Pastor Scott Andrews | July 20, 2025
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Luke 11:1-4 Part 3
In the heart of every person is this wonderful thing called guilt. Guilt is when the conscience tells us we’ve done something wrong. Now, there are many ways to deal with guilt. We can pretend it’s something else – that’s not guilt – it’s heartburn. We can suppress it. Yeah, it was wrong, but if I just ignore it, the anxiety will go away – I’ll get over it. We can try to rationalize or justify it. It was the only choice I had. Everyone else is doing it. It wasn’t really wrong. It wasn’t that bad, I mean, compared to everyone else.
We can simply try to dismiss it – psychologists for years have told us guilt is the product of religion – we’ve just created it. You need to stop seeing what you do as wrong – they are simply individual choices which spring from human freedom. Do what makes you happy. Don’t let any religious fundamentalist tell you it’s wrong. You decide. Which is why you should carefully select a therapist or counselor. Those without a Christian worldview will simply seek to assuage your guilt and help you understand, accept and even approve your sinful choices.
And despite all our repeated and feeble attempts – the pang of conscience, the pain of guilt is still there. That gnawing in the pit of your stomach. Those sleepless nights trying to console yourself or justify your actions. That bitterness that wells up into venom and hatred. And if you’re somehow able to get rid of the guilt, all it does is make you into an incredibly hard person. Seared conscious, Paul calls it. You see, there is really only one way to deal with guilt. It’s called, forgiveness.
Forgiveness. It’s what the heart of every person yearns to receive, and yet, has such difficulty giving. To this point in our study of the Lord’s Prayer, we have seen God as our Father. We have seen God as our King. Last week, we saw Him as our Provider. This week, we will see Him as God our Pardoner. You’ll remember we’ve turned our attention to personal needs – the need of daily provision, the need of daily pardon, and the need of daily protection. While it is true we enjoy a Father/child relationship; while it is true we enjoy a Sovereign/servant relationship; and while it is true enjoy a Benefactor/beneficiary relationship, all that would be meaningless – in fact, impossible, if we did not enjoy a Savior/sinner relationship with God.
You see, I have some bad news for you this morning. God hates sin. He hates murder, He hates adultery, He hates lies. And just in case you’re feeling good about yourself, Jesus came along and told us, He hates the attitude behind those sins – He hates anger, He hates lust. Proverbs 6 says there are six things the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, [that’s pride], a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers [that’s gossip]. Pride, lies, gossip – that pretty much gets all of us.
The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 5, “the acts of the sinful nature are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, drunkenness, carousing – and we go amen – those are obvious sins, terrible sins, go after those horrible sinners, Paul. We’re right with you. But the list didn’t stop there. He goes on, “strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying.” Those hit a bit closer to home. And Paul ends his list by saying, “I forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Why? Because God hates sin. And the bad news gets worse: He will not allow sin to go unpunished. Galatians 6 says, “do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this will he also reap.” In Exodus 23:7, God says, “I will not acquit the guilty.” Nahum 1:3 is clear, “The LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.”
But I also have some good news for you today – while God hates sin, He loves sinners, and He desires to be reconciled to them. Not only does He desire to be reconciled, He has taken all the steps necessary to make reconciliation possible. All that remains is to come to Him by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, to be pardoned – to be declared righteous. To be forgiven.
The good news is God is our Pardoner. This is where the Christian life begins, where it continues, and where it ends. Forgiveness. Without it, we would be hopelessly lost and eternally condemned. But these are basic truths, aren’t they? And yet, as we continue our look at the Lord’s Prayer, we come to these words. Let’s read it again, focusing on verse 4 (Luke 11:1-4).
As we read these familiar words, there are two basic, yet fundamental things we need to see:
I. First, there is a truth we must remember
II. And second, there is an attitude we must forget
Now, Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer sounds a little off, because most of us memorized it from Matthew 6, “Forgive us our trespasses as we also forgive those who trespass against us.” But the word in Matthew 6 is actually debt and here in Luke, Jesus uses two words – sins and debts. Forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And the truth we need to remember is this: as sinners, we had a debt we could not pay.
What does that mean? Every time we sin, we incur a debt. There are four primary Greek words used to refer to sin. The one used most often and familiar is hamartia. It’s an archery term and speaks of missing the mark. The mark is perfect God’s standard of righteousness. And every time we sin, we fail to hit that standard. That’s what Romans 3:23 means when it says, “All have sinned, hamartia, and come short of the glory of God.” We can’t hit the mark of God’s perfection, we fall woefully and consistently short.
A second word is paraptoma, often translated “trespass,” and speaks of a false step, a sin of slipping or falling. It is more the result of carelessness than intentional disobedience. You’re running the race and take your eyes off of the finish line, off Christ for a moment, you’re careless, and you slip and stumble.
A third word is parabasis, and is often translated “transgression.” It speaks of stepping across the line, going beyond the limits set by God. It is more conscience and intentional than those first two words. It is a conscious, willful sin. I know these are the boundaries of righteousness God has set up, but I’m stepping outside the line anyway. You ever done that – sinned intentionally?
A final word is the word anomia, the strongest of the words, often translated “lawlessness,” and speaks of intentional, flagrant sin. It is a willful act of rebellion against God and His ways.
Why do I share that? To impress you with Greek words that you, or I, won’t remember this afternoon? No, so you understand there are all kinds of ways that we sin. Some are intentional, some are unintentional. Some we just slip into, some are flagrant. Some are accidental, some are acts of rebellion when we shake our fist in the face of God and say, I know, but I don’t care. Some are acts of omission – things we should have done but did not. Others are acts of commission, those things we should not have done, but we did.
Whatever the act, whatever the motivation, we’re guilty of all of them at one time or another, and as a result, we incur a debt. Every time we sin, we incur a debt – we owe something – there is restitution to be made. Let me give you an example. When someone wrongs another person or commits a crime, restitution is often demanded. It may come through damages paid in a suit, or it may come through prison time. At the end of that jail time, we say the person is free to go because…what? He has paid his debt to society.
It works that way with one another. When we wrong another person through some intentional or unintentional sin, we may apologize, and say something like, let me make it up to you. In other words, I’ve incurred a debt, let me pay it off. We may say, I’m going to pay them back – they’ve wronged me – they owe me.
But we have a problem. Every time we sin, while we may sin against another person, we always sin against God. That’s what David meant when he said, against You, and You only, have I sinned. He didn’t mean he hadn’t sinned against others – in that particular case, he had sinned terribly against Uriah by taking Uriah’s wife and murdering him. But the point is, every act of wrongdoing, whether in thought, word or deed, is an egregious sin committed against a holy God. And this is the problem: He’s perfect, His requirements are perfect, and He requires perfect restitution – which you cannot make.
You see, every one of us, in our daily sin, has amassed a debt that needs to be paid. And many are trying to pay the debt. Ask them, “When you die and stand before God, why will He let you into His heaven?” People will say something like, well, I’ve been pretty good, I mean, compared to other bad people, I think I measure up pretty well. So yes, I think I’ll make it.
In other words, they think their good deeds are enough – they’ve paid off the debt. There are a couple of problems with that. First, while we may compare ourselves with other people – God never does. His standard is not how we measure up to Hitler or Stalin. His standard is Himself – a perfectly high, in fact, an unattainable standard. And the second problem is we don’t understand the enormity of our sin. No matter how good we are, we can never pay off the debt. It’s a truth that we must remember – I had a debt I could never pay off. There’s a parable in Matthew 18 that illustrates this point (church discipline chapter):
21 Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (rabbis)
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
24 “When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
25 “But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
26 “So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’
27 “And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.”
The king didn’t give him more time – he forgave the debt. Now, many of you have heard this story before. You’ve likely heard ten thousand talents was more than the man could possibly repay in his lifetime. But you need to understand the enormity of this debt. When it says, ten thousand talents, it means a lot of money. One talent was worth about 17 years wages. Think about that. Ten thousand talents was equal to paying 10,000 men for 17 years. In today’s dollars, that’s about $8.5 billion. But even that is a little misleading since you know Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk could pay that off.
But back then, no one had that much wealth. Let me put it in perspective. At that time, the average annual revenue collected from the entire land of Palestine was about 900 talents. This man owed 10,000 talents. All the gold in Solomon’s Temple – a world-renowned amount of gold, was 8,000 talents. This man owed more than that. In telling the story, Jesus simply picked an astronomical number that would communicate this was an insurmountable debt – no one could ever possibly hope to pay it off. Forget it.
And the man walks into the king, falls on his face, and the king forgave the debt. Do you understand that? It’s not given enough time, with some sound and good investment practices, this servant would be okay. He could never pay it off, just like us. The point of the parable is this – our debt is so astronomical, we could never pay it off. And God, in Christ, wiped the slate clean. All that we owe, we owe no more.
My beloved, you had a debt you could never repay. You can try to pay it off if you want, but it will take all eternity – until you have paid every last cent. But the good news is, Jesus paid it all. Every sin you’ve ever committed, past, present and future, has been paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:13ff says it this way, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Did you catch that? He took the certificate of your debt – that bill that listed everything you owed, and took care of it by nailing it to His cross. Your debt has been paid in full. We sing it:
All-sufficient merit shining like the sun;
A fortune I inherit by no work I have done.
My righteousness I forfeit at my Savior’s cross,
Where all-sufficient merit did what I could not.
It is done, it is finished, no more debt I owe;
Paid in full, all sufficient merit now my own.
Now, this begs a question. If all my sins have been forgiven, why do I need to pray these words of the Lord’s Prayer – that is, why do I continue to say, “Forgive us our sins”? Am I not asking God to do something He’s already done? That’s a good question.
Very simply, theologians point out, as far as God is concerned, there are two kinds of forgiveness. First is judicial forgiveness. That’s what you were given when you confessed your sin and Jesus as the remedy – that’s what you were given when you were redeemed. All your sins were wiped away, and you were clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You were given a new nature that desires to follow Christ and do what is right. And you entered into a relationship with God – He is now your Father. And there is nothing you have done or could ever do that will remove or destroy that relationship.
But let’s face it. The vestiges of the sin nature remain. And you continue to sin. And the Holy Spirit is there to convict you of your guilt. And you come to the Father, not to ask for judicial forgiveness – that’s already been granted once and for all. You don’t have to be saved again, the relationship is there and always will be.
But you come to find what some have called parental forgiveness. To have fellowship restored. David understood that. There was that time when he committed a sin, perhaps the one with Bathsheba, and kept silent about it until the prophet Nathan exposed him. But even during that time when no one knew but God – David suffered. Psalm 32, “When I was silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” His fellowship with the Lord was broken – it needed to be restored.
And so he goes on, “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my trangressions to the LORD’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Did you catch that – not only did you forgive my sin, but the guilt – the pain of my sin. “Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found.” We’re going to do that today.
Seek parental forgiveness, seek a restoration of fellowship, and you will be restored. John said it this way, “If we confess our sins, [literally, if we keep on confessing our sins], He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Let me say it this way: Judicial forgiveness establishes a relationship that can never be lost; parental forgiveness re-establishes a fellowship that is often lost. That’s a truth we need to remember – forgive us our sins, which are many. Now, very quickly, let’s move to an attitude we need to forget. What do I mean?
Go back to the text. Jesus tells us to pray with these words, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” The implication is, as we have been forgiven, and continue to be forgiven sins, so also we forgive those who sin against us and thereby incur a debt. By the way, in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6, Jesus goes on to say, “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
That’s a tough statement. What is He saying – that my salvation is contingent upon me forgiving others? That I will be forgiven just as I have forgiven others? That I have to earn my salvation? This is challenging, and it’s meant to be.
Frankly, what it means is, when you came into the kingdom – you recognized the awfulness of your sin. You came into the kingdom broken – remember that? Blessed are the poor in spirit – the spiritually bankrupt – those who realize they have nothing to offer. Blessed are the broken, for theirs, and theirs alone, is the kingdom of God.
The next beatitude, blessed are those who mourn. Those having realized their brokenness, mourn over their sin. For they, and they alone, will be comforted. Which leads to being meek and merciful people. Blessed are the merciful, for they, and they alone shall receive mercy. You see, a true kingdom person remembers his awful state. And when he comes to Christ broken, it causes him to be merciful and forgiving to others. And if we aren’t, as a practice of our lives, if we are hard and unforgiving, we prove we were never broken – we never came into the kingdom. So, when Jesus says, if you don’t forgive others, then you won’t be forgiven – you prove you don’t understand grace, because you’ve never experienced it. Remember that parable from Matthew 18? Let’s read the rest of the story.
28 “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’
29 “So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’
30 “But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.
31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.
32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.
35 “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
What’s the point? The man didn’t understand grace. He didn’t understand forgiveness. In fact, I believe he never experienced it – he was never broken. He forgot the truth he was supposed to remember.
You see, there’s a key attitude back in verse 26. The servant, when brought before the king, said this, “Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.” Just give me some time – I’ll make more money than Solomon’s Temple ever had. Give me time, I’ll make my $8.5 billion. You see, he didn’t understand the enormity of his debt, and his need of forgiveness. And while forgiveness was extended by this king, it was never truly received by the servant. So, he never mourned over his debt. He never had a heart of undying gratitude. He never became meek, merciful, forgiving. Because he never came into the kingdom.
He’s just like the guy today who says, yeah, I know I owe – but I’ll pay it off. I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go. I’ll work hard, I’ll do good things, and they’ll outweigh my bad – I’ll pay you off, just wait and see. And he doesn’t know he has a debt he can never repay.
What then, is the attitude we need to forget/forsake? An attitude of ungratefulness. And attitude of forgetfulness. You know how I know when I’ve forgotten and developed the wrong attitude? When I’m more aware of other people’s sin than my own. When I have an attitude of pride and I think I’m better than others. And every so often, we need to be reminded to lose the attitude of unforgiveness. We’ve been forgiven so much – a debt we could never pay. How can we possibly withhold grace and forgiveness to others? Listen, forgiven people forgive people.
You may say, you don’t understand how terribly I’ve been wronged. I’ve tried, but I just can’t forgive. Consider this: the servant who found the slave and began to choke him and eventually had him thrown into prison? The slave owed him a hundred denarii. That is not a small amount of money – it was equivalent to 100 days wages – almost half of your annual salary. The point is this servant had been terribly wronged too – but in comparison to the debt he owed, which had been forgiven – it was nothing. I don’t know how terribly you’ve been wronged, and I don’t want to minimize it. But the truth is, I do know how much you’ve been forgiven. And we are to take a fraction of that same grace and forgiveness and give it to others. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive those indebted to us.
Which brings us to our conclusion. Are you tired of guilt? Maybe you’ve been trying to pay your own debt. And the pain of guilt remains because you can’t. Even though you think your supposed good deeds outweigh your bad ones, you’re still guilty. I want to invite you this morning to have the debt canceled – to have it marked paid in full by Jesus Christ. If you’re tired of trying, I’m going to invite you to come and receive forgiveness. God can be your Father, because of Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross, to forgive your debt. I’m going to ask you to come in just a minute and find forgiveness. Because if you ask, if you pray this prayer, truly for the first time, asking God to forgive you because of Jesus, you will be forgiven.
Or maybe you are a Christian, you have found judicial forgiveness. But if you were honest, you’d say, you’ve been harboring sin in your heart. And it’s been a long time since you prayed, Father, forgive my sin. Even the secret ones no one knows about. And your fellowship with the Father has been strained. Maybe you, like David, need to pray, restore to me, the joy of my salvation. Restore the fellowship. I confess my sin, I turn from it, I seek your forgiveness.
And finally, you’re here this morning and you’ve got a truth need to remember, and an attitude to forget. You’ve been reminded of your enormous debt that has been cancelled, nailed to a cross, but you’ve been harboring unforgiveness in your heart. Truth is, you’ve withheld it. You’ve looked at someone else’s sin, forgetting your own sin, forgetting that you came into the kingdom broken – forgetting you wanted to be gentle, merciful, forgiving. Maybe it’s time to grant forgiveness and let go of the grudge, or the bitterness, once and for all. I’m going to invite you to come and find wholeness and cleansing in Jesus Christ.