well I invite you to turn tonight to two places we will be looking at Matthew chapter 18 and we are in the fifth petition of the Lord's Prayer studying the Lord's Prayer and we'll look at the familiar parable in Jesus's teaching on forgiveness from Matthew chapter 18 beginning at verse 15 to the end of the chapter before we do that also in that little forms and prayers book on page 256 that is in front of you is lord's day 51 and we'll confess together the one question answer there question 126 and i'll ask the question and please respond with the answer this is lord's day 51 on page 256 question 126 what does the fifth petition mean forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors means because of christ's blood do not impute to us poor sinners that we are any of the transgressions 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 wholeheartedly to forgive our neighbors looking at matthew now chapter 18 beginning at verse 15 let us hear the word of the lord if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone he listens to you you've gained your brother but if he doesn't listen take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses if he refuses to listen to them tell it to the church and if he refuses to listen even to the church let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector truly i say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say to you if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name there i am among them then peter came up and said to him lord how often will my brother sin against me and i forgive him many as seven times jesus said to him i do not say to you seven times but seventy seven times therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants when he began to settle one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents and since he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made so the servant fell on his knees imploring him have patience with me and i will pay you everything and out of pity for him the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt but when that same servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe so his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him have patience with me and i will pay you he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt when his fellow servant saw what had taken place they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place then his master summoned him and said to him you wicked servant i forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as i had mercy on you and in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart and there's the reading tonight of god's word well obviously after reading a passage like that and considering um tonight the fifth petition of the lord's prayer we see how important it is uh that we come to the lord and pray and ask him to forgive us our debts and also that we would forgive our debtors we need help with that that's the basic point of praying this that we need help to do this because it is a very difficult thing to do and i've always thought it's a remarkable blessing to think that the lord wants us to come constantly to him and the lord think of hebrews has given us access and boldness to come to the throne of grace you don't have to you don't have to come to church just to pray you can do that in your closets and you can talk to him on your beds boys and girls and you can confess your sins to him and our gracious lord hears you and and he forgives your sins and he releases you and he helps you and encourages you that's the beautiful truth of being taught in our daily rhythm of prayer to confess our sins together and to confess them individually before the lord there is not a time that you cannot come and do that what a remarkable blessing you're going to send tomorrow whether you see it is another thing when you see it you should come to him that's why david asked in psalm 139 show me what offensive way is within me when he shows you this is what you do you come first john and confess your sins to him and every time every time what does he say i am faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness well i want to look tonight at this great petition this fifth petition of the lord's prayer through the lens of jesus's teaching on forgiveness and to have it become a very big motivating factor not only to pray this for ourselves but that it would inspire in us that's the goal tonight it would inspire in us as the catechism says so beautifully to be fully determined as evidence of grace to wholeheartedly forgive our neighbors that's evidence of grace that's evidence of the lord's work in your life and that should be an encouragement to you because by nature you don't want to do this there's something in us that loves to hold a grudge why do wars and fights come among you james 5 because you love it that's what he's saying we love that by nature so this is an important um prayer request of the lord that that we should pray because we need a lot of help and it's evidence of that grace and that's what jesus said in matthew chapter 6 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. For, isn't it interesting, that right after his teaching on the prayer, he goes to this particular issue. 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. He is directly responding to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who would make great boasts and pompous prayers and then they would trash their neighbor and they would never forgive their neighbor. So this is one of the great marks of a Christian. We should talk about the marks of a true Christian. And this is one of them because it's a big issue with our Lord. At the heart and center of gospel ministry is the issue of forgiveness, isn't it? What do we have without forgiveness? And to what degree and length did the Lord go to to provide it for you? That's what this is all about today. But it is hard business because of our sinful nature. And the Lord is encouraging us tonight to come to him. And with that in mind, I want to look carefully at this little section here of Scripture that addresses this issue to inspire what should be something that we want to pursue in our lives to not only ask the lord and receive from his hand forgiveness but to eagerly go and forgive those who have sinned against us so let's look at this tonight you'll notice in verse 21 that peter had come to jesus and said then peter came up and said how lord often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? You have to think a little bit about what motivated Peter to come to the Lord with that kind of question. It was undoubtedly provoked by what Jesus just outlined in the previous section here about how to deal with somebody who sinned against you. He gave a very good roadmap to help us with this. Imagine if this were followed in the kingdom of God. Imagine if we did this in the kingdom of God. How much conflict would would be stopped and halted right away well he gave the outline and a really helpful outline and gave us uh the path to to know how best to do this and you'll notice here in this particular in verse 15 if your brother sins against you go tell him his fault between you and him alone right right at the beginning you see how counterintuitive that is what do we do when somebody sins against us well they need to come to me they have the onus to come to me that's not what jesus said absolutely not if they haven't come to you then they don't see their sin so that's why you are called as one of his children to go to your brother notice the this is your brother it's it's it's covenantal here go to your brother this is your brother this is your your family and you explain it to them and and this is the great goal now how many times have we done this think about it um it's a wonderful thing i think some of the older saints are a little stronger at this they'll tell you what's on their mind. They'll tell you when you've done something wrong. And the great goal, if he listens to you, you've gained your brother. That's the goal. Right? Your goal is not to harbor bitterness. The goal is to gain your brother because you love your brother. You don't want to see them in sin. You don't want to see them go down that path because you know when someone's hardened in sin, it's a whole path of bitterness and anger and separation. And it follows a long path of a very bad thing that begins to happen to their heart. But then Jesus says, well, if he doesn't listen, then take one or two others along with you. Use wisdom and take someone else who can help in this matter, that there would be evidence of this as it's discussed and that the charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses, Somebody who knows about this and sin spreads, doesn't it? People talk. Well, if he refuses to listen to them, he says in this next step, tell it to the church. Well, that's why we have the church. That's why you have leadership. The goal of leadership is to help bring resolution in these kind of areas. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, then there's a discipline process. And if that discipline process is followed through, he says this is what will happen. He will be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. The status changes when church discipline is exercised. Imagine if we followed this. And then Jesus says, truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. He's speaking about the keys of the kingdom. He's speaking about that third mark of a faithful church. He's speaking about discipline. And he says, if you two agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. That's not the Bible study verse where if two or three are gathered, Jesus is there. That is Jesus saying, I side with the church in these decisions. That's not what everyone thinks, but that's what Jesus says. Now, it doesn't mean a church could not be wrong. They could be wrong and we have all that other issue. but that's not what he's presupposing here. He's presupposing that this is a biblical path that has been followed, right? So, Peter hears this. Well, I mean, what if a brother keeps doing this? Oh, come on. How much do I have to put up with? How often, Lord, shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him. So the issue is not whether he needs to go through the three-step process here. It's Jesus said he did. He's obligated to confront him. Peter's concern centers on the beginning statement if your brother sins against you, if someone continues to do these things, if he keeps sinning, you don't expect me to keep forgiving when I go do this, do you? There's got to be a point. Remember, the word forgiveness means to let go. You have let it go. Remember when Jesus released them, the disciples, when he was being hauled off to judgment? It's the same word. He let them go. You let them go. They're not under the judgment. In a pastoral sense, it's releasing the debt that has been incurred by the wrongful action. What is the debt? It's the level of offense, isn't it? that you have taken into your heart. It's viewed kind of as a debt. Doesn't that have a limit? I agree that sins should be forgiven, but over and over? Peter understood the rabbinic tradition, of course, that in the Jewish tradition, the rabbis were teaching, you only needed to forgive someone three times. Rabbi Jose ben Judah, if your brother sins against you once, forgive him. A second time, forgive him. A third time, forgive him. but a fourth time, do not forgive him. Rabbi Jose ben Hanina said, he who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times. So Peter's being noble here. I'll extend it to seven because that's the number of perfection, right? Well, how often do I do this? And Jesus gives the answer, doesn't he? I don't say to you up to, I don't say to you seven times, but 77 times. That's not 78 and you're done. I want your forgiveness to be indefinite. Indefinite. That should be your heart towards your brother. Indefinite. There is no end to it. In other words, I want your lives constantly characterized by a forgiving heart. One pastor said, it's like asking how often I should love my wife. Does she get only three wrongs? Then I don't forgive? I'm never to stop loving my wife. So too Christ shoots forgiveness that way. With your brothers and sisters. there's no counting there's just there's no counting we follow this process this is the goal and it's important to notice here we're not waiting again for them to ask we're active in this we have an obligation in this we have a responsibility in this and so jesus then says in verse 31 what the real issue is it's an issue of the heart it's an issue of the human heart that you must forgive someone from the heart we can talk about you know when you see in society people do something terrible and they just announce forgiveness without anyone confessing it we have discussions about that but from the heart Jesus is talking about you may not be able to verbally give it to somebody always until they've asked but from the heart that's the disposition you've let it go that is so freeing so forgiveness is not so much a lip reality as it is a heart one and I always think that's the stoning of Stephen, you know, when he's losing his own life. What offense could be more offensive than somebody trying to kill you? And as he's doing that, what kind of heart was in him to say, Lord, forgive them for they know not what they do? It's kind of a way we look at everyone lost, isn't it? Look at all these people who have no knowledge. This just wells up within us because we know the grace that we've been given. Well, Jesus now expands the teaching. The kingdom of heaven, verse 23, is compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, you'll notice here, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. And you'll notice what happens here. The servant comes and he falls on his knees and he implores him, have patience with me and I'll pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him. He didn't just put together a plan to try to make him pay it back. He released him. All the debt. He forgave the debt. I mean, what a remarkable thing. The Lord wants us to think about how big the debt that was incurred. Jesus gives a figure here to accentuate this point where he says, if anyone here, I mean, think about this, was $100 million in debt. Unless you're the guy who just bought Twitter, right? Nobody in this building, or maybe billions. What if you were $5 billion or $10 billion or $100 billion in debt? it's that big of a number. No one could pay it back in this life. And that's what Jesus captures here. It's 10,000 talents. If we translate that in today's money, 10,000 talents is 3 billion. The point is, it couldn't be paid back. What an awful thing that is said here. Sell him. Sell his wife. Sell his children, sell him. Separate them and get them out of my presence. He was terribly serious about receiving his money. Imagine the horror of that. Jesus highlights in verse 26 that two extremes occur. Servant falls before him. The word used in Greek is to worship. He worships him. He comes and he bows down and he prostrates himself with great reverence. And he pleads, Master, please have mercy with me. Have patience with me. I'll pay it to you. Seems rash in the most beautiful line of the parable. It really is a remarkable parable, Jesus tells here in verse 27. And out of pity for him, the master of the servant released him and forgave him. Well, the picture here in this context is really clear, isn't it? The incredible mercy of God that is announced to the ends of the earth. This is what the gospel ministry is what we're doing. This is what we take. It's not cheap grace, beloved. This came with a great cost. The amount we owe to God is beyond comprehension. In other words, to put it in plain scripture terms, the wages of sin is death. Every single day, we accumulate more debt. Every single day, we do things that if God numbered our sins, who could stand? God had every right to put an end to this and to throw us into hell. To be separate eternally from him. And what did he do? You came here today to worship, and we did this. We read the law, and we confessed our sins. And he has made it really clear in Scripture what the ministry is to do. It's a ministry of reconciliation. So the pastor announces, all of you who look to Christ and have asked for forgiveness, he forgives all your sins. All the debt is wiped out. All the debt was put on Christ. And Jesus accentuates this fact. And that's the heart of the Heidelberg tonight. This is why prayer is so important. I go through this parable because I think it hopefully helps to inspire our prayers. Jesus wants us to come to him and ask him. And look at the language of the Heidelberg. It's so beautiful. What are we asking Jesus when we ask this fifth petition? We're asking, because of Christ's blood, Would you not impute to us poor sinners that we are any of the transgressions that we do or the evil that constantly clings to us where we're constantly struggling, we're constantly sinning and we sin against him and we do the things that we don't want to do. And here's the remarkable truth. Does he stop at 77? Every time you come and you confess your sins, he wants you to live in the joy of his forgiveness. That essentially, in A.D. 30, when he said it's finished, all of it was wiped out. But we come and confess, and he wants us to live in the reassurance that all of your sins are wiped out, every single last one of them. And he doesn't number. You see the beauty of this prayer, beloved? I want you to live in the joy of this. I'm sure you're already forgiven. We still confess our sins, and he reassures us. And he announces in the gospel, Son, forgiven are your sins. That's Mark 2. This is what 1 John is saying to us. I need forgiveness. You need forgiveness. We need to live in the joy of that. So this is the beauty of this parable. This is the beauty of what he's helping us with and encouraging us to live in the joy of forgiveness. and the one who understands that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross and that it would require the ultimate wrath of God to be poured out upon him to atone for our sins realizes sin is a big deal. It's a big debt because that's what had to be done to release us. Now, comes the painful part of the parable. verse 28. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And seizing him, he began to choke him. Pay what you owe. So the servant fell on his face and pleaded with him, would you please have patience with me? I'll pay you. He refused. Now notice the difference there, by the way. He didn't go to his neighbor with any kind of compassion to want to help the neighbor. He went demanding payment. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And then it disrupted the whole community. You ever seen what a lack of forgiving people do to a whole community? When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. That's exactly what happens. And then they went and reported to the master all that had taken place. He grabs him by the throat. You pay me, and it's a remarkable thing. He owed 100 denarii. That's $4,000. That doesn't even compare. It's mass hypocrisy. He'll worship and say, I need forgiveness, but his dealing with others, he refuses to forgive, and he doesn't forgive his fellow servant, and the opportunity he doesn't even give him to defend himself, he immediately grabs him by the throat and demands the payment. You pay me what we owe. By the way, the whole culture is doing this right now with the social justice movement. There's no forgiveness in our culture. You pay. You pay. Jesus uses the same words in verse 29 in speaking to the king and begging to him to have patience. Please forgive me, but I won't forgive this one over here. Verse 30, the other servants, we read, were grieved by this. And he comes to the master. And the master says, you wicked servant. I forgave you the debt because you begged me. Would you not have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? And his master was angry and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due to him. The point of the parable is really, really clear. Think of how God in the gospel has been to us. And in the good news of somebody's life who's been redeemed, we don't live like that anymore. You see? I'm not saying we don't struggle, but that's why we're praying this prayer. That's why he's telling us you need help in this regard. And as evidence of grace in you, you come and you ask the Lord for help in this regard. And he'll forgive your sins, and then he'll give you grace, because you're fully determined as a new creature in Christ to go forgive your neighbor. It's hard business. And that requires going to somebody. It requires praying before you go because the conflict may be deep. Lord, bless this. Help me with this. I'm going to follow what you've said. Jesus is relaying this in a very profoundly strong manner to us because it's so unnatural to us. This belongs to the natural man's heart to refuse to forgive. and i think that's what's so beautiful about our heidelberg tonight think about this again forgive us lord just as we are it's it's assumed just as we are fully determined as evidence this is the consequence of grace in us this is the consequence of your love given to us you've softened my heart i'm no longer an angry bitter person you've taken that i don't have to live that way so you've softened my heart you've taken the bitterness you've taken the anger and so now forgive me just as i'm fully determined as evidence of your grace wholeheartedly to go and forgive our neighbors that's the beautiful thing tonight that's what the scriptures are calling us. That's kingdom life. And that's how we show Christ. That's how we show that the gospel has had a great effect in our lives. I mean, this is everywhere, but I don't need to read all the passages. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Bearing with one another, Colossians 3, forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another even as christ forgave you so you also must do 70 times seven thomas watson once said we need not climb up to heaven to see whether our sins are forgiven let us look into our hearts and see if we can forgive others if we can we need not doubt but god has forgiven us and he said this a man may as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing he equates on an equal level lack of forgiving with flat-out unbelief jesus concludes the parable that way and the master had to pay back but what jesus is doing here for us to encourage tonight when he offers and says listen and i i want you to pray this you need this you need this for yourself so that you get to live in the joy of forgiveness every time you sin I want you to come to me and I want you to know that I will forgive your sins and to ask me because when I forgive your sins there's an unbreakable connection between my forgiveness of your sins and now with a renewed desire for you to go out and forgive those who've offended you and that's the encouragement to pray this prayer tonight you need help with it i need help with it we've all failed in this regard and even our lack of forgiveness of times is the very reason we need to come and ask for forgiveness that we would then go out and forgive and that's the beauty of this fifth petition of the lord's prayer lord forgive my trespasses what did he do for you today forgave them all so now Lord help me to go out as I am fully determined to do by your grace and forgive my neighbor he promises listen to me tonight he's promising to give you the grace to do that so let's do that amen let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for your word to us tonight and we confess Lord that forgiveness is very difficult. But then we look at the cross and see how difficult it was. The excruciating pain, the suffering of the torments of hell in our place by our Savior so that He would say from the cross, forgive them. So may this spirit prevail in our lives. A forgiving spirit. And we know ultimately you're the judge. you know ultimately you know the truth and that you are a righteous judge but because of that and because we've seen mercy and received mercy we want to see all peoples receive it so lord forgive us our debts as we are fully determined to forgive those who have sinned against us. Help us in that way. In Jesus' name. Amen.