Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. The hymn of the day in the bulletin. God's lamb has been provided
The firstborn has been killed Eternally decided His purpose
is fulfilled The sentence of death on men Determined I must
die Death was inflicted for me On God's Lamb crucified The Lamb's
blood has been applied, that the Lord God may see. Tis always before His eyes, the
blood that redeemed me. Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
51. Hymn number 51. Grace the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us He for conflict fits and arms us Nothing moves and nothing
harms us While we trust in Him Trust in Him, ye saints, forever
He is faithful, changing never Neither force nor guile can sever
Those he loves from here Keep us, Lord, O keep us, cleaving
to Thyself and still believing, till the hour of our receiving
promise joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now nor could
be soon shall be our own. Mark chapter 11. Mark chapter
11. I'm gonna start reading at verse
20 and go down to verse 26 and hopefully by God's grace deal
with these verses. And in the morning, as they passed
by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter,
calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the
fig tree, which thou hast cursed, is withered away. And Jesus saith
unto them, Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, that
whoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou
cast into the sea, and shalt not doubt in his heart, but shalt
believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass. He shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever
things you desire when you pray, that you receive them, and you
shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive,
if you have ought against any, that your Father, which is in
heaven, may also forgive you, but if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive you your trespasses. Our great, blessed, holy, infinite,
immutable God of heaven and earth, We're so thankful, so blessed
to know that there's one true and living God, not one that
we've imagined, not one that we've concocted for ourselves,
but one who has all the power, the one whose salvation is all
together of Him, one who gets all the glory, gets all the praise,
is worthy of all the worship, worthy of all the praise. Lord,
we know that in and of ourselves, we have nothing, can do nothing,
contribute nothing to our salvation. We bless you for your grace,
bless you for your mercy, bless you for your patience and longsuffering
with us. We bless you that there's forgiveness
with you. And Lord, thank you for putting
the fear of God in our hearts, where we stand in awe and worship
of you. And Lord, we've gathered here
to worship today. And Lord, we pray that you'd
give us the Holy Spirit present today, that we might truly worship
the one true and living God and worship him the way he's appointed
for us through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us, gave
himself for us. And Lord, blessed be your name.
Have mercy upon this congregation, upon me, And upon those who've
never yet trusted you, know you, believe you, has embraced the
Lord Jesus Christ and come in faith. And our blessed master,
we pray for those who are sick and tried among us and do have
mercy. Oh, have mercy upon our lost
children and our grandchildren and our loved ones and do it
for Christ's sake. Amen. We're going to sing Worship Him.
We've come into this house to worship Him. We've handed out
the words several times over the last few years, so there
may be a copy in your chorus book. If there's not and you
don't know the words, maybe your neighbor can share with you. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Him. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. So forget about yourself. So
forget about yourself and concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself and
concentrate on Him and worship Him. So forget about yourself
and concentrate on Him and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. So let's lift up holy faith.
So let's lift up holy faith and magnify His name and worship
Him. So let's lift up holy faith and
magnify His name and worship Him. So let's lift up holy faith
and magnify His name and worship Christ the Lord. Worship Him, Christ the Lord. He is all my righteousness. He
is all my righteousness, I stand in Him complete and worship Him. He is all my righteousness, I
stand in Him complete and worship Him. have a Look back here with me at Mark
11, and the title of my subject this
morning is Faith, Forgiveness, and Prayer, and all of these
things here and present for us. Now when our Lord said in verse
22, And Jesus saith unto them, Have
faith in God. He's answering Simon Peter, when
Simon, you know, said, Lord, we look at that tree, and oh,
yesterday we passed by, you cursed it, and today we went by it again
and it's dead. And so our Lord answered him.
He said, Have faith in God. Have faith in God. For verily
I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain,
be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall
not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which
he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Now here's forgiveness. Therefore
I say, there's prayer. What therefore I say unto you,
whatever things you desire when you pray, believe that you shall
receive them and have them. And when you stand praying, forgive
if you have ought against any, that your father, which also
is in heaven, forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not
forgive, neither will your father, which is in heaven, forgive you
your trespasses. So our Lord is answering Peter,
and the first thing He says, Have faith in God. Now, you look
in the margin. My Bible says in the margin,
Have the FAITH of God. Have the FAITH of God. What s
the difference in having the faith of God and having faith? What s the difference? Well,
you remember in Romans when Romans 3, when the Jews were unbelievers,
didn't believe, they said, Will their unbelief make the FAITH
of God of none effect? Just because they don't believe,
will they make the faith of God of none effect? Well, what IS
the faith of God? Well, first of all, the first
thing it means is ownership. God owns faith. God, faith is
God's gift. Faith is what God gives to other
people. It belongs to Him. It's a sovereign
gift that He gives to whom He will. Faith belongs to God Almighty. And I tell you, it means ownership.
And when He says having the faith of God, what God believes about
Himself, what God says about Himself. And if you and I have
faith, God's the one that gave it to us. For by grace are ye
saved through faith, and that's not of yourself. What does it
say? It's the gift of God. So the faith of God is what God
believes about Himself. Now Peter saw Christ curse a
tree, and our Lord replied to him. And you know, the Lord knows
everything. He knows. The Lord believes that
whatever He says must come to pass. He spoke to a tree and
the tree died. And I tell you, you know, the
reason whatever He says must come to pass is because of who
He is. Nebuchadnezzar said this, I do
know this, when his reason returned unto him, that the Most High ruleth in
heaven among the inhabitants of the earth. He says, God has
His way in the armies of heaven, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will, His will, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and NOBODY can say unto Him, What in the world
do you think you're doing? But that's what they want to
do. But oh, my! You know, God knows, and here's
what we're talking about, God knows about Himself. God KNOWS
and He BELIEVES! Talking about His Son now. He
believes He's ALL-POWERFUL! ALL-POWERFUL! He speaks to the
creation. He speaks to storms and they
come. He speaks to people that's dead
and they live. He speaks to blind people and
they see. He believes He's ALL-POWERFUL!
He's ETERNAL! He's infinite. He's immutable. He's what's called omni. You
know what omni means? That means all. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere all time. And He's omnipotent. That means
that He has all power. He's omniscient. That means He
has all wisdom and all knowledge of everything on this earth.
And I tell you, He is holy, He is perfect, and everything. We want to believe what God says
and believes about Himself. I want to believe what God says
and says about Himself, don't you? And you know, God, one thing
He says about Himself, I'll not give my glory to nobody else.
I don't want to give His glory to nobody else either, do you? What does that mean? That means
He gets all the glory, because He does all the saving. He is
holy, He's perfect in every way, and I want to believe about God
what God believes and says about Himself. The scripture says in
Colossians 2, 9, it pleased the Father that in Christ, in Him,
should all fullness dwell, all the fullness of who God is, all
the fullness of what God does, all the fullness of God's purpose,
all the fullness of God's will is vested in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You wanna see God? You gotta
see Christ. You wanna know God, you gotta
know Him in Christ. You wanna worship God, you worship
Him in Christ. You wanna be saved by God, you're
gonna be saved by Christ. Huh, oh my. And I tell you, this
is what God believes about His Son. He believes that Christ
is all. I believe that too. What God
says, He said, Christ is all. I said, Lord, I agree with you,
He's all, He is all, He is all. And oh, He's all in salvation. He's all in grace, He's all in
mercy. And I'll tell you this, if we
don't have the faith of God, we don't have faith at all, period. We don't have it, we don't have
it. And then He says there in verse 23, Verily I say unto you, that whosoever
shall say unto this mountain, what mountain's he talking about?
The one he's standing on, I expect. Be thou removed. I want this
mountain moved, and I want it moved, and I want it cast over
here into the sea. And if he don't doubt in his
heart, shall believe that those things which he says shall come
to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says. Now, I believe that
God can move a mountain. He's done it lots of times. He's
done it lots of times. And I believe He's able to cast
it into the sea, because nothing is impossible with God. But let
me tell you something, you think He's talking about a literal
mountain? You think He's talking about
a literal, He's not talking about a literal mountain. What's He
talking about? Difficulties that come in our
way. Trials that come our way. Obstacles that come in our way.
Oh my, all the things that we have to deal with in this world.
Sometimes, sometimes they, and this is our problem. We'll have
a little mole hill down here. Just a little nothing to get
through. We'll make a mountain out of it. But here's the thing about it,
the mountains that we have to move, and I'll tell you what,
we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us,
but here's the thing, God gives us things, obstacles in our way
that we can't possibly move. that we can't possibly, obstacles
that we can't possibly move, difficulties that we can't possibly
deal with. So how do we deal with it? We
go to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, Lord, you move this mountain,
you move these obstacles, or if you don't do it, give me grace
and faith to trust you until it's gone. I'm not gonna climb
no mountains. People say, you know, there's
an old song that says, Lord, this time you gave me a mountain.
Listen, He's given us more mountains than we can count, but every
one of them has been removed when the time is necessary for
it to be gone. Huh? Bless His name, I'm thankful
for that. There's been things that happens
in your life that you can't POSSIBLY get over without Christ. obstacles
that come in your way, you can't deal with them. But God can, God can. And oh, I tell you, and I tell
you something else that people use this, this verse of scripture
for for. This people that's the health
and wealth gospel, prosperity gospel. They use this here, this
verse of scripture to tell you, oh my, all you got to do is ask
God for health and wealth and prosperity and no sickness. And
if you believe it, you can have it. And if you don't have wealth
and you don't have health, you don't have prosperity and you
don't have no problem, you don't have any problems with your relationship,
you know what the problem is? You don't have faith. They put
it back on you. Oh my, I'll tell you this claim,
they say, name it and claim it. They're fools, absolute fools. You know, there's people that
say, if you want this here, put it on your refrigerator and believe
you're gonna get it and you'll get it. But then if you don't
get it, they say, well, you didn't have the faith. You didn't have
the faith. I tell you that anybody that
believes that is a bigger fool. Oh, it's all, it's all. But people
believe that. They really believe that. Oh
my, the only fellow that's getting prosperous is the preacher that's
preaching him. They're the only ones getting
prosperous. But oh my, look what our Lord goes on to say. And in verse 34, 24, excuse me,
therefore I say unto you whatsoever things you desire, when you pray,
when you pray, and oh my, and I tell you what, and then he
said in verse 25, when you stand, pray. You know, when we pray,
every prayer is subject to the will of God. Every prayer we
pray is subject to the will of God. Uh-huh, we pray, our Lord
when He said, teach us to pray, you know what our Lord said?
Our Father which art in heaven, thy will be done on earth like
it's done up there. Everything, every prayer we pray
is subject to the will of God to be done. So oh my, and I tell
you if we ask for what we wanted, and if we got everything that
we thought we needed, It'd be a disaster. It'd be a disaster. If God gave us, you know, if
he gave us everything we wanted, you know, the kids used to, with
Sears and Roebuck's, used to have this wish book that'd come
out on Christmas. And our kids would get that Christmas
book, you know, that wish book, and they'd go through there,
and they'd say, I want this, and I want that. And by the time
they got through, they had half that book marked, and their pages
turned down. They had a wish book. If God
gave us what we really wanted and gave us all we thought we
needed, it would destroy us spiritually. That's why he gives us mountains.
That's why he gives us obstacles. That's why he gives us difficulties.
And I'll tell you this, I don't know what I need, but the Lord
knows what I need. Oh my. And I tell you, whatsoever
things you desire, ain't that what he says there? In verse
24, whatsoever things you desire. You know what that word desire
means? It means to ask, it means to require, it means to beg,
and it also means to crave, crave. What things do you require? What things would you ask for?
What things would you beg for? What things do you crave? I tell
you one thing I need to be, oh my, I ask to be, I want to be
found in Christ. I want to be found in Christ.
Not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness of God
in Christ. Oh my, I tell you what else I
desire. I desire to have his mercy and
grace with me all the time. Oh my. I crave, I crave forgiveness
of my sin. All my sin. All my sin. I crave to have all my sin forgiven. I crave that. Oh my. I crave, I desire, I ask the
Lord. I crave for him to keep me. Oh Lord, I beg you, keep me. Crave for him to keep me. Ask
him to keep me. Beg for him to keep me. Oh, my. Tell you something else I crave.
I believe you do too. Faith. Oh, sometimes I think
I ain't got enough. I don't think I got, I don't
even think I got that buster seat faith sometimes. But oh,
faith. Humility. You know what humility
is? Not thinking about yourself all
the time. Humility is not walking around with your head down and
all. You know what true humility is? Not thinking about yourself
all the time. That's just the opposite of humility. Humility thinks nothing of itself. Because you know why it thinks
nothing of itself? Because we are nothing in and
of ourselves. Paul said, I'm nothing. Nothing. And oh, my. And oh, my, to have a forgiving
spirit. And oh, talk about prayer. I
tell you this in desire. I desire if one of my loved ones
gets sick or gets in a bad condition, that oh, my, I desire that our
Lord, that He would heal them according to His will. according
to His will. And then He said in verse 25, and then when you stand praying,
pray. You know, our Lord talked about
the Pharisees and Sadducees and them standing praying. And that's,
you know, most folks think you not have to get on your knees
to pray, but our Lord said to you, when you stand praying,
when you stand praying, look what He says now, if you have
ought OUGHT ANYTHING! ANYTHING! And you know what OUGHT
is? Old-timers used to talk about
an OUGHT, that means a ZERO, it really didn't amount to much.
I don't have OUGHT against anybody as far as I know, but look what
he says, If you stand praying, forgive, if you have OUGHT against
any, that your Father, also which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses. Oh, my, and you know what the
results? Results of failing to forgive? Look what it says in
verse 26. Here's the results of not being
able to forgive. But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. What does that mean? Exactly
what it says. Exactly what it says. Oh my. If I am a forgiven sinner,
if I am a forgiven sinner, I will be a forgiving sinner. I will be a forgiving sinner. Forgiveness is just as essential
as prayer. Forgiveness is. And men and women
or anybody who refuses to forgive know nothing, nothing about being
forgiven. Sad, ain't it? Sad, sad. If anyone's wronged you, if you have ought, if anyone's
wronged you, Now let me say this, most of the things that we perceive
as being wronged we ought to overlook. It ought to be overlooked
and forgotten. Charity covers the multitude
of sin, it really does. But there is such a thing as
being wronged. There is such a thing as being
wronged. There's such a thing as being abused, tongue lashings. There's things
as being accused unjustly, misrepresented, betrayed, treated very harshly. All these things are painful,
very, very painful. What are you going to do about
them? Forgive them? Forgive them, but they haven't
asked for forgiveness. Forgive them anyway. Forgive
them anyway. Ain't that what God did to us? Did God not forgive us? How many harsh things have we
said about him? How many things have we thought
about him that's not right? How many times we wronged him?
How many times have we wronged him? Oh my. And the most God-like thing that
you and I can do is to forgive someone. The most God-like thing
we can do is to forgive anyone. What's the gospel about? What
is the gospel about? It's about the glory of our Lord
Jesus Christ And what did His glory is? Forgiving sinners. Son, thy sins be forgiven you.
This woman, which is a great sinner, sins are forgiven. Woman taken in adultery. Woman,
where are thy accusers? There's no man, Lord, neither
do I accuse thee. Oh, my. Oh, listen, that person, that
person who cannot forgive knows nothing of being forgiven. Knows nothing of being forgiven.
I want you to keep Luke. Now, look over with me at Exodus
34. Oh, this business of forgiveness. Oh, Lord, help us, help us, help
us. And look in verse seven, excuse
me, verse six. This is what God's talking about.
It's what our Lord's talking, it's what our Lord says about
himself. The Lord's talking about coming
down Moses. And the Lord passed before him,
Exodus 34, six, the Lord, the Lord God, position to what is
like merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity, transgression and sin, and that by no means The clear,
the guilty. What a God, keeping mercy, forgiving
iniquity, forgiving trespasses, forgiving sins. What was the first cry of our
Lord Jesus Christ from the cross? What was his first cry? What
was the first thing he said when he was on the cross? Father, forgive them, forgive
them. They know not what they do. Forgive them, forgive them. Now
I want you to keep, look again, I'm gonna have you turn to Luke,
I mean, keep Mark chapter 11. Now look in Luke 17 with me.
I want us to see a couple of things here. I want us to see
a few things. Look what he said in Luke 17,
three. Look what our master says here
now. Take heed to yourselves. Who's he talking about take heed
to? You, yourselves. Yourselves, take heed to yourselves,
not somebody else. Not what somebody else is doing,
not what somebody else is saying, what somebody else is acting.
Oh my, take heed, you're the one. You're the one troubled. You're the one bitter. You're
the one resentful. You're the one with hurt feelings.
It's the character of God to forgive, and that's what he said.
If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him. If he repent,
forgive him. And if he trespass against thee
seven times in a day, seven times in a day, turn again to say,
I'm sorry, I repent, I'm sorry, forgive them, forgive them. There's
no limit to forgiveness. Is there any limit to God's forgiveness?
Should there be any limit to our forgiveness? And there's a powerful, powerful,
powerful place of illustration, a parable of forgiveness in Matthew
Turn there with me and let's look at a few verses over here.
Matthew 18. Start at verse 21. This is a
powerful, powerful parable about forgiveness of sin, forgiveness
period. Then came Peter to him, said,
Lord, how often shall I forgive my brother, my brother's sin
against me? And I forgive him till seven
times. I'm not supposed to do it seven
times. Then when seven times is up, am I done with it? Peter thought he was very magnanimous
here. Oh, he's just been, oh my goodness. Oh, I forgive him seven times. But look what our Lord said.
He uses a definite number to show an indefinite amount of
time. But our Lord said unto him, I
say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. There's never a time, never a
time. when you're not to forgive. Never. It's unlimited. It's unlimited. And our Lord, unlimited in His.
And then look what He goes on to say now. And therefore the
kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king. He's going to
come down and He's going to take account of His servants. He's
going to come take account of us. And when he had begun to reckon,
having him up, said, Now come and tell me what one was brought
unto him that owed him ten thousand talents. You know what that'd
be in today's money? Close to a billion dollars, close
to a billion dollars. Back in those days it was 750
ounces of silver, and oh, my! owed him 10,000 talents, but
for as much he had not to pay." There we are, plain as the nose
on your face, you've got nothing to pay. How are you going to
pay off your account? How are you going to pay off
a debt that you ain't got nothing to pay with? A debt that's immeasurable,
how can we pay? We got nothing to pay. And if
we had something to pay, what would it be? What it would be
that God would accept? What would it possibly be that
God Himself would accept? But oh, my! And all for as much
as he had not to pay, we had nothing to pay with. His Lord
commanded him, Sell him, sell his wife, his children, and all
that he had, and get what money you can out of it. He said, they're useless to me.
They're useless to me. Then the Lord, the servant therefore
fell down. That servant that owed all this
money fell down and worshiped him. And in the margin, it says,
besought him, asked him, saying, Lord, have patience with me. Have patience with me and I'll
pay you every penny I owe you. I'll pay you. This was an empty
promise. It was an empty promise. Just
as sure as anything. And oh, then the Lord of that
servant, look what he says now, was moved with compassion and
loosed him and forgave him that debt. An immeasurable amount
of money. And the Lord forgave him. But
oh my, look what happens, look what happens. This is the same
servant, the Lord just had compassion on him, moved and loosed him,
forgave him his debt, have patience with me and I'll pay you. But
the same servant went out, found one of his fellow servants which
owed him a hundred pennies. I mean, just a smidgen, just
a smidgen. Which owed him 100 pence. Oh,
half an ounce of a penny. And he laid hands on him. He
got mean, he got cruel, he got vengeful. And he laid hands on
him. Our Lord didn't lay hands on
this man. He asked for forgiveness and he got it. And he took him
by the throat. Oh, get him. You owe me some
money. Pay me what you owe. And look
what he did. His fellow servant fell down
at his feet, fell down at this man's feet and begged him, said,
have patience with me. Just exactly what he told the
Lord. Have patience with me and I'll pay y'all. And look what
he said. He wouldn't do it. He would not
do it. He wouldn't forgive him. He wouldn't
let him go with that debt. And oh my. And he would not,
but listen to what he did. He went and cast him into prison
till he should pay the debt. No mercy, no forgiveness, no
kindness, no tenderness, no grace. And oh, so when his service saw
what was done, They were very sorry. Oh, they grieved, they
were so sorry. And they came and told unto their
Lord all that was done, told how he treated his fellow servant. Then his Lord, after he had called
him, saith unto him, O thou wicked, wicked servant, I forgave you
all that debt because you asked me, you desired it. Should not
thou also have compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I
had pity on you? And his lord was wroth, delivered
him to the tormentors, not the prison to the tormentors, till
he should pay all that was due him. Now listen to what he says
here. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father Do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses. What do y'all think about that?
Pretty serious, ain't it? Pretty serious. Now back in Mark
11, and I'll wind this thing up. I'll wind it up. Verse 25 and 26. And when you stand praying, Forgive. When you pray, forgive. Forgive. If you have ought against
any, that your Father also, which
is in heaven, forgive you your trespasses. If God forgive you,
you forgive. But oh my, but if you do not forgive, if
you haven't got that ability, if you haven't got that in your
heart and got that in your soul and got that in your nature,
but if you do not forgive, neither will your father forgive you
which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses. Forgive and you shall be forgiven.
This is not good advice. God don't give advice. This is
a command. It's a command, an immediate
command. You know, there is so much freedom
So much freedom. So much happiness. So much liberty. And forgiving. Sets you free. Sets you free. Oh, it just sets you free. You
know, ain't got nothing, no ought against anybody. Forgive. Oh, the freedom, the peace, the
joy it gives. You know what? Ephesians 4.32 says this, Be
ye kind, tenderhearted, one to another, forgiving one another,
even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Our Father, blessed be your holy
name. I am so thankful that there's
an unlimitless, no limit to your forgiveness, no limit to how
many times you forgive us. Because Lord, we need forgiveness.
We need it. We need in ourselves to have
a forgiving heart, a forgiving spirit. We need you to do for
us what we're not able to do for ourselves. Lord, teach us from your word.
Give us your Holy Spirit. God, enable us to take the yoke
of Christ upon ourselves. It's so light and so easy. that
we may learn of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may learn how
forgiving, how compassionate, how pitiful, and how long-suffering
he is in patience with us. Lord, we're like that man. Lord,
have patience with me. But we'll never say we'll pay
thee all, because, Lord, you paid it all. You paid it all,
all to you we owe. Sin, sin left a crimson stain,
and you washed it, you made it as white as snow. Blessed be
your name. Amen. Jesus Christ is made to me All
I need, all I need He alone is all my plea He is all I need
Wisdom, righteousness, and power Holiness forevermore, my redemption
full and sure, He is all I need. I'll see you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing.