Turn with me back to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Last Wednesday, we looked at the first five verses of this passage, and I want to begin with verse six this evening. Look at verse six, Psalm 103. Executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

In Romans 12, 19, we read, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Vengeance and judgment belong to the Lord. That was on full display at the Red Sea.

Turn to Exodus 14. Exodus 14. beginning with verse 21. This is a familiar passage. Exodus 14, verse 21, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land. And the waters were divided, and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground. And the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.

And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them in the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And it came to pass that in the morning Watch, the Lord looked into the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of the fire and the cloud and he troubled the host of the Egyptians. And he took off their chariot wheels and they drove them heavily so that the Egyptians said, let's flee. Let's flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fight us for them against the Egyptians.

And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thy hand over the sea that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians, they fled against it. And the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them, and there remained not so much as one of them, but the children of Israel.

The children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and on the left judgment. judgment for the oppressed.

We read, the Lord preserveth the strangers. He relieveth the fatherless and the widow. But the way of the wicked, the way of the wicked, he turneth upside down. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Now that's a whole lot easier in writing than it is in practice, isn't it? But the word of God's clear on that. Vengeance belongeth to the Lord.

Let's read on, Psalm 103, look at verse seven. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. His ways, his ways unto Moses.

Our Lord, he spoke in the book of John, in John 5, 46, and he said this to some men. He said, if you'd believe Moses, if you would have believed Moses, they said Moses is our father. He said, if you'd believe Moses, you'd believe me. Moses, Moses wrote of me. All the way back there in the Old Testament.

And it says here, he made known his ways unto Moses. Think about this. Back in the book of Genesis 1-1, Moses wrote those first five books of the Bible. Moses, his ways were revealed to him in creation, the creation of this world. We read there in Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the peculiar work of every one of those days is clearly spelled out in the book of Genesis.

He made his ways known unto Moses, his ways in creation, his ways in providence. Consider God's providence revealed in the birth. of Moses in just the first little bit of his life.

Turn to Exodus chapter 2. Exodus 2, look at verse 1. There went a man of the house of Levi, and he took a wife, took to wife a daughter of Levi. And that woman conceived, and she bare a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch. and put the child therein. And she laid it in the flags by the river's bank. And his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done.

And think about this, if all the people that are gonna walk down to the riverbank and take notice of this ark, it's Pharaoh's daughter. that the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the babe wept, and she had compassion on him, and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children, And then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew woman that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go. And the maid went, and who did she call? Moses' mother. The child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, take this child away and nurse it for me. and I'll give thee wages. I'll give thee thy wages." And the women took the child and nursed it, and the child grew, and she brought him into Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. Isn't that a wonderful story of adoption? And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. His way in providence. of all the places, of all the people. And that's who finds this little one down on the riverbank and raises him.

He made his ways known unto Moses in salvation. Christ was made known to Moses the seed of woman that would bruise the serpent's head. The ark, we read of that ark. Isn't that just a wonderful story? It is. That ark was Christ. It's a clear picture of Christ. He made His ways known in all those types of pictures. The Passover lamb. Could there be a clearer picture of our Lord and Savior than that Passover lamb? The brazen serpent lifted up? That rock? In the wilderness? What was said of that? That rock was Christ. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. What that had to look like to those children of Israel down there in Egypt when Almighty God would continually bring those plagues upon the Egyptians? and yet he would preserve and keep his people. When he redeemed them, when he brought them out of bondage, when he led them through the Red Sea, to walk through on dry ground with a wall of water on each side and then to deliver them, there comes the enemy pursuing them through the Red Sea. protecting them from their enemies, ultimately bringing them into the land of promise, bringing them into the land of Canaan. He made known his ways, his acts.

Well, let's continue here. Psalm 103, look at verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger and He is plenteous in mercy. Merciful and gracious. That's the message of God's Word. And that's, listen, that's not an opinion. That's doctrine. That's Scripture. These are the words of God to Moses declaring the truth of sovereign mercy. He said this, he said, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. God has elected, he has sanctified, he has called a people unto himself. If he didn't do that, none, none would be saved. All men are lost and dead in Adam. And by nature, we do not love God. We count the things of God as foolishness. Preaching to the cross to them that perish is what? Foolishness. Aren't we thankful that the Lord is merciful? That he is gracious?

In mercy, He pardons our sin. And listen, He doesn't do it grudgingly. You ever forgive somebody? I don't know if that's even really forgiving somebody when you do it with a grudge, right? When you're upset about it. Scripture says this, that He delights. He delights to show Mercy. He's merciful. He's gracious.

In 1 Peter 5.10, He's the God of all grace. He saved us. He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given in Christ Jesus before the world began. Paul said this of the ministry. He said, I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

The word grace, it's first used, we've been taught this, first used in the book of Genesis. There in Genesis 6. We read, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth. It grieved him at his heart and the Lord said, I'm gonna destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I've made them." But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He found grace. He found unmerited favor.

Listen to these words again. The wickedness of man was great. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It repented the Lord that he had made man. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He said, I'm gonna destroy man who I have created. It repenteth me that I made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

God saved Noah and his family. God saves whom he will. God owes mercy to no man. He owes grace to no man. It's undeserved. It's unmerited. But He's merciful. And He's gracious. And He shows mercy to whom He'll show mercy. He's gracious to whom He'll be gracious.

The Lord is merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger. and plenteous in redemption, plenteous in mercy. Let's read on verse nine. He'll not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. In the book of Micah, we read this. He retaineth not his anger forever because he delights. He delights in mercy.

Verse 10, he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. David would write later in Psalm 130, if thou shouldest mark iniquity, who should stand? If the Lord, if he were to reward us according to our iniquities, if every transgression received the just recompense of reward, all would spend an eternity in hell. The wages of sin is death. But God does not deal with us Not His people. He doesn't deal with us after our sins. He doesn't reward us according to our iniquities. He doesn't give us... You ever hear someone say, I want to be given what I deserve? He doesn't give us what we deserve. And that's because the Lord Jesus Christ bore those sins on the cross. The chastisement of them was on Him, and He made satisfaction for them. Not for all mankind, but for His people, His elect, His bride. Listen to just a few words from the book of Isaiah. It says, He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed.

Let me just read a few other scriptures to you. In Matthew 5, there was that man sick of the palsy, and he was lying on a bed. And the Lord Jesus, seeing the faith of His friends, He said unto that one that was sick of the palsy, He said, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee.

There was a woman in Luke 7. She washed the Lord's feet with her tears and she dried them with the hairs of her head. And our Lord said this, He said, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven.

Our Lord prayed to the Father as He hung on the cross, as He bore all manner of wickedness by those people, and this is what He prayed. Father, forgive them. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Romans 4, 7, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Turn to 1 John 2. First John 2, verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you. How? How's that possible? Why would God forgive me? for his namesake, for Christ's sake. Sinners by nature, sinners by birth, sinners by practice, but our sins are forgiven. Forgiven for Christ's sake.

Back to our text, look quickly at Psalm 103, verse 11. for as the heaven is high above the earth. Is there any greater distance that we could imagine or conceive? It's just infinite, isn't it? It amazes me that we can see the moon at night and you look out there and you try to make out just whatever you can on that moon. Well, the heavens are far, far beyond that. The heaven of heavens, it's infinite. Could anything better illustrate the mercy of God? It reaches to the heavens. It's in heaven itself. So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

Well, in closing, look with me at verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. I've heard men talk about that distance from east to west. All I know is this. It's infinite, it can't be measured. But these nine words are what really caught me. I think I counted them, I think there's nine here. So far hath he removed our transgression from us. There's no listing here of which sins. which I'm thankful for. One, I wouldn't know them, but can you imagine if we ever just even wrote them down ourself? And we'd certainly miss a few, wouldn't we? What's he say here? Which sins have been removed? Our transgressions. I like the fact that that is stated overly broad. Our transgressions, all of them removed, all of them put away.

The Lord spoke in Jeremiah and he said this, he said, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. He said, I blotted out like a cloud your transgressions. He said, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. What does that mean? What can we take from that? All my sin

As hard as this is to imagine, as hard as this is to believe, God's word says the sins of the believer have been put away. All of them, effectually, completely, perfectly gone by the sacrifice of his son. They've all, all been taken away. I think we read this last week or we've read it recently, but that conversation between Nathaniel and David there in 2 Samuel 12, David said to Nathan, he said, I have sinned against the Lord. And that was most certainly true, wasn't it? I've sinned against the Lord. That's true of all of us, isn't it?

I have sinned against the Lord. Remember what Nathan said to David. The Lord also hath put away thy sin, that thou shalt not die. It's put away. Listen to these words from Romans 8 verse 33, these things being true. Just listen to these words. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies sin. Put away, charge to his son, put completely away.

A few words from this hymn. My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole. It's nailed to his cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

I pray he'd enable me to remember that, cause me to rejoice in it, to take comfort in it, to know The Lord hath put away the sins of his people through the sacrifice of his son. All right, Isaac.