STEWARDSHIP OF YOUR DEBT

Matthew 18:21–35 (ESV)

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Lets talk about the debt you owed and what was done on your behalf of the debt you and I owe...

Romans 5:6–11 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Romans 5 bullets points to remember

While you were weak

Love for you while you were a sinner

Justified by His blood (not your worthiness or comparison on the sin scale to those around you…not as bad as who ever you might compare yourself to...

While you were enemies you were reconciled

Received reconciliation from this state

IN YOUR UNWORTHY STATE OF DESTITUTE BLATANT SIN YOUR WERE FORGIVEN.. WELL WHAT “ ACTUALLY HAPPENED”???

Romans 6:1–11 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6 bullets

Old self was crucified with in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.

You died with Christ

You were set free from guilt and sin

This is what you recieved because he loved you and he forgave you of your trespasses while you were still a sinner. What were you when he forgave you? What thought did you have of him while you were still sinning against HIM?

You may say, Well I was a fairly calm person, no egregious sin according to the law. I was not promiscuous, I did not party, I wasn’t a prolific liar, I never stole anything, and I guess all in all I was raised in the church and basically lived a calm life by comparison.

See its easy to compare ourselves among our selves in society or in the church or even in our relationships with others. We look at the unspoken, force ranking of sin that we all do, that WE WOULD NEVER admit to and say, Hey my sins are nothing like yours, or man I have never done things like that. I mean yea I’m not perfect but well.............

Have you ever seen anyone or heard someone do this? Someone compare themselves against the sins, failures or shortcomings of another? Of course you have. You and I, if we are honest, have both done this. Its natural for our flesh to attempt to puff up and to have these thoughts run through our mind but for them to stay there and be how we actually view others is a much larger issue.

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See,........thats the same problem the pharisees had. They were good at knowing the rules, and teaching the rules, and obeying the rules and holding others accountable. The problem was that they never could see themselves in what they taught but instead ground others under their heel while upholding a clean outer cup, a neat clean, well groomed, righteous appearance of their own.

Christ referred to them as “white washed tombs”....

Why whitewashed tombs? Tombs were clearly marked so that you could tell from a distance that they were graves. So that you did not accidentally find yourself among unmarked grave sites and in contact with the graves therefore becoming unclean. They were clearly marked as bright and white on the outside concealing the black darkness of death on the inside.

White washed tombs are the ultimate insult because they are full of the worst abomination and that is death! Tombs full of dead mens bones was the insult to those who spent their time, talent, and treasures working hard to appear righteous on the outside.

CHRIST CAME TO SET US FREE FROM DEATH

TOMBS CONCEAL THE DEADNESS ON THE INSIDE

I bet none of us are like that right!???? Yes we are all prone to white washing because it appeals to our flesh to be seen, appreciated, followed and held in high regard publically.

I am prone to hypocrisy, are you… church prone to hypocrisy?

Do you doubt that you are prone to hypocrisy? Then consider this checklist that Jesus might have given to His followers:

Do I want people to think better of me than I really am?

Does it bother me when people don’t notice my spiritual performance?

Do I modify my actions to make sure others notice the way I am praying, serving, or otherwise being holy?

Am I quick to condemn others but touchy when my own faults are pointed out?

Do I spend much time looking spiritual but very little time on inner spirituality?

I could go on, but even these few questions should reveal how prone we are to the hypocrisy Jesus hates. What a warning to us are His vivid portraits of hypocritical corruption: cups that are sparkly clean on the outside but covered with filth within; serpents and broods of vipers, frothing with poison towards others; and worst of all, whitewashed tombs, “which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones” (Matt. 23:27).

But there is good news for you and for I, for if hypocrisy is among the chief diseases of our fallen race, Jesus is still our Great Physician.

Jesus hates hypocrites, but He loves all sinners — even repentant Pharisees — who flee to Him for grace,. Therefore, the one way to escape the whitewashed death of hypocrisy is to admit the hypocrisy in our hearts and run without hypocrisy to the cross, where Jesus died to cleanse every sin, including this one.

So where do we start? My hypocrisy is perhaps the ugliest reflection of my flesh in the mirror of His Blood. He knows our hearts and although the blood of Christ provided a divorce from the bondage of the law through the body of Christ we battle the old flesh with the new birth of our Spirit in unity with His. (Romans 7:4)

Tell story of your own white washing desire to keep the outside of the cup clean and sparkling.....

At warehouse dinner - It has bothered me for years that I can feel down trodden or condemned in a certain setting. It was not until I began this lesson that I realized the propensity of my flesh to be conflicted with the desire to uphold a certain appearance before others when sin had nothing to do with it......

Now for the antidote

We must denounce the law that we have died to Rom 7:1-6

Romans 7:1–6 ESV

1 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Your guilty, I am guilty, we return to His Word and the reminder of our death and divorce from the law. Let us not be like what washed tombs as the pharisees holding to the law that we were set free from.

Yes we were set free so let us detest any worship of acceptance or than that of Christ. He has set us free while we were dead in our trespasses and he will set us free from our own hypocrisy.

Set free in action begins with the taring down of the law and we steward this freedom in practice in our relationships in the home, in the church and as a community of believers. We forgive by following the example of Christ and how he forgave us, we do not hold the others to the letter of the law that we have been set free from. We remember who weh are Pslam 51 with the weight of our own sin ever before us knowing the draw of our flesh to battle against the spirit that has set us free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 7:18 ESV

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

Romans 7:24 ESV

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Let us take the points covered today

Forgiveness while we were dead in our trespasses (still debtors) Rom 6&7

Our fleshly desire to be as the pharisees, white washed tombs, seeking out the speck in the eyes of others but to sensitive to get the plank out of our own

Debts forgiven

and lets pray and ask God to lead us into a place as a body of believers where we hate our hypocrisy and pray for opportunities to forgive others because of the debt Christ forgave us (before we asked, when we did not deserve it) and not grind others under our heels of judgement when judgement is what we all deserve. Lets put our realization of hypocrisy in action, which may not be something others see, hear or even need to be told about. Lets not brag about the debts we forgive but simply obey unto Christ casting down all hypocrisy in our own lives.