The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-07-26
The
Sunday School
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COM
MENTs FOR JULY 81.
Subject: A Lesson on Forgiveness
Matt. Commit
Verses 81, %.

GOLDEN TExT.-"If you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you" Math.
6:14
TIME.-Autumn A. d. 20
Place.-Capernaum.
EXPOSITION.-I. Seeking FOr-
giveness for Self, 21-27. Peters
question is exceedingly important and
practical 1t is a question with which
we are all confronted experimentally.
We all have those whom we forgive,
and scarcely have forgiven them be-
fore they offend again. How long
shall they be permitted to keep this
up? Peter suggested seven times as
a possible outside limit. That is far
higher than most of us go, but Jesus
multiplied Peters high figures by
seventy, and said there is where you
ought to go, seventy times seven.
Here we have the perfect number,
multiplied by the number of COM
pleteness, multiplied again by the
perfect number. In other words,
never cease forgiving. Let your pa
thence be inexhaustible and your for
giving love infinite. At the first
glance it seems hard saying, but as
we continue to look at it, we see 1t
as a most sweet and gentle saying;i
for If He bids US to do this to others,
He certainly will Himself do it to us.
The parable that follows emphasizes
this gracious truth. / need, then,
never fear again to go to Him, say
ing, Forgive me-" no matter how
often or how seriously have sinned.
If my heart hesitates, I hear Him
whispering, Until seventy times
seven" (Col 3:13; Eph. 4:32; 5:1).
Reckoning q talent roughly at $1,000,
the kings debtor was twelve mill
ion dollars in debt. And this is pic
ture of each of us. We are hopeless
to pay (Lu. 7:42; Ps. 1908; Ez. 9:6:
Ps. 40:12). 1t is not before an alb
stract law, but before person, that
we are guilty Cps. 51:4. If we
could only be brought to fully realize
how great our unpaid debt is that is
freely forgiven us, we would surely
not find it hard to forgive others.
The debtor was brought" to the
king. We as sinners do not come
into Gods presence of our own ac-
cord, the Spirit brings us there Ono.
16:7-9). Verse rs pictures Code
dealings with us on the ground OF
law Zeal. 3:10). But it is only to
bring us to sue for mercy and grace
from. 3:19-24; GAL 3:22-24) The
demand of Just payment brought this
debtor down upon his knees, and that
is where the full demand of law
brings each of us if we are wise. And
yet this debtor fancied he could ulti-
mately pay his debts if he only had
time. This is true to human expert
ence. When first awakened to a
sense of our sins, we still fancy Ne
can pay some time. We think we
can atone for past sins by future good
works. 1t is only after awhile that
it fully dawns upon us that we can
do nothing at all, that salvation must
be not only partly but wholly of grace
(Eph. 2:8, 81. In verse 81 we have
God dealing in grace Now it is all
grace, just as it was before all law.
1.-THE Lord" does not extend the time
of paying the debt, but fully RENTS
it. God never mixes law and grace
(Gal. 5:2-4; Gal. $40; Rom. 1928;
11:6). The basis of grace is nothing
in us, but something in God, His own
compassion The condition upon
which God deals in grace is in us.
viz, that we acknowledge our hope
less Indebtedness and sue for mercy
(cf. Lu. 1913, Ia; Rom. 1912, 1S)t
III. Refusing Forgiveness to AM
other, 1885. The one who had just
been forgiven twelve-million dollar
debt went right out and tried to vio-
lently exact debt of seventeen dol z
lars from another. That seems in
credible, but it is a scene enacted
every day, and by some of the readers
of these lines. God has forgiven you
debts whose greatness defies compu.
tation, and you go out and exact the
paltry debts your fellow-men owe
you. How many are harboring
grudges over some petty slight or Of
fence! We should all mediate long
and deeply over this parable. His
debtor acted precisely toward him as
he had acted towards his own cred
itor, but he remembered nothing and
has no mercy. This is true to life-
Others sue us for mercy as we have
mercy for them "Pay the debt is
our demand The outcome is start
ling, "His Lord called him." If we
will not listen to the cry of our debt
ors, then we shall hear the voice of
our creditor. God freely offers for
giveness for all our. $4,000, 900 in
debtedness, but if VIE truly accept it
we will prove it by freely forgiving
others. If we do not forgive others
it proves that we have despised the
proffered mercy of God. We are now
back on the law basis, and we shall
be delivered to the tormentors till we
pay "all that is due" That we can
never do, SO our torment will be ever
lasting. There is no mercy for the
man who shows by refusing mercy to
others, he has despised it for himself
Gas. 2:13). The only way to learn
to be mercifu1 is by believing in the
mercy OF God revealed in Christ to-
ward us q Jno. 4:19, r. VI. Jesus
points HIS own parable, there can DO
no mistaking its meaning (see verse
35). There is then no hope for many
a protested Christian, unless they re-
pent of their attitude towards sonc
w'-o have wronged them. Tho gate
to hell here pointed out is wide one,
and many so in thercat.