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.
That is what Jesus did for us on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus took upon Himself ever big sin, little sin, gross sin, vile sin, mortal sin, venial sin – every sin imaginable and gave His life for our forgiveness and for our cleansing.
We may have to pay the consequences of our sins here on this earth but in Heaven’s eyes we are rescued, redeemed and washed clean.
When God looks at you He doesn’t see your sin – He has washed it all away.
When God looked at David after he repented of his sin with Bathsheba, the LORD didn’t condemn him to a life of hell. The LORD didn’t throw him away. No, the Bible tells us that even though God knows all things He chooses to forgive us, redeem us and restore us.
When David was a young boy and was kneeling at the feet of the Prophet Samuel to receive his anointing to be the next King the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY knew that one day David would sin with Bathsheba. God knew that he would make mistakes, that he would fail and become a royal mess.
But in knowing all of that the LORD did not abandon David, He did not side step David nor did He reject David.
Instead, God died for David. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY redeemed David with His Own Blood. He forgave David and even used David and Bathsheba to bring forth Solomon into the world. He used this broken couple to bring forth the next king; the one who would build Israel First Temple.
If that had been us – we may have said – well, we certainly are not going to use David and Bathsheba. We may have to use David because he is the king, but we have to find a better woman. Perhaps we would have chosen Abigail or one of the other wives. Surely, not Bathsheba; her reputation was ruined and her name would always be associated with a scandal. She and her children have just lost the ability to rule on the throne.
But God’s forgiveness and love goes way beyond our human understanding. For God, David and Bathsheba were going to be the perfect parents. They had been immersed in God’s forgiveness and love. They were going to be a supernatural example of how deep and how wide God’s love and forgiveness is to the nation of Israel.
In fact, as you look around the Bible you see example after example of how God chose the very ones we might have rejected because of their mistakes, their failures and their sins.
+God uses Abram and Sarai even though time after time they failed him. They disobeyed Him and actually went the opposite direction God told them to go.
+God used Moses and Joshua even though both men time failed to listen to the voice of God and ended up getting themselves and others in trouble.
+God used Rahab even though the Bible tells us at the time she may have been running a brothel and had no problem lying.
+God used the Prophet Elijah even when he ran away from trouble and was dealing with thoughts of committing suicide.
+God used the two demonic men in the graveyard who were living immoral lives, hurting people and blaspheming God as examples of how once we are forgiven God can use us as evangelists.
What am I saying?
God has a big forgiveness eraser and is able to wash away all of our sins.
Have you ever used a pencil without an eraser?
Did you know that the average pencil is estimated to be able to draw a line about 35 miles long or to write roughly around 45,000 words?
Whew!
And that while the pencil has been around hundreds of years a good eraser has been only around 230 years?
Up until 1770 most people used a piece of breadcrumb to wipe away pencil marks. The breadcrumb didn’t do a great job but that was the best technology at the time. Edward Nairne, an English engineer accidently picked up a piece of rubber instead of a breadcrumb and discovered that rubber was much more efficient at erasing pencil marks. The modern day eraser was born.
But Nairne’s discovery pales in comparison to Jesus’ eraser. Not only are the pencil marks erased the page becomes brand new. When Jesus erases something it is gone forever.
II. God’s Eraser Brings Freedom
One of the wonderful things about God’s eraser is that it enables us to live a life of freedom. We can live a life knowing that we are not condemned. We can live a life filled with God’s favor, blessings and anointing.
In order to do this we have to remember something very important. We have to remember that we can’t let a mistake in this life stop us from becoming what God wants us to become. We can’t allow a failure, a mistake or a sin prevent us from living an abundant life here and now.
This past year Bill Buckner died at the age of 69 years of age. He was an amazing Major League Baseball player. His career lasted 22 years. During that time he played for:
• Los Angeles Dodgers (1969–1976)
• Chicago Cubs (1977–1984)
• Boston Red Sox (1984–1987)
• California Angels (1987–1988)
• Kansas City Royals (1988–1989)
• Boston Red Sox (1990)
He ended his career with 2,715 hits and 498 doubles. He batted over .300 seven times in his career and never struck out over 40 times a season. That is an amazing feat – not to strike out 40 times a year when the average ball player strikes out 120 times a year.
Bill Buckner had a great career. He had only one problem – he made a mistake. In the 10th inning of a World Series Game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Mets (1986) he missed a play and the Mets ended up winning the game. Buckner was blamed not only for losing game 6 but somehow he became the scapegoat when the Red Sox lost Game 7 and therefore the World Series.
For years people blamed him, cursed at him and hated him. He even received death threats. Sadly, this year when he passed away one of the media outlets ran this headline –
Bill Buckner, All-Star slugger best known for his '86 World Series error, is dead at 69 By Joe Sterling and Brandon Griggs, CNN
One play in a career of 22 seasons; over 2,500 games and the one thing that many people remembered him for and labeled him with was the one play that he missed in one game when he was already suffering from a leg injury. One mistake and people tried for the rest of his life to label him with that one mistake, that one failure. Things got so bad that for a time Bill had to move away from Boston to find some peace.
This is what the Devil tries to do with all of us.
That is what he tried to do with the Apostle Peter after his denial of Jesus three times. He tried to get Peter to quit being a disciple and go back to being a common everyday fisherman. Now, there is nothing wrong in being a fisherman. However, that is not what Jesus called Peter to do.
In John 21, Jesus goes to Peter not to condemn him but to let him know that He has other plans for Peter. He will bless Peter if he wants to fish, but more than a big haul of fish the LORD has plans for Peter to be the leader of His Church. It is God’s desire that instead of catching 153 fish (which by the way is a lot of fish) Peter would be instrumental in bringing 3,000 people into God’s Kingdom on the Day of Pentecost.
Peter decided not to allow the world or the Devil to forever label him as a failure or as one who betrayed Jesus. Sure, he betrayed Jesus. Sure, he failed that night standing by the fire. Sure he made a mistake. But his mistake did not stop him. The LORD didn’t allow it. History knows Peter not as Betrayal Peter but as the Apostle Peter, the Big Fisherman and as one of the major leaders of the Early Church.
The same could be said of Thomas as well. Far too many people have labeled Thomas as Doubting Thomas because of one bad day and one bad week in his life. Thomas didn’t however allow that label to stop him. He went on to be one of the greatest missionaries in the country of India. There are a group of Christians in India today that still go by the name of being St. Thomas Christians.
Think about that – 2,000 years later the only label that should be associated with Thomas is St. Thomas Christians – people who not only receive forgiveness and freedom but who also live out that freedom and forgiveness.
What am I saying?
Simply this – God has a big eraser and a wash cloth. If we allow God He will not only erase our sins but wash us as clean as snow. He will not allow the Devil to label us because of our mistakes.
My mother married quite young; way before she was the age of 20. After her father died when she was five years old her home was never the same. Her mother remarried but it was not a great marriage and the family suffered. As soon as mom was able, she married a man to get out of the house and to hopeful start a new life.
That new life did not last long. Her husband proved to be unfaithful and their marriage ended in a divorce. It was quite devastating. Here she was a young woman who not only married young but had divorced young living in Eastern Kentucky in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Back then people put a lot of label on such women.
Later on, she met my dad and even that did not start well. They had a child out of wedlock and after three months that child died of SIDS. So here she was by 1951 a divorced young woman, a woman who had a child out of wedlock and a woman who had a deceased child. Now, that is a lot of labels for people to put on you.
But she was determined to not allow her failed marriage, her mistakes with my dad before marriage and even the loss of her first child to stop her. Over the next few years she married my dad, they had five more children and she found Jesus Christ as her Savior and LORD.
She went on to become one of the best prayer warriors and best Children’s workers in her Church and town.. She not only made sure that the Bible was taught but she was determined that each child was saturated with prayer and was given the chance to accept the LORD JESUS CHRIST as their personal Savior and LORD.
She didn’t read well. She didn’t have a college education and she spoke very plain Eastern Kentucky English. She would say words like “worsh” instead of wash. She had a simple theology – if the Bible said it was true then it was true – plain and simple.
In heaven today and still living here on this earth are a great many boys and girls that were touched by her prayers, her teaching and her ability to share the message of Jesus Christ.
Oh, there were plenty of people who wanted her family to know all her labels – divorced, pregnant out of wedlock, child who died, smoker, girl from the wrong side of the tracks etc… Some of them made sure that as we grew up we knew all about the mistakes and sins my mother had committed. But that is not the woman I met as a child. I met a woman who had been transformed by Jesus.
The woman I met was mom, faithful Christian, prayer warrior, powerful worker in the church and a lover of children. The woman I met loved to sing and was a supporter of the pastor and his family. The woman I met was a woman who loved to cook for others and would visit the sick and the needy when she could. The woman I met was a woman who would spend hours praying for her family and her neighbors. And the woman I met was a woman who was instrumental in bringing her family, her husband’s family and most of our neighbors to know Jesus Christ as their Savior and LORD.
We can’t let allow the world to label us because we have made some kind of mistake – a failed marriage, a business failure, a moral failure, a lapse of good judgment or an out and out rebellion against the LORD.
Heaven doesn’t know anyone named Doubting Thomas – they only know Thomas the Follower of Jesus – Thomas the Missionary – Thomas the Man who led thousands of people to know Jesus.
Heaven doesn’t know anyone named Peter the Betrayer – they only know Peter the Leader of the Early Church – Peter the One who helped bring 3,000 people into the Kingdom. The One who helped bring Gentiles into the Kingdom.
Heaven doesn’t know my mom as the woman who failed, who made a mistake but the woman who God used to speak to a lot of boys and girls about Jesus, who is a prayer warrior and who lived a life of holiness.
And if Heaven only knows people that way. isn’t it time that we know people that way as well.
III. God’s Forgiveness Enables Us to Forgive
One of the beautiful things about being forgiven by the LORD is that we begin to live a new life of freedom. We begin to live a life of freedom that enables us to have a New Heart, a New Spirit, A New Mind and a New Personality.
Part of that personality is that we not only become forgiven people but we learn how to forgive others. God gives us the grace and the ability to forgive others.
That is what we see happening in the life of Ananias in Acts chapter 9. Saul who will later be called the Apostle Paul has been knocked to the ground by the LORD JESUS CHRIST and is suffering from blindness. The Bible tells us that for three days he did not eat or drink. He just sat by himself pondering over life and realizing that he had been wrong in fighting against the Early Church and no doubt wondering if he would spend the rest of his life blind.
At the same time all of this was happening, the LORD called upon a disciple by the name of Ananias. He lived in Damascus, the very town that Saul was now staying. It had been Saul’s plan to arrest Ananias and all the other Christians in and around Damascus. He was planning to take them back to Jerusalem where they would stand trial and either be imprisoned at best and secretly murdered at worst. The Temple authorities were determined to stamp out Christianity.
God tells Ananias that he is not only to forgive Saul but to bring healing and wholeness into his life.
It doesn’t take much to understand that Ananias probably was not thinking about forgiveness or healing when it came to Saul. Here was the Early Church’s arch enemy; blind and in a weaken condition. This was the perfect time to do a little chopping off of someone’s head. With the right push Ananias could rid the church of this little trouble maker once and for all and make it look like Saul was merely murdered by a band of robbers or terrorist.
But Ananias was a disciple – he was a follower of He who forgives and teaches us to forgive. He was a disciple of the One who does not define us by our mistakes and our sins but refines us into His Chosen Ones, His Masterpieces and His Holy Bride. He was a disciple of the ONE who taught us not only to be forgiven but to forgive.
And so we see Ananias going down to Saul and not labeling him murderer, hater of Christ but as Acts 9:17 says very plainly
“So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother Saul, the LORD JESUS who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’”
Now think about that for a second or two. Not just a moment of forgiveness by God and by Ananias, but God used Ananias as the vehicle by which God’s Holy Spirit would baptize Saul. Ananias was used doubly – as a vehicle of forgiveness and as a vehicle of Saul being baptized by the Holy Spirit.
Wow!
That is what happens when we listen to the LORD. Not only can we be forgiven but we can forgive others and help them find healing and wholeness. Now, of course all of this was under the leadership and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. Ananias did not try to go there on his own strength. He went there because the Holy Spirit told him to go there – Saul was ready to receive both forgiveness and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Can you imagine the rush of energy that flowed through Ananias’ hands as Saul received back his sight?
Can you imagine the rush of energy as the Holy Spirit descended upon Saul and baptized him fully in His Presence and Power?
All of this happened because Ananias decided to no longer label Saul as an enemy, as a man who was living the life of an Anti-Christ. All of this happened because we serve a God who will not define us by our worst day, our biggest or smallest mistake or failure. All of this happened because we serve a God who died for us so that He could rescue us, redeem us, restore us and refine us into His Holy Image.
God sees what we can become not what we are or who we are. God loves to forgive and transform us from the insight out.
This morning, enjoy God’s forgiveness – allow God to forgive all your sins – all your mistakes – all your failures.
This morning allow God to help you forgive others of their mistakes, their sins and their failures.
Do your best to allow people to move beyond those failures, mistakes and sins. Don’t bring them up, don’t remind people and don’t think about them. They are in the past – they have been forgiven – and if God doesn’t remember them anymore why should we?
I can’t tell you how many times over the years I have met people who had been transformed by Jesus only to have someone want to tell me their dirty little past – when they were this – when they did that – when they failed her or there. They were not trying to build up a person but to tear them down. They knew that this person had repented, had turned around their life but they wanted to continue to label them with their failures, their mistakes and their sins.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a room and heard someone speak up and remind someone of their failed marriage, their failed business adventure or their slip ups or the mistakes they made when they were a child, a teen or a young adult. When we do that we are acting more like the Accuser than we are a person filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
I didn’t need to hear that garbage and the person speaking it didn’t need to speak that garbage. Garbage that is in the past should be put in God’s land field forever. That is what God does – He takes our mistakes, our sins, our wrong doings and He puts them under the blood of Jesus where they are erased and washed away.
Today, let’s celebrate forgiveness – forgiveness from God, forgiveness of our own mistakes and failures and forgiveness of others mistakes and sins.
Will it be easy – no. It will take time, the grace of God and dedicated action on our part. But in time we may not be friends with those who hurt us, who failed us and whatever – but we can in the name of Jesus begin and continue the forgiving factor.
My friend Bob endured a failure in his first marriage. After 25 years his wife told him she wanted to leave, she no longer loved him and no longer wanted him to be a part of her life. It devastated him.
It still brings some hurt today. But God did not label Bob a failure. He brought a woman by the name of Lee Ann into his life. For almost 20 years they have enjoyed a life together. She too had a failed marriage. Today, they share four children and a host of grandchildren.
Bob has worked for years forgiving himself and forgiving his former spouse. Harsh words were spoken. Mistakes were made. Sins were committed. But as best as Bob can he lives in a land of forgiveness – God has forgiven him, he has forgiven himself and he has forgiven his former wife.
He doesn’t live in the past. He lives in the present and for the future. He prays, continues to forgive and does His best to be His best for His Lord.
This morning, don’t let your past mistakes, sins, failures label you. Turn off your hearing aid (your ears) when others try to label you because of past sins or mistakes. Listen on to the LORD who forgives us when we repent. Listen to the LORD who rescues us, redeems us and forgives us.
Live a life of freedom. Life a life of not only being forgiven but learning and practicing forgiveness. Try to go to bed every night with a clean heart and a clean slate. Don’t pile up offenses. Don’t pile up people’s mistakes.
Be an Ananias – be a person who can not only forgive but perhaps be the means by which that person can receive forgiveness and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Be a person who may have to love someone from a distance but can still work each day at being forgiven and being better at forgiving.
Enjoy God’s Forgiveness. Receive God’s forgiveness. Extend God’s forgiveness.
Closing Song/Open Altar
Traditional Song – Whiter Than Snow
Contemporary Song – Forgiveness by Matthew West
Watching Video - Forgiveness by Matthew West
https://www.air.tv/watch?v=24YqylZgTd-eMLYXbgDROQ
