How Should We Pray? Pt. 4
Back to the Basics • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are continuing our Back to the Basics study and are on the fourth Sunday of The Lord’s Prayer.
I am deliberately spending a bit more time on prayer than on some of the other basics of Christian living, simply because prayer is essential to our walk with Christ and to our fellowship with one another. Yet while we know it is important, many of us do not treat it with the magnitude it deserves.
Let’s take a moment to read The Lord’s Prayer together before we get to today’s subpoints.
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
‘Give us this day our daily bread.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
We began our study of The Lord’s Prayer by looking at verse 9, and we understand that when we pray, it should be with Worship, recognizing the holiness of God!
In verse 10, we see that when we pray, we recognize the need for Submission to God’s will, not our own.
Last week, we studied verse 11 and saw that prayer should be offered with a sense of Dependence. For it is God alone who provides for all our physical needs.
Thus, the Lord’s Prayer begins by attributing praise, worship, and submission to our Heavenly Father. Only then do we turn to our own needs, both physical (vs 10) and spiritual, as we will see in verses 12 and 13.
Let me read verse 12 again for us.
‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
You will notice, however, that Matthew offers a footnote for us to read to help develop our understanding of verse 12. The footnote appears in verses 14 and 15, which read…
“For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
“But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
When we look at these 3 verses, several key words are repeated…
Debts or debtors is used twice.
Transgressions is used twice
But "forgive" or "forgiven" is used six times in the three verses.
It reminds me of a frontier preacher who once delivered a passionate sermon against the sin of hatred and bitterness and the need for people to extend forgiveness to others.
At the end of the message, he asked everyone in the congregation who had completely overcome hatred and malice to stand.
To the preacher's shock, an elderly man slowly rose to his feet.
Stunned that anyone claimed to have completely conquered all bitterness, the preacher walked down the aisle, leaned in, and asked how he managed it.
"Preacher, all the skunks who done me dirt, all them scoundrels I hated—they're all dead!"
Somehow, I don’t think that is Matthews’ intention for how we are to handle forgiveness. Waiting it out is not an option; we are to deal with sin and forgiveness sooner rather than later.
To understand verse 12 and the tags in 14 and 15, we must first understand four principles found in these verses.
Without understanding these principles, people often misuse these verses and, in some cases, grossly misunderstand them.
We will use the word SPAR to represent our four principles.
I think SPAR is appropriate because we find that the principles in these verses, especially regarding our responsibility, are often unnatural.
We must therefore SPAR against our own sin and human nature if we are to follow God’s word.
The “S” in SPAR represents Sin; man has a sin problem that must be addressed.
Man has a Sin Problem
Man has a Sin Problem
In verse 12 and in verses 14 and 15, we encounter the words Debt (Debtors) and transgressions, both of which are different Greek words for sin.
In the New Testament, we have five Greek words for sin.
I want to spend a few moments on this because understanding sin is paramount to understanding our human condition and our need for Jesus Christ, both before and after salvation.
The first is the Greek word Hamartia. It is used by far the most, in fact, over 170 times in the New Testament, and is the most commonly understood word for sin.
Hamartia means to miss the mark.
It is an archery term. When one shoots an arrow and misses the target, they would use the word Hamartia.
All of us have failed to meet God’s requirement for holiness, making us sinners. This applies to every human being who has ever lived since Adam and Eve, who brought sin into this world.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Let me illustrate it this way. If throwing a baseball from here to Chicago, IL, were God’s standard of perfection and holiness, some of us might throw the ball farther than others, but in the end, we would all fall far short of God’s holy standard.
No one is exempt; we are all sinners in desperate need of a Savior.
That’s why Romans 3:10 says…
as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one;
The second word for sin is Parabasis, which means to step across a line.
It implies an active, willful violation or crossing of a distinct command or written law.
God draws a line between what is right and what is wrong, and when we choose to cross that line, it is parabasis…
For example, if there is a sign that says do not step on the grass or cross the line, our nature wants to step over it… It is innate in us to push the envelope.
Parabasis is an overt act of disobedience or a deviation from a clear moral path.
The third word for sin is Anomia
Anomia means lawlessness. This is an outright rebellion against God.
Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
When a lawless attitude fills the air, people stop asking what is right or wrong.
They no longer recognize or care that absolute moral standards exist.
They may consider themselves deeply religious and spiritual, yet they have shaped God into what they want Him to be rather than accepting Him as He is.
We see Anomia rampant in our society today.
Lawlessness is fostered by ideologies such as transgenderism, sexual promiscuity, abortion, and antisemitism, to name just a few.
All of these are overt and clear violations of what God has established as right and wrong.
The Antichrist who is prophesied to appear in the end times is described as a “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3,8)
The fourth word for sin, used in verses 14 and 15 as transgression, is Paraptoma, which means to slip or fall, a misstep.
It sounds similar to a parabasis, as it describes a deviation from the right path or a stumble or slip, but rather than being an overt act or premeditated, it is simply a reality or something within our nature.
It is similar to Hamartia in that, by nature, we fall short of God’s glory. We will all, at some point, fall or slip into sin. Until we are glorified and in heaven with Christ for eternity, there will always be a propensity for us to paraptoma, to slip or fall into sin.
The fifth word for sin is the one we see in verse 12, debt, which is Opheilema. This word is used only two times in the New Testament as a noun, but as a verb, which would be the idea of a moral debt, it is used over 20 times.
Here's the idea.
When you sin, you incur a debt, and unless you deal with it, the debt keeps increasing.
It’s kind of like a credit card. You may have a credit card with a $20,000 balance, and you can use this card to buy all sorts of things, but if you only have a couple hundred dollars in your bank account, you will not be able to pay off the debt you have incurred, and each month the interest increases your debt even further.
You have built up wages against yourself in a negative manner.
When you sin, there is a record kept of your debt to God.
At the Great White Throne Judgment, those who have not placed their faith in Jesus will be judged according to the debt of sin they have incurred over their lifetime.
This is Opheilema; the concept of debt to God was clear and understandable to the Jewish people of that day.
They saw the world through a balance system, and when you sinned, you owed a debt to God.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Here’s the big idea, the point I am trying to make… everyone of you, everyone of us, is guilty of sin. No one is exempt, from the kindest and gentlest of us to the meanest and vilest… we are sinners in need of a Savior and forgiveness.
Why am I spending so much time on the concept and definitions of sin?
Because folks, we do not take sin seriously.
Some of you here today are living in blatant sin. You are doing things you know are wrong and against God’s Word.
Let me tell you something about sin… “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
That brings us to the “P” in SPAR.
“S” stands for Sin, “Man has a Sin Problem.”
“P” stands for Provision.
God has provided a provision to your sin problem called Forgiveness.
So the second principle found in these verses… is “The Provision of Forgiveness.”
The Provision of Forgiveness
The Provision of Forgiveness
There is perhaps no greater need, no greater desire, and no greater provision than forgiveness.
Forgiveness is man’s deepest spiritual need.
We have our physical needs met in verse 11, but what is far more important is our spiritual need for forgiveness.
What is forgiveness from God through Christ, and what does it look like?
God's forgiveness removes our sin. Psalm 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
God's forgiveness covers our sin. Ps 32:1
How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!
God's forgiveness blots out our sin. Is 43:25
“I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.
God’s forgiveness forgets our sins. Heb 8:12
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”
It is only possible by the blood of Jesus Christ… Heb. 9:22
And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
When the Romans crucified people, they would often write out the person’s crimes and nail them above the person's head on the cross.
When Jesus took our place and died on the cross for you and me, God ripped out the pages of our sins and debts that we had incurred against Him.
He put them together and nailed them to the cross so that Jesus could take the blame for all of mankind who placed their faith in God from the beginning of time until the final Judgement. Christ paid for everyone of those sins.
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Friends, if this doesn’t bring you to your knees in worship, or if it doesn’t send a chill down your spine as you consider the great price our Savior paid, then you’re not paying attention or you don’t know Him.
In the Scriptures, we see two forms of forgiveness, and if we are to understand this passage in the Lord’s Prayer clearly, we must understand the difference between them.
There is what we call Eternal/Judicial Forgiveness. This is unconditional forgiveness. There is nothing you can do to earn it. It is given to you freely by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then there is Familial/Parental Forgiveness. This is conditional and requires obedience and repentance that must come from us if we are to receive this forgiveness.
We only have time this morning to briefly touch on Judicial Forgiveness, and next week we will delve into Familial or Parental Forgiveness.
Judicial Forgiveness is freely given.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Judicial Forgiveness is a one-time event granted by Jesus on the cross.
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Judicial Forgiveness secures the believer’s legal standing in Eternity in Heaven.
so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Judicial Forgiveness was accomplished by a one-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, you have been legally pardoned and, by God’s grace and mercy, will live eternally in Heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and with all those who have believed.
What a marvelous and loving Savior we have, who would take a debt we owe that we could not possibly pay and pay it on our behalf.
Now, if you have been paying attention, you might be asking, if we are forgiven and it is a one-time event, why do we need to ask for forgiveness?
Why does the Lord’s Prayer say, “For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
If you want the answer to that, you will have to come back next week.
Let’s pray
