Okay, let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do rejoice to be in Your presence—the fresh reminder today of Your great love, as we have beheld You at this table. And Lord, as we continue in Your presence, we confess that only You, through Your Holy Spirit, can take words that are written—Your words that are written in a book—breathe upon them, and cause them to be life through Your Spirit within our hearts.
We open our hearts to You, Lord, that You could have Your way in our time together. In Your precious name. Amen.
I would like for us first to consider a verse out of Daniel. We know that Daniel was in captivity. Daniel had seen in the Word of God that the seventy years of captivity were coming to an end. Daniel was praying for the Lord to recover His testimony among His people and do what He had prophesied would occur.
And this is the cry of Daniel’s heart. This is the last verse of his prayer. We do not have time to go through the whole prayer, but as you look at this prayer, you can just hear a cry going forth. Also notice: Daniel is not praying for himself. He is not praying merely for the brethren. He is praying for God’s sake, for God’s interest. And that is the cry of one praying for recovery.
O Lord, hear;
O Lord, forgive;
O Lord, listen and take action.
For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay,
because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name.
—Daniel 9:19
During this time, His city and His people were in a place of captivity: ruined, weakened in condition, and mocked throughout the world, as though God had finished with them. But Daniel knew in his heart that God had a greater purpose and that He was not finished. Through the Word of God, he was encouraged, and he cried out this prayer.
What I would like us to consider today, as we continue looking at this matter of the key to recovery, is that one of the great aspects of recovering the testimony of Jesus among His people is this matter of forgiving one another. We will go into that more and more in a minute.
It has been a little while since I shared on this key to recovery, so I am going to take a brief moment—and, you know, the speaker always says “a brief moment,” and twenty minutes later, you are still there. But anyway, I will try to keep the review down.
The Lord is doing a recovery work in these days, these last days. He is recovering the testimony of Jesus, that His Son would have that place of preeminence. Even during the preparation for the conference in a month or so, this burden came to hearts: God’s cry for this hour is recovery and possessing—recovering all that is His among His people, and possessing all that He desires for us to possess.
Since the fall, God has been doing this recovery work. Adam and Eve fell, yes, but that did not stop God. He did a wonderful work of recovery. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel was to be His testimony. But because of their unfaithfulness, they fell. They were taken into captivity, but it did not stop God’s work.
Even though His people were in Babylon, He raised up ones like Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah to speak the Word of God, that His people could be set free to return to Jerusalem. Praise God, when the doors were opened for all of them to return, there was a faithful remnant that had ears to hear what God was saying and had a heart for God’s interest. They left Babylon and returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.
Later on, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son—that precious Lamb of God whom we remembered this morning, His precious Son, Jesus Christ—to truly do that work of recovery through His death, burial, and resurrection. All that we remembered at His table today was a tremendous work of recovering us back to our Lord and providing a way of reconciliation between us and Him. What a glorious work He did.
After our Lord Jesus ascended on high—I think I said descended. All right, I get words confused, but y’all know what I am trying to say—the Holy Spirit came. On that day of Pentecost, it was a glorious thing. Sometimes we can get distracted by all the signs, wonders, and tongues, but the glorious eternal work done on the day of Pentecost was the birth of the church: the birth of His body upon this earth to be a testimony unto Him.
The church had a healthy birth and continued to grow. As we have been studying the book of Acts, we see how it went from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Praise God for the work it did.
But sadly, as you begin looking at the end of the New Testament, declension was setting in again. People were again becoming unfaithful. All throughout church history, we see ebbs and flows. We see God regaining ground, people getting cold, and things going back and forth.
Today, as many have said, we as His people and His church are in this Laodicean period. Many think that we are rich, but we are poor. We think we see, but we are blind. Tragically, the Lord is still doing a work of recovering ones back to Himself and opening our eyes.
Sometimes, when we talk about opening our eyes, we think of the blind and the unsaved. That is true, but tragically, many believers’ eyes are closed too. We need the eyes of our hearts opened to see Him in a very fresh way.
We are thankful that, in His great love, He continues on, and we are caught up in that today. What I really desire is that we would see how jealous God is for the recovery of His testimony; that we could see from our hearts all that He has done.
We saw the preciousness and impact of the picture of Isaac and Abraham. We can visualize there the Father and the Son. That same love is so jealous today for His church to be the people of God He has called us to be. But we can get so easily distracted.
When we speak of the testimony of Jesus, let us refresh ourselves. In Revelation, it is referred to as the spirit of prophecy, and it is referred to in various ways elsewhere. Trying to summarize it, I have come down to this: the testimony of Jesus is the reality of the headship of Jesus—not merely known among His people, but lived out and expressed through the lives of each and every one of us, individually and corporately together.
That is what He is jealous for. He is jealous for the life of His Son to be expressed. Sometimes we can focus so much upon the knowledge of it, and praise God that we can learn these things. But God wants so much more than for us merely to know about Him. He wants us to experience Him. He wants us to express His life through us.
He has an end goal in view: a goal for His people, a goal to build the church, and a goal for the bride to be ready. Everything God has done is with the end in view. God is not shortsighted at all. Whenever He looks at anything, through the various events that have occurred throughout history, it is always with one thing in view: His purpose fully achieved, and the bride made ready.
Praise God, He is desiring a visible testimony on this earth in these last days. We are thankful that in the spiritual heavenlies there is a testimony without spot or wrinkle. But upon this earth, among believers, He desires a people truly showing forth Him as King of kings and Lord of lords in their lives.
How does that testimony get recovered? We talked about two essential aspects. It has to start on an individual basis. It has to start in each one of our hearts. The Lord has to capture our hearts in a fresh way, so that we no longer want to live for ourselves but for Him.
We learn to abide with Him, dwelling in His presence and allowing Him to strengthen us and keep us. Sometimes, when we focus on abiding, it can come across in our natural minds as passive. But abiding in Christ can be one of the most active things in our lives. Our Lord Jesus was abiding in the love of the Father, and look at all He did. As we abide, He wants that life to be expressed through us also.
Praise God for this personal relationship with Him—that vertical thing, with nothing between. Then, out of that, we have love for one another: the horizontal relationship. There should be nothing between us either.
We talked about how this was expressed through Ezra and Nehemiah in that period of recovery. Recovery starts with our hearts—hearts open. And when I say hearts open, I mean honest hearts: honestly giving ourselves to Him so that the Holy Spirit can search our hearts, that we could truly see our condition.
Seeing our condition does not wipe us out. It encourages us because of the table at which we have just honored our Lord. It shows us the provision we have: not I, but Christ. That is the praise; that is what we have.
Our hearts must be open to see afresh His heart for His people, and hearts must be willing—not merely knowing, but willing—to allow the Holy Spirit to do what is necessary within us. Andrew Murray calls it absolute surrender: not a partial surrender, but an absolute surrendering to Him, saying, “Lord, do what You have to do within me to make me ready for Your return.”
If we really know Him, we know that will involve some pain. It will involve difficult times and difficult choices.
I was reading again this week about John Huss, one of the ones right before the Reformation. A lot of times we say John Hoose, but it is actually John Huss. He had been trying to maintain the unity of the Spirit with the Catholic Church and the pope, and he was not personally attacking the pope at all.
But when this whole matter of indulgences came out, they said, “If you buy this indulgence, your sins will be forgiven. You pay this much; whatever sins you commit, they will be forgiven you.” He saw the wickedness of it.
He shared how one night, and even for a couple of days, he agonized. He said, “Lord, I cannot keep silent anymore about this. But Lord, I know that if I preach against this, they are going to kill me. They are going to arrest me and they are going to kill me.”
It was an honest assessment. I appreciated his humanity. He had to wrestle with that. He did not just say, “Oh yeah, they are going to kill me. Go, go.” No. He was a man of like nature. But he offered himself to God, and finally he said, “Lord, I cannot live with myself. I would rather die for You than live with myself denying You.”
He took that step. Sure enough, within a short period of time, he was arrested, tortured, and burned at the stake. Oh, that is absolute surrender.
Now, I am not talking about all of us having to get burned. We do not all have to be martyrs. But in one way, we all end up being spiritual martyrs. There are physical martyrs, and there are spiritual martyrs. We all die to self so that He can live through us. This is what God is doing.
As we have been considering this matter of recovery, we saw that there are many aspects and factors involved. The main one we were looking at in the past was loving one another.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
—John 13:34
We see the example there. He does not merely call us to love one another. The key phrase in this verse is, “Love one another as I have loved you.” We remembered that love at the table today. As I have loved you—He has equipped us to do that.
His love has saved us. His love birthed us into this body. His love builds us together. His love is the glue that holds us together. His love is what will finish, because He has loved us to the uttermost. His love will complete what He started. Praise God for that.
As we love one another, we see that He is the standard. He is the very standard of how He has loved us. Loving one another is a very multifaceted thing, and one of the key aspects in loving one another that has touched my heart recently is this matter of forgiving one another.
It is on my heart today that somehow, by God’s grace, we could see the blessedness of how much we have been forgiven. Oh, how much we have been forgiven. We remembered it at the table.
But we could also see the damage that unforgiveness has done within the body of Christ throughout the ages. Oh, the damage of unforgiveness between brethren. It brings about division, a despising of one another, and a weakening of the testimony.
Obviously, many positive things have occurred. We are here today because ones have gone before us. We are standing in the good of ones who have strengthened us and allowed us to enter into this time of worshiping Him and hearing His Word.
But when we see this matter of unforgiveness, there is so much division among believers. When the world looks at the church today, what do they see upon this earth? They see division. They see fighting. They hear, “Who is the greatest? Whose church is it? My church. This is my little kingdom. This is my group of people. These are my disciples.” It is not Him. Where is Christ?
It is sad, the condition at times when we look around—the tragedy that unforgiveness has done. We have to ask the question with an honest heart: why are we, as His people and His testimony, in such a weakened condition?
As we travel and minister in many different places, localities around here and around the world, you see it over and over again: this matter of unforgiveness. It breaks your heart. You come in from the outside, hear that some people are no longer together, and ask why. They say, “Well, these two got in a fight and they left.” From an outside perspective, it looks so small, but somehow in their hearts it became such a big thing that they could not stay together.
I say “we as His people” because, if you notice in the prayers of Daniel 9, Ezra 9, and Nehemiah 9—the three prayers of recovery; if anybody ever asks, it is always chapter nine, so the Holy Spirit made it easy for us there—it is not Daniel saying, “Lord, help them. Help them get this right.” It is always, “Lord, we have sinned. We need forgiveness.”
They saw something of the relationship they had with other ones. There was a oneness in this body. This is why we pray corporately. It is not merely focused on the individual, even though we do pray for individuals. There is a “we,” a oneness, as we stand together and pray for His interest upon this earth.
The tragedy is the impact that unforgiveness has had upon believers, upon the body of Christ, and upon His testimony. But God has made a provision. He has made a way for us to come through that.
How do we forgive one another? Okay, that is a good question. How do we forgive one another? It is just like loving one another. You will see some similarities here.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also hath forgiven you.
—Ephesians 4:32
Notice: just as He said, “Love one another,” He does not stop there. He says, “Forgive one another, just as God in Christ has also forgiven you.” Christ is our standard for loving one another, and Christ is our standard for forgiving one another. He is the way for us to love one another. He is the way for us to forgive one another when, within ourselves, we say there is no way.
Actually, as we go along in life, it can sound Sunday-schoolish in one way, but the answer to every dilemma we have in life is found in Christ. Every problem we have brings us back to Him: not I, but Christ.
Stop for a moment and consider: how did He forgive us? We remembered it at the table. How could He—the spotless, sinless, perfect Lamb of God—forgive us? He was the One who took the initiative. He came down and humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross, motivated by His great love to restore our relationship with Him, in order that we could, by His grace, forgive one another.
May we never stop considering the depths of the forgiveness we have received. That is why I appreciate this table every week. The depths of forgiveness that the Lord has given to us, and all that was involved in it, are tremendous. He understands why forgiving one another is not always easy, but He has overcome that and made the way.
Everybody knows, as believers, that we should forgive one another. If you ask everybody, “Should we forgive one another?” everybody says, “Amen. We should.” So the bigger question, the real question, is: why do we not?
There are a couple of major obstacles. I am not saying this is an exhaustive list, but there are a couple of obstacles. First, we fail to see the destructive impact that unforgiveness has on the body of Christ, His church. We do not see it.
The second major obstacle is the “I”—my self-life, my self-love rooted in me, that pride that says, “I know better. I can do it.” These are the obstacles we have.
When we consider the impact upon the body of Christ, we need to refresh ourselves in the reality of our relationship with one another. Sometimes we talk so much about being in the body of Christ, being in the church, and being built together that it can become so familiar that we lose the reality of it.
For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office:
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and severally members one of another.
—Romans 12:4–5
Notice that it does not merely say we are individual members of the body. Each of us is a member of the body; that is true. But the impact of this great salvation is that we are individually members one of another.
I have my life, and Jerry has his life, and our two natural lives cannot merge together. But when we are born again, we have a new life. It is a life in me, a life in Jerry, and a life in each one of us. It is one life that we are all sharing and partaking of, and that is the one body.
It does not say that you are individually members of some. There may be some people we do not mind being members with, but we do not want to be members with these people over here. I mean, look at these young guys here. Who wants to go to Virginia Tech? But you forgive me.
We see how things can separate us, yet we are members one of another. May the reality of that become fresher to us.
Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor:
for we are members one of another.
—Ephesians 4:25
The “one another” here is all the members in the body of Christ, each one of us. We are called to love and forgive as Christ forgave us. May the Lord open our eyes—not merely to focus on the negative, but in a realistic way to see the damage.
Division starts among the ones you are closest with. You have interaction with ones locally in this assembly, people you regularly interact with. They are the ones where the opportunity for division can come in, because you clash with one another. As we are built together, each one may try to stand for his own rights, and then you have those headbutts coming in.
Tragically, instead of forgiving one another and keeping unity, we allow our flesh to divide us. Oh, may the Lord really work within us.
I am talking here about our lives together, but these principles relate to unbelievers too. I am not trying to excuse anything. I am not letting you off with your boss if he is not a believer, or with things at school, with neighbors, or with other people. But what is on my heart today is us as the body of Christ. That does not limit our call to forgive beyond that.
One of the ways I see unforgiveness working is as a cancer. It is doing so much damage in the body of Christ. Cancer cells separate from the others; they become independent. Then they start going here and there, migrating to places they do not belong and doing damage in those places.
The normal cells remain under the headship. The cancer cell disconnects from the head. I am trying not to be too technical here, and I will probably say it wrong anyway, but for illustrative purposes, those cancer cells disconnect, and the head cannot control them anymore. It says, “I want you to go here,” and they say, “Nope, I am going over here. I am doing this damage. I am going to do harm in this part of the body.”
But praise God, within the body of Christ there is a cure for those cancer cells: the precious blood of the Lamb. It restores us to healthy relationships.
Would we come to see unforgiveness in a different way? To put it bluntly, unforgiveness is a sin. Not forgiving one another is a sin. It is as clear as you can make it. We need to see how damaging it can be.
As I have gotten a little older, I think about wanting to finish the race well. This matter came to my heart: do I have unforgiveness in my heart? One thing about unforgiveness is that there is no statute of limitations. “Oh, this happened. I did this to so-and-so ten years ago. I am okay; the statute of limitations has run out.” No, there is no statute of limitations.
If we have things in our hearts, or relationships that we are not sure of, we need to go. Honestly, I do not want to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and have Him look at me and say, “Mac, there was unforgiveness there. You knew about it, and you did not take that step to deal with it.” I do not want to be there. I want everything settled now.
When we speak like this, I am talking about being convicted by the Holy Spirit. I am not talking about self-introspection. Self-introspection is motivated by self-love, and it will blind.
Often, we can offend one another, but there are unseen consequences. We may not immediately see them. We may think, “Oh, I did this against someone. Maybe they did not notice. Maybe no one knows.” There can be unseen consequences at first when we sin, and I think that is God’s mercy, really trying to draw us back to Him.
It is like that cancer cell. Usually, it is not noticed at first. I have had enough things taken off my body that I did not know about until they started protruding—sarcomas, melanomas, and other things that you did not even know were there. But then they surface and start damaging you more and more.
Spiritually, what are the tragedies and consequences of unforgiveness? It gives the enemy an inroad into our lives where he can take root and bring about division. It opens the door for the enemy to come in, and we do not want that.
If we can see how valuable every member is, and how valuable all these relationships are, it is like the Lord says in 1 Corinthians 12.
That there should be no schism in the body;
but that the members should have the same care one for another.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it;
or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
—1 Corinthians 12:25–26
The one and the all. We have experienced that when one part of our body is going through something, it affects everything. It affects your whole body. It can throw your balance off. This part may hurt over here, and then all of a sudden something funny is happening over there. There is a reality and truth in this.
If we are members of one another and in one body together, what one person does—the damage of one, the sorrow of one, the unforgiveness of one, the sin in one—impacts the body of Christ. How we need our eyes opened to that.
Our Lord, when He taught about marriage in Matthew and Mark, concluded with this:
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
—Matthew 19:6
Obviously, primarily this is dealing with marriage. But when we look at the body of Christ, the church, and us as the family of God, who has joined us together? God has joined us together.
I love how it does not first say, “Let not the enemy separate.” It says, “Let not man.” Let not any one of us separate what God has joined together. May we not allow unforgiveness to come in.
When we forgive one another, it strengthens the testimony. There is rejoicing. Maybe it is unseen, but maybe it is seen when two brothers are reconciled after they have been apart. Praise God for that. There is a strengthening of His testimony and a strengthening of His church on earth.
But sadly, if there is unforgiveness, we see the weakening that occurs. We want the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our hearts so that we will not be participating in weakening His testimony.
We said the second obstacle was the “I,” and I think this is our biggest hindrance and obstacle to forgiveness. You cannot clearly separate these two obstacles, because the “I” influences the other also. But that root of self-life, self-love, and pride comes in.
Again, we start talking about forgiving, and we get many amens. But then, all of a sudden, we hear a lot of “yes, buts.” Pride protects itself and loves itself. It will use any and every way it can not to be exposed or dealt with.
We need, with an honest heart, to admit that all of us have pride in our lives. Only by the grace of the Holy Spirit is pride dealt with, but it is always there. It has been rendered powerless by the cross and His victory, but we can still, in ourselves, empower pride so that it operates boldly.
Do not fall into the trap of thinking, “I am no longer proud.” I remember years ago at one of Ed Miller’s retreats—they were wonderful to go to and horrible to sleep at because the provisions were terrible—a brother gave a testimony. He was very sincere, and I do not think he meant to say it this way, but what he literally said was, “I am so proud of my humility.”
Then it took him about two hours to explain what he was really trying to say. Sometimes we can feel, “Oh, look how humble I am. Look how I laid down. Look how I forgave them. They were so undeserving, but I forgave them.” We need to admit the reality of pride.
How do we handle this “I,” this whole matter? It is by looking off unto Jesus. He keeps our issues in perspective. He is the wonderful One who keeps all of our lives in perspective.
When we go through something, we think it is the most severe, extreme, agonizing suffering that has ever occurred. But if you look off unto Jesus, what a different perspective you see. By His death on the cross, He forgave the greatest offense in the history of mankind by reconciling man to God.
The greatest offense ever committed in the history of mankind occurred with Adam and Eve. Nothing we do can even touch that level. But praise God, He paid the price. He willingly came and died so that we could be part of His life and part of His purpose.
When we look at forgiveness, there are two sides to it. First, when we offend a brother or sister—and most of us are pretty expert at that. Second, when one of the brethren offends us and we become offended: how do we react?
When we are convicted in our hearts of sin, or when someone tells us we have offended them, how do we respond? The Holy Spirit may convict us: “That was wrong. What I did was wrong. The way I spoke to them was wrong.” Or someone may come and say, “Brother, what you did was wrong. It offended me.”
Hopefully, by His grace, we deny everything within us that wants to justify our actions, explain our way out of it, or tell them why we did this or that. We take the cross and deny all of that. This goes against the trend in society today: accepting personal responsibility for our actions.
We did it, without exceptions or excuses. We love to make excuses for everything. But we ask forgiveness because it clears the air. Praise God, it clears the relationship between the two of you, and it shuts the door on the enemy’s ability to come in and bring division.
If someone comes to you and says you have offended them, there should be no excuses and no blaming of circumstances. Not, “Let me explain. You do not understand.” When I was sharing one day, I used a word that offended a brother and some other people. Praise God, that brother came to me a few days later. I do not remember the exact timing, but it was pretty soon afterward.
He said, “Mac, when you used that word, it offended me, and it can offend other people.” I thanked him. Praise God, I do not always respond like that, but at that moment I responded the right way. I have never used that word again.
There is everything within us that wants to justify. Pride hates to be exposed. The pride of life wants to be right. There is such a tendency to say, “Let me explain why I did this.” But the issue is that we hurt a brother or sister. Maybe our intentions were right, but we did it the wrong way. Maybe it was wrong timing. We did something, and it hurt someone.
We simply stop, confess, ask forgiveness, and go on, allowing the Lord to bring us back into line with one another.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit convicts us in a very specific way, without someone coming to us. He convicts us of something we said or did that we know was wrong—a sin—and through which we offended someone.
I want to clarify here: I am talking about when the Holy Spirit specifically convicts you of a specific sin. I am not talking about vain imaginations. Some people may look at you and think, “Oh, Mac must hate me now.” I am not talking about generalities.
One of the weakest apologies is, “If I have done anything to you, please forgive me.” That is not much conviction, is it? It is like two kids who get in a fight. I remember when Stella’s sister and brother got in a fight. I had to break it up and tell them, “Okay, you sit down and apologize to one another.” They both said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” and went on as though nothing had happened.
We are not talking about that. I am talking about when you know in your heart that the Holy Spirit specifically convicts you about something you did. Maybe the other person has not said anything. Maybe they have not even thought about it. But you know something in your heart.
When that occurs, we need to go. We need to clear the air. We need to humble ourselves and clear the air with that person.
Sometimes, as we do that, the person will say, “Yes, you offended me, but I cannot forgive you, even with your apology.” What do you do then? You have done your part.
If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men.
—Romans 12:18
Your conscience is clear, but do we stop there? No, we pray for them. We pray for the reconciliation of the relationship. We continue to pray for them and for the situation. Maybe there is something else in our hearts that we do not know. There can be many dynamics in this whole matter.
We say, “Lord, forgive me.” If they do not forgive, we do not react. We simply say, “Okay, I understand,” and move on, continuing to pray for them.
The second side of forgiveness is when one of the brethren offends us. This can be really hard. Let us be honest: it can be challenging for us to forgive. But remember, we must look off unto Jesus. We need to see Him as our standard.
Sometimes, when a brother or sister offends us, we wait around for them to ask forgiveness. While we wait, it simmers within us. “They have not come to ask forgiveness. They should know they are wrong. Why are they not coming to see me?” Then you come to the meeting, and there they are sitting across the room, and you look back.
That is why we have to look at Christ, our standard. Did Christ wait for us to ask forgiveness before He forgave us? Did He wait for us to ask forgiveness before He went to Calvary? He took the initiative.
The first step is that we forgive that person in our heart. Before we ever say anything to them, or even if they never come to us, we forgive them. Then we are clear with God. Praise God.
God took that initiative. He saw humanity’s deep need, went to the cross, took that initiative, and humbled Himself. It should work the same way in our lives. When someone offends us, we should first forgive.
If we have unforgiveness in our hearts, it limits the power of God to work and brings damage to the body. It hinders the Holy Spirit in doing His work of recovery that He is so jealous to do. We limit Him working in our lives and building us together.
Can we limit the Holy Spirit? It is amazing. We are probably the only creature on earth that can limit God—and please understand the context of what I am saying. He can do anything He wants to do. But as far as Him freely working in us, if we say, “Nope, I am not going there. I am not going to do that. I am not going to forgive,” it is as though we are putting up a barrier against His working.
He is still going to work, trying to convince us and convict us, but it becomes a hindrance to the work He is doing. Even if they never come and ask forgiveness, we still need to forgive.
When someone offends us, we can say, “I cannot forgive them for what they did. Such hurt, such pain, such betrayal, such humiliation. I cannot forgive. There is no way I can forgive that person.” They made fun of the Yankees. How can I ever forgive that? Jim Bogg always puts my Yankees down. I am making light of something very serious.
Actually, it is good that you say, “I cannot forgive,” because we cannot forgive in ourselves. Sometimes we can be proud and say, “Oh, I forgave.” No. We cannot forgive in ourselves. There can be a natural forgiveness, I know that, but as far as the spiritual aspect of it, we are not able to do that.
But when we say we cannot do it, that is a good starting point. Just do not stop there. If we stop there and say, “I cannot do it,” what are we saying? “Lord, everything You did for me at Calvary, I am denying. I am saying it does not work because I cannot forgive.”
We are denying the power of God. We are denying the work He did at Calvary. You could almost stretch it to the point of blasphemy, because we are blaspheming who Christ is and what Christ has done.
I am trying to be strong here to help us see the seriousness of this matter, because it has been touching my heart. If you cannot forgive, praise God, you cannot forgive. But there is a life in you that can. You cannot, but Christ in you can. Praise God. It does not have to stop there.
As we deny ourselves and take up that cross, it releases the power of the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and brings us to the place of being willing to forgive. You cannot, but Christ in you can.
Forgiveness is actually one of the tools of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit is doing His work and calls us to forgive one another, that is one of His tools for bringing about the salvation of our souls.
What am I saying? He uses this to transform our lives. He is working, and He uses forgiveness to do that. It is His work of saving our souls.
When we talk about the salvation of the soul, we are talking about our soul—our minds, our wills, and our emotions—being conformed unto His image. Before, we were controlled by self and pride; now we are being brought under the dominion, control, and authority of His life: Christ in us.
Our soul is comprised of mind, will, and emotion. These are vitally involved in forgiveness. This is where the battle over forgiveness goes on, because we can lose all perspective. Our emotions, will, and mind amplify what happened.
It is like Ryan talking about a fish. You caught a fish this big, but by the time it gets on YouTube and everybody sees it, the fish is this big. Oh, it is amazing what you can do with AI. He catches this little fish in the tournament, and then, “Oh, look what is on YouTube—a big fish.” I make all these young brothers have to forgive me, giving them practice for what I am sharing today.
We have experienced it. Some little thing somebody does to you, and as it festers, it gets amplified. It multiplies. All of a sudden, it gets into vain imaginations, as though the whole world is coming to an end. Our minds, wills, and emotions go crazy.
“Remember all the good things I did for them. How could they do this to me? How can they treat me this way? It is not fair. Such betrayal. I thought they loved me.” What is the recurring pronoun in those things? I and me.
“I am offended. They did this to me.” It goes on and on. That is pride—that self-life defending itself, saying, “You should feel this way. It is okay.” No, no. There is a battle to forgive.
We are not going to make light of it. The hurt, despair, disappointment, and betrayal are very real. When someone really offends us, it hurts. It is something real that occurred. Sometimes we try to ignore it with our minds and say, “Well, okay, that did not really happen.” Yes, it did. It happened. You hurt someone.
We need to realize that within us is an enemy—not the enemy, but the enemy of the self-life, trying to defend itself in so many ways. But praise God, when we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, we are set free from the tyranny of self-life and can enter into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
The cross has set us free from sin. The cross has made a way for us to say no to ourselves. The cross has won victory over our self-life and victory over pride. By faith, we step into that. Praise God for that.
The cross can forgive us for the sin of unforgiveness. As we are convicted, repent, and get it straight, we learn more and more. May the Holy Spirit teach us more and more how to forgive and move on.
There is a book I enjoy that has been very helpful in my life. There are some out on the shelf—this is not an advertisement—but it is called Total Forgiveness. What the author means by total forgiveness is that when somebody has really persecuted or hurt you, no matter the aspect of it, you come to a place where you pray God’s blessing upon them.
After you have forgiven, after the relationship has been restored or whatever, total forgiveness means standing for them: standing for the Lord to grow in them and bless them, being set free from revenge and from the desire to be justified, and truly standing for them.
We see this picture in the book of Job. What did God tell Job in the end? Pray for them. As we work through this matter of forgiveness, pray for them, that they could know the totality of forgiveness.
That is what we have in Jesus Christ: total forgiveness, with no loopholes or anything.
We can enter more and more into this glorious liberty only as we see how Jesus Christ forgave. As we look at His life and read through the Gospels more and more, may we see more and more of how He forgave.
I remember Brother Fromke sharing on forgiveness at one of the conferences. He said, “We may have a reason not to forgive. Yes, that person did that to you. Yes, you have a reason to want revenge. You have a reason to want to treat them the way you do because of the way they treated you.”
“But we, as believers, do not have the right not to forgive. You can have a reason not to forgive, but you do not have a right in Christ not to forgive.”
That is our Jesus. He had a reason not to come to earth. He could have stayed there. But He was overruled within His heart. He could not help but come and forgive us. Praise God.
There is a familiar saying: When one person forgives, two people are set free. When one person forgives, two people are set free.
When I am set free and the other person is set free, there is no more hindrance, no more cloud, and nothing between. We see the glorious liberty there, and we are so thankful for this life we have.
To wrap this up, we have to remember that we are sharing all of this in the context of our Lord doing a great work of recovery in this hour. We need to see the significance of forgiveness within this work.
As we allow Him to work the salvation of our souls within us, to strengthen us, and to bring everything under His dominion, we see that we absolutely have to forgive one another by His grace.
Our eyes need to be opened—not in a scary way, but in a way that makes us aware of the damage unforgiveness does within the body of Christ. We need to learn to forgive as He forgave and continue meditating on and considering the depths of His forgiveness.
There is that hymn, “The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus.” There is also the deep, deep forgiveness of Jesus: the heights, the depths, the length, the breadth—all of that. There is a deep, deep forgiveness that we have in Him.
We are thankful that He has overcome all our self-love and pride. God desires His church to be built and the bride to be made ready. That is always with the end in view.
This is how we can impact that. This is how we can hasten His return: as we learn more and more to forgive one another, displaying that love for one another.
In a fresh way, may the Lord speak to us of how forgiveness can work in such a positive way, while unforgiveness can work in such a negative way.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
—1 John 1:9
Praise God for that, brothers and sisters. We do not know what each one of us wrestles with. We do not want to become self-introspective, but we are thankful that God is always there, a very present help in time of trouble, to carry us through certain situations.
I mentioned that unforgiveness has no statute of limitations. One of the greatest times of forgiveness can be when a child forgives a parent, when a parent forgives a child, when you forgive your boss, forgive a teacher, or forgive different ones in your life.
The hurt was real. The damage was real. But praise God, He has overcome, and He has made a way for us to see the glorious liberty we have in Him. We can be those used by Him to recover the testimony of Jesus. May the Lord speak to all our hearts in this.
Lord, when we touch on this, we see the vastness of it. Today, we have only touched in part. But Lord, we are thankful that the eyes of our hearts can so freely see You. We turn our hearts to You, Lord, that You would have liberty to work in our lives.
Lord, we are thankful for the many times—many, many times—Your grace has come in and made a provision for us to forgive one another.
Lord, we are asking that, as You touch us, where there is unforgiveness in our hearts, You would expose it, so that we would have no hindrances within us; that we could run well and finish well this race You have before us.
Lord, we know Hebrews speaks about running that race and the sin that so easily entangles us. Forgive us for unbelief in Your ability to heal us and Your ability to forgive.
But Lord, we want to see the power of Your life lived out among Your people in this hour, that You can continue Your great work of building Your church and continue Your great work of preparing that bride.
Lord, we offer ourselves unto You in Your precious name. Amen.