Why is Forgiveness Different in Law and Grace?

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, an Oklahoma rancher and farmer. Les Feldick has been teaching home-style Bible classes for over 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, again, we're glad to have all of you back, and we'd like to welcome our television audience from wherever you are, and we always like to remind folks we're just an informal Bible study, and I don't ever want someone to just go by what I say, but learn to search the Scriptures to really see what it says, and you'll find, as I have and a lot of other people have found, that sometimes it doesn't say what we think it says, or should say, but the name of the game is, we search the Scripture. And always remember, you don't have to be highly educated to understand the Scriptures. You know, years back I used to use the illustration so often that when Tyndale tried to get Bibles across the channel from Europe into Great Britain, as they were burning him at the stake for having done it, his last prayer to God was, let every plowboy in England have a copy of the Scriptures. Well, I always have to ask the question, how educated were the plowboys in England back in those days? Well, probably just barely enough to read, but that's all that's necessary. If we can read, we've got all the education we need to comprehend this Book, because the Holy Spirit then becomes our tutor, and the Holy Spirit can certainly show us things that no professor could ever hope to do. Okay, again, I guess I'd better remind every time, because we still get calls every day, do we have printed material, do we have tapes, and so on. Maybe it's because we got it at the front end of the program, but whatever, yes, we do have books and we have tapes. They are merely productions of this particular program. All of our TV programs are available, either on the videotape, now we dub them over on the audios, and then they've been transcribed word for word into the corresponding little booklets. So if you can use any of those for Bible studies, for your own use, or for mission work, you call us and we'll give you details. Okay, I think that's enough for announcements now. Let's come back where we left off in Ephesians chapter 4. We've got a few verses left yet. Ephesians chapter 4, and drop down to verse 31, yep, that's what Jerry's got on the board. He's sharper than I am when it comes to this. Ephesians 4, now verse 31, let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, along with malice. Now you see, those are all earmarks of the unregenerate individual, and Paul is always making that comparison. Not that we're going to be perfect, not that we'll not slip into these things, but they're not to become a daily lifestyle. I never like to have anyone get the impression that just because we're a believer we're suddenly perfect or we'll ever be perfect in this life. We can't be. We're still in the body of flesh, we're still in a world that just saturates us with the things of the world, but the goal of every believer is to attain to these things as we grow in our Christian knowledge. And so here again he makes that comparison with what we came out of. Now just back up a few pages and you'll see what I'm driving at. But back up a little bit to chapter 2, verse 1-2. walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air." That's satan again. See how subtly Paul brings in satan without actually blatantly using him all the time. And so yes, satan is the one to whom the world marches to, and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Then verse 3. Now in Galatians chapter 5, where again Paul says just what I said in the last program. That when we become a believer and the Holy Spirit begins to influence our thinking and our activities, and that if you're led of the Spirit you're not under the law. Now that doesn't make us lawless, remember, but the Spirit will do what the law couldn't do. And then He comes back again, as He does so often, and shows us the lifestyle of the lost person or the unbeliever. And what are they? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, and all those things. Envying, murder, drunkenness, reveling, that's all part of the world system. And we as believers, of course, are to have no part or parcel of that. Ok, now then if you'll come back to Ephesians chapter 4 for a moment again. So He says, Let all this part of our past lifestyle no longer be a daily habit with us, but rather that we are regenerated, our whole want to is changed, and the things that are appealing to the world to us, of course, become almost anathema. Now, verse 32, Be kind one to another. Now love begets love, doesn't it? Love, I know there's a popular song, and I've heard it on the car radio time and time again. Love changes everything. You've heard it. Love changes everything, and indeed it does. Love changes things, because it's that attitude of love, you see, that immediately puts into practice the keeping of the commandments. Love will never let us covet, love will never let us steal, love will never let us commit adultery, love will never let us covet, love changes everything. Well, so does the new life. The new life changes everything. And so as a result of it then, we are to be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, because of Christ, or for Christ's sake, has forgiven. Now that's a past tense word. And remember, what's past is done, and when God finishes it, it's done, completely. All right, but now let's go back and see what it was like under the Law. Now here's another graphic difference between Law and Grace. Go back to Matthew chapter 6, and beginning at verse 8. Now I maintain that has been completely misnomered. That should have never been called the Lord's Prayer. It's the disciples' prayer. The Lord's Prayer is in John 17. That's what He prayed. But here He's teaching the disciples what to pray, and so it's the disciples' prayer. Remember that. And now He tells the disciples, Jesus is speaking of course, in His earthly ministry, and in verse 8. He tells the twelve, "...be not ye therefore like unto them that is the unbelieving world all around them. For your Father knoweth what things you have need of, before you ask." Now that tells us something doesn't it? Does that mean we don't pray? Well no, He went right on and told them how to pray. And so even today, people will call, or they'll write, and they'll say, well if God knows everything, if God is sovereign and everything is going to be as He pre-planned it, why pray? You heard that? Yeah you have. Well I tell people this way, even in God's foreknowledge of everything, you know what He also factored into the formula? Your praying. Now you chew on that for a week or two. That God knew in His foreknowledge how we would pray, and so it does enter in. Prayer does change things, not that we change God's mind, but all of that is factored in to the fact that we are to pray. Well here again, He tells the disciples that, yes, the Father already knows what they have need of, but nevertheless, here's how they were to pray. Verse 9, "...after this matter therefore pray ye." And I think this part is still appropriate. We still approach the Father, and we recognize, we revere who He is. "...hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." My goodness, you know, we still think the kingdom is coming, but not as they thought it was going to come. See, they thought it should have come while Christ was there. That's why He presented Himself as their Messiah and their King, and the kingdom was in the offer. But nevertheless, we look forward to the time when Christ will return and yet set up His kingdom. Verse 11, "...give us this day our daily bread." Now verse 12 is where we come in and show the graphic difference between Law and Grace. Now remember this is under Law. Oh I'm stressing everywhere I go. Jesus never once told the 12 disciples or any of His followers to stop temple worship. Did He? No. Did He ever tell any of those Jews that they were no longer under the Law? Quite the opposite. He told the rich young ruler who asked about eternal life, and that's in Matthew 19. He says, "...keep the commandments." Plain as day. In another place He healed the lepers, and they came and showed Him, and He said, "...go show the priests." Why? Because that was the Law. And so they could not go back out into a society until the priesthood there at the temple had recognized the absence of their leprosy, and they were now free to enter into society. So He says, "...go show yourself to the priests." Everything that Jesus taught was in accordance with the Law. Never did He tell them that they were not under the Law. And that of course is where Paul got in trouble with the Jews when he started saying, "...you're not under Law, you're under Grace." It's where I get in trouble. Where do you get this stuff? Well it's as plain as day. Now here's a graphic illustration. Under Law, from the Lord's own lips, verse 12, "...forgive us our debts, or our sins, or our trespasses, when we forgive those who trespass against us." See how plain that is? In other words, according to Law, and according to the other thing that Jesus has taught, before His followers could receive forgiveness, what did they have to do first? They had to forgive. They couldn't expect forgiveness until they forgave. Now you see, people are still trying to pull that into the Age of Grace and say, well you can't have salvation until you go to your neighbor that you've wronged, and ask him for forgiveness and you forgive him. But that's not what the Bible teaches. Now you come back with this in mind, that under Law they could not be forgiven until they forgave their neighbor or whoever they had wronged. Now then you come to this verse again that we just looked at in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Ephesians 4, verse 32. Ephesians forgiven you. Now let me show you another one. Turn over to the right a few pages to Colossians. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians chapter 2, verse 13. Now this is grace. This is grace. That doesn't mean that we take advantage of it. It doesn't mean that we completely throw all these other things to the wind, but here's where we have to understand the difference between Law and Grace. Under Law there was no forgiveness until you forgave first. But now under Grace, look what he says. Colossians 2, verse 13. Colossians 2, verse 13. And you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcised of your flesh, in other words he's dealing with Gentiles. He, God, hath quickened, or made you alive together with him, that is with Christ, having forgiven you all your trespasses first, and then as a result of this newfound relationship with God, what does he expect me to do with people that I need to forgive? Now you better forgive them. Why? Because if God forgave me, who am I to say I can't forgive him? See how logical again that is? Alright, there's one more right here in Colossians. Change over to chapter 3. Colossians 3, I Now here in a matter of 3 or 4 pages in your Old Testament, you've got the same premise, and ever since I've taught Genesis, what do I say? When you've got something repeated 2 or 3 times in a matter of a chapter or two, what's it there for? Emphasis. This is what it means. I'm not just pulling a verse out of context, this is what it's teaching. Now look again, chapter 3, verse 13. And again he's still talking to believers, forbearing or being kind and patient with one another, forgiving one another, absolutely would have forgiven. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave him. What's the tense of the verb? Past tense. See it's past tense. Christ has already forgiven you. It's done. Well now if Christ has already forgiven you, then why in the world can't you forgive your neighbor? Because you've got far more reason to forgive, because you've got to live with that fellow or that lady down the road. But God doesn't have to do that with you. But He did. God forgave you by grace and faith plus nothing. Sovereign grace. Remember, I think we looked at it a month ago in our last taping. Where was it? Exodus 33. I'm pretty sure it was either in one of my Oklahoma classes or else it was at the taping, because I just about couldn't find the verse. I got in trouble. But I remember now where it was. Exodus 33. Sovereign grace. That's why God can forgive. He is sovereign grace. And that's beyond human comprehension. He could have just as well as not zapped the nation of Israel when they were down there at the golden calf, and they were nude dancing around that idol, and with all their immoral activity it must have been beyond, they were worse than the pagans. And Moses comes down the mount, and he hears all this music and dancing, and he was so distraught he threw the Ten Commandments on the ground and broke them. But you see God is far more gracious than Moses ever hoped to be. Oh yes, there were some that suffered as a result of it, but by and large God didn't destroy the nation. He could have. He had every right in the world. He'd already done so much for them, brought them out of that paganism, brought them through the Red Sea, brought them down around Mount Sinai, His pillar of cloud by day, and fire by night, providing all their needs. And then they turn around, and as soon as Moses is gone up the mount, they have Aaron make the golden calf, and they begin with all their horrific activity around it. Now this is just shortly after this golden calf experience in the nation of Israel. You have to pick up the conversation in verse 17, where the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And Moses turns around and says, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. You know that's always human, isn't it? We're never quite satisfied. It wasn't enough for Moses to realize that he was in this place of privilege, but now he wants a little bit more. Show me thy glory. So God says, all right, I will make all my goodness pass before thee. I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Now here comes the sovereign grace of God. If you don't know anything else today, remember this. This is God's sovereign grace. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Can anybody argue with him? No way. Why? He's sovereign. He's the creator of the universe. And I suppose way deep down, Moses almost thought, God, why don't you destroy him? They are just bent on sinning. They're worthless. I can't do anything with them. And I think maybe Moses kind of expected that he would just simply annihilate the nation one of these times. But God had to show Moses, listen, Moses, you don't know my heart of grace. You don't understand that I am sovereign, and I will show grace to whom I'll show grace. I'll show mercy to whom I'll show mercy. It's the same way today. My goodness, we can think of people who have been awful. They've been almost the enemies of society. Will God save them? Sure He will, in a moment. Why? Because of His sovereign grace. Now we would say, hey, that fellow isn't deserving of that. He deserves death. He deserves to be wiped off the scene. But God says, uh-uh, I died for that person. Always have to think of that. Whenever you see these horrible creatures in the news, and the things that they do, and you almost would like to take the law in our own hands, wouldn't we? But you know what I always have to stop and think? God loves that individual. God died for that person just as much as He did for me. And God's sovereign grace would reach down and save that individual just as well as He saved me. And so always remember this is sovereign grace. I, God says, will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And so that's grace. And so because of grace, back to Ephesians again, because of the grace of God, Paul now writes that we can forgive our neighbors, we can forgive our family members at whom we have something ought, and we should because God has already forgiven us. Whether we forgive Him or not, He's forgiven us. But the lesson is, if God could forgive you, then why can't you? And so always remember that's the vast chasm between law and grace. Now when Paul wrote the letter, I'm sure he didn't put in chapter 5. Paul just kept right on writing. And so he goes right into what we would call chapter 5, verse 1. And so right after verse 32 he says, Be ye therefore, see, one of Paul's favorite words, therefore, be ye followers of God as what? Dear children, now I love that term in Scripture. I don't know why, but for the last several years I have come to love that terminology. And there's another one back even in John's little epistle. I've got to let you know that I do use something besides Paul. Come back to 1 John, chapter 2, verse 1. The very first three words. Oh, they're beautiful. What does it say? My little children. Now John of course was up in years, no doubt, and it's the same John that was one of the twelve. But he writes to those believers of his time, he says, My little children. Now you know what I call that? That's a statement of endearment. We all appreciate it, I think. You're not normal if you don't appreciate the love of family and friends and so forth. Now here again he uses this term of endearment. My little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not. Can't you just almost feel the heart of the old apostle? Oh, he didn't want his believers to fall into sin and paganism and all the things, but he said, Oh that you sin not, and that if we sin we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. But the point I wanted you to see is the same terminology, now back to Ephesians chapter 5, the same terminology the apostle Paul uses. As dear children, see, born ones, we are members of the family of God, and as children we are to walk in what? Love. Remember a program or I was young growing up, I think the thing that motivated me as much as anything to behave myself was my love for my dad. I mean we were together from the time I was able to walk until almost the day he died. We worked side by side his whole lifetime. And I loved him, and I made no apology for it, and yet you know I regret we were from that kind of a German background, and a lot of people know even to this day I'm not a hugger. No, I'll admit I'm not, because I just didn't grow up in that kind of a family. We never touched, we never kissed each other, but my goodness dad and I loved each other, and I wouldn't do anything that would have hurt him. Now this is to be our attitude toward the Lord. He has loved us so much that He suffered and died for us, and we're to love Him in return with all our being. And so Paul says, here's your motivation, as dear children, walk in love. Now you remember back a page or two, come back again with me, chapter 2, in verse 2, he uses the same terminology, only then we were in the world. Ephesians 2 verse 2, "...dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you..." What's the word? Walked. Walked. Alright, now then we are to walk, not according to the course of this world, but according to the leading of the Spirit. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick, is viewer supported and your gift is appreciated. Thank you and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.