I Will Remember Their Sins No More (Hebrews 8:12)

Can God forget the sins we commit? If God can forget sins, how can He be said to be omniscient, or all-knowing? If God can’t forget things, how can He say He forgives us any more than angry people in marriage counseling forgive their spouse when they can’t forget it? The biblical answer is God doesn’t forget our sins, but He chooses not to remember them: “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12, see also Jeremiah 31:34 and Isaiah 43:25). https://youtu.be/yZNF8cWDYyQ God doesn’t forget our sins, but He chooses not to remember them: “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12 and Jeremiah 31:34). Table of ContentsFamily Worship GuideSermon Notes for I Will Remember Their Sins No MoreLesson One: God doesn’t forgive like us.Lesson Two: God says, “I will remember their sins no more,” (Part One) like David forgave Saul.Lesson Two: God says, “I will remember their sins no more,” (Part Two) like the Father forgave the prodigal son. Family Worship Guide Directions: Read the verses and then answer the questions: Day 1: Isaiah 43:25, Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12, 10:17, Micah 7:19, Psalm 103:12, 2 Samuel 12:13—Considering all God has forgiven us for through Christ, why do you think it is still so difficult for us to forgive others? What can you do to better forgive others, and in particular what verses or passages can you meditate on? What does it look like to apologize the right way? What about the wrong way? How does God apologize differently than us? Day 2: 2 Samuel 1:17-24—What is so honorable about David’s lament for Saul and Jonathan? What can we learn from David’s lament to apply to our own lives? Why do you think David spoke so well of Saul? Are there any Sauls in your life, and if so, what do you need to do to feel toward them like David did toward the Saul in his life? Day 3: Luke 15:20-23—Do you struggle with whether God has forgiven you, why or why not? What verses or passages can you meditate on to be better encouraged about God’s forgiveness? How can we be encouraged by the father’s forgiveness of his son? What application does this have for us in our lives? Sermon Notes for I Will Remember Their Sins No More The title of this morning’s sermon is, “I Will Remember Their Sins No More.” On Sunday mornings we’re working our way through Luke’s gospel verse by verse and we find ourselves in the middle of the parable of the prodigal son, but for Scripture reading open to 2 Samuel 1. Please stand with me for the reading of God’s Word. We will start at verse 17… 2 Samuel 1:17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar. He said: 19 “Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 20 Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult. 21 “You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. 22 “From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. 23 “Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely! In life and in death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. 24 “You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. You may be seated. Let’s pray. I appreciated Jake covering for me last Sunday so that I could enjoy the week at camp without a sermon to prepare. Or I should say I appreciated Jake covering for me until the end of his sermon when he said that he is going to finish preaching through a book of the Bible before I do. He thinks he’s funny. He might finish a book before me…unless I don’t let him preach again :-). We’re going to lay a foundation for the sermon by talking about the way we forgive, and then we will talk about the way God forgives. Forgiveness is one of the most common topics I deal with in marriage counseling. When I meet with people there is often hurt, resentment, or even bitterness. To help diffuse the hurt, resentment, or bitterness I talk about asking for forgiveness the right way. Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. There are not many softer answers that turn away wrath than apologies made the right way. We have talked before about how to apologize and ask for forgiveness, so I am not going to spend much time on it other than to offer two pieces of advice… First, avoid the word “but” because it destroys apologies. When an “apology” contains this word, it is an excuse disguised as a confession and usually serves to upset the person receiving the apology even more, because they can tell the person apologizing is not sorry about what they’ve done. For example, you wouldn’t want to say: “I’m sorry, BUT if you hadn’t done that…” “I am sorry, BUT this happened…” “I’m sorry, BUT I never would’ve done this if not for…” Second, avoid the word “you” because it is often a manipulative way of shifting blame and making the other person feel bad about being hurt or upset: “I’m sorry YOU did this…” “Well, I’m sorry YOU are mad…” “I’m sorry YOU are offended…” Instead, apologizing the right way involves two steps: First, say, “I am sorry for…” or “I am sorry I…” followed by confessing the offense committed. Second, say, “Will you forgive me?” The second step is important because it does three things: First, it reveals you recognize you have done something requiring forgiveness Second, it shows you are not minimizing your actions Third, it engages the other person and requires a response Now at this point in counseling when one person apologizes the right way I will often interrupt before the other person can respond, because I have found people will say “I forgive you” when they have not forgiven the person. We have been so conditioned as Christians to be forgiving that we will say we forgive people when we don’t know what that means. So, I will say… “Don’t say, ‘I forgive you yet.’ If you say those words you need to understand what’s involved. You’re committing to: not think about the person’s offense not hold the person’s offense against him or her refuse to bring up the offense in the future So much is involved in forgiving it is reasonable you might need time to be able to forgive.” There have been times that I have hurt Katie and asked her to forgive me and she said, “I am not ready to forgive you yet.” When people say that they need time to forgive they should not be made to feel guilty or ashamed about not being able to forgive at that moment. Instead, it is a demonstration that they are taking forgiveness seriously, and they should be given the time they need. Because forgiveness takes such immense effort when we think of asking for forgiveness we wonder if we will be forgiven, We know how difficult it is to forgive, so we wonder if people will forgive us. And here’s the question… Why is forgiveness so difficult for us? It’s difficult because we can’t stop thinking about what people have done to us: We can’t choose NOT to remember people’s offenses. We can’t say, “I will forgive you by remembering your sins no more.” But God can do this, and it brings us to lesson one… Lesson One: God doesn’t forgive like us. Listen to these familiar verses… Gensis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God made us in His image, but we have the tendency to switch this around and make God into our image. This is one of the ways we commit idolatry. The way we make God into our image is: We think of Him like we think of ourselves. We project ourselves on Him and think He does things the way we do things. We think if something is hard for us, it must be hard for God. For this morning’s sermon what I want to focus on one specific way we make God into our image, and it is regarding forgiveness: We believe that God forgives the way we forgive. I would even go so far as to say we believe that God finds it difficult to forgive, because we find it difficult to forgive. Our struggle must be God’s struggle. But listen to this quote from Ed Welch… “You may think that God is no better than you. In other words, you couldn’t imagine forgiving someone seventy times seven, so you can’t believe that God would. If this is the way you are thinking, then you are believing a lie. God is not like us. His forgiveness is not like ours. Don’t use your own weakness as the standard by which you understand God’s greatness! Just listen as He reveals Himself in His Word.” That’s good, isn’t it…and very true. If you got to watch the VBS play, take your minds back to it. One of the characters – played wonderfully by Clara Criss – talked about the three “omni” words: Omniscient, which means God is all-knowing Omnipresent, which means God is all-present Omnipotent, which means God is all all-powerful Do any of us fully understand these attributes? No. And because we don’t fully understand these attributes, they cause us fascination and sometimes frustration. Last week I was listening to John Piper recount a famous story from early in his Christian life that he has shared many times.