The Truly Forgiven by God are Forgiving of One Another #2

Introduction: The Principle of Mutual Forgiveness

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, July 13, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now, as we did this morning, so I would ask you again to turn to the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and follow as I read, beginning at verse 21 through to the end of the chapter.

0:35 Matthew 18 at verse 21. Then came Peter and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto you until seven times, but until seventy times seven.

1:04 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king who would make a righteousness, and when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him that owed him ten thousand talents, multiple millions of dollars.

1:24 But forasmuch as he had not wherewith 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 worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And the Lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and he laid hold on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay what you owe.

2:08 So his fellow servant fell down and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay that which was due. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceeding sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord called him unto him, and said unto him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt, because you besought me.

2:48 Should not you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you? And his Lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due. So shall also my heavenly Father do unto you, if you do not forgive me. If you do not forgive me, if you do not forgive me, if you do not forgive every one his brother from your hearts.

3:20 Let us again pray and ask God to help us in the study of his word.

3:29 Our Father, as once again we come to open up the Scriptures, we would acknowledge that our minds and our hearts stand in present and desperate need of the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit. And so we plead, according to your promise, that you would give the Spirit, as we now ask that you would do so, that he would give us understanding and grace and will and desire to follow in the way of your precepts. Help your servant, help your people. Come with grace and power to each of our hearts in the ministry of this, your holy word. We plead through our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Now as I indicated this morning, our study in the word of God this evening is to be a continuation and a completion of the message that I began to preach this morning. In our ongoing consideration of the teaching of the Scriptures on the subject of forgiveness, especially that dimension of forgiveness that I have described as mutual or horizontal forgiveness, that is, the forgiveness

4:54 that we extend one toward another, I asserted this morning that perhaps nothing is more crucial in the teaching of our Lord Jesus than the principle upon which we would focus today. And that principle I stated in several ways as follows, that the truly forgiven by God are also the true, truly forgiving of one another. Or that only those who forgive one another will be forgiven by God. Or to state it in a negative way, if there is no forgiveness extended to the family, there is no forgiveness conferred by the Father. And in opening up this theme, we noted first of all this morning the principle, clearly and repeatedly affirmed by our Lord. And we looked at Matthew 6, 12, 14, and 15, Mark 11, 25, and Luke 6, 37, each one of these texts setting forth unmistakably that foundational principle that the truly forgiven by God

6:17 are also the truly forgiving of one another. And then in the second place, we looked at this principle clearly and dramatically illustrated by our Lord in the very parable that I read again in your hearing. We noted the initiating question of Peter. Peter wants to play a numbers game in the context of forgiveness.

6:45 How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up till seven times? And our Lord's initial response, he fights fire with fire and using a grossly exaggerated number seeks to underscore for Peter that forgiveness is not a matter of a numbers game. Forgiveness is a matter of a disposition of the heart, a disposition to be exercised whenever, however, how many times necessary in the presence of, sin that is owned and forgiveness that is sought.

7:27 Hence his words, I say, not unto you until seven times, but until seventy times seven. And then after that initiating question and the initial response of our Lord, we noted the expanded and illustrated reinforcement of that truth by our Lord in this parable that contains what we, sought to open up as the king's forgiving mercy to a great debtor, the servant's lack of forgiving mercy to a minor debtor, the king's response to the merciless servant and the central lesson of the parable as given to us by our Lord himself. And now this evening, we come to the third major heading, having looked at the principle clearly and repeatedly, affirmed by our Lord, the principle clearly and dramatically illustrated by our Lord. Now thirdly, the principle pointedly and practically applied based on the teaching of our Lord. And while I confess, as I did to Pastor Smith, that I would like another five hours to work on this material, it's been put together in a rather hasty fashion.

Doctrinal Application: Regeneration and a Forgiving Heart

8:51 Nonetheless, I believe I'm on solid ground in setting it before you. I want you to consider with me this principle that the truly forgiven by God are the forgiving of one another. I want you to consider with me some very pointed and practical applications in three categories. First of all, the doctrinal application, then the pastoral application, and then the evangelical, or evangelistic application.

9:21 First of all, the doctrinal application. If I were to ask you, what great doctrinal issue is bound up in the principle that only those who forgive one another are forgiven by God, what would your answer be? We saw this morning that surely our Lord is not teaching that our forgiveness of one another earns His forgiveness, and yet these texts are unmistakably clear that if we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven. What great foundational doctrinal issue is bound up in our Lord's repeated affirmation of that principle? What great doctrinal principle is bound up in this parable where a man who seemed to be forgiven and yet is not forgiving, is cast to the tormentors? A picture of the unforgiving person who may claim to have been forgiven by God being sent to hell. According to the word of Jesus, so shall my Father do to you if you forgive not everyone his brother from the heart.

10:43 What great foundational doctrinal issue is bound up in this principle? Well, surely, the doctrinal issue is that of the biblical doctrine of the nature and effects of a true work of regenerating grace in the heart of the sinner. Our Lord is in this way underscoring a truth taught throughout the Scriptures, simply stated in this way, that when a sinner receives God's forgiving mercy, based on the fact that he is forgiven, based on the sacrificial work of Christ, he receives at one and the same time a new heart. He is not only given a new record in heaven in which all the debts of all of his sins are cancelled, he is given a new heart, according to the language of Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31, and the blessing of God. The Lord has told us that when a sinner receives God's forgiveness, that he will have his heart returned. So, what does Jesus say to the sinner in the passage of 1 John 24, in which God says, I will take out the heart of stone, and I will give them a heart of flesh, and I will place My Spirit within them,

12:09 and I will write My Law upon their hearts, and I will cause them to keep My statutes and My judgments. No sinner ever gets a new record without getting a new heart. And so, our Lord is underscoring a sacred responsibility for you in this world. scoring that principle very obviously in these statements.

12:27 Here is someone who claims to have a new record, but he has a hard, unforgiving heart in the presence of the sought forgiveness of a fellow mortal. And what our Lord is saying is no. A prevailing disposition of an unforgiving heart is the manifestation of an unregenerate and an unrenewed heart. That's the great doctrinal issue.

13:00 Our Lord is underscoring that when the sinner, by the enabling grace and regenerating work of God, lays hold of God's forgiveness in Christ, that sinner receives a new heart, a heart into which God puts His Spirit, the Spirit that begins to conform that regenerate sinner to the image of the Lord Jesus. We are renewed, the apostle says, after the image of Him that created us in Christ Jesus. And we have seen in our studies that it is in the very nature and disposition, of God, to be a forgiving God. It is in the very nature and disposition of our Lord Jesus to be a forgiving Savior. Who is this that forgives sins? The Pharisees cried out when they heard the Lord Jesus say to the paralytic, Son, Thy sins be forgiven thee.

14:06 And if indeed we are united to Christ and indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, and we are being conformed to Christ, then we are being forgiven. If we are being conformed to the image of Christ, then surely forgiveness as a prevailing disposition of our souls will be one of the marks of regenerating grace. You see that issue. And that's what our Lord is underscoring in this repeated emphasis upon that principle that only those who are forgiving to one another are truly forgiven.

14:43 Forgiven by God Himself. There are several of the commentators who've captured this very beautifully in their comments upon this parable. Listen to William Taylor. But how comes it that the obligation to cherish this forgiving spirit is connected with our reception of God's mercy?

15:08 How does this come to pass? That our reception of God's mercy. Is connected with the forgiving spirit. Mr. Taylor writes, To that I reply, that all who really accept God's pardon are at the same time renewed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so resembling Him in character, they seek to do unto others as He has done to them. That's what I reply. And I reply, that all who really accept God's forgiveness are at the same time renewed into His image by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so resembling Him in character, they seek to do unto others as He has done to them. Has He forgiven them?

15:45 Then they will be forgiving one to another. This is why Paul in that passage we studied some weeks ago can say, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God also in Christ forgave you. And those Ephesians Christians to whom he writes those words are the very ones who have been forgiven. They are the very ones whom he describes in chapter 2 verses 8 to 10 with these words, For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast or glory, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that we should do. And that is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast or glory, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before ordained that we should do. And that is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast or glory, for we should do. And that is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast or glory, for we should do.

16:46 And he is speaking to those who are going to be forgiven. So when Paul says to these believers, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. He is confident that they are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. They are a people in whom God has worked effectively and powerfully who have a renewed heart.

17:10 They are a people in whom God has worked effectively and powerfully who have a renewed with a disposition that desires to be like their God in the extension of forgiving grace. And so you and I need to come to grips when we come to passages like this and not enter into the silly notion of some dispensationalist who have said, obviously the Sermon on the Mount cannot be for this present age of grace, for in the Lord's Prayer, God's forgiveness is predicated upon our giving forgiveness, and that's law. That's for a coming kingdom age. That's actually taught.

17:54 You can actually find that kind of stuff in the Schofield Bible. You see, they fail to understand that in any age where God shows Himself to be gracious to sinners, He never confers forgiveness upon the sinner without renewing the sin. And when He renews the sinner, He renews him in such a way that that sinner will have a renewed heart that is, among other things, in principle, in its prevailing disposition, a forgiving heart. That's the doctrinal application.

Pastoral Application 1: Dwell on God's Forgiveness to You

18:31 And now I come to what will be the heart of our study tonight, the pastoral application. And I want to make two or three strands of pastoral application, of pastoral exhortation to you, the Lord's people. The first is this. If you would grow in the God-like disposition of a forgiving disposition, dwell frequently and dwell much on the magnitude and wonder of God's forgiveness to you.

19:05 Let me give it to you again. If you would grow in the God-like disposition of a forgiving disposition, dwell much and dwell often on the magnitude and wonder of God's forgiveness towards you. Go back with me to the reasoning of the king with that unforgiving servant. Matthew 18 and verse 32.

19:37 Then his Lord called him unto him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you besought me. Should not you also have had mercy on your fellow servant even as I had mercy on you? And I pointed out this morning that that English translation does not convey the force of the original. The king says, You were under a solemn moral obligation to have mercy on me.

20:14 You have mercy on your fellow servant even as I had mercy on you. It is evident that this wicked servant never really grasped the concept and the wonder of forgiveness. Apparently all he grasped is the king has let me off the hook. That's all that affected him because he no sooner is, quote, forgiven his debt, but he goes out and finds a fellow servant who owes him, a pittance.

20:44 Remember the contrast between Matterhorn or Everest and the Mole Hill. Grabs him by the throat, says, Pay me what you owe. Because his spirit, his heart, his disposition was a total stranger to the wonder, to the glory, to the amazing reality of all that forgiveness entails. And if you and I would maintain a disposition of tender-hearted forgiveness to one another, we must dwell often and dwell long on the magnitude and the wonder of God's forgiveness toward us.

21:29 Go back again and again to the reality of how great was our debt. As I was listening to Pastor Donnelly's, begun to listen to his series on justification, in his opening sermon, he was underscoring why we need to be justified because we are sinners and in seeking to make people feel the weight of their sin, he was speaking of the fact that God's law surrounds us, encompasses us, touches us every moment of every day, of every week, every hour, in every circumstance. The inner thoughts, the attitudes, the dispositions, and how when we take seriously that that law demands one hundred percent conformity, perfect love to God, continually, incessantly, unremittingly, love to God with all the heart, all the mind, all the soul, all the strength, in all circumstances, in all relationships, at all times, and one deviation leaves us in debt to God's justice. We are in all circumstances, at all times, in all relationships, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Well, when we sit and contemplate how great is our debt,

22:55 our ten thousand talent debt, our dollar bills lined up from the GW Bridge to the loop in Chicago, and realize that God, out of free, infinite, sovereign love, in the giving of His only begotten, begotten Son, blots out our sins freely for Jesus' sake, basking in the wonder of divine forgiveness. How in the world can we take a fellow servant? This is forgiveness from the Sovereign King, the Almighty God, the Exalted Creator. We are the worms of the dust, dependent little creatures. We are the worms of the dust, dependent little creatures. We are the worms of the dust, dependent little creatures. We are the worms of the dust, dependent little creatures.

23:44 This Sovereign has forgiven us all. How can we go to fellow worms, fellow mortals, fellow dependent creatures, and take them by the throat and say, I'll never forgive? It's impossible. And to the extent that you and I live basking in the wonder of God's grace, immersing our souls daily in the contemplation of how the mighty, the mountain of our indebtedness has been sunk into the sea of God's forgetfulness, we'll never play a numbers game with forgiveness because God plays no numbers game with us. I have said on a number of occasions to closer friends, if you could wear out a verse in the Bible by using it, there are two verses I would have worn out years ago. I have played a number of verses and I have recited them before God times without number. You know what they are?

24:56 James 1.5 is one of them. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and upbraids not, and it shall be given him. How many times in family concerns, in personal concerns, in pastoral concerns, have I said, Oh Lord, I don't know what to do, but you promised if any lack wisdom, you haven't scrubbed that text from your word.

25:26 It's your word as living and fresh as though I were pleading it for the first time. Times without number. And you know what the second text is? And I'm so glad God doesn't put a 490 number limit to it.

25:42 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins,

25:49 He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How I thank God with respect to some specific sins it didn't say. If we confess a specific sin 490 times there's forgiveness.

26:12 I'd be out in the dark with no hope. Sins that I've had to confess to God far more than 490 times in the course of my life. course of 51 plus years of my pilgrimage. You see, God's in no numbers game with us. And when we live in that reality, when our souls, as it were, percolate, are percolated with and are steeped in the reality of God's forgiving grace, we cannot but be a forgiving people.

26:49 In fact, I have found when people come to me and ask my forgiveness for this, that, or the other, the words that almost instinctively come to my heart when they say, Pastor, or brother, or Al, or dear, sweetheart, whoever it is. It's only one person who calls me dear and sweetheart. Okay. Will you forgive me? The words that often come so naturally to my heart is, it is my joy to forgive you.

27:25 I am and continue to be a forgiven sinner. Is that where you live? Is that where you live? Constantly bathing your soul in the wonder of God's forgiving grace to you.

27:46 It is that which not only gives us the pressure of the sense of moral obligation, it conditions the spirit to be a forgiving spirit. You see, illegally. Realistic, harsh, number-counting spirit can't remain in the light of the cross of Christ. It can't remain.

28:11 So, my dear brothers and sisters, if you would grow, and if you're a true Christian, you say, yes, Lord, I want to grow in God-like disposition of a forgiving heart. Dwell much and dwell often on the magnitude and the wonder of God's forgiveness. That's forgiveness toward you. Then secondly, here's my second pastoral application.

Pastoral Application 2: Confront Unforgiveness with Christ's Words

28:39 If you're tempted to fudge on your obligation to forgive others, it's amazing how we can make fudge in the theater of our consciences.

28:53 Here's a situation where we know long before we've had a chance to deal with the party and seek to bring them to own their fault, or before they've owned their fault, we know they're obligated. It ought to be, as we found in our study previously, the disposition of forgiveness ought always to be pressing at the inside door of my heart. I must never, never have any other disposition towards an offending brother or sister but one of forgiveness. The disposition of forgiveness ought to be there, just waiting to come out.

29:30 No locks on the inside of the door of my heart. No bitterness, no rancor, no desire for vengeance. Those things have been either put into God's hand or nailed to Christ's cross, one or the other. Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

29:48 I say, all right, Lord, I put it in your hands. Or bitterness, or rancor, things that Christ put to death in His death. I say, Lord, those were nailed to your cross. I reckon them to be there.

30:03 I do not. I own them as any welcome guest in my breast. Forgiveness as a prevailing disposition is there.

30:15 Actual forgiveness may not yet be conferred. But you know that that ought to be the prevailing disposition. When someone seeks forgiveness, that you ought to make it evident. You've been anxious to confer the forgiveness.

30:29 Now, if you're tempted to fudge on the obligation to maintain the disposition, of forgiveness at all times, and a readiness and alacrity in conferring forgiveness, if you're tempted to fudge, that's what I mean, on your obligations to forgive, here's my counsel. Go back to the very words of Jesus that we've studied together today and dare to plant them in the crosshairs of your conscience. You go back to Jesus' words.

31:06 Forgive us. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, God, I want you to forgive my sins today in exactly the same way I'm fudging on forgiving John or Mary, my husband or my wife. Lord, I want you to deal with me in exactly the way I'm dealing with them.

31:32 I don't have a disposition of forgiveness pushing at the inside door of my heart. Now, Lord, deal with me. Deal with me in exactly the same way. Be reluctant, Lord, to forgive me.

31:42 Forgive me as I'm forgiving. Forgive me, Lord, with a reluctant heart. Lord, look upon me with a disposition something other than Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive. Lord, look upon me with the same reluctance to forgive that I'm showing toward my husband, toward my wife, toward my son, toward my daughter, toward brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so.

32:06 Take those words. And dare to put them in the crosshairs of your conscience. Jesus said, after this manner, pray. Forgive us our debts even as, Lord, deal with me exactly the way I'm dealing with others.

32:23 That's what you want to do?

32:26 Lord, I'm tight-fisted, narrow-hearted, constricted and restricted in my disposition of forgiveness. Lord, give me exactly what I'm manifesting to John, to Henry, to my husband, to my wife. You want to do that? I dare you to do that.

32:42 I wouldn't do that. Well, that'll get you out of the fudge factory. And you'll have to face the fact, No, Lord, I would not want to be dealt with the way my heart is dealing with this offending mother, sister, husband, wife, etc. Take Jesus' words seriously and speak them to yourself.

33:08 This is learning how to self-medicate the soul. This is learning how to self-medicate the soul in the Christian life. And you'll make very little progress in the Christian life unless you begin to become an expert self-medicator. You go to pray and you're conscious of certain sins that are loading down your conscience and making you uncomfortable to draw near to God.

33:33 And you say, Oh, Lord, I know I've got to deal with these issues before I can pray. Oh, God, forgive me. Forgive. Forgive.

33:41 Then you hear the words of Mark 11. And verse...

33:45 Verse 27, is it? 26. When you stand, pray. Forgive.

33:53 Forgive. If you have ought against any, forgive in order that your heavenly Father may forgive. Lord, you're not released to forgive me as your child until I forgive others. That's what God says.

34:14 Go to those texts and... Dare to put them in the crosshairs of your conscience.

34:20 Dare to go to Matthew 18 and read verse 35.

34:28 So shall my heavenly Father do to you. He'll send you to the tormentors. If I cherish this disposition, it could be the first steps to apostasy and to hell.

34:43 What do you do if you begin to fudge on the ethical norms of sexual fidelity? Well, I hope you say, You say a lot of things to yourself. I'm the purchased possession of Jesus. Verse Corinthians 6.

34:56 I cannot take his property and use it in a way that violates the will of the one who bought it with his own blood. That's good to put that in the crosshairs. You put other things in the crosshairs. I have made solemn vows to my wife, to my husband.

35:13 Shall I be a covenant breaker? No, Lord. I will not rob Jesus of his purchased right. I will not rob my wife, my husband.

35:21 I will not rob my husband of the trust placed in me in the sharing of vows. You speak to yourself all kinds of biblical motivations. Now, when it comes to this matter of forgiveness, speak this motivation to yourself. As with the matter of temptation to impurity, tell yourself, No adulterer shall enter the kingdom.

35:44 To entertain that sin could be the first step to a pattern of life. A pattern of life which God says is inconsistent. Consistent with being in a state of grace, you need to do the same thing with the matter of forgiveness. You do not have the right to entertain for a moment any disposition of heart, but a disposition of forgiveness.

36:07 You do not have a right when someone seeks your forgiveness, and we'll deal with that in the subsequent message, with what in the judgment of charity is a sincere expression of repentance and desire for a restoration. Lord, relationship, you do not have any right to withhold for three seconds the forgiveness sought. You have no such right. And you need to tell yourself, No, no, Jesus said, if I've got the throat-ringing mentality, my father will deal with me the way he dealt with that man.

36:47 Load your conscience with these very words of the Lord. Jesus. Now see, this notion that all you need to make it in the Christian life is the promises is nonsense. If all we needed is promises, there'd be no threats and warnings.

37:05 There'd be no exhortations, be not deceived. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned. Dear people, we need the whole spectrum of biblical motivation. And in this matter of forgiveness, it is no exception.

37:22 So, my pastoral, application is this exhortation. Number one, if you would grow in the God-like disposition of forgiving, dwell often and much on the magnitude and wonder of God's forgiving grace to you. Secondly, if you're tempted to fudge on your obligation to forgive, load your conscience with the words of Jesus that we have studied together today. Amen.

Evangelical Application: The Debt of Sin and God's Mercy

37:53 So, I've looked at a doctrinal application, pastoral application, now I want to come to an evangelical application. And here I refer especially to the parable of our Lord. Now I'm not contradicting what I said this morning, that in the parable there is generally one central purpose for the parable. And as there is one central purpose, we are to look for that in our understanding of the parable.

38:26 It is not an allegory in which every person, every incident has representative symbolic significance. And so I'm not violating that. But surely in a parable that deals with the subject of forgiveness and likens the need for forgiveness under the concept of debt and has within it indications of how the debt is faced. And how the debt is canceled.

38:58 No preacher who's thinking biblically can avoid thinking here is stuff for gospel proclamation. And so in my third line of practical application, I want to demonstrate what to me is a legitimate evangelical application of this principle of forgiveness, particularly as it is embodied in our Lord's parable. What are each one of us by nature but a bunch of hopeless debtors to God? Jesus in the Lord's prayer likens sin to a debt.

39:42 Remember Matthew 6, forgive us our debts, that is what we owe you, even as we forgive our debtors, that is those who owe us something. Now what is he thinking about? What is he reflecting? Well.

39:57 In verses 14 and 15, perhaps I should ask you to turn there with me so you see it and get it through the eye gate as well. Those debts are sins. For when our Lord amplifies on that petition, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, notice verse 14, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses.

40:25 So the debts are trespasses. They are sins. They are failures, either to do what God commands us or doing what God forbids. What is sin?

40:38 In the old catechism, sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. And every one of us by nature has an infinite, incalculable debt to the sovereign King of the universe. Before whom we will stand in the last day. Every sin, sin being defined by the law of God, every failure to render complete conformity to the law of God in thought, in word, in motive, desire, and deed, in every relationship, in all places, at all times, puts us further in debt.

41:23 We're debtors. We're helpless, pathetic, helpless debtors. And if we come before God in the day of judgment with that debt unpaid, hell will be the debtor's prison forever. Hell is God's eternal debtor's prison for those who come before the sovereign of the universe with their debt unremitted and unforgiven.

The Deadly Folly of Ignoring Your Debt

41:53 Now in the light of that reality. Now in the light of that reality. What can we do as a mass of hopeless, helpless debtors? Well we can do one of three things.

42:08 The first two are deadly. And the third is life giving. The first thing we can do is to ignore the dead. There are some of you sitting in this place tonight that that's exactly what you're doing.

42:25 You choose not to think of the dead. You choose not to think of the dead. You choose not to think of the dead. about the massive debt that you have to your Creator.

42:35 You do not love Him and you know it. It's not a matter of not loving Him with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. You don't love Him at all. And furthermore, you're not ashamed of it.

42:47 The Scripture says the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. He that would be the friend of the world is the enemy of God. But you are God's enemy and you know it.

43:04 You've chosen this world system, this fallen world system under the control of the devil, its thought patterns, its standards, its goals. You've chosen this world as your lover.

43:20 And you've despised the God who made you and the Savior whom He sent to redeem sinners. And you choose to ignore your debt. You don't want to think about what you owe to God. What you've robbed from God that is legitimately His.

43:42 The mind that He gave you. The body that He gave you. The capacities, the faculties, the energy. All that He gives you that you might glorify Him.

43:53 That you might bring praise to Him and honor to Him. And your life is one continuous thievery of deity.

44:03 That's what you are. As a sinner, you're a perpetual thief of deity. You rob God of what belongs to Him. And what He has a right to expect from you.

44:16 You didn't give yourself life. You didn't give yourself sanity. You don't give yourself breath. You don't give yourself that which sustains you.

44:26 God does. The Scripture says He gives to all life and breath and all things. He upholds. All things including you.

44:35 By the word of His power. But you choose to ignore your debt.

44:41 But my friend, may I say with all tenderness. You're a fool. For ignoring your debt does not cancel it. And your debt increases hour by hour and day by day.

44:56 And John saw in vision in Revelation 20 verse 11 and following. He said, I saw a great white throne. And Him that sat upon that throne from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

45:18 And he goes on to say, I saw one sitting upon that throne and books were opened. Books were opened. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And they were judged, each one, out of the books.

45:36 In our passage it says that the king willed to make a reckoning. Almighty God has a day of reckoning for all His debtors.

45:52 What a horrible thing when you stand before God. And God reads out the detailed account of your debt. Forget it now. He'll force it to your remembrance then.

46:06 And you'll have an eternity. You'll have an eternity to mull over your folly of trying to forget your debt.

46:20 That's serious stuff, my unconverted friend, young or old. Don't go on ignoring the debt. Ignoring it doesn't cancel it. Only the God against whom you've incurred it can cancel it.

46:36 Only the king who was lord of the servants had the right to cancel the debt of the servant.

The Folly of Trying to Cancel Your Debt Your Own Way

46:45 Some of you ignore your debt. But then secondly, some of you seek to cancel it in your own way.

46:54 You seek to cancel it in your own way.

46:58 Some of it has to do the way God put you together temperamentally. Some of it has to do with the influence of your home. The fact that you're here under gospel preaching. You don't have a man up here telling you jokes.

47:11 Trying to make you think he's a nice guy and a clever guy. And make you feel good. He's trying to get in...

47:17 into your conscience. He's trying to get eternity into your silly world of time and of sense and of stuff and the things you can only see and touch and feel. So you can't ignore your debt. You're conscious of it. Oh, you're not conscious of the magnitude of it, but you can't ignore it. It's there. You know it's there. It's a haunting reality. It's there and you wonder if and when the sovereign of the universe is going to call you to give an account of that debt. And yet you foolishly try to cancel it your own way. That's exactly what broke the heart of the Apostle Paul when he thought of his Jewish country. Listen to these words as Paul speaks of his burden for his fellow Jews. He says, this is my burden.

48:13 I bear them witness, Romans 10. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of God's righteousness, that is God's way of having the debt canceled and seeking to establish their own. They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Ignorant of God's way of getting the debt canceled, going about their own way to cancel the debt.

48:47 They did not submit themselves to God's way of debt cancellation. If you're sitting here thinking, well, if I just clean my act up a little bit, if I'm a little less raunchy in my thoughts and a little less lawless in my deeds, a little cleaner with my words, a little more selective in the music I listen to, the movies I watch, then somehow surely getting my act together. In these ways we'll do something to adjust the record books. No, my friend. Listen, if you could cease right now in the next five seconds, if you could totally cease from going into debt one more dollar to God's law, you could render 100% perfect obedience to every command of God until you breathed your last and died. It's still winning. You wouldn't cancel the debt you already have. You'd just be paying what you owe from this point on. That's all. All that obedience would not cancel one iota of the debt. Not

50:03 one iota of the debt. And this is the folly of so many conscious of the debt. They don't seek to totally ignore it. They're willing to come into some realistic consideration of the debt. But like Paul's fellow Jews, they seek to go about it. They're willing to go about it in their own method of debt cancellation. And my friend, it will take you to the same place as the one who seeks to ignore his debt. For the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. So those are the first two ways that people seek. To cancel the debt, ignore the debt, seek to cancel it your own way. But there's a third thing you can do with your debt. And it's the only right thing to do. It's the only

The Only Right Way: Plead for God's Mercy

51:06 blessed thing to do. It is to do what this man did in the face of his death. Fell down before the one to whom he was indebted and pleaded for mercy. And that's exactly what our Lord does in the parable.

51:25 And earlier, I'm sorry, in the book of Luke in chapter 18, where he says two men went up in the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood thus by himself and prayed, saying, what was he doing? Saying, oh God, look at my debt cancellation stunts.

51:48 I do this, I don't do that. I do this, I don't do that. There's a publican over there who would not so much, Jesus says, is lift up his eyes. Would not so much as lift up his eyes, bent over with the sense of the crushing weight of his debt.

52:06 And he knows that the only one who can cancel the debt is the God against whom the debt has been incurred. And he cries out, God, be merciful, be propitious to me, the sinner. It could well be that with his...

52:23 His head bowed, his eyes not lifted up, that they were looking toward the altar of sacrifice. And he is saying, oh God, for the language, the word used, be merciful, is not the ordinary word for merciful. It is the word that is associated with propitiation. God's turning away his wrath on the basis of a sacrifice of another.

52:47 It could well be that his prayer was, God, be merciful, be propitious. Let your wrath be turned away from me, based on the innocent lamb, even now dead upon that altar of sacrifice. But whether that is so or not, Jesus said, this man went down to his house justified. He went down to his house with his debt fully, irrevocably, eternally canceled.

53:20 He went down to his house justified. Why? He owned his debt. He didn't try to forget it.

53:27 He sought the release of the debt in the only God-appointed way, revealed from heaven. And in so doing, his debt was canceled. And he went down to his house, a pardoned sinner. That's the wonder of the gospel.

Call to Repentance and Faith in Christ

53:46 You sit here tonight, and perhaps you've been forced, as God has brought the word home to your conscience, to think of your folly in trying to ignore your debt, bury yourself in your fun, in your work, in your relationships. And you say, no, that's the way of folly. I have no assurance. I'll sit in this place another Lord's Day.

54:10 I must reckon with the issue of my debt. How can I rid myself of my debt? My friend, I tell you in the simplest words, the words it was my joy to preach on a street corner as a 70-year-old. I tell you in the simplest words, the words it was my joy to preach on a street corner as a 70-year-old.

54:24 17-year-old kid, and to preach them today. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

54:51 Those truths that I sought to thunder out in a street corner, that God blessed to save sinners, He can bless them to save sinners in this place tonight.

55:03 Will you be one such sinner, who stops all this nonsense of trying to ignore your debt, all of the folly of trying to cancel it your own way, and cries out, O God, for Jesus' sake, have mercy upon me. You can leave this building tonight with your debt, utterly, totally, eternally, irrevocably canceled, so that Almighty God in the day of judgment will have no case against you. That's the gospel. That's the glory of the gospel.

55:40 May God grant that some sitting here tonight will say, O God, that's just the kind of gospel I need. I want to know my debt's been canceled. Canceled by the one against whom I've incurred it, and to have His Word, and promise that He has fully and forever canceled it. May God grant that that will be the experience of some of you, young or old, young and old, together, as you lay to heart the wonderful message of the gospel of free, pardoning grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer for Forgiveness and a Forgiving Spirit

56:21 Let's pray together. Our Father, how we pray that You would never, ever allow us to regard lightly the wonder of gospel forgiveness, the only way by which we hopelessly indebted sinners can have our debt canceled. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You were willing to take all of the liabilities of our indebtedness upon Yourself, and You so fully discharge those liabilities that You could cry with Your death, with Your dying breath. It is finished. Thank You that You rose again from the dead, validating that the debt has been canceled. And we may embrace You in the confidence that in You is a full and a complete pardon for all of our sins. Lord, bless the proclamation of that central gospel truth.

57:31 Bless Your people that we may learn more and more to live in the wonder of Your forgiving grace, that we may be more and more a forgiving people, that gospel dynamics will throb in all of our relationships, in our relationships as husbands and wives and parents and children, members of this assembly. O God, may unforgiveness and narrow-hearted bitterness one to another, may they not have any place among us in this place. O Lord, make, we pray, this place sweet, ever sweet, with the fragrance of the spirit and disposition of forgiveness kept alive in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the frequent contemplation of the wonder of Your forgiving grace. Seal, then, Your words, and may we, by Your grace, give that response that that word demands. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.