Keep your Bibles open there at Matthew 18.
I'll pray.
Gracious Father, a couple of days before Christmas,
as you remember the great event of the Lord Jesus coming into this world,
to live that obedient life, to die that substitutionary death,
to be raised in a very powerful way,
Lord, we pray that we would see the implications of your grace to us
and the implications in terms of our grace to one another
as we look at this passage.
So we need your help to do the thing that we cannot do,
to not just see the facts of this story,
but to see the glory of it.
And so, Lord, we pray that we would not just understand your grace,
but that we would rejoice in it,
that we would see the beauty and the glory of it this morning from your word
so come and help us, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
A former American footballer with the Miami Dolphins was interviewed by Newsweek
and he was asked the question,
what motivated him to go to university?
And his reply was,
my father and uncle were human cannonballs in the carnivals.
He said, one day my father came to me and said,
son, go to university or become a human cannonball.
And he said, one day while I was contemplating my future,
he said, my uncle came out of the cannon and hit the ferris wheel
and that's when I decided to go to university.
Motive is a strange thing to work out sometimes
and especially as Christians.
What motivates us to be here this morning?
What motivates us to pursue spiritual disciplines?
What motivates us to give generously?
What motivates us to serve?
What motivates us to do what we were doing
even in the last week down at the mall?
Often, it is true that our motives are mixed in the pursuit of right things,
but it's also possible to have wrong motives in pursuing right things.
This is the last sermon in our short series on the grace of God.
We started off being amazed by grace.
It was right there at the very beginning.
I said that the grace of God is God's love freely shown towards guilty sinners,
contrary to their merit and in fact in defiance of their demerit.
That is, neither all the good things we do nor the bad things we do actually count.
God isn't drawn to us because that somehow we're better than other people
and he isn't repulsed by us because our sin is so bad.
Grace is about God's free, unconditional, sovereign, electing love.
In the end, it's not about us.
It is about God and his character.
Last week, we saw how this grace can scandalise us
because our normal moral position is to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.
That is, we tend to play down our massive vices
and we assume that the small occasional virtues
will somehow cover up the massive vices.
It's like a bank robber before a judge
and he's about to get convicted for armed robbery in a bank
and he said, well, hang on a bit, judge, before you get too carried away here,
just remember in your assessment of me that I didn't rob the bank on that corner
and on that corner and that corner, I only just did this one here
and the judge goes, oh, okay then.
I never considered that.
So you're not such a bad bloke after all.
Innocent.
And now it's time for us to look at grace
as grace being the motivation for us
to live a life of grace
and this is crucial.
It's crucial because it's unfortunate
that we often only get it half right
when we look at the doctrine of grace.
When we become a Christian,
we understand that we are saved by grace
but we get confused about what sort of comes after that.
We often are not clear about what it means to live by grace
and there are two classic historical mistakes
in response to being saved by grace.
One, the first mistake is that I'm saved by grace
but I stay saved through doing good things.
It can be sort of like joining a sports team.
You get into the team because the coach was gracious to you,
he needed some spot field
or because you signed the rego forms
but you need to keep your spot in the team
by earning your place
by working hard and performing well to be part of the team.
Another name for it is legalism
and it is a great danger for us.
Even good relational things like spiritual disciplines,
things like evangelism and prayer and barberating
and church and giving
can easily become performance measures
by which we gauge how things are going
in our relationship with God.
Now don't get me wrong here,
I want to actively promote disciplines
like those things amongst Christians.
They are absolutely necessary for growth as Christians
but they are benefits.
They are not duties.
They are a privilege.
Legalism is very, very dangerous
because the legalist is often deluded
by their own self-righteousness
and pride becomes a massive problem
and remember what I said last week
and Deb's reminded us this morning,
pride is the thick hide
that grace cannot penetrate.
Legalism isn't how grace works.
Salvation is all God's work
from beginning to the end.
from the moment you begin the Christian life
until you enter heaven
and I would even say that
for all of eternity in heaven,
it is all by the grace of God.
All by the grace of God.
Take for instance Romans 8.
If you're really quick with your Bible,
flick to Romans 8,
verse 28 to verse 30.
And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love Him,
who have been called according to His purpose.
For those God foreknew,
He also predestined to be conformed
to the likeness of His Son
that He might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
And here it is.
And those He predestined,
He called,
and those He called,
He justified,
and those He justified,
He also glorified.
It is all of God's work
from beginning right through to the end,
from eternity past to eternity future.
It is His work in choosing,
His work in saving,
His work in changing,
it is all His gracious action.
So legalism is dangerous.
The second mistake is that we are saved by grace,
all of God's work,
His doing,
I contribute nothing,
and so I can live however I like.
Augustine of Hippo
summarized the Christian life with the saying,
love God and do as you please.
So there's legalism on one hand,
on the other hand,
there is license.
The German pastor,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
called it cheap grace.
The Bible says this about license,
a couple of chapters,
if you are in Romans chapter 8,
go back to chapter 6,
verse 15,
what then?
Shall we sin
because we are not under law
but under grace?
By no means.
Don't you know
that when you offer yourselves
to someone to obey him as slaves,
you are slaves to the one whom you obey,
whether you are slaves to sin,
which leads to death,
or to obedience,
which leads to righteousness.
But thanks be to God
that though you used to be slaves to sin,
you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching
to which you were entrusted,
you have been set free from sin,
and have become slaves to righteousness.
Now what Paul's doing here in Romans chapter 6
is he's actually quoting someone,
and he's trying to help this poor fellow
to understand the Christian life
and the essence of the Christian life.
And this fellow,
he listens to Paul's teaching
about the gospel of justification
by grace through faith apart from works,
and he says,
well if I have a right standing before God
by trusting in his gracious actions
towards me in the Lord Jesus,
and if all of my past and present
and future sins are all forgiven
and dealt with by Jesus,
well that's great,
I'll have that,
and I might as well go on living a life of sin
because I can have that too.
I can enjoy all the desires of sin as well.
And what's Paul's response to that?
Paul's response is,
that's the way a person talks about Christianity
if it is just simply a group of ideas
and not an experience of the preciousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a person whose Christianity
is all truth and no treasure,
all choices and no cherishing,
all logic about Christ
and no love for Christ,
all decision and no delight.
That is,
they know Jesus,
but they don't treasure Jesus.
We are being set free from slavery to sin.
Why would you want to go back there?
Is what Paul says.
If I cherish the love of God towards me,
the Lord Jesus,
what is it that will please me?
What pleases me is what pleases Him.
And I live accordingly.
Not because I have to,
not because of obligation or guilt,
not because I'm forced or manipulated
or I owe Him,
but because I've experienced the love
and the grace that God has shown me.
And this then brings us to this story of Matthew 18.
So hopefully most of you have got your Bibles open
at that point.
If you haven't,
flick there really quickly.
Matthew 18.
This is a story which helps us to see
how grace,
the grace of the Lord Jesus,
should motivate us
in a life of grace towards one another.
Jesus has been talking about
how to handle things
when someone sins against you.
And so in verse 15,
Jesus says this,
if your brother sins against you,
go and show him his fault
just between the two of you.
If he listens to you,
you have won your brother over.
But if he will not listen,
take one or two others along
so that every matter
may be established
by the testimony
of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church.
And if he refuses to listen
even to the church,
treat him as you would
a pagan or a tax collector.
Those few verses there
are so essential
for good relationships
within the church.
don't talk to other people
about how you've been wronged.
Don't hold a grudge
and write a little payback list.
Go to the person directly
and speak about the issue.
Look them in the eye
and seek resolution
and reconciliation.
And then straight after
these verses,
Peter's asked the question.
He's always the first one
to come in with the question
or to make a statement.
And in verse 21,
he says,
Lord,
how many times
should I forgive my brother
when he sins against me?
Up to seven times?
You see,
the attitude of the rabbis
around that time
was that you would
forgive your brother
three times
and no more.
And so Peter here,
probably thinking
that he's come up short
a number of times already.
Whenever he's jumped in
with a question
or made a statement,
he always says
the wrong thing.
And so Peter's thinking,
I'm going to go down
on record here
for all of history
and I'm going to say
the right thing
for a change.
So Jesus,
knowing it's only three times,
should I forgive my brother
seven times?
Jesus comes in,
verse 22,
not seven times,
but 77 times.
And Peter goes,
oh my goodness,
not again.
Now some say here
that Jesus doesn't actually
mean 77 times.
What he means is
seven times,
70 times,
he means 490 times.
The reality is though,
either alternative
is simply to miss the point
of what Jesus is saying here.
Either it would be 77
or 490,
it is to return
to the pedantic calculation
of forgiveness
that Jesus rejects.
And how do I know
he rejects it?
Because he says it
in the parable.
Next point.
You see,
forgiveness is unlimited.
unlimited.
That's what God's grace
is towards us.
It is unlimited.
And this next story
makes this point clear.
It gives us
a brilliant insight
into the enormity
of the grace of God
towards us.
There is a man
who owes a king
10,000 talents.
It was a debt,
according to verse 25,
that he was not able
to pay.
And that is
an understatement.
The talent
was the highest
unit of currency
and 10,000
was the highest
Greek numeral.
In other words,
you put them both together
and it meant to convey
the largest sum
imaginable.
And so when
one of my children
says to me,
wow,
how much does that cost?
I say,
squillions of dollars.
Wow.
The debt
is incalculable.
In fact,
the debt
was more
than a thousand
times
the annual
revenue
of Galilee,
Judea,
Samaria
and
Edomia
combined.
It's like
taking all
foreign
debt
of every
country
and lumping
on top of
one single
human being
and say,
pay that
back.
It's
totally
incomprehensible.
And yet,
even though
this man
who has
lumbered
with such
an enormity
of debt,
he's bankrupt
so many
times
over,
he still
has a sense
of pride.
He hasn't
grasped
the enormity
of his debt.
Have a look
at there
in verse
26.
The servant
fell on his
knees before
him,
that is
before the
king,
and he
says,
be patient
with me,
he begged,
and I
will pay
you back
everything.
He's got
no capability
of paying
it back.
No amount
of time,
no amount
of patience
would do it.
He is
utterly
bankrupt.
He is
powerless
and helpless,
no ability
to trade
out of this
situation
at all.
And it
is again
the picture
of our
situation
before God
as we
saw back
in Ephesians
chapter 2
where it
describes us
there as
being dead
in our
transgressions
and sins.
Dead people
don't cut
deals.
They don't
pay back
loans.
They are
powerless.
They cannot
even walk.
Of course,
the king
understood the
plight of his
servant.
You see,
this story
ultimately is
about God
and the way
he has
graciously
treated us.
We who
were bankrupt
before God
with a debt
of sin
that we
could never
repay
have been
forgiven
through the
Lord Jesus.
Our debt
against God
has been
piling up
minute after
minute,
hour after
hour,
day after
day,
month after
month,
year after
year.
But God
in his
gracious
action
towards
the Lord
Jesus
has wiped
it clean.
He's
forgiven us
a debt
that we
could never
repay.
You see,
the words,
he'd be
patient with
me and
I'll pay
you back
everything,
Jesus.
I'll go
to church
and I'll
pull my
socks up
and I'll
read my
Bible and
I'll pray
and I'll
give you
some money.
It is
so pitifully
untrue.
No amount
of good
Christian activity,
no amount
of pulling up
the socks
and rolling
up your
sleeves and
trying a
little harder
morally,
our debt
against God
is phenomenal.
We are
bankrupt.
We don't
have the
power or the
ability to
trade out of
it and God
comes along in
the Lord Jesus
and says,
I release you
from the debt.
Now,
of course,
the twist in the
story comes
when this
servant who
has been
forgiven an
incalculable
debt
walks out
onto the
deck
and starts
choking
someone
who owes
him
a trifling
amount
in comparison.
He makes
sure that
this other
servant who
owes him
a few
dollars
pays him
back right
down to
the last
cent.
Verse 28,
But when
that servant
went out,
he found
one of his
fellow servants
who owed him
a hundred
denarii.
He grabbed
him and began
to choke him.
Pay back what
you owe me,
he demanded.
And his
fellow servant
fell on his
knees and
begged him,
be patient
with me and
I will pay
you back.
But he
refused.
Instead,
he went off
and had the
man thrown
into prison
until he
could pay
back the
debt.
You see,
the fact
that the
second servant's
debt is
one six
hundred
thousandth of
the first
debt,
emphasizes the
ludicrous
nature of
this servant's
behavior.
Any limitation
of grace and
forgiveness that
he shows to
his fellow
servant is
just
inconceivable.
the second
servant pleaded
for mercy,
be patient
and I will
pay you
back.
And he
could have
paid it
back with
time.
It's a few
bucks.
He could have
paid it
back.
But what does
the first
servant do?
He grabs
him,
hands him
over to
the jailers,
he has him
thrown into
prison until
he can pay
the debt
back.
And what
happens when
he's in
prison?
He can't
earn the
money to
pay the debt
back.
And so the
first servant
will hold
that debt
against him
forever.
We know
right at the
very end of
this parable
and also at
the very
beginning of
this parable
because it's
just flown out
of Peter's
question to
Jesus, how
many times
should I
forgive my
brother,
that ultimately
this parable
is about
forgiveness.
And it's a
shocking picture,
isn't it?
the first
servant throws
the second
servant into
prison and
holds the
debt against
him.
My friends,
resentment,
the unwillingness
to forgive,
is a deadly
disease and it
is very common.
It can have
quite negative
physical
consequences,
but it
certainly has
very negative
spiritual
consequences.
Verse 32,
then the
master called
the servant
in, you
wicked
servant.
He said,
I cancelled
all the
debt that
was yours
because you
begged me
to.
Shouldn't
you have
had mercy
on your
fellow servant
just as I
had on you?
And in
anger, his
master turned
him over to
the jailers to
be tortured
until he
should pay
back all
that he
owed.
This is how
my heavenly
father will
treat each
of you unless
you forgive
your brother
from your
heart.
You see,
the spiritual
consequences
here are
severe.
Our
relationship
with God
is strangled
by resentment.
Resentment
is most
often the
reason behind
spiritual
dryness and
decline.
A good
question to
ask of one
another in
that state
is, who
do you need
to forgive?
Who do you
need to
forgive?
When someone
says, I
cannot forgive
so and so
for what
they've done
to me,
the answer
is, according
to verse
35, is
you must
forgive or
you will
never be
forgiven by
God.
The grace
of God
is dynamic
and it is
life-changing.
We simply
cannot go
through heaven's
narrow door
if our
lives are
bulging
with
resentment.
Heaven is
for penitent
sinners
only.
God's
grace,
compassion,
love,
mercy,
forgiveness
is meant
to motivate
grace,
compassion,
love,
mercy,
forgiveness
in us.
Whenever we
are confronted
with someone
who has
wronged us,
the place
to dwell
in our
thoughts and
our emotions
is not
the gravity
of their
sin against
me,
but the
gravity of
my sin
against God.
On the
25th of
July 1993,
three men
rushed into
St. James
Anglican Church
Kenilworth in
South Africa
and armed
with machine
guns and
grenades.
After the
slaughter,
11 parishioners
lay dead in
the pews,
60 of
them were
wounded,
some of
them were
permanently
maimed.
One of
those who
was killed
was the
wife of
Dowie
Ackerman.
She was
sitting in
the back
pew,
I think
while Dowie
was in
the foyer
handing,
I know he
might have
been at the
front of
the church
involved in
some sort
of ministry.
She was
one of the
first to
die.
Dowie
attended the
truth and
reconciliation
for the
men who
gunned down
his wife.
during the
course of
the hearing,
the men
turned to
Dowie and
said,
will you
forgive us
for what we
have done
to you?
This is what
he said.
I forgave
them
unconditionally
because they
asked for
it.
God has
forgiven us
and all
we have
to do
is ask
for it.
They've
asked for
my
forgiveness
so I
must give
it to
them.
Tough
call,
isn't it?
Forgiveness
like that.
But my
friends,
that is
the way
of Christian
living.
That is
the impact,
the dynamic
transforming
impact of
the grace
of God.
It is
only possible
when we
see the
enormity of
our sin
against God
and his
forgiveness
and his
grace to
us in
the Lord
Jesus
Christ.
The grace
of God
towards us
in the
Lord
Jesus
is the
motivation
for us
to put
on the
garments
of
grace.
And I
use the
term
garments
of
grace
from
Colossians
chapter
3
verses
12 to
14.
Therefore,
as God's
chosen people,
holy and
dearly loved,
clothe yourselves
with compassion,
kindness,
humility,
gentleness,
and patience.
Bear with
each other
and forgive
whatever grievances
you may have
against one
another.
Forgive
as the
Lord forgave
you.
And over
all of these
virtues,
put on love,
which binds
them all
together in
perfect unity.
You see,
the main
thrust of
Paul's
teaching here
in this
passage is
that we
are to be
clothed
ourselves
with
Christ-like
virtues.
But he
grounds his
exaltation
on being
clothed with
these virtues
in the
grace of
God.
The fact
that he
has chosen
us to be
in him,
that we
are holy
in his
sight,
that we
are dearly
loved by
him.
It is
difficult.
Perhaps
impossible
for us
to show
compassion
or patience
to someone
else if we
are unsure
if God
is patient
with us.
Or even
worse,
if we
don't sense
the need
for God
to be
patient
with us.
These
garments of
gracious
Christian
character
can only
be put
on by
those who
are continually
experiencing
the grace
of God
in their
own lives.
And it's
passages like
this,
Colossians 3
and Matthew
18,
that undergird
our core
value here
at St.
Paul's of
humble
authenticity.
Let me
remind you
of bits
of it.
As a
church,
we are
committed
to serving
others and
considering
them more
important than
ourselves,
speaking to
one another
honestly and
in private
when problems
arise,
honoring each
other by
not engaging
in gossip
or malicious
or slanderous
talk,
being careful
how we
interpret one
another,
asking clarifying
questions before
making judgments
in disagreements,
being slow to
take offense,
being quick to
confess error
and sin,
to pursue
reconciliation and
work towards
change when we
have offended,
being rigorously
honest,
being vulnerable
with our
imperfections that
encourages openness
and honesty
rather than
cover up.
our core
value of
humble
authenticity
is so
essential
for our
spiritual
health,
but not
just for
ours,
but for
other
people's.
Their lives
are at stake.
Why would
they want to
know or
experience the
grace of
God if
they don't
see it as
life-changing
and dynamic
for the
people of
God?
why
would we
not put
humble
authenticity
into practice
amongst us?
Why would
we want to
hold on to
resentment?
Why would
we not
forgive?
The only
reason is
that we
have not
admitted our
own total
and permanent
spiritual
bankruptcy.
Only as
we see
ourselves as
basically good
do we
expect everyone
else around
us to be
basically good
and especially
basically good
to me.
Living by
grace means
recognising our
spiritual bankruptcy.
It means
seeing the
vast contrast
between the
enormity of
my debt
against God
and another
person's
trifling debt
against me.
it means
throwing
yourself
on God's
mercy
daily.
It means
responding to
the Bible's
instruction to
forgive as
the Lord has
forgiven me.
And so
friends after
three weeks
we've come
back full
circle.
We are
back where
we began
with our
spiritual
bankruptcy.
This is
where we
must begin
and it's
where we
must end
if we are
to experience
the daily
joy of
living by
God's
transforming
grace.
And so
I invite you
again
to lay
aside any
remnant of
self-goodness
that you may
think you
still have.
Admit your
total
spiritual
bankruptcy
and drink
deeply
from the
infinite
grace of
the Lord
Jesus
Christ.
And then
in deep
awareness
of what
you have
received
extend
that same
spirit of
grace to
one another.
Amazing
grace
how sweet
the sound
that saved
a wretch
like me.
But
it is
his grace
that has
brought me
safe thus
far
and grace
will lead
me home.
Let's stand
and sing.