What About Luke 17:3?

Introduction

Jesus said, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. You can find these words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 18 at verse 22. This was an answer to Peter’s question that you can find in verse 21. When Peter came to Jesus and he said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times. Well, first of all, we need to understand some things culturally. You see, in the Jewish culture, one was expected to forgive his brother at least three times. And so you see what Peter did. He said that if my brother sins against me, if Andrew sins against me, I would forgive him three times. And then he took and he doubled that.

And then he added one for good measure. Down south, we call that land yap. He threw that in. But Jesus’ answer has nothing to do with numbers. Peter was the one who brought up numbers. You see, forgiveness has nothing to do with keeping count or keeping score. And to prove that, Jesus tells this story.

And the reason why is because it has the potential to change lives.

If we will listen to Jesus and if we will do what he says.

And we’re going to continue here in just a short minute. I would like to pause and I want to acknowledge my gratitude to Almighty God because He is God. The Bible tells me in the book of 1 Thessalonians in chapter 5 at verse 18. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And so I thank God for his love, his mercy, and for his grace. I thank God for his providential care for all of us, that is his general providence. Matthew chapter 5, verse 45. But I’m especially grateful for God’s special providence for his children. Ephesians in chapter 1 and verse 3. 2 Peter in chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. I’m grateful for all of God’s great and exceeding precious promises because he is the faithful God.

And I’m grateful that God has put us in this special fellowship. And I’m grateful to be with you, my brethren, here. And I’m grateful for my brethren who’ve come from other places. And those who are visiting with us, I thank you for your presence and your interest in spiritual things. I would like to continue my gratitude to some very special people who have opened their heart extended hospitality. You, Brother Jim, Duke, and your lovely bride Penny. I thank you for sharing. I thank you especially for the good time that we had to spend together. I thank you, my dear brother Lindy and Group four. I thank you for your good hearts, your kind hospitality. I remember when we were here in September of 2009. You had us in your home.

You have a good heart. And I thank you so very much. And this evening, I thank you, Brother Ralph, and I thank you, Vicky. I thank you for your good hearts and your kind hospitality. I mentioned earlier there are some good cooks in the kingdom, and I got to tell you what, some of them are right here at Bumby. And I thank you, my brethren. I do want you to know that we continue in prayer for Joshua and his family. And we also continue in prayer for Langley and her family for healing and recovery from what we understand, the effectiveness of the surgeries that they’ve had. I would also like to extend our sympathies on behalf of myself and Bessie to the Tore family and the passion of a loved one.

It’s good to see you, Brother James, and I thank you for approaching the throne of God for us. And I express our sympathies to you and the passion of your beloved bride. And yet I’m glad to see you, and I’m glad you are together as we worship our God. Fellow gospel preachers, good to see you, Brother Mark, other saints from other places. We’re glad that you’re here. I appreciate the kind comments that you have mentioned. You’ve encouraged me by those. And I hope that I can continue to encourage you as we study in these series of lessons about questions about God and faith. Our text is the book of Matthew in chapter 18. If you haven’t turned there already, remember now, Peter asked the question. Jesus answered the question, and then he tells the story.

1. The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like a Certain King

And that’s the reason why. Verse 23 begins with the word therefore. And when you see the word therefore, you look up above to see what it is therefore. And so, because of Peter’s question and Jesus’ answer, he tells this story that the kingdom of heaven is live. A certain king who wanted to sell accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to sell accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. Now I am told that one talent was worth 15 years of wages. And how much did he owe? He owed 10,000 talents. Well, I got to tell you what.

And he couldn’t pay that. Even what he would attempt to pay would be a drop in the bucket. Look at the very next verse. The Bible says, but he wasn’t able to pay.

But notice verse 26. This is a plea for mercy. You know, oftentimes you see grace and mercy connected together in the Bible. And that is because they are. One has to do with forgiveness of sin. The other one has to do with relief of consequences. Notice this plea of mercy. The servant, therefore, fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And then the master of that servant was moved with compassion. Now I know that the punctuation marks were not in the original manuscripts. Like I’ve already said, the chapter and verse divisions were not in the original manuscript. But you’re reading with me. And there is a comma there. And I want to pause. Because we’re looking at a principle we find throughout the Bible.

The Bible says he was moved with compassion. If you want to know what described Jesus, it’s this word. Because you see it over and over. Jesus had compassion. Compassion is more than sympathy. You know, being concerned about somebody else. It’s more than empathy, putting yourself in somebody else’s place. The apostle Paul described it as having bowels of mercy, being moved on the inside about the unfortunate situation of somebody else. And get this doing something about it. I’m going to tell you what, folks, we serve a compassionate God. And I’m going to tell you what this world needs. This world needs people of compassion. People who will not only put themselves in somebody else’s place, but be moved to do something about it. The Bible says that this plea of mercy was answered with compassion.

He released him and he forgave him that debt. You see the grace.

You see the favor. And it wasn’t deserved. But the Bible says that servant went out and he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred deniers. And he laid hands on him and he took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe. I am told that one denier was worth one day’s wage. And how much did he owe? He owed 100 denar. Now that’s, I’m told, equivalent to one third of a year’s ways. Now that’s still a lot, but I got to tell you what, that’s at least doable. He could pay that back. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and he begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. If those words sound familiar, go back up to verse 26, and you will see that they are almost identical.

And he would not, and there is a comma there, and I want to pause because I’m going to tell you what, folks. This is the reason why people won’t forgive because they don’t want to. They want to hold on to their anger. They want to hold on to their hurt. They want to hold on to what somebody did to me. I want to tell you something else. This is also the reason why people won’t obey God. Because they don’t want to. They want to do what they want to do rather than what God wants them to do. And I’m going to tell you what, that’s what’s wrong with this world today. And as Brother James prayed, sometimes we forget even why we were created. Revelation 4 11 says, we were created for God’s glory.

And when we forget that, we are fools because we are moving further and further away from God. But he would not, the Bible says. But he went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. And that’s the very opposite of verse 27. And so when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved. And they came and told the master all that had been done. And then his master, after he had called him, he 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 his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

2. Forgive Your Brother From Your Heart

And so my heavenly Father also will do to each of you if you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. This story is not difficult to figure out. Well, first of all, the king is God, the person who owed you the unpayable debt is you. And the person who owes the payable debt is the person that has sinned against you. And the principle is easy. You know what God expects of us? God expects us to forgive each other. How could you miss that? How could we miss that? I’ll tell you how we can miss it. Because we missed the point of this parable. It’s in the very last verse. Look at it again. He says, so my heavenly Father also will do to each of you if you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

Well, what does it mean to forgive your brother from your heart? I’ll tell you what it means. It means to submit to God. That’s what it means. Because you and I know that sometimes forgiveness is counterfeit. What I’m saying is it’s not real. You know, we may privately, we may say, you know what, it’s okay. I forgive you. But you know what? We keep an eye open. And so we rejoice at the misfortunes of somebody who’s done something to us. Or we may wish something happened to them like they did to us. But we need to be careful. Because the wise man said a long time ago in the book of Proverbs 17 5, he says, God is not pleased when we take pleasure in someone else’s misfortune.

In Proverbs 24 at verse 17, beginning, do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord sees it and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. Vengeance is mine. We ought to remember that. That’s God’s business. We need to remember to let God do what God does, and we need to do what God tells us to do. It could be insincere. I’m talking about forgiveness. Sometimes that happens in marriage. And listen very carefully to me, folks. Sometimes there’s some terrible things that people can do in a marriage relationship. Incest. Adultery. Making the decision to continue in that relationship is not the same thing as forgiveness. We need to understand that. That’s two different things.

And both of them are difficult. One of them is necessary. One of them is essential. Regardless of what has been done to me, regardless of what has been done to you, we have a responsibility, we have an obligation to forgive from the heart. We might say, I forgive you, and you know what we do? We avoid them. We don’t have anything to do with them. In our common vernacular, forget you. And that’s not forgiving from the heart. So here is the point, folks. Jesus is simply telling us that we have an obligation to forgive each other. If you were asked to list ten of the most desirable and admirable human traits, likely hardened sinners would list a willingness to forgive near the top.

And certainly in the church, it is one of three kindred traits that are far too seldom seen. One of them is giving, another is thanksgiving, and of course, forgiving. And usually when you find one, the others are not far removed. But yet this, not only do we have an obligation to forgive, listen very carefully. We are forgiven so that we can forgive. Before we turn to the Sermon on the Mount, I want you to look at the instructions that are found just above what we’re reading. That begins in chapter 18, verses 15 through 20. Many of us are familiar with that. We know exactly what it says. If a brother sins against me, the Bible says, I don’t go and tell somebody else what they did to me.

I go directly to my brother, and I talk to my brother or my sister, and hopefully we can clear up any misunderstandings and get this. This is the aim of all of that. You have gained your brother. Whenever there’s conflict resolution, what God wants, what we ought to want is to gain our brother. Wipe away whatever it was that separated us so we can gain our brother. But I’m going to tell you what, folks, we don’t do that. I want to show you something else. Let’s go on to the sermon on the mouth. In the book of Matthew, in chapter 5, before we get to chapter 6, I want you to look at Matthew chapter 5, verse 21. Because we’re talking about the heart. And because sin originates in the hearts, our thoughts precede our actions.

We have to be careful about what’s in our hearts. Listen, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. I say to you that whoever is angry with this brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother Rocca shall be in danger of the consul. But whoever says, You fool shall be in danger of hellfire. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and they’ll remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. It makes me wonder how many people pass through the doors of a church building, and their hearts are not right to worship God.

They’re at odds with their wife, or they’re at odds with their husband. They’re at odds with their parents. They’re at odds with their children. They’re at odds with their brother. They’re at odds with somebody who’s done something wrong, or even they have done something wrong, and they know they’ve done something wrong, and they haven’t reconciled that.

And sometimes we are deceived and we can’t see it. It reminds me of what the prophet said. Jeremiah 17, verse 9. He said, The heart is deceitful and desperate, and it is wicked. And who can know it? You know what he’s saying? Sometimes there’s sin in our lives we can’t see. But sometimes there’s stuff in there we don’t want to see. But the next verse goes on to say, I, the Lord, verse 10, I the Lord, I search the heart, I try the reins to give to every man according to his doings. Let me tell you what, folks, if you really want to do God’s will, and you have a problem with relationship, let me tell you what. God will help you. If you seek him earnestly and what his will is for you in your life, God can use you in such difficult circumstances.

3. Forgive Us Our Debts as We Forgive Our Debtors

I want us to look at Matthew chapter 6 now, where Jesus is instructing his disciples how to pray. Now the Lord’s prayer is recorded in the book of John in chapter 17. This is not the Lord’s prayer, as a lot of people sometimes refer to it as.

And the reason why we’re looking here is because there are two principal words in the Greek New Testament that are translated forgive. That is, in the American Standard Version. The first literally means to send away, or get this, to cancel a debt. Look at chapter 6 and look, if you will, at verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And so Jesus is teaching us how to pray. And this is what he says that we have a responsibility. If I expect God to forgive me, I must be willing to forgive others.

Some of the apocalyptic language, some of the things that the apostle Paul taught. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what Peter said in his second epistle towards the end, remember? Some difficult things in God’s word. Sometimes people take and they twist, they wrestle the scriptures to their own destruction. But I got to tell you what, folks, this is not one of them. This is not one of them. And I want to put a disclaimer on that. Look, if you will. Look at verse 14. 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 trespassers. I think the difficulty in resolving conflicts is simply the application of what God says.

And then this word is used figuratively to cancel the guilt and the punishment that is due to sin. And Jesus used this in addressing the man in Capernaum who was crippled with palsy. Remember in the book of Matthew in chapter 9, verse 2, where Jesus says, Son, be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. And then second, there’s a word meaning literally the bestower of gift or favor. It is used in reference to God’s forgiveness of us. Colossians chapter 2 at verse 13. And you being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you I say, did He make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. And it is also used to refer to the forgiveness that we should have for each other.

In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32, where there the Bible says, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

We can summarize these definitions by saying that forgiveness means that we cease trying to punish our offender because we’ve canceled his death or his guilt towards us. In other words, this is a gift that we give to them. You see, forgiveness sets us free when others hurt us. Now, if God makes a big deal about our forgiving others, then I think it ought to be a big deal of us.

We cannot understand love except God explained it to us. I mean, that’s a difficult concept for many people in the world. You know, when Peter wrote, I’m sorry, when Paul wrote to Timothy in his second epistle, remember Paul talked about how love is sometimes misdirected. In the latter days, you know, men are going to be lovers of themselves. Don’t we see that today? That’s selfishness. That’s misdirected love. You see, men are going to be lovers of money. That’s covetousness. Well, we’ll talk about that, Lord willing, on Wednesday night. Men are going to be, get this, unloving. One translation said, without natural affection. And isn’t it a bit of irony that people use that word love with reference to sexual intimacy when it’s not love at all, especially with homosexuality, which is in fact a perversion.

4. God Leads the Way in Forgiveness

Men will be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. That’s hedonism. Fraun and party. That’s what produces happiness. And the wise man said that. That’s vanity. You live a life without God, it’s vanity. It’s empty. But love. Oh, let me tell you. God leads the way in forgiveness. We love because he first loved us. I could not know love. Except God who demonstrated his love for us, even while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. That’s love.

We weren’t worthy of that. Hearing his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. He sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so God is the standard, as we’ve already talked about in these series of lessons about questions and answers, about God and faith. We cannot understand faithfulness except we understand the faithfulness of God. Who is reliable, who is trustworthy, a God who cannot lie. And what I understand John to be saying is that God teaches us how to love others, both God and man. By his own generous love manifested towards us. We would not know the meaning of love apart from God’s demonstration of it. And his ultimate and incomprehensible love must ever be the standard by which all love is measured.

And so it is with forgiveness. We would not know the real meaning of forgiveness were it not for God’s demonstration of it to sinful mankind. And this involves at least two things. Number one, it involves desire, the desire to forgive, which relates to a merciful and listen, a gracious attitude towards rebellious man. Do you know what God wants? God, as Brother James prayed, God wants all men to be saved. Let me ask you this question. There are many people who adopt children. You know what the word adoption means? It means to take one who is not your own and to make him your own. Why do parents adopt children? Can I tell you why? Because they want to. We are the adopted sons and daughters of God.

God wants to. I think this can be seen in the hint of hope in God’s word to the serpent outside of Eden. When he talked about the seed of woman shall bruise your head. That’s the first sign where God says, I’m coming to your rescue. I think that’s a reference to this plan that God had in his mind before the foundation of the world. The apostle Paul called it a mystery. But that mystery has been revealed now. And that is God is reconciling men unto him. And how is he doing that? He’s doing it through Jesus Christ and the preaching of the gospel. This is what is called God’s eternal purpose. This is what God wants for all of us. And there is not only the desire, but there is also the readiness of God to forgive.

And this trait of God has ever been recognized by his faithful servants. Moses proclaimed of God and to God upon the making of the second set of stones in Sinai. And this is what he said. Jehovah. Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and truth. Keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Exodus chapter 34, verses 6 and 7. Nehemiah, a prayerful man, he said of God, but thou art a God ready to part, and gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. Remember when we talked about the faithfulness of God. And we looked at ourselves, and God is trying to get us to be more like him. God doesn’t have moods.

And sometimes women do too. And certainly children do too. We raise three girls. We call them attitudes. We call them twos for sure. God doesn’t have an attitude. James 1 17, every good gift and every perfect gift that cometh from above, it cometh down from the ford of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. So there is also not only the desire, but there is also the readiness. And the readiness, of course, can be seen, which resulted in God’s plan to forgive us. Man separated from God by sin could do nothing to affect their own forgiveness. There was not enough treasure in all the world to buy it. No, none could be good enough to earn it. There had to be some means where God could justify us or make us right.

And that’s what we see in this word propitiation. God satisfied his justice by punishing sin in his son. Second Corinthians 5 21. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He didn’t become sin, he became a sin sacrifice. He was without sin. But he paid the price for our sin, something that we cannot do for ourselves. And a function of the new covenant, which Jeremiah prophesied, and which Jesus Christ ratified with his own blood, was that God would be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more. Is God’s forgiveness bestowed unconditionally and automatically upon sinful men because of Christ’s atoning death? Well, if that’s the answer. Then, then atheist who blasphemes God with his dying breath has the same everlasting spiritual hope as the most devoted believer.

This is simply a philosophy of universalism. That all men could be saved in spite of what they believe or in spite of how they live. And this is patently false. And there are many scriptures that we could prove. I think only one is sufficient. Remember a picture of the judgment scene. Matthew in chapter 7. Jesus says that there are two ways, two gates, and there are two destinies, and you choose. Not everyone, he says, says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father. Many will say in that day, Well, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not done many wonderful works? Have we not cast out demons? And then he will say, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.

What made the difference? We made the decision that we were going to submit to God. We made a decision that we’re going to turn from sin. And we were going to continue to turn from sin. Did you get that? Even some who profess fellowship with God at one time are not going to be saved. In other words, it is also patently false that once you’re saved, you’re always saved. We got to continue to do what God wants us to do so that we can receive the forgiveness of God. Initial forgiveness of God is received at the baptism. When one is baptized for the forgiveness of their sins, they contact the blood of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 6, verses 3, 4, and 5. And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, John said.

5. What About Luke 17:3?

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from our sins. For those who have obeyed the gospel, and then later they go on to sin. And David, of course, extolled God. He says, For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive and abundant in loving kindness unto all them that call upon thee. And I know that invariably when you talk about a subject like this, people will raise the question, okay then, what about Luke 17 3? Let’s turn to Luke 17 3. Luke in chapter 17 at verse 3. Well, there Jesus says, and I’m just going to jump right in. He says, Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him.

And if he repents, forgive him. And so the question is asked. What if he doesn’t ask? Well, let me ask. Do you think that Jesus is implying that if he doesn’t ask that it’s okay to hold a grudge? That you can nurse that thing and you become bitter about that, and that’s okay? I mean, do you really think that that’s what Jesus is implying here? Well, let me ask you something else. When Jesus was upon the cross, and each of the gospel accounts, that is the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as well. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and then John’s gospel, each of the gospel accounts recalled the life of Jesus, but specifically the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But in Luke’s account, Luke 23 at verse 34, Jesus looked at the very ones who had put him there, and you know what he said?

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Had they asked for that? Those Roman soldiers who put those nails in his hands and in his feet, did they ask for that? Pilate, who saw no wrong in him, who sent him to the cross, had him scourged. Had he asked for that? What about you and I? Our sins put him there. He had none of his own. Have we asked for that? In Acts in chapter 7, as there was stone and Stephen, he said, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Had they asked for that? You know what those pages tell me? Those pages tell me that is it’s my job. It is your job to forgive. And to turn everything over to God and let God deal with it.

Because the last thing that I want, the last thing that you want, is to open up a door of opportunity for the devil. To slide in feelings of anger and resentment and bitterness towards somebody who has sinned against you. Now let me tell you what, just because I release someone to God doesn’t mean that God releases them. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t pray about that thing and release that situation to the hands of God. And you have to release it. If the other person doesn’t seek it, if they don’t want it, then you can’t release it to him anyway. But you can release it to God. And that’s what Jesus did. And that’s what Stephen did. And I’ll tell you something else. That’s what Joseph did.

6. Reasons, Actually Excuses, Why People Won’t Forgive

Joseph had made up his mind long before his brothers even came to Egypt. And I’ll tell you what that did. That made the decision and the healing process for him a lot easier. So I know that there are reasons. Actually, I think they are excuses. Why people don’t forgive or why people won’t forgive. People will say things like, I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget. Ever heard that? The fact of the matter is that’s backwards. You can’t forget until you forgive. Forgiveness means that you let go of it. And by letting go of it, what that says is you’re telling the Lord, I want you to begin the healing process. And so you let go of it so God can begin to heal. And again, that’s the very thing that Joseph did for his brothers.

It’s what you do for somebody else. But it’s also something that you do for yourself. Second of all, I can’t forgive because the hurt is too big. Now, this is a big one. No pun intended. You know why? Because there are some despicable things that some people, human beings, will do to other people, human beings. Rape.

Incest. Adultery. Robbery. A thief. Slander, deceit, identity theft. Things that they will do to us and do to our loved ones. Murder, manslaughter, vehicular homicide, child abuse, child neglect, spousal abuse, verbal, physically. And the ultimate crucifixion. They nail the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross. Now, what is it that somebody did to you? There’s no minimizing the pain when somebody hurt you. That somebody sinned against you. That’s not an imaginary thing. That’s a painful experience. But the size of the offense is no reason to hold on to it. In fact, the bigger the hurt, the more you need to get rid of it. Let me ask you this. Do you think it’s going to shrink? You think it’s going to get smaller? Because you choose to hold on.

That’s not going to happen. What about this? I can’t forgive, but I guess time will heal our wounds. No, it won’t. I mean, the offense is not going to go away just because you turn a few pages on the calendar. There’s some things that just don’t change with time. You know, these these new cars we have today, right? You got a key and you don’t even need the key to start the car. You gotta have it on you, but you don’t need to put it in ignition and turn it, right? But these cars, you know, if something goes wrong, you get this little light on. This light says, service engine soon. Don’t you love it? But some of us old folks, we kind of resistant to change, you know.

We don’t like that stuff. And so we see the light come on, and we say, you know what, I’m gonna drive this a little bit longer. Maybe that light doesn’t go out. No, it’s not. You’re gonna have to take that to the repairment and get it fixed. Young mother, she got a child over there. Maybe she got two children, you know. And she needs some mama time for herself. So she turns to dad and she says, Dad, I want you to watch the baby. You know, us men, we always got our stuff to do. But we say, okay, I’ll give you some mama time. And so we watch the baby, and all of a sudden we smell this, ooh, wee. And Dad said, I’m gonna wait a while.

I’m gonna see if this goes away. No, it won’t. You’re gonna have to change the diaper. All I’m saying, folks, is that some things don’t change with time. And what God is telling us is that He wants us to take action. Because leaving matters undone just gets worse. Because let me tell you what, folks. Unforgiveness will destroy you. It will cut a path of devastation across your soul, and it will do a number on you physically. When God made us, our creator knew that our bodies are not designed to hold grudges. Our immune system, our cardiovascular system, our blood pressure. Respond to the choices that we make on this subject. The choice that we make about forgiveness. And what we need to remember are the blessings that come as a result of forgiveness.

First of all, forgiveness of God comes only if we are willing to extend forgiveness to others. Let me ask you. We’re talking about questions and answers about God and faith. Let me ask you. Do you want God to forgive you? Let me tell you something else. If you don’t want God to forgive you, let me tell you what your spiritual state is. You are without God and without hope in this life. We sang before we got, before I got up here, we say, I have a hope. I got an anchor. God gives us that hope. We’ve got something that we can hold on to. And God says, whatever happens in this life, if we follow his instructions, I’m going to tell you what, it’s going to be better on the other side.

Romans 8 18, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And all I’m saying, brother, sometimes we just got to let it go. Release it to God.

Let all anger and bitterness and wrath be put away with all malice. And be ye kind one to another. And I know that’s sometimes hard to do. Especially when the pain is so deep. A blessing to the offender. Have you ever hurt somebody else? Do you know what it was like when they released you and they said, I forgive you? If you’re a Christian, what about when you made the decision to obey the gospel and you were buried with Christ in baptism and you were raised to walk in newness of life, your slate was washed clean. What can compare to the joy of that? That’s the reason why the Ethiopian eunuch world is where rejoicing.

Because you set someone free, and you know what? The one you set free may very well be the one that turns to God and God sets him free also. And then last but not least, it would restore or even prevent division. I think the same principle that works in our relationship with brethren will work with elders and deacons and preachers and every member. It’ll work in our home and families. It’ll work on our jobs, it’ll work where we live. Now, what does this all mean for you and me? I think it means that we’ve got to let the cross of Jesus Christ get ahead of our lives. And we’ve got to let the cross of Jesus change our lives.

Conclusion

It will impact our lives in countless ways. But one of the ways that it impacts our lives is that it enables us to pass along the blessing of forgiveness to people who have sinned against us. And folks, if we are not giving that away, then maybe we don’t have it ourselves. Because if we are holding on to what was done against me, how will we ever come to grips with what we’ve done against God? So you hear the dime. I want to extend God’s invitation. One of the blessings that a child of God has forgiveness of sins. In the book of Ephesians, in chapter 1 at verse 7, the Bible says, in Him, Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins through His blood, according to the riches of God’s grace.

God is rich in love, in mercy, and in grace. And he has a desire. He has the willingness that all men be saved. I want to simply use the words of Jesus Christ, John 6.37. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. If you’re willing to come to Jesus, honestly, with a heart that is open wide. One that seeks forgiveness, willing to forgive those who sinned against you. Stop carrying grudges. Start doing what’s right, learning how to live according to God’s righteousness, preparing yourself for eternity with the God of love and mercy, then the invitation is for you, if you have never obeyed the gospel. And if you’re a child of God, you’ve been struggling with forgiveness. You need to realize that your soul is at stake.

Because unless you forgive, you cannot receive God’s forgiveness either. So if you would respond, I hope that the song that’s been selected would encourage you to respond to God’s forgiveness. Would you come? Together, we stand and sing.