6/23/2002

We have been reading and I won't read it today again, we have been reading recently the parable from Jesus on the Tale of Two Debtors, the one who owed more than he could pay back to the king and the one who only owed a days wage and wasn't forgiven by the co-worker. We learned a whole bunch of things about forgiveness in the last few weeks. Forgiveness, we learned protects the forgiver. Forgiveness protects the forgiver. The person may have intended to hurt you, they may not care if they hurt you, but if you want to carry their weight around for your whole life, in fact, how many of you have been thinking about my backpack in the last week or so? Nobody has, right? Forgiveness means you put it away, out of sight, cover it over with pitch, and don't even look at it any more. How can we forget after we have forgiven? Well, you plan on not remembering. You think about the things, you let it go, you turn away from it, and let the past be the past and you don't think about it again and pretty soon you realize you haven't thought about it for a long time. 

Who do we have to forgive? Everybody. Everybody who has offended you and even those who haven't. Why do we have to forgive those who haven't offended us? Because sometimes people haven't done anything and we have taken offense at something they have done that was not even intended to us or directed toward us, but for some reason we have taken offense at somebody. Do we want to carry that weight around? Why would we? Let's forgive it and forgive them and be done with it. So we put down the weight, we set it aside, and we treat the person as a forgiven person. 

What if I am the offender? We talked about this last week. You need to go and ask forgiveness. Jesus talks very clearly about the necessity of reconciliation, if you have a gift you are bringing before the Lord, and you remember somebody who has something against you, put your gift down before the altar, go be reconciled, then bring your gift. God is much more concerned about our reconciliation than our sacrifice. He wants our obedience more than sacrifice. And so forgiveness means we learn how to put things down because it protects us, we ask forgiveness which tends to protect them. Because if we have to go and ask forgiveness every time we offend somebody we'll think twice about doing it again, won't we? So we tend to protect them by asking their forgiveness, it protects them from the future for our future sins sometimes. 

There is one thing that I didn't mention last week or throughout the course of our studies that I want to mention before we go on to another part of the study today. What about trust? What about trust? If I am the offending person or you are the offending person, how do you regain the trust of somebody that you have harmed? How do you regain their trust when you have broken their trust? How do you, if you have been the offended person, how do you learn to trust again, the person who has offended you, when they fail you and have forsaken your trust? How do you do that? Let me ask a question, is trust a gift or is it a reward that has to be earned? My favorite answer, it depends. It depends, what side you are on. If you are the one who has been offended and somebody comes to you, by the way this is somebody who has actually come and said, will you please forgive me. Ok, this is not somebody who could care less, somebody who is continuing the problem and offending you more. It doesn't mean you have to offer them your trust because it means you would just be laying yourself open for more pain. But this is somebody who has actually come and said here is what I have done, I recognize how much I have hurt you, would you please forgive me? And you forgiven them, how would you regain that trust? How do you give that trust? On the offended persons part it really is a gift. Because what happens if this person who has harmed you does everything perfectly from here on out their whole life and yet you don't trust them? You don't offer them that trust. You still don't trust them do you? Because you have to give it to them, trust is really a willingness to give the person the benefit of the doubt and actually think the best of them even when they have failed in the past. 

On the other side of it, the one who has done the offending needs to re-earn that trust, by their own effort. Doesn't mean the person waits until they are trustworthy because the gift means you give it before they are trustworthy, at least by history. In Proverbs 16:6 it says something that is very interesting, it says, 'By loving kindness and truth,iniquity is atoned for'. By loving kindness and truth iniquity is atoned for. If you have harmed somebody and gone to them and said will you please forgive me, the only way to regain their trust is to rebuild your reputation. By being where you said you were going to be, doing what you should be at all times, so you can be trusted. But the person who needs to give the trust, actually has to give that, before that is completed because I could say to you, I will not trust you until you have earned my trust. Well, at what point have I earned your trust? At what point can a person say, there, I have done enough to earn your trust. They could have been earning your trust from the very first moment, but if you never give them that trust they could never earn it. So it is a gift from the giver, it is also earned from the one who has done the offending. Because by loving kindness and truth we do atone for iniquity, we make up for it, in a sense, by living truthfully and loving and kindly. And so trust can be rebuilt, and needs to be rebuilt. In fact it says in 1 Corinthians 13, it says love always trusts, always hopes, always believes. It means that there is the desire in the person who loves another person to see that trust rebuilt. And so that is a part of the process of reconciliation. 

Now, we have been talking most of the time, recently, about the fact that we sin against each other and offend each other. But there is somebody else who has been offended in the process when we sin. Who else has been offended? Yes, J E S U S. That is who it is, He has been offended because His character is offended every time we sin. Let's talk about sin for a second. If you would like to suggest that you have not sinned, let me suggest otherwise. Ask somebody who lives near you. They will be able to testify that you sin because sin is sometimes open, sometimes it is hidden, sometimes it is vocalized, sometimes it is thought. Jesus said if a person looks at a woman with lust in his eyes he has already committed adultery in his heart. Which means the desire is there even though the activity is not. The act has not been committed, but the permission for it has been. So a person might never see that happen because it is somebody's heart, in their eyes.

Covetousness is in somebody's heart and eyes. The Bible talks about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the willful pride of life, so there are things we want we may never say anything about, but we may just be as sinful in attitude and thought life as somebody else is in action. So sin is not always open, sometimes we condemn the most open sins, we never see the private sins, the hidden sins. But the sad thing for us is if we are not forgiven, those sins do tend to come out. And if we refuse to forgive another person as Jesus said, if we refuse to forgive others, He can't forgive ours. We can't cover over another persons sins, our sins will be uncovered. That is why forgiveness protects us.

So we talk about sin, what is sin? Sin is described a number of different ways in the Bible. One descriptive word is to cross the line. There is a known line here and you cross over that line. Kind of like crossing the fence on the property that you shouldn't be trespassing on. There is a line drawn by God and we cross that line.

Another one is to miss the mark. It means to have a target and aim for the middle but hit somewhere over here. It means we have the best intent, but we still miss that intent. And so we really want to do what is right and still end up doing wrong. Remember Paul describes that in Romans 7, he says, I know the thing that is right to do and I want to do it, but I find myself doing the wrong anyway. I know it is wrong, I don't want to do it, but I do it anyway. I know it is right, but I still can't seem to do it. So we have the word humarte, which means to miss the mark. We try our best and fail.

Another word means to ignore God. To disregard God all together. And not even look to him for direction. One of the things that hurts most in our life is for somebody to make a decision that would involve us, but not ask us about it. And then we really feel like we have been left out of the loop here, that is exactly where God is. He is the one who has given us all the direction and yet we make plans without him. To ignore God is a sin.

Another one a little more willful sin you might call it, is to thumb our nose at God. And just say, God I know what You say, but I don't care I am going to do what I want. If you are around children about this big down to about this big you see it all the time. We saw it all the time this week, Audrey and Adam were here with our granddaughters and they have a real special knack for willful sin. Cora is only a year and a half old and she is a plant picker. And she will reach over and grab the plant, have it in her hand, and I will say don't pull that off, Cora. Just like that, it is not that I was left out of the loop, I was in the loop, but told her not to do it and she did it anyway. So she got a few little swats because she was doing what was instructed particularly not to do. And her big sister has taught her well. She can do the same. So if you know any little kid, you know what willful sin is. They hear what you said, they do what they want anyway.

That is what we do sometimes. So, sin is all those things. Sin is the thing we do, it is also, in a sense, the character quality of life. The Bible says from Adam all the way through we all have in us the thing that pushes us towards sin. To do our own thing, pride, selfishness, to do what we want to do as opposed to God or in disregard of God. 

We tend not to think, however, that sin is really wide spread more than we think. We think of sin as a sin. It is amazing if you analysis a little bit, do you remember diagraming sentences back in, I don't know what grade it was, we used to have to diagram sentences, where the verbs are and all these little things and if you diagram a sin it is amazing how rotten we are. Do you know that? How widespread. Let's take a situation that I knew of back when I was living at home, a number of years ago, back when they first invented home. My Mom and Dad took us from here, Browns Corners which was over there of course two miles, to Flint. My Dad began a church in Flint and we lived there for a number of years, I grew up there in fact, I spent many years there. One of the guys that worked there in the shop in Flint got in trouble because he and another fellow had figured out that one person could do both jobs. And so one guy would punch their clock in, work for four hours, the other guy comes in and worked the other four hours and punched them both out. Ok, no problem right? Well he got fired for it, well his rep got him hired back and said don't do that again. I don't know if he ever did it again, but didn't hear much more of the story. But as I was thinking about that, what has happened in that sin? That is just one sin, right? Punching a persons card that is not supposed to be punched and working four hours. Well, No, if you start looking at that, it is number one, dishonest, it is lying. God says do not bear false witness, don't say things that are untrue. So, first of all he offended the very character of God. God says I am trustworthy (TURN THE TAPE)

No, he broke the second commandment, the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. He didn't love God, he broke His commandment first of all and he didn't love the neighbor, he didn't love this man because he was involving him in his own sin.

How about the employer? The employer is paying two men for a full days work, each one is giving half, so they are getting half the work out of two guys that they should have. So they were defrauding the company. There are actually defrauding the company in such a way that the company was saying we believe that we are paying this person for eight hours of work or whatever amount it is and this person for the same, and the benefits that go along with that which are substantial, as any employer knows. They are lying to each other, they are lying to the company, tell you what, a little sin goes along ways doesn't it? What about their family? What if this man gets fired? He has now involved his family in his sin because now he gets fired, they don't have the income, so he is defrauding his family. He is telling his family I am being honest, in fact, he was defrauding the church. Because this man served on certain boards in our church there. So he was telling the people, I am an honest, upstanding Christian man, defrauding the company, lying to his friends, lying to his family, lying to the church, a little sin is not a little sin, is it? If a child tells a lie they have harmed you, Mom or Dad, they have disobeyed you, they have not honored their father and mother as God has said, they have offended the character of God and they have also gotten themselves in trouble, if they get caught or not, doesn't make a bit of difference. They still offended the character of God. As we do with every sin. So sin is not a sin, a sin has a ripple effect and we don't even know where the ripples go. As Kelly sang this morning, somebody saw Christ in another person. What if a person sees a Christian who says he has Christ in him doing things that are un-Christ like. The person might not even know that they have been seen. So our sins carry a great ripple effect, as is our righteousness, but our sins do go a long ways. 

So we have two offenses here don't we? We have the offense against the person and the offense against God. Now many people think that sin is sin because it hurts people. Is sin, sin because it hurts people? No, sin is sin and it hurts people, ok. Sin is sin and it hurts people. The offended person will need to forgive, if possible, and by the way I understand that forgiveness is probably the most difficult chore in life that you can do. If someone hurts you deeply, it is a very difficult thing to do. I don't mean to treat it lightly. It is very difficult, but it is also very necessary. So sin is sin not because it hurts people. Sin is sin and it hurts people. It is sin because of the character of God. God's character is holiness. The Bible says, He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, in John. James says, that God can not be tempted by evil, He will not do evil, and He will not tempt anyone else to do evil. So he says when you are being tempted, don't say I am being tempted by God because it is impossible for God to sin. God is holy which means he is above and separate from sin. He desires that no one sin, He is God who is opposed completely to the whole concept of sin. He is righteous He is holy, He is just, He is perfect, in every aspect of His being. And so when we sin, we have offended the character of God because we have not done what aught to have been done. Aught means the way it is supposed to be, ok. Aught means the way it is supposed to be. That is why (Tape waivers) says, if a person who knows what is right to do, or aught to do right, and doesn't, to him it is sin. We think that sin is doing wrong, sin is also not doing right when we know what is right to do. And there is a standard, and the standard is God's character. And the standard is outside of ourselves because all God's commandments come out of his character. God is a God of truth, therefore He says, do not lie. God is a God of honor, so therefore He says, be men of integrity, people of integrity. God is a God of love, therefore He says, love your neighbor as yourself. So all of His commandments come from His character and His character is above and beyond us. We don't set the rules. 

I would like to play a little song. I played it a few years ago and so many of you liked it I'm going to play it again for you. Not bad starts at C and ends at C, it is called the C scale, ok. Is this the C scale? No. Is this the C scale? No. Is this the C scale? No. There is only one C scale, isn't there? It is a standard throughout the world. The musician sitting down to the piano and say this is the C scale I like. Well I am sorry that is not the C scale. And a person who sits down and puts a piece of music up in this country can play the same piece that someone else in another country can play because the standard is not set by the musician, the standard has been set years ago by those who set the standards in music. So this is a C scale and that is the only C scale. There are variations of it, but that is the C scale. That is a C cord, but that is the only C cord. That is how it is made up. So we don't have the right as musician's to determine what the C scale is, we have the responsibility to play it as it is given to us. We don't have the right to determine by circumstance what is right and wrong. We don't have the right to determine by our reasoning, or by our rationalization, what is right and wrong by the circumstances. We have the responsibility to discover from God what is or what aught to be and then live according to that standard. Anything other than that standard is sin. Anything below that standard other than that standard is sin. So if we like to claim that we don't sin, it just doesn't work. God accepts no excuses. You can try excuses. It is fun to try excuses, in fact, it is fun to watch little kids give excuses, it is fun to watch big people give excuses, it is kind of even more comical then sometimes when they give excuses. 

Interesting news story, I am sure you have come across this week. It has been in the news the last couple of weeks in different venues. In New York City they discovered that recycling has not been working. People have been sorting through all their stuff, putting it in the different bends and things, but they have been sorting, recycling things and then they discovered that they have been dumping it in the same dump they put everybody else's. Well isn't that crazy? Well the mayor, Mayor Blumberg says this is silly. Why don't we not recycle, if it is all going to the same dump anyway? Well, those who oppose the not recycling part give this reason, It will cost millions of dollars to teach people how not to recycle. Hmm, in New York City they might not have as many IQ's as I thought they had, if it is going to take millions of dollars to teach you not to sort your cans. I can do that in a hurry, to not sort. But the excuses we give for all kinds of rationalizations are really kind of interesting as to what kinds of things we come up with, but God does not allow for excuses. People have tried it, they tried to rationalize, they try to reason, they try to give excuses, they try to blame others, they try to accuse others, they try to say, well, everybody is doing the same thing so therefore it must not be wrong. It is legal therefore it must not be wrong. Well there are tons of things that are legal that are still sin because they may not break man's law, but they still break God's. So people have tried excuses before, Adam tried it when he took the fruit, or Eve gave it to him, and he ate it and God said, what did you guy's do and he said, it was her. Actually he blamed God too, remember he said it was the woman You gave me. Ok, He went to Eve and said what is going on and she said it was that serpent over there. Well, King Saul tried it when he did the sacrifice when he wasn't suppose to because Samuel was coming a little bit late to the sacrifices and Saul said well the people pressured me into it. I was afraid and the people were getting antsy so I decided I'd better do this. Well, Aaron did the same thing when Moses was up getting the ten commandments and Moses came down and they were throwing parties and sinning in all sorts of ways and there was a golden calf and Aaron said it was the people that did it. They threw the gold in, and out came this calf. I mean it is like you throw a bunch of wood and metal and rubber in and out comes a car. It doesn't work that way. Somebody had to fashion that thing. And excuses don't cut it. He is not interested in our excuses because we know what aught to be because he has put it within us. In Romans Chapter 1, 2, 3 and 4 all the way through he says the standards, the knowledge of God's character, His nature, and His divine power are clearly seen being understood through what has been made. Says God has placed within us the understanding of his character. So we know what right and wrong is. We can see it in all of creation, but He put it inside us so therefore we are without excuse. We can't say I don't know what kind of God He is up there, we can't say I didn't know it was wrong because He put that knowledge within us. We have no excuse. I'd like to say we do, but we don't, they just don't work. Sin is sin, not just because I got caught, sin is sin not just because I can't give a good enough excuse to rationalize it, it is not because it hurt somebody. Sin is sin because it broke the rule of what aught to be. The character of God. God's character determines what is right and wrong, He is the one before we discovered the C scale, He knew what it was. He knew the law of gravity, He put it in place before we figured it out. There are certain laws that are in place because of the very character of God and they are not going to change. 

So what do I do? What do I do? If I have offended another, I go ask their forgiveness, and every time I offended somebody else I have offended God. I have broken trust with God. I have done something that has been in opposition to His character. By the way, that will never end. We will never end with that struggle, Paul says it will continue forever. In Galatians he says the flesh and the spirit are in opposition one to another. They are always going to be fighting, right and wrong. You have seen the little angel and devil on the shoulders, I don't know if there really are such things, but the struggles like that is always going to happen with us, there is always going to be a desire to do our own thing, responsibility to do what God says. That is always going to be the struggle, the key is the Holy Spirit is there to give us the strength and power to do what is right, that is called grace. He gives us the strength and power and desire for it is God who was at work within you both to desire and to do his good pleasure. We don't always have to lose the battle. We can win the battles against sin. 

What do we do when we lose the battle? Turn to 1 John, if you would please. And we are almost done just in case you were wondering. I saw somebody fanning and I don't know if they were fanning to get me to hurry or because they are under great spiritual pressure or the air conditioning is not quite cold enough for you. I assume the third because it is hot up here too. 1 John 1:5, 

"And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."

This is a beautiful passage by the way. You may not understand it completely, here, I will give you just a short explanation of this. Some interesting features of this, It says if we say we have not sinned, we are wrong. That will come later too, it says God is light and if we say we are in Him, we should walk in the light. But if we walk according to darkness, then we do not practice the truth. It means if we are walking according to what our flesh says or the world says then we are not walking according to God's direction, we are walking in different directions. So, he says you need to walk in the light, as He is in light. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and His blood cleanses us from all sin. My understanding of this is this. If you are a Christian, you became a Christian say within the last week, month, year, ten years, there are some things we don't have full instruction on. Some of the nuances of life we are still sorting out, is this right, is this wrong, and the world does teach us wrong by the way. The world would teach you that if you get into a spot where lying would actually get you out of it and keep from hurting yourself or somebody else's feelings then lying is a good thing. Lying is not a good thing. Stealing is not a good thing. But the world teaches us that a good liar is a wise person because in business sometimes you just have to lie to get ahead. Well these things are not true, not according to God and never will be. It is not the way things aught to be. 

Some of these things we sort out as we grow in Christ. What about the things we haven't gotten figured out yet? Here is what I believe he is telling us. You know the Bible says the word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Ok, well those little foot lamps would actually be on your foot as you walk forward, they give you one more light, would be like a flashlight. A flashlight is only good for a little ways. You don't want to shine in the trees as you are walking on the ground at dark because you are going to trip and fall. By the way, don't walk through the woods at dark with your hands in your pockets, ok, ok. Try it and you will see why. 

The light only goes for a little ways, it is light, a little flashlight, it only lightens a little ways here. You go a little further and you get a little more knowledge, a little more light, ok. If we are a follower of Christ and we are brand new at it, we don't know everything that is out there, but we do know what God has shown us. So if we follow Christ in the things that He has shown us all the rest of the stuff, it says, His blood cleanses us from that sin. I believe it means that there is a continual cleansing, a washing, of the things that we don't know better than. When we do know better we are responsible to fix it. Walk in the light as He gives you the light and the rest of the stuff He has taken care of because in Christ we are forgiven. But when he shows us an area of light, fix it. If He shows us an area of light and yet we decide to do something else, we are not walking in the light are we, we are walking in the dark. He says then we lie and do not practice the truth. So if you are a new Christian or a semi new Christian don't worry about all the things you don't know, worry about the things you do know. 

Now Verse 8, 'If we say that we have no sin,' which means no sin in us, no desire to do sin, ' we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.' So don't say that you don't have the desire for sin in you and don't say you haven't sinned, confess both, both are true. So when we come to particular sins we have committed and God alerts us to them, fix them. Along with confession comes repentance. Confession means I acknowledge where I am, repentance means I go the other way. If I acknowledge sin, it is not real true repentance unless we turn away from it, commit ourselves to not committing that sin again. 

Turn back to Psalms, it is a long book full of short ones. And each one of these Psalms is a Psalm. Psalm 51, this is after David the King had created great sin, he had taken another man's wife, had him killed in battle, and was confronted by Nathan, the prophet, and gave a parable and he says, there is a man who had one little sheep, little lamb, and it was like a child to him and another one had lots of them, this one had company coming so he took the man's one little sheep and fixed it for his friends. David said what kind of man would do that, he deserves death. Well, Nathan said you are the guy, you have lots of wives, Uriah had one and you took his one wife, and killed him. You deserve death. Well when David finally came to his senses and realized his sin, this is one of the Psalms that he wrote. 

Verse 1 says, 'Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. And cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned. And done what is evil in Thy sight. So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.'

Verse 7 the hyssop was a branch that they put in blood of the sacrifice and sprinkle on the altar to indicate forgiveness. That is why he used that metaphor there. 

Verse 8, 'Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which Thou hast broken rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence. And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, And sinners will be converted to Thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; then my tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Thy praise. For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou will not despise.'

So David says to God, God wipe all my sins away and I won't do it again. Not only that he says, return me to the joy of my salvation, the joy of our salvation is that moment when we realize that all the sins we have committed have been forgiven. We no longer have to pay for them. What a joyful thought that God gives us salvation in exchange for our sin because of the blood of Christ. And our sins are gone and we have joy in Christ. He says, return that joy to me. 

In Psalm 32 one of the other Psalms he wrote this time he said, My bed was wet with tears, he said I was sick because of my sin, because of guilt. He says now return to me the joy of my salvation. So when we sin, don't treat it as a small thing. Cause the small white lie may be this big. The intent may have been this big, the result may have been this big. When we sin, every time it is against God. It may hurt people, nobody may know a thing about it, it may be the tree that falls in the forest and nobody heard it, still made a noise, and the tree is still down. So sin is against God. We always need to go before God and say, God I have sinned, I confess my sin to You, I acknowledge my sin to You, would You please forgive it and put me on a right path. 

Let's pray. Father, we pray this morning that You would teach us confession. Teach us to know that we need to acknowledge where we are and sometimes where we are is not right. Sometimes where we are is ok. Help us to be always evaluating. David said search my heart and know me and see if there is any hurtful way within me and lead me in the everlasting way. Some times when You search our hearts we are ok. And that is good. Father, help us to keep that slate clean. As we go through life when we recognize we have sinned whether anybody is around or not, somebody said holiness is how we live when nobody else is around. Father, help us to be people of integrity, people of holiness who will watch the right channels on television, when nobody else is watching with us. Who think the right thoughts when nobody is there to counter them. The person who goes to the right web sites when nobody else is watching. Help us to do the things that are right because they are right, not because somebody might know or because You might get us in trouble over it. Or we might find consequences that are unpleasant. Help us to know that our desire is to be just like You period and this sin offends Your character. You said I am holy, therefore You are to be holy. We are to be righteous and just because You are righteous and just. You set the standard, we are to become like You. Help us to do so. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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