Common Mistakes/Misconceptions/Counsels

Driving home: I will not knowingly remember this thing against you. Secondly, I will not speak of this thing to any others. Thirdly, I will not raise it with you again. And I will not allow it to be a barrier in the restoration of our…

Explains the four specific promises made when one says 'I forgive you' for a specific sin: not remembering it, not speaking of it, not raising it again, and not letting it be a barrier.

Nonetheless, they are conditions which God in His moral government has established as absolutely essential before He will confer forgiveness, and before the sinner can truly receive forgiveness. And then I reminded you, that in the act of forgiveness itself, particularly thinking of horizontal or human forgiveness, the one who forgives makes a solemn four-pronged promise. When you say to someone who has asked your forgiveness for a specific sin, I forgive you, you are making this promise. I will not knowingly remember this thing against you. Secondly, I will not speak of this thing to any othe...

5:07 - 6:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that a vengeful spirit cripples spiritual life and creates an unhealthy soul.

Describes how retaining vengeance cripples spiritual life and creates an unhealthy soul, likening it to 'pus-sacks' that need to be drained.

And the spirit of acrimony and bitterness and vengeance takes root in the heart. And the spiritual life comes to a horrible, horrible, crippled state while vengeance has any place. The pus-sacks of vengeance in the soul create a very unhealthy and sick soul. And so there is a child of God who feels something of this vengeful spirit and they recognize before God they come across a passage like this or they're very conscious that their prayer life has become very dull and lifeless.

12:00 - 12:40 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second mistake is failing to distinguish between maintaining a disposition of readiness to forgive and the actual act of conferring forgiveness. Jesus' prayer 'Father forgive…

Illustrates God's readiness to forgive David as a 'dammed up wall behind the door of God's heart wanting to burst forth and inundate David' upon his confession.

We saw in our study of Exodus 34 when God revealed His glory to Moses. It was part of His essential glory. That He is a forgiving God. And He takes the posture to men of readiness to forgive. For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive. God stands in readiness to forgive. As we saw this morning in the incident of David, God's forgiveness to His sinning, wayward, backslidden child was beating at His heart. God's forgiveness was like a dammed up wall behind the door of God's heart wanting to burst forth and inundate David.

19:19 - 20:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray with a heart that has a prevailing disposition of forgiveness with respect to others, especially when asking God for forgiveness of your own sins.

Quotes an old Baptist commentator on Matthew who clarifies that 'forgive' in its full scriptural sense requires confession and repentance, distinguishing it from merely bearing no malice.

And whensoever you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any, that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Here there's no indication of interpersonal interaction at this point. I think what the passage is saying, that if you stand praying, and certainly part of your prayers, if they are biblical, will be asking God for the forgiveness of your sins, make sure that when you ask God for the forgiveness of your sins, you pray with a heart that has as its prevailing disposition an attitude of forgiveness with respect to others. And I say a failure to distingu...

31:21 - 32:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Unilaterally cover sins with fervent love when doing so does not harm the brother or poison the church.

Illustrates fervent love as going around with a 'sack full of blankets' to cover minor sins unilaterally, distinguishing this from formal forgiveness.

people don't make this distinction. Is it right and proper for me when someone else has sinned, sinned against me or just sinned in general? Is it right on many occasions for me to see the sin and to choose unilaterally to cover that sin with the blanket of fervent love? Yes, Peter says above all things, have fervent love among yourselves because love goes around with a whole sack full of blankets. And it just delights to cover sins. If by covering that sin, I am not doing harm to the brother who has sinned. You see, it's not a sin which, if unrebuked and unreproved and undoubted will cripple ...

36:41 - 37:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands and wives should have a 'sack full of blankets' to cover each other's faults, rather than rebuking every sin.

Applies the concept of love covering a multitude of sins to marital relationships, emphasizing that constant rebuke for every deviation is not loving.

Love covers, in that sense, all kinds of transgressions. If husbands and wives don't have a sack full of blankets, they've got a rotten relationship. If every time your wife sins, you feel you've got to rebuke her, I wouldn't want to be your wife for a thousand worlds. And vice versa.

38:41 - 39:03 Read in full sermon

The point: When wronged, relinquish vengeance, maintain a forgiving disposition, do good to the offender, pray for them, and offer forgiveness conditionally upon their repentance.

A story of a woman who 'unconditionally forgave' her impenitent, incestuous father, which Martin uses to highlight the tragic misrepresentation of the Gospel when distinctions about forgiveness are not made.

and respond and say yes. As a forgiven sinner, it is my great joy to be a forgiving sinner. I make the promise of forgiveness. This issue is dealt with. I will not allow it to flash up and remain on the computer screen of my mind. I will not bring it up in our interaction. I will not speak of it to others. I will not let it remain a barrier to our relationship. I forgive you. Now, time won't permit, I brought the material to show when these distinctions are not made, the tragic misrepresentation of God in the Gospel that occurs. I'll just give you a distillation of it. There was a woman who wa...

47:13 - 48:05 Read in full sermon