I invite your attention back
to Isaiah chapter 43, verse 25. This great chapter begins with
the Lord promising that His people are called by Him, and formed
by Him, and redeemed by Him, and they are His. He owns them
lock, stock, and barrel. He has bought them with the price
of His own Son's blood. And his promises is that when
they go through the fires of trials, when they go through
the deep waters, that he will be with them. They will not be
burned. They will not be consumed. He
goes on to declare that he has saved them. Down in verse 10,
he says, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant
whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand
that I am he. Before me there was no God, for
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there is no else. I have declared, and I have saved,
I have showed, when there was no strange God among you. Therefore,
ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before
the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out
of My hand. I will work, and who shall let
it, or who shall turn it back? I will work, and who shall turn
it back? These are the words of the absolute
sovereign God, the only true and living God. And He says concerning
the salvation of His people in verse 25, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Now if you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious, there is a reason for
that. It is because God in his infinite
mercy, and for reasons known only to himself, He has redeemed
and justified and saved us through the blood of His dear Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For mine own sake, he said. We
weren't consulted, thankfully. We weren't looking for it. We weren't asking for it. We
weren't trying to pray it down or say a sinner's prayer. God
justified, sanctified, saved and redeemed His people. Simply
because He's God and He does as He pleases in heaven and earth
and all the deep places. As far as us, our sins cannot
be numbered. They cannot be numbered. Everything
we do is tainted by our sin. Everything we do, think, and
are is worthy of eternal, everlasting death. Every one of us here this
morning. And according to this wondrous
passage, the Lord God has blotted out all our sins, all the sins
of His people, and forgiven all their iniquities. We've already
seen in the words that we just read a few moments ago that the
people that are spoken of here are His people, that He made
for Himself, that He formed for Himself, that He chose for Himself,
that He elected unto salvation for Himself, and they are those
whom He will blot out their transgressions. This is what He says that He
has done. He has done this. Blotted means
wiped out. It means destroyed, erased, or
annihilated. He has put away the sins of his
people, it says of Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of himself. He has mercifully silenced their
conscience. so that the conscience cannot
accuse them because a perfect sacrifice has been made, and
the conscience has no ground whereupon it may accuse them.
He has removed their legal guilt. They are not legally guilty before
God. He has graciously disallowed
their dead works by the precious blood of the Lamb. Now in the
appointed time, called in Ezekiel 16, the time of His love, by
a sovereign act of omnipotent grace, the Lord God comes to
His elect by His Spirit through the gospel and reveals to them,
not that something can happen for them, something might happen
for them, that there's a possibility. He comes to them and tells them
and reveals to them gladly, the good news is, that their sins
have been freely forgiven. They have been forgiven. When
you hear the gospel with the heart, where God speaks to your
heart, where the Lord calls you by name, when you hear the gospel,
the good news is this, that God has saved you. Not that God is
trying to. or that God is offering you something,
or that God is hoping you'll help Him out in this matter of
salvation. He says, I have saved you. That's what you learn when
you learn the gospel. You don't learn that you can be, or could
be, or could do anything. You learn what has been done.
And you learn that you are a recipient of it. And there's no better
news than that. Because that leaves you and me
and my sinful self out of the picture altogether in the matter
of our salvation, except as a recipient of that great grace. And this
passage is the declaration of that amazing truth. I, even I,
am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember your sins. will not remember your sin. Now
the Lord has taught me some things over the years that I've been
privileged to preach the gospel. I've learned that I cannot save
myself. I've learned that over and over and over again. I've
also learned that I cannot save you. I cannot save you. I've learned that I cannot change
my heart. I've learned that I don't really know what's in my heart
most of the time. I've learned that I cannot change your heart,
and you don't want me to know what's in your heart most of
the time. I've learned that I can forgive
sin against me, but I cannot forgive sin against God. I cannot
offer unction. I cannot offer absolution. I can't do that. I've learned
that I can do nothing but pray for you and for myself. and beseech
you to seek the Lord, knowing that unless He works in your
heart, you never will. I can do nothing of true and
lasting value for you, but preach the Gospel to you. That's all
I can do for you. That's the preacher's job. It
is his glory, and it is also his dilemma. He cannot do anything
for you except preach the Gospel to you. and leave the effect of that
gospel entirely in the hands who will effectually use that
gospel, either to save you or seal you in your condemnation. God uses His gospel, and to some
it's a saver of life unto life, and others it's a saver of death
unto death, and no man is sufficient for these things. The Lord our
God, the one true and living God, the God of heaven and earth,
is a God who freely and fully and forever forgives sins because
of the blood death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. These
are the words of God Himself. They're not conjured up by some
poet. God says, I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake, and will not Remember thy sins. I want to look at six things
this morning in this text. I'll try to be quick, but we
ain't got nowhere to go. The food's just staying warm,
so we'll be here for a little bit anyway. Six things. First thing, who blots out sin? Secondly, what kind of people
are recipients of this great mercy? Thirdly, what is mercy's
great accomplishment? Fourthly, how does God forgive
sin? Fifthly, why does God forgive
sin? Sixthly, what is the promise
that God makes to poor sinners? What is the promise? The first
question is this, who blots out sin? The Lord says, I am He. I am He. This is the language
of exclusivity, absolute exclusivity. Sins are not put away or blotted
out by anyone else than God. God said, I am He that blotteth
out thy transgressions. You cannot do it and I cannot
do it. We cannot do it by confession.
We cannot do it by penitence. We cannot do it by walking down
an aisle. We cannot do it by coming to
the front and crying a whole lot. We cannot do it by works. We cannot do it by words. We
cannot do it by thoughts nor by deeds. We cannot, we cannot
forgive or blot out our sins. We cannot undo what we are, though many times we wish we
could. We cannot undo what we have done. The Lord says, I am
He. I am He that blotteth out thy
transgressions. And my question is this, why
would anyone seek elsewhere? Why would anyone seek elsewhere?
It is the Lord alone that blots out transgressions and forgives
sins. They said to our Lord Jesus Christ, only God can forgive
sin. Only God can forgive sin. Why
would you go elsewhere? Why would you try something else?
God says, I am He. That's who blots out sin. Secondly,
what kind of people are recipients of this great mercy? In this
passage, our Lord honestly describes those people, the kind of people
to whom He has been merciful. They are not good people. They
are chosen people. They are preserved people. They
are kept people. They are protected people. They
are God's people. But they are not good people.
They are not good people. They are not righteous. They
are not morally upright men and women. What we read in this text
declares that. They are not fine, upstanding
folks. And as long as a person is under
the delusion that he possesses some degree of goodness, some
modicum of a good quality or any notion of personal righteousness,
that person will never receive the mercy of God. They never will. The characters
for whom God forgives sin are sinners. Elsewise, how could
He forgive sin? They are sinners. The theme of
this book is that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, it's all about Christ saving
sinners. If you feel as if you are somehow
worthy of God's favor, I have nothing for you this morning,
and you can go home. We'll wait a few minutes, you can go walk
out the door. Because if you believe there's something in you that
somehow would recommend you to God, I have nothing for you this
morning. And I never will have anything
for you. Nothing whatsoever. Unless or
until you see your pipe dream of righteousness as an abomination
to God, you will never know or partake in the righteousness
of God, which is in Jesus Christ. The Word of God says men go about
to establish their own righteousness. And they're ignorant of true
righteousness. What is true righteousness? It
is Jesus Christ. If you know Him, if you are in
Him, if God has made Him to be unto you wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, you know that Jesus Christ is
your only righteousness. Look at Romans chapter 10. speaking
of His brethren in the flesh, the Jews, and how that they are
sincere and dedicated folk who spend their lives trying to do
right and be right. Now, in and of itself, there's
nothing wrong with that. There's everything right about
that. In and of itself, to try to be
right and do right is a good thing to do. It's as simple as
that. Paul says of them, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal for God. They're enthusiastic in their
worship and in their pursuit of personal righteousness. But
their zeal is not according to knowledge. And the knowledge
he speaks of is not general knowledge. It is the knowledge of God. And
that knowledge of God comes when Christ comes. It says in 1 John
5.20 that when He came, He brought with Him understanding for His
people. But they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and if you know the book of Romans, it's not
about God's essential righteousness is being spoken of. It is that
righteousness revealed in the Gospel from faith to faith in
chapter 1, and that is God's righteousness throughout. It
is that righteousness that God imputes to His people, that righteousness
that is Jesus Christ. They, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, they instead go about to establish, build up
their own righteousness. And they have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God or to that righteousness that is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word there is submitted.
It means quit, give up, stop, try, don't work no more. That's
what it means. Submit. Me and my brother used
to wrestle. He'd get me in the right kind
of headlock or something. It didn't take any effort for me to say,
I give up. I didn't have to strain to do that. I gave up to do that.
I quit. Submission to the righteousness
of Christ is saying, I have nothing and I can do nothing. The opposite
of that is I will go about to establish some form of righteousness
that will be acceptable to my God. I'll stop doing this or
I'll start doing that and that will recommend me to God. And
that's what these Israelites whom he hoped would be saved,
Their problem was they would not submit. They wouldn't give
up. I'm going to work till Jesus
comes. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to be a great Christian.
I'm going to be a big Christian. I'm going to be a super Christian.
You better quit that. Your only hope is to quit, say
uncle, fall down, give up, and trust the Lord alone. They
have a They have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
What is that righteousness? For Christ is the end of the
law, the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Christ is that righteousness.
Every single promise made in the Gospel is made to sinners.
Did you know that? Every single promise made in
the Gospel is made to sinners. The Son of Man came not to call
the righteous, but bring sinners to repentance. Matthew 11, Our
Lord says, Come unto Me, all you that are labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn
of Me, and you shall find rest unto your soul. Our Lord in Isaiah
chapter 4 said to the worst kind of sinners, religious sinners,
Isaiah chapter 1 verses 4 through 6, He said, then in verse 18,
He says, Come unto Me. Come unto Me. He said, Come,
let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. We know there's allusion there
to leprosy, how sins can be white as snow, though they were scarlet.
But our Lord says, come, let us reason together. Now, He's
not saying let's debate over the fact you're a sinner. He
says, though you're sins. That's a given. But that promise
is to sinners. That promise is to sinners. Consider
the accepted view of religion in this day concerning what a
person must be or must do to qualify as a Christian, and then
look at the description of those to whom he shows mercy. That's
what we need to see. Religion has a view. Just listen
to them. They'll tell you what a Christian
ought to be. They'll tell you what a Christian ought to do,
and they won't be short before they get into the conversation.
But look at verses 23-24. But thou hast not called upon
me. Remember what he says to these
people in Acts. Even I have blotted out by transgression. But thou hast not called upon
me, O Jacob. Thou hast been weary. Of me,
O Israel, thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt
offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices.
I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied
thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet
cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of
thy sacrifices, which belongs to him. But thou hast made me
to serve with thy sins, and thou hast wearied me with thy iniquity."
Let's get rid of that bunch. What a group that is. That's
who are the recipients of these words. I, even I, have blotted
out thy transgressions and will remember your sins no more. He
said, Thou hast not called upon me. These folks don't pray. They don't pray through. They
don't get prayed up or prayed down. I hear all these kinds
of things about prayer. A fellow told me one time after
I'd preached and he kind of liked what I had to say, probably style
because I don't believe he believed anything in the substance I had
to say. But he says, you must really be prayed down. I don't
know what the heck he meant by that. These are called a prayerless
multitude. But we know they have made many
prayers. They made many prayers. They prayed three times a day,
face to face. They did that every day. They
prayed a lot. But he says, you've not called
to me. in adoration and need. Look back, look over at Isaiah
58. Here is the substance of the religion. And it's the substance
of all religion that is Christless in the day in which we live.
Isaiah 58. He says to the prophet, cry aloud,
spare not Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people
their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. I
wish I had a nickel for every revivalist that has started his
series of meetings with these words. And he begins to show
the people their sins. Them movie shows. Them women
wearing short dresses and low tops. Them TV and that drinking
and that chewing. Boy, I mean, I used to sit in
them revivals and I was guilty of everything he said because
he didn't offer me no hope. But he sure didn't tell me how
guilty I was. And he said, it's my job as a preacher to show
you your transgressions, to show you your sin, to point those
things out. They got to be pointed out. Okay,
what are their sins? Our Lord teaches us. Yet they
seek me daily. That's their sin. They seek God daily, but they
don't call for Him. They'd like to know my ways.
They like to talk religion. They're theological geniuses.
They love to debate religion. as a nation that did righteousness
and forsook not the ordinance of the God. They keep the laws.
They practice the religion. They ask of me the ordinances
of justice. When something goes wrong, when they cry to God,
fix that! Straighten that out! Fix that! They take delight in
approaching unto God. They like to pray. They like
to be seen praying. They like for other people to
see them pray. They like to pray. And here's what they say. They're
upset with God. This is their sin. Wherefore
have we fasted, they say, and thou seest not. We've done all
this, God, and we ain't got nothing for it. You ain't showed up. We've been
fasting, and you ain't showed up. Wherefore we afflicted our
soul, and you don't pay attention, God. He said, Behold, in the
day of your fast you find pleasure. Now, how in the world you can
do that, I can't know. I know how it is, because you can find
pleasure in self-righteousness by telling folks or letting people
know that you fasted. And you exact your labors. What do they do? They say, I
fasted. Have you fasted? I like it when people call me
up and say, well, preacher, I prayed about this. I know right again
they're getting ready to lie and justify some evil behavior
that they've come up with. I know it. I've never been proven
false on that one thing. People that pray don't talk about
praying, but these talk about praying and fasting so they can
put you on the spot, make you feel guilty, and pump up themselves
for having done it. That's why they do it. And God
said that's sin. That's sin. Behold, in the day of your fast
you find pleasure in His accolades. Behold, you fast for strife.
You do it to cause a problem. You do it to cause a fight and
debate. You do it so people will debate
about it. And smite with the fist of wickedness. You shall
not fast as you do this day to make your voice be heard on high,
so you can draw attention to yourself. Is this such a fast
that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his
soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush? You know what a
bulrush is, don't you? Those things that grow around in a
swamp. They're on a long, thin reed
and they've got this great big head. And if you crack it open,
ain't a thing inside it. Empty headed. Bulrush. And to
spread sackcloth and ashes, to do penance publicly, repent.
Will thou call this a fast or an acceptable day of the Lord?
And the acceptable day of the Lord is the day of salvation.
What does God say? Is not this the fast that I have
chosen? That you loose the bands of wickedness?
To undo heavy burdens? and let the oppressed go free,
and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal bread to the
hungry, and thou being poor, that thou cast out thy house?
When thou seest thee naked, and thou cover him, and thou hide
not thyself from thine own flesh, isn't that what I have ordained,
that ye break these bonds? That's what the gospel's about.
It's not about putting you in bondage, or putting you in a
state of strife, or putting me doing something so you'll have
to come to a state of debate, or to make you feel bad about
yourself. That's not what the gospel is. That's what religion
is. You take away the guilt from the pulpits of this nation and
99% of the church have to close down tomorrow. Because the way they get people
to do it is the same way a salesman does. He makes you unhappy with
what you have and offers you something better. I ain't got nothing to offer
you. Nothing whatsoever. These people prayed. Their prayers,
so-called, are all form and posture and proposition and repetitive,
but no real prayer, no confession, no real worship had ever escaped
their lips or issued from their hearts toward God. Their lips
never breathe the living Word to God. They never call upon
Him. What kind of people? And our
Lord says, I, even I, have blotted out thy transgressions. and will
not remember your sins." These people are men and women who
despise God and true religion. The Lord was not fooled by their
religious words and gestures. Outward affectations did not
impress Him, and it doesn't impress Him today. He does not look at
the outward appearance. He looks on the heart. He says,
Thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Can you imagine being weary of
God? What an indictment that is! Thou
hast been weary of me. They care nothing for the things
of God, nothing for the reading of the Word or the preaching
of the Gospel. Not only are these rich favors of heaven without
attraction to them, they are wearisome things to them. I've
heard people talk like that. All you do is preach Christ.
There's got to be more to preach than Christ. Give me something
new, preacher. Give me something to latch on
to. Give me an issue. Jim Byrd sat with a preacher
back in Virginia who was going to start a church. He saw it
was a neat-looking building. That's why he wanted to make
it a church. I knew right away this guy was
something wrong with. But it was in kind of a corner building.
It was a V-shaped building. He said, I'll make a cool church.
He said, if I could just find an issue. If I can just find an issue.
I can get people rallied around an issue. Anybody can. If I start
preaching the ills of abortion and start putting out signs about
baby killers tomorrow, I'm telling you, I can fill this place up.
I can get everybody so mad and righteous that they just want
to kill somebody. If I can preach about homosexuality,
I can gather crowds from all around. Folks are going to give
them down in the country about it. If I could just have an issue.
I've got an issue. You can't save yourself. You
can't save yourself. Everything about you is worthy
of death. That's my issue. And your only
hope is that God in His good grace favors you freely without
any consideration of you other than the fact that you can't
do anything for yourself. That's my issue. These folks
said, God said, you weary me. You weary me? And to these folks,
he says, I, even I, have blotted out thy transgressions and will
not remember your sin. These people are ingrates. That's
one thing we just can't stand. I mean, normal people can't stand
it. We don't like ingratitude. You
know it's true, you parents, and I'm a parent too. How many
times have you looked those sweet little children of yours and
said, after all I've done for you? Huh? Those lips have never escaped
your mouth, have they? Look, I feed you, I clothe you,
it's my house you live under. Yeah, after all I've done for
you. What makes us mad? That they're
ungrateful. Ingratitude tears us up. Our
Lord says, thou hast not brought me the small cattle for thy burnt
offering. Not the full grown heifer, not
the full grown cow. Their herds and flocks had multiplied,
God had multiplied them, He said in this very text. But they paid
no tribute of thanks to God, who had done so bountifully toward
them. They did not even offer one of
their small sickly calves to Him. Those who show no gratitude
to God are worse than brute beasts, thankful only to themselves.
All that we have we owe to His kind benefaction, daily mercies,
redeeming mercies, providential mercies. Men pat themselves on
the back and they rob God of His lawful right to be honored
and glorified and thanked for all that He has done. Give glory to God. That is what is due to Him, it
says in Psalm 29. These people robbed God. The
Lord says, You've robbed Me. That's different from stealing.
Stealing you do when nobody's looking. Robbing you do at gunpoint,
face to face. He says, You stand in My face
and look at Me and will not honor Me. If I am a father, where is
My honor? Where is My honor? These were
thankless people. guilty of base ingratitude, but
thank God their base ingratitude could not stop nor discourage
his mercy. To these folks, he said, I, even
I, have blotted out thy transgressions. These people were spiritual vacuums,
vacuous people, religious black holes. Our Lord says, neither
hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou
hast made me to serve with thy sins. You've made me to serve
with your sins. Man was created for God's glory.
If you want to know why you're here, people like that get metaphysical
and say, why am I here? You're here to glorify God. That's
it. That's the entirety of your existence
upon this face of the earth, no matter whether you are a believer
or not, you're here to glorify God. That's what you were made
for. It is why you and I are here. God made everything in
this world to honor and glorify Him. Let everything that has
voice praise the Lord. But according to this pageant,
there are many, many women who never give a thought or anything
of themselves to honor God, but rather by some warped view of
fate or predestination or their own deluded mind. They say, He
made me this way. Heard somebody say that the other
day. He made me this way. They blame God for their sinful
behavior. Now, we all by nature live for ourselves. By nature,
we live only for ourselves. We are real no service to mankind.
Pretty much everything we touch, we ruin. Pretty much. We are
no service to God. To such walking voids, our Lord
says, I, even I, am he that brought us out of our transgressions
and will remember your sins no more. These were people who wearied
God. He said that about them. Thou
hast wearied me with thine iniquities. They were religious people, very
religious, but their religion was only a fig leaf by which
they endeavored to cover their sin and hide from God. As they
sat in the sanctuary of God year after year, they wearied Him
with their sins. That's what He says in Isaiah
chapter 1. Yet the Lord says of these, I,
even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgression. The grace
and mercy of God is for sinners. Christ died for sinners. The
gospel is sent to, and His only good news, to sinners. God saves
sinners. God forgives sinners. Our God
is a God of mercy, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy. These things describe us by nature. And God says to His people, You ain't worth a hoot. And we say of ourselves, but
somebody ought to take us out and shoot us to get it over with.
And God says, I, even I, have blotted out thy transgressions
and will not remember your sin. I'm telling you, don't get no
sweeter than that. What did mercy accomplish? Mercy
accomplished the forgiveness of sin. It is the glory of grace
to forgive sin. To forgive sin. It is the majesty
of mercy to forgive sin. It is an attribute of God to
forgive iniquity and transgressions. Keeping mercy for thousands,
he said. I got mercy for thousands. This
passage speaks of divine forgiveness. God is the only one who can forgive
sin. God is the only one whose forgiveness
we need. God is the only one whose forgiveness
we desire. God is the only one whose forgiveness
we must have for the salvation of our souls and the peace of
our troubled conscience. That will only come from God.
That's what we must have. And mercy accomplished that. This is an amazing forgiveness. I, even I. Who said that? The
God against whom we sinned. The God whose eye we poked our
finger in. The God whose throne we want
to depose Him from and sit ourselves in His place. The God who is
our enemy by nature, we call him an enemy, we are enemies
with him. The God who we by nature, if it were possible, would kill. Because that's what you do with
your enemies. I've served in armed forces.
I've bore arms. I've taken up the rifle, the
gun, and stood the post. I've said enemy or foe, friend
or foe. And with the enemy, my job was
to kill him or her. That's what you do with your
enemy. You kill them. We're enemies of God. We sinned
against God. We wanted to kill God and be
God ourselves. We blasphemed His name. We've
broken His law. The God whose grace we have despised
is the God who forgives that very blasphemy and that very
enmity. This is forgiveness now. I even
I blotteth out, have blotted out, blotteth, that's present
tense. Active voice. I blotteth out.
This is complete forgiveness. Blotteth out. They're gone. This
is permanent, perpetual forgiveness. God has charged our sins to His
Son, Jesus Christ, and they shall never, therefore, ever be charged
to us. They never have been charged
to us. I know that some theologies, theological positions say that
God was angry with us until He saved us. That's simply not true.
Now the Jews, writing in the Old Testament under the old covenant,
could say, God is angry with me. Because when they disobeyed,
God was angry with them. That was a conditional covenant
that they had requirements to meet and God had requirements
to meet. But the covenant that we are
under had nothing to do with us. We weren't involved in that
covenant except as recipients. That covenant was between God
and His Son on behalf of His people. God didn't require obedience
of us. He required obedience of our
representative. Our surety signed our debt before
the world began, and we came into this world, though we were
guilty of sin, though we were sinners, though we were blasphemers,
though we were all those things that were against God, God was
never against His people. He had chosen them from the foundation
of the world, and Christ had signed His name to our debt as
our surety, and God never looked to one of His elect for the payment
of that sin. He looked to the representative
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The last Adam. The second man. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing forgiveness. Amazing
forgiveness. Complete forgiveness. He says
in Romans chapter 4, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not charge sin. Not impute sin. And if you're
here today and you know Christ, I'm going to tell you something.
This ought to float your boat. This ought to do it. You know
what you are inside. And you're embarrassed by it
if you're honest with yourself. God will never and has never
charged you with your sin. He made to meet on our wonderful
substitute 2,000 years ago all our sin. God is holy, just, righteous,
and true. He said, the soul that sinneth
it shall die. Therefore, the third thing is
this, how does God forgive sin? He says He does. How does He
do that? Do you know? Donnie Bell, many
years ago, thought he had been a good preacher and taught his
people a whole lot of stuff. He'd been preaching to them about
five or six years. And he's all, I'm just going to hand out a little
piece of paper, and I'm going to put a question on top of it.
How does God save sinners? These people have been under
the preaching of the gospel of grace for about five years now. So he handed
out to every one of his church members, says, how does God save
sinners? You write down how God saves sinners and turn that back
in to me. I just want to see it. He said, I was never so floored
in my life at how ignorant this bunch of people was concerning
how God saved Seneca. People don't know. You don't
believe they know? You don't believe they don't
know? Ask them. You'll never hear such things
they come up with. How does God forgive sin? He says He does. He says He has
done it. How does He do it? I tell you
this, God cannot forgive sin unless He can do so in a way
that is honoring to His law and satisfying to His justice and
in concert with His character, because He does not change. In
order for God to forgive our sins, four things must be done,
four absolutes. First of all, the law of God
must be honored and perfectly fulfilled, or you can't be forgiven. Secondly, the justice of God
must be satisfied with a perfect death because death is the requirement
of justice for breaking God's law. Death must ensue. Thirdly,
the sinner must be punished. Fourthly, the sin must be removed. Those four things have to take
place. They have to take place. There is only one way for a holy
and just God to forgive sin. God can only forgive sin through
the obedient sacrifice of the all-sufficient, perfect substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that substitute. In Him
and only in Him is there forgiveness with God. He made Him to be propitiation
for us, satisfaction of God's justice for us. Not an atonement. Atonement is an Old Testament
principle which covered sin. Our sin ain't covered. If we
can lift up something that's still under there, we're in trouble.
Our sin is gone. Propitiation means satisfied
or appeased. God looks at His people and says,
I'm satisfied with that one. Why? No sin in Him. No sin in
Him. No sin on Him. Gone, gone. It's clean gone. In Christ and
only in Him is there forgiveness with God. You've forgiven our
sin. We walk in the light as He is
in the light. We have fellowship with the Father.
And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sin. If we
confess our sins, He is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us of all unrighteousness. That's how God forgives sin. Why does God forgive sin? Well,
you know, we deserve it. We're just so poor and helpless
and stupid. You know, God just has to show mercy to us. Why
does God forgive sin? He says it right here. For mine
own sake. For His sake. Mine own sake. The greatest honor and glory
of God is His mercy and His grace. That which glorifies and honors
all His attributes is tied up in mercy and grace. Mercy and
truth have kissed each other. Righteousness and peace have
loved each other. His holy, righteous, and just
mercy in forgiving sin is what honors Him most. What a scheme! What a wondrous scheme this grace
and mercy of God is! It pleases Him to forgive sin.
How do I know? Because He always does what He
pleases. If he forgives it, he must be pleased to do it because
he always does what he pleases. And what is the promise God has
made to sinners? He said, I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions and will not remember thy sin. There are some things, again,
that God cannot do. He cannot lie. He cannot break His covenant.
He cannot forsake His people. He cannot be unjust. He cannot
remember the sins of His people. He cannot. Now this does not mean that God
is not aware of the fact that we have sinned and are sinners.
That's not what that's talking about. It means that insofar
as His law and justice is concerned, our sins do not exist. Therefore, God cannot remember
them. He will never remember our sins
so as to treat us any the less graciously because of them. There
is a religious tenet in religion of today that says if you do
something wrong, God's going to get mad at you. They keep
people in line that way. God becomes Don Corleone and
he's going to make you an offer you can't refuse. He's going
to thump you in the head when you're waiting around some corner.
Most people feel about God that way. Spooky. God is spooky to them. They're
afraid He's going to thump them. Listen to me. No matter what
you do, it doesn't change the fact that God is merciful and
gracious to you because He's always been merciful and gracious
to you in His name's sake and not you. What if I murder? David did. Was he right? No, he was wrong. And in life
he paid fourfold for it because that was his own condemnation
of himself. But did God think less of David
when he was laying in the arms of Bathsheba? Did he? Now come
on. Did God think less of David because
David ordered the death of Uriah? Did he? I know that old flesh
and us says, yeah, he must have. No, he didn't. He loved David
when he was in the slough of adultery and plotting to murder
the wife or the husband of the woman that he had stolen and
gotten pregnant. God loved him just as much then
as He did when He picked up those five smooth stones and put one
right between the eyes of Goliath and was the hero of Israel. You
say, well, I just make people want to sin. If you think that,
you're as dumb as a bag of hammers. That ain't going to make you
want to sin. That's going to make you want to stop. Oh, Lord, keep me from
presumptuous sins. He will never remember our sins
as to treat us any less graciously because of them. He will never
remember our sins so as to bring them up and require payment for
them. A lot of people fear the judgment
Because they feel like they've got to pay for sins. You can't
pay for sins. There ain't no payment for it.
Payment's already been made. God will not remember our sins
when we stand before Him in judgment. He will pardon, or He has pardoned,
whom He has reserved. Perfect love casts out fear.
Therefore, we do not fear the judgment, because as Christ is,
so are we in the world. That's what the clear declaration
of Scripture is. Do you fear the judgment of God? Not if you're
a child of God. Because you know your salvation
was never up to you. And you know your judgment was
never against you. It was against your representative.
It's already been settled. Did he pay for all your sins?
How about the ones you're going to commit in the future? Of course
he did. All our sins were in the future
when he died. Every one of them. Here's what God says to poor,
wretched, helpless, blasphemous, ungrateful, vacuous people. I, even I, have blotted out thy
transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sin. I don't know about you. Well,
I do know about you, too. That's honey in the honeycomb,
ain't it? Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.