The Record We Must Not Keep

As we know, human beings were created with an intellectual capacity. We are created with a capacity to know and to remember, and what a blessing memory can be. And sometimes so it seems like a curse. Throughout history, humanity has developed means other than minds only to retain memories of historical events, traditions, laws, contracts, and so on. So when writing came along, it was a good thing because memories could then be recorded on just about anything. Stone, wood, clay tablets, parchment, leather, paper, metal, and even now until this time, we are now stored electronically, digitally, in these electronic clouds.

I'm sure there's somebody in the room that can explain that to you in great detail. We should be grateful, however, despite all this ability to record just about everything, we should be grateful, however, that not every account, not every story, that not every word, excuse me, record needs to be known or remembered.

Some records, you see, don't need to be kept. In fact, Scripture tells us that there is a certain record that we must not keep. There's a certain record we must not keep. Now, what that record is and why that record must not be kept, that is the subject of this split sermon. I've entitled the message today, my message today, the record we must not keep.

The record we must not keep. As we address this subject, we're going to begin first with several vital truths we must remember, we must know, and don't ever forget. And these truths we're going to cover first, they all have to do with the love of God, something we can be so grateful about and so happy and have such great hope in. Some of the vital truths about God and His love. Number one, we must never forget that God is love. Now, that can sound like a commercial, you know, kind of a quip and people nod their head, yep, yep, okay, and move on.

But that's not how we should understand that. Of course, I could we could take many books and many, many, many sermons to define all that God is in love. Let's suffice it to say that God is love. Let's look at 1 John 4, verse 7 through 8. 1 John 4, verse 7 through 8. The Apostle John here clearly declares that truth about God. And he says, Be loved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God. Actually, it's the Greek word ganael and Young's little translation, American Standard Version translated as begotten, which is the more accurate translation.

Everyone who loves is begotten of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God. Why? For God is love. So all that God is, and this is hard to wrap our minds around sometimes, all that God is and all that God does, all that he will do is because he is love. Our finite minds cannot grasp the entirety of God, but through Scripture, bit by bit, as we grow, as we learn, as he opens our minds with the help of his word and Holy Spirit, we can begin to grasp more and more what that means in our lives.

And the point to know also as we go forward here, we're going to see this, God also wants us to be love like he is love. We often say we need to become like God. We need to become like Christ, and that is true.

But have you ever thought of it that way? I must, you must be love, as God is love. Number two. Number two. Never forget, and this is because God is love, never forget that God acts with love to an undeserving world, because he's out to save humanity from sin and death. As much doom and gloom as we hear, we never want to forget that God is out to save humanity from sin and death. He's out to save us all. John 3 16.

John 3 16. Familiar scripture, we might see it in fence posts and tree trunks around East Texas, but never forget the depth and powerful meaning of this verse. John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, should not perish but have everlasting life. Also Romans 5 through 8. Let's shorten that verse, let's shorten that reading just a bit. Romans 5 verse 8.

Romans 5 8. Again, statement about God's love to an undeserving world. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Very, very encouraging. Fact is, humanity, including us, we deserve only death due to our sin and our self-willed rebellion against God.

Against God, his law, the very way he is. Against his love. Imagine being rebellious against love. The more you learn about love, the more we begin to think it's incredulous that people would do that. But we don't know. Sometimes we do what we don't know. God has given us grace, undeserved favor, in that we might receive salvation through faith in Christ's sacrifice, the sacrifice he took. He was without sin, but he took our place for sin and died. Practicing sin earns us death, not salvation. Salvation is God's gift. That's Romans 6, 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 3. Another Truth About God and Love God's perfect love, that relationship, is revealed in the relationship between the Father and Jesus Christ and Son. That perfect love is revealed in how Christ and the Father love one another, and as we're going to see how they love us and how they want us to love them as well. In John 1726, let's turn there and read about that love relationship between the Father and the Son. John 1726, Jesus hears we're reading the words of Jesus in prayer, his prayer to the Father.

He made this truth known in his prayer. He said, And I have declared to them your name, Jesus says in prayer, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.

He's developing this idea of the love needs to be shared and is shared and will be shared in unity with God, the Father, and all humanity, all those who would accept it.

Jesus prayed that the love he shares would be within us and with us and towards them. And we have to believe that the Father did indeed send his Son to be the Savior of humanity. That's part of that faith, that trust in God we must have. Let's also read here in chapter 17, verses 20-23.

Jesus also said this. He said, Or who are those that believe in Christ through the disciples' word?

We're among that group, us, and those through centuries since then have heard this gospel message, these words. That those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. That they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me. That powerful, eternal love that God is. And so again, God in Christ went all humanity to have and shareth them in their relationship which is love. And that is so absolutely wonderful and amazing. How hard it may be to grasp that, but that is God's goal for us. It's what he wants for us, and he will make it happen. Number four. Another truth.

We must never forget that our response to God's grace should be to believe and willingly submit to God and his love. We must believe and willingly submit to God's love. And as we're going to see, part of that submitting to God's love is that we also love one another. God's commandments define his love and how we are to love God and how we are to love others. And Christ commands that we keep them and not simply by the letter of the law. That's not enough. Not by a simple letter of the law approach, but by practicing them according to their more full and complete spiritual intent and meaning, just as Christ himself magnified them in his instruction and as he lived them. A living example. In his example, we are to be following. We read about our need to keep the commandments. Matthew 19. Let's look there, please. Matthew 19, 17 through 19. Very important verses. To be worthy of receiving eternal life, salvation, we must be keeping God's 10 commandments. So we read here, verse 17. Matthew 19. Jesus is responding to a question. You can read the larger narrative later. Verse 17. So, he Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. The man who asked him the question, he said to him, Well, which ones? He's very meticulous. I don't want to make sure. Just the ones I need to keep. Well, Jesus said, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. And then he added, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. We understand he's quoting from the 10 commandments. Now, some will say, Well, wait a minute. He didn't list all of them, so we only need to keep these. No, don't do that. You're looking for a wiggle room.

Don't be so narrow-minded. He's talking about all 10 commandments.

Our love for the Father in Christ then is demonstrated through our willing. We have to be willing in our faithful obedience to keep his commandments. Let's also look at John 14-15. John 14-15 is very explicit in making the connection between loving God and keeping his commandments. It's beyond the doubt, anyone's doubt, if you're willing to believe and not argue and try to find a way out from what is being clearly stated. John 14-15, these are again my Bible, the red letters, red words. These are the words recorded as being of Christ. John 14 verse 15, Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. Pretty clear. Continuing in verse 21, Jesus also said, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. And then further down, verse 23, Jesus answered again and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's, the Father's who sent me. Here we should be careful to notice several things. Verse 23, Jesus again emphasizes that if we truly love him, we will be keeping his instructions, commandments. And of course, we understand that Scripture is God's breathe, and Christ was the Word, and the Logos, the Bible is his instruction. With God's guidance and wisdom, we know that we need to be abiding by its instruction. These are the words of life. In turn, Jesus said the Father will love us, will love him that obeys Christ, and the obedience that the words Christ taught, of course, we just saw, came from the Father.

And then Christ and the Father would dwell with him, that is, dwell with the one who loves and obeys. We understand that God accomplishes this through the gift of his Holy Spirit that dwells in us. That Spirit, that power and essence of God, life essence of God, in us is at begettle.

We need to remember and to know these things. But just knowing is never enough, isn't it? Just remembering these things is never enough. Just to know and remember is really useless unless we actually believe it. And believing is not good enough unless it's believing we put it into action. We live and actually do what God and Christ instruct us, not just nodding our heads in agreement.

Now the Holy Spirit, that power, read a little bit more about that in verse 26. We're still in the same chapter, chapter 14, verse 26 of John. Here Jesus said, referenced to the Helper, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name, it will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all the things that I said to you.

And so for God to dwell with us and in us means that we have, it means that we would have made that lifelong commitment through repentance and baptism to love and to serve God, to love and serve neighbor. And that means we'll be practicing repentance and faithful obedience to God as best we can, as long as we can, as long as we have breath.

Another point, we need to know and appreciate that God gives us everything we could possibly need in order that we can love God and our neighbor. We need to begin to see that He gives us commandments, He gives us instruction, He gives us these words of encouragement. He's going to love us. He gives us His strength of faith and will, His strength of faith and will, and has promised even His own power and in essence the Holy Spirit. And so yes, we must know and never forget God's grace towards us. And again, why does God do this? First point, God is love. It's befuddling. We've done nothing to deserve it, but that's love. That's what we're to be.

Number five.

We must never forget God's faithful ones are not only to love God and fellow believers, but also all people.

God's faithful ones are not only to love God and fellow believers, but also all people, even our enemies. Yep, even our enemies.

Paul clearly makes that point, declares it 1 Thessalonians 3, 12.

You could read it so quickly, you might not even notice it. 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 12.

It pays to give careful attention to God's word. 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 12. Again, here we learn that our love is not limited just to God or just to the brethren, just to people we go to church with, just to people we sit with in the congregation. Paul writes, and may the Lord make you increase... He's writing to his brethren, church members, may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do, Paul says to you. The Revised Standard Version translates it as, Abound in love to one another and to all men, to all people.

Matthew 5, verse 44, 48. Let's get back there with me, please. Matthew 5, 44 and 48.

Here again, Christ is making the same... makes that point that Paul did. He instructs that there are no exceptions as to whom we must love. Even our enemies deserve to be treated with God's love. And he explains why also. Verse 44, Matthew 5. Again, these are words of Christ, but I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. The times that are coming, we're not allowed to hate back. We have to love with God's love.

Those who persecute you. And again, why? Verse 45. Jesus says that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. That's our goal, to be sons of the Father, of our Father, who is in heaven. And so to love God, we must love all people, even the hateful and cruel ones.

If you're a young person, that means, yep, you've got to find a way somehow to get along that bully.

My advice is to try to stay away from him. But don't hate him. Try not to hate him. I've had my share of bullies growing up, trust me. We all have.

Continuing in verse 45, again, Christ explains why we have to love all people. And it goes back to what God is, God and who and what God is. He is love. For he, God, makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust, like the rain we have today. Verse 46, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you? That's not much of a self-sacrifice to let other people love you, and you just love people that you like. That's not what God was about. He loved one. He is loving us and others, everybody, and we're all sinners yet. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even tax collectors do the same? Yeah. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? That's pretty much the way of the world. God's wanting us to be above and beyond the way of the world. Do not even the tax collectors do so. Verse 48, therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Now this last verse, verse 48, contains a key point Christ is making here, it seems. To love like God loves, we must give up responding to others or reacting to others with anger, hate, bitterness in our hearts. That motivation, that primal urge, we must be controlling that. We must respond with God's love, Christ teaches us. Yielding to God's love allows us then to go on to perfection, to become more like God, to become love, to be love. Number six.

Never forget that those who love God, those who love, will be practicing forgiveness. Those who love God, striving to love, be love as God is love, will be practicing forgiveness.

Just as God forgives us for our sins against him, so must we forgive those who sin against us. We're in the neighborhood here. Let's look at Matthew 6, part of the model prayer or outline that Christ taught his disciples, and how to pray to God, our approach mindset to God when we pray. Matthew 6, 11, through 12, Christ's expectation said his faithful followers will be practicing and applying forgiveness. It's obvious in the words of the prayer he taught them. We're just going to look here at verse 11. Jesus taught them this. He says, ask for it this way, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Deats here in this case is a metaphor, figurative language, meaning offenses or sins. Other Bibles might read, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. But we can't stop there. We need to read the next two verses. Some commentators call verses 14 through 15 a PS, a postscript. These verses, you see, leave no doubt as to the importance of Father and Jesus Christ placed in our requirement to be forgiving others. Jesus continued, he said, 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 your trespasses.

These verses connect back to what we just read, that exhortation in Matthew 5.48. In order to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect, we must forgive anyone who sins against us. We cannot allow what we might call that natural reactive bitterness and hate to linger in our hearts because what's supposed to be in our hearts? God's love. God's love is supposed to be in our hearts, not this bitter festering mess of anger, grudges, and hate. God's love and His Holy Spirit need to be in us, controlling our hearts and minds, directing us, inspiring us. And yes, God's—excuse me—Christ's instruction here— it's right to say God's instruction. It came from the Father. Christ's instruction means what it says.

If we do not forgive others, the Father will not forgive us, and we'll be unworthy of receiving salvation.

That means what it says. These six truths, then, about love and God— God who is love and who wants us to be love— I hope you agree with me that they are absolutely vital. Vital meaning they're necessary for our lives. They are vital for us to know and never forget, especially now at this point in the message, as we're going to now turn to address the subject of this message and the title.

The record we must not keep—that's our topic— the record we must not keep appears in 1 Corinthians 13. Let's be turning 1 Corinthians 13, and who— appears in what is often called, commonly called, the love chapter.

So here we spent a lot of time remembering, reviewing what that God is love. He wants us to be love. Our relationships should be built on love. And here we find ourselves in the love chapter. According to Exposer's Bible commentary, it's called that because the chapter speaks of the superiority and necessity of God's love. I should say, quote— it speaks of, quote, of the superiority and necessity of God's love, unquote. And it's true. It's superior to anything the world offers. In the New Testament, agape is used to describe God's love, and it is superior to anything, humanly speaking, worldly speaking. It's superior and more necessary, I guess you could say, to Phylos, the love of human affection and friendship. We need our friendship, that's for sure, and we will love our friends. But agape goes beyond that love of human affection and friendship. It also goes beyond eros, which refers to the sensual sexual love. And as we've been reading, we in all humanity so desperately need God's agape. We need God's love. Well, now, in 1 Corinthians 13, let's look at verses 4 through 7. In this chapter, in this particular place, verses 4 through 7, Paul lists the characteristics of godly love. These are characteristics of love that we should be aspiring to practice and to live, because we want to be loving and want to be loved as God is. And so he says, verse 4, Love suffers long in his kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. Verse 5, Love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Now, if you're reading from the King James Version or the New King James Version of the Bible, the subject we're focused on, that record we must not keep, it's not going to readily jump out at you in those versions of the Bible. That's because that meaning is somewhat hidden in verse 5 in the vague wording that vague phrase called thinks no evil. Thinks no evil. It's rather ambiguous, and it can be rather vague. In fact, even the expositor's Bible commentary says this. It says, this phrase gives an incorrect idea. Thinks no evil. Well, inquiring minds want to know, don't we? Yes, we do! Let's understand it better. The word thanks is translated from the Greek word, logitimai, and it means to take an inventory, or to number, to count, or to keep an account. And yes, it can mean to think on, to think about. The word evil here, thinks no evil, it's from the Greek word kakos, which means evil, but what is contrary to law, either whether it's divine or of human law, essentially means what is evil, sinful, wrong. That's from Theodorus Greek Lexicon. And so, rather than stating love thinks no evil, a more precise translation would be one of these. The NIV, New International Version, puts it this way, love keeps no record of wrongs. Love keeps no record of wrongs. The New American Standard Bible reads this way, love does not keep an account of a wrong suffered. Love does not keep an account of a wrong suffered. And then the New Living Translation reads this way, love keeps no record of being wronged. It keeps no record of being wronged. I don't know about you, that means a lot more to me than simply thinks no evil. This gives me much greater direction of what I must be doing to love. So why keep no record of wrong? Why, in other words, shouldn't we keep this kind of a mental list, mental ledger if you're in accounting? Why not keep a mental list of all the hurts and all the wrongs and all the sins and others have done to us? Why not do that? Oh, how about this? Likewise, why must we not keep a list of all the terrible sins and mistakes and wrongs that we have done to others?

You see, sometimes those stay in our hearts and minds, too. Based on our reading about love, the love of God, to keep a record of being wronged, how people have done us wrong, that sort of thing, it violates the way of love. It contradicts how we are to love others. God's way of love requires that we let go of that wrong way of thinking and of feeling. We must not keep track of the bitter wrongs others have committed to us or that we ourselves have done. Love's not supposed to hold grudges. It's not supposed to keep a quiet anger buried deep in our hearts that we pretend is not really there.

Love forgives. Love is generous. Love forgives. We must be practicing God's love. We must practice forgiveness and not keep a record of wrongdoing.

Now, seeing that being human, it's likely that we have all done that. We all have done or do our share of record-keeping and how people have wronged us, how we've done things we shouldn't have done. It's very human. We do this sort of thing when we keep rehearsing in our mind and in our hearts the memory of a wrong done to us. We just can't let it go. We keep going back to it. We keep talking about it.

We're not dealing with it perhaps the way God would have us be. And it's understandable why we do that. It's hard to forget the hurt because it's so deep and painful sometimes of what people have done to us, the injustice we've suffered. It's really hard to forget and forgive how people have treated a loved one, how they treated our child, perhaps, something like that. Again, these things are understandable.

And so when we're not feeling very forgiving or very loving, we might even plan out how we're going to get back at that person. I'm going to get even with him. He's going to get his. Wait, wait, you see. We're going to get the one who did us wrong. We may even secretly hate them, but the others never know.

So why not keep nursing our hurt and anger towards others? Well, yes, it's not love, but also it's because holding on to anger and bitterness and hate, it really doesn't hurt the other person. I guess it could, but you know the one it really hurts? It's us, because God has called us to be loving, not hating. And the more we hate, the more we keep God from guiding us and directing us, leading us, the more we prevent ourselves from becoming perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. The more we prevent ourselves from fully experiencing God's love and that joy and that peace of mind, all that love, the love of God offers us and that we could be doing for others and need to be doing for others. And if we feel this way, if we still keep this record of wrongs done to us or the wrongs we've done to others, not forgiving ourselves or forgiving others, doing that sort of thing may demonstrate or reveal that we don't yet fully and truly appreciate what God's love is all about, that we're stuck somewhere, and we need God's help to get over that. We need God's help in forgiving sin, other sins, because we do want to get to that place where we can receive eternal life. We want to be there. We can earn it, but we can disqualify ourselves if we keep hating. Let's turn to Ephesians 2, verse 1 through 5. Let's read these verses. Paul gives a nice description of what God has done, God who's loved, God who wants us to love, what he has done and given us. And again, the reason why we need to forgive, it's all based on what we've just been reading. It's because God is love. It really comes down to that's why we need to forgive. Ephesians 2, verse 1 through 5. I hope I said that right. Okay, I did. Thank you. Here we read. Ephesians 2, verse 1, In you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and whereby nature children of wrath, anger and bitterness and hate, just as the others. But God, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. And then verse 8 as well, Paul adds, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

And so we need to demonstrate to God, through our own choices and actions, our profound appreciation for his forgiveness by forgiving others. We show God our love to him by loving others and forgiving them. We also show our love for God by learning to forgive ourselves. We cannot be holding on to that record of wrongs done.

We cannot be doing that.

When we believe God, repent, or baptized, we commit ourselves to this life of repentance from sin, of asking for God's forgiveness when we find sin in our lives. That means we also commit ourselves to forgiving others. That's what love is all about. If we don't forgive, then we know that God will not forgive us. There's no wiggle room on that. We must be striving to love by forgiving. And yes, forgiving may be the greatest challenge we face because we may find it difficult, we may find it nearly impossible to forget what others or what we ourselves have done. Oftentimes we don't know what we've done. Others don't understand what they've done. But we must keep at it. Keep forgiving with God's help.

And it's hard. You know, at the news events lately, this poor man that was brutally beaten and killed by these five policemen in Memphis, I cannot comprehend that. I don't understand such savagery. Well, I guess Paul just described it for us here in what we just read. Ephesians 2, the wrath of the children of wrath.

How is that the family of that young man going to learn to forgive? How do you do that? It's going to be hard. It would be hard. Humanly speaking, it might be impossible. But with God's help, even that can be done. Even that can be done.

I often hear, I've heard people tell me, and I understand, people have told me, you know, I can forgive others. The hard thing I have is learning to forgive myself. That's what people have told me.

But even there, God is most willing, most able, and most capable of helping us do that. It all requires us trusting God and accepting that what he said go to Christ, faith in Christ and his sacrifice in our stead. God says if we repent, we confess our sins, we repent, we ask God to forgive us through faith in Christ shed blood for our sins. It cleanses us from our sins. Then we have to believe it and quit going back and digging up the terrible things and start trusting God and moving forward and moving forward.

I've, the last few years, I've come across people that saw their parents, you know, treated unjustly in congregations in the church years ago. And because of that, they're not interested in coming to church themselves. And I'm really concerned about that. We all should be.

Because they need to learn to forgive. They need help.

And if there's anyone listening here online, you can get through that with God's help. Sometimes you need to talk to people.

But we can get through these things. Sometimes the hurt is deep and profound, but we cannot keep giving into anger and spite. We cannot give into vengeance. When we do that, we're keeping ourselves from knowing more about God and love. We're keeping ourselves from growing in God's love. We need to remember Christ's example. Let's look at Luke 23 verse 33-34.

I try hard to think on this, and it helps me at times. I'm sure it helps you, too. Luke 23 verse 33-34. We must follow Christ's example of forgiving.

Luke 23, 33-34.

Christ forgave his enemies, and he asked the Father to forgive them, too. Verse 33, and when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And then Jesus said, he said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. They did not know what they were doing. And then they divided his garments and cast lots. In Acts 7, we also have a very powerful example of an early brother, of an early church member. Acts 7 is Stephen. Acts 7 59 through 60. Acts 7 59 through 60. Stephen had given this great message sermon to a crowd that really didn't want to hear what he said, which is often the case in this world.

And they took him out and stoned him, but he asked God, forgive. Acts 7 59. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God, and saying, here's what Stephen said, he said, Lord Jesus received my spirit. And then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not charge them with this sin. Do not put this sin on their account. Do not hold this against them. Do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep, referring to his death. He died. Yeah. And he awaits the resurrection.

We must choose to forgive. We must choose to be moving forward.

So if we believe the instruction of Christ and all the scriptures that teach us about God's love towards us and all people, then we must be putting away our hurt and pain. God will help us. We must be putting away the bitterness that we might hold against others, even ourselves. And with God's help, we must choose. It's a choice. Love is a choice to forgive is a choice. We must choose to let go of that bitter dead weight, forgive from the heart, and sincerely ask God to forgive and bless those who sin against us, just as we pray that God will forgive our sins and bless us. We must believe and trust God.

Now, one final comment about forgiving ourselves for things we've done.

No matter how terrible are wrongs, no matter how terrible are wrongs, we can and must forgive ourselves. That's what Scripture tells us through the examples we find throughout Scripture about those who chose to repent. Many godly people did some terrible things.

God forgave them. They also had to learn to forgive themselves. They repented. It was Peter, remember? It was Peter, remember, who boldly declared before Jesus and the other disciples, he declared that he was ready to go to prison. I'll even die for you, Peter told Christ Jesus. In response, Jesus knew Peter a little better than Peter knew himself. Jesus said that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. You can find this account in Luke 22. I'm just going to summarize it for us here. Then when Jesus was arrested, what did Peter do? He ran away, so did all the others. He ran away, and then he did deny. He did deny that he knew Jesus three times for the rooster crow, just as foretold. And when Peter realized what he had done, Luke 22.62 tells us he wept bitterly. Do you suppose he hated himself at that time? Do you suppose he felt he had done an absolutely most horrendous sin ever? I suspect he might have. Peter bore heavy guilt for what he had done and what he had failed to do in denying Christ.

But we also know the rest of the story, to borrow a phrase from someone we've heard of. We also know the rest of the story about Peter, what happened in Peter's life. Through God's love and help, Peter demonstrated that he had been able to overcome the bitterness of the wrong he had done. He must have forgiven himself somehow. He must have been able to do that. He must have done that through faith in Christ's sacrifice for his sins, including those. He must have been able to put away that record of bitterness which he had held against himself. Because it was Peter who on that following Pentecost, filled with God's Holy Spirit, who preached such a rousing sermon that 3,000 people were baptized and added to the church.

See, God forgives, and we must believe it. Stop doubting it. Stop questioning. Stop suggesting to God that you really don't believe that he forgives. We can't do that. We really can't do that. We have to believe it and ask for forgiveness.

And it will happen. See what happens. Keep walking with God.

So if we do not want God to keep records of wrongdoing on us, we must not keep records of wrongdoing on others, ourselves. We must choose to forgive. When we practice an active and living faith in God and Christ through how we live and forgive others, including ourselves, when we're putting away all bitterness and grudges, well then we can be better assured of having our names recorded. We can be better assured of having our names recorded in that one record we really do want to be in. We want our names recorded where? In the book of life. You know it. The book of life.

Do not keep the record of wrongdoing. Let go of bitterness and anger, grudges. We must forgive so God will forgive us.