The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant,' explores Matthew 18:21-35, focusing on the theme of forgiveness. Peter asks Jesus how often he should forgive his brother, suggesting 'up to seven times.' Jesus replies with 'seventy times seven,' indicating limitless forgiveness. The parable of the unforgiving servant illustrates this, depicting a king who forgives an enormous debt of 10,000 talents owed by a servant. However, this servant then refuses to forgive a much smaller debt owed to him by a fellow servant, showing a lack of mercy. Dohm emphasizes that Christians, having received divine forgiveness for their insurmountable debts, should be predisposed to forgive others radically. The sermon contrasts the magnitude of human sin with the mercy of God, urging believers to live with a mindset of continual forgiveness and mercy. It also warns against the danger of not forgiving, as it reflects a lack of understanding of one's own forgiven state. The sermon concludes by highlighting forgiveness as both a personal and evangelistic tool, demonstrating the transformative power of God's grace.

Matthew 18 verses 21 through 35. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Therefore, 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. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master have patience with me and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying, pay me what you owe.

So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, have patience with me and I will pay you all. And He would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after you 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, and his master was very angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

So my heavenly father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Oh father, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, just as we just sang we are this wretched man that gained from your reward. We deserve nothing. We don't deserve to be forgiven anything. Father, as Jason comes to preach, bless him with your truth.

May your truth be on his heart. May we see the love of Christ, the grace of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ in this passage may we see the love of brothers to brothers in this passage the Holy Spirit be upon Jason be upon our ears that they are open to hear our eyes that they are open to see the hearts would repent that we would seek your face that we would serve you with all we have. In Jesus name, amen. Well, there's no point in naming this anything other than the parable of the unforgiving servant. That's what everyone has always known it by.

What every Bible with headers that I've ever had calls it. So, it just seemed disingenuous to call it anything else other than that. It is the parable of the unforgiving servant. Last week, the text was about gaining your brother. Specifically, what do you do when your brother sins against you?

That is going to happen from time to time as God puts us together in a church, or brings us in, makes us part of his people, and we live in close quarters together. We are going to be sinning against each other from time to time. It's good, it's very kind that God would show us what we should do. In that text, we are given the great lengths that God gives to us to go through, to go reclaim your brother when he is wandering away because of sin. And It begins in step one with going to your brother and telling him his fault between you and him alone.

Where none of the prickles of a group confrontation are present, but it's you with a heart turned towards your brother going to reclaim him, coming alongside and putting your arm around your brother to help him understand his sin, to help him see his sin, to help him forsake his sin. It's such a tender passage. We think of this as the church discipline passage, as if this is some sort of a negative passage. This is one of the most beautiful texts that tells us how in a very practical way we can and ought to love our brother. And almost all of the action ought to be there in step one, just happening in private, just you and your brother with mercy in your heart going to him and restoring him.

But it is a multi-step process and it ends in step four where the church actually comes together in the name of Jesus Christ to exercise authority in His name. Not making up our own rules but discerning what the will of the Lord is from his revealed will and then declaring it to be so and exercising authority on behalf of God. So last week started in verse 15 with these words, if your brother sins against you. And it told us what to do when our brother sins against you. And the answer was, gain him.

If he sins against you, go get him, go help him, Be faithful to your brother. And it gives rise to the question that we grapple with this week, which is, How often? Last week was what you do when your brother sins against you. And that gives rise to the question, how often do I do that? Let's pray as we go to the text.

Father, we Thank you for these beautiful texts that we're seeing week after week. I am being so helped in my soul every week by the things that you're setting before us. And I thank you for your magnificent word That is such a blessing and help to your people, how we need it to retrain our thinking that so often takes us in the wrong direction. But we want to be trained week by week to think more of your thoughts, to have the mind of Christ imparted to us as we study your word and your Holy Spirit rises up in our hearts to be our tutors and to teach us the things we need to know. May it be so today in Jesus' name, Amen.

In verse 21 and 22, we have Peter's question and then Jesus' answer to Peter's question. Verse 21, then Peter came to him, to Jesus, and said, Lord, How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" Up to seven times. Now Peter, as we know, has been sternly rebuked for some of his questions and for some of his answers. And So you have this sense that Peter comes very tenderly, very tentatively perhaps, to ask and offer an answer to his own questions, because some of his questions haven't been the best in the past. Some of his answers haven't been the best.

Jesus has rightfully treated him roughly at times to help reset his thinking. He comes and asks this question and then I have the sense that he's giving what he feels would be a safe answer. He ventures an answer to his own question and it seems to Peter like he's on pretty safe ground to say seven times. The consensus in their day, there was a consensus among the rabbis that the right answer to this question is three times. If your brother sins against you in the same way three times, You ought to forgive him that third time, but third time is the limit.

The rabbis were taking this out of Amos 1 and 2. If you look at Amos 1 and 2, you'll find a repetition of God saying this, for three transgressions, O Israel or O Damascus, for four I will not turn away its punishment. So the rabbis have discerned from Amos 1 and 2 this repetition for three transgressions, for four I won't turn away the punishment, that God maxes out at three. God hits his limit at three. So the rabbis say, if God hits his limit at three, we have no obligation to go beyond where God has said he would go.

Now if you look at Amos, I don't think that's a proper interpretation of the things that are being said there. I don't think it's saying that God necessarily maxes out at three. But that is the rendering that the rabbis, en masse, as a group, have imposed upon those chapters. And so The answer of the day is three. That's the backdrop.

Peter apparently has doubled and then added one for good measure, I guess. This is not in the text, this is me speculating. So Peter doubled and added one for good measure, and so he says seven. Surely, surely it's something inside of that and he's on safe ground by saying seven. Now before we get to Jesus' response, I just want to pose another question.

Where does this question come from? How often is the question? So Jesus has just taught on what you do when your brother sins against you. Now Peter has a follow up question. He's looking for clarification.

How often? Where does that question come from? I think Calvin has nailed it. Listen to Calvin. This doubt occurred to Peter.

If we be so strongly disposed to grant forgiveness, what will be the consequence but that our lenity shall be an inducement to offend? Now this is an old English way to say, Jesus we're going to be taken advantage of. If we have such a predisposition to go get our brother, to forgive our brother, then word is going to get out Jesus. There will be no end to your people being taken advantage of because they will have such a reputation for being forgiven that people will impose upon that. So how often?

Where is the boundary here Jesus? You have given us a principle, you have given us no boundary and word is going to get out and we'll be abused when people find out how predisposed we are to forgive when people offend us. Now listen to what Luke records in his recounting of this event. I'm pretty sure looking at Luke 17 that this is the same event when you see how it falls in sequence. So I'm pretty sure this is the same conversation, but you can't tell for 100% sure.

But in any event, it's taking up the same subject, so it's really relevant. Luke 17, verses 3 through 5, Luke records that Jesus says this, take heed to yourselves, if your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, he returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. Now listen to this, verse 5, and the apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith.

Jesus, I don't think we have enough faith for what you just said. Seven times in a day. So, I think this happened all in one conversation. Luke records one part of Jesus' answer and Matthew gives us another part. At some point, seven times comes up.

I don't know whether Peter brought it up or whether Jesus brought it up here. But Jesus clarifies, not seven times total, seven times in a day, then you forgive them. And not seven times total, but seven times seventy, four hundred and ninety times for those of you who are bad at math, 490 times. Not as an encouragement to count and to know when you've crossed over to the 490 first time, but as a way to say More times than you can even keep up with. A zillion times.

490 means a zillion. I'm translating this. As many times as is necessary. If your brother comes and you rebuke him and he repents. Even if it's seven times in a day.

Can you imagine that? There's another absurd number. Can you imagine that in the same sin? Seven times, just one time right after the other. And you just got no work done this day because your brother keeps coming to you and saying, please forgive me, and you're forgiving him.

But what Jesus is setting up is that his people are to have a radical predisposition to forgive. A radical predisposition to forgive one another. To just let one another off the hook. There's a default setting for his people, and that's that we let each other off the hook. That's our default setting.

That's our bias. That's our bent. That we're looking for excuses to set each other free and let each other off the hook. We're not groping for the limits. Am I at the limit yet?

Can I stop forgiving my brother yet? We're not groping around for where that number is, where we can now just stop forgiving. The love chapter. The love chapter. 1 Corinthians 13.

Love suffers long. It's 1 Corinthians 3 verse 4. Love is not provoked. It's the very next verse, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Love hopes all things.

1 Corinthians 13, verse 7. And So we're back to love. We're back to love, brothers and sisters. How many times do I forgive? I don't know.

How many times does love require? Seven? No, seven in a day. No, 490. No.

Whatever number it takes so that the number is higher than what you'll need. That's what love requires. So we're not a people groping around for the limits. Have we hit the limit yet, Jesus? How often, Jesus?

Nope, wrong question. Wrong question. We're not a people groping for the limits, we're a people who are freely given to forgive. Freely, you have received, freely give that's what Jesus is teaching here now Jesus a gives us a parable to help us understand I'm gonna just start with the first half of the parable, verses 23 through 27. Therefore, 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 ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master have patience with me and I will pay you all. Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him and forgave him the debt. So welcome to the happy half of the parable.

The half that we should read and our hearts should just rejoice when we see this. This is about a king and his servant debtor, his servant owes him. This king is settling accounts. As Jesus starts this parable, what he is communicating is that Peter asks the wrong question. This parable doesn't answer Peter's question.

The parable doesn't answer how often. It answers two questions. Why forgive? Why even forgive the first time? Forget how often?

Why should we forgive at all? And then secondly, how can we forgive? When we are offended, it is so difficult. So how can we even do that? This parable teaches us these things.

I want to begin with a word about parables. We keep saying this as we hit parables, but this is a parable. So the normal rules apply. Meaning that if your doctrine of salvation is going to have this as the center of that universe, you're going to have some wacky doctrines. If you take this and you trace out every part of this parable and draw conclusions about how salvation works, you will end up so far away from the biblical doctrine of salvation, you'll say that saved people become unsaved when they won't forgive.

God just cancels His mercy. That's not the point of this parable. Parables are given to help teach us in an extremely powerful way a couple of points. Maybe one. A lot of times it's just one point.

And it teaches us in an unforgettable way that is so helpful. But it is not intended to be a didactic text, a teaching text that teaches us the nuances of a doctrine. So if you want to get into the corners of the doctrine of salvation, you better not start with parables, or you'll end up with a really strange view of what the Bible teaches. If you take this parable and make it the center of the salvation doctrine universe, you'll end up with things out of sequence. In other words, the canceling of debts in Christian biblical salvation is the entry point.

Well this is a servant who has been serving this king for a while. Things are out of order. Well the parable wasn't designed to teach about that. You'll end up saying that a wife and a child are saddled with the debts of the head of this household. Well, that's not true.

We know that's not true about salvation, but here the wife and the child and all that he has are being sold because of the debts of the Father. That's not part of the biblical doctrine of salvation. You'll end up with a God who needs to be alerted to things by His servants. Well, that's not true. The Bible clearly teaches that God is omniscient.

He doesn't need to be told things, alerted to things by his servant, and most importantly, you'll end up with salvation with no atonement. There's no atonement in this parable. Well, that's because it's not the main point of the parable. It's not what Jesus is teaching about. But if you make this the center of your salvation doctrine universe, then you end up saying that the king can just overlook this debt.

Nobody has to pay for the debt. Well, that's not the teaching of the gospel at all. So I say that just to give us the normal warning about parables. It's bad to take a parable and then try to deduce all the nuances of a doctrine about the parable. No, you go to the didactic text, the teaching text, which speak directly to, and are not a picture of it, but speak directly to the nuances that you need to understand.

So I'm not going to spend the whole time trying to say, well it doesn't teach this, and here are the other texts that teach this portion of the doctrine of salvation properly. But we're going to use the time to say what Jesus said, which is there are a couple of main points in this parable that are invaluable to the people of God, and here's the thrust of it. Here's where we're spending our time. So to the parable. The king is settling accounts with his servants.

A servant gets called before him and the servant owes him 10, 000 talents. Now to us this means nothing. I don't know what a talent is. Well I know what a talent is now, but I've been studying all week. Do you know what a talent is?

I know what a talent is. It's 20 years wages. One talent is 20 years of wages for a person just making an honest living with their hands. A guy who's going out in the field and working for a farmer, if he's working six days a week, in 20 years is going to make one talent. Okay?

So just an honest guy making a living with his hands, 20 years of labor, one talent. Now the king's servant owes how much? 10, 000 talents. So an honest guy making a living with his hands in the fields or maybe in carpentry or something like that is going to have to work for 200, 000 years to pay back this debt. Good luck.

Good luck honest guy working with your hands. Two hundred thousand years. Hope you're in shape. Hope you're taking your vitamins. Got a big debt here.

Two hundred thousand years. Now the ESV study notes does some calculations and I won't bore you with the math, but it works out to six billion dollars. Six billion dollars. So if you want it in current terms, the king's servant owes the king $6 billion. And now, time's up.

Loan called. Where's my $6 billion? So it's not surprising the next verse that we see is not able to pay. I just don't have six billion on me. And So the king, to get some little minuscule level of recovery, says you're to be sold into slavery.

Oh, and your wife, and your kids, and everything else that you have. All of it. Everything. You, your wife, your kids, everything else that you have. Now maybe, maybe that's worth a talent.

A talent. Maybe. For a really valuable slave and his family, maybe a talent. So that's not even. You haven't paid off your debt there.

You've got 9, 999 talents to go. Maybe all that's worth a talent. This is us. This is you. This is me.

We don't think of ourselves like this, but this is us. Jesus started out by saying, the kingdom of heaven is like this. The kingdom of heaven is like this. Have your debts been forgiven? Did you even know what they were?

James says, for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of all. But James is just speaking in theoretical terms. Who's just sinned in one point of the law? Who is this theoretical person who's broken all the law by just violating one point? We pile them up every single day of our lives.

We pile them up. We add to the pile. How many sins a day? I don't know. But we're piling them up every single day.

And only one violation, the first violation on the first day was enough to give a just judge cause to send you to hell. The first one on the first day. But there have been how many more on that day and how many more days and we've been piling them up and heaping them up. Romans 6 23 Paul says, for the wages of sin is death. You've been earning wages.

You've been earning wages every day. And your wages have been mounting. What God ought to pay you. Death, death, death, death. And he can pay them whenever he wants to.

After the first sin, he is just to pay them. Or the second, or the thousandth, or the ten thousandth. Listen to what David says in Psalm 40. In Psalm 40, David is being broken by God over his sin. Listen to what he says.

Psalm 40, verses 11 and 12. Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have surrounded me, my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart fails within me." David in Psalm 40 is having heart failure.

His heart is failing within him. He says there, why is hearts failing? Because his iniquities are more than the hairs of his head. He's been overtaken by his iniquities. David had at least some semblance of his debt and it made his heart fail within him.

In Ephesians 2, Paul is speaking to these Gentile people of their past. He's trying to make them thankful. He's speaking to these Gentiles of their past and he says this, Ephesians 2.12, that at that time in the past you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." That's what you were. You were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world. I want to address the Christians.

I want to address the people of God here today. I trust it's most of the people who are hearing me. How would you live if your six billion dollar debt was in your mind every day? How would you live if you thought your six billion dollar debt had been laid aside. If we were to actually take a moment when we rise up in the day to think, my God has laid aside 200, 000 years of debt and just wiped it clean.

How free would we be? How happy would we be? Wouldn't you be light as a feather? Doesn't that make you light as a feather to think that thought? My debt was 200, 000 years of payment and God has just laid it aside, six billion dollars, and God is never going to require it of me.

Non-Christians, I want to address the non-Christians who are here, whoever you are. Your greatest malady is that you don't think you're sick. Your greatest disease is you think you don't have one. It's spiritual blindness. And you're so used to comparing yourself to your neighbor that you think your debts are small.

Jesus gives you this parable to let you know that you owe six billion dollars and it could be called due at any moment. Any moment. How would you pay this debt? What would you give for $6 billion in debt? How would you pay it?

Children, I want to address you so specifically, and I want to speak to you of the dangerous blessing you've been given by being born in a Christian home. Do you know how dangerous it is that you're being raised in a Christian home where you're not at liberty to do all that's in your heart? And so Your sins are so very respectable and you think your debts are small. It's so dangerous for you because some of your parents weren't raised in a home like that. So they were at liberty to just do whatever their heart desired.

Now you don't have that liberty. You have constraints on you that your parents never did. And that's intended by God to be a blessing, but it can be a curse. Because your sins are so respectable, are so under the radar that you don't think you owe anything. You think your debts are so small that you'll just pay them off when you come to account.

You know what? You're no different than your parents who were at Liberty. The only difference is they had Liberty and you don't have liberty. But your debts are every bit as great. They're more respectable.

So I think better of you. But they're not less, and so God doesn't. Children of Christians, this parable has been given to you so that you would know that you owe six billion dollars, that if God calls it to account, it'll take you 200, 000 years, times 200, 000 years to pay it off. You'll never be done paying. If God calls to account and you are self-righteous and you are self-reliant, you'll never be done paying that debt.

Christian children, children of Christians, be wise. Read this parable and be wise and understand what your debt is. Many, many, many, many, many have perished, have perished, thinking that they owed so little, Only to be surprised when the king settles accounts. Your day is coming. Christians, non-Christians, children, our day is all coming.

The king will settle his accounts. He will settle his accounts. In Matthew 9, the Pharisees want to know why he eats with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus says those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. He was not proclaiming the Pharisees well.

He was just accepting their terms. You think you're well, you don't need me. You have no business with me. Those who think they're well have no business with Jesus Christ. They have nothing for which to approach Him.

Only the sick. So this one who's been called to account says, Master, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Oh, this is our first sign of trouble. Just have patience. All I need is time and I'll pay you back your six billion dollars.

I just need a little time. If it wasn't so sad it would be comical. I just need a little time, and I'll pay you back your $6 billion, your 200, 000 years. I just need a little time. Matthew Henry says this, patience and forbearance are a great favor, but it is folly to think that these alone will save us.

Reprieves are not pardons. It is the folly of many who are under convictions of sin to imagine that they can make God's satisfaction for the wrong they have done. I'm going to repeat that last line. It is the folly of many who are under convictions of sin to imagine they can make satisfaction for the wrong they have done. How many times has a person fallen under conviction of sin and their response is, I'm going to do better.

I'm going to reform. Really? Great. So your plan is to reduce the rate at which you incur the debt. That's your plan.

I'm gonna increase the debt less. But Wait a minute, don't you have to pay the debt? How are you going to pay back the debt? Reducing the rate of increase is not paying back the debt. You don't need time.

You don't need a reprieve. You need a pardon. So in the parable, the king is moved with compassion because this man has begged. And he releases him and he just forgives the whole debt, the whole amount. Listen to Paul in Romans 9 verses 15 and 16.

Romans 9, 15 and 16. For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." Why does the king forgive the dead of this man? Why? It's because he's merciful.

Because he decided to. The reason for the mercy shown is just within the heart of the king. That's it. There's no other reason. He's under no compulsion to cancel the debt of this man.

No external compulsion. Now the King is merciful, so I guess that's his compulsion. He has something inside him, mercy, compassion inside him, that compels him to do it, but There's nothing external. He owes this servant nothing. Fair is fair.

You incurred the debt, pay the debt. You want fair, Pay the debt. I want Christ. You have fair. I'll have Christ.

So far what do we have in the parable and why? Well, we have the magnitude of the debt, and we have the greatness of the mercy of the king. That's what we see so far. A debt, a debt so piled so high, $6 billion, 200, 000 years of debt. That just makes the compassion of this king, the mercy of this king, so great.

Who would forgive a debt like this. Why? Why has Jesus given us this? So that we'd see things rightly. We walk around this earth, we walk through the course of the day, so insensitive that you owe six billion dollars.

Never even thinking of it. It's time to think of it. Jesus has given us a parable. He's brought us to this Sunday so we think about it, so we'd understand the magnitude of our debt. He wants us to see things rightly.

He's pulling out all the stops. He's giving us all the pictures He can give us, so that we understand the nature of our debt, the greatness of the mercy of God. Have you been given eyes to see and ears to hear, or have you not? Do you have eyes to see this? This is a serious test.

If you don't really know what I'm talking about, You're in deep trouble. But it's good to know that you're in deep trouble. This is why Jesus gives us these things. These are the means. These are the buckets of cold water that Jesus wants to be thrown into our face so that we wake up and see things as they are.

What a mercy that Jesus would bring us to this text so we would know these things. We're growing in grace, yes, we're growing in grace. And all the things that should be evident in us aren't in full bloom. I know that. I know that in my own heart, my own life, really slow to make progress sometimes.

We're growing in grace, but Christians have received grace and they know it. They know it. And so they're happy And they're free. They're light as a feather. Not every moment we regress, we forget, we need to be reminded.

The state of a Christian is a happy state, it's a free state, it's a light as a feather state when we consider what we owed and what we've been forgiven and the greatness of this King. The second half of the parable. Matthew 18, starting in 28, but that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.

And he would not. But went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he 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.

And His master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Now the king's servant, who's been forgiven six billion dollars, has a fellow servant who owes him money. He owes him a hundred denarii. Now again, do you know what a denarii is?

A denarii is a day's wages for our honest man who works with his hands. He's either a carpenter or a farmer or something like that. Honest man working with his hands, a denarii is a day's wages. So if you work six days a week, my fellow servant owes me four months, four months wages. Now remember, I just got forgiven 200, 000 years of that same kind of labor, 200, 000 years.

My fellow servant owes me four months. That's at least a debt that you can make a dent in, isn't it? But this man is aggressively pursuing the collection of his debt. In other words, he didn't just bump into his fellow servant. It says, he went out and found him.

Now I pass you on the street and say, hey remember that money you owe me? He went out and found him. And he lays hands on him and he takes him by the throat. Pay me what you owe. Now in isolation, we have a serious debt here.

In terms of the 6 billion that was owed, If we just use the same calculations, this is a $10, 000 debt. Just keeping the calculations the same. Your fellow servant owes you $10, 000. Now, if somebody owes you $10, 000, That is not a small thing. Just in isolation.

So we're not talking about you owe me five bucks. There's a real debt here. You owe me $10, 000. But that's just in isolation. That seems like a big debt.

Until you think that you just got forgiven six billion dollars. That changes things a little, doesn't it? In isolation, if you owe me $10, 000, it's the one thing. If the day before you just got forgiven $6 billion, that is a whole other kettle of fish. That changes everything.

So the ratio is 1 to 600, 000. For every dollar that you owe me, I owed $600, 000. For every dollar of that $10, 000 that you owe me, I owed a really nice house. I'm trying to make this tangible. The numbers get so large you just lose track.

What is $6 billion? Anybody held a billion dollars? We don't know what that is. Okay, so for every dollar of the $10, 000 you owed me, I owed a really nice house. Really nice house.

I owed 600, 000 really nice houses. What size city is that? That's a big city. What does a fellow servant have to say for himself? He does exactly the same thing.

He says exactly the same words. He prostrates himself before the lender. He kneels down before the lender in humility. And he says exactly the same words, have patience with me and I will pay you all. Although he has a more credible story, he only owes four months wages.

I don't know what the other guy's story was. How much time do you ask for if you owe six billion dollars? No. No. No more time for you.

You go to debtor's prison until the last penny is paid. The last penny. Don't be short a penny. He received all this mercy. He received six billion dollars worth of mercy.

He received two hundred thousand years worth of mercy. But he has no mercy to extend. How can this be? You have no mercy to extend to this guy who owes you ten thousand dollars? Now there are other fellow servants and they are watching what happened and they are grieved.

That's the word the text used, they are grieved. And They go to the king and they explain everything. They tell him everything that has happened. The king calls him and he says, you wicked servant. When you've received mercy, mercilessness is wickedness.

Have you thought of it in those terms? I'm just a little short on mercy. Actually, God says that's wickedness. Actually, God says that's wickedness. And when you've received a lot of mercy, six billion dollars worth of mercy, 200, 000 years worth of mercy, mercilessness is great wickedness.

It's not a misdemeanor, it's a major felony. James 2, 13. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. You've shown no mercy?

Judgment without mercy for you? You set the terms, judgment without mercy for you. That's how you wanted the game to be played, right? Then you set the terms for this game, you showed no mercy, okay. Matthew 6 verse 12, the Lord's Prayer, And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

God, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then the verse is right after the Lord's prayer. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Jesus is already taught in the Sermon on the Mount exactly what this parable teaches.

There are two things that I want to say here from the Sermon on the Mount. The first is that this is built into our model prayer. Jesus said, in this manner, therefore pray. Pray like this, and right in the middle of it, forgiveness of your brother is built right into the prayer. So a Christian, Just any old Christian, me or you, who will actually pray as Jesus has taught us to pray.

How many days will we go without forgiving our brother? How many days? No days to the extent that we use the model that he's given us. That when we ask for mercy, married with that, coupled with that, is extending mercy. Having some sense of understanding that we are asking for a lot more than we are giving.

The ratio is 600, 000 to 1. God forgive us our debts a lot as we forgive our brother. Isn't it easy to do forgiveness that way when you just put it hand in hand with asking God that He would forgive you of your sins? Forgive us our debts God as we forgive our debtors. So the first thing to say there is that it's built into the model prayer.

You shouldn't go a day without forgiving your brother because aren't you asking for forgiveness? Well stop forgetting the first part of that, or the second part. Stop forgetting the second part, forgive your brother. Secondly, this is not workspace righteousness. Don't turn the gospel on its head to add forgiving your brother into Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone.

Alone means alone. We don't need more than the grace of God. It's not the grace of God plus forgive your brother. That's not what Jesus is teaching, either in Matthew 6 or in Matthew 18. It's that one demonstration, one sign that you've truly been forgiven is that you have a reservoir to pull from to forgive your brother.

It's not that that makes you forgiven, it's that it's a sign that you've really been forgiven. It's that there's this deep reservoir to pull from when it's time to forgive your brother. Not a problem, brother. I just pulled a little cup from the reservoir. Just this little dixie cup for you from my reservoir of forgiveness that I've been given.

Living faith inevitably produces certain things. Did you hear that? Living faith, Real faith, genuine faith, saving faith, inevitably produces certain things. The ability to forgive your brother is one of those things. That's what Jesus is teaching.

I just can't forgive this person who's done this thing. I just cannot do it. It's too much. If you remain in that state, it's a tragedy that God has never given you eyes to see and ears to hear, and you've never been born again. How else are you going to deal with these texts?

What wiggle room is Jesus giving us? I just can't forgive if you remain in that state. It's just evidence that you were never born again. That's the only thing to do with these texts. Here's the punch line.

Here's what the king says. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you." Listen to Colossians 3. Here's Paul. Here's how Paul says it. Colossians 3 verses 12 and 13.

Colossians 3, 12 and 13. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. That's the way Paul says it. Even as Christ forgave you, so you must also do.

You must, you must elect of God, you must do it. If you cannot, if you will not, you are radically unlike your master. You are radically unfit for the presence of God. You are radically unfit and excluded from heaven. If you cannot and you will not forgive you wouldn't want to be there anyway you're nothing like that place if you can't forgive your brother and you'll be turned over to the torturers.

It's just a picture of hell. Jesus keeps giving us pictures of hell. Eternal torment, where the worm doesn't die. Fire forever. Turned over to the torturers.

So my heavenly Father also will do to each of you, if from his heart you do not forgive your brother his trespasses." Now in closing, turn to Luke 7. We stayed right here in this text the whole time. That's so unusual. We were usually flipping. Turn to Luke 7.

Matthew doesn't record this, but this is... Jesus just gave us the parable in Matthew 18. And there's a story that... A real account of events that happened in Luke 7 that beautifully illustrate this even further. Luke 7 verse 36.

Then one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him. And Jesus went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at his feet behind him weeping. She began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke to himself saying, this man if he were a prophet would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answered and said to him, Simon I have something to say to you. So he said, teacher say it. It was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one who owed 500 denarii and the other 50. So on our conversion table here, it's a year and a half pay versus about two months. When they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.

Tell me therefore, which of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one whom he forgave more. And he said to him, you have rightly judged. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house.

You gave me no water for my feet, but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.

Then he said to her, Your sins are forgiven. Who is the follower of Christ in this account? Who is it? Is it the one who knows the law? And who has such impeccable outward conformity.

Which one are you? Which one are you? Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ who it's dawned on you what your debts are? And when He forgives you, you Love him for it. You love him.

You weep partly because you know your sins and partly because you've been freed from your sins. A few concluding remarks. Our calling when we read this parable is to either capture or recapture the sense of scale. We lose the sense of scale. We don't remember how great our debts are.

And this is true for the Christian as much as it is for the non-Christian who needs to be regenerated. God wants us to remember. When we lose our first love, it's for this reason, that we forgot that we owed six billion dollars. And so we think the mercy of God has been little. And we live like it.

And it just shows up in how we talk and how we think and what we do. We just walk around like little ingrates when our gratitude should match the mercy that has been extended to us. Secondly, and something I have not mentioned at all during the course of the sermon, This sense of scale is an evangelistic weapon. Here's what Ryle says, men who care not for doctrines can understand a forgiving temper. You know when we see our debts right and so we have this reservoir to forgive our brother.

Even people who care nothing for doctrine, they see this. They see people acting mercifully like they have a reservoir to draw from. And it's a weapon. It's an evangelistic weapon. Because men who have not been taught to care anything about doctrine can study this doctrine as we live it out before them and we should.

This is the glory of God on display. This is the gospel that our debts were great and we were forgiven and so now We live light as a feather. We live free. We live happy in Jesus. Not sing song happy in Jesus.

Not ten smile happy in Jesus. But free from a massive debt. And men see it. And the glory of God is put on display and they desire him. Let's pray.

Father I Thank you for the text. I thank you for this parable. I know God that you brought us here. Teach us, teach us, teach us. Press it upon our hearts, Lord.

Help us to remember it. Help us to think about it. Our great debt, every day. In Jesus' name, Amen. Over to you, heads of households, continue with the teaching.