God's Mercy

Passover is about a month away, and it will soon be here, and so we need to be continuing to prepare for the Passover, thinking about the Passover. And today's topic is going to be on God's mercy and God's forgiveness. God's mercy and God's forgiveness. Let's turn to Colossians chapter 1, and verse 11. Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power for all patience and long suffering, with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Now, let's think about this for a moment, because it says that God, the Father, is the one who is qualifying us, or who has qualified us. Now, in the King James, it's a little bit obscure. I think we sort of cut our teeth on the King James, because King James, if you have it, says something like, The Father who has made us meet, or M-E-E-T, to be partakers, and so on. And I think maybe because of that, we've just missed the point, perhaps, that it is God who qualifies us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. We cannot qualify for the Kingdom. That is God's business. We repent, which is a gift of God. We have faith, that's another gift of God. We choose to obey, and that's what we have to be. We make the choices. We can make a good choice to follow God, or we can make the bad choice to not follow God. So we make the choices. But I think it's good to understand that as the Father who qualifies us, we are saved by grace through faith, not by our works. Ephesians 2 verses 8, 9, and 10. And then, of course, in Ephesians 2, 10, that particular verse says that we are to walk in good works. So we are to live a life of obedience. But we don't earn our own salvation. I think that's very, very important that we understand it. And that's again simply what the Scripture says. I'm not making it up. The Father has qualified us to be partakers of inheritance of the saints and the light. He has delivered us, verse 13, from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. I want to read from another BT Daily. This is from Steve Myers. And, you know, I will say that God has blessed us, rather, with just a tremendous amount of research. We have a comment, practically, on I can't say every verse in the Bible, but I think it's getting there. If you ever want to say, well, this is a Scripture that I don't quite understand, so what would the church say about it? Well, just go to the U.C.G. website, and then up there, that little search box, that little white rectangular search box, just type in. In this case, just type in, Father has qualified us. Just type that in. And then you'll call up how we explain Colossians 1 and verse 12. And one of the first pop-ups, as you'll see, will be from Steve Myers on a BT Daily. So, he's talking about thankfulness. Colossians 1-2, it gives us a reason to thank God. It says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and the light. Sometimes when you feel that you just can't do anything to measure up, we have to step back and realize that God qualifies us. God qualifies us. He is the one who has called us. He is the one that wants us in the family. So, you know, and again, I want to end up, we have to make the choice. Which way are we going to go? We have to make that choice. But it is God that does qualify us, and we need to understand that.

Now, looking again at this, now let's look again at verse 13. I read it already. I'll read it again. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now, and also going back to verse 13, I want to emphasize that too here. He has delivered us from the power of darkness.

Now, the power of darkness, the kingdom of the devil, and translated us, or carried us across, or transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

So you have on one side that now God the Father, and he is so righteous, he is so holy, I mean, he is so pure. I mean, we understand his mercy, but we don't understand the depths of his mercy.

I mean, we understand it sufficiently to understand his plan of salvation, but there is no searching, Isaiah says, of his mind. And there's no complete understanding of the power of the great God. And they're finding that, and go figure this one out, that the universe is expanding. How's that happening? The great God is causing that to happen. But the universe is getting bigger, and it's already big enough, but it's getting big, well, it's not big enough, because it's getting bigger and bigger. It's expanding.

So anyway, we see God, his righteousness, his holiness, his goodness, his perfection. Meanwhile, we find ourselves in the kingdom of the devil. You know, the kingdom of the devil, in the power of darkness. And we find ourselves in this present evil world. That's where we find ourselves. And we look across from the power of darkness over to God's side, and we say, I want to go there. I want to be a part of God, and God's family, the divine child of God. Well, how do I get there? Well, through the blood of Jesus Christ, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through his blood. Verse 14. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. So it's all a process that we have exited, and are exiting, and are leaving, and have left the power of darkness, and have been translated or transferred into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

And this particular beautiful verse hits real home at this particular time, the time of Passover. Revelation 13 and verse 8 really shows the major theme of the Bible.

You know, the major theme of the Bible. Now, let's just put it this way. Supposing you were thrown into a midst of atheists. Maybe they were leaders, politicians, whatever. So you're thrown into a midst of atheists, and they say, all right, I'll tell you what I'll do.

I don't know anything about the Bible. I don't know anything about God. So I'm going to give you 10 minutes, and only 10, to explain the truth. I'll give you 10 minutes to explain the truth. What would you teach? What would you tell them? They don't know anything. Well, the main theme of the Bible is right here. And it's the last half of verse 8, the first part of verse 8 leads up to it.

Rather than purifying yourself in a group of atheists, who knows, before it's all over, you may very well be there. You got 10 minutes to explain the truth. What are you going to tell them? You just got 10 minutes.

You better bring out the main theme of the Bible, is that the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, was slain from the foundation of the world. Maybe a good scripture to turn to was found back here in Genesis 3, because this is actually, it was even before the foundation, God had the plan. But when Adam and Eve, here it is, you know, humanity is being formed, humanity is coming into existence, humanity has fallen.

And so the Lord God is speaking to the serpent. And he says in verse 15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between you, the devil, and the woman, Eve. Between your seed, the devil's offspring, and quite frankly, by the time of preaching of the Gospels, the offspring of Satan, the Pharisees, the sanctuaries, the lawyers, who want to put Christ to death. Between your seed and her seed, if you have a new King James, the word seed is capitalized, because Eve was going to give birth, or be the descendant of Jesus Christ.

He shall bruise your head. Christ eventually will strike that fatal blow, you know, Satan goes off into the outer space, wandering star forever and ever. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And, you know, and that is a clear reference to the nails that were driven into the feet of Jesus Christ. We know that his hands were pierced with nails, but his feet were pierced as well. And they have amazingly found archaeological evidence of what a crucifixion was like, because they found in an ossuary, they found in a place where they put human bones, the ankle bones of a poor man who was crucified. And they see coming through the side of his ankle a nail.

And the nail hitting not in the wood it bent it. And had the nail not been bent, the Romans would have probably pulled that nail out after he died and reused it. But they didn't reuse it because it was bent. So now we have, and they studied this, and they looked at it, I think part of the wood stock, well obviously part of the wood stock was there.

And so they realized after studying it that they didn't crucify people by putting their feet together like this. They hung their legs on the side of this stake or whatever it was being, and they nailed it in from the side. And you shall bruise his heel. In Christ's time, of course, maybe usually it happened like this, but it missed all the bones. It did not break any bones, but came through the little tissues and ligaments, tendons, and that way it did not break anything, it did not break any of the healed bones of Jesus Christ, but they certainly were severely bruised.

Brother, this is the main theme of the Bible. And all about the Sabbath, the Holy Days, kingdom of God, salvation, it all starts, and this is it. This is the main theme. So if you're ever going to have a dinner and you just want to speak to a bunch of atheists, tell them the truth. Tell them what's the major theme of the Bible. And so from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13, 8, just goes back to Genesis 3 and verse 15. Now, since this is a sermon on forgiveness and mercy, let's turn to Matthew 27.

I know I spoke on this last year, preparation for Passover. But I want to review what it is. Such a moving example. There were so many things happening at the trial of Jesus Christ. And here we see in Matthew 27, 13, that Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? And he answered him not a word. And so the governor marveled greatly.

This is Matthew 27, 14. The governor marveled greatly. And the governor thought, Well, here, every time they bring in a criminal, he grumbles in front of my feet, he cowers before me, he's all scared and nervous and all of a sudden, don't kill me. And that kind of a thing. And here Christ is calmly staying there and not answering a word.

Now, at the feast, the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. Now, the Jews had a very, very deep history of the Passover going way back to the time that there were slaves in Egypt. And to them, Passover pictured freedom. And by the way, I do old Passover pictures, freedom for all of us, too. We still remember that we have been freed from our sins. I hope we still have that because that is truth that we picture, Passover to us pictures freedom, too.

And so somehow they got with the governor said, Look, for us, we're still a captive nation. We're still ruled by the Romans. We hate it. We don't like it. We can't stand it. But there's some things we're going to demand of you. One thing is to release a prisoner from jail that is sentenced to death, and that will help us to picture, you know, freedom. And so they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas, and he would be the likely candidate for crucifixion because Luke says he was a murderer and a leader of rebellion.

He would have been a likely candidate for crucifixion. And as I said last week, year, and I want to I want to repeat it here, Barabbas, we look at that carefully. Bar in Aramaic means son. Like, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon son of Jonah. So Bar means son. Avas or Ava means, well, it's Aramaic, forefather. Only it's been a difficult word to translate, but I think the new international version does a real good job because whenever you see the word Ava-father in the New Testament in the NIV, they translate it as Dear Father. Dear Father God. That's what Ava really means in Aramaic.

Dear Father God, not just our Father, not just our Heavenly Father, but Dear Father God. Of all the names for this crook to have, son of Dear Father is a murderer, and he's running around his glorious, fantastic name. And so therefore when they gathered again, the Pilate said that, in whom do you want me to release you? Barabbas, you know. Here he is. Here's Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Christ. Surely he thought that he wanted me to release Jesus, and this whole thing will be over with. We don't know much about Barabbas, but when you read anything about him in the Bible, he just must have been just an obnoxious person, just an unnot-a-very-likable person.

Now he did reach to lead some kind of rebellion, so he must have had some charisma with him. But so he thought, well, they'll release Christ and Barabbas, who is to be crucified. Now when he was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent him a note, saying, have nothing to do with that just man. For I have suffered many things today in the dream because of him.

So this was still relatively early in the morning. Christ was on the cross, the stake, the beam, by 9 a.m. So this was still pretty early in the morning, and I don't know how many hours the proceedings took place. But his wife was kind of up all night with dreams. A dream! So he's just. Let him go. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. And the governor answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you?

They said, Barabbas. And Pilate said to them, what should I do with Jesus, who's called the Christ? And they all said to him, let him be crucified. These demonic people, the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief elders, the priests, they're religious! I mean, these were religious people who were coaching the Romans as to what to do, and demanding what they should be doing to our Lord and our Savior.

They said, let him be crucified. So these demon-possessed men just, in other words, infected the whole crowd. The governor said, why? What evil has he done? Verse 23. But they cried out all the more, let him be crucified. And Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but that rather a tumult was rising. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it.

The people answered and said, his blood be upon us and upon our children. And then he released Barabbas. And even that, if you take a look at it, they were saying one thing, verse 25, his blood be on us and our children. They were saying one thing, but spiritually the opposite was true. Because Christ's blood is on us all to save us.

Whether we're descendants of the Jews, they're making a difference. Christ's blood is on us all in that sense. We've all been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. So they meant it one way, but really it means something else. So then he released Barabbas to them, and then when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Now, as I mentioned before, son of the dear father, that's what Barabbas is. And Barabbas is us, and we are Barabbas. You know, if you're going to be fair, Barabbas should have been killed, and Jesus should have been released. Likewise, we should be killed for our sins, and Jesus not killed. But that's not God's plan. That's not God's plan. Romans 6, 23 tells us, Literally, I should say, you know, virtually anyway, in actuality, Barabbas is heading for crucifixion. Jesus Christ steps in front. He steps in front. He says, I'll die for Barabbas. I'll die for Barabbas. Now, I wondered, whatever happened to Barabbas after this, he must have been the happiest guy in the world. I mean, he knew that he was traded. He was traded, and his life was spared. Did he become a disciple, or did he live his own crazy way and get himself in trouble all over again? We don't know. He'd certainly like to hope that he learned something, and maybe he became a disciple of Christ, but we don't know. He disappears from history, only to be found in us. Because we are, you get it, we are the sons and the daughters of the dear father. We are the children of God. 2 Corinthians 6, I believe it is, verse 18, says, you know, depart from the evil way. Don't even do the evil way. You shall become my sons and daughters. So, Barabbas represents us. He's us. We're him. Christ says, I'll step in front. I'll step in front, and I'll die in place of you and me.

1 Peter 3 and verse 18, we see this here. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust. Now, humanly speaking, that's not fair, but that's fair. It's God's plan, because he wants to bring us into the kingdom. He wants to bring us to salvation. So he allowed the just, Jesus Christ, to die for the unjust. That he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3 and verse 18. So, whatever Christ went through, he went through with his goal to bring our cleansed beings to God the Father, to bring us to God so we can truly become the sons and the daughters of the dear Father.

And this is possible only through the shed blood of Christ. So, this is just, the story of Barabbas by itself is just a glimpse of God's mercy. Just a glimpse of God's mercy and his forgiveness. Beyond human comprehension.

Let's turn to Luke 15 and look at three parables. Luke 15 and three parables of God's mercy. This is a sermon on mercy. This is a sermon on forgiveness. Luke 15 verse 1. Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near him to hear him. How about that? So you got these tax collectors and these sinners, and they're in the kingdom of darkness.

They're in the devil's world. They're in Satan's kingdom. And they see over here this wonderful son of God. They say, I want to come over there. I want to be with the son of God. And so they drew near him to hear him. Right? To hear him. They listened. They learned. Many of them, I'm sure, became his disciples. Well, the Pharisees and scribes murmured why this man, he receives sinners and he eats with them.

And the answer, yes he does. Yes he does. Christ came to save sinners. And this point here is these three parables. Talk about the name of God and Christ coming to save the lost. What man of you, this is the parable, verse 4, having a hundred sheep.

If he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it. Now, the parable is these three parables all go together. And it's interesting how they're put together. Because first of all, you have, you know, ninety-nine to one. Then the second parable is nine coins versus a lost coin. And the third parable, it's the lost son versus the...well, let's think about it. Maybe there were two lost sons. Maybe there were two lost sons. We'll get to that.

So he loses them, so he loses this little sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and goes after the one which is lost until he finds it. Now he's reading in a commentary. And the commentary says that sheep, if they are lost, if they get lost, they can't find the way... They don't have to go back home. They're lost. They can't find their way back to the fold.

They get confused, turned around, and lost. And, you know, the sheep are...well, Mr. Giddens is our expert on sheep, so I'm going to read. So, you know, they're very helpless animals. They're domesticated sheep. And not so with goats. We had a little family project some years way back when we lived in the Ozarks. And a little of our family project was goats.

And we had a mama goat, toggenberg, and two little baby goats, toggenbergs. And somehow they got out, or whatever happened. They took off. Boy, they loved them. The Ozarks, the money, the hills, the acorns. They took off. We were looking for them. Our dog, we were looking for them. We couldn't find them. Right around sundown, all three of them come back. They know how to make themselves scarce, and they know how to come back.

Apparently, you don't want to try that with sheep. So he goes out, and he finds this lost sheep. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. This is a picture of God. This is a picture of God. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, and saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, which was lost. He takes it very in a possessive case, mine. And that's how God and how Christ feels about you.

You are his sheep. You are the sheep of his pasture. I have found my sheep, which was lost. I won't turn to John 10, verse 16. But John 10, 16 is the verse that says that Christ said, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. And then together they will all be of one flock, and they will be of one fold. I must bring them. So God goes out, Jesus Christ goes out and finds the lost and brings them back. That's the...you know, he said, This is my sheep. You know, he's pleased with his sheep. Pleased with his sheep. Now what woman having ten silver coins?

And these were apparently drachmas, and they were valuable coins. But she only had ten of them, so we couldn't quite call her a wealthy woman. And again, the commentators say... the Common White Cliff Bible Commentary says that she... This was probably...might have been another commentary. I've read a couple, so I can't recall for sure. But anyway, this was probably her dowry money that was given to hers as hers. And in that society, it was the only money she had. She couldn't claim her husband's money.

But she could hang on to her dowry. That was her money. And she loses ten percent of it. Which is a lot of money, if you don't have much to begin with. And so she lights a lamp, because possibly the windows...maybe they didn't have any windows in that particular...in her house. There are many homes today that are built out of tin and corrugated steel and panels. And they don't have windows even to this day in poor countries. So she lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and tries to find it. And she finds it.

Maybe it fell between the cracks and the rocks or the stones that were her floor. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I lost. And whether it be of sentimental value or financial value, whatever we lose, just something...

I hate to lose being a little gift to my kids to give me. If I lose it, I get all upset and hopefully I find it later, then I feel a whole lot better. I count my wife, oh, I found it. You know, because it's a treasure. It's really a treasure. And so, rejoice with me, for I found the peace which I lost. And so she says in verse 10 the same thing which the shepherd had, which Jesus said in verse 7, Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

God really has joy when somebody repents. And he said the same thing in verse basically a little bit longer, but in verse 7 the same thought. Then he said a certain man had two sons, and the younger was a rat. Let's just call it what it was. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. And so he the father, divided to them his livelihood.

Now, okay, so he has two sons, and according to the Bible, what does the elder son get? The whole portion, right? So let's suppose this man has $300,000. Okay. So what's the portion going to be?

$100,000. $100,000. Okay, well, the younger son gets $100,000. What does the older son get? $200,000. Looking at two different ways, he gets twice as much, or he gets two-thirds of the pile. $200,000 versus $100,000, that's two-thirds of the pile. So he's not hurting, right? I mean, the older son is not really hurting. He gets double what the younger son gets. So not many days after, kind of like my dad used to say, money was burning a hole in his pocket, and so he gathers all together, journey to a fire country, wastes his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he spent all that he had, I spent everything there, rolls of severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want, all his good buddies take off because he's broke. Then he went and joined himself to the citizen of that country and sent him out into the fields to feed on clean pigs, swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. A very humbling and humiliating experience. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's higher servants have bread enough and despair? And I perished with hunger.

I will rise, I will go to my father, and then he had in his mind what he was going to tell his father. He had sinned against heaven, and then he had sinned against his father. But he rose, and he rose, verse 20, came to his father, but he was still a great way off. His father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, the forgiving father, the father of mercy. And the son began to say, father, you know, I've sinned against heaven, and the father interrupted him. And the father said to him, bring out the best robe and put it on him, put a ring on his hand, symbolic of being welcomed back into the family, sandals on his feet, bring the fatted calf here and kill it.

Let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again, and was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. Let's throw a party. Let's have a good time. Those who are lost are found, and let's really celebrate. So the one lost son, but wait a minute, where's the other son in all this? Now, his older son was in the field plowing and working hard in his father's field, which would someday be his own field.

So, again, no major issue there. And he came there, and he heard music, dancing. What's going on? Well, your brother is come, verse 27. And because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. Now, this boy, I submit to you, had a problem. One was certainly outwardly rebellious. The other son was inwardly...what do you want to say? Angry? And then it just popped? Certainly ungrateful and inwardly angry, and then all of a sudden, you know, if a person holds anger, it's going to come out sooner or later.

It's going to blow. It's going to go. And for no good reason. Therefore, his father came out and pleaded with him. His father, which was a type of God, the father, comes out and pleads with him. And he answered and said, well, these many years, you know, I've been serving you. Well, I never transmester your commandment at any time.

And yet, you never gave me even a little bit of young goat. Now, brother, I just really doubt his story. He had just been given twice what the younger son had been given. And surely in that pile of money, and it goes there, it must have been a couple of little, maybe a whole flock of young goats, but selective memory.

You know, when you're angry and upset, you kind of have selective memory. But as soon as his son of yours, he could have said, well, as soon as his brother of mine, he was disowning his brother. This son of yours, who has done this and done that, you're killing the satted calf for him. He said, son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should be merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is found alive again, and was lost and is found.

And God is just trying to tell us, God is telling us through this parable, through Jesus Christ, that God will reach out for the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, and he will go outside and lovingly counsel with the older son, too. And lovingly work with the older son, too. Because God is a God of mercy.

God is a God of forgiveness and compassion. God is on a rescue mission to rescue us from the kingdom of the devil. What God has is so fundamental to his own nature. It is just so fundamental to him, his mercy, and the spirit of forgiveness. Big enough to fill the needs of, well, ultimately billions of people that are all going to, sooner or later, we're all going to come to the same point.

We need God's forgiveness. We need God's mercy. We need God to blot out our sins. The billions of people, and God is big enough for that. His own nature, what is fundamental in that nature, is his spirit of forgiveness, spirit of mercy.

Now, let me ask you a question here. Is forgiveness just God's doing? Okay, well it is, of course. It is just a one-passenger car. And they do make one-passenger cars. They do. That looks a little funny, at least to me. But Volkswagen has come out with one. Now, they claim it's a $600 car, and I don't believe that. It's got to be typos. It's got to be, you know, $6,000 or something like that, or whatever.

But this is no toy. 258 miles to the gallon. It's going to be released in China next year, built in Germany, designed in Germany, by Volkswagen. Okay? And they did a lot of highly protected testing in Germany, but only now did they spring it on that it was going to be made or driven or sold in China. And it is a one liter of fuel that can deliver 100 kilos of travel. So what would that be? Kilos? 50-something miles, I think. Would that be like 50? Am I right on that or wrong? Okay, well, anyway, let me go a little bit and try a little differently here. It's 258 miles per gallon.

Okay, by a liter of fuel, that's like a quart, you know. And the body is 3.47 meters long and 1.25 meters wide and a little over a meter high. And it is like an empty count. And it is made completely of carbon fiber and not painted to say, wait. So the power plant is a one-cylinder diesel position that had a rear axle and combined with an automatic shift controlled by a knob on the interior.

And they claim its rollover protection and impact protection is comparable to GT racing cars. And that must be true because I read it on the Internet. But it's a one-passenger car. And so the analogy that I'm trying to ask you is forgiveness only a one-passenger car? Is there only a rule for God in the driver's seat of the car of forgiveness and God drives around in his car of forgiveness and nobody else needs to forgive anything?

No. We know better than that. God also expects us to get in the driver's seat and practice the spirit of forgiveness as well. Practice the spirit of forgiveness as well. He wants us to be like him. He wants us to reflect his character. And deep down inside, he is looking at these examples here, the character of God, the character of Jesus Christ.

And when we're this way, we show or we reflect the inner character, the heartfelt character of God and of Jesus Christ. In Acts 7, and we'll start in verse, this was from Stephen the Deacon.

Stephen was put on the sermonette list and lasted one.

Well, what I mean by that is this is the only recorded sermon we have of Stephen. He got one shot, that was it.

So just read his sermon. Acts 7, which of the prophets, verse 52, did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed the one who foretold the coming of the just one. Both Pilate and Mrs. Pilate said he's a just man.

You need to foretold the coming of the just one of whom you have become the betrayers and murderers.

You have received the law by the direction of any who really don't even keep it.

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, not cut to the heart in repentance, but cut to the heart in fury, the opposite of repentance.

And they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Spirit, I've been thinking of that phrase, you know, be filled with the Spirit, be full of...

You know, why settle for halfway? Why settle for just a double portion? Why not ask God just to fill us with the Holy Spirit?

Fill us with the Holy Spirit.

He gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

And this is the only place here and in the next verse that I have found in the Bible where it says Jesus is standing at the right hand of God. He's usually pictured as seated at the right hand of the Father or seated in his Father's throne.

But here he is standing. He is involved with Stephen.

And Stephen said, look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

And then they cried out with a loud voice and they stopped their ears and they ran at him with one accord. They were united in hate.

And they cast them out of the city. In other words, they dragged him and they kicked him and they punched him and they hurt him.

And they cast them out of the city and then they stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And then he prays, just as he's going unconscious for the last time.

And what is his prayer? What prayer is recorded here?

Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

He was praying for God's mercy to be put upon them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He died.

Now wouldn't that be a tribute to any Christian that last words out of your mouth are Lord? Do not charge them with this sin.

In other words, Lord, don't give these people what they deserve. Don't give them what they deserve. Don't lay this sin to their charge.

Again, brethren, when we are merciful, we are showing reflections of the very character of God, the very character of Jesus Christ.

I have three barriers here listed, barriers to forgiveness, because we want to be like our Father. We want to be a forgiving group of people.

And certainly before Passover, maybe we have something to tidy up with somebody.

But the first barrier to forgiveness is self-righteousness. Somebody may have a serious problem. We don't have the same problem.

Maybe we overcame it a long time ago. So we have disgust and disdain for somebody who really has a problem.

In Galatians 6 and verse 1, if any man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such one in the spirit of gentleness, or the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

We must be merciful. Lest we be placed in the same temptation, the same trial and temptation that that person is going through.

So sometimes it's our own self-righteousness that prevents us from being forgiving.

A second barrier to forgiveness is the carnal joy we can have in holding a grudge.

You know, we just have someone's wronged us, someone's offended us, we hold a grudge against that person, we have a joy holding a grudge against that person.

Or maybe I should say, well I can't say present company excluded because maybe a lot of us have, including myself, have fallen victim to that particular sin, the carnal joy of holding a grudge. Matthew 5, verse 21. Matthew 5, verse 21.

I'll be in danger of hellfire. I try not to call anybody fools. I really work on that. You know, because I don't call anybody a fool.

If God wants to call somebody a fool, that's up to God. But not me. He said, they won't call people fools.

You can say, well, this person may have done foolishly, but we shouldn't call people fools.

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and remember that your brother has something against you, or if you're heading for the Passover, you've got a grudge against somebody.

Leave your gift there before the altar. Go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

So, if there's something we can patch up, and maybe we can't patch it up, or we can try to, but it certainly is a good time now to be praying about it.

Praying about it.

Christ tells us here in Matthew, in other words, Matthew 18, as to how deep should our forgiveness go.

And I want to give this parable, actually my plan is to put this parable in that sermon I gave just before the Passover, so I don't want to steal my thunder right now.

But I do want to read verse 35 of Matthew 18.

So, my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from His heart does not forgive His brother or His trespass.

From His heart. How deep does our forgiveness go? We forgive from our hearts.

That's how deep it goes. Not just lip service, but we forgive from our hearts.

Now, a third reason or barrier to forgiveness is your personal wounds.

You know, your personal hurts. Sometimes people hurt us, they hurt our feelings. Maybe they called us names.

You know, I've been wounded by names before. Boy, that hurts. It's tough to let that go.

And yet, when you do let it go, it's a great release. A great release. A great relief.

A lot of pent-up emotion and anger leaves us at that time.

But it's, while we're fighting it, it's our personal wounds and hurts that can keep us from really forgiving.

But we must forgive and tell God that we forgive.

Job 42. There's actually two stories here. I really need to focus on both of them.

One story is about Job, and the other story is about Job's prayer for his three friends.

Friends? Well, we'll see.

Job answered the Lord and said, Job 42 in verse 1, and now verse 2, I know God is talking to God that you can do everything, that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you.

And you asked, Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak.

He said, I will question you, and you shall answer me.

Well, what he's really saying here is a lot of people find themselves, and they utter what they don't understand. They blather about God, they blather, blather, blather, and they don't know what they're talking about.

And maybe they're religious giants who should know better.

But the utter thing was they do not understand, because they don't either have the Bible, or if they have the Bible, they don't read it.

So, so he said, I'm, wow, I'm, I'm, I'm, something's waking up in me.

I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. Verse 5, I've heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. This is a real repentance.

We hear about God, we go to church all the time, etc., etc.

But now my eye sees this great God of great mercy, and I find myself over here in the devil's world, and I abhor myself.

And I repent in dust and in ashes. This is his conversion.

He went from self-righteousness to a broken man, and then from a broken man to a repentant man.

That was his step. That was what happened to him.

A man of great power on his own, to a man of great nothing on his own, and finally to repentance.

And in effect, God is saying, now that he has repented, now that I have repented, you have repented, okay? No guy can hear our prayers.

No guy can hear our prayers. And so it was after the Lord had spoken these things to Job that the Lord said to Eliaphas the team tonight, God says, my wrath is against you, and wrath against you, and you're two friends. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Now, I want to just read in Job 15 just one of the slams that they gave to Job. They were talking to Job.

And this is Eliaphas the team tonight. And he says to Job in verse 20, The wicked man writhes in pain all his days. Now, Job, you're writhing in pain all your days, and he was writhing in pain, but it makes it very clear.

So, Job, you're wicked. That's why you're writhing in pain. Dreadful sounds are in his ears. The inprosperity, the destroyer, comes upon him.

Verse 24, Trouble in anguish, make him afraid. He stretches out his hand against God. Verse 25, and he acts defiantly against the Almighty.

And so he went on and just gave him a broadside. I mean, but this was like pages and chapters, long chapters.

And so Job answers and says, chapter 16, verse 1, I've heard many such things. I get it already. He says, Miserable comforters are you all.

They came to comfort Job. And this was the kind of comfort they comforted Job with. He says, you're miserable. And God says, okay. Now, Job, pray for it.

So these people back in chapter 42, verse 8, take for yourself seven bowls, seven rams, go to my servant Job, offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you.

And I will accept him lest I deal with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.

Now, it doesn't say it directly, but the Bible speaks the same thing all the way through. I'm quite sure Job had to pray about his attitude, first of all.

He had to get his mind right and not hold that grudge. Humanly speaking, he could have held a grudge, but he wasn't going to hold a grudge in front of the great God.

He was not going to hold a grudge in front of the great God.

And so, Eliaphas, the team and I built that in the shoe height, verse 9, so far that the namethite went and did as the Lord commanded them, for the Lord had accepted Job.

And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

I'm sure Job had to get his attitude right, and he had to get it straight, and then God, not only gave Job, of course, but gave his three friends as well.

Just one other scripture here, and I just comment on this, and we'll call it a day, but it goes back to Joseph here, and there's two passages. One is Genesis 45, and the other one is chapter 50. I think we just go through Genesis 45, verse 1. I think we will get the overall theme here.

Genesis 45, 1. Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him. Remember, he is like Pharaoh. He's like right next to Pharaoh, and his brothers had come in, and he had hid his identity from them, and then he wept aloud. He said, look, I can't contain myself anymore. I am Joseph, verse 3, because my father still lived, and his brothers were in shock. Because his brothers had sold him into slavery, threw him in a well, killed a goat, or land, dumped him all over the code of many colors, and brought him back to Jacob. See that? Jacob's a wild animal, ate your favorite son, and killed him and all that. And Joseph said, please come near to me, and they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourself, because you sold me here, because God sent me before you to preserve life. In other words, God was going to save Israel anyway, and God can use either the carnal mind or the converted mind to do God's will. It's better to have a converted mind, but if you don't have a converted mind, and God's going to do his will, he'll use the carnal mind.

And that's what this is about here. And so it was not you, verse 8, but God who sent you here. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, verse 8, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. And so he said, go back to Goshen, get your dad, get my dad, let's all resettle here in the land of Goshen.

And the same thing is basically repeated in chapters 50, verses 15 through 21. The only difference is Jacob died, and the brother said, oh, this forgiveness can't be real. I mean, you know, he's going to give us. Now that Jacob's dead, now that daddy's dead, boy, he can't be that forgiving. We are in big trouble.

And Joseph said, no, don't worry about it. It's forgiven. And in his case, it was not just forgiven, it was forgotten, really forgotten. Wonderful stories to read.

The Bible reading program, a good summary here. One can see a thematic parallel between the entire story of Joseph and the story of Jesus.

Joseph was sent in bonds to Egypt so that ultimately he would be exalted and his family enabled to survive the famine.

And like matter, Jesus was sent ahead to suffer for others. Jesus was sent ahead to suffer for others.

And he has been exalted to the highest office, and he will deliver all mankind from death as a result.

Joseph saw God's hand in everything that had happened from his first visionary dreams to his enslavement, imprisonment, exaltation, and reconciliation with his family.

In chapter 15 to 50, he tells his brothers, you men, he will against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many peoples alive.

And permeating Joseph's pronouncement of God's guidance of events was the expression of forgiveness.

Forgive him. The Bible says they hurt his hands. They put him in fettered. It's an old name for chains. They hurt his hands in Egypt.

And anyway, forgiveness for all they had done to him.

Similarly, the covenant that offers us eternal salvation through Jesus Christ is surrounded by forgiveness of all those who brought about the necessity of his death.

With this in mind, we shall all take special heed to Joseph's petitioning his brother to come down to me.

Do not tarry. Christ says the same thing. All who come to me, I will in no wise cast out.

Just as Joseph was being used by God to say, come on, let's all join the family here. Christ says the same thing. All who come to me, I will in no wise cast out.

Well, Christ concluded at least one of his parables by telling the listeners, go and do likewise.

We all need to find some way to express or at least to pray about, and at least in our prayers, tell God that we are willing to forgive anybody who has done this wrong.