SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/17/2023 10:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 Intro
to “Learning to Forgive”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 18:21-35
Message of the verses: “21 Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how
often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven
times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but
seventy times seven. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a
king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to
settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since
he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children
and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his
knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27
And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave
him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his
fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to
choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and
pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused
and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow
servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went
and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master
summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt
because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your
fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered
him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly
Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from
your heart.’”
We begin a journey today that once we are done with
it we will be done with the 18th chapter of Matthew, something we
began on November 18, 2022. It is my
prayer that as we begin this journey on these verses seen above that we will
all learn something about forgiveness.
John MacArthur said in one of the sermons on this section that a
believer is more like God when he forgives, and as I thought about this I had
to agree with him. Now I want to quote a
small section from his second sermon that he preached on Matthew 18:21-35 as he
gives us a fairly short review of what we have been looking at since we began
this 18th chapter of Matthew.
“Well, that takes us to Matthew
18 this morning and I would encourage you to open your Bible. We’re
looking at the final section of this chapter, verses 21-35. The title
that we gave to the whole chapter is the “Childlikeness of the Believer.”
The Childlikeness of the Believer. The Lord, of course, gathers His
disciples around Him in a home in Capernaum, and He takes a little infant into
His arms, and using the little infant as an illustration of spiritual truth, He
says that we are spiritually like little children. The disciples were and
we are.
“And as little children, there are
certain things that we need to understand. First of all, we enter the
kingdom like little children. Then we are to be protected like little
children. We are to be cared for like little children. We are to be
disciplined like little children. And then in our text, verses 20-35, we
are to be forgiven like little children. Just as children need frequent
forgiveness, so do we. And just as in a family you are very prone to
forgive the failings of a child because of their youth and ignorance, so you
are to forgive one another in the same way in the family of God.”
The
truth is that I have not mentioned for a while that we as believers are like
children, and that perhaps is why Jesus had this small child sitting on his lap
as He speaks to His disciples in this 18th chapter of Matthew.
When
we think about forgiveness we have to know that this is not something that
comes naturally to mankind. Now because it
is foreign to us as fleshly human nature, people find it very difficult to
forgive others. MacArthur writes “King
Louis XII of France articulated the feeling of many people when he said, ‘Nothing
smells so sweet as the dead body of your enemy.’” Now we know that this is totally the opposite
of what our God would ever say, although when you get into some of the
different kinds of Psalms, the imprecatory Psalms you do run into some sayings
about this, something we talked about a long time ago when studying through the
Psalms. Remember that God is perfect and
as you study His attributes you find out that getting even is not found in
them.
Now
here is what MacArthur said, something that I tr7 to remember as we began
this SD: “Yet nothing so characterizes the new nature of
Christians as forgiveness because nothing so characterizes the nature of their
Lord.” He goes on to say, and we will end this SD with this
quotation: “Jesus’ most striking and
humanly incomprehensible words from the cross were, ‘Father, forgive them for
they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34). After being betrayed, falsely convicted,
beaten spat upon, and unjustly nailed to a cross to die and agonizing death,
the Son of God harbored no hatred for His tormentors but instead offered them
forgiveness. Following his Lord’s
example, Stephen’s last words were, ‘Lord do not hold this sin against them!’
(Acts 7:60). He was at that moment being
pummeled to death by stones for having committed no greater crime than
preaching the gospel, yet his heart was not filled with bitterness but with
compassion for his executioners.
Forgiveness is the stuff of true godliness.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is my desire to be more like my Lord and
like Stephen, thus being more like God as I learn and then practice what these
verses have to say to me.
My Steps of Faith for
Today: I have listened to thousands of
sermons in my life since I have become a believer and some of them lift me up,
and some of them step on my toes, which is a good thing, and the three sermons
that I listened to on this subject of forgiveness have stepped on my toes and also
they have lifted me up.
1/17/2023 10:37 AM
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