Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1108
“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12.
WE shall aim at no novelty tonight, nor shall we try to serve up the old Truths of God in any new and attractive forms. Upon your tables you always require bread and generally you account salt to be indispensable. Some kinds of food are presented to us over and over again and it would foretell ill for our health if they were not always relished. It was an evil lusting which made Israel tire of the manna. An Israelite in his right mind found it to be still a dainty, though he ate of it every day of his 40 years’ pilgrimage. Who tires of the verdure of the fields, the light of the sun, or the air we breathe? These things are ever fresh and new, and ever necessary to us. The doctrine of forgiving love is one of those necessities of daily life concerning which it may be affirmed that if we should set them before you every day we should not be guilty of vain repetition.
None need fear of tiring man, or vexing God’s Spirit by harping too much on this string. Therefore come we to our favorite theme tonight. To speak of the great Gospel truth of the forgiveness of sin in the simplest manner we possibly can is the purpose we have immediately in view. To babes, to young men and to fathers in Christ, this all-important Truth will be equally precious, while the poor trembling sinner who cannot yet claim to be one of the sacred family may be encouraged by it. Our text has in it a word of peculiarity, and to this I call your attention at the outset. It is not every man in the world that could truly use the language of this verse, for it does not refer to all mankind—“As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
A people separated and set apart, a people upon whom there has been a peculiar world of Divine power, a people whose experience of the Grace of God towards them has melted their hearts with devout gratitude—such as these can sing this joyous stanza—but none beside. I will describe these people to you. I should gather from the ninth verse that they are a people who have been made truly, deeply, painfully conscious that they are sinful and have felt the chidings of God in their conscience—therefore it is that they say, “He will not always chide.” They know that God is angry with sin. They have felt some biting of that wrath upon their spirit and they have been humbled into contrition, repentance and confession—therefore do they now say, “Neither will He keep His anger forever.”
They are a people who have keenly realized the desperate condition they were reduced to—who know that if forgiven it must be through mercy—and through mercy only. They know that they have no claim upon God. They understand that they deserve to be cast away from His Presence—therefore they say, “He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” They are a people who have tasted of that surprising mercy which baffles all human thought and excites the adoring wonder of all who contemplate this darling attribute of the Most High. They have gone to Jesus, in whom the mercy of God is treasured up. They have believed in Him and they have received mercy through Him, for mercy comes to men through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
And having tasted of that mercy, they say, “As the Heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.” Then they go on to sing, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Oh, priceless gift! Oh, matchless blessing! Say now, out of this vast throng, how many of us have been made to feel that sin is sinful, to loathe it and to confess it with bitterness of heart? How many of us have fled to the great atoning Sacrifice and have believed in Jesus to the saving of our souls? So many may repeat this verse and affirm it of themselves, with truth, but no more. Separate yourselves, then—let the force of conscience now be exercised, and let this text be to you, for a moment, like the Throne of Jesus before which He exercises the prerogatives of His Gospel sovereignty and divides the sinners from the saints, making men either tremble or rejoice.
Our text has a word of positiveness. In this song the Psalmist speaks of the pardon of sin as a positive fact. He celebrates it in grateful strains as a matter of certainty to himself and to others associated with him. David was an
optimist of the right sort. Ifs and perhapses would not suit him. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” He does not indulge in fond hopes, or express vague wishes, or point in hesitant tones to some favorable omens—he speaks of his sins being forgiven, knowing it to be a matter of fact which there was no room to question. Now there are many professing Christians who do not think that you ever can know that you are forgiven while you remain in this world. They are not of this mind merely because they are ignorant of the Gospel, but because their gospel is beclouded with errors.