If you want to flip over to Luke chapter 17, we're going to come back to Matthew chapter
18, but go to Luke 17.
Forgiveness is a very important subject in the Bible.
It's one of the major themes of the Bible, of course.
And if you're going to succeed in any group of people, whether it's a family or
a church or at a business, you have to be able to forgive because people are inevitably
going to do wrong by one another.
And you have to be able to resolve those things, forgive, forget, move on.
Of course, if it weren't for God's forgiveness, none of us would be saved.
The Bible says in him, we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins.
And so Jesus Christ died on the cross for us and was buried and rose again so that we
could be forgiven.
And the Bible says, as far as the East is from the West, so far has God separated us
from our sins.
He says in Hebrews chapter 10, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
And so just as Christ forgave us, we are commanded to forgive people who do wrong
unto us.
OK, and people who make mistakes and do wrong and commit sins, if they are
repentant, if they get it right, we're not to bring that up to that person
again and hang that over their head.
Now, we live in a society that hangs things over people's heads forever.
You know, for example, you can commit some stupid crime when you're 18, 19 years
old, and then that's just on your criminal record.
Now, when you're 30, 40, 50, that's unbiblical.
You know, the Bible teaches, even in a criminal law, that when someone is
punished for their crime, that's it.
And it's not to be brought up once the crime has been paid for and atoned for.
You move on and you don't want to hang things over people's heads that they have
repented for.
Look at Luke chapter 17, verse three, take heed to yourselves.
What does that mean?
Take heed to yourself.
He's saying, hey, pay attention to your own behavior.
Take heed to yourself means be careful how you act, right?
Be aware of what you're doing.
Now, yeah, we see what other people do wrong, but we also need to take heed to
ourselves.
Amen.
We make mistakes too.
And then he says, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.
So there's nothing wrong with telling someone when they do you wrong.
If someone does wrong by you going to that person and says, hey, you've offended
me, you've done me wrong.
You've injured me.
You've done something ill to me.
There's nothing wrong with doing that.
In fact, the Bible says if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.
And then it says, and if he repent, forgive him.
If he says, oh man, you know what?
I'm sorry.
I shouldn't have done that.
You're right.
Then forgive him.
And if he trespassed against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day,
turning into these saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.
Now, obviously this is a little bit of a hyperbole or exaggeration on Jesus part
because this isn't really going to happen seven times a day.
What he's actually saying here is that there's no limit to how many times you're
going to forgive.
He's not saying, you know, on that eighth time, just, you know,
that's not what he's saying.
He's saying it's unlimited because it's such a, it's such a crazy number.
Like later when he says, you know, well, how many times should I forgive my
brother?
Seven times.
And Jesus said, no, 70 times seven.
He's not saying like, all right, we're up to 481 and you know, nine more
times.
And that's not what he's saying.
He's basically just using these big numbers to show that we need to practice
forgiveness and look, he's using an extreme number because we need to have
an extreme amount of forgiveness for our fellow man.
So don't miss that.
Don't be half hearted about your forgiveness or think that forgiveness is
not a big deal.
If Christ is using these extreme examples, he's not just blowing smoke
when he says, Hey, if he sins against you seven times and seven times in
one day says, I repent, forgive him.
He's trying to send a very strong message about the importance of
forgiveness.
Don't miss it.
Don't be this person that is hanging things over people's heads that they have
long since repented of and gotten right.
Okay, now keep your finger there.
This isn't in my notes, but go back to Leviticus chapter 19 because this is
the relevant scripture in Leviticus that connects with this verse in the book of
Luke.
And of course, this is the famous verse about loving your neighbor as yourself.
This is the one that Jesus said is the second most important commandment in the
law.
The first commandment being to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and
soul and mind and strength, but the second commandment being love thy
neighbor as thyself.
Look if you would at chapter 17, I'm sorry, chapter 19 verse 17 of
Leviticus.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.
Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.
So he's saying, don't hate your brother in your heart.
If he sins, rebuke him.
You know, don't just get mad about something that someone does to you and
just let that become this root of bitterness that you're just bothered by
for weeks and months and years.
He's saying, look, if it's bothering you instead of hating your brother in your
heart, instead, just go to him and tell him you've done me wrong.
Rebuke him, right?
A rebuke is basically a stern correction.
OK, so he says here, don't hate him in your heart, but rebuke him instead.
OK, rebuke thy neighbor.
That sounds like a good sermon title.
No, rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him.
But look at verse 18, thou shalt not avenge, right?
Don't try to get back at him and take vengeance and take things into your own
hands, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.
Don't hold a grudge against people in church, you know, because obviously we're
not in the nation of Israel.
We're in the local church here.
Don't hold a grudge against your brother in Christ.
Don't hold a grudge and hate in your heart.
Your fellow church member, he says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
I am the Lord.
So part of loving your neighbor is not holding a grudge, not avenging yourself
and not hating them in your heart because they did you wrong.
It's OK to rebuke someone when they need to be rebuked.
It's not OK to hold a grudge.
OK, and when that person is repentant, it needs to just be let go, period.
End of story.
OK, go to Matthew Chapter six.
Matthew Chapter six, here's kind of a maybe a small thing, but this is a pet
peeve of mine.
When I'm out in public.
And people will not accept an apology, I'm talking about strangers now, you
know, let's say you accidentally bump into someone and you say, oh, I'm
sorry, and they just go.
You know what, that's unchristian is what that is, and don't you ever let
that be you and you should teach your children how to accept an apology.
OK, when someone says to you, oh, I'm sorry, you shouldn't just be like,
you know, you should say, hey, it's OK.
All right, let's let's teach this.
OK, so let's practice.
I'm we're going to do like in those Catholic and Protestant churches where
they like do a responsive back and forth thing.
OK, so I'm going to say I'm sorry.
And then you give me the proper response.
OK, hey, I'm sorry.
All right, very good.
Let's try it again.
I'm sorry.
No problem, it's OK, I forgive you.
All right, that's the right answer.
My friend, when someone actually is sorry, somebody bumps into you.
Oh, sorry about that.
Somebody spills something on you.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Not just, oh, look what you've done.
You know, if they're sorry, if they repent, forgive them, let it go.
Otherwise, you know what?
You're not being Christian in that moment.
You're not being Christ like there.
And this is a big deal.
Look what it says in Matthew Chapter six, verse 12.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Now, have fun praying that prayer if you're not a forgiving person.
Oh, God, would you please forgive me the way I forgive other people?
OK.
God's going to come down on you for every stupid thing that you do, because that's how you treat other people.
If you're one who comes down on everyone else hard and you don't let things go and you hold a grudge, you know what?
Then God's going to hold a grudge against you.
That little sin that you did last year.
And he'll just keep hanging it over your head if that's how you want to be.
You asked for it.
You said forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
I'm not praying that prayer.
But this is what this is what we're supposed to be praying, because we're supposed to be a forgiving person.
And so he says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses.
That's a pretty strong statement.
Now, this is not in regard to salvation.
All forgiveness in the Bible is not in regard to salvation.
This is talking about God's chastisement, his chastening, our relationship with God, that father son relationship that we enjoy after we're saved.
We want forgiveness for the things that we do as Christians so that God doesn't come down on us like a ton of bricks for every mistake that we make.
God's going to chase us, period.
But do we want God to chase in us in his hot displeasure or do we want God to chase in us with mercy and realizing, hey, here's a guy who extends grace and mercy to other people.
So I'm not going to come down on him as hard.
I'm going to treat him the way that he treats his neighbor.
That's what the Bible says. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
If we forgive other men their trespasses, God's going to forgive us again.
Always forgiveness is not in regard to salvation.
When Jesus was on the cross and said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, he wasn't saying, OK, everybody's saved now.
Everybody who crucified me is automatically saved.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying, go easy on them because of what they're doing.
And specifically, especially some of those Roman soldiers are totally ignorant of what they're doing.
They didn't really understand what they're doing.
And one of them even turned around and did what?
He said, hey, oh, man, this truly was the son of God.
Right.
And he believed in him.
So there was an answer to Christ's prayer there that that guy was still able to get saved, even though he was right there leading the crucifixion.
So we need to be a forgiving person.
Now, go to Matthew Chapter 18.
This is such a powerful example of this in Matthew Chapter 18.
Forgiveness, it's so critical.
In any relationship in your life, it has to be there.
I mean, think about in a marriage.
What if just every time I did something wrong, my wife just never would let it go.
And then every time she did something wrong, I'm just not going to let it go.
And then here we are.
We've been married for 19 and a half years.
Can you imagine the grievances that would have piled up?
Can you imagine just just every night, just going down a list of just all the things?
Folks, it's impossible to have a relationship like that.
How are you going to get along in church?
How are you going to get along at your job?
How are you going to get along with people if you can't let things go?
It's impossible to have a relationship if you're not going to practice forgiveness.
You have to because you have to keep refreshing that thing and restarting that
thing and hitting that reset button.
And you can't just keep bringing things up.
And by the way, what motive does anyone have to reform themselves or clean up their
life if everyone's just going to treat them like a wicked sinner anyway, because they
can just never live down their past.
Let him that stole steal no more.
Rather, let him work with his hands.
Right.
So how can the thief reform himself if he's just going to be considered a thief for
the rest of his life?
You know, and then this caused a lot of people to just throw up their hands and say,
well, why even try?
I can never live it down.
You know, why would the horror stop being a horror if she's just going to be
considered a horror for the rest of her life?
You know, she has to be able to be forgiven and live that down and become something new.
Give people a chance to reform, give people a chance to live right.
So look at Matthew 18 21.
Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me?
And I forgive him till seven times.
I heard you say something about seven times.
It was seven times a day, Peter.
All right.
But he said, you know, so what, seven times?
Is that the limit?
Jesus says unto him, I say not under the until seven times, but until 70 times seven.
Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his
servants.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought in him which owed him 10,000 talents.
Now this is an enormous sum of money.
It's an astronomical sum.
If you study the Bible and see the measurement of a talent, this is just some
astronomical sum of money that he had 10,000 of anything's a lot, but this is 10,000 talents, which is a
large unit of measurement.
And I've seen people try to calculate this and I can't keep up with all the conversions, but it was like a
million dollars or something.
There's some, I don't remember the numbers.
There's some huge number.
Okay.
But for as much as he had not to pay his Lord commanded him to be sold.
Remember, remember the Wednesday night sermon about people being sold into indentured servitude.
So that was what excess 21 covered, but he commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he
had and payment to be made, you know, to be able to cover this debt, he's going to have to be sold.
The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay the
all.
Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt.
But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence.
Now this is a considerably smaller amount of money.
First of all, the penny is much less than the talent.
And instead of 10,000, we're down to a hundred.
Remember the unskilled laborers who were like a day laborer, they would get like a penny a day.
So this is like a hundred times that.
Okay.
So, but it's a considerably smaller amount of money.
And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou lowest.
Pay me what you owe me.
And his fellow servant, verse 29, fell down at his feet and beside him saying, have patience with me and I
will pay the all sound familiar.
And he would not, but went and cast him into prison until he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servant saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told unto their Lord, all that was
done.
Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, Oh, that wicked servant, I forgave the all that
debt because thou desire it's to me.
Should us not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee and his Lord
was Roth.
Roth is derived from the same root as wrath, right?
So he's filled with wrath.
He's enraged at this servant who will not forgive his brother and delivered him to the tormentors till he
should pay all that was due unto him.
Look, this is a horrible fate here for this guy who was going to be sold and his wife and his kids into bondage.
But now he threw the other guy into prison.
An unpleasant place, and now he's going to the tormentors, he's going to a really bad prison, OK, until he
should pay all that was due unto him.
So likewise, don't miss this, so likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your
hearts forgive not everyone, his brother, the trespasses.
You say, well, you know, I know Pastor Anderson is preaching about forgiveness, but.
You know, I just don't think that that applies to me or well, I'm just weak in that area.
Is this something you want to be weak in?
Well, you know, this is just something I struggle with, you better quit struggling with it fast because I don't
want God to torment me.
And again, we're not talking about salvation.
There's a lot of tormenting that can happen to you in this lifetime.
My friend, you want God to be wrathful and angry.
You say, oh, God would never get angry at a saved Christian.
Really, because God's wrath was kindled against Moses at one point.
God's wrath is kindled and he gets angry when his children will go out and take their fellow Christian by the
throat and refuse to forgive them and not let things go where they've been done wrong.
Folks, it's wicked.
It is super wicked.
And you know what?
If you think it's a small deal, well, you know what?
You didn't read verse thirty five, so let's read it again.
So likewise, shall my heavenly father do also unto you if ye from your hearts.
So is this just saying I forgive you?
No, no, that's not enough.
It's not even enough to say that you forgive.
You have to forgive from the heart.
Everyone, his brother, their trespasses.
Somebody smashes up your car, they're really sorry, you know, forgive, let it go.
You know, recently I, you know, I had somebody get mad at me about a sermon that I preached like two years ago.
OK, and I didn't in the sermon, I didn't mention them by name, but they're like, you were preaching against me in that sermon.
And I'm like, hey, if the shoe fits, then wear it.
Well, you know, and no one in the world could have would listen to the sermon and say, oh, yeah, I know what he's talking
about. You know, it's just it's a sin that tons of people are guilty of.
Millions of people are guilty of.
OK, I preached a sermon years ago.
And then this person gets mad at me and says, well, you know, ever since you preached that sermon, you know.
We just don't feel the same way about you.
Hey, you know what?
Excuse me for preaching the Bible.
You know, I preach the word of God and you're holding a grudge years later.
What's your problem?
And you know what, that's wicked is what that is.
To just sit there and just harbor all this bitterness and gall and rancor toward your brother and sister in Christ for something that happened years ago.
And you're bringing it you're still bringing it up.
So what's wrong with you?
And you know what, if you if you have a problem with somebody, then resolve it.
But you know what's even better than rebuking your neighbor is if you can actually just get over it.
You know, when someone now, by the way, I didn't trespass against that person because I preach the same thing every day until Jesus comes because it's the truth, what I preach from the word of God.
But the bottom line is that when you have a problem with somebody, you don't just pretend that everything's OK and just have this under the surface bitterness, gall, anger, hatred, rancor toward your brother and sister in Christ.
You need to resolve it one way or the other.
Now, the best way to resolve it is just to forgive and forget and let it go.
Especially if it's a little thing, friend, the Bible says, endeavoring to keep the unity in the spirit of the bond of peace, let me ask something, do you endeavor to keep faithful word Baptist churches unity intact?
Is that something that you strive for?
Is that something that you work for?
Do you think to yourself, you know what, we need to work hard to make sure that we don't disrupt the unity here.
Or do you just make a big stink about every stupid little thing?
Because, you know, there are some people, just every stupid little thing, they just want to blow it out of proportion and make a big deal about it.
Now, look, here's where I kind of want to make sure that we get the balance here.
OK, because on one hand, if you have an issue with somebody, you need to resolve it.
But on the other hand, really, that's your issue?
Right, because if you're really endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit of bond of peace, then you should be able to let small things go and not make a big deal about everything.
So here's the thing.
You should let things go.
But if you're unable to let that go or maybe it's a big enough deal where it really is warranting of a rebuke and needs to be dealt with.
Well, then you need to deal with it.
But keeping the rancor in your heart is not an option, not an option.
Being bitter, not forgiving, not an option.
OK, so you got a couple of choices here.
You can either just let it go, water off a duck's back, somebody says something rude to you.
Look, don't you think people say rude things to me?
Even here, even, you know, a prophet's not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house.
No, but look, people look, people say things that are rude to me that I just don't even care.
It's just like, who cares?
Let it go. Right.
But if somebody says or does something to you that's that's serious, then you know what?
Deal with it with that person.
So those are your options, right?
Let it go or deal with it.
What's not an option is you just.
Bitterness, hatred in your heart, a grudge, not it's wicked, friend, and don't minimize the sin of holding a grudge or bitterness or rancor in your heart toward your brother and sister in Christ.
Don't minimize it.
It's a major, major sin.
OK, you see the wrath here associated with it.
OK, so little things, let them go, be the bigger person, check your ego at the door, endeavor to keep the unity in the spirit of the bond of peace.
Right. But if there's an issue, go to that person and resolve it.
And the best way to resolve it is just one on one with that person.
You go to that person one on one.
And I've done this many times.
I've had many people do this to me.
I've just gone to somebody and just say, hey, I'm mad at you, you know, and basically.
You've done this, you've done me wrong, you need to make this right, and God willing, if your matters are true and just and right, then hopefully they're going to say, you know what?
I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that.
I won't do it again.
That's it, right?
I mean, ideally, that's what's going to happen.
But if you go to that person and they're just like drop dead or whatever, then at that point, you know, you take the Bible says you take one or two witnesses with you so that everything can be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.
And you take a few people and say, look, this is what you've done.
It's offensive.
It's wrong.
You've injured me.
And sometimes these are financial grievances.
Sometimes somebody borrows money from somebody and doesn't pay them back or has a contractor come to work at their house and doesn't pay the bill or whatever, or the contractor takes the money and doesn't do the job right or what, you know, it could go either way.
So these kind of disputes that are there.
It's better if you can resolve them one on one, but then otherwise, you know, you bring in a couple of witnesses and look, if the person refuses to hear you, what does the Bible say?
You know, you tell it to the church.
And if they refuse to hear the church, they're thrown out of the church.
Now, stop and think about this.
Obviously, we know the Bible teaches to throw people out for major sin, such as drunkenness, idolatry, railing, extortion, fornication.
OK, these are big things.
Right. And those are just an automatic expulsion.
You know, if you're caught doing those things, you're automatically put out of fellowship.
OK, it's just an obvious thing.
OK, but.
You can actually be thrown out of church for anything else if you just refuse to listen to correction when you've offended a brother and their matters are just and it's brought before the church and the church is saying, look, you need to make this right.
You need to pay that bill or you need to apologize or you need to repent or whatever.
You know, you could be thrown out for those things, too, according to Matthew 18.
Look down at your Bible.
Are you there in Matthew 18?
Go up to verse 15.
It says, Moreover, if thy brothers shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.
If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brothers.
So you see, that's the best case scenario, just fixing it.
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more than in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church.
But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Here's what this is saying.
Respect the judgment of the church.
If you neglect to hear the church, you're thrown out and you're to be treated as a heathen man, as a publican, you're to be treated like you're not even saved.
Not to say that you're not saved, but you're as a heathen.
OK, and you're put out of fellowship if you neglect to hear the judgment of the church.
So what the Bible is teaching here is that God has given the church power to resolve these type of disputes.
So there's a dispute.
We don't want to go to law with our brother.
First Corinthians six says, don't sue your brother in Christ.
So if we're not to sue our brother in Christ, what do we do if we get ripped off or injured or something horrible happens is that we try to fix it with that person.
And then if we have to, we take it before the church.
And look, if the church passes judgment, you can't just say, well, I'm going to do what I want.
I'm going to have whatever opinion I want.
No, when the church makes the judgment, you have to go with that judgment on that situation.
And then he basically is saying here that whatever the church binds in earth will be bound in heaven, whatever the church loose in earth shall be loose in heaven.
Here's what that's saying.
You know, if you get thrown out of church, God's not going to bless you.
Because, you know, that's a curse that's associated with that being thrown.
So you're a fornicator, you're drunk, whatever, and you get thrown out of church, prepare for bad things to happen in your life because you're under the curse of God.
OK, or you refuse to hear the church or teach heresy or whatever, and you get thrown out for whatever reason, that's a bad place to be.
You don't want to be thrown out of the church.
OK, now we've obviously heard a lot of sermons about this, about whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
But you know what? How about the flip side of that?
Sometimes we forget about the second half of that, don't we?
Whatever we loose on earth, we loosed in heaven.
What about that?
You know what that means is that if the church decides to reinstate somebody or if someone repents and gets right, whatever they got thrown out for, let's say they got thrown out for something and then they come back and say, hey, I'm sorry, I repent.
And then, OK, well, now they're back.
Well, then, you know what? Shouldn't we respect that decision as well?
Or should we continue to hang it over that person's head and continue to bring it up?
And continue to talk crap about that person?
Is that the right way to do it?
No. So just as much as when someone's thrown out of the church for a legitimate biblical reason, whether it's a Matthew 18 reason or a 1 Corinthians 5 reason, when somebody is thrown out, we expect the members of the church to respect that and ostracize that person.
We expect other churches to respect that and not to just let that person just hop from our church to that church and all our sister churches just hopping around totally unrepentant.
But you know what? We also should respect it when that person repents and is forgiven and is reinstated.
We ought to respect that, too.
Amen? Let's not just get all into binding and then we're not into loosing.
And you know what's funny is that we are constantly accused of throwing people out but never bringing anybody back.
You know what? That's ridiculous because we have brought back tons of people that were thrown out.
The difference is we don't talk about it because it's over.
What do you want us to get up and publicly announce it?
The whole point is that it's over.
It's a done deal.
OK. Look, there are people that we threw out of the church 10 years ago that are serving God and doing great things for God now because they repented and got it right and fixed it.
We're not going to talk about it.
We're not going to bring up examples.
Of course not. You know what?
We have brought back too many people to even count because we want to restore people.
And many times church discipline's goal is restoration.
Often it's a wake up call.
You know, when somebody is thrown out for fornication, you know what?
A lot of times they end up getting married or getting out of that relationship because it's a big wake up call in their life like, wow, I got thrown out of the church.
I need to fix things.
Sometimes people have to hit rock bottom.
They have to realize that their behavior has gone too far.
Some people think they can just act however they want in the local church and just have no respect for authority, no respect for their fellow church members.
And you know what? Sometimes they have to run into a wall and be church disciplined and then they come back.
But you know what? It needs to be let go.
And you can't hang it over that person's head and bring that up.
So that's very important.
Now, keep in mind that this church discipline passage that starts in verse 15 and ends in verse 20 is immediately followed up by verse 21.
Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me?
Do you see how that the parable about the guy going to the tormentors is actually in context with the church discipline section?
So you see how even if somebody is church disciplined, when they get right, they need to be forgiven and reinstated as well from the heart.
Now, I will say this.
And these are these are just important principles that need to be brought up from time to time to make sure that we're all on the same page.
You know, our church has hundreds of people in it.
And in order to get along, you know, you have to understand how to interact in a social group here and how to be in a church and how God wants us to act and behave.
You know, we ought to know how to behave ourselves in the house of God, the Bible says.
OK, so we need to understand these principles of forgiveness, not holding a grudge.
If it's a serious issue, not something stupid and petty, but if it's a serious issue, you confront that person.
You get it resolved. You deal with it head on first privately, involve other people.
And then, you know, if it escalates to being brought before the whole church, so be it when people get reinstated, you forgive them.
But let me just mention another principle that's very important in order to have peace in a local church.
You do not have to be friends with everyone at our church.
If there is someone at our church that you have a personality conflict with, you don't have to be their friend.
But you know what? You do have to treat that person respectfully and civilly.
And you do have to be kind and polite to that person.
Now, look, it's impossible to be friends with everyone in this church anyway, just because of the size.
I mean, no one has room for this many friends in their life, you know what I mean?
So just the nature of things is that, you know, certain people in the church, you're going to end up being friends with because you have a common interest.
You have something that draws you together.
So, you know, you're going to end up finding different people in the church that you kind of click with.
And guess what? There are going to be other people in the church that you don't click with at all, that you don't get along with at all.
And that's OK.
But you know what you can't do is treat those people bad and be rude and talk bad about them behind their back or just create conflict with those people.
That's what you can't do.
So, you know, if somebody is thrown out of the church and they get reinstated and you're like, well, I still think they're bad or whatever, you know, but here's the thing.
OK, but you respect the judgment of the church on that.
OK, if the church threw them out for something and they got it right and now they're back, well, you know what, OK, you don't want your daughter to date them or you don't want your son to date them or fine.
But you know what, that's not for you to go tell other people and talk bad about that person and say, hey, if you don't want to have them over for dinner, then don't.
You as a church member reserve the right to be friends with whomsoever you want and then not be friends with whomsoever you want.
But you must be peaceful and civilized with everyone in the church and treat everyone well.
And, you know, and there's a difference between maybe me wanting my son or daughter to date somebody.
Or that person just being a member of our church and good standing that we can serve God with and smile and be happy and get along.
You know, it's my job to try to keep the peace.
But you know what, you should be a peacemaker to every single person here should be a peacemaker.
We should all be making peace.
All of us should be making peace.
You know, we see a conflict.
Let's try to make peace.
Let's try to resolve it.
Let's try to fix it because you know what?
There are so many personalities here and so many sinners here.
We're all sinners.
We're all going to have a bad day.
We're all going to be rude and say something stupid without thinking.
I've done it.
You've done it.
We're all going to do the wrong things.
But you know what?
At the end of the day, in order to be able to keep winning souls and moving forward as a church, we have to be able to transcend those petty grievances.
Okay.
And keep the peace.
And that's going to take effort to keep the peace.
So do not be this drama monger.
This person who just foments issues and goes around talking about this person, talking about this person.
And look, I'm not talking about reprobates.
Okay.
Look, if somebody is a rep, but here's the thing, if somebody is a reprobate, we'll throw them out and they're not coming back.
Some sodomite gets thrown out or some pervert gets thrown out.
They're not coming back.
Rest assured, we will protect you from those, you know, you know, from these people, you know, we'll protect you.
All right.
So we're going to keep these people away.
Amen.
So, but, but what we have to realize is that people are good.
People are going to make mistakes.
Or especially what about somebody who's just brand new to church?
Sometimes people are brand new to church.
They're like a bowl in a china closet.
They're all super zealous and excited, and they're just ready to just kind of kill them all and let God sort them out.
Be be patient with that person.
People need to grow.
And you know what?
Just like there are sins in the Bible, like murder, drinking, stealing, adultery, those, you know, those kind of sins, you know, there are also sins in the Bible of being unkind, unforgiving, unloving, you know, and just having a bad attitude.
There are other, so my point is just like a new believer might have to quit smoking and quit drinking and get out of fornication and quit this and quit that.
Well, you know what?
A new believer also needs to learn how to be peaceful and get along in God's house.
So there could be some new church members, new believers who are stepping on everybody's toes because they're new and they don't know the ropes or because they just don't know how to act like a good Christian.
Be patient, be gentle, OK, and allow people to grow.
And if people do wrong, hey, correct them when necessary, rebuke them when necessary, but don't hang that over their head and bring that out.
And look, I'm talking about church tonight.
I'm emphasizing church.
If you would go to Ephesians chapter four.
I'm emphasizing church, but you know what?
You do well to put the same principle into practice in your marriage, OK, and learn how to be forgiving and, you know, God's mercies are new every morning.
Now, let me change tack here, OK?
So we're talking about forgiveness and so forth, rebuking people, correcting people.
Now, let's talk about another issue, because we're more so far talking about people that wrong you, they offend you, they say something or do something or injure you in some way.
That's kind of what we're focusing on right now.
But what about people in the church who have false doctrine?
What about people who have false doctrine?
You know, let me explain something to you about this, OK, that not everyone in our church believes exactly the same.
I know that might just come as a big shock to you.
And that might horrify some of you, but what in the world do you expect?
Do you really expect that everybody in our church disagrees on everything?
Yeah, we all just are in lockstep or just all these mindless drones that all believe the exact same thing in every situation.
Is that what you think? Of course not.
Look, friend, everybody doesn't believe every word of what I preach, OK, because people read the Bible on their own, they think on their own, they have their own walk with God, and we have individual soul liberty as Baptists.
OK, we don't demand that you believe exactly like us.
You know, I've heard of independent Baptist churches sometimes abusing this verse that says, you know, obey them that have the rule over you and submit themselves or submit yourselves for they watch for your souls.
And they said, see, that means you have to believe like us because it said follow their faith.
So that means believe exactly what we believe.
No. Look, yeah, you do have to submit to the leadership of the church.
You do have to respect the authority in the church.
But you know what? The church can't tell you what to believe, though.
You understand the difference?
Let's say we throw someone out, look, you can believe in your heart that we were wrong and that's OK.
The problem is we start subverting the church and going around and criticizing and second guessing things that aren't your decision to make.
Maybe you don't agree with someone being allowed back.
You know what? Go ahead and feel that way.
But you know what? When you're publicly lambasting that person or slandering that person behind their back, you know, that's where you're wrong.
So the faith for Baptist Church does not demand you to believe like us, OK?
Now, here's the thing.
Obviously, there are certain essential doctrines that we all have to agree on, but we're not forcing you to believe like us because there's the door.
And the door and the door and the door, how many doors we have, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight exit doors.
And we just got a few new exit doors in the new section.
You know, you got plenty of egress points here.
OK, so here's the thing.
If you don't believe in the salvation that we believe in, you don't belong here.
If you have some other gospel, if you're into tongue speaking, losing your salvation.
You know, if you don't believe in the Trinity.
If you don't believe the Bible is the word of God, well, here's the thing, obviously, that's not compatible with our church.
These are essential doctrines, OK, essential doctrines that they're not up for debate.
They're not to be discussed.
It's just, you know, that's just part of who we are as a church at our core.
You belong somewhere else.
But here's the thing. There are a lot of things that we believe in our church that not everybody agrees on.
And that's OK because they're not essential core doctrines of the faith.
And usually I'll typically refer to these as deal breakers.
You know, like salvation is a deal breaker if they're wrong on salvation or, you know, if they're if they're against the King James Bible, that's a deal breaker.
If they're not Trinity believing, that's a deal breaker.
But other things are not a deal breaker.
Like, for example, you know, what if somebody believes in the pre-trib rapture?
That's OK. Now, obviously, it's totally wrong, but look, if somebody comes to our church in his pre-trib, are we going to be like, oh, you can't come here to pre-trib?
Of course not. What if somebody is pro-Israel or something?
OK, what if somebody just loves Donald Trump and they're just they're just kind of this flag waving Fox News Republican?
OK. You know, and look, there are there are certain issues that are not deal breakers where people have different opinions.
Look, not everybody agrees with everything I preach about the sodomites.
There there are people in our church who think that sodomites can get saved.
Yeah, it is a joke. But look, there are people here that believe that sodomites can get saved.
And I've had people come up to me and say, hey, well, I believe that sodomites can get saved.
I said, hey, you know, then go ahead and win as many sodomites to Christ as you want.
I said, just don't bring them here.
You can believe that and you can go out and preach to them all you want.
Go knock yourself out.
You know, don't bring them here, we don't allow them here.
OK, we don't want these dangerous people around our children, OK?
But look, people disagree on this, they disagree on that.
Do not demand that every person in the church believe exactly like us and don't browbeat people and just get on people and try to force them to believe what we believe.
Let them come here and listen to folks.
They're going to be convinced by the preaching.
And if the preaching doesn't convince them and if they keep on being wrong about that until Jesus comes, so be it.
So what now, if somebody is actively going around and teaching false doctrine.
And it's a deal breaker doctrine, then, yeah, we're going to have issues.
Look, and let me say this, if somebody comes to our church and they're not saved and you give them the gospel and they don't get saved.
So what, because some people might have to come for a few months before they get saved.
So don't just freak out like this guy's not saved.
And I gave him the gospel and he didn't believe it.
So what, let's let that person keep coming and hear the gospel and hear the preaching.
Sometimes people just have to hear it a few times.
It has to sink in or a few months.
And look, eventually they're either going to get in or get out.
Now, it's another story.
If someone's going around the church teaching a false gospel, you know, I just threw a guy out a couple of weeks ago or last week or whenever it was because, you know, somebody came to me and said, hey, this guy's teaching that you can lose your
salvation.
He's teaching about speaking in tongues and all this.
And I went to the guy and said, hey, you can't be teaching this, you know, and he wouldn't receive the correction.
And so I said, you're out.
And I said, if you want to come back to church tonight, I'll be glad to bring you in front of the whole church.
Because I said, I severely doubt that any person in this church wants you here when they find out that you're teaching that you can lose your salvation and teaching that we need to be speaking in tongues like speaking in tongues.
Not the real biblical tongues.
Who says that that kind of guy should get thrown out?
Who's who's taking people aside and saying, hey, you can lose your salvation.
So, look, a lot of people are like, oh, Pastor Anderson just unilaterally threw people.
I threw people out that I knew everybody wants out.
Why?
Because I don't want every church service to be a circus where, like, we're throwing somebody out every service or something.
We have so many we have, like, 10 first time visitors a week sometimes.
I mean, just it's a revolving door.
We don't want to just constantly be throwing out publicly every bozo.
So if somebody comes in and they're just here just to teach heresy and lies and and look, there's a big difference between the deceiver and the deceivee.
You know what I mean?
The deceive Ed and the deceiver are not the same person.
And so if somebody comes and they're not saved, so what?
Two weeks go by, they're still not saved.
So what?
Just let them alone.
Let them listen.
Let them learn.
Talk to them.
Give them the gospel.
Try to help them.
Leave them alone.
And you know what?
Hopefully eventually it'll sink in.
Eventually it'll be taken care of.
But don't you don't want to just freak out on everybody.
I've been to some churches where a visitor walks in and they get grilled.
We don't want that to be our church.
You know, when visitors come, we should be friendly to them, be nice to them, greet them, make them feel comfortable, get to know them.
But we don't need to just start grilling them.
Look, a month or two ago, a guy came in here with some gigantic cross around his neck and he's like, oh, I'm a member of the East Orthodox Church here in Tempe.
Just like Catholic, except a little worse.
Okay.
I mean, East Orthodox is a false doctrine.
Yeah.
Okay.
It's it's just as bad as the Roman Catholic, if not weirder.
Okay.
We've had many East Orthodox visitors come visit our church because there's certain things that they like about our church because I've done a lot of like Greek lessons on YouTube.
So they like the Greek stuff.
Maybe they liked our new documentary about that.
Well, no, they wouldn't like that one because that one that one was a little rough on the Orthodox.
But maybe a lot of them like Marching to Zion.
You know, they agreed with our documentary Marching to Zion.
And, you know, we've literally I'm thinking back over the last three months.
I think we had like three East Orthodox visitors that I can picture their faces right now that visited.
I'm glad.
Great.
You know, we have Calvinists coming and different people that show up.
Great.
Hey, I was preaching at Pastor Tommy Mercury's church, young guy, college student there with his girlfriend or whatever.
And they come up to me and and he says, well, I'm actually a Roman Catholic.
He said, unfortunately, I'm a papist.
Those were his exact words that he's a papist.
Okay.
So he's a Roman Catholic.
Well, you know what?
Those are the people that are going to get saved tomorrow.
Okay.
The atheists and the Catholics and the Orthodox, you know, if they keep listening to the sermons, eventually they're either going to get saved or they're going to get mad.
Either, you know, something's going to happen.
Something about to happen.
T.D. Jakes was right.
So my point is, don't feel like you just have to interrogate people and grill people and you better be in lockstep.
And, you know, you stink and Judaizer and you're fag hag idiot.
You know, it's just like, you know, give people a chance to learn and grow a little bit and hear the preaching.
And remember, it took us a while to learn these things.
Some people, it's just a shock to them because the world is getting so weird.
You know, it might take a little getting used to certain things and line upon line, precept upon precept, hear a little, there a little is how we learn the Bible, not just you walk in and you better be in lockstep.
You know, and Brother Bruce Mahie and I were talking about this because, you know, his church out in L.A., you'll have people show up that don't even know who I am.
They don't know who Pastor Anderson is because, you know, we planted the church in L.A.
But, you know, it's its own independent church.
And, you know, now it's Pastor Bruce Mahie and they have local people that they bring in.
They don't know who Steven Anderson is.
They don't know from Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And you know what?
They come in and guess what?
They have to be taught one thing at a time.
Not everybody just walks in.
I've listened to 400 of Pastor Anderson's sermons and I'm ready.
You know, let's go.
It's like you're one of us.
Yes.
Don't be a weirdo.
It's like a cult or something.
If you just expect everybody to be, it's like, well, you mean you haven't listened to the entire back catalog?
What are you doing?
You're supposed to work backwards until you get all the way to 2006.
No, folks, we're constantly reaching new people, bringing them in and we got to teach them one thing at a time and not just expect them to just know everything.
Okay.
And there might be some things that they never agree with.
They might just always have a different view than Pastor Anderson.
So what?
If it's not a deal breaker, so what?
If they're not going around on some campaign to sow discord, so what?
Right.
Allow people to have the liberty to have the freedom to believe what they want to believe.
Okay.
And don't expect everyone to believe the same.
And look, I guarantee you that if I pin down each person in the church, is there anything you disagree with me on?
Everybody would have some little, well, I didn't particularly agree when you said X, Y, and Z or whatever.
You know, everybody's going to have their issues.
You forgot what it was?
Well, good.
I like that attitude.
See, he disagreed with me, but he forgot what it was.
I like that attitude.
That's the way to do it.
But but you know what?
Hey, guess what?
I disagree with myself on some things that I've said in the past.
You know, I go back and listen to my stuff from 10, 11, 12 years ago, and I cringe at certain things that I said because of the fact that I've learned more since then.
You know, I look, I'm glad I did the second revelation series because I corrected a few little and they weren't anything major, but a few things in my original revelation series that I didn't quite understand that I tightened up for the 2013 series.
And so you know what?
You can't just expect everybody to be in lockstep.
That's a weird attitude.
OK, let people have a different opinion.
OK, and don't be a busybody where you feel like you just have to right every wrong in the world, fix every problem, straighten everybody out on everything.
You know, just relax a little bit.
OK, relax.
It took you years to get where you are.
Don't expect new people to just get there overnight.
Be patient with people.
OK, and don't be hard on.
Look at Ephesians Chapter four.
So what are we talking about?
The title sermon is Forgiveness and Liberty.
Here's what we're talking about.
Forgiveness, because that's the only way that we're going to get along, right, is by forgiving people.
And Christ made it clear that he demands that we forgive people.
It's not optional.
And liberty, because another key component to us getting along and having an effective church is that we have to have liberty, where not everyone has to believe exactly the same way and be in lockstep and the liberty to not be friends with certain people.
If you decide that you don't like certain people, then just stay away from those people.
Don't attack them.
Don't criticize them.
Don't talk bad about them behind their back.
OK, Ephesians Chapter four, verse number 30, the Bible says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed under 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 kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
So we need to forgive, be kind, just like Christ forgave us.
Now, what about the unrepentant?
What about the unrepentant?
You know, do I have to forgive people that are unrepentant or should I forgive people that are unrepentant?
I think that sometimes it's appropriate to forgive those that are nonrepentant.
Now, you're not required to forgive the unrepentant, but you know what?
A lot of times it just makes sense to just forgive even the unrepentant.
What did Jesus do when he's on the cross?
Is he forgiving the unrepentant when he says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?
They weren't repentant, but yet he's forgiving them.
Right. What about Stephen?
When he's being stoned, Lord, lay not the sin to their charge.
He's forgiving the unrepentant.
So you don't want to misunderstand this and say, well, I'm only going to forgive people only if they repent.
That's not what the Bible is teaching.
The Bible is teaching that if people repent, you have to forgive them no matter what.
Whereas if they don't repent, sometimes it's appropriate to forgive them.
Sometimes it's not appropriate to forgive them.
And maybe you're not required to, but maybe you just could anyway, just so that you can take the higher road and get along.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Now, there are some times, though, when people are unrepentant.
And they shouldn't be forgiven and forgotten because they're continuing in sin.
OK, like let me give an example.
You know, somebody's living in fornication.
Oh, I'm so sorry I did that.
And then they're just still living in fornication.
Person's out.
OK, and let's say let's say somebody keeps doing this and keeps getting thrown out and keeps doing it and keeps getting thrown out.
There might be a point where it's like, hey, bring forth fruits, meet for repentance, where we might say, hey, look, you have a pattern here.
You need to, you know, prove that you've repented here.
You need to fix this.
You need to actually resolve this.
It's not like you can say, OK, well, I'm just going to go sleep with my girlfriend and then repent seven times a day.
And then I'm not a fornicator.
I mean, that's stupid, right?
That's not what the Bible is saying.
But what the Bible is saying, if somebody is truly sorry and repentant, guess what?
They need to be reinstated.
If somebody is unrepentant, then the church discipline needs to stay in force until they're repentant.
If somebody is a heretic and they continue teaching heresy, there's no forgiveness for that.
You know, like, for example, somebody said something because I preach against, you know, Pastor John MacArthur for denying the blood of Christ, just a little thing.
Just little things like where he taught that if you take the mark of the beast, you can still be saved.
You know, just little things.
So he's teaching these damnable heresies and somebody's like, oh, that was from a quarter century ago when he said that about the blood.
Yeah, except that he has continued to reiterate his teaching on that and is never repented of that and still believes the same thing and has never taken responsibility for that and still continues to promote Bible versions that remove the blood of Christ in many places.
And they change being washed in the blood to being freed by his blood or released or loosed by his blood.
OK, because of a textual variant in their wrong Greek text, the Westcott and Hort, you know, that's based on Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, other corrupt garbage texts instead of the traditional received text of the word of God.
So, look, the bottom line is if somebody is a heretic, oh, you need to just let that go about that guy who denied the Trinity.
No, I'm not going to.
Hey, let that go when that guy denied the blood of Christ.
Hey, you need to let that go about that that that damnable heresy about.
No.
If somebody is continuing in heresy, somebody is continuing in wicked sin, somebody is continuing down a wicked road, then we may need to just break fellowship with that person permanently.
And if someone's a reprobate, well, that should go without saying that obviously we're done with that person.
But look, how many other people, though, have you held a grudge against?
They're not a reprobate, they're not a damnable heretic, OK, they're not some wicked false prophet teaching lies for filthy lucre's sake, no, it's just that they offended you, they were rude to you or whatever.
Hey, it's time to let it go.
And if you have to go confront that person and fix it, if that's what it's going to take, it's better to confront the person than to be bitter in your heart.
It's better just get it out because sometimes it's just a misunderstanding.
And if you just confront that person and just talk to that person, then you know what?
It can be resolved and we can have peace, be a peace.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Let me tell you something.
You better take it seriously when somebody corrects you, when you've offended someone and people are coming to you with a couple of witnesses and telling you, hey, you need to make this right, you better make it right.
Because you can be thrown out of the church for anything, according to Matthew 18, if you refuse to listen to correction.
And do not be a troublemaker, do not be someone like a Matthew 18 guy where you're forgiven by Christ for all the stupid things you've done, I'm forgiven for all the stupid things I've done, and then we're taking people by the throat.
Who are repentant, who are trying to do right and just demanding that they make it all, you know, the way we want it.
Hey, look, you're going to the tormentors, buddy.
Do not go down that road.
The Bible says he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
And so if someone confesses and forsakes their sins and God is merciful, then we ought to be merciful to anyone who confesses and forsakes their sins.
OK, so if someone gets it right, forgive them.
If you don't like someone in the church, then keep that to yourself.
Stay away from that person.
You know, I've had people come to me privately and say, hey, Pastor Anderson, is it OK if you just not pair me up with X, Y and Z person on this mission strip?
Or on this soul winning time?
You know, because that person, I don't get along, please don't pair us up.
You know what I say to that?
Sure.
No problem.
How dare you not be friends with everyone in this church?
No, because you know what?
That's a smart person who realizes, hey, I don't get along with this person.
I don't want to make a big stink about it.
I don't want to cause a big problem.
I want to just get along.
So, hey, I'm just going to stay away from that person.
You see what I'm saying?
But I would hope that that person in their heart doesn't have hateful or bitter feelings, but rather they just might think, hey, when I get together with that person, it's just sort of like, you know, vinegar and whatever.
What is it?
It's like oil and water, vinegar and vinegar and baking soda.
You know, remember that science project?
So the paper mache, volcano, we've all made it, right?
But anyway, yeah, some people are just like oil and water, and it's just, it's not, look, and look, there are people that I realized back when I was just a church member, I was in the pew, I wasn't the pastor.
I remember there were certain people that I liked them, I respected them, and I thought of them as good Christians.
But I'm just like, I don't really get along with that person.
You know, there are pastors that I respect them.
If somebody asked me, hey, do you know a good church in that area?
I'd be like, oh yeah, here you go, man.
This is the place.
Here's the church, man.
Yeah, this is a great church.
But you know what?
I don't ever want to hang out with that guy.
You see what I mean?
Is he a bad guy?
No.
Am I a bad guy?
No.
It's just, I don't like him, but I like his church.
I like his ministry.
I like his work.
It's just not everybody's going to get along and see eye to eye and be buddies.
Right?
So is that okay?
Of course that's okay.
So we want to strike, look, if everybody's trying to get along and endeavoring for peace, we'll have peace.
Only by pride cometh contention.
Some people are spoiling for a fight and they're, they're drama mongers.
And you know what?
If that's you, it's eventually going to catch up to you.
You're going to cause problems and eventually it's going to come back and bite you.
You're going to be the one that gets thrown out.
Eventually, if you, if you, you know, you, you try to pick fights with everybody, you know, what goes around comes around.
All right.
It's power.
It's an upward prayer.
Father, I pray that this message would be well received.
Lord, I pray that your word would sink down into our ears.
Lord, I just pray that people would take this subject seriously about forgiveness and, and about liberty and, and just being tolerant of,
people who don't believe exactly the same as we do, or maybe they're a little bit uncouth or a little bit of a new believer.
So they're kind of a bowl in a china closet.
Lord, just help us all to be patient with one another, gentle with one another, help us to try to get along and help us to also be able to know the difference between that which is damnable and that which is just a minor disagreement.
Lord, help us to, to not make a mountain out of a molehill.
And it just really help us to really love one another and, and try hard to have a peaceful church so that we can do the maximum amount of work instead of burning up a bunch of energy, fighting over dumb, non-issues, and in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.