1.― “Forgotten.”
HOW easy, alas! it is to forget even the passing things of time, which perish in the using; but oh! how terribly solemn, and infinitely worse, when it becomes a question not merely for time, but for that endless eternity, to which we are all hastening! We dare not slight the psalmist’s warning words, “The wicked shall be turned into hell; and all the nations that forget God.” The day we live in is, however, one where God is entirely forgotten by countless thousands; at least, six days out of seven; and then, perchance, just one brief hour on Sunday suffices for all thoughts of Him.
How still more serious is this when we reflect that, speaking generally, one-third of our lives is spent in sleep! Men to-day are too much engrossed with their business and money-making, their selfish schemes and ambitions, pleasures, and the like, to let God come into their thoughts; and, while feeding on their ever-increasing love of excitement of all kinds, Satan drags down his willing victims into a whirling vortex, where God is forgotten, but the end... is hell. “Beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God,” were the law-giver’s warning words to God’s ancient people, and Israel’s after history, ending as it did in the rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah, is a solemn object lesson to every God-forgetter.
Does God forget? So far, dear reader, as you are concerned, the answer to that question rests with yourself. If you still continue to persistently forget God, He will most assuredly not forget your sins; and at the great white throne they will all appear against you, and your final sentence and everlasting doom will be pronounced by the very One who would have been your Saviour now, but who will then be your Judge. If, on the other hand, you come now, as a poor, guilty sinner, to Christ, He will save you now, for His precious blood avails for all who trust it, and God’s word to every believer is, “Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more.” “Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yea, she may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”
Thus is it sweetly true that, though God eternally forgives the believer’s sins, yet He never forgets even the feeblest believer. For you, dear reader, if still unsaved, is it not high time to “awake out of sleep,” and “consider your ways,” or one day you will be “forgotten as a dead man out of mind,” and “the place that once knew you shall know you no more”?
2.― “Forsaken”
“God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods,” were the people’s words to Joshua, in reply to his heart-searching request, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve”; and years after the voice of the prophet Elijah rang out on Mount Carmel’s summit, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” But all that happened between Moses and Christ was, with few exceptions, the same sad story of Israel’s forsaking God, and worshipping idols. To deliberately forsake God must end, however, in being forsaken of God. Yet, nevertheless, does His heart delight in mercy; and hence the precious record runs, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
The voice of wisdom still crieth, “Forsake the foolish, and live.” And yet again, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Mercy and truth met together at Calvary’s cross, where God’s Holy One was “made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” But what a sight it was for men and angels! “Then all the disciples forsook him and fled”; and, amidst the jeering’s of the crowd, the taunts of the soldiers, and the bitter reviling’s of the robbers that were crucified with Him, the sixth hour drew nigh, and from the sixth unto the ninth hour “there was darkness over the whole land.” During those three solemn hours the stupendous question of sin was forever settled, and its awful judgment could only be adequately expressed by the bitter cry that came from the lips of the divine Sin-bearer, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Pause then, my soul, and gauge, if thou canst, the awful meaning of those solemn words. That thou mightest be forgiven, Jest’s was forsaken; and that thou mightest be justified, Jesus was judged. “Deep called unto deep at the noise of God’s waterspouts,” as judgment’s bitter cup was being drained to its dregs. Yes, my soul, it was for thee that that holy Victim was thus forsaken, that thou mightest fully know the truth of the psalmist’s words, “They that know thy name will put their trust in thee; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee,” as was surely proved that very day in the conversion of the dying but repentant robber. Seated now upon His Father’s throne, faith hears and believes the voice of that triumphant Saviour, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”
3.— “Forgive”
Forgiven! There is a delightful sweetness in that word that none but the justified know. Yes, saith the psalmist, “there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared; for thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all those that call upon thee.” Once more our eyes gaze back on Calvary’s cross, and, amidst its cruel anguish and sorrow, the loving voice of the dying Saviour is heard pleading for His foes, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” Though nineteen centuries have rolled away since that memorable prayer, God’s grace, like a mighty river, still flows on through a forgetful and utterly careless world; and the gospel message still goes forth, “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
Such is the free, unmerited mercy of God, announced to all of Adam’s race, and happy are all they who believe and accept it to the praise of Him, through whose sufferings and death alone could such blessings be so freely offered. “Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold! ye despisers, and wonder, and perish.”
How is it with you, dear reader? If, alas! you are conscious that you have forgotten and forsaken God up to this present moment, let me implore you, before it is too late, to turn to that precious Saviour, who is both willing and waiting to save you now; and He will welcome you with those ever-gracious words, “Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
If, however, you still persistently go on in your sins, you will be forgotten by men, forsaken by God, and forever in hell. How much better for you to be forgiven now! S. T.