Welcome to the Further Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple and Spotify and those of you enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. On today's episode, it's part three of this brand new series on parables. Episode one was on how to interpret the parables. And then last time we looked at the parable of the rich fool. And now we're in Matthew 18, verses 25 to 35 for the parable of the unforgiving servant. Now, just like last time and every time in this series, I want to put the text in its context. Jesus has just finished his teaching on what we know to be as church discipline. Going to your brother, show him his sin, calling one or two witnesses, then telling it to the church and putting him out of the church if he's unrepentant. And then the Lord shifts gears as Peter comes to him with another question. And that's where I want to pick it up with you. And if you are watching this and you have the ability or listening to this and have the ability to grab your Bible, just hit pause and go grab it. And as always, if you're driving or you're moving or you're running or you're lifting, I've got you covered. So uh hit pause, grab your Bible, or let's jump right in. I want to start back in verse 21 of Matthew 18. I'll read this to you and then we'll break it down. Then Peter came and said to him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. We'll unpack that. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. So he shifts into a parable. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his Lord commanded him to be sold along with his wife and children, and all that he had and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will repay you everything. And the Lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave his debt. There was no like payment system here. It was you are forgiven. But that slave went out, and he found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred deneri, and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, Pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, Have patience with me and I will repay you. Huh, sound familiar. Verse thirty, but he was unwilling, and he went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their Lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his Lord said, You wicked slave, I forgave you all the debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have also had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy on you? And his Lord moved to anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed to him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. Powerful words, a very sobering parable about forgiveness and mercy. In that first section, Peter, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Up to seven times? Jesus says, No, no, seventy times seven. I want to stop and understand that for a second. It was customary for Jews to forgive three times. That's typically what rabbis taught. And so we likely have Peter, Mr. Overachiever, coming in in kind of in an impressive way, saying, Hey Jesus, what if I double it and then I add one? You know, so it's forgive my brother up to seven times. How about that? Jesus is not impressed. He tells Peter it's limitless, and he uses hyperbole to do that. It's a math equation that if you do the math, it ends up being 490 times. Basically, keep on forgiving, Peter. It doesn't end. And then he continues by unpacking and teaching that parable. In my opinion, this is the most convicting parable on forgiveness in the Bible. This servant has a master who forgave him. It was an unbearable, even unpayable amount of debt. It was 10,000 talents. Now, if you're wondering how that equates today, it's going to be like someone forgiving you or I for about several million dollars in debt. That's brutal. You're not going to make that up. You're not going to pay that back. It will crush you. Now, in the ultimate act of hypocrisy, after being forgiven of several million dollars, let's say, he was unwilling to forgive someone who owed him a hundred denarii. What's a hundred deneri worth in those times? About a day's wage. So a guy owes him, you know, let's call it a few hundred dollars. Maybe if you're a wealthy lawyer and you're charging somebody for your time, you know, a few or upwards of thousands of dollars, but hardly an amount that should incite the reaction of this man. If you compare several million dollars of debt to a day's wage, it's laughable to think that there's a difference that's so beyond. You think, what? How does it even equate? And yet the man doesn't just react to someone who comes to him, he actually pursues him. So even think of that. The Bible describes this as he went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him. In other words, the guy selfishly, actively, aggressively pursues the act of unforgiveness for a lesser debt than his own. You know, all debt is debt, just like all sin is sin. But the gracelessness of this wicked servant is on full display after he'd been forgiven for an insurmountable debt, and now he won't forgive. He even pursues to collect what? A day's wage? Jesus' point here is that somebody who has been forgiven much should forgive much. And isn't that all of us? Haven't we as sinners been mercifully forgiven by God? And we are the recipients of grace and debt forgiveness, a debt we could never repay. So shouldn't we be those who forgive lavishly when wronged? And when attached to the context of Jesus' initial words about forgiving up to 70 times seven, we can actually draw certain truths and apply them to our lives. This should be lavish grace from us to others because of God's grace towards us. Let me give you some truths that we can apply. Number one, God's grace and forgiveness should motivate our own. The disciples are not to count the number of times they forgive. Rather, as the parable teaches, they're to forgive much because God has forgiven much. And number two, forgetting will hinder your forgiving. Why do I make that kind of the second principle I want to put before you? Because it's important for us to consistently remember that God has forgiven us. You can go a day, maybe two, maybe three, and you're walking in grace and mercy, you're really thankful, that's pouring out towards others, and all of a sudden, what happens? You and I forget how much we've been forgiven. We start kind of being entitled Christians and we fail to forgive others. We want justice, and then we realize, whoa, what if God treated me that way? Keep in the forefront of your mind. God has forgiven you much. So what grace can you show to others? Number three, God will not overlook unforgiveness. In the parable, consider that last statement by Jesus. Okay, whatever. All right, it's over. It's from the heart. And whether we like it or not, the Lord's divine ultimatum is a healthy and convicting reminder that there are consequences for unforgiveness, primarily because unforgiveness ignores God's grace upon our lives. But I know what you're thinking, and maybe this is you perhaps. Costi, are you saying that I just have to forgive and let people walk all over me? Or are you saying that that man who messed up my life, or that pastor who's a nightmare to be under, or that church that's incredibly sinful, or that consistently harmful friend, just they all get to just waltz into my life and do whatever they want, walk all over me, and they could take advantage of me because, you know, I have to forgive and I just do whatever. Listen, those are very important questions. They lead to biblical distinctions that we should consider. The answer is no. I'm not just saying that. And the Bible doesn't say, yeah, sure. Every narcissist would love to use that in their exegetical argument because they just want to walk all over you and have their way. But hear me on this. Scripture would say otherwise. Here are three things forgiveness is not. Number one, forgiveness is not excusing someone's sin. Nobody is ever told, hey, your sin doesn't matter. No, forgiveness is not excusing someone's sin. Sin is serious. Ken Sandy writes, excusing says that's okay. And implies what you did wasn't really wrong. Or oh, you just couldn't help it. Excusing sin is denying what the Bible teaches about sin because it downplays its seriousness. In all situations, forgiveness is the polar opposite of forgiving sin, of excusing sin, rather. Let me say that again. In all situations, forgiveness is the polar opposite of excusing sin. So no, forgiveness is not excusing. People who fear forgiveness or have a hard time often say, so what, I'm just supposed to excuse their sin and let it go? No, that's not at all what forgiveness is. And no one should ever ask sin to be excused, but rather seek reconciliation through biblical forgiveness. Number two, forgiveness is not a feeling. We don't forgive based on how we feel. And this parable is one of the greatest evidences of that, that forgiveness is not feelings based. Being sinned against repeatedly does not create feelings of wanting to forgive. 70 times seven is a lot of times where someone is going to offend you. It actually creates feelings of being recluse. You don't want to open up, maybe you want to fire back, you want to get even. And so we don't want to just say, well, forgive when you feel like it, or just, you know, do it because you know you should. And now that you feel like forgiving, all right, or just wait a little while. No, no, no. All that stuff is just you got to put that aside and say, I'm gonna forgive no matter what, because it's right, and I'm not gonna trust my feelings. Your feelings and mine will fool you. Number three, forgiveness is not forgetting. Okay. So number one, it's not excusing. Number two, it's not a feeling. Number three, it's not forgetting. It is good to have a short memory with offenses and hurts. It is. It's spiritually healthy. You don't want to be bitter and just hold on to everything. But it's also not a mandated command to forget about sin against us, or that you're never allowed to learn lessons from those contexts or those conflicts that you were in. We might even set some healthy boundaries because of those situations. Doesn't mean we're not forgiving. Again, narcissistic or controlling people who want to get in and abuse you again, or control you, or dominate, or use you again, are gonna say, hey, forgive and forget, or why are you holding on to the past? Wow, you're really bitter. Don't listen to that gaslighting. Maybe somebody needs to mature. Maybe they are an abusive person and you want to create distance between you and them. Maybe they're dangerous in certain ways, or maybe their pattern of sin keeps harming you. And while you forgive them, you also need to put some distance and some boundaries in place. And all of this, we need to be careful not to meditate on past hurts and let that brood into bitterness. But we also need to be wise to the enemy's attempts to come after us or attack us again under some false idea that forgiveness means I just forget and I never talk about it again and I don't set boundaries. And I now am a doormat. No. Next, forgiveness is not trusting. There's a difference between forgiving and trusting someone in the same way you did before. You can forgive, it does not mean you can trust them with the exact same position or the exact same level of influence. This is not believing the worst about somebody, but it's being careful. Like if someone has a habitual pattern of stealing money, you're not gonna put them back in charge of your bank account. If a financial advisor has uh made very bad moves and been shady or any type of thing that's wrong or has harmed your financial stuff, you're not gonna give them all your money again. If somebody has used and abused you, uh, sorry, but you're not just gonna trust them again with that level of close proximity. In the same way that if somebody was caught in rampant adultery or using pornography or stealing, you wouldn't just say, Oh, you're sorry, wonderful, and just roll them right back into every situation. One is not unforgiving if they say, I love you, I forgive you, but I do not trust you with money or in those situations, but I forgive you. And so, in all of this, with the parable of the unforgiving servant, we need to understand we've been forgiven much. Yes, you and I, we have to be more gracious with people. We need to, we must be considerate of what God has done. There is a limitless amount of forgiveness. You can have my forgiveness because I can choose to forgive. It doesn't mean you can have the same proximity, the same closeness, the same position, and I'm just gonna let you waltz in and walk all over me. Do you see kind of how there's a balance there? And so we can summarize saying forgiveness is something God takes seriously. He will not overlook unforgiveness. We cannot be forgetful about the mercy we've been shown, lest we become merciless. And also, our forgiveness and grace towards others is motivated by the lavish grace and mercy we've been shown, but there are things forgiveness is not, and we should be careful to define all of this biblically. For more on forgiveness, I did an entire series on this podcast on forgiveness. It's five episodes, including a listener QA. So I would encourage you if you want a deeper dive to scroll back or go into our playlist and check that out. It's a series on forgiveness, but that parable, so key, so important. I hope today you're thinking, hmm, who's that person I can show more grace to? Uh, where's that situation I can be more merciful in? And then maybe, hey, while I forgive, what boundaries can I set biblically to walk faithfully and humbly and yet with discernment? Next time, we're looking at the parable of the ten virgins. Maybe you've never thought about that parable. Five were ready, five weren't. And spoiler alert, it's not gonna be one of those episodes where I tell you the date of the rapture and all of that crazy stuff. In fact, you should turn some of those people off. I'm excited to dig in. Get ready for that one. Thanks for listening, thanks for watching and supporting. If you haven't already, make sure you're subscribed on our YouTube channel and you can go to forthegospel.org to learn more about our ministry, to get resources or to partner with us. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.