DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us." Psalm 103:12.
WE shall aim at no novelty tonight, nor shall we try to serve up the
old Truths of God in any new and attractive forms. Upon your tables you
always require bread and generally you account salt to be
indispensable. Some kinds of food are presented to us over and over
again and it would foretell ill for our health if they were not always
relished. It was an evil lusting which made Israel tire of the manna.
An Israelite in his right mind found it to be still a dainty, though he
ate of it every day of his 40 years' pilgrimage. Who tires of the
verdure of the fields, the light of the sun, or the air we breathe?
These things are ever fresh and new, and ever necessary to us. The
doctrine of forgiving love is one of those necessities of daily life
concerning which it may be affirmed that if we should set them before
you every day we should not be guilty of vain repetition.
None need fear of tiring man, or vexing God's Spirit by harping too
much on this string. Therefore come we to our favorite theme tonight.
To speak of the great Gospel truth of the forgiveness of sin in the
simplest manner we possibly can is the purpose we have immediately in
view. To babes, to young men and to fathers in Christ, this
all-important Truth will be equally precious, while the poor trembling
sinner who cannot yet claim to be one of the sacred family may be
encouraged by it. Our text has in it a word of peculiarity, and to this
I call your attention at the outset. It is not every man in the world
that could truly use the language of this verse, for it does not refer
to all mankind–"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He
removed our transgressions from us."
A people separated and set apart, a people upon whom there has been a
peculiar world of Divine power, a people whose experience of the Grace
of God towards them has melted their hearts with devout gratitude–such
as these can sing this joyous stanza–but none beside. I will describe
these people to you. I should gather from the ninth verse that they are
a people who have been made truly, deeply, painfully conscious that
they are sinful and have felt the chidings of God in their
conscience–therefore it is that they say, "He will not always chide."
They know that God is angry with sin. They have felt some biting of
that wrath upon their spirit and they have been humbled into
contrition, repentance and confession–therefore do they now say,
"Neither will He keep His anger forever."
They are a people who have keenly realized the desperate condition they
were reduced to–who know that if forgiven it must be through
mercy–and through mercy only. They know that they have no claim upon
God. They understand that they deserve to be cast away from His
Presence–therefore they say, "He has not dealt with us after our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." They are a people who
have tasted of that surprising mercy which baffles all human thought
and excites the adoring wonder of all who contemplate this darling
attribute of the Most High. They have gone to Jesus, in whom the mercy
of God is treasured up. They have believed in Him and they have
received mercy through Him, for mercy comes to men through the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
And having tasted of that mercy, they say, "As the Heaven is high above
the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him." Then they
go on to sing, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He
removed our transgressions from us." Oh, priceless gift! Oh, matchless
blessing! Say now, out of this vast throng, how many of us have been
made to feel that sin is sinful, to loathe it and to confess it with
bitterness of heart? How many of us have fled to the great atoning
Sacrifice and have believed in Jesus to the saving of our souls? So
many may repeat this verse and affirm it of themselves, with truth, but
no more. Separate yourselves, then–let the force of conscience now be
exercised, and let this text be to you, for a moment, like the Throne
of Jesus before which He exercises the prerogatives of His Gospel
sovereignty and divides the sinners from the saints, making men either
tremble or rejoice.
Our text has a word of positiveness. In this song the Psalmist speaks
of the pardon of sin as a positive fact. He celebrates it in grateful
strains as a matter of certainty to himself and to others associated
with him. David was an
optimist of the right sort. Ifs and perhapses would not suit him. "As
far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us." He does not indulge in fond hopes, or express
vague wishes, or point in hesitant tones to some favorable omens–he
speaks of his sins being forgiven, knowing it to be a matter of fact
which there was no room to question. Now there are many professing
Christians who do not think that you ever can know that you are
forgiven while you remain in this world. They are not of this mind
merely because they are ignorant of the Gospel, but because their
gospel is beclouded with errors.
Their teachers throw dust into their eyes, or envelope them in mist.
They see men as trees walking and no more. They are brought up in
orthodox fashion to repeat a mournful litany and to call themselves,
"miserable sinners," in stereotyped phrases. They are taught to go on
forever asking for pardon as if they had never received it. They are
made to look upon themselves still as needing to be dealt with as lost
sheep and reconciled as rebels. Their standing is always at the foot of
Sinai. They are not taught that the Lord has forgiven us all our
trespasses. Their church, as if to chasten it for its alliance with the
State, has lost the jubilant tone of faith and made its daily service
rather a wail for sinners than a song for saints.
Now the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that there is pardon! That we
may have it and that when we believe in Jesus, we have obtained full
remission–that we are pardoned when we believe in Jesus–and that our
iniquities are forgiven us! It is a matter signed, sealed, and
delivered! It is a fact accomplished before the Lord and infallibly
ascertainable by us. Sin is put away. Though we shall never be in such
a condition, here, that we shall not have need to confess daily
sin–for new sins will rise–yet, at the same time, the moment we
believe in Jesus, no condemnation is upon us, nor ever can be! "There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." We are forgiven! Pardon
is a fact–a fact most certain in the history of Believers. There is
nothing more sure to them than this, that they are certainly forgiven
inasmuch as they have believed in Jesus Christ!
I know there are many professed Christians who shrink with morbid
apprehension from claiming this great act of God's love as a benefit
which they really enjoy. They venture to hope it may be so, but still
they dare not speak with confidence of their own pardon. This, to their
view, would be presumption. But is it not far more presumptuous to pay
so much respect to your own misgivings as to totally ignore the
blessedness of knowing that you are forgiven? Is it not awful
presumption to settle down as so many do while their eternal state is a
matter of question to them? Do you tell me that you do not know whether
you are forgiven? Why, Sir, you are, indeed, in a wretched
bewilderment! You do not know if you were to die at this moment whether
you would be in Heaven or Hell!
How dare you sit in comfort in that seat? Dare you go to your bed in
doubt about whether you are saved or not? How can you sleep? It seems
to me to be profane presumption for a man to dare to be at peace till
he is sure about his reconciliation to God. The presumption lies in
settling on your lees, in resting short of the inheritance and in
saying, "Peace, peace" to one's soul when you know not that you are a
saved man! Oh, I beseech you, if you have any doubts do not play with
them! Do not trifle with your soul's affairs! This is a matter about
which there should be no doubt whatever! No man would like to have a
doubt as to whether there is a thief in the house when he goes to his
bed at night. You would not like to be in doubt as to whether a mortal
disease is upon you.
You are anxious to be sure of your safety and your health–will you not
desire to be as sure about your soul's safety and the health of your
inner nature? Surely you ought to be! But can a man be sure? Yes,
assuredly. See right here–the best evidence in all the world is the
witness of God, who cannot lie. Any number of men in the world bearing
witness to a thing can never be equal to the testimony of God! What He
says none may dare to question. God's witness is much more reliable and
has much more weight in it than the most exact observations and the
most delicate inferences that can be drawn from them.
Suppose I can see a thing with my eyes. Men say, "Seeing is believing."
Yes, but eyes deceive, as everybody knows. There are many things we
think we see which we do not see, after all. Eyes may deceive–God's
witness, therefore, is better than the sight of our eyes. "But surely,"
says one, "feeling will not deceive you." Alas, there is nothing in the
world more deceptive as to a man's state than his feeling. Those who
are worst will often imagine themselves to be best and some of the best
of God's children have often felt in their humiliation as though they
were the worst. I say, God's witness is to be preferred above our
feeling, our eyesight, or the witness of men!
What does God say? He says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved." Do I believe in Jesus? Have I been obedient to the other part
of the command? God says I shall be saved and therefore I shall be,
despite all the devices of Satan, despite all the sins I ever have
committed or shall commit, despite anything and everything however
unlooked for which may occur in time to come–for God's witness must be
true! "Let God be true and every man a liar." God says it! "He that
believes in Him is not condemned." Have I believed in Him, then? To
believe is to trust–have I trusted my soul with Jesus? Yes, yes, I am
sure of that. Then I am equally sure that I am not condemned, equally
sure that sin is forgiven, because as sure as I possess faith, so sure
is it that, "as far as the east is from the west, so far has God
removed our transgressions from us."
Who wants better evidence than God's Word? O, we may live on it! We may
die on it! And we may stand before the Judgment Seat with it as our
strong consolation. God has spoken it and His Word cannot be impugned,
or His counsel invalidated. But, because we sometimes are troubled and
vexed within, there is another assurance which God is pleased to give
to His children. Over and above His written Word, He gives them the
inward witness. The man who has believed in Jesus feels a deep peace in
his soul. "Jesus died for me," he says. "Then if Jesus died in my
place, my sin is put away. God will not be so unjust or inconsistent as
to punish me for the sin for which He put Christ, my Substitute, to
grief. If Jesus suffered in my place, I shall not suffer.
It were not just, that two should suffer for the same sin. The
Believer, knowing this, finds satisfaction, smells a savor of rest and
feels peace. O, what a peace! Believe me, there is nothing like it in
this world–it is the peace of God which passes all understanding–a
peace like that which rules amid angelic thrones. Then, in the midst of
that deep calm the Holy Spirit comes down like the dove brooding over
the waters, the calm and quiet waters of the Believer's soul, and bears
witness with the man's own spirit that he is born of God. The man's own
spirit bears witness in the peace it feels. Then God's Spirit comes and
sets a seal and the man knows and is persuaded by the witness of God in
the Word–and the living witness of God in his soul–that as far as the
east is from the west, so far has God removed his transgressions from
him!
Some of us remember the very day and hour wherein our sins were put
away and can look back to the date and call it our spiritual birthday.
It shall be to us the beginning of days, even as was that day in which
Israel came out of Egypt. And others, who have not so distinct a
recollection of the time–yet as they look to yonder Cross and see the
Incarnate God bleeding on it–feel that their transgressions are
blotted out, and as they look they get a renewed assurance of complete
absolution. There are some, I know, who think it best always to gaze
upon their crucified Lord, as if they had never before looked upon Him.
They stand and hug the Cross, kiss those bleeding feet, look up to that
dear face bedewed with drops of grief and that dear brow crowned with
thorns, and say, "You are my Savior! Dear lover of my soul, I rest in
You! Your side riven for me yields me my pardon. Your death is my life.
Your life in Heaven is the guarantee of my immortality."
O happy they who can so stand at the foot of the Cross and always feel
that as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed their
transgressions! None can sing so heartily and joyfully the high praises
of God–
"Since I have found a Savior's love,
To Him my hopes are clinging.
I feel so happy all the time
My heart is always singing.
A light I never knew before
Around my path is breaking
And cheerful songs of grateful praise
My raptured soul is making.
I feel like singing all the time,
I have no thought of sadness
When Jesus washed my sins away
He turned my heart to gladness." Now, Brothers and Sisters, as we
return to our text, I would have you notice the comprehensiveness of
it. I do not find any list of sins here. All I find about sin is
contained in these two words, "our transgressions." I am not skillful
in matters of common Law, but I remember hearing a lawyer make this
remark about a man's will, that if he were about to
leave all his property to some one person, it would be better not to
make a recapitulation of all that he had, but merely to state that he
bequeathed all to his legatee, without giving a list of the goods and
chattels, because in making out the catalog he would be pretty sure to
leave out something and that which he left out might be claimed by
someone else. Indeed he gave us an instance of a farmer, who, in
recounting the property he left to his wife, intending her to have had
all, actually omitted to mention his largest farm and the very house in
which they lived. Thus his attempt to be very particular failed, and
his wife lost a large part of the property.
We do not want too many particulars, and I am thankful that in this
verse there is a broad way of speaking which takes in the whole compass
of enumeration. "He has removed our transgressions." That sweeps them
away all at once– "our transgressions." If it had said "our great
transgressions," we should have been crying out, "How about the little
ones?" We should have been afraid of perishing by our lesser faults
even if the huge crimes were pardoned. Suppose it had said "our
transgressions against the Law"? "Oh, but," we would have asked, "What
shall we do with our transgressions against the Gospel?" Suppose it had
said, "our willful transgressions"? That would have been very gracious.
But we would have said, "Ah, but what will become of our sins of
ignorance?" Suppose it had said, "our transgressions before we were
converted"? Then we should have exclaimed, "Ah, but how shall we escape
from our sins since our conversion?"
But here it is–"our transgressions"–He has removed them all, all,
ALL! From the cradle to the tomb–they are all gone! Sins in private
and sins in public! Sins of thought, word, deed–they are all removed!
The moment you believe in Jesus they are all, all, all gone! I cannot
help giving you a picture I have sketched before, when Miriam the
Prophetess, Aaron's sister, with her timbrel in her hand went forth,
the women of Israel following her, dancing by the Red Sea. As they
looked over the dark waters of that mighty sea, there could not be
discovered the crest of a single Egyptian captain. Not one solitary
horse straggling for its life, nor a chariot, nor a banner, nor any
implement of war. Nor one solitary champion that had borne arms!
Therefore she struck the timbrel, and the damsels sounded it out
aloud–"The depths have covered them. There is not one of them
left–not one! Not one! Not one! Not one of them left!"
I think I hear their song. I think I see their feet twinkling like
stars as they dance forth their joy and Jehovah's praise–"There is not
one, not one, not one of them left!" Even thus do I look upon Jesus'
precious atoning blood and think of all my sins and yours, my Brothers
and Sisters, who have believed in Him, and I shout with equal, if not
greater joy, "The depths have covered them! There is not one, not one
of them left! He has removed our transgressions from us." "The blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Another thing which
claims special note in the text is the perfection–the absolute
perfection of the pardon. The text says, "As far as the east is from
the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us." Can
anybody tell how far the east is from the west? You begin to calculate,
perhaps, upon the surface of the globe, but I say, "No, not so. The
east is farther off than any distance you can travel on this globe.
Look to yon sun."
Then you begin to measure within the bounds of the solar system towards
the east. But I say, "No. The solar system is but a speck in the
universe. I must have larger measurement than that." "We will measure
space, then," says one. Space! What do you mean by that? Do you mean
all that has ever been seen by the optic glass of the astronomer when
he has gazed at night upon the milky way? Ah, but that is only a corner
of boundless space! I must have the infinite measured and you shall go
that way with your line to the east, and I will go this way with my
line to the west–and you shall tell me how far the two are asunder.
Why, the interval is boundless! It means an infinite distance!
Now God has taken His people's sins away from them to an infinite
distance, that is to say, there is no fear that their sins should ever
return to them–they are gone, gone, gone, gone completely! I do not
know how it is, but some of our friends of a certain school of theology
believe that after men are pardoned they may yet go to Hell. I will
never quarrel with them about that doctrine. If it gives them any
comfort, they are welcome to it. It does not seem to me worthy of a
God, or even of a man! Poor is that pardon which may yet be followed by
eternal torment! If God has pardoned His people, surely no fresh
proceedings can be opened, no subsequent indictment preferred against
them! "Who lays anything to the charge of God's elect?" "There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."
I have heard of the Duke of Alva pardoning a man and then hanging him.
But I do not believe God ever trifles, thus, with mercy. If He has
pardoned my soul, then I am saved. If He has done it once, He has done
it forever. He has removed my transgressions not a little way, but, "as
far as the east is from the west." I think that means just this, that
the pardon of our sin is so complete that when a man is pardoned he
never can be punished for his sin–not in any measure or degree.
He becomes a child of God and, as a child, he may be chastened, but he
will never have to stand before God as his Judge and be called to
account for those sins–for they are not–they do not exist! "Strong
language," you say. I say it again, they do not exist, for Jesus Christ
has "finished transgression, made an end of sin, and brought in
everlasting righteousness."
What does that mean? "Made an end of sin"? Why, it means what it says
and sin is made an end of! No soul, then, for whom Jesus bled, who has
believed in Jesus, being redeemed from sin can ever be punished for his
sin before the bar of Divine Justice. Christ has been punished for him
and his sins are gone. "But, though not punished for sin, may not a man
suffer some disadvantage? If God will not send me to Hell, yet, at any
rate, it may be He will not love me so much because I have been a
sinner. He will not treat me as if I had never fallen." Yes, but when
God wipes out sin, He puts away all the consequences of sin. "But do we
not feel the consequences in our bodies?" Yes, assuredly, but it is for
a season only and for loving reasons. Our mortal bodies are doomed to
death and they are full of pain, sometimes, but they shall not always
be so. Our bodies shall rise again and there shall be no detriment
through sin upon those bodies!
They will be just as glorious as they would have been had God made them
perfect in the garden of Eden. Man, they will be even more so, for they
shall be fashioned like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus! But
upon that I will not stay. At this day God loves us and He will love us
forever. He loves us infinitely and He could not love us more than that
if we had never fallen. At this time, in Christ Jesus, we are brought
near–I will say it–as near as if we had never sinned, yes, and
nearer! I do not see how, if we had never sinned, we could have been so
near as we now are for, had we never sinned, there would never have
been a Mediator and Jesus might never have been, "Immanuel, God with
us." But now we poor sinners have One who is our Brother, who is very
God of very God, even Christ, the Son of Mary, and yet the Son of
Jehovah!
This is a wonderful nearness which God has given us! We are made His
children. We are made to come into His immediate Presence and to taste
of His love! Our sins are so effectually removed that we shall not
ultimately suffer any loss or damage through having sinned. That
detriment was laid on Christ. His was the loss–ours is the gain. His
was the tremendous suffering–ours is the unutterable joy–
"Your blood, not nine, O Christ,
Your blood so freely spilt,
Has blanched my blackest stain
And purged away my guilt.
Your righteousness
My soul does beautify,
Wrapped in that glorious robe
Your Father I draw nigh."
And, dear Brothers and Sisters, this is what the Lord means, also, when
He tells us He has put sin away "as far as the east is from the west."
He means that He has forgotten it. Can God forget? Well, we speak of
the Nature of God, sometimes, after the manner of men, and rightly so
if we adopt those forms of Revelation which have been vouchsafed to us.
We rightly regard everything as in His remembrance, because He dwells
in all ages and everything is present with Him. And yet if He tells us
He forgets we may not venture to disbelieve Him.
But I do not inquire just now what our conceptions of God may
be–enough that we should cordially receive what He would have us
believe. Here is a text–"Their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more forever." That is God's own assertion. He knows His
own memory and He has put it so. Let me repeat those words. They melt
my own heart while I speak them, and therefore I hope every child of
God will feel the sweetness of them. What inconceivable love! What
force, what pathos, what Grace there is in every syllable!–"And their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more forever." O,
blessings, blessings on His dear name for such a Word as that!
Has He not said, "I have blotted out, like a cloud, your
transgressions"? Has He not said, in another place, "Though your sins
are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they are red
like crimson, they shall be as wool"? That is, they shall vanish as
colors fade–they shall disappear and shall no longer exist. These are
glorious Truths of God. I want every child of God to endeavor to
realize the fact that at this very moment his sins are
gone–effectually, completely, perfectly gone–through the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ! Beloved, there is in the text a ray of Divinity full of
hope to us– "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He
removed our transgressions from us." God is the great Remover of sin!
There are some who, when they feel the guilt of sin weighing heavily on
their conscience, go to a priest and ask him to remove the burden. The
theory they act upon is this–that the priest is ordained of God and
has received power from the Most High to declare and pronounce
absolution in God's name. They think it too great a thing for God
Himself to deal personally with men and, therefore, He employs some
ordained person to speak in His name. Now, I have no doubt that there
are many persons who get a good deal of comfort from the declaration of
the priest that they are forgiven. I cannot understand how they can be
so wretchedly duped, but I suppose the manner of administering a
sacrament may be so imposing as to stifle any enquiry into the
prerogative which the "Father Confessor" pretends to exercise.
And yet I know, on the other hand, that there are some who, after they
have obtained that kind of absolution, are not so comfortable as they
expected to be. They feel somehow or other as if it did not quite meet
the case. Perhaps such a person may have dropped in here. You want to
know that your sin is forgiven by a greater authority than the lips of
any mortal can impart. O may the Lord Himself put away your sins and
your heart will know it and be at rest! To some people these scruples
will cause the most agitation just when they looked for the most
tranquility–and if they are God's people and God is working in their
hearts, I am sure of this–that 50,000 priests could never give them an
assurance that could make them feel true peace or heart's ease.
They would still be disquieted, still be troubled, even if Bishops and
Popes should pronounce them absolved. God's voice, alone, can still the
tempest of their souls. See how the Romanist is pursuing phantoms all
the while that he is following the directions of his church and
observing her laborious ordinances. He never reaches the goal of peace!
He can never be free from anxiety in life or apprehension in death
because his church never speaks to him of perfection through the one
Sacrifice offered once and for all. And when he dies he does not know
where he may go. He conceives himself to be really forgiven, after a
sacerdotal fashion, but he is not so divinely pardoned but that he has
to go to "purgatory" for a time, to be purged from spots which still
remain!
He is never certain where he is with regard to the bar of Divine
Justice. His pardon, at the best, is not worth having as a guarantee of
Heaven. In most cases the most religious Papist only goes to
"purgatory," a place which certain of their ablest writers say is so
cold on one side that they are all frozen like the inhabitants of the
arctic regions–and then the victims are tossed to the other side,
which is so extremely hot that it is as though they were being baked
alive! So they are tossed about from one side to another till sin is
either frozen or dried out of them. This is a fine prospect for good
religious Romanists! The statements of Romish theologians as to the
purgatorial regions are even more grim and terrible, for in some such
imaginary place the remainder of sin is to be put away!
But, Beloved, we have it in the text that God is to remove our
transgressions! O what a removal is that! Hands off, you priests! You
are too feeble for such weights as ours! Our sins are too stupendous
for your puny strength! But the Lord comes with His own right hand of
majesty, puts away our sins and lifts them on to Christ–and Christ
comes and flings them into His sepulcher and they are gone and buried
forever–"As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed
our transgressions from us."–
"He seized our dreadful load, our guilt sustained; And hea ved the
mountain from a guilty world." Our transgressions were against the Lord
our God–to Him, therefore, belongs the right to pardon them! These
transgressions had done dishonor to His Holy Name. He has a right, if
He wills, to put them away if He can do so without tarnishing His
Glory.
By the Substitution of Jesus, Justice is satisfied and God Himself
blots out our sins. And here is the beauty of it– since the Lord has
removed our transgressions from us, the thing is done completely and it
is done forever and forever! What a man does, he may undo. You know how
some men are like children–they will give a thing and take a thing
back, and so play fast and loose with you. They will speak well of you
today, and say, "Yes, they forgive," but they cannot forget! They
remember again tomorrow, revive their old resentments and, in their
anger, call up, again, past grievances. Not so, our God. "I am Jehovah!
I change not," says the Lord, "therefore you sons of Jacob are not
consumed." When God removes transgression, the work is so done that it
never shall be undone–certainly not by Himself–and if not by Himself,
who, then, can do it? My Brothers and Sisters, what consolations you
have since you have believed in Jesus! I pray you, feast upon them and
be satisfied to the fullest!
Our text has in it also a touch of personality for each one of us. I
has pondering upon this passage the other day and it came to me with a
peculiar sweetness–not on account of any of the thoughts I have given
you, but on account of this–"As far as the east is from the west, so
far has He removed our transgressions from"–himself [David]? Yes, that
is true, but it is "from us," from us. And this was what passed through
my mind–then my sins are gone away from me, from me! Here am I,
fretting that I am not what I should be, and groaning, and crying
before God about a thousand things! But, for all that, there is no sin
upon me for, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He
removed our transgressions from us."
From ourselves the sins have gone! From us, as well as from His eyes.
From His book and from His memory–they have gone from us. "But I
committed them," says one. Ah, that you did. Your sins were yours,
yours with a vengeance! It was like that fiery tunic which Hercules put
on, which he could not drag from him, let him do what he might, but
which ate into his flesh and bones. Such were your sins. You could not
tear them off! But God has taken them off, every one of them, if you
have believed in Jesus. And where is that tunic of fire now, which
would have devoured you forever? Where is it? You shall search for it,
but it shall not be found, no, it shall not be, says the Lord. It is
gone away from you! I sometimes see Believers troubling themselves as
if all their sins were laid up in an iron safe in some part of the
Lord's house. It is not so! It is not so!
They are fretting as though somewhere or other there were a horde of
sins in ambush which would accuse them and bear witness against them
before God's bar, and so they would be condemned after all. It is not
so! It is not so! They are all gone! They are all gone. Satan may stand
and howl for accusers and say, "Come, gather together, and accuse the
child of God!" And you yourself may tremblingly fear that they will
come and therefore you will put on your filthy garments and come in
before God, and stand there like a poor wretched criminal about to be
tried. But what does Jesus say when He comes into the court? He says,
"Take away his filthy garments from him! What right has he to put them
on, for I have taken them away from him long ago by My Substitution?
Take them off! Set a fair miter on his head. This is one whom I have
loved and cleansed–why does he stand in the place of condemnation when
he is not condemned and cannot be condemned, for there is now no
condemnation since I have died?"
Ah, we many times go down into the hold of the vessel and there we lie
among the baggage. And our doubts and fears fasten down the hatches and
there we are–half stifled–when we might as well come up upon the
quarter deck and walk there, full of delight and peace! We are moaning
and fretting ourselves and all about what does not really exist. I saw
two men, yesterday, handcuffed and marched to the carriage to be taken
off to prison. They could not move their wrists. But, suppose I had
walked behind them, with my wrists close together and had never opened
my hands, nor stirred them, and said, "Alas! I committed, years ago,
some wrong, and have handcuffs put upon me"? You would naturally say,
"Well, but are they not taken off?" And I reply, "Yes, I have heard
they are, but somehow, through habit, I go about as if I had them on."
Would not everybody say of me, "Why, that man must be insane!"? Now
you, child of God, once had the handcuffs on–your sins were upon
you–but Jesus Christ took them off. When you believed in Him, He broke
all your fetters and now they are not there. Why do you go about
trembling and saying, "I fear!–I am afraid!" What do you fear, O Man?
What do you fear? Are you a Believer and afraid of your old sins? You
are afraid of foes which do not exist! Your sins are so gone that they
cannot be laid to your charge. Do you not believe this? Can you not
rise to something like the true estimate of your position? You are not
only pardoned, but you are a child of God! Go to your Father with joy
and thankfulness and bless Him for all His love to you. Wipe those
tears away, smooth those wrinkles from your brow–take up the song of
joy and gladness and say with the Apostle Paul–"Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that
condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
Be glad in the Lord, you pardoned ones!–
"Shout, Believer, to your God! He has once the winepress trod. Peace
procured by blood Divine, Cancell'd all your sins and mine. In your
Surety you are free, His dear hands were pierced for you. With His
spotless vesture on,
Holy as the Holy One. Oh the heights and depths of Grace! Shining with
meridian blaze; Here the saved records show Sinners black but comely
too."
As for you who have never received that pardon, does not the mention of
it make you long for it, cry for it and beg for it? O that you would,
above all, believe for it–for it is to be had by you. The guiltiest of
the guilty shall have forgiveness if they believe in Jesus! Whoever
among you will trust in the crucified Savior shall be pardoned this
night! The moment you trust Him you shall have a full acquittal for all
your sins and crimes. Yes, all transgressions, and you shall sing, as
our poet Kent does–
"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast, And O my Soul, with wonder view, For sins to come here's pardon
too." God be praised! Let His Word be believed! Let His name be trusted
and then He shall be praised! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 103.
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The Light of the World