Sermon Tone Analysis

; “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” ; "forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."

A Soapmaker, who was not saved, walked along the road with a preacher one day.

He said to the preacher, “The gospel you preach has not done much good.

There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and wicked people, too.”

Quietly they walked on.

The preacher did not reply to his friend’s comment until they passed a dirty little child making mudpies in the gutter.

With this before them, the preacher spoke, “Soap has not done much good in the world, I see; for there is still much dirt in the world, and many dirty people about.”

“O, well, you know,” said the Soapmaker, “soap is only useful when it is applied.”

“Exactly,” said the preacher, “so it is with the gospel we proclaim.”

o He had an unpayable debt

Forgiveness is at the very heart of Christianity because it is the message of Christianity.

We are never more like God, than when we forgive.

Alexander Pope said; “To err is human; to forgive, divine.”

§ His debt was astronomical

Forgiveness is a tremendous concept.

Marianne Williamson said; “The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”

Bernard Meltzer was a United States radio host for several decades.

His advice call-in show was called "What's Your Problem?" Meltzer said, "When you forgive, you in no way change the past--but you sure do change the future."

Noted religious author Agnes Sanford said, "As we practice the work of forgiveness we discover more and more that forgiveness and healing are one."

He had an unpayable debt.

His debt was unpayable because it was astronomical in size.

A talent was 20 years’ worth of wages which equates to 200,000 years’ worth of work.

The Greek for ten thousand is “murion”.

We derive our English word “myriad” from it.

This word in Greek is simply “the highest”.

It is a number beyond numeration.

He owed an amount that was simply incalculable and therefor unpayable.

No one could fathom this man’s debt.

They had never seen such quantity and believe me they had seen quantity.

The total revenue collected by the Roman government from Idumea and Judea and Samaria, the total revenue was 600 talents.

The total revenue collected from Galilee was 300 talents.

C. S. Lewis was right when he said, "We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it."

Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.”

You might want to know that when the tabernacle was built, the Lord said to them, I want you to overlay all these elements in gold.

You know, arc of the covenant and many other things had to be overlaid in gold.

You might want to think back on that and imagine all of that precious gold that overlaid all of those factors in the tabernacle and if you're curious about that, it tells us in Exodus Chapter 38, verse 24, that there were 29 talents of gold.

A Soapmaker, who was not saved, walked along the road with a preacher one day.

He said to the preacher, “The gospel you preach has not done much good.

There is still a lot of wickedness in the world, and wicked people, too.”

Quietly they walked on.

The preacher did not reply to his friend’s comment until they passed a dirty little child making mudpies in the gutter.

With this before them, the preacher spoke, “Soap has not done much good in the world, I see; for there is still much dirt in the world, and many dirty people about.”

“O, well, you know,” said the Soapmaker, “soap is only useful when it is applied.”

“Exactly,” said the preacher, “so it is with the gospel we proclaim.”

I form and aim my prayers in this manner because I know our Lord is willingness to show forth His forgiveness in lives for the first time.

Furthermore, I know that He desires and demands His disciples to live out that which He has accomplished in their life.

When the temple was built the whole place was overlaid in gold and that was only 3,000 talents.

§ Our sin is astounding

If we are to apply subsequent teachings on forgiveness we must first lay a foundation on which those teachings are built.

According to Scripture quoted earlier, and , our foundation for practical forgiveness must begin in our understanding of our positional forgiveness.

If it is to be our common practice as Christians to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us then it is imperative that we have a clear understanding of our own forgiveness in Christ.

Scripture is replete with texts to choose from when laying this most important foundation.

Today I have chosen, with the Spirit’s help, the parable of “The Unmerciful Servant”.

This parable will help us to answer our given question today; “how does God forgive,” and next week’s question, “how often do I forgive.”

Now think with me on this because this is really a profound truth.

This is our sin and therefore the second foundational point of this parable our sin is astounding.

We are brought before God in a moment of confrontation which is purposed to lead us conviction.

We are faced with the fact that our sin is incalculable.

It could not even be counted.

It cannot even be numbered in its volume.

Before we read today’s text let us first take a moment to establish the atmosphere or context in which it was spoken as this will lend us a greater understanding.

Paul says, in "When I saw what I really was, when I saw God's law and I looked at my sin," he says in 7:13, "I saw the utter sinfulness of sin." or the exceeding sinfulness of sin.

The central focus of Matthew’s gospel is to draw men and women into the kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ.

Throughout his gospel, Matthew carefully and systematically presents the components of genuine belief.

This is a critical element in bringing someone to true salvation.

Every one of us must be brought to the point where we see this mountain of sin incalculable.

It's a little wonder when Job was brought there that he said, "I abhor myself."

It's little wonder that when Ezra was brought there, he said, "oh my God, I am ashamed and blushed to lift my face to thee my God."

And he had his face in the ground.

"For our iniquities are increased over our head and our trespasses gone up to heaven."

It's the same kind of attitude that we find in the heart of David who even though He was a man after God's heart prayed with a tear-stained face, "Oh Lord for thine own name sake, pardon my iniquity."

You see our sin is a debt and it is a debt that is beyond calculation.

It's so great that we can't even estimate it and it let alone pay it.

The fact that a person must enter the kingdom assumes he is born outside of it under the rule of Satan and that he is not naturally a heavenly citizen under the rule of God.

The purpose of the gospel is to show men how they may enter the kingdom and become its citizens, moving from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son

Look at verse 25 and see what happened; “and since he could not pay.”

Now this is the most dire circumstance imaginable.

"His master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made."

Now this is just punishment friends.

This is a real debt, not an artificial one.

It is God’s desire to have men come into His kingdom, and He does not wish “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” ().

The purpose of Christ’s ministry and the ministries of John the Baptist and the apostles was to call people to the kingdom.

That is still the supreme task of the church.

It is God’s desire to have men come into His kingdom, and He does not wish “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance”

).

The purpose of Christ’s ministry and the ministries of John the Baptist and the apostles was to call people to the kingdom.

That is still the supreme task of the church.

The purpose of Christ’s ministry and the ministries of John the Baptist and the apostles was to call people to the kingdom.

That is still the supreme task of the church.

focuses on those immature, unperfected, childlike qualities that believers demonstrate as they conform to the fullness of of Jesus Christ.

o He was facing an unending damnation

If you ask yourself what this means, let me tell you what I believe it's referring to here.

I think this is a picture of hell.

I think verse 25 is talking about hell in spiritual implications.

Now keep in mind that the debt could never really be paid anyway.

Where else are men sent to pay for their sin?

Where else do people go as punishment for the debt they owe to God?

This is talking about hell.

It's talking about eternal hell.

Now listen very carefully and you'll learn something about hell.

People go to hell to pay for their sins, but one thing you need to know is all eternity in hell will still not pay for their sins.