Forgiveness
Transcript of FLOT Line Episode 534 aired on November 22, 2015
Good morning and welcome to The FLOT Line. I’m your host Rick Hughes and for the next 30
minutes I’m going to ask you to do what you normally do, stay with me. It will be a time of
motivation, inspiration, education all done without any type of manipulation. This means we
don’t sell anything. We are not asking you to join anything. We’re not asking you to give up
anything. All we’re asking is for you to listen as I teach the Word of God. Yes, it’s a show about
the Bible but maybe not like what you’ve heard before. We don’t rant and rave. We’re not
jumping up and down here, no yelling, no screaming. We’re just trying to give you some accurate
information. It’s our prayer that this information will help you verify and identify the plan of God
for your life. If you can take this information and use it to orient and adjust to the plan, that’s
wonderful, that’s great. This is our whole objective. Our objective is to be accurate, to be clear, to
be lucid, and to give you the opportunity to respond. You can always visit us on our website.
Now today I want to talk to you about something that I think is very interesting. Remember our
show The FLOT Line, FLOT is short for forward line of troops and what we’re using is a military
analogy to explain how the Christian life works. If we say the command post for you is your
mind, it’s your thoughts, it’s your thinking, what we’re saying is that using this illustration you
can establish a main line of resistance and this being the 10 unique problem-solving devices
taught in the Word of God. They’ve always been there. They were identified in this structure by
my pastor who developed these 10 problem-solving devices and if found on the FLOT line of
your soul will stop the outside sources of adversity before they ever become the inside source of
stress. Adversity is inevitable. Stress is optional. When adversity hits your life, maybe through
mismanagement of finances, maybe mismanagement of health, maybe mismanagement of
personal responsibilities, these three things you bring on yourself. Maybe it could be something
that you didn’t create at all like social adversity, weather-related adversity, it could be military
adversity, it could be anything. When this hits you can do one of two things. You can react with
fear or you can respond with faith. This is up to you. Fear is you assuming some unassigned
responsibilities if you’re a Christian. If you’re a Christian the objective is to respond with faith.
That’s using these 10 problem-solving devices which we have a book about and it picks up
whatever the adversity is. It’ll pick it up and stop it. You’ll recognize it and you’ll say, “Whoa,
wait a minute. I’m not suppose to be afraid. I’m not suppose to worry. I’m not suppose to be bitter.
I’m not suppose to be vindictive. I’m not suppose to be whatever.” You see, this is not the
Christian life. The Christian life is a very unique life. It’s a supernatural life. It’s not a life anyone
can just decide they want to live, it’s exclusive. The only way you can live it is to become a
Christian and that starts with you putting your faith alone in Christ alone. If you can come to the
cross and you can say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the anointed Son of God and I am willing to
accept His work on the cross as my redemption,” through prayer. You don’t have to go through
all this, but you could simply say, “Father, I’m a sinner and I want to be saved. I believe Your Son
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died for me,” that’s it. 1 John 5:1 says,
“He that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.”
John 3:16,
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Believing in Christ is faith. It’s you accepting
the fact that He is the Son of God and you are trusting Him to handle your sin, which He did. I’m
going to show you how He did it. Unless you believe in Jesus Christ you’re not a member of this
exclusive club. Once you accept Christ as your Savior and you become a Christian, you’re in the
club and you have assets that other people do not have. What kind of assets do you have? They
are actually about 40 things God does for you the moment you believe in Jesus Christ.
The most
important asset you have is the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit.
You cannot live the
Christian life without God the Holy Spirit doing His work because the natural man, as the Bible
tells us, cannot perceive spiritual phenomena and so you have been given God the Holy Spirit.
When you believe in Christ and are born again, you are given a new human spirit. God the Holy
Spirit communicates to the human spirit and this is where spiritual phenomena takes place.
You
have the supernatural resources of the Bible, Hebrews 4:12 says,
”The Word of God is alive
and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword”
and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
Then you are told in Romans 12:3,
“Stop thinking of yourself in terms of arrogance beyond what
you should think but think in terms of humility as God has assigned to each one of us a standard
of thinking from His Word.”
The standard of thinking from His Word refers to developing a
divine viewpoint about life. The natural man has human viewpoint. This is the only way he can
think. He doesn’t have any spiritual capabilities. He can only think in terms of the natural realm.
But you, if you are a believer and you have God the Holy Spirit living inside of you and you
have the living Word of God available, then you can accumulate a Biblical mindset, an inventory
of ideas that are phenomenal. You can learn what it means to live the faith-rest life. You can learn
what it means to have grace orientation. You can experience what it means to have a personal
sense of destiny. You can enjoy your assets of impersonal love and personal love for God the
Father. You can have a personal occupation with Christ in your life. You have the great joy and
the happiness that He had but you’ve got to learn it. This is why Jesus said,
“Take My yoke upon
you and learn of Me
[these are His words not mine].
My yoke is easy and My burden is
light”
(Matthew 11:29). Now our Lord said that you have to learn and Peter wrote
“Grow in the
grace and the knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 3:18), and Paul wrote,
“Study to show thyself approved unto God,”
we have three verbs here, study, grow, and learn.
Our objective as believers once we are born again or born into the royal family of God is to study
God’s Word, learn God’s Word, which means to apply it and grow. What are we to grow to? We
are to grow to be mature believers where we give maximum glorification to God. Where we
don’t need somebody to hold our hand all the time. Where we are spiritually self-sufficient,
spiritual self-esteem and then listen, you’ve got to get to spiritual autonomy. You’ve got to be
able to stand on your own two feet. You’ve got to be able to glorify God and not have to run to
the preacher every time you have a question. This is the only way you’re ever going to be able to
enjoy the full benefit of the Christian life is to be autonomous with God, to stay filled with the
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Holy Spirit, to become a mature believer, and to glorify God to the maximum. One thing that
will destroy you, one thing that will shoot you down quickly is what I’m about to tell you right
now. In Matthew 18:21 we have the disciple Peter coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and he asked
the Lord a pointed question. He said,
“Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I
forgive him? Til seven times?”
In other words, the disciples had a bit of a conflict going on. First
of all they didn’t get what they signed up for. None of them expected to be wanted criminals.
They just wanted to go into the kingdom of the Lord. Then there was a lot of competition among
the disciples to see who was the best. As a matter fact James’ and John’s mother came and asked
Jesus, when they got to the kingdom,
“Could one of them sit on Your right hand and the other sit
on Your left hand?”
(Matthew 20:21), so she was in the middle of the conflict as well. There was
always some sort of competition about who was the most important of the disciples. There was
so much to learn in such a short period of time and here is something they had to learn. Peter had
been ticked off on many occasions over many different things especially with what the scribes
and the Pharisees were doing, He wanted to know how many times he had to forgive somebody,
seven times? Jesus said to him,
“I do not say to you up to seven times but up to seventy times
seven”
(Matthew 18:22), in other words, an infinite number of times.
What the Lord is teaching
is there’s never a time when you should not forgive someone for something they do to you.
He illustrates this with a parable of the king and the debt owed the king by the slave. This is
found also in Matthew 18:23-35, “
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king
who would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon
[in other words count
his money],
one was brought unto to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
For as much as he
had nothing with which to pay, the king commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children to
be sold and everything that he had to be sold
[in other words sold into slavery]
and payment to
be made to the king.
[Whatever he got for the wife, the family, the man and his possession, give
the money to me.]
And the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him saying, ‘Lord, have
patience with me and I will pay you everything.’ And then the lord of that servant was moved
with compassion. He untied him and forgave him the debt. But then the same servant went out
and found one of his fellowservants who owed him one hundred denarii and he laid his hands on
him and took him by the throat. He said, ‘Pay me what you owe me.’ And his fellowservant fell
down at his feet and besought him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will pay you
everything.’ But he would not and he put him in prison until he could pay the debt. When the
other servants saw what had been done, they were very sorry, and came and told it to the king.
The king, after he called him back, said unto him, ‘You are a wicked servant. I forgave you all of
the debt you owed me because you asked me to. Should you not also have had compassion on
your fellow servant even as I had pity on you?’ And the king was angry and delivered him to the
inquisitors until he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall My heavenly Father
do also unto you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Now,
there’s a lot to learn here so let me try to go through it quickly with you. The lessons to be
learned from this are:
1. People are often the greatest test in your life.
People testing is tough,
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especially if you are associated with a WOJ. What is a WOJ? Well, that’s short for a weird
obnoxious jerk. If you’ve got one that lives next door to you or one that works in the cubicle next
to you or one that serves with you, how do you handle this person? It’s a test, people testing, and
if you don’t learn how to use impersonal love, which is problem-solving device #8, you will
never pass the WOJ test. You have been commanded in Matthew 5:44 to
“Love your enemies.”
The only way you can love someone like this is to love them on the basis of who you are, not
who they are, this is impersonal love.
2. Learning to forgive is vital for tranquility in your
life.
In other words, learn to forgive the weird people that assault you in many ways, spiritually,
socially, mentally, whatever. I’m not talking about physical assault, that’s a criminal act. I’m
talking about people that assault your senses. If you can’t forgive them, then you’re never going
to have any tranquility in your life because you’re always going to be filled with rage, vindictive
thinking, and animosity.
3. Vindictive thinking is a terrible grudge to bear and a sin.
I know
how it is. I’ve been assaulted myself on several occasions by jerks and so it just bothers me.
Sometimes I find myself thinking about it a month later. Why did I let that person get me upset?
Why did I let that person set me off and make me angry? Why can I not forgive that person? I’m
a human just like you. We both have to learn that vindictiveness is a terrible grudge to bear in
life.
4.
If you don’t learn how to forgive, you are going to waste your life being bitter and
vindictive. 5. Forgiveness means you replace wrong thinking with the right thinking. This
simply means you take Bible doctrine, the Word of God, over bitter memories that are
festering in your soul.
This means three things to you. If you are in fact a mature believer and
you are using these 10 problem-solving devices in your life, then you can be relaxed. You can
have an RMA. What’s an RMA? It’s a relaxed mental attitude.
A Christian growing to spiritual
maturity lives with a relaxed mental attitude.
He’s not uptight. He doesn’t take himself too
seriously. Listen, come on now, do you remember how God used a jackass to straighten out
Balaam? If God can use a jackass, we’re not all that important are we? Don’t get this idea that
you’re the only one that God can use. God was in business before you got here and He’s going to
be in business way after we’re gone. We have the privilege and the opportunity to represent our
Savior. We have the opportunity to grow in grace. We have the opportunity to glorify God to the
maximum. If you don’t take the opportunity, if you wander off down the My Way Highway, God
will use someone else. He can use a lot of people or animals if He has to. A mature believer using
the problem-solving devices is totally relaxed.
A mature believer is not easily offended.
He
doesn’t get upset very often. Why are you easily offended? It’s because of our own arrogance.
“He can’t talk like that to me. They can’t do that to me. Who do they think they are?” Listen, if
you’re easily offended you haven’t learned much about the Christian life yet because a mature
believer doesn’t get upset when someone challenges him, when someone maligns him, gossips
about him, or slanders him. Just turn it over to the Lord and walk away.
“Vengeance is Mine, I
will repay, says the Lord”
(Romans 12:19), so you don’t have to worry about straightening
anybody out and never seek to retaliate
. Our model for forgiveness comes from the Lord
Himself during the time that He was on the cross. Do you remember the words that He said as
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He hung on the cross, as He was being crucified for us? In Luke 23:34 you can read it for
yourself.
“Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.”
There is our Lord
Jesus Christ asking His heavenly Father to forgive the very people that are crucifying Him.
What about you? The people that crucify you, not necessarily on the cross, but maybe in life or at
work or in your family, the people that called you the villain, the people that want to have you
put up there, can you forgive them? You see, in the parable that I read to you, that servant owed
the king 10,000 talents. Let’s see, this was a large sum of money. One talent was equal to 6,000
denarii. One denarii was equal to a full day’s wages. Matthew 20:2 tells us this, and thus we can
determine based on today’s wages that he owed that king roughly $60,000. So it wasn’t just a
servant. This was not just a little servant. This had to have been someone who watched over the
king’s interests, someone that was obligated to manage the land for the king, to make money for
the king, and give the king the money that he made off the land, not embezzle the money and
keep it. But he did. He couldn’t pay the king what he owed him, there was no way. He asked for a
little bit of time. My pastor made this point about a year ago, “Look, there’s no way this guy is
going to be able to pay this debt back.” In Matthew 18:27 we saw this king was moved with
compassion and forgave the debt. But we see the forgiven servant would not forgive the one who
owed him a mere 100 days wages. Now this is all about you and me and God’s forgiveness to us.
We have a debt that we could not repay. You see, the justice of God is the guardian of the
righteousness of God and what the righteousness of God rejects, the justice of God judges every
time. If the justice of God judges and looks at you, Romans 3:10 says, “
There are none that are
righteous, no, not even one.”
We don’t have the ability to pay God back for our sin. The only way
that our sin could be satisfied was for the perfect righteous one Jesus Christ to go to the cross and
pay the debt for us. He paid the debt and thus the Lord God our Father was satisfied. There’s no
way we could pay the debt back. He forgave us. If God can forgive you your sin, because
remember John 3:16 says, “
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,”
and
that’s before you even became a Christian He loved you. He loves you now that you’re in His
royal family but before you became a Christian He loved you with impersonal love. He loved
you based on who He was, not who you are. You are a sinner and so now here you are, a
believer, you trusted Christ. You’ve accepted Him as your Savior and you cannot forgive
someone that wronged you in a small way. In verse 33 the king said,
“Should you not also have
had compassion on your fellowservant like I had pity on you?”
This illustrates God’s grace on us.
We’re the debtor but the debt was paid by Christ Jesus. He atoned for us by being our substitute.
He satisfied the justice of God by being our propitiation. He reconciled us to the Father and
redeemed us out of the slave market of sin, and so on the cross,
“He who knew no sin was made
sin for us”
(2 Corinthians 5:21). He was judged. When we believe and receive Christ as our
Savior, our sins are blotted out even though the work was done in eternity past. 1 John 2:2 says,
“He is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole
world.”
If God can forgive you, is it not reasonable to expect you to forgive other people?
Read in
Ephesians 4:32,
“Be kind and tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God has
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forgiven you.”
It takes a mature believer to forgive something and forget it, to walk away and
not think about it again. Otherwise it will still stay in your mind and every time it comes up, your
arrogance will get a little boily about it and upset about it. Here’s the process.
Forgive the
person, forget the deed, and move forward.
This is forgiveness.
If you can’t do this then
you’re going to have a hard time growing up as a believer in Jesus Christ. The reason is because
you’re going to keep quenching the Holy Spirit with your anger and you’re going to keep
committing sin. Your prayers won’t be answered. That’s right, they won’t be answered. Why?
Listen to Psalm 66:18.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”
What do you
think this means? Here you are angry, bitter, upset, and now you’re praying to God and you have
sin in your life. If you don’t rebound first, problem-solving device #1, this prayer is not even
going to be heard because your offering it in the flesh, not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There
is a lot for you to think about here and I just hope this is making sense. I’ll be back next week,
same time, same place. I’m your host Rick Hughes. Thank you for listening to The FLOT Line.