Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew the 18th chapter. Brother Ron and I were talking Sunday evening at some length about the business of preaching. Preaching being communicating to folks. about their specific needs, about their specific concerns spiritually. And I said to him then, I think it is wise that we preach frequently concerning very common aspects of gospel truth so that we ever sit before God's people and God's elect who yet are without faith in Christ. those things that are essential to the faith of the gospel, and do it in a very practical way.

Now tonight, I want to do that very thing. I want to return to what I consider to be one of the most blessed, blessed facts of the gospel, and present it to you with the utmost simplicity. I said to Ron, I said, I never get tired of having bread on the table, and I never get tired of the message of forgiveness to you. Just free, absolute forgiveness. My message tonight is entitled, The Sin Debt.

My text is Matthew 18, verses 21 through 27. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? And Peter thought that was pretty good. Shall I forgive him seven times for the same thing? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times.

Therefore the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. That's about $10 million. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee off. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt."

Now in response to Peter's question about forgiveness, the Lord Jesus gives us this parable in which he compares the kingdom of heaven, that is, the experience of his grace, the experience of salvation, the business of knowing God. He compares it to a king And a certain king who went about taking account of his servants, and he had one man who owed him ten million dollars, and he freely forgave him everything.

And this man represents to us, you and I, who are forgiven of our sin by God's free grace through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, our Lord's intention in this parable is to teach us that we are to forgive one another. You remember our Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6, Father forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Here he teaches us how we ought to forgive our debts and he shows us both the example and the motive for this forgiveness of brethren with one another's offenses.

The example is God himself. The motive is gratitude for forgiveness experience. That's the basis by which we ought to always operate and function with one another in this world. As God has been merciful, let us be merciful. As God has been gracious, let us be gracious. As God has forgiven us, let us forgive one another. As God has loved us, let us love one another.

Now that's our Lord's intention with regard to this parable. And in the parable, he sets before us sin, comparing it to a debt. that has been forgiven, cancelled and put aside out of the pure, free mercy and goodness of God Almighty. So that's what I want to talk to you about this evening. Sin, the sin dead, cancelled and forgiven by grace. Let me just make several observations as we look at this passage together. I want to move through the parable as quickly as I can, but I want to show you these lessons as we move along.

We are all debtors to God, every one of us. We are debtors to God. The certain king in this parable represents the Lord God himself. We are debtors to him. There are certain moral obligations due to God from all his creatures, and we as his creatures are debtors to the Almighty. As the creature is debtor to the Creator, we are debtors to God.

Now all that God required of Adam when he was in the garden. You remember God had made Adam, placed him in the garden, and all God required of Adam was obedience. That's all. And the obedience was not difficult obedience. It wasn't as though the Lord put down some hard laws and some rigorous commands and said, now Adam, you do these things and it'll be real tough for you to do them. All God required with regard to obedience is that Adam recognized God's authority.

That's all. He said, now this whole creation is yours. You can have it all. You can use it all. You shall be king and lord over it all, except one treasure. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that represents my authority. That represents my dominion. That represents me as God who has right to do with you what I will. of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat of it. For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

That's all God required of him, and Adam transgressed against God. And certainly, you and I, as sons and daughters of Adam, have the same responsibility placed before us. God is our creator, our preserver, our provider, our benefactor. It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people in the sheep of his pasture. He is the living God who giveth to us all things richly to enjoy. Every breath of our nostrils is the gift of God. We live upon the bounty of the God of heaven. Every breath we have, we have because God gives it to us.

Surely, when God demands of us obedience, it's a reasonable thing. And these two things alone God demands. They're not rigorous things. They're not extreme things. They're not unreasonable things. Just obedience in two areas. God says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. And that's the whole of the commandments of God given in Exodus chapter 20. So that when you read the Ten Commandments, they're just expansions upon those two things. God says, love me and love one another.

And yet in those things, we have incurred a very great, great measure of death because we have not rendered to God that obedience of life which he requires. God demands that we live before him in uprightness, in perfection of heart, in righteousness, in every detail of life, and that's exactly what he deserves. That's exactly what we ought to do. Not only have we failed to obey God, we have further indebted ourselves by sin. That is, by the willful transgression of God's law. Turn back to Exodus 20. Let's look at that law for a minute. Exodus chapter 20, beginning at verse 3. The two tables of the law are given in these verses. The first has reference to God and our responsibility to the Lord God.

When it says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, this is what it says. Thou shalt have no other God before me, but we have many. In verse four, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am the Lord thy God. I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God."

Now what he's saying is this, don't make any representations of anything with regard to God. Don't make any. No crosses, no emblems of angels, no pictures of Jesus, none of the nonsense that goes on in religious paraphernalia. Don't make any kind of religious symbol whatsoever. Don't do it. But we make plenty.

Verse 7, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Now I'm going to tell you what it is to take God's name in vain. I wish everybody in the world would listen to me for a minute. To take God's name in vain is to speak his name without the intention of giving reverence and honor to his name. To take his name in vain, it's much more than just cussing like a sailor and using God's name with your oath. Oh, it's much more than that. To take God's name in vain is to speak his name vainly to no purpose.

I hear men and women I hear boys and girls, little types now, just little types, use words like gee, and geez, and gosh, and golly, and oh God, that's a, it's taking God's name in vain just as surely as if you stood back and cussed and used God's name to back up your own. It's just the same thing. Folks, get cards, you can't, you can't, oh lordy, lordy, don't use God's name in vain. Don't use his name in vain.

What else is more reasonable than that we who are his creatures should give reverence to his name? This is what he says. Verse 8, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Sabbath day represented the rest of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord. That's the command of the gospel, believe on Christ. He says in verse 12, honor thy father and thy mother, love your neighbor as yourself, but we don't. He says in verse 13, thou shalt not kill.

Well, I'm safe there. Oh, no. No, if a man is angry without a cause, he's committed murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Well, I haven't done that. You haven't. If a man has lust in his heart, he's committed adultery. Thou shalt not steal. I haven't done that. You've committed something that's not yours. It's called stealing. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, his maidservant, or his maidservant, his ox, his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's. We have broken God's law. Not only have we failed to live up to the requirement of God, but we have willfully, deliberately, maliciously, and continually broken His law from our youth up.

What a debt sin is then. It increases every day. It is a debt of infinite proportion. It's beyond calculation. And it will go on swelling and accumulating so long as we continue to live in this world. It will never be removed from us by our own power. And if it is removed from us, it must be by the power and grace of God himself. Sin is a debt with tremendous, tremendous, tremendous consequences.

I recall when Shelby and I were first married, we got into a bit of a financial jam. It's not much now, but boy, it was a pickle then. I went to preach somewhere down in Florida, took off from work, had to stay at a motel a couple of nights, go in and come in and bought meals on the road and all that stuff and put it on credit card. Just charged it. It wasn't much then, just a hundred dollars or so, boy it kept piling up. It just kept piling up, kept piling up. And pretty soon you had an awful, awful load of debt on your back. Just an awful, horrendous load of debt.

And we kind of made a commitment to one another, if we get rid of this load, we're never going to accumulate this again. This is not going to happen anymore. We'll learn, we've learned from this, we're just not going to do this again. But I'm talking now. about something that is a debt with consequences of everlasting proportion.

The wages of sin is death. Do you hear me now? If you should go out and incur a terrible debt and not be able to pay your debt in our society, You could suffer some embarrassment, and you could suffer some difficulty, but the debt is really of no great significant consequence. Oh, but my soul, we have incurred a debt before God, the wages of which are death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now that's what God owes to sin, and God's going to pay.

We died in our father Adam spiritually so that we come forth in this world in spiritual death. We are under the legal sentence of death so that men and women by nature are condemned already and we are subject to physical death at any moment because of sin and ultimately eternal everlasting death under the wrath of God in hell.

Now there's something that's not in our text I've got to say something about too. Because I'm talking to Most of you here who profess faith in Christ the Lord, we who are sane sinners, who have been pardoned by the blood of Christ, who have been born of God's Spirit, whose sins have been blotted out by God's grace, we too are debtors. Debtors who owe a mighty, mighty, deep, deep debt of gratitude to God. There's nothing here about this debt But I cannot pass it by, I can't fail to remind you, let us ever be mindful of the fact that we are not our own. We're bought with a price. We belong to the Son of God. We belong to him, so let us glorify God in our body and in our spirits, which are God's.

The apostle, considering this, when he writes to the Romans, says, I beseech you, therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, fully acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Judy just sang a song I requested her sing. It was written by Robert Murray McShane a long, long time ago. When I stand before thy throat, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art, love thee with unsending heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. I've been bought with a price. God help me ever to know I'm not mine. I'm not mine. I belong to him. And you do too. You do too.

Sins is that which makes men and women debtors to God in all aspects. These days of debt in which we live, debt doesn't have much of a shameful connotation. It's not embarrassing as it once was in our society. To most people, they seem to think that the more I owe, the more I own.

And they ignore the word of God given in the book of wisdom which says the borrower is servant to the lender. And that's fact. You young people listen carefully now. I'll give you a little lesson on some moral responsibilities. When you go to borrow something, you go to incur debt. Everything you work for, every moment of your life, belongs to that person to whom you owe the debt until it's paid off every day. That's just right and that's just reasonable. It's just right and it's just reasonable. So be certain, be certain that you do not neglect your responsibilities to do so as to steal from the man that you're supposed to have borrowed something from. The wise man says borrower is servant to the lender.

Still, debtors and sinners have much that's in common with one another, even in these days. Debtors are very likely to get more deeply into debt. And one of the terrible, terrible facts about sin is that it breeds so quickly and so profusely. You can never say to sin, hitherto shalt thou come and no further. It never happens. Everything that you're enticed with, everything that you give yourself to by way of transgression and rebellion has a way of just grasping you and pulling you and pulling you and pulling you until it finally pulls you down to absolute degradation.

Sin, like a great debt, causes uneasiness in people when they're made aware of it. If a man has a spark of honesty in him, just a spark of honesty, and he can't pay his debts. As soon as he realizes, I have incurred a debt that I can't pay, an honest man's terribly uneasy. He goes, he'll find him some work, he'll find him something else to do, I've got to get this taken care of, because his conscience will not let him bear the debt. Even so, a sinner, awakened by God's grace, to see his debt to God begins to be greatly disturbed and troubled by his sin. And he can't find rest because he can't pay his debt.

I hope God disturbs some of you that way. I have some hope for folks who get disturbed by sin. I have some hope for folks who can't be comfortable with sin. Debtors and sinners shun their creditors as well. You owe somebody something that you haven't paid or you're not able to pay, and you see him coming down the street, you'll duck into the near store, get out of his way, don't want to see his face, because it's an embarrassment.

And men who are aware of their sin try to hide from God. And they do so in religion. They duck into religion and hope to hide from God. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden sowed fig leaves together hoping to hide from the Almighty. Because their conscience stung them with regard to sin. And so they hope they can somehow cover up their sin. And the whole of human religion is nothing but fig leaf religion.

It is man attempting to cover his sin to soothe his conscience. It's always that way. Men and women who are utterly bankrupt, instead of going to God and suing for mercy, will try to hide from God. And hiding from God, they will never obtain mercy. We're all debtors to God.

That's fact. But some are debtors to a far greater extent than others. And this is important. In our parable, one man owed 10,000 talents, about $10 million. Another man owed 100 pence, about $15. And the indication is obvious. We have all sinned, but we've not all sinned alike. We've not all sinned to the same degree. And therefore, we are not all debtors to the same degree. Some sins are greater than other sins, and the consequences of some sins, both in this life and in the life to come, are greater than the consequences of other sins.

Now, I know people will automatically turn around and say, well, that means there's degrees of punishment in hell, so there must be degrees of reward in heaven. Not so. Not so. You see, punishment is always in exact proportion to the crime committed. But the word of God does not teach that there are degrees of reward in heaven.

Because heavenly glory is an inheritance of grace. Sinners go to hell on the merit of their own sin. They reap what they have sown exactly in proportion to their sin. But believers enter into glory on the merit of Christ's righteousness and are rewarded for his doing of that which is right on our behalf. Now the scriptures clearly teach this matter, that there are degrees of sin and thus degrees of punishment. Turn to John chapter 19. Let me show you two passages. John the 19th chapter and verse 11.

Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." Now remember, Pilate delivered the Lord Jesus up to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. Judas just kissed him on the cheek. But our Lord said, Judas has the greater sin.

Right there it is in the text, isn't it? Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Don't ever imagine that God measures sin by man's yardstick. He doesn't. It will surprise you if you read the scriptures to find out what God considers to be the greater sins. Matthew chapter 11 and verse 20.

Then began he to abrade the cities where most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. That is, they believed not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."

Now what on earth does all that mean? It means that what men and women look at and say, now there's horrible evil. Those sodomites, oh, what evil they have done, and they have, committed sin worthy of death. No question about that. No question at all about that.

But there are some far greater sins, with far greater consequences, and they take place in places of religious worship, just like this. James tells us that those who are in positions of greater trust and greater influence, and yet neglect and abuse those positions at the greater condemnation.

I have the responsibility of speaking to you as God's servant. I have the responsibility of leading Mark Henson, his wife, and those two boys in the knowledge of the living God. That's my responsibility. Those four immortal eternity bound souls, my responsibility.

And if I neglect it or I abuse it, I'm not God's servant and I should be found in the greater condemnation. That's James chapter 3 verse 1. Those who have been given greater light but refuse to walk in that light have the greater sin and the greater condemnation. John 15 verses 22 and 24. And Lord Jesus speaks very plainly. He says, I've come. And now that I've come, they have no covering for their sin. And I'm telling you that if God has given greater light and men despise the light, God will give them greater condemnation for despising the light.

Folks who perish under the sound of the gospel will certainly have greater condemnation than folks who've never heard the gospel. Folks who perish within the shadow of the city of refuge, the church of Jesus Christ, where Christ is praised, will certainly themselves perish under greater condemnation than those who've never had opportunity to hear the gospel. And those who hear, but refuse to believe the gospel of Christ, according to 1 John chapter 5 verse 10, have made God a liar, and theirs is the greater condemnation. Now if you're yet without faith in Christ, listen to me. Unbelief, the willful rejection of God's mercy and grace in Jesus Christ, is the most glaringly hideous evil in all the world.

It means I can't think of a more sobering statement to make in this pulpit than that. You listen and you hear, and you may compliment the message, and you may compliment the preacher, and you may compliment those who teach and carry on the work, but you don't believe. He that believeth not is condemned. He that believeth shall not be condemned.

Just that simple. You see, to hear the gospel and not believe, is to stand right in God's hands, in God's face, and say, God, you're alive. That's what John says, 1 John chapter 5, verse 10. It's to hear God speak, to hear God's revelation concerning God's Son, and say, God, you're not dead to be believed. And I'm telling you, there is nothing like that outside hell.

C. H. Spurgeon said, unbelief, that is the sin which above all others drops the black wax upon your death warrant and sets the seal of divine wrath there. According to this passage here in Matthew, not even the sins of Solomon can be compared to the sin of unbelief. If you could hear what I'm saying, you'd tremble in your seat with the realization that God Almighty will reckon with you on account of your sin, according to the measure of the light he gives you. You'll do it. Not only are we debtors, this sin debt must be paid. Look back in chapter 18 and verse 25. For as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and his children, and all that he had, and payment be made.

Back in those days, folks had debtors' prisons, and a man who could not pay his debt would be cast into prison. Kind of a silly institution, except for the fact it put fear in folks. And when crime is punished, and punished sharply, and punished publicly, and punished severely, then other folks are less likely to commit the crime. They had debtors' prisons, and the debtors' prisons were horrible. But a man could be taken and thrown into prison, and his family sold into slavery because he didn't pay his bill. And so this picture is giving us sin. A man is cast into prison. And there could he tormented forever and ever until his debt is paid. But we don't have anything to pay with. We have nothing to pay. Do you see that in verse 25? He had not to pay. Nothing. Nothing. He was absolutely incapable of satisfying his debt.

Now you've got to see this. You will never seek forgiveness totally insolvent, utterly bankrupt. Well, I'm going to I'm going to repent and show God how sorry I am for my sins. Well, that's good, but it won't wash them away. I'm going to start from this day forward serving God. If you could, that'd be wonderful. That'd be wonderful. But that's not going to do anything to make up for your past.

Not even the sufferings of hell will satisfy the infinite justice of God Almighty for sin. That's the reason hell is eternal. God demands righteousness, but we can't give it. Our righteousness is our filthy rags. God demands satisfaction, atonement for sin, but we can't pay it. Silver and gold cannot ransom our souls. This is what the psalmist said when he considered these things back in Psalm 49. In Psalm 49 verse 7, I believe it is. Yeah.

None of them can, by any means, redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for it. For the redemption of his soul is precious, and it ceases forever." One of the things that caused Martin Luther to be so fired up with regard to the Reformation, and he became so nauseated at the doctrines of Rome, was the idea of men buying indulgences for other men. And priests would sell indulgences and say, as soon as the coin jingles in the box, the soul is released from hell. But God says you can't give a ransom for another man's soul. Peter says plainly, we're not redeemed with silver and gold and corruptible things for our vain conversation, but that's a wreath of precious blood of Christ.

God demands satisfaction, but we can't buy it. God demands satisfaction, but sacrifice and offering can never purge away sin. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ came to put away sin. If our sin debt is paid, the only way it can possibly be paid is by surety. There's no other way. No other way for the liquidation to take place. If the debt must be paid and the sinner has nothing with which to pay, the only one who can pay the debt is someone else, and that someone else is the surety.

We don't have a good picture of sureties in our day, but some things come close. When I was a boy, I wanted to buy a car, and I didn't have money to pay for the car, and I taught my daddy into cosigning. Now, that means I'm the principal debtor, but if I can't pay, The law is coming after my dad. In fact, with me being underage, the law could not possibly come after me. It could only go after my dad.

He became the principal surety. He became the principal debtor when he signed the note. But our Lord Jesus is more of a surety than that. A surety is one who makes himself liable for the responsibilities and debts of another. For the debts that he himself did not make. Someone else made the debts, but the surety pays for them. And the one who made them goes scot-free. Now the only possible way for sinners to be saved and God's law to be honored. The only way God could ever save our souls and still be consistent with himself in justice and in truth is to save us through assurity.

Look at Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs 16. Here's a text description we haven't looked at in a long time. Proverbs 16 verse 7. I'm sorry, verse 6. and truth, iniquity is purged. Not by mercy alone, but by mercy and truth. God's mercy divides the way whereby God in truth, in righteousness, in justice, in consistency with his law, could forgive our sins and purge away our sin.

And that way is Jesus Christ the Lord. Blessed be God, there is a surety. Jesus Christ is the surety of a better covenant. And so that brings me to my next thing. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our surety, has fully, completely, forever paid the sin debt of his people. This is a true story. At least I think it's true. It's been passed down for generations.

Long, long time ago, In St. Petersburg, Russia, a young man in the army of Nicholas the Great was addicted to gambling. He just couldn't forego gambling. It has a way, like I said a little bit ago, of other sins. It just gets hold of you. It just gets hold of you. If any of you have played the lottery a little bit and you won a dollar after spending ten, boy, you just go back and buy it. Maybe I'll win two next time. It just has a way of getting hold of you. And it'll soon take everything you've got if you become addicted to it.

Well this fella had become addicted to it. And he gambled so much that he lost everything he owned. And besides that accumulated enormous debt. Debt which he had no hope of paying. He'd come from a family that was reputable, a good family, good name. But he brought shame to himself and shame to his family because of his addiction to gambling. One night, he sat in the barracks by himself late at night, thinking about his situation, completely hopeless.

He took out a piece of paper and he started adding up his debts. And when he had gotten the total, he struck a line under it. He wrote this question, who can pay all this debt? exhausted, exasperated, he just laid over on the desk and fell asleep. As he walked through the barracks that night, the emperor passed by and saw that fellow sitting there asleep at that table and he saw the paper and the figures and the debt and the question, who can pay all this debt? And he leaned over and wrote just one word, Nicholas.

Oh, that's what Christ has done for me. When I was utterly exasperated with a sense of guilt and sin and had nothing with which to satisfy the demands of God Almighty, I heard the Savior say, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left the crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. The Son of God, disposed of my sins, He disclosed of my debts by paying it off completely and in full. Complete atonement Christ has made and to the utmost penny paid all that his people owed. Since Jesus my discharge procured and freely in my place endured, the whole of wrath divine payment God cannot twice demand. First did my bleeding shear at his hand and then again at mine. it shall not happen.

Now if we would obtain forgiveness for our sins, well I hope you would. I'll tell you what you must do. I'll tell you what you must do. You must sue for mercy. Look here in verse 26. When he was about to be cast into prison, the servant fell down and worshipped him. saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee off. Now, I could spend a good bit of time telling you what I was wrong with that. He asked for God to have patience with him, asked for the king to have patience with him. And then he said, I'll pay you everything I owe. But he's already acknowledged he didn't have anything to pay with.

That's not much of a way to go to God. But when he falls down to worship him, and calls on him to extend mercy to him. That's exactly how we must approach the Lord God. There's a time coming when God Almighty, the King of Heaven, will take account of all men.

God's going to reckon with you and me because of our sin. Keep going He may reckon with your sin in grace now, for I pray that he will, cause you in your conscience to know your sin. By the gospel calls you to recognize your indebtedness to him because of sin. But if you never come to deal with your sin now before God, If God never deals with your sin on this earth, I'm telling you, he's going to deal with your sin. He's going to deal with your sin in his strict justice in the day of judgment.

Blessed are those sinners whom God calls to account now by his grace and compels to sue for mercy. Now, one last thing. The God of all grace against whom we have sinned, he's ready. He's very ready. Because of his infinite free love, mercy, and grace, he is ready to forgive the souls of all who sue for mercy. He's ready to forgive the sins and cancel the debts of all who call upon him for grace.

Look at verse 27. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, loosed him, and forgave the debt. Now in our parable here, it looks like the king was moved with compassion and forgives the debt in response to the debtor's plea. That's how forgiveness is first viewed by us, because that's how we experience it. But the forgiveness, actually, the forgiveness that God decreed from eternity, read it for yourself in Jeremiah 31. The forgiveness that God accomplished for us at Calvary, when Christ died as our substitute, is that which is the security of us suing for mercy. It is God's compassion that causes us to sue for mercy.

But in reality still, as far as the spirit is concerned, This is exactly what I experienced. This is how I observed things and this is how you'll experience them and observe them. I like the way the text reads. The Lord of that servant as he sued for mercy was moved with compassion and loosed him. Loosed him from obligation and responsibility. loosed him from dread and fear, loosed him from bondage, loosed him from the sentence of the law. He loosed him and forgave him the debt. He says, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression. I have removed your iniquities. I put away your sins. Now he did it long before I stood for mercy, but you will come to recognize it and come to enjoy it right now as you sooth the mercy and you will see God who justly would be angry and cast you into hell full of compassion in Jesus Christ loosing you from your bondage and guilt and declaring to your soul there is forgiveness if we confess our sins on the book side he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen.