May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the prophecy
of Micah and the seventh chapter and we'll read verses 18 and
19. The prophecy of Micah chapter
seven and reading verses 18 and 19. 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 for
ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he
will have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities, and
thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. God's servant Micah lived in
the time of the kings of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. And he was very clearly a prophet
of the Lord who came to declare to Judah in those days, the situation
which existed, what they were doing and what would come to
pass. And yet he gives also wonderful
words of encouragement, which we read together in this chapter
and perhaps more particularly in these two verses we read this
morning. And it is quite amazing to realize
how good and how gracious is the Lord God. He does not deal
with us as our sins deserve. He did not deal with Israel as
their sins deserved. And we come to that God who is
the same today, who does not change. He is the same yesterday
and today and forever. And surely that should be a wonderful
encouragement to us today. No doubt it was, as Israel of
old went down into captivity, recognizing their sinful condition,
realizing they brought that condition onto themselves because of their
disobedience, because of their sins, because of their walking
contrary to the Lord, and yet to be able to read words of this
prophecy, There's no doubt they were in that time of captivity. Well, it must have been a great
and a wonderful encouragement to them, as they were in that
desperate situation, far off from Jerusalem, carrying away
captive, and yet to realise that the Lord God omnipotent reigns. And so as we have these words before us this morning,
The question which is posed in the first part of the 18th verse,
who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? We have to first
of all realise that he is speaking here to a remnant. He's not speaking to all mankind. He's speaking to those who are
the remnant of his heritage. And what a blessing for you and
me today if we're able to number ourselves among that remnant. And it is important that we can
number ourselves among that remnant because it is to those who these
words are addressed to. And if we are not part of this
remnant, then these words do not therefore really have an
application to us. But may we have the evidence
in our hearts, the work of the Holy Spirit given to us to realise
the Lord has looked upon us, he's not cast us off, he hasn't
ignored us, he hasn't passed us by, he's been mindful of us. and he's caused us to hear his
great and glorious voice. Now then, if that is so, may
it be so, it's so important for all of us to have the evidence
that we are amongst the people of God and that the Lord has
called us out of the darkness in which we were born in nature
into the light, the glorious light of the everlasting gospel. The Lord then poses this question,
who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? Well, we've
all sinned. We've all fallen short of the
high standard of God. We've all transgressed his great
and glorious law. And so every one of us, as we
stand before God, are guilty. We're hell deserving. We don't
deserve any favour. We don't deserve any mercy. And to then think of all the
religions there are in the world today, all the religions that
have in their religion their own God who they bow down to,
the God who they worship. And yet, this question is posed,
who is a God like unto thee? The truth is, there is no other
God that can pardon iniquity and pass by transgression. There is no other God who has
this ability. There is only one God, the true
God, and that is the Lord God who created heaven and earth,
that one who ever lives, that one who created the universe,
that one who lives in heaven above. This is the true God. And my friends this morning,
may we realise that this is the God that you and I bow down to. This is the God who we seek to. This is the God who we pray to. It's not a false God. He's not
a God made with hands. He's not made with timber or
stone. But this is the eternal God,
the eternal God in the heavens, the great God who holds our life,
our breath, in his hand, that God who controls everything in
this whole universe, every single thing, controlled by this great
and all-powerful God. And then to recognise, to realise
that this God who is so great, yet he condescends to look upon
poor, unworthy sinners of the earth. which of course is each
one of us. We are all sinners of the earth. We are all condemned by our sins. We're all condemned to eternal
punishment by our sins. And we all need a great and glorious
saviour. And we all need to receive this
great blessing of pardon. Pardon. to have our sins pardoned,
forgiven. Unless you and I possess that,
unless you and I are given that, we shall never enter into heaven. But oh, what a mercy to realise
that we are before this God this morning, and we bow down and
worship this God this morning. this great God who is able and
who does pardon iniquity. Well, sometimes our lives are
very false, aren't they? We just have a cloak of religion. We just have an outward casement,
as it were, an outward dress, just to appear to be a Christian
and appear to be somebody who believes in God. But you see,
the great question is to know that our sins are indeed pardoned. No unpardoned sinner can enter
into glory, can enter into heaven. No one can die without being
pardoned. and enter into heaven. Perhaps
we understand then something of the magnitude of this great
favour which we obtain and receive from this great almighty God. Well, there is no other God,
be quite assured of that, there is no other God who can pardon
iniquity and who can pass by our transgressions. It's only
this great and glorious God. So may we receive that blessed
grace, which it is, to look into our hearts and to see whether
we are the possessors of this great blessing of being pardoned. All our sins forever taken away. Remember, there's no other God
like our God. There's no other God like the
God of the Bible, the God which we read of from Genesis to Revelation. There is no other God like this
God. There are many, many false gods
in the world. Never forget this and the great
adversary of our souls, the devil, will try and turn our attention
from the essential concerns which should be ours of knowing the
great blessing of pardon?" Well, this question then we need to
be able to answer in our own hearts. Who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity and passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? You know, this God is so great
and it's so wonderful And what a blessing it is to know that
today we, by God's grace, worship the same God that the ancients
worshipped, we read of in the early scriptures. And you know
when Moses sang the song, it's called the Song of Moses, when
they came across the Red Sea. And that was a wonderful deliverance
naturally, wasn't it? A wonderful deliverance. deliverance
which none of them could have ever expected naturally, but
God delivered. And Moses in his song, he says
this, he says, Who is like unto thee, O Lord? Who is like unto
thee? Very similar words to the words
of our text, among the gods. You see the Egyptians, they worshipped
a false god. The countries around them worshipped
false gods and therefore there was only this great and glorious
God who delivered Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians
in an amazing way. Who is like Thee? Glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. The Lord God appeared
gloriously for Israel in natural things. He appeared for them
in spiritual things. And it would be a wonderful blessing
for us today if you and I can trace out first and foremost
the blessing of God in our souls, granting us the evidence of pardon. And also, alongside that, to
trace out the good hand of God upon us in the things in our
lives, to realise how he's gone before us, how he's not left
us, how he's not forsaken us. Who is a God like unto thee? Well, these great truths which
we are able to read in the Word of God and in the Book of Exodus,
it's good to be able to trace God's hand throughout the Word
of God, isn't it? And in the 34th chapter, the
Lord came and he taught with Moses. And he taught with Moses. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and to the fourth generation." You see,
these words we read in Micah Nothing new. The Church of God
were made aware of it. Right back you see, indeed you
can go back to Genesis and trace out the good hand of the Lord. But here we have then, at this
time when the Lord came unto Moses and spoke to him these
great words, the Lord, the Lord God. Now, may we, in our hearts,
have the same experience, not in obviously the physical way
that Moses did, but in the same way when the Lord comes and applies
his word to our hearts and the effect of it is that we bow down
and we say, the Lord, the Lord God, we know we are before Almighty
God. The God who has complete control
over everything in our lives. It's very good to have high views
of God. Now may we have high views of
God. Indeed, Isaiah, as he had that
vision, he saw the Lord lifted up and high and mighty. The Lord
God. Well, may you and I be blessed
with high views of God. I believe when we do have high
views of God, we then have small views of ourself. We see how
great the Lord is. What a mercy if we tremble before
such a God. Throughout the Word of God, when
the Lord appeared, the people trembled. They fell down. Well,
may you and I be blessed with that light grace to come before
our God, recognising that he is such a wondrous God, such
an amazing God. And as we then read on, he retaineth
not his anger for ever. So the Lord cannot look upon
us, can he, in our sinful condition and just say, well, that's just
their nature and well, that's okay. Just think, you know, the
sins that you and I commit. The sins that no one else knows
about. But God does. God knows our thoughts. He knows our innermost thoughts
and we must never ever forget that. He knows all about us. And this is the God who observes
the sins that we do. Those sins are such that really
condemn us, out of hand. They think there's no hope for
us. Well, there is. Why? Because we have a God who
delights in mercy. Isn't that good news? Isn't that
good news when we recognise the greatness of God, the holiness
of God, and our unholiness, and our sinfulness, and knowing that
because of our state, we deserve to be cast out from the presence
of God, never to see his face, and yet to realise, here we have
a God who delights in mercy. Well again, let's just trace
it out in our own lives. Do we know something of God's
mercy toward us? Do we realise that God has not
dealt with us as our sins deserve? Do we have the evidence of God's
favour to us? He looked upon us, He's seen
us, ruined in the fall, and yet loved us, notwithstanding all. This God Who is a God like this,
who delights in mercy? See all the other false gods
in this world, they don't have any mercy. They can't give mercy,
they're just dead. But our God, the true God, He
delights in mercy. It's not something which He grudgingly
gives. He delights in mercy. And you
see, when you and I are blessed with a realisation that we are
recipients of the mercy of God, well, does it not touch our hearts? Do we not bow down and praise
our God for his mercy which has come toward us? Well, this morning,
do we then know the pardon, and do we know therefore the mercy
of God? You see, we won't know pardon
unless we know the mercy. But if we know the mercy, then
may we know the pardon, to realise that this God has not dealt with
us as our sins deserve. Why not? Because of his mercy. Because he delighteth in mercy."
Isn't that something to ponder and to be amazed at? When you
think that in me, as the Apostle says, in me, that is in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing. And yet this kind and gracious
God, the ruler of the universe, delights in mercy. Therefore,
to have the evidence of it, what must it do? It must make us bow
down and worship the Lord for his mercy toward us. What an
evidence that is of God's love. He's not dealing with us as our
sins deserve. He delights in mercy. The line of the hymn says, is
welcome news indeed to those who guilty stand. Well, if the
Spirit of God has convinced us of our guilt before a holy God,
then surely His mercy has been, and may it be, welcome news to
us. He delights in mercy. This is the God that we bow down
before. This is the God that we desire
to worship. This is the God who is indeed
favourable to his people. Well, has he been favourable
to you and me? Has he been merciful to you and
me? Again, The Psalmist tells us,
Lord, 85th Psalm, Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy
land. Thou hast brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Has God been favourable to you
and to me? Favourable. His mercy has been
displayed. Favourable unto thy land. Favourable to you and to me.
We do need, don't we, the favour of God? We do need God to look
upon us favourably. We don't want God to look upon
us unfavourably. We want to know the favour of
God. And my friends, the favour of
God is set before us here In this great truth, this God delights
in mercy and pardons iniquity. Well, it would be a great blessing
for you and me today if by the Holy Spirit of God we know something
of His amazing mercy. Mercy. It's a lovely word, isn't
it? It's a very attractive word.
It's a word that we love to hear. If you're not under the work
of the Holy Spirit, it won't mean anything. But if you are,
then it will be welcome news in your ears. And so, he retaineth
not his anger forever. And Lord, we may feel sometimes
his anger upon us, and we know we deserve it. But this God, he doesn't retain
it forever. He delighteth in mercy. He hears
the cry of his elect. He hates to put away. And so the Prophet goes on and
he says he will turn again. He will have compassion upon
us. He will subdue our iniquities. There's three things there that
the Lord says he will do. And again, just ponder the greatness
of such favour and such mercy. He will, first of all, turn again. And then he will have compassion
upon us. And then he will subdue our iniquities. There is no other God that can
do these things, and no other God that can bless us with these
great and wonderful favours. He will turn again. That means
he will turn and look upon us. Yes, he will turn and look upon
us. He won't ignore us. He won't pass us by. And as the Lord gives us that
spirit of prayer to cry unto him for mercy, we may think because
of our sins the Lord will not look on us. We may think we've
sinned against light and knowledge. We may think there's no hope
for us. The Word tells us He will turn
again. We are to call upon the Lord.
We are to cry unto Him. We are to pray unto Him in all
our time of need. He will hear. He will answer. He will turn again. You see what a mercy it is to
realise that this great God, this almighty God, this great
and glorious God, turns again and looks upon us. And of course
we can recognise this as we think of the Lord Jesus Christ looking
upon us. You know, you think of Peter,
denying his Lord and Master. That one who only a few hours
before he would say no, he would die with the Lord. But you see,
if the Lord just leaves us for a moment, we'll deny the Lord. Did the Lord turn away from him?
Did he ignore Peter? Well, what happened? the Lord
turned and looked upon him. He looked upon Peter and what
was that? That was a look of love. And
what did that do to Peter? Did he just go on his way? No. It had a very wonderful effect
upon Peter. There was the look of conviction,
there was a look of mercy, and there was a look of love. And
the effect upon Peter was that he went out and he wept bitterly. He went out and he wept bitterly
because of his sins against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what a
mercy for us if the Lord should turn and look upon us and we
realise that we didn't deserve the Lord
to look upon us. We'd sinned against him. We may
have denied the Lord. We may have denied him by our
actions, by our words. And therefore we never deserved
the Lord to look upon us. And yet the Lord then, as Peter,
looks upon us. What a blessing then, to know
that it has an effect upon us. And what do we see? What do we
then view? We then realise that it's our
sins that's caused the Lord Jesus Christ to suffer and to die in
our place. To think that we may perhaps
ponder these things and consider these things to be brought to
the cross of Christ and to look up and to see the Lord suffering
on our behalf and to see him, as it were, by faith, look upon
us, turn again, he will turn again. What a favour it is to
have the Lord look upon us and to know that he's looking upon
us, notwithstanding all our filthiness and vileness and sinfulness,
this God who delights in mercy. And so the word is true, he will
turn again. He will not ignore us. He will
turn again and when he turns again he will have compassion
upon us. He remembers our frame. He knows that we're dust and
therefore he looks upon us and he has compassion upon us. Well, it's an amazing thought,
isn't it, to think that this great God can have compassion
on such a sinful man or woman or boy or girl. This great God
can have compassion and that means that he doesn't deal with
us as our sins deserve. Not at all. He doesn't deal with
us in that way. It's because of his compassion. It's a good thing, isn't it,
to have a recognition that this compassion sets before us what
we should do one to another. Have compassion as Christ has
had compassion upon us. And so again, to ask ourselves
the question, has this great and glorious Saviour turned to
look upon us and had compassion upon us? Well, He will have done. If our sins are pardoned, He
will have looked upon us, He will have had compassion upon
us, because we haven't been dealt with as our sins deserve. The
Lord's love, the Lord's compassion, And so he will turn again, yes
he will, and he will have compassion upon us. What a wonderful thought
that is. And it's so humbling, isn't it,
to think of the almighty God who created all things. He looks
upon us individually and has compassion upon us individually. He will have compassion upon
us. And then he goes on to say he
will subdue our iniquities. And that's a very beautiful phrase
if you just ponder it. Because by nature we are sinful,
by nature sin wells up within us, by nature we sin and we sin. And although we may perhaps in
a a tentative way, perhaps, you know, think, well, I must stop
this, doing this, I must stop thinking about this. And yet,
you see, because of our sinful condition, we have no real natural
ability to do this. But here we have a great God
who tells us this. He says, He will subdue our iniquities. Yes, he'll bring them down. He'll bring them down. Subdue
them. You know, nothing's subdued.
It runs riot, doesn't it? What a blessing to have a God
who subdues our sins, brings those iniquities down. What a
mercy. And you know, when God does that,
It's a wonderful favour. And I'll put it this way. We
use a phrase, it's a biblical phrase, besetting sins. And that
means that in your life and my life there may be some particular
sin which we kind of continue to fall under and to do. It may be outwardly, it may be
inwardly, it may be in our heart, It may be in our mind, whatever
it is. It may be what is spoken of as a besetting sin. And it
may trouble us. It may not trouble us very much,
perhaps, at one time. But as the work of the Spirit
deepens His work of grace in our hearts, we shall realise
more and more how we do not want these sins, and yet they seem
to be there. But here we have this encouraging word. He will
subdue our iniquities. He will take away perhaps the
desire after certain things. He will strengthen us to turn
away from such things. What is this? It's God's goodness,
it's God's grace in subduing our iniquities. What a blessing
that is. You know, you and I will be conscious
of this. And we thank God for it, that
we're able to realise that, well, by the grace of God, I'm not
what I was. It's God's mercy toward me in
subduing these iniquities. Why don't you and I look back
in our lives? I hope we can see there, in our lives, what God
has done in subduing iniquity, and of course the Word
of God is personal, subduing our iniquity, subduing your iniquities,
subduing my iniquities. What is it? It's a great and
glorious sign of God's mercy and love toward us, because he's
dealing with us in love to our souls. And that's a very humbling
and a very blessed realisation, to recognise that here we have
a God who is subduing our iniquities, subduing our iniquities for his
honour and glory, so that we may come, perhaps in private
to God, and thank him for his goodness in this respect. And so the Prophet says, He will
subdue our iniquities." Well, it would be a mercy this morning
if you and I can enter into a conscious realisation of the work of God
in our souls, to be able to trace out, yes, he's turned again,
looked upon me, he's had compassion, and he has subdued my iniquities. Oh, what a great blessing, what
a great favour this is. And what does it show? the mercy
of God toward us. It's the evidence of his love
and mercy. And then he says, and they will
cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Now why is such an expression
like that used? It's to show that when the Lord
pardons, sin is forgiven and it's out of sight. It's not as
though just thrown into the sea so that when the tide goes out,
there it's all revealed. No, it's into the depths of the
sea. And it will never therefore be
seen. And God says this. Well, a great
blessing, isn't it? To think of our sins which we
tremble over perhaps, fearful of, as we recollect them
to think that God says such a great truth as this. He says, and thou
wilt cast all their sins, this is the great God, into the depth
of the sea. What does it mean? It means this.
It means there is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. Walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit. That's the work of the Blessed
Spirit, to cause us to walk after the Lord God and after His ways. And so to think and be favoured
with this great blessing to have all our sins, every sin. It needs to be that, because
no sin can enter into heaven. No sinner can enter into heaven,
not with the smallest sin. Because heaven is a holy place. Heaven is a great and glorious
place. And to think that we have such
a kind and such a gracious God who does not therefore deal with
us as our sins deserve. And he tells us in the Paul's
book of Hebrews, the 8th chapter, he says, For I will be merciful
to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
would I remember no more. No more. You know, you and I,
people sin against us, they say wrong things, don't they? And
perhaps we may say, well, of course, I forgive you. But you
know, to actually remember it no more is almost impossible,
isn't it? We just remember those things. But you see, God says he will
remember them no more. He will remember them no more.
What a blessing it is then to know that this great and glorious
Saviour takes away our sins. And of course, He's taken away
our sins, He's forgiven our sins, He washed them away. How? In
His own most precious blood. The Apostle John in his first
epistle points this out. He tells us in the first chapter,
but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light. And if
the Lord has blessed our souls in this way, by His grace we
are walking in the light. He says, but if we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship, one with
another. So we walk together. The Church of God, they walk
together. There's only one Church of God and the Church of God
walk together in love because they are united in this great
and glorious truth. The Lord has forgiven them. He's
taken away all their sins. They're forever cast in the depth
of the sea. We are fellowshipped one with
another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us
from all sin. We all join together. We all
rejoice in the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. and
the effect of the shedding of that most precious blood to take
away our sins forever, and to therefore enter in to that great
truth. There is therefore now no condemnation
of those who are in Christ Jesus. And thou wilt cast all their
sins into the depth of the sea, to be remembered no more forever. You see, with God, it is a complete
forgiveness. Complete. Nothing lacking. Because it's been completed. That forgiveness, that taking
away. All our sins have been washed
away. in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
this morning may we be able to come and rejoice indeed, rejoice
together in what God has done and to realise there is no God
like unto thee, no God, no God like unto thee who pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage
He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities,
and now will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Amen.