Defining the Activity of Forgiveness

The New Covenant. I would like to ask you to open up your Bibles on this God Sabbath day. Let's explore the Scriptures together. As we do, let's anchor this particular message by going to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. If you'll join me there, Chapter 51, and let's pick up the thought in verse 10. David says, "...created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me." And then let's notice verse 12. "...Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you." Interesting. As I look at verses 12 and 13, I see two major themes come out of this set of Scriptures. Number one is David just earnestly imploring God to restore to him the joy of salvation. That there really is a joy in knowing that God is working in our lives, and that salvation can be ours. But there's an added part of this verse that we don't...or this section of Scripture that we don't often focus on. Verse 13. "...that I might teach transgressors." That means sinners your ways. Now, let's understand when this was written. It is at the aftermath of David's interlude with Bathsheba. A momentous event that had occurred in his life. And now King David proclaimed something that each and every one of us need to be reminded of every day. What is that? And I'd like to bring it to you this afternoon. That we are being saved, and that we're being saved by none other than God Almighty. You know, it's been said, friends, that forgiveness is man's greatest need. And it is also God's greatest gift. Now, let's think about the person that is in Psalm 51, the man David. And what happened even after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, had planned the death of Uriah, and basically had a man murdered. He came to that place when an individual comes to himself, and he threw himself on the mercy of God. The good news in all of this, there is good news, is that David was forgiven, and his life went on, and he was used to leave these ageless words and concepts for us to understand God's forgiveness towards sinners. What I want you to do with all of this, though, let's go back, because this kind of toyed around in my mind, where it says, as being forgiven, and this joy does return, and that if God did not withhold that generous spirit, but gave it to him, notice what David said, then I will teach transgressors. That means sinners your ways. Interesting. Here's the question I'd like to ask you. Have you ever considered how you, Joe and Jane Church member, are you Joe and Jane Church member? How would you, Joe and Jane Church member, teach sinners God's way when it comes to forgiveness?

What would you tell other people about God's forgiveness? I know we are coming up to the Passover, and we're considering our relationship with God, and recognizing that we have been forgiven and are forgiven. But how would we explain what forgiveness is?

What would we tell somebody? What do you mean, forgiveness? We might say, well, he forgives us. Got it? You understand? That's it. But how do you define it? How do you spell it out? Well, God gives us all sorts of different scriptures and concepts and imagery right in the Bible to tell us about what he does for us and what he will do for others. And also, he gives it to us, I think, my friends, so that we really can share it with others.

For me as a pastor to be up here, and I can give a discourse on the subject of forgiveness is one thing, but for you to sit across from somebody in a living room or at a Starbucks or maybe sitting in a car together, and you're discussing individually and personally what it means to be forgiven can even be a much louder sermon than something that a pastor or an elder in the church can give. Today, we're going to define the activity of forgiveness, and that is the title of this message, Defining the Activity of Forgiveness, because it is amazing how descriptive God is in defining what happens when we are forgiven of our sins, and then we are reestablished in relationship with God.

And there is no wall, there is no moat, there is no space. We are once again in that intimate relationship with God that he always intended from the beginning of humanity and our own beginning. So we're going to go through that, and the reason why we're going to go through this activity is so that you can somehow convey to others what it means to be forgiven. And once we talk about all of the activity that God goes through and how dynamic and how wonderful it is, here's the next point.

When we recognize that God has forgiven us, the next thing we're going to discuss is that we need to be able to forgive ourselves, and then to be able to forgive others. Sometimes we can know that God forgives us up here where the wires are, intellectually, academically. But for one reason or another, we keep on holding onto something.

And we'll talk about that. And then to recognize beyond that that sometimes, especially as we're coming up to the Passover, that we have not created that atmosphere of forgiveness towards somebody to be ready to forgive because we still have what they call today issues with individuals. So we're going to talk about that. But first of all, before we understand God's forgiveness, we need to understand what He is forgiving. Are you with me? So let's first of all deal with the subject of what needs to be forgiven. You might say, this is the what. And the what is sin. And I'd like to talk about that for a moment. Join me, if you would, in 1 John 3.

In 1 John 3, because there's a powerful discourse here, on the topic of sin. And we're going to read verses 1 through 8. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God.

And we need to remember that as we're coming up to the Passover of that new covenant, that God loves us. And it is in the manner of that love that just can, is just incredible. And that we're called family members, the children of God. And therefore, the world does not know us because it does not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God.

God looks at things as if they already are. So often we want to put everything off, or we want to mortgage God's intentions towards us into the future as if it's a destination, rather than a way of traveling. God calls His children now. He sees it. And it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself just as He is pure. But now, verse 4, Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

And whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins is neither seen nor knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous just as He is righteous. And He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning, and for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Now, that was the first run-through or read. Let's just go back briefly and understand some powerful concepts here that we need to understand. First John 3 verse 4, Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. It's interesting how that's put in the authorized version. Maybe it's even at a more simple state. Sin is the breaking of God's law. Sin is the breaking of God's law. Something snaps.

Something becomes broken. And what snaps and what is broken is the relationship between the creation and the Creator. And it says, Whoever commits sin transgresses the law. What does it mean to transgress? To transgress means to violate or go beyond the boundary.

It's trespassing where God never intended us as His special creation to trespass. Something has been violated. Allow me to share with you what has been violated. May I? What has been violated is the sufficiency of God. Faith has been broken.

See, we go back and join Adam and Eve in the garden when God gave them everything and said, I am your shepherd and you shall not want and I'm going to give you everything. I'm even going to give you the tree of life. You're going to be my special creation. I have created you to bond with, to walk with, and I will be your God and you will be my couple. Not people yet, just Adam and Eve. And you have been created to worship me along with the angels. But you're different in that you're from the dust to the ground. I'm giving you an opportunity that's beyond the angels that are currently over you. That was not enough. As you know and I know, without going into the full story, Adam and Eve trespassed. They went beyond a boundary that God intended. Now, why and what is sin again? And why is it so grievous? It says right here in 1 John 3 and verse 8 that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. When you and I trespass that boundary, it violates the very work that God the Father sent Jesus Christ to this earth to accomplish. God the Father sent Jesus Christ to this earth to heal the breach through His sacrifice, through His blood. And when we sin, when we break God's holy and righteous law, we violate the very work of Jesus Christ.

And not only that, we trespass because it's interesting it says here in verse 6, whoever abides in Him does not sin. When we don't abide in Christ and we slip over that border and do our own thing, we are going to sin. People that sin are not abiding in Christ. It's interesting, too, that it says right here why it is so grievous and why it cuts us off from God is because it's of the devil. The devil was the one that sinned from the very beginning. It's not of Christ, it's not of the Father. It comes from a contrary, negative, and rebellious source.

Also, it's very interesting when you look at it, there is hope. We do recognize that all of this is conquered by the work of Jesus Christ. One of the fundamental, foundational reasons Jesus Christ came to this earth was to destroy the works of the devil. Now, if we abide in the work of the devil, there's a problem with Ezekiel 18 and verse 4. Join me there, please. Ezekiel 18 and verse 4.

Decisions have consequences, and for every cause there is indeed an effect. So often, we want to add up and not have come before the sum that is due. In Ezekiel 18 verse 4, behold, all the souls are mine, the souls of the Father, as well as the souls of the Son, are mine. And notice what it says, the soul who sins shall die. A fact. You earn, you receive what you bought into, and what you worked for in your decision. Now, again, let's understand something. May I say this today, especially in our culture, that sin is not a term that is used as much as it was, even in churches, as it was 30 to 40 to 50 years ago. Today, we live in a society of comsi, comsa, I'm okay, you're okay, oh, that's your thing, that's cool, you're cool, I'm cool, can we be cool together? I mean, this is Southern California, aren't I? Am I talking Southern California? And we talk, we don't use sin, we say, well, we made a mistake, or we made a boo-boo, or this was an oversight, this was an accident, and or this was, this was my misunderstanding with God and my neighbor. Believers in the Bible believe in sin.

They believe in the results of sin. And we also, friends, believe that God has called us out of this world, not by what we're doing, but by what he's doing, and that we do believe in Christ victory over sin, that there really is an activity, and there is a work. It's not just a waving of the wand. And to recognize that, very importantly, if you'll join me over in Matthew 6, and we're just touching on sin from home, because we need to understand what needs to be forgiven, and then we'll understand the hows. But that we look at Matthew 6, if you'll come with me there, please. And it is that model prayer that Jesus Christ gave to his disciples. And it's very interesting. It says here, let's break right in the middle of the... Well, we'll read the whole prayer short. In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father, verse 9, in heaven, hollow it be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Now notice verse 11 and verse 12. Fascinating. Don't want to miss this. It says, verse 11, give us this day our daily bread.

You know, and I know that bread back then was the staple of life.

It wasn't going to the soup plantation. There were no soup plantations. It wasn't going to Taco Bell. Oh, there were no tacos. There were no restaurants. People made bread. Bread was it. You ate bread. Bread was the staple of life. It was the staff of life. You couldn't go on more than a couple of days without bread. Now notice what happens here. Give us this day our daily bread. And it's amazing then what is coupled following that. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Just as we can't proceed in life without bread on a daily basis, neither can we proceed with sin in our lives on a daily basis. As bread must come, sin must go. We can't just compartmentalize it because it will come back at us. Why is that so? Isaiah 58 and verse 1. Again, let's go a little bit deeper into the anatomy and the structure of sin. And unfortunately, what sin does in our relationship with the Almighty. And Isaiah 58, where it says here, excuse me, not Isaiah 58, but Isaiah 59 and verse 1, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is there heavy, that it cannot hear. For your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. In a world where today the sacred is becoming more and more obscure and holiness is not understood. We need to recognize that the God that you and I have the privilege of worshipping is holy and he is sacred. In fact, in the angelic realm, he created incredible beings called the Seraphim. And the job for the Seraphim for all ages, as they cover the throne of God with their wings, and they cover their feet with their other wings, and a sign of humility, they just echo, God, you are holy. And there they are, right in the throne of God with the rainbow of faithfulness behind, and the whole kingdom of heaven before them, the court of God in place. And here is the Father, here is the one that is God, and he is holy, he is pure, he is all loving, all powerful, all knowing, all wise. And that's who we get to ask, seek, and knock, and say, Father, I'm a sinner, and Father, I'm your child, and I know you want relationship with me, and I want to come back to you. I love you, I know you love me, I know I've done wrong. Restore to me the joy of salvation.

We worship a holy God. Brethren, in the Church of God community, we need to recognize that we are not just simply a biblical society of knowledge and facts and do's and don'ts, that we have been called to be a part of that which is holy. We have been invited into the sacred, and being a part of that which is holy and sacred, sin cannot enter. God cannot be tempered with sin. He will not allow it, and for a reason. Now, with all that said, though, God does go to great lengths to describe what He does with our sins. Once those who truly believe say three of the most precious words that can be said, Father, forgive me. Let's talk about how that happens. I'm going to just give you a few points. We're really going to kind of move through this quite rapidly. I hope that maybe, and I may just send these notes out to you, maybe they can be a Bible study for you. I've got them on Word, and that maybe it will help you as we come up to the Passover's end. But let's just start with John 1.29. The first thing we need to understand is that when we say, Father, forgive me, and I accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I truly do believe that you sent your Son, and He gave that precious life. He died in humility, but you did not suffer Him to stay in the grave after three days. But you raised Him up, and He is now exalted at the right hand of God. And I do believe that He is coming back to this earth to judge the quick and the dead. I believe that you sent Him for a purpose. Forgive me. Can you imagine God's ears leaning over? You've got His attention. John 1, verse 29. You're already there. I'm not. But it's very interesting that here in John 1, verse 29, let's notice, the next day John saw Jesus coming towards Him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This is He of whom I said after me comes, a man who's preferred for me, for he was before me. The first thing that we need to recognize is that here in the beginning of John is this sacrificial language that allows us to understand what was one of Jesus' primary missions. It was not a gradual awareness that He landed and He was born in Bethlehem and He kind of grew up. And you know, some young people don't know what they're going to do with their life. You know, they're still 26 or 27 or 28 and sometimes say, well, what are you going to be when you grow up? Of course, they're already five years over age 21. Figure that one out. But anyway, that there's those kind of figure out what they're going to do in life. Jesus never figured out what He was going to be doing in life. He came to this world to destroy the works of the devil. And also it says, Behold the Lamb of God. He knew at the very beginning of His earthly ministry that He was going to be the sacrifice. That He was not just simply going to be the partial Lamb of old that was taken from a flock that was pure and unblemished and then was sacrificed, but that He was more than that. He was the Lamb of God sent from heaven. And He was not simply going to be a substitute dragged out of a flock. He did this voluntarily. He did not find Himself up in the Galilee or later on in that Sumerian part of His ministry. He knew from the very beginning what He was about, what He was going to do for you and for me.

Why am I sharing this with you, friends? It's not just to give you words. It's to give you confidence that as we come to the Passover of the New Covenant, we do not worship an accidental Savior. We do not worship an accidental Savior. He was slain from the foundation of the world, His Father above and He below knew exactly what was going to happen. And it says that He came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. What do you mean take away? This is what happens when you're forgiven. You see these beautiful flowers. What am I doing right now with these? I'm taking them away. I am taking them away. Now, just a moment ago, they were here and they were visible and they were very real and you were looking at them rather than looking at the speaker. I noticed, just teasing. But now I'm taking them away and I'm putting them over here. Now, I'm going to bring them back. Don't worry, Sheila, because there's another point down there, okay, or whoever brought them. That's what God does with our sins. It's very tangible.

It's very sensual in that sense when whatever we have done, whatever we have done, because Christ sacrifices greater than our greatest sin, God takes them away and removes them.

Let's go to another step here, and that is point number two. Those sins are remitted. He remits them. What does that mean? Matthew 26 and verse 28. Matthew 26 and verse 28.

And again, these are the words that were spoken by our Savior on that night before He died.

And it says, For this is the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. And that's why when I send out notes to you, where I send out maps with what we're going to be participating in on that evening, that's why I call it the Passover of the new covenant. We are not keeping the Passover of the old covenant. We are not dealing with a Lamb that was taken out of a flock who didn't know what He was doing. We are participating in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who mentions it's of the new covenant, which is shed for the remission of sins. Matthew 26 and verse 28 in the King James version. It says that they are remitted. It's interesting, the Greek root for remission conveys this. Sending away. In other words, what God does, He not only takes away our sins through the Lamb that was sent, but He also sends it away. In other words, there is a dismissal. There is a release. In other words, that is only accomplished by a full payment that is rendered. The definition of remit in English is to send money as payment for goods that must be released. In other words, Christ gave His blood as the purchase price of sin. And something had to be sent of equal value for the commodity that was being purchased so that it might be released, so that it might be dismissed. The preciousness of that one sacrifice paid out a price. It bought our sins. And that's something that you and I could never do, of and by ourselves. It's interesting that the term remission, when it's used in antiquity, was basically used for the buying of a slave or the release of a criminal for one reason or another. In other words, people that in no way, nohow, nowhere could ever release themselves of and by themselves. They did not have any of the means. They had none of the tools to be able to do that. And it says that this is the blood of the new covenant for the remission of our sins. And that's something you and I could never do. I'd like to share a story with you, which will bring this to play. There was a little boy that came to the Washington Monument, and he noticed a guard that was standing by it. And so the little boy looked at the guard and he said, I want to buy it. Now, if any of you have ever been to Washington, Washington Monument is 555 feet high. It's the dominant edifice in all of Washington, D.C. It's higher than a 50-story building. And the little boy came along and he says, I want to buy it. We can begin smiling and understand this. And the guard stooped down and said, well, how much do you have? And the boy reached into his pocket and you know what he did? He pulled out a quarter. And the boy reached and he said, here it is. Here's my quarter. And the guard said, that's not enough. And the boy said, I thought you would say that. So then what the boy did is, he pulled out more. He pulled out nine cents. And he gave it to the guard and the guard looked down at the boy and said, you need to understand three things, my son. First of all, 34 cents is not enough. Thirty-four million dollars would not be enough. Second of all, the monument is not for sale. Never has been. Never will be. And third of all, if you're an American citizen, the monument is already yours. Likewise, there are three things that I would like you to understand as we come up to the Passover of the New Covenant in 2011. Number one, we can't earn what God gives us that evening.

Number two, it's not for sale. And number three, it is already ours if we believe in the name of Jesus Christ. And that's just not a trite name when you take it to the next step. That we believe that His Father sent Him from above. That He lived that perfect life. That He died that ignominious death. Not only as the slain Lamb, but as that beaten Lamb. That beaten Lamb. That beaten sacrifice over that evening. And yet to recognize that when we come to Passover, we do not just simply worship a dead Lamb, but now the living Lamb that is up in heaven and is at the right hand of His Father. In the book of Revelation, you may want to do this as a Bible study between now and the Passover. The word Lamb is mentioned 27 times in the book of Revelation.

In fact, there's a fascinating scripture that says, and we beheld the Lamb as slain.

There's something happening up there that tells you and me the implication is that in however that spiritual world and composition is arranged, there is something about the Christ in heaven.

That He will always in that sense bear that sacrifice. He is that Lamb. That is how He is looked at even to the end of Revelation 22, where it talks about what? The throne of the Lamb.

Let's go to another verse here. Let's go to Hebrews 1 and verse 3. Hebrews 1, verse 3. This is fascinating, especially when you put it all together with the author of Hebrews, saying, God, who had various times, Hebrews 1 and verse 1, and in various ways spoken in the past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, who made the point of error of all things, through whom He also made the worlds. Now, this is very important. I know at times we've used verse 2 as a proof text about Jesus being the Creator. We've all been there, done that, understood that. But there's something that perhaps we have not perceived that the author of Hebrews is bringing up. Who, being in the brightness of His glory and the expressed image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had Himself purged our sins. Our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. What did we gain from this?

Our sins were purged. Purged. That's a strong word. The word purge means to thoroughly cleanse or rid of anything undesirable. Sometimes you and I, because we are human beings, have had, are you with me? Food poisoning. And we purge ourselves in food poisoning, one way or the other, as we say. And I don't want to be graphic at this point, but there is a purging to remove that, which is affecting the body negatively. We often speak of purges, then, of ridding ourselves of undesirables. The very term denotes purging, a scrubbing through and through of the deepest order, with nothing overlooked. When you purge something, when you take it, when you release it, when you purge it, that means it is gone completely. Nada, nothing there, completely eliminated. In the New Living Translation, it speaks of cleansing us from the stain of sin. Now, I see a lot of homemakers. We probably have hundreds of years of homemakers in this room. I didn't say homemakers over 100 years of old. I said hundreds of years of experience of homemakers. Now, I've got all the ladies with me, but you ladies know and I know because I watch our homemaker, and you'll get down there. Frankly, you don't even have to go home. There are some stains right underneath you. I was just reminded. You know you can go, and you can go, and you can go, and you can go, and you can work on it, and you can get old grandma's cleansing solution, which is basically acid that would almost take out anything. You know that puppy is still down there. It's not going.

Get out the old baking soda, like great-grandma, whatever you do, and do a rain dance around it, whatever you're doing. You know, you're trying to get out that stain, and it is not going. Here's what God says about us, that Jesus Christ came, and if we believe in Him, and if we ask to be forgiven, that stain is gone. It cleanses all stain. What is fascinating that I want to draw your attention to Hebrews 1-1-3 is that the author of Hebrews brings in the very creative power, the power that made the universe of whom all things were made by Jesus Christ. So they're bringing in the whole aspect of creation, and that if He created all of this, thus He goes to work on us by His Father's bidding. And all sin, all stain is cleansed. What have we done this year? Either by commission, that which we did, and or by omission, that which we did not, that we should have, that labors inside of us.

And the beauty and the joy that comes out of the Scriptures is no matter what we have done, that the Father and the Christ are so much greater, and that that is all purged from us. Cleanses us from all things. 1 John 1.5.

I'd like to read this to you. 1 John 1 and verse 5.

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light, and in Him no darkness at all. Light penetrates the darkness. And if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now, if we say that we don't have sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful, and He just forgives us our sins, and to again, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Again, this is very much like the last point, but the words that I want, I'm just trying to draw words out of God's Scripture to encourage you of the activity of forgiveness, of taking, of scrubbing, of redeeming, of purging, of cleansing.

And it's interesting here, the key here is what the confession and the cleansing does and draws us back into. Notice verse 3. Let's go back to verse 3, which I did not read first. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. The fellowship. And again, that is mentioned again in verse 5 here. Is it verse 9? Am I looking at verse 9? Pardon me a second. Let me just pick it up. Verse 5. Again, this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is not there. Oh, verse 6. Okay. If we say that we have fellowship with Him. What is that fellowship? Okay, are you with me? The fellowship that is being talked about is not a howdy do and shaking a hand with somebody in a building and going to hear the Bible read. That's nice. That's good. It's good to offer the right hand of fellowship. This is the fellowship of the body of Christ. This is talking about a greater fellowship that is a spiritual organism. It is that which Christ said to that woman, that Samaritan woman, He says that there is coming a day that neither on your mountain or on their mountain, the mountain of the Jews, but there is coming a day when the true followers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

That's a fellowship that knows no human bounds. God knows who are His.

And God knows those that really believe that when we say, Father, forgive me, I realize what I have done and I realize that I have disconnected from you here. And I want that connection back. You are life. Life is inherent in you and without you there is no life. There is no future. And it's not only about being with you, Father, and it's not only being with you, Jesus Christ, but it's being with the body. And it's being there to serve the body that you place in my life because Christianity is not just simply vertical. If you're just doing vertical Christianity, you're not going to go anywhere. Christianity is vertical, it's up to the Father, and the passion towards what God is doing, but it's also compassion to our fellow person, recognizing and receiving all of those that are in the body of Christ and recognizing that we're on the same journey together. Why is such confession needed and required? It talks about if we confess our sins. Why is that so important? When we confess our sins, it aligns us and we come into agreement with God that our sin is sin and that we desire to turn from it. Many, many years ago, happy days, the fawns. Remember the fawns? The fawns. Harry Winkler. I remember that one time when he had to say he was sorry, and he could, and finally he got, and I'm not going to go through it all, it'll be about five minutes, we don't have it, but, you know, and he's being purged, actually, you know, and of course you knew the fawns as character. We don't want to be like the fawns.

The point is this, that when we confess and we openly admit who we are apart from God and that we need his mercy, we come into agreement with God. Additionally, such confession gives transparency.

Transparency before God. We're not hiding from him. The transparency that Adam and Eve ran away from and covered themselves up with just dealing with their externals and not dealing with their motives in the garden. And it also brings us, when we confess our sins, to a realism that sin is not marginal, but is very much a part of the human experience. I'm going to skip my notes here. Just skip over three pages. You didn't notice that? Because I want to get right to the very end here with all of you today, because this is very important. David spoke about restoring to me the joy of salvation, and that is very important. In that, we recognize that we can be forgiven. I talked a little bit about the graphic terminology that God uses to explain what he has done for you and Eve. Why has he done this? Because he loves us. And the love of God is more than a human emotion. It is the divine force that all the universe operates on. It is not just theory. It is fact. It is in the scripture. It is intense. It is dynamic. He takes, he releases, he dismisses, he removes, he purges, and he does indeed redeem. What I want to share with you in conclusion is simply this. We, too, have a work to perform. And that's the rest of the statement in the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us as we forgive our debtors. Now we're going to get into the tough stuff for about five minutes. We're going to get into some tough stuff here. You might have all agreed with the the last few minutes, but now we're going to make it personal. We are to forgive, be forgiven as we forgive our debtors. The very core of Christianity. This is the essence of Christianity. There are some topics that people get really twitterpated about in the Bible. Numbers, words, times, dates, this and that. Forgiveness is not abstract in the Bible. It is not marginal. It is central. It is the great theme. Jesus Christ, it says in Luke 19.10, came to save the lost. The lost were lost in our sins, apart from God, disconnected. Believing in God's saving work towards us is manifested in our obedience to Him to forgive others as we have been.

God did not make it optional. He said in the prayer, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

It's not something that we can skip over and kind of go, I'm going to move around that verse. No? If we are going to have the joy of God's salvation, we have to move through that which we fear the most sometimes. Because of somebody that has hurt us, somebody that has done a grievance against us, somebody that has something against us, we have to let go and we have to be able to forgive them. Doing so is sharing in the joy of salvation. And may I say, in teaching transgressors God's way. The biggest sermon that we can preach is what we do.

And you see, the whole thing about forgiveness in the Bible is not just simply being forgiven, but forgiving others. If we're only doing the first part, we're only going to get half the joy of salvation. And how can we teach transgressors? And they may not even get it at the time that you're doing it, because I'm going to show that at the end here. They may not understand the lesson plan that God is working for them through you at the time. But sometimes forgiving others is not simply for them at the moment, but it's for what you are doing in obedience to God to have that atmosphere of forgiveness in you. And because you have been forgiven, you forgive others. Let's see how it works. Come with me real quickly to Luke 23, 34. I'm going to just leave you with two major thoughts here, because you know it says that Jesus said that if you're going to follow me, you're going to bear a cross and to follow me. And I just want to leave these words in your ears here to show you something. Luke 23 and verse 34. Who is there out there right now that has really hurt you, really made a crinkle in your life, gotten under your skin, wounded your heart, put you in a mood of anger, and you're going to be in a mood of anger. Certainly there's somebody out there that probably fits that description.

But notice what Jesus did to those that did him injury in Luke 23 and verse 34.

Let's see if I can find it here. I'm using two different Bibles. Yes. And then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Here's a man, 33 years old. Who's 33 years old here? Who wants to be 33? Okay.

Here's a young Jew, nailed to a piece of wood, like a slab of meat, who could call down all the forces of heaven, who was put to an illegal trial, beaten to the pulp of his life. And there are the people, they are literally mocking him. They are literally jeering him. They are literally spitting on him.

And he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And then notice what it says, just two verses after that.

No, in verse 46, and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. What kind of a spirit did he commit into the Father's hands? He committed a forgiving spirit. Now, long story short, you say, well, that's Jesus Christ. I expect that of my Savior. After all, he's the Son of God. And he is the example. And how could we ever obtain to that? Let me just share a brief lesson with you at the end. Jesus was the Son of God. And he said, Father, forgive. And he knew what that meant.

For they know not what they do. And he said, I commit my forgiving spirit into your hands. I'm putting those words in there, but that was part of that spirit that he committed to God.

You say, how is that humanly possible? The book of Acts was written as an extension, because Jesus said that if you're my followers, you will do what I said to do, and you will do what I did. A few years later, there was a young man. His name was Stephen. And Stephen also went through basically what we might call a kangaroo court. They wanted him dead. They just had to get him through the legal process. Here was Stephen, not the Son of God, but a child of God. I'm a child of God. And if I asked all of you to raise your hands, you would probably raise your hands and say, I am a child of God as well. Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. I believe that you're full of the Holy Spirit. It says that he was a man of wisdom, for a deacon had to be also a man full of wisdom. Wisdom of what? The wisdom of this world? No, the wisdom of God. And what did Stephen do at the end of his life? He modeled perfectly exactly what Jesus Christ did. Would you join me, last scripture, and we will conclude. And let's go to Acts 7.59. Acts 7.59.

You see, God the Father and Jesus Christ are very, very serious about this business and this activity of forgiveness. In Acts 7.59, everything had happened. He was being stoned, and then they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit, echoing what Jesus himself had said, Father, into your hands I commit my soul. Verse 60, then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

Basically, Father, forgive them. Distance the judgment of what they have done from their sin. Forgive them. As we come up to the Passover of the New Covenant, 2011, friends, I want to share this time with you to just let you know how dynamically our Father above is releasing us towards that which holds us back from Him. That we have that relationship. We have that khanoneia out of the Greek. That communion, that fellowship that is made possible by Jesus Christ. And that when you partake of that bread and when you partake of that wine, each and every one of you out there, it is in a sense one bread, it is one wine, it is one sacrifice. And as we partake of that, we become one. What a beautiful thing that as we move forward as the Church of God, as the San Diego congregation, this assembly of saints here in the southwest corner of California, what a beautiful thing. And what is the most magnificent sermon that you and I can preach together other than that we are a forgiven people and a forgiving people. If we're only a forgiven people, we're only half of what God desires. But when we understand that we are a forgiven people and that we can be a forgiving people, then, and it is only then, that we perform the echo of what David said so long ago, Lord, if you do this and if you return to me the joy of your salvation, I will show the transgressors your way. What is that way? The way of forgiveness. Look forward to seeing you after church.