Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nider. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I'm going to be speaking this
morning from the prophet Micah in the Old Testament. We're going
to look at the seventh chapter, verses 18 through 20. And I have entitled this morning's
message, A Portrait of God. Do you want to know what God
looks like? Now, God is a spirit. That means
He does not have a physical body like you and I. And because He
is a spirit, He is invisible. So how can I know what God looks
like when He is invisible? God, in His mercy, has given
us a book called the Bible. the inspired, infallible Word
of God, and this Word tells us what He looks like. That's what the Bible is all
about. It tells us who God is. Now, in the passage of Scripture
that I'd like to preach to you from this morning, we're given
a beautiful portrait of God. what He actually looks like. Let me read this passage of Scripture
to you. In Micah chapter 7, beginning
in verse 18, Micah, and let me say that Micah knew God. The only ones who can give a
proper description of God or paint a portrait of God or tell
us what God really looks like are people who really know Him.
Micah knew the living God. And he writes, listen to this
beautiful portrait of God. Beginning in verse 18, Micah
says, Who is a God like unto thee? Now he goes on to describe
it. That 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 thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old." Now, in this passage of Scripture,
I just read, we're given a beautiful portrait of God. Now, Micah knew God, and he knew
his greatness was such that comparing him to anything would be degrading
to him. And that's why I said, who is
like unto thee? That's why idolatry is forbidden. When we make images or even conceptions
that we think are like God, there's nobody like Him. And any idol,
any conception we naturally have of Him is a wrong conception.
It's bringing Him down to our level. And Micah knew not to
do that. He said, who is a God like unto
thee? He's utterly unique. There's
no one to compare him to. Well, what's he look like? You know, he is a spirit and
a spirit is not material. Being a spirit, he's simple. He's not made apart. When I say
simple, I'm not talking about simple the way we generally think
of it, but that means He's not made of parts. He's not part
this and part that and the sum of the parts make the whole.
All of His attributes, He is 100%. He's wholly pure. He's wholly sovereign. He's wholly
just. He's wholly all-powerful. He's
wholly gracious. He's wholly right. All He is,
He is wholly. He's simple. He is the invisible
God. Now, how can I know what this
God looks like. God makes Himself known. He tells us what He looks like
in His manner of salvation. If you want to know who God is,
see how it is that He saves and you'll know who that God is. In Exodus chapter 3, verse 14,
God is replying to Moses who says, what's your name? What
am I going to tell the children of Israel your name is that you
sent me to deliver them? And he said, I am that I am. Tell them I am has sent thee. And that word in the Hebrew implies
this. I save in the manner which I
save. If you want to know who God is,
find out how he saves. Don't just take a man's word
for it. Find out from the Word of God how He saves, and you'll
find out who God is. Now, did you notice in that passage
of Scripture, Micah says, He shall pardon our iniquity and
pass by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage.
He retains not His anger forever. He delights in mercy. He will
turn again. He'll have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities
and so on. Who is the hour? Who are the
people that God saves? We have to see that because we
can't really see God's manner of salvation unless we see who
He saves. Now, these gracious promises,
He'll pardon our iniquity. He passes by transgression. This is not for everybody. There
is a place called hell where people don't have their sins
pardoned. Their iniquity has not been passed
over. They're suffering the wrath and justice of a holy God against
sin. The hour doesn't mean everybody.
Well, who is it he saves? Well, they're identified as the
remnant, the remnant of his heritage. Paul calls it the remnant according
to the election of grace. Now, the remnant, we have this
number in this, or this word in the scripture over and over
again, and it means a small number. a small number. Now at any one
time on the earth, God's people are a minority. They're never
a majority. They're always a minority. Now
that's not a problem because God's on their side. And if God's
on my side, it doesn't matter who holds against me. But God's
people are always a small number on the earth at any given time. God's elect is always a small
number. Now in the end, it'll be a whole lot of people. But
the people he has mercy on are the remnant, his elect, those
that he has chosen, not everybody. Now if he wanted to save everybody
and everybody was not saved, that would mean he would be a
failure. And that's not our God. Whatever he does must be successful. So who he saves is the remnant
of his elect. And the reason I point that out
is because the scripture points it out, but also I've got to
understand this. If I'm going to understand about anything
about God's salvation, whatever he does is successful. He can't
intend to save somebody and that person not be saved. Everybody
he intends to save, he saves. Everybody he shows his mercy
towards, They've saved. God is no failure. Whatever He
does must be successful. And if I'm going to know He is,
know who He is, I'm going to have to understand something
about how He saves. Now let's read in our text in
Micah chapter 7 verse 18. Who is of God likened to thee,
nobody can be compared to Him, who pardons iniquity. and passes by the transgression
of the remnant, the small number of his heritage, the elect. Now, with regard to the elect,
he pardons their iniquity and passes by their transgression.
Now, notice Micah points out that he only does this for the
elect. He doesn't do it for everybody.
Now, I remember when I first heard election, the fact that
God chose who would be saved and He didn't choose everybody,
it upset me. I thought, why doesn't He save
everybody? Why does He only save the elect?
Why didn't Christ die for everybody? Why did He only die for the elect?
Now, when we have those objections to that truth, what we're doing,
all of a sudden we're becoming God's judge. We're judging God
for what He does and we say, I wouldn't do that. I'm more
merciful than God. I'd save everybody. I'd forgive
everybody. Why doesn't God do that? What
we do is become God's judge. And when we say something like
that, or even when we think something like that, it is pure hypocrisy. And let me tell you why. If it
was up to me or you, not one person would be saved. Now we
say, oh, I'd save everybody. But let somebody sin against
you over and over and over and over again. At some point, you're
going to say, I've had it. That's enough. No more mercy
for that person. I can't take it anymore. Only
God can truly pardon iniquity. He's merciful and gracious. It's His nature. And He pardons
iniquity of His people. And here's how He does it. He
passes by, the Scripture says, the transgression of the remnant
of His heritage. And I don't have any doubt that
that's a reference to the Passover. Now do you remember in the Old
Testament when God passed through the land of Egypt and destroyed
the firstborn in every house? And notice I said He destroyed
the firstborn in every house, either that firstborn Paschal
Lamb or the firstborn Egyptian. But somebody was destroyed because
of sin. Now He said to the Israelites,
He said, you take a lamb without spot or blemish, representing
the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you take that
lamb and slay it and place the blood over the door. And he says,
I'm going to pass through the land of Egypt. I'm going to destroy
the firstborn. But when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now understand this, when God
sees the blood of His Son, He will pass over everyone for whom
that blood was shed. And there's only one thing that
God looks for. He doesn't say when I see your
sincerity or when I see your works or when I see your good
intentions, but when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Is that your only plea? The blood
of Christ is my only plea. Now God is known by how He saves. You see, God is just. Sin must
be punished. The sins of God's elect were
placed upon Christ. He punished them for it. His
blood put away their sins. His righteousness, the perfect
righteousness of Christ, is given to them so they stand righteous.
He passes by the iniquity and the transgression of the remnant
of His heritage. Now let's go on reading. He retains not his anger forever. Now God has wrath. There is a
place called hell. And those people who are in hell,
he retains his anger forever against them. Hell lasts forever.
And I wish I could say that the way I ought to say it. I wish
I could say it with a tear in my eye. the way I ought to say
it, but it's real. Hell lasts forever and God's
anger is never satisfied against those in hell. However, those
who are in Christ, He retains not His anger forever because
His anger was fully satisfied in the cross and now He has nothing
to be mad at. That's who God is. He doesn't
retain His anger forever. That gives us some idea of the
satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. God really doesn't have
a reason to be angry with any of His people because they have
no sin. That's why He doesn't retain His anger forever. What
a glorious God He is because I know, in and of myself, I deserve
His anger. I deserve His wrath. I deserve
His judgment. But thank God Christ took my
place and my transgression was passed over because of His death,
because of His burial, because of His resurrection. He was put
away and He doesn't retain His anger toward me. And catch this
next phrase. This is the God. You want to
know what God looks like? You want to know who He is? Listen
to this. delighteth in mercy." Now did
you hear that? This is who God is. You want
to know what He looks like? Here it is. He delights. He finds pleasure in mercy. The pleasure of God. Now God
is happy. He needed nothing to make Him
happy. He didn't create man because He needed Him. It was simply
His pleasure to do so. Revelation 411 says, Thou hast
created all things, and for Thy pleasure They are and were created. God delights in Himself. He has pleasure in Himself. He
loves Himself. Well, He should. He's altogether
lovely. He loves His Son. He loves His
Spirit. God takes pleasure in what He
does. whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in earth and sea and all deep places, and his
acts never spring from his need to make up deficiencies. He simply
does what he delights in, and he delights in mercy. He delights in saving sinners. He delights in having compassion
on guilty, hell-deserving sinners. Now do you hear that? That's
good news if you're a sinner. Now it means little to you if
you don't believe yourself to be a sinner, but if you believe
yourself to be a sinner, listen, He delights in mercy. And here's what proves he delights
in mercy. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 10 says,
it pleased, same word translated to delight here, it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. Now here's how much God delights
in mercy. It pleased him to give his son
to be a sacrifice for sinners. Now, only God, only God. He's utterly unique. Nobody else,
nothing else could ever do this. Give his son for sinners. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He has put him to grief. Only
God can do this. This is what God's like. He delights
in mercy. This is what he looks like. Let's
go on reading. Verse 19 says, he will turn again. He will turn
toward His people again, even though they sin against Him and
grieve Him. He will turn again, and He'll cause them to turn
again. He'll turn to us, and He'll cause us, all of His people,
to turn toward Him. He'll turn us again. Turn us
again, O God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine, and we shall
be saved. He will turn again, because He
delights in mercy. Oh, who God is is seen in His
manner of saving, how He says. Then it says, He will have compassion
upon us. And the reason He will have compassion
upon us, remember the us is every believer. It's not talking about
all of son, every son of Adam. But it's talking about every
son of God. It's talking about every believer. He will have
compassion on us because it's His nature to be compassionate.
Not because we deserve it, but because He is compassionate. He said, I will show mercy to
whom I will show mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. God is the God of compassion. And He will. He will. It's sure. He will have compassion
on us. Because He's compassionate. And
next it says, He will subdue our iniquities. What a glorious
promise this is. He will, He will subdue our iniquities, my iniquities, my sins. I have no control over my sin
in and of myself. I can't stop sinning. I can't,
I can't, I'm unable. Now I realize someone will listen
to that and say, well, what's he doing? What's he doing? You're
thinking the wrong thing because I'm describing you too. I'm talking
about what we are by nature. Sinful, evil people who cannot
be good. Now that's what the scripture
says of every man. There's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks after
God. They've all gone out of the way. They've together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. And I can't change that state. But he can. Here's the promise
of His grace. He shall subdue our iniquities. I can't, but He can, and He does. How? By irresistible, invincible
grace. You see, He has all power, and
by His power, He subdues that which we cannot subdue. Now,
it's true, the Lord said, without Me, you can do nothing. But we also read, I can do all
things through Christ which strengthens me. Now here's the promise of
grace. Romans chapter 6 verse 14 says,
sin shall not have dominion over you. It doesn't say it shouldn't
have, it says it shall not have. dominion over you for you're
not under the law but under grace here's why sin will not have
dominion over a believer because they're not under law if they
were under law sin would have complete dominion but they're
under grace and here's God's promise and I'm taking him up
on his word, Lord, you said in your word, sins will not have
dominion over me for I'm not under law, but I'm under grace.
Do what you said. Don't let sin in any way have
dominion over me because of your grace. And here's the promise. He will subdue our iniquities. And look what it says next. I
love this phrase. And thou wilt cast all their
sins. not most, but all their sins
into the depths of the sea." Now, once again, this is something
only God can do. He can take my sin off of me,
and that's what He did. He lifted my sin off of me. He
lifted all the sins of all the elect off of them and placed
them upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ went to that tomb. went into that tomb with all
my sins on him, with all the sins of all of his people on
him. And he spent three days before
the resurrection. And I don't know what all took
place during those three days, but somehow during that time,
my sin was purged, was put away. He bore the equivalent of an
eternal hell and actually made satisfaction for those sins.
And now they're cast into the depths of the sea. The Lord went
into the depths, and I don't know what all that means, but
my sins were left in the depths. They're obliterated. They're
gone. The scripture says He separated our sins from us as far as the
east is from the west. How far is that? It's an infinite
distance that can never come back together. Cast behind His
back all their sins. are cast into the depths of the
sea. Now look what it says in verse
twenty. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob. Now that word perform is the
word that is usually translated give. Thou wilt give the truth
to Jacob. Jacob is the representative of
all God's elect. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Thou wilt give the truth to Jacob. Do you want the truth? Do you
want to know the truth concerning who God really is and who you
really are and how God saves sinners? Well, if you want to
know the truth, you're going to have the truth. You shall
know the truth and the truth shall set you free. You're going
to know the truth concerning God. How He saves sinners by
His grace. How He saves sinners by Christ. You're going to have the truth
concerning yourself. You're nothing but a sinner. But that's not
going to be a bad thing because Christ came to save sinners.
You're going to glory in the truth. He will give the truth
to Jacob and He will give the mercy to Abraham. You'll give the mercy to Abraham.
Now mercy is not something that's offered and it's up to you to
accept it or reject it. That's foolishness. Mercy is
given. You don't decide whether or not
you're going to accept it. If he gives you mercy, you have
it. Mercy is given and only God has
the authority to actually give mercy. Now if you're guilty,
listen to me real carefully. If you're guilty, if you personally
are guilty, and you know that all your sin is all your fault. You can't blame your mom and
dad. You can't blame your upbringing. You can't blame your environment.
You can't blame the government. You can't blame anything but
yourself. All your sin is all your fault. Let me tell you two things that
you know regarding mercy. You know you need mercy. That's
what you need. Mercy. Pure, free, sovereign
mercy. It's up to God as to whether
or not you'll have it, but you know you need it. And you desire it. You desire the mercy of God. Now wherever there is a knowledge
of the need of mercy and a desire for mercy, mercy is given. There's never been a sinner who
needed mercy and desired mercy that God withheld mercy from
them. He gives mercy to all who need
mercy. That is the great God. That's what he looks like. That
is who he is. And notice it says, thou will
perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou
has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. And that means
from eternity. You see, everything God does
is eternal. There's no past, present, and
future with God. Everything He does is in the
eternal present. He is the great I Am, and everything
He does is eternal, because that's who He is. What's God look like? Well, He's utterly unique. No
one else looks like Him. He pardons and passes by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He doesn't retain
his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will turn again because of
who he is. He will have compassion on us,
all who believe, all of his people. He will subdue our iniquities. He will cast all our sins into
the depths of the sea. He will give the truth to Jacob
and the mercy to Abraham, the same that he purposed before
time began. Now that's what God looks like. Now we have this message on DVD,
CD, and cassette tape. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. And we'd like to invite you to
services at God's Road Grace Church. Our Bible study begins
at 945 this morning. The morning worship is 1030 and
we'd love to have you come out and hear the gospel of God's
grace. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at codsroadgracechurch.com
or you may write or call the church at the information provided
on the screen. These are offered on Courtesy
on Wheels at $73 down or based on these terms. Thanks for watching
Courtesy on Wheels with Dan and Megan. If you see a vehicle you
like, don't delay. Visit Courtesy Monday through
Saturday on Nicholasville Boulevard.