Notes of an Address by C. Grain

(Read Matthew 18th chapter, verses 21-35.)

The subject of the portion I have read, is the responsibility of those who have been the recipients of grace, to exercise grace also themselves. And there is not a person in the world but is a recipient of grace at the hand of God.

You will notice, in the few verses just preceding those I read, that the Lord was speaking to His disciples about recovering a brother who had sinned. Our Lord's words had manifestly impressed them all, and Peter is their mouthpiece. They were made to realize that to carry out the Lord's instructions, they needed much grace in their own hearts. It requires grace to forgive. Naturally we hold resentment rather than a readiness to forgive. If we feel we have been wronged, to resent it is natural to all of us. The Jewish Rabbis of our Lord's day, and before, had set a limit to the exercise of grace. They had taught that it might be shown in the way of forgiveness three times. You see they were putting a limit to, or to what extent it would be lawful to show mercy. Peter, acquainted with that fact, feels impressed, after listening to the instructions of the Lord, how much grace is to exceed what the Rabbis taught. So he says, " How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? – till seven times ? " He evidently felt that grace might be exercised toward an offending brother "till seven times ;" but even so he too was putting a limit.

Now, in His answer, our Lord practically tells him that there should be no limit. He says, "Not until seven times, but seventy times seven "-implying, of course, that there is to be no limit. When there is an opportunity to show grace, to forgive or exercise compassion, our Lord who in absolute grace came into this world to minister, would have us put no limit to the exercise of grace.

There are wonderful things in this parable of the kingdom of heaven. First, the Lord compares the King of the kingdom of heaven to an earthly king. Kings have servants, and servants are responsible to their master. This king, of whom the Lord speaks, has a servant who has become involved in a great obligation, a very great debt. It comes into the mind of the king to reckon with his servants, and they are to give an account of themselves. This particular servant, through lack of wisdom, or carelessness, or living unto himself -there are a hundred different ways in which this may be-has let things slip through his hands, and he finds himself under a terrible obligation; he is heavily in debt, and, what is more, he has nothing wherewith to meet the obligation.

In this servant may we see a picture of Israel, who was to be God's servant; but Israel did not fulfil its responsibilities in its obligations to God. But if this servant pictures Israel, he pictures man as well. Man stands in the relation of a servant to God, is under obligation to God, but he has utterly failed. God can charge man with failing to make good in all his responsibilities to Him.

Now as this servant had not wherewith to pay, his lord commands that he should be sold, with his
wife, his children-all he had, and payment to be made. It is not difficult to see in this picture man, as God's servant, having failed in the discharge of his responsibilities, and now appointed to death and the judgment which comes after death. But the servant says (ver. 26), "Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." Let us look carefully at this.

Evidently the servant has no right apprehension of his condition. He wants to make a bargain with his lord, as we see men are constantly doing-proposing to make good. They acknowledge freely that men are sinners ; they want to make bargains with God, like this servant. A little grace will satisfy them. If God will only be gracious enough to give them another opportunity, that will suffice; they will make good in the future. That is their idea of grace.

Now I want to call your attention to something which will at first seem a little strange. The king takes no notice of the servant's proposition, but acts towards him as if he never heard it. He did hear it, but he knew the servant was in distress; he knew the ache and burden in the heart of the man, and there was pity and compassion in his heart for the servant. Mark you, the servant did not ask for pity and compassion, he asked for patience; he did not ask that his indebtedness be remitted ; his idea is to meet his indebtedness, to make good wherein he has failed. He has no thought that he is hopelessly involved in debt. If he had realized that, he would have felt that free, sovereign grace alone would meet his need. But he is simply praying for another opportunity. But as I have said, his lord does not close the bargain with him. "Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt."

Let us look carefully at this. "The lord of that servant was moved with compassion." What moved him ? It was the plight of his servant ; the fact that he was hopelessly involved touched his heart, and he loosed him. We have previously seen how he commanded him to be sold, his wife, his children, and all that he had. He now withdraws the command, which he might righteously have carried out. The cancelling of this command was pure grace. The servant could in no wise have claimed it. He might have come and said, Here I am hopelessly involved ; I have no ability to pay, and it is your sovereign right to command me to be sold, with all that I have. He might have done that, and might have added, It is your sovereign right also to show mercy and to act graciously with me as to what is best in the case I am in. But that is not what he did. All he wanted was patience ; pledging himself that if his king would show grace to that extent, and give him another opportunity, he would make good.

Yet his lord had compassion, as I have said. He looked upon his servant, he knew his character, his unfaithfulness, his slothfulness, yet he pities him ; "Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." This is what God has done.

For centuries God was dealing with man in the way of proving him, that He might teach man the lesson of his utter inability to deliver himself from the judgment to which he was exposed as the consequences of his disobedience. For centuries God was dealing with man on this principle. Is it possible for man to recover himself ? All history should teach man his utter inability to pay the debt in his obligations toward God. But God pitied man, and He sent His only begotten Son to this world to be an offering for sin. That was grace. God was under no obligation to save us, or to remove the burden resting upon us because of our sins, nor to withdraw the sentence passed upon man. He had said to fallen man, " Dust thou art, to dust shalt thou return," and He was under no obligation to take that back. He never did take it back, but He has sent His Son into the world in absolute grace for our deliverance. In sending His Son to be our Saviour, to bear our sins, He was acting in sovereign grace, as having pity and compassion on men. There never was a man who could come to God and say, You ought to save me, You ought to forgive me. The command that he be sold, his wife, his children, and all that he had, might have been justly carried out. As a matter of righteousness only, God might have swept man off the face of the earth long ago; He might have swept Adam off the earth. When He brought on the flood and destroyed the whole world, He did it in righteousness.

Salvation is of grace. It was in grace that God sent His Son into the world to be the Saviour of men, to make a sacrifice for sin. Not only that, but sparing even man's life is grace. As a matter of righteousness, at any time, God might strike the sinner down. Some of us know cases of men who,
at times when they thought God was going to cut them off, pleaded with God, like this servant, to be spared. Acknowledging themselves sinners, acknowledging that their past was not what it should have been, they say, Have patience with me, restore me to health and life, and henceforth I will faithfully serve Thee. It is a bargain, like this servant said to his lord.

Well, God did show mercy. He had compassion; He did not cut them off-that was grace. In a sense, it was forgiving. Instead of executing judgment, as God had a right to do, He forgave. I wonder if there is anyone here who, at death's door, has said to God, " Have patience with me and I will pay thee all." He had pity on you and restored you to health. The opportunity to do better and live right you have had. Have you kept the vow made when your life hung in the balance ?

I pass on to the 28th verse:" But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow-servants who owed him one hundred pence; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest." Do you think that this servant, who owed his lord ten thousand talents, had really learned grace ? He had not grace enough to show a little grace when he had opportunity to do so. Was there any pity, any compassion in his heart when his fellow-servant said, "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all ? " Did he forgive him his debt ? Ah, this is what discloses his heart. The plea of his fellow-servant (the plea he had himself made), "Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all," does not touch his heart. Alas, how blind were his eyes to the opportunity of showing mercy according as was shown him. The very fact that he cannot forgive his fellow-servant's small debt shows that his lord's grace so bountifully exercised toward him, had not touched his heart.

There is another thing in these verses (31-34) which is puzzling to many. Did not the lord forgive this servant, they ask ? Was there, so to speak, a string to his forgiveness ? No, he forgave him freely; he forgave him all the debt. But the permanency of governmental forgiveness depends on how it is received. Why did it prove to be a temporary instead of an eternal forgiveness ? It shows that this man was untouched by grace. The root of bitterness in his heart remained unjudged. Like hundreds and thousands of others, he perverted the grace received into an opportunity to press his claim on another.

Oh how sad it is to see men, sitting under the sound of the gospel, feeling somewhat the power of it in their heart, yet with no real self-judgment, no real break-down before God, but contenting themselves with the thought that they will do better!

Grace is in the heart of God in sparing the sinner, who is afraid to die; but this does not mean that in sparing man's life God has no further claim upon him. Unless God's present grace transforms man's heart, he makes himself subject to His eternal judgment by and by. May we so realize the greatness of our sin, the depth of our need, that God's mercy may be our only plea with Him ; and may His grace so take effect in our hearts that -we may walk in the spirit and ways of grace.