Given 10/27/08 at The Well in Longmont, CO
Forgiveness
We are already judged.
John 3:18 ” He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
We inherited the consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision. They sinned, and death entered the world. Many people believe that we live our lives and go to heaven, and God judges us according to our behavior during our lives. This is a lie.
Our behavior will do nothing to get us into heaven – not a thing. We are all on the ride to hell no matter what we do. That is the result of the first sin. We died. And, God, being just and holy, will not bring us into heaven because of what we perceive to be good behavior.
No, we are on a direct path to hell. Right out of the gate, we have been judged. But, there is a way out. We can move ourselves off of the path of eternal damnation. We have the choice of accepting the gift of eternal salvation through Jesus. We have the power to change our own destiny. And, we can do it without any guessing or supposing that we might get it right by being good enough to get through the gates of heaven when we die.
So, we can get to heaven with no uncertainty whatsoever. Bless God.
The scripture says, “he who believes is not judged”. We can change the path that we are born to walk down. Do you understand? When we are born, we are already judged and on a path to destruction. It is only through faith in Jesus that we can divert the direction of our walk.
See, God doesn’t have to judge every person that dies and goes to heaven. He is already judged because of the first sin. Death was the verdict. It is our choice whether we live or die forever. It is our choice whether we go to heaven or hell. It is that simple. We can accept Jesus and believe on Him for salvation or we can simply do nothing and die.
It is our free will that got us into this mess, and it is our free will that can get us out.
It is only because we do not believe in the name of Jesus that we die a second death. And again, we don’t have to do a thing. That path has already been set. If you do not choose Jesus, you choose to stay where you are, and that is the path to hell.
We need forgiveness.
So, we need forgiveness. We need a savior. We need to be released from the debt of sin and death. We need Someone to jump in and get us out of the mess that Adam created. And, we didn’t even have a vote in the matter. That just doesn’t seem fair. But, what is fair, is that the LORD has given every man, woman and child a way out, and it matters not who you are, how much you make or whether you even have a home. Every one of us can choose the path of righteousness and life. We need forgiveness for a sin that we never committed. And, thank God, we have that in Jesus. He was the propitiation for our sins. That means that He covered over our sins.
See, in the Levitical process, the priest would sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the mercy seat to buy another year’s worth of atonement for the sins of the people. It was only temporary, and this process had to be redone every year. This is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and is the high holy day.
All of this was a foreshadowing of the need for a Savior. God was setting the stage that nothing we did could permanently erase the effect of sin.
So, we see in the Old Testament that we needed a Savior. We see in the New Testament that only through the acceptance of Jesus can we get to heaven. He IS our savior. We need forgiveness.
And, forgiveness is a big deal to God in our day to day life as well.
As believers, what can model the love of God more than giving forgiveness to others, no matter how they act towards us. After all, isn’t that what God does to us every day?
Yes, forgiveness is a big deal to God, and not forgiving others has major consequences to us.
Righting the Wrongs
Every one of us has been wronged. Every single one of us. And, it is imperative that we release those who wrong us. And, oh are there so many who wrong us. I don’t even have to go down the list of who offended you today. They come right to your mind as I talk about this.
For our own sakes, it is imperative that we release and forgive those who bring offense against us.
Jesus said in the LORD’s prayer, “forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors”. God will forgive us as we forgive or not forgive us as we fail to forgive. This is an eternal law.
But…. They did. They said. They…they…they.
Yup, even if they were wrong, and you were right, you must forgive.
Sources of Offense
It is human nature to see other people and hold against them the wrongs that they do to you. It is so easy to do this. But, most of the time, our issues are beyond the person and go deeper into the spiritual. It is most important that we look with discerning eyes to help us pray into releasing folks who wrong us.
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
We are not wrestling with people. We wrestle with the devil and his cohorts. The issue is that most of us do not have the spiritual discernment to see what really is happening. Some don’t believe in the demonic. Some don’t care. Some are influenced into believing all kinds of lies, but the truth is that believers and non-believers can be greatly influenced by demons. That is where our struggle lies.
For example, if we could see that old woman who was raped as a child by a man possessed by the devil who later turned into this sour, mean-spirited woman who spewed vile things at the children who crossed on her yard on the way to school as God sees her, we might not be so quick to judge and be a whole lot quicker to forgive her. If we saw that she now has a spirit of fear, bitterness and unforgiveness operating on her that influence every thought that she has, we might even well up compassion for her.
Quite often, people behave the way they due because of something that they suffered that was brought on by the demonic. Their hearts open up to evil influence, and they do great harm to others. We must forgive them.
This doesn’t mean that we can get a free pass by blaming the devil. No, we are fully accountable for our actions. Just look at Adam and Eve for evidence. And, not every wrong is because of the devil.
Now, let’s look at Job 1 and 2. Job was a righteous man in God’s eyes. But, the devil convinced God to let him hit him, and he could get Job to speak out against God. The LORD said that he could do whatever he wanted, but he couldn’t touch Job. Devastation came.
In chapter 2, we see the devil and God in heaven talking again. God again points out how righteous Job is and how great his integrity is, and the devil says that he can get Job to curse God if he would just let him have at Job. God says that he can, but he cannot kill Job.
The very next scene shows Job’s wife accusing Job saying, “how can you hold onto your integrity? Curse God and die.” She used the exact words that were just spoken in heaven.
The devil could have taken her out in Chapter 1. God said that the devil could have anyone and anything but Job. But, the devil left the wife on the scene. He knew that she was more use to him alive than dead, and we see that his plan was to use her to accuse Job to get him to speak out against the LORD.
This sounds similar to the plan that the devil laid out with Adam and Eve, doesn’t it? She was used to bring down the fall.
Look at how this unfolded with the devil and God and how Job responds:
Job Loses His Health
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.
The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”
Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
“However, put forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You to Your face.”
So the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.”
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
What did Job do? He did NOT curse God and sin with his words. Blame is often a trait of unforgiveness.
We see two other things here:
Our struggles are with the devil, and he uses other people to move against us.
Sometimes, God allows offenses to come our way.
Jesus said it himself with John the Baptist. “blessed is he who is not offended because of Me”. This happened right before John was beheaded. Jesus could have saved him. God could have released angels to war for him. But, sometimes, God’s sovereignty goes beyond our understanding. It is a blessing when we do not become offended.
Now, the good is that Job was one of the very first books of the bible chronologically speaking. It was before the story of Moses, so it was before the first covenant and the law and well before the second covenant with Jesus. We are under the New Covenant and have full authority over the devil’s power through Jesus because Jesus gave it to us, unless we give it away. But, it does illustrate how the devil can work to bring calamity between people and why it is so important to realize what Paul said about our struggles not being with flesh and blood. Job could have easily thrown down on his wife or God.
What if we don’t forgive?
Matthew 6:15
But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
When we don’t forgive, we make ourselves out to be bigger than God. That is pride. He already forgives us. Why is it then that we decide we don’t need to forgive or “cant?” The offenses that we bring up against God are too numerous to count. Yet, He releases us. In fact the bible says that He forgets our sins as far as the east is to the west.
Failing to forgive actually places us in bondage. Unfortunately, there is a triple whammy when we are wronged. First, we suffer the pain of being wronged. Then, if we don’t forgive, we are held to the same standard. Finally, we allow ourselves to be tortured or tormented.
In Matthew 18, we have the story of Peter asking Jesus how many times he should forgive him who sins against him. Jesus’ response was seventy times seven. Meaning, as many times as he wrongs you.
Jesus then goes on to tell the story of the king who settled his accounts with his slaves. The one slave couldn’t pay his debt, but the king forgave it all. Then, that exact slave holds a fellow slave to the standard of having to pay his debts. He even choked him. Now, word gets back to the king that this slave failed to forgive his fellow slave just as he had been forgiven.
The king’s response?
We pick it up in verse 32:
32″ Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33′ Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
34″And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.
35″My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
So, what does that mean?
Unforgiveness releases torture and torment. It is a biblical principle. So, for your own sakes, you must forgive.
How many people walk around without peace?
How many have no sleep?
How many have ringing in their ears?
How many suffer ulcers?
How many get recurring headaches?
The list goes on.
For your sake, you must forgive. For the LORD’s sake you must forgive.
So, for the remainder of our time, we are going to let the LORD bring to memory those people that we need to forgive. I will ask the Holy Spirit to bring them to mind, and all you need to do is remember who they are. Then, we are going to pray a simple prayer and take them to Jesus so that we can release them from their debts.
It doesn’t matter what they did. Just let them go. Then, you will be free. Any of you suffering torment will be released. And, if you have pain or disease that results from that, you will be made whole.
I. Holy Spirit Time
a. Pray for revelation of people that need to be forgiven
b. Pray to forgive them
c. Take them to Jesus and put His hand in theirs. Release them to Him.