My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
Psalm 22:1
Enter the very heart-cry of our Savior upon the cross. The words of king David became the words of King Jesus as he hung bloody, beaten, and bruised.
Do you realize what it meant for the Son of Man to utter these words? The Scriptures say darkness covered the land in those last hours (Mk 15:33). What the onlookers saw around them was only a shadow compared to the internal darkness Jesus experienced on the cross. The wrath of our sin. Placed on him. Who knew no sin. He should have never uttered these words.
But see his great love! Jesus bore the punishment we deserved. There must be punishment for sin. We should have been the ones hanging there, experiencing the hell of being utterly forsaken by God. Yet Jesus chose to be our substitute. The only One free from corruption, blameless in his thoughts and deeds—the only One who should have never paid the due price for sin!—this Jesus stood in the sinner’s place.
Do we realize the ugliness of sin? Do we recognize what it costs us? Look no further than Jesus on the cross. Here is a marred, disfigured, grueling picture of sin’s price. Every thorn that pierced his brow reminds us of the shame of every sin. Every lash relinquished on his back reveals the uncountable record of debt we owe. The nails in his hands, the suffocating breaths, the crushing weight of gravity suspending him by a crucifix — here is the pounding guilt we feel in our deepest sins. Yet all of this was placed on him.
Do you see the beauty of grace? Jesus forsaken became our salvation. Justice demanded the cross, but so did mercy. If Jesus did not take your place, you would still owe the punishment for your sin: you would eventually say, “God, why have you forsaken me?” But Jesus owned these words for you. Out of mercy, the Father provided a perfect substitute. Jesus was spotless, pure, innocent. Yet on the day of his crucifixion he was also silent, led like a lamb to the slaughter. He did not defend himself. This was a willing surrender. When he could have called down angels with a loud voice, he instead allowed sinners to verbally abuse him. When he could have waved a hand in power to dismantle his enemies, he willingly stretched them out to be pierced for our transgressions. When he did speak, it was because he bore the weight of our sin: “God, why have you forsaken me?”
Let his words be the assurance of your salvation. When you are guilty, flee to this moment. Your sin was laid there upon him. You have been crucified with him. If he has done this “once for all,” O sinner, then he cannot undo his sacrifice. Believe this by faith: Jesus will never go back on these words. He was forsaken in your place. Therefore you will never have to be.
Text: 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Text: “7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.” -2 Cor 3:7-11
Welcome back to the surpassing worth this is Cole, your host, and I really wanted to just say spend one episode on verse eleven, the second Corinthians, chapter two. When I was going over and meditating on this passage and studying it, this verse just stuck out to me and I couldn’t get away from just the depths that are in it and so I didn’t feel right, just kind of glossing over it, bumping it in with the last episode or just kind of glossing over it, I really wanted to spend some time on it. So that’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to dive deep into really spiritual warfare in this episode. I’m really excited about this. So let me read you verse ten and eleven of Saint Corinthians two in context and then we’ll pray and we’ll get right into the episode. Anyone whom you forgive says Paul, I also forgive indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. So that verse eleven, we would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs. Let’s pray. Father, I thank you for who you are. God, I thank you that you are the God of all truth, that your word is truth, that Lord, we can know you because of your Word, and that Lord, since the beginning of all creation you have desires to be in fellowship with you. But we do know that we have an enemy that prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, Lord, and as Christians we need your protection. Just as David cried out in the psalms that Lord, we need to be protected under the shadow of your wings, so Lord, would you protect us as your people? Lord, would we be aware of how Satan schemes and works in our lives? That Lord, we wouldn’t be outwitted by his design. So Lord, we ask you for this in the power of your spirit, through the blood of Jesus and in his name we pray. Amen. Okay, so let’s really talk about spiritual warfare for this episode. Let me just reread verse eleven for you. Paul says this is so that we would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Now in context Paul is talking about forgiving his brother who has sinned in the Corinthian Church. We’ve been talking about that for the past three episodes now. So he’s really saying that when we don’t forgive others, especially our brothers and sisters, we fall into a trap of Satan. Satan wants us to be in disunity with one another. He wants us to be in discord. He loves it when the local church is in disarray because of those who are quarreling and bickering and causing disruption and sin in the church. So Paul is saying, listen guys, don’t let Satan outwit you. He is trying to destroy your unity in Christ. Look at what you do have together. You have the spirit of Jesus living inside of you. You have the gospel of peace that is forgiven. You have forgiveness through Jesus blood. You have an inheritance to the Holy Spirit. You have one father, one Lord, one baptism, as Ephesians Four says. So Paul is saying, look, when you don’t forgive others and let disarray continue in your midst and disunity among brothers and sisters in Christ, you are falling into a design of Satan. Now, we could spend five episodes talking about the designs and plots of Satan specifically in our lives. It doesn’t just come down to forgiveness of other Christians. I mean, there are many ways in which Satan tempts and distracts us. We don’t have time for that. But really what I want to do is take these two phrases that we wouldn’t be outwitted by Satan and then the second phrase for we are not ignorant of his designs. So outwitted and designs. I want to take those two words and speak a little bit about spiritual warfare in the Christian life.
So let’s take that first one so that we would not be outwitted by Satan. What does that word portray? What does that word imply outwitted? It implies that Satan is crafty, that he is seeking to trick and deceive us into sin, into rebelling against God’s plan and will for our lives. And this is true. We see this all the way back in Genesis. What did the serpent say to Eve when he tempted her? Did God really say god really say those four words is the same strategy that Satan uses to outwit us by his designs. He wants to and these are four points back to back to back. He wants us first to disbelieve God’s Word in our lives. He wants us first to disbelieve God’s Word in our lives. Did God really say that? So when you’re reading the Bible, he wants you to be skeptical of it. He wants you to think, this is too archaic for me. This doesn’t relate to my life. This doesn’t have anything to do with me. Do I really believe this? Those questions are dangerous. So Christian, if you have been reading your Bible and have been tempted to disbelieve God’s Word in your life, repent. Turn around, ask God for faith to help your unbelief. Don’t fall into the ploy of Satan.
Second, Satan wants you to scorn your dependence on God. He wants you to scorn your dependence on God as foolishness. He wants you to be self sufficient in your life. I don’t need God. I’m enough by myself. I don’t need to pray. I provide for my own needs. I can figure this out myself. I don’t need to depend on God’s word and on prayer and on christian community. I can do it myself. That is a lie from Satan. The first lie in the garden was that if you eat of this tree, you will be made like God. You will know good and evil, you will know right and wrong, and you’ll be wise in your own eyes. That’s what Satan told Eve. The temptation there was to be self sufficient, to be your own little g God, to rule your own world. That is the first sin. That is pride. Satan desires that you rebel against God’s authority in your life by becoming your own God. Whether it’s not depending on God at all, by reading His Word, by being in prayer, or whether it’s making your own plans and not leaning upon the wisdom and understanding of the Lord for your life, or just desiring to do your own thing in life. Desiring to build your own dreams in your own kingdom versus seeking first the kingdom of God.
Third, Satan wants to isolate you from those whom you need in your life. He wants to isolate you. This is the central importance of the local church in our lives, is that we are a community together, built upon one foundation of the Gospel, that we wouldn’t be in disunity or discord with each other, but rather we would be united and be together. Yes, I know the local church is messy. It’s full of sinful people who are still being sanctified by the same grace that first saved them. It’s messy. Until we get to the new heavens and the new earth. When Jesus returns, we will not be perfect yet. We are still in the flesh. But like Paul, we should say while we are in the flesh, we still live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Satan wants to take you away from a local community of believers who love you and care for you. If he can do that, I believe he can destroy your faith.
I mean, we see it all the time. This deconstruction movement that’s going around in our nation specifically and in the Western world, I believe really happens when people have dislocated themselves from the church and are just trying to live life and live faith on their own. They let the doubts get to them. They believe that they are good enough in their own eyes, that they’re wise enough that they scorn God’s authority over their lives and they fall into traps one and two to disbelieve God’s word and to scorn your dependence on God. So Satan wants to isolate you from those whom you need in your life. Fourth, and this is what we are really getting at is he wants to make you doubt your faith. He wants to make you doubt who you are in Jesus, that he wants you to even doubt your salvation. And if possible, which I don’t believe that true saints can depart from the faith. He wants to make you abandon Jesus altogether. And sadly, we see this in our world to some degree, that those who have once claimed to follow Jesus, now I don’t know whether their faith was sincere or the conversion is true. In the first place, he wants them to doubt their own salvation and to deconstruct that Satan is the father of this deconstruction movement. He’s the father of lies. He wants you to not believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. He wants you not to believe that God’s Word is true in every way without mixture of error. He wants you to reject God’s authority of your life. So don’t be outwitted with those four things. Go back, rewind, listen to those things. Don’t be outwitted by his designs. He’s crafty. He’s the father of lies. God’s Word is true. Jesus is the truth, the Holy Spirit of truth. Testifies in your life of the truth. Bank upon God’s Word. Lean upon not your own understanding, but upon the wisdom and the love and perfection of God that he has given us through His Holy Word. So don’t be outwitted by Satan. Second, don’t be ignorant of his designs. This kind of goes what we were just talking about.
But think about that word design. Satan is actively scheming and making plans to trap you. It’s like a trap in the woods that we set up to catch bunnies or whatever. It’s a snare. He wants to entrap you and where you can’t get out. And he designs things. He is actively scheming against God’s people. Now, I don’t believe specifically that Satan himself is the one making these designs for your specific life. I don’t know how the spiritual realm works. I don’t know how Satan employs his demons to do these things, but I really do believe that through the culture of the world, what we call the world in the Christian life, through through our own flesh, our sinful propensities in our life. And then third. Through demonic forces. Through powers of principalities. As Ephesians six clearly says. That we don’t fight against flesh and blood. But against the rulers and the powers of the air. That through those three things. The world. The system of the world. Are flesh and through the reality of Satan and demons. That there are designs against us as Christians to fall into our old way of life. And there are designs for unbelievers to prevent them. To blind them from seeing the truth of the gospel. So I just want to point out four of those designs, and these are things that I prayed through and meditated about, but these are four of these designs that Satan actively schemes and sets up traps for you in your life. First, he wants you to follow the majority. Think about this. He wants you to do what the majority does, even if it is not right and displeasing to God mostly, actually, all the time. If it’s not right displeasing to God. Our culture. The majority culture right now are saying things that are clearly against God’s Word, and we must not follow the majority. We must not think that just because the majority says something is right and acceptable, that it is right and acceptable in God’s eyes. Rather, what is our authority? Our authority is Jesus Christ in His Word, which he has given to us through the inspiration of the Spirit. God’s Word is the source of all truth, morality and uprightness. Don’t follow the majority. No matter what people are saying, on Twitter, on Facebook, wherever, read your Bible, read the truth, be in it for yourself, and ask God to give you a spirit of understanding and of wisdom, to understand the truth and not to interpret it through the eyes of those who want to distort God’s truth for gain or for sinful purposes.
Second, one of Satan’s designs is that he wants you to believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. You’re right, others are wrong. You know everything. Others don’t know anything. Even when it comes to matters of faith, you know everything. You know that the way you’re living is the best way to live. You believe that you’ve arrived in the Christian faith. This is a design from Satan, the true posture of Christian ministry and of Christian just. Our Christian walk is humility that we know that we have not arrived until we have reached the new heavens and the new earth, until Jesus gives us a new resurrection body and we are free from sin and shame and temptation. Rather, wholly depend upon the cross of Jesus. Don’t believe in yourself. Wholly depend upon the cross of Jesus. You need it now, just as you needed it when you first believed upon Him. The Gospel of Jesus, the grace that is given to us makes us realize that he alone is the name above all other names, that we are creatures of dust, yet God has given us worth through Jesus. My worth is not in what I own, but it’s in Jesus Christ. Don’t believe in yourself, believe in the gospel.
Three there’s too much strife in your life. There’s too much trouble in your life. This is a design from Satan that he schemes to cause trouble, to cause distress in our lives. And so he did this to Job. He said, If I curse Job, and if I make him sick and take away all these things from his life, with God’s permission, of course, then Job will curse God. And God said, okay, do it, try it. And Job didn’t curse God. He didn’t allow the strife of life to take away his faith in God’s faithfulness in his life and his love for him. So the troubles in our life, the cares that just rack up on us, and the worries, they can cause us to disbelieve God and to fall into a trap of Satan, to really have a lack of faith and not to depend upon God in our daily lives. So when life is too hard, there’s two options. You can shake your fist in heaven and say, Why God? Or you can bow your face to the dust and plead for mercy and help in your time of need. And God wants us to do the latter, as Hebrews 415 to 16 says that we have a high priest in Jesus who will give us boldness to the throne, access to the throne for help, mercy and grace in our time of need.
Fourth, and we already talk about this, but I just want to reiterate, the main design of Satan is to say, did God really say that is the temptation you will face as a Christian for the rest of your life? Am I really forgiven? Does God really love me? Is God really with me? Is this really what life is about? Is Christianity really the only true religion? Is Jesus the only way to God? Is there really a hell? Would God really punish people? Those questions are questioning the very word of God. We must be careful. I do believe there is right room to doubt and ask sincere questions and to by faith seek understanding, especially within the context of faithful brothers and sisters who will explore those with us as we’re going through a hard time. But more often than not, those questions lead to a disbelief and a distrust in who God has revealed Himself to be in His Word. So don’t fall into that trap, that design of God, did God really say this? Rather, he has proven himself true and ultimately through Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. So I hope that helped. I would really encourage you to go back and listen to those write those points down, those four points of not being outwitted and then those four points of not falling into Satan’s design. So I hope really diving deep on this one verse, that we wouldn’t be outwitted by Satan and that we wouldn’t be ignorant of his designs really helped you understand spiritual warfare and Paul’s understanding of it. And the solution. Of course. Is that we would put on the armor of God. The breastplate of righteousness. The helmet of salvation. The belt of truth. The gospel. Peace on our feet. And the word of God like a sword and a shield of faith. And that we would walk in this foreign land in this war. Doing battle with forces of evil for the time is evil. Making the best use of our time to live for God’s kingdom and to bring that light of the Gospel into other people’s lives.
Welcome to the Surpassing Worth. This is your host, Cole. We are in our series in Second Corinthians. We are now in verses nine through ten. So we’re making our way through it and the title of this episode is Will you Forgive? So let me read us our scripture for today and then I’ll pray and we will get right into it. This is why I wrote you that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. Let’s pray. Father, I thank you for this text in your word and I think that you desire us to forgive as you have forgiven us. And that Paul’s example here in Corinth is that he would forgive others so that the Church may be restored. And I pray that we would learn from this Lord that we would see our own test of faith as a test to be obedient to you, to love you more and to become more like Christ. And I pray this in Jesus name, amen.
Okay, so really we’re going to divide this into two parts. One, the purpose in verse nine and then the power in verse ten. So we’re going to walk through it pretty straightforwardly. So verse nine Paul says, for this is why I wrote you that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. So he’s really giving us, as we’ve been seeing, the reason of his writing. If you remember from last week, Paul was encouraging the Church to forgive this man who had been causing disruption in their midst. He was calling them just as Paul was willing to forgive this man, that they would forgive and restore him. So it seemed as if this man had since repented from his ways and that now Paul was saying restore him back into the Church. This is how Christ has forgiven us, he forgave us of our debt so that he could restore us to the Father. So in the same way if your brother is showing repentance that you need to restore him back into your fellowship. So now Paul is saying in verse nine, this is why I wrote to you, this is purpose statement. So the purpose of his whole letter is that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. So Paul wanted to write to the Corinthians so that he could test their faith. I think this is something specific to his apostolic authority that Paul is an apostle and so he had the authority from Jesus being an eyewitness to his resurrection that he could call them to obedience to the faith. I think one of the main things we need to glean from this is that God does test us, that God does test our faith. So let’s look at this in a practical way.
This letter was written to test the Corinthian Church. So this verse, this very verse right here, verse nine, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient. And everything is itself proof as Scripture, that we are tested by the word of God. So one of our main applications here is that God’s Word test our obedience for our growth in Christ likeness, because these words were pinned by Paul to the Corinthians. They’re canonical. They’re scripture. They’re god breathed. And so, by implication, we know that these words which say that God test us for obedience to Him, that God’s Word will test us, god’s words are authoritative, and they do test us. They prove inwardly that God’s Word test our obedience.
So why specifically obedience? Why does God’s word specifically test our obedience to Him? I want to think about this practically. Obedience is action. It’s truthful and sincere devotion proven by action. So think about it. The Bible speaks a lot about our faith producing works. That faith without works is dead, says James. So obedience naturally follows them, is an outworking. It’s an outward manifestation of our inward faith. You can’t have true Christian obedience without a true inward faith and devotion to Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it’s just legalism. You’re just doing things to do them, to appease some higher power. But no, Christian faith is always rooted in a sincere devotion and trust in Jesus, which then outworks itself in true and sincere obedience to Christ. Just two scriptures to help. Here John 14:23. Jesus is speaking. He says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Notice that if anyone loves me, if you truly love Jesus and your devotion is to Him, then what follows naturally is that you will keep his word. That’s obedience, you will keep his word. Faith requires action. That’s kind of the main motive here. Is that the foolishness of thinking that an inward faith, just saying you have faith but not doing anything about it, trust requires action. I like to think about this a lot. I say this a lot. If you’re wanting to get married and you date someone and you propose to them and say, will you marry me? I mean, you’re almost declaring your faith and your love and you’re trusting that person to marry you. But what would happen if you said all those things and did all those things? You declared your faith for that person, but then you didn’t show up for the wedding, right? Your fate would be made void, it would be made null because you didn’t do the natural outworking of your declaration of faith by going to the wedding, by proving by obedience that you’re willing to marry this person. In the same way, we can’t say that we have faith in Jesus without a natural outworking of the fruits of his spirit in our lives of obedience of love for Him. If you love someone, you will naturally do things to prove your love for them. Not in a game to earn their love is in the case with our faith with Jesus, but is in a case to show our love for Jesus because of the love which he first gave us by giving us faith, by giving us grace to believe in Him. So the application here is that God’s Word test our obedience for our growth in Christ likeness.
So I want to ask you personally, what test has God put in your life to test your obedience to Him? I think mainly this comes to the Word. If we’re in the Word, we know that God tests our faith. He tests our obedience to Him. Over and over in Scripture, we see God testing the faith of those who believe in Him, from Abraham to Moses, all the way to the apostles with Peter and Paul. He tests them. And he does this because he loves us. He wants us to have a faith that is genuine. Listen to what James says in his book. His letter, he says, Counted all joy. My brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, various kinds can be anything in your life. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So what does testing of our faith do? It produces steadfastness, and ultimately it produces joy and ultimately perfection in Christ that one day we will be glorified when he returns, that we will be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. So God tests us because of this love for us, because he wants us to be made more like Christ. So this is Paul’s desire two. In verse nine, he says, this is why I wrote to you, Church, is that I wanted to test you as an apostle and know whether you are obedient and everything. And the main proof of their test in this case was were they willing to forgive this man? I think that shows a lot about our obedience to Jesus is if we are willing to forgive others who have hurt us because it shows gospel understanding of our situation that if Jesus has forgiven us of all of our sins, we should therefore be willing to forgive and extend forgiveness to those who hurt us. Especially in the case of if they have asked for forgiveness and they are brothers, sister in Christ, but even more so, even if they do not know Christ, we should be willing to extend forgiveness to display the love which Christ has given us. And it doesn’t mean that we don’t hold out to any parameters as to our relationship with that person, but it does mean that we in our hearts are willing to forgive and to remove the guilt that is in them because of their trespass towards us.
So one of our main tests of obedience to the faith is if we are willing to forgive others. This is just a specific test. There are many others that we could talk about in the Christian life, but that’s the one that Paul is talking about here in verse nine, the purpose of his writing. So now let’s move to the power. So verse ten says that anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. This is a really interesting verse. It talks about the power that Paul has to forgive. So let’s think about this. Paul is declaring that anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. So by extension, he is allowing the church to hold the power of forgiveness. Because think about it, Paul is an apostle. He was an eyewitness to Jesus. He could claim authority for who to forgive. We see this all the time in Acts that the apostles declare forgiveness over people. They are by extension Christ representatives on this earth. But we know that Jesus himself has instituted the Church and that the apostles really were part of the foundation of that. But now the local church is the authority of Christ’s forgiveness upon this earth. Jesus says in Matthew 18 that if you bind or loose specifically in regard to church discipline when we are dealing with way, we’re brothers or sisters, that whatever we bind or loose in heaven and earth will be bound or loose.
So in the sense that Jesus has given the power, the authority of forgiveness to the local church. Now, I want to be clear here. It’s not that we ourselves as individuals just to get to go around and declare who’s forgiven or not. Of course that’s an individual matter between one man or woman and between God. We know that individual salvation, individual forgiveness is not granted by just our declaration. I want to be very clear there. Rather it’s that we as the Church do have the power when one has repented from their sins to uphold the truth of God’s word and the promise of God’s word over their life, that if they have sincerely repented from their sins and trusted in Jesus in that moment even after they’re a Christian, that we can declare them that per guy’s word that they are forgiven. Let me just read you two verses here. One John, one nine says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen to what scripture is saying. We as a church have this scripture for a reason and it’s to declare that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. So that while we aren’t apostles by any means, we haven’t seen with our eyes the risen Christ. We do have the Scriptures and we are his local church so that we have the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative witness to the forgiveness of Jesus. And then just a second verse, really it’s a conglomeration of verses. Whereas Jesus says in the Gospels all the time, as he’s dealing with people with sinners, he says that your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more. That Jesus has declared forgiveness and that by extension, his apostles have declared the forgiveness of Jesus to the cross. And then by extension, the local church that God that Jesus has instituted has the power to declare forgiveness. Not that we can make people be forgiven as individuals. That’s not in our power. That’s in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring them to conviction of their sin and to repent. Whether it’s that when we see evidence of that in someone’s life, when a brother or sister has come to the faith and we know that they have repented from their sins, we can assure them through Scripture as the church of the forgiveness of their sins.
More so and specific to this context is that when a brother or sister in Christ does sin, as one John 2 says, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So our goal as the local church should be to restore that brother or sister to the forgiveness of Jesus. Now, of course, it depends upon the Spirit working in their lives to bring them to that conviction. But as in the case of the Corinthians, this man whom Paul was talking about had repented and so he was calling the Corinthian Church to forgive this man, to restore them, to do their right duties as the local church instituted by Christ to forgive them, to really assure this man of his forgiveness before the Lord. So that’s one application from this is that while we aren’t apostles, we do have the Holy Scriptures which speak so plainly and forgiveness. So they alone are authoritative. But God has given them to us as a local church to assure others of their forgiveness before Jesus because of his shed blood on the behalf. Finally, just another application here I want to apply specifically to us. We need other brothers and sisters around us who can remind us of the kindness and mercies of God when we ourselves sin. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of this man who had sinned in the Corinthian Church. He had sinned, he repented. And now he is coming back to the church for fellowship and for restoration. When we are in this place, when we are this man and we recognize our sin before our brother or sister or even before the whole church, we need the church to come around us, to pick us up, as it were, and to remind us of the cleansing power of Jesus blood in our lives. Because the gospel is clear. Romans 8:1 says that in Jesus Christ, there’s no condemnation. You run to the cross, the same cross that forgive you at the beginning of your salvation and now cleanses you and forgives and restores even now. And we run to that. And we need the church. We need others around us. We saw this last week. It’s not a Jesus and me mentality. You’re not on an island, Christian. You need to be surrounded by Godly brothers and sisters in Christ who will uphold you, hold you accountable to your walk of Christ, but then also remind you of the sweet forgiveness that is found in him alone. We need each other. As Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, two are better than one. If one falls, how will he pick himself up? He needs the other person. So we need the local church to pick us up as well. So that’s the application here. I’ll leave it to you. Do you have Godly brothers or sisters in your life whom you meet with regularly, weekly? I’m not just talking about going to church on a Sunday morning, saying hi to people, then leaving, living your life under the shadows. But do you have men and women who are in your life who can hold you accountable, that can remind you of the forgiveness of Jesus when you do sin? And that like the church in Corinth, you can be restored to fellowship with God, in fellowship with other brothers and sisters in Christ. So one, will you forgive? Will you prove your obedience to Jesus through your willingness to forgive others? And then second, will you display that power of forgiveness through the Scriptures to declare that forgiveness to others, but also to know that forgiveness for you?
This verse is fulfilled in Jesus. It cannot be read in any other way in light of His incarnation, life, death, resurrection, glorification, and anticipated second coming. Originally written to the king of Israel, this psalm can now be sung forever to the King of kings, the Son of David, the Messiah—Jesus Christ.
What does this royal psalm teach us today? First, note the duration of Jesus’ reign: God will cause Jesus’ name to be “remembered in all generations…forever and ever” Since Christ’s first coming, there has not been one generation distant from His praise. Somewhere in the nations there has always been at least one tribe carrying the torch of His gospel. No matter how dark the world gets, or how seemingly small the true Church appears, there will always be a faithful remnant of believers. Just as Jesus said He is “always working,” we can trust that the fire of His love will never stop kindling hearts unto salvation (Jn 5:17). This will continue until He returns.
Here is the implication of this for you: only His name will be remembered forever. Across the generations, only One Name will stand. And it isn’t yours. Your name will be forgotten, left in an annal of history or rusting on a tombstone. All the time spent building your kingdom, with your effort, to build your comfort—gone. But the name of Jesus? It remains forever. This beckons surrender to His Lordship. Right now—where does your life stand? Is it built on your shaky, soon-to-be-forgotten kingdom of one, or is it fixed on the firm foundation of faith in the faithful, forever, and final Name of Jesus Christ? Does your life, your work, your relationships, your marriage, and your service in church revolve around glorifying Him? Check your heart today for these hidden motivations of seeking to build your own kingdom instead of His.
Secondly, note the domain of His reign: “all generations” and “nations” will praise Him. This is a worldwide kingdom. No human kingdom has ever once dominated the entire globe. Many have tried—by force and destruction, spilling the blood of their enemies—only to fail. What is spectacular about the kingdom of Jesus is that His kingdom has spread across the entire globe, yet it only took the blood of one person to do it: the King’s very own. This kingdom was won by the breathtaking sacrifice of the Savior, who became man, to die for the sins of rebels, so He could make them sons and daughters of the Father, sealed forever by the indwelling Holy Spirit. What a beautiful way! What amazing love! What a glorious gospel!
Here is the implication: the kingdom of God crosses all boundaries. All generations and all nations will be a part of this kingdom. There is not one physical boundary which remains uncrossed by the gospel. Who in your life then—your neighbors, your coworkers, your community—may look different than you, yet needs to hear the gospel? Does your life reflect attitudes of bias towards insulating yourself around those who act, think, look, and talk just like you? What about in your church? I guarantee you right now, within 10 miles, there are communities that need to be reached with the good news. How will you pray for them and begin to bless them to open doors to spreading the good news? Because here is the reality: in heaven, all tongues, tribes, and nations will be praising the name of Jesus (Rev 7:9). Do you want to be a part of helping that Day become a reality? How is He calling you to go for His name? It is not a matter of “if” you are called: it is a matter of “where” and “to whom.” Answer this today, o heavenly citizen!
