Forgiveness: A Daily Need

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Beloved, remain standing and take out your Bibles, and we will read our text for the morning.
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Matthew chapter 6.
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We have been in a study of the Sermon on the Mount.
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We are now in the midst of the model prayer, which is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount.
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So it's sort of a study within a study.
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We are going to look today at verse 12, and then we are going to also look at verses 14 and 15, because they add a qualification to verse 12, which I think is necessary for us to examine in this sermon.
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So let us begin by reading verse 12, and then we will read verses 14 and 15.
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Verse 12 says, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
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Verse 14, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
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But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth of it.
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I pray that I would be faithful to that truth this morning in giving an exposition and that you would, as always, Father, please keep me from error.
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And open the hearts of your people to understand the truth.
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And if there are those here who do not know Christ, I pray that today would be a time of conviction and conversion.
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And I pray all these things in Jesus name and for his sake, amen.
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I have quite a bit I would like to say today.
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I'm fearful that I will not say all that I would like to say.
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Because this subject is by far.
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One of the most powerful in regard to the things that could be said about it that I can imagine, I was I was I heard of one minister this week speaking on the subject and he said.
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He said literally a pastor could preach this subject 51 times a year and not run out of material.
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You know, we take a vacation the other time, you know, the one vacation a year.
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He said you could preach it 51 Sundays a year and never run out of material.
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It's such a deep and profound subject.
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And I've entitled the sermon a universal yearning.
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And the reason why I've entitled it a universal yearning is because it truly is just that, because the subject of the morning is the subject of forgiveness.
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And as we will see as we go through today, forgiveness is something that our spirit yearns for, whether we understand it or not.
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Last week, we began looking at the petitions, which I said are us word.
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We said the Lord's model prayer is broken up into two parts.
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If you wanted to separate it, you could say the first three petitions are God word.
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Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
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Those three petitions are towards God and they're God word.
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And then it says, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
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So there's there's three petitions that go toward God and then three petitions that are us word petitions.
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Last week we were talking about the bread and we said bread is necessary.
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And when Jesus talks about give us this day our daily bread, he's not just talking about that which we make with with with wheat and water and put into an oven, but he's talking about our daily sustenance, our physical needs.
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Give us this, Lord, all that we need for the day to sustain us for the day.
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And yet he doesn't end there because we are not just physical beings, but we're a body and a soul.
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And what bread is to the body, forgiveness is to the soul.
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It's a necessary thing.
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It's something that our soul yearns for.
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So this morning we're going to look at this petition.
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First, we're going to give an exposition of it and then I'm going to give you three.
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Reminders that this passage tells us.
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So first, I want to give an exposition of the phrase and forgive us of our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.
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I want to explain those words because though we say them regularly, though we pray them every Sunday as part of our normal liturgy here in the church, we pray the Lord's prayer.
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I think this is one of the parts of that prayer that we understand the least.
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So we're going to begin with the word debt.
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I want to start with that word because.
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Number one, it's not the word we use typically.
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We say trespass and I'll deal with why in a moment, but let me first just deal with the fact that in Matthew's gospel in chapter six and verse 12, the Greek word that Matthew chooses here is the Greek word for debt.
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And it's the same idea as it is in English.
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A debt is something that is owed legally.
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A debt is something that we're legally bound to repay.
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And in Romans chapter four and verse four, it says now to the one who works, his wage is not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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That word due is the same word that is used here in Matthew chapter six.
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So it gives you a picture of the meaning.
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It's the it's the wage.
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It's the debt.
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It's what we've earned.
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And the Bible says, forgive us of our debt.
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So how are we using that word debt? Well, to have a debt, you first have to owe something.
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Makes sense.
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That's a that's a sensible argument to be in debt.
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You must first owe something.
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What is it that we owe to God? We owe God absolute obedience.
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We owe God worship.
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We owe God all of ourselves.
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And beloved, we are woefully in debt.
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Would you not agree? That because we owe God obedience, because we owe God worship and because we owe God all of our all of our time, talents and treasures, everything is God owed and God and yet we are woefully in debt.
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So in this sense, you could say that the debt which is referenced here when Jesus says forgive us our debts, he's referring to our sin debt.
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And that's not an that's not me adding a word here.
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In fact, all I'm doing is I'm saying what Jesus said, because if you go over to Luke's gospel in the parallel passage, Luke chapter 11, verse four, when Jesus says forgive us, it actually says in English, forgive us our sins, because the Greek word Amartya, the Greek word for sin is used there specifically here is the Greek word for debt in Matthew's gospel, because Matthew chooses to translate Jesus's word as debt.
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But Luke translates Jesus's word as sin.
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So you ask the question, why do we say trespass? Why is it that we do not use the word debt? Well, I want to be very honest about that.
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A lot of it has to do with tradition.
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And I would I'm not going to lie and use, you know, make up another reason.
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But why did the word trespass become part of the tradition and the English expression of this prayer? Because in the 1600s and the Anglican Book of Prayer, the Book of Common Prayer, in trying to bring together a prayer that the entire church would pray together, they looked at the two words which are used debt in Matthew's gospel and sin in the gospel of Luke and in bringing them together, they used the word for transgression.
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Because that's the heart of the idea that's being made, it is a sin debt, it is our sins, it's our it's where we have gone beyond what God has commanded us.
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It's our it's our trespass, if you will.
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And as such, they use the word trespasses.
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In fact, if you go on in the text and we've read it today in verses 14 and 15, you'll notice the word trespass is used here for if you forgive others their trespasses, so too will your trespasses be forgiven.
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So the word trespass is not foreign to Scripture.
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It's just not used at this particular point in the prayer that Jesus teaches us.
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Is it wrong to say forgive us of our debts? No, but it would be wrong for us to ascribe some kind of a common normal term that we usually think of debts.
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What comes to mind? Money.
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Typically, when we think of debt, we think of financial debt, and I believe that that was part of the reason for the using of the word trespass.
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There did not want to be any confusion about what the debt that is being referenced here is.
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So they take the word trespass, which understandably means transgression.
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And they put that in at this point for the common use among God's people.
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So we we continue to trans that tradition today.
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It's neither right nor wrong.
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It simply is.
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If you want to say debts, I have no problem with you saying that if you want to say sins as the modern book of prayer, by the way, the modern book of prayer, which was reupdated in the year 2000, does use the word sins.
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And I would have no problem if there if you want to petition the elders that we use the word sins, because that's the heart of what trespass is.
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It's our debt unto God.
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It's our failures to make that that that obedience right.
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It's our failures in our approach to God.
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And we're asking for forgiveness for that.
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So we have an understanding of the word debt, but now I want to look at another word in the passage.
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I want to look at the word forgive because we know what it is we're asking forgiveness of.
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But what does it mean when we ask forgive us our sins or debts or trespasses? Well, this is where I think the word debt does help us understand, because any one of you here and I'm sure that some of you have been at debt in some time of your life, some of you have probably, you know, even though Larry Burkett told you not to probably get a credit card at some point and probably you probably at some point have been indebted to someone over something.
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And when that debt is expunged, when that debt is put aside, if they say, you know what, you don't owe me anything anymore, what do we say? It's forgiven.
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Your debt has been forgiven means you don't any longer owe the debt.
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It speaks in the Greek, the word forgive speaks of the removal or the elimination of something, the doing away with something.
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In fact, in Romans 11, 27, it's the taking away of sins.
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We have this debt, it says, and I will be with my covenant with them and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
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That word take away is the same root of the word forgive.
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That's the idea.
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It's a taking away from us that which we owe.
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It's taking away from us that which we deserve, the punishment that goes along with it.
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God's taking it away from us.
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We have an obligation and forgiveness is removing our obligation.
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It is a plea, this prayer, forgive us our debts.
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It's a plea for the safety from sin's consequences.
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It's a cry for our lives.
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It's Lord, don't give us what we deserve.
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Now, there's another phrase I want to look at before we get to my three points again.
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This is just an exposition of the words here and how they're used together.
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It says, forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.
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Now, I want to stress something about that phrase have forgiven, because in the King James version of the Bible, I think that it's reads as such as we forgive our debtors.
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It's forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
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That's as we forgive is the phrase used.
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But in the New American Standard Bible and in the English standard version, it says have forgiven.
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And that is the proper tense of the verb which is used here.
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This is saying forgive us of our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.
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It puts it in the past tense.
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This is something that has already occurred.
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Our forgiveness of others is not something that's coming in the future.
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It's something that we've already done.
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We have forgiven already those who are indebted to us.
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When we pray this prayer, there is an assumption that we have forgiven already.
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It's not something that's going to happen.
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It's something that is done.
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And there's also something else.
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The word as.
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Forgive us of our debts as we have forgiven the word as there expresses of like kind.
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So not only is it saying that we've already forgiven our debtors, but we're saying to God, forgive us in the same way.
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Now, let me ask you this, and I want you to be honest with me, you don't have to answer.
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I can see it on your faces.
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Would you want God to treat you as you treat others? Because that's what we're saying in this prayer.
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God, forgive me as I have forgiven others.
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That's that's heavy.
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And we all kind of slink down in our seat at that point because we want desperately the forgiveness of God.
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We want desperately the absolution of our savior.
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And yet we hold back forgiveness from others at every turn.
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And yet this prayer tells us the opposite.
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It says we pray for forgiveness.
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As we have forgiven others, so therein is our understanding of the text, and now I want to give you three very powerful realities that this text reminds us, if you have your notes, I'll go ahead and give them to you now and you can fill them in.
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And then we'll go back and go through them.
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One, this passage reminds us first of our ongoing battle with sin.
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That's the first thing it tells us.
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It reminds us of our ongoing battle with sin.
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Number two, it reminds us of our obligation to forgive others.
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And thirdly and finally, it reminds us of our only source for forgiveness.
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So that is the three ways in which we apply this text today.
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So let's go back to number one.
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This petition reminds us of our ongoing battle with sin.
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When this prayer is prayed and Jesus teaches us to pray this prayer, he says, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts.
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And that phrase this day modifies the entirety of the prayer because it tells us that this particular prayer is meant to be a daily prayer so that everything in the prayer, not just the petition for daily bread, but everything in the prayer is modified by the word this day, because it's assuming that this entire prayer will be part of our daily prayers to God.
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And as I've said before, it's not that you have to repeat this prayer daily, but that this prayer gives you the framework for what all prayers should be like.
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We go to God first.
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We give him glory, honor and praise.
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First, we call upon his kingdom and his will and his glory.
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And then we move to our needs and our petitions.
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And then, of course, we finish with the great doxology of to thine be the glory power forever and ever.
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Amen.
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So that is the expression of how Christian prayer is to be Godward first, usward second.
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And it's a framework for prayer and it's to be done daily.
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Do you only pray on Sundays? I hope not.
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Do you only pray when I leave you in prayer? I hope not.
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I hope that prayer is a daily part of your Christian experience because it's a necessary part of growth.
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And when we pray daily, we say, forgive us our sins.
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Why? Because we continue to battle sin on a daily basis, we sin daily in two ways.
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And you've all heard me say this before, but I again, I like to remind you of important truths.
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Your sins are either sins of commission or sins of omission.
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And a committed sin is a sin wherein you have broken God's law in some way.
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You've gone outside of God's law in some way.
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You've broken it.
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You've said God told me not to do this, but I'm going to commit this anyway, commit this action.
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So that's a committed sin, a commission sin.
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But sins of omission, what are they? Those are those things that God has commanded us to do.
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And yet we refuse to do them.
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And beloved, if you might, you might come and argue with me.
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Well, I didn't commit any sins today.
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And I would say, well, you probably stayed home locked in a closet or something.
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If you just stay here, you found some way to get around feeling like you'd committed any sins.
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And my response would be, you may not have committed anything, but you certainly omitted a lot.
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And thus we go to God and we say we have debt on a daily basis that needs forgiveness.
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There's a very prominent teaching going around right now, and I want to address it in this sermon.
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As I said, I got a lot to get to today, but I want to only take a moment to mention this.
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There's a very prominent teaching going around right now that you can, as a Christian, not sin.
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In fact, you're not a sinner if you're a Christian.
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That's the teaching.
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And you might say, well, that's only that's you know, you never hear that.
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We had a guy show up on Wednesday night, not three or four weeks ago, who came in on Wednesday night, who wanted to argue with me at the back door after the service because he asked, what is your church all about? I said, we teach people that they are sinners and they're desperately in need of God's grace.
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And I am a sinner saved by grace.
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That's what I'm about.
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You know, if I want to distill it all down, sinner saved by grace, that's that's it.
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And he goes, well, I'm not a sinner about how to heart attack.
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I'm righteous.
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And he went into this long litany of why, because he's in Christ, he's righteous.
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And I said, sir, you're confusing terms.
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And there is a lot of confusion that goes in this because the Bible does describe the believer as being righteous.
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But our righteousness is not our own.
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Our righteousness is Jesus Christ.
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Martin Luther said we are like hills of dung covered in a veneer of snow.
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By the way, he didn't mince a whole lot of words.
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Martin Luther cut it straight.
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And so that's wrong.
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A very famous lady preacher said this.
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She said, I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner.
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That is a lie.
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I didn't stop sinning until I finally got it through my thick head that I wasn't a sinner anymore.
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End quote.
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Beloved, that's the kind of false teaching we need out of our lives.
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That's wrong.
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But yet that's the false teaching that's going on.
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And I'm here to tell you it is wrong.
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J.C.
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Ryle said this, he said, the Christianity, which is from the Holy Spirit, will always have a deep view of the sinfulness of sin.
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The Christianity, which is from the Holy Spirit, will always have a deep view of the sinfulness of sin.
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And if you can come to me and tell me you are not a sinner, I will look you in the face and say this.
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If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us.
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First John chapter one and verse nine.
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I'm sorry, verse eight.
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us.
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But now when I ask an even more important question, even more important than what I've already said, why do we keep praying for forgiveness if we are already forgiven? Now, that's an important question.
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And I'm glad you asked, why do we keep praying for forgiveness if we're already forgiven? In fact, we make the argument that we are forgiven of our sins because of the work of Christ and that all of our sins have been paid for on the cross.
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Every single one of them has been nailed to the cross of Calvary.
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All of our sins past, present, future, every sin that we'll ever commit, every sin of commission and omission, every sin we'll ever have has been nailed firmly to the cross of Calvary.
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And we no longer suffer for our sins.
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Why then do we pray a daily prayer of forgiveness? Well, here is what we must understand.
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The view of forgiveness, which is being expressed here, is not in relation to our justification.
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This is in relation to our sanctification.
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Now, I'm not splitting theological hairs.
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I'm making an important distinction because we are justified by the work of Christ and that work of Christ covers every one of our sins.
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And yet we live in a body of flesh which daily battles sin.
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And because of that, we need the daily rejoining of our fellowship with God, which is interrupted because of our sins.
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So how do we grow in grace, daily affirmation of our forgiveness? Let me give you what Joel Beakey said.
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He said, if you lose a daily sense of forgiveness, you will also lose a daily sense of communion with God.
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If you lose a daily sense of forgiveness, you'll lose a daily sense of your communion with God.
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So God commends to us the need to come to him daily and saying, God, you know what? Today I did mess up today.
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I did sin against you today.
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I did commit and omit things that were not pleasing to you.
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And I need you to continue to forgive me.
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Because I have not yet been glorified with you.
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I'm not yet in my glorified state.
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And I still fight a battle with sin.
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One of the greatest illustrations in the Bible of this truth is from the Apostle Peter.
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When Peter was sitting before Jesus and Jesus was about to wash his feet, you remember that Peter said, you shall not wash my feet.
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And Jesus said, if I do not wash you, you have no place with me.
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What did Peter say? Well, Lord, wash my head and my whole body, then if that's what it takes.
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And what was Jesus's response? He who has been clean needs not to be washed again, but only to wash his feet.
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And I'm not over spiritualizing this.
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I'm telling you exactly what Jesus is trying to say here.
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He was saying that once we've been clean, we don't have to be cleaned again.
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We have to be baptized over and over and over.
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But there is a daily cleansing that's necessary.
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You see the men who lived in that time, they would wash their bodies, but they would go about the day and they would get their feet dirty because they walked in sandals on dirty ground and they had bowls outside of the homes that were used for washing your feet because you'd pick up the trash of the day and they'd wash their feet outside their homes before going into their home.
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Beloved, that is sanctification.
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We've been washed.
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We've been completely cleansed in the blood of the Lamb.
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But every day we live in a body of flesh that's constantly trying to pick up these specks of of unrighteousness around us.
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And we need a daily washing of our feet.
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And we need that every single day so that our communion with God is not interrupted by the trash which we pick up in the world.
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So this prayer reminds us of our daily need to go to God in prayer for forgiveness.
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It reminds us of our ongoing battle with sin.
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Now, number two, and this is the hard one, I'm going to tell you all that I wanted to preach this week.
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I was really looking forward to this part because this petition reminds us of our obligation to forgive others.
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Verses 14 and 15 should hit us in the chest.
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If you forgive others, their trespasses, God will forgive you.
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But if you forgive not men, their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive you.
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People say, well, you want to argue about justification, whether or not that's talking about justification or sanctification.
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I think I've already answered that question.
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I think this does deal with our communion with God.
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But I'm going to say this, if you can't forgive others, their trespasses, if you cannot forgive others, how can you claim to be in Christ? I mean, think about what Aaron read this morning.
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Aaron read for me the call to worship passage, which was the parable of the unforgiving servant.
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The unforgiving servant comes before his master and he says, Master, I can't pay my debts.
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And the master says, well, then your debts are forgiven you.
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He goes out into the marketplace.
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He finds somebody that owes him a fraction of what he owed his master.
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And the guy says, I can't pay you.
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And he chokes him and he says, you've got to go to prison.
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Beloved, that parable is lived out every day.
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As we who claim the forgiveness of God, we who claim to be recipients of the grace and mercy of our Lord, go about with our hands at the throat of others saying, pay me your debt.
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I want to offer up three answers to three objections, which I know are probably going on in some of your hearts.
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And because I am quite adept at predicting objections, I want to go ahead and give them an answer.
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Objection number one, I can't forgive person X because they have done me such great evil.
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I can't forgive this.
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They've just done me too wrong.
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I want you to be honest with yourself and I want you to be real honest.
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You don't have to answer to me.
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You have to answer to God and you be real honest with yourself.
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And you ask this question.
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Have they done you more wrong than you have done, God, and I don't care what they've done to you, they haven't.
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They have not done you more wrong than you've done, God.
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You know, every sin, Joe Beakey said that I really like this.
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He said every sin we commit is a pretension that God doesn't even exist.
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It's a pretension that God is not every time we sin, it's as if we're saying to God, you don't exist.
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And how many sins have we committed? And how many times have we told God we don't even believe you exist because we're willing to disobey you so flagrantly and yet someone sins against us and they don't deserve forgiveness.
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Peter asked Jesus, how many times do I forgive? Seven times.
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How many times should I forgive a person who has sinned against me? Seven times.
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You know why he said seven times? Because the standard for forgiveness in his day was three.
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It was a three strikes you're out principle.
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You I forgive you once, twice, third time's the charm, baby, and you don't deserve it anymore.
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So Peter, thinking that he was being quite the liberal here, was saying, how about seven times? That's twice plus one.
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Certainly, I couldn't have to forgive more than that.
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And Jesus said, I do not say to you seven times, but 70 times seven.
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And Jesus wasn't saying four hundred ninety times.
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And then on the four hundred ninety first time, you got to get to that point.
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He was saying you can't keep a record of wrong because that's not forgiveness.
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Number two, second objection, as I said, the first objection, I can't forgive the person who's done me too wrong.
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You cannot use that objection righteously because you have out wronged God much more than they've out wronged you.
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Number two, people say, I won't I will forgive, but I won't forget.
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That's I hear that a lot.
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I can forgive them, but I won't forget it.
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Well, let me let me say this.
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You don't actually have the capacity to forget.
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The human brain doesn't just forget.
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You can't go into your brain and shut something off and turn a switch and that didn't happen.
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So that's true.
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And if all you're stating is the obvious, then I can't argue with that.
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I can forgive, but I can't forget if that's all you're stating is the obvious.
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But here's what the Bible says.
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The Bible says God chooses not to remember our sins.
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I can't forget.
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No, but you can choose not to remember it.
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And there's a difference.
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There's a difference.
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Now, I'm not telling you to continually put yourself in harm's way.
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Because there is an issue wherein someone is continually battering you, we got to step to the side.
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And that's a reality.
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And I'm not standing up here just just just mouthing platitudes to you.
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There's a time in which we have to get out of the injuries way because the person is injuring us.
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But at the same time, if a person is coming to us in repentance and saying, forgive me and you say, I'll forgive you, but I'll never forget.
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Beloved, I would say you just haven't forgiven.
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Thirdly, and again, dealing with an objection here, what if a person doesn't want forgiveness? Now, I'm going to deal with this one because I think this is a real serious situation.
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What if a person doesn't think they've done anything wrong? And this is actually something that is dealt with by a lot of theologians.
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Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul spends a lot of time on this.
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Because there is a situation, there is a there is a real reason to say again, there is a real sense in which a full restoration of the relationship cannot be made without the person realizing that they've done wrong.
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But what is our responsibility? We stand ready to forgive.
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You know, the father of the prodigal son didn't go off into the far land and bring his son back, but he did stand ready to forgive.
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That's our duty.
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And we pray for them.
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Stephen was being stoned and he said, father, forgive them for they don't understand what they are doing.
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So we stand ready, we stand on the porch, looking out at the horizon, praying for them to return, praying for their forgiveness, praying that God would break their heart under the weight of their sin and that they would come and seek forgiveness.
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This command is an extension of the command to love our brothers and sisters and neighbors.
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First Corinthians 13, verses four through six, says this love is patient and kind.
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Love does not envy or boast.
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It is not arrogant or rude.
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It does not insist on its own way.
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It is not irritable or resentful.
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It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
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Now, I want to look at one word is the word go back one, if you would, Pam, it's the word resentful in the Greek.
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And this is one of the times I hate to say this one time.
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The NIV really gets it right.
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So I'm not a big fan of the NIV, but it's all right.
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But this is one time I think because the NIV translates it like this keeps no record of wrong.
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And that's what it means.
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That if we love someone.
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We do not sit with a ledger of their failures.
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And demand of them an account, this has tremendous application within the church, beloved, so many relationships, so many people in the church have had their relationships severed in the body due to a lack of forgiveness.
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Well, she said something that hurt my feelings.
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Well, he didn't do what I wanted him to do.
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Well, they disagreed with me on this or they said something about my outfit or they said something about my child or they said something about my car or they said something about where I'm supposed to sit or or where I'm not supposed to sit or or or this or that.
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We have a litany of things that we've established as motivations for unforgiveness.
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We have a desperate need to forgive.
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I thought I had a good question I heard this week and I want to pose it to you in your hearts and let you think about this question.
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Are you really are you really willing to forgive sins? Or are you just willing to excuse mistakes? Are you really willing to forgive it when sin? Is against you or do you only forgive when it's a mistake? But when it's really a sin, you will not forgive.
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Beloved, is that how you want God to treat your sins to only give absolution to your mistakes? But when you really sin against him, he stands holding back his forgiveness begrudgingly to you.
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Someone will say this.
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Well, he didn't ask for my forgiveness.
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Did you go to him and tell him that he hurt you? How do you know he knows he did? People tell me that all the time.
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Well, he hurt my feelings.
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Does he know it? Then why are you telling me if he doesn't know or she doesn't know, then I shouldn't know.
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We got to go tell him at that point if they don't want to be forgiven.
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There's another step that's taken.
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But at that point, you've got a responsibility.
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If somebody's hurt you.
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It's to go to them and no one else.
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And we are really, really, really bad at that.
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Finally, this petition reminds us, as we've already said, it reminds us first of our ongoing battle with sin.
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It reminds us of our obligation to forgive others.
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And finally, it reminds us of our only source of forgiveness.
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Every one of us has a sin problem.
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And really, only one is the one who is really being sinned against.
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Ultimately, you remember when David sinned with Bathsheba and then he wrote the psalm.
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What did he say? Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, O God.
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Man, he sinned against Uriah.
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He sinned against his kingdom.
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He sinned against Bathsheba.
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You could say she was complacent in the participation, but I mean, he sinned against all of them.
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But who did he ultimately go to when it was time for his restoration? Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight because he knew where ultimate absolution and ultimate forgiveness would come from.
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And it was from God.
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And here's the beauty of God's forgiveness, folks.
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And this is the part that I know I've cut you to the quick with forgiving other people.
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You know, you have to deal with this for an hour.
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I've dealt with this all week long because I prepare this.
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You know, I spend times during the week and I just read these things and I hear these things and I'm studying these things.
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And it's cutting me down all week long because I know the areas where I fail.
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But beloved, the great comfort comes in the belief and understanding that if we do confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
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He will restore that relationship that's been broken.
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He will restore that relationship which has been severed.
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He will restore that relationship which has been put aside.
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And the Bible tells us that.
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And the Bible tells us something about God's forgiveness.
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It says that he takes our sins and he casts them into the depths of the sea.
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It tells us in Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
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Beloved.
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Have you ever wondered why it's east to west and not north to south? Because if you if you go to the north and you start going south at some point, you'll be going north again.
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But if you start heading east.
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You'll never go west, east and west are the furthest points away from one another because they never touch.
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Beloved, that's the beauty of this promise.
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That as far.
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You know, if you go east, you'll never hit west, but if you go north, eventually you'll be going south.
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If you get to the North Pole, you're going to go south.
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If you get to the South Pole, you're going to go north.
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But if you start heading east, you'll never go west.
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You'll just keep going east.
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No, you're not going to turn around.
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You'll keep going east.
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No, you won't ever go west.
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Oh, don't we'll talk about later.
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We'll talk about it later.
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It's OK.
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I didn't mean to confuse my point, though, is this.
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Your sins have been so separated from you by God.
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But he will never, ever remember them against you.
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This is what happens.
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People get so upset because they hold their sins longer than God does.
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A woman came to R.C.
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Sproul one time.
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And she said, I just can't.
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I can't be comfortable in forgiveness.
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I can't believe that God has forgiven me.
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And R.C.
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said, you need to repent.
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And she goes, well, I've already repented.
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He said, no, you need to repent of your thought that God won't forgive you.
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You need to repent of that because that in itself is a lack of faith.
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You need to repent of that.
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Is that in and of itself a sin? That you don't believe that God, who has promised you forgiveness, will actually fulfill that which he has promised.
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Years ago, I preached a sermon.
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I was probably 24 years old, so in that many years ago, but at least a decade.
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And I preached it from here and I preached the sermon on forgiveness.
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And my mother was here at the service, not my stepmom, but my biological mom was here at the service.
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And I preached on forgiveness.
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And.
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After the sermon, she really she really raved about the sermon.
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Now, I know moms can be, you know, over over encouraging, but she heard me preach many times before that and she's heard me preach many times since.
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But for some reason, she really just really raved about that sermon.
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And weeks later, she called me on the phone and we'd be talking.
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And she says, oh, man, that sermon on forgiveness.
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Years later, to this very day, every once in a while, I've preached thousands of sermons.
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And yet mom will say that that sermon on forgiveness.
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And I've come to realize, number one, I ain't that talented.
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Number two, it wasn't that great a message.
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It was the subject that stirred her heart.
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It's not the sermon.
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It's not the talent of the preacher.
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But it's the promise of God, beloved.
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God's forgiveness should stir our heart.
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It should cause within us a yearning not only for his forgiveness, but to forgive others.
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We have a mental, emotional and spiritual yearning within us for what this passage promises us.
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And that is the forgiveness of God.
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But the problem is.
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I think some of us don't believe we don't believe it's available to us.
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Pastor, I've just been too bad.
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I've done too many things.
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If you could see into the closet of my life, you would say God could never forgive me.
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And I say to you today, you are not beyond the grace of God.
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God's grace is greater than all of your sins.
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I want to read to you and finalize today's message.
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The lyrics of a hymn.
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Most of you know it and we're about to sing it, but I want you to hear it read.
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Marvelous grace of our loving Lord.
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Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt.
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Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured there where the blood of the lamb was spilt.
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Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
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What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson tide wider than snow.
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You may be today.
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Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace freely bestowed on all who believe all who are longing to see his face.
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Will you this moment, his grace.
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Receive grace, grace.
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God's grace.
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Grace that will pardon and cleanse within.
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Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our sin.
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Father, I thank you for your grace.
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I thank you for the forgiveness for the forgiveness, which stirs the heart and touches the conscience and draws us to you.
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I pray, Lord, that if there are those here today who know not of this grace.
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That you would use this opportunity to draw them to yourselves and those who have been made recipients of this grace by faith in Jesus Christ.
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I pray that you would remind all of us how we ought to live in a spirit of grace toward others.
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We thank you.
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We love you.
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We praise you, Father.
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Save as you will whom thou will in accordance with your grace.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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Let's stand and sing together.