Chapter 6, this chapter opens
up with our Lord talking about giving. We know that chapters
5, 6, and 7 are what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount,
the Lord preaching this Sermon on the Mount, and He opens up
chapter 6 speaking on the subject of giving, and as we saw when
we looked at it, We don't give to be saved. We don't do that
to be saved in order to be saved. We give because we are saved. We give to say, thank you for
saving us. Thank you. It's a loving response
to everything that he has already given to us and already done
for us. And then our Lord in the next
few verses went on to talk about prayer. And as we saw, when we
looked at it, we don't pray in order to be saved. Ask and it
shall be given you. Well, we don't pray in order
to be saved. We pray because the spirit of
God has made us alive by quickening us together with Christ. And
given us a union with him, you know, until life is given a man
or a woman can't pray. He or she is dead. How can a dead man pray? So prayer
is not the cause of salvation. Giving is not the cause of salvation
and prayer is not the cause of salvation. It's a response. to salvation because God has
joined us together with him. And when I say God, I mean, father,
son, and spirit God, because of that, we pray because he did
something. We pray. These things are responses. All right. They are results to
what God has already done. Now, I tell you that I open this
way because the same thing applies to what our Lord is about to
say regarding forgiveness. I need to say this. I want us
to know this before we read these two verses. All right. Before
we read them, let me make it clear that we don't forgive others
in order to be saved. This is really important. I want
to make sure, I believe we know this, but I want to make sure.
Cause we're about to read two verses that are going to grab
our attention. They really are. We do not forgive in order to
be saved. All right? We forgive others
and we ought to forgive others because we have been saved. And our Lord is making it very
clear that this ought to be the response to our salvation. That is a response, just like
the rest of it, to salvation, and our Lord is telling us that
ought to be our response because of salvation. All right, now
let's read these verses. Matthew 6, verses 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. That sounds pretty serious, doesn't
it? That sounds conditional, doesn't
it? That sounds conditional. He said,
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. That sounds conditional. Here's the thing. It is. Our Lord said exactly what he
meant. He means exactly what he said.
It is. It is conditional. We're gonna
see that in just a minute. But what we just said before
we read those two verses still holds true. And we're gonna see
that too. He just instructed us right before
that on how we should pray. And in verse 12, he said that
we should ask the father to forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors, he
said, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. He said, we need to constantly
be mindful of the fact that we have sin that needs to be forgiven. We need to constantly be mindful
of the fact, as soon as someone sins against you, your own sin
goes out the window. You forget about it. You know,
our Lord is in all of this. He's talking about, you know,
we're trying to pick the moat out of our brother's eye, and
we're knocking everything over with a big beam coming out of
our own, but we don't see that. And he said, we need to constantly
remember that we have sin that needs to be forgiven. We are
sinners. Forgive us our debts. That's what he said. Pray father.
This is what our Lord taught us. Pray father, forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors. Teach us to forgive others. And then in verse 13, he attaches
to that, lead us not into the temptation of pride and the bitterness
of not forgiving others. I'm trying to connect all this.
He's talking about forgiving, forgiving, forgiving, forgiving. And in the middle of that, he
says, lead us not into this temptation of pride and this bitterness
of not forgiving others. He said, deliver us from that
evil. deliver us from that evil. Verse
14, 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, let me say again that what
our Lord is saying right here, this is not a condition for our
salvation. The only condition on our salvation
is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. God does not require us to forgive
others in order to forgive us. He doesn't require us to do something
first and forgive first before he will forgive us. The only
thing that God required in order to forgive us was the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. I want to establish
that, improve it, and then we'll move on. All right. Turn with
me to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 9, this is
speaking of Christ. It says, then said he, lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. He took away the works of the
law that he could establish grace through his blood. by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And every priest stood, he was
saying throughout the old Testament, they stood, they standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Who were his enemies? us, expecting
we're going to be brought to His feet. Verse 14 says, for
by one offering he hath, and I want to bring attention to
that four letter word, H-A-T-H. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, this is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more." And don't you love
that? Now where remission of these
is, if you're in remission, that means it's gone. There's no more
offering for sin. Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by new and
living way, which he hath, H-A-T-H, he hath consecrated, he has made
new for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and
having in high priest over the house of God, let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith. He hath, He hath, by
His one sacrifice, He perfected, He remitted, that means He made
the payment, and He forgave. While our Lord hung on that cross,
He cried, Father, forgive them, and He did. He did. Turn with me to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 6, it says,
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. We have it. We have it. In His blood, we have it. All right? So, look at Ephesians
4. In His blood, we have it. He did it. So Ephesians 4, verse
31, It says, let all bitterness. Now let's apply this to ourselves.
Okay. Let's apply this to life. Let's apply this to just the
way that we are. All right. Let all bitterness. And I want to point out too,
that this is something that involves me, myself, and I let all bitterness. and wrath and anger and clamor. That means outcry tumult. You know, people, I just can't
stand it anymore. I'm going to cry out and evil
speaking. That means slander, vilification,
trying to vilify somebody. Be put away from you with all
malice, that means ill will, a desire to hurt. Let all that
be put away. Verse 32 says, and be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake, Hath, H-A-T-H, hath forgiven you. He said, forgive one another
because for Christ's sake, God the Father has, not will as soon
as you fulfill one of his conditions that he's laid out there. He
has forgiven you. He has. With that being established,
let's acknowledge the fact that our Lord is commanding us. When we read what he says, we
don't, we don't say, oh no, that's not what he means. No, he wrote
what he means. Our Lord is commanding us because of the forgiveness
that has been shown to us. He is commanding us to forgive
each other. Or he said there will be consequences. There'll be consequences, not
spiritual, but physical consequences. We
are children of the heavenly father. We're children of the
heavenly father. And I know this is not popular
anymore. It was not popular when I first became a pastor nine
years ago, and it's really not popular now. It's changed in
nine years. It'll change in nine more. Not
only is it not popular, but this is even considered to be wrong
and it's considered to be cruel. But the Holy word of God says,
and it commands that fathers are to discipline their children.
Mothers are to discipline their children. Solomon said, he that
spareth his rod, hateth his son. You just don't care what, how
you turn out. Don't care how the child turns
out, you know, just let them go, let them have their way. Solomon said, but he that loveth
him, chasteneth him betimes. That means the father that loves
his son or loves his daughter will chasten him or her every
time he or she needs it. I'll be honest with you. I am
so grateful that I was born back in the day when you could just
tear into anybody's kid. At Walmart, if a kid backed it
up, you'd tear into that kid too. I really am. I am so glad my parents, you
know, my dad jerked a knot in my tail. In my tail. That means spank, the awful words.
He spanked me. Thank God. I don't begrudge him
for that. I'm so thankful that he did that.
He taught me, son, you're not gonna do that. We're not gonna
go that way. And you know why he did that?
He loved me. That's why. It's because He loved
me. And I'll just tell you, and this
is serious, our Heavenly Father loves us. He loves us. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. I want to point out that at the
beginning here, He's telling us in verse 2 that Christ finished
salvation. He says that before He says what
we're going to look at. He said, Christ, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation, who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. It's
finished. Salvation is finished. All right,
now look at verse five. He said, you have forgotten the
exhortation, which speaketh unto you as unto children. My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers," meaning every soul on this earth is without
his chastisement if they don't belong to him, and if you're
like them, then are you bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we
have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave
them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the father of spirits, and live? For they verily
for a few days chastened us, after their own pleasure, but
he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now, no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." He said, salvation is finished. You are my child. Now, as my child, I expect you
to obey me." That's what he's saying. And if you don't, I'll
deal with you as a father deals with his child. And his commandment
to us in our text is, as you have been forgiven, forgive,
forgive. You say, well, they don't deserve
it. He said, neither did you. But your father dealt lovingly
with you, kindly with you. He did it by showing mercy to
you and forgiveness to you. Mercy and forgiveness that we
didn't deserve. Wasn't owed to us, but for Christ's
sake, we received it anyway. We received it anyway. Just think
about it. After our Lord has dealt so kindly
with us and so lovingly and so tenderly with us, do we really
think it's pleasing to Him to turn and deal harshly with someone
else? You know, our Lord gave that
parable of the man who owed his king 10,000 talents. And the
king demanded it of him and he couldn't pay. And the king was
going to deal very harshly with him, deal with his family, deal
with everything. And he begged for mercy. And the king said, you know what?
You've tugged at my heart. You're freely forgiven, everything
wiped clean, freely forgiven. That man went out and found another
man who owed him a hundred pence. He owed the king 10,000 talents. Another man owed him a hundred
pence. And he said, you pay me right
now. And the man said, I can't. He grabbed him by the throat,
it says, and demanded it and had him thrown in prison. And
the king found out and he was sore displeased. He said, you
bring that man to me. I'm gonna deal with him. And
he did. He did. Christ has satisfied eternity
for us. He satisfied all the consequences
of eternity and he's made us to be joint heir children of
the father with him. And as children of the father
living in this physical world, he does demand certain things
of us. certain physical things. And
if we disobey, you know, I can tell you from experience, if
my dad had children again, I'd tell them, listen, you're a joint
heir with me. I'm telling you from experience,
if he tells you and you disobey him, he's gonna chase in you. These things he demands. If we
disobey these physical demands, as a loving father, he will chasten
us. And he tells us that in the Sermon
on the Mount, all these things, he deals with all of it. I want
to show you in Luke's account. We'll, all we have to do is look
at Matthew seven, verse one, and he deals with it, but let's,
let me go to Luke's account. Go to Luke six. Luke six, verse 27, he said,
I say unto you, which here. Yeah. Luke six, 27. I say unto
you, which here love your enemies do good to them, which hate you. And I'd venture to say that we
don't have too many enemies and there's not too many people who
we know of who hate us. But if we do, this is what he
says, how to respond. love your enemies, do good to
them which hate you, bless them that curse you. Is he saying to just make a big
outward show and just, you know, prove your, no, he talking about
just on the inside. He said, pray for them, which
despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee
on the one cheek offer also the other. And him that taketh away
thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every
man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods,
ask them not again. And as you would that men should
do to you, do you also to them likewise. For if you love them
which love you, what thank have you? For sinners also love those
that love them. And if you do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have you? For sinners also do even
the same. And if you lend to them of whom
you hope to receive, what thank have you? For sinners also lend
to sinners to receive as much again. but love your enemies
and do good and lend hoping for nothing again and your reward
shall be great and you shall be the children of the highest
for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. And when I read
that, I put the name Gabe Stonerker right there. You talk about that
unthankful and evil and he's kind. Verse 36 says, be ye therefore
merciful as your father also is merciful. He said, judge not,
and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not
be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.
Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure pressed down
and shaken together. And running over shall men given
to your bosom. For with the same measure that
you meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. That's
what our Lord is telling us, and this is a real thing. This
is a real thing. As children of our heavenly Father,
we need to know that this is a real thing. He said, the same
measure that you meet with all, that's what's gonna be measured
to you. If we want peace, peace in this earthly world that we
live in, Christ has made peace with the Father for us. But if
we want peace, we need to be peacemakers. We just do. We need to be peacemakers. If
we want friends, who doesn't want friends? That's a great
point of depression. I don't have any friends. If
we want friends, we need to be friendly. We need to first show
ourselves friendly. If we want to be loved, If we want to be forgiven when
we slip up, and we will, I'm telling you, our sin will rear
up and show itself. If we want to be forgiven, we're
going to have to forgive. Just going to have to forgive.
Let's forgive each other. Let's forgive each other. We
don't deserve it. It doesn't matter. Let's forgive each other. Forgiveness is the basis of the
gospel. It's the whole reason Christ
came. It's the whole reason. There's
not going to be one soul in glory who is not well acquainted with
the fact that the only reason he is there, he or she is there,
the only reason is because of the forgiveness that is in Christ. Only reason. the loving, gracious
forgiveness that was freely, kindly given to them in the sacrifice
that Christ made, forgiving all their trespasses, blotting out
all their sins in His own precious blood. So let's forgive each
other. I'm done. I'm done. A man named
William Jay walked into John Newton's office one time and
said, Brother Newton, did you hear about that old sinner out
there in the gutter? The Lord saved him. He said,
no, I didn't hear about that. William Jay said, Brother Newton,
I'll never despair of anybody since God saved him. And John Newton said, Brother
Jay, I'll never despair of anybody since God saved me. I'll never despair of anybody
since God saved me. If the Lord forgave me, he's
able to forgive anybody. And if he's able to forgive,
Lord, let me be. Make me able to forgive. Let's find somebody who needs
forgiveness and give it to them. We can give it to them right
now. I promise I'm done. But I just want to say this.
We can give it to them right now. You don't have to get up
and leave and go find somebody. You can give it to them right
now. It doesn't take a big action. It doesn't take a big event.
It does not take a big announcement. We can forgive even without anybody
knowing about it. We don't even have to tell anybody.
All we have to do is let it go. That's all we have to do. Let
it go. And say, as Christ in His love
has literally covered all of my sin, in that same love that
He's given to us, I cover yours. In the blood of Christ, your
sin is blotted out to me. In the blood of Christ, your
sin is blotted out to me. As He remembers my sin no more, May he give me the ability to
remember your sin no more. You know, I forgive, but I'll
never forget. Lord helped me to Lord. Give
me a little heavenly amnesia. Help me to forget. Our Lord said,
when that kind of mercy is shown from you, that kind of mercy
will be shown to you. We're going to need it. That's
the point I'm really wanting to get to. We're going to need
it. We are still sinners on this earth. We are going to need it.
And our Lord said, blessed are the merciful. They're going to
get what they dish out. They're going to. Mercy and forgiveness. I pray the Lord will teach us
that. Lord, teach me that. Spare us from the rod of chastening. Spare us from that, Lord. He
said, if you send forgiveness to your brethren, I'll send forgiveness
to you. May the Lord make it so.