The Kingdom Court

Let's pray. Do you have any father? As we bow

our heads here today, I ask you to open up

the Bible to us the word of God. May we

be moved with what it means to forgive, maybe be

empowered to obey with the right mindset, and maybe not

be found to be Christians in name only, but Christians

it matters most in the heart. Forgive us our sins

as we forgive our debtors in Jesus' name. Amen. The

title of the message is the Kingdom Court. Have you

ever been resentful about anything? You ever held a resentment

deep inside you? See all these honest people. Got to

get your hands up, because I know you have. Every

single person here has struggled with resentment at some point

in their life. Resentment is a kind of concrete that

hardens and solidifies the power of pain into your personal

spiritual ruin if you let it happen when pain is

pondered wrongly. Now it's okay to integrate the thank to

pray through pain, but when you ponder it wrongly, you

cherish the pain over time the offense the wrong then

the heart can snap and lose its ability to live

to thrive. The spiritual dimension shrinks when you let that

take over. The devil has used pain, trauma, pain to

trap many a person who would not move beyond their pain,

who kept you know, the victim complex. Oh I'm hurting,

They hurt me. Oh, it was so awful what happened

to me? They and you keep living in it and

it dominates your life. Hell at the end of the

millennium will be well occupied by many a resentful person

that never overcame the penetrating power of personal pain. That

is why the most painful moment in the history of

the universe became the moment of clarity. When God Almighty

forgave the human race in Jesus on the cross of Calvary,

the entire human collective occurred. Jesus felt Adam's pain, his wrong,

his guilt, his sin, with every human being rushing through

his human mind from Adam to the end billions of people,

and Christ owned that which you cannot own. Christ conquered

that which you cannot conquer. And in Christ, God forgave

the human race on Calvary's cross. The Bible teaches that,

in the clearest kind of terms, the Gospel is not

good advice. The Gospel is not God virtuing signaling to

us tell us we better get better and do better.

The Gospel is the love of God manifested in time

on the cross of Calvary, where Jesus Christ died for

our sins, where he atoned for them, where he integrated

them psychologically, and he produced shalom peace in the resurrection.

At the cross of Christ. The Gospels God's good news

that overcomes our pain and creates forgiveness where there is

not naturally peace. Friend, you cannot separate the pain of

the cross from the cure of the Cross. At the

heart of the Gospel of God is a cross where

every human being meets forgiveness wrapped in the naked pain

of God. It is God's forgiveness that seeks that seems

too good to be true. It's God's forgiveness that defies

our religious logic. It's God's forgiveness that mutilates the matrix

of our preconceived theology and renders it useless and ignorant

before the vision of God. The forgiveness of God, God's

forgiveness in Jesus is God's power that turns our resentment

into God's contentment in our heart. The keyword is peace,

Shalom shaloam. Forgiveness is the road that redirects pain toward gain,

that leads to hope, purpose, the meaningful life. Forgiveness is

the crucible of our offense, pain in God's love that

forges a future without resentment. Pain without forgiveness attacks faith,

and faith flounders when there is no meaning left in

life because the offended soul state clings to resentment. If

you want to be lost, the quickest way you can

be lost is hang on to your resentment and anger

towards someone else. Without forgiveness, the wrongs you suffer have

no real resolution or purpose in your life. You're trapped

by them. But let me turn it to the other side.

When you forgive someone from your heart who has hurt

you deeply, your pain surrenders to God's power and purpose

in your life. God's purpose sets you your feet on

the path of healing and meaning that leads to his

future and hope for you. The person who forgives his

or her tormentors is the person who has overcome the

power of Satan of the oppressor. They are a victor.

The person who forgives follow this word, the person who

forgives wins. The person who forgives wins. You want to

be a loser, just live a victim mindset, and never forgive.

It's no accident that the most painful moment in the

history of the universe was the Cross, when God forgave

the human race in Jesus. The Cross is the one

moment in time when a righteous man, pure, undefiled, had

every righteous right to have God smite his persecutors, and

he said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.

At the peak of pain and the pinnacle of injustice,

the words of Jesus save the universe from the hatred

and the anger of Satan. Father, forgive them, they know

not what they do. At the cross, mercy kissed justice,

and infinite pain surrendered to the sweet perfume of God's forgiveness.

The Bible is abundantly clear that the Cross is the

central focus and concern in the investigative judgment in heaven

just before Jesus returns. Now, we've learned in our evangelistic

series here that there is a pre advent judgment in

heaven that comes just before the coming of Christ. The

Fifth Kingdom, the Turrah Kingdom of God, will be made

up by people who remain faithful to God, and Christ

will confess our names one at a time before His

Father and the angels from Adam to the end, and

that will be the Kingdom of God. You get in

because Jesus claims you for the kingdom. Without the cross, friend,

there is no real road that leads from the trauma,

pain and resentment that every human being has to the

Kingdom of God. I'd like to say something before we

move on. Here, darcel or, where are you at? Let

me see if I can see your hand go up.

She here, this is her last sabbath at reaching hearts moving. Oh,

she's back there. We did not want to forget you.

We're gonna miss you. So your impact in our children's

sabbage school the last four years has been huge, and

your precious family, and we want every one of your

family to be blessed here and to grow and to

be blessed where you're at as well. So I wanted

to take note of that today. God bless you, darcel

okay you blessings to you. Take your bibles. Turn to

Matthew eighteen twenty three. Just a hair more on the monitor. Therefore,

the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king

who wished to settle accounts. Thank you with his servants.

Notice what the Kingdom of God is not here. The

king of God is not a club where wrongs are ignored,

offense is set aside because everyone needs to get along

and forget about the offense. God takes offenses very seriously.

That's why the King of Heaven is compared to a

king who wanted to settle accounts. The kingdom is not

a whistle, a whitewashed city where pain is ignored and

justice treated as something trivial and unimportant to address. The

Kingdom of Heaven, according to Jesus, is a court. It's

like a tribunal that sits and decides the case and

accounts of every man and woman. Now, if God has

all the foreknowledge, why on earth would God want to

have a court and try anybody in it anyway? Doesn't

he know what they think? Doesn't his sovereignty determine that. Well,

here's why there is a kingdom court in God's kingdom,

because every human being matters to God. It's not just

for God, but for the universe to see that God

has been just, that God has been merciful, and that

that person really wants to be in heaven. So there

is a court that determines the destiny of men and women.

And according to Jesus, the King of Heaven is compared

to this kingdom court. Friend, you cannot understand the Kingdom

of Heaven unless you accept the truth of the Kingdom court.

In verse twenty three, Jesus said, the Kingdom of Heaven

may be compared to a king who wished to settle

accounts with the servants. Now, there are many well meaning

theologians in the Christian Church today who refuse to accept

the notion that there is an end time investigative judgment.

In fact, they sometimes attack the Seventh day Advent Church

because we teach the Bible doctrine of the pre Advent judgment.

They would have to deny what we are looking at

Matthew eighteen that before we get to heaven, there's an

auditing of the books. There's a review, and God audits

to see what kind of servants we are. And if

we're the wrong kind of servants, we don't make it.

If it were the right kind of servants, we do

make it. Now, how many of you want to be

the right kind of servant. All right, that's why this

court convenes, and we will learn that the key principle

in the Kingdom court is forgiveness. The claim that a

judgment like that would somehow call the Gospel into question

is not biblically sound. And the investigative judgment which God

the King desires to settle accounts is necessary because we

are beings made in the image of God. And these

dear people who ignore this teaching don't pay attention. John

twelve thirty one, Matthew eighteen twenty three, Revelation eleven fifteen

to eighteen, Daniels seven ten to fourteen. The Bible teaches

this in many places. But look at John twelve thirty one.

With me, Christ said truly, truly, I say to you,

he who hears my word and believes him who sent

me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment.

But what does it say He's passed from death to life. Now,

judgment in verse thirty four means condemnation, not investigation. But

Matthew eighteen twenty three is clear. The Kingdom of Heaven

is like a king who desired to settle accounts with

his servants, suttling accounts is good and it involves investigation.

So this verse has been misapplied by people who say

there will never be a judgment. Hebrews nine says it's

appointed for men to die once, and after that comes

the judgment. Now, have you ever had children who needed

to clean their rooms? Any parents here you're trying to

get them to get their act together. I would go

into John Michael's room, and I would have an investigative judgment,

and I would look to see if he did everything

he was supposed to do, if he was hiding things

in his room, and if he passed the investigative judgment,

we were good for a week. If he didn't pass

the investigative judgment, it sank the house for a week.

He had to line up and pull it together. There

is an investigative judgment in God's time frame, and it

occurs just before the Second Coming. In fact, the longest

time prophecy in the Bible ran out in the year

eighteen forty four and from eighteen forty four through the

Mark of the Beast issue, which becomes the judgment of

the living. It ends when the last decision of the

living person has been made for Christ and then Jesus comes.

So what we are living according to the first Angel's

message in the time of God's judgment. And that's why

the first Angel says, the hour of his judgment has come.

We are living the judgment our revelation eleven fifteen to eighteen.

The seventh Angel blew his trumpet. Let that slide get there, revelation.

There it is the seventh Angel blew his trumpet. The

loud voices where what does the text say and have

been saying? The kingdom of the world has become the

kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he

shall reign forever and ever. So that pre even investigative

judgment starts in heaven, God sets up the last kingdom,

the trah Kingdom, the Word of God kingdom, and by

that judgment God will fill eternity with men and women

who have been saved by the Cross of Christ. Now,

notice that this statement of the Kingdom of Heaven is

not made on earth, so this is not an earthly kingdom.

In verse fifteen that the last kingdom to rule the

world is the Kingdom of Heaven that begins in heaven

just before the second Coming, the text clearly says there

were loud voices in heaven. We have a heavenly context,

not an earthly context in these verses. Now in Daniel two,

let's move to these next two slides here, thank you,

and Daniel two, we learned that there were different kingdoms

represented by the metallic man. The head of gold was babbling,

the chest of silver was Mee to Persia. The waste

was bronzed was Greece. The legs of iron Pagan Rome,

and then it moves down to the feet of iron

and clay Rome in the Middle Ages, the Roman Church

Iron goes to the end, but mixed with the weak

and strong nations of the earth, the clay, the Iron Church,

and state ten toes because the modern Western world will

challenge the ten commandment law of God at the time

of the end, and image is something you bow down to,

and so the world has bowed down to the makings

of man. Now in contrast, in the days of those

kings before the collapse of the historical monarchies, Daniel sees

a stone which symbolizes Jesus Christ and his kingdom cut

out of a mountain which symbolizes the heavenly sanctuary, and

that stone kingdom flies through space at the second Coming.

It collides with the image in the days of modern

Europe after the monarchies, and that image is annihilated and

in its place grows a whole holy mountain eventually, which

means Heaven comes to hear. At the end of the millennium,

God's kingdom will be reinstated and affirmed on Earth, and

Earth will become the center of the universe. Eventually. There

are three progressive steps that are connected to the kingdom,

court and Revelation eleven that we just looked at. Step

number one, the court begins with the proclamation that Jesus

Christ is king. Now, up to this point in time,

Jesus' function has primarily been one of a priestly kingly fashion,

but in the priesthood since when his priestly ministry comes

to an end, he is instated in the pre avant

judgment as the king of the coming kingdom. He will

be the king of that kingdom of Heaven that comes

to earth. He receives it from his father. In fact,

in Revelation Daniel seventh thirteen to fourteen, it's described it

says I saw in the night visions and there was

one like the son of Man, and he came to

the Ancient of days and was presented before him, and

to him was given a kingdom, dominion, and glory, that

all nations, kindreds, tribes, and tongues should serve him. Christ

before his father, were Lucifer sinned, will walk right into

the throne room being carried. Actually will walk before his father,

and he will receive the Kingdom of God. One name

at a time. Now, how many of you would like

to be one of those names? Me too? Okay? Step

number two the court opens just before the nation's rage.

At the time of the end. The Bible says, the

nations raged, and then the time came for the dead

to be judged. Immediately following eighteen forty four, in the

year eighteen forty eight, the Great Revolutions of Europe pit

every nation was in a revolutionary position, and the Europe

moved from the old union of Church and state, holy

Roman Empire to the era of modern nationalism, where we

have World War one, World War II troubled nations. Step

number three the court opens to settle accounts to reward

the righteous dead and the righteous living. Just before the end.

Just before the end, there is a judgment because God

cares about our commitments. Verse eighteen, the Bible says the

time came for the dead to be judged for rewarding

Thy servants, the prophets and saints. In verse eighteen, it says,

the judgment is for those who fear Thy name, both

small and great. Now, fear is a presentens verb in

the Greek and Revelation eleven. Those who fear. That's not

those who have feared. It moves from the dead to

the living. It moves from those who have been faithful

in previous time to those who are living who fear

the Lord, who love the Lord, who keep his commandments,

and that is the mark of the beast issue the

judgment of the living. Fear is a horrible thing to

come to grips with the world will be in a

state of fear. The judgment, out of logical necessity, moves

from the dead who are asleep in Jesus to the

living ones who are awake, those who fear present tense.

The Bible indicates that we are living in the time

of the Kingdom court. The hour of God's judgment has come,

so don't be surprised or shocked by the words of Jesus.

In Matthew eighteen twenty three. Therefore the kingdom of Heaven

may be compared to a king who wished to settle

accounts with the servants. The question arises, and I ask

it of you, how will the kings settle accounts with

the servants? What will be the standard for the kingdom court?

In the Preadvent investigative judgment Matthew eighteen twenty four. When

he began the rackoning, that means the investigation, one was

brought to him, who owed him ten thousand talents. Ten

thousand talents a talent was equal to six thousand drachma

at the time of Christ at drakma equal to Roman denarius,

which was a silver corn. They later they later, you

took a lot of the silver out like we did

in our coins, and they became cheaper. But at denarius

was a day's wages in Roman. Thinking, now do the

math with me. John Domm helped me correct my math

on this. I'm grateful he reviewed my sermon. Ten thousand

talents times six thousand per talent for a drachma or

denarius equals sixty million days wages with three hundred and

sixty five days in a year, that is one hundred

and sixty four thousand, three hundred and eighty four years

rounded up. If you live one thousand, six hundred and

four and three and eighty four years, you live about

two two thousand and fifty five lifetimes. So if you

worked every day of your life from the moment you

were born to the moment you die, you would still

owe over two thousand lifetimes of debt. Now why is

Christ doing that? Jesus uses this figure to show that

every believer has acquired a debt they cannot pay. That

we have a debt that we can not pay in life.

So what does God do to people like you and

me who cannot pay him back? My children used to

borrow money from me. Dad, do your children ever stick

their hands in your pockets to get the quarters out?

But when I borrowed money from them, guess what they

became instant accountants. Debt. You borrowed five dollars from me?

Pay it back? Could you give me an extra dollar

for interest? And that's kind of good because they have

a sense of justice. You don't just take our money,

you give it back. You don't just make promises, you

follow through. That may come as a surprise to discover

that God does not simply forgive and forget your sins.

Forgiveness is not easy to resolve and simple when the

debt is huge. Forgiveness is complex because it involves pain, offense,

and love and justice. Forgiveness presupposes that there is in

fact an offense that harmed the value of others, that

hurt the king. In the story, the king is the

person who suffered a huge loss. He's been offended the

most beyond belief. Friend. God is the one whose treasury

has been depleted by sin. God is the one who

has suffered the huge offense, so much so that David

would say against the only have I sinned and done?

What is evil in thy sight? It's hyperbole. He's saying,

whatever I did to your ribe by murdering him, whatever

I did to Baessheba, Thatthsheba, whatever I did, Ultimately, it

hurt you the most. It took your children out, It

affected you as a being. I am sorry. God. God

is the one who has been hurt the most in

the story of the King, has suffered pain and loss

on an immense scale, far beyond the life of the

debtor servant Verse twenty five. As he could not pay

his lord. Now, what's the key phrase there? He could

not what he could not pay his lord? I mean,

there's a theology running out there called final generation theology

that almost teaches that you can pay God back, you

can get perfect enough to be accepted. Friends. I have

a problem with acceptance right day in my life, right

today in my life, I want God to accept me. Now.

I can't achieve a righteousness in the future that will

bring acceptance. I need a right now righteousness good enough

for the judgment day. And so we see in the

parable he could not pay his lord. So what do

you do? His lord ordered him to be sold with

his wife and children and all he had, and payment

to be made. I'll let someone convince you that the

king does not want payment. He wants payment, He wants

the books to be balanced. And so we see a

very bad turn for the servant. Verse twenty five indicates

the king passed judgment on the debtor and found him guilty.

In the parable, the debtor is a servant. The servant

represents a believer. Before there is mercy, there is judgment.

The Bible says very clearly, the king found his servant guilty.

You cannot receive the forgiveness from God unless you accept

God's verdict on your guilt. The kingdom court starts with

the clear dismissal of innocence, and it moves to the

quick declaration that the servant is guilty. Now why is

this important? Why does the king so quickly declare the

servant's subject to justice. It may come as a shock

for you to discover that you cannot be forgiven if

you're not guilty. Did you hear me? You cannot be

forgiven if you're not guilty. So let's say you come

to church. You think I'm not guilty. I'm a good person.

I do all the right things. But then you don't

need God's forgiveness. If you're innocent. You don't need his forgiveness.

If you're innocent, the case is closed. You shouldn't even

be in court. First John one, eight and nine. If

we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The

truth is not in us. If we confess our sins,

he is faithful and help me with that word just legal.

We'll forgive our sins and cleanse us from some of

our unrighteousness. Oh, not guilty, And he takes care of

the character problem in his way. The Gospel starts with

the rude fact that we are guilty before a righteous God,

and we owe a debt we cannot pay. If you

believe that you're not guilty, then you're in that big trouble. Friend.

No guilt means no forgiveness with God. You're dead in

the judgment day already. Now, it's a good things a

believe to know that you are by nature guilty and

by deed guilty Romans eight thirty two. For God has

consigned all men to what disobedience that he may have

what upon all. So if you're not guilty, you can't

have mercy. So it is a good thing to realize

that we are sinners in need of grace. That doesn't

mess with the gospel. It doesn't undermine the law of God.

We need to know that we are guilty. In the story,

the king commands that the servant be sold, and with

his wife and children, all his goods be sold in

order to pay the debt. The king servant is moved

of fear and begins to implore his master for mercy.

Look at verse twenty six. So the servant fell on

his knees, imploring him Lord have patience with me, and

I will pay you everything. Now that the servant called

him lord, that's good. Even though he called him lord,

he acted like his lord was stupid. He said, I

will pay you everything. Sixty million drachma takes twenty two

thousand plus lifetimes to pay back. The servant should have

been truthful with this lord, but he wasn't. He says,

I'll pay you back somehow. I'll figure it out. I'll

get good enough, I'll achieve what you need. Sure, he

was heading on the hope that his lord was greedy

and a little stupid. At the same time, he was

not confident in his lord's character to appeal for mercy

without cutting a deal with his lord. The servant appealed

for mercy with a bargain. Now here's the amazing part

of the story. The king forgave him anyway in verse

twenty seven. See, God doesn't just forgive people who know

what it means. In the heart of God, God has

forgiven every human being first Matthew eighteen twenty seven. And

out of pity for him, the lord of that servant

released him and forgave him the debt. The king knew

the servant couldn't pay him back. The king knew that

he couldn't even start to pay him back. The king

understood more than that servant will ever know. The king

wasn't impressed by his bad bargain. The king wasn't impressed

by his promise to pay off the debt. The king,

out of pity, forgave him and let him go. Now,

notice what this means. It means that the king forgave

his servant when the servant had a bad and terrible

misconception of the king's character, When the servant had no

clue how good the king was, the king forgave the

servant anyway. Luke seven forty seven, Christ said, he who

is forgiven little, what does it say in the verse,

help me with this loves little? So if you're not guilty,

you don't need to be forgive given? Right have you

do need to be forgiven? Then how much you're gonna love?

Not at all? So to the extent we understand that

we are sinners, and we don't run from God. We

stay with Him. In that mix, as we experience the

grace and mercy of God. Love is awakened in the

heart by forgiveness. Love the person who thinks he can

pay God back as the same person who thinks he

can overcome his guilt by his own efforts. A pay

good back kind of people don't really believe that they

are forgiven by God. Worse, even yet, they don't forgive

others either, who owe them far less than they owe

the king. Look at verse twenty eight Matthew eighteen. But

that same servant, as he went out, came upon one

of his fellow servants, who ought him one hundred dinari

and seize him by the throat. He said, pay what

you owe verse twenty nine. Next verse, so his fellow

servant fell down, besought him, have patience with me, and

I will pay you next verse. He refused and went

and put him in prison till he should pay the debt.

The second man in the story was also a servant

of the king. In verse twenty eight, he's called a

fellow servant. In the story, the forgiven servant met someone

just like himself, with the exception that his debtor owed

him a lot less than he owed the king. One

hundred dinari is a debt that can be paid in

one hundred days. It's achievable, it's amazing, but the servant

of the king was unwilling to even let his fellow

servant pay him back that small amount. He would rather

condemn him than allow him to repay. He showed by

his hardness of heart that he had learned nothing from

the King's kindness given to him in the forgiveness of

his huge debt. Now in verse thirty one, the situation escalates.

When his fellow servant saw what have taken place, they

were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to the

Lord what had taken place. This was a scandal of grace.

Here was a huge forgiveness, a huge pardon, and he

didn't care because he treated his fellow servant awful. The

fellow servants in the parable represent the angels who have

not offended the king at all. They have no debts,

but they're watching how carefully we relate to the King's

kindness and the King's character. Now, in the book of

Daniel Down four seventeen, angels are called watchers. Let me

prove it to you. The sentence is by the decree

of the watchers, the decision by the word of the

Holy ones. Angels are part of the divine court. This

is why in Daniel seven. When the books are open.

There are millions of angels around as the books are opened,

and God is there, Jesus is there. We're not there.

It's a proxy judgment where Christ represents us in the judgment.

Now Christ died for us on Calvary's cross, right, I

hope you can say, amen to something like that. Well,

Christ takes our place in the judgment. Amen to that.

So he represents us. He confesses our names before the

Father and the holy watchers are there. The heavenly judgment

involves angels watching, participating, looking at the books in the

Book of Relation. These angels are called fellow servants. Revelation

twenty two, verses eight nine. I John am he who

heard and saw these things. And when I heard and

saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet

of the angel who showed them to me. In the

verse nine, but he said to me, you must not

do that. I am a And what does it say

A fellow servant? So one of the watchers, they are servants.

They're watching to see how we relate to others when

we have been hurt. The angels in heaven are horrified

when they see Christians who have been forgiven by God.

Refuse to forgive a fellow believer who hurts them, who

owes them a debt. Now, most of the hurts we

have are self imposed. We think that people are hurting

us when they're not. And people don't need to ask

for forgidiveness when they didn't do anything wrong. So the

cure is not in others. The cure is in oneself.

The cure is in oneself. They protest the injustice, the

servants of the evil, of the unforgiving servant, and God

hears it from their lips in the Divine council Matthew

eighteen thirty two. Then his Lord summoned him and said

to him, now, what kind of believer is it who

will not forgive someone else? What does it call him? Here?

You wicked servant? Now how do you know if you're

righteous or not? You read First John. He tells you

God forgives you, but if you say you're without sin,

you're in the darkness. Everyone is a sinner, so we're

all guilty. But then he says, if you don't forgive

your brothers, you're in the darkness. So what is a

wicked seventh? They have? And as Christian an unforgiving. Seventh,

they have an as Christian. Are you with me? Okay,

you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because

you sought me. Now, post Calvinist theology taught that there

was a limit to atonement, that God only forgave the elect.

But here Jesus makes it clear, I forgave you. You're a

wicked servant. It's gonna be lost. I forgave you all

that debt because you besought me. I forgave you. And

in the real sense, in this parable, it represents a

universal forgiveness for all sin. We are informed by that

in the book Christ's object lessons go the next verse

here and in anger, his Lord delivered him to the jailers.

Does God get mad? Come on, look at the text

A do you ever get mad when you see an injustice?

He gets mad? And anger is the Lord delivered him

to the jailers until he should pay all his debt

Verse thirty five. So also, my heavenly Father will do

to every one of you if you do not forgive

your brother from your heart. Forgiving Christians are righteous Christians, unforgiving, resentful,

victim minded Christians are wicked people. According to the parable,

how many of you want to be righteous? Raised both

hands to heaven, not just one like Let it be. So.

It happened early in American history. Andrew Jackson was president

when a postal clerk named George Wilson killed a guard

as he robbed a train car. He was arrested and reigned, convicted,

and sentenced to death by hanging. When the case was

exposed to legal scrutiny, it was discovered that there were

some problems with the case. Some of the facts were

called in the question, and with it the judicial fairness

of the process. Eventually, President Jackson reviewed the case and

based on constitution rights, he intervened and he granted George

Wilson a pardon. He was guilty of sin, but he

got the pardon. Only one problem. George Wilson hated Andrew

Jackson for sheer spite, he refused the presidential pardon. The

nation never see anything like it in its few short

years of history. Since George Washington, no one had ever

refused a presidential pardon. The issue went to the Supreme

Court of the United States, and Chief Justice John Marshall

wrote this decisive decision that I'm quoting a pardon is

a parchment whose only value must be determined by the

receiver of the pardon. It has no value apart from

that which the receiver gives to it. By refusing the pardon,

George Wilson had showed that the presidential pardon had no

value to him. He did not honor a rep it

by refusing the president's forgiveness. He suffered the full penalty

of the law and was hanged to death. When believers

refuse to forgive, what is the parable teaching? When believers

refuse to forgive, they are really saying they are refusing

the forgiveness of God. So forget the pardon if you

can't pardon others friends, When you forgive those who hurt you,

you are showing God and the angel servants in the

preadvent investigative judgment that you honor, you value the presidential pardon,

God's pardon in Christ for you. When you forgive others

in Jesus' name, you overcome pain with forgiveness and psychological

integration occurs that Carl Jung talked about the world renowned psychologist.

And you show that you belong to God and you

share his character his name, you are a member of

the family. You have the same value system as God.

The kingdom court is no threat to the person who

forgives every offense and the name of the one who

forgave us freely at the cross, dear heart, when Jesus

stretched his hand to the right and to the left,

when he hung on Calvary's cross, processing the accumulated pain,

evil resentment of the human race from Adam to the end,

he embraced the planet, and he signed with his blood

the Everlasting Covenant, which is God's law. He ratified it

because the deepest principle of God's law is mercy. And

when he ratified the Eternal Covenant, he signed the emancipation

papers of the human race. In Revelation three to five,

Jesus put it plainly, he who conquers shall be clad

thus in white garments. I will not blot his name

out of the book of life. I will confess his

name before my Father and before his angels. May you

be in that group. I sure want to be. God

Bless you, dear heavenly Father. We're very grateful. We're guilty.

Oh what would be like if we weren't guilty? Thank

you for letting us know we're guilty. And Father, thank

you for letting us know that you forgave us at

the cross. Help us to accept that and thus receive

it and be forgiven in our lives. And Lord, may

you take every person here who has failed you. May

you impress deeply upon their hearts that they have but

may you impress deeper upon their hearts that you have

forgiven them in Jesus. And may they never ever let

you go. And Dear Lord, I pray if there's someone

here and there is who needs to be forgiven, raise

your hand to God and say it's me I need that.

Receive it now, given at the cross, but given again

to you in your life. And Lord, help us to

never forget that. We don't get to heaven because we're

good people. We get to heaven because we're your people.

In Jesus' name. Amen,