Matthew 6. And tonight we'll be looking
at verse 12. Matthew 6 and verse 12. The title of the message this
evening is, Forgiveness. Forgiveness. We can see this
clearly in the verse when Jesus says, And forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors. Now tonight, we have come to
the fifth petition in the Lord's model prayer that He has given
us. He is here teaching us how we
are to pray, the manner of all true prayer. And He gives us
this fifth petition, forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. Now, as we have seen, prayer
is an act of worship. When we pray, we are worshiping
God. We are giving back to God praise,
honor, and glory that is due His name. It is an act of worship. Prayer is an intimate act between
the soul of the believer and his Father in heaven. Prayer
is to be done in the closet of the heart, in an intimate setting
between you and God. Prayer is to be to the Father.
Our Father, which art in heaven, our prayer is to be for the glory
of God. Hallowed be Thy name, the glory
of His kingdom. Thy kingdom come, and the glory
of His will, Thy will be done. And last week we saw the first
petition that relates to us as believers, our necessities, our
needs. Our first need is God's glory.
That's what we should desire first. But when it comes to us,
we are a needy people, and so the Lord here gives us this in
this petition, give us this day our daily bread. And we saw last
week that that bread is not only our physical substance, but it
is Christ. Lord, give us this day our daily
faith in Christ. Give us this day belief again
afresh, anew in Christ our Savior. We totally rely on Him for the
very necessity of our spiritual lives as well as our physical
life. So when we pray, we ask God for
our necessities, but most of all we ask for Christ. And now
tonight we've come to the fifth petition. Forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors. Now, in this petition, I want
us to see three things tonight in this petition. There are three
things about forgiveness that I believe every one of us know,
but we should be reminded of these things. First of all, the
need of forgiveness. When you ask for forgiveness,
you must have a need of forgiveness. Second of all, I want us to know
the source of forgiveness. And third, I want us to know
the evidence of those that are forgiven. The evidence, the manifestation
of those that are truly forgiven. So first of all, the need for
forgiveness. Need for forgiveness. who will ever offer a prayer
of worship to God, must come and see their need of forgiveness
of sins." If anyone is to come and worship God, this is not
just something that we say, Oh Lord, forgive my sins and just
move on. This is not something that we
just add in and throw in at the end of our prayers because we
know it's right. You see, we are to ask for forgiveness
from a heart that needs forgiveness. We must need forgiveness. We
must know and understand our need of it. You remember in the
history of the two men that came to the temple to pray, one being
a Pharisee and the other a publican. You remember that that Pharisee,
the Scripture says, he stood and prayed thus with himself. Now, we've already seen that
he did not seek the glory of God, he sought the glory for
himself. But also, if you would read that prayer, you would notice
that he did not need forgiveness. He said, Lord, I thank You that
I'm good, and I don't need forgiveness like that publican. And God said He prayed by Himself.
God said He prayed by Himself. If a man will come with a heart
of self-righteousness, he will not be heard of God. But how did that publican come?
How did the man that God listened to, how did he come? That's a
man I want to know how to come, don't you? He was heard of God. I want to be heard of God. Well,
how then are we to come? We're to come seeing our need
of forgiveness. We're not to come demanding anything
of God. When we bow before God, He's
not here for us. We're here for Him. My friends, we are His servants.
He is not our servant. God is our master, our king.
Most people see God as just some grandfather that just gives out
gifts to his grandchildren. They come demanding of God, give
me this. I deserve it. But this publican,
he didn't come that way, did he? He didn't come demanding
of God anything. You see, he came in a totally different way.
He came not based on his own merit. But he came as a beggar
in need of mercy. He said, God, be merciful to
me, sinner, sinner. This man had a need. This man took his place in humility
before God. And he sought not his own merit.
He had none. He had none. This guy was a sinner
and everybody knew it. Everybody. Just ask him. Ask
that Pharisee if he knew he was a sinner. Hey, do you think that
guy's a... Oh yeah, that guy's a sinner. You see, everybody
knew it. But the best thing about this
sinner is that he knew it too. And he knew he needed mercy.
And he came asking for mercy. He sought not his own merit,
and neither do we. Friends, when we come asking
for God's forgiveness, we don't come asking for merit. We come
begging for forgiveness. What does God's Word tell us
about our nature? Romans 3, 23, "...all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God." Psalm 58, 3, all men are
estranged from the womb, speaking lies. In Jeremiah 17, verse 9,
the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? Friend, who can know our hearts? Who can really know
their own heart Paul said that no man knoweth a man's heart
save the spirit of man. That's in him. And friend, even
my heart, even my spirit really doesn't understand the depths
of my own depravity. Who can know it? Who can know
how desperately wicked we are? Friends, the more I read and
study God's Word, the more I see of the holiness and righteousness
of God, the more I see of my depravity. And I've not yet begun
to scratch the surface of how deeply depraved this nature is,
how deeply indebted this nature is, how horrible my sin nature is. Believer in Christ, it is wise
for us to keep our nature in view. It's wise for us to understand
that sin is not just actions, but thoughts and motives. How many of us have thought evil
in an instant? without even thinking about it,
all of a sudden this wave of emotion come over us. And we
hate or we lust and we don't know where it came from. It came
from our nature. And friends, just because you
didn't mean to do it, don't make it not sin. It's sin. It's sin. Paul says of himself, in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Now friends, when we were saved,
if we are believers in Christ, when we were saved, there was
a transformation. There was something that changed. Now if a person doesn't have
a change when he believes in Christ, then something's wrong
with that kind of faith. Something's wrong with that.
You see, when a man comes to know Christ, there's something
that changes, something that happens because God creates in
him a new nature. And this nature is perfect. This
nature is holy. This nature is righteous that
God creates in the new birth. It's sinless and perfect as its
maker. But you see, our new birth did
not affect the old man. The old man is still as vile
and corrupted as he was before God created the new nature inside
of you. He's still just as depraved and
just as wretched as he ever was. Our new birth did not affect
the old man. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. It didn't change. It's still a massive sin. And
all it can do is sin. That's it. You know, if you take
this glass and you fill it to overflowing with water, can you
put anything else in there? It just don't matter. It's always
full. When something's full, it can't
be put anything in there. I know some of my closets are
full. And I try to stick something else in there. It don't fit.
It don't work. You try to stick goodness in
this old nature and it's corrupted. It's full of sin. Full of sin. It can't do anything
but sin. You see, it has no ability to
do good. And friend, this nature is the
same with every man. Some men show it more and some
men are able to hide it more. But it's still just as corrupt
as everybody else. So what then makes the difference
between a believer and someone else who's lost? The difference
is we have a new nature and they don't. We have a holy nature
that resides in us, and the unbeliever does not. We are quickened by
the Spirit through the Word, and we now can see our sin. We now can see and recognize
our nature to be carnal and corrupt. Whereas before we came to Christ,
we had no idea about our nature. We had no idea how corrupt it
was, and how vile it is. We recognize that we have no
goodness in ourselves. We have no ability to please
God. And friend, we recognize our
need of forgiveness. We recognize our need of forgiveness
with God, that God is holy and must punish sin. We know this. And so we know our need of forgiveness. Well, lost men and women see
no alarm. They see no reason for alarm
concerning these things. Oh, don't worry about that. That
was a mistake. You just made it. It's an accident. No, it's sin. It's sin. Lost men and women have no alarm
and they say, well, I know I'm not perfect. But I'm sure God
will overlook my sin. I'm sure there will be something
that I can do to please God. The natural man, surely my debt
of sin is not so great that I can't overcome it. Surely if I'm just
good enough, God will be all right with that. But we say, we who know Christ, we say, O
wretched man that I am. Not that I was. Paul didn't say,
O wretched man that I was. He's using the present tense.
O wretched man that I am. I am. Believer, do you not see your
need of forgiveness every day? I do. I need forgiveness every
day. I see the corruptions of my old
man raise his head in pride and lust every day. Every day. Oh, that God in His grace might
open the eyes of His people to evermore see their need of forgiveness. And it's also my prayer that
God might open the blind eyes of the lost, that they might
see their need of forgiveness as well. Friends, we have a need. When I come to the Lord and I
say, forgive me my debts, forgive me my sins. You see, I do that
because I recognize I have a need. I have a need of forgiveness
of sins. Second of all, we may see the
source of forgiveness. The source of all forgiveness.
Now, if you have a need, doesn't it stand to reason that you'd
want to know the source of forgiveness? Where forgiveness is found? How
it is that we should find forgiveness with God? You see, Christ here
in our text, He likens sin to debt. To debt. And you see the debt, this is
the debt that all sinners owe to the justice of God. All sinners owe a debt to the
justice of God. You know what that debt is? Death. That's the debt. The Scriptures
are very plain and clear. In Romans 6, 23, the wages of
sin is death. It's a very serious debt, isn't
it? I see a lot of people around,
you know, very anxious about mortgages. They have a mortgage.
I just got a mortgage, so I'm very familiar with this. People
are anxious about paying that mortgage, and they get very anxious
about that. And then when they can't find
the money, they can't pay the debt that they owe, and they're
very upset. And yet they don't have any concern
about the debt that they owe the justice of God, which is
their eternal demise. How foolish! How foolish to jump
around about a physical debt of money when you owe a debt of death to God Almighty. And you see,
this was the wage of Adam, wasn't it? When he earned his wage,
he rebelled against God and God gave him a just wage for his
rebellion. And it was spiritual death. And
you know, that death, that wage has been passed down as an inheritance
to every one of us by nature. So then all men are born dead. But friend, most men like to
say, well, it's Adam's fault. I'm so wicked because of Adam.
No, you're wicked because of you. I'm wicked because of me. You see, we may have inherited
his death, but we've accumulated much more debt as we went along,
haven't we? We've piled on much more wages,
haven't we? And because more And the more
we lived, we were more indebted to the justice of God. It's like
if a man robs a bank, and he's caught, and then he goes before
the judge, and the judge gives him his just sentence, his just
wage, and he must pay the debt that he owes. And then you have another man
who comes and he robs a bank, and he not only robs a bank,
he kills a man. He not only kills a man, he assaults a police officer.
Not only assaults a police officer, he attacks the judge. You see
what that man did is he added on more than what he had at the
beginning. Although both men will pay a
debt, they will pay a different level of debt. And so it is with the justice
of God, my friends. You see, all men will pay the
debt of death. There's the wage. But my friend,
the torments of hell are more for some and less for others
according to what they have done in this life. God will give them
a just reward. A just reward. This is why the
apostles said it would have been better had they never heard the
gospel, than to hear the gospel of Christ and refuse to come. Their torments are worse. All men will owe a debt of death. And this death, my friends, is
an eternal death. And there may be various torments
in this death, but everyone will experience this death of eternity
because they have offended an eternal God. You see, men here on this earth
pay temporal debts because they're indebted to temporal men. But
when we sin against God, we are indebted to an eternal being.
And so, therefore, the sentence is also eternal. Punishment is eternal. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Flip
back over there. We've been over this before.
Matthew chapter 5 and verse 25. Jesus, the Lord, says this, Agree
with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with
him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and
the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou
shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the utmost
for thee. To all that are sinners, God
is your adversary. You know that? God is the adversary
of sinners. Isn't that something? Yet Christ
said, agree with the adversary. Isn't that what the publican
did? You're right. I'm a sinner. I need mercy. And to all men who will not agree
with the adversary, he will be hauled to the judge, which is
Christ. And Christ will deliver him to
hell, and he will not get out until he has paid the utmost
farthing." So then, how can the debt be
forgiven? If men need forgiveness, if God
is just and cannot overlook sin, and yet all have sinned, where
then is the source of forgiveness? Where is the source of mercy?
How can a just God forgive sin? Does He arbitrarily forgive sin? Can He do that? Can a judge on
a whim or an emotion or a feeling just forgive without payment? No. He can't remain just if he
does that. The only way God can be just
and justify the ungodly is only one way. by the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is the source of forgiveness. The only source. There's only
one. There's only one source in all
the universe for forgiveness of sins. It is the substitutionary
work of Christ. And this, I think, is plainly
illustrated for us in John chapter 13. Flip over to John chapter
13. When the Lord was with His disciples
and He was about to go to be crucified, He performs this astonishing
ceremony, this astonishing thing He did. in washing his disciples'
feet. Look at verse 4. It says, "...he
riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took
a towel, and girded himself. And after he had poureth water
into a basin, he began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe
them with the towel wherewith he was girded." That's amazing. Is that not astounding that the
Lord of glory took aside His physical garment and put on a
towel and bent down and washed these men's feet? That was the
lowest that a man could possibly do in service to another man. But friends, that picture is
only a small token of what He really did. You see, He not only
just took off a physical robe, He took off the robe of glory
and He girded Himself with the towel of humanity. He came down
and condescended to become a man. And in the ceremony, He just
poured water into a basin. But my friends, in the real picture,
He poured out His soul unto death. poured out His soul unto death. This is the picture of washing
the feet of His disciples. Jesus Christ, when God imputed
the sins of His people to Him, He poured out His blood under
the strict wrath of God. And you see, when the utmost
farthing was paid, you see, He did not escape until the utmost
farthing was paid for our sins. And Jesus Christ, when it was
done, when it was finished, He said, It is finished. It's done. It's complete. I've
paid it all. I've paid for all the sin of
my people. And so by His death, He washed
away our sins. But as He came to His disciples
in this text and He began to wash their feet, this is a picture
of how He comes to each one of us in time. He will come to each
one of His disciples and He will wash their souls and make them white. Just as He washed the dirt off
those apostles' feet, my friends, He came into my soul and He wiped
all the filth of my sin away by His blood. Look at verse 10 of that chapter
in John 13. Jesus said, He that is washed needeth not save to
wash his feet, but is clean every wit. And ye are clean, but not
all. All who believe on Christ's atonement,
all who are washed in the blood of the Lamb have already been
washed. Look at that. That's in the past.
He that is washed, already washed. He that is already washed is
clean every whit. All who believe in Christ are
clean already. Friend, if you're a believer
in Christ, you are as holy as Christ is right now in that inner
man. That new man that God created
in you, he's holy. You are holy in the sight of
God. White, clean, every whit. John says, as he is, so are we
in this world. What is true about our souls
is not true about our flesh. It's not true about our flesh
You know some people say well pastor if you're clean every
wit why would you need to ask for forgiveness? We see my flesh
didn't change did it My flesh nature didn't change. And so
I still need to be washed. It's like a man who gets out
of the tub, Christ said. He's already washed from head
to toe. And he gets out, but he has to step on what? He has
to step on the ground, doesn't he? He has to walk around. And as he walks around, he accumulates
dust on his feet. And he needs those feet to be
washed daily. Friends, we do not need to be
saved again. I don't need to be saved again. I'm already saved. God has saved
me. But what I do is I need constant
forgiveness. I need constant forgiveness.
I need constantly to be washed of my conscience of my daily
sins. And just as Jesus has forever
been the source of our forgiveness from all eternity. Even so, right
now, He is still my source and only source of forgiveness. He's
my only source. Forgive me my debts. Forgive me my debts by the blood
of Christ. See, even so, Christ is that
fountain open for sin. Zechariah 13, verse 1, And that
day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. I love this song. There is a
river. There is a river that flows from
deep within. There is a fountain that frees
the soul from sin. Come to the water, there is a
vast supply. There is a river that never shall
run dry. Isn't that a blessed song? And
Christ is that river. Christ is that fountain that
flows for the forgiveness of sins. Pray, believer in humility, seeing
our need and seeing Christ is the only source that can cleanse
us and does cleanse us from all sin. You know what? This is amazing to me. It's so
glorious and so fresh. Every time I ask for forgiveness,
he says he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's
just that. That's a powerful scripture to
me. He's faithful. He'll do it. And you know what? He'll do it because he's right
to do it. That's amazing. That's gloriously amazing to
such a wretch as I am. And friend, if you have received
this forgiveness, if you do constantly receive this forgiveness, then
should we not tell others of this forgiveness? Yes. We should be overwhelmed to tell
others of the forgiveness of sin. The forgiveness of sins. Christ said this. He said in
Revelation 21, verse 6, it is done. That's wonderful. You can
preach a whole message off that. It is done. Complete salvation
accomplished. It is done. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give. I love that. I will give unto
Him that is a thirst. A thirst for righteousness, a
thirst for forgiveness. He'll give them the fountain
of the water of life, His blood that cleanses from all sin. Number three, we can see the
manifestation of those who are forgiven. In our text, go back
to your text, go back to your text and look at this again.
Forgive us our debts. We are in need of forgiveness.
We see that Christ is the only hope of forgiveness. But He also
gives us this, a manifestation of all who are forgiven. Forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Those who have believed, friends,
you are completely, absolutely forgiven. And this forgiveness is not,
nor ever shall be, based on what you have done for God or men. Ever. Your forgiveness does never,
never, never hinges on what you do. Never. It always hinges upon
the accomplishment of Christ. If He did His job, you're forgiven. I know He did. It's done. He
said it. It's done. So I'm forgiven. And every time I ask, I know
I'm forgiven, not based on what I've done. The Scriptures are
clear, for by grace you are saved. Ephesians 2, 8. Romans 5, 12.
But God commended His love for us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died. Titus 3, verse 5 says, "...not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Friends,
those Scriptures are very clear. That's very clear. We're not
forgiven based on what we've done. Our forgiveness with God
is not based on how we forgive others. So then, what does this mean?
What is this telling us? It means that all who are forgiven,
all who have been washed in the blood of Christ, shall manifest
their forgiveness by being of a forgiving spirit. All who have been forgiven are forgiving people. They shall be. They shall be. You see, this heart of forgiveness
is not natural, is it? The natural thing is to find
fault. The natural thing is for us to
shift blame off of ourselves. That's natural. But to forgive, my friends, is
of the Spirit of God. But I'll tell you this, is it
not easy to profess faith in Christ? You know what, I've not found
very many lost people here in Louisville. I've just not found
them. I've talked to a whole bunch of people and every one
of them thinks they're saved. They all profess faith, but that's
easy to say, isn't it? It's easy to say. In James 2,
verse 14, he says, What does it profit a man, my brother,
though he a man say he hath faith, and have not works? What does
it profit a man to say he is forgiven, and have not forgiveness? James says, Can his faith save
him? Verse 18, Even so faith, If it
hath not works, is dead being alone." All true saving faith
works. Now works never merit salvation,
but friends, works are always the result of salvation. The result of it. Even so will forgiveness of sins
be manifest by a forgiving heart. If we have
been forgiven, it will be evident to all others that we have a
heart of forgiveness. Jesus makes this very clear in
our text down in verse 14 and 15. He says, 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. In other words, if there is no
forgiving heart, there is no evidence of forgiveness. But all who are forgiven will
manifest this by being forgiving. Ephesians 4.32, Be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. How? Even as God,
for Christ's sake, forgave you. Friends, that's a lot of forgiving.
That's a lot of forgiving. Brethren, in this world we will
have offenders. You will have people offend you.
You will have people to slander you. You will be rejected and
you will not be loved or supported by this world. Forgive them. Forgive them. Christ says to us, blessed are
ye when men shall revile you, taunt you, mock you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
My sake." He said, they'll do it for My sake. They'll do it
in My name when they persecute you. How should we react to this? How should we respond to this
when people come in anger and hatred? Christ said, rejoice. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad."
That's an awful strange response, isn't it? That's not natural. Of course it's not. Of course it's not. You have a great reward in heaven,
forgiveness, righteousness, pardon, mercy, grace, they're yours.
So then how have you been forgiven? How much and in what manner did
you receive forgiveness? You received it freely, didn't
you? Then give forgiveness freely. How much forgiveness did you
receive? Can you answer that? How much did God forgive you? You forgive the same amount. Friends, sometimes I know it
seems hard to forgive when people hurt us, when people abuse us,
or when people hurt our families. And the only way for us to overcome
this is to look at what we've been forgiven. That's the only
way. If you look at any other reason
to forgive people, my friends, you'll only bury the hatchet
with the handle sticking out. You won't get very far. But all who have been forgiven,
my friends, they have a forgiving nature. And so when we pray, Father, Forgive us our debts. Oh, how many debts we have. And He freely forgives us. Now,
He tells us, go out there and do the same. I believe that when people offend
us, we should look at it as a blessing. An opportunity. Spurgeon said,
every time someone offends you, it's an opportunity for you to
forgive. Opportunity to forgive because
of what we've been forgiven. I pray, Lord, bless this to our
hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.