Why Forgive?
Good morning. How was everybody's week? Good to have you here. I think most of you all know this is my first sermon, so bear with me a little. I might stumble. Thank you.
I have a question. Has anyone ever wronged you before? Have they done something that made you mad, angry, just feelings that you know aren't necessarily right. Have you ever done something to someone else that made them angry at you? Have you wronged them? Have you ever wronged someone? Has someone ever wronged you?
Did you forgive them? Have they forgiven you? Why? Why should you forgive them? Why should they forgive you? What have you done to earn that forgiveness? What have they done to earn your forgiveness? What have they done to earn that mercy?
In today's lesson, I will be going over forgiveness. I will answer the question, why should I forgive? Let’s go over a couple aspects of mercy and forgiveness that the Bible points out to us.
The first thing I wanted to go through is found in Matthew 18:21-32. It’s a scripture a lot you know. I'll start with verse 21. “21. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 28. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34. And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
I think that answers the question, why should I forgive? You have been forgiven. The glory of God sent down His son, who sacrificed Himself for our sins. We are forgiven of our debt. He says here, we are to forgive 70 times 7. I've seen many people say is more likely 70 to the seventh power, which is a very large number. In other words as much as you can. Again, why should I forgive? Because the Lord has forgiven me.
In Colossians 3:12-13, it says, “12. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
These two verses, in broad terms, epitomize what a Christian should look like. One of these things is forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an option. It is not a choice we have as Christians, it is a necessity. This is something we must do. This is something we have to do. It's something commanded for us to do.
There's Moses in Exodus 32:31-32. “31. And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. 32. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.”
This is Moses pleading to the Lord to forgive the people as they had erected statues and other gods. They had sinned, a great sin. They were fools. Moses pleaded for the Lord to forgive His people, to forgive them of their foolishness.
You have the story of Joseph. Joseph was Jacob's favorite. He was loved by his father, and his brothers were jealous. They sold him onto slavery. For years, he was tormented as a result of this burden. Then when he met with his brothers, years down the line, after he had made it to a high position, after he had gained power, after he had gotten out of those bad places, he gave his brothers the opportunity to make up for what they had done. He was willing to forgive them. It's just another example of how we should forgive.
Obviously, there's Jesus as well. We have Him saying forgive them, for they do not know what they've done as He was being crucified on the cross. If Jesus is willing to forgive being crucified, being tortured, being murdered; how much more should we be willing to forgive? We can forgive others as many times as we should.
There are a couple different ways that forgiveness is useful to us as Christians. It is not just that we should, but there are benefits to it as well.
In Isaiah 43:18, it says, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.” I think this is telling us to forget our old sins. The Lord forgets the sins we have done when he forgives us, so should we. The things we have done in the past are not part of us. They're gone. They're forgiven. They've been washed away by the blood of Christ.
In Matthew 6:14, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:” Again, this just points out again that forgiving others is essential for our salvation, and it is something that we must do in order to be forgiven.
It will help us spiritually, mentally, and physically. There are plenty of studies out there that that show if you're willing to forgive and get rid of that burden, and then you're more likely to live a long and healthy life. To carry the burden, to carry that hate, to carry that anger, is not good for you. It never has been.
In Ephesians 4:31-32, it says, “31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.: 32. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
We are also told to be patient. Again, more things we as Christians need to be. It's not just forgiving. We need to be patient. We need to be compassionate. Earlier, we were talking a lot about humility during Bible class and how it is important to be a humble person.
Humbleness, to me, is being able to recognize other people's strengths while being able to recognize your own weakness. When we come onto the Lord, that strength to forgive will come as well.
Another thing we need to do as Christians is ask for forgiveness, ask the Lord to forgive what we have done. Because what do we just do? What is communion for? To remind us of that sacrifice and to ask for forgiveness for what we have done so our sins can be washed away.
In 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We must confess our sins. The Lord will not forgive us for what we do not admit. We must forgive others. We have to ask for forgiveness. We have to be faithful. It seems like there's a lot of things, but in reality, if you have the word of God in your heart, all these things will come naturally.
There are a couple of different ways the Bible says to forgive. A big one is 1 Corinthians 13:5. “Love is never rude, love is never selfish, never quick to take offense, love never keeps track, never keeps score of wrongs.”
This is saying what love is and it emphasizes it a little bit. Love keeps no wrongs. When we are filled with love in our heart, we will not keep account of these things. There's one time I was at church camp and my cousin said something to me that didn't really sit well. For a long time, every time I'd be reminded of it, it made me really mad, made me angry. It didn't feel right that I felt that way, but with love in my heart, it's just another memory that I forget most of the time. Every once in a while, I'm reminded of it, but I just laugh. Now I think, Oh, it's just saying something stupid because we were in fifth grade.
Love is never rude, never selfish. Forgiveness is a very unselfish act. You're forgiving another person for what they've done.
Selflessness. A selfless person forgives. A selfless person is compassionate and humble. Love is never quick to take offense. It's a lot easier to not have to forgive someone when you never really take offense in the first place, when you don't really think there's anything to forgive. Yeah, they might have wronged you, but, oh, well, they accidentally nicked me a little bit. They cut my arm. I don't care. It’s just a little bit of blood. It's not that bad.
Love is never rude. We are supposed to forgive, but we really should try our best to not need to be forgiven. As Christians, it is our goal to walk in the way that Christ walked. To walk in the way of Christ means we need to do our best, and our best is to strive never need to be forgiven, so one is never rude.
In Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” This is from the Lord's Prayer. I think that tells us another important part of forgiveness, especially about forgiving ourselves.
A good way to forgive is to pray. It's our strongest weapon. How can we do things without praying? How can we have the strength if we don't ask for it? How can we be forgiven if we don't ask for it?
I've heard my entire life that our strongest weapon is prayer. So pray. Pray for forgiveness. Pray that you have the strength to forgive your debtors so you may have your debts forgiven.
In John 20:22-23 John said this, “22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23. Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” It has parts about if you do not forgive, you'll not be forgiven.
I think I want to focus more on the Holy Ghost. We take on the Holy Ghost, when we put the word in our heart. We will take on the Lord, and the Lord will give us strength. It's the Holy Ghost that will give us the strength to forgive. It was the Holy Ghost that that will give us the ability to do this, even if it seems hard.
A lot of us, I'm pretty sure, have been wronged—incredibly sometimes. Inhumane things, some things you don't even want to speak about. It can be hard to forgive actions like that. It can be hard to forgive people who have wronged you so vilely. It's the only way I can say that, really, who have committed such wrongs against you. It is the Holy Ghost, it is the Lord that will give you the strength to do that. How can you have that strength? How can you have the Holy Ghost if you are not praying, if you're not asking for strength, if you're not asking for forgiveness, if you're not interacting with the word daily? Read your Bible daily. That's what I've been told. Read, pray, and walk a straight path.
So far, we've gone over the image of a Christian. What is the image? It’s a humble, compassionate, loving, forgiving person. We can see that in so many examples that the Bible gave us. You have Moses, Joseph, obviously Jesus, most of the disciples, and plenty, countless that you can look to. That takes a very long time to read through, at least in my experience. Its uses are many.
As I said earlier, it's just good for you to keep that evil out of your heart. Do good things. Be forgiving, because removing that burden can just make your life happier, longer, better. It is good to forgive yourself. It is good to forgive others. It is great to ask for that forgiveness. How can you receive if you don’t ask? Ask and you shall receive. You must ask for that forgiveness and be willing to give forgiveness as well.
How do we forgive? Keep love in your heart. Be a loving person, and not necessarily that fuzzy love, as we were talking about earlier, but in action. Forgiveness is not a feeling like we would normally think of it. It is an action, and it is a part of love, and love itself is an action.
Again, love is not rude. Love is never selfish, never quick to take offense. Love keeps no store of wrongs. If we keep love in our heart, we will be able to forgive.
Pray without ceasing and keep the Holy Ghost in our heart. The way we do that is by reading our Bible daily, and by prayer daily, and do our best to walk the straight and narrow.
Jesus’ crucifixion is the most important thing to us because it is the sacrifice that gives us the opportunity to be forgiven. It is the crucifixion that allows us to make it to heaven. We have all failed. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We have all sinned. Everybody besides Jesus that I've talked about today sinned, Moses sinned, and Joseph sinned, all of them except Jesus. It is his sacrifice, the torment he went through that allows us to be with Him at the end of it all.
Luke 23:34, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
Forgive them. He had been tortured, murdered, completely brutalized. Unspeakable things were done unto him, and He forgives them without a second thought, without hesitation. Did He want to go through that? No. But He was willing to go through it for us, and He was willing to forgive them and us. They were the ones who put them up on the cross, but it's our sins that are responsible for that, each and every one of us. It's our sins that put him on that cross that made it necessary for that sacrifice.
If Jesus is willing to forgive that much, a deed done onto him like that, how much more should we be willing to forgive? How much should we? Again, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother? Up to seven times? No. 70 times 7. Always forgive. Whatever has been it is. It might be hard. When it's hard pray and read your Bible. Ask for the strength to do what is hard. Ask for the ability to do what you know, as Christians, we have to. It is not an option to forgive. It is a necessity.
If anyone here has not yet asked for forgiveness, has not yet been baptized for the remission of their sins, I ask you, why wait? Come up here. We have a baptistery that's mostly full. You're going to be saved today. There's no reason to wait. It only prolongs. You're only making it riskier because, yes, we can be forgiven, but only with the time we have here on earth. As I conclude with that, let’s stand as Doug leads 606.
