If you would, take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 33, and I'm gonna use an account in the book of Exodus as an introduction to help understand why we're looking at what we are this evening. Last night, we saw the importance of kind of moving past us as individuals and holiness and faithfulness and looking more as a church corporately. That'll be the same thing tonight, but tonight's more practical. How does a church stay in unity? And the reason that's a struggle, it's not the default state for us. We typically go into the flesh if we're not careful, and so we want to walk in the Spirit that will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so we want to be a God-honoring, Christ-exalting, Spirit-led church. But this church has the same situation our church has in Laramore. It happens to be the same situation that the church at Colossae had, the church at Ephesus had, the churches of Galatia had, any church, and that's this, it has people. And when you have people, you can have problems. Doesn't have to be that way, but you can. And that's because of sin. And one of the key things for a church To keep unity, to stay close, is to learn how to deal with sin. Learn how to deal with others. In short, this church is filled with relationships. And stewarding those relationships is important. And we're gonna look at a divine nature tonight. We're gonna look at another facet of our Lord, of our God, and we're gonna learn that His desire is for us to be a partaker of that divine nature. But I want you to see how important it is, and I pray this text helps you see that. In Exodus chapter 33, the Lord is upset with Israel. It says, the Lord said unto Moses, depart and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, and the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it. And I will send an angel before thee, and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way. Now notice, God said, I'm going to keep my promise. I'm gonna give you what I said I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you a lamb that has all the things I said I'm gonna give you. And I'm gonna send an angel with you, but I'm not going with you. Moses is saddened over this. And so in verse six, the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount of Horeb. They're kind of watching Moses. He goes and he speaks to the Lord. Verse eight, and it came to pass when Moses went out into the tabernacle that all the people rose up and stood every man at the tent door and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the Lord talked with Moses. What an experience. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose up and worshiped every man at his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Now look closely at verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now the way that I may know thee, that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, Moses now saying to God, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. What Moses is telling us recorded here is that, good, we're going to a land that flows with milk and honey, and the Lord wants to send an angel with us, but we don't want the angel. And the milk and honey, other nations have milk and honey. Other nations have houses. Other nations have farms. But what other nations don't have is you, God. And we don't wanna go anywhere if you don't go with us. I don't wanna settle for an angel. We want you in your presence. And here's what Moses said, that's what separates us from everybody else. The one thing that separates us from everybody else is your presence among us. And so Moses prays this prayer. In verse 17, the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou has spoken for thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee, this is Moses praying, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. This word means show me what makes you you. What gives you the weight to be who you are. And God in His goodness answers Moses' prayer. He says in verse 19, He said, It's one thing to hear a preacher proclaim the name of the Lord. How about the Lord proclaiming the name of the Lord? Amen? The Lord said, I'm going to do that for you, and I will be gracious and show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Then he said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and that shalt come to pass, while my glory passeth by. He's answering Moses' prayer. Show me thy glory. And God said, Okay, I will. But here's how it has to happen. The Lord gives Moses instruction in chapter 34. Moses follows the instruction. In verse five, and the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaim the name of the Lord. Please look at verse six. 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. of all of the attributes God could have manifested and proclaimed and cried out. It wasn't His eternality. It wasn't His holiness even. It wasn't His self-existence. Those things would have fit. But God decided and chose in His goodness that if He's gonna proclaim something, He proclaimed attributes. that can only be known in relationship to man. Mercy, grace, and long-suffering. Of all the ways God decided to answer Moses' prayer, you wanna see my glory? You wanna see who I am? I will proclaim to you who I am. I am merciful. That means he is compassionate. Praise the Lord for that. I am gracious. It means to kneel down to bestow favor, meaning that there's someone undeserving receiving it. And God says, that's who I am. And guess who the recipients are? Amen. And then he says this, long suffering. This means this is more than just patience. This is the ability to endure long with somebody else. You see, the attribute we're gonna look at tonight, the divine nature you must be a partaker of, is mercy, grace, and longsuffering. Specifically longsuffering, the ability to forbear. I think it's interesting and almost humorous that in Colossians, which we'll look at later, the Apostle Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, says to the church at Colossae, forbear one another. That literally means, hey, y'all are going to have to put up with each other. You're going to have to forbear one another. But it goes more than just being a kindness of one's personality. In Galatians chapter 5, a text that you know well, the apostle Paul, moved by the Holy Spirit, has already shown what the works of the flesh are. And he contracts the works, plural, of the flesh with the fruit, singular, of the Spirit. That means this isn't a buffet, it means it all comes with the fruit of the Spirit. And it's love, joy, peace. And you can have that with God. You can have love for God and love for man, of course, but you can have joy with God and you can have peace with God and peace with man. But what else is part of this? Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. This is the fruit of the Spirit. And right in the middle there, towards the middle, is longsuffering. The ability to endure a long time with someone that the world would not be able to endure a long time with. You remember the story of the prodigal's father? The prodigal comes running back, and the father comes out, And the prodigal says, Father, I'm here. I'm no more worthy to be one of your servants. And the father says, it's about time, pal. And you got a lot of payback to me. Is that what he said? No. Here's the prodigal son. And by the way, Jesus knows how to give proper illustrations, amen. And the prodigal came back with nothing and received from the father everything in the story. The ring, the robes, the shoes, everything. The food, the nourishment, everything came from the father. Now the other son, he's thinking, what in the world? He doesn't deserve that. Ah, there's that word deserve. Well, what do we deserve? Now we realize the potency again of mercy and grace. mercy not giving us what we do deserve grace giving us what we don't deserve this is a important topic for any church and i hope that the lesson tonight on forgiveness helps you as you seek to show you are a partaker of the divine nature of long-suffering. There are a dozen different things we could look at tonight. We're gonna look at the topic of forgiveness. Forgiveness. I want you to see from scriptures how important this is. First of all, I want you to see tonight forgiveness defined. Like love, you know that I'm not trying to correct the English Bible. I'm not trying to correct your King James Bible. but charity is used in scripture, love is used in scripture, and you know, there's different Greek words for love, and they have different meanings. It's the same thing with forgiveness. There's a word that's, in the Greek, it's aphi-ami, aphi-ami, and it means this, and listen closely, to send forth, to lay aside, to leave, let alone, omit or remit. Now, if I had a debt, and I'm paying on my car, and I tell someone in the church, and they say, hey, that's a nice Pacifica you have there, and say, yeah, Jen likes those, and we got that, and all that, I have good news for you. You don't owe anything on it anymore. And I said, really? Yeah, you don't owe anything on it anymore. Well, they don't have the right to tell me that, right? I mean, if I listened to them, I'd be in trouble, right? So only one with the authority to remit can remit. And this idea of forgiveness is to send forth, to lay aside, and to leave. Now, that doesn't mean anything to us until we remember, oh wait, our sins are forgiven. Our sins are laid aside, let alone sent forth, omitted, and remitted. And that's a blessing. This word is used in Matthew. If you take your Bible and turn to Matthew chapter 6 quickly, I want to do a quick Bible study with you to show you this and then we'll move on. Matthew chapter 6, verse 12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This lay aside, let alone send forth. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. And Jesus says this in response to the model prayer. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. In chapter 9, verse 6, Matthew chapter 9, verse 6, the word is used again. But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to what? to forgive sins. I need the Son of Man to have power to forgive my sins. I need that. I need him to have the power to lay aside my sin, to send forth, let it alone, omit or remit my sin. And of course he heals the man, tells him to take up his bed and go into his house as example of this. Matthew chapter 18, just real quick, Matthew 18, verse 21. Matthew 18 verse 21, this word is used again. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times. How many times am I supposed to do this for my brother? This is the same word used in 1 John 1.9. We're not gonna turn there. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to what? To forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's another word, apoluo. Apoluo, and it means this, to release, to loose, to set at liberty. Now, this is gonna get good in a few seconds. It doesn't mean to send forth, it means to loose. It means to free, to set at liberty. This word is used in Luke chapter six. If you take your Bible and turn there, Luke chapter six, you say, well, why would I sin? need to be set free or set at liberty. Well, there's more than sin that's forgiven. Luke chapter 6, verse 37. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. You will be set free. There's bondage in bitterness. There's bondage in unforgiveness. And Jesus says, and he uses this word on purpose, this isn't a mistake by the Holy Spirit, you will be loosed, you will be set at liberty, you will be released. Forgive others and you shall be forgiven. And then there is another word, it's charizomai. And those of you that may have gone to Bible Institute, you probably recognize that root word, charis, which is grace. Now, charizomai means to grant as a favor, freely and in kindness, pardon, rescue, or deliver. It sounds a whole lot like the first one, doesn't it? But this time it's a little bit different. In our society, this is something that you can do. You can walk into a store, know what you want to buy, go directly to it, pick it up, walk to the register, purchase it, and be out of the store in less than five minutes. It's called purchasing an item. And it can happen. But if you go out with my daughters, And my wife, they know how to purchase items, but it's a little different. You see, when they purchase items, it's with feeling. They enjoy what they're doing. They're not bothered by it, they're not bored by it, they rather enjoy it. It may be a simple illustration, but that's what this word means when you're forgiving. It means more than just setting loose. It means more than just setting aside. It means forgiving, but with feeling. It means you're forgiving and you want to do it. You're forgiving and you enjoy doing it. You know that you are granting a favor and it makes you happy to forgive. This is found in 2 Corinthians 2. Here's a man that needed it. 2 Corinthians 2, let's look at how this word is used. 2 Corinthians 2, look with me at verse 5. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part that I may not overcharge you all. 2 Corinthians 2. Two, we're in verse six, sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that contrary wise, ye ought rather to forgive him. You see that word? You ought to forgive him, you ought to charisma, you ought to, with passion and grace, forgive him and comfort him. You see how those are attached together? lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch, what? Sorrow. Paul knows, listen, this has an effect on people. You need to forgive him. He's gonna be swallowed up with guilt and grief. Don't let that happen, forgive him. And then Paul says this, to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgive anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. The reader was probably thinking, I think he's talking about forgiveness here. Like in every way. But here's why it's so important. Why should we forgive this way? Look at verse 11. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Satan knows how to cause division. He knows how to fuel people's flesh to hold grudges. And let me tell you, I deserve to have this grudge against them. I mean, what they did. But this word is used here, you need to forgive them. Understand this tonight. Forgiveness is not a feeling. Forgiveness is an action. I don't need God to feel about my sin. I need God to remove my sin. You see, when I was lost, there was something between me and God that I could not move. But I praise God, He can move it. And He did move it, praise His name. And so, if you're saved tonight, are you rejoicing in the fact that your Father in Heaven, your Savior, your champion, laid aside your sin, moved it away, and did it wanting to, not grudgingly, did it with favor for you in mind, did it because he's gracious and he's merciful? Well, praise the Lord for that. We need to understand these biblical definitions of forgiveness, because tragically today, while forgiveness is defined biblically, tragically, number two, forgiveness is diluted today. It's diluted into something that's not nearly as potent as biblical forgiveness. There's this idea of forgive and forget. Listen, forgive and forget is not scriptural. You say, well, but God forgets our sin. No, no, no, God doesn't forget our sin. God can't forget anything, he's God. What the Bible says is God remembers our sin no more. What that means is he doesn't call it to mind. If I could illustrate this way, this is gonna be really, really silly, and I hope this isn't too silly for you, but if, what's your name, sir? Brother Dash? Okay. Brother Josh, you know, I want a relationship with him, but I have, he is, we'll make it more realistic, he's caused the problem, all right? I mean, this guy, and now, where I want a relationship, and just picture this is much bigger than a pen, if you don't mind, use your imagination, all right? This has come between us, right? I desire to get close to you, but there's something between us, okay? And he comes to me and he says, Josh, I tell you, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have done that. And I said, well, listen, I forgive you. And I take it and I put it right here, right within my reach, because I know him. And I know I'm gonna need this later. When he comes back to me, I'm gonna say, oh, oh, oh, oh, don't forget what you did. That's not what God did with our sin. Why does he use phrases like, as far as the East is from West? He does it to show us what he does with our sin. He removes it, but he doesn't do this. He does that. It's way over there. Apologies to Brother Anger if that did anything to the organ. Hoping you'll forgive me. But that's what we're talking about. And listen, this is more than just for, this works in marriage obviously, but it's more than just for marriage. This is about church. This is about relations with people. Why is it so important that we understand that it's more than just forgive and forget? All this means that If one can move on enough, they no longer think about the offense or the person. I just want to stay distracted with my life, stay busy with other things, get new friends, go new places. I just don't want to think about it anymore. That's not biblical forgiveness. This is not helpful and it is definitely not how God forgave you. The Bible says he remembers our sins no more, but rest assured, he knows exactly where they are. But he does not call them to mind. He does not bring them up. Now, please get this. Please get it. If you get nothing else on this point, get this. If you are one who has to forget the offense in order to forgive, you lose the power and beauty of what forgiveness is. If you have to forget, you lose the glory of forgiveness. because the beauty is, and God likeness is, knowing the offense and still forgiving, remembering while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Is our standard for reconciliation higher than God's? I am so thankful that when I came to God as a deceitful, pride-filled, flesh-filled sinner, and cried out to God, God didn't say, well, we'll see, we'll see. I'm grateful for that. So is the thief on the cross, by the way, amen? Aren't you glad there's no probation period for your salvation? What hope would we have? Have you been forgiven? I hope so. No, God promises us that if you confess your sin, I'll forgive your sin. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. You're not held accountable now for your sin. Why is it so important that we remember the way God has saved us? And I say this without any, I don't mean to offend anybody, but from this point of the message on, you really have to be saved to understand it. Because you find out that biblical forgiveness does not flow from a heart of compassion alone. Biblical forgiveness flows from a heart of gratitude. And you can't have that gratitude unless you first have experienced God's forgiveness. Let me prove this to you by going to our third point, and that is forgiveness demonstrated. Forgiveness demonstrated. If you would take your Bible, turn with me to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. We're not gonna read through the whole text, but I want you to look at verse 12 with me. Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. There's that word holy again. Bows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving, who? one another. I'm not trying to be funny. God would not have written to a church to forgive one another if they didn't need to forgive one another. There's gonna be a time where we have to obey these verses too. Not just the, go ye therefore into all the world. Yeah, we're good on obeying that one. We have to obey this one too. put up with each other, forbear one another, and forgive one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, and above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Now I want you to take your Bible and turn to Ephesians chapter four. Here's a different church, different people, same problem. Different church, different people, same problem. And it might even sound familiar to you like it's from Colossians, but that's because it's the same author, amen? Ephesians four, verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Get rid of that. He talks about not corrupt communication, but rather that which is the use of edifying. Your speech ought to build up, not tear down. Not just those of you that are talking, but those of you that are listening. If you have someone who's speaking to you, words that tear down, Evil communications corrupts good manners. So what do you do after you put all this off? Verse 32, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, here's the word again, and by the way, this is the word charizomai, with feeling, with passion, granting a favor, with joy, lay aside the offense, lay aside the sin, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Now what happens here in both Colossians chapter three and Ephesians chapter four is something that intrigues me greatly. Last night we talked about husbands. Do you remember this? Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church, right? How many of you witness in the world? Don't raise your hands. You're being modest. I respect you for that. You have great humility. That's good. We know how to witness in the world. Our Lord has given us an example. Our Lord ate with publicans and sinners. He went to synagogues. So we can see our Lord. We can see an example set over here. We can say, how my Lord was with publicans and sinners. That's how I want to be. I don't want to ignore this group over here. Sorry about that. I'm always going left. How about this? The feeding of the 5,000. His compassion for people that have physical needs. Isn't that a blessing? They had spiritual needs, but the Lord met their physical needs. I think that's beautiful. And so you see how the Lord treats people. And then specifically, with my wife, the Bible says, Josh, I want you to love your wife like you're supposed to, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to look at Jesus, and I want you to look at the church, and how Jesus loves the church, that's what I want you to do. But forgiveness is different. Because what the Bible says, more than once, is not to forgive Brother Dash even as God has forgiven Brother Dash. It says, I'm to forgive Brother Dash even as God has forgiven me. You see, when it comes to my decision to forgive, when it comes to my desire to forgive, I'm not holding a magnifying glass up The Bible says I have to hold a mirror up. That's what it says. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. What's my reference point for how I'm supposed to forgive? What's the baseline for how I'm supposed to forgive? It's how God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven me. Wow. And guess how God forgave me? He took the offense, He laid it aside with love, with grace, He put it over there, He said it, liberty, all the synonym phrases that you want to use, God did that for me. Do you see why this is so important, beloved? That we understand that forgiveness is not just a kind thing people do, but that forgiveness is a way to manifest that we are partakers of a divine nature. Real forgiveness, biblical forgiveness. Now I realize that biblical forgiveness follows biblical repentance, I understand that. It's important, just like I share in marriage counseling, a husband is constantly doing something he shouldn't do. The answer in that isn't, well, the wife, you just need to be more forgiving, be more forgiving, be more forgiving, be more forgiving. No, the answer is he needs to repent. He needs to stop doing what he's doing. You understand that. But that's not always the problem. It's not always the problem that the other person doesn't acknowledge their offense. We have too many people in churches that are so guilt-ridden over what they've done, they can't accept that they've been forgiven. That's why this culture in a church is so important, that there is this constant relationship where it's biblical forgiveness with grace, with feeling, if we could say it that way. And every time, it says here, the Bible never gets it wrong, the church at Colossae, the church at Ephesus, when you forgive each other, I want you to forgive the way God forgave you. That's your reference point. Yeah, but they don't deserve it. Oh, did you deserve it? Oh, that's right. I'm ashamed to tell you this because I don't have to go that far back to illustrate this point, but it fits. But several months ago, I was frustrated and I was fed up with somebody. Again, I'm not proud of this at all, but it happened and it fits this illustration, this point. I was, I was frustrated and I was fed up with this person. And I was just ready to write them off. I'm like, you know what? I'm not gonna waste my time. I'm not gonna cast my pearls before a swine. And right when I was coming up with all these good verses to support my decision, The Lord reminded me what I was like before I got saved. And I was embarrassed. And I thought, what audacity I have. I know how long suffering God was with me. I know how long he endured with me. And yet, when I rebelled and rejected time and time and time again, the moment I turned to Him, He forgave me. The moment He forgave me. And here I am, thinking like, well, I'm just gonna, this person better prove all those kinds of stuff. And the Lord smoked my heart and said, you know not what spirit you are of. The Son of Man does not act like that. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one that's been there before. It's needed for believers, too. Believers have to confess their sin to God. Do you want your sin forgiven immediately, beloved? I imagine yes. Well then, as God forgives you, here's the divine nature aspect. You be forgiving, for God is forgiving. A.W. Tozer said this, And please listen, I cannot say this nearly as well as he did, please listen to this quote. If we half believed God is as holy as scripture says, and we are as sinful as he sees us, it would transform our lives as believers. We would not live with a sense of entitlement. believing that unless things go the way we think they should go, we cannot be happy, but rather we would live with the reality weighing on our hearts and minds, by the grace of God, I live and have my being. How can I live today to make him happy? Now, end quote. I think something learned from what Tozer was saying, and more importantly, what God is teaching through the Apostle Paul is this. And please listen, this is gonna be a little, like a play on words, but I hope it drives into your heart. The surest way to be forgiving is to live your life forgiven. The surest way to live your life forgiving, or excuse me, the surest way to be forgiving is to live your life forgiven. When me living forgiven is my default, forgiving is a whole lot easier. People say, well, you know, I'm just going to love them anyway in spite of who they are, you know, what they have done. I'm going to be the better person. I mean, I know what they did, but I'm going to take the high road. I'm going to make myself be nice to them. Hold on a second. That's, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't say take the high road. It doesn't say you be the better person. That's putting the emphasis on you. The only emphasis on us is the part where we were the ones that needed forgiven. What sounds better to you? I'm going to take the high road. I'm going to be the better person. I'm going to make myself be nice to them. Or how about this? I forgive you because I know what it means to be forgiven. And I know the freedom from guilt and the joy of reconciliation. and because I've experienced what it means to be forgiven, and because I know the joy that comes with not just reconciliation, but the freedom from guilt, I want to give that to this person. I want to give that to you. Now, in closing, that's my first in closing, by the way, Peter had a question that you may be having as well. Okay, someone comes up to me and says, I'm sorry, and I take their word, and I forgive them. And they do it again, and they do it again. Now listen, if you look at forgiveness that way, you're gonna burn out. You're gonna get real tired real quick. But remember, you're not forgiving from your inner strength that you muster up by yourself. You're forgiving by being a partaker of a divine nature. You're fueling your spirit of forgiveness from God. You're abiding in the vine. So Peter had a similar question. It's in Matthew chapter 18, if you take your Bible and turn there. And we'll close with this illustration that Jesus gives. Can't think of a better illustration than one Jesus gives, amen? Long-suffering. Merciful, gracious, long-suffering. Matthew chapter 18 and verse 21, Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? You can almost see him looking around at the other guys like, am I right? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Now that's usually where the answer stops, but Jesus didn't stop there. Jesus explained why he said forgive like that. He said, therefore is the kingdom of heaven like unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of the servant was moved with compassion and loosed him, sound familiar? Set him at liberty, released him, loosed him, and forgave him the what? The debt, he moved it aside, took it out of the way, no longer an issue, he remitted it. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet. And by the way, did you see what it said there? His fellow servant. This man wasn't a master. He wasn't a Lord. He had no authority to do what he was doing. It was a fellow servant. Jesus knows what he's doing when he gives illustrations. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Does that sound familiar? Yeah, it's what this guy prayed. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, Why? And I love this, because thou desires me. You know what that means? It means this, I forgave you because that's what you wanted me to do. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't God good? Verse 33, shouldest thou not also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his what? Brother. Let us do good unto all men. You should be salt and light everywhere you go. Do good to everybody, listen, but especially they that are the household of faith. And Jesus says, this is how the Heavenly Father operates, and he's gonna do to you. If you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother, there trespasses. And you know what that tells us? That our brothers are gonna trespass. They're gonna cause an offense. They're gonna cross a line. But Galatians 6 says, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. It doesn't say, you who are spiritual, kick them while they are down. Help them learn their lessons. No, if they're desiring forgiveness and desiring to be restored to a relationship, then you forgive them in the spirit of meekness. That's what Galatians 6 teaches. Now, this is not teaching that a saved person could go to hell. It's an illustration that Jesus is teaching. And it's simply this, it's very simple to understand. You have someone who was paid an insane, I mean, can you imagine? He didn't have the ability to cut a check for that whole debt. He couldn't pay that. It was impossible. And he was forgiven. And then here comes this guy owing him pennies. And he takes him by the throat and says, no, you owe me. You owe me, I'm gonna get my pound of flesh. I wanna see you suffer. I wanna make sure that you're really sorry. You have to go through what I need you to go through in order to prove that you're really sorry. That's not what he should have done. And if I could make application in closing, for real this time. I think our problem as believers too often is that we rejoice in our hearts that we have been forgiven all the debt that God forgave us, and we get all offended and distracted and bothered with pennies that other people have between us. And Jesus says, that's ridiculous. He creates this illustration that is utterly ridiculous. You can hear the disciples going, no, nobody would do that. Nobody would be forgiven that much and then immediately go around and then all of a sudden the wheels are turning and Peter's thinking, oh, I think I'm the guy that was forgiven a lot. I think what the Lord is saying here is that if I don't forgive repeatedly, that I'm just like that servant. And the idea there is this, don't be like that. This isn't a deep message. This isn't a difficult one to understand. But with no pride in my heart, I'm not saying this because I'm preaching it. It's not a deep subject. It's not a difficult subject to understand. But I'm telling you, it is a necessary subject. Because a church is filled with relationships. And if a church can exhibit yesterday the unity, it functions with power for the glory of God, the devil's gonna try to destroy that unity. He's gonna want there to be favoritism and partiality and grudges and I've got my people and you've got your people and I know them and all that, whatever it is, I'm not gonna make application, the Holy Spirit can do that. But at some point, there has to be reconciliation. Reconciliation comes when one believer looks at another believer and from a heart of gratitude for what God has done for them, living forgiven, they look them in the eye, the brother or sister, and they say, I forgive you. I forgive you. Let's move on. And then you do. To the glory of God. To the glory of God. Long-suffering. You manifest you being a partaker of the divine nature, not just by your holiness and your faithfulness, but by your unity and your willing to forbear each other and forgive one another. It's repeated in the New Testament because it needs to be repeated for our sakes.