Dean Bible Ministries presents the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Robert Dean, pastor of West Houston Bible Church. These and other Bible lessons are available from www.deanbible.org. Now let's listen to our lesson from God's Word, the Bible. Okay, well, it's good to see everybody tonight. We missed out on Tuesday night because of the weather, and sometimes folks wonder why we do that. And if you weren't around, oh, what was it, two years ago or three years ago when we had a gully washer that hit right at 8 o'clock, And when we got out of Bible class, you couldn't go back through the back neighborhood, you couldn't get out on the feeder road here because the Hammerley exit north of us was flooded and cars were floating. So we just sort of got gun-shy and decided that whenever it looks like it's going to rain hard that we're going to just give everybody a little bit of a break so we don't get stuck down here because we didn't leave until midnight that night. So that's why if you wonder why we seem to be a little sensitive to the rain, that's why. So a couple of announcements, let me make sure I get them all. We're putting together holiday boxes for Jim Meyers Ministries, coordinate with Ann Wright, and there's some instructions out there on the counter in the kitchen. Then this Saturday morning at 1030 in the morning, there will be a ladies tea and prayer meeting here at the church. There's a sign-up sheet in the kitchen. Also, there's a prep school meeting for prep school teachers this Saturday morning at 830 AM sharp. And then we're also involved in participating in the Franklin Graham Shoebox ministry, which is sending various materials to different folks who are in need around the world. So there are also instructions on the table in the back. So that's a lot of things to go back there and read so that you can keep up with what's going on. All right. Before we get into the Word this evening, let's bow our heads together and have a few moments of silent prayer to make sure we're spiritually prepared to study the Word this evening. Then I will open in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your grace that we do nothing to earn it or deserve it, that we do not have to somehow manipulate you through various rituals or through various acts of good deeds in order to earn or deserve that grace that's freely given out of your love and that because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us, we have complete remission of sins and that sin is not the issue anymore. The issue is, what do we think about Jesus Christ? Father, we pray that as we continue our study in forgiveness and in pursuing peace with others, that you would help us to be honest with ourselves in terms of the application of these principles, that God the Holy Spirit would make these things very clear to us, and that we would have the humility and the objectivity to see how to apply these principles in our own relationships. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, just for a quick review, we've been looking at Hebrews 12, 14, which mandates that we are to pursue peace with all people. This isn't just related to believers. This is related to all. There are other passages that we have looked at to demonstrate the use of that, the term all here, that distinguishes it from just other believers. So we are to pursue peace with all, but that is not a peace that compromises with truth. It is a peace that is based upon objectivity and humility. Otherwise, it's not pursuing peace. It's just a capitulation for the sake of avoiding conflict, and that's not the purpose at all. So there has to be objectivity. There has to be humility on our part. As I keep emphasizing, there's always people who are so willing to say, oh, I'm sorry, forgive me, taking ownership or taking blame for something they have not contributed to just for the sake of restoring peace. That is not fair to the situation or to the other people involved because when someone is guilty of some sort of infraction, they have somehow offended us or they have abused others or whatever the problem might be that what we do when we just sort of act as if it really didn't happen, we take blame that's not ours, then that person just continues in that behavior. We basically aid and abet their sinful arrogance. So there has to be that genuine objectivity there. So Pursuing Peace brings in a series of different important doctrines related to reconciliation, forgiveness and love, all of these intersect and interact with each other. And the pattern is, as I've stated again and again, the pattern is how God has forgiven us. The conflict that developed between God and man at the Garden of Eden is resolved by God on the cross. God is the one who took the initiative. He is the one who loved man in such a way that he would provide the solution. There's a solution that pays the penalty, so we're not covering over sin as if it didn't happen. There's a penalty that's there that is paid for by Christ, and then there is the need for each individual to apply that through faith in Christ. Ephesians 4.32 through 5.2 states this, we're to be kind to one another, and the word there for kind is the word Christos, meaning that which causes no discomfort, meets a high standard of value. It's benevolent, kind, pleasant, used in several passages in the scripture, and it is a corollary to being gracious and to dealing with somebody not on the basis of what they've done, but on the basis of a higher standard. That higher standard is God's character. We love people not on the basis of who we are, because we're not that good either, but on the basis of who God is. It's his integrity that's at the focal point when we forgive others. So we are kind to one another by being We're kind to one another, then, tender-hearted. That word, oysplachnos, indicates compassion, genuine compassion, not pseudo-compassion. And we're kind to one another by forgiving one another. The participle there of charizomai tells us how we are to be kind to one another, by forgiving one another, even as God in Christ's sake, even as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, we are to be imitators of God as dear children. So, forgiveness, there's the Greek word charizomai, which has its root meaning, the idea of being gracious. So that's what forgiveness is. It is an act of grace toward those who have offended in some way. That took us, in that passage, took us to the reference to Christ in Ephesians 5.2, his offering as a sweet-smelling aroma, took us back to Leviticus 3, where you have one of the various sweet-smelling or sweet-savor offerings in the Old Testament. the peace offering, we look at the peace offering there as a picture of fellowship, because it's only in that one offering, the peace offering described in Leviticus 3, that both the worshiper, that the worshiper sits down and has a meal indicating that whatever the conflict was between him and God, that that has been resolved. From there we looked at this whole doctrine of reconciliation over in Romans chapter 5, chapter 5 verse 1, verses 9 and 10, that even though when we were still enemies or at hostility with God, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. So reconciliation is through the payment of a penalty. Now I'm emphasizing this for a Very important reason that too often people think of forgiveness without recognizing that forgiveness in the Bible is always predicated on admission of guilt or the payment of a penalty. Now that payment of penalty or admission of guilt may then be removed as it was when God, or may be reduced as God reduced the penalty for David. But it's not like you're just covering something over as if it didn't happen. There is a penalty that is paid. There is a recognition, an honest recognition of fault and responsibility. It's not aiding irresponsibility or ignoring the fact that there is someone at fault who has caused offense. The payment is done through Christ's Son, much more having been reconciled, will be saved by his life. And so there's the pattern in Christ's life that is the pattern for the spiritual life. From there I went to the next passage, which is central to understanding reconciliation, in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 down through 20, which tells us, especially in verse 20, that we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us, we implore on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God." That's the application of reconciliation that takes place objectively at the cross, but subjectively when a person trusts in Christ as Savior. Now as ambassadors for Christ, our mission is to proclaim the gospel that reconciliation has been accomplished, at the cross and therefore unbelievers, all mankind are to be reconciled to God. How can we be a messenger of reconciliation and a salvation message if in terms of personal relationships there is no reconciliation? That's why there should not be a conflict there. Then I went to Colossians 2, 13 and 14 talking about the fact that we are reconciled to God because the penalty has been paid, the sins are wiped out, and forgiveness here recognizes that. aspect that it's canceled. Colossians 2.13, in a revised, sort of expanded translation here, I've translated it, and you, when you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him. Now, he makes us alive together with him at the instant of salvation. But he makes us alive together at the instant of salvation because he's already done something in the past, and that's indicated by the next clause, by having already forgiven you. See, it's an eris participle there, which means the action of forgiveness precedes the action of the main verb, which is to be made alive. So he forgave the trespasses before regeneration took place. So when did he forgive the trespasses? When you trusted in Christ? That's not what the verse says. By having forgiven you all trespasses, and again the word there for forgiven is charizomai. It's being gracious to us by canceling out that debt. We see that, and we'll see this in another passage in Luke 7 tonight, that forgiveness, charizomai, has the same idea as afiemi, is removal of a debt. Both are used in economic context to indicate the cancellation of a debt. It's just wiped out as if it had never been. So we're made alive together by already having been forgiven, that's the forensic cancellation of the debt of sin that took place at the cross, which is what's indicated in the next phrase, because he wiped out the handwriting of requirements. Now what's interesting is that the word that's translated in the, I think this is a new American standard I have out here, the he wiped out, is in the ESV, it's translated cancelled, which is also how they translate charizomai. And the Greek word that's used for wiped out is the synonym of charizomai. And so he uses these two synonyms to stress the point that the trespasses are forgiven or canceled because he has canceled out or wiped out or eradicated the handwriting of requirements, that's the indictment for sin, because he has eradicated the handwriting of requirements or certificate of debt, as the King James read, that was against us. And he has taken it out of the way by having nailed it to the cross. That's where it occurred, was at the cross. Not when you trusted Jesus, not when I trusted Jesus, but at the cross historically, that's when the indictment against us is nailed to the cross and eradicated. So that's why I call that forensic or legal There are four kinds of forgiveness in the Bible. The first kind is this legal forgiveness that occurs at the cross where our sins are eradicated. That's why we say sin isn't the issue. When you hear preachers get up and they start harping on sin and focusing on sin as if sin is the issue, then they're already into a legalistic gospel. The sin isn't the issue anymore. Now, we have to recognize we're spiritually dead. That's going to bring in some discussion about sin. But we're born spiritually dead. But the sin has already been paid for at the cross. So he wiped out that sin, that indictment against us, so that the issue is now just faith in Christ. And that occurred at the cross. Now from Colossians, now that's where I ended last time. So now I want to go to Luke 17. Luke 17. What happened? I have no idea what happened. There we go. Computer just had a mind of its own. Luke 17, 3 and 4. Let's just start off in verse 1 to get the context. Then this is Jesus talking to his disciples. And he said to the disciples, it's impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and if he were thrown into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. This is a summary of more expanded context that we'll look at a little later on in Matthew 18. And then Luke just shortens the account. Then in verse 3, Jesus says, take heed to yourselves, or in other words, watch yourselves, if your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him." Now, this is the abridged version of what Jesus talks about in Matthew 18, that if your brother offends you, then you go to him in private, talk to him, try to smooth things out, pursuing peace. But if he doesn't admit the fault and deal with it, then you go back with two or three witnesses that by their mouth that whatever is conducted is seen with a witness and is verified and validated. So this is just a summary of that where he says, take heed to yourselves, if your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents, Forgive him. Now, the reason I wanted to go to this verse is because many people will say, well, see, what Jesus is saying here is that I don't need to forgive that person unless they repent. And we all know circumstances, people, and situations that we may have had in our life or that others have where someone does something. They either break a contract or they are guilty of some sort of horrible abuse. or some other situation where they have done something wrong and they have offended us in a great way, but they don't admit it. They act as if they're completely justified in whatever they did and there's no admission of fault on their part. And some people will go to this passage and say, see, what Jesus says is that I only need to forgive them if they repent. Now, I've been pointing out that there's two aspects to repentance, a subjective aspect and an objective aspect. The subjective aspect has to do with what goes on in you or me as the one who is forgiving, the subject of the verb forgive. Objective forgiveness has to do with what's going on on the part of the person who is being forgiven, the object of the verb. So that forgiveness in its root meaning and part of its root meaning in English is to remove any sort of mental attitude sin of hate or bitterness or anger or resentment towards the person who has offended us. Now that is what we should do. Even if they don't admit any guilt or any responsibility, we are to forgive them objectively. We are not to harbor mental attitude sins, bitterness, resentment, anger, any of those things toward them, because all that does is wipe out our own spiritual life. But that doesn't mean that in terms of how we treat them, in terms of letting them back into perhaps a position of trust or where they could perhaps offend us again, we don't do that. There are consequences. to their offense and their actions. And that means that that person has to deal with those consequences and they're not, we may remove them from our life for a while or for good, depending on how serious the infraction might be. But here, Jesus is talking about what we are to do if that person, or under the condition that that person does repent. And by the word repent, simply means they change their mind. And so this is a situation where it's talking about the condition where someone comes and says, you know, I was wrong, I got very angry at you, I did this, I did that, and I was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness. So they have repented, they've changed their mind, and Jesus says they repent, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, now this is where we start saying, well, wait a minute, I've heard you say, I'm sorry, 15 times already today. I'm not going to let, you know, I don't believe you anymore. But Jesus says, if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. That's what this is talking about. You take him at his word. And the pattern, as I pointed out last time, is how many times in a day do we commit the same sin? Anger, arrogance, whatever it might be. You fill in your favorite sin of the day. And afterwards, we say, Lord, I just committed X, Y, Z sin again for the 15th time today. Forgive me. And what does God do? He says, wait a minute, you know, 14 was okay, 15's too many, I'm not going to forgive you anymore. Right? No, he doesn't do that. So the pattern is how God forgives us every time we commit that same sin, even though we've committed that sin 85,692 times in the last 25 years, every time we go back to the Lord and Admit that sin, He instantly forgives us, wipes the slate clean, and the sin is removed as far from us as the East is from the West. It's not an issue anymore. Even though God in His omniscience knows that we're going to commit that sin 90,392 more times before we die. He forgives us at that point, and so that's the pattern. So somebody gets mad, angry, whatever it is, and so they come to us, admit their guilt, we forgive them. Now does that mean that, let's take a situation that might not quite be so personal with many people, but let's say you've involved in a business deal and a contract, and this person breaks the contract. And they come back and they say, you know, I was wrong. Forgive me. Okay, I forgive you. Does that mean that I enter into another contract with them? That's a different question. I'm not going to enter into another contract with them, especially if this has happened seven times in the day, because they have to demonstrate a level of consistency, maturity, and trustworthiness. But that doesn't mean I haven't forgiven them. It just means there are still consequences to their failure. The same thing happens with us in terms of our forgiveness with the Lord. There may be consequences to our sin just because God forgives us and the fellowship is restored, doesn't mean that the consequences don't still come into effect. We use the example with David. David committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba. Then when it was discovered that she was pregnant, he entered into a conspiracy with Joab, his general, to make sure that her husband was at the front of the lines when they assaulted assaulted the city so that he would be in a place where his life would probably be forfeited in the battle and then they would come off without having actually committed an overt murder, but they had conspired to make sure that he would die. So David's guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, cover-up of the pregnancy, and adultery. All of which were capital crimes under the Mosaic Law. God commuted the sentence of capital punishment God often does that for us. When we confess our sins, God's going to do one of three things. He's either going to remove the punishment completely, or he's going to discipline us at a lesser intensity, or he may let us feel the full force and impact of divine discipline for the sake of teaching us and training us. And the same thing happens in our relationships with people sometimes. Sometimes when we confess our sins or somebody comes to us in forgiveness, everything's fine and we just move right on. Other times it's of a more serious nature and there are certain consequences that have to be put in place because we need to protect ourselves. I often get questions when I talk about forgiveness that have to do with abuse, whether it has to do with abuse of children, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, abuse that occurs in marriages where women have gone through some sort of trauma, Usually I get the response, well, does that mean I just constantly make myself a doormat to get beat up on? No, you don't. There are consequences to sinful behavior, and experiencing those consequences is not contradictory to forgiveness. And we have real problems in our culture because we're so permissive with saying that if you forgive somebody, you can't, and you still want them to suffer consequences, that that's contradictory. It's not contradictory. A contradiction would occur if we, really, if we put ourselves in a position of vulnerability and every time we just let somebody take advantage of us and defraud us or abuse us or whatever each time. There has to be a place where consequences come into play even though you've forgiven the person. And that means that it calls upon us to go a step further in making sure they understand that there's forgiveness, but there are boundaries and there are limitations within the relationship because of past failures simply for the sake of personal protection. Now, let's go to another passage in Luke that also focuses on forgiveness, and this is in Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. And we'll begin in verse 36. One of the Pharisees invites Jesus home for dinner. And he goes to the Pharisees' house, and they sit down and prepare to eat. And while they are eating, a woman in the city who is identified simply as a sinner. Now, there's usually a certain amount of speculation here as to the nature of her sin. Usually, she's identified as one who has been a prostitute. But that is not inherent in the identification of the word sinner here. But that's probable, but not, we can't say that with certainty. And some others want to identify her as Mary Magdalene. There's nothing that identifies her as Mary Magdalene. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table at the Pharisee's house, brought in an alabaster flask of fragrant oil. Now the oil that she's bringing in is extremely, extremely expensive. And she stands at his feet, behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. And she begins to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now, when the Pharisee saw this, he spoke to himself. So he's down there muttering to himself in his self-righteousness, saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus, who knew what he was saying, thinking, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say. In other words, Simon, this is a teachable moment. We're going to learn a little bit about humility and see if you really have humility here or if you're just still an arrogant, self-righteous Pharisee. So he's going to tell a little story. Jesus had a great way of telling these kinds of stories or parables because they brought the point home. In verse 41, he says, there's a certain creditor who had two debtors, one who owed 500 denarii, and the other owed 50 denarii. Now, the difference in this is 50 denarii was about equivalent to a day's wage. So I played around with some numbers this afternoon. I'm never really good when I play around with numbers. But if somebody's making around $50,000, $60,000 a year, then a day's wage would be somewhere between $25 or $30 an hour. So this is going to be equivalent to about 200 to $250. I mean, the 50 denarii would be equivalent to about 200, $250 an hour today, maybe a little more, a little less, but just in that ballpark. So 500 denarii would be 10 times that. So you're looking at $2,500, $3,000. So you have one person who owes approximately, let's just say $3,000 and the other owes $300. And he says in verse 42, and when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave both of them. So he's got one person who owes him about a day's wage, and the other person owes him ten days wages, or a third of a month. He freely forgives both of them. Now, in some translations, like the ESV, charisma is used here, and it is translated as cancelled, which gets the thrust of this is an economic term. And that's where we always have to go back with forgiveness. It's an economic term, just as our redemption is the payment of a price, The forgiveness is the cancellation, the eradication of the debt. These are economic concepts. So he freely forgives or cancels the debt for both of them. Now, think about this. If you owe the bank something, let's say you owe the bank $50,000, and the bank comes along and says, I'm going to cancel the debt, The bank doesn't come back a week later and say, ah, you owe it to me again. Once that cancellation has been finalized, then it's not brought up again. It's forgotten. It's history. It's in the past. It's over with. That's what's part of forgiveness is that when that debt is canceled, when somebody is forgiven, It's forgotten. It's not brought up again. You don't keep a running list, and the next time they make the same mistake, you say, OK, now let's bring out the list with the last 50 times you did this. That's over with. That's what forgiveness means. So here the one who's owed the debt forgives both of them. And Jesus asks him the question, says, tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? Who's going to have a greater love for the one who forgives him, the one who's forgiven a little or the one who's forgiven a lot? And Simon answered and said, well, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, well, you have rightly judged. Then he turned, Jesus turns to the woman and said to Simon, you see this woman, I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, but she's washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, wiped out, canceled. For she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little." Now, this may be one part of the application in terms of how we ought to understand how sinful we are, is because it makes us realize even more how grateful we should be on our forgiveness, that we're not any better than anyone else. And so Jesus then says to her, your sins are forgiven. Now, those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who's this who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Now, this isn't talking about just phase one salvation. Remember, we talk about phase one salvation, justification. Phase two is our spiritual life. And phase three is glorification. It's really important when we study this to keep the distinction between what we do to be justified and what we do in terms of forgiveness in our spiritual growth. That's what Jesus is talking about here. This woman already understands he's the Messiah. In terms of being an Old Testament saint, she's already trusted in him. And this is just her gratitude now in expressing that. And so it has to do more with her ongoing phase two spiritual life faith and forgiveness, not her justification forgiveness. So saved here is used in a forgiveness sense, phase two forgiveness sense. He said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. What's the result of forgiveness here? conflict resolution, reconciliation, peace. Peace comes as a result of forgiveness of sin. And so this exemplifies that in this transaction. Now let's go to another passage, turn back one more or two more books in the Gospels to Matthew, and we'll go back to a passage we looked at three or four lessons back in Matthew 18. Now in Matthew 18, this is the expanded version of the passage we looked at in Luke 17 earlier. I want to go back and pick up the context again. In verse 15, we read, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. That's what we read in Luke. If he hears you, you've gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. You're going to take witnesses to confirm things. If he refuses, notice in this, telling of it. I think there are two different episodes between the one that Luke is explaining and the one that Matthew is explaining, because some of the key terminology is a little different. Just because Jesus talks about something in one place, in one gospel, and it's similar in another gospel, doesn't mean it's the same episode. He taught the same thing in different contexts many different times. So over in Luke, he used the word repent. Here he just says, if he hears you, But it's similar circumstance. If he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. If he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you as a heathen or a tax collector. In other words, treat him like an unbeliever. He may not be, but treat him as if he's an unbeliever. And then he goes on in talking to the disciples as disciples. He says, Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose or release, that's another word for forgiveness there, on earth will be loosed or released in heaven. This was typical rabbinic terminology. It doesn't have to do with binding the devil or anything like that, which you'll hear in Pentecostal circles. It has to do with pronouncing a decision or a judgment. And because they're the ones who are in authority, will be in authority in the church. And in verse 19 he then says, again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. This is not a prayer verse. The two are talking about the two or three witnesses that come in the context of this conflict resolution. It's not talking about prayer here. Prayer hasn't even entered into it. So Jesus says that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, what are the two or three gathered together to do in the context? to make a decision about this individual who is recalcitrant in admission of his guilt that he has offended the other believer. It's not talking about prayer here at all. So this verse is one of those verses everybody quotes for a prayer verse and it has nothing to do with prayer and you just have to read the context. for where two or three are gathered together in my name for a disciplined decision." This would be comparable to if somebody were causing trouble within a local congregation and there needed to be an action taken as to whether or not you would allow that person to continue to associate or to come, and that's happened on occasion here at other churches where somebody causes trouble. Then the deacons meet to talk about the situation and decide whether or not they're going to allow that person to come or if they need to exercise some level of discipline and ask the person not to come back. So where two or three are gathered together in my name for the purpose of making this kind of disciplinary decision, I am there in the midst of them. You have the authority to make that decision. So here's a problem with a one believer who offends, abuses, defrauds another believer and refuses to admit it, refuses to be reconciled. So Peter catches on to this and Peter says in verse 21, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" So he's looking at the other side of this. He says, okay, if this brother sins against me and I go to him and he responds to me, then I've got to forgive him. So how many times do I have to forgive him? Leave it to Peter to want to get down to the real issues here. So Jesus said, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Within Scripture, seven is a number that represents completion based on the seven days in the week, in the creation week. So 70 times 7 is just an idiom for expressing never-ending. That even if he does it 490 times, he's not talking about literally 490 times, it's just like an infinite number. It's what that would represent. And Jesus said, I do not say to you up to 7 times, but up to 70 times 7. In other words, as many times as he comes to you and asks forgiveness, you forgive him. And then he gives a little illustration starting in verse 23. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. Now, 10,000 talents is a huge amount of money. A talent was a measure of gold, which was equivalent to somewhere between 60 and 80 pounds. 60 to 80 pounds of gold would be worth several million dollars today. So he's got someone who owes him six or seven million dollars, let's say, and he is unable to pay. So the master then says, in verse 25, says, but as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children, all of them sold into slavery, debt slavery, and all that he had, and that payment be made." He's going to recover his money that is owed him. And the servant then fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. I can't work and make it, pay it back to you if I'm in prison. give me time and I will pay it all back. Then in verse 27, the master of the servant was moved with compassion, this is Spoknoy again, it's that same kind of word we saw with heartfelt tenderness back in Ephesians chapter 4, 432, it's a shortened form of the word, just the root Spoknoy, moved with compassion, it's an expression of grace, released him and forgave him the debt. Now, the word here for released is the Greek verb apoluo, which is a synonym for forgiveness. So he says he released him and forgave him, aphiemi, that's the same verb that we have in 1 John 1 for forgiveness, says forgave him the debt. He's moved with compassion, he releases him, and he cancels the debt, millions of dollars. Then the master, we're told, then the master of that servant moved with compassion, released him, forgave him the debt, but the servant went out and found one of his fellow servants. So he now has somebody under him. And this servant that's just been forgiven of millions of dollars of debt then goes out finds another servant who owes him a hundred denarii. So this is about two days worth of wages. I pointed out fifty denarii in the previous parable was about a day's wage, so this is about two days wage. So this would be five or six hundred dollars. So he goes out and finds one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and he lays hands on him, took him by the throat, and says, pay me what you owe. So he gets a little violent with him, a little physical with him. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, begged him saying, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Says basically the same thing that the other servant had said to the king. But he would not. And he went and threw him into prison for this paltry sum till he should pay the debt. So Jesus goes on to say, when these fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told the master, the king, all that had been done. And the master said, after he called them, said, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And the master is angry and delivers him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. Now that's the story. Jesus is not saying if you don't forgive your brother, God's going to deliver you over to the torturers. See, that's not the application there. That's the story. That's not the doctrine. But there is a principle there. Verse 35, So my heavenly Father also will do to each of you from his heart, if he does not from his heart forgive his brothers his trespasses, that there will be divine discipline, that as we are forgiven by God, For all of those infractions we commit, large and small, every time we ask for forgiveness, every time we confess our sins, then we in turn turn around and somebody does something to us, and we want to harbor it, we want to be angry, have resentment, and not forgive them when they ask forgiveness. We are ungrateful, we haven't learned the lesson, and Jesus draws a point here that if we're not willing to forgive others, When God forgives us, then we remain out of fellowship. Oh, you might get back in fellowship for a nanosecond, but as soon as you fail to have forgiveness towards others, you're not applying the principle that you've learned, and there's no spiritual growth, and you're just operating in carnality. And so there's a connection between our forgiveness, our relationship with God, and the peace that we have experienced there because of forgiveness of sins, and that which we apply in terms of our relationships with other human beings. And so forgiveness isn't an option, as I pointed out, it's mandatory. It is part of our spiritual life and reflects how grace-oriented we really are. Because if we don't forgive others, We're not charizomying others. We're not being gracious to them. And because we're not being gracious to them, we haven't lived up to the standard that God has established for members of the royal family of God. Now this takes us back to our passage in Hebrews 12, 14. So I think we're actually going to move forward tonight in Hebrews. All of this to help us understand what is about to be said in verse 15. Verse 14 stated, Pursue peace with all people and sanctification, that is our spiritual growth, our spiritual advance, without which no one will see the Lord." That has to do with special privilege for maturing, overcoming believers in the kingdom. Pursue peace, and then the participle that begins 12.15 is a participle of means. We're to pursue peace by looking carefully. Self-examination. It is the Greek word episkopeo, We have a noun, episkopos, where we get our word episcopal. It's translated bishop. It is a word for someone who takes oversight or care for something. So the idea of looking carefully is that we are to take oversight and carefully look at our lives, our motives, our thoughts, our actions. We pursue peace by looking carefully, by self-examination, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God. Now that is an unfortunate translation, because it looks to people at first glance that if you don't pursue peace, then you fall short of God's grace and you're not saved. Remember, he's not talking to unbelievers, he's talking to believers here. And he's saying that your job is to pursue peace because that is the grace-oriented thing to do. If you don't, you fall short of the standard. You've just come short of God's standard. God's standard is for you to be gracious to all, to forgive everyone, just as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And when you don't do that, when we don't forgive others, we harbor anger and resentment and revenge motivation, all of these other things, and we want to get back at them. then what happens is we have fallen short of the standard. We haven't lived up to the standard that God has established for the believer in the royal family of God. So we are to examine ourselves regularly to make sure that we don't let anger, resentment, these mental attitude sins receive a toehold in our soul so that they can then, as a small seed of sin, grow into something that is much more destructive. That's what is referred to by the term root of bitterness. We let this root develop from this seed and before long bitterness, anger, resentment begins to grow and engulf our thinking and we're out of fellowship in carnality all the time because we have failed to deal with the situation on the basis of grace and grace orientation and as a result it has become self-destructive to our spiritual life. And it not only affects us, which is the point, lest any root of bitterness by springing up cause trouble, but by this many become defiled. As a person gets into bitterness and anger and resentment, it's not long before that starts manifesting itself in sins of the tongue, angry statements, lies, slander, gossip. And then this spreads among other people, and so it defiles others. This is the Greek word that's used here is miaino, which was a word that was used for spiritual defilement. It was also used of various other forms of becoming filthy in different ways in the ancient world, but it has a spiritual usage of being being spiritually defiled or are becoming carnal and being covered in sin. So, unless any root of bitterness by springing up, and by this many become defiled, all of a sudden it begins to infect the body of Christ around this person. So, we move, let's see, got a little chart here to break that down, we're to pursue peace with all people, and sanctification by careful self-examination. That's how you pursue peace, is by looking first inside yourself. That goes back to the principle we looked at in Matthew chapter 7, that we are to first take the log out of our own eye before we deal with the moat or the grain of sand in the other person's eye. Careful self-examination, lest anyone fall short of the principle of the grace of God And lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. We see this same idea expressed in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 29, 18. So there Moses warns, so that there will not be among you a man or a woman, a family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations, that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. So it's the same idea is that when we get involved in carnality, That can begin to affect all of those around us in various different ways. And I want you to notice something else that I pointed out here in 1215. You have three lests. In the Greek, it's indicated by a phrase metis, but it comes across good in this translation. By careful examination, there's three problems that can develop. Number one, you can fall short of the grace of God. You don't live up to the standard. Second, it can develop mental attitude sins that end up defiling other people. And then third is there's a consequence in terms of inheritance. This is the third consequence indicated by last in verse 16. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears." Does that mean he committed an unforgivable sin? When it says that he could find no place for repentance? No, not at all. But what it does mean is that there was not once Isaac gave the blessing to Jacob. It was an irreversible decision. And so there are irreversible decisions that take place in our lives in terms of carnality. And we can reach a point where we do certain things, we get away from the Lord for a certain amount of time, and there are missed opportunities. and missed privileges and it hurts our spiritual life. But before we go into some of that, let me just go back to Hebrews 12, 16 for just a minute. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau. Now, the word translated fornicator here is the Greek word pornos. which in almost every use in the New Testament refers to literal, physical, sexual fornication or immorality. But there's no real record of that in the life of Esau that we have. However, in a non-canonical book, In a book called the Book of Jubilees, which is part of what's referred to as the Pseudepigrapha, you can dream about that tonight. Pseuda meaning false and grapha meaning writings. These are false writings. They were never ever considered to be part of the canon. It's not like the Apocrypha. They were false writings, but in the In the book of Jubilees, and they have some value historically, but they're certainly not on the level of scripture or anything you would want to read for devotional purposes or anything like that, but they do give insight into scripture, I mean, into history and traditions among the Jews. And in the book of Jubilees, chapter 25, verse 1, it states, and in the second year of this week in this Jubilee, Rebekah called Jacob her son and spake unto him, saying, My son, do not take thee a wife of the daughters of Canaan, As Esau your brother, who took him two wives of the daughters of Canaan, and they have embittered my soul with all their unclean deeds, for all their deeds are fornication and lust, and there is no righteousness with them, for their deeds are evil." And in the Torah there's a provision, there's a prohibition of Jews marrying non-Jews, marrying unbelievers. And that was considered to be immoral or fornication if they married someone outside of Israel. So that is what is referred to here, that's what's indicated here. It's not that Esau was a fornicator in the classic sense of the term, but that he married outside of the clan, unlike Jacob who went back to the cousins back up in Haran and married there within the clan. So Esau is following his own lust as to who he's going to marry. And he has rejected, as it were, the spiritual heritage within the family. Now, when we studied Genesis a number of years ago, I pointed out that there's this period of Esau's rebellion occurs when he's young. And we can go and look at, I want to go back and look at the passage in Genesis 25, just as we close out this evening. In Genesis 25, this has to do with the family inheritance. This doesn't have anything to do with poor old Esau's eternal destiny. I think he's gotten a lot of bad rap by people who haven't understood this passage correctly. If we're dealing with him as an analogy for how a believer is to live, if he's an unbeliever, there's no comparison, there's no analogy. You have to compare apples to apples. And so what we're talking about is how a believer should live, and so the illustration is of a believer who lived wrongly and lost something. He lost his inheritance, but he didn't lose everything and he didn't lose his position within the family. And so if we look at Genesis 25, It talks about, we'll go to about verse 27, the boys have grown up, Esau is a hunter, he's a man of the outdoors, and he loves to hunt, and Isaac loves to eat the food that Esau prepares for him. He loves to eat the wild venison. But Jacob's more of a homeboy. uh... and jacob cooks a stew, Esau comes in from the field and in verse thirty Esau comes to jacob and jacob realizes that Esau is just starving to death he didn't have a good time hunting that day he missed whatever he shot at or he didn't see anything he's tired and he's hungry and he smells this red lentil stew that jacob has cooked And he's begging for it. He says, give me some of that red stew, for I'm weary. And the red stew, the redness is the root meaning of the word. Edom is red. And so that's where Edom comes in as another name for Esau. And Jacob says, OK, well, I'll feed you, but he's going to finagle the situation here. Jacob knows the story that when they were born, there's the prophecy that the older will serve the younger, the older being Esau. And so he knows that God's already said he's the one who's the designated heir, but he's going to try to manipulate it. So he goes to Esau, he says, tell me your birthright as of this day, and Esau said, Well, I'm about to die. If he doesn't give me food, I'll die. So what's the birthright worth to me? And so Jacob has him sign it off. You know, this is legal within their culture. The birthright is then given up and treated profanely, treated lightly by Esau, as if it has no value. And so he willingly gives it up for just a bowl of red lentil stew. This is the focal point here. Just for a morsel of food, he gives up his inheritance. Now later on, he will get a second blessing from his father Isaac, but it's much less. It's not like he lost everything, but he lost his firstborn inheritance rights because he gives them up here in this transaction. And so Hebrews 12, 17 says, for you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he goes to his father and says, can't you reverse this? Well, no. Isaac said, this is an irreversible transaction. Once it's set in law, I can't back up. I can't change. There's no change here or repentance possible. It's not talking about the fact that Esau isn't repenting. He's weeping and begging his father to reverse the transaction. But because of the codes and the laws of inheritance rights, Isaac's hands are tied by law. He can't make a change. And so what we see here is the principle that there are things that there are consequences to sins in our life and to rebellion against God that will result in loss of rewards and loss of inheritance or God will not distribute certain rewards or inheritance to us that we would have had if we had walked in obedience. And so that's the point here, no matter what Esau did, He couldn't reverse the situation. There's no opportunity for change. And so as we come to the end of this little study here in Hebrews 12, the emphasis has been on the importance of the application of forgiveness and not harboring these mental attitude sins towards someone and not forgiving them. And so the reason is, is because when we continue in that path of carnality, then because we're not walking by the Spirit, because we're not in spiritual growth, we are losing opportunity to serve the Lord, to grow spiritually, and to where divine good and fruit of the Spirit would be produced in our lives. And that's just lost opportunity and failure to receive any possibility of rewards or inheritance related to that lost time and lost opportunity. So we are to, as the writer says, strengthen the hands which hang down the feeble knees. In other words, don't get tired in the race, but keep pressing on to the finish line. Now, next time we'll come back into another interesting section in verses 18 to 24 as we move forward in Hebrews. But I want to give anybody a chance, anybody having questions on forgiveness, anything that we've looked at since I'm already two minutes over. I want to give you a little time, but yeah, Tinker. lesson on this is that about Esau is that we won't, it may keep us from inheriting our rewards? Right. At Judgment Seat of Christ, there are those who are going to have everything burned up, they enter heaven, and they're saved, but they have nothing, no rewards, no gold, silver, precious stones. So we won't achieve that. Now some people will have more, some people will have less, but the point here is not that the person who fails loses all rewards, but there are some believers who won't have any. There are some who could have had more, but because of carnality and lost opportunity, they won't have much. And then there are those who have been faithful and overcomers and pressed on, and they will have more. So inheriting the blessing has to do with rewards and inheritance for post-salvation blessing that will come at the judgment seat of Christ. Okay? So that's why forgiveness is important because when we just had a fellowship all the time because we won't forgive other people, then that just wipes out our spiritual life and spiritual growth. In the meantime, it just hurts us. It doesn't hurt them. All right, let's bow our heads and close in prayer. Father, thank you for this opportunity to study these things this evening and to be challenged by your Word. And Father, we all have people and situations that are hard for us to forgive, and yet we need to put that in your hands, cast all our cares upon you because you care for us. And we need to not try to take care of these things ourselves, but to let you take care of them, that you are the judge of the universe and that's your responsibility, not our responsibility. And we are to be those who emulate your grace and demonstrate that in our lives so that through us, people can see the reality of your love and your kindness and your genuine forgiveness. Father, we pray that you challenge us with these things this evening in Christ's name. Amen.