Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 and 22. That's in the New Testament, first book of the New
Testament. Matthew chapter 18 verse 21. We'll read these two verses, then we'll pray and
get started. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how many times could my brother sin
against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? I tell you, not as many as seven, Jesus
said to him, but seventy times seven. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today and
I pray that your Holy Spirit would be here with us today to open our ears and to open
our eyes, dear Lord, that we would see your word, that we would hear from you. I pray
God that you would free us of all the distractions and the worry and maybe the hatred and the
anger and the bitterness that is within us, dear Lord. Sometimes those things kind of
rage within us, dear Lord. But God, I pray that maybe through these words that we read
today that you would help us to see the beautiful joy that is forgiveness, dear Lord, and that
we can receive it through you today and that we can give it to others today. So I pray
God that your Holy Spirit would guide me in every word that is said. Dear Lord, there
is no good word I can say if it does not come from you. So I pray that you take away any
pride or any fear that I have today of speaking and I pray God that you would do the work,
that we would see you and you would receive the glory. So help us not to worry about the
things of the world this morning, but in these few minutes that we would be completely and
totally devoted to you. And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
And the verses before this, Jesus had told his disciples about dealing with someone who
had sinned against them. And Jesus gave some good instruction on the proper way to deal
with a brother who has sinned against you. You go to him and if you still can't work
it out, you take somebody else with you and if you still can't work it out and they're
still living in sin and committing that sin, then you take it before the church. And Jesus
says, and treat them like an unbeliever and a tax collector. And he gives some pretty
strict instruction there on how to deal with a brother or sister in Christ, I suppose,
who has sinned against you. And with this in mind, what had just been said, Peter asked
a question. He says, it says Peter came to him and he said, Lord, how many times could
my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Okay, so if we're supposed to forgive people,
if we're supposed to, you know, people come against us and they do evil things, how many
times can we forgive them? How many times are we going to get burned? And Peter says,
is it seven times? Should I do it seven times? And then am I off the hook? And maybe we ask
a similar question. Maybe we've got people in our life that sinned against us in some
great way and we're kind of getting burned out. We kind of get tired of them. It just
hurts. We don't want to go through it anymore. And we say, how many times I've done enough?
And so maybe Peter was to that point, okay, well, how many times, how much is enough?
How many times can someone sin against me? Seven times? That seems like a pretty reasonable
amount. But Jesus says to Peter, no, 70 times seven. Now, I don't think we should take Jesus
too literally here. I don't think Jesus is saying, all right, keep account and forgive
somebody 490 times and then you'll have forgiven them enough. That 491st time you can tell
them, that's it, you're done. I don't think that's what Jesus is saying. Jesus is using
this language here to say, don't put a limit. Don't limit people. People may sin against
you a bunch, but don't give up on them. Now, when Jesus said in the verses before to treat
somebody like an unbeliever, what do you do for unbelievers? You continue to pray for
them. When you have somebody in your life, as probably some of you do, you pray for them.
That they would not be an unbeliever, but that they would be a believer and that they
would repent of their sins and that they would forgive you if you sinned against them and
that you could forgive them if they sinned against you. And so Jesus gives this instruction
about how to deal with people and Peter says, okay, what's the limit on how to deal with
these kinds of people? And Jesus, I believe says here, there is no limit. And Jesus puts
it into perspective as really only Jesus can. And we see so often, he gives a parable to
understand the significance of our own sin and the importance of forgiving the sins of
others. And so Jesus tells a story in the verses that follow. He says there was a king
and the king had slaves and there came a time that there was a king who was going to settle
a debt with one of his slaves. And it says that that slave owed 10,000 talents to the
king. Now that doesn't really mean much to us in our day and time. So if you do a little
research on the internet, you're going to find some different ideas as to what that
converts to in US dollars. But at the very least, it would convert to several billions
of dollars worth of debt. Some have suggested as much as $13 billion that this slave would
have owed to this king. And so the slave sees this debt and obviously is unable to repay
this debt and the king says, okay, then this slave, his family need to be sold all of their
items need to be sold to recoup whatever of this debt can be recouped. And the slave falls
down and he begs the king and he says, King, would you please have mercy on me? I will
repay this debt. I'll repay it. Now it would have taken a lifetime for the slave to even
chip away at this debt and the least it was impossible for the slave to repay the debt
to the king. And so the king does something that's quite phenomenal. The king forgives
the debt. He says, I'm wiping it away. It's done. Now you can imagine the joy that this
slave must have felt to know that all of his debt had been cleared, a debt that would have
been impossible for him to pay and 200 lifetimes he couldn't have repaid that. And here the
king being a merciful king because the slave asked, said, King, would you have this mercy
on me? Because he asked the king forgave his debt. Now you would think that this would
be a life changing event for the slave. You would think that this slave would say, Holy
smokes, this is the greatest gift that I have ever been given. I have never received such
compassion. And you would think that it would have shaped his life and changed his life
in such a way that he would have been the most compassionate man that you have ever
seen that all those who have wronged him and come before him and don't do him right, that
he would be so full of compassion that he would say, look, I was once like you and I
received great mercy and compassion from the king and therefore I will give it to others.
Would you believe that that's not what that slave did? Here was a slave that had been
forgiven what we would call billions of dollars in debt. And the scripture says that this
slave goes to another slave who owed him 100 denarii. Now denarii is one day's wages back
in those days. That was about a day's wage for a common folk. Now that would be equivalent
to about $6 in our day and age. So this other slave owed this man who had been forgiven
all of this billions of dollars in debt. This other slave owed him, which would equate to
about $600. $600. And he goes to this man and the scripture says that he begins to choke
him and he begins to tell him, I want every penny that's coming to me. I want you to pay
it all back. Wait a minute. This is the man who just had been forgiven way more than 100
denarii. He had been forgiven 60 million days work. This man owed him 100 days work, 100
days wages. This first slave had been forgiven 60 million days wages or 200,000 years worth
of wages that had been forgiven. And yet the one who owed him, he went before him and he
said, I want every penny of what you owe me. Well, the rest of the slaves saw this and
they of course were alarmed at what had taken place. And they reported this word to the
king. And when the king heard this, you can imagine the king was not too pleased. After
all the king had showed great compassion and great mercy to the slave only to find out
that he was being so hard on the one that owed him money. And so the king said, lock
this one up. Lock this slave up until he can repay every penny that he owes me. Now it
was impossible for this slave to repay the debt that he owed and the king knew that.
And the king had offered compassion and mercy to the slave and this slave had totally missed
the compassion and mercy that he received. Certainly he was glad that his debt was forgiven,
but he didn't make the connection there of the beauty of what compassion is and what
mercy is and what forgiveness is. And what a beautiful story for us to consider today
as we think about the words of Peter here. And we say, Lord, how many times should I
forgive somebody? Well, if we want the answer to that, then we need to ask ourselves, how
much have we been forgiven? What is our debt to God? Our debt to God that is brought forth
because of our sin is something that we can never pay back. It is an impossible amount
to pay. And that's the point of Jesus's story. There was one who owed a debt to the king
that was impossible for him to pay unless the king himself was going to abolish the
debt. And so it is for you and I today that we come in here as sinners. We come in here
and we are so indebted to God and all it takes is one sin. It doesn't matter if we have a
million sins today or one sin. That one sin that we commit is enough that we are indebted
to God. There is no way that we can pay this back. But praise the Lord, the very king that
we are indebted to and Jesus Christ is the king who gave his life for us. And when we
come to Jesus Christ and ask for forgiveness, our sins are forgiven. Our debt has been paid
by Jesus Christ on the cross. Our sins have been cast as far as the east is to the west.
And if we have come to Jesus Christ, if we claim to be a Christian, then we should recognize
today the compassion of the king. That we should recognize today the mercy of the king.
That we should know that we are so undeserving of the love of Jesus Christ and yet he showed
his love for us and that he gave his life on the cross so that we could be forgiven.
And what a beautiful gift that is. That's something we could never earn. That's something
that we cannot repay but that's something that Jesus Christ has paid. He has paid in
full with his death on the cross. And if we have received such compassion and mercy and
grace and the forgiveness of our sins today that we have not deserved, then how can that
not transform our life? That has to transform our life. If we've really experienced that
to the fullest, then that has to transform our life. And how do we know? How can we tell?
How can we be sure that our lives have been transformed by Jesus Christ? Or perhaps one
very easy way for us to measure is to see how willing we are to forgive others. If we
have asked Jesus Christ to forgive us today, then praise God he has forgiven us today.
So who are we not to forgive those who sin against us? What has somebody done to us that
is so much greater than anything we have done to Jesus Christ? It don't take long. You start
listening out your sins. You won't have to think but 10 seconds and you'll think of some
of the worst, most horrible things you could ever imagine and you've done those things
and you can think of five or six of them right now. And that's not to count all the other
thousands and tens of thousands and millions of sins that you have committed in your life
day after day, year after year, time after time. And God has been gracious to you and
he has forgiven your sin. And how can we say if we are a child of God that we will not
forgive one who has sinned against us? We want to be those who receive grace, praise
the Lord. We want to be those who sins are forgiven, praise the Lord. There is freedom
in that. There is joy in that. Our burden is taken away in that. And yet somehow we
may find ourselves in the same boat as this unforgiving slave. We will praise God. We
know the grace of God. We've experienced the grace of God. And then somebody sins against
us in a far lesser way than we have ever sinned against God and we say, nope, I will not forgive
him. I will not forgive her. Well, we're on dangerous ground when our heart gets to that
place because if we will not forgive the sins of those who sinned against us, then our Father
in heaven will not forgive our sins. It's a hard thing for us as humans and I suspect
it was a hard thing for God and it was a hard thing for Jesus Christ to suffer and bleed
and die and be nailed to the cross. And yet Jesus did it because there is beauty in forgiveness.
There is love in forgiveness. There is peace in forgiveness. And maybe that's what some
of you are looking for today. Maybe you're looking for some joy and some peace in your
life and maybe you come to church and maybe you're reading the scripture and maybe you
know about God and you know about Jesus and maybe in a lot of ways you're trying to follow
him. But maybe there's one way in which you're not. Maybe there's one way in which you're
not following him and listening to him and that is when he calls you to forgive those
who have sinned against you. And perhaps you are carrying around some burden today and
you are not experiencing the joy you should because that lack of forgiveness that you
have for others is eating away at you because you dwell on it day and night. What he did
to you, what she did to you, how she wronged you. Tell everybody else to listen how they
wronged you. And it just eats at you and it eats at you and it eats at you. And the only
way to overcome that is through forgiveness. That's the only way. And it is not always
easy and we may have to pray a lot for God to help us. God this person has wronged me
and God I struggle with this and I know I should forgive him and God I want to forgive
him but my heart's still not right. God would you help make my heart right? And you can
be honest with God. You can tell him your struggle. He knows your struggle. He knows
that we are weak human beings and we know that God's word calls us to forgive but it
is not easy and unless we have the help of God and unless we recognize the compassion
and the mercy and the grace we've received from God it will be impossible for us to forgive
others. But if we ever struggle with forgiving others then the first place we might need
to turn is to this passage to be reminded of just how much we have been forgiven of
in Jesus Christ. It says at the end of chapter 18 in verse 35, so my heavenly father will
also do to each of you, excuse me, so my heavenly father will also do to you if each of you
does not forgive his brother from his heart. Now this slave that had not realized and appreciated
the compassion he received to pass it on to others was cast for all of his life into prison
to be tormented and so it shall be for you and I. If we are not those who experience
the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ, if we are not those who forgive others then
we will suffer the same consequences as this slave that we see in this story. But at the
end of that verse Jesus says this will happen to us if we do not forgive our brother from
our heart. Forgiveness is not simply words you say, it's got to come from your heart.
You know you little kids sometimes you fight and your parents say alright make up to your
brother and sister tell them you're sorry and they're like I'm sorry and you really
don't mean it you just say it because your momma says you got to say it or you're going
to get a whipping and like sometimes we kind of do that even as adults we kind of act like
it's okay, we kind of act like we've forgiven people and we do just enough to be able to
speak to them in a crowd but really in our heart we haven't forgiven anybody and forgiveness
must come from our heart and I think the only way we can truly forgive others is to be truly
forgiven ourselves. And once we experience the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ
if that does not transform our heart in a way that causes us to think twice, that causes
us to have a little compassion to those who have sinned against us then maybe our heart
has not been changed by Jesus Christ. Perhaps today you are one who needs to be forgiven,
you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Perhaps you think today that your
debt is too large, perhaps today you've decided you're going to try to work it off, you're
going to try to earn God's favor, if he would just give you another chance maybe you are
like the slave we see at the beginning of the story that begs the king if you'd give
me another chance I'll repay it. But I'll tell you today you cannot repay the debt of
your sin but if you'd go before the king and you would seek him and you would ask for forgiveness
then your sin will be covered, your sin will be cast away as far as the east is to the
west. There's no limit to how many sins Jesus can forgive, he can forgive all of them. Everyone
you've committed and I've committed and everybody in this room has committed and in the whole
world Jesus Christ can forgive those sins if we would just seek him. You'll find peace
in that today if you'd come before Jesus Christ and repent of your sins and seek him and live
for him. There's peace in that and there's joy in that. Maybe for some of you today,
maybe you have trusted Jesus Christ, maybe you've experienced that forgiveness and maybe
you've forgotten how great of a gift that is. That Jesus Christ died to forgive you
and me. As rotten as we are, Jesus forgave us. How many times has the Lord given you
second chances? You've had a million second chances and if God is gracious to give us
chance after chance then how can we as children of God not give those around us one more chance?
It's hard when people do us wrong but I believe Jesus teaches us that there is no limit to
forgiveness. There is no limit to the forgiveness that he gives to us and therefore if we are
to follow Jesus we are to forgive those who sin against us. Maybe today you are his and
maybe you're struggling with it then keep seeking the Lord and ask him to help you to
deal with that person who has wronged you. Maybe today you just feel angry and you feel
hatred and you just feel mad about what people have done to you. I pray that God would help
you to overcome that and maybe the solution to your problem and the restoration of your
joy is going to come when you forgive those who have wronged you from your heart. So we
have a decision to make today. Will we be like this slave who was forgiven and who took
it for granted or will we do better than him? Will we receive the compassion and the mercy
of the King and be compassionate and merciful to those who are around us? Blessed are the
merciful for they shall receive mercy. Let us be men and women today who are merciful
to those who have wronged us just as Jesus has been merciful to us. Let's pray. God we
come to you we thank you for your good word today and dear Lord this is a tough passage
that really calls us to reflect on our own life dear Lord we may be tempted to think
we are not as bad as we really are but dear Lord maybe if we are honest today we are just
as rotten as this unforgiving slave. That God we have received your grace and we have
seen it and God we are not at all willing to live in that grace and share it with others.
So dear Lord I pray that if there are any here today that do not know Jesus Christ that
maybe they are struggling in the burden of sin that today they would experience grace
for the first time. To know that they do not have to live in sin and live for the world
but if they would just ask you to forgive them their sins would be forgiven today dear
Lord. I pray that they would turn their life to Jesus that they would repent of those sins
that they would experience your grace and mercy right now dear Lord that you would bring
about a joy in their life that they have never experienced before today. God maybe there
are some in this room today and they just struggle with the wrongs that have been committed
against them dear Lord there are great wrongs that have been committed against us but dear
Lord we have committed great wrongs against you and yet you still find it in your heart
dear Lord to forgive us. So God I pray that we would do the same thing that we would find
it within our hearts dear Lord to have grace to other people that you would be with us
dear Lord that you would help us to have compassion like you do and mercy like you do and I pray
that we would seek you for strength to do that because God we cannot do that on our
own. God I pray that if there are any in this room today that have been holding grudges
that are reluctant to forgive dear Lord that they understand the severity of that God.
We would recall your word dear Lord that we are not forgiven if we do not forgive others.
So God I pray that if we are struggling today that we would not allow that lack of forgiveness
on our part to just rattle us inside dear Lord but that we would forgive those who sinned
against us that we would experience joy today and peace today. God we thank you for who
Jesus is we thank you that he loved us enough to die on the cross for us as rotten as we
are dear Lord we are just a room full of rotten sinners but yet Jesus Christ died on the cross
so that we could be forgiven dear Lord that's a debt we could not repay. God help us never
to try to earn your favor by what we do but to accept that Jesus Christ has paid the debt
for us today. So I pray God that if you spoke into any today that God that you just work
in them right now that they would respond to you right now dear Lord that your Holy
Spirit would work among us. God help us to experience your forgiveness and to have a
heart of forgiveness toward others and I ask these things in Jesus name Amen.