Mm-hmm Welcome to Turning Point. It's one of the most challenging parts of being a Christian, but it helps you experience a bit of what God has done for you. Today, Dr. David Jeremiah considers forgiveness, a central theme of how Jesus said believers ought to pray. With powerful examples of the healing power of forgiveness, here's David to introduce today's message, Prayer and Personal Relationships.
And here's what the Bible says. We are to forgive those who have heard us. forgive others as we want to be forgiven. And that's all in the Lord's Prayer. And we're going to talk about that today and again on Monday.
You know, someone once told me that when you forgive someone, you release a prisoner. and the prisoner you release is yourself. Because you've been a prisoner to the Deed that was done or the act that was committed.
So, forgiveness is very important.
Someone has said if you could deal with forgiveness properly and get the need for it out of people's lives, you would unpopulate many of the hospitals today because unforgiveness creates sickness and disease and pain and anguish. It destroys families, it ruins classrooms. I can't tell you all the danger and difficulty that happens when we don't forgive one another. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. That's what the prayer says, and we're going to talk about it today in just a moment.
Hey, it's Friday, and I'd like to remind you either at the beginning or the end of the program about the importance of going to church. You know, church is such a wonderful place. You know, God does some of his best work in church. I'm going to tell you that's the truth. I know that now because I've been a part of it for over 50 years and I've seen the work that God does when people come together.
I hope you'll make it a priority to be in church this weekend. I won't say anything more to you about it at the end, but here at the beginning of this program, be a church person. Be a person who upholds the beauty and wonder of what God does when His people get together. Here is part one of prayer and personal relationships.
Okay. Yeah.
Some years ago, at the end of one of our services, a woman handed me a book. That I had never heard of before. I thought it was a rather strange book to be giving your pastor, for the name on the book was The Sunflower. I took it home and it stayed on my shelf in a back place for a long time. And one day I was absentmindedly going through some of the books that I wanted to put away, and I came across this book and I began to read it, and I couldn't put it down.
The book written by Simon Wiesenthal. tells of the tragedy that he experienced in a concentration camp. And the story that begins the book is one of the most awesome presentations of forgiving and forgiveness that I have ever read. As he begins to write, he places himself one afternoon in a police concentration camp. He had been assigned that day to clean rubbish out of a hospital.
That the Germans had improvised for wounded soldiers carried in from the Eastern Front. A nurse walks over to him out of nowhere, takes his arm. orders him to come with her. and leads him upstairs along a row of beds where wounded were. to the side of a bed where a young soldier his head wrapped in a yellow pus stained bandage, was dying.
He was maybe 22 years of age and an SS trooper. The soldier, whose name was Carl, reached out and grabbed Wiesenthal's hand. as if he feared Wiesenthal would run away. He told him that he had to speak to a Jew. He had to confess the terrible things he had done so that he could be forgiven.
Or he could not die in peace. What had he done? He was fighting in a Russian village where a few hundred Jewish people had been rounded up. His group was ordered to plant full cans of gasoline in a certain house. crammed people into that house.
Until they could hardly move, and then threw grenades through the windows to set the house on fire. The soldiers were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to to jump out of a window. The young soldier continued his story to Wiesenthal. He said, Behind the window of the second floor, I saw a man with a small child in his arms. His clothing was afire.
By his side stood a woman, doubtless the mother of the child. With his free hand the man covered the child's eyes, then he jumped into the street. Seconds later the mother followed. Then the young man said, We shot. Oh my God, I shall never forget it.
It haunts me to this day. We shot them all. The young man paused and then said, I know that what I have told you is terrible. I have longed to talk about it to a Jew and beg forgiveness from him. I know that what I am asking is almost too much, but without your answer, I cannot die in peace.
There was silence. And the sun was high in the heaven. God was somewhere. But here, two strangers were all by themselves, caught in the crisis of forgiveness. A member of the Super Race.
begging to be forgiven by a member of the condemned race. Weisenthal tells us what he did. I stood up, he said. and looked in his direction at his folded hands. At last I made up my mind, and without a word I left the room.
and that German went to God unforgiven by me. Weisenthal survived the concentration camp, but he wondered for a long time whether he should have forgiven the soldier. And his book, The Sunflower. Is the most interesting presentation of that you will ever read. For the first chapter is the story I have just told you.
And the rest of the book are essays written by people responding to the question. Should he or should he have not? forgiven him.
Some people, and some of you perhaps here today, do not need a story like Weisenthal's to tell you that forgiving is difficult. You have felt the unfairness. inside of yourself. You have known what it has been like to be hurt deeply. Lewis Smeads, in his book Unforgiveness, tells of Jane Grafship.
Jane and her husband Ralph had finally brought their three children through the crazy maze of adolescence. and gently pushed them out of the house. Jane was glad they had flown the coop. Finally, she was going to have a life of her own. Finally, she was going to get back on her own track and make something of herself.
But a family tragedy stopped her. Ralph's younger brother and his wife were killed in a car crash and left three children, ages 8, 10, and 12, all of them. left to Ralph and Jane. Jane was too compassionate or too tired to disagree with taking them. She took them in not for a month but for the duration.
As for Ralph, he was gone a lot. A traveling man on the road making deals. Nine years grown by in this story. Two of the kids are gone. The only one still home is 17.
His mind bent slightly out of shape but still functional. In a few years, Jane and Ralph would be home free. Not quite. Jane's body had gotten a little lumpy by this time. while Ralph's secretary Sue was a dazzler.
Besides, Sue really understood his large male needs. How could he help falling in love? He and Sue knew that their love was too true to be denied and too powerful to be resisted.
So Ralph divorced Jane and he married Sue. Ralph and Sue were very happy. and they dunked their happiness in a warm religious froth. Their convivial accepting church celebrated their newfound joy with them. They were kept afloat in togetherness by the reffirming Christian community.
But Ralph needed one more stroke of acceptance.
So he called Jane to ask her to forgive him. And he asked her to be glad with him that he was finally a happy man. And he said, I want you to bless me. And she said, I want you to go to hell. That's what the story says.
How could she forgive? and throw away the only power she had left, the power to hate. the energy of her contempt. Her contempt was her power and her dignity and her self-esteem. It was unfair to ask her to forgive.
The least the louse deserved was a steady stream of her scorn and hate. When we ask people to forgive, And when the Bible says we're to forgive, Are we being ripped off and betrayed? There's a lot to be said for not forgiving, you know, an awful lot. Why should people cut and thrust their way through our lives and leave us bleeding in the road? and then expect us to forgive everything and act as if nothing went wrong.
Forgiving is an outrage against dues-paying Americans. And yet Hear in this prayer. This awesome prayer. Jesus said, When you pray, pray like this. Forgive us.
Our debts. as we Forgive. our debtors. And it almost appears at first blush as if Jesus has conditioned his forgiveness of us upon our forgiveness of others. What could this possibly mean?
Well It is interesting to me how quickly the Lord Jesus goes from give us. to forgive us. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our debts. It is an interesting thing to me that We could make a case for this being the most important section of the prayer.
I think I could prove that to you if I were an attorney, because you see, it's the only verse in all of the prayer that is repeated for emphasis at the end of the prayer. Look in your Bibles at Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12. Where Jesus gives this request, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Notice That The prayer goes through the 13th verse and it ends. And then, when you get to verse 14, Jesus returns to this particular part of the prayer and he says, For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Of all the verses in the prayer, of all the sections of the prayer, this is the only one that Jesus returns to for emphasis. It's as if he is saying to us, Please don't miss this. This is critical. In fact, someone has said: if you get your arms around this, you can learn how to get along with everybody all the time.
What an awesome thought. The first thing I note as I look at this part of the Lord's Prayer is that it at least. It puts into our computers each day a consciousness of sin. For we're not talking about overspending here when the word uses debt. For it is translated elsewhere as trespasses, and in Luke, the prayer says, forgive us our sins.
Jesus is not talking about overspending. He's talking about those who sin against us, those who do evil things. He's talking about the evil in the world. And if nothing else, when we pray this prayer every day, it's a good thing for us to remember that we live in a fallen world, don't we? We live in a world that is filled with sin and debt and trespasses, and we are all impacted by it.
We are all touched by it in some way. You cannot go through a week without feeling the sting of the evil in our world. When I first began to preach, In the early church that I pastored, one of the men in our church gave me a book by Carl Menninger. The book was written in 1973. And I will never forget one little section of the book where Carl Menninger said he had done a survey of historical documents of the United States.
and that not one single mention have been made of sin since Ike made the mention of it in his inaugural address, quoting Abraham Lincoln, saying something about the fact that we need to confess our sins and our trespasses to God. Menninger said from that moment until 1973, which was 20 years. There had not been one mention of sin in any of the public documents of our nation. And I dare say it hasn't gotten better since 1973. The only time we hear about sin now is when it's being used to describe the people who should be talking about sin.
So, at least, if nothing else happens when we pray this prayer, we awake. To the realization, it is a good realization for all of us. That we live in a fallen world, but this is not about the consciousness of sin, this is about the confession of it. Jesus said, When you pray, pray like this. Forgive us our debts.
as we Forgive our debtors. And then in Matthew 6, 14 and 15, he gives a commentary. The idea that is before us is that When we seek forgiveness for our own sin against God, for which we are indebted. that we are to forgive those who have sinned against us. This is pretty heady stuff.
Our relationship with the Lord cannot be right until our relationship with others is made right. In fact, Jesus has intimated at this very thing back in the fifth chapter of Matthew when he says in verses 23 and 24: Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that thy brother has aught against thee, leave your gift at the altar. That's your God relationship. Forget about your God relationship for a minute and go get your person relationship straightened out. Then come back.
and get your God relationship right. The Talmud, which is the rabbinical commentary on the Old Testament, says: He who is indulgent toward others' faults will be mercifully dealt with by the supreme judge himself. And isn't it interesting that even later in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 43 we read. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor, hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemy, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the sons of your father. Jesus says, if you want to be known as a Godchild, walk around with a spirit of forgiveness in your heart because that gives you a way.
And in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32, Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers, and he says, We're to forgive even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. That's the standard. Proverbs 19, 11 says, That it is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression. There's something very special about a person who learns about forgiveness. But if Jesus included it in his prayer, and commented on it after his prayer.
He illustrated it masterfully with the story he told. in Matthew 18. This is a familiar story to us. If you want to follow in your Bibles, you can turn to the 18th chapter of Matthew. kind of follow along as I review the story.
Actually The story itself begins in the 23rd verse. This provides us a final illustration to help us understand what Jesus meant when he taught us to pray: forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The text, beginning at verse 15, deals with the issue of forgiveness. But in verse 21, Peter says, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times?
And Jesus said, I say not unto you until seven times, but until 70 times seven, indefinitely, infinitively, unendingly, forgive. Then he tells a story in verse 23. He says, There is a kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he has begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him 10,000 talents.
Now, I want to stop there for just a moment. I want to tell you how much 10,000 talents is. Ten thousand talents is so much money that it's hard for us even to conceive. For example, one talent could be worth about 6,000 days' work.
So it would take this man 19 years working six days a week to earn one talent. And he owed 10,000 of them. How could a servant ever get in that kind of trouble? But he did. I don't know if he was embezzling or made bad investments, but he was in terrible, terrible straits.
He had nothing with which to pay. If it is hard to believe how he got in that kind of trouble, How stupid he was to get into that kind of trouble. The thing that is even more difficult for us to comprehend is what he said when he was brought before the king. The servant fell down and worshipped the king, and he said, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And when we know how much he owed and we hear what he says, we almost want to laugh out loud.
Sure. Right. That's the stupidest thing I ever read. He would have to live 190 years and put every dime he ever earned into his debt. This man was a fool no matter how you look at it.
And so we're filled with angry responses that he would do this and respond this way.
Well, you know the story. decides that he can't pay, the debt is too great.
So he says, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to forgive you all.
Now, let's stop for a moment and make sure we have the cast straight. Who does the king represent? God. And who is the servant? All of us.
We owed a debt we could not pay. And he forgave. How could he forgive a debt as astronomical as that? How could he forgive a debt? That was so great that the only way he could cope with the greatness of it was to send his own son to the cross and let him die.
Now, the scripture says in the story that once. The servant was forgiven. He went out. and some of those who owed him money. came to him.
And while their sum is a paltry sum in comparison to that which he had been forgiven. It was a great deal to those who owed it, and they came and said, We can't pay. Would you forgive us? And the Bible says that the one who had been forgiven so much by the king. Grabbed hold of them by the throat and demanded that they pay him everything they owe him.
And when the other servants saw what happened, they went and told the king. And the king was furious. And the Bible says That the Lord delivered him to the inquisitors. He brought him in and he was thrown in jail. And then the scripture says: and listen carefully, here's the application.
So, my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. And there's the same word. Do you get that? Do you understand what Jesus is saying? In Matthew chapter 6, verses 14 and 15, in Matthew chapter 18 in the story, what Jesus is saying is: we are to forgive others.
what they owe us because we ourselves have been forgiven so much. And if we will not forgive them, then we will never experience the joy of the forgiveness which is ours. Our forgiveness of others is conditioned upon God's forgiveness of us. And he has forgiven so much. How could there be anything?
that would be too great. That would slip out from underneath the category of God's forgiveness.
Now, I have written down in my notes next to this passage in Matthew chapter 6 four things, and I want to just run them by you quickly because this is what this passage teaches. Number one, it teaches us that we're to forgive because we are forgiven. Number two, it teaches us we're to forgive just as we are forgiven, freely, fully, unconditionally. Number three, we are to forgive that we might be forgiven. That's the gist of the passage.
And number four, we're to forgive before we need to be forgiven.
Now, before we go any further to make application of this to your life and mine, let me ask this question: What is going on here? How can our forgiveness of others in any way condition God's forgiveness of us? Does that not make salvation a work? Does it not sound as if that in order for me to earn God's forgiveness, I have to go out and find everybody who has anything against me and forgive them? Does that not sound as if we have moved away from grace and faith and justification and now slipped back into a salvation by works?
I don't think so. How many of you know that there are two kinds of forgiveness? How many of you know that when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, when He came to live within your heart, at that very moment when you made that decision, at that moment there was something that happened in the court of heaven and you were judicially forgiven? The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, was applied to your account. Your sins were remitted and taken away, and you then, before God, were viewed as you are viewed now, clean and whole and forgiven.
When God in heaven looks at your account, And he sees all that you have ever done over it is stamped, paid in full, forgiven, absolutely, completely forgiven, judicially free. Can I get a witness? How many of you are glad for that? Isn't that good news? And nothing can change that.
Nothing. But there's a kind of relational forgiveness. That's locked into 1 John 1:9 and John chapter 13, where we're told the story of our Lord washing the feet of the disciples. Do you remember that wonderful story? And the disciples understood this illustration.
It was to illustrate the fact that if you've been washed, You are clean every whit. That's your salvation. But every day when you walk on the earth, your feet get dirty and once in a while they need to be washed and that's relational cleansing. You can't ever fall out of judicial forgiveness, but you can sure fall out of relational forgiveness, can't you?
Now here's what Jesus is saying. Listen up. He's saying If we as believers don't deal with the forgiveness issues in our lives with other people, We will not be able to go to God and receive the relational forgiveness that we seek. When we get our feet dirty walking on this earth, it will get in the way. It will be very hard for us to say, Lord, forgive me for what I've done, because immediately we'd be reminded of those who are seeking that same thing from us.
God wants us to take His forgiveness given to us and pass it out to those who need it. in our lives.
Well, that's the truth. You know, this is one of those lessons that I wish we didn't have to interrupt because it's so powerful from the beginning to the end. But we'll review it a bit on Monday and finish it up. And I hope you'll be with us because we're learning how powerful forgiveness is. Whenever I've taught on this over the years, I've always had people come up to me afterwards and tell me the stories of how they hadn't talked to their son for 30 years and finally they decided to forgive him or something he did or vice versa.
It is so wonderful to know that God has a way. for the healing of relationships if we'll just follow his truth. We'll continue to discuss that more on Monday. In the meantime, if you haven't ordered your copy of the book Everything to God in Prayer, you can do that by sending a gift of any size to Turning Point during this month. And ask for the book, and we'll send it to you.
It will help you in your daily walk as you learn to pray. and help others do the same. See you next time. Have a great weekend. I'm David Jeremiah.
The message you just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Turning Point is also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where to find it, visit our website davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life. Everything to God in prayer. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard New International and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study.
If God's moving in your life through this ministry, let us know at Turning Point, PO Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday as we continue the series, Prayer: the Great Adventure, on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
