Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”“I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.And their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
6 sermons cite this verse
… So. God says there's sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more? That doesn't mean God is a lapse in memory like you and I do. Oh, who is that? Who is that? No, no. He chooses to not remember or another way to put it, He chooses to not hold it against you. Sometimes you get in an argument with your spouse and they'll bring up something. I won't say if it's a man or a woman. woman. 15 years ago, you said this to me. You're like, what? Yes, I remember 15 years ago. Literally, you're remembering what I said 15 years. Sorry, girls, I'll throw you under the bus here. But I guess there's guys that do it too, maybe one somewhere. No, I'm kidding. I know guys do it as well. But the point is, God would never do that. I remember when you did that. he's chosen to not remember your sin. That's a beautiful thing. You know, people love to say, all the religions of the world teach the same thing, which is another way of saying, I don't know what I'm talking about. …
… and not only have your sins been forgiven, God himself, in Hebrews 10, verse 17, says that their sins and their lawless deeds I will no longer remember. We don't have the ability to do that. You can remember sins you committed 30 years ago. You remember sins that your enemies and friends and family committed against you decades ago. We don't have that ability to totally forget things, but God does. He says, their sins and lawless deeds, I will no longer, remember, he's put your sins totally out of his memory. Hallelujah for that. So don't think you're going to get to heaven one day and go moping around heaven, nervous to meet Jesus, because, you know, he might condemn you. No, Romans chapter 8, verse 1 says, there is therefore now, right now. This isn't something you even have to wait for. Right now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is something we can enjoy right now. And then, of course, it will only enhance our experience and joy in eternity because that will continue throughout eternity. All right, so that's number four. Heaven's inhabitants are going to be faultless and forgiven. We believe that's going to add to our joy in heaven, but it gets better. Number five, heaven's inhabitants will no longer experience death, sorrow, crying, or pain. …
And, dear Friends, there was a still worse point about our bondage. It was a thoroughly hopeless one, for we were not merely shut up in that pit for a short time, but we were shut up there to die! When a man is cast into a deep pit and the mouth of it is covered over with a stone—and his captors give him neither food nor water—he knows at once what that harsh treatment means. If they meant him to live, they would at least put him down with a crust of bread and a pitcher of water. But we were in a pit wherein was no water and we felt that there was nothing before us but "a certain fearful looking for ofjudgment and fiery indignation." I have known what it is to wake in the morning and wonder that I was not in Hell, and to go to my bed at night afraid to fall asleep lest I should sleep myself into eternity! When a man is in such a state as that, he feels that life is hardly worth living, and he could almost say with Job, "My soul chooses strangling and death rather than my life." This is the position into which many who are the true children of God are brought—they are not all tried alike, for all are not made equally sensitive of sin and to some, faith comes much sooner than to others. But there are many persons who were thus shut up, but concerning whom the text now says, "By the blood of your covenant, I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water." Notice that expression, "I have sent forth your prisoners." That is the blessing— we who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ are in prison no longer. We are trusting in the blood of the Covenant and, therefore, there are no fetters upon us now, no stone walls, or prison bars, or terrors of conscience, or convictions of sin to frighten us now, for the Lord has said, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." There are thousands in this Tabernacle who were once in this prison, but they are out of it, now, and they can say, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." …
8. “Then the King will say to them upon his right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father. For I was hungry, and ye gave Me meat; thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed me.” In like manner, all the good they did upon earth will be recited before men and angels; whatsoever they had done, either in word or deed, in the name, or for the sake, of the Lord Jesus. All their good desires, intentions, thoughts, all their holy dispositions, will also be then remembered; and it will appear, that though they were unknown or forgotten among men, yet God noted them in his book. All their sufferings likewise for the name of Jesus, and for the testimony of a good conscience, will be displayed unto their praise from the righteous Judge, their honor before saints and angels, and the increase of that “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” 9. But will their evil deeds too (since, if we take in his whole life, there is not a man on earth who liveth and sinneth, not), will these be remembered in that day, and mentioned in the great congregation ? Many believe they will not; and ask, “Would not this imply, that their sufferings were not at an end, even when life ended? — seeing they would still have sorrow, and shame, and confusion of face to endure.” They ask farther, “How can this be reconciled with God’s declaration by the Prophet, — ‘If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right; all his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be once mentioned unto him?’ (Ezek. 18:21, 22). How is it consistent with the promise which God has made to all who accept of the gospel covenant, ‘I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sin no more?’ (Jer. 31:34) Or, as the Apostle expresses it, ‘I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more?’” (Heb. 8:12). …
19. And in every nation under heaven, we may reasonably believe, God will observe the same order which he hath done from the beginning of Christianity. “They shall all know me, saith the Lord;” not from the greatest to the least (this is that wisdom of the world which is foolishness with God;) but “from the least to the greatest;” that the praise may not be of men, but of God. Before the end, even the rich shall enter into the kingdom of God. Together with them will enter in the great, the noble, the honourable; yea, the rulers, the princes, the kings of the earth. Last of all, the wise and learned, the men of genius, the philosophers, will be convinced that they are fools; will be “converted, and become as little children,” and “enter into the kingdom of God.” 20. Then shall be fully accomplished to the house of Israel, the spiritual Israel, of whatever people or nation, that gracious promise, “I will put my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts: And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Then shall “the times of” universal “refreshment come from the presence of the Lord.” The grand “Pentecost” shall “fully come,” and “devout men in every nation under heaven,” however distant in place from each other, shall “all be filled with the Holy Ghost;” and they will “continue steadfast in the Apostles’ doctrine, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers;” they will “eat their meat,” and do all that they have to do, “with gladness and singleness of heart. Great grace will be upon them all;” and they will be “all of one heart and of one soul.” The natural, necessary consequence of this will be the same as it was in the beginning of the Christian Church: “None of them will say, that aught of the things which he possesses is his own; but they will have all things common. Neither will there be any among them that want: For as many as are possessed of lands or houses will sell them; and distribution will be made to every man, according as he has need.” All their desires, meantime, and passions, and tempers will be cast in one mould; while all are doing the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven. All their “conversation will be seasoned with salt,” and will “minister grace to the hearers;” seeing it will not be so much they that speak, “as the Spirit of their Father that speaketh in them.” And there will be no “root of bitterness springing up,” either to defile or trouble them: There will be no Ananias or Sapphira, to bring back the cursed love of money among them: There will be no partiality; no “widows neglected in the daily ministration:” Consequently, there will be no temptation to any murmuring thought, or unkind word, of one against another; while, …
In order to accomplish this, it has come to pass that Christ has made for us a New Covenant The Old Covenant was, "Do this and live." That Covenant was a sentence of death upon us all. We could not do, therefore we could not live, and so we died. The New Covenant has nothing in it contingent upon creature-doing, but it bases all its provisions upon Christ having done the work! "I will, and you shall," this is the language of the New Covenant? The Covenant of Law, in which we were weak through the flesh, left us mangled and broken. The Covenant of Grace reveals God's kindness towards us and our part, thereof, has been fulfilled for us by our Surety, Christ Jesus. Thus it runs, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more forever; a new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put within them." The old world is still under the old Covenant of Works and its children perish, for they cannot carry out the conditions of the Covenant—they cannot keep God's Law—they break it constantly, and they die. But the children of Grace are under the New Covenant of Grace, and through the precious blood, which is the penalty of the old broken Covenant, and through the spotless righteousness of Christ, which is the fulfillment and magnifying of the old Covenant, the Christian stands secure and rejoices that he is saved! Christ has thus made His people dwell under a New Covenant, instead of under the old one. …