Please turn in your copies of God's words to Luke, Luke chapter 17 now. And we'll consider verses one to four. Verses one to four are part of a longer section that expands down to verse 10, but there is a lot to unpack here. And so in many ways, this is part one of a two-part sermon series, all about dealing with sin and repentance and forgiveness. Luke chapter 17, beginning in verse one. And he said to his disciples, temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing upon his word. Oh Lord, we thank you for your word which deals with the very nitty-gritty aspects of life, even issues of being sinned against, and how forgiveness and reconciliation takes place, we ask that our minds would be conformed not by the standards of our day, or not by the perhaps worldly philosophies that circulate, but by your holy word, and that then we may not only be hearers of your word, but doers also, even in this most important topic. Please work in our hearts. Help us now to receive your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in our individualistic culture, the idea of the lone ranger Christian can often appeal to us. You know, it's the image of someone forging their own path, doing things their own way by themselves, not needing anybody else. They can tackle life's challenges by themselves. to need someone else appears like weakness, and we don't want to appear weak. I think especially in our can-do, entrepreneurial, lift-yourself-up-by-your-bootstrap kind of culture, this way of life even sounds virtuous and heroic, that we don't need other people. We have the grit ourselves to push through the complexities of life. We don't need other people, but however, this way of life might seem to us, it is completely at odds with the path that Christ leads us along. In Luke chapter 17, verses one to 10, Jesus presents a profoundly different vision for discipleship. According to Jesus, discipleship is not a solo venture. It's not a path that we walk on alone. Rather, it's a shared path that we walk along with others besides us. It's a life lived in close fellowship with other believers. Jesus shows us in this passage that following him means bearing responsibility for others around us. He calls us in this passage to watch out for one another, to lovingly confront sin when it arises, and to freely forgive those who repent. And this is not an easy command. It's often something that challenges us and stretches us beyond what we think we can handle. But here's the beauty. We're not meant to do it alone. And we're not meant to do it in our own strength, but as we'll see more of next week, Jesus, through faith, provides the strength we need to walk this path, to confront sin, to repent of sin, and even to forgive sin. Well, as we look at this passage today, we'll consider three aspects of what Jesus calls us to as his disciples. First, we protect one another from serious sin. Second, we confront others when they sin. And third, we forgive the one who repents. First, we're called to protect one another from sin. The vision that Christ sets before his disciples here is very different from that of the Pharisees. You remember the context. This whole chain of teachings and parables from Jesus all began with what? It began with sinners repenting and drawing near to Christ, and then the Pharisees grumbling about that, and then even ridiculing Jesus. Men and women whose lives had been dominated by sin, dominated by unbelief, have been coming to Jesus in repentance and faith, and the response of the Pharisees is grumbling and disgust, and even ridicule of Jesus. The Pharisees, just like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, refused to receive the repentant. And not only did they not have a category for forgiving the repentant, but they themselves refused to repent when their sins were shown to them by Jesus. Well now, in this section, after this long, long exchange with the Pharisees, Jesus turns to instruct his disciples, and he shows them a very different way of dealing with sin as it arises. And the first thing Jesus speaks to is the reality of temptation. He says temptations to sin are sure to come. Well, Jesus is being very realistic here. There is no way to avoid temptations. You cannot pass through life without being tempted to sin. The ancient church father Chrysostom, although he had respect for the monks who would go and live by themselves in the desert and caves, he made the point that they go to those caves to escape sin, but the reality is they're not escaping sin. Why? Because they're bringing it with them in their hearts. They may avoid some temptations, but they cannot avoid all temptations. Now, the word that Jesus uses here for sin is not the typical word for sin like transgression. It's literally a snare, a stumbling block. And this is a word used throughout the New Testament to refer to sin that leads to someone stumbling, falling away. These are sins that lead to apostasy. And although this kind of temptation is unavoidable, Jesus condemns those through whom it comes. As he says, temptations to sin are sure to come, but That's not an excuse. Woe to the one through whom they come. It would be better for them if a millstone were hung around his neck and he was cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. This teaches us that yes, we are responsible for our own sins. We are moral agents, as it's called. We are responsible for our sin. If we sin, we cannot blame someone else or something else. We must take ownership of our sin. And yet, Jesus warns that the one who tempts others and leads others astray into sin will be held accountable. The language Jesus uses of woe is language of the prophets. It's a prophetic woe, warning of judgment of the highest degree. Jesus speaks of a millstone being hung around their necks. A millstone, of course, was a large, round, heavy stone used for grinding grain in a mill. And Jesus says, Not that that would be worse, a worse fate, but rather it would be better that that person have a millstone hung around their neck and cast into the sea where they would drown. That would be better than what awaits the one who leads others into apostasy. This is a strong warning from our Lord, is it not? And in light of both the reality of temptation, on the one hand, and the judgment of God on those who lead others into apostasy, Jesus says next in verse three, pay attention to yourselves. He calls us to pay attention, to be alert, to be on the lookout, to be on guard. We must watch out for ourselves and we must watch out for others, both that we are not led astray, and that we are not leading others astray. Well, what are some ways that we can be led astray? Well, there are two general ways this can happen. We can stumble through believing false doctrine, and we can stumble through living, you might say, false lives, through life and doctrine. And therefore, we need to be on the watch for both of these things. And so on the one hand, yes, we should be concerned with the brother who is in an inappropriate relationship with his girlfriend. We should warn that brother. But we should also warn the sister who is drinking in false doctrine, who is starting to believe false things about the Trinity as if the son is subordinate to the father. We must be on the lookout both for false living and false doctrine. Something that most of us don't realize is the amount of influence we have on other people. Now you might think, what influence do I have? Who am I? I'm a nobody. But you do, more than you know. You exert influence to some degree in every single interaction you have with other people. In what you say, in what you don't say, in what you do, in what you don't do. Every relationship, your relationship with your children, your relationship with your parents, with coworkers, with church members. And therefore, you should be on guard. But that's the negative. What's the positive command here? Well, the positive command is let's use that influence for good. Let's not only not lead people into apostasy, but let's positively lead people into greater and greater conformity to Christ. As believers, we should desire to see others grow in holiness. If I were to ask you, what is God's goal for your life? Well, you don't have to call in a prophet or draw lots. You know what God's will for your life. Paul tells us his goal for your life is your sanctification. And so what ought to be our goal for one another? Likewise, it should be for our sanctification. Is this your goal in all of your relationships with others? Ask yourself, what is my goal for my spouse, for my children, for my friends? Well, if they don't know Christ, our goal should be to lead them to Christ. If they do know Christ, it should be to lead them and to encourage them in greater Christ-likeness, that they might grow more and more like Christ. Is this your goal? And what are you doing to accomplish this goal? Well, this is the vision that Jesus gives for his church, a community where we protect one another from sin, we guard against temptation, and we encourage one another to grow in holiness. Well, the second thing that Jesus calls us to is to confront others when they sin. Jesus continues in verse three, if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. So Christ calls us to lovingly rebuke one another when serious sin arises. And that word brother reminds us that he's primarily speaking about relationships within the church. Now, this is not an easy command. It's often uncomfortable for all involved, and yet it is something that Christ commands of us. Now, you'll notice that Jesus only lays down the principle that we are to rebuke one who sins. He doesn't provide detailed instructions on how to do it. Well, that's, of course, where Scripture interprets Scripture, and we bring in to bear the broader principles of Scripture. Let's consider now six biblical principles for confronting sin. And if you have a bulletin, you'll see on the back there a more detailed outline than usual. Hopefully it will help you follow along, especially for those of you who are note takers. Well first, we rebuke sin. not preferences. In the context, Jesus is speaking about rebuking sin and very serious sin. Sin is defined as any lack of conformity to our transgression of God's law. Sin is not necessarily a lack of conformity to my preferences. Someone might violate your preferences, or they might hurt your ego, but that may not necessarily be sin. Our rebuke must be rooted in scripture, and it must be concerned with a genuine transgression of God's commands. Second, sometimes we are called to overlook offenses. These two things need to be held together. One, the call to rebuke sin, and two, the call that sometimes we overlook offenses. Which do we apply in any given situation? Well, that takes wisdom, doesn't it? Proverbs 19.11 says, good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Sometimes you will be sinned against and you will need to address that sin. But sometimes you will be sinned against. And the right and wisest thing is to learn to overlook that offense. For example, you might find yourself chatting maybe with others after a church service, and there's a group of people, and someone tells a joke, and the joke is told at your expense. You're kind of the butt of the joke. And maybe you don't really like that. You're offended by that. Well, maybe in that moment, that's something you need to overlook and say, well, you know, they weren't really intending to hurt me. They weren't really maybe even intending to sin against me. And you overlook that offense, and it's to your glory. But maybe it's week after week after week, and this other person maybe has it out for you. Well, then when there's a pattern of something like that, that is something that you should address. Well, that's an example. Of course, there are so many different ways this could apply into situations in which wisdom needs to be applied, but we should always ask ourself, is this something that I can overlook? Not to my shame, but to my glory, as Proverbs says. Or is this something that requires me to go and to rebuke this other person? Third, we rebuke with humility. When we confront someone, Jesus reminds us that we go to them as a brother or as a sister. We do not go as a prosecutor or a judge. Jesus, in many places in the Gospels, warns against this kind of judgmental attitude. For example, in Luke 6, I won't read the whole section, but I think just reading this line will spark your memories, where he says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? And of course, in the context, Jesus doesn't say, ignore their speck. He says, no, deal with your log, then go and deal with their speck. Confronting sin requires the oil of humility. We go to a sinning brother or sister first, acknowledging that we too are sinners saved by grace. Without this oil of humility, as one pastor has said, our rebuke will grate on others and risk causing more harm than good. Fourth, we acknowledge that we are not infallible interpreters of motives. Jesus has just recently taught that only God sees the heart. We cannot see into each other's hearts and therefore we cannot infallibly interpret one another's motives. And therefore we should be very slow to jump to conclusions or even to accuse someone else of a heart sin that we cannot see into. maybe to use somewhat of a silly but no less real illustration, you could imagine a couple driving home from church and one spouse says to the other, did you see the way she looked at me today? She glared at me, what's going on in her heart? Now, as it turns out, perhaps unbeknownst to that couple, the woman didn't have her contacts in right, and she's trying to focus, and she's kind of bunching her nose, and she's squinting, and the other person just thinks, wow, this person's glaring at me. It's possible that we've completely misunderstood and misread the situation. And so as we deal with sin and as we deal with the grating and friction that happens in the life of the body, we must at least take into consideration that we could be wrong and that we could have misunderstood the situation. Fifth, it should be done with grace and gentleness. Paul writes in Galatians 6.1, brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Well, this teaches us that there is a wrong way to do a right thing, if that makes sense. You can rebuke someone, but if you do it the wrong way, you're doing the wrong thing. A rebuke must happen with a spirit of gentleness and with grace. And of course, there are other considerations that the scriptures address in the New Testament, such as a younger person addressing an older person, or of course, if you're dealing with an elder in the church. So these other instructions must be taken into account. Well, sixth, and finally, under this point, the goal of a rebuke is repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Jesus makes this clear when he says, if he repents, forgive him. This is where this must lead. It must lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Similarly, as Paul writes in Galatians 6.1, the goal is to restore him, restore him in a spirit of gentleness. So when we go to a brother or sister to address something, we don't go to shame them or to crush them or to get one up on them. Rather, we go and we go in love and patience and humility and all of the things that have already been said. And we go with the hope and the goal that restoration and forgiveness and repentance will occur. Now some believers can be trigger-happy with offering rebukes and criticisms non-stop, and that's not a good way to be. It's not wise or loving. But on the other extreme, neither can we be so timid that we never address sin, because as Jesus teaches us, sometimes it's unloving. not to address sin that would lead someone astray or lead others astray. And again, which is it? Which is it? Well, that's where wisdom must be employed. Wisdom to find the balance, the balance between gentleness and courage and the balance between addressing sin and overlooking an offense. And we won't always get it right. And that's where we all need grace. And so may the Holy Spirit give us wisdom from above to know when to speak, when not to speak, and that when we speak, we speak the truth in love for the glory of Christ and for the good of his church. So we protect one another from sin, we confront sin, and third, and this is our longest point, we forgive others when they repent. The community that Christ is shaping among his disciples is one in which, yes, there is a seriousness about sin. It must be addressed. And yet, it's also a community where the grace of forgiveness is to flow freely for all who repent. Now this topic of forgiveness is one that is fraught with misunderstanding. And so let's take a moment to consider what is forgiveness? Well, here's a definition that comes from Chris Braun's book, Unpacking Forgiveness. Forgiveness is a commitment by the offended to pardon graciously the repentant from moral liability and to be reconciled to that person. although not all consequences are necessarily eliminated. Let's unpack this definition. First, forgiveness is a commitment made to another person, not a private feeling. In the last 40 years, a view of forgiveness has emerged which has been called therapeutic forgiveness. In 1984, a man named Lewis Smeeds published a book titled, Forgive and Forget, Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve. And the book sold hundreds of thousands of copies and popularized among Christians what is called therapeutic forgiveness. Therapeutic forgiveness redefines forgiveness as something that is a private and individual process of self-healing. Forgiveness is something you do by yourself in your heart. And therefore, the motivation for forgiveness is self-focused. You forgive others in your heart out of your own desire for self-care. Well, the older view of forgiveness, which I believe is the biblical view, is that forgiveness is not merely a private feeling transacted within yourself, but rather it is a commitment made to another person. In other words, for forgiveness to take place, you need two people in the room. One person acknowledges their sin and repents, And the other person responds with a verbal commitment to forgive them. Second, forgiveness is releasing someone from a moral liability. With therapeutic forgiveness, there is no objective standard that needs to be violated. You can kind of forgive anyone you want, whether or not they've actually broken any objective standard. And this is what led Smedes and others to speak of learning to forgive yourself. Have you heard that one, learning to forgive yourself? Or even worse, blasphemously learning to forgive God. You can learn to forgive God, Louis Smead says, because again, forgiveness is just something that takes place in your heart. But biblical forgiveness means canceling a moral liability or a debt. When you forgive someone, it means that they have sinned against you. They have wronged you in some way. but you are committing to them that you will no longer hold that sin over their head. Though you have the right to hold that sin against them, because they have repented, you will not hold that sin against them. Forgiveness is not saying, oh, it's no big deal, don't worry about it. Well, no, if it's sin, it is a big deal. Nor is forgiveness condoning the sin. Rather, it's saying, you have sinned against me, you have wronged me, but I forgive you. and I am committing not to bring this offense up again. In marriage, for example, forgiveness, if you have forgiven your spouse for something, it means you will not repeatedly bring up those past wrongs and use them as leverage. Well, remember the time when you did this. Yeah, but what about, Such and such, remember that time at your parents' house, et cetera. No, true forgiveness forgives those things, and it releases the offender from the moral claim that you could otherwise hold against them. So forgiveness is releasing someone from a moral liability, an actual sin. Third, forgiveness does not remove the consequences for sin. even when forgiveness is granted to another person, that doesn't mean there are no consequences. For example, maybe if a dad, for example, may forgive his son for disobeying him, son, you've got to be home by 10 p.m. the latest, otherwise you're disobeying me and there will be consequences. Well, Junior stays out till 1130. Junior comes home and he's sorry, he's repentant, he goes to his daddy, asks for forgiveness. Dad forgives him. But even where there is true forgiveness, that doesn't mean there are no consequences. And so perhaps Junior is grounded. Perhaps there will be other consequences even where there is true forgiveness. Or, if someone sins against you and breaks your trust, If they repent, you must forgive them. But that doesn't mean that you must automatically trust them again. Someone, let's just say, sinned against children in the church. They might repent of that and be forgiven. That doesn't mean we're gonna have them teaching Sunday school. There are consequences for sin, even where there is true forgiveness and reconciliation. Paul's example in Acts 16 I think is instructive of this. There, the leaders of this town sin against Paul and Silas by publicly shaming them, beating them, and imprisoning them. However, when the leaders learn that Paul and Silas are Roman citizens and they realize that they've wronged these men, they very quickly go to these men and offer them a private apology and ask them to very quietly leave the town. But interestingly, Paul won't go secretly. Paul does not forgive them. He does not accept their apology. He demands a public apology before they are forgiven. Oh, Paul, you're just being bitter now. Why won't you just forgive them and move on? Well, no, as Herman Baving points out, in such a circumstance, it would be improper for Paul to accept a false apology In order to forgive them, there must be true repentance. And in this instance, there are consequences. They must make a public apology because they must be held publicly accountable for their injustice. And thus, a willingness to forgive others is not opposed to just consequences. Fourth, Our forgiveness is modeled after God's forgiveness. Now this is where I have an interesting question for you. Is God's forgiveness conditional or unconditional upon our repentance? If God's forgiveness is unconditional, that means he forgives everyone regardless of whether or not they repent. To say it's conditional is to say that God only forgives on the condition of our repentance. So is it conditional or unconditional? Well, if you said his forgiveness is unconditional, sorry, you are a universalist heretic. The answer, of course, is that God's forgiveness is conditional. God only forgives those who repent. God does not forgive the unrepentant. To do so would go against his own justice and holiness, which he cannot do. And we've seen this theme throughout Jesus' parables, parable of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. They all display how forgiveness and rejoicing in heaven follows what? It follows repentance. Why does heaven rejoice? Because of the repentant, Jesus tells us. Likewise, in the previous section, why was the rich man in hell? Well, Jesus says, because he didn't repent, or because he was not forgiven. Why was he not forgiven? Because he did not repent. Again, the theme of repentance runs throughout this whole section. So God forgives the repentant. Now this point may be new for some of us to hear, but it is the older view of repentance and forgiveness. Fifth, like God, our forgiveness of others is conditional upon their repentance. In many places in the New Testament, we are called to forgive as God forgives. God's forgiveness is therefore a model of our own forgiveness. And as we saw, God only forgives those who repent. He does not forgive apart from repentance. If everyone was forgiven by God unconditionally, there would be nobody sent to hell. And because he does not forgive apart from repentance, therefore, neither should we. And we see that in our text, where Jesus says, if he repents, forgive him. If he repents, You are to commit to him that you will not hold his sin against him. You must forgive him if he repents. Now for many of us who have been conditioned to believe in therapeutic forgiveness, this will sound strange. But, as I said, this is the view held by the older commentators. For example, John Murray says, forgiveness is a definite act. Again, you have that language of it's an act, it's not a private feeling. It's a definite act performed by us on the fulfillment of certain conditions. Forgiveness is something actively administered on the repentance of the person who is to be forgiven. So you cannot forgive where there is no repentance. And if you think about it, you cannot absolve someone of something they don't even admit to. If someone walked up to you and said, I forgive you for robbing that bank the other day. I mean, would you say, thank you, I repent of that and I accept your forgiveness. Well, no, you wouldn't. You'd say, I don't accept your forgiveness because I never robbed a bank. Forgiveness of a moral debt cannot take place where a person denies they even have a moral debt. Again, forgiveness is a transaction. It's a commitment. It's not a private feeling in our hearts. Listen to what Matthew Henry says. You are commanded upon his repentance to forgive him and be perfectly reconciled to him. If you repent, forgive him. Forget the injury, never think of it again, much less upbraid him with it. Though he do not repent, you must not therefore bear malice to him, nor mediate revenge. But if he do not at least say that he repents, you are not bound to be so free and familiar with him as you have been. Therapeutic forgiveness, you remember, makes forgiveness a private affair. It's a private endeavor. And it says you must always forgive and you must always reconcile automatically and unconditionally. But biblical forgiveness, which says that no, forgiveness is a transaction between two people. It's a commitment from one to another. It says that you cannot forgive and reconcile with someone who is unwilling to repent. We've seen some examples of this in scripture already. Are there more? Well, yes, there are many, and I have chosen one that I think most clearly illustrates this, and that is the example of church discipline. Matthew 18 lays out the steps for church discipline in broad strokes. Someone sins against you, you go to the brother who sins. If they repent, you forgive them, and you don't take it any further. But what do you do if it is a very serious sin, you go to them, you address it with them, and they don't repent? Do you forgive them at that point? And remember, forgiving them is saying, I absolve you of this, and I won't take it any further. Well, no, Jesus says, no, if it is a serious sin, and they won't repent, it would be unloving, it would be wrong to forgive them. For the good of their soul, at that point, Jesus says, you must bring in someone else. And if they remain unrepentant, then, well again, you must not forgive and absolve and promise not to take it further. No, you must take it further. You must make an issue of it, as it were. And what happens at the very end of church discipline, where someone is unrepentant of a very serious sin, and the church has spent months pleading with the brother or the sister, does the church at the very end of that process then say, we forgive you, we will not hold your sin against you? Well, no, Christ teaches that we do the complete opposite of that. Christ commands that the church does hold their sin against them, that it exercises the keys of the kingdom, and that it casts such a person outside of the church in excommunication, where that individual is no longer a member of the church. Forgiveness is not to be extended to such a person. In fact, That was the very problem Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians. Remember there in the Corinthian church, the members of the church apparently were forgiving an unrepentant man. They were tolerating and living as if everything is fine and everything is reconciled. We forgive, we don't hold your sin against you, brother. This man who is sinning terribly, they were tolerating this. And Paul says, no, what you're doing is wrong. You're not holding this sin against him. This is not right. And so Paul instructs them to cast the man out of the church. Well, where does forgiveness come into play with all of this? Well, we see that in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. This brother, it may have been the same brother perhaps, who had been excommunicated from the church because he was unrepentant, now is repentant. And Paul instructs the church. For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him. And so there we see up until this point, the church has rightly not forgiven this brother. because they are not in a state of reconciliation. The man has been unrepentant, but now the church discipline has had its intended effect. Now that the man is repentant, it is right and it is good and it is imperative that the church forgive this man. And now that the man is forgiven, he's restored into fellowship. And he's, while there may be consequences, the kind of consequences we mentioned earlier, when this brother, this sister is restored to fellowship, they're not treated like a second-class citizen. No, they're accepted, they're embraced, they're loved, they're forgiven. Their sin isn't held over them. They're not looked at with glances. No, they're forgiven, just as Christ himself has forgiven them upon their repentance. Beloved, it is vital that we recover a biblical view of forgiveness. One reason among many is that unbiblical therapeutic views of forgiveness have caused immense harm to those who have been sinned against. Tragically, it is so common for victims of abuse to be pressured by church leaders and by fellow Christians to just forgive and reconcile with unrepentant abusers. And in fact, they are told if they do not forgive and reconcile, well now they are the ones who are in sin. Consider a case known to me of a wife, and sadly I could give you a list of situations where things like this have happened. Consider the case of a wife who fled an abusive situation for her safety, for the well-being of her children, only to be told by her elders that she was the one in sin. She was at fault for leaving her husband. She was instructed to return and to forgive and to reconcile with her unrepentant, abusive husband. No, demanding a victim to reconcile with an unrepentant abuser is both cruel and unbiblical. It distorts the biblical definitions of forgiveness, of justice, of reconciliation, and it places on the victim a burden that God himself does not require. Many Unrepentant abusers in all sorts of positions of authority have been shielded by this false view of forgiveness and reconciliation. But the biblical understanding of forgiveness protects victims. It leads to true healing and true reconciliation, and it prevents victims from being pressured into a false reconciliation, which is really just to return to an abusive situation. Well, if we are not to forgive the unrepentant, what is our relationship to the unrepentant? Do we then hate them and harbor bitterness in our hearts and wish for their demise, as it were? Well, of course, absolutely not. Sixth, even when forgiveness is not possible, we must still love our enemies. In cases where our offer of forgiveness will not be received because the person will not repent, there are at least four things we can still do. First, with regard to ourselves, Scripture is clear. We are to be free from hatred, bitterness, and vengeance. Ephesians 4, 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Hebrews 12, 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. When you have been sinned against terribly by others, bitterness becomes a temptation. But in those times, you need to remember the cross of Christ and receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit to keep your heart from bitterness. Lord willing, I'll unpack more of this, how we can forgive through the strength of Christ in the next sermon. Secondly, although we cannot extend forgiveness now, we maintain a willingness and a readiness to forgive them when they repent. Our posture to someone who is unrepentant cannot be, I could never forgive them. Even if they came groveling on their hands and knees, I would not forgive them. That is not the way of the Christian. A Christian cannot withhold forgiveness to one who is repentant. And rather, our attitude should be, My hand is open. I am ready to forgive you. If you will see your sin, if you will repent, I am ready for reconciliation and forgiveness. That is the way of Christ. But again, they must always, even as we must always offer forgiveness with outstretched arms, just as with God. He offers forgiveness for all who repent, but only those who repent receive that forgiveness. Likewise, our hands must always be open with the offer to forgive in the hopes that one day they will repent. Third, we can pray for them. Isn't Jesus an example of this? On the cross, Jesus, you'll notice, doesn't forgive the sins of those who are about to kill him, several times in the Gospels, he does forgive the sins of those who are repentant, but on the cross he doesn't forgive the unrepentant, rather he prays that the Father might forgive them. And then we see Jesus' prayer answered in Acts chapter two. Jesus tells the people, these things that you didn't know you were doing, well, this is what you were doing. You were crucifying the Lord of glory. And it's then that through the Holy Spirit, these people who were just involved in the murder of Christ are cut to the heart. They repent, they're forgiven, and they're brought into a reconciled relationship with God. And so also we, must pray for the unrepentant, that they would be likewise caught to the heart, that they might repent before God and repent before man. Fourth, after we have done all we can to lead someone to repentance, to extend forgiveness, we leave it to the judgment of God. It's a very interesting section in 2nd Corinthians, sorry, 2nd Timothy 4.14, where Paul writes about this guy, this Alexander the coppersmith. Scholars believe that this is the same Alexander from 1 Timothy, who had apostatized from the faith. And Paul writes this, Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Now we don't know what exactly he did to Paul, but we do know he did great harm to Paul. And Paul responds in a way that is biblical and is a model for us. On the one hand, Paul does not say, well, I just forgive him, it's all fine. No, Alexander is unrepentant. Hence, Paul does not forgive him. But neither does Paul tell Timothy of his plan to sneak up behind him when he's doing some copper work and take one of the copper pots and hit him across the head. No, he's not, Paul isn't gonna seek private vengeance. That would be sinful. What does Paul do? Well, Paul instead leaves it to the Lord. He leaves it to the Lord to repay. And that's where we remember all sin will be paid for. Either it has been paid for by Christ on the cross, or it will be paid for, if you will, by unrepentant sinners in hell. God is a God of justice. And whatever things have happened in your life, maybe you've been abused, maybe you've been slandered in ways that people have tried to destroy your reputation before others. however you have been sinned against or abused, and whether or not your abuser has ever repented or will ever repent. Maybe they deny to your face that they've done what they've done. You can know that God will repay and God will make it right in the end. Take comfort in the justice of God when you look around you in this world and you see none of it. Know that God is just and all sin will be accounted for. Well, we've been thinking a lot about those who do not repent. Well, finally and briefly, what about those who do repent? Well, seventh, we must freely forgive anyone who repents. As a follower of Christ, you must forgive the one who repents. In fact, Jesus presses home this point in verse four when he says, and if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. Now, realistically, if someone punched you seven times a day and after every time they said, I repent, or if they stole from you seven times in a day and every time said, oh, I repent, we'd have to question whether or not they were really repentant. But obviously, Jesus is make illustrating a broader principle, the principle that as often as someone repents, we must freely and graciously forgive them, just as Jesus forgives us when we repent. So we are freely to forgive others. We have no right to withhold forgiveness from the brother or sister who repents before us. Sometimes it's hard to forgive. But when you struggle to forgive, you struggle to forgive your spouse, your children, or other people, remember Christ. If seven times seems like a lot, if we scoff at the thought of forgiving, actually forgiving someone else seven times in a day, well, Jesus is, this is pure hyperbole. If we laugh at that, how many times in a day do we sin against Christ? How many times do we take his name in vain in the ways that we treat others? in our thoughts, in our deeds, in what we do and what we left undone, in our hearts, in our minds, in our affections. How many times do we sin against the Lord who bought us, who died for us? And yet, what does he say? He doesn't put a number at all on it. Instead, he gives us the promise that on the one hand, if we deny our sins, the truth is not in us. But if we repent, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And as you have come to Christ in repentance and faith with the infinite debt and weight of your sin, as you have come to him in faith and repentance, he forgives you. And his forgiveness is not a warm, fuzzy feeling in his heart. No, it's judicial. He says, I forgive you. You have sinned against me, but I forgive you. And I have committed not to hold this against you. And so that when you die and when you stand before the Lord, he has forgiven you. He won't change his mind and say, well, I remember the time you did this. No, he will say, I have forgiven you. because I have paid the debt of your sin. You are free from that liability because I have taken it upon myself. And so when you sin, you can go to him again and again in true repentance, and his grace never runs dry. But thanks be to God, one day, one day we will cross into eternity, and then we will never sin against our Lord. We will never sin against one another. We will never be sinned against. And what a day that will be. And until that day, beloved, may God give you grace to be on guard for sin, grace to confront sin, grace to repent of sin, and grace to forgive sin. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gospel. We thank you that as we have come to you in repentance and faith, you have made that commitment to us. And even now, as we take the Lord's Supper, we have in visible form the commitment of your forgiveness of our sins. Help us, therefore, Lord, to be those who actively pursue reconciliation, who extend the open offer of forgiveness to all who have sinned against us, that they might repent, that they might come and together we might move forward in reconciliation. Do this work. in our hearts for the good of your church and for the glory of your name we pray in christ's name amen