Introduction to Philemon - Divine Forgiveness

All righty, let's turn to Luke chapter 15. Are all my kids okay in there,

Mom? Okay. We're going to start in verse 11, and this is a very well -known parable, and it says, and he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father,

Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and he divided into them his living.

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him.

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger.

I will arise and will go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put on a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.

And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing, and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

And he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came in his father out, and entreated him, and he answered and said to his father,

Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time at thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

And he said unto him, Son, thou art forever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad.

For this thy brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found."

It's quite the story. Now in this particular parable, the Lord uses pretty vivid imagery for us to understand a particular truth.

And one of those would be the problem that a lot of us have, kind of our inherent selfishness, and even in some cases disregard for the blessings that He gives us.

This particular prodigal son, he was in fact a son, that's a given, and yet he lived like the world, not like his upbringing, not like the model or the example that his father had set.

The father in this story, from our perspective, had of course every right to be upset, perhaps even disgusted by his son's behavior that went and wasted all that his father had worked hard to provide him with.

So you have this very strange dynamic going on, and with it being a parable, of course there are several spiritual truths we can take out of it, again one of which we can kind of see this problem that any one of us could ever fall prey to, that being a general disregard for our blessings and going out and kind of wasting that which the

Lord has given us. But of course there are other implications beyond that as well.

Again, the father in this particular parable, he had every right to be very upset, perhaps even disgusted, and yet what we have is something that's very difficult for the human mind to understand, even us sometimes, certainly for the world to understand, but even as believers it can be hard for us to understand as well.

And that's partially due to the fact that of all the attributes that a creature, a created being of God, can manifest, of all of the attributes that he can, there's perhaps no other that reflects the creator, the creator of that creature, more than the attribute of forgiveness, being able to forgive a person for an egregious sin made against the forgiver.

This story is, of course, it's just that, it's a story that Jesus is using to illustrate this particular divine attribute that he certainly has as he is kind of bringing to our attention here, but there's a little bit more to it,

I believe. It's a parable and it's being used by Jesus to, again, demonstrate how impartial his forgiveness is as Lord, how impartial his forgiveness is when it comes to his kids.

Whether you're the hardworking son that honors his father, like the older brother at the end of the story is kind of described as being, or the prodigal son that blew it all for the sake of his own pleasure, for the sake of conceit, just again made a mockery of what his dad had worked hard to provide him with, and yet both brothers were equally deserving of forgiveness.

The father made it very clear at the end of the story that his forgiveness is equal to them both.

Of course, this is a picture of Jesus as Lord, having that impartiality in his forgiveness for his kids.

There are going to be some that walk the Christian walk quite a bit better than others, but if you are one of his, if you are a part of his fold, the shepherd, he's not partial.

He's going to go out, he's going to bring in those that have gone astray, and he's going to be glad when he does so.

If not, perhaps even showing a particular kind of gladness that he wouldn't, at least the way that this story describes it, with those that remain in the fold safe and sound the whole time, because he was lost, and then he was found.

He was dead, and then he was alive again. You can imagine the motion as a father, as an earthly father, of what this particular dad was experiencing when he saw his son, and yet that is a parable demonstrating

Jesus's forgiveness for his kids. But obviously all that is true.

There's that deep spiritual truth there. Per the echo principle, we can also take this parable as an example of our ability to do the same,

I believe. As dad says numerous times, if Jesus is going to use a physical story to represent a spiritual truth, the physical must be true.

The echo has to come from a true voice. And when you listen to these stories of physical things happening, then we can gather that there are truths there that apply to us in the physical realm, in addition to the spiritual truths we can pull from it as well.

So another thing we can take from this parable, I believe, is an example of our ability to forgive, to be forgiving, the way that the father was forgiving in this particular parable.

To express forgiveness, even when there's no logical basis for doing so, again, this is something that goes beyond the realm of understanding for the world, but even for us to the human mind in general.

It takes biblical knowledge to be able to understand a forgiveness that goes beyond any kind of logical basis for forgiving or any kind of gain, perhaps, in forgiving.

Because we ourselves, of course, have been forgiven, we shouldn't think it so strange.

But you can only have that understanding if you are one of the ones that have been forgiven and that you have knowledge of what the word has to say about it.

Because we have been forgiven, it should be something that we can understand and something that we can manifest ourselves.

Now, notice in this parable that the father's heart of forgiveness is particularly eager.

He doesn't just sit and think about whether the forgiveness should be justified by his emotional rights to be grumpy about the situation.

In other words, he's not dwelling on the fact that, I mean, put yourself in his shoes for just a second, for the dads out there.

Put yourself in his shoes. And you have spent, I don't know, it doesn't say how old the son is in the story, but let's say he's maybe early 20s, maybe late teens, early 20s.

He's a man at this point, though. And you have dedicated, maybe even older than that, honestly, and you've dedicated your entire life as the dad, raising him up, teaching him how to live.

Presumably, I mean, I know this is a parable, but we can kind of assume that the father in the story raised him up in the law of the

Lord, or because Jesus was using him as an example of himself.

And you put all this work and this time and this dedication into it. And not only that, but you worked physically.

You labored so that you had a solid inheritance to give your sons. And you give it to them. And then he goes and he does what he did.

He blew it all on harlots and for pleasure and for this, that, and the other. Put yourself in his shoes, and you can see that you would probably feel like it'd be justified to get a little grumpy about it, maybe be a little bit upset.

And, you know, who knows what other kind of emotion that you might exhibit in that particular time. But in this story, he doesn't do that.

He doesn't sit and dwell on it for a while and think whether or not it would even be appropriate to hand out the impartial forgiveness to this son that did the things that he did.

He didn't think about whether or not he should be punishing his son for the irresponsibility that he went out and did.

You know, just the irresponsible personality that he had. He didn't feel the need to go into his closet and, you know, he sees his son coming off in the distance.

I forgot. Ash and I were listening to a sermon recently, and I forgot exactly how he worded it.

But he said something along the lines of, like, he sees his son coming, and he didn't feel the need to go sit in his closet and kind of wait for the grace, you know, wait for the grace to fall upon him so that he could go out and forgive.

It's not like he had to do any of that. What he did was he had no reluctance at all on his part to run toward his son.

He wasn't even going to wait for the son, the sinner, the one that transgressed against him, to arrive and ask for forgiveness.

He didn't wait for any of that. You notice in the story when the son starts to kind of say what he had premeditated he would say, the dad didn't address any of it.

He immediately turns his attention to the servants and is like, go get the calf, go get the robe, go get the ring.

He didn't even, like, he totally ignored the stuff that the son had kind of planned out in his head that he would say.

He didn't care about any of it. He didn't need an apology. He was eager to forgive.

But again, this kind of dramatic forgiveness makes no sense to the human mind. In fact, it's perhaps by definition foolishness to the world, because the moment that someone feels mistreated, it then becomes their prerogative to write off the offender, at least from our point of view.

It's their prerogative to write that person off, never think about them again, or certainly never think about them in a personal,

I'm sorry, a positive light again. And that might normally be the case.

I would assume that the large majority of offenses made from one person to another throughout human history has resulted in that person, the one that was offended, you know, feeling the right to write that person off and to put them out of their mind.

But a higher standard is possible than that. The world may not understand it in general, but we do have the ability to do so.

Let me read a couple of verses to you all to demonstrate this. In Ephesians 4, verse 32, it says,

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Christ, or I should say God for Christ's sake, as Paul puts it here, forgave us for the abominable act of rejecting his son for sinning, for having sin nature and being in rebellion to his mandates, to his law, and so on and so forth.

He forgave us for all of that. So you can imagine if you take a person, you think of that person, and you think of the worst possible offense they could ever do to you, multiply that times however many billions of people whose sins

Christ forgave or God forgave because of the sacrifice that Christ made. And that is the standard.

That's the example that Paul gives us here is the reasoning for why we should forgive. So you think, well, golly, if that's what we're supposed to be striving for, if that's the model, then

I better get my act together. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

It was a very intentional side -by -side that Paul made there. And then later in Colossians, he does something similar in chapter 3, verse 12.

It says, Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long -suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.

Even if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Notice that in the Ephesians passage, Paul said, God for Christ's sake forgave you.

In the Colossians passage, he says, even as Christ forgave you. The apostles had no problem talking in Trinitarian terms.

It's the whole thing, the Godhead. We have been forgiven by God.

And because of that, we need to forgive one another. Again, the standard could not be higher.

And put that right next to the common approach to these things, like I said a second ago.

You did me wrong, so it is now my right to write you off.

That is the common approach to offenses done to a particular person, and yet we're given this far higher standard.

If we start piecing these classic passages together, you get the very clear message that because God is a forgiving

God, not that He could be a forgiving God, but that He is, in fact, a forgiving God, we need to be forgiving others.

In fact, it's actually even stronger than that, because you have been forgiven, past tense.

This is an act that has already taken place. Therefore, you should forgive, because we're about to read a parable here in a second that demonstrates exactly what

Paul is talking about. Jesus Himself gave a parable of just how ridiculous we would look if we don't forgive because of the ultimate forgiveness we get to take part in, that has been done to us past tense already.

Let me read one more verse, and we'll go to another parable that demonstrates that. Yeah, go ahead. Colossians 3, verses 12 and 13.

A couple verses we'll be getting to in the main services not too long from now.

James 2, verse 13 says, For he shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy.

Think about that for a second. He shall have judgment without mercy, who hath showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

So we have a lot of examples throughout Scripture of what ultimately happens to people that are slow to forgive, or perhaps are unforgiving wholesale.

And yet we learn here that mercy triumphs over judgment. Why is that? Why is that the case?

Well, it's because mercy and forgiveness are of God. Again, this is a divine attribute we're talking about that totally, if you think about it, transcends the natural abilities of man.

This is something that if you think about it, and if you really dig down and think of the definition of forgiveness, and we can often think about another in that sermon

I was referencing a minute ago, he gave the example of someone walking around the corner, and you hit them, and their drink kind of spills on you a little bit, and they're like, oh,

I'm sorry, it was an accident, and the person's like, don't worry about it. I guess that could be an example of forgiving, but it's not really, because if you think about it, the kinds of things that we are commanded to forgive for are the very things that you don't want to forgive for.

That's what we're talking about. We're talking about, again, egregious acts of offenses of sins, transgressions made against you, the very things you would never want or have the desire to forgive for, and by the world's standards, have every right to cast that person out of your fellowship, out of your circle forever.

Those are the things that we are mandated to forgive for, even as Christ himself forgave us.

And so, again, forgiveness, mercy, these are things of God, and unrighteous judgment is a pitfall for unrighteous people.

So in other words, when you see people out there making judgments not based on an objective standard, but based on their feelings and things of that sort, unrighteous judgments, that's going to turn out to be a pitfall on themselves at some point, and in fact, as James 2 .13

tells us, those that are without mercy will be showed no mercy themselves. Let's turn to Matthew 18 for a minute and read one more parable.

I'm sorry, Matthew 18. I may have said 13. Matthew 18, let's start in verse 21.

And this, you know, the prodigal son, okay, look, we can get on board with that. This is something we can maybe understand just being a parent, and having, you know, what

I would think being a supernatural love toward other human beings, that is your offspring.

I think that even in the lost world, you know, unbelievers, when they have kids,

I believe part of kind of a general grace, a general mercy, that human beings all, as image bearers of God, receive, are some of his attributes, one being love, but more than that, the ability to have kind of an inexplicable love for certain people, that being your spouse, your kids, maybe other family members.

That's very unique to the human race, and again, I think that's a reflection of God's attributes, one of his attributes.

We can kind of get on board with the prodigal son deal, because, yeah, he did some gross things. He embarrassed himself.

He embarrassed the family name, perhaps, all these things. And the father forgives him of all of it quickly, eagerly, without hesitation.

And at first, you're like, ah, that's kind of weird, you know, but I can get on board with it because I'm a dad, and I can kind of see how that's the case.

But this parable takes it a totally different direction. Same theme from Jesus on the importance of forgiveness.

Let's see what he has to say. Chapter 18 of Matthew, starting in verse 21. And then came

Peter to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?

Until seven times? And Jesus saying to him, I say unto thee, until seven times, but...

Oh, I'm sorry, I say not unto thee, until seven times, but... until seventy times seven.

And then he goes into this parable. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.

So picture who these individuals in this parable are representing. We have our king here.

I think that goes without saying who that represents. He's likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.

And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents, an enormous amount, an enormous debt, very, very large.

But for as much as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made.

The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.

This is a particularly interesting parable for a lot of reasons, some of which we don't necessarily have time to go into today, but just big picture here.

Pay attention to what's going on. So at first he realizes the servant can't pay the debts, so he tells him what he needs to do to pay the debts.

And the servant falls. I believe what's happening here is it's a parable of the reality of kind of what

Jesus was doing through his ministry, showing people ask, what do I need to do to be saved? And sometimes he would respond with, go do this, go do that.

In fact, the rich man, he said, go sell all your possessions.

Give it to the poor. And, of course, he did say, follow me. That's obviously very important there.

But the doing, the work that Jesus was telling him he needed to do was beyond what he could do or perhaps wanted to do, and he was sad about it.

But then even go beyond that and think about all of the times where Jesus is talking about, if you want to live, if you want to be saved by the law, here's what you have to do.

Cut off your right hand if it offends you, because that'd be better than suffering in hell. Pluck your eye out, because that'd be better than suffering in hell.

So it's like Jesus is giving an example of what it would take to be saved by the law, and the conclusion always comes back to, well, you can't.

It'd be impossible to do so. So I think the first part of that parable is kind of talking about that a little bit. You can't pay your debts, so go.

So sell yourself, your wife, your children, all that you have. And the servant's like, I can't do that.

Please, you know, give me some more time. And then the Lord has compassion, and he just forgives it all.

Like he goes from telling him exactly what he needs to do to pay off the debts. The servant can't do it.

And with compassion, the Lord just forgives it all. Very, very interesting stuff.

Verse 28 says, But, and this is where it gets really funny, the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence, which, of course, is a considerably, considerably smaller debt to be owed than what this same guy owed his king, his servant,

I'm sorry, his lord as servant. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay me what you owe me.

So a second ago, when I was saying, we have the world standards of what to do when you're offended, right?

You have the prerogative to write the person off. It kind of goes beyond the comprehension of the world when we start talking about forgiving such transgressions.

You're like, what? Why would you even do that? Did you not see what the guy did to you? And yet from God's perspective, this is what we look like when we live by the world standard and write the person off rather than using

Jesus' sacrifice and his forgiveness as the ultimate example to strive for, that higher standard to strive for.

This is how ridiculous we look. Think about how ridiculous this guy looks. He grabs him by the throat, saying, pay me what thou owe us.

Verse 29 says, And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee the exact same answer that this first guy gave to the king.

And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt.

Which is a catch -22, if I've ever heard one. How's he going to, if he's in prison, how's he going to get the money?

And he would not, but he threw him in prison until he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their

Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant,

I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?

And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that he was due unto him.

So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.

And I believe that those final couple of verses there are a good parallel to what James was telling us when he said,

For he shall have judgment without mercy, for he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy.

I believe it's the people he's talking about at the end of the parable there. So again, this is how silly a person looks when they have been forgiven, when they have been granted ultimate forgiveness by the most egregious sins that you can even think of, and then yet don't return the favor, don't pay it forward, if you will, to those that have done just a minute sin or offense or whatever it may be to them.

What was it, 10 pence or something like that? Or 100 pence, again, just considerably lower debt than the original.

And then he grabbed him by the throat and threw him in prison. John MacArthur had an interesting quote in the context of this parable.

He said, You should pay your debtors what you can pay, even though you could never afford to pay what you owe.

That's what hell is. Hell is spending forever paying what you could pay, which never actually pays the debt that you fully owe, because you have affronted

God so greatly as one who has rejected his son. So his point is, if you want to do what the servant was originally asking to do, just give me more time, and I will pay what

I can. If you view your salvation, if you want to look at it in the spiritual sense for a second, what the parable represents, you're thinking of your salvation as a means of, well, give me more time, and I'll get there.

I'll pay what I can. I know the debt is too great. I know the penalty owed for the debt that I owe is ultimately death, but I can't really pay that, so I'll pay what

I can. Well, MacArthur is saying, paying what you can but never being able to afford what you owe is the definition of hell, and that's exactly what people in hell will be doing for all of eternity.

Through their torment, they will be paying what they can, but it wasn't enough for what they owed, and therefore they are cast into outer darkness where they can never even have hope of being in the presence of a holy

God again. And so you have to have a higher forgiveness that is outside of your ability.

You have to have someone else to pay the debt and then to forgive you because the debt has been paid on your behalf in order for you to escape having to for eternity pay what you can but not ever being able to pay it in full.

So that's a crazy idea there. Let's go back to the very beginning for just a second.

When Jesus addresses Peter's question, and he says the whole 70 times 7 thing, he gives a particular number multiplied greatly.

So should I forgive seven times? No, I say 70 times 7. So he takes a particular number. He multiplies that greatly.

But what Jesus is getting at here is the need for us to forgive indefinitely.

It's not necessarily like, okay, that person did me wrong, so I need to get out some tallies and make sure

I get to 70 times 7, and then I'm where I need to be. That's not what Jesus is saying.

He's multiplying that number that Peter originally started with.

You could tell Peter was approaching it maybe from the mindset of the law, like is seven good enough? He's trying to come up with his number.

He's like, no, multiply that by 70, and then he goes into the parable.

But again, what I think Jesus is getting at here is that it's indefinite. There's not a minimum of forgiveness.

Just forgive and keep forgiving. We don't need to keep account of the offenses done to us, but rather forgive exhaustively, as I believe what

Jesus is getting at there, with God himself as our example, like Paul said in those passages we read earlier.

Why don't we need to keep account of offenses made against us? Well, one of the reasons is because God is the one keeping account of everything, and He is the righteous judge that will act at some point in our future.

We don't need to keep account of offenses because God is taking care of it for us. So let's go ahead and forgive and emulate

Him and let Him take care of what needs to be taken care of later. Let me read this really quick, and y 'all can turn there if you want.

But chapter 32 of Deuteronomy, starting in verse 27, illustrates this particular point.

We don't need to take account of offenses made against us because of this.

Deuteronomy 32, starting in verse 27, Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, unless they should say,

Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. By the way, this is the context of the Song of Moses, again in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, a magnificent chapter and passage here.

Verse 28, For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.

Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, and they would consider their latter end. How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them, and the

Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, in the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me?

So, this is God talking through Moses through this song, and he says,

Is all of this that Moses just finished describing, is not all of this laid up in store with me and sealed up among my treasures?

What does this mean? God is taking account. He's taking an account of all of this that's happening.

He's not going to forget any of it. So, we don't need to worry about just the wrongdoings that are done to us because the

Lord is the one taking account of it. We don't need to worry about it. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.

Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Vengeance is the Lord's. It's not ours. And so, we don't need to take account of all these, but rather forgive exhaustively as Jesus later builds upon this idea.

God multiplies His pardons over His people, and we should model that in our own lives.

You could mark Psalm 78, 38. I won't go there just for the sake of time, but that is a good illustration of that idea.

We should model multiplying pardons over those around us just as God multiplied

His pardons over His people. Forgiveness is not only a matter of blessing and fellowship, but also is a matter of the assurance of your salvation.

So, think about forgiveness in this context for a second. People might ask, how do I know I'm saved?

How can I be sure? And if you take our salvation experience from God's point of view, you're looking at it from His point of view, you think, how can

I be sure that I'm of the elect? How can I be sure that I'm of His fold, that I'm one of His sheep, that I'm going to be a wheat harvested at the end, and not a tare that's bundled up and thrown into the furnace?

I won't even say ability, but rather our record of forgiving, our desire to forgive others based on the transgressions made against us, based on the offenses made against us, is one of the greatest signs of our salvation, one of the greatest fruits, or as Dad put it a couple of weeks ago, symptoms of our salvation is forgiveness.

So, if you find yourself desiring to forgive the way God forgave His people, then that is one of the surest signs of your salvation.

And one of the things that can help you persevere to the end, finish the race strong, is by bringing that into remembrance and thinking about the fact that I have this,

I'll just call it ability for lack of a better term right now, I have this ability, I have this desire, I have this record of forgiving others for their sins against me, and I only have that not because I'm a great person, but because I am emulating my own creator, who did the ultimate forgiveness of my sins as well as all of His people.

So, forgiveness is a matter not of just blessing, fellowship, being close, having a close relationship with your brothers and sisters in the

Lord, but a matter of the assurance of your own salvation. Listen to this awesome quote. This is from a

Puritan named Thomas Watson, who I believe he was the guy that wrote A Body of Divinity, which was a master work of the

Puritan age. And this is a quote from him. He said, referring to forgiveness, he says,

We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven.

Let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. If we can, we need not doubt.

But God has forgiven us. If we see ourselves and see a past performance of being able to forgive others, we don't need to doubt that God Himself has forgiven us.

And as MacArthur put it, there is no other attribute more divine than that of forgiveness. You can think of other attributes, love, the ability to, you know, maybe have mercy on a person if you want to separate those terms.

They're kind of synonymous in biblical terms. But if you're thinking about it just kind of casually, you know, a person may feel good about having quote unquote mercy on a person because maybe they have something to gain out of it, you know, or something of that along those lines.

And you can think of other attributes as well. There's nothing, there's not any attribute more divine, more emulating of God Himself than the ability to forgive.

So with all that being said, the underlying theme of not only the study that we're about to begin, that we're about to embark on, but also just scripture in general is that we are never closer again,

I'll use this phrase, to emulating God than when we forgive, when we forgive others of trespasses made against us.

And such forgiveness, it should actually be something that comes easy to us because again, we have in past tense been forgiven already.

If we call that to mind and we remember that, forgiving others will be infinitely more doable and easier to the point where it's foolishness to the rest of the world.

Now, the priority of forgiveness comes to us in scripture, not only in the principle of the thing or even through parables, which we read previously, those were parables that Jesus gave us to demonstrate what forgiveness looks like or should look like.

But we also have scripture discussing this in very personal terms, which brings us to the book that we are going to be studying verse by verse, and that's going to be the book of Philemon.

A very short little book. Brother Bill once said in a tape, he said, the smaller the book, the bigger the message.

And that was in the context of he was having to step in for brother Bill like back in 2000, a long time ago.

He wasn't our Sunday school teacher yet. Brother Otis was gone. Brother Bill had to step in for it, and he was telling everybody in the crowd how he was trying to pick what he would discover.

He's like, well, maybe I'll do something short like Jude or Jonah even.

And he gave a couple of examples, and he was like, then I realized I would need to go through a whole seminar course with Pastor David before I'd be ready to do something like that.

And then he said the thing about the smaller the book, the bigger the message. You can think of books like Jude or Obadiah that we studied last year or the smaller epistles of John.

Philemon falls into that same category. It's small, but it packs quite the punch. And within it, what we're going to find is that Paul's teachings of the deeper doctrines of the

Bible are just as prevalent as in his other writings. You know, Colossians that we're reading now,

Ephesians. You've got the letters to the Corinthians, to Romans, and so on and so forth.

Yet you have this tiny little personal letter written to a friend, only 25 verses long, to Philemon.

And what we will find is that the deep doctrines of all of Paul's other writings are going to be found in this tiny little letter as well.

But an important theme that kind of undergirds the entire letter that we're going to go verse by verse through,

I guess starting next week now that it's 1052, is the theme of forgiveness, which is why we spent a good amount of time this morning talking about that.

Paul will give one of the most compassionate exhortations that we have to a very close friend, that being

Philemon, to forgive a trespass that would normally seem unforgivable.

And from that exhortation, we can learn that this is possible even for us, even when it seems like an impossible task for us to do, to accomplish.

So, anyways, that's just the intro for the book. There are other things beyond just that theme in Philemon, but, again, it's kind of the underlying foundation or theme of it as we'll make our way through it, as short as it is.

So does anyone have any thoughts or anything they'd like to share before we close it today?

I think it's interesting, the line, the theme. Well, if there is a line,

I wonder if there's even a point we can get to where it would ever be foolish to forgive.

Well, if you look at Jesus' parables just at face value, you would have to say no, because he gives the example of the prodigal son.

The dad had every right to be upset, and yet he forgave urgently, eagerly.

Then you have the parable of the guy that owed the debt but was forgiven but then decided, eh,

I'm not going to forgive my debts. You have that. So those are parables. In Philemon, we have a real -life example, to your point,

Matt, of is there ever a reason why – is there ever a way to justify not forgiving?

That's what I'm trying to say. And so we'll see what this real -life story, this historical story, has to say about that idea.

Yes, sir? I'm thinking about those who have apologized, in other words, who haven't asked for forgiveness.

You should never forgive anyone who hasn't asked for forgiveness.

Well, what I would say is – I think what you meant by that is you shouldn't tell them. That's exactly it.

Right. You haven't asked for forgiveness. It doesn't mean you don't forgive them in your heart. Well, think about it. It would be a little bit awkward if a person came and just absolutely laid down egregious offenses on you and then was prideful about it and went off.

It would be a little bit awkward if you tracked them down and said, I forgive you. That, I think, is what

Otis was talking about. If they're not coming – if they didn't repent and then confess to the

Lord that what they did was wrong and then come to you asking for forgiveness, it would not only be awkward, but it probably wouldn't even be appropriate to verbally go out of your way to forgive that person because, in a way, if you think about it – we could take this a number of directions, but it could be a way of you taking it into your own hands.

A little bit presumptuous. It should be the Lord working in that person's heart rather than you trying to get them to feel bad by preemptively forgiving.

However, with all that being said, you need to have the forgiveness in your heart immediately.

In your heart. You need to be prepared if that person does come to you three years later, which there's a great story – maybe

I'll tell it next week – of Ashton's grandpa. Of a guy that totally destroyed the unity of a church that her grandpa, as a pastor, worked hard for.

And single -handedly, devil of a guy, through manipulating, through sowing discord among the brethren, through everything you can imagine, got half the church against her grandpa, and he had to leave.

He left on his own terms. He didn't wait for them to kick him out or something. He left on his own terms because he was not going to do that.

And years later – I'm telling the story now, I guess – years later, the guy ended up coming back and coming to him in a gas station, who just found him crying on his shoulder and asking for forgiveness.

So what you need to be prepared for is you need to be ready to just unload that forgiveness eagerly long before the person ever comes to you asking for it.

So I think you can kind of meld that Otis' idea with the standards that Jesus is giving us and that Paul will give us in Philemon of being ready to forgive and even forgiving the person internally immediately.

Let me go to Ashton real quick. She raised her hand and said go. Yeah? Well, just before one of the parables that we read was where Jesus was saying, like if someone is sinning, a brother or sister is sinning, you go to them.

And there is an element of confronting sin and seeing if they're going to repent.

And if they don't, you're not supposed to just go, well, I'm going to punch you in the face.

How could you do this? In that second parable. And our attitude is supposed to be that we want to gain a brother or sister, like someone we love, like a brother or sister in Christ, like our family that we're supposed to be fellow servants with, workers with, and always striving for unity.

So I think, yes, there needs to be repentance because we can't just have all kinds of sin just running around in the church.

But your attitude should never be like, you need to repent because you sinned against me, rather like you sinned against God and you're my sister or my brother and I care and I don't want you to be walking down this path.

So I think repentance is important, but you can be compassionate towards someone.

Well, okay, yes. Compassion is not only a big theme in Philemon, which we'll get to, but in that same parable, it begins with the king showing compassion.

It even uses the word. And to Ashton's point, and I didn't even pull this out, but she's so right. The other servants were pointing out to the guy, like, what's your deal?

Like, why are you doing this? Why are you treating this guy this way? And he didn't care. And then it ends with him being tormented.

So, yes, go ahead, dad. Right. Right.

Yeah. Well...

Right. I have a theory as to the differences there, but take more study.

I almost... Well, that could be it.

That could... That could definitely be it. The thought that I had was, it is

God in both parables, but in the parable of the son, it's the context of him forgiving his kids.

And in the other, it's warning against unbelievers. But I don't know for sure.

The second parable is a little bit... There's a lot in there. This parable just kind of shows the responsibility of man's side.

Because... Yeah. ...just as equally a part of it as the sovereignty of God.

Right. They work together. I'm sorry.

No, that's all right. What were you going to say? If we're loving one another, we're not keeping our record of wrong, we are just approaching each other in a different way, where it is easy to forgive the moment someone asks for forgiveness, if we're not dwelling on how terrible they are and just reviewing and reviewing every sin they've ever done and building it up.

Right. My theory on that is, it goes along with the question, and the question would be, at what point did the

Father forgive us? Well... Did He forgive us when we asked for forgiveness?

Or did He forgive us prior to us asking for forgiveness? I think the

Father forgave us of everything a long time ago, perhaps before the foundation of the world, from the

Father's point of view. And if you don't want to go there, you could certainly say 2 ,000 years ago.

However, I think Jesus living in time, I believe He's the one looking down from heaven that when we sin against Him in time...

Because keep in mind, our sins were forgiven 2 ,000 years ago and yet we're living linearly and we're going to sin three days from now.

We haven't done it yet, but there's most likely a sin three days from now that we're going to do, not even know about it, perhaps.

And when we think about it, we feel bad. Isn't that kind of a paradox? If we've been forgiven past tense, you would think, why would we feel bad about it all?

And I think it comes down to the Lord structuring everything the way He did so that it all comes back to relationship with Him.

Because the moment we feel bad about it, we pray to Him, and we may even use the phrase,

Lord, forgive me. And I think it's appropriate because Jesus being in time with us is seeing all of this work out.

And He wants us to cleave to Him and to feel bad about it like a dad with his little kid and for the relationship to be made right.

So from the Father's viewpoint, I think He forgave us before the foundation of the world, His kids, and certainly 2 ,000 years ago when the propitiation and the imputation and the justification took place.

But from Jesus' viewpoint, when we sin day to day, maybe even from the Holy Spirit's viewpoint, we feel bad about it.

We say, I'm sorry. And He forgives us in that sense in real time. Like a fatherly sense.

Seeing it that way is the human perspective. Right. We may have already been forgiven, but we experience...

Let me put it this way. ...forgiveness in time. Yeah. I think it's that.

The picture is that if the Father forgave us before we even came asking for forgiveness, we're supposed to be more like the

Father. Right. We should, as you said, in our hearts, not be necessarily ready to forgive, but have already forgiven.

Right. Tell the person you're forgiven. Well... Because they need to fix the relationship.

But at that point, because we've already forgiven in our hearts, it is that easy just to...

It's not like your readiness to forgive. We have forgiven. Right. Communicating that forgiveness. Right. Communicating.

Well, I have no qualms with asking Jesus for forgiveness in real time, even with the understanding of knowing we have been forgiven past tense, and because of that, we will have eternal life.

However, and I say I have no qualms with it because I do it myself all the time, for better or worse, maybe if you dig deep enough, you will find that...

And here's what I'll end on. 1 John 1 .9. I think the terminology that John uses there is very important.

Jesus in His parables is using the terminology of forgiveness, and I think it represents forgiveness from us to others.

When it comes to our relationship with the Trinity, with the Godhead, whether you want to look at Jesus, the

Father, confess your sins, that's a little bit different than asking for forgiveness.

Because if we have been forgiving past tense, to confess simply means, as Dad says over and over again, we agree that what we just did is bad.

We feel bad about it. And what's the answer? You have been forgiven. So, biblically,

I think that is something we could probably drill down on. And even in our own personal prayer life, the

Holy Spirit is the one translating our prayers anyway. So if we use the wrong word, Lord, forgive me, rather than Lord, I confess, doesn't matter in that sense.

But that doesn't mean there's not an appropriate biblical understanding and structure of how it works, how forgiveness works from God to us.

There was a confession about this time. That's right.

He saw him coming. Yes. And then when the confession... He sees him coming and he can just tell on his face.

When the confession was made, the Dad ignored it and was like, go get the goat, go get the robe, go get the ring.

He didn't even address the confession. He didn't care. So anyways, all that's really interesting. Well, we are six minutes over.

Actually, 16 minutes over. Dave, would you mind dismissing us, please? Father, Father, we thank you for forgiving us.

We thank you for forgiving us. Please help us to look more like you.

We love you. We thank you for this awesome message. Help us to learn more about it. Amen.