Well, once again, we can come together via the Internet and worship the Lord. The Lord has been so good to us, I'm sure he has to you as well. We're thankful that no one to our knowledge has this virus in the church, but we still remain in our homes. And I'm still speaking to some cameras that are out there. And I miss you all, and we all miss each other. If they allow us to, we might begin meeting once again, even next Sunday, we'll wait and see; you'll be hearing from us. And when we do, we are setting into place some new policies, we'll be having two services, one beginning at 8:30 to 10. And then we'll have an hour in between and have another service. I will give us a chance to disinfect things and give us opportunities for social distancing. We won't have any Sunday school; we won't even use the Family Life Center. But you'll be getting more information on those things. And fortunately, we believe this will be temporary, but we want to do everything we can to protect you, to protect us from each other during this time.

But we come this morning once again to the Word of God. And I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter two. We will continue our verse-by-verse exposition of this epistle. And the title of my discourse to you this morning is "Lessons in Forgiveness." And we're going to be looking at verses five through 11. So follow along as I read Second Corinthians two, five through 11. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes, in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes."

Because we all struggle with an exaggerated sense of self-importance, because we all struggle with pride, because we can tend to be easily offended, many times, it's hard for us to forgive another person who has wronged us. Someone says something bad about us, and rather than ignoring it and trying to treat it with grace, we take it personally, we get defensive and we counter attack, which merely throws gas on the fire. And of course, we see this type of cycle happening all the time with cyber bullies, for example, on social media; and they've turned this into an art form. And since so many people on social media platforms get on there, in order to find affirmation for themselves, we see that there's a direct link between social media and depression. Because often the type of feedback, the type of affirmation they get, isn't what they wanted. And especially younger people tend to get very depressed and so it just fuels this anger. And this sense of wanting to get even with other people. In fact, in one study that I read that was quoting several recent studies, it said that teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms, were shown to have a substantially higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time and that rate is from 13 to 66% Higher. So what you tend to see in our culture is many people live in the cycle of attack and kill under attack. All you have to do is drive on the interstate and you see that. Certainly what you don't see is the idea of loving your enemy. You don't see people praying for those who mistreat you and forgiving those who seek to be forgiven. That's foreign in our culture. And many times we bring that into the church. We have this attitude of "go ahead and make my day." Just think of perhaps someone who's offended you. How do you think about that? How do you respond to that? What's your attitude? Are you bitter? Are you spiteful? Have they come to you and asked for forgiveness, and you kind of give lip service to it, but down deep, you really resent them? And perhaps you even slander them? If so, you’re going to struggle with what you're going to even hear today as we look into the text. And frankly, this is going to speak to all of us, because we all struggle at some level with these kinds of things. You really want to ask yourself, "am I a forgiving person, when people come and seek forgiveness?" What's your attitude towards people who mistreat you? Do you seek revenge or do you pray for their repentance? Are you forbearing? Are you patient? Are you gentle? Do you try to restore perhaps a sinning brother or sister in the spirit of gentleness? Or do you operate in the flesh and seek retaliation and so forth? Using the example of an abusive master, let me remind you of what Peter said, and First Peter two beginning in verse 18, he says "Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrow when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God."

Well, certainly this is contrary to our flesh. Our flesh fights this kind of attitude. I think of the unimaginable torture that our Lord Christ experienced while hanging on the cross. And yet, he prayed to the Father, "'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.'" Now, obviously, dear friends, to respond in such a way when we have been injured, especially when we've been severely injured--to respond with that kind of Christlike love, requires a special work of the Spirit. Even in our new nature, we find our flesh fighting against that. And we need help from the indwelling Spirit. And we can be thankful knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Well, our text this morning, helps us get a little glimpse of how believers are to deal with these things, especially in light of our selfish proclivities, if you will; our flesh that wants to get even with people, and really not forgive them in our heart. And here we can learn some very important lessons in forgiveness.

Now, let me remind you of the context. The Corinthians really struggled with pride and self-will. They were a very divisive people. They were factious, and some had believed the slanderous attacks against the apostle Paul, that the false teachers had made known and some of their sycophants, other malcontents, kind of drank the Kool Aid, if you will, and believe Paul can't be trusted and so forth. And evidently, one of these guys confronted Paul publicly to try to humiliate him and verbally attacked him in what is called the painful visit, as we read in chapter two and verse one. But providentially, we see that there were enough mature saints in the church that they saw that this was wrong, and that this man needed to be dealt with. And so they were willing to discipline this man. And because he was unrepentant, actually disfellowship him, according to Paul's instructions. And fortunately, the excommunication accomplished what it was intended to accomplish, and that is repentance. But unfortunately, there were still those in the church-- probably those that belong to the "pro-Paul cult," if you will, and they were wanting a little more flesh. They wanted a pound of flesh more, shall we say. And they wanted this guy to pay more for his wickedness. And so Paul is coming in and saying, look, the guy has repented and I'm instructing you now to forgive him, to comfort him, to reaffirm him, to show love for him publicly. And as we examine what Paul said, under the inspiration of the Spirit, in the scriptures, I believe what we're going to see is at least four lessons regarding forgiveness, and we would all do well to learn them.

So, let's look at the text. He says, first of all, in verse five, "But if any has caused sorrow," referring to the offender, but guarding him by not using his name. "But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you." Beloved, here we see a heart of tender forbearance towards someone that has mistreated him. He speaks in rather vague generalities. He avoids mentioning his name; he says nothing even about the offense of the nature. And no doubt this man would have heard this letter. He may have been in the same room when it was read. Certainly he would have known the contents of it. Imagine the unnecessary grief, had Paul mentioned his name, and even described the offense once again. I mean, he didn't say "Well, yes, you know, Octavius caused me great sorrow when he called me a lying dog that was devouring all of you for personal gain, et cetera, et cetera." No, he didn't say any of that. And obviously, I don't know what all the issue was, but what we see here is Paul guarding him, and basically saying, look, his punishment was enough. He's repented. And what you'll notice here, and all through Second Corinthians, you'll see that Paul did not take this personally. Obviously, the man had caused great sorrow in the church, and sorrow even to Paul, but that's past, it's over. It's needs to be forgotten. It's forgiven. And so he says, "he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. When he says, "in order not to say too much," he's saying, you know, rather than exaggerating this thing, and blowing it out of proportion. So once again, he's guarding him. Of course, the man caused disunity and strife within the church. Everyone knows that. But Paul was basically saying, Look, don't single me out as if I need a pound of flesh here; as if my pride has been wounded and it would be an insult for you to somehow forgive him and restore him to fellowship. No, no, don't think of that at all. I seek no vengeance here, and neither should you. That's the point.

So the first lesson that we see here is don't take injuries personally. That's really hard to do. I mean, when somebody offends you, and I've had this happen so many times, I can't even keep track of them. But when somebody does that, you have to say to yourself, look, I don't know what's going on for this person. Now, certainly, if I've done something, and I need to repent of that and go seek their forgiveness, that's a whole different story. But when you hear of something and somebody's mad at you, you don't know what's happened, you have to say, look, I don't know what's going on with this person. I don't know what type of lies they have concocted in their head or heard from other people, some other malcontent who knows what kinds of exaggerations they have invented, and in their mind and to accomplish some personal agenda. I'm not sure what's going on with them. And certainly, I'm not sure what God is up to, in their life, in the agencies of divine providence; I don't know what he's up to, even in the life of the church or their family or whatever it might be. I mean, folks think of the times you've been perhaps falsely accused or demeaned, maybe even publicly, when someone says or does something that is profoundly embarrassing. You know, even when your conscience is clear. You know there's really nothing you can do about it; you're sorrowful, you're hurt, you're disappointed. And I'm sure Paul felt all of those things. I'm sure he was, he was righteously indignant--and rightfully so. But at the end of the day, we all have to say, what we see Paul saying here is, look, God is up to up to something here, in the life of this person, in the life of the church, this person has enormous problems. And, and we're just going to trust the Lord to deal with that, and we're going to deal with it biblically within the church. And many times, I have to say, look, whatever's going on with this person, I'm really not a part of it, I'm kind of the most available dog to kick. All I can do, Lord is trust in your goodness, trust in your Providence. I know you're up to something way beyond me here. Therefore, I just have to let you deal with it. And so then the bigger issue, as you've heard me say before, is what's for lunch? I'm just not going to let that person rob me of joy, rob me of fellowship with other people, and distract me from doing what God has called me to do. And that was certainly Paul's attitude here.

Paul realized, as we all should, that he was only a tiny little fish in the ocean of divine providence. Folks, when these things happen, God is up to things that are way beyond our comprehension. And so don't think of yourself as the center of the universe here, that needs to be treated in a special way or whatever. So I think of this situation, like the story of Joseph. You will remember the unbelievable mistreatment that he suffered at the hands of his brothers, when they sold him into slavery into Egypt. And yet, eventually, what does God do? God makes him, basically the prime minister of Egypt, and God used the treachery of his brothers to accomplish things that Joseph could have never dreamed of. Joseph forgave his brothers, you will recall, he calmed their fears. He comforted them. And in Genesis 50, verse 19, he says, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?" The answer is obviously, yes. And he goes on to say, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive," and so forth. So know that God is up to something in these things.

But a second lesson that I think we can learn from this, is don't keep stoking the fire. That's in essence, what Paul is saying, drop it, forget it, it's over. Rejoice. The person has repented. That's what we've prayed for. And now he's asking for our forgiveness. Let's forgive him. Don't keep reminding him of his sin. I mean, think of the father of the prodigal son. What did he do? He ran out to meet his son. He loved his son, he embraced the penitent with full forgiveness; he offered him gifts of acceptance, and that's what we need to do. We need to kill the fattened calf; we need to have a banquet of celebration. Beloved, this is how God treats us when we are repentant. He forgives, he comforts, he embraces us. The prophet Micah reminds us of just the forgiving nature of God in Micah seven beginning in verse 18. He said, "Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." And the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 103 and verse 12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." In other words, he's taking them so far away, they no longer have any effect on our relationship with Him. In fact, the words "far" and "removed" in Psalm 103:12 are of the same word in Hebrew, meaning "to become far off" or "distant." And hear the term is used both as a noun and as a verb, and could be translated, as is "the distance from the east to the west." So he distances our sins from us. Yahweh takes our sins. He removes them as far away as possible. Beloved, can there be a more vivid picture of forgiveness?

I'm always deeply moved when I think of Hezekiah's praise to God for his undeserved mercy in delivering him from impending death and for forgiving his sins. We read about this, for example, in Isaiah 38. And in verse 17, Hezekiah says, "It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, for you have cast," literally hurled, "all my sins behind Your back." Beloved, when we are truly repentant, God is truly forgiving. The idea here is that that he consigned our sins to oblivion; our sins are no longer a barrier between God and us. And contrast this to God's attitude towards a person who is unrepentant. In Psalm 90 and verse eight we read, "You have placed our iniquities before You. Our secret sins in the light of Your presence." What a horrible thought. But we also know that "when we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And my friends, this is the glorious, good news, even of the New Covenant, as the writer of Hebrews describes it in chapter eight, when regenerating grace bring sinners to repentance. And verse seven of that chapter, and following and especially in verse 12, the writer says, "'For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,'" speaking for God here, "'and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more.'" Think about that--"'I will remember them no more.'" Now folks I ask you, how wicked would it be for us to remember what God has chosen to not remember? To remember no more? He takes our sins--when we're repentant--he takes our sins, he casts them into the depths of the sea, he removes them as far as the east is from the west, he hurls them behind his back, and yet we're gonna keep bringing them up? Well, you get the idea.

Now back to our text in Second Corinthians two. Not only are we learning here not to take injuries personally and don't keep stoking the fire, but number three: be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. Be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. Notice verse six. "Sufficient for such a one," he says, "is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority." Here the original language, the terms that are used, it really helps us see that he's speaking of the disciplinary actions that occurred as the result of a formal gathering of the whole church. The "majority," in other words, agreed to discipline this man; to excommunicate or disfellowship this man. Now think about it; unlike our modern era, with the church on every corner, this guy had no place to go. There was no Second Baptist in Corinth. This was like the only church. And the great sorrow associated with being removed from the fellowship that he once enjoyed with his Christian brothers and sisters brought him to a place of genuine, genuine repentance. You see, we need to understand that the severance of fellowship really heightens the type of breach that has occurred between a person that is unrepentant, and the God they claim to love. And of course, the purpose of discipline--of church discipline--is always reconciliation, never retribution. And that's what happened here.

And I might add that any church that does not practice church discipline is in flagrant violation of Scripture and shows that they really have very little love for sinners. Moreover, they have very little concern for the purity of the church. I know of a number of churches like this, and frankly, they bear little resemblance to a New Testament Church. And the people who attend those churches bear little resemblance to New Testament believers. Because what has happened is the church gets filled up with people living in blatant sin. It even happens amongst the leaders. And then little by little more tears grow within the church than the wheat; they become more goats than sheep, and truly "a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough," as Paul said, in First Corinthians five, six.

Beloved, whenever there is flagrant, hard-hearted, unrepentant sin, it must be dealt with. Jesus made this so clear in Matthew 18, beginning in verse 15, he says this, "'If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.'" In other words, you treat them as if they don't even know Christ.

There's really just four stages in church discipline, first, you go to a person privately; you confront them lovingly, gently. But if there's no repentance, then you move to a second stage where you bring two or three, to witness the fact that they've either repented or not. If they are still unrepentant, then you tell the entire church to enlist them in prayer, as well as in calling this person to repentance--out of love, out of a desire to see them reconciled to God and to the rest of the body. And if they're still no repentance, then they are to be excommunicated. And folks, you must understand, to continue to fellowship with someone living in blatant sin demonstrates a profound lack of care for them, a lack of love for them, and certainly a lack of care for the glory of Christ. Because actually, you become a co-conspirator in their rebellion against God. You're watching them walking towards a cliff of divine judgment, and you're not doing anything. Christ is being dishonored; the transforming power of the gospel is being called into question, and you're acting as if nothing's wrong. Second Thessalonians chapter three and verse six, Paul says, "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition, which you received from us." And then a little later in verse 14, he says, "If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame." Now, the same dynamic had occurred earlier in the life of the church in Corinth. You will recall that they had to discipline another member because of gross immorality. And in First Corinthians five, beginning in verse four, Paul says, "In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." In other words, let me just give him over to the consequences of his iniquity, so that he will be brought hopefully to a place of genuine repentance. Later on, in verse nine, he says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people." Now he adds, "I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, and swindlers or with idolaters. For then you would have to go out of the world. But actually," he said, "I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother." In other words, a person living in flagrant sin who claims to be a Christian, "not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one."

So the saints at Corinth disciplined this man and by God's grace, he repented. And so in verse six, Paul says "Sufficient for such a one is this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow." Yes, the punishment was deserved, but it had its desired effect. And this is what Paul longed for. So now it's time to forgive. Now it's time to comfort. Now it's time to restore. And all of this is essential to unity within the church. And so a third lesson we can learn here is be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent. And folks, this is at the very heart of Christian love. And you want to ask yourself, Does this describe me? Is this the attitude of my heart? In Colossians, chapter three and verse 13, Paul says that, as believers we are to be characterized by quote, "bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone." Whenever I think of the way the Lord forgives my mind will go to Isaiah 55, verses six through nine. There you may recall, he describes how that, that when, when the wicked man forsakes his way, and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and he returns to the Lord, the text says that "the Lord will have compassion on him"... for He will abundantly pardon." What an amazing thought. In fact, he goes on to essentially say that the extent of God's compassion is beyond our ability to comprehend. Therefore, the Lord goes on to say this, "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" Oh, dear friends, what a great compassion the Lord has toward sinners, what a merciful and forgiving God, we have. And of course, we see this most vividly in the person and the work of Christ and his willingness, not only to forgive our sins, but to actually bear their punishment in his body on the cross. And beloved, this is our supreme example when it comes to forgiveness. Now think about this, how can we, who have been forgiven such heinous sins against the Most High God, not forgive the lesser sins that people have committed against us? How ridiculous is that? And of course, this was the theme of Jesus' parable. In Matthew 18, beginning in verse 21 and following, you will recall that one of the king's servants embezzled an enormous amount of money that he couldn't possibly repay. And what did the king do? He graciously and compassionately forgave the debt. However, that same servant refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him some tiny debt. And of course, that's a great picture of ingratitude, and selfishness and pride. And when we act that way, we're making a mockery of the gospel of grace, whereby God has forgiven us a debt we could never pay. James two in verse 13, we read that "judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy." Beloved, please hear me, there is a very high price to pay for unforgiveness. You will become a very angry person that seeks revenge and that will consume you. It will consume every relationship that you will have; you will become bitter. You will become sour and sullen. You'll be that person with a chip on their shoulder. You'll be easily offended, always looking for a fight. Like constantly picking at a scab, the wound will never heal. You've been around those types of folks before, unforgiving folks, and suddenly they'll bring up some past offense and past injury that may have happened 30 years ago. And they will describe it as if it happened yesterday. And you know, dear friend, if this is you, please understand that Jesus says you're going to be given over to the most extreme forms of discipline, what Jesus called the torturers of life.

In Matthew 18, he went on to say this, in verse 32, regarding the king, and the servant, "'Then summoning him, his lord said to him, 'You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?' And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.'" You say, Well, what are torturers? Well, the various kinds of discipline that the Lord will bring upon those who are unforgiving, those who are so far out of fellowship with the Lord, that they would refuse to forgive someone that seeks it. It could include things like just the destruction of your flesh. I mean, your health begins to go, your marriage, your family, your testimony, all of it begins to fall into a state of disarray. Your effectiveness in service to Christ goes away. You question, you grieve the spirit, you just walk in the flesh, you ruin your life. Oh, dear Christian, be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent.

But there's a fourth lesson here. And that fourth lesson is this, reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and public restoration. Let me give that to you again. Reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and public restoration. Notice verse eight. He says, "Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." He's urging them to do this. The term "reaffirm" is interesting. The original language, it means to "rule judicially," "to decide on" or "to make a formal declaration about something." In fact, Paul used the same term in Galatians 3:15 to describe the judicial, formal, ratification of a covenant. And the point here is he's urging them to do this with this repentant brother. They needed to restore him lovingly both privately, as well as publicly.

By the way with respect to church discipline, and stages one and two, when it's private, the restoration and the reaffirmation of love need to just remain private, you don't go tell everybody about all of that. But in stages three and four, the reaffirmation of love and restoration needs to occur not only privately but publicly. I mean, where sin has occurred publicly and where the discipline has occurred publicly, and where a repentance has occurred, then reaffirmation of love and restoration to fellowship must also be public. And that's what he's urging to happen here with this penitent brother. John MacArthur said this quote, "At its core, unforgiveness is a lack of love. Forgiveness, on the other hand, fulfills the royal law of love--for example, James two eight." He went on to say, "Forgiving love is a precious jewel, a rich treasure in the life of the church. Without it churches are torn, split, and fragmented. Churches that faithfully practice church discipline must also forgive penitent sinners. The greatest demonstration of love, both by individual believers and the church collectively is forgiving others."

Now, Paul continues in verse nine, and he says, "For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things." Isn't that interesting? I find it fascinating. God was putting the saints to the test to reveal what was really in their heart. Now you will remember that they were a self-centered bunch, self-promoting, they were jealous. The church was just fraught with strife and divisiveness, factions; cliques had developed. "I am of Apollos. I'm of Paul. Well, I'm of Cephas, well, I'm of Christ." And so these people were promoting their own agendas. In fact, the word "puffed up" referring to self-promoting pride occurs six times in First Corinthians, so they were a puffed-up bunch. And people that are puffed up are not prone to forgiveness. They were accustomed to personal animosity, to all the sectarian rivalries and vengeance rather than forgiveness. So what does God do? He puts them to the test to see whether you are obedient in all things.

Now think about it. First of all, are you obedient in disciplining sin? Well, the answer is yes. But then secondly, and equally as important, are you willing to forgive a person when they are genuinely repentant? And the answer is also, Yes. Isn't that good news? They passed the test. You know, you want to ask yourself, "Is God putting me to the test in my life, in some area, perhaps in the area of forgiveness? Are there areas of unconfessed and unrepentant sin that I need to deal with?" Well, obviously, Paul celebrated their obedience and even commended them for it later on. In chapter seven, beginning of verse 12. Here's what he says, "So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the sake of the one offended, but that your earnestness on our behalf might be made known to you in the sight of God. For this reason, we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, we rejoiced even much more for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him about you. I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also, our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth. His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoiced that in everything I have confidence in you." I mean, folks, Paul is ecstatic here. He's watching these people grow in Christ. And this is the passion of every pastor's heart. It's the passion of every parent's heart. Don't you long to see your children grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ? And when they say those things, and do those things that are Christ, like, you just kind of go, "Oh, my Thank You, Lord. How exciting is is to see them growing into maturity." And that's what's going on here with the Apostle Paul.

And to grow in Christian maturity, it means that we're going to be a loving people, which includes two things as we look at this text: confronting sin, and then forgiving sinners when they are repented. Both are equally as important. I'm reminded of Galatians six, beginning of verse one, Paul says, "Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted." Then he says, "Bear one another's burdens," literally the idea of getting underneath a burden of sin that a person has and helping them carry that; helping them deal with that. And then he says, "and thereby fulfill the law of Christ." Well, what's the law of Christ? Well, it's the law of love. We are to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. So this is the commandment. And this is what Paul saw happening with the people so we celebrate the restoration of the sinning brother back into the fellowship. In verse 10, he says, "But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed, what I have forgiven, if I forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ." I mean, folks here you see it very clearly. Paul's passion was for unity in the body of Christ. And essential to that unity is not only confronting the sin but forgiving the sinner. And he cared nothing about himself, he knew he wasn't the big issue. As I say, he knew he was just a tiny fish in the ocean of divine providence; he knew that God was up to all kinds of other things. So he wasn't going to take it personally, and get all bent out of shape. He wanted the glory of Christ to be put on display in his life, and in their life. And as Christians, we are most like Christ, when we forgive.

But notice that little phrase, "I did it for your sakes, in the presence of Christ." You see, Paul knew that he was living his life before Christ, that the Lord knows his every thought. And certainly the Lord knows all of our thoughts. You see, Paul lived, "coram Deo", the Latin that means "before the presence of God" or face to face in the presence of God." You want to ask yourself, "Is this how I live? Do I realize that he sees all of my thoughts, all of my deeds?" I like the way RC Sproul put it, quote, "To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing, and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape his penetrating gaze. And Paul knew that, and he reminded them of that great truth. This is how he lived. In fact, later in verse 17, he reminded them that he spoke quote, "in Christ in the sight of God." And he knew that both, confronting sin and forgiving sin, are attitudes and actions that never escaped the penetrating gaze of God and he would reward or judge accordingly. And all of this is so, so very important.

In verse 11, "so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes." Folks, to be sure, Satan tempts us to sin, as well as tempts us to ignore our sin and even ignore the sins of others. His goal is to fill the church with tears. And this cannot be accomplished if a church is serious about holiness. If a church is serious about purity, if a church is therefore serious about lovingly, disciplining, sinning saints, and then forgiving them, and restoring them and comforting them, when they repent. And furthermore, a church is going to forfeit divine blessing if it refuses to forgive, because forgiveness is really the fruit of love.

Well, in closing, may I just remind you, may I challenge you, examine your heart, don't take injuries personally. Don't keep stoking the fire when someone has repented and the thing is over; be quick to forgive and comfort the truly penitent and reaffirm your love for the truly penitent through acts of private and even public restoration. Aren't you glad that that's the way the Lord treats us? And I'm so thankful that we have a church that understands these things, I can truthfully say that I know that I'm preaching to the choir this morning. Nevertheless, it's great to hear it once again because it reminds us of God's grace for each of us. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. I pray that they will bear much fruit in our hearts, that Christ might be exalted in everything that we say and do. That people will see our love, not only for you, but for other people, and therefore be dumbfounded by just the way we treat each other, even when there is sin. And certainly when there is restoration and forgiveness, because we know that through that, you can use that living illustration of the gospel, to bring others to saving faith, help us to be that kind of people. So we commit all of this to you for your glory. In Christ's name. Amen.