The Golden Rule

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Matthew 7:12

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Well, this morning we come to the verse that ends this larger section we've been working our way for, and that's
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Matthew 7, verse 12. We've seen that verses 1 through 12 in some ways form an immediate section, but as we'll see this morning in several ways, verse 12 is also drawing us back even further into chapter 6, and in some ways even further into chapter 5.
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Again, though we've been working through the Sermon on the Mount over many weeks and months, we need to be reminded that this is a singular body of teaching, the sermon, not sermons, on the
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Mount. And so we see the way that this is all intricately structured, and I hope you'll appreciate that as we unpack verse 12 together this morning.
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I also, in some ways, want to approach verse 12 in a way that is actually, I think, applicable or practical, and in some ways we talk about verse 12, which is called the
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Golden Rule, and it can seem very abstract, almost like a ethical ideal.
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We don't exactly know how to bring that into our own practice. How do we actually apply Matthew 7, 12 in our daily lives, in our relationships?
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And so you'll see that I have a particular angle I want to approach this morning as we look at the
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Golden Rule together. Matthew 7, verse 12. Jesus says,
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Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets.
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Now, the Golden Rule, when did the Golden Rule become the Golden Rule? I don't think there's an earlier source than the beginning of the 17th century, but the idea of the
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Golden Rule as a principle, as a moral maxim, precedes even Jesus' teaching.
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We find variations on this going back to several ancient cultures. Perhaps the most significant or relevant for Matthew 7, 12 is a rabbi named
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Hillel, a very famous rabbi, who in the negative had a maxim very similar to this.
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If you would not have evil done to you, then don't do evil to others. And Jesus, of course, takes this maxim as it was taught in various ways, and he makes it positive.
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He says, Not just that you don't do evil that you wouldn't want done to you, but that the way you would want to be treated, the good that you would have done to you, you seek to do to others.
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That is the Golden Rule, and that positive connotation seems to be unique to the
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Lord Jesus and His teaching. Well, of course, this has captured the Christian imagination ever since it was uttered on the
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Sermon on the Mount. In fact, you can find it in various forms of Western ethical thought, moral thought.
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Most significantly, if you've ever heard of John Stuart Mill, his book in the 19th century, Utilitarianism, this is an ethical way of approaching life.
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He appeals to the Golden Rule as the ideal moral maxim for all ethical conduct. He basically says if you want to understand the ethics of utilitarianism, it's simply the
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Golden Rule that Jesus taught. Now, as we'll see, if you don't have Jesus, you don't have the
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Golden Rule. That's a point that we have to establish. So Mill is right to say this is the moral ideal.
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Jesus says that, doesn't He? This is the law and the prophets. This is if you understand the law rightly, if you're to live it out, this is essentially what
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God is telling you to do. And so Mill's right to say that this is an ethical ideal.
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What he doesn't grasp is outside of Christ, it is impossible for a fallen human being to actually live out the
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Golden Rule, a point that we will establish in due time. Well, as we look at verse 12, we see it begins with the word therefore, a big hint that we haven't left the preceding section.
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Verse 12 is seen in consequence of what we've covered beforehand. We've immediately come off the heels of looking at prayer, asking, seeking, knocking, but we also remember that that prayer was connected to verses 1 through 6, this idea of how we relate to those inside and outside the people of God.
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And so we're still in this relational context. And of course, this Golden Rule depends on a right relationship with God that we might rightly relate to others.
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If we know God and we rightly relate to God as our Father in heaven, then we will rightly relate to those around us, those both inside the people of God and those outside the people of God.
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In other words, we can only do good to our neighbor if we've experienced God's goodness to us in Christ.
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It's absolutely important that we grasp this. Verse 12 seems to pull together all the emphasis that has begun the
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Sermon on the Mount, this emphasis on the righteousness of the kingdom. The kingdom of God has come, its fullness now being revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and in that we see this righteousness that belongs to His kingdom.
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He clears away all the rust and barnacles of the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees, all the traditions of men, and He clarifies, this is what the law looks like when it's lived out.
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This is what righteousness is. This is how my people will conduct themselves. It's a kingdom righteousness.
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We've seen that in chapter 6, 19, all the way following. How does this righteousness relate to others?
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Not as the hypocrites, Jesus says, not as those who have the best places in the synagogue and make their prayers very elaborate or the vain repetitions of the heathen, but there's this genuine way that we relate to God.
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And so the same way that the law is broken down in the first table of the Ten Commandments, this right relationship to God, to know
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Him, to serve Him, to worship Him as God in that first table of the law, and then to love your neighbor as yourself in the second table of the law.
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Well, in some ways, this fits the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 6, 1 through 18 is a right worship, a right relation to God, not hypocritically, but truly, genuinely, sincerely.
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And then verses 19 all the way up to this verse are rightly relating to the neighbor. And Jesus says, this is the law and the prophets.
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What is He speaking of? Well, I don't think in that way He's just speaking of verse 12.
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I think He's speaking of everything He's laid down in the Sermon on the Mount up to this point. If you've understood the
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Sermon on the Mount rightly, this is the law and the prophets. I'm going to try to substantiate that later this morning.
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I really think it's an important point. This isn't the first time Jesus has pointed us to the meaning of the law and the prophets.
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That's very important to understand verse 12 rightly. In other words, it's not merely the golden rule that is the fulfillment or the sum of the law and the prophets.
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It's the totality of kingdom righteousness that Jesus has been teaching up to this point.
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Very important that we understand this. Altogether, this is the law and the prophets.
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Well, what's the angle we're going to look at this morning? The angle that I think is perhaps the most practical, the most helpful, is the angle of forgiveness.
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You ask me, how does the golden rule actually work itself out practically in the life of a
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Christian? I think it comes down to forgiveness. Let me tell you why
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I think that's the case. You have something like Matthew 7, 12. Therefore, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do unto them.
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This is the law and the prophets. That's very noble, and it's very sophisticated.
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It seems like some ethereal theological distillation. How are we going to actually make this practical?
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How are we going to bring it down into our practical lives? We have an example, we could perhaps find dozens, but let me just go to one very clear example of variation on the golden rule that Paul is teaching
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Philemon. So Philemon, that short little letter to Philemon, if you remember the context of Philemon, Onesimus was a slave of Philemon who had run away, apparently run away, a fugitive.
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If you know anything about the Roman world, it's not a happy ending for fugitive slaves. The master always has power of life and death over his slaves.
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That was seen as the property of the master. We can't look at that through the lens of American chattel slavery of the 19th century or the 18th century.
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It distorts as much as it secures. We have to remember that in many ways there's positive aspects, positive imagery to being a slave in antiquity.
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But there's nothing positive about being a fugitive slave. If you were taken back at all, the punishments would have been severe.
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But of course, more often than not, fugitive slaves, if they were caught, were killed, crucified.
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Now Philemon is a brother. Philemon is a Christian. And Onesimus, whether because he knew
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Paul or in God's providence happened to run into Paul, he has come to Paul and he has now converted.
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He has given his life to Christ. And Paul is writing a letter on behalf of Onesimus to Philemon to say
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I'm sending Onesimus back to you. And here's how I want you to receive him. Now this takes us up to verse 17.
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If then you count me as a partner, as a co -laborer, as a brother.
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If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. Now you didn't know it, but that's
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Paul applying the golden rule. He's applying the golden rule in this relationship with Philemon.
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Philemon, you're my brother, you believe in Christ. Onesimus has also repented of his sins and now he is a brother in Christ and I'm sending him back to you.
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You know what your neighbors would want to do with a caught slave. But here's what you'll do to him, Philemon. If you have any respect for me, if you count me as a brother,
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I want you to treat him the way you would treat me. I want the things that you would do to me to be done to him.
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How would you honor me? Honor him. How would you seek to serve me and help me? Serve and help him.
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How would you seek to establish me and further my interest in the Lord, in my mission? Do that to him.
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You see, this is a variation, an application of the golden rule. If you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.
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What is Paul asking Philemon to do? He's asking
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Philemon to forgive. You see, I think the most practical way we live out the golden rule is by grasping forgiveness.
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How does forgiveness belong to the golden rule? Because the reality is, as fallen human beings, as sinners, the reason that we have the golden rule is so that we can actually walk in mercy and forgiveness with one another.
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We can actually be a display of the gospel. That is why the golden rule exists. And this is the law and the prophets.
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The law and the prophets have as much to say about the gospel as it does to reveal the righteousness of God. It's not justice alone that is revealed by the law and the prophets.
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It's the unfathomable depths of God's mercy that is revealed by the law and the prophets.
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Do you see? The golden rule holds all of this together. So how does the golden rule relate to forgiveness?
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Well, we cannot begin to live out the golden rule that our Savior here teaches us if we fail to forgive in the way that our
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Savior forgives. That's the point. Most of what the golden rule consists of is not kind deeds, blood drives, soup kitchens, the things that Walter Rauschenberg in the 1920s would love, but the sort of social gospel phenomenon.
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Not kind deeds and well wishes, but offenses covered in love. Having the means, having even the justice of what you would do to an anastomous, but showing mercy, forgiving.
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That's the golden rule. Forgiveness, easy to discuss, easy when it's abstract, hard when it's near, hard when it's close, hard when it's sensitive, hard when it's the finger coming to the eye, as we saw at the beginning of this chapter.
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The three points about this as we make our way forward. Here's the first point. We're gonna hold together not just verse 12, but other things we've learned along the way from the
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Sermon on the Mount. Here's the first point. Our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness.
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That's the first point. Our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness. Remember what
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Jesus taught in chapter six, verse 15. Jesus said, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your
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Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness.
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If you don't forgive men their sins, why would you think that God would forgive your sins? This is a teaching we may have read months ago, we may have read past, but just look at the weight of what
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Jesus is saying. Doesn't it sound a lot like the beginning of Matthew seven? In the way that you judge, you will be judged.
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In the way that you forgive, you will be forgiven. How you treat others corresponds to how you would want others to treat you.
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You see the golden rule is leaning back into all of these things. As the
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Puritan Thomas Watson pointed out, our forgiving others is not a cause of God forgiving us. No, no, no,
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God's forgiveness is rich and free. He forgives while we're yet sinners, while we're dead in our trespasses.
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That's how God forgives. So it's not the cause. Our forgiving others is not causing God's forgiveness toward us.
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It's the other way around. It's a condition without which He will not forgive us. Mercy is only shown to those who show mercy, as James says.
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So there is a high price to be paid in the life of a Christian who does not make a practice of forgiveness.
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And that's simply just on the authority of what Jesus has taught. To the degree that you refuse to forgive someone else,
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God refuses to forgive you. He's a just God. And this is gonna lean into the points about how we're meant to display
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His mercy. It cannot be that we receive the mercy we refuse to display.
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It cannot be. It cannot be. Our walk with the
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Lord is going to be hindered then if we're knowingly bearing grudges. If there's a way that contention has seeped into our life, it won't just be in the big actions, that's where it always comes out at the very end, but it will be in the secret thoughts, the slight attitudes of the heart.
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This is what Jesus has been after since chapter five. God looks to the heart. He doesn't look as the hypocrite thinks he would look.
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It doesn't matter what's going on internally in my mind or in my heart, as long as I'm on the sidewalk trumpeting my achievements, as long as I'm in the front row at the synagogue and getting all the greetings, as long as men are applauding me and viewing me as holy,
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I must be good with God. And Jesus says, don't deceive yourselves. And God isn't mocked.
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And a man is going to reap whatever he sows. And so He teaches us that we need to look inwardly, not outwardly with the eye, but inwardly.
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We need to examine our hearts. How is it that we understand the forgiveness we've received?
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How is it that we reenact that forgiveness toward others? This is the law in the prophets. It means in my life,
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I search out an attitude of hostility, of anger, of irritation. Where is there an opportunity for a lack of forgiveness to take root?
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It's a fearful thing. Because it means that I might actually so walk in a way that God withholds
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His forgiveness from me in the same way I withhold forgiveness from others. It cannot be. Not for a
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Christian. So our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness. Didn't we see that clearly in the
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Lord's prayer? Matthew 6, again, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
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Do you see? It's all held together. We don't just say, forgive my sins, but not their sins.
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We don't just say, forgive my sins, but come after them. You know, I'm gonna go out and grab them by the collar.
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Pay me what you owe. No, it's, I can even understand how
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I am to forgive because of how I'm seeking your forgiveness. I need your forgiveness, which is teaching me how
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I am to show forgiveness. The same way I desire your forgiveness is how I should show that forgiveness to others.
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Again, this is the golden rule. Think about it this way.
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God forbids this deadly lack of forgiveness in the sixth commandment, which is what
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Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter five. That thou shall not murder isn't just if you've actually done the
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O .J. Simpson route. It's down to the very thoughts of the heart. It's anger in your heart that breaks the sixth commandment before God.
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So this deadly lack of forgiveness, including hatred, envy, desiring vengeance, thirsting in a way that Jesus would rebuke, you don't know what spirit you're of.
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You want fire to fall from heaven? When a
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Christian refuses to forgive, it's not just that they're breaking the commandment. It's not just that they're violating all that the law points to.
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The righteousness of the kingdom revealed by the law and the prophets. It's not just that they break or violate these things.
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It's far worse than that, brothers and sisters. When a Christian refuses to forgive, they are proclaiming to the world around them that the gospel is shallow, powerless to save.
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Because there's nothing more powerful about the gospel. There's perhaps nothing more definitive to the gospel.
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The gospel in its essence is this, reconciliation. You see, that is the gospel.
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What are ministers of the gospel called? Ministers of reconciliation. What's the testimony of the gospel called?
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The word of reconciliation. This is how sinners who are at enmity with God were brought near through the blood of Christ.
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That is the gospel. So how does that actually occur? It occurs in God's mercy and love to forgive sinners who had sinned against him.
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So the testimony of the gospel itself is at stake. It's no small thing for a
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Christian to withhold forgiveness. It's no small thing for a
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Christian to flout and disregard the golden rule.
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To put it bluntly, we must forgive. It's not an option.
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If you're a Christian, it's not. Colossians 3, didn't we memorize this in Menadnock?
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If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so also you. What does he say, should do?
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No. Ought to do? No. Maybe can try to do?
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No. Must do. You just have to do it. That's what Paul says. You must do it. Oh, Paul, do
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I really have to? Yes. Why, why do I really have to, Paul? You don't know what it's like,
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Paul. You don't know what it's been like. You don't know how
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I'm feeling. You don't know what I'm dealing with, Paul. How can you say I must do this? You know what his answer is? Because that's what
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Christ did. As Christ forgave you, so you must do. For the
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Christian, there should be no but, but, but, but after that. That's the end of the sentence. You do what
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Christ did for you. If you're but, but, but on that, if you're qualifying and footnoting and getting away from that, you haven't understood what those words mean.
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As Christ forgave you. Our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness.
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But more than that, second point, secondly, more than that, God wants us to display his forgiveness in our forgiveness.
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God wants us to display his forgiveness in our forgiveness.
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We want to see the days when the people outside the flock of God, the people extraneous to the church have this report among them.
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Nobody forgives like Christians forgive. Who can forgive like a Christian? That's the idea.
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Because God wants us to display his forgiveness in our forgiveness. We simply cannot sing the hymns that we sing.
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We cannot enjoy the testimonies we enjoy. We cannot make the glorious claims about the gospel, about its transformative power in our lives while we're settling into this sort of habitual resentment toward others.
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It just cannot be. It cannot be. You have to see that ugly disconnect and own it for what it is.
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These things don't translate in Christianity. It cannot be. Of course, one who holds these things together holds them together as a hypocrite out of one side of their mouth saying that they love
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God. They love the glorious gospel. They live by grace. But in their life, in the ears of their children, in the sight of their neighbors, they undermine everything they claim to believe about that gospel.
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It's not the message of the cross. Now, where does this all begin?
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God wants us to display his forgiveness in our forgiveness. It begins with recognizing my offense before God is far greater than anyone's offense could possibly be toward me.
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You start there. Very important that that does not minimize, it doesn't steamroll offenses that are done to Christians.
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It's very important. But you have to start with Psalm 51. You simply have to. You have to start with the owning and acknowledging the debt that you've owed to God.
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There's something about the wicked servant who's forgiven that unpayable, insurmountable debt.
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But he doesn't seem to be as joyful as you'd think he would be. Have you ever seen those old
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TV shows where they build a home for some family in need and the whole community comes together and they spend a million dollars building this dream house and they get the whole family huddled behind the bus and they're like, move that bus!
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And the bus rolls away and it's like confetti and cheering. Well, imagine if the bus rolls away and the family's like, okay, thanks.
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They just kind of keep, it's like, you should be thrilled. You should be like fainting. You don't seem to even be smiling.
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That's the wicked servant. He's like, yeah, it's almost inevitable that my debt would be forgiven. He's so full of himself.
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Of course I'd be forgiven. It wasn't even that bad. I would've, you know, it's nice for the king to do that. I would've figured out a way.
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I would've made it happen. He hasn't really owned the debt. No wonder he can go out, find someone who owes him nickels.
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And suffocate him. He didn't begin at the right place. He didn't begin with this acknowledgement.
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I'm far more, I've far more offended my holy, merciful Father in heaven than anyone has ever offended me.
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That doesn't steamroll their offenses. It doesn't marginalize them or make them less than they are in the eyes of God.
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Remember, he's the God of exodus. He's the God who hears the cries, the oppression of his people. But what it does do is it situates us where we must begin as Christians.
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Forgiven in a way that then translates to how I forgive. If I don't begin in Psalm 51,
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I won't be able to forgive as Christ forgave. I won't be owning, acknowledging my debt. If God freely and richly forgave me in Christ, that needs to free up this willingness, this desire to forgive in that way.
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Why? God wants to display that forgiveness in the way that I forgive. And so it's
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David's cry in Psalm 51. It's against you, you only that I've sinned. Oh, David, how could you say such a thing?
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You're ignoring all this damage that you've done. Look at the trail of victims all around you. But you're misunderstanding
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David's heart. He's owning the debt. If it's true that we are to love
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God with such a purity, such an intensity, that any comparative love almost looks like hatred, to love
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God in such a way that even the closest relationship to your life, that love is so far lesser in degree that it almost could be called hatred, then no wonder
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David could say the offense in terms of what it means to my God is so immense.
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It's as if that's the only offense and the only one offended. Against you only have
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I sinned. That's where he's at. His desire is to be reconciled to his
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God. Don't take your spirit from me. I wanna be reconciled.
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What is he asking for? Forgiveness. He's asking for forgiveness.
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That desire to be reconciled, that desire to reconcile is an evidence that we have received the forgiveness of God and therefore
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God gives us this desire to show forth that. And as a
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Christian, this is just, it's just a way of life. It's a way of thinking. You know he wants to display his mercy, his forgiveness, his forbearance, his long -suffering, his perseverance, his charity.
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He wants to display that in you, through you, in your relations to others. And so as a
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Christian, you find the simplest testimonies of mercy and grace to hit your heartstrings.
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You feel almost foolish. I was riding around just a couple days ago and one of my kids was listening to this cartoon podcast with these woodland creatures.
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And it always has this biblical morale to it. And these little bears are in trouble because this house caught on fire and the damage comes in and one of them is really in trouble,
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Hugh McLeod, you know, this cat. So I'm listening to this podcast, meant for younger ears and younger minds.
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And at the very end of this episode, one of the characters says, you know, this is what you owe. $47 ,000.
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And the character's, oh, I'm never gonna know. The rest of my life is ruined. And here with that is a check for $47 ,000.
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You don't owe me anything. I'm sitting there listening to this 10 -year -old's podcast like crying as I'm driving.
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It just hits you. Any time you conceive of debt in mercy, there's something that you recognize is true about your life, existentially, experientially.
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We don't stay there for long, which is why we don't display it very well. So you have to sit, you have to settle, you have to own that Psalm 51 posture.
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Forgiving others is proof that you've owned the way that God has forgiven you. Listen to Martin Lloyd -Jones.
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The man who knows he has been forgiven only in and through the shed blood of Christ is a man who must forgive others.
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He just has to. He's compelled to. He has to do it.
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He cannot help himself. If we really know Christ is our Savior, our hearts are broken and they cannot be hardened.
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We cannot refuse forgiveness at length. If we're refusing forgiveness to anyone,
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Lloyd -Jones says, I suggest we've never been forgiven. God's forgiveness not only frees us, it enables us, it compels us to forgive.
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God wants to display his forgiveness in our forgiveness. And so when we're injured, when we're mistreated, when we're maligned, we ask ourselves, where do
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I start? What am I in my orientation to my God? What have
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I been toward him? What has he been toward me? How am I to display that in this situation? Am I suffering unjustly?
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1 Peter has something to say about that. And what does he do? He points to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who also suffered unjustly.
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The just for the unjust. You see, there's just a gospel logic that's always working itself through these situations.
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You situate yourself before your meek and gentle master, this long -suffering God who called you in his mercy.
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You ask yourself, how do I handle this situation? What's stirring within me?
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Am I in a defensive posture? Am I trying to protect something within me? Am I trying to vindicate something about me?
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How am I going to push back? Why would I push back? You start to work these things through. What is God doing? What does
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God want? How is God going to move through this? Do you see? You come to the hardest part.
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Compelled, following the example, owning what you've received, and it's the hardest hurdle to actually forgive and to walk in that forgiveness.
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That's the hardest hurdle. Who can forgive like God? Who can forgive like God?
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Brothers and sisters, have you reflected on how God removes our offenses as far as the
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East is from the West? Can you just pause and appreciate that for a moment? We try, as it were, to let go of things, but we always have a coolness, we always have a glare about us.
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Aren't you thankful that God's forgiveness is not that way toward you? His smile is ever upon you in Christ.
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What does it look like for us to even approximate that kind of forgiveness? Well, that's what God desires to show.
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The blood that, as one said, the blood that cleanses the conscience from dead works also cleanses the conscience from selfishness.
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The blood that reveals this divine love is a pardoning love. It takes possession of us.
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It flows out of us toward others. And this forgiving love to others is the evidence of having received this forgiving love, having known it, having owned it.
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God wants us to display it. That's why He freely gives it, you see. We're not the steel cargo vessels of God's mercy to be sealed and put on some ship and sent across a cold sea.
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We're to be sieves of God's mercy, throughways, channels of God's mercy.
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He desires to display it. For Paul, it's just an automatic thing. Fugitive slave, here's a gospel opportunity.
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Here's a display case for the world. What will the others think? What will the fellow masters to Philemon think?
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What will Philemon's household think? What will the other servants think? Forgiveness most fully displays the work of the gospel.
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And therefore, forgiveness will be our best display of the gospel at work. You will rarely have a better opportunity to display to those who don't understand
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Christianese what the gospel means. And when you show forgiveness in the face of injustice, in the face of suffering, again, everywhere you find the ethical command to forgive or to show mercy, you will find always whether in, with, before or after it is the example of Christ.
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I already mentioned Colossians 3, mentioned 1 Peter 3, Ephesians 4, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.
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Why, why would we forgive one another? Paul, I'm done being tenderhearted.
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Paul, I've always been the kind one. So why, why would
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I continue to do this? You want me to be unfurled as some doormat for everyone to stomp on?
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No one else cares. I actually care, I'm trying, I'm done trying, Paul. Why should
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I keep going in this way? You should forgive, you should be tenderhearted, you should be kind, you should do these things because God, for Christ's sake, forgave you in the same way.
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And he didn't roll out his life as a doormat to offend your ego. He actually presented his own perfect flesh to be torn apart as he bled out on a stump in Golgotha.
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That's the model, that's the example. God wants to display that in us, through us, in our relationships.
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And so the third point, our forgiveness acknowledges the gospel by reenacting the grace we've received.
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Our forgiveness acknowledges the gospel. We show that we understand the gospel by reenacting the grace that we've received.
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It's a reenactment. It's not exactly a one -to -one correspondence, who can forgive as Christ has forgiven.
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But it's a reenactment, it's getting closer to it, it's approximating it. As I've shared in years past, one of my foremen when
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I was at the plastic factory was, he loved, I don't know why, it was the Confederates, but he loved to be a
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Confederate reenactor. Just leave that for what it is. And so here in Massachusetts, amidst all the
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Union cavalry, he loved being Johnny Reb. And he'd show up often when it was toward a weekend where his unit would be reenacting.
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He'd show up to work and he'd have a lot of his gear in plastic bags. At lunch break, he'd try to show it off.
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And all of a sudden, Tom Foreman, with this sort of Worcester accent, became Johnny Reb.
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And he'd put his hat on and he'd have some of his gear out and start talking with the Southern twang. And instead of having beefaroni or whatever we have for lunch, he had hardtack and a tin canteen.
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He was approximating, getting back into that mode of reenacting. It's not what it really was like.
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There's a lot that's totally different, but he was trying to get as close to it as he knew how. And that's what it's like for us to reenact the grace we've received.
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We're approximating it. We're getting as close to it as we know how. It's not the actual crucifixion, not the actual death.
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We're reenacting that in a way. All the reenactors at the end of that battle, they all get up and they drive their
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Camrys home. So Jesus actually died. We're not gonna actually die, but we're gonna reenact that death in lesser ways to show it forth.
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You see, that's the idea. We reenact the grace that's been given to us. What's been given to us?
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What's the grace that we've received? It's selfless love, selfless love.
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My life for your life. Love has no greater friend than that. My life for your life.
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I hope you feel the weight, the tension of that kind of love. That's Christian love.
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That's a costly love. Who loves with that kind of love? My life for yours.
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We're sinners, we would hardly do that to other sinners. But the peerless Son of God, the righteous one, the holy one of Israel, the
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Lion of the tribe of Judah, his life for mine?
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What? His life for mine? How can
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I reenact that? How can
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I make a return on that? Well, he tells us, doesn't he?
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The way that you want to be treated is how you should treat others. If you want your Father to forgive you, you need to forgive.
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You need to be tenderhearted. You need to be spiritually minded. You need to be meek, lowly. Don't go chasing after things.
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Don't defend yourself. Trust in your Father. Keep burning coals on those who would do you ill. In some ways, you're learning more and more about that love because you're seeing the pinch points.
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You're seeing the cost of it. It's causing you to understand more about this grace that you've received because it's hard to live out that kind of grace toward others, isn't it?
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So the only way you can do it is if you continue to have this steady stream of recognizing what the gospel's actually teaching.
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This is what God is like. This is what he's done. And the more I'm steadily receiving that, searching that out, exploring, worshiping, delighting in that, the more
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I'm enabled, the more I'm compelled to actually reenact that grace toward others. You see how it's impossible for those that don't know
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Christ to actually live out the golden rule. It cannot be done. You can only do it if your eyes are fixed upon the one who gave his life for you.
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That's the only way you'll be able to spend your life for others. Spend your pride for others.
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Spend your comforts for others. Spend your reputation for others. That's what he did.
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You won't be able to do it if you don't know your Father in heaven as a merciful Father in heaven. You won't be able to do it if you're not looking at the
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Son who was so meek, so lowly, that when a smoking flax was in his presence, he wouldn't quench it and stomp it out with some impunity.
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Or if there was a bruised wrist, he wouldn't snap it off and say, I don't have time, you're just wasting my time. He never did that.
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So you have to look to him in this way. You even want to begin to understand the golden rule. This kind of selfless love, as John MacArthur reminds us, it does not seek the good of others.
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It does not serve others in order to find its own good, in order to serve itself. It simply serves for the sake of the other.
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It simply seeks the good of the other, period. That's Christian love.
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That's the kind of love that Jesus described in Matthew 5 as a love even for enemies, a love for enemies.
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The world knows nothing of that. That's something that only Christians can know. Sadly is that Christians have a hard time loving friends, much less loving enemies.
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Why is that? We haven't understood these things are right, brothers and sisters. We're not actually understanding the kingdom of God and its righteousness in this way that we're seeking it through what we've received in the gospel in such a way that we're living out the kingdom values.
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We're just reenacting what Christ has given us, you see? It's only as we, therefore, we see the import of these previous verses, verses seven through 11.
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How can we even begin? Jesus says, ask, seek, and knock. The parallel in Luke 10, ask and you'll receive the
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Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit to be able to fulfill the golden rule. You need to ask and seek and knock and pray that God changes you from one degree of glory to the next, that leads you into humility and repentance and increases your faith and gives you grace to sustain you.
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You need to actually ask and seek and knock for these things if you would fulfill them. If this is a law in the prophets, could it be that we can do it devoid of the
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Spirit? No, the Spirit's sanctification in our lives is gonna be what brings about this fulfillment of the law in us.
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And so we ask and we seek and we knock. As we're looking to our Father in that Psalm 51 approach, we're enabled, we're compelled to forgive, to live out the golden rule in this way, we begin to have this marvelous charity and sympathy toward others.
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Something about understanding who you are before a holy God and what He's done on your behalf, it just makes you sink a little bit lower in your mind, in your ego, in your pride than you had been before that.
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All of a sudden, the relationships aren't all, as it were, streaming toward me and what I need and what
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I'll get out of them. All of a sudden, now I'm brought very low and I see, Lord, how would you use me? How will you work through me?
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It's a very different thing. Jesus did not come, as He says, to be served, but rather to serve.
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He didn't come with all relations and opportunities streaming toward Him and His felt needs and comforts and desires,
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His reputation and His name. He rather was made low for a season, lower than the angels. He was brought so low that He saw
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Himself as a servant to all. What kind of love is it that scrubs the muck off the feet of a doubting disciple the night before you bleed out for Him on the cross?
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What kind of love is that? That's the kind of love that God calls us to.
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You see this word, therefore, again, just to bring this full circle, therefore, whatever you wish others to do to you, do also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.
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The word therefore, of course, is connecting us to the earlier passage, but the question is how far back?
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And as I mentioned at the beginning, I don't think it's just verses seven through 11. I don't think it's just verses one through 11.
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I don't think it's just 619 through 711. I actually think it's the whole sermon. And in some ways,
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Matthew 5, 17 through 20, where we're first given this picture of this fulfillment of the law and the prophets, this is forming a bookend with that.
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So Matthew 5, 20, do not think that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets. Oh, where does that come up again?
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Here, Matthew 7, 12. So there's the bookend. Do not think I've come to destroy the law and the prophets.
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Two chapters later, this is the law and the prophets. Do you see that connection? Here's the beatitudes.
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Here's the truth of God's law and the commandments. Do not think I've come to destroy the law and the prophets.
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Let me tell you all about this kingdom righteousness. This is the law and the prophets, do you see? You hold all of that together.
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This is the kingdom righteousness. In other words, this fulfillment shows us how
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Jesus is understanding the law. This is what he expects his people to be like. Blessed, poor, hungry, thirsty, needy, not showing vengeance, not having wrath, going the extra mile, giving the extra cloak, loving even enemies because the
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Father in heaven is merciful in this way. This is a through line through the whole sermon. And essentially, this is just Jesus unpacking
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Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19, verse 18, which shows up several places in the
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New Testament, that the central ethical import of the Old Testament law, to love your neighbor as yourself.
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Romans 13, James, 1 Peter, Hebrews, it's everywhere. And the idea here is
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Jesus taking that, love your neighbor as yourself, and as it were, taking that little diamond out of Leviticus and placing it on the crown of the
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Sermon on the Mount. Now he set it in its proper place. Now we can see the glory of that diamond in the proper setting.
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Not obscured in civil law and the failures of God's people and all the mixed of ceremony, the shadows and the types, but now as it were, distilled and set upon the crown of kingdom righteousness.
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Love your neighbor as yourself. This is the law in the prophets. Loving God, loving others.
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It's as though Jesus were saying this, therefore, in light of everything that I've taught about the direction that the
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Old Testament law is pointing, you have come to the golden rule, and this is the whole of it.
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This is the law in the prophets. Everything I've taught you is simply a commentary on Leviticus 19, 18.
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The whole Sermon on the Mount. To love God rightly and love neighbor rightly. Remember the contrast here.
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It's God's goodness, it's God's mercy, it's loving like God loves. It's the goodness of God we saw in verses seven through 11.
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He knows, as a good father, how to give good gifts to his children. And what does Jesus say in sharp contrast to that?
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You being evil. You being evil know how to give good gifts. Well, God is good.
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He's not evil at all. There's no shadow in him. So how good is his goodness? You know how to be relatively good for a time.
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He's infinitely good. He's perfectly good. He is good. So remember this contrast.
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It's the goodness of God that we are to imitate. It's the goodness of God that gives us good gifts that we live by.
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It's the goodness of God that he knows what we need even before we ask. And us, though we're being evil, are called to approximate, are called to reenact that goodness in the way we deal with others, you see?
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In this way, we become like our Father who is in heaven. So our attitude toward others, our heart attitude, our secret thought attitude, is meant to echo the very heart, the very desire of God toward us.
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Can I put it this way? Aren't you glad that God isn't cynical toward you?
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Amen, brother. How many times have you come back to confess the same sin?
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You've asked for forgiveness. Aren't you glad He never sneers and rolls His eyes at you?
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Oh, this again. You know, you can go away now. Now, I'm sure you're gonna change.
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Aren't you glad that the nail -pierced hands are ever open to receive sinners? You see, there's no place to lack this tenderheartedness.
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There's no compartment where a Christian can get comfortable with this cynical outlook.
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Not if we've understood God's mercy in Christ. We reenact what we've received.
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How is our reenactment going? When I've seen reenactments, I've seen these guys are obsessed with getting the details right.
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They scour Wachusett Antiques or whatnot, looking for any period pieces that can embellish their story.
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They have a whole backstory, usually not made up of thin air. They'll actually study a person. Maybe they'll go to a cemetery and find someone who was involved in a sin.
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They'll study that person's life. They'll go through the town. They get as detailed as possible. And so they have everything that's period.
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You open their rucksack, everything is from the 1860s. They wouldn't want someone who's showing up in the midst of the battle scene wearing
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Air Jordans and a Knicks cap. And he's like, all right, this is an Airsoft M16, but it kind of works, right?
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No, this isn't the right display. You haven't been detailed enough. You haven't understood this rightly.
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You think just showing up and however you carry it's fine because you're here, but it's not. There's a way to look.
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There's a way to carry yourself. The details matter if we're going to display things rightly. Do you see my point?
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So in order to live out this golden rule in Christ, in order to fulfill the law and the prophets, we must forgive.
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That means we must put away all hatred, all bitterness, all clamor, all enmity for those near, for those far, for those close, for those distant, for friends, for enemies.
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This is how Christ has walked with us. This is how Christ has been toward us. It's simply loving your neighbor as yourself, loving in the way that God has loved us.
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In so far as we're able, we must forgive and seek to be reconciled with those who have wronged us or those who we have wronged.
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This is basic to Christianity. I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be the sons of your
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Father who is in heaven. So forgiveness is in the very character of God. Again, one of the greatest stories ever told in the context of Jesus' teaching is
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Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son. What does that forgiveness look like?
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It's lavish, it's unexpected, it's surprising. Have you ever just been surprised by God's mercy to you?
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Just refreshed by it. It's an interesting thing because it cuts your heart in the same action that it heals your heart.
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Somehow God in His spirit's able to bring you low at the same time He's bringing you close, bringing you high.
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If you haven't experienced it, you just haven't experienced it. If you don't know it, you just don't know it. There's something about this surprising encounter of God's mercy.
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As soon as the flash and the heat of conviction is there, there's the bomb, there's the peace, there's the joy, there's the glory.
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And then all that's left is simply a debt of gratitude. That's all that's left.
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Everything else is gone. All that's left is gratitude. All that's left is this debt, this obligation, this desire.
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And so Christians ought to be looking for those opportunities. In what way can my mercy be surprising, be refreshing, be unexpected, be lavish?
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How can the heat so quickly dissipate so that there's peace and simply gratitude? Because that's how
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God loves us. He's, what does Scripture say? He's ready to forgive.
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The prodigal's father is not in the middle of things when the son comes near.
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He's looking out the window. He's looking across the hills.
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When's my wayward son going to come home? That's why he bolts.
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Nothing is more important than that. Everything else gets dropped. He's ready to forgive, ready to pardon.
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Psalm 86, five, you, Lord, are good. Good father gives good gifts.
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You're good, you start there. Ready to forgive. Abundant in mercy to whoever calls on you.
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It's Solomon's prayer of dedication. Here in heaven, your dwelling place. Listen to Solomon's understanding.
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God is high. God is in his holy habitation. He has his dedication prayer, as it were.
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He recognizes this temple is just on earth. It's just a shadow. God dwells in unapproachable light.
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In his holy habitation, God is seated. And he says, in a way, when our worship and our cries of love arise, when you hear, forgive.
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He can pray, he can anticipate that because he knows something of God. This is the God who's ready to forgive.
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Just as an aside, can I ask, brothers and sisters, do you know God in this way? Do you know
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God in this way? What I love about Luke 15 is that the prodigal, he has this little script.
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Here's what I'm gonna say, and here's what I'm willing to do and I've calculated it all. And he gets near, but then he's beginning to lose heart too.
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He's near, but he's also far. Jesus has that crisis encounter.
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It's when the son's almost regretting leaving the far country. Maybe this isn't gonna work out after all.
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But the father comes running. What's your conception of the father? Do you need to climb through the window, do jumping jacks to get his attention, or do you see a
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God who is ready to forgive, looking for you? Knows you better than you know yourself, inside and out.
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And he's just looking, ready to pardon, abundant to show mercy. This is how
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God loves. This is who God is. Beloved, John says, let us love one another for love is from God.
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Whoever loves has been born of God, knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know
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God. Why would that be true? Because God is love. If you've tasted and seen the
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Lord's goodness, if you've known and experienced this kind of love, it's so transformative that it cannot be for long, not at length, that a
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Christian can live in relationships without that love. Not without feeling that a bone is out of joint.
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Not without feeling like there's a charcoal cloud in an otherwise nice sky. A Christian is instinctively looking for mercy and love and display of forgiveness because that's how the
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Christian is living their life. It's what they've received. It's the mercy that renews every morning. Does God's mercy renew to us every morning and every afternoon we withhold mercy from others?
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Oh, it cannot be. If I love my neighbor as I love myself, it's actually showing that I love
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God. If I love
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God in the way that he's loved me, I'm going to love my neighbor more than I did yesterday because it's the love of God that was made manifest among us.
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As 1 John goes on to say, this is chapter four. God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
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In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us. Sent his son as a propitiation for our sins.
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Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. You see, this is simply another variation on the golden rule.
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This is what God has done for you. Go do this to others. This is how it is toward you, so do this toward others.
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If God loved you in this way, you must love in this way. And the idea is
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God freely gave. He did not spare his own son. The son freely gave his life.
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Not under compulsion, but willingly. He says, I lay my life down of my own accord. No one takes it from me.
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I'm doing this. The Roman soldiers aren't taking my life from me. That execution squad is not taking my life from me.
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The sinners that are surrounding Calvary and they're screaming out, they're hurling insults, they're not taking my life from me.
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I'm laying my life down. No one's doing it but me. It shouldn't be for a
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Christian that mercy or love has to be extracted from your life, like drilling for oil.
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Do you understand what I'm saying? There's this willingness, this freedom.
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I'm going to do this. Not because I'm in some judo arm lock and I'm crying uncle and I'll finally forgive.
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Not because it's been extracted under extreme duress. Not because I've had water drop torture.
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I'm like, okay, fine, I'll forgive. No, it's I'm going to do it. I'm doing it.
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I'm showing mercy. Because that's how freely, how richly, how abundantly God has shown mercy to me.
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It's a heart that's overflowing with that kind of humility that can show that kind of love. It's all done in gratitude toward God.
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It's not easy to forgive sinners. But it's a little bit easier when you're doing it for the sake of Christ and you understand what
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Christ has done for you. And so if you can't forgive them for what they've done, if you can't forgive them for what they've been, you forgive them for the sake of Christ.
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And with your eyes fixed upon him, you will be able to forgive. Think of how the church had to learn how to forgive
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Paul. I always wonder how awkward it would have been for Paul to show up for a church potluck with the relatives or cousins or family members of people he had put in prison or even consented to death.
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Awkward, right? Hey, I'm the apostle now.
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Sorry about what happened to your uncle. That was a dark time, right? It's just how do you smooth that over?
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In some way, these Christians had to recognize at the end of the day, I'm really no different than Paul.
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I was a hater of God too, just like the rest. Sinful, rebellious.
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Hating God, hating others. I mean, yeah, Paul's actions have directly affected me and my family, but I'm no different than Paul.
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And when I think of what Christ has forgiven me, I certainly can forgive Paul. What helped that, of course, was
01:00:16
Paul being rather humble. In his letters, he almost never forgets who he was outside of Christ. And that's part of it.
01:00:21
It shows that Paul, even as the mighty apostle to the Gentiles, never quite left that Psalm 51 posture, because he's always recounting his testimony in this way.
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This is who I was, this is what I did. You've heard of my former conduct, how I persecuted the church, I tried to destroy it.
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Christ changed all that. It's a constant memory in Paul's ministry.
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It needs to be a constant memory in our own. What have you been saved from? How did that salvation come about? What does that mean for the way that you relate to others?
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It's a good thing for us to consider what we were, where we would be. Just think about what does Paul say to the church at Corinth?
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Such were some of you, he's reminding them. You're all preening and posturing like you're God's gift to the earth.
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What were you? This is what you were like before, 1 Corinthians. It's a good thing for us to not take that for granted.
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Who am I outside of Christ? What's my life like? How would I be? How would I act? How would I behave?
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I'm in Christ and I'm not even close to being what I ought to be. But thank
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God he's changed me from what I was, from how I was, from where I've been, from where I would be.
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And we don't do that to hang our heads in shame, but it is to humble us and make us grateful. This is what it means to start living out the golden rule.
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You're actually understanding who you are because you're understanding who God is. You're understanding what you're like as you're understanding in contrast what
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God is like. It ought to bury your head in humility but lift your chin in gratitude.
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This is precisely what the golden rule is calling us to do. If we go back to Philemon just for a moment, this is what
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Paul wants Philemon to see. You can imagine Philemon almost saying, hey, this is great.
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You met Onesimus for what, two weeks? I've known him for years. He's thieving, rebellious, disrespectful.
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I followed all the commandments that you gave me. I treated him justly, I was fair, I was patient. I've been a good master.
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You can ask my other servants. I don't have any other servants. Quite like Onesimus, he was the only problem. And that's not with me, it's not with how
01:02:30
I run things, it's with him. So Paul, I'm sorry, you just don't know Onesimus. You don't know what you're talking about.
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You're out of your depth here. Send him back to me. I'll see what I'll do about him. That's not what
01:02:41
Paul is doing. That's not what he's allowing Philemon to say. If the response is he's not worthy of your love,
01:02:48
Paul, he's not worthy of my acceptance, I'm certainly not able to forgive him. What would that say about the way Philemon understood himself?
01:02:55
Was he worthy? Did he deserve forgiveness? Should he have been received by Christ? And what does that say about his perception of Christ, which is why
01:03:05
Paul is always sowing in Christ? What kind of mercy was shown? How full and rich and free was that grace?
01:03:12
Was it inevitable? Was it almost owed? Or is it almost unspeakable?
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Because you understood it's almost impossible that you would receive it. How could it be? Oh, brothers and sisters,
01:03:28
I hope we never just treat grace like it's something inevitable. We sing amazing grace and we don't really sing it like it's really that amazing.
01:03:40
Amazing grace. It's like, just stop and think about grace. It's not inevitable.
01:03:46
It's not something that was just gonna come one way or the other. It's almost impossible to think that a holy
01:03:53
God would not spare his own peerless son and to take on my sin and die a death
01:03:59
I deserve, to bear hell on the cross for me, and I'm gonna just think that was inevitable to the degree that I'm almost thinking it, yeah, that's fine and well,
01:04:11
I've received that kind of grace, but this situation is different. This relationship is different. This person is different. Now, these offenses are different.
01:04:18
It shows I haven't understood the first thing about the gospel. Not the first thing. Where does free forgiveness come from?
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I wanna close here. Where does free forgiveness come from?
01:04:42
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went to the Pharisee's house, and he sat down to eat. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the
01:04:52
Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, stood at his feet behind him weeping, began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head, and she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil, and when the
01:05:07
Pharisee who had invited Jesus saw this, he spoke to himself in his heart, saying, if this man were a prophet, he would know what manner of woman this is who is touching him.
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She's a sinner. Jesus said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And so he said, oh, teacher, say it.
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There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii, the other 50.
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When they each had nothing to repay with, he freely forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more?
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Simon answered and said, I suppose the one who was forgiven more. He said to him, you're right. And then he turned to the woman and he said to Simon, please notice that.
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It's the most important detail here in Luke 7. He turned to the woman and he said to Simon, this is not just a pronouncement for the woman.
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He's teaching, he's rebuking Simon. So he turns to the woman and he says to Simon, do you see this woman?
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I entered your house, you gave me no water for my feet. She's washed my feet with her own tears, wiped them with her own hair.
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You gave me no kiss. This woman's not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil.
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Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven because she loved much.
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But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Where does free forgiveness come from?
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The one who loves much is the one who recognizes how much they've been forgiven.
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And that same one is able to forgive. That same one is able to love. If you have a problem forgiving someone else, especially one that is a brother or a sister, you don't have a forgiveness problem with them, you have a love problem with Christ.
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Let me say that again. If you're struggling to forgive someone, especially one who is a brother or a sister, you don't have a forgiveness problem with them, you have a love problem with Christ.
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You're not rightly recognizing who He is. You are the Simon in this scenario, not the woman.
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Our forgiveness is a condition of God's forgiveness. God wants us to display
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His forgiveness in our forgiveness as we acknowledge the Gospel by reenacting that grace that we've received.
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Do we know what it is to forgive in this way? Brothers and sisters, do we love in this way? As J .C.
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Ryle says, do we know what it is to be of forgiveness? Can we forgive injuries we've received in this evil world?
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Can we pass over transgressions? Can we pardon offense? If not, where is our Christianity?
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Therefore, as you would have others do unto you, so do unto them. This is the law and the prophets, amen?
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Let's pray. Father, we thank
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You for Your Word, Lord. Your Word cuts to the very marrow, joints, divisions, even of our souls,
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Lord. Your Word alone endures forever. Lord, it's Your Word. Your Word is more honest than we are honest, more truthful than we are truthful.
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Your Word is light, Lord, exposing darkness in our minds, in our hearts, in our lives. May we be as those who don't just hear these words, leave unaffected.
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Those that look in a mirror, see something for a moment, and then forget it as soon as our eyes are away. May we be those who hear and do, those who see and retain, those who understand this
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Word that is given to us. May we recognize,
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Lord, to the degree that we are the Simon, that our chief priority is to be as David was in Psalm 51, to so thirst and desire a mercy from You that in receiving it, we have a love of gratitude that bears humility and enables and even compels love toward others,
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Lord. May those who have been forgiven, forgive. May those who have been reconciled, reconcile.
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May those who have been loved, love. May those who have been shown mercy, show mercy.
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Lord, fulfill in us by Your own Spirit this kingdom righteousness. It is so far from our flesh, we cannot do it.
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Lord, I ask You to forgive me. I've been cynical in ways I should never be cynical. Forgive me for rolling my eyes in ways that You never roll
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Yours. Forgive me for not acknowledging my position before You and all that I've received and giving some paltry return of the love that You show me every single morning.
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And bless us as a congregation, Lord. May this become a very hotbed of mercy, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation.
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We know it's the very power of the Gospel that sinners be reconciled to You and to one another as the body of Christ.
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And in this way, may You break the jaws of the evil one, put asunder our flesh and all that hinders our way, equip us and cause us to stand as it were, washing us and purging us and cleansing us by the sanctifying power of Your Holy Spirit who's indwells us, by whom we know
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You and by whom we cry out to You through the Son. Oh God, help us in this way, we pray in Jesus' name.