Forgiveness on Trial

Welcome to church this morning, still morning, we got ten minutes left.

That's good. Let me pray, Father God. We live in a harsh

world. Were being mean is normal. Holding people in contempt is altogether ordinary.

Father, Jesus is coming for us. If we're not like that,

the Gospel is something special. It ought to make a difference. So Father,

this day, in Jesus name, give us the right way, the

way of forgiveness, the way of the Cross, for our sake and for

those we love, and most of all, for you in Jesus name.

Amen. The Revelation teaches us that at the time of the end, when

the Gospel is preached with prophetic power all around the world, and that's how

it's going to be preached, the Gospel will not preach be preached outside of

the prophecies of Daniel. Revelation with prophetic power we preached around the world,

and the Bible teaches us that forgiveness itself will be on trial. Most people

to realize that forgiveness itself will be on trial. Turn in Revelation ten eleven.

Look at verse eleven one. Immediately find the great disappoint of eighteen forty

four outlining in Revelation ten, when this book of Daniel is unsealed and it

becomes bitter in the stomach, prefiguring the great disappoint in eighteen forty four.

Immediately fining it, the Bible says, look, you must again prophesy.

Why because in eighteen forty four they got it wrong. They thought Jesus was

coming. In eighteen forty four there was a work to be gun. And

so immediately fining that prophecy that predicted that event, it says this in verse

eleven, I was told you must again prophecy about many people's nations, tongues,

and kings, an echo of Matthew twenty four fourteen. And this Gospel

of the Kingdom will be priests in all the world as a witness to all

nations. Then the end will come with prophetic power. You must preach the

gospel again now as soon as that is said at the end of Revelation ten.

In Revelation eleven, verse one, we have forgiveness on trial. Then

I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told,

rise up and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship

there. Now Jesus told us in sermon the amount that the measures the judge.

The measure you give will be the measure you get the judgment you pronounced

by that you will be judged. So to measure the altar of forgiveness and

the worshippers that are connected to it in the heavenly Sanctuary means to measure the

work of forgiveness in the lives of people in the Temple of God, the

Christian Church, and to take a look and see if the Gospel is made

difference in their lives. How do we relate to this, Friends, The

Gospel requires, and I want to make this statement forthrightly, the Gospel requires

that there must be an investigative judgment before Jesus returns at the time of the

end, because forgiveness itself is on trial in every life, because we have

to come to grips with what it means to be forgiven and how that relates

to other people in their lives. So the Gospel self requires it. The

amazing power and grace of God given in Jesus, friends, must be tested

in my life and yours to see if it's real. Some people say,

well, we don't need no investigative judgment. Well, yeah, you do.

There needs to be an assessment to see if Jesus made a difference in

your relationships, if Jesus made a difference in the lives of people in the

church, if it became a forgiving body of believers, a forgiving person,

or whether or not they weren't. For those who believe in the judgment,

mercy over comes judgment, James says, and James is very clear that the

Ten Commandments is the basis of God's judgment of his own people. So for

those who disbelieve, the heart closes the door to God and others for all

time, and in the judgment Jesus says, their names can be removed from

the Lamb's Book of Life because of unforgiveness. In the Gospel, forgiveness itself

is on trial in sight of every one of us. Now. Resentment is

that harsh, cold kind of concrete that hardens and solidifies the power of pain

into certain spiritual ruin. I mean, if you want to be a resentful

believer, you on a fast track to be lost. Did you hear me?

No amens of that, but you should say amen to that. If

you are holding unto resentmance in your life against any believer or any person,

you're on a fast track to be lost. The Bible is clear about this.

When pain is pondered with self pity. Self pity is at the heart

of addictions. Oh poor me, look what I have they did to me.

That's how you become an addict. When pain is pondered with self pity

and cherished over time, the heart is sapped. If it's God given ability

to live, to thrive, and to love, and the Gospel is rooted

out of your life. The devil has used pain, a self pity kind

of pain, in many of a life in the believer's experience, to trap

them, to get them to turn their backs on the Gospel. Jesus Christ

friends Hell at the end of the millennium. Hell is not someplace in the

middle of the earth. The book Revelation teaches that Hell is at the end

of the millennium. Hell at the end of the millennium will be well occupied

by many a resentful soul that never overcame the penetrating power of pain that hardens

the heart to love. That is why the most painful moment the history of

the universe became the moment when God in Christ forgave us on the Cross.

God hit this problem head on. He put himself in Jesus. God was

in Christ, Paul says, reconciling the world unto himself, not counting our

trestpasses against us. That means no resentment in the heart of God on the

cross. And we hear from the words of Christ Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do. The Gospel is not good advice for us

at the time of the end. The Gospel is not a laundry list of

deeds to be done in order to merit God's favor and cut a bargain with

God for the judgment day at the cross. The Gospel is God's good News,

is everlasting good news, that God is a forgiving God, and that

God overcomes our pain and he creates forgiveness, love and joy in its place.

And thus we are filled with the spirit of God as believers. Friends,

we cannot separate the pain of the cross from the cure of the cross.

They go together. It's a God of pain who hangs upon that cross.

At the heart of the Gospel is a cross where every human being meets

real forgiveness, wrapped in naked pain in the darkness of the cross, saying

Eli Eli lamas Babani, My God, My God, why have you forsaken

me? Broken God? On the cross? It is forgiveness that seems too

good to be true. Father, forgive them. If it's forgiveness that defies

our religious logic, it is forgiveness that mutilates the matrix of our preconceived theology

and renders its useless obsolete before the beauty that cannot be explained, The power

that cannot be comprehended, but must be experienced and beheld. The glory,

the glory within the most holy place is at the cross. Father, forgive

them. We would never know God if it weren't for the cross. The

Ten Commandments is not quite good enough if we don't have Calvary to show us

who God is. Friends. At the Cross, God's forgiveness is the power

that turns our resentment into God's contentment at the cross. Forgiveness is the rocky

road. It's not easy to forgive people. It's the rocky road that read

rects pain toward gain and that leads one to purpose in a meaningful life.

Forgiveness is the crucible of offense, pain, and love. It forges a

future in the fire of God's grace. It's not easy. Pain attacks faith,

and faith flounders when there is no meaning for the offended soul to overcome

resentment without forgiveness. Dear heart, the wrongs you suffer have no real purpose

in your life. They're meaningless unless you can forgive. You're trapped by them

without forgiveness. But when you forgive someone from your heart who has hurt you

deeply or you think they have, it could be the way your pain surrenders

to God's purpose. When you forgive, you become just like God. Think

about it, and purpose in life sets you free. Yeah, it's something

to be a Christian. Say, oh, I gotta hold on to my

faith. You hear people give testimonies like that. All right, Just I've

been hanging and as a Christian for twenty years, as if it's the worst

thing that ever happened to him. Listen, When you have Christ in you,

the hope of glory, you're not hanging on. You're moving forward.

You're moving in the river of the spirit because it is not you anymore who

lives, but Christ who lives in you. And the life you live.

You no longer live for yourself. You live it for the one who gave

himself for you. Forgiveness makes a difference. The person who forgives his or

her tormentors, the person who has overcome the power of their oppressor, the

person who has freely embraced the power of the cross. The wise person who

forgives wins. I think about that. Ha'nt be like winning wins. It's

no accident that the most painful moment the history of the universe was the Cross

of Christ. It's the most awful event in all time, one man absorbing

every one of us into him. How God did it, I don't know,

but it did. He was the lamb of God. My mind,

your mind. From Adam to the end, every human being sins, suffering,

life experience. Moving through the mind of Christ. He could scarcely feel

what was in his hands, and the pain and all that it was more

inside. It was a hell hotter than the lake of fire at the end

of the millennium inside his head. And he went through every one of us,

and he wrapped us together by reaching his hands in the cross and embracing

the world. And he signed the Emancipation Proclamation papers for the human race,

so that the message of love and acceptance and forgiveness could go to the ends

of the earth. God forbid that I should glory in anything but the Cross

of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I

to the world. And at the peak of his pain, the pinnacle of

injustice are hurt against him. The words of Jesus saved the universe from the

power of evil, its cosmic Paul says in Ephesians. It brought Heaven and

Earth together. Relation says, for the first time since the fall of the

angels, called us brethren at the cross. Father, forgive them. They

know what they do. The greatest command, the great commander of Heaven was

in human form. Heaven and Earth were reconciled at the cross, and at

the cross, mercy kissed justice, and infinite pain surrendered to the sweet perfume

of God's forgiveness. The alambassador jar was broken, and you can't take the

sweet aroma away anymore. Friends. The Bible is abundantly clear that the Cross

of Christ is the central focus and chief concern in a proxy judgmentn't even know

what the word proxy means. It means something in place of someone stands for

you. In a proxy judgment. You're not there. The judgment is there,

but you're not there. Someone represents you and a proxy judgment. The

Bible teaches the cross of Christ. Christ took our place of the cross,

didn't he Yes or no? You guys know the answer of that Christ died

for our sins, the Bible says. The first importance the Bible teaches,

now hear this Christ called the Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom. It's

not just what Jesus has done for us. It reaches into the future based

on the Cross, and it proclaims that He will take your place in an

investigative judgment at the time of the end, because those who have accepted Christ

that passed from judgment unto life. Thus it is a proxy judgment. Forgiven

it Now, why is it even necessary? Here's why, because forgiveness itself

is on trial. Without the cross, there's no real road that leads from

pain and resentment to the King of God. You can't get there without the

cross. So the work of the altar the cross has to be seen observed

in the lives of men and women to see if they really do believe forgiveness

must win in every life. That is say turned to Matthew eighteen twenty three,

you will need to reside in matthew En. In our sermon today,

we are having a Bible study and forgiveness. The Bible says, therefore,

the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts

with the servants. Notice what the Kingdom of Heaven is not here. The

Kingdom of Heaven is not a club where wrongs are ignored and offenses set aside

because everyone needs to get along with a cheap counterfeit of love, love love,

love, ignoring what happens in life. No, it isn't like that.

The Kingdom of Heaven is not a whitewashed city where pain is ignored and

justice treats something trivial, unimportant. The Kingdom of Heaven here, according to

Jesus, is a court. It's an accounting, it's an assessment. It's

a looking at what has happened in the lives of servants. It's like a

tribunal that sits and decides the account of every man and woman for all time.

Jesus said it plainly. Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared

to a king who wished to settle accounts with the servants. That's an investigative

judgment. According to Jesus, the Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom court.

Friend, you cannot understand the Kingdom of Heaven unless you accept the truth of

the Kingdom court. That is the investigative judgment. The Bible teaches the Book

of Daniel. It is an investigative judgment that establishes the fifth Kingdom of God,

the kingdom that follows Rome, the final kingdom. They'll never end,

and you just can't get around Daniel. Seven thrones were in place, unlike

the ancient days. Took his seat. Books were opened Daniel twelve one.

Everyone will be delivered, whose names shall be found written the book you'll look

in the book investigation. There are many well meeting theologians in the Christian Church

today, and some of them in our church, unfortunately, who refused to

accept the biblical teaching that there is an end time judgment of the righteous dead

and the righteous living in heaven just before Jesus returns. They said, oh,

that can't be. What an awful idea to preach such a thing.

They claim that a judgment like that would somehow call the Gospel into question.

Now, if you cannot understand the teachings of Jesus in his parables about the

Gospel, and he refers to it, then it could be that you're a

theologian. You don't you know what the Gospel is. An investigative judgment which

a king wish to settle accounts with his servants is considered by these enlightened ones

double jeopardy that would render the cross meaningless. And I've heard this worked out

in different articles and systems. They're quick to ignore, I mean, excuse

me. They're quick to quote John twelve thirty one when Jesus says, by

now is the judgment of this world? Now should the ruler of this world

be cast out at a context? And they ignore verses like Matthew eighteen twenty

three. We just read Revelation eleven fifteen to eighteen. We're gonna read it

down seven ten to fourteen. They just don't look at those. Now.

In John five twenty four, op you're in your bible to it or look

on the screen, Jesus said, truly truly. That means he's serious.

I say to you, he here's my word, but leaves him who sent

me has eternal life. Is that Christian assurance? Yes or no? It

is he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Now this verse teaches us that we do not face the judgment bar of

God if we're Christians in the judgment, and yet there is a judgment.

So how does that happen? The only way to pull that off is for

us to have a substitute in the judgment who goes to the judgment bar of

God in our behalf judgment. John five twenty four means condemnation, not investigation.

In the context Matthew eighteen twenty three is clear without any contradiction with John

twenty four. Here the kingdom heaven is like a king who wished to settle

accounts with servants. Now suddenly accounts involves investigation. Now look at nineteen eleven

and twelve. You guys have read the verses. I've referred to them here

before. They said, will you at this time set up the kingdom?

And he said no. Then in verse twelve he said, a nobleman went

into a far off country to receive his kingdom, then return. And that

one verse Jesus is summarizing all the Book of Daniel Christ went to heaven as

the nobleman, to the far off country to receive his kingdom in the judgment

of Daniel seven, and then return. Now, how any of you ever

had children and they had a hard time cleaning the rooms? Anybody here you

have okay, you're with me? Well, I mean John, Michael and

Donald. They tried to clean their rooms minimally. Of course, my job

was to be the father of the house, and they have an investigative judgment.

So I would pull the bed up and look under and say, look

at all this raddy stuff under here. Oh but Dad, no one can

see it. I can if I pull the bet up and go through the

house like that. Or the walls, you know, my sons would take

bb guns and stuff and batter the walls up and said, how are we

going to fix the walls? Investigate a judgment? Now, the purpose is

not to put my sons out of the house. The purposes get the house

in order, make the room last so we don't lose is the value of

our home, and also to teach my son some character at lessons. So

it's not a bad thing to have an investigative judgment. Time and time again.

The Bible describes the coming kingdom in which there is an investigative judgment of

the righteous in heaven just before Jesus returns turned to Revelation eleven fifteen. Seventh

Trumpet is directly working with Daniel seven canonical context, the seventh Angel blew his

trumpet. There were a loud voices in heaven, and I'm gonna ask you

in verse fifteen, where are they? Look at verse fifteen, where are

they? It says it right there? They are aware in heaven. So

this is not the earth, This is heaven. This is the seventh Trumpet

because it's just before the end, comes, just before the seven coming to

Christ, which is prefigured in Revelation eleven nineteen saying the kingdom of the world

has become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ, and he shall

reign forever and ever. So is that kingdom set up on earth or in

heaven? Here in the context in heaven now, Jesus said a nobleman went

into a far off country to rest, see his kingdom and then return.

As you read the text undown, go down to Revelation eleven sixteen and the

four and twenty elders who sit on their foes before God fell on their faces

and worshiped God, and then saying, go down to verse seventeen, we

give faiths to the Lord God Almighty, who arn't and who wast that thou

hast taken that great power? And what does it say, begun to reign?

You see, the fifth kingdom that will replace the kingdoms of the earth

is set up in heaven before Jesus returns. That's why he said, a

nobleman went into far off country to receive his kingdom and then return. Now,

the proclamation of the king God in heaven precedes the destruction of the kings

of the earth and the context. Now go to Daniel seven, Bob,

give me that slide down seven thirteen fourteen. Here now this is a direct

illusion. Back to Daniel seven and Daniel seven. We have the four great

world empires Babylon meet a persh or Greece, Rome. We have the ten

Horns, the Middle Ages, the monarchies of Europe and the Middle Ages.

We have the anti Christ, little horn power that dominates the Middle Ages.

And he dominates the Middle Ages as a counterfeit son of Man, as a

counterfeit Christ, a horn that a kingdom that looks like a man, but

he's not the son of men. And at the end of the Middle Ages,

Daniel is directed to a scene in heaven recorded right here in Daniel seven

thirteen. He says, I saw in the night visions, and behold,

with the clouds of heaven. There came on like a son of man.

A notice where he's coming to. He came to the Ancient of Days and

was presented before him. That beautiful picture is the best I've ever seen about

this. He came to God Almighty in the most holy place where the chariot

throne that is the ark of the Covenant is found in Daniel seven, right

into the very place where Lucifer rebelled. And he came before God Almighty,

the Ancient of Days, and in the Aramaic he was carried in before him.

Now what happens in this heavenly event at the end of the Middle Ages

contextually the middle of the eighteen hundreds of Daniels of verse fourteen. And to

him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and

languages who serve him his dominions, an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

Is kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. The fifth Kingdom of

God, the Kingdom of Heaven, begins in the investigative judgment, and Daniel

seven says, the books are open, millions of angels were there, God

Almighty, the Ancient of Days is there, the Son of Man is there.

But you'll look in the context and you will find that you are not

there. Why because it's a proxy judgment. Christ has come before the King

of the universe to represent us as the books are opened. Now does it

work? In Daniel seven, it works. It says this horn was making

war against the Saints until the judgment came. The Ancient of Days came,

and the judgment was set, and judgment was given in favor of the Saints

and the Most High. Don't tell me we don't need this event. This

event is icing on the cake that seals the Gospel. And I mean the

final kingdom that will be the Kingdom of God for all eternity, that will

one day be here. So take your bibles. Intermat Revelation eleven. The

proclamation the Kingdom of God and having precedes the destruction of the kings of the

earth. It starts in heaven. That's why Jesus called it the Kingdom of

Heaven. It starts in heaven, it comes to the Earth and the second

Coming. And when Jesus returns, he is coming with a kingdom that has

already been determined, already been set up, already been sealed, finished off

because of the investigative judgment. Now, how do we know that? Look

at verse eighteen Revelation eleven. The nations raged now immediately following in the Middle

Ages when the old order Carat collapsed. The beginning of the rage of the

Nations can be traced historically of the Great Revolutions of eighteen forty eight, four

years after eighteen forty four, the Great Disappointment of eighteen forty four. It

was at that time that people had a sense that the world has fallen apart.

We now have had World War One, World War two, the Cold

War, the Age of Terror. It all comes from the dismantling of the

media of a lorder. There is no world kingdom order, no beast,

Daniels says. The beast's body was killed and given over to the burning fire.

The world order came to an end, but it's not the end of

the world, he says. As for the rest of their beasts meeting other

nations. Their lives were prolonged for a season of time. You know,

the world keeps moving, but not as a world order. And in that

context, John says, the nation's rage become immediately the revolutions of eighteen forty

eight, World War one, world War two, thy wrath came. That

is the language of the Third Angels message, the mark of the beast,

warning and the time for the dead to be judged. But it's not just

any dead. It tells us who he's talking about for rewarding Thy servants,

the prophets and saints. That is an investigated judgment of the righteous dead and

those who fear Thy name. Now in the Bible, God's name is God's

law, right, remember it, Psalms one, nineteen fifty five. Angels

and the glen really desvelops that so well. God bless John and Jamie and

others who put their effort into that. When you fear God's name, you

keep his law. The fear of the Lord is the beginning wisdom, the

knowledge of the Holy One, depart from evil, and this kind of thing.

Revelation fourteen twelve is here. Those who keep the commandments of God.

It means they fear his name, both small and great, and for the

destroying the destroyers of the earth. There's a pre advent judgment of Heaven immediately

following this verse. It says, then God's temple in Heaven was open,

and the arc of his covenant was seen within his temple. You move into

the most holy place. In verse nineteen, that is Young Colpur, the

day of Atonement, the Jewish day of judgment, the investigated judgment. So

I listened to people and they say, you know, Pastor Mike, this

investigative judgment thing is not biblical. I don't know what Bible they're eating.

There are three progressive steps that are connected to the kingdom court in Revelation of

eleven. Let's look at them. Step number one, the court begins when

the proclamation comes that Jesus Christ and his father are king of a new kingdom

that is the earth. Daniel says in the days of those kings, meaning

the toes of the image modern Europe before the monarchies pass away, plugs it

into the eighteen hundreds, the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom that

shall never be destroyed, nor shall it sovereign being enough to another people.

So breaking Peeps is all the king systems of the earth. So it's set

up before Christ comes in heaven. Up to this point in time, Jesus

functions the priestly king of the Church. But here he is a king over

a kingdom that will never pass away. Step number two. The heavenly court

opens just before the nation's rage at the time of the end. So the

court sits the nation's rage, the four and twenty elders are there, the

king's established, and then we have the response to that, which is the

great upheavals in world history. That means the kingdom court of Matthew eighteen described

also in Revelation eleven, must be a pre advent heavenly judgment. The nations

started rage in eighteen forty eight. Now, by the way, if you

want to get the book early writings and go there, there's a little vision

there. The in You're eighteen forty eight called the shaking the powers of the

heavens directly interacting with those world events. It is caastic. Is an amazing

revelation two paragraphs. It also identifies a Ryan as a sweet spot in the

sky that'll open up one day and Jesus would come for us, and I've

found biblical proof of that since reading that years ago. The nations started raging

eighteen forty eight after the collapse of the Old Order, and it led to

World War one, World War two, the Cold War, and the world

in terror. And here we are today, we're still living in the mess.

Step number three, the court opens to several accounts to reward the righteous

debt, and then it moves to the righteous living. In verse eighteen,

the Bible says, the time came for the dead to be judged. There

is a time at the end of time for believers to be judged, because

it says for rewarding that servants, the prophets, and saints the righteous debt

are judged before Jesus comes. In verse eighteen, the Bible says, the

judgment is for those also who fear Thy name was small and great. So

it moves from the righteous dead, and it uses a present tense verb those

who fear. It moves from the dead to the living, and thus we

enter the mark of the beast test at the end of the time. In

the Book of Relation, the judgment, out of a logical necessity, moves

from the dead to the living, and then Jesus will retire. So we

are living in the judgment our of human history. That's why the First Angel's

message has fear God him given glory, for the hour of his judgment has

come. The Bible indicates that we are living in the time of the kingdom

court. The hour of God's judgment has come in the First Angel's message.

So don't be surprised for the words of Jesus in Matthew eight twenty three,

as if they have no contexts to the Bible. They are wrapped in context.

Let's look at the verse again, Matthew eight twenty three. Therefore,

the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wish to settle accounts

with the servants. You know, the question arises, how will the king's

settle accounts with the servants? What will be the standard for the kingdom court

in the pre event judgment when forgiveness is on trial. Look at Matthew eighteen

twenty four. Let's start moving through the chapter. When he began the reckoning,

that means the investigation of the judgment process. One was brought to him

who owed him ten thousand talents of gold, understood, and number ten and

ten thousand talents naturally draws attention to the Ten Commandments. Jesus says that that

we've all broken the law in Romans through the Holy Spirit. We've all broken

His law. We've all broken at ten commandment law. And the effect is

magnified ten thousand talents. A talent was equal to six thousand drachmas at the

time of Christ. At drachma equaled a Roman denarius, which was a silver

coin. A denarius was a day's wages in Rome. Do the math with

me, ten thousand for the talents times six thousand for the drachma, and

I'm not a mathematician, but as I figured it out, it's sixty million

days wages. I actually got this wrong in a previous sermon because I did

the math wrong. I've did it four times last night. Okay with my

calculator. Now, if you live eighty years, you live about twenty nine

thousand, two hundred days eighty times three sixty five. Plug it in.

I actually did that when wrong too. I said twenty eight thousand, two

hundred a previous terment because I'm dyslexic. But that's a lot of days.

Now, if you worked every day of your life from the moment you were

born to the moment you die. It would take more than two thousand lifetimes

to repay the debt. Now, is that a debt you can repay?

No. Jesus used the figure of ten thousand talents to show us that every

believer has acquired a huge debt that they couldn't repay, and over two thousand

lifetimes, which means they could never repay it. So what does God do

to people like you and me who cannot pay their debt to God? It

may come as a surprise to discover that God does not simply forgive and forget

your debt. He doesn't say I'm gont forget it. That's not how it

works. Forgiveness is not a simple matter when the debt is large and valuable.

Forgiveness is complex for debtors because it involves pain, offense, love,

and loss. All of that has to come together. Forgiveness presupposes that there

is in fact an offense. In the story. The king is the person

who has suffered the huge loss, who has been offended harm deeply by the

debt. The king is the one who has really been affected. Here in

the parable, God is the one whose treasury has been depleted by our debt.

The story teaches us that God is not some arm chaired deity who cannot

be affected by our bad decisions. We have hurt God on an incredible scale,

every single one of us in the story, the king has suffered pain

and loss that can never be repaid. Look at verse twenty five, and

as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold with his

wife and children all that he had, and payment to be made at Verse

twenty five indicates that the king passed judgment on the debtor and found him guilty.

People, from God doesn't hold me guilty? Yeah, he does.

We're guilty. In the parable, the debtor is the servant of the king.

The servant represents a believer in the King. Before there is mercy,

there is judgment, and the Bible says very clearly that the king found him

guilty. Guilty from the very beginning. Friends, you cannot receive forgiveness from

God. Now hear me? You cannot receive forgiveness from God unless you accept

God's verdict that you are guilty. Did you hear me? You can't be

forgiven unless you believe that the kingdom court, with the clear dismissal of innocence,

moves to the quick declaration that the servant is guilty. That's the baseline.

That's how it starts. Now, why is this important? Follow with

me here? Why does the king so quickly declare his servant's subject to justice?

Friend, it may come as a shock for you to discover that you

cannot be forgiven if you are not guilty. You hear me, You cannot

be forgiven if you're not guilty. If you are innocent, you do not

need forgiveness. If you think you're innocent, you thank You don't need forgiveness.

Look at first John one, eight and nine. It says, if

we say we have no sins, what does the Bible say? We deceive

ourselves? And the truth is not in us verse nine. If we confess

our sins and I like this, he is what faithful and just? And

what will he do? He will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all

and righteousness. That's good. Now go to Romans three nineteen twenty. For

we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who under the

law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be

held accountable to God. So the law says you're guilty. Verse twenty.

For no human being will be justified in sight by works of the law,

since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. The function of the law

is not to save you. It's to make you guilty. It's also to

be a moral standard. The Gospel starts with the rude fact that we are

all guilty before a righteous God, and we owe him a debt we could

never pay. Friends, if you believe that you're not guilty, then you're

in big trouble. In the parable, you're in big trouble. Friend,

if you think you're not guilty, not guilty means no forgiveness from God.

As a believer, it's a good thing to know that you are, by

nature indeed guilty. It humbles us, and only the humble inherit the King

of God Romans eleven thirty two. For God has consigned all men to disobedience

that he might have what what is it to say? Mercy upon all?

So why are we all guilty? Here's why? So that he can put

his mercy on everyone who's guilty. In the story, the king commands of

the servants be sold with his wife and shown all the goods to pay the

debt. The king's servant has moved to fear and begins to implore his master

for mercy. Look at verse twenty six. So the servant fell on his

knees, imploring him, Lord, have patience with me, and I will

pay you everything. Now. You will notice that this servant called him lord.

That's a good thing for even though he called him lord, he acted

like his lord was stupid. Think about this. He said, I will

repay you everything. Now. Ten thousand talents takes over two thousand lifetimes to

repay. He thought his lord would buy that. He should have been truthful

with the Lord, but he wasn't. Now, there's a theology running around

there that says that God is waiting for us to get perfect enough so that

we can be accepted at the time of the end, and thus the great

controversy will end. That's nonsense. That's the wrong servant kind of thinking.

We have a debt we can never pay. Our only way of the kingdom

is the forgiveness of the king. He should have been truthful with his lord,

but he wasn't. He was hedging on the hope that his lord was

greedy and stupid. At the same time, he was not confident in his

lord to appeal for mercy without cutting a deal with him. The servant appealed

for mercy in a bar with the lord. It's amazing the king forgave him

anyway. Look at verse twenty seven. He forgave him anyway, and out

of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him

the debt. Now the king knew he couldn't pay him back. The king

knew that he couldn't even start to pay him back. The King wasn't impressed

with his bad bargain, his manipulation making himself look good. The King wasn't

impressed by his promise to pay off the debt. The king, out of

pity the goodness of his own character, forgave him the debt and let him

go free. And notice what this means. It means that the king forgave

his servant when the servant had a faulty and terrible misconception of the King's character,

he forgave him anyway. That's a good thing. Now, look at

chapter seven, verse forty seven. If Luke Jesus said, he who is

forgiven. Little loves how much little. So if you think you don't need

forgiveness, and you don't think you've been forgiven for much in your life,

you're going to treat people awful. So when we realize how much the King

forgives us, we will love a lot. The person who thinks he can

pay God back is the person who thinks he can overcome his guilt by his

own efforts. Payback kind of people ever make a payback kind of Christian?

Oh, I'm going to pay the Lord back for all the things he's done.

You know you can't accept the gift and say thank you, You know,

payback kind of people don't really believe that they're forgiven by kind kings.

They're always working to make up for that which you know they need to they

think worse even yet, they don't forgive others either, who owe them far

less than they owe the King. You know how you can gauge your gospel

experience in your life? John tells us, if you keep God's commandments which

our love, and you forgive everyone from your heart, you know you're a

Christian. It's that basic. And look at Matthew eighteen twenty eight. The

story continues, But that same servant, as he went out, came upon

his fellow servant who owed him a hundred dinari that's one hundred days wages,

and seized him by the throat and said, pay me what you owe.

So as servant fell down and besought him, I have patience with me,

and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison

till he should pay the debt. And the second man the story was also

a servant the king. That means both of these represent believers. We're not

talking about atheists here, we're talking about Christians. In the parable in verse

twenty eight, is called a fellow servant in the story that just forgive,

and servant met someone just like himself, with the exception that his fellow servant

owed him a lot less than he himself had owed the king. That's the

reality of it. One hundred dinaris a debt that can be paid one hundred

days. I said, no big deal, right, Well it was to

this servant, it's amazing. But the servant of the king was unwilling to

even let his fellow servant pay him back the small debt that he could pay

back. He showed by his hardness of heart, that he learned nothing from

the King's kindness lavishly given and bestowed upon him. Now in verse thirty one,

the situation escalates, it gets worse. When his fellow servants saw what

had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to

their lord all that had taken place. These are spies. You ever do

something someone spying on you, you know, do something wrong? They you

know what they did. You know that's happened to all of us, and

we can do it too. Now, these fellow spurt servants who serve as

the king spies, represent the unfallen angels who have not offended the king ever.

I'll prove it to you. They have no debt to pay. But

they are watching how we relate to the kind of king they know and love

and serve. And the Book of Daniel, the angels are called watchers in

Daniel four seventeen. To sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the

decision by the word of the Holy ones. The heavenly judgment involves angels who

are watching very carefully in Daniel seven millions of them around the open books.

And how we treat each other down here. They want to see how it

works out up there. In the book Relation, these angels are called fellow

servants turned to Revelation twenty two eight and nine. I John, who wrote

the book Revelation, And am he who heard and saw these things. And

when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship with the feet

of the What does the tech say, read the verse with me? You

fell down the worship with the feet of the angel who showed them to me?

Are we supposed to worship angels? Yes? Or no? No?

Okay, now look at verse nine angels saints, anybody else? No but

nine. But he said to me, you must not do that. And

then what does he say himself, I am a fellow servant. Ah.

They are the fellow servants that are watching now. The angels in heaven friend

are horrified when they see Christians in the church who've been forgiven by God,

but who refused to forgive a fellow believer who hurts them in the church.

They can't stand that. They protest this kind of thing to God in the

heavenly counsels above, and God hears it because forgiveness itself is on trial because

of the Gospel turn to Matthew eighteen thirty two. Then his Lord summoned him

and said to him, you, wicked servant, I forgave you how much

all that debt because you besought me. I forgave you everything. Friend,

look into your life and realize that God in Christ has forgiven you of everything

you've ever done wrong everything. I forgave you all the debt because you besought

me. That's why the king wished to settle accounts with the servants, because

the cross matters. Look at verse thirty three, and should not you have

had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you, And in

anger, his Lord delivered him to the jailers till he should pay all his

debt. So also, my heavenly Father will do to every one of you

if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Is that a high

standard? I tell you, take the ten commandments. That's higher standard than

the tinkamanda. That's love. Friendsmen, believers refuse to forgive, they are

really saying they are refusing the forgiveness of God. They are rejecting the Gospel

in their own lives. When you forgive those who hurt you, you are

showing God and the angels above that you value the King's pardon and the light

of the offense that hurt him so badly. When you forgive someone in the

church, you're saying, no, I appreciate the cross. How you forgave

me for doing something awful to you or someone else. And when you forgive

others in his name, you overcome pain and self pity with God's forgiveness,

and you show that you belong to God in faith and character. Thus you

have a character fit for the Kingdom of heaven. You know, when the

character of God is fully reproduced in as people, we are told, then

Christ will come. What does that mean? It means would be a loving,

forgiving kind of people that live the love of God. The kingdom court

in heaven is no threat to the person who forgives every offense in the name

of the one forgave us also freely at the cross. Jesus said, Father,

forgive them. They know not what they do. The Lord's prayer,

our Father, who art in heaven, how would be thy name, Thy

kingdom come? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,

is on to say, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

To love is to forgive, To forgive is to keep. The law

of God is the highest standard. It is what God is looking for.

In the Investigative Judgment Revelation three to five, Jesus said, and he who

conquers shall be clad thus in white garments. And I will not blot his

name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my

Father and before his angels, a forgiven, forgiving kind of people. Well,

Herod, the King of God forever and ever, Daniel says, And

the kingdom of the Greatness, of the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth

will be given to the saints in the most high and they will reign forever

and ever and ever because they worship a forgiving kind of God, and they're

just like that, and because of that they can live with each other without

having a hard time. For all attorney, may we be forgiven, and

may we forgive in Jesus name, do Heavenly Father. What I like most

about the heavenly Judgment is the King. I am so grateful for your character

of love forgiveness. Help us all to do the same. Father. We're

knuckleheads down here is hard to forgive. Lord, may love rule in this

church, rule in our world. Church, help the investigative judgment to work

in our lives. To see Jesus who is representing us before your throne,

so we don't have to be interviewed for the judgment. So we stand in

Christ complete. Father. May the gospel cross work in the judgment too,

and may we live with peace and you, Lord, thank you for the

promise there is the therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

and therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord,

Jesus Christ. May your people leave in peace, maybe be the people

of peace in Jesus name. Amen,