Do you Remember?

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

James 2:10 AV

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Lets talk aboout God:

Habakkuk 1:13 AV

13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

Psalm 7:11 AV

11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.

But Lets us also talk about God’s mercy:

Psalm 103:8–12 AV

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

Such amazing words.

And How is this possible?

Ephesians 1:7 AV

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

God does not just “sweep our sins under the rug”. That would be unjust. The wages of sin is death. Rather od has delt with our sins through the suffering and deatrh of Jesus Christ.

And now we can be forgives, so long as:

Acts 3:19 AV

19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Repent. Lets take a moment to think about that Word.

Yes it mean a 180 degree turn around, we all know that - but its so much more than that.

For repentance to occur there needs to be a revelation of the filthy nature of sin.

You cannot and will not repent of a mistake, and to many people see their sins as just mistakes - we all make mistakes. But sin is not a mistake - its an offecing to the Holy God, iuts an abomination in his sight!

And you need to see your sin, as Goid sees your sin in order to actually repent.

Jeremiah 31:19 AV

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

When people apparently reptn today they say, Im sorry God… walk outside light up a smoke or aurgue with their wife.

But biblically when people repented they showed more conviction that that.

When Jonah told Niniveah that God was angry at their sins the whole city repented:

Jonah 3:5–7 AV

5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

Compare that with what you see rtoday and you will understand the problem.

The problem is that people no longer have any understaning or recogniotion of the full weight and wickedness of their sin. And still, deep down believe, that they may not be perfect, but they are good people.

And this lingering delusion is the cause of a big problem.

Here is the problem:

If you dont understand the fiull weight and gravity of the sin which God graciously forgave you of, you will have a problem forgivers others of their far less sins against you.

Matthew 18:21–35 AV

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

The problem with this parable today is that most people do not see themselves as the first servant. They dont undertand the magnitude of the spiritual debt they were in, which God forgave - and so the debt own to them is demanded.

But I cant let it go pastor, they really offened and insulted me!

But let me ask you: Where you a victem of attempted murder? Where you a victem of a kidnapping cover up? Where you a victem of human traffecing and sold into the life long slave trade where you spent 10 years in a damp prison cell for being wrongly accued of rape by your slave masyter?

No, but Joseph did look at the request:

Genesis 50:17 AV

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

How was Joseph able to forgive all this? Was it because he was a moral ghodly man, was just a petter person that you, was he stonger than you? NO!!!

He simply knew how much God had forgiven him and freely he recieved freely he gave.

Forgive and Forget?

So do we just forgive and forget? No, that impossible.

Lets talk about remembering and forgetting for just a moment.

Hebrews 8:12 AV

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

God says that he will no remember our sins against Him. = What does that mean?

Does it mean that God will forget them? Will God be ignorant of them? Whatr is meant by the phrase “remember no more”?

Well in the bible Remembering and forgetting has nothing to do with recollection. It has nothing to do with the memorcy of something.

For example:

Genesis 8:1 AV

1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;

Dos this mean that God forgot about Noah in the ark? that God misplaced hium like we forget to check on the food before it burns?

Of course not.

And this is where we find out what it means to forgive and forget:

The phrase “remembered” means choose to act.

God chose to act upon Noah and the animals and so caused the water to receiede.

So when God says that He will remeber our sins no more, he is saying that God is Choosing NOT to act upon our sins.

He is NOT going to punish us. He is NOT going to cast us away. He has forgievn us YES, and he is NOT going to act on our sins.

This is the essence of forgivness.

And this is where you have the choice: If you remember the sins it means that you are going to act on them and hold people in judgment.

But to forgive and forget does not mean that the momory of the event is actually forgotten, it simply mrans trhat you are chgoosing NOT to act on that memory. You are not going to let it controll your well being.