Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Matthew chapter 6. Before we look, I'm going to
look at verses 14 and 15. Matthew 6, 14, 15. But before we do,
let's ask our Lord to bless us. Our Father, this evening, we
call upon you and we ask your blessing upon this service. Lord,
we pray for our brother Don. We pray your will be done. Pray for the congregation in
Danville. Lord, I ask if we ask a right,
Lord, would you do that which is right and pleasing in your
sight? Forgive us this evening. Guide
us for Christ's sake. Amen. Our Lord preaching the Sermon
on the Mount. As in this particular passages
that we've looked at recently. He's dealt with the subject of
giving. He's dealt with the subject of
praying, and He's given instruction to His people, when you do these
things, when you give. All believers give. All believers
give. All believers pray. When you
pray, when you give. Don't do it to be seen of men. If you're doing it for the attention,
You have your reward. Just do it. Don't let your left
hand know what your right hand is doing. Then last time we were
looking as we were considering the matter of prayer, our Lord
gave a manner of praying. Verse 9 of
Matthew 6, after this manner, not repeat this verbatim every
time you pray, but with this spirit, in this light when you
pray. And he taught his disciples something
of prayer. Now he's taught us concerning
the subject of these things, the spirit of this thing. And
tonight, I want us to deal with two verses that just follows
right up to where we were when we were looking at praying. He
had said in verse 12, we ended in verse 13 last time, but he
said in verse 12, pray in this manner, pray in this light, 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. And then he taught us, end your
prayers this way. For Christ's sake. It's the Lord. Amen. That's the name of the
Lord. I am the Amen. So when we end
our prayers, the scripture teaches us, we do say Amen. Scripture
written that way. Spirit of God moved upon Matthew
and many others to say it. That's how we end it. But when
we say it, this is what we're saying. The Lord Jesus. The Lord
Jesus. That's what we're saying. So
in telling his disciples, he said, you pray after this manner.
Lord, forgive us of the indebtedness that we have incurred against
you. Forgive us just as we have forgiven,
just as we have left, and remitted and let go of the debts and the
resentments toward others. Forgive us in the way we have
toward others, is what he's saying. That's pretty arresting to me
to hear that. Forgive us as we have forgiven
others. and lead us, or bring us not
into temptation to be overcome, is what he's saying, but deliver
us from the evil, from the evil one, because, for, you, Lord,
you possess the kingdom, you possess all power, you possess
all glory, and it's yours forever. The Lord Jesus. Now our Lord
taught something on this right here. Hold your place in Matthew
5. Turn to Matthew 18. He gave a parable. And he said, this is the spirit
of forgiveness. That's what I'm going to be preaching
on tonight. That's what he's teaching on. Forgiveness. Matthew chapter
18, verse 21 to 35. I'm going to read it. Matthew 18, 21. Then came Peter
to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against
me and I forgive him? Until seven times. And Jesus
saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until
70 times seven. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven
Now he said now, when it says the kingdom of heaven, what he's
saying is this. This is how a believer, this
is how the church, this is how the regenerate, this is how,
this is the spirit of a believer for the kingdom of heaven is.
The kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would
take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon,
one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. Now I can't tell you, because
there were so many different calculations. I've tried to look
that up. 10,000 talents. Of what that
was and what it came to, and I will tell you this. It seems
as though that the amount is somewhere over 100 million. in today's money. One calculation, 127,500,000
was one of the calculations. It was a lot of money. Owed him
10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, his wife, his children,
all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore
fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with
me. I will pay thee all. Then the
Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him
and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence A pence was one day's wage. He owed him a hundred days, he
owed him about three days, three months, a little over three months
wages. He laid hands on him, took him
by the throat, saying, pay me that thou ow'st. And his fellow
servant fell down at his feet, besought him saying, have patience
with me, I will pay thee all. But he would not. but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. And when
his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry
and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. And his
Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me,
shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow
servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth,
delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was
due unto him. So likewise shall thy heavenly
father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses." His Lord said, I forgave you
$127 million and you wouldn't forgive him? For a hundred pence? Throw him
in jail until he pays every bit of it. Now how much of it do
you think he's going to pay in prison? Back in Matthew chapter
6. This is the Spirit, what our
Lord is teaching concerning forgiveness. Now, first, concerning forgiveness. Verse 14 and 15, for if you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your
Father forgive your trespasses. Now there's something that I
especially want to just say. There's certain things that we
need to declare that are very evident to a believer We know
this, but they still need to be declared. Our forgiving others
is that which is very evident. That we forgive one another is
very evident. But let me say something here.
Our forgiving those who wrong us in no wise is a meritorious
act that deserves the forgiveness of God toward us. What I mean
is this. God is not a debtor. The Lord
is not looking and waiting on us to do something in order for
Him to do something. That would be salvation by works
alone. And the scripture says, Ephesians
2.8, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So
the Lord does not bestow grace, forgiveness on us only after
we have bestowed graciousness and forgiveness on others. No,
it's not what the Lord is saying in 14 and 15. These two verses
are not rules that must be obeyed first and then the way is opened
up for God's kindness. But these verses, two verses
we just read, are set forth as the evidence. of His grace and
mercy that has already been bestowed. What He's saying is this, if
you forgive men their trespasses, when it says your Heavenly Father
will also forgive you, He's already forgiven you and will continue
to forgive you. Because God doesn't change, is
what He's saying. It's not that we did the first
act. No, God Almighty did something
for us, put a spirit of love and forgiveness in our heart.
We forgive others, but he says in verse 15, but if you forgive
not men their trespasses, let me tell you what that means.
He never put a spirit of forgiveness there. If we have no spirit of forgiveness
for others because there's not a new life there, therefore,
neither will your father forgive your trespasses. If He's done
something for His people, there's going to be an evidence of it,
is what He's saying. So, in all acts of love and compassion,
God Almighty is the first cause. His grace, His mercy toward us
is the cause. And our mercy to others is the
effect. That's how it is. You know that. Listen to this. Ephesians 4.32,
Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. As God for Christ's sake
has forgiven us, then we for Christ's sake forgive others. Had we not been given the life
of Christ. If the Lord had not given us
new life, if we had not been forgiven of God for Christ's
sake, we would have never possessed a heart of kindness and compassion
for Christ's sake toward others. So these two verses here set
forth the foundation and the witness of a regenerated heart. It's a witness that was spoken
of by our Lord in this verse, John 13, 35. By this shall all
men know that you're my disciples, if you have love for one another,
love one to another. It's not that our love makes
us disciples of Christ. No. What it is, is being disciples
regenerated by the grace of God, by God's good pleasure, we evidence
the fact that we are His disciples when we love one another. That's
the evidence. By this they'll know. By this
they'll know that my disciples, you love one another, you forgive
one another. That's how you know. If you forgive others, it's because
God's forgiven you. If you have no spirit of forgiveness,
I don't want to forgive, I don't want to reconcile. No, you offended
me and I'm mad. And I deserve to be mad. Well, there's something wrong. So forgiveness
is the test. Forgiveness is the test of life
in Christ. Unless there's a spirit and a
desire to forgive, that spirit that is imparted. When God puts
a new spirit, a new life in a man or a woman, there's a reaction. It's going to happen. When the
Spirit of God moves upon a sinner, a vessel
of God's mercy, There is that fruit of God's
Spirit. What's there? There's love there
now. There's joy, there's peace, there's
long-suffering, there's gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness
and temperance. The Spirit of God imparts life,
Christ in you, the hope of glory, and that life manifests itself. It's like a person that is alive. They move. You just cannot say that there's
life until you see there's life. There's got to be a heart beating.
There's got to be something there. But if there's nothing there,
then it doesn't do anything. It's just there. It's just a
body. But a believer, has got a new man and new spirit. Unless that mark of forgiveness,
love is there, one might surely wonder at the validity of his
claim to Christ. A man loves his wife, wife loves
her husband. How do you know? Well, they manifest
it. There is a manifestation of that
love. It's like claiming, when the
scripture says that the gospel is the power of God of salvation.
It's like someone saying, well I believe that a man or a woman
can be saved some other way, you know, and they have a spirit
about them, and it's just, it's not the spirit of a believer,
and you say, you know what, that's not right, something's not right.
It ain't there. Life in Christ is evidence. The Scripture says it's forgiveness.
It's love for the brethren. So where the Spirit has wrought
a work of grace, there's a graciousness and effect of that graciousness
found. Listen to Ezekiel 36.27. This is the word of the Lord.
I will put my Spirit within you. Okay, there's a fact. I will
put. You didn't decide. You didn't
decide for me. I will put my spirit in you.
Totally an act of God's grace. God's power. I'm going to remove
that stony heart. I'm going to give you a new heart
of flesh. I'm going to put a new spirit
in you. I will put my spirit within you. cause you to walk in my statutes. My prescribed task is what that
means. And ye shall keep my judgments,
my word, my ordinance, my speech, and do them. Now you know what? That's not even up for debate.
The Lord said, this is the way it is. I'll put my spirit in
you, and you shall, I'll cause you to walk. You'll walk. Thomas
Manton, one of the old writers, said this. He said, there's none
so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves.
that know how gently God has dealt with them. Here's the thing. Here's the foundation of forgiveness.
What has the Lord forgiven me of? Everything. Who is the most offended one
ever? The Lord. We've all sinned. All
have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God? Oh, the transgressions against Him! And the evil against Him! And He's the one that forgave
us the 127 million. Our amount can't even be calculated
according to His parable. That was the parable, the show.
It was great! It was a great amount! And the
amount that one to another here, that's the hundred pence. This is what he's done. Forgiveness,
I've made a couple of notes here and I'm going to stop. Forgiveness
flows from a heart that knows we're all dug from the same lump
of depravity. Where did we all come from? Same
lump. All of us. Came from the same place. We're
sinners just like everybody else. There's not an ounce of difference
in any of us here tonight. We have the same old man. Come
from the same source. Forgiveness, now listen, I thought
about when I was writing these down, I thought about this. I
want to put this right. Forgiveness is submission to
our Lord. It's submission to our Lord.
It's submission to His word and His will. Forgiveness is to say
His name, His gospel, His bride is more worthy to be honored
by my obedience to Him than for me to be pacified by my anger
and unforgiveness toward others. He is more worthy. and those
that he loves is what I'm trying to say. It's more honorable to
honor him by forgiving one another than it is for me to cater to
my own evil wicked whims. That's all I'm doing. Unforgiveness is to say my old
man knows better than God. That envy, strife, and division
is proper and better than peace. Unforgiveness, that's what it
says. Forgiveness with any condition
is not forgiveness. The way I'm thinking about this,
I was thinking about what the Lord's done for us. Forgiveness
with any condition. If God's put a condition on me
to forgive me, I'm gone. I don't have any hope. He's got
to forgive me because He chose to do so. Because I have no way
of keeping up the bargain. I don't want to offend Him, but
I can't do anything but sin. And it grieves me when I do,
but oh thanks be unto God that He's paid the debt. The Lord
Jesus paid the debt with His blood. Forgiveness, last one. Forgiveness is liberty. You've
just got a weight lifted off of you. It just feels so good
just to not stew and fester and boil over with unvented passion. Forgiveness is liberty. Genesis
chapter 50. And then we're going to observe
the Lord's table. Genesis chapter 50. I wanted to know where was
the first time forgiveness was ever mentioned in the Bible?
Genesis chapter 50. Genesis 50 verse 15. Genesis
50 verse 15. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us. You remember the story. Joseph,
their brother, all of his brothers were envious of him so they sold
him to a traveling band going into Egypt. He went over there and in time
God raised him up second in command. He was the man right below Pharaoh,
Joseph. He was the one that had charge
of dispersing all the corn and stuff like that. His brothers,
you know the story, how they had to come and had to go before
Joseph. They didn't know that was their
brother. They didn't recognize him. It's not the way he looked
last time we saw him. And so now, their daddy has died. And they're going to have to
deal with Joseph now. And Joseph is second in command.
And he can make things go pretty bad for them. When Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will perhaps
hate us. and will certainly requite us
all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger
unto Joseph, saying, thy father did command before he died, saying,
they want to make sure that Joseph hears what their dad said before
they have to go before him. And they said, this is what dad
said. So shall you say unto Joseph,
forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren. and
their sin. For they did unto thee evil.
And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants
of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake
unto him. Just broke his heart. And his
brethren also went and fell down before his face. And they said,
behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear
not. For am I in the place of God? What he's saying is, do
I have right to pass judgment on you? That's what he's saying.
But as for me, you thought evil against me. But God meant it
unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much
people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not. I will nourish you and your little
ones. And he comforted them and spake
kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt. He and his father's house, Joseph,
lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children,
third generation children also, the son of Manasseh brought upon
Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brethren,
I die, and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this
land into the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob,
Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely
visit you. You should carry up my bones
from hence. So Joseph died. Being 110 years old, they embalmed
him. He was put in a coffin in Egypt. What happened was his brothers,
they'd sinned against him. They had done him evil. They
were indebted to him, believe me. And they came before him,
and they said, dad, dad, said for us to tell you, forgive us.
We're your servants. We're sorry. Please, we ask you
to forgive us. And it broke his heart. And he
just wept. And they reconciled. And they were, oh, they were
back, you know, read the story. They had their kids. And there
was Joseph with their kids and his little nephews and all the
kids. And they were just, they were
a family, you know. And they loved one another. And
he died. He died. Reconciliation was written all
over it, you know. And the Lord granted peace and
comfort. That's liberty right there, isn't
it? It's just joy and just to be able to. And he died 110 years
old. But he died in the faith. He
died believing God. And that spirit of forgiveness
and oneness was found in that family and they just, you know,
it was just Miracle of the grace of God. I pray God bless this
to our hearts and teach us You know love one another forgive
one another for Christ's sake for Christ's sake it flies in
the face of our flesh I can tell you that I know that But for
Christ's sake may the Lord grant forgiveness to all of us