The Lord's Prayer

And if you bought a bible with you, then do turn to Matthew chapter 6. The words will appear on the screen, but if you can see it in front of you all the better. And, we are just going to read this morning the words of the lord's prayer. Versus 9 to 15. This is a series that we've been working through, and we are all going to read out this part of the word of god together.

Okay? So we're going to make sure you can see it, whether on the screen or in front of you, and, let's all say together versus 9 to 15. First 9. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil 1. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.

Father, we pray that you would take these words and speak to every single 1 of us here this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. I believe in the forgiveness of sins, tens of thousands of Christians around the world will say those words today. I believe. In the forgiveness of sins.

They come from the apostles creed, which was a document written not by the apostles, but written very early on in the life of the church and for thousands of years since Christians all over the world have set it together every week as a way of uniting themselves around the core truths of the of Christianity and reminding themselves of what the gospel is. And 3 times in that creed, we see the phrase I believe. I believe in god, the father almighty. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our lord, I believe in the Holy Spirit, And then there's a whole load of things after that. I believe in the holy universal church, I believe in the communion of saints, I believe in the forgiveness of sins.

And if you've been around church for a while, you will know that to believe in something means more than you just like the idea of it. Or that you hope it would be true and it sounds really good to you, you mean something much more than that. By belief you mean, a conviction of heart and a conviction of mind which actually transforms a whole person. So in Romans 10 verse 9, when Paul is writing, he doesn't just say if you believe in your heart that god raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. He says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is lord, and you believe in your heart that he was risen from the dead, you will be saved.

That is biblical belief. It involves a conviction of the mind and the understanding so that a person says Jesus is lord. It involves a submission of will. If he is lord, I'm gonna follow him and submit to him, and it involves a conviction of heart. I believe that he's risen from the dead.

That is what the Bible means by this word belief. And so when we say the creed, we say, I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit, and yes, I also believe in the forgiveness of sins. In every sense of that word, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Now I guess the majority of people in this room would be happy to say that and they would really mean it. I mean, some might not.

There might be some people here today who don't believe in forgiveness at all. They believe that keeping a record of wrongs is always better and that they do not need to seek forgiveness from anyone. Let alone god. All they believe in is flat flat justice. No forgiveness.

But I guess the majority would be happy to say, no, I believe I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And yet the question for this morning is, do we really? Do we really? Are we really sure? Are we so sure that we do believe in the forgiveness of sins?

Or could it be that, yes, we do believe in the idea of the forgiveness of sins, but we also have not written down of course, terms and conditions. I believe in the forgiveness of sins, says, 1 person, but I've messed up so many times. I don't think god can really forgive me again. I really do believe in the forgiveness of sins, says somebody else. But if my spouse does that thing 1 more time, that's it.

I really do believe in the forgiveness of sins. But that thing you did to me, I've still got that stored away. And if I need to use it in the future again, then I will. I really believe in the forgiveness of sins. But not for people who do things like that.

Brothers and sisters, here's the question, do we believe in the forgiveness of sins full stop, or would we prefer it if the creed said? I believe in the forgiveness of sins in brackets as long as dot dot dot. Well, Jesus says, in verse 9 of Matthew 6, our father in heaven, and then verse 12, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors full stop. No terms, no conditions, just forgive us as we have forgiven. Like the apostles creed, that is something which can roll very easily off the tongue.

But what does it mean to pray like that? And what does it mean to really believe? In the forgiveness of sins. 3 things we're going to look at. Just 1 this week and 2 next week.

Originally this was planning to be 1 sermon but over the course of the week it swelled beyond my control and so we're gonna have to put it over 2. So just this morning but 3 in total. Firstly, to believe in the forgiveness of sins means we seek it for ourselves. Next week, it means we extend it to others. And we proclaim it to the world.

We seek it for ourselves. We extend it to others, and we proclaim it to the world. But just for this morning, we seek it for ourselves. It's just what is going on in verse 12, isn't it? The disciples are going to the father to ask for something.

They are seeking something of him. They are asking and knocking and requesting something. They're after something. Forgive us our debts. Now in some versions, and you might better know it this way, it could be forgive us our sins, or it could be in other versions even forgiven our trespasses.

But as far as I can tell, the word debt is closest to the original word that is used here and it simply means that you and I, in this case, are in the red that we are running at a deficit, that we are cash negative as they might say in the business world, that we that we owe something. Something is owed. We're in debt. Now in this form, The word is only used 1 other time in the new testament and it's in Romans 4 verse 4 and perhaps I'll be able to get that up on the screen. Now to the 1 who works, pay is not credited as a gift but as something owed.

And everybody knows that. Right? When you look at your bank balance, at the beginning or the end of the month and you notice that your wages have gone in, you don't say how marvelously generous, of them. Isn't that wonderful? Are they good to me that they have paid me what I deserve this month?

I always would recommend this company. How good they are? No. You don't do that. You look at it and you think, too right.

Yeah? And what about the rest? By the way, where's the overtime that I worked or the expenses that I racked up? Where where where are those. Right?

We we know that's how it works. Because they owe you. You have worked for them. They have accumulated a work debt or a time debt and every month they pay off that time debt in the form of wages. But in Romans 4, if we were to read the wider context, that's not actually about finances and literal money and nor is it in Romans 15, which is another good example of what we're talking about here.

Here, Paul says, Now we who are strong have an obligation, and that is the same root word as we find in Matthew 6, not identical, but the same root word. Now, we who are strong have an obligation. We have a debt. We have something to pay to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not to please ourselves. And so again, that sort of debt has nothing to do with finances, does it?

It has to do with love. Those who are strong in the faith have a loved debt towards those who are weaker in the faith, a debt which cannot be paid off by coins and notes. But is paid off with patience and with teaching and with kindness and with loving instruction. So that's the word here in Matthew 6 verse 12. But as you can see, It doesn't actually begin the lord's prayer with a 1 another financial debt or even with a 1 another moral debt The way Jesus begins verse 12 is with a kind of debt that actually exists between us and god.

Not 1 another financial, not 1 another moral yet, but in the first half, a sort of debt that exists between us and God. Now what's that all about? Well, Thomas Watson, a puritan who wrote a fantastic, book on the lord's prayer, which has been a a companion to us preaching at this series. He puts it this way. He says a debt arises upon non payment of money or the not paying of that which is one's due.

We owe to god exact obedience, and not paying what is due, we are in debt. In case of non payment, the debtor goes to prison, and so by our sin, we become guilty and are exposed to god's curse of damnation. So that's the idea here. In the lord's prayer that we are created beings and as created beings, we owe god our obedience. Now in our day and age, the idea that we owe god anything, let alone our obedience, is not very palatable to us, is it?

We might choose to give him our obedience. We might look at him and then decide he is worthy of our obedience, but the idea that as his creatures. We owe it to him is frankly an affront to our individualistic spirit and our individualistic age. And therefore, if we are going to use this language of debt and owing at all, What we do is completely reverse it. Isn't it interesting how we change the language of this press?

Surely, you've heard things like this. I owe it to myself to be a good person. I owe it to myself to be truly happy. I owe it to myself, to be truly me. Yes to myself, I'm in debt to myself.

I owe it to myself, but who is God that I should owe him anything? And just to push on this point a little bit. I wonder if even we as Christians might think Well, look, I I feel comfortable with the idea that god is worthy of my obedience and that god is worthy of my trust. But owing him. Owing him my loyalty.

Owing him my obedience owing him, my trust? I mean, do I? You see, of course, it is true to say that god is worthy of our trust. But without meaning to and sometimes by accident, that can put me at the center of everything, can't it? I've looked at god and I've decided that he's worthy.

I've analyzed him and I've decided that, yes, he is actually worthy of my obedience. Who's in the center there? What does it mean? But to say as this prayer does, that we are in debt, or to say as Thomas Watson does in his commentary that we owe god exact obedience is firstly to speak biblically, and secondly, to remind us who we actually are as human beings in this world. In Genesis chapter 1, the very first words from god to man are about a kind of blessed obedience.

He says to them first words from god to man, be fruitful. Increase, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it. 5 commands. It's about blessed obedience, rule over it, subdue it, fill it, be fruitful. That is what it means to be human.

God is saying to his people, I have made you, and this is my world. And your life is a gift from my hand, and I am God. I'm God. And therefore, your loyalty and your trust and your obedience and not like the optional extras you might decide to give me if you feel I'm worthy, those are the things that you owe me You owe me your obedience. I'm god.

I'm god. You owe me your obedience. And so this language of forgive us our debts reminds us of who we are before god. We are not the creators of the world, and we are not the creators of our own part of the world. We do not decide what god can ask for, and we do not decide what god deserves.

If we were made by him, which we were, and if he says that we owe him our obedience, which we do, then we do. And so you see, if we're going to say verse 12 with any conviction, we begin with a confession that centers us on this idea of being in debt. Father in heaven, In this world, I may have no financial debts at all, but when it comes to you, I am deep in the red. Not because I fell on hard times, and not because we're in the middle of a cost of living crisis. But because I am a rebel, and I have refused to give you what I owe you.

All the things that you have justly commanded of me, trust, and purity and truthfulness and compassion for other people. I haven't given them to you. I haven't given you what I owe you, and now there's nothing I can do. I can't pay it off. I can't pay it off.

I can't begin to pay it off. I was looking up this morning the size of our national debt. It's 2600000000000.0 pounds. That we are in debt to somebody. I don't know who exactly as a nation, but it's a lot of money.

It works out to 40000 pounds per person in this country. That is the size of our national debt. And apparently, if that money was in the form of pennies, it would stretch to Pluto if it was all stacked up. K? That is the size of our national debt.

Well, look, when your debt is that big, fixing it yourself is not going to be an option. The only hope of seeing that debt disappear is if somebody else will wipe it away for you. And yet when it comes to the debt of our sin, that is not our first instinct, is it? Our first instinct is actually to try to pay it off ourselves or to deny that it even exists and to cover up. Be patient, we think, father.

Be patient. Just give me time, and I'll pay I'll be able to pay it back. Just give me an opportunity to change myself, and I'll rack up some good deeds for the lost years and then we'll call it even. Shall we? If I can reform myself, we'll just call it even.

A combination of you and me, and we'll we'll we'll call it even. Or no, what I could do is I'll ring up my friend. He's a really, really good guy. He's a really religious guy. And I reckon he'd pay for me god on the last day.

Would you accept the payment of another in in in my place? He's a really good guy. Oh, no, wait. Hold on. What I'll do is I'll just run away like Jonah.

I'll just run-in the other direction, and I'll pretend that it doesn't exist. I'll say I've heard this stuff about Owen God, but I'm gonna put fingers in my ears and my head in the sad, and I'm just gonna pretend it doesn't exist. That it's not true. All what I'll do is I'll rip up the evidence. So I'll stop reading the Bible I'll stop listening to what god says and I'll just rip it up and pretend that it doesn't exist.

A bit like if you see a parking ticket on your car, 1 of the things you could do is just take it out of the little yellow envelope, rip it up and pretend it doesn't exist. There we go. The fine has been paid. The evidence is gone. Now they've got nothing to prosecute me with, and we we we try.

In all our our first instinct is to try and pay off ourselves to cover up to deny to rip up the evidence. And so you see the problem. It's like a beast with 3 heads. 1, we actually are really in debt to god for not giving him what we owe him. 2, We minimize or cover up or deny that that debt even exists.

Head number 3, Even if we do admit it, our first thought is to try to get free of it under our own steam. And that is why into this complete mess, which is the human heart and mind. Jesus says 2 words which are unbelievably good. Father, forgive. Father, forgive.

In verse 12, we learn that the forgiveness of our debts is right at the heart of god's promise to his people. Let me show you this from the Bible. I've got a number of verses that are gonna appear on the screen. Now in lots of books on preaching, They tell you never to include too many cross references because it gets a bit much, but there are sometimes when you need a tsunami of cross differences in order to get the point. Okay?

And today, friends is 1 of those days. So here's Isaiah 43 verse 25 I even I am he who blocks out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins. No more. Psalm 85 1 to 2. You lord showed favor to your land.

You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people, and you covered all of their sins. Psalm hundred and 3, praise the lord my soul. All my inmost being prays his holy name, praise the lord my soul. And forget not all of his benefits, who forgives all of your sins.

Mica 7 verse 19. You will again have compassion on us. You will thread our sins underfoot and hurl all of our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Jeremiah 31 34, no longer will they teach their neighbor or say to 1 another know the lord because they will all know me from the least event of the greatest declares the lord. And how is that gonna be possible?

That knowledge of god. For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more. 1 John 1 verse 8 to 9, if we claim to be without sin. We deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and he will do what.

He'll forgive us our sins, and he will purify us from all unrighteousness, Matthew 6, our father in heaven, forgive us our debts. We can deny it, or we can excuse it, or we can try and cover it up but every single 1 of us is deep into the red. And yet from cover to cover, the Bible says that our god forgives debts. We don't have to perform any rituals. We don't have to ask a friend to pay for us.

We don't have to pretend that our debt is smaller than it is. It's amazing how we do that, isn't it? Even in life, you know, you might go to a friend or they might come to you and say, do you need to borrow some money? Or can I please borrow some money? And they say, yes, how much would you need?

I said, just just a just 10 would be fine. 10, really? Is is that all you need? Okay. Well, a hundreds, you know, a hundred would see me right.

A hundred? Are you sure? Okay. Look. 5000.

Okay. 5000. And we try even in the face of generosity, we try to minimize how big the debt really is. We don't have to pretend with god. We simply need to turn and to ask and to seek and to knock and to know that because of Christ Our debts can be wiped away forever.

Of all the verses I showed you, perhaps this 1 is is the most precious. This is Matthew 26 from the lord's supper. Here is Jesus bringing together beautifully all the promises of scripture Then he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

At the heart of the new covenant, the forgiveness of our sins, paid for by the blood of Christ. It's as if Christ had a big spreadsheet for every single 1 of us. And in the black column, which would be our credit, there is nothing. And in our red column, which would be our debt, our 10000000 times 10000000 columns. And yet on the cross, He takes all of that debt, all that we owe, and with his blood pays the price for us in our place.

So that we might be free. It's like he takes everything in the red column, control, select all, deletes the lot, And then in its place puts the credit that he has amassed through his own righteous works, and that then becomes hours. And so look, if you wanna try to pay off your own debts by means of the law or by any other means, then you will fail and tragically in the end will go to hell attempting to pay off your own debt. But if you believe in the blood of Christ, if you believe in the blood of Christ shed for you in the fullest sense of that word, then your debt will be paid. And so with all of that in view, Can I ask you, do you believe in the forgiveness of sins?

Do you really because I think some of us would say yes, I do, but deep down they feel that it won't actually be granted until they've had a few clean years to pay back the debt. A few of good years in order to pay back the wrong. But if we think like that, you know what you actually believe in, don't you? You know what you actually believe in. Not forgiveness, but justice.

Not forgiveness of your sins, but justice for your sins as you try to pay them off and do the right thing rather than turning to Christ. But if we really do believe in the forgiveness of sins, we will understand that god does not forgive us on any day because we are worthy. He forgives us every day because Christ is worthy every day. He forgives us on the merits of Christ, and not because on any day of our lives, we've been worthy because to forgive us like that is to hallow his name hallows his name to forgive us like that because it shows the magnificent strength of Christ. So let me ask you again, sincerely, do you believe?

Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Or would you say, yes, I do. But not for really great sins. There are some things which just can't be forgiven. Perhaps you've heard the name recently, Corey Comperatorre.

He was a former fire chief at the Pennsylvania fire office and he was at the Donald Trump rally, earlier in this week and, he was 1 of those who sadly lost his life at that event because he chose to bravely throw himself. On top of his wife and on top of his daughters in order to save them. And in the process, he lost his own life. There was an interview with his wife in the paper, and she said, what my precious girls had to witness and what I had to witness is unforgivable. Maybe you've got something in your life.

Which you think is unforgivable. But there's a scripture for that too. Here's Psalm 25 verse 11. David says for the sake of your name lord, forgive my iniquity. Though it is great.

Now why would he add those little 4 words at the end do you think? Why would he add that? Though it is great. Or surely that is there to tell us that our god forgives great sins. See if you could imagine an ocean And just for a second, you were able to take all of the water in the ocean away.

You would see various sizes of rocks on the seabed. You would see some that are massive, huge, and you would see others that are small and others that were medium sized. All rocks and yet when the water returns, every single 1 of them swallowed up by an ocean of grace, so that all the big and the medium and the small are all covered by the blood of Christ or by the water of that ocean. Why is it that god wants to forgive big sins? Because big sins forgiving them brings him big glory.

And so if you're here and you're thinking, I do believe in the forgiveness of sins, but not for this huge thing that I've done. You need to stop saying that. Stop saying that, and don't stop saying that because you ought to be kinder to yourself. Stop saying that because you're robbing god of another opportunity to magnify the power of the cross. If you say I've got something too big, stop it because he forgives great iniquity, and to confess it to him is to show the power of the blood all over again to forgive it equity, though it is great.

Brothers and sisters, do you believe? Do you really believe in the forgiveness of sins. Others might say, yes, I do. I do believe in the forgiveness of sins. But sometimes I'm just not sure.

Because so often, I am falling into the same old sins, again and again and again. I feel like Paul. The things I don't wanna do, I do them. The things I hate to do, I embrace them. The things I love to do I don't do them.

And I'm on this merry-go-round of failure and prayer and failure and prayer and coming to church and failing again. Can someone like that actually have been forgiven. But don't you remember what we saw last week in verse 11? Give us today. Just today.

Give us today our daily bread and forgive us. In other words, these are things that we need every day. Just like we need bread and water every day, we need forgiveness every day. Not that the lord Jesus Christ will be re crucified every day, but that as we come daily to the cross, we apply mercy daily to our daily sins. It really struck me this week, really struck me that when Jesus said these words in verse 12, he knew something about us, didn't he?

He knew something about us. He knew that you and I would fall into sin on every day of our lives. And yet he loves us still. Just think about that. Give us today our daily bread.

This is a daily prayer. And forgive us our sins. What does it tell you? It tells you that Jesus knows that you are going to sin on every day of your life. And yet he wants you to pray for daily forgiveness.

Isn't that amazing? And here's the best bit I think. The question is, would Jesus have put that there if he did not intend to provide it as often as we needed? Or to put it the other way, wouldn't it be cruel to say give us this day our daily bread? I want you to pray for that.

Forgive us our sins, I want you to pray for that, but to have no intention of ever granting the thing. Wouldn't that have been a cruelty? To get us to pray something that he never had an intention of providing, but here he says, pray, forgive us our debts every day, because you're gonna need it every day, and because I'm gonna delight to reapply the blood to your life every day. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Maybe there are some people here who just say that whole idea is not for me at all.

And I don't know what more I can say if that's true. But for all of us here who who do like the idea, but have never really sought it from Christ himself. Or for all of us here who love the idea, but deep down are unsure of how to apply it. Then won't you pray these words with joy, just the first half of verse 12. Won't you pray knowing now all that we've seen this morning, Father in heaven, forgive us our debts.

You see, the thing is we all know what it's like, don't we? When there's an atmosphere between 2 people because a wrong has been done. It's horrible and it's quiet and it's moody and there's tension when you have to share the same rooms, and there's debts to be paid. But then when someone says sorry, a husband to a wife or a teenager to a parent or a friend to a friend. The lifting of the weight is extraordinarily beautiful, isn't it?

It is like the return of spring and the melting of the ice. It is like the bringing back of joy where there was tension. In fact, in some ways, it's better to even have gone through it than have not to had it in some ways, the return of the joy is so sweet. And so can't we see that god has put that sort of thing into our lives as a pointer to an even greater joy. The forgiveness of our debts fully and forever paid for.

By the blood of Christ. Won't you trust him today? Maybe for the first time. Won't you come and say, I surrender this whole notion of paying myself. Forgive me my debts, great father in heaven because of your son.

We're going to stand and say the creed together. It's gonna appear on the screen. And when we come to that phrase, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. Just try to say it with a new awareness of all that we have seen that is behind that phrase and behind this prayer. I believe in the forgiveness of sins, and then we will remain standing to sing Jesus paid it all.

So let's stand and sing, say together. I believe in God, the father, Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only son, our lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered and a pontius pilot was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again.

He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the father. And he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.