MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
A. Have you ever asked yourself, "Why do people have difficulty getting along with one another?"
How can people whose families have lived together as neighbors for a thousand years start killing each other? Why would Serbian gunners fire mortar shells into a bread line to kill women, or snipers shoot children playing in a soccer field, or Croatians ambush a UN relief caravan? Why in the world do people behave that way?
But it is not just on the other side of the world. Terrible things happen in our community, too. What would cause a mother to hire a hit man to kill her teenage daughter’s ex-boyfriend? Why is there such hatred even within members of the same family?
B. If I were to answer that question briefly, I think that the primary cause would be the "bitter root" spoken of in Hebrews 12:15. Listen as I read that verse to you.
It says, "See to it that no one misses the grace of God & that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble & defile many." That is an important passage of Scripture, & it is given as a warning to us.
It begins by saying, "Be careful that you don’t miss the grace of God." Now I think our ears ought to perk up whenever we’re warned that we might lose the grace of God, & careful attention paid to what is being said.
Then it says, "The reason is because it’s possible for a bitter root to grow inside of you." The picture is of a plant that sinks its roots deep into your soul & life. But it is a bad plant, a bitter plant, a weed plant that becomes a consuming cancer that literally cripples you so that you can’t function as you ought in life.
Every day of life presents opportunities to be offended. It may be something as innocent as someone on the highway not giving you the right of way. It may be something serious like harsh & cutting words that really hurt you deeply. It may be quarrels within a family. It may even be a church that you feel is insensitive to your needs.
C. Now the moment you’re offended, you have a choice. You can choose to forget it & go on with the business of living, or you can choose to hold on to it. When you choose to hold on to it, a bitter root begins to grow, & as it grows it begins to consume you. This "bitter root" is a very serious matter.
D. Now turn with me to Ephesians 4:32. This is a passage on forgiveness. If you master what Ephesians 4:32 says, you’ll never have problems with the bitter root. It says, "Be kind & compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
Now what is the difference between bitterness & forgiveness? Forgiveness means "I let go of my anger. I relinquish my right to retaliate." Bitterness means "I hold on to my anger. I refuse to let it go." And the bitter root begins to grow & spread until it cripples every facet of our life.
I. THE BIBLICAL IDEA OF FORGIVENESS
A. Now with that in mind, let’s look at the Biblical idea of forgiveness, the forgiveness that God proclaims.
In fact, the 18th chapter of Matthew is devoted pretty much to that subject. But let’s skip over the first part of the chapter & go straight to the familiar parable that begins in vs. 23.
"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he & his wife & his children & all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
"The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,’ he begged, & I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt & let him go" [Matthew 18:23-27].
B. Now let’s stop there for a moment & realize that what is being described here is God’s forgiveness. Jesus is using hyperbole, an exaggeration in the amount of money. Ten thousand talents would be equal to several million dollars today, an impossible amount for a servant. But somehow he owes it.
And Jesus is using the picture of this great debt to represent the great debt that you & I owe to God.
The servant can’t pay the debt, & neither can we. But when the man pleads for mercy, God erases the debt. That’s the way God forgives you & me.
And the instruction we have from Ephesians 4:32 is this, "You are to forgive one another in the same way that God forgives you."
C. But sadly, that is not the end of the parable. It goes on, beginning in vs. 28, "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii." That’s just a few dollars. "He grabbed him & began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees & begged him, `Be patient with me, & I will pay you back.’
"But he refused. Instead, he went off & had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed & went & told their master everything that had happened."
SUM. You see, the first section of this parable deals with how God forgives us. The second section deals with how we often deal with each other. "God has forgiven me a great debt, but I’m not going to forgive you. I refuse to forgive you."
Now listen to the conclusion, vs’s 32-35, "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,’ he said, `I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him over to the jailers until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."
D. There are a couple of lessons that we can learn from this parable. And to drive them home, please turn with me to Romans, chapter 5, where it says in vs. 1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
We’ve been justified, forgiven, by God. We have peace with God. But what accomplished this? Vs. 6 answers by saying, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
And he really drives home the message in vs. 8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
So here are the two things we need to remember about God’s forgiveness:
1. #1, God forgives us even though we do not deserve forgiveness.
2. #2, God forgives us on the basis of His grace, not our efforts.
Romans 4:4 says, "Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation."
When you get paid, whether it is on Friday, or twice a month, or however often it is, you don’t run to your boss & say, "Thank you for being so benevolent." No, you have an agreement with him. He agreed that he would pay you for the work you do. So it’s an obligation. He gives you what he owes you.
But God gives us what we have not earned. It’s like an employer saying to you on payday, "Well, I owe you $300, but I really like you a lot. So here’s $2,000." Now that’s grace. And God is saying, "I’m saving you, not because you’ve earned it, but because of my great love & mercy for you."
So God forgives us because of His grace, not because we’ve earned it.
E. The Bible teaches that all have sinned & fallen short of the glory of God. So all of us come with our debt to God, needing His forgiveness. We are like that servant, owing more than we can ever pay. But God in His mercy & His grace forgives us.
He moves towards us while we’re still deep in our sins, & out of His love He reaches down & forgives us. He pays the price by going to the cross & dying for our sin.
II. STEPS THAT LEAD TOWARD FORGIVING OTHERS AS GOD HAS FORGIVEN US
Now let’s go back to Ephesians 4:32 where we are told to forgive others as God has forgiven us. I want you to see 4 steps that lead toward such forgiveness.
A. #1 is this, we must acknowledge that we’ve been hurt. One of the greatest detriments to forgiving others is denial, & some of us are masters at that.
If someone offends us, the first thing we do is shut them out of our life. We don’t want them around because they’ve offended us, they’ve hurt us.
So we shut them out by ignoring them, staying away from them. If they’re in the same room we cross over to the other side. If their name comes up in a conversation, we say some little snide remark about them & try to put them in their place.
You see, we haven’t forgiven them. All we’ve done is deny that they hurt us. What we need to do is to acknowledge that they have hurt us, & start dealing honestly with that hurt. That is the first step towards forgiveness.
B. The second step is to see our hurt from God’s perspective. Oftentimes we engage in little pity parties, & wonder why God did this or that to us, or why we are the victim of this, or the victim of that.
We need to see our hurt from God’s perspective & recognize that oftentimes trials & tribulations come so that we can grow, so that we can become more persevering, so that our faith can blossom & mature.
Scripture teaches over & over again that sometimes these times of testing are there so that we’ll begin to mature & become the kind of person that God wants us to be.
C. Thirdly, we need to acknowledge our faults, & receive God’s forgiveness. We need to acknowledge that we’re not always the victim. Sometimes we’re the offender.
But God in His mercy & His grace is anxious to forgive us, & He will when we come to Him, repenting of our sins, ready to obey His will for our lives.
D. Then finally, we must choose forgiveness over bitterness.
ILL. One of the most incredible stories of forgiveness I’ve ever heard came out of Tulsa, OK, a couple of years ago. Tom McGee was a young man who went out for a night of partying & revelry. He got drunk & ran head-on into a car driven by a young man by the name of Ted Morris. He killed Ted Morris instantly while driving under the influence of alcohol.
This wasn’t the first time he had been arrested for drunk driving, so Tom McGee was put on trial for manslaughter, found guilty & sentenced to a term of several years in prison. But the prison was crowded, & prisoners were being given early paroles, so Tom McGee actually spent only a few months in prison before being released on parole.
But he evidently hadn’t learned his lesson, for it wasn’t long until he was arrested again for drunk driving. So his parole was revoked, & he was sent back to complete his prison sentence.
Jack Morris, his victim’s father, visited Tom McGee in prison. After visiting several times, he started taking cookies that his wife, Elizabeth, had baked for him. And they became friends.
Finally Tom McGee was released from prison, but he had no place to go. So Jack & Elizabeth Morris invited him into their home, & gave him a place to stay. They provided the means by which he could receive an education, & helped him find a job.
They were members of a Church of Christ in Tulsa, so they took him to church with them, where Tom McGee accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord & Savior, & was baptized for the remission of his sins.
Just recently, the news has come out that Jack & Elizabeth Morris have formally adopted Tom McGee & made him their son. When Jack & Elizabeth Morris die, Tom McGee will inherit whatever they have accumulated in this life. Now that’s forgiveness - an incredible story of forgiveness.
CONCL. But I’ll give you one better. Two thousand years ago, God sent His only Son, & we murdered him. We nailed Him to a cross. And we’re all under the penalty of that sin. But God has offered to forgive us, & not only to forgive us, but to adopt us into His family, so that when we go to heaven we will inherit everything that is God’s. That’s forgiveness.
And God offers His forgiveness to you this morning. It’s a free gift. Not free to God, because He paid an awesome price for it. But it’s free to you. All you have to do is accept Jesus as your Lord & Savior, be willing to turn from your own life & turn toward Him in repentance, & be buried with Him in Christian baptism to arise to walk in the newness of life. And His promise is that He will forgive all your sins, & give you the gift of His Holy Spirit.
Maybe there are some here this morning who need to make decisions for Jesus. If so, we don’t want to close this service without giving you the opportunity to do that. So this next hymn is a hymn of invitation just for you. Will you come as we stand & as we sing?
