Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So, Lord, we do bow before youe this morning and we recognize youe amazing love and grace in our lives. And now, Father, we pray that yout would instruct us, give us understanding, hearts and discernment, Lord, in the ways of walking with youh, and to understand that we do have an adversary, that we're in a spiritual battle, and that we cannot be ignorant of Satan's schemes against us, Lord. And even as we look at this text of Scripture that describes at least two strategies that the enemy wants to employ against us, Lord, I pray today that you would give us an open heart, Lord, that we would hear your voice. And maybe there's chaos in our soul right now, but I pray today that you would send your word and heal us. That you, Lord, even in the midst of that chaos. In Genesis, it says, and God said, and when you speak, Lord, you can eradicate the chaos and bring orders, understanding into our hearts and lives. I pray that that would be our portion in the days to come in Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. Amen. So we're going to look at probably one of the greatest strategies in diminishing humanity. We're going to look at how the enemy works in our lives. And I think we have to be aware of this strategy. You know, the context for C.S. lewis book, mere Christianity, maybe some of you have read. It was actually a series of wartime broadcasts. He was asked by the British Broadcasting Corporation to speak during the war, in Second World War, when, you know, London was being bombed. It was just a very terrible time in Britain's history.
[00:01:42] And he spoke on the problems of pain and suffering and evil from 1942 to 1944. And you can imagine when in one broadcast Lewis spoke on the issue of forgiveness.
[00:01:54] Then the book was published about 10 years later. In 1952, during World War II, 800,000 Londoners lost their home.
[00:02:04] They were displaced. That's a lot of people, folks.
[00:02:09] By the Nazi blitz, night after night, hundreds of planes bombed out, not only London, but many of the cities in the uk.
[00:02:16] Later, jet propelled rockets turned civilians and their cities into front lines designed to put pressure on the government to surrender. So it was a, a reign of terror. So people would capitulate.
[00:02:29] In one of the chapters of his book, Lewis then speaks to this issue of forgiveness, Christian forgiveness. He says, everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive. In other words, until you've been wounded and you have to forgive, he said, as we have during the war. And then to mention the subject at all is to Be greeted with howls of anger. Half of you already want to ask me, I wonder how you'd feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew. That's a pretty powerful question.
[00:03:01] He says, so do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my faith or my religion even to save myself from death and torture, I wonder very much that I should do when it came to that point. I'm not trying to tell you in this book what I could do.
[00:03:20] I could do precious little. I'm telling you what Christianity is.
[00:03:25] I did not invent it. And therefore right in the middle of it I find forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
[00:03:36] There's no slightest suggestion that we're offered forgiveness on any other terms.
[00:03:42] It's made very perfectly clear that if we do not forgive, we shall not be forgiven.
[00:03:51] That's a pretty powerful statement.
[00:03:54] I think we need to think about that.
[00:03:57] He goes on to say, my self love makes me think of myself.
[00:04:01] Let me just go back and say we might try to understand exactly what loving your neighbor as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself my self love makes me think myself nice. But thinking myself nice is not why I love myself. In my more clear sighted moments, not only do I not think of myself as a lovely man, but actually I know I'm a very nasty one.
[00:04:27] I can look at some of the things I've done with horror and loathing. So apparently I'm allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do.
[00:04:40] Now come to think of it, I remember Christian teachers telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions, but not hate the bad man or as they would say, hate the sin and not the sinner.
[00:04:52] For a long time I used to think that this was just a silly straw splitting distinction. How can you hate what a man did and not hate the man?
[00:05:01] But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I've been doing this all of my life.
[00:05:08] Myself.
[00:05:10] However much I might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on to loving myself.
[00:05:17] There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact, the very reason why I hated those things was that I did love the man. Just because I loved myself. I was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did these things. Consequently, Christianity does not want us to reduce by one atom the hatred we feel for cruelty and Treachery, we ought to hate them. Not one word of what we have said about them needs to be unsaid. But what it does want us to hate is the sin in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves.
[00:05:54] Being sorry for that man should have done such things and hoping, if in any way possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere, he can be cured and made human again.
[00:06:07] Wow, that's pretty interesting analysis of humanity, isn't it? And why we need to forgive. Because you know what? Everyone in this room right now stands in need of forgiveness. And I don't just mean for one item. I'm talking about I need forgiveness every single day.
[00:06:25] There's many things that you and I do knowingly or unknowingly, that's a sin against Almighty God and it's sin against other people. Sometimes you and I do things unknow, offending and wounding and hurting other people. Isn't that true? We need to be forgiven. And aren't you glad God is a forgiver? How many are glad that God forgives you, even though you and I don't deserve it? Anybody happy about that? I am so grateful. And so you and I need to understand something. When somebody sins against us, we can't sit there and wait. Well, I'll wait till they deserve to be forgiven.
[00:06:58] Well, they may never deserve it.
[00:07:00] So you're out of luck. You will be in an unforgiving manner. And so you and I need to make a decision. I have to choose to forgive.
[00:07:08] So if you and I can hate sin in us and our world, but still love the people in ourselves, I think we begin to understand the heart of God.
[00:07:17] That is the way of compassion towards other people. And how many recognize we're living in a society of great brokenness.
[00:07:27] There's great evil in our world, great moral sickness, if I can say it that way, and it's getting sicker. Isn't that true? Michael Warden says, in the last half of the 20th century North America religious landscape has been transformed. Commitment to traditional church structures steadily have waned, while at the same time our hunger for spiritual fulfillment has inched its way into the forefront of the cultural dialogue.
[00:07:53] For the first time in history, nations have allowed the concept of truth to lose its status as an independent reality. Instead, truth has now become relative, dependent on an individual circumstance or perspective.
[00:08:07] Well, relativism, the idea of truth is not absolute or objective, but rather subjective and changing, has brought chaos into our world today because those who embrace this idea are rejecting the idea of what is morally right and what is morally wrong.
[00:08:22] And so everything today all depends.
[00:08:25] And how many know that that's a very unhealthy place to get to. It's very chaotic in our world.
[00:08:30] Paul is now writing in second Corinthians, and he begins chapter two with a text that warns us against one of the greatest strategies that the enemy has. And the enemy, of course, is the devil that is designed to diminish your life and my life. And let's take a look at these texts. We're going to come back and look at this whole chapter up to verse 11.
[00:08:49] It says, anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake in order that Satan might not outwit us.
[00:09:03] For we are not unaware of his schemes.
[00:09:07] This is one of his schemes. Notice verse 11, the need to forgive.
[00:09:15] Unless we get deceived and think we're okay, we don't have to.
[00:09:19] Paul is mentioning us not to be unaware of this device, the scheme. You know that word scheme in the Greek language? We also translate another English word, strategy. So Satan, you know, is strategic in defeating you and me. That's what you need to say to yourself. I have an adversary and he's strategic and he's out to take me out.
[00:09:40] I need to be aware of that. Okay, now how is he going to take us out? How is he going to defeat us? Well, one of the reasons why there are so many defeated Christians, I think there's a lack of understanding as to the schemes or strategies that the enemy of our soul will use against us. And in Paul's two letters to the Corinthians, he mentions two very devious means that the enemy uses to defeat us.
[00:10:04] And they're in reality two opposing or conflicting concepts. And so these two arenas have to be guarded against, otherwise it leads us into spiritual bondage and we live defeated and we live in alienation from God and from other people. And you know what? It's not a place you want to be living. It's a defeated state.
[00:10:24] So Paul's going to give us these two concepts. So the first area of attack and diminishing our lives is the toleration of evil, particularly in our own lives.
[00:10:34] You know, we are very forgiving towards ourselves, we'll put it you that way. And so we let a lot of things slide in our lives that are really unhealthy.
[00:10:43] You know, it's amazing to me, we can let a lot of stuff slide in our lives, but we're not going to let it Slide in somebody else's life. Isn't that true? Come on. That's what goes on and that's a toleration of evil. Or we decide to be very generous and we tolerate evil in our lives and we tolerate evil in the lives of other people because we want to be somewhat consistent.
[00:11:04] So we're not just talking here about the toleration within our own lives. We're talking about the toleration of sin in the life of the church and in society. We just tolerate it. How many know we've got terrible things happening in our society and we got terrible things happening in the human heart?
[00:11:24] I think we've misunderstood the nature of God's love because, you know, I always hear people say, well, God loves everybody. Pastor yeah, you're right. But let's take a look at what do you mean by love? And so Paul defines it for us in 1 Corinthians 13:6, love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. So already we know God has delineated in our minds that there is such a thing as evil and there's such a thing as truth. And in our society we're negating that and saying there is no evil, then there is no truth. How many know we're really far off from where God's assessing things.
[00:11:58] So if we want to take a look at life through a different lens, as soon as you start reading the Bible, and this is a dangerous book, by the way, this is a life changing book and it's dangerous to society because when you start reading scripture all the time, you start seeing life through a different lens. You're seeing it through the eyes of God and that shapes, it's going to shape the way you think, it's going to shape the way you behave.
[00:12:20] So evil has a way of bringing great destruction into the lives of people, individually and collectively. We know that. In his brilliant book Nicholas and Alexandra, Robert Massey tells how the czar and Empress of Russia were misled by a miracle that brought about an empire down. It brought an empire down. After many years of anxiously waiting for an heir to the Russian throne, Tsar Nicholas II and his German wife Alexandra were finally blessed with a son.
[00:12:49] However, their hopes for the future were cruelly crushed six weeks later when doctors discovered that the infant had hemophilia, an incurable blood disease that could kill at any moment.
[00:12:59] All of his short life was to be lived in the shadow of terror, with death stalking his every footstep. This tragedy introduced into the royal family one of the most evil men who ever lived. Several times, the youngster slipped close to death, seething and writhing in excruciating pain. His tormented parents would beg their doctors to do what they could, but they were helpless. And in those moments, they turned to Gregory Rasputin, a religious mystic of questionable credentials, later known as the Mad Monk of Russia. Inevitably, he would pray for the boy, and there would be a marked improvement. Even today, doctors are at a loss to explain how Rasputin changed this young boy's medical condition. These healings, these false miracles, but they're actually affecting the life of this child.
[00:13:52] Rasputin, then would warn the parents that the boy only lived as long as they listened to him. Talk about controlling his powers became so great over the royal family that with a word, he could obtain the appointment or dismissal of any government official. He had men appointed or dismissed on the basis of their attitudes towards him rather than their abilities.
[00:14:14] Consequently, the whole Russian government reeled under the unwise counsel of this evil man. Here was the man controlling the leaders.
[00:14:22] Seeds of revolution were planted and watered with discontent. It erupted into the murder of the royal family, internal war, and eventually the communist takeover.
[00:14:33] Alexander Keresky, a key government official during those trying times, later reflected, without Rasputin, there would have been no Lenin.
[00:14:43] If we allow sin to grow unchecked within our lives, the results are the same.
[00:14:48] Wages of sin, the Bible says, is death separates us from God and others.
[00:14:54] The problem with evil is that if we could just identify it in a few people, we could just send them to one side. But as Alexander Solnitsyn once wrote, if only there were evil people, some were insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessarily only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.
[00:15:18] And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? Wow.
[00:15:23] What happens when we address sin issues in our lives? Well, we experience renewal. That's exactly what happens. And when a large group of people begin to address sin issues in their lives, we have a term called revival, where the church becomes revived.
[00:15:39] One of the effects of true revival of God is the way people begin to address sin issues within themselves. And eventually it leads to a transformation of the social fabric a society. The church becomes no longer passive and indifferent. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:15:56] You know, I'm going to just say this to all of us right now.
[00:15:59] I weary when I see so many Christians getting so wired around the politics as if that's going to save our nation.
[00:16:09] We need leaders, don't misunderstand. I'm not negating that. But that's not the ultimate hope.
[00:16:16] The ultimate hope is what I'm looking at right now. You, you and me, we're the ultimate answer.
[00:16:21] If the church will get on its knees, humble themselves before God and turn from our wicked ways, we're going to see a transformation that's going to affect not only our lives, not only our church community, but it'll affect our entire city and it'll affect the nation. And that's what needs to happen to bring about a change in our nation. It starts within each one of us. We've got to stop looking outside and start saying, God, I need help. Can you do something inside of my own soul? It's interesting that church historian Earl Carnes says because Christian character follows commitment to Christ, renewal has always been followed by moral living.
[00:16:54] Common sins of swearing, drunkenness, gambling, cheating and domestic fighting are now avoided. That's pretty powerful. Jonathan Edwards testifies how in the Northampton revival, or called the Great Awakening, stopped drinking and frivolous living in the town. Camp meeting renewals in Kentucky, this is the Great Cain revival change. People who were fighters, known to gouge out their opponents eyes or bite off an ear into peaceful citizens. Actually, the temperance movement was a direct result of revival. Many taverns in Wales were shut down for lack of business from the various revivals over the year. Wouldn't that be great? All of a sudden the sin industry is diminishing. You know, you can say anything you want to, but you know, listen, when people stop sinning, sin industry goes down.
[00:17:39] Wouldn't that be great? Church's attendance goes up.
[00:17:43] You know, all kinds of things go down. Fewer courses and fewer cases in the court. Sexual sin is prostitution less numerous. After the 1859 revival in England and in Wales, family life was improved. In numerous cases, people who revived or saved became more generous in meeting the needs of others.
[00:18:05] Owens Jr. In a study on the effects of the Wesleyan Revival in Great Britain, says, with the upsurge of the gospel and the decrease in the consumption of liquor, crime also began to diminish. How many know there's a relationship between addiction and crime?
[00:18:19] Yeah. Bribery and consumption in business and government lessened conversations modulated towards chase and decent. The theater became once again a place for art and true entertainment rather than the vulgar and the bald body. The gambling craze almost disappeared and cruel sports were outlawed. Outlawed. Does anybody recognize how crazy it is? You know, I like sports, but I'm telling you right now, gambling has taken over sports.
[00:18:46] I'm serious. You cannot see what the 50. 50 raffle tickets, you know, those things go up to millions of dollars. That just tells me people are in a high state of addiction.
[00:18:56] Our country is absolutely broken.
[00:19:01] Do we not see it?
[00:19:04] We cannot understand Paul's comments in Second Corinthians without understanding that he wrote a letter speaking to the issues that needed to be corrected in their lives. He says here in Second Corinthians 2, 3. I wrote as I did so that when I came, I should not be distressed by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you that you would all share my joy, for I wrote out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you, but to let you know the depth of my love for you. What's Paul really saying there? He said, I was correcting you and it broke my heart. I have to do that, but I'm going to do it anyways because I have such a love for you. Do you know, many times we think just ignoring people and saying, I'm going to mind my own business, I'm not getting involved, not going to say anything is actually an expression of cowardice, not love.
[00:19:58] You know, we have to address things in our own souls, and then we have to address things in other people's lives with tears in their eyes. Did you see? Paul was grieving and crying over these situations. Linda Belville explains love. That which stands in an emphatic position in the clause is the primary reason he gives for writing.
[00:20:17] It's all too easy to allow personal feelings to. To get in the way of ministry. But this was not the case with Paul. He could have used this letter to vent his anger and disappointment with his spiritual children. Instead, he saw past his own pain to what was needful from a pastoral standpoint.
[00:20:35] Listen, you know, chewing people out isn't going to change them, but weeping over their souls will. And when people know that you care deeply for them and you're concerned about what's happening in your life, it affects their thinking.
[00:20:47] How many agree it's a challenge to address issues in people's lives. How many say that's difficult?
[00:20:52] Personally, I don't like doing it, but I still do it.
[00:20:56] Okay? It may appear easier to avoid or neglect speaking to the problems of our day, but if we don't address them, they're just going to get greater. You know, people are afraid to speak up anymore and say anything.
[00:21:08] How many say that's true? We just keep our mouth shut.
[00:21:14] Now I need to Add, we need to address issues correctly as well. Sometimes in our desire to deal with evil, we approach it incorrectly and create even greater problems. We should always start with the individual responsible. Many times we can correct things at this level. As a matter of fact, there's a principle for us found in Matthew, chapter 18. If your brother or sister sins, he says, go and point out their fault between the two of you. And if they listen to you, you have won them over. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:21:42] Personal conversation, you know, don't talk about people, talk to people.
[00:21:47] That's a good line. I don't even have it in my notes. But I think that's important.
[00:21:51] Go talk to them just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you've won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along. So every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
[00:22:05] And if they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church. And if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. So how do we treat people that are non believers? We still love them, right?
[00:22:18] We still encourage them to come to church. But what we're saying is what you're doing isn't right. We're just letting them know we don't agree with their behavior. That's all we're saying. So what happens if we sin publicly?
[00:22:30] Well, I think there's a kind of a we still have to address the individual they are then to confess their sin publicly. Listen, if I sin publicly before people, I need to ask for forgiveness before those people. You know how many say that's the right way? If you sin privately, then you go talk to the person privately and say, hey, I've sinned against you. Now don't do what some people do. You know, some people sin in their minds and then they go tell a person, this is what I think, don't do that, that's dumb. As a matter of fact, that just causes more heartache and heartbreak. Okay, I'm talking. When you know you've sinned against them, they know you've sinned against them. Yes. Then you go to them and make that right. Is everybody following what I'm trying to tell you here?
[00:23:15] Don't create more problems. All right?
[00:23:19] Now there's no clear cut agreement as to what sin Paul was talking about.
[00:23:24] Now we know from his first letter there was a sin in the church that they were not addressing. And we read about this in First Corinthians, chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 here it says it's actually reported that there's sexual immorality among you and of a kind that even the pagans do not tolerate.
[00:23:42] This is pretty bad. When the sin is sinning, the church is sinning at a higher level than the world.
[00:23:46] That's what he was saying. He said, a man is sleeping with his father's wife and you're proud. Shouldn't you rather have gone into mourning and put out of your fellowship the man who's been doing this?
[00:23:57] For my part, even as I'm not physically present, I'm with you in spirit as one who is present with you in this way. I've already passed judgment on the name of our Lord Jesus, on the one who's been doing this.
[00:24:08] So what is he saying?
[00:24:10] He's saying, I'm judging this. Some people go, pastor, Jesus said you shouldn't judge anybody.
[00:24:15] No, it's finally nuanced, friends.
[00:24:20] We're to judge people's behavior, not their motivations.
[00:24:24] In this room, nobody knows why people are doing what they're doing.
[00:24:28] But we can see the fruit of behavior. You know, when somebody's flagrant and sinning, you know, publicly, everybody sees it. You know, yes, we need to address that. That's behavior.
[00:24:38] Is everybody tracking with me? Jesus said, this is how you're going to know people by their fruit.
[00:24:43] This is the result. This is the behavior.
[00:24:46] Okay, so Paul says, I'm judging this person and this is what I'm going to do. He says, so when you are assembled and I'm with you in spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. What is Paul basically saying? He said, you need to make this person realize that they're sinning against God and they're in the condition where they will be ultimately eternally separated from God. And that is the deepest concern we should have over people.
[00:25:17] Because you know something? This is only time.
[00:25:20] And time goes by very quickly.
[00:25:22] And I want you to think about, even if you were 100 years old, sitting here listening to me today, what's a hundred years in relationship to eternity?
[00:25:32] Isn't that true? So we better get our priorities straightened out. It's focusing in on what needs to be accomplished here. So what is Paul doing? He's calling the church to address the sin because it's going to destroy the church if it's not addressed. That's what he's saying. It's like cancer if you don't address it, it's going to kill you.
[00:25:50] The reason why other believers need to stand against the sin issue rather than let it slide by is that it would curtail further incidences of sin. There's pressure that needs to be exerted in order for this wayward individual to come back to their senses. Toleration of sin erodes the spiritual vitality and life of a congregation.
[00:26:11] Addressing sin produces a renewed fear of God.
[00:26:16] How many know when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead, the fear of God spread?
[00:26:22] Isn't that true?
[00:26:23] People thought about sinning.
[00:26:26] Could you imagine if people told a lie today and they started dropping dead?
[00:26:29] Yikes, that would be scary.
[00:26:33] Isn't that true?
[00:26:34] But I'll tell you, all you got to have is a couple incidents where people are doing the wrong thing and they're dropping dead and people are going, ok, better not do that.
[00:26:41] I'm catching on. Okay. That's all I'm trying to point out.
[00:26:45] Yeah.
[00:26:46] However, though we are acquainted with this issue, Paul may have been dealing with the issue of those who had been challenging his leadership. So this second letter, remember, Paul is being rejected. His missionary team is being rejected. Maybe this is the issue Paul is speaking to.
[00:27:02] As a matter of fact, Anthony Thesselton wonders, as do most New Testament scholars, what the issue was.
[00:27:10] It is perhaps, he says, attribute to Paul pastoral wisdom and sensitivity that we cannot clearly identify the offender. In other words, he's not naming, he's not labeling him. But we recall from Matthew's gospel that Jesus talked about the need to discipline those who refuse to acknowledge sin. So why do we fail to acknowledge our sin? Why do we do that?
[00:27:30] Well, I'm going to tell you why.
[00:27:32] Because we're in denial.
[00:27:33] How many know people go into denial? And this is how the Bible describes it. See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns from the living God but encourage one another daily, as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
[00:27:50] So what happens is we sin. We at first feel bad, but then we keep sinning. And then we don't feel bad because what's happening is our heart is getting harder.
[00:27:59] And then we don't have any sort of feeling toward it. We justify it until finally we can accept the fact that we're doing this sin. Do you know what I think what happens when you're in a revival? There's a tenderness that comes in. We're close to God, we're sensitive.
[00:28:15] And God is able to talk to us about the finer points of the Christian life. And you and I are responsive to that. And then we walk with God with great sensitivity. And that's, I think Paul is trying to get us to understand.
[00:28:30] So now Paul does this in order to restore this fallen person. The goal of all correction and addressing issues is restoration. You should write that down. Discipline should lead to restoration. Why does a parent discipline a child?
[00:28:48] Because they love the child and they want to restore the child to good order. Because when we're sinning, we're out of order. We're trying to restore them to good behavior. Let me move on to the second point. It's simply this, the unforgiving attitude towards those who have sinned against us and others, regardless if they repent or not. Forgiveness is critical for our own state of well being. One of the things I explain to people who have been deeply wounded in life and I talk to people, a lot of them share terrible things that have happened to them, is that there's a difference between forgiving a person and trusting a person.
[00:29:22] Big difference, guys. Trust is something that has to be restored. It can only happen if there's a genuine change of behavior. What I'm saying is, you know, it's one thing to forgive somebody, it's a totally different thing to trust them.
[00:29:34] We are called to forgive.
[00:29:36] We don't have an option there. If I don't forgive this person, I will not be forgiven.
[00:29:41] And that's true of whatever somebody does against me. I have to forgive, but that doesn't mean I have to immediately trust that person. It takes time to restore and repair the breach that's occurred.
[00:29:54] Are we following that? It takes time.
[00:29:56] And so we say, yeah, I think it only happens when we see a change. Forgiveness needs to be forgiven as it affects our relationship not only with that individual, but with God. Our need for forgiveness as expressed in the Lord's Prayer is conditioned, as we've already noticed, upon our forgiving others. Undue severity towards repentant individuals causes destruction in the body of Christ.
[00:30:23] So Paul is saying, listen, when someone repents, we need to forgive this church. Now whoever they had corrected now, they weren't forgiving, they were self righteous and they weren't restoring. And you know, I've seen that happen in church too, where somebody has made terrible decisions in their past life. They've sinned grievously.
[00:30:43] I know people who have even gone to jail for their behavior. They come back into society, they've given their life to Christ, they're repentant, there's a transformation in their life, and then people just keep judging them, and that's wrong. Do we actually believe in the gospel? I said to somebody one day, do you actually believe what this message is all about? It's about restoration.
[00:31:03] They say, well, those kind of people don't get restored, Pastor. I'm going, yes, they do.
[00:31:08] What you don't believe is in the power of the gospel. We need to understand that.
[00:31:13] So it's interesting to me that the message in the New Testament first message was on repentance.
[00:31:20] Repent and believe.
[00:31:22] What is repentance? It's a change of mind that leads to a change of behavior, and that's what God is looking for. That you and I turn from our sins and turn to God. That you and I turn away from a certain lifestyle and turn to a new lifestyle following God. Notice that the first word from the cross was a message of forgiveness. And when we finally come to our senses, we discover a journey of restoration in our lives. How many are on the journey? I'm on a journey of restoration. I'm on a journey of redemption. I'm on a journey of God transforming me into the person he wants me to become, more like himself. The goal of loving discipline is to bring about restoration.
[00:32:04] And at the end of conviction of sin, which leads to repentance, there comes from God the warmth of genuine forgiveness. We, like God, need to reflect the same attitude. God does exactly what he expects us to do. He forgives first.
[00:32:20] The issue is whether we'll receive the gift.
[00:32:23] There is a need not only to receive forgiveness, but to also extend it towards others. It was Lewis that said, we all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea. Until we have to pray, practice it.
[00:32:34] Just reiterating that point again, Paul is rejoicing that the church at Corinth had followed his instructions. Whatever that issue was, Paul was dealing with, be it the immorality issue or the lack of support and criticism against leadership in the church, in their zeal, they had gone overboard against the people that were the perpetrators. And Paul now writes to them to forgive. That repentant person, he says of anyone, has caused grief.
[00:33:02] He has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent.
[00:33:07] Not to put it too severely, the punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient now. Instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. How many know that when you discipline a child, the next thing you need to do is reaffirm your love.
[00:33:26] How many know that's true?
[00:33:27] You have to affirm people. If you're going to correct somebody and you're correcting them, you have to affirm love to them. You know, it's not like, hey, I'm up here to beat you up. No, I'm here to lovingly help you, and you need to reaffirm your love for them. Another reason I wrote to you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
[00:33:47] Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And we already read this. So just like a little child, after discipline, we need reassurance. Linda Belvold explains the challenge of church discipline. She said the context gives the impression of some kind of formal disciplinary action decided on and carried out by the congregation.
[00:34:06] Excommunication, or at least the withholding of church privileges, is suggested by the danger posed to the individual so that he will not be overcome by excessive sorrow.
[00:34:18] The responsible exercise of discipline was something that Paul had great difficulty instilling in his churches, especially a church like Corinth. It is the corporate responsibility of the church to punish wrongdoer, to excommunicate in the case of persistent sin and to reinstate the repentant.
[00:34:39] Paul had to rebuke the Corinthians initially for not disciplining the individual in question.
[00:34:44] Now the church has gone too far in the other direction. Paul counsels them as threefold. First, the punishment by the majority is sufficient.
[00:34:54] Notice the mention of the man's sorrow shows that the punishment had its intended effect. The person has repented of their actions. Reference to the majority points to the presence of a descending minority who thought that the discipline was either too lenient or, or more probably too severe. Isn't that interesting? You can't expect everyone to agree. How many know that's true? I've actually been at this a long time. You got two groups of people in the church. You got the mercy givers and the people who are the legalistic.
[00:35:27] You know, two sides, you know, and one side always feels like you've been too easy on them. The other side says you've been too hard on them.
[00:35:39] That's the way it works. I've been a pastor for a long time. I know how people think.
[00:35:46] But the Corinthians here are instructed.
[00:35:53] To forgive and comfort the man rather than continue the discipline. Instead of the customary word for forgiveness is this ephemi.
[00:36:03] But Paul uses a different word, which means to give freely so as to forgive on the basis of one's gracious attitude towards the person.
[00:36:11] God's gracious attitude towards us and the person of his Son is surely in the background here.
[00:36:18] What's she saying? She's basically saying we need to behave like God does.
[00:36:22] How does God forgive a person?
[00:36:26] Holy, unconditionally, kindly, compassionately, graciously. Isn't that true? Isn't that how God forgives?
[00:36:36] Two extremes in the Christian life that the enemy tries to take advantage. Toleration of sin on one side and in the lives of ourselves and others. Or many people embrace toleration because I think they don't want to address the sin issues in their own lives.
[00:36:51] They talk the talk theoretically until someone does evil to them. Like they're tolerant of everything. Until someone wounds them and then they're not so tolerant. That's what I've discovered. How many have discovered that about people? They'll talk about toleration until you push their button and you'll find out how tolerant they are. They are extremely intolerant, okay?
[00:37:10] Or someone they love and then they talk. The language of retribution and punishment. Really interesting how we can flip when it's coming at us.
[00:37:19] The other side of the road is the people. That which leads people astray is developing a censoring, critical, judgmental attitude. We can become self righteous, develop a holier than thou attitude. To address sin is to bring life back into the situation. And the goal is always restoration and reconciliation.
[00:37:43] So let me close with a great approach to the issue. I'm going to quote something from Robert Capone and he says maybe you're worried about permissiveness. You know, like we're letting these guys off right about the way the preaching of grace seems to say it's okay to do all kinds of terrible things as long as you just walk in afterwards and take the free gift of God's forgiveness. Some people struggle with that. You know, how can this person do this and then ask for forgiveness? I just can't forgive somebody doing that kind of evil.
[00:38:10] You see what I'm saying?
[00:38:13] Here's what he says. While you and I may be worried about seeming to give permission, Jesus apparently wasn't.
[00:38:19] He wasn't afraid of giving the prodigal son a kiss instead of a lecture, a party instead of probation.
[00:38:25] And he proved that by bringing in the elder brother at the end of the story and having him raise pretty much the same objections while you and I.
[00:38:38] The elder brother was angry about the party.
[00:38:42] He complained that his father lowered the standard, ignored virtue, that music, dancing and a fatted calf are in effect, just so many permissions to break the law. And to that, Jesus has the Father say only one thing.
[00:38:57] Cut that out.
[00:38:59] We're not playing good boys and bad boys anymore. Your brother was dead and he's alive again. The name of the game from now on is resurrection, not bookkeeping.
[00:39:08] I think that's pretty strong.
[00:39:11] The question we need to ask ourselves is, what side of the road do I gravitate towards, toleration of sin or a critical judgmental attitude?
[00:39:24] And how can we lovingly address sin, practice discipline, and work towards restoration of the fallen? That's the main point, isn't it? Let's stand.
[00:39:35] So, you know, a very challenging message in our lives, but I think a very relevant one and particularly in the society in which we live.
[00:39:48] So only God can speak to you? You know, I was thinking about this this morning, and as we were praying, I was saying, you know, Lord, there are people here, and they've been wounded.
[00:39:59] Some of you have been wounded deeply.
[00:40:02] And while you're not moving forward in your Christian journey is because you have not forgiven.
[00:40:10] You're so wounded, you just go, I just can't forgive that.
[00:40:13] But my response to you is you have to forgive because you're in jeopardy if you don't.
[00:40:21] You're the one that's punishing yourself. You see, how is that that person who sinned against you isn't even thinking about you anymore. They've moved on.
[00:40:31] And you're living in hurt and heartache and brokenness.
[00:40:37] The moment you forgive that person, you say, well, yeah, but I'm letting him off the hook. No, you're not.
[00:40:41] The moment you forgive a person, you're releasing them to God.
[00:40:47] And when you release somebody to God, then you can allow God to work on them.
[00:40:52] And God has a far better way of dealing with people.
[00:40:55] See, what we want is revenge many times, or vindication or something like that.
[00:41:02] What God wants to do is actually restore that person and bring them to a place of repentance and transformation.
[00:41:11] And if that person refuses all of that, they will one day stand in judgment before Almighty God for what they've done, and they will spend an entire eternity suffering from being alienated from God.
[00:41:28] The only person that an unforgiving person is hurting is themselves.
[00:41:36] No matter how great the wrong. And believe me, there's a lot of. You know, I've been a pastor for over four decades. I've heard a lot of wrongs in my life.
[00:41:44] Some of them were grievous.
[00:41:46] They were.
[00:41:48] They. They upset me.
[00:41:51] I can See why God hates evil. I hate evil. I see it.
[00:41:56] But you know what? Sometimes it's so easy to see the evil out there, but not see the evil in here.
[00:42:02] I like Lewis's authenticity and honesty.
[00:42:06] So Siniston saying, evil cuts through every human heart.
[00:42:11] We got to address the evil in our own lives and let God address the. The evil in other people's lives.
[00:42:19] And only when you and I have a relationship with someone and we see them falling into sin, then it's. It may be because of the relationship. I'm a father or I'm a mother or I'm a sibling, and I'm close to this individual, and I see what sin is doing in their life that I go to them.
[00:42:37] How many are following what I'm saying? I have a moral responsibility to speak into their lives with. With tears in my eyes and say, I've been praying for you, and I know you know.
[00:42:48] I would preface the remarks with, here's the good things you do, but here's what's destroying you.
[00:42:54] You've got to deal with this stuff, and if you don't, it'll kill you. Amen.
[00:43:00] You have to do that.
[00:43:01] And you're doing that out of love, not out of. I'm angry, I'm frustrated, and I'm hurt. No, I'm doing it out of love for you because, you know, you're this wonderful person that God created and I love. I just can't bear to see you destroy yourself.
[00:43:17] Amen.
[00:43:19] So with this, every head bowed this morning, how many here can honestly say, you know, pastor, I've struggled with forgiveness.
[00:43:25] That's you. I've struggled with forgiveness. I'm going to share a secret that helped me through some really broken places in my soul. Just raise your hand. I struggled with. I have struggled with forgiveness.
[00:43:35] Okay, Many hands are up. I'm going to share a thought with you. You say, I'm having a hard time forgiving.
[00:43:41] How many know God has no hard time forgiving. He just forgives.
[00:43:46] And if you're a child of God and God's spirit is living inside of you, listen to me very carefully. You can say, lord, even though I'm struggling with forgiving this person, I know you are living within me and the spirit that now lives within me, the spirit of Christ within me is more than willing to forgive. So help me, Lord, to join your.
[00:44:08] Your heart and your spirit. Right now, I'm going to let it go.
[00:44:11] I'm releasing this unforgiveness today.
[00:44:15] Right now, I'm letting it go.
[00:44:18] I'm not bringing it up.
[00:44:20] I'm going to be free from this.
[00:44:22] I'm going to let you work on that person. I'm giving that person over to you, giving the situation over to you. I'm allowing you to be the one who vindicates and restores.
[00:44:35] I just pray to that end.
[00:44:37] Just give them over right now. Just give them over.
[00:44:42] Say, lord, I give them over to you. I hand them over to you. Listen, isn't that better, handing them over to Christ?
[00:44:48] Paul finally said to this unrepentant person, I'm handing them over to Satan.
[00:44:52] What did he mean by that? I'm going to let Satan have full sway in his life so that he'll have so much damage to him that he'll realize he cannot live in this destructive pattern any longer. That's a pretty strong handing over. The church did that to that person.
[00:45:08] But they repented, brought him to their senses. Like the prodigal. They came to their senses and God began to do this restorative work. So Father, I pray today that you'd forgive us our sins even as we forgive those who have sinned against us.
[00:45:24] I pray now you would release us from the bondage of unforgiveness. That's a sin. We don't realize it, but it is. It's a damning sin is what it is.
[00:45:34] I pray that you'll release us right now from the sin of unforgiveness.
[00:45:39] Release us to walk in forgiveness.
[00:45:42] Lord, may we begin to see restoration and healing in these situations.
[00:45:48] And we thank you for that, Father.
[00:45:50] In your precious name, Lord, lead us not into an elder brother mentality where we become judgmental and critical, but help us to have compassion and to see people as broken and needing a savior.
[00:46:07] And Lord, we needed you.
[00:46:09] We were sinners, every last one of us.
[00:46:13] And you wonderfully, as we see in the prodigal story, ran to us, threw your arms around us and brought us into your family.
[00:46:25] Lord, I pray that we would remember that in Jesus name, Amen. God bless you as you leave.
