At this time, amen. And if you take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter four. Amen. Ephesians chapter four. Beginning several weeks ago, we started in this passage of scripture that corresponds to the passage of scripture we just read from Romans 13 about putting off, casting off the works of darkness and putting on the works of Christ.

It is high time as Paul put it in Romans, it is the time for us to get serious about serving the Lord, about putting away the things of the old life and the things of the world, about being the salt and light that God has called us to be. Afraid too many of us, too many Christians today just kinda toy around with God and, hey, I'm going to heaven. That's all I need worry about. All I need to concern myself about, but does not God deserve more than that? Does not this world need to see the glory of God and his people?

Do they not need to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they not need to see that Jesus makes a difference? Not just for eternity, but for today. If we are going to be that salt and that light, we have to put off the old ways and the ways of the world. We have put on the ways of Jesus Christ.

And God spells those out in many places for us here in scripture, particularly in the letters of Paul in the New Testament and through the example of Jesus Christ in the gospels. One of the things that we need to put off is mentioned here in Ephesians chapter four and what it is to be replaced with as well. So if you look in Ephesians four and verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed until the day unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly Father, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you for your word. Lord, please give me the words to say and Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit would work mightily in our hearts as we look into your word today. Lord, help us to see Jesus and help us to see where we have where we need to change.

And Lord, thank you most of all for what you did for us on the cross, that you're always the same, and that we are who have put our faith and trust in Jesus forgiven forever. Lord, may we take this opportunity to serve you today and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So here we're reminded we need to put off malice, anger, evil speaking, And in its place, we are to put on the way of Christ, which is compassion, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness.

Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven who? Forgiven us. Who who who is our example? Jesus Christ who came and gave his life that we might know forgiveness through him. In Colossians two thirteen and fourteen, it says this, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, have he quickened together, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that is the record of our sins, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross.

When Jesus Christ died on that cross, he took upon himself all that we deserved for our sin. He nailed it to his cross. And through faith in him and an acceptance of his offer of salvation based on what he did and who he is as the risen Lord, we have been forgiven. Of some of our trespasses, of the worst of our trespasses, of yesterday's trespasses, No. Of what?

All trespasses. What does the word trespass here mean? It means this, sin. All our sins. That's what Jesus did for us and he has forgiven us of all of them.

How many have you committed? If it were possible to count, if it were possible to remember, if it were possible to know every sin we ever committed, we would not be able to count because there are just too many. Too many. And yet Jesus died for them, what? He died for them all and he has forgiven us all.

As the children of God having been forgiven so much and been shown such immeasurable grace and mercy, it is now our turn to forgive others of their sins, their trespasses against us. It is now our turn to forgive. That's that's what God is saying here. Put put away malice, put away grudges and and vengeance and and and put that behind you. That's the way of the world.

That's that's human nature. But you have a new nature in Jesus Christ. You have divine nature dwelling within you. The Holy Spirit who lives inside your heart. Let him shine through.

Let him shine through. Put off malice and hatred, these things, and put on compassion, love, and forgiveness. Alexander Pope wrote, to is human, to forgive, divine. To human, but to forgive is divine. Yes, we are still humans, but we are also the children of who?

The children of God. And as it is now and as it is now in our divine nature to forgive and grant mercy to others, we need to do so. To show them the love of Christ. To show them what the mercy of God looks like. What does it look like?

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That's what Jesus said while hanging on the cross after the Roman soldiers had drove the nails through his hands. While the crowds scoffed and mocked and the soldiers gambled over his robe at the foot of the cross. As the blood ran down the cross, he said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. That is the mercy and the grace of God toward us.

And we who have been forgiven, it is imperative that we learn to show mercy and the grace of God to others. We need as directed here in Ephesians to cast off these things of bitterness and envy toward our fellow human beings, especially our fellow believers, and learn to forgive as he forgives, to show the same tenderness and mercy as he has shown. Consider, if you would, Peter. Matthew eighteen twenty one and twenty two. We're gonna look at a a few consider consider as here this morning.

Consider Peter. Matthew eighteen twenty one and twenty two. Peter is talking to Jesus. He is going to ask a question concerning forgiveness. He asked this, then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft, how many times shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Till seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say unto thee, until seven times, but until what? 70 times seven. How many times, Peter asked, should I forgive this person who is sinning against me? Peter thought, seemed to him that seven times was actually what?

A lot. That seven times was ample. If he hasn't learned and he doesn't quit after seven times, well, then he's just not worthy. He doesn't deserve what? He doesn't deserve number eight.

Okay? Peter seemed like it seemed to Peter a lot of times indeed to forgive the same person for betraying or mistreating or lying or hurting him. And to the world, this does seem like ample mercy. But how many times have you failed others? Another list for you to compile that you would not want to do.

How many times have you failed others? Well, I've forgiven them seven times, that's a lot. How many times have you failed them, this friend, that friend, and that relative, and this person? How many times have you given your word and failed to keep it? How many times have you lied to someone, bent the truth just a little bit?

If you bend the truth, you turn the truth into a what? Into a lie, it's no longer the truth. How many times have you bent the truth? How many times have you allowed your tongue to cut someone with whom you were angry? How many times have you done that?

How many times you said something behind another's back which need not to have been said. How many times? How many times have you betrayed their trust, let them down, acted selfishly. Those are a lot of times. I dare say it's a lot more than what?

Seven. Is it not? And if it's someone that you hang out a lot with that you've known for a long time or you live with, I dare say you may have offended in their particular case already more than what? Seven times. What if you were only allowed seven failures?

Where would you be with your friend? Where would you be with your spouse? Where would you be with your sibling or your parent or your employer if seven were the number? The answer would be we'd be in trouble. We would have exhausted our seven And we have certainly exhausted it with God a thousand times over.

And yet, he keeps on forgiving. 70 times seven, Jesus said. Not seven, but 70 times seven. Now that equals what? 490 times.

490 times. Does that mean that Jesus wanted Peter to keep track? And when it got to 491, then, well, that was that was enough. No. That's not what Jesus meant, was it?

What was Jesus saying? Don't keep count. Don't keep count. Don't limit the mercy of God and do not limit your relationship with others based on a number of failures. Don't keep counting.

Stop it. Love does not keep a record of wrongs. One of those phrases in first Corinthians 13 on what love is means that it does not keep a record of wrongs. Love covers a multitude of what? Sins.

In other words, if you love somebody, you can forgive. Likely Peter, whether he realized it or not, had long passed seven times in respect to his Lord and yet Christ was still forgiving and would continue as he does for us. It wouldn't be long before Peter in front of a crowd at Jesus after Jesus was arrested, would deny Christ three times as Christ had foretold to save his own skin. Peter had boasted the night before, I'll never deny you. I'll never abandon you.

And yet, when the chips were down, when the rubber met the road, what did Peter do? He failed. He denied his Lord three times. He even swore the last time to try to convince the people that he was telling the truth when it was just a lie. And yet, Jesus forgave him.

At the end of the book of John, he even comforted and assured him that he had forgiven him and that he expected him to do his part in ministry for him. Consider Joseph. Turn if you would to Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. Joseph.

Now many of you are familiar with the story of Joseph, but in case you're not, that's alright. Joseph was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. He was the next youngest son and he was his father's favorite. He was a respectful and just man, even as a young man. He honored his parents.

He honored his Lord. He tried always to do that which was right. I'm sure like the rest of us, are times when Joseph failed because he was a sinner like us. But his brothers didn't like him. They didn't like him because he was the pet son of his father.

They didn't like him because, well, he usually did what was right and that made them feel what? Guilty. And so they just got angrier and angrier with Joseph. They mocked him. They ridiculed him.

They expressed hatred for him and then they betrayed him. When out in the countryside, he had been sent by his father to find his brothers, they saw an opportunity to get rid of him. So they threw him in a dry well and left him for dead. But then they saw some some traders coming by and they thought, hey, why why leave him in there when we can profit? So they pulled him out and they sold him.

Sold their own brother as a common slave. You know the story of Joseph. He ended up in Egypt in Potiphar's house. He was falsely accused but the Lord was with him. He spent several years in prison but it was all to get him in a particular spot so that he could interpret a dream so that he could eventually be brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream and be made the second highest ruler in Egypt.

So several years later, Joseph, this young man betrayed by his brothers, became one of the mightiest men in the world in the land of Egypt. And in that position, he was able to provide food during a seven year famine for the people of Egypt and also people of the surrounding area who came to Egypt to get food. It just happened one of those families that came to get food was his own. If you look in chapter 45 of Genesis beginning in verse four, when his brothers came to get the food, eventually he revealed himself. I'd imagine they were a bit troubled, it says in verse three, at his present.

This is what Joseph had to say to his brothers. And Joseph said to his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came near and he said, I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. Now, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life.

And these two years hath the famine been in the land and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be earring nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, to save your lives by great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither but God. And he hath made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler through all the land of Egypt. Wow.

What do you think the first thought that went through his brother's mind when he revealed to them that the guy they were bowing before, as he told them, as God had revealed to him in a dream when he was younger, that the man they were bowing before was the brother they sold into slavery or left for dead. What do you think went through their mind? Uh-oh. We're in trouble. We are in big trouble.

But Josh, Joseph did something unexpected. He forgave them. He encouraged them that it was all part of God's plan to save them. He welcomed them into his family and into his kingdom, and he gave them the best of the land for grazing for their flocks. Now that is forgiveness.

That is forgiveness. And if Joseph can forgive his brothers, I think there's some people that we might be holding grudges against that we can forgive too. Consider Stephen. Turn if you would to Acts well, you don't have to turn there, but you can if you want. Acts chapter seven.

Acts chapter seven verse fifty nine and sixty. Now Stephen was one of the first deacons chosen, first church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. Stephen was probably a tradesman of some kind. The early church couldn't the apostles, with all the people that were being saved in Jerusalem, couldn't meet all of the needs of the church, and so the church picked out seven men, mostly younger men that could help to fill in the gap and take care of some of the needs of the church, and Stephen was chosen as one of these men. Stephen quickly became a great testimony in Jerusalem, not just through his acts, but also through his words.

And he began to speak boldly of Christ and he began to be enemy number one of some who did not believe, some of the leaders there. And as they accused him, he defended himself and he preached a sermon that's recorded in Acts six and Acts seven, one of the greatest sermons ever preached in the Bible. And at the end of it, he looked up to heaven and he said, I see the son of God seated at the right hand of God the father in heaven. And at that point, they cried blasphemy because they didn't believe Jesus was the son of God. They didn't believe he had risen from the dead.

They didn't believe he was back in heaven. And they picked up stones and they began to stone him. We're not talking pebbles, we're talking stones. And let's see what he had to say as they were stoning him. And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying, it's what Stephen said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. What was what was Stephen demonstrating? He was demonstrating grace and mercy and compassion and forgiveness for the very people who were doing what? Who were taking his life.

He may have had a family. He had a profession. He was still a young man. His life was leaving. He was leaving this earth.

He was going to be with Jesus. That's not a bad thing. But as he knelt there and as the stones began to hit him, he demonstrated something that nobody throwing those stones would have expected, The mercy of God. As he asked God, basically, forgive them. Forgive them.

Do not hold this against them. Why? Because Jesus died for them and Jesus could still forgive them. The same as the people that drove the nails through his hands in that cross. What is forgiveness?

It is granting someone release from the guilt and retribution their sin has earned them. What is it? It is granting someone release from the guilt and retribution, punishment their sin has earned them. That is forgiveness. Releasing them from that retribution that one might otherwise demand from that guilt that they carry.

That's what forgiveness is. I forgive you, means I release you. You no longer owe me. You no longer have to pay whatever price I have thought to demand of you. I forgive.

That's what Christ did for us on the cross. When we receive his offer of forgiveness, he grants it and he releases us from the guilt and he releases us from the penalty that he paid for us on the cross of Calvary as he has forgiven all our sins. He has released us from the guilt and the burden that we carry that we had compiled and piled upon ourselves. And now he asks us to do the same for others. For that one who borrowed your tool or your book or your video and never returned it.

For that one who said hurtful things to your face or behind your back. For that one who time and time again said that they would do something and then failed to do it. For that person who has lied so many times to you, for that one who judged you or treated you unfairly, for that one who mistreated you or even abused you in some manner which you did not deserve, for that one who was not there when you needed them or didn't seem to care. Forgiveness is the answer. Holding it over their head is not the way of Christ.

Showing them mercy is. Forgiving does not mean trusting, but it does mean releasing. It doesn't equal trusting. Sometimes you can't go back into a dangerous or vulnerable situation, but it does mean releasing and letting it go. Christ has done that for you and for me.

We need to learn how to do that for others and for ourselves. Bitterness hurts you far more than it hurts the person you're bitter with. Learn to forgive. It is the right thing to do. If Christ can forgive all our past failures and commit to even forgiving the future ones, can you not forgive that friend or relative or employee who let you down?

How dare we harbor grudges against them when we have been forgiven so much? Turn back if you would to Matthew 18. In closing, I want us to finish this passage. Matthew 18. We started earlier in verse 21 where Peter said to the Lord, asked the Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother?

Till seven? And Jesus said, I say not unto thee seven times but 70 times seven. Continuing in verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain man which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents.

That is a incredible huge sum of money. Verse 25, but for as much as he had not to pay, couldn't pay it, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, pleaded with him humbly, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with what? Compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.

He didn't just say, okay, you can have a longer period of time. The Lord, the king knew he was never gonna be able to pay that money back. He would never be able to earn that much money. So instead, he just did what? Forgave him.

He released him from the what? From the debt. Now, that's a picture of salvation. We're the ones that owe and we can't pay. And we would never be able to pay because our righteousness are as filthy rags.

We came to Jesus Christ to accept receive and accept his offer of salvation. He released us from the debt. He forgave us the debt. We don't owe it. He nailed it to his what?

Nailed it to his cross. Praise the Lord. But the passage continues. Verse 28. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a 100p, a few dollars.

And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. But he would not. Went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So the same man that was just released forgiven and a measure amount of money he could never pay went and found a fellow servant.

He said, you owe me a few bucks, you better pay me. You don't pay me, I'm gonna throw you in jail. The guy pleaded with him, please, I'll be I'll I'll pay you. I'll pay you. Just give me a few more days.

He said, nope. Off to jail with you. Verse 31. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very, very sorry. They were very sorry and came and told under their Lord all that was done.

Then his Lord after he had called him said unto him, oh, wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desires me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee? His Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you if you forgive if you from your hearts forgive not one his brother, not everyone his brother their trespasses. What is the point?

What is Jesus saying to Peter? He's saying this. If God is willing to forgive all of this and you're not willing to forgive that, what does that say? What does that say? That doesn't say much about you, does it?

God isn't going to be happy, is he? He isn't going to be pleased, is he? God has given us, forgiven us of so much. It is only right that we should be willing to forgive others. And it may seem big right now in our mind, but compare it to the sins of humanity against the God of heaven who made them.

And it begins to get smaller and smaller and smaller. Doesn't mean it's easy. It is not human nature to forgive, but it is divine. And if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, you can learn to forgive. Your marriage is going to need it.

Your partnership is going to need it. Your friendship, your church because we all fail. We need to be able to forgive. What a testimony of the love of Christ you can be if you can just learn to forgive what may seem the unforgivable. That's what Jesus did for you.

It's a matter of surrender on your part. To surrender what seems to be your right to hold against them. Please surrender that right because God surrendered it for you. And if you're here today and you've not accepted Christ's offer, we're gonna sing a hymn of invitation, I plead with you. Would you come and receive his offer today?

And child of God, maybe God brought something up in your mind, maybe a thing, maybe a person, may be an attitude. You don't have to sing the words of the song this morning. What you need to do is talk to who? Let's have a talk with God. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for us. Thank you for Jesus Christ, our savior. Thank you for the opportunity to show others the love of God. Lord, there are sins that others have committed to us that do not deserve forgiveness. But then, did we deserve yours?

But you forgave us anyway. Lord, thank you and help us to learn to be able to forgive others also. And Lord, we pray if there's one here that's yet to receive Christ that they would come. As we sing this hymn of invitation this morning and receive your forgiveness. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.