[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Praise the Lord. We do get to honor Him. Amen? And He has been wonderful to us, is wonderful to us every day.
[0:15] Take your Bibles if you would and open them back to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. I'm excited to get to share this verse with you. One of the big problems that I find in all the time I have been in the ministry is we have a struggle with forgiving.
[0:30] We have a struggle with forgiving. People have hurt us. People have offended us. People have done us wrong, and we have a problem forgiving. We have a problem forgiving our parents.
[0:40] We have a problem forgiving our spouses. We have a problem forgiving others. And so we come to passage of Scripture that if a person is literally trying to please the Lord, he reads it and he goes, wow, I don't know what I think about that verse.
[0:52] So read with me, if you would, one more time what Jesus said in the middle of the model prayer, what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12. And he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
[1:07] And I'd just like to say, God, forgive me of my debts and don't do it like I forgive because I don't often forgive. And when I do forgive, like my dad used to say when I was a kid, he said, I'll forgive them, but I ain't never forgetting what they did to me.
[1:21] And so I hope God will forget what I do. And others would say, hey, I'll forgive after I get even, and then I'll forgive. And so I don't want him to forgive that way.
[1:32] And so here's a verse that's like shocking. He said, forgive me like I forgive others. Forgive me like I forgive others. And sometimes we're not the most forgiving people.
[1:43] How many of you ever would be honest and say, I've had some forgiving issues. I've had some people, it's been really hard for me to forgive. If it's ever been you, say amen. A couple of y'all lied too, didn't you?
[1:55] You know, see, we've had some forgiving issues. So I want to go over with you. Does my forgiveness depend on my forgiving? You might write that down somewhere and go through this with me. I really believe that the passages of scripture will be a blessing to you today.
[2:08] There are parts of the model prayer or Lord's prayer that are hard to understand. The implication at first reading is that your salvation is even dependent on how you forgive.
[2:19] Forgive us as we forgive our debtors. There's an apparent direct statement that your forgiveness is directly related to how you forgive. Look at what it says in verse 14.
[2:30] Verse 14 says, for if you forgive me and their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. Three guys grabbed our daughter off the street and raped her when she was like 16 years old.
[2:46] And we were at the hospital and all I could think the whole time we were there was, if I could, I would drop a nuclear bomb on Peru. Just let me get me and my family out and they will blow the whole place off the map.
[2:59] And my daughter was laying there in the bed and we're standing beside her and everybody's crying. And my daughter said, Daddy Peru didn't rape me, just three guys. I was like, yeah, well, I thought I'd get some collateral damage while I'm on it.
[3:11] Amen. Just pick up a few others. It's hard to forgive you, but if you forgive, then you'll be forgiven. In verse 15, if you forgive not, neither will your father forgive you.
[3:23] To understand this passage and how it relates to us, we need to compare scripture with scripture. We need to know how this passage fits in with the overall teaching of the New Testament.
[3:34] This passage of scripture, the model prayer, the Sermon on the Mount, were written while the law was still in effect. And Jesus rescued us from the law. Look if you would in your Bibles.
[3:45] And you just write these down. They'll put them up for you pretty quickly. You might want to look them up when you get home. Study Q&A night. You can ask questions about this. We can discuss it. The Bible says in Galatians 4.4, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
[4:09] So God had Jesus come to earth, God in human flesh, become the son of God on earth, be God incarnate, God in human flesh, and he did that under the law.
[4:21] So when you read his story, you're reading of time when he's still under the law. He will soon die, and we will no longer be under the law, and he redeems us from out from under the law.
[4:32] The New Testament is actually a result of Jesus dying to give us his testament. Read with me, if you would, Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 16. You do understand before we read that, that there's the Old Testament and the New Testament.
[4:46] There's the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The last will and testament of Jesus Christ is the New Testament. The last will and testament of Jesus Christ is the New Testament.
[4:57] The Bible says in Hebrews 9.16, For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. So the guy who gives the testament must die for it to be an effect.
[5:09] Jesus died and put us in a whole different ballgame, put us in a whole different relationship. To understand this passage, you must understand what happened when his grace stepped in.
[5:22] The law was given only to bring you to death so that you could see how good God was being to us when he saved us. Learn some truths about forgiveness with me.
[5:33] But before we go to that, tonight, if you come back at 5 o'clock tonight, we'll be in Exodus chapter 20. In Exodus chapter 20, it's a beautiful thing that needs to kind of run together. I didn't plan it that way, it just seems to be how the Lord worked it out.
[5:44] But in Exodus chapter 20, he gives us the Ten Commandments. And when he gives us the Ten Commandments, what he's given us is the ministry of death. The ministry of condemnation. Because the law only serves a purpose of saying, you don't measure up.
[5:57] You're not good enough. And in Exodus chapter 20, before he finishes that chapter and the way it's divided up, the passage of Scripture, he says, these are the Ten Commandments. Keep them. Then he comes out and says, I'm here to prove you, to test you.
[6:11] And then he says, by the way, you might as well go ahead and build an altar. That's amazing. Here's the rules. I'm testing you. You don't measure up. Build an altar. And he said, because that's where you'll be bringing your lambs.
[6:23] That's where you'll be bringing your animals as you sacrifice for your sin because you don't measure up. Jesus is still talking in those days when men were taking offerings.
[6:34] He's still taking it in those days before the Son of God has been condemned. But I want you to go through some promises in your Bible about our forgiveness. Your forgiveness is not dependent upon how you forgive.
[6:46] Your forgiveness is not dependent upon how you forgive. There is nothing in those Scriptures for us today that would say, God's up in heaven saying, you didn't forgive your wife, and so you're not forgiven.
[6:58] There's nothing in the Bible. I want you to get that straight. I want you to have it clear. And I want you to have it from a Bible perspective. So if you've got your notes in your Bible, write this down if you would. John 5, 24. John 5, 24.
[7:11] When you get born again, here's Jesus talking. We've already gone through this chapter. We've already gone through this verse. Here's Jesus talking in the book of John, which we've been through. He's talking to them, and this is what he says.
[7:22] Verily, verily, truly, truly, I'm telling you the truth. Double over. I'm telling you the truth. I say unto you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me. Stop.
[7:32] Look this way a minute. How many of you have heard the word of God? Say amen. How many of you have believed on him, God, that sent Jesus? How many of you believe? Say amen. Because these truths are only for you.
[7:45] The truths that I'm about to read are only for you. But they are for you. And the great God of heaven says these are for you. How many of you heard the word of God? Amen. How many of you believed on him that sent him?
[7:56] Amen. Now look at this. Has everlasting life. Would you write down? Would you underline? Has. The word is half. That's just an old way of saying. Has. It's not like you will have.
[8:07] Or I hope you have. Or it's doubtful you have. It is you have it. If I have it. You know, I have this watch. It's mine. It belongs to me. I have this watch. By the way, I have everlasting life.
[8:20] I'm not hoping to get it. I'm not waiting to get it. I'm not looking forward to getting it. I got it. I have eternal life. Can you say amen right there? By the way, it says everlasting life. Would you underline that in your Bible?
[8:32] Everlasting. That's a really hard word to understand. Everlasting means, are you ready? Everlasting. Well, that's hard, isn't it? Always lasting.
[8:43] It's like the Duracell battery commercial. It just keeps on running. Or the ever ready. Or whichever one it is. I don't care. But it's a lot more than that. It's everlasting. Did you notice he didn't say you have temporary life?
[8:56] He didn't say he that heareth and believeth has eternal life. If he forgives somebody. He didn't say he that heareth and believeth has eternal life.
[9:07] If he fills in all the check boxes. He said, no, you got it. Can you say amen? Good stuff, isn't it? Look at the verse. It says he has everlasting life. And he shall not come into condemnation.
[9:18] You didn't underline that. Shall not. You will not. It ain't happening. You will not come into condemnation. What's condemnation? Condemnation is being condemned. Condemnation is a condemned man on death row.
[9:30] Condemnation is found guilty. That will not happen to you. It will not happen to you. If you have heard and you have believed, you shall not come into condemnation. It ain't happening.
[9:41] And you will not be condemned. That ought to be a great verse to you. And then it says, but is passed from death to life. So my forgiven or my not forgiven has to be taken into account with this verse.
[9:51] I'm saved. I'm born again. I have everlasting life. I will not come into condemnation. And I'm already got. I'm out of the line that says death. And I'm in the line that says life. I am a child of God.
[10:03] It will not happen to me. It's a settled matter. Look at Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1. Write it down in your Bible. Because as you read Matthew, you've got to get all the context.
[10:15] You've got to get all that's happening. You've got to understand that the Bible says, Therefore there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not at the flesh but at the Spirit.
[10:26] Underline, no condemnation. No condemnation. There is no condemnation. There's none coming. It's never. It's not in my vocabulary.
[10:37] It's not in my future. It's not in something we discuss. There's no condemnation. Now when you read Romans 8, 1, you real quickly read that last part and say, Well, I don't know. This last part kind of indicates there might be.
[10:48] Because it says in Romans 8, 1, There's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. How many of y'all are in Christ Jesus? Okay, the witch tells you what's something about being in Christ Jesus.
[10:59] If you are in Christ Jesus, then you do not walk after the flesh but after the Spirit. That's not a conditional statement. It is a declarative statement. It's not saying if you continue.
[11:10] It's saying this is who we are. And the Bible is clear about that. In case you didn't understand Romans 8, 1, look at what it says, if you would, in Romans 8, 9. The Bible is clear in Romans 8, 9. Right there, it explains what he said.
[11:22] He said, We do not walk after the flesh. We are not in the Spirit flesh. We are after the Spirit. Look at Romans 8, 9. But you are not in the flesh. Underline that. Draw a circle around it.
[11:33] Draw a line up to Romans 8, 1. So you've got them hooked together in your Bible. Romans 8, verse 1. There's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And then he says, that are not in the flesh.
[11:44] Well, 8, 1 says if you're not in the flesh. 8, 9 says you aren't in the flesh. That's pretty good. Amen. You are not in the flesh. You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
[11:55] Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. How many of you know that you belong to God? Say amen. That's who you are. That's where you moved into. That's the person that you are.
[12:06] That promise is ours. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Here's another one you need to know about our forgiveness. Salvation is totally by grace. Salvation is totally by grace.
[12:19] There's nothing you can do to be saved except believe what God says. Look at Ephesians 2, 8, 9 that you know very well. Ephesians 2, 8, 9. You know these verses but you put them with everything in your Bible.
[12:31] They work all through the Bible. All these verses go together. For by grace are you saved through faith. And that ain't even of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast.
[12:43] Most. Now watch. There will be no getting to heaven and saying, I got here but I had to forgive 28 people. I mean it was a lot of work. I kept working on forgiving them people.
[12:55] It was hard but I did it. No, you ain't going to get there and brag about anything you did. You're going to get there and you're going to say, Thank God for Jesus and the cross and grace. That's how I got here.
[13:05] Can you say amen? Look at the verse. For by grace are you saved through faith. That not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Pretty powerful statement.
[13:15] The promise is ours. We are in Christ. We're not in the flesh. We are saved by grace. We are saved by that. It's not our works. It never is our works. Look at Titus chapter 3 and verse 5.
[13:27] Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. If you would, the Bible says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done. How did you get saved? Could you read the first part of that verse with me?
[13:40] Out loud. Are you all ready? Read it out loud. I want to hear your voices. Ready? Not by works of righteousness. Not by works of righteousness. What? There's nothing.
[13:51] You're not going to get to heaven and say, Boy, I did a lot of good stuff. I gave a lot of money. You want to see my tithing record? They gave me at the church. Vision gave me this. And this is everything I did. That's why I got here. It cost me a lot.
[14:02] I paid on installments. But I got here. No, no, no, no, no. You're going to get there. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. How did I get there? But according to his, according to his, that means he didn't give you what you did deserve.
[14:15] You deserve to go to hell. You are no good. We all mess up. We all fail. But he saved us according to his mercy of the washing of regeneration. Okay. Let me give you another one.
[14:26] He saved you. He loved you while you were in a sinful state, a sinful position. Look, if you would, at Romans chapter 5 and verse 6, if you would. Romans chapter 5 and verse 6.
[14:37] I think sometimes you get somewhere along the way, you feel like I changed my mind. I turned over a new leaf. I came to church. I wanted God to save me. I started working on getting my life fixed.
[14:49] That's not what the Bible says. God doesn't save good people. God doesn't save good people. Romans chapter 5, verse 6. For when we were yet without, what were we without?
[15:00] I couldn't even do anything. I was without, what? I was without strength. In due time, Christ died for the good guys. Is that what it says? Who did he die for?
[15:10] Help me, let me hear you. Who did he die for? The ungodly. Hey, you're an ungodly looking bunch of people. He said, good. That's who he died for. Amen. You come in here, boy, you're looking all sanctimonious and religious.
[15:21] He said, I didn't die for you. I died for the ungodly. But, oh, he has that problem with the Pharisees. We'll look at that in a minute. Look at Romans chapter 5 and verse 8 that you know very well. Romans chapter 5 and verse 8. The Bible says, but God committed his love toward us.
[15:33] And that while we were what? Yet sinners. While we were still sinning. While we were still sinners. He didn't save me after I turned over a new leaf and quit smoking, cussing, drinking, dancing, and going with them to do.
[15:45] He didn't save me after I quit doing everything. He saved me while I was still an old, messed up guy. By the way, he loved me first. In 1 John chapter 4 and verse 19, we love him because he first loved us.
[16:00] In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, it was Jesus who had the plan of salvation. It wasn't made up by Peter and Paul and John. It wasn't made up by any of the guys in the New Testament.
[16:11] It was Jesus who had the plan. And I want you to look at what the verse says. And I really want you to underline it. The Bible said, look in unto Jesus, the author and the finisher. Do you know who made up the plan of salvation?
[16:22] Who did? Talk to me. And who did it? Jesus. What did he say on the cross? It is? I done it. I did it. It's done. Taken care of. He didn't come say, look, I made the first payment.
[16:34] Y'all keep up with the payment so you can have it. You know, sometimes people will buy you something. They'll buy a preacher a car. And they give him a car and they say, look, we made the first payment.
[16:46] Now it's yours. Thank God he didn't do that. Amen. He said, I just paid it in cash. Here's the title. It's yours. It says right on front of it, paid for. Say, man. So we're saved by what he did on the cross of Calvary.
[16:59] I'd like to show you in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 18, it was God that reconciled us to himself. It was God. It wasn't even just Jesus. Some of you got this idea that God's up in heaven.
[17:10] He's all husky, mad, got lightning bolts in his head, and he's wanting to kill us. And thank God there's a nice God side. And the good side of God is Jesus. And the bad side is God. That's not what the Bible says. Look at what it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 18.
[17:23] And all things are of who? God. And who has reconciled us? Who? It was God who reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. So God in heaven said, Austin, you are messed up, buddy.
[17:36] And I, with God, I'm God through Jesus Christ have done to get you saved. John 3, 16. It was God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
[17:48] Our salvation is based on a work that God did through Jesus in our lives. It's not contingent on you or what you do except believing God. So what's this got to do with it?
[18:00] It sounds like you got off target. No, I really own target. Because when you read Matthew chapter 6, you thought he's going to forgive me like I forgive. So I'm going to help you understand what's really going on in that passage of scripture.
[18:11] But I want you to go home knowing this. If you're saved today, you're not saved by what the Baptists did. You're not saved by what I did. You're not saved by what you did. You're not saved by what the apostles did. You're saved by what God did through Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.
[18:24] You relax and rest because he's big enough to do what he said he would do. Can you say amen right there? Truths about forgiveness. The second thing I want you to look at with me is this. The mistakes we make or the errors we make when we think about salvation or about forgiveness.
[18:39] We believe that our forgiveness or salvation depends on our forgiving. In 14 it said, Matthew 6, 14, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.
[18:50] And if you don't forgive, he won't forgive you. Watch this. Somewhere along the way, almost everybody in this room, you've got some idea that God does a real big part of saving me, but then there's a lot of stuff he leaves to me.
[19:03] And so you think, Well, I get saved by God's grace. He does the work in my life, but I've got to keep on forgiving or I won't be saved. He does a lot of part of getting me saved, but if I don't keep on going to church, I won't be saved.
[19:14] He does a lot of part of getting me saved, but if I don't, and if I don't, and if I don't, and you've got a whole checklist. You've got a whole checklist. It's like you think God's walking in with a clipboard and going, All right, here to check you out today.
[19:27] Okay, all right. You did accept the gift. Right. How many people have you been forgiven? No. Okay. X. You're not ready. You're not ready yet. That's not how it works. He looks and says, It's finished.
[19:38] Jesus did it. That's a mistake for you to misunderstand that verse that way. Look, if you would, look, if you would, another mistake we make, that is that we think we can't get to heaven unless we continually ask forgiveness.
[19:50] We can't get to heaven unless we continually ask forgiveness for our sins. So we use 1 John 1, 9, man. We're always going to him and saying, Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me.
[20:01] Please forgive me. The Bible says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Eric, would you come here just a second, please? And I want to show you something. Eric, this is forgiveness.
[20:12] I want you to ask for it. You can have it. There it is. Now then, I want you to keep asking me for that book. You got it. You got it. No, you got it. You got it.
[20:23] I know you want it, but you got it. I mean, it's really kind of a dumb thing to do. We are forgiven. You are forgiven. Hey, you will not come into condemnation. You already have an eternal life.
[20:34] And that's what's going on in your life. Thank you, sir. Look, if you would, look, if you would with me at another one, we, we feel like our fellowship, with God depends on us forgiving others. Let me give you a hint.
[20:45] God came to you. You didn't come to him. He didn't put out a checklist when you came and he didn't put out a checklist when you got through getting saved. Sometimes we bring legalism in before we get saved and say, if you want to be saved, you got to get circumcised.
[21:01] And then sometimes you say, you can get saved for free, but we're circumcising you after. No, you get saved without the circumcision on either end of the deal. We are consumed with daily confessing our sins.
[21:13] We forgive others, but we do not forget. We don't forgive, even though we have been forgiven. We are really messed up on this forgiven part. So why? The third thing, why does God give us this strong reference about forgiving?
[21:26] Let me show you something from Matthew chapter five and six, where we are right now in the sermon on the Mount. Watch this. Don't forget this passage of scripture is written as he speaks to the Jews under the law.
[21:38] He's still under the law. He's still dealing with Jews. There aren't very many Gentiles at all there. They are believing, but they got to get so much out of their head. They got to understand. And so he says to them, I want to show you the weakness of the law.
[21:49] That's what he's been doing. He told him in Matthew chapter five and verse 20, that they had to be more righteous than the religious leaders. He said, for I say unto you that except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
[22:05] He's in Matthew five. He's saying, you can't be like your religious leaders. They're not good enough. He mentioned to them that they had been misunderstanding old Testament scriptures in Matthew chapter five and verse 21.
[22:17] He said, you have heard that it was said by them of old time. This is what they used to tell you, but they're wrong. Cause in verse 22, he said, I say unto you. And he went through that like three or four times.
[22:27] And we went through that as we studied it. He had said strong things to them, like cut off your hand, pluck out your eye. He was shocking them, shocking the religious leaders in understanding that what they had taught and believed was wrong.
[22:41] Forgiveness is much stronger than anything that they had been practicing. Here's what he's saying is y'all got to understand the enormity of your sin. You have to understand the enormity. He's going to come to that in Matthew 18.
[22:52] In Matthew 18, he's going to come to them with a story about a man who owed 10,000 talents compared to a man that owed a hundred pence. Because salvation is a God thing. It's God saving me and God forgiving me and God doing the work in my life.
[23:06] The guy who owed 10,000 talents, a talent weighed approximately 75 pounds. So one man owed enough money that it was 750,000 pounds of money.
[23:19] 750,000 pounds of money. How many tons is that? A bunch. That's how much he owed. The other man owed 100 days of standard wage.
[23:31] You could have carried that in your pocket. You could have put that in your wallet. He owed 100 pounds of minimum wage. The one guy owed 20 years. If you work 20 years, you could earn a talent.
[23:42] So to pay off his debt, he would need to work 200,000 years. He couldn't pay off that debt. We have sinned against the Holy God. There's nothing small about my debt.
[23:54] I have been forgiven. And I should learn to forgive. So he says this in his verses. He's calling. You need to understand what you're forgiven for.
[24:05] See, these Pharisees, they had in mind, what I do is what's important. What I do is what's important. You've got to understand something. Men always want to focus on what they do. I go to church.
[24:15] I give money. I make missionary trips. I do this. And I do this. And I do this. We always like to magnify man. But the salvation story puts man way down and puts God way up.
[24:27] It's not about you. It's about him. It's God who did the saving. Can you understand that? You see, what's hard about you understanding eternal security, what's hard about you understanding that God loves you, is you really think everything's dependent on you.
[24:40] But it's not. It's depending on how good your God is. So it was the forgiveness that the great God of heaven had made. They were being taught to love their enemies.
[24:51] Matthew 5 and verse 44, he said, love your enemies and bless them. Forgiveness is just a part of who we are. We have been forgiven and we forgive. They were to die to themselves.
[25:03] So let me just show you real quickly what's going on. This is still Old Testament. Man, Old Testament is so different. You say, no, it's Matthew. It's still Old Testament. The tester hasn't died. The Testament isn't in effect yet.
[25:15] You remember we're in the book of Exodus and he sets up in heaven and he starts talking to them and they're terrified of him. And he sets bounds and he says, you can come to there no more. If you come past it, I'll kill you.
[25:27] Because we're still in that situation. He sets up guards to shoot them and kill them. He tells them to stone them if they try to get that close. That's Old Testament. In New Testament, he says, come boldly to the throne of grace.
[25:38] In the Old Testament, he was saying, God is severe. In the New Testament, he was saying, but Jesus took the severity. So it's a new time. And Jesus paid the debt.
[25:50] So my salvation is not dependent on anything that I do. So what steps do we take before we go home? The forgiven forgive. Could you say that with me? The forgiven forgive.
[26:01] Could you say that ready? The forgiven. That's what we're going to do. Ephesians 4.32. He doesn't use that term again. By the way, the apostles never repeat the term, you are forgiven as you forgive.
[26:15] Never will they say that again. That will not be said in Acts. It will not be said in any of the epistles. It will not be said after the book, after the books while Jesus is alive. But in Ephesians 4.32, here's what they said.
[26:27] As they understood that now the new truth, the truth, Jesus has died and been buried and rose again. Jesus has paid the sin debt. Here's how they said, be kind one to another.
[26:37] Ephesians 4.32, be kind one to another and tenderhearted, forgiving one another like God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.
[26:49] It was like, it was no longer a man, he wouldn't say, Pharisees, you talk about your forgiveness, but you don't know anything about forgiving. Now it's a whole different situation. Y'all know you've been forgiven, so forgive like Jesus forgave you.
[27:02] The message is changed. The message is new. Compare what others have done to you and what you have done against God. As you went your own way, let's just help you learn to forgive.
[27:14] You see, against God, let me explain to you, the God of heaven had a plan for my life, the God of heaven wanted me to do things, but I chose to do my own thing, live my own way, make my own decisions, before I got saved.
[27:27] I lived in rebellion thinking I was good enough and I didn't need him. I lived in righteous living. I lived in keeping a bunch of rules. I lived thinking it was me. And then one day, I got to the end of myself and I said, I can't be saved and I can't do anything and I'm helpless and I'm without strength and I'm ungodly.
[27:44] And he said, good, you're finally where I can save you and I forgive you. He didn't forgive me because I obeyed my mama. He didn't forgive me because I was a good son. He didn't forgive me because I was a good guy.
[27:57] We'll see it tonight in Exodus. I hope you hear in Exodus. You know what the Ten Commandments were about? Shutting your mouth. The Ten Commandments were to say, you didn't cut it.
[28:08] All right, you made it past that one. Well, you didn't make it past the next one. You didn't cut it. You don't measure up. And that's what goes on and he's still dealing with these Jews. Man, these Jews are the religious people of the world.
[28:20] They are so sanctimonious. They're so religious. They know what they do. They believe they are. But it's not about them. It's about him. So compare what you did against God.
[28:33] Have you sinned against the Holy God? Come back. Stop a second. Look back who you were. Look back what you did before you came to Christ. Look at how good you were trying to get to heaven. Look at how bad you were trying to disobey.
[28:44] Just look at how you were wanting to be you. Our pop culture singers have said, I live life my way. I did it my way. I live what I want to do. I did my thing.
[28:55] That's exactly the point. If your thing was a good thing or a bad thing, it doesn't matter if it was still your thing. It was a wrong thing. Because the only way to heaven is his thing. It's what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[29:07] So focus on your sin and your failure and your need of a Savior. It will help you to put in proper place what everyone else has done to you. If I owe 750,000 pounds of money and the guy who did me wrong owes 100 days of minimum wage, I think I owe more than he does.
[29:30] If I deserve hell and all he deserves is to have to pay me 100 days of wage, I'm in worse shape than he is. When I understand that I can become the forgiver I'm supposed to be.
[29:43] But the verse was never about you being a forgiver. The verse is about you learning you're forgiven. The verse was about saying to religious Jews, it's not about you. It's about him.
[29:55] Realize that forgiving is an expression of our faith. Realize that salvation is a work of God in my life that I didn't do and I didn't deserve.
[30:06] I don't know how to get this across to you. I think some of you don't understand it yet. Salvation's all him, none you. Did you hear that? It's all him, none you.
[30:18] We don't believe in salvation by works. The Bible doesn't teach salvation by works. The Bible doesn't say God will do 99.99. You just got to pick up .11 or .1.
[30:30] God never says that. Or .01 or .00001. Here's what God says. It's a gift. The Bible says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
[30:44] And he gives it through Jesus Christ. You need to stop and realize salvation's a God thing. There are no conditional clauses in your salvation. There are no loopholes in salvation.
[30:58] He saved us. He came to me. He found me in my sin. He saved me. He didn't wait on me to turn my life around.
[31:09] He turned me around. He completely saved me. The Bible says in Hebrews 9.25, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him.
[31:25] Sin he ever lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 9.25, he saves to the limit, past the limit, further than you can understand.
[31:36] The Father's corner, the Father's reach, he saves that far to the uttermost, those that come to God by Jesus. And Jesus ever lives, praying for us.
[31:49] I don't get to heaven because of my prayers. It's not like I pray, pray, pray, pray, and God saves me. No, Jesus is doing the praying. And he keeps on doing the praying. Understand your salvation doesn't depend on anything you do or have done, but on what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[32:04] And as you do that, you will begin to forgive, but never as a condition. We do forgive as an expression of our faith. We do forgive because we want to.
[32:15] We do forgive because we understand, but never as a condition. There's not one thing that's going to happen when you get to heaven where he's going to say, I know Jesus died for you. I know you paid your sin debt, but I need a checklist.
[32:26] Let me run you through quality control and make sure you're saved. Either you're saved by his grace or you're not. So today, if you come and the way you've been trying to get to heaven is by how good you are.
[32:37] You know, in Peru, it was so funny. They were in a shame to just tell you. They come and they say, well, I've been baptized by the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I've been to every group around here, and I'm just doing everything I can.
[32:49] I'm covering all my bases. I just want to make sure I get to heaven when I die. And I say, well, you can stop all that. You don't have any more bases to cover. You can cover every base there is on the planet. You wouldn't get to heaven. And they say, well, I've done everything everybody says.
[33:02] I did the Mormon thing for a while, and I've done the Jehovah's Witness thing for a while. I've done the Seventh-day Adventist thing for a while. I'm here to do the Baptist thing. And I say, well, the Baptist thing ain't going to do any more for you than the other stuff did. But if you trust Jesus and what he did, you can be saved.
[33:17] It's amazing. They would hear the gospel and believe Jesus, and they'd be like, I was so stupid trying to do all that good stuff when Jesus did it all.
[33:29] I'm saved. I am. He made me his. He came to where I was. He made a difference in my life. Yeah? Forgiveness is a part of who I am.
[33:41] But you see, you do because you are. Be, do. See that little thing over there? That's to remind you all the time. We don't do anything to be. You don't do stuff to become a Christian.
[33:53] You do stuff because you are a Christian. You don't forgive so you can be saved. You forgive because you are saved. Don't ever get that out of whack. We are in Christ.
[34:06] And so there are expressions of that. So if you're here and you're not born again today, you shouldn't be. And if you are born again, you should leave here saying, man, he's a great God. He wasn't putting any conditions on your salvation.
[34:17] He was teaching them how to pray, and he was reminding them in the shocking way he's talking all through that sermon on the mount. He is saying over and over, you religious people don't understand it. That's what he's doing.
[34:29] Waking us up. Amazing. The apostles never repeat the phrase, you'll only go to heaven if you forgive. They never say that. They only say this, you forgive like God forgave you.
[34:39] That's all they ever say. You know you got forgiven. Now forgive others the way Jesus forgave us. So we live out what he has done. Father in heaven, I love you. I thank you for your word. I pray that you bless your people.
[34:51] I pray you draw them to you. I pray your name would be real and powerful, and I'll give you glory for all you do. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.