Well, this morning we consider together the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And I invite you to turn with me to two passages, to Psalm 51 and also to Matthew 18 as we read the parable of the unmerciful servant. Verses 21-35. Psalm 51. Psalm that David wrote after being confronted by Nathan the prophet after his adultery with Bathsheba. Hear now the word of the Lord. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love. According to Your great compassion, and blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from blood guilt, O God, the God who saves me. And my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure, make Zion prosper. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. And then Matthew 18, beginning at verse 21. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees before him. Be patient with me, he begged, and I will pay back everything. The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt, and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. Pay back what you owe me, he demanded. His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, Be patient with me, and I will pay you back. But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. Then the master called the servant in. You wicked servant, he said. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart. And I invite you to turn with me in the back of this altar hymnal to page 62. Page 62. Halfway down we find Lord's Day 51. Question and answer 126, which we want to confess this answer together at this time. Page 62, Lord's Day 51. Question 126 asks, What does the fifth request mean? And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, means, because of Christ's blood, do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do, or the evil that constantly clings to us. Forgive us just as we are fully determined, as evidence of Your grace in us, to forgive our neighbors. beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we have been considering especially the first four petitions of the Lord's Prayer so far, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, and last week, give us this day our daily bread. As we have considered these first four petitions, if we have truly understood the richness of these petitions as we have studied, then this fifth petition before us this morning will fall right into place. And that's because, as we must really sadly confess, so often that which we seek, that which we desire, really is different from what we ask for as we have studied in these first four petitions. Well, we ask that God's name would be praised and glorified on our account, but so often we care more about our own name. We ask that we would be submissive to God's kingdom rule, yet so often we place our earthly kingdoms first. We ask that we would be obedient more and more to the will of God. Yet again, so often we work hard to justify our own will and try to mold and shape God's will to fit into our will. And even with daily bread, as you recall I trust from last week, we ask for the bare necessities of life, And we ask that we would be content with those bare necessities of life. Yet so often our wants and our desires overpower us so that we are rarely content. Indeed, a God-given understanding of the first four petitions, what it is we ask for and what it is we so often desire, makes it clear to us that we are in great need of this fifth petition. We have an urgent need for forgiveness. And it's only when we are forgiven that we can then ask for deliverance from the bondage of sin and the dominion of evil. Because justification, that declaration of God, not guilty, which includes forgiveness, is needed before the application of sanctification. And as our Lord makes clear in this petition, the justified and forgiven sinner then demonstrates sanctification through His forgiveness of others. Now, as we consider this petition together, I preach to you this Word of God. And I'll say it twice since you don't have an outline for me this morning. Grateful living demonstrated through the forgiven, forgiving. Grateful living demonstrated through the forgiven. Those who are forgiven, forgiving. We want to consider these three points. First of all, the plea for forgiveness. Secondly, the ground of forgiveness. And then finally, the response of forgiveness. The plea, the ground, and the response. Now, it's interesting that we pray, give us this day our daily bread, and then we turn around and pray, forgive us our debts. Give and forgive. Give us our bread that we need, but take away from us our debts. You see, in reality, we need to confess that daily bread will do us no good without the forgiveness of our debts. Or maybe physically for a time. But provision for the body will do us no good without the hope of heaven. And without forgiveness, there is no hope of heaven. Jesus said, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And the answer to that question very clearly is nothing. There is no profit. There is no gain if man gains the whole world and loses his own soul. It's all vanity. Congregation, we need daily bread to live for God in this life. And we need the forgiveness of sins to live with God for eternity. David knew this. And that's why he also says in Psalm 25, verse 18, Look upon my affliction and pain. O God, take notice of the difficult situations of life that I am subject to. Be aware of them. And forgive. Take away all my sin. And this need for forgiveness, beloved, is not just a need for one or two people or for one or two nations or even for one or two generations. But it's for all people. Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one, as the Bible says. Yet Jesus gave this petition to believers because only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by grace through faith will understand this need and plead before the face of God for forgiveness. What is it that the believer understands by the illumination of the Holy Spirit? Two things. The believer understands what it is that needs to be forgiven. And secondly, what forgiveness is. Well, first of all, what needs to be forgiven? The petition says our debts. Now, this is the term that our Lord uses in Matthew 6 in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. And then in Matthew 11, where the prayer is also recorded, He says, our sins, our debts and our sins. Now, we all, even many of the boys and girls, know what a debt is. You know that a debt is something that we owe to someone, something that we have not yet paid, but we are obligated to pay. For example, boys and girls, when your mom or dad borrow money to buy a car or to buy a house, that money that they borrowed becomes a debt. They have to pay it back. They are obligated to pay it back. And sin, then, we know, is missing the mark or striving after the wrong mark. The Bible describes sin as lawlessness and transgression. You see, beloved, we are to have an aim or a purpose that we are to follow when you take target practice. I remember seeing often the cadets over the last couple of years, Some of them go through the archery practice where they're shooting at targets. And when you take target practice, you aim for the bullseye. Your purpose is to hit the bullseye. God has given us a purpose, that which we are to aim. And He has given to us a motive for that aim. That aim is perfect obedience to Him. And the motive, or the highest end, is His glory. But in sin, man is missing the mark. His aim is off. He's not following God's intended purpose for him and therefore he does not glorify God. In fact, in sin, man deliberately misses the mark and seeks for his own glory instead of for God's glory. We owed God obedience and glory, but we have given Him disobedience and insult. And therefore, sin is stealing from God and results in debt. We have not given to Him that which is rightfully His, and we are very much behind in payment. We have not met our obligation before the living God, and since we cannot pay the debt, as even the Catechism says in another place, very rightly, that we daily increase our debt, therefore we are guilty and liable to punishment unto eternal death. The parable of the unmerciful servant who was initially forgiven his huge debt, A huge debt, incidentally. 10,000 talents. Remember, considering this, and someone explained it, in the wages of those days, one would earn five talents in a lifetime. Five talents in a lifetime. So we're talking about 192,000 some odd years just to earn 10,000 talents. That's a huge debt. But then he throws his fellow servant in prison for a very small debt, which was equivalent to only a few months of salary. But this parable reminds us that it is absolutely impossible to pay our debt to God. The words debts and sins are in the plural in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, partly to provide emphasis. And we are to understand by that the magnitude of our sins, including every kind of sin. Our debt, beloved, includes our actual sins of thought, word, and action. Our evil, depraved nature, which always clings to us, which we must confess we become conscious of in our motives and desires. It includes our sins of commission or commission, doing or committing evil. Sins of omission, omitting or failing to do that which is good. It includes private sins, public sins, conscious, unconscious sins, Sins against God, sins against others, sins against ourselves. And therefore, it's no wonder that the catechism rightly calls us poor sinners. I think the older version again says it stronger. Miserable sinners. Poor has too much the idea of wanting pity, I think. We don't deserve pity. We are miserable sinners who are called to know ourselves and humble ourselves before the face of God. And sometimes we joke and say, well, the only things that are sure in life are death and taxes. But there's something else that is sure, and it is a sure thing that we cannot pay our debt to God. There's absolutely no way we can do that. David knew that. And that's why he expressed, he prayed so earnestly in Psalm 51 that his sins would be blotted out and that God would wash and cleanse him from his sin and his iniquity. He knew that the only way that he could stand before a holy and righteous God is to have his unholiness and his unrighteousness completely removed. And David tells us clearly that his work, anything that he could do, is absolutely fruitless. In verses 16 and 17, You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. David knew that he depended completely upon the forgiving grace of God. Well, then when we ask God to forgive us our debts, what are we asking? What are we really asking? We're asking Him to cancel the debt, to dismiss it, to forget about it. Don't charge us. The Catechism says, Do not hold against us, poor sinners that we are, any of the sins we do, or the evil that constantly clings to us. Again, the previous version says, Do not impute to us, do not charge to our account any of our sins or that evil that clings to us. See, there's no hope for peace with God except through pardon. To be pardoned. Boys and girls, sometimes a prisoner who's given a long prison sentence, maybe even a life sentence, Sometimes through good behavior, that prison sentence might be reduced and the President of the United States or the Governor of the state might pardon that prisoner and let him go free for time served. But you see, God's pardon, compared to that, takes on a special character. You see, we might cancel another's debt against us, for example, a financial debt, or again, as the President might pardon a prisoner, but we won't forget about it. We won't loan them more money the very next week. Never again will there be a peaceable spirit between you and the one for whom you cancel the debt. But notice what it is we do, what we ask for when we ask for God's forgiveness. We ask Him to dismiss the debt, but also to dismiss it from His mind, To not merely dismiss the fact of our sin, but to dismiss the guilt of our sin as well. In other words, we ask that God will not think of us as sinners. We ask that He will not be displeased with us as sinners. We ask Him not to deal with us as sinners, but instead to grant us His favor. but we also ask Him for His assurance of forgiveness in our hearts in order to remove the thought of our sins, our confessed sins from us, that we too might remember them no more, to remove from us the condemning guilt of sin. You see, this is a most amazing plea that God would do this for us whose debt is so great. And it's amazing that we would even dare to ask for this, isn't it? But that's what Christ commands. He commands us to ask for forgiveness. But then what's even more amazing is that God says He will do this. John says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And the psalmist tells us in Psalm 103 the extent of that forgiveness as far as the east is from the west. The two are untouchable. They'll never meet. So far, He has removed our transgressions from us. And the Lord Himself says in Isaiah 43 that not only does He remove our sins from us, but He also removes them from His mind. I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. And what is the result? We heard it this morning in the assurance of pardon that our sins, which are red like crimson, shall be made white as snow. In other words, no longer miserable sinners in the sight of God, but saints being sanctified unto eternal life. It's hard to imagine ourselves as saints, isn't it? Especially given our idea of saints. What a blessed truth, though. Sinners turned to saints. This plea for forgiveness is that God would not hold our sins against us, that He would not hold us accountable for them, but cancel our debt. We ask Him to remove that which separates us from Him and Him from us and instead grant us His favor and His loving kindness, His grace and blessed friendship. In congregation, we may ask for this in confidence because He Himself has provided the ground of forgiveness. The Catechism reflecting the beautiful truth of Scripture says it's simply because of Christ's blood. That's the Gospel, isn't it? That's the good news that Dr. Horton so beautifully reminded us of at our Reformation service on Friday night. The Gospel. The good news of Christ's blood. Unlike the prisoner who may be pardoned by the President or the Governor because of good behavior, it's not because of our good behavior that we receive pardon. But it's only because of Christ's blood. Those who have a deep down sorrow for sin before God, which we must also have before each other, beloved, If we sin against another, we are to have a deep sorrow for that sin as we confess that and ask for forgiveness. But those who have a deep down sorrow for sin before God, like David expressed, may confidently ask God not to deal with them according to what their sins deserve. What our sins deserve. Because He has already dealt with Jesus Christ according to what our sins deserve. The ground of our being forgiven is not because we have forgiven others. That's what some think this petition is teaching, but it's not. The ground of our forgiveness from God is because of Christ's blood. In the Old Testament, one time every year on the Day of Atonement, the blood of the animal sacrificed was brought into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat. And the priest laid his hands on the scapegoat that was sent out into the wilderness. And all of this pointed to the reality of the forgiveness and the removal, the taking away of the sins of the people. Yet that animal blood, as we know, was not sufficient, as the book of Hebrews points out. That animal blood pointed forward to the real thing, to the only real cleansing agent of sin, the blood of Christ. And as the great high priest, Jesus Christ has entered the sanctuary with His own precious blood and He has secured eternal redemption for His people. What an amazing value of Christ's blood. The Bible says more valuable than gold or silver. What an amazing value, especially as we consider our enormous debt. That's what we are to learn from baptism, aren't we? That's what we as parents are to teach our children. Many of the children here do not remember their baptisms. Most of us don't remember when we were baptized because we were so young. That's a promise Glenn and Jennifer and all those here who have presented their children for baptism have made to God to teach their children about our enormous debt of sin that we can never ever get out of by ourselves. That it's all washed away, every last bit of it, by the blood of Jesus. The result of Christ's saving sacrifice is, as Paul says, that Christians are no longer dead in sin. Instead, we have been raised from the dead, rescued and brought into the kingdom of His dear Son. Again, saints. This is only because of Christ's saving work. You see, when we plead for forgiveness, we're not asking for atonement to be made because it has already been made. It's already been accomplished. But we're asking for forgiveness based on faith in the atoning work of Christ. We're asking for the application of Christ's atonement to our hearts and lives. And we can pray for forgiveness in the faith that there is indeed forgiveness of sins on the ground that Christ and He alone earned it. God said very clearly, the soul that sins, it shall die. And the wages of sin is death. And when God forgives our sins, beloved, He doesn't forget those words. He doesn't sweep them under the carpet. He doesn't lower His standard. He doesn't wink at sin and set aside His justice. not for anyone, not for you, not for me. When it comes to sin, we are all on a level playing field. His justice demands that the debt is paid. And it was. It was by Christ. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Our iniquity was laid upon His shoulders. Yes, our debt is canceled to us because it was paid by another. And that payment wasn't full. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19 says, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. David expressed his confidence in the certainty of God's forgiving grace when he says in verse 7, Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. But now we need to ask, if Christ's atonement has already earned our justification before God, if His blood cleanses us from every sin, if our account has already been settled by God's grace, if there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, then why do we need to continue to ask every day for forgiveness? Isn't it a lack of faith to continue to ask after everything that we know and have said so far? No. It demonstrates faith by continuing to ask. By God's grace, I believe that my sins are blotted out for Jesus' sake, and therefore I can, I may, I will, I must pray. We have but a small beginning of this new obedience, and we struggle with sin every day. We depend upon God for His forgiving grace, and we show that dependence by asking for His forgiveness every day. Indeed, full salvation is ours already as we sit here right now as believers, although we won't receive it in all of its completeness until glory. But every day, the total cleansing needs to be applied because of our daily sin. We ask God to apply His grace of forgiveness daily that we might have the assurance that indeed He remembers our sins no more. And that once they are confessed by His grace, that we also are able to put them behind us. God gives His people personal assurance of justification in Christ through continual repentance and confession of sin. Confession of sins and assurance of forgiveness go together, even as David says in Psalm 32, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Notice what David says there, what it's like for the believer with unconfessed sins. My bones grew old through my groaning. Your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. In other words, just limp. No strength at all. Notice what he says in verse 12 of Psalm 51. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. I think from these two verses we can learn that David is teaching us that, of course, the believer, when the believer sins, does not lose his salvation. But he may lose the joy of that salvation for a time. My strength is gone. Groaning. Your hand is heavy upon me. And therefore, when God's people confess their sins before the Lord, this is what we pray for. Restore to us the joy that I might again, O Lord, experience and enjoy the joy of that salvation which is mine. Beloved, every forgiven sin makes or should make the next sin more difficult to commit for the truly humbled and repentant child of God because he thinks of the blood of Christ that was shed for that sin. And therefore he will also pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And not only will the child of God strive to live as one who is forgiven, but he will also then practice the art of forgiving. This is an automatic response of forgiveness. The petition says, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And the catechism explains that in that last sentence, forgive us just as we are fully determined as evidence of Your grace in us to forgive our neighbors. This petition, you see, is an expression of the love of God who forgives. And it is impossible to pray this petition without loving your neighbor as yourself. Again, this petition is not saying that God's forgiveness of us depends upon our forgiveness. It doesn't. God's forgiveness of us depends only upon the blood of Jesus. But this petition is saying that those who are forgiven, forgive. The catechism speaks of evidence of your grace, of God's grace. And I believe that we can understand this to have a double meaning. When we have the assurance of God's forgiveness, that assurance is evidence. It is a testimony, a witness to us, to our hearts of God's grace in our lives. But also the Catechism is rightly speaking as well that God's forgiving grace is evidenced by us, displayed by us in our willingness to forgive others. The same grace that moves us to ask for forgiveness from God moves us to forgive others. Our forgiveness of others is, if you will, a ratification or a confirmation of God's forgiveness of us. And it is a sign of our confidence in His forgiveness. The Bible is clear that divine forgiveness and human forgiveness are intimately connected. After teaching the disciples the Lord's Prayer, Jesus said, For if you forgive men their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Our God has forgiven His people fully, freely, and completely for a death that was so great that we might say it was out of this world. Well, then how much less can we forgive those whose sins or debts against us, really, no matter what they are in this life, are barely noticeable compared to our debt to God. The parable of the unmerciful servant again illustrates this, as well as showing the danger of not forgiving our brother. Those who are unwilling to forgive their neighbor will be punished like the unmerciful servant until their debt is paid to God. I trust you have already figured out that the point of the parable is that the unmerciful servant never would, never would be able to pay that debt back. Those who give evidence of not enjoying the forgiving grace of God by not being forgiven, will spend eternity under the wrath and punishment of God trying to pay off an unpayable debt. The petition says, forgive us. Remember, it's a corporate prayer in which we also pray for God's forgiveness of our brother or sister. But you see, to pray that God will forgive them when we won't means to be a hypocrite. Beloved, if that describes you, then you see the door. You see the door. Because Christ commands that you forgive your brother 70 times 7 times. In other words, don't keep track. But if you are unwilling to forgive, then that is evidence that you are unforgiven. And apart from repentance and faith, there is no place for you in the Father's house. If you are unwilling to humble yourself before the sight of God, then you won't find the door to His kingdom. But those who humble themselves before God by the grace of God, those who repent of their sins, confessing them before Him, receive in fullest measure God's forgiving grace. And they give evidence of that. They give evidence of that by forgiving others. You see, it's impossible to forgive others before we are forgiven because only when we have experienced the forgiving grace of God and have a changed heart toward others can we then forgive them. But also that one may then ask God in confidence for His daily application of forgiveness. Paul says in Ephesians 4, verse 32, And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. And David says in verse 13 of chapter 51, Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. You see, you never know. God may very well use your forgiveness of another to draw that one to Himself. and we are to go seek their repentance, not wait for them. If someone sins against you, it is your obligation to go seek their repentance and restoration. Why? Because God didn't wait for us to come to Him in repentance and faith. He drew near to us and changed our hearts to look to Him. And praise God, beloved, that He doesn't forgive us as we forgive others because then there would be no hope. But our eternal hope is in the blood of Jesus, which also then pays for our sin of corrupt forgiveness, doesn't it? Only the believer can live thankfully. Thankful that all is well because the debt has been paid. And only the believer will demonstrate thankfulness for being forgiven by being a forgiver. Only those who forgive can confidently ask every day for God's forgiveness. Therefore, beloved, when your neighbor sins against you, remember how small and how insignificant that is compared to the enormity of your sin against God. And give thanks to God for His forgiveness by forgiving your neighbor. What glory, huh? God, through Christ, has taken away our debt of death and given to us the riches of life. Shall we pray? Father, once again we are humbled as we consider this most beautiful truth of Your Word, that we might in confidence ask for Your forgiving grace for the sake of the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank You, Lord, that indeed we might have the assurance that all of our sins are forgiven in Him alone. We ask, O Lord, too, that You would make us more faithful forgivers of those who may sin or offend us. We struggle with that. It's not easy to do. We must confess that our hurtful feelings last sometimes for a long time. But fill us with Your Spirit, O Lord, to overcome these things that we might indeed give thanksgiving and praise to You by being forgiving because we enjoy forgiveness hear our prayer O Lord for Jesus' sake and in His name Amen