Does God Forget Our Sins and How Do We Forgive Others

Good afternoon to everybody, and happy Sabbath! I hope you've had a wonderful week and are enjoying the beautiful weather outside. It's nice to actually feel spring coming on. I'd like to start today's message by giving you the opportunity to do something that you don't usually get to do in church, and that is to talk out loud and not get in trouble. But there is a caveat. I'm going to ask you a couple questions, and you're going to respond. It's not talking to each other. Okay, so my little test is very simple. I'm going to say a word, and I want you to respond with the opposite of the word I say. Okay, so for example, if I said hot, you might say cold. Make sense? All right, here we go. Give. Get and take were the two words I heard. Love.

Pretty universally hate. Remember? Okay, now let's do something a little different, and I'm going to give you a sentence, and you need to fill in the blank.

God is such a merciful God that when we repent of our sins, he forgives and forgets. Okay, let's talk about that. Please turn to Psalms 103 verses 11 to 12. Psalms 103 verses 11 to 12.

I believe at one time or another, based even on the response you gave, we've heard this concept that God forgives and forgets our sins, and I think there are several scriptures that promote that idea, so I want to start by reading them, and let's see where this concept comes from, starting with Psalms 103 and verse 11. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. So he removes our sins as far as east is from the west. That's a crazy distance. So forgetting has to be involved, right?

Okay, let's keep going. Turn now to Hebrews 10 verses 16 to 17. Hebrews 10, 16 to 17.

I think what the apostle Paul puts together is probably the verse that's most used for people who go with that train of thought, and he's building off a quote from the prophet Jeremiah.

And so let's go to this key verse that I've heard people use to go to this concept that God forgets our sins. Hebrews 10 verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their mind I will write them.

Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

So surely the scriptures I've read so far make the point that God forgives our sins and he forgets them as well, right? Not so fast, my friends. That's not what you're reading.

All of us want to believe that God will forget our sins, and I'd argue we would love to be able to do that humanly, wouldn't we? It's this concept that we deeply would love to be able to do, because Christians, two Christians, don't want to be stuck forever with the memories of times that we let God down or we hurt others. Right? That's not something that we enjoy. So how is forgetting working for you? Not so well, huh?

If in a conversation someone mentions one of your most grievous sins, what happens? Or something that you've done to somebody else? Don't memories just start flooding through your mind?

I'd like you to turn to Jeremiah 23 verses 39 through 40. Jeremiah 23 verses 39 through 40.

Oftentimes what we do is we can grab single verses from the Bible and then make connections by interpreting the current English definitions of words as what our conclusions are based on.

And that's a dangerous thing to do. So I'd like you to show the danger of this concept by looking at what specifically is written in Jeremiah 23. And we're going to read this verse and let's just purely apply English today. And God is speaking. Keep that in mind as you read this.

Jeremiah 23 verse 39. Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and I will cast you out of my presence. And I will bring everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame in case you didn't get the point, which shall not be forgotten. So verse 39 seems a little bit strange for our understanding of God and His plan, doesn't it? How could a loving and a merciful God forget someone even if they'd strayed from the truth? Doesn't the Bible say that everyone will have a time of judgment? Doesn't the Bible say that God wants us all to be saved? He even says He's going to forget Jerusalem. So let's just keep going there because aren't there a whole lot of prophecies about old and new Jerusalem following this verse? Well, that seems God forgot Jerusalem. How did it suddenly come back to His mind? That doesn't make much sense. So the question I pose to you now, which is rhetorical, your chance to speak in church is done, is does God forget our sins? Does God forget our sins? Have you ever thought about how things aren't important? I mean, that aren't important are easily forgotten. You know, we forget our phone and we're coming in and our keys and our umbrellas along the way. And sometimes we forget more important things. We forget birthdays and anniversaries. We try to remember to thank somebody along the way and be appreciative, but we have our oversights that happen.

The brain is this amazingly powerful thing. Scientists say that we only use a fraction of our recall, 10 percent at max. So what they point out is that the problem isn't that we have lost the memories. It's that we don't know how to pull them out of our gray matter that is in there.

So why does it even matter? Why does it matter to know whether God forgets our sins?

Friends, one of the greatest gifts God offers us is forgiveness. It's one of His greatest expectations of us also. So the more we can understand it, the more we can appreciate God's love for us, and the more we can replicate it toward others. Understanding how He reacts toward us helps us understand how we are supposed to forgive others. So for those of you who like titles on sermons, the title that I have for this sermon is, Does God Forget Our Sins and How Are We to Forgive Others? Does God Forget Our Sins and How Are We to Forgive Others?

Hopefully by the end of the sermon, you'll see God's forgiveness in a new way and is one of God's greatest expectations of us as well. So let's begin by looking into the subject of whether God forgets our sins by simply looking at the English definition of the word forget.

So I did the lazy route and I looked at dictionary.com. So here's three definitions of the word forget.

To cease or fail to remember, be unable to recall. For example, to forget someone's name. Number two, to omit or neglect unintentionally. I forgot to shut the window before leaving.

Number three, to leave behind unintentionally, neglect to take. I forgot my phone at home and I had or forgot my list of things that I was going to song lead today.

Ways we use the word. So forgetfulness is a part of our human frailty. It's a very human term and especially as we get older. It tends to happen more easily, I find. Interestingly, when it comes to someone doing us wrong, though, we can have the memory of an elephant.

That's the irony of how we work as humans. And so hopefully, as Christians, we've forgiven others for sins that they've committed against us. But isn't it still hard to forget and not be emotionally recharged by a wrong and all the little details when somebody mentioned something and boom, the memories all come flooding back? There's a lesson in there. God is different, though, right? God's perfect. If you'll turn to Luke 12 and verse 6. Luke 12 and verse 6.

God is described throughout the Bible and we're told that He is love, He is all-powerful, He is perfect in wisdom, even that He is all-knowing or omniscient.

But the concept of an all-knowing God creates this huge paradox.

How can an all-knowing God forget something?

Luke 12 and verse 6. Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So, if God doesn't forget one small bird out of billions of birds that exist on earth, if He knows the number of every hair on our head we talked about in the message in the last six months, then how can He forget our sins? Will Uriah come up angry in the resurrection and say, David, this person you have up there killed me? And God's gonna say, I don't remember that. Is that what happened? Is that what I remember?

So, again, I don't know exactly how many hairs I have on my head. I think I'm helping God by the number going down, but even there, it's a lot for Him to remember. The point is God knows everything. So, in order to fully understand whether or not God can forget, we need to do a little bit of forensic work. And we do that by looking at the scriptures we've read and some other ones for some keywords, and look at them in their original language and find out what did they mean? What was the intent of the writer and what's what's listed here? So, let's start by contrasting the words, remember, and forget. At the beginning of the message, you may remember that I asked you to give the opposites, and most of you, when I said forget, if not all of you, or remember, said forget.

You went in that direction. You may find it interesting, though, that these words are not opposite in Hebrew. The Hebrew word for forget are either shekach and neshah, and I'll give you the definition to both of them. But I encourage you, if you take nothing else from what I'm teaching you, realize that in both Greek and Hebrew, in addition to the there be a mental component to these words, there is also an action component, and that's different than English. And I'll give you an example of that, or examples, as we go through. So, let's start with the word shekach, S-H-A-K-A-D-H, which is one of the definitions for, or the words to forget. It means to mislead, meaning to be oblivious of, from want of memory or attention. Well, that's a different use if you say, or attention. If you turn to Deuteronomy 4 and verse 9, and I'll give you an example of this word. See, there's a lot of different differences in English between not paying attention to something and forgetting it. That's not so in Hebrew. And the Bible often states the same thing in multiple ways is to make point. So, I'm going to show you an example of this being done with Moses, that I think you can see a starting point of how the word can be used. Deuteronomy 4 and verse 9.

Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all days of your life and teach them to your children and grandchildren. So, God isn't telling them a memory issue. You just need to remember it.

He's telling you, you will know you remember it if you hold it so they don't depart from your heart, and by the way, you teach them to others. That's the actions that you'll know whether you have or haven't forgotten. All right, turn to Genesis 41 in verses 50 to 51. And I warned you. I have you guys read about the Bible a little bit today, but I think it helps to bring out this interesting concept because we can lock on words and associations.

Genesis 40, I'm sorry, Genesis 41, this is 50-51. And what we'll look at now is the next definition of forget, which is the word nashah, N-A-W-S-H-A-W, which is defined as to neglect, causably to remit, remove, to deprive. So the two things that would be different than our English definitions are to neglect or deprive, are not what we use as definitions of the words forget.

Genesis 41 in verse 50. And to Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenoth bore to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God had made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.

Yeah, I had other relatives. I don't remember them anymore, though. Anyway, I think they were nice people. Is that what this is saying? Did Joseph really forget his father's houses? Now, you need to turn back. I'm going to read, read a verse I started with earlier, which is Jeremiah 23 in verse 39. But it's the same Hebrew word used. And so, think of it from that perspective. Therefore, behold, I even I will utterly forget you God is speaking and forsake you in the city that I gave you and your fathers and will cast you out of my presence.

So when God talks of forgetting his people or about Joseph forgetting his father's house, it doesn't mean that they'll no longer have them in their minds, that their brains are erased from their memories. Instead, what it's saying is that for Joseph, the joy of his new son made his mind shift from yearning for his father's house. For God in Jeremiah, he's choosing not to give attention to false prophets in Jerusalem any longer because they chosen to disobey his law. It's within the definition of the word. And there are actually very few verses, if you look in the Bible, very few passages where God and the word forget are placed together.

And if you look in the places that either God forget or the Lord and forget are used, it's either to remind people not to forget God, to highlight the mighty works and blessings that God has given us, we shouldn't forget again, or to say that God will not forget us.

That's how they're associated. If you'll turn to Hebrews 6 and verse 10, and we'll look at an example, Hebrews 6 and verse 10. The Bible makes clear that God doesn't forget our good deeds, our actions, or the promises he's made to us, and that's beautiful, that's reassuring. So we're going to see an example of it here, Hebrews 6 and verse 10. For God is not unjust or not unfair to forget your works and labor of love which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.

So we see that God will not forget the love we show for him in helping other Christians. And that's a great thing to realize. Since the Bible doesn't say much about God forgetting, the word we tend to associate with in Scripture and where the cusion comes from is the word remember. And so let's now look at the word remember that's used in the Bible and let's see what meaning is of that word because that's the other part that plays through.

So we've already found that the Hebrew word for forget has a special meaning that's not the same as in English, and we're going to see the exact same thing to be the case with the word remember. The word that's normally used for a member in the context, or I'm sorry English-speaking, tends to use a word about bringing something back to our memory. Right? That's when we use remember, that's what we think of. Either a specific thought or something along those lines is bringing it back.

Our concept of remember, therefore, is limited primarily to the mind. Key difference, again, between the two languages. The word remember is found 148 times in the Old Testament and with the exception of one place where it's properly translated punish, which if you want is for Samuel 15 too. But in every place else, the word remember stems from the Hebrew word zakar. Z-A-K-A-R. Now, zakar has a much wider definition than just what we would use in English as remember.

It includes both remembering and the actions that are taken because of remembering. Big difference. So zakar can also mean that someone keeps or acts on a promise to provide or help or do a favor and you'll find examples throughout. So why don't you turn to Genesis 8 and verse 1. And again, you can have fun creating the irony of what these verses mean if we use our English translation of the words and take it literally.

But Genesis 8 and verse 1, and with the definition I gave you, it'll have a little more meaning. Genesis 8 verse 1 says, Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were there with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided. So if we only take this literally in the English area, God was really busy. It's a big universe. And he was running around doing stuff in some other galaxy.

He was like, oh, that's a Noah guy. He's on that big thing, that planet I flooded. Oh, there were some animals in there. I killed everybody but those. Yikes! I should probably help him. That's not what's being pointed out.

God's remembrance of Noah and this relates to the actions that follow. He fulfilled a promise that he'd made to Noah and to take care of his family and the animals and deliver them in the ark to repopulate the earth.

That's what's being referenced. Turn now to Ezekiel 33 in verses 14 to 16. Ezekiel 33, 14 through 16. And we're now going to look at a verse that deals with remembering our sins.

Ezekiel is giving an example of how remembrance is not just a mental task, but it's also an action. So think about that as you read this verse. Ezekiel 33 in verse 14 starts, Again, when I say to the wicked, you shall surely die. If he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right, if the wicked restore the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live. He shall not die. None of his sins which he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is lawful and right. He shall surely live. Again, remember it against you. This isn't God saying, oh, you're bad. Okay, you asked for it. I'm remembering now. I'm remembering. That's not what we're talking about.

Remembering against you refers to the penalty that follows a sin. And he said, because they were doing well, I won't apply that penalty against you. That's what he's talking about with remembering.

So God is telling us that if a sinner appends to their misdeeds, then they will be forgiven, and the penalty for that sin will not be remembered against them.

The individual will not face the punishment that comes. Another good example of how remembering isn't just about memory can be found in the story of Joseph. So again, I'm going to have you flip back to Genesis. Genesis 40 and verse 14. I think we all know the basic story, that Joseph was put in prison because he didn't sleep with Potiphar's wife. And then while Joseph was in prison, he met up with Pharaoh's cupbearer and his baker. Right? And so let's look at what he tells the chief butler in verse 14. I guess, yeah. So Genesis 40 and verse 14. It says, But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me. Make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. She can say, yeah, but there's two different words that are used here. The phrase, remember and make mention, are both the same Hebrew words, zakar. So this word translated, remember, implies not only bringing something to mind, but also acting upon it. If the cupbearer had only remembered Joseph in prison, Joseph would have stayed in prison. Right? Yeah, there was this nice guy. Oh, well, I'm gonna go on with life. That's not what's being mentioned here, or what's being referenced. So I'd like you now, with this background, to examine another scripture that we've read probably hundreds, if not thousands, of times. And I want you to think about it in this new concept of what the word means. Turn to Exodus 20 and verse 8. All of us are familiar with the Ten Commandments. Probably all of you here could quote the Ten Commandments in short form. Some of you smarter people could quote it in long form. All right, let's focus on the fourth commandment. Exodus 20 and verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Again, the word for remember here is the car. The Sabbath command isn't just this mental exercise that we need to remember somewhere in this 24-hour period to say, God, thank you for the Sabbath. Okay, check. I heard I succeeded. I remembered it. That's not what's being implied here. It isn't enough for us to remember it. We're supposed to act on it. We're supposed to observe it. And how you do that is shown in the next verses. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your sons, your daughters, nor your male servants, nor your female servants, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the seas, and all that is in them, and then He acted upon it. He rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. So the idea of action, not just memory, translates to the holy days. You don't need to turn there, but Leviticus 23-24 tells us the feast of trumpets is a memorial. That word memorial is zikron, which comes from the root word zikar.

You can go on Exodus 12-14, it says the Passover is another memorial. And again, you see how this plays through. The holy days aren't just important to remember, they're important to observe, and that's what's being highlighted here. So is this just an Old Testament thing? No, the same applies in Greek in the New Testament. If you will turn to Luke 22 in verse 19, I'd like us to look at the Passover in the New Testament and read the command of Jesus that He gave to His disciples. So that's the context we're coming into. Luke 22 in verse 19 says, and He took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and He gave it to them, saying, This is my body which I give for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Do this as a way of remembering me, as an action that follows it. So the way we actively remember Christ and His sacrifice is through taking the wine and taking the bread. And that's something I think, you know, we've learned a lot of other approaches, but we can mix this one concept of God forgiving and forgetting. We realize that Christianity was never intended to be this mental religion. It's not about this intellectual pursuit. God is wanting those who combined remembering what they've been taught with putting it into action. All right. Let's turn now to Psalms 103 verses 11 through 12. I now want to go back to the first two verses I started the scripture, the sermon with.

So let's look over those and let's put what we've learned into the two verses we've read already.

Psalms 103 starting in verse 11. This is David speaking and he says, For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. He knows you and I did it. He's not doing what we do humanly and bringing up that twitch factor every time he remembers it. He separated the penalty from the action because he's forgiven us when we ask for repentance. And that's a beautiful thing. That not only have our sins been forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ, but God loves us so much the penalty we deserve, death has been removed as far as east is from the west. The next one, whether you turn there or not, you've seen it before. Hebrews 10 verses 16 through 17, and I'll read that to you. This again was a key verse that a lot of people use that relates to remembering. But think of it from the perspective now of what the word means. Hebrews 10, 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after these days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their heart and in their minds. I will write them. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. You now understand what's being said here. It is not that God has forgotten our sins.

Our sins aren't totally erased from his all-perfect mind, but we're being told that through the sacrifice of Christ, through our repentance in the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it's possible for us to be totally forgiven. And the results of this promise is that God has chosen not to act upon our sins or constantly reflect back and get emotionally riled up by them, but to extend mercy and grace, which we don't deserve.

It's a beautiful concept. It's an amazing gift.

And I submit to you that God doesn't forget anything, because forgetting is human. It's a tremendously human trait.

But instead, God chooses not to remember and act upon our past sins and evil deeds once we have repented of them.

The record of our wrongdoings is still there, but even though He knows that, He's willing to totally forget it and push it as far as He says from the West. Okay. So how does this knowledge need to apply to us personally? Should this make any difference in how we forgive?

Please turn to Matthew 6, verses 12 through 15. And I want to spend the final few minutes of this message thinking about applying this knowledge for how we forgive others.

We're breaking into the Sermon on the Mount. So let's think about the Sermon on the Mount. If you've never thought about it this way, Sermon on the Mount, 66 words. Ten of the words deal with forgiveness. Then as soon as that Sermon ended, He spent the next 30 words dedicated expressing the importance of forgiveness. So it's kind of an important concept.

Alright. I'm breaking into the middle of the model prayer. Matthew 6, verse 12.

And now he clarifies. Does it ever seem more reasonable for God to forgive us than for us to forgive somebody else? After all, he did or whatever to us. The Passover that we just recently finished Focus us on the gift of forgiveness that we receive from God, right?

And it showed us that once we've repented, once we've been baptized, the spiritual debt that's been incurred by our sins, it's paid. It's cleared.

And when we sin after this and we repent and come to God for forgiveness, we'll receive it again.

Likewise, our forgiving others isn't just blocking the memory from our mind and then stang away from that idiot. That's not what God is talking about here.

Remembering forgiveness isn't about forgetting. From what we've learned today, that isn't forgiveness at all. You could say that's selective amnesia.

That's not what God is wanting us to do. If every time you see a person who has offended you, you get angry and you hate and you feel tension and you have these emotions flooding, you have not forgiven them, my friend. That is not forgiveness.

When I was in California talking to a friend, I remember that he shared his perspective was that we only need to forgive others if they ask us to. Is that biblical?

Turn to Ephesians 4, verses 30 through 32. Ephesians 4, 30 through 32.

Jesus set us an example in that while we were unapologetic sinners, he died for us.

And then he reached out to us, he gave us this spiritual hug, and he showed love to us despite all of our sins, not because we first asked him to. Ephesians 4, verse 30.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you. We are to forgive one another first, just as God in Christ set us the example.

Why do you think verse 31 highlights these powerful words of wrath and anger and bitterness?

Because have you ever noticed that if somebody can't forgive another person, they get more and more bitter and angry and envious in all those emotions? The anger festers. What's our great common thing in the U.S., one of these areas, the Hatfields and the McCoys? Let's go through generations of this battle. That is not forgiving. Forgiveness is a decision, and it begins as an act of our will. It's something we do before the offender repents, and whether they deserve it or not. Judgment is mine, says the Lord, it's not ours.

Forgiveness is a pardon, releasing the offender from a moral debt.

It's giving up our desire for immediate justice, our so-called right to get even, or lashing back.

It's giving up our wanting to hurt the other person in return.

So the lesson here is that the sooner we're able to truly forgive, then the less damage is done to us. The faster we forgive, the less chance bitterness and resentment will take hold of us, and we will spiritually go down, even though we may not be the one who did the wrong. And it's so important for us that we need to ask God to help us with that, to take away that anger, to take away all the emotions that could pull us down. So if you'll turn to Colossians 3 verses 12 through 13, Colossians 3 verses 12 through 13 as we wrap up, it's been said that anger makes you smaller while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond who you are. I love that. Anger makes you smaller while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond who or what you are. Colossians 3 and verse 12.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, okay, we like you so far. Thanks, God. I'll take that title. Okay, now what's required of us? Put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, ouch, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. That pretty much covers everything there. Even as Christ forgave you, so you also can do if you get a chance to. Oh wait, that's not what it says. So you also must do. This isn't saying we should do it. This is saying we must do this. And if we're struggling to forgive someone, what's holding us back? What excuses are we using? Because forgiveness, again, is a choice and a promise not to hold the sin against the offender any longer. It's a canceling of the debt.

It's a bearing the hatchet, letting the offense die. So the point is that nothing that mankind can do to us in any way requires remotely anything similar to what God did in response, what God has done for us in return. We've been forgiven a debt requiring the death of God and the creator of the universe, the Son of the Father. And if God has forgiven us the debt we owe to Him, we must forgive our fellow men the debts they owe to us. Even though we remember them, that's not the point.

God forgives us the debts, even though He hasn't forgotten any of the terrible wrongs that we have done to Him, and before we ever asked Him to forgive us. So just as God no longer associates us with our old sins, we should put the past behind us as well. Friends, let us forgive others as God has forgiven us. Otherwise, we will have no hope for mercy.