Forgiveness

INTRO: For some time I have wanted to put the subject of forgiveness into one message. That is our topic this morning.

It is a while ago we heard the heartrending story of a young lady who had been abused physically in her family. There are millions of stories like this in the world, most have never been heard. There are many young ladies and women and there are boys and men, who have horrific stories to tell but we will never hear them. There are various reasons why many do not tell their stories. The "Me too" stories that have been coming out are the tip of the iceberg. Then there are many, many other stories where horrible wrongs are committed against people. And Pslam 103:3 says there is forgiveness with God.

All over the world, if the Lord waits long with returning, there will yet be millions of sad stories that we will never hear. And if some of those come into contact with Christianity they will run into the teaching that they must forgive unconditionally, regardless of whether the one who did the wrong repented or not. Some will fall for modern psychological techniques used by Christians like imagining a picture of Jesus in a peaceful scene telling them what to do. And some will find some relief, not because what they were told was right, but because what they did was called forgiveness. But the facts are it was not real forgiveness. Biblical forgiveness is a very important subject and it is one of the most misunderstood.