Forgiveness

Let's pray, Dear Father God, pray you guide me today

in the word of God and in the testimony that

I need to share in Jesus' name, Amen, God, My

sermon would have been the Midnight Cry. That'll be my

sermon next week unless God indicates otherwise. So I will

take it right out of here and put it in

my file.

How do you like that?

And I believe God has led me to write that sermon,

but I will preach it at another time because of

our time. Open your Bible's turn to Matthew eighteen, and

let me ask you this question. How many of you

want to be ready for the second coming of Christ

for real? Are you in that club? I want to

be ready for the second Coming of Christ for real?

We live in a time when fake religion rules the

landscape in the Christian Church, where people will virtue signal

to make themselves look good.

We want to.

Serve Gods to what they can get out of the

church instead of what they can give of the church.

But I have found that there is one major.

Obstacle to receiving the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now,

our topic would have been on the twelve Virgins, the

oil that goes into the lamps. That'll be next week

most likely. And you see these ten lamps that we

have here. Next week, I'm gonna bring them back, and

I'm gonna need help because we're gonna light.

The lamps in the darkness of the church.

We're gonna illustrate what Matthew twenty five is talking about.

But the oil in the lamps represents the Holy Spirit.

And what we find in the parable the Ten Virgins

is that you get to a time, at the very

time of the end where Christians represented by ten virgins

don't have oil in their lamps, and they suddenly discovered

that they're not going to heaven when Jesus comes back.

Would that be a catastrophe, yes?

Or no?

Huge catastrophe. Now, there's certain ways to get the Holy

Spirit in our lives. We can get the Holy Spirit by.

Pray. What's another way? Reading our Bible?

Give me another example, Obey, that's right, coming to church

on Sabbath, school worship, exposing yourself to the things of God.

But you realize you cannot have the Holy Spirit if

you're an unforgiving person.

Do you realize that if you harbor unforgiveness in your heart?

You are a lost person. Oh, everybody's silent, aren't you.

I'm teaching. I'm telling you exactly the truth. Am I

making this up? No? I'm not.

Turn with me to Matthew Chapter eighteen. Jesus here, in

two different ways, focuses on the importance of forgiveness in

our lives, and he does so in the first case

by alluding to two prophecies in the Book of Daniel.

He does so subtly. We don't catch it unless we

really read our Bible. Matthew eighteen, Verse twenty one. Peter

was the one who was always out to show himself

as the one eager to do God's well, And so

he comes forward asking the smart question so Jesus can

answer it, and he says this in verse twenty one.

Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often

shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him?

Now he's not talking about the stranger. He's not talking

about someone like Adolph Hitler. He's talking about one of

the disciples. Maybe they had had an argument among themselves.

He's talking about a believer. I fell a believer when

they wronged me. How many times should I forgive them?

And look at the verse. What it says here as

many as seven times, and he thought he was being magnamous.

Seven times is a lot to forgive someone. I'll forgive

someone seven times.

Now.

The word seven in Hebrew is comes from the root

word for oath or covenant. It also comes from the

root word to be satisfied. Because these two roots merge

into the trilittle root of the Hebrew language chevar savah

matters how you say it. So to be satisfied, covenant,

it means completeness, fullness, god like kind of completeness. In fact,

the number seven is utilized with the Holy Spirit in

the Bible. The seven eyes of God that roam through

the earth and Zacharith three and also in Revelation chapter

five represent the Holy Spirit, the universal Holy Spirit of God.

The seven horns on the lamb also represents the Holy

Spirit's power. The seven lights on the minoris stick the

seven torches which are before God. The number seven is

wedded to the Holy Spirit. Now, what day is the

Sabbath day? You guys know the seventh day? The seventh

day is the Holy Spirit day. Did you know that

you can insist on Sunday all you like, but Sunday

is not the Holy Spirit day. David was running for

his life from Saul, and he came to the tabernacle

and he needed something to eat, and the High priest

gave him bread. And the Bible is very clear he

gave him hot bread, because according to the Book of Leviticus,

the bread for the sanctuary was always renewed on.

The Sabbath day.

Jesus talked about that how David had gone and received

holy Sabbath bread. It's Holy Spirit bread that comes on

the seventh day. So when Peter says how many times

should I forgive? Seven times, we should automatically be thinking

Holy Spirit. There, Holy Spirit, And what is Jesus answer?

Look at verse twenty two. Jesus said to him, I

do not say to you seven times, But how many

times does your Bible say seventy times seven? Now, where

have we seen seventy times seven in the Bible in

the Old Testament? Daniel nine, Go back in your bible's

day on nine twenty four. This is the great time

prophecy that brings us Jesus, the prophetic time period which

works off the mare, the appearance of the Mighty Man,

the coming Christ, who would appear to bring in all

the good things of God. He's making a direct reference

to Day on nine. Four.

Daniel, of course, was praying.

He was praying hard because his people were still in

Babylon in captivity, and they weren't coming out of Bablon

captivity unless God would forgive them. So Daniel, as he

starts his three or four minute prayer, not a long prayer,

but very focused, he ends by saying, Oh Lord, forgive,

Oh Lord, here, Oh Lord, act because your people are

called by your name. If you're a forgiving God, prove

it by forgiving us. Otherwise we're staying in Babylon. And

God sent a mighty angel from his throne, Gabriel, no

doubt faster than the speed of light. He sent him

to this planet as fast as he could, and the

Bible says he came in great weariness, huffing and puffing.

In the Hebrew, came in great weariness at the time

of the evening sacrifice to tell Daniel that that prayer

had been answered. Friend, when you asked God to forgive you,

how long does it take God to forgive you?

According to Day on nine, it happens fast.

He'll wear out the mightiest, fastest angel he has in

heaven to assure you that God forgives you. Now, when

someone sends against you, how long does it take you

to forgive them?

See God's quick about this.

He instantly forgives from the heart the person who comes

to him. And so this time prophecy comes and Jesus

is alluding to it down nine twenty four. I'll look

at verse twenty three. At the beginning of your suppeculatations,

A word went forth, and I have come to tell

it to you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore, consider

the word and understand the vision, a word from God

that will bring us something that we all need. And

it's all about forgiveness. Look at verse twenty four, seventy

weeks your bibles. Does it say seventy sevens in any

of your Bible? All right, that's the Hebrews. It's cheval

em chavah seventy seven. Seventy sevens are cut off, literally

are to creed concerning your people and your holy city.

Now Here, every one of these sevens represents seven years

a day for year, So seven times seven.

Do the math with me? How long is that? Four

A ninety?

This is a four hundred and ninety year time prophecy

about forgiveness. Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your

people and your holy city to finish the transgression. I mean,

imagine sinning for four hundred and ninety years. Is that

a long time to sin? It is to put an

end to sin, to atone for iniquity. That's another way

of saying forgiving sin and to bring in everlasting righteousness,

seal both vision and profit and annoying the mostly place.

When you look at that time prophecy in Day nine,

that time prophecy brings us Jesus in the year eighty

thirty one, and it's talking about seventy sevens until God

deals with sin. He forgives it, He seals it up,

he shuts it up, and he brings up in an

everlasting righteousness that puts it behind us. Now, let's go

four and ninety years forward from the autumn of four

fifty seven BC, when that time period started three and

a half years shy of that in the middle of

the week, the Bible says the Messiah would be cut off.

That brings us to the year eighty thirty one. Now,

who is hanging on the cross in that year, the

eighteenth year of Tiberia. Caesar Jesus Christ is hanging on

that cross. And as Christ is dying for the sins

of the world, what does he say, Father, forgive them?

They know not what they do.

He is forgiving, just as the prophecy said he would.

How many sins did God forgive on that cross? He

forgave every sin of every person been committed from Adam

to the end. Now, if God has forgiven you that way,

how many of you have ever felt like God doesn't

forgive you? You ever felt that way? God doesn't forgive me.

He may forgive the pastor he might forgive the teacher

the preacher, but he.

Wouldn't forgive me. You ever felt that way? What I

did was so awful? You know, if they just knew

how bad it was, dear heart.

Christ took every sin you have, He pulled it into himself,

He made it his, and he suffered for it. And

God in Christ forgave us at the cross. I once

interacted with well meaning theologian type told me that God

never forgave anyone at the cross. He only made a

provision for the cross to forgive. And that's not true.

The Bible says God was in Christ, not counting our

trespasses against a God in Christ forgave us. Paul says,

at the Cross, we stand in Jesus forgiven. If we

are in Jesus, is that good news. God has put

our sins behind us. He has wrapped them in a

bag and thrown them away into the depths of the sea.

He is not here to rehearse the wrongs committed against him.

And David said against thee, only have I sinned and

done what is evil in thy sight. Therefore you are

justified in your judgment Psalms fifty one. God threw it

away because God forgives you. Know. It's amazing how we

sometimes want to make God into ourselves. We don't worship

a God who's a pharisee. We don't worship a stingy God.

We worship a loving, compassionate, forgiving God. Sister White makes

the statement and Steps to Christ. Satan had portrayed God

as a being whose chief attribute is stern justice. She

says it was to remove this lie, this dark lie,

that Jesus came to live among men. In that same chapter,

she says in Steps to Christ, Chapter one. The Christ

never censured human weakness. Christ never puts someone down because

they failed him, because they messed up, because they didn't

rise to what they should be. I don't know about you,

but I have put people down. I have failed in

that way. Am I the only one in that camp here?

How many of you are with me? You've done that

to someone else here? Well, then we need the forgiveness

of the seventy times seven, don't we? God forgave Israel

seventy times seven. He proved the cross when Jesus died.

In the last week, we're getting the collapse of the

microphone here. It's just going out a little bit. Sure

what's causing that, So I'll get a little closer, but

just to let you be aware of that.

Thank you. It just went out right there the channel. Okay.

I can tell the devil hates the topic or forgiveness,

doesn't he. Okay, we're gonna be on that and make

sure it happens. I have to switch mics. Going back

to Matthew eighteen. So Peter said, how many times should

I forgive? And what did Peter come up with? What's

the number seven? What's the number Jesus came up with

seventy times seven, which means.

More than you can count. And that was his answer.

Now that's a time prophety in Dale nine. Look at

the next verse in Matthew eighteen twenty three. Therefore, the

Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who

wished to settle accounts with the servants.

You go back to the Book of Daniel.

You know, in Dale seven, the books are opened, the

Ancient of Days is seated. The Son of Man after

the Middle Ages, comes before God Almighty, the Ancient Days

in the most totally place to receive his kingdom. There

is an investigative judgment here, the Bible says, the Kingdom

of Heaven that judgment scene that gives Christ the kingdom

just before the Second Coming. That judgment scene is about

a king who wants to settle accounts with his servants.

And as you read the parable, what happens.

Is, here's this servant who has this incredible debt against

the king that couldn't be paid for in many, many, many,

many many lifetimes. And he comes before the king and

he tells the king, I'll pay you back everything, but

he can never pay him back. And the king tells him,

I forgive you, and the Christ's object lesson. Sister White

says that this king represents the universal forgiveness of God

for all sin. Some people say, well, the only sins

he forgave are the ones he asked for. No God

in his heart has forgiven every sin. The sinner stands

within his heart forgiven. Unless the sinner comes to him,

he benefits not from that forgiveness. And so what we

have here is a king who forgives. We have a

servant who's been forgiven. He's happy as a lark. He

was forgiven. And then he goes out. He knows his

fellow servant, his fellow servants, who owed him a month's wages,

and he says, you know what, I'm going to take

you to the cleaners. He grabs him by the throat.

He says, pay me back every single penny you owe me.

So what happens here is amazing. Servants, the fellow servants,

which your angels implied, go and tell the king, did

you see what happened here? You forgave the servant. And

he wouldn't forgive his fellow servant, And so he drags

him into the court, representing the pre abbot and investigative judgment,

which is a judgment of the righteous, not the wicked.

Just before Jesus returns and he asks the question, why

didn't you forgive your fellow servant as I forgave you.

Of course, there's no good answer for that. And then

he turns and he says, the only place for you

is outer darkness.

Cast him out, for.

There will be gnashing of teeth. For many are called,

but only a few get there. And he says in

verse thirty two, I forgave you all the debt because

you besought me. So how much does God forgive us

part of it or all of it? He forgives us

every single piece of it. And should you have had

mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?

How does the Lord's prayer go our father heart in heaven?

How would be thy name, thy kingdom come? Thy will

be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give

us this day daily bread.

Ah.

That's the forgive us are what, that's as we forgive

our debtors. See, God won't forgive you one lick more

than what you do for others. If you're harbing your

heart unforgiveness for any brother or sister, you're a lost person.

But if you have a heart that truly forgives, because

in the parable God says this, so also my heavenly father,

Jesus says, so also, my heavenly Father would do to

every one of you. If you do not forgive your

brother from your what does the text say, your heart,

your motions, not just your head. How can you forgive

someone from your heart and you can't stand them? How

can you forgive someone who has hurt you deeply? All

you got to do is go to the cross, because

at the cross you see Jesus forgiving them, You see

Jesus loving them, you see grace poured out for them.

And at the cross you realize you can't have Jesus

unless you do what Jesus did. You have to forgive

them too. That's how we get to the kingdom. God's

kingdom is not going to be made up of people

who never did anything wrong. God's Kingdom is going to

be made up of people who did a lot of wrong,

who were forgiven by God and who forgave everybody else.

And in that sharing, people got saved, lives grew, hearts,

were changed acceptance, and they became a part of the

King of God. So the parable says, the Kingdom of

God may be likened into a king who wished to

settle accounts with the servants. If you're harboring and unforgiveness

in your life, God wants an audit. He wants to

settle accounts with you. He wants you to get it right.

So before the judgment, what do you say. Let's get

it right. Let's let it go and love and forgive,

and watch God put his arms around you and do

the same. Pray, Father, forgive us our debts as we

forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation. In Jesus' name.