A reading from Apples of Gold by Thomas Brooks Whether at the Judgment Day the sins of the saints shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery or not, whether the Lord will in this day publicly manifest, proclaim, and make mention of the sins of His people or not, I humbly judge According to my present light that he will not, my reasons for it are these. Number one, the first is drawn from Christ's judicial proceedings at the last day, set down largely and clearly in the 25th of Matthew, where he enumerates only the good works they had done. but takes no notice of the spots and blots, of the stains and blemishes, of the infirmities and enormities, of the weaknesses and wickednesses of his people. Deuteronomy 32 verses 4 to 6. My second reason is taken from Christ's vehement protestations that they shall not come into judgment. John 5 verse 24. Verily, verily, I say to you, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Those words shall not come into condemnation are not rightly translated. The original means shall not come into judgment, not into damnation, as you read it in all your English books. I will not say what should put men upon this exposition rather than a true translation of the original word. Further, it is very observable that no evangelist uses this double asservation but John. and he never uses it but in matters of the greatest weight and importance, and to show the earnestness of his spirit, and to stir us up to better attention, and to put the thing asserted out of all question. And beyond all contradiction is when we would put a thing forever out of all question, we do it by a double-ass of variation. Truly, truly, or verily, verily, it is so. Thirdly, because it's not bringing our sins into judgment does most and best agree with many precious expressions that we find scattered. His so many shining, sparkling pearls up and down in scripture is number one. With those of God's blotting out the sins of his people, I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins. I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions and as a cloud your sins, Isaiah 43, 25. Isaiah 44 verse 22. Who is this that blots out transgressions? He that has the keys of heaven and hell at his girdle, that opens and no man shuts, that shuts and no man opens. He that has the power of life and death, of condemning and absolving, of killing and making alive. He it is that blots out transgressions. If an under-officer should blot out an indictment, that perhaps might do a man no good. A man might, for all that, be at last cast by the judge. But when the judge or king shall blot out the indictment with his own hand, then the indictment cannot return. Now this is every believer's case in happiness. For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah 31, verse 34. So the apostle. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8, verse 12. And again, the same apostle says, this is a covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10 verse 17. The meaning is, their iniquities shall quite be forgiven. I will never mention them more. I will never take notice of them more. They shall never hear more of them from me. Though God has an iron memory to remember the sins of the wicked, yet He has no memory to remember the sins of the righteous. Thirdly, His not bringing their sins into judgment does most and best agree with those blessed expressions of His casting their sins into the depth of the sea and of His casting them behind His back. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities, and I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7 verse 19. Where sin is once pardoned, the remission stands never to be repealed. Pardoned sins shall never come into account against the pardoned man before God anymore. For so much does this borrowed speech import. If a thing were cast into a river, it might be brought up again. Or if it were cast upon the sea, it might be discerned and taken up again. But when it is cast into the depths, the bottom of the sea, it can never be buoyed up again. By the metaphor in the text, the Lord would have us to know the sins part and shall rise no more. They shall never be seen more. They shall never come on the account more. He will so drown their sins that they shall never come up before him the second time. And so much that other scripture imports. Behold, for peace I'd great bitterness. But thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. Isaiah 38 verse 17. These last words are a borrowed speech, taken from the manner of men who are wont to cast behind their backs such things as they have no mind to see, regard, or remember. A gracious soul has always his sins before his face. I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me, and therefore no wonder if the Lord casts him behind his back. The father soon forgets and casts behind his back those faults that the child remembers and has always in his eyes. So does the father of spirits. Fourthly, his not bringing their sins into judgment does best agree with that sweet and choice expression of God's pardoning the sins of his people, and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me." Jeremiah 33 verse 8. So it says in the book of Micah, Who is a God like unto thee that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage? is though he would not see it, but wink at it. He retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. Micah 7 verse 18. The Hebrew word nos from nasa, that is here rendered pardon, signifies a taken away. When God pardons sins, he takes its share away. That should one seek for it, yet it could not be found. As the prophet speaks, In those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Jeremiah 50 verse 20. And those words, and passes by in the aforesight is 7th Micah and the 18th verse according to the Hebrew. is, and passes over. God passes over the transgressions of his heritage. That is, he takes no notice of it. As a man in a deep muse, or as one that has haste of business, does not see things before him, his mind being busied about other matters. He neglects all to mind his business as David when he saw in Mephibosheth the feature of his friend Jonathan. He took no notice of his lameness or any other defect or deformity. So God, beholding in his people the glorious image of his son, winks at all their faults and deformities which made Martin Luther say, Do with me as you will, since you have pardoned my sin. And what is it to pardon sin, but not to mention sin? Isaiah 40 verses 1 and 2. Fifthly, it is not bringing our sins into the judgment of discussion and discovery. It best agrees to those expressions of forgiving and covering. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32 verse 1. In the original it is in the plural. Blessedness is. So here is a plurality of blessings, a chain of pearls, the like expression you have in the 85th psalm in the second verse. You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sins. Selah. For the understanding of these scriptures, all right, take notice that to cover is a metaphorical expression. Covering is such an action which is opposed to disclosure. To be covered is to be so hid and closed as not to appear. Some make the metaphor from filthy, loathome objects which are covered from our eyes as dead carcasses are buried under the ground. Some, from garments that are put upon us to cover our nakedness, others from the Egyptians that were drowned in the Red Sea and so covered with water, others from a great gulf in the earth that is filled up and covered with earth injected into it, and others make it in the last place an elusive expression to the mercy seat over which was a covering. Now all these metaphors in the general tend to show this, that the Lord will not look. He will not see. He will not take notice of the sins he has pardoned. To call them any more to a judicial account is when a prince reads over many treasons and rebellions and meets with such and such which he has pardoned. He reads on. He passes by. He takes no notice of them. The pardoned person shall never hear more of them. He never will call him to account for those sins more, and so it is here. When Caesar was painted, he put his finger upon his scar, his ward. God puts his fingers upon all his people's scars and wards, upon all their weaknesses and infirmities, and nothing can be seen but what is fair and lovely. Thou art all fair, my love, and there is no spot in thee, song of Solomon. Chapter 4, verse 7. Sixthly, it best agrees to that expression of not imputing of sin. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalm 32, verse 2. So the apostle in that, in Romans 4, 6 to 8. Now, not to impute iniquity is not to charge iniquity, not to set iniquity upon his score, who is blessed and pardoned. Seventhly and lastly, it best agrees with that expression that you have in the 103rd Psalm, in the 11th and 12th verses. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far as they removed our transgressions from us. What a vast distance is there between the East and the West. Of all visible latitudes, this is the greatest, and thus much for the third argument. But the fourth argument that prevails with me to judge that Jesus Christ will not bring the sins of the saints into the judgment of discussion and discovery in the great day is because it seems unsuitable to three considerable things. For Jesus Christ to proclaim the infirmities and miscarriages of his people to all the world first, it seems to be unsuitable to the glory and solemnity of that day which to the saints will be a day of refreshing. a day of restitution, a day of redemption, a day of coronation, as has been already proved. Now how suitable to this great day of solemnity the proclamation of the same sins will be, I leave the reader to judge. Secondly, it seems unsuitable to all those near and dear relations that Jesus Christ stands in towards His He stands in the relation of a father, a brother, a head, a husband, a friend, an advocate. Now are not all these by the law of relations bound rather to hide and keep secret, at least from the world, the weaknesses and infirmities of their near and dear relations. And it's not Christ. It's not Christ much more. By how much he is more a father, a brother, a head, a husband and so on in a spiritual way than any others can be in a natural way and so on. Thirdly, it seems very unsuitable to what the Lord Jesus requires of his in this world. The Lord requires that his people should cast a mantle of love, of wisdom, of silence and secrecy over one another's weaknesses and infirmities. Hatred stirs up strifes, but love covers all sins. Proverbs 10, verse 12. 1 Peter 4, verse 8. Love's mantle is very large. Love will find a hand, a plaster to clap upon every sore. A fifth argument is this. It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression. The discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. Proverbs 19, 11. or to pass by it, as we do by persons or things we know not or would take no notice of. Now it is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression, and will it not much more be the glory of Christ silently to pass over the transgressions of his people in that great day? The greater the treasons and rebellions are that a prince passes over and takes no notice of. The more is it his honor and glory, and so doubtless it would be Christ's in that great day to pass over all the treasons and rebellions of his people, to take no notice of them, to forgive them, as well as to forgive them. The heathen have long since observed that if nothing man came nearer to the glory and perfection of God himself than in goodness and clemency, surely if it be such an honor to man to pass over a transgression, It cannot be a dishonor to Christ to pass over the transgressions of His people. He haven't already buried them in the sea of His blood. Again, Solomon says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing, Proverbs 25, 2. And why should it not make for the glory of divine love to conceal the sins of saints at that great day? I don't know, and whether the concealing of the sins of the saints in that great day will not make most for their joy. and wicked men's sorrow for their comfort, and wicked men's terror and torment. I will leave you to judge in time and experience to decide, and thus much for the resolution of that great question, having done with the motives that may encourage and provoke young men to be good, but times, to know, love, seek, and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of their days.