10 THINGS GOD DOES WITH YOUR SINS
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Why the Preacher got Arrested
1. A man lost two buttons from his shirt and put them in his pants pocket. But the pocket had a hole, so the buttons fell into his shoe. Unfortunately, the shoe sole also had a hole, so he lost the buttons.
2. When the man saw what had happened, he got so mad that he ripped the buttonholes out of his shirt and the pocket from his pants and tossed them in the trash along with the soles of his shoes. After looking in a mirror at the holes in his clothing, he decided to toss his clothes in the trash as well.
3. A policeman observed all this and asked the man for identification. The man produced a document that he was an ordained minister of the gospel. So, of course, the policeman promptly escorted him to a mental institution.
4. The minister protested violently, asking why he was receiving such unjust treatment.
5. "Look, it's the best place for you now," the policeman replied, "ANYONE CLAIMING TO BE A PREACHER, BUT WHO DOESN’T SAVE SOULS OR WEAR HOLY CLOTHES HAS PROBABLY LOST HIS BUTTONS!”
B. “WHY JESUS HAD TO DIE” VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z_SMrnEiaI
C. THESIS & TITLE
1. That Original Sin of Adam & Eve didn’t just separate the human race from God, but it put into us a sinful nature. Every person is infected with the “germ” of sin, a “bent” toward evil.
2. Nothing can help us escape from the terrible consequences of sin. You ask, “Isn’t there some way we can get rid of our sin?” NO. The only way to cancel out the moral evil of sin is either for you to die for your sin or a substitute may die for it.
3. But, thank God, Jesus volunteered to atone for your sins! “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son….Jesus Christ, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” Gal. 4:4; 2 Tim. 1:10.
4. God wants YOU to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your sins are forgiven! God doesn’t want you going around feeling condemned and defeated.
5. If you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, repented of your sins, and you’re trying to live for God the best you can, God wants you to know that your sins are under the blood and that you can walk in liberty & confidently say, “I AM NOW A SON/ DAUGHTER OF GOD! MY NAME’S WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE. I’M ON MY WAY TO HEAVEN!”
6. Title: “10 Things God Has Done With Your Sins!”
I. THE FATHER “LAID THEM ON JESUS!”
1. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all,” Isaiah 53:6.
2. First, we know that our sins are forgiven because they were all laid on Christ. He became the Sin-Bearer. Everything else God has done with our sin is the fruit of this one incredibly gracious and glorious act of God.
3. Jesus voluntarily offered himself to be your substitute, to die in your place on the cross, to suffer the judgment you deserved. The Father in turn reckoned Jesus to be guilty of your sins and liable to the punishment you deserved. He counted Jesus as guilty for your sins, even though he was innocent.
4. This is what we read in 2 Cor. 5:21 – “For [God] has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
5. Divine justice concerning sin’s penalty was satisfied. Don’t ever think that the love of God means that the wrath of God was ignored. Jesus paid the price for our sins.
6. The second part of 2 Cor. 5:21 tells us that not only are we declared “NOT GUILTY,” but God went one step further and credited to you and I Christ’s infinite righteousness! God sees us ‘clothed’ with the righteousness of Jesus Christ!
7. So in God’s sight, not only are you forgiven, you’re perfectly righteous in His Son Jesus Christ! That’s why Paul said, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus….For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” Rom. 8:1-2; NKJV.
8. Since Jesus paid for our sins, God could do these other things with them:
II. HURLED THEM INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA
1. “You will again have compassion on us; you will…HURL ALL OUR INIQUITIES INTO THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA” Mic. 7:19.
2. There are 5 depth-zones of the Sea/Oceans: the Epipelagic (surface to 650 ft), Mesopelagic (650-3,300 ft.), Bathypelagic (3,300-13,100 ft.; pitch dark), Abyssopelagic (13,100 ft. to ocean floor, 19,700 ft.; intense cold & immense pressure), and the Hadalpelagic (named after Hades; the deep trenches of the oceans, down to 36,000 ft.).
3. The Hadalpelagic region is where nothing can live, where it’s completely dark, and where the water pressure can crush all life. Everything at that depth has miles of water laying on top of it. It’s the most remote area on Earth and it’s the place God spoke of to assure us how hidden and inaccessible our sins are – placed there on purpose never to be remembered again.
4. Once forgiven, can our sins ever be retrieved? No! God “hurled” them with force, they sank like a stone to the bottom, never to be seen again.
III. GOD TRAMPLED THEM UNDER HIS FEET
1. “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will TRAMPLE OUR SINS UNDER YOUR FEET and throw them into the depths of the ocean!” Mic. 7:19 NLT.
2. Think about what it would take for you to throw something away in a lake, or throw it on the ground and stomp on it; you have to detest it and disagree with it.
3. That’s exactly how God feels about your sins: He not only drowns them in the ocean, but he also stomps them under his feet. Richard Phillips says, “God responds to our sins the way a protective parent destroys a snake in the children’s playground.”
4. To “trample” or “tread” underfoot something is to defeat it; to achieve victory over it. If God has done this to our sins, then their condemning power has been stomped into oblivion!
IV. GOD THROWS THEM BEHIND HIS BACK
1. “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have CAST ALL MY SINS BEHIND YOUR BACK” Isa. 38:17.
2. God takes all our sin in hand and then throws it behind him, so that He can never to see it again. God drowns it, he stomps it, and he also tosses it away. You would only throw something that is insignificant to you, something you are willing to forget about.
3. I remember telling the story of a person who moved to an Alaska village in the winter time. The town was so beautiful. The snow in the yard of every house about 3-4 feet deep. But when Spring came, the snow melted and the newcomer saw that the yards were full of old appliances and other garbage! The town looked like a junkyard.
4. God has taken your sin and placed it out of sight behind his back. All he sees now when he sees you is the righteousness of his own dear Son. Such is the love of forgiveness.
V. GOD BLOTTED OUT OUR SINS
1. “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.” Isa. 43:25. “I have BLOTTED OUT, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins” Isa 44:22.
2. “Blotting out” is often a judgment. Chicago mob bosses “rubbed out” their enemies. Pharaohs who had a family member fall into grave disfavor were known to have their name stricken from all records and obelisks. But in Isaiah God says He will do the reverse: He will erase every trace of our wrongs while elevating us to the highest status in His sight!
3. Many are the times, when typing up a message, I’ve hit the “delete button” a little too early and wished I had the thought back. God tells us He hit the delete button on the record of our sins. Praise God, they’re gone! There are no backup files; our sins are gone forever!
4. “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins,” Isa. 43:25. All it takes is confession. All it takes is the blood of Christ.
VI. HE REMEMBERS OUR SINS NO MORE
1. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and THEIR
SINS…WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE” Heb. 8:12.
2. How many of you think God could be forgetful? None! We all know God cannot forget; He has perfect omniscience. He knows everything there is to know, both material & spiritual, in all times.
3. He says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me” Isa. 49:15-16.
4. THEN WHY DOESN’T HE REMEMBER OUR SIN? Because Our sins were transferred to Jesus. Our sins were paid for by Jesus’ death. We’re NEW CREATURES. The old sinful person is dead and no longer exists before God.
5. ILLUSTRATION.
a. There was a woman who was known to hear from God. She went to church in the parish of a priest who had a troubled past and could never let it go.
b. One day the priest said to her, “If you can really hear from God, then ask Him what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary!”
c. Later, the priest saw her and said, “Did you ask God what sin your priest committed while he was in seminary?” She said, “Yes.” The priest said, “Did He tell you something? What did He say?”
d. She looked at the priest tenderly and said, “In answer to my question, the Lord said, “I don’t remember.”
5. KEY: GOD CANNOT FORGET, BUT HE CAN CHOOSE NOT TO REMEMBER! Praise God!
VII. HE TAKES OUR SINS AWAY FOREVER
1. When John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who TAKES AWAY the sin of the world!” John 1:29.
2. THE SCAPEGOAT. On the Day of Atonement, the High Priest made sacrifices to atone for the sins of the entire nation of Israel (Lev. 16).
3. Two male goats were chosen. Lots were cast. One goat would be killed and its blood sprinkled before God. The live goat Aaron & sons would confess over the sins of Israel. Then it would be released into the wilderness carrying their sins away.
4. This “scapegoat” was a type of Christ who bore our sins on Himself away to Sheol, the land of the dead.
5. But even better than a goat, Jesus was “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29.
VIII. REMOVES THEM AS FAR AS EAST IS FROM WEST
1. David said in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
2. If God had said, “As far as the North is from the South” that would have only been 8,595 miles, for the North terminates at the North Pole, then the movement would be South. But “East to West,” it’s an unlimited distance, because you can keep going East forever.
3. The Hubble Telescope has given us breathtaking pictures of a galaxy some 13 billion lights years from earth. Yes, 13 billion light years! Remember, a light year is six trillion miles. That would put this galaxy at 78 sextillion miles (7821) from earth.
4. If you traveled 500 mph non-stop, it would take you 20 quadrillion years to get there! And that would only get you to the farthest point that our best telescopes have yet been able to detect. If the universe is infinite, this would be the mere fringe of what lies beyond.
5. So if God put your sins that far away, you can be sure they’ll never be seen again!
IX. HE CLEANSES, WASHES THEM AWAY
1. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light,…THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN” 1 John 1:7.
2. All through Scripture sin is portrayed as dark and ugly. It soils and spoils everything. It is like a deep, dark, seemingly indelible stain on our souls.
3. Yet God appeals to us in Isaiah 1:18 with these wonderful words: “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.”
4. This wasn’t simply a promise for Israel, but a promise of God to each believer today. Do you “feel” dirty? Does your heart ache with the stain of sin? Do you feel a separation between you and God? It need not be! For Jesus has paid the price for your sin! God wants to wash your sin away.
5. Paul was told, “Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” Acts 22:16
X. NAILED THEM TO JESUS’ CROSS: CANCELLED!
1. “13 When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, NAILING IT TO THE CROSS. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Col. 2:13-14, NIV.
2. But when the fullness of the time had come, God was manifest in the flesh to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God not only erased our sin-debt, He destroyed the documents on which our debts were recorded by nailing them to the cross. We are forgiven because of the cross of Jesus.
3. Our guilty-conviction in the courtroom of the Justice was overturned by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
4. All the heavenly paperwork of our guilt and condemnation were nailed to Jesus’ cross and were destroyed with Him. Praise God we are free!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUS. # 1: CONVICTION VS. CONDEMNATION
1. A man came to a Pastor and said, “Pastor, I just can’t seem to get over something I did.” The Pastor replied, “Have you repented of it?”
2. The man answered, “Yes, Pastor. I’ve probably repented of it a thousand times!”
3. The Pastor said, “That’s 999 times too many! You only need to sincerely repent once; if you do, the Lord will instantly forgive you (2 Sam. 12:13). The Holy Spirit won’t bring you into double jeopardy” (that is, charge for the same crime twice).
B. ILLUS. #2: ONLY THE KING CAN FORGIVE
1. In Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, the story is told of King Richard the Lionhearted coming in disguise upon a sheriff and his men who were about to execute a prisoner.
2. King Richard recognized the accused as a valuable servant,
reined in his horse and raised his hand exclaiming, “Hold! I spare that man’s life!”
3. But his very act of mercy revealed his identity, for instantly the sheriff and men understood that this one, with authority to pardon, could be none other than King Richard himself!
4. “WHO IS THIS WHO CAN FORGIVE SINS?” When Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins, they said, “Who is this who forgives sins?” For none but God have that power. This morning Jesus says to you, “Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more!” [Knight’s New Illus., p. 225]
C. THE CALL
1. How many of you want to make sure you have God’s forgiveness through Jesus this morning?
2. How many of you have been battling with condemnation and want to put Satan under your feet?
3. Let’s pray.
[This message incorporates some of the ideas of Matthew Henry, Sam Storms, Tim Challies, and Mike Livingstone.]
