SERMON-THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. Thus it is written, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. LUKE Xxiv. 47. THIS whole chapter is one of singular beauty. The incidents related are unique, and they are told with a simplicity, pathos, and power that must be felt by every gracious soul. Happy are we, if while we read we believe, for believing we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Whether the verses from the 44th to the 49th, inclusive, connect immediately as to time, audience, and occasion, with those that precede, we do not wait to discuss. It is more important to observe that our Lord returns to what was written concerning him in the law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms. And having opened their understandings, he declares-Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Substantially, this contains the gospel message, the terms of which the Apostles often reiterated, and on which we find them expatiating ever afterwards. On the day of Pentecost, after an emphatic assertion of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, we hear them exhorting-"Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins." Shortly afterward we hear them saying "Those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. ye, therefore, and be converted that your sins blotted out." And again," The God of our fathers Repent may be raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins." The words "remission of sins" furnish a subject important in itself, and appropriate to our present circumstances, in view of the privilege we shortly expect to enjoy. This doctrine of the forgiveness of sins the Apostles were accustomed to put in the foreground in their preaching. Sometimes they speak of it as virtually including the whole of salvation, because it is an essential part of it, and because also it is perhaps the first thing suggests itself in considering our relation to God and our everlasting destiny. We shall consider first the nature of forgiveness, and secondly, its connection with repentance. I.-The nature of forgiveness. This is part, you observe, of the still wider subject of our justification before God. Justification has been defined as an "act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone.' "Pardoneth all our sins,"-that is the subject, an essential element in our acceptance with God, and to each of us as sinners of the deepest importance. 1. This forgiveness is free. Were it not so there would and could be no forgiveness. Among men forgiveness suggests forbearance and the exercise of grace and mercy toward an offender. If he is punished for his fault, if any price is paid by him or penalty inflicted on him then so far he is not forgiven. He is punished, not pardoned. The freeness extends to the state of mind of the offended party, and among men when an act of pardon is constrained or reluctant it is justly re garded as more a pretence than a reality. Hence it has been beautifully said The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Of course all goodness, grace, and excellence in the creature comes from the Creator. That men know and confess. And nothing, is more common than to hear men say that God is merciful, that there is forgiveness with him, and he delights in pardoning. And they could not well say otherwise in a Christian land. But practically they do not believe it, as their spiritual condition, disposition, and experiences in many ways make manifest. They have a vague notion of the fact. But it is one thing to have an intellectual acquaintance with it, and quite another for it to find an actual and abiding lodgement in the heart. This is not so common, and is indeed a work of difficult achievement. And no won der, for the constant voice of every man's conscience is against it. Naturally a man's conscience knows nothing of forgiveness, and refuses to hear anything about it. Its office and function is to tell man his duty, to warn him against sin; and its work as regards sin is to condemn sin and the sinner,-to thunder in his ear the anathemas of the Most High, and brandish over him the sword of divine vengeance. Yes, and what conscience so speaks, it speaks according to law, the very law of God, which is "holy and just and good," and which because it is holy and just and good proclaims-"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." And this being the state of the case, it requires nothing else and nothing less than a divine agent and a divine revelation to convince a man's conscience and open his heart to an acceptance of the truth that there is forgiveness with God-free, spontaneous, actual pardon. "I believe in the forgiveness of sins" is a clause of the oldest uninspired creed of the New Testament Church, which clause it is the business of every ambassador of the cross to proclaim and uphold, as entering into the very essence of the gospel, and without which there would really be no gospel. For this article of the faith there is the clearest warrant, as we admit the clearest warrant is required. Through Jeremiah of old (iii. 12) he proclaims, "I am merciful, saith the Lord." And the graciousness of his nature is revealed as the spring whence forgiveness flows. To Moses he made himself known as the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, [Exod. xxxiv. 6.] Again,-Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive, [Ps. lxxxvi. 5.] Again, Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, [Neh. ix. 17.] Again, Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy, [Micah vii. 18.] The Scriptures specially magnify the glory of God's love and mercy in freely pardoning. At all points our thoughts of him are limited and low, and unworthy of him; but here especially. And here again and again he guards us from judging him by ourselves, or thinking of him as of ourselves. Across the whole firmament of reve lation there runs the divine proclamation and call"Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon," [Isa. lv. 7]. Does any sinner say, Alas! his guilt is too great, his offences too flagrant, to come within the scope of even that sweeping call. How little men know of God's largeness of heart, and the outgoings of his infinite love. His answer is, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." His dealings in this matter of pardoning sin are not after the thoughts—or the ways- -or the measure- -or the manner of men. But if God thus freely pardon sin, what becomes of his holiness which hates it,-his justice which inexorably condemns it, and his truth which is pledged to its punishment? The ground on which pardon proceeds is certainly not that God's holiness has ceased to hate sin, that his justice has been set aside, or that his threatenings have become empty words. No; the ground on which it proceeds is the atoning sacrifice of Christ. The Father proclaims-"Save from going down into the pit, for I have found out a ransom." "In the fulness of time he sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were made under the law." By him as the true Lamb of God atonement has been made. By the sacrifice of himself he hath finished transgression, made an end of sins, and brought in everlasting righteousness. By himself he purged our sins, who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And hence we are said to be "cleansed by his blood." We have "redemption through his blood, even |