Pillars of Faith

Forgiveness For Freedom

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jim Gilley, Pastor

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Series Code: POF

Program Code: POF000005A


00:25 Well, hello, and welcome to the 3ABN Worship Center,
00:29 right here in beautiful Thompsonville, Illinois.
00:32 We welcome all of you and are so always appreciative
00:36 of you being part of these sermons that we're doing.
00:39 We've got a wonderful series, Pillars of Faith,
00:42 and Pastor Jim Gilley is our speaker.
00:44 And he is doing an incredible job,
00:47 this is the fifth in his series.
00:49 Let me read you the other titles.
00:51 Our Great High Priest was his first one.
00:54 God's Witness, Protection Plan was his second one.
00:57 Grace, Truly Amazing, the fourth one.
01:01 The Cross of Christ, and then tonight,
01:03 we're going to hearing Forgiveness for Freedom.
01:06 So, I want you to just encourage you.
01:09 Be sure and allow this message to touch your heart
01:13 and minister to your heart.
01:14 Pastor Gilley has a way of presenting God's word
01:17 in such a powerful way that it sets the captive free.
01:21 And if you haven't heard the first four,
01:23 they're always available for you to get.
01:26 But now, let me read you the scripture for this evening.
01:31 The scripture says, and this is out of
01:35 Mathew 18:21-35.
01:41 So let's read this together.
01:43 "Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord,
01:47 how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?
01:51 Up to seven times?'
01:53 Jesus said to him,
01:55 'I do not say to you, up to seven times,
01:58 but up to seventy times seven.'
02:00 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king
02:04 who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
02:07 And when he had begun to settle accounts,
02:10 one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents.
02:16 But as he was not able to pay,
02:19 his master commanded that he be sold,
02:22 with his wife and children, and all that he had,
02:27 and that payment be made.
02:29 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying,
02:32 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'
02:37 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion,
02:41 released him, and forgave him the debt.
02:44 'But that servant went out
02:46 and found one of his fellow servants
02:49 who owed him a hundred denarius,
02:52 and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat,
02:55 saying, 'Pay me what you owe me.'
02:58 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him,
03:02 saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'
03:07 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison
03:12 till he settled the debt.
03:15 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done,
03:19 they were very grieved, and came and told their master
03:24 all that had been done.
03:26 Then his master, after he had called him,
03:29 said to him, 'You wicked servant.
03:33 I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
03:38 Should you not have had compassion
03:40 on your fellow servant, but as I had pity on you?'
03:46 And his master was angry,
03:48 and delivered him to the torturers
03:50 until he should pay all that was due to him.
03:53 'So my heavenly Father also will do to you
03:58 if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive
04:01 his brother his transgression.'
04:04 " So we had the reading of God's word
04:06 as it penetrated our hearts, let's pray now and ask God,
04:10 by the power of His Spirit, to take the word
04:13 that goes forth tonight,
04:15 settle it deep within our hearts,
04:17 and will be changed
04:18 from glory to glory into his image
04:20 and into his likeness.
04:23 Holy Father, we come before you
04:24 in the name of Jesus,
04:26 and we praise you, and we thank you, Lord,
04:27 for the power that is in your word
04:29 to change us into your image and into your likeness.
04:32 I thank you, Holy God, for the anointing
04:34 that rest upon our brother Gilley,
04:36 thank you, Holy God,
04:38 for the word that is stored within his heart,
04:40 that he will bring forth tonight
04:42 under your unction and under your anointing
04:44 that it will touch us, it will set us free.
04:47 Now we command this hole series into your hands
04:49 and ask for your divine guidance
04:51 in Jesus' name, amen.
04:54 Pastor Gilley, we welcome you.
04:57 Thank you, Mollie.
05:02 Well, it is, and has been such a wonderful time
05:05 to be here this weekend.
05:08 To visit with all of those that I worked with
05:10 for almost eight years, had a good visit with Danny;
05:14 with Brian Hamilton, and with Mollie, and with C.A.
05:17 and with the production group, which I value so much
05:22 because they are such wonderful people.
05:24 Those that are back in the studios
05:29 and are turning the levers so that you get a picture,
05:34 they work very, very hard to try to get the message out.
05:39 And I had tried to encourage them
05:43 to realize that they work hard,
05:46 it's almost a day-to-day just grind.
05:50 And I tell them, please, don't forget
05:53 that people at home are seeing the gospel,
05:58 and people that have never heard about Jesus
06:02 are hearing about Jesus because 3ABN is on the air.
06:08 That's make a big, big difference, my friend,
06:12 a very big difference.
06:15 Our story today is the story
06:20 that Jesus shared with Peter.
06:23 You remember that Peter, as Mollie had read in the text,
06:27 Peter was so proud of himself
06:30 because he'd been with Jesus for awhile
06:33 and he had seen that Jesus expanded the love
06:37 and the gospel.
06:39 And so he said, you know, he heard about forgiveness,
06:44 and he said, "Lord how often
06:47 shall my brother's sin against me
06:48 and I forgive him,"
06:50 and then he answers his own question.
06:52 He doesn't wait; you know, there are people like that.
06:55 They'll ask you a question,
06:57 and before you can answer the question,
06:59 than they answer it.
07:01 And he thought, I really have an answer.
07:05 You see the normal thought during that time
07:08 had been by Rabbi
07:10 who had preceded Christ on this earth about 200 years.
07:15 'Cause no one precedes Christ, he's from everlasting,
07:18 but he had been there in Israel about that time.
07:23 Rabbi Ben Yehuda,
07:25 a very popular and well known rabbi and teacher.
07:30 One the principles that he established
07:33 was the principle of forgiveness.
07:36 And he said that you can forgive a person
07:40 or you should be forgiving a person
07:43 about three times, three times.
07:47 In other words, three strikes and you're out.
07:50 After three times, you have no obligation to forgive anyone
07:55 who continues to "Sin against you."
07:59 So, Peter, he thought, wow,
08:03 I'm gonna more than double that.
08:06 He said, I've heard the Lord used
08:07 the sevens so many times and I think seven times,
08:12 that's twice what Ben Yehuda said, plus one.
08:18 So he said, "Lord, seven times?"
08:21 And then the Lord surprises him,
08:24 and he says,
08:26 "I do not say to you up to seven times,
08:30 but up to seventy times seven."
08:34 490.
08:37 What he really is saying is there's no limit, no limit.
08:42 He could have said 700 times 7000.
08:46 And because his whole point is there is no limit
08:51 to the forgiveness that we,
08:55 we should be willing to give to others.
08:59 So you see, this is a tremendous passage.
09:02 And then Jesus tells the story.
09:05 He tells the story of this Stewart.
09:08 And Stewart was like Vice President over a division.
09:12 He was the man that had
09:15 a great deal of business under him.
09:19 And he had been doing the best he could,
09:22 probably, to make things work,
09:24 but it didn't, had not working out.
09:26 He was responsible if there was a profit,
09:30 he would receive a portion of the profit.
09:33 And he and the king would share
09:37 that portion of the profit.
09:41 But if there was a loss, he had to sustain the loss.
09:47 Now he was given the assets that he could go out
09:51 and makes all of this money worth.
09:53 And if he was careful in his investments
09:56 then he would do very well.
09:58 But this Stewart was somewhat reckless
10:00 and he evidently put some money into some investments
10:04 that just did not pay off.
10:07 And he, it was like a multiplying factor.
10:12 I had friends that got involved in futures,
10:16 in the stock market.
10:18 And they could lose
10:21 multiple amounts of money faster
10:24 that way just buying a single stock, I guess,
10:27 because I've not met one yet
10:30 that did well with that type of thing.
10:33 Now, I'm sure there are people that do you?
10:35 But none of the friends that I've met.
10:38 And this man gotten into something
10:40 that had absolutely wiped out
10:44 everything that he had to invest,
10:47 and he was terribly in debt.
10:50 Now he's been likened to about ten million dollars
10:55 that he owed.
10:56 Now, it would, personally, there was no way
10:59 that he could pay that back.
11:01 And he was not going to be give an opportunity
11:04 when he was loosing money like this,
11:06 not going to be given an opportunity
11:08 to be given more money to invest
11:12 and then try to make it back
11:14 because this would have foolish.
11:16 That's just putting good money after bad,
11:20 as they say.
11:23 So the king said, "'I'm sorry, you're through."
11:28 Now, in those days, in order not only to punish
11:32 but to recoup something at least
11:35 they would sell the person
11:37 and his entire family in the slavery.
11:41 That is a pretty terrible sentence.
11:46 To go from being the Vice President
11:50 and the head of a division
11:54 to now you are paid to be nothing.
12:00 You receive no pay, you are a slave, a slave,
12:07 belonging to somebody.
12:10 And not only you, but your family.
12:13 They had nothing to do with.
12:14 Your wife had nothing to do with your poor investments,
12:17 your children had nothing to do with your poor investing.
12:21 And now they're too are gonna be slaves.
12:25 And this man was overcome, he just cried out and he said,
12:29 " Oh, I just can't handle this, I just, oh, Lord, please,
12:34 " and he went down on his knees and appealed for his wife.
12:40 I'm sure, he probably said,
12:41 "Look, please, at least let my family go."
12:47 And the king began to listen to him,
12:50 and finally he said, "I've heard you.
12:56 I'm going to resent my order, you're going to be free.
13:01 You can go and back to your job,
13:05 " because when he made him free,
13:07 he reestablished him back in that position.
13:10 He gave him all of the privileges
13:13 that he had before.
13:15 He was probably given new assets
13:19 for which to operate,
13:22 and given another opportunity, and his slate was wiped clean.
13:28 He didn't have to worry about that ten million anymore,
13:32 not at all.
13:34 Can you imagine that? Totally free.
13:38 And you would be think now that he'd be so filled with joy
13:44 and with appreciation that he would extent
13:47 that same kind of mercy to other people.
13:52 For sure he would, you can see that this man,
13:56 now he's going to be the most forgiving person in the world,
13:59 he's wherever he goes, if there's in any problem,
14:02 he is going to be forgiven because he's been forgiven.
14:09 You know something, it didn't work that way.
14:15 In fact, it was all most like he said to himself,
14:18 "You know, I've been relax,
14:21 the reason that I got into so much trouble
14:24 is I was just too relax.
14:26 I've got to tighten up.
14:28 I've got a run a tighter ship, I got to make sure
14:31 that things are run better around here."
14:34 And as he leaves and goes out,
14:36 he sees the man that owes 20 bucks, $20.
14:43 And he says, "I want you to pay me
14:45 and I want you to pay me right now."
14:47 The man says, "Whoa, wait a minute,
14:48 I don't have that kind of money on me.
14:52 I don't have it."
14:54 "You are going to pay me or you're going jail.
14:56 And you going to pay me now."
15:00 And the man says, "I can't."
15:02 He says, "All right, then you're going to jail,
15:07 you're going to jail, I'm going to take you to right now,
15:09 I'm gonna take you down and turn you in,
15:13 and you're going to have to pay me
15:18 or you're going to jail."
15:20 The man say, "I don't have the money,
15:23 so I guess better just, you better put me in jail."
15:27 You know all the other people,
15:29 the employees of the king and the servants,
15:34 they had heard about his forgiveness
15:36 and they were happy about that.
15:38 They were happy that he was not going to sold into slavery.
15:42 They were happy that he was not going to have his family
15:47 become slaves.
15:49 They were thrilled that they,
15:51 and they knew that this is the kind of person
15:53 they work for now, there was a man of mercy,
15:57 and this just thrill their hearts.
15:59 And they knew that because he had been forgiven,
16:03 they just thought of course,
16:04 he's going to be forgiven person too.
16:06 He's going to be a little easier to live with.
16:11 But they were wrong and they were shocked.
16:16 And the next thing they did was to go to the king
16:22 and tell him what has just taken place.
16:25 He said, "What?
16:28 You mean
16:30 that he didn't forgive that $20
16:36 or at least give that person
16:38 a chance to come up with it in time.
16:40 Put him in jail?"
16:42 "Yes, he did."
16:45 "Wow," he said, "I'm resenting my order.
16:49 He is going to pay;
16:54 he's going in this servitude.
16:59 He's not doing in the jail, he's going to be a servant,
17:03 and so as the rest of his family."
17:06 And he put all of that back on that man.
17:11 Now, Jesus said in these words when he told this story,
17:15 "So, my Heavenly Father also will do to you,
17:20 if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother,
17:27 his trespasses."
17:30 That's pretty strong.
17:32 You know something, no where else is scripture
17:35 does Jesus resent this and no place else in scripture
17:40 is there some explanation that says,
17:43 oh, that's not what he really meant,
17:45 what he really meant was something else.
17:47 He really meant what he says here.
17:52 You know it is so important to understand this principle.
17:59 In fact he put in to the Lord's prayer.
18:03 Forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors.
18:09 In the same way that we forgive,
18:11 we're to be forgiven.
18:13 Boy, do you want to be forgiven the way you forgive?
18:17 Do I?
18:20 Listen there's times I've stopped
18:22 and studied about this, and thought about this, and said,
18:25 "Lord, I need a lot of forgiveness.
18:29 Am I a lot of a forgiver?
18:32 Does my forgiveness equal that forgiving which I need.
18:38 Does it?"
18:41 And I think that each one us has to ask ourselves
18:46 that question, I'm I a forgiver?
18:52 When I was in Idaho years ago, I was there helping a church
18:58 and I had sometime during the day,
19:01 and so I went out to the old state prison.
19:07 I wanted to see about Harry Orchard.
19:11 Harry Orchard was probably
19:13 one of the most celebrated assassins
19:16 in the history of this nation.
19:19 He killed the Governor, the former Governor,
19:23 he already served his term,
19:25 Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho.
19:30 He blew him up.
19:31 Now, he had tried several times to kill him before
19:34 but he had not quite succeeded.
19:36 But on the last time he did it, it was a horrible,
19:39 horrible crime.
19:40 Steunenberg was alive for about 20 minutes
19:43 right outside of his house.
19:46 His wife and children were there,
19:49 and then he died before help could even come,
19:53 exploded by bomb.
19:56 Harry Orchard was hiding nearby had denoted that bomb
20:01 that he had placed there.
20:03 They caught him.
20:05 Harry Orchard was assassin for the Unions,
20:08 and the Unions were very much upset with the governor
20:13 because the governor, when he was actually in office
20:17 had brought troops in to stop a labor disputes.
20:23 And they would never forgive him for that.
20:26 They told him, "You'll pay for that.
20:28 You'll pay for that with your life."
20:31 He knew that he was on their list,
20:34 and then finally they got him.
20:37 Harry Orchard had killed for the unions
20:40 all over the country and had done so many times.
20:44 Later on he told and confessed to all these.
20:47 At first when they caught him he pleaded not guilty.
20:50 And the Union hired the very best trial lawyer
20:55 in the nation, Clarence Darrow,
20:58 famous in all the history of trail lawyers.
21:03 He is right in the top ten
21:05 of the most famous trial lawyers
21:08 in the United States.
21:10 He came, he told, "Of course, Harry Orchard,
21:13 stick with your story.
21:15 I'll get you off.
21:17 I know how to do this."
21:19 And he began, but right in the middle of the trail,
21:25 Harry Orchard came under conviction.
21:29 First of all he was presented
21:35 by Frank Steunenberg's family
21:39 with some tracks and with a little book
21:43 called Steps to Christ.
21:46 Was brought to him by Steunenberg's 21-year-old son,
21:52 he was Julian.
21:54 And Julian had brought it from his mother,
21:58 who was Bell Steunenberg's.
21:59 See, Bell Steunenberg had become
22:02 a Seventh-day Adventist
22:03 by reading a magazine called The Centennial.
22:06 This is magazine that preceded Liberty magazine.
22:10 And about 10 years before that, they had discussed
22:13 the possibility of not having anything
22:16 in their about the Sabbath, and Ellen White had a dream.
22:21 In her dream was that they should have something
22:26 in each issue about the Sabbath.
22:30 So they resented the vote that they had the day before
22:34 'cause she came and she told them,
22:36 "I had dream last night that this was not right,
22:39 that we should have that message in their."
22:43 The Centennial was sent to every governor
22:46 and every office holder in the United States.
22:49 Governor Frank Steunenberg received The Centennial
22:52 and he read it in his office.
22:54 He knew that his wife love to read.
22:57 So he took it home among some other magazines
23:00 to his wife.
23:01 She read it, she began to keep the Sabbath,
23:06 and she joined a little group of Sabbath keepers
23:11 there in Boise, Idaho,
23:13 the Seventh-day Adventist group.
23:17 Later, she gave them a part of land,
23:22 and it was on that land that they built the first Boise
23:27 Seventh-day Adventist Church came from Bell Steunenberg.
23:32 She loved the Lord, she loved this message.
23:35 She also sent, little later on,
23:39 tracks to Harry Orchard
23:43 about the Sabbath,
23:47 and he accepted it, and he was baptized,
23:49 and became a member of that church.
23:51 So he had never been able to attend,
23:54 he was baptized by the conference president
23:56 in the penitentiary.
23:58 But he was a member, has membership,
24:00 voted unanimously by the members there.
24:05 And but it was during this trail,
24:07 during that conviction that he said to himself,
24:11 "I want God's forgiveness
24:14 and if I need God's forgiveness,
24:16 I cannot lie about my guilt."
24:20 Clarence Darrow was furious.
24:24 We were gonna win this case.
24:26 I've no question about it,
24:28 and you've got mixed up in this religious thing.
24:32 Lord should let you know, it's more important for me
24:37 to have God's forgiveness and to have the freedom
24:41 that comes from being forgiven by God
24:45 and being forgiven by this family.
24:47 Because they had gotten the word to him
24:50 that they forgave him.
24:52 Now they knew that he had this,
24:54 the sentenced to what he was sentenced to
24:56 but they still forgave him.
24:58 By the way, he was sentenced to death,
25:01 and they did write to the judge
25:04 and asked that that sentenced be changed,
25:07 and it was to life imprisonment.
25:10 Harry Orchard lived in that Boise penitentiary
25:14 the rest of his live, 46 years he was an inmate.
25:19 And they loved him so much, he talked about the Lord.
25:23 He studied the Bible with all,
25:25 it's many of the prisoners that would study with him.
25:29 And they allowed him to actually build
25:32 a little cabin just outside the walls of the penitentiary.
25:37 Right there, and let him live in that cabin
25:42 rather than living in the cell.
25:46 He was there till the day he died,
25:48 he's buried right there.
25:50 Do you know something my friends, he had freedom,
25:55 freedom, because he had been forgiven.
25:59 He had received freedom.
26:01 And the Steunenberg has freedom because they had forgiven him.
26:05 They were not bound by hatred any longer,
26:08 there's nothing in this world that will bind us
26:11 as much as holding on to a grudge.
26:15 And they had freedom.
26:18 Wow. Forgiveness.
26:22 That's why God tells us to forgive,
26:24 it's not necessary,
26:25 it's not just for the person
26:27 that needs that forgiveness from us,
26:29 it is for us to forgive ourselves
26:36 to wipeout that feeling that we harbor inside of us.
26:42 You know recently, not long ago,
26:45 there was terrible shooting over in South Carolina.
26:49 You remember that, it was Charleston,
26:52 and it was a church called the Methodist Episcopal Church,
26:57 it was known as Mother Emanuel.
26:59 And a young man who was deranged
27:02 went into that place and he killed nine people.
27:08 And two days later,
27:11 they charged him in South Carolina,
27:15 when they charged somebody
27:18 then the family can come and make a statement.
27:22 And the families of those nine victims were there.
27:27 And they said, "We understand that their certain procedures
27:31 that have to happen
27:32 and this man has to pay for what he's done.
27:35 But we want him to understand and the world,
27:40 we're not going to riot
27:42 as people expect we are going to.
27:46 And so we're not gonna do that."
27:47 That was Norvel Goff, the pastor made that statement.
27:52 And then, Anthony Thompson, a relative of Myra,
27:57 one of the people who was killed,
28:00 and were shot over and over again,
28:02 said, "We forgive.
28:05 We, the families of these victims
28:09 forgive this poor man.
28:12 So, forgiveness of Jesus, and we hope
28:15 that he will receive Jesus Christ
28:19 as his personal savior."
28:21 They were now free from that hatred
28:24 because they had been willing
28:29 to follow the teachings of Jesus,
28:33 and to let it go, to forgive.
28:37 You see, Bible says that David
28:40 was a man after God's own heart.
28:44 David, he was a sinner, he committed adultery,
28:47 he committed murder, he was an absolute sinner,
28:50 how could he be a man after God's own heart?
28:54 But you look at David.
28:56 When he had the opportunity to kill Saul,
29:00 he was forgiving Saul in his heart
29:03 because he didn't do it, didn't act on that.
29:06 His son Epsilon turned against him,
29:09 tried to kill him, tried to take the kingdom.
29:11 When his son was killed he balled, he cried,
29:17 in whole absence, wept that 'It were I instead of you."
29:24 He had that heart of forgiveness,
29:28 willing to forgive others.
29:31 And because he was, he was forgiven.
29:36 He's a big forgiver, he was a big sinner,
29:38 but he was a big forgiver.
29:41 And if you are a big sinner, you better be a forgiver.
29:45 And that's what David was.
29:49 And God said, "He's a man after my own heart."
29:53 Why?
29:55 Because God is the biggest forgiver of all.
29:59 God not only forgives, he wipes it out of his memory.
30:03 It's just like a computer being having it all wipe clean,
30:07 and we'll had that experience, where we lost programs,
30:12 totally gone, wiped clean,
30:16 God says, "I wipe my memory clean
30:21 of anything you've ever done when I forgive you."
30:26 But he says, "I'm only asking one thing.
30:29 First of all that you confess."
30:30 If we confess our sins, 1 John 1:9,
30:33 "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
30:37 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
30:40 So He ask us to confess.
30:42 Secondly, He ask us to forgive others.
30:49 Forgive us our debts
30:52 as we forgive our debtors.
30:57 Forgive our sins in direct proportion to the way
31:01 that we forgive other people who sin against us.
31:05 That's a decoration by Him.
31:09 And it's not easy folks, it is not easy.
31:11 One of the most difficult things
31:13 that Christians ever ask to do is to forgive.
31:16 Oh, you can forgive somebody
31:17 for talking your parking place at Walmart.
31:22 How many times that has happened to me,
31:24 I could never count,
31:25 that I'm just about to pull into a parking place
31:28 and somebody whops right in,
31:31 and you see they are coming from the wrong direction
31:33 and then make a quick deal, get in just enough
31:36 to where they got you blocked, and you have to drive home by.
31:40 Now you can't cease to forgive.
31:42 But if somebody destroys your family,
31:46 somebody kills someone in your family,
31:51 somebody hurts one of your children,
31:54 or they steal your identity
31:59 and destroy your credit.
32:02 Now you're talking about something that's different.
32:06 Now you're talking about a real exercise,
32:11 and you and I have to get on our knees
32:14 and plead with the God, who has the forgiving spirit
32:18 to share that forgiving spirit with us.
32:22 So that we, can truly have the freedom
32:28 that comes when we have forgiven others.
32:33 You know, it's a wonderful thing
32:35 to be forgiven.
32:37 It is just beautiful;
32:38 I will tell you something that happened to one time.
32:42 I, Camille and I finished school at South Western,
32:47 it was a Junior college in those days,
32:49 two years of college.
32:50 Now we had the opportunity to go on to Union College
32:54 or to Southern Missionary.
32:57 Those two schools were in sync with South Western.
33:02 Somebody was urging us to come up to Andrews,
33:08 a good friend of mine.
33:10 And they said, "If come on up here,
33:11 you get your last two years of college
33:13 and then you gonna go seminary, you're already in place."
33:17 I'd ready had my mindset on going to Union college
33:20 because, that's where all of my friends are going.
33:23 By the way, that's where my grandson is right now.
33:27 Jimmy the III, he's at Union college.
33:30 And I was thinking about going to Union,
33:32 I had so many friends there.
33:34 Camille's father was the pastor of the church at Southern
33:37 and they wanted us to come to Southern and go to school.
33:41 Camilla leaned more towards going to Southern.
33:45 So we compromised
33:48 and went to Andrew's University.
33:52 Now, we did not realize that their academic program
33:58 was not all in sync with the program
34:01 down at South Western.
34:04 And that we were going to lose
34:08 a year of education by doing this.
34:14 We didn't realize until we got there
34:16 and we started trying to get all the subjects going,
34:19 and all of a sudden, we realized
34:20 wait a minute that won't even transfer,
34:23 because we teach that in upper biennium
34:26 and you took it in the first two years of college.
34:29 So, it's not recognized here.
34:31 And I am about to go berserk,
34:35 I spent hours in the registrar's office.
34:40 In fact years later,
34:42 they invited me to comeback there to teach.
34:47 And the registrar made the statement,
34:50 "We haven't recovered from his being a student yet.
34:53 I'm not sure we could have him on the faculty at this point."
34:56 Because I had spent so many hours in there,
34:59 arguing with them about subjects.
35:02 There were some subjects that they didn't give me
35:05 any credit for it all, and some I had to take over.
35:09 Take hermeneutics for instance, which is preaching
35:12 down in the junior college,
35:14 they said, "No, you have to take it again."
35:16 Well, I did mind, that one so much.
35:19 I was taking 20-21 hours,
35:21 when most people were taking like 16 hours.
35:24 And so I just had a heavy, heavy load,
35:27 and working to try to go to school.
35:30 And so then, we had to do some correspondence.
35:33 Camille and I went out to Idaho,
35:35 worked on a fire tower,
35:37 and that summer I did a 11 hours of correspondence.
35:41 I think she did 8 hours of correspondence.
35:44 And then we went back to Andrews,
35:46 there was nobody out there to give us the test.
35:49 Went back to Andrews
35:50 and one of the people there was gonna give me the test.
35:54 And the test comes to me, I give it to him.
35:58 He opens it up, looks at it puts back in the envelope,
36:02 and says, "Bring it to such and such a place
36:05 and you'll will take the test,
36:07 when you get the like, next Sunday or something,
36:10 when he had time go give it."
36:14 I had so busy, we were down to the final test week,
36:20 studying for all of other subjects.
36:23 I had those test in an envelope that wasn't even sealed.
36:29 Now I had studied those subjects
36:31 and I knew those subjects and, but I just kept,
36:37 I guess it was honestly,
36:39 almost more curiosity than anything else.
36:42 I wonder what's on the test.
36:45 And I thought and fought, and fought,
36:47 and lost the battle.
36:49 In the middle of the night studying, I said,
36:53 "I'm gonna take a quick peak."
36:55 And I did, and I was so sorry immediately that I had looked
37:02 because I actually knew
37:04 what are the questions that we're gonna be there,
37:06 I knew the answer to them.
37:08 Every single one of them.
37:10 And I thought, oh, why did I do that?
37:15 And I should have confessed to the professor, but I didn't.
37:19 And that bothered me.
37:22 That bothered me.
37:23 These were correspondence courses
37:26 that were offered by home study institute.
37:32 I went into the ministry
37:36 and this still bothered me.
37:39 You know, something like this on your conscious,
37:42 it just bothers you so much.
37:44 And so I went,
37:47 we were going down through Washington DC
37:49 and I told my wife,
37:52 "I'm gonna go to home study institute
37:55 and I'm going to tell them what I've done.
38:00 If I've take that course over again, I'm gonna do it."
38:05 And so I walked into the presence
38:07 of the home study institute, but just I went in,
38:10 I'm standing out in the lobby, out by the desk
38:13 waiting for an appointment and I look up
38:17 and there is a register from Andrews.
38:21 And I thought what is he doing here?
38:23 Then all these things go through my mind.
38:26 All the president has to do is to walk out here
38:30 and tell him what I did.
38:32 My degree will be nullified,
38:35 this is gonna open a can of worms,
38:37 it's gonna be unbelievable.
38:39 And my temptation was forgot this confession thing
38:43 and get out of here.
38:46 I said, "No, Lord, even if they take my degree
38:49 and they strip me of the degree,
38:52 I got to make this right."
38:55 So I walked in to the president's office,
38:59 wonderful man,
39:01 was president of home studies for so many years.
39:05 Walked into his office
39:06 and told him exactly what I had done.
39:12 He looked at me and I told him, I said,
39:16 and here, the Harrison is right out there in the lobby.
39:19 He said, "I know where he's."
39:22 Now he said, "I want you to look at me."
39:25 And I looked at him, and he said, "Now,
39:29 I'm the president of this organization."
39:32 I said, "That's right."
39:35 "I've the authority." I said, "That's right."
39:38 "And by authority, I'm forgiving you."
39:43 I said, "What?"
39:46 He said, "I am forgiving you."
39:51 I said, "Oh, do you mean I don't have to do anything?"
39:54 "You don't have to do anything
39:56 but walk out of here totally forgiven.
40:02 He said, "It took a lot for you to walk in here?"
40:04 I said, "Oh, yes, it did, but I expect to pay. "
40:08 He said, "No,
40:09 don't you know and understand about the grace of God
40:12 and how God forgives.
40:15 If God can forgive," he says,
40:17 "as a man, I can also forgive, I've given that authority.
40:22 And I want you to know that never again
40:26 do you have to worry about this, you are forgiven. "
40:33 I walked out of there, I was, I was walking on air,
40:37 I even said hello to the registrar on my way.
40:40 And actually we had become such as advisory
40:44 that we had a respect for each other.
40:47 If maybe not a liking,
40:48 at least a respect for each other.
40:50 And I stop by and visiting with him for a moment
40:53 before I headed out and join Camilla.
40:57 And we got in out little Volkswagen
41:00 and headed back down the road.
41:02 Oh, my friend, to be forgiven, God forgives.
41:06 I had never, ever had anyone forgive me like that.
41:12 Never had that ever happen.
41:13 You know, sometimes you're parents,
41:16 you do something, boy, our family, you paid for it.
41:19 I mean, you took the punishment,
41:21 that was it, there was always some punishment
41:24 that went along with it,
41:26 even if there was sort of a mean look,
41:29 there was a punishment that went along.
41:33 And now, to be totally forgiven.
41:36 Oh, you know what that made me want to be, a forgiver.
41:42 Number of times in my life since that time,
41:47 I've people who actually steal large amounts of inventory
41:52 when I was running a business and things of that nature
41:55 and I was able to look at him
41:58 and say, "You're forgiven.
42:03 You're forgiven. "
42:06 And what a feeling that was to pass along.
42:11 The only time I never got really chance to do
42:13 was when I never got chance to see the person afterwards
42:16 because they took off and they would not coming and see me.
42:21 I still forgave him,
42:23 but they never had that opportunity to sit
42:27 and for us to talk,
42:30 and for me to actually forgive them for that.
42:35 You see, Jesus is the great forgiver.
42:38 And he says that David was a man after his own heart
42:42 because David was a great forgiver.
42:46 I remember one time, a young doctor and his wife
42:49 came to visit with me, and there were,
42:53 they had a great problem that had come up in their marriage.
42:58 The doctor been unfaithful, in fact,
43:01 honestly he had been multiple times unfaithful.
43:05 It didn't seem like there was a nurse at the hospital,
43:08 he hadn't been with them sometime or another.
43:11 But he had found Jesus and he determent
43:15 that he was laying all of this aside,
43:20 and then he then confessed his sin to his wife.
43:24 Now I'm going to tell you the truth,
43:26 if he had come to me first I would have said,
43:29 "Let's confess this to God
43:31 and let's don't confess it any further than that
43:34 because all you're gonna do if you go confess
43:37 all the husbands of those nurses,
43:40 you're going to be causing a lot of problem.
43:43 And if you confess your own wife,
43:46 you're gonna be causing a major problem
43:48 and laying a burden on her. "
43:52 Yes, David says,
43:53 "You've sinned against God and him alone. "
43:57 And then, I know there's a lot of argue about this,
44:00 this not the way that most people were intrepid this,
44:03 but that's how what I would have said to him.
44:05 Now he had a real problem,
44:08 he had laid that guilt and that burden upon this wife
44:12 who had no idea that this has taken place.
44:17 He's buzzer went off, he was on call at the hospital,
44:22 he was a major surgeon.
44:25 He went to the other room,
44:27 he used my phone to call into the hospital,
44:29 it was before people who running around
44:32 with the cell phones.
44:35 And I said to her,
44:39 "I'm hoping that you can find it in your heart
44:43 to forgive him. "
44:45 Se says, "I'll never forgive him. "
44:48 I said, "Now, the Bible says
44:50 you actually have ground for the divorce,
44:52 you could divorce him.
44:55 But you don't have grounds not to forgive.
44:59 That's not part of it. "
45:02 She says, "I will never divorce him,
45:05 I've put him through medical school,
45:07 I've put him through getting all the special degrees
45:11 that he has, and now he's ready to start making money,
45:14 you think I gonna divorce him now?
45:16 Absolutely not.
45:17 But I'll never forgive him. "
45:20 I said, "That makes me sad. "
45:23 She said, "Why?"
45:25 "Because you've just excluded yourself from the kingdom
45:29 according to the word, according to God's word,
45:34 'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. '
45:37 If you not willing to forgive, you can divorce,
45:42 but you have no right not to forgive.
45:45 Even if you have divorced someone, you must forgive. "
45:50 Doesn't mean you have to go back in to the marriage,
45:53 but it does mean that you have to forgive.
45:58 And now you have told me that you cannot forgive.
46:05 She never told me whether she forgive it not,
46:07 she didn't stay with him.
46:08 They had actually a very good marriage all this year.
46:11 I stay in touch with them,
46:13 and they've had a very good marriage.
46:15 They're wonderful people, fantastic people.
46:18 He is a fabulous doctor, I would go to him in a minute.
46:22 I would go to him, as a councilor,
46:25 he's been down that road.
46:26 He got a lot help, he had,
46:28 he actually went off little later on
46:31 and he felt like he had a sexual addiction,
46:35 and he took a course for sexual addiction.
46:40 And I believed that he has succeeded
46:45 in turning his life around completely.
46:48 Yes, the Bible tell us, that we must forgive,
46:53 we must forgive, if we are should to be forgiven.
46:58 Matthew 6, we find the Lord's prayer,
47:02 it's a beautiful prayer, it's a prayer that is the model,
47:07 "Our Father which art in heaven,
47:08 hallowed be thy name.
47:11 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth,
47:14 as it is in heaven.
47:17 Give us this day our daily bread
47:20 and forgive us our debts,
47:24 as we forgive our debtors,
47:30 and lead us not into temptation,
47:33 but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom,
47:38 and the power, and the glory, for ever. "
47:44 Lead us not into temptation,
47:49 but if I forgive
47:55 that I can be forgiven.
47:57 Now, forgiveness is the one complete sign
48:01 and seal of our being forgiven by God.
48:05 We've been forgiven by God and we know we have,
48:08 we expect His forgiveness,
48:10 a natural reaction now is for us to forgive.
48:17 If you want to know whether
48:20 you have this Spirit of the Lord or not,
48:22 then all you have to do is to say,
48:26 "Do I have a forgiving Spirit,
48:29 " because if we don't have forgiving spirit
48:32 were not filled with the spirit of our Lord
48:35 and savior Jesus Christ.
48:38 As I said earlier, there is no place in the Bible
48:41 where Jesus ever resents the words
48:45 that he said that if we don't forgive,
48:50 we are not forgiven.
48:52 And it's amazing how many times,
48:54 so many of us who are old time Christians,
48:58 been Christians for lot of years,
49:01 we're still harbouring something from way back.
49:05 And you know it's not the meritorious grounds
49:07 by which we're saved, we're not save by forgiveness.
49:11 Forgiveness is the result of being saved
49:14 and being forgiven.
49:16 We're saved only by the blood of Jesus,
49:17 we talked about that yesterday.
49:20 His death upon the cross.
49:23 And forgiveness is not the way we are saved,
49:28 but it is the result of our being saved.
49:35 You know, there's so many beautiful stories
49:37 of forgiveness in the Bible.
49:38 Jacob had just completely stolen
49:41 the birthright form Esau.
49:43 Now, we always look at Esau.
49:45 Well, he didn't deserve it, he didn't deserve that.
49:47 That I didn't justify with Jacob did.
49:52 God could have figured it out of way,
49:55 for Jacob to receive that without his receiving
50:00 his brother Esau the way he did.
50:02 And his father, receiving his father,
50:05 stealing from his brother.
50:08 And finally he goes to meet Esau off,
50:13 and he know that night before he,
50:16 because let me tell you,
50:18 asking forgiveness is sometimes extremely difficult.
50:21 And he's going to ask forgiveness.
50:25 And the story is so beautiful.
50:28 Esau, now you will think
50:31 Esau was not thought of as the religious one,
50:35 and yet Esau that runs toward his brother.
50:39 Grabs hold of him,
50:41 hugs him and tell him that he is forgiven him.
50:48 What is story?
50:50 When you look at that biblical story.
50:52 We look it Joseph, his brother sold him into slavery.
50:55 You can imagine that all the way to Egypt,
50:58 he's thinking about how he is gonna
50:59 get back at those boys,
51:01 but then somewhere alone the line
51:03 the lord entrees his heart in such away
51:07 and he begin to accept what has happened is God's will
51:12 and he starts to look for God's providence
51:15 to open the door, and he does.
51:18 You remember, he goes from jail.
51:21 Oh, wow, you think this is going from bad to worse.
51:25 And then from jail,
51:28 God releases him,
51:33 forgiveness.
51:36 Being forgiven by God and exercising forgiveness.
51:42 When I was a little young boy,
51:45 I began here a story that had happen in our family.
51:52 My father, John Robert,
51:55 my father was John Wesley Gilley,
51:58 his father, my grandfather was John Robert Gilley.
52:02 He lived, was born in the 1800s.
52:06 And he was a hardworking ambitious,
52:09 young man in his 30's,
52:12 he was already the chief deputy for the Sheriff's department,
52:16 but he also had his small form
52:18 that he was making fairly good living with that.
52:21 He was a very industrious individual,
52:24 and he had invested in other peace of land
52:28 that he thought would be someday worth some money.
52:33 He farm it the mean time, but he had some other thoughts
52:37 because he had heard roomers about what might be there.
52:43 One night, it was Christmas eve,
52:47 a neighbor came and file the complain
52:53 against a lot of workers
52:56 that worked right next to his form, at their form,
53:00 there were drinking a legal liquor,
53:03 and they were also creating a lot of other noise,
53:09 there were doing gambling,
53:10 they were doing all sorts of things,
53:11 these workers were.
53:13 And here was a complaint.
53:16 My grandfather probably know
53:18 that something like that was going on over there
53:20 but there had been no complain,
53:22 now there was and he had to act.
53:25 He had no deputy go with him
53:27 so he deputized his brother-in-law.
53:31 Now you know if you've were watched
53:33 any of the old westerns,
53:35 and this was old western time back in the early 1900s,
53:41 that he had a fistful of badges,
53:43 and the brought one of them out,
53:45 deputized his brother-in-law, biggest mistake he ever made.
53:51 When he got there, they arrested this fellows
53:53 and they start taking then to town,
53:55 and the man who own the farm caught up with him.
54:01 He'd been drinking, he wasn't drunk
54:06 but he definitely unpaired his judgment.
54:10 He pulled the gun on my grandfather
54:12 and he said, you're gonna release these men.
54:14 Now my grandfather had a gun pulled on him before,
54:17 he know that it he can talk his way through this
54:20 and calm this neighbor down, and explain to him that this,
54:24 they were just be taken in, charge,
54:26 and then he can bring him back out, he may might have to.
54:29 And he said, "I don't wanna put up any kind of bond. "
54:33 My grandfather
54:36 was slowly trying to work through this.
54:41 But Wesley, his brother-in-law
54:45 had never had that kind of experience.
54:48 He got around behind the man and took his pistol,
54:52 long barrel pistol, and try to strike him,
54:55 to hit him to knock him unconscious,
54:58 instead the gun went off and it killed him.
55:03 My grandfather realized
55:06 that he had made a terrible mistaken
55:08 in bringing this man with him.
55:11 That night my dad said,
55:14 and my dad was 12 years old that time.
55:17 He said it was so quite in that house.
55:21 And then our friend, a neighbor had died,
55:26 and someone in that room was responsible.
55:30 Few weeks later they were going to the county seat
55:32 because was going to be investigated,
55:37 he would be cleared or not cleared
55:40 at a hearing that day.
55:42 As they went along on their buckboard,
55:45 all of a sudden
55:48 a man stuck a shot gun,
55:53 double barreled shot gun out the door and he shot him.
56:00 He shot my grandfather by mistake.
56:03 He meant to get, he injured slightly,
56:09 but he killed my grandfather almost instantly.
56:14 This matter finally came to a trial.
56:18 When this was a very wealthy family,
56:23 they paid of few people.
56:24 I met a man one day that was about my dad aged,
56:29 going to school together
56:31 and he was riding in a wagon behind
56:34 and he had seen what to place.
56:36 And he told me, a lot of money changes hands.
56:41 And this man, we got only got six month jails sentence
56:45 and a small $500 fine for killing a police officer,
56:50 killing my father, my grandfather.
56:54 Years later dad had a chance to shoot that man,
56:57 but he didn't do it.
56:59 And then, years after that
57:01 he I would together on the square,
57:02 and he introduced to me to a man,
57:05 and they want that man left, I said, "Dad, who was that?"
57:09 He said, "That was the man, they killed your father. "
57:14 And I know that my dad
57:16 had actually forgive him that man.
57:21 "Forgive us our debt
57:23 as we forgive our debtors. "


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Revised 2016-07-21