Thank you, Wayne. Is this thing on? There we go. Wow. You guys weren't kidding. You can thank Cosman and Sam. They were working on the speakers yesterday, I think, and they said, it is sweet. Well, our passage this morning is going to be found in 2 Corinthians 2. starting in verse five. But before I do, I debated whether or not I was gonna ask you this or not, but I think I will for my own sake. Some of you were not here since the last time I preached. Some of you are new. And next week to the day will have been six years since the last time I preached. And for various reasons, that's just been the way that it is. But at the time, that was one of those moments where I was prodded, encouraged to pursue this, to consider this, and I took that to account. And the opportunity came again recently, and so I took up that mantle again, being encouraged by the elders to come and preach. But it would be disingenuous not to ask you this because Part of the questions that people would ask is, is this something that you're looking to do? And sometimes the question was a yes, sometimes a maybe, sometimes a I don't know. But it would be disingenuous to stand up here and to not take into heart and consider whether or not I should continue pursuing this. Otherwise, the elders wouldn't ask me to be up here. What I have to ask of you is consider these things as I preach today, whether or not this is something of a calling of my own that God has called me to do. Now it may take a few sermons to figure that out by any means, but it would be better to have an honest and contrite answer from all of you to a confirmation or a non-confirmation than to have one that was a false confirmation built off of the unwillingness to offend, as it were, or to make me feel bad. Trust me, I'm telling you now, you can hold me to this. You won't make me feel bad if you unanimously say, no sir, please stay out from behind this. So, all that to say, I stand here humbly before you with the willing service to preach the word to you and that is my desire to examine it with you together and to worship God in this way and to learn and to grow in this way and to chisel and admonish and encourage and rebuke one another in this way. So I ask that of you to keep that in mind as dutiful members of Christ's visible church in this day and age. So since it has been six years, I took the liberty of picking up where I left off. Now I realize that might leave some of you in the dark, so I'll try my best to give a little bit of a overview of what's taken place before that. So that said, we'll go ahead and start in chapter one, and we'll take the time to at least read up all the way to chapter two, verse 11. All right. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril. He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. For our boast is this. the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. We are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand. Just as you did partially understand us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you. Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes and no, no at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not yes and no, but in Him it is always yes. for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. But I call God to witness against me. It was to spare you. that I refrained from coming again to Corinth, not that we lorded over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you, for if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice. For I felt sure of all of you, My joy would be the joy of you all, for I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. Now, if anyone has caused pain, he's caused it not to me, but in some measure, not to put it too severely, to all of you. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, but we are not ignorant of his designs. Thus reads the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Our gracious God in heaven, we thank you for this word. We thank you for the gospel of Christ. We thank you for the ministry of the word. We thank you for reconciliation that you have brought to us by your son. Lord, I pray that you will help us in this task of understanding this little snippet of scripture in the life of the Corinthian church that brings so much bearing to our life now. I pray for your help, in your son's name, amen. So Repentance, Reconciliation, and Restoration, A Mark of a True Church and a Believer is the title. We take into consideration that sin is a reality in our world. For the Christian, it is a conquered reality. But for those that are not saved, it is a biting reality, is one that brings misery. If God the Father has forgiven us repentant sinners through the blood and sacrifice of his Son and has given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, then therefore, if we are reconciled to the Father, we must also be about the duty of reconciliation as well. In the context of this particular passage, if you may have picked up on the fact If you were to go and read all of 1 Corinthians in one sitting, you would become abundantly clear that the Corinthian church had its difficulties with multiple different sin issues. And that's not to say that they're the only church with that, whether they be blatantly obvious or hidden in the heart. The fact remains is, Such is the case with all churches that are still being sanctified on this side of glory. Not to pick on the Corinthians too much, but that's just a painful observation, but it's something that must be reckoned with. And that is the context that Paul finds himself in, that he's still working with them in such a way as to bring about their sanctification, but also in the effect that it continues to grow God's church. It continues to exemplify the work of the gospel, Christ crucified, as Paul is so emphatic to say. So what's in with this context? You start to notice back in chapter one that he starts to explain why he didn't come to them. There was a particular reason. and you start to get this idea that they weren't really happy with them for not coming. And perhaps there were some, and if you go back and read 1 Corinthians, you'll notice that they had a difficulty with strife and quarreling and these particular things. And you start to recognize that sometimes there's a tendency to grasp. You still wrestle with these jealousies that, you know, these power positions or whatever. The flesh is still at war within us at times. at times, all the time. But you see this in this particular passage, that Paul is pleading with them and seeking to show them, by his own admission, and remind them of all these things that God has done, that he has done through them, not that he's boasting in it, but he's simply pointing out the fact that I'm not double-minded here, as we've talked about before. God who establishes. We talked about John Knox and the ministry and all those before in Sunday school. It's God who builds the church. And so sometimes we can get lost in particular little nitpicky things and say, well, I think he ought to be doing this or that. Now that was the emphasis on my last sermon. So I'll try not to dwell too much on that. But he shifts gears. Here in verse 5, when he says, now if anyone has caused pain, he's not caused it to me. So he starts talking about something that he already knows about. And it's hard to say the one who has caused pain, who that may be. It could be the incestuous man in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians. It could be that it seems that there is a second trip that's not necessarily recorded in Acts, but it's seemingly implied through careful examination of the text that there seems to be a second trip that resulted in this second letter that Paul alludes to, for this is why I wrote, didn't want to make another painful visit to you, okay? All this to say, it's not all that easy to find out exactly who this is, but in regards to this, it doesn't necessarily matter to the extent that Paul knows that this particular man that has actually truly caused pain, through what? Through sin, which is the true cause of our pain, not some subjective ideologies that we want to place on someone else's shoulders. But it is the sin from this man that has disrupted the church. And it has caused pain. And now Paul is using, in a sense, he's continuing to build off, and I want you to at least notice this. As we go through this text, I want you to notice Paul's gentleness here, it's actually very reserved from other texts. He's quite gentle with them, even though it may seem the opposite. He doesn't name the sinner. He seems to be frequently giving the Church of Corinth the benefit of the doubt, but simply playing on the fact that here we are, a church of confessing believers, and someone in your midst has caused pain and suffering. we must remember and focus on that which truly causes pain and suffering, a true sin. Now, why do we make a comment on what a true sin is? Well, unfortunately, today's day and age, it seems if you go out in the world long enough, it's not easy to find the twisting of Scripture in a thousand different directions to where sin isn't called a sin anymore, true sin, biblical sin. And that which is true biblical sin is that which is now called good. Now, we could probably stay here all day and come up with a thousand different examples, but I think you know what I'm referring to. You can take a little bit of your imagination to figure that out. But the point is, is a Christian who is now a slave to God has become subjected to the law of Christ, as it were, the law of God, as Paul has, And so he begins to know and understand what he should and should not do as he's being sanctified and carried on. So when you have these churches built by Paul, or started, and Christ is building these churches, and they're professing Christ, and they're working out their salvation, Paul is playing upon that true reality and does not doubt it for a second. If you read through all the contexts of 1 and 2 Corinthians and even all the other epistles, He addresses them as true churches. And sometimes we find ourselves aghast to find, for goodness sakes, what is their problem? But oftentimes when we ask that question, we really ought to pause and say, hold on a minute. Have I seen this problem elsewhere before? Have I been guilty of this myself? So I bring that to our attention as he shifts the gears now. And he's not highlighting it on it to make them feel bad about this. He wants to draw their attention to this greater reality of living in light of the gospel, okay? So, the one who caused pain, incestuous man, possibly. It may be one who caused such a ruckus. It may have been one that, you know, is referred to later as a super-apostle and later on in 2 Corinthians, you know, you go back, I think it's 1 Corinthians 10, there's a depiction of all this strife. And it's hard to say exactly where it comes from, but the man, and it is a man, as described, him, restore him, is repentant. So now, Paul says, for such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. Now, to recognize that true sins are distinctive from false made-up sins, either by our dislikes or distaste or emotions or whatever the world may contrive, there's always this great distinction that's going on, one versus the other. And as we saw in verse 10, in verse 9, this is why I wrote to test you whether you're obedient and everything, it was clear that this man had to go through, it seems, a type of church discipline that led to not only just one man bringing it to him, not only two or three to bear witness, but the whole church. and results in excommunication for the purpose of what? Restoration. Not to kick them out and say, well, see ya, never. Consider it this way. When Paul talks about the body of Christ, many members of one body, and I think if you go to 1 Corinthians 12, you'll notice he makes the comment of, You have the great depiction of the body parts, don't you? So it's a very big deal, and it's a necessary loving thing to exercise church discipline on that which is truly sin. But if they were once a part of you, that's part of the body that is now disconnected, as it were. Now time will tell whether they were truly part of the body to begin with, as 1 John will talk about, in the sense of they went out from us because they were not of us, but that's not necessarily what this is talking about. Now we know that he is going to be restored, so clearly he was a member that was in need of healing, that was in need of restoration. I think in verse 26 it says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. So, when someone is necessarily put out of our midst, there is an automatic or should be automatic sense of sorrow comes upon the rest of the body because they are no longer part of us at this given time. But the good news in this particular passage, as Paul's encouragement to be restored, They go through the steps that we saw in Matthew 18. We notice that, next page, that when it comes to this restoration and forgiveness, that we should be happy that it's successful. We ought to be. In Luke 17, 3-4, it was read Saturday in the day. Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times, saying, I repent, you must forgive him. In Colossians 3, 12-13, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. You know, as a church, as a collective body of believers, this is a large part of our doings. Sin is pernicious. I say that because I don't think any of you will argue with me that in this particular instance, this is a big picture item, but what if we were to narrow it down into a smaller focus? To family members, to husband and wife, to parents and children, to mutual friends, okay? I fear sometimes, and I'm looking at myself, we're not so ready to forgive as quickly as we ought to be, as quickly as the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. And the scripture is so emphatically clear about this. And I think Paul is loving the body of the Corinthians to point this out in such a way, and he's not saying that they weren't going to do it. If you take this as a warning, as an exhortation, okay, Now we've seen this man, the one who truly caused pain, he's repented. Praise God. Because such were some of you. Remember that idea of humility as we go to such a one. We're going to turn to that here in Galatians 6.1 at some point in time. But if you recall, to go to such a one, being very wary and very concerned that you yourself could be in that position. It's by God's grace. His hand on you has not allowed you to be there. But more than that, as we consider this aspect of reconciliation and restoration, it's hard not to just jump ahead to the end because it's But we won't. All right. As we consider those things, it's a glorious thing to consider because it's so antithetical to the world's devices. Now, think for a moment. Let's do this first, I'm sorry. Consider this. Consider the Lord's Prayer. What should our constant desire be throughout the Lord's Prayer. One of them ought to be, Lord, forgive us as we have forgiven our debtors, right? Matthew 6.14 says, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. We must understand that there is a visible representation coming from the church when we forgive of what Christ has done for the penitent sinner. So when someone sins and repents and asks for forgiveness, not only from you, but from God, as David puts it, the one, to you and you alone I sinned, right? Consider that when we forgive, it's a visible representation of the true forgiveness that God has promised. He's been faithful and just to forgive us our sins, okay? So consider this, the turn in forgiving that we have. We want to be aware, we don't want them to be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow. Now why would Paul say that? Now consider this picture with me for a moment. Say you're this man. Say you're this man before you're saved, before he's saved and the gospel is preached to him. He sees his sin before a holy God and recognizes that he must repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Call upon the Lord and you will be saved. He does so. He's a penitent sinner. Lord, have mercy on me. I am a sinner. He goes home justified. He goes home happy, rejoicing that his sins have been dealt with. Now, as we consider those things, sorry, as we consider those things, we consider the man, he goes and he's a part of this church now. and life continues on, and he enjoys that reconciliation that is found in Christ, and that being a part of the body, he experiences the joy of the Lord, and then, a little at a time, like David, perhaps he falls away, and he falls into this terrible sin that is necessary to bring about church discipline, so grievously so, and even excommunication to the point He's in despair now. He has lost that fellowship with the Father, he's lost that communion with God himself, with the Son, by the Spirit. He's not at peace. But God is using that to thwart the devil, as it were, also, to bring about godly repentance. He uses that to humble the man, and he comes before all of you, and confesses his sin and repents and turns from him. Imagine that. Imagine the humility and the defacement. Well, that's the way he was when he first came to Christ. And now it's the same attitude that brings us back into the fellowship with Christ. Now, Paul's warning. Don't let the punishment be too severe. Let's not be too hesitant to grant forgiveness. So you can see easily why I point to the smaller effects in the home at times, with husband and wife, or parents and children, or our mutual friends. If we see it in the greater picture, it's very obvious in the little picture. But that is how we live out the gospel. this ministry of reconciliation that Paul is going to discuss in later chapters. But if we're a church that, well, I don't know, I want to see some proof, it may not come so quickly, at least at that moment anyway. I quite firmly believe that truly repentant sinners show proof very quickly. It shouldn't be that hard. but sometimes knowledge puffs up, we become proud, we become lofty, and we forget. Forget that forgiveness that was bestowed on us. I think it's appropriate that so many times throughout Scripture, the Lord has forgiven you, you must forgive. So consider the doubt that may come across a true believer's heart, as he's already humbled himself before a vast many people in full recognition of his sins and repented, expecting that reconciliation that he once knew when he first became saved, and the church that is that physical representation of that same forgiveness says, hold on, hold it off a little bit. I want to make sure that you're on the level. Scripture says, to the pure, all things are pure. Now it doesn't mean, that'll be clear, certain sins necessitate certain consequences. That is completely different. is completely separate from true forgiveness and reaffirming your love for him. So we must have those distinctions clear. Charles, I guess Charles, I just wrote Hodge, wrote this in his commentary, as long as the offender was impenitent and persisted in his offense, Paul insisted on the severest punishment. As soon as he acknowledged and forsook his sin, he became his earnest advocate. Undue severity is as much to be avoided as undue leniency. The character which Paul here exhibits reflects the image of our Heavenly Father. His word is filled with denunciations against impenitent sinners and at the same time with assurances of unbounded pity and tenderness towards the penitent. He never breaks the bruised reed or crunches the smoking flax. And we must be careful not to do that. If our Lord Jesus Christ is so gentle, the bruised reed, puts his hand over the smoking flax, but not to smother it, not to let the wind finish it off, but let it come back to life. So, I've kind of already answered this question in some regards. How soon Do we forgive? The text indicates right now, immediately, I think that is the case. You see that throughout Scripture, we just read in Luke 17, comes to you seven times in a day. I look at my children, a few of them back there, how many times have they slammed the door in one day? I look at myself and I say, did you forgive him when he said he was sorry? But this is the reality. This is the grace of God through the gospel that we get to enjoy because of Christ. He bore the wrath in our stead. He bore the penalty. He bore the true shame for our sins. And yet, he is so ready to forgive when we repent and confess our sins. Thankfully, much more ready than we oftentimes are, but the good news is, even though we are a physical representation of that forgiveness, it's not binding on what we say or do, whether that man or woman is forgiven. Thankfully, that's the case. And indeed, that's probably part and parcel why Paul talks about the God of all comforts in that regard. So I beg you to reform your love for him. Now let's back up. I want to show you some examples of that first question, how quickly we forgive. I mean, consider David. Consider David. I wrote it down, so let's look at it. We just went through this recently in CLT, 2 Samuel 12. You should all know this by heart by now. Nathan is rebuking David for the sin of Bathsheba. Chapter 12, verse 13. David said to Nathan, this is after he's been confronted, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. In the same breath, or in the same verse, and Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die. That seems pretty immediate to me. You think about Paul. the one who breathed threats to the church, the one who thought of himself as the least of all the apostles because of what he had done to the church. When you look at his testimony in Acts 9 and the way that that worked itself out, Paul was accosted on the way to Damascus. Who are you, Lord, he says. I am the one that you are persecuting. You could tell by Paul's actions Repentance and forgiveness was swift. I'll let you look at Acts 9 on your own time. Think of Peter. Peter, in contrast to Judas, it's a helpful distinction. Just think of Judas first. You might ask yourself, there's some other texts of people that showed remorse in Scripture Doesn't look like they ever received any kind of restoration, reconciliation. What about Judas? Really briefly, we'll look at him in contrast to Peter, I believe. We'll find that in Matthew 27. Really quickly, let's look at this and consider Judas' actions. And when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, verse 3, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. Now consider for a moment. Well, it says he changed his mind. Isn't that the same thing as repentance? I think we ought to consider also the rest of the context. I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. We can recognize our sins. So many times we pay attention, a lot of people do, oh yeah, I'm a sinner, and yet, They show by their actions that they still wanna hold themselves up by their own bootstraps. They still wanna sew the fig leaves on. See to it yourself, they told him. What terrible advice. They knew nothing of reconciliation in God. He brought back the money as if that was going to absolve it. He didn't go to Christ as a penitent sinner did. Lord, have mercy on me. I am a sinner, what does that imply? I cannot fix one iota of what I've done to the Lord Savior. Now Peter is a separate example, in complete contrast. I mean, we could go to John and examine those particular steps you see in John 20 and 21. You see on the resurrection, Peter goes to the tomb in chapter 20. Peter ran to the tomb. Jesus appears to them. Then lastly, in 21, Peter jumps out of a boat towards the risen Savior. He goes to Christ. Christ restores him. He asks him, Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Now, we can glean from that text true restoration towards Peter from Christ. Peter had a true love. But the Lord Judas did not. Judas was concerned about his own gain. We must be careful about only going so far with our guilt over sin. Does it actually lead to repentance? Have we allowed it? Have we truly confessed it and turned from it? and placed it on the cross of Christ, knowing that you cannot fix it by throwing back 30 pieces of silver that you took. To go back to the text in 2 Corinthians, For this is why I wrote that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. Indeed, let your yes be yes. After all, in Christ we have our yes and amen. True forgiveness resolves the matter. Do not make forgiveness conditional. And please be clear, it's not the same as consequences. The man who's repentant, like David, you know, we haven't got there yet, but as he's going to leave Jerusalem because Absalom's after him, the way that he talks about Shimei, I think, the one who curses him, And the way that he spoke to Joab and his brothers in regards to him gives you an indication of David's true repentance. Fully acknowledging, this is from the Lord. It's what I deserve. It doesn't change my standing with God by any means. Praise be to God for that. But it's there to continue to sanctify me, but then also caused me more reliance upon that great salvation that I have attained. So consider the obedience and forgiveness that we see considered as warfare. Ever think about that in verse 11 when he talks about The need for doing these things, if we forgive anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. What's Satan's greatest task? Undoing all that God is doing. He hates the church. He hates Christ's church. He hates God. He hates anything and everything that has to do with God. Galatians 6.1, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him. In a spirit of gentleness, keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. We don't want to be outwitted by Satan by being tempted in the same manner, by thinking ourselves too brought out. Well, thank goodness, I don't deal with that anymore. And then you walk through that door. Consider this as warfare. My brothers in James 5.19, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Now, one commentator acknowledges that the apostle here takes it for granted that Christians are not ignorant of his devices. We can go to Ephesians and look at putting on the whole armor of God for certain reasons. We can look at Zechariah 3, 1-3. We recognize, we've read it before, where Joshua is being accused by Satan. God rebukes him and puts clean clothes on him. So Satan is crafty and has many designs that are plural. So consider the harm done to one another. We've already discussed this. We don't want to accidentally become the devil's advocate by holding off forgiveness in such a way. We don't want to be the ones that he uses to create doubt of forgiveness from God himself. that he has promised to every believer. What does he said in 1 John 1, 9? If any of these sins, you have an advocate, the Father. Hodge says again that this and similar passages of the word of God teach that Satan is a personal being, that he exerts great influence over the minds of men, that although finite and therefore not ubiquitous, He is nevertheless represented as operating on the minds of men generally, and not merely on those in any one place. His powers of intelligence and agency, therefore, must be great beyond our conceptions. No individual and no community can ever be sure that he is not plotting their destruction." So to consider, as we obey Christ clear commands and forgiving, and there's true repentance over and over and over again, and not saying, You did this yesterday! When are you ever going to get it figured out? I'm sorry, but that's not the message of the Gospel, and that's not applying the Gospel in that way. Applying the Gospel properly is seven times in a day you forgive So as God builds his church by the message of the gospel and the outworkings of those things, through the word followed with living testimony, hell will never prevail. So my final exhortation, let's turn to Ephesians chapter one real quick. If I can find it. Chapter one, just consider this really quickly. Chapter one, verse seven, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Notice we're not looking out forgiveness of your trespasses. As we read that, every time we read it, it says, our, indicating, I'm looking at my trespasses are forgiven in Him. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight. We could keep going on this glorious passage, but just consider this. The next time someone sins against you, consider this. Remember. Remember how ugly your sins have been, were, are, will be, and how, thankfully on our part, that Christ is so willing to forgive. Consider that when someone sins against you in the next 20 minutes or an hour. So as professing believers who have come to know the love of God through the exceeding and abundant forgiveness of our sins, let us also, as we are commanded, forgive one another as often as is needed so that we can enjoy that visible and tangible restoration therefore giving witness to the true restoration that is found in Christ our Lord, the faithful and the just. Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, I thank you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the glorious truth. I pray that it was accurate. I pray that it was honoring and glorifying and uplifting to the church, as it has been to me all week and all the past six years that I've dwelt on this. Certainly, we need the help of your spirit to apply it to us, and I pray that you will be faithful to do just that. as we come to your table and partake of the Lord's Supper, I pray that you will comfort us as the God of all comfort, as we rest in that glorious restoration through Christ alone. Indeed, I pray that you will be with us as a body of believers that go forth from this building Pray that we'll go forth in peace, joy, ready to share again and again that which you have given us. That great going home justified as that penitent sinner was, Lord have mercy on me, I sinner. I thank you for your kindness and your mercy and your unabashed willingness to forgive. Pray that we will revel in that in the coming days. In your son's name, amen.