Psalms 103:1-5
Part 3 of a Series
TEXT: Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
In his book. Lee: The Last Years, Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in front of her house. There she bitterly cried that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, "Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it." It is better to forgive the injustices of the past than to allow them to remain, let bitterness take root and poison the rest of our life.
Many Christians are living defeated lives, because they are hanging onto their pasts. They see their sins more than they see the solution to their sins, which is the blood of Jesus! They spend more of their time dwelling on their sins, then dwelling on what Jesus has done for them!
Repentance - the key to being forgiven
Proverbs 28:13, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
If you can confess it, you can be forgiven of it!
It doesn't matter what you've done, if you turn to God and confess your sins, He will forgive ALL of your unrighteousness... that includes anything you've done, that you are willing to bring before Him!
1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."
There is no sin too great for God to forgive: Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from EVERY lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (NASB)
Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
The only sin God can't forgive, is the one you won't take to Him!!
Did you know that it's the goodness of God; when we realize His great love for us, which is supposed to draw or lead you to repent and turn to Him?
Romans 2:3-4 The Message - You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? 4 Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he's not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.
Also look at Jeremiah 31:3, "...Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
Do you know that Christ's death on the cross was a symbol of God's great and deep love for you? That's right! Romans 5:8, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (NLT)
My friend, our minds cannot comprehend the deep love that God has for us!!! Ephesians 3:19, "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." If you want to be filled with the fullness of God, you need to understand this great love that God has for you!!
The nature of God's forgiveness
To demonstrate how our heavenly Father wants to love, accept and forgive us when we turn to Him, Jesus told a parable of the son who took half his dad's money and ran away, then returned home and when his father saw his son the ded was moved with compassion.
But in Luke 15:11-25 it tells us how the father received his son; took his son back.
Luke 15:11-24 The Message, “Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. 12 The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.'
"So the father divided the property between them. 13 It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. 14 After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. 15 He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. 16 He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.
17 "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. 18 I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; 19 I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' 20 He got right up and went home to his father.
"When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. 21 The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.'
22 "But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! 24 My son is here — given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time.
That is how our heavenly Father sees us, welcomes us, forgives us and loves us even after we've really messed up, and then turn back to Him! He is moved with compassion and welcomes us with open arms.
In Luke 7, Jesus took a very sinful woman, a prostitute and freely washed her clean without hesitation!
Luke 7:36-50 The Message, “One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee's house and sat down at the dinner table. 37 Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume 38 and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him."
40 Jesus said to him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Oh? Tell me."
41 "Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. 42 Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?"
43 Simon answered, "I suppose the one who was forgiven the most."
"That's right," said Jesus. 44 Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, "Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. 45 You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn't quit kissing my feet. 46 You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. 47 Impressive, isn't it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal."
48 Then he spoke to her: "I forgive your sins."
49 That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: "Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!"
50 He ignored them and said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."
Think about some of the people in the Bible who were forgiven for terrible sins and iniquities who later got it together:
Moses was a murderer
Sampson was a whore monger
Noah got drunk
David was an adulterer
Paul was a Christian murderer
Peter denied Christ multiple times
Abraham had a child out of wedlock
Jacob was a con-artist
Matthew was an extortionist
It is God's deep desire to see you turn to Him and receive forgiveness for your sins!
Isaiah 30:18, "Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him." (NASB)
There is great joy in heaven when a person turns from their wicked ways and turns to God! Luke 15:10, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
Even when Jesus was dying on the cross, the love in His heart for us was so deep and genuine that He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
You are a new creation... so forget your past!
As a child of God, you are a new creation! Your past has been wiped away, and you are given a fresh start!
Isaiah 30:18, "Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him." (NASB)
Not only does God forgive our sins, but He also FORGETS our sins! He chooses not to remember our sins for HIS own sake!
Isaiah 43:25, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
When your sins are forgiven, they are removed from you as far as the east to the west! Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
Also look at Micah 7:19, "...he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
We are told not to look at the past, but press forward towards the future! Philippians 3:13, "...this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,"
God Himself does not remember your sins, so why should you? If He felt it was best to forget them, since when is it better to remember them? God wants us to forgive ourselves and allow Jesus' blood to wash clean our conscience from all the evil we have done!
There was once a great priest; a much- loved man of God who carried the burden of a secret sin he had committed many years before. He had repented but still had no peace, no sense of God's forgiveness.
In his parish was a woman who deeply loved God and who claimed to have visions in which she spoke with Christ and he with her. The priest, however, was skeptical. To test her he said, "The next time you speak with Christ, I want you to ask him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary." The woman agreed. A few days later the priest asked, "Well, did Christ visit you in your dreams?"
"Yes, he did," she replied.
"And did you ask him what sin I committed in seminary?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did he say?"
"He said, 'I don't remember'"
What God forgives, He forgets.
