Forgiveness

Forgiveness Matthew 6: 9-15

Most of us, if not all of us, are here today because of God’s forgiveness!

Rom. 3:23 For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God

All of us have transgressed God’s laws.

All of us were on our way to eternal punishment, deserving our just reward…

BUT thanks be unto God, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!!!

Paul said… 1 Cor. 6: 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Listen, when the Prodigal son finally came home… the father RAN to meet him. The son repented.

The father forgave….

HE put a robe on his shoulders. I’m glad Jesus clothed me with HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!

NOW I can live right because HE PUT on me and

Within me RIGHT Living, and Right desires.

He put a ring on his finger identifying him again as his son! I’m glad Jesus has led me into HIS Holiness, with identifying marks to let the whole world know I belong to HIM!!!

He put shoes on his feet for he would no longer be poor but would be rich in the father’s house! I have a story to tell you this morning. It’s the story of a boy who went from rags to riches! I had nothing until I found Jesus!

I was a poor wretched sinner, but now I’m a child of the King. His royal blood now flows through my veins.

AND why??? Because of God’s forgiveness.

Vs. 12 said.. “And forgive us our debts”

Sin is represented here under the notion of a debt, and as our sins are many, they are called here debts.

God made man that he might live to his glory, and gave him a law to walk by; and when he does any thing that tends not to glorify God, he contracts a debt with Divine Justice

Forgiveness, therefore, must come from the free mercy of God in Christ:

How strange is it we cannot have the old debt canceled, without contracting a new one!

The DEBT is then transferred from Justice to Mercy.

While sinners we are in debt to infinite Justice; when pardoned, they are in debt to endless Mercy

Rom. 8:12 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

You know why God does it this way?

It keeps us eternally dependent on our Creator!

Because Christ CANCELLED our DEBTS for a reason!

IT was to restore fellowship between man and God!

So our debts were not just cancelled and pardoned so we could do just anything we want to… but they were cancelled so we would SERVE THE LORD

AND to be a SON of God, you must be led by the Spirit of God… cannot just do your own thing!

So we serve the Lord With GRATITUDE for what HE has done for us

THANK GOD FOR HIS FORGIVENESS!!!

And IF you are here this tonight and have not experienced God’s forgiveness, there’s room at the cross for you!!!

AND… God not only forgives you…. But HE CASTS away your sins NEVER to REMEMBER them again.

Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Psalms 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

So glad that God not ONLY FORGIVES, but also FORGETS!!!!!

BUT I want to take this a step further today…

After the Lord’s prayer was finished, Jesus went on to say:

VS. 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

LISTEN! God’s cancellation of your debts is contingent on (dependent on, subject to) how you forgive those who trespass against you!!!

I was talking to a pastor in a certain area and had mentioned another pastor’s name in the same area he pastored. He non-chalantly said, I don’t have any fellowship with him because of what he did years ago to me. I stopped him there by saying, Listen, I don’t need to know what happened. That’s between you and him.