Erased And Washed Clean Series

Scripture: Romans 3:21-24; Ephesians 4:25-32

Theme: Forgiveness – God’s Forgiveness/Our Forgiveness

Title: Erased and Washed Clean

This sermon deals with FORGIVENESS – the joy of being forgiven and the great joy of forgiving others.

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Remember the time before there were computers, power points and even overheads?

Remember the time before there were even “white boards” and perhaps even “green boards”?

If you do then you may even remember when at the front of every school room there were these blackboards – these boards that were made of either real of fake slate. And we used this wonderful substance called “chalk” to write or draw on them.

I remember every Friday afternoon before school let out we would clean our classroom. Someone would get the honor of going outside to clean out the erasers. You would hit them against either this particular rock located outside the door, on the sidewalk or on the building’s brick wall to knock all the chalk that had accumulated throughout the week. While they did that the rest of our class would pick up paper on the floor, sweep the floor, take out the trash, dust the furniture, clean the window sills, and washed down the blackboard.

By the time we were through you couldn’t tell that a bunch of children had spent the week in that classroom. By the time we were through the blackboard and the erasers were so clean that you would never have imagined that all week long there had been math lessons, spelling lessons, English lessons and history lessons written on those blackboards. They were immaculate – erased, washed and perfectly clean.

In the same vein, this morning, I would like for us to look at the experience of having our sins, our mistakes, our failures erased and washed clean forever by our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

The Bible tells us that one the most amazing experiences that any of us can enjoy in this life is receiving God’s forgiveness, our own forgiveness and the privilege and ministry that God gives us to forgive another human being.

Passage after passage lets us know that GOD AND FORGIVENESS go hand in hand.

Hebrews 10:10-12 New Life Version (NLV)

10 Our sins are washed away and we are made clean because Christ gave His own body as a gift to God. He did this once for all time.

11 All Jewish religious leaders stand every day killing animals and giving gifts on the altar. They give the same gifts over and over again. These gifts cannot take away sins. 12 But Christ gave Himself once for sins and that is good forever. After that He sat down at the right side of God.

Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

Let’s take a few moments this morning to remind ourselves that when God erases and cleans our LIFE BACKBOARDS they are truly clean; immaculately clean. And then let’s do our best to live as forgiven people who in turn live a life of forgiving people.

I. God’s SIN ERASER is ETERNAL

The moment we ask the LORD for forgiveness this amazing, wonderful and supernatural thing happens – we are forgiven.

All of our sin(s) are erased. Our sin board that once listed all the wrong things that we have done is washed clean. Immaculately and wonderfully clean.

The Bible is clear on this

Isaiah 43:25

I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Micah 7:18-19

Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Psalm 103:8-12

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. The LORD will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God’s love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.”

Let those passages sink in for a moment.

We often think about forgiveness but I am afraid we don’t enjoy our forgiveness as much as we can and should.

Every sin, every wrong thought, every wrong attitude, every wrong action – they are all gone in an instant. Everything that should commit our everlasting spirits to the pit of Hell - is released – erased – washed clean by the Blood of Jesus.