HE HURLS OUR SINS INTO THE SEA

Transcript

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Hello everyone. This is Pastor Dean Thompson with the word of hope. He hurls our sins into the sea. Micah chapter seven verses eighteen and nineteen. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He remaineth, he 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. Micah ends his book with a question that should never be answered carefully. Who is a god like unto thee? The Hebrew is Miel Kamuka. A question pressed into wonder. The prophet has just declared that God will pardon, forgive, and take away the iniquity of his people. He is so amazed by what he has just said that he turns and asks, Who else does this?

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Who has ever heard of a God like this? The verbs are extraordinary.

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Pardon, Nasa literally means to lift, to carry away. The same verb used in Isaiah 53 verse 4 of the servant who carried our sorrows. Forgiveness in Hebrew is not God ignoring sin. It is God hoisting it onto his shoulders and removing it. Sub two Kavash. The verb is jarringly physical. It means to tread down, to trample underfoot, to conquer. The picture is not of God patiently coexisting with our sin. It is of God striding into the field of our iniquities and stamping them flat. Our sins are not God's equals. He defeats them. Cast the Hebrew shalak means to hermit force, to fling, where into Mestolot Yam, the depths of the sea. Corey Tenboom, who learned forgiveness in a Nazi camp where her sister died, used to add a phrase. And then God puts up a sign that says no fishing. If God has hurled your sin into the depths of the sea, into the deepest sea, do not spend your life trying to dredge it back up. Why does he do this? Because the prophet says he delighteth in mercy. The Hebrew chapters, the E the Hebrew Kafeths Kesed, he delights Kesed. He takes pleasure in covenant love. Mercy is not God's reluctant concession to our weakness. Mercy is God's delight. Spursion preaching on this text said, It is a fountain that is always playing. It is a stream that is always running. It is a sun that is always shining. The love and mercy of God. What Micah saw in shadow, we see in light. The cross is the place where God Himself lifted our iniquity and carried it down into the deep. As for the east, as far as the east is from the west, so far had he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103 verse twelve. The God you are coming to today is not reluctant. He is not weighing whether to forgive. He is delighting in the chance to do what he most loves to do. So come to him. Oh God, who is a God like you? Please cast our sins into the depth. And let us leave them there. And let us live for you in holiness and in truth. Amen. God bless you, my brothers and sisters.