A Forgiving God

The title of today's sermon is A Forgiving God. If you go to Wikipedia off Google and you type in mythical gods, you will find, as I have found, there are hundreds of mythical gods that exist today and they have existed for thousands of years.

Gods who had all these characteristics and traits, as they are also listed in the hundreds. And as you look at that incredible list and a plethora of attributes, you find a little bit of everything there. But the one thing you do not find from any of the mythical gods, or the gods of this world, is an attribute of being forgiving. It doesn't exist anywhere I could find. And I just didn't check one or two sites, I checked four or five websites.

We have a very forgiving God. Philip Yancey, in his book, called, he's a religious writer, in his book called What's So Amazing About Grace, actually made the statement that I had to run around in my mind a few times. And he said forgiveness is an unnatural act. Forgiveness is an unnatural act. I had to agree. It's not natural just to forgive someone. If you've ever taken a walk in the woods and followed behind someone, and they pull a branch back and it smacks you in the face, even if they're a friend or a family member, you get kind of, hmm, why'd you do that?

It's like they wanted to do it to you. So understanding that, I had to agree with Mr. Yancey. But our God, this is this incredible God that, I want to read you now from the New Living Translation in Psalm 65. Psalm 65, the New Living Translation, verse 1, it's a Psalm of David, and he says in verse 1, What mighty praise, O God, belongs to you and Zion? We will fulfill our vows to you, for you answer our prayers. All of us must come to you. But then he makes a statement, Though we are overwhelmed by our sins, you forgive them all.

Isn't that nice? No, just unlike the mythical gods or even the gods of the trees and the earth that so many people will tend to worship today, Mother Earth. That we have a God who wants to forgive not just part of our sins, but all of them. No matter what it is. Wouldn't it be great to be married to someone like that? I wish I know my wife wishes she did. And be able not only to what? Forgive, but to forget. Turn over to Isaiah. Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43 in the New Living Translation. I like this. It says, I, yes, I, will blot out your sins for my own sake.

And will never think of them again. Boy, that's a pretty good deal. That's our God. A forgiving God, to me, is a pretty good title. We know that God is omnipotent. He's omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's supreme. He's called Adonai. He's called El Shaddai. We have all these titles. But after doing this study, I kind of like, because it really has a lot to do with me. I like the title of a forgiving God.

It makes it a whole lot easier to go to Him when I'm kind of messed up. I kind of did something I didn't need to do. Maybe none of you ever had that problem. That's great. We're going to have a great relationship here. I'm not going to have to do much. But I doubt that's the case, because guess what? We all sin.

We all have problems. And it's kind of like I think about it with Mary. My wife, when I say something that I shouldn't say, or put it in a way that only those of you who have been married for any amount of time know how you kind of will say things to your mate that you really hope nobody is in the room.

And then it's kind of like, well, I need to go back and say I'm sorry. But she's my wife. She'll forgive me. She knows how I am. And so we kind of sometimes put it off where it's so much better if you go, honey, I'm sorry. I don't know why I said that or why I said it the way I said it. Then it's kind of nice to just, whoo! Because she goes, oh, I did something the other day. And she said, well, no, you don't need to apologize.

That was me that said that. Boy, that's nice. She had a forgiving mate. Well, how much greater is it, no matter what you do, that you have a forgiving God? I know you goofed up. I was watching you do it. But that's okay. Let's see if we can work with you and make it so you don't have to come and say you're sorry for that again. The powerful words, forgiving God. You know, God, He sent prophets to the nation of Israel to try to just get them to repent.

He was willing to forgive them time and time again, but they didn't really want Him in their lives. And they never had a righteous king that ever wanted to teach them that they needed forgiveness because they'd sinned against God. See, God forgave Judah time after time after time. They might have to pay the price, as we do sometimes when we sin.

But when they turned back to God and repented, He would send prophets and priests to them to get them to repent. He forgave them every single time. He's such a forgiving God that even the nation of Assyria and their capital, Sidi Nineveh, that we've gone over to before here, He sent even Jonah to tell them to repent, and they repented and He forgave them. And they were bloodthirsty killers! They worshiped the occult! And yet, they repented and He forgave them. And it's so powerful because even some of Christ's last words was, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing to the ones who were mocking Him, laughing at Him, spitting in His face.

And all He had to say was, They don't know what they are doing. Pretty powerful example to us. If you go to the United States debt clock, pull it up on your computer, or your handheld device, you can see right now that these figures are moving as it shows all the debt that the United States is occurring.

Numbers constantly change because we keep constantly, minute by minute, second by second, keep adding to the debt. And it shows a hundred different figures there for Social Security, Medicare. It shows you every credit card debt. It shows you everything. It's this running clock. And it showed this morning that the United States of America that we are all part of, except for our few Jamaicans that, well, know you're part of here now, aren't you?

You're a citizen. Yeah, so it's only you. But we all own part of that debt. And as of this morning, it was $18 trillion, $165 billion, and it just keeps moving. The debt that we owe is now, I think it's got this little box on the side that said per person is $52,100 something dollars. That's how much we all owe. That's a debt. We owe it. Now, you may have debt on a house. Many of you do, right? Somebody just got a house. So I know you have a debt on it, right?

You have a car. Or even credit cards, right? Wouldn't it be nice if I could pull out my checkbook today and say, how much is that? And write your check. Would you be all into that? I bet he would. But all of us would. Wouldn't we like it if somebody would pay that debt off if someone just forgave all that debt in one day? Now, I'm sure between China, Japan, and Germany, they're now going to write $18 trillion off.

But we would all like that. Now, we all know through the symbolism, through the reality, that Jesus Christ paid for all of our sins so that is not a debt that we have to pay. We don't have to die. Don't we not shed blood? We'd have to go and be forgiven. But I'm bringing this up today, not as much about that as I am about forgiveness of debt. We all would love to be forgiven of our debts.

Yet, we have unforgiven debt in this church.

There are debts out there. There are, in each one of us, I would say sitting in a church today. That's why I'm bringing this up. There is someone in your life that you need to forgive. There's someone in your life, in your past, that they may have said something. It may just be a small offense. Well, you know, they said that once about me five years ago, and I've never forgotten it. I had a woman very close to me this week that actually made a statement. She had something against someone, and so she said, I talked to them, I told them, I forgave them. But I told them I could not forget. Then you're not like God. All of us, are we wanting to be more like Christ? Turn new living translation to 1 John. 1 John 1, verse 9. I like the way it's put. It says, But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. That means no matter what we've said or done.

He will forgive us of that. How about us forgiving no matter what someone has done to us in the past or right now in front of us?

God will forgive, but we can't or we won't. Which one is it? I like the way it puts it in Psalm 103. I think it's verse 12. It says, Your transgressions will not be remembered as far as east is from the west. I will not remember your sins as far as east is from the west. That's not from one sunrise to the other. That's not from one side of Florida to the other. We're talking 500 million billion light years this way and the same way that way. So ultimately saying, they're gone. Sorry, not going to remember. And yet, we sometimes have the problem of bringing that up to Him again. Well, God, you know, back when He said, What? You know, wait a minute. That, I don't even remember. You know what He wants us to do? He gives us that example so that we can be like that with other people, with our mates. How would that change marriages in this world? How would it change families when I broke a window? Well, yes, it's coming out of your allowance. You're going to have to pay for that. And then every year, about the same time, I'm going to remind you every year on the anniversary of it. You know? But you're glad you don't live in something like that, but you know there are people who do. I remember when you did that as a child. Yeah, but I'm 80 years old. See, God's wanting us to be that way. That's why it's so great. I think Orlando mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, and he mentioned it even today, that John the Baptist, Wow, this was just some scene where he sees Christ coming towards and he goes, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away what? The sin of the world. He's basically saying, He's forgiving all the sins of the entire world. In this one entity, this one being walking towards me. That's why I say, Behold. And we cannot forgive one single person. We cannot forgive someone that did something to us 20 or 30 years ago, or last week or last month. I like to turn to Matthew 6. Read also from a New Living Translation. Matthew 6. One verse. You all know it.

Matthew 6. When he's telling people how to pray on the Sermon on the Mount. And he comes down to verse 12 and he said, And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. That's what he's saying to God. This is how we pray. It kind of sounds conditional. He's got that word, as, in there. He kind of puts us in a predicament. Because this statement Christ makes is absolute. Which kind of puts the burden back on us. How do we expect God to forgive us of everything, forever and ever and ever? It all starts with us. Right here. Christ's very words, forgive us our sins as we forgive others.

And you think of the time that Stephen in Acts 7, Stefano from my friend in the back, who is Greek, because that's what it would have originally been in the Greek, Stefano. He's ticked people off. I'm sure you've ticked a few people off. Well, I know you've ticked me off before, so I know that, Stephen. But, righteously, he ticked all the leaders off. It was telling the truth, and gave one of the greatest sermons.

I think a deacon is ever given. And so, here they're taking him out and they're stoning him, which was never a pleasant sight to go through. But his last words were, Don't charge them with this sin.

As someone is taking that last big rock and about to cave his skull in, don't charge them with this sin. What's he saying? Forgive them. Boy, could sure use a lot of deacons like that today, couldn't we?

One of my, I guess, favorite verses is time of the year. Psalm 51 verse 10 says, Create in me a new heart, a clean heart, right? Because a clean heart is a new heart. I'd like to go there in the New King James just for a second. Psalm 51. David is saying this after his transgressions and realized he was forgiven. He was asking for that forgiveness. He says in verse 10, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Because unless he was renewed, his spirit was very down. And he said, I like it, he said, Create. Guess what? Science has really found out that only God can truly create from nothing. So he's asking, the only one who could do this is create in me a clean heart. I have to say those words more than I like to, to God myself. But it's so nice to know that he can create, completely clean my heart. Then he goes down in verse 16. And he says, For you, God, you do not desire sacrifice, or else I give it.

I'm rich. I could bring you all these animals and kill these animals. And here's this bull, and here's the lambs, goats, anything you want. And it'll make me feel so much better, because then I've paid you off. That's not what he wants. He's like the sacrifice of the Old Testament. He had all those animals killed because it was a teacher to them that there's a price to pay for sin. But Christ brought it out later.

No, I want you to do it with a clean heart. I don't need your animals. I want sincerity and truth. And he says here, verse 16, For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are what? A broken spirit. A repentant heart. A broken and contrite heart. These, O God, you will not despise. Yes, that's what he wants from us. Oh, it was so easy before. Just bring those animals in. But all that was was teaching them.

And it teaches us that God now wants the heart to be clean. Because that's where all this stuff, why we do what we do, and the conscience comes from. Mahatma Gandhi made the statement, and he said, The weak can never forgive.

The weak, he said, can never forgive because forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Good point. Like our Norman Cousins, the actual author and life coach, said that life, at the end of his life, he said life is an adventure in forgiveness.

Because we must think about it. Our whole life, we're either, someone is usually forgiving us or we're forgiving them, aren't we? And God does the forgiving every single day and multiple times. It is an adventure. It is something we just can't, oh, well, I never forgive. Or, no, they must have forgiven me for that. Some people don't. Most people don't. And what can we do in that case? Just go, I'm sorry. And I ask for your forgiveness. Whether they grant it or not, you've done your part. But some people want, oh, I need to know that they forgive me.

I know they said it, but that's up here. That's why forgiveness is an unnatural act. But God wants it to become a natural act to us. Maybe you might even think right now, the most forgiving person you've ever met in your entire life. You think about them? Yes? Think of someone? I do. You know what stands out about them? How loving they were. They were a very loving person. I think the two are closely related, don't you?

And isn't God wanting us to be more like Him? Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. It's a profound statement. I want to read it again. Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me. There's this incredible story. It's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. And I'd like you to turn to it in Luke 18. In Luke 18, Christ, boy, does He cover a lot of stuff for church, for people living. In one chapter, man, He just loads that chapter up. And I've been there time and time again, and many times I turn back there.

Wow! Here it is again. Here's a lesson. Chuck, wake up. You read it before, but I've got a new one for you. But this one I've read many, many times. I'll read from Luke 18 in verse 9. And also, He spoke this parable to some, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Righteous, despising others. Sounds like they go together. He said, two men went up to pray, two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, and the other was one of those stinking tax collectors. The worst, the worst people on earth. The Pharisee stood and prayed this with himself. Kind of talking more to himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Extortioners, unjust. Another one says sinners. Oh, glad I'm not a sinner. Adulters, and even as this stinking tax collector, I'm so thankful.

He says, I fast twice a week. Sisters of Pharisee did. They fasted twice a week. But here's the thing. If you wanted to be as righteous as them, you fasted when they fasted. That was on a Monday and a Thursday. If you fasted on a Wednesday, you weren't quite as righteous as they were. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. In case you didn't know, I'm righteous because I have a lot. That's what he was saying. And I have a lot because I'm righteous. That's kind of the attitude there. But then we see the other side of the story. Verse 13, the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast. saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. What's interesting in the original Greek, it actually says, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Definite article, the. He wasn't thinking of anyone else, just me. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner here, where the other guy was saying, what? There's a sinner. And there's a bunch of them out here, just not here.

And Christ said, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, or rather forgiven, rather than the other. Everyone who exalts himself will be a base, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. You can either go down here, and he will lift you up, or if you want to go up there, he'll bring you back down. It's your choice. That's what the Scripture says.

And if I had a show of hands, I'd say everybody in this room can probably attest to that fact one time in their life. I can attest to it many times. Many times I thought I was right up here.

I had to be brought down. Humility. Humility.

It's interesting when you see all the stories that Jesus Christ told, all the parables. And as I've said before, I kind of wonder because we know that Jesus Christ is God, and God lived 4,000 years watching every human that ever lived. So I don't really know that anything was a story or anything was a parable that didn't have some bit of truth to it or some people involved. But he tells a story, actually in Luke 7. He was invited to this house of this Pharisee who brought him in, and he didn't really welcome him in. He wasn't this really honored guest. He was just invited in to have something to eat. And when he came in, they were there, and this woman came in, who as a Pharisee looked across the room and saw her, and she was weeping and crying. And she came to Christ, and she started washing his feet with the tears that were just streaming. It wasn't just this little cry, it was a boo. It was like tears rolling down. Then she took her hair, which would have been at the time, not many women wore their hair down because if you did, you were another kind of woman. But here, she obviously let her hair down in front of this man, and she was touching his feet and washing them, and washing with her hair, his feet drying them. And then she opened this perfume and was perfuming his feet. And this Simon was his name, Simon was the Pharisee. He said, whoa! He thought to himself, well, this is not who he professes to be. Otherwise, he'd know what kind of woman that was. He'd know.

He would not have a woman like that touching him. Jesus Christ read his mind. He said, hey, Simon, tell me. There's two men that owe this master money. One owes him fifty pieces. Silver in the other owes him five hundred pieces of silver. What do you think? Who do you think when the master forgives him, both of them, who do you think he thinks of him more, thinks of him as blessed or honored more? And he said, well, that's easy. One who he forgave more. And then Jesus Christ gave the example of this woman who's obviously a sinner. That not only Jesus Christ knew about it, but so did the Pharisee. And he told the story. He said, you know, I came to your house. Here you are rich. Everything. And you didn't even. You had no water for me to wash my feet. You didn't treat me as anything special. And over there, when you invited someone as a guest, they still are in the Middle East, anywhere that way. The guest is an honored guest, and you're to treat them with the utmost of respect. And you show all this stuff. He didn't show any of that to Christ. And yet that woman came and she showed because of her heart.

Christ gave that as an example of those who are forgiven. And yet, I think in Romans 5 and verse 8 sums it up well, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Are we willing to not physically die, but forgive someone who does a little something to us?

When we really, truly forgive a person, we set two prisoners free. The one who wronged us and ourselves. Because as long as we hold that and do not forgive someone of even the smallest of things, we're held prisoner by that offense as much as they are. Because it's in our minds. It's in our hearts and we can't get it out. And you fill your heart with bad stuff, you can't fill it with what? The good stuff.

I'll read Daniel 9 from a New Living Translation. Daniel 9 and verse 9. Just as a reminder, it's just one verse, but it reminds us how many times God puts it in the Bible for us to remember that He forgives us. He wants it to be a constant reminder. So that even if someone picks up a Bible, not very often, chances are they're going to find it in there. And in chapter 9, verse 9, He says, But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him. Even though we have rebelled against Him. Then Christ tells another story. It's in Luke 23. And it's the story of the unforgiving steward. And so Christ tells this story again to His followers and to us 1900 and something years later. Of the king who had these men working for him, and one of them that he had working for him, was not a very good steward. And so you can actually find in one translation, it actually says that this, the king calls him and says, We need to clear up some business. And he calls him in and he says, you know what? Looking at everything? You are a lousy businessman. You are a lousy steward. You know how much you owe me? One million dollars. And he said, pay up. And he says, I don't have that money. He says, pay up. He says, I don't have it. And he said, guards take him and his family and everything he has and we'll sell them and put him in prison. And the man falls down on his knees. Please, please forgive me. Please. And he does it with such a sales pitch that it's believed by the king. And the king says, okay, I forgive you. Your one million dollars is forgiven, written off. Oh, thank you, king. Thank you. And then he runs home. And he, but on his way home, he stops by this business person he had dealt with who owed him a thousand dollars. And he says, I need that thousand dollars. He said, I don't have it. Well, give it to me. He says, he actually grabs him by the neck and says, I want that money. And he says, I don't have it. Forgive me. I'm going to forgive you. Take his family and throw him in prison. And they do. But then the king finds out and says, how dare you? How dare you? Do that. I forgave you a million and you wouldn't even forgive this guy a thousand dollars. Read that story and read how it ends. Because the king, who is pictured by a guy, says, round him up and put him in prison. And he was going to stay there until every penny is paid.

A good lesson for us on someone who may have offended us. If we don't forgive and we just want justice, just like this man wanted justice for the thousand dollar guy, we're in trouble because we will get justice. Because when it comes to God, he will grant you mercy or justice. And so many people in their own lives, they want justice. Every time I want justice, I want them to get what they deserve. Because you see, mercy is getting what you don't deserve. And God is trying to teach us that we need to be forgiving like him. You see, a forgiving God is what God is. How about us? Are we that forgiving? Are we becoming more like God every day? That's the goal, right? Become more righteous. And you may say, but you know, I struggle with that. I struggle with some people forgiving them and forgetting it totally. I really have a problem because you don't understand what that person did to me. How devastating it was to our family. Yes, I do because we all do. We all struggle with making sure that we have forgiveness in our hearts and not just in our head. We all struggle, but God doesn't. God doesn't struggle at all with it because he's righteous and he's wanting us to be righteous. That's why he tells us we need to pray and ask for his Spirit. And we go to Revelation 5, 22, the fruits of the Spirit. Love. It's hard not to forgive someone when you really, truly love them, right? Joy. Someone that's not very forgiving doesn't have a whole lot of joy. Peace. Oh, man! Is it ever a peace? You remember perhaps you've done this as most of us have gone to someone and after a while you go, I really said that and I did not mean that or I did that. And they say, it's okay. It's okay. I forgive you. Remember how that felt? Yeah, you were released of the burden of that. God wants us to have that in our lives. I guess that's why Christ said on the Sermon on the Mount, Become you perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. That's our goal. But as I wrap this up today, you may tell me the question. I asked me the question as a friend in Hawaii would always say, Don't tell me to be forgiving. Tell me how to be forgiving. How to be forgiving? Well, I will because there's one set of Scripture tells us exactly how to be forgiving. How to be a forgiving person. And I'll turn there in the New King James. I'd like you to turn to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. Readers of the Scriptures can probably tell you. Know exactly where I'm going because it is such a powerful set of Scriptures. Philippians 2 and verse 1 and New King James. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection of mercy, fulfill my joy, Paul is telling them, be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord in one mind. And then he says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than ourselves. Boy, does that ever tell us. In lowliness of mind, it's actually, lowliness of mind is a different Greek word than humble. It actually means the whole mental, your whole mind, everything about you is down here. See, if you are way down here and you don't think of yourself, you esteem others better than yourself, isn't it going to be very hard to not forgive someone? Extremely. Is that the reason why Jesus Christ, hanging on that piece of wood, dripping with blood, dying, naked, being spit upon, everything, forgive them for it? They don't know what they are doing.

He says, let each of you, verse 4, let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. When you think about others, well, wait a minute. Did they just do something to me? And I kind of just gave them a cold shoulder? They knew they said and offended and did something. And I just kind of like, how did they go home? What did you leave in their heart?

Looking, let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We need to have that mind. It's what he wants us to do. He wants us to have that mind. Do we want to? With everyone. I'll read from the New Living Translation as I close here. He said, is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from His love? Any fellowship together or spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another and working together with one mind and purpose. Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble. Thinking of others is better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others too. You must have the same attitude of Christ Jesus. As Paul said before, it's bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ from first Corinthians. It is God's will for us to forgive. It may not be ours. Just remember what Christ said again, not my will, but your will be done. It reminds me of the old Forrest Gump movie. Everybody here sees Forrest Gump over the years. He had this little girl that he was riding on the school bus with. And he says, me and Jenny, we go together like peas and carrots. You know, the Passover and forgiveness, they go together. They're synonymous, like peas and carrots in the movie. It gives us a chance this year, before Passover and that Passover, to have a forgiving nature. See, forgiveness is what we do, but is it what we are? Is it just a part of us? We serve at forgiving God. Let that mind be in you.