fact that we are following
our Savior, who set an example for us when He was most unjustly treated. By that, He accomplished the greatest work
of His life. May we see as well in our suffering Your strength
made perfect. This is our prayer, in the name of Christ. Amen. Amen.
