Questions On Forgiveness (pt-1)

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Father, we just praise you for this beautiful morning, for this opportunity to get together and to look at what your word says about forgiveness.
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Father, we think of our men and women in uniform this weekend.
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Just pray that you would watch over them and Lord, we thank you for those who have fought and have died for the cause of freedom that we might gather together this morning and worship you freely.
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In Christ's name we pray, amen. Let me ask you a question not on the sheet.
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Is there anybody here this morning who just forgot to come Tuesday night to the concert? Did you just forget?
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Was everybody here? It was so good. Brother, I just,
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I pity, I have to go Mr. T, I pity the person who wasn't there on Tuesday night.
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You know, when you're done, why don't you just leave some by the back door in that way. And you know what, why don't
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I take a blank one too. This clip is not all it's cracked up to be.
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Okay, why don't we just go ahead and start. You probably got the first two done and then we'll just kind of go from there.
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What about that first question? The most important thing is to forgive yourselves, yourself, true or false?
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But if you can't forgive yourself, how can you forgive others?
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Listen to what MacArthur says about this. And I think this is a very common, and the reason I included this one is because I think this is very common in worldly thinking.
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You know, hey, you did a horrible thing, you need to forgive yourself. Now MacArthur says,
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I realize there are some who teach that a kind of self -forgiveness is necessary. And this next sentence is so key.
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I find this nowhere in scripture. Why would
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I say I think that's really key? Yeah, I mean, here's the practical aspect of that.
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You know, we say we believe in the Bible alone, Sola Scriptura. The Bible is, you know, the sole ground and proof of our faith and this is where we go when we have problems as we go to the
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Bible. And then we say things like, you know, I just can't forgive myself. I really feel bad about this,
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I can't forgive myself. I can't forgive myself either. But I've met, he says,
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I've met many people who claim to be unable to forgive themselves, but on careful examination, this usually turns out to be a kind of sinful pride made worse by modern self -esteem philosophy.
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When you are the center of the universe, when the things that you do wrong all come back on you, what happens?
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You know, you go out, you sin against somebody, you feel, I feel so bad about that. I can't forgive myself.
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I can't get this off my mind. I, I, I, I, what happens? You focus on yourself and what's the inevitable result of being focused on you?
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What's that? Idolatry. Idolatry, that, that's the, that's the sin. That's one of the things we would call it.
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But what happens, let's, you know, go outside your very biblical mindset for just a minute.
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What happens when everything in the world is about you and you, all of your thinking, all of your reflection, all of your, depression is what happens.
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If all I think about is how bad I am, how stupid I am, all the bad things
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I've done, then what do I do? I get depressed. When I talk to people and they're struggling with depression, what are they doing most of the time?
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And it's just like it's a never -ending cycle. I'm so depressed. Well, can I tell you why you're depressed?
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Because you're depressed. You just keep thinking about yourself and all the problems you have and the way you don't relate to people and the things that you're involved in and how everything is just seems to be bearing down on you and on you, on you.
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And when you have that focus, you are going to be depressed. It's just the outgrowth of that.
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J. Adams writes, the problem is not self -forgiveness.
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Their expressed agony comes from the very fact that in the worst way, they want to forgive themselves. In other words, they've done something and they know it's wrong.
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They want to forgive themselves. They want to put it all behind them. They want to bury it once for all. The problem is that people who talk this way recognize something more needs to be done.
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Forgiveness is just the beginning. It clears away the guilt. They also recognize that they are still the same person who did the wrong thing.
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And though they are forgiven, they have not changed without being able to articulate it, without being able to say it.
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They're using instead the jargon they have heard all around them, the worldly thinking. They're crying out for change.
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They want to know that they will never do the same thing again. He says, when as a counselor,
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I help them to deal with the problems in their lives that led to the wrong. In other words, the circumstances, the thinking, the actions that led to this sin in such a way that they come to a more biblical way of thinking, which leads to a more biblical way of living.
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And then I say, are you still having problems forgiving yourself? Invariably, they say no.
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So what's Adam saying? He's saying, you know what? You want to forgive yourself?
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Stop thinking the way you're thinking. All the things that led to the sin, stop doing those.
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Put off those activities, that way of thinking, and start thinking biblically.
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When you think biblically, you will forgive yourself as if that's actually what you'll do is you'll just stop worrying about yourself.
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You'll stop thinking about yourself. You'll stop being focused on yourself.
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Yes. Yes, you may. Yes.
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So yes. Right.
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And so let's just take that example. Someone obviously would have to be a woman as a young woman has an abortion.
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Can't make that a guy thing. She has an abortion and she needs to learn to forgive herself.
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Well, that's true. I think that's true because or the guy who was the captain of the
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Indianapolis, I think it was, you know, you'll forgive yourself for later. But the key is you can carry around that guilt forever.
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And as an unbeliever, I think I have no doubt if I was the captain of the Indianapolis, apart from Christ, I have no doubt that I would probably turn to alcohol or something else to kind of numb the pain, because that's something that would be with you all the time.
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Or even a young woman who's had an abortion. I know young women who've had abortions and then get saved.
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And it is a difficult thing to think, wow, you know, I did that. I actually took a life.
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And I think one of the important things about this morning that I hope we get is that the scope of God's forgiveness is not limited.
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He doesn't think like us. He doesn't operate like us. And you know what? We should all say amen.
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I'm glad. I'm glad that God is nothing like Steve. Can I get an amen? God sees the captain of the
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Indianapolis. He sees the young woman who's had an abortion. Does he like what they've done? Does he hate what they've done?
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And he doesn't like it. He hates it. It says he hates sin right in the Bible over and over again. The question is whether or not
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God can forgive things. And whether we can internalize that or not.
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That's the struggle. You know, do I really believe, and Charlie hit on this, do I really believe that Jesus died for all my sins or just for the ones that I don't think are that big of a deal?
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It's not up to me. The God of the universe decides what sins were placed on Jesus Christ.
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And if he placed, like the Bible says, if he placed all of my sins on Jesus on the cross, then all of my sins were placed on Jesus at the cross.
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And I need to act like that. It's not always easy. We can struggle with that.
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I agree. But the question and what we have to in any issue of life where we struggle with something, we have to constantly not focus on the struggle, but remind ourselves of what
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God has done for us. We had to wake up rejoicing because of what he's done for us, not going. I can't believe what
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I did 20, 30 years ago. How can God possibly forgive me? Well, he can because that's what he does.
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We don't take that lightly. We understand. And I think in both of those situations, there would be.
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It might take years and years and years, and we might never fully get over it, but to just wallow in it might indicate that we don't understand forgiveness at all.
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And if we don't understand forgiveness, then I would think we're not probably Christians. So, Daniel.
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And that's true. If you wake up in the morning thinking, I'm not worthy of forgiveness, well, okay,
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I'll go with that. You know, and that's the basic. I mean, if somehow we were worthy, then what's the big deal?
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If God looked at us and just thought, you know, he's a good guy. I'd forgive him in a heartbeat. We've got a wrong view of God.
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We've got a wrong view of sin. You know, we've just turned ourselves into Mormons. Sorry. Because it's just faulty.
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You know, it's like Lawson said, if we have a right view of God, if we exalt him enough and we think about where we really are, then our whole life is one of joy and thanksgiving and gratitude, and that's how we ought to live.
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You know, the downcast, depressed, feeling lower than dirt Christian, just not where we should be for more than about, you know, two or three minutes out of the day.
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We should not be thinking that way. And when we do, obviously we will. But when we do, we need to go, wait a minute, that's wrong thinking.
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I need to change the way I'm thinking because the way I'm thinking is an affront against God who purchased me, who forgave me, who paid for my sins.
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That's how we need to think. Any other questions? Okay, moving on to number two.
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Yes. Okay, how do we get from intellectualizing things to really affirming it, believing it in our spirit?
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And I think it's, you know, the same way we do anything.
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And it's basically what I'm trying to say is that we need to, we intellectually know something.
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And when we question that, when we doubt it, we need to be in the word. We need to be in prayer.
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We need to be focused on, you know, let's put it this way. If we focus on our sin, and I don't just mean the sins we're committing today.
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I think those are good things to be focused on. We want to live holier lives. But if we're focused on bringing up a catalog of everything that we've ever done in our lives, there's a lot more people here than I thought.
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We don't have enough time. If I sat down to pray this afternoon and I started cataloging all the sins that I could remember, by the way, that I could remember from youth till now, when would
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I stop praying and confessing my sins? I'd get nothing else done.
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So, what's that? Well, I'd be sinning,
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I'd be sinning because I'd be reflecting on things that I need to, you know, move on from.
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You know, it's easy to say confess and move on. And I don't think we should ever take sin that lightly.
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But we need to confess. Well, and I don't want to get ahead of everything. But the point is, we need to change the way we think.
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We need to think about the greatness of the cross, the greatness of the forgiveness of God, the holiness of God, our sinfulness and our utter joy that a holy, perfect God would forgive us for the things that we've done against them.
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And are we going to be still, you know, sometimes thinking, man, I just can't believe I did that? Yes. But what
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I really can't believe is in spite of what I've done, that God would forgive me for that. That's what
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I can't believe. Yes. Right.
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And, you know, God does know the thoughts, our thoughts and intentions. You know,
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I mean, here would be the ultimate act of futility to falsely go into prayer and confess, you know, our sins to God.
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Lord, I confess I did. Come on. That would be, you know, that would be another religion.
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But anyway, OK, number two, moving on. Yes, Mike. Yes. Chasing after effects of our sin.
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And so that's OK. I'm never going to get there anyway.
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I can tell that. So we sin and we know intellectually we're forgiven for that sin, pre -Christian, post -Christian.
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And then we want somehow emotionally to be over that. And we may never. We submit our minds to the word that says we're forgiven.
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And that emotional I'm not over that should spur us on not to do sins again, because there are disciplinary actions regarding sin, even though it's counted against Christ.
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That's right. So sometimes emotionally, we can never because that's just part of it.
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And good point. You know, sometimes we might never be totally over the fact that I can't believe
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I did this or I did that. That's not the question. The question is, when those things when those ideas come up, what do we do with them?
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You know, do we surrender to them or do we take them captive? Do we, in effect, say, yeah, that was a horrible thing.
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But again, turn our eyes to Christ and our great Savior. Number two, true or false?
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We can say we forgive someone and really mean it, but it's okay to carry a little grudge.
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Just a little one. How little?
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Yeah. Well, you know, but what if we think the other person's faking?
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They're not really serious about wanting forgiveness. What if it's just a fraud? Okay. Let's look at 1
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Corinthians 13. I don't really know if we get to question number two.
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Go ahead. All right. And for the sake of the tape,
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I'm going to read verses 5 to 7. The first word is implied love.
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Love does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
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So the question then is, why would we immediately jump to the idea that someone's request for forgiveness is a sham, a false request?
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Bruce? Answer? No.
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That's right. That's right. But if somebody says, you know, I know I did thus and such against you, and it wasn't a criminal action, you know, and you just go, oh,
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I forgive you. And then, you know, you walk around for a few months going, that guy said,
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I don't like him at all. I can't believe he ever did that. Well, you haven't forgiven that person.
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You know, or I'm not, I don't believe you. You know, kind of thinking whether, no matter how we act, we just like,
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I don't think that guy was telling me the truth. Daniel? That's a good question.
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How do you deal with somebody who has sinned against you? And since we'll probably never get to that either.
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If someone sins against you, if someone sins against you and never asks for your forgiveness, that's a good question.
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I think I'll cover it later. You still forgive him. Maybe he just hasn't got to you to ask for this, but you still forgive him.
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I mean, what is it? Well, and I agree. I think we need to be very forgiving. But what does the Bible say about somebody sinning against us?
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I'm sorry? Love covers a multitude of sins. It says that. So if it's something that, and I think that's a great point.
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If it's something that love can cover, then what should we do? Cover it. Cover it.
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Well, and that's where that's directed. You know, love covers a multitude of sins. Certainly, if they're not within the church, you can be really angry.
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No, I mean, we want to be a forgiving people. I mean, what are we known for?
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If God has forgiven us, how much more should we forgive other people? But if somebody's sinned against us and it's not something for whatever reason, you know, sometimes think about this.
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Someone might sin against me and I might think that's not that big of a deal. But then my next thought might be, well, wait a minute.
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If that's how they treat other people, am I doing my brother who just sinned against me a favor by not bringing that to his attention, by not confronting him on it?
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And what's the answer? The answer is no. If their whole life is marked by behaving the same way they did to you, to other people, then they've got issues.
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And even for their own good, you want to confront them. Okay, but we're getting into church discipline and I don't want to go there yet.
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Okay, let me give you this hypothetical scenario first. Someone hits you in the nose.
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And they say, gee, I'm sorry. And then they hit you again. I'm sorry.
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Hit you again. I'm sorry. How many times do you take that as serious?
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You know, oh, that's cool. You know, 70 times 7. Just keep going.
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You got, you know, you got 483 more to go. And I don't think that's the point that Jesus makes.
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He was not, the Lord was not saying that we should throw out discernment.
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What was he saying? He said, he was saying we should be very forgiving.
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We should not think, oh, you know, because they had a, they had a teaching. The rabbis did, you know, where you only had to forgive them this many times.
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I think it was three times. And then you could really hold a grudge against them.
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And that's not the way it is at all. I love what the Lord says, Luke 17 verses 3 to 5.
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He says, be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if you repent, forgive him.
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And if he sins against you seven times a day, it returns to you seven times saying, I repent, forgive him.
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And it's not in the eighth time that you hold against it. You know, but, but, but listen what the apostles say in response.
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Verse five, the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. It just,
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I like that. Increase our faith. That's, that's unbelievable. We have to be like that. I can't,
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I can't handle that. If someone deliberately, repeatedly offends, deliberately, repeatedly sins against us, and then give us a phony, you know, act of, we, we, we, we want to be forgiven.
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MacArthur says it is an evidence of a profoundly evil character and a cynical hatred of the truth.
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Any, any sites, uh, uh, Matthew three, verse eight, where John the
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Baptist says, he basically calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers. And then he says, bring forth what?
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The fruit of repentance. Why? Because he knew that their hearts and intents were evil. And he says, listen, you guys can say whatever you want, but I'm not going to believe it until I see some fruit.
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Luke 17, uh, be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him.
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And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times saying,
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I repent, forgive him. You mean you could potentially still hold a grudge?
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Yeah. To wait. You mean to wait and see how they, how they act down the road?
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Well, I think, I think it depends on the nature of the offense. Um, okay.
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Well, you know what? I think that's a good intro. Let's go to the third question, which is what is biblical forgiveness?
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What does it mean to forgive someone? How should we want to be forgiven? And how should we forgive others?
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Let's look at Psalm 103, verses 10 to 12. I didn't know this was going to be a six part series.
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So we're getting this. Thank you so much.
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Psalm 103, verses 10 to 12. He talking about God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
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For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him.
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As far as the east is from the west. So far, so far, he has removed, or has he removed our transgressions from us?
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How has God removed our sins from us? How has he forgiven us? Completely.
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That was the first one I had. In fact, I started writing them down and I go, oh, I've got an acronym. CARE. Definitely there, there are, there can be emotional consequences.
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There can be physical consequences. Sin can have consequences.
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Well, no, I think, but I think that, you know, it almost sounds like there's something criminal going on. You know, like the
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Jeffrey Dahmer's thing. I mean, it almost sounds like we're to that sort of thing where, you know, could the family, if there were families of victims of Dahmer's who really believed he was repentant and a
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Christian, could they say, well, I forgive Jeffrey Dahmer's, but I don't want to go visit him. You know, I don't want to go shake hands with him and say, brother, we love you.
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Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that's fine. I think though that what we're talking about are pretty extreme cases and not something that we would normally see within the body of Christ.
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Hitting the nose. Well, as far as I know, that hasn't happened at BBC. I'm just talking about normal, you know, daily activities.
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Go ahead, Dan. Okay. I mean,
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I might, you know, I mean, I could, I think I could talk about my brother. He's a good friend of mine. You know, we used to knock each other around now all the time now.
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But, you know, you grow up and they actually, we just got to a point where we were kind of too big.
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You know, it got to the point where, you know, if we keep fighting, somebody's really going to get hurt. So, I mean, he was really big.
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You know, it was all good and fun until he was the bigger little brother. Then it wasn't too much fun anymore. But, you know, in cases of physical protection, well, fine.
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But again, I think within the confines of the local church, I think we're talking about, you know, we might run across a situation like this,
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Lord willing, you know, every 10 or 20 years or something. This is just not the standard thing.
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No, what I'm making a distinction is, is between run -of -the -mill offenses against one another, which we do all the time versus criminal actions or something so heinous and serious that it leaves a lasting impact.
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MacArthur writes here, even the hardest and most deliberate offender should never be permanently written off, rather complete forgiveness and reconciliation should remain the offended person's goal.
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Now, that's hard to imagine. But the worst sin ever committed, at least in my mind, was the crucifixion of Christ.
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And he said on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, but hold a grudge.
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I don't know. I don't think that's how God forgives. I think we can, I think there can be consequences to sin.
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But let's look at Matthew 6, 12. Lord's Prayer, we're all familiar with it.
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Lord's Prayer, Disciples' Prayer, more appropriately. Verse 12, Matthew 6.
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And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
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Now, just to get this one right out, this is not about a plea for low -interest loans.
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So if you're thinking that, that's wrong. He's talking about transgressions, sins. Forgive us,
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God, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us, is what
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Luke says. Do we want
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God to forgive us like we forgive other people? That should change the way we think about forgiveness.
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Am I forgiving others the way I want God to forgive me?
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He forgives completely. How do we forgive? He forgives absolutely.
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There is no remaining distance in the relationship. God doesn't go, you know what? I forgive your sin,
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Steve, but I'm going to put you on probation. See how you behave for a while. Now, I think it's okay.
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I think it's even wise in some cases. But I think there better be some really strong circumstances to justify that.
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I think if it's a typical bump into each other, you know, forget to do this, stumble over that, all the things that we do all the time to each other, we need to be quick to forgive.
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We need to not hold back our forgiveness. We need to not think, okay, but the next time Steve forgets to bring whatever, that's it.
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I'm done with him. We need to also have as a goal, restoring the relationship.
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When we think about how God has forgiven us, what does he do as part of that forgiveness?
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I mean, we were sons of darkness. We were sons of the devil.
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We were outcasts. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. God has made us alive.
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He has not just said, you know what? I've taken you from damned, from on your way to hell, and made you neutral or made you somebody that I can stand a little bit.
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He said, I love you. You are my son. You are my daughter. I embrace you. And you may do things that are not pleasing in my sight.
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But that doesn't change the relationship I have with you. That's forgiveness.
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We struggle with that because we think that we have some inalienable right to not be offended.
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Some, you know, constitutional right not to be sinned against. We need to be quick to forgive.
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And as much as is possible. And I don't know why, but sometimes, sorry ladies, but sometimes
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I think this is easier for guys. We need to erase as much as is possible the memory of the wrongdoing.
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It's always easier for me. Maybe it's because I sin a lot more than my wife does.
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But it's just easier for me. I think it's easier for guys to just, you know, people come up and say, you know, I'm sorry about whatever.
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I've already forgotten about it. So holding grudges,
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I mean, yes, there can be consequences. I just think the idea of, yes, I forgive you.
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But in my mind, I go, but I'm going to apply a little appendix to that. I'm not really going to forgive him or I'm going to forgive him, but only sort of.
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We'll see how things work out down the road. I don't think that's how we ought to look at it. Yes, please don't.
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Well, okay.
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Let's try to break this down a little bit. I think the idea of justice with regard to peer -to -peer sin is somewhat problematic.
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You know, what would I require of somebody in order to be forgiven for what they've done for me?
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Now, there may be situations where something has to be done. You've broken my window. Pay for it.
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Your dog attacked my dog. Pay for it. You know, simple things like that.
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You know, you can say you're sorry. You can ask my forgiveness, et cetera, et cetera. But there needs to be some kind of, you know, punishment, retribution, if you will.
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Other than that, I think, you know, what does the Bible say about justice? Justice lies in the hands of individuals.
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Justice is for two entities, as far as I can tell from the Bible. Justice is for God and is for the government.
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I don't know if you had something specific in mind, but... And then the other thing you mentioned was about, you know, does
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God just kind of wink at sin, you know, because Jesus already paid for it? And I think that was the kind of where you were going.
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And the answer is no, and I'm about to get there. We can just keep going a little bit. Absolutely.
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God... So, is there any human...
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Yeah. And so, like I said, unless there's some kind of exceptional, some damage to you, I mean, if your feelings got hurt, well, what's the damage for that?
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You know, six months in jail. You know, in other words, there is no justice while I get to insult you now.
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I mean, that's really not... That's not forgiveness. We just can't look at it that way.
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And that's exactly right. It was either paid for on the cross or the offender is going to pay for it in eternity.
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Yeah. Well, and good point, because ultimately what we wind up with is some kind of a caricature of Christianity.
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You know, it's kind of Christians are judgmental and all that. Why? Because we're exacting justice.
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We're getting retribution. We're... Yeah. So, we're not God and we can't put ourselves in his place.
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I was going to real quickly just say, is there a difference between I'm sorry and forgive me? Genuine repentance always involves confession of wrongdoing and a willingness to make things right.
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Apology comes from the Greek word apologia, and it means defense. One of the things
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I really hate when I hear is, I'm sorry if I offended anyone, or I'm sorry if you took offense.
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Well, that doesn't mean anything because it's putting it on the other person. If you were offended, I'm really sorry.
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Sorry for what? That I was offended or that you offended me. And what the more correct way to go about it, the more biblical way to go about it, is to ask for forgiveness from the other person.
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It's acknowledgement that you did wrong. And then it's an active part on someone else's.
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It's an active role of someone else to actually forgive you. Let's see. Number five, does
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God distance himself from us when we are in a pattern of sin? Why or why not? Well, yeah,
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I think this goes back to an old cliche. You know, if you feel distance from God who moved, you know, it's you.
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He doesn't distance himself from us. Our sin distances us from him.
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Again, it's because of when we're sinning, we're focused on ourselves. We're seeking our own pleasure.
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But God has a remedy for that, and it's called discipline. Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verse 3, for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself.
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Talking about God who has endured hostility from us, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
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You have not yet resisted to the pointing of shedding of blood and you're striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons.
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My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him.
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For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives.
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It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline.
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But if you are without discipline of which we all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
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Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live?
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For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness.
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All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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So what's the result of sin? The result of a pattern of sin. It is not
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God saying, you know what, I don't want anything to do with you. I'm going to stand aloof from you. It's quite the opposite.
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What does he do instead? He gets right in there. He gets right in there and he disciplines us.
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And the ultimate result of that, verse 11 says, those who have been trained by it, by the discipline itself, in other words, have been transformed in their thinking, understanding that the pattern of their life was wrong.
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It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Now, there is an interesting concept, the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
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Here's the fruit. Why would he call it the peaceful fruit of righteousness?
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Brings peace in their life. I mean, if you're a Christian and you're in sin and God brings his discipline on you, are you going to have peace?
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No, but this verse says that after God takes you through that discipline, the end result is going to be a restored relationship.
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And not only that, I would submit that that peaceful fruit of righteousness, when your life turns around and conforms back to the way
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God would have you living, you're going to be a lot happier. You're going to be thinking rightly and you're going to have turned away from that.
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Yes, Charlie. Okay. Again, there are consequences for our sin.
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Right. Unconfessed sin causes him not to hear our prayers. Well, why? You know, it's again,
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I think our sin can distance us from him, but not him from us. He will let us go for a time who knows how long that time is.
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Could be an hour, could be however long, but he's going to come back and get you. Or the verse says, guess what?
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You were never a Christian in the first place. You were never actually his son. So are there things that inhibit our relationship with him?
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Yes. Unconfessed sin, a wrong relationship with your wife if you're a husband.
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If you're not treating your wife right, God doesn't have to listen to your prayer. Are there consequences for sin? Yes. A thousand times.
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Yes. But it shouldn't surprise us, as the verse says, we should not faint when the
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Lord disciplines us when we're in a pattern of sin. It is for our good. It demonstrates the genuineness of our salvation and it brings about a change in behavior.
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It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. God's love for his people does not change.
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It is not dependent on our fervency of love for him. Amen. Can you imagine if God treated us because of the way we treated him?
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The ultimate model of forgiveness has to be exhibited in the cross.
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Second Corinthians 521 even. Here's the picture. Every offense that we've ever committed against God.
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Each of us, again, if we were to start from our earliest remembrances, and even with all the things that we forget, if we were just to start bringing up every sin that we've committed and just keep going and going and going, and then we multiply that times billions and billions and billions of people that will...
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Well, millions of people. I don't know, however many people wind up in heaven. That's a lot of sin. God took all of that sin, put it on his son who never committed any sin.
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If anyone ever had the right to be angry about anything and unforgiving, it was
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Jesus. He didn't deserve what he got. He didn't deserve it, but it was God's plan all along.
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God's plan was to take the sins of his people, put it on Jesus that we might be forgiven for our sins.
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That is the ultimate act of love, kindness, and example of selfless forgiveness.
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We're going to have to close in prayer. Maybe we'll pick this up in a couple weeks.
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Father, we just thank you that you are a forgiving God. A God who, once you set your affection on us, you do not turn away.
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You do not let us go. You do not estrange yourselves from us.
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You get right in the middle of our lives. You discipline us. Father, if you treated us according to what we deserve, no one could stand.
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And yet you have removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. Lord, you have promised to keep your people.
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Father, we praise you for that, but let us never take sin lightly. Let us live in light of forgiveness, of the great forgiveness that you have showered out on us.