in verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now, I trust by now we've learned that this prayer is best seen and to be used as a pattern, as a model for prayer, not as a prayer that we just say, in a rote fashion. I think every one of us, as a result of school or religious instruction, can all say the Lord's Prayer because we've all learnt it by rote. And there's nothing wrong with learning it, but just praying it by rote, I think, is not what the Lord's Prayer is there for. It is to teach us what true prayer is. One thing that is very striking is that we learn by this prayer that Christ gives us one plea for the body and two pleas for the soul, particularly for the soul's salvation. And when we think about what we read here where it says, give us this day our daily bread, one plea for the body and then the next two pleas are for the soul. Today we're going to consider the grace of forgiveness. And when we think about the word forgiveness, it's the one thing that separates. Please excuse me, I seem to have something stuck in my throat. But it's the one thing that truly separates Christianity from every other religion. And that is that we receive real or true forgiveness. It is the gift of God beyond all earthly wealth. To be forgiven is the most blessed thing we could ever really speak of and testify to. Jesus says that our sin is a debt we bear before God and therefore is only relieved by God's boundless mercy through the gospel. And this petition that we're going to look at this afternoon doesn't just address the forgiveness we receive as guilty, helpless sinners in need of mercy, but it exhorts us to forgive those who have sinned against us because of the great mercy and the forgiveness we have received. I'm really struggling with my throat here, just give me a minute. It's allergy season, so when it really gets you, it gets you. So before we go into this one, we pray. Father, please help us now. We pray that you would grant us mercy and grace. We pray that you'd give us ears to hear and a heart to receive the words that you would want us to take to heart. and that you would want us to respond to. Lord, please, we pray for the help of your spirit now. In Jesus' name, amen. You should be fine. Well, the first thing I want us to consider, beloved, and I do think that it's important for us to use our outlines, if you have them in your bulletin, Anyway, is the soul's preeminence over the body. The soul's preeminence over the body. Now the last time we were looking at the Lord's Prayer, we considered the petition, as I mentioned to you, give us this day our daily bread. And I began by considering how important it is to realize that we were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If you recall in that sermon, we remembered our Lord's words, man doesn't live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Man was not created for his belly. He wasn't created for bread. He doesn't live to eat. He lives to glorify God. Thomas Watson put it this way, observed from this, that we are to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies, more careful for grace than for daily bread, and more desirous to have our souls saved than our bodies fed. So let's think about this petition, beloved, under this heading, the soul's preeminence over the body. What does this petition show us? What does it teach us? It shows us what our true priority is, that our soul is our true priority. How often is it not that as Christians we find that the problems in our lives start with us? We tend to have this faulty assumption that if we just were with the right people, everything would be okay. But the problem is with us, right? The problem begins in our own hearts. Our greatest problems are our hearts. In fact, one man put it this way, Octavius Winslow, he says, it is in the region of our own forgiveness by God that we learn the Christian precept of our forgiveness of others. So we have to begin with God dealing with our sin before we can even begin to deal with the sin of others, right? And so, Think how much time, in the light of what Jesus is teaching us here, how much time we spend on our bodies, how much time we spend on the external things, and yet we neglect our souls. We neglect the true condition of our souls. Psalm 49 says this, those who trust in their wealth and boast in the multitudes of their riches, none of them by any means can redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their souls is costly. For the redemption of their souls is costly. It's the soul that is eternal. It's the soul that will carry on in immortality. Thomas Watson said, a merchant guards his jewel above his cargo, and so must we, our souls. And so we need to understand that our souls are the priority in this world. But the other, the next thing we need to understand is because our souls are our priority in this world, they require our devotion. They require our concentrated focus in our lives. Who can qualify or quantify the value of a soul which God has created? It is eternal, breathed out by God. Luke chapter 12, verse four and five, Jesus said this, I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that, have no more that they can do but I will show you whom you should fear. Fear him who after he has killed has power to cast into hell the soul and the body. Fear him. Now you think about that and you consider the body. The body is but a husk. It's a temporary dwelling place, a shell. Now that doesn't mean that the body shouldn't be treated with dignity, it should be, even after death. But it is temporary, it is fading, it is a shell, it's dust. The soul is the treasure. It is what I believe scripture speaks of when scripture says we are created in the image of God. Sadly, because of sin, We tend to act more like Satan. We tend to be more like the evil one because just as he is the father of lies and the father of murder, that's what dwells in our hearts as sinners, right? Again, To quote Thomas Watson, he said, the soul is an immaterial substance. It is a heavenly spark, lighted by the breath of God. It is of an angelic nature. It is a diamond set in a ring of clay. It is capable of communion with God in glory. And so when we think about the importance of the soul, It deserves our concentrated focus. It's eternal. It's what is going to last forever, either in the presence of God or under judgment, in damnation, in hell forever. But what is the danger of ignoring the soul, friends? Well, if we ignore the soul and we live our lives For this world, we live our lives with the dust in this world. We end up... losing our souls forever. What does it profit a man, says Jesus, if anyone desires to come after him, let him deny himself and take his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And then he says this, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Even if we had all of the world's possessions, even if we were the wealthiest people on this planet. When we die, what does it profit us? Nothing. In the end, we will go to eternal judgment. One man put it this way, they put on the best clothes, are dressed in the richest garb, but they care not how naked or undressed their souls are. How many of us, who would want to stand before God without covering? Who would want to stand before God nakedly in our souls without the mercy and the righteousness of Jesus? None of us. None of us would be able to stand in front of God without the covering and the righteousness of Christ. So it's important for us to see the preeminence of the soul. But then, as we look at this petition, what does it deal with? Take a look at the verse, it says, and forgive us our debts. It's dealing with sin. As we think about our souls, and we think about our greatest problems with our souls, we're dealing with sin. And what the scripture sets before us, what this petition sets before us, is sin as a debt. It's a debt. Now let's consider its nature and burden. In Matthew chapter 18, verse 23 to 24, Jesus said this, therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And so this idea of being indebted to God is carried throughout the scriptures, right? Throughout the New Testament. So let me explain sin as a debt. Let's think about this for a moment. Why is sin likened to a debt? Well, what is a debt, friends? A debt is something we owe. And what do we owe to God? Well, we owe Him obedience. We owe Him faithfulness. Because we are His creatures. We are created for His glory. And so sin means we've rebelled against God. Sin means we've thrown off, or we think we've thrown off his yoke and we're living for ourselves and we're stealing from God. And so sin is that rebellion against God. Our failure of obedience is an unpaid debt. In Galatians chapter three, we read these words, verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, curse it is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. A debt, says Watson, arises upon non-payment of money or not paying that which is one's due. We owe to God exact obedience and not paying what is due, we are in debt. Luther puts it this way, first we are sinners against God, and that in a great and damnable sins from which few of us are found to be free. And even if anyone be of such a moral goodness, that he be not as yet polluted with the greatest sins, yet he is still a debtor to God. For he does not fulfill the precepts of God beyond what they require, nor indeed does he show forth one duty so as to return the least gratitude or thanks unto God for all the gifts and the benefits that He has received above others. God has blessed us with so many things, beloved. Every day He causes His rain to fall on the righteous and the wicked alike. Every day He blesses us with air, He blesses us with food. Every day He takes care of us. and He's merciful to us. And yet very few turn to Him and give thanks. And so we understand, beloved, that sin is a debt. But I want you to understand, and little ones, I want you to follow me here. Sin is not just a debt. Now, I'm sure you've been in debt to your brothers or to your friends where you've owed them something. And maybe you haven't been able to pay and you've had to get your mom or your dad to help you out. It's a terrible thing to be in debt because that person's breathing down your neck and they want what you owe them, right? But this debt is a far worse debt than that. And I want to say that debt is the most terrible and it is the worst kinds of, sin is the most terrible and worst kinds of debts to have. Now, why do I say that? Well, there's three reasons I believe that sin is the worst kind of debt. First of all, because no human being can pay it. No human being can pay it. The ransom cannot be got from human means. Our best efforts fall short. We are bankrupt. We are naked. We are poor. We are beggars. Can a beggar pay a king's ransom? No. Remember what Psalm 49 verse 8 says, for the redemption of their souls is costly. It shall cease forever. No one can pay the debt of another man's soul. No one. You can't even pay the debt of your own soul. Thomas Watson says this, sin is the worst debt because it is against an infinite majesty. It is high treason against the crown of heaven. The sinner would not only enthrone God, but unguard him, which makes this debt infinite. Our sin is against an infinite and a holy God. And it took nothing short of an infinite and a holy God to take on a human body and come and suffer and die in our place. So it's the worst kind of debt because no human can pay it, but it's the worst kind of debt because it's against God's infinite majesty. Sin defies God's holy nature. And we know how bad sin is because when we think of the Son of God bearing our sins in His body on the cross, Paul says it categorically, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we should become the righteousness of God. That is the undeniable testimony of Scripture. David understood this very well. He understood that it was against God primarily that he had sinned. When you think of David and you think of his sin, who comes to mind? Well, he sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned against Uriah her husband. He sinned against the baby who died. He sinned against the nation Israel. Now to be sure, he did sin against it. But his first and his primary sin was against God. And boys and girls, I want you to understand that. I want you to listen to me carefully. Your sin is against God. When you lie to your mom and your dad, when you don't do the things they tell you to do, and even when nobody's watching, and they don't even know about it, God knows about it, because your sin is against God. Even your smallest sin is against God. When you're horrible to your brother or your sister, when you're ugly to your friends, Your sin is against God. Psalm 51, this is what David says, against you, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. And I want you to think about this for a minute. It only took one sin for Adam and Eve to be thrown out of the garden of Eden. One sin. And so for one sin, God will send our souls to hell. It's a sobering thought, is it not? So we need to understand no human can pay this penalty for sin. And our sin is the worst debt because it is against the majesty of God. But the third thing I want to say about the terribleness of sin is that sin grows. It grows and it spreads exponentially. It proliferates, it spreads throughout. And this is what the psalmist says. Look at what David says in Psalm 40 verse 12. For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart fails me. When we really see sin the way God describes and explains sin to us, Our hearts will fail because sin is just added upon sin. In fact, Octavius Winslow said this. He says, countless as the sands that belt the ocean have your sins against God been. And Watson puts it in this way. He says, sin is not a single but a multiplied debt. Forgive us our debts. We have debt upon debt. Innumerable evils have encompassed me about. Psalm 40 verse 12 says, we may as well reckon the drops of the water in the sea as the number of our sins. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a terrible debt. A terrible, inescapable debt. And there is great sorrow if we leave this world as unforgiven debtors. Without forgiveness, every blessing we may receive. And to be sure, God is good and He's kind, and that's what really makes our sins so terrible, is that God is still so kind and so good to us. And He loves us so dearly, and yet we sin against Him. And every blessing that we receive, every mercy that God gives us, a mother, a father, If we are not in Christ and we do not turn to Christ, even our most sweetest blessings will be a curse upon us. Even our most sweetest blessings will be a curse upon us. Now listen to what Malachi says. If you will not hear, and if you will not take it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, I will send a curse upon you. I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already because you do not take it to heart. Now, how many are there here this afternoon who hear the word of God, who know that God blesses them, and yet they do not take it to heart. They do not return to the Lord. They do not give their lives over to him. Even their blessings have become a curse to them. Even their blessings have become a curse to them. What a terrible thing. An unrepentant sinner's table is what? It's a snare for him. Every bite he eats, he eats with a curse. In fact, our Lord Jesus speaks very plainly. And he says, even what he thinks he has, he thinks he has something when in fact he actually has nothing. But even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him. and great and eternal sorrow and terror await those who live in this world without Christ, who deny Christ at every turn. Let me ask you a question. Say now you were invited to the governor's mansion. Little you get an invitation in the mail, you come into the governor's mansion, you dress in the most beautiful clothes that you can and you go to the governor's mansion, but there's one condition. As you move, and as you talk to the people, and as you sit at the table, there is a sword hanging over your head by the thinnest of threads. And at any moment, that thread could snap, and that sword could fall and end your life. Let me ask you, will you enjoy that banquet? Would you be able to eat that food with ease? Would you be able to speak to those lovely guests with ease? No. it would be a horrible situation, would it not? At any moment that sword could fall. How could you enjoy life's festivities and life's good things if you knew that there was a sword hanging over your head? And I want to tell you, The worst part of it is this, if you are without Christ, not only is there a sword hanging over your head, but the very ground you walk on is like a rotted plank and you could fall through at any time and be in hell forever. What a terrible, terrible situation to be in. Even your blessings will become curses to you. That is what it's like to have a debt. towards God that is unpaid. It's the most terrible debt you can have because no human can pay it. Not only can no human pay it, but it is a debt against God's infinite majesty. And also, it grows beyond counting. Sin proliferates. What a terrible, sorrowful thing to be a debtor towards God. But what does this petition teach us? The next thing we see is that it gives us hope, doesn't it? Because there is a plea for forgiveness. We come to God to plea for forgiveness. What a glorious blessing that we can come and ask him for mercy and forgive us our debts, says Jesus. What does that mean to forgive us our debt? To forgive sin means for God to take away our iniquity, to take away those perverse inclinations of the heart toward evil, those things that defile the soul before a righteous judge. All of our outstanding debts, God is willing to take those and cancel them. What does God do when He forgives our sin? He takes away all of our inequities. Thomas Watson says this, when the heavy burden of sin is on us, God in pardoning lifts it off from the conscience and does what? What does he do? He lays it upon Christ. He lays it upon Christ. Now let me talk about the meaning of forgiveness. What does it mean to be forgiven? What does it mean to be forgiven? Simply stated, it means that God blots out our sin. He blots out our sin. He wipes our sin away. Have you ever used blotting paper? And you write something on paper and you take ink and you blot over it. And when you look to see what the writing is, you can't see the writing because it's completely gone. It's been blotted over. Well, this is what scripture bears witness to. Isaiah 43 verse 25. I, even I, am he who does what? Who blots out your transgressions. For my own sake, I will not remember your sins. So when you come to God, when you lay hold of God and His mercy in Christ, what does He do? He blots out your transgressions. Richard Sibbes, a Puritan, very precious, they call him the heavenly doctor. This is what he writes, he says, forgiveness is the sweet restoring of a broken soul to God's favor. A healing of the breach sin has made, whereby the Lord turns his face towards us again, as a father pities his children, through the mediation of Christ. Oh, how precious to have the face of God turned to you, to have the gaze of God look upon you with pleasure, to receive you with delight. The psalmist says this in Psalm 103 verse 3 to 4 about God. He forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. When you think about your debt against God and how terrible it is and insurmountable it is, Are those words not the sweetest words you could ever hear? That God redeemed your life from destruction, that he crowned you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Jonathan Edwards says this. Forgiveness is the glorious manifestation of God's mercy, whereby he pardons sin, not for our worthiness, but for the sake of his own name and the infinite worth of Christ's atonement, making the soul a partaker of divine grace. Doesn't that sound like a glorious gift? Doesn't that sound like a gift that before you leave this building today, You want to possess and own. And you can. And you can. By confessing your sins, by coming to Christ, by calling on the name of Christ, you can possess this glorious forgiveness. But let me move on. Let me not just talk about the meaning of forgiveness. Let me talk about the beauty of forgiveness. Let me extol its virtues to you. There is nothing more glorious than this reality that God forgives. Our greatest debt is against God. It's against his majesty. And yet God forgives by his own, according to his own will, according to his own purposes, he forgives, not based on anything in us. But why does he do that? He does it because of his son, Jesus. He does it because Jesus came and shed his blood for us. Why else did Jesus die on the cross, friends? What else did he die for? He died to forgive us from our sins. He died to take the wrath of God away from us. In Ephesians 1, verse 7, Paul states it as plainly as possible. He says this, in Him we have redemption. How? Through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. John Owen, another wonderful Puritan, says this, forgiveness shines with heavenly beauty, for as the psalmist declares, mercy and truth have met together, Psalm 85 verse 10, where Christ's cross unites God's justice and mercy, turning His wrath into favor and making the soul a reflector of His grace. The beauties of forgiveness are seen first and foremost in the blood of the son who has secured that forgiveness for us. But let me go on to extol the greatness of God's mercy. Listen to what God says to Moses. And then Moses responds, Numbers 14, verse 17 to 19. This is how Moses responds as God reveals himself. And now I pray that the power of my Lord be great, just as you have spoken, saying the Lord is long suffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. But he by no means clears the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. And then Moses prays, pardon, I pray the iniquity of this people, according to what? The greatness of your mercy. Moses doesn't come to God and say, well, they've been trying real hard, God, because they hadn't been. And even if they tried as hard as they could, it would still not merit the mercy and the grace of God. It was all according to the greatness of His mercy. Just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt, even till now. Is not forgiveness the most beautiful thing we could ever contemplate, Bob? Is it not the greatest act of God's mercy that led to our forgiveness? The offering up of His Son, Jesus, to atone for our sins. His Son, who in our place bore all our sins and was guilty and condemned for us, for us. Listen to what Peter says again, remembering the words that I spoke this morning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not only was he crucified for us, but he was raised up for our justification. But let me move on. We've seen something of the beauty of forgiveness, but let me press upon you this afternoon the urgency of seeking forgiveness. The urgency of seeking forgiveness. How could we liken, or what could we liken sin to? How would you think of sin? Sin is an oppressor. In fact, Jeremiah Burroughs said that if you could concentrate sin and drop it into the ocean, every creature in that ocean would die instantly. It is so evil. Sin is a would-be God murderer, and the cross tells us that. Psalm 38 verse 4 says, For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. And some of you children have understood this in a very unique way. Maybe you've said something or taken something and mom and dad haven't seen it and it's bothered you. And you've laid in bed, and you've stewed on it, and it's troubled you, and eventually it comes out, or you've done something, and you know it's wrong, and it's bothering you, and it's eating you, and you feel that terrible thing. It's a terrible thing to hide from your parents, and eventually you have to confess it. Because it's just destroying your peace, it's taking things, it's just troubling your life. Let me tell you, that's what sin is. It's a burden. It's a terrible burden. The tragedy is we don't, we don't really fully feel its weight because our hearts are so hard, but it's an awful thing. And the Bible tells us in the light of the terrible burden of sin that we must seek God, that we must seek Him with all our heart, with all our mind. And if we seek Him, we will find Him. This is what the scripture says. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. You know, beloved, I want to tell you that there is a time when there will be no more forgiveness. There is a time when the gate will be shut. There is a day when the throne of grace will no longer be open. Nobody knows when that day will be, but while you have breath in your lungs, while you are hearing this sermon, let me encourage you to humble yourself and cry out to the Lord. Jonathan Edwards preached a very well-known sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It's a very powerful sermon. And he writes this. Seek forgiveness with trembling haste. For David prays, do not enter into judgment with your servant. For in your sight, no one living is righteous. Without Christ's pardon, the soul stands naked before God's wrath every hour. Every hour. And there will be an hour when God's wrath will consume you if you do not turn and repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me move on, beloved. Let me fourthly and finally speak about the duty of forgiving as we are forgiven. So we've seen here in this text that a plea for forgiveness and the glorious blessing of receiving forgiveness. But let's talk about the duty of forgiving as we are forgiven. Look at the last part of this petition. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Has the Lord not been merciful to you as a Christian? Has he not forgiven you great mountains of debt, of sin against God? Is it not then incumbent upon you to forgive those who sin against you? Our Lord Jesus said this, and he was speaking to a Pharisee. who accused him of not knowing the kind of woman that was washing his feet with her tears and wiping his feet with her hair. And he said this about this woman, therefore I say to you, the sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. And when you have been the receiver of great mercy, How can you not show mercy to others who have sinned against you? You know, beloved, let me tell you, I think this text would say that someone who is unwilling to forgive is someone who really has not himself experienced forgiveness. Because if you understand the depth of your sin and the horror of it and the just judgment of God, it deserves. When you think about Christ hanging on the cross, bearing your sins in his body, how can you hold? Any sins against your brother? Colossians 3 verse 13 says this, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. So let me say we need to be clear about our responsibility. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 43 to 45, Jesus said this. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. We have a great responsibility to forgive others their sins, even when they sin against us. And this text tells us further on that we must be perfect like our Father in heaven is perfect. And that when we forgive, who will we be having like? We will be having like our Father. You know, when we lie and we steal and we do wicked things, we're acting like Satan, right? But when we forgive, we're behaving like God who saved us and called us to himself. Jonathan Edwards again, he says this, he says, it is our solemn duty to forgive as God does. For Christ warns, if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. And then he makes the stinging statement, he says, to withhold pardon, mocks the mercy that spares us from wrath. It is our responsibility to forgive as God forgave us. It is challenging to be sure, but there is great honor and blessing in doing it. You know, the flesh resists, but grace overcomes. Grace overcomes. to hold a grudge, to hold something against somebody is to imprison yourself. It's to ensnare yourself. It's to embitter your soul. And you remember what we read in the book of Hebrews about the root of bitterness in the camp? It's dangerous. It affects the whole camp. And because of that bitterness, judgment came upon the people of Israel. But listen to what Solomon tells us in Proverbs 19 verse 11. He says, the discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. And his glory is to overlook a transgression. His glory is to overlook a transgression. Octavius Winslow, another great Christian writer who has been a great blessing to my soul. He says this, it is the glory of a man to pass over transgression. That glory beamed around the dying head of Jesus when from the cross he breathed this prayer. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. What does the scripture teach us, beloved? Ephesians 4, 32, Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. And one of the things I appreciate about the Puritans, and why I keep going to them again and again, is just the vivid pictures they use to illustrate the scriptural truths. Watson and his Section on the Lord's Prayer says this, as the sun draws up many thick, noxious vapors from the earth and returns them in sweet showers, so a gracious heart returns the unkindness of others with the sweet influence of love. So, beloved, I want us to understand the responsibility of forgiving. I want us to understand as well, of course, there's a challenge to forgive, but there is great blessing and honor in forgiving. And the third and the final thing that I must say is that there is great danger in refusing to forgive. Great danger. I don't think we will like what it says about us if we refuse to forgive. If we come to God with an unforgiving spirit, should we expect mercy from God? Can we expect mercy from God? No, no. God withholds mercy from those who have been shown nothing but mercy, nothing but mercy. What does an unforgiving spirit do, beloved? Tell me what it does. Think about it. You've struggled with unforgiveness before, and there's been seasons in your life when you have not wanted to forgive, and it's been a struggle. What have those seasons been like? Have they been blessings to your soul? Have they not brought great bitterness? Have they not brought a numbing hardness of heart to you? Have they not filled you with anger and resentment? One of the things about people who who are unwilling to forgive is that they live in the past. They're always living in the past and they're forfeiting the future. They're giving up on the hope that God has given. But when we forgive, what happens? Mercy. mercy and grace and freedom. And God enables us to move forward. You know, our Lord Jesus told the parable of a man who had a great debt, thousands and thousands of denarii. I think it was 10,000 denarii. And he came to the king and he begged for mercy and the king gave it to him. And no sooner had he got out of the king's court, and there was one who owed him a small debt. And he grabbed him by the throat and he had him committed to jail until he paid back every penny he owed. How did the king respond friends? Well, let me tell you in Matthew 18 verse 35, this is what Jesus said. So my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Richard Sibbes again says this, beware the danger of not forgiving, for Jesus cautions, he who does not forgive his brother from his heart, the king will deliver to the torturers, Matthew 18, 35. To cling to wrath is to bind yourself to torment under God's judgment. Jonathan Edwards says this, not forgiving others imperils your soul for Christ says, if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Such hardness shuts you out from the grace of God and it costs you in to everlasting fire. And one more, Octavius Winslow says this, Nothing more strongly invalidates the fact of our own forgiveness by God than an unforgiving spirit towards man. Those are very sharp words. But the true friends, the true, those who have been forgiven much, love much. Have you been forgiven much? Have you experienced the mercy and the grace of God forgiving you? Young ones, do you know Christ forgiving you? Having mercy upon you? That you've had sweet fellowship with Him? That you've met with Him and spoken with Him and you've read of His forgiveness in the Word? There's nothing more reflective of your love for God than forgiving others. Well, let me Let me conclude. There are a couple of exhortations I want to set before you now. Beware of living for the flesh. Beware of prizing the body over the soul. Don't forsake the eternal for the fleeting. Why do you do that? Why do you want to live for the dust of this world when God offers you eternity? Turn your judgment upon yourself and commune with your own heart, says Martin Luther. Consider your soul. Consider where you stand before God. Watson says it this way. We ought to be more careful for our souls than for our bodies. And how do you do that? Remember what I taught you this morning? Go to the word of God. Go to the eternal and imperishable seed of God's word and ask God to plant that seed in your heart. Spend time with God in the scriptures and ask, Lord, are my sins confessed and forgiven? Nothing is more important for you than answering that question. Do you have that sword hanging over your head? Are you walking on that rotten wood that if it breaks, you fall straight into the jaws of hell? And then you need to acknowledge sin's urgent burden. It is an urgent burden, it is a crushing debt. No one can relieve you of that debt but God. No one. And trust me, beloved, if you think you can have that debt relieved any other way, there are many thousands who have gone before you who have tried and their lives have been miserable and their lives have been fraught with misery. Sin is a burden, and we should labor to have this burden removed by pardoning mercy, he said, Watson. Seek forgiveness with trembling. Seek forgiveness with haste. This is what Edward tells us in his Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But he says, do not enter into judgment with your servant. Confess your sins today. Don't leave this building until you know that it has all been dealt with. and that you have closed with Christ, and that you have peace, that when your head lays down on that pillar tonight, you can sleep with ease. Nothing but the blood of Jesus can cleanse you from your sin. And nothing but the blood of Jesus can spare you from the wrath of God. And then thirdly, forgive others as God has forgiven you. Extend forgiveness to those who have wronged you, beloved. And remember that when you were doing that, you were acting like your father in heaven. No matter how bad they've hurt you, let God deal with them. Let God deal with their hearts. We are bound to forgive even as God in Christ forgave us. And you know those people who've hurt you deeply. And you know if you're holding a grudge against them, if you still have something against them. Take it to the Lord and pray for God to help you not to hold it against him. And fourthly and finally, God against the peril of unforgiveness. Don't let bitterness creep into your soul. Don't let bitterness creep into your soul. Don't let bitterness, they hold of you. Don't let bitterness chain you to the past so that you lose the future and the blessings God has given you. Jonathan Edwards said, not forgiving puts you in very close proximity to the very everlasting fires of hell. If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven. To cling to wrath is to bind yourself to torment, said Sibbes, and the king will deliver to the torturers. Examine your heart for grudges. Think about where you are. Think about your soul now. Think about the things that occupy your time and burden you and trouble you. Are you mired in a spirit of bitterness and unforgiveness? And if you see it, confess it. You know, David in Psalm 32 said this, I thought that I had sinned against you and you forgave me. He acknowledged his sin and God was quick to forgive him. God delights in being merciful, beloved. Ought we not to delight in being merciful? Ought we not to delight in extending blessing and mercy rather than retaliation, rather than tit for tat? God doesn't deal with us like that. God deals with us in mercy and in grace. Very often, these people in their sin are so blind, they're so dead in their sins, they're lost. That's why Jesus said, forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. They don't realize what they're doing to you. And by forgiving them, Paul says, what are you doing? You're heaping up burning coals on their head. How many testimony can be looked at and considered by those who, instead of retaliating, have extended mercy, and it has led to the conversion of those people who have been horrible and cruel. Look at the priests in Acts. They are the ones who crucified Christ, and yet on the day of Pentecost, how many of them were saved? Mercy triumphs over judgment. May God give you a heart to forgive. because you have.