If I Fail to Forgive Others, Will God Not Forgive Me?
Chapters
0:03:11 Can a Diseased Tree Bear Good Fruit
7:46 Revilers Will Not Inherit the Kingdom of God
8:50 Struggling To Forgive Is Not What Destroys Us
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to a new week on the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:00:08.280 | and we open with a question from Nick,
00:00:10.880 | who writes in, "Pastor John,
00:00:12.160 | "I have been reading the Sermon on the Mount
00:00:13.700 | "in the Gospel of Matthew chapters five to seven.
00:00:16.940 | "I know that the sermon given by Jesus
00:00:18.700 | "is meant to reveal the extent of our heart's sickness
00:00:21.620 | "and desperate need for his righteousness.
00:00:24.520 | "There is one part that really threw me for a loop though.
00:00:27.660 | "Jesus says in Matthew six, verses 14 and 15,
00:00:31.100 | "if you forgive others their trespasses,
00:00:33.080 | "your heavenly father will also forgive you.
00:00:35.980 | "But if you do not forgive others their trespasses,
00:00:38.520 | "neither will your father forgive your trespasses either."
00:00:42.440 | Can you elaborate on what Jesus intends for us
00:00:45.080 | to take by saying this?
00:00:46.860 | "My biggest concern is in my struggle to forgive others
00:00:49.580 | "of their sins.
00:00:50.940 | "Does this mean that anyone who does not forgive others
00:00:54.180 | "cannot receive salvation from God?"
00:00:58.080 | - Before I say what I think that warning means,
00:01:04.840 | that you won't be forgiven by God
00:01:10.300 | if you don't forgive others,
00:01:11.620 | before I say what that means,
00:01:13.260 | let me make sure that Nick realizes
00:01:17.960 | that if those verses about the unforgiveness
00:01:23.320 | the unforgiving being unforgiven threw him for a loop,
00:01:28.080 | which is what he says, "They threw me for a loop."
00:01:30.080 | If those words throw him for a loop,
00:01:34.880 | there are others in the Sermon on the Mount
00:01:37.600 | that are gonna throw him for more loops.
00:01:39.920 | So for example, Jesus says in five seven,
00:01:45.260 | "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy."
00:01:51.000 | So receiving mercy comes to us through our being merciful.
00:01:56.000 | That's almost the same as 615,
00:02:00.360 | which he's being thrown for a loop by.
00:02:03.080 | "We receive mercy at the judgment
00:02:05.200 | "if trusting Christ's mercy has made us merciful."
00:02:09.840 | James puts it this way, chapter two, verse 13.
00:02:13.160 | "Judgment by God is without mercy
00:02:16.860 | "to those who have shown no mercy."
00:02:19.800 | But mercy triumphs over judgment.
00:02:23.680 | That is, if we show mercy,
00:02:25.520 | our judgment will not be condemnation, it will be mercy.
00:02:30.300 | That's the same problem, same issue that he's raising.
00:02:33.600 | Or chapter five, verse 29.
00:02:35.360 | "If your right eye causes you to sin,
00:02:36.980 | "tear it out and throw it away,
00:02:38.280 | "it's better for you to lose one of your members
00:02:40.460 | "than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
00:02:42.420 | Which means that failure to make eye-gouging war on lust
00:02:48.280 | will result in hell, same issue.
00:02:50.240 | Chapter seven, verse 16, Jesus says that,
00:02:53.240 | "We will know the false Christians by their fruit.
00:02:56.760 | "Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes
00:02:59.380 | "or figs from thistles?
00:03:01.260 | "So every healthy tree bears good fruit,
00:03:05.620 | "but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.
00:03:08.760 | "A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit,
00:03:11.720 | "nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
00:03:14.860 | "Every tree that does not bear good fruit
00:03:17.680 | "is cut down and thrown into the fire."
00:03:20.720 | So again, he says, the absence of good fruit in our lives
00:03:25.720 | means fire.
00:03:28.960 | But be sure to look at the words carefully here.
00:03:33.260 | Bearing fruit doesn't make you a good tree.
00:03:37.320 | A lot of people quickly jump to the conclusion
00:03:39.940 | that if there's some kind of conditionality
00:03:42.360 | at the judgment, namely that you have to bear good fruit,
00:03:44.920 | you have to fight lust, or you have to be forgiving,
00:03:47.600 | then we're somehow making ourselves into a good tree
00:03:52.160 | and earning salvation by those fruits.
00:03:54.360 | Well, that's insane.
00:03:55.240 | The text says a good tree bears good fruit.
00:03:59.560 | If you have fruit, you're a good tree,
00:04:01.540 | not the other way around.
00:04:03.440 | We're not saved by good fruit.
00:04:06.200 | The good fruit shows that we're a good tree
00:04:09.080 | of faith in Jesus.
00:04:12.000 | One more, or maybe two more.
00:04:14.080 | (chuckles)
00:04:15.000 | Chapter seven, verse 21,
00:04:16.440 | not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,
00:04:18.120 | will enter the kingdom of heaven,
00:04:19.320 | but the one who does the will of my Father who's in heaven.
00:04:22.520 | On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord,
00:04:24.760 | did we not prophesy in your name
00:04:26.400 | and cast out demons in your name
00:04:28.000 | and do many mighty works in your name?
00:04:29.640 | And then I will say to them, I never knew you.
00:04:33.380 | Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
00:04:36.840 | So ascribing lordship to Jesus doesn't save anyone.
00:04:42.560 | We show his lordship by doing the will of his Father.
00:04:47.560 | Without this evidence in our lives,
00:04:49.880 | we hear the words, I never knew you.
00:04:53.240 | And then he says, everyone, this is chapter seven,
00:04:57.880 | verse 24, everyone who hears these words of mine
00:05:00.520 | and does them will be like a wise man
00:05:04.000 | who built his house upon the rock
00:05:05.600 | so he doesn't get swept away at the judgment.
00:05:08.360 | And then he says, verse 26,
00:05:10.880 | everyone who hears these words of mine
00:05:12.380 | and does not do them will be like a foolish man
00:05:15.680 | who built his house on sand
00:05:17.120 | and at the judgment, he gets washed away.
00:05:19.200 | So in other words, what threw Nick for a loop
00:05:24.200 | in chapter six, verse 15, is everywhere.
00:05:30.160 | If you do not forgive others their trespasses,
00:05:33.940 | neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
00:05:37.880 | Jesus is simply saying what he's saying everywhere else.
00:05:42.880 | And the way I would put it like this,
00:05:45.460 | if the forgiveness that we received
00:05:50.460 | at the cost of the blood of the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
00:05:55.300 | if the forgiveness that we received
00:05:58.460 | at the cost of the blood of Jesus
00:06:00.980 | is so ineffective in our hearts
00:06:05.660 | that we are bent on holding unforgiving grudges
00:06:10.240 | and bitterness against someone,
00:06:13.060 | we are not a good tree.
00:06:16.060 | We're not saved.
00:06:17.820 | We don't cherish this forgiveness.
00:06:19.900 | We don't trust in this forgiveness.
00:06:22.100 | We don't embrace and treasure this forgiveness.
00:06:26.720 | We are hypocrites.
00:06:28.180 | We're just mouthing.
00:06:29.660 | We haven't ever felt the piercing, joyful wonder
00:06:35.020 | that God paid the life of his Son.
00:06:38.260 | I mean, what in the world could I hold a grudge
00:06:41.060 | against somebody when I have not been offended nearly
00:06:44.340 | like God has been offended so highly
00:06:47.140 | that he has to pay the life of his Son
00:06:49.580 | in order for me to be forgiven,
00:06:53.180 | which is exactly the point of Matthew 18
00:06:56.940 | with the parable of the unforgiving servant,
00:06:59.580 | which is like a parabolic form of chapter six, verse 15,
00:07:04.020 | where the servant owes the king a billion dollars.
00:07:08.500 | It's just off the charts what he owes,
00:07:10.300 | and he gets forgiven freely.
00:07:12.220 | And then he goes out and he feels it so little.
00:07:15.060 | It means so little to him
00:07:16.500 | that he strangles his fellow servant for $10.
00:07:20.420 | And when the king hears about it, he sends him to jail,
00:07:23.140 | and Jesus concludes that parable like this,
00:07:25.700 | verse 35, chapter 18 of Matthew.
00:07:28.380 | "So also my heavenly Father will do
00:07:32.660 | to every one of you
00:07:34.660 | if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
00:07:39.660 | And it's not unique to Jesus.
00:07:43.380 | It's everywhere in Paul as well.
00:07:45.780 | First Corinthians 6.10,
00:07:47.220 | "Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God."
00:07:51.380 | He's talking to Christians.
00:07:52.420 | Have I not warned you before?
00:07:54.340 | Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God.
00:07:57.340 | Then he adds, "Such were some of you,
00:08:00.780 | but you were washed, you were sanctified,
00:08:02.700 | you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
00:08:05.060 | and by the Spirit of our God."
00:08:06.620 | So revilers, and what's a reviler?
00:08:10.180 | Well, somebody who hates and holds grudges
00:08:12.580 | and is unforgiving and bitter.
00:08:15.560 | People like that don't go to heaven.
00:08:18.700 | Not because kindness earns heaven,
00:08:21.980 | but because kindness is the fruit of the Spirit
00:08:25.860 | which is given to those who've been broken
00:08:28.900 | by the love of Jesus and have embraced the sweetness
00:08:32.820 | of being forgiven, even though we've reviled God.
00:08:37.820 | So when Nick asks, "Does this mean
00:08:41.660 | that anyone who does not forgive others
00:08:45.380 | cannot receive salvation from God?"
00:08:49.260 | The answer goes like this,
00:08:50.700 | "Struggling to forgive is not what destroys us.
00:08:55.700 | As long as we are in the flesh,
00:08:58.460 | we will do our good deeds imperfectly,
00:09:01.820 | including forgiving and loving others."
00:09:04.540 | Jesus died to cover those imperfections.
00:09:08.300 | What destroys us is the settled position
00:09:12.100 | that we are not going to forgive
00:09:14.300 | and we have no intention to forgive
00:09:16.660 | and we intend to cherish the grudge
00:09:18.700 | and fondle the wrong that someone did to me
00:09:21.140 | and feel the bitterness.
00:09:22.420 | It feels good.
00:09:23.340 | I like to go to bed with my wrath at night
00:09:25.620 | because he legitimately wronged me
00:09:27.820 | and I'm gonna hold this against him the rest of his life.
00:09:30.020 | If we think we can be indwelt by the Spirit of Christ
00:09:34.540 | and not make war on that attitude, we are deluded.
00:09:39.540 | So Nick, if you have settled in with bitterness
00:09:44.740 | and anger and grudges, and you're not fighting this
00:09:48.220 | by faith in the mercy of Jesus to you,
00:09:51.540 | I hope this APJ will unsettle you
00:09:54.980 | and give you the freedom in Christ to let it go.
00:09:59.980 | Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
00:10:03.700 | I will repay.
00:10:04.580 | He will settle accounts, Nick.
00:10:06.380 | You don't need to.
00:10:08.180 | Well said.
00:10:10.180 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:11.340 | And Nick, thank you for the question.
00:10:13.980 | Well, we have asked for your questions on technology
00:10:17.260 | and you have responded and we have a lot of questions
00:10:19.740 | and they keep coming in
00:10:20.620 | and please keep sending them in to us.
00:10:22.700 | One listener, Josh in South Carolina,
00:10:25.100 | wants to know when is it time to give up our smartphones
00:10:28.940 | and revert to a dumb phone?
00:10:30.820 | It's actually a very good question
00:10:32.300 | and it's on the table tomorrow with John Piper.
00:10:34.820 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:10:35.840 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:10:38.440 | (upbeat music)
00:10:41.020 | (upbeat music)
00:10:43.600 | [BLANK_AUDIO]