Response to Specific Sins, Part 2

In this part of the sermon: The sermon transitions to specific sins between brethren, reviewing the duty to acknowledge one's own sin (Matthew 5:23) and to cultivate an attitude of forgiveness for others'…

The father's immediate embrace and kiss of the prodigal son, even before the son could fully articulate his repentance, illustrates the spirit of forgiveness that should be present in a believer's heart.

But I am not to wait till my brother comes crawling to me before I know and experience the spirit of forgiveness in my own heart. When ye stand praying, Jesus said, if ye have ought against any, forgive. And I was meditating on this yesterday and thinking of the review, and the thought came to me from the prodigal son, there's a beautiful illustration of this. You remember, the prodigal was coming back with a full purpose to repent.

7:07 - 7:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Peter's question about forgiving 'until seven times' leads to Jesus' command to forgive 'seventy times seven,' emphasizing that true forgiveness keeps no record and has no…

This parable illustrates the boundless nature of forgiveness (seventy times seven) and the hypocrisy of those who receive great mercy but refuse to extend small mercy to others, showing that an inability to forgive reveals an unforgiven state.

Verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king. Our Lord's going to enforce this principle with a parable. And you remember the basic facts of the parable.

19:48 - 19:59 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are spiritual, restore a brother overtaken in a trespass in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

The analogy of a surgeon delicately and skillfully removing a cancerous growth is used to illustrate the gentle, precise, and loving manner in which a believer should approach rebuking a sinning brother.

And he's to go around with his scalpel cutting whatever he sees that looks like cancerous growth. No, no. If I happen to have some growths that need to be removed and I did a few years ago, I'm not going to put myself in the hands of a physician who just said, oh, there's a growth somewhere on the back of his head there and here's a scalpel and I'll go at it. No, sir, I want to know that I had someone who handled that thing delicately, who cut only when he had to and only where he needed to and then sewed me up as soon as all the necessary cutting was done.

43:38 - 44:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But we will nonetheless go and we don't allow the sense of our own weakness to keep us back from going.

Martin shares a personal anecdote of struggling to rebuke a brother about his unscriptural parenting, highlighting the difficulty of the task but also the gracious reception when approached in a spirit of meekness and love.

I remember a few months ago a vivid example of this. I saw in a dear brother an area that's hard to talk to anybody about. It was about his family life. And he just wasn't scripturally disciplining his kids.

45:11 - 45:23 Read in full sermon