Scripture Reading
We're in Matthew chapter 6 on the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer. God willing, we'll finish this section up next week, and then the following week we'll start in the book of Ruth. Ruth probably won't take a long, long time, and then we'll get into 1 and 2 Samuel, which should probably take us until the Lord Jesus returns. If you wondered what you were doing on a Wednesday night, if Jesus returns, it may be studying 1 or 2 Samuel.
So I suspect those will be a longer go. Anyways, Matthew 6, I'll just begin reading in verse 8, and we'll read to verse 15. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Amen.
Introduction
So as we have seen over the last several weeks, Jesus is dealing with acts of piety or acts of righteousness. He takes up almsgiving, prayer, and fasting in this particular section. He gives a prohibition against doing it in a particular way. When we do a charitable deed, we're not to be doing it simply to be seen by men, but rather we are doing it for the glory of God and to alleviate the suffering of other people.
When it comes to fasting, we're not supposed to walk around and tell people, I'm fasting today. and seek to gain glory or recognition for engaging in a particular act of piety. When it comes to prayer, he says, do not be like the hypocrites, those men that like to stand out on the street corner and pray so that people will see them praying. He says, if that's your desire, you have your reward. If men see you, that's what you've got.
But for the Christian, for the believer, go into your secret place, go into your inner room, and your father who sees in secret will give to you openly. As well, he forbids or prohibits us to pray like the heathen. Verse 7, when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Verse 8, therefore, do not be like them.
Do not be like the heathen. Do not simply recite the prayer thinking you will be heard because you say it many times. When we get to the Lord's Prayer, it is not given to us so that we can just run through it by road or that we can just say it 10, 15, 20, 30 times and think that somehow we're going to get credit from God. Each of these particular petitions, and there are six of them, ought to be things that we consider, that we roll around in our heads and we see how they apply to us as individuals, to our families, to our churches, and to society at large.
We can take these things to our prayer closet. Ideally, we pray these things corporately because the corporate focus is evidenced in verse Nine, Jesus teaches us to pray our Father in heaven. This is the prayer of the church. This is what the people of God ought to be expressing together.
But we take these things and we seek the glory of God's name. We seek the progress of God's kingdom. We seek obedience to the will of God. We seek provision, or our daily bread, as we saw last week.
And tonight we consider the fifth petition, forgiveness. He says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Interestingly enough, this is the only petition in the prayer that is amplified or expounded on in verses 14 and 15. visits this theme, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It underscores how important this whole idea of forgiveness is with reference to the Christian, and as well, this is one that certainly has a horizontal effect.
When we pray, give us our daily bread. When we pray, do not lead us into temptation. Generally speaking, we're not at odds with others with those sorts of things. But if we come to God and we ask for forgiveness, when we know all too well that we're not forgiving others, then we're showing ourselves to be hypocrites.
And the Lord God says, that is absolutely unacceptable. So we'll see that as we move through our study tonight. I do want to remind us of the Westminster Larger Catechism. Again, a very excellent explanation of both the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, other things as well, but in those two cases particularly.
It says, what do we pray for in the fifth petition? In the fifth petition, which is, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, acknowledging that we and all others are guilty both of original and actual sin, and thereby become debtors to the justice of God, and that neither we nor any other creature can make the least satisfaction for that debt. We pray for ourselves and others that God of His free grace would, through the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, apprehended and applied by faith, acquit us both from the guilt and punishment of sin, accept us in his beloved, continue his favor and grace to us, pardon our daily failings, and fill us with peace and joy in giving us daily more and more assurance of forgiveness. which we are the rather emboldened to ask and encouraged to expect when we have this testimony in ourselves, that we from the heart forgive others their offenses." Again, I think that just encapsulates so well a great deal of Puritan theology. in terms of expounding these particular petitions. What we're going to do tonight is look at three things.
The meaning of the petition, the explanation of the petition, and the expansion on the petition in verses 14 and 15.
The Meaning of the Petition
But notice first, with reference to the situation, forgive us our debts. When we consider debt here, we ought not to think of a monetary thing. I know it probably suggests as much to us in our mindset. We think of debt, we think of money that is owed.
But when we compare this with what follows in verses 14 and 15, When we compare this with what is likewise written in Luke's Gospel, specifically in Luke 11, the parallel to the Lord's Prayer, what is in view is sin. Forgive us our sin. Debt, in this instance, is what is owed, one's due, a moral debt. The word stresses a moral obligation.
When you drop down in verses 14 and 15, you see the word trespasses. In fact, if you were brought up Roman Catholic, you probably learned the Lord's Prayer that way. Forgive us our trespasses. The word trespass means a false step, failure, or transgression.
So in this particular petition, we are coming to the Lord God Most High, and we are asking Him to forgive us of our sins. We are asking Him to wash away that particular sin. Jesus Christ throughout the scriptures is very adamant that it's God alone, or the scriptures are clear that it's God alone that forgives sin. And so we ought to and naturally do come to the Lord Most High to seek forgiveness for our daily transgressions.
Now the petition is a request made by the child of God for forgiveness for his transgression of the law of God and his lack of conformity unto it. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, what is sin? Sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. When we don't do what God says and when we do what God forbids, we have sinned against Him.
And so at that time we need forgiveness from the living and true God. Now, when we consider this particular prayer, and in the context and with the reality of verse 9, Jesus is teaching this to believers. Believers are supposed to ask for daily forgiveness for their sins. You say, but wait a minute, doesn't justification secure for us the forgiveness of sins?
Probably you've heard me preach it over and over again, that there's two elements to justification. It is the pardon of sin, and it is the imputation of righteousness. Well, certainly, we have been forgiven by God. We might look at it this way.
God, in justification, forgives us as a judge would. He declares us not guilty. He declares us innocent, not based on anything we've done, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. What is in view in this fifth petition is to seek God's fatherly care, God's fatherly presence in our lives.
The judge has forgiven us in terms of the whole situation. When it comes to these daily transgressions, however, we want our Father's smile upon us. And this is precisely what this petition is. The one praying addresses our Father in heaven.
This bespeaks adoption. Remember He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless. In love He has predestined us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ our Lord. The one praying is forgiven by God in terms of justification.
The one praying seeks forgiveness from God the Father. Now, when your child sins against you, you don't cut him off. You don't send him to the moon. I mean, we might feel like it.
In fact, if we could, we probably would. But typically, we don't disown that. But there is a breach in the relationship until things are made right. And it's difficult to try and picture this analogously because there are some differences.
But in terms of justification, God has forgiven us. In terms of our daily walk with the Lord, 1 John 1.9 is a reality. This is a passage that we ought to hold near and dear to our hearts, and again, I think it is in the context of this whole idea of our daily walk with God, or of having the Father's smile on our face. First John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
You see, he's writing to believers. He's writing to those who are justified. He's writing to those who, by God's grace, have come to the judge of all the earth. He has pronounced no condemnation because of their place in Christ, but is this daily ongoing life of faith, we confess those transgressions to the Lord so that we indeed have the smile of God most high.
Spurgeon put it this way, this is the prayer of men whom the judge has absolved because of their faith in the great sacrifice. For now to their father they come for free forgiveness as children." Now some have messed up in this very thing. They understand the doctrine of justification and this past, present, and future. Forgiveness.
I mean, face it. The moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been forgiven of your sins. You've been forgiven of sins that you're going to commit next year. That's the beauty of justification.
It's squarely grounded upon the doing and the dying and the rising of the Lord Jesus Christ. So some have taken that fault in a faulty way and said, well, as a result, therefore, we no longer need to pray to God for forgiveness of sin. There's a guy named Bob George who has a book called Classic Christianity. That's not Classic Christianity.
Classic Christianity is when the child of God comes daily to his father and says, Lord, please forgive me for the transgressions I committed on this particular day. It is a filial relationship. It is a son to the father thing. The father doesn't disown us.
He doesn't throw us into Satan's camp. But when we sin and transgress, it is by the grace of God we renew repentance, we come to Him, we seek forgiveness so that we know something of His fatherly smile and we don't live at a distance from Him. We're not content with this separation between God the Father and ourselves. This petition is most important with reference to the Christian life.
The Explanation of the Petition
Secondly, the explanation of the petition. We pray this for several reasons.
Remaining Corruption
We pray this because we have remaining corruption. This is another passage that puts the nail in the coffin of what's called Christian perfection. John Wesley taught a version of Christian perfection. There have been others that have followed in his train, others that preceded him, that taught that Christians can achieve perfection on this side of heaven.
The Bible doesn't tell us that. If you think for a moment that you're going to see something of perfection before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, may I direct you to Romans 7, Galatians 5 and to Matthew chapter 6 verse 12. Jesus is instructing the church to pray this way. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
We have remaining corruption. Already mentioned Romans 7. Paul says the good I wish I don't do. The evil I don't want to do I find myself doing.
I find that a law in my members. The one that wills to do good, doesn't do it. He then in Galatians 5 says in verse 17, the flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit lusts against the flesh. These two are contrary to one another so that you do not do what you want.
There is this ongoing battle in the Christian heart. And so what we are taught in this petition is that we do come to God for forgiveness because we have remaining corruption. Here's what Calvin said concerning those who dream of attaining such perfection in this world as to be free from every spot and blemish, not only renounce their sins, but renounce Christ himself, from whose church they banish themselves. Calvin didn't play games with people who would claim perfection is up.
Matthew 6, 12, there is an assumption or a presupposition spoken by our Lord in the petition itself that we will have remaining corruption. We need to come to the Lord and confess those things. So we pray this because we have remaining corruption.
Desire for God's Smile
We pray this, secondly, because we desire the smile of God, 1 John 1, 9. That quote from Spurgeon. It ought not to be the case that we are content living with a known breach between us and habit. If that happens to us, we need to cry out to God to break our hearts so that we do not get comfortable living afar from the living and true God.
Sometimes people get into patterns. Sometimes people get into habits. Sometimes people adjust to and adapt with what they have. They'd rather have a particular sin or they'd rather indulge a particular lust for a time then enjoy the smile of God." And this petition teaches us that we ought not to engage in such a thing.
We ought to pray to the Father, forgive us our debts so that we know your smile, we know your goodness, and we know your nearness.
Consciousness of the Evil of Sin
We pray this petition thirdly because we are conscious of the evil of sin. God abominates it, so we ought to confess it. Right? If the Lord hates it, if He despises the way that we treated someone else earlier in the day, or He despises the way that we've conducted ourselves in secret or in public, knowing that, we ought to confess it to the Lord.
If I upset my wife, I try to make things right with her. If she upsets me, she just pretends that she didn't do it. I'm kidding. Please take that back.
Just kidding. We try to repair things, or we try not to do something that we know somebody we love despises. I know my wife hates something. I don't bring it to her.
If she knows I despise something, she doesn't bring it to me. And yet we oftentimes hold in our hearts that which God abominates. This petition says, throw it out. Get rid of it.
Confess it to the Lord.
Trust in Divine Mercy
So we pray this, fourthly, because we trust in the mercy of God. This is a great petition to cause us to constantly remember our dependence upon the Lord. Listen to what Sibbes said concerning this. He says, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.
Isn't that beautiful? There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. The Puritans are full of that sort of thing. Never the thought being, well, if somebody understands that, then they'll go out and sin all that they can.
That's the devil's logic. But the child of God, the believer walking by faith, rejoices in that reality that there's more mercy in Jesus Christ then there is sin in me. So I can confess this, I can vomit it out at the throne of grace, and I can trust in my Father to forgive me. Micah 7, 18 and 19, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage.
He does not retain his anger forever. Because He delights in mercy. This is the God of the Bible. He delights in mercy.
He says, He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. With that sort of a God, why wouldn't we daily come to Him and say, Father, forgive me for having transgressed Your law. Father, forgive me for having lacked conformity unto Your law.
There's more mercy in Christ than there is sin in me.
Renouncing Self-Righteousness
We pray this fifthly because we renounce self-righteousness and self-justification. You see, the self-righteous man and the self-justified man doesn't need to pray to the Father to forgive him his debts. Why? Because he's self-righteous.
He's self-justified. When you hear a believer praying to the Father, forgive me my sins, he is not trusting in his merit. He is not trusting in his good works. He is not resting upon the satisfaction of the law of God that he has accomplished.
He is resting rather on the free promise of God Most High given to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, secured by His precious blood. Ryle said it this way, this is a part of the Lord's Prayer which deserves especially to be remembered. It condemns all self-righteousness and self-justifying. This fifth petition brings us right back to the foot of the cross.
We can pray that God's name be glorified. We can pray that God's kingdom come. We can pray that God's will be done. And we can pray for our daily food and perhaps not consciously do so in the orbit of the cross.
You can't ask God for forgiveness without a consciousness of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reality. This petition condemns self or it is a renouncement of self-righteousness and self-justification.
Acknowledging Christ's Sufficiency
And we pray this sixly because we acknowledge the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. His cross, His blood, His redemptive work is the basis upon which 612 is in the Bible. We couldn't pray and forgive us our debts apart from the doing and the dying and the rising. of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the necessity with reference to the explanation, but then something is assumed in this.
Forgiving Others as Evidence of Grace
Notice in verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. There is an assumption that those who have been forgiven by God are those who are exercising forgiveness to others. Now, this isn't a causal situation, or this isn't a conditional situation. It is not the case, even though it may sound like that if we just glance at verses 14 and 15, that as long as I forgive Jonathan, then God will forgive me.
No, the actual teaching of the passage is that because God has forgiven me, I will forgive Jonathan. Not that Jonathan's done anything to me. he just happens to be in my periphery and he can play the big bad sinner that fouled or did wrong against me. But you see, the Bible elsewhere, in this context even, demands that we understand it this way. Those who have been forgiven forgive others.
And if I am not forgiving others, I have no evidence I have no manifest proof that I've been forgiven by God. So specifically, this passage assumes that we are forgiving others who sin against us. This passage assumes that the willingness and ability to forgive others flows from God's having forgiven us. In other words, we do not typically and naturally forgive other people.
That's not our nature. It's not our disposition. What does Paul say in Ephesians and Colossians? We are to forgive one another even as you knew from your youth, even as it comes naturally in your Adamic heart.
No, forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you. Now, if we set this aside for the moment, there's a big question. Are we supposed to forgive people who do not repent? Somebody kicks me in the head.
Do I just forgive them? I don't personally believe so. I believe that people need to repent. If your brother comes to you and he calls, or you go to your brother and you tell him his sin, if he repents, you have won your brother.
Repentance is absolutely crucial in this whole transaction of forgiveness. That's perhaps another study on a different occasion. Perhaps we'll end a little bit early. We can discuss that.
But when it is the case that we have people that repent, we forgive them. We ought not to be those who hold on to sin. I'm sure some of you have heard my story from way back. When I first got converted, we were in this little Bible study at another church, and we got together and we're studying something, and this one lady who professed to be a believer just had this attitude that there was just something she wasn't going to forgive.
Now, maybe the guy hadn't repented, maybe the situation hadn't been clean, but her attitude about it just seemed bizarre. I mean, if somebody hasn't repented, I'm sure there'd be some pain, I want them to repent, I'd like to exercise forgiveness over them, but there wasn't any of that. I'm thinking, man, this doesn't seem right. You've been forgiven by God of these mountainous sins.
We ought to be able to forgive others of these molehill of sins that they've done against us, you see? That there's a willingness and ability to forgive others that flows from God's having forgiven us. And it's interesting, it's a corporate prayer. What is Jesus assuming?
He's assuming that in the corporate context we're going to sit against each other. And I can't stand this mentality where people are looking for the perfect church. Oh, that church, they offended me. That church, they hurt me.
Guess what? You're going to get offended and hurt any time you ever go to a church. But are the people dealing with it? I like to think that if I hurt you or offend you and I find out about it, I'm going to repent.
Right? I mean, most Christians, not like I'm some bulwark of Christianity. I think that's in the heart of every blood-bought child of God. That when your sin, if you find out you've sinned against somebody, you try to make it right.
I have yet to meet the... No, I just don't try to make anything right. I like to, you know, offend people and hurt people. What is Jesus assuming in verse 12?
He's assuming that in the context of the local church, we're going to bump into each other. In the context of the local church, we're going to say things that aren't kind about each other. In the context of the local church, we're going to do things that aren't righteous toward one another. So what's the supposition that if I sin against a brother, or he sins against me, and then he asks me to forgive him, I forgive him.
I don't hold grudges. I don't say, you know, I'm going to go to my grave hating that guy because back in, you know, 48, he sinned against me. No, that's not Christian, man. You've got to be able to relinquish these things.
There ought not to be a grudge-holding mentality or this mindset that this person is dead to me because they dared to sin against me 48 years ago. But they did repent, but I'm just going to be mean in my heart to them. That happens all the time in the church. We have these little axes to grind.
Jesus assumes that we're going to sin against each other in the context of the local church. Those who have been forgiven by the Father are those who are exercising forgiveness toward others as well. And this petition assumes that we're dealing biblically with brothers and sisters who sin against us. There are several options when a brother or sister sins against you.
You know what those options are? The first, you can let love cover a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4, verse 8. Let love cover a multitude of sins. If Jonathan keeps doing that over and over again, and it's not that big of a deal, I'm just going to let love cover it.
I mean, you know, it's just the way he is. And he's really not. Anybody who's listening to this outside, just use an example. But there is that option.
Husbands and wives have to use 1 Peter 4.8 a lot. Fathers and mothers with their kids. 1 Peter 4.8. Kids toward their parents. 1 Peter 4.8. We let love cover a multitude of sins.
Not everything needs to have payment back. You sinned against me. You didn't do this. Look, man, sometimes we can just let love cover it.
That's an option. But if you invoke this option, you have to let love cover it. See, here's what I fear happens, you know, we're too afraid to go to somebody and say, look, you sinned against me, let's fix it. We say, well, I'm going to let love cover it.
But we really don't let love cover it because we still treat them as a vile sinner who offended us. If you let love cover it, note the language, cover is the idea of atonement, it's the language of the cross, if you are going to let love cover that sin, then it's done. Don't hold an axe to grind against them. Don't hold a grudge against them.
If you invoke that 1 Peter 4.8 principle, that if you let love cover it, let love cover it. Secondly, we are supposed to go to brothers who sin against us. Matthew 18. If your brother sins against you, go to him.
Not go to everybody else who knows him. not bring it up in the prayer meeting. Oh, can we pray for Brother so-and-so? He is such a wretch. He said this to me on Saturday, and I just want him to know the mercy of God.
There's something very, very wrong in that approach, isn't there? Isn't there? If your brother sins against you, don't blog about him, don't Facebook status it, don't tweet it. I shuddered the other day to think that we live in a world where Twitterverse is an actual word.
But if we do those things instead of going to him, we're not doing what God says. Go to the brother who sins against us. The third thing, with reference to sins that go on horizontally or between us, and by this I don't mean we're hitting each other, I mean there's a clash, there's a friction, there's a tension. We are to seek reconciliation with the brother that we have sinned against.
And Jesus teaches that when you go to lay your gift at the altar and there you remember that you have a problem with your brother, go to him and be reconciled and then put your gift on the altar. Now that's an interesting passage because Jesus is using the language of temple. Not everybody lived in Jerusalem. There were seasons and times for feasts.
You would come to Jerusalem. Imagine living in Galilee. Imagine living in Dan. And you go all the way to Jerusalem and there you present or you want to present your gift.
And you remember, man, I stole from that guy in Dan when I didn't pay him his due. Well, first, go and be reconciled to him, not call a bus, take me to Dan, or a taxi, or a little jumper, you know, a little plane. You know, walk back to Dan, confess it, and then go back and leave your gift. You see, God takes these horizontal things seriously.
Very often our worship of the living and true God, the vertical element, is so often affected negatively and adversely by this horizontal element. Instead of saying, you know, we don't really recognize the presence of God in our midst, maybe we need more songs, or maybe we need more drama, or maybe we need more repentance. Maybe we need more reconciliation. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, a passage that I'm sure we're all aware of.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What grieves the Holy Spirit of God? Certainly adultery would grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Certainly murder would grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Certainly stealing someone's ox would grieve the Holy Spirit of God. But look at what Paul actually says grieves the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.
If we bring a few hearts into the house of God that are harboring those sorts of things, and then we don't sense the felt presence of God, maybe the problem isn't that God is angry or grieved with the congregation. We need to deal with these things. We need to maintain short accounts with brethren, and we need to maintain short accounts with God. This petition teaches us that very thing.
Expansion of the Petition (vv. 14–15)
Now notice, thirdly, the expansion on the petition in verses 14 and 15. He says, four, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Again, this is the only petition that Jesus expands on, the only one.
We've got to get this. I think of the other passage or another passage that speaks of what happens this way affecting what happens this way. What happens horizontally affects what happens vertically. What happens, according to Peter, when a man doesn't treat his wife properly and then he goes to the throne of grace?
Tells us his prayers will be hindered. The man says, man, my prayer life is just terrible. I can't make it out of the ceiling. I might ask him, how are you treating your wife?
What do you mean? You're not going to give me a book on how to pray? No, maybe you need a book on how not to be a jerk to your wife. Because that's what Peter says.
If you are not being righteous this way, horizontally, then your prayers are going to be hindered. This is just the reality in Psalm 66. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. I mean, is it any wonder if we say, boy, the Lord, I'm not sensing nearness and communion with Him.
Well, what's going on in your life? I'm harboring sin. I'm looking at this. I'm doing this.
Well, there's the problem. Cough it up. Confess it to the Lord. And see if heaven doesn't open up.
Again, the whole father-son relationship. I may not want to take Junior out in the field and play ball with him if he keeps throwing eggs at my car. When he stops throwing eggs at my car and he cleans my car, I want to go out and throw the ball with him. There is that filial connection when things are going properly.
But when there is this breach, I don't want to hang out with him. He's going to throw eggs at my car. I don't want anything to do with him. We need to understand this horizontal element affecting the vertical element of worship.
So the basis, or back to the expansion of the petition, the basis for forgiveness, we need to understand 14 and 15, as I said, is not conditional, not causal. That means it's not a condition that insofar as I forgive this person, then I'm going to be forgiven by God and have salvation. That would be a works righteousness. If the way I gain acceptance with heaven itself is by forgiving somebody that did me a misdeed in the past, and God then forgives me, the whole basis is not the doing and dying of Jesus Christ, it's my activity in forgiving that person.
That's not what's going on here. Remember, this isn't an acceptance with God justification sort of forgiveness. It is a forgiveness that is seeking the favor and the smile of God that is reflected in the way that we are dealing with others in our personal lives. The idea is forgiveness received by God in our justification ought to lead to forgiveness extended by us to others.
The absence of that sort of a spirit indicates the absence of the sort of forgiveness that comes through justifying grace. Watson said it this way with reference to 14 and 15. It, this idea of us extending forgiveness to others, it is a sign of God's forgiving us. It is not a cause of God's forgiving us, but a sign.
We need not climb up into heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven. Let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others. You see, if we have been forgiven by the Father, then we will forgive others. Manton makes this statement.
He says, it is an evidence, a sign of not a pardoned sinner. I'm sorry, it is an evidence, a sign. It is a necessary effect of God's pardoning mercy shed abroad in our hearts. For mercy begets mercy, as he does he.
There is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves, right? I mean, we see parables like Matthew 18. We see various expressions of this very theme throughout Scripture. He goes on to say that there is none so tender to others as they which have received mercy themselves, that know how gently God has dealt with them and did not take the advantage of their iniquity.
So it's a sign, it's an evidence, it's a manifestation. The idea is not, I'm going to go out and forgive a sinner, and therefore God's going to forgive me. No, God has forgiven me based on the doing and the dying of Christ, therefore I exercise forgiveness to others. So that if I come to God to confess my daily transgression and I want his fatherly countenance upon my face, if I have not been that way to others, it is hypocrisy and a sham for me to be seeking that with the Father.
That's the flow of thought. The ground of the believer's forgiveness and justifying faith is Christ. You see, you simply cannot take 14 and 15 out of the Bible and say, as long as I forgive so-and-so, God will forgive me. No.
We are forgiven because of what Christ has accomplished. Isaiah 53, Matthew 26, Acts 10, Acts 13, Romans 4, 2 Corinthians 5, Hebrews 7, 9, 1 Peter 3, 1 John 1, 9, Revelation 1. The bottom line is that Christ secures forgiveness. Because he has secured forgiveness, we will in turn manifest a forgiving spirit to others, such that if we come to the Father, we ask him to forgive us.
If we are not living a life of forgiveness, what we are doing is hypocrisy and it is a sham. Jesus is telling us that when we pray this petition, it is to be without hypocrisy. We cannot duly pray, God forgive us our debts, if we're not forgiving others. If we are holding on and we're not letting things go, then we don't have any business or right seeking this from the Father.
Ryle says the plain object of it is to remind us that we must not expect our prayers for forgiveness to be heard if we pray with malice and spite in our hearts towards others. It's unfortunate we even need to be told this, isn't it? I mean, if your son had done something horrible to your other son, and then your son comes and you say, well, have you dealt with? No, but you need to deal with me this way.
No, you've got to deal with your brother. You've got to go get things right. Ryle goes on to say, to pray in such a frame of mind as mere formality and hypocrisy. It is even worse than hypocrisy.
It is as much as saying, do not forgive me at all. Our prayer is nothing without charity. We must not expect to be forgiven if we cannot forgive.
The Unforgiving Servant
Turn over to Matthew 18 for just a moment. This is all fleshed out very clearly in this parable of the unforgiving servant. Notice beginning in 1821. Then Peter came to Jesus and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?
Up to seven times? Isn't that the way we are? Tell me what I need to do. Seven times I can get my mind around that, I can enter in and I can realize, okay?
So let me buckle up, let this guy sit against me, I know what I gotta do. Peter's probably thinking he's being very benevolent, very charitable, giving this man seven times. Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Now, I don't think Jesus says, I want you to count.
What is that, 70 times seven? One of you. How much? 490 yeah, I thought it was I knew there was a four and a nine in there I just didn't know where it all I knew didn't all know where it all fell out I don't think Jesus actually wants you to be tech taking okay 398 399 you know 488 495 No, no, he's not saying that he's saying don't count Peter don't count Notice what he says. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And the master of that servant was 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 hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all. that was due to him. You see the point?
If the master forgives the servant, the servant should forgive the other servant. The servant doesn't forgive the other servant. He is a hypocrite. The master doesn't keep extending forgiveness to him in this particular situation.
This is the point. It is not a call to go out and forgive somebody in order to earn your forgiveness with God. The idea is that you've been justified freely by his grace. You have been forgiven by God as a result of what Christ has done.
You are to be forgiving of others such that when you come to the throne and you say, Father, forgive me for my daily sins so that I may know your smile, It's not the case that he says to us, look, there's people all around you that you're not forgiving. And should I forgive you? Go fix these things. Go deal with these things.
Go tend to the reality of it. So that's the exposition. Watson makes this statement just in closing. He says, here is a bill of indictment against such as study revenge. and cannot put up with the least discourtesy.
They would have God forgive them, but they will not forgive others." Calvin says, those who refuse to forget the injuries which have been done to them devote themselves willingly and deliberately to destruction and knowingly prevent God from forgiving them. Calvin certainly doesn't play, does he? He doesn't make you feel good. He just says, look, if this is what you're doing, you're devoting yourself to destruction.
Don't do that. Forgive others. Have a benevolent spirit. You have been forgiven much.
Therefore, you ought to be very forgiving to others who sin against or who wrong you. Well, let us close in prayer, and if there's any questions, we can take those.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for this Lord's Prayer and for the good things it teaches us concerning those things. We ought to petition you at the throne of grace. Help us, Father, to maintain short accounts with you and to maintain short accounts with one another.
Grant us charitable hearts, charitable spirits. Give us a willingness to forgive others even as God in Christ has forgiven us. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.