Luke 11:4a

Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. And it came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us this day, give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone that is indebted. to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. May God bless to us the reading of His holy and sacred word this morning. The guilt of sin is certainly a very heavy burden for all of us to bear. It’s like carrying a 75 pound weight. on your shoulders. Your guilt can be so intense that you can collapse out of the intense weight of your guilt. Jay Adams is a leading reformed counselor, wrote in his book some startling words in his book, competent to counsel. He wrote in there that he worked with some mental institutions in Indiana. And when he was working in these institutions, he discovered something unusual. He said that if a person had an organic problem of, you know, there was some kind of defect mentally, that was one thing. But he said the vast majority of people in these institutions, the problem was, to put it simply, they were unforgottenable. given and they had unaltered sinful behavior. So they didn’t want to change their behavior, which led them to problems, and then they end up pretending that they really have all these mental issues when actually it came down to guilt. And if they could break through on this issue of what they did, and deal with it. A lot of these people could come out of these institutions, he said. In fact, he saw that happening. These statements, I don’t think, are exaggerated. The guilt over sin is devastating. It can destroy your life. And thus, there is a profound need in man for forgiveness, and our text indicates that even for you as a believer, there is a profound need in man for forgiveness. profound need for forgiveness of sins. Now, if you look at this carefully, we’ve looked at the first part of this prayer, which had to do with God’s kingdom, the advancement of God’s interest on this earth. The second part of this prayer has to do with our personal interest. You’ll notice here, though, that we should certainly be more careful about our souls than our body. There’s one petition with regard to the body, and that has to do with our daily brain. But you’ll notice there are two petitions with regard to your soul. One, forgiveness of sins, and second, deliverance from evil. So in this model prayer, we have this coming through, that we should be more careful with regard to our soul, than even for our body. We should be more concerned about spiritual matters than even our daily bread. More desirous of your soul’s welfare than just feeding your body. Sadly, I think most people take more care of their body than they do their soul. But for the Christian, Christ emphasizes the need to take care of your soul. Thomas Watson, the old Puritan writer put it this way. Daily bread may make us live comfortably, but forgiveness of sins will make us die comfortably from his body of divinity. Now the focus here, and we have to understand this, is on parental forgiveness. Now, by that I mean that Christ is not referring here to what we’ll call judicial. forgiveness, which is related to your justification and your salvation from sin through Christ. The people who are given this prayer are already disciples of Christ, are already able to call Christ their father. This forgiveness is given after your justification. It involves you and I as disobedient children. of God. The Baptist Confession of Faith is 1689, Chapter 11, paragraph 5 puts it this way. God doth continue to forgive the sins of those who are justified. And although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure. And in that condition, they have not usually the light of his countenance restored under them until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and renew their faith and repentance. So, to recap, judicial forgiveness is what you receive when God grant you salvation in Christ. Parental forgiveness is what you receive as a child of God. who has been disobedient, and you’ve fallen under God’s fatherly displeasure. So we’re looking at the second aspect here of forgiveness. You remember the story of Christ washing the disciples’ feet? And he came to Peter, and Peter says, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus said, yes, I have to do so. And Peter says, well, Lord, not my feet only, but also on my hands and my head. Do you remember what Jesus said to him? No. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every way. You’ve had your whole person washed when you came to salvation in Christ. The washing of regeneration took place. But as you go through this life, as we walk through it, so to speak, we start. get our feet dirty. We still stumble and sin in some way, and therefore we have to wash our feet. That still needs to be washed by Christ. And so, this is what we could say. After being justified before God, we still get soiled and tarnished in some fashion as we go through this life. So we need this parental forgiveness. Even though you’ve been forgiven in the ultimate sense, by Christ’s work on the cross. We need to seek forgiveness for particular sins and failures as we go along in the Christian life. Now, let’s look at the text. You have sinned against your Heavenly Father and you need His forgiveness and forgive us our sins. Now, when we talk about sin, we’re talking about sinning or violating the law of God. The light of the word of God we have violated. Whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law for sin is transgression of the law. To put it simply, God is not only your creator and your ruler, but is your father, and expects exact obedience to his commandments. Not for our justification. but because he is our father and we should obey what he has commanded us in his word. His revealed will is what we should follow. Sins here are plural. Which indicates we’re seemingly always guilty of something. There’s not a day we don’t go through. They don’t want sin in several different ways against the Lord. You don’t even have to commit the actual act outward act. We can be guilty, of course, of violating one of the ten commandments inwardly. You can be guilty of your heart violating God’s commandments even when your hand is not involved. Merely coveting your neighbor’s wife is a violation of thou shall not commit adulter. Indeed, thought of foolishness is sin, the Bible tells us. If you had to count up all your iniquities and pile them up and record the number of your sins, they’d be greater than the sand on Daytona Beach in Florida. We have so many that it’s hard to even count them up. I came across an interesting calculation by August Augustus Top Lady who is the hymn writer of Rock of Ages maybe some of you are familiar with them. But he did this calculation. He wrote an article for Gospel Magazine which he compared spiritual improvement in the national debt in England. And here’s what he said in this article. He sought to prove that man was as helpless to pay his sin debt as England was to liquidate all her national debt. Top lady figured that a person could easily chalk up $1,576 million, 800,000 transgressions in their lifetime. Now, I don’t know how he got these figures. I don’t know how he calculated them. But the point is well taken. When certainly if you looked at your own life, you know how easily you can pile up sin. If thou, Lord, should it’s mark iniquity, who could stand? Isn’t that what the Psalmist said in Psalm 130 in verse 3? So as a child of God, we have to mourn, along with the Psalmist in Psalm 119 verses 4 and 5. thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligent. Okay, we understand that. But the second part of the verse is, O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. I know I ought to obey the commandments of God, but I need help because I find myself failing to do so. So you’ve sinned against the light of the Word of God. Now, as a believer, you’ll notice here that you’re never going to reach sinless perfection in this life. It’s never going to happen. Foolishly, there are some who claim that sin can be eradicated from the Christian’s life and you can reach that plateau where you’re no longer sinning and therefore you never have to pray this prayer in the Lord’s model prayer. But Jesus teaches us something different here. When a sinful human being becomes a believer in Christ, he doesn’t cease from sinning. I remind you of the Apostle Paul, even late in his life, as mature as he was as a Christian, who had the holy revelations, who had himself caught up in spirit evidently or a body, he wasn’t sure, into the third heavens, heard things that he said, I can’t even record for you. And what does he say? He confesses, I’m the of sinners. So the Bible teaches you your need to come again and again daily to the throne of grace to find forgiveness for sin. John puts this matter, I think, in the very clearest possible terms. When he says this, 1.1.8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We’re never going to reach that point where we have perfection. I’ve told this story, I think, in the past, so bear with me, but I think it’s worth well telling you this story about Spurgeon. One day, a gentleman came up to Mr. Spurgeon after, evidently, his preaching, and he came to Mr. Spurgeon’s study, and was interested in joining his church. And in the course of their conversation, the gentleman said to Spurgeon that he had reached that lofty height of sinless perfection. Spurgeon showed a real interest in this man, and this person who evidently was a spotlessly white claimer of perfection, and so he quickly stepped closer to him to get a, guess I get a good look at his halo. I don’t know. But Mr. Spurgeon, as he approached the gentleman, purposely stepped on his foot with all his weight. Now, to appreciate this story, you have to understand it, Spurgeon was about 250 to 300 pounds. He was not a light man. So if he stepped on your foot, it was going to hurt. He said, needless to say, the man lost his spotless record of perfection right then and there in his church office. study. He said, while I may have hurt the man bodily, he says, I thought I did him some spiritual good. So that’s how Spurgeon handled one of the perfectionists in his day. My friends, as long as we are alive, we’re going to have to pray this petition for forgiveness. Because there’s not a just man upon earth who doeth good and sineth not. So as a believer, you’re doing it. never going to reach sinless perfection. Notice also, you must seek forgiveness from God, for he’s the only one who can remove your sin. The word forgiveness in this passage of scripture, the Greek word here for it, means descend away, or descend forth. And when I was looking at this word, I thought of the Day of Atonement. You remember in the Old Testament? On the Day of Atoment, they brought two goats that were. chosen. One was sacrificed under the Lord to make atonement for the sins of God’s people. The other goat was called the scapegoat. And Aaron would lay both hands on the head of the scapegoat and confess over the head of the goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel. In this manner, he’s going to put on the head of the goat. if you would, all the transgressions and sins of God’s people. It was like a transference of guilt to the scapegoat. And then the scapegoat would be taken, led out into the barren areas of the wilderness where there’s nobody around and let go. And what was that all about? It was a picture of how the sins of the people of God would be sent forth, be sent away, be sent away. that they would be forgiven. So your sins are born away by a substitute upon whom these transgressions are laid. Isn’t that the teaching of that passage of scripture? And what do we find in Jesus Christ? That God does the same work here in this case in its real sense through the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t help but read Psalm or Isaiah 53. All we like sheep have gone astray and have turned everyone to his own way. And what? The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Just like the scapegoat. Our iniquity has been laid on Christ to bear it off. To send it forth, send it away from us. Isaiah 5311, he shall bear their in equities. That seems to allude to the same thing. To forgive sin, then, is for God to cast your sins into the depths of the deepest sea. To put your sin as far away as the east is from the west. I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea, Micah 719. Thus, when God forgives your sin, he banishes it. He sends it far away. so that it’s gone forever. That’s the point that we need to make. this morning. The emphasis in all these passages on what God does because we’re incapable of removing the sin ourselves. Who can forgive sin? But God only. Matthew, or Mark 2.7. Remember what Job said in Job 721, why dost thou not take away my iniquity? God’s the only one who could take it away. So God’s the only one who could take away our sin. He’s the only one who can remit, if you would, the penalty. And thus, it is the sole prerogative of God to forgive sin. No priest can forgive your sin. We do have a word of encouragement. I like 1.9’s very precious verse of scripture for all of us. If we confess our sins, He, God, is faithful just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, you sin against your heavenly father and you need forgiveness. That’s clear. Hopefully we’ve made that as clear as possible. Secondly, though, you must be willing to forgive the sins of others that others have committed against you. The second part of this verse 4 is, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Now we have to be careful when we come to a verse of scripture like this that we don’t run with it in the wrong direction. Your forgiveness of others is not the basis of your forgiveness. You simply cannot earn God’s pardon. There’s nothing meritorious in you forgiving somebody else. That is wronged you. On the basis on which God pardons all sin is the atonement of Jesus Christ. For the Bible says in Ephesians 1-7 in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. He’s the only one who can forgive us of our sins through Christ. Now there are a certain dispensationalist that have greatly perverted this text and the one in Matthew 6, which is very similar to it. For example, you had a Schofield reference Bible and you looked at the footnote on Matthew 612. Let me read it for you. It’s very brief, but let me read it for you. Here’s the verse, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Here’s Schofield’s note. This is legal ground compared with Ephesians 432, which is grace. Under law, forgiveness is conditioned upon a like spirit in us. Under grace, we are forgiven for Christ’s sake and exhorted to forgive because we’ve been forgiven. This is a great error that he’s teaching here. Notice how he calls a need for a spirit of forgiveness legal ground. You’re being asked to believe that this duty to forgive others doesn’t pertain to the New Testament error. Era, if you would. This is legal ground. Ephesians 432, which he mentions, is grace. But this duty to forgive others is law, as though one is opposed to the other. When the truth of the matter is, they’re not opposed to each other at all. Under no circumstances can dispensationalist be correct. God never bestows mercy upon anyone who maintains a vindictive spirit, an unforgiving spirit. Forgiveness has always been based upon God’s grace and Christ’s redemptive work, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. If God forgives you in the Old Testament, because of something you did, then the death of Christ would have been in vain. Why would Christ have to die? Why would Christ have to die? Why would Abraham have to look forward to Christ’s day. He could just forgive others and that would take care of it. No, that’s not the teaching of the scripture. Your forgiveness of others is not the basis for your own forgiveness. God forgiving you is the motive for you to forgive others. Don’t misunderstand our text. We’re not setting the pattern or forgiveness for God. He has set the pattern of forgiveness for us. in this text. You are to imitate God. Here’s what Ephesians 432 says. Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, have forgiven you. You follow the pattern of God. God were to forgive based upon our example. That would be a poor forgiveness, wouldn’t it? Sometimes we have half-hearted. Sometimes it would be only a forgiveness where we still maintain a grudge against a person or something of this nature. God’s mercy to you is the cause of your mercy to others. I had Russell read that parable about the two servants. The one servant was forgiven this huge debt by the king and then Then he went and got one of his fellow servants and said, you pay me what you owe, even though it was a lot less money. If you don’t pay me, I’m going to have you thrown in jail. And when they told the king what happened, he was angry. I forgave you this big debt. You can’t forgive your fellow servant a small debt. Now, this teaching is for us. And the point of that teaching is this. If you truly have been forgiven, given by God of all your sins, then you have to be a person that has a spirit that’s willing to forgive others. Remember Christ is speaking here in this passage to believers in Luke 11. They’ve already had judicial forgiveness. And having experienced God’s forgiveness, you should be ready to forgive others. How can you have a hard, hardened spirit? not forgive others when you have this great debt lifted off your back. It’s forgiving you far more than you’ll ever forgive anybody else. So God forgiving you is the motive for you to forgive others. Now let me say this. Unless you forgive others, you have no proof that you have been forgiven at all. If you don’t have a forgiving nature, there’s no indication that you’ve been changed by God’s grace. and saved. If you think your sins are forgiven by God and you refuse to forgive someone else who’s wronged you, you’re sadly mistaken. If you know the mercy of God, you can’t remain hard-hearted and unforgiving. Maybe I can illustrate this point like this. You’re not saved on the basis of your faith, but the Bible says you’re saved by grace alone. For by grace are you saved? Ephesians 2. way. But F faith must be present if you were to be saved. For by grace are you saved through faith? Even that faith by which you believe is an act of God’s grace because he’s given you the ability to have faith. For by grace or you say through faith and that not of yourselves it, faith is the gift of God. Unless God grant you grace, you’re never going to have faith. And you will never believe. So, unless God grant you forgiveness, you’re never going to have a forgiving spirit. And you’re never going to be able to forgive others, as God command you to do. It’s that simple. An unforgiving person is a person who shows himself to be outside then of the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Christ. You should forgive others as God forgave you, Clausians 313, forbe. Forbearing one. another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And what does that mean to us? First, it means true forgiveness. God really forgives you, doesn’t he? You don’t just pretend. He actually forgives you of your sin. So don’t say, I forgive you to someone, but you have to really mean it. It’s a full forgiveness. God forgives the blackest sins that we’ve committed. Who forgives all thy iniquities, the scripture says in Psalm 103. You must be willing to forgive great sins against you. Thirdly, it means frequent forgiveness. God constantly forgives you. Daily we’re coming to him for forgiveness. In this regard, remember the teaching of that we read this morning from Matthew 18. Peter said, Lord, how off shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him till seven times. He says, boy, that’s plenty. Seven times. That’s a lot for me to forgive my brother. But Jesus says, I say not under the until seven times, but until 70 times seven. So true forgiveness, full forgiveness, forgiveness, I think, is required of us. So you must be willing to forgive the sins of others that others have committed against you. Let me close. Forgiveness by God is a profound need that everyone has. The natural man who has not been converted, he needs the judicial forgiveness to start. You and I who come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we need the parental forgiveness. that is mentioned in our text. Have you found forgiveness for before God? And have you gone to Jesus Christ to obtain that forgiveness? That’s the first thing you need. You need salvation in Christ. But then you need to have a, if you’ve been converted, you need to go with your daily sins to the Lord, and you need to have a forgiving spirit to be willing to forgive those who have wronged you. True Christians have a forgiving nature. Do you have one? That’s a good question for us to ponder this morning. Well, may the Lord bless us as we look at this passage this morning and ponder it. And may it be a benefit to our soul.