DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 31, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Who forgives all your iniquities." Psalm 103:3.
I am a firm believer, not only in the Inspiration of the Psalms,
themselves, but also in the correctness of their order. I believe that
Paul was right when he called a certain Psalm, "the Second Psalm," and
that those are wrong who so disarrange the book as to make it the
sixteenth. Anything to certain radicals in theology is better than the
established order– they change for change sake! Many attempts have
been made to arrange the Psalms chronologically and critics have
shifted them about at their pleasure, according to this theory or that.
Their wisdom is utter folly! The Psalms as they stand have an order
most appropriate and instructive.
If time permitted I could illustrate this in many ways, but for this
present it is more in the line of my discourse to observe that we could
not have understood so well the 103rd Psalm if we had not first read
the thirty-second. You remember how the 32nd begins? "Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity." The pardoned man is
blessed and then he blesses God. First the full, deep, effective
blessing comes to him freely from the Lord and then he reflects the
blessing and exclaims in joyful gratitude, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul."
First, we are blessed with the pardon of sin and then we bless God for
the pardon of sin. The Divine blessing enters our hearts loaded with
good things. We gladly receive the heavenly messenger and then it
begins to sing like a minstrel at a feast, nor does it long sing alone
for all that is within the house of our manhood arouses itself to join
in the strain and never is better music made this side the heavenly
places than when all that is in us is stirred up to magnify and bless
God's holy name! Our text is one stanza of the never-ending "song of
loves."
In the verse before us the most wonderful point, to my mind, is the
attribute of God which David selects for special praise–"All that is
within me bless His holy name." You might have expected to read,
"gracious name," or, "merciful name," but you find it written "holy
name." Indeed, this is the emphatic point of the wonder of forgiven
sin, that a holy God should pass it by! If God could wink at iniquity;
if there were something in His Nature which rendered sin tolerable to
Him, it would be a slight thing that He should allow it to go
unpunished. But because He is a holy God–righteous, just and pure–who
cannot look upon iniquity, whose fury burns against evil, therefore it
becomes wonderful even to amazement that He should forgive our
iniquities!
To accomplish this wonder, the miracle of the Cross was worked by
unspeakable love. O man, you have but to gain a true idea of that
holiness which is like a consuming fire, that holiness which even
angels cannot gaze upon, but of which they sing, "Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Hosts"–you have but to gain a glimpse of that unutterable
perfection and you will abhor yourself in dust and ashes–and then you
will marvel to think that the Thrice Holy One should have spared your
guilty soul! How abhorrent is your depravity in His sight and yet He
does not smite you! What are you but a mass of pollution? And yet the
Infinitely Pure has considered you in love! What are you but a sink of
impurity? And yet the All-perfect One has looked upon you in
compassion!
Do you believe in Him and accept His dear Son? Then Grace has looked
upon you! Before the glance of Omnipotent Love, your sin shall
disappear and your iniquity shall forever vanish! O blessed deed of
boundless mercy! If, indeed, the royal pardon has been sent to us from
the court of Heaven, we may right heartily say, "Bless the Lord, O my
Soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name, who forgives all
your iniquities." In these latter days, among the other wonderful
things which have been developed, we have been enriched by a school of
thinkers who kick against the doctrine of Justification by Faith and
rebel against the idea of the Atonement and the forgiveness of sin.
The meager gospel which they proclaim to us poor fallen wretches is
this–If you do wrong, there is no help for it. You will have to reap
the consequences. If you do right you will, of course, bring your
hearts into a healthier condition and you will be happy in proportion.
But if you do wrong there is no hope for you–there will certainly come
upon you the result of evil and you will suffer till you work yourself
right. "Do not flatter yourself," they say, "with any idea of Grace and
mercy interposing–there is either no God, or if there is one, He will
take no notice of your prayers, but will let you develop in your own
way. The fictions of substitution, imputation and pardon are mere
delusions, or pious subterfuges unworthy of rational men."
These "men of culture" and "modern thought" are intent upon robbing us
of the essence of the Gospel! Under cover of enforcing a Truth of God
which nobody denies, they undermine the special doctrine for which
Revelation was given. It is true that upon man's character his true
condition depends, but this by no means disproves the interposition of
supreme love. Woe to us if their philosophy should be true–and woe to
them, also–yes, woe to the whole world if their denial of our best
hope should be accepted for truth! As for us, this gracious forgiveness
which they deny touches the chief spring of our soul and stirs us with
a hope of better things! This very Grace which they deprecate as though
it were immoral and could not work men towards holiness, is the cause
in our soul of hatred of sin and the source of our hearts' noblest
aspirations after holiness!
Moved by gratitude, we long to honor our pardoning God, who, though He
is glorious in holiness, is also glorious in Grace when He blots out
sin! We would gladly prove, by our lives, that we have not received
this gift of mercy in vain, by letting all men see that we are now dead
to sin and cannot live any longer therein. Evangelism does not flatter
mere morality by making it the rival of Christ, but it is the highest
promoter of all that is honest, temperate and of good report, as our
daily conversation shall prove. The grand Truth of God of forgiven sin
is our subject at this time. I hope I cannot say anything which will be
new to you upon this point, for if I could, it would look as if you did
not already understand this early privilege of true Believers.
Many of you understand it and enjoy it and, therefore, I can only bring
to your remembrance old facts. But these, like well-stored and ripe
fruit, will be exceedingly sweet. I spread the table, not with foreign
delicacies and novel dainties, but with the everyday fare of the great
Father's house. Our sermon will be simple, but I trust it will be most
consoling. It will not display the ability of the speaker, but it will
reveal the Grace of His Master and this is my heart's desire. "I
believe in the forgiveness of sins," is one of the most blessed
sentences of the creed. Dear Friends, we do most joyfully believe in
it, and, what is more, we enjoy the truth personally as a matter of
fact in our own case! May we feel the joy of it at this good hour. O
Holy Spirit, bear witness with the water and the blood!
I. In speaking of the pardon of sin, I shall remark, first, that it is
A PRIMARY BLESSING. Observe, it is put first in the catalog given by
the Psalmist. It is not written, "Who heals all your diseases, who
forgives all your iniquities." No, but the list commences thus, "Who
forgives all your iniquities." Forgiveness leads the van and stands in
the forefront of the host of mercies. When the angels of God meet us,
the first messenger of love that comforts our heart brings in his hand
pardon for our transgressions. As the olive leaf in the dove's mouth
proved to Noah that all the waters were receded, so does a sense of
forgiven sin assure us that our great griefs are ended and our liberty
and joy has come. Pardon shines first of the stars of mercy.
A main reason for this is the fact that we never enjoy a mercy as a
mercy from God till we receive the forgiveness of sins. A man lives
while his sin is unforgiven. He eats, he drinks, he sleeps, he wakes
and talks about enjoying life–but none of these things are received by
him as gifts from God. If he thinks upon God at all, the Divine name is
a terror to him. He does not eat his bread as though it were given by a
Father's hand, nor does he put on his garments as though he were
clothed by Divine love. That cannot be while he abides under Divine
anger! The unpardoned sinner is barely able to see God as his
Benefactor–as his Father he knows Him not. God does bestow mercies
upon unpardoned men and women, but they cannot receive them as such
until, first of all, they come to know that their transgression is
forgiven.
Brethren, there are many mercies which are not given at all and cannot
be given until first of all the pardon of sin has been bestowed. It
would be out of place and inconsistent to give the blessings of the
Covenant to unpardoned sinners. For instance, why should God heal the
diseases of a man under condemnation for sin? It is but a scant mercy
which would seek the health of a man condemned to die–by all means
relieve his pain, but his disease you may leave alone! We cannot
expect God to crown a man with loving kindness and tender mercies while
he is still dead in sin and lives in daily dread of a second death–an
eternal death.
A coronation for a condemned criminal would be a superfluity of
inconsistency. To crown a hardened convict who lies in the cell of
Newgate awaiting his execution would be a wretched mockery! How could
it be that God should wreathe a chaplet of favors for a man who has
refused His mercy and willfully abides under His wrath on account of
unconfessed and unpardoned sin? How could our spiritual youth be
renewed like the eagle's, or our mouth be satisfied with good things
while as yet we are doomed to die and are withering away in our
wickedness? What are good things to a tortured conscience and what is
renewed youth to a soul racked by remorse? No, pardoned sin must clear
the road for the march of Divine Grace–this jungle of iniquity must be
removed to make a highway for our God.
The application of the blood of sprinkling must be felt! The cleansing
power of the Atonement must be known or the rest of the blessings of
the Covenant will never reach us. And well may the Lord place this
mercy first because when it comes, it ensures all the rest! The
forgiveness of sin is the dawn of the day which is always followed by
the clearer light. God does not pardon us and then leave us to perish
of our spiritual diseases–but when once He grants a plenary
absolution, then His Spirit exercises His healing art and recovers us
of the leprosy of sin. When the Lord forgives all our iniquities, it is
not long before we perceive that our life is redeemed from destruction,
crowned with loving kindness and satisfied with good things to the
renewal of its youth!
Pardon never comes alone–troops of blessings attend it! The voice of
the turtle dove, which speaks peace because of pardoned sin, also tells
that the rain is over and gone and that the fruits of the Spirit will
soon appear. He who gave His Son's blood to wash us will withhold no
good thing from us! He who has said to us, "Your sins are forgiven
you," has given us a grant of all necessary good in that one sentence
of His love! Like the comet nucleus, which bears a streaming train of
light behind it, so does forgiveness draw along with it a far-reaching
glory of boundless favor. Well may this blessing be set first since it
carries all the rest in its loins–
"When dreadful guilt is done a way No other fears we know. That hand
which scatters pardons down, Shall crowns of life bestow."
There is this, also, to be thought of, that the pardon of sin comes
first that it may be seen to be an act of pure Grace. If any other
blessing had preceded it, our legal spirits would have dreamed of merit
and fitness–if any attainment had been reached by us before the
forgiveness of sins was given, we might have been tempted to glory in
self–but now we perceive that God forgives our sins before He heals
our moral diseases and, therefore, there is no room for pride to set
her foot. While the man is still white with the leprosy of sin, the
Lord visits him in pity to show that He looks for nothing in man as the
motive power of His love. While yet the sinner has his judgment
perverted, his affections polluted and his desires depraved–even while
he is full of the plague of his own heart, God says to him–"I have
forgiven you."
This, therefore, is pure Grace and is set in the foreground that its
sovereignty and freeness may be written before our eyes as with a
sunbeam. God pardons men as sinners just as He finds them,
notwithstanding that they have nothing to recommend them to Him. Their
disease is so foul that they might have been spurned for their
loathsomeness if it were not for His boundless love! But seeing them
plunged in evil and dead in sin, He magnifies His mercy by quickening
them to new life and forgiving them all their trespasses.
Brothers and Sisters, on this first head I want to be very practical
and say to you–let us seek this forgiveness of sin as a primary
blessing if we have not yet obtained it. If the Holy Spirit puts it
first, let us seek it first. Be wise, O you who feel your guilt, and do
not go about, first of all, to make a reformation in yourselves and
then to come to God for mercy. But come to Him, first, and then see
after other things. When you come to Him, do not ask Him to first heal
your soul's disease, but first to forgive your iniquities! Follow God's
order and you cannot go amiss! There is infinite wisdom in all the
Lord's arrangements. Do not, I pray you, try to make that first which
God makes second, nor that second which God makes first!
You are guilty, ask for pardon at the outset. Through Jesus Christ a
free pardon is proclaimed, pardon for sins of the deepest dye! Pardon
bought and sealed with His atoning blood! Come and receive it just as
you are. Though there is nothing in you to commend you to the Divine
regard, you are now in just such a state as best prepares you for His
Sovereign Grace. Are you startled at this statement? It is neither more
nor less than the Truth of God! You are empty,
therefore there is room in you for the fullness of Divine mercy! You
are polluted, therefore there is opportunity to show the power of the
blood in cleansing you! You are guilty and there is space for
undeserved mercy. Plead your guiltiness and say, "Lord, pardon my
iniquity, for it is great." Do not urge any extenuation, but as you are
guilty, say, "Forgive me." In your confessed guiltiness there is space
for the great King to do as He wills and put away your sin by a
sovereign act of mercy.
Let your first desire be pardoned sin! Do not wait till first you
understand all mysteries, but get your sins forgiven! Do not first
labor to attain a perfect life–get your sins forgiven! Do not first
make a profession, join a Church and put on outward religiousness. Get
your sins forgiven! There David's Psalm begins and there yours must
began if God, in love, accepts it–"Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all
that is within me bless His holy name; who forgives all your
iniquities." That is our first head. Pardon is the primary
blessing–seek it as such.
II. Forgiveness is A PRESENT BLESSING. This is very apparent in the
text, which is in the present tense–"Who forgives all your
iniquities." Not, "who will, perhaps, forgive you on your death bed."
Not, "Who did forgive you years ago and now condemns you." No, it is,
"Who forgives"–is now forgiving daily, hourly, momentarily–is
continually forgiving your iniquity. I want to bring this fact of a
present blessing before your minds briefly, but very clearly. This
privilege the Believer has actually obtained–all his sins are forgiven
at this moment of time. Blessed be the name of the Lord, we are even
now washed from sin!
We shall grow in Grace, but we shall never be more completely pardoned
than when we first believed! We shall one day stand before the glorious
Presence of God in His own sacred courts and see the Well-Beloved and
wear His likeness, but we shall not even then be more perfectly
forgiven than we are at this present moment! Sin depresses our
spirit–the consciousness of it often makes us weep in secret and yet
none of it is imputed to us–every grain of it is as far removed from
us as the east is from the west. Rejoice, Believer, that the Spirit
bears this witness–"God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you." As many
as have looked to Christ upon the Cross are now justified by faith and
have peace with God. They are at this moment cleansed from all sin
through the application of the precious blood of Christ. This is a
matter of present fact, and not of mere hope.
According to the text this present mercy is perpetually bestowed–He
still forgives our iniquity–there is perpetuity in it. At this very
moment I may be mourning my sin, but God is forgiving it. Alas, I may
be sinning, for even in the holiest deeds we do there is still sin–but
even then God is still forgiving! If, indeed, you are a Believer in
Jesus Christ, the Lord is at all times forgiving you! As constant as
your sin, so constant is His forgiveness! Never fall into the notion of
some that the one forgiveness which we received at the first has
rendered it unnecessary for us to seek new forgiveness, and unnecessary
for us to offer new confession. It is not so! The Lord is always
forgiving and it is for us to still be seeking that blessing!
We ask each day for daily bread though the promise has made it sure,
and so must we daily seek mercy, though it is already promised. Our
Lord said, "After this manner also pray you," and a part of that prayer
is, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against
us." I know that certain brethren say that the Lord's prayer is not for
Believers–but their dictum in such a case is not worth the breath they
waste in delivering it! I am quite satisfied, for one, to pray as my
Lord taught me. If they prefer to pray as their whims teach them, it is
at their own risk! Besides, I read that we are to confess our sins, one
to another–and sins to another are certainly sins towards God! If,
then, we are to confess to our fellow men the wrongs which we have done
to them, it will take a great deal of reasoning to convince me that we
are not to confess the wrongs which we do towards our heavenly Father!
There should be daily confession, for even, "if we walk in the light as
God is in the light"–and that is a very high condition–and if we have
fellowship with God clearly and distinctly, yet even then we shall need
to have the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us from all sin. We still
sin even when walking in the light and still need that Jesus should
cleanse us by His blood. Herein is our consolation, that Jesus is
always cleansing us–"He forgives all your iniquities." You are often
sinning, but He is always forgiving you! You are often wandering, often
erring, often grieving Him, but "He forgives all your iniquities."
I do not feel like preaching when I touch this text! I heartily wish I
could sit down and have a happy cry over this blessed Truth–that my
God is, at this moment, forgiving me! Oh, poor Heart, you have much to
chide yourself for, but your Lord forgives you! You are a frail,
foolish, unstable, selfish, wayward thing, but He forgives you!
Whatever your
faults, known and unknown, He is forgiving you now! Even while you are
lamenting your many transgressions, He is casting them behind His back
and hurling them into the depths of the sea! While I speak to you with
my voice, my own heart is singing inwardly, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul,
who forgives all your iniquities."
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, this mercy of pardon is knowingly
received. We know that we are forgiven. "Presumption," says one! Simply
the Truth of God, say I! Do you think David would say, "Bless the Lord,
O my Soul, who may or may not have forgiven me." Ah, no! He speaks of
favors which he had consciously received! Nobody ever sings over
uncertain blessings. I say again, nobody ever sings over an uncertain
pardon! A doubt as to our forgiveness is fatal to all joy, for it lets
in the dread fear of Divine wrath! Absolute certainty must be realized
before a heart can make a song concerning the forgiveness of sin. When
by faith we accept the Lord Jesus to be our All in All, we are as clear
about God's having forgiven us our sins as we are about our having
committed them!
Upon our believing, we have as good evidence of being cleansed as we
had of having been foul! Our sense of guilt arises from our knowledge
of the Law and that is clear. But our sense of forgiveness comes from
our knowledge of the Gospel–and that is equally clear. I am not sure
that I was condemned if there is a question about the Law. But there is
no question and, as a sinner, I am condemned. In the same way I am not
assuredly absolved if there is a question about the Gospel–but as
there is no question about the Gospel, I am assuredly absolved because
I believe in Jesus. Resting in Christ and trusting alone in Him, you
and I may have a present conscious sense of pardon–we may know our
forgiveness and be beyond doubt concerning it. May God bring us to that
happy condition!
Then, Brothers and Sisters, this present blessing is immediately
efficient, for it secures us a present right to all that is involved in
being pardoned. If a man is forgiven his offenses, he has peace towards
God. He has boldness to enjoy access to God and reason to expect that
his petitions will be answered. The stone which was lying at the door
blocking his acceptance is now rolled way. He is a justified man and he
is accepted in the Beloved. God treats him as just and rewards him as
such. The man is free from guilt, for God has absolved him. He is
worthy in the sight of the great Judge of all the earth. "Being
justified by faith" we have–ah, my Brethren–we have not only what the
Apostle tells us, but we have untold blessings! We have time and
eternity, life and death, earth and Heaven, Christ and God! These are
ours now! We have a present portion in all the Covenant promises and
provisions.
The practical point is this–if this forgiveness of sin is a present
blessing, seek for it today! Seek it at once! Do not be satisfied
unless you are forgiven now! Do not be satisfied unless you are
forgiven every day and all the day! Do not put off your soul with a
bare hope, but labor for certainty! Do not foolishly postpone it in the
mere chance that at the last pinch, when you come to die, you may be
forgiven, but cry for it now! Why, man alive, if I knew I could gain
pardon when I came to die I should not like to spend the interval
without it. It is such a privilege to be forgiven that I want it at
once and cannot endure delay. Oh, the sense of pardoned sin! What
sweetness! What rest! I know its rapture in my own heart–it is my
support and my delight–making my heart to be all music and dancing!
We, at this present hour, joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by
whom we have received the Atonement. I charge you, do not postpone this
matter–why should you put off joy? O repenting Sinner, believe that
you can have forgiveness through Christ Jesus and you shall have it!
Going to God through Jesus Christ with a humble confession of your sin,
you shall TODAY enjoy the Father's kiss of reconciliation and your
conscience shall be thoroughly purged from the least taint of sin. May
the Holy Spirit work this present sense of forgiveness in you all.
III. Thirdly, this is a PERSONAL BLESSING. I cannot resist the
tendency, in reading, to lay the stress upon the word, "your." "Who
forgives all your iniquities." Our Lord is a blessed God to forgive
anybody, but that He should forgive me is the greatest feat of His
mercy! A good Brother wrote me the other day, "Mercy had reached its
zenith when it saved me." He thought so of himself and we may each one
think the same of his own case–
"'Tis Grace, 'tis glorious Grace indeed, Grace without parallel! Great!
But how great? Does far exceed The power of speech to tell."
You can all rejoice that God forgives iniquity, but your rejoicing will
never reach so high as when you know that He forgives all your
iniquity. Honey is not sweet except to him that tastes it. "But may we
know this personally?" asks one. I answer, "Yes." Some of us know that
God has forgiven us, because we have the character which He describes
as being forgiven.
He forgives those who confess their sin–"If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." We have made confession before His face and we
believe His Word and are, therefore, sure that He has cleansed us. He
has promised mercy to those who forsake their sins. Having forsaken our
sins, we look to be forgiven for Christ's sake. Forgiveness is also
freely promised to those who look to Jesus for it. We are looking to
Him and we are forgiven. Are you not Believers? Then there is no hope
for you–but if you are trusting alone in Jesus Christ, your iniquity
is blotted out. He that believes is justified from all things from
which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses. In repentance, in
confession of sin, in forsaking sin and in faith in our Lord Jesus, we
have the marks of pardoned sinners and these marks are apparent in our
souls.
Moreover, Brothers and Sisters, if you have any doubt about whether the
Lord forgives you, now, it will be well for you to make sure that you
accept His way of salvation. It is by faith in His dear Son. Do you
need any other way? He forgives because Jesus stood in the sinner's
place and He puts the sinner into Christ's place. Are you satisfied
with that great plan of salvation by Substitution, by Atonement, by
Sacrifice? "Oh," I hear you say, "Satisfied with it! I am delighted
with it! It is all my salvation and all my desire." Then, if you have
accepted what God sets before you, it is not possible that He should
refuse you the blessing which He has promised. What says the Scripture?
"Through His name whoever believes in Him shall receive remission of
sins."
As sure as you have received Christ, your sin is removed from you! It
cannot be that a man has Christ and has his sin, too, for his iniquity
must be covered to whom Christ is All in All. Yes, we have this pardon
personally and pleasantly, for we believe in Jesus. Do you not believe
in the Divine Word and testimony concerning the pardon of sin? Have you
not heard the Lord God declare that His Son has forever put away sin by
the Sacrifice of Himself? What better evidence do you need than the
Infallible Word? Do you look for feelings, signs, tokens, or other
things to corroborate the witness of your God? Is He an unreliable
witness? Is not His Word enough–alone, and by itself? It is so to
those that have believed and it ought to be so to all men! For my own
part, I had rather venture my soul upon one Word of God in the sacred
Scriptures than upon all the whispers of angels that men have ever
heard, all the visions that men have ever seen and all the ecstasies of
delight that saints have ever felt! All the world, all the Church and
all Heaven put together cannot make up the weight of one sentence of
God's Word!
One Truth of God I would like to mention. It is this–we know that we
are, at this moment, forgiven, because we at this moment give to the
Lord Jesus Christ that look which brings forgiveness. I will put aside
all the past. I will put aside all our experience, all the change of
heart which we hope we have undergone and I will put the matter
altogether apart from the past. If I never did look to You, Immanuel,
crucified for me, I look to You now! If I have never rested in You
before, I will rest in You now–
"A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, On Your kind arms I fall! Be You my
strength and righteousness, My Jesus, and my All!"
Oh, then, we are forgiven! We must be forgiven! Never a soul did give
that look without finding forgiveness of sin as surely as the Israelite
found healing when he looked to the bronze serpent!
So, Beloved, if that is the case, I want you to view this blessing as a
personal possession and seek it as such. I would to God that all of you
that hear me would seek personal forgiveness at this moment! Do not
think of the preacher, or the heavy style in which he sets forth this
Truth of God, but think of yourself and your personal need of
cleansing! Think nothing, just now, of those that sit at your side, but
seek for mercy at the hand of God, each man, each woman, each child for
himself, or herself! Pardon is to be had–rest not till you have it! It
will not do you any good if all the rest of the congregation should be
pardoned if sin should remain upon you!
Breathe, then, the personal prayer to a personal Savior–"God be
merciful to me, a sinner." Trust in Christ for yourself and you shall
sing, today, "Who forgives all my iniquities." Blessed be His name!
IV. I have now a fourth point to call your attention to, and that is,
this is A PERFECT BLESSING. "Who forgives all your iniquities." For,
remember, the forgiveness spoken of in the text is a Divine one. It is
God that forgives all our iniquities! A man's forgiveness, when we have
wronged him, is to be sought. And when we get it, we shall find, in
many instances, that it is a poor, half-hearted affair. Men often say
they forgive, "but"–now that very hesitation in their speech shows it
is not a full and free forgiveness! But when God does anything, He does
it thoroughly.
Now, listen, just this minute. When God charges sin upon a man He does
it after a very high standard, for every idle word that man shall speak
he shall be brought into judgment. When God condemns man, He does it
after an equally elevated standard and when God punishes man, He does
it after a solemn and awful manner. The new gods that have lately come
up have a little Hell because they are little gods–but my God, the God
of the whole earth–has a great Hell and a fearful doom, for what He
does is done by rule of strict justice.
Believe me, He pardons to the same scale! All His acts are of a sublime
character. The standard of punishment is the standard of forgiveness.
You know how He judges, how He condemns, how He punishes–after that
same thorough, Godlike manner He forgives! He makes a clean sweep of
sin, according to that blessed Word, "The day comes, says the Lord,
when the sin of Jacob shall be sought for and it shall not be found:
yes, it shall not be, says the Lord." "I will subdue all their
iniquities, and cast their transgressions into the depths of the sea."
"I have blotted out your iniquities as a thick cloud, and as a cloud
your sins." "They shall not be mentioned against you any more,
forever!"
Oh, it is a perfect blessing, for it is a Divine pardon and, you see,
its completeness is expressed in that word, "all." "Who forgives all
your iniquities." He does not remove the great ones and leave the
little ones to rankle. Nor doe He leave the little ones and leave one
great black one to devour us, but, "ALL" of them He covers and
annihilates with the effectual Atonement made by His dear Son. And then
notice the word which in our text expresses sin–"iniquities." Pull it
to pieces–it is in-equities–the matters in which we are not,
according to equity. Sometimes we fall short. Sometimes we go beyond.
Sometimes we do not act in equity towards our friends, our relatives,
or strangers. We constantly fail to act in strict equity towards God.
Now, He says, all our in-equities–everything in which we fall short of
the perfect rule of equity, or go beyond that rule–all these He
forgives! What a blessed, comprehensive word this is. I was reading the
other day in a very delightful little book, entitled, "Never Say
'Die,'" which is admirably calculated to comfort a seeking soul, these
few words which struck me forcibly. The writer says, "All our
righteousness are as filthy rags. If you will bring your good living
and your precious righteousness to Christ, you must make sin of the
whole lot–there is nothing else you can do with it–and ask to have it
all forgiven. The man who will be saved by his own righteousness says
hopelessly, 'die,' to his own soul. You must cast all this splendid
rubbish of yours on the heap along with the oaths and the lies, the
drinking and Sabbath-breakings, the foul living–and let the
ever-flowing stream that keeps eddying round wash it all away."
As I read it, I thought–That is what I will do with mine! I will put
my sermons, my prayers, my almsgiving– everything on the same heap as
my sins and let them go together! Lord, be pleased to forgive all my
in-equities, my good works and my bad works. I might have tried to sort
them a little, but one is so much like the other that I fling them all
overboard and swim to glory on the Cross. We have no hope but in our
Lord Jesus–we need pardoning mercy for all we have ever done–for sin
has been mixed with it all! I advise you, my Hearer, to put the whole
life you have lived into one lump, and say, "Lord, forgive me the whole
of it! I cannot acknowledge every sin, for I do not know them all! Sin
is such a subtle thing that it has penetrated into my most holy
thoughts and desires. But, Lord, cleanse me from all sin through the
atoning blood." "Who forgives all your iniquities."
What a blessed thing is this! For when God once forgives, He forgives
forever! He never plays fast and loose and He never brings to mind,
again, that of which He has said, "I will remember it no more." O my
Brothers and Sisters, if you are pardoned once, you are forgiven once
and for all! Irreversible acquittals God bestows, "for the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance." Immutability is stamped upon
the patent of our pardon! Until God can change or lie, He never will
bring to mind, again, the sin of that man whom He has pardoned. "Your
sins are forgiven you–go in peace."
Now, I want you, practically, to use this head by seeking to obtain
this pardon as a complete thing. Hosts of professing Christians never
reach to this. Many of you do not believe that you are or can be
completely pardoned. But such pardon is possible. Do not rest till you
have it! You will never know true peace of mind until it is yours. The
Roman Catholic cannot believe that God pardons him altogether and he
never knows that he is safe. It is a very poor thing you gain by being
a Roman Catholic. If you get the best you can, you go to "purgatory"
when you die! It is great cry and very little wool! But in the faith of
Jesus Christ you get present and eternal pardon!
However great our cry is, it is never equal to the wool, for what a
great blessing it is to receive immediate, absolute, eternal salvation
on the spot so that if you live as long as Methuselah the
transgressions of all those years are covered! And if you die at once,
all your offenses are put away through the precious blood of Jesus
Christ! Seek for this heavenly
gift! Do not rest till you are as sure of perfect forgiveness as of
your own existence–and when you have this glorious gift of Grace say,
"Bless the Lord, O my Soul, who forgives all your iniquities."
V. In the fifth place, this is a PRICELESS BLESSING. It is a blessing
which could not be purchased by a life of holiness. If we have once
committed sin and should, from now on, be absolutely spotless, yet our
previous sin would absolutely condemn us–
"Could my zeal no respite kno w, Could my tears forever flow, All for
sin could not atone, You must save and You alone."
Put on a hair shirt and an iron girdle. Fast day and night. Cover
yourself with the bruises of your scourging. Starve as a mendicant or
shut yourself up in a hermitage–the sin of the past will remain the
same. Weep tears of blood, but their crimson will not wash out the
crimson of your sin! That spot, that blood-red spot upon the soul
defies removal! Wash it with your heart's blood and it would still be
there.
Though you could bleed as every wave that breaks upon our island's
shores and fill the Atlantic with a crimson flood. Though you should
gather all the seas that ever flowed together and wash and wash with
niter and much soap till you had polluted all the ocean with your
filth–it would still remain. In vain you cry, "Out, damning spot." The
spot abides and will abide unless Almighty love shall take it out
forever. Only God Himself can forgive and by Him no price can be
accepted in the form of future obedience, for all that you can promise
is already due and the promise, itself, will be broken.
What is more, this forgiveness could not be purchased by an eternity of
suffering in Hell. There they lie in anguish, which God grant we may
never know, but they are as far off from the expiation of their sin as
when they first came there. When the world grows gray and sun and moon
die out and time has spun its utmost thread, the last will be as far
off from the expiation of their sin as ever! There is no getting rid of
sin by suffering! Still must the lost suffer, for still their sin
remains. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment," as surely
as the righteous go away into eternal life. But though it could not be
purchased by a life of holiness nor by an eternity of woe, forgiveness
has been procured! This pardon which is freely preached today to all
who believe in Jesus has been purchased and there is He that procured
it, sitting at the right hand of God the Father–a Man like unto
ourselves–but yet equal with the Ever-Blessed One!
If you ask me how He procured forgiveness, I answer that He shows His
hands–the scars are there. He shows His feet. He shows His side–the
scars of His wounds are there. He shows His heart that was broken for
our guilt. He shows His blessed Person which underwent the baptism of
Divine wrath that He might deliver us from being plunged into those
tremendous deeps! O Son of God, You have redeemed us, but what a price
have You paid in the bloody sweat of Your face and the sorrowful
breaking of Your heart! And now, today, we accept freely, gladly, what
You have so dearly earned!
What else do we say? Why, that if we are pardoned through such an
Atonement, then are we Christ's forever! We ought to show deep
gratitude and the least we can do is to confess, "We are not our own!"
We ought to go out singing with all our heart, "He has put away my
transgressions and covered my iniquities." The Lord grant it may be so,
for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ