I've entitled this message, A
Portrait of God. And if you want to know what
God looks like, this passage of Scripture tells us as clearly
as any passage in the Word of God. And I'd like to make another
comment about this. This is a portrait of God, but
it ought to be. what every believer looks like
also. Now, I realize there's some things in here that a believer
could never perform. We cannot perform the subduing
of iniquity. We don't have the right to cast
somebody's sins into the depths of the sea. There are some things
that cannot be communicated to us. But that being said, this
is a beautiful picture. of what a believer ought to be
by the grace of God. They ought to be like their Lord,
shouldn't they? They are, by the grace of God,
like their Lord. But let's consider this as a
portrait of who God is. I want to know what He looks
like, don't you? I want to know who He really is. Now, Micah says in verse 18, Micah says in verse 18, Who is
a God like you? Micah knew God. He didn't simply know about Him.
He knew him. He knew the living God, and he
knew that his greatness was such that comparing him to anything
was degrading to him. That's why he said, Who is like
you? There is no comparison. One of the reasons, one of the
many reasons why idolatry is such an evil is any form or likeness
or comparison we make with God, what we do, we bring him down
to our level. It's evil. It's always bringing him down. No one can be compared to the
Lord. He is utterly unique. There's nobody like him. Turn
to Isaiah chapter 45. Let me show you a couple of scriptures
that bear this out. Isaiah 45, verse 5, I am the Lord, and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I go to thee, though thou hast
not known me. that they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the West that there is none beside me. There's nobody to compare me
to. I am the Lord and there is none else. Now he identifies
exactly who he is. I am the one that forms the light
and creates darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Ain't nobody like that, is there?
Nobody can even be compared to him. Look in Isaiah chapter 46. Beginning in verse five, I mean,
verse nine. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there's
none like me, no one to compare me with. How's that? Well, I declare the end from
the beginning. From the very beginning, I tell
exactly what's going to take place. And from ancient times,
the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand,
I will do all my pleasure. Nobody like that is there. There's
all the kinds of things I'd like to do, and I don't have the power
to get anything done. I have absolutely no control
of anything. And he has all control over everything. There is nobody like Him. Now, God is spirit. Our Lord tells us that in John
chapter 4, verse 24. God is spirit. He doesn't have flesh and bones
and a physical body like you and I do. To say that He's spirit
means He is simple. He's not made of parts. He's
not part just, part gracious, part merciful, part no. Everything
He is, He altogether is. You don't have a balance of things
and the many parts make the whole. Not at all. He's altogether sovereign,
altogether just, altogether holy, altogether gracious. You can't
overemphasize anything regarding who He is. He's simple. He's immutable because He's Spirit. You know, you and I are immutable,
aren't we? We change continually. I wish it wasn't like that, but
we do. We change continually, but He never changes. He's infinite. He's omnipresent. You can't go
anywhere where He's not. He's eternal. He never had a
beginning. He never has an ending. He's omnipotent. He's all-powerful.
Everything that He desires to do, He has the power to do. He's
sovereign. He controls everything. He's
holy. He's just. He's simple. Simple doesn't mean
easy to understand, but he's not complex. I don't know. He's
incomprehensible as far as that goes. He's incomprehensible,
but he's simple. He's spirit. And do you know
that this God I'm speaking of who is so awesome, who is so
glorious in holiness, this God I'm speaking of, there are people
who actually know God. I believe I'm one of them. I
believe that I know the living God. Not just know about him.
I know him. And he knows me. Now, these people are described
in our text as the remnant of his heritage, the elect. Look
what it says in Micah 7, verse 18, who is of God likened to
thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. Now, the remnant is a small number. That's what it always means.
As far as any time on earth, the number of God's elect is
always a small number. They're always in the minority. Now, they're in the majority
because God's with them. But they're in the minority as far
as men go. It's always been that way. The
remnant, the small number of gods elect. But these are the
people that know the living God. Now, when it's all said and done,
there's going to be a whole lot of millions and millions, hundreds
of millions that know the living God. But it's always a small
number at any given time on the earth. I think of when the Lord
destroyed the earth with the flood. How many people did he
save? Out of all the earth? Eight. Eight. Do you remember how, when
he was going to destroy Sodom, they couldn't find ten righteous
men in that great city? It's always been a small number,
but this small number knows the living God. Now, Micah knew God. And he paints a portrait of his
glorious person with words. Christ is the Word of God. Christ
is the portrait of God. He is the express image of the
invisible God. And all you or I will ever know
of the living God is Jesus Christ. He is the mighty God. He is the everlasting Father. He is the Prince of Peace. And the government is upon His
shoulders. All you or I will ever know of
the living God, whose Spirit is the man Christ Jesus, Jesus
of Nazareth, the Son of God. Now, look what he says regarding
God. Who is a God like unto thee?
And here's the first mark or picture he gives of God, the
God that pardons iniquity. The God that pardons iniquity. Do you have any iniquity? Do
you have any sin that renders you vile before God? Now, this
passage of Scripture says he pardons iniquity. It doesn't
say he may do it. It says he doesn't. He actually
pardons iniquity. He forgives whom he will. Now,
he forgives whom he will. He doesn't forgive everybody.
Not everybody is a forgiven sinner. There are sinners who go to hell
that he does not forgive. Now, you think he lets them go,
but he does pardon a nickel. Now, before I said this in Sunday
School this morning, I think that this is becoming more and
more apparent to me, more and more real to me. People get upset
over the fact that he doesn't pardon everybody. Why doesn't
He save everybody? Why doesn't He have mercy on
everybody? Why doesn't He forgive everybody's sins? I would! No, you wouldn't. No, you wouldn't. That's just big talk. That's
all it is. Let somebody sin against you enough time, and you'll say,
I've had it. I'm not going to have anything
to do with them. I'm going to kick them out. Only God pardons
iniquity. If it were up to me or you, nobody
would be saved. Do you believe that? Now it's
up. It's up. If it were up to me
or you, nobody would be saved. People argue against God's electing
mercy and God's sovereign grace. How could it be fair for him
to save some and pass by others? And what we're doing when we
do that, we're sitting in judgment on God. We're saying, I disagree
with that. I wouldn't do it, but it's pure
hypocrisy because the fact of the matter is, is if it was up
to me who'd be saved, nobody'd be saved but me. I guarantee
you that's the way it is. Because if you cross me enough,
at one time, I'm going to blot you out, but not God. He pardons
iniquity. Isn't that wonderful? Only God
pardons iniquity. That's who He is. He delights
in forgiving sinners. He pardons. He puts away iniquity.
Look what it says next in our text. He passes by. the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage. Now, he pardons iniquity, how?
By passing by their transgressions. Now, you know what this is a
reference to? You remember when God came through
Egypt and he said, I'm going to destroy the firstborn in every
house. Every house. Now, you take a
lamb, you slay it. There was death in every house,
the house of Israel and the house of everybody else. Maybe it was
their own personal death and everybody else. But with the
house of Israel, there was the death of the lamb. You take the lamb, you slay it. It's got to be a perfect lamb,
a spotless lamb. You slay that lamb, which represents
the lamb of God, the spotless lamb of God, having the sins
of God's elect placed upon him. You slay that lamb. You take
the blood and you put it over the door. And God said, I'm going
to pass through the land. And when I see the blood. I will pass over you. Now, what is the one thing God
had to say? He didn't say, when I see your
works, or when I see your sincerity, or when I see your faith, or
when I see your faithfulness, or when I see your good intentions.
He said nothing like that. There's one thing that God was
looking for. What was it? Blood. The blood of the paschal lame. You see, God's justice has to
be satisfied. My sin became Christ. Christ
died. His righteousness becomes mine,
and God says, when I see the blood, the blood of Christ, I
will pass over you. He passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. Look what it says next. Who is
a god like unto thee that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth not his anger forever."
Now, there is something called the anger and the wrath of God. Now, His anger and wrath is not
like our anger and wrath. Our anger and wrath is a sinful
anger and wrath. It's a perverted anger and wrath. But his anger and wrath is holy. His anger and wrath is righteous
because of who he is. Look down the page at Nahum. Verse 2. God is jealous. He's intolerant of rivals. The Lord revengeth The Lord revengeth
and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. Look down in verse 6. Who can
stand before his indignation? Who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? There's only one who could. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He drank the wrath of God dry. I love to think of when Elijah,
he said, douse the sacrifice down. And then the fire of God
came down and consumed the sacrifice so that there was no sacrifice
left. There wasn't any rocks, there wasn't any dirt, there
wasn't any water. It was all gone. The fire consumed the sacrifice. And here's the one time when
our Lord was on the cross. The sacrifice consumed the fire. It's gone. He drank the wrath
of God dry as the sinner's substitute, so there is no more wrath. That
is why he retaineth not his anger forever. Now, if I go to hell,
he retains it forever, doesn't he? Hell is eternal. It will
go on and on, and it's just, it's right. Of all the things
that that I just have a hard time thinking about is to think
about an eternal hell. To think it goes on and on and
on forever, forever, after ten trillion eons it hadn't even
begun. Oh, I have a hard time thinking
about that. But I know it's right. Because God did it. Whatever
God does is right, just, holy, and true. He retains His anger
forever against those outside of Christ. But in Christ, He
retains not His anger forever. There's no anger. There's no
wrath. There's no fury. And here's why.
Look what it says next in our text. It says, here's why He
retains not His anger forever. Because He delighteth. He delighteth. Now get that word. Remember, this is a portrait
of who God is. He delighteth. He takes pleasure in mercy. This is His nature. The living God, the holy God,
takes pleasure mercy. Now, the pleasure of God. I love
thinking about the pleasure of God. You know, the Lord God's
happy. I say that reverently, but it's true. He is the blessed,
the happy God. He did not create man because
he needed him. It was simply his pleasure to
do so. Revelation 411 says thou has
created all things for thy pleasure. They are and were created. God Delights, God takes pleasure
in Himself. God takes pleasure in His Son.
God takes pleasure in His Spirit. And God takes pleasure in whatever
He does. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
whatsoever the Lord found pleasure in, that did He in earth and
sea and in all deep places. His acts never spring from the
need to make up for deficiencies. That's what we do. We're always
trying to make up for deficiencies, but God never does that. He delights
in mercy. And listen to this. The scripture
says, and I don't, there's no way I can get ahold of this,
but the scripture says in Isaiah chapter 53, that it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. Now that is the same word that
translated delighted right here. It delighted the Lord. to bruise and to crush his son. Now somebody says, how could
that delight him? That's a hard thing to deal with.
It's not because he had some kind of cruel pleasure, but he
delighted in his justice being honored. He delighted in his
son's obedience. He delighted in saving his people
when he was pouring out his wrath on his son. That doesn't mean
he was having fun doing it. Oh, I can't think of the pain
it brought the father to pour his wrath out upon his son. I
don't know how to explain that. I guarantee he wasn't indifferent
about it. He wasn't something, oh, to pour His wrath out upon
His only begotten Son. You know what it says, with,
we're scarcely saved, it means with great difficulty. With great
difficulty. And no doubt, there was great
difficulty in God pouring His wrath on His Son. But He took
pleasure in doing it. And this is, somebody explain
this to me. He got pleasure out of it because
He saved me. You were on His heart. He did
this to save you. Now you think of the pleasure
of God. He delights in mercy. You know, we don't ever read
in the scripture where He delights in wrath. We read nothing like
that. But He delights in mercy. And He is more willing to give
you and I mercy than we are to receive it. That's because He
delights in mercy. And here's how His mercy is expressed.
Look what it says in verse 19. He will turn again. He will turn again. Now, that's true in two senses.
He'll turn to us. How many times have you felt
like He turned away from you because of your sin, because of your
unbelief? because of your act of disobedience.
You feel, He's turned away from me. And as far as the way we
feel, it feels like He has. He hides His face. But you know
what? Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. And He will turn again toward
you. Because He turned His back on
His Son, He will turn toward you. That's for sure. And not only
will he turn to you, he will cause you to turn to him. Turn us again, O Lord of hosts,
cause thy face to shine, and we will be saved. He will turn
us again. Aren't you thankful for that?
Because how many times have you turned away from the Lord? How
many times have you just turned away and gone astray like a lost
sheep? You just went your own way? How
many times? Ten counting that here is the
promise toward all of those who turn away from Him, He'll turn
us again. Isn't that great? Turn us! Cause thy face to shine. That's
our desire, that He would turn us. And here's a promise. He
will turn again. And next, it says in verse 19,
he will have compassion upon us. Now, this is a necessity
because of who he is, not because of us or any merit in us, but
because of who he is. I will be gracious. That's his
promise. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will show compassion on whom
I will show compassion. And this is our Lord. He has
compassion. He will have compassion touched
by the feeling of our infirmities. He will. That's a promise. He will have compassion upon
us. That's his nature. And look at
this next promise. I love this. He will subdue our iniquities. I wish I could speak the way I ought to speak
at this time, but my sin, my sinful nature and my sinful
actions, I'm helpless before them. I cannot stop sinning. I can't do it. And my sin beats me down continually. And how precious this promise
is, He will subdue our iniquities. Isn't that a precious promise?
We have the promise of Romans 6, 14. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. And here's why. You're not under
law. You're under grace. That's a
good place to be under, isn't it? I love to have grace over
me. I'd be afraid to be under anything else. Sin shall not
have dominion over you. This is God's promise. You take
this up with him. Lord, you promised this. Sin
shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law. You know, if you were under law,
all it would do is make you worse. That's it. That's all it can
do. But here's the precious promise. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, because you're not under law, but you are under grace. You know, a pardon for sin but
no deliverance from its power would be like a man in prison
who's going to die that very day of a disease or be executed,
one of the two. He's got both coming. He's scheduled
to be executed and he's going to die that very day. Well, if
you pardon me, what good would it do him if you didn't deliver
him from that disease? Wouldn't do him any good at all.
He's still going to die anyway. I need both. And it says, He
will subdue our iniquities for us. Turn to Psalm 65. Hold your
finger there in the mic and turn to Psalm 65. Here's how. Verse 3. David says, Iniquities prevail
against me. They're winning. As for our transgressions,
thou shalt purge them away." Isn't that glorious? Now, in
my experience, iniquities prevail. They seem to be winning. But,
as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. And what's that next word? Causest. to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts, which shall be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." He causes
us to approach unto him. He's the only one who knows any
good. Now, isn't this thing of subduing my iniquities? I approach
to Him, it's because He caused me to, and I say, Lord, subdue
my sin for me. You promised you would in your
Word. You promised. Now do what you said you'd do
in your Word. Take God at His Word. May God
give me grace right now to take Him at His Word. Lord, You said
it. I didn't say this. You said it.
He shall subdue our iniquities for us. Lord, subdue. What a precious promise, because
my iniquities, my sins, oh, I sure can't subdue them. What a promise. Back to our text. And thou, verse 19, and thou
wilt cast all all their sins into the depths of
the sea. Now, once again, this is something
only God can do, but He can do it. He takes all my sins, and
He placed them on His beloved And the Lord went lower than
the depths of the sea. I don't know what all happened
during that three days in which he was dead, but he went lower
than the depths of the sea. And he went into that tomb with
my sins. And he went way down. And three
days later, he walked out of that tomb, and there's something
he walked out without. my sins. They've been cast into
the depths of the sea. They are separated from me as
far as the East is from the West there. How far is that? That's
infinite, isn't it? That's infinite. East is never
going to meet West. It keeps going. He separated
my sins from me. That's who God is. He cast them
all into the depths of the sea. Now look what it says in verse
20. Thou will perform the truth to Jacob. Now I'm not real sure
why the translators selected the word performed here because
it's the word that's usually translated gift. Thou wilt give
the truth to Jacob. Poor old Jacob. Sinful Jacob.
God promises He's going to give the truth to him. But you know,
I was thinking of this word perform. They had a reason for translating
it that way. These fellows are a lot smarter
than me as far as their translations. But you know, when I believe
the truth, that's God performing for me. Thou wilt perform all
things for them. When I repent, that's God performing
for me. When I love, that's God performing
for me. When I see that I'm nothing but
seen, when I see the truth concerning who I am, that's God performing
for me. When I see the truth concerning who He is, that's
God performing for me. Thou wilt give the truth. Aren't you thankful He's giving
you the truth? He's giving you the truth regarding who He is,
who you are. who His blessed Son is. And in
Him giving you the truth, that's His performance. That's what
He does. Thou wilt perform the truth. Thou wilt give the truth to Jacob
and the mercy. You'll give the mercy to Abraham. Mercy is not something that is
offered to you, and you decide whether or not you're going to
accept it or reject it. Mercy is mercy given. And only God has the authority
to bestow His mercy and to actually give it. Now, I was thinking
about this, this thing of mercy. If you're guilty, if you're personally guilty,
and all your sin is all your fault, You can't blame God. You can't blame your circumstances. You can't blame your upbringing. You can't blame your environment. All your sin is all your fault. Guilty as charged. If you're guilty, there are two
things you know about mercy. Number one, you need it. And
number two, you want it. That's simple enough, isn't it?
If you're guilty, two things. You know about mercy. You need
it. If He doesn't give you mercy,
you've had it. And you want it. You desire the mercy of God. And beloved, If you need it,
I do. And if you desire it, I do. You've got it. You've got it. There's never been anyone who
needed mercy. And there's never been anyone
who did not desire mercy that he didn't give it to. Remember,
he delights in mercy. He finds pleasure in giving mercy. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. That doesn't mean a thousand years before this. The
days of old is generally translated eternal. Eternal. the mercy he's promised from
eternity. Now, because God is God, and
this blows my mind, I can't comprehend this, but everything God does
is eternal. Everything. If he's had mercy
on you, he's always had mercy on you. There was never a time
when his mercy began. It always is. Everything he does
is eternal. Now, because we're creatures
of time, it's hard for us to grasp. I realize it's impossible
for us to grasp. We think in terms of yesterday,
right now and tomorrow. But with God, there is no yesterday,
right now and tomorrow. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today and forever. There is no time with him. And
if he promised you this mercy, if he's given you this mercy,
you've always had it. If he loves you, He's always
loved you. If He has favor toward you, there's
never been a time when He didn't. This is the mercy sworn to our
fathers in eternity. Now, that's God. That's God. What a beautiful portrait of
God. He's utterly unique. He pardons iniquities. He passes
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 turn
to me and he'll cause me to turn to him. He will have compassion. He will, what a promise, he will
subdue our iniquities. He will cast our sins into the
depths of the sea. He will give the truth to Jacob,
and the mercy to Abraham, that which he purposed before time
began. Now that's who God is. That's
what he looks like. Not in a physical material portrait, but
a portrait of the Word of God. Isn't he beautiful? Isn't the
Lord God beautiful. And may we, by his grace, reflect
his beauty. Let's pray.