The Killer Of All Spiritual Life [Matthew 18:21-35]

I am an assassin. I'm a killer.

I wreck marriages. I destroy friendships.

I split churches. I'm a person who will not forgive.

I'm a person who has an unforgiving spirit. I'm a person who has been forgiven much, but will not forgive a little.

Please turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18 and let's look at this topic of forgiveness.

Christians have been forgiven, therefore they forgive. As you know, we've been doing a three kind of part cameo series of the

Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to be impressed by him. We've looked at Matthew 17, the transfiguration.

He himself by nature is impressive. We've also looked at Matthew 12 where what

Jesus does is impressive. Stretch out your hand and the man stretches out his hand. And today we're going to see that Jesus is impressive by what he says and how he says it.

Before I get into the topic any further, I have a question for you. Is there anyone in your life you won't forgive?

Is there anything that you're holding against someone and you won't forgive them?

They've asked for forgiveness and you simply won't. Who won't you forgive?

Why won't you forgive? We're going to learn in Matthew chapter 18 today that forgiveness for the

Christian is top priority, a top priority. When I think of Matthew 18, if I was going to do word association,

I'd say Matthew 18, you'd probably say, what? Sure, it's discipline. But here

I want you to see past that and see in fact that those who have been forgiven much ought to forgive much.

Christians are a forgiving people. I meet people all the time and they say, well,

I've been hurt, I've been wounded, I have been sinned against.

You don't understand how bad it is, you don't understand what they did to me. And we're going to see today in the passage, when we reflect back to the

Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done on Calvary and how many sins He's forgiven every

Christian, how could we not forgive? Those who have been forgiven much will forgive everything.

It's a very relevant topic. Why? Because we sin against other people, they sin against us.

When I was a kid, I loved my grandparents. I had two sets of grandparents and my mom worked at Mutual of Omaha's insurance company and I thought she worked for the

Wild Kingdom part, that didn't work out. And my father worked at Northwestern Bell Telephone Company and so I'd take turns getting to one grandma's house, then the next.

So the one grandparents, they were known as Grandma and Grandpa Up the Hill, because they lived up the hill. And then I had

Grandma and Grandpa Avendroth and I loved them and they loved me and they were wonderful. But I thought to myself, why don't they have any friends?

The answer is, because they didn't forgive. They've been hurt by people and they would not forgive.

I asked myself the question, how can somebody be married 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and then divorce their spouse?

The answer is the same reason, they simply won't forgive. How can people go to church for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and then leave?

And the answer is, because they won't forgive. James Coulter said, unforgiving spirit is the number one killer of spiritual life and it's a killer in the church too.

Lloyd -Jones would say, I say to the glory of God and in utter humility that whenever I see myself before God and realize even something of what my blessed

Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anyone, anything.

New Testament scholar Leon Morris said of forgiveness, we can always think of some good reason why in any particular case we need not forgive, but that always is an error.

Popular writer once wrote, everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.

What about you? Is there someone you won't forgive? Is there someone, something that you won't forgive?

How do we change? How do we do something differently? Here's God's ordained way. He takes the word of God and works with the spirit of God to change

Christians. Say I'm a horrible forgiver, is there any hope for me? I claim to be a

Christian, I want to forgive more. The way we forgive is ordained through scripture and so we're going to look this morning at Matthew 18 verses 21 and following to see what forgiveness is like, to hear from our

Lord and he will be impressive, yes, but it will be convicting even more. What about forgiveness?

Forgiven people forgive. Matthew 18 verse 21, then

Peter came up and said to Jesus, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

As many as seven times? Now I know you because I'm your pastor and the first thing you want to do is say, well, there's a context to this, there's a reason, there's a setting.

So big picture, remember, Matthew, the book of the king, king of kings, Lord of lords, he's royal, he's the monarch and he ought to be worshipped.

We ought to submit ourselves to him, we ought to believe in him. That's Matthew. But Matthew 18 has a context, let me read verses 1 through 20 so you can see why

Peter asked the question because verse 21 says, does it not, then Peter came up. What preceded

Peter's statement? Verse 1 of Matthew 18, at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly

I say to you unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever receives such one child or one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it'd be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world for temptations to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom temptation comes.

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out, throw it away. It's better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Verse 10, see that you do not despise one of these little ones for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven.

What do you think? A man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety nine in the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?

If he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than the ninety nine that never went astray.

So it is, not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother, but if he does not listen, take one or two along or others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him to be to you as a tax collector and Gentile.

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my heavenly father or my father in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Then Peter came up and said to him,

Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times. Hey, Peter got the lesson, at least initially, it's important to forgive.

Forgiveness is good. It's a virtue. Forgiveness is like God. Godly behavior represents

God's behavior, resembles God's behavior. God forgives and to be godly is to also forgive.

Ungodly is doing something opposite of what God would do. God forgives. Ungodly doesn't forgive and Peter knows at least enough to say,

I want to be magnanimous and I want to forgive. Did you know the rabbis said three times you forgive?

Loosely based on Amos chapter one, you forgive three times and so Peter said, you know, after all we're

Christians and we forgive more than these Old Testament folks and these rabbis and scribes and Pharisees, we'll one up it and we'll do the mathematical

WPI equation. If X is forgiveness, which is three, two X plus one is what we do.

See, some of you were sleeping. Now you're all paying attention. Big hearted mathematical, but as we would all agree, if we understand

Jesus, right? Forgiveness isn't quantitative, it's qualitative.

Peter's like, I know we have to forgive. That's important. I'm going to double the quota and add one.

Will you forgive me? Five? Yes. Six times? Yes. Seven times? Yes. And then after that, is there a cap?

Ceiling? Limits? Rabbi Jose Ben Hanina said, he who begs forgiveness from his neighbor must not do so more than three times.

Rabbi Ben Yehuda said, if a man commits an offense once, forgive him.

If he commits an offense twice, forgive him. If he commits an offense a third time, forgive him.

The fourth time, do not forgive him. And Jesus responds in a way that is fascinating and convicting.

Verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy dash or seventy times seven.

And we can tell already that we're caught up in numbers like Peter when you think of things like 490.

Seventy times seven, before you know it, it's like seven, seven, carry the seven, 490. So okay, we're calculating.

Forgiveness is like math, right? It's like 488, you're getting close, 489, 490,

I'm done with forgiving you. Except when Jesus is going to explain this to us, forgiveness has nothing to do with math.

It's all about mercy. It's about mercy, it's not math. The language of forgiveness has nothing to do with factorials and square roots and pi r squareds.

The flesh counts. The law tallies. Immaturity says, one more and you're done.

I'm counting. And this is the same sin. Someone sins against you the same thing every day.

And Jesus is saying, you know what Peter, forgiveness is important, but there's no limit. There's no limit.

Jesus gives this number 70 times seven for two reasons. One, it's just a large number you're not supposed to count.

And number two, if you read your Old Testament, what does it make you think about? 77, 70 times seven.

Oh yeah, Genesis chapter four, Lamech, Lamech said something about 70 times seven, didn't he?

If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech, 77 fold, 70 times seven.

If you're going to mess with me and my line, my line of Cain, and you're going to mess with me, you are going to get unlimited revenge.

Seventy times seven. It wasn't like the 491st time you mess with me and my kin, you're going to get it.

It's you're going to get back what you deserve times 5 ,000. You're going to do something against us.

You will get evil without limit. As one man said, this is the law of the jungle, Cain and Lamech.

So Jesus says, you know, when it comes to sinful man, when it comes to primitive man, when it comes to carnal man, it's unlimited revenge when someone does something against you.

77. And for the Christian, it's not unlimited revenge, it's unlimited mercy, it's unlimited forgiveness.

I have a question to ask you again, is there anyone in your life that you won't forgive?

Is there anyone in your life who you, I didn't say couldn't, because it's not a matter of can, it's a will issue that you will not forgive?

Well, the good news is scripture is going to give us some answers. And some really good news is unforgiveness, although sinful, can be forgiven.

It can be forgiven. Let's continue with our passage and watch how

Jesus teaches. I'm impressed by the person of Christ, the work of Christ.

I'm also impressed by He teaches. Who teaches like this? He draws you into this parable and you're saying yes and amen, that's true,

I'm on board, I get it, and then it's, you are the man. There's a tale to this scorpion in this passage.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared. And that signals right away,

Jesus is going to teach a spiritual lesson. What's the lesson? The lesson has a situation, the lesson has an occasion, the lesson has a context.

What about forgiveness? Is there any person I won't forgive?

Do I cap my forgiveness? And friends, remember, what is forgiveness? Here's what forgiveness is. When God forgives us, what does

He say? As far as the east is from the west, the other way around. For you, that's right though.

Cast the sin in the deepest sea. Cast the iniquity behind His back. All language of, it's forgotten, it's over.

Here's what God does when He forgives. I'm going to treat you like it never happened.

Did you get that? I'm going to treat you like it never happened. Spouse sins against spouse.

Spouse says, I sinned, please forgive me. The spouse says, I forgive you.

And when they say I forgive you, then they act like it never happened. They don't say, well, you know what,

I'm going to just store this right here because I know I'm going to use this as ammunition down the line. Next time we have a fight, and remember you were standing there and you wore that, standing by that, wearing this kind of cologne on that particular day.

No, when forgiveness occurs, I forgive you, it's gone. The king wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

That's what the kingdom of heaven's like. There's a king who says, it's settle up day, boys.

Get in line, and it's pay what you owe. Reckoning, settle up affairs, it's

D -day. Grab your accounting books, grab your cash, and I'm the king, and there's a divine reckoning day.

And everywhere you look in this passage, you see flickers of eternal truths. One day we're going to stand before God on that.

When he began to settle, I mean, there's one after another, after another, after another. One was brought to him.

That's almost a language of you got to kind of push him up to the front because he knows this is really going to be bad.

Brought to him who owed him 10 ,000 talents. You say, well, how could anybody ever owe so much?

It's not the point of the parable. He does owe so much is the point. What's a talent?

They would measure things by weight back in those days.

Talents about 75 pounds, about 34 kilograms. You'd weigh gold, you'd weigh silver, and it was the largest denomination of weight.

The Bible says that, Psalm 40, verse 12, as many hairs that we have on our head, that's how many iniquities we have.

When you're younger, at least, I guess. Still a lot. It's uncountable.

This talent is so heavy. I said earlier, it's like a $20 billion debt. And then

Guido came up to me after first service and he said, I did some calculation. He said, if we would have found out the gold rate a year ago, it would have been 20 billion, but he says it's about 13 .4

billion now. Okay, deal. Okay, I owe 20, 10, 13 billion dollars, and I've got to go settle accounts.

No wonder he's broad, because he doesn't have it and it's time for settling. From the king, the king, he can do anything.

You don't owe the king money for long and live. Now, what's the little flicker of truth here?

What's the debt of every sinner before God? How many times have you committed sins against God?

You say, well, you don't understand. I'm not really a murderer. Let me ask you another question. What's the greatest sin in all the world?

The greatest sin in all the world is when you disobey the greatest commandment in all the world. And the greatest commandment in all the world is to love

God, who created you with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, 24 hours a day, seven days a week since you were conceived, to love him with enthusiasm and with worship and with total conscious worship.

That's the greatest commandment. Therefore, it's the greatest sin. The second greatest commandment is as much as we love ourselves, we're to love others.

Every person on the face of the earth, young and old, is a debtor to 20 billion dollars' worth of sin.

How could we pay? How could we ever be off the hook and to think one sin, because God is so holy,

God is so great, God is so just, how long does it take to pay for one sin in hell?

Answer, there's no time limit because it's so great. That's why hell is eternal, because sin is so bad, and the one sinned against is so great, you can never pay except throughout all eternity your debt in hell.

This guy owes 10 ,000 talents. So we've got a large number for talent, and then the biggest

Greek word we can find is 10 ,000. That's the largest numerological term we can find in the

Greek language. It means myriad, it means countless, it means incalculable, it means unpayable, it means over the top.

Solomon got the weight of gold in one year in 1 Kings 10, 666 talents of gold.

That was Solomon. This guy's brought to account before the king he has a debt that he cannot pay.

Verse 25, since he could not pay, his master ordered him, might as well get something out of the deal, to be sold, and his wife, they're worth something, and children, they're worth a little more.

That'll motivate the families around them, the nephews and nieces and other grandpas to try to come up with something.

And all that he had and payment to be made. There's a payday one day. Let's recover a little bit.

Sell the wife, sell the child, sell everything he had, sell him too.

How can we pay for the debt of sin we owe God? Why do you think it's even called a debt? Forgive us our debtors as we forgive those.

It's a debt we owe to God. He made you and we owe him worship and submission and reverence and praise.

And then when we don't get it, we have a debt and we can't pay. By the way, that's why Christians look quickly to the cross where Jesus Christ pays for the debt that we incurred.

His debt wasn't he didn't love God with his heart, soul, mind, and strength. His debt wasn't he didn't love his neighbors himself because he did love

God and he did love his neighbor. Throw these people into jail, sell them.

Verse 26, what would you do? Servant fell on his knees.

He's in the line up here for the payday, reckoning day. He's on his knees imploring him, have patience with me,

I'll pay you everything. That's not going to work. The debt is too large, there's no hope.

It's too much to pay. You can't ever make that much money. But he is on his face. Interestingly, he doesn't say,

I didn't do it. Wrong accounting, calling different CPA firm. I have some excuses.

The devil made me do it. I've got a syndrome. I've got a disease. I've got some bad accounting ledger people for me, under me.

He didn't explain himself. He didn't deny it. He didn't give any excuses. Doesn't it sound like Luke 18 to you?

Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Justice won't do me anything except punishment.

Mercy. Throwing himself on the mercy of the king. He didn't say,

I'll try to do better. I'll shape up my life. I'll try to be nicer. And you know, isn't this true in life?

People wander around. They don't think they're accountable to God. They have no conscience that they're going to stand before God because it's too seared.

But if they would only think ahead to that day, to that judgment day, they would feel the debt.

Verse 27, out of pity for him. Out of pity.

Out of mercy. Out of compassion. Out of love. The master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.

Free forgiveness. What a great picture.

This is the person who realizes they're so sinful and depraved and wicked and evil that they go to God and they say,

God, I know I deserve to be thrown into hell, but you're a merciful

God. You're a kind God. You love to save sinners. You're called God the

Savior. And you've provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ's life and death.

And you've said that if I cast myself on the Lord Jesus Christ with faith and believe that he was a substitute for sinners and a representative for sinners and he's a risen

Savior, that if I would believe in that Jesus, you would grant me mercy. He doesn't bargain.

He goes for mercy. What kind of judge is this? What kind of king is this?

What kind of leader is this? What kind of God do we have? The guy asks for more time, but he gets mercy.

The king doesn't say, okay, I'll give you a little more time. He says, I'm going to give you mercy. I'm big -hearted. I'm compassionate.

I get glory when I cover sin. I get glory when I overlook a transgression. I forgive you.

What a great picture of the love of God, the compassion of God. This guy could have embezzled it.

He could have done all kinds of other things. It's all a debt to the Master, and the Master says, free.

If you're a Christian, you're a forgiven person, right? Past sins covered, present sins covered, future sins covered.

There's not one sin that you ever have to pay for if you're a Christian. Did you know that? Not one. So how do we act towards other people?

Verse 28. What do you think this guy's going to do? I mean, he's on the ground. He's probably all dusty.

What would you do if you owe $10 billion, $13 .4 billion, and someone just said, take care of.

What would you do if you had $20 ,000 on your credit card? Who here has $20 ,000? No, don't raise your hand. Somebody has $20 ,000 on your credit card, and you go in to chase bank and say,

I try, I do this, I'll do that. And the guy says, we'll just have to go to the office a minute. Comes back.

Debt's paid. You're forgiven. How would you act? I'm telling you, this guy got up, and I think he did some kind of dance.

I think he was jumping for joy. I think it was, can you imagine? I don't think he was concerned about anything else.

You know what it's like to be under financial pressure. It feels like there's a burden. It feels like you can't breathe.

How much more you think, I've sinned against God, and He's going to judge me. No wonder people imbibe in hedonism and sports and everything else to distract them from that day, the day of judgment.

So I wonder what this guy's going to do. And the Master's so compassionate, so loving, so forgiving.

He forgives, and now this guy's going to echo. This guy's going to mirror his

Master's forgiveness. Right? Verse 28,

But when that same servant went out, that one that had been forgiven $2 billion, $13 billion, $20 billion, when he went out, he tracked down, he found, he went looking for one of his fellow servants who owed him three months' wages.

By the way, you could pay that back. A hundred denarii, a hundred days' work, $10 ,000.

I've been forgiven $20 billion? Where's that guy that owes me $10 ,000? I've got to go get that back.

And he seizes him and begins to choke him saying, Pay what you owe. It was said back in Roman law that if somebody owed you a lot of money, you could squeeze their neck so hard as you brought them to the judge that you could make blood come out of their nose.

Cicero said, Lead him to the judgment seat with twisted neck. You grab that guy by the neck.

You throttle him. You choke him. This poor guy, what's the text not say? It doesn't say,

Sorry, I'll try to get it. The guy's choking him before he even lets him talk. He seizes him.

He chokes him. Pay, in the emphatic Greek, is up front. Pay, pay, pay what you owe.

I've received compassion. You get cruelty. I've received forgiveness. You get justice.

I've received mercy. You get your neck choked until you bleed out of the nose.

So what do you do when someone sins against you? What do you do?

What do you do when you sin against someone else? Isn't the Lord good and kind to remind us of what to do in the

Old Testament and the New? How do we act? No wonder marriages break up.

No wonder churches break up. No wonder friendships break up. Because God has designed forgiveness in such a way to remind us that we have been forgiven so much that if someone ever says to you,

Will you please forgive me? It is a sin not to rush, not to almost even interrupt when people say,

Will you please forgive me? To interrupt them saying, Yes, based on what I've done, what I deserve,

I'm worse than you. I'm more wicked than you. I'm more evil than you. And God has had compassion on me. And I don't want to go choke you until blood comes out of your nose.

Now here's the question. Who won't you forgive? Who's hurt you so bad you just will not forgive?

And the answer to almost every life's question, spiritual question is, don't forget to look at that Jesus on the cross who says to the

Father, said to the Father, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus never sinned, but he was the sin bearer.

This man takes him by the throat. That's really what a lack of forgiveness is. You've done this too many times.

The limit's up. Seven was a lot. You just hit 491. No. It is a throttle.

The thing is, we all need forgiveness. Because we all sin against each other.

Would you please forgive me? No. Pay what you owe. When you look at this guy, here's what

I think. I think Twilight Zone is what I think. There's like some weird music going on in the background.

It's Bizarro World. 20 billion forgiven, won't forgive 10 ,000.

Something's not right. It's incongruous. It's oxymoronic. Something's wrong.

That's why when I read the passage, I say, yes, I'm impressed by Jesus. But then the dagger comes where I think,

I have been hurt. I have been sinned against. And I want that proverbial

Shakespearean pound of what? Flesh. You pay what you owe. It's sinful.

It's not Christian. You know what it is? It's bizarre. It's like a Twilight Zone. One commentator said, it is a moral monstrosity.

Will you please forgive me? No. Or what's worse? No, I won't. Yes, I will forgive you.

And then still hold it against them. Keep remembering. Keep reminding. Keep rubbing their nose in it.

You say, well, I can't forget. Well, you don't have to forget. That's very passive. But you can actively not remember.

I will not bring it up. And when I do, I'll think about something else. When it does come up into my mind, I'll think about my debt of sin that's been released.

Verse 29, so his fellow servant, this action should make the light bulb go off in the guy's mind.

This is what I did. This is like deja vu. I am he. He is me.

But no. Fell down.

Pleaded with him. Have patience with me. By the way, he could pay.

You can pay off a three -month debt. I will pay you. I will pay.

Please forgive me. Now, the

Greek text pleaded is an imperfect tense.

And that means he pleaded and pleaded and pleaded. And the man said, no, no, no.

Please, please, please forgive me. I won't forgive you. Verse 30, it's also an imperfect tense.

He refused. He refused. The man asked. He refused. The man begged. He refused.

The man was on his knees. He refused. And went out and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. He receives mercy, and now he's going to exact justice.

When his fellow servants saw what had taken place. They were greatly distressed, verse 31.

Why? Because the king is supposed to have servants that do things that he does. Do things like him.

He's the leader. He's the initiator. He's the king. Like king, like servants.

They're displeased. Think about how displeased the Lord is. You've been forgiven all your sins. You're a Christian person.

And your spouse says, honey, will you please forgive me? And you say, no. Had enough.

And they were greatly displeased. And they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.

How wicked. It's like a rewind of what happened for the first guy. It happens with this guy, and he's unmoved.

I can't sell this guy into slavery because the debt is too small. But I won't forgive. The honor of the king is at stake.

The honor of the master is at stake. The honor of God is at stake. I've forgiven you every single sin that you would ever commit.

Maybe 20 billion. But you won't forget what that person did to you.

You won't forgive them, rather. They've asked for forgiveness, and you've said no.

That's bizarre. No, that's wicked. Well, the master is kind and merciful and loving.

But the master also is holy, just, and there's a limit.

Then the master summoned him, said to him, you wicked servant. I forgave you, and in the

Greek, all is emphasized. You could highlight it in yellow, in other words. I forgave you all.

I forgave you every one of your sins. I forgave you when you loved other gods more than me. I loved you when you profaned my name.

I loved you when you didn't love me with your heart. I loved you when you didn't love your neighbor. I loved you when you didn't love your spouse.

I loved you when you didn't submit to your husband. I loved, I loved, I loved. And I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.

And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? Mercy received means mercy given.

Forgiven much, forgive much. Jesus, how many times do

I have to forgive? Answer, it's the wrong question.

Christians are forgiving. Verse 34, and in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers.

Horrible translation. Only used here in the New Testament. It means tormentors. It means torturers.

Do I believe in torture? The answer is yes. For more reasons than one.

This one right here. You've got to be tortured. This is so wicked. You deserve torture. The sin of unforgiveness is so bad.

It deserves hell. Torture. Terrible punishment.

You don't torture people who are in debt. You torture criminals. And this is more than just someone who's in debt.

It's criminal to be relieved of debt and then exact three months worth of work.

Give them to the tormentors. Stretch out their limbs. Put them on the rack.

Pull their skin off while alive. That's torture. And now we see why it's a spiritual truth.

Verse 35. So also. So also.

So also, my heavenly Father, Jesus says, will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from the heart.

True or false? You've sinned a lot. True or false? If you're a Christian, God, with mercy and compassion and forgiveness, at the expense of another

Christ Jesus, has forgiven you every single sin. True or false?

Anything that anybody has done against you regarding a sin is relatively insignificant compared to the debt that you owed

God. Logically then, true or false, shouldn't you then forgive people those debts?

When God forgives, does He say, Let's see. I forgive those sins and those sins, but that category

I don't. There's a couple exception clauses here. You're forgiven almost all these except these three over here and those two categories.

Colossians chapter 2 says He has forgiven us all of our sins. He's forgiven us all of our trespasses.

He's forgiven us all our iniquities without exception. And when someone comes to you and says,

Please forgive me, do you have a category? Do you have a number? Do you have an exception?

I've done this too many times. That's over the line. God forgives us wholeheartedly, compassionately, totally.

What's the point of the passage? Here's the point of the passage. If you receive free grace, you ought to grace other people.

If you've received forgiveness, which every Christian has, you ought to grant forgiveness. Is there anyone you won't forgive?

Is there any sin you won't forgive? Is there anything in your family that's happened that you won't forgive?

Is there anything happened here at this church that you just won't forgive? You say,

Well, I'm leaving the church. Why is that? Well, I've been really hurt here.

I'm leaving the church. Why? Mike, you've hurt me. I'm leaving here. The elders have hurt me.

I'm leaving here. The Women's Quilting Committee has hurt me. I'm leaving here. Awana's hurt me.

I mean, the list could go on and on. Do we have a quilting committee? Is that like anti -feminist or something?

I don't know. I think we have some men that quilt here. I'm not kidding. I would never admit it. I'm not one of them.

But there are some men that know how to quilt. We won't say anything about that until next week. I forgive you.

You're leaving your marriage because you're hurt. You're leaving the church because you're hurt. No, you're leaving the church because you will not forgive.

You're getting a divorce because you will not forgive. You're breaking up with a friend because you will not forgive.

I didn't say you couldn't. You won't. There's no room for hurt. It's better to be hurt than it is to hurt.

That's true. But hurt is code for I can't face it. And I just need to be reminded.

Aren't we all so weak? And aren't we all so incarcerated in the flesh? And we all need to be reminded.

Look back to the cross. I know you did these things to me. I know they're real. I know

I did them to you. But look at the cross. This is not for my name. This is not for my reputation.

This is not for the church's reputation. This is for the glory of Christ Jesus. God looked at me,

Mike Abendroth, and knew every sin I would ever commit and said, Jesus has paid for it, and I'm going to treat you like it never happened.

I'm going to adopt you into my family, and you're a joiner with Christ. You have union with Christ.

I do that because I'm a saving God and a loving God. And Abendroth, when you get sinned against, you better say, you better treat them like that.

Because the people who are known for not forgiving ought ask themselves the question, how can

I be a Christian and not forgive? That's the question. That's the point. John Owen said, our forgiving another will not procure forgiveness for ourselves.

You don't get saved by forgiving people. But our not forgiving others proves that we ourselves are not forgiven.

How can you not forgive people knowing that you're forgiven? How can you call yourself a

Christian and not forgive? You say, well, I just can't feel like it. I just can't feel the forgiveness.

Is that how God forgives? Well, I just feel like it. No, it's a decision of the will.

It's an act. It's a sacrifice. It's not a feeling. God's forgiveness, praise the

Lord, isn't a feeling. It's a promise. I forgive you. Did not

Jesus say in Matthew chapter 6, forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil?

Jesus said, if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly

Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your

Father will not forgive your transgressions. What's He saying?

Forgiving people, forgive. And I'm so glad for this remedy and for this solution and for this mercy of God because I sin against other people and I am sinned against.

So what stops us from just saying, forget it. I'm out of here.

This church, the next church, the other church, it doesn't matter what church it is. I'm out of here. I'm out of this marriage. Well, the thing is you can't run from yourself.

You can't run from your lack of granting forgiveness. And so let's just say before God and before the

Spirit of God and the Son, Lord, we struggle with forgiveness.

Please forgive us and help us to forgive others in light of the cross. I ask you a question.

Who won't you forgive in your life? Let's close with Ephesians chapter 4.

Please turn there. I can't make many comments. But let's just look at Ephesians chapter 4. In light of the

Trinitarian love that God has for the church, He gives some exhortations and isn't this wonderful?

It is a great passage. Ephesians chapter 4. Let's just wrap it up. Paul would echo the heart of his

Savior, Jesus. Paul, the Christian killer, the persecutor. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 31.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander be put away from you.

When Jesus got crucified, they said, Away with him. That's the language here. Just get rid of all this stuff.

You know why? Because it's a cycle. When you start being bitter and then you get angry, it ends up coming out of slander.

Show me a slanderous person, I'll show you somebody who's bitter. We don't want that. I don't want that.

Doesn't that mean that? That's like our old life. Put that off. Along with all malice.

And then what does he say to put on? This is replacement. Put off, put on. In light of the electing love of the

Father, the redeeming love of the Son, and the sealing love of the Spirit, be kind to one another.

Tenderhearted. And then don't you love it? Forgiving one another.

How do I do that? As God in Christ forgave you.

And you know what's so neat about that word forgive there? That's not release of a debt. That means to grace.

If God has graced you, you grace people with forgiveness. Remember what grace is?

They didn't deserve it. I mean, this person did it on purpose to you. They said it on purpose. And you say,

I grant you favor that you don't deserve. You didn't merit it. Yeah, I know you did those things to me. But I'm a sinner saved by grace.

I'm actually worse than you are. And, well, maybe that wouldn't go over so well at a particular time. But in your mind you should think that.

But I'm a sinner and I grant you grace. As God in Christ has graced you.

That's the kind of family I want to live in. A forgiving family. That's the kind of church

I want to be in. A forgiving church. That's the kind of friends I want to be involved with.

Is a forgiving friendship. Is there anybody in your life you simply will not forgive?

Let's pray. Father in heaven, convicting words. We're thankful for Jesus Christ.

Our righteousness. He was never bitter. He never had sinful anger.

He never slandered. He forgave. And how you can turn sinful people into Christians and have them forgive.

It's a testimony of your grace. Stephen getting stoned. And he says, don't hold this against them.

Just like a savior. Father, would you give us that grace? Would you help us? Would you help our church to be known as a forgiving church?

Would you help our marriages to be known as that? And we are so, so, so thankful that your son died for all kinds of sins, including the sin of unforgiveness.

We deserve to be tortured, but we get heaven. Thank you.

I pray for those that are here today, who are not Christians, that you would grant them, based on mercy, forgiveness.

They didn't deserve it. They didn't earn it. They earned the opposite. Yet, you're a merciful God, a loving

God. And so, based on Christ's work, I pray that you would grace them with belief and love for the

Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul says, with love incorruptible. In Jesus' name,