a bag, a book, and a bottle. By Don Fortner. God takes great
care to comfort his people in their many trials and sorrows
in this world. One of the goals which he commands
his preachers to have is the comfort of his people. He says,
comfort, comfort my people. Here are three things described
in the word of God that should be of great comfort to every
believer. 1. God has made a bag for our sins. Job said, My transgression is
sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity. In ancient times
when men died at sea, their bodies were placed in a weighted bag
which was sewn together and sealed. Then they were cast into the
depths of the sea. That is what God has done with
our sins. They are cast into the depths
of the sea. When Christ died for our sins
which were imputed to him, he put them all away. They were
buried in the sea of God's infinite forgiveness, put away never to
be brought up again. God Almighty will never charge
us with sin, impute sin to us, remember our sins against us,
or treat us any less graciously because of our sin. That is the
forgiveness of God. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. 2. The Lord has written a book
for our names. Take heart child of God. Your
name is written in the book of God. Before the worlds were made,
the Lord God inscribed the names of his elect in the Lamb's book
of life. In that book God has recorded not only the names of
the chosen heirs of heaven, but also all things pertaining to
them. The Lamb's Book of Life is the book of God's eternal
purpose of grace, predestination, and election. The fact that our
names are written in that book means that our salvation is a
matter of absolute certainty, and that all things work together
for our good by God's arrangement to secure our predestined end,
which is perfect conformity to Christ. When our Lord says, rejoice
because your names are written in heaven, he is telling us that
we have nothing to fear. All is well with those whose
names are written in heaven. Three, moreover, the Lord God
keeps a bottle for our tears. You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded
each one in your book. It was customary at ancient Egyptian
funerals for mourners to have a small cloth or sponge to wipe
away their tears. Then they were squeezed into
a small vial, a tear bottle, and placed in the tomb with the
dead, symbolizing the care the mourners had for the one who
had died. Even so, the Lord our God, our Heavenly Father, our
Almighty Savior, and our Holy Comforter tenderly cares for
us. We are the very apple of His eye. The Lord our God has. put our sins in a bag and buried
them, written our names in a book to remember them, and placed
our tears in a bottle to show his tender care for us. Could
anything be more comforting in this world of sin, sorrow, and
death?