The Schemes of the Devil Part 4: Un-forgiveness
Scripture: Eph. 6:11-12; Mark 11:24-26; Matthew 18:21-35
Introduction:
This is part four of my series focused on the schemes of the devil. The foundational scripture for this series is Ephesians 6:11-12 which says “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
This morning I will be focusing on how Satan uses our refusal to forgive to hinder us. Several words give us insight into true forgiveness. Absolve; Acquit; Excuse; Overlook; and Pardon are all forms of the word forgive. I read in a book about how we are a nation that tolerates the differences and beliefs of others. Although we say this about ourselves as a nation, whenever we look at the news this is not what we see. Everyone seems unconcerned about others while looking out for themselves which leads to argument after argument after argument. If we consider the example that our politicians, we see that there are many differences between the parties and the individuals and they do nothing to hide that they are out for themselves. Instead of being “accepting of differences” these people go digging into one another’s past seeking to find something that they can bring up against their rivals. There is very little forgiveness and as a matter of fact, if someone does something wrong, it becomes a vulture feast, everyone comes in and enjoys the kill. This is in stark contrast of a nation that prides itself on being tolerant of others.
Our foundation Scripture for this message is found in Mark 11:24-26. Jesus says “Therefore I say unto you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your transgressions. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.” The reason I chose these verses as the foundation is that there are many people who spend hours per week praying yet they have a need to forgive others. Jesus said that before we pray, we should forgive those who have done something against us and if this is not done, then when we are asking for forgiveness, it will not happen. This is important because generally the first thing we ask for when we pray is that god will forgive us of our sins. Jesus said our prayers are guaranteed to be answered, but there is a clause. When we pray we should believe immediately that we have received what we asked for and this requires faith on our part. However, no amount of faith will overshadow or undo God’s rule about our need to forgive.
We have all heard it said that we should forgive and forget. How many times have you stated that you have forgiven someone but yet you have not forgotten about the offense? How hard is it to really let loose of past offenses and totally treat the person as if nothing happened? This is what we are being told to do. In this life we have so many excuses as to why we should not forgive, the pain was too bad; they really hurt me; you don’t understand what the person did; etc, etc, etc. Our excuses measure up to what God’s command is and His command does not make allowances for how bad the offense was. But I will tell you this, we have an advocate when it comes to our not being willing to forgive. Our advocate, who just happens to also be our adversary, will go out of his way to ensure that we feel totally justified in walking in un-forgiveness. He loves it (and us) when we are doing this. Satan even agrees with our assessment of why we should not have to forgive; he supports it 100%. If you have been offended he will give you reasons to stay offended. Not only will he give you reasons, he will help you justify your anger and disgust. But why is he so willing to be friendly with us in this area when normally he is out to destroy us? It is because he knows that not being able to forgive others will destroy us, the destruction may come slower, but it will come. Let me go back to our foundational Scripture.
I. Forgive If You Want Forgiveness
Mark 11:26 says “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.” This is not a statement to be taken lightly. Jesus meant just what He said. If you do not forgive those who offend and/or hurt you, when you stand before God praying, your sins will not be forgiven. And if you have sins that are not forgiven, it will shut down God’s ability to move on your behalf. Are you starting to see why Satan is very friendly when it comes to our walking in un-forgiveness. He does not want us operating in God’s kind of love which we would do if we made it a point to walk in a spirit of forgiveness. Let me share with you another example from Matthew 18:21-35.
“Then Peter came and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had and repayment to be made. The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii and seized him and began to choke him saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell down and began to entreat him saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ He was unwilling however, but went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
In these verses we find something that should really scare us. Peter asked Jesus a simple question that he thought he already knew the answer to. You see, during that time the rabbinical teaching was that you only had to forgive someone three times. This is similar to what we do today; we give someone three strikes before we count them out or write them off. According to the rabbis, if one person offended you three times, you were not required to forgive them any more after that, you could actually write them off. When Peter asked Jesus that question, he assumed offering to forgive someone seven times (more than twice what the rabbis were teaching) would be more than acceptable to Christ. I am sure that Jesus’ response surprised him. Jesus told him that he should forgive not up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. In other words, there were not a set number of times that a person could sin against us that we would not have to forgive them.
After Jesus gave Peter that answer, he told him a follow-up story to help him fully understand the impact and importance of what He had just said. Jesus told him a story about a king who was in the process of settling the debts owed to him by his slaves. This king had one slave who owed him approximately $10 million dollars (10 thousand talents). When the servant stood before his king, he did not have the money to repay so the king ordered that he, his family and all of his possessions be sold until the debt could be repaid. The servant begged for leniency until he could repay and the king had mercy on him. Now you would think if a person was forgiven $10 million dollars in debt and was given more time to repay, he would be grateful, but not this man. This man left the king’s presence and went and found someone that owed him approximately $2000 dollars (a hundred denarii). This man, likewise, could not pay and asked for mercy. Instead of this man giving his fellow slave more time, he took him and had him thrown in prison until he could repay. When some of the witnesses remembered how this man had begged the king to give him more time when he could not repay his debt yet he would not forgive his fellow slave, they reported him to the king. The king was very upset with this man because he had not shown his fellow slave the same mercy he had been shown. The king followed through with his original plan and had the man thrown into prison until he could repay.
It is verse 35 of this chapter that we need to fully grasp. It says “So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” Jesus made it clear that if we are not willing to forgive our fellow man, then God will look upon us just as that king looked upon his servant. We do not have the option to forgive and the lie that Satan has told us, we must cast down. You see, we have brought in to the lie that we can forgive someone without forgetting the offense. By operating in this mentality, we can “secretly” carry around the un-forgiveness even though we are smiling at the person and treating them nicely. This is a dangerous ground to be walking on. Jesus said that this forgiveness must come from the heart, not your mind, but your heart. Is it possible to forgive someone and forget about the offense? There was a time that I thought this was impossible, but today I know that it can be done. For some offenses it may take longer than others but it can be done. Let me prove it to you.
I want each of you to think back to an argument that you had with friend spouse or family member 5 years ago. In this argument, something was said that offended you. Can you remember what it was? Does it still hurt you when you think about it? If you remember and it does not hurt and you are just as close to the person as ever, you have probably forgiven them. If you remember it and it still hurts and you are waiting for the next bomb to fall, you have not forgiven them. I have had many arguments through the years with different people who really offended me, but I do not remember them today. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to think hard to remember why you were “supposed” to not be speaking to someone? That is you friend Satan trying to get you back to walking in un-forgiveness. Think about a time when you went to a class reunion and those that were your enemies back then seemed as if they were your closet friends – all was forgiven and forgotten (at least on their part.) God has given us the ability to walk in what He walks in. Consider the following Scriptures:
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12) David tells us that God removes our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. Think of this as taking your dirty laundry across town to the cleaners to be cleaned. While they are at the laundry, they are “far” removed from you. In God’s case, He leaves our dirty laundry at the cleaners – not to ever go back and get them. It is us after our laundry has been cleaned do we go and pick it up only to get them dirty again. We do our sins the same way, God cleans us up yet we want to live as if we are still in sin.
"…….For Thou has cast all my sins behind your back." (Isaiah 38:17) Isaiah says that God casts our sins behind His back. How many of you have ever thrown away something by pitching it behind your backs? In this image, I can see God just taking my sins pitching them over His shoulder into the wilderness. This is an action detailing the importance of what is being cast away. When you throw it over your shoulder, you’re saying it is really of non-importance.
"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions, for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." (Isaiah 43:25) Here Isaiah reiterates that God does not remember our sins for His own sake. Let me see if I can give you a picture of what this means. Who is hurt when we remember the sins that someone does against us? We are the ones who are hurt. The person who committed the offense is off having fun not even thinking about what they did to hurt us. God says that He does not want to remember our sins for His own sake. He does not want to look at us and see our sins. He’d much rather see His Son when He looks at us. Likewise, we must look to see Christ in those who have sinned against us in order to put away the memory of the sin. Now you may be wondering, how can I see Christ in someone who is not saved? My response is that you look at them as Christ would, as someone that He wants to save and their salvation could come through us.
"He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot, yes, thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19) The prophet Micah says that not only will God tread our iniquities under his foot, but then cast them into the sea. I know many of you may not have had this experience, but I have seen people put out their cigarettes. Oftentimes they would drop them on the ground and place their foot on it and grind it into the ground to put the cigarette out. Sometimes they would even pick up what is left and throw it in the trash. This is what God does with our sins. He grinds it under his foot then picks it up and throws it away. We serve a mighty God!
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) In this verse we see the benefits of God not remembering our sins no more; we are no longer under condemnation.
There are other verses that I could also go over but I think these give you a pretty good idea of why it is important that we walk in forgiveness. If we are to imitate God in how we forgive, then we too must take the offenses that someone has done against us and throw them away, grind them under our foot, remember them no more. If we want God to do this for us, we must be willing to do this for others. I will be the first to tell you that this is not an easy task, but it is one that we must learn and choose to operate in. There is no grey area where God is concerned – especially when He has specifically stated what needs to be done. We cannot come up with our own plan and try and come back to God to renegotiate a new deal, something that is easier for us to accomplish. No, we have to do this His way. I would hate to have God remember everything that I have done so I am in the boat with you working hard trying to forgive those that have truly hurt me. There are many things that I have totally walked away from and cannot remember today, but there are some hurts and experiences that I still carry that I am working to release. Will you join me?
Next week we will look at the process of forgiving and answer the question do we have to forgive someone if they never say they are sorry or ask for forgiveness. Have a very blessed week.
