"In the same way that Christ continues to forgive us, we are to forgive others. God is going to hold us accountable that we show others the same mercy and compassion God has shown to us. I am continually sinning against God. Other human beings are continually sinning against me. And I am to forgive them because they are sinners just like me. "
Transcript
We are continuing in Matthew 6:5-15. We are studying about prayer. We are in this section of verses 1-18 of Matthew chapter 6 where Jesus is giving The Correct Understanding of Doing Righteousness. Speaking to Jews and telling them that prayer is not to be exercised and practiced in order for people to see you. It is not supposed to draw attention of people. But rather prayer is a private communication between a believer and his Lord.
So, as we have been studying, we are in Matthew 6:9-13 studying the very concepts and principles of prayer. These are principles, concepts that He wants in our prayer life. He is guiding us so that we do not get off the track in our prayers. Remember that the Lord is not presenting a model prayer to be repeated, either individually or as a congregation. We know that from here because the same principles and concepts are the same, but the wording is different in Luke 11:1-4. Here Jesus is teaching the concepts and principles to Jews, so the Hebraisms are left in. In Luke 11, Luke wrote his gospel to the Gentiles, so the same concepts and principles are presented only for the Gentiles. So it is the concepts that He is presenting. He did not want people to memorize it and then repeat it.
Even back in chapter 6 here, in verse 7, He says, Do not use vain repetitions in your prayer because you think, and people think, that God hears us because of our much speaking. But in reality God already knows what we need before we even ask. He is not impressed with a lot of words or eloquent prayers. He has a whole reason in this relationship with Him for prayer. Remember prayer is communicating to God.
We also know – and I have given you a definition to just summarize all of prayer in the Bible. What is prayer for? Prayer is the means by which we express our submission to the Lord and His will. It is not used for what we can get from God, but an expression of our submission. The first hour we talked about this, this broken life in which we live we are asking for His provision and His will to be done in our lives in the midst of the distractions of all the brokenness and the circumstances that we have to go through. It is for us to align ourselves up with the Lord in the midst of all of life.
And so we see in verses 9 through 13, according to the Greek grammar there are three categories presented in these concepts of prayer.
In verse 9 the first category is realizing or knowing who you are talking to. Our Father who is in heaven. He is not some religious guru. He is in heaven. He is over everything and everybody.
We saw back in Acts chapter 4 the disciples praying after they were threatened not to preach. They spend most of their time in prayer telling the Lord who He is. That He is the Creator of all things. He has designed all things. And even with the Christ, God predicted ahead of time through prophecies all the hardships the Christ would go through. So what they are saying is, “God already knew the threats that were made against them. Therefore,” and then they got to their prayer request in verse 29 of Acts chapter 4, when they said, “Behold, their threatenings.”
Having the proper perspective of who God is when we are praying to Him puts life and our prayer request in perspective. It is to God. He is in charge. He already knows what we need before we even ask. He is already answering the prayer. He is already conducting His will.
So the second category has three things in it. In the second category are three requests in requesting things about the things of God. The first request is, Let Your name be sanctified. The word sanctified means to be set apart, honored, glorified. So as we start out our prayer, remember that when you go in someone’s name – if you go in the Lord’s name, you are going in representation of Him. We represent Him to everyone, all day long, every day, by what we say, how we act, the decisions we make. We are going in His name, and we are asking for His name to be set apart and honored and glorified over my life today.
The second thing is in verse 10. Let Your kingdom come. And so we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, Paul says in Philippians 3:20. We are citizens of heaven, and we are asking for God’s kingdom to come. This is not our kingdom.
Thirdly, Let Your will happen, or take place. Let Your will be done as in heaven also upon the earth. And this is the crux of all of prayer. “Lord, as Your will has been designed in heaven, let it be done upon the earth.” Let Your will be done. That covers all of my life. That covers all of my circumstances.
And again, inserting in over the years the teaching of prayer from the Bible has changed because people prayed for the Lord’s will to be done and situations either did not change or they got worse. So they said that cannot be true because God would never, a God of love would never let harm or adversity happen to us. That is from our culture, that a God of love babies us, that a God of love enables people, He does not allow hardships or difficulties. And whenever people bring up these humanistic or human views of life, I always refer them to the cross. What did God have His own Son go through? Suffering here on the earth. Persecuted. Beaten. Nailed to a cross. A God of love sent His Son to do that and to experience that. And Peter said in I Peter 2 that we follow in His footsteps. We are walking through the same world that did that to God’s Son who is perfect and holy, how much more do you think we are going to suffer? We are not holy. We are not perfect. So we are going to suffer adversity, but also from our own sins as we go through this life.
So we saw from I John 5:14-15 John summarized, fifty-eight years after the public ministry of Christ, John says, We can have confidence that God hears our prayers if we ask everything according to His will. And John says, You can have confidence that he hears your prayers because you are asking for His will to be done. You see, that is an act of submission, an act of surrender. Because John went on to say in I John 5:15 that if you have confidence that God’s answering your prayer then we have right now, in prayer, we have the answers to our request. God is already doing it. Whatever happens is His will. And that is what we are asking for, for His will to be done.
Last week we started category number 3 at verse 11. In this category, Requests Concerning our Needs and Necessities. We finally get around ourselves. It is: (1) acknowledging who God is, (2) praying three things about God and for His will to be done, but now we talk about (3) our necessities and needs. Not our wants, but our necessities and needs.
The first one is in verse 11. Give to us today our coming necessary bread. We spent much time on this last week because of the meanings of words here that present a picture for us, a concept in prayer. Give for us today. So we are to pray for our daily needs; not for tomorrow, not for next week. God wants us to trust him on a daily basis. Secondly, Give to us today our coming necessary bread. It is the bread, the food, that is already on its way and it is whatever is necessary to get us through the day. To provide sustenance for us that day.
So secondly, for today, in verse 12, the second thing in this group of three. And forgive us our debts as also we ourselves forgave (past tense) our debtors. Most people do not realize that Jesus is saying you need to ask for forgiveness for your sins but forgiveness for your sins as you already forgave those who have sinned against you. It sounds like works, like you have to earn it. But that is not what He is saying, so let us dissect this and tear it apart.
First of all, He says, And forgive to us our debts. The first thing I want you to realize is that Jesus is teaching disciples to pray. This is the disciples’ prayer; this is not for a nonbeliever. This is not a sinner’s prayer, “Lord, forgive me my sins.” Even though when a person receives Christ they are forgiven for their sins, that is not what Jesus is talking about here. He is talking to people who will pray this prayer who have already been forgiven at salvation for their sins. So that is very important to understand.
The second thing I want you to understand is the word – notice it is the word debts. Forgive us our debts as we forgave our debtors. In Luke’s version, in Luke 11:4, the word debts is the word sins or trespasses. So it is interesting to the Gentiles He uses the word sins but to the Jews He used the word debts. That is because in the Old Testament religious system the Jews were taught that when they sinned they sinned against God’s justice system and when they sinned that sin is a debt that has to be paid for. A debt. An interesting concept to think of is that when we sin against God it is a debt that is registered in His justice system that has to be paid for. It cannot just go away. The debt must be paid and that is why it is translated debt. (opheilō) is the word for debt and it is the same meaning that we have when you use your credit card. You are putting a debt on your card that has to be paid. When we sin it is a debt against God.
So He says this next thing to pray for, And forgive us our debts, the sins that we commit, as also… The word as means in this same way. Forgive me my debts in the same way as also we ourselves forgave, past tense, our debtors. So forgive us in a way – the same way that we forgave people who sinned against us, I want you to forgive me.
Now remember – and this is very important in order to understand this whole concept – that He is speaking, this is the disciple’s prayer. He is speaking to people who are going to be praying this who have already been saved and we are asking forgiveness for our sins. Here is how it works. Because with sin it works two ways:
(1) When a person comes to know Jesus Christ and receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, when they experience that spiritual birth – the very work of Jesus Christ on the cross, when He died to pay the debt for our sins – that payment is now applied to that person’s life. Their sins are completely forgiven. Past, present, and future.
Paul said in II Corinthians 5:21 that Jesus Christ was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, but He was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He knew no sin, so he became sin for us. He took our sins upon Him so that we could be made the righteousness of God. He paid the debt.
In Colossians 2:13 Paul says, And you, while being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you He made alive together with Christ, after having forgiven you all trespasses. So at the time that I am born of God made alive in Christ, God has forgiven me all of my trespasses and all of my sins. So at that point my sins are forgiven.
(2) But we have a second phase in this whole forgiveness process. After we are forgiven for our sins we continue to sin. So the first forgiveness is for the rebellion and the hostility against God, but we still live in a human body that has a human nature that still has the sin nature active in it. So after we are forgiven for our sins, that is the rejection of Christ, we still continue to sin and God has made it so that we need to continue to come to Him, confessing our sins to Him, and continue to be forgiven on the same basis of Christ dying on the cross. It does not mean that if I sin and do not confess my sins I lose my salvation. No, I am saved. But I continue to sin, so I continue to come to get this ministry of forgiveness, which belongs to Christ – from Christ to me. But we continue to sin, and we continue to need forgiveness.
Now Jesus emphasized this to the disciples in John 13:4-10. Before Jesus went to the cross, when He got up from the dinner, He took a towel and wrapped it around His waist and went around to the disciples and washed all of their feet. When He came to Peter, Peter said, “I am not going to let You wash my feet. I should be washing Yours.” And Jesus said, “If you do not let Me wash your feet you have no part with Me.” Peter said, “Well, if that is the case, do not just wash my feet give me a bath.” And Jesus said to him, John 13:10 He says, “You do not need a bath, you have already been cleansed, you need your feet washed.” Because He said to them later on in John chapter 15, You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you. So He says, “You have already been cleansed. You have already been bathed. You need your feet washed.” As you walk through this life you pick up sin again, you pick up dirt again, and you are going to be continually coming to be cleansed and forgiven for your sins based on what Jesus did for you on the cross. It is a continuous process.
In I John 1:7-9 John says, If we should walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son is cleansing us from all sin. Did you know that when we get together to fellowship together around God’s Word – just as Jesus said in John 15:1, You are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you – that God cleanses us spiritually from the effects of the world, and our flesh, and sin. The blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing us as we fellowship together. And if we should say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we should confess our sins He is faithful and just, in order that He might forgive us our sins, and in order that He might cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So after initially being saved it is a continuous process of me confessing my sins to the Lord as we fellowship together. As the Spirit convicts me of my sin, I continually confess my sins to the Lord, and it is His ministry to me to cleanse me, and to forgive me, and to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. This is the Christian. The Christian does not stop being forgiven at the point that they are saved. A Christian continues to be convicted of their sins. And that is why in I John 3, later in I John, John basically says, If you say that you are saved but you have no conscious conviction of your sin then you have not been born of the Spirit of God. The difference between a believer and a nonbeliever is that a nonbeliever continues in his sin without conviction. The believer sins and the believer is convicted. Why? Because the Holy Spirit lives in them.
That is why Paul said in the book of Ephesians, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. He grieves. He convicts. And so the believer is constantly responding to the conviction of their sin, and continually confessing their sins, and continually being cleansed from the effects of their sins; so that their fellowship with Christ stays intact. So the moment I receive Christ, I am forgiven for all of my sins, all of my rebellion. I am saved forever, never to lose my salvation. But after receiving Christ I am left in this human body with its sin nature. I continue to give in to the desires of the flesh and I am continually convicted of my sins. And I am continually coming to the Lord to be cleansed of my sins.
But in this second part of me coming to the Lord wanting Him to forgive me and cleanse me of my sins, there is a catch. Because when I come to Him, I am dictating to Him how He is to forgive me based on my forgiveness to other people, as they have sinned against me. So basically, I have already been saved, I have already been forgiven in Christ.
As a matter of fact, in the book of Philippians, Paul mentions beginning at chapter 2 and throughout that, You have been forgiven by Christ, so forgive others. That forgiveness that you got at salvation, forgive others who sin against you. That forgiveness that you seek from God for your sins after being saved is going to be based upon my forgiveness of others.
Now there is an example of this. Jesus gave a teaching in Matthew 18:23-35. Here is what He says, Therefore the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, (that is a man who is a king) who wanted to take account of his servants. That is, he wanted to bring all the books up to date, and so he started calling in his slaves, his servants.
And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, who was a debtor of ten thousand talents. Now ten thousand talents is about six thousand day’s wages. And so this servant, this slave, owed a lot of money. And so he has opened up the ledger, here is how much he owed, But he had no way to pay. Verse 25 of Matthew 18, he had no way to pay, and so his lord commanded him to be sold, his wife to be sold, his children to be sold, and all that he had to be sold, and payment to be made for the debt. The slave therefore after he fell down, he worshipped him (literally it is an imperfect tense, he was worshiping him) saying, “Lord, (or Master) have patience (it is the word for long-suffering – “be long-suffering with me, do not bring the judgment on me now, give me some time”) and I will repay you everything that I owe you.” And so the master of that slaved had been moved with compassion, and loosed (or literally released) him, and forgave him for the debt. In this text the word debt is the word loan. He forgave him the loan. Later, it is going to be called a debt just like in our text.
So he had compassion on him, and said, “Okay, I forgive you of this debt, this loan that I gave you. I will not put you in prison. I will not sell your wife, and children, all that you have. I will just wipe out the debt, paid in full, you never owed it.” But afterwards, that same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants who had owed him (literally, was owing him) an hundred pence. One day’s wage. He owed six thousand day’s wages. This one only owed him; his fellow servant only owed him one day’s wage. And he laid his hands on him, and took him by the throat, (literally in the Greek text, he was choking him) saying, “Pay me what you owe me.” And there is our word for debt. And his fellow servant after he fell down at his feet, he was pleading with him, saying, “Have patience (and again the word is long-suffering: makrothumia). Have longsuffering with me, and I will repay you everything. Just like he told his master, now this fellow servant is telling him.
And he would not. He refused to forgive him. He did not ask to have his debt forgiven, he said just give me more time. He would not do it. And he went and threw him into prison, until he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly grieved, and after they came they told it unto their master all that had happened. And so his master, after he had called him, said unto him, “O you wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt, because you desired, (you pleaded with me and I granted your wish): was it not necessary that you also are to have compassion on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you?” And his master was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due, (that is our word debt) all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts should not forgive everyone his brother the trespasses against them.
So basically as God has forgiven us, we go out. At salvation we go out. And that same forgiveness that God has granted to us we are to give to others. As they have sinned against us and they come and ask for forgiveness, we are to forgive them for their sins against us, because God has forgiven my sins. But as I continue to come and confess my sins to the Lord, on a daily basis, God looks at me and says, “Have you forgiven others who have sinned against you? I am going to hold your daily debt if you have not forgiven others, and you are going to have to make it right in order for me to receive the confession for your sins.”
So this is a very important thing, that we forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. And as Christ continues to forgive us, we are to forgive others. But God is going to hold us accountable – that we take this gift and ministry of forgiveness, and we show others the same mercy and compassion that God has shown to us. Because I am continually sinning against God. Other human beings are continually sinning against me, and I am to forgive them, because they are sinners just like me. And by forgiving them I am involved in that ministry of reconciliation between us and God and bringing other people to Christ. Being in ministry of forgiveness is one of the most powerful ministries people can have.
But we first must experience forgiveness before we can do that for others. We have to know what it is like for God to have mercy and compassion on us, and that will cause us to have compassion on others. And God is going to hold us accountable.
Now in verse 14 of our text in Matthew chapter 6, is a confirmation and commentary concerning prayer itself. It says, For if you should forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. That is just what we studied in Matthew 18. And if you should not forgive men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. What is the difference between a sin and a trespass? A sin is something that we commit against God, a trespass is something that we commit against people. It is a sin against people. So He is specifically saying here, “When you come to Me and ask Me forgiveness for your sins and your trespasses, I will go by how you have forgiven others their trespasses. You are dictating to me how I am to forgive you.”
So the first prayer in this third category is, Give to us today our coming necessary bread. And secondly, Forgive us our debts as also we ourselves forgave our debtors. Next week we will take the last one: And you should not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Very interesting request. It has a lot to do with how we deal with Satan every day and what we are asking God to do. We will take that next week.
Let’s close with prayer.
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