Matthew 6:9-15

Speaker 1: I'll take your Bibles if you haven't turned to the book of Matthew. Matthew, chapter number six is where we're going to be in just a moment. A couple of things for me to just share with you before we get into the message today. First, some of you have already asked me about the Sunday school electives that are really starting up on June 5th. If you were here for Sunday school today, you should received a flier. If not, there are there's a stack of them out on the welcome desk. But on June 5th, we're going to be starting a host of new studies in our Sunday school classes. And these are not age restricted. You'll see on the sign up sheets that there are loose suggestions for the age range that we're targeting. But you are absolutely not restricted from any one of these different classes. We're going to be having some new teachers that are going to be teaching for the first time here at the Baptist Tabernacle to give some of our longtime teachers a break. And so there will be a lot of different options there, a lot of different studies that will be available to you. And if you already know, hey, I'm already coming to Sunday school. I already know what class I want to be in. Then please help us by going and signing up for one of those classes this morning after the service is over. If you say, well, I don't I don't come right now, what are these studies going to be about? Well, over the next several services will be explaining more of what each study will be about. And I think we've got some really helpful courses that we're going to be going through to help with a variety of different life situations, life stages. And so I'm I'm confident that this will be a blessing to you. We will be having our first in a while new members class. And if you are new to the Baptist Tabernacle and maybe you have joined or you're thinking about joining, joining, we would love for you to be a part of that new members class that'll be going on and there's a signup sheet out there for that. Just kind of helps you to get an idea of who we are as a church and perhaps some of the opportunities for you to jump in and be a part as well. And so I'm super excited about this. I've got a new study that I'm going to be starting with my class and wait to get into it. One of the thing I would ask, if you have a prayer sheet or a prayer journal or something, something to remind you to pray for your church on a weekly basis. Maybe you just use the prayer bulletin from Wednesday night, but please be in prayer specifically this week for myself and the officers. Coming up on Thursday night, we're going to be meeting with two different construction companies. They're going to be presenting their their program. They're offering how they can help us. If you remember, back at the beginning of the year, we said that our goal this year was to work on a site plan for the property here, kind of map out what we believe God would have us do in the future. And so we've been visiting with these two companies. And so on Thursday night, the deacons and the trustees and myself will be meeting with them just to kind of get their final pitch so that we can hopefully make an informed decision of what to present to the church. And so let's pray for wisdom, pray for clarity, pray that God would just make our path very plain. We talked about in Sunday school, Proverbs three, five or six this morning and believe that God wants us to know exactly what he wants us to do. He doesn't want us to be confused about what the future holds for the church. We're going to trust him and we're going to move forward in faith. But we want to make an informed decision as well. So please pray for that this week and hopefully in the next weeks or months we'll be given more information about that as we can. All right, Matthew, chapter six, if you were there, would you join me in standing in honor of reading God's word verse is where we're going to begin and we'll read down to verse number 15. Why was this after this manner? Therefore, pray he father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Forgive men their trespasses. Your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if we forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father. Forgive your trespasses. We looked at versus to 13 last week and this week we want to focus in on verses 14 and 15 and see what there is here for us this morning that we can apply to our lives. So let's pray and let's be seated there. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we can spend together. I pray that you'd help us. Now, as we look into your word, please give me the words you'd have me to say. Help the folks that are here to listen and apply with you here to their lives. Sports in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you. May be seated. I asked this last week, I ask you again, how many of you memorized the Lord's Prayer at some point in your life? That's a lot of hands. Those words are familiar to us. They roll off the tongue almost without thinking about it. But, you know, it's interesting to me that with all of the important, powerful, deep statements that Jesus makes in the model prayer or what really should be called the disciples prayer, there's only one that he revisits after he's done giving them the prayer. He's laid out all of these things about their daily provision, their relationship with him, their relationship with others. But the one thing that he goes back to in almost like an appendix or an addendum or an epilog too, to what he has just said is this matter in verse summer 14 and 15 about forgiveness? Now I know that I'm probably the only one in this room that struggles to forgive certain people. But if you would just permit me, I'd like to wallow in my own sin for a little bit here. And hopefully God will help me to get over this matter of unforgiveness. Surely I'm not the only one. Okay, good. All right. Well, hey, you know, we have out in the foyer. We believe in teaching. We believe in fellowship. Fellowship doesn't mean we believe in eating together. It means we believe in bearing one another's burdens to walk this path together. And so don't think for a moment that you're the only person here today that has struggled or is struggling with the matter of forgiveness. We have all struggled with this at one time or another. If we will be honest. You know, there's a lot of people who do us wrong. In life, you know, you can be on the highway. Somebody cut you off and that person has done you wrong. A grave injustice has just been committed against you. But most of us, by the time we get home, we've forgotten about it. It's exited our minds. We're not. Most of us are not going to be bent out of shape for the rest of the night. You go to work. You expect that your boss or the other employees are going to treat you like garbage to some extent. If you're in customer service, you know what to expect when you get that call from a Karen. The other line. And as soon as she starts talking, you, you automatically begin to formulate a picture of her in your mind, you know? And so you're used to those things. So you might be wronged at work. You might be treated poorly at work. But for some of us or most of us, we kind of expect that. So a lot of times we're able to let it roll off our backs and we move on. But there are some cases where someone does us an injustice or someone offends us, and we just can't seem to let it go. Perhaps you've been hurt at church before. You would expect that, you know, idealistically. Church would be a safe place that surely a church among God's people, all of these wonderful, God loving disciples, surely a church no one would ever get hurt. You know how many times I've knocked on some of his door to invite them to church? And they say, I used to go to church. And then they'll tell you some story about how they were hurt at church. That's hard for us to let go of. Why? Because we don't expect it's not okay for us to go to church and be hurt. Now, Pastor steps on your toes in the sermon. That's totally different. Miss. Miss, they had somebody step on her toes the other day when we were standing around talking and I. I was trying to think of a joke to say, well, you're at church, so you expect to get your toes stepped on. But it didn't come fast enough. And so I didn't say anything. So? So church and other ones. Family. Family is supposed to be that trusted group, that trusted circle that accepts you and loves you no matter no matter what. You know, they may not agree with you. You may have different political opinions. You may have different jobs, careers, interests, hobbies, and yet family. You expect to love you. How many of us have been hurt by family in the past? How many of us are at least aware of someone that that is in the same family who can no longer talk to each other because of something that has happened in the past? You see, all of us struggle with forgiveness at one time or another, throughout our life. And so I'll throw myself right in there and say that I do struggle to forgive when certain hurts have come into my life. And so looking at a verse like 14 and 15, this is really hard. How am I supposed to stand up here and tell you to forgive the people who have hurt you, perhaps abused you in the past? How can I say that to you when I haven't mastered this skill myself? So I said to me one time, Can you do that after I preach the message? And I'm like, You know what? Without the Lord's help, no. I'm giving away the end here, but we'll come back to it. But let's let's let's dove into this, see if there's something that can help us here versus 14 and 15. If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father. Forgive your trespasses. I don't know about you, but this sure sounds like it's a theological term. Throw it out there. You can probably figure it out. Legal justification. This sounds like legal justification. If you do this and God says, I will do this, if you don't do this, well, then I will not do this. Now, this is a pretty generic term. We obviously understand that what we're talking about here is if you forgive, you will be forgiven. If you don't forgive, you will not be forgiven. Would be harmfully negligent for us to take a statement like this and interpret it without comparing it to everything else that has been written in the Bible. Because if you were to look at this passage alone, then you would have to make some conclusions about forgiveness that don't fit with the foundational principles of Christianity. Christianity is not a do religion in order to get Christianity is all about what Jesus already did because you couldn't do it for yourself. But if we take this verse by itself, we might be led astray in the thinking that our forgiveness of sins, our salvation, somehow depends upon us and our ability to forgive. And as we've already established, there's probably not a person in here that at one time or another hasn't struggled to forgive someone else. It's possible, maybe even probable, that all of us in here today have someone presently in our lives that we are withholding forgiveness from. Is that possible? If this has to do with our salvation, then we're in big trouble. Without context, this passage seems to put performance requirements on the salvation or the forgiveness of God, and this is a dangerous assertion to make. If we're talking about the forgiveness that comes at the moment of salvation here at the Baptist Tabernacle, though, there are other groups out there that would disagree with us. We believe that when a person puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, all their sins are forgiven in that moment. Past, present, future. You know, when. When Jesus Christ died on the cross. How many of your sins were still in the future? All of them. So is Jesus somehow not powerful enough? Is His blood not sufficient enough to cleanse all sins, including future ones? Yes, of course it is. Someone might say. Well. This seems to be a pretty plain reading. What it's saying makes logical sense. If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. I mean, that that kind of applies to a lot of our life, doesn't it? And that even applies to some things in the Bible. If a man will not work. It will not eat. Yeah. So. So logically. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. But what happens, though, when we insert any other requirement into this phrase? Does it does it sound as reasonable? What if this passage said instead of if you forgive your Heavenly Father, will forgive? What if, instead of that, what if it said, if you give 90% of your income, then God will allow you into heaven. If you don't give 90% of your income, God will not forgive your sins. Does that sound as reasonable? No. Well, what if it says something like like this? You know, if if you don't spend at least ten years on some foreign mission field, then God will not forgive your sins. Oh, we would say that you can't earn your salvation. You can't you can't serve God enough. Be good enough, be moral enough to to merit salvation. To merit God's favor. So why would we? Why would we accept that? That's what Jesus is saying, if that's in contradiction to the rest of Scripture. See, no person has ever been redeemed through works. It is impossible for us to merit forgiveness by our own actions. Right. If he chooses to. Eight, nine says what for? By grace are you saved through faith? And that not of yourselves, is the gift of God, not of. Austin. Imagine those. Grace is the unmerited, undeserved favor of God upon us. Many people ascribe to the idea that their moral and immoral actions will be weighed out against each other. They think that if the moral outweighs the immoral, then you will merit God's favor and forgiveness. But this isn't even remotely close to reality. You see, we know from the Bible that even the moral things that that we do are insufficient to merit God's favor, aren't they? Even your righteousness is as filthy rags. You see, if you were to weigh out your actions, the things that you think are good and the things that you think are bad, there wouldn't be anything on the good side. It would all be on the bad side. There isn't anything on the moral end of your proverbial scales. And every age of man has had to reconcile with the fact that we cannot please God in our own strength. You can't pray enough to please God. You can't serve enough to please, please God. You can't give enough to please God. And you can't forgive others enough to somehow earn your own salvation. In the Old Testament. We see that even the Old Testament Saints were saved by faith. Abraham believed God and it was a counted unto Him for righteousness. This is repeated that phrase four times in the Bible. Genesis 15 six, Romans four three, Galatians three six and James 223. All reiterate the same truth that Abraham, an Old Testament saint, was saved or was made righteous through belief in God. In the Old Testament, righteousness was applied in response to faith, and Hebrews 11 gives us a list of examples from the Old Testament of people who had saving faith. Just as you and I are, have to have saving faith. Salvation can never be earned through our own goodness or morality. Forgiveness of sins is granted to us based on the work of Jesus on the cross. We either believe that that is the case or we don't. If we believe. We will be included in his forgiveness. So if verses 1415 can't mean that we can earn salvation by forgiving others. Then what do they mean? Why did Jesus go back to this phrase? Why did Jesus return to this matter of forgiveness? And what is he trying to get us as his disciples to learn? Well, I think the key there is that, number one, this is spoken to his disciples. Isn't for a lost person, a person who doesn't know Jesus as their savior Jesus is talking to. Probably what most of us would identify as Christians. Followers of Christ. Disciples of Christ. And if He is not referring to the forgiveness of sins, salvation, well then what is he talking about? I think we can narrow this matter down by understanding some things. Number one, like I just said, Jesus throughout the Sermon on the Mount is talking about marks of his disciples. I can figure out if I go out in the parking lot who most of y'all root for when it comes to college football. Because there will be a marking on your vehicle and I will see. Oh, this person must be a Christian. They've got. Whatever emblem you want to insert there. This person, there is hair loss. They need salvation because they've got this emblem on their. But Jesus says there are some marks of his disciples. True disciples don't do their their charity work for others to see them. True disciples don't pray in the most conspicuous place and way possible so that others will see them. True disciples. Realize they've been forgiven. And so they then go and forgive others. Assumption is that the people to whom Jesus is talking are either already his disciples or they are looking at what it is like to be his disciple. And so either they're already on the other side following Jesus, or perhaps they're thinking about their decision and they're like looking over the fence to see what's it like to be a disciple. And Jesus says, If you want to be my disciple, you realize you've been forgiven, and so then you will forgive others. It is a mark of discipleship. He's not detailing the method of conversion. Instead, he is describing a life after conversion. The life of a disciple. Other verses 14 and 15 hit. For a person who presents themself as a disciple of Jesus. If you claim to be a disciple of Jesus in verses 14 and 15, come up in your Bible reading. How does that how does that land with you? How does that strike you? Well, it shows us that if. The mark of discipleship. Is not a parent in our life. Then we need to make sure that we're really a disciple. If if this is a an identifying. Mark. And identifying emblem. Of a person that's following Jesus. Then you and I need to look and see. Do I have the mark of a disciple? We don't forgive others so that we will be saved. But I think it's legitimate for us to say that we forgive others because we are saved. The relationship of the prayer to God is that of father and child. Remember back in verse number nine, we said Our Father, which art in heaven, verse number 14 and 15 reiterates the relationship here of a child to their father. As with any father child relationship, there are certain resemblances that indicate the relationship, even in a spiritual parent relationship. There should be some marks of identification that says, This is my child. What is the mark of God other than his forgiveness? I mean, for those of us that follow him, that's a pretty big identifying mark of who God is willing to forgive, quick to forgive. And so if we are going to claim to be his children, his students, his disciples, shouldn't we be the same? A person who refuses to forgive may need to examine whether or not they've really been forgiven. Because our list of offenses before God is was expansive. And expensive, although we could say that too. But expensive. It was wide range. Forgiveness on such a large scale impacts the recipient. How many of you were saved before the age of 15? How many of you were saved after the age of 15? Okay. Quite a few hands both times. Those of you that were children when you accepted Jesus as your save your, you don't really look back and see maybe a whole lot of gross, immoral behavior that God had to forgive you. I was four years old when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. There wasn't a whole lot going on back then. It's my shame. There's been a lot that's happened since then. And yet Jesus has forgiven me for every bit of it. When I think about the cost, when I think about the the length of my list of offenses before God. It starts to put things into perspective. When I compare my offense to God versus the offense of others to me. They don't even compare. What I have done to hurt him. Versus what others have done to hurt me. The the lists, the if it was to be weighed out, it wouldn't even be comparable. In the. As a disciple. As an imitator of my master, as a son of my Heavenly Father. Look at his example. And I find the strength to forgive. Is he forgave me of much. And because of that. I find that I can forgive you. Of the little. It's a mark of the disciple. It's a mark of the child of God. Jesus. Words also describe a guiding principle that ought to inform the actions of his disciples. We're going to turn there. You're probably familiar with it, but in Matthew Chapter 18, Jesus delivered a parable on forgiveness about the servant who had a great debt. It follows immediately after he has just told Peter. Peter says, How often should I forgive my brother? Seven times. He says not seven times, but 70 times seven. I may have been homeschooled, but even I know what that multiplies out to. You probably heard a preacher say that that's not 490 times over the course of a life. That's 490 times a day. Brother Randy gets to a thin me 490 times every day, and God tells me I should still forgive him. You get the 491. We're done. Gloves are off. It's actually I don't think I want to mess with Brother Randy. Probably a short fight. But right after Jesus says this, he tells the story that illustrates the importance of forgiveness by telling the story of the debt, the debt that this servant had to his master. You see the relationship there, servant, master. That's something that holds through, holds true throughout the whole parable. But this servant had an unpayable debt. And the master calls him and forgives the servant of all of his debt and sets him free. You know the story. The man. Was overcome by the greatness of the burden that was lifted off of him. So much so that he fell on his master's feet and worshiped him. Everything that you see in the first part of this story is just like, yes, well, this is amazing. Then he goes out. Forgiven servant leaves his master's presence, and he finds another man who owed him a very small debt. The forgiven man takes the other man by the throat, demanding repayment. When the man could not repay his small debt. The forgiven man then goes and takes him and throws him into prison. Of course, the master hears about this when he does, he is livid. He had forgiven this man's great, unpayable debt. And yet this man had not found it in his heart to forgive the minuscule debt of his peer. The Master then takes the man. Whom he still considers his servant and delivers him to face the tormentors until his debt is paid. I don't know about you, but I see a strong connection to Matthew. Chapter six verses 14 and 15 with Matthew 18. I want you to think of some questions real quick to see if we can apply this to our passage. Was the man with the great debt. Was his debt forgiven? It was. Did he go and then forgive the one who owed him a debt? No. Were the deaths comparable? No. What were the cons or were that? Were there consequences for his sin of unforgiveness? Yes. Was there hope that he would escape the consequences of this offense. After refusing to forgive. No. She had disciples refusal to forgive. Could mean he's not a disciple. But it certainly means that he will face consequences for his lack of forgiveness. You see, what I see in verses 14 and 15 is not a nullification of your discipleship. It may be your discipleship wasn't valid to begin with, but if you were a valid disciple who then threw their own flesh and battle with the natural man, finds yourself unable to forgive Jesus, saying there are consequences when his disciples who have been forgiven, refuse to then forgive others. God knows the damage that unforgiveness causes to the soul of his disciples. Unforgiveness and bitterness go hand in hand. It's been said that bitterness is drinking poison and thinking the other person is going to die. So many times when you and I harbor unforgiveness in our hearts, the person that we are refusing to forgive doesn't even know. They don't even realize. We think that we're hurting them. We're getting back at them when in reality we're hurting ourselves. God knows the damage that we cause ourselves when we refuse to forgive. And he loves us too much to let that go unaddressed. And so as long as we refuse to extend forgiveness to another, there will be a rift in the disciples relationship with his master. It doesn't change the fact that you can go and look at Matthew Chapter 18. It didn't change the fact that he was still the master servant. But there was a consequence for his unforgiveness. And you and I will remain disciples of Jesus. Nothing can take that away. But there can be a rift in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Just like there can be a rift in your relationship with your earthly children or with your earthly parents. Unforgiveness drives a wedge between us and the father. So what should we do with this passage this morning? Personally. If you forgive them in their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you forgive, not mend their trespasses. Neither will your father. Forgive your trespasses. Wouldn't it be great if we got saved and just stopped sinning? Never again did we struggle with the old man in the flesh. We were just perfect little angels from there on out. I'd be pretty cool. It's not the way it works. I wish. Instead, we find ourselves in need. Of relationship help. From time to time. Or. Day to day. Or hour by hour. I'm offending my Heavenly Father on a regular basis. I don't want those offenses to stack up. I want there to be a clear slate between me and him. So I come to him for forgiveness. Not in the same way I came to forgiveness for salvation when I was four years old. But for the upkeep of our relationship. There is a. An obstacle and an impediment. That can prevent my relationship with God from being the way it needs to be. That is, if I'm harboring unforgiveness to somebody else. What do we do with this passage? I think number one. We have to take the matter of forgiveness seriously. We have to take the matter of forgiveness seriously. I'm afraid that as parents, we cheapen forgiveness for our children. We teach them from a young age that it's a real quick, breezy thing that you can say really not even mean it. Johnny hit me on the head. Johnny, say you're sorry. Sorry. Sam, what do you say? I forgive you. Turn your back. And it seems like when you get even with you. We talked about this back in Chapter five, this matter of reconciliation, dropping our weapons, refusing to go to battle with one another. Forgiveness is releasing that person from responsibility on your part for their actions. You have hurt me legitimately. I forgive you. I am not going to hold you accountable for what you've done. I forgive you. We need to take this matter seriously. There's a there's an exercise that I would encourage you to do. Maybe sometime, if this is an issue you struggle with, go through and write down the people on a piece of paper, write the name of the people the person, write the offense that they committed against you, and then go through that list and verbally forgive those people. Say it out loud. Put a chair out there. Imagine they're sitting there and say, you know, Mr. Bob. Mr. Bob. Different. Mr. Bob. I forgive you for what you did. When I was in high. Some of you probably have. Things you've been holding on to since high school or before. Mom, you didn't love me the way that I thought you should have. I've been holding on to this for 30 years. But I forgive you. But my mom didn't ask for forgiveness. Where is that a factor? We have to take this matter seriously if there is an issue of unforgiveness in your life. It's not. It's not no big deal. It's not a small thing. Forgive the people that you feel have sinned against you. Forgive them. But but but. The pile of offenses is.

Speaker 4: So small.

Speaker 1: And large and the hurt went so deep. Have to forgive. Can't do it. Foster intellectually. I hear you. I agree with you. But I can't do it. I'm not God. No, you're not. Here's. Here's the thing. Beautiful thing. God knows you're not him. You know what this is? This is a refusal to forgive. This is the inability to even desire forgiveness between you and another person. There have been people in my life that it has taken me years to forgive them. I knew I needed to forgive them. So you know what you do, Lord? You know, I need help here. I'm not ready to forgive this person yet, but I know I need to. God, would you help me? Would you help me get to the point where I can forgive? So and so person. This morning, if you're here, maybe that you've been withholding forgiveness when it was in your power to give. But it may also be that you are withholding forgiveness because you don't know how to forgive that person. Refusal means saying, no, I will not. But it also means saying, Lord, I don't even want your help to forgive them. See, regardless of the hurt that you've experienced, you can respond favorably to the message this morning. Whether it means just forgiving that person and letting it go, or this morning talking to your heavenly father. Saying, God, I need your help. To forgive this person. I'm not there yet, but I want to be. Lord, would you help me? Don't you know the God who found it in him to forgive you of your mountain of offenses has the power to work in your life to help you forgive someone else of the relatively small offenses that they've committed against you. What could our lives be like if we were able to truly forgive the people who have hurt us? How much burden, how much pain are you carrying with you for years and years and decades because of unforgiveness? Today Jesus is talking to you through his word. Saying that if you will forgive. He will forgive. If you will not forgive. There are consequences that unforgiveness. Let's pray differently, Father. Thank you for this time we've been able to spend together. Thank you for challenging me, Lord, in my own life with this matter of forgiveness. Or do you know that there have been folks in the past and presently that I have struggled to forgive for the perceived offense and hurt that I've experienced from them? Or do you know that there are people in here who have been deeply wounded by different actors in their life, different agents that have hurt them and offended them beyond their ability to forgive? Lord, I pray that you would use your Holy Spirit here this morning to accomplish two things. Help those Lord who. Who have just been stubborn in. In not forgiving that person. Help them to submit to your will and release that individual from the hurt that they have caused. Lord be with those this morning that. That perhaps have a desire to forgive. But don't feel they have the strength, the ability to do so. Lord, I pray that they would submit to you. They would come to you this morning and ask for your strength. Ask your Holy Spirit to do a work in their hearts, to bring them to a place where they would be able to forgive those that have hurt them in the past. Lord, please do a work in our hearts today. Help us to be good examples to a lost world of what a true disciple looks like by forgiving those that are hurt us. Lord, we love you so much and thank you for what you've done for us. In Jesus name, I ask these things. Amen.

‍