"For Those Whose Past Decisions & Failures Haunt Them" 2 Corinthians 2:12-14A Message 14

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run a mile in less than 4 minutes.  Within 2 months, John Landy eclipsed the record by 1.4 seconds.  On August 7, 1954, the two met together for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he would win, but as he neared the finish he was haunted by the question, “Where is Bannister?”  As he turned to look back and see where his competitor was, Bannister slid by him and took the lead.  Landy later told a Time magazine reporter, “If I hadn’t looked back, I would have won!”

One of the most descriptive pictures of the Christian life in the Bible is of an athlete competing in a race. First Corinthians 9:24-27 tells us that discipline is the key to winning. In Hebrews 12:1-2, we are encouraged to lay aside anything that might hinder our spiritual advancement and to stay focused on Christ. And in Philippians 3:12-13, the apostle Paul said, “I press on,…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”  And today we will look at another essential piece of divine wisdom for those of us who while running our race have made decisions—course deviations—if you will and in looking back over our shoulder are wondering if we may have lost our place in the center of God’s will.

I doubt there is anyone in this room who does not every once in a while look back on decisions that were made in the past and wonder “what if”?

What if I had finished school?

What if I had stayed with the company?

What if I had not quit?

What if I had gotten some better advice?

What if we had not sold the house?

What if I hadn’t made that decision?

What if we had been more attentive parents?

What if I had been closer to the Lord?

I could literally go on and on with “what if’s” for hours and still not exhaust all the possibilities.  The fact is, we all have some “what if’s” don’t we?  Some of our “what if’s” cause us to think and live as second class citizens in God’s Kingdom because we think we missed God’s will for our lives and are now simply taking up space waiting for heaven.  For others, the “what if” may not have had anything to do with sin at all—but rather a decision made in the past resulting from a change of mind that truly redirected your life path and now you’re wondering if that decision was God’s will for your life.

Maybe it was changing your mind about going to college, where to go to college, or about what to major in.

Maybe it was a change of direction regarding your career, being married, having kids, or leaving a certain church or even resigning a ministry position.

It could have even been changing your mind about going to the doctor sooner, getting more tests, or not going at all.

Again, life is filled with “what-if’s” that come as a result of us making all kinds of decisions and all kinds of course adjustments and even course deviations in our lives.  And many times, people find themselves getting wrapped around the axle—worried, concerned, and troubled about whether that decision or change of course has ruined their ability to be of any use to God in any kind of positive way.  Well, if this is you—God has some great news for you and it simply this:

“If you are living out your identity in Christ—where you are right now is the most important place you can be because God is manifesting Christ in that place through you no matter how you got there.”

Let me restate it this way: 

“Regardless of how we get where we are—where we are is the place God will use us if we are living out our identity in Christ.”

And if you’re still not getting it, let’s try it this way:

“If, as believers, we truly see ourselves as God sees us as those who are completely forgiven, totally accepted, wholeheartedly loved, and absolutely secure in Christ and then live joyfully contagious, guilt free, genuinely real, and spiritually confident, Christ-centered lives the people around us will notice and be either positively or negatively impacted by the Gospel regardless of where we are or how we got there.”

This is Paul’s message in 2 Corinthians 2:12-14 so let’s turn there and read it.  

12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.

14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of theknowledge of Him in every place.

Essentially, Paul is recounting for us his decision to change his mind and not pursue an open door of opportunity God had provided for him in terms of ministry.  Paul had made the decision to go to Troas to start a church and upon his arrival he was well-received and obviously had God’s hand of blessing upon him and his endeavors.  He makes the point that the Lord had opened a door of ministry for him.  And then to many people’s surprise Paul changes his mind about Troas because he is experiencing a lack of peace about the situation in Corinth and Titus who he had sent there and has yet to catch up with.

He changes his mind and leaves.  He leaves the place where he was experiencing an effective ministry and had a wide open door for more ministry simply because he was concerned over Titus and the church situation in Corinth.  And the interesting thing I see in this passage is that Paul doesn’t tell us if in the long run his decision was a good one, a bad one and/or one he regretted.  In fact, he doesn’t talk about any regrets.  He doesn’t seem worried or concerned that maybe he missed God’s will for his life in leaving this place where God had opened a door of ministry for him.  And apparently he is not wondering if God is displeased with him and is not going to use him any longer because he changed his mind and walked away from a ministry opportunity God had opened for him.  None of these things appear to be a concern for Paul.

The reason why Paul is not concerned is because he realizes that God is in control and that God always leads His people into effective ministry no matter where they are or how they got there if they are living out their identities in Christ.  And in these three verses, Paul raises a vital truth for those believers who are wondering if their past decisions, course changes, and yes, even their sins have rendered them not useful and even unusable to God.  And here it is:

When it comes to usefulness for Christ, where we are and how we got there is not as important as who we are in Christ. (12-14a)

Paul is not concerned with where he is.  His concern is not that he be in Troas or Macedonia.  His concern is that he is in Christ.  And he knows that if he is in Christ—that is—he is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and he is living out his faith in Christ and enjoying his relationship with Christ—he knows God will use him anywhere!

Paul understands that life is too full of change to be so concerned with where you are or what you are doing that you can’t focus on the more important question of “who you are”.  He realizes that if you are in Christ and living like it and enjoying your relationship with Christ that where you happen to be and how you got there really isn’t all that important—not in the Big Picture.  And so after explaining his situation and acknowledging his change of course—he instead of apologizing for it simply thanks God “WHO always leads us in triumph ‘in Christ’”.  In other words, regardless of where we are or how we got there—if we are in Christ then God is leading us to spiritual triumph for His glory, our joy, and the spiritual benefit of others and He is using our present situation, location and circumstances to do so.

So, if you made one of those course deviation decisions in your past which has perhaps landed you somewhere in life you never imagined causing you to wonder if you missed God’s best for your life and have to settle for “left-overs”—don’t even go there!

What Paul is saying is if you are a child of God—even though you have made some imperfect decisions and even though some of those decisions may have  changed the landscape of your life—God not only isn’t finished with you—He is actually right now leading you in triumph so that you can live above those imperfect and perhaps even sinful choices and their consequences.

In other words our “mess” is going to become God’s message as He leads us through the mistakes, the failures, and yes, even the sin of our lives to become exactly the people He wants us to be.  And note that the Bible says—“God ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ.”  It doesn’t say that God leads us in triumph only when we have it all together or are living lives of pristine obedience or always reading our Bibles and being in church or always making good decisions and choices.  No, The Bible makes the point that if you are in Christ—God is leading you right now in triumph and to triumph even as He uses yours and my imperfect and often biblically uninformed decisions to do it.

So, how does that work when we are living in disobedience to the Lord?

How does God lead us in triumph as believers when we have made sinful choices?  How does He work to take the “mess” we may have made or may be making of our lives and turn it into His Message of the Grace?

Let me give you one way from the Scriptures that shows how God does this.

In Matthew 26:31-35 Jesus told His disciples that they all would desert Him when He went to the cross.  But Peter exclaims with a certain amount of pride that even if all of the other disciples deserted and denied Christ—He would never deny Him and would even die with Him if necessary.  Then in Luke 22:31-34 Jesus tells Peter that on the night He is betrayed, Peter will deny three times that he even knows Jesus.  And before Peter can respond, Jesus tells him—“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and you, once you have repented, strengthen your brothers.”

In other words, Peter’s mess was going to become God’s message to strengthen believers everywhere who having failed the Lord in some way, shape, or form, need to know that God is not through with them and can use them and in fact will use them and their mess to help others for His glory and their joy.  Now, how did God take Peter’s mess and turn it into His message of grace and restoration?

How did He lead Peter in triumph in the midst of Peter’s really great and incredibly cruel and heinous sin of denying the Lord in His time of deepest need?  Well, for starters God had to crush Peter’s pride before He could use him in any kind of significant way.  And oftentimes the way God crushes our pride is by allowing us to fail and fail greatly.

Much of our sin and especially the sin in our lives that exposes who we are and who we aren’t is used by God to humble us and show us that without Him and apart from His enabling grace we are nothing and can do nothing for Him.

And this is what needs to happen and is happening in Peter’s life when Jesus tells him he is going to deny the Lord three times and as Peter actually does indeed deny his Lord on the night before His crucifiction.  Peter needs to have his sinful pride crushed.

Well, we know the rest of the story—Peter after denying the Lord three times in a short span of time—is crushed once he realizes what he has done and he breaks down with weeping and great remorse as the Lord looks at him after the last denial.  God’s work of using Peter’s sin to crush his pride has begun and is being accomplished in Peter and in this sense God is leading Peter in Triumph even as he is sinning against Jesus.

In essence, Jesus began leading Peter to triumph by allowing him to fail and fail miserably.  And again, while that failure crushed Peter’s ugly arrogant pride, the complete work of leading him to triumph is not yet done until we get to John 21.

Turn there with me.

Even though Peter has seen the resurrected Christ twice after Jesus rose from the dead—Peter is still not yet fully restored to the Lord or fully healed from his sin.  He has indeed repented but is in need of being restored to intimacy with Christ and service for Christ.  He, just like us when we sin, needed to be led in triumph through his sin to repentance to restoration to Christ’s fellowship, and ultimately to effective ministry for Christ.

And look at how Jesus does this in John 21:9-17.

As I said earlier Jesus leads Peter to triumph first of all by allowing him to fail.  Then, in verses 9-17, Jesus begins the process of restoring Peter and thus leading him in triumph after his dismal failure by:

1.    Leading him back to face his failure so he could truly repent and move forward.

When Jesus meets with Jesus this third time it is important to note that it is around a charcoal fire.  Remember that it was at a charcoal fire that Peter denied Jesus three times.  Thus, Jesus is bringing Peter back to the charcoal fire--to the scene of the crime if you will to face his past head-on.  YOu can't keep running from your past looking over your shoulder wondering when it will catch up with you.  That is what Peter was doing and it wasn't working.  So Jesus out of great compassion for Peter makes him face his failure so as to be able to deal with it.

Note to the penetrating question Jesus asks Peter:  "Do you love me more than these?"  The "these" is a reference to his brothers--his fellow disciples and their love for Jesus.  Remember that Jesus had warned all of his disciples that they would all desert him but that Peter had protested saying that even if all the rest of these guys denied Jesus--he, Peter, never would.  In essence, he said that he loved Jesus more than these guys did.  So Jesus asks this question making Peter face his pride head on.  Pride was Peter's problem--remember?!  And it was his pride that God crushed through his failure.

Then Jesus followed this question up with two more questions making it a total of three questions around a charcoal fire to match the three denials around a charcoal fire the night in which Peter denied Jesus.

2.    Leading him to see that his failure accomplished God’s purpose in crushing his pride.

In asking Peter three times if he loved Jesus, the Lord is showing Peter through his responses that he indeed has had his pride crushed and is now fit to serve.

In the first two questions, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with an "agapao" type of love.  This is what we more commonly refer to as "agape" love which is the highest form of love--the greatest degree of love that one can have for another.  

But Peter responds that his love for Jesus is not agapao love but rather "phileo" love.  This is more of a fondness or a friend's love.  The point is that when Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with this great agape love Peter says--Lord I love you but it is with an inferior love.  Do you see a different Peter here?  You should.  The old Peter would have said, Lord you know I love you perfectly.  This new Peter doesn't go there.  He says, Lord I love you and I wish I loved you perfectly but I don't.

Then in the third question, Jesus asks Peter if he loves him with a phileo love and Peter says yes that is how I love you.  But Peter is also deeply grieved that the Lord has asked him this three times.  You see, the cleansing of our hearts from sin hurts especially as we are forced to see who we really are.  But it is this cleansing that finally sets us free from our sin and our past.  It is also what helps us to see that God's work is being accomplished in us.

3.   Leading him to use his failure as a strength and an asset in future ministry.

After each of Peter's response Jesus commissions him to care for his people in some way.  The first commission is to tend his lambs.  These lambs Jesus has in mind were sacrificial lambs--future martyrs--if you will.  Remember Jesus' words to Peter when telling him he would fail--when you repent strengthen your brothers.  These were the sacrificial lambs who were soon to be tested and martyred for their faith in Jesus.

Then Jesus tell Peter to shepherd and feed his sheep.  I think it is so powerful that Jesus commissions Peter to his service not because he succeeded but rather because he failed and learned the lessons of his failure.  In other words, that which qualified Peter for ministry was the fact that he had failed and repented--not that he had never blown it.

And how did Peter do in strengthening his brothers—?

 Andrew, his brother, was crucified but did not deny Christ.

Bartholomew was beaten and then crucified but did not deny Christ.

James the older brother of John was beheaded but did not deny Christ.

James the half-brother of Jesus was beaten, thrown off the Temple wall, stoned, and then clubbed to death in Jerusalem but did not deny Christ.

Jude, brother of James,        was crucified but did not deny Christ.

Judas (not Iscariot) was clubbed to death.

Mark was dragged to death in Alexandria.

Matthew was stabbed to death.

Nathaniel was reported to have been flayed and then crucified.

Matthias was stoned and then beheaded in Jerusalem.

Philip was crucified.

Thomas was speared to death.

And finally, Peter himself was given another opportunity to stand for Christ or deny Him several years after the account of John 21.  He stood and was crucified upside down in Rome.

I would say that God did indeed use Peter’s mess—his sinful decision to deny Christ—to make him into the man of God he became and the man of God who ultimately strengthened his fellow disciples and the early church and the persecuted church today to stand firm under persecution so as to not deny Christ.

God led Peter in triumph through his sin and through his recovery by using his failure to develop within him a life message which became his life ministry which if we were to sum it up today would be—

God will turn our mess of sin into His message of grace as He always leads us in triumph no matter how badly we have failed when we repent and turn back to Him.

So, regardless of where you are or how you got there—God’s grace is so powerful that He will always lead you in triumph as you respond humbly to His correction and restoration. 

The Hard Work of Forgiveness 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 Message 13

Marie Monville used the have a different name: Marie Roberts and a different life: She was the milkman’s wife, a 28-year-old married mother-of-three who loved the Lord, taught a woman’s Bible study in her church, and loved her husband dearly.

But that all changed on October 2, 2006 when she became known throughout the world as “The Shooter’s Wife”.

On that day, seven years ago this month, Marie’s husband, Charlie, walked into an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and bound and shot 10 school girls, killing five of them before killing himself.

Marie, who finally broken her silence by publishing a book entitled: One Light Still Shines, states that what enabled her to cope with her husband’s killing spree and its aftermath upon her and her three small children was the love of God for her which He vividly demonstrated to her when on and after the day of the shooting—families of the dead and wounded Amish girls came to embrace her, forgive her husband, and stand by her family in the media scrutiny that followed.

“They wanted us to know that they had forgiven Charlie and that was such a release from the weight of having to give an explanation of his actions”.

The Amish people’s actions were especially kind when so many around the country were hearing the news and suggesting Marie should share the blame as she must have known something of what her husband was up to.

Outside Charlie’s funeral, held at the same church in which they married and worshipped, there was a “wall of Amish people,” what she came to call “a wall of grace.”

With the full glare of international media literally pointed at her and her children as they drove from the funeral service towards Charlie’s burial site, Marie writes what she suddenly recognized amid the sea of men and women in black hats and bonnets standing between their car and the cameras was that, “They were shielding us! The Amish were shielding the family of Charlie Roberts.”

They lived out compassion and they extended grace and they chose to love rather than blame or hate.  It was a choice that they made—a choice to forgive which enabled them to keep on loving and living.

And through that choice to forgive the man who killed their children and protect and love the family of that man—Marie and her three children were enabled to keep on living and loving too.

All because people chose to live out their faith in Christ by choosing to enter into the hard and often heart-wrenching work of forgiveness!

Well, it’s this work of forgiveness that the Bible will speak to us about this morning.

Please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

Paul finally lets us in on some of the details of what happened to cause so much trouble between him and the church at Corinth.

It was one man who basically turned some in the church, whom Paul had lived among, loved, shared the Gospel with, taught, and discipled, against him and really in essence damaged Paul’s reputation and his ministry in Corinth by making false accusations against him—calling him a false teacher, a deceiver, lazy, incapable, fickle, untrustworthy, insinuating that Paul had misused ministry funds.

In other words, this man was bringing up every charge he could and then going behind the scenes with enough slanderous gossip, half-truths, and downright lies to do everything he could to make Paul appear unfit to even be allowed in church let alone leading the churches.

But through the grace of God this man repented and now desired to be forgiven for what he had done to Paul.

And in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11, we read the firsthand account of how Paul responds to this man who had done so much to try and ruin his life, his testimony, and his ministry.

It is an account of the work of forgiveness.

Listen as I read the passage from the ESV.

5.  Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.

6.  For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,

7.  so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

8.  So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.

9.  For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.

10.  Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,

11.  so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Now, let’s unpack it and see what the “work of forgiveness” entails.

1.   Forgiveness minimizes the impact of the personal offense against the offended.  (5)

“Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you.”

Paul, in this statement, is doing something that is really unusual for a person who has been seriously hurt by another to do—he is actually minimizing the offense against him for the sake of the offender.

It has been my experience that people are far more prone to maximize the pain and the damage caused when they are offended by someone.

There is a sense in which we want to make sure everyone knows how badly we were  treated and how much damage was done.

This tends to make the offender look even worse and garners more sympathy for the person who was offended.

But rarely do you ever see someone who was genuinely hurt by another telling others that it really wasn’t a big deal.

And that is what Paul is doing here.  He is saying that the offense against him wasn’t as bad as everyone thinks it is.  

And the reason he does this is to free the people in the church to forgive this man without feeling like they would be adding to Paul’s pain.

You see, sometimes when someone we love is hurt by another we struggle with forgiving that person even after the offense has been taken care of because we feel that in forgiving the offender we are somehow being disloyal and unsupportive of the person we love who was hurt.

And what Paul is doing here is freeing the people who love him and who are upset with the fact that he was hurt to also be able to forgive the man who hurt him—and he does it by minimizing the hurt, pain, and damage he experienced.

Listen, when we have been offended or badly hurt by another whom we have some kind of relationship with it is really essential that we don’t make a mountain out of a molehill in terms of how bad the offense really was.

And the reason for this is because whereas one day you will more than likely get over it and restore the relationship—all those people whom you exaggerated the offense and the hurt to may not, simply because of their love and loyalty toward you.

Interestingly enough, until we came to this short passage Paul never went into any kind of detail about who or how he was hurt and the fact is that even this passage is so vague we don’t know much about what happened.

Paul does that on purpose!  He doesn’t want revenge for the offender—he wants forgiveness.

He intensifies his desire that the one who hurt him be forgiven by making the point that in hurting him, the offender really hurt the church in the fact that her testimony, reputation, and ministry was damaged by the whole issue and the only way to undo the damage was by them forgiving this person as well.

I think Gale Webb who wrote The Night and Nothing captures the essence of what Paul was doing in minimizing and really absorbing the personal offense against him so as to free others to freely forgive this man. 

Listen to what he says:

“The only way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living, human being. When it is absorbed there, like blood in a sponge or a spear thrown into one's heart, it loses its power and goes no further.”

2.   Forgiveness seeks to extend mercy to the offender.  (6)

For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough.

In verse 6, Paul essentially says—“enough already”.

The discipline inflicted by the church which was biblical and effective had served its purpose in causing the offender to realize his offense and desire to be forgiven and restored to the fellowship of the church.

Once this offender asked to be forgiven and restored, which he apparently did, the discipline was to end.

Church discipline is never punitive.  It is always and only put into effect for the sole purpose of bringing a sinning brother or sister in Christ to a point of repentance where they desire forgiveness and full restoration to the fellowship.

And once this goal is realized the discipline put into effect by the church comes to an end.

And so here Paul is saying that the church discipline inflicted upon the offender in which he was put out of the fellowship has had its intended effect and now that the offender has repented—it is time to extend mercy and end the discipline.

And I find it significant that the one seeking the mercy on behalf of the offender is the person who was hurt.  That is the work of forgiveness!

Now, please understand that Paul is not saying that there should be no discipline or punishment for wrongdoers and wrongdoing. 

That is not what he is saying.  Discipline, tough love, and punishment are all often necessary in dealing with people who have hurt others.

But even in the midst of the punishment or the tough love or the discipline—whatever it may be—there can still be forgiveness in which you personally no longer hold that offense, that hurt, or that sin against the offender and desire mercy to be extended to them by God and others

.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

In July of 2012 in Las Vegas, NV—a man nearly beaten to death in a brutal, random home invasion that also killed his wife and ten-year-old daughter, publicly forgave their attacker.

At a press conference, an audience of about 75 supporters, dignitaries and media gasped when he opened his statement by tearfully saying, “I forgive this murderer because of my faith in God and in Jesus Christ.”

  

Sanchez also made it clear that while the perpetrator, does deserve to be punished by the government for his crimes even if this means the death penalty, he himself had forgiven him and will not hold his sin against him.

He then made the point that God can and does forgive murderers like the one who killed his wife and daughter.

This man, like the Apostle Paul, put his energies into the work of forgiveness so as to be able to hope for future mercy for this man even as he pays for his crimes here on earth.

The work of forgiveness toward the offender who repents is to seek mercy on his behalf.

The work of forgiveness toward the offender who has not repented is to hope for his or her repentance being ready to extend mercy if that time comes.

3.   Forgiveness seeks to restore joy, love, and fellowship to the offender. (7-8)

“So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.  So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.”

Paul’s major concern is that the offender—whomever he is—now that he has repented be restored to the fellowship of the church and receive affirmations of love so that he would be restored to the “joy of his salvation” so as not to be given to excessive sorrow, guilt, shame, and a sense of not being able to really fit in with the people in the church again.

So again, the work of forgiveness is the person who was hurt acting as an advocate on behalf of the offender to encourage others to seek him out and love on him so that he knows he is welcome back in the church or the group.

The work of forgiveness is working toward the complete restoration of the offender to not only himself but to any others who had knowledge of the offense.

When King David’s son Absalom took revenge against one of his half-brothers for raping his sister and killed him—he ran away thinking his father would kill him but David didn’t have him killed because he knew it was his own passivity in the matter that motivated Absalom to feel as though he had to deal with the situation.

After some time, David was persuaded to allow Absalom to come home but even though he let him come home—he never reached out to his son in any way that demonstrated forgiveness or a desire to re-establish the relationship and he ultimately lost his son forever.

Forgiving another is far more than simply saying—“No Problem—just don’t let it happen again!”

The work of forgiveness is working for the complete restoration of the one who has hurt you so that he or she is fully accepted by you and all your friends and family as if the original offense had never happened.

4.   Forgiveness is a matter of obedience.  (9)

“For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.”

Sometimes when we hear these really unbelievable stories of forgiveness we, while admiring these people who seem to be able to forgive others for the most heinous of crimes, shake our heads and say—“I could never do that!”

Well, it is always hard to figure out what you would or would not do in any given future situation especially one that would require such forgiveness—

But, let me be perfectly clear on this, forgiving others for their sins against us is not an option for believers—it is a command!

We have no choice but to forgive if we want to truly obey our Lord Who has forgiven us of unbelievable crimes against Himself.

In 1993, Madge Rodda, a grandmother and church organist was brutally attacked, beaten, and had her throat slit by a drug-crazed 23 year old man on her way to church in Costa Mesa, California.

Her attacker was captured and sentenced to 17 years in prison.  As he was being led out of the courtroom, he was stopped by Madge who forgave him and gave him a Bible in which she had highlighted verses for him to read.

She also began to visit him in jail, wrote him letters, sent gifts, and shared the Lord with him.

Now into her ninth decade, Madge has some advice for those who struggle with forgiveness.

"You may not feel forgiveness, compassion and love, but God will always provide the grace for us to do what he has commanded us to do, and he has commanded us to forgive."

5.   Forgiveness is extremely humbling. (10b) [If I have anything to forgive]

“Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.”

This statement of Paul’s in verse 10 is really powerful.  In making the point that he will forgive anyone whom his friends forgive—he also says that indeed, what I have forgiven—if I have forgiven anything has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.

The first thing of great importance I see here is that when we forgive or do not forgive others it is always in the presence of Christ who has forgiven us of everything.

That is humbling—is it not?!

And the second thing I see is this statement of Paul’s in which he says—“Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything”  or “what I have forgiven, if I have anything to forgive.”

In other words, as he looks at this man whom needs forgiveness and then considers how he himself as so offended Christ and was in need of such great forgiveness he is greatly humbled and makes the point that compared to Christ—what does he have to forgive.

Compared to our offenses against Christ—what do we really have to forgive in anyone else?!

The work of forgiving others humbles us because as we forgive them we are reminded of all we have been forgiven of and this opens our hearts to forgive as Christ did.

6.   Forgiveness disarms Satan.  (11)  [ie. Col. 2]

“So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.”

Satan’s desire is to make Christ look bad and he tries to do this by making Christ’s followers look bad.

Satan loves division, disharmony, hatred, bitterness, and revenge.

And when he can fuel the fires of our disagreements, misunderstandings, hard-heartedness, jealousy, sinful pride, and selfishness to create broken relationships between believers who are unwilling to forgive each other—Satan is able to bring disrepute and dishonor to the Name of Christ.

So, Paul finishes his teaching on the work of forgiveness by simply warning us that when we fail to forgive others who have hurt us we are playing into Satan’s hands and become accomplices in dishonoring the Name of our Lord.

And why is it so important to God that we forgive those who have hurt us?

Because when we forgive others who have sinned against us we are living out the Gospel and demonstrating for all to see what Jesus did for us when in order for us to be forgiven by God He absorbed our sin and God’s wrath for our sin so as to render it powerless against us.

You see, we are never more like Jesus than when we forgive others because in forgiving others we are willingly and sacrificially absorbing the wrongs done against us so as to drain them and Satan of their power to do further damage with that particular weapon.

In observing this willingness of God’s people to forgive great evil done against them, Psychiatrist Morgan Peck, made the following observation about these people:

For the healing of evil—A loving and willing sacrifice is required...This individual must allow his own soul to become the battleground.  He….must sacrificially absorb the evil...I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does...It is this that is the miracle of forgiveness.

Doesn’t this sound like he is describing Christ?  Doesn’t this sound like the Gospel?  Do you see Christ in what he is saying? 

You see, in watching Christians forgive those who hurt them this psychiatrist ended up seeing Christ and that’s why we forgive.

THEOLOGY PROPER--The Study of God [Lesson 1]

These are the notes for our Thursday Night Theology Class at Northshire Baptist Church in Manchester Center, Vermont.  Anyone familiar with J.I. Packer's classic, Knowing God will find its influence and content in these notes.

Theology Proper is simply the technical term for that discipline of study that pertains to knowing God.  Those who enter into the study of God are entering into what used to be known in Puritan days as the Queen of the Sciences—Theology Proper.

A Disclaimer from C.S. Lewis:

“Those like myself, whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have really reached.  If we describe what we have imagined [studied] we may make others, and ourselves, believe that we have really been there—and so fool both them and ourselves.”  (The Four Loves)

Beware of the trap of thinking you know God or are becoming intimate with God merely because you are learning and mastering more information about God.

An Endorsement from C.H. Spurgeon:  [January 7, 1855]

“It has been said by someone that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God....

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.”

Important Considerations:

1.    Knowing God is more than knowing about Him.

Whereas, knowing about God is a necessary prerequisite to knowing God [Rom. 10:14], the depth of one’s knowledge about God is no gauge of the intimacy of one’s experience of God.

Psalm 34:8

2.    Knowing God is a matter of grace.

Knowing about God requires God to make Himself known in impersonal and personal ways.  Impersonally, God has made certain facts about Himself know through “General Revelation”.  Personally, God has made His Identity, Character, Passions, Likes, Dislikes, and Plans known through “Special Revelation”.   

Knowing God in a personal, experiential, positive, and loving relationship requires God’s initiative in making Himself personally, experientially, positively, and lovingly known to us through His grace which is His unmerited and undeserved favor.

We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us!

John 15:16

1 John 4:10

Romans 5:8

We come to know and love God because God first knew and loved us.  And if you are a child of God there has never been a time when God has not known you.

Psalm 135:13 w/Psalm 138:8

1.    Knowing God requires knowing Jesus

God’s lovingkindness is His eternal covenant love with those He has chosen to love in a special, experiential, positive, intimate, an eternal relationship which has been forged by the requirement of His perfect righteousness being met by those He has chosen to love in this way. 

The Hebrew word from which “lovingkindness” is translated is chessed  [Pronounced hess-ed, with a light "k" at the beginning, like you're clearing your throat]. 

God's loving-kindness [chessed] is that sure love which initiates a saving relationship with His people which will not let His people go. Not all their persistent waywardness could ever destroy it. Though they be faithless, yet God remains faithful still. This steady, persistent refusal of God to wash his hands of His wayward people is the essential meaning of the Hebrew word which is translated loving-kindness.

However, chessed is sometimes misunderstood so as to see it as an unwarranted or even unconditional love on God’s part.  Chessed, while being concerned with God’s love for His covenant people cannot be separated from the righteousness He demands of them in order to be His covenant people.  Chessed demands a perfect righteousness.  In other words, God’s love for His people is dependent upon God’s righteous requirements being met in and by His people. The reason God is able to love His people with an unconditional love is because He, in His Son the Lord Jesus, met the condition of perfect personal righteousness He requires. 

This perfect righteousness required by God which enables Him to initiate and establish a relationship with people in which He knows and loves them in a personal, experiential, positive, loving, and eternal way was, is, and always will be provided by Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:19

2 Corinthians 5:21 w/Psalm 85:9-10 w/Hebrews 7:25

John 1:18

Matthew 11:25-30