SPEAKER_00: Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were a teacher with recess duty?
SPEAKER_00: Well, probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you're a teacher who happens to have recess duty.
SPEAKER_00: I just thought I'd ask first.
SPEAKER_00: I like when Pastor Chris starts with a relatable question to his stories.
SPEAKER_00: Though, if you've had to handle children in any capacity, I'm sure this story will be relatable.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: Last year I taught English language arts for third and fourth grade.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout the school year, you see all sorts of trouble, no matter what age.
SPEAKER_00: There were these two boys I remember every day at recess who would come up to me with some new problem between each other or in their circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it would be they didn't play the game right, and so I'm upset with them.
SPEAKER_00: Other times it'd be they said this about my mom.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was about girls.
SPEAKER_00: How lovely.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not always the case.
SPEAKER_00: I sit them down and first have them explain what was wrong, then help them recognize why it was wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Usually at this point in the discussion, or hopefully at this point, at least one of them begins to feel some responsibility and guilt for what they did.
SPEAKER_00: I tell them both to apologize to each other for what they did specifically.
SPEAKER_00: We don't play with vague problems.
SPEAKER_00: We were hurt for specific ones.
SPEAKER_00: And then to ask for forgiveness, to make things right so that they can have fellowship again and play whatever game they were playing.
SPEAKER_00: Turns out we needed to have that conversation every single day.
SPEAKER_00: And not just during recess.
SPEAKER_00: So it is with us before God and often with others.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is something we return to daily as well.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord's Prayer, which acts as a template for what all our prayers should reflect, has repentance and forgiveness clearly displayed in that fourth petition.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read it again, Luke 11, 4.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins, as we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to preface.
SPEAKER_00: Before continuing, the Lord's Prayer is designed for those who are already Christians.
SPEAKER_00: That should raise a natural question, though.
SPEAKER_00: If I am a Christian who is already forgiven in Christ, why do I still need to ask for forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: But as this particular petition is cried out by all sinners at conversion too, it will help us to answer that first question if we distinguish how we ask for forgiveness as a Christian and at conversion.
SPEAKER_00: One saves us from sin's eternal penalty, the other from sin's power and presence in our redeemed lives.
SPEAKER_00: This distinction is also exciting because it provides a clear opportunity to share the gospel, to proclaim it directly and specifically as an encouragement for the believer and as a witness to one who is not one yet.
SPEAKER_00: And whether we realize it or not, the way that we forgive others is directly impacted by how we understand how we've been forgiven by God.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pattern surrounding forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you will see all throughout.
SPEAKER_00: That's there's an exposure, an exposure to sin, that there is a right repentance and turning from that sin, a change in the relationship with sin, that forgiveness is asked for and given, and restoration and reconciliation bear the fruit of that forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: In summary for this whole sermon, the better we understand how we receive forgiveness at conversion and throughout the Christian life, the better we understand how to show forgiveness towards others as well.
SPEAKER_00: With that, because we're all note takers to some degree, whether mentally or on paper, there are three things I'd like to unfold from this petition today.
SPEAKER_00: One, we pray for forgiveness that justifies at conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Two, we pray for forgiveness that sanctifies after conversion.
SPEAKER_00: And three, we forgive others that they may be brought before God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at point number one.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for forgiveness that justifies at conversion.
SPEAKER_00: The first three petitions in the Lord's Prayer actually can relate to this sense of forgiveness as well.
SPEAKER_00: As forgiveness that justifies, keeps the Father's name holy, gives us entry into his kingdom, and provides for us the bread of life necessary for forgiveness to be received in.
SPEAKER_00: But let's slow down, let's define what justified means.
SPEAKER_00: Any good English teacher knows you've got to define your terms.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it mean to be justified?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a legal term, means to be declared righteous.
SPEAKER_00: Or even more simply, to be declared not guilty.
SPEAKER_00: But since this justifying forgiveness we seek is not just in an earthly courtroom, but a heavenly one, it will help us to know that there's a charge on all of our accounts before we even enter that heavenly courtroom.
SPEAKER_00: There's a debt we must account for, as every single one of us has sinned against the true and living God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how so?
SPEAKER_00: Well, by failing to keep his law, and in so doing, we profane his holy name.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding a forgiveness that justifies starts with the understanding that the Father must keep his name holy in his judgment, as the judge in that courtroom.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness that justifies keeps the Father's name holy in his courtroom, in his court.
SPEAKER_00: And he does this by using his law as the standard, not mine.
SPEAKER_00: His law is the standard.
SPEAKER_00: When he sets his seal on a sentence, that seal bears his name.
SPEAKER_00: In his judgment seat, he condemns or pardons for his name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: As the plea of the psalmist in 2511 says, For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
SPEAKER_00: In relation to God, his law displays his holiness and perfection.
SPEAKER_00: In relation to us, though, the law of God initially exposes us to our sin, our inability to keep it.
SPEAKER_00: We like to think we're all good people by nature, according to our own standard or culture's standards, but God's standard, not mine, is what will count in that final analysis, that final verdict, that final sentence.
SPEAKER_00: So let's use that standard.
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask ourselves some of the questions that He will hold us to, that He will judge us by.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a good person test.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know during the rest of our morning, we'd ask a question and you would answer.
SPEAKER_00: We'd answer together.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to do that with some of these questions.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the first one, but you'll understand why not the others.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at his Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Have we ever told a lie?
SPEAKER_00: Yes or no?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you for being honest.
SPEAKER_00: What do we call someone who lies?
SPEAKER_00: A liar.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your participation.
SPEAKER_00: That is where it will end.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want y'all to answer this one for me.
SPEAKER_00: Have we ever murdered someone?
SPEAKER_00: See?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if not physically, remember that Jesus makes the parallel in Matthew 5 that anyone who is angry with a brother without just cause is guilty of the same judgment as murder.
SPEAKER_00: And we call someone who murders a murderer.
SPEAKER_00: Have we ever committed adultery?
SPEAKER_00: If not outwardly, then certainly we have inwardly.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Christ in Matthew 5 tells us, whoever looks at another with lustful intent has already committed adultery with them in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: In all these, we see the law of God is just as concerned about the heart behind the action as he is the action himself.
SPEAKER_00: These laws are regarding how we interact with others, but thinking back to the seriousness of the Lord's name being kept holy, let's ask ourselves one more.
SPEAKER_00: Have we ever used the Lord's name in a vain, derogatory way, as a replacement for an expletive or cuss word?
SPEAKER_00: If so, we'd be guilty of blasphemy, thus called a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at our scorecard according to even just four of the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It'll prove its point.
SPEAKER_00: In the courtroom of God, where this is the standard, we would have to bear the title and judgment of a liar, a murderer, an adulterer at heart, and a blasphemer.
SPEAKER_00: You might ask yourself, but can't I redeem myself, maybe?
SPEAKER_00: We can't redeem ourselves by breaking less laws, as James 2.10 says, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
SPEAKER_00: We also can't make things right by trying to do more good, to outweigh the good, uh outweigh the bad with the good.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 3, 9 through 12 and Galatians 3, 10 through 11 explain that clearly too.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 3, both Jews and Greeks are under sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's everybody.
SPEAKER_00: What he means by Jews and Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: We're all under sin.
SPEAKER_00: As it is written, none is righteous, no not one, no one understands, no one seeks for God.
SPEAKER_00: All have turned aside.
SPEAKER_00: Together they have become worthless.
SPEAKER_00: No one does good, no, not even one.
SPEAKER_00: And then Galatians 3.
SPEAKER_00: For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them.
SPEAKER_00: Now it is evident that no one, here's that key word again, is justified before God by the law.
SPEAKER_00: But is he not a God of mercy and grace, slow to anger?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely he is.
SPEAKER_00: But let's read that verse to its very end.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 34, starting in verse 6, says, The Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_00: This should be weighty, as we're guilty.
SPEAKER_00: This should yield a right fear in the heart and uncomfort.
SPEAKER_00: It should offend us, it should offend our sensibilities and pride.
SPEAKER_00: It should make us clamor for a way out.
SPEAKER_00: It should make us feel exposed.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mirror to the soul, exposing every blemish and scar.
SPEAKER_00: And because we can now see where we have sinned, we can recognize that we're guilty of it.
SPEAKER_00: Before we pray for forgiveness that justifies us before him, we plead that we are guilty according to his standards.
SPEAKER_00: That in truth hell is what we deserve for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: In order that his law be proven true and his name be kept holy.
SPEAKER_00: Our allegiance has been for the kingdom of this world, not his.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see next how justifying forgiveness requires us to be brought into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: In order to no longer be an enemy outside his kingdom, we must know the Prince of Peace to gain entry.
SPEAKER_00: As it's through Christ and Christ alone we can have forgiveness and pardon for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is this justifying forgiveness through Christ which brings us into the kingdom and household of God.
SPEAKER_00: We must know Christ in order to know the Father and to have peace with Him.
SPEAKER_00: John 14, starting in verse 6, says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
SPEAKER_00: They're a package duo.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have one without the other.
SPEAKER_00: We can't know God the Father if we don't know God the Son.
SPEAKER_00: We can't even approach the Father apart from his Son.
SPEAKER_00: So the first question to ask is if you know Christ and what about Him makes Him the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: We again look back to the law that we couldn't fulfill and ask, how does Christ fulfill the law of God?
SPEAKER_00: A debt of infinite worth against the law and its demands requires a payment of infinite worth in accordance to the law and its demands.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Christ is that payment.
SPEAKER_00: He came down and took on flesh to live the life necessary to honor and fulfill his law and its demands.
SPEAKER_00: His own words in Matthew 5.17 are, Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
SPEAKER_00: He does not do away with the law, but fulfills it in every aspect of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Every kingdom on earth has rulers who can't keep their own laws.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that because every one of you is probably driven on I-20 and knows we're breaking the law, driving really fast there.
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine any king or ruler has not exceeded the speed limit.
SPEAKER_00: Christ, though, he is the only king who has not uh who has not fallen.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only king who has kept his perfect law.
SPEAKER_00: His kingdom is the only place where the king has fulfilled it.
SPEAKER_00: He lived the perfect life we couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: Every command, every act was perfect obedience, never for a moment forgetting or forsaking his mission of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: His whole life was pointing to that sacrificial death on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And it was here at this cross that sin's wages and penalty were conquered, for death is dead in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It was here at this cross that God showed his love for us, even while we were still sinners, even while we were still in debt to him, even while we were still his enemies, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: It was here at this cross he died in our place as a substitution, bearing the full wrath of God on our behalf willingly, to purchase perfect redemption for all who repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And it was here at this cross that that first promise in Genesis 3.15 regarding him is fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: As the enemy bruised the Savior's heel for a moment in that death.
SPEAKER_00: But the Savior crushed the enemy's head with that same death and later resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And that resurrection from death that followed three days later is the seal of his life's work.
SPEAKER_00: It confirmed his sinless life and keeping of the law, as everyone who sins cannot revive themselves from death.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: And he did not return to death either, like Lazarus.
SPEAKER_00: He went to be with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And it is in him that forgiveness that justifies is to be proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 13, 38 and 39 says, Therefore, let it be known to you, brothers, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and that in him everyone who believes is justified from all things which you could not be justified from through the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: So this is his life, his death, his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This is Christ, this is the Prince of Peace, the one who rules in his heavenly kingdom, the one we need to know in order to know the Father, the one we must know to have redemption and forgiveness of sins, that declares us righteous before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He alone can stand before us in that heavenly courtroom and say, Put his debt on in sin on my account, and know it is paid in full.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1, 13 and 14 say, He, being God the Father, has delivered us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: With our sins exposed by the law, but the law being fulfilled in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: How then do we receive Christ and his forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: We pray for forgiveness that justifies by receiving his broken body, the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the Lord's prayer shows us where all our provision comes from, this daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: We are given the gifts of repentance and faith by God, the Holy Spirit, so we may receive Christ, the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, to define, in repentance, we have a changed relationship with sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is not just an acknowledgement for sin to exist in us, but that we no longer want to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer want to submit to it as a slave, no longer trying to protect it or keep it to ourselves, we turn from it.
SPEAKER_00: And in faith, we believe and trust Christ to be who he says he is to be, not as I say he is to be, his standard.
SPEAKER_00: Believing in his righteousness for us, we forsake any semblance of self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritan Giles Furman, cool name, explains faith well and succinctly when he says, Faith in Christ, then, is the receiving of Christ as he is offered in the gospel, and so resting upon him alone for life and salvation.
SPEAKER_00: In that as our foundation, do we first ask, Lord, forgive me for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: And he confirms that forgiveness is found in him with his disciples in that Last Supper meal.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in Matthew 26, 26, it says, Now as they were eating, Jesus took the bread, and after blessing it and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body.
SPEAKER_00: And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you.
SPEAKER_00: For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Here we have forgiveness that is founded on Christ's life, work, and death.
SPEAKER_00: He broke his body and poured it out, poured out his blood to forgive the sins of many.
SPEAKER_00: That many being all who have true repentance of their sin and faith in him and his righteousness alone.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness that justifies receives and rests in his broken body, the bread of life through repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: So in this sense do we pray for forgiveness that justifies.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that God will forgive us for our sins, for offending his holy name.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that he will look to the finished work of his son, of Christ on the cross, gaining entry to the kingdom by the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask for this forgiveness on the grounds of repentance and faith in him who broke his body for us, recognizing this as his provision, that we are totally dependent and cannot provide for ourselves this salvation apart from his gift.
SPEAKER_00: Is this you?
SPEAKER_00: Is this the forgiveness you know you need, but you've refrained from asking for it or believing it's there in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe you have much to be forgiven of or very little?
SPEAKER_00: Being forgiven for little sin makes little of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Being forgiven for much sin makes much of him.
SPEAKER_00: This gospel is not for the righteous or good person, it is for sinners.
SPEAKER_00: That is what makes it good news.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what sin you've done or how much of it you've committed, repent and believe the gospel for the forgiveness of sins, and you will find him to be a most satisfying Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You will find joy in his fellowship now and forevermore.
unknown: And it is
SPEAKER_00: For Christians, that we have this new life and fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: First saved from God's righteous judgment against our sin, we are then saved to a life of holy fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And that begins here.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't begin later.
SPEAKER_00: That begins now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's turn to our second point to understand how and why we still pray for forgiveness as someone who's been forgiven by God, who has this justifying forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for forgiveness, point number two, that sanctifies after conversion.
SPEAKER_00: The kind of forgiveness that's being asked for in the Lord's Prayer is not the same that justifies us before God.
SPEAKER_00: We ask for that forgiveness as enemies of God, outside his doorstep.
SPEAKER_00: But this forgiveness, this forgiveness is from within his home, from within his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's asked for not by an enemy, but as an adoptive child.
SPEAKER_00: An adoptive but disobedient child at times, too.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord's prayer was referring to that justifying forgiveness, we'd have a devastatingly difficult time having any sense of security in our fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: It would feel like a daily game of pulling the petals off of a daisy.
SPEAKER_00: He loves me, he loves me not, he justifies me, he justifies me not, he forgives me, oh, I sinned, he forgives me not.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the flower that I think is in the Lord's gardens.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not the case with his justifying forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness that covers all adopted into his family.
SPEAKER_00: The flower that is in his garden is a flower that ensures I will persevere in the faith, because he will ensure it.
SPEAKER_00: It is a flower that says, I will not be snatched out of his hands, that his son's redeeming work actually accomplished my salvation and didn't just make it a possibility.
SPEAKER_00: For we can say then with the psalmist in Psalm 103.12, As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
SPEAKER_00: Or with Paul in Philippians 1.6, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: These verses and many more would not make sense if it was justifying forgiveness we ask every day as forgiven people.
SPEAKER_00: They'd be meaningless or confusing at best.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord's Prayer is asking us, is telling us to pray for a sanctifying forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: One way that it is chiefly applied is in our fellowship with God.
SPEAKER_00: It is forgiveness that sanctifies the sinner within God's fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not going to leave you loose.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to define sanctification for you.
SPEAKER_00: At its simplest, it means to make something holy.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, 19 through 24, though, I think gives a clear demonstration of how sanctification is applied in the Christian's life.
SPEAKER_00: They die to sin and live to righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, starting in 19, says, They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
SPEAKER_00: But that is not the way you learned Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires.
SPEAKER_00: Take that off.
SPEAKER_00: And verse 23, we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that sanctification is explained throughout Scripture should make it clear sin is not eradicated permanently in the Christian's life.
SPEAKER_00: Though the penalty of sin is taken care of in Christ, we're given a new nature in him.
SPEAKER_00: The power and presence of sin is what we now fight.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in this old sinful nature, this power and presence of sin that we are to wrestle with.
SPEAKER_00: When we pray for forgiveness that sanctifies, we're asking for his washing power over us, that our fellowship with him will be restored.
SPEAKER_00: As when we sin, it is marred daily.
SPEAKER_00: That is why we must again go back to that template.
SPEAKER_00: Expose this sin.
SPEAKER_00: We must expose this sin every day so that we can see what we're fighting.
SPEAKER_00: Sin will stop at nothing to have us look away from the Lord, to have us not be satisfied in him.
SPEAKER_00: So when moments of failure do happen, we have example of how saints in the past have asked for their heavenly father's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: King David is a good example.
SPEAKER_00: He's a man after God's own heart, but he also has the most documented series of sins that we might talk about in a church service.
SPEAKER_00: Both in adultery with Bathsheba and then murder of his wife, I mean, of her husband, forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: It took the prophet Nathan to expose David, to expose him to this sin, to confront him with it, that we then get Psalm 51, David's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 51 4, he asks the Lord, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the abundance of your compassion, blot out all my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
SPEAKER_00: Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you're justified when you speak and pure when you judge.
SPEAKER_00: We'll return to verse four later on.
SPEAKER_00: He puts all justice into the Lord's hands, so that his name is kept holy.
SPEAKER_00: Acknowledging and repenting of his sin before him, he also says, in verses eight through ten, let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice, hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
SPEAKER_00: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: He does not charged God with any injustice for how he runs his kingdom, in his right disciplining of him, as the discipline of the Lord is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: David knows that the discipline of the Lord is his work of restoring, his work of restoration within his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: David finally asks that he renew him, providing for him a clean heart after he had filled it with sin, and a renewed spirit that brings him to this fellowship at God's table again.
SPEAKER_00: That is for us.
SPEAKER_00: That is the same thing we ask for when we ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And even in today's service, you'll notice we confess sins corporately and individually.
SPEAKER_00: So we see that pattern in Scripture as well.
SPEAKER_00: A corporate example would be 1 Kings 8, verses 34 33.
SPEAKER_00: We start and say, When your people, Israel, are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against you.
SPEAKER_00: If they turn to you again and confess your name and pray and make supplication to you in this house, then listen in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive the sin of your people Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36, indeed, teach them the good way in which they should walk.
SPEAKER_00: Give reign on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: The pattern of forgiveness is the same both for the individual who fell in sin and the collective covenant people.
SPEAKER_00: In repentance of sin against God, we follow it with a plea for his grace and forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't just end at forgiveness, it continues onward toward a growing, toward a growing into that new nature we've been given in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Both examples show forgiveness that sanctifies.
SPEAKER_00: A forgiveness that seeks the Lord to steer them back to the right path.
SPEAKER_00: That works with the shepherd analogy we see all throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Like sheep that steer off course, the good shepherd brings them back in.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just tell the sheep, come on, sheep, come on, all right.
SPEAKER_00: No, he has a rod, a shepherd's staff.
SPEAKER_00: Grabs them by the neck, rings them over away from the wolves in the cliff, so he does with us.
SPEAKER_00: That may hurt for a moment, to be yanked back to the flock.
SPEAKER_00: But man, I would much rather have that short temporary disciplining pain than to be taken by the wolves or to find my way off the cliff.
SPEAKER_00: We can know we are forgiven, though, and that we will be washed.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 1, 8 through 9 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_00: But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness that sanctifies is offered daily, even hourly.
SPEAKER_00: Confessing this sin is not designed to be a checklist for ourselves, though, to say that we did it and go right back into the sinning.
SPEAKER_00: True repentance, again, is a change of relationship and attitude towards sin.
SPEAKER_00: Paul makes it clear in Romans 6 that though grace abounds to the believer, where sin does too, that's not a license to pursue sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is a daily, hourly war we are called to, to die to sin and live to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This sanctifying grace, as 1 John 2 1 says, is so that we may not sin.
SPEAKER_00: But even in that same verse in 1 John 2, we're reminded that if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
SPEAKER_00: When you sin, Christian, lay yourself down at the feet of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Be reminded of the woman in Luke 7, who washed his feet with her hair soaked with tears, who knew her sin was great, but knew her Savior was greater.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let yourself become a Simon in that same chapter, thinking little of your sin compared to her.
SPEAKER_00: Your love and appreciation for Christ will only match how great you realize your sin is, that he will forgive daily.
SPEAKER_00: If a man goes to a doctor to have a cosmetic lump taken out, when in reality he has a cancer festering deep within, do you think he'd be more glad to know that his concern should be vital and not merely cosmetic?
SPEAKER_00: And then to hear the news that it can be healed and treated.
SPEAKER_00: Severe sin, not just as a cosmetic blemish or lump, but the cancer that it is.
SPEAKER_00: Be rid of it, take it to the only physician who has the guarantee to restore and heal you.
SPEAKER_00: When we pray for forgiveness that sanctifies, we're asking the Father as children in his home.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine an adopted child having an episode of disobedience to their new father.
SPEAKER_00: They were told not to play outside because of the mud.
SPEAKER_00: But we've all been kids, uh, and we see the mud and we're like, man, that looks fun.
SPEAKER_00: There's a certain allure to it, but it's a deceptive one.
SPEAKER_00: We go out, we first maybe think, ah, I I can play outside, but not just fall into the mud.
SPEAKER_00: Well, mud is slippery, especially around it.
SPEAKER_00: That's where makes mud mud.
SPEAKER_00: The child falls into it covered in mud.
SPEAKER_00: Tries to get himself back up in a frantic hurry.
SPEAKER_00: In doing so, scrapes his knee on a rock blood.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's got more than just mud to think about.
SPEAKER_00: He tried to get himself out of the situation.
SPEAKER_00: He cries for help.
SPEAKER_00: And the father's only son comes out, grabs him, brings him to the porch, having him tell him all that happened.
SPEAKER_00: The son goes, talks to the father on the child's behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And the father, knowing well what happened, comes outside with the son, has the mud-drenched kid tell him all that happened again.
SPEAKER_00: Child confesses everything.
SPEAKER_00: At first in tears, not over going against their father, but because of the effects of that sin, because of the scrapes in the mud.
SPEAKER_00: But after the father asks him why he wouldn't listen to his rule and trust that there was good purpose for it, his tears become quieter over that deeper offense.
SPEAKER_00: Then, with no excuses, the child repents for what he did, that he hates that he did it and he wants to change, he asks his father, forgive me, forgive me for this sin and help me so that next time looks different.
SPEAKER_00: Father wipes away some of the mud from the child's jacket, where the family name is written, and he reminds the boy that though there will be discipline, though it's gonna sting a little when we patch you up, though the water will be cold when we hose you off, he tells him, I knew we'd have moments like this.
SPEAKER_00: I wrote the family name on all your clothes, and had my son give them to you as a gift whenever we adopted you and your siblings, so that you'd know that you are still in this family, even when we have to clean you up.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the name on your jacket and who gave it to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're forgiven, my dear child.
SPEAKER_00: He then cleans him up on the porch with that hose and has him tell all his brothers and sisters what happened, not so they'd ridicule him, but so that they would learn from all that he learned that day.
SPEAKER_00: And that way, when the dinner table was set at the evening, they could all fellowship again in peace and harmony.
SPEAKER_00: I implore you, Christians, listen to your Heavenly Father, always.
SPEAKER_00: But when disobedience does come out of you, cling to Christ, your brother.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the Father to repent and ask for forgiveness, knowing he will forgive you to keep his name holy.
SPEAKER_00: Seek his discipline and know he disciplines those whom he loves in his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Then take your seat at his dinner table and enjoy the fellowship he provides in his sanctifying forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: It is in light of his mercies and graces and forgiveness that we can come to this last point, this other half of the petition.
SPEAKER_00: For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
SPEAKER_00: My third and final point is this we forgive others that they may be brought before God.
SPEAKER_00: In both senses of forgiveness, justifying and sanctifying, the surrounding pattern has been expose sin, repent of it, seek forgiveness, be restored and reconciled by God.
SPEAKER_00: This template is for us to use as well.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who's indebted to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Lord has so richly blessed us in forgiveness, both to justify us before Him and to sanctify us to Him, we in turn must forgive others as well.
SPEAKER_00: There are some differences, though, between the way God forgives and the way we can.
SPEAKER_00: For example, I do not have the ability to forgive someone from that penalty of sin before God.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's to administer, and his to administer alone.
SPEAKER_00: But that does not mean forgiving others doesn't have any meaning or a use in the Redeemer's hands.
SPEAKER_00: The first thing forgiveness towards others does is sanctifies my heart, as we forgive others beginning in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: That might sound vaguely similar to some Christian lingo that we have in our culture that says, forgive them in your heart, forgive others in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And while I understand the sentiment, I want to challenge that a little and say that the process of forgiveness begins there, certainly.
SPEAKER_00: But for forgiveness to have its full effect and fruit, it cannot stay there.
SPEAKER_00: We walk, we we start in the heart because we tend to be quick to flippant anger, not slow to it.
SPEAKER_00: We run circles in our heart over and over, harboring and digging up all the vile things we can think of of the person who's offended us.
SPEAKER_00: We make their debt become so big in our eyes that forgiving them seems impossible.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of hardening of our hearts can only be softened by being reminded of the forgiveness we've been shown.
SPEAKER_00: John Bunyan, in his book The Fear of God, says, If thou would be rid of a hard heart, that great enemy to the growth of the grace of fear, be much with Christ upon the cross in thy meditations, for that is an excellent remedy against hardness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: A right sight of him, as he hanged there for thy sins, will dissolve thy heart into tears, and make it soft and tender.
SPEAKER_00: They look, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn, Zechariah twelve ten.
SPEAKER_00: Now a soft, a tender, and a broken heart is a fit place for the grace of fear to thrive in.
SPEAKER_00: If I could, this whole sermon would just be bunion quotes, but I had to refrain.
SPEAKER_00: Be reminded of Christ's work for you on the cross when a hard heart begins to solidify in you.
SPEAKER_00: The air of this day's culture is to find things that offend us and then shun them out at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: When we do that, it's a fear of man that we're actually building up, because we dwell on what angers and hurts us most about humanity.
SPEAKER_00: But that's according to our standards more often than not, not God's standard.
SPEAKER_00: The law of God still plays a role.
SPEAKER_00: The grace of fear that Bunyan is speaking of, though, in that quote, is of our right fear of God.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Fools despise that wisdom and instruction.
SPEAKER_00: Fear God and not man.
SPEAKER_00: Be reminded that their sin is not ultimately against you.
SPEAKER_00: Their sin is ultimately against God.
SPEAKER_00: Bring back to mind Psalm 51.4.
SPEAKER_00: We read it a moment ago.
SPEAKER_00: David said, Against you and you only have I sinned.
SPEAKER_00: That isn't to say we don't feel sin's effects in this world.
SPEAKER_00: We do.
SPEAKER_00: But the sin of others you experience is an offense ultimately to God's perfect law, not yours.
SPEAKER_00: So if it is his law that has been transgressed, then it is his right to tell us how we are to forgive others as sinners ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Mark 11, twenty five.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
SPEAKER_00: The Father sees the heart we have.
SPEAKER_00: So to sanctify us in our stubborn hearts, he has Christ command us to forgive others if there is anything we have against them with prayer, knowing justice is in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: This is especially necessary in those occasions where the people we need to forgive will not be people we can ever see again.
SPEAKER_00: Whether because of death, distance, or a danger that is hostile, we're still called to forgive them in our prayer as our starting point.
SPEAKER_00: The world would call this foolishness, but the wisdom of God uses it to sanctify us, to remind us of his grace toward us.
SPEAKER_00: The Prince of Peace has us do this, so his peace will reign in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not willing to forgive others, why should we presume God's forgiveness to us?
SPEAKER_00: Was not our offense to him infinitely worse?
SPEAKER_00: Yet he offered his son so graciously, forgive so as to proclaim his forgiving you.
SPEAKER_00: Tell your heart to consider how infinitely greater a chasm there was between you and God than between you and someone else.
SPEAKER_00: He is holy, holy, holy, forgiving someone who is stained with sin.
SPEAKER_00: You and I don't have holy attached to our name, and neither does that person we're forgiving.
SPEAKER_00: This transformation of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: To forgive will force you to cling to Christ that much more.
SPEAKER_00: But trust He will equip you.
SPEAKER_00: Trust He will equip you with a washed heart.
SPEAKER_00: He will do so because this forgiveness, again, it doesn't stay in the heart, but continues outwardly.
SPEAKER_00: As we forgive others, by bringing an awareness to the need for it, both to the Christian and the non-believer.
SPEAKER_00: It goes back to that very first part of the pattern, exposing sin.
SPEAKER_00: God exposes us to our sin and need for a Savior in His Word.
SPEAKER_00: So we're to bring each other to that truth as brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 25, gives a great model for this.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: For we're not members, forgive me, for we are members of one another.
SPEAKER_00: Be angry and yet do not sin.
SPEAKER_00: Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, even if that's in your heart, along with all malice.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, be kind to one another, tender hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: He grounds you back in that forgiveness you find in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The attitude of the heart we must have is free from bitterness and sinful anger.
SPEAKER_00: It must be tender hearted and gracious, just as God forgave us in Christ, but with that same heart we're called to speak truth to one another.
SPEAKER_00: That's love.
SPEAKER_00: So when we come to a passage like Luke 17, 3 and 4, says, Be on guard, be on your guard.
SPEAKER_00: If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
SPEAKER_00: If he sins against you seven times a day, forgive him seven times, saying forgive me again.
SPEAKER_00: If he sins against you seven times a day and returns to you seven times, saying, I repent, forgive him.
SPEAKER_00: We can understand that by rebuking them, we are exposing the sin we see festering.
SPEAKER_00: We are loving them to the truth, so that there is recognition and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And where there is true repentance, there is true forgiveness no matter how many times.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord does this to us perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: We will do so imperfectly.
SPEAKER_00: We have to accept that.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we repent before the Lord for forgiveness, we want them to repent to the Lord as well.
SPEAKER_00: But if repentance is missing, we have to recognize two things.
SPEAKER_00: First, for us, we've got to recognize all wrath and desire for justice is not for us to exact, but for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the law that's been broken ultimately is his.
SPEAKER_00: The relationship, our second point we'll have to recognize, is the relationship will take its strain.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the model in Matthew 18 for church discipline.
SPEAKER_00: If the brother doesn't recognize his sin and turn from it, he's making an act to break fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: And so we yield to it.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness has the end goal of reconciliation in mind, where all things are made right.
SPEAKER_00: Sin isn't forgiven by being swept under a rug.
SPEAKER_00: How easy a temptation that is to sweep it under the rug, whether it's mine or theirs, and to move on.
SPEAKER_00: The model is to address it, just like a disease.
SPEAKER_00: If there is no acknowledgement or felt need to take care of it, despite our pleas for them to go to a physician, then how can we expect healing and restoration to happen?
SPEAKER_00: This is how Christ, this is how Christ builds his church in holiness and protects it in its fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: We notice our brother's eye has a speck, a splinter, and we want to help take that out.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to first reflect on our own log in our own eye.
SPEAKER_00: We take that out, and that scripture doesn't just say leave it there, it says, once we can see clearly taking that log out, we can help pull the speck out of our brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness amongst the family of God is a means to sanctifying each other by bringing one another to the Lord in prayer, crying, forgive us our sins together.
SPEAKER_00: It reconciles us to the truth as a family, so that we may have fellowship without harbored anger or hidden sin.
SPEAKER_00: And in thinking of exposing sin, repentance, and forgiveness and its fruits, I have I found this template very precious to me, especially in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Caitlin and I have had many talks when we were first dating and engaged regarding some personal sins to keep in consideration, to be aware of in each other, to call out.
SPEAKER_00: And within marriage, we've had to put that pattern to practice.
SPEAKER_00: We've had to put that pattern of forgiveness to practice in some very hard ways.
SPEAKER_00: But by no means did we do that perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: But that's where the grace is.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot do it perfectly, but even still we get to taste the sweet fruit that forgiveness brings and the reconciling, the restoring that forgiveness brings.
SPEAKER_00: Having fruit with yourself is one thing, getting to share it with others is another.
SPEAKER_00: It's true joy and motivation.
SPEAKER_00: My final applications.
SPEAKER_00: If you do not know Christ savingly, know that forgiveness of sins is found in Him alone.
SPEAKER_00: Bring your sin before Him.
SPEAKER_00: Repent of it with faith in Him and His work to justify you in the courtroom of God, so as to be declared righteous and not guilty.
SPEAKER_00: You're not promised tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Take this day as a call to consider the gospel of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: If you do know Christ savingly, then ask him daily to forgive you too, to wash you, to draw you closer into this godly fellowship with him chiefly and others as well.
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself of the freedom you have to walk in holiness, in the new nature that Christ has given you, when temptation comes its way, and when you trip over sin.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that he is ready to forgive you, to sanctify you, and grow you into maturity, just as a child does with their parents.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, if you have people to forgive in your life, and you do, or people you need to seek forgiveness from, and you do, focus the eyes of your heart first on the grace you have been shown in Christ, giving all wrath and revenge to God and his justice.
SPEAKER_00: Go approach those you need in order to be reconciled as the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: Or, if this is with someone who does not know the gospel, use this forgiveness as an opportunity to show and explain the gospel to them.
SPEAKER_00: As the forgiveness that they experience with you will only have temporary benefits in reconciling.
SPEAKER_00: The forgiveness they can find in the Lord in Christ reconciles them for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.