Well, let us turn to God's Word
once again and continue our consideration of the Lord's Prayer. This pattern
of prayers should be the pattern of all our prayers, really. It's
instruction with regards to the manner in which we are to seek
the face of God. We come tonight to verse 12 in
Matthew chapter 6. Matthew 6, 12, and forgive us
our debts as we forgive our debtors. The prayer, the petition for
the forgiveness of sins. And in many ways, isn't this
the sinner's deepest need, as he would seek to come and appear
before a God who is high and holy, of eyes too pure to behold,
iniquity, one who cannot look upon sin. Now remember there
are seven petitions here and in all of these petitions we're
really praying for ourselves. Although as we've said the first
three petitions center very much in God. It's not that we're praying
for God but we're praying to him even in these opening petitions. Remember that first of the petitions
at the end of verse nine concerning God's name, and his name really
is equivalent to himself. When he proclaims his name, do
we not see him as that one who is really declaring his very
character, revealing something of his attributes? We have it there in Exodus 34
to Moses. Exodus 34, six, the Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for a thousand, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. Visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third, and to the fourth generation. Now,
as he proclaims his name, so the Lord reveals himself. And when we come and pray in
terms of that name, are we not asking God that he would proclaim
that name to us, that he would make himself known to us? His
life eternal, says the Lord Jesus, to know thee the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And so also with the second
petition concerning God's kingdom, what do we pray there? We are
asking that we might be favoured with that meekness of spirit,
that readiness to submit to all the authority of God. We want
his kingdom to come. We want to know that reign of
grace in our own hearts, subduing all our sins and all our iniquities. And so then when we come to the
end of verse 10, and the prayer with regards to the will of God,
are we not asking that we might be those enabled to obey his
precepts? We want to bear that mark of
his children. Thy children shall be willing
in the day of thy power to be a willing servant of the Lord. Lord God himself. In these opening
prayers, whilst they centre very much in God, yet we are praying
for ourselves. As I said, it's this prayer in
verse 12, this petition that concerns the pardon, the forgiveness
of our sins, that really in many ways is dealing with our chiefest
need, our greatest need, the chief of all our needs, And we
need to know the pardon of sin. The psalmy says, If thou, Lord,
shouldst mark iniquity, who should stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. For sin is such an awful
thing. O thou hideous monster, sin!
What a curse hast thou brought in! All creation groans through
the pregnant cause of misery. And we want the Lord God to deal
with our sin. and to forgive us our sins. And
it's interesting, though, that immediately after giving this
instruction concerning prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ straightway
goes on to speak of the importance of forgiveness, verse 14. Come
to the end of the prayer, verse 13, the amen, and then, for if
you 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. It's as if the Lord himself is
here underlining, even underscoring this particular petition concerning
the forgiveness of sin, or the importance of this part of the
prayer. And as we turn to consider this
twelfth verse tonight, first of all, to see how it's very
much a present experience that is being dealt with. It's that
that we so much stand in need of in our present life. As I've
said, the first three petitions centre in God, they concern the
glory of God. But as we've said before, the
natural man always puts his own interests first. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are
foolishness to him, neither can he know them because they are
spiritually discerned. For he says he that is of the
earth is earthly, and speaketh earthly things. And so, it is
evident that this prayer, the Lord's Prayer, is clearly meant
for spiritual people. It's for the Lord's people. Who
is the Lord addressing in the sermon? Well, we go back to the
beginning, chapter five. In the first verse, seeing the
multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples
came unto him, and they opened his mouth and taught them. Principally, the Lord is here
teaching his own disciples. And he says to them in verse
nine, after this manner, therefore, pray. Oh, he's telling them how
to pray. It's the godly that will pray
in this fashion. And we can think of David in
Psalm 32. He speaks there in verse 5 of
the forgiveness of sins and he says in the following verse that
this is what the godly pray for. For this will everyone who is
godly pray unto them. It's the godly you see and they
stand in need of the forgiveness of all their sins. This is not the first petition
that really principally concerns us and our needs. We were looking
last week at verse 11, and we see that when it comes to those
petitions that really center in ourselves, the first thing
we pray for is daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. And we said last week that that
bread, of course, is principally spiritual bread. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ who is himself the bread of life. And remember how
he speaks of himself in that sense in John chapter six. He declares, I am the bread of
life. And he goes on to say, eat of
my flesh and drink of my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. Or there is that union to the
Lord Jesus Christ, there is that communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what the godly desire. We seek first the glory of God,
and then we want to know what it is to enjoy fellowship with
our God. The expression of that that union
that we really enjoy to Him. But that petition in verse 11,
whilst we might say it is principally spiritual bread, the Lord Jesus
Christ that He's being spoken of, there's also there clearly
a reference to natural food. And we remarked last time that
in making such a prayer, we are looking beyond the means And
we're looking to Him who is the Great First Cause of all things. God's usual manner of dealing
with us and providing for us in this world is by His providence. He has given us the seasons of
the year. He therefore sees to it that we can make provision
by sowing seed, watching the crops grow, gathering in the
Harvest is the normal manner in which God provides us with
our daily bread. And we said last time, O, this
is very much what the Lord is saying when Satan comes with
that cruel temptation back in chapter four. Remember, O, he
was led of the spirit into the wilderness, and there tempted
of the devil. And we're told when he had fasted 40 days and
40 nights, he was afterwards hungry. And when the tempter
came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that
these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It
is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Oh, how the Lord
refers there to those words in Deuteronomy chapter 8. where
the Lord God is reminding the children of Israel of how he
made such a remarkable, miraculous provision for them throughout
their 40 years of wilderness wanderings. They'd never sowed,
they'd never reaped, and yet God had constantly, day by day,
moment by moment, fed them, and fed them in a miraculous way,
with the manna and with the quails. And so, reminding you of what
we were saying last time, how we are to look to God for the
provision of all our temporal needs. We're to look beyond the
means to him who is the great first cause. And again, let me
remind you of that lovely portion that we have in that little book
of the prophet Habakkuk. Right at the end of chapter three,
verse 17, although the fig tree shall not blossom, Neither shall
fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall
fail, and the field shall yield no meat. The flood shall be cut
off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the storm.
Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength,
and he will make my feet like hinds feet, and he will make
me to walk upon mine high places. Or we're to look to God and we
pray to God and we pray here for natural foods. And it's important that that
really comes before this vital petition for the forgiveness
of sins. Because it's only while we need
our natural food, it's only whilst we're in this present world that
we will stand in need of forgiveness. And in this life, we will never
attain to that condition of sinless perfection. The very idea is such a fallacy. Forgiveness is our present, even
our perpetual need in this present world. Day by day we stand in
need of the forgiveness as God preserves us, as God deals with
us so graciously by sparing our lives so we need to come and
ask his forgiveness. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Or that God's word
might truly be in us and that we might be those who recognize
our great need of the forgiveness of our sins. To be those who,
as he were, are groaning under that burden of sin as we are
in this presence burdened. The language there in 2 Corinthians
5. Verse 2 Paul says, In this, that
is, in this body we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our hands which is from heaven. If so, be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon. mortality might be swallowed
up of life, or the present experience of the people of God. Whilst
we're in this world, we will stand in need of the pardon of
all our sins. It's only in heaven that we will
find that there's no sin that can ever bring any grief to us. That is the comfort of that prospect
that lies before the people of God, that rest that remains to
the children of God. We have the language there at
the end of the book of the Revelation. In Revelation chapter 21, the
last but one chapter of Holy Scripture, the last verse of that chapter,
It says, and there shall in no wise enter into it, that is into
heaven, anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, that they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. And remember what we see in the
earlier part of that same chapter, verse four, God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And how at times a believer,
who must ever and always be asking forgiveness in this world, yearns
for that blessed place. As Isaac Watts says, sin my worst
enemy before shall vex mine eyes and tears no more. My inward
foes shall all be slain, nor Satan break my peace again. or heaven, what a blessed place
it is. No sin there, no need of forgiveness. But all we need now to be praying
this petition. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. But then what we have here is
of course the confession of sin. And it's, there's a general confession
of sin, there's a particular confession of sin. Now when David
comes to that true repentance that is so evident in Psalm 51,
we see how he recognizes what he is as a sinner. He confesses really his very
nature, which is a great grief to him. God made man upright. They sought out many inventions.
So what does David say? Verse 5 of the psalm, Behold
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the
hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. He feels that the The great problem
is himself, it's his very nature. It's what he is, and it's what
we are. We're those who have a fallen
nature, and that that is born of the flesh is flesh. It can
never change. It is ever what he was. That's why we stand in need of
a new birth, a new nature. to be partakers of the divine
nature, to have that seed of God in us that cannot see. But
here we see that when we come to make our confessions and to
seek the pardon of sin, we feel so much what we are,
as sore a plague is seen for those by whom it is found, the
Christian Christ unclean, unclean, in though released from guilt,
says dear Joseph Hart. But what we have here in this
petition is really particular sins. Look at the language that
we have. And forgive us our debts. It's in the plural. In the parallel
passage that we have in Luke 11, there at verse 4, It's, and
forgive us our sins. Sins. Not just our nature, what
we are, but the things that we do. And not just the things that
we do, what we say, what we think. A multitude of sins. But why is it that here, in the
text that we're considering, In Matthew 6, this word debts
is used. And forgive us our debts. Well, here we are reminded of
the consequences of our sins. As creatures, of course, we owe
a debt of obedience to God. He has made us. and we're debtors
to do the whole of the law of God. The language of the preacher,
Ecclesiastes 12, 13, fear God and keep his commandments for
this is the whole duty of man. Oh God gave the commandments
to Israel there at Mount Sinai but by nature all men are under
that law of God. That's what Paul says in Romans
3.19. We know that what things whoever
the law said, it said to them who are under the law that all
the world may become guilty before God. All are by nature subject to
that law which is holy, that commandment which is holy and
righteous and just and goods. And when we don't discharge that
duty, that debt that we owe to do God's commandments, we come
under another debt. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. What does the Lord God say to Adam there in the garden? of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou mayest not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. All we know, you see, is those
who are the transgressors, we owe God a tremendous debt. Whosoever committed sin transgresseth
also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. We
owe God the debt of obedience, and we transgress, we disobey. And so when we come with this
prayer, forgive us our debts, we're asking that God does not
punish us as we deserve, or we deserve the punishment. But we
come to beg of God that rather than punish you, we'll pardon
our sins. And so what we have ultimately
here is forgiveness. Forgiveness. Look at what it
says. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. Now the second clause can so easily be
misunderstood. Some might look at the verse
and say, well, what's being said here? Are we praying that God
will forgive us our sins and our debts on the ground of us
being ready to forgive others their sins and their debts? Well that would be a complete
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the verse because we're not
to look at the verse in glorious isolation. As we've said many
a time we have to see every part of scripture in its context,
and not just its immediate context. We know in the immediate context
here that this is part of an instruction in prayer, and it's
one of several petitions that we should make when we come before
God in prayer. That's the immediate context.
But there's also the general context, the general teaching
that we have throughout the Bible. what the old writers used to
call the analogy of faith. Every part of scripture has to
be seen in the light of all that God says. God doesn't contradict
himself anywhere in his word. And if we take verses in isolation,
we're in danger oftentimes of making the Bible contradict itself. And we know, from the general
tenor of the teaching of the word of God, that the ground
of our forgiveness is not anything that we do. And I think of two verses in
particular, and they're both found in that first general epistle
of John. 1 John 2, verse 2, we're told
he, he's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the propitiation
for our sins. And then again, in chapter 4
and verse 10 of that epistle, here in Islam, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And that's the basis on which
we can seek the forgiveness of all our sins, because Christ
is the propitiation. And remember the significance
of that word. It's a technical word, it's a
theological word, but it's a biblical word. And so we do well to study
it, to consider it. What does it mean? Well, it reminds
us of the Godward aspect of our sin. As I have said, when we
fail to pay that debt of obedience that we owe to the Holy Lord
of God, we come under another debt. Or we've offended God. And God's holiness and righteousness
and justice but demands that payments be
paid. He will by no means clear the
guilt. His justice must be satisfied. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ himself has done. He has paid that tremendous debt. He has borne that punishment
that the holy, righteous, and just God demands in his holy
law. It's interesting, when the Lord
Jesus Christ speaks to us of those two men who go to the temple
at the hour of prayer, remember one was a Pharisee, the other
was the publican, the tax-gatherer, so despised. And the Pharisee
is full of himself, he thinks he's a good man, a righteous
man, he makes his boast, but then Christ speaks of the publican,
and his prayer, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And that word,
that verb, be merciful, what we have there really is the verbal
form of that noun propitiation. Christ is spoken of, remember,
in 1 John 2.2 and 4.10 as the propitiation for our sins. the
publican actually says, is God be propitious to me, a sinner,
or the forgiveness of his sin justly. He seeks this on the
basis of one who has paid the tremendous debt, who has satisfied
all that God's holy law demands, and that one is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, what then, what then of
the language that we have here in this petition and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Well, the fact that our sins
are forgiven is evident in the way in which we conduct ourselves
as forgiven sinners. That's why I read that parable
the parable of the unmerciful servant. It illustrates the point.
There's a sense in which that man that the Lord speaks of in
the parable, he never came before his master
as a real helpless penitent. Look at the language that is
used concerning his approach and his plea there in verse 26
of chapter 18. The servant therefore fell down
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all. Oh, he's not like the public. He's not begging for mercy. He's not saying, be propitious
to me. No, he speaks of paying all that he owes, ultimately.
He's never a helpless penitent. And he really never knew forgiveness,
because he doesn't conduct himself as one who has experienced that
forgiveness. Verse 28, the signed servant
went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him
a hundred pence, and he laid his hands on him and took him
by the throat, saying, that thou owest. This is not the conduct
of a man who has experienced the forgiveness of his debts. And then at the end, of course,
verse 34, his Lord was wrath and delivered him to the tormentors
till he should pay all that was due unto him. He never really
knew forgiveness. He never conducted himself as
a man who had truly been pardoned. If we're those who have known
forgiveness, we will surely be such as are of a forgiving spirit. And that's the lesson that the
Lord is teaching. Or remember what Peter says to
the Lord in the context there in chapter 18. How oft shall my brother sin
against me and I forgive him, asked Peter. Tell seven times. And the Lord says, no, I say
unto thee, until seventy times seven. And seven, the number
of perfection, seventy times seven. Oh, that's infinite. Really, that's what it means.
We should be always readily willing to forgive. Some want God to
forgive great sins. Great sins, they want to be forgiven.
Beams in the eye, we might say, but they cannot forgive little
sins in others, that mote in the eye. Think of the language
that we have later in chapter seven, verse three. Why beholdest
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest
not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or at what thou sayest
to thy brother, let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and
behold, a beam is in thine own eye, thou hypocrite. First cast
out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou seek
clearly to cast out the mote out of my brother's eye. Well,
if we know in our soul's experience the pardon of the multitude of
our sins, those grievous sins, and we will be ready always then
to forgive others. We will be of that spirit, even
the spirit of our God. There is forgiveness within us,
says the Psalmist. He is a forgiving God. O God,
grant him that we might be those who are evidently the disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ and can pray from our hearts and
forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. May the Lord bless
these things to us.