TEXT: "_I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine
own sake, and will not remember thy sins._"--Isaiah 43:25.
In looking over an old volume of Sermons preached by H. Grattan
Guiness, forty-five years ago, I came across the message which he
delivered with this text as a basis. So deep was the impression made
upon me by my first reading of the sermon that I have taken Mr.
Guiness' outline and ask your careful attention to its development.
If one should enter a jewelry store and ask to see a diamond, or any
other precious stone, the jeweler would first spread upon his show case
a black cloth and then place the diamonds upon it, not only for
protection but also in order that the black background might bring out
distinctly the brilliancy and worth of the gems. So God gives this
best of all his promises with the dark picture of sin clearly and
thoughtfully portrayed. In verses twenty-second to the twenty-fourth
we read, "But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but 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: but thou hast made me to
serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities."
In these verses God says that his people have not called upon him in
prayer, they have not presented their offerings, neither have they
presented unto him themselves. He also affirms that they have wearied
of him, and that they have also wearied him with their iniquities, and
then he exclaims, "I have not caused thee to serve with an offering,
nor wearied thee with incense," and with these clear statements he
gives us the gracious statement of the text, "I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins."
Mr. Guiness gives us four beautiful thoughts in this text concerning
our sins.
First: They are blotted out from God's Book.
Second: They are blotted out with God's hand.
Third: They are blotted out for his sake.
Fourth: They are blotted from his memory.
A more admirable outline of a text of Scripture I do not know, a more
cheering message to a child of God I have never found.
I
Not long ago, in Chicago, a young man was induced to confess to one
whom he thought was his friend the killing of his father and mother.
As the confession was being made, as he supposed to but one person, it
was all being taken down by those who were near enough to hear him
speak, and when he appeared before the court his own confession was
used against him and sent him to a life imprisonment in the
penitentiary. What was true of this young man is true of us. Every
sermon the minister preaches is recorded, every word an individual
speaks is put down. It is a solemn thought to realize, that at the
judgment we shall give account for even our idle words.
Science has proven that our acts, our words and even our thoughts make
their indelible record.
Not long ago in our home we came across a long-unused phonograph. We
started it going, placing upon it one of the cylinders which had been
packed away with the phonograph, and were startled to hear the voice of
one who had been dead for years. We heard the message he dictated, the
song in which he joined and the laugh with which he closed it, and yet
his voice has long been silent in death. There is not a sin of your
youth which has not made its record, not a passion of your mature years
that does not stand somewhere against you, not an act, a feeling or an
imagination that has not been indelibly written; not all the changes of
time, not all the efforts of man, can wipe these things out.
In the British Museum there is a piece of stone not larger than the
average Bible at least four thousand years old, and in the center of
the stone there is a mark of a bird's foot; four thousand years ago the
track was made, and for four thousand years the record has stood. If
these things are true of us--and they are, according to the Word of
God--then what prospect is there for us but that of eternal punishment?
For when we stand at the judgment there shall appear before us the sins
of omission and the sins of commission, the sins we have forgotten and
the sins we have but recently committed against ourselves, against our
fellow men, and against God.
It is indeed a black picture, and with whitened faces and rapidly
beating hearts we ask, Is there any hope? I bring you God's gracious
answer to this important question: "I, even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
Notice, it is the voice of God speaking. "I, even I," he exclaims,
"will blot out your transgressions."
It is, first of all, a commercial term. We were in debt to God,
hopelessly in debt, and our obligation has been canceled; over against
our sin is placed the righteousness of the Son of God, and we are free.
"Jesus paid it all,
All to him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow."
It is also a chemical expression, for it is a picture of God applying
the blood of Jesus Christ to every page of the written record. The
sins of our youth long ago passed out of mind; the sins of our manhood,
which have taken up every part of our being, the sins of to-day--all
have gone, for he himself has blotted them out. When we realize that
we are forgiven of God it means more than if we were forgiven of men,
for in the might of his forgiveness our past sins are gone, they shall
not even be mentioned against us; the fear of judgment is taken away,
for Jesus himself says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
unto life" (John 5:24). It is the Passover story over again, "When I
see the blood, I will pass over you." Thus are our sins blotted out.