Forgive and You Will Be Forgiven

...to his kingdom. But it's always he who overcomes. The question is, what do we have to overcome? Well, there are a number of things, but the obvious answer, first and foremost, is sin. We have to overcome our desire to sin, and all of our... and any and all sinful practices. All of us have to do it. And we... I say all of us because, once again, one of the memory scriptures. Romans 3, 23 reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. And then, if you turn forward three chapters from there, it tells us the result of that sin is death. So, not overcoming isn't really an option if we want to live. And we all do. That's a pretty good reason. Overcoming sin is so important that God put a week-long festival into a sacred calendar. That included not one, but two holy days, one of which we're celebrating today. And then, He created the symbolism of making leaven represent sin, so that we would have to go to the work of getting rid of it, and discover how difficult that is. I was enjoying, again, mentioning Raleigh Collins. He was telling me about how twice this week he found, once he found part of a sandwich hidden under a bunch of things. And then, some food. He bought something that had the chicken and dumplings, and he hadn't checked the ingredients, and sure enough, so he talked about taking it out and getting it, you know, getting rid of it. And I wonder how many of us... I don't know, in ancient Israel, they didn't have vacuum cleaners. But I'm thinking, even before the days of the leavened bread start, while you're doing the leavening, maybe I think of this because I always do the cars, and that takes some time, and you're getting it in there, and the vacuum makes this white noise, you don't hear anything else. It's a good time to think about what we're doing. Why are we doing this? And you start thinking of all these analogies. I wonder myself, I know I've given a number of sermonettes that were born while I was vacuuming the car, and I'll bet there are others here who could say the same thing. You come up with it, and you say, oh, wow, I hadn't thought of it that way. So we've been thinking about sin and getting it out of our lives, and a number of different ways. Have you considered every way of putting sin out? Well, you probably have, but I suspect there's one way you might not have thought of as much as you could have, or at least if you have, it might bear a little more thought. Now, before I get to that, I'm going to lead into that. I want to remind us again that despite our best efforts to stop sinning, we need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to make it possible to avoid the penalty of sin. You know, for the sins we've already committed, if you'll turn to Matthew 26 for our first Scripture, Matthew 26 and verse 28. Listen, I'm still setting the stage here, but these are Scriptures, of course, I like to refer to meet and do season. Meet and do season is a minister's excuse for talking about the same thing over and over again. But it's also the reason why we need to. Matthew 26 verse 28, this is when Christ was initiating the new emblems for the Passover, the broken unleavened bread and the wine. As he gave the wine, he said, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. His blood shed for the remission of sins. Let's go to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 9 and verse 22.

Hebrews 9 and verse 22, connecting to the remission of sins.

We believe the author of Hebrews was the Apostle Paul. Some suspect that it might have been Timothy, who was Paul's student. Either way, same thoughts. Hebrews 9, 22 says, according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood, there is no remission. So when Christ said, this is my blood, this wine is my blood, shed for the remission of sin, for many, that's important. If we skip down to verse 28, we see, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

One of the things I wanted to point out in two of those scriptures, it says the word many.

Now, of course, we know this, but sometimes we could lose sight of how much Christ's sacrifice was for other people. That's because we want to focus in on how much, you know, it was for us, and we should do that. We have to take responsibility for our own sins, but at the same time, remember that Christ's sacrifice was for many, and that's what I wanted to focus on. As far as that we need to put sin out of our lives, we might not have considered putting out other people's sins from our lives. I've been working on how to say that properly.

Sorry, I'm being... I hear a beeping.

Might have been. I have found with the keys in my pocket, sometimes if I bend over the wrong ways, I hear my car down in the garage start beeping. Next thing you know, my phone will start ringing.

Matter of fact, you know what? I'm just going to turn it off. I always leave it on in case I have to call and tell Rick that I'm going to be late, but... Okay. Now then, there was a sermon going on somewhere around here. Okay, I brought up a subject. Putting sin out of your lives can include putting other people's sins out. Now, you might ask, what do you mean? How do you put other people's sins out of your life? How are other people's sins even in your life in the first place?

I'm going to come back to that. Keep it in the back of your thought. I wanted to introduce it, but first I want to review the fact that Jesus Christ's sacrifice was for those sins, the sins of other people and yours. You know, when we repent, we naturally focus on Christ's sacrifice for our sins, and that's especially true as we're leading up to the Passover and we think about how we caused Christ's death. You know, it's good for me to realize that Jesus Christ died for my sins, me, Frank Dunkel, but his was a great enough sacrifice to pay for the sins of all mankind, not just mine, but even though mine alone was enough.

Now, that's an appropriate thought and attitude for repentance, but sometimes, as I said when I'm focusing on how I caused Christ's death, I might overlook the fact that the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ was sufficient and appropriate for all mankind. Let's review a couple scriptures to cement that in our mind. If we'll go to John chapter 1, John 1 verse 29. Here, of course, was early in Christ's ministry, and John the Baptist was still conducting a ministry of his own, and he was there with some of his followers, and John the Baptist saw Christ walking, and so when it says the next day John, that's John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the sins of the whole world.

Let's go also to Romans chapter 14. We're going to go back and forth a lot, but mostly in the New Testament today. Romans 14 and verse 15. Now, I'm breaking into a thought I, Paul was discussing certain types of food and whether or not you should eat certain types of food and how it was a matter of conscious sake. I don't want to discuss the food, but I want to look at what he says at the end of this verse.

He says, If your brother is grieved because of your food, you're no longer walking in love. And he says, Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. And that's what I want to focus on. That one is, that is a man or a woman for whom Christ died. That tells us we shouldn't look down with disdain on anyone, even if they're in a moment of weakness.

That includes our brethren in the church, all of us, but also the people out in the world amongst us or around us. And I think of that, and I've been guilty of that. I've looked with disdain on people. When I lived up in Columbus, a larger city with a big university in it, it wouldn't be uncommon to see somebody with, you know, purple spiked hair and, you know, what looked like clothespins all through their faces and weird... And I would tend to look with disdain and tend to forget the scripture that that was a person for whom Christ died.

Now, they might not know it yet, and when they do realize it, of course, they might... that should lead to a change in their lifestyle. But it's good for me to remember, and for all of us to remember, when we're looking at someone, it's someone for whom Christ died. That all fits in with the fact, of course, as we read in Hebrews, that Christ's sacrifice was for many. That means that while he was dying for my sins, he was dying for your sins and for everyone else. He even died as a sacrifice for those who betrayed him.

If we go back to Luke in verse 23... Luke 23 will read verses 33 and 34. This, of course, after... towards the end of what was a very long night and day, and we studied this hopefully recently coming up to the Passover, how Christ was betrayed, he was humiliated, he was tortured, beaten, and then he would be nailed to what some people say across, we believe more likely, an upright stake.

But we see what happened here in verse 33. When they'd come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on one, the right hand and one on the left.

So he was thrown in with a bunch of criminals, and Jesus said, Father forgive them. They don't know what they do, even as they were dividing his garments and casting lots. He said, Father forgive them, those who are driving stakes through his feet and through his hands and mocking him. What an example for us to follow. What a high goal for us to achieve.

Now we know we have to learn to forgive other people, but do we think to do it even as they're hurting us? And Jesus did. Let's notice another tremendous example that Jesus set for us. If we go over to John chapter 13, we read this just over a week ago, but I want to review and remind us of where this falls in this subject matter. John 13 will begin at the beginning of the chapter.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end, and supper being ended. Now this indicates that they ate the traditional Passover meal with the slain lamb, and then he was going to initiate a new way of keeping the Passover. But supper ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that his father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. And after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So he took off his fancy clothes. We know that his clothes were nice enough that the soldiers wanted them, and even cast lots for the tunics. But he just wrapped himself with a towel and went around and started washing the disciples' feet. And what's interesting, it would have been only after this, apparently, that Judas carried out his plan. If we look down to verse 21, after he'd done all this, and of course Jesus at the end told him, I've set an example, I want you to do this, Jesus, when he had said these things, in verse 21, he was troubled in spirit, and he said, most assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. And the disciples looked on one another perplexed. And of course, we know the story, skipping ahead, Peter asked John, ask him who it is, and John was nearby, and he asked him, in verse 26, Jesus answered, It's him to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I've dipped it. And he dipped the bread, and he handed it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. And Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly. And he went on, he went out, went to carry out his mission. So this evidently happened before Jesus gave the symbols of the broken bread and the wine, but after he washed their feet, he washed all of their feet. He didn't, as he was going around, reach Judas and say, No, I'm going to pass on you.

He washed his feet humbly, along with all the others. Now, that's not a new point. I trust just about all of you have heard that before. But I think it's worth noting. And then we think Judas had some type of repentance. If we go ahead to Matthew chapter 27, Matthew 27, afterwards, you know, we know Satan was leading Judas.

Matthew 27 and verse 3, Then Judas' betrayer, seeing that he'd been condemned, that is, Jesus had been condemned, was remorseful. I think in the Old King James, it says he repented himself, and he brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. And he said, I've sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What's that to us? You see to it. He threw down the pieces of silver in the temple, departed and went and hanged himself. Now we would teach that going and hanging yourself is not a proper aspect of repentance, but it does seem, as I said, he was remorseful of that act. Now, was he repentant of every sin he ever committed? Would he rise up in the first resurrection? Probably not. Matter of fact, I'd say almost certainly, because the Holy Spirit wasn't given to any of the apostles yet, much less Judas. But might he rise in the second resurrection? And if so, be able to repent of all of his sins and receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, I'm not going to judge his ultimate faith. That's not for me. But I wouldn't presume that he's permanently condemned. And the point I want to make here is that Christ humbly washed the feet of his betrayer, and that if Judas does come to repentance, then Christ's sacrifice will be for him. For him, as much as it is for you and me. And I ask myself, has anyone ever done anything to me as bad as Judas did to Christ? Not that I can think of. And yet, Christ was forgiving. That's something we need to ask ourselves. And I'm leading back to my point there. We already know that we need to strive to become like Jesus. Paul wrote in Philippians 2 verse 5. I'll turn there later, but he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. And Christ himself said, I and the Father are one. So Christ and the Father are one. We need to have the mind of Jesus Christ. Christ also said, be perfect as the Father is perfect. We're setting a very high standard. So it becomes obvious where to become like Christ, have his mind be perfect like the Father. So we need to be forgiving others as Christ forgives us. Let's look to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 6. Luke 6 and verse 36.

This will say very plainly what I just took quite a while to get around to saying.

Luke 36. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you'll not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

And that's, I don't think I mentioned it, or I'm not good at remembering titles, but the top of my page, the title I put on this, was Forgive, and you'll be forgiven. We want to be forgiven of our sins, and that's why we repent and we're baptized. And that's partly why we come back to the Passover every year and make that, we recommit to that. But this seems to indicate that there's something more to having our sins forgiven. It says, forgive, and you'll be forgiven.

If you'll turn to Matthew chapter 6, we'll see that principle brought out even further. Matthew 6. Now, I'll note that this is part of what we call the Sermon on the Mount, and Matthew 6 verses 9 through 13. I'm not going to read all of that, but that's what we often call the model prayer. It's more often called the Lord's Prayer. There's no indication that He said these exact words other than when He was giving them to the disciples, but He gave them an outline, a method for praying. And as part of that prayer, He said the statement, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. So that's part of the prayer, part of the outline He gave for everyday prayer, and then He expounded on that immediately afterwards. Right after the Amen in verse 14, He says, For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you.

Now, that makes it pretty serious. You want to be forgiven, He says, you have to forgive men their trespasses. And just in case it would have slipped by, later on He gives a good analogy, or a good parable to explain in chapter 18 of Matthew. Matthew 18, and we'll start in verse 23. And Matthew 18, starting in verse 23. Well, let me back up a little bit. Just to set the stage of exactly why He was given this. You don't have to go just on my word. In verse 21, Peter came to him and said, Lord, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I have forgiven? Seven times? Peter thought he was being very generous. And Christ looked at him and probably said, no, not seven times. I'm 70 times seven. Try that on. And then he goes on with his parable. And he says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he'd begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. Now, we don't measure our money in talents today, so I checked some commentaries to get an idea of how much this was. And they don't all agree, but about all of them say it was upwards of a million dollars, perhaps two, three, or four million dollars that the servant owed his master. And they think, wow, you know, he not only is that would that be hard for most people to pay, but if you're a servant, how are you going to raise that? So in verse 25, he wasn't able to pay. So his master commanded that he be sold and his wife and his children and everything that he had and for payment to be made. And of course, probably that wasn't going to pay off all the debt, but it would do as much as possible. A servant, therefore, fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me and I'll pay you all. He didn't ask him to forgive it. He said, have patience, I'll pay it back.

Now, the fact is, if it's three or four million dollars, a servant would never be able to earn that. And he probably knew that in the back of his head. Just like when we go to God and ask to be forgiven of our sins, we can never pay what it's worth. You know, we can give our life, but we can never pay and still live. But then the master of that servant was moved with compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. He didn't say, okay, you can have a couple extra months or a couple extra years. He said, okay, I'll wipe it off. That's compassion. And then the contrast, that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And the old King James, I think, says a hundred pence. And the same commentaries that said the first servant owed several million dollars said this probably added up to about 20 or 30 dollars. So he came fine. He was just forgiven of, say, two million dollars. He finds this guy that owes him 30 bucks, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat and said, pay me what you owe.

Now, most of us are saying, come on! That's not a way to treat. Then again, I think from a human perspective, if you'd had that close of a call, you'd probably think, I'm going to be more careful with my money, and I want that 30 bucks. But he was presented with the same appeal that he had made. The fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, have patience with me, and I'll pay you all. But he wouldn't. He would not. He went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. And I've heard it saying that. I've heard it commented on how likely are you to be able to earn money to pay a debt if you're in prison. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and they came and told their master all that had been done. And his master, after he had called him, so he called him and said, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was very angry and delivered him to the torturers, probably a little worse than prison, till he should pay. That was due him. That, pay all that was due him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you. If each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother, his brother is trespasses. So if we want to be forgiven by God, says we need to forgive and forgive from the heart our brothers.

That's something is we're striving to put sin out of our lives. We're reviewing repentance. It says, if you want to be forgiven, you'd better repent, but you'd also better forgive others.

Now, as I read that, I mean, it's straightforward. It just plain says it, but I thought, you know, Jesus doesn't explain why. He, you know, we can see we sin, we earn death, so we have to have our, this penalty paid. He doesn't explain why for us to be forgiven of our sins, we have to forgive others. You might say, wait, I'm repentant. I'm changing my ways. Why won't God forgive me?

Now, I'm speculating here, but I'll say, I think one of the main reasons would be that God is not only concerned with what we do, He's very concerned with what we are. He wants us to be like Him. We're told to become perfect as our Father is perfect, and God is a great, a merciful, gracious God. You know, we need to have the mind of Christ within us. God wants us to develop holy, righteous character. That's a phrase if you could, that could have been patented, obviously. I didn't make it up, but we're developing holy, righteous character. God wants us to be like Him, and when we forgive others, we're doing a godly thing. We are becoming like God. Let's go to that passage in Philippians, I mentioned earlier. Philippians 2, verse 5. I want to continue this subject a little further. I could have made it a... well, it would have been too long for a sermonette, but I'd say I could have made it something short and stop there, but there's more to this. Philippians 2 and verse 5, of course, says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And continuing on from there, it says, Who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, meaning He knew He was God. He wasn't puffing Himself up, He was God, and He knew He was equal with God the Father and power and glory. I lost my place now. But made Himself of no reputation, so He divested Himself of all that power and glory and took the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross or the stake. Jesus was God Himself, and yet He was not too good to become human. And He not only became human and subject to death, but He died the worst kind of death. Humiliating, embarrassment, betrayal, torture. He was mocked, and He did all of that so that we could be forgiven of our sins. Now, that's what I need to remember the next time I hesitate to forgive someone, especially if it's because of how they offended me or because of how public it was. And I've heard it said, I'm not sure if I've said it in these words, but I know I've thought it. It's like, ah, I can't believe He did that to me in front of those people. I can't forgive that because everybody knows it. But when it comes down to it, Jesus forgave that. He was, as I said, He was sinned against in the most public, humiliating way possible. And He suffered all the worst effects of sin and then forgave the sinners and forgave those who were nailing Him down. So if we're growing into sons of God, if we want to become like God, we have to forgive.

And that gets down to what I said earlier. In putting sin out of our lives, we need to include putting the sins of other people out. Or putting out the sins of other people. How?

Yeah, we can't stop them from sinning, but we can go a long way towards eliminating the effects of their sin on us. We can eliminate the worst effects if we forgive those sins. And I want to make a distinction because, say, if someone breaks into your house and steals your TV, you can't eliminate that effect unless you've got really good insurance. But even so, you're going to feel a traumatic thing. You know, you've been violated. So you can't eliminate all the effects, but the worst effect is when you can. And I want to explain that by mentioning again, as I said, Mr. Call brought this out, that sin is insidious. It spreads. That's why leaven makes such a good analogy of sin. And I mentioned that it was on my mind because I was working on the sermon last night, that sin fundamentally alters the nature of... well, I just say leaven fundamentally alters the nature of the dough that it's in. And likewise, sin fundamentally alters the nature of the people doing it. You know, Paul said, a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So, you know, sin affects you and it'll affect other people. I think of some of King David's sins that caused the death of many other people. And he probably didn't know it at the time. If you want to turn to 2 Samuel 24, we'll look at one of those. 2 Samuel 24, and while you're turning there, I'll mention some of this came to mind as I was giving the sermon this morning because I didn't work it into my notes anywhere, but I thought it might be interesting because it occurred to me any one of you might be thinking of someone that you have been hesitating to forgive and think, oh, he's talking about me. He knows. But the fact is, I'll let you know I've been working on the sermon for about a year now. And not that I've been working on it day or night. It's not... it'd be a lot better if I were doing that, but the circumstances were kind of amusing because it happened a year ago, the night to be much observed. Sue and I were still living in Columbus, and we were out to eat with several people. We gave a ride home to one of the elders who lives near us, and he doesn't like to drive at night because he doesn't see well in the dark. And just as he's getting out of the car in his driveway, and by this time it's 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night, he says, oh, did you know Mr. Hargrove is sick? Mr. Hargrove, the pastor in Columbus, said, no, I didn't know that. He said, maybe one of us ought to prepare and be ready to give a sermon tomorrow. So, oh! And I thought, what's a good subject for the days of Unleavened Bread? And so I stayed up a little later that night and just did an outline. I didn't prepare all of this, but I looked up several of the scriptures, and it turned out it's funny this morning when I mentioned this, I didn't bother to mention that Mr. Hargrove ended up giving the sermon the next day. So I didn't have to be on call, but having that, you know, this was on my mind. As you remember, a year ago, a lot of us were dismayed by the actions of some others who had been in our fellowship. And it was occurring to me that we need to be ready to forgive.

And so this has been there. I thought that it's a message that needs to be said. Let's look at how sin can affect other people. In 2 Samuel 24, this is a case where David decided to do a census, and we're pretty sure strictly for military purposes. And beginning in verse 2, so the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, go throughout all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and count the people, that I may know the number of them. Now, Joab was a bloody man, but even he said, what do you want to do this for? Joab said to the king, now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are. May the eyes of the Lord my king see it, but why do you desire this thing? But the king's word prevailed. He was the king. He said, go do it. Now, later on, though, he realized he was doing it apparently in vanity and pride. And in verse 10, David's heart condemned him after he numbered the people. And David said to the eternal, I've sinned greatly in what I have done, but now I pray, O eternal, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I've done very foolishly. So David's repenting, but sometimes repentance doesn't remove the effects of the sin. And the effects of one person's sin can affect a lot of others. And we see that Gad, who was a prophet at the time, came and talked to David, giving him a message from God. In verse 12, it says, go and tell David, thus says the eternal, I offer you three things. Choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you. And since then, he says, I may do it to you, but it's not going to be just David. So Gad came to David and told him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now consider this in C, so I can answer. See what answer I should take back to him who sent me. Now, the him who sent him was God. And David said, well, I'm in a great distress, but please let us fall into the hand of the eternal, for his mercies are great. Don't let me fall into the hands of men. Now down in verse 17, of course, the plague does come out, and as without reading the whole story, we'll see that David was right. God was merciful. But David made an interesting statement in verse 17. David spoke to the eternal when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, surely I have sinned and done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand I pray be against me and against my father's house.

See, sometimes it's obvious when our sins affect other people when we see it, or, and of course, when someone else's sins affect you, a lot of times you know it.

We wonder why would God let these other people suffer because of David's sin?

And I wish I could give you a straightforward answer. Here in the book of 2 Samuel, it doesn't say, this is why God did it that way. So I'm still wondering, I have some thoughts on the subject. One, I think that God was working with David in a way he wasn't with other people, and he wanted to impress this lesson on David and also on us. All these things were preserved in writing so we could study later, and this is a very vivid example of how one person's sin can harm a lot of people. Now, God can do that, and you know, all those people who died in this plague will be resurrected in the world tomorrow. So God can take away someone's life, he'll bring them back, and just think, if you had a choice, live, you know, 3,000 years or so ago in a dirty place without electric lights or the internet, or come up in the world tomorrow where peace will rain and there's healing, and you know, they're going to come back to a much better life than the one they left. That still doesn't make it okay for us to decide to take someone out of this world.

And I can say, God could have done it as an object lesson, and he's justified in doing that. And it did impress it on David. He said, all these people are suffering because of what I did.

It was obvious in another case, of course, when David sinned with his sin with Bathsheba, it became very evident to others who were hurt by it. You know, the baby that was born died, Uriah the Hittite, and poor guy he never did know about it. He'll come up in the resurrection and get an interesting story. But what I'm saying, we tend to be more aware of when someone else's sin directly affects us than when our sin affects others. But God wants us to be aware of when our sin affects others and try to avoid it. But he also wants us to think about being merciful and being able to put away the sin of the other person that affects us. Especially because there may be more than one way we're getting hurt by that sin. As I said, someone can break in your house and steal your stuff. Yeah, that affects you. But there's a worse way. If you'll turn with me to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, we're going to begin in verse 14.

There's a very important principle here that we don't talk about that often, but I think is very important. And it has to do with putting away the effects of other people's sin in our lives.

Here in Hebrews 12 verse 14 says, I mean, rephrase that sentence. It is my personal feeling. This root of bitterness is more harmful than any of the physical effects we might feel. If you're just upset and angry over something someone did, now, if we can lose property, you might be injured. You could even be killed. But if you let a bitterness stay in your mind, that dwelling on something someone did you wrong and you're upset by it, it can destroy godly character. Bitterness against someone works the opposite of conversion. It begins to draw us away from god and closer to the way the devil is. We know he has a root of bitterness. I don't have the scripture here, but we know when Simon Magus offered money to the apostles so that he wanted the power to give people the Holy Spirit, Peter said, I see you're in the gall of bitterness. He perceived that and saw that it was destroying him. And that's where we start to tie all of this together. We strive to put sin out of our lives by repenting and not sinning anymore. Yet, we may suffer the effects in our lives of other people sinning. Now, we can't stop them from sinning, but we can remove from our lives the most dangerous effect of their sin. And that's the bitterness that could dwell in our minds. We can remove that dangerous effect by the act of forgiving. Forgiving someone else is a behavior that's godlike, but it's also an important act of self-preservation. Sometimes you have to forgive someone else not because it's good for them, but because you need it to be able to survive. Let's go to the book of Luke, chapter 17. Luke 17 will begin in verse 3. I said when I started putting this together, at first I thought, well, maybe I can find a few scriptures dealing with the subject, and then I discovered there are quite a few.

Luke 17 in verse 3 says, take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. So, it doesn't say, you know, it talks a lot about forgiving, it doesn't say you have to do it completely passively. You can't rebuke someone. And, of course, we know there's this passage of scripture in Matthew 18 where it says, if your brother sins against you, go to him. And if you won't listen, take some other witnesses with you. But here it says, if he sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns you, saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. And what do the apostles say?

Lord, increase our faith. They're saying, you really want us to do that? We need help. We can't do that.

And that's where, fortunately, the ability to forgive others is a spiritual gift. It's not something we have to have on our own. God can and will give it to us if we ask him for it. Flip back to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, and we'll begin in verse 6.

The apostle Paul wrote to various churches about spiritual gifts a number of times. We know he addressed it with the Corinthians, partly because there were so many spiritual gifts, including healing and speaking in tongues and such. And this epistle to the Romans, he talks about different spiritual gifts. Here, beginning in verse 6, it says, Having then gifts differing according to the grace that's given to us, let us use them. So whatever our gifts, we might have different gifts, but use them well. He says, If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, or ministry, that is service. Let us use it in our ministry. He who teaches and teaches. He who exhorts and exhortations. He who gives with liberality. That's interesting. Being given, giving, can be a spiritual gift. He who leads with diligence. And then at the end, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Tie that back. Remember, in verse 6, it was talking about having spiritual gifts. Showing mercy is a gift from God. It's a spiritual gift because it's something it requires God's Holy Spirit to do and do well.

Let's go across the page here to Romans 12, and we'll begin in verse 17. Romans 12 and verse 17.

Repay no one evil for evil. Let me say that again. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. In other words, look for the good in people. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. Back up and let it go. Don't try to avenge yourselves, for it's written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. So he says, I'll take care of it. Therefore, and he's quoting here, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Although I think hopefully your goal won't be in heaping the coals. That's another subject. And then it says, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That might be another good summary phrase for this whole message. Don't be overcome by evil. Don't let that evil build up a bitterness in you that affects your mind, but overcome that evil with good. The good that can only come from God's Holy Spirit.

And what's important here is to note there's nothing in this passage that talks about that other person apologizing or repenting. That's not to say they shouldn't, they should, but he says, repay evil for good, even if they're not sorry about it. It's relatively easy to forgive someone when they're sorry and they admit it, but for us to be able to banish a root of bitterness from our minds, we have to learn to forgive someone even when he's not repentant. Now that's tough.

That's when we say, Lord, increase my faith. No one's saying we should be able to do this on our own, but we got to consider it. Jesus did exactly that. He looked down while they nailed his hands and feet and they were lifting up in the air, and they weren't sorry at all that they did it, but he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. He set the example, and he taught us that we should do this. Let's go back to Luke again. I told you we're going to go back and forth a lot, but Luke chapter 6 and verse 27.

Here is the standard we want to strive for. Jesus said, But I say to you, who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, don't withhold your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and from him who takes away your goods, don't ask for them back. And just as you want men to do to you, do also to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit's that? Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies. Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you'll be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore, be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Be merciful as your Father is merciful. Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Have the mind of Christ. That's a tall order. And Jesus never says, this is going to be easy. He certainly doesn't say it'll be fun or enjoyable. But when you do it, then you're going a long way towards removing the worst effects of someone else's sin from your life.

That bitterness, that self-destruction, it's hard to do, but it's worth it a thousand times over.

When we can let go of whatever wrong someone's done against us, we'll start to have peace of mind, or we'll continue to have peace of mind, and we'll have more of it. And we can start focusing on growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, I want to add one step further, that really it's a step further, but it's bound up into being able to do it at all. Let's go to the book of Ezekiel to see that. Ezekiel 18 and verse 20.

Ezekiel 18 and verse 20, and that's one I'd be willing to put money on, that that'll be on those memory scriptures that we're expecting. But we're not abetting people, so I'm not doing that. But what's interesting is we tend to memorize and focus on the first part of this verse, but I want to go further, of course. And the first part, Ezekiel 18 verse 20, says, the soul who sins shall die. And we often stop there, because this is a great thing to explain, that we don't have an immortal sin, or immortal soul, but we are a soul, and we can die from sin. But we can go on. The Son shall not bear the guilt of the Father, nor the Father bear the guilt of the Son. We're responsible for our own sins. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself. So we also bear the good results of doing good things. And the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he's committed, and keeps all my statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live and shall not die. He can be forgiven. None of his transgressions which he's committed shall be remembered against him because of the righteousness which he has done. He shall live. Now, that's very important. If he turns and does righteousness, not only can he be forgiven and live, but it says all the wickedness won't be remembered against him.

Now, that's harder for us to do. God says he's going to do it. He'll not remember our wickedness.

Now, I think what this means is don't bring consciously to mind. God's not asking us to conk ourselves on the head and try to drive it out. I don't know how easy it is to force amnesia on yourself. I said, Sue and I had a concern earlier this week. I don't know if she's talking to any of you. Connor managed to climb up on a kitchen chair and do a dive off, and we were worried. It's like, how's he going to be? You know, is the brain going to be working? And of course, it seems to be working fine, but God doesn't ask us to do that, not to knock something out of our head. But don't bring it to mind. Don't consciously remember it. Otherwise, if you're remembering the sin someone committed against you, what'll happen is when you deal with that person, you'll be in your mind seeing the person who committed the sin, not necessarily the person that's before you now, who may have repented and hopefully has. Because in time, all will. I relate that back to the years I've had experience of working at summer camp, and I've had times progress through the years where I might have known someone who was a 13 or 14 year old who was a real stinker. You know, some of the guys come in and they just get into trouble and they don't want to listen. And then as they grow and mature, they grow and mature. They become pretty good people. So when I see them now, I need to not see that ornery 13 year old, but see the mature, you know, adult. And it's funny, through in my mind, I'm going through several faces. It's happened more than once. And I actually, I would think there are some older people up in the Columbus congregation probably say that about me, which is good, though. I want them to see the me now, not the me they knew as a 15 year old who was getting into trouble. Let's go a few pages over to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 34. One of the things I was getting at is we need to give people room to grow and change and accept that change when it happens. Don't hold them back in the situation where they were. That's what God does with us. Jeremiah 31 and verse 34.

This is, of course, a prophecy looking ahead when the new covenant exists and God writes His law into all of our hearts and minds. It says, No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man, his brother, saying, Know the eternal, for they'll all know me from the least, even to the greatest of them. Says the eternal, For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. I'll forgive and I won't remember. Now, I've heard people speculate, does that mean God just He makes it so we can't remember? And it's interesting to speculate because God is all powerful. Maybe He can force something out of His mind, but then we think if He's all powerful, He'd be able to remember. Well, I think it's a silly argument. I think it's just what I was saying. He won't think about it. He won't bring it to mind. That's why when we repent of something, we truly repent. God doesn't want us to come back and repent of it again the next day. He says, I'm not thinking about that anymore. I forgave you and I'm not going to remember it. You don't bring it up and I won't bring it up. Now, if we go and do the same sin over again, then we're going to have to come and repent again. But God, He's willing to put things away. And He wants us to be able to do that. Put it out of your mind, because when it's in your mind, it can turn into bitterness.

One way, as hard as it is to do, I was thinking how it's easy to say, you know, I can get up here and say, do this. Well, one of the methods I think that might help is project into the future. Again, I was thinking you might, I said, don't imagine the person from the past who might have had a problem. But we think about it. We all belong to God. So if someone sins against you, he's sinning against God. Someone sins against me, he's sinning against God. And eventually that person has to repent and ask God's forgiveness. Now, if the person refuses to repent, they're going to end up in the lake of fire and be obliterated forever. So when it says, the Scripture says, vengeance is mine, and says the Lord, he means it. So what we can do is look at this person, even if they're sinning against you now, in the future at some point they will repent and be forgiven, or they will refuse to repent and they'll be obliterated. Either way, it's out of your hands. God will handle it. He says, vengeance is mine. At some point in the future, it'll be handled. And, but if we don't let it go, the only, the person that's going to be hurt the most will be you or me. I keep changing how I'm presenting that, but you know what I'm getting at. I have to let go of someone's sin, and by the way, I would say, you know, I don't know that I've done anything against anyone here, but I hope, you know, if so, that you'd come to me as Scripture says, and that I can repent, and that you'd let it go. You know, and that's the way we should all do with each other.

Because otherwise, as I said, that bitterness will eat at you. It'll interfere with your relationship with God and with other Christians. There's nothing worthy of that, because it could eventually lead you right out of God's kingdom. We have to let it go.

Just like we put sin out of our lives, we stop committing our own sins, just like we put leaven out of our houses for a week.

This is going to be early, but let's turn to one last scripture, Psalm 107.

Psalm 107. We'll read the first couple of verses here.

It says, O give thanks to the Eternal, for he is good. His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Eternal say so. And the redeemed of the Eternal are us. He bought us. He redeemed us with the blood of Jesus Christ we're bought and paid for. And his mercy towards us endures forever. He redeemed us so that we could become his children. So we're brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for my sin and yours. And the sin of every other person out there, every person that might offend us or sin against us, even very bad sins. Thus, God forgives. He asks repentance and that person will have to repent or those people. But to attain our destiny, to attain our incredible human potential, as someone used to call it, we have to put sin out of our lives. We have to put our own sin out, of course, but I believe also that effect of other people's sin. We have to root it out. We simply put must forgive. And as Jesus said, forgive and you will be forgiven.