Romans 8:1
Forgiveness, the Miracle Cure
I believe this will be the third and last message in the series on
Christians Must Control their Emotions.
\\See "Romans 12:14-15"\\
\\See "Hebrews 12:14-15"\\
We gave seen the danger in not controlling our emotions; namely, our
emotions will control us.
We have seen Paul’s successful fight to control his emotions. He
found….
1. The Greatest Power - The power of Jesus Christ
2. His Greatest Need - To forget the past
3. The Greatest Goal - To know the excellency of Jesus.
We have seen the dangers of the Malicious Emotions and are in the
process of seeing how to stop these motions from overtaking us and
how to set ourselves free if we are in their control. I gave the
three steps this morning and want to say a few words about the middle
step this evening.
Since most malicious emotions have their root in anger, we find the
three steps are:
1. \\#Matt 18:15\\ - Go to the one who offended you.
Matt 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall
trespass against thee, go and tell him his
fault between thee and him alone:
2. Forgive
3. Forget - \\#Phi 3:13\\
Phil 3:13 …forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before,
I. There is another subset of emotions that the Bible speaks of.
A. The Bible speaks of many emotions-love, lust, fear, fret
(worrying), greed, lust, envy, jealousy, and others.
1. I mentioned one specific group set this morning, the
malicious emotions.
a. \\#Eph 4:31\\
b. Bitterness, wrath, anger, malice (hatred, resentment)
2. But there is another
a. It is the guilt emotions.
b. The Bible does not list a lot of them:
(1) Condemnation \\#Romans 8:1\\
(2) Shame - Used 98 times in Bible.
Re 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried
in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white
raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that
the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and
anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest
see.
c. Most of us would use a single word, GUILT. We have
done wrong and now the condemnation, the shame, the
guilt of what we have done bothers us.
B. Why would I bring this up now?
1. Because guilt is one of the most powerful emotions that
believers struggle against.
2. Because the cure for guilt is similar to the cure for
the malicious emotions.
Matt 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall
say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of
the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool,
shall be in danger of hell fire.
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother
hath ought against thee;
24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and
go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother,
and then come and offer thy gift.
3. Notice two things:
(a) The Condition
(1) \\#22\\ You are unjustifiably angry with another.
(2) That is an open and shut case - you are at
fault.
(3) \\#23\\ While you are trying to worship God, you
are smitten with guilt over it.
(b) \\#24\\ The Command - Leave the gift and your
worship. Go get things right.
4. Isn’t it interesting that no matter whether the Christian
is the one who was wrong by another or the one who did
the wrong to another, he must be the one who goes to make
things right?
(a) Why?
(b) Because the Christian is the one who listens,
controls his emotions, and is capable of going to
the other!
(c) We are the embassies of peace and reconciliation;
both between God and man, and man and man.
5. So what does a Christian do when he feels guilty? The
first step is he goes to make it right.
C. There are two other steps and they are similar to the ones
I mentioned when someone has trespassed against us.
1. In both cases, we are the ones to go.
2. In both cases, we are attempting a reconciliation through
forgiveness.
(a) If they have wronged us, we offering forgiveness.
(b) If we have wronged them, we are asking forgiveness.
3. Everything I said this morning about having to grow our
spirits to the place where CAN do this, still applies.
II. Let’s understand forgiveness better.
A. Forgiveness has three directions.
1. Forgiveness comes from God to the sinner - salvation.
Is 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him
return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.
2. Forgiveness comes from God to the saved - cleansing.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3. Forgiveness comes from the saved to others.
Mark 11:25 And when ye stand praying, forgive,
if ye have ought against any: that your Father
also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses.
B. While these different kinds of forgiveness have different
sources, they always have the same meaning.
1. To forgive means to erase the past and start new.
2. Forgiveness is always the same no matter what the source
and no matter to whom it is given.
C. Forgiveness is he same…
1. When God forgives the sinner. It means He erases the
past and starts over.
a. This is seen in the pictures of new that God gives
throughout the Bible.
b. Salvation is compared to:
(1) the new birth \\#John 3:7\\
(2) the new creature \\#2Cor 5:17\\
(3) the new heart and spirit \\#Eze 36:26\\
(4) the new wine in new bottles \\#Matt 9:17\\
(5) the new lump \\#1Cor 5:7\\
(6) the new man \\#Eph 2:15\\
(7) all things being made new \\#Rev 21:5\\
c. So when God forgives, the past is wiped clean and
everything is new.
Ps 103:12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from
us.
2. When God forgives the saved. Forgiveness means that He
erases the past and starts over.
3. When we have wronged someone else and seek their
forgiveness. We are asking them to erase our past and to
start things over.
a. Here is the beauty. Whether they are willing to
forgive us or not is not the issue.
b. We are to go and seek it.
c. Even more, we are to do whatever we can do to make our
wrong right.
(1) If we lied, we confess it to those we lied to.
(2) If we stole, we make restitution.
(3) If we deceived, we do our best to straighten out
the wrongs we did.
d. Of course sometimes we cannot and sometimes the people
we wronged are not going to forgive us.
(1) That is their right, a sinful right but it is
theirs.
(2) God commands us to go and once we have done that,
and done our best to reconcile:
(a) God forgives us.
(b) The hurt the ones we wronged feel is not
because of our wrong but because of their
choice.
(3) When it comes to Who holds the record of wrongs,
God is the only One who counts.
(a) \\#Romans 8:1\\ There is no condemnation
(guilt) from God. Why? Because God has
erased our past and given us a new start.
Romans 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the
charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
(b) If God has done that, there is no one else
who can charge us!
(c) Why?
i. Because God is the One who determines
the wrongs and rights.
ii. Because God is the only One Who can
keep a record of rights and wrongs.
(d) A lot of people feel false guilt because one
or more of the people they have offended
will not forgive them.
i. We do not want to minimize the things
we have done wrong.
ii. It is their right to stay in the past
if they wish, but they are the ones
now inflicting the wrong on them—not
us.
iii. The only One who can define wrong is
God. The liberals are right, if there
is no God, there is no truth. They
are not wrong in their reasoning, they
are wrong in their supposition. They
suppose there is no God. Without God,
what one man calls right may not be
right for me.
iv. So when God erases my wrong. It is
gone no matter what!
Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us.
v. Here is the power of God’s
forgiveness. It can take guilt and
shame away because it removes the
wrong.
vi. However, there is a catch! The same
forgiveness that God gives the sinner,
the saved.
4. And when we forgive someone who has wronged us. It means
we erase their past and start over.
a. We cannot change what forgiveness is just because we
are now the source of the forgiveness.
Matt 10:8 …freely ye have received, freely
give.
b. So I go back to drop this truth of forgiveness into the
message I preached this morning.
(1) The text \\#Matt 18:15\\.
(2) The condition is that we were wronged by another.
(3) This makes us angry and we must deal with it or
malicious emotions may control.
(4) What are we to do?
(a) We are to go to them.
i. We are to reconcile with them.
ii. If they will make right their wrong,
wonderful. We will move on to the next
phase.
iii. If they will not make right their wrong,
wonderful. We will still move onto
the next phase.
(b) We will forgive them.
i. We will erase our past and start over.
ii. Doesn’t that seem dangerous? Not
really. You ought to be somewhat
cautious with people you have no past
with. Move on but move on cautiously
until you see if you can trust them.
(c) But either way, forget the past and move on!
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