Leave Left Behind - Left Behind by Steve Keeler
Psalms 103:8-12
"The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not
always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger
forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high
as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His
lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as
the east is from the west, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us."
We need to strive to be like this when we forgive
others. It's not that you have no memory of what
happened. But to truly forgive someone means you will
treat that person as if he or she had never done the
wrong in the first place.
Hopefully we would all agree that forgiving one
another, and forgetting, makes for stronger and
healthier relationships. It improves the quality of our
relationships in church, in our families, with the people
we live with and around everyday.
But have you ever wondered, does God really forgive
and forget? As Christians we know He forgives, and we
deeply appreciate that forgiveness!
But once we are forgiven, what does God do with the
memory of that sin? Does God forget? Can God
forget?
I might also ask: what do we do with the memory of our
past sins? Paul tells us in Corinthians that we are to
examine ourselves to see how we are doing in our walk
with God.
When we do this we come to better understand our
need for repentance and forgiveness. In this process of
examination many of us will remember past sins, sins
that we have repented of and have been forgiven of.
For some of us those memories are encouraging,
because they show us that we have changed and
grown.
But for some, those memories in conjunction with
current sins and faults that we come to see in our self
examination, can discourage us and bring us down.
Today we go over a very important aspect of
forgiveness, which is forgetting.
Today, I want to look at what God's Word says He
does with our past sins. Then we will take a look at the
wonderful example of the apostle Paul.
Hebrews 10:16, speaks of God's Covenant between
Him and His people in this way:
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, says the lord: I will put my laws upon their
heart, and on their mind I will write them, He then says,
and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
no more."
We all know that God forgives our iniquity, our sin, by
the shed blood of Jesus Christ. But that is not all He
does for us!
This verse tells us "their sin I will remember no more."
God doesn't just forgive which in itself is a marvelous
and wondrous gift, no, He goes beyond that. He
forgives and He forgets!
Forgiven, forgotten, forever. Amen!
He will not call our sins to remembrance; they will not
ever enter His mind. Once God forgives us it is as if the
sin never happened.
Listen to God in Isaiah 43:25
"I, even I, am the one who wipes out your
transgressions for My own sake, and I will not
remember your sins."
God, in His marvelous mercy, blots out our sins as a
benefit to us to be sure, but also for His own sake
because He earnestly desires to make us part of His
eternal divine family.
We have His guarantee that when He blots out our
sins, they really are blotted out. He will never bring
them up; they will never enter His mind. It will be as if
they never occurred! I don't know about you, but I find
that incredibly comforting.
Let me give you another example of what I'm talking
about, this is what Isaiah 65:17 says; "For behold, I
create new heavens and a new earth; and the former
things will not be remembered or come to mind."
The time is coming quickly when the evils of this world
will not be remembered.
They won't enter God's mind or ours. God is going to
wipe away every tear and every sorrow, including
those that we have brought upon ourselves and
inflicted upon others by our sins.
These and other scriptures show us that our loving
God is forward thinking. He is able to look beyond our
faults to what we can be, and with His help, what we
will be.
We need to have the same mind. We also need to look
beyond our past, and even beyond what we are right
now, to see where God is leading us.
Are we forward thinking, or do we dwell on the past
and the present? God is forward thinking, and He
wants us to become like Him.
Remember I told you I would give you an example in
Paul? Here it is.
Did you know that Paul sometimes doubted his
worthiness of bringing the gospel to others or even
being saved for that matter?
He wrestled with feelings of guilt and about being
unworthy of his ministry because of his past, back
when he persecuted the church before encounter with
Jesus on the road when he was called.
In 1 Corinthians 15:9 Paul wrote "For I am the least
of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God."
Don't we tend to feel like Paul sometimes? Do you
ever feel unworthy of your salvation?
Sometimes I have these thoughts and feelings when I
remember the sins of my past, not to mention current
sins and shortcomings.
Memories bring us down and discourage us all from
time to time and Paul was well acquainted with this
problem.
Now obviously God wants us to learn from our
mistakes, and our memories do help to reinforce those
lessons. Learning from our mistakes is an essential
part of building spiritual character.
But after we have learned from our sin we must let it
go. We are not let the past bog us down and rob us of
the joy God wants us to have.
The purpose of examining ourselves is to look for sins
that remain in us, so we can take steps to eliminate
them from our lives.
Although the apostle Paul genuinely felt unworthy to be
called an apostle because of his actions against the
church prior to his calling, he didn't let those memories
hinder him from being a useful tool for Christ.
Paul came to understand that he had to forget his past,
to put it out of his mind and move on.
In Philippians 3:12 the apostle Paul wrote "Not that I
have already obtained it or have already become
perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for
which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus."
You and I are not already perfected! We are a work in
progress and God is not finished with any of us yet.
Paul refused to let his faults and shortcomings keep
him from fulfilling God's purpose for his life. He wanted
to take hold of eternal life as part of God's family.
Let's continue in Verse 13;
"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of
it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind
and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on
toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ Jesus."
Paul learned to forget those things which are behind.
He learned to put his past out of his mind, just like God
does. How did he do that? By reaching forward to the
things which are ahead. And what marvelous things
are ahead!
Paul pressed toward the goal, the prize eternal life with
Jesus Christ. He said he had not attained it yet but he
was looking forward to that wonderful gift.
This is the same gift that has been offered to us,
eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Paul was forward
thinking. God is forward thinking. We need to be
forward thinking too.
Are you pressing forward, are you reaching for Heaven
today? Is that what lies in store for you?
The purpose of examining ourselves is not to make us
feel unworthy or make us sad. It is all part of God's
wonderful plan to reconcile His children into his Family.
By putting sin out of our lives, correcting bad behaviors
and wrong thoughts, through the power of the Holy
Spirit, we develop Godly character and we allow His
Kingdom to come and dwell in us, so that we become
more and more like Him as time passes.
I hope you will keep these things in mind whenever you
take an inventory of your life as a Christ Follower.
Let's resolve to put the sin out, then ask God to apply
the blood of Jesus Christ to our sins so they will be
blotted out.
Then know, and really know, not just in our mind but in
our heart too, that God has forgiven and forgotten our
sin.
The sins of our past won't even enter His mind. It will
be as if the sin never happened.
Lets try to do what Paul did, "forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forward to those things
which are ahead." The Heavenly things!
Let's leave left behind - left behind! Amen!
