Forgive Your Brother: A Pentecost Message

(Go To Meeting)

Byron Norrod—June 4, 2021

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Happy Sabbath, everyone! It's nice to be here after a somewhat grueling week. It's always wonderful to have the Sabbath Day and what a blessing the Sabbath is.

Matthew 24:12: "…the love of many shall grow cold"—in the end times!

We see that everywhere, everyday and it's terribly unfortunate. But one aspect of that is simply just a lack of love, a lack of caring and consideration, and an unwillingness to forgive others.

Matt. 6—this is the sample prayer that Jesus is teaching His unconverted disciples on how to pray. He's teaching them what to say, He tells them to address the Father, and He gives several different things. We're not going to go through it all, but let's look at:

Matthew 6:12: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

The mirror passage in Luke 11:4: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

What we can see is that our debts means our sins! Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us! If you consider those who do things against us, it's not really a sin against us. If you consider the worst case scenario, if they kill you, they're really not sinning against you. A sin is the breaking of God's Law, so the sin is actually a debt against God!

We don't have anything, truly, to forgive others for, when you look at it that way. But let's look at it because God tells us that we should forgive.

Matthew 6:12: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." Then He says, after the close of the prayer:

Verse 14: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."

Interesting! The contrary to that is IF you don't forgive, THEN you're heavenly Father won't forgive you! We don't even have to say that, because it actually says it in the very next verse:

Verse 15: "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Scary stuff!

I would like to explore the critical necessity of forgiving others. and we will see toward the end of the message how that this is actually a Pentecost message.

We see that our forgiveness is incumbent upon us so that God can forgive us. It's not that He can't, but that He won't unless we are willing to have that same attitude that He's willing to have toward us!

We will see that God gives us some instructions on how to proceed in our lives and not alienate people, but actually be far more forgiving.

Proverbs 17:9: "He who covers a transgression seeks love…"

Does that mean that we're just going to cover over sins? No! It's not saying that at all! It's saying that if somebody has done something to you, it's to your glory, and you're seeking love, if you say 'that's okay, I forgive; no problem, I'll let it go. It's all right; it doesn't matter.' In the huge scope of things, it really doesn't matter if somebody has offended you, does it?

"…but he who repeats a matter alienates friends" (v 9).

We had a very good message on gossip and that's just repeating a matter. {transcriber's note: this message by Steve Durham is titled two ways: 1) The Shot Heard Round the World; 2) Gossip}

That's just repeating a matter; it's not covering over like it's suggesting here. We can cover over a transgression, but what if we repeat the matter? What if we tell somebody else :

• what 'so and so' did to us
• how we saw them doing something that they shouldn't be doing
• we heard the cussing
• they lit up a cigarette
• they had a little too much to drink

or

• whatever it is

Whatever it was, it's not saying that we shouldn't talk to them about it. We are instructed in Matt. 18 about going to your brother. We'll cover a little bit of that later.

But if you repeat a matter it's contrasting the first part of it, which says that you're seeking love if you cover a transgression.

In other words, you're not seeking love if you repeat a matter. That's having to do with the message about gossip.

Verse 17: "A friend loves at all times…" If we are seeking love and we want to cover a transgression, then we're seeking love!

• Have you gossiped about somebody? I know that I have in the past!
• Have you listened to others gossiping? That, too, is a 'no no'!

Proverbs 19:11: "The discretion of a man puts off his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression."

We will see even that Paul gives us more instruction; he gives us more impetus to do well.

Ephesians 4:24: "And that you put on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and Holiness of the Truth."

Verse 32: "And be kind and tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving one another, even as God has also in Christ forgiven you."

We know that Jesus became our Passover Lamb, our Sacrifice; He became sin for us. He took the weight of the onus that we have and the penalty. That was nailed to the cross with Him, and He paid for it with His blood. God the Father accepted that payment through Christ, and that's how we are forgiven. Have you heard:

• Yeah but, she did this to me, and I will never forgive that!
• Of course, I forgive, what kind of a Christian would I be if I didn't forgive it? But I will never forget it!

Look, get over it or you won't be in the Kingdom of God! Isn't that what He said in Matt. 6? If you don't forgive, neither will your Father forgive you!

Look, God is not going to resurrect a bunch of backbiting, self-righteous, unforgiving busybodies! He just doesn't have time for that! There's too much nonsense!

Colossians 3:12: "Put on then, as the elect of God, Holy and beloved… [He's encouraging us while He's correcting us] …deep inner affections, kindness, humility, meekness and long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so also you should forgive" (vs 12-13). God is repeating this for us so that we get it! Are we getting it?

Verse 14: "And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection."

Remember where we started: the love of many will grow cold in the end-times! Love is our goal! We are to be reflecting God's love toward us, and sending that outward to everybody else. So, when people look at you and me, they should see:

• Godliness
• Holiness
• forgiveness
• love
• compassion
• mercy
• bowels of mercy
• longsuffering
• forbearing

We want that love to be exhibited because we are in Christ's name, we hare Christians, so we should keep His names.

Psalm 86:5: "For You, LORD, are good and ready to forgive, and rich in mercy…"

We want that mercy and forgiveness, but are we always willing to mirror God's righteousness and His mercifulness? And show that mercy and forgiveness to others?

Psalm 103:12: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

That's pretty far! In another place He says, 'I will remember your sins no more.' Isn't that nice that God would be so forgiving to you and me to forgive us and no longer remember our sins? As far as east is from the west, that's a pretty far distance! Thank You; thank You, God, for Your generosity.

Micah 7:18: "Who is a God like You, Who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?…. [that's what God does] …He does not keep His anger forever because He delights in mercy."

What does God delight in? Shaquille O'Neal is no longer a paid basketball player, but don't you think he still loves playing hoops? Of course, he loves it! He delights in it! What does God delight in? He delights in mercy!

2-Chronicles 30:9: "For if you turn again to the LORD, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before those who lead them captive so that they shall come again into this land…" What God is doing is saying that:

You will go into servitude now. You will pay the penalty and you are going into captivity. But if you will repent, even now, I will go easy on your progeny and your brothers and sisters. By the way, we're saying, 'forgiven your brother:

"…your brethren and your children shall find compassion before those who lead them captive so that they shall come again into this land, for the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him: (v 9).

• Do you hold a grudge?
• Do you have something against someone, a brother?
• Does a brother have something against you?

Fix it! Fix it! How can you take the Passover if you don't fix this problem?

If you choose not to forgive me—and maybe I did something to you; if I did please forgive me. I absolutely have no grudge against any one of my brothers in the Church in the faith. If I have done something to you, please forgive me, it is not my intent to harm you. But if you choose not to forgive me:

• Are you not placing yourself as God over me?
• Are you wishing to take God's place like Satan did?

That's a scary position! Look, if we do not forgive, we are backsliding!

Jeremiah 3:11: "And the LORD said to me, 'The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.'"

When we choose not to forgive somebody, typically it's because we want to maintain a superiority over them!

Yeah, but you did this to me and if forgive you then I'm going to put you on an even scale as me, and I can't have that. You have to be lower than me, I need to be higher.

But God says that's backsliding! "…'The backsliding Israel has justified herself…"

That's what we do when we blame other and will not forgive.

"…more than treacherous Judah. Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, O backsliding Israel,' says the LORD…" (vs 11-12).

If I may be so bold that's what I'm doing right now. Return from your backsliding, spiritual Israel and forgive your brother.

"'…and I will not cause My anger to fall on you; for I am merciful,' says the Lord, 'and I will not keep My anger forever…. [thank You, God] …Only acknowledge your iniquity…'" (vs 12-13).

What did I do wrong? In this case, what we're talking about specifically, is not forgiving our brothers, thus justifying ourselves!

He did this, so I'm right in thinking the way that I'm thinking. I can't allow him to get by with that!

Verse 13: "Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God and have scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,' says the LORD. 'Turn, O backsliding children…'" (v 13-14).

Will God forgive us? Verse 12 says that He will! He's happy to forgive, we only have to acknowledge our sins!

Verse 15: "And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."

If I can be so bold, that's what I'm striving to be right now, a shepherd that can provide knowledge and understanding. That we cannot continue in this sin. I'm attempting right now… Before I said it tough and said to fix it and get it done with and don't allow this sin to continue. But now I plead with you! If you wish to be in the Family of God you have to get over this! If you want to be in His Kingdom, you have to forgive your brother.

God gave His Son as a sacrifice. When we were our most despicable selves, stewing in our sins, and yet, God gave us His Son to pay that penalty so that we don't have to; even while we were in the quagmire, in the pit and cesspool of our naughtiness and evil against Him. Please reflect His spiritual love toward His Family. Give the mutual respect that you would want others to be giving to you when you are forgiven.

Now, we're going to look at a very vindictive and evil 'get you back' Lamech; this guy was really something!

Gen. 4 is the chapter where Cain gets mad at his brother, and he does not forgive him. Abel had not even sinned against Cain, but Cain doesn't forgive. Rather he gets so angry that he kills his brother Abel, and God gave him punishment.

Cain says, 'No, God that's not fair, that's too much! I can't handle this punishment and he starts whining about his punishment being too much.

Genesis 4:13: "And Cain said to the LORD, 'My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, You have driven me out from the face of the earth today, and I shall be hidden from Your face…. [boo-hoo] …And I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth, and it shall be that anyone who finds me shall kill me'" (vs 13-14).

Well, didn't he deserve it? God is far more forgiving to Cain than I would have been! Thank You, God for Your forgiving attitude.

Verse 15: "And the LORD said to him, 'Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.' And the LORD set a mark upon Cain so that anyone who found him should not kill him."

If somebody kills Cain, and God's going to punish them sevenfold, what's seven times worse than being killed?

If you think about it, there could be some very horrendous times that we would have to live through that would be punishment in the seven-times vengeance, rather than being killed. Sometimes death would be so much easier.

Then Lamech is covered in vs 19-24, and he gets a lot of 'face time' in Gen. 4, more than all the others. He's six generations down, and he is the sixth child and took two wives, and here's what he tells his wives:

Genesis 4:23: "And Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, 'Hear my voice, wives of Lamech… [I'm a hard case, a bad man] …hearken… [listen] …to my words, for I have killed a man because he wounded me, a young man because he hurt me.'"

He pinched me, so I broke his arm! He hurt me, so I killed him!

Verse 24: "For if Cain is avenged seven times… [tie in v 15] …then truly Lamech is avenged seventy-seven times."

You think it would have been bad for Cain and those who persecuted Cain, but if they hurt me, don't be tricked/fooled I'm going to get them back 77 times! Tough guy! He is eager not to forgive! He's eager to repay for a wrong that had been done to him.

We should be anti-Lamech; we should be just as eager, if not moreso to forgive other's offenses against us as he was eager to repay an offense 77 times. What if you tried?

Byron, I've tried. They have a thing against me. I've sinned against my brother and I've tried to obtain forgiveness. I've tried to make it right and make amends and they say no! They wouldn't have it at all. They said, 'No, that's just the way you are. You're not truly repentant.'

• What?
• Are they the heart-knowing God?
• Can they really read your heart?

Or, they might say that 'you meant it, and you should be ashamed of yourself.'

But, Byron, I tried to make amends. I tried to make it right and they just wouldn't allow it. I tried to tell them, 'What do you want me to do?' But it's to no avail; they won't hear it. I tried and they say, 'You didn't make it right.' I tried to make it right but you wouldn't let me. What can I do? Please allow me to make it up to you. Allow me to repent, please!'

Yesterday can never be different. They need to let you repent just as God does! I'll just say two things on this:

• That person who will not allow you to repent may not be your brother.

I'm not saying that they're not your brother, but they are proving that they do not have the Holy Spirit in an adequate supply enough so that they can mirror God and His forgiving nature, and thus are not your brother. OR

• They just need to grow up spiritually, they're not at the same place that you or I may be at. We can't cut them off completely.

Matt. 18 does give us some guidelines about how we can go to our brother and what we should do. That works! Some has told me in the past that Matt. 18 doesn't work. It destroys congregations.

That's because it wasn't done correctly; you need to follow the guidelines that the Bible says.

Galatians 5:13: "For you have been called unto freedom, brethren; only do not use this freedom for an occasion to the flesh; rather, serve one another with love. For the whole Law… [that's our goal, not to let many wax cold in us] …is fulfilled in this commandment: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, watch out lest you be consumed by one another" (vs 13-15).

I'm going to tie in Micah 3 with devouring and try to liken this to rending, tearing and swallowing up, eating up! Be careful that you don't "…bite and devour on another…" To devour is to swallow or to eat greedily or voraciously, to waste and destroy, or to consume.

Micah 3 is talking about the magistrates who are perpetrating evils against the people. Does that sound familiar in today's society. Yet, those who have power over a brother because they may know something, or they may hold a grudge or may not forgive, this thing right here could be applied to you and me if we choose not to forgive.

Micah 3:2: "You who hate the good and love the evil; who tear the skin off My people and strip the flesh from their bones."

Remember what Satan does? He walks around as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour! IF we don't forgive one another and act in love and have the whole law fulfilled in that one statement, that we love each other, THEN are we not dividing, devouring and consuming one another?

Verse 3: "Who also eat the flesh of My people, and tear their skin off them; and break their bones and chop them into pieces, like meat for the pot, and like flesh for the caldron." That's pretty evil!

Has the one who has offended you gotten in the way of your agenda? To have things your way, you will eventually need to turn from the needs of others!
IF the unforgiven—those whom you do not forgive—die, you will never obtain the kind of repentance that you want from them, or the kind of repentance that you would accept from them that would appease you. IF we choose not to accept their forgiveness while they're still alive, THEN we're stuck in ou hatred, because that's what it turns into. That's what is, the hatred of our brother IF we do not forgive!

Will we take that hatred to the grave? or Will we allow God our Father to forgive us? We own that contaminated spiritual hatred that perverts and maligns our own spirits!

We are coming on now why this is a Pentecost message:

Matthew 18:21: "Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times?'" I'll bet that Peter was thinking that was being pretty generous!

Lord, someone comes at me and does something bad to me, I forgive him, and I'll forgive him again, and maybe even a third time. How many times do I have forgive him? Seven times? Do I have to forgive him seven times?

Verse 22: "Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven.'"

Lamech wanted to repay vengeance 77 times; Cain was going to be avenged 7 times. Jesus says, 7 times 70! That's 490 times!

If my wife gets up in the morning, I say, 'Hi babe, how's it going?' She comes in and says, 'Hi babe,' gives me a kill and then she kicks me in the shin. 'Wow! What did you do that for? What did I do?' She says, 'Oh, I'm sorry, hun, I don't what came over me; please forgive me, I shouldn't have done that.' Okay, but…

Then she walks in and turns around and kicks me again. 'Now what?' Oh, nothing, please forgive me!

Seven times! Seven times is going to be hard, and that's not even enough. Look the big Ten are sins, and Jesus gives others and there are sins throughout the Bible, and there are five definitions of sin. So, there's a number of ways that we can offend God.

But her kicking me in the shin—which by the way she didn't do—is not even a sin. Yet, it's an offense to me, and I have to forgive her. Not once, not 3 times, not 7 times, not 77 times, but 7 times 70 times, 490 times! I can't imagine her kicking me in the shin 490 times.

Remember that in the count to Pentecost, was 7 times 7 weeks—49 days, and then the 50th day is Pentecost. That is the new beginning for us as a spiritual creation. As we understand, we'll be resurrected. The Law was given to us on Pentecost, and then if we're resurrected we have newness of life. But wait, 490?

7 and 7 are complete numbers, 20 is also a complete number. God gave 10 Commandments in the Old Testament. We see that if we say 7 times 7 is 49, but then times 10 is another completion added on top of that.

Let's continue reading here:

Verse 22: "Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a man, a certain king, who would take account with his servants. And after he began to reckon, there was brought to him one debtor who owed him ten thousand talents'" (vs 22-24).

This is considered to be an enormous debt, an unpayable debt. A debt that you could not pay in a lifetime. It's kind of the kings fault for letting this man get so indebted in this sense.

But when we understand that this correlates spiritually for us, that God the Father is the King, we are the debtors in sin and the sin that we have sinned against God is unpayable! We cannot pay it. Our sins are 'over the moon.' If we paid for our sins with our very lives, we would have to pay with our first sin.

To cover our sin, we would have to pay with our lives and then it's done. Yet, there is an atonement, a covering—that's what Yom Kippur means, to cover—there is a covering being made when Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb, and His sacrifice is applied to us in repentance after our calling. Now we can come to God washed as clean as the driven snow!

Here this man owed an unpayable debt; v 25: "But since he did not have anything to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." His sins affected his family! That's another byproduct in this thing!

Verse 26: "Because of this, the servant fell down and worshiped him, saying, '"Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'" It's an impossible debt, he could not!

Verse 27: "And being moved with compassion… [which God is] …the lord of that servant released him, and forgave him the debt."

WOW! What a load off! I don't owe all that! The word 'mortgage' is a French word, and it comes from the root 'mort' that means death. It is a note until death. So, when you owe a mortgage it's a payment that you owe until you die. That's what it's considered when you take out a 30-year note and you're paying on that note for 30 years or until you die. That was the original concept. Now they have 30, 15, 10-year notes, balloon payments and all that stuff. The concept was that it was a death sentence in one sense.

Verse 28: "Then that servant went out… [he did not reflect the lord's forgiveness] …and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him a hundred silver coins… [just a little bit] …and after seizing him, he choked him, saying, 'Pay me what you owe.' As a result, his fellow servant fell down at his feet and pleaded with him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' But he would not listen; instead, he went and cast him into prison, until he should pay the amount that he owed" (vs 28-30).

Remember that person who would not forgive you your trespasses? That's what this person is doing! There's no way that this man can make amends and pay the penalty if he's in debtor's prison. He's just paying with his life—the time from his life—but he's not earning anything. He's not gaining anything back; there's no payment or restitution being made. This is an impossible situation that this fellow servant—his brother—is putting his brother into!

Verse 31: "Now, when his fellow servants saw the things that had taken place, they were greatly distressed…"

Oh no, did you see what Byron did? God forgave Byron all of his debts, and then he goes and he won't forgive his brother! It's just a little thing that his brother did to him. He just spat on his face; he could wash his face! But no!

'I take that as a personal offence and now I'll never forgive you for that.'

My fellow servants say, 'I will Byron had mirrored God.'

Verse 31: "Now, when his fellow servants saw the things that had taken place, they were greatly distressed; and they went to their lord and related all that had taken place. Then his lord called him and said to him, 'You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you implored me…. [just asked me] …Were you not also obligated to have compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you?' And in anger, his lord delivered him up to the tormentors, until he should pay all that he owed to him. Likewise shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother's offenses from the heart" (vs 31-35).

From the core of your being you have to forgive your brother or you won't be in the Kingdom. Not only that, and we know that this is a spiritual correlation to us:

• God is the King
• He is our Father
• We owe the spiritual debt for all of our sins
• He applies Jesus' sacrifice to us
• we are cleansed from our sins until we choose to sin again

And one of those sins being unforgiveness!

I'm going to show you something here that should be eye-opening.

Verse 34: "And in anger, his lord delivered him up to the tormentors…"

Who are the tormentors? The torturers? The demons! God is saying that He gives legal permission for you and me to be tortured by the demonic realm if we open that door do not forgive!

Unforgiveness is an open door to demonic oppression! Is that scary? It is to me!

Ezekiel 4:6: "…a day for a year…"

Dan. 9—he realizes that it had been 490 years, and right after he realized the chronology of where he was at in the time, and what God was doing with those people, and their penalty of captivity was coming to an end. Daniel admitted his sins and not only his sins but the sins of his fathers, the rulers in the cities and the priests and the Levites, and he acknowledged everyone's sins.

Just after that God gave Daniel the 70 weeks with the understanding. He was given discernment as a reward for praying this prayer of repentance. Daniel understood that they were culpable for all of their sins.

Let's just nail down this Pentecost thing. After the 409 years, God extends mercy and forgives until the Messiah's week is complete. This might sound confusing, and I don't want to go into the 70 weeks prophecy. But after those times… 7 times 7 is 49 and then the count to Pentecost, day 50. Once that occurs it happens on what day? Always the next day after the Sabbath, which is Sunday! That Sunday is the 1st day of the week for the new count of the next 7 days to the next Sabbath. It begins the new count in whatever count that God chooses to count.

It also opens a door of a new beginning, because it is the 8th day. So, from the 42nd day—Sunday would be the first day, and you count to Day 49 is seven days in that week. Then after the 7th day, it's Sunday the 8th day, which is the 1st day of the week, but the #8 means it's a new beginning.

So, is Pentecost a new beginning! Pentecost is a mini-Jubilee when the slaves are being set free, lands are being restored and the captivities are ended. We will no longer be held captive in these physical, mortal bodies, but we will be resurrected into spiritual bodies. Amazing! What blessing and benefit! That's a new beginning, to begin again as spirit beings in the God Family! Lord, may it come quickly!

But that 49 times 10 is 490 times that we are to forgive our brothers and sisters. That's 490 more years. We have a new beginning on day 8, which is day 50 in the count to Pentecost after 49, and it's a completion when it's times 10. So, 490 is actually a completed form of our forgiveness and the count to Pentecost where we now can begin on Day 50.

When we forgive our brothers 490 times. And it's not only 490, it's an innumerable amount of times that we are to forgive our brothers.

When we do that, we will recognize that as we forgive others 490 times, 491, 500, 50 times 10—as many times as it takes—we are to be forgiving to reflect Jesus' forgiveness of us and God the Father's forgiveness of us so that Jesus' blood can be applied to us.

I plead again, brothers and sisters, if you have anything against your brother/sister, or hold a grudge, forgive them! Please! If you don't, you're stealing from me. Why? If you're not going to be in the Kingdom, you're stealing from the Family of God, and you won't be there. We are missing out, me and the other brothers and sisters. We want you there. But when we forgive, our debts can also be eliminated, but not before.

• we should not expect repayment
• we should not expect to get even
• we should not expect to hold a grudge
• we should forgive

• Why? So that I can be forgiven!
• Why do I forgive? Not only for that, not just so that I can be forgiven!
• Why do you forgive?
• So that you can be forgiven? Yes, absolutely!

But it's more than that. We want to express God's love that He's expressed to us, and giving it outward to others.

• we want to be God-beings
• we want to be Godly

So, we forgive just as God our Redeemer forgives us!

Hosea 1:6—Hosea marries a prostitute: "And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, 'Call her name Lo-Ruhamah…'"—meaning 'unforgiven'!

Verse 8: "And when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah she conceived and bore a son. And He said, 'Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people…'" (v 8-9).

Then God has Hosea rename his children, that they are forgiven and that they are His people.  That is a powerful thing; for us to be God's people we have to be forgiven.

That's the formula that we started with in Matt. 6, that we have to forgive others so that we can be forgiven, so that we can be His people, and thus we will be forgiven.

Deut. 29—God is giving us correction here, and He wants us to truly come around:

Deuteronomy 29:18: "Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God to go serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood."

That's a root of bitterness that gets inside of us, and if we will not forgive our brother that broods and festers and swells and overtakes us.

Verse 19: "And it shall come to pass when he hears the words of this curse that he shall bless himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart'…" 

I don't have to forgive anybody; he did that to me and I'll never forget it. I'll have peace anyway, don't worry about me. I'm cool, I'm good.'

"…to the sweeping away of the watered and the parched, then the LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but the anger of the LORD and His jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven" (vs 19-20). We do not want that!

Let me recap this: It says that we don't want to have root that bears gall and wormwood that grows inside of us. We want to be repenting, because we have to forgive our brothers. If we do no, then the Lord will not forgive us.

Luke 23—Jesus does something here that's amazing to me; He forgives without repentance! He forgave you and me without us having repented and He applied His blood to us before we even repented.

Luke 23:34: "Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'…."

In the weakness and the depravity of my sins, Jesus beseeches God the Father to forgive me, and you, without us having yet repented.

He cleansed Himself of all possible ill will to any man! Those guys who had beaten Him, spit upon Him, jabbed Him with a spear, tortured Him and cussed at Him—did all kinds of despicable things to Him—in their despicability and sinfulness against God the Creator—Jesus Christ—Who came in the flesh, could Jesus not developed a root of bitterness?

Instead, He forgave them and He dissolved any possible ill-will that He may have had toward them! What did He do? He made a relationship possible once again for those who killed Him physically! And you and I who killed Him spiritually with our sins. He became opened to a relationship with us.

Are we crying, yet? It's not anything to me for you to cry, but I want this to touch your heart! Jesus was willing to forgive the unrepentant. One of Jesus' last actions was to forgive us and ask for forgiveness of us to the Father.

Brethren, forgive one another so that you may be forgiven!

Scriptural References:

• Matthew 24:12
• Matthew 6:12
• Luke 11:4
• Matthew 6:12, 14-15
• Proverbs 17:9, 17
• Proverbs 19:11
• Ephesians 4:24, 32
• Colossians 3:12-14
• Psalm 86:5
• Psalm 103:12
• Micah 7:18
• 2 Chronicles 30:9
• Jeremiah 3:11-15
• Genesis 4:13-15, 23-24
• Galatians 5:13-15
• Micah 3:2-3
• Matthew 18:21-35, 34
• Ezekiel 4:6
• Hosea 1:6, 8-9
• Deuteronomy 29:18-20
• Luke 23:34

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 18:15
• Daniel 9

Also referenced: GTM Message:
The Shot Heard Round the World; or Gossip by Steve Durham

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