His Mercy Is More

 His Mercy Is More

Opening Illustration:

I was listening to a pod cast this week and heard some extremely disturbing news. It a Pew Research Poll that stated that 3 in 10 Americans are now “religiously unaffiliated”. What does that mean? It means that self identified Christians make up 63% of the population in 2021, down from 75% a decade ago. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward. A new term has been developed in recent year. The term is “nones”. No not n.u.n.s, “nones”. “Nones” are people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or appropriately “nothing in particular”, hence their name “nones”. Over the last decade, it seems our views of God have shifted. I have a friend, a member of this church actually, who just spent several days in California. He and I had lunch when he returned and he said that was struck him about the West Coast was the “post Christian” culture. He said his time in California felt like visiting Europe, where organized religion is all but dead. It seems as in just the last 2 years, as we all have been weighed down by the pandemic, that Americans view of God is worse than ever. Ive heard it all during those two years. People have told me that they just don’t believe that God cares. He is just a callous deity, drifting in the ether. Others have told me that their view of God has shifted to one of an executioner. He is just a cosmic kill joy waiting to throw down lightning bolts of cancer and calamity upon those whom He is displeased. 

You and I know the truth. This world, infected with sin and fallen from the original order, is in the midst of a rescue. We know that God sent His Son Jesus Christ into this world, not to condemn it, but to save it. Today, we worship a God of grace, a God of mercy, a God of compassion. 

Today’s Thought:

Many Are Confused About The Character of God. Some Think He Is Callous, Others Condemning, But Thankfully He Is Compassionate!

Point:

Im reminded of the Psalmist words in Psalm 145:8-9. 

Psalm 145:8-9 AMP
8The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created].

Brothers and sisters, do you know who wrote those words? Yep, you guessed it. King David wrote Psalm 145. Do know what had happened in David’s life that led to these words being penned? David had slept with Bathsheba. He had Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, murdered. Then he married Bathsheba and resumed his life. David felt nothing about what he had done. He simply went on his way, thinking that there would be no consequence for his action. Suddenly Nathan enters the King’s court and reveals David’s secret sin and lets him know that there will indeed be tragic, life altering consequences for the evil that David had perpetrated. What would you have done if you were Nathan? Some would have condemned David. Some might have had him put to death. Some might have run him through the streets to embarrass him. 

Aren’t you glad that God isn’t “Some”. While David was not spared from the consequences of his sin, God allowed David to be restored to a right relationship with Him. David wrote Psalm 145 after being found out. He was remorseful. He was a broken man. He recognized his evil, confessed it, and took the necessary steps to repent. David did not find a God who didn’t care about him, nor did he find a God who was ready to eternally condemn him. David found the same God that is available to all of us today. He found the God of compassion. 

Point:

Friends, are you in need of mercy this morning? Are you in need of grace? Ive got good news for you today, God’s mercy is more than enough for you and me. Do me a favor, open your Bible to Micah 7:18-20. As you do, I want to share with you the context of the passage that we are about to read. 

Background and Context:

The Book of Micah is the sixth of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Ostensibly, it records the sayings of Micah, whose name meaning "Who is like Yahweh?" Micah lived outside the governmental centers of power in his nation, leading to his strong concern for the lowly and less fortunate of society—the lame, the outcasts, and the afflicted. Therefore, Micah directed much of his prophecy toward the powerful leaders of Samaria and Jerusalem. When you read the entirety of Micah 7 you’ll see two different emotions. The first emotion is conviction. Israel has done wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Israel has become bloodthirsty, skilled in performing evil acts, dishonest, and corrupt. They have worshipped other Gods, chasing after idols. What we need to realize here folks is that Israel represents us. Israel is all of mankind. Israel is just a gigantic nation of sinners whose chickens have come home to roost. 

Then there is another emotion. That emotion is deliverance. Israel would feel pain, they would feel the wrath of God because of their sin, but God would show them mercy and deliver them up to His love. You see Micah, the entire book, looked forward to the coming Savior. Some 700 years before Jesus would be born, Micah looked to a future where God would bring compassion, mercy, and grace to His people. Brothers and sisters, this is the God that I speak of today. A God who brings healing in His hands. A God who will sustain you while you suffer, bind up what we have broken, and bring you joy while you journey through heartache. So, let’s read this morning from Micah 7:18-20. Today I am reading from the New Living Translation.

Today’s Scripture:

Micah 7:18-20 NLT

[18] Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. [19] Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! [20] You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.

Point:

I love this passage of Scripture don’t you? It is so hopeful. God pardons, overlooking our sins, not desiring to stay angry. Do you know who this doesn’t sound like? This doesn’t sound like Stuart Ryan Davidson. Friends, like everyone in this room Ive been hurt. I struggle with forgiveness. I struggle letting go. I have allowed myself to be poisoned by anger and I have felt the sting of resentment. I am so so thankful that God is not like me and that with His help, I can be like Him. This passage of Scripture reminds me of a quote that I heard once from famed poet and hymn writer William Cowper. 

Quote:

“Man may dismiss compassion from his heart, but God never will.

-William Cowper

Point:

Have you ever heard of William Cowper? He was a poet and hymwriter in the 18th century. His father was a pastor and Cowper grew up loving the Lord. What is interesting about Cowper is the friendship that he had with former slave trader turned pastor John Newton. The two were the very best of friends. In fact, John Newton performed his friend’s funeral. At the funeral, Newton revealed something about William Cowper that no one else knew. This is a quote from Newton’s message, “For 27 years, the cold, dark fire of depression burned in Cowper’s bones. For 27 years, despair haunted him, hounded him, and caged him in an emotional and spiritual midnight. For 27 years, suicidal temptations met him at his lowest and spoke with almost overwhelming force. Yet for 27 years, the flames did not consume him. And why? “Because the Lord was there, yes, the Lord was there.”

It is said that Newton never abandoned Cowper who was seen as mentally ill, an extremely taboo subject in those days, and sadly still is today. When Cowper would become manic, battling horrible mood swings, people would want to lock him away. It was Newton who would stay with Cowper. Why did he do this? There was a day when Christians wanted to do the same to John Newton because of his involvement in the slave trade. Christians wanted to condemn him for his evil acts. It was Cowper who stayed with Newton, showing him love, granting him mercy. Cowper’s quote carries new meaning today when you understand the backstory of his life.

Point:

I love that story, and stories like this because it shows how God’s mercy is so incomparable. However if you use Micah 7:18-20, you’ll see other ways that God is incomparable. 

God is Incomparable Because of His…

I. Unfailing Favor vs. 18

Micah 7:18 NLT

[18] Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. 

Point:

God’s people left Him, they rebelled against Him, they broke His law and sinned. Therefore, God was angry with them and punished them by exiling them from the land He had promised them. Where’s the love in that? When parents punish a child for some wrongdoing, the child may think that they do not love him. Mom and dad may seem like the worst people in the world, but the child forgets what brought on the punishment. Mom and dad only want to cause pain and suffering. I remember my parents told me that the punishment I was going to receive was going to hurt them more than me. I thought to myself, “Yeah, right!” I bet you are going to be hurt while my rear end is on fire. But, true parental punishment is not done out of anger. It is done out of love.

We can tolerate many things, some things more than others – traffic, a dirty house, crooked pictures on the wall, even certain mistreatment from others. There are things we will not tolerate, though – not being paid for our work, speaking harshly about our spouse, mistreating our children. Well, God cannot tolerate sin. He is a holy God and cannot stand it, and all of us sin. We all do things that are not right and displease God. But more than that, thanks to our first ancestors, we are born with a sin nature. We cannot escape it, and God cannot accept it. God is angry at it. He will execute justice on evil and wickedness, as Micah mentioned many times throughout the book.

But God shows us unfailing love. He is incomparable in His forgiving love and grace. Yes, He deals with our sin but He also extends us mercy through His Son, Jesus Christ. His love is demonstrated through His Son. One of my favorite passages is Romans 5:8.

Romans 5:8 NLT

[8] But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

God is Incomparable Because of His…

I. Unfailing Favor vs. 18

II. Unfaltering Forgiveness vs. 19

Micah 7:19 NLT

[19] Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! 

Point

God is also incomparable in the magnitude of our redemption. Forgiveness is an interesting thing. We know from Scripture that we are required to forgive one another. When someone wrongs us, we are to forgive them, and not just once but each time. But our memory is inextricably tied to our emotions and to our ability to forgive. We remember the wrong someone has done us and we do not want to forget it. We do not want to forgive it. We want justice and we want that person to pay for what he or she has done to us. Not so we God. His unfailing love is tied to His redeeming power.

Micah 7:19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

It reminds me of when Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness in Matthew. 

Matthew 18:21-22 ESV

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

God does not just pardon our sins; He tramples them down. When we sin, seek forgiveness, repent, God takes our sin and tosses that sin into the deepest ocean of His forgetfulness. God does not remember our sin, He forgets our wrong. 

In the Old Testament, the sacrificial system was put in place to show the seriousness of our sin. Only by the shedding of blood will sin be forgiven (Hebrews 9:22). But that system was not complete. Each year on the Day of Atonement, the priest would make a sacrifice as payment for the people’s sins. They had to do this each year – year after year. Therefore, Micah and the Israelites anticipated a day when their sin would be pardoned completely. That day was fulfilled when Jesus took on and took away the sins of the world through His sacrifice on the cross. Through Christ, our forgiveness is complete. God conquered sin. He liberated us from it and removed our guilt forever. He does not remember it, and separates our sin from us. 

Think about that for a second. I want you to do something for me. I want you to remember someone that has hurt you. I mean really hurt you. Forever you will associate that hurt with their face. Every time you see that person, the emotions of that pain come flooding back. You remember how they hurt you, what it felt like, and just their presence dredges those feelings to the surface. Now imagine how God must feel when confronted by our sin. Every time He looks at us, He is reminded, not that He can forget, of the pain that sin caused. Now, insert Jesus into that equation. Jesus paid for our sin. So, when God looks at me and you, He doest see me and you, He sees His son. We have been separated from the memory of our sin. 

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Jeremiah 31:34 …For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Point:

God casts all our sin away, not just some of it, but all of it. God’s pardon to His people is complete and it is accomplished in Jesus Christ. Our redemption is beyond compare.

Psalm 103:12 NLT

[12] He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

Jeremiah 31:34 NLT

[34]"And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins."

God is Incomparable Because of His…

I. Unfailing Favor vs. 18

II. Unfaltering Forgiveness vs. 19

III. Unforgettable Faithfulness vs. 20

Micah 7:20 NLT

[20] You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago.

Micah concludes the book by reminding us of the faithful covenant-keeping God.

God’s character (His steadfast love and mercy) moves him to keep His word thus demonstrating His faithfulness. What God promised to our fathers of the faith, Abraham and Jacob, still stand. When God says He will do something, you can take that to the bank – He will! Is that true for us? Do we sometimes break promises? I know I have. The incredible thing is that the Israelites were not faithful to God. They broke faith with their God and they cheated on Him by chasing after other gods. But that is not just the Israelites. Lest you believe that this was something unique to the Israelites, we each have left God. We each have been unfaithful to Him. But not so with God. He is always faithful to a people. He will never leave His people or forsake His people. Even when His people left Him, God pursued them. He still pursues us in never-ending faithfulness.

Point:

Throughout the book of Micah we are exposed to the justice of God and the mercy of God woven together. We see that the God Who punishes His people for their sin is the very same God who rescues them from their sin. When Micah said that there is no other god like our God, He was right! By just punishment and holiness, God deals with our sin, but by His amazing love and grace, He rescues us, redeems us, and makes us His holy people. This is most clearly seen on the cross of Calvary. God’s justice was displayed by placing His wrath and our guilt on His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. The innocent Lamb of God took the punishment for my sin and your sin in order to satisfy the justice of God. But at the same time, through the cross of Jesus Christ, amazing grace and love was poured out on us. Whosoever turns to Him, places their trust in Jesus Christ, will receive mercy and forgiveness. Their sins are forgiven. They are a new creation, a holy people, a chosen race, adopted into God’s family. Once they were His enemies, but now they are His children. God’s justice and mercy are found on the cross of Calvary. Who is like our God Who lays down His life for us? No one!

Point: 

No one is like our God. It reminds me of the amazing song that carries the same title written by Lincoln Brewster. 

What is this love that won't relent

That's calling out with heaven's breath

Who is reaching wide to save our souls?

Only you

What is this grace that makes no sense

That we could never recompense

Who gives us all a second chance?

Only you

Who hung the stars upon the night

And showed the sun how bright to shine

Who shaped the world within his hands?

Only you

Who set the sky upon the hills

And told the waters to be still

Who spoke to form the universe

Only you

No height or depth can stand between us

No power on earth or all creation

No life or death can separate us from your love

2 Peter 1:4 NLT

[4] And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.

Today’s Conclusion:

You’ve Been Redeemed, Repent, & Let God Renew Your Spirit!