God s Pardoning Performance Micah 7:18-20 By Randy Wages 4/27/14

Transcription

1 God s Pardoning Performance Micah 7:18-20 By Randy Wages 4/27/14 Note: The text below was prepared for oral delivery rather than for publication in print. As such, be aware that sentence fragments are intentionally used and that this document has not been edited to correct the errors in grammar, sentence structure, etc. I. Introduction and Background: Today s text is taken from the book of Micah, Chapter 7. This chapter opens with the Prophet expressing his sorrow and grief over the pervasive depravity and corruption of the times in which he lived. But at the end of the chapter, in Micah s last recorded words, his tone shifts as he sets forth the good news of the Gospel of God s grace, expressing his admiration for the mercy of God in the salvation of sinners. And this morning we ll direct our attention there, to the last 3 verses of the book of Micah with hopes that we too might worship God as we marvel at this wonderful news of God s Pardoning Performance. That s the title of today s message, God s Pardoning Performance. Look with me now at Micah 7, beginning in verse 18 where we read II. Micah 7:18-20: 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 for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 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. Now these verses directly address the subject of the pardon or forgiveness of sins whereby God saves sinners. So if you re a sinner, you re in the right place this morning because we sinners need this salvation. Salvation is salvation from sin. The Bible clearly declares that death, hell, and the wrath of God are the sure and certain consequences and just penalties due unto our sins. Fallen in Adam, we enter this world as sinners and proceed to prove it as we live out our lives. Born as sinners, we sin. So we need deliverance from the eternal wrath of God that we all deserve due to our sins. As the title, God s Pardoning Performance, suggests, I want to focus your attention on the truth that the forgiveness or pardon of sins that you and I need is a work of God that was performed by God, through the doing and dying of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. His performance in the place of sinners who are saved is a pardoning performance. Those, for whom Christ died, thereby are all pardoned, eternally forgiven and blessed in Christ, their Savior. His performance and their eternal blessedness are inseparably linked. 1

2 Why this emphasis? Most all professing Christians refer to Christ as the Savior and many (perhaps even most) of them actually agree with the truth that Christ is indeed God, God manifested in the flesh as both God and man in one Person. As such, they believe they are saved by the one they call savior. So they profess to trust in God for the pardon of their sins. But I can speak firsthand to the fact that many who presume to be trusting in Christ (who like me in years past, sincerely thought I was trusting in Christ for my salvation, for my pardon of sins) adhere to doctrine that actually decouples (separates) their presumed forgiveness or pardon from that which God performed in Christ that which Christ accomplished in His life and death. Sadly, multitudes will claim (as I once did) that God through Christ s death on the cross forgives their sins, while at the same time they actually also presume to be forgiven because of their performance, not His because they believed, because they accepted Jesus, because they confessed their sins, because of something they do. And we remain oblivious to this stark contradiction unless and until God the Holy Spirit brings the true Gospel of God s grace in Christ our way and gives us the faculties of spiritual life to discern otherwise. God s Gospel is the good news of how God saves sinners. So being mistaken here is no small matter since God s word tells us that those who believe the Gospel are saved and those who believe it not are damned not forgiven but rather subject to the just and eternal wrath of God due unto their sins. So we better be sure that the gospel we believe is God s true Gospel. And know that if it is truly God s Gospel that you believe, it will have you embracing His way of salvation a way that is consistent with 1) Who God is, 2) The Sinner s Desperate Need, and 3) With God s Eternal Purpose and Design. III. Who God Is: So let s begin with Micah s rhetorical question, Who is a God like unto thee.. It s interesting that Micah begins verse 18 with these words for they mirror the very meaning of his name. Micah actually means, Who is like Jehovah. Now, if you truly believe God s Gospel, His way of salvation, it will be a way consistent with Who God is how He is uniquely revealed in the Gospel. To be saved is to know God as He is revealed by Christ. Christ said as much in John 17:3 where He prayed, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. A. Isaiah 45:21b-22: Micah was a contemporary of the Prophet Isaiah and God tells us through Isaiah how He is uniquely revealed in salvation. Look with me at Isaiah 45:21 where God says, and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. 22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. God must remain true to His character in all that He does, including in the saving of sinners. So one way we can distinguish God s Gospel from a false gospel is based upon whether or not it is consistent with God s holy justice. God does not save at the expense of His justice. Sin will not go unpunished. God s justice must be satisfied. 2

3 B. Now back in Micah 7, the Prophet goes on there in verse 18 to describe the uniqueness of God as One that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? 1. This word pardoneth literally means lifted up and taken away. And that s what God does for all who are saved. He lifted sins off of His dear children and put them on Christ who took them away by bearing the full punishment due unto them before God s holy justice. Now if Christ died to pay for all the sins of all who ever lived, then would not everyone s sins have been pardoned or taken away? We know scripture clearly refutes any notion of all being saved. 2. The pardon of sins here conveys the same meaning as is referred to in the New Testament as the forgiveness of sins. Some of you may recall in a recent sermon I related how the same N.T. Greek word translated forgiveness is elsewhere translated as remission. The pardon or forgiveness of sins is the remission of sins. When we receive a bill in the mail it often includes a heading that reads, Remit to followed by the company s name and address. As I ve said before, we can see the inseparable connection between sins being remitted and their being forgiven or pardoned because the remission of sins refers to a payment made for sins that results in being completely forgiven of the debt owed to God s justice for those sins. It conveys a full release or a full pardon. It s the same as when we remit money to pay a bill. If the check doesn t bounce we are then released from that debt or obligation to pay. The debt is forgiven but only if a full payment of all that was due has been remitted! There is no forgiveness of the debt unless it has been paid in full. 3. And as it pertains to our sins, you and I are bankrupt, destitute, without any means to pay our sin debt due unto the infinite, holy justice of God. Multitudes will perish eternally, but their suffering and eternal death will never pay what is owed to God s injured justice because of their sins. Only the precious blood of the sinless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man can (and has) remitted that payment so as to gain the full release, the complete forgiveness for each and every one whose sins were lifted off of them and put on Christ who died, bearing the just wrath of God due unto their sins. And His check does not bounce. That is God s Pardoning Performance. Debt paid, debt forgiven! 4. When I, like others, believed that many for whom Christ lived and died would still be held accountable for their sins so as to eternally perish, it exposed that at that time, I wasn t trusting on Christ as my Savior in spite of my sincere claims to the contrary. I once sang that old song, Jesus Paid it All, but for many years the reality was I assumed myself to be the ultimate difference maker as if my acceptance of Jesus procured my own pardon. Go figure I imagined that Christ remitted (paid for) the sins of all so as to forgive the debt due to their sins by His death for them; but then, in blatant disregard to (and at the expense of) His own just character, God sends most of them on to hell anyway? 3

4 To believe that denies who God is the God that pardons iniquity. That s not the just God and a Savior we re commanded to look to for our salvation. That would be an unjust god and that doctrine leaves the sinner imagining that he or she must do something in order to save themselves. Do you see the evil in this the religious evil that I once thought was good the evil of having dared to imagine that my acceptance of Jesus or my act of faith could accomplish for me what actually took the precious blood of my dear Savior? God is both a just God and a Savior. Sins must be justly dealt with. God does not forgive sins by looking the other way. He does not forgive sins apart from the remission of them. The debt paid = the debt forgiven! IV. The Sinner s Desperate Need: Now the way of salvation, that gospel which is believed by all who are saved, must be a way that is consistent with 1) Who God is and 2) The Sinner s Desperate Need. Look again at Micah 7:18 where we read, 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 for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. A. Now 1 st it is understood that in light of who God is, a just God and a Savior who pardons iniquity, that those He saves need saving they need the forgiveness or pardon of sin. But there at the end of verse 18, we see that the cause of salvation is completely owing to God. It is because he delighteth in mercy. I will revisit this in a moment when we address how God s way of salvation must be consistent with God s purpose and design, but first let s consider how that which is God s delight is also that which every sinner truly needs mercy! That s good news. God delights to provide precisely what I need! Those upon whom God is merciful to save, by definition do absolutely nothing to merit such favor. If you do something to earn or merit your own salvation, then that would make it something God owes you in return what you deserve. If like me in years past, you imagine that God saves you because of something you did (your act of faith or some decision you made for Jesus) then recognize that you ve no basis to consider yourself a recipient of God s mercy. I used to think that way while at the same time thanking God for His mercy. The truth is I didn t even recognize my desperate need for His mercy and grace in Christ. I thought I d done my part by accepting Jesus as my personal savior and in return God would save me. That s not mercy. God s way of salvation fits the needs of sinners truly convinced by the Spirit of their sins. That s to be convinced that, as a sinner, I can do nothing to save myself. Only then do you truly see your need for a merciful Savior. God shows mercy because it is His delight to do so. These blessings of salvation flow from His own free and sovereign grace. That means it s not what those who are saved earn or merit but what God s grace in Christ has merited for them. God purposes it and God performs it! 4

5 B. Notice there in verse 18, Micah further describes God as He who passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? 1. Now this passing by the transgression of His people does not mean that God doesn t see the reality of their sinfulness or that He simply overlooks their sins or acts as if they did not sin. God is omniscient or all-knowing and sees all. God doesn t pretend but rather deals in reality. a. So this refers to God passing by sins on the sole basis of Christ having dealt with them the Christ who is called (in I Cor. 5:7) the Passover that was slain for those who are saved. In keeping with the picture of the Passover in the Old Testament God says When I see the blood I ll pass over you. It is with regard to His justice that God doesn t see their sins because Christ has fully satisfied God s just penalty for them by His death on the cross. b. This passing by is the non-imputation of sin as we read about in 2 Corinthians 5. There, Paul speaking of the ministry of reconciliation the ministry of the Gospel describes it this way in verse 19, To wit, <or namely> that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing <not charging> their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. <The gospel ministry> 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ s stead, be ye reconciled to God. <See your reconciliation in Christ s finished work. Now how could God be just and not charge these sinners with their sins?> 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; <He imputed or charged their sins to Christ who of Himself was perfectly sinless> that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He imputes or credits to their account the very perfect satisfaction He made to God s law and justice by His obedience and death on the cross. That s His righteousness (justice completely satisfied) which God in mercy credits to their account. That s how He passes by their transgressions. c. Hebrews 10:14-17: It isn t that God doesn t see true believers as the sinners they are, but rather that He sees them in their Representative, Jesus Christ, who continually intercedes on their behalf on the basis of what Christ performed, what He has accomplished for them by His doing and dying in their place. Think of how if someone does something wrong (and particularly if they do you wrong) you may forgive them as in look past it, but you never quite forget. You always remember and might even remind them of it from time to time. But if God passes by your transgressions, He never remembers them again as that which can be held against you for that was taken care of by the saved sinner s Substitute, Jesus Christ. 5

6 We see that in Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 14 where we read, For by one offering he <Jesus Christ offering Himself as the sacrifice for His people> hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified <set apart as the everlasting objects of God s love in Christ>. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Debt paid = Debt forgiven! See how desperately we need our sins to have been fully paid for by Christ s death on the cross. There is nothing more to be offered for a sinner to be saved from their sins if that payment has already made for them. Now if God has convinced you of sin so as to cause you to realize there is absolutely nothing you, a sinner, can do to get yourself into heaven or keep yourself out of hell then (and only then) do you recognize your desperate need for His one offering whereby your sins were so fully remitted that God remembers them no more! It s good news to a sinner like me to know that God s record of the debt due unto all my sins has been wiped clean! C. Now back to Micah 7:18, notice that those who are blessed with salvation are described as the remnant of his heritage. That is referring to those God chose unto salvation in Christ from before the foundation of the world. In Romans 11 Paul refers to them as the remnant according to the election of grace. 1. As we read in Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 2. Now many in our day recoil at the biblical doctrine of election but think with me. If you truly need mercy if you truly need a Savior to do for you what you can t do for yourself if you don t presume to be your own savior if you truly need God s mercy then election will be your dear friend for if God hadn t chosen to save some, all would remain lost with no pardon for their sins and without hope. If salvation is by grace (i.e. nothing you can do to merit it or even appropriate it to yourself), if your faith is the gift of God and not of works (as we re told in Ephesians 2) not of works, not something we do to be saved, then don t you desperately need the assurance and comfort of knowing that God chose some in Christ, their Surety and Substitute, to do for them what none of us can do for ourselves? If salvation isn t solely owing to the good pleasure of His will, then it isn t by grace and it isn t because God delights to show mercy as God has declared through Micah. You ve heard me say before, grace necessitates election! To deny God s sovereign election of a people to be saved is to deny salvation by grace in Christ. When we see our desperate need for God s mercy and grace, we see our desperate need to have been chosen in Christ to be saved. 6

7 D. Verse 19: Now look again at verse 19 of Micah 7 where we read, He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 1. Saying God will turn again is not to be understood of God changing His mind as if He is mutable; but rather it is a way of expressing that which is done for the benefit of those He saves. God s mercy is found exclusively in Christ, based upon His one work of righteousness for those who are saved. But as the scriptures teach over and again, His mercy endureth forever (Jer. 33:11 et. al.). It s the gift that keeps on giving! The Bible tells us that our risen Savior sits on the right hand of God, ever interceding on behalf of all for whom He lived and died. As John wrote, when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. 2. God s turning again and again in compassion towards those He saves brings to mind the comforting words of Lamentations 3:22-23, It is of the LORD S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 3. Now Micah adds that God will subdue our iniquities. That literally means He will tread our iniquities (our sins) underfoot. Now there are 2 senses in which this is accomplished. a. Objectively even before any of us were born, Christ made an end of sin by His one offering on Calvary s cross. And that certainly treaded underfoot or subdued the iniquities for which He died so much so that He remembers them no more as we just read. Sin is subdued in that its power to condemn was completely removed by Christ s victorious death and resurrection. As we read in Romans 8, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. So complete is this remission and pardon of sin that Micah describes it as if their sins were casts into the depths of the sea, never to be brought up again. And this all took place as a work done for those He saves without their involvement whatsoever. You and I weren t even around when Christ died. b. Subjectively But just as certainly as Christ defeated sin and Satan at the cross, God the Holy Spirit also graciously subdues the iniquities in the hearts and minds of each and every one for whom Christ died in each of their respective lifetimes. They all personally experience the subduing of sin in their regeneration and conversion as the Holy Spirit gives them spiritual life and the blood-bought gift of faith whereby they believe God s Gospel of salvation by grace, in Christ alone. Now this subduing of sins that is experienced by true believers in no way suggests that that they no longer sin following their conversion. We know that can t be from the Apostle Paul s own commentary of himself in Romans 7 as a wretched man while still alive in his physical mortal body of sin. And he said this long after his own spiritual conversion had taken place. 7

8 So how is sin subdued as sinners are given faith and repentance to believe God s Gospel? In Rom. 6:14 believers are told, For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now in our hearts and minds, we remained under the law as long as we imagined that salvation was in some way conditioned on our works of the law that which we must do or refrain from doing to be saved. And so in our failure to render the perfect, continual obedience the law demands we sin and it has dominion over us but not so for believers under grace. And Paul explains this further in verse 17 as he adds, But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, <in bondage to sin> but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. <or to which you were delivered> 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Nothing that any sinner does or experiences can set them free from the penalty of sin. It must be paid! And for all who are saved it has been paid. Debt paid = debt forgiven. But in regeneration and conversion, saved sinners are made free from the dominion of sin as the sin that once deceived them is exposed and repented of. In 2 Thess. 2 Paul is describing those who would preach a false gospel in league with Satan, deceiving as he says with lying wonders, adding in vs. 10, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit <given life> and belief of the truth: <given faith> 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unrighteousness refers to that which is not righteousness. That is, it s anything other than the one perfect righteousness Christ established and by which God declares otherwise guilty sinners to be justified not guilty in His sight. So if your salvation is dependent on anything other than (or in addition to) Christ s righteousness imputed to you, you re reduced to having to rely on something you do (or that which proceeds from you) to be saved. That would be self-righteousness that has us imagining that we can do something to save ourselves. And that s the natural sin that deceives all until by God-given faith this folly is exposed under the preaching of God s true gospel of grace. In spiritual conversion, self-righteousness is removed as Paul told fellow believers at Colosse how God hath delivered us from the power of darkness,<where sin reigns over us in our self-righteousness> and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: where grace reigns through His righteousness (Col. 1:13). And if that doesn t describe your revelation of faith, then your gospel would be inconsistent with the sinner s desperate need to be delivered from that darkness. 8

9 c. Earlier in chapter 7 of Micah, the prophet describes this subduing of sins for himself both objectively and subjectively when he says in verse 9, I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me:<he is referring to when the future Messiah would come and perform his pardon, God executing judgment against Micah s sin upon His Substitute. And then he adds the sure and certain result of that redemptive work that he has (and will continue to subjectively experience) when he says > he will bring me forth to the light, <the light of the Gospel> and I shall behold his righteousness. that which is revealed by faith in God s gospel of grace. The light of the knowledge of God s glory in Christ shines in the hearts of these redeemed and forgiven trophies of God s grace. V. God s Eternal Purpose and Design: Now we ve seen that the way of salvation, that gospel which is believed by all who are saved, must be a way that is consistent with 1) Who God is and 2) The Sinner s Desperate Need. And now in closing let s consider how it must be consistent with 3) God s Eternal Purpose and Design. God s chief design in salvation (as in all things) is His own glory that He would be glorified in their hearts as He is uniquely revealed to them in the person and saving work of Christ. A. Look again with me at the end of Micah 7:18. There we saw that the cause of our salvation is completely owing to God. It is because he delighteth in mercy. Salvation is not owing to anything done by or found to be true of the sinner, but rather because God delights in mercy. B. God through the prophet Jeremiah speaks of this delight as we read beginning in Jeremiah 9:23, Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, <Don t have confidence in that which naturally seems right according to man s wisdom> neither let the mighty man glory in his might,<don t have confidence in that which you can perform by your own might> let not the rich man glory in his riches:<don t presume to be eternally blessed by God based upon any temporal blessings you ve received in this life> 24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me,<as Christ said, that s life eternal to know God and He adds to know this:> that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. This speaks of Christ s pardoning performance that which He exercised in the earth by His obedience unto death for all the objects of God s everlasting love, executing God s judgment against their sins as He established a perfect righteousness for them by His full and complete satisfaction to God the Father s justice the very righteousness God has imputed to all who so come to know Him whereby they accepted into His holy presence in God the Son, their Savior. And that s God s delight. 9

10 C. Verse 20: We also see salvation as a product of God s delight to show mercy in the last verse of Micah 7 for there we see that this pardoning performance of mercy all stems from our triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) having so determined from all eternity in the everlasting covenant of grace to save a people by the doing and dying of Jesus Christ. This covenant language of verse 20 closes the book as Micah asserts, Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. 1. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are considered patriarchs of the faith and so typical of all who are eternally blessed in the everlasting covenant of grace whose terms Christ came in time to fulfill. And Micah asserts the certainty that what God had promised He would perform how Christ would come and perform truth and mercy. In my study, I read different explanations about the intent of Micah describing that which is performed as truth to Jacob but as mercy to Abraham. And I remain unsure about the significance of this distinction. But I do know this that mercy and truth were both performed by Christ by the one pardoning performance of our Lord and Savior for all He saves. And both Abraham and Jacob are presented as scriptural types of all who are saved. 2. Mercy is performed by the mercy seat Christ, our propitiation. In keeping with the publican s cry in Luke 18, we need God to be merciful to us to be propitious to us (as that word merciful is also translated). That simply means we need God s just wrath against our sins to be fully appeased (taken away) by the justice-satisfying, sin-bearing sacrifice of the Savior who is the propitiation for the sins of all who come to Him for mercy. 3. And truth is performed as the terms of the everlasting covenant (salvation conditioned on Christ alone) was executed or performed by Christ s life and death on the cross. And as we saw today, this truth also is brought to light by God the Holy Spirit when, under the preaching of God s Gospel of grace, God s people are miraculously brought into a knowledge of the truth of God and how He has saved them. VI. Closing: In what / in whom do you trust? Is your gospel (how you believe that sinners are saved) consistent with 1) Who God is? Is it consistent with 2) Our desperate need as sinners who cannot earn or merit any blessing from a holy God and 3) Is it in keeping with God s design and purpose to save a people purely for His own delight that He might receive all glory and praise as He is revealed in the hearts of His dear children as both a just God and a merciful Savior? A debt paid is a debt forgiven. If you truly need His mercy and grace, then rejoice with me that our God delights in mercy! Let us join with Micah and marvel at God s Pardoning Performance. Footnote from the author: While this sermon was prepared and delivered by me, I often utilize the commentaries, study helps, and teachings of others to supplement my own prayerful study of the scriptures. Since this document was not originally prepared for publication in print, please excuse and recognize that it was unfeasible to properly identify and credit all of the various original sources used to develop the content herein. Ultimately, it is my sincere and foremost objective to accurately present the gospel of God s grace found in the only infallible source, God s word itself the Bible. Randy Wages 10