Forgive and Be Forgiven

You hear it said all the time, I'm sorry if I offended you. I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt. I'm sorry if you have a problem with what I did. Essentially, that I'm sorry if I hurt you means you're the one with the problem. And there's an if there, which I'm not even sure you are hurt. But if you are, it's your problem. I'm ignoring it. And unless you make a big deal out of it, I'm just saying I'm not even apologizing because it's only if. If it offends you. Or if somehow you're impacted. Why should we have to apologize? Why should we have to seek forgiveness?

Why not just say, suck it up and move on, fella? It's life, deal with it. It's kind of the mentality of the age, you know? That we're kind of unthankful, unthoughtful, and unholy as human beings. And we just expect that it's part of life that I'm barging through your life. And if you don't like it, well, then tough it up or deal with it. Now, why can't we just ignore the mistakes we make and expect other people to forgive us? Well, part of the answer lies in how you yourself and I feel about the mistakes that we make. Often, we don't feel too much about our mistakes. And when we do make mistakes, we expect to be forgiven.

I mean, it's me, you know? So, of course people are going to forgive me. And besides, I don't make mistakes that really hurt people very much, not like they do to me. No, my mistakes are small, and I'm special. And therefore, of course people are going to forgive and forget. We feel that mistakes we make are rather incidental.

Part of the answer also lies in how others feel when you and I make mistakes against them. That feeling is a little bit different. They may not be so ready to forgive us just instantly, or let it float off or bounce off or ignore it.

It may actually hurt them. They may think about it, dwell on it. They may be hurt to the point where what they have to bear that you have placed on them is quite a load. And so, consequently, there may be a fence that is carried for quite some time.

Well, what's the big deal about forgiveness? Everybody makes mistakes. Again, I don't make big mistakes. You all are the one that makes the big mistakes, because those are the ones I feel. The mistakes I make, I often don't even notice they're so small, let alone feel. So, let's examine the Bible topic of forgiveness and see what's involved in it and also what's expected of us.

The title of the sermon today is Forgive and Be Forgiven. It's a principle in the Bible that we're going to see is expounded over and over, and actually is a requirement if you want to be in the kingdom of God. Who made a requirement that we must be forgiven if and when we make a mistake? Can't we just get over it and move on? Can't we just say, okay, and move on? Can't we just realize I'm imperfect and keep going? Why do we have to stop and think about it and receive forgiveness for the mistakes that we make?

Well, we get an idea about who made the requirement when reading Leviticus 4. Turn with me there, if you will. Leviticus 4 is in the Pentateuch, things that God taught to Israel. Israelites were much like us in the sense that they were human beings going about life, wanting things good in their lives and their families. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, Now, here we come in.

If a person sins unintentionally, of course, that's what you and I do. We're not one of those big sinners that goes around just being evil and mean. We are the ones that sin unintentionally. These are the ones I didn't even know about it. I didn't know I did it. And if you tell me about it, I'll probably argue with you and say it was your fault anyway. But if a person sins unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and does any of them, any of them, or if the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish and a sin offering.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hold on. This was an intentional sin. What's with the bull? The bull, that's the new young bull that we had finally, that we've been raising. He's really going to be the prize, and I've got to kill him over an unintentional sin? That's going to thin down my herd. This is going to take away my prize.

Can I give you that old cow over there? She's quit milking. She's a bag of bones. Sick all the time. He shall bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle. The door of the tabernacle of the meat. I've got to now go right up in the front row. Some of you don't like sitting even in the back row. Some would never want to even come in the room if they could help it. But here, come up right to the front, in front of everybody, with your bull, and make an admission of guilt, and lay hand on the bull's head and kill the bull before the Lord.

You take a knife and grab this bull by the head, in front of everybody, and you essentially say, I have done something so bad, look, I have to take this life, I have to get blood now, spurting all over it and all over me, and all over this area here in front of the temple. And now the bull is lurching around and spewing blood on everything. It's a real huge mess, and this is not going well.

And I'm a mess. See what's happening here? God is bringing to our attention that our unintentional mistakes are bad. They have huge consequences. Then the anointed priest shall take some of the bull's blood and bring it to the tabernacle of meeting, and he'll dip his finger and sprinkle some seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary, right there in front of this big veil. The priest is now doing this. We're getting in deep here.

And then the priest shall put some of the bloods on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of meeting, and he will pour the remaining blood of the bull at the base of the altar, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. By now, you are really embarrassed. You've lost your bull. You're here before God. And he will take verse 8 from it, all the fat, now you're cutting this thing up, and the fat which covers the intrels and the fat which is on the intrels, now we're dealing with intrels.

And all this stuff in there has got to come out, and it doesn't always look good. It doesn't smell good. Two kidneys and the fat that's in them by the flanks and the fatty lobe attached to the liver above the kidneys, he'll remove that. As it was taken from the bull of the sacrifice, the priest shall burn them on the altar of the burnt offering.

Now the whole thing gets lifted up to the altar, and right there in front of everybody, this slow burning process takes place. I don't know if you've ever seen an animal roasted, but if you take a bull, even a young animal, and put it on a spit and roast it, it takes a long, long time to get this thing ready. They didn't just sort of flash and poof, it disappeared.

Next, you've got a big animal here. And the bulls hide, verse 11, and it's flesh with its head and its legs and its intrels and its oafel. Oafel gives you an idea of what the oafel is. It smells oafel. And the whole bull, he shall carry outside the camp. Now, you've got to take all this stuff, and you've got to haul it outside the camp of Israel. That's a big camp, by the way. There's a lot of Israelites there.

This all now has to be trucked out. And you find a clean place, hasn't been used, where the ashes are then poured out, and you burn it on wood with a fire. You know what's like to find ashes out in the wilderness? You're not in a forest, typically. I'm talking about not ashes, but wood. The wood to make ashes. The wood to burn this. They didn't have McCulloch chainsaws in the day. When somebody said, you've got to have wood, burn, a hide, and all this stuff, you had to have some wood. And somebody had to do a lot of work just to make wood on a fire, and carry all this stuff.

Wow. And so it is that when you look down through this chapter, and verse 27, if any one of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord, which ought not to be done, verse 28, or if his sin, which he has committed, comes to his knowledge. If he should think about it, comes to his knowledge. Then he shall bring, as his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish for his sin, that he has committed.

So now you take this little female animal that's cute, little goats, sheep, these are cute little animals, and you have to take one, you don't just sort of send it. Hey, will you run this up to the temple there? I made an oopsie. Now you take it up, and then you say, everybody's like, oh, that's cute, can I pet it? No, I have to kill it. Well, aren't you the one that would kill, have to kill a special... The kids are probably crying because they want the pet, and guess what now it says? You have to lay your hand on the head and kill it yourself.

And it doesn't just die like in the movies. I don't know if you've been around animals much, but they don't just sort of fall over. There's a process, and it's not pretty, and it's sad.

When we make mistakes, and when we sin, when we hurt other people, it is a big deal, because God made it a big deal, even if we do something unintentionally, even if we don't know it, and then we think about it, then do this is what God tells us. When you and I slip unintentionally, we are responsible for putting our Lord and Savior through a similar process of dying, of shedding His blood for that sin. It is a big deal. It's a huge deal. Notice that it's God who holds us guilty when we sin, and what is holding us guilty when we sin mean? We'll find out in Ezekiel 18, verses 20-24. Ezekiel 18, beginning in verse 20. It begins with saying, the life or the living person who sins will die. That's the big deal right there. That's the long and the short of it. If we sin, we're going to die eternally. Now, you and I might say, I just made those things. No big deal. Well, God just made it a big deal, because that was a sin, that was a trespass. That was an offense that was not according to His law, and therefore the penalty of that is death. Going on, it says, the Son shall not bear the guilt of His Father. One can't bear it for another, nor the Father the guilt of the Son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon Himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon Himself. You can't say, well, I'm in the church. So, my little oopsies don't count. No. Each one of us, no matter who it is, bears our own responsibility here. But, verse 21, if a wicked man turns from all his sins, which he has committed, keeps my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live and not die.

That's the choice and consequence we have. That's the decision-making process that God offers us. A direction we can head is towards life. As we put away the decision to sin, or be selfish or uncaring or unthoughtful, and then begin to embrace the loving and concerning thoughtful deeds of a God-being, we trend towards life.

Verse 22, None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him. Because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. That's part of the process that God created, the generous forgiving, the generous graciousness that he has towards children who are trying to be like he is. Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, says the Lord? And they're going to. And not that he should turn from his ways and live. Your life and my life is all about that very thing right there, turning from our ways and living.

That's what the Days of Unleavened Bread, that festival of seven days, pictures, your entire life, turning from sin and heading to life. But, verse 24, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, shall he live? No. You see, God isn't looking to play favorites.

He doesn't give us little passes of grace to people he likes or the people that have been baptized. He really needs people who have his nature so he can elevate them into his family. All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, and because of them he shall die. Again, let's ask the previous question. Who made it a requirement that we must be forgiven when we make a mistake? Can't we just get on with it, get over it, and move on?

The answer is no. You cannot. I cannot. Nobody can. When a person makes a single mistake, sin, whatever you want to call it, he or she is slated for eternal death. That's the rule. It's a simple rule. It's an emphatic rule. There must be death. In Romans 5, verse 12, we see that this is common to humans. Romans 5, verse 12, it's common to humans, but there is a silver lining on this very dark cloud because God also created an out for the perplexing conundrum that we find ourselves in, which the Apostle Paul so well expressed.

That which I want to do, I don't do, and that which I don't want to do, I end up doing that. So we all just run over the cliff like a herd of lemmings and commit suicide because there is no help, no hope. Romans 5, verse 12, says, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned.

Now we've got to stop there and think, wow! That's a foreign concept to society. Modern society doesn't think that way, that death is spreading and all the stuff that's going on in the world and all the bad examples and all the entertainment and all the warring that's going on and this heated up desire to have acquisitions of power and wealth and more and more food. This breeding, growing, fermenting thing is not of God. And it is sin and it's spreading through people. Society doesn't like to think that way. It popularizes things like, I'm bad, I'll stick that on my car.

I'm a rebel. Things like that. Naughty but nice. I'll go on vacation to sin city. I'll stick on my truck, get over it or get out. Stuff like that. That's just the mentality of society. But you remember those young animals in Leviticus 4 that we read about? You had to grab it by the head. You had to kill it. You saw the blood. You got the smell of the insides and the burning. And you got the stuff on you. And that's a requirement because we humans don't tend to think about sin and how bad it is.

We don't tend to realize that it's bad. And that's why we have Passover every year. And that's why they had sacrifices all the time. Because we need the reminder that, oh, wait a minute, this human thing that we are and that we do is not good. And it is not leading to life, but rather to death.

When you went to Tabernacle, the Ten of Meeting, or the temple with your animal, that thing which, oh, if I hurt you and you're offended, if, if, if, if, that thing you see all of a sudden changed into something that you experienced with all five senses.

Sight, the touch, the smell, the taste would perhaps be involved in some of the sacrifices like the Passover lamb. That was a real thing that God created to bring to us in every imaginable way. So that we come to realize that sin is ugly and it requires your death. Or if you can get a savior to come save you from death and die in your place, then he can die. Somebody's going to die. Now, if we remember our Creator, he interrupted his life to come down, to live, to suffer, to bleed, so that he could forgive you and me.

So he could give you forgiveness. That one thing, remember at the beginning we think we didn't even really need. Well, if I offended you, I'm kind of sorry. He interrupted time in the sense that he lived forever and then he ceased to live forever. And he is the one God being at this time that has not lived forever.

He's lived forever in the past and he's lived forever in the future, but there were three days and three nights where he ceased to live. And he interrupted that life. And he interrupted his glory in his spiritual state for, well, thirty three and a half years plus nine months of pregnancy and three days and three nights. That's a big interruption to what he was and what he is. It begins to show you how important forgiveness is in God's eyes, at least.

In the eyes of the Father, in the eyes of Jesus Christ, forgiveness is everything. It's huge. It's big enough to do that for. Certainly a lot bigger than just going through the process of killing an animal and immensely bigger than you and I give sin credit for when we tend to flick it off and say, oh, deal with it.

Sin is a big deal, but righteousness is an even bigger deal with God. Sin is big enough that Jesus Christ did that, but it's smaller than righteousness because the biggest deal, as it were, in the universe is God's holy righteous character. He can forgive sin, but he cannot create holy righteous character of and by himself and you or me or in anything. So that becomes even more precious. And so part of his existence here was to come down and be an example of holiness and righteousness and show character, but also through his sacrifice and his forgiveness to be the one that gives us the tools and the ability to develop that holy righteous character. Now that is really worth something. The combination is just pure, pure, it's better than gold.

In Romans 6, verses 10-14, you see a fast description, as it were, an overview of that which our Lord did for us. Romans 6, beginning in verse 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

The death is important and the Passover is very important. It unlocks all kinds of opportunities for us by forgiving us of our sins. But the life that he lived then, and notice he lives now, he lives to God. Likewise, you also, an imitation of him, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey sin in its lust. There's the fight, there's the wrestling that Paul talked about, there's the helper as well that he said, who's going to deliver me from this body of death? I thank Jesus Christ my Lord. There's my help. We're wrestling, we're in the fight. We put on the armor of God. We go to work developing that holy righteous character. Do not present your members of instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. That is the beauty of where we go once we are forgiven, once we recognize, once we repent, once we say, I'm sorry again for the 50 millionth time, and we stagger up and struggle down that difficult challenging road. You know, this walk is difficult. It's challenging. It's very, very undoing sometimes of our own ability to feel like we're making progress. You know what the solution to that is? The solution to that, partly, is you. You. That's why we're told to come together every Sabbath. That's why it says in Hebrews 9, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, especially as you see the day approaching. Why? We, as a body, says in Ephesians 4, verse 16, are to be stitching ourselves together through the loving work that each one of us supplies. I don't know about you, but it's hard to get through a week without you. And if you're not here on the Sabbath, then you can't be helped by us, encouraged, lifted, and you can't help us be encouraged and lifted. No one knows the battles that everyone else goes through, the thoughts that you have in your mind, the struggles, the challenges, the sins you see. But you, in that sense, it's an individual walk that you have. But you're not alone in it. You have God with you. You have God helping you. But we are to help one another. We are to bear one another's burdens. We are to encourage. We are to support. We're to not only pray for, but we're to talk with.

Forgiveness is an important aspect of the family. And being forgiven and being forgiven is part and parcel of the stitching together mix that we have. Do you ever think, I don't think I'll go to Sabbath this week. I'm too down. Guess what? You're going to cut yourself out of the strength to fight that battle, to do that wrestling, to stay in there. And you're going to let down others who are perhaps needing to hear of your struggle. If for no other reason that they can recognize their struggle isn't alone. Their struggle isn't unique. Their fiery trial isn't something because they're such a rotten sinner or so low in God's eyes that they're being allowed to go through this. That's why we visit people in prison and visit people who are sick. That's why we care and are concerned. God has called us to be free of sin and fight this battle, but we can't do it on our own. And so we need to lock arms and we need to be part of that encouraging body of Christ. Even as we are called sheep in the Bible and He the Great Shepherd, God has put within sheep a nature of flocking. And they have this incredible nature that they have to be together. And it's almost a push show. When you see sheep, you don't see one over there and one over there and one over there, especially if there's any danger. They just run together and they're all bunched up. We need that. We need to be forgiven. We need to be forgiving. And if we're not, then this sin, this putrefying stuff like yeast that bubbles and putrefies, and it literally does, within bread, it corrupts us. And we have to be putting that out. It will cause our deaths if we're not forgiven. If any of us quit, we say, I'm just tired of fighting. I think I'll just walk over here by myself and get eaten by a wolf. No, the other sheep would go, baaah, no, no, no, no, no. Well, I was thinking about just jumping off the cliff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You come over here. And it says, you know, in the Bible, if you reach out and you rescue someone, if you bring a brother who is straying back, it will be to your credit. We must fight it. We must root it out. We must be washed. We must be clean. We must be forgiven. Or we will die. And that is the lesson, one of the lessons of Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. But we do this as a body. We do this as the church. We have an example. We have a helper. We also need to all be involved in forgiving and being forgiven on a daily basis. Let's go to 1 John 5 and verse 7.

Notice, it didn't say, if I walk in the light. If we are walking in the light, as He is in the light. Now, what is He talking about here? We are in a world of darkness. This world is an evil place. You've seen it yourself this week in many different facets. On your job, you've seen it around your neighborhood, you've seen it on the news, you've seen it in the grocery stores. You see the lowering of the standards of humanity as things get a little tighter, a little worse.

But, He says, if we walk in the light, as He is the light, and that's Jesus Christ, shining through the darkness and lighting this narrow, difficult path, then we have fellowship with one another. Wow! There it is. Fellowship with one another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. We have to obey God's commandments of love, but we also have to be cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ of our sins, of which we are repenting of. We have to be forgiven of them, if we want to walk on that path in the light.

Now, if we say, verse 8, we have no sin, well, I mean, we're talking about me here. Don't see anything. And I, D11 this week, not sure why, didn't really see anything. I did a self-examination, but I thought of you more than me. You know, that's how we are as humans. If we say we have no sin, oh, come on, that wasn't really a sin. I didn't really hurt you. But if I did get over it, then guess what? We deceive ourselves. You and I are full of sin. Our houses are full of sin. That D11ing we did this week was a cursory glance at the yeast, at the spores. Just like any look in ourselves at any time, an examination will be a glance at the highlights. And we will not see the evil that really lurks, even in our good deeds.

Not only do we deceive ourselves, it says the truth is not in us. What can't be in us? If we are deceiving ourselves, that's not truthful. I'm not saying, oh, I think I'm pretty good. Well, that's a lie. It's not truthful. Deceived. Deceived means that you can't know what's actually going on. You actually think that it's something else. Verse 9, but if we confess our sins, if we really get in and we start looking and we say, look, what about this? What about the good things that I am? Let's make a list. What about those good things? Why do I do that? Oh, yeah. How do I feel after I do that? Oh, yeah. How does this make me look? How many times do I say, I and me, when I'm describing something that's beneficial? Or you and him and her, if it's not so good. There's all these little things in there that just are bubbling around in the brew of sin. If we confess that, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us, clean us up from all unrighteousness. It's a wonderful, wonderful blessing, but it's something we need and we need it daily. There's a component of human nature that says, do unto others as they do unto you. And we pretty much follow that as humans. I know we're in the church, but we still follow it. If they did that to us, we ought to do this to them. If you don't believe it, watch the news next time. What do you say ought to happen to that group, that people, that person who did whatever that was to our group, that nation, that person? That's how we think. Whatever's done, you do back. Straighten this out if you just wipe out a few people. But is that what we're supposed to do? In Matthew 5, verse 38, Jesus said, you've heard it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It's kind of our mindset. It's our mentality. And this has everything to do with forgiving and being forgiven. If you don't forgive me, buddy, why am I going to forgive you? You know? That's what we carry around. You hurt me, so I don't have to forgive you. You did something to me, and I'm remembering it, and I'm keeping it, and you deserve for me to not like you and to think about you once in a while. See, that's the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth principle. Jesus gives saints a new directive in verses 44 and verse 45. He says, but I say to you, I'm not talking to the world, I'm talking to you now. Love your enemies. Those are the ones shooting at you, harming you, trying to take you down. Bless those who curse you. Those are the ones who are saying your name really loud with a whole bunch of profanity and awful things that, you know, basically erase any contribution you have made to the human race during your lifetime. You are to do good to them. You are to bless them. You are to love them. Pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you. Now, despite means, I'm going to go do you some harm here, and I'm going to persecute you. I'm going to get on the Internet, or I'm going to do something. I'm going to really make your life awful.

And what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to pray for those. Now, what would you pray about for someone like that?

My wife was bringing this passage to me this morning as we were having a talk. She said, you know, when you pray for someone who really is doing something against you, you might start out praying kind of thinking of that person, and that kind of hurts what they're doing. But it's not long until you're not thinking about that anymore. You're actually thinking about them. You're wanting God to bless them. You're wanting God to forgive them. You're wanting God to help them in their life, come to repentance, ultimately have a great life now, and ultimately be in the resurrection, be in the kingdom of God and reign. You know, all the bad stuff is gone. Now we're thinking solely on good things. That person is forgiven as you're praying for them in the sense that you are not attributing or wanting any harm to come to them. We need to pray for people who transgress against us in order to be able to forgive them, to truly go before God on their behalf and want the very best for them and ask specific things to help them. Notice verse 45.

He's on, creating a beautiful future for all of them and all of us. What would we pray? He said this as a great example in Luke 23 verse 34, as they were finishing him up, all the things that he had gone through as our Passover. And they were just finishing him up. He said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. He had no hatred for them. He had no hard feelings. He said, actually, Father, forgive them because he had thought beyond what they were doing. Because whatever it is they're doing, they don't know what they're doing. They don't realize. You see, he realizes in humans we tend to say, if I did something wrong, if I don't think so, I don't think about it much, I'm just blumbling along.

They didn't realize what they were doing. And you know when people hurt you, they don't realize what they're doing either. They're just bumbling along through life, taking the shortcuts, doing the selfish things, not thinking about you, and you get hurt. You get stung. We need to be of Christ's mind to pray for those who spitefully use us by asking for their forgiveness. It doesn't matter that they hadn't apologized. Did anybody apologize to Jesus? No! Don't be the one that has to keep score. I see, 70 times 7? Hasn't we reached that yet? The disciples, how many times do I have to forgive this person? Do they have to apologize first? Do they have to mean it? Do they have to... does a tear or two tears mean serious apology? Does a car, does it take a phone call? What is the criterion? There's the criterion. They don't even know they're doing it. Please forgive them. But wait! I could say, wait, wait, wait. You don't know how much that person hurt me. I can't just forgive them like that. We could say, wait, you don't know how much Jesus Christ was hurting. And he forgave just like that. And we're told you do the same, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. If you want to be in the family of God, that's how the God family thinks and acts. The point is, the God family forgives. Now, contemplate that. The God family forgives. It's not something they just do. It's something they are. Something they're about. They forgive. To know a God being means to know a loving being, but to know a God being means to know a forgiving being. One who doesn't keep scores. One who doesn't care to remember. One who would much rather forgive and forget than remember and punish.

That's what God is. That's what he's about. It's a trait. Think how deep this trait runs through the God family.

God is deeply invested in forgiving because he gave his only begotten son for forgiving. His only begotten son gave his life for forgiving. They are deeply invested in forgiving. Ask yourself, how invested are you in forgiving? You could say, I don't have to forgive. I don't have a stake here. Oh, well. That's true in a sense. You don't have to forgive and you don't have a stake, but you could have a stake in the family of God. So could I. It's our choice. And that stake begins with not sinning, repenting of sin, and becoming a forgiving being like they are.

Do you want to be in the God family? The lesson is, be like God is.

Jesus said in Luke 6, verse 40, a disciple is not above his teacher. If I come and I lay down my life and I forgive, you can't come along somehow above me and say, well, you're just the servant with a capital S.

You just have to die and you have to go through all this and you have to forgive my sin. But I'm the student. I'm higher than you. I don't have to touch that kind of stuff.

He says, no, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.

You and I, as we think of the Passover, if we pray for forgiveness and we want what Jesus Christ did for us, need to imitate him and become like him.

And not just receive the forgiveness and receive the remission of sins, but also to become a giver of forgiveness and a giver of the remission of sins.

It's an aspect of the nature of those who are forgiven.

Let's take up the account in Luke 6, verse 35 through 37.

Luke 6 will begin in verse 35.

Jesus says, but love your enemies. These are just words. Love your enemies.

Throw it out there. You hear it and say it. Move on.

Love is a mentality coupled with a concern that results in an action that is for the best of someone else.

And an enemy is one who is out to get you, to do you in, to do you harm, maybe even to kill you.

So right there in that phrase, you have opposites of what we can even comprehend as humans.

But a God-being would love his enemies, just as Jesus did.

He would do good to them and lend, hoping for nothing in return.

And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.

Why? Because that's what God-beings do. And you're imitating them. For he is kind to the unthankful and the evil.

Verse 36, Therefore be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.

Do you see why? What you receive is what you do, because the one you receive it from is who you're trying to become like.

You're trying to become Christ-like.

So learn mercy, because your Father in heaven is also merciful.

Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

That's where the title of the sermon comes from.

It's a whole different mindset than you and I have, when we wonder, Do I really have to worry about forgiveness? Do I really have to worry about forgiving others?

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

It's not a suggestion. It's not just sort of, if you do these things, you'll be blessed.

Forgiving others, and repentance, is the requirement for receiving God's grace.

God will be gracious to you, and give you forgiveness, if you forgive others.

But God will not be gracious to you, if you're not repenting, and if you're not being gracious to others.

If you're not repenting and forgiving everyone of everything.

Why? Why do we have to forgive others? Well, as we're beginning to see here, forgiveness is an integral part of God's love.

Loving others cannot combine, somehow, with hating others.

You can't love God with your heart, soul, and might, and love all humanity as much as you do yourself.

While at the same time, you have spiteful thoughts, you're holding people hostage, you're wishing them harm.

It just doesn't work.

And so Jesus said in Luke 6, 31, Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

Remember that concept of, I don't really do things that hurt other people?

That's kind of an assumption on our part.

I don't really harm or sin or hurt other people much.

That's how everybody feels. And therefore, just as you want them to do to you, which is to easily forgive and forget, and realize that nobody's thinking they're hurting anybody else, but we're all just sort of carnally making a lot of oopsies, so do to them.

Do to them likewise.

Forgiving others is actually built into our daily prayer.

Or maybe every prayer.

Jesus gave us that model outline to pray by in Matthew 6, verses 9-12.

And this is a really deep outline.

You can really mine it on a lot of different levels and use the same outline for every prayer, and yet it takes you different directions on different days and different things.

It's a real living outline.

And he says in Matthew 6, verse 9, In this manner therefore pray, our Father, our Father, our pater, the Greek word, the one that we are being influenced by and the one that we are trying to become perfect like, you, the ultimate aim, the ultimate goal, that which we want to be, holy is your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In my life now, help me today to do your will.

Give us this day our daily bread, that unputrified, un-yeasted boiling brew, gone from an unleavened bread of your son, the perfect sweet bread that we can eat, that we can ingest, we can take him in and forgive us our, the Greek word would say transgressions, would be a good term there.

It means something that you're indebted for.

And we're indebted because of the transgressions that we make.

Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive our transgressors.

The two words are similar. One is plural and one is singular.

Now, notice it wasn't forgive me, my. It's forgive us.

Remember, we're in this together. We're in the body together. We're being stitched together.

We're trying to grow into the Father and the Son as one.

Forgive us our transgressions as we forgive our transgressors. In other words, God, by our own prayer, is only expected to forgive you of your sins as you are forgiving everyone else of theirs.

And the prayer we pray, we pray for forgiveness based on that.

Based on that.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 18.

Well, before we do that, let me just mention that God has a lot invested in us.

He's taken billions of years to create the universe.

He has given us a place in his family. He's prepared a place for us.

He died to forgive us our sins. He's created this kingdom that's coming.

If we go to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 through 8.

Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4.

I just want to note something here briefly.

Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4.

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. He has a lot of time invested in you.

That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

That's his goal. Holy and without blame means he's a forgiving God.

He wants us to develop his love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

This is what he's done.

Going on.

To the praise of the glory of his grace, or graciousness, by which he made us accepted in the beloved.

We are here in the beloved all because of him. That's what he's done for us.

Now going on. Verse 7.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

How priceless is that?

It's stated in the next phrase, according to the riches of his grace.

Riches means the worth, the value, the extreme.

I mean the blood of Christ from all he's done.

You couldn't buy that stuff to forgive your sins, and God is giving it to you free, which he made to abound toward us.

God will freely forgive you of your sins.

If you will learn to freely forgive others of their sins, and you will repent of those sins, and become more like him, just notice how value, how rich that is.

Now the only fair thing that you and I can possibly do after receiving all that, is to imitate him, and to pass that free gift of repentance on to others, or free gift of forgiveness on to others.

Not to hold on to it, not to be stingy with it, not to squander it, but to freely give it as we have freely been receiving it.

In Matthew 18, verses 23 through 25, there's a parable of an unmerciful servant, and you can read it. It's the parable of story he created whereby somebody was forgiven, but then somebody owed him something, and he said, Oh, now I'm going to take you to court and make you pay every last fart of him.

We cannot receive this most valuable thing God has given us, and then stingily withhold it from others.

Immediately following the model prayer in Matthew, chapter 6, verse 15, he makes this statement, If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.

That's something for us to stop and contemplate with fear.

Fear, brethren, because that's the condition, one of the conditions, that your forgiveness is based upon, is your forgiving others.

In conclusion, God is a good God, very, very good God.

He gave you life. He gave you the promise of a future.

He's creating a place for you, and then he came, lived, and died here on earth for you, and he will give you eternal life.

In verse 14 of Matthew 6, Jesus said, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

That's the if that's contingent on your being in the family of God.

As we approach the greatest gift ever given, that precious blood of our Lord and Savior, the only Son of God the Father, for the forgiveness of our sins, realize the condition that's placed on you receiving God's grace and you receiving eternal life.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.