Well, let's turn to the Scriptures again this morning, and I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter seven. I'm sorry, Luke chapter seventeen. I'll refer to Luke seven in just a moment. Luke chapter seventeen is how I will begin our Time together in the Scriptures that will have several passages to consider will be the first six verses that I will read now. You're hearing. We're continuing in a series, a relatively short series. I intend on the principles of peacemaking, how to be restored to a brother whom you've had conflict become alienated from. We take up the subject of forgiveness this morning. Again, reading at verse one, Luke chapter seventeen. He said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come. Woe to the one through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea and that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 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. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith And the Lord said, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say this mulberry tree be uprooted and planted in the sea. It would obey you. This is the word of God. Amen. What do you do if you're in an argument? Something is said. You are wounded. But the one who said it very quickly says, I'm sorry. What do you do? What do you do if you go to your brother over something perhaps more substantial than that and confront him with his sin? And he listens to you, perhaps in multiple meetings, perhaps over a period of time, but eventually he listens to you and he becomes persuaded you are right. And he says to you, please forgive me. What do you do if a person in your life who has for a long time, maybe many years, created unspeakable pain? And that person, entirely unsolicited by you, comes to you and to your surprise says, I have wronged you all these years. I desperately want you to forgive me. What do you do? Well, the answer in each case and a thousand other examples to be multiplied is, according to our Lord, you forgive him. Genuine repentance and its partner, true forgiveness, are the ultimate biblical resolution of every conflict. Repentance and forgiveness. We need to take up this notion of forgiveness this morning. As we do that, there's a great deal of confusion we're going to need to sort through. Not just confusion that is part of the culture in which they live, those outside of the church and those who do not study the Scriptures, but it's also, unfortunately, confusion that those who are students of the Bible have partaken of. And so, I'm impressed with the fact that I have a lot to say in a short amount of time on a very vast subject. And as a matter of fact, the very concept of forgiveness between brother and brother is one which takes us into the very heart of the gospel. We are going to, in exploring what it means for one man to forgive another man, find ourselves taken into that sanctuary, if you will, of the most vital issues of life. How we're saved. and more explicitly, how we can ourselves become forgiven. So, here's how we'll spend our time this morning. God willing, we'll look at the mystery of forgiveness first, then the meaning of forgiveness, and lastly, the method of seeking and granting forgiveness. What do I mean by saying the mystery of forgiveness? Well, I want, before we go very much further, to make very clear to you that it is something not simple. It is something not easy to understand, and far less is it easy to enact. This thing we call forgiveness. And as a matter of fact, there's something, the more we think of it, The challenges are understanding it is a mystery. One theologian wrote very contrary to what I'm saying. Forgiveness on the part of one person, one person towards another is the simplest of duties. Now, I'm not sure that's very helpful. Because, in fact, in our thinking about it, as well as as in our doing it, I think we're going to see it's not something simple. It's something that can be quite profoundly complex. It can be layered. It can take multiple steps. It can take much time. Forgiveness by one person to another person is, after all, to be patterned, according to Scriptures, after the forgiveness that God has granted to us in Christ. Ephesians 4.32 teaches us this, as do other passages. That passage says, Be kind to one another. tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Now, what Ephesians 4 verse 32 is doing is telling us that when we take on the matter of forgiving brothers, we're to be imitators of God in this way. And when we imitate God in forgiving, we're imitating God in the most basic act of salvation. I want you to be gripped by that this morning. We are carrying out, let me put it to you this way, when we forgive another human being, we are reenacting the gospel. We have the privilege of acting like God as He has acted towards sinners and like children who imitate their parents. watching what he does, and imitating it. Here's how the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines what is at the very heart of salvation, God's act of justification. It says this, justification is an act of God's free grace wherein He pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in His sight. Only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. There is a certain sense, I say it to be somewhat provocative, to make you think, to wake you up. There's a certain sense in which we are called upon to justify one another just as God has justified us. What in the world might I mean by that? Justifying you, God has taken your sin away. It's real. It's offensive to him, but he's taken it away because of what Jesus has done. And he's treated you as if you'd never sinned. And that's exactly what you and I are to do. When Jesus says he repents, you forgive him. You're to take that sin away because of what Jesus has done, and you're to treat him as if nothing had happened between you. Your relationship is clear. There is a great mystery in that, brothers and sisters. We're not just in this thing of forgiveness, as is often popularly presented in our culture. We're not just accepting people with their sin. We're not just saying, though sometimes it's the way we try to express forgiveness. We're not just saying, it's OK. Or, don't mention it. Or, I'm OK. OK, we're OK. It's something far deeper than that. It's something far more profound. We are joining with our father in his view of our brother. And we're saying, I'm not going to hold this against you any more than my father in heaven holds this against you because of what Jesus Christ has done. Christian forgiveness then involves our acting towards our brothers. with an eye to how God has acted towards us. And let me say that in many of the little bumps and scrapes that happen within a community of believers, the many lesser offenses, the profundity of what you're doing when you say, it's OK, don't worry, may not sink into you. And I'm not sure that it should at every point. There should be a kind of easy covering and granting of forgiveness when things are truly not great offenses. They should have that readiness and willingness as I've talked about in the past. But there are other times when the offense goes so deep and has gone so deep for so long that you, just in contemplating the demand to forgive, will find yourself staggering under it and realizing this is a mystery. What Jesus tells me to do is a mystery. We're told the story of Corrie ten Boom, who was with her family imprisoned during Nazi Germany, during the war. For her and the family's aiding of Jews to escape those who take their lives. She survived a concentration camp, but her sister Betsy and her father did not. They did not survive the abuse that came upon them in the hands of Germans, German citizens acting as guards. Corrie ten Poum, as you are probably aware, went on to have quite a ministry in writing and speaking and speaking, among other things, about how love and forgiveness can triumph. But she describes the occasion when after speaking of these very things, a man approached her. And as he approached her with a smile on his face, with words of gratitude for what she'd said, and words about how he had been forgiven, she recognized him. He was that man. He was the guard. of that particular concentration camp and all the humiliation that she remembers and all the physical abuse she remembered from that concentration camp that she and her sister shared came flooding back her. And there's the man professing now to be a child of God and having enjoyed God's forgiveness. And when something like that is your experience, then you realize, if you'd never before, What an amazing thing it is that Jesus says, if your brother repents, you forgive him. Corrie Ten Boom's testimony was simply this. Jesus Christ had died for this man. Was I going to ask for more? You might be here this morning and you've suffered in quite prolonged and painful ways at the hands of another brother or sister. And I am not going to insult you this morning by saying that what Jesus says is simple. What he calls you to do is not easy. It is not simple. It may require years for you to do. Indeed, we're going to open up what it means now for you to do just that. What is the meaning, secondly, of forgiveness? And here we're speaking of forgiveness in its fullest and most formal sense. The Luke 17 kind of forgiveness. There has been engagement between the one offended and the one who was the offender. And the offender has repented. He's acknowledged his sin and he's come seeking forgiveness. In other words, there has been dialogue between the two. This is not the case of the one who's covering the sin of another without talking to him about it. In this particular case, Luke 17, he's been confronted and repents. And now the ball has gone back into the court of the one who was offended. What does it mean for Jesus to say, you forgive him? I want to ask that question. And then I want to ask the question, what does it mean to say, I forgive you? What does it mean to forgive someone? Well, it means simply this. So, very complex in outworking it. To remove an offense from between you and a brother. That's what it means. To remove an offense from between you and a brother. Now, we'll look at some of the ways the Scripture develops that theme. Sometimes the Scripture speaks of forgiveness just that way, in exactly those terms. Psalm 103, verse 12. We're told, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgression from us. That's speaking of God and his forgiving of us. And it speaks of it as the sin being removed so that it's no longer there. So, in that way of speaking, that biblical way of speaking to forgive someone is to act as if the sin hadn't happened. It's, as it were, right there in your windshield. It's right there. It has happened. But to forgive is to remove it from view and to act as if it did not happen. To ask yourself the question, how would we be, my brother and I, how would we be right now if this had never happened? That's how I want to to act and carry myself in the relationship. So sometimes the scripture speaks of it. In terms of removing our transgression, it uses those exact terms. Other times it conveys that thought by speaking of God, not remembering our sins. Jeremiah 31 verse 34. He makes this promise. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. If you've ever thought about that way of speaking and thought about the attributes of God, you might have wondered what way of speaking is this? Can God actually literally forget things? Can they slip from his memory like things often slip from our memories? No, and God is not claiming that that's going to happen. God would not be all knowing if that is what he was saying. What he is doing is saying that in a relational way, I will not Take this up with you. And the context is particular. The fact that God is the judge of all the earth and he is keeping track of all that is done and he is going to bring it against us in the last day for judgment, unless something happens, unless he forgives us. And so when God says, I will not remember your sin, what he's doing is saying he's making commitment. I'm not going to bring this up against you. And this is not going to be on my mind. when I relate to you, I'm not going to view you with the anger and displeasure that would be right if this were in my mind as I dealt with you. One other way the Scripture speaks of this in opening up the meaning of forgiveness is it speaks of it very frequently as canceling a debt. Jesus in particular speaks this way in the sermon On the mount in the Lord's Prayer, part of that sermon, he tells us to pray, Lord, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. Now, that language of debt is connected with forgiveness and forgiveness is spoken of as as a canceling of debt. When someone offends you, they owe you something. They're in your debt, as it were. They or they deserve they. ill deserve your favor. They deserve you to be alienated from them. But if you cancel the debt, then you are forgiving in biblical terms. Luke seven is an example of this. You might turn there with me. Luke seven gives the account of Jesus eating at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. This Pharisee has invited many guests, but there's one particular person that comes that was not invited. It's a woman of the city, is the way it's put. A woman applying what's been called the oldest profession in the world. It's not a woman that would have normally been invited to respectable homes for fellowship in the covenant. This woman comes and she comes weeping with a bottle of ointment and anoints Jesus' feet, and there's a bit of sniffing that goes on, and it's not smelling the ointment, it's expressing objection. And Simon, who invited Jesus, says to himself, these are his own thoughts going in his own mind, verse 39, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is, is touching him, for she is a sinner. And then, if you know the account, Jesus says, I got to tell you something. It gives a very short parable. Certain money lender had two debtors, one owed five hundred and the other fifty. They could not pay. He canceled the debt of both. Now, which of them loved him more? Simon is the obvious answer. The one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. He says, you have judged rightly. He then eventually says, after rebuking Simon for his very little attention to him, he says in verse 46 or verse 47. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much, but he was forgiven little loves little. What I what I'm interested in and you're seeing how Jesus compares forgiveness to canceling a debt. That's how we unpack the idea of forgiveness. The one who's forgiven much loves much. The one whose debt is great and it's canceled, he or she loves the most. Dear ones, that's what it means to forgive. These very biblical ideas come together to mean simply to remove the sin of a brother from between you. And that is what God does with us. So, what does it mean for us to say, I forgive you? I hope it's clear by now that there's a lot more weight that should be attached to those words than we often do attach to them. What does it mean to say, I forgive you? Well, it represents a promise, a commitment, a commitment that is like the shadow commitment to God's own commitment in the covenant. What does God promise us? The most precious promise, the most basic promise in the covenant? What does he promise? To forgive our sins, to not hold them against us. To not say in the last day, have I got something against you? That's the most fundamental promise that he makes in the covenant, not to remember to blot them out, to put them away as far as east is from west. And when you and I are called to say this and when we say it, I forgive you. That's what we should. The intending to say, I'm making a solemn promise to you. Now, that's been helpfully opened up by men like Jay Adams. And they've said that promises is threefold. It's a promise to one's self. It's a promise to the one who offended you. And it's a promise not to bring this matter up to anyone else. It's not just you and the other person, but it's it's anyone else. You make a promise not to bring the matter up to yourself. What you're saying is, I promise I'm not going to dwell on this, just like God doesn't allow my sins to destroy fellowship with him. I'm not going to let that happen between you and me. I promise not to do that. I promise not to dwell on this, to let it bother me. I promise to put it out of my mind. That alone. is a breathtaking thing to commit to. But you promise not to bring it up to the person who has offended you. I'm not going to remind you of this. I'm not going to get historical with you, as it's sometimes put. Not hysterical. Historical. I'm not going to come back to you and say, you've done that. You've done this. You've done that. You've done this. And those are all things that I said to you that I promised. I'm not going to do that. And when I have opportunity to speak of others or speak to others about you, I promise that I'm not going to make this a matter that biases their opinion out of malicious intent on my part. I promise that I will not do that. Now, when I talk to you about saying I forgive you. As a promise. You good Presbyterians ought to have some bells go off, some little flags go up. And you want to say, oh, wait a minute. We, especially in our tradition, take promises very seriously. We realize that it is far worse not to make a promise than to make it and be careless in the fulfilling of it. Please ask these five five. It is better that you should not vow. than that you should vow and not pay. I said it without any hesitation. It's better for you to sin by not forgiving than to sin by not forgiving and yet promise to forgive. So when you say, I forgive you. Know what you're doing, brothers and sisters, know that something solemn is being enacted between you and another brother. Recognize that the forgiveness that's being sought is something quite profound, and this forgiveness that you extend is something quite profound. I'm going to pause for a minute and ask a couple of questions before I move on to my third point. I didn't know exactly where to put these questions, but they may have arisen in your mind. I'm going to address them now. One question in our little interlude is this. Can I forgive someone? And yet, still take certain actions in response to their sin that will cost him something. I'll tell you what I mean. Your teenage driver wrecks the car for the fourth time, Dad. And there seems to be a pattern. And he's been sorry every time. And as you've watched the insurance bills coming in and you've speculated and project and so on, you're coming to a white knuckle moment financially. And you simply say your son, son, I forgive you. But I've got to ask for your license. Is that possible? Or have I defined forgiveness in such a way that makes that impossible or more substantially, perhaps a man steals from his workplace? employers, perhaps a Christian, and there's genuine reconciliation, true repentance and genuine forgiveness. Is that employer obligated to take no precautions with regard to that man's weakness? Is he obligated to let him stay in that position of financial responsibility? A man is unfaithful to his wife. Yes, the affair is painful and brings great trauma to the family, yet he repents genuinely. Are there still consequences? Does she still have the prerogative to fulfill what Jesus says is her right to divorce? Would that be inconsistent with forgiving? You can see how this is quite a profound question. The answer to these questions, if I consistently put them in the same way, is yes. Forgiveness has to do with the putting away of sin between two people, but there are still often inevitable consequences for the one who's guilty. And I think we can see some biblical examples of that. When Moses sins against the Lord, he doesn't speak, but strikes the rock. And this is apparently a manifestation of something in Moses heart that is greatly displeasing to God. He says, Moses, you'll not enter the land. You think that Moses died alienated from God? No, no. Moses repented. I think we can rightly say that. And God forgave him. But there were still consequences. God was pleased to maintain an effect. When David sins and is truly repentant, writing Psalm 51 as one evidence of it, does he Become alien from God the rest of his life? No, but God still brings about consequences to his sin. And so it's very important when we find ourselves in those kinds of situations to recognize a couple of things. Brothers and sisters, the consequences that may still accrue to one who's offended you. It may be diverse, there may be many kinds of consequences, and you may be in a position to allow some of those consequences still to fall on them, but one of the consequences cannot be an alienation between you and that person. That is not a legitimate consequence of his sin. He repents. Yes, there may be many things that will still come to pass, but one of them may not be. as you forgive him, an alienation in the relationship as one Christian to another. I want to say there are times when it is your privilege to be in a position of deciding whether the consequences of that person's sin will fall upon them or not. And let me simply say there are times When it is not inconsistent with good judgment and wisdom, for you to allow those consequences to be suspended. It may be right, maybe not after the fourth accident, maybe right after the first accident. Son, I forgive you. Here's the keys. And when it is your wise prerogative to do that, you are acting a lot like your father in heaven. Sometimes he allows the consequences to stand, but many times does he not choose to suspend the consequences altogether. And he says, in effect, I forgive you and I'm not going to let what you deserve come upon you. Another question that we ought to ask at this point is, can we, should we forgive the non-Christian who's offended us? Maybe this has already begun to arise in Iran, because the way I've talked about the mystery of forgiveness, Paul says to forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you. That's the pattern in which you're to forgive one another. Well, can we do that with someone who's not in Christ? Can we forgive someone who does not claim the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior and who is not following him in obedience? Can we forgive? Well, Listen carefully. In the sense that many speak of forgiveness, that probably many of you have used the word that simply of no longer being bitter. In the sense that many of us properly have spoken of forgiveness, that is putting aside a grudge, letting your anger go. and putting its place, love and compassion and mercy. That's how forgiveness is often defined. And if that's the way you speak of forgiveness, yes, you certainly can forgive someone who is not in Christ, who's not a brother. Jesus said, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. You have a wicked uncle. or some such person who has lived a profane life and has caused you untold misery. Are you right to be embittered towards Him? No. Must you come to love Him and pray for Him? Yes. Must you surrender these issues to the Lord because He alone can judge? Yes. And so, I say that because of the way we often think of forgiveness. But I hope you'll see that I've defined forgiveness in even more careful terms and the strict sense of the word in the way that the scripture speaks of forgiveness in the most profound sense of the word. We cannot forgive those. Whom God has not forgiven. I hope by now you can understand why I would say that. Remember what the promise of forgiveness means. It's a commitment not to bring it up to yourself to the person to anyone else. Now, how would you square that kind of forgiveness with some of the Psalms of David, for example? He prays that God would bring his judgment upon those who are the enemies of the church. Doesn't sound like he's made any commitments not to bring up their offenses, does it? And Jesus, in a similar way, identifies those who are setting themselves against him and speaks of them in a condemning way. recognizing he is not forgiven in the fullest biblical sense of the word. How should we then respond to those? Well, I've already said you should love them and you should desire to see them forgiven so that you may join in God's own forgiveness of them. That's how Jesus models for us our response to our enemies. Yes, he's severe, but in the same person, He says, as they nail him to the cross, Father, forgive them. That's a prayer. It expresses a desire. Lord, I want you to forgive them. I think implicit in that is Jesus will, as shall we, follow with our father's lead and forgive all those that God in Christ has forgiven. These are not easy questions, but I take them up because they're important. Let's conclude our third point. By looking at the method, we looked at the mystery and the meaning of forgiveness. Let's look at the method and I'm going to divide the congregation, but only in a theoretical way, because all of you will be in both sides of this. I want to divide you between those in the position of seeking forgiveness and then those in the position of extending forgiveness. And I want to speak about the method, brothers and sisters, for all the mystery of it, there is a right way to do it. And there is a way to mess it up. And so, let me give you some brief words of exhortation about how you go about first seeking forgiveness. Brothers and sisters, when you have to seek forgiveness, when you're the one who's seeking it, in light of all that I've said about what it means, then you go to your brother and seek that forgiveness humbly. Recognizing it is a mercy, not a right. You go humbly. You go asking for forgiveness. Recognizing what it is that you're asking your brother to do. And recognizing that it's not something you deserve. If you go seeking forgiveness, thinking little of what it will involve for that brother to forgive you, then you will, even as you ask for forgiveness, insult him and offend him more. If you go asking for forgiveness, clearly implying in your words or in your manner that, hey, you're supposed to do this, so I already know the answer, so when are you going to do it? You will damage the relationship. You lack the part of a fool. It means that as you go seeking forgiveness, you'll go in a timely way. You'll recognize that there are moments to ask for it and there are moments not to ask for it. You'll go asking for forgiveness and willing, for example, to give the brother time to respond to your request. You'll recognize that just like sin is multiple layers and you can repent of sin at one layer, but like an onion, there's a lot of other layers. So forgiveness can have multiple layers. Have you encountered this already? And sometimes it's a process of repenting and forgiving and and realizing more the nature of your sin and repenting for that layer and forgiving at that layer. That's what I mean by this process being quite complex. How many of you have have found yourself thinking all over again about something you did that offended God and you've realized a whole other layer of it? You realize in the times past as you thought of that, you've had such trivial views of your sin as you go back to him for forgiveness. Is that wrong? Well, no, it's not wrong. Strictly speaking, you didn't go to him for that level. Of repentance and forgiveness. So, you recognize that as your awareness grows, so may his forgiveness need to grow. For those of you who are seeking forgiveness, let me say, you go ready to take whatever measures are necessary to demonstrate the genuineness of your repentance. It is one of the cruelest swindles to perpetrate on one another to seek forgiveness without real repentance, especially if you've been guilty of a long pattern of sin. And there have been many apologies, a rather inferior word, by the way, for the biblical notion of forgiveness and repentance. You assume the burden, brothers and sisters, of demonstrating your repentance As soon as you say, I'm sorry, you're professing your repentance that puts your brother in the position inevitably of saying, is he being real? Do you really understand? Don't let the burden fall on that person to make that assessment. You do whatever is necessary to demonstrate the genuineness of your repentance. Take extreme measures. Extreme measures are called for. Pursue the person you offended. Seek to be restored in the relationship. Don't simply let it all be verbal. Demonstrate the genuineness of your repentance by pursuing Him and the relationship. If you don't do these things, you'll just lead your brother into sin himself. You've sinned against him and now you're asking him to make a commitment apart from real evidence that you are repentant. And that's a commitment he'll probably break if he has doubts about your repentance. Those of you in the position of seeking forgiveness, you seek it humbly. Give the brother time. Recognize multiple layers, both repentance and forgiveness, and take measures, whatever are necessary, to demonstrate the reality of your repentance. And I'll make my final note, focusing on those who are in the position of extending forgiveness, like Luke 17 envisions us to be in. He sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent. You must forgive him. I want to end on this note, the tremendous, staggering responsibility Jesus places on us. He tells us that we are not, in effect, to bear false witness. We're not to lie. When we say, I forgive you, you say that. You follow through with what you've committed. In another place, Matthew 18, after telling another rather sobering story, he says, God will punish you like the king in his story if you don't forgive your brother from the heart. Jesus knows about verbal forgiveness and heartfelt forgiveness. Brother, if you are being approached for forgiveness, it would be better for you If you recognize how much the bitterness has taken hold in your heart, it would be better for you to say, can I have a little time? Give me a little bit of time. I can't commit to this just yet. I know I should. I can't commit to this yet because I know I can't yet say I won't bring this up to myself, to others or to you. Better to ask for that time. It'd be better for you to say, look, I want to believe you. And I want to forgive you, but we need to spend some more time, because I need to be honest with you, I don't believe that you're really repentant. I need to work with you on this relationship, and I need to see in you the same sense of your sin that I have of it. Recognize you who have been tasked with forgiving. When you do close with a person and you forgive him or her, you're taking up a long term obligation. You have your work cut out for you. You have your work cut out for you. Ken Sandy does a good job in coaching you in that area. His book, The Peacemaker. He says you need to take up the replacement principle. We've talked about this before. You've got many bitter thoughts towards that person, but he's confessed his sin. You've committed to forgive him. The bitter thoughts come back to you. You allow them to dwell in your mind. You're breaking your promise. What will you do? Well, you'll follow Philippians 4. You'll think of what things are pure and good and specifically what things you can think about that person. that are pure, that are good, etc. You'll replace the bitter thoughts with good thoughts of that person. You'll seek to have that person's name and personality trigger in your mind, after much disciplined thought, good things, not old, bitter things. But, pastor, you say, what do I do if I have been failing? for a long time to keep this promise to forgive. What do I do? I'm breaking this promise left and right. I've said I'd forgive. I know I'm responsible to, but I have failed. Or you do. I think what the Lord Jesus would first tell you to do is to reflect upon the nature of God's forgiveness of you. I think that's where he would begin. Has God said to you, you've reached the limit. You've asked forgiveness one too many times. Has God ever said to you, even as we confessed our sins this morning, I think I need you to do a few things to prove to me that you're not going to do this again, because I'm tired of this. I'm just fed up with this. You know, you confess the same thing to me over and over and over again. Next time you ask for forgiveness, I want to guarantee it's not going to happen again. Is that how God does? No. Praise be to God. That isn't how He does it with us. Think on the nature of God's forgiveness. Think upon the sin of not forgiving. You see, the offense was against you. But now, what should be your primary concern is the sin of your own heart in not forgiving. Why, I think, in part at least, the apostles say to the Lord after he says these things, Lord, increase our faith. Who can do this? You become absorbed, not with that person's sin, but your sin of failing to open your heart towards that person as God has opened his heart to you. And you seek nothing less than the power of God to change your heart. You pray about it. And you start doing what is forgiving. Pray that He will change your heart. And as you seek to do what is forgiving, you, you who've been offended, you who've been asked for forgiveness, you who are in the position of extending forgiveness, you, you are in a beautiful position. to look like God. Because as you forgive, and not only forgive, not only remove the sin from between you and your brother, but even begin to be the pursuer of the one who sinned against you, nothing you could do could make you more Godly, God-like, more like your Father. But not only to forgive, we're not just justified but also reconciled, sanctified, glorified. You who have been offended, you extend forgiveness, and then you be the pursuer of the relationship that you might be sons of your Father in Heaven. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, when we are tempted to count our brother's offenses against us, we pray that you would sweetly, but sternly, direct us to the fact that we can't count our offenses to you. Seven? Seven times seventy? To be sure, O Lord, we've committed that many sins just in the span of a week against you. Forgive us, we pray, for our closed hearts to our brothers. Cause us, we pray, to love the gospel, to understand it, to be more deeply affected by it, to be like the one woman She lived and was not a part of a parable who wept at Jesus' feet, thought of how much she'd been forgiven. Make us like that woman, we pray. And we ask that we would be thereby so humbled by your forgiveness of us that it even comes readily to us to forgive those who sought to kill us. Everything up to that. Father, we thank you for everything that has been brought to our minds again about how much you love us this morning, how indeed fully you have put our sins away. Thank you, Lord, that East and West are a long way apart and our sins are a long way from us. this hour. We thank you for these blessings. Help us to live like we understand them and love them. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.