Seventy Times Seven

Mark is going to come up with the scripture reading, which will be from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18.

Matthew 18, 21 through 35. Good morning.

The parable of the unforgiving servant. Matthew chapter 18, starting in verse 21.

Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

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 ten thousand talents.

But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and his children and all that he had and 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 the 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 until 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 and said to him, You wicked servant,

I forgave you all the debt because you begged me. Should you not also have compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?

And his master was very angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him.

So my heavenly father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother, his trespasses.

Words of almighty God and all God's people said, thank you.

Thank you, Mark. The title of this message is 70 times 7.

70 times 7. Is there any fellow

Christian who has maybe offended you, done something, and they came to you and asked for forgiveness and you sort of held it against them.

You refuse to forgive. Well, if so, this message is for you, but it's really for all of us.

It's an easy thing to kind of hold on to an unforgiving spirit. So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.

Continuing in Matthew chapter 18. Yeah, this is the subject of forgiveness.

And really, there are a few things more basic to Christianity than this.

We're supposed to forgive mainly because we're a people who have been forgiven.

God has forgiven us. Therefore, we should forgive others within reason, though.

Right. Of course, within reason. That's how some people would put it.

And that seems to be the mindset of Peter here. Because Matthew 18. 21 begins with Peter asking

Jesus. It says, then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me?

And I forgive him up to seven times. And Peter, I think

Peter feels this is very, very gracious. I mean, seven times. But I think the teaching of Jesus is clear.

We are to forgive, not just once, not just twice, not just three times. We are to forgive as a practice.

It's supposed to be ongoing. We're supposed to be a forgiving people. Peter, however, thought that seven times was charitable.

That's probably because there's a I was reading up on this. And there's a few verses in Amos chapter one where based on that, apparently the rabbis of Jesus's day.

They taught that forgiving someone up to three times, three times is enough.

You really don't have to. If the person continues to offend, you don't have to go beyond three times.

So what does Peter do? He takes three and he times it by two and adds one. And he figures that this has to be enough up to seven times.

Certainly that is far more gracious than most of the other Jews were practicing in that day.

And he had to be surprised by the Lord's response. Because Jesus doesn't say, wow, Peter, seven times.

Everyone else says three, but you're seven. Good job. No, Jesus says 70 times up to 70 times seven.

I think most of us understand. He didn't mean 490. Take out a scroll and just keep checking it off.

I know. OK, 488, 489, sorry, 490. You're you're done.

That's almost certainly not the point. Jesus means that we are to forgive and we are to not have a limit in how much we forgive a person.

And, you know, we could all agree on that, I suppose, and go home. But, you know, it's a little more complicated than that.

Because admittedly, there are people who maybe take advantage of others.

You know, they they offend. They maybe are abusive. And then, well, I'm sorry.

And, you know, Jesus says, you have to forgive me. There are people who would maybe take advantage of this. And there's people who maybe misunderstand this passage.

So I think it's worth, you know, digging a little deeper. I think a lot of people use this as a way to further their abuse.

An abuser could harm someone, say they're sorry, and yes, continue to do the same thing over and over again.

And then tell their victim, well, the Bible says, because as Christians, we want to follow Jesus. We want to follow the

Bible. But they'll say, you know, Jesus says, or the Bible says, you have to forgive me. Even though they just keep on doing the same thing.

So with that in mind, and just knowing that whenever Jesus says something right and good, there's always someone trying to twist the meaning.

Let's dig in a little deeper. First of all, with any passage of Scripture, it's important that we take the

Bible, what? Literally. Yeah, well, that's good. The other one is you need to take the

Bible in context. So what does that mean? You know, read the verses before, read the verses after, compare

Scripture with Scripture. I don't see anything in the beginning of chapter 19 that really adds to this discussion.

But there are some things in the verses before. So last week, just look at verses 15 through 20.

Last week, we covered the subject of, you could say, problem solving, you know, conflict resolution.

But really, it's the passage on church discipline, Matthew 18, 15 through 20. I really think this is a continuation of what we looked at last week.

If you remember what Jesus taught last time, he talks about how if your brother sins against you, what are you supposed to do?

Yeah, go to your brother. Just you and him alone. Tell him his fault. And if he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Now, what if he doesn't listen, though? Well, then you take two or three witnesses and then you go to him.

But if he still won't listen, if he still won't acknowledge the wrongdoing or turn away from that behavior, then you are to bring it before the entire church.

And then if he still won't hear the church, then Jesus says you are basically to have no dealings with such a person.

There'd be like a heathen and a tax collector to you. And of course, the Jews didn't, you know, share a meal or hang around with the tax collectors.

So a person really needs to change their behavior before you can really make amends.

So looking at that passage last week, I think it really informs us going forward. Jesus spoke about the church has authority to decide these things, the authority to bind and loose.

So with that in mind, how would you determine whether or not someone's sorry? We've all experienced this.

Somebody does something and maybe they apologize, but you're not really sure if they're sorry because they've done it before.

They've done it once. They do it again. They say they're sorry. But how do you really know if someone's sorry?

Their actions. Is that what most of you would say? Now, sometimes you can never really know whether or not someone's sorry, but I would say their actions say the most.

So first you would look at, do they acknowledge the wrongdoing? Do they acknowledge that they have offended you?

And then, yes, do their actions line up with their words? You know, they say they're sorry, but are they sorry enough to stop?

Are they sorry enough to make a change? Are they sorry enough to at least take a step in the right direction to try to make changes?

Because if they're not willing to do that, then it's safe to assume they're not really sorry.

Now, let me just ask a basic question. Should we forgive people? If somebody does something, they come to us and say,

I'm sorry. Just generally speaking, should we forgive people? Yes. But at the same time, that doesn't give the person a blank check to say or do whatever they want.

Even if they truly are sorry. Here's the first misunderstanding. Even if someone truly is sorry and you forgive them, that doesn't mean there's no consequences.

So here's the first point about this forgiveness that Jesus speaks of. Even if you forgive someone in your heart, that doesn't automatically mean there are no consequences.

Now, I know someone would push back and say, well, if there's consequences, then you haven't really forgiven them.

Not so. Going back to the illustration of someone who is abusive, you need to make sure the innocent party is protected.

Okay, you need to focus on them. If somebody has harmed you, or if they are maybe physically dangerous, there has to be consequences.

You can forgive someone in your heart, and that doesn't mean you have to have an ongoing relationship with them.

Do you realize that? You don't have to be best friends with them. You don't have to live with the person. You don't have to keep them as an employee.

You can forgive and still keep the consequences in place.

So again, the manipulator, the abuser would say, well, forgiveness means no consequences whatsoever.

And I just don't think that's true. So another thing

I would say, maybe the second thing, this does not apply to criminal matters. All right. And I know that seems obvious to some people.

This is Jesus dealing with talking about more about personal forgiveness, but this does not apply to criminal matters.

Just to use maybe an obvious example, Jesus upheld the law of Moses, didn't he? You know, there's these people out there who think

Jesus was at odds with Moses and Jesus came to correct Moses. That's not true.

Jesus agreed with the teachings of Moses. So in ancient Israel, if a person just like here used to be this way here in the

United States, if somebody went out and they committed rape or first degree murder, what should happen?

According to the law of Moses, what should happen to such a person? Yeah, they'd be stoned.

They'd be put to death. Even here in the United States, there's still places here who would put the murderer or the violent offender to death.

So here's what Jesus isn't saying. And I think most people would agree with this. Hopefully everybody.

If somebody commits murder, some violent crime, even if they say they're sorry, and even if in their heart you could determine that they would really never do it again.

Do you let them off the hook? Do you let them free? No, you don't. See, that's that's not justice.

You have to protect the innocent party. So again, just because somebody says they're sorry, even if they truly are sorry and you forgive, it doesn't mean there are no consequences.

And by the way, the people who are on death row, how many people have come to Christ saving the saving knowledge of Christ on death row?

I mean, there are statistics about that. People realize they're going to die and you bring in the minister. And that's what a lot of people get serious about.

Eternal matters. And a person can a criminal be forgiven? The night before they're executed?

Yes. Are they truly forgiven? Yes. You know, and and I can't pretend to put myself in people's shoes, but I would say the family that lost the loved one, if the murderer actually seeks their forgiveness,

I think they should forgive the man. But he still must face the penalty.

So you understand that that's not what Jesus is saying, that people are just let off the hook. And again,

I know that's obvious, but it's not obvious to everyone. So I think it has to be said.

So what is Jesus speaking about? If he's not speaking about stuff like that, he's not talking about no consequences.

He's talking about personal disputes and forgiveness, mainly between church members.

Again, this is a continuation of the whole, you know, Matthew 15 or 18, 15 through 20.

You know, if your brother sins against you, how do we know that? Look at the end of the chapter. Matthew 18, 35.

Jesus says, so my heavenly father will also do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive what?

His brother, his trespasses. So this is the context. It's about our relationships and forgiveness between us and other

Christians. So really, it's a continuation of the church discipline discussion.

Forgiving your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. So it has nothing to do with a court of law.

Just like when Jesus said, turn the other cheek, it wasn't him teaching pacifism or saying that you cannot defend yourself.

It's certainly not a statement concerning government affairs. And again, I know that's obvious, but I remember years ago, one of our former presidents.

I won't say which one. But in a speech, he appeared to mock some of these biblical teachings about forgiveness and turning the other cheek.

And he said, this is just so impractical. You know, our nation couldn't survive if we implemented this as our foreign policy.

Well, this is not Jesus. Jesus isn't talking about a nation's foreign policy. He's talking about forgiveness among Christians.

So just to recap, the first thing to understand, forgiveness is not synonymous with zero consequences.

Jesus is talking about grace between brethren or amongst brethren.

The grace and forgiveness we should display is towards our fellow believers.

If we personally forgive others and we follow the instructions of Christ, we will have peace and harmony in the local church.

I mean, there's a lot of local churches where people are fighting. Right. Some of you have attended local churches where you walk in and you never know what to expect.

There's people who do all sorts of outrageous. I can't believe this is happening in a church.

And yet it's actually pretty, pretty common. I'm not saying that's never happened here.

I mean, people here have been at odds with one another, of course, but we've never really had. I've never really seen any major blow up or any fight.

How have we been able to keep that divisive spirit out of this congregation?

How have we been able to do that? Forgiveness. Amen. I think

I think it's about preaching verse by verse through the Bible and just all agreeing we're going to do it.

You know, the Bible way and we forgive. And that's how we can have peace and unity.

That's what the Lord wants. And that's what we all want. Right. Now, at the same time, when you talk about forgiveness, there's always someone thinking, yeah,

I know. I know I should forgive this person, but I just don't want to. Have you felt that?

Yeah. But you don't know how much this person irritates me or you don't know how they've offended me.

You don't realize what they did. Well, if they did it on accident, sometimes we offend people and we don't mean to do it.

If that's the case, even if you think that's the case, you should just let it go. Forget all about it and let it go.

But even if somebody did it on purpose and like, you know, they did it on purpose and it really was hurtful.

Yeah, it should be addressed. And there's a process for that. Right. That's where you go back to verses 15 through 20.

But we need to have this ongoing attitude of forgiveness for one simple reason.

You just think of how much I want you really just take a moment and really think about it.

How much has God forgiven you? Think about all the things you've done or said.

And I don't I'm not one of these preachers who wants to make people feel guilty. But think about some of it.

And how much has God forgiven you all? Don't we believe that Jesus died for all of our sins?

Not just the little ones, all of our sins. So how many times has

God forgiven you? Seven times. Has God forgiven you way more? Okay.

70 times. Has God forgiven you 70 times? How about 490 times?

Has God forgiven you more? More than that? Okay. So I did a little math here.

If my calculations are correct. If a 70 -year -old person committed just one sin per day.

That's a conservative, very conservative estimate for some people. One sin per day in 70 years.

You know how many sins that is? Jesus would have forgiven well over 25 ,000 times.

You know, you just say well five sins per day. And just the number keeps going up and up and up. I think you get the point.

The Lord has forgiven us of a lot. He has forgiven me of a lot.

Now this is the whole point. This is why we worship the Lord. This is why we're here. Because of what he has done for us.

We are glad to worship him. We are glad to serve him because of what he has done.

We can talk about forgiveness between us and someone else. But ultimately it all comes from God's forgiveness.

This is the whole message of the gospel. According to 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3.

It says that Jesus died on the cross. For what? For our. And this is an apostle writing.

Talking to the church. Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And he means all of our sins.

Romans 4 .25 says that Christ was delivered up because of our offenses.

But he was raised for our justification. So followers of Jesus have been forgiven much.

We are a community that understands forgiveness first hand. We should understand forgiveness better than anybody else on earth.

And we should also understand the freedom and the liberty that that brings. Have you ever been in debt?

Let's just use the illustration of debt. Because sin is a debt. Maybe you owed tens of thousands of dollars.

And all of a sudden you were able to pay off that debt. How free did you feel? Right? It's the same with sin.

You come to saving faith in Christ. Realize he has forgiven you. It's liberating. You feel free.

It's like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. But you also know the weight of sin.

So when you get into sin, it's like a weight on your shoulders. And again, this isn't why a preacher should preach against sin just to make people feel guilty.

But we want people to turn away so that heaviness can be lifted.

But that requires that we actually talk about this subject. Because what are we forgiving?

We're forgiving. Jesus has forgiven our debts, our trespasses.

And really, it's that three -letter word that you never hear about outside of church.

If you're not here, you would probably never hear the word. That word, three letters,

S -I -N. This is why some people don't go to church. Because they hear the preacher talking about sin.

They don't want to hear about it. See, here's the thing. It doesn't bother me to talk about sin. You know why?

You're forgiven. Because I'm forgiven. So hopefully, for most of us, it doesn't even phase you.

It doesn't bother you when I preach against sin. Because, yeah, you realize you've been forgiven of your sin.

But if somebody realizes they haven't been forgiven, they hate hearing this. This is why a lot of people hate preaching.

They hate the gospel. Because they're not forgiven. So it's like a stench.

But it doesn't bother me to talk about it. And really, this is the whole problem that Jesus came to resolve.

Another reason why, by the way, I preach on it. Because it's on every page of the Bible, if you haven't noticed. But let's be specific, talking about sin for a moment.

Again, forgiveness. I thought the sermon was about forgiveness. Right. Forgiveness of offenses.

Okay. But let's talk about it. Let's be specific. The Bible defines sin in 1

John 3, verse 4. You can't just assume that everybody knows all about it. I mean, we know what it is.

But the Bible says in 1 John 3, verse 4. At least in the King James Version.

That's probably the best translation that really gets it across. It defines sin as transgression.

A transgression of God's law. In other words, if God says, do this, and you don't do it, that's sin.

Or if God says, don't do it, and you do it anyways, that's sin.

The Greek word translated sin means to what? Miss the mark.

Right. Miss the mark. Think of someone shooting a bow and arrow. Who shoots bow and arrow? Who's into archery?

Okay. A couple of you, the hunters. Right. You pull back. You let go. And sometimes it falls short.

Well, that's how sin is described. God has his standard. But the

Bible says in Romans 3, 23. That all have done what? All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

And it's a humble person, going back to the message from two weeks ago. It's a humble person who actually admits that.

You know, it's the prideful person who never admits they're wrong. Who never admits they even have sin.

But the humble person says, yeah, that's true. I am a sinner. I have fallen short.

God is holy. I'm not. God is righteous. I'm not. Lord, because of what

Christ did, please forgive me. So, yeah, that's the bad news that all have fallen short, whether you admit it or not.

It's true. And because all have sinned, Romans 6, 23 says the wages of sin is what?

Death. Death. And here's another reason why some people don't like to go to church. Because, you know, you hear about sin and death.

Well, see, I don't mind talking about death. I don't like death. Nobody likes death. It's an enemy. But why don't

I get all bothered about hearing about death? I have eternal life.

We have eternal life. It shouldn't bother us to hear about death. Just like with hell. You know, some preachers, even

Bible -believing churches, you never hear the word hell from the pulpit. And you wonder why.

But it doesn't bother me to even bring that up. Why? Because I'm not going there. I have nothing to worry about.

But I do care about those who are going there. And this is why we need to preach about these things.

But if we simply trust in God's provision, the death of his son on the cross, the just for the unjust, that Jesus is the sinless sacrifice who came to atone for our sins, if we humbly come before the

Lord in faith, trusting in what Jesus has done, the Bible assures us,

Christ assures us, that he has forgiven all our sins.

Whether it's a hundred things we need to be forgiven of, we all agree it's a lot more than that. A thousand sins, a hundred thousand.

So he is willing to forgive any and all sin. Do you believe that?

Yes. There are some people who hold, yeah, but I did this thing and maybe nobody knows.

And I don't think God can forgive that. Well, you're not listening. Any and all.

So you can't find, there's the unpardonable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which I don't even think a person can commit today because the

Pharisees, the ones who committed the one sin that can't be forgiven, they saw Jesus working miracles by the power of the

Holy Spirit. And they said, no, he's doing that by the power of Satan. You know, nobody can see Jesus do that.

And again, I don't think that sin can be forgiven today. Other than that one thing, though, any and all sin can be forgiven.

And because God has done that for us, we should forgive others. So God is, is

God merciful? Amen. Do you believe God's merciful? How merciful is God? Infinite.

Yes. Infinitely merciful. That's why we should be merciful.

What if somebody insults you, though? What if somebody says something that it's just rude?

Maybe they intended to. If they ask for forgiveness. Now you can argue we should forgive whether they ask or not.

But if, let's just say they come and ask you for forgiveness, should you forgive them?

What if somebody cuts you off in traffic? They're probably never going to ask for forgiveness. You know, you should let it go.

I know it's hard. I don't really struggle with, you know, anger is not something I really deal with.

But there was one time I left the church. It was during the week one time. And, you know, the four -way dangerous intersection.

Outside of the Montague Woods. I mean, somebody cut me off, and it just, like, bubbled to the side. I'm like, whoa, where did that come from?

That was years ago, and it hasn't happened since, thankfully. But, you know, there's those things that really bother us more than others.

You know, everybody has their thing, whatever it is. Should we let it go? Should we forgive somebody?

Yes. What's the title of the message? Seventy times seven. Before we close, let's just go through the parable that Jesus gives.

Verse 23, he tells this story of a certain king. And this is how you know it's a parable.

Because it's, you know, a certain person. It's not a specific person. Well, this king wanted to settle accounts, verse 24.

And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents.

And the talent was the highest denomination. This basically represents a debt that nobody back then could pay off.

It was just impossible. So it says in verse 25, 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.

And that kind of jars people. But the reality was slavery was a common thing in the

Roman Empire. But this man, you see, it's clearly a dire situation.

So what does he do? He has no other choice. He just begs his master for mercy.

This represents the sinner who has no hope except the mercy and forgiveness of God.

Look at verse 27. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion. Does God have compassion upon sinners?

Yes, he does. And he released him and forgave him the debt. Now, in theory, a person like that should be very thankful, right?

Was this guy thankful? Verse 28, but that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him 100 denarii, which is a relatively small amount compared to his debt.

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 he went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.

Okay, so what is this? I mean, this is just the way people are. You know, they want leniency for themselves or maybe even for us.

We want leniency for ourselves, but other people need to pay, right?

Well, is that not the way you are? Well, okay. Let's see if that's the way you are.

How many of you have ever been flying down the highway, you know, going over the speed limit, you pass the police officer, and as soon as you see the police officer, what do you want him to do?

Yeah, you want him to show mercy. We all agree with that? Who wants the ticket?

Raise your hand. I want him to bust me big time. We'll give it a few years and see what he's like then.

Okay, so we all agree with that. However, who's been riding along and somebody just flies past you and you're annoyed and a few miles up ahead you see them pulled over and you're like, yep, serves them right.

That's the way it is. We want leniency for ourselves, but others should pay for what they have done.

Well, this is common. This is why Jesus is telling the parable. You know, that's inside all of us, and we shouldn't be that way.

So basically, the man, he has this guy thrown into prison, and then the master finds out what he did, and he's not very happy, and he basically throws him into prison.

Oh, that's the way you want to be? Okay, that's the judgment you use. It'll be measured, you know, given back to you.

And here's how Jesus ends. So my Heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespass.

That's a pretty serious statement, isn't it? So what will God do? I mean, what is

Jesus saying? It looks like on the surface that Jesus is saying, if you don't forgive your brother, then

God isn't going to forgive you. If you won't forgive his debt, God is going to bring back all of your debt.

On the surface, that's what Jesus seems to be saying. Now, Arminian commentators, and when

I say Arminian, these are people who believe you can lose your salvation. They look at a verse like this, and they say, yeah, if you don't forgive your fellow brother and sister, you can forfeit your salvation.

Now, I don't believe that. I don't believe the Bible teaches that. So what would

Jesus mean then? At the very least, when we don't forgive, what does Jesus tell us to do?

To forgive. So if we don't do what he says, what is that called again? Sin.

If you don't forgive your brother, you are living in a pattern of sin. Maybe you don't think of it that way.

No, they deserve it. No, you're the one in the wrong, believe it or not. So when we, and listen,

I'm sympathetic because I felt that way too. But Jesus says forgive. So when we live in that ongoing pattern, we forfeit not salvation.

We forfeit our joy. We forfeit our liberty. The heaviness comes back. We don't have that peace in our heart.

And this is what Jesus is saying. So therefore, you need to forgive.

How many times? Three times? No. Seven times?

Seventy times seven. I just want to end with this. I wanted to use maybe a biblical story that talks about forgiveness.

And there's so many. I think of Joseph in the Old Testament, one of the great stories of forgiveness.

Did his brothers deserve to be forgiven? After they sold him into slavery, they wanted to kill him.

Finally, he was sold for some money and he became, you know the story, he became prime minister of Egypt.

Long story short, Joseph forgives his brothers. Why? Because Joseph is a type of Christ.

He's one of the most clear examples as a type of Christ. And he forgives when they really didn't deserve forgiveness.

Then I thought about the parable of the prodigal son. You know, the unforgiving older brother in that story likely represents the

Pharisees. And we definitely don't want to be like them because they were unforgiving. But the greatest example of forgiveness in all of the

Bible has to be Luke chapter 23. You don't have to turn there. Just make a note of this.

Luke chapter 23, when Jesus is hanging on the cross, what does he say about his enemies?

If there was ever an evil act done in this world, it was the crucifixion of the

Son of God. They're mocking him, spitting at him, reviling him. They're in the process of killing him.

And what does Jesus say? Luke 23, 34. He says, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.

Perhaps it was that act of forgiveness that changed the thinking of one of the thieves.

Because before, both thieves were reviling Jesus. Jesus says, Father, forgive them who are doing this to me.

Forgive them. They know not what they do. The very next thing that happens, the thief, one of the thieves, turns to Jesus.

And he says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Do you think it was that act, seeing

Jesus forgive the unforgivable, that changed his mind? We don't know.

That's my best theory, because Romans 2, 4 says that it is the goodness of God that leads a person to repentance.

So I'll just end with this. We are never more like God than when we forgive.

And it may be that when we forgive, that is what the Lord will use to bring a person to saving faith.

Because if we refuse to forgive, really, how are we any different than anyone else?

But if they see us, if unbelievers, if other people see us forgiving what they might think is unforgivable, they will see

Christ in us. Maybe that's what the world needs to see. More forgiveness.

I'll close with Matthew 18, 21 and 22 again. It says, Then Peter came to him and said,

Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times.

And Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven.

Let's pray. And Lord, how thankful we are that in Christ you have forgiven us of all of our sin.

We love you for that. We thank you for that. We praise you for that.

And Lord, help us today going forward to be a forgiving people.

Help me to be a forgiving person. And Lord, as always, if there's someone listening today who has never trusted in the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin,

I pray that they would believe now because they have finally realized the never ending forgiveness of almighty