For our scripture reading this morning, we turn to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew 18. And we do so in connection with Lord's Day 51 concerning the petition of the Lord's Prayer. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And so let us read from Matthew 18. starting at verse 21 and reading to the end of the chapter. Let us hear the word of the living God. Matthew 18, starting at verse 21. Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him, till seven times Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents. But for as much as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him 100 pence. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me what thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw that what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desired me. Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? and his Lord was wrath, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses. Let us also turn in the back of our Psalters to page 86, where we have Lord's Day 51 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 51. And there, based on the passage of Scripture that we read and many other passages of Scripture, we confess in Lord's Day 51, which is the fifth petition. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, that is, Be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood, not to impute to us poor sinners our transgressions, nor that depravity which always cleaves to us. Even as we feel this evidence of thy grace in us, that it is our firm resolution from the heart to forgive our neighbor. Dear congregation, we begin our reading in scripture this morning with that question of Peter, how oft shall I forgive my brother? How often should I say I forgive you or forgive him in my heart? When you do so once, it can be hard, especially when that person has really hurt you. But then you might say, but never do that again. And he does it again. Do you forgive him again? And a third time, do you forgive him again? Peter thinks seven times. Is that about the limit of how often we should be ready to forgive our brother if he asks seven times for forgiveness? That's quite a lot, or not? For someone to come to you seven times and say, I'm so sorry, I don't know why, but I did it again, and please forgive me. And you just say the seventh time, I forgive you. It takes something, doesn't it? And yet, Peter senses there must be some limit to forgiving others, because if you just keep forgiving others, then forgiveness becomes cheap, and then there must be limits. And the Lord Jesus says, I say not seven times, but 70 times seven. Children can start doing the math, seven times 70, that's 490 times. That's a lot of times. Does that mean that you have to then take a record and, oh, we're at 15, we're at 30, we're at 300, we're at, and then once it gets to 490, then that's it. Clearly that's not the teaching of the Lord Jesus, is it? He is saying that this forgiveness is to be an ongoing forgiveness, a ongoing readiness to forgive, there is not to be a limit of so many times. In congregation, may we not be so thankful that there is not a limit to forgiveness. Not in the first place with man, but with God himself. Imagine if God came to you and he said, you may ask forgiveness seven times and then it's over. What hope would there be for any one of us if there was a limit to the forgiveness of sin only seven times, only so many times, even if it was only 490 times, if it was a limit to the forgiveness of God so much and no more. What hope would there be for anyone who's come to see something of what he is as a sinner? How thankful we may be that in the Lord's Prayer, we not only have this prayer for daily bread, as we heard last week, but also for ongoing forgiveness. And just as that daily bread is needed every time again, so forgiveness is needed every time again in the life of God's children and certainly it's then a need for everyone and what a mercy then that he himself teaches us to pray this prayer to God forgive us our debts Because Christ knows better than we do what debt we have. And Christ knows better than we do how ready God is to forgive without limit. And that is to stir up this petition which we have before us. And may God use his word this morning to stir up this petition in the depths of our heart and to know the riches of the answer to this petition. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Let us listen to ongoing prayer for forgiveness. This involves first, brokenness before God. Second, trust in Christ. And third, grace to forgive. Ongoing prayer for forgiveness involves brokenness before God, trust in Christ, and grace to forgive. If we're honest, maybe a greater problem than asking too much for forgiveness is not asking enough for forgiveness. We have all been taught to pray for forgiveness. We have all been taught to pray when we pray, to include in our prayers, Lord, forgive our sins. And that's why I think that most of our prayers probably include that petition, Lord, forgive our sins. And yet, is it not so often just a routine? Of course you pray that in your prayer. But is that a plea of our heart? Desire of our heart for forgiveness? Is that how you prayed it? in this past week, as you prayed for forgiveness, that that was the cry of your heart, Lord, I can't do without thy forgiving grace to cleanse my sin away and to give me thy favor. If we're still lost, maybe we felt bad about certain things we've done. Maybe we've asked God to forgive, but we've never broken down. and plead it for forgiveness until we've received it or not. And if we're saved, haven't you found your prayers too often so formal? And that you understand, David, in Psalm 32, when he looks back and he admits, over that past time, I kept silence. Didn't David pray? Sure he prayed. Didn't David sing those psalms? Sure he sang those psalms. But there was that period in his life when he kept silent that he realized he was just going through the motions of saying those words, but his heart was silent towards God. His heart was not crying out unto God. He was silent. Why? Because in that same Psalm 32, he spoke of how he had been covering his sin. hiding his sin from God. What a foolish thing it is, isn't it, to try and hide your sin? Children, can you hide anything from God? Sometimes you try and hide things from your parents. And that's also not right. But can you hide anything from God? Is there anything you can just hide and then God doesn't see it? No, He sees everything about us, right? And yet we can, not only children, but also as adults, we can try and hide our sin. We can just try and forget about our sin, and we think if we forget about our sin, then God will forget about our sin. In the 1980s, there was this company in the States which made brown paper bags, and it called them guilt bags. The instructions on there were to breathe into it, as it were, to breathe out all your guilt, and then to throw it in the garbage, and it's as if it's all gone, and don't have to worry, just forget about all your guilt. We may not have such bags, but we can try and just forget about it. Or we can try and hide it with lies. I didn't do it, and I didn't mean to hurt that person, and this isn't really an idol in my life. No, it's not an idol when it is. We can hide with excuses. I couldn't help it, or everyone does it, or I had reason to be angry, or I'm just too tired and too busy to be able to. We have all our excuses. Someone can say, well, I'm unconverted anyways, and of course I sin, and we are sinners. And as if that's an excuse, as if that's something which makes it not so bad. Or we can cover it the other way and say, well, I'm a believer and I don't need to worry about sin. And we're out of tune with this prayer which he taught his disciples to pray, forgive us our debts. And if we think being a believer means we don't need to think about our sin and we don't need to ask for forgiveness, then we have to fear we're living in presumption and not in faith that goes to God with our sin. If we've been trying to do so, trying to cover our sin, trying to forget our sin, and as long as we are trying to do so, then there is not this cry to God for forgiveness, is there? And where there's not this cry to God for forgiveness, then how can we expect to enjoy the true blessing and the true gift of forgiveness? Then we remain with a debt. Because that's actually how our sin is called here, isn't it? in this prayer, the Lord Jesus calls our sin debt. Debt is something that must be paid, isn't it? That's what our sin is. It's a debt that demands a payment to be given. And it's the payment of suffering punishment. Our sin demands punishment. Our sin demands God's curse. Our sin demands God's wrath. Our sin demands God's satisfaction of his justice in the punishment of that sin. And in that sense, our sins are called debts. And what makes them so terrible? And what makes our sin such a great debt with God, it's because our sin is against such a good God, such a glorious God, such a God who's worthy of all that we are and all that we have and every moment of our being. He is worthy of it. And we come to realize what a debt our sin is when we see who we sin against. This God. holiness, of love, of goodness, and that our sin is an attack on that God who deserves our love. That your and my sin is a despising of the God who is so full of majesty and so full of glory. Our sin is saying no to that God of supreme sovereignty who deserves all submission and obedience. Our sin is an assault on the God in the heavens and that's why our sin is so great and that's why our sin incurs upon us such a great debt that must be punished. What reason we have, congregation, to to give up trying to hide it, give up trying to cover it, to give up trying to forget it, but that we become honest before God, Lord, I have this debt. I have this sin. And that one sin, young people, one sin, is a great enough debt to bring us to hell, to suffer there forever. punishment for it. One sin, how much more all our sin, our debts. What a mercy it is when the Lord lets us feel something of that. It was a mercy when in Psalm 32 The psalmist was keeping silence and he was covering his sin. And God came to him and he gave him no rest and no comfort and he took it away. And we read there in Psalm 32, how he confesses, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy on me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. The problem was not that he had a bone disease. The problem is that he had this spiritual distress. Because as long as he didn't confess his sin and receive forgiveness, he could enjoy no peace and no comfort with God. God, he felt God's dissatisfaction, he felt God's anger, and it was an unbearable condition, and his spiritual life dried up into the drought of summer, and he had this distress rather than peace, and this grief rather than joy, and this dryness rather than refreshment. And God was showing him and he is showing us that as long as sin remains unconfessed and unforgiven, there can be no enjoyment of the favor of God. And God letting you feel that is to bring you to confess and receive that forgiveness from him. Maybe that's what God is doing at this time. But you used to shrug off, you can't anymore. And you wonder, how could I think that sin wasn't a bad thing and sin wasn't a problem? It weighs on you now. Your conscience bothers you. You have that distress, that sense of God's disfavor. because of what the catechism calls our actual sins, our transgressions, those specific things that you have done, those specific things that you said, that specific way that you treated that other person, those things that you had harbored in your heart and other people didn't know, but they're there and those things now bother you. Is that so? And that you're seeing that it's not just these specific things, but it's also that what the Catechism speaks of, that depravity which always cleaves to us. That depravity, that corruption of your being. That it's not just this or that act. But as it were, your being is corrupted by that poison of sin. Your being is diseased with that disease of sin, and there is no part of you that's exempt from it. It infects it all. Corruption. Maybe the Lord is showing you that depravity of your heart. Lord, it's not just what I did yesterday and what I did this morning, but my whole being is corrupted, is sinful. It's an unclean fountain and everything that flows out of it is unclean. What a discovery that is. Why does the Lord let you see that? It's so that you would confess your sin before God. makes you realize I can't hide it, I have nothing to hide it with because everything of me is sinful. I can only confess it. The Lord shows you that in order to show you that you have nothing to pay, to pay off your debt. There's nothing that you produce that you can go to God with and say, Lord, have patience with me. I will pay it off. I will be better. I will be good enough. It's impossible because of the depravity of my heart. So that you'd confess your poverty. Us poor sinners, as it says, so that you would seek another to pay for you, so that you would go to another to pay off your debt, that one who stands ready to pay the debt of sin be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood, not to impute to us poor sinners our transgressions, nor that depravity which always cleaves to us, for the sake of Christ's blood. That's why our second point is this ongoing prayer for forgiveness involves trust in Christ. Congregation, we're poor, we're debtors, we daily increase our debt. But to us this morning comes one who is so rich, so rich in grace, so rich in merit, who has all the riches to pay off every debt here, every person here. He is rich enough to pay off all our debts. And this isn't just something which is too good to be true. This is the gospel. This is the reality. This is who Christ is. He is the one sent by God to whom we are in debt. God himself looked down. God realized no one can begin to pay off his debt. It's impossible. God saw us in our poverty, in our guilt, and in our sin. And He knew that we would not be able to find anyone to pay off that debt. He knew it was so bad we wouldn't even seek someone to pay off that debt. We wouldn't even ask God to forgive our debts. But He sent. He sent His Son. And He laid on His Son that huge debt that innumerable debt of an innumerable multitude that he had chosen. Innumerable times innumerable is that debt. And it was laid upon the shoulders of that one man, Jesus Christ. He took all that load of debt on his account. There was no greater debtor in all the world than Jesus Christ who had that great debt laid on his account. What a burden was placed on his shoulders. How could he carry it? Such a burden. He was a real man. Man had sinned and man had to pay. Man had to bear that punishment. He was a real man like you and I. And yet he was also very God. And it was his divine nature which strengthened also his human nature to be able to bear that crushing load of debt, to bear that punishment of sin, to bear that wrath of God that came upon him. that death demanded his blood be shed, and he entered into death. Death meant enduring God's condemnation. He took that burden of sin on himself, and that burden sunk him down into the agonies and torments of hell, of God-forsakenness, and there he paid with his blood. And he exhausted that debt. And he satisfied the justice of God which demanded that he paid. And he could cry out upon the cross, it is finished! It's paid. That debt. No one else can even begin to say, I'm beginning to pay. But he has proclaimed, it is finished. And he could do so, pay that debt for others because he was Jesus Christ the righteous. He had no sin of his own to pay for. He was in perfect conformity to the law of God. Every moment he was in obedience unto God, which is the opposite of us. And now he not only has his blood but he also has the riches of his forgiveness, sorry, the riches of his righteousness and of his obedience to place on the account of poor sinners so that God would see them as if they had obeyed every one of his commandments and kept his law perfectly and had no debt at all. Congregation, this, this is a Savior. The Savior who is proclaimed to you and to me this morning, who is able, who is willing to pay off all your debts, He alone. He comes this morning and He doesn't ask for your righteousness because you have none. He doesn't ask for your goodness because you have none. He asks for one thing from you, your debt. your sin. He says, sinner, why do you go on with that burden of debt, that great debt on your account? It bothers you sometimes, and yet you've gone on. How long will you go on, sinner? Come to me. and I will pay that debt off. Confess it before me as sin, as debt, without excuse and without a covering." He sees his child this morning and he says, my child, why do you go so sad? Why do you go bow down? Why is that song of gratitude far from your lips? Why do you stand at a distance from me? I see your conscience accusing you, and you think that you first have to be better again, and then you can return to me, but that will never work. There's only one way to return to me again, and that's in the way of confessing your debt, your sin, your poverty again. Have you not learned, my child, that I am your rich Savior, and that the riches of my sufferings, of my blood, and of my righteousness are sufficient for you? Will you not ask me to come with you to the Father to plead your cause, myself, to show God my riches for you, so that you to gain know and experience the favor of God? Don't push it off. Don't try to fix yourself up. Confess again. As I led you to do before, confess again your sin, your debt. Come unto me, all ye that are laboring and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's a message of Christ himself this morning. Who is so full of riches for poor sinners? With what less can you do than His payment? What more do you need than His payment, His riches, to clear away your debt? Is that not something to bring you on your knees this morning? Be pleased for the sake of Christ blunt, not to impute to us poor sinners our transgressions. Be pleased. Because we know God only does what pleases him and yet we dare pray, be pleased because his word reveals that he delights to do this very thing. Be pleased. Why? not because of anything in me, all I have is debt, but for the sake of Christ's blood." Isn't that beautiful? For the sake of Christ's blood, there's the hope, there's the plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not because of what's in here, but because of what he's done. In spite of all that's here, be pleased not to impute, not to put on our account our debt off the account, upon his account where it's paid. What a plea. The blood of Jesus. That's why when you pray, children, forgive my sins, You also pray, Lord, wash me in the blood of Jesus, because it's the blood of Jesus that washes all that sin away and delivers from it so that God is then no longer angry. When he forgives, he's no longer angry with you, but he shows you his favor, his mercy, his grace. That's what this petition is for, to receive that forgiveness, that actual cleansing from the guilt of sin. Not just to hear there is blood, not just to hear there is forgiveness, not just to know that others are forgiven, but to enjoy that grace of forgiveness for yourself. Not just comforting yourself, well, I pray every day for forgiveness, but to have that forgiveness. As a psalmist discovered in Psalm 32, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old, thy hand was heavy on me. acknowledge my sin unto thee. Mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin." It's striking isn't it that we don't even read, and I pray to God for forgiveness. He only says, I confess my sin before God. And God was so ready to forgive that when he saw that sin spread before him, Lord, here I am with all my sin, he saw that sin and he forgave it. That's how ready God is to forgive. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. Oh, what a blessing that is. Oh, what a grace that is. When he fulfills his word, when he forgives, and he doesn't impute your sin to you, and he clears it off your account, and there's no debt on your account with God anymore, he's taken it away. And he will not knock on your door and demand payment after all. He's cleared it away. the sea of divine forgetfulness. It's gone. It's paid. All sin. Original sin. Actual sin. Specific sins of years ago. Specific sins of last week. Specific sins of today. When they're forgiven, they're forgiven and they're gone. and that very depravity of your being, it's gone in the sight of God. It's washed away. Then there's peace with God, isn't there? Peace with God because the blood of Christ silences those accusations of conscience that say, you must be punished. I have been punished in Christ. His blood has been shed and it takes that guilt away. Then there's peace. peace with God. And where there's peace with God, there's also access to God. Then you can come before God into his presence. While you are a poor sinner in yourself, and yet washed, cleansed, and there's access, and you don't have to shy away, and you don't have to try and think, if only I was better and only I was different then, because you realize that way of access is through His blood that forgives. And so you may come before His throne through that forgiveness of sins and know the enjoyment of His grace, of His presence, of His mercy, of His fellowship with Him. We have access unto Him. Know what a comfort that gives, doesn't it? His forgiveness. There I am with my trouble and distress. Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all thy transgressions. Oh, what a comfort and what a joy that may give. The burden of sin, it's heavy, and it makes life gloomy. But forgiveness, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. There's the source of good cheer, the forgiveness of sins, giving the sunshine of the favor of God. Oh, what a tenderness also that experience of forgiveness gives. Did He truly give His blood for a poor sinner like me? Then He is worthy of all. How can I not love him who so loved a wretch like me? How can I sin against the one who bore that curse for my sin? It's that very forgiveness that intensifies sorrow over sin and love to him. This is the blessing that flows from being forgiven. This is the blessing contained in those words, how blessed is he whose trespass has freely been forgiven. And this is also the the desire of the Lord Jesus in teaching this prayer, that his people would live in the enjoyment of that blessing of the forgiveness of sins by, can I say, I think McChain, he would say, have short accounts with God. That means the moment your conscience accuses you again, that it's to bring you to Christ again, to receive forgiveness again, to cleanse you again, and so to enjoy that favor of God. how rich His grace is. And it leads to even more. It's this forgiveness which is a secret to a forgiving spirit as we forgive our debtors. That's our final point, grace to forgive. What does that mean? Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Does that mean we are the example to God? We forgive our debtors, and that's a pattern for God to follow, then also forgive us our debts because we are so forgiving, be also forgiving to us. Certainly that can't be, can it? God's forgiveness can never be based on our forgiveness of others. We are never an example to God of forgiveness. The catechism paraphrases it this way, forgive even as we feel this evidence of thy grace in us. That it is our firm resolution from the heart to forgive our neighbor. It says this readiness to forgive others is an evidence of Thy grace in us, worked by Thy Holy Spirit. Who may go to God with a childlike confidence that He will forgive my debts again? A child of God may have that childlike confidence that the God who was forgiven in the past will forgive again. And who may have that sense? It's those who experience the grace of God. And what is the evidence of receiving the grace of God? There's many different evidences, but here in this prayer, that one evidence given is a forgiving spirit, a loving, forgiving spirit is not the fruit of our own natural hearts. It's the fruit of the grace of God. Years ago, there was a young Muslim who was converted in Egypt. And his former friends, they ganged up on him and they beat him severely and then they asked him, what can your religion do for you now? And he answered, I can forgive. He was changed from a vengeful Muslim to a forgiving person by the forgiving grace of God. God's work towards his people leaves a faint stamp of that work in them. God's love towards them leaves that faint stamp of love to him and love to others. God showing mercy upon you leaves that faint stamp of becoming merciful in relation to others. God giving you his peace also works that effect of desiring to be a peacemaker. And God also giving his forgiveness also has this effect, that you begin to desire to forgive. When you see how free and undeserved that forgiveness of God is, and that he sent his Son to secure that riches, to pay the price with his blood, then you learn what free forgiveness is. And when you realize what your sin is against God, then you realize that my sin against God is worse than the worst that people do to me. Naturally, we always think that the other person, he's bad, and he hurt me, and he did this to me, and she did that to me, and he doesn't understand, and she, and we see all the faults of others. And we think, why should I forgive them? But it's grace that humbles and makes me a sinner before God that I see my own sin, first of all, and I see what it does against God. And then I'm no longer looking at all the faults of others so much, because I see my own sin. And that makes it easier to forgive others because of who I am. But also, if God would forgive a sinner like me, Who is worse than the others are towards me? And who am I to refuse to forgive another and hold onto a grudge and bring up those things time and again and again of years ago or weeks ago? If I do so, then I'm actually saying, Their sin against me is worse than my sin against God because my sin against God can be forgiven, but I can't forgive them. And that's heresy. That's a lie. Then we have that parable, don't we, of this one who had that great debt forgiven by his master. Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars. today's money. And he went down the street and he found that man who owed him a few thousand dollars maybe. And he grabbed him and he demanded that he pay that debt. And when the master heard he said, that doesn't fit together. And he put him in prison. The point of the parable is not Well, God forgives your sin, but then if you're not forgiving, then he cancels that forgiveness after all. That's not the point. The point is this, that if you have that harsh and unforgiving spirit, then you have no basis to believe that God has forgiven your sin because there's no evidence of the grace of God in your life. That's what he's teaching by that parable. Where is this to bring us, congregation? Isn't it even to show us how our unforgiving spirit, how our unkindness, how our carrying on of grudges, how our bitterness towards others, and all those things only show our own depravity, yours and mine, and only show how much we need forgiveness ourselves? And is that not to bring us back to this God who forgives? who says, acknowledge your iniquity, confess before me, for I am ready to forgive, more ready to forgive this morning than you and I are to confess our sin. That's who God is. And that's why whatever we are and whoever we are and whatever we've done and however we've lived, whatever our spiritual state is, we may join in this petition this morning. Forgive us our debts. Be pleased for the sake of Christ's blood. not to impute to us poor sinners our transgressions, nor that depravity which always cleaves to us. For Jesus' sake. For the psalmist sang, as we will sing, when I confess transgression, then thou forgavest me. Amen.