1 Kings 8, verse 46 says, If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy far or near. Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whether they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carry them captives, saying, we have sinned and have done perversely. So if they repent and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that have carried them captive, saying, we have sinned and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness. So sorry. And so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name. Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven, thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee. For they be thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt. From the midst of the furnace of iron, that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them and all that they call for unto thee. For thou did separate them from among all the people of the earth to be thine inheritance as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant when thou broughtest out their fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. So everyone knows that this is the season of Scrooge. We are confronted with Ebenezer Scrooge once a year at this time. And everyone knows that Scrooge is a very strict man. He relentlessly hounds his debtors and underpays his employees. When a gentleman asked Scrooge for a donation to the poor, he responded, Are there not prisons and workhouses for them to labor in? To which the gentleman said, many can't go there and many would rather die. And you know what Scrooge said? Scrooge said, if they would rather die, they should go ahead and do it and decrease the population. But after his encounters with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, He shed his strictness and took on mercy instead. He donates so much to charity that the gentleman is astounded. And he ends the story, as you know, giving one of his employees a raise for being 18 minutes late. The point is that Scrooge ends up being as merciful as he had been strict. You see, Scrooge is a dichotomy. He is completely strict or completely merciful, but never both. This is not the case with God. And for that, we are thankful. Because without strictness to rules, there is no justice or order. And without forgiveness, there is no compassion or hope. Thankfully, God is both perfectly strict and perfectly forgiving at the same time. Solomon emphasizes this in his prayer here in 1 Kings 8. Solomon knows that God is strict and people are corrupt. Therefore, people will continually find themselves under the discipline of God. But God is also forgiving toward those who repent. Therefore, repentant people will continually find themselves the beneficiaries of forgiveness. And this is the wisdom and the faithfulness of God for an order for him to fulfill his covenant He must be both strict and merciful at the same time. God's strictness and mercy embrace each other in the person and work of God's own Son, Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. And as he is presented to us in the gospel this morning, we pray that he would be magnified in your word by the spirit and the speaker would be decreased in Jesus name. Amen. So God entered into a covenant with his people. Look at verse 51. He says, for they be thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt from the midst of the furnace of iron, that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them and all that they call for unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth to be thine inheritance. as thou spakest by the hand of Moses, thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. Here Solomon prays to God concerning a group of people who belong to God by inheritance. He is not praying for everyone in the whole world. He is praying for the descendants of a specific group of people led out of Egypt centuries before by Moses, a nation called Israel. They were separated from the rest of the world to be a special inheritance of God. Now you know what an inheritance is. An inheritance is a gift. that the giver willingly gives and legally binds himself to give upon a specific time or event in the future. The people of God are an inheritance to God, a people whom God has contractually bound himself to give to himself and receive from himself at some point in the future. But if this inheritance is a gift given to God, who is the giver? And if God is the creator and owner of all things, how can he receive a gift of anything? Well, God has a son, for it is written, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." You see, God the Father has a son. who is not only the creator of the worlds and the brightness of his father's glory and the express image of his father's person, not only the upholder of all things, but is also appointed the heir of all things. Now, what are these all things? Well, most importantly, they would include God's people who make up his inheritance. And this heavenly son is named Jesus, who on the night before his own crucifixion prayed, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. But it wasn't the physical descendants of those Moses led out of Egypt, but the spiritual descendants who are separated from the world by faith in Christ Jesus. For it is written, for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is of the heart, not of the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are the inheritance given by God the Father to God the Son for an eternal heritage. But that presents a real problem because the guilt of our sin and corruption of our nature make it impossible for God to dwell with us. God's strictness demands perfect rule following and the rules are already broken. Our corruption then prevents us from undoing what has already been done. Our sinfulness is universal and complete. Look back at verse 30. Solomon says, and hearken now to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel when they shall pray toward this place. And hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, And when thou hearest, forgive. Okay, so Solomon prays for forgiveness from God on behalf of his citizens. But then he continues, if any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath become before thine altar in this house, then hear thou in heaven, and do and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his head, and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness. So just as soon as Solomon prays for forgiveness on behalf of his people, He continues here with seven different prayers concerning specific sins he knew would plague his people. He knows that he and his people shall indeed sin because they are sinners by nature. Look at verse 33. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee, And verse 35, when heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee. Notice he does not say if they sin, but when and because. Look at verse 46, if they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not. Solomon can boldly predict the future sin of his people because he knows there is no man that sinneth not. In fact, he wrote in Ecclesiastes, there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. The universality and thoroughness of man's sin makes Solomon's prediction of future sin certain. If there's anything that's easy to predict in this world, it's the future sin of man. If you can find somebody who will take a wager against it, take that wager, because you'll win every time. And God's strictness holds everyone accountable to God's standards. God holds all people accountable for their behavior against the standard of his own perfect righteousness and he strictly meets out the punishment associated with each offense Look at verse 32 Then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy servants and Condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his head That doesn't sound good How does God bring man's wicked way upon his head well look at verse 33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy Because they have sinned against thee so one way is by giving their enemies victory over them and And look at verse 35. When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee. So another way is to bring severe weather. And look at verse 37. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar, If their enemy besieged them in the land of their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be. So God brings any number of natural or manmade disasters upon the heads of the wicked. And finally, look at verse 46. He says, if they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy far or near. Now for the Jews of the Old Testament, this is the worst affliction possible. Because in exile, they would not have access to God in the temple. For the physical descendants of Israel, exile meant separation from God. Without help, that is the state of God's chosen people. With such great wickedness and infinite iniquities, how shall we escape this eternal separation from God? For the psalm says, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? God's people need God's forgiveness in order to be his people at all. And forgiveness is applied to God's people through repentance. Our repentance is the means of our forgiveness. Repentance is the hinge upon which God's door swings. His strictness shuts the door against sinners, but his forgiveness swings open the door through repentance. You can't expect to be a precious inheritance of God if you remain impenitent concerning your sins against God. But by repentance you move from God's abandonment toward his acceptance look at verse 33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy because they have sinned against thee and shall turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto thee in this house and Turn again to thee and confess thy name and pray and make supplication unto this house. And then if you look at verse 35. If they pray toward this place and confess thy name and turn from their sin. And in verse 47. If they shall bethink themselves in the land, whether they were carried captives and repent. And make supplication unto thee. And now verse 48, and so return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul. The reason I'm pointing this out is because the words return, turn, and repent in this chapter all come from the same Hebrew word. To repent means to turn from sin and toward God's righteousness. It's a turning and verse 48 shows the quality and intensity of this turning with all their heart and with all their soul. This is a complete turning. The forgiveness was promised as part of the covenant of God. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance, that complete turning, to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Repentance and forgiveness. God uses repentance to bring his people from abandonment to acceptance because he has promised to do so. God's covenant, which is a promise, God's covenant faithfulness binds God to forgive through repentance. Solomon's certainty that Israel will sin is matched by his certainty that Israel shall be forgiven Look at verse 50 And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee and Give them compassion before them who carried them captive that they may have compassion on them. I For they be thy people and thine inheritance. For they be thy people and thine inheritance. Having graciously entered into this covenant with God the Son, God the Father must have compassion upon the repentant that they shall be forgiven and made a worthy inheritance. God not only condescends to enter into a covenant with us in Christ, but also provides the means by which we are preserved in that covenant. As heirs of the promise, the repentant enjoy the eternal compassion, preservation, and provision of God. The eternal covenant between God the Father and God the Son legally binds God to give his repentance that his special people may be preserved unto the end. But God does not change. His relationship with people may change, but God himself does not. Scrooge had a change of heart. He was strict, then he became merciful. Everything about his affect changed. He laughed, he talked pleasantly to children, he bought gifts. People didn't even recognize him. But God remains the same. He has always been perfectly strict and perfectly forgiving at the same time. And the same goes for God's son, Jesus Christ, is the same yesterday and today and forever. There is not a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament, a God of wrath and a God of mercy. He's the same God. God never changes. We who repent from sin are transformed by the renewing of our minds. We are the ones that change, that we might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So let me just give you some applications of this. You better not mistake God's delay for slackness. Look at verse 46 once again. If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives into the land of the enemy far or near. Now Israel falls into idolatry within Solomon's lifetime, but we're not carried away into captivity completely until centuries later. And Israel mistook God's long suffering for leniency. And Peter tells us the same thing will be true for people in our day. For he said, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. But as long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. If you reject the offer of forgiveness in Christ, the word of God clearly threatens you with separation from God eventually and finally. And things will be even worse for you because you pervert God's patience into laziness. You accuse God of being slack because he's having patience with you. Secondly, we must remember that repentance is God's means, not man's merit. Repentance is God's means, not man's merit. God gives you repentance because you have none of your own. If the books of the kings teach anything, it is that mankind, in and of themselves, lack the ability to repent from sin and toward God. Israel possessed Every good thing for an eternity of dwelling with God. That's basically what we've been learning so far in the book of Kings is how much God has given them. They have this temple. They have this palace. They have all the gold in the world. They have the wisest king who ever walked the earth. They have all of the worship of God. They have rest from enemies all around. yet they could not turn from their idolatry to serve the living and true God. That's because human beings lack repentance. So in order to fulfill his covenant, God the Father made God the Son his heir and granted or gave repentance to his people that they might become his promised inheritance. Him if God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And that means that you are just as dependent upon the gift of repentance as God's enemy and You are just as dependent upon God's gift of repentance as God's greatest enemy is. Peter preached, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Forgiveness is occasioned by repentance, whether you are the worst heathen or the best Christian. If that heathen turns to Christ tomorrow and you turn to idols, he will enjoy forgiveness and you strictness. There is no first bank of repentance in heaven where Christians earn interest for every sin that they repent of so that they can draw against this repentance savings account in order to enjoy a sin for just a little bit longer. It doesn't work like that. If anything, it's the opposite. Because Jesus said, for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. As much as you want your worst enemy to repent, you should want repentance for yourself even more. But on the flip side, God is just as ready to forgive his worst enemy as he is his best friend. If God is just as forgiving as he is strict, and the hinge between the two is repentance, then God is as ready to forgive his enemies as he is to condemn them. Whereas we forgive more readily those who treat us well, God is ready to forgive any and all who repent, regardless of the degree or intensity of their sin. In fact, Jesus says joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than other ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. And finally, Those of us who enjoy God's forgiveness now should not forget God's strictness. Turn with me please to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 19 in the New Testament. Luke chapter 19 and verse 12. Speaking of Jesus says he said, therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And he called his 10 servants and delivered them 10 pounds and said unto them, occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained 10 pounds. And he said unto him, well, thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over 10 cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained 5 pounds. And he said likewise to him, be thou also over 5 cities. And another came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin. For I feared thee because thou art an austere man. The word austere means strict. Thou takest up that thou layest not down and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? That means interest. And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound and give it to him that hath 10 pounds Then they said unto him Lord he hath 10 pounds For I say unto you that unto everyone which hath shall be given and from him that hath not even that he hath shall be taken away from him But then he goes on And says, but those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me. So as the nobleman had to travel to a far country to receive his kingdom and return. So Jesus Christ traveled to heaven to be installed at the right hand of God and shall return again. But before leaving, the nobleman gave gifts to his servants that they may occupy themselves in trade, which is a frustrating and burdensome job, especially considering their position in a nation who hates the nobleman that they work for. And Christ also gives gifts to his servants that they may labor in his absence in a world that hates them. The servants who took the gifts and worked hard and took risks are accepted upon his return. The lazy servant who did nothing with his gift and impugned the character of the King for expecting him to work hard for the King's benefit suffered shame before all, yet he remained a servant. Those who rejected and hated the king outright, they were slain before him. So Christ gives his people gifts for the purpose of profiting his kingdom through perilous work. To those who get lazy and apathetic, Christ is strict and austere, although they remain his. Christ is strict with those who take Christ's name for convenience, but refuse to take risks in laboring for his kingdom. They will be saved, but their work will perish in shame. For Paul says, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Christ's forgiveness does not cancel out his strictness. We who have been forgiven must continue in repentance or suffer the strictness of Christ. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we ask for the gift of repentance for all who are in attendance today, for all who are listening online, What a great gift it is, Lord. Who are we that we should deserve such a gift deserve to be part of such a great inheritance yet because of your humility and your love, you have made it possible for us to enjoy your forgiveness. Jesus name we pray. Amen.