May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Psalms and Psalm 103 and we'll read verse 12. The
book of Psalms, Psalm 103 and reading verse 12. As far as the
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. These words are the testimony
of King David and this psalm expresses many
great and important and wonderful statements. There is, in fact,
apparently no real request in this psalm, but there are many
wonderful statements. And the psalm commences with
these words, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And the psalm ends
with the same words, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And clearly,
David was able and desired to bless the Lord for such a statement
as we read here in the 12th verse. As far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Now, no doubt David wrote this
from a full heart, from a full experience, from knowing the
reality of such a word himself. The truth is that all of us here
tonight needs to recognize and to experience and to know such
a truth which is graciously applied to our hearts. You may say, well,
why is that? The reason is quite simple. No
sin can enter into heaven. There is no sin in heaven. It
is a holy, it is a pure place. And so you and I cannot enter
into heaven if there is the smallest sin remaining upon us. We might say the smallest sin
which has not been confessed, the smallest sin which has not
been washed away. And David gives us this testimony
here. As far as the east is from the
west, and the intention clearly is to indicate that the east
is one way and the west is the other. And however far the distance
is, it's a vast distance, something which is not easy or perhaps
impossible for us to comprehend. And that's the illustration.
And then we are told, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Now, we don't lose sight of our
transgressions as we journey on and we don't stop sinning,
sadly, because our old nature, our unconverted soul, our human
part is sinful. It's the new nature which is
holy and sinless. But we need to know that our
sins of our old nature are taken away. And therefore, when we
come to stand before God, we do not possess any sin. And the only way that can occur
is if our sins have been removed, have been taken away, have been
washed. And the only way that can be
is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has taken our sins and stood in our place. What has happened
is that our sins must have been and be imputed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus came into this
world to take away the sins of His people, so that by His grace
they might stand complete in that great Judgment Day, and
not relying on anything of themselves, relying solely upon the blessed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and dependent upon His
sin-atoning blood. As we read through the Word of
God, there is much in relation to sin. There is much in relation
to need for forgiveness. There is much to encourage us
to realise that the blessed work of the Saviour was to take away
our sins. David here, conscious in his
life of the need he had to have his sins removed. And remember,
David was a godly man, but David was left to very sadly fall,
very sadly sin. And we have such a case in the
word of God to warn us in our lives today. To never think that,
well, I wouldn't fall into sins like that. You and I must realize that it's
only by God's keeping power that we do not commit such sins. Left to ourselves, you and I
would commit every sin, nothing to restrain us. We would indeed
sin again and again. So how thankful we should be
that there is the grace of God and there is forgiveness with
him. And the Lord did come and forgive
David. And that's why surely David is
able to commit to begin this psalm with such words. Bless
the Lord. Oh, my soul and and all that
is within me. It was a whole hearted desire.
It wasn't half hearted. It was a whole hearted desire,
bless his holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases. Bless God, my friends, we have
before us tonight the same great God, the same God that favoured his
servant David. The same God that enabled him
to write such words, as far as the east is from the west, so
far hath he removed our transgressions from us. There is a continual
need to recognise that we are forgiven and that we are therefore
blessed with the evidence The Lord Jesus Christ has died to
atone for our sins. We read together that chapter
in Leviticus, a very important chapter in the Word of God, chapter
16. And as we read that, and I hope
you followed it through, as we read that, one thing is very
clear. Every day, there was the need
for forgiveness. Every day. there was the evidence
of that blood which had to be shed and that sacrifice made. And so it carried on all through
those Old Testament times, right up to the time until the Lord
Jesus Christ gave himself as that one complete sacrifice. And there was no need then for
any further sacrifices because his sacrifice was all sufficient
to pay the price of all our sins, the sins of all His people throughout
time. What a sacrifice, what a blessing
it was. And we read together also in
that chapter about the scapegoat, about the scapegoat. It only
occupied a couple of verses, but nonetheless it was very significant
those two verses which refers to the scapegoats. And this is what we read in the 21st and 22nd verses. And when
he had made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle
of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.
Remember, there were two goats. One was sacrificed. And this
is the other goat. And Aaron shall lay both his
hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions
in all their sins. Now, we today, what a blessing
if you and I are given that grace to come and to confess all our
iniquities and all our transgressions. And obviously there are many
which we don't remember and many we don't actually observe really.
And yet we know that there is sin and how we need to be cleansed,
how we need to be delivered from it. And here we have the picture
of Moses with this goat and putting his hands and confessing. It wasn't sufficient just to
place the hands on the head of the goat. There was need for
confession. And so there is, for us today,
this need for confession. And confession is a gift of God. You and I don't confess easily. We may do it glibly, We may do
it out of tradition, but when the Holy Spirit convicts us of
our sin, and when the Holy Spirit, as it were, points the finger
at us, and those words are spoken like they were to David, thou
art the man, thou art the woman, and there's no escape, and we
are convicted, and we are condemned, guilty before a holy God, then
it is. that we appreciate the gospel. Then it is that we begin to understand
the great truths of the Old Testament. Then it is that we rejoice. There
is forgiveness with God that He may be feared. Here we have
this picture then. Aaron on behalf of the children of
Israel. confessing their sins, and putting them upon the head
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man
into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities." It's needful, all of our iniquities,
all of our sins placed upon the Savior. Not one left out. Not one forgotten. Not one left
behind. Otherwise, there's no entry into
glory. And the goat shall bear upon
him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. And he shall let go the goat
in the wilderness. And what's the result? The picture,
there's the goat. wandering away into the wilderness,
the sins of Israel seen no more, seen no more, gone away. And that's the scene for you
and me today. You and I need to know in the words here that
our sins, our iniquities have been taken away and the The psalmist
tells us He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities. If the Lord did, my friends,
we would never get to glory. No, we would never get to glory
if the Lord dealt with us as we deserve. Do you acknowledge
that before God? Do you acknowledge that If God
sent you and me to hell, he will be just. We couldn't condemn
and say, well, that's not fair. We would have to confess it was
fair and it was right. But what a wonderful God we have,
who looks upon us and does not deal with us after our sins,
nor reward us according to our iniquities. And then he goes
on and gives another illustration. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Now this means a godly fear. A godly fear. That means that
we don't want to offend God. It's a godly fear. We don't want
to do those things which are ill-pleasing to our God." What
a mercy, if you and I are blessed with this then, to realize that
His great mercy toward them that fear Him. And then we read this
twelfth verse, as far as the East and the West, so far have
He removed our transgressions from us. And He goes on to explain,
and it's a wonderful thing to enter into the great truths of
these words, Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him. Just think, almighty God, looking
down upon you and me and pitying us. And as David goes on to say,
for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. The Lord knows us inside out
better than we know ourselves. He looks upon us and He pities
us. We are therefore those blessed
with the fear of God. You see, this is limited to those
that fear Him. Like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear Him. So the great question
for us surely tonight is, do we fear the Lord? Do we fear
the Lord? And the evidence of that will
be really in our life, in our walk, in our conversation, that we are amongst those who
fear God. It's very important for all of
us to come within this position, to be amongst those who fear
God. because we are rapidly passing
through this little world and our little life. And the psalmist
goes on and explains that. He says, For as for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. And the place
thereof shall know it no more. And that's so in our lives, isn't
it? Soon, we shall be gone. We shan't be on the earth anymore. And therefore, the earth won't
know us anymore. And we shall soon be forgotten.
Soon be forgotten. But our souls will either be
in heaven or in hell. We will either be amongst those
who Fear the Lord amongst those whose sins are forgiven or amongst
those who are languishing in hell for eternity. And David
carries on the theme of God's goodness. She blessed the Lord,
oh, my soul, all that is within me. Bless his holy name, he says,
but. The mercy of the Lord is. From everlasting Too everlasting. Isn't that wonderful? To think
of that, we who are undeserving of God's mercy, especially perhaps as we may
have, as it were, gone against God, and yet His mercy. Oh, what a gracious God we have.
David knew it. All of God's people know it in
measure. of His mercy and we rejoice in
it and we bless God for it. The mercy of the Lord. It's not something which comes
and goes. Men change their minds. God doesn't. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. And again, it's qualified upon
them that fear Him. and His righteousness unto children's
children to such as keep His covenant and do those things
that remember His commandments to do them." Well, David was
able to come and confess his sins and to seek for that forgiveness
and to receive that forgiveness and therefore to recognize the
great truth here of these words. As far as the east and the west,
so far has he removed. Our transgressions from us. Yes,
the Lord, when the Lord forgives my friends, it's a complete forgiveness. Yes, it's wholehearted. There's
nothing lacking. And we are therefore clean. We're washed. We're sinless. And therefore we can believe
that when the call comes to take us from this earth, it will to
be to go and to be with Christ, which is far better. The Apostle Paul was blessed
with the evidence of this in his life. Paul, of course, was
a sinner. Paul was a sinner saved by grace. Paul was a sinner who received
the favor and blessing of almighty God. No different to the church
of God down through the ages. So may we tonight rejoice in
what the Savior has said and thank God for his wonderful favor
and wonderful mercy. When he wrote to the Corinthians,
he said, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Well, that's a test, isn't it?
A test for you and me to realize that we are a new creature, we're
a different person. We become concerned about our
eternal state and not just in a passing way, but a real concern
and a desire to know that all our sins are taken away. Old
things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He tells us what this is. He
says, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself. And that means, of course, the
Church of God not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Because our sins
were not imputed to us. and were imputed to the Saviour." We need to ponder such a tremendous
statement. To think that your sins and my
sins, however great they are, have been imputed, put upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. So that we are therefore washed
and we are made righteous. That's why we have these words,
not imputing their trepidations unto them, and have committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, when the Lord blesses us
in such a way, we should realize that as we're a new creature,
we're a different person. That means we can't just live
our life as we want to. We can't just go on pleasing
ourselves. And the apostle tells us, now
then, we are ambassadors for Christ. That's a very strong
statement, isn't it? Therefore, if you and I still
serving the world. In fact, serving ourselves. And then we cannot really call
ourselves a new creature, can we? And we cannot, therefore, lay
hold of this great truth that the Lord has reconciled us to
himself, imputing our trespasses unto him. It's very humbling
to realize that the Lord makes us his ambassadors, those who
therefore show forth his praise, those who are his witnesses,
those who illustrate his great love and favor and mercy toward
them in washing away all their sins. It's a vital truth. that you and I need to have our
sins taken away. And in the epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, we're told that Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
curse it is everyone that hangeth on a tree. that the blessing
of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ,
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Christ has redeemed us. The blessed
Lord Jesus paid the price to redeem our sins. The blessed
Lord Jesus paid our price so that this word will be true as
far as the East is from the West, So far have they removed our
transgressions from us. Yes, they've been taken away
and it's only through what the Saviour has done. He has bore
the punishment instead. How does such a statement like
that affect us? Do we bow down? before such a
kind, compassionate God. A God who's been so gracious
toward us and looked upon us and remembered us for good. What a debt we have, surely.
A debt to pay, a debt that you and I will never, of course,
be able to pay. And yet thankful we should be
that we have a God who was so willing. And remember, It's the
great almighty God. When Isaiah wrote his prophecy,
he tells us, remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou
art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. And then he says, I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins return
unto me, for I have redeemed thee. It's a personal word to
the Church of God to realize this applies to every member
of God's family. We all have Our sins blotted
out as a thick cloud, and so they cannot be seen. And the
reason is because Christ has paid the price so that our sins
might be blotted out. Those glorious words, for I have
redeemed thee. My friends, may we all hear that
voice speaking to our hearts tonight, for I have redeemed
thee. And if we've been redeemed, we
are eternally safe. What safety there is in Christ.
No one can take us out of the hand of our God. Redeemed with
a precious blood of Christ. Well, have we the wonderful evidence
of that in our own hearts? For I have redeemed thee. And what does Isaiah go on to
say? This is what he says. This is what the redeemed desire
to do. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
has done it. The Lord has done it, not man,
not you. The Lord has done it. Shout,
ye lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing, ye
mountains, O forests and every tree. therein for the Lord hath
redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Yes, thus saith the Lord thy
Redeemer. And he that form thee from the
womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things and stretches forth
the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. This
is a description of the great almighty God who has condescended
to look upon us, who has condescended to redeem us and therefore has
given us surely a desire, a voice to praise our God. Sing, O ye
heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, ye lower parts of
the earth. break forth in the singing, ye mountains, O forest,
and every tree therein. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob
and glorified himself in Israel. My friends, the Lord is glorified
in the work of his work in his saints. It does bring glory to
his name. My friends, has it brought glory
to God, his work in your heart and in my heart? that we can
recognize the wonderful favor and the wonderful mercy of Almighty
God. In an earlier chapter 43, towards
the end, we read, I, even I, this is the great God. I, even
I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake
and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together, declare thou that thou mayest be justified. The Lord God blotting out all
our sins. And perhaps we remember in the
first chapter in Isaiah, how the Lord says and speaks to the
Church of God in those wonderful words where he says, Come now. Come now. And let us reason together,
Seth, your God. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. No sinner too bad. No sinner
too vile. No sinner too far off. Not tomorrow. Come now. Come now. Glorious gospel invitation, isn't
it? Welcome news to a needy sinner. Come just as we are. Come now.
Let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If he be willing
and obedient, he shall eat the good of the land. But if he refuse
and rebel, he shall be devoured with a sword for the mouth of
the Lord has spoken it. Very blessed, very solemn. The word of God. Not a word of
man. Let me repeat it. Come now. and let us reason together. You
can come to your God. You can come to your God in the
secret place and pour out your heart to God because he knows
all about you. He understands your case. Yes, we don't have to come and
confess ourselves to men. We have to come to God. Come
now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins
Be as scarlet, though they shall be as white as snow, and though
they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. But don't forget
the two following verses. If ye be willing, or the other,
if ye refuse. You and I come under one of those
categories, don't we? It's a very solemn thought, isn't
it? If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land. But if you refuse and rebel, you should be devoured with a
sword. For the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. My friends, the word of God is
very direct, isn't it? We don't have to query as to
what it says and what it means. We know that what the Lord said
is true. And you and I should never trifle
with God's Word. Micah, in his prophecy, tells
us this. Towards the very end of his prophecy,
Who is a God like unto thee? Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage, He retained not his anger forever
because he delighted in mercy. Oh, friends, what a God, what
a God, the great God, almighty God. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities and they will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. He will turn again. We may perhaps
think, oh, the Lord won't turn again to me. Yes, he will. He
said so. He will turn again. And he will
have compassion upon us. And he will subdue our iniquities. Isn't that compassion? Are we
not thankful for that? Iniquities which well up sometimes
in our hearts and minds. to think we have a God who is
able, who does subdue our iniquities. And they will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Well, tonight, my friends, we've
just gone through a few glorious promises in the Word of God to
encourage us and to realize that the Word of God is true. We have
the picture in the Old Testament of those that scapegoat carrying
the sins away, never to be seen again. No doubt Israel rejoiced
to observe that. As we've gone through the Old
and New Testament, the many encouraging words to believe that we have
a God who does forgive, who does forgive and to realize this word
is true. As far as the heaven is above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. as
far as the east is from the west. So far, Pathy removed our transgressions
from us. And let us remember the word
of God is true. Amen.