to the book of Micah. That's over in the... Well, if you come to the end
of the Old Testament, to the book of Malachi, you just
come back three or four books, and you'll come back to the book
of Micah. And I'll call your attention
to this 18th verse of the last chapter,
7th chapter of the book of Micah. And it says here, Who is a God
like unto thee? The heathens had many gods, gods
of their own making. And they were oftentimes challenged
by the true and the living God. They said one time, when they displayed their gods,
kind of set them out there on a shelf, this is our god, and
this is our god, and so forth. And they asked David, they said,
David, where's thy god? And David's answer was, he said,
in the heavens. Well, what's he doing in the
heavens? David said, he's doing whatever he pleases. Now, who is a God like Thee,
the true and the living God? They are just one God, one God
in three Persons, one in three, three in one, yet there is one
God, the Maker and the Creator of
all things, Sustainer of all things, Controller of all The
manager of all affairs is the one God, and He is to be worshiped and
to be praised, to be obeyed, to be served, the true and the
living God. And it says here, Who is a God
like unto thee, that pardoneth Iniquity! Is there any other God that can
pardon iniquity and forgive sin? Now, there are some even in our day
that give indication that they have a corner on the market as
to a relationship with God that
somehow they can, through prayer or otherwise, give us or get
us a fair shake with God. But I know that's not so. There
is only one God, the true and the living God, and no man can
approach God unless he has a mediator. He can't go directly into the
presence of God. He must have a mediator. He must have one that goes between. And, of course, you and I who
believe the Bible believe that the Lord Jesus Christ who said
there is one God and one Mediator between man and God, and that's
Jesus Christ. The Pope himself can gain us
no favor. He can't gain himself favor with
God, let alone being help to anybody else. He cannot come
directly to God. He must have a Mediator too. which I doubt that he has. Well,
anyhow, who is a godlike unto thee that pardoneth iniquities?
Well, it is safe to say, and I say this without fear of being
contradicted, it is safe to say that we are all sinners. We all have iniquities that needs
to be pardoned or needs to be forgiven. There is not a person
here this morning that does not have sins that needs to be pardoned
and needs to be covered. And I can go so far as to say
that there is not a member of Adam's race that does not have
sins to be pardoned and iniquity to be covered. Not one single
solitary human being can be found anywhere you look that does not
stand in need of this, which is the greatest blessing that
a man can experience in this lifetime, is the forgiveness
of his sins. If he has nothing else, That's
more than enough. If he'd be a pauper, if he'd
be lame, if he'd be sick all of his life, if he have no riches,
no gold, no silver, even if he's destitute of family and friends,
even if he's destitute of money, have nothing, no health, a pauper,
But if he has this, if he is the recipient of sins forgiven,
that's the greatest blessing on the face of the earth and
in the annals of heaven, is the forgiveness of sins. He can be
happy. The only way that a man can be
absolutely happy is to know that his sins are forgiven. Well, who is a God like unto
thee that forgiveth sins? Who can forgive sins? None but
God. No man can forgive sins against
God except God Himself. All men are sinners. Even the
best of men are sinners. Peter, that great apostle, great
apostle was Peter, the fisherman. You remember his experience.
He who was contrary, who acted contrary to the dictates of his
conscience, contrary to the warnings of the Lord Jesus Christ, denied
with oaths and curses his Lord and his Savior. Peter was not
without sin. All men are like Peter. There
is no difference in Peter and you and I. We are all sinners
by nature, by choice, and by practice. But for one who is
a believer in the Lord Jesus and who is a recipient of the
forgiveness of sins, he is still a sinner. He has sin in him,
but he has no sin on him. His sin was taken by God Himself
and transferred to the substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. But he
has no sins on him, but he still has the nature of sin in him. So for that person, for that
believer who has no sins on him but sin in him, he has no reason
whatsoever to sink into despair because He has the forgiveness
of sins, and it is a full pardon. When God forgives a man of his
sins, He forgives him of all of his sins, past, present, and
sins to come. You see, it's a full pardon. He signs it with His own blood. He guarantees it, even if a man had so many sins that his sins
were like a debt of millions of dollars. Sins of every sort,
sins of every size, sins of every description. even if they numbered
more than the stars in heaven, even if they were heavier than
the sands of the sea, yet there is full forgiveness in Jesus
Christ. Full, complete, absolute forgiveness
in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, if you have full Let this be your rest. Let this be your happiness. Let this be your joy, that you
have full forgiveness that came from the mouth of God himself. This grace of forgiveness, this
grace reigns in the pardon of all sinners. I mentioned that old Peter there
went contrary to the warnings of his Lord, contrary to the
dictates of his conscience. Yet old Peter was forgiven and
had full pardon of all of his sins. So what I want to talk
to you about this morning for just a little bit is this. This
is the core of my discourse or my argument or my defense of
truth, is that the pardon of all sin is a blessing of immeasurable
value and worth. It is a gem to be desired by
the wounded conscience. It's absolutely necessary for
present peace and future salvation without it, no individual on
the face of the earth, no individual who is a member of Adam's race
can be happy without it. There may be a pretension of
happiness, the searing of one's conscience that will render him
to be something that is not. But there cannot be any real
happiness. When a sinner's conscience, when
the conscience of a sinner is smitten and wounded with guilt
and oppressed by the fears of the truth of God Almighty, It
is only then will forgiveness be sought by him as a desirable
thing. But his conscience must be wounded
and pierced. Great and necessary as the blessing
of the forgiveness of sins is, had it not been Now listen carefully
to this. I said the greatest blessing,
that which makes a man happy, that which will stay a man in
the time of trials and troubles, that will place his feet upon
the rock, put him in a hiding place that the storms of life
cannot touch him. and necessary as this blessing
is, had it not been for the revelation contained in the Bible, Adam's
race would have laid under a sad uncertainty whether there was
such a thing or not. in here in the Bible talks about
the forgiveness of sins from the first to the last, throughout
it all, interwoven in all the pages, is the objectivity of
God Almighty in the pardon and the forgiveness of our sins,
that we can be happy now. and happy with him in the hereafter. Had it not been revealed here in the Scriptures, we wouldn't
have known anything about it. How would you have found out
about it if it wasn't here? That's the truth. Pardon, pardon of sins is described
by God as their total abolition, totally destroyed and done away
with. That's how God describes the
aftermath of our sins. He describes them this way. He
says he blocks them out. He blots them out from the face
of heaven, blotted out so that no trace of them shall ever be
found. If there was a man sent to look
for them, he couldn't find them because he has totally blotted
them out. They are no more. Isn't that
a wonderful thing? That all of our sins, my sins
and your sins, sins of ignorance, sins of coition and ovation,
sins we knew nothing about, sins that we deliberately committed,
sins against life, deliberate, In the pardon of sins, God totally,
absolutely, forever and forever blots a man. That's the way God
describes forgiveness of sins. He blots a man. I don't know
how other churches and preachers describe it, But that's good
enough for me. That makes me happy. That there's
no condition there. That he looks at my sins and
judges my sins and then says, if you'll do this and if you'll
do that, I'll blot them out. No conditions. God blots them
out to the extent that no mortal is able to tell what's become
of them. They don't know where they're
at and they don't know where to look. Now, disobedience to
the divine truth of God, disobedience to God's holy law is pronounced
rebellion in the Bible. that are disobedient to the law
are looked upon by God as rebels, rebellion, and the sinner is
considered as a convict under the sentence of death. That's
the way it's described in the Bible. No one wants to be called
a convict. He'd rather be called a sinner
than he would a convict. There's something about the word
convict that he shuns. A convict is one that has been
found guilty of his crime, crime of whatever sort. He's been found
guilty of it and he's been convicted, so he's a convict. The sinner
is a rebel. He has rebelled against God's
law and he's been found guilty. And he is looked upon by God
in the Bible as a rebel and a convict. Now, forgiveness consists in
reversing the sentence and remitting the penalty due to the crime. Now, under this consideration,
which is the proper notion or the proper understanding of the
word pardon, the language of the gracious God is, deliver
him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom. The Lord is pleased to represent
this blessing of the ransom that he found to base his forgiveness
on. He has been pleased to represent
this blessing by not just blotting out our sins, but casting our
sins behind his back and by casting them also into the depths of
the sea. Now, when I was winning the war
for the United States of America out in the Pacific Ocean, I was
there in the invasion of Guam and Saipan. And in that area I was told by
the historians that that is the deepest place in the Pacific Ocean, right
there. in that area of Guam and South
America. It is seven miles deep. That's the deepest spot in the
Pacific Ocean. And I was favored by God to sail
over those waters. And he said, this complete full
forgiveness and pardon is so complete that I cast them behind
my back into the depths of the sea, seven miles deep. Now that ought to make you happy.
He said that he removed them from us as far as the east is
from the west by remembering them no more against us. By making our scarlet and crimson
offenses, he said, I'll make them as white as wool. I'll make them whiter than the
snow. I sense in the pardoning forgiveness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will remember. I'll do what I can't
do." God cannot forget anything, but yet He said, your sins are
so fully and completely pardoned and forgiven, I will not remember
them against you anymore. pardon and forgiveness of sins. Now, in this forgiveness, grace
reigns, and certainly the riches of grace are displayed and seen
in the forgiveness of sins. It is an absolutely perfect part. There are no strings on it. It's as perfect as God Himself. And to make it so, to make it
perfect and absolutely complete, three things are required. First off, it must be a full
part. It must be the pardon of all
sin. It must be a free pardon, and
it must be an everlasting pardon. That is, full, free, and everlasting. It must be external to all my sins. It must be so extensive that
it reaches every sin I've ever committed, all sins. It must be given without
any conditions. It must be given without any
conditions to be performed by the receiver. I'm talking about a full and
free and external part and eternal. If it's to be full and free and
as extensive as my depravity, it's got to be that there's no
condition upon the receiver, no condition. That's what I like,
don't you? No conditions. I know that the
majority of the world's population, the religious population anyhow,
the majority of them, there's just a few in number that actually
believe that the salvation of God is full and free. It's a
full salvation, it's a free salvation without any conditions appointed.
All you do is receive. It's not what you do or what
you don't do. No conditions. He does not say
if. There's not an if behind it.
It's free. It's by the grace of God. Free
grace, if that helps any. It must be full, free, and everlasting. It must be given without any
conditions to be performed by the sinner. It must be absolutely
irreversible if it's full and free. No condition, no change. Can't take it back. I made a
mistake. He shouldn't have had it. It's
irreversible. It'll never change. Absent. Now, that's forgiveness,
which is equal to the wants and to the needs of a sinner. And
it must be full. It must include all of his sins,
yesterday, today, and sins to come. Does that sound good to you?
That the pardon and the forgiveness of sins which is in Christ is
full and free and irreversible, and it's full and complete. It includes all of his sins,
little sins and big sins. Extending to all the aggravations,
even though there be so many of them, it extends to all of
them. None of them is looked over.
They are all punished in the Lord Jesus Christ. So every sin,
you see, being a transgression of divine law, and every transgression
subjecting the doer or the offender to the awful curse of God, if
the guilt of every sin or sin be not removed, and if the penalty
do every sin, be not remitted, there is no full and free and
everlasting salvation of all of our sins. The curse of God
must fall upon us and the wrath of God must be our portion if
there is not a full, free, irreversible, everlasting salvation that has
no end. Now, this is the way it is. We
must have a full pardon to be happy. You can't be happy unless
every one of them is taken care of. Every sin, sin that you didn't even remember,
sin that you didn't know was a sin, that was taken care of.
That sin, in the infinite wisdom of God, he detected that and
he pulled it out, every one of them, ones you don't know about,
all of them. from first to last and laid on
Him. And all the penalty that was
due to that sin back there that you didn't know anything about,
He paid for it in the purchase. He is the ransom and the ransom
price. He paid for it. He's the pearl
of great price. Well, that's the way it is. He declares that when our offended
God, our offended sovereign, pardons anyone of Adam's race,
he forgives them. God forgives them all of their
sins, says the king. That's the Lord Jesus, whose
name is the Lord of Hosts. Over here in the book of Jeremiah
chapter 33, Jeremiah 33 and verse 8, I want
to read this to you. Well, first he says in this chapter, he said, Our Lord God, that's
the 17th verse of the 32nd chapter, Our Lord God, behold, thou hast
made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and stretched
out thy arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." Nothing too hard for thee. And then over in chapter 33,
verse 8, He said, I will cleanse them from all their iniquity. That
is, I will cause the captivity of Judah captivity of Israel
to return and will build them as at the first. And I will cleanse them from
all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me. I will
pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned, whereby they
have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name
of joy. a praise and honor before all
the nations of the earth, which hear all the good that I do unto
them, and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness
and all the prosperity that I procure unto them. He forgives all their
sins. I will cleanse them from all
their iniquities. all their iniquities whereby
they have sinned against me. I shall pardon their iniquities
whereby they have sinned against me. I will pardon their crimes
and sins that they have transgressed against me." Oh, my soul, to
forgive sin is a divine prerogative. None can dispense this unspeakable
favor but God Himself. And throughout the whole of the
Bible, it's telling us that we're sinners of the deepest side and that there is forgiveness
with God. God will forgive us of our sins. regardless of how terrible and
horrendous the case might be, God says, I will forgive you.
Forgiveness. This He declares He will do,
and that He will not only forgive some sins or a few sins, but
He says, all sins entirely, every one of them. Now, over here in this book again,
in the book of Micah, chapter 7, I think it is, chapter 7, and verse 19, listen to what
he says. I said, Who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. God delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy. I
thought that if I ever got the opportunity,
which I probably never will, but if I did and I was around
the judge, and I had maybe a little bit
of reason to ask him this question, I would say, Is there no mercy? And knowing what most judges
think, he would say unto me, This man deserves no mercy. And I would say to him, If he
deserves mercy, it wouldn't be mercy. He delights in mercy. That's
the reason He saves us like He does and pardons us and forgives
us of all of our sins and does not hold anything against us,
but casts them behind His back, blots them out, casts them into
the depths of the ocean and remembers against us no more. Why? Because
He delights in mercy. He delights to show mercy. You don't deserve mercy. If you
deserve mercy, you forfeit mercy. It says, He retaineth not his
anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion for us.
He will subdue our iniquities. and thou wilt cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. He will have compassion on us.
That is, he will relieve us of our distresses. He will supply
our various needs and wants. As disobedience is the cause
of our misery, he will subdue our stubborn wills and make us
willing in the day of He will remove our guilt by his atoning
blood. He will cast our sins into the
depths of the sea. He will pardon our sin. He will forgive our sin. And as to the eye of vindictive
justice, he sees it no more. It's gone. He made an end of
it. And there is none to be found
that can be charged to those that are found in His Son, the
Lord Jesus. As a matter of fact, the great
apostles said there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. This forgiveness of God is worthy
of God and suitable to the The Judases can't get too bad. It proceeds, you see, from sovereign
grace, a sovereign God, grace, sovereign grace. It reaches the
foulest crimes, like the fellow that blowed up that building
in Oklahoma. It even reaches to men like him. I don't know that it did, but
it can reach to the foulest crimes, the most abominable transgressions. By this gracious pardon and forgiveness
of God in Christ, scarlet and crimson sins, red like crimson,
are made whiter than the All of these awful and various crimes
against God, though most of them are inconceivably terrible and
awful and are not fit to be conversed to others, they are hid in the
darkest recesses are of our depraved nature, some of them so bad,
so terrible, so awful, that never were they ever committed before,
and maybe never will be committed with these kinds of things. He pardons them, Bob. He forgives
them, full and complete. Guarantees you! I said, I'll
never remember the history. I know some of you here this
morning, you're saying, oh my, so I believe in Jesus, but oh,
I've said things, done things, and I don't want to be brought
up here before Him, and He's going to reach down there in
that catalog, and He's not going to do that. They're paid for
now! He paid it all in all to Him
I owe. Christ the Lord! He said, I'll
be responsible for them. What they owe, I'll pay. I'll
pay them for it. I'll suffer all they ought to
suffer. I'll do that. Be forgiven by a gracious God. How? By the blood of His Son. By the blood and righteousness
of His Son. Psalm 33, was it? Who? Well, it is not there, but in
the 8th chapter of the Book of Romans. Who shall charge anything? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died, yea,
he rose again. His blood and righteousness can
make the bile of sinners clean, cleanse them from all sin, be
they ever so many." He's a God of pardon, a God of mercy, a
God of forgiveness. I beseech you this morning to
think upon what I'm saying because this is the greatest blessing
that God will ever dispense. It's the blessing of a complete,
full, and free, and everlasting pardon to who? Whoever has a guilty conscience
and desires to get rid of it, you come to the Lord Jesus Christ
and God will pardon you of all your iniquity. Don't take my word for it. The
Word of God is sufficient. I will cleanse them from all
iniquity. I will do it. And he will do
it, less than we do.