1.
Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our
Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word this evening is
taken from Jeremiah 31:34, and is entitled, “Remember
Sins No More,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
There’s a story about a city man who
was visiting a cattle ranch. He was fascinated by the rancher’s cattle dog. Responding
to different whistles from the rancher, the dog herded the cattle into the
corral and even reached up and latched the gate with her paw. The city man said,
“Wow, that’s some dog. What’s her name?” The
forgetful farmer thought a moment, then asked, “What do you call that red flower that smells good and has thorns on
the stem?” “A rose?” “That’s it!” The farmer turned to his wife. “Hey, Rose, what do we call this dog?”
3.
Forgetfulness is a common condition
of ours that comes with age and with being too busy or with not learning
something well in the first place. Forgetfulness is a human weakness. We tend
to wonder how God could forget since he has no weaknesses. With God,
remembering and forgetting aren’t signs of weakness. When God remembers, he
does something about it. When God forgets, he doesn’t do anything about it. In
our text from Jeremiah 31:34 this evening, God says , “I will remember their sins no more” (v 34). God doesn’t do
anything to us because of our sins. Instead of doing to us what we deserve, God Remembers Sin No More So That All People
Know God as the Forgiver.
4.
So far in our Lenten series, we’ve
been looking at things God remembers and the gracious action God takes. The
failure or sin on people’s part is forgetting the same thing and not taking
action. But, tonight things are reversed. God doesn’t remember sin and takes no
action. So, the failure on the people’s part is to remember what God forgets.
People remember their sin. Instead of them knowing the grace of God in
forgiving sin, they know God as the stern judge who is out to condemn them for
their sins. Job said, “When I remember, I
am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh” (Job 21:6), and the Psalmist
said, “When I remember God, I moan; when
I meditate, my spirit faints” (Ps 77:3). Isaiah 64:9 says, “Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and
remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.” The
people remembered their sin. So far, so good. The action should have been
repentance. But, groaning about sin appeared to be the order of the day
instead. Repentance brings sins to a place where they are removed . . . to
confession and forgiveness. Groaning just kept those sins in front of the
people. They knew God . . . or they thought they knew him . . . as an angry
judge. That’s right for those who refuse to believe, but for God’s children, he
wanted them to know him differently. God wanted them to know him as he really
is. God
Remembers Sin No More So That All People Know God as the Forgiver.
5.
What about us? Do we remember our
sins when God forgets them? Do we think of God . . . do we know God as a stern
judge? That thought might not actually be so bad because it might lead us to
repent. A worse problem might be that we try to excuse our sins. “The devil made me do it” used to be
popular, but now it’s more likely to be “everyone’s
doing it” or “I have a right to do whatever I want as long
as I’m not hurting someone else.” There’s also a tendency for people today
to “un-sin” certain sins, like
abortion or homosexuality or many other types of sexual and immoral behavior,
because modern people no longer see them as wrong. The problem again is that
these behaviors don’t lead to repentance and forgiveness. There’s no
forgiveness . . . no need for forgiveness if something is no longer a sin. Repentance
and the accompanying forgiveness is crucial because it’s the only way that a
sin can be done away with. When God leads us to repent, we confess our sin and
throw ourselves at the mercy of the Judge. And he’s merciful & forgiving.
6.
How can God not remember sin? How
could a judge not remember the crime with which someone is charged? This is the
point where some people get sidetracked. They debate how God could possibly
forget anything. If he’s all knowing, how could God not know people’s sin?
Sometimes that leads people to doubt God’s Word. Why doubt? Why not believe
that God doesn’t punish people as they deserve? It’s kind of like in the Book
of Ezra, where the writer admits, “And
after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt,
seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved” (Ezra 9:13). It’s the mercy of
the Judge that God would have people remember.
7.
Why not take God’s words at face
value and rejoice in the fact that God doesn’t remember sin when he sees the
atoning blood of Christ covering that sin? There’s nothing to see! God
remembers sin no more and doesn’t take any action, because the action was taken
out on Jesus. God “made him to be sin who
knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2
Cor 5:21). This comes to people by God’s Word and faith that’s created by that
Word. Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He
does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (Jn 5:24).
8.
After repentance, and after
confession and forgiveness, we really can “remember
sin no more” because sin that is confessed
and forgiven is gone . . . as far as east from west . . . gone from God’s sight
or remembrance. If we were left to make up for our sin or cover it
ourselves, there would be a lot of that sin still showing. It’s only in Christ
that it is removed. The Bible speaks of this removal as being total: “as far as the east is from the west, so far
does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). Sin is gone. Now,
the Holy Spirit calls us to know and have faith in God as our Savior. We
believe that God is merciful, and we know him as the perfect forgiver . . . the
perfect “forgetter” of sins. One who
knew this best and wrote about it more than any other is the apostle Paul. He
said he wanted to know Christ and the “power
of his resurrection” (Phil 3:10). We think Paul knew Jesus pretty well. How
could he want to know him better? Shouldn’t we take that as a good example to
follow? Only in Christ and only in forgiveness can sin be gone . . . conflict
be gone . . . because God removes it as far as the east from the west. God
remembers it no more and takes no action of judgment against us. Jesus prayed,
“And this is eternal life, that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3).
There’s an outstanding verse that shows how things move from God to us when it
says, “We love because he first loved us”
(1 Jn 4:19). That’s the Gospel direction of love.
9.
What do you suppose is the Gospel
direction of knowing? Shouldn’t it be: we
know because he first knew us! Jesus said it! “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep”
(Jn 10:14–15). Paul told the Galatians, “but
now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God” (Gal
4:9). Again, “Now I know in part; then I
shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). Paul
writes in 2 Tim 1:12, “I know whom I have
believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has
been entrusted to me.” God Remembers Sin
No More So That All People Know God as the Forgiver.
10.
Two elderly women who had been
friends for their whole lives were sitting at the nursing home. One said, “I’ve known you for years, but for the life
of me, I can’t remember your name. Please don’t be mad, but tell me your name.”
The other lady glared at her and didn’t say anything . . . just glared. Finally,
she said, “How soon do you need to know?” We may
come to a point where we forget our own name. God knows your name. God knows
the hairs on your head. God knows the thoughts of your hearts. But, praise God,
he doesn’t know your sin. He remembers your sin no more so that all his actions
toward you are forgiveness and peace. Amen.
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