Pastor’s Pen Pulpit

November 14, 2004

GOD’S FORGIVENESS AND YOU

I John 2:12

I am writing to you, little children, because our sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.

I am suspending our current series on the subject of security until next week. I feel compelled to write a pen pulpit on the subject of God’s forgiveness. I am writing particularly to Christians.

Are any of you struggling with one or more of your past sins? Those sins may surface in your mind from time-to-time. Satan would love to bring you under a guilt complex! You may feel ashamed of what you have done before you were forgiven by God’s wonderful grace. You may be reluctant to tell anyone else about your past. If this is the case, please don’t let this ruin your joy in the Lord.

The word “forgive” in our passage means “to send away.” In the Old Testament, the scapegoat was sent away into the wilderness, never to be seen or heard of again (Leviticus 16:21-22). So your sins, all of them, were paid for by Christ’s death and sent away by God, never to be regarded again. God said in Psalm 103:12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your sins from you.” Not from the north to the south, but from the east to the west. When you look at a globe of the world, if you head north, you come to the North Pole and then go south. If you go south, you get to the South Pole and go north! But if you go east, you will travel in an unending circle – going east forever! The east and the west never meet!

God also said that He has buried your sins in the depths of the sea. In the deepest part of the Pacific it is absolutly pitch dark. Where there is no light, there is no sight. John 1:29 tells us that the Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world. Folks, whatever sins you may be worried about today, just remember that God cannot see them. He also says, “your sin and iniquities I will remember no more.” The all-knowing God has sovereignly chosen to forget your sins. Praise the Lord!!!

I have things in my past that I am totally ashamed of, things I did long before Jesus saved me. Occasionally these things come to my mind and I feel guilty. When this happens, I remind myself that God has, once and for all, sent my sin away, never to be heard of again. I don’t even like to share them with anyone else for if God doesn’t remember them, then why should I burden someone else with them?

Even this morning something I had done as a believer surfaced in my mind, bringing an immediate sense of guilt. I had to take a stand and say to myself, “Charles, that sin has been sent away by God my Father. It has been forgiven. Why allow it to rob you of your joy in the Lord?”

Remember, beloved, the blood of Christ is stronger than all your sins. That marvelous old hymn reminds us that God’s grace is greater than all our sin! Amen? God bless.