The Fifth Petition - The True Humilty of Forgiveness Micah 6:6-8
Series: The Lord's Prayer
November 13, 2022
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
90 But this should serve God’s purpose of breaking our pride and keeping us humble. For in case any one should boast of his godliness and despise others, God has reserved this prerogative to Himself, that the person is to consider himself and place this prayer before his eyes, and he will find that he is no better than others, and that in the presence of God all must lower their plumes, and be glad that they can attain forgiveness. 91 And let no one think that as long as we live here he can reach such a position that he will not need such forgiveness. In short, if God does not forgive without ceasing, we are lost. The Twenty-Second Sunday After Trinity 13-November-2022 Sermon Text: Micah 6:6-8 Sermon Theme: The Fifth Petition - The True Humility of Forgiveness!
Episode Notes
The Twenty-Second Sunday After Trinity 13-November-2022
Sermon Text: Micah 6:6-8
Sermon Theme: The Fifth Petition - The True Humility of Forgiveness! by Rev.Nathan J. Rusert.
I.N.R.I. We live in the last times! We have since our King Jesus ascended into heaven to rule and to fill all heaven and earth as True Man and True God. He will come again soon in all glory to judge all mankind. Creation itself looks forward to that day to be forever freed from the bondage of corruption through Adam’s sin to the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Speaking of this epoch of history Jesus warns us to watch out for false teachers who come capturing many with their lies. He warns that men’s hearts will fail them for fear of the expectation of what is coming upon the creation. God the Holy Spirit warns us through St. Paul that life in the last days will be perilous for those who speak the Truth of God’s Word. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure, given over to a culture of death and perversion. Through St. Peter the Spirit warns us that the world will mock Christians for hoping in Jesus promise to come again. They will deny the evidence of the worldwide flood in Noah’s day written upon the geological records of our earth and pursue a fantasy of their own making of how life happened on our planet apart from God the Creator.
How will Christians survive life in these last days? Throughout the history of Christ’s Church on earth many false teachers lead people astray by calculating the exact day of judgment day. False prophets in Jesus’ day imagined a Messiah whose coming would set up a physical Israel to rule over all nations. This false teaching is trumpeted by false teachers in Christendom who preach of a millennial reign of Jesus before judgment day or after. False teachers with their false predictions and twisting of the Holy Bible lead people away from Jesus - Jehovah - Yahweh in our flesh who has rescued us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil by His once for all sacrifice upon the cross. Living life in these last days we need to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Beginning and Finisher of our Faith, of our Salvation. Looking to Him alone as our Good Shepherd we listen to His voice alone in His Holy Bible, in baptism, in absolution, in the Lord’s Supper. His voice calls sinners to repent and believe the good news that in His flesh and blood we are reconciled to our God and Father.
Daily we prepare for the day of judgment, for the day of our death, for life in these last days - by crying out with Jesus - “Our Father..Forgive us our trespasses.” Therefore this morning stand prepared as Jesus teaches you: “The Fifth Petition - The True Humility of Forgiveness!”
Judgment day drew near for the nations of Israel and Judah. The time was 750B.C.. The northern nation of Israel had separated itself from the rule of Davidic kings since the days when Solomon’s son Rehaboam had promised to increase taxes upon those ten tribes. Their first king Jeroboam had set up a false religion that aped the true worship of God in Jerusalem to prevent his people from going back to Davidic rule. His false worship, with two false worship centers, false priesthood, false sacrifices had led Israel further and further away from God. The Lord God had patiently sent them prophet after prophet calling them to turn from national self destruction and return to Him, but they would not hear. Elijah, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, had been sent to them - but stubbornly they persisted in their perversion of religion to follow their own pleasures.
The nation of Judah to the south had not been much better. Although they were ruled by a descendant of King David, and had the Temple, the Levitical priesthood, and the sacrifices. They went through the motions of worship on the Sabbath only to run back to their sins the rest of the week. They imagined that their sacrifices for sins offered daily in the Temple gave them permission to sin, instead of freeing them to sin no more.
Judgment day drew near for the children of Israel. The Lord called Micah of Moresheth sending him to preach in the north and later the south. The end of Israel was drawing near. In less than 30 years the Assyrians would destroy their nation and its people. The court was being seated and the Lord God was drawing near to judge His people. What could save God’s sinful rebellious people from total annihilation? His mercy - His forgiveness - poured out upon all nations through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son in human history! Micah preaches (vs.6-7) A thousand offerings of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil cannot appease God’s just wrath over our sin. Slaughtering firstborn children, as the pagans did in their cults of perversity - cannot prepare us to stand before God’s court. Without faith in God’s mercy in Christ’s sacrifice for sinners - all self-chosen attempts to please God only merit hell.
Crushed to the depths by his own sinfulness and the just wrath of God that he deserves, the Psalmist cries, “Psalms 130:1-5 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; (2) Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. (3) If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (4) But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (5) I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.” In this last epoch of world history God’s Word has come to us in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, that through His sacrificed and risen flesh and blood we may have hope through the forgiveness of our sins. (LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition)
Trusting that God is our true Father through Christ Jesus, our Brother and our Savior, we cry out to Him for all we need for life. In the first three requests Jesus teaches us to cry our for the Helper, the Comforter, God the Holy Spirit who draws near to us through God’s Holy Name washed upon us in Holy Baptism. Making us alive in Christ through God’s Word He bring us into Christ’s Kingdom to believe His Word and live holy lives according to it. Lives that trust only in Jesus’ perfect life and love for us sinners. Looking to Jesus we cry out for the Father to break our stubborn sinful self-justifying will and by His Holy Spirit to keep us in His Word and faith until we die. Last week we learned to trust our Father to supply us day by day all are physical needs through our pilgrimage through this dying world to our true promised land - new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness lives.
In these last three requests we beg our heavenly Father to give us His Holy Spirit to live as His children in these last days. Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. How much to you owe? As of this morning each tax payer in the U.S. owes over $517,000.00 for their share of our nation’s $31 trillion dollar deficit. Can you pay off your debt? “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter asks Jesus. The Lord paints a picture of our debt before God. Judgment day comes to a debtor who owed his king 10,000 talents. In our age of credit cards we don’t rightly understand the enormity of this man’s debt. A talent equaled about 10 years of work - this man would have to work at least 100,000 years to pay off his debt without interest. He bargains for time, but no one on earth has that much time to settle accounts. The Master has mercy - forgives him all his debt - the Master will shoulder the bill for this man.
How much do you owe? (LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition) Father, don’t look upon my sins! Daily I sin much! Daily I deserve nothing but God’s just wrath and eternal punishment in hell! Father don’t look on my sins - look only to your Mercy - Your only begotten Son - He took my debt of sin, guilt, shame, death, and hell into His own innocent flesh. He suffered and died to pay the price of all sinners in full. Look only to Him. Let me know Him alone!
Lord I am not worthy. I am a sinner, but you have washed me forgiven in blood of Your Son - you have put Your Holy Name upon me to claim me as your beloved child. You have give me your Holy Spirit to trust in Jesus’ Word alone! Give me all by Your grace alone! I confess that I am only a beggar! A poor miserable sinner! Forgive me daily and richly in Jesus that I might live as your child! How does God’s child live? Micah preaches, (vs.8) To do God’s merciful justice towards those who sin against you. To love fellow sinners with the kindness that God the Father gives you in Christ Jesus. To walk by the power of God the Holy Spirit as a forgiven sinner - humbly seeking reconciliation with all those who sin against you.
(LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition) The forgiven debtor didn’t take his Master’s mercy to heart. He went out and found a fellow slave who owed him a 100 days wages - he would show no mercy, throwing him into debtors prison. Rebelling against the King’s mercy cast this unforgiving slave out of the Kingdom of Grace into hell. If he would not live by grace in Christ Jesus - he would be given what he deserved - hell.
We forgive because we are forgiven! A Christian lives by forgiveness daily and richly poured out by the Spirit through Christ Jesus within His Church always reconciling us with our Father in Heaven. Forgiveness frees us to seek reconciliation with all who sin against us - not those who beg us for forgiveness. Our hearts are created anew - we have died - Christ Jesus lives in us and through us forgives all those who have sinned against us. Forgiveness isn’t a burden that we pass on, it is the sign that we are forgiven - judged by God the Father to be His own beloved children in Christ Jesus and made alive by His Spirit.
We live in these last days by faith in Christ’s perfect love - confessing Him the Way, the Truth, and the Life who reconciles us to our Father in Heaven- made alive by the Spirit we are freed to forgive as we are forgiven. 1 John 4:15-21 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (16) And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (17) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (19) We love Him because He first loved us. (20) If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (21) And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” Amen.
Sermon Text: Micah 6:6-8
Sermon Theme: The Fifth Petition - The True Humility of Forgiveness! by Rev.Nathan J. Rusert.
I.N.R.I. We live in the last times! We have since our King Jesus ascended into heaven to rule and to fill all heaven and earth as True Man and True God. He will come again soon in all glory to judge all mankind. Creation itself looks forward to that day to be forever freed from the bondage of corruption through Adam’s sin to the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Speaking of this epoch of history Jesus warns us to watch out for false teachers who come capturing many with their lies. He warns that men’s hearts will fail them for fear of the expectation of what is coming upon the creation. God the Holy Spirit warns us through St. Paul that life in the last days will be perilous for those who speak the Truth of God’s Word. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure, given over to a culture of death and perversion. Through St. Peter the Spirit warns us that the world will mock Christians for hoping in Jesus promise to come again. They will deny the evidence of the worldwide flood in Noah’s day written upon the geological records of our earth and pursue a fantasy of their own making of how life happened on our planet apart from God the Creator.
How will Christians survive life in these last days? Throughout the history of Christ’s Church on earth many false teachers lead people astray by calculating the exact day of judgment day. False prophets in Jesus’ day imagined a Messiah whose coming would set up a physical Israel to rule over all nations. This false teaching is trumpeted by false teachers in Christendom who preach of a millennial reign of Jesus before judgment day or after. False teachers with their false predictions and twisting of the Holy Bible lead people away from Jesus - Jehovah - Yahweh in our flesh who has rescued us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil by His once for all sacrifice upon the cross. Living life in these last days we need to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Beginning and Finisher of our Faith, of our Salvation. Looking to Him alone as our Good Shepherd we listen to His voice alone in His Holy Bible, in baptism, in absolution, in the Lord’s Supper. His voice calls sinners to repent and believe the good news that in His flesh and blood we are reconciled to our God and Father.
Daily we prepare for the day of judgment, for the day of our death, for life in these last days - by crying out with Jesus - “Our Father..Forgive us our trespasses.” Therefore this morning stand prepared as Jesus teaches you: “The Fifth Petition - The True Humility of Forgiveness!”
Judgment day drew near for the nations of Israel and Judah. The time was 750B.C.. The northern nation of Israel had separated itself from the rule of Davidic kings since the days when Solomon’s son Rehaboam had promised to increase taxes upon those ten tribes. Their first king Jeroboam had set up a false religion that aped the true worship of God in Jerusalem to prevent his people from going back to Davidic rule. His false worship, with two false worship centers, false priesthood, false sacrifices had led Israel further and further away from God. The Lord God had patiently sent them prophet after prophet calling them to turn from national self destruction and return to Him, but they would not hear. Elijah, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, had been sent to them - but stubbornly they persisted in their perversion of religion to follow their own pleasures.
The nation of Judah to the south had not been much better. Although they were ruled by a descendant of King David, and had the Temple, the Levitical priesthood, and the sacrifices. They went through the motions of worship on the Sabbath only to run back to their sins the rest of the week. They imagined that their sacrifices for sins offered daily in the Temple gave them permission to sin, instead of freeing them to sin no more.
Judgment day drew near for the children of Israel. The Lord called Micah of Moresheth sending him to preach in the north and later the south. The end of Israel was drawing near. In less than 30 years the Assyrians would destroy their nation and its people. The court was being seated and the Lord God was drawing near to judge His people. What could save God’s sinful rebellious people from total annihilation? His mercy - His forgiveness - poured out upon all nations through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son in human history! Micah preaches (vs.6-7) A thousand offerings of rams, 10,000 rivers of oil cannot appease God’s just wrath over our sin. Slaughtering firstborn children, as the pagans did in their cults of perversity - cannot prepare us to stand before God’s court. Without faith in God’s mercy in Christ’s sacrifice for sinners - all self-chosen attempts to please God only merit hell.
Crushed to the depths by his own sinfulness and the just wrath of God that he deserves, the Psalmist cries, “Psalms 130:1-5 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; (2) Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. (3) If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? (4) But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (5) I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope.” In this last epoch of world history God’s Word has come to us in the flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, that through His sacrificed and risen flesh and blood we may have hope through the forgiveness of our sins. (LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition)
Trusting that God is our true Father through Christ Jesus, our Brother and our Savior, we cry out to Him for all we need for life. In the first three requests Jesus teaches us to cry our for the Helper, the Comforter, God the Holy Spirit who draws near to us through God’s Holy Name washed upon us in Holy Baptism. Making us alive in Christ through God’s Word He bring us into Christ’s Kingdom to believe His Word and live holy lives according to it. Lives that trust only in Jesus’ perfect life and love for us sinners. Looking to Jesus we cry out for the Father to break our stubborn sinful self-justifying will and by His Holy Spirit to keep us in His Word and faith until we die. Last week we learned to trust our Father to supply us day by day all are physical needs through our pilgrimage through this dying world to our true promised land - new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness lives.
In these last three requests we beg our heavenly Father to give us His Holy Spirit to live as His children in these last days. Our greatest need is the forgiveness of sins. How much to you owe? As of this morning each tax payer in the U.S. owes over $517,000.00 for their share of our nation’s $31 trillion dollar deficit. Can you pay off your debt? “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter asks Jesus. The Lord paints a picture of our debt before God. Judgment day comes to a debtor who owed his king 10,000 talents. In our age of credit cards we don’t rightly understand the enormity of this man’s debt. A talent equaled about 10 years of work - this man would have to work at least 100,000 years to pay off his debt without interest. He bargains for time, but no one on earth has that much time to settle accounts. The Master has mercy - forgives him all his debt - the Master will shoulder the bill for this man.
How much do you owe? (LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition) Father, don’t look upon my sins! Daily I sin much! Daily I deserve nothing but God’s just wrath and eternal punishment in hell! Father don’t look on my sins - look only to your Mercy - Your only begotten Son - He took my debt of sin, guilt, shame, death, and hell into His own innocent flesh. He suffered and died to pay the price of all sinners in full. Look only to Him. Let me know Him alone!
Lord I am not worthy. I am a sinner, but you have washed me forgiven in blood of Your Son - you have put Your Holy Name upon me to claim me as your beloved child. You have give me your Holy Spirit to trust in Jesus’ Word alone! Give me all by Your grace alone! I confess that I am only a beggar! A poor miserable sinner! Forgive me daily and richly in Jesus that I might live as your child! How does God’s child live? Micah preaches, (vs.8) To do God’s merciful justice towards those who sin against you. To love fellow sinners with the kindness that God the Father gives you in Christ Jesus. To walk by the power of God the Holy Spirit as a forgiven sinner - humbly seeking reconciliation with all those who sin against you.
(LSB pg. 324. L.P. 5th Petition) The forgiven debtor didn’t take his Master’s mercy to heart. He went out and found a fellow slave who owed him a 100 days wages - he would show no mercy, throwing him into debtors prison. Rebelling against the King’s mercy cast this unforgiving slave out of the Kingdom of Grace into hell. If he would not live by grace in Christ Jesus - he would be given what he deserved - hell.
We forgive because we are forgiven! A Christian lives by forgiveness daily and richly poured out by the Spirit through Christ Jesus within His Church always reconciling us with our Father in Heaven. Forgiveness frees us to seek reconciliation with all who sin against us - not those who beg us for forgiveness. Our hearts are created anew - we have died - Christ Jesus lives in us and through us forgives all those who have sinned against us. Forgiveness isn’t a burden that we pass on, it is the sign that we are forgiven - judged by God the Father to be His own beloved children in Christ Jesus and made alive by His Spirit.
We live in these last days by faith in Christ’s perfect love - confessing Him the Way, the Truth, and the Life who reconciles us to our Father in Heaven- made alive by the Spirit we are freed to forgive as we are forgiven. 1 John 4:15-21 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (16) And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (17) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (19) We love Him because He first loved us. (20) If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (21) And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” Amen.
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