Generally speaking, in any ordinary message, I like to share with you a nice three or four point message. It helps me to stay focused and organized. But for tonight I could not come up with any sort of real organization. All we have are some random thoughts – but perhaps – important random thoughts. (Remember – lay aside the message from this morning.)
Our lives, especially as Christians, should reflect the God whom we serve.
Perhaps what the Lord was saying in these thirteen verses was that our lives DO reflect our God. And that means that the forgiveness which we have received should produce forgiveness in us. Isn’t this the gist of Jesus’ story? Sadly, many who claim to worship Jehovah – the King – are in fact worshiping someone or something else.
Are there any evil men in this world whose lives are rolling along more smoothly than yours at the moment? I’m not talking about spiritual joy and a peaceful heart, which even the poorest of people might have. I’m talking about a rich man with beautiful kids, an easy job, bills all paid, and toys galore. But this man is foul-mouthed, mean-spirited, hurtful and hateful even towards those who serve him. He hates Christ, makes life hard on Christ’s saints, destroys people’s lives, breaks the laws of human government, just so that he can add a few more toys to the collection in his garage and basement. You could say that the man lives under the Lord’s day-do-day, general forgiveness, while he is choking his neighbor to take another hundred pennies from the man. “His Lord shall be wroth and shall deliver him to the tormentors.” “Peter, you and I are not supposed to be even remotely related to that sort of person.”
This is not the only place in the scriptures where this sort of lesson is taught. A proper view of God’s blessings – both eternal and temporal – should make us look at our lives differently. But so often that is not what happens. Paul wrote to the Jews in Rome – “Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.” The king in Jesus’ parable rendered to the previously blessed and forgiven man – according to his deeds.
It might be interesting to have a round-table discussion of the question, “What is the most un-god-like human behaviour.” Of course, we’d have to start with the attributes of God, beginning with His holiness. “Be ye holy for I am holy” – anything not holy would certainly not be god-like. But the discussion might go in a number of different directions from there. And at some point we’d probably come to the conclusion, that a hard heart is not like our God. “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”
Now, let me go back to my message this morning only to twist it just a bit.
I did say that a debtor is not a perfect illustration of a sinner – debt is not a perfect illustration of sin. I will not withdraw my application from earlier today, but I’d like you to lay it aside for this evening. Biblical salvation is a multifaceted and absolutely fascinating subject. Forgiveness and deliverance from the punishment that sin creates is an important part of salvation. But if that was the beginning and end – the alpha and omega of salvation – then we’d all end up as this parable ends – in torment.
The man in Jesus’ parable was forgiven and his impossible debt was washed from the books of the King. But the HEART of the man remained unchanged – all we have to do is read what happened next. As important as forgiveness is the need of “regeneration.” As important as the removal of our spiritual debt, is the creation of a new heart – “Ye must be born again.” This forgiven debtor does not appear to be a child of God.
Verse 28 immediately follows verse 27 – it is a common mathematical progression. But these two are as closely related as night and day – there isn’t any twilight between them. “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.” I asked myself what motivated the forgiven man to attack his fellow servant like that. Of course I could only surmise and guess – but here a couple of my guesses –
Perhaps while the first debtor owed that astronomical sum, he knew that a hundred pence wouldn‘t help, so there was no reason to go after it earlier. Let’s say that debtor #2 paid debtor #1. Those hundred pence would immediately belong to the king as payment toward the larger and more important debt. It would be like garnisheed wages – gone before the check could be cashed. Perhaps debtor #1 hated the king, and the idea that the king would be a hundred pence richer riled him. Then as I continued to ponder the question, another closely related answer arose. Debtor #1 was a greedy fellow or he wouldn’t have borrowed those millions in the first place. Now that the king wasn’t breathing down his neck, those hundred pence were ALL his. He didn’t even have to tell his wife about it. Perhaps he was thinking that with this he could start to rebuild his financial empire. I couldn’t come up with any more explanations for the wicked man’s attack on debtor #2. But I did return to the fact that he remained a wicked sinner – he was a greedy, self-absorbed debtor by nature. Nothing had changed within him when the king forgave him of his debt.
Brother Param-an-an-dam, the missionary from India, who was with us last Wednesday, was asked about the usual Hindu conversion experience. Hindus are idolaters to the nth degree with literally millions of idol-gods from which to choose. But our brother was saying that when they were saved – when they were converted – they ripped the red dots from between their eyes, and they threw the dozens of idols filling their homes into the trash. They were truly converted – radically and instantly changed – they had new hearts and new lives. We don’t see that in the man of our parable – he doesn’t appear to be a new creature in Christ.
And now, look at your life and ask yourself – “Am I truly different from the person I was before I was saved?” Christ was telling us through the disciples, “Don’t say that you have been forgiven, if you cannot forgive.” Do you have control of that anger which raged through you before your professed salvation? Aren’t you as proud, as gossipy, as accusative; and as mean-spirited as you were before? Do you now possess genuine joy; have you exchanged the kind of hope that you had before to a new and holy kind of hope?
In this parable, Christ is telling us that not all who THINK that they experience forgiveness are necessarily born again.
One of the things to observe here is that we are being observed.
I am not exactly sure how to apply this point, and how far to push it, but there it sits. “So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.” Does it matter who these fellowservants are? Could they just suggest that God knows all things? Could they just be a poetic way of expressing Jehovah’s omniscience? Perhaps.
But on the other hand, they could represent the Lord’s highest and most productive servants – His angels. Remembering that this chapter is all within a single context, perhaps this takes us back to verse 10 – “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” Couldn’t debtor #2, who owed the hundred pence, be another of the Lord’s “little ones”? Sure he is also a debtor, but should you go to the point of strangling the man to force him into repayment? Remember that man has his ambassadors in the King’s palace, testifying against you, debtor #1.
But then there are all the unsaved neighbors and relatives, not to mention others of the Lord’s “little ones.” How many of us, through our various sins, are offending others – both saved and lost? How many of us, who cannot forgive another saint of God, are causing our own children to stumble? How many true Christians inadvertently drive their own grandchildren away from the house of God? “I am going to forsake the House of God on Wednesday night because that old preacher doesn’t have anything worthwhile to say.” “Actually, I don’t like him, but I can’t really say that in front of the kids.” How many professing Christians still behave like the lost, and in the process, humanly speaking, guarantee that some of the lost in their neighborhoods remain that way. “So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry.” Oh, brethren, the king was not happy with that un-Christlike servant.
There are a few other incidentals in this parable which are worthy of brief consideration.
For example, did you notice that the words of debtor #2 matched those of debtor #1? “Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” The only difference was that the second man couldn’t call the first man “Lord.” “Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” Why didn’t the same words produce the same effect? Because the heart of debtor #1 was not the same as the heart of the King. Pointing out once again that it wasn’t the plea which changed things. It was the grace of God which brought about the forgiveness of that impossible debt
Also, did you notice that the other servants, who saw all of this, were “sorry.” They were “very sorry” – verse 31. The word means exactly what you’d expect it to mean. But what is the meaning behind the meaning? Why were they sorry; and what made them sorry? Did they feel sorry for the man who was nearly strangled to death? Surely they didn’t feel any sorrow for the wicked debtor #1. Or did they? Perhaps, as godly servants of the King, it was for Him that their hearts reached out. Our Lord has been shamed by the shameful behavior of this professed subject of the Kingdom of Heaven. “The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a certain king…..”
Another interesting incidental is found in the word “desiredst.” “When his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?” Of course, Jehovah not a human king with the limitations that are inherent within humanity. For example, the Lord is not deceived by the lies of the men whose hands are caught in the cookie jar. The word “desiredst” is the Greek “parakaleo” (par-ak-al-eh’-o). It is often translated “comfort,” but it literally refers to “draw alongside.” It is most often rendered “beseech” and then “comfort” – but here is rendered “desiredst.” The guilty are often quick to profess, “Lord, I love thee; I need thee; I want to be near thee.” But in reality those are empty words. This man wanted the comfort of the king, but not to give the king any comfort – or anybody else.
Something else just in passing, because it probably doesn’t mean anything important – The words “compassion” and “pity” are identical in the original language. Furthermore, the Greek word is translated in one form or other “to show mercy” – twenty-seven out of the thirty-one times it is used in the Bible. Twice it is rendered “to show compassion,” and only once “pity.” I know that we would like to speak of “mercy” as a divine characteristic and activity – and properly so. But Christ Jesus appears to tell us that those who are the children of Divinity – those who are children of God are expected to bear the characteristics of their Heavenly Father. “Be ye merciful, for I am merciful.”
There is one more consideration before we quit – verse 34 – “And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.” The Greek word “tormentors” is used only one time in the Bible. Its singular use doesn’t give anyone an excuse to deny what it says or what it means. There is no reason to remove it from the pages of God’s word. And even if someone chose to do so, that act still doesn’t remove it from the vocabulary of God. It means exactly what it implies. James Strong, the most commonly cited expert on the original languages of the Bible defines the word – “One who elicits the truth by the use of the rack. “An inquisitor, torturer also used of a jailer doubtless because the business of torturing was also assigned to him.” I checked a couple of the other Bible versions I have in my library to see if they agree with the King James. There were some differences but they basically came back to the obvious. The New English Version, which isn’t a translation at all – only a paraphrase has this for verse 34 – “So angry was the master that he condemned the man to torture until he should pay the debt in full.” The Amplified Bible reads, “And in wrath his master turned him over to the torturers (the jailors), til he should pay all that he owed.” But of course, as I said this morning to repay a debt of that size would have been impossible.
And where does that leave this man? It leaves him under the wrath of the king for the rest of his life. Or in the case of God, who was illustrated in his parable – the man was to be tormented for eternity. Aren’t our Saviour’s words in Matthew 25 speaking essentially about the same thing as in this parable? “Then shall (the king) say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” God’s people – those to whom He has given new hearts – regenerated hearts – they will behave like the Lord who has saved them. Those who have not been born again – and thus those who will not forgive their debtors, for example – those people will be turned over to God’s tormenters. “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.”
As I said this morning, it is by the grace of the King that anyone is eternally forgiven. As people with eternal the debts against the Lord, it is essential that before sentence is passed – While we are still in this life and before we are brought before the judgment – It is essential that we humble ourselves, repenting before God. We need a Saviour – we need Christ. We need to be born again – given new hearts to go along with that forgiveness. We must repent before God and put our hope and faith for salvation in Christ’s death on the cross. That is the place where the debt is paid. It must be through the account of Christ, because our accounts are all completely and utterly bankrupt.