In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of remembering and forgetting certain things in life. He refers to the Apostle Paul's attitude in Philippians 3:13, where Paul determined to forget the things that are behind and focus on what lies ahead. The preacher suggests that we should forget the evil that others have done to us and also forget the good that we have done for others. He highlights the danger of being caught up in our past accomplishments and urges us to have a single purpose like Paul, pressing forward towards the upward call of God. Additionally, the preacher discusses how the Old Testament law was a shadow of the good things to come and explains the significance of forgetting our sins and past mistakes.

After all the trials that the psalmist had gone through, in Psalm 73, he says many things he couldn't understand, but he says, one thing I can say, there's no doubt about it, God is good. God is good? God is good? All the time. Right. And the living, in the Message Bible it says, God is good to good people, meaning to the good-hearted. We know that a lot of people are disciplined by God. We know that a lot of people are punished. But to those who are good-hearted, God is good. And as we come to the end of a year and begin a new year, I want to encourage all of you to seek to be good-hearted to others. And what does that mean? What's the thing that's going to help us to be good-hearted? Because God's good to good-hearted people. Now I'll tell you one thing, I want God to be good to me. He's been extremely good to me in past years, but I want Him to continue to be good to me. But it says here, God is good to those who are pure in heart, to those whose hearts are good. So, you know, when we come to the end of a year, there's a year behind us, there's a year ahead of us. And there are things that we must forget, and there are things that we must remember. So I want to share with you things that we must forget and things that we must remember. If we are to have a good heart as we begin the new year, we don't want to wait until the 31st. I thought about it. Shall I share this message on the 31st? It's too late. We need time to think about what is good and what is bad, and about what are the things we need to remember, things we need to forget. So take time to think about what we should remember and what we should forget. You know, the Apostle Paul said in Philippians, in chapter 3, he says, there's only one thing I do in life. His attitude was this, not only on the 1st of January, but every single day he determined to forget the things that are behind. Philippians 3, in verse 13, he says, Philippians 3, 13. One thing I do. You know, the people who make the maximum progress in life are the people who decide to do one thing, and the people who waste their life are the people who dabble in so many things. Paul had a single purpose. He says, only one thing I do, and I forget everything that's behind, and I press forward to the things that lie ahead, to the upward call of God and Christ Jesus. So he also forgot certain things and kept in mind certain things. So let's first think about some of the things that we need to forget. Certainly we all would like to forget all our sins, and all the stupid things we said and did in our past life. And it's important for us to know how we can forget them. So let me show you how it was in the Old Testament, in Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, we read that the law, verse 1, the law was only a shadow of the good things to come. It was a very, the Old Testament was a very exact shadow. It's just like if you stand in the sun, the outline of your body is an exact outline. If you're fat, it'll show you as fat. If you're thin, it'll show you as thin. It's a very exact outline of your body. So the law was a very exact shadow, but it was only a shadow. Or we could say today like a photograph. And I don't need my wife's photograph when she herself is there. That's why I don't need the law, when Jesus himself is there. Now all those guys who don't have the Lord in front of them all the time, you better have the law, otherwise you'll fall into sin. That's for sure. Jesus lived saying, I have set the Lord, not the law, L-A-W, but L-O-R-D, always before me. And that's how we're to live. If I don't set the Lord Jesus always in front of me, then I better put the law in front of me. Otherwise, you'll become like most Christians who do not set the Lord in front of them, and they don't have any law. They say they are free from the law and they live in sin and their life is worse than the lives of unbelievers, and worse than the lives of people in the Old Covenant. But it says here, the law was only a shadow of the good things to come. And all the sacrifices under the law could never make perfect those who draw near. Perfect does not mean in the sense of perfect like God, that we're not even going to be in eternity, not even become like Jesus. That's going to happen only when He comes. But it says here about being perfect in the sense that I have a perfect conscience. See, that's what He speaks about in the context of perfection in chapter 9 and verse 14. He speaks about cleansing our conscience. So here it's perfection in our conscience. And chapter 10, He says, if those people's conscience were perfect in the Old Covenant, then there wouldn't be any more offering of sin, because then they would have been cleansed. Having once been cleansed, they wouldn't, listen to this phrase, this is what I wanted to come to, there would no longer be a remembrance of past sin. But they always had to remember their past sins in the Old Covenant. Every time they brought a sacrifice, they had to remember. There was no question of forgetting it. But now, the Lord says, once for all, He has come and finished, in verse 12, He's offered one sacrifice for sins for all time. That's the difference. In the Old Testament, they kept on offering, and there was a remembrance. There was a remembrance of sins, verse, chapter 10, verse 3. In those sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins year by year. So, at the end of the year, you'd remember your sins, and the next year, you would remember your sins, and the next year, you'd remember your sins, because every time those sacrifices were being offered, reminding you of your sin, because, verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. There was a sort of a temporary hiding of, covering up of the sins, but not a removal of sin. But now, in the New Covenant, it says here, there is a complete removal, verse 17, their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. So, if God doesn't remember it, I don't need to remember it either. Now, if you want to remember what God says, I'm not remembering, that's up to you. If you want to be miserable, in the days to come, that's your choice. A lot of people choose to be miserable. That's fine. I'll tell you who does remember, and that's the 12, and verse 10, speaks about Satan here, is the accuser of the brethren, who accuses God's people to him day and night. Day and night, he remembers, and what is he accusing? He's accusing God's people about what they did here, and what they did there, and he's even telling God, and he tells us all the time. So, one of the things that we really need to settle, once and for all, is to know that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed and blotted out our past sin completely. Now, it's possible that a lot of people imagine that they are forgiven, who are not forgiven. There's a lot of self-deception. You know, a lot of people who've never repented of their sins, never set things right, and who try to forget, okay, it's all gone. They listen to a message like this and say, that's great, that's exactly what I want to believe. Well, I want to tell you this, that there are a lot of people who have to remember their sins. I'll tell you who they are. Those who have not repented, those who don't turn, who are not sorry for the way they have lived. It's not those who have lived in great sin. I mean, the thief on the cross. Think of the thief on the cross. He never did, hardly ever did any good thing. He murdered people, he stole, and he never even got a chance to set it right, but he's very happy in paradise today. That guy who killed so many people, some of the people he killed went to hell, but the guy who killed them is in heaven. Isn't that pretty unrighteous of God? You know, every man is a sinner. The murderer is a sinner, and the person who had one lustful thought against a woman is also a sinner in God's eyes. He puts them all in the same category, God, but he says, I'll pull out from that category, I'll pull out certain people, those who repent. Those who are sorry for what they have done. So remember this, the world categorizes sinners according to, oh well, he just did a little mistake there, told a little lie. That guy murdered so many people. God says, no. God says, everybody's in the same category. I will only pull out those who are sorry for their sin, and who turn from it. They may not have given it up yet, but they want to give it up. They may not have given it up because they're not able to. I mean, some sins you're still struggling with, that's okay. The question is, do you love it? If you love it, then you haven't repented. If you fall in it, that's different from your loving it. The Bible says that we've got to hate sin. It may take time to give it up, but it doesn't take time to hate. And if you repent, it means you're sorry for what you've done. You hate what you've done in your past life, and you hate yourself for what you've done. It says in Ezekiel, in chapter, I saw this the other day. I always thought it was only in one chapter, but I discovered that in two chapters in Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 6, first of all. Ezekiel 6 verse 9, it says, those of you who escape will remember me. Listen to this word. They will realize, I want to read it in the Message Bible, and this refers to you and me. They will realize how devastated I was by their betrayals of me, by their lust for gratifying themselves. And when they realize how they betrayed me in all those years, they'll be disgusted with themselves and their evil ways, which were disgusting to God in the way they lived. They will loathe themselves in their own sight. It says in verse 9, they will, they look at themselves and they say, oh God, what a filthy man I am. Have you ever felt like that? Do you feel like that? If you don't feel like that, if you have never felt like that even once in your life, I will say to you in Jesus name, you have never come into the presence of God even once in your whole life. It is impossible for a man to come even once into God's presence and not feel like that. John the Apostle was the holiest man that ever lived. I mean, that was alive in the 80-95 when he was in the Isle of Patmos, when he saw Jesus. He fell at his feet and said, oh, like a dead man. And that guy was the holiest man alive at that time. Isaiah was the holiest man alive in his time. When he saw the glory of God, he said, oh God, I'm such a filthy man. Job was the most righteous man. God himself said, there's not a man on earth as righteous as God. And you see in chapter 42, he says, oh God, I only heard about you all these years. Now I see you and I loathe myself. I repent in dust and ashes. I want to say to you, that's the mark of every man who has repented. How do we know that Adam didn't repent? When he came into God's presence, he didn't fall down like Job and Isaiah and John. He said, well actually God, it's my wife, you know, it's not me. And remember, you gave me this wife. That's the mark of a man who has no repentance. I want to say to all of you in Jesus' name, that if you've got the slightest bit of wanting to blame somebody else, that attitude of wanting to blame somebody else, I don't believe you have repented. I don't believe you should forget your sins. I believe you should remember it in 2006. And I pray God will remember it in 2006. You wretched, miserable person, who deserves to go to hell. And you probably will go there if you remain like that. But Jesus came for sinners, not all sinners. He came for sinners who want to turn from their sins. He came for the worst of them, adulterous women, murderers, thieves. And they'll all be in God's kingdom. But they are the ones who loathed themselves, detested themselves. Oh, I feel so rotten. I feel so filthy. I feel so good for nothing. Because I've hurt God so much. It says, they will feel devastated by their betrayals of me. They'll feel terrible about the way they sinned in their speech, how they hurt people with their anger. And they hurt me by their lusts and dishonoring me and doing sins as if I was not around. Just because man was not around, they imagine that I was also not around to see them. They didn't reverence me and didn't care for me. They'll think of all that and they'll feel devastated. I remember hearing of these old revivalists, I think Charles Stinney. So we don't see revivals like that nowadays. Now we're all, all the preaching you hear is how to give money to the TV evangelist and how to get more money yourself if you give money to him. And all this rubbish that Jesus never preached about. But the old revivalists like Finney, you know, people used to come weeping. And I remember hearing a story where people would come forward and be weeping. And somebody tried to go and comfort this fellow who was weeping and say, okay, okay. I mean, it's enough, enough, enough. The Lord's forgiven you. And Finney said, no, let him weep. It's not enough. The guy has sinned so much. What do you mean making him stop in one minute? No, let him weep. Let him weep his heart out. Those are the people who really got converted. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn, but they shall be comforted. And to comfort a person who doesn't mourn is not the will of God. The trouble is today, a lot of preachers are trying to comfort people whom God does not want to comfort. Because God's only going to comfort those who mourn. Jesus invited those who are heavy laden, who are, oh God, the weight of the sin is so heavy, I can't proceed. Jesus said, come to me, all you who are heavy laden. But today, preachers are telling people who don't have any sense of burden of their sins, come, Jesus wants you. That's the reason why we have such a lot of shallow, good for nothing Christianity today. And I tell you, if you listen to all that type of preaching, you'll become like that one of those useless, good for nothing Christians. We'll never get into God's kingdom, that's for sure. But if you mourn, I tell you, God, if you loathe yourself, then verse 10, Ezekiel 6, 10, they will know that I am the Lord. I have come to know the Lord. You know why? Because I have loathed myself for what I have done. It may not be such terrible things in the eyes of the world that I have done. I haven't killed anybody. But I have seen sin in God's eyes. I mean, Isaiah, how did Isaiah feel he was so rotten? Was it because he had killed somebody? No. He just saw the holiness of God, and in the holiness of God, the purest man on earth is rotten. It's all a question of coming into God's presence. It's got nothing to do with how much you've sinned. When Jesus said the story about one person forgave 500 pounds to somebody and 5 pounds to somebody else or 50 pounds to somebody else. Is it really true that somebody is forgiven less? No, we're all forgiven much, but the awareness of how much we've been forgiven is less with some people. So it's a question of awareness. And the closer we come to God, the more we become aware of sin. Ezekiel 36, that's the other place. Ezekiel 36, he's talking about this new covenant. Verse 26, I'll give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit within you. Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26. I'll put a new heart within you. I'll give you a new heart, new spirit, and I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. This is different from telling you to do it. I will cause you to walk. Great, I love the new covenant where God is going to make me walk in his will. Good news for all those who've been struggling, struggling, struggling, struggling to do his will and couldn't do it. God says I'll make you do it. And then what will happen when you get this new heart and this new spirit and you start walking in my ways. And you'll be very careful, verse 27, you'll be very, very careful to observe my commandments exactly. You'll be very careful. You won't be careless in obeying. You won't say, well, in a general way, I'm obeying God. No, no, no, not in a general way, in a very exact, down to the last detail of obedience. There are very few Christians like that, but thank God there are some who don't just generally obey God, but who obey God exactly in detail. And then what will happen? Then, after all this, this wonderful Christian who's now walking in God's ways, who's got his Holy Spirit within him, you know how he's going to feel? Verse 31, then you will remember all your evil ways and your deeds that were not good. And you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your sins. So you see, there are two things for a godly Christian. One, he's absolutely sure God doesn't remember his sins anymore. That means no sense of guilt. God's blotted it all out. But, this is one of those paradoxes. Paradoxes means two things that look like opposites, but are still true in the Christian life. You know, like when you're weak, then you're strong. In the same way, the holiest man is the man who's more aware of his sin, most aware of his sin. These are like opposites. So, in one sense, I'm completely sure God doesn't even remember a single sin against me. But, at the same time, I remember all the wretched things I did in my whole life, and I loathe myself. How do these things go together? I can remember because I know that the power of the blood of Christ is greater than the power of my sin. I know the blood of Christ has blotted it all out. And therefore, I can remember without guilt. You know, when you say that God says, I will not remember your sins. We read that verse in Hebrews 10. Remember, you see, God doesn't say, I've forgotten about your sins. You got to quote the Bible exactly. He doesn't say, I've forgotten about your sins. How can God forget what I did 40 years ago when I haven't forgotten it myself? Have you forgotten the wretched thing you did last week? You confessed it. It's forgiven. God says, I will not remember it. But you mean God doesn't remember? God's forgotten what you did last week? When he says, I will not remember, he says, I choose not to remember. That means I look at you as if you never did it. Why do I need to remember it? If the remembrance of it brings me guilt, then something is wrong. Then I'm saying, my sin is greater than the power of Christ's blood. That's one of the greatest insults you can give to God. You're glorifying the devil, actually. When you say that the sin you have confessed, God is not forgiven. But every sin you've confessed that you've repented of, that you really want to turn from, that you're sorry for, and you turn to God and say, Lord, I'm sorry, it's forgiven. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. And it's very important that the devil does not weigh us down anymore with guilt of our past. But along with that, that we remember in a way that we loathe ourselves, because that's the thing that will spur us to live a holy life in the future. For example, if you've got this filthy, filthy, filthy habit of watching pornography on the internet, and you come to God and say, oh God, I'm sorry, that was terrible what I did. And you're going to, you know very well, you're going to do it tomorrow again. You don't loathe yourself. That's why you'll do it tomorrow. That's why you'll do it next week. That's why you'll do it 10 years from now. Because you don't loathe yourself for what you've done. God's forgiven you. That's sure. You confessed it. You said it was wrong. And you said, Lord, I'm sorry for what I did. I shouldn't have looked at those filthy pictures. Please forgive me. And God's forgiven you. That's the blood of Jesus cleansed you. There's no doubt about it. Your heart is clean. But you'll do it next week. You know why? Because this other thing has not come, which you read in Ezekiel 36, that after you got a new heart, after God has brought you to walk in the statues, you don't loathe yourself. You don't have this paradox. You forget about everything. And you also say, hey, I'm before God as if I've never done it. That's why you keep on shouting at your wife. Did God forgive you for all the years you shouted your wife? Every single time you did it, God's forgiven you because you confessed it. If you confessed it to your wife also. But you don't loathe yourself. Then you don't loathe yourself. I prophesy you're going to shout at your wife in 2006 as well. And probably in 2007. And as long as you're alive on this earth, because you don't loathe yourself. So that's what Peter says in 2nd Peter 1 as well. 2nd Peter chapter 1, he's talking about people who are spiritually blind and shortsighted in verse 9. Those who lack these qualities are blind and shortsighted. Now I don't want to be spiritually blind. And I don't want to be spiritually shortsighted. Shortsighted means you can't see very far. You know what shortsighted is? And this is so shortsighted where I can see just about, you know, some people like that. Unfortunately, their vision is so bad that they can only see about one foot in front of them. They can't see anything beyond one foot. Really shortsighted. And I'll tell you who are the shortsighted people on the earth. Spiritually shortsighted. Spiritually shortsighted people are those who can see only as far as the end of their earthly life. Okay. I'm going to enjoy life. I'm going to live up to 90 or 100. I'm going to enjoy life. It's shortsighted. It's about one foot. What about eternity beyond that? Can't see. Can't see. What's that? Who's that? Can't see. That's shortsighted. And if all you can see is this world and all that it offers and how you're going to enjoy life for the next 100 years or 80 years, I tell you, you're really shortsighted. Just about a foot you can see. There's millions and millions of years beyond that. And one reason why people are blind. Blind means the shortsight becomes so bad you can't see anything. It's just yourself. And the one reason why people become blind and shortsighted, it says, Peter says, is because they have forgotten what tall sins God forgave them from. He's talking about believers. These are not unbelievers who got purification from their former sins. No unbeliever has got purification from his former sins. No. These are believers who repented and who were forgiven, whose the blood of Christ cleansed them, and then they became blind and shortsighted because they forgot the pit from which they were pulled out. That's why they're so hard and unmerciful on other people. They've forgotten the pit from which God pulled them out. They've forgotten their purification from their former sins. So when we think of certain things we got to forget, we must have a balanced understanding. There are sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. We got to completely believe that God's blotted it all out, the blood of Jesus cleansed me from all sin. Like that man who, I don't know if it was Martin Luther or somebody who had a dream where the devil was writing all his sins, the big list of page, page after page after page after page, saying, how can you stand before God with all this? And this man said, well, that's not at all Satan. I've come to get a lot more than that. Please complete the list. Don't just finish with that. And he said, when you finish the list, right across the whole thing, the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from all sin. That's boldness. Boldness before the devil. Boldness to come before God. But at the same time, as we have that assurance of the blood of Jesus has cleansed me from every wretched thing that I have done. And there's not even an atom of guilt concerning anything in my past life. There's no fear. You know, I've heard people tell me like this, brother, is God punishing me now for what I did 20 years ago? I mean, it's like if I got a hold of my 10 year old son and gave him a whack, whacked him and whacked him and whacked him. Dad, what did I do? You remember eight years ago, what you did? Have you ever heard of an earthly father like that? But a lot of believers insult God by saying God is worse than an earthly father. Oh, Lord, I remember eight years ago. I mean, a good father doesn't even punish a child for what he did last week, even on eight years ago. Then there's another thing. Supposing I whack my child and whack my child, whack my child and this poor 10 year old says, Daddy, what's that for? I'm not going to tell you. That's another thing people have with God. God's punishing me. Why? I don't know. He never told me. Boy, he must be worse than earthly fathers. That's not the God of the Bible. You got some idol you're worshiping. That's not the God of the Bible. That's the devil who's harassing you, harassing you, making you feel, Oh, God's going to punish you. He hasn't forgiven. He, no, no, no, no. He doesn't keep his word. Don't make God a liar. Don't make God worse than earthly fathers. Whenever you think of God, think of your own children, see how you treat them and say, God, you're a million times better than that. A good father will always tell his child why he's punishing him. And there won't be much time gap between the sin and the punishment. That's how it is with God too, for his children. For those who are not his children, there's a big time gap, a hundred years. The guy may die and only after that God will punish him and send him to hell, because he's not God's child. But if you're a child of God, it's different. Remember that. So don't live under this guilt. And then there's another thing, which is even worse going around the world nowadays among Christians. I tell you, the devil's got twirling Christians around his finger. One of them is this, ah, there's a curse upon you, because your great grandfather did something. He did some black magic. Now I have to deliver you from this curse. I'm the pastor. It's only a thousand rupees for the chief to deliver it from the curse. Don't believe all these con men, these tricksters, who are only after your money. Just because they come with the Bible and they come in the name of Jesus, you get fooled. Multitudes of Christians are being conned. You know the meaning of conned, C-O-N-N-E-D? Fooled, deceived, cheated by all these tricksters. Some of them call themselves pastors and prophets. They certainly are prophets, false prophets, evil shepherds, because they're after your money. They'll tell you about a curse. I want to tell you the good news that Jesus became a curse on the cross, according to Galatians 3.13. And he said, it is finished. What did he say? It is finished. Don't you believe these liars who say it's finished. Your sins were finished. The curse was finished. It's gone. I'm not under any curse. Neither are you, if you've given your life to Christ. There was a time I was under the curse, because I was in a tree called Adam. One day God cut me off from that tree and grafted me into another tree called Jesus Christ. Is there any curse here? No. I don't care what my great-grandfather did. I don't care what my father or mother did. There's a verse in Ezekiel which says that children will never suffer even for the sins of their parents. That's another thing. Oh Lord, is it because my dad did something that I'm suffering? Or you look at your poor child's suffering and say, Lord, is it because something I did, this poor child's suffering? I mean, can you imagine an earthly court where some fellow is murdered, someone is standing for trial, and the judge says, you're condemned. You're convicted of murder. I'm going to punish you. Okay, I'll let you go. Call your son. We'll hang him. Have you ever heard of a court like that? We'll hang your son because you committed a murder. Do you know the insults, the insults that Christians are giving to God with all these stupid ideas the devil puts into their head? And I'll tell you why they believe it. Because they don't read the Bible. One of the master things the devil has succeeded with today's generation is they watch Christian television more than reading the Bible. And such people deserve to be deceived. They deserve to be deceived because some of those preachers are not preaching from the Bible. Read the Bible yourself, then you won't be deceived. Remember that, my brothers and sisters. Don't insult God with all these thoughts the devil puts into your head. Begin 2006 with a complete freedom from all these things. Now I'll tell you another thing we need to forget. We need to forget all the evil things that other people have done to us. Can you do that? I don't mean you can get it out of your memory. I told you even God doesn't get our sins out of his memory. But say what God says, I choose not to remember. That means when the thought comes to me I say no. You know I think of thoughts like bricks with which we are building a house in our mind. And I used to see when these masons build bricks. You know the fellow will be sitting up on the wall there and the chap down there will pass a brick up to him. And the guy takes it and hits it. I said I don't want that. Give me another one. I thought of that you know the devil gives me a thought. I said no I don't want that. I'm not going to build my house with a rotten brick that the devil passes up to me. The Holy Spirit passes me a good brick and I said Gary I'm going to put that in. Build your house with good bricks. Many of you your houses are collapsing, your minds collapsing because you're accepting all the rotten bricks the devil gives you. Some bad thought about that person and some memory of what that other guy did ten years ago or last week or whatever it is. Forget it. Say I choose not to remember. I finish. Okay I'm not saying he never did it. But I say I choose not to remember. I meet that person and I'm not going to look at him as the person who did that to me. God doesn't look at me like the person who did a whole lot of evil things to him. He looks at me as if I never did anything wrong. His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations three. Which means he looks at me today as if he's never ever forgiven me. Oh God says good to see you. I've never forgiven you. Have you never forgiven me Lord? No his mercies are new every morning. Because he doesn't remember. He chooses not to remember and I want to look at people like that. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could look at your wife the way you looked at her when you got married. The sparkle in your eyes. Where's it all gone now? It's sad. I've been married 37 years and I still look at my wife like that. I certainly do. I look at her like that when I'm a hundred. Because God's been so good to me. It's not because I'm perfect or my wife is perfect. Nobody in the world is perfect. But God's been so good to me that I got to be good to everybody else. Has God been good to you? God is good to the good-hearted. Look at the way some of you mothers look at your children. Poor things. I mean they're struggling to grow up and on top of that you look at them like that. Let there be a smile on your face. Let your children grow up in an atmosphere of goodness. I remember one brother saying how he saw one of his older children talking in a stern way to one of the younger children and he suddenly realized that that's the way he was talking to his older child and that child just picked it up from him. You see the children pick up the way you treat them and they begin to treat the younger ones like that. So there's some good qualities we need to we need to forget and forgive all those things that people have done in the past. David didn't forgive Shimei for he said he forgave. He said okay I won't you know how Shimei cursed him and called him a dog and all that and David said okay you're forgiven but he didn't he kept it in his heart. He said okay I won't kill you because when he came back and became king Shimei got a bit scared and David said okay but when David was dying he called Solomon his son. He said I want to tell you something you know this guy Shimei I tell you he cursed me and some years ago I know but I haven't forgotten it but unfortunately I told him I won't kill him. But you didn't make that promise. Finish him off. Let his gray hair be filled with blood. Let him go down to the grave. Then it says David died after that. Did David go to heaven? He did because he was under the old covenant and the old covenant there was no command saying if you don't forgive others God will not forgive you. You read that in the old testament. That is a new testament command. They were permitted to die like that in the old testament. A lot of things. He had eight wives. He still goes to heaven. I don't think anybody with eight wives today will go to heaven. Certainly not because we are living in a new age. We've got the holy spirit and if you don't forgive others I tell you with absolute certainty you'll never get into God's kingdom. So forgive them. Forgive people because God's being so good to you. Remember how much God's forgiven you. You know the guy who was forgiven 44 crores 40 million rupees and then he met this other guy who owed him 40 rupees and caught him by the throat. Why did he catch him by the throat? Because he forgot how much he was forgiven 40 million. So why do you catch other people by the throat? Why do you get so upset with somebody who made a mistake? Because you've forgotten the 40 million you were forgiven. That guy's mistake is only 40 rupees. You were forgiven 40 million and the king called that servant back. You read in Matthew 18 and say hey listen I forgave you 40 million rupees. You couldn't forgive somebody 40 rupees. Okay I'm going to put back that debt on you. Is there such a thing as I mean we all know how God forgives sins. Is there such a thing as God unforgives sins which he already forgave once? That's what that story teaches. That sins which God has already forgiven 40 million of them. Now God says no no I unforgive it I cancel that forgiveness is all back on you only for one reason not because he fell into adultery. I mean if he had fallen to adultery that would have been okay he could have repented but only because of this terrible sin that he wouldn't forgive somebody else. So beware of that. Beware of that. I never read in the scriptures Jesus saying if you commit adultery your heavenly father will not forgive you. I never see that. If you commit murder your heavenly father will not forgive you. No I don't see that but I do see if you don't forgive others Matthew 6.15 your heavenly father will not forgive you. It's pretty serious. So I would advise you in your own interest in your own interest forgive other people. Release them. You know why the devil has a grip on so many believers. Jesus said that if you that guy who didn't forgive the other fellow 40 rupees that he it says that you know the he didn't just put him in jail. That's the interesting thing. You read in Matthew 18 that the king handed him over to the torturers. He says don't just put him in jail. Put him in the torture chamber. Poke him with hot iron bars and whatever it is to torture him. Stretch his legs and hands and torture him and then Jesus said so will my heavenly father do to you if you don't forgive other people from their heart Matthew 18.35 and that means that heavenly father will hand you over to the torturers. He doesn't torture himself. God doesn't torture anybody. The king doesn't go and put hot metal plates on anybody. He just hands him over to the torturers and God doesn't torture anybody but he'll hand you over to the demons. Hey are you demons you can have him. God you're giving him to us. That's right. Why? Because he wouldn't forgive somebody. Oh my brother sister don't get handed over to the demons please. It's not worth it and the demons oh boy they won't spare you. They'll make your life miserable and that's why some Christians are miserable. You've seen these Christians long faces all the time. You know the devil's poking them somewhere pinching them here and pinching them there. How's the devil doing it? I'll tell you usually because they've got something in their heart against somebody else. A man who's forgiven others and who always remembers what a pit God pulled him out from that's merciful to others. He's a very happy man and who knows that his sins are cleansed the blood of Jesus. His face is now long and miserable. So those are the things we need to forget the evil that other people have done to us and I'll tell you another thing. We need to also forget the good that we have done to other people. You know there are two categories of people standing before Jesus in the final day. Jesus himself said that. One category stands before and said Lord you remember these miracles that we did in your name. It's in Matthew 7. Lord I'll give you a list this miracle that the other miracle. Do you remember all the sermons I preached in your name? Do you remember all the places I went to? And do you remember all the money? I'm just expanding that list. Jesus just gave two or three things but the full list is Lord all this money I gave you. Do you remember the number of meetings? I lost count of the number of meetings Lord and I never missed a meeting. I went for all the Bible studies. I got up on Fridays and shared in the Bible studies. Lord you remember all this? And you go on and on and on and said the Lord said depart from me you workers of iniquity. Can he say that to people who testified on Friday evening in the Bible studies? Can he say that to people who got such a list? Lord you remember all the help I gave to this person that poor person was poor and I gave him some money and that other person needed something and I gave that and I gave that. Do you remember it all? That's their problem. And then there's another group. This whole guys who remembered all that God said all lot of you go to hell. Then there's another group who stands before them and the Lord says you remember when I was sick you came and visited me. And they say Lord when was that? I don't even remember that. No and when I was in prison you came to see me. I saw you in prison Lord I don't remember that. And I was I needed some clothes and you gave me some clothes. When was that Lord? And you came gave me that word of encouragement when I was disguised. I don't remember a thing and he goes on and on and on and on and you say Lord I don't remember I don't remember. The Lord says enter into the joy of your Lord because you did it to the least of these my brothers. And when you did it to the least of these my brothers you did it to me. And what what do you who is the least who do you think is the least person who can understand you sitting here in this room right now? I mean not the babies who can't understand but some of these little children. I think they are the least little ones. Oh they're upstairs okay. Anyway you know those are the ones who we never think that doing something to them is like doing something to Jesus. Jesus said everyone who receives a little child in my name receives me. And you do it to one of the least of these. You say a word of encouragement. I always like to speak words of encouragement to little children. I've been into many many homes where the mother or father will pull out the black sheep. You know many homes has one black sheep. All the others are white sheep or at least they think they are white anyway. But there's one black sheep. Oh brother Zach pray for this son of mine this daughter of mine. He never testifies in the Friday Bible study. He never says anything. He doesn't study properly and and I say I've got more hope for that person than for anybody in this home because Jesus came for such people. Jesus came for such people. He came for those whom others call black sheep. You know how David's brothers despised him. You know how Joseph's brothers despised him. Those are the ones that God picks up. I've seen that through years. So let's learn to say a good word and let's forget about it. Do something good and forget it. You know Jesus said pray and don't let anybody know. Fast and don't let anybody know. Give money and don't let anybody know. Because that's how God is. Jesus healed the sick people and said don't tell anybody. There was only one time he told someone go and tell everybody what I did for you and that was in Decapolis. And you know why? Because Jesus never went back to that city again. But everywhere where he was around he told people don't tell anybody that I did it. That's how it is to do good and to disappear like Melchizedek in the Old Testament. He came and brought food and all that and blessed Abraham and then disappeared. You don't even see him. He doesn't appear in the book of Genesis after that. And the Bible says we are priests according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is a high priest. What does that mean? It means to do good and disappear. To do good secretly so that people don't even know who did it. That's a great way. See that's that's what it means to forget the good that I have done. I want to ask you in Jesus name tell me. You remember all the good that you have done to this brother, that brother, the other brother and all the things you did for the church which you think you've done. You better repent of all that because you're in the wrong category. You're the ones who can list all the good things you've done. I can think of numerous times, not one or two times, numerous times where people have come to me and said brother Zach you remember you did this and I can honestly say I don't remember. I want to forget like Paul said forgetting the things that are behind. It's like if I have this if I'm right up to this close to this curtain I can't see anything behind me and you know I want to walk with a curtain falling behind me all the time. So I look back can't see what I did because the curtain falling behind me if I did something good this morning at seven o'clock it's a curtain seven o'clock when was that can't see anything. That's the meaning of forgetting the things that are behind. How spiritual are you if you can remember things you did 20 years ago all the good that you did and remember all the evil that other people did and you don't remember all the evil that you did to other people. So there are certain things we must remember and certain things we must forget. I think of the words of Jesus at the last supper you know he said when he passed the bread and cup around he said do this in remembrance of me and he knows he knew how easy it was for people to forget him and be taken up with his gifts that he had to tell them remember me and I like to think of that I say Lord I want to remember you always I want to set you always before me like it says in Psalm 16 Psalm 16 and verse eight it's a great secret of the Christian life I have set the Lord continually before me. I have no sense of guilt about any sin that I have repented of and confessed the only sin that God cannot forgive you want to know it what's the sin God will not forgive the sin you won't confess got it the only sin God will not forgive the sin you will not confess and the sin you will not turn from every other sin is forgiven blotted out cleansed so I have no sense of guilt zero I can stand before God as if I've never committed one single sin in 66 years of my life because I believe the power of the blood of Christ is so great I glory in the you know like we sang in that song forbidden Lord that I should boast save in the cross of Christ my God there I do boast like Paul said I will only boast in Jesus Christ and him crucified his blood I boast in that it's cleansed me thoroughly but I loathe myself for all the things I did to dishonor God in my life and therefore I'm extremely merciful to other people God is my witness I have come across people who have done the most terrible things I don't despise them even if I haven't done those things I don't despise them because I know my God has forgiven me so much okay that guy did something wrong 40 rupees God's forgiven me 40 million forgetting forgetting good that I did forgetting the evil that other people did and remembering the good that other people did to me that's one good thing to remember Jesus said a cup of cold water you will not lose your reward and that's one of the things I prayed I said Lord please help me to remember all the good things that every single person has ever done to me in my life that I want to remember as much as I forget all the good I've done I want to remember somebody I was very thirsty somebody brought a cup of cold water for me I want to remember that I was in a situation and somebody came and helped me I want to remember that to the end even if you did it for me 30 years ago I want to remember you brother sister because that's how Jesus is if he remembers a cup of water I want to be like Jesus I want to remember all the good that every person even an unbeliever if he's done something for me I want to remember it I want to remember it God told Cornelius who was an unbeliever all your arms God remembers and above all let's remember Jesus shall we bow before God