Being Falsely Accused – Forgiveness Pt.4
EXODUS 20:13-17
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
ROMANS 12:17-19
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men (unfortunately there are people that are just not peaceable, so you just have to do the best that you can).
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
In plan words - Never seek revenge on someone, because God will deal with them in due time.
Being Falsely Accused – Forgiveness Pt.4
EXODUS 20:16
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Recap last week – we saw how forgiveness and healing are placed together in the scriptures.
PSALM 103:2-3
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
(Forgiveness and healing are placed together because they are directly connected - unforgiveness and sickness go together.
It is not that every time we are sick that that proves that we have not forgiven someone, but if you have unforgiveness in your heart because you are holding bitterness against someone, then the first stage of your healing is to first forgive that person)
MATTHEW 9:1-7
1 ¶ And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city.
2 And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.
3 And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.
4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
5 For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?
6 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.
7 And he arose, and departed to his house.
This same account is also told in Mark and Luke – it is showing us that forgiveness and healing of the body are connected closely together.
MARK 11:24-26
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
The scripture is plan – if you do not forgive then you are not forgiven, and if you are not forgiven then your sin remains, and if your sin remains then your sickness has a right to also remain.
Our own bondage or deliverance is dependent on us to forgive others as we saw in the parable of the man that owed his master 10,000 talents but would not forgive his fellow man, so it is showing us that our unforgiveness of others will keep us in bondage.
COLOSSIANS 2:13
13 ¶ And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
God has forgiven us of all our sin debt, and that should put an appreciation and an empathy in us to cause us to also forgive others –God has forgiven us far greater sin debt than what anyone else could ever owe against us.
HEBREWS 9:28
28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
***Last week we showed how that in the Old Testament on the Day of Atonement that on that day the high priest went in twice into the holiest of holies first for himself and the second time for the sins of the people.
So when the high priest appeared the first time from the Holiest of Holies, that was the evidence that he was accepted and that the sacrifice had been accepted by God and that he could now act as a mediator for the sins of the people (that was Christ when he appeared to his disciples the first time at his resurrection proving that he was accepted and was worthy to be our high priest).
Then after that the high priest goes in the second time again with blood and sprinkles the alter seven times (a type of the seven church ages), and this time it is for the sins of the ignorance of the people, and now when he appears the second time from the Holiest of Holies, his appearance is the evidence of the complete work and acceptance and salvation of the people – and that is what has taken place in this age at the opening of the seven seals and the appearing of Christ in these last days – we went into that in depth last week.
Opening scripture
EXODUS 20:16
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
If you are the recipient of this sin by someone falsely accusing you by telling a lie on you or spreading a false accusation against you in the form of a rumour in order to damage your reputation, then this is a very serious thing in the eyes of God, so much so that he put it in the 10 commandments – its right up there with murder and adultery.
You don’t have to put a knife in a person’s back to kill them, you can sometimes do it more effectively by just telling a little lie on them.
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.SEVEN.2_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0922
349 And you people with these saw-blade tempers, that's always spouting off in the mouth at somebody, can't put up, and things like that. Be careful. You're guilty if you speak a word (against your brother) that's not right, not just, go around and tear down it. You don't have to stick a knife in a man's back to kill him. You can break his character and kill him, kill his influence. Speak against your pastor here, say something bad about him, you just might as well as shot him. Told something that wasn't right about him, well, it'll kill his influence with the people and things like that, and you're guilty of it.
So as believers we must not do those things because that is sin, and sin and sickness go together – not just physical sickness but also mental sickness.
**But then how do we respond to these situations when we have been lied on and it’s affected our influence with the people and we have been thrown into a prison house of suffering because of a false witness against us?
One thing is for certain, if we are true believers, then the devil will make sure that we are lied on at least to some degree as we go through our lives, and if you are a minister you can expect that to be much greater, and if you are not careful, it can really eat you up on the inside if you allow it to.
And so, one of the most important lessons of forgiveness is that we must learn how to respond scripturally and to forgive after being falsely accused, because if we don’t forgive those who falsely accuse us to others, then that will affect our own forgiveness from the Lord, because according to the bible we must first forgive from the heart in order to be forgiven.
MATTHEW 6:11-12
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
The way that you forgive others will be the way that you are forgiven.
So remember that God will allow you to be wronged from time to time to test your response – and sometimes the tests are great.
Remember - If you want to destroy someone, you don’t have to stab them in the back with a knife to murder them, just tell a little lie on them, or start a little rumour going on them, and that will often destroy or at least greatly mar their influence among the people, especial if they are a minister, and it will cause them to be sent to a prison house for a season.
Many people down through history have been sent to jail on the account of someone’s false witness.
EXODUS 20:16
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Joseph was sent to a prison house by a false witness against him.
THE.SIXFOLD.PURPOSE.OF.GABRIEL'S.VISIT.TO.DANIEL_ JEFF.IN DA 45-88 SUNDAY_ 61-0730E
68 And when Potiphar's wife, this beautiful woman, honorable, highest--one of the highest women there was in the country, begged him and persuaded him, and he turned... And she caught him and tried to hug him up to her, and he jerked till he even pulled his coat off and run from her. Yes, sir. And when he come in, they told a lie on him, said he come in to ravish her and she left his--and he left his coat there. And for that he went to the dungeon. But in the dungeon God was with him, no matter where they put him; he was a type of the Son of prosperity.
Everything Joseph done prospered. And when Jesus returns in the millennium, that's the reason the deserts will blossom as a rose. Everything He does will prosper. He's the Son of prosperity. Wherever you put Joseph, it was blessed. Wherever Jesus is, it's blessed. So get Him in your heart and be blessed.
70 So we find out that Joseph then was put into a prison. And in the prison there were two men: one of them was lost and one was saved. Jesus in His temptation on the cross, one thief was lost and the other one saved.
When He was exalted He went to the right hand of God. When Joseph was exalted, he went to the right hand of Pharaoh, and no man could speak to Pharaoh without speaking to Joseph first and getting permission.
Joseph was a reflection and a type of Christ – he was first rejected by his brethren like Christ was, then he was lied on and falsely accused by a woman, and that cause him to be sent to the prison house just like Christ was falsely accused and sent to the cross.
So when you are lied on and falsely accused, expect to spend some time in the prison house.
But we want to see how Joseph responded to all of this and what brought him out of the prison house because we know he spent around 14 years in that prison house – so his only hope was to have patience knowing that God would work it all out and right all wrongs in the end.
So when Jesus was rejected by his brethren and falsely accused, and hung on a Roman cross, we don’t see him retaliating with a vengeful spirit.
LUKE 23:33-34
33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
34 Then said Jesus (I’ll get you all for this!! - NO), Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.
It was false witnesses that put Jesus on the cross and sent him to the prison house for a season - the bible said that he went to hell and preached to the souls in prison (I PETER 3:19).
So we know that there was no spirit of revenge in Jesus heart because he knew that if he would have patience, then in the end the truth would be known and their time of judgement would come because it is appointed unto man once to die and then the judgement – often a person’s judgement will not come in their lifetime, it is after they are gone.
JAMES 5:1-11
1 ¶ Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. (Wealth is financial power, and power without the character to use it correctly is demonic)
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5 Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6 Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts (Stablish = to make stable, place firmly, set fast, fix: to set one's face steadfastly, keep the face turned): for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.
10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
This word Patience = Greek word - makrothumia {mak-roth-oo-mee'-ah} =
forbearance, long suffering, slowness in avenging wrongs
J. B. Lightfoot wrote (Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon [Zondervan], p. 140), “… makrothumia [“patience”] is the self-restraint which does not hastily retaliate a wrong.” The word does not occur in classical Greek and only rarely in later Greek. It describes a distinctively Christian virtue, which was not a virtue at all to the Greeks. For them, it was a virtue not to tolerate any insult or injury without taking vengeance. For Christians, the virtue was to be able to take revenge, but to refuse to do so…
THE.TWENTIETH.CENTURY.PROPHET_ CHICAGO.IL 53-0800
E-18 Excuse me, sister. Have to relax my mind once in a while. Now, we'll be strangers. I see that you are strictly a stranger to me. You're from away from here. You've come from another city. You've got a lot of trouble on your heart. And you got heart trouble, to begin with. Is that right? There's a whole lot of blackness. I see a black sheet keep following you like that. Oh, it's a lie. Somebody's told a lie on you, and that was a man was professing Divine healing. [The sister says, "Yes, sir."--Ed.] He said you was a witch. ["Yes."] Is that true? And you--you got a whole stir in your church, or something another, about it. Isn't that right? Your pastor's sick right now. He has got polio. Is that right? ["Yes, sir."] Sister, don't pay no attention to what them people tell you. They're a lying. And the only thing's wrong with your heart is that nervous condition, got your heart worked up. Go on home in peace, and God bless you. You're all right. God bless you. You're not a witch.
The cause of her sickness was paying attention to someone that had falsely accused her – it had so eaten her up on the inside that it had caused her to become sick and have a heart problem – a false accusation had sent her to a prison house of sickness – so how did her deliverance come?
We can see that her sickness was directly connected to her being worked up about this lie that was told on her, why? - because she was paying attention to these false accusations, but as soon as she could just ignore it and pay no attention to what them people were lying on her about, then she would be set free and healed.
**Joseph spent around 14 years in the prison house – he had to come to a place where he could have patience that God would bring him out and right all wrongs.
**As believers in Christ the revealed word of this hour, it is just a fact that from time to time we will find ourselves being falsely accused and lied on and misunderstood by others, and like Joseph and Christ, it will cause us to be sent to a prison for a season, but that is the time to have patience and not to retaliate but to leave it to God to work out, knowing that God in his great wisdom and justice will bring it all out right in the end.
By committing it to the Lord you will also save yourself from a lot of internal strife and turmoil – cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.
ROMANS 12:17-19
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.