This morning we'd like to draw your attention
to the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel, and
verses 25 and 26.
Jesus is teaching his disciples concerning prayer, and
he said, When you stand praying, forgive, if
you have ought against any, that your Father
also, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses.
But if you do not forgive, neither will
your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your
trespasses.
How important it is, how important is it
that you forgive those that have ought against
you, or those against whom you have ought?
Well, how important is it to you that
God will forgive you all of your trespasses?
It's interesting that twice Jesus said that our
forgiveness is pretty much predicated upon our willingness
to forgive others.
There in the text, But if you do
not forgive, neither will your Father, which is
in heaven, forgive you your trespasses.
There in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus teaching again on
the subject of prayer.
As he was giving to us what is
commonly known as the Lord's Prayer, in that
petition it was, Forgive us our debts, even
as we forgive our debtors.
When Jesus finished his lesson on prayer, he
said, If you will not forgive men their
trespasses against you, neither will your Father in
heaven forgive your trespasses.
So it is of utmost importance that we
learn and practice the lesson of forgiveness, because
our being forgiven depends on it.
Here in Mark chapter 11, Jesus again is
talking about prayer, and he has just given
some of the most important lessons on faith
in prayer.
He said, Have faith in God.
For verily I say unto you, that whosoever
shall say unto this mountain, be removed and
be cast into the sea, and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he says shall come to
pass, he shall have whatever he says.
Therefore I say unto you, whatever things you
desire when you pray, believe that you receive
them, and you shall have them.
And then he went right on to add,
And when you stand praying, forgive, if you
have ought against any.
For if you do not forgive, neither will
your Father which is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.
You may ask, Chuck, do you really believe
that that is true?
Well, let me say this.
When the Lord called me into the ministry,
he did not call me to speculate on
his word.
He did not call me to change his
word, but he called me to declare his
word.
And I'm telling you, this is what Jesus
said.
I will not try to modify it or
to diminish from it.
Because Jesus did teach on forgiveness so much,
one day Peter, thinking that he was catching
on and getting the message, said to Jesus,
How often should I forgive a brother who
is guilty of the same offense?
Seven times?
Now I'm sure that in his mind, Peter
was stretching a bit and thinking, I could
maybe forgive a fellow seven times who is
guilty of the same offense.
You see, the rabbis taught that you only
had to forgive three times, that the fourth
time you didn't have to forgive.
But three times you should forgive, and then
the fourth time you do something about it.
In the book of Amos, over and over
the Lord said for three transgressions, yea for
four.
And he talked about the judgments that would
come upon Tyre and upon Damascus and the
other surrounding communities.
But it was always for three transgressions, yea
for four.
And so because of three, yea for four,
they said God only forgives three times, and
if you do the fourth, then no forgiveness.
So God wouldn't ask us to do more
than what he does himself.
And thus after three times, you can go
ahead and take your own vengeance on the
situation.
You're only required to forgive three times.
Well, Peter doubles that.
Lord, I think I'm getting the message here.
Seven times, three times twice, add one for
sure, you know, for seven times, and the
Lord said, no Peter, not seven times, but
70 times seven.
Oye yoye yoye, 490?
You know, and I'm sure that Jesus is
helping to Peter to understand that forgiveness is
not a matter of mathematics.
It's a matter of heart.
It's having a forgiving heart that is so
important.
It is interesting how terrible our sins look
when someone else is committing them.
I'm very merciful toward myself.
When I do something wrong, well, I had
a real, you know, I'm I'm so merciful
and gracious towards me, and towards my flaws,
and towards my faults.
But you do it, and I'm shocked.
That's horrible.
How could you ever think of doing something
like that?
I think of the story of David, who
had committed adultery with the wife of one
of his servicemen who was out fighting the
battles.
When he discovered that she was pregnant, he
tried through subterfuge to sort of cover over
things, but it didn't work.
And so he ordered that this soldier be
sent into battle where he would be certain
to be killed.
And David received the message that he was
killed in the battle.
And then, as a sort of a gesture
of graciousness to ingratiate himself in the hearts
of his subjects, he took this poor widow
of a slain soldier, and married her, and
ordered to watch over her.
And to, you know, and everybody was saying,
oh, isn't David wonderful?
What a wonderful king, you know.
He takes this fallen soldier's wife, and now
is watching over, and going to take care
of the child.
My, how wonderful David is.
But God knew, and God spoke to the
prophet Nathan.
And Nathan was a friend of David, and
he came in, and he said, David, I
want to tell you about something that happened.
It's rather tragic.
There's a man in the kingdom who was
extremely wealthy.
He had just a number of birds, and
flocks, and he had all that he could
possibly ever want.
Next to him, there lived a very poor
man.
All he had was one little ewe lamb.
That ewe lamb was sort of like a
family pet.
It ate at his table.
It slept in his house.
That's all he had.
Now, this wealthy neighbor of his had guests
that were coming.
So, he ordered his servants to, by force,
take the one little ewe lamb from his
neighbor, butcher it, and fed his guest.
David was incensed.
He said, that man shall surely be put
to death.
Nathan said, David, you're the man.
And David realized his sin in what he
had done.
And David confessed, and he said, I have
sinned against the Lord.
And the prophet said, and God has forgiven
your sin.
Because of David's repentance and confession, there was
forgiveness.
It's so important that we do forgive.
The Bible promises, if we will confess our
sins, God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
But having received forgiveness, it is now extremely
important that if someone should sin against me,
an offense, that if they come and they
confess and they ask for forgiveness, it is
important that I am forgiving.
Jesus gave the story to illustrate this point,
the importance of forgiving the minor little infractions
against me, when I consider the major things
that God has forgiven me of doing.
Sometimes I hear a person declare, I can
never forgive them for what they did to
me.
But James tells us that he shall have
judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy.
Jesus said, blessed are the merciful for they
shall obtain mercy.
Some people find fault with me quite often
because I am and seek to be very
merciful.
And they even accuse me of being merciful
because maybe I'm guilty of the same thing.
I don't know.
But I know I need mercy.
And so that's why I seek to be
merciful.
And I would rather err on the side
of mercy than on the side of false
judgment.
Now, the criteria for forgiveness, of course, is
repentance.
I do not believe that God requires us
to forgive unless there is repentance and confession.
Jesus taught, take heed to yourselves, if your
brother trespasses against you, rebuke him.
And if he repents, forgive.
And if he trespasses against you seven times
in a day and seven times in the
day, he turns again to you saying, I
repent, you shall forgive him.
It is important to note that even God
does not forgive apart from repentance.
And thus God does not require us to
forgive apart from repentance.
Now, Peter is thinking that he's getting the
message.
He goes twice as far as the rabbis
taught.
And Jesus is basically saying, no, Peter, you
haven't got the message yet.
You are to forgive 70 times seven.
And then Jesus gave this story.
Matthew 18, 23.
The kingdom of heaven, he said, is like
a certain king who was looking over the
accounts of his servants.
And when he had begun to look at
the books, one was brought to him which
owed him five million dollars.
But in as much as he could not
pay, he commanded that he should be sold
and his wife and his children and all
that he had so a payment might be
made.
The servant, however, fell down and worshiped him
and said, Lord, have patience with me and
I will pay you.
Then the Lord of that servant was moved
with compassion and forgave him the debt.
But the same servant went out and found
one of his fellow servants which owed him
10 dollars.
And he laid his hands on him.
He took him by the throat.
He said, pay me what you owe me.
His fellow servant fell down at his feet
and begged him, saying, have patience with me
and I will pay you all.
But he would not.
But he had him cast into the debtor's
prison till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was
done, they were very sorry.
They came and told their Lord all that
was done.
And then his Lord called him and said
unto him, you wicked servant, I forgave you
that great debt because you desire me to
do so.
Should you not have had compassion on your
fellow servant, even as I had pity on
you?
And his Lord was angry and delivered him
to the tormentors till he should pay all
that was due unto him.
So likewise, Jesus said, shall my heavenly father
do also unto you if you from your
hearts do not forgive every one his brothers
their trespasses?
Think, Jesus said, how much God has forgiven
you.
Who are we to hold minor offenses against
our brothers, sometimes so minor as they passed
by and didn't even speak?
Can you believe that?
I'll never forgive them.
Oh, help us, Lord.
Small little inconsequential things that we allow to
build up within us and fester within until
they poison our whole system.
Jesus taught that if you want to be
forgiven, you must be willing to forgive.
Paul wrote to the Ephesians, be kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
To the Colossians, he wrote, forbearing one another
and forgiving one another.
If any have a quarrel against any, even
as Christ forgave you, so do also you.
A forgiving heart.
It's not mathematics.
It's just a heart.
So likewise, Jesus said, shall my heavenly father
do also unto you if from your hearts
you forgive not every one his brother their
trespasses?
Forgiveness is extremely important for your own mental
well-being.
If you are holding a grudge against someone,
chances are it's not bothering them at all.
They're probably not even aware of what you're
feeling.
And yet, within there is this seething, this
boiling, this anger, this, you know, just, it's
eating you up inside.
And every time you think of it, it
pours these horrible chemicals into your system, which
are destroying you, doing great damage to you.
Dr. Jones, who was in our church here
for many years, moved back to Mississippi, was
a psychiatrist, and he had a psychiatric hospital
over in Brea.
And the main thrust of his treatment was
getting people to get rid of the bitterness
and the unforgiveness that they had, because he
said the majority of the mental patients were
there because they would not let go of
some experience or this business of being unforgiving
and just letting it eat away at them.
And so, in his group sessions, the whole
idea was for them to expose the things
that they were angry about, the things that
they were upset over, the things that really
were churning inside.
And then he would say, now just lay
it out and forget it and forgive them.
Just hold them up and say, I forgive
you what you've done to me and how
you've treated me.
And that was the treatment of getting them
to be forgiving, that that was destroying them
mentally and causing them really, it was driving
them crazy, the anger and the bitterness and
resentment that they had.
We had a young girl named Susan who
came to church here for a time.
Her mother was Mrs. LaBianca, who was killed
by Tex Watson and a part of that
Charlie Manson gang, who went on that murdering
rampage here in Southern California.
And the LaBianca home where they went in
and brutally murdered Mr. and Mrs. LaBianca, Mrs.
LaBianca was her mother.
She was so angered and so bitter over
her mother being killed in such a fashion
that it was actually destroying her.
She was almost dead physically.
It had gone that far.
She read where Charles Tex Watson had become
a Christian.
And so she wanted to know if it
was really true, if he was really a
Christian.
And so she began to correspond with him.
And she made arrangements to go up and
to visit him there in the prison near
San Luis Obispo.
And so the day a visitation came, she
went in and they sat and talked for
a couple of hours.
Her idea was to really determine whether or
not he was truly born again or just
putting on a facade.
And when she became convinced that he was
truly born again, she said, I want to
tell you who I am.
My mother was Mrs. LaBianca, who you killed.
Tex Watson told me that when she said
that, he said, I was floored.
I didn't know what to say.
He said, I almost fainted.
But she went on to say, I want
you to know, because you're a Christian now,
I forgive you what you did.
He said a great weight was lifted off
of him.
But she told me that from that day,
she was healed.
She began to get physically stronger.
It was something that helped her to be
able to forgive.
She said, it saved my life.
I wouldn't be here today had I not
forgiven him.
It was killing me.
But an unforgiving spirit can do that.
It can kill you.
The emotions and all that you feel, the
bitterness, the anger, it can destroy you.
It is of utmost importance that we learn
to forgive.
Now, I'm fully aware that there are things
that have happened in your life deep cuts
caused by others that cause you to believe
and to think, I just can never forgive
them.
And I know that from a human standpoint,
that's correct.
There's no way humanly that you can forgive
the things that have been done against you.
But there's an old adage, to err is
human, to forgive is divine.
And I know that what you can't do,
God can do for you.
And so in thinking of that, that is
causing you such inner turmoil, that situation or
the things that they have done, I ask
you the question, do you think that God
will forgive them if they repent and confess
their sin?
And you'd have to admit, well, yes, God
would forgive them.
Well, if God will forgive them, then he
can help you to forgive them.
And so I would suggest that in that
kind of a situation where you feel I
can never forgive, that you say, God, take
this out of my heart.
Don't let it destroy me.
Give me, Lord, that forgiving spirit like you
have.
So that should the opportunity arise and they
confess and ask for forgiveness, I can truly
say, I forgive you.
And you can be released from that bondage
that is destroying you.
My prayer to God is help me, Lord,
to do what in my flesh I cannot
do.
Give to me, Lord, a forgiving heart.
Father, that is our prayer today.
And I pray that you'll release many people
today from those destructive practices of holding
enmity, bitterness, anger, malice against
things that have been done to them by
others.
And Lord, help them this day to be
freed from those destructive forces and help them,
Lord, to be able to forgive.
Lord, we think of how much you've forgiven
us, of all of the wrongs and all
of the sins that we've ever committed.
And yet, Lord, when we confessed and when
we repented, you forgave.
Help us, Lord, that we shall do the
same through the help of your spirit and
the power of your spirit.
May we, Lord, become loving and forgiving.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Let's stand.
God wants to set some of you free
today from that which is holding you in
its power and in its grip, that you
might go from here today with a spirit
of forgiveness, willing to forgive, letting go, just
saying, okay, God, you take it.
I'm going to let it go.
And just turning it over to the Lord
and allowing him to work.
Because as long as you hold on to
it, know that it is hurting and harming
you.
Let it go.
The pastors are down here at the front
to help you, to pray for you, and
to pray with you.
That you might experience God's deliverance and God's
help today.
That you might go forth today free from
that crushing, destroying spirit that is eating you
alive and be free.
In Jesus' name.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee.
The Lord make his face to shine upon
thee and be gracious unto thee and be
gracious unto thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
and give thee peace.