Now I'm going to be preaching
from the passage that Brother Jim just read in Matthew 18,
but I want you to start out by turning to Galatians chapter
5 with me. The title of the message this
morning is the Parable of Forgiveness. That's what that parable, as
you notice, that he read is about, forgiveness. We're going to talk
a lot about that subject. But I want us to go to Galatians
5. to begin with. Now let me introduce the message
by asking this question. What is a Christian? What is a Christian? Well, you
know as well as I do that if you just took a survey out on
the street, you'd get a lot of different answers. Most of them
wrong. Some of them may come close to
the truth. Scripture describes a Christian. A Christian is one who believes
in and follows Christ. Christ-like, that's what it means.
And the Bible describes Christians like this, sinners saved by the
grace of God in Christ. The Bible describes Christians
as forgiven sinners. That's what we are constantly,
forgiven. Undeserving sinners. Justified
sinners. That's almost like opposing terms. One who is a sinner, justified. A justified one, a sinner. Well,
how are we justified? That's what the gospel is all
about. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? And, of
course, the answer is through the finished work of the substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus. A Christian is a redeemed sinner,
redeemed by the blood of Christ. A Christian is a regenerated
sinner. That means born again by the
Spirit. A Christian is a preserved sinner,
preserved by the grace of God. We're kept people. And we could
go on and on with various definitions, various descriptions of what
a Christian is. But let me ask you this question
now. What is it to live the Christian life? lived like a Christian. Well, sometimes you might say
this, don't look at Christians to find that out. Does that sound
strange? Go to the Word of God. We can
talk about the Christian life in different ways, too. It's
a life of faith. resting in Christ, believing
in Him, trusting Him. The Bible describes the race
of the Christian life, running the race of grace in Hebrews
chapter 12. It says, looking unto Jesus,
looking unto Jehovah our Savior, God our Savior, as the author
and the finisher of our faith. He started it, He'll complete
it. We didn't start it, we won't complete it. He will. It's a
life of repentance, and that's a constant thing. There is an
initial repentance of dead works and idolatry when the Holy Spirit
enters into our lives and gives us the resurrected life, imparts
the resurrected life and knowledge, the truth, the new birth. And
we turn from our idols to serve the true and living God, but
then it's a constant life of repentance and godly sorrow over
sin. Not the sorrow of the world that
causes us to be condemned, but the sorrow of grace, that godly
sorrow that causes us to continually run to Christ and look to Him
and rest in Him for all of salvation, no matter what others do to us. So it's a life of repentance.
It's a life of worship. It's a life of private worship.
It's a life of public worship. in our public worship services.
This is what Christians do. We identify with Christ and His
people in singing praises and praying and hearing and feeding
upon the Word of God. It's a life of learning. That's
what a disciple is, a learner. Discipline? Yes. Most definitely
discipline. And it's learning and growing
in grace and knowledge. And it's a life of loving. It's
a life of trying to love. It's a life of learning to love.
It's a life of choosing to love, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. It's not trying to get
God to love us because we love Him, because that's not the way
it is. That's not grace. It's herein is love, not that
we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation, the sin-bearing sacrifice that satisfied justice
for our sins. In short, let me say it this
way, to be a Christian and live the Christian life, man, it is
advanced citizenship. I mean, it is advanced citizenship. What do I mean by that? Well,
you know, if you lived in a country where there was an absolute dictator
and you couldn't make a move without his say-so, every law,
every prohibition, Everything you did, everything you thought
was controlled by that dictator. Do you know, that's easy in one
way because you can blame everything on the dictator. Anything goes
right, he gets the credit. When anything goes wrong, he
gets the blame for it. But when you have freedom and liberty,
like we do in this country, there comes responsibility. You see,
we have to behave ourselves in this country. We have to act
responsibly with the liberty that God has given us in this
country. And it's the same way in the
Kingdom of Christ. Now Christ is a benevolent, absolute
dictator. There's no doubt about it. And
yet we're told we're free in Him. Look at verse 1 of Galatians
5. It says, "...stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage." But then Look at verse 13. Now listen to this. You say, well, if he's an absolute
benevolent dictator, then we can blame everything on him.
Well, salvation's of the Lord. If you're saved, yes, you can
blame God. But you know, if you're lost,
you can blame yourself. That's what the Scripture teaches. But
there is a freedom. There is a liberty. Now, it's
not a freedom to sin. And to be selfish, it's a freedom
to obey as children of God. Look at verse 13. He says, For
brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh. Now the flesh there representing
sin, selfishness, self-righteousness. And he says, But by love serve
one another. Here's what liberty we're free
to do. By love to serve one another.
Verse 14. For all the law was fulfilled
in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be
not consumed one of another." In other words, the biting and
devouring there means serving the flesh to the point that you
destroy one another. So he says in verse 16, this
I say then, walk in the Spirit. Now how do you walk in the Spirit?
You don't walk by feeling now. That's not walking by feeling.
And that's not walking in mysticism, like you've got the clouds in
your head today or something. Walking by the Spirit means walking
by the Word of God. And just like Brother Jim prayed,
you know, give us a spirit of forgiveness. That's who the Holy
Spirit is. And he says, so walk by the Spirit,
walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Now, the Lord never said it was
easy. Did He? He never did say that. Now, when the Spirit enters in
and you're born again, then it's just a slide downhill the rest
of the way. No, He says it's a struggle.
Verse 17, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. and the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another,
so that you cannot do the things that you would." Now, you have
desires, and I believe every Christian here this morning can
say, I desire to glorify God. But you have another desire.
Now, this is what some people call the two natures, and that's
okay if they don't take that too far. It's you now. I want
you to understand, the problem is me. It's not, there's another
me in here I'm trying to kill. It's me. I'm the problem, you
see. And the thing about it is, I
have a desire to glorify God, but there's another desire. I
want to get my way. I want my My views, you know,
I've often told you all, if everybody thought like I did, I'd get along
just fine with every one of you all. If you just thought like
me, maybe I can get you to do that. I don't know. But you see,
I want my way. I think my way is the best way.
Everybody thinks their way is the best way now. I mean, how
could it be other? And you see, but we have those
designs. And we know what's right. And if we're going to walk by
the Spirit, what does the Spirit say to do? Well, He's already
said it. He says, don't fulfill the lust of the flesh. By love,
serve one another. He says in verse 18, in these
desires, He says, you cannot do the things that you would.
You can't go the full swing of what your flesh wants, and you
can't go the full swing of what the Spirit wants. You can't be
perfect in Christ. We sing, O to be like thee. You
know, David said, I'll be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness,
when I'm perfect in Christ. Now, we are perfect in Christ
before the bar of God's justice. We're washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness. In Him, we're as holy as we'll
ever be. But in ourselves, we've got a
long way to go. And we're in a warfare. See,
that's what Paul is describing here. It is a warfare. So you've
got this. Here it is. It's advanced citizenship,
and it's warfare. That means it's not easy. You
know, war's not easy. Some people say, well, I wonder
why I have so much trouble in this area. You're in a war. That's
why. If it's a war, that means there's
fighting. Isn't that right? That means
there's pain. That's what war is all about.
There's a battlefield. So he says in verse 18, if you
be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. That is, if
you're led of the Spirit to do the things of Christ, especially
to rest in Christ, you're not under the law, you're not condemned. Then he mentions the works of
the flesh and the works of the Spirit. But this is a warfare.
Now, if we claim to be in Christ, if we claim that Christ is in
us, Well, do we live in the light of His truth? Do we live our
lives for the glory of God? Do we live the life of grace?
And we have to face the issues of what it is to live a Christian
life. We have to face those issues.
We can't avoid them. Now, only a hypocrite avoids
them. You say, well, somebody says, well, I don't want to hear
that kind of message. Well, you don't know Christ.
Now, you understand what I'm saying. This is the Word of God.
And be careful not to be a selective hearer. In two ways. Don't be a selective hearer only
in hearing the parts that you want to hear. The parts that
you believe support your side. And not hearing the whole Word
of God. And don't be a selective hearer in this sense. Don't select
somebody else out of the audience you think needs this message. Because if you do that, you're
not walking in the Spirit. And that's part of the problem.
Really, that goes back to the sorcerer. If you've got somebody
in mind who you think, well, they really need to hear this,
it better be I really need to hear it. That's the way it's
got to be. And if you're truly living a
Christian life, whatever you think that may be, it's because,
let me tell you something, if you're living a Christian life,
it's because God chose you from the beginning and justified you
in Christ. It's because Christ died for
you and redeemed you from all your sins, even the sins you
haven't committed yet. It's because you've been born
again by the Holy Spirit who's given you a resurrected life,
spiritual life, and who indwells you continually to convict you,
to motivate you in the Word of God because of love and gratitude
to Him for His grace. And that's what it's all about.
You're a product. That's what we are. We are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath foreordained that we should walk in them. We are the
fruit of God's power and God's grace and mercy and nothing more. We are His workmanship. And one of the most important
subjects, now go back to Matthew 18. Now one of the most important
subjects we can deal with in living a Christian life is this
subject, forgiveness. forgiving others' injustices,
forgiving others' injuries, misunderstandings, forgiveness. And here's the problem. There is a big part of us, there's
a big part of me that just doesn't like the idea of forgiveness. We're like that old French king.
who made the statement, he said, the sweetest smell I've ever
smelled was the dead body of my enemy. That's what we are
by nature, isn't it? Well, think about this. Now,
here's what's being taught here in this parable, the parable
of forgiveness. It's teaching, number one, that
our attitude toward others in these matters of love and forgiveness
reveals our relationship toward God. That's the fact. It reveals our relationship with
God. John said it this way in 1 John 3.14, we know that we
pass from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. Period. Christ told
his disciples, he said in John 13.35, by this shall all men
know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.
So our attitude towards our brethren in these matters of love and
forgiveness reveals our relationship to God. Secondly, He's teaching
that our attitude towards others in these matters of love and
forgiveness reveals our own understanding of God's mercy. Has God been
merciful to me? Has He been merciful to you?
What is mercy? Why does a person need mercy?
You know, we walk around with our heads held so high sometimes,
even in religion, as if we deserve what we've gotten. And we don't deserve any of it.
We started this thing out in the negative column. We fell
in Adam. We declared war on God in Adam. We rebelled against God. We're
enemies of God. We're born dead in trespasses
and sin. Nothing but self and flesh. And then when we receive the
mercy of God, there are times that we just feel like our rights
have just been trotted on. So bad. We don't have any rights. You know that? You say, well,
what about my right as a human being? You better think about
that one. Better think about that one. Mercy. God be merciful
to me. You know who said that? A publican.
The most hated individual in the Jewish nation at that day.
A turncoat traitor trying to line his own pockets. by collecting
taxes for the Roman government against his own people. Could
you imagine what you'd think of an individual like that if
somebody come in here and conquered America and was collecting your
taxes for the conqueror and lining their pockets? God be merciful
to me. Has God been merciful to me? Well, is it too much to ask me
to be merciful to others? Absolutely not. And here's the
third thing, our attitude towards others in these matters of love
and forgiveness reveals our concern for the glory of God. Now this
is an issue now. However we relate to one another,
however we deal with one another, what choices we make, what we
decide to do, whether we stay, whether we go, whatever, what
is going to serve the glory of God? Now I know what will serve
me and I know what will serve you, but what will serve the
glory of God? That's the issue, isn't it? I'll tell you what served the
glory of God. The peace and unity of brethren. Didn't the psalmist
say that? How great and how sweet. Coming
together to worship God in unity of spirit and love. But now,
as I said, you know forgiveness is not a natural trait and that's
because of sinfulness, selfishness and pride. We have to struggle
with it. It's a warfare. That's why Paul
said in Romans 7, You know, when I would do good, evil is present
with me and keeps me from doing what I want to do. Thank God
when I would do evil, the Spirit is present with me and keeps
me from going to the full extent of what I would. You know, there is nothing more
Christian and more Christ-like than forgiveness. I heard a man
say one time, he said, the hardest thing for an unbeliever to do
is believe. It's impossible, isn't it? It
takes the power and grace of God to do it. Faith is the gift
of God. Nobody's going to believe of
their own free will. They won't do it. Well, if that's
true, I believe the hardest thing even for a Christian to do is
forgive, and it shouldn't be that way. Shouldn't be. Consider Christ on the cross.
Now, here's the perfect God-man who knew no sin, who did no sin,
never had a sinful thought. who suffered under the lies and
the hatred, the unjust lies and the hatred of men, who could
not, who could not, hanging on that cross, say, Father, get
them. He said, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they did. There was an evangelist who spoke
like that. He preached the gospel to thousands
of people one day. And they got so mad at him that
they took him out by a wall and they were going to stone him,
and they did. And before he died, he said, lay not this sin to
their charge. That was Stephen. You know how
Stephen did that? He did it by the grace of God. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 130
and verse 3, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? Now, you know, I thought about
that. The Lord doesn't mark iniquities with his people. You know why?
Because Christ died for our iniquities. He doesn't charge us with our
sins. But you know what we do? We go around charging everybody
with sin. No. We'd rather teach them a lesson.
You know, really, what we don't see is that the greatest lesson
we can teach somebody is through forgiveness. Doesn't the Lord
teach us that? Didn't He teach us through His
forgiveness to us through Christ? What does His Word say? Well,
let's look at this parable. There are four stages in this
parable. The first stage is this. There was a question asked that
brought about this parable. Look at verse 21. This is Peter.
The Lord had been talking about humility. You know, they wanted
to know who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven
because that's something that by nature we're concerned with
until the Lord teaches us. And then he talked about offenses
in the church, fending brethren. He talked about the Lord being
so concerned with one individual sheep, the shepherd. So, so concerned
with just one person now. You know, in religion we want
great crowds. And don't get me wrong, I want
great crowds too, but if my desire for a great crowd causes me not
to be concerned for even one of these little ones, one of
the sheep, then it's a wrong concern, isn't it? But he was
so concerned with one lamb, one sheep that's gone astray that
he left the 99 and went to get the lost sheep. And then he talked
about church discipline. Talked about when a brother offends
a brother, the brother's to go to him privately. And as the
Germans used to say, they're to settle it under four eyes. Two people with two eyes each
and leave it at that. Most of the time we like to settle
those things by getting on the telephone and seeing who's with us and
who's not. But he said, no, you go privately
to that, see if you can settle the matter. And if you have,
you gained your brother. He said, if that don't work, go get two
or three more. And if that doesn't work, you bring the matter before
the church and you do what the word of God says. You know, I
have never in my life of 55 years seen that done right. Have you? I mean, not one time. I mean,
I've seen people get discontent in the church, get mad, somebody
get offended. But I have never seen them come just to the person
and settle, or even go with the two or the three, and then come
before the church and settle like it should be. I've never
seen that. But that's what he talked about.
And so Peter asked this question. Look at verse 21. He says, Then
came Peter to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Now, you know
what the rabbis back then taught? Three times. Three stripes you're
out. That's what the rabbis taught.
So Peter, I believe he knew that, so here he's saying, well, I'll
go four more than the scribes and the rabbis. I'll at least
go seven times. And Jesus saith unto him, I say
not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Now, don't do the math there. And they say, well, that's it.
Forty hundred and ninety times. I guess you get your journal
and start keeping it. No, that is our Lord's way of teaching
that it is limitless. It never ends. Never ends. So, he says it never ends. Well, why don't they just keep
doing it? You say, surely he couldn't mean
that. Yes, he means that. Now, come on. What do you expect
of me? You know, that's the kind of
thing he's showing here. Limitless. That's what he's teaching. So
there's the question that brought about the parable. So now here's
the second stage of the parable. There's a king and then there's
a debtor. And he becomes a forgiven debtor. Look at verse 23. It
says, Therefore the therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened
unto a certain king which would take account of his servants
this this word servants here has to do with bond servants,
but he's taking account of what they owe him and The king takes
account of the servants and the kingdom of heaven here now. We
know this is the kingdom of heaven on earth and which is the realm
of the visible church here on earth between the time of the
Lord's first coming and his death and burial and resurrection,
his ascension into glory, and his coming again. So what he's
talking about is all who bear the Christian name, professors
of religion, either really or nominally the subjects and servants
of God. And He's going to take account
of their conduct, their behavior. Does it evidence His grace? Does
it evidence His love towards sinners? Does it evidence His
forgiveness? Or does it evidence a false profession?
That's the issue here. You see, the Lord teaches us
that these issues are to be evidences of His grace, His love, His mercy. All right? And then look at verse
25. He says, but for as much as he had, verse 24, and when
he had begun to reckon, when he began to impute, that's what
that word means, to account it, one was brought unto him which
owed him ten thousand talents. Now, it's okay for you to do
the math on that one. But I thank God somebody else
has for me. Let me tell you what that debt
would amount to in our currency today. It would be close to around
$10 million. That's what this fellow owed,
the king. $10 million. Somebody said, well, how in the
world did he run up such a... I don't know, but he did. But
you see, that's not the issue. This is a parable now. And he's
teaching one thing here. So here's a fellow who owed $10
million. Think of it that way. But now
look at verse 25, "...but forasmuch as he had not to pay." He had
not to pay. His Lord commanded him to be
sold and his wife and children and all that he had a payment
to be made. Now, let me just say, what a
great picture that is of all of us by nature. Isn't that right? Bankrupt. Nothing to offer. Ten million bucks in debt. We
fell in Adam. And in Adam, according to the
covenant of works, we owed a debt to God's justice that was infinitely
more than we could pay. Is that right? And we're just
like this fellow here. We had nothing to pay. Nothing
to pay. Nothing to offer. Our works No,
they wouldn't even come close. They're worse. That just incurs
more debt. No righteousness. No righteous
works. Just bankrupt sinners. Sold into the slavery of the
law. And everything we have, everything
it's connected with, is deserving of eternal punishment. That's
a great picture of us, isn't it? In Adam. You see, a debt
of sin cannot be charged by a debt of obedience, because in obedience
a person only does that which is his duty to do. Did you understand
what I just said? Somebody said, well, I'll get
to obey, and that'll pay the debt. No, that won't pay the
debt, because if you do obey, if you obey perfectly, which
you cannot, and I cannot, you're just doing what's your duty.
That's what the law of the unprofitable servant is. You can't pay by
obedience. Justice demands payment, and
what is the payment? Well, the wages of sin is what? Debt. You know what that means? That
means your sin debt and my sin debt could not have been paid
in any other way but by debt. And therefore, when sinners seek
to pay that debt by their obedience, they're just mocking God. That's
why salvation is not by works. By deeds of laws shall no flesh
be justified in His sight. It takes death to pay that debt. The wages of sin. Sin against
God. Infinite debt which cannot be
paid by the offender. Well, Christ alone was able and
willing to pay our debt. And He's done it for His people.
He did it at Calvary. And without an interest in His
blood and His righteousness and His satisfaction that He made
for our sins, every debtor is liable to be cast and will be
cast into the prison of hell, and there to lie till the utmost
farthing of that ten million dollar debt is paid, which will
be how long? All eternity. And that's exactly
what I deserve in myself, and you too. His Lord commanded. You know, this king was not being
mean here. He was being just. The fellow
owed him. And he commanded, God is just.
He must punish sin. He can't just look over it and
act like it never happened. You know how I know that's true?
He sent his son into the world to die for his sheep. That's
why I know God must punish sin. He punished it when it was charged
to his son. Now look at verse 26. He says,
"...the servant therefore fell down and worshipped him." That
means begged him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, I will
pay thee all. You know, men under a sense of guilt and room will
often promise to pay what they owe. But God's Word is plain. There's no way that fellow could
pay. He could have worked a lifetime and not even paid a small percentage
of it. He couldn't do it. What do we say? The law brings
sinners in guilty. with no hope of paying their
debt by their best efforts or by any of their sufferings. We
need a mediator, we need a substitute, we need a surety, we need a savior
to pay that debt. But then in verse 27 it says,
then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and
loosed him and forgave him the debt. The king was moved with
compassion. Just as our Savior, Christ, the
God-man, was moved with compassion towards penitent sinners. God
is the first cause of all things in salvation. His love and mercy
are not reactions to beggars. His love and mercy makes sinners
beggars. Hannah prayed, and in her prayer
he said, he reached down and lifted the beggar off the dung
heap. But His mercy and love causes
His people to fall down and beg for mercy. But He forgave him
the debt. The whole debt was forgiven.
Now we know that in our situation, our whole debt is totally forgiven. Not because we begged God for
mercy, but because He sent His Son to pay our debt. Jesus paid
it all. All the debt I owe. He paid it
all by His blood, every part of my debt. And I didn't deserve
it, and you didn't either. But now look on, here's the third
part of this parable, the wickedness of the servant. Look at verse
28. He says, but the same servant went out and found one of his
fellow servants which owed him a hundred pence. Now you know
what the equivalent of that is in our currency today? Twenty
bucks. $20. This fellow owed him $20. Now
this same fellow who owed the king $10,000,000, he found a
fellow that owed him a $20. And it says he laid hands on
him and took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest.
You pay me what you owe me. Verse 29, And his fellow servant
fell down at his feet, and besought or begged him, saying, Have patience
with me, and I will pay thee all." Now, it's very possible
he could have paid that back. But verse 30 says, "...and he
would not." He wouldn't have it. He said, "...but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt." There you
go. Twenty bucks. Cast him into prison. No mercy. No forgiveness. Well, look at the fourth part.
Look at verse 31. He says, So when his fellow servants
saw what was done, They were very sorry, and they came and
told unto their Lord all that was done. They told the king
about this fell, and then his Lord, after that he had called
him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that
did, because thou desirest me, shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servants, even as I had pity
on thee?" Now underscore that part, even as I had pity on thee. There is the king. As I had pity
on thee, as the Lord had pity on you, as he had pity on me. Verse 34, And the Lord was wroth,
he was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should
pay all that was due unto him. Now that debt that this fellow
owed ten million could not be paid in his lifetime. That's
a picture of infinite suffering. Verse 35, He says, So likewise,
in the same way shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye
from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. Now let me just show you what
this parable is not teaching first. This parable does not
teach that God forgives us based on our sorrow and our repentance. You see, God forgives us freely,
unconditionally, the Scripture says. Listen, Christ died for
us when we were what? Enemies. That's the extent of
God's forgiveness of me. When God sent His Son into the
world to die for my sins, He didn't do it because I was on
my knees begging Him to have compassion. He sent His Son into the world
to save His enemies. That's why Christ said, love
your enemies. It's not teaching that God can
forgive our debt upon the basis of compassion without justice.
God must be just when He justifies. Payment must be made. Somebody's
going to make the payment. It's either going to be in eternity
in hell or Christ on the cross. the equivalent of an eternity
in hell for His people. Shedding His blood as payment.
Working out our righteousness before God. And this is not teaching
that God forgives us and then if we don't do our part, He takes
it back. Not teaching that at all. The
Bible says in Romans 11, 29 that the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. If God would forgive us and then
take us back, that would be contrary to other scriptures. You see,
you can't say that Christ taught in other places that salvation
is free and not conditioned on sinners. But here in this parable,
he taught the opposite. No, he's not teaching about that
right here. He's teaching another lesson.
You see, God does not forgive us because we forgive others.
We forgive others because God has forgiven and continues to
forgive us. That's what a Christian is. He's
a beggar lifted off the dung heap. of self-righteous religion
and put in the realm of the mercy of God. He's an enemy who's been
reconciled to God in Christ. We don't earn mercy and forgiveness. It's freely given. What's this
parable teaching? It's teaching this, very simply.
It's teaching that where God has been merciful to a sinner
in Christ, where God has forgiven sins by virtue of the blood of
Christ, there will be, by His grace in that sinner, a spirit
and attitude of forgiveness. That's what it's teaching. That's
what that Lord's prayer over there is teaching. Blessed are
the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Christ said, But
love ye 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. Be ye therefore merciful,
as your Father also is merciful. That's what he's teaching. Here's
what he's teaching. Whenever somebody offends you,
look at that as this way. They owe you 20 bucks. How much did you owe God and
did He forgive you? 10 million. Now, if God forgave
you 10 million, can't you forgive the 20 bucks? Or are you going
to say, now pay up? You say, well, what if they do
something that's even worse? It's still just 20 bucks, friend.
That's it. 20 bucks. But God forgave me
10 million. in Christ. Well, let me close
with this. I want to show you what it does
not mean, what forgiveness does not mean. And listen to me and
I'll hurt. Now, forgiveness does not mean
we act as if it didn't happen. Let me tell you something, if
it didn't happen, there wouldn't need to be forgiveness. The Lord,
when he forgave me, he didn't act as if it didn't happen. You
know how I know that? He sent his son. to take my sins
upon Himself. He was made sin. Christ was made
sin. Christ who knew no sin, that
I might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ died for
my sins. He didn't act like they didn't
happen. They happened for Him. He just put them to the account
of His Son. And He died for them. Secondly, forgiveness does not
mean we condone the wrong done to us. God didn't condone the
wrong that I did to Him. Again, how do I know that? He
sent his son to take the punishment. Christ took my punishment. He
didn't condone it, so forgiveness doesn't... Listen, any forgiveness
that you desire to show that does not, does not admonish the
one to be forgiven is not biblical forgiveness. That's just stupidity. I'm telling you the truth. No,
forgiveness doesn't tell the person, well, what you did was
okay, but it does forgive. And thirdly, forgiveness does
not mean fellowship necessarily. We're to forgive our enemies.
Over here in Matthew 18, he spoke of dealing with a brother who
was offended against another brother. You deal with it, but
you deal with it in love and forgiveness, not revenge. Not to get back. Not to get even. So, fourthly, forgiveness does
not mean that we should not expect repentance. But now listen to
me now. Our forgiving them is never to be based on their repenting. Just like God's forgiving us
never was based on our repenting. But let me tell you something.
When God forgave us and sent His Spirit to show us that forgiveness,
what did we do? We repented. You see, the Lord
drew us with cords of love, not cords of vengeance. The goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance. And then lastly, forgiveness
is to be from the heart. Now, that doesn't mean we'll
always have a pure and perfect desire to forgive without struggles
in the flesh. It's going to be a warfare. It's
going to be a struggle. We're going to have to fight
the flesh. Forgiveness is a choice just like love. It means we desire
to do what's right because we know it's right and because we
have been forgiven freely in Christ. That's what it is. From your hearts, he said. From
your hearts. Knowing that it's right. Knowing
that it glorifies God. Knowing that it's good for His
people. Alright.