There are some seats up here at the
front. Vincent, will you grab a couple
more seats out of the back? We'll be in Matthew Chapter 18.
Let me make one more announcement while we're waiting. The 4th Friday, we will have
a 4th Friday this month. So, that 4th Friday, 7.30, our
house for the 4th Friday fellowship. So, just so you remember that.
Of course, that's something we do every week. Unless you hear
from me otherwise, that's a go. Okay? Is everybody listening?
Nobody's looking at me. Unless you hear from me otherwise,
the fourth Friday of every month is on the book. Okay? So look
at the calendar. We won't have that deer in the
headlight look. All right? All right. Let's turn to Matthew
18. Matthew 18. Now in the King James translation
of the Bible, there are headings at the top of the page to tell
us what the page is about. Now those headings are not the
inspired word of God, they were put there by the translators,
but they are often helpful to tell us what that passage is
about. The heading for Matthew 18 is
how we are to treat our offending brethren. You know, the Bible
never tells me how others are to treat me. It only tells me
how to treat others. And this is how we are to treat
our offending brethren. Now we've got a lot of families
here with a lot of children. Do you ever have brothers or
sisters that offend you? I got to looking at this passage
because Emma and Will were having a little trouble this week. And
so I pulled this passage out and read it to them. And when
I did, I began to make some comments and I just knew this is what
I had to preach on this week. This is a word for how believers
are to treat our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the
family of God. Those brothers and sisters who
offend us. You know, a peaceful, forgiving
house is more, whether it's the Lord's house or whether it's
your own house, a peaceful, forgiving house is more conducive for seeking
Christ and His righteousness than a house full of brawling.
It's just you can't concentrate, you can't focus in a house full
of brawling. Scripture says, Proverbs 21,
9 says, It's better to dwell in a corner of the housetop than
with a brawling woman in a wide house. The woman represents the
church. The woman represents the church
of God in the scripture. And it's better to be in a small
house where the bride, the people of God are faithful and merciful
and forgiving than it is to be in a wide house, a big church
building with lots of people where it's a house full of brawling. You know, a hard contentious
heart points the finger and places the blame. That's the flesh. That's the hard contentious heart. Point the finger. Put the blame
on somebody else. It's somebody else's fault. They
should have done this. They shouldn't have done that.
Point the blame. A broken and a contrite heart
that knows what great debt God has forgiven us is more willing
to forgive, more willing to forgive. The Lord Jesus is teaching us
this. Now in this passage he had taught
us how very, very important it is for us not to offend our brethren. That's where he began in verse
6. He says, Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, Whosoever shall offend one of the little ones
that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone, a big
giant stone used to grind meal, it was better that one of those
stones were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned
in the depth of the sea. Now that's Christ talking. That's
how he regards his people. It's better to be drowned in
the sea than to offend one of his brethren, one of his sheep.
And then the Lord taught us the careful steps that we're to take
with a brother who does offend us. You go to him first. Don't
go to everybody in the country. Don't go to everybody in your
family and spread the news about what he's done to offend you.
You go to him. And then if he doesn't hear you,
you go with two or more witnesses. Sometimes it takes a couple of
people to wake us up and make us realize I have been offensive.
I need to change and ask for his forgiveness. If he won't
hear that, take it to the church, he said. That's a drastic step. That's not something that we're
looking to do. You found that once in the scripture,
in the New Testament, one time. And in 25 years of being in the
church, I've seen something like that happen one time. And it
was a drastic case, a drastic case. But now then, here's this
question. What if I forgive somebody, and
then they keep offending, And I keep forgiving them and they
keep offending and I keep forgiving them. Do I just keep forgiving
them? How long do I forgive them? And so Peter asked this question
in Matthew 18, 21. Then came Peter to the Lord and
said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I
forgive him? Until seven times? And Peter was being generous
here because the Old Testament Scripture said under the law
three times. So Peter's being generous when
he says seven times. But the Lord answers this. Jesus said unto him, I say not
unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Seventy times seven means without
limit. Without limit. I've titled this,
Forgive Without Limit. Forgive without limit. A believer
who has been forgiven. So great a debt by God. for the sake of another, for
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, has a heart willing to forgive. And we are to forgive without
limit. There's no limit to that forgiveness.
In chapter 6, Christ taught us to pray, Father, forgive us our
debts, our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And here He's showing
us that our sins are debts. their debts, their debts that
have been canceled for the believer. And he's showing us that those
that are forgiven by God have been or that we ought to forgive
one another. That's what he's showing here
now. Let's read this together. We're going to read verses 23
down to the end of the chapter. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.
This is a parable. This is the Lord using an earthly
story to just show us what the kingdom of heaven is like. Therefore
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 ten thousand talents.
But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to
be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment
to be made. The servant therefore fell down
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all. And 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.
And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying,
Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
on his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. and he would not, but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. And so when
his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry,
and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then
his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on
thee? And his lord was wroth, angry,
and he delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was
due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly
father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses. Now this passage, this parable
is full of contrasts. And that's what our Lord is doing
here. He's showing us a contrast. And
so I want to look at three contrasts that we can see in this passage.
First of all, let's concentrate on the relationship, let's contrast
the relationship between God and His servants, His people. And the relationship between
fellow believers, between fellow servants. Let's contrast these
two relationships. First we have an illustration
of God our Savior and true believers. He says, verse 23, the kingdom
of heaven is like this. He's talking about this gospel
dispensation we live in. He's talking about the church
and kingdom and family of God. This is what the church of God
is like. He says, it's like to a certain king which would take
account of his servants. A certain king who would take
account of his servants. Now this is what the Kingdom
and Church of God is like. God our Father is represented
here by the King, the Lord God. It says in verse 35, So likewise
shall my heavenly Father do also unto you. He puts the Father
in place of the King. And then Christ is the King.
He's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's the King of His
Kingdom. He's the one that's instructing us in this parable.
He stands between us and the Father, between those He's redeemed
and the Father, and He teaches us and instructs us in our hearts.
And He's the one who does that. The Kingdom of Heaven, the Church
and Family of God belongs to God our Father and Christ our
King. And then every believer that's
been saved by His grace is a servant of God. You know, we were the
servants of sin. in bondage to sin. And when he
saves us, he doesn't just set a man free and make a man free
with no authority over it. He makes a man willing to be
the willing bond servant of the Lord. We're the servants of the
Lord, willingly. It's a good service. It's an
easy service. Now, we're all servants of Him
by grace. By God the Father's electing
grace, He blessed His people with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places according as He chose us in Him. He didn't
have to do that. He did it by grace. He didn't
see something good in His people. He chose us by grace. Grace is
the opposite of merit. If there was something good in
us, it would have been merit. that He chose us by. He chose
us by grace. And we're His servants by Christ's
redeeming blood. And we're His servants by the
God the Holy Spirit regenerating us. All of grace we've been made
servants. Freely by grace we've been made
servants. Now notice who gives account in this illustration
of the kingdom of heaven. It says, verse 23, it says, The
kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king which would
take account of His servants. It's to God our Father, it's
to Christ our Master that we shall give account. And He has
every right to take account of His servants. He's the judge.
He's God. It's His kingdom. He's the King.
He has every right to take account of His servants. First of all,
the King in this parable took account of a servant in what he owed
to him, what he owed to the king. God will take account of us in
what our hearts are toward him. And then the king took account
of this servant in how he treated his fellow servant. God will
take account of how we treat our fellow brethren. Now, so
God our Savior, He has the right to take account of His servants.
And He shall. We must give account to Him.
Now, then we have an example of believers and believers. Look
down at verse 28. But the same servant went out,
and he found one of his fellow servants, which owed him. Do
you notice the difference? The first instance was the king,
who's greater, taking account of his servant, who's lower and
beneath him. Here, you have a servant taking
account of a fellow servant, who's equal to him. He has no
right to be taken account of his fellow servant. They're equal. He's not above
him. So Peter's question is this.
How many times shall I forgive my brother? Now you think about
that question. First of all, it's not the place
of one believer to keep account of the offenses done against
us by our fellow brethren. That's not our job. And the only
way I'm going to know how many times I've forgiven somebody
is if I'm keeping score. And that's not our job. It's
just not our job. If we do so, we'll be in the
mindset that, well, once he reaches a certain number, then I'm just
now to condemn him, to judge him, and to cast him out, reject
him. And then secondly, it's to God
alone that his servants must give account. He's the judge. Our fellow brethren are Christ's
servants. They're Christ's servants. And
when we start trying to take that position, we put ourselves
in the position of God. That's why James said, don't
be many masters. That's why he said, there's one
lawgiver. And he's able to save and to
destroy. And you and I are not. You and
I, no sinner has ever been able to affect obedience in the heart
of another sinner. Ever. Ever. God is the only one
that can do that. It's not by might nor by power. Not by the strength of men. It's
by His Holy Spirit. It's by His power. He is alone.
Look over at Romans 14. Romans 14. Look at verse 4. I told this to the children this
week, I said when you have trouble with one another, it's not Emma's
job to determine Will has reached his limit and now it's time for
her to discipline Will. It's not her job and it's not
his job to do that to her. What they can do though is bring
it to me. It is my job. They can bring
it to me. And that's what we're learning
here. It's not our job to do that with our brethren. It's
God's job. And so we bring it to Him. Listen
to this, verse 4. Who art thou that judges another
man's servant? Another man's servant. To his
own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. If he's a true child of God,
God's going to make him stand. Verse 9, For to this end Christ
both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of
the dead and the living. And He is of those dead in sins
and those He's quickened by His grace. Look at verse 10, But
why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy
brother? For we shall all stand before
the judgment seat of Christ. We're all going to stand there.
It's his seat of judgment. For it is written, as I live,
saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall
confess to God. To God. To God. You don't confess
your sins to me. I'm not a priest. I don't want
to know them. Confess them to God. We all confess them to God
one day sooner or later. But look at this now, verse 12.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one
another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. So this
is the first reason we have putting no limit on forgiveness. We're
not keeping score. It's God the Father's, it's His
right and His glory. It's Christ the mediator to whom
all judgment has been given to take account of His servants.
And it's to Him we must give account. It's not our place to
do it. Alright, now let's look at the second contrast. Go back
to Matthew 18. Let's contrast the enormous debt
to this little debt. Now look here, first the enormous
debt. Now the question that we're answering
here is, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive
him? How often? And so Christ is essentially
given this parable to ask this question. Do you want to keep
score? Believer, do you want to keep score? You want God to
keep score? Alright, now look. Christ begins
with a king taking account of his servant. And as soon as his
servant was brought to him, you know what was found out? That
servant owed him. Look at verse 24. One was brought
unto him which owed him. He owed the king. And then look
at this. How great the debt was. He owed
him 10,000 talents. Now when Christ gave this parable
he knew that this amount would sound just astronomical to the
people he was speaking to. I looked it up to try to find
out what would this be in American dollars and no two people agree
on what it would be. But the range is from 300 million
to a trillion dollars. And one writer said in Christ's
day it would equal 150,000 years wages. That's how much it would equal.
Our Lord sets forth this man who owes this extravagant, unfathomable
amount to his king to remind us that we, his servants, what
we owe to him. What we owe to him. As our creator,
as our benefactor, God demands of every one of us two things.
Of every child born of Adam, he demands two things. And this
is not extreme, this is not unreasonable at all. There is nothing about
this. They are perfectly righteous
demands. He demands thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart. That means your thoughts. With all thy soul. With all thy
mind. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. We owe the Lord God a life. of
perfect obedience. Perfect righteousness. No wavering whatsoever. None
whatsoever. Failure to render such a life,
failure to render this obedience unto Him, incurs a debt. It incurs a debt. And it's impossible
for us to calculate the debt. That's what our Lord is showing
us here. Brethren, we failed at that. Every one of us have
failed at that. Don't ever, ever, ever imagine
that you fulfilled that. You have not. I assure you. Not
before conversion and not after conversion. You have not. I gave this Thursday night. I'll
give it again. And this was in the question. Whenever your neighbor's
house burnt down, did you take the keys over there and give
them the keys to your house? Then you didn't love them as yourself.
Christ gave His life. Christ loved God so perfectly
He was not conceived in sin like we are. He was holy in the womb. And He came forth, not speaking
lies, speaking truth. And He followed the will of His
Lord from the day He was born unto the death of the cross. While He hung on that cross,
and God the Father justly turned His back on Him because He was
bearing the sin of His people and paying the justice we owe,
the debt we owe. And because He loved His brethren,
He laid down His life. That's loving God with all your
mind and soul and heart and your brethren as yourself. Look to
the cross and you'll see it fulfilled. But don't you and I ever entertain
the idea that we've done this. We have not. If we could, God
would not have sent His Son. God did this. God in the person
of His Son did this. And not only have we failed to
obey Him, but we have further indebted ourselves because we've
sinned against Him. We've gone further. We've sinned
against him. Sin is a debt. Nobody today knows much about
debt because everybody's in debt up to the eyeballs and thinks
that that's just a way of life. More stuff you got, that's good. No, that's debt. That means you're
slave to the lender. If China calls our debts, we're
gone. And as soon as they get their
navy big enough, they probably will. That's just how it is, brethren.
It's a debt beyond calculation. And for the sinner outside of
Christ, that debt is increasing. You've seen those tote boards,
you know, when they're doing marathons and you see the amount
just increasing. That's the sin for the man that's
outside of Christ. His sin is calculating every
minute of every day. And it will do that until the
day he dies. And then he'll meet God who's
going to take account, to whom he must give account. Sin is
such a vast debt because it goes against God's will. Sin is a
violation of God's law. Sin is a contemning of God's
authority. It's a despising of God's sovereignty
and of His dominion. It's a defacing His image in
us. He created us after His image.
It's resisting His Spirit. It's sliding all His love and
mercy and goodness. It's exposing the sinner to eternal
wrath and vengeance. This is why sin is a horrible
debt that we owe. And you, brethren, you and I
who God has called by His grace, in addition to this debt that
if God called us to account outside of Christ, we owe this debt of
perfect righteousness. We would owe this debt of putting
away all our sin. But He's done that. Christ has
fulfilled that law for us. He has put away our sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. And so not only do we have that
debt to think about, we have a debt of gratitude, brethren,
that can't be calculated. For you are bought with a price. You're bought with a price. God
our Father gave His only begotten Son. He gave His only begotten Son.
Friend, I don't even know who you are. Maybe we know each other.
I don't know. But I guarantee you this. You wouldn't want to
give your son, would you? I wouldn't want to either. He
gave his son. Think of that price. He gave
his only begotten son, brethren. And Christ came and He gave and
He gave and He gave. Life. Isaiah said he poured out
his soul unto death. That just boggles me. He poured
out his soul, his life unto death. And because he did that, brethren,
we've been bought. We've been bought with a price.
He took all our debts upon himself and he paid all the debt we owe. Complete atonement Christ has
made and to the very last penny paid all that his people owe. How then can wrath on me take
place if sheltered in thy righteousness and sprinkled with thy blood?
Since Jesus my discharge procured and freely in my room endured
the whole of wrath divine, payment God cannot twice demand, first
at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine. He made
the payment in full, and the price He paid was His precious
blood. The Scripture says, you know
you were not redeemed. You have been redeemed, but you
were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.
And you know, us sitting here think, well, no preacher I ever
sat under told me I could be redeemed with silver and gold.
Well, some may have. Yes, some probably did. Some
kept telling you, put that money in that plate back there. But
they told you, you could be redeemed by walking in the aisle. They
told you, you could be redeemed by making your decision. They
told you, you could be redeemed because God had done all He could
do and now it's up to you to do the rest. That's them telling
you, you could be redeemed by these corruptible things. You
weren't redeemed with those things. We were redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without blemish. That's
how we were redeemed, brethren. When I stand before the throne,
dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, I shall fully know,
and not till then, how much I owe. We owe a great debt. So you let
this incredible debt that the Lord sets before us here to remind
us of the greatness of God's mercy and His grace that He's
shown to us who He chose and redeemed and gave His Spirit
and faith and repentance freely. He gave this freely because Christ
paid it all and satisfied God. Oh, what great depths of mercy
and graces. And then now, then look this.
Then now let's contrast that enormous debt with this little
bitty debt. Look down at verse 28. But the
same servant went out and he found one of his fellow servants
which owed him a hundred pens. Now first of all, notice this
debt was owed to a fellow servant. It was owed to a fellow servant.
This represents a fellow believer's offense of me. That's what this
represents. A fellow brother's offense of
you. That's what this represents. Notice this debt was a hundred
pence. A hundred pence equaled one talent. The greater debt was ten thousand
talents. This man owed one talent. Somebody
said the greater debt was 150,000 years wages, this was 100 days
wages. That's what the man owed. Now,
here's the point. Sins committed against us by
our brethren, they're minuscule, they're tiny compared to our
sin against God. They're tiny compared. And so
our Lord teaches us here, not only are we not to keep score,
not only are we not to be judging and keeping up with how many
times we've forgiven somebody, that's not our place, but two,
he's showing us here that the offense of our brother toward
us is nothing in comparison to our offense against him. Now
we remember that. Whatever it is that somebody's
done to me, it's nothing compared to what I've done to my God.
This will get us where we need to be. We think on these things,
this will get us from that proud, haughty thought of how dare he
do that to me like I'm somebody that deserves to be treated better.
This will bring us down to where we need to be. I've done infinitely
greater to my Heavenly Father. Now, let's look at this third
contrast. Let's contrast the compassion
and forgiveness with hard-heartedness and unwillingness to forgive.
Now, first of all, it was impossible for this first servant to pay
his Lord. Impossible. It was possible for
his fellow servant to pay him. He only owed him 100 days wages.
I mean, he could have paid him within a year. but it was impossible
for this servant to pay his Lord. Verse 25 says, for as much as
he had not to pay. He had not to pay. Brethren,
we had nothing to pay our God, the debt we owe. We had nothing
to pay. Notice this servant here represented
his wife and his children. He says, for as much as he had
not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and
his children and all that he had in payment to be made. Adam
represented us in the garden. He was the federal head like
this man was the head of his family. And when Adam sinned
in the garden, his wife was sold under sin and all his children
were sold under sin. And that was the same with us,
brethren. So, you know, it's not like we can start today and
say, well, I'm going to repent from my sin and live right today.
What about the fact, what about in your mama's womb? You was
conceived from Adam's corrupt seed. Conceived in sin. Made a corrupt nature in the
womb. What about that? And I came forth from my mother's
womb speaking lies. What about that? Not only did
I didn't actively obey God in perfect righteousness, I sinned
against Him the whole time. All that's got to be paid for.
And not only that, since God has called us brethren, we have
not obeyed God in perfect righteousness and we've sinned against God
daily, continually. So there's no way we could pay
God the life of obedience we owe. There's no way we can do
it now. We want to. The new man wants
to. We desire to. We hate our sin. We hate the fact that we can't
live like we would live. We want to be without sin. We
want to live righteously. We want to be perfectly conformed
to His image and see Him as He is, this One who's done so much
for His people. But still, brethren, God must
be paid. Verse 24 says, His Lord commanded
him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had
in payment to be made. So repentance won't pay that. A man could turn from his sin
today. That's not going to pay the debt.
A man could start doing good works today. That's not going
to pay the debt. In fact, if God threw you into
hell for eternity, you won't satisfy the debt you owe to God.
But God the Son, who is eternal, in His flesh went to that cross
and when He laid down His life, He took the debt of His people,
those that God gave Him. And He paid the debt of a particular
people and He paid that debt in full, brethren. He paid it
in full. Justice God will not twice demand. He poured out justice on His
Son and everyone for whom His Son died shall be quickened and
brought to hear this good news and believe on Christ because
He's paid this enormous debt for us. And not only that, brethren,
in mercy to our souls, He came to us and He made us hear what
His law said. We kept picking this book up
and we kept reading it and we kept looking for life in the
book that we could do, that we could perform, that we could
obtain. That's what men do until God gives them a new heart. Search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have life, Christ said.
And they are they which testify of me. In this book, the law
is given to declare us guilty. The law was given to show us
our sin. The law was given to show us
our need of another to save us. And the law was given to show
us how righteous Christ is. That law is wrong. I can't remember, 615 precepts
or something like that. It's huge. It goes beyond 10,
I can tell you that. And we have not kept it. He kept
everything. He's the pitcher. He's the fulfillment
of the pitchers and the types. He's the fulfillment of all the
moral law. Christ is the end of the lawful
righteousness to everyone that believes. And everyone that believes
rests in Him. He is our Sabbath rest in whom
that whole law is fulfilled. And we rest in Him. We've ceased
from our labors even as God ceased from His. God didn't stop because
He was tired when He created the heavens and the earth. God
stopped and rested because the work was finished. And Christ
didn't stop because He was tired. He arose when He had by Himself
purged our sins. Then He sat down. The work was
finished. The work was finished. He didn't
stop until he obtained eternal redemption. But the Lord came
to us and He made us hear this law. Verse 26, the servant, He
came to him and He made him hear what this law said. He said,
you have got to pay me the debt. I command you to be sold. And
when he did that, This servant fell down and asked for mercy.
When God revealed to us our need, that's when we began to ask for
mercy. Look at verse 26. The servant therefore fell down
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I'll
pay thee all. Now, I've got to comment on this,
because in our ignorance, many of us did something like this.
When God began to work with us, work on us, began to convince
of our sins, we began to try to bargain with God, like you
do the credit card company. Let me have a little time here
and I'll pay you back. 150,000 years wages? You going
to pay God back? Not hardly. Not hardly. I was
reading this story. This accountant was telling this
story and he said that when he's keeping up with businessmen's
books, he can see on the books when the businessman has gone
bankrupt. He knows it, the man's bankrupt.
But from the time that he sees it on paper and tells it to the
businessman that you're insolvent, from that time until the businessman
actually declares bankruptcy is an average of a year with
every one of them. It averages out to be a year.
Why is that? Because a man will do everything
he can and struggle and wrestle and try everything under the
sun not to admit I'm bankrupt. The same is true of a sinner.
The same is true of a sinner. I'll pay you back God. If you
turn over a new leaf, it's just the same leaf turned over. God's
got to give you a new heart and He's got to show you the only
way you can come to Him is in Christ Jesus, the righteousness
of God. And when He's done that, Christ
has been formed in your heart and Christ is made unto us sanctification. and we stop looking to the deeds
of our flesh and say this is our holiness and this is how
we've become more and more holy, we keep looking to Christ and
we keep trusting He's the holiness we need and that it's by His
Spirit making us to see the dirtiness of ourselves. that He humbles
us and He grows us in grace and in knowledge of Him so that we
more and more cast our care upon Him. And that's growth in grace. That's growth in the state of
holiness in which He's put us, brethren. He's made unto us. Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, that as it is written, He that glories, let
him glory in the Lord. He's the only one we glory in,
brethren. The only one. And because Christ
made intercession for us when we cried for pure mercy, God
gave us grace. Look at verse 27. Then the Lord
of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and
forgave him the debt. When you look at this, you think,
well, the Lord of this servant He did this because this man
asked him to be patient with him. The man just asked him to
let him pay him off. The man said, give me some time,
let me pay you off. It was the king that said, I'm
going to forgive him the whole debt. You see, God the Father
chose us. God the Father He called us. God the Father made His word
affectional in our hearts. He made us to hear the law. He
made us to see Christ. God the Father brought us to
the end of ourselves. And God the Father then had mercy
on us. He had compassion on us. God
the Father loosed us. That's what being redeemed is.
If the Lord shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. He's
redeemed us from the curse of the law. He's redeemed us from
the dominion of sin. He's redeemed us from the torment
of the devil who tormented us with the fear of death. He's
redeemed us from the grave and the basis of it, brethren, He's
forgiven all our debt. And the basis of it is He's satisfied
in Christ our Redeemer who satisfied justice. That's the basis of
it. The cause is nothing else but God's mercy and His compassion
toward whom He would have compassion. And all who sue for this mercy,
all who are brought to call on Him for this mercy, He will give
forgiveness. And when He brings you to do
it, you may come, you may have some idea of thinking that you're
the one that brought yourself. But I tell you, it won't be very
long and you're going to find out, no, it was God that brought
you. It was God alone that brought
you. And God alone that will be glorified. And furthermore,
what our Lord is saying here is this. I love how He did this. Peter asked that question, how
long should I forgive my brother? And the Lord says, well, let
me tell you a story, Peter. There was a king and he took
account of his servants, and as soon as he took account of
one of his servants, he found that his servant owed him this
giant sum of, this giant debt. And he's saying, Peter, if I
started taking account of what you owe me, you're going to be
like that servant. Do you want to keep score? Do
you want me to take account? And he's telling us, brethren,
by this one act of forgiveness in this parable, by this one
act of forgiveness, he's showing us the continual forgiveness,
the continual flow of forgiveness that a believer has from God
in Christ Jesus. The Scripture says if we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And John said, I'm writing this
to you that you sin not. Forgiveness makes us not want
to sin. I'm writing this to you that you sin not. But if you
sin, and the word really is when you sin, when you sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous and
He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for just you elect
folks sitting around here, but for His elect all over this world.
That means the propitiation for sins are abundant and never-ending
in our Savior. And so he continually, continually,
if he was to call us to account, brethren, we couldn't owe what
we owe, pay what we owe, but he's continually forgiven us.
How often shall my brother offend and I forgive him? The answer
the Lord gives in this parable is, as often as God forgives
us. That's how often. Now, we'll
just read this, but let me contrast this other thing here real fast. Look here now. Here's hardness
of heart and unwillingness to forgive. Verse 28. But the same
servant went out. He left directly from having
received this mercy. And he found one of his fellow
servants, which owed him a hundred pence. Nothing. He didn't owe him hardly anything.
He went and found this man. He looked for this man. And he
laid his hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay
me that thou owe us. That's not how his king dealt
with him. And that's not how God dealt with us either, believer.
But you know what you'll do? You know what I'll do? We won't
be left here today 20 minutes. and somebody will cross us in
our thoughts and we will say, well, you know they ought not
to have done that. This man left straight from being forgiven
and hearing about his forgiveness and went straight and found somebody
and dealt with them harshly, hard. Look at this now, verse
29. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him. saying, have patience with me
and I'll pay thee all. The same thing he just did. This
man fell down just like he did and he besought him just like
he besought the Lord and he said the very same words. And it says
here, and he would not but went and cast him into prison till
he should pay the debt. Brethren, will we be hard-hearted
and unforgiving of our fellow brethren when we've been forgiven
so much continually? We are exhorted to forgive those
who trespass against us more than anything else in the Scripture.
You know that is given more than anything else to a believer.
Forgive, forgive, forgive. Ephesians 4.32 says, Be ye kind
one to another, tender-hearted. forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. And when you do that, he
says, Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children. And walk in love as Christ also
has loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for the sweet-smelling Savior. I told Emmanuel, I said,
Do you want to be my dear children? Forgive one another. Just forgive
one another. This is what I'm teaching you
to do. Forgive one another. And God tells us, brethren, do
you want to be God's dear children? Do you want to walk as dear children? Be tender-hearted. Don't go looking
for a reason to blame your brother, your sister. Just these petty
things that there's nothing to be blamable about and we take
them and grab them by the throat. I hope you don't do that literally,
but I'm saying in our hearts we do that. And then when they
say, forgive me, just forbear with me, be long-suffering with
me. How long was God long-suffering with us? How many years were
we in our rebellion and God was long-suffering with us? And yet
we say, no, I'm not. You've got to owe me. Verse 31, So when his fellow
servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and
told unto their Lord all that was done. You see, these folks
right here, they got the point I was trying to teach my own
children. They didn't go and start trying to break this thing
up and start putting the hammer down on this wicked servant.
They went to their Master. They went to their Lord. And
the brethren, when you see one of your brethren not doing what
the Lord said, and he's not forgiving his brother, do what these fellow
servants did. They were sorry for this. It
broke their heart. And so they went to their master.
They went to the Lord. Go to the Lord in prayer about
it. Ask Him. In verse 32, Then his Lord, after
that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant,
a wicked servant. I forgave thee all that debt
because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on
thee? That's the point, brethren. Shouldn't
we? Shouldn't we? Yes, we should.
Now look. And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors
till he should pay that all that was due unto him. Now here's
our Savior's warning. So likewise shall my Heavenly
Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not
everyone his brother their trespasses. Now brethren, our exercise of
forgiveness in no way is the cause of God's forgiveness toward
us. It is not the cause. God forgave
us freely for the sake of His Son by His grace alone. Not because
of anything in us. It's not the cause of that. But
the only one who will inherit the kingdom of heaven are those
who God has given a heart to believe. God's saints have a
heart to believe. All who are renewed into His
image by the power of the Holy Spirit. All who know the greatness
of our sin and the greatness of His forgiveness. All who see
what great price Christ paid to make God just to forgive us. Each walk as dear children. Seeking to be merciful unto others
as He's been to them. They do. I know that we can look
in the Old Testament and we can see the things that Abraham did
that were unfaithful and that Sarah did that were unfaithful
and these things were unfaithful. And then you go to the New Testament
and you go to Hebrews 11 and you read about it and you don't
hear anything about their sin. It's just they were faithful.
They were faithful. Because that's how God sees His
people in Christ. And let me make this point to
you too. This man, those that are not so, They have not been
given his heart. They may profess Christ and be
hard-hearted and unforgiving. A profession of Christ and a
profession of being forgiven is not salvation. You must be
given a new heart. Those folks will be cast into
hell and never pay the debt they owe. But now, let me give you
something else. We as believers, brethren, when
we don't forgive our brethren, Our God remembers our sin no
more. He's forgiven us. He said, as this king said, your
debts are forgiven. He's not going to call that back.
He's not going to come back and say, no, I'll change my mind.
God does not change. But when we don't forgive our
brethren, when we get in our little fits of me, me, me and
start thinking bigger of ourselves than we should, God will chasten
his children. And He will deliver us to the
tormentors. And what I'm saying by that is,
when we're not forgiving of our brethren, we'll go through a
season. We'll begin to find ourselves
becoming miserable. More and more miserable. Nobody
can suit us. Nothing can suit us. And we find
fault with everybody. And then God will finally bring
us to the end of ourselves and make us to see Our sins been
against him and his brethren. And there'll be such peace of
conscience when he does that. It always yields the peaceable
fruit of righteousness after he's chastened us. And what I'm
saying to you is, when you get in that shape and you're feeling
that way, just remember, brethren, to be forgiving. That may be
the reason. Be forgiving. Remember what Christ...
Because when you're forgiving, it reminds you what God's done
for you. That's right. Gratitude for forgiveness forgives. So brethren, forgive freely.
Don't ask for anything. Forgive freely. Forgive sincerely
from your heart. That's what he said, from your
heart. And forgive without limit. Amen. Let's stand together and we'll
have a closing prayer and then we'll have one more song. All right, brethren, don't forget
now, next Sunday, January 19th, one message at 11 o'clock. I'm
going to be in Great Falls, Montana, preaching. And Brother Scott
Keller will preach here, 1 at 11. And then 4th Friday, we'll
have our study. And then Friday, January 31st
through Sunday, February 2nd, Pastor Frank Tate from Hurricane
Road Grace Church will be preaching here, Friday night, 7.30. Saturday
11, Sunday 11. And we'll serve the Lord's table
on Sunday. We'll have ice cream Friday night. We'll have a meal after the service
Saturday and a meal after the service Sunday. If you forget,
it's in the bulletin and I'll send you another email to remind
you. Alright. Father, thank you for this day.
Thank you for showing us this patience of our Lord Jesus to
give such an illustration and a parable and instruct us in
our hearts kindly, forgivingly, when this very question It in
itself is a sinful question. And we see, Lord, how patient
and forgiving you are to teach us and instruct us in the way
that you do. We thank you, Lord, because we're slow and we're
sheep. We're dumb like sheep. And Lord,
we thank you for being merciful and for bearing with us and being
long-suffering with us and for teaching us in our heart. And
we thank you, Lord, most of all, for the unspeakable gift of Christ
in whom all our debt has been paid. Lord, may you be pleased
now to make this known in the heart of one of your lost sheep
and make them to see this good news and this great, great blessing. And Lord, as we go forth, help
us to be always forgiving of our brethren. Let us make us
to quickly get over our fleshly fit and to come to ourself again
and know, Lord, what great things you've done in forgiving us so
that you make us forgiving to one another. We want to be forgivers,
Lord, and we pray that you forgive us. Forgive us continually as
we forgive our debtors. Father, it's in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our great
Redeemer, our great Advocate, that we ask these things. Amen.