12/6/20 - The Great Salvation / FORGIVENESS AND TRUST

Freely, freely, God forgave my sins in Jesus' name. I've been born again in Jesus' name, and in Jesus' name, I come to you to share His love as He told me to. He said, "Freely, freely you have received; freely, freely give." [Music] "Go in My name, and because you believe, others will know that I live." Amen.

Good morning. We greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let's pray together. Our God, now Father, we pray as we open Thy Word and speak about this wonderful aspect of the great salvation called forgiveness, that Thou might open our hearts and that we might have understanding and obedient spirits. In Jesus' name, amen.

So we're talking about the great salvation that we read about in Hebrews chapter 2, "How great a salvation" that it is that God has provided for us in Christ. We're looking at the different aspects of it. We're on the very first one: forgiveness. Last week we referred to Luke chapter 17, and in Luke 17 we had read that the Lord Jesus said in verse 4, "And if he, if thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." And He went on and explained that forgiveness is a duty, that we're not to judge the heart of someone else. If they sin against us seven times in a day and repent, we're not to judge whether their repentance is real. But we made a point when we went over this, and that's what I'd like to look into today, and that is the point of forgiveness versus trust. Forgiveness versus trust.

Now, if someone sins against you seven times in a day and repents, yes, we're to forgive them. It's our duty to do so. However, that doesn't mean that our trust of that person is going to remain the same. It's most probably not. And I would like to say this very seriously for anyone that is going through abuse: you are not to stay in an abusive relationship. If someone sins against you multiple times, multiple times, repents, you are to forgive them, absolutely. But that does not mean you are to trust them, nor to stay in that situation. So you need to seek counsel in that regard.

But trust is different than forgiveness. Forgiveness is free. It's what we have received through Christ, and we are to give to others freely. But trust is something that's earned. It's earned through faithfulness, when a person shows themselves to be dependable, and we can lean upon them and know that they're always there for us, we can trust them. And when sin takes place, when someone sins against us, then we lose trust, and trust has to then be restored. Forgiveness can come immediately, but trust has to be restored.

Now, remember there's two parts of forgiveness. There's the one part in our heart that we immediately freely forgive. We have been forgiven freely; we're to freely forgive. But that person then, in order to receive our forgiveness, is to repent and ask for forgiveness. It's the same principle with God. He wants to forgive us, and yet we must come to Him and ask for His forgiveness before we receive it. So, assuming that someone has done that, they've sinned against us, come and confess their sin, and they've received our forgiveness, now there's the matter of trust. And there's probably no better place in the Bible than the story of Joseph and his brethren to look regarding forgiveness and trust. So let's turn to Genesis 37, 37.

The Story of Joseph and His Brethren

Now, of course, Joseph's story is a long story in the Bible, and we'll just have to make references here. So in Genesis 37, we find in verse 3, "Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his brethren, because he was a son of his old age." You know, I'm sorry, but I should have started in verse 2, because it gives us another, more information about Joseph and his relationship with his brother. "These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report." So his brethren were doing something that they shouldn't have been doing, and Joseph brought that report to his father. And of course, Joseph's a picture of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament. And in John chapter 7, I think verse 7, the Lord said that the world hates Him because He testifies that their works are evil, just as Joseph testified that his brethren were doing evil, and they, of course, did not like that.

Then in the verse that I just read, the next verse, "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, and that he made him this coat of many colors." Well, Jacob should have known—and I think I hope I said Jacob and not Joseph—Jacob should have known, having grown up in his own home where there was this competition, rivalry, this really animosity between he and his brother. And it was spurred really by his parents, because you remember Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Well, right away there was favoritism, partiality with Mom and Dad, and it led to terrible problems if you read the story in Isaac and Rebekah's home. But here Jacob, having been in that home, does the same thing, and he shows Joseph favoritism. Well, of course, what did that lead to with his brother? They hated him.

Then the final thing in chapter 37, verse 5, "And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf." So Joseph has this dream. He has another one that talks about his preeminence and how his brethren will bow to him. Well, of course, this just stirs the hatred of his brethren even more. But we see in all of these cases that Joseph's a picture of the Lord Jesus. His father loved him. At His baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In His preeminence, when He was before the high priest in Matthew 26, the Lord Jesus said that you'll see the Son of Man coming in power and in the clouds of glory. And the high priest was furious with Him. And so the story of Joseph is this incredible story of pointing forward to the Lord Jesus, and of course, a big part of that story is forgiveness.

So what do his brethren do? And without reading it, we'll just refer to it. They take him when he was sent by his father Jacob to check on them when they were out in the fields tending the sheep, just as the Lord Jesus was sent by the Father to check on His brethren. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. And same thing with Joseph's brethren, they hated him and took this advantage, this opportunity, to throw him in a pit, deciding what to do with him. Instead of killing him, Judah said, "What profiteth us to kill him? Let's sell him." And so they sold him to Ishmaelites, and we find that Joseph now is in Potiphar's house, as sold as a slave into Egypt.

So in chapter 39, we find Joseph at Potiphar's house. Now I want you to see this in verse 2, "And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field."

So this tells us something about Joseph, something wonderful. You see, if Joseph held in his heart, as hard as this situation was, to be sold by your brethren into a foreign land, to be hated that much, and now you're a slave away from your family in Egypt, different language, everything is different. And instead of being bitter and angry, which would have led Joseph to be anything but a blessing to Potiphar, Joseph's heart was free before the Lord, and the Lord can bless him. You need to know quite certainly that if we're holding grudges and bitterness and anger in our hearts, the Lord cannot bless us. It doesn't mean that there's no blessing from God; He's certainly very gracious. But we are cutting off the full blessing of God through that bitterness and anger and whatever else resentment that's in our hearts when we refuse to forgive. Joseph had a heart of forgiveness; he trusted God in his situation.

Now in Potiphar's house, he's there. We know from the time that Joseph is 17 when he's taken captive to the time he's going to make it to Pharaoh's throne at the age of 30, you've got 13 years. So that's divided up between Potiphar's house and where he's going to end up in prison. So let's just say he's eight years in Potiphar's house, five years in prison. He was forgotten two years, so that kind of makes sense. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly. But so here he is working at Potiphar's house. He learns the language, the Lord is with him. Potiphar sees that he's blessed. This man is blessed, and that the blessing of God comes upon Potiphar through Joseph. And then we know the story of Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him. Joseph stood strong, trusting God, and ended up unrighteously and unjustly thrown into prison.

Now listen to this in chapter 39 and verse 21, "But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper." The Lord was with Joseph, and everything he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Listen once again, this unjust act that came upon him. First, he's hated by his brother, thrown into a pit, sold into Egypt. Now, after faithfully serving Potiphar for all these years, he's unjustly thrown into prison. Now rejected again. And yet his heart is right with God, and that's why the blessing of God was with him.

Can you imagine that? To have such a forgiving heart, to have such a confidence in the sovereignty of God and His plan and purpose for your life, that He does work all things together for the good, that instead of anger and bitterness and resentment—I'm sure Joseph had to work through these things—but in the end, he trusted God, and he was a blessing, blessing to the very captors, his very captors in Egypt, Potiphar. Now he's in the prison, he's a blessing to the jailer. This is so wonderful. This is what we find in Romans chapter 8, "We're more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

I'm reminded of a young maid in Second Kings and chapter 5. You remember there was a young maid in the story of Naaman, the leper who was healed. But this young maid had been taken captive. Listen to her story in verse 2. This is Second Kings 5:2, "And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy." Now here is this young girl. She has been stolen from her home. She has every reason to be resentful and angry, and to be, you know, looking for an opportunity to stab her mistress or master in the back. But she didn't. She was a godly young lady. She wasn't looking for revenge. She was looking to be used of God wherever she was, to make the best of her circumstances, whatever they were. She cared about her master, and she said, "You know, if my master who has leprosy was to go to the prophet in Israel, he could be healed." What's amazing about that is, no one had ever been healed. You read the, the Lord Jesus says it, that no one was healed of leprosy in Israel except Naaman. So this young girl had never even seen someone healed of leprosy, but she believed God. See, her heart is open, her heart is free. This is what forgiveness does. When we're trusting in God in His plan for our lives, and our hearts are free, they're free to be used of God in whatever situation, no matter how difficult that they might be. We can be used of God just like Joseph, just like this young maid. Praise the Lord. May it be so for us.

So, going back to Joseph, he's in the prison, and one day, all of a sudden—it's not all of a sudden to God, but it's all of a sudden to Joseph—because remember, he had been forgotten after he had interpreted the dream of the cupbearer. The cupbearer was supposed to speak for him to Pharaoh, never did for two years. Joseph waited. So, don't put your trust in men, don't put your hope in men. It was natural for Joseph to seek to be released. He had done nothing wrong, as he told the cupbearer here in chapter 40. But nevertheless, it says at the very end of the chapter, verse 23, "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him." And so here we have Joseph alone with God, disappointed, yes, but dealing with it. It's another day in the dungeon.

Now what happens? Everything changes. God in His sovereignty had given Pharaoh a dream. You know the story. Pharaoh couldn't interpret it. The cupbearer then remembers. He says, "I remember my fault. There was a Hebrew boy in the prison, and he interpreted our dreams." And Pharaoh said, "Call him." Now listen to this, this is so wonderful, because you just never know if you're faithful to God, if you walk in forgiveness, and you're free of resentment and anger and bitterness, and God is using you, you never know where that will lead to. Look what happens. This is in chapter 41. It said two years later that Pharaoh had this dream. And let me see where we should pull in verse 14. "Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh." What a beautiful scene that is, right out of "another day in the dungeon." And here these servants of the Pharaoh come, they take him, they bathe him, they shave him, they give him this wonderful clothing to wear, and present him to Pharaoh. And he interprets the dream. He tells Pharaoh first that only God can interpret the dream, but that God would interpret Pharaoh's dream. So Pharaoh tells him his dream. It has to do with seven years of plenty in Egypt, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph interprets the dream, and it was told twice—and we won't get into the dream—told to Pharaoh twice, two different dreams. Joseph interpreted him.

And so then Joseph said this in verse 34, "Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities." So in other words, Joseph said to Pharaoh—he's a counselor, not a Pharaoh, this is right out of the dungeon, and now he's talking to the greatest man in the world, giving him counsel—and he says, "Choose someone that's a wise man and save up during the seven plenteous years the crop, so that during the years of famine that there'll be food to eat." And of course, who is it that they choose to be that man? The wisest man that Pharaoh knows in that moment is Joseph.

And so listen to what happens. This is all in one day, this is all in a matter of hours. And Pharaoh, verse 39, "Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou." And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt." And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, "Bow the knee": and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. Verse 46, "Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh." In this wonderful, Joseph walked with God. He forgave. He forgave. Let go of grudges, let go of bitterness. Forgive, forgive. You cannot be used of God, not to the fullness of your potential and His plan for your life, as long as you hold on to these things.

Now we talked about forgiveness and trust. Now Joseph is going to—he's already forgiven his brethren. They have to receive that forgiveness, of course, but in his heart, he's free. Now God has orchestrated a way for Joseph to be reintroduced to his brother. Now we'll just tell the story because for the sake of time. So through the first year of famine—it looks like the first year, seven years of plenty are done, now the first year famine—so now Joseph, he was 30, he's 30, maybe 38 years old. His brethren come. He's been gone for 20 years. Jacob has sent his sons to Egypt to get food, and they end up standing before Joseph, because whoever came, Joseph was the one that distributed the food. And this is in chapter 42, "And Joseph was the governor over all the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them; and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan to buy food." And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. Remember, Joseph is speaking to an interpreter. He's speaking Egyptian, and he doesn't, you know, they're not expecting to see him, so they don't put two and two together.

Now look at verse 9, "And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness of the land ye are come." Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed. Listen, in that moment, God reminded Joseph that this was all a part of God's plan, that God in His sovereignty was working. This must have been given such great assurance to Joseph in that moment. In other words, "What should I do? How should I handle this situation?" And God reminds him of that dream, that his brethren would bow down before him. And they see, as he sees them bowed down, he says, "God is in control. God is in control." And he begins to test his brethren to see if they have changed. How important! He wants to know if he can trust them. He's already forgiven them in his heart, but he doesn't just open his arms and say, "Hey, I'm Joseph, your brother, I forgive you." No, they have to be tested to see if they've changed. They have to be tested in order to see if they can be trusted. And you remember there's two parts to what they had done. They had sinned against Joseph, but then they had lied to their father Jacob. This was something that we'll see later Joseph really weighs upon him: "Have these men changed?" And it's when he sees that they have this deep love and concern for their father that really gives him assurance that their hearts have changed.

And so, let's go on now, and we're going to skip over to chapter, let's say, 43. And Joseph had told his brethren that he was going to let them go back to their father with food, but that he wanted to see their younger brother, because they had told him that they had a younger brother that was still with their father. And so Joseph keeps Simeon, and in front of his brother, they come and they put Simeon in bands, in handcuffs of that day, and take him away. And then the brethren go back without Simeon, back home with the food, and they tell Jacob all the things that took place. And Jacob, of course, is most distressed because now Simeon is gone, and this ruler of the land wants Benjamin, who is Joseph's—Jacob's youngest son, Joseph's brother, youngest brother through Jacob and Rachel—that he wants him to come to the land. And it's quite moving what Jacob says when he hears this. He doesn't want it to happen. He says, "Listen, I've been bereaved of Joseph. Now Simeon's gone, and you want to take Benjamin? No, it's not going to happen." And he, and he says this, just to bring this up, in verse 36, at the end of the verse, he says, "All these things are against me." Isn't it incredible? When we look around us, the things going on, we say, "All these things are against me." But actually, Jacob, no, they're not against thee. This is all going to work for your good. This is all going to work for the reconciliation of yourself with your favorite son Joseph. This is going to be better than what you could have ever imagined. But in Jacob's mind at that moment, all those things were against him. And we can understand, we get in those situations ourselves. See, but Joseph is a whole different kind of man. Through the situations he went through, he believed in God's sovereignty. He trusted God. He said, "Somehow these things are going to work out for good." And he was used so greatly of God because of it.

So Jacob finally relents. He lets his sons take back the, the ten sons to take back Benjamin back to Egypt so they can get food and Simeon can get released. So they go back and they appear once again before Joseph. And this is in chapter 43, verse 16. They're standing before Joseph. "And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon." And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house. So Joseph is doing all this, you know, he's allowing fear to enter into his hearts of his brethren because he's testing them. He wants to see if they've changed. He, God has allowed this, this situation where now their younger brother Benjamin, you know, they've brought him. What is their disposition toward Benjamin? Is it the same as it was toward Joseph years ago? Simeon is captive here. So this is a stressful situation. And now Joseph invites him to their home, to his home. They can't imagine what possibly could be happening. They think this is some kind of setup that he's going to accuse them. Because remember, we didn't mention it, but you read the story, when they brought their food back from their first visit, they found all their money in the bag. Joseph had given back their money. So they just don't know what's going on, and they're fearful. And now they're in Joseph's house, the, you know, the greatest man next to Pharaoh in Egypt, and they're in his home. They, what's going to happen? They don't know. So Joseph sits them all down, and amazingly to them, he sets them down at a table according to the order of their birth. And so then, in verse, at the end of verse 43, and it says, "And they drank, and were merry with him." So things lightened up, and they had a time together.

Now, they're going to go back, but he commanded the steward of his house, Joseph did, "To fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth." So now they're all going back, Benjamin, Simeon, they're all going back, and they put money, the money back into their bags again. But then also Joseph has a special silver cup, and he puts it, has it put by his steward in Benjamin's bag. Oh my! So, after they leave, the brethren all leave, then Joseph sends his servant after them, verse 6, "And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words." They said unto him, "Wherefore saith my lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing." In other words, the servant has accused them of stealing from Joseph. And verse 8, "Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan: how then should we steal out of thy lord's house silver or gold? With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be thy lord's bondmen." And he said—now also, let it be according unto your words—this is the servant, "Let it be according to your words." And verse 11, "Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack. And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest: and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, and returned to the city." And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house; for he was yet there: and they fell before him on the ground. And then Joseph accuses them.

And what happens next is so wonderful. Remember, Judah was the one that said, "What profit, what profit is there in killing our brother Joseph? Let's sell him." Now here is Judah, verse 16, "And Judah said, What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are thy lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found." And he said—Joseph said—"God forbid that I should do so: but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant; and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father." Ah, now is the time. How will the brethren respond? Will they leave Benjamin and go back home? Listen to Judah. "Then Judah came near unto him, and said, Oh my lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn." And so he, he begins to intercede. Judah intercedes before Benjamin and for his father. Verse 32, "For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go with his brethren." And so Judah says, "Take me, take me, and let Benjamin go." I mean, you know, we're going through this so quickly, but this, this story is so full of emotion. There are so many pressure-tense situations, so much tension, and this is one of them. Verse 34, "For how shall I go to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father." Now you remember years earlier, 20 years earlier, they had lied to their father, said Joseph had been killed by a wild beast, and they had let their father grieve for over 20 years with a heinous crime. Did they feel guilty? Evidently they did. They felt guilty. Did they ever confess their guilt? No, they didn't. But now is an opportunity for them to do what is the right thing to do, and Judah does that.

Joseph could not refrain himself, chapter 45, "before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud." He said, "I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?" And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. So fear enters their hearts. He just revealed himself, "This is Joseph." And what is their response? Fear. Why? Well, because 20 years earlier they had, they had sold their own brother as a slave, and now they're before him. And Joseph, now listen to this, "And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt." Now, to forgive someone does not mean that you're overlooking the sin. No, forgiveness means, "I know you've sinned, you have sinned, but I forgive you." So Joseph doesn't overlook their sin. He says that you sold me into Egypt. "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life." Whose life? Their life. Now listen, we need to think about this. "For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance."

Okay, so let's just think about this. Not only are we to forgive, but we're to love those that have hurt us. The Lord Jesus said, "Love your enemies." Joseph not only has forgiven his brethren, but he has accepted God's plan that through that rejection of his brethren, through that 13 years in Potiphar's house and then in prison, that God was using it in order that Joseph might be a blessing to the very ones that rejected him, the very ones that hated him, his brethren. Imagine that! Who would sign up for that? It's one thing to be hurt, another thing to forgive. But would you sign up if God said, "Listen, you're going to be hurt very badly. There's going to be years of hurt that goes on, but I'm going to use you to be a blessing to the very ones that have brought that pain into your life." Isn't that the picture of the Lord Jesus? He was rejected by His brethren. He, that cruel cross to which they crucified Him, and yet through His death, burial, and resurrection, He becomes a Savior to bring blessing to the Jewish people and to all people. Praise the Lord. So this is all part of having a free heart before the Lord, understanding that God has a plan and a purpose, and there may be pain, and there is injustice. There's injustice in this world. This world is not a fair world, but God is fair. God is fair. Hallelujah.

So 17 years go by, and at the end of the 17 years, when Jacob dies, his brethren, Joseph's brethren, still have not accepted Joseph's forgiveness. So this is a point that we just need to consider: is that forgiveness is difficult. It is. It is to give forgiveness, it is difficult to receive and to believe. Many people, though they say they've been forgiven by God, they really don't believe that He's fully forgiven them. That this happened with Joseph's brother in the last chapter of Genesis, chapter 50, after Jacob has died. Listen to what the brethren do. "And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." So in other words, they say, "Listen, you know, he did all this for our dad's sake, but now payback time is coming. Dad's gone." And they sent Joseph a letter, and they said it was from their father Jacob, asking Joseph to forgive his brethren. Listen what Joseph did. "And Joseph wept when they spake unto him." When Joseph heard this and understood that his brethren had not received his forgiveness in all the fullness of it, they still didn't believe it, it broke his heart. Broke his heart because in love he had forgiven them, and they wouldn't, and they hadn't received his love. I wonder today, have you received God's fullness of God's love in Christ to the forgiveness of your sins? Are you still doubt? You think God's still holding a grudge against you? Joseph's brethren did.

Just, just in closing, let's turn to Hosea. And Hosea is an incredible story of love, forgiveness, and trust. Hosea had been told—for the sake of time, just Hosea, a prophet of the Northern Kingdom—been told by God to marry a woman, and he was warned that this woman would be unfaithful to him, later play the harlot. So he marries a woman named Gomer. And in fact, Gomer is unfaithful. Broke his heart. Broke Hosea's heart. Why did God have Hosea marry a woman that God said would be unfaithful to him later, to break his heart? God wanted Hosea's heart broken. Why? Because Hosea is a prophet of God, and God's message to Israel was that "You've broken My heart. You've turned away to other gods. You've, you've committed spiritual adultery and going after idols, and you've left Me." And God wanted that message not to be just an intellectual message, but from the heart of His servant. And so God broke Hosea's heart in order that Hosea might be able to express from his own heart with emotion, deep emotion, what it is like to be betrayed and to forgive.

So in chapter 3, Hosea has forgiven Gomer, but there has to be a time of trust, the building of trust. Okay, chapter 3, verse 1, "Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods." See, this is all about God speaking to His people through Hosea's life and in the words of Hosea that he can express with his own broken heart. Unbelievable, unbelievable. And verse 2, "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley." So whatever Gomer had done, this is a sordid story. She's sold herself into prostitution. She's, she's done something that is wretched. And Hosea buys his own wife out of this slavery, out of this bondage. He loves her, he's forgiven her. But listen to this, "And I said unto her," verse 3 of chapter 3, "Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee." Hosea says, "Listen, I have to know that you're a changed woman. I have to know that I can trust you." And so there's going to be a season for you to prove that you can be trusted. "I'll be faithful to you, but you must be faithful to me." And this, of course, pictures, as we go on in the story, God's restoration of Israel when they will come back to Him and they will be faithful to Him.

But what an incredible thing to understand that God uses the lives of these men, Joseph, or the little maid, or Hosea, to tell a story of God's love, of God's forgiveness, but in the shoe leather of real people's lives, so that you can see the pain and the sorrow that they go through, but they have victory through God's love and God's forgiveness and the assurance that God is over all things and He has a plan, and God is able to use them powerfully, mightily.

So if there's anything in your life or my life at this moment that is keeping us from forgiving, make a decision in this moment to forgive. Make that decision to forgive. Let it go. You say, "Well, I've made that decision, I've forgiven, but it keeps coming back and it's haunting me." Listen, if you're a believer, that flesh within you will never change. The flesh within you will hold contempt and hatred and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness until the Lord comes to take you to glory. It'll be all gone then. Hallelujah! So when those memories come back and the emotion with them, it's the flesh. And what you have to do is the same thing you do with any temptation, whether it's from within, lust within, whether it's from the world without, or the devil himself. What are you to do? You're to stand with God and to say, "No." So when you are tempted, after you've made this choice—make sure you made that choice to forgive, and you truly in the name of Jesus have forgiven that person—then when those thoughts come back and the emotion of it, in that moment when you feel that emotion, you hear those thoughts, condemn that thought. Stand with God and say, "That is not me. That's the flesh within me. I have forgiven that person. I stand with Christ in God's love." Don't accept it as coming from you, because you are a new creation in Christ. The flesh, the old man, is gone. But what the old man feels, and the experiences of hate and bitterness and anger and all those things, they continue with the flesh until we're taken to heaven. So don't be confused. If you've forgiven, certainly those emotions are going to be there and they're going to come back, but you must deal with them just as you would any sin. You must say, "No." Stand with God, stand with God, and call that thing what it is: sin. "It's wrong. I've forgiven, and I stand in that forgiveness. You've forgiven me, O God, I stand in that forgiveness, Your forgiveness for me, and I forgive that person. I stand in the forgiveness that I gave them however long ago it was."

God bless you. Let's pray. Oh God, now Father, we feel we have rushed too quickly through such important things, but You are able to make things clear and impress our hearts. And we pray in this moment that we might deal with this issue of forgiveness, and that You might give us wisdom as to how in relationships to rebuild trust and to see the difference, Lord. And once again, if someone is in an abusive relationship, we pray for them that they might seek counsel and not continue in that relationship, even though they have forgiven and know as a Christian they must forgive. This whole matter of trust is something else. And so we just commit all of our situations to Thee, O God. We pray that we might be the kind of vessels like Joseph, like Hosea, that can be used of Thee because we have no bitterness, no anger, no resentment in our hearts. We've forgiven as You've forgiven us. In Jesus' name, amen.