I invite you to take your Bibles and you can turn to Romans chapter four. As I mentioned, we won't be in Daniel this morning. We're going to continue that Wednesday night. But you can turn in your Bibles to Daniel, excuse me, Romans chapter four to begin with. However, we're not going to start with Romans four right off the bat here. We're actually going to begin with Oli and Lena. I thought with the snow that we've received in recent weeks that's now staying for the most part, though we had a very nice day yesterday, you might appreciate a good Lena and Oli joke. Maybe you've heard some of these before. Ole and Lena, Scandinavians, so we can relate here in northern Minnesota, eh? Ole and Lena were sitting down to their usual morning cup of coffee, listening to the weather report coming over the radio. There will be three to five inches of snow today, and a snow emergency has been declared, the weather report said. You must park your cars on the odd-numbered side of the streets. Oley says, rats. Well, OK. And he gets up from his coffee. The next day, they're sitting down with their morning cup of coffee, and the weather forecast says there will be two to four inches of snow today. And a snow emergency has also been declared. You can tell this isn't northern Minnesota, right? The radio goes on. You must park your cars on the even-numbered side of the streets today. Again, Ole says, rats. Well, OK. And he gets up from his coffee. Two days later, again, they're sitting down with their cups of coffee, and the weather forecast says there will be six to nine inches of snow today, and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the, and just then, the power cuts out. and Ole doesn't get the rest of the instructions. He turns to Lena and says, ah, rats, what am I going to do now, Lena? And Lena says, ah, Ole, why don't you just leave the car in the garage today? A merry heart does good like medicine sometimes, doesn't it? I thought I'd start with some humor, since our topic this morning isn't particularly humorous, but more serious, and you may not hear a joke from me at all for the next hour, so hopefully that'll tide you over. Well, this morning and next Sunday, I'd like to study the scriptures with you on a very important topic of forgiveness, starting with God's forgiveness of us, and then our forgiveness towards one another, both the vertical and the horizontal components. And it almost goes without saying that there's a need for this subject, for in many things we all do offend, James 3.2 says. So whether it's in your families, in the church, at work, on a team, or wherever you are in this world, there's a continual need to both receive personal forgiveness from others and to extend it to them as well. But this raises important questions, such as, How can I forgive someone else when they have hurt me so badly? And if I keep remembering the wrong that's been done to me and replaying it in my head, have I really forgiven that person? Or do I have a right to withhold forgiveness from someone if they haven't even acknowledged any wrongdoing on their part? Or, if I forgive others, then won't this simply be an excuse for them to sin more and continue to repeat the offense? These are all important questions that we need to ask and answer biblically. And that's why we have the Word of God to guide us through this. Because this can be an emotionally charged subject, where we feel the hurts and the wrongs that often go so deeply in our life, but the Word of God can clarify all of this. Now, despite how important this topic is and how much the Bible addresses it, there are only two verses in the entire Bible that use this exact expression of forgiving one another, which is the title of our message today, and part two will be next Sunday. And those two verses are found in Ephesians 4.32 and Colossians 3.13, which we will look at over the course of these two studies. But let's begin today not with the horizontal component, human to human forgiveness, but with the vertical, us and God. For we can't forgive others on a horizontal level unless we have first received from God His forgiveness and we understand what it's all about. How He's extended this to us in grace because of His Son, Jesus Christ. So I had you turn to Romans chapter 4 and let's begin there starting in verse 1. It says, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." First of all, we see when it comes to forgiveness from God that there is something called judicial forgiveness that he gives to us. And judicial forgiveness occurs at the same time as our justification in the sight of God. That's the time when God permanently releases us from the penalty of our sins, and he imputes to us his own righteousness. You see, think of it this way. Before we come to Christ as condemned sinners outside of the family of God, we have a minus righteousness in our spiritual ledger, a negative balance, if you will. And so at the moment of salvation, when we put our faith in Christ and His finished work of dying on our behalf, His payment for our sin, at that moment God forgives us of our sin. That minus righteousness becomes a zero, as we're fully forgiven of all trespasses, the Bible says. And by the way, God is free to forgive us, not simply because he is beneficent or willing to forgive. There is a ground or basis for our forgiveness where his justice is satisfied. As his son had to die in our place as our substitute, then God was free to forgive us on the basis of grace in Christ's work. But when we become justified, is it merely a matter of being forgiven? Having a zero in our spiritual bank account or ledger? No. God takes us from the minus R to the zero and then gives us the righteousness of God himself. We have a plus R imputed to us. This is justification before God, being declared righteous by God. And God can declare this because it's true. He sees us wrapped in the robes of the righteousness of his very own Son. You see, something we all have to come to grips with as we come to Jesus Christ as our Savior is the fact that we are sinners. We stand in a long line of sinners all the way back to Adam. In fact, the whole human race is under sin, Romans says. And when Adam sinned, guess what? His sin was imputed to us. God saw us in Adam before we were saved, and because Adam was a sinner, and through his act of sin, the whole race was condemned thereafter. That's why Jesus had to be virgin conceived and born. He broke that pattern. He did not inherit sin, and Adam's sin was not inherently imputed to him because he wasn't a sinner. We had our sins laid on Christ so that Christ's righteousness could be laid upon us. And the Bible speaks of three imputations of Adam's sin to man. of our sin to Christ, and then Christ's righteousness imputed to us. Just as 2 Corinthians 5.21 wonderfully says that God made him, Jesus Christ, his son, to be sin or to be a sin offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There's a double imputation or exchange that takes place there. Christ got our sin, we got his righteousness. Talk about a good deal. This is what God offers. And the righteousness now that he gives to us is found in Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, but of him you are in Christ Jesus, speaking to the believers in Corinth. They had been born again, they had been placed at the moment of faith by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 and 13 said, and who is Jesus Christ? He became for us wisdom from God. You may have natural wisdom, but where is your true wisdom found? In Jesus Christ. And righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, these are all found in the complete package you have in Jesus Christ, and being sufficient in Him. So that, as it is written, he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. If Christ is our all in all, and we are righteous because of him, then he is the one who gets glorified. But notice how God sees you now. He sees you in Christ, his son. And because Christ is righteous, you have his righteousness. And he sees you now, not in your tattered rags, so to speak, spiritually speaking. but he sees you wrapped in the robes of his righteousness." In other words, he sees you through the cross even though you're still a sinner. He sees you in light of what Jesus Christ has done for you so that you are simultaneously justified in his sight and yet still sinful. And we know that one day we'll lose our sin nature and we won't practice sin at glorification and we have that guaranteed to look forward to as a believer in Jesus Christ. But in the meantime, you can relate, especially this time of year, though yesterday wasn't a good illustration of this as all the snow started melting. But we're going to get more, I'm pretty sure. And the snow is going to cover up all the blemishes. So the It's pure as far as God sees, and that's like us. We're a sinner, we still have a sin nature, we still commit acts of sin, and yet God sees us through his Son, having the righteousness of his Son. And he sees us as pure, as washed, as sanctified, as justified in his Son. But did you notice in Romans 4, In these verses, right after it says we are justified not by our works, but by faith, that it goes on to say in verses 7 and 8, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. Have yours been forgiven? If you've put your trust in Jesus Christ, if so, then God calls you blessed. And whose sins are covered forever, completely. and paid for. Verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. Because he's imputed it to his own son and you've accepted or trusted in the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf, God will never impute your sins back to you. Isn't that wonderful? Because what Christ did on the cross was an all-sufficient payment for our sins. That's why when he finished right before he gave up the ghost to the father and died, he said, it is finished. He didn't say it's 90% complete and you've got to do your part. He didn't say if you could get your good works to outweigh your bad, you'll get in to heaven. No, by dying in our place, he paid the debt of our sin in full for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life. in Christ Jesus. And how do we know that He accepted the work of His Son on the cross, paying in full for our sin? By raising Him from the dead. That was the guarantee. That was the canceled check that says, in essence, the payment is cleared at the bank. And I am satisfied, God the Father said. Now the question is, are you satisfied? And we looked at Romans chapter 4 here because it sets forth two approaches to being justified in the sight of God. There's the by works approach in which man seeks to indebt God to him, that God owes us something. By our good works, he owes us eternal life for being righteous or justified. That's the approach of verse 4. To the one who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. God owes us something. And that's how I thought before I was born again. If I could just get all my good deeds to outweigh my sin and the rest of my life was a struggle to accomplish that, then I would be accepted by God. The only problem is you never have assurance of salvation based on that approach because there's always one more work to be done. One more sacrament. Baptism wasn't enough. Now you've got to go through confirmation. Confirmation's not enough. You've got to come and take communion every week to get your next installment of grace. And then you've got to keep yourself from the serious sins of life, you know, the mortal sins. Venial sins, God will overlook some of those. But the whopper ones, watch out for those because you'll lose grace. You'll fall from grace over those, religion says. The fact is, grace is something we don't deserve or earn in the first place. How can we lose it due to a sinful walk? That's why it has to all be by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And that's why verse 5 went on to say, but to the one who doesn't work, but believes on him, capital H, Jesus Christ, the one who justifies the ungodly. See, we don't justify ourself. He has to justify us. That person's faith is accounted for righteousness. When that person puts their faith in Jesus Christ, God looks at that person and says, I cancel their debt. because of the work of my son and because that person trusted in the work of my son. And on top of that, I give them the righteousness of Christ. So God thereafter, forever, sees that person as judicially forgiven. Turn with me next to Luke chapter 7 to see this beautifully illustrated by the story of the Pharisee versus the immoral woman. The Pharisee and the Immoral Woman. What we're going to see here is that, again, judicial forgiveness is given on the basis of God's grace and through faith. Luke chapter 7, starting in verse 36. Then one of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus Christ, that is, to eat with him. And he went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner In other words, a notorious sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisees' house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at his feet behind him weeping. And she began to wash his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. And she kissed his feet and anointed them with fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, or the Pharisee, he spoke to himself 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. Notice the Pharisee's response is, first of all, she's a sinner. Not thinking, I'm a sinner too. Verse 40, and Jesus answered and said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher, say it. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. Now in this illustration, who do you think owed the 500 denarii? The notoriously sinful woman. And who owed the 50? Well, the righteous Pharisee, of course, Simon. And when they had nothing with which to repay, verse 42, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, you have rightly judged. By the way, that expression in verse 42, freely forgave, Do you know that that is the Greek word charis in the past tense? Echarisato, you can see it there. And so the idea here is God graciously forgave, freely forgave. It's translated both. Whether you're a notorious sinner or a well-known righteous man, both are sinners is his point. And both have to be forgiven freely by the grace of God. Now, how does that grace get applied? Well, it has to be individually received by faith, and that's the point. Verse 46 or 44 goes on. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has 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." And this is in the past tense, by the way, there in verse 47. Literally, they have been forgiven and they continue to be forgiven. It's a perfect passive indicative. They are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Then he said to her, your sins, again, perfect past tense, your sins literally have been forgiven and they remain forgiven. And those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? So in other words, if he's telling people that their sins are forgiven, who does he think he is, God? Yes, that's part of the point here. Jesus was fully God. Verse 50, then he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Again, perfect tense, he's referring to the past. Your faith has saved you, go in peace. And when he says that in verse 50, he's not saying that you got saved once the tears hit my feet and the oil fell on my toe. He's not saying you got saved that way. It took faith for the woman to come to Jesus, and she trusted in him before she wiped his feet with her hair and her tears in the oil. You see, we're not saved due to our tears. and the expression of our faith. She was saved through her faith in the first place. But it was a gracious, free forgiveness that the Lord Jesus offered. And so this is just like Romans chapter four, a beautiful illustration of that truth. This is judicial forgiveness. God acting as judge to clear the unrighteous and even to give his righteousness to them as a gift of his grace based on the work of his son. But you know, besides judicial forgiveness, the Bible also describes parental forgiveness. This is God acting not as a judge, but as a parent towards those who are children in his family. So turn with me next to 1 John 1. Another familiar passage we've looked at here on Sunday mornings a few times in the last year. But I want to show the contrast in the two kinds of forgiveness. 1 John 1. We're going to see here that parental forgiveness is the forgiveness necessary to restore the child of God, one who's already been justified in the sight of God. To restore the child of God to the relational harmony of fellowship with God, when as believers we sin against God. Let me ask you this, when you sin as a, you grew up in a home, you had parents, we all had parents, otherwise we wouldn't be here, right? As you think back to your relationship with your parents, just because you were a child within the family, were you perfect? No, that was my older brother who thought he was perfect, right? No, none of us were perfect. We often sinned. We often disobeyed our parents. And when we did, did we need forgiveness? Now, some might be here with a false form of spirituality who think, well, no. You don't have to extend forgiveness to your kids. You know, they're already fully forgiven. They're born again. Really? Think of the judge who works during the day down at the county courthouse, and he pounds his gavel, and he says guilty to this person, to the next, innocent, you're free to go, justified, et cetera. And then that judge comes home in the evening, and he sees his you know, teenage son at home, and his son has, you know, violated some rule of the house. Does the judge say at that point, you're guilty, get down to the county jail? No, he doesn't. He treats him differently. Not judicially, but parentally. It's the same person, but he's operating differently because we're on different terms now. And that's true when someone becomes a child of God and the family of God. In fact, a failure to distinguish between judicial and parental forgiveness from God leads to the misunderstanding about the security of the believer. Those who don't understand this distinction between parental and judicial don't believe usually in eternal security for those who've trusted in Christ. But of course, understanding this truth helps us with our security all by the grace of God. And so you don't have to wonder, as a child of God, if you're slipping up and you're sinning, where you stand with God from day to day. You're still accepted. You're still in the beloved. You're still his child. He will love you forever, no matter how bad you screw up. Isn't that an incentive and an encouragement to want to walk with the Lord and to please the Lord, your Heavenly Father? Absolutely. That's what we see in 1 John 1 here. Verses 1 and 2, the Lord Jesus is the word of life to us, he came in the flesh, he is eternal life, and he wants us to have fellowship with him as believers. Verse 3, that which we have seen and heard and we declare to you, that you also, you readers, may also have fellowship with us, the apostles, who touched Jesus, heard him, etc. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, with them both. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. God wants us to have full joy as believers. Verse 5, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. In other words, he's holy. And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and yet we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Are believers ever self-deceived? Yes, we often are. That's why it's good to take spiritual inventory at times and say, Lord, where am I really at in my walk with you? barked at my kids this morning and stomped my feet on, slammed the door on the way out of the house. Am I really in fellowship with you? I don't think so. If I've sinned against them, then that means I'm out of fellowship with you. But we are prone to self-deception in our pride because we often think we are better than we really are. Just like when it came to firsthand salvation and coming to Christ to be our Savior, we had to admit or acknowledge that I was a sinner who had a need. In fact, I was on my way to hell and separated from God, and I needed a new birth. We need to have that same mindset then as we walk with the Lord from day to day. Verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Notice he's talking about this pattern of self-deception. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So what he's saying here is this graphic that you've seen many times before. Don't tune out at this point. For one who's never been born again, not part of the family of God. if they put their trust in Jesus Christ and what he did for them on the cross, dying for their sins and rising, and believe that was a sufficient work for their salvation. And they don't trust in any work of their own. At that moment, the Spirit of God takes them, places them into union with Christ, and they become a member of the family of God, a child forever. They can never fall out of that yellow circle there. But we can go in and out of fellowship with the Lord, as chapter one here is describing. And we break fellowship with God when we sin. And what the Lord is looking for, according to verse 9, is for a yielded heart that says, I'm willing to acknowledge I've sinned against you, Lord, that simply acknowledges it. He's not looking for penance from us because, frankly, the grounds of forgiveness, parentally, is still the blood of Jesus Christ, verse 7. And so, this is a faith response towards God, where we take him at his word, verse 9, in light of his character, that he's faithful and just, in light of the work of his son, Jesus Christ, in light of the promise of verse 9, that he is going to fulfill his word by cleansing and forgiving me. If I simply confess, or the word there is homologeo, to say the same thing as, it means I agree with God. In fact, you don't even have to open your mouth and verbalize it. God sees the heart. It's a change of mind, that's all. But it involves a yielded posture towards the Lord. And I think this is all in conjunction with Romans 6.13, if we were to overlay it with Romans 6. But here's the point of parental forgiveness, point number two. that this type of forgiveness is granted on the basis of God's character, verse nine, he's faithful and just. Aren't you glad he's faithful to uphold his promise and that he's fair? He won't change the terms of fellowship with you from day to day so you can count on this promise of verse nine. And the grounds is also, or the basis is also the satisfactory death of Jesus Christ, verse seven. The blood of his son cleanses you from all sin. Let's say you're applying for First John 1.9 in your Christian life, and you say, Lord, I know I've sinned. I need to acknowledge this to you. And that may even involve you then going to the believer you've sinned against. Do you stop and actually thank the Lord that Christ died for that very thing I did? And that is the ground on which I can not only be eternally saved, but have fellowship with you then from day to day, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for me. That should be our thought process. but it does involve a response on our part of confession of sin. As the old pace diagram or illustration put it years ago, sin on one side, divine forgiveness on the other, and no other way across, as the river sometimes is rising in our life, but to apply 1 John 1, 9. Now turn with me next to John chapter 13 to see this illustrated, to see both types of forgiveness, John 13. And again, I know I've covered this a couple times in the last year, but since I want to teach on forgiveness today and get to the practical one another side of this, we have to understand, first of all, how God relates to us. And we have in John chapter 13, the eve of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, where he is gathered with his disciples in the upper room and Jesus is washing their feet. Verse six. Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus was taking the posture of a servant and Jesus is saying, what are you doing? We should be serving you. You're the Lord. Verse seven. Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Now, I don't think he meant there, you're not saved, Peter. I think what he meant was, if we're going to go on in ministry together, and I'm going to abide in you and you're going to abide in me, you can't have any part with me, Peter, if you don't get cleansed on a regular basis. And so this would take humility on the part of Peter. to allow the Lord to wash him daily on a regular basis. Verse 9, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, well, in that case, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Peter would usually go overboard with things. So verse 10, Jesus says to him, he who is bathed a whole bath needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, you plural, but not all of you. And he goes on to say, because Judas was in their midst. Not everyone had received the whole bath of regeneration. Not all had received judicial forgiveness from God and were a child of God. Judas wasn't. He wasn't a believer. But Peter was. The 11 were. And what Jesus is saying here is this, that as you go on in life with me, you're not going to be able to fellowship with me and have ministry with me unless you're willing to let me cleanse you on a regular basis. And this would take humility. And this goes against our natural pride. But this is a very important lesson that Peter learned. In fact, turn with me to Acts chapter 8, and I'll show you how Peter applies this. So Philip, the evangelist, goes down to Samaria to the half-Jews, half-Gentiles, and he preaches the gospel to them. and they get saved. And then because this is such a politically touchy situation, to incorporate the Samaritans, who are at odds with the Jews, to incorporate them into the church, the two bigwigs have to go down, Peter and John, the apostles. So they go down to approve of the situation, and they're gonna in fact lay hands on those who had believed And once they lay hands on those who believed, they get the spirit of God in that instance, and they're welcomed into the church. But there was a man in Samaria who was a hotshot. He was a sorcerer before he was saved, and his name was Simon. Verse nine says, but there was a certain man called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great. Now beware of those kind of people when they get saved because they often want to go back into the limelight right after they're saved. In fact, it amazes me sometimes a celebrity professes faith in Jesus Christ and then they're rolled out this brand new babe in Christ who hardly has a dot of divine viewpoint and then they're made the great spokesman for the rest of the church and I cringe and I pray for those people. Because this is what happens. This man Simon was still proud. Now notice it says verse 12, But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized, including this man Simon. Verse 13, then Simon himself also believed. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip. Notice Philip thought he was a believer. And it says right here, the Spirit of God says he was a true believer. Now many will say he wasn't a believer based on what happened after he got baptized or believed. But that is not what the text says. He believed. So to make a long story short, Peter starts laying hands on people, they get the Holy Spirit, and Simon is jealous, and he wants to be able to do what Peter and John are doing. He's covening their gift, so he offers them money. Verse 19, give me this power, so that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. Notice Peter's response, verse 20, but Peter said to him, Your money perish with you. Now did he mean eternally perish and go to hell? No, money doesn't go to hell. I think he's speaking of temporal judgment. He's referring to the same type of divine discipline that occurred to Ananias and Sapphira just three chapters earlier in Acts 5, as Peter observed them literally fall dead on the spot under divine discipline as believers. Your money perish with you because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money. Verse 21, you have neither part nor portion in this matter. Now doesn't that sound like John 13 where Jesus said, Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. He wasn't saying you're not eternally saved. He's saying I can't fellowship with you from here on out. All ministry then that you do is going to be done in the flesh. It's going to look good, but it won't be True, because you're not cleansed. As a believer, you need ongoing cleansing and forgiveness. You have neither part nor portion in this matter. Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Verse 22, repent therefore of this, your wickedness, this change of mind, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Notice, I thought he was forgiven. I thought he was judicially cleansed. He's not talking about that. In verse 22, he's talking about parental forgiveness. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. So here we have another illustration of the truth of 1 John 1, 9, coupled with John 13. And this is what the scriptures teach. But let me ask you at this point, was Peter sinning against Simon by telling him he needed to be forgiven? Let me ask you, was Peter willing to see Simon forgiven? Of course he was willing. And it wasn't wrong for Peter to tell Simon, you still need forgiveness. And the same is true when it comes to us in this area of parental versus judicial forgiveness. So we have seen this distinction, this core foundational truth of two types of forgiveness. Now let's ask the question, why should we forgive one another? Well, biblically our motivation for forgiving one another should be based on the fact that God has already freely, judicially forgiven us in Christ. This should be our motive. In fact, as you think of another brother or sister who has sinned against you, or maybe you've sinned against others and you need to go to them, The first thought shouldn't be horizontal, it should be vertical. We should always be thinking in terms of, God, how have you dealt with me regarding my sin, first of all? Well, Ephesians 4.32 says, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Here's one of our two expressions. Even as God for Christ's sake, or God in Christ, has forgiven you. Notice, has forgiven you. That's past tense. So when we choose to forgive others, we are simply repeating how God has already dealt with us. We are then acting according to the very nature and heart of God through Jesus Christ as he's dealt with us. You reflect the glory and the character of God by your act of forgiving someone else the way God has already dealt with you. You see, this is a main point today. that our horizontal forgiveness towards one another is based on the vertical first of all. Horizontal forgiveness to one another is always based on the vertical and how we received forgiveness from God and therefore are to treat others in grace. In fact, turn with me next to Matthew chapter 6 to see our second point about why we should forgive one another. Matthew chapter 6, a passage that is often called the Lord's Prayer passage. It's really the disciples' prayer. Matthew 6. We see from this passage that the result of believers refusing to forgive others includes a loss of fellowship with God, which will then require us to be parentally forgiven all over again. And this is what we see in Matthew 6, verse 9. In this manner, therefore, pray. Our Father in heaven, and by the way, he's not saying pray this rote prayer. Here's an example of prayer. Pray like this is the idea. Our Father in heaven, hallowed, holy is your name. Be hallowed. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They lived as Jews in light of the promise of the coming kingdom. But day to day, verse 11, give us this day our daily bread, they trusted in the Lord for their daily provision, verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now notice, we are to go beyond that, Ephesians 4.32. We are not merely to forgive others as they forgive us, but Ephesians 4.32 raises it a notch and says, forgive others as God in Christ has already forgiven you by his grace. Verse 13, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. And notice verse 14. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive you your trespasses. What is that saying? Is that saying that if I don't forgive someone else, I'm going to go to hell? God's going to take back his forgiveness from me? I thought it was given on the basis of grace. It was. Judicial forgiveness. And that parental forgiveness, which is time and time and time again, daily, is on the basis of grace too. But what he's saying here is this, that if somebody has sinned against you, and you're unwilling to forgive them, guess what? Now you've sinned. Now you're out of fellowship with God, and you need parental forgiveness all over again. I don't like that. They're the one who did what was wrong. Yeah, but your attitude can be wrong too, and God sees the heart. This is the trickiness of sin in the human race. This is the trickiness of our sinful nature, our heart, which is deceitful by nature. We tend to not think we need fellowship and forgiveness as often as we do, but we do. And this is why it's very important to have a humble heart that is willing to acknowledge before God and others that, yes, I've done wrong. and I need this forgiveness." Now, having seen what forgiveness is and why we should forgive, now let's consider the who of forgiveness. Who should we forgive? Well, first of all, we should never seek to forgive God. You say, well, that's so obvious. Why do you even have to say that, pastor? Because I actually read some quotes from a book that's very popular in our world today on forgiveness, I won't cite it for you, where the author implies that we need to forgive God at times. You say, well, that's blasphemy. I agree. But let's be honest, at times, as believers, sometimes don't we harbor bitterness about our circumstances and situation? And we won't come right out and say, God, you're the one at fault here. But we do have some, at times, bitterness, perhaps towards God. But I want you to know it's never his fault. We should have a tender heart towards God. And the scriptures say, Deuteronomy 32, 4, he is the rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. He's just in everything he does. A God of truth and without injustice. Righteous and upright is he. So he's never wrong. And instead of becoming resentful for that fact, we should melt in tenderness Because part of the way he does things right is he not only never sins, but he also extends grace time and time and time again. That's the kind of God we should keep coming to because his throne is one of grace. So who should we forgive? Never God, but also we are never told in scripture to forgive ourselves. Do you realize that? I remember talking years ago to a man who had done something quite heinous. and there were great consequences in his life and others around him. And I remember he said to me, I just can't imagine how I could have done this, and I just can't forgive myself. And I said, you don't have to. You sinned against God and others, and you need to accept the forgiveness he's offering you. You see, this response of needing to forgive ourselves is really often just pride disguised as humility. It's saying, in essence, I must still live in my misery while I do penance for my sins and try to get my good to outweigh my bad, instead of realizing I can't do it. Christ already did it all. I accept that. And on that basis, I receive ongoing forgiveness from you, Lord. And so this response is just a stubborn refusal to accept God's full and free forgiveness, already purchased, already offered, and already guaranteed through his Son. In addition, this response is wrong because sin is never against ourselves, per se. Sin is necessary because there's a breach between two parties, not just one. And sin against others, by the way, is always a sin against God. Because though others may not see, God always sees. Psalm 51 verse 4 says, against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. David writes. Or the Net Bible says, against you, you above all have I sinned. And so we might think that our sin is just towards us and one other person perhaps, but it's always in the sight of God as well. That's why 1 Corinthians 8 verse 12 says, for when you thus sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. So there's always the vertical needed as well as the horizontal. So who should we forgive? We should not seek to forgive God or ourselves. That's not the issue. And by the way, this should be number three actually. We are told in scripture to forgive anyone of anything. Anyone of anything. Think about your need to forgive others. Think about how severe sometimes the offenses are against you. You ever been lied about? You ever had your reputation not only tarnished but trashed? Defamed, slandered, maligned, people writing about you online, perhaps, saying some very untrue things. And you have no power to change it. You ever had something stolen from you? I have. I remember being very angry the morning I woke up and all the tires were taken off my car. And the thieves were kind enough, however, to leave it put up on wood blocks for me. Thank you very much. You ever been abused? Physically? Sexually perhaps? Emotionally? I could ask, have you ever been murdered? But of course, you're here today. You see, the human race is full of sin and its heinousness, isn't it? And yet, the Lord comes along and he says, I want you to forgive anyone of anything. And that's exactly what these words mean. Think of you. How did God treat you? When God forgave you judicially, did he forgive you of, again, most of your sins, but not the really bad ones that really hurt someone else? He forgave you of all sin. Okay, well, that's judicial forgiveness. What about parental forgiveness? When I acknowledge my sin to him, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Not just some, but all. And that's the point of Mark 11, verses 25 and 26. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive them. that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. There's that fellowship component of forgiveness here now, not judicial. But again, if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. In other words, we can stand and pray like hypocrites and have an unforgiving heart. In fact, we are just ready to pound on someone else and give them justice, right? Or worse, beyond justice. And this says, anything for anyone. By the way, how serious does God take this whole issue of forgiveness? Very seriously. So seriously that if we are unwilling to forgive others who've wronged us, he's going to say, you know what? Spare me the prayers. Don't even bother praying right now, unless it's a prayer of confession. Because frankly, Tom, in your self-righteous pride, your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. until you go and acknowledge your sin to that other person or you approach that other person who you're bitter towards and you try to get things correct with them, get them right. So how should we forgive one another? Well, here's another question. We've seen the what of forgiveness, the why, the who, now let's look at the how. And we're just going to touch on this today and expand on this more next Sunday. We just saw in Mark 11 verse 25, the vertical component, before the other party even acknowledges their wrongdoing or repents, and this is what we would call vertical forgiveness. How are we to forgive? First of all, vertically. As believers in Christ, we should forgive others vertically and unconditionally, and by that I mean in the sense that we're ready to forgive them before they even repent, or whether they ever repent. How do we do that? Well, first of all, we go vertical. We release to God all desire for retaliation and vengeance on our part, and we commit in faith the matter to the Lord's care while desiring reconciliation with the other person and that person's welfare. You know, we can say we love someone, but if we really don't have any intention to go have our relationship restored and seek reconciliation, and truly forgive that person, do we really love them? So, the other party does need to acknowledge their sin, as we'll see when we get to horizontal forgiveness, but there is a vertical component that comes first. In fact, Jesus said as he was hanging on the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And aren't you glad he said this? Because I think everybody else would have been wiped out all around him. Here is forgiveness in a temporal sense so that God wouldn't smite in his temporal wrath and judgment those who were engaged in the unjust act of Christ's crucifixion, killing unjustly the Messiah. And those responsible for the crucifixion still needed to be eternally forgiven for their sins. It's not as though because Jesus said this to the Father that all of a sudden everybody around who involved in the crucifixion still didn't need to be justified, born again, and get eternal life. They still needed that. This was temporal. This was a temporal covering for them. But let's see the main point here, and that is the heart of the Savior again. So he's on the cross, he's in this act of suffering, the greatest suffering and pain known to mankind, and he's mindful of who? Others. Isn't that incredible? The heart of God is amazing. It shows here in this example again that God would rather save than judge, save than condemn. And the result of God answering Jesus' prayer here and sparing his temporal wrath is that the Romans and Jews involved here, some of them got saved. The guy on the cross, one of the thieves, he ends up getting saved. The Roman centurion at the foot of the cross, he ends up getting saved. Aren't you glad Jesus prayed this prayer? Well, we have another example with Stephen. In Acts chapter 7, he was the first martyr in the early church. Based on the example of Jesus, it says in chapter 7, verse 60, that he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin while they stoned him to death. Amazing grace that he's praying for others. And again, what was the result? Well, this is the very end of chapter 7. You know what chapter 8 begins with? Because of the persecution, the word of God spread and multiplied. Churches were planted. And by chapter 9, Saul gets saved. Saul was holding the coats while they stoned Stephen here. He heard what Stephen said. He heard this prayer. God answered it. So when we extend grace and forgiveness to one another on a horizontal basis as God has dealt with us, it can have a very positive effect. but the vertical component must always precede the horizontal. Now, at some point, some well-meaning people often object and they say, well, if you practice that kind of forgiveness, then you may as well just be a doormat and let people walk all over you. You ever heard that? Maybe you've said it yourself. No, even vertical forgiveness is proactive on our part as a believer. It's actively turning that person over to God in faith to justly deal with that person. And the way God might justly deal with that person is using the judicial system of government that he has put in place, according to Romans 13. And you trust God to handle that, you don't take it into your own hands. Vigilante justice is a problem. As much as it makes for a really good movie, and kind of satisfies that thirst for justice in each of us, right? It's not the way God set things up. That's why Romans 12, 17 and 18 says, Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 and 20 goes on, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. And by the way, where is that place? It's with God, not us. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. And don't poison him with the food you give him either. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. And the next verse goes on to say, don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And so we aren't to seek vengeance or retaliation, but to first examine our hearts and then, Be willing to forgive others just as God is. And this is where horizontal forgiveness comes in. We've seen the vertical. Now we see the horizontal. There's also horizontal forgiveness. And this is where the believer in Christ should seek to forgive the offending person or persons on the condition of their repentance in order to restore relational harmony and fellowship. There is a place for repentance. when it comes to the everyday functioning, having a part in this ministry together, as Jesus said to Peter and Peter said to Simon. I like what Wendell Miller says in his book, Forgiveness, The Power and the Puzzles. He says, notice that the forgiveness in this verse, he's referring to Luke 17, 30, which we'll see in a moment, that this forgiveness is conditional. You are to grant forgiveness to those who offend you if and when they repent. In contrast, in Mark 11.25, believers are to forgive unconditionally. The forgiveness of Mark 11.25 is a vertical transaction between the offended person and God, and the forgiveness of Luke 17.3 is a horizontal transaction between the offender and the one he offended. What do those passages say? We've already looked at Mark 11. Let's look at Luke 17. It says in verse 3, take heed to yourselves. And boy, I see the wisdom in Jesus saying that first. The very first thing he says, before you go and you talk to someone else about how they've hurt you, you first of all take heed to yourself. Now, I think that's where Mark 11.25 comes in. You go vertical, first of all, and say, Lord, give me a forgiving heart towards this person I'm really bitter towards. I have to be willing to forgive them before I even go and expect repentance from them. But then you go to them. Verse three goes on. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. Is there a place for loving confrontation? Absolutely. Speaking the truth in love. And if he repents, forgive him. Notice that's an if. Verse four, and if he sins against you seven times in a day, well, that just shows he didn't really repent, right? That he just said the words, I admit I sinned, but he didn't really mean it because if he really had a change of mind, he wouldn't repeat that sin seven times in a day. That's how we think. That is not how Jesus taught. What is repentance? It's a change of mind. It is not a change in your lifestyle. And religion confuses that today. This is a classic verse to show that Repentance is a change of mind. And it may or may not issue in a worthy walk that follows. If it's consistent repentance over time, it may lead to that. But the change in our walk is not the same as the change in our mind. And I say that because I have been involved in counseling over the years where one spouse has said to me, well, he's not really repentant because he goes right back to doing the same thing all over and over again. And yet I talk to the guy and he says, oh no, that really was wrong and I have received forgiveness from the Lord. I just go back to it because I haven't been walking with the Lord. But what does it say here? If he repents, forgive him. And 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. So we must be very careful not to refuse forgiveness to someone on the basis of their past performance or track record, but on the basis of present repentance. If they admit to you, yes, I did wrong, I acknowledge that, that is a change of mind, you take that and you extend forgiveness. That's what Jesus is saying here. Now, that is not the same as saying, I trust you and I can work with you going forward in ministry because you're going to keep screwing up seven times in a day. I forgive you, but I don't know if I can keep you on as an employee because you steal from me seven times in a day and yet you come to me seven times in a day and you keep telling me I sinned. Well, at some point your boss is going to say, I do forgive you, but you're fired. Right? So there is a difference between trust and forgiveness. But remember the goal and purpose of vertical forgiveness is so that there might be horizontal forgiveness that results in reconciliation and restoration, not just a clearing of that person's guilt and then giving them the cold shoulder thereafter. Now that'll depend on whether they continue to repent and walk in a manner where the Lord changes their life, et cetera, if you can trust them. It's pretty hard to stay in a marriage where the other person cheats on you repeatedly, and every time they admit it, but they just keep cheating and cheating and cheating and cheating. And after a while, your heart grows cold as a spouse, and you just can't trust them anymore. You forgive them, but you can't trust them. That's reality. And so this passage, though, does involve the need for loving confrontation. Ephesians 4.15, speaking the truth in love, taking heed to ourself first. And then we can approach the other person, hoping, praying for their repentance. Now I have a lot more to say on this subject as far as the practical side of all this, how this plays out. And we'll focus on the one another's more next Sunday, having laid this foundation of the two types of forgiveness here. And so here's the main point today. If you just think about this graphic and this truth and apply that in your own relationships with the Lord and each other, that the vertical must come first, the horizontal flows from that, then you've got the main point today. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word today and its truth. Sometimes these are difficult concepts for our human mind to grasp, but yet they are fairly simple as far as your spirit showing them to us in principle anyway. I pray and practice that we would be a gracious, forgiving church, and yet understand your principles as far as how they apply practically. So give us wisdom in this regard, but change our hearts, melt our hearts with your amazing grace, we pray. And thank you for the incredible, free, forever forgiveness that you've given us the moment and the day we were born again in Christ. We rejoice in that, and we are about to sing about that as unto you now. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.