Sugar Land Bible Church

This is Part 2 of the transcript for the Sugar Land Bible Church episode "Forgiveness: What is it and how do I do it?".

Andy Woods: Many of us heard a wonderful sermon and got to enjoy it, as well as Sunday school this morning. Today, he's back with us. He'll be teaching on the subject of forgiveness. Let me tell you just a little about him. Jim and his wife Phyllis, since 1993, have been serving as missionaries. They are supported missionaries that we support here at Sugar Land Bible Church.

They were serving in the former Soviet Union. He heads up James F. Myers Ministries, whose primary purpose is to train national Christian leaders in the former Soviet Bloc countries but also in other places. His primary focus of ministry has been in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he started Word of God Bible Church and founded Word of God Bible Study. I know because of the turbulence in Ukraine, he's been serving in a lot of other places. Jim, would you come and tell us about forgiveness again? Thank you. Welcome back.

Jim Myers: Oftentimes, we are told in Scripture what we need to do and we don't know how to do it. Other times, we're told in Scripture what we need to do and we don't want to do it. That creates conflicts for us. Sometimes, we just don't have a clear understanding of what it's all about.

Forgiveness is one of those areas because this is an area that we all struggle with, if we're honest. People do bad things, and often it hurts us. Sometimes, it's in personal relationships. You may be insulted, you may be cheated, you may be abused in some way. Sometimes, it's not so personal, more impersonal. Maybe you were attacked by someone you didn't know. Sometimes, a person might be beaten, murdered, raped. Sometimes, people are taken captive. Sometimes, they suffer in wars.

As the children of God, we have responsibilities with regard to these people. We are commanded in Scripture to forgive. Jesus on the cross, of course, prayed, "Father, forgive them." You say, "Well, that was Jesus. I'm not Jesus. I can't do that." Yet, He commands us to forgive those who persecute us, those who use us in evil ways. We don't like that. That's hard.

Sometimes people will say, "Well, I may forgive, but I'll never forget." What they mean by that is, "I'll never forgive," because they hold a grudge. We have a problem in this area. We're not the first ones, and so I want to look at two passages this morning to help us grasp this concept of forgiveness. What is our responsibility, and how do I do it?

I start in Luke chapter 17. This is dealing with what I call horizontal forgiveness. This has to do with interpersonal relationships. This is between you and your brother, or maybe between you and your spouse, your parents, your children, or someone else in the church. I don't know. It's in the interpersonal relationship.

He starts out and he says, Jesus speaking, "Take heed to yourselves," which means this is your responsibility, and you need to be careful that you observe this. "If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him." The word "to rebuke" means to express strong disapproval of somebody—to rebuke, to reprove, to censure. Sometimes, the word also means to speak seriously to warn somebody in order to prevent an action or to bring an action to an end.

When it says to rebuke him, it doesn't mean you're going to chew them out. You don't get up in their face and speak in anger and tell that person off. Rather, this word "to rebuke" means you're going to tell them that what they did was wrong. It's rebuke in that sense. "What you did hurt me. What you did was wrong. What you did was sinful."

You need to be sure that you are standing on firm biblical grounds when you do this. There may be things that people do that irritate you that aren't necessarily sinful. That's a different issue. But if somebody has actually sinned and it has affected you, then you need to take heed to yourselves.

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him." The word "repent" is the usual word for repentance in the New Testament. It means to change the mind. In this instance, the repentance is an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Now, you came to the person and you said, "What you did really hurt me. You insulted me, you hurt my feelings," or maybe you damaged me in some way. "You stole from me, you lied to me, you gossiped about me and it damaged my reputation." Whatever the sin against you is.

You have now rebuked the person and they say, "Yes, I was wrong." I told people in the first hour, you don't apologize. Apology doesn't mean anything—not really, not in our culture. You say, "I'm sorry." What does that mean? It's not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. The repentance here is saying, "What I did was wrong." That's very different from saying "I'm sorry." Now you have to admit that "Yes, I sinned against you. I hurt you. What I did, it was an offense against God and it hurt you." So that's the repentance here. Now they're going to admit their wrongdoing.

"If he repents, forgive him." The word "to forgive" here means to release from legal or moral obligation or consequence. It means to cancel a debt, to remit, to pardon. We are to cancel the debt if someone sins against us. The goal here is to mend a broken relationship. It's to restore fellowship. It's to bring about reconciliation because now the relationship has been damaged. We are trying here to restore the relationship.

God does not like damaged relationships. We are told many times that we have a responsibility to our brothers, fellow members of the family of God. The goal here is that there not remain an issue between me and thee, but let's settle this thing. There are many times when people may sin against you and you just let it go. "Okay, he's out of fellowship, whatever is going on here." I recognize it's just one of those passing things, and you don't require anything. You just, from your heart, you say, "Okay, I'm just going to forgive him."

But there are some things that happen to you that just irritate you. They rankle you, they rub you the wrong way, and it keeps coming up and you just can't seem to forget it. It's there, and it has hurt the relationship. Now you need to deal with that. You can't let it go. As Paul said in Ephesians 4:25, you don't lie to one another, but you speak truth and you don't let the sun go down on your anger. Let's deal with this. We've got a problem. Let's talk about this.

How are we going to do this? Well, you can, if it's something that you can't just forgive from your heart, you go to your brother and you rebuke him and say, "You know, this really hurt me. What you did was wrong." "If he repents, forgive him." But what if he doesn't repent? What if he doesn't acknowledge that he did anything wrong? He says, "I didn't do anything wrong. Oh, you had your feelings hurt? Well, that's too bad, but I didn't do anything wrong." There are people sometimes they refuse to acknowledge that what they did was sinful, that it was wrong.

What if he doesn't acknowledge his wrongdoing? What are you going to do then? Well, you're still required to forgive. We struggle with that. We don't know how to handle that. Jesus is going to really turn up the heat here and he says, "If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you saying 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." Seven times? Maybe twice, but seven times? How are you going to do that? Somebody slaps you across the face and said, "You know, I shouldn't have done that. I was wrong." "Okay, forgive him."

After a few times, you might want to walk on the other side of the street. But the point here is that even if he sins against you seven times in a day, you are required by God to forgive. Now, what is your reaction to that? Seven times in a day? What's your reaction? I'm sure it's the same as that of the disciples. How did the disciples respond when Jesus said seven times in a day? They said, "Lord, increase our faith! I don't have enough faith to do that. You can't tell me to forgive seven times in a day the same person." You say, "Increase my faith. You're going to have to give me a lot more faith if you want me to forgive my brother who has wronged me seven times in a day."

Then Jesus had one of the most curious responses. When they said "Increase our faith," the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." I used to read this and say, "What is he talking about?" You know what he's saying? "You don't need more faith. You have enough faith. Why, if you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could start being this supernatural landscaper. 'Okay, tree, I want you over here. Rocks, I want you over there.'" If you had just a little bit more faith. He's saying, "You have enough faith. It's not a matter of faith. You don't need more faith to forgive. You've been told what to do."

Then Jesus tells this story that can be baffling if you don't get the context. "And which of you having a servant plowing or tending sheep will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down'? But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, gird yourself, serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'?"

What's he talking about? You have this man, he's a servant. He's been out working all day doing his job, working hard. He comes in, and he would like to sit down, relax, have his own meal. The master says, "Uh-uh, not yet. I want you to do something else for me." The guy's gonna say, "I worked all day! I worked hard! I'm ready to quit." The master says, "Yeah, you did what you were told to do, but there's more that you must do. There's something else that is required of you."

The application is going to be we need to forgive others. Here's the situation. You come to church, you teach Sunday school, you're involved in ministry. During the week, you read your Bible, you pray. Then God says, "Uh, you need to forgive your brother." You say, "Well, I did all these other things. Isn't that enough?" He says to the servant, "No, there's more that you have to do. You're going to have to feed me first. You're going to prepare my supper."

The servant prepares the evening meal even though he's done all this other work during the day. Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I don't think so. It's not a matter of being rude. That's not the point. The servant is going to obey. He's going to do what he was told to do, and then the master's not going to say, "Well, thank you for doing that." The point is the servant had an obligation.

"Likewise you, when you've done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We've done what was our duty to do.'" Now, what are all these things that we are commanded? Well, we have all of the things that we have for this spiritual life that we are commanded to do. When you've done all those things, don't forget we are commanded to forgive one another.

When you have forgiven, even though you don't want to—you might say, "I did all those other things. Now, I don't want to sit down and relax." No, there's still this issue of forgiveness. After you forgive, you can't say, "Whew, look at me. Well, you know that rotten guy, that nasty woman, and how she hurt me, but oh, I forgave." No, you say, "I'm an unprofitable servant. I only did what was commanded of me." It's not like you're going to get a lot of credit. When you forgive somebody that wronged you, God's not going to say, "Oh, thank you for doing that."

It's our duty. God has commanded this. This is not an option for our spiritual life. Perhaps you need to forgive someone. Maybe you're carrying around this grudge, a refusal to forgive somebody. I've heard testimonies from different people that there's some issue that's been going on for 10 years, 20 years or longer, and you refuse to forgive.

Well, that is a real problem because the Bible says many times, if you don't forgive, then God's not going to forgive you because you've got this sin that you won't deal with. We're commanded to forgive, and if I don't do what God commands, the Bible calls that sin. Perhaps you need to give someone into the Lord's hands and let Him deal with the problem. Let God take care of them. It's not your place to inflict the punishment on somebody because they have hurt you. That's God's business. Can you trust God to take care of that?

Forgiving others is not an option in the Christian life. It's a command. Let's summarize some things from our first lesson and from this. What is forgiveness? The definition: to release from an offense, to pardon, to remit, to cancel an obligation. The English word "forgive" literally is "against giving." It means you don't give the person what they deserve. It's against giving what one deserves when he has committed an offense.

This doesn't necessarily release the offender from all the consequences of his sin. Somebody may have stolen from you and you can forgive them and restore the fellowship with them, but they still need to make restitution. We find often in Scripture that God forgives and yet there are still requirements. For example, you have the children of Israel out in the desert and they rebelled against God. They weren't going to trust God, they disobeyed God, and God said to Moses, "Stand back, I'm going to wipe them all out and I'm going to start all over with you."

Moses interceded for his people. "No, no, God. You don't want to do that. That wouldn't be a good testimony. People will think, 'Oh, God brought them out of Egypt but He couldn't bring them into the promised land.' And, you know, God, for your own name's sake, you need to forgive these people. So please pardon these people." God said, "Okay." He said, "I will pardon these people. I have pardoned them, but they are not going to enter into the promised land." They can have fellowship with God, they can worship God, they can be restored to fellowship with God, but there are still consequences.

In our forgiving others, there can be the restoration of a broken relationship, but there may be consequences as a result. As a legal term, forgiveness meant the cancellation of a debt or an obligation. Forgiveness is to release the person into the hands of God for judgment. It means you don't have any personal vendetta against the person, but you have given them to the only judge, to the only one who can truly forgive their sins.

When I forgive, it means you're out of my hands, and now I'm free to give you my love and my patience. How do I forgive? How can I actually do that? Well, forgiveness essentially is a promise that you make that you are not going to dwell on the wrong that was done to you. You forget those things that are behind. You're not going to keep dwelling on these things. They may pop into your mind, instead you're going to say, "I remember forgetting. I remember that I have forgiven, and I am not going to sit here and stew about this. I'm not going to think about how much I was hurt. I'm not going to think about how much I hope that they suffer."

"Well, I hope your nose falls off! I hope your business fails! I hope that bad things happen to you!" Do we think that way? Oh, yes, we do. Forgiveness says, "I'm not going to dwell on the wrong that was done to me. Instead, I am going to think on the things related to the grace of God," as we find in Philippians chapter 4, verses 8 and 9. We find that when we are thinking on the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good report, virtue, things worthy of praise, the Apostle Paul says, you think on these things and you can have peace.

When you don't forgive, you've got turmoil on the inside. It just eats away your soul. It's going to destroy your own happiness. You can sit and just stew and you start thinking about how that person hurt me and it's going to destroy you from the inside. But if I'm going to think on the things of God instead, then I can have peace. Paul says, "Do these things and the God of peace will be with you." You can have the peace that passes understanding.

You can't dwell on the wrong. Instead, we're going to dwell on the truths of Scripture. Forgiveness is a promise you're not going to bring it up in judgment. You may need to talk about it so that things that may have happened frequently, we can bring an end to it. But you don't bring it up in a judgmental fashion. You're not the judge. You don't bring it up to the person. You don't bring it up to others. "Oh, let me tell you what she did. Let me tell you how that guy really cheated me." No, you're not going to bring it up to others, and you're not going to bring it up to yourself because there's been forgiveness.

It's a promise not to remember against. To remember. I once heard this really horrible sermon. It was titled "I Know Something That God Doesn't Know." Well, God knows everything. God is omniscient. God has never forgotten anything. But he was saying, "Well, God doesn't remember our sins." Well, when we find this word "remember" in Scripture, it doesn't mean simply to call something to your mind. "Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, I forgot for a minute, but yeah, now I remember." "You know, what's your phone number?" "Well, I don't remember." No, that's not what it's talking about when it says remember.

When we find "remember" in Scripture, it's talking about remember with the consequence that you do something. On the cross, the repentant thief said, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." When we get to the kingdom, is Jesus going to say, "Hey, remember that guy on the cross?" No, it's not a matter of bringing something to mind. He's saying, "I want you to remember and do something. I want to come with you."

When the Bible says God's not going to remember our sins, it means He's not going to remember them against us—remember in the sense that He's going to bring judgment on them. When Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me," it's not just a matter of thinking about the cross, which we do. It's not just thinking about who Jesus is, but that's part of it. But now, what am I going to do about it?

We take communion. That wasn't enough to quench your thirst or to satiate your hunger. What's it all about? Well, it ought to serve as an impetus so that when we leave, we're going to do the things that have been commanded by our Lord. When you forgive someone, it's a promise you're not going to remember it against them in that you bring it up in judgment.

It's a promise that you are not going to talk about the offense to others. So you're not going to gossip. You're not going to use this incident to run them down to hurt their reputation. Ephesians 4:29: "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth." This is the corrupt—it's rotten. The word means that which is rotten, and it means that which is designed to tear somebody down, to hurt somebody's reputation or to hurt somebody's feelings.

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for the moment, that it might give grace to the hearer." Instead of judgmental words or harsh words, damaging words come out of your mouth, what needs to come out are words of grace. That can be hard to do. I understand. But we need to work on that. When we forgive, we remove reminders of the wrong. Those things that might remind you of the sins against you, get rid of them.

We find that forgiveness of others is a prerequisite to God's forgiveness of us. "If you don't forgive your brother his sins against you, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your sins." We see that loving God and hating people are contradictory. Forgiveness in the heart should be granted even before it's requested. Here is where you're praying and you can just give this person to God, even if you can't restore the broken relationship because sometimes people just refuse to reconcile. They refuse to acknowledge their wrongdoing. They refuse to change their behavior in any way.

But you're still required to forgive. This is where you just give them to God. "God, You are the Supreme Judge, and I'll let You take care of this in the Supreme Court of Heaven." You let God take care of it. Sometimes we suffer loss when we do that. But God knows that, and God is the one that provides all things for us to begin with. Everything we have is courtesy of the grace of God, and the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Sometimes He does that through people. Oftentimes, we don't like that. Of course not. We've lost. We've been hurt.

Can I give it to God? Can I trust God to take care of that other person? That's what we need to do is give it to God. When I forgive, this gives the offender what he needs rather than what he deserves, and that's grace. That's grace. Grace means I don't earn it, I don't deserve it. I need to deal with others in grace. They don't deserve it. They may deserve a good poke in the nose, and sometimes that's what we want to give them. You say, "They deserve that." Maybe so, but what do they need? They need grace. They need forgiveness.

God has forgiven us, and we need to forgive others. Forgiveness is to be granted when requested, without limitation. Seven times in a day. We're going to see in just a moment more than seven times in a day. Forgiveness is an act of obedience. It's not a feeling. It's not when you feel like it. "Well, I don't feel like forgiving them." Well, no, you don't, and you won't because that goes contrary to our nature. Nevertheless, we are required to do that.

Now, I want to go to another portion of Scripture that talks about forgiveness and one which oftentimes is confusing for people, but I think that we can unravel that. We need to understand that we pray "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." We see a parable that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 18. It's the parable of the unforgiving servant in verses 21 to 35.

Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Where do you think he got that? Luke 17. Jesus said seven times in a day. So Peter, "Okay, Lord, I have to forgive my brother seven times." By the way, you don't keep records. Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times 7." Well, that would be 490, if my math is still good. But we're not talking about 490. You can't say, "Oh, that's one. Oh, that's two." It's not like you're going to start making hash marks and you're going to count them up because the Bible doesn't allow us to do that. Love doesn't keep a record of the wrongs that it suffers. 1 Corinthians 13:5.

Peter asked a very practical question here. "What about seven times?" Jesus said, "No, seven times 70," which actually is infinity. It's a declaration of an unlimited number, and so we can't start keeping a tally. All right, we have a parable here in Matthew 18. There are several actors in the parable. First of all, we have a master, and this is going to be parallel to God—the God of infinite grace. He's the master in this parable.

Then we have Servant Number 1. He is the unforgiving servant, but he is a forgiven sinner. He is forgiven, but he is unforgiving. That's Servant Number 1. As you look at your Bibles, you may want to number Number 1, Number 2, as we'll see, because we need to sort out the end of this parable. Then we have Servant Number 2. He is the offender. He's the fellow servant. He's Servant Number 2.

Then we have a group of people: fellow servants. These are the witnesses. That would be analogous to the church community. So we have God, Servant 1, Servant 2, and we have other witnesses. Then we have another group called the torturers, and these are people that bring misery. This is talking about mental anguish that you may suffer if you're not careful.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents." Well, we typically think of a talent as something like a coin, but it wasn't. A talent in the ancient world was a measure of weight, and it was the very top weight of a system that included the shekel and the mina. There are different valuations given to the talents, but most scholars agree that a Hebrew talent in the biblical period fell between 70 and 90 pounds.

Okay, think about that. 70 pounds. What if you had a talent of gold? Whew, 70 pounds, we're talking a lot of money here. A talent wasn't a coin but a weight. When the writers of Bible mention someone possessing or giving talents, they're talking about large amounts of metal. Here you have a man, he owes what? 10,000 talents. You want to multiply that out, you're going to get a lot. In today's valuation of gold, a talent would be about $2.2 billion. That's one talent. 10,000 talents would be $22 trillion. Even Elon Musk cannot pay this.

He has an infinite debt, that's the point. He has a debt that could never be paid. In a thousand lifetimes, he could never pay this debt. No matter how much he could earn or amass by whatever means, he could never repay this debt. This represents the sinner standing before God. We owe God, but we have a debt that is so great it could never be paid. It is absolute spiritual bankruptcy.

The servant is completely incapable of balancing this ledger. We are in debt to God. We owe God perfect righteousness. If you live forever and ever, you can never pay it. You can never amass righteousness. Can't do it. We owe God, and we can never pay it. No matter what we do, it's an impossible debt.

The servant owes 10,000 talents. He fell down before him saying, "Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all." Now, how in the world is he going to do that? It's impossible, but he is begging for mercy here. "Have patience with me." "Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion and forgave him the debt."

What does it mean "he forgave the debt"? He canceled it. He canceled the obligation. See, it's like having this big IOU. 10,000 talents. Now the master is going to say, "Okay, it's gone. Now you don't owe me anything." He forgave the debt. That's what forgiveness is. It's tearing up that obligation to pay. He forgave him the debt. Of course, that's grace.

This is God's compassion to us. God forgives us when we put faith in Jesus for salvation. God forgives a debt that we could never pay. No matter how much you might give to the church, no matter how many good deeds you might do, no matter what your lifestyle, you can never pay God the debt that we owe. The master cancels the unpayable debt completely. He releases the servant, forgiving a debt the servant could never, ever pay.

God's forgiveness is an act of sheer grace and mercy, and it completely releases the sinner from the requirement of paying the debt. Completely removes that debt. That's what God has done for us. Here we have the parable. We are forgiven by God. Now, we're going to see Servant Number 2. He owes a manageable debt. He owes exactly 100 days' wages.

How much do you make in a day? If you want to figure out what this kind of debt is, if you make $100 a day, then you can multiply that times 100. If you make $1,000 a day, multiply that times 100. This is a debt. It's a large debt, but it's manageable. It's not overwhelming. It could conceivably be paid off in a year or two. But it's infinitesimal, it's microscopically small compared to what Servant Number 1 owed the master, the 10,000 talents.

Servant Number 2 owed 100 denarii. A denarius was one day's wage. One day's wage. 100 days' wage. A denarius was one, he owes 100 days. "His fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.'" Notice he echoes the words of Servant Number 1. "Have patience with me, I will pay you all." Servant Number 1 owed 10,000 talents. "Have patience, I'll pay you everything." Master said, "I'll forgive the debt."

Here is Servant Number 2 owes a smaller debt. Same plea. "Have patience with me, I'll pay you all." "But he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt." Servant Number 1 refuses to be patient, and he threw Servant Number 2 into prison until he pays the debt that he owes Servant Number 1. Do you have the picture here now? Yeah. One was forgiven, one was not forgiven. We have the refusal to release.

Servant Number 1 grabs his fellow servant by the throat, demanding, "Pay me what you owe me!" A little violence here. "Pay me! You owe me 100 days' wages!" "Oh, have patience! I'll pay you everything!" But Servant Number 1 says, "Uh-uh, you owe me," and he threw him into prison until the 100 days' wages are paid. How does he think he's going to make any money if he's in prison? I don't know. People really get stupid when they get out of fellowship and they don't think too clearly. But anyway, he said, "No, you owe me and I'm going to throw you in prison until you pay me."

Here we have this ledger of hypocrisy. The scale of debt: Servant Number 1, unpayable in a thousand lifetimes; Servant Number 2, he has a debt, but it's manageable, 100 days' wages. Both of them have the same plea. "Be patient, I'll pay you. I'll pay you everything." The emotion of the creditor: here the master, he was moved with compassion; but Servant Number 1 takes his fellow servant by the throat. "Pay me!"

Final analysis here: Servant Number 1 had a complete release and cancellation of the debt; Servant Number 2, well, Servant Number 1 wouldn't forgive him, threw him in prison. Now we have the fellow servants. "When his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and they came and told their master all that had been done."

Very interesting situation. They see what has happened. They see that there has been a refusal to forgive. They're very upset, but they don't retaliate. They don't go out and attack the first servant who won't forgive. Instead, they go and report the entire situation to their master. It's like the church. Sometimes we see people who are wronging other people or who refuse to forgive, and we need to take that to the master. We need to take that to the Father. We need to be praying about that.

It's not my problem as far as the debt and the forgiveness of the debt or the payment of the debt. That's somebody else, but I see it. Often we see this with others and we may shrug our shoulders. But we need to take it to the master. We need to take it to the Father. This mirrors Christians who see the brokenness, the unforgiveness of their peers, and instead of getting involved in the conflict, we need to bring this failure directly to God.

Then his master—now the master has heard Servant Number 1 would not forgive Servant Number 2 a little debt, and the master after he had called him to him, said, "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?" Notice the word in verse 33, you have "compassion" and then you have "pity." Same word in the Greek text. Why they translated it differently, I don't know. "Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant? God forgave us. Should we not forgive others?"

The master is angry. He called Servant Number 1 and he said, "You are wicked." This word "wicked" means to be morally or socially worthless, to be wicked, evil, bad, worthless, vicious, degenerate. The master says, "You are wicked." Why does he call him evil or wicked? Because he wouldn't show mercy. Because he wouldn't forgive this debt.

The word "compassion," "pity" here, it means to be greatly concerned about someone in need, to have compassion, to show mercy. "You," he said, "should have." The word means obligation. You are obligated to do this. We see this servant is called wicked.

The master is now going to call Servant Number 1. He's angry. He said, "You should have been compassionate. You should have shown mercy." The master does not reinstitute the big debt. That's not the issue here. The man owed 10,000 talents. The master is going to say, "You know, I forgave you that big debt, and now because of your actions, I'm going to require you to pay that." He said, "I forgave you all that debt. I forgave you."

Because he won't forgive another servant—it's like somebody else in your relationships at home, at work, at church—"Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you? Yes." It says his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him.

Okay, now here is where people get confused about this parable. Who's in debt in the parable by the time we get down to this verse, verse 34? Who is in debt? Servant Number 1 or Servant Number 2? Who is in debt? Servant Number 2. Not Servant Number 1. He doesn't have any debt. He was forgiven. That debt was canceled.

But it says the master now delivered him, Servant Number 1, to the torturers. Servant Number 1 is not in debt; his debt was canceled. Servant Number 2 is in debt for 100 denarii, 100 days' wages. But the master delivered Servant Number 1 to the torturers until Servant Number 2 pays his debt of 100 denarii.

You see, when we get up here and "until he should pay him all that was due to him," many people read this and they say, "Oh, now the guy has to pay that 10,000 talent debt." No! That debt is canceled. But he's saying, "Okay, you put him in prison. Well, because you are wicked, because you have this evil heart of unforgiveness, I'm going to deliver you to the torturers until Servant Number 2 pays you that 100 denarii." That really causes us to understand what's going on here.

He is handed over to the torturers. What are the torturers? This word indicates something that causes great pain. It was used for the physical torture of slaves, it was used for judicial punishment, it was used for the pain of childbirth or the sting of scorpions. In other words, this is a painful experience.

The master says, "I'm going to deliver you, Servant 1, to the torturers." Our understanding of what's going on here, it represents torment, mental anguish, suffering in your soul. This is bitterness. This is the misery of soul that's being eaten alive because you have a grudge and you won't let it go. You're going to create your own misery, and it's going to eat at you from the inside and it's going to be painful. You create your own misery when you refuse to forgive.

The master delivers Servant Number 1 to the torturers until his fellow servant pays all that was due. Understand the mechanics of the torment here, because many people have said, "Oh, he's now he's got to pay the master back everything that was due him." There are some people who want to say, "Well, you can lose your salvation. You see, God forgave you, but then if you don't live the right kind of life, then God's going to come back and say, 'Well, no, you're going to you still have to pay me.'" No, that's not the grace of God.

We're talking about something else here. This is application for you and your spiritual life. Servant Number 1 doesn't owe anything. His debt remains canceled, but he's being tortured because he refuses to cancel the debt. The warning is, if you demand payment, the master is saying, "I'm going to bring misery into your life until they pay everything that you think they owe you."

What if they never pay? Here's this guy, he's in prison, right? Servant Number 2, he's in prison. What if he never pays that 100 denarii? Well, then you're just going to keep on being miserable. But there is a way to solve the problem. When he says, "My heavenly Father will do this to each of you if from his heart he doesn't forgive his brother his trespasses," this is not teaching that you can lose your salvation, like God gives them to the torturers. No, and there are some people that have misapplied that.

But it is teaching that you're going to be miserable if you refuse to forgive another Christian who has wronged you. Someone has wronged you, therefore they owe you something and you want them to pay for what they've done. "Oh, you hurt me. I want you to pay." That's why we retaliate. "I want you to suffer. You pull my hair, I'm going to pull yours harder." We want people to suffer because we have suffered. That's natural, sin-natural.

You want somebody else to pay. Well, what if they never pay whatever you think they ought to suffer? What if you think they haven't suffered enough? What if you refuse to be satisfied no matter what they do? Then our heavenly Father is going to deliver you to the torturers and you're going to have misery. You are going to be miserable.

But there's a way to escape the misery. You may want to keep somebody in prison, but if you do, you destroy your own happiness. You create your own misery. But there's a way out of the misery. There's a way to get away from the torturers. Forgive your fellow servant, and then he doesn't owe you anything. You've canceled his debt, so there's nothing for him to pay. If there's nothing for him to pay, then you can be released from the torturers.

That's the very definition of forgiveness. "I'm going to give it to God. I'm going to let Him take care of whatever punishment, whatever pain that other person deserves." God was ready to forgive us while we were still His enemies. Romans 5:8: "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We can have the forgiveness of all sins. Colossians 2:13: "the forgiveness of all trespasses." Ephesians 1:7: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." That's all sins were forgiven by God at the cross. That debt that we owed God, that was canceled.

Can I trust Him to take care of my fellow servant, that other believer, that other person who has wronged me? God provided for us grace, and we didn't deserve any of it. Then God completely removes the sin from His presence. He promises to no longer deal with us according to our sins. He's not going to remember them against us. We need to remember that forgiveness is an act of sheer grace, completely detached from our merit or our ability to earn it. It's not because of who and what we are that we have forgiveness. It's not because we have paid God. It's not because we have suffered enough. But it's grace.

Forgiveness gives the offender what they need rather than what they deserve. It's love in action. Don't dwell on the wrong that was done. Promise not to bring it up in judgment to the person or to yourself or to others. Don't talk about the offense to others. Remove the reminders of the wrong done, and then reaffirm your love to that person. Speak kindly. There may be physical consequences for the offender, but it's not going to be you bringing the judgment.

The key to the prison is in your hands. When you forgive a debt, the offender no longer owes you. The debt is satisfied. It's canceled by your own choice. Only then are you going to be released from the things that torture your soul. 2 Corinthians 2:11 says, if we refuse to forgive, we give Satan the advantage. You want to hold a grudge? Well, you're going to have problems because you are giving Satan an advantage and you're going to be miserable.

We are told, Ephesians 4:32: "Forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you." Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. How do we imitate God? We forgive. Can you trust God or not? That's the issue here. Or do you want to take God's place? You want to be the judge. You want to hand down the sentence. You want to inflict the punishment. If you do, you're going to destroy what you really want. Often we think, "If I have my way, then I'll be happy." Doesn't work that way. Not in God's plan. We can't think like the world thinks. We need to think the way God thinks. His policy toward us is grace, and we need to treat others in grace.

If you're here today, if you've never trusted Jesus for your salvation, we want you to know you have a debt that's so great you could never pay God what you owe. Never. No matter what good works you do, no matter what religion you might embrace, you can never pay it. But God in grace has provided the means of forgiveness, and that's simply by putting your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. You can have the forgiveness of sins right now. Simply believe Jesus will forgive your sins. If you believe that, He will. He'll do it because He already paid for them on the cross. Do you believe Jesus will take you to heaven when you die? If you believe that, He will. That's what it means to believe in Jesus.

Or you may be here today, you're a child of God and you've got a problem because you're carrying a grudge. Somebody hurt you, somebody wronged you, and that hurt may be very deep, it may be very real. But from your heart, you need to release them to God. Let God take care of it. Then you can have peace. You can have tranquility of soul rather than the anguish of soul that's going to come when you refuse to forgive and when you want to hang on to that wrong that you endured. Give it to God. Cancel that obligation that somebody else has to you.

Shall we pray? Father in heaven, I give thanks that You are a God of mercy. You're a God who looked down and saw us in our pitiable condition and You had pity on us to the extent that You sent Your own Son into the world to die in our place. We deserve Your judgment. We deserve eternity in the lake of fire, and yet You want to have relationship with us. You loved us. Simply by an act of faith, we can have the forgiveness of all trespasses. This knowledge is really too wonderful for us. It's so hard for us to comprehend, and yet we know this is what Your Bible says. You put it in the word so that we can know that it's true.

Father, we confess we often struggle in our relationships with people. Sometimes we hurt people, sometimes they hurt us. We know this grieves You, but I thank You that there's a way for us to escape from the anguish, the misery that comes when we hold a grudge and refuse to forgive. So I pray that Your Holy Spirit will open our understanding to these things about forgiveness and that we would be willing to release those who have trespassed against us. Give them into Your hands. Let You deal with them.

I pray that we're going to learn how to show love and grace in these things. When we have done this, You will be pleased. We're going to have a testimony that others will see, and we can use this to tell them about Your great love and grace and mercy to us. May Your Holy Spirit open our understanding to these things and show us how we need to each one apply these truths in our lives so You'll be glorified through it. I ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.

Andy Woods: Thank you, brother Jim. It is indeed. Well, forgiveness. Rather than have it be on your shoulder, have it in the hand of God. May we continue to draw our hearts to that divine grace. Let us now sing two verses of the refrain in "God Bless America." Let us rise and sing.

God bless America,

Land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America, my home sweet home.

God bless America, my home sweet home.

God bless America,

Land that I love,

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with the light from above.

From the mountains to the prairies,

To the oceans white with foam,

God bless America, my home sweet home.

God bless America, my home sweet home.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. Lord bless.