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The Lord's Prayer (Part 4): The Last Two Petitions (Matthew 6:12-15)
I. The Fifth Petition
II. The Sixth Petition
III. The Conclusion
Once again, I greet all of you in the most blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord for this privilege, and my sincere thanks to Reverend Paul. Tonight we will continue to study the Lord's Prayer. We come now to the last two petitions which are found in verse 12 and verse 13, and these two petitions have to be considered together with verse 14 and verse 15.
So I am going to read verse 12 down to verse 15. If you have your Bible with you, please turn with me to Matthew chapter 6:12-15. Let us hear God's word: Verse 12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
By God's grace, we have been able to look at the preface, the first three petitions, and the first of the last three petitions. We now come to the last two petitions of the Lord's Prayer, which God willing we'll be looking at tonight. The fifth petition—please look at verse 12 of Matthew 6 in your Bible. Let me read it to you again: Verse 12, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
This is the fifth petition, which has to do with the needs of humanity. With regard to the needs of humanity, we look at the first of the three needs mentioned in this prayer, namely, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Now, having looked at that, we come to the fifth petition that is a prayer for forgiveness.
And this petition must be considered together with verses 14 and verse 15 that we have just read. So put verse 12 and verse 14 and 15 together, and we will be considering the fifth petition. As we look at this petition, I want you to note that there are five vocabularies for sin frequently used in the New Testament.
Of course, the first of the five vocabularies is the word sin itself, which means missing the mark. And the second would be the word trespass. Trespass speaks of slipping or failing. We slip away, or we fail to do certain things that are required and commanded by God.
And the third would be the word transgression, which speaks of stepping across the line or going beyond the limit prescribed by God himself. And the next would be the word lawless or lawlessness, which means a direct and open rebellion against God and his ways.
And the last and the fifth is the word used in our text here, that the word debt. And of these five vocabularies, our Lord in teaching his disciples how to pray used the word debt: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Looking at the original language, the word simply means debts.
The question is why did our Lord use this particular word instead of the the other uh vocabularies mentioned? I believe it is because the word debts emphasize that there is a punishment we must suffer when it comes to sin unless payment and satisfaction is made. So that is why the word debt is used. So whenever we come across these four five words, we must remember that these are different vocabularies for sin. They are all sinful. They are all words that describe the sinfulness, the sinful acts against the holy and perfect God.
I think first of all we need to address this question with regard to this petition. Why should we pray for forgiveness since God has already forgiven us by means of the complete and final atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross? Since Christ has atoned all our sins, since he has him given himself as a sacrifice for the satisfaction for all our sins, why should we pray for forgiveness?
As a matter of fact, among Christian, there are groups who teach that we don't need to pray for forgiveness. Particularly there's a group of Christians by the name of good news all over the world, and especially in my country. They are very active, and they teach that as Christians all of our sins past, present, and future have already already been forgiven by God himself. Therefore we don't need to confess our sins. We don't need to pray for forgiveness of our sins because they have all been forgiven.
Dear brothers and sisters, I believe that is a misunderstanding, a serious misunderstanding of God's word. In many passages of the scripture, we are taught to confess our faults to one another, our sins to God, and to pray for forgiveness. And there is a theology behind this.
Yes, if we talk about salvation, yes, all of our sins have been forgiven because the penalty has been paid by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. If we talk about that Christ's atonement on the cross, it is perfect, complete, and fully and completely efficacious. There's nothing that can be added to it. And all of our sins, no matter how many they are, no matter how great they are, they are all judicially forgiven by God as the judge, the righteous judge.
So we have the full right to go to heaven once we repent of our sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be our only savior and lord, and that is the stoological aspect I mean uh that is uh related to salvation. So when it comes to salvation, all of our sins have been judicially forgiven by God himself as the judge.
But still we are taught to pray for God's continuous forgiveness on a continuous manner. We are to pray for forgiveness, and we need God's continuous forgiveness. Why? Because because of the simple reason that we continue to sin, and this has to do with maintaining good relationship with God the Father. It has nothing to do with salvation. It has everything to do instead with maintaining good relation to our God and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take for an example a relationship that exists in family, for example, between husband and wife. They are legally married. Judicially they are husband and wife. That will not change just because uh the other party sin against the other side. For example, if I sin against my wife, that doesn't mean that I am no longer her husband. I'm still her husband legally, judicially. Yet if I have sins against her, the relationship between her and me will not be good and healthy as be before.
Therefore, I need to confess my sins and ask for her forgiveness so that good relationship will be restored. The same principle goes for parents and children, brothers and sisters. So the prayer for forgiveness here is for our daily Christian life, not for salvation.
All right. In our Christian life all of us have sin, some more, some less, and we need to pray for forgiveness for those sins. And here the petition, in this petition our lord says uh taught us to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
The next question is if we pray to God for his forgiveness, is our for our being forgiven by God dependent or condition on our forgiving of others? I think the answer has to be yes and no.
As I just mentioned, if we talk about forgiveness in relation to salvation, of course, the answer is no. Our forgiveness of others, my forgiving of people who against who sin against me has nothing to do with my salvation. My salvation has to do with the righteousness of God, the payment, the atonement that Christ paid for me on the cross.
But when it comes to the day to day Christian life, I believe God's forgiveness of us is dependent on our forgiveness of others. And that is taught in verse 14 and 15 as well as I've just read. Let me read it to you: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14–15).
As far as this Christian life on earth is concerned, my forgiveness is condition on or dependent upon my forgiving of others who have sinned against me. I think that is very clear in verse 12 and verse 14 and verse 15. So uh I think these are the two questions that we need to address first of all with regard to this petition.
Let me summarize them. When it comes to salvation, when it comes to salvation, my being forgiven by God is not dependent on my merit as in forgiving others, but it is entirely dependent on my repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But as far as Christian life is concerned, in order for God to forgive me, I need to forgive others as well. So this is a very huge and demanding prayer.
In order that I may gain God's forgiveness, I must also learn to forgive others. And I think forgiveness is one of the most difficult things as a Christian. It is so difficult for some of us, maybe for most of us, to forgive others. But exactly that is what we are being taught here.
The great commentator William Henvixen provides seven biblical reasons why we must forgive others. And I want to quote from him. Number one, he mentioned that we must forgive others simply because God has commanded us. The reason why we must forgive others is because God has commanded us to do so, as we have just uh read in this uh text this passage.
And the second reason would be because Christ has shown us in his life, by his life, to forgive others. On the cross, he prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34, KJV). They brought the most serious injury upon him, the the deepest insult upon him, yet he pray for their forgiveness.
The third reason why we must forgive is because we cannot be forgiven unless we forgive others as well, and that's what we have in this text. The fourth reason would be the person who endure us needs our sympathy and love. That person needs our sympathy and our love. And the Bible says we are to all no man except love. We are not to owe vengeance. We are not to all uh injuries upon them but love.
And the fifth reason would be this. Harboring a grudge and planning revenge is not only wicked but also foolish because it deprivives us of the strength we need to do effective work. In order to do God's work effectively, we need strength, and if we hold grudge and if we plan secretly to take revenge on others, that spiritual strength that we need to carry out God's work is taken away.
And number six, the sixth reason why we must forgive others is because forgiving others will impart peace and joy of heart and mind to us, the kind of peace that passes all understanding, Philippians 4:7–9. In other words, we will be deprived of peace and joy that we can enjoy in life if we refuse to forgive others.
In fact, harboring crutch and planning revenge on others is a kind of torturing ourself that would do no good to us, no good to anyone. Once you forgive others, no matter what sin they have done to you, no matter how great the injuries they brought to you, you will feel that your all the burdens are taken away, and you will have the joy and peace of mind and heart once again. If we refuse to forgive, that will be a complete lost for us.
And the seventh and the final reason is this. Only when we forgive others, God will be glorified. God will be glorified. The ultimate aim of the Christian life is to glorify God, and one way whereby we can glorify God is by forgiving others. By holding crutch against others, we cannot glorify God. We glorify God in our life by our conduct and action about when we forgive others graciously.
Of course, when we talk about forgiveness, forgiving others, it doesn't mean that from the other side, they don't have to do anything. The sins that they have committed, in some way or another, they have to pay for themselves. And I think there is a possible scenario where uh we what we need to uh consider, what if the other party, the party that sin against us, refuse to admit their wrong and therefore failed to bring forgiveness and reconciliation.
Yes, if the other party is the Christian, by all means, in the name of Christ, that person also must repent and ask for forgiveness. So both side must in humility work together before the Lord with the help of the Holy Spirit. But even if the other party refused to do so, on our part, on our part we still must forgive them. And that is the lesson taught us here.
In other words, the other party also has the responsibility to repent and apologize. But even if that party failed to do that, on our part it would be for our own good, for our own spiritual strength and joy, to forgive those who offended us. Now if we find it too difficult to forgive others, and practically this may be true to us, let us consider certain things.
First of all, what about the wrongs and injuries that we have done against our God? How many and how great are the wrongs we have done against God. A deep look at God's forgiveness will drive us on our knees to forgive others also.
How many times have we sin against God? From morning to night, 24 hours a day, you just examine your life both in thought and deed or in speech. How many times have we sinned against God? I think many times. If all of our sins are displayed, I think none of us will dare to look at it. We sin against God, yet God still forgives us.
So we should we should take this truth into consideration if we find it too difficult to forgive others. And another thing that we should seriously think about is the hand of God behind all circumstances. We believe as the holy scripture teaches that everything comes to pass according to God's will and purpose. Nothing comes, nothing happens by chance.
If that is the case, and that is the case because that's how the holy scripture teaches, then those people who have offended us, who have sinned against us, behind those people there is the hand of God. If we can see that picture, then I think it will be more easier for us to forgive.
We have some examples from the Bible itself. For example, look at Joseph, the life of Joseph. His brothers, his own blood brothers, sinned against him. They did something they shouldn't have done. We we know the story, and I wouldn't repeat here. But the point is this: after having committed all those crimes and sins against their own brother, Joseph was still able to forgive them.
Why? Because he saw the bigger picture, the hand of God, the sovereign hand of God behind those evil actions of his brothers. I think that is very important for us to learn. And what about King David? When he was on the run from his own son Abselon, she may curse him.
In 2 Samuel 16:11–12, we read bad words spoken against him by Shime, and David's soldiers captains thought of getting rid of that person, but David refused to do so. It may be that the Lord sent him to scull me. That's how he responded to that kind of situation.
And what about Stephen in the New Testament, when he was falsely accused and stoned to them? He prayed, “Father, forgive them.” And the best example is of course our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Many many have sinned against him, falsely accused, reviled, abused, stoned, tried to stone, and finally crucify. Yet he prayed for their forgiveness.
It is in this connection that the great church father St. Augustine wrote, “He that endures me shall add to my reward. He that clips my name to make it weight lighter shall make my crown weight heavier.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, yes, as human as we are, sometime it is very very difficult to forgive others.
Especially when we think that we are on the right and they are on the wrong position. Yet whether they are right or wrong, whether we are right or wrong, this petition teaches us to forgive them. And what about how how to forgive them? How do we forgive them?
Now look at the the petition again, verse 12, “And forgive us our debts.” We pray for God's forgiveness of our sins, “as we forgive our debtors.” As we forgive our debtors, we also forgive others, and God will forgive. And the same way God forgives us, that is the way we should forgive others.
And how does God forgive us? I want to summarize the manner in which God forgives us in three points. Firstly, God forgives us truly in a real sense, in the truest sense of the word. When God forgives your sins and my sins, he doesn't keep some of our sins here and only forgives some of our sins.
No, he sorry. He forgives truly in a real sense. He doesn't pretend as if he forgive and hold a grudge against us in secret. No, God doesn't do that. He doesn't make just a show of forgiveness and keeps some of our sins by him. God doesn't do that. He forgives us in a real sense, in the truest sense.
Therefore, in chapter 18 of the same book, Matthew verse 35, we read, “If ye from your hearts forgive not.” Forgiveness must be from the heart. It's not, it is it must not be a pretension. No hypocrisy must be here. It must be a real forgiveness from the heart because that is how God has forgiven forgiven us in Christ.
Secondly, God forgives us fully. He forgives us fully, not just some of our sins, but all of our sins. All of our sins, not just 50 of our sins, not 60, 70, 18, but all of our sins. Therefore, in Psalm 103:3, we read these words, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Not half nor most of thine iniquities, but all thine iniquities.
How blessed is that? How glorious and how assuring. So it is, dear brothers and sister, hypocritical to pass by some offenses but retain others. Please don't do that. Let us not do that. If God does the same to us, forgives some of our sins and keeps some of them, none of us would be in heaven.
So the way God forgives us is to forgive fully. That's how we ought to forgive others as well. And thirdly, God forgives repeatedly, repeatedly. Not just one time, two times, 10 times, a 100 times, but every time we sin, God forgives us in Christ.
There was a time uh in the life of the apostle Peter when he asked the Lord Jesus Christ, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Jesus said unto him, “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21–22, KJV). In other words, as many and as often as he sinned against you, that's how often and frequent you must forgive.
Forgiveness has no limit. Most of the time I have forgiven you already. This and that, those and this you have done against me, I forgiven this, but this time really I can't forgive. I won't forgive. That kind of thinking, that kind of mentality must be far removed from the Christian.
Every time people sin against us, and there may be many, we are taught to forgive them. Is it difficult by our own strength? It may be very difficult, but remember the things we have just mentioned before, how we ourself also sin against God many many many times, and how God's mighty and sovereign hand is behind all those things. All all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are the all according to his plan.
So if people sin against us, let's see God's hand behind them, then we can forgive them. And only by forgiving those who sin against us, we can have the real and full uh peace and joy in our heart. So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this fifth petition is very demanding. In order for us to gain God's favor of forgiveness, we ourself must forgive others also.
And let's now go to the last petition, the sixth petition found in verse 13. Let me read it to you: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: or the evil one” (Matthew 6:13, KJV). Lead us not into temptation.
This prayer, this petition seems to go against some passages in the New Testament. For example, in James 1:2, we are told, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.” When temptation come, count it all joy. But here we are to pray for God not to lead us into temptation. They seem to contradict one another.
And again in verse 12 of James 1, we read, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him” (James 1:12, KJV). This seem contradictory, but actually they are not contradictory at all.
The reason why we are taught here to pray that God would not lead us into temptation is because we realize that we are too weak. We are too frail. We are too weak that if we are exposed to temptation, we might fall into it, seriously damaging God's honor and glory.
And because we know that we are such weak people, we pray that God will not lead us into temptation. But if we are in a situation that we are already in uh the the sin or the area of temptation, then this prayer teaches us that we pray that God will deliver us. So in other words, two things are taught here.
Firstly, Lord, because we are too weak, please do not lead us into a place, into places, or into environment or situation where we might offend against thee. But in thy own wisdom, power, and will, if we are in that kind of situation, please deliver us, give us guide, strength, wisdom to come out safely from that situation.
In other words, in order to pray this prayer, there are practical steps we must take uh we must take on our side to pray that Lord lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from uh the evil one or uh any temptation. Yet we do things that will lead us into that kind of situation. That that is illogical and foolish. Even as we pray for this petition, we must take practical steps not to expose ourself in any possible uh places or things of temptation. That is the right way to pray this prayer.
And let us look at the conclusion. The conclusion of the Lord's Prayer says, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13). In this conclusion, we ascribe all honour, glory, power, and authority to God and God alone because he alone deserves it. And that is how we ought to conclude our prayer.
Sadly, this portion of God's word is missing in some Bibles. But as we have it in the King James Version, this is fully attested by evidence and I won't go about that in details. Let us be fully convinced that this is God's word and they are fully attested by evidence.
So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Lord's Prayer, we are taught to pray a right. And in order to pray a right, first of all, we must repent of all our sins and believe and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Saviour. Only by becoming God's children by faith then we have the right to say this prayer.
And whenever we pray, the first thing we pray for must be the name of God, for the name of God, the kingdom of God, the will of God, everything for the will of God, that must be the first emphasis and focus in our prayer. Only then we are to bring in our petitions. And the last two petitions particularly teaches us that we are to forgive others so that we may enjoy God's forgiveness in this life of the Christian on this planet earth.
And because we are too weak, we don't want to go to any place near temptation. If we are in that situation already, we pray for God's deliverance. And because only God has the ultimate glory, honour, and authority, we conclude by ascribing all those to him and to him alone. May the Lord help us in our prayer life.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank thee for this precious teaching that comes from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. Many times we pray wrongly and forgive us of all our sins and trespasses and the wrong that we have done against thee and against thy people and against people around us.
And we pray for thy glory to shine, thy kingdom to rule, and thy will be done perfectly on this earth. And help us, oh Lord, to do our part in fulfilling and realising thy will here on this earth.
We pray that Lord we may be able to forgive anyone, everyone who sin against us. We want to live a life that glorifies thee, and we pray that we may not be leading led into temptation. But if we are in that situation, how we pray for the Holy Spirit to deliver us and help us.
So this is our prayer, oh Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you. The Lord bless all of you.