1 Corinthians 13, verses 1-8. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patience. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, it will be done away. Let's pray. Father God Almighty, Lord, we're asking You to teach us in the way of love. to teach us to follow the path of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very incarnation of love. Lord, grace us to grow in the holy art of loving others and loving You. Lord, help us, as we've been learning, to put off jealousy, to put off bragging, to put off arrogance, to put off rudeness, to put off selfishness, to put on love, to take the humble road of love, to be patient, to be kind. Lord, even this morning that you would teach us not to be easily provoked, and that you would teach us not to keep a record of wrongs, because love does not do these things. Lord, we ask for Your help. Grace us with attentive minds and ears to Your Word. And Lord, I pray that Christ might be exalted in this hour. In Jesus' name, Amen. R.C. Chapman, I mentioned him several weeks ago, he was a preacher, a pastor in the 1800s, a man who was a well-to-do lawyer who left his prestigious profession and became a pastor in a small town called Barnstaple, England. And R.C. Chapman, although he was a loving person, he had his enemies because he was also very firm on the truth of God. In fact, he had developed one particular enemy. It was a local grocer in town. This grocer was so upset at R.C. Chapman that one time when he was doing some open air evangelistic preaching, this grocer, this local grocer, spit on him in the face. For a number of years, this grocer continued to criticize and publicly interrupt Chapman's open air preaching. But R.C. Chapman refused to retaliate. He refused to become angry. He refused to hold a grudge against this man. And he was looking for the opportunity to be a blessing to this man. Sure enough, the time arose when one of R.C. Chapman's relatives came into town. And this relative was not just coming in to visit, but he wanted to help R.C. Chapman out in his ministry. And he knew that R.C. Chapman had a kind of ministry to reach out to some of the poor people in the city. And so this relative decided that he was going to donate different food and supplies to this ministry. And so he would have to go to a local grocery store to buy the food for this ministry. Well, R.C. Chapman specifically told him, if you're going to help out with this ministry, you must go to this one specific grocer, the same grocer who had spit upon him. This relative was unaware of this previous history. So as he went to this grocery store and ordered all these different food and supplies, and it was a large amount of money that this grocer was going to be making off of this transition. And then he told the grocer where these groceries were to be delivered to. He said, deliver them to R.C. Chapman. The grocer immediately said, there must be some kind of mistake. You're at the wrong grocery store here. He said, no, R.C. Chapman specifically said to buy the groceries from this grocery store. Well, that grocer delivered those groceries and those supplies to R.C. Chapman. And as he delivered them, as he saw R.C. Chapman's face, he broke down in tears. And that day, it was that love of that man not keeping a record of wrongs that broke his heart so that that day that man repented and put his faith and confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just a picture of the way of love that Paul is teaching us here in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. In this glorious and marvelous section in 1 Corinthians 13 about what love looks like. And if you remember, we looked in the first three verses in chapter 13 about the priority of love. That it is that most necessary element. That if love is not present, then nothing else matters. You could have the greatest gifts in the world, the greatest acts of self-sacrifice, giving to the poor, even martyrdom. But if love isn't there, love for God and love for others, it doesn't matter. And then we've been looking in verses 4 through 7, there's 15 practices of love. And all these follow the verbs. which the verbs come up in the original, but they come out mostly as adjectives in our text. We looked at verse 4, that love is patient, or love practices long-suffering. Love is able to endure ill-treatment and harm. We've seen also in verse 4 that love practices kindness. It seeks to be useful and helpful to others. Also we've seen what love is not in verse 4, that love does not practice jealousy. Love does not envy. It does not seek to put others down so that they can be elevated. We've also seen that love does not brag. Love doesn't like to talk a lot about itself. We've also seen that love is not arrogant. Love is not proud. It does not practice pride and arrogance. Also then, we looked at in verse 5 that love does not act unbecomingly. Love does not practice rudeness. But it's considerate of others. We've also seen in verse 5 that love does not seek its own to the exclusion of others. Love is not selfish. And then today, these next two practices or anti-practices of love, we see that love is not provoked. And then secondly, love does not take into account a wrong suffered. So what we're trying to see here this morning, that love does not get easily ticked off, and love does not keep a scorecard of wrongs. The way of love does not get, first of all, easily ticked off. We see this here in verse 5, that love is not provoked. Some translations say, King James says love is not easily provoked. The NIV says love is not easily angered. Another translation says that it is not irritable. One translation says it does not get annoyed. Another one says it does not get upset with others. All these different euphemisms to be annoyed, irritable, upset, all those are euphemisms for what the Bible would call anger or provocation, being provoked. This is the person who is thin-skinned. who's touchy, who's irritable, whom somebody you have to walk on eggshells every time you're around. This is the person that is easily provoked, easily angered, easily irritated. Now, if you have read the Bible very much, you do know and understand that there is a kind of provocation. There is a kind of anger that is a righteous anger. In fact, the Bible speaks of one of the most beautiful attributes in the character of God himself. His anger is being provoked because there is a kind of righteous anger. There is an anger that was within the character of God that is an anger about those things which would oppose God Himself and that would defame His glory. There is a kind of anger against sin that is a righteous kind of anger. In fact, it's even displayed and should be displayed in the people of God. In fact, I don't know if you remember the story when the Apostle Paul himself was going into Athens, which Athens was a pagan city. They worshipped all kinds of different gods. And as he came into that city and he saw how many idols were in that city, it says in Acts 17, 16, that while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. That's what you call holy provocation. That's a righteous indignation. Paul was righteously enraged as he seen all the idolatry in the city. So there is a righteous kind of indignation. Or you may remember on one occasion when Jesus entered into the temple and as he saw they had made the temple into a kind of a swap meet, Jesus became enraged. He was enraged at the swindling. And he began to take a whip and drive out all the animals from inside the temple. He drove everybody out of the temple. That was Jesus. And Jesus never sinned, so that was a kind of righteous provocation, a righteous indignation, a righteous anger. So the question is, how do we know the difference between a righteous anger and a sinful anger? Because this passage says that there is a kind of provocation, there is a way to be provoked that love does not exhibit. Well, it can probably be boiled down to a simple question of why you are angry. Are you enraged because God is not honored as He ought to be honored? Are you enraged against some kind of sinful activity? Something that would be harmful, damaging to another? Are you enraged about your own personal rights? Your own personal interest? Your own pride being wounded? Your own honor being defamed? If it's about yourself, then it's almost certainly sinful anger. If it's about God, if it's about sin, if it's about principles of righteousness, then no doubt that is a kind of righteous indignation. So asking yourself, why am I enraged? What am I all upset about? If it is about yourself, then it's sinful. If it's about others and about God, it's a righteous indignation. But you have to be careful at this point because we can so easily try and mask our sinful anger by putting the veneer of a righteous anger on it. What do I mean by that? We can be so intense of our fight for the truth of God that really the agenda is our own being right and not so much about God's being right. Jonathan Edwards warns us of this when he says, men are often accustomed to plead zeal for religion and for duty and for some honor of God as the cause of their indignation when it is only their own private interest that is concerned and affected. It is remarkable how forward men are to appear as if they were zealous for God and righteousness in cases wherein their honor or their own will or their own interest has been touched, and to make a pretense of this in injuring others or complaining of them." So there is a distinction between righteous anger and sinful anger, but at the same time, our hearts can be very deceptive And think that we're pleading a righteous cause, when in reality we're pleading our own cause. So we have to be very discerning. We need to be like the Proverbs 20 man. It says that the heart of man is like deep waters, but a man of understanding draws out the purposes of that heart. So we need to understand and exegete and interpret even our own hearts, what our own motives are, and why we do what we do, and in particular, why. We are upset. Why? We are angry. But, I remind you again, if your anger, if you're being irritated, if you're being upset, is about your own personal rights, or if it's somehow about the way people are treating you, or if it's about the reality that your pride is wounded, then these are all fast and sure tip-offs that your anger is not righteous anger, and that means it's sinful anger, and that means that it's not flowing out of love for God or for others. You see, two of the practices of love are some of the roots of this kind of anger. Earlier on, he said in verse 4 that love is not arrogant. You see, pride... And then one that we see later on, love does not seek its own selfishness. Pride and selfishness are the two pistons that drive unrighteous anger. We get upset because somebody didn't do something the way that we want them to do it. Or we think that we should be treated better. We think that others should treat us in a more respectful, more honorable way, and we get irritated, we get annoyed. But it's all about self. It's all about selfishness. It's all about pride. That's not righteous indignation. The colonial puritan, Jonathan Edwards, once again says, the heart of man is exceedingly prone to undue and sinful anger, being naturally full of pride and selfishness. Our hearts are bent towards being easily provoked, easily irritated, easily annoyed. Why? Because our hearts are full of pride and selfishness. But love is not easily provoked. You see, love for people is contrary to being easily provoked. Love is contrary to being easily provoked because we see that being easily provoked is contrary to some of these other practices of love. If you look in verse 4, it says that love is long-suffering or love is patient. That's not being easily provoked. That's the opposite of being easily provoked. It's also the opposite, as we've mentioned already, of arrogance and selfishness. Love is the opposite of being irritable, provoked, annoyed in a sinful kind of way. You see, a humble person is not easily provoked for their own cause. An unselfish person does not easily get angered. And when he does get angry, if he's concerned about God and His glory and others, any kind of anger that would flow out of an unselfish heart and a humble heart is going to be a kind of righteous indignation, not an unrighteous indignation. A proud person thinks about how they deserve better, how they should be more respected. A selfish person, Edwards once again says, if men sought not chiefly their own private and selfish interests, but the glory of God and the common good, then their spirit would be in a great deal more stirred up in God's cause than their own. And they would not be prone to hasty, rash, inconsiderate, immoderate, long-continued anger with any who might have injured or provoked them. They would have a great measure for God themselves, for God's sake, and from their zeal for the honor of Christ. Friend, make no mistake about it. Underneath the skin of a person who is easily provoked, easily annoyed, easily irritated, is selfishness and pride. And that's not the way of love. That's not the practice of love. To be provoked in a sinful way, to be irritated in a sinful way when it's all about self, God is opposed to sinful anger. The Bible speaks a lot about anger. In fact, let me just remind you of a couple passages in the Proverbs. Proverbs 14, 7. Leave the presence of a fool. I'm sorry, Proverbs 14, 29. He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who is quick-tempered exalts folly. He who is quick-tempered exalts folly. Proverbs 15, 18. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute. Proverbs also reminds us of the foolishness of associating even with an angry person. In Proverbs 22.24, do not associate with a man given to anger, or go with a hot-tempered man, or you will learn his ways and find a snare for yourself. You see, friends, anger has been called by one person the vice of the nice. It's one of those sins that we have a tendency to gloss over and think, well, I checked everything off the list, OK, but I have, quote, a temper. Isn't that what we call it? I have a temper, as if there was some kind of virus inside of us called a temper that we could blame it on this virus every time we unleashed on somebody. Oh, it's OK. I'm not responsible. I'm not accountable before God for my anger. It was my temper. No, friend. The Bible calls that temper, if it's there, it calls it sin. In fact, keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 13 and turn over to Matthew 5. In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, where He fillets the human heart with the law of God's standard, in Matthew 5.21, It says, you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court. Verse 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court, and whoever says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the supreme court, and whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go Into where? Into the fiery hell. Jesus says, it's not just as the Pharisees had interpreted God's law, as long as I haven't murdered anybody, everything's okay. Jesus cuts it down to the level of the human heart and says, if you're angry with your brother so much that you call him a fool, an idiot, a jerk, a good-for-nothing, or fill-in-the-blank. He says, you're guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. This is God's standard. This is God's standard of righteousness. I'm sure every single person in this room looks at that and says, guilty as charged. But you can either excuse your sin or own up to your sin and cast it upon the cross. You see, when we look at what the Bible says about unrighteous anger, we see that it sentences us to an eternity in hell, and our only hope of rescue, of deliverance from that punishment, is if somebody else takes the punishment for us. And that is only found in the person of the crucified and risen Savior, and His name is Jesus. So friends, let's not seek to clean up this thing called anger in our hearts in the way that we dress it up and say, it's a temper or it's something else. It's my circumstances. You don't understand the people I work with. You don't understand the people I live with. No friend, God makes you accountable for your sinful anger. But anger is also, or unrighteous provocation, is also contrary to love for God. It's not only contrary to love towards other people, but also love for God. I mean, have you ever thought about how long-suffering, impatient God is? How God does not get easily ticked off? I mean, the very fact that we were immediately swallowed up into the pit of hell the first time we sinned against Him demonstrates how patient God is. And so the heart of love for God that wants to imitate the God of the Bible looks at His patience, His longsuffering, the reality that He is not easily provoked, and says, I want to be longsuffering in that kind of way. That demonstrates love for God. It's just like the child who wants to be like his daddy, so the child of God who wants to be like his Abba Father in heaven says, I want to be a person who is not easily provoked. But also, if you ponder some of the things in life that you get angry and upset about, have you considered the reality That the Bible teaches that God is sovereign, He is King, He is in control of all of your circumstances. So that when you are angered, when you are enraged at your circumstances, like a computer that's not working very well, like a traffic jam, like people around you, Every time you complain and get angry and enraged about your circumstances, who are you really enraged against? Who has orchestrated those circumstances according to Romans 8, verse 28, to work for your good? And you are angry against the One who is behind those circumstances. You wouldn't say that you're angry at God. You wouldn't say that you're angry at Him. But when you demonstrate an unrighteous anger concerning your circumstances, you're demonstrating a lack of love for God. The heart that loves God will embrace its circumstances and say, Lord, I know that you are in control. Lord, teach me in this situation. Teach me to be patient. Teach me to love others. Teach me not to be easily provoked, annoyed, irritated, enraged. So you can't blame your circumstances, because if you get angry and blame your circumstances, ultimately you're blaming the God of heaven. who has orchestrated those circumstances. And by the way, he's probably orchestrated those circumstances to expose some kind of sin in your heart so that you would deal with it. So instead of being angry and enraged about your circumstances, which ultimately is anger against God, instead you ought to say, Lord, I see the sin. Lord, help me to grow in You. I cast this sin upon the cross and I plead for Your forgiveness. And that's when real change will begin to take place in your life. Friends, the good news is that real change is possible. If you have the Holy Spirit of the living God with inside of you, His fruits are love. And that means love is contrary to being easily provoked. So friend, I ask you this morning, Are you a person who gets easily ticked off, easily angered, easily irritated, easily annoyed? And these aren't about matters of righteousness, these aren't about matters of God's glory, His honor, but about your own personal interests? Friend, then you need to deal with the living God this morning. You need to do business with God. You need to confess that sin to God. Take it to the cross and beg Him to help you to grow and to change in this area. To grow in the way of love because the way of love is not easily provoked. So we've seen that love does not get easily ticked off. But now secondly, love does not keep a scorecard of wrongs. Look at verse 5. Love does not take into account a wrong sufferer. The ESV English Standard Version says, love is not resentful. At this point, I think that the King James can be somewhat misleading. It says that love thinks no evil. It's not so much the idea of thinking evil, it's the idea of accounting or keeping a record of evil and the implication is evil that has been done against us. The NIV says it keeps no record of wrongs. It's the idea that love does not take into account a wrong suffered. It's not keeping score. I remember the first time my dad taught me to keep score at a baseball game. It's not as easy as you might think. You're trying to keep the scorecard. Who scored what each inning? And that's the idea. A person keeping a scorecard every inning. Who did what against me? This person did this in 1987. This person did this in the year 2000. Oh, I remember what they did to me. And you're keeping score. You're remembering all these different things that people have done against you. And that's the idea in this word, the idea to take into account a wrong suffered. The amazing thing is we see it throughout the New Testament in a way that Paul uses it in regard to God not keeping the score with us. In Romans chapter 4, if you'll turn there very quickly, Romans chapter 4, verse 3. Romans chapter 4, verse 3, it says, For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was, this is our word here, it was credited. It's an accounting term. It was credited to him as righteousness. So Abraham, when he placed his faith in the Lord, righteousness was credited to his account. Verse 4. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited to him as a favor, but as what is due. There's our word again, credited. Verse 5, but to the one who does not work, as in working for your salvation, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is, here's our word again, credited as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Verse 8, blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not here it is again, take into account. It's an accounting term, a business term, to keep a record. It's a ledger. You know those ledgers that you're supposed to fill out to balance your checkbook? Will you mark everything, every debt owed, every check that's outstanding, all the different transactions that are going on? It's a ledger, and that's the idea. Love does not keep a ledger of wrongs, of evils that have been against that person. But the God of the Bible, the glorious God of the Bible, for those who are His children, He also does not keep a ledger. He does not keep a ledger of wrongs that you have done. But listen to this, in His ledger, He credits Christ's righteousness to your count, if you are one of His. That's the beauty of the Gospel. That's the beauty of the way of love, is the way of love lives in the light of the Gospel. The way of love does not keep a record of wrongs because God has not kept a record of your wrongs. So friends, we understand what this means, don't we? This is the idea of keeping a mental list in your head of all the different things that people have done against you. An ex-husband, an ex-wife who has done evil against you, could be a mother-in-law, could be a father-in-law, could be a brother, could be a sister, it could be an old friend. Whomever it is, if you are keeping an account of wrongs suffered so much that you're punishing that person either by withdrawing, not speaking to that person, or doing some kind of manifestation of evil and harm against them, then you are keeping a record of wrongs. Think about it. When you see certain people, does in your mind pop up something that they've done against you in the past? If so, then you're keeping a record of wrongs. The Corinthians suffered from this problem in a miserable kind of way. In Corinthians 6, you remember, they were taking people to court. They were suing one another. They were airing out their dirty laundry, their disputes, before the unbelieving world. And Paul said, no, you should not be doing that. If you're going to settle disputes, settle them within the church. Appoint somebody who's wise, who can arbitrate in the situation. He says in 1 Corinthians 6, 6, But a brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Actually then, it is already a defeat for you. You've already lost. That you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brother. You see, they were keeping a record of wrongs. They weren't seeking to settle their disputes, to confess their sins and forgive one another. And that was contrary to the way of love. And Paul says, love does not keep a scorecard of wrongs that have been done against you. J. Adams, the godfather of biblical counseling says, He gives a situation in which he was counseling a couple. This couple had been referred to him from a doctor. This woman evidently had some kind of a stomach ulcer that was becoming a health problem for her, and there was no physical reasons for this ulcer, at least as far as the doctor could tell. So he sent his people to J. Adams for biblical counseling. And as this woman entered the room, she threw on the desk Big fat folder one inch thick on eight and a half by 11 paper single space type on both sides a Record of all the things that her husband had done wrong for the past 13 years This was one who kept an account of wrongs, who was keeping a scorecard for 13 years, and this was so infested inside of her that she was suffering physically from it. She was keeping an account of wrongs, and physically it was eating her away. And is that not the case, friends? That the way in which in some kind of sick and perverse way we like to nurse our wounds and coddle the pains that others have inflicted upon us in years gone by, and somehow we get some kind of sick pleasure and delight in it. But it's contrary to the way of love. It's not the path of forgiveness. Alexander Strach says, if we refuse to let go of emotional hurts, if we enjoy nursing old wounds, if we feel compelled to get even with our enemies, we will be devoured by bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness. Friends, this gets really close to home. Whether it be our marriage relationships, our friendships, our family relationships as far as extended family, brothers, sisters, in-laws, outlaws, you name it. This gets really close to home. I remember one time, I had just recently listened to a series of sermons on 1 Corinthians 13. Bernie and I were going to the movies, and evidently somehow we got into an argument, into a disagreement. I was being easily provoked, and I remember, I don't even remember what it was, but something came out of my mouth, some kind of wrong that she had done towards me sometime in the past that was supposed to have been reconciled, supposed to have forgiven her of this, and as the words left my mouth, I could hear the words from 1 Corinthians 13, Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. And I was guilty. And immediately, by God's grace, He brought that Scripture to my mind as it was coming out of my mouth and I was able to immediately ask for forgiveness for her. But sometimes, that's not always the case. Sometimes, we can habitually nurse and coddle these old wounds and keep track, keep a record. But love for people is contrary to keeping a record of wrongs. Because love is always quick and ready to forgive. And if you love that person, then you're quick and ready to take the cursor and drag it across all the wrongs that somebody has done and highlight them and hit the delete button. But if There's anger and even, dare I say, hatred in your heart that's not willing to forgive. It's not willing to hit the delete button. It goes and highlights those old wounds only to gaze at them and coddle them some more and to remember that person in the light of those old evils that they have done against you. You see, hatred is what holds a grudge. Hatred is what nurses those old wounds and resolves to get even. But let me clarify something here. This does not mean that love... there's never a place for rebuke or admonition in love, to call somebody out on the evils that they have done. And in that, you may need to help somebody see the pattern of that sin in their life. If it has become a pattern, you may need to help that person to see it. But note this, never, never, never is any kind of admonition helping somebody to see their wrongs a case of revenge, a case of getting even, or what this would call keeping a record of wrongs in that sense. Because if that is necessary, if it's necessary to help somebody see the wrongs that they have committed against you, it's always for the good of that person, not so you can get your pound of flesh or to quote-unquote, I just had to get it off my chest. That's not biblical love. That's keeping a record of wrongs. But it may be necessary in love when you're ready, to help somebody see what they've done against you. There is a place for that. This also does not mean that there's never a place to get involved the law or civil injustices. In other words, police may have to get involved. This does not mean that somebody murders a relative and you have to forgive them and they never go to jail for something like that. This is not saying anything like that. But it is canceling any kind of thoughts of bitterness, revenge, unforgiveness that may exist in your heart. That is not the way of love. So I ask you this morning, how are you doing in this area? Do you have a ledger? A nice leather-bound one in your mind? All the columns neatly aligned. Every time you see somebody, you remember, oh yeah, I remember what they did. Treat them differently. Avoid them. Plot evil against them. Friend, if you want to ruin your marriage, then keep a scorecard. If you want to ruin your friendships, then keep a scorecard. If you want to ruin relationships with really anybody, then keep a scorecard. And it will just infest and embitter you. And the Bible says, if you do not forgive, then it may be that you are not a forgiven person. Because you see, even love for God does not keep a record of wrongs. It's not just horizontal. But love for God does not take into account wrong suffered. Love for God does not keep that ledger. Love for God is willing to forgive. Because think about it, one of the reasons I think why a person would want to hold on to the wrongs that have been done against them, why they would want to coddle and nurse them, bring them to their mind, because somehow they think that God's not going to do His job. God's not going to bring justice. Somehow God's forgotten about that situation. Somehow God is on His bench of justice as judge, and He's not doing the job right. So it's kind of like saying, God, I don't think You're doing a good job here, so why don't You move on over, and I'm going to sit behind the bench, and I'll take care of this. That's not love for God, friend. That's not love for God. It's slighting the reality that He is the all-wise Judge in whom nothing is hidden from His eyes. He saw it and He will deal with it in due time. And if it was a Christian who has sinned against you, then the blood of Christ died for that sin. And if they're an unbeliever, God will deal with that sin forever in hell in a far better way than you will ever be able to deal with it. So love for God acknowledges, God, You can sit on the bench of Your justice, and I will sit here. I will let You deal with that. I will leave room for Your wrath. But a lack of love for God says, move over, God. You're not doing Your job right. But also, friend, a love for God, as we've mentioned all throughout this series, wants to imitate its daddy. When you see the picture of the God of the Bible, who is a God who is quick and ready to forgive, you say, I want to be like that God. I want to be like that God who is willing to not keep an account of wrongs, who is willing and ready to forgive. In 2 Corinthians 5.19 it says, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. And then the next phrase, not, there's our word, counting their trespasses against them. God in His reconciliation, He forgives. His people, and He does not count their trespasses against Him. And the glory and the beauty of God's ledger, as we've mentioned already, is that He takes the righteousness of Christ and stamps it on that ledger and applies it to your bank account. That is an amazing God. So that when you're in a situation and you see somebody sin against you, somebody do harm, somebody do evil against you, you're reminded that you have done harm and evil against God since the day you were breathing. And then you're quick and ready to forgive because you think, I've sinned against God a billion times in the past day, and this person sinned against me. A couple times? Ten times? Twenty times at the most? Maybe? I don't mean to minimize the harms and evils that somebody may have done against you. But if you realize that the God of the Bible has, in His grace, canceled your debt, placed it upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ, and accounted to your credit His righteousness, He's forgiven it all, how can you not forgive? when somebody has done evil against you. Paul says in Ephesians 4, verse 32, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ has forgiven you. Forgive one another just as God in Christ has forgiven you. That means that You need to click and drag and hit the delete button. That means that ledger in your mind has got to go in the fireplace. Jesus highlights this reality and highlights the seriousness of forgiveness when He gives a certain parable. You remember the parable? There's a man who has this huge debt that he's accumulated, and he begs and he pleads with the man that he owes this debt to, to forgive him of this debt. And the man forgives him, just like the God of the Bible. The entire debt was forgiven. And then that man was on his way home, and somebody owed him a debt. And it wasn't as big as the debt that he owed. And he saw that man, and he kept in account of the wrongs suffered, and he began to choke this man, and he said, pay up! Until you pay up, I'm going to send you to jail. And he had that man sent to jail. But then the big guy heard of it. the guy who had forgiven him of his huge debt, and says, then summoning him, his Lord said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I have had mercy on you? And his Lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. That was the point of the parable. That those who have been forgiven a huge debt in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the gospel, where their sins have been placed upon Christ's account, Christ's righteousness credited to their account, how can they not forgive somebody else? In other words, when God forgives somebody, He makes them a forgiving somebody. And friend, If you are harboring these wounds in your heart, if you are unwilling to forgive others, then you know that you cannot even pray as Jesus commanded us to pray. Either that or you would be writing your own death sentence. You know that familiar prayer, we call it the Lord's Prayer, some call it the Disciples Prayer. In that prayer, you say, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. Friend, if you prayed that this morning, would you be writing your own death sentence? Would you be asking God to hold you accountable for your sins? To punish you for your sins? Which, if you don't know, that means an eternity in hell. Because one sin merits God's eternal wrath. So friend, I plead with you, if there's bitterness that is lurking in your heart, to forgive. That does not mean that there's not a place to somehow point out the wrong that has been suffered to that person and try and bring reconciliation. But in your heart, in the deep recesses of your heart, are you still keeping that ledger there? Friend, if it's there, then you need to throw that ledger away. Throw the scorecard away. God does not permit it. I remember John Piper telling a story when he was in Germany. And there was this couple that was friends of him and his wife. And there was this one particular woman who had this amazing bitterness towards her mother. Unwillingness to forgive. And as Piper talked with her and pleaded with her to forgive her mother, she refused. She said, I will not forgive that woman. Piper found out not too long after that, that woman had totally apostatized from the Christian faith, turned her back on the Lord. There weren't any traces of Christianity in her life. When God forgives people, He makes them into a forgiving people. And the person who is unwilling to forgive at all may be a sign that they haven't been forgiven. So, God teaches us this morning that love does not get easily ticked off. And love does not keep a scorecard of wrongs. Some of you may be familiar with the late Corrie Ten Boone. She was in concentration camps in World War II. And she recalled in her book called The Hiding Place, a post-war meeting with a guard from Ravenstruck. concentration camp, where her sister Bethi had died and she herself had been subject to horrible indignation. The evils that were done in this concentration camp, this same concentration camp that her own sister had died at. And it was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, she said. That is, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room and the processing center at Ravensbruck concentration camp. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. So this is years after World War II. And she now sees this man in a church service, a man who was one of the Nazi war guards who had stood there watching her and her sister undress. And suddenly, it was all there. The room full of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, and Betsy's face-blanched face. This former guard came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. He said to Corrie ten Boom, how grateful I am for your message, miss. And he said, to think that as you say he has washed all my sins away." And this former guard's hand was thrust out to shake mine, she said. And I, who had preached so often to people of the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man. Was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive Him. She said, I tried to smile. I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again, I breathed a silent prayer, Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness. And as I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. from my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to Him, while in my heart sprang love for the stranger that had almost overwhelmed me." You see, friend, it's only the Gospel that can enable somebody to forgive like that. It's only a God who would take all the crimes that we have committed since the day we were born, and He cancels them and places to our account the righteousness of Christ. It's only that gospel that can enable us to look towards those who have done evils and crimes against us. Even a woman like Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered the evils of concentration camps in World War II, and to be able to extend forgiveness to others. And friend, I ask you this morning, do you know that gospel? Have you embraced that reality in your life for yourself? Have you cast yourself upon the mercy that's found in the crucified and risen Savior? Now you can extend that grace, mercy, and forgiveness towards others. I plead with you this morning, if you are a stranger of God's grace, to go to Jesus this morning. Turn back from your unforgiveness, your life of sin, and follow Him. Cast yourself upon His mercy. And you'll know the sweet joy, the ever-flowing fountain of forgiveness that you can extend towards others. Let's pray. Father God, Almighty King, There is none like You. Lord, we live in a world of backbiting, revenge, bitterness, and we applaud it. But God, You cut through all of that in our thinking and show us the way of love. God, help us. Help us to be a people that are not easily provoked. God, help us to be a people that do not keep a scorecard, that do not keep an account of wrongs suffered, so that we can extend the same grace, love, and mercy that you have extended towards us to others. and that you might receive the glory and the pleasure from heaven as you watch your children imitate you. In Jesus' name, Amen. And as we ponder the realities of the Gospel, we want to do this in a visible way this morning. in a way that Jesus Himself has told us to remember the gospel. The beauty of Christ's ordinances, the communion, the bread and the wine, or the bread and the grape juice as we use it here, the beauty of it is that it forces us to remember the gospel on a regular basis.