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9 The Pardon of Prayer, Part 1
Matthew 6:12,14 & 15 Code: 2241
And forgive us our debts...
Matthew 6:12,14 & 15
Will you turn in your Bible with me to the sixth chapter of Matthew, Matthew chapter 6? I'm having such a wonderful time in my own life dealing with the Beatitudes, or rather with the Lord's Prayer as did with the Beatitudes. I think you remember back when we covered the Beatitudes how deeply involved we became in them. I'm thrilled to let you know that as of last Friday that series in the Beatitudes became a book entitled KINGDOM LIVING, HERE AND NOW. And we'll have them for you in a matter of a couple of weeks and you can have a copy of all of our studies in the Beatitudes in book form. But I have the same kind of joy as I study through the Lord's Prayer or as we've called it ... The Disciple's Prayer. Just digging as deeply as we can into this mine of treasure that Christ has given us in teaching us how to pray. And again I want to read all of the verses of this majestic prayer in its depth and simplicity so that we'll have a frame of reference as we look particularly at verse 12.
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen."
Focusing this Lord's day and next for sure and maybe even beyond that, on verse 12. "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And then a footnote on verse 12 in verse 14, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Those three verses, the statement in the prayer and then the very, very important footnote and the very much misunderstood footnote that our Lord gives in 14 and 15 are going to be the theme of our study in the days ahead. The focus and the concentration of verse 12 is on the subject of sin and its forgiveness. And that is a petition that every soul needs to face as a part of their prayer life. Surly if you'll think about it you will agree with me that the most essential and the most blessed and the most difficult thing that God ever did was provide man with the forgiveness of sin. It is most essential because it keeps us from eternal hell and gives us joy even in this life. It is most blessed because it introduces us into a fellowship with God that goes on forever and it is most difficult because it cost the Son of God His life, on a cross; but the most essential, the most blessed, and the most difficult thing is the forgiveness of sin. It is the greatest need of the human heart. Sin has a two-fold effect, generally, and that is that it damns men forever ... that's its future effect ... its present effect is that it robs men of the fullness of life by bringing to bear upon his conscience an unrelieved and unrelenting guilt. And so as we face the problem of sin we face the fact that sin brings immediate consequences, guilt and the loss of meaningfulness, peace and joy and life and the future consequence that sin brings eternal damnation.
Sin, then, is unquestionably the major need, or the major problem for which here is a need for solution in the life of man. Just thinking about human life where sin is unforgiven we have to face the fact of what guilt and condemnation in our own conscience does to us. Shakespeare, who claimed to be no theologian, certainly knew at least of the Bible's indication and of the fact of human life that people can become sick in their minds and their bodies over unconfessed and unforgiven sin. I remember as a young boy seeing Macbeth and hearing of the struggle and the anguish and the anxiety in the heart of
Lady Macbeth over the murder of Duncan.And she took it on herself all kinds, of psychosomatic disorders as a result of this unconfessed murder. And Macbeth called in a physician and said to him these words: or rather the physician said to Macbeth these words: "Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick coming fancies that keep her from her rest." In other words, the physician told Macbeth that her problem was in her mind. And Macbeth then asked the doctor these words, a classic statement: "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raise out the written troubles of the brain and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that peril of stuff that weighs upon the heart?" And no physician can do that. William Sadler said quote: "A clear conscience is a great step toward barricading the mind against neuroticism." end quote. John R. W. Stott in his little book, CONFESS YOUR SINS quotes the head of a large British hospital as having said and I quote, "I could dismiss half of my patients tomorrow if they assured of forgiveness." end quote. Forgiveness is mans deepest need now and in the future, for health and for heaven. Thus it is the first petition related to man's soul here in this prayer.
The first three petitions "Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will 'be done in earth as it is in heaven," relate to God. The last three petitions relate to men, "Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil," but the first of the last three is for physical sustenance, "Give us this day our daily bread,. And while there is only one petition for the physical there are two for the spiritual because it is much more important but the physical is first of all necessary, we cannot live out spiritual principles unless we are alive physically. So, first our physical needs are met in verse 11 and then when we come to the spiritual the first and most basic request on the part of the inner man is for the forgiveness of sins. That is man's deepest spiritual need. That is where God and man must, first of all, meet. For before God can ever lead usat all let alone lead us not into temptation, before God can deliver us at all from anything we must have a relationship to Him which is possible only when our sins are dealt with. For God is a holy God as of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, said Isaiah. And there is no way that an absolute holy God can possibly entertain in His presence a relationship with unholy, ungodly sinful men. If we are to have any relationship with God, if there is any spiritual thing to be gained it begins with a petition for forgiveness and you will notice that in verse 12, forgive is mentioned twice and in verse 14 forgive is mentioned twice and in verse 15 forgive is mentioned twice again; six times we see the thrust and the theme ... the forgiveness of sins.
Now, remember as we've learned that this prayer is basically focused on God. It is a prayer intent on glorifying God. It begins with God's paternity, Our Father who art in heaven. And then God's priority, hallowed be Thy name." And then God's program, "Thy kingdom come." And then God's purpose, "Thy will be done." And then God's provision, "Give us this day our daily bread." And now God's pardon, "Forgive us our debts." Followed by God's protection, "Lead us not." And then God's preeminence, "For Thine is the kingdom." It all focuses on God and we come now to the thrust of God's pardon for our sins. The very nature of prayer, beloved, now mark it, is that we are acknowledging a total dependence on God. We will have no daily bread without God we will have no forgiveness of sin without God, we will have no leading and directing in our lives apart from God. Therefore, His is the preeminence, the power and the glory in the kingdom. We're focusing on God.
And so we come in verse 12 in our prayers, routinely, to speak to God about the matter of forgiveness of sin. Now there are four principles I want to give you this morning and four words we'll be discussing, we'll just discuss the first two and next week we'll follow it up from there. But there are four principles that embody these four words, I want to give you the principles and then we'll pull the words out and look at them specifically.
Principle number one, these are the four principles that I see germane to he thrust of this text. Number one ... sin makes man guilty and brings judgment. Sin makes man guilty and brings judgment. That's pretty basic; I think any of us who are Christians or who have been involved in the teaching of the word at all know that to be true. Sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. That's really the bottom line, isn't it? That's the human dilemma, man is a sinner and that is his problem. Now the Bible says sin is lawlessness, sin is lawlessness. It is breaking God's law. It is violating God's standard. The Bible says that in 1 John 3:4, sin is lawlessness. In Romans 3:19 it says, "That we are therefore guilty before God." We break His laws, we become guilty. And then Romans 6 says, "Because we are guilty, the wages of our sin, or the penalty or the sentence, is death." So man is a sinner because he is lawless. He breaks God's laws. In breaking God's laws he becomes guilty and the judgment for guilt is death. So, sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. All men across the face of the earth stand in judgment before God for their sin.
Second principle, very simple but I want you to understand it, forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. That's the second simple principle that you have to understand to understand this passage. God is a holy God and God sees a sinful man, sinful woman, a sinful society but God is also a merciful, loving and forgiving God so forgiveness is offered to sinful man. Though he is guilty and stands in judgment, God is a forgiving God. The Bible says He will remember our sin no more, He will pass by our iniquities, He will bury them in the depths of the sea, He will remove them as far as the east is from the west, all throughout the prophets and the apostles of the Scriptures there is this unceasing promise that God is a God of forgiveness. He wants to forgive us our sins. Now He can't just do that, He has to take the penalty for our sins and bring it to its fullness. Why? Because a just and a righteous and a holy God cannot forgive sin unless sin's penalty is paid, you see? So Christ took our place. Forgiveness then is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death.
A third principle, confession of sin is necessary to receive that forgiveness from God. Confession of sin is necessary to receive that forgiveness from God. The forgiveness is available. The penalty has been paid for. The propitiation or the covering has been made. The satisfaction has been accomplished. It is only a matter of receiving the gift. And basic to that reception is a confession of sin. As Paul puts it in Acts 20, "Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ results in salvation." There must then be confession of sin. I John 1:9 in effect says, the ones who are confessing their sins they are the ones giving evidence that they are being forgiven. In other words, confession of sin is a manifestation necessary for forgiveness. It is part and parcel of that. When you come to God you come as a sinner. No man ever receives salvation who isn't repentant for sin. In the beatitudes our Lord says, if you want to enter My kingdom you enter My kingdom like this, first of all you acknowledge that you are a beggar in your spirit, you are abject and destitute and no resources are available to you and in the midst of your beggarly sinfulness with your vile robes of wretchedness, you cry out, it says, mourning over your sin, meek before a holy God and hungerand thirst for righteousness, plead for His mercy and on that basis God received you. In Luke 18 it tells us that the Pharisee went into the temple and said I thank thee that I am not as other men, even as this publican over here, tax collector, but that I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I possess, etc. etc. and over in the corner was the tax collector and he wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but he smote upon his breast, and he cried out ... God, be merciful to me a sinner. And Jesus said, "That man went home justified rather than the other." Why? Because one refused to acknowledge his sinfulness and the other acknowledged it. Basic, then, to receive available forgiveness is the confession of sin. And God is eager and anxiousto forgive the one who confesses. If we confess, He's faithful and still righteous to keep on cleansing us from all sin.
There's a fourth principle, and this is kind of the knockout punch in this passage, and the one that confuses most people. Fourthly, forgiving one another is an essential part of receiving forgiveness for ourselves. Forgiving one another is an essential part of receiving forgiveness for ourselves. Now very often when people read the verses, particularly verse 14 and 15, we're only going to get forgiven if we forgive. They get confused because it looks like forgiveness from God requires that we forgive somebody else and they assume then that you've got to start forgiving people before you can get saved. And a lot of people say... Well, we don't understand, you mean, I'm never going to have forgiveness from God until I forgive somebody else? How can I forgive somebody else if I'm not even a Christian? How can I do a righteous act before I have a righteous nature is the question. But that question presupposes the misunderstanding of the whole concept in verses 1 and 15 and stay with us this morning and we'll start to build toward solving that.
Now, I gave you fourprinciples, didn't I? And I hope you remembered them. Principle number one ... sin makes men guilty and brings judgment. Number two ... forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Number three ... confessing sin is necessary to receive the available forgiveness from God. And number four ... forgiving one another is essential if we are to be forgiven.
Now let's take four words out of those four principles. The first one is sin makes us guilty, then forgiveness is offered by God, then confession is necessary and forgiving one another is essential. I want to talk then, today and next time and maybe even the time after that about sin, forgiveness, confession and forgiving. Because those four words, if fully understood, will literally open up the meaning of this often times confusing portion.
Let's begin with the first word ... sin. "And forgive us our debts," verse 15 uses the word trespass and trespasses. Now listen, both of those words describe sin. Sin is the problem. Alright, you probably have that on your outline. Sin is the problem. The problem of every man. Man is sinful. Let me show you Romans chapter 3 for a moment and this is very basic but very necessary and I'm going to build on this, I think, some things perhaps you haven't seen before. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, "As it is written there is none righteous, no not one. And the Lord put the last part there because as sure as you're born if it had said "There is none righteous," somebody would have said "Comma, except me." And so the Lord says there is none righteous, no, not even you. Not one. Verse 12; "They are all gone out of the way," that is they have all departed from the way of righteousness, "They are together become unprofitable," and the Greek word means to go sour like bad milk. "There is none that doeth good, no not you," nobody. Verse 19; "Now we know that whatever things he law saith, it saith to them under the law that every mouth may be stopped," in other words, there's no defense, you have nothing to ay to justify yourself, "and all the world may become guilty before God." Verse 23; "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Chapter 4 goes on to say; "In Adam all have died and sin has passed upon them all."
The point is this, people, everybody is confirmed in sin, everybody. Sin disturbs every relationship in the human real Sin stirs up cosmic chaos. Sin waits to attack every baby born into the world. David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me." And the Bible tells us that iniquity begins even from the moment when one is born Sin is the monarch of the world that rules the heart of every man. Sin is the first lord of the soul. Sin's virus has contaminated every living being. Sin is the degenerative power in the human stream that makes man susceptible to disease and illness and death and hell. Sin is the culprit in every broken marriage, every disrupted home, every shattered friendship, every argument, every pain, every sorrow, every anguish and every death. Sin, the common denominator. No wonder Scripture in Joshua 7:13 says, "Sin is that accursed thing." It is compared to the venom of snake. It is compared to the stench of death. And tragically, from the viewpoint of human resources, absolutely nothing can be done about it. Jeremiah said, "Can the Ethiopian change his color? Can the leopard change his spots? You have just about as much a chance to do good who are accustomed to doing evil." It's hopeless. Sin dominates the mind. Romans 1:21, "Men have a reprobate mind, a mind given over to evil and lust." Sin dominates the will, Jeremiah 44; "Men will to do evil because their will is controlled by sin." Sin dominates the emotions and the affections, John 3, "They love darkness rather than light." The mind, the will, the affections, emotions, all dominated by sin. Sin brings men under the control of Satan. In Ephesians chapter 2 it says, "Men are guided by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." Sin brings people under divine wrath, they become children of wrath, says Ephesians 2:3, bulls eyes for the guns of God's judgment. Sin makes man's life utterly miserable, Job says in chapter verse 7; "Man is born unto trouble like the sparks fly upward." Isaiah 54:21 says, "There is no peace to the wicked." Romans 8:20 says, "The creature is subject to emptiness." So man's whole life is color stained with sin. And the fifty million or so that die every year face theultimate consequence of sin. So man has a deep, deep problem. Sin ... is his problem. And it's a deeper problem than his need for bread or anything else and so says our Lord when you pray you must pray relating your petition to your sinfulness. It must be brought before God for it is your deepest need. It must be dealt with. You see? And so as we pray in our prayers there must be this element of a recognition of our sinfulness. That's what He is saying.
Now, you'll notice in verse 12 the word debt. And you'll notice in verse 14 and 15 trespasses or trespass. Now let me show you something, there are five words in the New Testament for sin. A little word study, I'm going to run it by pretty fast so hang on to your seat. First word is harmartia; don't worry about writing it down. For those of you who are Greek scholars you understand that. Harmartia, that word is used probably more than any other in the New Testament for sin and it means to miss the mark, it's an archer's word. You shoot the arrow and miss the target. And generally the idea is that you miss because your arrow falls short, for all have sinned and fall short. All are guilty of harmartiaand fall short. No matter how far you try to shoot it it never quite gets there. You know, some people's arrows go further than others but nobody gets there. It's kind of like jumping to Catalina. You know, we could have a thousand people line up and everybody take one big jump off the Santa Monica beach to Catalina. People would be at all different levels but nobody would land at Catalina. So there are differences on how well we approach the problem but everybody's arrows fall short, we miss the mark. Because what is the mark? Matthew 5:48, our Lord said it earlier in our sermon here, the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And when you're like God you hit the mark and when you're not you don't. Welcome to the fellowship of those who miss the mark. We miss the mark,that's the first word for sin.
Second Word is parabasis. It basically means, to step across a line. God draws a line and the line is between right and wrong, when you sin you step across the line. It's kind of like when you go somewhere and the little sign says "Keep off the grass" there's something in you that just wants to stick your foot over and go like that ... We just ... there's something in our nature that reacts to that. Sin then is stepping across the line which is drawn between right and wrong. It is doing what is a forbidden thing in thought, in word or in act.
Thirdly there is the word anomiabased on the word nomoswhich is the word for law in the Greek. It is the idea of lawlessness, like I mentioned earlier. This is a flagrant breaking of God's law, a rebellion against God. And you'll notice a progression in these words. Harmartia, the word which has to do with missing the mark speaks more of our basic incapacity, our nature, we just can't hit it. We just fall short. It speaks of the incapacity of our nature. The second word, parabasis, is kind of the idea that we just kind of step across the line, you know, we just can't restrain ourselves from going into the forbidden area. And that's a little more flagrant than harmartiaseems to be which is just sort of our incapacity, our impotence, our helplessness to hit the mark. Parabasisis a little more self-directed, a little more planned and premeditated. But when you come to anomiathat is open, flagrant rebellion against God. So you see a little progression in these terms. This is the man who wants to kick against the traces, this is the man who doesn't want God making any claim against his life, he wants to go out and do what he wants, I always think about the old soldier in Kipling's MANDOLAY, who said; "Ship me somewhere east of Suez where the best is like the worst, where there 'aint no ten commandments and a man can raise a thirst." He didn't want anything to do with God's standards and he rebelled violently and in a reaction.
And so you see an increasing severity in those terms although all sin could be classified with all those terms. But we come then to the two words used here. First is verse 14 and 15, the word trespass, paraptoma. It means to slip or fall. And again it's kind of like harmartia, it seems to sort of emphasize our incapacities. We just sort of slip, we fall, in Galatians 6:1; "If a brother be overtaken in a fault, restore him in love." You just kind of can't help it, I mean, sooner or later you're going to flop over into some sin. Sin is being swept away. And the idea of paraptomais the passion of the moment or the lust of the moment or the loss of self-control in the moment where you're just swept away. That's paraptoma. That's another word for sin. It's not so flagrant maybe as parabasisor anomia... but then finally we come to the word in verse 12, that's the word debt, ophileema.
You know, that's a very, very interesting word. It's only used here and
I think in Romans 4, the only two times it's ever used as a noun, its verb form is used many times. It's a word that is not that familiar to us in terms of sin. But I'll tell you something very interesting, its verb form is 30 times used, 25 in a moral sense and it means to owe a debt. Five times in the New Testament it's used of a money debt, 25 times it's used of a moral debt. The idea is that sin is a debt. When you sin you owe to God a consequence for your sin. You owe that debt, you have violated His holiness and you owe Him for that. Kind of like the idea, you tell your kids ... you do that and you'll get one whack. You do it again you'll get two whacks. And they keep doing it and doing it and they've stacked up a few whacks and so they have a debt to be paid. In a sense that's what God is saying and sin becomes a debt. When you violate God's holiness the record is kept of your debt. And by the way at the end of the age it tells us in Revelation, the great White Throne Judgment, God will judge the ungodly out of the books, have you read that? What books? The books that are all the record of the debt that they owe that is unpaid and they are sentenced to an eternal hell to pay that debt.
You see? Sin is a debt. You might to interested to know that among the rabbis and the Jews of Matthews day the most common word used for sin was the word "koba" which is an Aramaic word and they spoke Aramaic in their common day language, not the Greek which this is written. And so "koba" was the most common Jewish term for sin. And "koba" means a debt because to a Jew the primary responsibility in life was to obey God and when you disobeyed God you owed Him a debt for your disobedience. And so the Jew thought in terms of that. Now when you go to Luke and you read about the disciple's prayer, Luke doesn't say, forgive us our debts, he says, forgive us our trespasses or our sins, because he speaks in a maybe more classical manner. But here Matthew, with his Jewish orientation, zeros in on this concept of debt because he knows his Jewish audience will really pick up on that. We owe a debt. Sin, then, is a debt to God. It's all of the things we've said, then. All five words summed up is what really classifies and categorizes sin.
Arthur Pink says, "As it is contrary to the holiness of God, sin is a defilement, a dishonor and a reproach to us as it is a violation of His law it is a crime and as to the guilt which we contact thereby it is a debt, as creatures we owe a debt of obedience unto our maker and governor and through failure to render the same on account of our rank disobedience we have incurred a debt of punishment and it is for this that we implore a divine pardon," end quote. In other words, we owe such a massive debt to God because of our unrelenting sin that we could never pay that debt. Do you know that? Never pay that debt. Like the unfaithful servant who owed so much it never could be paid in his whole lifetime, we can't pay the debt. We can't pay it. And that is precisely our problem. We are sinners who owe a debt that is so monstrous, it's inconceivable that we could pay it. Never done. And if ever, beloved, you ought to come to God you will come to God on the terms of recognition of that debt. That's right. Even Peter said, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." Even Paul said, "I am the chief of sinners." Listen, Jesus taught all men everywhere to pray this prayer, "Forgive us our debts," and in so doing He laid out the universality of the problem of sin. If all men are to pray it then all men are to admit it's their problem. And that's why the Holy Spirit came into the world in John 16 to convict the world of sin.
Cause we're sinners. Any man who honestly faces the reality of his character cannot be other than conscience of his debt to God and his need to be forgiven. We're sinners. That leads us to the second word.
Forgiveness, if sin is the problem forgiveness is the provision.
Aren't you glad for that? Forgiveness is the provision. What does it say in verse 12? "Forgive us our debts," forgive us. And you notice again the collective nature of the prayer, the us rather than the me encompassing all other believers. There's a sense of community here. We're all in the same boat, folks. Forgiveness. Oh, what a marvelous reality! But do you really understand what forgiveness is?
Now this is the part we've been kind of building up to. What is forgiveness? You know what it is? What is it for God to forgive you? Remember our second principle, forgiveness is available on the ground of what? Christ's death. Well, let's talk about what forgiveness is. Basically, forgiveness, I'll give you as simplest as I can from a couple of angles, forgiveness is God passing by our sin. It is God wiping our sin off the record. It is God setting us free from punishment and guilt. It is essentially bound up in what Micah 7:18 and 19 says "Who is a God like Thee who pardons iniquity? And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He doesn't retain
His anger forever, He delights in unchanging love. Yet He will again have compassion on us, He will tread our iniquities underfoot, yes thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Isn't that great? The Old Testament says "He remembers our sins no more." He passes by our sins.
Let me sum it up in four simple statements. Forgiveness is taking away our sin, covering our sin, blotting out our sin and forgetting our sin. Taking away our sin, why? Isaiah 53:6; "He has taken the iniquity of us all and laid it on Him." Right? He's taken away our sin, and then it means He's covered our sin. Psalm 85:2 "Thou hast covered all their sin." And He blotted out our sin. Isaiah 43:25, I love this verse, "I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions." And then He forgets our sins. He remembers no more. God literally eliminates oursin. People, do you understand this? You know, if you ever get to the place in your Christian life where this becomes common place stuff and you have lost that in an estimatible joy of understanding forgiveness then you've hit kind of a dry place in your life. Oh how thankful we should be for such a forgiveness. And, listen, it's only possible because of Christ. God couldn't just pass by your sin unless He placed the punishment for it on someone else and that is exactly why Christ Jesus died.
Now, there are two kinds of forgiveness. Now watch this, this is really interesting. Two kinds, number one is judicial forgiveness, number two ... let's call it parental forgiveness; judicial and parental. Now let's start with the first one. Judicial forgiveness, and I think this is all we'll talk about this morning. Judicial forgiveness. What is that? It views God as a judge. God looks down and says, you're guilty, you've broken the law, you're under judgment, condemnation, there's got to be punishment. But then that same judge says, on the basis of Christ's death, He bore your punishment, He took your guilt; He paid for: your sin, the price is accomplished, I declare you to be forgiven. That is a judicial act. Full, complete, positional, I like to use that word because it relates to things we've studied in the past, positional forgiveness granted by God as the moral judge of the universe. And by that act of judicial forgiveness, listen to this, all your sins, past, present, future, committed, being committed, and uncommitted are totally, completely and forever forgiven and you are justified from all things forever.
You say ... wow! When does that happen? It happens the moment you invite Jesus Christ into your life. The moment you are redeemed. The moment you place your faith in Christ, your sin is put on Him, His righteousness is put on you and God judicially declares you to be justified. That's Romans 3. Declared righteous. Positionally and forever all sin covered, passed over, blotted out and forgotten. Oh, what a thought. Isn't that great? And He just keeps on doing it. This is because of Christ, beloved; this is what He did on the cross. In Matthew 26:28 He said as beheld the cup, "This is My blood of the New Testament which is for the forgiveness of sin." You see? In Ephesians 1:7 Paul said, "In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." In I John 2:12; "I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven for His name sake." Ephesians 4:32, "Even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." In other words, because Christ took all our sins and paid the penalty when we believe in Christ and accept His sacrifice, God appropriates it on our behalf, judicially we are declared righteous and just forever and forgiven. For sins past, present and future. You say, is that just New Testament? Now watch this, I don't believe that, I believe that is Old Testament too. Now some people think that in the Old Testament you were saved until you sinned the next time and then when you made another sacrifice you were saved again. I don't think so. I think you were saved in the Old Testament just like people are in the New Testament by believing God. By submitting yourself to God. I think redemption in the Old Testament was just as momentary and just as instantaneous and just as exact as in the New. For example, you take Abraham in James 2:23, and it says, "Abraham believed God." In other words, Abraham came to a point in his life when he had faith in God and he exercised that faith toward God and believed all that God had revealed to that time and accepted God as his Lord and his Savior and at that point, though he never sawthe cross or perceived all that Christ would be, he believed God and James 2:23 says that, "At that moment it was imputed unto him for righteousness and from then on he was called a friend," of whom? "Of God." He was saved in a moment. In Romans chapter 4 again it says, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." And to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. He believed and it was counted to him for righteousness and from then on it says in that same chapter, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." From the moment that Abraham believed, from then on throughout his life God never imputed sin to him again because his sins were placed on Christ just as much as yours are. We're post-Christ he was pre-Christ but all the sins of all the saints of all those ages at the moment they believed were put on Christ. Christ is the apex of history. Whether you lived on the front side or the back side, He still bore their sins. And by an act of faith at that point, Christ's redemption, the value of Christ's redemption as applied to them. Psalm 103:3 says, that God is the one who forgive: all our iniquities and heals all our diseases.
I believe they knew judicial redemption in the Old Testament and I believe their sins were nailed to the cross just as much as ours when they believed God. Listen to this, Colossians 2:13, oh it's a fabulous, fabulous illustration. It's the picture that God has kept these books I told you about. And all through our lives He writes down the record of our sins. And the debt gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And there is no capacity in our lives to pay the debt at all. And all of this debt is on the sheet. Then all of a sudden Christ goes to the cross and you read in Colossians 2:13, "And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh," that's you, dead, you couldn't do anything about your sins, you're hopeless, you have been made alive with Him. Now watch, "Having forgiven you all trespasses," and then this fabulous imagery, "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you." Listen, "And nailing it to His cross He took it out of the way." You know, when they crucified a criminal they crucified him with at the top of the cross the record of his crimes, nailed there for the world to see why he was being crucified. The apostle Paul is saying this, great truth, when Jesus died on the cross God pulled all the pages out of the books that belonged to all that would believe throughout history, stacked them all together, nailed them to the cross as if they were the crimes of Jesus and when Jesus died He paid the penalty for every crime that was nailed to His cross and God blotted them out.
You see? That's judicial forgiveness. Oh, to know that we are ultimately and forever forgiven in Christ is tremendous joy, isn't it? Richard III
Shakespeare, he says, "My conscience has a thousand several tongues and every tongue its several tale and every tale condemns me." If you're a Christian you don't have to say that, do you? You can say with Paul in Romans 8, "Who is he that condemneth?" Where is he? Who condemns me? Shall God the justified? In other words, if God is the highest court in the universe and He declares me just who's going to condemn me? Nobody. Therefore, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ. Nothing at all.
I want to close by showing you one other text. Hebrews 10, one of my favorite passages. I hope it's one of yours. In Hebrews 10 the writer is comparing the sacrificial system of Israel with the sacrifice of Christ. And I want you to notice verse 10 of Hebrews 10. He says, "We are sanctified," fourth word there, "We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Stop right there a minute. Sanctified means to be made pure, be made pure, made holy, set apart, separated. We are made holy, we are set apart by the one sacrifice of Christ. Oh, listen, people, you don't have to repeat it. When He died and we believed, His sacrifice was sufficient. He said on the cross, "It is finished." We are sanctified, set apart unto God which is a perfect participle in the Greek with a finite verb and it is the strongest possible way the Greek language knows to show the permanent, continuous, state of salvation that issues from one great event. And so Christ dies on the cross, the moment we believe that is imputed to us and there is a continuous forgiveness based on that one offering.
In contrast to that in verse 11 the priests of the Old Testament were daily ministering and they were standing, see the word standeth, standing and offering the same sacrifices again and again and again, always standing up because the job was never done. Verse 12, "But this man after He offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down." Why? It was over. Priests may be stading walking around doing it over and over again but Christ did it once and sat down. It can't be repeated, it doesn't need to be. Why? Verse 14, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever and ever them that are sanctified." And if Jesus says in Matthew 5:48, "Be ye perfect" and Christ goes to the cross and perfects us then Christ is the solution to the problem. Right? We're to be perfect and He perfects us, in His one offering. That, beloved, is judicial forgiveness and the result of it is in verse 17, "Their sins and iniquities will I," what? "Remember no more." Oh, what a great thought. Listen beloved, all your sins are forgiven because of Christ if you believe. That is judicial positional forgiveness.
Now, go back to Matthew 6 and I'm going to close by introducing one thought. It says, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" and verse 14 says, "And if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Fatherwill forgive you and if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses," and all of a sudden we say, wait a minute. If all my sins are already all forgive in Christ, if all my sins were dealt with in the cross of Christ w y do I need to ask forgiveness and why won't I get it unless I give it to somebody else? That is the question that has confused a lot of people. Some people say, well, this is a prayer for an unbeliever. No, no, it's not a prayer for an unbeliever. Because an unbeliever does not begin his prayer "Our Father", does he? This is a believer's prayer. A disciple's prayer. You're already a Christian before you get to verse 12, folks. You say, well, if I'm already a Christian and all my sins are forgiven what am I doing saying "Forgive us our debts" and what is God doing saying, "And if you don't forgive somebody else I'm not going to forgive you?" If you want to know the answer to that be here next week. And if you don't want to know the answer to that, God have mercy on your sin-sick shriveled up soul. Because that's one of the greatest truths in all the Bible and the basis of it is this, you must understand, I'll give you a hint now, you must understand the difference between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. One deals with your position before God forever, the other deals with the joy of your fellowship day by day. And we'll see that, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray.
It's good to be together again, Father and share Your word. We thank You or its richness. Oh, thank You for Your forgiveness. For the provision You've made for every person here.
While our heads are bowed and your eyes are closed for a moment may I say this? Some of you don't know Christ and so you've never know His forgiveness. It's available to you today. In your heart right now all you need do is open up and say, "Christ, come in and forgive my sin." I know I'm a sinner, I want Your cleansing, I know You died for me, I know You paid the penalty." That simple prayer will result in judicial forgiveness applied to you and forever and ever you'll be in God's family and you'll enjoy the fullness of His eternal heaven. And He'll never take back His gift. Oh, I hope you won't go away without that forgiveness.
Father dismiss us with Your blessing. Thank You for Your forgiveness. Bring us back tonight for a great and glorious evening together and we'll give You praise in Christ's name, and everyone said. Amen. God bless you.
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10 The Pardon of Prayer, Part 2
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 Code: 2242 We get a lot of mail at Grace Church from people who listen to tapes, radio programs, read books, visit the church and so forth. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of letters a week. Once in a while one letter just draws everyone's attention. We've had one like that that came just a few weeks ago and I want to share it with you this morning because it ties in so well.
It's from a man who is a prisoner in upstate New York in a penitentiary. And he is writing to thank us for the tape ministry which he has received. He's been studying the tapes quite diligently and is expressing his gratitude. This is what it says in part:
"Brother, I received your beautiful gift of a set of tapes by John MacArthur your pastor. I'm still listening to them and sharing them with some of the brothers as the Lord leads. I'm taking notes on each tape as I listen. Praise the Lord. I may not only understand His word better but I may be able to teach and lead those whom He has enabled me and placed in my care."
I would just add a footnote. Apparently this man has become a pastor of what he calls The Church at Green Haven Prison.
He said, "I want to thank you for your fine gift and share a little of what the Lord is doing in my life as I promised in a previous letter. Brother, the Lord saved me seven years ago. At that time I was in a dirty and dark jail cell waiting for the opportunity to finish off what I had begun a few days before, end my worthless and wretched life. My family came to the United States from Puerto Rico when I was nine years old. My dad was killed in an auto accident when I was twelve. We had moved to upstate New York by that time and I as spared growing up in the big city. Mom was pregnant when our father died and she was left with me, my brother Tony and then my sister was born. We were poor from a minority group and living in a small town where not too many people knew us. But none of these things hindered me nor were they any excuse. I grew up in Rockland County in the town of Haverstraw, New York. I went to school there and played all the sports. I really enjoyed school and after graduation I married my childhood sweetheart whom I had known since the sixth grade. We both had good jobs and a couple of years later I became a police officer at the age of 21. By that time God had given us two children and we were prospering materially. I had been born and raised a Catholic but I never heard that being born again was necessary. I hated the dry and dead church scene so I stopped going. I moved into a life of adultery and fornication. God's judgment did not come upon me suddenly though I had plenty of warning. I thought I was something big, nothing or no one could touch me and God was the furthest thing from my mind. I had plenty of money now that I was working with the District Attorney's office; I was the only Spanish speaking police officer in the county and was in great demand for my interpreting ability. My wife was making good money as a secretary. We had our own home and I was Mr. Respectable Citizen on my way to hell. With all of these material benefits and carnal pleasures a well as the satisfaction of being recognized among my friends in the community I was empty and bored with life. I was always looking for a new adventure and nothing really satisfied me permanently. Finally, as a member of the narcotics bureau I began to use drugs myself. I began with pot and then I used pills and acid. I never shot any drugs because I was afraid of needles but I have eaten, snorted, drunk and smoked everything but hard stuff because I had seen what that did to others. Needless to say my family life as well as my job began to suffer and deteriorate as soon as I began fooling with drugs. And like I said it didn't happen right away but the word of God says that if nothing else we can be sure of one thing and that is that our sins will find us out. It took a period of about ten years but from the moment I began stepping out on my wife until the period when I did three things I never thought I could do, my sins were catching up with me and would eventually take their natural course ‑ destruction.
"Even though I ran around on my wife I always claimed to love her and I believe I did. Of course I didn't know the love of God so it was mere human love which is just not strong enough. But I did the first thing I never thought I would do ‑ I left my wife and children. I took off for California with a young girl and abandoned my family. The drugs, my wounded conscience and the sin made me paranoid. And I was always staying high in San Francisco and always looking over my shoulder. As a police officer before, I would sometimes go on duty with an empty revolver because I could never see myself hurting anyone physically. I was just not a violent person even though I was wicked. I don't think I have ever been involved in more than two fights in my whole life yet I wound up murdering another person. I had done the second thing I never thought I could do. And then I wanted to die. I couldn't live with myself. For three horror‑filled days I tried various ways to end my life in a motel room but God didn't allow it. I tried taking an overdose only to awaken 17 hours later after having vomited the poison and by all rights I should have drowned in my own vomit as is usually the case with overdoses of alcohol and barbituates. And when I awoke I tried to electrocute myself in a bathtub, but as I was about to place the cables in the water the wires touched and I was left in darkness with all the lights in the room going out. But I was too far gone. I was a man possessed. I climbed into the tub and slashed myself up with a blade until I passed out from the loss of blood only to awake to a third day of madness and horror. God had been trying to reach me for a long time; my mom had become a Christian a few months before. Other people had tried to tell me about Jesus but I wouldn't hear them. I finally turned myself into the authorities and confessed to a crime they weren't even aware of. When I was taken to the jail I was kept under observation for a few days because they knew I was suicidal and brother I had all intentions of killing myself. I even took a spoon and was waiting the right moment to sharpen it and stick it in my throat. And then the letter came. It told me about Jesus Christ. Ray, it said, Jesus is real. He loves you and He wants to beyour friend. He can make a way where there is no way. Do it for your family, Ray, come to Jesus. Well, I believed that Jesus was real in her life and that He was her friend but that He loved me--never. I didn't even like myself how could Jesus love me? What way could He make? I had tried every possible way. What could I do for my family? I had abandoned and scattered them. The answer came. I took it to be my mind. But now I know who it was who put those words there. The best thing you can do is go and kil 1 yourself and get out of everybody's life. But God used that letter to stay my self‑destructive hand and people came and told me more about the love of God for sinners and even murderers like me. They told me about the good news of Jesus Christ and not only did He demand a new life from me but He was the only one who could give me the power to live it. I must be born again they told me. And they said if any man be in Christ old things are passed away. And I needed to have that old life put away. I needed a new life. Finally out of desperation I went down on my knees in my cell. I was contemplating suicide and really being oppressed by the devil. I had been granted a phonecall home. I confided in my mom and told her the devil was there telling me to kill myself. She handed the phone to another new Christian who was there with her and instead of being gentle with me like I expected he said Ray, you must repent before God. You must ask Him to give you a new life and forgive you. Well, that kind of shook me because I expected him to baby me. I realized that even though I had been sorry for the things that I had done I had not asked God to forgive me. I had the sorrow of the world that works death but Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. So on my knees I cried to God and I asked Him to forgive me and to take away the burden of guilt which was driving me mad. I asked Him to give me new life. I told Him I didn't even know if He was out there or not but if He heard me please, please forgive me and help me live a new life through Him.
"Well, for the first time in my life I knew God heard me and that I had been forgiven. I knew He had forgiven me because the burden I had been carrying, the burden of guilt and shame was lifted off me. I felt a peace I had never experienced before. I sensed a freedom I had never known on the other side of those walls. I could live with myself because I knew that my conscience was clean. I had been forgiven and my conscience was purged. I knew what truth and reality were. I had taken a life and I had to face trial. I had done many things for which I had been ashamed and there were consequences. Men would not forgive nor forget. But I knew that my God had and for once in my life I could be at peace with Him and with myself. From then on I would serve Him and all those who would be of like mind would understand that I had been forgiven--that I was a new man. The old Ray was dead. The Bible came alive to me. I became a fanatic. And the guys warned me not to read the Bible too much or I'd go crazy. Man, I was crazy before. The Bible is the only thing that helps me know the truth. Now I could understand God's spiritual word and it was no longer the giant crossword puzzle it once was to me. I had been born again and now I could see the kingdom of God. I've been sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. This means I must serve a minimum of fifteen years before I am even considered for parole. And then they don't have to let me go. But, brother, I wouldn't trade the freedom that Jesus Christ has given me behind these prison walls for the prisons which were mine in what the world calls freedom.
"I surely would love to be home with my family some day. But Jesus has given me something in this prison which many on the outside neither know nor have. My family had been scattered through those years. For two years I cried out to the Lord and claimed the promise that my wife and children would come to Christ. Although I had not heard from my wife for all that time, I continued trusting Him and serving Him. He gave me a ministry. For three years I read nothing but the Bible. No books, no commentaries, no newspapers, no magazines, just the Bible. And His Word became real to me. And finally, God reached out and saved my wife. And she came to see me. Later she brought my daughter Debby and I had the pleasure of leading my own daughter to the Lord. And my nine-year-old Christine received the Lord, too. Brother, what can I say? Forgive my lengthiness but there's so much more that I could say. God has given me a ministry of teaching and preaching His Word. I want to serve Him to the fullest. I've seen manybroken and desperate men come to know our Lord and be transformed. Praise God. Greet the saints. Your brother in Christ, Ray."
Well, you're the saints and you've been greeted. It's great isn't it? Can I add a footnote? There used to be a prisoner in Green Haven Prison, he wrote us for some tapes. And when he left, he left them there and asked God to help them to fall into the right hands. They fell into the hands of Ray. He's a second generation tape listener in Green Haven Prison. And through the study of the word of God has become the pastor of the church in the prison. That's what forgiveness is all about. I don't know what the future has for him in this world but I know what it has in eternity. And for that we can be excited.
Let's turn in our Bibles again this morning to the sixth chapter of Matthew as we continue in our series on the disciple's prayer. Today we come to a continuation of what we began last time as we look at verse 12 but we must see it in its context so let's read the prayer and the two verses following. Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 9:
"After this manner therefore pray ye; Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
As you know if you were with us last week we began to look at verse 12 the second of the three petitions related to us. The first of which is one for physical sustenance. The second and the third are those of a spiritual nature. Going back to verse 12 we are reminded again of this petition, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And that petition is footnoted in verses 14 and 15.
Now we're endeavoring as we examine this tremendously important petition to really understand this whole matter of dealing with sin in our Christian life. Even though we are believers we still have a sin problem. And we must face that problem. This petition in verse 12 is prayed by one who already belongs to God. The prayer begins "Our Father," the prayer then affirms that there is a living and vital relationship with God through faith. So that as a believer we are to pray, "forgive us our debts." After we have affirmed that it is God's name that is hallowed, and it is God's kingdom that is to come, andit is God's will that is to be done; and after we have again acknowledge that it is God who is the source of our physical sustenance, we come to our spiritual problem of sin. And there we are to acknowledge again that we need God's forgiveness. We're talking about Christians. I know there are some people who think that when you become a Christian you don't bother with confessing sin anymore or seeking God's cleansing and forgiveness but that's not true. Because here we find as those who can call God Our Father we must also say forgive us our debts.
Now in understanding the fullness of meaning in verse 12 and 14 and 15 which footnote it, we had to discover that there are four key words for us to study. And we began that study last time, we won't finish it today but we will next time. And the composite of all three of these Lord's days examining this I think will give us a new and far reaching and broad study of this whole area of sin in the life of a Christian.
First of all the problem is sin. We saw that last time. Forgive us implies that we have done something for which we need forgiveness. Debt in verse 12 implies a sin. Trespass in verses 14 and 15 equally implies sin. The problem here is sin. Sin is a reality in the life of a Christian. When you become a Christian you don't all of a sudden stop sinning. You don't all of a sudden lose your sensitivity to sin; in fact, the truth is that when you become a believer you become more sensitive to sin. And as you mature as a Christian and in your maturing experience there is a decreasing frequencyof sin, along with a decreasing frequency of sin is an increasing sensitivity to it when it does occur. We know our sins. That's the problem.
Principle number one is sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. Sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. Where there is sin in our life there is judgment. Whom the Lord loves He what? Chastens. And every son He scourges. And part of that is a chastening for our sinfulness. We talked last time about five words used in the New Testament for sin, harmartia, which means to miss the mark. We don't hit the target. We fall short of God's glory. Parabasis is to step across. Go draws a line and says stay here and we step across. Anomia mean lawlessness. We break His laws. Paraptoma which is trespass in verses 14 and 15 means we slip or fall. We can't stay on the straight and narrow. We fall. We're unable to keep erect in righteousness. The fifth word is ophileema, that's the word debt. Because of all these things we have violated God's holiness and we are in debt to Him. And we have to deal with that debt by seeking His forgiveness. So the problem is sin. And if you deny it, that's the biggest problem of all. Because if we say we have no sin we make God a what? A liar. And the truth is not in us.
Secondly, last time, we saw that there is the provision. The problem is sin and the provision is forgiveness. It's six times in the passage. Twice in 12, twice in 14, and twice in 15. Six times the word forgiveness and principle number two is forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Our problem can be dealt with because there is forgiveness. Must recognize the problem and seek the forgiveness. A Christian who says he doesn't sin is in a desperate situation because he doesn't seek the solution. There are some who teach that a Christian could reach a certain level in his life where he doesn't sin anymore. That isn't true. He'll continue to sin he just won't seek the forgiveness and he'll lose the meaning of his relationship to God.
Now how is it possible that God can forgive us? And how does that forgiveness work? Well, it is possible because of the death of Christ. So on the basis of Christ's death forgiveness is available because the price is paid.
Now, where we left off last time was this point. We suggested to you that there are two aspects of forgiveness. And that's what I want you to see againthis morning. There are two aspects of forgiveness. This is just thrilling to me. Number one was judicial forgiveness. And we talked about that. Judicial forgiveness. This is the full, complete positional forgiveness granted by God as the moral judge of the universe and by it our sins past, present, and future are totally, completely forever forgiven, we are justified, declared righteous eternally. That happens when you are saved. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ at that moment the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you and you who have sinned and come short of the glory of God are instantly made righteous in Christ, Romans 3. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you, God drops the gavel of His sovereignty. He hits the table with it and says, "Declared righteous in Christ." That is an absolute; that is a positional truth; that is as eternal as God is eternal. That is inviolable, unchangeable, and forever. The moment I put my faith in Christ God's righteousness is imputed to me. It is granted to me. It is placed upon me. It is put into my account. It is eternal. God is satisfied. That is settled. And that's why Romans 8 says "No one will ever separate us from the love of Christ." That's why Romans 8 says "No one can ever lay any charge to God's elect." That is settled. We saw didn't we when we looked at judicial forgiveness there are many words to describe it. But we said it involves God taking away our sin, God covering our sin, God blotting out our sin, and God forgetting our sin. It is done with. Judicially settled for good.
Now, if we have Christians then praying this prayer, "Our Father" and all of their sins forever are forgiven and God has dropped the gavel and declared us righteous then why are we saying "Forgive us our debts?" Why are we asking God for forgiveness? If all of that is a settled matter, what is the point of praying that prayer? The point is answered in a second kind of forgiveness. There is not only judicial forgiveness there is parental forgiveness. And maybe you can come up with a better word than parental but it's one that kind of stuck in my mind based on the fact that the "Our Father" begins the prayer. Parental forgiveness. Now we are not dealing with God as a righteous judge we are dealing here with God as a loving father.
Now listen, even though we have been judicially forgiven and forever that is settled eternally and never changeswe still sin don't we? And when we sin something happens in our relationship to God. The relationship doesn't end but something is lost in the intimacy of it. Right? If my children, my boys or girls, sin against me by disobeying the relationship doesn't end, they're still my children. I'm still their father. And there is a certain forgiveness in my heart that is automatic because they are in my family. But something is in the relationship that causes a loss of intimacy until they come and say, "Daddy, I'm sorry." And then the intimacy is restored. I'm married to my wife, happily. Wouldn't have it any other way. Getting better all the time. And if I should sin against my wife by a thoughtless deed or word or something that was unkind, it doesn't change our relationship. And there is a sense in which I am forgiven just because I'm under the umbrella of her constant love. But there is something lost in the intimacy until I ask her forgiveness that is found again as soon as I do. That's what He is talking about here. This is not someunbeliever praying for salvation. This is not some Christian pleading that God would please forgive his sins. Like the guy I heard on the television and people were asking Bible questions and one person said ‑ If I sin a sin and I die before I get it confessed will I go to heaven? And the man said ‑ No. You'll go to hell. What a terrible, terrible lie that is to put someone under that kind of fear. We're not talking about that; we're talking here about the forgiveness that gives us the fullness of joy in intimacy with God. It is all that the relationship can be. That's what He is talking about.
Let me illustrate it to you from Psalm 51, go back to Psalm 51. Here's David. Now David was redeemed. Mark it, David was saved. David had received Old Testament salvation. Righteousness was imputed to David's account. He believed God. He loved God. He trusted in God. His faith was in God. He had received redemption. The righteousness of Christ as yet future had already been imputed to his account by his faith. He was a regenerated, redeemed man. And he fell into sin. Terrible sin. Sin not unlike our friend Ray that we read about this morning for he committed adultery and then he committed murder. And had he been anybody else but the king he would have probably lost his life. But he was something other than the law, something above the law. And even though the sins were heinous he was spared because of his position. But I want you to notice the nature of his prayer in Psalm 51 because this is the prayer that comes out of his guilt-ridden blood‑stained heart as he reflects on his sin.
And I want you to notice, first of all, verse 14. "Deliver me from blood guiltiness," now watch, "O God, thou God of my salvation." Listen, David affirms his salvation. David affirms that God is still the God of his salvation. He cries to a God whose presence is there, whose Spirit is there, whose salvation is His yet. No, I believe that David was truly redeemed. He was redeemed. And God was still there in His presence, in His Spirit. And He was still the God of my salvation. But even in affirming that the judicial forgiveness was there David can't help but feel the loss of something intimate in the relationship. And that's what he means when he cries out in verse 2, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me."I can't forget it. "Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." Verse 7, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." You see, be a sense in which judicial forgiveness and parental, if you will, forgiveness are so different. David was saved but there was something between he and God that made him lose the meaning of that salvation. That's why he says in verse 8, "Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." He wanted the joy back, didn't he? That's what he wanted. "Create in me a clean heart, O God," verse 10. "Renew a right spirit within me." The capper is in verse 12, "Restore unto me the," what? "the joy of thy salvation." He doesn't say ‑ Restore unto me thy salvation. He says restore unto me the what? The joy of it. Now here it is, folks. Judicial forgiveness takes care of the fact of salvation. Parental forgiveness takes care of the joy of it. You see? I can be forgiven, but if I'm sinful and unconfessing and unrepentant in that sinfulness, I forfeit the joy of the fullness of that relationship. That's the issue.
Look with me for a moment at 1 John chapter 1. And John begins this wonderful epistle by saying that he preaches Christ, the word of life, from first hand experience: "That which was from the beginning which we've heard, which we've seen with our hands, or seenwith our eyes, looked upon and our hands have handled." He says we have had personal experience with Christ, in verse 1. "The word of life and the word was manifest. And we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and manifest unto us." In other words, we're preaching Christ. We're preaching the gospel. Why? Verse 3, "That which we have seen and heard declare unto you in order that," here's why: "You also may have," watch it, "fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father with His Son Jesus Christ."
Now listen, John says we preach to bring you into the fellowship. See? We want to get you into the fellowship. We want to link you up with God and Christ and everybody else who believes in God and Christ. We want to bring you into the family. That's judicial forgiveness. We want to get you into the fellowship--participating in the common eternal life, to be one in the koinonia. That's why we preach Christ.
Then he goes a step further. Verse 4, "And these things," what things? "The things we write unto you," that's the epistle, "we write in order that your," what? "joy may be full." Now on the one hand we preach the gospel so that you'll come into the fellowship and on the other hand we write the epistle so that in the fellowship you will know the fullness of joy. Being saved puts you in the fellowship, being obedient to the standards and the principles we lay out makes you know the joy of that fellowship. You see? On the one hand is judicial forgiveness putting you in the fellowship and there is the parental forgiveness that makes you know the fullness of the joy of being in the fellowship. And right off the bat he says, if you're in the fellowship, verse 9, you'll be confessing your sin and He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
Now look, he says, "I'm writing this unto you that your joy may be full." And the first thing he says if you want full joy, if you want full joy then keep on confessing your what? Sins. That's the point. The gospel brings judicial righteousness, judicial forgiveness, obedience and the obedience of confession to begin with brings you the fullness of joy that comes from parental forgiveness.
Look a John 13, 1 hope you're getting this, John 13. One of my very favorite chapters, I've shared it with you many times but I'm going to pu11 a thought out of it that perhaps we haven't covered. John 13, our dear Lord is speaking of His love for the disciples here in this chapter, in spite of their waywardness and sinfulness, in spite of the fact that they were sitting around arguing who'd be the greatest in the kingdom. They were self‑centered, selfish, possessive, indifferent to Christ, unconcerned about His pending death, arguing, proud, egotistical, they were very ugly at this time. In the midst of it all, the dear Lord takes His outer garment off and puts a towel about His waist and starts to wash their feet. Humiliating, to Him and to them, for they should have done it for Him. He should not have needed to do it for them.
He comes to Peter in verse 8. Peter says, "You'll never wash my feet." This is not going to happen, I won't allow this. I believe Peter is convicted, I believe he wouldn't let the Lord stoop to do that. I believe he's facing his own sin. The fact that he's been arguing about who is the greatest in the kingdom, that he's been selfish, self‑centered, insensitive to Christ and he just won't allow it. You're not going to wash my feet! Jesus answered him, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me." And He takes that whole physical scene and turns it into tremendous spiritual truth. He says ‑ Peter, if you want to really know what it is to fellowship with me, if you want to know what it is to be part and parcel of what I am, if you want the fullness of a relationship, you better let me wash you. Peter says, ‑ Lord, don't wash my feet only; wash my hands and my head. Do the whole deal. Again, a dumb statement. Jesus says to him, "He that's washed (He used the word bathed) needs not except to wash his feet." He's already entirely clean, and you're clean. He says ‑ Peter, I only want to wash your feet. First he's telling Him what not to do and then he's telling Him what to do. Peter, just be quiet. I'm only interested in your feet because there is a tremendous spiritual truth here. You're sitting around this table sinning, you are already clean, verse 10 says, except for Judas. Not all of you are clean, one of you is not. One of you is not redeemed. But the rest of you are already clean. You've already been redeemed. You've already been made righteous by faith. I'm not talking about bathing you all over again. You only get made righteous how many times? One, you don't need that again. What I'm interested in is keeping the dirt off your feet.
Now in those days, of course, you took a bath in the morning as you got up and bathed your entire body and then you started out for the day and wearing sandals in that part of the world the roads would either be muddy or dusty. Muddy when it rained and you can imagine the muck. And when it was dry, dust everywhere, and you're feet would be dirty and every time you would go into a home or into a place of business or commune with people or eat a meal it would be necessary for you to wash your feet just as a matter of very obvious propriety. And the Lord is giving them an incredibly great spiritual truth. He is saying to them, simply this ‑ You've already had judicial forgiveness, you've had your spritual bath when you believed. All that's necessary for Me to do to keep the fullness of our relationship openis to wash your feet. That's parental forgiveness, you see. And daily as we walk through the world we collect the dust of the world and those are the sins we commit. And as we confess those things they're washed. An as we are confessing, 1 John 1:9, He's faithful and still righteous to keep on forgiving and keep on cleansing. What a glorious truth. He's simply saying ‑ Once you've been cleaned, bathed in the saving blood of Jesus Christ, you've received judicial forgiveness that doesn't have to be done again but parental forgiveness is something that goes an everyday as we keep the fullness of the communion pen. Positional purging needs no repetition. But practical purging has to be repeated every day.
Listen, beloved, when you pray you better pray in accord with Matthew 6. Somewhere in your prayers after you have acknowledged His name be Hallowed and His kingdom come and His will be done and after you have acknowledged that God is the source of your physical and daily sustenance, you need to face the fact that your feet are dirty. And you need to acknowledge the fact that as long as they're dirty and you're unconfessing and unrepenting of that sin, there is a loss in the fullness of joy in the intimacy in the communion that you can have with God. Believers need to open their heart daily for that forgiveness that keeps the feet clean.
I think about David. Nathan told David, he says, "David, the Lord has put away your sin." Oh what relief. David had committed the terrible sin of Bathsheba and Uriah and the Lord had put it away and said ‑ You've got judicial forgiveness, the umbrella is over you, man, that's done with. And you might today find someone who'd say in the same setting, ‑ Well, I realize that but the Lord's already taken care of that, I'm not going to worry about it. Not David. It wasn't long after Nathan had said to him the Lord has put away your sin, God's taken care of that, that's in redemption, that David wrote Psalm 32 and this is what he said: "I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, my iniquity have I not hidden, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord." Do you get that? Listen to me, when he already knew that the judicial element was cared for he still cried out in confession to open the parental channel to keep the intimacy of the relationship. So what is the message of part one of this petition? Forgive us our debts? It is simply a plea that we experience the moment by moment cleansing that comes when we acknowledge our sin to the Lord. Very basic. Very necessary.
And you know what thrills me so much is that God is so eager to forgive. You know, you might think that if you were in some pagan religion or something that and you believe the gods to be like men, that God gets so sick of hearing you that one day He just says, - You know, this is the last time I'm listening to you, fellow--from here on out take the consequences. I've given you more forgiveness than any ten people deserve. But that's not the way God is. I think it was Nehemiah who said, "Thou art a God ready to pardon." Thou art a God ready to pardon. And that's right. Eager. I love Micah, "He delights in mercy." You say ‑ But I go back everyday and I keep saying Lord I did this again, Lord, I had this problem again and you go back everyday and doesn't God get sick of it? No, because He delights in mercy because mercy is an act of His nature that gives Him glory for we glorify such a merciful God. That's why in Romans 5 it says, "Where sin abounds grace does," what? "Much more abound." God loves to forgive. And you know you can take all the forgiveness He's got and it won't diminish His resource at all. And you can come back as many times as you want and it will never diminish His love. Never. He'll forgive as often as you come.
Somebody said to me last week, ‑ You know, your sermon on judicial forgiveness I think ruined my son. I said ‑ Why? Well, because you said he could just do ‑ just sin and it was covered for eternity, so he just went out and did it. And he said ‑ It's all covered anyway. Well, I question whether he knows Christ first of all. Because if I know God has forgiven all my sins and if I know no matter how many times I come back and ask His forgiveness He's eager and anxious to do it, that kind of love retards me from sinning rather than compels me to sin because I can't trade on that love. I can't abuse that. Dr. Barnhouse told a great story to illustrate this. He was talking to a college professor and he told a story about a couple, this is what he said: "The man had lived a life of great sin and immorality but had converted and eventually come to marry a fine Christian woman. He had confided to her the nature of his past life in just a few words as he had told her these things the wife had taken his head in her hands. And she drew him to her shoulder and kissed him gently and said, John, I want you to understand something very plainly. I know my Bible well and therefore I know the subtlety of sin and the devices of sin that work in the human heart. I know you are a thoroughly converted man, John, but I know that you still have a sin nature. And that you are not yet fully instructed in the ways of God that you will be. The devil will do all he can to wreck your Christian life. He will see to it that temptations of every kind are put in your way. And the day might come, John, please God that it never does, but it might come when you succumb to temptation and fall into sin. And, John, immediately the devil will tell you it's no use trying you might as well continue on your way and sin and above all he'll tell you not to tell me because it will hurt me. But, John, I want you to know that there is a home for you in my arms. When I married you I married your old nature as well as your new nature. And I want you to know there is full pardon and full forgiveness in advance for any evil that ever comes into your life."
Now that's something like God. Barnhouse finished the story: "The college professor lifted up his eyes reverently, and said, 'My God, if anything could ever keep a man straight, that kind of forgiving love in advance would sure do it.'" That is exactly and precisely the way God perceives His relationship to us.
Listen, we've seen the problem: sin. We've seen the provision: forgiveness. I want to close with the plea: confession. The plea: confession. The third principle is simply that we received His forgiveness by confession of sin. We receive His forgiveness by confession of sin. The whole of this verse implies confession. You can know about sin and know about forgiveness but if you didn't confess your sin you'd never receive it. As long as I harbor my sin and I never confess it and repent of it and turn from it and give it to God and agree with Him about it I'm never free to know the joy that He wants me to know because a barrier is there that shatters the intimacy of fellowship. And so I must confess, I must open my heart and admit my sin and that is tough, isn't it? It's tough. Just try to get it out of your little kid when they've done something wrong.
I remember as a little boy I vandalized a school with another little boy. My father was holding a revival meeting in a small little town in Indiana. In the midst of the week a little boy and I went down and we did some bad things. And they went from house to house in the little town--it was so small--and they came to the house we were staying in and my father and the man that owned the house went to the door and the man said ‑ We've had vandalism in the school, would your children know anything about it? And I was holding my father's hand applying my most angelic face, doing everything I could to show that I was as spiritual as my evangelist father, would never be caughtdoing something like that. I hung on and ‑ My son would never do anything like that and he patted me on the head ‑ Not Johnny, why he's a wonderful boy. And the other man was saying ‑ Oh, our boy is a wonderful boy too and I don't understand how this could happen. And he gave them this long thing and my father was expressingsuch love for me and such confidence in my life. That night at the meeting I went forward when he gave the invitation and I said ‑ I prayed with him on the steps I said ‑ I think I need Jesus in my heart. He never knew why. Ten years later before I told him about it. Ten years, I couldn't get the courage to do it. But I'm not alone.
Adam and Eve sinned. And they were used to walking and talking with God in the cool of the day, but the minute they sinned, the next thing they did was what? Hide. It's tough to confess. And as long as you don't you forfeit the joy. Proverbs 28:13 says "Cover your sin, you don't prosper." Cover your sin, you don't prosper. "Whoever confesses and forsakes shall have mercy." Your spiritual prosperity is at stake. That's why he says you better say ‑ Forgive us our debts. Confession of sin is vital. It's vital.
David said to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord, 2 Samuel 12:13, David said to Nathan again in 2 Samuel 24:10 - I've sinned against the Lord greatly in what I have done. I have acted very foolishly. In 1 Chronicles 21:7 David said to God, ‑ I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly. Isaiah said, "I am a man of unclean lips and I live amidst a people of unclean lips." Daniel said in chapter 9 verse 20, "I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin." Peter said in Luke chapter 5 verse 8, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Paul said, "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinner among whom I am" what? "chief." Confessing sin isn't easy but it's necessary to appropriate the intended joy that comes with parental forgiveness. Don't conceal your sin. Confess your sin.
John Stott says and it's true, "One of the surest antidotes to the process of moral hardening is the disciplined practice of uncovering our sins of thought and outlook as well as word and deed and the repentant forsaking of the same." If you don't do that it will harden. I've seen Christians, judicially forgiven and eternally secure, who are so hardened, so impenitent, so unconfessing, so insensitive to sin, and so totally joyless, who didn't even know the meaning of a loving intimate fellowship with God. They blocked it out with the barricade of their unconfessed sin. Confession.
This week I sat in my room back in Indiana and watched the snow fall out the window. I thought to myself ‑ the world looks so white. The city I was in has three streets and a stop sign. That was it. And there was just fields of white everywhere. Little paths where people walked and trees were all covered with snow. I thought about sins being as white as snow. And then as I looked at my own life I was reading a little book I have, "The Prayers of Puritans," that sometimes I share with you. I came across one, set my life in stark contrast to the purity I saw out the window. And I thought it might be a fitting thought for us today. Confession is so necessary, people. Or you lose that purity that gives you joy. This is what I read:
"God of grace, thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute and has imputed His righteousness to my soul, hast clothed me with a bridegroom's robe, decking me with jewels of holiness but in my Christian walk I am still in rags, my best prayers are stained with sin. My penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin. My receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance. I need my tears to be washed. I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness. I'm always standing clothed in filthy garments and by grace am always receiving change of raiment for thou dost always justify the ungodly. I am always going into the far country and always returning home as a prodigal and always saying, Father forgive me, and Thou art always bringing forth the best robe again. Every morning let me wearit, every evening return it in. Go out to do the day's work in it. Be married in it. Be wound in death in it. Stand before the great white throne in it. Enter heaven in it, shining as the sun. Grant me never t o lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness and the exceeding wonder of grace. I am guilty but pardoned. I am lost but saved. I am wandering but found. I am sinning but cleansed. Give me perpetual broken heartedness. Keep me always clinging to Thy cross. Flood me every moment with descending grace and open to me the springs of divine knowledge sparkling like crystal flowing clear and unsullied through my wilderness of life." Confession, purging of the soul. That's the plea of this petition.
Is it part of your prayer life?
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11 The Pardon of Prayer, Part 3 Matthew 6:12, 14 & 15 Code: 2243 Matthew 6:12, 14 & 15
Let's look together at Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. We're in our eleventh message from the disciple's prayer. And I want to read the prayer to you and then the two footnote verses, verses 14 and 15 and then we'll go into our study for the morning. Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9:
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye; Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth a it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom ant the power and the glory forever, Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Verse 12 is the petition to which we draw your attention again this morning for the third time. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The word forgiveness strikes us immediately. Forgiveness may be the most wonderful word in any language. There is nothing more wonderful to know then that your sins are all forgiven by God. There's nothing in a human realm more wonderful to know then that you have been forgiven by someone you grossly wronged or hurt or injured. Forgiveness is a thrilling word.
There is an epitaph in a cemetery outside of New York City. It's a large headstone. It doesn't have on the headstone the name of the person who's there in the grave. It doesn't have when he or she was born or when he or she died. It doesn't say beloved mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter. Just one word stretches from one end of the headstone to the other and it's the word, "Forgiven." Somebody wanted it known that they could die in peace because they were forgiven. And that's all that really matters.
Henry Ward Beecher, said, "Let me go and saw off a branch from one of the trees that is now budding in my garden and all summer long there will be an ugly scar where the gash has been made. But by next autumn it will be perfectly covered over by the growing and by the following autumn it will be hidden out of sight and in four or five years there will be but a slight scar whereit has been and in ten or twenty years you will never suspect that there had ever been an amputation."
Now trees know how to overgrow their injuries and hide them. And love doesn't wait as long as trees do. I like that. Peter said love covers a multitude of what? Sin. Love is in a much bigger hurry than trees are. Forgiveness is a vital commodity of love. Now God has said in the Scripture much about this area of forgiveness. Forgiveness, you see, is man's deepest spiritual need. Mark that down. It is man's deepest spiritual need. For apart from forgiveness man neverenters a relationship with God. Apart from forgiveness he pays his own penalty for his sin. Apart from forgiveness he spends eternity in hell. Forgiveness, then, becomes man's deepest spiritual need. That is something he must have if he is to know God, if he is to enjoy heaven. It is man's deepest spiritual need also because it is the only way he's delivered from the anxiety and the pressure that guilt of sin brings to bear upon his life. And so when you come in verse 12 to this the first of two spiritual petitions in this prayer you are touching man at the deepest point of his need. Coming to God for forgiveness is the most vital thing of all.
I guess we need to ask ourselves some questionsthis morning. Being that forgiveness is man's deepest spiritual need have you experienced the forgiveness that comes in Christ? That's the first question. If you have then even as a Christian as you walk through the world are you bringing your sins to the Lord on a day to day basis for that cleansing that comes to you day by day as He washes away the dust of the world from your feet as you get them dusty? Are you experiencing the usefulness and the joyfulness and the intimacy with God that comes from daily confession? How about forgiving others? Have you freed others from the bondage of an offense by openly and full-heartedly forgiving them? These are questions, I think, we need to ask ourselves. Forgiveness is a blessed virtue.
Now we've talked about God's forgiving us for two weeks now. Today I want to talk about us forgiving others. Because the end of verse 12 says "As we forgive our debtors" and verses 14 and 15 say - If we forgive we get forgiven, if we don't forgive we don't get forgiven. And so I want to go to the concept of us forgiving each other. Now let me begin by saying this and I want you to mark this down. There are several reasons why we are to forgive one another. And I'm going to give you a list. Get them down because I think you need to know them.
Number one: We are to forgive one another because such is the character of saints. Such is the character of saints. Christians are characterized as those who forgive. Matthew chapter 5 verse 43, backing up to the fifth chapter we find that the traditional Jewish rabbis taught - thou shalt love thy neighbor hate thine enemy. They taught that the principle was to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But the Lord said, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. That you may manifest that you are the sons of your Father. In other words, forgiving others, blessing those who curse which is tantamount to forgiveness, loving your enemies which is the same idea is all a characteristic that manifests that you are a son of God. It is characteristic of saints to forgive. I mean, we are the forgiven, are we not? Have we so soon forgotten what has been forgiven us and would we not forgive someone else? You know, as a Christian when you fail to forgive someone else you set yourself up as a higher court than God. For God infinitely forgives. And that's idolatry for you're worshipping yourself as if you were God. You've usurped His place.
Secondly, I believe we are to forgive one another because it characterizes saints but it follows the example of Christ. First John 2:6 says, "If we say we abide in Him we ought to walk as He walked." Right? How did He walk? He walked in forgiveness. And that's why in Ephesians 4:32 it says that we are to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake has what? Forgiven us. Christ has established a model, a pattern that the death of Christ and the forgiveness of God through Christ given to us is not only for its own sake, it is for its own sake and beyond to give to us a pattern for forgiveness. On the cross to the very ones who had driven the nails through His hands, to the very oneswho had spit upon Him and mocked Him and crushed a crown of thorns into His blessed head He said - Father, what? Forgive them. And therein is the model. The severity of any offense toward us cannot match that as the writer of Hebrews says - You have not suffered unto blood. None of us have endured what Christ has endured and He forgave us all and He set the pattern and the example and the model. We are to forgive one another because it is the characteristic of saints to do so and secondly, because it is the following of the pattern of Christ.
Thirdly, we are to forgive one another because it expresses the highest virtue of man. The highest virtue of man. I believe men most manifests the majesty of his creation in the image of God when he expresses forgiveness. And I believe that's indicated in Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 11, it says: "The discretion of a man differeth his anger." And listen to this, "And it is his glory to pass over a transgression." The highest exhibiting of a virtue of a man is that he overlooks a transgression. We are to forgive one another because it is characteristic of saints, because of the example of Christ, and because it is the highest virtue of a man.
Fourthly, we are to forgive one another because it frees the conscience from guilt. It frees the conscience from guilt. When there is a need to be forgiven and to forgive there is guilt. I think of David who in the midst of an unforgiving situation has all kinds of problems. His life's juices dry up, the lymphatic system, the blood system, the flow in his nervous system, the saliva, everything was wrong, he was sick. His bones were waxing old as it were and his roaring was going on all day long. There is connected with an unforgiving heart an advantage for Satan according to II Corinthians chapter 2, a root of bitterness that creates all kinds of binding of the conscience. So we are to forgive one another, in order to free the conscience. You know, people who carry grudges and bitternesses and who carry an angry attitude toward an individual that goes on and on and on and on unrelieved are literally wounding themselves. Dale Carnegie tells a story about visiting Yellowstone to feed the grizzly bears. I - apparently you feed them from a distance. But they made a clearing when he was there and they piled a bunch of garbage in the clearing and the guide was saying - now the bear will come and eat the garbage. And sure enough the bear came and a grizzly bear is probably the most ferocious animal on the North American continent. The only animal that can maybe stand off a grizzly bear would be a Kodiak bear or a wild bison that was really infuriated. But a grizzly doesn't have a lot of enemies. It pretty well dominates its own scene. And this grizzly came in and started to eat and they don't like anybody intruding on their territory, the guide was saying. And all at once this little black and white thing came cross the clearing - a skunk. And the skunk just stuck his nose right in there where the bear was, just started eating and enjoying having a wonderful time taking the bear's food. Now Carnegie said that he noticed the skunk was very impudent but the bear didn't do anything. Together they shared the food. Carnegie said - Why? The answer is simple, the high cost of getting even. The bear did not want to pay the price. Smart bear. Smarter than a lot of people I know, who get themselves messed up with toxic goiters, heart attacks, and colitis because they hold a grudge.
A father with his 14 year-old marched into the doctor's office one day and he said, to the doctor he said - Doctor, I've come to get some more pills for my wife's colitis. His kid immediately replied what is she colliding with now?
Doctor McMillan has written a book in which he has one chapter titled - It's not what you eat it's what eats you. That's the real issue. Why should we forgive one another? First of all because it characterizes saints, secondly, it follows the example of Christ, thirdly, it's the highest expression of the virtue of man, and fourthly, it frees the conscience of guilt and guilt brings many diseases of the mind and the body.
Fifthly we should forgive one another because it delivers us from chastening. It delivers us from chastening. Where there is an unforgiving spirit there is sin. And where there is sin there is chastening. And every son that the Lord loves He scourges and chastens, Hebrews 12 says. And in 1 Corinthians there is animosity toward one another and their bitterness and their party spirit and their factions had turned the love feast into something horrible, something very vile. And because of that many of them were weak and sick and some were even dead and the Lord had chastened them to that point for a lack of a proper love relationship to one another. Now all those are important reasons why you should forgive one another.
But there's one more that's more important than those five: we are to forgive one another because if we don't we don't get forgiven either. And that's in our passage. Now that's a shocking and startling set of verses, verses 14 and 15. And many people do not understand those verses. And I have to say this to you, you need - for those of you who haven't been here - you need to get the last two messages to have the full meaning of what I have to say today because I can't repeat all that background. But I'll try to give it to you just as briefly as I can.
Now remember this, in this prayer we are focusing on this the first petition regarding man's spiritual need, the first three are regarding God: Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. In other words, before you ever even get to yourself God has to have the rightful place in your prayer. You will immediately sidestep all of your selfish desires by the time you've filtered through the depth of those first three petitions. Then you acknowledge that God is the sustenance of your daily bread you wouldn't have a spiritual life with needs if you didn't have a life to start with so He has to take care of that. And then you come to the spiritual and here you are dealing immediately with sin. God is in the primary place and then man's need: spiritual and physical. And as we come to this verse we have shared with you there are four things that you need to know: the problem - that's sin expressed by the word debt and in verses 14 and 15 the word trespass, the provision forgiveness, twice in verse 12, twice in verse 14 and twice in verse 15. The problem is we're sinners and sin brings guilt and condemnation. The provision is forgiveness based on the ground of Christ's death. Now what did we say about forgiveness?
We told you there were how many kinds of forgiveness? Two. Remember? The first was judicial forgiveness, the second parental forgiveness. If you don't understand this you'll never be able to interpret these verses. Judicial forgiveness is that forgiveness God grants to an unregenerate, unredeemed, unsaved individual who comes, puts faith in Christ, God imputes to him the righteousness of Christ, declares him eternally righteous, drops the gavel, forgiven, declared righteous, justified forever, judicial forgiveness embraces all eternity and it imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. It's a settled act forever. That's once and for all. All your trespasses totally forgiven. We went over that in detail two weeks ago.
And the question comes up, then, if I'm judicially forgiven and every sin is under the blood of Christ, past, present, and future and everything is taken care of forever and ever and that can never be altered, what am I doing saying "Forgive us our debts?" You say - Maybe this is a prayer of an unbeliever. No, what are the first two words in the prayer? What are they? "Our Father." You're not talking about an unbeliever here. You have to be in the family to even get into this prayer. This is how you are to pray as a believer.
Well, you say, if I'm a believer and all is judicially cared for in the fact of salvation why am I asking forgiveness? And this is what we call parental forgiveness. This has not to do with the fact of salvation it has to do with the joy of it. And we use that very magnificent and comprehensive illustration in John 13 where Jesus says to Peter, - You took one bath you don't need another bath-- all you need is your feet cleaned through the day. God has bathed us in the righteousness of Christ. All He wants to do is dust off the dirt on our feet that we collect as we walk through the world. One is a positional forgiveness the other is a practical one. One deals with our standing and our state before God, the other deals with our living in the world. And the Lord dusts off our feet.
It's just like John said in 1 John, isn't it? We have fellowship with the Father but I'm writing these things unto you not so you can have the fellowship, you're already in the fellowship by salvation, so that your joy may be what? Full. It is joy and usefulness and productivity and your spiritual welfare that is the issue here. And a believer when he becomes saved judicially redeemed and all is covered doesn't then stop facing sin, become insensitive to sin, ignores sin but rather keeps on confessing sin, 1 John 1-9. Right? As a way of life. We entered by faith did we stop faith at that point and abandon it? No. We walk by what? Faith. We enter by confessing sin, we don't stop, we continue. It is a way of life. First John 2 says that if we love God and we're in the Lord we will continue to love our brother. We will continue to be obedient to God's laws. You back up into 1 John 1 it's saying the same thing: if you're truly a believer you'll continue confessing your sin because the sensitivity to sin will be far greater than ever it was before you weresaved. For before you were saved you walked in darkness. Right? And nothing was revealed. When you became a Christian you walk in the light and everything is made manifest even your sin. So what he's talking about here is that foot washing that the Lord does as He cleanses us day by day, purging and purifying not to bring us salvation but to make the intimacy of that fellowship all it can be.
I used the illustration of my family. If a child of my family sins against me and against the standards I established they're not thrown out of the family, they don't have to do something to get back in the family but they need to come and make so e things right so the intimacy of the family fellowship can be maintained and restored. You see. That's what we're talking about. And so we saw the problem with sin, the provision was forgiveness, and thirdly the plea was confession.
The very plea and the petition is that we confess our sins; that we acknowledge it to God. And I'm saying to you, beloved, if you're not doing this you are short circuiting your spiritual effectiveness. It's just that simple. You say - Well, when you say confess what do you mean? Well, I don't want to spend all the time this morning on that but let me just say this. To confess sin, the word confess means to say the same thing, it's homologeō, to say the same.It is to agree with God about your sin. It is to acknowledge your sin. It is to repent of your sin. It is to forsake your sin. And it is to thank God for forgiving it and anything less than that is not true confession. I agree with You, God, about my sin. You're right. And as soonas you do that you free God to chasten you without any impunity. You realize that. Because you just admitted that you deserved it. And God has the right for you to admit that because when people don't admit their sin and God chastens they often blame God. That's why Joshua said to Achan in Joshua 7:19, "Give glory to God and confessyour sin." In other words, God is going to judge you, you might as well admit that you deserve it first so God will still be glorified. So when you acknowledge your sin you glorify God when He chastens as One who had the right to do that. And then you are to repent of it, turn from it. And you are to forsake it, and then to thank God for forgiving it. That's the thing God wants you to do aa a daily part of life.
First John 1:9, we are the ones continually confessing our sin and we are the ones being forgiven. Present tense, it's a way of life. And yet I find that many Christians never confess their sins as they should. Now and then when you get desperate you do. And the frequency varies. And the intensity varies. And sometimes we kind of throw it to God in a big general ball but we are to be dealing with our sins. I believe this is part and parcel of knowing the fullness of blessing in our lives. And every time you articulate your sin to the Lord and you give it to Him in a very specific manner there is something very difficult about picking it back up again and doing it. On the converse I think most people don't confess their sins specifically because they want to hold it back in the backwater a little bit in case they want to use it again. Bad enough to be a sinner without being a liar about it so they just don't confess it.
Now, what are we going to learn then as we examine the fourth point? We've seen the problem is sin and the provision is forgiveness. And that's only the beginning because the plea is for confession. But there is a prerequisite too. And the prerequisite is forgiving others. Forgiving others--an utterly significant prerequisite. Verses 14 and 15 elucidate the statement at the end of verse 12, "as we for give our debtors." Now think with me. The prerequisite is to forgive others.
I've given you five reasons at the beginning why you should forgive one another--five reasons to be forgiving. The character of saints, the example of Christ, the glory of man, freedom of conscience, deliverance from chastening, and finally and right here, in order to receive forgiveness ourselves we must forgive others.
Look at verse 12.Let me start right there. You could translate it, "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven." The idea is before we ever seek forgiveness for our own ophileema, for our ownsin against God for which we are indebted--before we ever do that we already have forgiven those who have sinned against us. That's pretty potent stuff, folks. First we forgive then we are forgiven. That's the order it is right here. Now that's another reason it can't be talking about an unbeliever because an unbeliever has no capacity, no spiritual virtue to do an act of forgiveness by which he would earn forgiveness. It's talking about a believer. Before we come to get our feet washed each day, before we bring our sins to the Lord and say - Lord, cleanse me again and use me - we've got to be sure that we've forgiven others. That's the prerequisite.
Trace your steps back for a minute, would you do that? You look at your life and you say - John, I come to church all the time. I read the Bible. I listen to tapes. I go to seminars or whatever. But I don' have the joy that I ought to have. I miss out on being used by God. I feel my life isn't all it could be. I get tired of the routine of trying to get up to a certain spiritual standard. And somebody says - You need to pray more, and so I try that. Or you need to take a class on spiritual growth or you need to read your Bible, you're not reading the word enough or here's a book you've got to read. You go through all this data, go through all of this material and all of these searches to find where the spiritual reality is missing. And maybe the answer is very simple. You're not confessing your sins. You're not going to the Lord and saying - I am a sinner, I acknowledge it. I admit it. And here are the sins, purify me. And you say - Yeah, I'm doing that. John, I've done that. I go to the Lord and I say - Lord, I've got sin in my life and here it is.... Some people I've met even have a list, you know? Write it down. And I still don't have the joy. And I still don't have the fulfillment. And I still don't see what I ought to see in my life. You haven't backed up far enough. One more step. Maybe all that confession isn't cutting it because the Lord isn't giving you release from those sins because you've still got something cooking with somebody else that you haven't forgiven. And you have short circuited your own spiritual welfare. That's what Jesus is saying. It isn't my word, this is the Lord Jesus Christ and we know that He knows. Begin to examine your life, people, at that level. I know that I'm examining my life there.
Oswald Saunders says, "Jesus is here stating a principle and God's dealing with His children." He deals with us as we deal with others. He measures us by the yardstick we use on others. The prayer is not forgive us because we forgive others but forgive us even as we have already forgiven others. That's the idea. He's going to deal with us as we deal with Him.
I'll give you another illustration that's very clear. Jesus said this - Give and it what? Shall be given to you. In whatever measure you meet it out that's exactly how God will meet it out to you. Hmmm. Luke 6, how about this one? Sow sparingly reap what? Sparingly. So bountifully what? Reap bountifully. God deals with us the way we deal wit Him. Whatever we invest in His kingdom we receive a return on. If we harbor sins and grudges and so forth we cut ourselves off from the blessedness that can accrue to us because of those things. We have taught you so many times that as you give you invest with God, you receive a return on it. The same thing is true on your confession of sin and seeking forgiveness. God deals with you the way you deal with others. And maybe the short circuit in your spiritual life is just that you have some people that you're holding bitter resentment or a grudge against and it's constant.
Even the Jews knew this. In 200 B.C. the Jews said - Forgiveness of your neighbor's wrongdoing means that when you pray your sins will be forgiven too. They knew that. They could understand that spiritual principle. The Talmud, the rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament says, - He who is indulgent toward others faults will be mercifully dealt with by the supreme judge Himself. What about your life? Are you forgiving? Because if you're not God's not going to forgive you and you're going to be going through the world with muddy feet. Oh, judicially you are justified and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you but the joy is gone and the intimacy isn't there and the usefulness disappears. Now you say - Well, John, if I have a grudge like this with somebody how do I take care of it? Three steps. I think they're practical.
Number one: take it to God as a sin. That's where it starts. Take it to God as a sin. Lord, there is this person and this is the way I feel and it's a sin and I admit it and I'm sorry and I acknowledge it and I repent of it and I forsake it. That's where you start.
Step two, go to the person. Tough, huh? Well, I'm only telling you this so you can know spiritual joy. You make the decision. What you want to forfeit to harbor your judgment and your grudge. Second, go to the person. You say - I want to seek your forgiveness. You know, I've had people do that to me--many times. And see the freedom that comes. I may have already forgiven them. I may not even have known I did anything for which they were offended. But go to the person.
Third thing, just practical, give the person something you value very highly. It's a very practical approach. Let me tell you why. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is," what? "That's where your heart will be also." You have a grudge against somebody or a bitterness and maybe it's somebody in your family or out of your family or somebody in the church whatever you hold against somebody else is to be dealt with by number one, take it to God, number two, go to the person, and three, give them something of value. And I'll tell you this, you put something of value something that is precious to you in their hand and your heart will go with it and it will change the way you feel about them.
I'll give you a true confession at this point. I'm not going to confess everything but just selected things. There have been times in my life when I felt something for someone that I shouldn't have felt, a bitterness, a bad feeling, you've wronged me. And there have been times when I have freed myself from the bondage of that through this process and the key was when I went to them and maybe it was a book that I bought, maybe it was a check that I gave them, it varied. But when I gave them the gift was when I really began to express the liberty in my spirit. There's no joy like, the joy of giving. That's what the Lord is saying to us here. Confess to the Lord all you want but you're not going to get the freedom of forgiveness until you've deal t with the human level first.
Now let's see this in several other passages and then I'll be done. Just briefly. Matthew 5:7, just going to pinpoint the principle, we don't have time to go into them in detail and we've covered them in the past. Matthew 5:7, listen to it, "Blessed are the merciful," we have a whole chapter on this in the book, tremendous statement. "Blessed are the merciful for they shall," what? "Obtain mercy." In other words, if you want to receive mercy from God then you must be what? Merciful. It's a principle of spiritual life. People in Christ's kingdom are merciful. They will bear the insults of evil men and their hearts will reach out in compassion. Now in that context that has a much broader meaning and I don't want to get back into that again but just the principle is the same, it can be compared. You want mercy, you give mercy.
Let me show you another one, chapter 5 verse 21: "You have heard that it was said by them of old," that is a statement that gives a reference t rabbinic tradition. Your rabbinic tradition says: "You shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment." In other words, your teaching is that and it certainly had truth in it but it wasn't all the truth because that's as far as it went. Your tradition says just don't murder and you're okay, murder and you'll be in trouble with the law. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. Whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, and by the way that is an untranslatable epithet. That's like saying - well I don't know - it's not like saying anything it's more like a tone of voice than it is a word. To them it might be saying - You brainless, stupid idiot, you rarara ... whatever. Have you ever seen a cartoon where Charlie Brown gets mad and you just see stars and squigglies? That's what this is. This whatever, untranslatable. When you say that to someone or you say, "You fool" you have stepped into a very dangerous category, very dangerous. Why? Verse 23, "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift, go your way and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift, and agree with youradversary quickly." We'll stop right there. The point is the same. Again, the context is a little different as we saw in our study of it but the point is the same. You cannot come offering to the Lord some sacrifice to deal with your own spiritual life until you've gotten it right with somebody else. Go away and get that right.
Now some of you came to worship the Lord this morning but you can't do it, you can receive instruction but you ca't offer God worship because He won't accept it. You have come to offer God worship, you've said, Lord, I want You to know I praise You and I want You to clean me up today and ... you're going to go away just like you came because you've got relationships that are unresolved and you're unforgiving in some situations, therefore, you forfeit true worship, leave the altar, go back, get that straight, and then come back. And so you really can't worship today and you can't have your sinsdealt with but you can be instructed to begin the process that will make that a reality.
My, who am I not to forgive somebody else? Who do I think I am? Well, I certainly can't forgive you. God forgave them. Who do I think I am? Psalm 23 says this, "Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Why? Because I have to have mercy all my life long because I sin. And if God is so merciful without His mercy ever being diminished, who am I to be unmerciful to anyone. No wonder so much of Christianity is short circuited in its power--so many unresolved conflicts with people. So go away from the altar until you get your life right. If you regard iniquity in your heart, Psalm 66 says "The Lord will not," what? "Hear you." If you're harboring something, He won't hear you. James says it again, it just isn't in the gospels, James says it, 2:13, "For he shall have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy." Don't put yourself in a chastening position. The Lord will really unload His chastening if you're not merciful to others. I mean, everybody is - manifests the same weakness in different ways; let's be forgiving.
Robert Louis Stevenson lived in the South Seas and it was his habit with is children to gather them around him every day. At the close o their little discussion together they would say the Lord's Prayer as he calls it. He began to repeat the Lord's Prayer and got half way through it and arose and walked away. At that time of his life his health was rather precarious and so his wife assumed that he was feeling ill and she went to him and she said - Is there anything wrong? Only this, he said, I am not fit to pray this prayer today. Well, I guess that's where it starts, doesn't it? With a recognition that you're not fit. Don't come asking for forgiveness that you're not willing to give.
Matthew chapter 18 will provide us with a final look to illustrate this tremendous truth. Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. The whole text prior to this, by the way, down to verse 15 deals with the same issue but we don t have time to go into it. Where somebody has sinned and you go and seek reconciliation and then you take somebody with you and then tell it to the church and it's dealing all with sin, this whole thing, and forgiveness. And so Peter in response to what the Lord has said about the sinning brother in the church and all, Peter says, - Well, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Now the rabbis taught three times. Three times you are to forgive. Peter thought he was being magnanimous - seven times? Shall we double the rabbinic tradition plus one? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times but seventy times seven. Indefinitely, infinitely, unendingly. Why? For we are to forgive as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. And how has He forgiven us? Four-hundred and ninety times? Better hope not. If you hit 491 before you die you're in real trouble. He forgives us indefinitely. That's what our Lord is saying.
Then He says let me illustrate it to you, verse 23. "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king who had to take accountof is servants. And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him who owed him ten thousand talents." Now stop there for a second. This guy was a real rat, I want you to know: a scum, the worst. Ten thousand talents is so much money that it's very hard for us to conceive. And he owed 10,000 talents. You say, - Well, how could a servant ever owe that much? He probably stole the crown of jewels and hocked them and lost it all on a bad investment. Somehow he was pilfering from the king's treasury. To become indebted to that point is absolutely inconceivable at that time in the history of the world. That 10 million dollars would be beyond anybody's capacity to even understand. The guy has been robbing the king systematically. So, verse 25, he had nothing to which to pay. Huh, he's blown it all, the whole deal. If you think it's inconceivable how he got it, imagine how he got rid of it. What a foolish person. You say, the guy is not only crooked, he's stupid. One thing to steal it, that's being crooked, but it's awful stupid to lose it all. So, he had to liquidate the only assets he had and all he has was his wife and kids. So in verse 25 - you say - well, sell them off as slaves and make a little money and ... that would be about all held get. Look at verse 26, the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Oh that's really stupid. What do you mean? The guy is dumb every way you cut him. And you know your reaction normally would be - you'd be infuriated. You may have somebody holding out a couple of thousand on you and you're a basket case. And look, the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, loosed him and forgave him the debt.
Now that is amazing. Guess who this king represents? God. Guess who the servant is? All of us. Did we owe a debt we couldn't pay? Huh? Better believe it. And he forgave. Why? He was compassionate. How could anybody forgive anything as astronomical as that? I want to show you more about this guy. The same servant, verse 28, went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. You know how much that was? Three months work. Peanuts, nothing. The servant went out, the one who had just been forgiven for the 10 million, went out and found a guy who owed him 3 months work. And he grabs him by the neck, it says, takes him by the throat and says - Pay me what you owe me. And the fellow servant fell down on his feet and besought him saying - Have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And he could have. But he would not. Cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. Now he couldn't pay the debt while he was in prison because he couldn't work while he was in prison. But that shows you the evil of the man's heart. So when the fellow servants saw what was done they were sorryand they came and told their lord all that was done. The rest of the servants went and reported back to the king what this guy had done. Then his lord after he had called him said unto him, "O you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you besought me, should not you also have had compassion on your fellow servant even as I had pity on you? And his lord was angry and delivered him to the inquisitors until he could pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your heart forgive not everyone his brother his trespasses." That's the picture, people, that's the picture of somebody who wants to take all the forgiveness God can give but isn't willing to give it to somebody else. You see yourself there? You hold grudges? Oh, have you so soon forgotten, are you so ill memoried that you can't remember the mercy that you have received?
Thomas Manton said, "There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves for they know how gently God hath dealt with them." Now listen to me, one of the reasons you need to acknowledge your sin as it exists and confess it by name on a constant basis is that you will be constantly reminded what a sinner you are, how constant His forgiveness is and thereby in the midst of that reminder you will be more prone to forgive others. But as you fail to acknowledge your own sin as you cover it up and not deal with it, you not only will lose your intimacy and your joy and the fullness of usefulness, but you will find yourself becoming unforgiving to others because you're not being honest about what God is forgiving in your own life.
Lord Herbert, I think, put it very well, he said; "He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass."
What have we learned? We have a problem--it's sin. God is the provision, it's forgiveness. Lord makes a plea--confession. There's a prerequisite--forgiving others. An unforgiving Christian is a contradiction, a proud selfish, weak memoried creature who has forgotten that his sins have been washed away. Learn to confess, beloved, and before you confess learn to forgive.
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Matthew 6:12,14 & 15 Code: 2241
And forgive us our debts...
Matthew 6:12,14 & 15
Will you turn in your Bible with me to the sixth chapter of Matthew, Matthew chapter 6? I'm having such a wonderful time in my own life dealing with the Beatitudes, or rather with the Lord's Prayer as did with the Beatitudes. I think you remember back when we covered the Beatitudes how deeply involved we became in them. I'm thrilled to let you know that as of last Friday that series in the Beatitudes became a book entitled KINGDOM LIVING, HERE AND NOW. And we'll have them for you in a matter of a couple of weeks and you can have a copy of all of our studies in the Beatitudes in book form. But I have the same kind of joy as I study through the Lord's Prayer or as we've called it ... The Disciple's Prayer. Just digging as deeply as we can into this mine of treasure that Christ has given us in teaching us how to pray. And again I want to read all of the verses of this majestic prayer in its depth and simplicity so that we'll have a frame of reference as we look particularly at verse 12.
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen."
Focusing this Lord's day and next for sure and maybe even beyond that, on verse 12. "And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And then a footnote on verse 12 in verse 14, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Those three verses, the statement in the prayer and then the very, very important footnote and the very much misunderstood footnote that our Lord gives in 14 and 15 are going to be the theme of our study in the days ahead. The focus and the concentration of verse 12 is on the subject of sin and its forgiveness. And that is a petition that every soul needs to face as a part of their prayer life. Surly if you'll think about it you will agree with me that the most essential and the most blessed and the most difficult thing that God ever did was provide man with the forgiveness of sin. It is most essential because it keeps us from eternal hell and gives us joy even in this life. It is most blessed because it introduces us into a fellowship with God that goes on forever and it is most difficult because it cost the Son of God His life, on a cross; but the most essential, the most blessed, and the most difficult thing is the forgiveness of sin. It is the greatest need of the human heart. Sin has a two-fold effect, generally, and that is that it damns men forever ... that's its future effect ... its present effect is that it robs men of the fullness of life by bringing to bear upon his conscience an unrelieved and unrelenting guilt. And so as we face the problem of sin we face the fact that sin brings immediate consequences, guilt and the loss of meaningfulness, peace and joy and life and the future consequence that sin brings eternal damnation.
Sin, then, is unquestionably the major need, or the major problem for which here is a need for solution in the life of man. Just thinking about human life where sin is unforgiven we have to face the fact of what guilt and condemnation in our own conscience does to us. Shakespeare, who claimed to be no theologian, certainly knew at least of the Bible's indication and of the fact of human life that people can become sick in their minds and their bodies over unconfessed and unforgiven sin. I remember as a young boy seeing Macbeth and hearing of the struggle and the anguish and the anxiety in the heart of
Lady Macbeth over the murder of Duncan.And she took it on herself all kinds, of psychosomatic disorders as a result of this unconfessed murder. And Macbeth called in a physician and said to him these words: or rather the physician said to Macbeth these words: "Not so sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick coming fancies that keep her from her rest." In other words, the physician told Macbeth that her problem was in her mind. And Macbeth then asked the doctor these words, a classic statement: "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, raise out the written troubles of the brain and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that peril of stuff that weighs upon the heart?" And no physician can do that. William Sadler said quote: "A clear conscience is a great step toward barricading the mind against neuroticism." end quote. John R. W. Stott in his little book, CONFESS YOUR SINS quotes the head of a large British hospital as having said and I quote, "I could dismiss half of my patients tomorrow if they assured of forgiveness." end quote. Forgiveness is mans deepest need now and in the future, for health and for heaven. Thus it is the first petition related to man's soul here in this prayer.
The first three petitions "Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will 'be done in earth as it is in heaven," relate to God. The last three petitions relate to men, "Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil," but the first of the last three is for physical sustenance, "Give us this day our daily bread,. And while there is only one petition for the physical there are two for the spiritual because it is much more important but the physical is first of all necessary, we cannot live out spiritual principles unless we are alive physically. So, first our physical needs are met in verse 11 and then when we come to the spiritual the first and most basic request on the part of the inner man is for the forgiveness of sins. That is man's deepest spiritual need. That is where God and man must, first of all, meet. For before God can ever lead usat all let alone lead us not into temptation, before God can deliver us at all from anything we must have a relationship to Him which is possible only when our sins are dealt with. For God is a holy God as of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look upon iniquity. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, said Isaiah. And there is no way that an absolute holy God can possibly entertain in His presence a relationship with unholy, ungodly sinful men. If we are to have any relationship with God, if there is any spiritual thing to be gained it begins with a petition for forgiveness and you will notice that in verse 12, forgive is mentioned twice and in verse 14 forgive is mentioned twice and in verse 15 forgive is mentioned twice again; six times we see the thrust and the theme ... the forgiveness of sins.
Now, remember as we've learned that this prayer is basically focused on God. It is a prayer intent on glorifying God. It begins with God's paternity, Our Father who art in heaven. And then God's priority, hallowed be Thy name." And then God's program, "Thy kingdom come." And then God's purpose, "Thy will be done." And then God's provision, "Give us this day our daily bread." And now God's pardon, "Forgive us our debts." Followed by God's protection, "Lead us not." And then God's preeminence, "For Thine is the kingdom." It all focuses on God and we come now to the thrust of God's pardon for our sins. The very nature of prayer, beloved, now mark it, is that we are acknowledging a total dependence on God. We will have no daily bread without God we will have no forgiveness of sin without God, we will have no leading and directing in our lives apart from God. Therefore, His is the preeminence, the power and the glory in the kingdom. We're focusing on God.
And so we come in verse 12 in our prayers, routinely, to speak to God about the matter of forgiveness of sin. Now there are four principles I want to give you this morning and four words we'll be discussing, we'll just discuss the first two and next week we'll follow it up from there. But there are four principles that embody these four words, I want to give you the principles and then we'll pull the words out and look at them specifically.
Principle number one, these are the four principles that I see germane to he thrust of this text. Number one ... sin makes man guilty and brings judgment. Sin makes man guilty and brings judgment. That's pretty basic; I think any of us who are Christians or who have been involved in the teaching of the word at all know that to be true. Sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. That's really the bottom line, isn't it? That's the human dilemma, man is a sinner and that is his problem. Now the Bible says sin is lawlessness, sin is lawlessness. It is breaking God's law. It is violating God's standard. The Bible says that in 1 John 3:4, sin is lawlessness. In Romans 3:19 it says, "That we are therefore guilty before God." We break His laws, we become guilty. And then Romans 6 says, "Because we are guilty, the wages of our sin, or the penalty or the sentence, is death." So man is a sinner because he is lawless. He breaks God's laws. In breaking God's laws he becomes guilty and the judgment for guilt is death. So, sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. All men across the face of the earth stand in judgment before God for their sin.
Second principle, very simple but I want you to understand it, forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. That's the second simple principle that you have to understand to understand this passage. God is a holy God and God sees a sinful man, sinful woman, a sinful society but God is also a merciful, loving and forgiving God so forgiveness is offered to sinful man. Though he is guilty and stands in judgment, God is a forgiving God. The Bible says He will remember our sin no more, He will pass by our iniquities, He will bury them in the depths of the sea, He will remove them as far as the east is from the west, all throughout the prophets and the apostles of the Scriptures there is this unceasing promise that God is a God of forgiveness. He wants to forgive us our sins. Now He can't just do that, He has to take the penalty for our sins and bring it to its fullness. Why? Because a just and a righteous and a holy God cannot forgive sin unless sin's penalty is paid, you see? So Christ took our place. Forgiveness then is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death.
A third principle, confession of sin is necessary to receive that forgiveness from God. Confession of sin is necessary to receive that forgiveness from God. The forgiveness is available. The penalty has been paid for. The propitiation or the covering has been made. The satisfaction has been accomplished. It is only a matter of receiving the gift. And basic to that reception is a confession of sin. As Paul puts it in Acts 20, "Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ results in salvation." There must then be confession of sin. I John 1:9 in effect says, the ones who are confessing their sins they are the ones giving evidence that they are being forgiven. In other words, confession of sin is a manifestation necessary for forgiveness. It is part and parcel of that. When you come to God you come as a sinner. No man ever receives salvation who isn't repentant for sin. In the beatitudes our Lord says, if you want to enter My kingdom you enter My kingdom like this, first of all you acknowledge that you are a beggar in your spirit, you are abject and destitute and no resources are available to you and in the midst of your beggarly sinfulness with your vile robes of wretchedness, you cry out, it says, mourning over your sin, meek before a holy God and hungerand thirst for righteousness, plead for His mercy and on that basis God received you. In Luke 18 it tells us that the Pharisee went into the temple and said I thank thee that I am not as other men, even as this publican over here, tax collector, but that I fast twice a week and give tithes of all that I possess, etc. etc. and over in the corner was the tax collector and he wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven but he smote upon his breast, and he cried out ... God, be merciful to me a sinner. And Jesus said, "That man went home justified rather than the other." Why? Because one refused to acknowledge his sinfulness and the other acknowledged it. Basic, then, to receive available forgiveness is the confession of sin. And God is eager and anxiousto forgive the one who confesses. If we confess, He's faithful and still righteous to keep on cleansing us from all sin.
There's a fourth principle, and this is kind of the knockout punch in this passage, and the one that confuses most people. Fourthly, forgiving one another is an essential part of receiving forgiveness for ourselves. Forgiving one another is an essential part of receiving forgiveness for ourselves. Now very often when people read the verses, particularly verse 14 and 15, we're only going to get forgiven if we forgive. They get confused because it looks like forgiveness from God requires that we forgive somebody else and they assume then that you've got to start forgiving people before you can get saved. And a lot of people say... Well, we don't understand, you mean, I'm never going to have forgiveness from God until I forgive somebody else? How can I forgive somebody else if I'm not even a Christian? How can I do a righteous act before I have a righteous nature is the question. But that question presupposes the misunderstanding of the whole concept in verses 1 and 15 and stay with us this morning and we'll start to build toward solving that.
Now, I gave you fourprinciples, didn't I? And I hope you remembered them. Principle number one ... sin makes men guilty and brings judgment. Number two ... forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Number three ... confessing sin is necessary to receive the available forgiveness from God. And number four ... forgiving one another is essential if we are to be forgiven.
Now let's take four words out of those four principles. The first one is sin makes us guilty, then forgiveness is offered by God, then confession is necessary and forgiving one another is essential. I want to talk then, today and next time and maybe even the time after that about sin, forgiveness, confession and forgiving. Because those four words, if fully understood, will literally open up the meaning of this often times confusing portion.
Let's begin with the first word ... sin. "And forgive us our debts," verse 15 uses the word trespass and trespasses. Now listen, both of those words describe sin. Sin is the problem. Alright, you probably have that on your outline. Sin is the problem. The problem of every man. Man is sinful. Let me show you Romans chapter 3 for a moment and this is very basic but very necessary and I'm going to build on this, I think, some things perhaps you haven't seen before. Romans chapter 3 and verse 10, "As it is written there is none righteous, no not one. And the Lord put the last part there because as sure as you're born if it had said "There is none righteous," somebody would have said "Comma, except me." And so the Lord says there is none righteous, no, not even you. Not one. Verse 12; "They are all gone out of the way," that is they have all departed from the way of righteousness, "They are together become unprofitable," and the Greek word means to go sour like bad milk. "There is none that doeth good, no not you," nobody. Verse 19; "Now we know that whatever things he law saith, it saith to them under the law that every mouth may be stopped," in other words, there's no defense, you have nothing to ay to justify yourself, "and all the world may become guilty before God." Verse 23; "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Chapter 4 goes on to say; "In Adam all have died and sin has passed upon them all."
The point is this, people, everybody is confirmed in sin, everybody. Sin disturbs every relationship in the human real Sin stirs up cosmic chaos. Sin waits to attack every baby born into the world. David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me." And the Bible tells us that iniquity begins even from the moment when one is born Sin is the monarch of the world that rules the heart of every man. Sin is the first lord of the soul. Sin's virus has contaminated every living being. Sin is the degenerative power in the human stream that makes man susceptible to disease and illness and death and hell. Sin is the culprit in every broken marriage, every disrupted home, every shattered friendship, every argument, every pain, every sorrow, every anguish and every death. Sin, the common denominator. No wonder Scripture in Joshua 7:13 says, "Sin is that accursed thing." It is compared to the venom of snake. It is compared to the stench of death. And tragically, from the viewpoint of human resources, absolutely nothing can be done about it. Jeremiah said, "Can the Ethiopian change his color? Can the leopard change his spots? You have just about as much a chance to do good who are accustomed to doing evil." It's hopeless. Sin dominates the mind. Romans 1:21, "Men have a reprobate mind, a mind given over to evil and lust." Sin dominates the will, Jeremiah 44; "Men will to do evil because their will is controlled by sin." Sin dominates the emotions and the affections, John 3, "They love darkness rather than light." The mind, the will, the affections, emotions, all dominated by sin. Sin brings men under the control of Satan. In Ephesians chapter 2 it says, "Men are guided by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." Sin brings people under divine wrath, they become children of wrath, says Ephesians 2:3, bulls eyes for the guns of God's judgment. Sin makes man's life utterly miserable, Job says in chapter verse 7; "Man is born unto trouble like the sparks fly upward." Isaiah 54:21 says, "There is no peace to the wicked." Romans 8:20 says, "The creature is subject to emptiness." So man's whole life is color stained with sin. And the fifty million or so that die every year face theultimate consequence of sin. So man has a deep, deep problem. Sin ... is his problem. And it's a deeper problem than his need for bread or anything else and so says our Lord when you pray you must pray relating your petition to your sinfulness. It must be brought before God for it is your deepest need. It must be dealt with. You see? And so as we pray in our prayers there must be this element of a recognition of our sinfulness. That's what He is saying.
Now, you'll notice in verse 12 the word debt. And you'll notice in verse 14 and 15 trespasses or trespass. Now let me show you something, there are five words in the New Testament for sin. A little word study, I'm going to run it by pretty fast so hang on to your seat. First word is harmartia; don't worry about writing it down. For those of you who are Greek scholars you understand that. Harmartia, that word is used probably more than any other in the New Testament for sin and it means to miss the mark, it's an archer's word. You shoot the arrow and miss the target. And generally the idea is that you miss because your arrow falls short, for all have sinned and fall short. All are guilty of harmartiaand fall short. No matter how far you try to shoot it it never quite gets there. You know, some people's arrows go further than others but nobody gets there. It's kind of like jumping to Catalina. You know, we could have a thousand people line up and everybody take one big jump off the Santa Monica beach to Catalina. People would be at all different levels but nobody would land at Catalina. So there are differences on how well we approach the problem but everybody's arrows fall short, we miss the mark. Because what is the mark? Matthew 5:48, our Lord said it earlier in our sermon here, the Sermon on the Mount, He said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." And when you're like God you hit the mark and when you're not you don't. Welcome to the fellowship of those who miss the mark. We miss the mark,that's the first word for sin.
Second Word is parabasis. It basically means, to step across a line. God draws a line and the line is between right and wrong, when you sin you step across the line. It's kind of like when you go somewhere and the little sign says "Keep off the grass" there's something in you that just wants to stick your foot over and go like that ... We just ... there's something in our nature that reacts to that. Sin then is stepping across the line which is drawn between right and wrong. It is doing what is a forbidden thing in thought, in word or in act.
Thirdly there is the word anomiabased on the word nomoswhich is the word for law in the Greek. It is the idea of lawlessness, like I mentioned earlier. This is a flagrant breaking of God's law, a rebellion against God. And you'll notice a progression in these words. Harmartia, the word which has to do with missing the mark speaks more of our basic incapacity, our nature, we just can't hit it. We just fall short. It speaks of the incapacity of our nature. The second word, parabasis, is kind of the idea that we just kind of step across the line, you know, we just can't restrain ourselves from going into the forbidden area. And that's a little more flagrant than harmartiaseems to be which is just sort of our incapacity, our impotence, our helplessness to hit the mark. Parabasisis a little more self-directed, a little more planned and premeditated. But when you come to anomiathat is open, flagrant rebellion against God. So you see a little progression in these terms. This is the man who wants to kick against the traces, this is the man who doesn't want God making any claim against his life, he wants to go out and do what he wants, I always think about the old soldier in Kipling's MANDOLAY, who said; "Ship me somewhere east of Suez where the best is like the worst, where there 'aint no ten commandments and a man can raise a thirst." He didn't want anything to do with God's standards and he rebelled violently and in a reaction.
And so you see an increasing severity in those terms although all sin could be classified with all those terms. But we come then to the two words used here. First is verse 14 and 15, the word trespass, paraptoma. It means to slip or fall. And again it's kind of like harmartia, it seems to sort of emphasize our incapacities. We just sort of slip, we fall, in Galatians 6:1; "If a brother be overtaken in a fault, restore him in love." You just kind of can't help it, I mean, sooner or later you're going to flop over into some sin. Sin is being swept away. And the idea of paraptomais the passion of the moment or the lust of the moment or the loss of self-control in the moment where you're just swept away. That's paraptoma. That's another word for sin. It's not so flagrant maybe as parabasisor anomia... but then finally we come to the word in verse 12, that's the word debt, ophileema.
You know, that's a very, very interesting word. It's only used here and
I think in Romans 4, the only two times it's ever used as a noun, its verb form is used many times. It's a word that is not that familiar to us in terms of sin. But I'll tell you something very interesting, its verb form is 30 times used, 25 in a moral sense and it means to owe a debt. Five times in the New Testament it's used of a money debt, 25 times it's used of a moral debt. The idea is that sin is a debt. When you sin you owe to God a consequence for your sin. You owe that debt, you have violated His holiness and you owe Him for that. Kind of like the idea, you tell your kids ... you do that and you'll get one whack. You do it again you'll get two whacks. And they keep doing it and doing it and they've stacked up a few whacks and so they have a debt to be paid. In a sense that's what God is saying and sin becomes a debt. When you violate God's holiness the record is kept of your debt. And by the way at the end of the age it tells us in Revelation, the great White Throne Judgment, God will judge the ungodly out of the books, have you read that? What books? The books that are all the record of the debt that they owe that is unpaid and they are sentenced to an eternal hell to pay that debt.
You see? Sin is a debt. You might to interested to know that among the rabbis and the Jews of Matthews day the most common word used for sin was the word "koba" which is an Aramaic word and they spoke Aramaic in their common day language, not the Greek which this is written. And so "koba" was the most common Jewish term for sin. And "koba" means a debt because to a Jew the primary responsibility in life was to obey God and when you disobeyed God you owed Him a debt for your disobedience. And so the Jew thought in terms of that. Now when you go to Luke and you read about the disciple's prayer, Luke doesn't say, forgive us our debts, he says, forgive us our trespasses or our sins, because he speaks in a maybe more classical manner. But here Matthew, with his Jewish orientation, zeros in on this concept of debt because he knows his Jewish audience will really pick up on that. We owe a debt. Sin, then, is a debt to God. It's all of the things we've said, then. All five words summed up is what really classifies and categorizes sin.
Arthur Pink says, "As it is contrary to the holiness of God, sin is a defilement, a dishonor and a reproach to us as it is a violation of His law it is a crime and as to the guilt which we contact thereby it is a debt, as creatures we owe a debt of obedience unto our maker and governor and through failure to render the same on account of our rank disobedience we have incurred a debt of punishment and it is for this that we implore a divine pardon," end quote. In other words, we owe such a massive debt to God because of our unrelenting sin that we could never pay that debt. Do you know that? Never pay that debt. Like the unfaithful servant who owed so much it never could be paid in his whole lifetime, we can't pay the debt. We can't pay it. And that is precisely our problem. We are sinners who owe a debt that is so monstrous, it's inconceivable that we could pay it. Never done. And if ever, beloved, you ought to come to God you will come to God on the terms of recognition of that debt. That's right. Even Peter said, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." Even Paul said, "I am the chief of sinners." Listen, Jesus taught all men everywhere to pray this prayer, "Forgive us our debts," and in so doing He laid out the universality of the problem of sin. If all men are to pray it then all men are to admit it's their problem. And that's why the Holy Spirit came into the world in John 16 to convict the world of sin.
Cause we're sinners. Any man who honestly faces the reality of his character cannot be other than conscience of his debt to God and his need to be forgiven. We're sinners. That leads us to the second word.
Forgiveness, if sin is the problem forgiveness is the provision.
Aren't you glad for that? Forgiveness is the provision. What does it say in verse 12? "Forgive us our debts," forgive us. And you notice again the collective nature of the prayer, the us rather than the me encompassing all other believers. There's a sense of community here. We're all in the same boat, folks. Forgiveness. Oh, what a marvelous reality! But do you really understand what forgiveness is?
Now this is the part we've been kind of building up to. What is forgiveness? You know what it is? What is it for God to forgive you? Remember our second principle, forgiveness is available on the ground of what? Christ's death. Well, let's talk about what forgiveness is. Basically, forgiveness, I'll give you as simplest as I can from a couple of angles, forgiveness is God passing by our sin. It is God wiping our sin off the record. It is God setting us free from punishment and guilt. It is essentially bound up in what Micah 7:18 and 19 says "Who is a God like Thee who pardons iniquity? And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He doesn't retain
His anger forever, He delights in unchanging love. Yet He will again have compassion on us, He will tread our iniquities underfoot, yes thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Isn't that great? The Old Testament says "He remembers our sins no more." He passes by our sins.
Let me sum it up in four simple statements. Forgiveness is taking away our sin, covering our sin, blotting out our sin and forgetting our sin. Taking away our sin, why? Isaiah 53:6; "He has taken the iniquity of us all and laid it on Him." Right? He's taken away our sin, and then it means He's covered our sin. Psalm 85:2 "Thou hast covered all their sin." And He blotted out our sin. Isaiah 43:25, I love this verse, "I am He that blotteth out thy transgressions." And then He forgets our sins. He remembers no more. God literally eliminates oursin. People, do you understand this? You know, if you ever get to the place in your Christian life where this becomes common place stuff and you have lost that in an estimatible joy of understanding forgiveness then you've hit kind of a dry place in your life. Oh how thankful we should be for such a forgiveness. And, listen, it's only possible because of Christ. God couldn't just pass by your sin unless He placed the punishment for it on someone else and that is exactly why Christ Jesus died.
Now, there are two kinds of forgiveness. Now watch this, this is really interesting. Two kinds, number one is judicial forgiveness, number two ... let's call it parental forgiveness; judicial and parental. Now let's start with the first one. Judicial forgiveness, and I think this is all we'll talk about this morning. Judicial forgiveness. What is that? It views God as a judge. God looks down and says, you're guilty, you've broken the law, you're under judgment, condemnation, there's got to be punishment. But then that same judge says, on the basis of Christ's death, He bore your punishment, He took your guilt; He paid for: your sin, the price is accomplished, I declare you to be forgiven. That is a judicial act. Full, complete, positional, I like to use that word because it relates to things we've studied in the past, positional forgiveness granted by God as the moral judge of the universe. And by that act of judicial forgiveness, listen to this, all your sins, past, present, future, committed, being committed, and uncommitted are totally, completely and forever forgiven and you are justified from all things forever.
You say ... wow! When does that happen? It happens the moment you invite Jesus Christ into your life. The moment you are redeemed. The moment you place your faith in Christ, your sin is put on Him, His righteousness is put on you and God judicially declares you to be justified. That's Romans 3. Declared righteous. Positionally and forever all sin covered, passed over, blotted out and forgotten. Oh, what a thought. Isn't that great? And He just keeps on doing it. This is because of Christ, beloved; this is what He did on the cross. In Matthew 26:28 He said as beheld the cup, "This is My blood of the New Testament which is for the forgiveness of sin." You see? In Ephesians 1:7 Paul said, "In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." In I John 2:12; "I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven for His name sake." Ephesians 4:32, "Even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." In other words, because Christ took all our sins and paid the penalty when we believe in Christ and accept His sacrifice, God appropriates it on our behalf, judicially we are declared righteous and just forever and forgiven. For sins past, present and future. You say, is that just New Testament? Now watch this, I don't believe that, I believe that is Old Testament too. Now some people think that in the Old Testament you were saved until you sinned the next time and then when you made another sacrifice you were saved again. I don't think so. I think you were saved in the Old Testament just like people are in the New Testament by believing God. By submitting yourself to God. I think redemption in the Old Testament was just as momentary and just as instantaneous and just as exact as in the New. For example, you take Abraham in James 2:23, and it says, "Abraham believed God." In other words, Abraham came to a point in his life when he had faith in God and he exercised that faith toward God and believed all that God had revealed to that time and accepted God as his Lord and his Savior and at that point, though he never sawthe cross or perceived all that Christ would be, he believed God and James 2:23 says that, "At that moment it was imputed unto him for righteousness and from then on he was called a friend," of whom? "Of God." He was saved in a moment. In Romans chapter 4 again it says, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness." And to him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. He believed and it was counted to him for righteousness and from then on it says in that same chapter, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." From the moment that Abraham believed, from then on throughout his life God never imputed sin to him again because his sins were placed on Christ just as much as yours are. We're post-Christ he was pre-Christ but all the sins of all the saints of all those ages at the moment they believed were put on Christ. Christ is the apex of history. Whether you lived on the front side or the back side, He still bore their sins. And by an act of faith at that point, Christ's redemption, the value of Christ's redemption as applied to them. Psalm 103:3 says, that God is the one who forgive: all our iniquities and heals all our diseases.
I believe they knew judicial redemption in the Old Testament and I believe their sins were nailed to the cross just as much as ours when they believed God. Listen to this, Colossians 2:13, oh it's a fabulous, fabulous illustration. It's the picture that God has kept these books I told you about. And all through our lives He writes down the record of our sins. And the debt gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And there is no capacity in our lives to pay the debt at all. And all of this debt is on the sheet. Then all of a sudden Christ goes to the cross and you read in Colossians 2:13, "And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh," that's you, dead, you couldn't do anything about your sins, you're hopeless, you have been made alive with Him. Now watch, "Having forgiven you all trespasses," and then this fabulous imagery, "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against you." Listen, "And nailing it to His cross He took it out of the way." You know, when they crucified a criminal they crucified him with at the top of the cross the record of his crimes, nailed there for the world to see why he was being crucified. The apostle Paul is saying this, great truth, when Jesus died on the cross God pulled all the pages out of the books that belonged to all that would believe throughout history, stacked them all together, nailed them to the cross as if they were the crimes of Jesus and when Jesus died He paid the penalty for every crime that was nailed to His cross and God blotted them out.
You see? That's judicial forgiveness. Oh, to know that we are ultimately and forever forgiven in Christ is tremendous joy, isn't it? Richard III
Shakespeare, he says, "My conscience has a thousand several tongues and every tongue its several tale and every tale condemns me." If you're a Christian you don't have to say that, do you? You can say with Paul in Romans 8, "Who is he that condemneth?" Where is he? Who condemns me? Shall God the justified? In other words, if God is the highest court in the universe and He declares me just who's going to condemn me? Nobody. Therefore, nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ. Nothing at all.
I want to close by showing you one other text. Hebrews 10, one of my favorite passages. I hope it's one of yours. In Hebrews 10 the writer is comparing the sacrificial system of Israel with the sacrifice of Christ. And I want you to notice verse 10 of Hebrews 10. He says, "We are sanctified," fourth word there, "We are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Stop right there a minute. Sanctified means to be made pure, be made pure, made holy, set apart, separated. We are made holy, we are set apart by the one sacrifice of Christ. Oh, listen, people, you don't have to repeat it. When He died and we believed, His sacrifice was sufficient. He said on the cross, "It is finished." We are sanctified, set apart unto God which is a perfect participle in the Greek with a finite verb and it is the strongest possible way the Greek language knows to show the permanent, continuous, state of salvation that issues from one great event. And so Christ dies on the cross, the moment we believe that is imputed to us and there is a continuous forgiveness based on that one offering.
In contrast to that in verse 11 the priests of the Old Testament were daily ministering and they were standing, see the word standeth, standing and offering the same sacrifices again and again and again, always standing up because the job was never done. Verse 12, "But this man after He offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down." Why? It was over. Priests may be stading walking around doing it over and over again but Christ did it once and sat down. It can't be repeated, it doesn't need to be. Why? Verse 14, "For by one offering He hath perfected forever and ever them that are sanctified." And if Jesus says in Matthew 5:48, "Be ye perfect" and Christ goes to the cross and perfects us then Christ is the solution to the problem. Right? We're to be perfect and He perfects us, in His one offering. That, beloved, is judicial forgiveness and the result of it is in verse 17, "Their sins and iniquities will I," what? "Remember no more." Oh, what a great thought. Listen beloved, all your sins are forgiven because of Christ if you believe. That is judicial positional forgiveness.
Now, go back to Matthew 6 and I'm going to close by introducing one thought. It says, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" and verse 14 says, "And if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Fatherwill forgive you and if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses," and all of a sudden we say, wait a minute. If all my sins are already all forgive in Christ, if all my sins were dealt with in the cross of Christ w y do I need to ask forgiveness and why won't I get it unless I give it to somebody else? That is the question that has confused a lot of people. Some people say, well, this is a prayer for an unbeliever. No, no, it's not a prayer for an unbeliever. Because an unbeliever does not begin his prayer "Our Father", does he? This is a believer's prayer. A disciple's prayer. You're already a Christian before you get to verse 12, folks. You say, well, if I'm already a Christian and all my sins are forgiven what am I doing saying "Forgive us our debts" and what is God doing saying, "And if you don't forgive somebody else I'm not going to forgive you?" If you want to know the answer to that be here next week. And if you don't want to know the answer to that, God have mercy on your sin-sick shriveled up soul. Because that's one of the greatest truths in all the Bible and the basis of it is this, you must understand, I'll give you a hint now, you must understand the difference between judicial forgiveness and parental forgiveness. One deals with your position before God forever, the other deals with the joy of your fellowship day by day. And we'll see that, Lord willing, next week. Let's pray.
It's good to be together again, Father and share Your word. We thank You or its richness. Oh, thank You for Your forgiveness. For the provision You've made for every person here.
While our heads are bowed and your eyes are closed for a moment may I say this? Some of you don't know Christ and so you've never know His forgiveness. It's available to you today. In your heart right now all you need do is open up and say, "Christ, come in and forgive my sin." I know I'm a sinner, I want Your cleansing, I know You died for me, I know You paid the penalty." That simple prayer will result in judicial forgiveness applied to you and forever and ever you'll be in God's family and you'll enjoy the fullness of His eternal heaven. And He'll never take back His gift. Oh, I hope you won't go away without that forgiveness.
Father dismiss us with Your blessing. Thank You for Your forgiveness. Bring us back tonight for a great and glorious evening together and we'll give You praise in Christ's name, and everyone said. Amen. God bless you.
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10 The Pardon of Prayer, Part 2
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 Code: 2242 We get a lot of mail at Grace Church from people who listen to tapes, radio programs, read books, visit the church and so forth. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of letters a week. Once in a while one letter just draws everyone's attention. We've had one like that that came just a few weeks ago and I want to share it with you this morning because it ties in so well.
It's from a man who is a prisoner in upstate New York in a penitentiary. And he is writing to thank us for the tape ministry which he has received. He's been studying the tapes quite diligently and is expressing his gratitude. This is what it says in part:
"Brother, I received your beautiful gift of a set of tapes by John MacArthur your pastor. I'm still listening to them and sharing them with some of the brothers as the Lord leads. I'm taking notes on each tape as I listen. Praise the Lord. I may not only understand His word better but I may be able to teach and lead those whom He has enabled me and placed in my care."
I would just add a footnote. Apparently this man has become a pastor of what he calls The Church at Green Haven Prison.
He said, "I want to thank you for your fine gift and share a little of what the Lord is doing in my life as I promised in a previous letter. Brother, the Lord saved me seven years ago. At that time I was in a dirty and dark jail cell waiting for the opportunity to finish off what I had begun a few days before, end my worthless and wretched life. My family came to the United States from Puerto Rico when I was nine years old. My dad was killed in an auto accident when I was twelve. We had moved to upstate New York by that time and I as spared growing up in the big city. Mom was pregnant when our father died and she was left with me, my brother Tony and then my sister was born. We were poor from a minority group and living in a small town where not too many people knew us. But none of these things hindered me nor were they any excuse. I grew up in Rockland County in the town of Haverstraw, New York. I went to school there and played all the sports. I really enjoyed school and after graduation I married my childhood sweetheart whom I had known since the sixth grade. We both had good jobs and a couple of years later I became a police officer at the age of 21. By that time God had given us two children and we were prospering materially. I had been born and raised a Catholic but I never heard that being born again was necessary. I hated the dry and dead church scene so I stopped going. I moved into a life of adultery and fornication. God's judgment did not come upon me suddenly though I had plenty of warning. I thought I was something big, nothing or no one could touch me and God was the furthest thing from my mind. I had plenty of money now that I was working with the District Attorney's office; I was the only Spanish speaking police officer in the county and was in great demand for my interpreting ability. My wife was making good money as a secretary. We had our own home and I was Mr. Respectable Citizen on my way to hell. With all of these material benefits and carnal pleasures a well as the satisfaction of being recognized among my friends in the community I was empty and bored with life. I was always looking for a new adventure and nothing really satisfied me permanently. Finally, as a member of the narcotics bureau I began to use drugs myself. I began with pot and then I used pills and acid. I never shot any drugs because I was afraid of needles but I have eaten, snorted, drunk and smoked everything but hard stuff because I had seen what that did to others. Needless to say my family life as well as my job began to suffer and deteriorate as soon as I began fooling with drugs. And like I said it didn't happen right away but the word of God says that if nothing else we can be sure of one thing and that is that our sins will find us out. It took a period of about ten years but from the moment I began stepping out on my wife until the period when I did three things I never thought I could do, my sins were catching up with me and would eventually take their natural course ‑ destruction.
"Even though I ran around on my wife I always claimed to love her and I believe I did. Of course I didn't know the love of God so it was mere human love which is just not strong enough. But I did the first thing I never thought I would do ‑ I left my wife and children. I took off for California with a young girl and abandoned my family. The drugs, my wounded conscience and the sin made me paranoid. And I was always staying high in San Francisco and always looking over my shoulder. As a police officer before, I would sometimes go on duty with an empty revolver because I could never see myself hurting anyone physically. I was just not a violent person even though I was wicked. I don't think I have ever been involved in more than two fights in my whole life yet I wound up murdering another person. I had done the second thing I never thought I could do. And then I wanted to die. I couldn't live with myself. For three horror‑filled days I tried various ways to end my life in a motel room but God didn't allow it. I tried taking an overdose only to awaken 17 hours later after having vomited the poison and by all rights I should have drowned in my own vomit as is usually the case with overdoses of alcohol and barbituates. And when I awoke I tried to electrocute myself in a bathtub, but as I was about to place the cables in the water the wires touched and I was left in darkness with all the lights in the room going out. But I was too far gone. I was a man possessed. I climbed into the tub and slashed myself up with a blade until I passed out from the loss of blood only to awake to a third day of madness and horror. God had been trying to reach me for a long time; my mom had become a Christian a few months before. Other people had tried to tell me about Jesus but I wouldn't hear them. I finally turned myself into the authorities and confessed to a crime they weren't even aware of. When I was taken to the jail I was kept under observation for a few days because they knew I was suicidal and brother I had all intentions of killing myself. I even took a spoon and was waiting the right moment to sharpen it and stick it in my throat. And then the letter came. It told me about Jesus Christ. Ray, it said, Jesus is real. He loves you and He wants to beyour friend. He can make a way where there is no way. Do it for your family, Ray, come to Jesus. Well, I believed that Jesus was real in her life and that He was her friend but that He loved me--never. I didn't even like myself how could Jesus love me? What way could He make? I had tried every possible way. What could I do for my family? I had abandoned and scattered them. The answer came. I took it to be my mind. But now I know who it was who put those words there. The best thing you can do is go and kil 1 yourself and get out of everybody's life. But God used that letter to stay my self‑destructive hand and people came and told me more about the love of God for sinners and even murderers like me. They told me about the good news of Jesus Christ and not only did He demand a new life from me but He was the only one who could give me the power to live it. I must be born again they told me. And they said if any man be in Christ old things are passed away. And I needed to have that old life put away. I needed a new life. Finally out of desperation I went down on my knees in my cell. I was contemplating suicide and really being oppressed by the devil. I had been granted a phonecall home. I confided in my mom and told her the devil was there telling me to kill myself. She handed the phone to another new Christian who was there with her and instead of being gentle with me like I expected he said Ray, you must repent before God. You must ask Him to give you a new life and forgive you. Well, that kind of shook me because I expected him to baby me. I realized that even though I had been sorry for the things that I had done I had not asked God to forgive me. I had the sorrow of the world that works death but Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. So on my knees I cried to God and I asked Him to forgive me and to take away the burden of guilt which was driving me mad. I asked Him to give me new life. I told Him I didn't even know if He was out there or not but if He heard me please, please forgive me and help me live a new life through Him.
"Well, for the first time in my life I knew God heard me and that I had been forgiven. I knew He had forgiven me because the burden I had been carrying, the burden of guilt and shame was lifted off me. I felt a peace I had never experienced before. I sensed a freedom I had never known on the other side of those walls. I could live with myself because I knew that my conscience was clean. I had been forgiven and my conscience was purged. I knew what truth and reality were. I had taken a life and I had to face trial. I had done many things for which I had been ashamed and there were consequences. Men would not forgive nor forget. But I knew that my God had and for once in my life I could be at peace with Him and with myself. From then on I would serve Him and all those who would be of like mind would understand that I had been forgiven--that I was a new man. The old Ray was dead. The Bible came alive to me. I became a fanatic. And the guys warned me not to read the Bible too much or I'd go crazy. Man, I was crazy before. The Bible is the only thing that helps me know the truth. Now I could understand God's spiritual word and it was no longer the giant crossword puzzle it once was to me. I had been born again and now I could see the kingdom of God. I've been sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. This means I must serve a minimum of fifteen years before I am even considered for parole. And then they don't have to let me go. But, brother, I wouldn't trade the freedom that Jesus Christ has given me behind these prison walls for the prisons which were mine in what the world calls freedom.
"I surely would love to be home with my family some day. But Jesus has given me something in this prison which many on the outside neither know nor have. My family had been scattered through those years. For two years I cried out to the Lord and claimed the promise that my wife and children would come to Christ. Although I had not heard from my wife for all that time, I continued trusting Him and serving Him. He gave me a ministry. For three years I read nothing but the Bible. No books, no commentaries, no newspapers, no magazines, just the Bible. And His Word became real to me. And finally, God reached out and saved my wife. And she came to see me. Later she brought my daughter Debby and I had the pleasure of leading my own daughter to the Lord. And my nine-year-old Christine received the Lord, too. Brother, what can I say? Forgive my lengthiness but there's so much more that I could say. God has given me a ministry of teaching and preaching His Word. I want to serve Him to the fullest. I've seen manybroken and desperate men come to know our Lord and be transformed. Praise God. Greet the saints. Your brother in Christ, Ray."
Well, you're the saints and you've been greeted. It's great isn't it? Can I add a footnote? There used to be a prisoner in Green Haven Prison, he wrote us for some tapes. And when he left, he left them there and asked God to help them to fall into the right hands. They fell into the hands of Ray. He's a second generation tape listener in Green Haven Prison. And through the study of the word of God has become the pastor of the church in the prison. That's what forgiveness is all about. I don't know what the future has for him in this world but I know what it has in eternity. And for that we can be excited.
Let's turn in our Bibles again this morning to the sixth chapter of Matthew as we continue in our series on the disciple's prayer. Today we come to a continuation of what we began last time as we look at verse 12 but we must see it in its context so let's read the prayer and the two verses following. Matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 9:
"After this manner therefore pray ye; Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
As you know if you were with us last week we began to look at verse 12 the second of the three petitions related to us. The first of which is one for physical sustenance. The second and the third are those of a spiritual nature. Going back to verse 12 we are reminded again of this petition, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And that petition is footnoted in verses 14 and 15.
Now we're endeavoring as we examine this tremendously important petition to really understand this whole matter of dealing with sin in our Christian life. Even though we are believers we still have a sin problem. And we must face that problem. This petition in verse 12 is prayed by one who already belongs to God. The prayer begins "Our Father," the prayer then affirms that there is a living and vital relationship with God through faith. So that as a believer we are to pray, "forgive us our debts." After we have affirmed that it is God's name that is hallowed, and it is God's kingdom that is to come, andit is God's will that is to be done; and after we have again acknowledge that it is God who is the source of our physical sustenance, we come to our spiritual problem of sin. And there we are to acknowledge again that we need God's forgiveness. We're talking about Christians. I know there are some people who think that when you become a Christian you don't bother with confessing sin anymore or seeking God's cleansing and forgiveness but that's not true. Because here we find as those who can call God Our Father we must also say forgive us our debts.
Now in understanding the fullness of meaning in verse 12 and 14 and 15 which footnote it, we had to discover that there are four key words for us to study. And we began that study last time, we won't finish it today but we will next time. And the composite of all three of these Lord's days examining this I think will give us a new and far reaching and broad study of this whole area of sin in the life of a Christian.
First of all the problem is sin. We saw that last time. Forgive us implies that we have done something for which we need forgiveness. Debt in verse 12 implies a sin. Trespass in verses 14 and 15 equally implies sin. The problem here is sin. Sin is a reality in the life of a Christian. When you become a Christian you don't all of a sudden stop sinning. You don't all of a sudden lose your sensitivity to sin; in fact, the truth is that when you become a believer you become more sensitive to sin. And as you mature as a Christian and in your maturing experience there is a decreasing frequencyof sin, along with a decreasing frequency of sin is an increasing sensitivity to it when it does occur. We know our sins. That's the problem.
Principle number one is sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. Sin makes us guilty and brings judgment. Where there is sin in our life there is judgment. Whom the Lord loves He what? Chastens. And every son He scourges. And part of that is a chastening for our sinfulness. We talked last time about five words used in the New Testament for sin, harmartia, which means to miss the mark. We don't hit the target. We fall short of God's glory. Parabasis is to step across. Go draws a line and says stay here and we step across. Anomia mean lawlessness. We break His laws. Paraptoma which is trespass in verses 14 and 15 means we slip or fall. We can't stay on the straight and narrow. We fall. We're unable to keep erect in righteousness. The fifth word is ophileema, that's the word debt. Because of all these things we have violated God's holiness and we are in debt to Him. And we have to deal with that debt by seeking His forgiveness. So the problem is sin. And if you deny it, that's the biggest problem of all. Because if we say we have no sin we make God a what? A liar. And the truth is not in us.
Secondly, last time, we saw that there is the provision. The problem is sin and the provision is forgiveness. It's six times in the passage. Twice in 12, twice in 14, and twice in 15. Six times the word forgiveness and principle number two is forgiveness is offered by God on the ground of Christ's death. Our problem can be dealt with because there is forgiveness. Must recognize the problem and seek the forgiveness. A Christian who says he doesn't sin is in a desperate situation because he doesn't seek the solution. There are some who teach that a Christian could reach a certain level in his life where he doesn't sin anymore. That isn't true. He'll continue to sin he just won't seek the forgiveness and he'll lose the meaning of his relationship to God.
Now how is it possible that God can forgive us? And how does that forgiveness work? Well, it is possible because of the death of Christ. So on the basis of Christ's death forgiveness is available because the price is paid.
Now, where we left off last time was this point. We suggested to you that there are two aspects of forgiveness. And that's what I want you to see againthis morning. There are two aspects of forgiveness. This is just thrilling to me. Number one was judicial forgiveness. And we talked about that. Judicial forgiveness. This is the full, complete positional forgiveness granted by God as the moral judge of the universe and by it our sins past, present, and future are totally, completely forever forgiven, we are justified, declared righteous eternally. That happens when you are saved. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ at that moment the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you and you who have sinned and come short of the glory of God are instantly made righteous in Christ, Romans 3. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you, God drops the gavel of His sovereignty. He hits the table with it and says, "Declared righteous in Christ." That is an absolute; that is a positional truth; that is as eternal as God is eternal. That is inviolable, unchangeable, and forever. The moment I put my faith in Christ God's righteousness is imputed to me. It is granted to me. It is placed upon me. It is put into my account. It is eternal. God is satisfied. That is settled. And that's why Romans 8 says "No one will ever separate us from the love of Christ." That's why Romans 8 says "No one can ever lay any charge to God's elect." That is settled. We saw didn't we when we looked at judicial forgiveness there are many words to describe it. But we said it involves God taking away our sin, God covering our sin, God blotting out our sin, and God forgetting our sin. It is done with. Judicially settled for good.
Now, if we have Christians then praying this prayer, "Our Father" and all of their sins forever are forgiven and God has dropped the gavel and declared us righteous then why are we saying "Forgive us our debts?" Why are we asking God for forgiveness? If all of that is a settled matter, what is the point of praying that prayer? The point is answered in a second kind of forgiveness. There is not only judicial forgiveness there is parental forgiveness. And maybe you can come up with a better word than parental but it's one that kind of stuck in my mind based on the fact that the "Our Father" begins the prayer. Parental forgiveness. Now we are not dealing with God as a righteous judge we are dealing here with God as a loving father.
Now listen, even though we have been judicially forgiven and forever that is settled eternally and never changeswe still sin don't we? And when we sin something happens in our relationship to God. The relationship doesn't end but something is lost in the intimacy of it. Right? If my children, my boys or girls, sin against me by disobeying the relationship doesn't end, they're still my children. I'm still their father. And there is a certain forgiveness in my heart that is automatic because they are in my family. But something is in the relationship that causes a loss of intimacy until they come and say, "Daddy, I'm sorry." And then the intimacy is restored. I'm married to my wife, happily. Wouldn't have it any other way. Getting better all the time. And if I should sin against my wife by a thoughtless deed or word or something that was unkind, it doesn't change our relationship. And there is a sense in which I am forgiven just because I'm under the umbrella of her constant love. But there is something lost in the intimacy until I ask her forgiveness that is found again as soon as I do. That's what He is talking about here. This is not someunbeliever praying for salvation. This is not some Christian pleading that God would please forgive his sins. Like the guy I heard on the television and people were asking Bible questions and one person said ‑ If I sin a sin and I die before I get it confessed will I go to heaven? And the man said ‑ No. You'll go to hell. What a terrible, terrible lie that is to put someone under that kind of fear. We're not talking about that; we're talking here about the forgiveness that gives us the fullness of joy in intimacy with God. It is all that the relationship can be. That's what He is talking about.
Let me illustrate it to you from Psalm 51, go back to Psalm 51. Here's David. Now David was redeemed. Mark it, David was saved. David had received Old Testament salvation. Righteousness was imputed to David's account. He believed God. He loved God. He trusted in God. His faith was in God. He had received redemption. The righteousness of Christ as yet future had already been imputed to his account by his faith. He was a regenerated, redeemed man. And he fell into sin. Terrible sin. Sin not unlike our friend Ray that we read about this morning for he committed adultery and then he committed murder. And had he been anybody else but the king he would have probably lost his life. But he was something other than the law, something above the law. And even though the sins were heinous he was spared because of his position. But I want you to notice the nature of his prayer in Psalm 51 because this is the prayer that comes out of his guilt-ridden blood‑stained heart as he reflects on his sin.
And I want you to notice, first of all, verse 14. "Deliver me from blood guiltiness," now watch, "O God, thou God of my salvation." Listen, David affirms his salvation. David affirms that God is still the God of his salvation. He cries to a God whose presence is there, whose Spirit is there, whose salvation is His yet. No, I believe that David was truly redeemed. He was redeemed. And God was still there in His presence, in His Spirit. And He was still the God of my salvation. But even in affirming that the judicial forgiveness was there David can't help but feel the loss of something intimate in the relationship. And that's what he means when he cries out in verse 2, "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me."I can't forget it. "Against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight." Verse 7, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." You see, be a sense in which judicial forgiveness and parental, if you will, forgiveness are so different. David was saved but there was something between he and God that made him lose the meaning of that salvation. That's why he says in verse 8, "Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice." He wanted the joy back, didn't he? That's what he wanted. "Create in me a clean heart, O God," verse 10. "Renew a right spirit within me." The capper is in verse 12, "Restore unto me the," what? "the joy of thy salvation." He doesn't say ‑ Restore unto me thy salvation. He says restore unto me the what? The joy of it. Now here it is, folks. Judicial forgiveness takes care of the fact of salvation. Parental forgiveness takes care of the joy of it. You see? I can be forgiven, but if I'm sinful and unconfessing and unrepentant in that sinfulness, I forfeit the joy of the fullness of that relationship. That's the issue.
Look with me for a moment at 1 John chapter 1. And John begins this wonderful epistle by saying that he preaches Christ, the word of life, from first hand experience: "That which was from the beginning which we've heard, which we've seen with our hands, or seenwith our eyes, looked upon and our hands have handled." He says we have had personal experience with Christ, in verse 1. "The word of life and the word was manifest. And we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and manifest unto us." In other words, we're preaching Christ. We're preaching the gospel. Why? Verse 3, "That which we have seen and heard declare unto you in order that," here's why: "You also may have," watch it, "fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father with His Son Jesus Christ."
Now listen, John says we preach to bring you into the fellowship. See? We want to get you into the fellowship. We want to link you up with God and Christ and everybody else who believes in God and Christ. We want to bring you into the family. That's judicial forgiveness. We want to get you into the fellowship--participating in the common eternal life, to be one in the koinonia. That's why we preach Christ.
Then he goes a step further. Verse 4, "And these things," what things? "The things we write unto you," that's the epistle, "we write in order that your," what? "joy may be full." Now on the one hand we preach the gospel so that you'll come into the fellowship and on the other hand we write the epistle so that in the fellowship you will know the fullness of joy. Being saved puts you in the fellowship, being obedient to the standards and the principles we lay out makes you know the joy of that fellowship. You see? On the one hand is judicial forgiveness putting you in the fellowship and there is the parental forgiveness that makes you know the fullness of the joy of being in the fellowship. And right off the bat he says, if you're in the fellowship, verse 9, you'll be confessing your sin and He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
Now look, he says, "I'm writing this unto you that your joy may be full." And the first thing he says if you want full joy, if you want full joy then keep on confessing your what? Sins. That's the point. The gospel brings judicial righteousness, judicial forgiveness, obedience and the obedience of confession to begin with brings you the fullness of joy that comes from parental forgiveness.
Look a John 13, 1 hope you're getting this, John 13. One of my very favorite chapters, I've shared it with you many times but I'm going to pu11 a thought out of it that perhaps we haven't covered. John 13, our dear Lord is speaking of His love for the disciples here in this chapter, in spite of their waywardness and sinfulness, in spite of the fact that they were sitting around arguing who'd be the greatest in the kingdom. They were self‑centered, selfish, possessive, indifferent to Christ, unconcerned about His pending death, arguing, proud, egotistical, they were very ugly at this time. In the midst of it all, the dear Lord takes His outer garment off and puts a towel about His waist and starts to wash their feet. Humiliating, to Him and to them, for they should have done it for Him. He should not have needed to do it for them.
He comes to Peter in verse 8. Peter says, "You'll never wash my feet." This is not going to happen, I won't allow this. I believe Peter is convicted, I believe he wouldn't let the Lord stoop to do that. I believe he's facing his own sin. The fact that he's been arguing about who is the greatest in the kingdom, that he's been selfish, self‑centered, insensitive to Christ and he just won't allow it. You're not going to wash my feet! Jesus answered him, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me." And He takes that whole physical scene and turns it into tremendous spiritual truth. He says ‑ Peter, if you want to really know what it is to fellowship with me, if you want to know what it is to be part and parcel of what I am, if you want the fullness of a relationship, you better let me wash you. Peter says, ‑ Lord, don't wash my feet only; wash my hands and my head. Do the whole deal. Again, a dumb statement. Jesus says to him, "He that's washed (He used the word bathed) needs not except to wash his feet." He's already entirely clean, and you're clean. He says ‑ Peter, I only want to wash your feet. First he's telling Him what not to do and then he's telling Him what to do. Peter, just be quiet. I'm only interested in your feet because there is a tremendous spiritual truth here. You're sitting around this table sinning, you are already clean, verse 10 says, except for Judas. Not all of you are clean, one of you is not. One of you is not redeemed. But the rest of you are already clean. You've already been redeemed. You've already been made righteous by faith. I'm not talking about bathing you all over again. You only get made righteous how many times? One, you don't need that again. What I'm interested in is keeping the dirt off your feet.
Now in those days, of course, you took a bath in the morning as you got up and bathed your entire body and then you started out for the day and wearing sandals in that part of the world the roads would either be muddy or dusty. Muddy when it rained and you can imagine the muck. And when it was dry, dust everywhere, and you're feet would be dirty and every time you would go into a home or into a place of business or commune with people or eat a meal it would be necessary for you to wash your feet just as a matter of very obvious propriety. And the Lord is giving them an incredibly great spiritual truth. He is saying to them, simply this ‑ You've already had judicial forgiveness, you've had your spritual bath when you believed. All that's necessary for Me to do to keep the fullness of our relationship openis to wash your feet. That's parental forgiveness, you see. And daily as we walk through the world we collect the dust of the world and those are the sins we commit. And as we confess those things they're washed. An as we are confessing, 1 John 1:9, He's faithful and still righteous to keep on forgiving and keep on cleansing. What a glorious truth. He's simply saying ‑ Once you've been cleaned, bathed in the saving blood of Jesus Christ, you've received judicial forgiveness that doesn't have to be done again but parental forgiveness is something that goes an everyday as we keep the fullness of the communion pen. Positional purging needs no repetition. But practical purging has to be repeated every day.
Listen, beloved, when you pray you better pray in accord with Matthew 6. Somewhere in your prayers after you have acknowledged His name be Hallowed and His kingdom come and His will be done and after you have acknowledged that God is the source of your physical and daily sustenance, you need to face the fact that your feet are dirty. And you need to acknowledge the fact that as long as they're dirty and you're unconfessing and unrepenting of that sin, there is a loss in the fullness of joy in the intimacy in the communion that you can have with God. Believers need to open their heart daily for that forgiveness that keeps the feet clean.
I think about David. Nathan told David, he says, "David, the Lord has put away your sin." Oh what relief. David had committed the terrible sin of Bathsheba and Uriah and the Lord had put it away and said ‑ You've got judicial forgiveness, the umbrella is over you, man, that's done with. And you might today find someone who'd say in the same setting, ‑ Well, I realize that but the Lord's already taken care of that, I'm not going to worry about it. Not David. It wasn't long after Nathan had said to him the Lord has put away your sin, God's taken care of that, that's in redemption, that David wrote Psalm 32 and this is what he said: "I acknowledge my sin unto Thee, my iniquity have I not hidden, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord." Do you get that? Listen to me, when he already knew that the judicial element was cared for he still cried out in confession to open the parental channel to keep the intimacy of the relationship. So what is the message of part one of this petition? Forgive us our debts? It is simply a plea that we experience the moment by moment cleansing that comes when we acknowledge our sin to the Lord. Very basic. Very necessary.
And you know what thrills me so much is that God is so eager to forgive. You know, you might think that if you were in some pagan religion or something that and you believe the gods to be like men, that God gets so sick of hearing you that one day He just says, - You know, this is the last time I'm listening to you, fellow--from here on out take the consequences. I've given you more forgiveness than any ten people deserve. But that's not the way God is. I think it was Nehemiah who said, "Thou art a God ready to pardon." Thou art a God ready to pardon. And that's right. Eager. I love Micah, "He delights in mercy." You say ‑ But I go back everyday and I keep saying Lord I did this again, Lord, I had this problem again and you go back everyday and doesn't God get sick of it? No, because He delights in mercy because mercy is an act of His nature that gives Him glory for we glorify such a merciful God. That's why in Romans 5 it says, "Where sin abounds grace does," what? "Much more abound." God loves to forgive. And you know you can take all the forgiveness He's got and it won't diminish His resource at all. And you can come back as many times as you want and it will never diminish His love. Never. He'll forgive as often as you come.
Somebody said to me last week, ‑ You know, your sermon on judicial forgiveness I think ruined my son. I said ‑ Why? Well, because you said he could just do ‑ just sin and it was covered for eternity, so he just went out and did it. And he said ‑ It's all covered anyway. Well, I question whether he knows Christ first of all. Because if I know God has forgiven all my sins and if I know no matter how many times I come back and ask His forgiveness He's eager and anxious to do it, that kind of love retards me from sinning rather than compels me to sin because I can't trade on that love. I can't abuse that. Dr. Barnhouse told a great story to illustrate this. He was talking to a college professor and he told a story about a couple, this is what he said: "The man had lived a life of great sin and immorality but had converted and eventually come to marry a fine Christian woman. He had confided to her the nature of his past life in just a few words as he had told her these things the wife had taken his head in her hands. And she drew him to her shoulder and kissed him gently and said, John, I want you to understand something very plainly. I know my Bible well and therefore I know the subtlety of sin and the devices of sin that work in the human heart. I know you are a thoroughly converted man, John, but I know that you still have a sin nature. And that you are not yet fully instructed in the ways of God that you will be. The devil will do all he can to wreck your Christian life. He will see to it that temptations of every kind are put in your way. And the day might come, John, please God that it never does, but it might come when you succumb to temptation and fall into sin. And, John, immediately the devil will tell you it's no use trying you might as well continue on your way and sin and above all he'll tell you not to tell me because it will hurt me. But, John, I want you to know that there is a home for you in my arms. When I married you I married your old nature as well as your new nature. And I want you to know there is full pardon and full forgiveness in advance for any evil that ever comes into your life."
Now that's something like God. Barnhouse finished the story: "The college professor lifted up his eyes reverently, and said, 'My God, if anything could ever keep a man straight, that kind of forgiving love in advance would sure do it.'" That is exactly and precisely the way God perceives His relationship to us.
Listen, we've seen the problem: sin. We've seen the provision: forgiveness. I want to close with the plea: confession. The plea: confession. The third principle is simply that we received His forgiveness by confession of sin. We receive His forgiveness by confession of sin. The whole of this verse implies confession. You can know about sin and know about forgiveness but if you didn't confess your sin you'd never receive it. As long as I harbor my sin and I never confess it and repent of it and turn from it and give it to God and agree with Him about it I'm never free to know the joy that He wants me to know because a barrier is there that shatters the intimacy of fellowship. And so I must confess, I must open my heart and admit my sin and that is tough, isn't it? It's tough. Just try to get it out of your little kid when they've done something wrong.
I remember as a little boy I vandalized a school with another little boy. My father was holding a revival meeting in a small little town in Indiana. In the midst of the week a little boy and I went down and we did some bad things. And they went from house to house in the little town--it was so small--and they came to the house we were staying in and my father and the man that owned the house went to the door and the man said ‑ We've had vandalism in the school, would your children know anything about it? And I was holding my father's hand applying my most angelic face, doing everything I could to show that I was as spiritual as my evangelist father, would never be caughtdoing something like that. I hung on and ‑ My son would never do anything like that and he patted me on the head ‑ Not Johnny, why he's a wonderful boy. And the other man was saying ‑ Oh, our boy is a wonderful boy too and I don't understand how this could happen. And he gave them this long thing and my father was expressingsuch love for me and such confidence in my life. That night at the meeting I went forward when he gave the invitation and I said ‑ I prayed with him on the steps I said ‑ I think I need Jesus in my heart. He never knew why. Ten years later before I told him about it. Ten years, I couldn't get the courage to do it. But I'm not alone.
Adam and Eve sinned. And they were used to walking and talking with God in the cool of the day, but the minute they sinned, the next thing they did was what? Hide. It's tough to confess. And as long as you don't you forfeit the joy. Proverbs 28:13 says "Cover your sin, you don't prosper." Cover your sin, you don't prosper. "Whoever confesses and forsakes shall have mercy." Your spiritual prosperity is at stake. That's why he says you better say ‑ Forgive us our debts. Confession of sin is vital. It's vital.
David said to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord, 2 Samuel 12:13, David said to Nathan again in 2 Samuel 24:10 - I've sinned against the Lord greatly in what I have done. I have acted very foolishly. In 1 Chronicles 21:7 David said to God, ‑ I am the one who has sinned and done very wickedly. Isaiah said, "I am a man of unclean lips and I live amidst a people of unclean lips." Daniel said in chapter 9 verse 20, "I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin." Peter said in Luke chapter 5 verse 8, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Paul said, "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinner among whom I am" what? "chief." Confessing sin isn't easy but it's necessary to appropriate the intended joy that comes with parental forgiveness. Don't conceal your sin. Confess your sin.
John Stott says and it's true, "One of the surest antidotes to the process of moral hardening is the disciplined practice of uncovering our sins of thought and outlook as well as word and deed and the repentant forsaking of the same." If you don't do that it will harden. I've seen Christians, judicially forgiven and eternally secure, who are so hardened, so impenitent, so unconfessing, so insensitive to sin, and so totally joyless, who didn't even know the meaning of a loving intimate fellowship with God. They blocked it out with the barricade of their unconfessed sin. Confession.
This week I sat in my room back in Indiana and watched the snow fall out the window. I thought to myself ‑ the world looks so white. The city I was in has three streets and a stop sign. That was it. And there was just fields of white everywhere. Little paths where people walked and trees were all covered with snow. I thought about sins being as white as snow. And then as I looked at my own life I was reading a little book I have, "The Prayers of Puritans," that sometimes I share with you. I came across one, set my life in stark contrast to the purity I saw out the window. And I thought it might be a fitting thought for us today. Confession is so necessary, people. Or you lose that purity that gives you joy. This is what I read:
"God of grace, thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute and has imputed His righteousness to my soul, hast clothed me with a bridegroom's robe, decking me with jewels of holiness but in my Christian walk I am still in rags, my best prayers are stained with sin. My penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin. My receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance. I need my tears to be washed. I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness. I'm always standing clothed in filthy garments and by grace am always receiving change of raiment for thou dost always justify the ungodly. I am always going into the far country and always returning home as a prodigal and always saying, Father forgive me, and Thou art always bringing forth the best robe again. Every morning let me wearit, every evening return it in. Go out to do the day's work in it. Be married in it. Be wound in death in it. Stand before the great white throne in it. Enter heaven in it, shining as the sun. Grant me never t o lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness and the exceeding wonder of grace. I am guilty but pardoned. I am lost but saved. I am wandering but found. I am sinning but cleansed. Give me perpetual broken heartedness. Keep me always clinging to Thy cross. Flood me every moment with descending grace and open to me the springs of divine knowledge sparkling like crystal flowing clear and unsullied through my wilderness of life." Confession, purging of the soul. That's the plea of this petition.
Is it part of your prayer life?
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11 The Pardon of Prayer, Part 3 Matthew 6:12, 14 & 15 Code: 2243 Matthew 6:12, 14 & 15
Let's look together at Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. We're in our eleventh message from the disciple's prayer. And I want to read the prayer to you and then the two footnote verses, verses 14 and 15 and then we'll go into our study for the morning. Matthew 6 beginning in verse 9:
"After this manner, therefore, pray ye; Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth a it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom ant the power and the glory forever, Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Verse 12 is the petition to which we draw your attention again this morning for the third time. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The word forgiveness strikes us immediately. Forgiveness may be the most wonderful word in any language. There is nothing more wonderful to know then that your sins are all forgiven by God. There's nothing in a human realm more wonderful to know then that you have been forgiven by someone you grossly wronged or hurt or injured. Forgiveness is a thrilling word.
There is an epitaph in a cemetery outside of New York City. It's a large headstone. It doesn't have on the headstone the name of the person who's there in the grave. It doesn't have when he or she was born or when he or she died. It doesn't say beloved mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, daughter. Just one word stretches from one end of the headstone to the other and it's the word, "Forgiven." Somebody wanted it known that they could die in peace because they were forgiven. And that's all that really matters.
Henry Ward Beecher, said, "Let me go and saw off a branch from one of the trees that is now budding in my garden and all summer long there will be an ugly scar where the gash has been made. But by next autumn it will be perfectly covered over by the growing and by the following autumn it will be hidden out of sight and in four or five years there will be but a slight scar whereit has been and in ten or twenty years you will never suspect that there had ever been an amputation."
Now trees know how to overgrow their injuries and hide them. And love doesn't wait as long as trees do. I like that. Peter said love covers a multitude of what? Sin. Love is in a much bigger hurry than trees are. Forgiveness is a vital commodity of love. Now God has said in the Scripture much about this area of forgiveness. Forgiveness, you see, is man's deepest spiritual need. Mark that down. It is man's deepest spiritual need. For apart from forgiveness man neverenters a relationship with God. Apart from forgiveness he pays his own penalty for his sin. Apart from forgiveness he spends eternity in hell. Forgiveness, then, becomes man's deepest spiritual need. That is something he must have if he is to know God, if he is to enjoy heaven. It is man's deepest spiritual need also because it is the only way he's delivered from the anxiety and the pressure that guilt of sin brings to bear upon his life. And so when you come in verse 12 to this the first of two spiritual petitions in this prayer you are touching man at the deepest point of his need. Coming to God for forgiveness is the most vital thing of all.
I guess we need to ask ourselves some questionsthis morning. Being that forgiveness is man's deepest spiritual need have you experienced the forgiveness that comes in Christ? That's the first question. If you have then even as a Christian as you walk through the world are you bringing your sins to the Lord on a day to day basis for that cleansing that comes to you day by day as He washes away the dust of the world from your feet as you get them dusty? Are you experiencing the usefulness and the joyfulness and the intimacy with God that comes from daily confession? How about forgiving others? Have you freed others from the bondage of an offense by openly and full-heartedly forgiving them? These are questions, I think, we need to ask ourselves. Forgiveness is a blessed virtue.
Now we've talked about God's forgiving us for two weeks now. Today I want to talk about us forgiving others. Because the end of verse 12 says "As we forgive our debtors" and verses 14 and 15 say - If we forgive we get forgiven, if we don't forgive we don't get forgiven. And so I want to go to the concept of us forgiving each other. Now let me begin by saying this and I want you to mark this down. There are several reasons why we are to forgive one another. And I'm going to give you a list. Get them down because I think you need to know them.
Number one: We are to forgive one another because such is the character of saints. Such is the character of saints. Christians are characterized as those who forgive. Matthew chapter 5 verse 43, backing up to the fifth chapter we find that the traditional Jewish rabbis taught - thou shalt love thy neighbor hate thine enemy. They taught that the principle was to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But the Lord said, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. That you may manifest that you are the sons of your Father. In other words, forgiving others, blessing those who curse which is tantamount to forgiveness, loving your enemies which is the same idea is all a characteristic that manifests that you are a son of God. It is characteristic of saints to forgive. I mean, we are the forgiven, are we not? Have we so soon forgotten what has been forgiven us and would we not forgive someone else? You know, as a Christian when you fail to forgive someone else you set yourself up as a higher court than God. For God infinitely forgives. And that's idolatry for you're worshipping yourself as if you were God. You've usurped His place.
Secondly, I believe we are to forgive one another because it characterizes saints but it follows the example of Christ. First John 2:6 says, "If we say we abide in Him we ought to walk as He walked." Right? How did He walk? He walked in forgiveness. And that's why in Ephesians 4:32 it says that we are to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake has what? Forgiven us. Christ has established a model, a pattern that the death of Christ and the forgiveness of God through Christ given to us is not only for its own sake, it is for its own sake and beyond to give to us a pattern for forgiveness. On the cross to the very ones who had driven the nails through His hands, to the very oneswho had spit upon Him and mocked Him and crushed a crown of thorns into His blessed head He said - Father, what? Forgive them. And therein is the model. The severity of any offense toward us cannot match that as the writer of Hebrews says - You have not suffered unto blood. None of us have endured what Christ has endured and He forgave us all and He set the pattern and the example and the model. We are to forgive one another because it is the characteristic of saints to do so and secondly, because it is the following of the pattern of Christ.
Thirdly, we are to forgive one another because it expresses the highest virtue of man. The highest virtue of man. I believe men most manifests the majesty of his creation in the image of God when he expresses forgiveness. And I believe that's indicated in Proverbs chapter 19 and verse 11, it says: "The discretion of a man differeth his anger." And listen to this, "And it is his glory to pass over a transgression." The highest exhibiting of a virtue of a man is that he overlooks a transgression. We are to forgive one another because it is characteristic of saints, because of the example of Christ, and because it is the highest virtue of a man.
Fourthly, we are to forgive one another because it frees the conscience from guilt. It frees the conscience from guilt. When there is a need to be forgiven and to forgive there is guilt. I think of David who in the midst of an unforgiving situation has all kinds of problems. His life's juices dry up, the lymphatic system, the blood system, the flow in his nervous system, the saliva, everything was wrong, he was sick. His bones were waxing old as it were and his roaring was going on all day long. There is connected with an unforgiving heart an advantage for Satan according to II Corinthians chapter 2, a root of bitterness that creates all kinds of binding of the conscience. So we are to forgive one another, in order to free the conscience. You know, people who carry grudges and bitternesses and who carry an angry attitude toward an individual that goes on and on and on and on unrelieved are literally wounding themselves. Dale Carnegie tells a story about visiting Yellowstone to feed the grizzly bears. I - apparently you feed them from a distance. But they made a clearing when he was there and they piled a bunch of garbage in the clearing and the guide was saying - now the bear will come and eat the garbage. And sure enough the bear came and a grizzly bear is probably the most ferocious animal on the North American continent. The only animal that can maybe stand off a grizzly bear would be a Kodiak bear or a wild bison that was really infuriated. But a grizzly doesn't have a lot of enemies. It pretty well dominates its own scene. And this grizzly came in and started to eat and they don't like anybody intruding on their territory, the guide was saying. And all at once this little black and white thing came cross the clearing - a skunk. And the skunk just stuck his nose right in there where the bear was, just started eating and enjoying having a wonderful time taking the bear's food. Now Carnegie said that he noticed the skunk was very impudent but the bear didn't do anything. Together they shared the food. Carnegie said - Why? The answer is simple, the high cost of getting even. The bear did not want to pay the price. Smart bear. Smarter than a lot of people I know, who get themselves messed up with toxic goiters, heart attacks, and colitis because they hold a grudge.
A father with his 14 year-old marched into the doctor's office one day and he said, to the doctor he said - Doctor, I've come to get some more pills for my wife's colitis. His kid immediately replied what is she colliding with now?
Doctor McMillan has written a book in which he has one chapter titled - It's not what you eat it's what eats you. That's the real issue. Why should we forgive one another? First of all because it characterizes saints, secondly, it follows the example of Christ, thirdly, it's the highest expression of the virtue of man, and fourthly, it frees the conscience of guilt and guilt brings many diseases of the mind and the body.
Fifthly we should forgive one another because it delivers us from chastening. It delivers us from chastening. Where there is an unforgiving spirit there is sin. And where there is sin there is chastening. And every son that the Lord loves He scourges and chastens, Hebrews 12 says. And in 1 Corinthians there is animosity toward one another and their bitterness and their party spirit and their factions had turned the love feast into something horrible, something very vile. And because of that many of them were weak and sick and some were even dead and the Lord had chastened them to that point for a lack of a proper love relationship to one another. Now all those are important reasons why you should forgive one another.
But there's one more that's more important than those five: we are to forgive one another because if we don't we don't get forgiven either. And that's in our passage. Now that's a shocking and startling set of verses, verses 14 and 15. And many people do not understand those verses. And I have to say this to you, you need - for those of you who haven't been here - you need to get the last two messages to have the full meaning of what I have to say today because I can't repeat all that background. But I'll try to give it to you just as briefly as I can.
Now remember this, in this prayer we are focusing on this the first petition regarding man's spiritual need, the first three are regarding God: Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. In other words, before you ever even get to yourself God has to have the rightful place in your prayer. You will immediately sidestep all of your selfish desires by the time you've filtered through the depth of those first three petitions. Then you acknowledge that God is the sustenance of your daily bread you wouldn't have a spiritual life with needs if you didn't have a life to start with so He has to take care of that. And then you come to the spiritual and here you are dealing immediately with sin. God is in the primary place and then man's need: spiritual and physical. And as we come to this verse we have shared with you there are four things that you need to know: the problem - that's sin expressed by the word debt and in verses 14 and 15 the word trespass, the provision forgiveness, twice in verse 12, twice in verse 14 and twice in verse 15. The problem is we're sinners and sin brings guilt and condemnation. The provision is forgiveness based on the ground of Christ's death. Now what did we say about forgiveness?
We told you there were how many kinds of forgiveness? Two. Remember? The first was judicial forgiveness, the second parental forgiveness. If you don't understand this you'll never be able to interpret these verses. Judicial forgiveness is that forgiveness God grants to an unregenerate, unredeemed, unsaved individual who comes, puts faith in Christ, God imputes to him the righteousness of Christ, declares him eternally righteous, drops the gavel, forgiven, declared righteous, justified forever, judicial forgiveness embraces all eternity and it imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. It's a settled act forever. That's once and for all. All your trespasses totally forgiven. We went over that in detail two weeks ago.
And the question comes up, then, if I'm judicially forgiven and every sin is under the blood of Christ, past, present, and future and everything is taken care of forever and ever and that can never be altered, what am I doing saying "Forgive us our debts?" You say - Maybe this is a prayer of an unbeliever. No, what are the first two words in the prayer? What are they? "Our Father." You're not talking about an unbeliever here. You have to be in the family to even get into this prayer. This is how you are to pray as a believer.
Well, you say, if I'm a believer and all is judicially cared for in the fact of salvation why am I asking forgiveness? And this is what we call parental forgiveness. This has not to do with the fact of salvation it has to do with the joy of it. And we use that very magnificent and comprehensive illustration in John 13 where Jesus says to Peter, - You took one bath you don't need another bath-- all you need is your feet cleaned through the day. God has bathed us in the righteousness of Christ. All He wants to do is dust off the dirt on our feet that we collect as we walk through the world. One is a positional forgiveness the other is a practical one. One deals with our standing and our state before God, the other deals with our living in the world. And the Lord dusts off our feet.
It's just like John said in 1 John, isn't it? We have fellowship with the Father but I'm writing these things unto you not so you can have the fellowship, you're already in the fellowship by salvation, so that your joy may be what? Full. It is joy and usefulness and productivity and your spiritual welfare that is the issue here. And a believer when he becomes saved judicially redeemed and all is covered doesn't then stop facing sin, become insensitive to sin, ignores sin but rather keeps on confessing sin, 1 John 1-9. Right? As a way of life. We entered by faith did we stop faith at that point and abandon it? No. We walk by what? Faith. We enter by confessing sin, we don't stop, we continue. It is a way of life. First John 2 says that if we love God and we're in the Lord we will continue to love our brother. We will continue to be obedient to God's laws. You back up into 1 John 1 it's saying the same thing: if you're truly a believer you'll continue confessing your sin because the sensitivity to sin will be far greater than ever it was before you weresaved. For before you were saved you walked in darkness. Right? And nothing was revealed. When you became a Christian you walk in the light and everything is made manifest even your sin. So what he's talking about here is that foot washing that the Lord does as He cleanses us day by day, purging and purifying not to bring us salvation but to make the intimacy of that fellowship all it can be.
I used the illustration of my family. If a child of my family sins against me and against the standards I established they're not thrown out of the family, they don't have to do something to get back in the family but they need to come and make so e things right so the intimacy of the family fellowship can be maintained and restored. You see. That's what we're talking about. And so we saw the problem with sin, the provision was forgiveness, and thirdly the plea was confession.
The very plea and the petition is that we confess our sins; that we acknowledge it to God. And I'm saying to you, beloved, if you're not doing this you are short circuiting your spiritual effectiveness. It's just that simple. You say - Well, when you say confess what do you mean? Well, I don't want to spend all the time this morning on that but let me just say this. To confess sin, the word confess means to say the same thing, it's homologeō, to say the same.It is to agree with God about your sin. It is to acknowledge your sin. It is to repent of your sin. It is to forsake your sin. And it is to thank God for forgiving it and anything less than that is not true confession. I agree with You, God, about my sin. You're right. And as soonas you do that you free God to chasten you without any impunity. You realize that. Because you just admitted that you deserved it. And God has the right for you to admit that because when people don't admit their sin and God chastens they often blame God. That's why Joshua said to Achan in Joshua 7:19, "Give glory to God and confessyour sin." In other words, God is going to judge you, you might as well admit that you deserve it first so God will still be glorified. So when you acknowledge your sin you glorify God when He chastens as One who had the right to do that. And then you are to repent of it, turn from it. And you are to forsake it, and then to thank God for forgiving it. That's the thing God wants you to do aa a daily part of life.
First John 1:9, we are the ones continually confessing our sin and we are the ones being forgiven. Present tense, it's a way of life. And yet I find that many Christians never confess their sins as they should. Now and then when you get desperate you do. And the frequency varies. And the intensity varies. And sometimes we kind of throw it to God in a big general ball but we are to be dealing with our sins. I believe this is part and parcel of knowing the fullness of blessing in our lives. And every time you articulate your sin to the Lord and you give it to Him in a very specific manner there is something very difficult about picking it back up again and doing it. On the converse I think most people don't confess their sins specifically because they want to hold it back in the backwater a little bit in case they want to use it again. Bad enough to be a sinner without being a liar about it so they just don't confess it.
Now, what are we going to learn then as we examine the fourth point? We've seen the problem is sin and the provision is forgiveness. And that's only the beginning because the plea is for confession. But there is a prerequisite too. And the prerequisite is forgiving others. Forgiving others--an utterly significant prerequisite. Verses 14 and 15 elucidate the statement at the end of verse 12, "as we for give our debtors." Now think with me. The prerequisite is to forgive others.
I've given you five reasons at the beginning why you should forgive one another--five reasons to be forgiving. The character of saints, the example of Christ, the glory of man, freedom of conscience, deliverance from chastening, and finally and right here, in order to receive forgiveness ourselves we must forgive others.
Look at verse 12.Let me start right there. You could translate it, "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven." The idea is before we ever seek forgiveness for our own ophileema, for our ownsin against God for which we are indebted--before we ever do that we already have forgiven those who have sinned against us. That's pretty potent stuff, folks. First we forgive then we are forgiven. That's the order it is right here. Now that's another reason it can't be talking about an unbeliever because an unbeliever has no capacity, no spiritual virtue to do an act of forgiveness by which he would earn forgiveness. It's talking about a believer. Before we come to get our feet washed each day, before we bring our sins to the Lord and say - Lord, cleanse me again and use me - we've got to be sure that we've forgiven others. That's the prerequisite.
Trace your steps back for a minute, would you do that? You look at your life and you say - John, I come to church all the time. I read the Bible. I listen to tapes. I go to seminars or whatever. But I don' have the joy that I ought to have. I miss out on being used by God. I feel my life isn't all it could be. I get tired of the routine of trying to get up to a certain spiritual standard. And somebody says - You need to pray more, and so I try that. Or you need to take a class on spiritual growth or you need to read your Bible, you're not reading the word enough or here's a book you've got to read. You go through all this data, go through all of this material and all of these searches to find where the spiritual reality is missing. And maybe the answer is very simple. You're not confessing your sins. You're not going to the Lord and saying - I am a sinner, I acknowledge it. I admit it. And here are the sins, purify me. And you say - Yeah, I'm doing that. John, I've done that. I go to the Lord and I say - Lord, I've got sin in my life and here it is.... Some people I've met even have a list, you know? Write it down. And I still don't have the joy. And I still don't have the fulfillment. And I still don't see what I ought to see in my life. You haven't backed up far enough. One more step. Maybe all that confession isn't cutting it because the Lord isn't giving you release from those sins because you've still got something cooking with somebody else that you haven't forgiven. And you have short circuited your own spiritual welfare. That's what Jesus is saying. It isn't my word, this is the Lord Jesus Christ and we know that He knows. Begin to examine your life, people, at that level. I know that I'm examining my life there.
Oswald Saunders says, "Jesus is here stating a principle and God's dealing with His children." He deals with us as we deal with others. He measures us by the yardstick we use on others. The prayer is not forgive us because we forgive others but forgive us even as we have already forgiven others. That's the idea. He's going to deal with us as we deal with Him.
I'll give you another illustration that's very clear. Jesus said this - Give and it what? Shall be given to you. In whatever measure you meet it out that's exactly how God will meet it out to you. Hmmm. Luke 6, how about this one? Sow sparingly reap what? Sparingly. So bountifully what? Reap bountifully. God deals with us the way we deal wit Him. Whatever we invest in His kingdom we receive a return on. If we harbor sins and grudges and so forth we cut ourselves off from the blessedness that can accrue to us because of those things. We have taught you so many times that as you give you invest with God, you receive a return on it. The same thing is true on your confession of sin and seeking forgiveness. God deals with you the way you deal with others. And maybe the short circuit in your spiritual life is just that you have some people that you're holding bitter resentment or a grudge against and it's constant.
Even the Jews knew this. In 200 B.C. the Jews said - Forgiveness of your neighbor's wrongdoing means that when you pray your sins will be forgiven too. They knew that. They could understand that spiritual principle. The Talmud, the rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament says, - He who is indulgent toward others faults will be mercifully dealt with by the supreme judge Himself. What about your life? Are you forgiving? Because if you're not God's not going to forgive you and you're going to be going through the world with muddy feet. Oh, judicially you are justified and the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you but the joy is gone and the intimacy isn't there and the usefulness disappears. Now you say - Well, John, if I have a grudge like this with somebody how do I take care of it? Three steps. I think they're practical.
Number one: take it to God as a sin. That's where it starts. Take it to God as a sin. Lord, there is this person and this is the way I feel and it's a sin and I admit it and I'm sorry and I acknowledge it and I repent of it and I forsake it. That's where you start.
Step two, go to the person. Tough, huh? Well, I'm only telling you this so you can know spiritual joy. You make the decision. What you want to forfeit to harbor your judgment and your grudge. Second, go to the person. You say - I want to seek your forgiveness. You know, I've had people do that to me--many times. And see the freedom that comes. I may have already forgiven them. I may not even have known I did anything for which they were offended. But go to the person.
Third thing, just practical, give the person something you value very highly. It's a very practical approach. Let me tell you why. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is," what? "That's where your heart will be also." You have a grudge against somebody or a bitterness and maybe it's somebody in your family or out of your family or somebody in the church whatever you hold against somebody else is to be dealt with by number one, take it to God, number two, go to the person, and three, give them something of value. And I'll tell you this, you put something of value something that is precious to you in their hand and your heart will go with it and it will change the way you feel about them.
I'll give you a true confession at this point. I'm not going to confess everything but just selected things. There have been times in my life when I felt something for someone that I shouldn't have felt, a bitterness, a bad feeling, you've wronged me. And there have been times when I have freed myself from the bondage of that through this process and the key was when I went to them and maybe it was a book that I bought, maybe it was a check that I gave them, it varied. But when I gave them the gift was when I really began to express the liberty in my spirit. There's no joy like, the joy of giving. That's what the Lord is saying to us here. Confess to the Lord all you want but you're not going to get the freedom of forgiveness until you've deal t with the human level first.
Now let's see this in several other passages and then I'll be done. Just briefly. Matthew 5:7, just going to pinpoint the principle, we don't have time to go into them in detail and we've covered them in the past. Matthew 5:7, listen to it, "Blessed are the merciful," we have a whole chapter on this in the book, tremendous statement. "Blessed are the merciful for they shall," what? "Obtain mercy." In other words, if you want to receive mercy from God then you must be what? Merciful. It's a principle of spiritual life. People in Christ's kingdom are merciful. They will bear the insults of evil men and their hearts will reach out in compassion. Now in that context that has a much broader meaning and I don't want to get back into that again but just the principle is the same, it can be compared. You want mercy, you give mercy.
Let me show you another one, chapter 5 verse 21: "You have heard that it was said by them of old," that is a statement that gives a reference t rabbinic tradition. Your rabbinic tradition says: "You shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of judgment." In other words, your teaching is that and it certainly had truth in it but it wasn't all the truth because that's as far as it went. Your tradition says just don't murder and you're okay, murder and you'll be in trouble with the law. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. Whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, and by the way that is an untranslatable epithet. That's like saying - well I don't know - it's not like saying anything it's more like a tone of voice than it is a word. To them it might be saying - You brainless, stupid idiot, you rarara ... whatever. Have you ever seen a cartoon where Charlie Brown gets mad and you just see stars and squigglies? That's what this is. This whatever, untranslatable. When you say that to someone or you say, "You fool" you have stepped into a very dangerous category, very dangerous. Why? Verse 23, "Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift, go your way and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift, and agree with youradversary quickly." We'll stop right there. The point is the same. Again, the context is a little different as we saw in our study of it but the point is the same. You cannot come offering to the Lord some sacrifice to deal with your own spiritual life until you've gotten it right with somebody else. Go away and get that right.
Now some of you came to worship the Lord this morning but you can't do it, you can receive instruction but you ca't offer God worship because He won't accept it. You have come to offer God worship, you've said, Lord, I want You to know I praise You and I want You to clean me up today and ... you're going to go away just like you came because you've got relationships that are unresolved and you're unforgiving in some situations, therefore, you forfeit true worship, leave the altar, go back, get that straight, and then come back. And so you really can't worship today and you can't have your sinsdealt with but you can be instructed to begin the process that will make that a reality.
My, who am I not to forgive somebody else? Who do I think I am? Well, I certainly can't forgive you. God forgave them. Who do I think I am? Psalm 23 says this, "Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." Why? Because I have to have mercy all my life long because I sin. And if God is so merciful without His mercy ever being diminished, who am I to be unmerciful to anyone. No wonder so much of Christianity is short circuited in its power--so many unresolved conflicts with people. So go away from the altar until you get your life right. If you regard iniquity in your heart, Psalm 66 says "The Lord will not," what? "Hear you." If you're harboring something, He won't hear you. James says it again, it just isn't in the gospels, James says it, 2:13, "For he shall have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy." Don't put yourself in a chastening position. The Lord will really unload His chastening if you're not merciful to others. I mean, everybody is - manifests the same weakness in different ways; let's be forgiving.
Robert Louis Stevenson lived in the South Seas and it was his habit with is children to gather them around him every day. At the close o their little discussion together they would say the Lord's Prayer as he calls it. He began to repeat the Lord's Prayer and got half way through it and arose and walked away. At that time of his life his health was rather precarious and so his wife assumed that he was feeling ill and she went to him and she said - Is there anything wrong? Only this, he said, I am not fit to pray this prayer today. Well, I guess that's where it starts, doesn't it? With a recognition that you're not fit. Don't come asking for forgiveness that you're not willing to give.
Matthew chapter 18 will provide us with a final look to illustrate this tremendous truth. Matthew chapter 18, verse 21. The whole text prior to this, by the way, down to verse 15 deals with the same issue but we don t have time to go into it. Where somebody has sinned and you go and seek reconciliation and then you take somebody with you and then tell it to the church and it's dealing all with sin, this whole thing, and forgiveness. And so Peter in response to what the Lord has said about the sinning brother in the church and all, Peter says, - Well, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Now the rabbis taught three times. Three times you are to forgive. Peter thought he was being magnanimous - seven times? Shall we double the rabbinic tradition plus one? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times but seventy times seven. Indefinitely, infinitely, unendingly. Why? For we are to forgive as God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. And how has He forgiven us? Four-hundred and ninety times? Better hope not. If you hit 491 before you die you're in real trouble. He forgives us indefinitely. That's what our Lord is saying.
Then He says let me illustrate it to you, verse 23. "Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king who had to take accountof is servants. And when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him who owed him ten thousand talents." Now stop there for a second. This guy was a real rat, I want you to know: a scum, the worst. Ten thousand talents is so much money that it's very hard for us to conceive. And he owed 10,000 talents. You say, - Well, how could a servant ever owe that much? He probably stole the crown of jewels and hocked them and lost it all on a bad investment. Somehow he was pilfering from the king's treasury. To become indebted to that point is absolutely inconceivable at that time in the history of the world. That 10 million dollars would be beyond anybody's capacity to even understand. The guy has been robbing the king systematically. So, verse 25, he had nothing to which to pay. Huh, he's blown it all, the whole deal. If you think it's inconceivable how he got it, imagine how he got rid of it. What a foolish person. You say, the guy is not only crooked, he's stupid. One thing to steal it, that's being crooked, but it's awful stupid to lose it all. So, he had to liquidate the only assets he had and all he has was his wife and kids. So in verse 25 - you say - well, sell them off as slaves and make a little money and ... that would be about all held get. Look at verse 26, the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Oh that's really stupid. What do you mean? The guy is dumb every way you cut him. And you know your reaction normally would be - you'd be infuriated. You may have somebody holding out a couple of thousand on you and you're a basket case. And look, the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, loosed him and forgave him the debt.
Now that is amazing. Guess who this king represents? God. Guess who the servant is? All of us. Did we owe a debt we couldn't pay? Huh? Better believe it. And he forgave. Why? He was compassionate. How could anybody forgive anything as astronomical as that? I want to show you more about this guy. The same servant, verse 28, went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. You know how much that was? Three months work. Peanuts, nothing. The servant went out, the one who had just been forgiven for the 10 million, went out and found a guy who owed him 3 months work. And he grabs him by the neck, it says, takes him by the throat and says - Pay me what you owe me. And the fellow servant fell down on his feet and besought him saying - Have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And he could have. But he would not. Cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. Now he couldn't pay the debt while he was in prison because he couldn't work while he was in prison. But that shows you the evil of the man's heart. So when the fellow servants saw what was done they were sorryand they came and told their lord all that was done. The rest of the servants went and reported back to the king what this guy had done. Then his lord after he had called him said unto him, "O you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you besought me, should not you also have had compassion on your fellow servant even as I had pity on you? And his lord was angry and delivered him to the inquisitors until he could pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your heart forgive not everyone his brother his trespasses." That's the picture, people, that's the picture of somebody who wants to take all the forgiveness God can give but isn't willing to give it to somebody else. You see yourself there? You hold grudges? Oh, have you so soon forgotten, are you so ill memoried that you can't remember the mercy that you have received?
Thomas Manton said, "There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves for they know how gently God hath dealt with them." Now listen to me, one of the reasons you need to acknowledge your sin as it exists and confess it by name on a constant basis is that you will be constantly reminded what a sinner you are, how constant His forgiveness is and thereby in the midst of that reminder you will be more prone to forgive others. But as you fail to acknowledge your own sin as you cover it up and not deal with it, you not only will lose your intimacy and your joy and the fullness of usefulness, but you will find yourself becoming unforgiving to others because you're not being honest about what God is forgiving in your own life.
Lord Herbert, I think, put it very well, he said; "He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass."
What have we learned? We have a problem--it's sin. God is the provision, it's forgiveness. Lord makes a plea--confession. There's a prerequisite--forgiving others. An unforgiving Christian is a contradiction, a proud selfish, weak memoried creature who has forgotten that his sins have been washed away. Learn to confess, beloved, and before you confess learn to forgive.
Available online at: http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/2243
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