Good morning. I want to thank
you all from the bottom of my heart for your support for the
work over in Sarasota. Thank you for your prayers. Thank
you for the financial assistance you've offered them. And those
of you that were able to come over for this weekend, you'll
never know the impact that your presence had on the church over
there. And I'm just, I'm so very, very
grateful. We're going back over tonight
and finish up the meeting tonight. Cody and I will be preaching
tonight. Dennis preached Friday night and Saturday morning and
brought excellent messages and so did Cody. So I'm just, my
heart's full and I'm thankful for you, for the work that the
Lord's doing over there. And the Lord's doing it. But
He does it through means. And the means that He's using
is your prayers and your encouragement and your support. Psalm 127 verse
1 says, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it. Did you get that? Except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. There
is labor involved in building this house. Paul said, I planted,
Apollos watered, God gave the increase. He gets the glory for
the increase, but he uses the planting and the watering in
order to bring the increase. Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the
city, the watchman waketh but in vain. So our dependence is
upon Him and our praise and thanksgiving goes to Him. So glad to be here this morning.
Let's stand together. Brother Tom is going to come
and lead us. Oh, there's a little white handout. I know we sang
this hymn Wednesday night, but I asked Tom if we could sing
it again this morning because the passage of scripture that
that hymn was taken from is the passage that I prepared to bring
a message from the first hour. So let's stand together. I'll crank this up as loud as
I can. Who is a God like unto Thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? Jehovah God, the Great I Am,
forgives our sins through Christ the Lamb, who is a God like unto
Thee, that pardoneth iniquity. His anger He Retains no more
His grace and mercy shall endure A God of truth must punish sin,
but in His love He formed a plan to satisfy the law's demands. For sinners numerous as the sands
Who is a God like unto Thee, That pardoneth iniquity? His anger He retains no more,
His grace and mercy shall endure. Behold His love and compassion
In the death of Christ His Son. The precious sin atoning blood
reveals the love and truth of God. Who is a God like unto Thee? That pardoneth iniquity, His
anger He Retains no more, His grace and mercy shall endure. He passes by the transgressions
of all his loved and chosen ones. In mercy God delights we see. He cast our sins into the sea. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? His anger he retains no more. His grace and mercy shall endure. None can compare. God compare. He gave his son sinners to spare. His anger he retains no more. Christ died and God requires
no more. Who is a God like unto Thee,
that pardoneth iniquity? His anger he retains no more. His grace and mercy he shall
endure. Please be seated. That hymn, of course, was inspired
by the words of Micah, chapter 7. beginning at verse 18. Micah chapter 7, beginning at
verse 18. I've titled this message, Our God. Our God. Many would respond to
hearing that title by saying, but is there not but one God? Don't we all worship the same
God? Well, the answer to the first
question is yes, there is but one God. But man by nature is
an idolater. Man by nature comes into this
world with the idol factory of his darkened imagination Forging
out shapes of God that he imagines to exist that don't exist. That
don't exist. They are figments of his imagination. And when we think about it like
that, there are many gods. There are many gods. When we
stand and say, our God, our God is the one true God, the only
God that can save, The rest of those who would worship another
god would say to us exactly what the watchman said in the Song
of Solomon, chapter 6, when the bride of Christ goes out into
the streets looking for her spouse. And the scripture says in verse
7 that the watchman went, and they found her, and they smote
her, and they wounded me, and the keepers of the wall took
away my veil from me. And I charged them, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, if you see my beloved, tell me. And they responded by
saying, what is your beloved more than our beloved? What makes your God so special?
What makes your God so special? We know God. Nothing's changed. Men's response to the preaching
of the gospel is exactly the same today. When we say this
is the true God, and we are the true circumcision, which worship
Him truly in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
have no confidence whatsoever in the flesh." The natural man
says, what do you think you're the only ones that know God?
Here's our God, Malachi chapter 7 beginning at verse 18. Who is a God like unto thee? There is no other God like our
God. He's the only God that pardons
iniquity. He's the only God that's able
to pass by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He's the only God who retains
His anger no more. who has satisfied the judgment
of his wrath against sin in the sacrifice of his dear son on
Calvary's cross. The only hope that you and I
have to stand in the presence of this holy God and not be consumed
by his wrath is to be found in Christ. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, never
to be found ever again. Thou, our God, will perform the
truth of Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn
unto our fathers, in the days of old. Turn with me to Psalm 115. Psalm
115. As I said, there's lots of other
gods in this world, but they are manufactured in
the imagination of men. They don't really exist. It's
kind of like accepting man's own mind. It's like what Paul
was talking about in Galatians chapter 1 when he says there's
lots of gospels, but that there's really no gospel at all. There's
really no gospel. There's no good news in another
gospel. And if any man come and preach
any other gospel unto you than what you've heard, if an angel
from heaven was to come down and preach another gospel to
you, then the one true gospel, let him be accursed. There's
only one true gospel. Man by nature is incurably religious. He knows that there's a God with
whom he must do. And he's going to devise some
system of religion, some means by which he can salve his conscience
and justify his own guilt and have some peace in his own mind. And God calls it in Isaiah chapter
28, a covenant that he has made. A covenant that He has made.
There's only two covenants. There's a covenant God made,
that's the covenant of grace, established in eternity past,
in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the
Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world. God's chosen people
in that covenant. And then there's the covenant
that man makes. False religion. And God says, You've made a covenant
with death and with hell you're in agreement. You don't fear
the judgment of God anymore because of this religious system that
you've developed. But I'm going to disannoy your
covenant. I'm going to destroy that covenant.
And when the scourge of God's wrath comes, it will overcome
you. I don't want to be part of that. I want to know who the
true God is. And here in Psalm 115, the Lord begins by voicing the
words of His people when they say, not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us. We didn't do any of it. This
salvation is all of God from beginning to end. He's the Alpha
and the Omega. He's the one, according to His
own will and purpose, chose a people. He's the one that redeemed them.
He's the one that regenerates them. He's the one that sanctifies
them. He's the one that keeps them from falling. He's the one
that glorifies them. Salvation's of the Lord. And
so God's people say, oh Lord, not unto us. Don't let us put
our hand on it. As soon as we touch it, we're
going to defile it. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Lord, I want to know the truth. I want to worship God in spirit,
in the power of his spirit, and in the spirit of my renewed hand. I want to worship God in spirit
and in truth. Apart from worshiping God in
spirit and truth, every other form of worship is idolatry. It's feigned worship. It's man
pretending, based on a covenant that he has made, of satisfying
his need to be right with God. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and for Thy true
sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
You guys think you're the only ones that know God? No, we don't. But we do believe that the God
we know is the only God there is. He's the only God there is. And if you're worshiping a God
other than the God we know, you're worshiping a false God. That's
what we believe. That's what I believe with all
my heart. We're not the only ones that know God. God's got
people all over this world. I've met a lot of brethren in
Mexico and in Charlotte and all over the place. But they believe
the same thing about our God that we believe about Him. Where is now your God? They look
at a little assembly like this and they think, you know, they
compare us to You know, what the scripture says, they think
that gain is godliness. They think the evidence of God's
blessings on a church is its size and its influence. And they
look at us and they say, you're God? Compared to our God? What
kind of God do you serve? And what do we say? Look at verse
3. Our God is in the heavens. He's ascended into glory. He's
taking his rightful place at the right hand of the majesty
on high. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He reigns
sovereign over the affairs of men. He hath done whatsoever
he wills. Everything that he does. everything
that happens in time. I love the point you made the
other night, Dennis, when you said, what is necessary for your
salvation? What is necessary for your salvation?
And the answer to that question is, everything that's ever happened
in time, everything that's happening right now and everything that
will ever happen in time was necessary for your salvation
and for my salvation. God's ordained every event in
time to save his people. He hath done whatsoever he wills. Everything's right on schedule.
And he's not gonna lose one of his sheep. What a glorious God
we serve. Our God's sovereign. He does whatsoever he wills.
With the armies of heaven and with all the inhabitants of the
earth, no man can say unto him, what doest thou? No man can stay
his hand. He's the potter with the clay.
He makes from the same vessel, from the same lump of clay, some
vessels of honor, some of dishonor, according to his own will. That's
who our God is. They're idols. Verse four, are silver and gold
the works of men's hands. The works of men's hands. And
he goes on to, we won't take the time to read the rest of
Psalm 115. You can read it at another time. They have hands,
but they handle not. They have feet, but they walk
not. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes they have, but
they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. All these,
they're fashioned with the hands of men. They're false gods. They can't do anything. They
can't do anything. Have you ever heard someone say,
you know, you're God's hands. You're God's feet. And the people
who talk like that are speaking the truth about their God. There God doesn't have hands,
he doesn't have feet, he doesn't have eyes, he doesn't have ears,
he's completely dependent upon his creatures. And man worships
the creature rather than the creator. He sets himself up on
the throne of God and he calls himself God. Lots of gods in this world. There's the God who loves everybody. He's a frustrated God. His love
has been spurned by those that He has attempted to love. Those
who say God loves everybody would agree that most of the folks
that God loves don't love Him. And so He's desperately trying
to get folks to love Him, but, you know, He's just a spurned
lover. He can't. he can't get those
he loves to love him back and then he's going to be for all
eternity that the God who loves everybody is going to become
so sad for all eternity for those who say that he loves everybody
would also say that most of the folks that he loves he's going
to be forced to send to hell because they wouldn't love him
back what is he gonna stop loving
them when he sends them to hell now you've got a God who mutates
You don't have an immutable God who changes not. Now you've got
a God, well, he loved him at one time, but now he's gonna
punish him for all eternity, and now he's gonna send him to
hell. He's gonna change his mind about them? Our God changes not. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He's not a frustrated lover.
He's not trying to love folks that aren't gonna love him back,
and he's not gonna send anybody to hell that he loves. Jacob
I've loved and Esau I've hated He's gonna send Esau to hell
And he's gonna take Jacob with him into glory You see what and there's the
then there's the Christ who died for everybody that's another
God It's another God he's he made a sacrifice On a cross Not
as an offer to put away the sins of God's people to the Father,
but rather as an offer of salvation to man. He's making his offer. He's putting out his plea. But
again, most of the folks he died for are not going to be saved.
Most of his suffering was wasted. His blood soaked into the ground
with no effect. Oh, that's not our God, is it? Not a single drop of His blood
was wasted. He succeeded in saving the people
that He gave His life to the Father for. It's different gods. These are different gods. You
know, people hear us talk about this gospel of God's free grace
and they think, well, you know, you all just have a little different
doctrine. No! No, we worship a different God. Plain and simple. And if you
bow to any other God than this God, you are an idolater. That's it. I don't know any other
way to put it. That's what God says. Who is a God like unto
us? Like unto ours? Look, who is
a God like unto thee? Oh, what a glorious, a glorious
God we serve. There's the God who is subject
to the will of man. He has relinquished His sovereignty
to His creatures. He's given man a free will. And
in the end, man gets the final vote. And God's will is frustrated
by man's will. That's a different God. You bow to that God, you're just
bowing to an imaginary God. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth, that pardoneth iniquity? Now that's what I need. Let me
tell you where this word pardon is used in the scriptures. You
remember when Cain killed his brother Abel and God cursed him?
And Cain, in response to God, says, my punishment is more than
I can bear. That word bear is the same word
in our text, pardoneth. My punishment is more than I
can bear. In Genesis chapter seven, when
the floods of God's wrath fell from heaven and Noah's ark was
lifted up by the water, the scripture says the floodwaters increased
and bear up the ark. That's the word that's found
in our text that says pardoneth. This word iniquity means guilt. It means punishment. Now here's
what this verse is saying. He takes away the burden of our
guilt. Our punishment for our sin is
more than we can bear. It's more than we can bear. And
the only hope that you and I have is to get in the ark. Get in
the ark. For when the flood of God's wrath
comes, the only thing that'll be pardoned, the only thing that'll
be bore up above that punishment is the ark and those who are
in it. He pardoneth iniquity. That's our first need. That's
our greatest need. People call out to their God
for everything other than the pardoning of their iniquity.
They don't believe that their punishment is more than they
can bear. They believe somehow they can satisfy the demands
of God's justice by just doing enough good to make up for the
bad. or by making a decision that God wants them to make,
or praying a prayer that God wants them to pray. And they'll
be, well, I'll just bear myself up. My punishment's not too great
for me. I can handle it. No, we need a God. that'll bear
our punishment for us. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. He bore the full brunt,
the full weight of God's holy wrath to put away our punishment,
to put away our iniquity, to pardon us of every sin. And he succeeded in what he did. And faith, trust him for that. It's all faith does. Faith just
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ to bear their punishment for
them and to give them the hope of knowing that when that overflowing
scourge of God's wrath comes, the flame of fire is going to
be already quenched. The ark has already been lifted
up above the punishment. Who's a God like that? Who's
a God that's going to bear our iniquity? That's going to, that's
going to pardon our iniquity. Look at the next part of this
verse 18. And passeth by Passeth by now we sing that hymn
pass me not Oh gentle Savior hear my humble cry while on others
thou art calling Do not pass me by and we don't want the Lord
to pass us by when it comes to his grace But we do want him
to pass us by when it comes to his judgment and that's what
he's talking about here He passes by the transgression How's he
gonna do that? Well, you know what that passing
by is all about don't you Go back to Egypt. Go back to Egypt. And the children of Israel, under
the taskmasters of slavery of the law, and the Lord told Moses,
take a lamb, a spotless lamb, a lamb without wrinkle, without
blemish, and slay that lamb. And take the blood of that lamb
and put it on the doorpost and the lintel of the house and get
in the house. Don't stick your little finger
out the window. Don't be peeking out the window. Just get in the
house. Get behind the blood. And when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. And that's exactly what
he did. And the scripture says that after
the Passover that took place, Pharaoh let the people go. And
I love what scripture says, and not a hoof. God made a distinction. Here's what it says. God made
a distinction between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Not one single
Israelite died, and the firstborn of every household of Egypt died. And the children of Israel left,
and not a hoof stayed behind. Not only every man, woman, and
child, but every one of their animals and all their possessions.
And the Egyptians gave them their possessions, didn't they? Oh,
there. He passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant. The remnant? That's the elect. That word remnant means exactly
what our word remnant means. Leftovers. Leftovers. You know, you have carpet remnants,
don't you, Brian, in your warehouse. Got a lot of them. After a while,
you just throw them away. The remnants are not worth anything
to most folks, but they're worth everything to Him. And He takes
all those remnants and He puts together a patchwork of His grace,
a tapestry that's so beautiful, and it's called the Bride of
Christ. He passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage, his inheritance. God gave to the Lord Jesus Christ
an inheritance. That was his bribe for the work
that he did. in satisfying the demands of
God's law and suffering the wrath of God as the propitiation for
our sins to put away our transgressions once and for all. To bear the
burden of guilt. God promised him a heritage,
an inheritance, and he called them a remnant, an elect few. They're the ones that are gonna
be passed by. that their transgressions are
gonna be passed by. He retaineth not his anger for ever. Now the scripture says in Psalm
711 that he is angry with the wicked every day. Every day. I don't know if y'all ever saw
that billboard out there on I-4 that says God's not angry. You
can't make that statement. He's not angry with his people.
He spent all of his anger when he took the sword of his justice
and plunged it into the heart of his own dear son. He spent
all of his anger. He's not going to allow one sin
to go unpunished. He's holy. He's holy. The Lord made that
clear to Abraham. He said, not one sin is going
to go unpunished. Every single sin. God must punish
sin. He spent his anger on his son
so that there's now therefore no condemnation to them that
are found in Christ Jesus. But he's angry with the wicked.
Angry with the wicked every day. What does he say here? He retaineth not his anger forever. Here's what God says. Listen
to this very carefully. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God. You don't want anything to do
with an angry God. He will plunge your soul into
a devil's hell for all eternity with no hope. No hope of anything
but wrath and judgment. Here's the good news. He retaineth
not his anger forever. He spent his anger. Romans chapter
3 makes that clear. All the wrath of God, the fire
of God's wrath was quenched. It was quenched on Calvary's
cross. Look to Christ. Come to Christ. Rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ
for all the hope of your salvation. He's the only hope we have. And
He's the only one we need. That he would cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. Oh, let's go back to the beginning
of verse 19 I want to share something here. Look at verse 19. He will
turn again. He will have compassion upon
us Say well, I you know, that's There's uh, I need the Lord to
turn me And don't you love the way the Lord writes his word
he will turn again I He will turn again. And He will have
compassion upon us. And He will subdue our iniquities. He will subdue our iniquities.
Let me tell you what that means. You know in your experience when
you speak proudly about yourself. You promote yourself. You want
somebody to know something good about you. And as soon as it
comes out of your mouth, if you're a child of God, the Spirit of
God smites your heart and makes you feel so bad about what you
just did. And you think, oh, I wish I could
take those words back. That's the Spirit of God subduing
your iniquity. Or when your sin cries out against
you, and Satan, who's called the accuser of the brethren,
takes your sin and says to you, look at that. Look at that. And you look at your sin, and
you can't look at it long until the Spirit of God causes you
to look away to your Savior, and then He subdues your iniquity. He subdues your iniquity. He quiets your guilt. He quiets your shame. He quiets
the voice of sin and the law and assures your heart that Christ
has satisfied everything for you. He subdues our iniquities. And then there's that time when
you were in such bondage to sin you couldn't believe. You could
not believe. And he subdued that iniquity.
And he shined the light of the gospel in your heart, in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he caused you to believe. He gave you faith. Faith is the
gift of God. You can't drum up faith. He's
gotta give it to you. How do you know if you have faith?
Believing is what faith does. It's just that simple. Believing is what faith does.
Do you believe the gospel? Do you believe Christ? Are you
resting all the hopes of your eternal salvation on his glorious
person and accomplished work? Natural man is not going to do
that. That's what faith does. How do I know I have faith? Because
I believe. I do believe. I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. I've
got all my eggs in one basket. Has He subdued your iniquities? Has He? Now last Sunday we talked about
the difference between sin and sins. Sin is what we are. Sins are what we do. Our old man is nothing but sin. We look not on that which is
seen, but on that which is not seen, for that which is seen
is temporal, that's our sins, and that which is not seen is
eternal. That's our sinful nature. And
the old man will never be anything other than sin. And the reality
of that in the heart causes me to not want to commit sins. I hate my sin. I hate it. The only thing that restrains
my sinful nature from breaking out in sins is the subduing of
my iniquities by the Spirit of God who works in me, causing
me to will and to do His good pleasure. Shall we continue in
sins that grace might abound? God forbid! God forbid! Why? We hate our sins. We still sin, but we commit sins
and we despise them. If you don't despise your sins,
you have no comfort in knowing that the Spirit of God is subduing
your iniquities. That's how He subdues our iniquities,
causing us to hate our sins. Your sin nature is never gonna
change. It'll never be anything but sin. But oh Lord, might the
love of Christ constrain me. Might the love of Christ hold
down this evil man that's within me? Lord, subdue my iniquities in
every way. Subdue my pride in causing me
to hear myself talk about things that just shut my mouth. Subdue the sound of my sins that
the evil one uses to put me in the depths of despair, subdue
my inability to believe. There was a time when I was in
complete bondage to sin. I couldn't believe. And Lord,
subdue the sins of my life. Subdue them. I hate them. and thou wilt cast all their
sins, all their sins. One day your sin nature is going
to be put in the grave, and you'll be done with him. Once and for
all, you'll never be introduced to him again. Never. When the Lord gives you a new
resurrected body, he's not going to be a sinful one. You're not
going to have any memory of these old sin, this old sinful nature,
no memory whatsoever. You'll see him as he is and be
made like him in all of his glory. In the meantime, the hope of
our salvation is that he has cast our sins into the depths
of the sea and remembers them no more. Separating them far
as from us as far as the east is from the west. How is that?
Because our God, our God, pardoneth iniquity. He passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage. He cast our sins into the depths
of the sea. He subdues our iniquities. I will
do this for you. That's our God. What a glorious
God we serve. He's not like those other gods.
Not like those other gods. Amen. All right, let's take a
break. You know what happened? It probably broke.