Forgive Because God Forgave – Forgiveness Series Part 3 of 4

Hello, and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We are in the midst of a sermon series about forgiveness. This is number three.

We’ve already done two, so if you haven’t seen them yet or heard them, check out the playlist on YouTube. It will have all of them in there — the sermon series on forgiveness. You can also find them on social media, our blog, the podcast — wherever you are streaming.

Today we’re talking about how it’s so important for you to forgive others because God forgave you. Now again if you’ve been with us, we’ve really spoken about the importance of how only God has the ability to forgive sins. You can forgive other people, but God forgives them of their sins.

In the same way, if you sin against someone else, you wrong someone else, you lie to them or something, and then you say you’re sorry, they forgive you, but then God forgives your sin, you have to ask God for forgiveness as well. So not only must you confess your sins to God, you also need to confess them to the person you wronged. Seek their forgiveness.

Then as if that’s not hard enough, God wants us to confess to our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they can help us through whatever it is we’re struggling with — that they can pray for us.

James says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, so if you’re struggling with some sin, he or she, your brother and sister in Christ, might not be. So they can pray for you and help you through that.

Today it is “forgive” because God forgave. You are a sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Everyone, everyone has sinned. You, me, your brothers, your sisters, your friends, your family — everyone is a sinner for all have sinned. It doesn’t say all except you or all except the person you think is the best or the pastor or this or that. Everyone has sinned.

What does that mean? It means they have fallen short of the glory of God. What is the glory of God? What are we falling short of? We’re short of being in God’s presence. For example, what’s my glory?

Well according to Proverbs, “The glory of a youth is their strength.” So if you’re going to receive my glory, I’m going to help you in some way. I have strength. Whether it’s muscles or mental or whatever. “And gray hair is the splendor of the glory of the elderly.”

So what’s my glory? If you have fallen short of my glory, it means you’re not on the receiving end of whatever my strength is. My strength could be preaching. It could be whatever. Whatever your gift is and so if you’re falling short of my glory, then you’re not receiving whatever I have to offer.

If we’re falling short of God’s glory, we’re not even allowed to be around Him. We’re not in His presence. We’re missing out on God. We’re separated from God. We have all sinned and that makes us fall short of God’s glory. That means we can’t be around Him. We know that the punishment for this sin is death, and what is death? That’s that eternal separation from God.

Romans 6.23 says, “For the wages of sin is death.” That’s how we know we have fallen short. We’ve all sinned; we have fallen short of God’s glory. The wages are death. It gets worse and worse, but guess what the rest of that verse says: “But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.”

It got worse and worse, then all of a sudden it got tremendously better. We now have a free gift from God of eternal life through Jesus Christ. We can accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Invite Him into your heart. Allow Him to lead your life, forgive your sins, and you can go and be in God’s glory.

Otherwise, you will go to hell — eternal separation from God. You have fallen short of God’s glory. You have a choice. You can be a sinner. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and accept the wages of your sin as death and stay there, or you can accept the gift of God which is eternal life through Christ Jesus.

If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, then you don’t have to die. We’ve spoken about this before, on how Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He was the sacrificial lamb for us. He took the punishment for our sins.

We talked about that in a communion message that you can check out in a card up here if you’re watching on YouTube. Otherwise, just navigate to the YouTube channel and find that playlist.

Jesus died so you don’t have to die. You don’t have to take the punishment for your sins. The wages of sin is death. Jesus took that for you, so now you can skip right over to the free gift of God, eternal life. You can be with God in heaven.

John 3.16 — it’s a very popular verse. You probably know it. “For God so loved the world that he sent Jesus his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not die, but have eternal life.” We don’t have to die, but we can have eternal life.

The death that we’re talking about here is not a physical death. It’s a spiritual death. Romans, “For the wages of sin is death.” That’s a spiritual death. God says in John 3:16 when it’s saying, “God so loved the world, He gave His only son, whoever believes in Him shall not die” — but we’re going to die physically. This is talking about a spiritual death.

We believe in Jesus and we don’t have to die spiritually. We don’t have to be eternally separated from God. We can accept Jesus. Whoever believes in Him, believe in Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. God forgave you of your sins. He did.

He did so much to forgive you of your sins. He’s saying, “Look, you’re a sinner. Everyone has sinned. The wages of that sin is death — eternal death, soul death.” You are separated from God forever.

But guess what? The gift that He is giving you is the ability to come into His presence again, to be in God’s glory, because Jesus bridged that gap. He stood right there and died for you so you didn’t have to die.

He forgave you. All you have to do is ask. Even though we’re terrible people. We’re sinners. Now you say, “Well, I’m not a terrible person. I’m sure I have maybe lied and maybe I cheated in a game or something and I might have stolen a thing here or there, but I haven’t killed anyone.” It doesn’t matter. All sins are equal.

We’ve talked about that before. All sins are equal. You can check out that video on our YouTube channel or find it in your podcast. It’s a sermon about saying that no matter what you do, it’s all sin in God’s eyes. Yes, society, we have different ranks, but sin is sin. We have that again, sin is sin no matter what. It’s all going to separate you from God.

We’re terrible people. We’re sinners, but God still forgave us. This is a huge deal just to grasp the magnitude of this. God loves us so much that He sent His son to die in place of us and said, “I know you’re going to keep sinning even though I just did this tremendous act of love.” You’re still going to sin even though you know what Jesus went through.

I know what God did. I still screw up. I still sin and guess what? God still forgives me and He still forgives you. All you have to do is ask. Realize this is such a huge deal. God is so disgusted with sinners that He can’t even look at us. That’s how big of a deal this is.

Habakkuk 1.13 says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves.”

Now of course, this is continuing on in asking why. It’s Habakkuk complaining to God. You can read this. If you have a question about why God would allow things to happen. We also have sermons on that too. But God is too pure to look on evil and so Habakkuk is complaining to Him saying, “Why would you then allow evil if you’re too pure for it?”

Well, that’s a topic for another day, but basically, God allows Satan to have some control here because Satan took the reins from humans. The point is that God can’t look at sinners. He loves us so much though that He sent His son to die. So when God looks at us He doesn’t see us in our evil, He sees the blood of Jesus that has washed us clean.

The Old Testament is filled with verses on how lambs and doves and birds and everything were sacrificed as atonement for people’s sins. Those were given as offerings to God and that aroma was pleasing to the Lord.

So we know that God enjoys these types of things. When He looks at us and sees Jesus’ blood, it’s not like, “Oh that’s disgusting. I don’t want to look at blood all the time.” No, God looks at it and it’s clean; it has been washed clean.

Now do you think every time He looks at us and we do wrong and He has to look at us and see Jesus’ blood washing us clean once again, do you think that hurts? I’m sure God is a little bit saddened in that, maybe even a little disappointed or hurt. Why? Because He has got to look at the blood of His son covering us time and time again and be reminded over and over.

Now God of course never forgets, but when He looks at us, it’s like a parent looking at their child who continually screws up. You still love them, you want to help them, but there’s a little part of you that’s hurt as well. God forgave you. He loves you so much.

1 John 2.12, let’s check it out. 1 John 2.12, “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.” Your sins have been forgiven. God forgave you. He forgave you. When Jesus died, you were forgiven. It’s right here. God is handing it to you. He says, “I have already forgiven you.”

It’s up to you whether or not you want to accept this forgiveness and live your life in accordance with what He says to do. You can accept it. That’s what you have to do. That’s your part. It’s a gift that you need to receive. He’s not going to force it on you. He’s not going to shove it at you and say, “You have to take this.” It’s an offering, He is offering it to you — a free gift.

If God can forgive you for everything you have done and He already forgives you, you didn’t even ask yet, then if someone asks you for your forgiveness, you certainly can forgive them. You have no excuse. You should definitely be able to forgive anyone who has wronged you, not only when they ask, but also after it happens. You gotta let it go.

Remember we talked about this. It’s a sickness, holding that in. You are holding in that grudge against someone. You are refusing to let it go. You are refusing to forgive them. You are stewing on it in your mind.

“That person, I can’t believe they did that to me.” Every time you think of them then you go on and on and on in your mind about, “they did this and they did this and they did this and that was just wrong and I can’t believe that they did that.”

“I got scammed. All this stuff that happened” — or something — “I can’t believe it,” or you were hurt or something. Whatever it was. Every time you bring it up, it’s like twisting the knife in the wound a little bit more. Guess what? Pull that knife out. Get rid of it and let that wound heal. It’s a sickness in you if you refuse to let it go and refuse to forgive.

God forgave you, then you have to just receive it, ask. In the same way, if someone wrongs you, even if they don’t think it was wrong, forgive them. Let it go.“I have already forgiven you.”

Then whenever they mature enough to come and say, “Hey I’m really sorry. I’m really sorry I wronged you last week, five years ago,” — whatever it was. Then you say, “Hey, it’s alright. I have forgiven you.” You have already let it go.

If you hold on to that, it’s a sickness. It’s a spiritual sickness. It’s like that knife that you keep twisting in the wound. What if you pull that knife out? You can still hold on to that spiritual sickness, that unwillingness to let go, but then what are you gonna do?

That knife is dangerous to those around you. You could hurt them too with your bitterness, your anger, your refusal to let it go, but you let it go and forgive that person. Now all of a sudden your hand is open, you can receive, you can help, you can do more with others; you’re not hurting yourself anymore. You can heal.

That spiritual sickness can definitely manifest itself in your physical body. You could have problems, aches and pains, colds and coughs, and anything that is a result of you refusing to let it go. Now I’m not saying that if you’re sick, that’s what it is. I’m saying that holding on to that ruins you.

It destroys your body. It destroys your soul. It’s a spiritual-level sickness. The spirit is willing and the flesh is weak. If your spirit gets sick, you better believe your flesh isn’t going to handle it well. That is, the mind has so much power over the body, psychologists study that and they say you can believe you’re a certain way or you can believe something is going on, and then all of a sudden it happens.

The power of believing that your skin is healed or something and then all of a sudden it heals. There is science filled with cases that are unexplained like that. That the mind has such power over the body. They make movies on it too.

It’s a spiritual sickness. You refusing to forgive someone and holding on to that can definitely manifest itself in ways you don’t want. When you get wronged, forgive someone else because God forgave you. Then when they come and ask you, give it to them again and say, “I’ve already forgiven you. It’s okay.”

Yes of course it might not be easy sometimes. People can really hurt you. You might be looking at me like, “Yeah well you’ve never been” — whatever — “conned out of your life savings” or “You’ve never been left at the altar,” or “You’ve never been cheated on by your partner” or you have never — okay, it doesn’t matter.

I understand it will not be easy. The thing is, when someone wrongs you, you need to forgive them. Learn from it. Don’t keep going back and let them wrong you again and again and again and again.

That’s foolishness. When they wrong you, let it go and if it happens again, then you gotta be like, “Hey we need some separation.” You gotta get out of my life. Remove the toxic people from your life.

But you gotta let it go. Do you think it was easy for God to send His son here, knowing that He was going to die for the suffering of the world? The Bible tells us that it was so painful for God that He couldn’t even look at Him for that moment. He turned his face away from His son.

Then what happened? Do you think it was easy for Jesus to go through that? You gotta be kidding me. He was so filled with anguish and anxiety that literally His sweat glands started to produce little drops of blood.

Now it wasn’t like He was dripping in blood, but there was blood coming out of His skin. That’s how frustrated and scared and full of anguish and anxiety that He was. Then He went through it all. It wasn’t easy.

Now you can certainly forgive someone because compared to what they did, that’s easy. What they did was beyond difficult and they did it anyway. So even if it’s difficult for you to forgive someone and let it go, you must do it anyway.

Be like God and forgive others, because He forgave you. Don’t hold on to that knife and hurt those around you. Think about those around you. Do it for them, out of your love for them, like God did it out of His love for you.

Ephesians 4.32 — a couple more verses then we’ll wrap it up. Ephesians 4.32 says, “I am talking about Christ in the church. Each one of you must also love others, as they love themselves or love his wife or his husband.” That was 5.32.

Ephesians 4.32, where we’re supposed to be — “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.” Be kind and compassionate, forgive others as Christ forgave you. He forgave you. Forgive them as well.

Colossians 3.13 — we’ve read this before if you have been up on this series. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” God forgave you, so go out there and forgive others as well.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus thank you so much for this message. I ask that it would touch the hearts and minds of those who are watching and listening. That they would realize what you did for them. That they would understand and grasp the concept that they are a sinner no matter what and that they have fallen short of your glory, that they can’t be in your presence.

But you solved that problem by sending Jesus to die for them as a sacrifice for their sins. Now if they choose to believe that you did that tremendous act of grace, then they can be in your glory. They can be in your presence. Lord, I ask that you would allow them to let it go, to forgive others maybe before they ask.

That when something happens to them, that they get that sickness out, that black spot on their soul that keeps growing. They would get rid of it, let it go, and allow healing in their lives. They would forgive and that they would learn from the experiences, so they’re not going to continue to be hurt again and again and again.

Lord Jesus, I ask that if there’s anyone out there right now that has not made that decision to follow you, that this would be their moment, that this would be their time. That they would choose to follow you and say, “Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Forgive me of my sins. I want to live for you.” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

So if that’s you, if you haven’t made that decision to follow Christ, you can do it. It’s easy. He’s waiting there with the gift. All you have to do is receive it. Talk to your friends, your family — talk to those around you that follow Christ. There’s someone in your life and if there’s not, comment below. Reach out to us. We would love to talk to you. God bless.