The Most Frightening Petition: Forgive Us Sermon Series: The Praying Church 1 John 1:5-10 Rev. Michael D. Halley November 20, 2016 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Last Sunday After Pentecost/Christ the King Sunday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus gave them this wonderful model prayer that we know as The Lord s Prayer. In this prayer, Jesus gives us six petitions to make. The first three concern God: exalting God s name, exalting God s kingdom (his sovereign rule in our hearts), and exalting God s will. The Lord s Prayer, as a model of all prayers, puts our focus squarely and surely upon God first, in these first three petitions. It is only then that we have three petitions concerning our own selves: Give us this day our daily bread, Forgive us our debts [or trespasses] as we forgive our debtors, and Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Today we will look at the petition: Forgive us our debts [or trespasses] as we forgive our debtors. It was our friend, the renowned New Testament scholar Dr. William Barclay, who suggested the title of this sermon when he wrote, Of all petitions of the Lord s Prayer this is the most frightening. 1 More about that later. Anglican Bishop J. C. Ryle 2 wrote a book he entitled Holiness in the late 1800s which is still in print. He begins this book with a chapter on sin. The opening sentence of that first chapter speaks very plain and straight about the subject of this petition of The Lord s Prayer: He that wishes to attain to right views about Christian holiness, must 1
Page -2- begin by examining the vast and solemn subject of sin. He must dig down very low if he would build high. A mistake here is most mischievous. Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption. I make no apology for beginning this volume of papers about holiness by making some plain statements about sin. 3 Let s face it: most of us, if not all of us, would rather not talk about sin. But we must talk about it. If we go wrong on the subject of sin, it seems to me, then everything else in the Christian life is out of focus. Some years ago a chaplain friend told me he had preached a sermon on sin in the chapel to which he was assigned. Later, a chaplain colleague gave him this piece of advice: Fred, you hadn t ought to preach about sin, you ll make those people feel bad. Well, yes, talking about sin does make us feel bad, for sure. I think that is why Dr. Barclay says it is so frightening. In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus says in the plainest possible language that if we forgive others, God will forgive us; but if we refuse to forgive others, God will refuse to forgive us. It is, therefore, quite clear that, if we pray this petition with an unhealed breach, an unsettled quarrel in our lives, we are asking God not to forgive us. 4 So, what is sin? Of the several Greek words for sin in the New Testament 5, Jesus uses the word opheilema (oh-fee-lay-mah), which means a debt -- the failure to pay that which is due, a failure in duty to God. Clearly, sin is a concern for all of us. Yes, as Christians God has forgiven our sin and justified us to himself, but we are not done with sin forever. Sin is the debt we owe to God, which is our whole-hearted, unswerving obedience. As the classic prayer of confession says, We have left undone those things which we ought to have done.
Page -3- But the frightening thing about this petition is precisely this: that Jesus says in plain and clear words that if we forgive others, God will forgive us. And Jesus also says if we refuse to forgive others, God will refuse to forgive us. That does not mean that we lose our salvation. We are still justified in the sight of God, in a forgiven state as far as our sinful nature is concerned, but we are clearly out of fellowship with God if we do not have a forgiving heart toward others. And thereby our process of sanctification, which is our spiritual growth, is stunted. I want to make three brief points 6 about this matter of forgiveness. First, and obviously, Jesus takes sin very serious. Sin is why Jesus came into our world. Sin put Jesus on the cross. The hymnwriter Isaac Watts 7 captures this so well: Alas! And did my Saviour bleed And did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head For sinners such as I? Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree! 8 Second, sin is something we will always have to deal with. God expects us as his children, adopted into his family, to obey. And, God is not pleased, and shows his displeasure, when we do not obey. The Westminster Confession of Faith, that historic theological statement, says this: God does continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified [that is, made right with God]; and although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God s fatherly displeasure, and not have the light of His countenance restored unto them, until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg pardon, and
Page -4- renew their faith and repentance. 9 We need to keep our account with God current. We should confess our sins daily and never let them pile up. If not, then we lose our close communication with God and our relationship will grow cold. As John reminds us in our Scripture lesson for today, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) This is a great comfort to all believers. And, third, we must learn to love. Not necessarily like, but love. This is the love spoken of in the Greek word agape (uh-gahp-ay), which is that unconquerable benevolence, that undefeatable good-will, which will never seek anything but the highest good of others, no matter what they do to us, and no matter how they treat us. 10 But how can I possibly have that kind of love? It can come to us only when Christ, who is that love, comes to dwell within our hearts. Let me say one last word of caution. Most of us have long memories. We remember hurts that others have inflicted upon us. We remember slights. We remember when others said mean things about us. We remember. And just to make sure that we do remember, we rehearse the scenario over and over in our minds. Thus, we find it difficult to let these things go, and so real healing and real forgiveness never occur. Listen carefully: This is very unhealthy. It is spiritual poison. Let it go. If you do not, then the hurt and the anger will continue to burn within you and you will be stunted in your growth as a Christian. Let it go. I have told this story before and it bears repeating. It is the story 11 of a priest in the Philippines, a much-loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented of this sin but had no peace and no sense of God s forgiveness.
Page -5- In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her, he said, The next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary. The woman agreed. A few days later, the priest asked., Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams? Yes, he did, she replied. And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary? Yes. Well, what did he say? He said, I don t remember. God doesn t remember. If God forgets our sins against him, we need to forget the sins of others against us. None of this will make sense if you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. This Last Sunday After Pentecost in the church calendar is celebrated as Christ the King Sunday. It is in recognition that all things -- all things -- are subject to Christ our Redeemer. We are not our own, we were bought with a precious price, the very life blood of Jesus Christ our Redeemer. On this Sunday, I invite you to come to Christ for the first time or to renew in your heart your vow to serve our Lord Jesus. Let us pray: Holy God, we are sinful people. As King David reminds us, we are sinful at birth, sinful even from the time our mother conceived us. Forgive us, O God. Justify us in your sight, and help us to confess our daily
Page -6- sins, asking your divine forgiveness, even as we forgive the sins of others against us. We pray this in your name, Jesus our Saviour. Amen. Amen +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. Commentary on Matthew 6:12", William Barclay s Daily Study Bible, www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/matthew-6.html, c. 1956-1959. 2. John Charles Ryle (1816-1900) was an evangelical Anglican clergyman and first Bishop of Liverpool. He was renowned for his powerful preaching and extensive writings. 3. Holiness, by J. C. Ryle, reprinted in 2011, p. 15. This book is part of the Puritan Classics Series. 4. Daily Study Bible, cited above. 5. The Greek words used for sin are (as listed and defined by Dr. Barclay): (1) Hamartia is the most commonly used word. It means a missing of the target, the failure to be what we might have been and could have been. (2) Parabasis, which is the stepping across the line which is drawn between right and wrong. (3) Paraptoma, which means a slipping across, the kind of slip which a person might make on a slippery or an icy road.
(4) Anomia, which means lawlessness, the sin of the person who knows the right, and who yet does the wrong. (5) Opheilema, which means a failure to pay that which is due, a failure in duty. Page -7-6. I have adapted these from a very excellent treatment of Matthew 6:12 by the Rev. Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas, found at http://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/and-forgive-us-our-debts-as-we-forgive-our-d ebtors. Dr. Thomas is currently the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina, and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. 7. Isaac Watts (1674 1748) was an English Christian minister, hymnwriter, and theologian. He was recognized as the Father of English Hymnody, credited with some 750 hymns. 8. Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?, by Isaac Watts, sung to the tune Martyrdom, written by Hugh Wilson. 9. The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XI (Of Justification), http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/. 10. Quoted from Dr. Barclay, cited above. 11. Told by Ron Lee Davis, in A Forgiving God in an Unforgiving World, Harvest House Publishers, 1984.