Free Pardon

DELIVERED BY

C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"I, even I, am He that blots outyour transgressions for My own sake,
and will not remember your sins." Isaiah 43:25.

THIS extraordinary passage is rendered the more remarkable from its
connection, for it follows a description of the sins of God's people, a
description which mentions their sins of omission in that they had
neglected the service of the Most High–and their sins of commission in
that they had gone so far in breaking God's Law that they had even
wearied Him with their iniquities. There is the charge–a thousand
facts prove it–and nothing can be urged by way of extenuation. We
might expect that the next utterance would be the sentence. And the
next motion of the Divine hand would be the execution, but, instead of
that, O wonder of wonders! (Who is a pardoning God like unto You, O
Jehovah?)–there comes a full remission, a complete absolution–"I,
even I, am He that blots out your transgressions."

The verse is succeeded, moreover, by other sentences which go on, still
further, to convict the people of great sins. The Lord asks them to
come and plead with Him, if they can. If they have anything to say in
extenuation of their faults, He gives them an opportunity of speaking
for themselves. And then He tells them that they had sinned as a nation
from their very beginning and had continued, still, to sin. Though the
Lord knew that He would add those words of expostulation, He made a
break and a pause in the very middle of His righteous accusation, and
before He had concluded His charge against them, He had already
forgiven them, and said, "I, even I, am He that blots out your
transgressions for My own sake."

The remarkable point is not merely that the absolution contained in the
text is preceded and succeeded by verses of accusation, but that it
breaks in upon the connection and cleaves the sense right in the
middle. The King's messenger of mercy rides through the ranks of the
men-at-arms in hot haste, sounding his silver bugle as he clears his
way. He cannot linger, his message is too precious to be made to tarry.
Sooner may sun and moon stand still than mercy be hindered! Such breaks
as those, of which the text is a specimen, are very precious to me
because they show the intense love of God to deeds of Grace and His
eagerness to perform them. I love these soft showers of Grace and mercy
all the more because they so abruptly interpose between the tremendous
peals of thunder of well-deserved wrath.

It will be our wisdom not only to weigh the text, but to notice the
practical lesson of its connection, namely, that since God is sure to
reveal His mercy when it will be most valued, we may conclude that men
know and prize Divine Mercy most when they most feel the weight of
their sins. Until a man is consciously condemned and pleads guilty, he
will not ask for mercy. And if mercy were to come to him, he would
treat it with disdain. He would look upon the offer of forgiveness as
an insult, for what better would it be than an insult to pardon an
innocent man? As well send medicine to a man who was never sick, or
alms to a millionaire!

We must be proven guilty, and confess it, before we can be forgiven. We
must know that we are sick and we must distinctly recognize that our
sickness is a mortal disease, or else we shall never value the Divine
Medicine which Jesus came to bring. A sense of sin, although it is
exceedingly painful, is a most blessed thing, and I pray God, if you
have never felt how guilty you are, that you may be made to feel it at
once. If you have never been broken down before the awful majesty of
Divine Justice, may the Holy Spirit break you down now–for Jesus will
never clothe those who are not stripped. He will never wash those who
are not foul, nor will He attempt to heal those who are not wounded.
Others may spend their strength in flattering human goodness–the Lord
Jesus has come on another errand and deals only with our sin and
misery. If you are not poverty-stricken, you will have no dealings with
the blessed soul-enriching Savior!

Having thus considered the connection, let us notice two other points.
The first is the nature of the pardon which is here so graciously
proclaimed. The second is the effect which this pardon produces upon
the minds of those who are enabled to receive it.

I. First, dear Friends, let us carefully notice THE NATURE OF THE
PARDON WHICH IS HERE SO GRACIOUSLY ANNOUNCED. "I, even I, am He that
blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will not remember
your sins." Note, first, it is a pardon from God Himself, whereupon we
further observe that it is a pardon from Him who is offended. Sin is
mainly an attack upon God. It is an offense against His own most
excellent Person.

It is treason against His most glorious Sovereignty. God therefore
feels more, sees more and is more thoroughly affected by the evil of
sin than anyone else. And the connection of the text shows that He does
not treat sin as a trifle as some do–that He does not regard it as a
thing which can be readily passed over–but takes solemn note of the
sinful omissions and commissions of His people and in due time calls
them to account, mentioning their sins in a way which shows that He is
sorely displeased.

Sin is, in Jehovah's eyes, exceedingly sinful,. It is an abominable
thing which His soul hates. And yet, notwithstanding this, it is the
very same God who has such a hatred of sin who, nevertheless, says, "I,
even I, am He that blots out your transgressions." We have offended God
and the same offended God forgives us! We have violated His Law and yet
the Lawgiver, Himself, pardons us! We have insulted His majesty and yet
the King, Himself, deigns to say, "I, even I, am He that blots out your
transgressions." This is the more delightful because we know that only
He could forgive.

What is the use of forgiveness from one who has not been offended? How
can I forgive you for a transgression which you have committed against
another person? He, alone, whose Law has been broken and who is both
the fountain of justice and the executive of the lair, is able to
forgive offenses committed! Power to forgive resides nowhere but in the
great Supreme. And if you obtain pardon from Him, it is pardon beyond
all question! If some man, like yourself, who takes upon himself to say
that he has received a commission from Heaven, shall absolve you, it is
not worth the breath he spends in uttering the mimic absolution, or the
time you waste in listening to it!

But if the Lord, Himself, out of His excellent Glory, says, "I, even I,
am He that blots out your transgressions," then, indeed, the pardon is
divinely precious and effectual! There is reality in Divine
Forgiveness–it is no dream or fiction of the imagination. Whom God
forgives who can condemn? This led the Apostle Paul to say, "Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies;
who is he that condemns?" Deep is the peace which the Lord's own
absolution brings to the soul! If He has said to the greatest offender,
"I forgive you," what more is needed? What is the use of adding
ceremonies and rituals, and the like, if the Lord, Himself, has spoken?
One word from the lips of Jehovah, the great forgiving God, is worth
millions of "masses," and billions of indulgences from the Pope,
himself!

Our conscience demands no more than pardon from the Lord and it will
never rest satisfied with anything less. O Lord, against whom we have
erred, Your own sure Word of Grace contents us, but without that Word,
spoken home to us by Your Spirit, our heart continues to condemn us and
we pine away in our sins. Brothers and Sisters, there is something
about the Character of God which is not always dwelt upon as it should
be. It is something which tends to make His forgiveness more full of
consolation to the soul.

There are many idolaters in the world besides those who worship blocks
of wood and stone. There are men who would scorn to be called
idolaters, who, nevertheless, are not worshippers of the true God, but
votaries of a deity of their own making. They have not made him with
wood, or clay, or gold, or silver, but they have fashioned him out of
their own conceptions. They believe in a god such as they think God
ought to be. And according to the general rule and fashion nowadays,
the god whom men invent for themselves is a being entirely devoid of
justice. They say that the God of the Bible, (who is the real, living
and true God who made the heavens and the earth), is vindictive because
He severely punishes rebellion against His Law, because, being at the
head of all moral government, He will not suffer His Law to be trampled
on with impunity, and will by no means spare the guilty.

The God who executes vengeance and terribly rewards the proud doer is
not the God for men of the modern school–they want an easier deity–a
far less stringent governor. They want a god of as easy virtue as
themselves. The Lord God of Elijah will never suit the fair-spoken
Ahabs of this age who cry, "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. He
never was beloved by proud and carnally-minded men. They set up an
effeminate deity of their own who is like themselves, who cares nothing
about the evil of sin and will wink at it, and will suffer sinners to
go unpunished–a god who does their bidding, for he quenches the fires
of Hell, or renders it only a transient punishment for a few years.
Theirs

is a god who gives them license to think as they like and treat his
word as a roll of wax for them to cut according to their own fashion.

The god of modern thought is not the God of the Bible, neither is he
any more the true God than Baal or Ashtaroth, Jupiter or Apollo. The
true God is the God who is revealed in the Scriptures and manifested in
the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is known only to those to whom
He reveals Himself, and the rest, by their own carnal wisdom, are
blinded so that they have not seen Him, neither know Him. Now, I say it
here, that if there were a god whose nature was nothing else but
gentleness, and who, therefore, winked at sin, his pardon would never
have satisfied my conscience, for when my conscience was awakened to
know the evil of sin, I felt that if God did not punish me, He ought
to!

There was about my heart this feeling that my sin ought not to go
unpunished. In fact, I punished myself for my sin by the deep
convictions, fears and trembling of my soul. And if anyone had said God
blots out the sin and thinks no more of it, the assurance would have
given me no peace. I should have felt that there was an injustice
involved in my being pardoned! My sin would still have cried for
vengeance and therefore my conscience would have had no peace.

And when I came to understand that the God of the Bible would not pass
by sin without first vindicating the honor of His moral government.
That He would not permit sin to be trifled with and to go unpunished
and that, therefore, He, Himself, in the Person of His own Son, had
suffered the penalty for my sin–then I said, "This is the kind of
pardon which I need–a pardon which satisfies God's justice and,
therefore, satisfies my own instincts of right. The bearing of my sins
by the Lord Jesus in His own body on the tree makes me feel perfectly
content, for now God, Himself, can bring no charge against me, since He
cannot punish me for that which He laid upon His own Son."

Shall He demand payment twice for one debt, or punish twice for one
offense? If my sins were laid upon His Son, then is His justice
abundantly satisfied and my soul accepts the free pardon which He
gives, without a fear that the strictest justice will ever pronounce my
pardon null and void. Now, when God, even Jehovah, the Jehovah of this
Book, says, "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions. I who
thundered from the top of Sinai. I who drowned Pharaoh and his host in
the Red Sea. I who smote Sennacherib with all his armies. I, the just
and terrible God, who revenges and is furious, and whose anger burns
like fire against sin, I, even I, am He that blots out your
transgressions," this is a glorious word, indeed!

"A just God and a Savior." "Just and yet the justifier of him that
believes." Oh, here is a solid foundation for the heart, the
conscience, the entire man to rest upon! This is pardon which weighs
well in the scales of judgment and is not mere wind. This is pardon
which acts as balm to the wounds of conscience and breathes life into
hearts dying of despair! So, you see, there is much in the fact that
the pardon comes from God–but I have not brought it all out yet, for
remember, Beloved, that inasmuch as it comes from God, He, alone, knows
the full extent of sin–and there can be no pardon given for a sin
which has not been recognized somewhere or other. It might be that
pardon would only reach to a part of the offense through the ignorance
of the person offended, supposing him to be a fallible, finite being.
And though he forgave the wrong done, as far as he knew it, yet he
might soon wake up to a fuller sense of the offense committed against
him and feel new anger at the transgressor.

A king can only forgive a rebel for those acts of which he knows him to
be guilty. Now the Lord knows all our sins. There is not a sin that has
ever escaped His eyes. Those committed in the secret chamber, in the
darkness of the night– those which never struggled into action. Sins
of the heart and imagination, those which have never been whispered
into any human ear, God has known. What does He not see? And this is a
blessed thing for us because it causes the pardon to cover fully the
whole extent of the sin! A priest once said that if we did not remember
all our sins, and confess them, they would never be forgiven. Well,
then, certainly they never will be forgiven, for no man can ever
remember one thousandth part of his transgressions!

But blessed be God the pardon does not rest with our knowledge of the
sin, but with God's knowledge of the sin! And therefore that pardon is
complete which comes from the all-seeing God. "I, even I, am He"–the
Omniscient who is everywhere present, who saw you in the darkness and
heard your heart in all its evil speeches against the Most High–I, the
all-knowing One, "I am He that blots out your transgressions." Oh, this
unrivalled pardon, how full of consolation it is! Every attribute of
God adds to its splendor! Every beam of the Divine Glory heightens its
grandeur! When we think it is our Father, Himself, our Father whom we
have offended–who now kisses us with the kisses of His lips and
presses His

penitent children to his bosom and says–"I, even I, am He that blots
out your transgressions," the pardon is rendered inestimably precious
by the Person from whom it comes.

II. Notice, next, the reason why it is given, the grounds upon which it
is based, for they are profoundly comforting. "For My own sake." The
entire motive of God for forgiving sin lies within Himself–"For My own
sake." No man has his sins forgiven because they are little, for the
smallest sin will ruin the soul, and every sin is great, however little
it may seem to us. Each sin has the essence of rebellion in it and
rebellion is a great evil before God. No man, therefore, will have God
say to him, "I have blotted out your sins because of the littleness of
them." Never!

Again, no man's sin is forgiven on the ground that his repentance is
meritorious. There is nothing in Scripture to warrant such an idea.
Repentance precedes a sense of forgiveness in some measure, but it
follows forgiveness in a larger measure. It is not the cause, though it
is the attendant, of remission. God's motive for pardoning a sinner is
not because that sinner repents, for repentance of itself is no
recompense to God. There is a repentance–I think I had better call it
remorse–which the lost feel in Hell–but it changes not their doom.
And had it not been for a Savior we might have known the repentance
which Esau felt when he went out and wept, but, nevertheless, lost the
blessing–lost it irretrievably.

Neither does our text tell us that God forgives men's sins because He
trusts that after they are forgiven they will do better. By His Grace,
forgiven men are made to do better–but it is not the foresight of any
betterness on their part which leads God to the forgiveness. That
cannot be a motive, for if they do better, their improvement is His
work in them. Left to themselves they would do even worse after they
were pardoned than they had done before. And from the mercy of God they
would argue immunity to sin, as, alas, too many who hold the truth in
unrighteousness have already done! No, the only motive which God has
for pardoning sinners, according to the text, is one which lies within
Himself–"for My own sake."

And what, I pray you, is that motive? Brothers and Sisters, the Lord
knows all His motives and it is not for us to measure them. But is it
not, first, that He may indulge His mercy? Mercy is the last exercised,
but the most pleasing to Himself, of all His attributes. Therefore,
because He is full of mercy, He blots out sin. He has this motive, too,
which is within Himself, that He may glorify His Son, who is One with
Himself. His Son has made an Atonement–has offered and presented
it–and now, in order that He may have His full reward, the Lord
delights to blot out the sins of those who come to Him. It is within
Himself that the motive lies. And what a comfort this is, for if, when
looking into my soul, I cannot see any reason why God should save me, I
need not look there, since the motive lies yonder, in His own gracious
bosom!

According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses will He blot out my
transgressions. I may look to all my past life and not discover a
solitary action out of which I could make a plea for mercy. I may look
to my present condition and perceive not even a glimpse of improvement,
or even a ray of hope that I shall be better in the future, but rather
a dreadful fear that I shall grow worse and worse! And when I have seen
these discouraging facts, I have only seen what is the truth, for in
itself, my case is deplorable, indeed! But this is my comfort–I may
look right away from myself to God, yes, it is my duty to do so. O Man,
if God is to save you, it will not be because of anything you are, or
ever will be–He must do it for His own sake!

And, oh, how splendidly this sets the door of Mercy open! It does not
stand, now, upon the latch, that those may enter who are little
sinners–but the great gate of Grace stands wide open–what if I say
nailed back to the wall? For what sinner is there whom God cannot
pardon if He pardons for His own sake and not for the sinner's sake?
What if the man were black with lusts which we dare not mention? What
if he were red with murder? What if every crime in the catalog of guilt
had been committed by him? Yet if God pardons, not because of anything
He sees in the man, but because of what He finds in Himself, it remains
a possibility for God to pardon the vilest of the vile–and the truth
revealed in the Bible makes it certain that God will forgive such if
they turn to Him, confess their transgressions, believe in His dear
Son–and so pass from death unto life.

How blessed, then, it is to look not only at the God who gives the
pardon, but at the reason why He gives it–for His own sake!

III. And now, thirdly, it is noteworthy in this glorious text how
complete and universal the pardon is. He does not say, "I, even I, am
He that blots out some of your transgressions and will not remember a
certain number of your sins."

No, the Lord makes a clean sweep of the whole dreadful heap of our
sins! They are all driven away at once by one stroke of Almighty Mercy.
The text includes all the sins which the Lord had mentioned
before–their buying Him no sweet cane with money–their refusing to
attend to His sacrifices. Our sins of omission are all gone.

Beloved Friends, can any of us number our sins of omission? Those are
the sins which ruin men. At the Last Great Day the Judge will say, "I
was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no
drink; sick, and you visited Me not." Those on the left hand were not
condemned for what they did do, but for what they did not do! And the
things which we have not done–the things which we have left undone
which we ought to have done–these are the majority of our sins! Who
shall count them? They outnumber the sands of the ocean! Yet the Divine
Pardon cleanses us from them all. No spot nor wrinkle remains.

And then He mentions actual sins. He says, "You have made Me to serve
with your sins." [You have burdened Me with your sins.] But He declares
that He blots them out, transgressions and sins, both forms of evil.
They are both gone, all gone, wholly gone. Now, I know not what
particular sins may have been committed by the members of this
congregation. Suppose we were to begin at yonder aisle, and each one
had to stand up and acknowledge his sins? Well, it would take much time
and we should have sinned a great deal more before we had come to the
end of the confession! What a pile of sin there would be on this
threshing floor if every man were compelled to bring his own mass of
sin and pour it out upon the common heap!

Yet the Lord does not set bound or measure, but says, "I, even I, am He
that blots out your transgressions, and will not remember your sins."
All the Believer's sins are gone–and all are gone at once. And this is
the very joy and glory of Gospel absolution! The Believer knows that
his sins are not in the process of being pardoned, but are actually
pardoned at this moment! No remnant of our sins remains to be dealt
with in the future–the whole mass is put away. However black the
guilt, however aggravated the criminality, however repeated the crime,
however heinous because committed against light–however enormous
because perpetuated despite the Holy Spirit–they are all forever made
an end of, annihilated, and forever gone when we believe in Jesus
Christ!

Sins against God's Law and Word and His Day. Sins against Christ's
blood. Sins against His love. Sins against His Person. Sins against His
crown. Sins against Himself in all His offices–an infinite variety of
sins–they all vanish before that gracious declaration, "I, even I, am
He that blots out your transgressions." Once more upon this point. The
pardon is noteworthy on account of its being most effectual. It is
described as blotting out. Now, blotting out is a very thorough way of
settling a thing. If an account has been standing in the ledger a long
time and the pen is drawn through it, it remains no longer. Whether it
is a large account or a small one, the same stroke of the pen will do
it.

If you owed a creditor a thousand pounds and another owed him only 10,
the word, "paid," takes as many strokes of the pen to write for the one
account as for the other. And it is just as easily done if the creditor
is satisfied. Whatever sin there may have been in God's people when
they come before Him, He writes, "Acquitted," at the bottom of the page
which is against them, and its condemning power is gone! What a joy it
is to see the long catalog of my sins blotted by the bleeding hands of
Jesus so that it cannot be read in the court of heavenly Justice! What
bliss to see it nailed to the Cross of the dying Savior! Heavy as my
soul's debts were, I doubt no longer! Now I see the grim reckoning
fastened to the bloody tree!

And then mark the wonderful expression, "I will not remember those
sins." Can God forget? Forgetting with God cannot be an infirmity as it
is with us. We forget because our memory fails, but God forgets in the
blessed sense that He remembers, rather, the merit of His Son than our
sins. Indeed, God forgets sin in the sense of remembering that it is
forgiven! I think it was Augustine who had been, once, a great sinner.
After he was converted he was met in the street by one with whom he had
often fallen into sin. When she spoke to him and said, "Augustine, it
is I," he said, "Ah, but it is not I, I am dead, and made alive again."
Now, when God's Justice meets a man who believes in Jesus, that man is
no longer the I that sinned, for that I is dead in Christ!

"Know you not that we were crucified with Him? "The Believer was buried
with Christ, so that, as he that is dead is free from the Law which
condemned him–for how shall the Law arrest a dead man?–so we, being
dead in Christ and risen again in Him, are new creatures, and do not
come under the Divine sentence. And God knows us not as sinners, but
only, now, knows us as new creatures in Christ Jesus! He knows and
recognizes in us the new life, having "begotten us again unto a lively
hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."

That is one of the instructive features of the ordinance of Baptism.
The Believer, there, sets forth the doctrine of salvation by death and
burial. That was Noah's salvation. He went into the ark as one dead to
the world. He was buried in the ark and then he floated out from the
old world into the new. "The like figure," says Peter, "whereunto
Baptism does also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth of
the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God), by the
Resurrection of Jesus Christ." That is to say, Baptism is a like figure
of salvation, for it sets forth in a figure, and only in a figure, our
death with Christ, our burial with Christ, our resurrection with
Christ.

Therefore where there is true faith and the soul has communion with
Christ, we are buried with Him in Baptism unto death, "that like as
Jesus rose from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so, we also
may rise to newness of life." Death has passed upon us, "for we thus
judge," says the Apostle, "that if one died for all, then all
died"–(for such is the literal Greek)–and that He died for all, that
they which live should not live from now on unto themselves, but unto
Him that died for them and rose again." Well, then, Beloved, if we are
dead, I do not wonder that God says He does not remember our sins, for
we are new creatures! We have passed from death to life!

We have come into a new life and God looks upon us from a new point of
view. He regards us under a new aspect as members, not of the first
Adam condemned and dead, but of the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven,
the living and the quickening Spirit. Well may He say to men who are
new creatures, "I will not remember your sins." Every word of the text
is delightful and I cannot attempt to go into the fullness of it. May
the Lord lead each one of you into it, and especially you young people.
As for those who are not converted–oh, that they would long for the
precious things here set forth! May God speak to some who came in here
vile sinners, and say to them, "For My own sake I forgive you."

Oh, how you will leap for joy! What a thrill will go through your
heart! You will not doubt the existence of God any more, I will
guarantee you! You will have no more questions and quibbles. The Spirit
of God will speak to your heart and that will convince you, though
nothing else will–and you will go away to glorify the Grace you once
despised.

IV. Now I come to the consideration of the second point very
briefly–THE EFFECT OF THIS PARDON WHEREVER IT COMES WITH POWER TO THE
SOUL. Timid persons have thought that the free pardon of sin would lead
men to indulge in it. No doubt some are base enough to pervert it to
that use, but there was never a soul that did really receive pardon
from God who could find in that pardon any excuse for sin or any
license to continue any longer in it. For all God's people argue
thus–"Shall we sin that Grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we,
that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

And again, the Apostle says, "Shall we sin because we are not under the
Law but under Grace? God forbid!" He utters a most solemn disclaimer
against the idea that the amazing mercy of God can lead the regenerate
into sin. The first effect of pardon upon the man who receives it is
surprise. The man has been lying at the foot of the Cross looking for
mercy and all of a sudden he glances at the bleeding Savior and he is
forgiven! And he feels something like Peter when he was brought out of
prison. "He knew not that it was true that was done unto him by the
angel, but thought he saw a vision."–

"When God revealed His gracious name, And changed our mournful state,
Our rapture seemed a pleasing dream– The Grace appeared too great." I
remember how overjoyed I was when I received pardon. I did not know how
to contain myself for delight! But after a while this thought assailed
me–such great mercy is too good to be true! My surprise at it
staggered me. How could it be that I was actually forgiven and through
the blood of Jesus made clean in the sight of God? The goodness of God
astounded me! It reminds me of an illustration I have used before, but
it is a good one. If you have a dog at the table and you throw him a
scrap of meat, he swallows it directly. But if you were to set the
whole joint down on the floor before him, he would turn away. He would
feel that you could not mean to give a fine joint of meat to a dog!

He would not think of touching it–at least, few dogs wouldn't. And it
seemed to me as if the Lord could not have meant all the wonders of His
love for such a dog as I was. I was ready to turn away from it through
the greatness of it! But then I remembered that it would not do for God
to be giving little mercy. He was too great a God to spend all His
power in pardoning little sinners and granting little favors. And I
came back to this–if His Grace was not too big for Him to give, I
would not be such a fool as to refuse it because of its greatness!

You remember how Alexander told a soldier that he might have whatever
he asked? The man went to the royal treasury and demanded such a vast
sum that the officer refused to let him have it, and said to him, "How
can you be such an unconscionable fellow as to ask for so much?" When
Alexander heard of it he said, "It is much for him to receive, but it
is not too much for Alexander to give–he has a high opinion of my
greatness. Let him have what he has asked for. I will not fall short of
his expectations." God is a great God and to forgive great sins is just
like Him. We cannot forgive at this rate, but God can! To forgive great
sins, tremendous sins, unspeakably black sins, adds to His Glory and
makes men say, "Who is a God like unto You, passing by iniquity,
transgression, and sin?"

At first, then, Mercy fills us with surprise. The next thing it does is
to fill us with holy regret. We feel, "What? And is this the God I have
been standing out against so long? Is this the God whom I have despised
or neglected, whose Gospel I put away from me, saying that there was
time enough for me to attend to it when I grew old and had seen a
little of life? Is this the God whom I have been slighting, who has
loved me at this rate, and given His dear Son from His own right hand
to bleed and suffer in my place?"

It has been said–I think by Aristotle–that a person cannot know that
he is loved without feeling some degree of love in return. I am quite
certain that you cannot know in your soul, by the experience of pardon,
that God loves you, without feeling at once, "I am ashamed that I did
not love my gracious God. I am disgusted with myself that I could have
acted in such a disgraceful way towards Him. Did He love me before the
world began? Did He write my name in the roll of His electing love? Did
He ordain me to a crown of life and to a harp of gold? Did He
predestinate me to be conformed to the image of His Son? When the
Savior bled, did He think of me as He was dying, and did He especially
lay down life for me? Am I one whom He has betrothed unto Himself
forever in faithfulness and love and mercy–and yet have I been foolish
enough to live all this while a stranger and an enemy to Him?"

When a sense of dying love comes mightily into the heart, we feel that
we cannot be enough revenged upon our cruel hearts for having treated
so, such a generous, such a forgiving God! As this sense of pardon
first breeds surprise and then intense regret, it next creates in us
fervent love. "We love Him because He first loved us," and we love Him
best of all for having pardoned us. No one loves God so much as the man
or woman who has had much forgiven. Scripture tells us this in the case
of the woman who was a sinner–she, alone, washed the Savior's feet
with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Commonplace Christians have never experienced any deep sense of sin,
and consequently, Christ is a very commonplace Savior to them. Ah, but
when a man feels that he is a vile sinner and that he should have been
in Hell, and in the hottest part of it, if it had not been for
Sovereign Grace, I tell you, Sir, if the Lord lifts that man up out of
the Pit and gives him a place among His servants, that is the man who
will feel the water in his eyes when he talks about the Savior's Grace.
That man cannot speak about redeeming Grace and dying love without
feeling that there is charming music in those precious words and the
best of all music in their precious sense! The viler the sinner the
more love has he to the Lord when he is forgiven. As he feels his sin,
so He loves his Redeemer.

"The burnt child dreads the fire," but I will tell you the child that
dreads the fire most–if there could be a child which had burnt itself
in the fire and then all its sores and blisters were taken off it and
laid upon its mother, and that child saw its mother's face all scarred
and marred with the burning, and saw her body in pain on her dear one's
account–I am sure the child would hate all idea of playing with fire
as long as it lived. Many suffer for sin in their own persons, but do
not hate it. They will go back to the very sin which injured them, as
moths fly again to the candle. But to see another suffering for my
fault–such a One as Emmanuel, God With Us–to see His hands fastened
to the Cross, and His feet pierced, and His heart gashed, and all His
life flowing out in blood, and Himself bearing agonies unutterable for
my sins–it makes me feel that the very name of sin is accursed and I
abhor it utterly!

We would, if we could, be perfect! We long and sigh, and cry to be
delivered from everything that has one murderous spot of the Savior's
blood upon it! If yonder knife had killed your friend, would you hoard
it up and think a great deal of the deadly instrument? You would hurl
it out of your sight as an accursed thing! Yet sin slew Jesus! Sin slew
Jesus! Away with it, then! Away with it! Away with it! My precious
Christ was murdered by sin! From now on I am dead to sin! This is the
spirit which Divine Grace breeds in every Christian–and the more sure
he is of his pardon–the more intensely, by God's Grace, he hates his
sin.

Therefore our Gospel is a reforming Gospel, a sanctifying Gospel. It is
a Gospel that delivers men from the power of sin and brings them
through the power of love into the blessed liberty of the children of
God. In closing, I would say to every unconverted person–your state
before God is here in this picture–Many years ago in Russia a regiment
of troops mutinied. They were at some distance from the capital and
were so furious that they murdered their officers and resolved never to
submit to discipline. But the emperor, who was an exceedingly wise and
sagacious man, no sooner heard of it than, all alone and unattended, he
went into the barracks where the men were drawn up, and, addressing
them sternly, he said to them, "Soldiers, you have committed such
offense against the Law that every one of you deserves to be put to
death. There is no hope of any mercy for one of you unless you lay down
your arms immediately, and surrender at discretion to me, your
emperor."

And they did it, then and there, though the heads of their officers
were lying at their feet. They threw down their arms and surrendered,
and he said at once, "Men, I pardon you. You will be the bravest troops
I ever had." And they were, too! That is just what God says to the
sinner–"Now, Sinner, you have done that which deserves My wrath. Down
with your weapons of rebellion! Ground arms at once. I will not talk
with you until you submit at discretion to My Sovereign Authority." And
then He says, "Believe in My Son. Trust Him. Accept Him as your Savior.
This done, you are forgiven, and from now on you will be the most
loving creatures that My hands have made. You will love Me better than
the angels, for though they never sinned, they never had a God to
become Incarnate and to bleed and die for them.

"You know what sin is and will hate it. And you know what goodness is,
for you have seen it in My Son, and from now on you will strive to be
like He is, and among the sweetest notes that shall come up to My
Throne will be your grateful songs."–

"Blessings, forever on the Lamb,

Who bore the curse for wretched men!

Let angels sound His sacred name,

And e very creature say, 'Amen!'" None will more loudly sing the
praises of God than those who have been washed in the precious blood
and have had their transgressions blotted out! The Lord bless you and
give every one of you to know and taste all this, and that, too, at
this very hour if it is His will, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Isaiah 43:22-28, 44:1-22.
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Death for Sin and Death to Sin