God’s Non-Remembrance of Sin

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 22, 1882,

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.

"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more."

Jeremiah 31:31.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 8:12.

"And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 10:17.

You see these texts are all alike in their declaration that the Lord
will not remember His people's sins. I have taken four of them to make
the basis of my sermon firm as adamant. It is written, "In the mouth of
two or three witnesses every word shall be established." Here then, you
have Isaiah and Jeremiah, two Old Testament saints, affirming the same
thing–is this not enough? Added to these, you have the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, who, in all probability, was Paul, and these
three agree in one. Their united testimony is that Jehovah, the Lord
God, will forgive the sins of His people, and do it in so complete a
way that He will remember their iniquities no more. Now, if I did not
preach at all, but merely gave you these four texts to consider, I
think the service ought to be full of comfort to all who know their
guiltiness and are anxious to obtain mercy.

That article in the creed is too little thought of–"I believe in the
forgiveness of sin." Men flippantly declare that they believe it when
they are not conscious of any great sin of their own. But when his
transgression is made apparent to a man, and his iniquity comes home to
him, it is quite another matter. Does any unregenerate person believe
in the forgiveness of sin? I think not. No man, in sincerity, believes
it until God, the Holy Spirit, has taught him its truth, and has
written it upon his heart. No revealed Truth of God is more generally
doubted and disbelieved than this, the plainest of all revelations,
that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion and ready to pass by
the iniquities of His people! Men disbelieve for themselves and doubt
it as to others when the matter is fairly tested.

When a man's sins are set before him in the light of God's Countenance,
his first instinct is to fear that they are altogether unpardonable. If
he does not state his unbelief in so many words, yet, in the secret of
his soul, that dreadful conviction takes hold upon him and darkens
every window of hope. He looks to the Law of God and while he looks in
that direction, he will certainly conclude that there is no pardon, for
the Law knows nothing of forgiveness. It is, "Do this and you shall
live. Disobey and you shall die." To convict and to condemn is all the
Law was sent for. By the Law is the knowledge of sin and by its power
sinners are shut up in the prison house of despair, from which only the
Lord Jesus can deliver us.

What the Law asserts, the understanding, also, supports, for within the
awakened man there is the memory of his past offenses–and on account
of these his conscience passes judgment upon his soul–and condemns it
even as the Law does. "God must punish wickedness," is the utterance of
conscience. "He were not the judge of all the earth if He did not do
right and if He does right, He must visit my transgressions with the
threatened penalty." Thus, the thunder of Sinai is echoed by
conscience. Meanwhile, many natural impressions and instincts assist
and increase the clamors of conscience, for the man knows within
himself, as the result of observation and experience, that sin must
bring its own punishment.

He perceives that is a knife which cuts the hand of him that handles
it; a sword that kills the man who fights with it. He feels that he
cannot, himself, readily pass by offenses committed by his fellow men
and so he concludes that the Lord cannot willingly forgive. That part
of the hardness of his heart goes to deepen the conviction that God
will not pass by his transgression and he is, therefore, terribly
dismayed and hopeless of mercy. Meanwhile the devil comes in with all
the horrors of the infernal Pit and threaten speedy destruction!

That same evil spirit who once pictured sin in glowing colors and set
before the sinner the pleasureableness of unrighteousness, now comes in
and turns accuser, forestalls the final sentence and hardens the man's
heart by the assurance that there is no hope! Bunyan very aptly
pictures Diabolus, when he was attacking the town of Mansoul, as making
Captain Past-Hope unfurl the red colors which were carried by Mr.
Despair. And he also speaks of the roaring of the tyrant's train, which
sounded forth terribly, especially by night, so that the men of Mansoul
had always in their ears the sound of Hell-fire! Hell-fire! And all
this to keep them from submitting to their gracious Prince.

Thus, for once, the devil craftily cooperates with the Law of God and
with conscience–these would drive men to despair, but Satan would go
further and compel them to despair as touching the Lord, Himself, so as
to believe that pardon for transgression is quite impossible. The
convinced sinner is able to believe that mercy may be shown to others,
but as for himself, he signs his own death warrant and labors under the
full persuasion that the acts of God's mercy can never extend to him.
No stocks can hold a man so fast as his own guilty fears! The hangman's
whip never tortured men so cruelly as does an awakened conscience.

With the desponding I shall try to deal at this time and may the Holy
Spirit, the Comforter, help me to console them.

I. Our first theme is this–THERE IS FORGIVENESS. Our four texts all
teach us that doctrine with great distinctness. Is not that a sublime
assurance, "I, even I, am He that blots out your transgressions for My
own sake, and will not remember your sins"? Does not Paul put it
sweetly as from God's own mouth, "Their sins and iniquities will I
remember no more." Remember how the Psalmist, in the 130th Psalm makes
this a special note of thanksgiving–"There is forgiveness with You
that You may be feared." Let us adore the Lord because He delights in
mercy!

For a minute or two let me try to prove–may it be to your
satisfaction, O you despairing ones–that there is forgiveness. This
appears, first, in the treatment of sinners by God, inasmuch as He
spares their forfeited lives. When our first parents had transgressed,
they came at once under desert of penalty. The Lord visited the garden
and convinced the offenders of their transgression. But, instead of
then and there pronouncing their doom and casting them forever away
from His Presence, He talked to them of a certain Seed of the woman
that should bruise the serpent's head. The curse which must fall, fell
obliquely, descending, first, upon the soil and secondarily upon the
man–first upon the serpent and more gently on the woman, whose very
pain and travail were to bring forth deliverance for the race and
vengeance on the enemy.

The man and the woman each had a separate sentence in labor and in
childbirth, but, oh, how mild were these sentences compared with what
they might have been! How joyful is the fact that, over all, there was
the sparing hand of God letting them live and His cheering voice
promising them ultimate deliverance! Would the Lord thus have spared
them if He had not meant to show mercy? Would He not have crushed a
sinful race, even in its egg, and have blotted out forever those of
whom, not long after, it agonized Him that He had made them upon the
earth? Assuredly the Lord meant pardon when He tarried to enquire,
"Adam, where are you?" In the morning of human history the Lord's
long-suffering displayed itself and gave promise of larger Grace!

The same is true of you and of me. If God had no pardons, would He, not
long ago, have sent us down as cumberers of the ground? We sinned early
in life–perhaps we sinned grossly in our youthful days–doing evil
with great wantonness and willfulness according to the obstinacy of our
hearts. Why did He not, then, say, "I will take these away. They will
only go from bad to worse and they will infect others with their vices.
Therefore will I root them out lest they become injurious to those
about them and a curse to future generations"? But no, even yonder
blasphemer was not smitten to death when he imprecated damnation upon
himself! Yon Sabbath-breaker was not cut down when he made the Lord's
holy Day to be an opportunity for wickedness! He that lied was not made
a dreadful example of judgment like Ananias and Sapphira! He that stood
out to oppose God was not swallowed up quickly like Korah, Dathan and
Abiram! No, all these have been spared, spared to this day–and to what
end, do you think? Surely, the long-suffering of God is repentance and
repentance is mercy! God waits long because He wills not the death of
any, but that they turn to Him and live.

In the second place, why did God institute the Ceremonial Law if there
were no ways of pardoning transgression? Why the bullocks and the lambs
offered in sacrifice? Why the shedding of blood, if God did not intend
to blot out sin? Why the burnt offerings in which God accepted man's
gift, if man could not be accepted? Assuredly He could not be accepted
if regarded as guilty! Why the peace offering in which God feasted with
the offerer and the two united in feeding upon the one sacrifice? How
could this be, unless God intended to forgive and enter into fellowship
with men? I confess I cannot understand the institution of the
priesthood and sacrifice unless mercy was intended thereby.

Again, why was there a Tabernacle for God to dwell with His people if
He would not forgive their iniquities? How could He dwell with
unforgiven men? Why was there a Mercy Seat? Why was there a High Priest
ordained from among men who should enter into the Holy Place and make a
typical atonement? Does not a type imply the existence of that which is
typified? Why the scapegoat to take away sin in symbol, if sin cannot
be taken away in reality? Why the burning of the offering outside the
gate in order that sin might be put away from God's people, if it could
not be put away? Certainly the evident design of the whole Mosaic
economy was to reveal to man the existence of mercy in the heart of God
and the effectual operation of that mercy in washing away sin!

Further than this, dear Friends, if there were no forgiveness of sin,
why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent? Why does
the Lord say, "Turn you to your God: keep mercy and judgment and wait
upon the God continually"? Why does He say to men, "O Israel, return
unto the Lord your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity. Take with
you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips"?
Why does He cry, "Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn you even to
Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with
mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the
Lord your God"? Is it not because it can be added, "for He is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents Him of
the evil"?

Is it not true, even as Elihu said, "He looks upon men, and if any say,
I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me
not; He will deliver his soul from going into the Pit, and his life
shall see the light"? If sin could not be pardoned, why, under the
Gospel, are we bid to urge men to repent of sin, to confess their sins,
and to forsake them? Might not the Lord have said, "Let them alone: it
is of no use their repenting: no mercy is in reserve for them,
therefore let them continue in their iniquity till their own ways
destroy them"? Even John the Baptist's cry of, "Repent! Repent!" is a
note of hope to transgressors. The times of their ignorance, God has
winked at, but now under Gospel rule, He commands all men everywhere to
repent, because repentance has the promise of the blotting out of sin.

If you will think of it, you will see that there must be pardon in the
hands of God, or why the institution of religious worship among us to
this day? Why are we allowed to pray in secret, if we cannot be
forgiven? What is the value of prayer, at all, if that first and most
vital favor of forgiven sin is utterly beyond our reach? Why are we
allowed to sing the praises of God? Why has the Holy Spirit given us
the Book of Psalms? Why are we bid to use Psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs? God cannot accept the praises of unforgiven men!
Worshippers must be clean before they draw near to His altar with their
incense! If, then, I am taught to sing and give thanks to God, it must
be because "His mercy endures forever!"

Does God expect the condemned to praise Him? Will He shut us up in the
prison for certain death and yet expect us to chant hallelujahs to His
praise? It cannot be so! The very ordaining of prayer and praise
indicates a design of mercy to the sons of men. Why, dear Friends, are
there two special ordinances of God's house if, in that house, there is
no remission of sin? Why the Baptism of Believers? It signifies our
death in Christ to sin. But how so if we cannot be dead to sin? It
signifies, typically, the washing away of sin. But to what end and to
what use, except of delusion, if there is no washing away of sin by
God's abounding Grace? What does the Lord's Supper mean, that eating of
bread with God and drinking of the cup in familiar fellowship with Him?
Why that showing forth the death of Christ until He comes if, in that
death there is no virtue and if God cannot deal with men on terms of
love? Surely the ordinances of the Lord's house are full of invitation
to such as bemoan their transgressions and are willing to come to Jesus
for pardon and renewal!

The very existence of a Church, of a Gospel ministry and the toleration
of Divine worship are promises and prophecies of the forgiveness of
sins! What assurance of pardon lies in the ordaining, sealing and
ratifying of the Covenant of Grace! The first Covenant left us under
condemnation, but one main design of the New Covenant is to bring us
into justification. Why a New Covenant at all, if our unrighteousness
can never be removed? Is not this the tenor of the Covenant

as stated in our second text? Let the Holy Spirit, Himself, be a
witness unto us as we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "This is the
covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I
will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write
them; and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."
What do You say to this, O despairing one? Will you dream that God can
lie and even make a Covenant merely to mock poor sinners with a
groundless hope? Oh, think not so, for there is forgiveness!

Furthermore, my Brothers and Sisters, why did Christ institute the
Christian ministry and send forth His servants to proclaim His Gospel?
For what is the Gospel but a declaration that Christ is exalted on high
to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins? Is not this a
great promise–that God will put away our transgressions upon our
believing in Jesus Christ, our Great Sacrifice? "I believe in the
forgiveness of sins," for if it were not so, then has the Cross become
null and void and the death of the Only-Begotten a hideous mistake! To
what end those bleeding wounds? To what end that crown of thorns? To
what end that cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani"? To what end that
shout of, "It is finished"? The Cross is the grandest of realities and
the core of its meaning is the removal of sin by Him who bore our sins
in His own body on the tree! Assuredly there is a fountain opened for
sin and for uncleanness–heavy-laden Soul–that fountain is opened for
you!

Now, once in the history of the world has the Son of God appeared to
put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself– poor guilty one, if you
believe your guilt was put away by His atoning death! Why are we so
earnestly commanded to preach this Gospel to every creature, if the
creature hearing it and believing it must, nevertheless, still lie
under his sin? Our Lord Jesus has commanded that repentance and
remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem–why is this, if there is no remission of sins?
The genuine love of God is manifested in His desire that to the utmost
ends of the earth it should be proclaimed, "The blood of Jesus Christ
His Son cleanses us from all sin." "All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men."–

"Carry, carry, you winds, the story,

And you, you waters, roll,

Till like a sea of Glory

It spreads from pole to pole!"

There is forgiveness! Through the name of Jesus, whoever believes in
Him shall receive remission of sins. "Through this Man is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins." "He that believes in Him is justified
from all things from which he could not be justified by the Law of
Moses." Paul says, "God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you," and it
is even so.

Now, you do not need any more arguments, but if you did, I would
venture to offer this. Why are we taught in that blessed model of
prayer which our Savior has left us, to say, "Forgive us our debts as
we forgive our debtors," or, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive
them that trespass against us"? It is evident that God means us to give
a true and hearty absolution to all who have offended us. He does not
intend that we should play at forgiveness, but should really, and from
our hearts, most freely and sincerely forgive all those who have done
evil towards us in any way. Yes, but then He has linked with that
forgiveness, our prayer for mercy, teaching us to ask that He would
forgive us as we forgive them. If, then, our forgiveness is real, so is
His! If ours is sincere, so is His! If ours is complete, so is
His–only much more so, inasmuch as the Great God of All is so much
more gracious than we poor, fallen creatures ever can be!

A star of hope shines upon the sinner in the Lord's Prayer in that
particular petition, for it seems to say, "There is a real, true and
hearty forgiveness of God toward you, even as there is in your heart a
real, true and hearty forgiveness of those who offend you." Mind you do
really and heartily forgive others, for your own pardon is to be
measured thereby. See well to this. The best of all arguments is
this–God has actually forgiven multitudes of sinners. We have read in
Holy Scripture of men who walked with God and had this testimony, that
they pleased God. But they could not have pleased God if their sins
still provoked Him to wrath–therefore He must have put their sins
away. Those saints of the Old Testament who were evidently Divinely
favored; with whom God held sweet communion; to whom He gave marvelous
power in prayer; in whom He showed the majesty of faith–all those must
have been forgiven men–for the Lord could not have walked with them,
dwelt in them, worked by them and displayed His Glory in them if He had
not forgiven them.

But I need not talk of past ages! There are many sitting among you,
this day, who, if you will ask them, will tell you that they enjoy a
clear sense of forgiven sin. They remember well that happy day when
Jesus washed their sins away! And their state of peace, of joyful
privilege and of expectant hope is, to them, intensely delightful–and
may be to you an evi-

dent testimony that remission of sin is a real experience–and is known
among God's people at this day. Sin can still be put away! The spot
which seemed indelible can be washed out till all is white as snow
through the precious blood of Christ! Our texts, all of them, declare
it, saying with one breath, "I will forgive their iniquity and I will
remember their sin no more." May God the Holy Spirit make use of these
arguments for the comfort of every seeking sinner here and of many more
who shall read this discourse.

II. Secondly, THIS FORGIVENESS IS TANTAMOUNT TO FORGETTING SIN. This is
a wonder to me, a wonder of wonders–that God should say that He will
do what, in some sense, He cannot do–that He should use speech which
includes an impossibility and yet that it should be strictly true as He
intends it. God's pardon of sin is so complete that He, Himself,
describes it as not remembering our iniquity and transgression. I have
said that there is an impossibility in it and so there is, because the
Lord cannot, in strict accuracy of speech, forget
anything–forgetfulness is an infirmity and God has no infirmities!

The Lord does not exercise memory as you and I do. We recall the past,
but He has no past–all things are present with Him. God sees
everything at once by an intuitive perception–the past, the present,
the future are before Him at a glance. We may not speak, except after
the manner of men, of the Lord God as having memory, and yet how
blessed it is that He should, Himself, use the speech which is current
among ourselves and represent Himself after the manner of a man, and
then say, "Your sins and their iniquities will I remember no more
forever." He wishes us to know that His pardon is so true and deep that
it amounts to an absolute oblivion–a total forgetting of all the
wrong-doing of the pardoned ones!

You know what we do when we exercise memory. To speak popularly, a man
lays up a thing in his mind–but when sin is forgiven, it is not laid
up in God's mind. A certain matter has happened and we remember
it–storing it away in our memory. We read that, "Mary kept all these
things, and pondered them in her heart." We make a kind of storeroom of
our memory and there things are preserved, like fruit in autumn, stored
up to be used, by-and-by. We reckon a man to be fortunate who has a
good memory, so that he can lay by things in his brain where he can get
at them in time of need. The Lord will not do this with our sins! He
will not store them in His archives! He will not give them house-room.
The record of our sin shall not be laid up in the Divine treasury–we
shall not cry with Job, "My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and
You sew up my iniquity."

As for the ungodly, their sins are written with an iron pen and the
measure of their iniquity is daily filling, till it is poured out upon
their own heads! Their sins have gone before them to the Judgment Seat
and are crying aloud for vengeance. As for God's people, their case is
otherwise–the Lord imputes not their iniquities to them and does not
treasure them up against a day of wrath. Of course the Lord remembers
their evil doings, in the sense that He cannot forget anything. But
judicially as a Judge, He forgets the transgressions of the pardoned
ones. They are not before Him in court, and come not under His official
sight.

In remembering, men also consider and meditate on things, but the Lord
will not think over the sins of His people. A grievous wrong is apt to
engross our thoughts. It often casts its shadow upon the mind and you
cannot get rid of it. I have known persons brood over an offense as a
hen gathers her chickens under her wings. The wrong grows worse as they
think it over. They carefully observe the offense from different points
of view and, whereas they were indignant at first, they nurse their
wrath and make it so hot that it turns to fury! At first they would
have been satisfied with an apology, but when they have brooded over
the injustice, it seems so atrocious that they demand vengeance on the
offender. The merciful Lord does not do so to those who repent. No, for
He says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

The Great Father's heart is not brooding over the injuries we have
done–His infinite mind is not revolving within itself the tale of our
iniquities. Ah, no! If we have fled to Christ for refuge, the Lord
remembers our sin no more! The record of our iniquity is taken away and
the Judge has no judicial memory of it. Sometimes you have almost
forgotten a thing and it is quite gone out of your mind–but an event
happens which recalls it so vividly that it seems as if it were
perpetrated but yesterday. God will not recall the sin of the pardoned.
I am blest, thank God, with a splendid memory for forgetting what
anybody says or does against me. I forget it, not because I try to do
so, but because I cannot help it and, therefore, I claim no credit for
it. The other day when I was speaking kindly with a person, I was
reminded by an-

other that this man had done me a great injustice years ago. I had no
recollection of it and when it was brought before my mind, I was
grateful that I had forgotten it because I could honestly treat the man
as a friend, as indeed he now is.

The occurrence was banished from my mind till my memory was refreshed
about it. The gracious Lord can never be refreshed in His memory
concerning the sins of His people–they are gone past recall–"As far
as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions
from us." Neither will there be a dark day when, all on a sudden, the
Lord will say, "I have been treating this man graciously, but now I
recollect what He did in former years and I must change My tone. I
recollect that oath he swore, that criminal indulgence into which he
fell, that drunkenness, that piece of dishonesty, that awful hypocrisy.
And though I have been gentle with him, I must, in justice, change My
course and punish him." No! No! This will never be the case with our
forgiving Lord!

"Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." "No more!"
Let those words go echoing through the chambers of despair–"NO MORE!"
Is there not music in the two syllables? God will never have His memory
refreshed. The transgressions of His people are dead and buried with
Christ and they shall never have a resurrection! "I will not remember
their sins." Furthermore, this not remembering means that God will
never seek any further atonement. The Apostle says–"Now where
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." The one
Sacrifice of Jesus has made an end of sin! Under the old Law they
offered an expiatory sacrifice, but they must necessarily offer it
again and again. There was remembrance of sins made every year on the
Day of Atonement–but now the Blessed One has entered, once and for
all, within the veil and has put away sin forever by the Sacrifice of
Himself, so that there remains no more a need of a sacrifice for sins!

The Lord will never demand another victim, nor seek another expiatory
offering. The sufferings of Jesus are so all-sufficient that no
Believer shall be made to suffer penalty for His unrighteousness. Look
at that fiction of "purgatory" which is coming back into the English
Church and is hankered after by certain Dissenters. They are beginning
to believe in a modified form of "purgatory" and this is a dark sign of
the times. "Purgatory" has always paid the Pope well–it is the fattest
province of his dominions and has furnished his treasury plentifully.
But how can God's people go to "purgatory"? For if they go there at
all, they go there for sins which God does not remember and so He
cannot give a reason for sending them there! I have no authentic
communication by which to describe "purgatory," but by Romish report it
is a terrible place.

Now, if true Believers go there, then God either does remember their
sins, which He says He will not do, or else He punishes them for sins
which He does not remember! Did you ever hear of a judge sending a man
to prisons for a crime which the judge did not remember? Does God
forgive and forget and yet punish? Do not, I pray you, believe, in any
shape or form, in a middle state in which sin can be atoned for or the
condition of a man altered. When you die, you shall either go to Heaven
or to Hell–and that straight away–and your state, in either case,
will be fixed, and fixed eternally without the possibility of a change.
This doctrine is the cornerstone of Protestantism and if that is taken
away, there is a vacuum left in which all the evil doctrines of the
papacy will speedily find a nest. Stand to the Truth of God revealed in
Scripture and to that only! The wicked shall go away unto everlasting
punishment and the righteous unto eternal life. If you are forgiven,
God will never remember your sins–so that in no shape or form shall
you ever have to make an atonement for them.

Again, when it is said that God forgets our sins, it signifies that He
will never punish us for them. How can He, when He has forgotten them?
Next, that He will never upbraid us with them–"He gives liberally and
upbraids not." How can He upbraid us with what He has forgotten? He
will not even lay them to our charge! See what Ezekiel says–"All his
transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto
him." The Apostle bravely demanded, "Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect?" Shall God do it? It is God that justifies," how
then, can He accuse? Shall Christ do it? He is the Judge, but He cannot
accuse, for, "it is Christ that died, yes, rather that is risen again,
who sits at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
Shall Jesus intercede for us and yet accuse us? Shall there come sweet
waters and bitter waters out of the same fountain? No, that cannot be!
The Lord has forgotten our sins and, therefore, He can never lay them
to our charge.

Once more, when the Lord says, "I will not remember their sins," what
does it mean but this–that He will not treat us less generously on
account of our having been great sinners. You that have been the chief
of sinners, He will not put you in the second class of Christians and
treat you with a sort of second-rate love. He will not even remember
that you

have sinned, but treat you as if you had been perfectly innocent and
were totally clear from all iniquity. He will not remember your faults.
Why, look how the Lord takes some of the biggest sinners and uses them
for His Glory! Is not this a proof that He has ceased to remember their
sins? When I think of Peter standing up on the day of Pentecost and
3,000 being converted under His first sermon, I think no more of
Peter's failure and the cock crowing! I can see that the Lord has
forgotten His threefold denial and placed Him in the front to be a
soul-winner.

But the Lord Jesus not only uses His people, He honors them greatly.
What honors He put upon the Apostles, those men that forsook Him and
fled in the hour of His passion! He says to each of them, "I will not
remember your sins," for He makes them leaders of His hosts, though
they have been a parcel of runaways and have forsaken their Master in
His hour of peril. See how condescendingly the Lord has taken some,
here present, and has honored them, and given them to bring
blood-bought souls to Himself in proof that He has wholly forgotten
their sins! And then, think about that He should adopt us into His
family–we that were His enemies–rebellious and children of the devil!
Is it not wonderful that He puts us among the children and even makes
us "heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ"?

Surely, when that testament was written by which He made us heirs with
Christ, it was clear proof that the Father did not, any more, remember
our iniquities! To put down such blacks in the same testament with His
own dear Son and then to say, "I will receive them graciously and love
them freely," this is surprising Grace! Brothers and Sisters, infinite
Love has made us to be "accepted in the Beloved," comely with His
comeliness which He has put upon us; precious in His sight and
honorable, jewels in His case and a crown of glory unto Him! Is not
this the sign of perfect forgiveness? With His whole heart He watches
over us to do us good. Surely, with blessing He blesses us, yes, and
makes us blessings! We shall have Grace on earth and glory in Heaven!
He will seat us, as objects of His Grace in Heaven, not in an inferior
place in the suburbs or behind the door–but He will cause us to sit
with Jesus on His Throne, even as He has sat down with the Father on
His Throne. We shall be with Him where He is and behold His Glory, and
be forever peers of the heavenly realm.

Surely all this proves that He has altogether blotted out our sins and
has determined to treat us as if we had been perfectly innocent.
Indeed, the saints are without fault before the Throne of God, for they
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!
The Believer's sins no longer exist and, "if they are searched for,
they shall not be found; yes, they shall not be, says the Lord."–

"Who is a pardoning Godlike Thee? And who has Grace so rich and free?"
Oh, that God would comfort His mourners by this sermon! I have a notion
in my head that if when I was under the sense of sin I could have heard
this subject handled, I should have found liberty at once! Though I had
been hidden away in the back seat of the gallery out of sight, if only
I had heard of such mercy as this, I should have jumped at it! I cannot
tell how it might have been, for I do not remember hearing so plain a
declaration of boundless Grace.

Oh, how I pray and hope that the Lord will lead some poor soul to
accept this unspeakable blessing! Come, you consciously guilty ones,
and touch the silver scepter of your reigning Savior! He is ready to
forgive–the Atonement is made and accepted–the Savior who died has
risen again! Come to Him and be at peace! Oh, that the blessed Spirit
may lead you to feel the power of the reconciling blood!

' III. I finish with the blessed fact that FORGIVENESS IS TO BE HAD.
How is it to be had? Let me speak briefly and you catch up every word
and think over it. Forgiveness is to be had through the atoning blood.
Why does God forget our sin? Is it not on this wise? He looks upon His
Son, Jesus, bearing our sin. Did you ever think of what God the Father
sees in Jesus on the Cross? Why you and I have seen enough to make us
break our hearts, but when the Father saw His only-begotten Son
suffering, even to death, it made such an infinite impression upon His
great soul that He forgot the sins for which His Son gave His life!

That new thing coming in, the most wonderful thing that God has on His
heart, the death of the Only-Begotten, made a clean erasure in the
eternal memory of all the transgressions of those for whom Christ died.
In such way does He describe to us the mystery of forgiving love. Dear
hearts, get under the shadow of the Redeemer's Cross! Trust Jesus
Christ, now, and that blood is, then and there, applied to you, and
your sins shall be remembered no more, forever, because He remembers
His Son's suffering in your place and stead. Next, remember that this
forgetfulness of God is caused by overflowing mercy. God is love–"His
mercy endures forever"–and He desired vent for His love. His great
heart was

filled with a desire to display the Grace which pervaded His Nature–He
must be gracious and He would be gracious– and because of that Divine
resolve, He cast our sins behind His back.

Come, then, if you wish to have your sins forgiven! Come and bow before
the mercy of God! Plead not merit but mercy! Do not dare to approach
the Lord on terms of Law, but draw near on terms of Grace. Here is a
word for you which was said by an eminent saint when approaching his
God–"Lord, I am Hell, but you are Heaven." Here is a full description
of yourself and, as blessed a description of God as may be! Come, then,
poor Hell-deserving one and hide yourself in the Heaven of everlasting
love–and it shall be a haven of peace to you forever! How does God
forget sin? Well, it is through His everlasting love! He loved His
people before they fell and He loved His people when they fell. "I have
loved you," says He, "with an everlasting love"–and when that great
love of His had led Him to give His Son Jesus for His people's ransom,
it made Him also forget His people's sins.

The Lord so loved His chosen that He said, "He has not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel." Having shown His
love by the gift of Jesus, that love has covered a multitude of sins.
Do you not see, then, that if you want to enter into this pardon, this
forgetfulness of sin, you must come to God on the terms of His free
love and ask Him to forgive you because His name is Love? "Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the
multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my transgressions."

Again, God forgets His people's sins because of the complacency He has
in them as renewed and sanctified creatures. When He hears their cries
of repentance; when He hears their declarations of faith; when He sees
the love which His Spirit has worked in them; when He beholds them
growing more and more like His dear Son, He delights in them! His joy
is fulfilled in them. He is well-pleased with them and communes
lovingly with them. He observes their signs of Grace and accepts
them–and remembers their iniquities no more! Oh, then, you must come
to God and ask Him to change you and to renew you, that He may have
delight in you! Come and beseech Him that you may be born again and
made new creatures in Christ Jesus, for this must be if you are to be
forgiven. There cannot be pardon of sin where there is not a renewal of
the heart–and that must come from God by His sovereign Grace alone.

Oh, you that would have pardon of sin, come for it, this morning, in
God's appointed way. "Repent," He says! That is, be sorry for your
sins. Change your mind about them and hate them, though once you loved
them. Then confess them, for He says, "only acknowledge your iniquity."
Get home and mourn your transgression before your offended Lord,
sincerely, fully and with deep regret–and then He will take away your
sins, for it is written he that confesses and forsakes his sins shall
find mercy. This is His way, then. Acknowledge that you are guilty, but
ask that you may be guilty no more. Chief of all, "Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved," and that saving includes an act
of amnesty and oblivion as to all your sinful thoughts, words, and
acts!

Trust the Lord Jesus Christ! That is the pith of it. Trust yourself in
the hands that were nailed to the Cross for you! Trust yourself to the
love of the heart which was pierced with a spear and forthwith there
came out blood and water! Have you done this? Then you are, even now,
forgiven! Your sin has gone, it is cast into the depths of the sea! Go
down those aisles with your heart dancing within you for delight, for
there is nothing laid against you since you are a Believer in the Lord
Jesus! God imputes not iniquity to the man who has cast Himself on the
Savior. Go, therefore, but never forget your sin, nor the mercy which
has forgiven it!

Always repent and always praise the Lord. Honor the forgetfulness of
God in not remembering your faults and, from now on, tell this blessed
news to everyone you see–there is forgiveness, such forgiveness as was
never heard of until God, Himself, revealed it by saying of His people,
"Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." God bless
you dear Friends, from now on and forever. Amen.
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With the Disciples on the Lake of Galilee