I hope that we are here to worship. In hearing the word of God read and in singing, which the writer knew something about the Christian life, the Christian path. This is the house of God, and if it is not, then we are wrong to continue on. You say there's not many. Christ said, if you're not little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure. to give you the kingdom. Are you here to give thanks to Him? Are you here to worship Him? And bow quietly, humbly, submissively at the feet of the great King, the one that all of us will stand before, not too long. Micah 7. I want to read verses 18 and 19. Well, 20 also since that's the end. Speaking mainly to you from verse 18 on who is a God like unto thee. Now, I hope you will not shut me out in the first two or three or four minutes, but give me time to make the points that I want to set before you, hope to set before you. Who is a God like unto thee? Would you bow with me as we approach the throne of grace? Lord, you taught us to come, to come boldly, to make our petitions known, to render unto Thee thanksgiving and praise. For how can we ever be thankful enough? And yet Lord, the sad reality is that among the professing people of God, thou art taught so little of. Through the week it is us, it is me. On Saturday it is time. for that that I enjoy. And on Sunday, well, I suppose it's required of me to go out to the house of God. Lord, change our hearts clear up our vision so that we see clearly the one on the throne. My father helped every individual here to be brought into the reality of The true God. And Lord, for Thy great namesake and for the honor of our blessed Lord Jesus, first, give that which You have spoken, and only that which is to Thy glory and for the benefit of Your children. And would you enable hearts to become quiet? And maybe ascend above this old world where we see our Lord. Provide that for your children's sake. Provide that for these that have not yet met you, Lord. Have mercy on all of us. Be magnified in our midst today. And draw our hearts unto Thee. Hear us now for Thy great name's sake. for thy glory. And Lord, give us hearts larger than they are. We might love you. We might love you more and more with the passing days. And that we might quietly bow to thy will, whatever you see fit to bring our way. Come, Spirit of God, and exalt the King of kings and Lord of lords. In his name we pray, amen. Micah 7, beginning with verse 18. Now this is the prophet Micah, and in verse 14, down to this, he's speaking to the Lord, feed thy people. And then he raises the question, who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage and retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. 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. And thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Now, folk, I know this is a bleak subject to start off with, and I will not dwell here. But every last one of us, as an individual, will stand before this God. And all of us will give an account of our words, our deeds, and the very intent and purposes within our hearts. All of us will be there. I don't pass by the days. Well, tomorrow I'll try to get right. I'll think about it more tomorrow. I'm still young, got plenty of time. Don't assume that, young folks. Eternity, this is to me now, is becoming a reality that has never been known before. Not that I did not believe in eternity. It's always been a fact to me Always been a reality, but it's lay in the back of my mind. You younger ones won't, don't know, but the, my grandparents and probably some of your grandparents, they used to have an old chest made out of cedar. And they would put their valuable clothing, material, in that so that Moss would not bother it. Then they'd take it out. And so eternity has been like that, that I lay in the bottom of a chest. I knew it was there, but it didn't bring it out. I knew it was real, but I didn't dwell upon it. And I know you were thinking, well, that's a very morbid thought. We didn't have to come out here to hear something like that. And you can think of what you will, but it's better to have a reality of us headed into eternity than live as if the grave ended everything. No consciousness after death, nothing real there. Paul said, well, if there's no such thing as the children of God rising or of the resurrection in general, then we all might as well eat and drink, live for the day because tomorrow we die and that's the end of it. But I hope you'll become acquainted with this and it become a reality in your mind. There is a God, one God, the true God, and all will stand before Him. And it makes a serious one wanting to know, is the God that I serve, one that Micah said, pardons iniquity and passes by transgression. Does the God that I bow to, is he that God? Does he pardon iniquity and pass by transgressions that I have be a great interest to you, it is to me in that question, because the holiness of God is something that we have not yet reached the pinnacle of that attribute. With a loud voice, God sent word back down off the mount with Moses, tell all the people Don't come near that mount tomorrow because I'll be there. Don't let your animals touch it. Anybody or anything touches it, they're dead. And one thing about the justice of God is that he demands all rebels and that is me if I am not, have not willfully and remain willfully bowed to his will. The justice of God demands that all rebels and all sinners be cast out of his sight. And the all seeing eye and the all knowing mind is the one that we stand before one day. Can he? Will he pardon iniquity? Will he pass by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage? Does he not always keep his anger? Is he a God that delights in mercy? Yes, but at the back of that, he is a holy God. No honest, law-abiding judge on the bench would not free a convicted criminal. No honest judge would ever do that. Now, Paul asks a question in Hebrews 2.2, if the word declared by angels was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, where shall we go? Is God, is this God, is the God that is described from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, is he a God that pardons iniquity? Will he pass by the transgression of the remnant of his children? In every country, There not only is one God, there are many gods. And even those countries that have the book that you hold in your lap this morning, even those countries, those people, they have Bibles, but it's come down to me making a God from the Word of God. It's all coming from, this is who God is to me. I'm going to meet the one true God. It does not matter what my mind thinks He might be. I'm going to meet the living God. I'm familiar with the book throughout. It matters what my God is. Now, in all countries with a multitude in places of many gods, multitude of gods, all these gods require works for pardon and forgiveness. Even the Armenian God that says that it is up to you to make a decision. It is up to you to pray the sinner's prayer. Do you see what they've done? They have placed deeds and works upon you that if you do these things, then God will forgive. I must repent. I must believe. But because I repented, did not bring life. Because I believed, did not bring life. When I asked God to forgive me, that Prayer did not bring life. Life was already there or I never would have repented. And I already was a living soul or I never would have believed. So there's not but one God. You don't have the right, you don't have the privilege. Say, this is what I think God is, or this is who I think God is. This is what God is to me. You do not have that right. God told you, God has said before you what he is and how he is. All sincere, Honest hearts were just the passing thoughts of eternity from time to time. We all become like Martin Luther, the great reformer. And the one thing he desired of God was forgiveness and pardon. And in his thinking, this was obtained by works. If I do these and if they are enough, then that will bring forgiveness to me. And all that he did, he never found forgiveness. And he began torturing his body because he was finding out that his body was wicked. His body wasn't. He was the one that resided in that body. But he began torturing his body, thinking if the punishment is severe enough, then that will pay for my sins. It didn't. Didn't bring peace. As much afflictions as he brought on his own body. No peace, no forgiveness. And it was as a result of his lectures on the Psalms, on Romans, might have been Galatians, from 1514 to 1518, lecturing from those four books, that the Spirit of God opened his eyes and he found out a man is justified solely by faith. That faith that justifies a man is a gift of God. God did not give it because you repented. God gave it and then you repented. The baby didn't cry to become a living being, he cried or she cried because she was a living child. And faith does not teach us that God passes by the transgressions of the remnant of his people or pardons their iniquity. He has God sitting on the bench. Proclaims we're all guilty. And he cannot do what the minor prophet said here in 718. God forgave that would make void his law. And Paul said in Romans 7, 12, the law, within the law is that holy command. And those commands of God are holy, just, and good. What the law did, To me, if you're a Christian, what the law did to you, it was just like you stepping in front of a mirror with a lot of light overhead. And that mirror revealed it didn't make anything in you, didn't change anything about you. It just revealed who you actually were, what you are. your true condition. And standing there in front of that mirror, which off the word of God is compared to a mirror, Isaiah 64, six, all our transgressions. No, Isaiah said, all our righteousnesses, every last one of them are like filthy rags. Paul said in Romans three, As it is written, there is none or none righteous. No, not one. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12, God shall bring every work. into judgment with every secret thing. Now remember that, secret things. You believe, surely you believe that the Bible sets forth the true God. If this book does that, then this God in here requires perfection and holiness without which no man shall see him, that is in peace. then God can't forgive. And yet that's the one thing that all of us are looking for from God. Micah's left with the question, then who is a God like unto thee that pardons iniquity and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? Now, if you haven't completely shut me out of your mind because you think I belong more in the camp of the heretics, I want you to turn with me Leviticus 16, fourth, third book, third book in the Old Testament from Genesis. Third book, I should say counting Genesis. Now, I just told you that the living God cannot pass by our transgressions. The living God cannot pardon. Now, Leviticus 16, would you begin with me in verse 20? And let's go down through 22. Leviticus 16, 20. And when he had made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions, in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited. And he shall let it go, let go the goat in the wilderness." There are two goats here. Both of them brought, one was slain and the blood applied. And on the second goat, the high priest lay his hands on the head of that goat and he confessed all the sins of the children of Israel. And then some fit man, some man that knew the wilderness, the way to the wilderness, he brought that living goat and he set him free with all the sins upon his head. And God cannot forgive sin. Then how does anybody heaven. Well, that brings us to these two goats, both representative of the Lord Jesus. Micah said the truth there in 718, Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth? The word pardon means to bear or take away or carry away. And that's what the living goat did. There came a time that Jesus was led into the courtroom, into the hall, judgment hall. And there God lay upon him every sin of every child that would enter glory. And Jesus Christ hung on Calvary as a guilty sinner. Not in his own right, he was holy. but because he took our sins and then was buried out of sight for three days and three nights. But before that, he said to the man, man, thy sins be forgiven thee. The religious crowd's looking on him and said, who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sin. And unto the lady, thy sins are forgiven thee. Those that Jesus forgave, all their sins had to be paid for. Now the question, who is a God? Like unto our God that pardons. Our guilt, our sin takes away our iniquities. Who is He? And for God to pardon you, He must know each sin and every sin that you have committed or will commit. And God had to lay upon His dear Son every sin you've ever committed or will commit. And in Christ Jesus, not because God forgave my sins, Took away my iniquities, no. But he's a God like that he is because he put our sins on his son. And for God to know what to lay on him for James B, he had to know everything about me. You say, well, Jesus died before you got here. Well, now you're beginning to think a little. A man on death row, scheduled to die at 1201 a.m., must need a lawyer bring his case to the governor. Maybe evidence has turned up that clears this what they call guilty man. Now his lawyer's got to get there in time or that man's going to die for a crime or crimes he never committed. But if his lawyer gets there, they stay of execution can be ordered from the governor. And you go back some 2,000 years ago and you line the streets there and you look at that object, that being, and his face is beyond recognition, his back, front ripped open, blood still flowing. And you go back there and you look, maybe you're one, maybe you're one in the crowd. And you wonder, what'd he do? Or maybe you're that woman that he said, thy sins are forgiven thee. Or that man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Maybe you're one of those in that crowd and you know why he's got a bloody back, body, weak body. Unrecognizable face. And you think, My entering into heaven is because that man there, he took my sins and he bore them into that wilderness that no man had ever been. And he did away with them in the sight of God. God being eternal, And for God to forgive, Jesus had to pay for your interest in the glory. You couldn't do it. I don't care how much you strive to be holy or how much you separate yourself from religion, just trying to be holy to the true God. Pardon doesn't come by our works. Pardon comes because God lay on Christ Jesus all every last sin that I have or ever will commit. And folk, if he didn't do that, when are you going to pay for those? So you got to admit, the eternal son made that bloody trail up to Golgotha, the old place of the skull. And every sin of everyone in the Old Testament that was in paradise, For every sin of everyone that would be brought into the family of God, Jesus Christ paid for them. He bore your sin. Isaiah 40, after whom will we liken God? Is He a God that forgives iniquity? Is He a God that pardons? No. Look at His Son. Did He forgive Jesus? No. But when he came that last hour and said, the great judge of all has put a stay on your execution, he didn't do it. And some may hear, I hope none of you, some that hear might say, well, that man is saying Jesus has already paid for our sins. I might as well go on and live like I want to. You do that, you're going to hell. There are 7 billion people, over 7 billion people old planet. Last year, many died, many were born. And this old planet's been spending for 6,000 to 8,000 years with man on it. And in every man, every man, every woman, boy, girl will stand before the judge. Every idle word every deed, whether it be good or evil. Let's take one individual. Or let me take myself and you, yourself. Inside one's heart, there are crevices that I will never know about. The seed of every, who the Puritan was, said, the seed of every sin of all the damned in hell is in my heart. I don't know my heart. It's deceitful. Sometimes I might know the purposes. Sometimes I might know the intent or desires, the ambition or goals, but I don't know them all. I know only a small fraction. And just one heart now. If you were flying over a city in the daytime, a large city, and coming in, coming in, And down below you there are tall, tall buildings. There are smaller ones. There are streets and there are avenues. That's evident, that's seen. But beneath that city, underground, buried, thousands and thousands of miles of pipe. to run wires, to carry electricity, to run water, and all that is needed. If you could flip the motherboard of a computer so it's laying flat and look at it, You'd see the ports, and the headers, and the connectors, and the chips, and the chipsets, and the wiring, and the slots, and how all this fit together. That's more like our heart, whether you'll admit it or not. And this God knows everything about everybody, even things hidden from your own eyes. And for this we give thanks that our God does know everything about us. And it is only the hypocrite that is fearful of such knowledge, such truth. Because every child of God does not want one sin overlooked in life. You say, Jesus forgave. You know how I'm talking. He did. but we've got a wicked heart prone to evil. And I want God to make known to me all that I should know so I can confess and repent. Now, is there a God like unto Jehovah? In his infinite knowledge, he pardons all our iniquities. Many of those have been made known to you throughout your life. And there's a thousand fold more hidden that you don't know anything about. But God does. Seven billion people today plus. God knows everybody, every thought. God even understands your thoughts are far off. I'll be glad when we can get to some preacher that doesn't harp on these things. I want you to turn with me to one last passage and that's in Hebrews chapter 11. And I'll try not to linger here because some of you have aches and pains just in getting here. Some of you aches and pains in sitting here, physical pain. I don't know about anything else. So I'll make haste, Lord willing. Hebrews 11, 11. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one in him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore were innumerable." That's a pretty good crowd of people, don't you think? Sand compared to the number, stars. Verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they'd been mindful of that country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. just there from Abraham. Who knows how many died in the flood? Billions of people. From Abraham to our day, an innumerable number back up from that, from Abraham to the closing out of the old economy. A number as vast as the sand on the seashore or the stars in the heavens. An innumerable company of believers just in the Old Testament alone. And these all died looking to one sacrifice, that infinite sacrifice. And by that sacrifice, a holy God can pardon all that come to him through his son. Who is a God like that, that pardons? From that time, Revelation 5.11, the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands. All that had to be in the knowledge of God for him to lay it on Christ Jesus. What about his power? We, considering this innumerable company, this God had to have power in getting up out of the grave. grave. You remember the lady that touched the hem of his garment. You remember the others that came and just touched him and they were healed. They went out, they went virtue out, virtue, power, strength, ability out of him and healed them all who touched me. I perceive that somebody touched me. Lord, his disciples, the crowd throngs thee. Why are you asking a question like that? No, somebody touched me that came on purpose to find healing. And all these had to by the power be brought to him, all the 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands and thousands. All of them had to be brought to the Lamb of God and the blood shed. And then by the Holy Spirit, the blood applied. Now who's a God like unto thee? For his infinite grace, and this is the last, for his infinite grace and mercy. Who? But we're His people. And God wasn't angry with us. I hope you're talking about after you became His people and not before. For God is angry with the wicked every day. But what was it that stilled the anger of God that prophet's looking into. I always have been a pretty good fellow, pretty good girl. We came into the world speaking lies. We came in the world with a bad heart. And Jesus Christ had to pay for everybody that was in paradise before Calvary and everybody that would enter glory after Calvary. How could he do that? Because infinite grace and infinite mercy bestowed upon all of us that were wicked. And grace kept a lot of people from outward wickedness and did not for others that make up the family of God. Some were saved at an early age, even of the 11 disciples saved when Christ was on the earth And then there came one that was saved after. And God left him and didn't save him with the other disciples. Paul said that in me. God's long suffering might be magnified. And now this God passed this by all transgressions all wickedness, all evil intent, all those places in your heart that the street bends and you can't see around the corner. God passes by your transgressions and your iniquities because they were paid by the infinite blood of the Lamb of God. And I'll close with this. If you think like Paul knew some of them, he knew they were going to take what he said and go out and commit sin because they were forgiven. For willful sin, there remaineth no more sacrifice. God did pardon you only because he couldn't pardon his son. And God didn't show kindness and mercy and grace to you because he didn't show that to his son. And for one person in glory, And that number, no man can number. Jesus Christ had to pay every single sin so that his father could be a forgiving God, could be a God that would not impute iniquity. God do you serve children? If you've become aggravated a little bit with this, just muse over it a while. I would hope as you might get eternal benefits from it.