Life and Pardon

Life and Pardon

DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 25, 1889,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
has He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all
trespasses." Colossians 2:13.

THE teaching of this verse is much the same as that in preceding
verses–but the Apostle does not hesitate to dwell again and again upon
the important matters of quickening and forgiveness. These lie in the
foundation. Ministers of Christ cannot too often go over the essential
points–their hearers cannot too often hear vital Truths of God. Our
frail memories and dull understandings require line upon line, precept
upon precept, in reference to fundamental Truths– our apprehension of
them is far too feeble, and can never be too vivid.

To find instances of the work of God in quickening souls and in
pardoning sins, Paul does not look far afield. In the text he says,
"And you," and, according to the Revised Version, he repeats the word
further on, and the passage runs thus, "You, being dead through your
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did He
quicken together with Him." He points personally to the saints at
Colossi. We are not about to consider a prophecy to be fulfilled in the
millennium, neither are we speaking of matters which concern the
unknown dwellers in the moon.

No. The theme belongs to you. To you, I say, if indeed you are the
people of God. You are specimens of the Divine Work–you has He
quickened, you has He pardoned. It is profitable for us to be engaged
upon matters which concern us. I shall speak to you of those things
which I have tasted and handled of the good Word of Life, and it is my
firm belief that, to the most of you, these matters are familiar in
your mouths as household words. If not, I grieve over you. Let none of
us be content unless the works of the Holy Spirit are manifest in us.
What good is it to me if another man receive life and pardon, if I am
cast to death and lie under condemnation?

Press forward, my Beloved, to a personal enjoyment of these chief
blessings of the Covenant of Grace–life in Jesus, forgiveness through
His blood. Let every part of the sermon have a finger pointed at
yourselves. Hear it speak to you, even to you.

In the text we have the conjunction of two things–quickening and
forgiveness. We will consider these things in connection with each
other. Their order it may be difficult to lay down–in the text they
are described as if they were the same thing. Which comes first, the
impartation of the new life, or the blotting out of sin? Is not pardon
first? Does God pardon a dead man? How can He give life, which is the
proof of pardon, to the man who is not forgiven? On the other hand, if
a man has not spiritual life sufficient to make him feel his guilt, how
can he cry for pardon? And if it is unsought, how shall it be received?

A man may be spiritually alive so as to be groaning under the pollution
and the burden of sin, and yet he may not have received, by faith, the
remission of sins. In the order of our experience, the reception of
life comes before the enjoyment of pardon. We are made to live
spiritually and so we are made to repent, to confess, to believe, and
to receive forgiveness. First, the life which sighs under sin, and then
the life which sings concerning pardon. Misery is first felt–and then
mercy is received.

Following the line of experience, we shall notice, concerning the
favored ones of God, first, what they were–"You, being dead in your
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh." Secondly, we shall note
what has been done in them– "Has He quickened together with Him." And
then, thirdly, what He has done for them–"Having forgiven you all
trespasses." May the Holy Spirit lead us into these Truths of God and
give us the life of God, and the rest of faith!

I. First, then, consider WHAT THEY WERE. Beloved, they were all by
nature children of wrath, even as others. There is no distinction in
the condition of natural men before the Law. We all fell in Adam. We
are all gone out of the

way and have all become unprofitable. Any difference which now exists
has been made by Divine Grace. But by nature we are all in the same
condemnation and all tainted by the same depravity.

Where were we when the Lord first looked on us? Answer–We were dead
according to the sentence of the Law. The Lord had said, "In the day
that you eat thereof you shall surely die." And Adam did die the moment
that he ate of the forbidden fruit–and his posterity died in him. What
is natural death? It is the separation of the body from the soul, which
is its life. What is spiritual death? It is the separation of the soul
from God, who is its life. It had been the very life of Adam to be
united to God. And when he lost his union of heart with God, his spirit
underwent a dreadful death.

This death is upon each one of us by nature. Above this comes in the
dreadful fact, that, "He that believes not is condemned already." The
position of every Unbeliever is that of one who is dead by Law. As far
as the liberties and privileges and enjoyments of heavenly things are
concerned, he is written among the dead. His name is registered among
the condemned. Yet, Beloved, while we are under the sentence of death,
the Lord comes to us in almighty Grace and quickens us into newness of
life, forgiving us all trespasses!

Are you trembling because of your condemned condition under the Law? Do
you recognize the tremendous Truth of God that death is the sure and
righteous result of sin? Then to you, even to you, the life-giving,
pardoning Word is sent in the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. Oh
that you may believe and so escape from condemnation!

These favored people were dead through the action of their sin. Sin
stupefies and kills. Where it reigns, the man is utterly insensible to
spiritual truth, feeling, and action. He is dead to everything that is
holy in the sight of God. He may have keen moral perceptions, but he
has no spiritual feelings. Men differ widely as to their moral
qualities. All men are not alike bad, especially when measured in
reference to their fellow men. Some may even be excellent and
praiseworthy, viewed from that standpoint. But to spiritual things all
men are alike dead.

Look at the multitude of our hearers–to what purpose do we preach to
them? You may declare the wrath of God against the godless but what do
they care? You may speak of Jesus' love to the lost–how little it
affects them! Sin is not horrible, and salvation is not precious to
them. They may not controvert your teaching. But they have no sensible
apprehension of the Truth of God–it does not come home to them as a
matter of any consequence. Let eternal things drift as they may, they
are perfectly content so long as they can answer those three
questions–"What shall we eat? What shall we drink? And how shall we be
clothed?"

No higher question troubles their earth-bound minds. They may entertain
some liking towards theological study and Bible teaching, as a matter
of education. But they do not view the Truths of God revealed in
Scripture as matters of overwhelming importance. They trifle. They
delay. They set on one side the things which make for their peace.
Their religion has no influence upon their thoughts and actions–they
are dead. Sin has slain them. I see them mingled with this great
congregation like corpses sitting upright among the living. I look out
upon the masses of this vast city and upon the innumerable hosts of
populous countries and I see a measureless cemetery, a dread domain of
death. A region without

life.

One point must be noticed here, which makes this spiritual death the
more terrible–they are dead but yet responsible. If men were literally
dead, then they were incapable of sin. But the kind of death of which
we speak involves a responsibility none the less, but all the greater.
If I say of a man that he is such a liar that he cannot speak the
truth, do you therefore think him blameless? No. But you judge him to
be all the more worthy of condemnation because he has lost the very
sense which discerns between a truth and a lie.

If we say of a certain man, as we have had to do, "He is a rogue
ingrained. He is so tricky that he cannot deal honestly but must always
be cheating"–do you, therefore, excuse his fraud and pity him? Far
from it. His inability is not physical, but moral inability, and is the
consequence of his own persistence in evil. The Law is as much binding
upon the morally incapable as upon the most sanctified in nature. If,
through a man's own perversity, he wills to reject good and love evil,
the blame is with himself. He is said to be dead in sin–not in the
sense that he is irresponsible–but in the sense that he is so evil
that he will not keep the Law of God.

If a man were brought tomorrow before the Lord Mayor and he were
accused of theft, suppose he should say, "My Lord, I ought to be set
free, for I am such a rascal that I cannot see an article in a shop but
what my fingers itch to lay hold upon it!" Would not the judge give
such a worthless person all the more punishment? O Sinners, dead in
sin, you are

not so dead as thereby to be free from the guilt of breaking God's
Commandments and rejecting Christ. Rather you heap upon yourselves
mountains of guilt every day that you abide in this condition.

The ungodly are so dead as to be careless as to their state. Indeed,
all gracious things are despised of them. Sometimes they attend
religious services. But they get angry if the preacher presses them too
hard. I have known them vow that they will never hear the man again
because he is so personal. Pray, Sirs, what is a preacher to be, but
personal? If he shoots, is he to have no target and take no aim? What
is our very office and business but to deal personally with you about
your sins?

In ungodly men there is an utter recklessness as to their condition
before God. They know that they may die. They know that if they die
they will be lost. But they try to forget these facts. The ostrich is
said to bury its head in the sand so as not to see the hunter, and then
to fancy that it is safe. Thus do men fancy that, by forgetting the
danger, they escape it. Some of you have lived in carelessness until
gray hairs are on your head. Will you still risk your souls? Alas, you
look more anxiously after a battered sixpence, which you miss from your
pocket, than after your immortal soul! If you miss a ring from your
finger while sitting here, you are more concerned about it than about
your eternal destiny.

How foolish! How dead are you to all just judgment and prudence! It is
your soul, your own soul, your only soul, your never-dying soul, to
which we beg you to pay attention–and yet you can hardly have patience
with us. If a prisoner in the condemned cell had no sort of care
whether he should be set free or hanged, but could even joke about the
scaffold and the executioner, you would feel that only by an extreme
act of mercy could such a person be pardoned. No, if he cares nothing
for the penalty, let him bear it–so man would say–and there would be
justice in it. Yet God spoke not so in reference to some of us. For
while we were in a condition of callousness the Grace of God came to us
and by quickening us, gave us to be anxious and led us to pray.

The text adds that we were dead in the uncircumcision of our flesh. I
need not dwell upon the external figure here employed. Its meaning is
clear enough. The uncircumcision of our flesh means that we were not in
covenant with God– it shows, also, the abiding of our filthiness upon
us–the willingness of our souls to be aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, without God in the world. This is where we were in the
uncircumcision of our flesh. And yet the Grace of God found us out. Oh,
I could paint the man! He is anxious about this world, but what does he
care for the world to come? He is a master of his own trade and he
prospers in it.

But for his God and His service, he spares not an hour's consideration.
He cries, "The Covenant of Grace, what is that?" And he turns on his
heel, like Pilate, when he had said, "What is truth?" As to having any
sense of the constant Presence of God, and his deep indebtedness to
God, and of the sweetness of being pardoned, and the bliss of enjoying
the love of God, and walking with God–he has no notion, or, at best,
he cries, "Oh, yes, that is all very fine for those who have nothing
else to do. Let them find delight in it if they can!"

To him God is nothing. Heaven is nothing. Hell less than nothing. He
passes by Calvary, itself, where God in human flesh is bleeding out
redemption and it is nothing to him. The wail from the Cross he never
hears, though it asks him this question–"Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like unto My
sorrow!" What cares he for the wounds of his soul's best Lover? He has
no concern about any purchase made by the Redeemer, or of any death
especially on his behalf, or any resurrection with Christ which he may
hope to enjoy. The man is dead to faith and glory and immortality. The
low and the groveling charm him, but the pure and the noble find him
dead to their claims.

Yet to such, even to such, does Sovereign Grace approach. Unbought,
unsought–it comes according to that word of Scripture, "I am found of
them that sought Me not."

Again, spiritually, the ungodly are dead and utterly incapable of
obtaining life for themselves. Could any of you, with the utmost
diligence, create life, even the lowest form of it? To a man who is
dead, could you impart life? You might galvanize his limbs into a kind
of motion. But real life, the pulsing of the heart, the heaving of the
lungs–could you create it? You know you cannot! Much less can the dead
man himself create life within himself. The man without Christ is
utterly unable to quicken himself. We are "without strength," unable to
do anything as of ourselves and while we are in this condition, Divine
Grace comes to us.

Alas, there remains one more point! Man may be described as dead and
becoming corrupt. After a while the dead body shows symptoms of
decay–this is vice in its beginning. Leave the corpse where it is, and
it will become putrid, polluting the air and disgusting every sense of
the living. "Bury my dead out of my sight," is the cry of the most
affectionate

mother or wife. And so it is with many ungodly men. Some of them are
restrained from the grosser vices, just as Egyptian bodies were, by
spices, preserved from rottenness. By example, by instruction, by fear,
by surroundings–many are kept from the more putrid sins, and therefore
are not so obnoxious to society.

Towards God they are dead as ever. But towards man they are no more
objectionable than the mummies in yonder cases in the British Museum.
But this embalming of the dead with spices of morality has not been
carried out with hosts of those around us. They rot above ground–their
blasphemies pollute the air, their lewdness infects our streets, their
revelry makes nights hideous. The tendency of dead flesh is towards the
corruption which shows itself in loathsome actions. The mercy is, that
where even this has taken place, where the foul worm of vice has begun
its awful work in drunkenness, in blasphemy, in dishonesty, or in
uncleanness of life–even there the quickening Spirit can come!

As life came to Lazarus, who had been dead four days, so can spiritual
life come to those who have fallen into the noi-someness of open
transgression. Leaving this painful matter, let us be filled with deep
humility. For such were we in days not long since–but let us also be
filled with hope for others. For He who quickened us can do the same
for them.

II. And now, secondly, WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN US? What has God worked?

We have been quickened. To tell you, exactly, how quickening is worked
in us, is quite beyond my power. The Holy Spirit comes to a man when he
is dead in sin and He breathes into him a new and mysterious life. We
do not know how we receive our natural life–how the soul comes into
the body we know not. Do you suppose that spiritual life in its
beginning will be less mysterious? Did not our Lord say, "The wind
blows where it wishes and you hear the sound thereof but can not tell
from where it comes and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of
the Spirit"? You know not the way of the Spirit, nor how He breathes
eternal life.

We know, however, that as soon as life comes, our first feeling is one
of pain and uneasiness. In the case of persons who have been nearly
drowned, when they begin to revive they experience very unpleasant
sensations. Certainly the parallel holds good in spiritual things. Now,
the man sees sin to be an exceedingly great evil. He is startled by the
discovery of its foulness. He was told all about it and yet he knew
nothing to purpose. But now sin becomes a load, a pain, a horror. As
dead, he felt no weight. But as quickened, he groans beneath a load.
Now he begins to cry, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?"

Now the angels see him on his knees in private. Behold, he prays! "God
be merciful to me, a sinner," is his hourly sigh. Now, also, he begins
to struggle against his evil habits–he addicts himself to Bible
reading, to praying, and to hearing the Word of God. He is for awhile
desperately earnest. Alas, he goes back to his old sins! Yet he cannot
rest– again he seeks the Lord. With some men a large part of their
early spiritual life has been taken up with agonizing strivings and
painful endeavors to free themselves from the chains of sin. They have
had to learn their weaknesses by their failures. But the Grace of God
has not failed. Some, even for years after their conviction by the
Spirit of God, have had no comfortable sense of pardon but very much
conflict with sin–still, the life of God has never been utterly
quenched within them.

Their struggles have proved that the heavenly germ was alive and was
painfully resisting the forces of evil. Men themselves act as if they
tried to put out the light which Divine Grace has kindled. But they
cannot effect their purpose. When once they have been disturbed in
their nest, the Lord has not allowed them to settle down in it again.
Their once sweet sin has become bitter as wormwood to them. We have
known men under conviction go further into sin to drown their
convictions–just as a whale, when harpooned, will dive into the
depths. But they come up again and again are wounded–they cannot
escape.

In the biography of a man of God, who in his early days was a terrible
drunkard, we find that, in struggling against intoxication, he was
frequently beaten. And there appears in his diary a long blank of which
he says, "Four years and a half elapsed and no account rendered! What
can have been the cause of this chasm? Sin! Yes, sin of the blackest
dye, of the deepest ingratitude to the Father of mercies!" The wanderer
was restless and unhappy in sin. The life within was, like Jonah,
thrown into the depths of the sea. But it hated its condition and
struggled to rise out of it. God will not leave the life He has given,
even under the worst conditions.

But quickening leads to far more than this. By-and-by the new life
exercises its holy senses and is more clearly seen to be life. The man
begins to see that his only hope is in Christ and he tries humbly to
hide himself beneath the merit of the Lord Jesus. He does not dare to
say, "I am saved," but he deeply feels that if ever he is saved, it
must be through the blood

and righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Now, also, he begins to pray,
pleading the precious blood. Now he hopes and his hope looks only
through the windows of his Lord's wounds. He looks for mercy only
through the atoning sacrifice.

By-and-by he comes to trust that this mercy has really come to him and
that Jesus had him on His heart when He suffered on the tree. By a
desperate effort he throws himself on Christ and determines to lie at
His feet and, if he must perish, to perish looking unto Jesus. This is
a glorious resolve. See him after a while, as he rises up into peace
and joy and consecration! His life now being joined to that of his
Lord, he rejoices that he is never to be separated from Him. I think I
hear him say, "I see it all now. The Lord Jesus bore my sin and carried
it away. I died because He died. I live because He lives. The Lord
accepts me, because He accepts His Son and thus I am 'accepted in the
Beloved.' "

From now on the quickened man tries to live for Christ, out of
gratitude. This is the nature of the life he has received. He strives
to grow up into Christ, and to become like his Lord in all things. From
now on he and his Lord are linked together in an everlasting union and
the cause of Jesus is the one thing for which he lives and for which he
would be content to die. Blessed be God, I am not talking any new
things to you–you know what I mean! For these forty years have I felt
these things and many of you have felt them longer, still. At first the
struggling light within you revealed to you nothing but your
darkness–but now you see Jesus and see yourselves alive in Him with a
life eternal and heavenly. Blessed be the Lord who has raised Jesus
from the dead and has quickened us in Him and with Him!

III. Now we come to the third point, upon which I pray for a renewed
unction from the Holy One. Let us consider, in the last place, WHAT HAS
BEEN DONE FOR US–"Having forgiven you all trespasses."

Believing in Christ Jesus, I am absolved. I am clear, I am clear before
the Lord. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus." This is the most joyful theme that I can bring before
you. And I want you to notice, first, that pardon is a Divine act.
"Having forgiven all trespasses." Who does that? Why, He that quickened
you! is exclusively the Lord's own–and the same God who gives us
spiritual life also grants us pardon from His Throne.

He sovereignly dispenses pardons. We need not go to any human priest to
seek absolution, for we may go at once to God, who alone has sovereign
right to execute the death sentence or to pardon the offender. He alone
can grant it with sure effect. If any man should say, "absolvo te," (I
absolve you), I would take it for what it was worth and its worth would
not be much. But if HE says it, who is the Law-giver and the supreme
King. If HE says it, against whom I have offended, then am I happy,
indeed. Glory be to His name, who is a God ready to pardon! What bliss
I have received in receiving forgiveness from God!

Oh, my Hearer, if you have done wrong to your fellow man, ask his
forgiveness, as you are bound to do. And if you get it, be thankful and
feel as if a weight were removed from your conscience. But, after all,
what is this, compared with being forgiven all trespasses by God,
Himself? This can calm the ruffled sea of the soul–yes, still its
fiercest tempest. This can make you sleep at nights, instead of tossing
to and fro upon a pillow, which conscience turns to stone beneath your
aching head. This gives the gleaming eye, the beaming face, the
bounding heart. This brings Heaven down to earth and lifts us near to
Heaven. The Lord has blotted out our sins, and thus He has removed the
most bitter fountain of our sorrows. Pardon from God is a charter of
liberty, a testament of felicity. God's pardon is a gift most free.

Look at the text and note that this pardon comes to persons who are
dead in sin. They were utterly unworthy, and did not even seek mercy.
The Lord who comes to men when they are dead in sin, comes to quicken
them and to pardon them. Not because they are ready but because HE is
ready. Hearken, O Man! If in your bosom there is at this moment a great
stone instead of a heart of flesh–if you are paralyzed as to all good
things. If there is only enough life in you to make you feel your
terrible incapacity for holiness and fellowship with God, yet God can
pardon you–even as you are and where you are. We were in that
condition, my Brethren, when the Lord came to us in love. "When we were
yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."

We saw that Jesus died, we believed in Him as able to save, by His
Grace, and we received the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is free.
The Lord looks for no good thing in the sinner. But He gives him every
good thing. O my Hearer, if the Lord looked for good in you, He could
not find it. He looks for nothing you can do, or nothing you can feel,
or nothing you can resolve to do or feel. But He shows mercy because He
delights in mercy. He passes by iniquity, transgression and sin,
because it is His nature to be gracious. The cause of Divine pardon is
in God, Himself, and in His dear Son. It is not in you, O Sinner!

Being dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh, what can you do? He
quickens you and He pardons you. Yes, He is All in All to you. Wonders
of Divine Grace! When I get upon this subject I do not need to give you
illustrations, nor to use choice phrases. The glorious fact stands
forth in its own native beauty–infinite pardon from an infinite
God–given because of His own mercifulness and the merit of His beloved
Son–and not because of anything whatsoever in the man whom He pardons.
"But the man repents," says one. Yes, I know. But God gives him
repentance. "But he confesses sin." Yes, I know it. For the Lord leads
him to acknowledge his trespasses. All and everything which looks like
a condition of pardon, is also given by the Free and Sovereign Grace of
God–and given freely–without money and without price.

I want you to notice how universal is this pardon in reference to all
sin–"Having forgiven you all trespasses." Consult your memory and
think of all your trespasses, if you dare. That one black night! Has it
left a crimson spot, indelible, never to be concealed? In many
instances one special sin breeds more distress than a thousand others.
That crime has left a deeper scar than any other. In vain you cry,
"Out, hideous spot!" Should you wash that hand, it would stain ten
thousand Atlantics, and it would remain a scarlet spot, never to be
erased forever. No process known to men can wash out the stain.

But God's infinite mercy can put away that hideous, unmentionable
crime, and it shall be as though it had never been. Possibly, however,
you do not so much remember any one transgression as the whole heap of
them. Certainly, a multiplicity of minor sins heaped together, tower
upward like a great Alp, although no one offense may seem so notable as
to demand mention. We have sinned every day and every hour and almost
every moment of every hour–how numberless our transgressions! Our sins
of omission are beyond all computation. But all these, too many for you
to remember, too many for me to number, are forgiven to the man in
Christ–"Having forgiven you all trespasses"–ALL, not one excepted.
You have sins not yet known nor confessed–but they are forgiven. For
the blood cleans from all sin.

I should like to help your memory by reminding you of your sins before
conversion. Blessed is he whose sin is covered. One does not wish to
uncover it. "Lord, remember not the sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions." The child of God, who has long been rejoicing in
faith, has need still to pray that. For our sins may vex our bones long
after they have been removed from our consciences–the consequences of
a sin may fret us after the sin, itself, is forgiven.

Then think of your sins after conviction. You were struck down on a
certain day with a great sense of sin and you hurried home and cried
upon your knees, "O God, forgive me!" Then you vowed you would never do
the like again. But you did. The dog returned to his vomit. You began
to attend a place of worship. You were very diligent in religious
duties. But all of a sudden you went back to your old companions and
your old ways. If your sin was drink, you thought you had mastered it
and could be very moderate. But a fierce thirst came upon you, which
you could not resist–and you were soon as drunken as ever. Remember
this with shame.

Or it may have been a more deliberate backsliding. And deliberation
greatly adds to the sin of sins. Without being particularly tempted,
you began to hanker after your old pleasures and almost to despise
yourself for having denied yourself their indulgence. I know a man who
was present at a Prayer Meeting and was so worked upon that he prayed.
But afterwards he said that he would never go into such a place again,
for fear he should again be overcome. Think of being afraid to be led
aright–ashamed to go to Heaven!

Ah, Friends, we have been bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke, dogs that
have slipped their collars, horses that have kicked over the traces.
Sins after conviction, as doing despite to Divine Love, are very
grievous trespasses. Like the moth, you had your wings singed in the
candle and yet you flew back to the flame–if you had perished in it,
who could have pitied you? Yet, after such folly, the Lord had mercy on
you–"Having forgiven you ALL trespasses."

A still worse set of sins must be remembered–sins after
conversion–sins after you have found peace with God, after you have
enjoyed high fellowship with Jesus. O Brothers and Sisters, these are
cruel wounds for our Lord! These are evils which should melt us to
tears, even to hear of them. What? Pardoned, and then sin again!
Beloved of the Lord, and still rebelling! You sang so sweetly–

"Your will be done; Your will be done" and then went home and murmured!
You talked to others about evil temper, and yet grew angry. You are old
and experienced, and yet no boy could have been more imprudent! O God,
we bless You for the morning and evening lamb. For Your people need the
sacrifice perpetually! We need a morning sacrifice, lest the night has
gathered anything of evil. And we require an evening sacrifice for the
sins of the day.

Dwell for awhile upon the large blessing of the text. Whatever your
sins may have been, if you are a Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God
has quickened you together with Him and has forgiven you all
trespasses. He pardons most effectually. Ask God about your sins and He
says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more!" If God
Himself does not remember them, they are most effectually removed. Ask
Holy Scripture where they are and Hezekiah tells you, "You have cast
all my sins behind Your back." Where is that? God sees everything, and
everywhere, and therefore everywhere is before His face. If, therefore,
He casts our sins behind His back, He throws our sins into "the
nowhere"–they cease to exist.

"In those days, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they shall not
be found." Surely this is enough to set all the bells of your heart
ringing! Remember, also, dear Friends, that this pardon is most
perfect. He does not commute the punishment but He pardons the crime.
He does not pardon, and then confine for life, nor pardon today and
punish tomorrow–this were not worthy of a God. The pardon is given and
never revoked–the deed of Divine Grace is done and it can never be
undone. God will not remember the sin which He has blotted out, nor
condemn the offender whom He has absolved.

O Believer, the Lord so fully absolves you, that all your sins, which
might have shut you out of Heaven, shall not hinder your way there! All
that sin of yours, which might have filled you with despair, shall not
even fill you with dismay. The Lord shall wipe the tears from your
eyes, as He has washed the sins from your person. Even the very stain
of sin shall be removed. Remember what He says of scarlet and crimson
sins. Does He say, "I will wash them so that nothing shall remain
beyond a pale red"? Does He say, "I will wash them till nothing shall
remain but a slight rosy tint"? No! He says, "They shall be as wool: I
will make them white as snow." The Almighty Lord will do His work of
remission in an absolutely perfect style, and not a shadow of a spot
shall remain.

Here is a point that I must dwell upon for a moment, namely, that this
pardon shall be seen to be perfectly consistent with Justice. If I were
pardoned and felt that God had weakened the foundations of His moral
government by winking at evil, I should feel insecure in my pardoned
state–and should have no rest. If the Justice of God were in the least
infringed by my forgiveness, I should feel like a felon towards the
universe and a robber of God. But I bless God that He pardons sin in
strict connection with Justice.

Behold the costly system by which this was effected. He Himself came
here in the Person of His dear Son. He Himself became man, and dwelt
among us. He Himself took the load of His people's sin. He bore the sin
of many and was made a curse for us. He put away both sin and the curse
by His wondrous sacrifice. The marvel of Heaven and earth, of time and
eternity, is the atoning death of Jesus Christ. This is the mystery
that brings more glory to God than all creation and all Providence. How
could it be that He should be slain for sinners, the Just for the
unjust, to bring us to God?

To finish transgression and make an end of sin was a labor worthy of
His Godhead–and Christ has perfectly achieved it by His sufferings and
death. You had no fiction before you when, just now, you sang
concerning Him–

"Jesus was punished in my place, Without the gate my Surety bled To
expiate my stain– On earth the Godhead deigned to dwell, And made of
infinite a vail The sufferings of the man."

Now are we justly forgiven. And the Throne of God is established. By
His death as our Substitute, our Lord Jesus has set forth the righteous
severity of God as well as His boundless mercy.

To us Justice and Mercy seemed opposed, but in Jesus we see them
blended. We bless the Lord for His atoning sacrifice. We feel an
infinite satisfaction in the fact that none can dispute the validity of
a pardon which comes to us signed by the hand of the eternal King–and
countersigned by the pierced hand of Him who bore our sins in His own
body on the tree–and gave for those sins a complete vindication of the
Law which we had broken.

Note well the last consideration upon this point of the forgiveness of
all trespasses. It ought to make you feel unutterably happy. From now
on your pardon is bound up with the glory of Christ. If your pardon
does not save you, then Christ is no Savior. If, resting in Him, your
sins are not forgiven, then He undertook a fruitless errand when He
came to save His people from their sins. Every drop of Christ's blood
demands the eternal salvation of every soul that is washed in

it. The Godhead and Manhood of Christ and all the glory of His
Mediatorship, stand up and claim for every Believer that he shall be
delivered from sin. What? Did He bear sin and shall we bear it, too?

No–if the Lord has found in Him a ransom, His redeemed are free. Since
to save me, who was once dead in sin, and in the uncircumcision of my
flesh–and now has become the glory of Christ, I am sure I shall be
saved, for He will not tarnish His own name. O Believer, to bring you
home without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, has become the
ambition of your Savior and He will not fail, or be discouraged. He
will neither lose His lifework, nor His death throes. God forbid! And
yet this must be, unless you, who are quickened together with Him,
shall be found at the last without fault before the Throne of God.

Now, let us just think of this–we are forgiven. I do not mean all of
you. For if you are out of Christ, you have no part in this grand
absolution. May the Lord have mercy upon you, quicken you today and
bring you to Christ! But as many as are trusting in Christ and so are
living in union with Him, you are forgiven. A person who has been
condemned by the Law and then has received a free pardon, walks out of
the prison and goes where he pleases. There is a policeman. Does he
fear him? No, he has a free pardon, and the policeman cannot touch him.
But there are a great many persons who know him and know him to be
guilty. That does not matter. He has a free pardon and nobody can touch
him. He cannot be tried again, however guilty he may have been. The
free pardon has wiped the past right out.

Now, today, Child of God, you begin anew–you are clean–for He has
washed you and has done the work right well. We have washed our robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, therefore shall we be
before the Throne of God and praise Him. What could we do less than
praise Him day and night? When shall we ever stop? When we are in His
temple, free from all danger of future sin and trial, we will forever
praise Him who has forgiven us all trespasses. I charge you, let us
meet in Heaven, all of us.

Some have dropped in here this morning from all parts of the country
and from America. And we may never meet again on earth. Let us meet
around the Throne in Heaven and sing, "unto Him that loved us and
washed us from our sins in His own blood." God grant that we may. Who
wants to be left out? Is there one person here who would like to be
shut out in that day? I pray you, enter in at once–

"Come guilty souls and flee a way Like doves to Jesus' wounds; This is
the welcome Gospel-day, Wherein Free Grace abounds."