Welcome to the first Sunday of the new year and making it out and snow and ice This morning we'd like to consider with you Chapter 16 of Wayne Mack's book, Reaching the Ear of God, and it's titled Remembering, Forgiveness, and Forgiving. And just a plug for the church library, the Wayne Mack's book is really a condensed version of a book called The Lord's Prayer by Thomas Watson. So if you want to dig deeper or learn more, that's a good resource as well. So last time we considered the petition, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And that's Matthew 6 verse 12. Someone once said, we are most like beasts when we kill, we are most like men when we judge, and we are most like God when we forgive. So, Matthew 6 verse 12 contains a confession, a petition, and a promise. Last time we looked at the confession or the acknowledgement of our debts, that we have debts that need forgiveness. Today we want to look at the petition, forgive us. So the first thing that we want to look at is, what does the Bible say? about forgiveness. And I've handed out 10 verses that really lay out how the Bible describes forgiveness. There's not just one word or one idea or one concept about forgiveness, so I'll ask you to read the verse and then just say what that verse is saying. Sometimes it's pretty obvious. It says it right in the verse, so this isn't a trick question or a trick assignment. Let's start with Job 7, verse 21. Job 7, verse 21. Why do you not forgive my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth. You will seek me, but I shall not be. So Henry, what does it say there about forgiveness? What does it involve? It involves pardoning transgression. Right, and part of that is what is done with the transgression. Right. So forgiveness involves taking it away. It's removed from us. Psalm 38 verses 4-6. So how is sin pictured there in that verse? What did you say? A weight or an infection in your body. Right. A burden, we could say. A burden. And what would forgiveness involve? Unburdening. Right. It would be taking away, lifting it. So lifting of a burden is another picture that's given with forgiveness. So it involves taking away, removing, lifting a burden. How about Psalm 85 verse 2? So it's another picture there of forgiveness, what is done. Right. So forgiveness involves covering it. It's not brought to the forefront, but covered. How about Isaiah 43 verse 25? Right. Blotting out. I'll read Isaiah 44, verse 2. I actually think that's the wrong reference. I don't see that as far as the forgiveness part. How about Micah 7 verse 19? Micah 7 verse 19. So what's another picture there of forgiveness? What's done with them? All right, you could say casting away. And then Jeremiah 31 verse 34. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and teach his brother, saying, No, Lord. For they shall all know him from the least of death and freedom, declares the Lord. So I will continue in the truth, and I will So it talks there about remembering it no more. So it's not just forgetting, right? That would be passive, right? Sometimes we'll forget where we put our car keys or where we put something, right? That's due to our own frailty. We know that isn't with God, but he's actively choosing not to remember it. We could say he's not remembering. All right, Psalm 103 verse 12. So if you traveled from the north to the south, eventually you'd be going back the same direction, right? If you started at the north pole, went down to the south, you'd be headed south. And if you kept on going, you'd be going back north. The point is that those two things meet. But here it doesn't say as far as from the north to the south. It says as far as from the east is to the west. Well, if you start going east, you'll never be going West. Or the point is, those things will never meet. And it says there that our sin is removed from us as far as from the East as from the West. So you couldn't get any further. So we could say removed, never meet. And then Isaiah 38 verse 17. So what's being pictured there with forgiveness? What are done with our sins? Right, can you see what's on your back? You can't see it, right? It's not there. We would say it's just out of sight. They're out of sight. Ezekiel 36, verse 25. And then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. So what picture is shown there with forgiveness? Right. And then lastly Colossians 2 verses 13 through 14. So what picture of forgiveness is given there? Right, so it's like a death that's been canceled. So there's not just one word or one idea that captures forgiveness. We see here just an overview of scripture, how broad it is, how deep it is, how it's much more than we tend to think. And it can at least teach us two things. One is how serious sin is and how wonderful forgiveness is. We see words like covering, blotting out, casting away, not remembering. And we see often how weak our forgiveness is of someone else. Over time, we say time heals all wounds, so other ideas come into our mind and we forget about it, but it's really not been cast away or out of sight. Sometimes we may bring it up again, we may dwell on it, we may point it out to the other person, but those ideas are in none of these words. It's taken away, cast away, not remembered. So that is how forgiveness is described in the Bible. Now the second thing we want to consider, also called now, how can God forgive? So what does the Bible say about forgiveness, and then how can God forgive? I'm sure all of us sitting here this morning know what we could say is the textbook answer, right? We know that God saves us through the blood of Christ, and there's probably hundreds of passages that we could go to. Perhaps the clearest one is Romans 3, Romans 3, verses 24 through 26, which I'll read. Romans 3, 24 through 26, how can God forgive sin? It says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Some have called those verses kind of the pinnacle of Christianity or Christianity 101, and it's easy to say those words and not always think about what they mean. Forgiveness is not granted to us because we go to church, we read our Bibles, or even necessarily because we repent. God forgives us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, what does Christ's death have to do with forgiveness? Someone once put it this way, our biggest problem, what would you say our biggest problem is? Some people would say our sin, hell, global warming, right? You would ask a thousand people, you'd probably get a thousand different answers. But this person said our biggest problem is that God is good. Our biggest problem is that God is good. That kind of catches you off guard, right? We don't necessarily think that our biggest problem is that God is good. And not just a little good, or maybe like how you think your grandpa or grandma is good because they're indulgent, but he's perfectly pure, and he's perfectly holy, and he always does what is right. Well, why does that matter? Why does it matter if God is perfectly pure and holy? Well, we are not, right? We're not. We're evil. We're wicked. But our first instinct is, well, come on, we're really not that bad, right? We're gathered here on a Sunday morning. How could we be called evil or wicked? But if we soon think back, even this past morning, this past week, if someone could play out our thoughts, right, if there was a DVD played of our actions over the past week, or just what we thought, maybe even on the way to church, or maybe even right now, I know I certainly won't want it played. And I'm thinking if we're honest with ourselves, none of us would want anyone to know all of our inner thoughts. We'd probably never show our face again here. Well, God knows all of our thoughts, right? He knows our motives, He knows our sin, He knows what we think. What is God's reaction when He sees all of our thoughts, our motives, and our desires? So our problem is that God is good and we are not. There's, a few months ago we were watching a program about El Chapo. I don't know if you've heard of him, but he was a famous drug kingpin in Mexico. And for years he had alluded to escape. He couldn't be caught. And he ran one of the largest narcotic rings, smuggling drugs into the U.S. He was jailed once, a tunnel was dug, he escaped. And he was jailed a second time, he was recaptured, but his empire continued to thrive and people really couldn't figure out why. Here was El Chapo in prison, but things continued as normal. While unknown at the time, El Chapo had paid the head of the prison millions of dollars as a bribe, so he was actually safest in prison. He had his cell phone, people could visit him, and he could conduct his business right under the nose of the authorities. Eventually, he decided he wanted to get out, so they put him in a laundry cart, smuggled him out the hallways and into a car that was waiting out front of the prison. You see, he had no real fear or punishment of prison because the head of it was corrupt. He was not good. He was just like the criminal. So if God was just like us, we would really have no issues, right? If the judge is corrupt or been bought off, he's no fear to the wrongdoer. Once again, our biggest problem is that God is good and that we are not. And just kind of the impact of these verses, it says, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood. Imagine that you went home after church today and found your family brutally murdered. It would be horrific. And the person that did it had been caught. They'd been caught red-handed, literally with the blood on their hands. They're jailed and the day of their trial comes, and that's the day that you've been looking for. Justice is going to be served. They've been caught red-handed. You've lost your family, you've lost those closest to you. And imagine that morning, you're sitting in the courtroom and the judge looks down and says, I'm gracious, I'm merciful, I'm slow to anger, and I'm long-suffering. And I delight in giving forgiveness. You're free to go. What would your reaction be? You'd be horrified. You'd be outraged. People would probably have to restrain you. What a miscarriage of justice. The person that's brutally injured you has just been let go and the judge says that he's merciful and gracious and he delights in giving forgiveness. They would be recalled. The judge would be removed from the bench immediately. It would be such a miscarriage of justice. Justice would not have been done. It would have been made a mockery of. Well, we just read ten verses about what God does to our sin, right? It's taken away. It's lifted. It's cast behind. It's covered. It's blotted out. It's not remembered. It's cleansed and it's cancelled. How can God do that and still be just? How can He say these words that He's merciful? And I know none of us thinks that we're as bad as a murderer, right? We think we're pretty good, but we know deep down that we have sinned, we've offended Him. And yet this is what He says He does with our sin. That it's forgiven. How can He be just? Well, we see it right here in this verse, right? through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and skipping towards the end, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is the problem in Scripture. This is why Jesus had to die. How can God be just? How can he say that he's good, and then yet also say these things about our sin? It's because he crushed his son. In Isaiah 53, verse 5, he was bruised for our iniquities. He was crushed. He bore the wrath of God. Someone once described it as God saved us from himself, by himself, for himself. We were saved by God, from God, and for God. Christ Jesus was our substitute. That's the only way that there can be forgiveness. This is the only way that the Bible can say these things about sin and not have it be the grossest miscarriage of justice of all time. That's the only way that there truly can be forgiveness. That's the only way that God can forgive is by bearing the curse himself. That's the only way that God can be good and righteous. So we looked at... No. What does the Bible say about forgiveness? No. How can God forgive? And then what I've called GROW, practicing forgiveness. That sounds good in concept, right? We like it when God forgives us. Of course we would like that benefit. Who wouldn't want to be forgiven? But it can be much more challenging to practice that. I think we know that from experience. How can you practice forgiveness with a selfish person? with someone who continually sins against you? What about someone that abuses you or abuses substances? Can you practice forgiveness like this, even in a weak form? And can you reflect the character of Christ? That's kind of where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Does forgiveness mean that we just turn a blind eye to sin and say, well, I forgive you, don't do it again? Or is it something other than that? Or does it just mean peace at all costs? Sometimes we just don't want to deal with something, so we ignore it, and maybe we're kind of covering it, and we think that that's forgiving. Well, we're not left to stumble around. Scripture does speak to this. One principle is don't turn a blind eye to sin. What else is it called? Just don't ignore. Well, where do we see that in scripture? I'm thinking of Matthew 18. Jesus says, if your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault. So address it. Speak about it. Don't just ignore it. But first of all, it's just between the two of you. And then he outlines some basic steps to take. if there is no repentance or reconciliation does not occur. And going through all of Matthew 18 is beyond the scope of this morning, but generally those verses speak about having humility, right? They speak of not ignoring the sin, but of confronting it, of taking it seriously. Verses 6 through 9 and then showing love to that person, verses 10 and 14. And then there's also confrontation, right? The person is confronted, and if they still don't repent, doesn't say, well, just ignore it and hope things work out, forget about it. No, there's actually a consequence, right? There's corporate discipline. So forgiveness does not mean turning a blind eye to sin. Another principle is, we would say, love wisely. Love wisely. Love the habitual sinner wisely. We live in an age and a time and a fallen world where some people are habitual with their offenses. Scripture says, this is Romans 12 verses 17 through 19, do not repay anyone evil for evil. Forgive. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge, I'll repay, says the Lord. So you kind of see in this passage that we're not to take matters into our own hands, but to entrust the person to God. pattern of forgiveness or loving someone has limits. And when those are reached, love and mercy may demand another approach. And we see this in scripture. It may include other Christians, right, in Matthew 18 with involving the church or going with someone else and speaking to them. You may entrust them to civil authorities for your safety and theirs. We see that in Romans 13. So the civil authorities are given to promote justice. So someone is self-destructive or abusive and may demand that you limit your own involvement with them and allow others to get involved. Separation may be necessary. But the goal of separation should be reconciliation. And we see even Jesus, at certain times he avoided confrontation and even physical attack. When people were ready to attack him, he left. He removed himself from that. And the Apostle Paul, when he was charged with crimes, what did he do? He appealed to the Roman authorities for protection. So practicing forgiveness can involve loving wisely and not ignoring sin. And starting with ourselves, sometimes we need to ask forgiveness. How we ask for forgiveness can be critical. If we go over to the fellowship hall after this and I accidentally spill a cup of coffee on you, I have not sinned against you. So I don't need to ask for forgiveness, but it would be polite to apologize for what I've done. I'm sorry I spilled coffee on you. On the other hand, if I walk up to you and throw coffee in your face, that wasn't an accident. That's intentional. I've sinned against you. I should apologize and ask for forgiveness. Is an apology the same as asking for forgiveness? No. And this is, I know I always fall short, often fall short in this, right? It's, well, I'm sorry for doing whatever, right? We don't name the specific sin or ask for forgiveness. I was wrong for yelling at you. Will you forgive me? is more biblical than just saying, I'm sorry for yelling at you, and stop at that. A person that's been sinned against will usually say, oh, that's okay. We see that with our kids all the time, right? You know, I'm sorry for hitting you. Well, that's okay. Don't do it again. But the actual sin is not confessed or admitted. And then the person that's been sinned against has really just minimized the sin. It's not okay for someone to sin against another person, and it's false forgiveness. So another grow heading, why don't we forgive? Why don't we forgive? Well, much could be said about this, but three thoughts. Why don't we forgive? One is we don't believe that we need to be forgiven. Well, especially, I'm guessing those here this morning, no one would ever say, I don't need to be forgiven, right? I think we all know better than to say that. But every time that we fail to forgive, we demonstrate that belief operating. in us. What happens when we're sinned against? What's our first reaction? I can't believe they did that. Here they go again. I would never do that. And those kinds of thoughts reveal our hearts. So what do we really communicate when we say, I would never do that? What are we communicating? What we really mean is, well, I may be a sinner, but I'm not that bad. They're far worse than I am. And that's a lie. That's not true. So we fail to see how desperately we need God's forgiveness. We need His grace. At our core, we're all self-righteous. We're not as bad, right? But if we stop and think about it, we've done far worse things to God than anyone has ever done to us. So we should be honest with ourselves. And if we've been sinned against, really we have two options. One is to forgive and seek reconciliation, or just banish the person from the face of the earth. If we just want complete separation, we don't want reconciliation, it shows that we are kind of on the same level as the person that sinned against us. We harden our hearts and don't forgive those who sin against us. So we need to see and recognize our own desperate need of forgiveness every day. Related to this, but kind of the opposite is, we don't think that we are forgivable. So why don't we forgive is because A, we don't think we need to be forgiven, or 2, we don't think that we are forgivable. But pride or selfishness kind of drives both, right? When we say, my sin is not forgivable, it kind of sounds humble or pious, but it's really an arrogant statement. And it could mean several things. One is, my sin is no big. There's no way that God's grace can top that. Well, when we put it in words like that, we realize that that's foolish, right? Pride's kind of hiding behind the mask of humility. You're too big and you're too bad for God to handle. In other words, your sin is bigger than God's mercy, right? And we see, just going back again to how the Bible describes it, that's not true. Or we could be saying, well, I don't really want to rely solely on God's mercy. I don't trust it. I'd rather work for his approval than his I don't like the idea of being a beggar and receiving a handout. I need to clean myself up. I need to maybe do some religious activity. But really, just in that case, saying that we're not forgivable is just a veil to hide our pride in that we're unwilling to admit that we can't do it on our own. Or some people will say, well, God may forgive me, but I can't forgive myself. I can't forgive myself for whatever sin I did in the past. And that sounds humble, right? But it really, as one person put it, has the canker of pride. You know, God, who is the highest judge and the highest decision maker, pronounces us not guilty or does this with our sin when we are trusting in Christ for salvation, but we sit and say, well, I don't forgive myself. That would be contempt of court if we were standing in front of a human judge. When we're acting that way, we're saying that we're bigger than God. And if we don't see our daily need of Christ, of His mercy, and we don't experience it, we can soon fall into this thinking when others sin against us. So, why don't we forgive? It can be because we don't think we need forgiveness, because we don't think we are forgivable, or the joy of God's forgiveness has grown dim. The joy of his forgiveness has grown dim. It's so easy to read texts and verses like these in Romans that talk about propitiation and how God can be just and the justifier. And soon skim over those, right? It's just words on a page. It soon goes in one ear and out the other, right? Often when we first become a Christian, when we're saved, we are shocked, right? It's amazing to think of the fact that we can be forgiven, right? A burden of sin has been lifted, right? But soon we can go on with a monotony of daily life, and there's struggles, there's temptations, there's trials, and these truths soon get lost, right? We can grow cold. And we return to handling daily life and how people sin against us, how we sin against them, how we did before we were Christians. We go through the routine. And we need to remind ourselves of this daily. The joy of His forgiveness has grown dim. And finally, the promise. of forgiveness. I'm running out of room here. The promise of forgiveness. So what are we really saying when we are saying that we are going to forgive our debtors, when we say that we're going to forgive those who sin against us. Dr. Mack gives three things that we're really saying when we're saying, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. One is, I will not bring up this offense again or use it against you. And you can see that concept in these words, right? Of covering, of taking away, of blotting out. The only reason to address the offense with the offender is for purpose of reconciliation, not vengeance. But how often we fail to do that, right? We're going to bring it up to shame the other person, maybe to score a few points, to make ourselves feel better. But the purpose should be for reconciliation. So if we're saying, as we forgive our debtors, We will not bring it up again or use it against you. That's promise one. Promise two is I will not gossip or malign you because of this offense. Often we can put the best possible spin on ourselves and the worst possible spin on the other person. But when we say, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, it's a promise to not gossip or attack the other person. We see that too here, right? Not remembering, removed, out of sight. If we're bringing it up to attack the other person, we're not doing that. And it's easy to go to others too, right? Can you believe what so-and-so did to me? And the third promise is, so firstly, we will not bring it up again or use it against you. Two, we will not gossip or malign you. Thirdly, I will not dwell on this offense. That's what we're saying when we practice forgiveness. I will not dwell on this offense. What does that mean? Well, I'm not going to keep replaying the videotape of your sin so I can savor every excruciating detail. Right? That sounds almost the exact opposite of taking away, of lifting a burden, of covering, of blotting out. I will not dwell on this offense. And how easy it is to do, right? I can think of when I first started working, someone that I had to work under who was incredibly rude and difficult. And even 20 years later, driving on the road, that incident replays in my mind. I can feel my hands tense up, my jaw clench, and boy, I wish I had said this or done this, right? 20 years after the fact. there's still that anger dwelling on it. How easy that is to do. Or even from your childhood, right? Maybe you were bullied or teased. Those incidents can replay instantaneously. And how often we dwell on that, right? That's really the exact opposite of those words, right? Failure to forgive breaks each of these promises. I'll just close with the illustration that Dr. Mack gives at the end of the chapter. I think it's powerful. And he's quoting from Donald Gray Barnhouse. It says, told a story that illustrated this godlike attitude towards those who sin against us. It is about a wife speaking to her husband when he told her about his past sinful lifestyle. The woman responded, John, I want you to understand something very plainly. I know my Bible well, and therefore I know the subtlety of sin and the devices of sin working in the human heart. I know that you are a thoroughly converted man, John, but I know that you still have an old nature and that you are not as fully instructed in the ways of God as you soon will be. The devil will do all he can to wreck your Christian life, and he will see to it that temptations of every kind will be put in your way. The day might come, please God, that it never shall, but the day might come when you will succumb to the temptation and fall into sin. Immediately the devil will tell you that it's no use trying to resist, that you might as well as continue on in the way of sin, and that above all, you are not to tell me because it will hurt me. But John, I want you to know that here in my arms is your home. When I married you, I married all of you, and I want you to know that there is full pardon and forgiveness in advance for any evil that may ever come into your life. He goes on to say that woman had learned the truth of Matthew 6, verse 12, and she made a commitment in terms of what she would do when she was sinned against. She committed herself to forgive even as God had forgiven her. Because of this, she could rightly pray, Father, forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. So just most of us don't walk around talking like that, but just the thought that's there, right, of open forgiveness and just a realization of what we have been forgiven. Let's close our time in prayer. O Lord, we stand amazed, Lord, in awe of your forgiveness, Lord, that's so contrary, Lord, to our instinct, Lord, to our sinful nature. Lord, we ask for forgiveness afresh, even this morning, Lord, a true forgiveness, Lord, a casting away of our sin. Lord, we pray that we would see ourselves as condemned before you, Lord, and hopeless and helpless, Lord, without Christ's sacrifice. So we pray for a renewed sense of that even today, Lord, as we begin a new year, Lord, with anticipation and hopes, Lord, and fears, Lord, we pray that we would know your forgiveness, Lord, and that we would be able to show it to others, that it won't just be something that's forced or that we work upon our own, Lord, but that it would be from a sense of the burden that has been lifted from us, Lord, your death on the cross, Lord, and paying for sin, Lord. We pray that those won't just be words that go in one ear and out the other, Lord, but that it would shape us, Lord, how we think, how we act, Lord, that we would live in light of your promise of forgiveness even today. In Jesus' name, amen.