Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: If you can’t sleep at night, if you have weird feelings of bitterness within you when you see people, do you hear about people, whatever happens, you have a problem. Your problem’s unforgiveness.

Mom, dad, you need to forgive your children. Children need to forgive their mom and dads. Aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, whoever it is. Even your friends, even your enemies.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. We’re in the middle of a study of God’s great gifts of forgiveness and salvation, and it’s good to have you with us.

Today, Raul will urge us to show mercy to those who’ve wronged us, just as the Lord has shown mercy in our sins against Him. It might be difficult and even painful to extend that grace, but God can give us the grace to follow His example. Here’s Raul Ries with today’s study.

Raul Ries: Matthew chapter 18 for this morning’s lesson. We want to look again at the power of forgiveness. If you remember in chapter 18, verse 21 and 22, where Peter is coming and is kind of cynical in asking the question. It’s a good question, but he’s kind of cynical about it because he’s asking, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and how often shall I forgive him? Seven times?"

Maybe you came here today with a real problem with unforgiveness in your life. There’s a lot of times people in the church, not outside of the church, but in the church, that have a real issue with unforgiveness in their own lives. And yet they don’t realize that that can really affect you physically, emotionally, and spiritually in your life if you don’t take care of business.

What Jesus does now is now after speaking to Peter and speaking of forgiveness 490 times, Jesus follows up now with a parable. A parable in the scripture is a story that will demonstrate God’s truth in His word. He gives a parable, a story to demonstrate and illustrate a biblical truth in the Bible.

So what He does is He comes to that place where Peter, James, John, all of them are standing there. And Peter, in asking that question, Peter must have thought, "Well, seven times is a good number to forgive people." Because there are people that rub you the wrong way. There are people that will hurt you. There are people that will gossip about you.

And even though you see them every day and when you look at them, they smile like everything is cool, but it’s not. What are you going to do? Well, the thing that you have to do and that I have to do is to make sure that my heart is right before God. They’ve got to deal with their own hearts with God. I just got to make sure I’m right.

I think it’s really important that when you read the stories in the Bible, the word of God, that as now Peter is thinking about what he asked and the answer that was given to him by Christ, then the Lord says, "Peter, just so you don’t miss the point, I’m going to give you an illustration, I’m going to give you a parable, a story to develop the truth of God’s word in your life and in the life of others."

So He begins. In verse 23, He starts. Check this out. He says, "Therefore." So the word "therefore", whenever there’s a "therefore", there’s a "wherefore", it goes to the previous story told before. So it takes us back to verse 21 and 22, the question and the answer given by Christ. And what is the topic? Forgiveness.

So when He starts the parable, He starts with the word "therefore". And then He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like this. It’s like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants." Notice how it starts out: accountability. The king here, if you want to make notes, it’s God. God’s the king.

And the king one day is going to come according to the scriptures, and what is He going to do? He’s going to settle accounts with you and me, with this whole world. To the Christian, the Bible says according to First Corinthians chapter 3, verses 11 through 16, that we will stand at the Bema seat of Christ because at the cross of Jesus Christ, all of my sins are taken care of there by the blood of Christ.

When I come by faith, repentance, and ask Christ to come into my heart, His blood covers it all. But then as a Christian, I still live in this world that is sinful. So what God is going to do, He’s holding me now responsible for my motives. That is in reference to my stewardship, my money, my gifts, my talents, and my service to the Lord and my service to other people.

Real important. Wherever you work, your employer or employee, one day you will be judged. Whatever you do: doctor, professor, whatever, janitor, whatever. That’s why it’s really important to understand stewardship. Stewardship means a house manager.

One day we’re going to have to give an account of my service to God, my service to my wife, my service to my children, my grandchildren, the gifts that God has given to me never to abuse them. But how did I use them to bring glory and honor to the Lord or to build myself up? And then how about the talents and the service that I’m doing to the Lord?

So here is an incredible parable given to us as the Lord says, "I’m the king and you guys are my servants." Notice again, verse 23. "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants." And then He says what? Verse 24. "And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents."

At that particular moment, that was a lot of money. But today, the price of gold today, it would be fifty-two million dollars. Who could pay that? What happened? The picture is the king, the Lord, has entrusted to you the gifts and talents in your life and one day He’s going to test you.

He’s going to take in First Corinthians chapter 3, He’s going to take gold, silver, wood, hay, or stubble, your motives. He’s going to put them into the fire and evaluate them. And the Bible says that a lot of them are going to burn up and nothing you have to prove what you did for the Lord, but there’s going to be others that are going to receive rewards.

And those that have nothing to show, they’ll be saved as by the fire. You made it by the grace of God, that’s it. Nothing to show. And it’s interesting that as He’s teaching this lesson, not only on the grace of God, but as He began to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him fifty-two million dollars.

Imagine. Let’s turn it around now and say the debt now it’s not money, but the debt is sin. Sin. Who paid for our sin? Jesus Christ. Fully, completely. Not guilty. So imagine you get forgiven by the Lord, God’s grace, love, and mercy, and then all of a sudden here is a servant that has owed fifty-two million dollars.

And the Lord says to him, "You know what? I’m going to have to, according to the culture, I’m going to have to take your wife and your children and enslave them and sell them to get my money back." That’s the way of the world. The world wants recompense, it wants revenge. So it’s interesting how this parable is set up for us today.

Check this out. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he would be sold with his wife, his children, and all that he had that payment be made. Notice the situation here. He’s done. He’s going to lose his children, he’s going to lose his wife, the family is going to be separated. You say, "But that’s God." Yeah, that’s God. That’s right.

What does the servant do? Verse 26. The servant therefore, there’s a "therefore" again taking you back, fell down before him. What is that? He fell down before him. Before you come to Christ, what do you got to do? You got to humble yourself. You got to be a broken person. Not pride. What’s he doing? He’s bending down before the Lord and is asking for mercy. He’s asking for mercy.

Think of your enemies when they ask for mercy from you. But you want to incarcerate them. You want to beat them up. You want to take care of business. That’s easy to do, believe me. The hardest thing in the whole world is to forgive people. Especially when they’ve done something big to you. It is very hard.

Check this out. Look what he says. The servant therefore fell down before him and said, "Master," notice his request with humility, "have patience with me and I will pay you all." How are you going to pay fifty-two million dollars? It’s an impossibility. What was the master doing? The master was trying the servant’s heart.

Isn’t that cool? How God tries your heart, my heart to see what our real attitude is? Behind closed doors, we can be so different. In public, we can play the part. And then some people don’t have any guilt. No matter what they do, they’ve hurt tremendously and they don’t care. They’re cynical.

Or they’ll play the part and say, "Okay, well, it’s okay, I forgive you too," or whatever, but you continue to feel that resentment when you see that person, you go, "Oh man, there they are again. I hate them." That’s not forgiveness.

Guest (Male): You’re listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Visit somebodylovesyou.com for biblical resources to grow your faith and deepen your relationship with God. You can also download our free app for live-streamed Bible teaching and other convenient connections to scripture. Now, back to more with Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Check this out. And the servant therefore fell down before him saying, "Master, have patience with me, I will pay you all." And the master of that servant was moved with compassion and released him and forgave him his debt. Wow. Forgave him his debt.

You got to be kidding me. Who’s that? That’s God. That’s the Lord. No matter how big our debt was in sin, what did He do? He forgave us. He cleansed us and washed us by His blood. Please don’t forget that with other people. Don’t forget that you’re not better than God.

Real important here. Why? Because there are people here today and listening to the radio that are bitter and have resentment and have hatred toward other people. You know what it was like for my dad to come down the aisle as I had my eyes closed and standing before me and when I opened my eyes, there he was?

For God to forgive him, for me to forgive him, for me and him to become one again and for the next ten years of his life, for him to serve the Lord and to go to the mission field with me and to watch him as he dies and goes to be with the Lord. If I would have not made it right before the Lord when I got saved, the first thing I did, I went to my father. I said, "Dad, forgive me. Forgive me."

He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want part of me. But you know what I did? I left him in the hands of the Lord. I did what that guy did before he went to church. I went and I told God that I was going to make it right. I made it right and for those years I could worship God, I could enjoy my family. Why? Because I had done what was right and God took care of the rest.

I’ve seen people when I went to visit them in the hospitals or homes and they’re dying, full of bitterness, full of hatred, and they go to eternity like that. How sad. You can’t go to heaven like that. God won’t accept you. You’re going to learn that today. You can’t get into the kingdom of God unless you forgive. To much is given, much more is required.

The great debt that has been paid for you and me by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. And the reason is because what happens here? He cancels the loan. He cancels sin in our lives. Why? Because of His love, because of His grace, because of His mercy, because we have a great salvation from the Lord.

He’s given us a great salvation that we stand before God. It’s unmerited, it’s God’s free gift to you and to me. And if it’s given to us freely, then why can’t we forgive freely? Think of what God has done in your life. Think what He’s doing right now in your life.

If you can’t sleep at night, if you have weird feelings of bitterness within you when you see people, do you hear about people, whatever happens, you have a problem and your problem is unforgiveness. Mom, dad, you need to forgive your children. Children need to forgive their mom and dads. Aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, whoever it is. Even your friends, even your enemies.

Here the king, God Himself, says, "You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to forgive you. Take your wife, take your children. Forget the debt. Go your way, enjoy your life." Check this out. Verse 28. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him forty-two dollars.

And he laid hands on his neck and began to choke him and say, "Pay me what you owe me." What happened to forgiveness? What happened to forgiveness in your life? Did you forget what God did for you and what He’s doing every day in your life? We all have that problem. And we got to deal with that problem.

That’s why for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. God sent His Son to demonstrate the power of love in us and through our lives. And making sure that before I come to the house of the Lord when you’re coming on Sunday mornings, Wednesday night, making sure your heart is right before the Lord.

Why? So that God can minister to you. You can receive the word of God freely. You can worship the Lord. You can fellowship with other people. Very important. But this guy, he got fifty-two million dollars forgiven. First thing he does is he leaves her. His personality changes.

He goes and grabs one of those people and listen, this guy here misused this person’s money, God’s money, the talents and gifts and God forgave him. And now he goes out and he grabs his servant by the throat and says, "I’m going to kill you if you don’t pay me. Give me my money."

Verse 29. And so his fellow servant fell down, notice the humility at his feet, and begged him saying, "Have patience with me, please, I will pay you all. Give me some time." You know what he did? He took him and threw him in prison. How can that be? How can that be?

Look at verse 30. And he would not, but went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. How are you going to pay the debt when you’re in jail? You can’t. They don’t pay you enough there. You can’t. Well, verse 31. So when his fellow servants saw what was being done, they were very grieved and they came and they told their master all that he had done.

What happened? They went and told the Lord. "Lord, the guy that you just forgave went out of here as a hypocrite and went and grabbed a servant that owed him forty-two dollars when you forgave him fifty-two million, grabbed him by the throat and would not forgive him and cast him into prison." What do you think God’s going to do? What do you think He’s going to do? Well, let’s read.

Verse 32. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, "You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?" Hey, what is the matter with you?

Don’t you remember what I did for you? How quickly you forgotten. How quickly forgotten what I did for you. And this is a good parable for that. Because here is God saying, "Hey, what happened to my love? What happened to my grace? What happened to my mercy that I showed you and you could not show to others?"

Verse 33. "Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?" And his master was angry. He wasn’t happy. You ever read Revelations chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, where God pulls everybody out of hell in the last day? That everybody that went to hell are going to be pulled out. They’re going to stand.

Hell, death, Satan, antichrist, false prophet, every demon cast into the lake of fire. And the books are going to be opened and whoever’s name was not found written in the book of life, the wrath of God fell upon them and they were cast into the lake of fire forever and ever and ever. You can’t play with God. Whatever a man soweth, that shall he reap.

His master was angry and check this out. And delivered that servant to be tortured, notice to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. That’s not heaven. The torturers. Now he’s going to be tortured until he pays everything that he owed: fifty-two million dollars. He says what? Notice. Forgiveness is not an option. Listen, it’s a command to all of us here and to those listening to the airwaves.

Guest (Male): What a great reminder that is that while we can’t control the words or actions of others, we do have control over our own responses. And with God’s help, we can choose to forgive. You’re listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries.

Today’s lesson was titled "The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant". If you would like to get a complete copy with much more teaching, just call us at 800-634-9165 and for a donation of five dollars or more, we’ll send a copy to you.

Now as you take an honest look at your feelings toward those who’ve wronged you, we’d like to tell you about this entire series titled "Why the Cross Mattered and Still Does". It’s available on CD and thumb drive. Every lesson of Raul’s thirteen-part study will deepen your faith in God’s love as you think about the grace and the sacrifice that made our salvation a reality through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order "Why the Cross Mattered and Still Does". We’ll send you this thirteen-part study on CD for twenty-five dollars or if you prefer on CD for just sixteen dollars. The number again is 800-634-9165.

Our mailing address if you’d like to order this resource by writing us is Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Catch Raul for straight talk every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific on the Somebody Loves You Worldwide YouTube channel. This channel also features podcasts of all previously aired programs, or you can look for them on iTunes and Spotify.

This ministry is completely listener-supported, and we are thankful for your partnership in helping us spread the wisdom and truth of God’s word. Next time, we’ll continue this series with a look at one of Jesus’ most surprising acts, just hours before His death on a cross. You’ll see that when He chose to humbly wash the feet of His disciples, Jesus set a powerful example of selfless servanthood for all of us. Now, here’s Raul once again with a closing comment.

Raul Ries: And then He said this in verse 35, "So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses." Mark it, underline it, memorize it. Check that out what He says there. It will happen to you. It will happen to me if I don’t forgive. That’s the bottom line.

What do I need to do? I need number one to take an examination of my life before God. Who do I have hatefulness against? Who do I hate? Who do I have unforgiveness toward?

Number two: make sure as you take the inventory, you make things right before it’s too late. And three: make sure that you experience the true love and grace and mercy and peace of God in your life today by doing what? By doing what’s right.

Don’t listen to Satan. Listen to the Holy Spirit. And humble yourself before the Lord like a little child and do what’s right in your heart today.

Guest (Male): This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.