Good morning to you all again. If you would take your Bibles and turn to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. I got a call last night from Paul about 9.30. We were just croaking on the phone like I knew what was going on. But I know enough after all these years to have some kind of a plan B. So, Matthew 18. I want to start reading at verse 21. Matthew 18, starting at verse 21 to the end of the chapter. Matthew 18, 21. Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 77 times. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children, and all that he had in repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, have patience with me, and I'll repay you everything. And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him all that debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii. And he seized him and began to choke him, saying, pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground, began to plead with him, saying, have patience with me and I'll repay you. But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what he was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way I had mercy on you? And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers and told him he should repay all that was owed him. And so my Heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Let's start with a word of prayer. Our Lord Jesus, you gave these words for our instruction, so Lord, I ask now that you would send the blessed Holy Spirit upon us all, Lord, to understand what you said here, what you mean, what it means to us. Help us, Lord, to hear your word, to hear you speak, and Lord, give us the grace and the power and the conviction and the repentance, Lord, to live according to what you told us to do. For your glory and honor, we ask this in your name, amen. This is one of those probably most important of parables. Jesus has many parables. They're all important. This is one of those parables we ought to revisit, I think, over and over and over again. This is crucial to living the Christian life. And you really need to know this well. The context of this, if you look back in this chapter 18, verse 1, his disciples come and ask him, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? That's a question he asked several times, was asked of Jesus. And of course, we don't take time to read all this. What he does, as you recall, starting in verse 2, he grabs a little child, holds him in his lap, and says, unless every one of you becomes like this child, you can never even enter the kingdom of heaven. And what he means by that, I think, is that just like a child is totally dependent upon his parents, children don't worry about the economy. Children don't worry about what's going on in North Korea. Children go to bed depending totally on their parents to take care of them. He said, lest you become like this child, totally trusting me, totally emptying yourself, so you can't even enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord goes on in chapter 18 to talk more about this, these little ones. He said, if anyone does anything at all to hinder these little ones, to make them stumble, remember what he says there? Jesus gives here in chapter 18 the most violent words he ever said. He said, anyone who puts a stumbling block in front of one of these little ones, He'd better have a big piece of concrete tied around his neck and thrown in the ocean. That's what Jesus said. So he's talking here about stumbling blocks, putting hindrances in other people's way. Then he uses that to go on in verses 15 and 20, he starts talking about in the church. What do you do in the church, he says, if your brother offends you, or you have something between you and your brother? I remind you, next week we're going to have communion. Paul said before you take communion to examine this very issue. So if you're going to take communion next week, I encourage you to pay close attention to this. But Jesus said there, if your brother has something against you, You go to your brother privately. You go to him. Don't wait until he shows up at your door. You go to him privately. Say, brother, we've got to get this right. If he won't hear you, then you take another along with you. If he won't hear you, take some more. Take the church. But the whole point there is, as found in verse 15, to win your brother. Win your brother if you can. In other words, Jesus is saying here about stumbling blocks and being like these little children. You do whatever you have to do. to win your brother, to get along with each other. You do whatever you have to do to deal with offenses, to deal with problems. When someone offends you or someone hurts you or someone, whatever, you do whatever you have to do, brethren, to make that right. Go to great lengths to keep the peace. Don't wait till they come to you. You go to them. Well, in our context here, Peter's hearing all of this. And Peter's a little dense sometimes. I love Peter, because he's a lot like me. He's picking up on this. Notice again there, verse 21. Then Peter came and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? For seven times? He's getting it. Peter's starting to get it. He knows our Lord taught often against the Pharisees. Don't be like them. He's doing that here. He's talking about offenses and offending one another. So Peter says, Lord, well, then how many times can my brother offend me and I still forgive him? Now, in Peter's day, you know the situation, right? Peter says, there are sins against me. You know how it is. Some brother in church offends you. Someone does something you don't like. And you forgive them because you're Christian, because you should. Then they do it again or they do something else. And you forgive them. But Peter's asking, Lord, how many times do I do that before I stop? Where do I draw the line and stop forgiving them? Where do I draw the line and say, all right, I've had enough of you. I've had enough of them. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm done with you. Peter says seven times. Now what Peter's doing here, again, he's learning. The Pharisees taught, you forgive a person three times, but never four. Then you cut them off. Well, Peter's doubling that. Seven times? He knows better. He's trying to be better than the Pharisees. Lord, seven times? Do I do this, Lord? Peter's learning. He's more than doubling. Peter's now being twice as good as the Pharisees taught. Of course, you know what Jesus says here is legendary. And everybody knows this. Look at it again there, verse 23. Jesus said to him, 22, I do not save you up to seven times, but to 70 times seven. Now, what he's doing there, I believe, he's actually reversing something back in Genesis chapter 4. It's on your sheets. Lamech, who was a mighty hunter and, I believe, a wicked man. Lamech said there, if Cain is avenged sevenfold, Lamech is avenged 77. In other words, I will get retribution of my enemies to the uttermost. Jesus takes that and reverses and says, you're going to forgive your brothers 70 times, seven times. This is how our forgiveness should be. His point here is obvious, I'm sure. He says, Peter, don't draw a line. Don't do that. His point is obvious. Love your brothers and sisters. We should be in a continual state of forgiveness and trying to work things out and trying to get things right with each other. We're to have a heart of forgiveness, a heart of compassion, like God does. Imagine if, God, you were lying. Rick, I'll forgive you 147 times, but after that, you're done. You know where I'd be right now? I'd have crossed that line very quickly. You all would. If God drew a line, said, I'll forgive you this many times, but after that, I'm done with you, we'd all be toast. And we know it wouldn't work. All through the New Testament, we're told to forgive. We're told to bear with one another. That means put up with. That means, even though some people, believe it or not, some people in church are a little hard to get along with. Put up with them. Bear with them, our Lord taught us. Be patient. Be tolerant. We're told to preserve the unity, to work at this, to be one in the Spirit. All of that, I believe, is based on Jesus' teaching right here. We're to get along. And when we don't get along, we're to work it out. We're to talk to each other and love each other enough to work it out. And that's not an option. It's a command. It's a command for every Christian. It's what it means to be part of the kingdom. Now, having said that, Jesus, as he often does, illustrates this by telling this parable, which we just read there starting in verse, notice verse 23. For this reason, because you're supposed to forgive each other 70 times seven or over and over forever, for this reason, hear this story. And he tells this story to this king. And I think you're familiar with this. In this parable, Jesus basically points out two points. We're to see God's response to this sinner's request. And then we're gonna see this sinner's response to other sinners. And of course, verse 35, God's very harsh reaction to this. So let's work through this now. Verse 23, for this reason, what Jesus is saying there, I believe, is because I want you to be a forgiving people, I'm gonna tell you a story. Parables are meant to illustrate spiritual truths. This is spiritual truth told in a story. There's much to learn here. He says here, notice, first of all, the kingdom of heaven might be compared to. My definition for the kingdom of heaven is basically the church, visible and invisible. Jesus says, my kingdom is like my king. What he's saying is, those who acknowledge me as king, those who acknowledge me as Lord, those who are truly Christian, here's how you're going to live. Here's how my people walk. My kingdom is like this. In other words, if you're not like this, then you're probably not in my kingdom. I'm probably not your Lord. This is how my people, he says, live in my kingdom. It shall be like this. He's saying, it'll be in my church like it was with a certain king. And as he tells the story here, verse 23, there was a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought in. Let's just work this through. Now, a king back in those days would usually own lots of territory. And that territory would be divided up into various plots. And he would have stewards working for him in those various plots. And those stewards were responsible to make sure the grain got harvested, the grain got sold, the money got brought back to the king. Well, the king's calling in accounts. He's calling in all of his servants to receive what they owe him, what he rightfully is owed. And in comes this servant, it says there in verse 24, who owed the king, he's back in payments, 10,000 talents. Now you can read that and just pass over that and not think a whole lot about that. Let's work that through. I tried to find it, a denarius, which is often used in the Bible. I have a denarius, it's about that big, it's a little coin. A denarius was one day's wage. What you make in a day was denarius. It took 6,000 denarius, or denaria, I don't know how you would say that, to make one talent. 6,000 days wages, or more than 15 years of your wages for a day, to make one talent. Now, let's work this out. I just took an arbitrary number. Say you make $12 an hour. That means that denarius is worth $96 if you work eight hours. One denarius, one day's pay is about $96. That means a talent would be 6,000 times that, or $576,000 for one talent. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. This guy owes 10,000 talents. Do the math. That would be 60 million days pay, or at $12 an hour, $5,760,000,000. This guy owes this king. Now, I'm sure they would do what Paul's doing. They would chuckle. Nobody could owe that much. To put that in context, that's over $5 billion. Back in their day, Rome only collected 900 talents from all of Israel. The entire country only owed Rome 900 talents. This guy owes 10,000 talents. Solomon's temple was estimated to cost around 8,000 talents. This guy owes more than it costs to build Solomon's Temple. $5,760,000,000 he owes. Now I imagine when Jesus told that, people would chuckle. Yeah, right, yeah, okay, yeah. His listeners must have chuckled at this. It's impossible for any one man to owe a king that much. It's impossible. And you would think this must be hyperbole. I said it right, Tom, hyperbole. An extreme over-exaggeration to make a point. Jesus often did that. Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand. He often used phrases like that. Now in verse 25, you notice he said, because he did not have the means to repay, his Lord, as was a custom in the day, ordered this guy and his whole family sold into slavery. Because I can't get back to you what I owe, I'll get out of you what I can. You're going to be a slave for me until you and all your children die. That was custom in those days. That's just how it was. Before I go any further, let's take this apart. Like you do with all parables, these stories are designed to be a picture to illustrate some important spiritual truths. Let's ask some questions. Jesus is telling us, here's what Christian forgiveness looks like. It's like what this king did. Who's this king, obviously? God. In fact, we see that in verse 35. My heavenly father, Jesus. That's who we're talking about here. What is this calling into account then? Well, it must be the judgment day, when God calls us all into account to examine what we've done, to examine what we have. God exercising his authority as judge. Who then is this servant? Well, verse 35 tells you, you. So my heaven and father will do to you, if you, it's you and me, it's us. What is this debt, then? What does this guy owe? What does that mean? What does he owe that he can't pay that's so enormous? Now, let's think about this amount again. Let's just rethink this. At first, $5.7 billion sounds extreme. It just sounds like it's ridiculous. It's meant to be an exaggeration. Or is it? Let's think this through. Can a sinner really owe God that much? You're getting it. You would think, some would think, this sinner must be Adolf Hitler. He must have an awful lot of sin in his life to be that guilty. But think about this. Let's do some math. I'm about to turn 60 in a month and a half. In 60 years, how many times have I broken God's law? Now, we've done this before here. It's been a while. How many times do you think in 60 years have I done things or thought things that I should not have done? in thought, word, deed, attitude? How many times in 60 years do you think I haven't done those things I should do? Have I, I haven't loved God enough, I haven't prayed enough, I haven't read the Bible enough, I haven't, fill in the blank. How many times in 60 years do you think I've done that? Let's work this out. I got this, this isn't original to me, I got this, I don't even remember anymore. Suppose in all those 60 years I only sinned once a day. What a day that would be. If I could have just one day where I only sinned once, Man, what a day that would be. Let's do the math. One sin times 365 days times 60 years gives you 21,908 sins in 60 years. If I'm only sinning once a day. If by God's great grace I live to be 80, that would be 292,000 times only sinning once a day I've sinned against God. Imagine getting arrested, going before a judge with a quarter million violations on your account. And that's only if I sin once a day. Does anyone here ever sin once a day? Have you ever pulled that off even once? Not even close. Not even close. If you think this through, this enormous debt this guy owes is not really all that ridiculous. In fact, it's not even funny. We owe this kind of stuff before God. We tend to downplay God's holiness. We tend to downplay our own sinfulness. But if you could add up in your lifetime, how many times you've done what you shouldn't have done or not done what you should have done, you would find you're in the same pickle this guy's in. Billions and billions and billions. It would be. That's not an exaggeration. His debt is an illustration of the awful situation every one of us finds ourselves in. We are career sinners. We can't help it. It's who we are. It's what we are. From our earliest days, you parents know this well, from our earliest days we break God's law. Our sin debt, if we could see it, is enormous, absolutely enormous. God is holy, God is righteous, God is just. Sin must be punished, Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, the soul that sins must die. When a holy God looks at our sin debt, It is enormous. It's like this guy walking in there and owing him over billions of dollars in back pay. If anyone ever appears before God in our sinful condition, God would have no other choice. but to condemn us. That's just logical. That's just the facts. We've earned that. We deserve that. We have no way of undoing it. We can't make it right. This guy can't pay his debt, neither can we. He can't even begin to pay this off. Even if a guy spends 50 years in jail, he'll never get close to paying this off. By the same token, if God were to cast us into hell, we'd never get out of there because we'd never pay this off. Never. Now, the king could have had him executed right there. Verse 26, notice it again. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself, saying, have patience with me, and I'll repay you everything. Is this guy nuts? I mean, he bows down in worship in reverence of the king. Please have patience. I'll pay this all back somehow. Right then and there, the king could have had him executed for saying such a dumb thing. My mom used to always say, don't talk so dumb. I did a lot of that when I was a kid. It's stupid. He's never going to pay this off. He could sell the whole nation of Israel and not be able to pay this off. It's not even remotely possible. But again, here, as is so often in Jesus's parables, everybody's with him to this point. He's answering Peter's question. Remember, how often must I forgive? Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Notice the next verse, 27. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. That is shocking. Most of Jesus' parables have that shock element. Like what? Wait, what? What did he just do? He forgave everything. Now think about that. The word there says he felt compassion. That's often said of Jesus. That's a Greek word that means from the inside he just moved with compassion. When Jesus saw that leper in the road, and everybody's backing up, the whole leper, Jesus' heart broke for him. Jesus loved him and bowed down and touched him and healed him. When Jesus sold the multitude, one, he's like sheep that are shepherds, his heart was moved with compassion. It broke his heart to see them like that. This guy, this moron, who says, I'll pay this back, he's on his face before the king's heart, breaks for him. He's moved with compassion. He says, all right, listen, I'll cancel your whole debt. I'll just write it off. I'll just, I'll take the hit. I'll take the loss. I'll just write this off. Now that is an expression of incredible love. I mean, how else do you describe this? Why else would someone do that? This guy doesn't deserve this. The king just says, just for my own sake, because I'm moved with compassion for your condition, I'm just going to write this off. I'm going to take the hit myself. I'll take the loss. Now here's this fool. He's totally ruined. He's totally helpless. He's making idiotic promises. But he is begging for mercy. That almost always gets a response from God in the scriptures when you beg for mercy. The king's heart breaks for this guy and he cancels it. Now think this through. Who then paid the debt? The king, he took the loss. He's out $5.7 billion in his own account. He just took the hit. He took the loss, he absorbed the cost. Who paid for this man's release? The King, the one who the debt was owed to, paid that debt for him. Imagine how that must have felt. The one who the money was owed to paid it himself. Of course, you can see here the beautiful picture Christ is painting here, can't you? You can see what he's telling us. Remember what Christ prayed from the cross, Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. This guy has no idea what he's saying. But forgive them. Forgive them, Father. They don't know what they do. This is a beautiful picture of the great salvation we have in Christ. We owe a debt we couldn't possibly pay. We're in big trouble. Just like this guy owned $5.7 billion. We're in big trouble. Our only hope is to beg for mercy. Lord, I can't pay this. Please, Lord, have mercy on me. That's the gospel. And God himself paid our debt by absorbing the cost. Remember, he was punishing our place. What we owed, he paid. God treated Jesus Christ on the cross as if he'd lived my life. And now he's treating me as if I lived his life. That's that great transaction. We owe a debt we couldn't pay. He paid a debt he couldn't owe. Our God, the one we've sinned against, paid this debt himself. And that man walked out of there. Forgiven. Free. Can you imagine? Imagine someone just all of a sudden paid off your house, paid off your car, paid off all your credit cards, paid off all your debt. How would you feel? Whoopee, right? You would feel like a huge burden. Man, this guy must have felt walking out of there. Man, I went in there thinking he's going to cut my head off. I'm walking out of there forgiven. What a great king we have. What a great king this is, right? That's what he would have been thinking. That's what I would have been thinking. We too, if you're a Christian, you know that same joy. Our sins are gone. You've got to try to work up the truth. How holy God is, how wickedly sinful you are, and then realize in Christ, that's all gone. I'll never face that again. That's amazing. Let me ask you a question. Do you know this? Can you put yourself in this guy's shoes? Have you been there? Have you done this? Realizing your debt is unpayable, your debt is insurmountable, you can't pay any of this off, but you've asked Him for mercy. And He gave it to you. Do you know that feeling? Do you know that? Is that true of you? Have you come to the place where you realize your sins condemn you, you can't do a thing about it, but He, just for His own kindness, decided to punish His Son instead of you? Not because you earned that, not because you deserve that, because He had compassion on you. Jesus promised, He who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a beautiful promise. But now, that's actually not even the point of this parable. It's a beautiful thing in the parable. It's a beautiful picture here. But now this parable takes another strange, sad twist. Verse 28. But that slave then went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He seized him, began to choke him, saying, pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, have patience and I'll repair you. But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what he owed." A hundred denarii is a big sum of money. That's about, again, using that $12 an hour figure, that's about $9,600 this guy owes him. He went out of there fully forgiven of $5.7 billion, but he meets a friend of his who owes him $9,600. He grabs him by the throat and says, where's my money? And of course, I can't pay you now, but I will. And he says, no, you're going to debtor's prison. Get out of my sight. He has a guy arrested, thrown in jail. Now think about that. This guy shows no mercy. He demands punishment from his fellow slaves. They're slaves. He acts harsh. Even though the second slave, like he did, begs for his mercy, he doesn't give it. And he casts him into jail. Well, of course, verse 32 and 33, the king hears about this. Kings hear about everything eventually. His fellow slaves ran and told the king what that guy just did. And now notice this, verse 32. And he summoned him. Then summoned him, his lord said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt. This is emphatic in the Greek. All that debt I forgave you because you asked me to. Should you also not have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way I had mercy on you? That's actually the point of this parable. An answer to Peter's question, Lord, how many times must I put up with my brother? Here's the answer to that. Lord, who is the greatest in your kingdom? Here's the answer to that. Let's work through this. The king is furious. All of that debt I forgave you. Should you not notice in the same way what I've done for you, shouldn't you then have done that to your fellow slave? Look what he's asking him here. Well, $9,600 is a lot of money. It's nothing compared to 5.7 billion. You see what Jesus is saying here? I hope you can get this. This is answering Peter's question. How many times, Lord, must I forgive my brother? Jesus is saying, Peter, it's not a matter of how many times. It's a matter of how you forgive. It's a matter of why you forgive. It's a matter of your attitude towards your brother who sinned against you. In this parable, Jesus is describing the motive for Christian forgiveness. Not how many times or where do I draw the line, the motive is How you've been forgiven is how you forgive. Now think that one through. It's not a matter of how many times. It's a matter of why should I forgive him? How should I forgive him? In Jesus's kingdom, We must forgive each other in the same way that we've been forgiven. Didn't Jesus say that in Matthew 7, 12? Do unto others as you have them, do unto you. That's so simple. How do I want to be forgiven? Forgive them as well, fully and freely, undeservedly, simply because they ask you. Think this through, guys. This is a big one. Or to put it another way, We should be so shocked at what God did for us. I hope you think often that you should often picture yourself before the cross. Picture your sin. Picture what Jesus had to go through to pay for that sin. Picture what God did for you in Christ. Picture the freedom you now have from sin. Fill your mind with that. You should be so shocked at that, so blessed because of that, so overjoyed because of that, so full of happiness over the forgiveness I have, that I should turn around. That should color everything I do for you guys. Everything that comes into my life from that point on should be colored by that fact. All that God has done for me should color, should influence, should be the background music playing in my life for everything I do from now on. we should be people of the cross. That slave should have walked out of that king's throne room so full of joy, so full of relief, so full of gratefulness that he should have said to his fellow slave, listen, brother, don't worry about it. What just happened to me, I can't hold you to account. Don't you worry about it. I forgive you because I love you. because I know what grace is. He should have shown his fellow slaves the exact same compassion. On your sheet at the end there, there's two verses. Ephesians 3.30, Paul says, And answering the question, who then is the greatest? How should I forgive my brother? Here's the answer. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor, that's fighting and getting mad at each other and slander, be put away from you. Along with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, how? As God in Christ forgave you. The way God has forgiven you, you must offer that same forgiveness to every one of your brothers. God doesn't draw lines. God doesn't bring up the past. God forgives fully and freely because of Christ. Next verse, Colossians 3, 12. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another. That means putting up with each other. And if one has a complaint against each other, what do you do about it? Forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Can you imagine the church that believes and follows this? the peace, the love, the joy, the freedom from conflicts. There will be conflicts, but they're dealt with. Think about it. In fact, this text is even stronger than that. The point Jesus is making here is found at the end there, verse 35. Verse 34, this guy, the king is so angry at this, he takes that slave and throws him into hell. He throws him into the dungeon, to be repaid what was owed. He's owes the word, they're torturers. Verse 35, the point of all this, and so my Heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from the heart. Those are strong words. People tend to write that off, well, you know, we're saved, God won't do that. What he's saying here, if you cannot forgive your brother, then you are not forgiven. Maybe you think you are. But if you can't forgive your brother, if you can't love him, if you're not so enamored and filled with the love of God to you that you can't forgive your brother, you can't go to him when he sins against you, you can't work this out, then don't think you're forgiven either because you're not. He's saying here, Christians, in my kingdom, my people know how to forgive. And they practice forgiveness all the time. So think about it. The whole parable here is found in verse 35. Notice there's no amount given. If God doesn't say, unless you forgive your brother from your heart seven times, you forgive your brother from the heart, like God has forgiven you over and over and over and over. God has to forgive me every day. So does he you. So what Peter's doing here is asking the wrong question. How many times should I forgive? That's the wrong question, Peter. Why should you forgive him and how? all the time. The question is, how should I forgive? How? Just like God forgave me. What God did to you, you turn around and do to others. Or as whoever said in Acts, freely you've been given, freely you give. You got it free, you give it free. God gives it to you in a huge abundance, you shovel out whatever you can, every place you go. That's the idea here. Now this test here is a serious warning. Again, I remind you, next week is communion. I'd advise you, Paul tells us at the communion table, to examine yourself. If you have something against a brother, I'm not saying anyone here does, but if you do, also examine yourself. This is serious. Communion means we're all together in union. We love each other. We care for each other. We want to be with each other. Jesus here is saying, if you're unable to forgive one of your brothers, that calls in question your forgiveness, because why can't you? Why can't you deal with this? Why can't you and he get over this? Bitterness, unforgiveness, judgmentalism, this whole, if Christians lived that way, Jesus here is saying, you're probably not a Christian. You probably haven't received grace if you can't give. You don't know what it means to be forgiven. Salvation is a life-changing experience. Again, of course we're not perfect at this, and of course we fall and blunder. We're supposed to know this. Jesus makes this very important. We're supposed to know this. When you receive great mercy, it softens you. So some thoughts here in closing. The parable is pretty obvious when you understand the numbers involved. It's an extreme example of God's forgiveness. We need to know very clearly what we are before a righteous, holy God without Christ. Again, the Puritans had a statement, take one hard look at yourself and a thousand looks at Jesus Christ. You need to have an understanding of how wickedly lost you really were. This parable points that out. That 5.7 billion is not an exaggeration. In fact, it's an under-exaggeration. We owe God more than we can ever imagine. God, if you understand, in Sunday School class, we're going through the Ten Commandments, if you understand how holy He is, how righteous and pure, who can't even look at sin with favor, who He is and what you are without Christ, that changes everything. Because then you realize when He forgives you, when you've come to Christ for forgiveness, you realize what He's done. When Christ hung on that cross and all of my sins were laid upon Him, do you have any idea what that meant? What He went through for me, for you. No, you don't. Only God can experience something like that. Let her be there. There is no hope for any one of us but God's mercy. This guy laying on the floor, please forgive me, I'll pay you all. He's talking stupid. The only hope he has is that king says, you know what? Just out of compassion, I'm gonna forgive you. That's the only hope he has. If that king chose not to do that, that man would perish in jail under the torturers. He and his whole family would have perished. As the story goes, there is no hope for any one of us but in Jesus Christ. See, think of the awful price that God had to pay to forgive us. Again, we discussed this this morning. Jesus Christ, the perfect, righteous, holy son of God, having all of your sins laid upon his soul and God treating him like he did what you did. We can't begin to imagine that kind of suffering, that kind of horror. That's why in a garden he prayed, Lord, are there some other way? That's why he sweat blood, Lord, I don't want to do this. The sins of all his people, all the elect of all ages were laid upon his righteous holy soul, and he bore them under God's wrath. Do you realize what it took to save you? And again, no, you don't. We'll never fully understand this. Even a million years from now in heaven, we're going to marvel at what God did. Do you realize what this king had to do? He had to absorb a $5.7 billion loss all in his own self. Not many businesses can survive something like that. King just took it because of he had compassion. Letter D. the point of the parable, the response that this amazing grace should have in our life. Jesus is telling us here, you should walk out of the king's throne room so full of grace, so full of gratefulness, so full of thankfulness, so overjoyed at your forgiveness, you can't help but love your fellow Christians. You can't help it. That's what he's saying here. That's the whole point of the parable. And of course, letter E there, verse 35, tells us this is a test of true saving grace. If someone who claims to be a Christian can't bring himself to forgiveness, can't bring himself to work out problems with his brethren, then Jesus is saying, you're no Christian. You are under God's wrath. You don't understand forgiveness, because the forgiven understand forgiveness. You're a forgiven forgiver, or at least you're supposed to be. Again, I know we're not perfect at this, and I mess this up. We all do. That's why we need Jesus to tell us these things. That's why this is a very important portion of Scripture. We need to think about a lot. You should every day start your day at the cross. Remind yourself of what God did for you. Let that then color. Let that be the background music to everything else you do for the rest of the day. The glories of the cross, the wonders of God's love for a ruined sinner like me should be playing in the back of my head every place I go. God, forgive us that we don't do that more often. God, forgive me that we don't do that more often. This should be a test of saving grace. So then in context, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? One like this little child who trusts his father, who is humble, and one who, like this servant, not like this servant, one who is so full of the reminders of God's love, he can't help but love his fellow brothers, even to the point of tolerating them, bearing with them, forgiving them. That's who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. To answer Peter's question, how many times do I forgive my brother? You forgive your brothers. You love your brothers. You love them. You work this out. You make this happen. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we are amazed that what you ask of us is just to be like you. Lord, your grace to us, your forgiveness to us is immense. It's shocking. It's humbling. It's amazing what you did to forgive us. is scandalous. Lord, you sacrificed your Holy Son for ruined, wicked sinners like us. Lord, our sin debt is enormous. It's more than we could know. It's more than we will ever know. Yet you, just out of compassion, for no other reason than that you are a loving God, decided to save us through Christ. Lord, help us to be broken by this. Help us, Lord, to be challenged by this. Help us, Lord, to never forget these things. Lord, help us to think these things through. Lord, our Lord here in this parable, he wants us so badly to know this, to feel this, to experience this. Lord, forgive us for the times that we are unforgiving, when we hold grudges or are bitter or whatever it is. Lord, forgive us for not taking this seriously. Lord, your people, you expect us to be so full of joy and release and forgiveness that we express that everywhere we go. Lord, forgive us for when we don't. Lord, help us to take these words seriously. Lord, empower your word to our life. Teach us, Lord, to love you. Teach us, Lord, to just be amazed and awe and to adore what you did for us on the cross. Lord, may that be the background music to everything we do and say from that point on. Lord, help us to be forgiven forgivers. Help this church, Lord, to always be a place where we love each other, we truly care for each other, we truly tolerate each other and forgive each other and work out our problems in a way that's pleasing to you. Lord, may you get all the glory for it, because you are the one who teaches these things. Lord, you are the forgiving one. You are the compassionate one. Lord, help us to be like you. Again, we ask this all for the glory of Jesus Christ and his worthy name.