Privileged to be with you on this side of the pulpit sometimes and to bring you the word of the Lord. Turn with me if you would to, we're going to look actually at three passages. We'll read three passages, comment on several more than that, but we want to start with Psalm 103, the first five verses. Psalm 103. Verses one through five, and then we'll read Proverbs 17, nine, and part of Matthew 18. We'll start with Psalm 103, verses one through five. Hear the word of the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. And turn across to Proverbs chapter 17. We'll read just one verse, verse nine there. Proverbs 17, verse nine. There we read, whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. And lastly, we'll turn to Matthew chapter 18, verse 23. Matthew chapter 18, verse 23, we'll read to the end of the chapter there. Here, Jesus gives a comparison about the kingdom of heaven, beginning in verse 23 of Matthew chapter 18. We read this, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees imploring him, have patience with me and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, pay what you owe. Those fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed. And they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. And his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers. until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Well, this morning I want us to consider how the gospel of God's free grace is often described in scripture as a process of remembering and forgetting. Scripture, I'm sure we all know, describes the gospel in many different ways, using many different primary terms or categories. It speaks of the gospel as redemption from our sin. It speaks of the gospel as entering into God's kingdom. speaks of renewal after Christ's image and so forth and so on, many different ways. But alongside these other ways that it speaks about the gospel, scripture also describes the gospel as a purposeful process of remembering certain things and forgetting others, both by God and by us. For the gospel to be true, brothers and sisters, God must remember and forget certain things. And because the gospel is true, we are also called to remember and forget as well. And so I want to look at a handful of scripture texts this morning, some of which we've read, to explore that theme in the Bible. First, focusing on what God remembers and forgets in scripture. And second, on what we should also then remember and forget. Firstly, then, what God remembers and forgets. Now, to talk about God remembering and forgetting at all is, in a way, rather odd, because theologically we know that God is infinite and unchanging. He knows everything. There are no limits to what God understands. He knows the end from the beginning and everything in between all at once. And so God does not learn new things, Nor is he absent-minded, and so that he stops knowing certain facts for a time, only to recall them later, like we do. To the contrary, all truths, past, present, and future, in all of their detail, are always present in God's knowledge at every instant. He is, as we say, omniscient. And yet, given that fact of God's complete and total knowledge of all things, We should find it all the more striking, perhaps even in a sense surprising, how scripture does frequently talk about and use the language of God remembering, recalling things to his mind, or forgetting, removing something from his knowledge. Of course, we should understand that this way of speaking about God is metaphorical. It's like when we talk about God having a strong right arm. It's a metaphor. It's a word picture. God does not actually have arms, but we use that language anyway, Scripture does as well, to describe his great strength. Same is true when we talk about God remembering and forgetting. Facts do not actually fall out of God's mind and then return later, as happens with us. And yet, Scripture frequently describes God as both remembering and forgetting anyway. and does so purposely to make a very important point for us. Though God knows all things past, present, and future with perfect clarity, still he does not dispose himself or act upon all of them equally. He doesn't value or regard all things as of equal importance. Instead, he purposefully applies a kind of selective memory in his dealings with his people, with us. It's not that he actually stops being aware of certain facts. It's rather that he chooses, by his grace, not to look upon, not to give credence to many of the things that he knows. He calls only certain things to his own attention, as it were, as the basis for his actions towards us. purposefully ignores or sets aside other things that he knows so that he will not regard them or look upon them or act upon them. When we turn to scripture, we see various examples of this. One of those would be scripture often says that God has remembered or called to mind as the basis of what he's to do. He's remembered his covenant and its promises. After the flood, God tells Noah in Genesis chapter nine, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. So not destroy the earth again with a flood of water. Or when the Israelites were being mistreated as slaves in Egypt, scripture records, and God heard their groaning. And God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob in Exodus chapter two. Psalm 105 reads, God remembers his covenant forever. The word that he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. We see similar examples in the New Testament when John the Baptist was born as the forerunner to Jesus Christ. Zechariah exclaimed in Luke chapter one, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people to remember his holy covenant. In each of these cases, scripture announces this great fact of the gospel, that the Lord our God is not fickle. He does not forget his promises, but graciously calls them to mind to fulfill them in accordance with his perfect plan. Moreover, because of his covenant mercies, God also remembers other things as well. Scripture says that God remembers the prayers and the plight of his people. Genesis chapter 30, verse 22, God remembered Rachel, it says, and God listened to her. and opened her womb. Psalm 132, verse one, calls upon the Lord and says, remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships that he's endured. Psalm 136, verse 23, it is God who remembered us in our lowest state, for his steadfast love endures forever. We see in each of these how God's mind works on behalf of us as his people. Of all the many things that God sees in the world, of all the things that might seem to be more noteworthy or more important for him to concern himself with, the Lord our God purposely prioritizes something that many other people disregard, suffering in the cries of his people. But of course, it is not only good things that God remembers in scripture. Bible also says that the Lord remembers the unrepentant sin of the wicked. Psalm 109, verses 14 and following, it prays against the wicked man. The psalmist cries out, may the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord. Let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to put them to death." Or Revelation chapter 18 describes wicked Babylon and says, her sins are heaped high as heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back as she herself has paid back others. And repay her double for her deeds. Mix a double portion for her in the cup that she mixed. And so the Lord does remember the sins of those who set themselves against him. That, of course, is why we see the saints in scripture pleading with God to remember them through their mediators and on the basis of his mercy. Exodus chapter 32, after the incident of the golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai, Moses pleads with God, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, O Lord, to whom you swore by your own self. Psalm 25, six and following, prays, remember your mercy, O Lord, remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions. According to your steadfast love, remember me for the sake of your goodness." Throughout scripture, then we see that God's memory works in favor of us. His mind, we say, is purposefully selective so that what he calls to mind works for us and not against us. He remembers only that which enables him to live with us, his penitent children, and to be our God. Now, obviously, this sort of selective memory on God's part also requires him to forget a lot. If God remembered all things equally, including our sin, then we would have no hope. So Psalm 25 says, remember your mercy, O Lord, remember not. sins of my youth or my transgression. Psalm 103 says that the Lord puts our sins far from him in his mind, as far as the east is from the west, so that he remembers them no more. Important for us to remember then, brothers and sisters, that we are utterly dependent on the gracious Selective memory of God. The Lord our God is not an infinite and impersonal repository of facts. No, he is indeed a personal loving father. Purposefully selects what to remember about us for the sake of his grace. What a wonderful gift this is then that we have. Good to be reminded of the way the Lord works on our behalf. Well, secondly, this morning, as we've looked at what the Lord remembers and forgets, we also need to see in Scripture what we ourselves are called also to remember and to forget in imitation of Him. Here we see many different things, some of them similar. But for example, scripture makes abundantly clear that we are to remember the Lord and his works. We're commanded to do this over and over in the Bible. It tells us that this is a duty. In Exodus chapter 13 verse 3, Moses says to the people, remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery. For by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. Or Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 2 says, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you 40 years in the wilderness. Or in the New Testament, 2 Timothy 2.8 commands, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, Paul wrote. And as we are told to remember God's great deeds, his acts in history on our behalf, we're also told to remember our own sin in order to repent of it. Moses humbles the people of Israel by reminding them in Deuteronomy chapter nine, he says, remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord in the wilderness. So David says in Psalm 32, I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Similarly, Paul tells the church in Ephesians chapter two, verses 12 and 13. He says, remember that you were at one time separated from Christ. alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Our own sin, brothers and sisters, is something that we are supposed to call to mind and remember. First, so that we would confess it to the Lord in repentance. and second, so that we would remember who we are and remain humble before God and before one another. How could we who were once dead in our trespasses and sins, who were made alive solely by God's sheer grace, how could we of all people be puffed up in pride against others? Scripture tells us to recall our own sin then, not so that we would doubt our position before the Lord, not at all, but rather so that we would remember the exact nature of that position, one that is based from first to last upon forgiveness. Yet, of course, when we remember our sin and we confess it, we are also to remember again our Lord and Savior and the redemption that he's purchased for us. Psalm 103 verses 1 through 5 are so beautiful in this regard, which we read earlier. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Jesus himself said at Passover, the cup that he gave us is the cup of the new covenant in his blood. He said, do this in remembrance of me. We also have to notice in scripture, amidst all the things that it tells us to remember, there's one thing in particular that it commands us not to remember but to forget. Scripture tells us to remember God and his deeds, tells us to remember our own sin so that we would repent of it, tells us to remember our savior and his gracious benefits to us. But one thing that we are told not to remember is the sin of others against us. Proverbs 10 verse 12 says, hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses. Proverbs 11 verse 13, whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered. Or 1 Peter 4 verse 8, Peter commands, he says, above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. And again, in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 23, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Clearly here, brothers and sisters, we are told to be forgetters, a way that imitates what God has first done for us. Just as we depend every day on the Lord to have a selective memory with us, so we are told here to do the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ. to forget their sin in imitation of the way that we ourselves have first received such grace from God through Christ. So it is that Proverbs 17 verse 9 says, whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. I ask you brothers and sisters this morning, What do we do in this regard as a church, as families, individually? How do you do about not repeating a matter for the sake of love and not recalling the sins of others in your mind, but forgetting them? If we depend so constantly on God to forget our sins, do we practice this same grace towards others around us? You know, when my family and I moved here almost five years ago now to this general area, we didn't know really anyone. We relocated for me to work at the seminary. And to our knowledge, we didn't have any family or friends in the entire community. And when you do that, different things result. But one of them is sort of interesting. that you get a clean start in life. You have no history with anyone. You have no memories to regret. No, you have given no offense to anyone around you. So for at least a time, We had the privilege of living in a community where, in a very real sense, we had no record of wrongs, either for us or against us. I have to tell you, brothers and sisters, that that experience is refreshing. No one else had any memory of our sins, and neither did we of theirs. kind of relief. But of course, after we had moved, it wasn't long before records began to be created. And it was even less time, I think, before the records that were already here, before we were, started to surface in conversation, being brought up by other people. Slowly, as we talk with people, the records that they carry around with them all the time began to emerge. Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ begin repeating a matter, rehearsing the past, passing the memory of someone else's sins on to me now. So offenses of all kinds are given yet more extended life. One person says that he's mad at this hairdresser and so he doesn't use her anymore because of what she did. Or another person explains that he used to do things socially with so-and-so, but then an offense crept in and so they hardly speak to each other anymore. Some of these records were about things that happened years and years ago. Yet it's surprising just how detailed and fresh those details still seemed. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed how the memory of offenses lives on so clearly? Why is that, do you think? Why is it that someone who barely remembers events from last week or last month can have such a clear memory of something that happened years ago? What day it was, what they were wearing, what they were doing before it happened. You could say, well, maybe because the memory is so intense or so poignant, so hurtful, or that that's part of it. But many other events in the past are also intense and poignant, that they fade from our memory much more quickly. Really the biggest thing, I think, the biggest reason why offenses are remembered so much longer and in so much more detail, because the offense itself is rehearsed over and over in our minds, or even with our mouths, recounting it to other people. See, brothers and sisters, the human memory works by repetition. Its force and its power comes from reliving its contents, and so reinforcing it in our minds. Ask any Greek student at the seminary, how do you learn your vocabulary? By repetition. That which we call to mind and remember lives on the more strongly in our minds. And that's exactly why Proverbs chapter 17, 9 says what it says. Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends, the power of a memory is kept strong by repeating it. So the repetition of an offense, whether inwardly or outwardly, ensures that the record of wrongs will last and that that same offense will remain intact to be held against the offender in all of its details forever. And that same power may even spread to others when we tell them about what someone did, even though it originally had nothing to do with that person at all. When you repeat a person's sins to others, you're spreading a certain feeling or disposition toward that person among them. You're giving reasons to think and act a certain way towards that person. You know, you seem to like so-and-so quite a lot, don't you? That's just because you don't know something about her, let me tell you. Now to be sure, brothers and sisters, we have to be clear. There are times when a Christian's sin cannot simply be covered over. In fact, there are times when scripture requires them to be repeated. Matthew 18 tells us that The repetition of the offense must be in private to the person who sinned. First of all, go to your brother in order to seek that person's repentance. And only after that would it be repeated again to others, particularly to the elders of the church, again to seek repentance and restoration. Clearly then, the context in Matthew chapter 18 about repeating somebody else's sin turns significant offenses. Matters that if never repented of might be the grounds of a person's even being excommunicated. But frankly, brothers and sisters, most of the sins that get rehearsed and repeated in our minds or along the Christian grapevine are really not that serious to begin with. They're more often petty annoyances or just personal gripes. Or they have to do with a person's past failings long since gone that are nevertheless kept alive and not let go of. By rehearsing one another's sins, by this keeping alive of an offense, what we inevitably do is sow discord in Christ's church, into our families, around us. We insist that a brother or sister in Christ will pay for what they've done. by experiencing our coldness and our disapproval, by hearing whispers around them, or just by feeling the subtle distance that we keep from them now. And in the end, making someone pay for their sins in these ways always amounts to the worst kind of hypocrisy. For an hour on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, we ask the Lord to forgive and forget our sins. And then after the service ends, we treat our brother or our sister in Christ in the exact opposite way. When we approach God regarding our own record of debt as enormous as it is, we plead his mercy and his grace. But when we deal with our brother or sister in Christ regarding their offenses as Trivial as they may be at times, we insist on strict justice. Exactly the sort of hypocrisy that Jesus exposed in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. Though the master of the house had forgiven the one servant an impossibly large debt that he could never repay throughout his entire life. That same servant went on to demand full repayment from another, even throwing the man into prison over a much, much smaller sum. And we say, how could the first servant be that inconsistent and that hypocritical, asking for mercy for himself over here and then exacting judgment on someone else over there? The answer is because he's keeping his relationship to the master and his relationship to his fellow servant separate in his mind as discrete categories. When you look just at the two servants over here, the second servant did owe a debt to the first. The second servant's failure to repay that debt was a true and actual offense. The problem in the parable is not that the first servant hadn't really been offended or wasn't truly owed a considerable debt. He was. The problem in the parable was the first servant's inconsistency, that he required overwhelming grace from his master. But he was not willing to extend even a lesser form of the same to someone else in the master's own house. The debt that he owed to the master had completely left his mind aimed to someone else's offense. I require free, unmerited grace from God to forget my sins, but I'll keep a detailed record of wrongs when it comes to what others have done. I'm an ex-convict, mercifully pardoned a life sentence from the judge, but I still want every shoplifter and petty thief prosecuted to the full. Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. One of the interesting things about living in this area is how long so many of you have been here, how many decades of memories there are as a result. Sometimes I have to laugh because I'll ask someone, did you grow up around here? And they'll say, oh no, no, no, I'm from New Lenox. Okay, well, I'm from Orlando, Florida. So I tend to think of that as around here. It's a blessing to have so many years of memories together with one another in the church, in the community, and in your own families, of course. That is, it's a blessing. if we all apply a graciously selective memory to one another. I once knew a pastor who had several difficult members in his church, at least several, people who were noticeably difficult to work with and to be around. And this is no church around here. But the interesting thing was that if you spent time with that pastor, what you would come to notice is that he always had something good to say about those particular members. He always had a story to tell or a memory to recall. He carried around a kind of arsenal of appreciation about them, both for his own heart and to share with others. He would say, you know, most people don't see how charitable so-and-so is, but she really finds people who are in need and does things for them privately. Or he'd say, when I first came to church, so-and-so did something for our kids. Very thoughtful, it was quite touching. In other words, the pastor's memory worked overtime to be gracious to people in his flock with whom it was difficult to be gracious. This is something that we all need to remember and practice as well. Generations of people's lives intertwined among us. We have the opportunity to have an encouraging, grace-filled set of stories to tell about each other. We also have the temptation to do the opposite. Each of us ask with the psalmist that the Lord would not remember our own iniquity but blot it out. Do we then turn and practice the same kind of graciousness, same kind of generosity to our brothers and sisters? Of course, forgiving and forgetting the offense of our brother or sister often feels quite difficult. Sometimes I think it feels even impossible. Every time I see that person, I'm reminded of what they did. Anger and my resentment just flare up. See, brothers and sisters, the key to forgiving and forgetting is that we must see more than just that person and their offense. must also see ourselves at the same time, what God has done for us fully and freely and against our deserving. And we have to see our own sin accurately to understand how even greater it is than what others have done to us. In other words, we must practice remembering and forgetting according to what scripture commands. Instead of focusing only on someone else's offense, call to mind instead, or call to mind as well, our own sin against God, the immensity of it. then call to mind how that record of debt has been mercifully wiped clean. Practice that kind of remembering, then our view of other people's sins changes, doesn't it? No longer is it just me and another sinner and that age-old offense between us. Now it's me and my debt, and my gracious master who's forgiven and continues to forgive all my sins, together with another of my master's servants. Offense is so much smaller by comparison than my own. And that makes all the difference. Whoever covers an offense seeks love. but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. May God give us grace to have a graciously selective memory with one another, our family members, with all with whom we come into contact. May the fellowship that we share in this place be all the sweeter, filled with more joy and peace because of it. Let's pray. Our gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we do cry out for your forgiveness, that you would forgive the ways in which we do not forgive or have not. We pray, Lord, that you would forgive us for not remembering the right things as scripture commands and being unwilling to forget as well when we should. Father, do not remember our sinful remembering, but we pray that you would forget and wash us clean of the ways that we have not forgotten. We ask that you would build us up in grace and in graciousness, that you would have your peace and your joy reign in this congregation, in our individual lives through the gospel of your remembering and your forgetting, and may this transform us as well. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.