Forgiveness

“Pardon, T beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt, even until now.” — Num. xiv. 19.

News of forgiveness is only interesting to those who are conscious of sin.

I. Who pleaded. II. Who forgave. III. Who was forgiven. IV. Extent of forgiveness.

I. Who pleaded: Moses.

(1) JMcdiator. “Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them” (Ps. cvi.

23). So Christ: “for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (i Tim. ii. 5).

(2) Intercessor. Had not shared the sin. So Christ, “who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people” (Heb vii. 27). “It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. viii. 34). Moses never pleaded in vain except for himself. “And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word” (Num. xiv. 20). So Christ, “and I know that Thou hearest Me always” (John xi. 42).

II. Who forgave? Thou. “Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exod. xxxiv. 7). “Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark ii. 7. )

III. Who was forgiven! “This people,” described as “a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Rom. x. 21). “A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with their God.” “How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness and grieve Him in the desert” (Ps. lxvii. 8, 40).

Il6 GLEAMS FROM THE KING’S WORD.

IV. Extent of forgiveness. “From Egypt,” all along, murmurings, rebellings, idolatry, stupidity, etc., “until now.” Climax of their sin, “were it not better for us to return into Egypt!” “Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt.” “All the congregation bade stone them with stones” (ver. 3, 4, 10). Yet, “Thou hast forgiven this people”; “and the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.” (Then turning to the piano, F. R. H. sang

LOVING ALL ALONG.

Tramp, tramp on the downward way,
With seldom a stop and never a stay,
Loving the darkness, hating light,
Our faces set towards eternal night!
Each has answered God’s cry,
“Why will ye die? turn ye! turn ye!”
“Not I, not I!”

We have bartered away His gems and gold For the empty husks and the shadows cold; We have laugh’d at the Devil’s tightening chains, And bidden him forge them strong! And God has kept on loving us, Loving all along.

The love still flows as we tramp on; A sorrowful fall in its pleading tone;” Thou wilt tire in the dreary ways of sin; I left My Home to bring thee in!

In its golden street stand no weary feet, Its rest is glorious, its songs are sweet!”

And we shout back angrily, hurrying on

To a terrible home, where rest is none: “We want not your city’s gilded street, Nor to hear its constant song!”

And still God keeps on loving us,
Loving all along.

And the tender Voice pursues each one:

“My Child, what more could thy God have done?

Thy sin hid the light of heaven from Me,

When alone in the darkness I died for thee!

Thy sin of this day, In its shadows lay,

Between My face and One turned away!”

And we stop and turn for a moment’s space,

Flinging back the love in the Saviour’s face,

To give His heart yet another grief, and glory in the

wrone

And Christ is always loving us,
Loving all along.

One is bending low before the King, And the angels listen with quivering wing; He has entered the City and sings its hymn, While the gold of its street through tears is dim! “To Him who so loved me and washed me white, To Him be all honor and power and might!” That marvellous love no sin could move, Waited, and wearied not, sought and strove! To us, through the darkness, the Voice still calls From the gleaming heights of the jasper walls;

To the long kept places our welcome waits, Amid the exultant throng. Chorus. — And God will still be loving us, Loving all along, And God will still be loving us, Loving all along!

Apply all this to our own case. Why do we need forgiveness? Conscience tells, if enlightened. Sins of deed, word, thought, commission, omission, sins of this day, can you recollect? yesterday? all the year? since childhood? (Ps. xxv. 7.) We forget, but God recalls all, every one either forgiven or unforgiven. Not one who is unforgiven enters heaven; ‘’and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie” (Rev. xxi. 27).

Then take the first and great command, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind”; are we not “guilty”? Then see Ps. lxxvii. 22. “They believed not in C*)d, and trusted not in His salvation.” Believed not! trusted not! Guilty under all these counts, and none the less for not seeing we are; sin itself blinds us. Let each say now, “Father I have sinned.” What then?” There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared” (Ps. cxxx. 4, 7). “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Thee “(Dan. ix. 9). That’s much, but we want more. Then,” Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive’’ (Ps. lxxxvi. 5). God is “ready” but perhaps we are hardly “ready,” and say, “I don’t feel my sins enough” (you don’t find that in the Bible); but God meets us with the promise that He will give us” repentance and remission” (Acts v. 31).

Perhaps it is the opposite with some of you, and you are saying, “My sins are too great to be forgiven. “t Then” Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa. lv. 7, and i. 18; Ps. ciii. 3).

How can this be? “Through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts xiii. 38).

How so? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John i. 9). Faithful because He promised; just because Christ bore the punishment, purchased the forgiveness. Talk about “free” forgheness; free to us, but cost Him blood. So “God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. iv. 32; 1 John ii. 12). What is bought z’s bought. So in Him “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. i. 7; Ps. lxxxv. 2).

Will you believe the message to-night? “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee” (Isa. xliv. 22). (Illustration: There was once a deaf mute, named John. Though he never heard any other voice, he heard the voice of Jesus, knew it, loved it, and followed it. One day he told the lady who had taught him, partly on his fingers and partly by signs, that he had had a wonderful dream. God had shown him a great black book, and all his sins written in it, so many, so black! And God had shown him hell, all open and fiery, waiting for him because of all these sins. But Jesus Christ had come and put His red hand, red with the blood of His cross, all over the page, and the dear red hand had blotted all John’s sins out; and when God held up the book to the light He could not see one left! (Isa. xliii. 25.)

Don’t fear to take forgiveness at once. God does not want long processes — He looks into the heart. If while sitting here any want to turn from sin and be forgiven, that is repenting; if any are saying, “Yes, I know it is all true of me,” that is confession; and “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Now take forgiveness, for “you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Col. ii. 13). “When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark ii. 5). This same Jesus is here to-night.

What else? Shall sins come up again? In the new covenant God declares, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. viii. 12). Then Micah vii. 18, 19.

1. Pardoneth. (Illustration: “Ah, Willie,” said a strong man in tears, “it’s forgiven sin breaks a man’s heart,” etc. )

2. Will subdue.

3. Will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Ps. xxxii. 1).