The Call to Forgiveness
Tonight’s message contains thoughts that I’ve had since early in the week.
It is a message for you and a message for me.
It is a message that will speak to you and it speaks to me.
It is a message that cause you and causes me to face feelings that maybe, have been pushed away, or covered over. Maybe for so long that we have forgotten about them until that issue rises up again.
It is a message that will help us to handle these feelings the Bible way and will bring healing to our heart.
Tonight’s message is titled "The Call to Forgiveness."
Eph 4:31-32
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
(KJV)
At some point in time you have been hurt.
Some of us here tonight are hurt right now.
And all of us here will be hurt in the future.
So how do we handle the hurt,
how do we deal with the emotions and the feelings?
The answer lies with the act of forgiving.
To forgive someone is to give up resentment, to pardon or to excuse.
It is in forgiveness that the offence is removed, its been excused, its been pardoned.
There is no feelings of revenge or hope that they offending party will receive back what they deserve. You have forgiven them so there is nothing to be vengeful for.
Its not an issue any longer the account is settle because of forgiveness.
1. The fleshes response to offence.
The flesh wants to make the offender suffer as much or more than we have.
We think and even say, "I hope they get what they deserve." "They better watch out they don’t know who they are messing with." "Who do they think they are, I’ll show them."
The problem with this is that this attitude is contrary to the nature and the message of the Bible.
Its contrary to the message of Jesus himself.
Matt 18:21-22
21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
(KJV)
It is contrary to the example of the early church.
Acts 7:58-60
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
(KJV)
Eusebius tells us that in about the year 66 A.D., James the Just, the brother of our Lord, was pushed off the pinnacle of the temple by the Jews who had become angered with him for his Christian testimony. The pinnacle was the point in the wall around the temple that jutted out over the Kidron Valley. There is a drop of about a hundred feet from the height of that wall straight down into the Valley.
Eusebius says that the fall did not kill him, and that he managed to stumble to his knees to pray for his murderers. So they finished the job by stoning him to death, and he joined the band of martyrs.
Forgiveness is to be the attitude that we have towards those who cast stones at us. But what the flesh wants to do is pick up the stones and through them back hoping to deliver a damaging blow.
Or we pick up the stones and tuck them away somewhere and wait for just the right time to throw them back through the air at the offender.
Well that’s what the flesh wants to do and that’s why we respond the way we do sometimes, because its the flesh responding. The flesh being defensive and becoming offensive.
2. That’s not how we are to respond, that’s not how we are to live.
Gal 5:25
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
(KJV)
Allow the dynamic nature that is within you to respond
Don’t just say that you are born again, but live the NEW LIFE, let the NEW nature respond.
Don’t just say you are a Christian but be Christ like.
Don’t respond the flesh way, but respond the Bible way.
Live and walk in the Spirit.
That’s Gods way for you, that’s were he wants you to live, that’s what he has for your life.
Life in the Spirit is his way, if it is his way it should be our way, and he will give us the help we need.
3. Its a heart issue.
We talk a lot about the sins of the flesh and with those sins are the sins in our attitudes or feelings. We cant just deal with the immorality like adultery, lying, stealing, sins of this nature but we must also look at our attitudes and feelings because all sin has to do with the heart.
The heart of a man is where our passions and desires come from. So if the heart is wrong then we will have wrong desires and if we don’t fight those desires we will do the wrong thing.
The flesh or sinful nature must be dealt with day to day.
When we accept Christ we are born again, old things have passed away, behold all things are new. There is a new nature within us by the Holy Spirit. But we still have to deal with the flesh.
Gal 5:24
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
(KJV)
In Galatians Paul writes about the desires of the flesh, listing them and the describes the fruit of the Spirit.
In our text Paul writes about attitudes of the flesh.
Both are from the heart,
Matt 15:19
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
(KJV)
4. What to do
Paul says what to do with these attitudes...
Eph 4:31-32
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
(KJV)
(be put away) - to pick up and carry away, to make a clean sweep
Bitterness refers to a settled hostility that poisons the whole inner man. Somebody does something we do not like, so we harbor ill will against him. “Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them” (Col. 3:19). Bitterness leads to wrath, which is the explosion on the outside of the feelings on the inside. Wrath and anger often lead to brawling (clamor) or blasphemy (evil speaking).
Ephesians 4:31 PP4
[And clamour] Kraugee (grk 2906). Loud speaking, brawling, railing, boisterous talk, often the offspring of wrath; all of which are highly unbecoming the meek, loving, quiet, sedate mind of Christ and his followers.
[And evil speaking] Blaspheemia (grk 988). Blasphemy; that is, injurious speaking-- words which tend to hurt those of whom or against whom they are spoken.
(from Adam Clarke Commentary)
Ephesians 4:31 PP4
[malice] which is always looking out for opportunities to revenge itself by the
(from Adam Clarke Commentary)
Let these be carried away from you. They will grieve the Holy Spirit in your life and in the church.
5. How do we sweep them away?
In chapter 5 Paul sums it up...
Eph 5:1-2
1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
(KJV)
That’s were its at, that’s how to heal the hurt, the anger, the bitterness, WALK IN LOVE!!!
For it is love that has covered the multitude of your sin and it is love that will help you to forgive the offences of others that have hurt you.
Yes, it is something you and I can do. It is something Paul mentions that should be produce in our lives saying...
Gal 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
(KJV)
Closing
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
(KJV)
And because we love we forgive. The attitude of our heart should be, "God has forgiven me, so therefore, I will forgive you.”
