Thank you for listening to the media ministry of the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. If you are blessed by what you hear and would like to help keep our little church going as a ministry partner with your cheerful gifts, please listen for instructions at the end of this message. 2 Corinthians 2, verses 10-11. Hear now the word of the Lord. To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. I want to read that second of the two verses first and think about how it's relating to that previous verse. So there's a concern that Satan will get an advantage over your life. And the antidote to that is in the first verse repeated three times. To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything to whom I forgive it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Now, you'll notice two times there it's in italics, so it's not literally there in the Greek. It's emphasized more than that. In the Greek, as far as my count is, it's three times. But what you want to recognize here is that the way to defend yourself personally against the devil trying to get you is to forgive, forgive, forgive others. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1 verse 8, you're very familiar with this verse, your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, So what do you remember about lions? We've talked about it. Thinking of that verse elsewhere, you probably have watched some documentaries. How does a lion attack its prey? It's true, a race could begin, but that's if he misses. But how does a lion come at and get his prey? He stalks his prey. She stalks his prey. What that means is in stealth, the lion crawls very carefully, very quietly in the cover of the grass so that the lion is so close that the prey doesn't see it coming and then gets it by the neck, sneaks up on it, deceives it. A lion pounces on its prey to sink its teeth into its neck by sneaking up on it before the danger is seen and it's too late. And that's what the devil is doing with you, beloved. He's always prowling around, Peter says, looking to devour you. How's he gonna get you? He's gonna sneak up on you. And our text today says, one of the ways he sneaks up on you, he tricks you. He takes advantage, or the Greek, he outwits you. As we have it in the text in verse 11, we're not ignorant of his devices, his ways of taking advantage of you, his ways of tricking you. By lying to you, that you don't need to forgive anyone else. You don't need to forgive one another in the church. If something's happened, whether it's been done to you or around you, the devil will lie to you and tell you, you don't have to forgive that, or you don't have to forgive that anymore. Don't forgive. And that is what he does to sneak up on you and then sink his teeth into you before you see him coming. The result is that we fellowship with him in unforgiveness, in the darkness of hatred, rather than with Christ in the light of love. And that's a dangerous place to believe, lying to yourself that that's a place where Christ is. One of the main ways Satan will strike you down is to puff you up in unforgiveness toward one another. And here's the thing. Some of you are in danger already of not liking what you're hearing and already tuning out. Because you want to justify yourself not to forgive others. Let me repeat. One of the main ways that Satan will strike you down is to puff you up in your unforgiveness. You might say in a sense it makes you fat and not agile and easy to catch once he strikes. Here's the point of the text I give you. A lack of forgiving fellow Christians leads to fellowship with the devil. I give that to you as the idea of our text. A lack of forgiving fellow Christians leads you to fellowship with the devil. When in fact you think you're being such a good Christian, in fact you're not with Christ, you're fellowshipping with the devil by a lack of your forgiving others. Now, though we are being theological, we are not being theoretical. Or I should say, Paul, though he's being theological, he's not being theoretical. What do I mean? He's dealing with a very specific situation from the first letter. But let's look at who's the whom. Notice, to whom ye forgive. He's not speaking in generalities. He's speaking specifically. You have forgiven someone. I'm calling on you to forgive someone. I am forgiving. I'm calling upon us all to forgive that certain someone. And verses 6 to 9 inform us of this. So this is very specific. You need to forgive this brother or you're in danger of being in fellowship with Satan. Who's he talking about? Look at verses 6 to 9. "...sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted on many." So notice, there was necessary punishment, but it has proved to be sufficient, because they've repented. Now it's time to forgive and restore. And that's the whole point, by the way. "...sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted on many, so that contrarywise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." You see the danger there? If you aren't going to forgive someone who is repentant, you're in danger of sending them out in uttermost sorrow. Because you give them the sense they can't be forgiven. You misrepresent Christ when you actually represent the devil. And you might send them out in sorrow when Christ offers forgiveness and thus restoration. Look at verse 8, Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things." And he's saying, in all things I forgive him, in all things you are to forgive him, and here's the proof of whether you are really forgiven in Christ, that you're willing to forgive someone else. That's the proof. But he's talking about a specific thing. Now, there's more information to us. He's referring to the first letter. Go to 1 Corinthians with me, chapter 5. 1 Corinthians, chapter 5. If you go back to your membership class booklet, I show these things related in the chapter on repentance unto life, I'm pretty sure, in that section of the confession. But you need to see this connection here. 1 Corinthians 5, 1 through 8. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I, verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved, in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So that's the context, that's what he's referring to. Notice in this text he says, here's the problem. You need to deliver this man unto Satan. But here's the danger now in 2 Corinthians. You're in danger of being taken over by Satan. In 1 Corinthians he says, here's the problem, you're not dealing with this sin. You know about it, but you're not dealing with it. So I'm judging. Notice he says, from afar, I'm making a judgment on your behalf and I call upon you to make a judgment and excommunicate the man. Now the man has repented in 2 Corinthians. He is sorrowful here in chapter 2. And so he's saying, look, it's enough, it's sufficient. The discipline you have brought upon him is sufficient. He's repented. He needs to be restored into the visible church. And I forgive him from abroad. And I call upon you thus to forgive him." So on the one hand, the man needs to be delivered over to Satan. On the next hand, if you don't forgive him and receive him back, you're going to be in danger of being taken over by Satan. But what's the context here? What's he done? First of all, he says, it's like the worst sexual sin you could imagine, he says. By the way, there is a reference over to Leviticus 18.8. And by the way, in the membership class, we talk about how, see, some of the Old Testament still applies in the New. John Murray does a great work on this. You can read it in our library, but I've given it to you short in the membership. But notice, it's carrying over from the Old Testament. You may not have your father's wife. The context would seem to understand not his own mother, or it would have been said that way, probably a mother-in-law. This man is having sexual relations in the midst of the church with his own father's wife, his stepmother. And this is forbidden in Leviticus. And Paul is showing it's still forbidden by God. That still holds from Leviticus. That is forbidden. And he even says, even the Gentiles, even the pagans don't do this. So he's highlighting how bad the sin is. This is a wicked, wicked sin. And someone saying they're a Christian, acting like they're having fellowship in Christ and the church, must not behave like this. By the way, fornication is brought up constantly. You even saw it in 1 Corinthians 10, warning us about the examples in Numbers. Horrible stuff happens with fornication. It's often the downfall, which is why Proverbs talks about it so much and warns about it. But the other danger is when someone repents to say, that sin's too horrible. I won't forgive or I'm not forgiven yet. That person needs to be punished for a time to discourage the sin when in fact it's the opposite. They need to be forgiven. And so that's the context, beloved. Now the goal is repentance. Chapter, letter one, you are tolerating this sin openly, and it's like the worst sexual sin one could imagine. Of all the things that shouldn't be among the church, even the Gentiles don't act like this. Deal with it now. Now I deal with it. I judge it from afar. Excommunicate him. You cannot have this leaven in your church. But now, chapter two, he has repented. He is sorrowful with a godly sorrow. Just as He calls on them in the first letter, you need to have a godly sorrow. And now in chapter 2, look what a godly sorrow, not a worldly sorrow, the Lord has done in you. But He's also done it in this man in particular. So that's what He's talking about back in 2 Corinthians. He's referring to this. It's sufficient. Notice verse 6. What makes a punishment sufficient? Well, certainly we have to think about the case laws and the law of the land and some of these things. But ultimately, as we think about being restored into the church, what is sufficient? Not the discipline, but the result that we're looking for from the discipline. Repentance. sorrow for sin, and a desire to be back with God, with the mercy of God in Christ, with full purpose and new endeavor after new obedience. That's what is sufficient. Not some length of time that we would beat on a person and shame a person when they are repentant. And we pray people are immediately repentant. And if so sufficient, let's work on restoration and mercy. After all, isn't that what we would want for ourselves? And so Paul is saying it's sufficient. They're sorry, truly sorry. They're not acting arrogant, they're not making excuses, and they are going through what's required to be trusted again. And in that process, they can already be forgiven. And they already must be forgiven, Paul is saying. Just as you refuse to deal with him and bring down discipline upon him, now, You cannot refuse him forgiveness. I call upon you to give forgiveness to him. That's the context. And if they won't now forgive and restore him, here's the thing, then they are in the danger of being given over to Satan. 2 Corinthians 2 10, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive. And in the context more, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive. And we know a specific sin being dealt with here. It's not general, it's specific. And it's a horrible sin, a horrible sexual sin. But it's been repented of, so forgive, forgive, forgive. And if you won't, here's the danger. Verse 11, to whom you don't forgive, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his devices. He knows how to get us. He knows how to use unforgiveness to get us into our own sins. Whatever the sin is that we will justify, but it's actually a sin. And unforgiveness is a sin. Acting like somehow we can wait when God forgives. We are better than God Almighty? We are bigger than God Almighty? That's a horrible sin. Notice, he's not making light of the horrible sin, but here he's calling upon a horrible, dangerous sin. That man needed to be sent over to Satan that he'd repent. Now that he has, you're in danger of sending yourself to Satan if you don't forgive him. So beloved, I just want to highlight that and let you think for a moment again, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. If you are going to be unforgiving to a repentant person in Christ, This is a key way that Satan, who prowls around like a lion seeking to devour, will get his teeth sunk into your neck and drag you down in your own darkness, in your own sins, whatever they are. Galatians 6 verse 1 is very similar, and we review this very often as a session when we need to be going about censor, that is discipline in the church. We do prepare ourselves because we know the danger. We know the temptation. Galatians 6 verse 1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. You see, if you're going to be judgmental and unforgiving, you're just about to go down yourself. There's a huge danger, and that's the thing especially for leaders of family, church, and state. There's a huge danger of getting self-righteous instead of trusting in the righteousness of Christ, and turning to the righteousness of Christ for one another. There's a huge danger in falling in our own sins. If we don't approach it, what does it say? Meekly. And you see, it takes meekness to provide forgiveness. It's pride that keeps us from forgiving. Notice, how are you going to be careful not to sin when you need to approach someone about sin? Meekly. You need to be humble. You need to be meek. You don't start bringing up their past. You don't start bringing about all these things against them. You carefully, meekly say, I need to deal with this. And whatever might relate, I need to deal with that. And we want to get it dealt with, repented of, forgiven, and restored. And if you're not able to approach a sinner that way, then you are probably not spiritual yourself. That is, you probably don't have the Holy Spirit in you. A lack of forgiveness is a sign you do not have the Spirit of God in you. Or at least you're quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit, because that's what it says. You have to have the spirit of meekness in how you approach a sinner. Because the whole goal is to get them to repent and be restored, not to beat them down. This is not the Roman Catholic Church. We do not go through penance. We have repentance. We don't beat ourselves like the monks, and we don't beat the backs of others. Like slave owners, we get forgiveness. Like Christ, our master forgave us. James 2 verse 13 says it another way. Are you more interested in having justice, justice, justice, justice? Okay, watch out for that. Same thing that's said in our text. You want justice? Watch out. You're going to get justice. But it ain't going to be on the person you want it on. It's going to be on you. Because that's where the devil will get you. James 2 verse 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy. and mercy rejoiceth against judgment." If there's only an exalting and rejoicing in sin, that goes against 1 Corinthians that says we do not rejoice in sin. That's what the men are still on with 1 Corinthians 11 study with Jonathan Edwards. Love doesn't rejoice in sin. It rejoices, James says, in mercy over judgment. It rejoices to see people spare judgment because they repent and seek mercy and forgiveness and have it in Christ. And if we aren't ready to give that to others, then we don't have it ourselves. And that's what Satan knows. That's why he's so easy to get you. You're so easy to be gotten by his teeth and claws if you grind your teeth at others. rather than offer the mercy of Christ and his hands and feet reaching out bleeding. Forgetting the cross and wanting to crucify them yourself. Malcolm Gladwell, You know, I enjoy a lot of what he writes and what he says. I listen to his podcasts. And just to give a disclaimer, there's a few podcasts that I'm so angry about it because I can't stand the conclusions. I don't want you to think I listen without discernment. But most of the time, it's very helpful. I just had one just last night, driving back. My son said, what do you think? I said, I don't like it at all. Here's what I think is wrong with it. But most of the time he's very insightful, and in this case, something I think he has to offer us. I say that because I quote him a lot. I don't want you to think it's the gospel, but he has wisdom often to offer. Here's one of them. He warns about giving ourselves something called moral license. moral license. He explains, you know, sometimes we do something really good and maybe for the right reasons, you know, and because we've done that good thing, we might do more of that good thing or we actually might do the opposite of that good thing and something really horrible because we give ourselves moral license. Well, I've done such good in this over here. So therefore this must be bad, this bad thing, it's okay in this case. Somehow we justify our bad behavior because of what we didn't do that someone else did. And then we do something horrible in return. We give ourselves an allowance to get away with something else. And that's the real danger. Although the scriptures will teach us, Jesus will teach us, you're a hypocrite. Don't think you haven't done these things yourself. but we might give ourselves moral license. And in this case, to not forgive someone for something that we didn't do, forgetting what we have done ourselves. He points out that this moral license is why the Nazis killed the Jews in the Holocaust. In fact, they loved some things by the Jews, some of their musicians, right? Some of their great musicians and wonderful classical music. And somehow, because they liked that, they didn't seem to recognize the horrible hatred and killing of the Jews. We just are happy to draw our lines and give ourselves moral license. We're all in danger of doing this. Oh, we might say, because we think we might have a more godly section of the nation in our history compared to perhaps something at a different area geographically. Whether that's true or not, somehow we don't have to judge our sins that are there. Somehow we give ourselves moral license to excuse and not recognize them at the time and later on looking back. We give ourselves moral license. Well, here's the thing. If that's how the Nazis killed the Jews, at least in part, if he's right about that, is that the kind of company you want to keep? Is that the kind of heritage you want to have? Excusing yourself to be unforgiving with others who are truly repentant. And often that process takes time to restore, but the repentance is where it starts and it's what lasts and makes it happen immediately to be received. You see, Pride comes before a fall. And the ladder of conceit is often that you climb is contempt for others. And that's often when you judge them for your sins and won't forgive them when they're sorry and it's sufficient. Because the grace of Christ is sufficient. God's grace is sufficient. And the ladder that you would climb is your contempt for others and that's the pride ladder you're going to crawl up before you fall down big time. We forget how in danger we are in the same sins and so likely to slip in them when we're unmerciful with others. And we forget that forgiveness heals and saves and delivers. We forget that's how we're saved and delivered is God's forgiveness in Christ. crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, ascended on high, applying his blood in the true holy of holies, the Lamb of God that takes the sin of the world, the Lamb of God and the true veil, the temple, and the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, with an unceasing ministry of forgiveness, so that his mercy to us is new every morning, so that we are blessed to be merciful as we have his mercy. But the lack of it would be a sign maybe we don't have it. And the lack of it is where Satan gets his grip on you, beloved. See the danger. Hear this continual warning. It's one of the big ways he gets you, and he's waiting to get you. And your lack of forgiveness is where he's going to get you. That's what our text makes plain. And so what is the safety for you? What is the safety for you? It's said positively, to protect you from Satan getting you. Forgive the sinner. That horrible sin, that horrible sexual sin not even named among the Gentiles. Forgive it. Lest the devil gets you. Lest Satan should get an advantage on you with his devices to trick you and sink his claws and teeth in you. Forgive the sinner. Yeah, you know right it is. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it's a big deal we all have to deal with and it's very uncomfortable. Welcome to life. Welcome to church life. Or we're all just faking it. And we're all in danger of actually being demons. Controlled by demons. Held by the devil, captive at his will. And the thing is, I'm pretty sure most of us aren't taking this seriously enough. Because it's not what we think about. But that's the huge danger. Even more than these different sins is a lack of forgiving others their sins. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Verse 10, again three times, to whom ye forgive. Now remember, there's a specific sinner and a specific horrible sin, but the man's repented. They disciplined him in the first letter, and so they're to receive him back in the second letter. Forgive him as I forgive him, just as I judged him before when you wouldn't. For I forgave anything to whom I forgive it. For your sakes forgave I in the person of Christ. You see, more forgive written there in the italics as you know it's not literally there but it's the implied idea and it goes back into the earlier verses forgive such a man forgive this man forgive what will protect you is forgiveness if you forfeit forgiveness you forsake your own protection Christ may not forsake you, but you will forsake Him. John 15. Remember, we saw that I think it was seven or eight times the Greek word for abide was used. Abide, abide, abide. Therefore, that is the emphasis. Abide in Christ. Here, the focus is on forgiveness. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Watch out for the danger if you don't, but forgive, forgive, forgive. The focus is forgiveness. The Greek for the word forgive could be give favor. Give. It's not just not condemning. It's not just mercy, it's grace. Give favor. Now also it says, literally, this is in the face of Christ. It says, forgive it in the person of Christ. Literally, the face of Christ. The fellowship of Christians. But the devil divides in unforgiveness, which is you turning your back on Christ. Thumbing your nose in his face. Turning your back on his body with an angry face. Listening to the forked tongue of the serpent. You must not give forgiveness. But to not forgive is to join the father of lies on your way to hell. Instead of Christ the truth and his heavenly father. The devil wants you to die. And death is in a lack of forgiveness. If you don't have forgiveness of God in Christ, you have eternal death. And that's what the devil wants. And if he can't send you to hell, he will make your life hell on earth while you look like death warmed over in your lack of forgiveness where he grabs you and drags you down. Christ came to give life through forgiveness. Be like Him. Be like God. who is quick to forgive. Psalm 86 verse 5 that we sang, the Lord is ready to forgive. Who are you, O man or woman, not to be ready to forgive? You are not like God, if that's the case, and you presume to be better than God. That is the devil, because the devil and his angels fell down because they wanted to be God. You'll fall down in your pride and he'll get you there. Psalm 86 verses 13 and 15 go on to say, For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy. And the Psalms are never singing that only from an individual perspective, but always a corporate perspective for one another in Christ. This is God, quick to forgive, ready to forgive. If you're not gonna be with the devil, but with God, that's what is gonna be an example and that's what's gonna help you know you have the spirit of meekness, mercy, forgiveness. Exodus 34, six to seven, he reveals himself to Moses. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Now, it's Sin, that is the transgression of God's law. And it's the Lord who's ready to forgive it. How about you? It does go on in that verse to say that he will know wise, clear the guilty. But in this case, the concern needs to be that you're not guilty of unforgiveness. He won't tolerate that. And you can't claim to be his. Or at least you can't claim to be acting like him. And you, Paul proclaims you're in danger. of being taken over by the adversary, rather than showing you have the advocate. Be like God, because here's the thing. Punishment is not what it's about. It has to be paid, but he pays it himself on Christ his son. It's about paying for it. You see, this is not about punitive. This is about restorative. It's not about punishing, ultimately. It's about restoring completely. The purpose of whatever that temporary punishment is, is to save the soul so that he's freed from Satan and doesn't find himself there in hell forever. The Psalm says, 86, you have saved me out of the lowest hell. How? Forgiveness. Mercy. God who forgives calls upon those who have been forgiven much to love much. In fact, he just says that's the way it is. Jesus says, this lady, she's doing all this because she loves me so much. Because, yeah, you want to judge her, Pharisees, because of what? Her very horrible sexual sins. But he says, do you see how much she loves me? Because she's been forgiven so much. And what is it to love because you've been forgiven much and want to forgive others? To keep Christ's commands. And the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. And that is quoting Leviticus 19.18, which you will remember the whole part of it is, the opposite of loving your neighbor is bearing a grudge. The antidote of bearing a grudge and unforgiveness is love. But we are called upon to bear with one another, not bear a grudge, but bear with one another in love, and that is by forgiveness. Remember, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6 says, If you don't have love, all your religiosity is nothing. God's not impressed, and you have nothing that benefits yourself. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6 says, Charity or love thinketh no evil. And the idea of it is it keeps no record of wrong. It does not keep a list. Even in the Greek, that idea is there. It does not keep a list of your sins. And aren't you thankful that God doesn't keep it and he throws it into the sea behind his back? Similarly, he says, you do the same for one another. Or don't pretend you have my forgiveness. It is not logically consistent. We are to have the ministry of reconciliation in our redemption in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.18, and that is by forgiveness. But the devil wants you to have the ministry of division, which is by no forgiveness. And Jesus says in Mark 3.25, a house divided against itself cannot stand. And the way that Satan is even more interested is, is taking down the whole house. your home, the church house, and family of God by dividing you through unforgiveness. Interestingly, Jesus was accused of having a devil when he said that. He says, I don't have a devil. This isn't a work of the devil. The devil would seek to divide. Jesus brings forgiveness to reconcile. Now, what's the main prayer Jesus gives in the Lord's Prayer? One of the main sections of the prayer, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Then he follows up the Lord's Prayer with Matthew 6, 14-15. What's really interesting is, he doesn't go back through the different petitions of the Lord's Prayer, except for the one about forgiveness. So he's emphasizing maybe one of the most important parts. Though we know the opening and the closing is really all about the glory of God, and honoring and revering Him, and not taking His name in vain. But he emphasizes the forgiveness of others. Again, pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And by the way, I've heard it said that some people refuse to pray that prayer, that part of the prayer. How dangerous for them. How much Satan has them. But then Jesus goes on in verses 14 to 15 of Matthew 6. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Galatians 6, 1, and our text today. Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, lest Satan should get an advantage on you and us. We're not ignorant of his vices. This is a big way he gets us, Paul says. Jesus will have you express and stay committed to mutual forgiveness, united in your union in Him, by partaking of the Lord's Supper. It's also a reminder of your forgiveness in and with Christ, and in and with Christ, a reminder and expression of your fellowship with one another, through your Christian forgiveness of one another. And that is an important preservation. and preventative. It doesn't say that the pea and tulip is not the preservation of the saint. It's the preservation of the saints. And that is by protecting you from division that Satan would use to get a hold of you to do so by your lack of forgiveness of one another. So, beloved, to protect you from the devil's division and then take over the church And then to start taking over you. Forgive. Ephesians 6, 11 and 13, Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Wherefore, take you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand, and, verse 16, to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And some would translate that the wicked one, just as even Thomas Watson says, deliver us from evil has the idea of deliver us from the evil one, Satan himself. How are you going to quench the fiery darts of Satan trying to get at you? There's a lot said there in the texts. But Paul tells us today, an important way of putting on the armor of God is forgiveness. A lack of forgiveness will cause you not to put on the helmet of salvation, not to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to discard or not remember to hold up the shield of faith, and most importantly, what we're getting this all from, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. All that is the same idea. Protect yourself from the devil. And you're not gonna even start to dress with the whole armor of God if you don't start with his forgiveness. And he'll grab you by your neck before you even try to put a piece on. Said here in our text again another way, the way to let your guard down for the devil to destroy you is to let go of forgiveness and let him divide you. That is the way of the devil to shove his hand into your chest and pull out your heart. And the love of Christ that would otherwise constrain you. And the world will not know you by your lack of love for others as seen in the lack of forgiveness. Rather, you'll be just like them. You'll be just like the world. You'll be just like the devil. You want to do that? Don't be surprised later when you find yourself living with the devil in hell forever. That's the warning from the text. Take it seriously. You'll be just like the world, with the devil, and you'll be walking not in the spirit, with a spirit of meekness and mercy, but in the spirit of this world. Beloved, when you don't forgive your fellow Christians, you fellowship with the devil. I fear for anyone who doesn't have goosebumps with that statement and repents of their unforgiving heart. That is the message for you this day from the text. When you don't forgive your fellow Christians, you fellowship with the devil. So let me ask you something. Right now, are you harboring unforgiveness against someone? Then right now, the devil has got your heart. Clearly from our text, when you don't forgive your fellow Christians, you fellowship with the devil. Let us pray. Lord God, protect us from a heart of unforgiveness. We are all guilty of it, and we are all in danger of it, which is why it's one of the main ways the devil gets us. Help us to forgive as we have been forgiven, and forgive as you would forgive us. Help us indeed to be blessed as merciful, because we have obtained mercy. Give us a spirit of meekness to give forgiveness, and even when we have to correct and discipline someone, that we wouldn't be in danger of falling in our pride and contempt of others. And, O Lord, let us have heard the word and be a doer of it, not deceiving ourselves. And as we partake of the Lord's Supper, let us remember the forgiveness we have, and the forgiveness we have to give, and the protection of it from the devil's divide. Use these means of grace, O Lord, indeed, for the perseverance of the saints unto the end, and we pray in Jesus' name, And we pray again as you taught us to pray, saying, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Beloved, before we prepare to partake of the Lord's Supper, which is to be reminded of his forgiveness in Christ, and the forgiveness we have for one another in Christ, I wanted to share this with you. I did not pick this text or this sermon with any of you in mind or anything in mind. I was looking through a prayer that comes in to me regularly from the Alliance, and Matthew Henry's leading us through prayer. And I was struck by this text. And just like the sermon tonight, I was struck by the text and said, wow, I haven't thought of that. That's intriguing. Let's take a look at that. So if any of you are concerned that I had you in my sights in this sermon, I didn't. I thought that was a pretty profound text that Matthew Henry was calling upon us to pray. But I also want to say this, if you did feel like you were in the sites, and you feel like the sermon was about you, oh dearly beloved, listen to what you just heard. If you find it challenging and convicting, then absolutely the certain was for you, it was for all of us. But if you find it particularly as if you think it's about you, then it is. As that's always the case. As that's always the case. Let us prepare for the Lord's Supper. Thanks again for listening to the media ministry of the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. If you are blessed by our sermons and would like to help keep our little church going as a ministry partner with your cheerful gifts, please click on the Give button at the top of any of our sermon audio pages to support us with your online donation. Or visit our website at puritanchurch.com and click through the Give button at the top right of your screen. And if you prefer to send your support through the mail, please make your check out to Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church and send it to Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church, 6374 Potomac Street, San Diego, California 92139. Thank you.