We're in the book of Micah, if
you'd like to turn there. There is no clearer declaration
of Christ, of the prophecy of the Messiah, the prophecy of
the Savior, the prophecy of mercy and grace in all the Old Testament
as there is in Micah. Isaiah and Jeremiah, they were
around, Isaiah was around the same time as Micah. He would
have been the contemporary, he would have been a little later
on, but Christ is revealed in Micah, even tells you exactly
where he's gonna be born in Bethlehem. We'll see that on Sunday. Micah
has a message from the Lord as all the prophets did, and it's
a message of judgment to reveal the sin of Israel. And yet the
Lord also reveals that God delights in mercy for his elect, and that's
our hope. We clearly see the destruction
of the physical nation, Israel, as he pronounces judgment upon
them. Their destruction, their physical destruction, is in no
way a reflection of their spiritual destruction, because it's not
the physical he came to save, but the spiritual. He's not going
to destroy those that he has elected, those that are his people,
those that have been given the faith of Abraham, as we see in
Hebrews. They are not all of Israel that
are of Israel. Well, what does that mean? Well,
that means the Lord's people are from every nation, every
tribe, every kindred, as we just sung about. Church is one foundation. He's elected so that no man can
boast in their creed, their bloodline. No man can boast in what they
are, what they do. It's all of grace, isn't it? We see the sin of Israel is simple,
and part of it's found in chapter three, verse 11, which says,
the heads thereof, And heads, he means the governors, the ones
that are in rule, the ones that are in authority over Israel
at this time. The heads thereof judge for reward,
and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof
divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord
and say, is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us. See, they believe that their
lack of evil was a direct reflection of favor with God. And that's
not true, is it? It's actually the opposite. It's
actually the opposite. With much wisdom comes much sorrow. When the Lord shuts us up to
Christ, He causes us to grieve over our sin. He causes us to
be sorrowful. So we see how evil we are, how
wicked we are. And yet these men and women were
saying, well, we have God's favor because it's all, what's the
term they say? Kumbaya, just everything. They
had a flippant attitude towards the worship of God. everything's
all right, God must be pleased with us because everything's
good in my life. And it's just not true, is it? We see that the sin root that
is described in chapter one, and we're gonna read chapter
one in a moment. The sin root is described as being in Samaria. Now, Samaria, I would remind
you that the nation Israel had split into two kingdoms at this
point. You had Judah and Benjamin, the
southern kingdom, and Israel, the 10 other tribes in the northern
kingdom. And the capital of the southern
tribe, Judah, was still Jerusalem. And the Lord said, that's where
I'll meet with you, is where that mercy seat is in that temple.
That's where the Lord had established his temple. Well, you remember
the king, you had Rehoboam, you had Jeroboam. Rehoboam was the
king in the south and Jeroboam was the king in the north. And
he said, well, I'm not going to go down to Jerusalem and worship after
they had had civil dispute and split from each other. He said,
if I do, then the people will just end up returning back to
him. So he made him two temples, didn't he? and he put in golden
calves. And the capital city was Samaria. And that was the root problem,
was Samaria. You remember the Samaritan woman
at the well? You remember what she professed in her knowledge
of salvation was? Their sin was worshiping God
in the form of the sun, the form of the moon, the cat, a dog and
a donkey. That's how they said they had
their gods whenever they were in The Jews intermingled with
these Canaanites that were in the land, and they became Samaritans,
half-breed Jews. And they said, okay, well, we're
going to take Jehovah, and we're going to take our gods, and we're
doing the same thing you're doing already. These are Jehovah. This
is the cat Jehovah. This is the dog Jehovah. It might
sound silly, but that's literally what they did. And over time,
men became desensitized, forgetting what they had learned about the
one true God. They've forgotten that he has to be worshiped,
not by the works of man's hands, but according to his word is
how he's worshiped, according to his truth and according to
his spirit. That's how the Lord must be worshiped.
The Lord met this Samaritan woman at the well, and he explained
the situation to her. I love the fact that he tells
the disciples, I must needs go through Samaria. That gives me
hope. I hope he must needs come through
only, don't you? Don't you hope that every time
we meet together, I must need to go through Ole. I must send
my spirit there. Boy, that's my heart's desire. Every time we gather together.
But he had a need to go see a Samaritan woman because she was elect.
She was his sheep. She just didn't know it yet.
I was thinking of all the people that's going to be coming to
the conference, and I know there's going to be people that's never been to our
church before, and we're talking Some people said, yeah, we're
coming, we're coming. I don't never, I've just met them briefly and
my hope, Lord calls them to accidentally hear because that's exactly what
happened to you and me. We accidentally heard one day,
every one of us, none of us purposed to hear, did we? No, we heard
because it was an accident for us, but it was purposed of the
Lord from the foundation of the world. Well, that's what happened
to the Samaritan woman. She accidentally heard. And what I mean by that
is in and of herself, it was an accident. She wasn't trying
to do it, but it wasn't an accident on God's part. It was purposed.
He walks up to her in the middle of the day and he says, give
me the drink. She says, how is it you being a Jew, ask me a
Samaritan for a drink? Aren't you glad that the Lord
doesn't look at nationality? He doesn't look in judgment at
all to his people. He was coming to declare the
truth unto this woman, to call her, to cause her to realize
her sin and then show her the Savior. And Lord said, if you'd
have known who asked you that, you'd asked of him and he'd have
given you living water, living water. And she said, well, sir,
give me this water. Give me to drink. And he said,
go call your husband. She said, I have not a husband.
He said, that's well-spoken. You've, you've had. Five, and
the one that you have now is not your husband. She said, I
perceive you're a prophet. She got religious instantly,
didn't she? We just looked at this, I believe, a few Sundays
ago, so it should be fresh on her mind. But she said, I perceive
you're a prophet. She said, well, we worship in
this mountain. So as soon as she realized he was religious, he
was a prophet, she said, well, here's my righteousness right
here. We worship in this mountain. That was the blessed mountain
from Moses back in Deuteronomy. You remember, the Lord told him
to bless this mountain and curse this mountain. But the Lord didn't
say worship in this mountain. He just said, bless the mountain,
didn't he? And what were they worshiping in that mountain?
They were worshiping Jehovah in the form of a dog, a cat,
a donkey, the sun, and the moon. They had all these gods set up,
and they said it was Jehovah, the same thing as the Jews. And
the Lord said, you worship you know not what. You worship you
know not what, for salvation is of the Jew. He said the time
is coming and now is. They that worship must worship
in spirit and in truth. Lord was merciful to this woman
by not leaving her there in the shape that he found her. And
aren't you glad that's what he does for his people? He don't
leave us in the shape that he finds us, but he reveals truth
to us. He reveals truth to us. And she said to him, well, I
know that when Messiah has come, he's going to set everything
right. So even if you are right, he's going to let me know because
I believe I'm right. And he said, I am. And she believed. When he speaks, when he reveals
himself, there's salvation, isn't it? Christ is salvation. It's
not what we do. It's what he's done. Seeing Christ
is salvation. She's seen him. She left her
water pot. She ran and said, come see a man that told me all
things ever I did. Is this not Christ? Well, the sin of the
Samaritans started before this time in Micah, but that's what's
being dealt with now, what they were worshiping. And our hope
is that the Lord would not leave us to our false idols that we
fabricate, not leave us to our iniquitous heart, not leave us
to the heart that we've been looking at lately, the wicked
heart, the deceitful heart. Lord, don't leave me there. Lord,
show me, tear down these false idols in my heart. Shut me up
to Christ. These Jews had set up high places, and a high
place is always referred to as a place of worship. They weren't
going to Jerusalem. They were worshiping God in the
way that they wanted to worship God. They were worshiping how
they wanted to worship him, and they worshiped in the way that
they wanted to worship him, and in the image that they wanted
to worship him, and they really thought they were worshiping
God. That's scary, isn't it? Have you been at a place in your
life before the Lord called you where you really thought you
were worshiping God, but you were not? See, only the believer
can look back and see, I had no idea who God was. I thought
I did, but the first time I read my Bible after I heard the truth,
it completely rewrote itself. That's your experience. That
was mine. Well, there he is on every page. I'm like, oh, so
that's what he means by that. The Lord truly saved his people. He didn't try. He didn't try. The first thing the Lord does
in salvation is he shows us our sin, shows us judgment. And that's what Micah's declaring
is judgment. But seeing our sin always goes hand in hand with
seeing his mercy, seeing his mercy. It's instantaneous. We
see our sin. He hangs us over the threshold
of hell and says, this is your judgment that you deserve. And
we say, truth, Lord. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
And do you know he in no wise casts out his mercy-begging sinners
because he's given them that need to beg for that mercy. I understand the severity of
these people, the way that they were worshiping, not in the temple.
They didn't have a mercy seat. They didn't have the need for
the mercy seat. It was a discrediting of the mercy seat. They didn't
have a ordained high priest. The high priest they had were
hirelings. They were hirelings. They were devaluing Christ is
what they're doing, devaluing Christ. It was self-righteous
worship. I'm reminded of King Saul in
1 Samuel chapter 13. The Israelites were up against
the Philistines and Saul was afraid. And he called for Samuel
to come to him, called for Samuel to intercede. Give me a message
from God. Tell me we're going to be okay. Well, Samuel tarried
seven days. Now in Saul's mind, God took too long. God took too
long. That's what Saul thought. You
know, you don't read about Daniel taking matters into his own hands
after 21 days of praying. He just kept praying until the
Lord answered. And he said, from the first time you prayed, Daniel,
I heard, and now I'm coming for your words. That's what faith
does. It just keeps looking to Christ.
But Saul didn't have faith. Saul didn't have faith. He took
matters into his own hands and he offered up a sacrifice, a
burnt sacrifice and a peace offering. He took the place of the high
priest. He took the place of Christ is
what he did. He was trying to offer himself up. I can do it.
If Samuel can do it, I can do it. And as soon as he did that,
Samuel came up to him and he said, your kingdom's rent from
you for this. I would have given you a kingdom, a lasting kingdom,
an enduring kingdom. He said, not anymore. Not for
this. He said, I want to, Lord said,
I'm going to have a king after my own heart, talking about David. Well, this was the same sin that's
in Micah. It's self-righteousness. The
governors judged for gain. The priests were hirelings. And
the prophets tickled ears for money. That's what they were
doing. They were prophesying what men wanted to hear for money.
They were saying, we're good. Everything's fine. Lord's got,
we were in God's favor. There's no evil upon us. We have
to be in God's favor. And everybody just kept paying
them money to tell them what they wanted to hear. Micah is sent at this time to
tell them the truth, to tell them the truth. And they hated
the truth. They did not want to hear the
truth. And we see uh, in the scripture in Jeremiah, but also
in Hebrew is where the Lord speaks about how that men you've taken.
He's talking to Israel. He said, you've taken my prophets.
You've killed them. You've killed the truth. You tried to, you
didn't want to hear it. So you tried to kill it. They
tried to kill Jeremiah. They tried to kill. They did
kill some of them, didn't they? They did. They hated the truth. Only the believer knows you shall
know the truth. and the truth shall make you
free. Christ Jesus is the truth that we want to hear. And whatever
he says is what we desire to hear. We don't have a need to
hear anything but the truth. That is our one true need, isn't
it? Lord, speak for thy servant. Thy servant listens. And at the
same time, we're praying, Lord, cause me to hear because you
have to give me the ear as well as the, you have to do the speaking. Men hate the truth. They don't
want to hear the truth. And it's the same today. It hasn't changed.
The truth of God is this. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And whom I will, I will hardeneth.
That's the truth of God. He is sovereign in all things.
He does that which pleases him. And he delights in showing mercy. God can only be worshiped his
way, just as we've heard, worshiped in spirit and in truth. And believing
the truth or not believing the truth doesn't change the truth,
does it? Believing the truth or not believing
the truth doesn't change what the truth is. The truth is forever
settled in heaven. Whether I believe it or not,
it doesn't matter. I mean, it matters whether I believe it
or not, but it doesn't change it is what I'm saying. It does
not change the truth. It's forever settled in heaven. So for their pride, their rebellion,
their self-righteousness, judgment has come in Micah chapter one.
Let's read this. The word of the Lord that came
to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah
kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. Hear, all ye people, hearken,
O earth, and all that therein is, and let the Lord God be witness
against you. The Lord from His holy temple
For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come
down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the
mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be
cleft as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured
down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob
is all this, and for the sin of the house of Israel. What
is the transgression of Jacob? He asked the question, here's
the answer. Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places
of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? Therefore I will make Samaria
as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard, and
I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover
the foundations thereof, and all the graven images thereof
shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be
burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay
desolate, for she gathereth it of the hire of an harlot, and
they shall return to the hire of an harlot. Therefore I will
wail and howl. I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the
dragons and mourning as the owls. For her wound is incurable. For her wound is incurable. For it is coming to Judah. He
has come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. Why had judgment come to Israel. It was because of their sin,
because of their unbelief, because of their iniquity, because of
their self-righteous will worship. It was the sin of false worship
of false idols. It was the sin of the high places.
He says, where's your high places? You brought them all the way
to Jerusalem now. That's where your high places are. That's
the place where I said I would meet with you is in the temple,
but now you've erected these other places that you're calling
worship. He said, for all this destruction, destruction is gonna
come upon you. My hope tonight is that we can
see, we can understand We can go away knowing this, that God
is the God of absolutes. That's what I've titled the message,
the God of absolutes. God will not acquit the guilty. He will not set someone free
that is guilty. Men say everyone, everyone has
a little bit of good in them. Everybody has a little bit of
good in them. That's not true. That's a lie. There is none good. None that seeketh after goodness.
None that seeketh after God. There's none good. No, not one. There's no half good and half
bad that we're not 75% good and 25% bad. Understand something.
One spot of leprosy, he was a leper. He had to be cast out. If a man
was, was, declared as a leper, all he needed was the tiniest
spot of leprosy, and he was thrown out of the camp. He was thrown
completely out of the camp. He couldn't come back in. He
was unclean at that point. Well, we're not just one spot,
are we? We're lepers from the top of our head to the bottom
of our feet. And you know what the Lord says whenever that happens?
When there's not an inch, not an inkling of clean flesh upon
us anymore, he says that, the high priest says, now you're
clean. Now you're clean. How can that be? Well, it's a
picture of sin, isn't it? How that we're sinful from the
top of our head to the bottom of our feet, but we won't confess
that until it's revealed to us. And that revelation, that revelation
is the Lord Jesus Christ showing us judgment. And yet we're crying
out for mercy. And the Lord says, perfectly
righteous. You're clean in my sight. You're
clean. See, the way God sees it is how
it really is. And he tells us how he sees this people here,
that they have an incurable wound. God demands perfection. Do we
know that? God demands perfection. God demands
righteousness. God demands holiness. Either
we are 100% good or we are 100% bad. There is no good outweighing
the bad in his eyes. He's an absolute God, an absolute
God. He demands 100% perfection, 100%
righteousness, not Not a little bit of righteousness
mixed with a little bit of sin. No, it has to be 100% righteous. Not one sin ever. Not one bad
thought, not one bad word, not one bad deed. This is the God
I'm speaking of, the God of absolutes. Either we're holy or we're sinful
in his eyes. Either we're good or we're bad
in his eyes. We all know that we're bad. We
all know that there's none good, no not one. Either we're true
or we're false. See, God is absolute. He must
punish sin. Iniquity must be atoned for. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. Justice enacted is necessary
on the transgressor. It has to happen because he's
a God of absolute. He said, if you trespass my law,
the wages of sin is death. You have to die. You have to
die. There is no other way. You must
die. And Micah, we see this among
two other unmistakable truths. Either God reveals sin, the truth
in mercy, or He reveals it in judgment. That's the only two
ways that He reveals sin. And He will reveal sin to every
single person. When men stand before Him and
say, I've done all these good things and I've cast out demons. You know, I quiver at the thought
that Judas cast out demons, do you? It says that all the disciples
cast out, Judas cast out demons. The Lord gave him the power to
do so, but understand what I'm saying right now. Men are gonna
stand before him and say, Lord, we've cast out demons in your
name. And he'll say, depart from me, you that work iniquity. I
never knew you. I never knew you. He reveals
their sin right then, their iniquity. And that's why they're damned
is because of their own sin, their own iniquity. God either reveals sin and mercy
or judgment. Either we've been made to confess
here that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,
or we will confess it there when we stand before Him, every knee
will bow to this absolute God. Every knee. He is absolute in
everything that He does. He's absolutely sovereign. He's absolutely truth. He's absolutely righteous. He's
absolutely holy. He's absolutely powerful in heaven
and earth. He owns and has purposed all
things, controls all things according to His will. Everything, without
exception. He's without father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life. He is omnipresent, which means he's everywhere all
the time. There's never a place where he's
not. He's everywhere. David said,
if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. He's omnipotent. He knows everything all the time. He knows everything all the time.
And yet he's never had a new thought. Not one new thought. I love the thought. that he chooses
to think of his elect in love because what Christ has done.
He knows everything all the time and he thinks on his beloved
bride in love because of what Christ has done. What does he say about his bride?
He says, I know my thoughts for you. So I know my thoughts for
you. They are peace. They're not evil.
I know my plans for you. I know my plans for you. It's
welfare. It's not evil. It's not judgment. It's mercy.
That's my plans for you. And did it happen? Absolutely.
It wasn't even a plan. It was a purpose, but we understand
what he's saying there. He's absolute in love. He's absolute
in mercy. He's absolute in grace. He's
absolute in his judgment. He has a holy judgment, a perfect
righteous judgment. His will can't be changed or
altered. He is the eternal I am. And do you know that not a single
one of his attributes can be compromised? Now, why am I saying
all this? Because judgment has come upon
Israel. And our only hope, our only hope is that the Lord leaves
a remnant. A Lord leaves a spiritual people,
not the physical Israel, the spiritual Israel that the Lord
chose to redeem them. Because if he's absolute and
demands absolute perfection from me, I'm going to fall. I won't
even be able to take the first step. I'm dead in trespasses
and in sin. We're born dead in trespasses and in sin. God is
not pleased with us in any way, no matter what we do. everything
required God has to provide. Do you know when he's pleased?
When we're looking to Christ. But why are we looking to Christ?
He gave us the faith to do so, didn't he? He gave us the, it's
not what we do. He's not pleased with us, he's
pleased with his son. He's pleased with his son. The
Lord demands reverence. The Lord demands all the glory.
And these Israelites did not reverence him, did they? Men
today don't reverence the Lord. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. In religion,
men would say the term that we are victims of prophecy. Well,
that's not true. We're not victims, first of all.
That's the wrong mentality. We are the benefactors of prophecy,
and whether we see it as being positive or negative, we rest
in the purpose of God, don't we? It doesn't matter what we
think. It's good. It's for our good. We've been
made to know that. It's for our good and His glory. Oh, everything
that's coming to pass in this world, regardless of our opinion,
is for our good and His glory. He only deals with His people
in mercy. How many people were going to
these places of worship every year? These sacrifices that were
made. How many Israelites were going
there and offering up this blood sacrifice? Falsely. Falsely. Understand the Old Testament
way to worship was by blood alone. It was by the confession of your
sin, the confession of Christ, the lamb of God. That's what
this lamb represented. It was the way they was worshiping
as looking to the cross that had not happened yet. It happened
in eternity, but it hadn't happened in time yet. So they were worshiping
God, looking to Christ, just as we're worshiping God, looking
back to the cross that's already taken place. It's the same worship. See what I'm saying? It's the
exact same Christ. And yet how many people would
go and just make this sacrifice flippantly? They thought they
could do whatever they wanted to do and they'll be okay. We
have a sacrifice. It'll take care of the problem. God said,
No, I'm gonna disannul your covenant. I'm not gonna, he says, I'm wearied
of your sacrifices. That's what he said. I'm weary
of your sacrifices. Worship, true worship is looking
to Jesus Christ. That's what worship is. looking
to Jesus Christ, believing, resting, clinging to him as all for your
salvation. That is what worship is, looking
to Christ as all. He must make us do that. Only
those that bear his spirit can and will. Those who've been given His grace,
those who've been given His mercy have been given His faith. And
did you know, when you see the judgment of the Lord, that's
whenever you'll cry out for mercy. people that these Israelites
that are here, these Jews, we see throughout Jeremiah, we see
throughout Isaiah, it's the same judgment that's being declared
over and over again. And they reject the truth and
they reject the truth. And only two people that we know
of believe Jeremiah's truth. How long did he live? How long
did he prophesy for? Two, that's all. Now there was
others that believe, but it wasn't because of Jeremiah's prophecies
or Jeremiah's message. It was only two that believe
Jeremiah's message. What am I saying? I'm trying
to say that no man will believe the truth unless God makes them.
No woman will believe the truth unless God makes them do so.
We will reject it because it's against our nature. It's against
everything that we are. We hate the truth. And yet when
the Lord shows us judgment, These people were crying out for mercy
whenever the judgment came, wasn't it? Whenever they saw the chariots
roll up, when they saw the death that was happening all around
them, then they started crying out for mercy, didn't they? It
was too late then. It was too late. No judgment had come. There is no mercy in judgment. There is no mercy in judgment.
But when the Lord shows us His judgment, The Lord shows us that
we deserve his judgment, that we are the unclean thing, that
we deserve hell. He gives us mercy instantaneously
by showing us the finished work of Christ and causing us to rest
in Christ. He shows us that he is the absolute
God that is sovereign. The absolute God in salvation. He's the one that successfully
redeemed his people. That's what he shows us. And
we flee to Christ. I see the judgment that I deserve.
I see the judgment that should be mine. And I see Christ Jesus
hanging upon that cross, suffering the wrath of God, suffering my
judgment in my stead. I said earlier that it's necessary. for the transgressor to die.
The wages of sin is death. Those that trespass the law must
die. Our hope is that we were in Christ
when He died, so we died in Him. We died in Him. Really, we truly
died in Him. Therefore, there is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Sin and death has no claim upon
us any longer in the eyes of God. We're perfectly righteous
before the Lord. Micah saw this, when he saw that
there is nothing we can do, he actually confesses that. Look
at Micah six. Micah six, verse six. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before
him with the burnt offerings? With burnt offerings, with calves
of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams or with 10,000 of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn
for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul? We know that that's prophetic of the Lord himself giving his
firstborn, the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath showed thee, O man, what
is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly. Now, how do we do justly? How
are you going to stand before God? How am I going to stand
before God justified? God's going to have to do it.
God is going to have to do it. The Lord requires thee to do
justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with a God. The
Lord's voice crieth into the city and the men of wisdom shall
see thy names, hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it. What
can I offer the Lord? Nothing. Nothing. Thousand sacrifices? No. Thousand rivers of oil? My
firstborn. Is that what I need to do in
order to obtain salvation? No. No, the Lord won't have it. There's nothing that we can offer
him that would be pleasing unto him. Christ did. Christ did. Christ offered up his own blood
unto his father and the father was satisfied. The father was
satisfied with his son. God is not a respecter of person.
When he saw sin upon his son, when he saw sin upon his darling
son, the one that he loved, the one that he loved, he executed
his own son. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? How shall we think that we can
stand in the presence of God? How much more so, how much more
so do we not think that the Lord, do we think the Lord will be
merciful to us because of our good deeds? No, he executed his
own son. He executed his own son on Calvary's
cross, bearing the sin of his people, and he successfully put
them away. He successfully put them away.
Micah 7, 9 says, I will bear the indignation, the anger of
the Lord, because I have sinned against him until he plead my
cause and execute judgment, not on me, but for me. Until he execute
judgment for me, he will bring me forth to the light and I shall
behold his righteousness. The God of absolutes must do
it. The God of absolute must bring
us to the light for we are in utter darkness. Judgment has
been declared and yet the Lord sees his people in just mercy
and in love because Christ Jesus took their judgment. God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins. Boy, there's nothing we can say
that we had anything to do with it. If we were dead in sins,
there's nothing we can say that we did. When we were dead in
sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, ye are
saved. You know, the most amazing part of our gospel is, to me,
this hour. Look with me at Micah chapter
7. Micah chapter 7, verse 18. The most amazing part of our
gospel is this. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity? and passest by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy." There's our hope. He delights
in mercy to his people, to his remnant. He calls them a remnant.
That's what he's left for his own glory and honor. He will
turn again. He will have compassion upon us, his people. He will
subdue our iniquities. And thou wilt cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. There is no God like our God. There is no God like the God
of absolutes. He is absolute in redemption.
He successfully redeemed his people. He's absolute in sanctification.
He has made his people as holy as God is. God has made his people
as holy as God is. He is absolute in glorification.
He's already given us a body, fashion likened unto his. He
shows us that we're deserving of judgment and then he reveals
his mercy. Why? He delights in showing mercy
to her because it was merited by the blood of his darling son
on Calvary's cross. It was merited by his life, his
death, He delights in showing mercy. He loves her because he
loves him and she is in him. David said, I will sing of mercy
and judgment. Are you going to sing of judgment?
Are you happy with judgment? Only if you're looking to Christ
who took your judgment. Only if you're looking to Christ
as the substitute, that's your hope. Then you will delight in
judgment and mercy. David said, I will sing of mercy
and judgment unto thee, O Lord, will I sing. Why sing? Why worship? That's what he's
talking about doing. Why worship? Because the absolute God that
we serve put away the sin that we are, put away the sin that
we do. Absolute God successfully redeemed. That's why we worship. We delight
in our God. We love Him, not as we ought,
but we truly love God. Why? Because He first loved us.
He's given us a love for Him. He did it when we were dead in
trespasses and sin, made us alive, and now He's given us a heart
that loves Him, looking unto Him. I had a couple other places to
turn to, but I think I have just about exhausted my time. tell
you this, in closing, the Lord gives his comforter to his people.
The Lord said, if I go on away, the comforter cannot come. When
he comes, he's going to convince you of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment. Well, that's exactly what he
does for his people. He convinces us of sin, shows us that we're
the sinner, shows that we deserve judgment. And then he shows us
Christ who took our judgment. He shows us that we are righteous
in him. Made the righteousness of God
in Christ. This is what he does. The Holy
Spirit reproves his people. That means to convict, to bring
them to the light, expose what they are. Say, this is what you
deserve. But David, I have put away your sin. You shall not
die. That's what he does to his people.
Justice has been satisfied. His Lord's law reveals sin and
says do, but his spirit convinces us that there's nothing we can
do but sin. And grace says done, it is finished. His law demands
righteousness and the Lord's spirit convinces us that Christ
must be all of our righteousness because we have no righteousness
in and of ourself. Our righteousness is filthy rags. Law demands judgment. God shows he's no respecter of
person by his grace. He executed his darling son bearing
our sin in his body. That's our hope. We no longer
worship the way we used to, do we? Not like these Jews were
worshiping. We no longer see him as a dog
or a cat or sun or moon or a donkey. We see him as God. We see him
as the absolute sovereign creator of this universe that is seated
upon his throne. And his son is seated at his
right hand, having successfully redeemed all that the father
give to him. We worship the God of absolutes.
Now I do want to turn to Luke chapter 23 in closing. We delight in mercy because it's
our hope. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve. And the Lord showed me something
in Luke 23 about the thief on the cross. We see the Lord's
mercy that's given here. This is our hope. Luke 23, verse
39. And one of the male factors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. And the other answered and rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me, and thou comest into thy kingdom. Jesus said
unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise. I understand the situation that's
happening here. The Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture
says, has been marred beyond recognition. He has gushing wounds
that would not be attractive to the man's eye in any way,
shape or form. And yet somehow by the miracle
of God's grace, that's exactly how it was done. The Lord purposed
it. But this man hanging beside him
sees him as God. It is no more a miracle that
this man saw Christ in this state as being God any more than it
is you and I seeing Christ in that state as being God. It's
the same exact mercy that we hope for. The Lord said, today
you will be with me in paradise. This man believed God. Now I wanna tell us this and I hope the Lord will cause us
to understand what I'm trying to say and give me the right words
to say it. Understand when that man asked for mercy, God, the
Lord Jesus Christ right then was feeling the weight of his
sin, that man's sin beside of him. He knew every thought that
that man had right then at that moment. He was experiencing the
wrath of God because of what that man had done and because
of what that man was. When that man said, have mercy
on me, remember me when you come into your kingdom, the Lord was
feeling the weight of that man's sin. And the Lord said, I'm going
to give you mercy. I know exactly what you are.
I know exactly what you've done. I know exactly that you don't
deserve it in any way, shape or form that you, you don't deserve
it, but I'm going to give you mercy today. You're going to
be with me in paradise. I'm going to put away your sin
right now. Look at the next verse. Verse
44, it's about the sixth hour and there was a darkness over
the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened and
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom.
And the Lord Jesus Christ had cried with a loud voice. What
did he cry? It is finished. The father now can give mercy
freely to his people, grace to his people because of what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done. He cried with a loud voice and
said, father into your hands, I commend my spirit and having
thus said, he gave up the ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ saves us,
saved us the exact same way he saved that man, by his soul being
made an offering for sin. And I wish I could enter into
the thought of, there's no way we can understand what Christ
was experiencing on the cross at that time, but this man is
speaking to him. And as he's speaking to him,
the Lord is literally knowing everything that this man has
done. He's owning it as his own. And yet he doesn't say, there
is no way I'm gonna have mercy on you. Does he? He says, today,
today you'll be with me in paradise. Do you know why? Because he's
a God of absolutes. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. He was purposed to absolutely
redeem and it could not be stopped. And he did it. He did it. The
good news is no one ever begging for mercy will be turned away
from the Lord. He delights in mercy. The Lord
in mercy makes us see our sin, makes us see Christ is righteous,
makes us see that he took our judgment and we're made to cry
out, remember me. And you know what every mercy-begging
sinner hears? Today, you'll be with me in paradise.
We're already there. We're already there with him.
He reveals that it's already finished. We're already there.
And one day we'll awake in his likeness. I'll re-quote what
Micah said, who's a God likened to thee that pardoneth iniquity?
Who's a God likened to thee? God of absolutes, the sovereign
God. Oh, he's precious to his people,
isn't he?