If you die with unforgiveness in your heart, will you go to Heaven or Hell?

Hi, welcome to today’s Little Lesson. Regular viewers know we’re working our way through the Sermon on the Mount, and boy, it’s the words of Jesus so nothing compares with the words of Jesus, right? We’re right in the heart of the Lord’s Prayer, coming to the end of it. Of course, one of the things Jesus taught us and his disciples of his current day to pray found in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 in verse number 12, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors,” and some versions say transgressions as we’ve forgiven those who transgressed against us. Some say trespass.

It doesn’t make a difference. It’s all the same, basically, the same thing. That is that when we sin, we have a debt to God, and we need to get His forgiveness by asking for His forgiveness. When somebody sins against us, they’re our debtor. They’ve trespassed. They owe us an apology, and we owe them mercy if they ask for the apology, and we owe them mercy even if they don’t ask for the apology. It’s just a little bit different form of mercy in each case.

The mercy we show to the people that don’t ask for forgiveness is we show them the mercy of loving them, even if they don’t deserve it, being nice to them, and speaking kind words in return for their nasty words to shame them with the hope and the goal of them realizing, “What a jerk I’ve been,” and coming to you and asking for your forgiveness, at which time then you show them the second mercy, which is, “I forgive you,” and as forgiven people, we’re obligated to do that.

Now, Jesus did elaborate on this later on. After he shared the Lord’s Prayer, he gave a little commentary on that one verse about “forgive us our debts as we’ve forgiven our debtors.” Just to make sure everybody understand what’s involved in that prayer and that concept, that’s Matthew 6:14 and 15, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Our forgiveness from God is conditional upon our forgiving others, “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” It’s the positive and the negative of the condition of getting our transgressions forgiven by God. We have to be forgiven. If we’re not forgiving, then we can’t come to God and ask for His forgiveness.

Well, I have talked about this very subject on a couple of other Little Lessons and asking the question, do I have to forgive those who don’t ask for forgiveness, and although people disagree with me on this, some people do, and I love them anyways, I personally believe you don’t have to forgive people who don’t ask for forgiveness because God doesn’t forgive people who don’t ask for forgiveness. His forgiving them is conditional, so I’m following His example.

If He finds fault with me, I can say to Him, “Well, you don’t do it, so why should I do it?” which I think is fair logic, but does that mean I’m saying you go to hold grudge and hate somebody? No. No. Oh, no. I never said that. You can love somebody and not forgive somebody. Sure, you can. God do that with most people on the planet. He loves everybody, but He hasn’t forgiven everybody. He’s showing them mercy, giving them time to repent. He’s doing good to his enemies. He’s sending the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

See, He’s trying to shame people who think into repenting of their sins and coming to Him humbly and contritely asking for His forgiveness, and then He freely gives it, but His whole motivation there is to get people to ask for forgiveness. His method is showing them kindness and grace and mercy that they don’t really deserve.

I never said you can hold a grudge or get angry at someone. I said you have to love everybody, but you only have to forgive for those ask for your forgiveness, and of course, it’s so easy to forgive people that ask for your forgiveness. It’s very hard, if you’ve ever tried, to forgive people who haven’t asked your forgiveness, act like nothing happened, and then continue to be their abusive self or their offensive self.

This is good. It’s good. That’s why the Lord told us, “If your brother sins against you, go to him. Confront him because I don’t like what he did to you, but I want you to reconcile, and I don’t want you fighting feelings of resentment towards your brother. I want harmony. I like love.” When the relationship’s messed up, we’re to fix it up. You gotta communicate. Go to him. Confront him, gently, of course. Say, “Hey, man. You may not realize this, but what you did has built a little wall between us, and I value our relationship, so can we talk about this?” Most times, they’ll be wide open because they don’t even know what they did, and there might be something deeper that then you’ve discover. It’s always so much better just to get together and talk.

Now, question asked, if I die with unforgiveness, will I go to Heaven? Well, you can answer that question yourself. What happens to unforgiven people when they stand before God? Well, if He hasn’t forgiven them up until that point, they’re not forgiven people. Can they ask for forgiveness at that point? Hmm, seems to me like everybody, if they were standing before God and realized, “Oh, my goodness. There’s a possibility that I’m going to be cast into hell right now,” I think everybody would be motivated to be really quickly asking forgiveness, but I don’t see that the Bible is offering that kind of mercy after death because …

Well, I don’t know why. I don’t know why, because God is so gracious and so merciful, but perhaps, I’m just saying, perhaps, God would, of course, question the sincerity over the person who’s begging for forgiveness when they’ve ignored the load of guilt that they felt for years and years, and then they stand before Him, and they see Him face to face, and of course they’re going to be begging for mercy and forgiveness at that point in time, but is that what God wants? I don’t think so.

But anyways, that’s how I see the Bible. It’s hard for me to think that Bible teaches anything but that. This opens up a big can of worms, and it’s hard to put those worms back in the can once you’ve opened it, let me tell you, because Jesus was talking to his disciples, and he tells them, “Peter, James, John, if you don’t forgive others, your father will not forgive you,” so that means it’s possible that God would not forgive you on this earth for sins because you didn’t forgive others, and if you die, you stand before God unforgiven.

We don’t want to do that. Forgive, of course, forgive anyone who’s ever asked your forgiveness. It really grieves God, it makes Him angry when people ask for forgiveness, and you say, “No,” and the ones that didn’t ask for forgiveness, if you’re holding something against them, say, “Lord, help me to love them, and love them so much, I’m going to go to them and try to work this out, to repair, pull down this wall that’s been built.”

Much more to be said, but this is a Little Lesson. Thank you so much for joining me, God bless you.

The post If I Die With Unforgiveness in My Heart, Will I Go to Heaven or Hell? appeared first on David Servant.

Do you have to forgive people who don’t even ask for your forgiveness? We’ve been talking about forgiveness the last few episodes of Little Lessons. And today’s question, of course, is another one along those lines. When people offend us, when people sin against us, do we have to forgive them? And my answer is going to absolutely shock many who are watching this.

But stay around to listen to everything I have to say. Don’t just shut me off after your first misunderstanding of what I’m really trying to say.

The Surprising Answer

The answer is: no, you don’t have to forgive people who don’t ask for forgiveness. Don’t touch that dial, because I’m not done talking yet, okay? You don’t have to forgive them, but you have to love them. Because that’s a commandment, to love everybody.

And you know, think about it, it is possible to love people and not forgive them. Because God does that a million times every day. Right?

God loves everybody. God loves the whole world, but that doesn’t mean He’s forgiven them. No. He’s waiting on them to repent, acknowledge their sin, confess it, and so forth. And then He forgives them. So God’s not expecting more out of us than He holds Himself to when it comes to forgiveness.

How to Treat Those Who Don’t Ask for Forgiveness

We have to forgive those who ask forgiveness from us. Those who don’t ask forgiveness, we have to love. And if they are people who are professing Christians, our job is not over despite saying, “Well, I’m just going to love you.”

No, because if you love them, you’ll do what’s best for them. That is, you’ll do what Jesus said to do if your brother or sister sins against you. You will go to that person to try to repair the breach in your relationship by confronting them about their sin.

And you will say, as a loving person will say, “I have to come to you because I value our relationship so much, and I don’t want to have bad feelings against you. When I see you I don’t want to have anything bad come into my mind. You may not even realize what you did, but there’s something that you did that has caused a breach in our relationship. And I’d like to talk about that, to see if we can reach an understanding.”

Working For Reconcilation

Many times, those folks will say, “Oh, I didn’t even realize this.” They’ll be totally ignorant, totally blind to their offense. And once you tell them, they’ll just immediately say, “Oh, forgive me! I’m so sorry.” What will you do then? Oh, you better forgive them then. Because if you don’t, you’re in big, big trouble. God won’t forgive you of any of your sins from then on.

If they don’t listen to you, Jesus said, of course, get a couple folks to come and help you. And if those folks are smart, they’re going to listen to both sides. I’ve talked about this before on Little Lessons.

So, if they listen to you, if you’re right, and your friends who’ve come to help you reconcile agree with you. And if that person who offends you realizes it and admits it and asks for your forgiveness, what do you need to do?

You’d better forgive.

When You Can’t Reach Reconciliation

But obviously you don’t have to forgive them if they don’t confess it. Because you take them to the next step, which is a step that indicates that reconciliation, restoration, has not occurred yet. You take them in front of the church.

Now, in New Testament context, this a little tiny house church, okay? So in the modern context, you take them in front of your Bible study, or some small group of people. And confront the person then.

And if they realize it then, and confess it, what do you have to do? You have to forgive them. But if they don’t confess it, do you have to forgive? Obviously not, because Jesus said you can then treat them as a tax collector, or as a Gentile. They’re out of the church. And you still love them, you pray for them. You hope that they’ll come to their senses and admit they’re wrong. But you don’t have to forgive.

True Forgiveness

“ True forgiveness will always result in some semblance of reconciliation.

True forgiveness will always result in some semblance of reconciliation. And you can’t forgive people who don’t even want or ask for forgiveness. And that is the pattern that we find in Scripture.

This is not only exemplified by how the Lord deals with people, but it exemplifies the teachings of Christ. In Luke 17:3, Jesus said, “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.”

A Parable About Unforgiveness

In the parable that Jesus told about the unforgiving servant (see Matthew 18:21-35) who owed his master this immense amount of money he could never repay. And he begged for mercy, and his master forgave him of this incredible huge debt.

And then he went out and found a fellow slave who owed him a few days wages, and said, “Repay me.” And his fellow slave said, “I beg for mercy, I will repay you.” He said, “No, I’m not having any mercy on you.” And he had him thrown into the prison.

And when his master heard what he had done to his fellow slave, he said, “Hey, I forgave you of all that debt. Shouldn’t you have forgiven your fellow servant of all of his debt?” And so he was cast into prison until he should repay his debt. A great example of what happens to us when we don’t forgive. God reinstates our former guilt, which he had forgiven, and we’re in big trouble.

But notice, even in that parable of the unforgiving servant the people who got forgiven asked for forgiveness. The people who should have been forgiven asked for forgiveness. That’s the starting place. That’s the component. And that’s why you go to your brother who sinned against you privately to evoke a confession. That can start the wheels of forgiveness going.

Letting Go of Grudges

When people say, “Well, I’ve forgiven them, but I’m not going to talk to them,” they’re only fooling themselves. You haven’t forgiven them at all. You’re still harboring a grudge. And if you truly did love that person and value the relationship, you would be going to them to make it right.

Just like in a marriage, when you say “We said til’ death do us part, so there’s no sense letting this thing drag on for years. Let’s just confront it right now, and have some communication here.”

Because we value this relationship, we don’t both want to live in tension. And so we get together and we talk. And if somebody needs to ask for forgiveness, you bring them to that point where they ask for forgiveness.

Okay? Alright. So, do you have to forgive everybody who sins against you? No. You have to love them, and you have to go to them to try to evoke a confession in order to participate forgiveness and reconciliation.

More to be said on this. This is a Little Lesson. You can read more about this subject in a chapter of my book, The Disciple-Making Minister. Okay, thanks for joining me. God bless you.

The post Do You Have to Forgive People Who Don’t Even Ask for Your Forgiveness? appeared first on David Servant.

Will God forgive you if you keep repeating the same sin over and over again? This is a great question because, as I mentioned on our previous Little Lesson, none of us have reached perfection yet.

“We all stumble,” James said, “in many ways, and if anyone hasn’t stumbled in what he says,” there’s the biggest stumbling place right there, “he’s a perfect man, or woman, able to bridle the whole body as well.” (see James 3:2). And he goes on to elaborate about how the tongue is this unruly thing.

There’s an area that we can always probably use improvement on, “that no unwholesome word would proceed from our mouths, but only what is good for edification that it might give grace to those who hear it,” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians (see Ephesians 4:29).

Stumbling Accidentally, Not Intentionally, Into Sin

“ Every true believer feels an inward resistance when they sin.

We’re still stumbling accidentally, not intentionally. No believer is willfully sinning. Every true believer, even when they do sin, has an inward resistance to that saying, “No, no, no, no, no.” And even if we yield to the temptation, the whole time it’s, “No, no, no.” After yielding to the temptation, there’s now a different feeling on the inside, “Oh, you shouldn’t have done that. You are guilty. You have sinned against God. You have disobeyed the Lord,” and it’s that feeling of conviction.

As we talked about on our previous Little Lesson, of course we’re supposed to confess our sins, and God promises that, when we do that, He will forgive our sins. Always, of course, there’s a purposing in our hearts to not repeat it. Of course you don’t want to repeat it. You didn’t want to do it the first time, and so, of course, when you confess it and you’ve gone through that process, then you’re thinking is all, “Man, I want to avoid this as much as possible. I don’t want to do this ever again.”

I did, one time, talk in a Little Lesson some time ago about how to get victory over sin and some Biblical principles there. But I want to talk, in this Little Lesson, about the question, “If I keep repeating the same sin over and over again, will God always forgive me?”

Will God Always Forgive Me If I Keep Repeating the Same Sin?

Well, that’s a great question, and no wonder we ask that question. We think, “Well, how much mercy does God have? If I do it too many times, it’ll expose that I must not really be sincere.”

But I think this is the place where the devil loves to get in and defeat us by condemning us, causing us to doubt the mercy of God and that he will keep his promise to forgive us if we confess our sins, to try to get us just to give up and say, “There’s no sense in even trying because I have out-sinned the grace of God.”

Well, Paul said, “God used me as an example to show everybody how merciful he is, because I was a persecutor of the church, and a blasphemer, and a violent aggressor, and yet God showed me mercy to set an example that He’d forgive the chief of sinners” (see 1 Timothy 1:12-17).

God’s Promise of Continual Forgiveness

So will God keep forgiving you? Yes, He will keep forgiving you. Another reason that we can believe that is because there was a time when the apostle Peter—whom I love so much because of his forthrightness and his transparency and his bumbling transparency, at times—one time he asked Jesus (almost you could imagine him with a bit of air of kind of superiority over his spirituality)…

Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? – Matthew 18:21

As if, woo-hoo, Peter, impressive! He’s thinking Jesus is going to say, “Wow, Peter, seven? I was only thinking maybe two or three. But wow, Peter, you’re really merciful.” But no, that’s not what the Lord said.

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. – v. 22

So that’s 490 times if your brother comes and asks you to forgive him you are obligated to forgive him. 490 times. If the Lord expects that much forgiveness to come out of you and come out of me, well, that’s a pretty good indication that He’s going to at least come up to his own standards for us, right?

The Forgiveness God Expects of Us

I don’t really think that the Lord meant for us to be keeping one of those little counter clickers in our hands, and every time a brother or sister in Christ asks for our forgiveness we say, “Okay, that’s 1. You got 469 left, so be careful.” And then 7 years later, “Okay, that’s 422.”

No, I don’t think that’s what the Lord was saying. I think the Lord was saying just keep on forgiving as long as that brother or sister keeps on coming back to you, because it indicates some degree of sincerity.

Even though it becomes less believable every time they come, the Lord expects us to be that merciful. Boy, if you don’t forgive somebody that asks you to forgive them, you’re in big trouble according to Jesus. We’re taught to pray, in The Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our sins or transgressions, as to the degree—to the extent—that we forgive others” (see Matthew 6:12). After that prayer, Jesus gave an explanation and said, “If you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you.”

A Cliffhanger

Now, of course, it is important to add the element of expecting people to come to us humbly and ask for forgiveness, and this is actually the next question that I want to cover on our next Little Lesson, “Do I have to forgive people who don’t ask for forgiveness?” I’m going to leave it as a cliffhanger, so I’ll get you tomorrow or whenever the next time is you have a chance to hear the answer to that question.

But yes, I mean just think about this for a moment. Don’t you have to ask forgiveness to get forgiveness from God? Does He automatically give it? Something to think about.

Not a License to Sin

“ True Christians want to please God.

In any case, I’m not offering anyone a license to sin. And there will be some mean people who will, no doubt, say, “Well, you’re just a greasy grace preacher telling people they can sin all they want, and all they have to do is just confess it.”

No. No true Christian is thinking, “How many times can I sin and get away with it,” or “How many times can I use that forgiveness thing?” No, true Christians want to please God. They are trying. And even those that are stumbling and falling a lot, God loves them. And if they confess their sins, He forgives them. Amen.

Okay? Hope to see you in the next Little Lesson. God bless you.

The post Will God Forgive You If You Keep Repeating the Same Sin Over and Over Again? appeared first on David Servant.

You’ve sinned and you still feel guilty; what should you do? Scripture says that everybody’s sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23). So if you’ve sinned, welcome to the human race.

But I’m not trying to give anybody any excuses. Because when we believe in Jesus, we’ve set ourselves on a course to follow Him. Which is another way of saying obey Him. Which is another way of saying we keep His commandments.

And that’s our intention. We repent of our sins. We’re turning away from that which we know is displeasing in God’s eyes, and we set ourselves on a course every day: take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Him (see Luke 9:23).

Obedience is Progressive

But still, James said, “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). He talks specifically about how we so often stumble with the things that we say.

Stumbling implies unintentional. Tt implies accidental. That is, within our hearts, within our minds, within our will we want to obey the Lord. We want to do what’s pleasing in His eyes. And that’s the mark of the genuine Christian. If you don’t care, if you’re not concerned, well, Jesus is not your Lord. So every day we’re striving to please him. Yet still we fall short.

Scripture talks about a progression called sanctification. Jesus said, “If you’re truly My disciples, you will abide in My Word. And you will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (see John 8:31-32).

“ If you don’t care about your sin, Jesus is not your Lord.

He’s talking specifically there about freedom from sin. So that’s a progressive thing. As we renew our minds upon the Word of God, as we learn God’s will, as we walk with Him every day and try to learn what is pleasing to Him, then we’re growing in holiness and sanctification. But all along that way we are fraught with our own weaknesses and frailties and we face temptations, and we are apt to give in to those temptations. (continued after the graphic below…)

10 Bible Verses on Forgiveness to Encourage Your Faith

Good Guilt

So we all know what to do. When you fail, of course you feel guilty.

Now, let me encourage you just by virtue of that sense of guilt that you have. If God was giving up on you, and if this was the end and He was saying, “you’re hopeless,” well, there wouldn’t be any reason for Him to make you feel guilty.

The whole idea of guilt is to give us some motivation to repent. And within that of course is contained the realization that the Lord wants to forgive. The Lord wants to restore. He’s still on my side and He’s helping me along the path of sanctification, and guilt is a part of that process. So you recognize right off the bat, the guilt that I feel is another indication of the love of God.

Don’t ever forget, he is our Father. If you’re a father, or if you’re a mother and you have children, think of the compassion that you have upon them. Even when they disobey you blatantly, you still love them and you still want them to come to their senses if they’re not realizing what they’ve done. And you try to help them see that they’ve done wrong.

You might explain to your little daughter or your little son, “Well, here’s the reason we don’t do that. That hurts other people’s feelings.” Or, “That’s not right, you have to share, because God wants us to share.” So we’re helping them to understand what’s right and what’s wrong. The Lord’s the same way with that sense of guilt that He lets us all experience when we sin.

What To Do When You Sin

All right, so what do you do when you sin? Scripture is very clear: you confess it. Proverbs 28:13 says that “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

You know how that works. In our relationships with other people, when people offend us, when they sin against us, the way to heal that breach in our relationship is if they’ll come and ask for forgiveness, if they’ll acknowledge and confess that what they’ve done has been offensive and say, “Would you please forgive me?” Then it’s very easy to forgive people who humble themselves like that.

So if you and I have that capacity to forgive people and give them another chance, we being human beings… Well, how much more does the Lord have that capacity? He’s longing to forgive us. He wants to bring us to a place where we can acknowledge our sins, and as we read there in Proverbs, not just confess, but also forsake them.

Okay? So there has to be a determination. And of course naturally there is if you’re sincerely asking forgiveness. And naturally, you don’t want to do it again, just like you didn’t want to do it the first time. (continued after the graphic below…)

A Promise to Memorize

Then we have a promise from 1 John chapter 1:9. I think this is the first Bible verse that I ever memorized (and for good reason, because I so desperately need it!).

“If we confess our sins,” there it is, “he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So there it goes.

And God has made other promises similar to that. If we’ll confess, if we’ll forsake our sins, though they be as scarlet, they’ll be as white as snow (see Isaiah 1:18). So He erases it and He casts our sins, as He says, “Into the sea of forgetfulness” (see Micah 7:19). There are these beautiful analogies in Scripture that help us to understand how gracious and forgiving and merciful God is. (continued after the graphic below…)

Believing God’s Promises for Forgiveness

“ Faith doesn’t go by what it feels, it goes by what God’s Word says.

Now, our question on today’s lesson was, “I confessed it, but I still feel guilty; what should I do?” Well, now is the time to learn a little lesson about faith. Faith doesn’t go by what it feels, it goes by what God’s Word says.

So if God says He’s forgiven you because you confessed it, you met the conditions, then He has forgiven you. So believe it. If you believe it, then you’re not going to wallow in depression over it.

Now, again, if you’ve harmed somebody, the consequences you often can’t change. If you’ve messed things up, you can’t fix the consequences, and so you can’t get rid of that regret. But I’m talking about if you feel like God is still holding it against you, then that’s a feeling that doesn’t line up with God’s Word or God’s promise. And so you need to get hold of yourself and say, “Wait a second here, buddy, God said if you confess He forgives you, and so you’re forgiven. So go on as if you’re forgiven.”

Just like you would if you sinned against me and you asked me to forgive you. I’d forgive you and I’d want you to go on from then on not wallowing in it, not thinking I’m still upset at you. I want you to know you truly are forgiven. Okay?

A little more to say about this same subject on tomorrow’s little lesson. Hope to see you then! God bless you.

The post You’ve Sinned and You Still Feel Guilty… What Should You Do? appeared first on David Servant.