Forgive us our debts

Welcome Message

Prayer

Scripture

Exposition

Forgive - God is the law giver and is therefore the only person with the authority to forgive.

How can a just God forgive sin? There must be an atonement for sin - God cannot simply wipe sin away

Forgive “us our” the Lord’s prayer is meant to be both a personal and communcal prayer. We should be confessing our sins to each other and holding each other accountable in addition to personal private confessions and wrestling with sin.

“debts” sin ⇔ debt — sin that has incurred debt with, or injury against, God.

What sins are we talking about?

Sins of Commission - 10 commandments, fruits of the flesh Galations 5

Sins of Ommission - things we should have done, but didn’t do

Unknown sins - root out any wicked way in me

Finally our fallen sin nature. We are dead in our tresspasses.

Original Sin and total depravity.

Orignal sin - we are born sinful and fallen. We don’t learn to be sinners. We are born sinners. David talks about being conceived in sin.

total depravity - being born sinners we are so fallen and spiritually dead (Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones) that we are incapable of “choosing” God.

Arminianism vs Calvinism debate - philosophical debates are valuable but we MUST stand on the truth of scripture no matter how hard it is for us to understand. When asked if he was a Calvinist - Martyn Lloyd-Jones responded that he believes in what the scripture teaches not necessarily the teachings of any man.

Who gets the glory for us being saved? Do we get it or does God get it? If salvation is ultimately a work of man (arminianism) then man ultimately gets the glory for his good decision to accept the universal offer of salvation. If salvation is ulitamtely a work of God, then God gets the glory and our undying gratitude.

At the end of the day - although I believe that scripture is very clear on the doctrines of total depravity and election/predestination which has been called the “calvinist” position, this does not mean that we cannot have fellowship with our Arminian brothers and sisters. In fact, whether calvinist or arminian, the mandate is the same. Repent, cry out to God for salvation from sin, and be baptized, then go and make disciples of all nations. So let’s not allow something like this to divide us.

Important note - just because something is hard for us to understand doesn’t mean that it is not true. We should wrestle with the difficult truths of scripture, but this doctrine is indispuatbly clear in scripture.

What about children who die before they can “get saved” before they can repent?

Election - those who will be saved are chosen before the foundation of the world - so it would stand to reason that a chosen child would be saved before they can verbally repent.

Some passages seem to indiccate that children of believers receive a special dispensation of grace, however and this should be sobering and chilling

Application

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Prayer