[Frank Dunkle] It's the start of the Days
of Unleavened Bread, which is just fabulous. I thought it was interesting, it
is a double Sabbath. It's also the last day of the week and the last day of the
month. So, a lot of things seem to be converging. But, of course, the real reason
we're here is the meaning of the day. You know, I think since I was about 9 or 10 years
old, I've been hearing about the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread is putting sin out of
our lives. It's a vital part of being a Christian. We must put sin out of our lives. And it's a
lifelong process. It's never easy. If you remember in Hebrews 12:1, I won't turn there, but Paul
refers to “the sin which so easily ensnares us.” Sin is just there. It's like I don't know walking
through a basement or an attic and trying to avoid cobwebs, but they get stuck to you. In Christ's
message to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, again, I won't read it, but the promise
comes up again and again, "To he that overcomes…" Overcomes what? And I should say, "He who
overcomes," it lists various rewards within the Kingdom of God. But what do we overcome? We
could discuss a number of other possibilities but, of course, one of them is sin. We
have to overcome our desire to sin, sinful practices. All of us have to do it. We know from Romans 3:23 that everyone “has sinned
and come short of God's glory.” And the result comes up three chapters later. Paul mentions in
Romans 6:23 that “the result of sin is death.” That's a pretty good reason to
want to put sin out of your life. I don't want to have that end result.
And then when we think about it, overcoming sin, it's so important that God put
a week-long festival in His holy day calendar, one that has not only one, but
two different high holy days. And then there's that symbolism,
putting leaven out of our houses. And, of course, back in the Old Testament, he
said, "Put the leaven out of your dwellings." Nowadays, we also put it out of our cars, out
of our offices, you know, things like that. And it's amazing as you're doing that the different
analogies that come up. And I won't list them all, but I'll bet every man here that's ever given a
sermon, entered a sermon, as your de-leavening, you start thinking of ideas, you know, where you
put the leaven out and then suddenly, some of it comes back in or you find out how it hides in
ridiculous places. You know you thought you had it out and you didn't or it turns out that it's
in disguise. It goes on and on and on. All of this to picture putting sin out of our lives. We've
probably thought about it quite a bit over the last week or if you're like me, two or three
weeks of gradually getting the leaven out. But I wonder if there's one particular aspect
of putting sin out of our lives that we might not have thought of quite as much. And if you
have, it could still bear more thinking about. But before I move on to that and I keep coming
at an angle, and I want to turn around and come at something from a different angle, I want
to remind us that despite our best efforts to not sin anymore, to overcome sin, we still need the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. All of us have sinned. All of us have earned that death penalty.
And so, Christ's blood had to be shed for us. I'll read just a couple of scriptures
on that beginning with Matthew 26:28. We read this, of course, often during the Passover
and leading up to it when Jesus Christ said, "This is My blood of the New Covenant, which
is shed for many for the remission of sins." That's what it took for the remission of sins. If you will also now join me in Hebrews
9, we'll begin in verse 22. Hebrews 9:22, the author who most of us believe is the apostle
Paul, is relating Christ's sacrifice and the New Covenant to the Old Covenant and the old
ritual system but he makes the point here in Hebrews 9:22 that, "According to the law
almost all things are purified with blood, without shedding of blood there is
no remission." And we just read that Christ said His blood was for the remission
of sin. Moving to verse 28 of this chapter, Hebrews 9:28, it says, "So Christ was
offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly await Him He'll appear
a second time apart from sin, for salvation." I wanted to emphasize slightly, but you might have
noticed that scripture in Matthew 26 and then here in Hebrews 9:28 mentions that Christ's sacrifice
was for many people. You know, of course, we can sometimes lose sight of how much Christ's
sacrifice was for other people besides ourselves. And, of course, I think we know that but
when we're busy examining ourselves before the Passover when we're busy looking at
how we need to put sin out of our lives, you know, we might forget that "Oh, everyone
else is doing this." And that's where I want to talk a little bit today about how one type of
sin that we have to put out of our lives is other people's sins, other people's. Now, how
do you put other people's sin out of your life? You might even ask, "Well, how is it ever
even in my life or your life?" Well, again, I'll come back to that. But let's first perhaps
lead into it by reviewing how the Bible shows that Christ's sacrifice indeed was for those
sins. Christ's sacrifice was for all. Of course, we understand the need for Christ's
sacrifice and that it's necessary to pay for our sins. And we examine ourselves, especially
as we're preparing for baptism and then, again, every year leading into the Passover
season. It should be fresh in our minds now. I realize that Jesus Christ had to
die for my sins, me, Frank Dunkle. His was a great enough sacrifice
to pay for the sins of all mankind. But it didn't take all men to cause Him to
need to be sacrificed. My sin alone was enough. So was yours. And it's moving to think that
although Scripture doesn't show us or it doesn't say this, specifically, I think because God
intends to bring many children into His family, I have heard other ministers speculate the idea that
even if there was just one of us, Christ probably would have been willing to make that sacrifice.
That's pretty moving, you know when we take that wine and bread on the Passover ceremony to think
that, "Okay, Christ suffered all that and would do it for me." But it's also important to remember
His sacrifice was sufficient for all people. John 1:29, I'll just mention that when John the
Baptist saw Jesus Christ, he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!”
All the world. I will turn to Romans 14:15. As a reminder, in Romans 14:15, in the midst of a
discussion of how we should strive not to offend each other, and Paul was dealing with the
idea of whether or not we should eat, or not we because I don't think the issue comes up
for us much of eating meat sacrificed to idols, but they did. And there was an issue of whether,
you know, they should worry about staying away from it or realizing, you know, idols nothing, it
doesn't matter. But here in verse 15 of Romans 14, he says, "I know and I'm convinced…" Oh,
wait, I want verse 15. "Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you're no longer
walking in love. Don't destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died… the one for whom
Christ died.” I think it's good to consider that. It's good for me to consider that. Anytime
I might be tempted to look down my nose at someone and think, "You know, yeah." And as a matter of
fact, it's crossed my mind, tomorrow morning. If we see our neighbors out chasing colored eggs
on their lawn and they go, "What do they know?" Okay. Those are people for whom Christ died.
You know, I tend to forget that. So I'm not pointing fingers at you. I'm pointing at me. I
need to remember that. As Mr. Phelp's example, the person that drifts over in your lane,
that I'm glad he's sincere enough to only grumble a little. I've caught myself grumbling
a little more. But Christ died for that person. When Christ was dying from my sins, He was also
dying for your sins, not to mention anyone, who might have ever sinned against me or against
you. He even died as a sacrifice for those who betrayed Him as we can remind ourselves in
Luke 23, Luke 23, beginning in verse 33. Again, I'm reading some very familiar Scriptures
but trying to point out something that we don't focus on always as much as we might. Luke 23 at
the beginning of verse 33 it says, "When they come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified
Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, 'Father,
forgive them. They don't know what they do.'" And this is while they were dividing
His garments and casting lots. What an example for us to follow. What an
incredibly high goal to try to achieve, you know, to try to learn to forgive people, even
while they're hurting us. Do we think of that? Jesus Christ did while He was in excruciating
pain and knowing He wasn't going to be delivered. It was going to lead to death, He
still had the thought to forgive. Another example of that, that we
read recently is in John 13. And maybe I should ask you to forgive me for
having to turn to so many scriptures. Beginning at the start of the chapter in John 13, the well-known account of Jesus Christ setting
as an example of washing His disciples' feet. "Before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew
His hour had come and that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His
own He loved them to the end. Supper ended, and the devil having already put it into the heart
of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him." And we know from the other Gospel account, well,
from all of them that Judas had made up his mind and had already accepted money. He had in his
mind betrayed Christ at that point already. In verse 3, it says, "Jesus, knowing that the
Father had given all things into His hands, that He'd come from God and was going to God,
rose from supper, laid aside His garments and took a towel, girded Himself. After that,
He poured water into a basin and He began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them
with the towel with which He was girded." Now, we remind ourselves of the interchange
that he had with the apostle Peter because it's an outspoken example,
"Peter, you're not going to wash my feet." And then when he realized he had to to be part
of Christ's family, then he said, "Yeah, I will." And what's interesting is, this is before Judas
had left. And we see down in verse 21, "Jesus said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and
testified saying, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’ The disciples looked
on one another. They were perplexed. There was one leaning on Jesus' bosom, the disciple whom
Jesus loved.” Who we know was the apostle John. “So Simon motioned to him, 'Hey, ask Him who it
is.' Leaning back on Jesus's breast, 'Well, Lord, who is it?' 'It's he to whom I'll give a piece of
bread after I've dipped it.' And He handed it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. After the piece
of bread, Satan entered him. Jesus said, 'What you do, do quickly.' And, of course, he went out."
And I'm not the first one to make this point by far but it's amazing to me to stop and think
that Jesus knew that Judas was betraying Him. Yet He still got down on His knees in front of
him and washed his feet. It doesn't say that as He was going around, He said, "Oh, I'm not doing
your feet." No indication that He passed by him. Now, it seems that this interchange he had and
Judas going out… I don't know why I keep saying, Simon. But after Judas left, it might have been
at that point that Jesus introduced the symbols of the new Passover, the broken bread and the
wine. But it's very clear He washed Judas' feet. Now, again, it's not a new point I'm making.
It's interesting flipping back to Matthew 27, we have some speculation about what may or may
not have happened with Judas. In Matthew 27:3, it says, "Judas, His betrayer, seeing that he had
been condemned was remorseful and brought back the 30 pieces of silver." Of course, the priest
didn't want to take it back. I read that from the New King James. The Old King James says when he
saw, you know, that he was taken that he repented himself. You always wonder, how much did Judas
repent? And we don't have any way of knowing. We do know that all of this happened before the Holy
Spirit was poured out that following Pentecost. So, I don't know that we have reason to think
that Judas might be condemned to the second death at this point. I don't want to go so far as
to guess about his ultimate fate. You know, I was mostly focusing on the fact that Christ humbled
Himself and washed the feet of His betrayer. And if Judas really was or if he will be repentant,
then Christ's sacrifice will be for him too, I think. Has anyone ever done anything as
bad to you as Judas did to Jesus Christ? No one has to me. You know, I've never
been hurt anywhere near that bad. We know we need to become like Jesus. I'll
mention Philippians 2:5, where it says, "Let this mind be in you, which was in Jesus Christ."
So we want to have His mind, His way of thinking. Another common memory scripture is Matthew 5:48 where Jesus said that we need to become
perfect, just as the Father is perfect. So it becomes obvious that we need to be forgiving
of others in the way that God forgives us. How much is depending on that? Let's go to
Luke 6, Luke 6 beginning in verse 36. I'll say this didn't seem like as many scriptures
when I was sitting at my desk writing notes. Luke 6:36, here's a very clear reminder of as we're becoming
like God, this is one of the aspects. "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven." That's a powerful statement. "Forgive and
you'll be forgiven." We want to be forgiven of our sins. That's why we repent. That's why
we counsel for baptism and we want to go into that watery grave and come back out, you know,
knowing that it's for the remission of our sins. And we take the Passover every
year to remind ourselves of that. And, of course, it's not that we're forgiven
again at Passover. We're forgiven when we repent. But that ceremony is a clear, strong
reminder we're recommitting to that. But this seems to indicate there's
something more than just our own repentance. You know, it says, "We need
to forgive to be forgiven." In the model prayer, Christ makes it
even more clear. We'll turn to Matthew 6, Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9. Well, actually,
I won't read all of it but it's verses 9 through 13. While you're turning there, as I said,
it's commonly called the Lord's Prayer. I like calling it the model prayer a bit better. And
it includes the statement, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," which is about similar
to saying, “forgive and you shall be forgiven.” But I find it interesting. As many things as are
packed into that short passage of verses where Christ is teaching the disciples how to pray, He
follows up on that one about "Forgive us our debts as we forgive others." Starting in verse 14,
after the model, prayer has been finished, after the word, Amen to conclude verse 13, He
immediately adds this to make it crystal clear. "For if you forgive men that
you’re…" Let me say that again. "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses." That's a strong statement. And it wasn't
made by one of the apostles who we could say, "Maybe misunderstood Jesus Christ or, you know,
maybe it's lost in translation." This is the Son of God who was going to pay for our sins,
saying, "Look, if you don't forgive others, you're not going to have your sins forgiven." And
just in case the point might have slipped past, He makes a parable or He gave a parable
a few chapters later in Matthew 18, which let's turn there if you will.
In Matthew 18 beginning in verse 23… And by the way, it occurs to me I
feel like I'm coming down real heavy, but I don't want to imply that
this is an impossible thing to do or that we're all guilty of never doing it. I
just want to emphasize that it's an important part of putting sin out of our lives and that
we need to realize that this can be in there. Matthew 18 beginning in verse 23, He said,
"Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with
his servants. When he began to settle accounts, one was brought to him who
owed him ten thousand talents." Now, you know, we struggle with
converting these units of measure, but I've read that 10,000 talents might have been
in the millions of dollars of today's money. "Oh, you owe me millions of dollars. Hand it
over." And, of course, he didn't have it. In verse 25, it says, "As he was not able to pay,
his master commanded him to be sold, and with his wife and his children, and all that he had, that
payment be made." So, the fellow owed millions of dollars, perhaps had no way of repaying. That
might sound familiar because we don't owe millions of dollars, at least I know I don't, but remember
that whole thing about all have sinned and come short of God's glory, and the payment for that is
death. We all owe God our lives. And we can never repay that debt and yet live. But that's the
thing. We don't have to. Let's see. Go down to verse 26. "The servant therefore fell down before
him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I'll pay you all,'" knowing probably
that he couldn't, but he said he'd try. "And the master of that servant was
moved with compassion, released him, forgave him the debt." He didn't say, "I'll set up
a payment plan." He forgave it entirely, just as God forgives our debt of our lives. Now, but
here's the problem. It doesn't end there. In verse 28, it says, "But that servant went
out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii; and he laid hands
on him and took him by the throat." You know, he's upset about this 100 denarii. We also
struggle with how much that is. But there are some other parables like the parable of the
vineyard, where a day's wage was a denarii for, basically, say, an untrained casual laborer. I
don't know how much minimum wage pays but 100 days would be about a third of the year. You know,
so maybe this is in the thousands of dollars. It's not nothing, but it's something that could
be attained. If I owed thousand of dollars, I could buckle down and start managing my
money and all that. I could get it paid. And this fella is saying he'll do that. “His
fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I'll pay you
all.’ He would not. He went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt.” Of course,
yeah, you're going to make a lot of money in prison to pay back your debt. "So when the fellow
servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and they came and told their master
all that had been done. Then his master, after he called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your
fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'" And the clear analogy here is to us, God has
forgiven all of our debt and He's telling us, "Shouldn't we have pity on
those who sin against us?" "His master was angry, and delivered him to the
torturers until he should pay all that was due." And to make it very clear in verse 35, Jesus
said, "So my heavenly Father will also do to you if each of you, from his heart, does
not forgive his brother his trespasses." So you don't just say, "Oh, it's okay," but
kind of keep it inside. He's saying, "Forgive from the heart." This is serious. You want to
have your sins forgiven? And when I say that, I'm looking in the mirror saying, "Frank,
do you want to have your sins forgiven? Well, repentance is a part of it, but you
should better be willing to forgive others." What's interesting is Jesus doesn't explain
why there is this requirement because you can say, "Well, wait a minute. I'm
changing my ways. I'm repentant." And that's where I think part of this… And here
I'll speculate a little. I think God is not only concerned about what we do. He's very concerned
about what we are, what kind of being. What's our temperament, our character? And we read earlier…
Well, I didn't read, I mentioned that we're to become perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect.
We have to have the mind of Christ within us. We've often in the Church for a long time said
that God wants us to develop perfect, righteous character to be like Him. When we forgive others,
we're doing a godly thing. We're doing what God does for us. We're practicing a behavior that
is God-like. I'd like to go to Philippians 2 beginning in verse 5, Philippians 2:5.
We'll review the scripture I alluded to. Philippians 2:5 says, "Let this mind be
in you which was also in Jesus Christ," but he continues, “who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And
being found in appearance of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even the death of the cross." Jesus was God Himself before He became a human.
Yet, He never considered, "Oh, I'm too good. I can't lower myself to that." He became human and
subject to death. And it was only a couple of weeks ago, I think Mr. McNeely here gave a sermon
focusing on even the death of the cross, reminding us that it was probably one of the worst ways to
die we can imagine, hideously painful, torturous. And in the meantime, He was mocked and
reviled. He was utterly humiliated in public. And He did that so we could be forgiven of sins. And that's something I need to remember next
time I might hesitate to forgive someone, especially if it's because of how he offended.
You know, I've heard people say, "You know, oh, he did that in public. He humiliated me. I
could forgive what he did, but not that." But Jesus forgave that. He suffered that
humiliation, that isolation, all the effects of sin so that we could have all the effects of
sin removed from us. You know, we're growing into sons of God and we want to become like God.
We have to become forgiving the way God is. So putting sin out of our lives is one thing. And
if it includes putting other people's sin out, still might ask, "Well, but how do I do that? I
can't stop other people from sinning. You know, I'm having enough trouble trying
to stop myself from sinning." Well, but we can go a long ways towards trying
to eliminate the effects of their sin on us. And we can eliminate the worst of those effects if we
forgive others. And that's what we have to strive to do. We need to remember how insidious
sin is. That's why leavening pictures sin. You know, leavening… And I remember this
crossing my mind where we say, "Well, what about…? You know, my wife has a recipe for these
popovers she makes where she whips up the eggs and puts them in this real hot oven and they swell up.
They've got this huge air bubble in the middle. And there's part of me says, "Well,
isn't that rising up? That's puffed up." But it's not the same because leavening
infiltrates chemically. It becomes one with the entire substance and changes it as sin does in
our lives. And that's why the symbol of leavening is different. That's why Paul said in a couple of
places, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." It's not just an air bubble. It changes
chemically the substance of what it's in. And sin does that. And it leaks
over to affect other people's lives. You know, we see that in some ways,
like, when there is some type of abuse or addiction in a family, it tends to
affect generation after generation. And, you know, you have somebody who's an
abuser in some sense. And then their children, even though they hate it and suffer from it,
sometimes they go on to become like that, and then their children, until hopefully, someone,
eventually, you know, we use the phrase "break the chain," it's going to stop here. It's not going to
go any further. A lot of times for that to happen, it requires looking back and saying, "I'm
going to forgive the one who did this to me," even though they're not there and can't be
repentant. That's another issue we'll look at. In 2 Samuel 24, you can start turning there,
I'm going to summarize most of the story but there is an example of a one-person
sin hurting a lot of people. It's at the very end of 2
Samuel. And it's the case where David decided to do a census. He wanted
to number the children of Israel. How many soldiers do I have? You know, sometimes
we wonder why the punishment was so severe because the wording isn't as clear as we'd like.
But there's a strong indication that David was starting to rely on his military might and growing
distant from God. So instead of saying, "God, how are You going to help us to be secure or how will
You help us win our battles," he told his Chief General, "Joab, go out and number how many men
we've got." And even Joab knew better. When Joab said, "Lord, you know, may God make them 10 times
as many more but why are you doing this thing?" “No, go ahead." So David's, you know, will
prevailed but later he saw he did wrong. As a matter of fact, in verse 10 of that chapter is when he realized it. 2 Samuel 24:10, "David's
heart condemned him after he'd numbered the people. David said to the Lord, 'I've sinned
greatly in what I've done. Now I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, I've
done foolishly.'" But there was going to be a price to pay. "When David arose in the morning,
the word of the Eternal came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 'Go tell David, “Thus
says the Lord: 'I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it
to you.’”'" And by you, he means to your nation. "And so Gad came to David and said, 'Shall seven
years of famine come to your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while
they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what
answer I should take back to him who sent me.’” David answered wisely. He said, “I'm in great
distress. Please don't let us fall in the hands of men. Let us fall into the hands of the Eternal,
because He's merciful.” And a plague did come. Later on, David made a point in verse 17. I
don't want to go through all the story. But, "David spoke to the Lord when he saw the
angel striking the people, and he says, ‘Surely I've sinned, I have done wickedly; but
these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand be against me and against my father's house.’"
Of course, God did show mercy. He stopped short and it goes on to a different story of when the
angels stopped and it was their scene. And I love the story of Aaron and the Jebusite, who's
there looking at it, and he keeps on working while the sons run and hide. But David goes out
and God instructs him to make a special offering. But we could ask, "Why did God allow other
people to suffer because of David's sin?" And it's not clearly spelled out. I think some
different lessons might be in here. One is, of course, people in responsibility, you know, can
bring good to a great many people. They can also bring harm to a great many people. That's just the
way leadership works. And it's also showing that sometimes people suffer because of a wrong
another person does, and the other person might not be like David and realize he did that
wrong, and one is on him. At least David did know, you know. Sometimes we might not know how
much our sins are hurting other people. You know, sometimes it is clear. Another
story, of course, of David's life was his sin with Bathsheba, which I can only think
is preserved so well in the Bible because of the valuable lessons that are in it for
us. But when David sinned with Bathsheba, it's not hard to see how it hurt Uriah. So there,
it's very clear. Other times, it's not as clear. And, of course, you know, we tend to be
more aware of when another person's sin affects us, you know than when
my sin affects someone else. Now, one of the things, you know, we're talking
about people hurting, even dying. And that's a very serious way for someone else's sin to affect
you. And as I said, if there's a chain of some type of abuse going down through generations. But
there's another very important one and one that I want to focus on the most is found in Hebrews
12. Hebrews 12, we'll see it in verses 14 and 15. And to be honest, I think this is one of the most powerful reasons for saying that we
need to forgive others that there is. Hebrews 12:14 says, "Pursue peace with all people, and
holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone
fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause
trouble, and by this many become defiled." And my personal feeling is that what's
here called a "root of bitterness," that's considerably more harmful than any
physical effects we might experience. That root of bitterness is like that insidious sin that gets
in and transforms your very nature and character. If it's not rooted out, it can destroy you in
the way physical things can't. Just imagine, I can lose property and it can be replaced. I
can be injured, and I can heal. I can be treated. I could be killed. I'm going to be resurrected. But if I let bitterness over what someone did
to me fester in my mind, that can destroy godly character. That could make me alienated from
God. It could lead eventually to the lake of fire in the second death. I think a root of
bitterness is that serious, that harmful. And I think that's why, you know, Jesus
said, "If you don't forgive others, your Father won't forgive you." And that's, you
know, where we tie a lot of this together. We strive to put sin out of our lives by repenting
and not sinning anymore. But when we suffer the effects of other people sinning, we might
not be able to stop them from that sin. But we can remove the most dangerous effect of
that sin, bitterness, by the act of forgiving, you know, as we say letting go. Forgiving
someone else is a behavior that's God-like. But let's face it, it's also an
important act of self-preservation. And sometimes seeing it that way is what it takes.
If that's what it takes, that's okay. We can make our lives better, our thoughts clearer,
our character more righteous by forgiving. Let's turn back to Luke 17 and
read a comment on that, Luke 17 beginning in verse 3. Luke 17,
we'll read verses 3 through 5. It says, "Take heed to yourselves, and if your
brother sins against you, rebuke him." It's okay to say, "Hey, you're sinning against me. Cut that
out." "And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in one day and seven
times in a day returns to you saying, "I repent," you shall forgive him." Now, it's easy to read
that but, you know, I think if someone messes me over seven times in one day, there's
a point where you say "Enough is enough." But no, that's not it. Jesus says, if they
come back, forgive them. And you know what the disciples said? "Lord, increase our faith."
They're saying, "That sounds impossible." They were asking for help because they knew this
type of forgiveness is not easy. Fortunately, and here's something I don't even think I put it
together until I was working on the sermon, that we could see that the ability to forgive
others isn't something that comes only from ourselves. It's a spiritual gift that God
can and does give, and we can ask Him for it. Spiritual gifts are described in Romans 12.
I'd like to read that, Romans 12 beginning in verse 6. You know, there are a variety of
spiritual gifts that come and that God gives us. I mean, Paul is making that point here and
God decides to give some people some gifts and other people other gifts. Here in Romans
12:6, He says, "Having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given us, let
us use them; if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry." We
can say that could be translated as serving. “Let's use it in our ministering; he who teaches,
in teaching; he who exhorts in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who
leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness." He who shows mercy. And
He's talking about gifts from God. The ability to show mercy is something that God can give us
through His Holy Spirit. It's not necessarily going to be innately in us. But there's nothing
wrong with asking God for gifts of the Spirit. And certainly, remember, I don't have the
scripture here when Christ said, "You know, if you know how to give good gifts to your children,
you know, if your son is hungry and ask for bread, well, now you'd give him matzo." But He said, "You
don't give him a stone. If he asked for an egg, you don't give him a serpent." And He said,
"How much more will the heavenly Father give you His Holy Spirit if you ask Him?" We
can ask for the Spirit and for these gifts, and especially the gift of showing
mercy. Down in verse 17 of this chapter, Romans 12:17, "Repay no one evil for evil.
Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as
depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but
rather give place to wrath; for it's written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord.
Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he's thirsty, give him drink; for in so
doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.'" Now, he's completing the quote but I
don't think the goal was meant to be, "I want to get fire on that guy. So, here's a
drink. Now, where's the fire?" But it's meant to serve and help and forgive. verse 21, "Do not
be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." I think that might be one of the most central
important points that's part of this message, "Be not overcome with evil. Overcome evil with
good." And it's worth noting there's nothing in any of these passages I've read at least
this here that talks about the other person repenting or apologizing, even though perhaps they
should. You know, it's easier to forgive someone when they do come and say, "I'm sorry. I was
wrong." It makes you feel good about doing that. But for us to be able to banish any
root of bitterness from our minds, we have to learn to forgive someone even
when he or she is not repentant. And that's tough. That's when you say, "Lord,
increase my faith." But again, the example of Jesus is there. They said He washed
Judas' feet. Judas seemed to be remorseful later. You know, He looked down from where He
was crucified at soldiers who I'm sure weren't repentant and said, "Lord, forgive
them. They don't know what they're doing." That's something we all need
to work on. And it's not easy. But one of the points I thought to add in
this and it comes up, I think, in this modern era of the churches, we want to consider that that
applies also to our ministry. You know, we make mistakes. We sometimes offend, sometimes even sin
against people and don't always know it or don't come to realize it and repent until later. You
know, I haven't been in the ministry that long, not nearly as long as I wasn't in it. You know,
and growing up in the Church, sometimes you hear stories of people talking about what that
pastor did. And often he's moved on years ago. You know, we used to transfer a lot more often
or we'd come in contact with someone and, you know, someone with a bit of authority, you know, ordained by God serving Him
could make a mistake and sin against you or me, you know, or it could be me who did it.
And you know, hopefully, we do come to repentance. That's what we need to do but we have to learn to
let go and forgive. And that's it. Sometimes it seems harder because we appropriately hold our
ministers up to a higher standard. You know we should, we do, but that doesn't absolve us of this
requirement to forgive so we can be forgiven. As I said, Christ set the example. If you'll join
me back in Luke 6. Luke 6 beginning at verse 27. "I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good
to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for them who spitefully use you."
Now, at no point is Jesus saying, "You're going to love doing this. This is going
to be fun." "To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away
your cloak, don't withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him
who takes away your goods don't ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do
to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that? Even sinners love those
who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Sinners
do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that?
Sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back." But here's the difference. He says, "Love your
enemies, do good, lend hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, you'll
be sons of the Most High. For He's kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful,
just as your Father also is merciful." I said it's a tall order. And nowhere does Jesus
ever say this is going to be easy or it's going to be fun. But when we do it, we're going a long ways
towards becoming perfect as the Father is perfect. When we can let go of whatever wrong someone
has done against us, it tends to bring us peace of mind. We can then focus more on growing
in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And, well, there's another step further in doing
this though and I think it's part of it, but I'll mention it because we can see that it's described
if we go to the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 18. We'll begin reading in verse 20, Ezekiel 18:20. And this gets even more to our thought process
and what we allow to go on in our minds. So I like to say this chapter is the strongest
statement of personal responsibility that we have in the Bible. It starts off saying, "The soul that
sins shall die. The son will not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the
son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon himself." But He doesn't stop there. He says, "But if a wicked man turns from
all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, does what
is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of
his transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the
righteousness which he's done, he shall live.” And that’s… actually that's harder to do. It says…
Let me see it again, "None of the transgressions he's committed will be remembered." So it's not
just forgiving, but it's not even remembering. And again, that's something that's really
hard for us to do. If we forgive someone, it's hard to put the memory
away, maybe impossible. But we need to try to not remember,
not bring it consciously to mind, you know, even in future dealings because
we know God does that for us. I'll just cite Jeremiah 31:34. In Jeremiah 31:34, where God is
speaking of forgiveness, he says, "I'll forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember
no more." The way I explained, that is to say, God doesn't develop it a case of amnesia. It's
not that He can't remember but He chooses not to. God has the ultimate power to control His
thoughts. So when we come before His throne, He's not thinking, "Oh, that guy.
You know, I remember He did this." Actually, one of my favorite examples of this is
Aaron, the high priest. And, you know, the story of Aaron. Of course, he's Moses' older brother.
Leading up to the Exodus, Aaron is the spokesman. They bring all these plagues on Egypt. They're
set free. They cross the Red Sea. Well, they don't cross. They walk right through the middle
and then they hear God speak the Ten Commandments thundering from the top of Mount Sinai. They make
a covenant with God. “All that You say, we'll do.” God says, "Okay, you know, and I got more." And
they say, "Well, Moses, we can't stand here and God talk to us. You go listen to Him, tell Him
what He said." God said, "That's fine. Moses, come on up the mountain." I'm sure he didn't say
it like that. But Moses goes up there and God's giving them all this instruction for 40 days and
what's going on at the bottom of the mountain? “We don't know what happened to Moses. Aaron,
make us gods we can worship,” and Aaron did. You know, he was led astray. We don't know exactly
his mindset but we know God was angry enough to have destroyed him. But he sends Moses down.
Moses cleans things up. It's very clear that Aaron is repentant. And God not only forgave and
didn't kill Aaron, He made Aaron high priest. And there's where I say, "Boy, talk about
not remembering someone's sins," because Aaron came in the holy place every day
and once a year into the Holy of Holies, sprinkling the blood that represented
Christ blood. And there's where I say, I don't think God looked at Aaron and say, "Oh,
here's golden calf boy again. Boy, you know, I'm letting you live but I'm not forgetting that."
No. I think God forgot. He put it out of his mind. Can we do that for someone who wronged
us? Can I? It's hard but we need to try. You know, what we need to do is
think of the person that is now, not the person from the past who did us wrong.
We're all constantly changing and growing. And this is something I try to stress with campers
at summer camp or with counselors at summer camp. Because, you know, they see campers come back who
were there a year or two earlier and some of them, you know, weren't the most fun to counsel but
they've grown and changed a lot over a year. And I say, "Don't think of the camper you knew
in the past. Give them a blank slate. They're coming… Give them a new start." And I say that
from the experience of having tried to learn that the hard way. It's not that I always did it
perfectly. But we need to do this, you know. And there's one thing I think that helps me think
about this is we know we all belong to God. We're His. So when someone sins
against me, they've sinned against God. Ultimately, that person has to repent to God
and God will have to be the one to forgive. If I can project into the future,
if that person never does repent, he's going to go in the lake of fire.
When God says, "Vengeance is mine," you know, He means it. It's serious. And
so I think, you know, well, keep in mind, though, it's very likely that that person will
repent, whether I ever know about it or not. So when I'm dealing with someone who's done me
wrong, I'm going to think of the person in the future. And at some point in the future,
this person will be repentant and forgiven or unrepentant and cease to exist. Either way,
it's out of my hands. It's in God's hands. So, I need to put it out of my mind, as I said,
even if the sinner is not repentant. Now, yeah, well, otherwise, who's the person that's most
hurt me? It’s me if I can't let go and forgive. And that's true for all of us. And again, I'm
not saying… I'm not preaching this because I'm so good at it but because I need to learn and we
all need to, you know, because if I don't forgive, I'll be holding on to a root of bitterness.
It'll interfere with my relationship with God. It could eventually lead me to that
lake of fire. There's nothing worth that. No one's sinned against me bad enough for me to go
that way. I need to put that sin out of my life, out of my memory, just like I'm striving to put
my own sins out, just like I strive to put the leaven out of my house. I found some this
morning. I didn't eat it first, thankfully. Obviously, I looked in the medicine cabinet and
there's a bottle of some dietary supplement and I was chatting away and said… "Yeast? What's yeast
doing in these things?" I went out and dumped them. I'm out. But anyways, I wasn't supposed
to confess my sins in front of everybody. But as I say, we're striving to put these things
out and we're still learning and growing. If you will, let's turn to
Psalm 107, one last scripture. Psalm 107, we'll read the first couple of verses. Psalms 107, "Oh, give thanks to the Eternal,
for He is good! His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord," that's us, "say so,
whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy." As I said, we are the ones who God has redeemed.
He's bought us with the blood of Jesus Christ. His mercy endures forever. He redeemed us so that
we can be His children, be brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, who's the one that paid the penalty
for my sin, for your sin, for everybody else's, that God forgives. To attain our destiny, our
incredible human potential, we have to put sin out of our lives. We have to stop our own sin,
but also the effects of other people's sin. We have to forgive. As Jesus Christ
said, "Forgive and you will be forgiven."
