If God has so forgiven you, are you forgiving each other? And if you're not, that is the height of evil, that you should take so much forgiveness and give so little. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Can you imagine owing a debt so huge that you could never even hope to pay it off? That's precisely the position you are in, and every person is in, as far as sin is concerned. We have a sin debt that we cannot cancel, and the terms of that debt, well, they can't be renegotiated.
The question you need to ask then is, what hope is there? That question is at the heart of John MacArthur's message today, so stay here as John walks you through a vivid parable that Jesus taught. It's one that helps you understand the enormity of your sin and God's amazing willingness to forgive, and the forgiveness you need to offer when a fellow believer sins against you. The title of John's series, My Brother's Keeper, and now here's John with the lesson. Now, this is the most dire circumstance imaginable. His Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Now, this is just punishment, friends. This is a real debt, not an artificial one. The parable indicates that the man had embezzled the money from the king. He didn't even have any of it to pay. There was no way to recover it. The punishment is very severe, very severe.
Sell the man into slavery, sell his wife into slavery, sell all his kids into slavery, get what you can, sell his house and everything he owns, get what you can, and we'll take that and apply it toward the debt which is unable to be fully repaid, but we'll get everything we can out of him. And there's no complaint made, by the way, because it's just. There's no complaint.
The man does not complain. He does not beg for justice. This is justice. This is even better than justice because the debt can't be paid. Now, this kind of picture is very interesting, and is somewhat unique to Israel.
We don't find this kind of thing commonly in Israel. There are a few places in the Old Testament where there were special circumstances in which a person could be sold into the service of another one to repay a debt, but this was primarily the way the pagan world operated, and the people in and around Israel who were not a part of the nation Israel would be very familiar with this kind of thing. So would the Jews because they had seen the pagans do this. If you couldn't pay a debt, you instantly became a slave, and you paid your debt by working off what you could. Your wife became a slave, and all your kids became slaves, and everything you owned was sold and turned into cash for the one to whom you owed the debt.
That was not uncommon. That's sort of like the indentured servant kind of thing. And since the man had been defrauded, he had a right to claim back all that he could claim. I think if we had such laws today, it might affect some ways things are done in our society where people are a little bit more free with the bankruptcy law than they might be if they knew that they would all have to go to work for the one in whom...to whom they were indebted.
Might be a good approach. Tend to keep us from getting too far out on our credit. Now keep in mind that the debt could never really be paid anyway. And if you ask yourself what this means, let me tell you what I believe it's referring to here. I think this is a picture of hell.
That's right. I think verse 25 is talking about hell in the spiritual implications. Where else are men sent to pay for their sin? Where else do people go as punishment for the debt they owe to God? This is talking about hell. It's talking about eternal hell.
Now listen very carefully and you'll learn something about hell. People go to hell to pay for their sins. But one thing you need to know is all eternity in hell will still not pay for their sins. They just go there to pay what could be paid by spending all eternity there which could never pay the full debt. What the parable is saying is the debt is unpayable.
It is so vast that it could never be paid. There's no way that men forever in hell could pay the debt off, but they're going to spend forever there paying as much as they can anyway. And the sad fact is that men who have spent eternities in hell will be no better for their payment than they were when they began so they'll be no more fit for heaven at the end of that time were there an end than they would be at the beginning when they started it. The debt is unpayable, but they will pay and all that could be exacted from their incapacity will be exacted from it.
It's a very stringent word here. And when people are sent to hell it is just because God is a just God who says that sin is an unpayable debt and I will take from man all that I can get even though I can't get all in return. The utter bankruptcy of every son of Adam makes it impossible for him to pay off the debt that he owes to God and his inability to be made any better by the punishment that he suffers in hell means that throughout all eternity he'll never become able to do it nor will he ever be any more fit for heaven than he was when he was first sent to hell.
The terrible picture. And the king is not a tyrant. He is a just king. In fact, he's been merciful in not calling this individual to an accounting long before he did. You know that life in itself is an act of mercy. You could have been sent to hell as soon as you were born.
True? But God has been merciful and maybe he's called and convicted your heart again and again and again and again. And always you've rejected and ultimately when He sends you to pay for the sin that you wish to hold to yourself, He will be a just God. Look at verse 26. The servant therefore...now as soon as he heard this, he knew that it was the end... fell down and worshiped Him saying, Lord, have patience with me.
I'll pay thee all. That's kind of an interesting prayer, really. First of all, he was in the right position. He fell down.
And that's a very devastating thing. He was broken. I think the man was devastated.
I think he was totally shattered. He was in the right position. He was in the right position. He was in the right position. I think the man was devastated. I think he was totally shattered.
I mean, I think he was at the end. He knew what he faced. He couldn't pay the debt. He was going to lose his freedom. He was going to be in permanent bondage because he could work his whole lifetime, you see, and never pay it off. Just like hell, he could work eternity and never pay it off. So you never get out of it.
Once you go into pay off that debt, you're in abject slavery till the end. And he could see that and there was no way out. He doesn't plead for justice. He got justice. He doesn't deny his sin.
He admits it. He fell down, crushed, broken, prostrate, humble. He was in the right attitude, the attitude where God wants men to be when He convicts them of sin, right? Overwhelmed with his sinfulness, shattered by the debt that he could never pay, facing an eternity of inability.
No relief in sight. And knowing full well that once he got into the service of the king, he'd never have the freedom to earn the money to pay the debt back. And then it says he not only fell down, but he worshiped. And that is literally to kiss toward.
It comes from kissing the hand, the knee, the foot of the monarch to whom you pled for mercy. And so he's pleading for mercy. He's admitting his sin. He's broken.
He's humble. He's in the very spot that God wants to bring every man on his face, in the dust, like the publican beating his breast, saying, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. I see a debt I cannot pay. I see a mountain of sin that can never be eliminated.
I face an eternity of hell and an eternity of hell, of inability. And so he is a broken man. And like so many broken men, he doesn't really understand everything. And so he says, have patience with me. Pleads for compassion, for the Lord's patient endurance, for the Lord to just wait and give him a chance, and he'll do better. See, he'll...I'll pay you all, I'll do better.
And you say, yeah, but you couldn't pay it, and he knows it, sure, but this is a highly emotional moment, boy, and he's going to think of some ways to do it. Now this is like folks who are under conviction. The first response that comes to them when they are empowered, overpowered by guilt, when they're confronted with the sinfulness of sin is, I've got to shape my life up. I've got to get my life better. I've got to get rid of the guilt. I think I can be a better person. I want to turn over a new leaf. I want to make some resolutions.
I want to sort of moralize myself and reform myself. He's admitted his sin. He's seen the lostness of his condition, and he really doesn't quite understand how that the debt could ever be paid. And so he just says, just give me a chance at it.
I'll do the best I can. And he's like people who in the midst of their conviction seek to be religious. That's not uncommon. They want to be better. And before they know they can come to Christ and receive a gift from Him, they usually want to make themselves better. You understand?
That's all part of that same kind of process. This is sort of a pre-salvation conviction. But he's got to beatitude attitude. He's humbled. He's broken. He cries for mercy.
He sees the enormity of his sin, and he knows the King is the King and has control. And he says, and he says, just be patient with me. Just show me a little patience, and I'll do everything I can to pay it back. I want it to be right. He's saying I want to be different. I'm sorry about what I did. The heart attitude is right.
Everything is there. It's just that he doesn't understand the grace of forgiveness yet. So the Lord has him right where he wants him. Now like the man who is convicted of sin, he sees his sin. He cries for mercy. He doesn't fully realize that he can't do what he thinks needs to be done. And so he's in a dire situation. The convicting power of the law of God has smashed and crushed him.
He cries out for patience. And I want you to notice that the King has no comment on the utter impossibility of what he says in verse 26. He doesn't say, oh, silly man, you can't pay. Foolish. He doesn't say that.
That's obvious. What does he say? I love this because I've been here and so have you. Verse 27, then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt. Oh, what a marvelous thing. Oh, the grace of that verse. Write it somewhere in your Bible. Grace. Oh, the grace of that verse.
You know, I know some people, somebody owes them a couple thousand bucks and they're going nuts about it. He forgave an absolutely incomprehensible debt in a moment, out of compassion for the debtor. He loosed him.
What does that mean? He released him from the obligation. He freed him from the debt.
Why did he do that? He was moved with what? Compassion. And where does compassion come from?
It comes from love. This man happened to love that servant as God loves all men. And when he saw him in a situation where there was no remedy, and when he saw him in a situation where there was no remedy, it didn't change his love. And even though the debt was incurred against him, and even though he had been violated, and even though his kingdom had been robbed, and even though he had personally been sinned against in a way beyond anything you've ever dreamed you could be sinned against, he still forgave him. Oh, the magnanimity of God's forgiveness.
And would you notice a wonderful touch? At the end of verse 27, he forgave him and the Greek says, the loan. The loan? What do you mean the loan?
The king is so tenderhearted he considers it as a loan instead of a debt embezzled. He canceled the loan. He released the obligation. You say, well, what did the guy do to deserve that?
He didn't do anything. But you know how you get the forgiveness of God? You know how you receive the forgiveness of God? Well, you come to God with a broken heart over your utter sinfulness knowing you could never pay the debt, crying out to God for mercy and patience in a dire situation and facing eternal judgment and saying, Lord, please. And in the midst of that brokenness does God come in His tender, forgiving grace and loving kindness and forgive your debt. Now all that possibly could be said about salvation isn't said here, but there's something wonderful said here that may not be said very many other places in the Bible about that.
And so it is a marvelous, marvelous parable. I believe the moment the sinner recognizes his sin, the moment he comes to the only one who can possibly deal with that sin, the moment he confesses that sin, repents that sin and admits that sin and worships the God who alone can forgive that sin, the moment he does that and the moment he hungers in his heart for some way to pay that sin back, that's when God rushes in with the forgiveness made available in Jesus Christ who already paid the debt himself anyway. And in that sense, God absorbed the loss on his own account. And so God is like Joseph, or Joseph is like God. He calls his brothers and he just pours the guilt on them.
Remember the story? Until they are devastated with guilt and then he reveals himself and gives them grace. And that's how it is in salvation. God comes first as a fire, first stirring up the sinfulness of sin, first drawing people to an accounting where they face the utter sinfulness of sin. God will forgive, but He also will have the sinner know what and how much is forgiven. And that's why Isaiah said that first of all, there had to be from God a come now, let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet.
Before we can talk about making them as wool, let's talk about how really bad they are. Let's reason together about your sin. That's where the gospel begins. The sinner must know that there's a mountain of sin. The sinner must know that there's a mountain of sin that is never able to be repaid by that sinner before he can ever be cast into the deep sea of God's mercy. That we must first have the sentence of death in ourselves before the word of life means anything to us. But oh, how comforting that the moment we come with a merciful seeking heart, a mercy-seeking heart, the Father forgives.
Do you see yourself there? Such a salvation should cause us to rejoice. We have escaped eternal hell.
We have been forgiven a debt we could never pay. To draw this to a conclusion, look at Luke 15, and I want to illustrate this with a familiar story. Luke 15. And I want to pick it up in the middle of the story. It's the story of the prodigal son. He wanted his father to die, to be honest with you. He'd just soon have his father dead because he wanted the inheritance but since his father wouldn't accommodate him and die, he just went and said, give me what I'm due. I can't wait for you to die.
I'll take it now. So he took it, split, and entered into riotous living, dissolute, wasted all of his money, wound up sloppin' pigs, a rather demeaning task for a noble Jewish boy. Verse 17, came to himself, came to his senses, said, how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger? My father's hired servants, he said, are better off than I am. You know what a hired servant was? Not a household slave, not a family slave, a day laborer. Walked in in the morning, gave him a job, paid him off and sent him away at the end of the day.
The lowest of the low, no part in the family life, just a hired servant. He said, they're better off than I am. I'm going to go, verse 18 says, I'm going to go to my father and I'm going to say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee... Now here we find a contrite sinner, here he knows he's been broken, he's been shattered. He's faced accounting day and he found his accounting day in the pig slop and it got him there. The Spirit of the Lord did his work and while he was there slapping the pigs and he looked at his own life and he saw the wretchedness of his own life and he saw the unpayable debt that he owed the father and he knew there was no way to pay it back and he knew he'd taken all of his inheritance and he'd run with it and he'd affronted the love of his father too in wishing him dead and all of those things could never be repaid. He knew that and he'd wasted it all. He had nothing to pay it back with.
He could never give back to the father what he owed him, what was due him. And so he went back and said, look, I'll just offer you the bread of my life. And so he went back and said, look, I'll just offer myself as a hired servant and until the day I die, I'll try to work it off and I won't ask for a thing.
I don't even want to be treated as part of the family. And he was saying essentially what the man in the parable was saying in Matthew 18, I'll come back and I'll do my best to work it off. You see, that's the attitude of the sinner. He's crushed over his sin. He's shattered over his sinfulness.
He's broken over it. He knows he has a debt to God he can't pay and he says I'll just do all I can to pay it. And he figures maybe the father will let him be a hired servant. Verse 19, I'll tell him I'm no more worthy to be called your son.
Make me one of your hired servants. Verse 20 says he arose and came to his father and when he was a great way off, his father's looking down the road and there's probably a lot of people on the road and maybe people working in the fields. Maybe the little village was there as well. Way down the road this father's looking. Well, what's his father doing looking? Oh, he's been looking a long time.
He's been looking every day. He's always looking down that road because he's always waiting for that son to come and he looks and he sees him in the distance and then he does something that just shows no class, none at all. He had compassion. You say, how could you have compassion such a wretched kid who wanted you dead? Who's the father in this parable? It's God. And who's the wretched kid? The sinner. And then the father did this and ran.
You know what the Greek word is? Not just the normal word, ran, he raced. Now, there was something about being an older man, a noble man. You walked with a slow sort of dignified gait. And in the east, there was a lot of dignity. Did you ever try to run full speed down a road with a robe as long as your feet dragging on the ground?
You couldn't do that. You know what the father must have done one ride? I read a book this week. It said that the father must have gathered up the whole garment into his arms and thus exposed his undergarments, which was the shame of all shames for a man. And here he is running down the road while everybody is looking and saying, what is that crazy guy doing running down the road like that? He is shaming himself.
He is humiliating himself, pursuing that wretched kid of his. Do you see God there? Do you see God who looks down the road and sees the sinner coming and who humiliates himself by embracing that sinner?
Do you see God coming into the world in the form of Jesus Christ, as it were, and picking up the robes of his regal splendor and showing his undergarment, as it were, in the humiliation of Jesus Christ as he pursues the sinner down the road? Well, what happens when they meet? Why, he fell on his neck and he began to kiss him tenderly and repeatedly.
The indication of the text is over and over again, he didn't just say, oh, listen, if you'd like a job, I can maybe work it out. No, he kisses him, embraces him tenderly. And what does he do? He says, Father, I've sinned against heaven and I sign and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. And the father says, stop that speech. Kill the fatted calf.
Put a ring on his finger. My son is home. And that's the forgiveness of God, you see. The sinner thinks, if you'll just let me try to work it off, and God embraces him and makes him a son. That's the gospel.
And that's what God has done for us. Now, listen, if God has so forgiven you, what is the parable saying? Are you forgiving each other? And if you're not, and if you're not, that is the height of evil, that you should take so much forgiveness and give so little. God puts away the enormity of our sin. And if we have been forgiven so much, how much should we forgive? That's the second half of the parable.
That's for next time. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. John's current series is titled My Brother's Keeper. Well, with learning to forgive, and that's the theme of today's lesson, with that still in mind, John, we received a question on our Q&A line about an aspect of forgiveness that I think a lot of people wonder about. So let's play the question, then, John, answer it, if you would.
My name is Maria. I would like some information regarding how they say that you're able to forgive someone without that other person asking you for forgiveness. I don't understand, because even with Jesus, we have to at one point ask God to forgive us.
Could you shed some more light on that for me? Thank you. Yeah, that's a good question, Maria. That's a good question.
I would say this. Clearly, we have not asked Jesus to forgive every sin we've committed, right? So we know he's forgiven our sins, but that blanket forgiveness does not require us to bring every sin to him. Most of our sins, we don't even—they pass by, we don't even think of them.
We don't even remember them. So, yes, you come to Christ and you ask him for the full forgiveness that he gives you, and at salvation—listen, Maria—at salvation, he forgives all your sins, all your sins from the past, all your sins in the present, all your sins in the future. You don't have to go back and list every single sin, or it won't be forgiven. No, your sins have been forgiven.
Not only that, the full penalty for them has been paid at the cross. So I think you have to look at relationships in the same way. You have a general attitude toward someone of love and forgiveness. That's what your heart holds toward them. So when they sin a sin against you, they're not required to come to you and specify that sin. They live in the full forgiveness that your heart grants to them. That's what it means to be a forgiving person. That's what it means not to hold a grudge. And that's the attitude of the Lord. He forgave all our sins, the ones in the past that we never confessed, the ones in the present that we forget to confess, the ones in the future that we won't confess, are all forgiven, because He holds us in His hands in a kind of forgiving grace that extends to everything.
And that's how you have to hold people. Your relationship to them is love which comes with full forgiveness, and you're not waiting for them to confess each sin. Having said that, I want to say this. When they sin against you and don't ever come and ask forgiveness and seek to make it right, it makes that relationship far less meaningful than it should be. So there is a price to pay for not seeking that forgiveness, but they pay that price.
You grant that forgiveness nonetheless. Thanks, John, for that encouraging and helpful reminder. And now, friend, if, like Maria, you have a question about a particular verse or the church or the practical implications of some passage in Scripture, let me encourage you to call our Q&A line. John might answer your question on a future broadcast, so get in touch with us today. The Q&A line number 661-295-6288.
Again, that's a special number. You can just leave us a message with your question, and you may hear John's answer on an upcoming broadcast. The Q&A line number one more time, 661-295-6288. You'll also find that number at our website, gty.org. When you get in touch, keep in mind that we want to hear how John's teaching has encouraged you. Your letters help us know which studies are most helpful. We really don't have any way of knowing if this daily broadcast is hitting the mark unless you reach out, so email your story to letters at gty.org. That's our email address, letters at gty.org. Or you can drop a letter in regular mail addressed to Grace to You, Post Office Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with Grace to You, and be back tomorrow when you can continue his series titled, My Brother's Keeper, helping you answer this question, are there limits to what you should forgive or even what you can forgive? It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.
