Continuing now our journey into the kingdom, or I should say into the disciples' prayer, where we've been for several weeks now. So we're going to start right off and look at the Word of God, starting in Matthew chapter 6. And once again, we'll read verses 1 through 15 to set the tone. And I'm going to kind of pontificate here for a second. Be careful when you hear somebody and their introduction is longer than their actual venturing into the text, because that way they're setting the tone and the context rather than the script. quick slap if I go too far with an introduction because it should lead right to the text and not to your suppositions and presuppositions. So Matthew chapter 6 verses 1 through 15 says, Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. For when thou doest alms, not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thy knobs may be in secret, and thy father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, Therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And Lord, we just pray that you would just Be with us today, help us to learn and grow from these words that you have given us today. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as I was saying about the delete key earlier, it was the greatest thing ever. Before the delete key, we had Guido. We'd have to go and take out the paper out of the typewriter. You guys know what a typewriter is by any chance? You'd have to use whiteout. And then it came out with these strips that you would put on there, and you'd be able to type over it, and then you could have what you wanted. And before that, you even had to, if you made a mistake while typing, you would have to start the entire page over. Aren't you glad it's not that way for a Christian? Aren't you glad that salvation is not a do-over from the life that you had already? That's one false gospel there is, that you have a brand new start. Well that brand new start is usually to do things all over again and make the same mistakes once again. I've gotten about a hundred different brand new starts and I keep on going down the same road. I had to finally get saved and trust Christ. He didn't give me a brand new start, He gave me a brand new life. Not a brand new lease on life, but a brand new life. So here's the context we have for Matthew chapter 5 verses 12, 14 and 15. We'll skip verse 13, we'll deal with that next week. But verse 12 says, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Now it's interesting, let's go on a little trip here for a second. It says, for if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive men, not men, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Now let's turn over to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 4, or I mean Luke chapter 11 in verse 4. We have Luke 11 as a parallel to Matthew chapter 6. And look what it says here. It says, verse four says, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. So what's going on here? We have three different words. We have the word debts, forgive us our debts. We have sins and we have trespasses. I'll give you the easiest solution. They all point to the same place. You know that you owe God, or you owe God a great debt that you could not pay. But He paid that debt. So this verse isn't talking about having to go and do penance for the sins that you've done so God could forgive you again. But we'll touch on that in a few moments. Let's look down and back again at verse number 15. It says, and if you forgive men their trespasses, and trespasses is parapetoma, which means a deviation or a lapse or an error. Does anybody lead an errorless life today? Again, I'll answer that in the affirmative. No, that's in the negative actually. In the negative, none of us leads an And then the third word found in both of these passages is sins. And literally, an offense or a sin or falling short. Hamatea is the normal word for sin. So we have debt, sin, and trespasses. Take those and put those together. We fall short, we owe a debt, and we've committed sin against our We did that, all of those in the past, those past sins have been paid for because we could not help it. We were born sinners. We were born with that nature. Jesus Christ paid for that. Let's turn over to Acts chapter, Acts chapter eight, I believe. Let me check and see what I got written down. Yeah, Acts chapter 10, I'm sorry. Acts chapter 10. And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea, and Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. Let me just go back to the beginning of this chapter, deals with what Cornelius He was a Gentile that was actually a very religious person. He recognized that there is a God. He paid tribute. He paid offerings to God as he knew him. But he was not saved. So he called for Peter. At the same time, God gave Peter a vision, the vision of the sheep, that there's nothing that's unclean to him. That's what it's talking about, the Gentiles. But Peter took, verse number 26, and as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up, I myself also am a man. Yes, I'm not the Pope. I'm a man. Don't bow before me. I'm a man just like you are, Cornelius. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together. And he said unto them, ye know how that is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come into one of another nation. But God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. See, that's the interpretation of the vision of the sheep. It wasn't about food, it was about the Gentiles. Therefore came I unto you without gain, saying, As soon as I was sent for, I asked therefore, For what intent do you have sent for me? And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour, And at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had. his faith was in, as of yet, but that's counting. Send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon of Tanner by the seaside. I always, I have to stop, I always get staying with Simon, a tanner, that was an unclean profession to deal with those dead carcasses that he dealt with. So you see Paul, you see God working on Peter through all of this. So he's told him not to, that the Gentiles aren't unclean, and then the top of the exclamation point was that he was now staying with a tanner while he was going in Joppa. Immediately therefore, is that right? Yeah, verse 33 now. Immediately therefore I said to thee, and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. The gospel Paul sent went to the Jew God doesn't care if you're a Jew, Gentile, He doesn't care what race or nation, what standard you have, financial standard, anything. He's no respecter of persons. The richest man physically in the world more than likely is the poorest man spiritually, and the most poor person in the world can have the incredible riches of God's grace. He's no respecter of persons. that eraser here, but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. So how do you fear God? How do you work righteousness? It's coming up. It's by believing in the one that God had sent, in Jesus Christ, the only righteous one who could pay for our sins and make us righteous or be justified before him. the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. Ephesians chapter two, Paul says that the wall of separation was torn down between the two, between the Jew and the Greek, and the gospel is available and accessible to all. Verse 37, that word, I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism, which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. Verse 39 says, and we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third day and showed him openly. Colossians chapter two tells us that God triumphed over Satan openly. through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His resurrection was not a secret. That's what the apostles' message was throughout the early times. It was about the resurrection of Christ. That's what made them apostles to begin with, because they were with Christ, and they witnessed his resurrection. So again, I always have to add this. If anybody tells you that they're an apostle And if they give you a yes, I just run away. Or they're the oldest person ever to live in the world. But that's a mark of an apostle, as they were witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. They were with him from the baptism of John. You can find that even more back in Acts chapter number 1. Verse number 41, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. Yes, he chose the sermons like the apostles plus the 500 people serve the figure it could have been war imagine we have the we have something that's made verified or testified of truth or of judgment if there's it's in the mouth of two or three witnesses there were multiple witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and those he had made known just a little I'll throw my little political commentarian here, there were no witnesses to any kind of situation with a certain Supreme Court justice and a certain doctor 30 some odd years ago. So no matter what, that whole thing in a court of law would be thrown out with admissible evidence. You need two or three witnesses. And that's the bottom line. That's how biblical takes place, it's never one person's word against another. That's what if there's two or three people I'm in the midst of, that's what that's about. It's judicial. So the witnesses, those apostles were there and they verified the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Verse number 42, and he commanded us the great commission in Matthew chapter 28 he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which is ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and dead verse number 43 So not only, remember the audience that Peter had was an audience of Jews here before, but now he's before a Gentile in this one case, but the book of Acts is primarily to the Jews, and to give him all the prophets witness, all the prophets beforehand prophesied of Christ. So he's saying basically that everybody that's with Cornelius, yeah, if you go back to the Old Testament, guess who you're gonna find prophesying about? It's gonna be the same Jesus Christ. That's why it's a shame and a sham that there are certain people named Stanley that wanna take away the Old Testament and say we have nothing to do with it. Well, you might as well throw out the whole Bible. Oh, wait a minute. Most have already and have substituted their own feelings and ideas for it. to him give all prophets witness that through his name, through whose name? Acts chapter 4 verse 12 says there's no other name under heaven which a man must be saved. not just the chosen Jews or the chosen apostles and disciples, but now this message has gone out to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. Through his name, whosoever believeth in him complete cleansing or remission of sins. Who has that? Whosoever believes. It doesn't get any more simple than that, but unfortunately most people's hearts are hardened. Most people's hearts are wicked. To him, oh, wrong one. Then let's just finish this chapter. While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all and they of the circumcision, which believed, were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that unto Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that they should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commended them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then pray they him to tarry certain days." Now, wait a minute, you're saying, wait a minute, they spoke in tongues, that means that the experience of speaking in tongues is for us today. No, these were for the Jews who originally had been given the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two, and then later on, there would be some disciples of John, Acts chapter 19, that hadn't heard of the Holy Ghost or the gospel, so it was shown that these Gentiles had the same salvation they had. It was a witness to the Jews. It wasn't even about the Gentiles here. It was about showing the Jews the same thing, the same signs and wonders that were partaken of from the book of Genesis upward. Now, these Gentiles have been given the same thing. Yes, as Christians. in to the seed of Abraham by the seed of Abraham, which is Jesus Christ. So we're talking here that it would be judicial or forgiveness of sin. You have been totally forgiven of your sins by belief in the gospel. If you believe that Jesus Christ died, buried, and rose again, and you believe that, You have been saved. You have been totally forgiven. Your fellowship you have, or I shouldn't say fellowship, your place in heaven is prepared for you. You are now seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. put this down, write this down, that you are saved because of believing what Jesus Christ has done. We have a problem though. Remember Jesus, I mean, Jesus here in Matthew 6, he said, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He was showing the future reality of the kingdom and how that now in this transitional period we're in, everybody falls short. The will of God is not being done on this earth. I'm trying to go back. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Give us this day our daily bread in the kingdom There will be no lack at all in the kingdom, Jerusalem. Israel will be the head, not the tail. We will partake in that. Now, he says, forgive us our debts. Well, what kind of debts do we have now? Well, guess what, we have something that we have. We have, and I won't apologize for repeating this too often, we have these two natures, simul justus a pictoram, means simultaneously saint, that's justified, and sinner at the same time. Yes, we are all walking corpses physically, but spiritually we have our home and our hope in heaven with the Lord. It's tragic today that there are so many people that believe that we began out as good. Wasn't he a good boy? What happened? He was such a good boy. She was such a good girl. Where did she or he go astray? Well, the problem is they weren't good boys or good girls. Everybody was born a sinner. Everybody was born astray. And it's the blood of Jesus Christ There's actually, I've had this conversation with people that many people believe that you shouldn't have to follow Matthew chapter six here. They believe that God has forgiven you already. You don't have any need to pray for forgiveness or to forgive others. I don't know where that comes from. I don't know where it comes from. It comes from probably this holiness movement that says all right, we're never gonna sin again. The argument I always used to use on people, I know people like that, is, well, we don't have to do anything. I'm sinless, I'm perfect already in Christ. I said to this one guy, I used to go to church with him one time, he believed that. And I said to him, I said, on your way to church this morning, did you see any cars broken down on the highway? I knew there was a car there because I went the same way just before he did. I said, well, I know I didn't stop to help him, did you? He said, no. Well, the book of James in chapter 4, verse 13 says, to him that knows to do good and does it not, it is sin. You committed sin. How do you deal with that? I committed sin, and it would be a good thing, but I'm running late for church. I can't get to church. I don't have time to help somebody. That's actually sin. Aren't you glad that Jesus Christ paid the price for your sin? And we have the reality that when we do sin, John chapter 1, Go into your closet. I heard before I get too far here, I was doing my trolling on YouTube last night, or actually through my news feed. I want you to listen to something here. I'm not going to play it, I just have a little quote that I took from it. This guy, Pastor Duke Kwan, I don't know who he is. He says he believes the church has a responsibility to atone for the sins of our fathers and repent of racism committed in the name of God. That's my card I highlighted, but I'll read the rest of it, a couple sentences. Even if we ourselves did not commit racism, not merely apologize, but take action to make it right. He explains, here's what scripture tells us. If our sin has injured someone, the gospel obligates us not only to grieve those wrongs inwardly, but also to redress those wrongs outwardly. In other words, true repentance repairs what was ripped and returns what was ripped off. True repentance is a change of mind. But the reality, we cannot go back and atone for the sins of the past. This is pure social justice nonsense. Believe me, if we just atone for racism, that we would make all things right, we could move on. Racism has been a horrible thing. It still is a horrible thing. I learned something a long time ago. It wasn't even in the Bible. It was actually a Motley Crue song. Believe it. Back in the 80s. Back when I was an 80s punk. And one of the lyrics of the song said, the color of our blood is the same. See, there's no such thing as Jew or Greek. There's no such thing as poor or a slave if you're a believer. Black or white or red. We all, our blood does run the same. I can guarantee, Sam, if I were to cut your wrist and cut mine, both of our bloods would be the same. Amen? We all share the same thing. We were all born as sinners and have received the forgiveness of sins. But we do sin. We won't go there because we'd be here for the next six or seven hours, but for Romans 7, Paul dealed with those things that he knew were right, but yet he broke those laws. The law of sin that was in him, which was sometimes stronger than the law of God, which isn't really I don't think I'm an exception to the rule. If I am, throw me out the door. But we all have decisions to make on a daily, weekly, monthly, let me go back a little bit, minutely, if that's a word. Secondly, time. We have the sin nature. Our propensity without the will and work of God is always to lean to the bad. That's why little children need to be trained and to do what is right. Or even think of little children of 30 and 40 years old nowadays, but that's the reality we have. Salvation is free, but because of our nature, simul justus epicator, we have both natures together. And as I've said in the past, the old man is a good swimmer. He likes to come up to the top and take over. justified side. So what's the solution? The solution is to remember salvation. Right, amen. Remember that it was Christ that died on the cross for you. Let's go over to Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to just sum this up kind of quickly. Forgiveness, true forgiveness. a couple things it does it keeps the believer focused on Christ and it keeps unity in the church as well let's go to the unity in the church part Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 I love reading the book of Ephesians over and over and over again. Ephesians chapter 4 in verse, let's go down to verse 17 and we'll read to the end. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. He's pointing to the Gentile and then the Gentile believers here in Ephesus. That's the problem that everybody would have. It's being ignorant of who God is. Not recognizing the full nature of God. Some reason Christians today have this girlfriend thing, this long-haired boyfriend and just hugs you and cuddles you and holds you and kisses you and everything. But the reality, the Lord Jesus Christ was tough. He suffered and died on our behalf and we take him so lightly. I think I was kidding around about that. We could have a, when I was a kid, I almost don't like to admit this, I had a, my parents gave me a dark can doodle doll. And you pull the string. I talk to the animals. That's how people have Jesus. Just pull the string. You are blessed. Pull the string. You're the head, not the tail. Pull the string again. It comes out with all these affirmations about how good you are. We carry them around. But yet the real Jesus Look at a mirror and look at your own sin and multiply that by nine billion people. That's a lot of sin. And He really did take it all. It was probably only half a billion people at the time He did it, but that blood still has the same power today. Every person, whoever was and ever will be, Christ died for. We need to remember that. One verse was like, oh yeah, the ignorance and blindness. who being past, verse 19 says, who being past feeling have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. That's a picture of Joyce Meyer in all these. It's all about feeling, about how good you are. That's what past feeling means here. All about you. Is Jesus working for me today? Well, in our personal life, things might not be all that rosy. We're talking about the Dern Fellowship, we were talking about the, when Hurricane Irma, or one of those, went through Texas, there, it was a satire, was talking about Joel Osteen on his yacht going through the flooded streets of Houston, passing out your best life now. It's quite a joke there, and by the way, I don't think those people were having their best life now while they were going through that, but yet that's the message, Verse number 20, but ye, the believers in Ephesus, ye have not so learned Christ. You didn't get that from me, Paul is saying. I've showed you the truth of the gospel and gospel living here in chapters four, five, and six. You haven't learned what you learned from me. You've learned it from false teachers. If so be that ye have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. If you've heard the gospel, even taught by the gospel, trained by the gospel, that's what you've learned. The truth is in Jesus. Now here's where I want to get to. That ye put off. that he put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. As that old man, he's coming up again, says, put it off. Just whack it. Just get rid of it. That old man is telling you things that you want to hear, not what you need to hear about Jesus. renewed in the spirit of your mind. How do you do that? You need to have your brain washed. Not being brainwashed is a culprit, but you need to have the Word of God, Ephesians chapter 5, just a little bit ahead, the washing and renewing of your mind. It should be your favorite shampoo, your favorite conditioner. It does a lot better than than the stuff that doesn't create tears, because sometimes this one will create tears. You'll see your nature, and you'll see God's nature as well. So put off the former, verse number 24, and that be put on the new man. You can only do it scripturally. up oh your body with a form of godliness but not the power of godliness and then you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness see with if the old man comes up more often than the new man he's gonna tell you about everything old he's gonna tell you look you're a loser I would agree we Wherefore, verse number 25, wherefore, because you are created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. He's talking in fellowship together. Yes, here, those of us assembled here, we are members one of another. What Brianna goes through, Gordon goes through. What Gordon goes through, we all do. We all suffer together, we all rejoice together because we're one body. That's how it works out. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. open door to come in because he's just walking around seeing who he can devour there in 1 Peter chapter 5. He doesn't have any real super, super powers. He can only be in one place at one time, but he does have his ministers. Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that is, may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. See, the Holy Spirit has sealed you. You are secure. You are complete in Christ right until the day of redemption and that day of redemption is here is when you get your new body and you are with Christ. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Here's where I wanted to get to this little ending here of verse 32. Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. See, unforgiveness leads to a lot of problems. You ever walked around and wanted to kill somebody for a few days? Yes, I'll admit it. That person, look what he did to me. Look what my boss did to me. I can't believe that. Well, Christ died for him, too. And I have forgotten, boy, it's not so bad if I get abused by my boss or somebody else. Matter of fact, sometimes we're called to be, there is a doormat ministry. You're called to be doormats oftentimes, to be trampled on by those that you love forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." If we're being damaged by unforgiveness, answer to forgiveness as well as some of the issues that we have because of unforgiveness. It all starts with Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary. He came to that cross. He didn't come in vain. God sent him. what he was supposed to do. He went to that cross. His last words in the cross in John chapter 19 was to tell us that. It is finished. He did the job. Would you accept his completed job? what I know and about what's going on around me. It starts with being humble, receiving His salvation and then showing that