Continuing on the Lord's prayer
here, the model prayer, remember it said here in verse 9, After
this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name. God is in heaven, and oh, bless
his name. His name is holy, and we pray
for his kingdom to come. Come in our hearts, come in the
hearts of our loved ones, our grandchildren, our friends, our
neighbors. Set up His rules, set up His
spiritual kingdom in the hearts and minds of men who want His
will done in our lives and in earth even as it is in heaven.
And then, you know, give us this day our daily bread was the last
message I brought from here. And how that we pray for Him
to give us our necessities every day, every day. Tonight I'm going
to deal with forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen. There where it says forgive us
our debts as we forgive us our debtors. There's something really
unusual about this prayer in that it's out of tune with religious
thought and rhetoric today. It's just out of tune with it.
You know, we're so out of tune with our selfish selves. It's
out of tune with our self-centeredness. Because in this petition, in
this Lord's Prayer here, in this model prayer, there's only one
thing dealing with our bodies. Dealing with our bodies. Everything
else deals with eternity and our souls before God in our hearts.
Give us this day our daily bread. That's the only thing that deals
with the temple life. The Bible. And you know, in this
world, that's all it's interested in. That's all the preachers
are interested in. They count bodies, they count heads, they
make merchandise of men's souls. And we are self-centered and
so selfish that we're more concerned with the needs of our body than
we are anything else, with ourselves. But there's two petitions, for
every petitioner there's two petitions for the soul. But all
our needs, all of our needs are met in these three things. Give
us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. All of our needs
are in all three of those things. Everything we need for time and
eternity is in these three things. Our whole life is found in these
three things. Give us this day our daily bread,
forgive us our debts, forgive us our sins, as we forgive those
who sin against us, and lead us not into temptation, save
us from evil. That's our whole life found right
there in these three short sins. The whole life of a believer
is dealt with right here in every respect. First of all, we have
our physical needs. Give us this day our daily bread.
That takes care of our physical needs. You remember when the
son of Ager said, Lord, give me food convenient for me. Don't
let me be rich. Lest I deny you, don't let me
be poor, lest I still take your name in vain. Just give me what's
convenient for me. That's all I want. So all of
our physical needs, what we need, we pray, Lord give us this day. And it's a gift. We thank God
for the days that He gives us. Thank God for the peace that
we have for the day. And every opportunity you get
to rejoice and relax and rest in Christ, take it. Because there
will be plenty enough troubles and trials and tears to do you. And the Lord will give you the
grace for the day. And so we have our temple needs met. Give
us, oh God, give us today what we need today. Our necessities
for today. And you know what we need. We
don't know what we need. We think we may need one thing
and God says we need another. And then it meets our mental
needs. Because of all of our needs, we care about what we're
going to get today. We don't have to take care for tomorrow.
And when we have our sins forgiven, that quietens our, gives us peace
of mind, gives us peace of heart. And when God, we pray, Lord,
lead us not into temptation, we're not afraid of being led
astray, that God will keep us from the evil. And then all of
our spiritual needs. The body and soul and spirit
is covered in these three things, provided for and remembered in
this prayer. That first deals with our physical
life, and the second one deals with our cleansing from sin and
its guilt, and our relationship with others in this world. Look
what he said, forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors,
forgive us. Forgive us. Want forgiveness. Need forgiveness. Desire forgiveness. And the last one deals with my
need of being kept from sin and its power. Lead us not into temptation. Oh Lord, lead us not into temptation. Don't let temptation, you know
us Lord, but deliver us from evil. Don't lead us where we'll
be tried in that. Don't let that happen to us.
And beloved, of all these things here, it teaches us this, that
we ought to be more concerned for our souls than anything else. You see, the soul is the very
breath of God, and that means that it's capable of communion
with God. This body can't commune with
God. And the man became a living soul when God breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. And our soul is the very breath
of God, the life of God. And what it means, beloved, is
that this soul is capable of communing with God, fellowshiping
with God, talking to God, experiencing God, resting in God, and the
soul and the heart is the same, one and the same. And so that's
why we ought to care so much for the soul, because it communes,
it actually goes out to God. It can experience the power and
presence of God. The soul can, the flesh can't,
That's why people say, boy, I felt I had goosebumps in church this
morning. I felt the Spirit because I'd
listened. I get goosebumps listening to people sing the Star-Spangled
Banner and singing America the Beautiful.
I get goosebumps over that. But, oh, I want my soul. That's
why, you know, He, God, seeketh such to worship Him in Spirit.
It's the soul and the spirit that worships God and fellowships
with God. And the second reason we ought to give more concern
for our souls is our souls are immortal. They're immortal. Once they come into existence,
they'll never go out of existence. Never. And I'll tell you something
else about the soul. The soul can act without the
body. Our soul can act without the body. All of our souls act
without our body. We can call on God, we can commune
with God, we can feel with our soul. David says, my soul is
my darling. And so, you know, the soul can
act without the body. And it will act without the body.
When the body returns to dust, and it will, it will go back
to dust and ashes from which it comes, the soul will still
live on. The soul, that part that God
made, will live on. And how we ought to be more concerned
for the soul than for our bodies. Oh my, it would be more concern
for the soul than for our bodies. And oh, and how sad, how sad
it is that people, and me included, I have spells, you know, I've
done it, and I'll probably do it again, but how sad it is that
people care more about the body than they do the soul. Oh my,
they're more concerned for dressing up the body than they are for
their soul being dressed in the righteousness of Christ. They're
more concerned for the best that they can put on their body instead
of having the best that God would give them in Christ. And yet
they're more dressed to dress it up, put the best on it, and
yet they don't care how naked and undressed their souls are
before God. And when God, so you know, when
Adam was in the garden and he took of that fruit and the Lord
came walking in the cool of the day and said, Adam, where are
you? And Adam said, I'm naked. I'm naked. What part of him made
him know that he was naked? God made him naked. He didn't
know anything about nakedness. What part? It was that soul part.
That consciousness of being in the presence of God and being
naked before God. And oh, we don't want to be naked
and undressed before God. I don't want to be naked before
God, do you? And oh, men and their people care more for the
body than the soul. They feed the flesh, cater to
the flesh, mine the flesh, make provision for the flesh, and
yet let the soul starve. Let it starve. Get interested
in the things of this world and the things that's going on in
this world and everything that's going on. And then they let their
souls starve as they just feed the flesh. And it's like a drunk
who feeds his drunkenness and starves his children. That's
what it is to starve our souls. And God help us to be more careful
for our souls. Because I know this, I know this,
if it's well with the soul, then everything will be well with
the body too. You tend to the soul first. And I'll tell you
something about tending to the soul. It's more to it than accepting
Jesus or letting Jesus into your heart. It's more to it than coming
to the front. It's more to it than joining
the church. For a soul to be well with God, for a soul to
be well, it's more than just raising your hand and asking
for prayer. It's more than just walking to
the front. It's more than going and talking to the preacher.
It's a lot more than that. You know, you lose your soul,
you can't get it back. It's gone forever. You lose your
health, it can be recovered. You can get over that. You can
get well again. You lose your living even. You can get another
job. You can recover it. But boy,
when you lose your soul, oh, it's a horrible thing to
think about. But here our Lord Jesus gives us a term, gives
a term to sin, He calls it debt. There in verse 12 He says, Forgive
us our debts. Here He calls sin a debt. Why
is sin called a debt? Because it's like a debt. It's
like a debt. And a debt is due. When you owe
a debt, it must be paid. It can be called due. And a debt
is something that's owed. It's a debt that's owed. And
what do we owe God? We owe Him exact, perfect, and
perpetual obedience. And the moment that we fail in
that, we go in debt. We owe God our love, our heart,
our soul. And when we can't give Him that,
we become in debt. I want to show you something
in Leviticus 22. Now you look over here with me, just one verse
of scripture, Leviticus. Leviticus 22. Third book in the
Bible. Leviticus 22. You know, and there's nothing
worse than owing a debt and not being able to pay it. And we
owe exact, perfect, perpetual obedience to God and we're not
paying it and can't pay it. And we can't pay what is due,
and when you can't pay what is due, the debt starts accruing.
The debt just gets worse and worse and worse and worse. And
Leviticus 22, 21, it says this, And whosoever offers a sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his will, or a freewill offering in bees
or sheep, now watch this, it shall be perfect to be accepted. There shall be no blemish in
it. So what this tells us is this, if there's going to be
anything we offer to God, anything, anything of our time, anything
of ourselves, any prayer, anything that we give to God, it's got
to be perfect to be accepted. And if it ever ceases to be perfect,
then you're in debt right then and there. And you know why they kept offering
the same sacrifices? They offered a lamb every morning,
they offered a lamb every evening. And when a man sinned, he'd bring
a beef, he'd bring a bullock, he'd bring a lamb, he'd bring
a goat, he'd bring doves, he'd bring pigeons, according to what
he had. And he would bring those and
he'd offer them to cover his sins, to wash his sins away and
make himself acceptable. And those were offered over and
over and over again. Why? Because they never paid
the debt. They just made the person conscious
that they were in debt to God. And so with sin, and our Lord
calls it a debt. And oh, what happens in case
of non-payment? You know, if you are in debt,
and we see it in the news all the time now, they talk about
it all the time. In case you can't pay your debts, a man can
go to jail if you don't pay your debts. They can put you in jail
for not paying your debts. Or you can go bankrupt. You can
file bankruptcy. You can't do that with God. You
can file bankruptcy in this world and beat people out of things,
but you cannot beat God by filing bankruptcy. Or, in the case of
non-payments, you can go to jail, you can go bankrupt, you can
lose everything you have, just turn it over to your debtors.
Or you can have your wages attached. If you don't pay, they can attach
your wages and say, I'll just take it out of your wages. Well,
let's look over here in Matthew 18. You know, and this is the
thing. Here's the thing. God's not like
this world. God's not like this world. And
without forgiveness, forgive us our debts. Without forgiveness,
we're goners. We're goners. Look what it said
here in Matthew 18 and verse 23. I'm in Luke 18. I'm in the wrong
place. I just, what in the world? I'm
in Luke. I'll get over here in a minute.
Let me find it. I'm sorry. Matthew 18, 23. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
like unto a certain king which would take account of his servants.
He calls all of his servants. That's what we are. We're servants.
God's the great king. His kingdom. And when he hath
begun to reckon, call in here. Give an account. One was brought
unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. 10,000 talents. That's a lot
of money. But for as much as he had not
to pay, now watch what happens. His Lord commanded him to be
sold and his wife and his children and all that he had in payment
to be made. And that's where we're at. God
calls us to give an account. And if we ain't got the money
to pay, what's going to happen? And that's what happens, that
happens all the time in this world. But oh, without forgiveness,
without forgiveness. Back over in our text again,
look at this. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Look what our Lord said in Matthew 5.25. He said, Agree with our
adversary quickly. Agree with him while you're in
the way with him. Confess. Own up. He's your adversary. You owe him. Less than any time,
the adversary delivers. Go up to the judge. Deliver him
over to the judge. And the judge says, I found him
guilty. He delivers you to the officer. And then you're cast
into prison. He said, I'm telling you, you
ain't coming out of there until you've paid the uttermost farthing.
And how can you pay when you're in jail? How are you going to
get out of jail unless somebody comes and pays your debt? How
are you going to get out of jail until that other most father
is paid? How are you going to get out of that prison unless
somebody comes and pays your debt for you? And that's why
sin is called a debt. And what sin is to sin the worst
debt? First of all, it's the worst
debt sin is because we've got nothing to pay. We can't pay. If we could pay, why would we
say, Father, forgive us? Why would we say, if we could
pay, why would we say, Father, forgive us? You know what we'd
say? I'll pay you. We can't say, have patience with
me and I'll pay you all, because we can't pay any of it. Huh? We can't pay the principal, let
alone the interest. Adam's transcribed, by one man's
sin entered this world, and death passed upon all men because of
all that have sinned. And that one sin, just that one
sin that we inherited from Adam, that alone would destroy us.
That amputation of that one sin of Adam's. What would it do to
us if God called us into account just for that one? Now what about
our actual sins? I read last Wednesday night that
if a man knows to do good and do it to not, what does it say?
To him, it is sin. It's not enough to say, I haven't
done. I haven't done and I haven't
done. But the question is, have you
done? Have you done good? Have you done righteous? Have
you done well? Have you obeyed God? Have you
honored God with your words? Have you honored Him with your
thoughts? Have you honored Him with your soul? And that's why,
beloved, all of us have to throw up our hands and say, no! And oh, beloved, if we had anything
to pay, we wouldn't say, forgive us, just have patience and I'll
pay you all. And sin is the worst debt because
it's against infinite majesty. It's against God. Sin wrongs
God. And that's what makes it infinite.
Sin's against God. It's bad enough to sin against
a husband, sin against a wife, sin against a child, but all
sin is ultimately against God Himself. David said, it's against
you and you only that I've sinned. Now he took Bathsheba to be his
wife, and he had her husband killed, and yet he says, you
know who I've sinned against? I've sinned against you. Every
sin I've done, it's been against you. And I'll tell you why I'm
going to confess my sin against you. So that when you judge me,
when you judge me and I stand before you, you'll be clear. I got nothing I can say in your
presence because you know, and next thing he says, so be it,
wash me! Cleanse me! Forgive me! Wash me, and I'll be whiter than
snow. And oh beloved, oh sin, the sinner,
the sinner, and I tell you, I know this from experience, the sinner
would not only unthrown God, but would unguard God if he could.
That's why sin is the worst death. It's not right, people think,
for God to call me into question for my character, for my attitude,
for my nature, and the things that I do. You know, men and
their minds and actions and false preachers, They've taken God
out of God, if I could say it that way. They're bigger than
God. God can't do anything unless
He lets them. They're stronger than God. Wiser
than God, more just than God, more loving than God. They say,
my God wouldn't do this. My God wouldn't say, no, He wouldn't
let anybody go to hell without giving them a chance. My God's
got to do this thing, the other thing, and everything. But the
God of the Bible, He found us all guilty and in debt from Adam. Can you be more loving than God
Himself? You want to know the love of
God? Look at Christ on the cross. You want to see the justice of
God and look at Christ on the cross? I would have never given my son
for the soul of my sin. But God in infinite wisdom and
mercy, we sinned against Him infinitely. He gave an infinite
sacrifice. Sin is an infinite thing against
God, so He gave a sacrifice to put away our sin. Oh my! And sin is the worst debt. Because
it's a multiplied debt. Look what it says. It says, forgive
us our debts. Debts. Debts. I'll tell you this, I know a
man can know how much he owes in this world. A man can sit
down and figure out every nickel he owes in this world. Right
down to the penny. He can sit down and say, this
is everything I owe. We know everything we owe at
the end of the month. And this is what's got to be
paid. We can down to the penny. But you cannot number your spiritual
debts. The thought of foolishness is
sin. And oh my goodness, you think
of us. Oh, the thought of foolishness
is sin. That's what God said. And sin
is the worst debt because it's inexcusable. It's inexcusable. It's inexcusable. There's no reason. There's no
denying the debt. No, there's some debts you can
deny. There's been times, you know, you get charged with a
debt and you go to the place and say, that's not my debt.
I didn't make that debt. You all made a mistake here. You've
charged me too much. I didn't make that debt. And
you'll go and you'll go to the extreme so you won't have to
pay something you do not owe. I know they told me up there
in Harrisburg last week that one fellow got a $16,000 light
bill. And the electricity had been
off for 7 or 8 days on account of an ice storm. And he went
to the electric company and they said, oh, that's a mistake. Of course it's a mistake. But
we won't go pay no debts we don't owe. But oh, beloved, if we say, I
have no sin, we can't deny this debt before God. We can deny
some debts in this world, but we can't deny this debt. If I
say I have no sin, Job said, my own heart reproves me. 1 John
1a says, if I say I have no sin, I make God a liar. If I say I
have not sinned, oh my, you know what sin is?
It's what we are. We can't help but sin. You know,
as being sinners, what can you do but sin? Do you know how much
sin goes on in our lives even while we're sitting in a service
like this? We owe God the utmost and absolute
reverence and love and attention. And I myself, and I know you
do it, our minds go here and they go yonder. We're thinking
about what we're going to do tomorrow, what we're going to
do after service, where we're going to be. And our mind goes
here, yonder. We fall asleep, we get weary,
we get tired. Our mind just shuts down. And
all of those things, those are sin. We get down to pray and our mind
just goes, phew! Pick up a Bible, start reading
it, and it just seems like we'll read the same thing over and
over and over and over again. But pick up a newspaper or a
magazine and just get engrossed in an article in it. You don't
do that. I can tell by the way you're
looking. But oh my, if I say I have no
sin. And I'll tell you, look over
here at Psalm 49 with me just a minute. I tell you this, nobody
else can pay the debt for you. That's why we pray. It's just
like Daryl did this evening. He prayed for his own family.
He prayed for our family. Look at Psalm 49. Nobody else
can pay this debt for you. Look what it says there in verse
6. Psalm 49, 6. Nobody else can pay this debt
for you. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves
in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means
redeem his brother for him, nor give to God a ransom for him."
Oh my! No matter how much money you've
got, you can't buy a soul. No matter how much money you've
got, you can't give to God a ransom for your sins, to pay out the
debt from God. Now you may be in debt and a
friend may come along and pay your debt for you. Let me take
care of that for him. And when a man dies, he's free
from debts. Debtor can't come after him anymore.
When he's dead and gone, they can't say, well, I'm going after
him. He can't. He's dead. He's dead. A man may leave the country and
hide from his creditors. But David says, Oh, there's no
place that I can go and flee from your presence. There's no
place you can go from the presence of God. Some people can get some
protection from their debts. You know, when husbands and wives
get divorced, you see these little ads in the paper that says, I'm
not from such and such a date. I'm not responsible for any debts
but my own. When people are getting divorced,
they put that little ad in the paper, you know, and I hope I
never see none of yours in there. But I'm not responsible from
this day forth. I'm not responsible for anybody's debts but my own.
them all. And beloved, no one can pay them.
Sin is the worst debt because it is excusable. There is no
denying it. No one else can pay it. And sin is the worst debt
because man, if the debt is not paid, God will put him in prison
and put him there forever. Oh, forgive us, forgive us our
debts. Forgive us our debts. I don't
want to be separated from God. I don't want to hear God say,
depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I don't want to hear
God say, depart from me because I denied my sin, because I said
I had no sin, because I didn't see the awfulness of sin, the
heinousness of sin, the infinity of sin. Make excuses for my sin? Oh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to see you. I don't
want to hear of you. Miles McKee's brother died the other
day. He's on his way to Ireland. Got
there this morning. His brother is two years older
than him. Miles is 57. His brother is 59. And his brother
died in his sleep, and his Bible was laying beside him. We had
been reading his Bible. And he fell asleep, and he never
woke back up. But I asked Miles, I said, Miles,
I asked him on the phone, I said, do you have a good hope for your
brother? He said, I do, I do. I have a good hope for him. There's a lot of people there.
There's a fellow in Greg Yenquist's church who committed suicide
a couple weeks ago. What kind of hope did you have
for a person like that? That's why I'm telling you, sin's a
debt. And say, God, forgive me of my debts. Forgive me of my
sin. David said, Oh Lord, forgive me of my iniquities going over
my head. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputed my iniquities. Blessed is the man to whom sin
is covered. Blessed is the man to whom sin
is forgiven and is covered. And oh my! God, forgive us. That's why we pray, forgive us.
And I'll tell you something else about debtors. Without forgiveness
of our sin, we have the character of bad debtors. A bad debtor
does not want to be called to account. They don't want to be
called to account. We ignore those. And people ignore
us all the time who tell you your debts. And that there will
be a reckoning one day. Romans 14, 12 says, we shall
all give an account. To the Lord, I'll give an account
to the Lord. I will. I give an account every
day to God. You know, God calls me to account
every day. And I'll tell you, if there's no somebody not to
take care of my account, what am I going to do? I don't want
to give an account for myself and stand up there and try to
justify myself and say, I've done this, I've done that, and
I didn't do this, I didn't do that. Every one of us should
give an account of himself to the Lord. Oh, beloved, in a bad debtor,
I'll tell you something about a bad debtor. He's unwilling
to confess his debt. He'll put it off, try to not
think about it, make less of it, make excuses instead of confessing
it. It's like Adam, it's the woman
that you gave me. He said, it's the serpent that you let get
in the garden. When God told Saul, He said, you go down there
and you slay all the Amalekites, you slay every one of them, everything
that writhes and wriggles, every beast, everything that's down
there. Well, they got down there and they killed everybody but
the king. And God told him, He said, start with the king. And
next thing you know, he brought back all the best lambs, he brought
back the best calves, he brought back the best of everything. And Samuel said, what's this
bleeding I hear? Did not God tell you to go down
there and destroy everything in the mountain? Don't even kill
their infants even, because if you let them live, they're going
to come back and destroy you. They'll grow up one of these
days and they'll be out for vengeance and they'll get you. This is
what sin is. If God don't destroy it all, He'll come back to destroy
us. And oh man, he said, well, he said, we got down there and
said, I thought I'd bring the king up here just to show how
much power we've got. And also the people got down
there and they wanted all them spoils. He blamed it on the people. He didn't say, I disobeyed God.
He didn't say, I stand against God. It's the people that done
it. It's like Aaron, when Moses come down off the mountain and
he said, what is this Moses? He said, well, the people gave
me gold and I throw it in the fire and I come again. And I know this about believers. I know this about believers without
a shadow of a doubt. They do not justify their sin. They don't justify it. They confess
it. They ask forgiveness of it. They
own up to it. And you know, our Lord says, for this judgment
have I come into this world, that they which see not, those
that are blind, might see. When we say, Lord, I am so blind,
I need somebody to give me sight. I need to see so much I don't
see. Oh, please give me sight. I'm blind. That they will see,
not my see, and that they will say, I see. I see. I got it figured out. I know
what I need to do. I know how to act. I know how
to approach God. I know how to be saved. I know
how to get right with God. I know how to make peace with
God. When they say, I see, Christ says, for judgment, I cause them
to be blind. Lord, I see not. Give me sight. Give me sight. And all beloved,
a bad debtor hates his creditor. You know when you owe somebody
something, and you can't pay, and you don't intend to pay a
lot of times, you know what you do? You dodge the person you
owe. You dodge them. You don't answer the phone. But oh my, you can't do God that
way. And they make the debt less,
and this is something that, this is our society, this is it. They
make the debt less because the creditor has lots of money. You
know, if I don't pay, that ain't going to hurt him any at all.
He's got plenty of money. That's not the point. If you
owe it, you pay it. And that's what this society
don't know anything about. They think that they don't owe
anybody anything that's got more than they have. In fact, they
think those who have plenty owe them something. And that's the
way a lot of people view God. He's got everything, so He just
owes me. And oh, but beloved, how they
are reproved. And let's tell you, there's two
valuable lessons here about this forgive us our debts. How they
are reproved to hate to be in debt. And I hate to be in debt. Some of you hate to be in debt.
How they are reproved to hate to be in debt, but never ever
consider their sin, which is the worst debt that you can possibly
ever owe. And oh, if sin be a debt, if
sin be a debt, let us be humble before God. I can't pay it. In my hands, what did the hymn
writer say? In my hands, no price I bear. No price I bring. And there's confession in this. Forgive us our debt. When you
ask for forgiveness of debt, you're confessing you're a debtor.
When you ask for forgiveness, you're saying, oh, I've got a
debt and I can't pay it. You're confessing, oh, I've got
not just debt, I've got debts and I can't pay them. I owe them,
but I can't pay them. Please forgive me. I can't come
up with, there's no way in the world I can come up with what
you would require for me to pay you. I can't come up with perfection. I can't come up with enough love
to you. I can't come up with enough obedience
for you. I can't come up with enough tears for you. I can't
come up with enough repentance. I can't even come up with enough
faith to put my sin away. I cannot pay that off and pray,
oh God, for Christ's sake, since I can't pay, since I can't love,
since I can't repent enough, since my tears, I can't cry enough.
Lord, for Christ's sake, would you forgive me of my debt, forgive
me of my sin? For Christ's sake, would you
cleanse me from my sin? Would you forgive me of my debts
and put them all away? Would you please, for Christ's
sake, cleanse me, forgive me of my sin? Would you do that? And that's what we pray. And I tell you, it says in 1
John 1.7, 1 John 1.7, oh, one of the most blessed verses in
all the Word of God. If we confess our sin, He is faithful. And just to forgive
us all our sins. And I know you do it too. We leave unconfessed. So what
do we do? Say, Lord thou knowest. We are
like Simon Peter, Lord thou knowest. But ain't you glad, ain't you
thankful, don't you, bless God, that the Lord Jesus Christ's
blood cleanses from all sin. And that God, for Christ's sake,
forgives us of all our sin. Sins we have committed, sins
we will commit, and sins right to the end of time forgiven. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
Father, bless this word to our hearts and our understanding.
Oh, Father, we do. We do understand to some degree
how awful sin is and who it is that we sin against. The Lord,
we come, and as you told us in this prayer that you taught us
to pray, forgive us. And so, Lord, we've prayed and
we've asked you and we're confident and thankful that you have forgiven
us of all of our iniquity, forgiven us of all of our sin, all of
our transgressions, all of our trespasses. All of them have
been gone. Our debt's been paid. Our debt's been paid by the Lord
Jesus Christ. His blessed blood washed away
all sin, washed away your wrath and your justice that demanded
our payment. Father, we thank you for that.
God bless the gospel to our hearts tonight. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.