Feel like we're running a race
when we sing that hymn. Good hymn, good words, that's
for sure. If you will, open your Bibles with me tonight to Matthew
chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, and let's
read this parable here, beginning with verse 23. Therefore is the
kingdom of heaven likened to 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 10,000 talents. 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 all. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt. But the same servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him 100 pence, and
he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay
me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down
at his feet and besought him, saying, have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. And he would not. but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when
his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry
and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then
his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldest not thou also have
had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on
thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered
him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto
him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you if you from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses. This parable is known as the
parable of the unforgiving servant. Years ago, I read this definition
of a parable. A parable is an earthly story
with a heavenly meaning. An earthly story with a heavenly
meaning. Our Lord used a number of parables
that are recorded in his ministry when he was here in the flesh.
Illustrations, we might say. Many times people can remember
an illustration in a sermon and forget the sermon. I think most
all of us have experienced that, haven't we? Well, a parable,
if we think of it as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Think of the parable of the prodigal
son. That's an earthly story of a
young man who left a loving father to be free. He struck out on
his own to be free. But he soon found that what he
considered freedom was really bondage. Then, upon repentance,
he was received back by his loving father. That's an earthly story
that's probably been worked out in life over the years so very
many, many times. But it has a heavenly meaning,
doesn't it? In our father Adam, we all departed
from God, our heavenly father, our loving heavenly father. Then
we found ourselves in misery. In the providence of God and
by the work of God the Holy Spirit, we found ourselves in bondage. What we had thought was going
to be liberty we found wasn't so. And by God's sovereign grace,
upon repentance that was granted unto us, we turned from our sins
and found that the Heavenly Father welcomed us back with open arms. What a picture that is. An earthly
story with a heavenly meaning. How many prodigals has the Lord
received over these many, many years? Well, in looking at the
earthly story tonight, I'm going to divide my message into two
parts. First, what the heavenly meaning
of this earthly story isn't. That's the first part of my message.
What the heavenly meaning of this earthly story isn't. It isn't. It isn't that a person
may be forgiven their sins by God and then that forgiveness
be revoked. That would fly in the face of
all the scripture that teaches us about forgiveness, God forgiving
sinners of their sins. First of all, the scriptures
teach that God's work of forgiveness is permanent. It's permanent. Just last week I was reading
through the book of Ecclesiastes, and I read this verse. I know
that, this is Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 14, I know that, now listen,
whatsoever God doeth, whatsoever, whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it, and God doeth it, that men should fear
before him, men should worship and reverence him. You remember
when our Lord was here in the flesh, he was in that house teaching
one day and there was four men who went and found their friend
who was a paralytic and they were intending to bring him to
the Lord Jesus that he might be cured. They believed that
the Lord could heal him, raise him up from that condition But
when they got there, they couldn't get in because there was such
a crowd. And so they went up on the roof
and somehow loosened the tiles of the roof and let that man
down before the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord, the scripture says,
seeing their faith, he said unto that man, thy sins be forgiven
thee. And when he said that, you know,
there was some scribes and Pharisees there sitting around, and they
reasoned in their heart. And their reasoning was, that
man is guilty of blasphemy. That man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
by what he said, thy sins be forgiven. He's guilty of blasphemy
because no one can forgive sins but God only. but God only."
Well, the Lord then said, take up thy bed and walk. And the
man did take up his bed. He was healed of his paralysis. And it showed that the Lord Jesus
Christ, what they reasoned is true. It's absolutely true. No one can forgive sins but God. You know, people go to a man
and and confess their sins, and he says, Thy sins be forgiven
thee. That's very common, isn't it,
in some false religions. But you and I know that that
flies in the face of what the Word of God teaches, that only
God can forgive sin. But my point is only God can
forgive sin, and God did forgive that man his sins. It was proven
by him taking up his bed and walking. And the verse in Ecclesiastes,
which I read is, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Well, in this parable, a man
was forgiven his debt, and then because of his actions, that
forgiveness was revoked. So we know, that's the first
reason, we know that the heavenly meaning of this earthly story
isn't that a person could be forgiven, could be saved, and
then the next day lose that salvation. and their sins once again be
upon their head. The second thing about God's
forgiveness, the scriptures teach that God's work of forgiveness
is part of his everlasting covenant. You know, there are several parts
of that covenant. Number one, God says, I will
be their God. I will be their God. That's one
of the greatest of all blessings that anybody could have, for
God to be your God. People take that for granted,
don't they? Many times they don't realize
what that means. God is my God. Well, that's one
part of that everlasting covenant. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. And then they shall all know
me. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? That's one of the verses in John
chapter six which tells us they shall all be taught of God. And
every one of God's covenant people, his elect people, they will be
taught. They will be taught of their
need, first of all. That they've sinned against God
and they need forgiveness. They shall all be taught of God
And then also God promises to write his law upon our heart. Different from that old covenant
when God wrote his law upon tables of stone. No, now this new covenant,
God writes his law upon a person's heart so that he will do the
things of God. He'll live for the Lord and for
his glory. But then that last thing, also
that fourth thing, their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Now, if this parable were teaching
that a man could be forgiven his sins and then have that pardon
or that forgiveness somehow revoked, what would that do? What would
that say about God's everlasting covenant? Well, If that were
true, it would say that covenant doesn't mean anything. Not really. The third thing, the scripture
states that God's work of forgiveness is through the blood of Christ.
Look with me. I know you know these verses,
but turn with me to 1 John. 1 John 1. beginning with verse seven. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from most
of our sins. My Bible doesn't read like that,
does yours? No, no. The blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth us from all sin. Then if we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children. These things write unto you that
you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is
the propitiation for our sins. Now, if a person could be forgiven
and then that forgiveness be revoked or be set aside, what
would that say about the blood of Jesus Christ. What would that
say? Would it tell us that his blood
is not effectual? That his blood doesn't really
cleanse his people from all our sins? It would, wouldn't it? We know that the heavenly meaning
of this earthly story isn't that God forgives a sinner and then
He takes that forgiveness away. And fourth, the scriptures teach
that God's work of forgiveness is free. It's free. That's what grace is, isn't it?
That's just another good word for grace. It's free, unmerited
favor. Now, no one ever merited forgiveness. We never merited that. No one
has. No, God's forgiveness is free. It's free to the sinner. It's
free to me. It's free to you. It wasn't free
to Christ, was it? Wasn't free to him. He had to
pay the debt. He had to be the propitiation
or the atonement for the sins of his people. In this earthly
story, this man's forgiveness came to depend upon his actions. That's not the way God forgives
sinners, not at all. His actions, the way he treated
his fellow servant caused him, in this earthly story, caused
this man to lose that forgiveness which he had. Now, there are
some things in this earthly story that are true, in God's work
of forgiveness. For instance, both servants owed
a debt. Sin is called a debt, isn't it?
The model prayer is given in Matthew and it's given in Luke,
and you can check those two places and you will see in one place
it says, forgive us our sins, And then in a parallel passage
in the other gospel, forgive us our debts. Sin is considered
to be a debt. One owed a much larger debt than
the other. And I thought to myself, I was
looking at the comments of various commentators and it depended
upon when they lived. the amount that they put on these
debts. John Gill, Matthew Henry, Broaddus,
John Broaddus, and different ones, it depended on when they
lived how much they figured this debt was. But it was a million. In our money, it would be like
a million dollars. This one man owed a million dollars,
and the other man owed maybe $15. Now that's a big difference,
isn't it? It's a big difference. You know, I remember reading
years ago in John Bunyan's, one of his works, he called some
centers, Jerusalem centers. Jerusalem centers. What's a Jerusalem
center? A Jerusalem center is one who
said, crucify him, crucify him. One who was engaged in the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Jerusalem sinner. But yet our
Lord commanded, you shall be witnesses unto me, first of all,
where? In Jerusalem. In Jerusalem. In other words, the most guilty.
This million dollar debt. Yes. preach the gospel to all
men, no matter what their debt is. And it is true that some
men owe a greater debt than others. And that's one reason we know
the scriptures teach that there are degrees of punishment in
hell. Now I do not believe there are
rewards or degrees of reward in heaven, because heaven, everyone
who arrives there is coming on the free grace of God. But I
do believe from the scripture that there are degrees of punishment. And I get that from Luke chapter
12 when the Lord said, that servant, that servant which knew his Lord's
will and prepared not himself, Neither did according to his
will shall be beaten with many stripes, but now he that knew
not. And you know, that's one of the
things I remember. A cardiologist one day, I was
in his office and he pointed out to me, he said, you know,
you're a primary care physician. He's a Muslim and you're a Christian
and I'm a He said, and I told him, I said,
yeah, I understand that, and we can't all be right. I understand
that. But he said, do you mean to tell
me if a person grows up over here in some backwards country
in the jungle or something, never hears the gospel, that because
he hasn't believed in Jesus Christ that he will be punished? I said,
yes, I believe that. I do. There's only one way to
heaven. And Christ is that way, isn't
he? That's the reason missionaries have gone out preaching the gospel.
Listen, if people were not lost, who've never heard the gospel,
one of the worst things you could do would be to send missionaries
there preaching. If they're already saved, because
they've never heard. That doesn't make sense, does
it? But I do recognize that those who, as our Lord said here, that
knew not, knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes shall
be beaten with few stripes. Yes, I believe there are degrees
of punishment in hell, I do. A person, Like myself, if I'm
not saved, I've read this Bible over and over for many years,
preached. I'm more responsible, and you
are too. You've heard the gospel, surely. More responsible when we've heard
the truth. And if we, like our Lord said,
that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself,
neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many
stripes." A person who lives in the United States of America,
thank God we do. But you know, you can go to Walmart
and buy a Bible. I looked at Walmart the other
day and there was a nice Bible there. I mean a nice Bible for
$39.95. They had a lot of them that were
a whole lot less. I mean, people can get the word
of God, people can hear, and people are responsible for what
they could have heard, as well as what they hear. Men are responsible. Remember, our Lord told another
parable. He was in the house of Simon
the Pharisee, and That woman came in and washed our Lord's
feet with her tears, and old Simon saw that, and he said,
well, if he was a prophet, people say he's a prophet. If he were
a prophet, he would know what manner of woman she is. He wouldn't
let her touch him. You know, people, religious people
think it's the problems on the outside, the problems on the
inside, isn't it? It's a heart. It's a heart problem. We can all clean up the outside. People do a pretty good job about
that, but only God can change the heart and give a new heart. But our Lord told another parable
to Simon. He said, Simon, there was a man
that owed 500 pence and another owed 50 pence. And the man to whom the debt was
owed forgave them both. Who's going to love him the most?
Well, Simon said, I suppose that the man that owed 500 pence.
But my point is 500 pence, 50 pence, they had nothing to pay. They couldn't pay a penny. God's
forgiveness is free, isn't it? Free to us, as I said, it wasn't
free to Christ. He had to pay. Well, then my
second part is what the heavenly meaning of this earthly story
is. If it isn't that a person may
be forgiven and then lose that forgiveness, what is the meaning? Well, in reading the scripture,
you know this is always true, we must pay attention to the
context. Now I want you to look in verse
21, the verse above where we began, where the parable begins. And we see that Peter asked our
Lord a question. Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Now John Gil, wrote that seven
times was, now listen, and he was well educated in what the
Jews believed. That's how he got his doctor's
degree, honorary doctor's degree was given to him because he knew
more about the Jews than they knew about their own religion.
But anyway, he said this on this passage, he said, seven times,
was about double the number of times that the Jewish doctors
taught a person should forgive another. Actually, they taught
three times. But Peter, now listen, Peter
wasn't asking if my brother sins against me seven times in one
day. He wasn't asking that. If my
brother sins against me seven times in one week, that wasn't
his question either. If my brother sins against me
seven times in a month, that's not the question. His question
was, if my brother sins against me seven times in my lifetime, should I forgive him? How many
times should I forgive him? A lost man might think and act
like that, right? A lost person, not a saved person. A lost person might think like
that. Well, if a brother sins against
me, if I forgive him twice, that's doing pretty good, you know?
That's a lost person. But our Lord noticed the next
verse. He answered the question, I say not unto thee until seven
times, but until 70 times seven. He gave a certain number for
an uncertain amount, that no time is to be set for believers
forgiving one another. Now, the Lord illustrates his
answer with this earthly story, this parable. God's people are
not like this man in the parable, not those who are truly forgiven. They're not like this man. who
goes out and someone sins against him and he grabs him by the throat
and says, pay me everything. And when he didn't have anything
to pay, no forgiveness, no mercy, put him in prison until he pays
every last penny. God's people are not like that.
Not those who are truly forgiven. Those that do not forgive their
brother's trespasses They just manifest that they never truly
repented of their sins. They never truly believed the
gospel. And therefore that which is taken
away, it's only what they seem to have. They seem to be saved. They seem to be God's children,
but now by their actions, by the fact that they will not forgive
others, even though they confess that they've been forgiven, by
their actions, they just reveal that they've never really been
forgiven. I remember several years ago,
a person in my office, back here in my office, we were talking,
and she, this person had a problem with another person, And basically
said, well, I'm just not going to forgive. I know we'll both
be in heaven one day. That's OK. But I'm not going
to forgive. I'll tell you something. There's
something wrong. There's something wrong when
a believer, a child of God, who's been forgiven, cannot forgive
someone else. That's the heavenly meaning here. Our Lord is just showing that
person seems to be a believer, but when it comes down to proving,
showing by their forgiveness, they're really not. In Luke chapter
8 in verse 18, the Lord said, take heed therefore how you hear
for whosoever hath to him shall be given and whosoever hath not
from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. Which he seemeth to have. A person
may seem or he may profess to have received forgiveness of
his sins, but if he really has, if she really has, if we really
have been forgiven, then we will have a forgiving spirit. That's just all there is to it.
When we forgive a brother who has sinned against us, if that's
the case, we are not only to forgive, but we are to forgive
even as God has forgiven us for Christ's sake. That is, forgive
and forget it. Now that's more difficult, isn't
it? That's more difficult, but that's
what the scriptures teach us to do. Don't keep bringing that
up. Well, I remember one time when
you'd, no, forgive, forget. They need to go together. Just
like the Lord forgives us our sins for Christ's sake, and he
says, their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. No more. Well, I'm praying the Lord would
bless this word that's all of us here tonight. Forgiveness
is a wonderful thing, isn't it? It's a wonderful thing. May God give all of us always
a forgiving spirit.