Micah chapter 7. I usually start in Matthew and
work my way backwards, so. Micah chapter 7, and we'll begin reading with verse 18 of
Micah 7. Verse 18, who is a God like unto
thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again He will have
compassion upon us. He will subdue their iniquities
and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. And I'd have us this morning
consider this one question. Who is a God like unto thee? Now sadly, the God that is spoken
of in most places in our day is not the God of the Bible. That's evident by man's I won't
say lack of reverence, but just there is no reverence for God
in this world or even more so in the pulpit. No reverence for
God. They speak of him as if he were
one of the guys at work. Maybe a fellow who lived down
the street. They say things like this. And I even hesitate to
say the good man upstairs. You've heard these things. They
treat him, almighty God, they treat him as a helpless old man
that can do nothing apart from man's will. The problem is we've brought
him down to our level, huh? I ask you, is that the God of
the Bible? Is that the God revealed in Scripture? Psalm 50 verse 21 says this,
Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself. We blaspheme
and use His name in vain. Men swear and curse in His name. They lie. Men lie about God. They say He has no power to save
apart from man's will. And in doing so, they make Him
helpless apart from man. Again, this is not the God declared
in Scripture. We read, turn to Psalm 135. Hold your place, but turn to
Psalm 135. And look at verse 6. This is God declared in Scripture.
Psalm 135, verse 6. It said, whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did he. Where? In heaven and in earth,
in the seas, and in all deep places." That sounds like everywhere
to me. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He. You know, the God that most men
speak of is nothing more than an idol, a useless idol. Let me read this to you. Psalm
135, if you still have it. Look beginning with verse 15.
It says here, the idols of the heathen are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. Ears, but they hear not. Neither, listen to this, neither
is there any breath in their mouth. You take away a man's
breath, He's dead. There's no life in him. If you have no breath, you're
a dead man. In the book of Job, we read this
of almighty God. It says, in whose hand is the
soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. There's no breath. There's no
breath in their mouths. Back in the book of Genesis chapter
two, verse seven, we read that the Lord God, he formed man out
of the dust dust of the earth, out of the dust of the ground.
And the first thing he did is this, he breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life and man became a living soul. Apart from God,
there is no life. That idol, it has no breath in
its mouth. Do you still have Psalm 135?
Look at verse 18. that make them. They that make
these idols, what are they? They're like unto them. And so
is everyone that trusteth in them. They're dead. Dead. Men aren't worshiping God. They're
worshiping a lifeless idol. They're praying unto a God that
cannot save. Men say this, he has no hands
but your hands. What foolishness, huh? He has
no feet but your feet. As if God needed anything from
man. Back in Psalm, turn with me,
Psalm 50, Psalm chapter 50 and verse 7. Psalm chapter 50, verse 7. Here we read, Hear, O my people,
and I will speak. O Israel, and I will testify
against thee. I am God, even thy God. Let's read on here. I'll not
reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt offerings to have
been continually before me. I'll take no bullock out of thy
house or he goats out of thy folks, for every beast of the
forest is mine. The cattle upon a thousand hills,
I know all the fowls of the mountains. The wild beasts of the field
are mine. If I were hungry, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell
thee. For the world is mine and the fullness thereof. Will I
eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto
God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High and call
upon me. in the day of trouble. I will
deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. He said, call on me. I will deliver thee. You're going to glorify me. And
man's got that completely backwards. They have man doing the work
and man getting the glory. But God's not going to share
his glory. with another. You call upon me in the day of
trouble. I will deliver thee. Thou shalt
glorify me, he says. Me. To God be the glory, not
man. So turn with me back to Micah,
chapter 7, verse 18. Who is a God? not man's idols, listen, the
sovereign God of Scripture, the sovereign God revealed in His
work. Lionel, you said there's sovereign
in all things, sovereign in creation, sovereign in providence, sovereign
in salvation, the sovereign God of the Bible. He said, there
is no God beside me, none so great, none so mighty, None like
Him for the perfection of His nature. None like Him for the
works of His hands. None like Him for the blessings
of His goodness, for His providence, for His grace, His pardoning
grace, His mercy towards sinners. Look with me quickly at this
passage of Scripture. Quickly, I just have four points
here. The first one is this. He pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He pardoneth. What does that word pardon mean? It means to lift up and to take
away. To lift up and to take away.
The Lord has taken the sins of His people and He's laid them
on His Son. He put them on the Lord Jesus
Christ and He passeth by the transgression of his people. Over in Isaiah 53, we read this,
for the transgression of my people was he stricken. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. He bore our sin in his body on
a tree. Second Corinthians 521, we're
familiar, we love that passage of scripture, don't we? He was
made sin. Almighty God made his son to
be sin. Made sin, he took the sins of
all of his people and laid them on the Lord Jesus Christ. God
hath made him to be sin for us, He bore our sins and carried
them, carried them away like that scapegoat of old, never
to be seen again, remembered no more. He passes by the transgression
of, listen, this is a particular people, of His people. He didn't
say the whole world. He said He passes by the transgression
of His people, the remnant. of His heritage, His people,
His lot, His heritage, that remnant according to the election of
grace, those chosen of God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ, called
by His grace, by the Spirit of God. Huh? And listen, listen
to this, every sin, every transgression, every iniquity, huh, forgiven. forgiven, put away, sin put away. He passeth by the transgression
of his people. That word by can also mean over. He passeth, he passeth, he passeth
over. In Exodus 12, 12 God said, I'll
pass through the land of Egypt this night, I'll smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against
all the gods of Egypt I'll execute judgment. I'm the Lord. God's
gonna judge sin. You know, men laugh about that.
Men just joke about that. God's absolutely gonna punish
sin. But what did we read back there?
The blood. That's what he told, he said,
the blood shall be a token for you upon the houses where you
are. And when I see the blood, Oh,
I'll pass. I'll pass over you and the plague
shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of
Egypt. Let me ask you, are we deserving
of condemnation? Oh, absolutely. Are we deserving
of punishment? Who could question that? Yet,
our sins have been put away by the sacrifice of his son. By His sovereign grace. Read
on in our text here in Micah 7 verse 18. It says, He retaineth
not his anger forever. Which leads me to the second
point here. Because He delighteth in mercy. In mercy. Don't confuse that
with another M word. Merit. That's what men talk about. Not merit. Mercy. Titus 3 verse
5, not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Let me ask you this question,
who is a God like unto thee? He who saved us, listen, not
because of any good, in the creature? Huh? Listen to the description. Listen to this description. You
tell me if there's any good to be found in man. Turn to Isaiah
1. Isaiah chapter 1 beginning with verse 2. Isaiah chapter 1 in verse 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children, this is what he said, and they have rebelled
against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master's crib. But Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors.
They've forsaken the Lord. They've provoked the Holy One
of Israel into anger. They're going away backward.
Why should you be stricken anymore? You'll not revolt. More and more,
the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. From the sole of
the foot, even to the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores, they've not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Does that sound like someone
who can earn anything from Almighty God? My friends, there's one
thing we can earn from God. The wages of sin. It's what you
get when you work for something. You get wages. The wages of sin
is death. Not because of any works of righteousness,
which we've done, but wholly and completely because of His
mercy and His grace towards us. He's merciful. He's gracious. Scripture, He delighteth. He
delighteth in mercy. Brother Henry read an article
he wrote here a while back and he said this, Mercy. Mercy is
God not giving us what we deserve. What do we deserve? Wrath, death,
eternal punishment. Grace. His grace. God giving us what we don't deserve,
righteousness, peace, pardon. He delights. He delights in mercy. Well, let's read on here. Do
you still have our text in Micah chapter 7? Here's my third point. He will turn again and he will
have compassion upon us. upon us, upon His people. He will turn again. You know, not only does He turn,
but He turns His people. He turns the hearts of His people
to Himself. Three times David wrote this
in Psalm 80. He said, Turn us, O God, cause
Thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. He turns his people. Boy, if we're left our own way,
there's no limit. There's no limit to where we
go. And we'll never turn to him. We must be turned. Our hearts
must be turned to him. And he does, again, just as he
does the work, he's turned our hearts. Our natural response
is, is to turn away and go our own direction, isn't it? Turn
away in anger. Back in 2 Kings chapter 5, Naaman
the leper, he went to Elisha the prophet for healing. And
Elisha sent a messenger to him and he said, you go and you wash
there in the river. Dip seven times. And thy flesh,
down there in the Jordan River, and thy flesh shall return to
thee and you'll be clean. What did Naaman do? Did Naaman
do what, did he do what the servant of God told him to do? No. Turn to 2 Kings. Turn there with
me to 2 Kings chapter five. 2 Kings chapter five, verse 11. Do you have it? It says here,
Naaman was wroth and he went away and he said this, behold,
I thought, I thought. Boy, how many times we've been
guilty of that, huh? I thought this, I thought that.
I thought surely he'll come out to me and stand and call on the
name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place
and recover the leper. Or not Abana and far for rivers
in Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel. What did
he do? What did he do? Remember his
servant said to him, he said, why not just wash and be clean? We're not there yet though, are
we? No, he turned and he went away in a rage. That's what we
all do by nature. We have no desire for God's Word. We have no desire to hear His
Word preached. We're content to go to hell until
God's pleased to turn us, to turn us. We've got to be turned.
His servant came to Him. He said, Master, if He'd asked
you to do some great thing, wouldn't you have done that? And boy,
by nature, huh, if we could do something, get our name put on
it, right? Huh? Maybe go build a gymnasium or
a library and get our name attached to that. He said, wouldn't you
have done that? Why not just wash? Wash and be
clean. Huh? And he went and he dipped seven
times in the Jordan River according to the saying of the man of God,
and his flesh came again like a little child. Wash. Look at 2 Kings. You have chapter
5 still. Look at verse 15. And he returned. He returned to the man of God
in all his company. And he said, behold, now I know. Once he was turned, behold, now
I know there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Who is a God like unto thee? Turn us, O God. Turn us, and
we shall be saved. Micah chapter 7, verse 19. He
will turn again and He'll have compassion upon us, compassion
upon His people. Do you still have our text here? Fourth point, He'll subdue their
iniquity. You know, sin is too strong for
us to conquer. We might be convinced we could
do something about it, but we cannot. It reigns over the natural
man. We can't get rid of the influence
of it. We can't get rid of the shame
and the guilt of it, the punishment of it. But Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ has conquered it. He's made an end to it. He's
taken away the sins of His people and He's put all things under
His feet, removing the guilt of sin, destroying the dominion
of sin. Read on in our text, not only
has He subdued our iniquity and cast them behind His back, we
read here in Micah 7, 19, God's prophet says, Almighty God will
cast their sins into the depths of the sea. Not just over in a little stream.
You know, you drop something in a stream. Isaac, you dropped
phone one time and it was in about a foot of water. That was
easy to find. If we drop something into shallow
water, we can dig around and find that. Listen to this. He's
cast them into the depths, the depths of the sea. You know,
a few years back, I was thinking about this. Our family, we were
at the beach and we were out there playing ball or doing something
and I had a pair of sunglasses that the boys had got me, a pretty
nice pair of sunglasses. And we were just in maybe shoulder
deep water in that ocean. And a big old wave come up and
hit me and knocked me over, knocked those sunglasses off. And whether
I wanted to realize it or not, they were gone. We spent hours,
if you've ever dropped something in the ocean, we looked, we looked,
we looked. Never found them. Never found
them. I believe one of the boys, I
actually think it was you, at one point said this, Dad, they're
gone. They're gone. And again, whether
I wanted to believe that or admit that, they were gone. They were
gone. And again, that was just in kind
of some shallow water. They were gone. And we've been
back a few times, haven't we? Never to be seen again. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 50.
Jeremiah chapter 50. In verse 20, Jeremiah 50. Verse 20, in those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. Let me ask you, did Israel have
iniquity? Oh my, huh? But look here, it
shall be sought for and there shall be None. None. The sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found, for I will pardon, I'll spare, I'll forgive them
whom I reserve. His remnant. God's prophet says this, again
here in our text, that he has cast our sins into the depths
of the sea. They're going to be sought for,
they're not going to be found. And listen, he says, as far as
the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us. In Hebrews 10, 17 we read, their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. I wonder this, if He remembers
them no more, why do I keep bringing them? Why do I keep bringing
them? Why can't I let them go? God has forgiven our sin. The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanses us from all sin. Put away. Never, never to be
seen Who is a God, like unto thee, who pardoneth iniquity,
passeth by the transgression of his people, a God who delighteth
in mercy, a God who turns his people, a God who subdues our
iniquity, cast it into the depths of the sea, never to be seen
again? Well, quickly, quickly let us
look at verse 20. Here's some assurance of these
things. Verse 20, Thou wilt perform the
truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn
unto our fathers from the days of old. The truth to Jacob. You know, back in Genesis 28,
we read that Jacob glided upon a certain place. And he must
have been tired because he took some stones and he made a pillar
there and he laid down his head and he went to sleep. And it
was there he dreamed that dream about that ladder that reached
from earth to heaven. The angels descended up and down
on it. Had to be a picture of Christ,
didn't it? The picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God told Jacob, He said, I'm with thee. I'm with thee. He said, I'll
keep thee. I'll bring thee again to this
land. And all listen to this. I will
not leave thee. I will not leave thee. He said,
thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. All the families of the earth
shall be blessed in the truth to Jacob. And then we read his
mercy to Abraham. You know, at the age of 75, God
appeared to Abraham. He said, get thee out of thy
father's country from thy kindred. And he said, you go to a place
which I'll show you. I'm gonna make you a great, great
nation. And by faith, he went. He obeyed
God. He went. And later, God would
tell Abraham to take his only son and offer him up as a sacrifice. And along the way, remember Isaac
asked that question. He said, here's the fire and
the wood. Where's the lamb? Where's the
sacrifice? And Abraham read these words. He said, my son, God will provide
himself a sacrifice. He'll provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering, which we know he did, didn't he? That ram caught up there, caught
up there in the thicket. His mercy to Abraham. And the scriptures say this,
Abraham believed God. And out of that lineage, the
Lord Jesus Christ was born. He told Jacob, in thee shall
all the families of the earth be blessed. That covenant of
redemption found in the person, work, and the office of the Lord
Jesus Christ, every promise fulfilled. Truly, who is a God? Who is a God? like unto thee,
pardoneth iniquity, passeth by the transgression of his people.
He delights to show mercy, a God who turns his people. There's
a way that seems right unto man, isn't there? The way thereof,
the ends of death. God's pleased to reach down and
grab a hold of us and turn us to himself. A God who subdues,
who conquers, the iniquity of his people. That's the God, that's
the God of the Bible. Who is a God like unto him? Well, let me close by reading
one more verse of scripture here. Turn with me to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel
chapter 7. 2 Samuel 7, verse 22. I think this is a good summary. 2 Samuel 7, verse 22, ''Wherefore,
thou art great, O Lord God, for there is none like thee, Neither
is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have
heard with our ears. I pray he would enable us to
say the same. Who is a God? Who is a God like
unto thee? All right, brother Wyoming.