Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
The book of Luke and chapter #23 is where we will be at in the
Word of God as we continue. Our series Christ is.
All and this morning we're going to look at the fact that.
Christ is. Forgiving and we'll be looking
at that from the cross here this morning.
And Luke chapter #23 here in just.
A few moments, no, I asked Google.
It's not a good place to start a message right there.
But I asked Google. What the?
Three hardest words for people to say could be and I I just
said give me a list of the three hardest words for people.
To say and I'm I'm telling you. This, and this isn't a sermon
illustration that's really happened.
OK, I Googled this. I looked this up and the first
was this. I was wrong.
I thought that was pretty good. You know that's hard for people.
To say I was wrong. The second I need help and I
think we'd have to agree with that would be 3 hard words to
say I need help. And the third was this
Worcestershire sauce for the life.
Of me. I don't know why Google thought
that was 1/3. Word.
You know it. Has that little AI panel that
pops. Up and it tells you and I
thought This is why we can't trust AI right there because.
I was wrong. I need help.
And Worcestershire sauce. So I don't know that's what it
is, but I would say to you that probably the. 3rd The three
hardest words. To say.
In the English language are not I was wrong.
Although that's hard, it's not. I need help that is hard too.
It's certainly not Worcestershire.
Sauce because it's not even 3. Words.
Not even 3 syllables, so that doesn't count either.
But I'd actually say it's probably.
This I forgive you. The three hardest words to be
able to say in the English language.
I forgive you. This morning we're going to look
as the shadow of the cross looms large upon the pages of our
Bible. Why?
Because Jesus is upon the cross, and he's going to.
Utter the first of seven phrases, 7 phrases upon which we
will reflect on this Friday night.
But. 7 phrases that Jesus utters.
There on the cross and the very first one, maybe one that is
surprising. To us, and that is.
This in the midst of the pain. In the midst of the.
Agony in the midst of carrying the sin of all mankind.
For all time, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. Would you stand pleased?
For the reading of God's Word and.
I've already given you part of the text already, but we'll read
in Luke chapter 20. Three beginning in verse #32 And
it says, And there were also two other malefactors being
criminals. LED with him to be put to death,
and they were. Cutting to the place which is
called Calvary. There they crucified and the
malefactors one on the right hand and the.
Other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them for they know not what. They do, and in the midst of it,
what was taking place, they parted his raiment.
And cast lots literally while the soldiers were gambling.
At the foot of the cross, Jesus was forgiving mankind.
What does that mean to us today? Well, it means a lot, and we'll
look at it here over the next few minutes.
Will you please be seated as we pray together?
Or heavenly. Father, I do thank you for this
time, and I thank you for your word.
It's quick and it's powerful. Sharper than A2 edged sword.
Lord certainly can. Accomplish a whole.
Lot more than I can accomplish in my own feats and my own
thoughts. And so, Lord.
I pray that your word. Would be what matters today.
Your word would be what's uplifted.
And as we consider these great words and as we consider the
fact that Christ is forgiving, Lord, may it mean something to
us here as we walk away from this service here in just a few
moments and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, as we consider. This fact this morning, as
Christ is forgiving, we have to ask ourselves what does it truly
mean to forgive? And we'll follow a similar
format that we have followed well.
When I've been here on Sunday mornings over the last few
weeks, the. Fact that we're going to see
what this word means that we're focusing on on and then find out
why Jesus is speaking about that.
Word in the first place. And look at the broader context
of what's taking place. They finally want to find out,
well, what does that mean to us? If Christ is forgiving?
What is the meaning for that in my life here this morning?
And so as we look, first of all, at this word forgive, it comes
from the Greek word FMA. And the Greek word there means
this not just to pardon. I mean, I'm sure that we would
probably have the idea that forgiveness is.
A pardon of some sort and. Yes, there is truth to the fact
that forgiveness does mean to pardon, but it actually is a
deeper meaning than just simply that it means to set a.
It means to let. Go in fact in its.
Depths. If you look in the.
Dictionary and do the find. What exactly?
It means it means to send away, to send forth, to yield up, to
expire, to let go, to, let alone to let be.
I'd say there's enough there to give us some understanding of
what. Forgiveness is truly all about.
Imagine having a debt that could not be paid.
Imagine having accrued a debt over some time that it would
would not be able to be made-up. No matter how much you work, no
matter how much you tried to gather together, no matter how
many Gofundmes you put together, there would be no way to be able
to pay that debt. And there would be a creditor
who was owed that debt. And that creditor would have
every right to want that debt to be repaid.
But yet then that creditor, out of his own benevolence or for
whatever reason he might have, decides to forego that debt.
He decides to be able to. Forego his right.
Right to collect. Instead, he takes the written
record of the debt. He looks at you and he tears it
up, Say. Pastor, isn't there a parable
somewhere along that line there? Is, and we'll consider it in
just a few moments, but the fact of the matter is that debt is
forgiven. You know, when it comes to being
forgiven, what are. We to be forgiven of.
Well, there's. A debt, you say, Pastor, Who do
I owe? How much money does it cost?
No, it has nothing. To do with money has nothing to
do with an earthly creditor. There was a debt of sin that you
could not expunge from your account.
There was a debt of sin of which.
There was not enough good works that you could do to.
Repay, you say? Well.
Pastor I've been a pretty good person.
Pastor I've, I've tried to keep my nose cleaner or pastor I I've
tried to do the religious thing as much as I possibly could.
And the fact of the matter is, no matter how good you are, no
matter how good you have been, no matter how good you promised
to be for the rest this life, no matter how long that life may
be, there is not enough good that you can do to wipe clean
that debt. But yet there is forgiveness.
There is forgiveness to be able to have the Savior to look at.
Us to recognize that debt and to tear it up and to say you have
been forgiven. What does that mean for those
who have been forgiven of their sins, specifically in reference
from God to man? Well, there's a lot that it
means. It means that your sin has been
sent away. It means your debt has been
fully canceled. Your guilt is no longer.
Rather, guilt itself is not. Held against you, your.
Separation from God has been removed.
There's no future claim on that sin.
It's not like a debt that might be able to come back to haunt
you someday, that you ought to know where you open up the mail
and there's a letter from a creditor.
You thought, I thought this was taken care of, Uh.
Oh, it wasn't taken. Care of I'm so glad that when
God Forgives us that the record of debt has been sent away.
The Bible says that it's as far as the east is from the West and
Psalm 103 verse 12. There is no future claim on that
sin, the bondage which you were held.
Under is now replaced with freedom, and judgment for sin
has been dismissed. Why?
Because you're a. Sinner and I'm a Sinner.
And our sins have been forgiven. We call upon Christ to save us.
That's why He was on that cross. That's why he was there, to pay
the debt that we couldn't pay. And it was paid through his own
precious blood, his perfect blood.
Never a sin, never a spot, never abstain.
Why? So that he could be the perfect
Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.
That's what forgiveness is. It's been sent away when you
have received. That forgiveness of which Christ
secured there on that. Cross.
But consider not just that. Word forgiveness.
That word Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do,
but what's actually taking place.
In this text, Charles Spurgeon called his prayer.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The crowning jewel and the Lord's crown of.
Love, I like that one. Commentator said In this moment,
the silence is broken not by the cry of anguish or a sigh of
passionate complaint, but by the words of tenderest.
Pity and intercession for forgiveness?
I don't know. About you.
But when I'm sick, you know who I think of?
Me. You say, pastor, you're pretty
selfish. Well, you are too.
When you're sick. Let me tell you nothing.
And no, no. One's ever been as sick as a
man? With a cold, let me tell you we.
That's that's. Sickness.
See, if you've ever been a man with a cold, you know what real
sickness is. You know.
And we, we get sick and we think about ourselves because, well,
just when you're dealing with pain.
The focus is on yourself, and that's part of.
Dealing with the issues. Of the flesh.
Jesus in that moment could have very well focused on Himself.
He was beaten in a way that no one's been beaten.
He endured that which no one else has endured.
Both physically and spiritually. In that time, but in that moment
when no one could blame him for focusing on himself.
He was thinking about you. We wasn't thinking about me,
Father. Forgive them, for they know not
what they do. Surely he was talking about the
Roman soldiers. And he was.
Surely he was talking pastor about the Jewish leadership.
And he was. Surely, Pastor, he was talking
about the crowd that was there that was mocking him and and
casting those awful words into his teeth.
And he was, but he was also talking about you.
He's also talking about me. Whose sin do you think he was
carrying on the cross? Just the Roman soldiers.
No, just the Jewish leadership. No.
Just the crowd who had amassed there for the spectacle?
Hardly. Though He was carrying the sin
for all mankind for all time. And there in the midst of that
spectacle, there in the midst of that great agony of which He was
enduring again, both physically and spiritually, His mind was
not in himself. His mind was on you.
And listen, his mind is still on you today.
He still cares for you today, and forgiveness is still
available to you today. That's why He was on that cross,
and that's why we're here today. We're not here because of
anything we have. We're not here because of
anything that's good within. US Well, we're here because the
forgiveness of sin has canceled the debt of which.
We could not. Cancel ourselves and we can't
help but assemble. We can't help but worship.
We can't help but praise Him. Why?
Because what He has done for us. Yes, He was Speaking of you.
On that day, go back. Up to verse #27.
I know you're familiar with this text.
It does bear us looking at it and it says in there followed
him a great. Company of people and of women,
which also be wailed and lamented him but.
Jesus, turning unto them, said. Daughters of.
Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your
children. Again, his mind was not on.
Himself, but was on others for behold the days.
Are coming in which they shall say, blessed are the.
Barren and the. Wombs that never bear.
And the paps which never get sucked, you know, it's the
opposite of what we would say today.
We say today that Baroness is not a blessing and that
fertility is greatly blessed. But yet he says there's going to
be a time when that will be reversed.
And I think of the year 8070, when Jerusalem was overthrown.
Certainly that would be part of that.
But you consider prophecy as well as that which is to come in
the future. It says in verse #30 Then shall
they begin to say to the mountains fallen us into the
hills cover us? For if they do these.
Things in a green. Tree what shall be done to the
dry? Jesus says if they'll do this to
me while I'm here, what do you think will happen when I'm?
Gone verse #32. And there were also.
Two others, those malefactors led to be with him there to be
put to death, and they were come to the place which is called
Calvary. They crucified him, the
malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
Then said Jesus Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do and a part is the raiment. Cast lots again.
That that was foretold and Psalm.
Chapter #22 That the soldiers would literally gamble, that's
what. Casting lots is they were
gambling they're taking that special garment of which he had
it was a special particular. Garment of which the Bible talks
about. And he had that garment, and
they literally were. Ripping it up and they were
gambling. Who could take home a piece as a
souvenir? And verse 35 says.
And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them
derided him. They were mocking him saying.
He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be
the Christ. The chosen of God.
And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering
him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save
thyself those wicked. People stood that cross.
And said, if you're Jesus and you are the person who you say
you are, the Christ, then save yourself.
The irony was. That he was in the process, not
of saving himself. But He was in the process of
securing our salvation in that very moment, and part of that
process was this Father forgive them, for they know not what
they do. In no single act is the love of
God more clearly displayed. Every attribute of God converges
here. His justice, His mercy, His
sovereignty, and His grace all come together within that one
phrase. Father forgive them, for they
know not what they. Do in fact, we could.
Even say the gospel could be. Summarized in three words,
Father forgive them. Father, forgive them.
The forgiveness Jesus prayed for is grounded in the Atonement.
Of which he's accomplishing. He was there on the cross as
the. Atonement for mankind, say
pastor. What are you talking about?
I want you to turn your Bibles. Please a Romans chapter #5 I
really want us to. Look at a couple different
places in the scripture. That I think you should have
marked in your Bible and I think that you should know and be
aware of Romans chapter #5. Some of you will be very
familiar with the beginning of this text verse #8.
But often times we read before verse #8 and stop at verse #8.
But I want us to read verse #8 and continue on.
But God commendeth. His love toward us.
And that while we were yet. Sinners Christ died for.
Us remember we talked about a few weeks ago the fact that
before we loved God, He loved us, but we were unlovable if.
You're not sure about that just. Go read the verses before that.
I mean, not right now, but go do that later, OK?
But verse #9 more, much more than being now justified by His
blood. There's the blood of Christ
again. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. There is a wrath to come.
There is a judgment. You need to be saved from that
judgment. The lake of fire is real.
The blood of Christ is also real.
And that blood of Christ was shed on the cross.
That you can be saved from judgment.
You say, pastor, there's a lot of.
Churches today that don't talk about the judgment of Christ.
And my answer is that's correct and they're in error.
Because the Bible clearly talks about the fact that there is a
judgment been appointed on demand once to die, and after
this the judgment verse #10 For if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God, how? By the death of his Son, much
more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
What is reconciliation? There are.
People that were at odds that now have come together.
What does it mean if? You reconcile books, you know,
if you have a business or when you balanced A checkbook.
Well, I mean back in the days when we balanced checkbooks, you
know what I mean? But the idea was this.
The numbers have to match up. They have to go together.
Could we even put it this way? They have to be brought into
harmony that whatever the bank says has to be harmony.
With what's in your checkbook. Because if you forgot that you
wrote a check for $50.00 to somebody and it took them a
couple months to be able to take it out and you forgot about it,
and all of a sudden the bank says something that you don't
have. They're not reconciled.
They're not in harmony. Before you got saved, you were
not in. Harmony with God you were at
odds with. God, but we were reconciled to.
Him through his precious blood. Verse #11 says not only so.
But we. Also joy in God.
Through our Lord Jesus. Christ, by whom we have now
received the atonement. Now.
There's that word. Atonement.
This is what Jesus is doing at the cross.
And the word atonement isn't a word that should scare you.
The word atonement is not a word that you should hear and say.
Well, I don't know that I'll ever understand what that means
in the Word of God, but the word atonement simply means this
being at one with God. It's literally at one event, the
act of God making us at one with Him again, being in harmony with
Him. We were at odds, we were going
in opposite directions, The holiness of God and the
sinfulness of man. But yet what Jesus Christ did on
the cross, particularly when He said those words, Father forgive
them, for they know not what they do, brought atonement as He
was paying. For those sins with his precious
blood. So that we could be.
At 1:00 again, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all
have sinned, all are in this predicament.
Everybody's here today. You're a Sinner.
You stand in the face of judgment.
You need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
There's no way around it. There's no way to try to say
that you're the special exception to the rule.
There's no way to say that you. Have a side deal with God.
You know, here's the deal. The Word of God says you're a
Sinner in need of a Savior. Say pastor, that doesn't make.
Me comfortable. It shouldn't.
In fact, woe to me. If I try to make that truth.
Comfortable to you today. It ought to sting.
It ought to Pierce the soul. But if that was all I had.
To say to you today and left you pierced to the soul.
I'll be a pretty miserable church service.
But the good news is Christ died on the cross and secured
salvation so that we can call upon him and be saved.
How great. Was this act of forgiveness?
Well, it came at the cost greater than anything this world
has ever seen. You think of money today, the
numbers that they talk about with money almost seem like
pretend it's it's hard to even fathom.
Pretty soon we'll have our first trillion dollar company, could
be Apple, it could be one of those other companies as their
stock valuations continue to go. Higher and higher you.
Don't have a hard time imagining what $1,000,000 is.
Maybe some of you can't. I don't know.
If you can tell me about it after church, I'd love to know
more about it. But a billion dollars?
I don't know. I understand that a trillion
dollars boggles the mind. That's why when Washington keeps
spending money and spending money, they're just hoping,
well, we don't even understand how much that money is.
Who cares? No, that's not political, I'm
just making a point. But the cost is far greater than
any monetary value you could assign.
Our salvation was secured through Jesus Christ, who, as
the Creator of the world, gave Himself on the cross to that
very same wicked creation so that we could be saved.
So nobody cares about me, Pastor.
Jesus cares. Nobody's ever given any regard
to me, Pastor Jesus has. Nobody's ever given me nothing.
Pastor Jesus has oh what a friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins and griefs to bear. What a glorious message that
Jesus Christ would save us and forgive us.
But what was Jesus? Doing on that cross well, I
think we've explained. That but Romans chapter 5 gives
us an explanation. There's another place I want us
to look at this morning and I want you to be familiar with in
your Bible. We turn to Isaiah chapter 53.
I hope that some of these places that we've looked at on Sunday
mornings will help familiarize with you with your Bibles.
Not sure Isaiah 53 is just go to the middle of your Bible.
You're going to be pretty close there.
If you're in the Psalms, just go a few books ahead and you'll be
in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah.
Chapter 53. Now I'm going to read this
whole. Chapter for us and as I
mentioned. Before when I read longer
sections of scripture. It's easy to let your mind blank
out. Yeah, that apparently is more
true than I realized. OK, it's easy to.
Let the mind wander there. But.
Lock into what the Word of God is telling us here in Isaiah 53,
because this is one of the most powerful portions of Scriptures
you'll find. How powerful is it?
Well, there's going to be an Ethiopian.
Eunuch in Acts chapter 8, Who's going to be reading the same
chapter and he's going to be confused about what it means.
But then there's going to be a man named Philip who gets up in
the chariot with him and explains to him that every word
in this chapter deals with Jesus Christ, and that man gets saved
and so. We're going to read this right
now ourselves. Who had believed our report and.
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up. Before him as a tender plant and
as a root out of a dry. Ground he had no form nor
comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no.
Beauty that we should. Desire him.
He is despised and rejected. Of men a man of.
Sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid his it were faces from him.
He was despised, and we have seen him not.
Now stop right there a minute. Who's this Speaking of?
Jesus, you see that? Jesus did not really.
Receive a royal reception. Did he?
Certainly there were those, as our brother Charles just read a
few moments ago, who said hosanna and laid down those palm
branches. There was an element there that
day that thought they were ushering in their earthly king,
But yet when they came to the reckoning place that this was
not simply an earthly king, but this was the King of kings and
the Lord of Lords, that same crowd for the most part rejected
him. And we're going to see how far
they rejected him. Here are the following verses.
Surely He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we
did. Esteem him smicken, stricken,
stricken. Smitten of God and afflicted.
He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
You see why He was on the cross. The chastisement of our peace is
upon him. Boy, these words are good.
With His stripes we are healed. What flowed out of those stripes
that were upon him? The stripes of the catanine
tails His blood. All we have, like sheep, have
gone. Astray we've turned everyone to
his own way. The Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of how many us all. You know what you are.
This morning His iniquity was laid upon you.
That day He was oppressed, He was afflicted.
He opened not his mouth. He has brought us a lamb to the
slaughter. There's a sheep before sheerers
is dumb. So He opened not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment.
Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living.
For the transgression of my people was he stricken, And He
made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death,
because He had done no violence, neither was a deceit in his
mouth. Now you could take the rest of
your life to consider verse #10 and never get to the end of it.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him He had put into
grief. When thou shalt make his soul an
offering for sin, he shall see his seed, He shall prolong his
days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Look at what it says to the Father.
He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
Now that satisfaction is not the same way.
I believe that we would use the term satisfaction.
You know you have a good meal and you feel satisfied.
That top button of the of the pants kind of after Thanksgiving
says, well, I'm satisfied. That's good.
That's not the kind of satisfaction is talking about
here. There was a debt that was
satisfied. You see how it all goes
together. By his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for you shall bear their
iniquities. Look at verse 12.
Therefore I divide him a portion with the great, He shall divide
the spoil with the strong. Because He'd poured out his soul
unto death, He was numbered with the transgressors many, and He
made intercession for the transgressors.
What was that intercession that He made Father forgive them for?
They know not what prophesied in the Old Testament, realized in
the New Testament, the intercession, the intercessor
who came. Like in Job the days man, he
says I wish there was a days man that would come and speak
between me and the Lord. And here is the intercessor
Jesus Christ, who comes between God and man, being God himself,
and says, Father, forgive. Them for they know not what they
do. What does that mean?
The debt was satisfied. So it's 2 questions.
We have to ask today. You have to ask yourself both of
them now. I'm going to ask.
Them, but you have to ask them to yourself.
You have to apply them to your own life.
And this is where the rubber meets the road.
We're not talking about Worcestershire sauce now, all
right. We're talking about forgiveness.
That's where the rubber meets the road.
And it may be the last time you laughed this morning.
That got awkward, didn't it? But it's going to get real.
Not that it hasn't been real all this time, but it's one thing to
talk about the abstract issues of forgiveness as it deals with
mankind. But now you've got to wrestle
with the fact of how forgiveness deals with you, just as I've had
to wrestle with this last few days what forgiveness means to
me. The first question is this.
When it comes the issue forgiveness, have you received
this forgiveness? Have you received this
forgiveness? Psalm 32 verse one said.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered, Hebrews 7, verse 25.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the.
Uttermost that come unto. God, by him seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them.
It's not just the fact that he interceded on that cross.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
It's not that just that Jesus was the intercessor.
Jesus is the intercessor, and Jesus will always be the
intercessor on our behalf. And his intercession is this
first and foremost. That you might be saved.
Say, well, pastor, am I already forgiven because he said Father
forgive them for. They know not.
What they do? So I'm already forgiven?
Well, can I maybe explain? It to you in a way that we would
understand using an illustration.
Imagine a Doctor Who discovers a cure for a deadly disease.
It comes at great cost to himself, but yet he freely
distributed it to every hospital, to every doctor's
office. And he says you take this and
you use it. There's no side effects.
You take it and you will be free.
You'll be clean. Well, has forgiveness been
secured? Or rather, has the cure been
secured? Yes.
But does that mean everyone will receive the cure?
No. You've got to decide for
yourself. Will I accept that cure?
Has forgiveness been secured for you?
Yes. For you and you and you and them
and all. Because of the Bible, All means
all. It's secured for all.
But it's required that you do what?
Accept it? The pastor, I mean, is there an
example of this? And the best example I can find
when it comes to this issue of Father forgive them for they
know not what they do, is those two malefactors, those two
criminals. Father forgive them.
Does that them cover the two criminals?
Yes. But yet 1 criminal continued to
mock Jesus, 1 criminal continued to call him horrific names, not
recognizing what own state he was in.
And somewhere along that time, as a sky turns black, as if the
father is turning his back on mankind for those hours,
somewhere along that line, that other criminal looks at the
other and says, man, don't you realize what a state we're in?
Said we're here because we belong here.
This man's done nothing wrong. Somewhere his heart changed as
he saw Jesus on that cross. And he says to the father, what
Well. Back in Luke chapter #23 you
don't have to turn there, but Luke chapter 23, he says, verse
42, he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest
into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said, verily I say
unto you, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
Was forgiveness available to both?
Yes, but one availed himself of it and the other did not.
Would it be a shame if you've come to Liberty Baptist Church
this morning? Would it be a shame if you come
to Liberty Baptist Church for weeks or months or years, and
every time the Word of God was preached, the answer was
extended to you? Not because of me, not because
I'm a Baptist, but because of the Word of God and what Jesus
Christ did, and that you did not accept that which Jesus secured
on the cross? Have you received forgiveness?
I didn't ask if you've done enough to absolve your sin.
We saw that you can't do that on your own.
But have you asked Christ to forgive you in your life?
Revelation 2217 When the last verses in the Bible, the Spirit
and the Bride say come, let him that heareth say come, let him
that is a thirst come, And whosoever will let him take the
water of life freely. Do you know whosoever is
yousoever, whosoever's yousoever that God is calling to you to
come and receive that forgiveness, to know that you
have a home in heaven, call upon Him today, Be saved from
judgment, be saved from the wrath to come?
Have you received forgiveness? But I also want to ask you this
as a second question for us this morning.
Have you received forgiveness, but also have you given
forgiveness? Receiving Christ forgiveness
compels us to extend forgiveness to others.
This prayer, Father, forgive them for they know what they do,
was the model for other believers to also extend a
similar prayer. Stephen, as was mentioned last
week in Acts Chapter 7 verse 60, forgave those who are consenting
unto his death. As his lifeblood drained from
his body, he forgave those who killed him in a similar way to
what Jesus did. Paul taught this manner of
forgiveness. Romans 12 verse 14.
But don't turn there verses 17 through 20 Jesus.
Taught. This forgiveness.
The Lord's Prayer. Teaches this forgiveness.
Now this is the forgiveness that we are to have a test of genuine
Christianity is not merely receiving forgiveness, but
extending it to others and even to enemies.
You know, the world was at odds with God and he forgave them.
But then we receive the forgiveness and we don't want to
extend it. Remember that parable I
mentioned a few moments ago? There's a parable of two men who
owed a great debt. Well, one owed a great debt and
the master forgave him that debt.
He could never pay it. But as he's leaving, from
talking with the master, he sees a man who owed him a debt, and
that debt was small in comparison.
They grabbed him by the collar. He shook him.
So I want my money. He says, well, give me some
time, echoing the same words that the other man had used just
a few moments ago. And he threw him to the prison.
And he says, until you pay me back, you could stay at the
debtors prison. That master called him back and
he says, do you not understand what just happened to you and
you're not willing to offer a much lighter forgiveness?
I don't know what you've gone through in your life.
I don't. I don't.
But you haven't had done to you, nor have I had done to me what
Jesus had done to him. You know, I'm not belittling
what you've been through. I'm not.
Heaven knows that I'm not doing that this morning, but neither
you nor I have gone through what Jesus went through on that
cross. And if Christ could look at
those people and look through His eyes at those of all time,
as He would know because He is omniscient, omnipresent, and he
could say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,
then we have to be people of forgiveness as well.
And this is where I struggled this week.
I wish AI could just write my sermons and I just talk them to
be honest with you because it'd be a lot easier.
But it doesn't work like that because in the study, the sermon
has to go through the preacher to get to you.
And there's a lot. And I talked with my wife last
night about this for a while. I didn't even know I want to
preach this message this morning.
You say, pastor, what are you saying?
It's a big ask to forgive people that hurt you.
People have slandered you. People have hurt those you love.
You know, I can deal with a lot if you do it to me.
You do it to the people I love. I have a hard time with that.
I think a lot of us are that way.
Hard to forgive. So, pastor, you have to forgive.
You're a pastor. Well, that just solves
everything, doesn't it? I wish I'd thought of that 13
years ago. No, I'm I'm like you and I deal
with these things, but forgiveness is all about this.
And I've said this before. Forgiveness is setting the
captive free and coming to realize that you're the one
that's captive. Let's say it one more time.
Forgiveness is about setting the captive free and realizing
you're the one that's captive. Forgiveness is setting those
things aside. Say they don't deserve
forgiveness. Neither did you, but we forgive.
Now, I understand there's people that might have hurt you and you
can forgive them and you still need to have boundaries.
I recognize that. Don't mistake what I'm saying
right now. People may have hurt you, may
have hurt someone you love, and you still have boundaries even
though you've forgiven them. But there's something that has
to be done in the heart because bitterness is what the Bible is.
The Bible calls a root that goes inside of us.
It goes so deep and it's so hard.
Forgiveness is needed. I don't know what you're
struggling with today, who you're struggling to forgive.
People may have hurt you, disappointed you, your
expectations were upended, you thought your life would be in a
different place, but someone messed you over.
Life's not fair. It's hard.
At some point forgiveness has to be extended, even if it's within
your own heart. If you can't contact that person
themselves because of distance, they might not even be on this
earth anymore. But somewhere forgiveness has to
take place in the heart because it will eat you alive.
And what God can do with someone who's willing to extend
forgiveness, it's hard to even put into words.
I'm going to give you this illustration and we're done.
This is a tough one, I know it is a deep one.
There's a man in World War 2 named Louis Zamperini.
Some of you, I've read his story, very interesting story.
A man who was shot down over the Pacific Ocean and over an
extended period of time, over a month survived out on the open
ocean. A miracle to even be alive, but
it was out of the frying pan into the oven because guess who
found him? World War 2, the Pacific Ocean,
The Japanese, He was taken into captivity.
He was treated very poorly. There was a man who was
nicknamed the Bird, and the Bird made it his mission to make
Louis's life, as well as some others, a living nightmare.
And Louis was transferred from prison camp to prison camp over
over a year's length of time. And everywhere he went, the bird
followed him. To beat him mercilessly, broke
him down in body and mentally. World War 2 is over.
The prison camps are empty. Louis goes home.
He goes home a broken man. In the days before anyone knew
what PTSD was, he went home and coped with his difficulty the
only way he knew how to. He drank and drank and drank and
drank. He had a bride and that young
bride immediately became at odds with him that he wasn't right.
He was what they would have called shell shocked.
They had PTSD. He's he's drunken and and that
marriage is awful and the last ditch effort.
About year 1950, she went to a Billy Graham crusade.
It was there that she came to trust Christ as her savior.
She begged Louie to go. Louie wouldn't go at first, but
eventually in a last ditch effort to save his marriage, he
went down what they would have called in those days, the old
sawdust trail and trusted Christ as his savior.
Now the story ended there. That's a great story.
Louis's life was changed. He's no longer drunk.
He got himself right, sobered up both with his drinking and
mentally. He started to love the Lord.
They came to the place where he realized the people that held me
captive need to hear the message of Jesus and particularly one
man named the bird who needed to hear the message.
I'm going to bring this down here and read it because believe
it or not, I don't have it memorized.
He writes to the man and says as a result of my prisoner war
experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable
punishment, my post war life became a nightmare.
It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the
tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to
hate with a vengeance. Under your discipline, my rights
not only as a prisoner of war but also as a human being were
stripped from me. It was a struggle to maintain
enough dignity and hope to live until the war's end.
The post war nightmares caused my life to crumble but thanks to
a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I
committed my life to Christ. Love has replaced the hate I had
for you. Christ said forgive your enemies
and pray for them. As you probably know, I returned
to Japan in 1952 and was graciously allowed to address
all the Japanese war criminals at the prison.
I asked then about you and was told you had probably committed
Harakiri, which is a ritual form of suicide, which I was sad to
hear at that moment. Like the others, I also forgave
you and now would hope that you would also become a Christian,
Louie Zamperini. Over the course of the next 30
years, the Bird would never meet with Louie Zamperini, but the
message was always there. And Louie Zamperini realized I
don't need to meet with him to forgive him, because forgiving
him is setting the captive free and realizing the captive is me.
This one's tough, folks. But either this Bible is real or
it's not. Either we're here just because
we say we're here, or we're here because we need to do business
with him. It's tough.
It is. I don't know your situation, and
I'm not going to ask you what your situation is, but I do know
this. Freely received, freely given.
You've received much from Christ and forgiveness, and we should
give it as well. Some of you, some of you can't
move ahead because of where you're at through Christ.
You can if you forgive them and allow Christ to do what only He
can do in your life. If you don't know Jesus Christ,
you're saved. You need to get saved today.
But if you are saved, you need to make sure that those accounts
are in order and that those who have harmed you no longer have
power over you. Listen, those who have harmed
you no longer have power over you because you have offered
them the forgiveness that can only come supernaturally through
a supernatural God. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.