Forgive Me - DJ
Transcript
00:00No one knows when Christ will return, but imagine if we did.
00:11Imagine if you only had seven days until he comes back.
00:15One week, 168 hours, 10,080 minutes, 600, 4,800 seconds.
00:26What would you do?
00:27How would you change the way you lived?
00:30What would you say to God?
00:33Who would you tell about him?
00:35What relationships would you make right?
00:39What good would you stop putting off?
00:42We don't know the day or hour of his return, but we should live as if today were the day.
00:51Imagine if we did.
00:53You would turn the whole world upside down, up for the challenge.
01:08Without knowing the story of your life, I can probably guess the hardest thing you've
01:13ever had to do.
01:14I don't know the details, names, dates, or places, but they really don't matter.
01:20Because regardless of the situation, forgiving others is always our biggest challenge.
01:27Unfortunately, we don't always forgive as quickly as we should, which brings me to the
01:32title of today's message, Forgive Me.
01:37I'm David Jeremiah, asking you to consider how you might feel about forgiving others
01:42if you knew you would meet Jesus seven days from today.
01:47That's the theme of our current series called Seven Days Until Christ Returns.
01:53While we don't know when we will meet Christ, we know we will, and we need to be free of
01:59unforgiveness on that day.
02:01I hope you'll join me to discover what Jesus said about forgiving and being forgiven on
02:07today's edition of Turning Point.
02:13Drawing from decades of experience as one of the world's most respected scholars of
02:17Bible prophecy, Dr. Jeremiah brings his signature wisdom, depth, and compassion to the Book
02:22of Signs, 31 Undeniable Prophecies of the Apocalypse, his masterwork on prophecy.
02:28A must-have volume for anyone interested in end-times theology, the Book of Signs will
02:33be sent to you in appreciation when you support this program with a gift of any amount.
02:38Also available, the Signs set, containing the Book of Signs, the 31-message Signs CD
02:44collection with three correlating study guides, and the Revelation Prophecy Chart, plus the
02:49Prophecy Interview DVD, yours in appreciation of your generous gift of $135 or more, or
02:55three monthly payments of $45.
02:58The Book of Signs and the Signs set, Dr. Jeremiah's legacy work on Bible prophecy.
03:04Contact Turning Point today.
03:09Thank you for watching Turning Point.
03:11Now here is Dr. Jeremiah with his message, Forgive Me.
03:17I found this story in a book by one of my favorite writers, Lewis Meads, who has a book
03:23on forgiveness, and one of the stories he tells in his book is of a woman named Jane
03:28Grabschen.
03:31Jane and her husband, Ralph, had finally brought their three children through the crazy maze
03:35of adolescence and gently pushed them out of the house.
03:41Jane was glad they had flown the coop.
03:44Finally, she was going to have a life of her own.
03:47Finally, she was going to get back on her own track and make something of herself.
03:52But a family tragedy stopped her.
03:54You see, Ralph's younger brother and his wife were killed in a car crash and left to Ralph
04:00and Jane, three children, ages 8, 10, and 12, all of them.
04:08And Jane was too compassionate or too tired to disagree with taking them.
04:14So she took them in, not for a month, but for the duration.
04:20As for Ralph, well, he was gone a lot.
04:22He was busy building his career, a traveling man on the road, making deals, and nine years
04:28had gone by in this story.
04:30Two of the kids that they took in are gone.
04:32The only one left is still at home, is 17.
04:35His mind slightly bent out of shape, but still functional.
04:40And in a few years, Jane and Ralph would be home free.
04:45Not quite.
04:47You see, Jane's body had gotten a little lumpy by this time, and Ralph's secretary, Sue,
04:51was a dazzler.
04:53Besides, Sue really understood his needs, and how could he help but fall in love with
04:57her?
04:58He and Sue knew that their love was too true to be denied and too powerful to be resisted,
05:03and so Ralph divorced Jane and married Sue.
05:07And Ralph and Sue were very happy, and they dunked their happiness in a warm religious
05:11froth.
05:13Their accepting church celebrated their newfound joy with them.
05:17They were kept afloat in togetherness by the affirming Christian community.
05:23But Ralph needed one more stroke of acceptance.
05:27So he called Jane to ask her to forgive him.
05:33And he asked her to be glad with him that he was finally a happy man.
05:39And he said, I want you to bless me.
05:43And she said, I want you to go to hell.
05:52How could she forgive him and throw away the only power that she had left, the power to
05:57hate, the energy of her contempt?
06:00Her contempt was her power and her dignity and her self-esteem.
06:04It was unfair to ask her to forgive.
06:06The least the louse deserved was a steady stream of her scorn and hate.
06:10Forgive him?
06:11You've got to be kidding.
06:14What would you have done?
06:15And probably someone in this room has had an opportunity to deal with something that
06:20visceral.
06:21When we ask people to forgive, when the Bible says we're to forgive, are we being ripped
06:27off?
06:28Are we being betrayed?
06:29I mean, there's a lot of reasons for not forgiving.
06:32Why should people cut and thrust their way through our lives and leave us bleeding in
06:36the road and then expect us to forgive everything and act as if nothing went wrong?
06:43Forgiving is an outrage against dues-paying Americans.
06:48And yet here today, we are going to read a verse that's found almost in the very center
06:55of the Lord's prayer.
06:58And from that verse, we cannot recover.
07:02The Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray like this, forgive us our debts as we forgive
07:13our debtors.
07:15I think this verse demands careful attention, and if you have your Bibles, open them to
07:19the sixth chapter of Matthew, and you will see why I make this statement.
07:24Jesus' comment about forgiveness is not just one of many things he tells us we are to pray
07:30for when we pray.
07:33Jesus' comment about forgiveness is the only thing in the Lord's prayer that is accompanied
07:39by a commentary.
07:42In Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12, we read the words that we are to forgive in order
07:48that we be forgiven.
07:50And we may wonder if we have misread it or if maybe it's just caught in the old English
07:55of the text.
07:57But we don't read very far before we realize that we are right on the money when we say
08:02what we have said about this verse.
08:04For look down in your Bibles at Matthew chapter 6 and notice that at the end of the Lord's
08:09prayer, there are two verses that take us back to that one phrase.
08:15For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
08:22But if you do not forgive them their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
08:30Isn't it interesting that of all the things Jesus said in the Lord's prayer, he only commented
08:34on one.
08:35He went back and picked up the subject of forgiveness and gave us two more verses to
08:40underscore this strange thing that he tells us.
08:45Forgive, we understand that.
08:47We should forgive just because we're Christians.
08:49But to think that Jesus is telling us apparently that our lack of forgiveness of our fellow
08:55man affects his ability to forgive us almost sounds as if it is a works salvation.
09:03It almost sounds as if we get forgiven by God if we do the right thing and we go around
09:07and get forgiven by one another.
09:12And I'm not going to resolve that question right now, but I hope to before I'm finished.
09:17What I want us to understand is this, that Jesus said when we pray, and if you happen
09:21to pray this prayer every day, when we pray, we should pray like this, forgive us our debts
09:27as we forgive our debtors.
09:29And the idea that is before us is this, our relationship with the Lord cannot be right
09:35until our relationship with others is made right.
09:39Jesus hinted at this back earlier in the book of Matthew 5, 23.
09:44Notice what it says here.
09:46Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something
09:52against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.
09:59First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.
10:06What is Jesus saying here?
10:07He's saying if you go to worship God and you're at the altar ready to worship God and all
10:11of a sudden you realize that you have an unresolved conflict with the brother, put your worship
10:16of God on hold and go get things right with your brother and then come back and worship
10:22God.
10:23Because what Jesus is saying is if you don't do that, what's wrong between you and your
10:27brother will hinder your ability to worship.
10:31Later in Matthew, in verses 43 and 45 of the fifth chapter, we read these words.
10:37You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
10:41What I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who
10:48hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.
10:52You say, why would anybody do that?
10:56That you may be the sons of your father.
11:00Jesus says if you want to be known as a God child, walk around with a spirit of forgiveness
11:05in your heart because it'll give you away every time.
11:09Jesus included the importance of forgiveness in the prayer he taught his disciples.
11:13He provided a commentary on his prayer in the two verses that follow it and then a little
11:19bit later on in the book of Matthew, he told a story which so masterfully illustrates the
11:23principle that we must go there this morning and retell the story.
11:28So turn over now in your Bibles to the 18th chapter of the book of Matthew.
11:33This story begins in the 21st verse in an interchange between Jesus and Peter.
11:39And Peter is at his best in this moment, being Peter.
11:47Peter asks the Lord in verse 21, he says, Lord, he says, Lord, how often do I have to
11:54forgive my brother's sin against me?
11:57How often do I have to forgive him?
11:59Up to seven times?
12:01Can you see Peter saying that?
12:03Lord, I got this list in my pocket, I'm up to five with this guy, I'm on six with this
12:07guy, and I'm about to hit seven, do I have to go beyond that?
12:11Jesus just said, no, Peter, not seven times, 70 times seven times, 490 times.
12:21Peter's got to get a bigger notebook.
12:25But Jesus didn't mean count to 490, what he was saying to Peter is forgiveness doesn't
12:30have a quotient.
12:33There's no number on forgiveness.
12:36And then Jesus said, Peter, sit down, I want to tell you a story.
12:41And this is the story that he told him.
12:43He said, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his
12:49servants.
12:51And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000
12:57talents.
12:58Now, let me just stop there for a moment and tell you 10,000 talents is so much money it's
13:03hard for us even to conceive of it.
13:06For example, one talent could be worth about 6,000 days work.
13:11So, it would take this man 19 years working six days a week to earn one talent.
13:18And he owed 10,000 of them.
13:20Now, I mean, how could a servant get into that kind of trouble?
13:25What you have to do to get that much in debt?
13:27Was he embezzling?
13:28Was he ripping the...
13:29I don't know, but he was in so much trouble, he had nothing with which to repay.
13:36He had a debt that was so huge.
13:40The next verse says, the servant, therefore, fell down before his master and he said, Master,
13:45have patience with me and I will pay you all right.
13:51When we hear what he says, we almost want to laugh out loud.
13:54I mean, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard.
13:56He would have to live 190 years to put every dime he earned into his debt just to get even
14:01and he wouldn't have any money left over to eat.
14:03And who's going to live that long anyway?
14:07Well, you know the story.
14:10When the master heard his plea, he decides that he can't pay.
14:14The debt is too great.
14:15So, he says, I'll tell you what I'm going to do.
14:18The master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him
14:23all of his debt.
14:27We owed a debt we could not pay.
14:30There's no way we could live long enough, nor could we do good enough to ever pay the
14:33sin debt we owed.
14:35And aren't you glad that one day our master forgave us, forgave us all?
14:40How could he forgive a debt as astronomical as that?
14:42There would be no way unless he would be willing to give up his own son in payment.
14:49And he did.
14:51Now back to our story.
14:53Once the servant was forgiven, he went out from the presence of the master and one of
14:58his fellow servants who owed him money came to him for assistance.
15:02And while the sum his fellow servant owed was a pittance in comparison to the amount
15:07which he had been forgiven, it was a huge sum to the one who owed it.
15:10And he came to him and he said, I can't pay.
15:13Would you forgive me?
15:14And the Bible says that the one who had been forgiven so much by his master grabbed hold
15:18of his fellow servant by the throat and demanded that he pay him everything that was owed.
15:26And when the rest of the servants watched this play out, they were so ticked off that
15:32they went back to the master and told him what happened.
15:37And we read in verse 32, that his master, after he had called him, said to him, you
15:41wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
15:47Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?
15:52And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that
15:59was due him.
16:02End of story.
16:04Jesus' application, verse 35, so my heavenly father also will do to each of you if from
16:13his heart he does not forgive his brother his trespasses.
16:17Here we are again back at that thorny point.
16:22Just like we saw back in the sixth chapter, do you understand what Jesus is saying?
16:26In Matthew chapter 6, verse 14 and 15, in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus is saying, we are
16:31to forgive others what they owe us because we ourselves have been forgiven so much.
16:36And if we will not forgive them, then we will never experience the joy of the forgiveness
16:40which is ours.
16:43Our forgiveness of others is conditioned upon God's forgiveness of us.
16:49Now, as we process the truth of this passage, I saved all the points until the very last,
16:53so I'm gonna give you all these points one right after the other as quickly as I can.
16:56You can write them down in your notes.
16:59First of all, this teaches us that we are to forgive because we have been forgiven.
17:06When we begin to comprehend how much God has forgiven us, we are set free to forgive others
17:10and that's the whole point of the story.
17:13That's the whole point of Matthew 6.
17:14That's the whole point of the Lord's Prayer.
17:16We are constantly to reflect upon the fact that we have been forgiven and out of the
17:21reservoir of our forgiveness by God, we are to forgive those who hurt us.
17:29And there's not anything anybody could ever do to us that would be greater than the offense
17:35that we are to God and he forgave it all.
17:39Now, out of that, realizing that, accepting that, let us walk from our forgiveness toward
17:46an erring brother and offer that same forgiveness to them.
17:51We are to forgive because we have been forgiven.
17:55Number two, we are to forgive just as we have been forgiven.
18:00In the Bible, in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32, we read this about forgiveness.
18:05"'And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another,' how?
18:10"'Even as God in Christ forgave you.'"
18:15How are we to forgive each other?
18:17As God in Christ has forgiven us.
18:19Let me just make a couple of practical points here.
18:22How did God forgive us?
18:23For Christ's sake.
18:24He forgave us unconditionally.
18:26He forgave us freely.
18:28I don't read any place in the Bible where God said,
18:31I will forgive you, but I won't forget.
18:34No, in fact, he goes to the extreme in the other direction and he says in Micah 7, 19,
18:42"'He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea,' and in Psalm 103,
18:47"'As far as the east is from the west,
18:50"'so far he has removed our transgressions from us.'"
18:53This is how we are to forgive, just as we have been forgiven,
18:56unconditionally, with no secondary points, no add-ons,
19:02no supplementary conditions.
19:05Freely, as we have been forgiven.
19:08Thirdly, we are to forgive that we might be forgiven.
19:12And here's where we are back again at this point.
19:16This is the hardest for us to understand.
19:17How can our forgiveness of others in any way condition God's forgiveness of us?
19:23I mean, how many of you know that there are two kinds of forgiveness in the Bible?
19:29There is judicial forgiveness and there is relational forgiveness.
19:34Let me put us all in a couple of sentences
19:36so we can walk away with some clarity on this issue.
19:39All of us who are Christians have received judicial forgiveness.
19:44When we accepted Christ, something happened in our heart
19:48that had an effect on something that happened in heaven.
19:51And in the court of heaven, the blood of Jesus Christ,
19:53God's Son, was applied to our account.
19:56Our sins were forgiven forever, taken totally away.
20:00And we are viewed before God as clean and whole.
20:04And when God looks at our account and sees that we have done wrong,
20:07he stamps over the account, paid in full, forgiven.
20:12Nothing can change that ever.
20:15If you never forgive another person the rest of your life,
20:18you are still judicially forgiven by God.
20:23But how many of you know there's another kind of forgiveness
20:25and that's called relational forgiveness?
20:29That's why we have 1 John 1, 9 in the Bible that says,
20:32if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
20:36to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
20:38from all unrighteousness.
20:40In one sense, judicial forgiveness is about sin
20:44and relational forgiveness is about sins.
20:48When I was a teenager, my father went away one time,
20:52left his Chrysler Newport sitting in the driveway
20:55and the keys on the table.
20:57I was 15, just getting the urge to drive.
21:01I knew he wasn't coming back for several days.
21:03So, one afternoon, I took the keys,
21:06got in his Chrysler Newport, took it out into the country.
21:08Now, we lived in a little village called Cedarville
21:10where there weren't many paved roads outside of the city.
21:12So, I'm on a gravel road and I'm trying this baby out.
21:15Man, it's got some torque and it's going like crazy.
21:18But you see, those roads are very small and there was
21:21a truck coming the other way.
21:22And if you drive there enough, you can manage it.
21:24But if you've never driven much, like I had not driven much,
21:28I panicked and I put my father's Newport in the ditch.
21:33I mean, I really ripped it up pretty good.
21:36I didn't even know what I was gonna do.
21:37Fortunately for me, a farmer came along and he had a chain.
21:39He pulled me out of the ditch and I drove my car home
21:42and then waited for the inevitable.
21:46My father came home.
21:48My father's in heaven now, but he haunts me with this moment.
21:51And you will get this if I tell you what he did.
21:57He came home, got out of the car, the guy had driven him
22:00home, and I was looking out the window.
22:02I saw him walk by the car and he almost got by it,
22:04and then he went back and he went like that.
22:09I knew trouble was coming.
22:12And you know what?
22:13My father responded in a way I'd never heard him do,
22:15never seen him do before with me or any of the other kids.
22:17He just walked in.
22:18He said, David, did you do that?
22:19I said, yes, sir, I did.
22:21He just looked at me and walked out.
22:23Walked back in the back room.
22:25And for three days, we did not talk.
22:28He just looked at me like I was not there.
22:32And one day, it suddenly dawned on me, you know what?
22:35This is my fault.
22:37And I went to his office on the campus of Cedarville College,
22:40knocked on his door, and I went in and said, Dad,
22:43I don't want to live like this anymore.
22:45I know I broke your faith.
22:48I don't know what I said, but I said everything I could think
22:51of to say, I'm sorry.
22:53Will you please forgive me?
22:58My dad was a big man.
22:59He got up from his desk.
23:03And he put his arms around me, and he said, I forgive you.
23:11You're going to pay for the damage.
23:18Now, here's my question, friends.
23:20Here's my question.
23:22During those three days when my father and I did not speak,
23:26was I still his son?
23:30He might have wished otherwise, but I was still his son.
23:37Positionally, I was the same as before.
23:41Relationally, things were messed up.
23:44And the only way I could get it right was to say,
23:48I'm sorry.
23:49Will you forgive me?
23:51And when he forgave me, it was okay.
23:55Here's what God is saying to us.
23:58Don't come to me and act like everything's all right when you
24:02still have a car in the ditch that you haven't taken care of.
24:07Go take care of the forgiveness.
24:10Come back, and let's get back into fellowship again.
24:16So, let me ask you this question.
24:19Are you holding forgiveness away from somebody who's asked you?
24:24What have they done to you that is more awesome than what you
24:30have done to offend God?
24:31He has forgiven you.
24:32Can you not take some of the forgiveness God has given you
24:36and offer it to the person who needs to be forgiven?
24:41I'm just going to ask you this week to think carefully about
24:43your own life and realize maybe you need to make a phone call,
24:48maybe you need to write a letter,
24:50maybe you need to go see somebody.
24:52But if you want to have the kind of relationship with God that's
24:54going to bring peace and joy and comfort in these difficult days,
24:57take care of the things that can get in the way.
25:00Unforgiveness is one of those things.
25:05Dr. Jeremiah will return in a moment to close today's program
25:08right after this.
25:12Thank you for watching today.
25:14Dr. Jeremiah would like to offer you the book of signs,
25:17his masterwork on Bible prophecy,
25:19a must-have volume for anyone interested in end-times theology.
25:23The book of signs will be sent to you in appreciation when you
25:26support this program with a gift of any amount.
25:29Also available, the signs set containing the book of signs,
25:33the 31-message signs CD collection with three
25:36correlating study guides, and the revelation prophecy chart.
25:39Plus, the prophecy interview DVD,
25:42yours in appreciation of your generous gift of $135 or more,
25:46or three monthly payments of $45.
25:49The book of signs and the signs set,
25:52Dr. Jeremiah's legacy work on Bible prophecy.
25:55Contact Turning Point today.
26:00And now, with one last word for today's program,
26:02here is Dr. Jeremiah.
26:05You and I both know that forgiveness is never easy,
26:09yet we've just learned that it is not an option.
26:12Jesus said that because we enjoy God's forgiveness for
26:16our own sins, we are responsible to forgive others for theirs.
26:21In fact, I have discovered that the more deeply I realize how
26:25readily God forgives me, the more compelled I am to forgive
26:30others in the same generous way.
26:33To help you discover more of God's forgiveness,
26:36I hope you'll request two free resources from Turning Point.
26:40One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point,
26:43and the other is our monthly devotional magazine
26:46called Turning Points.
26:48Both will guide you into a deeper understanding of God's
26:52forgiveness, and we'll gladly send both to you free of charge
26:56if you will contact us today here at Turning Point.
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27:33Next time on Turning Point.
27:36The Bible says God Almighty, when he sends his son to live in
27:39your heart, his son will never leave you nor forsake you,
27:42and he is with you today, and he is in you today.
27:45God Almighty is with you, and you should be thankful
27:48for your faith.
27:50Join Dr. Jeremiah next time for his message,
27:53Thank You, here on Turning Point.
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