Ron Dunn Podcast - What Is God Like?

Episode Date: August 20, 2015

Pastor Ron Dunn preaches a message from Micah 7, on what is God like.

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. Now, without turning to your table of contents, I want you to open your Bibles to the last chapter of Micah. Micah chapter 7. Micah chapter 7. And I want to read just the last three verses.

The last three verses. We'll be referring to some other verses in this chapter, but the last three are the ones that we want to focus on, and they form the theme of the message tonight. You'll know immediately, if you remember what Micah's name is, Micah's name is who is like Jehovah. And it's not so much a question, his name, Micah's name, is not so much a question, but it is an exclamation of wonder and an affirmation of praise.

Who is like Jehovah? I remember the first time I saw the Grand Canyon 30-something years ago. I'd seen pictures of it, but you know, when I really first saw it, and I've seen it several times since, and it just still takes my breath away. No picture, no description can, listening to somebody else tell about it, can never really give you the full shock of it. And when you first see it, it's just breathtaking, awesome. And you take in your breath and you're just so amazed at that. And that's sort of the way Micah's name is. it is that he has seen God in all of his different aspects and and he just exclaims with wonder and praise who is like Jehovah well in this last passage he is doing a play on his name for he begins with these words in the 18th verse who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of

the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will have compassion on us, and you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob and show mercy to Abraham as you pledged on oath to our fathers in long ago. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was brought up in the church. I've been going to church ever since I can remember. I don't have a conscious memory of a time when I was not in church on a regular basis. That's the way I was brought up. I cannot think of a moment in my life when I did not believe that there was a God, to believe in the existence of God. And so it makes it difficult for me to appreciate someone who doesn't believe in God.

Not necessarily appreciate that person themselves, but appreciate that kind of thinking. I really can't comprehend how someone can not believe in God. It just seems impossible for a person not to believe in God. And yet I know that there are people who are true atheists who do not believe, or they are agnostics. They do not know whether there is a God or not,

and they have great doubts about it. And I used to think the worst position a person could ever get themselves in spiritually was to be an atheist, not to believe in God. But I have since come to believe that there is a position even worse than that. It's bad enough not to believe in God, but I believe it is worse to believe in God and to believe the wrong things about Him. To believe in the wrong kind of God. I think it is easier to win the faith in Christ out and out atheists than it is to win people who believe in God and yet what they believe about God is totally incorrect.

More important than believing in God is believing in the right kind of God, you see. And what you believe about God, the kind of God you believe He is, fashions your entire spiritual life. For instance, there is God as He is, and there is God as we conceive Him to be. God as He is, and God as we conceive Him to be. Now, we are not necessarily worshiping God as He is tonight,

but we are worshiping God as we conceive Him to be. Our concept of God determines our worship of God. Now, if our concept of God is correct, then our worship will be proper. But if we have the wrong beliefs about God, then our worship is going to be totally out of place. There is God as He is, and then there is God as we conceive Him to be. That's why, as Spurgeon said, the most important study for any believer is the study of theology, the study of God. What kind of God is He anyway? And what you believe about God will determine how you respond to unanswered prayers. It will determine how you respond to tragedy. It will determine how you respond to adversity and difficulty and the misunderstandings of life, your idea about God.

And here is a person whose idea about God is that if you do certain things, then God is just going to immediately, right then, overnight, out of hand, make everything right in your life. And then, of course, that's not the way God works, as we know, don't we? Many of us have prayed for years before the answer came, and many a time it's taken us a long, long time to find the restructure of our lives as they ought to be. But if a person, you see, believes, well, you know, I've spent years away from God, and I have sown all of these bad seeds, and I have made all these bad choices, but I don't have to suffer the consequences of any of them

if I just come back to God, and then that doesn't happen. I mean, overnight, all of the wrongs in his life are not made right. Then his belief in God is going to cause him to react with bitterness and sometimes disbelief. What you believe about God, and I've talked to people and I talked to one recently who believes that everything that's happened in his life is because God is out to get him. Now, if you believe that God is out to get you, I mean, it's going to be pretty hard for you to worship him in the right way, isn't it?

And it's going to determine how you respond to the difficulties of life. You remember Jesus talking to the woman at the well, and they were talking about worship, and the woman said, well, I know you Jews, you believe you have to worship at a certain place, a certain geological location. And Jesus, in effect, said, you don't understand, you don't understand about worship. And the reason you don't understand is because you don't understand about God. God is spirit. God's not limited to one geographical location. Therefore, we must worship

Him according to how He is and who He is. We worship Him in spirit and in truth, you see. God, who He is, is the most important thing for us to understand. And so Micah, as he has written this letter, or preached these sermons actually, there have been a lot about judgment in it. But also, if you've read the book, you'll notice there have been great themes of mercy and promise. But when he comes down to the end, what does he want to leave the people with? He starts out with judgment, with God stepping down from his throne in wrath and anger and judgment. But how does he end it with? What's the last note?

It is this, that he is a God of grace and love and mercy. He does not want the people to misunderstand about God, that He's not just a God of justice. You see, folks, we need to have a balance about our knowledge of God. If you believe that God is simply a God of judgment and a God of wrath, then that's going to flavor the way you live. And if you believe that God is a God of grace only and love only and never judges, well, then that's going to flavor the way you live, you see. You've got to have the balance. He is a God of judgment, but He also is a God of grace. So let's look at these three verses and under the general heading of what is God like.

Look at verse 18 first. Who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. First of all, I would say, as Micah is saying, that God is a God of forgiving love. He is a God of forgiving love. Or, another word, He is a God of pardon. Now, these last three verses form a doxology, and they are a summary statement of who God is and what God is about. And you see, all the

hope that Israel has for the future as well as you and I, is grounded in the nature of God. He is a God of forgiving love. He is a God of pardon. Notice he says, who is a God like you who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant. Now remember the other day when I asked you to draw some little circles above some words?

I want you to do the same. On that word pardon and that word forgive, draw little circles. That means that that's what God always does. It is an indication of His character. This is not just something that God does, it is something that God is, you see. God doesn't just pardon, He is that kind of God who pardons. In other words, this is a continual activity of God. This is a characteristic of God. One of the marks of God is that he is a God of pardon and forgiveness. Now the word pardon here is a very picturesque word. It means to lift up

a burden. And the picture is that here is a person who is carrying a heavy load, and that load is so heavy that they are stooped over by it and God and this person comes along and he lifts that burden from them he alleviates that burden you know what is the most common expression that people say to me when they're first saved or when they have been away from God and they come back to God. I feel like a load has been lifted off me. Isn't that true? Man, I feel like a ton of bricks has been taken off of me.

I feel like a great burden has been taken off of me. That's why I love that song. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Suddenly there is a lightness in the heart. He pardons us by lifting that great burden upon us. Of course, sin puts that burden there. I want you to look in Psalm 32 for just a moment. And David paints a very good picture of what sin can do in the life of an

individual. Now this is David before he came to his time of confession. Psalm 32, he begins in verse 1 by saying, Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not account against him, and in whose spirit is no deceit. Now notice the third verse. When I kept silent. In other words, when I did not confess my sin. When I did not unload my sin. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away.

Literally, they were just wearing out through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, and my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. But notice the language that he used. He says, when I kept silent, my bones, it was just like my bones were wearing out and I was groaning all the day long as though I could hardly move. And your hand was heavy upon me so much that it sapped the moisture from me as the summer drought saps the moisture from the ground. That's what sin can do to a person's life.

But when God comes, he does what? He lifts that burden. He pardons that individual. John, when he saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who does what? Who takes away the sin of the world. Throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testament, God constantly refers to his pardoning power

and his forgiving experience as taking away a burden, of lifting a burden, of relieving a load that is on a person's heart. Now, notice also in that same 18th verse, now as again, I'm reading from the NIV, but the King James reads like this, who pardons us and passes by, do any of you have that in your Bible? You do, raise your hand.

Yes, right. Who passes by the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. Now, this is the better reading. He doesn't just pardon it was it what does it do he passes it by it is no longer worthy of any consideration it no longer has his attention he comes to ignore it he just passes it by as though it was no longer there. He says, you do not stay angry forever. Doesn't mean he doesn't get angry. He does. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. So first of all, he is a God of pardon. But in the second place, verse 19, He is a God of power

or a God of redeeming power. You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will have compassion on us. And he uses a military word. You will trample our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Now these words speak of the fact that not only does God forgive and pardon, but He overcomes our iniquity, tramples our sin underfoot. That He is a God who not only pardons us, but gives us the power in our daily experience, you see, to live as we ought to live. Why? Because He tramples our sins underfoot. He subdues all our iniquities. He puts them into subjection.

He is a God who enables us to live as we ought to live. I've talked to so many people about coming to Christ, and they'll always say, well, I want to wait, first of all, so that I can know I can live it. I want to be sure I can live it. Friend, you can never be sure you can live it before you're saved because you can't live it. I can't live it. You know, we don't have time to turn to that, but you ought to read Romans chapter seven, where Paul gives his famous confession, you know, when he says, which I would do, I cannot do, I find the law present with me. If you read chapter 7, the first part of chapter 7,

he is telling us that keeping the law cannot give life to a lost man. And in the second part of that seventh chapter, he is saying, keeping the law cannot give liberty to a lost man. And in the second part of that seventh chapter, he is saying keeping the law cannot give liberty to a saved man, you see. I mean, let's say I'm going to do my best. I'm going to pledge myself. You see, I think here is the danger of a legalistic type of religion, a religion of do's and don'ts, a religion of regulations. Because, for instance, if I'm preaching that kind of message and I'm telling you it's wrong to do this and wrong to do this and wrong to do this and I am making a bunch of do's and don'ts and regulations for you to live by.

And then I give an invitation. What I'm asking you to do is to come and dedicate yourself to a set of rules. I'm asking you to dedicate yourself to a bunch of regulations. That's not the gospel at all. I'm not asking you today or this week to submit yourself to a new set of rules. I'm asking you to submit yourself to a person. And in submitting yourself to a person, he subdues those things in your life, you see. And I lived for a great part of my Christian life because I was brought up in a very legalistic type of church.

And I mean, boy, if you watch television, you'd better be down at the altar next Sunday morning, stuff like that, you know. And I lived in such a legalistic kind of life and kind of religion that I was constantly frustrated and the pastor was constantly building on my guilt and using my guilt and manipulating me because of my guilt you see and a great many ministries are based upon manipulating people because of the guilt that they have not done this or done that. And that is a confusing and frustrating Christian experience,

and it is not the liberty of the gospel. It is God who brings all of these things into subjection. It is God who enables us to be what we want to be. Let me ask you to turn over to Isaiah chapter 46. By the way, there is a great similarity between Isaiah and Micah, if you will notice it. You read Isaiah 45 and 46 especially, and you'll find that there are many similarities in the language that is used. Now in chapter 45, God is telling through the prophet how he is going to redeem Israel out of bondage. Now Israel is in Babylonian captivity and they've been praying for God to deliver them and God has promised that he would. And finally he reveals how he's going to do that.

And how is he going to do that? Well, it upsets the people when they hear it, but here's how he's going to do it. He's going to raise up Cyrus, who is a Gentile king, a pagan king, and he's going to empower Cyrus and his army, and they are going to invade Babylon, overcome Babylon, and as a result, his people will be free. Now, chapter 46 is a description of what happens when that battle ensues.

Notice in verse 1, Baal bows down, Nebo stoops low. Now, Baal and Nebo are the false gods of Babylon. They are the chief gods of Babylon. Baal and Nebo. Wouldn't you love to worship a god named Nebo? Baal bows down, Nebo stoops low. Their idols are born by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together. Unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity. And then in verse 6, some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it. They lift

it to their shoulders and carry it. They set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer. It cannot save him from his troubles. Now, to me, this is worth a comic strip. This is funny to me. Here they are in Babylon, and all of a sudden they see Cyrus coming. And he's coming with an overwhelming power. They know that they had better retreat. So the first thing they do is they say, well, the first thing we've got to do is save our gods.

We've got to save our gods. And so they go in, and they pick up old bail and Nebo who are made out of silver and gold and they're so heavy I mean these guys are heavy heavy heavy and they take them and they they pack them on the mules or the donkeys they don't think they had mules in those days, but anyway, whatever they had, they were donkey like. And so, but the trouble is that these gods are so heavy the donkeys can't move.

And so what happens? They themselves go into captivity. They're captured. They're captured. You know what he's saying? He's saying a false God is a God you have to save. A false God is a God that can only go as far as you can go. A false God is a God who is limited by your power and your ability.

Now, listen. Go down to verse 5, I believe it is. No, verse 3. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived and have carried since your birth, even to your old age and gray hairs. I am he. I am He. I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you.

I will sustain you and I will rescue you. To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? What is God like? Compare me to any God. He says, listen, Baal and Nebo have to be saved. They can only go as far as you can carry them.

But he said, I want you to listen to me. I'm the kind of God who carries you. False God you have to carry. True God carries you. False God you have to carry true God carries you false God you have to save true God saves you he said I have carried you even from the womb to gray hairs

when you were too young and too weak to walk I carried you and I sustained you and when you make the full cycle and you get to be too old and too weak to walk, I will carry you again. That's the kind of God I am, you see.

I remember when I was at MacArthur Boulevard, we were having some problems in our church, and I'd been trying to solve them, and staff, you know, we'd come up with all kinds of things, and we just couldn't do it. It had to do with two or three members or several members in our church who were upset about something that they thought in a way I won't go into all that but anyway there was a real stronghold there of disharmony. And I've been trying, you know, to solve it and pray and doing everything.

And I was just exhausted. You know, have you ever been to the place emotionally exhausted, spiritually exhausted where you just didn't have the strength to pray? I mean, you didn't even have the strength to pray I mean you didn't even have the strength to believe and that's the way I was and I remember getting on my knees in my study and burying my head in my chair and here's what I said for some reason I remember my exact words I said did God if you're going to solve

this situation you're going to have to do it without any help from me. Have you noticed how you can think certain things in your mind and they sound reasonable, but when you express them in the words, you realize how stupid it sounds? I can't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure that when I said those words, I heard a great sigh from heaven. Sort of like, finally, at last, now that you've acknowledged this, we can move on and do something. And one thing that I have found about in my Christian life is, folks, that I am just too weak to do anything.

I think I'm strong and then I discover how weak I am. I went through a very dark period of my life. If you read the book on When Heaven is Silent. I suffered for about 10 years, 1976, 1986, with deep, deep, deep depression. And it's only a miracle of God's grace that I'm here. And my wife would become so filled with despair, and she was so afraid that I was just going to lose it and just become incapacitated, and I was carrying on ministry all this time, and she said,

I just sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time praying. And I said, Honey, don't you ever stop praying, because God's going to answer. And you know, in those darkest hours, I knew that God was there. I knew I'd come through it. And I said to her, Honey, I will come through this. God is not going to abandon me.

I will come through. I was unable to do anything for myself. I couldn't do anything for myself. But I knew that while I was too weak to walk, God was carrying me and sustaining me. He's a God of power. He's a God of power. But finally, he is a God of promise, a God of perpetual faithfulness. Look at the last verse, verse 20. You will be true to Jacob and show mercy to Abraham

as you pledged on earth to your fathers in days long ago. The phrase in days long ago always depicts eternity. I like the King James reading here. It says you will perform the truth. You will grant the truth as you pledged on earth to our fathers in days long ago. I mean, there was a promise that God made long ago, in days long ago, long as eternity. But nothing has changed that. Now, go back. Remember I asked you last

night to read chapter 4. Do you remember that? And two of you did. But I want you to notice chapter 3 and verse 12, as I mentioned. Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble. The temple hill, a mound overgrown with thickets. Everything is destroyed. I mean, folks, forget about it. That's the end of it. Kaput. Period. That's the end of it. No hope, all bets off, contract canceled. But in the opening verse of chapter 4, he says, In the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains. It will be raised above the hills and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say,

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths, and the law will go out from Zion. Well, now wait just a minute. In the last verse of chapter 3, he said Zion is going to be plowed like a field. But here he says the Lord will go out from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. You see, the place of disaster becomes the place of victory. The place of disaster and the place of victory are more often than not the same place. In other words, God is a God of promise. He has made a pledge to Abraham and all of his children

and all the judgment that he pours out upon them in the meantime does not lessen the promise, does not cancel the promise. Sure, he's going to reduce Zion to a pile of rocks, but that doesn't mean God has forgotten his promise or that God has called off all bets. Oh no, there is still coming a time when God will perform the truth and He will bring to pass everything He has promised.

And I think there are times when you and I have been plowed like a field as though God has reduced us to rubble, and to rebel maybe. But that doesn't mean, folks, God has abandoned us. He's kept a promise to us. And that promise is, I'll keep my word. I'll keep my pledge.

That's why Paul could say with such confidence in Philippians 1, 6, he said, I know I am confident that he who has begun a good work in you will what? Carry it through, perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Folks, if God has ever begun the good work of salvation in you, you can write it down. He will complete it.

I'm glad to know that. There have been some times when I thought he had given up on me. God will promise. You see, the simple truth is what God promises, he performs. Now, our trouble is that we're always making promises to God, aren't we? No wonder we feel like such failures We promise God this, we promise God that Oh God, I promise I won't do this anymore

Oh God, I promise I'll do this Oh God, I promise this You know, I don't really know Michael, you need to research this for me Oh God, I promise I'll do this. Oh God, I promise this. You know, I don't really know. Michael, you need to research this for me. I don't really know, but I don't think that I can find a place in the New Testament where God tells us to promise Him things.

We are to submit to Him and commit ourselves to Him. You see, I didn't promise God that all my needs would be met in Christ Jesus. He promised that, didn't he? Now, if I promise that, I've got a seat to it. But if God promised it, it's his business to seat to it. I didn't promise God that I can do all things through Christ. If I made that promise, then I've got to live up to it. I've got to perform it. But if God made that promise, it's up to Him to keep it and to perform it. I didn't promise God that sin shall not reign over my mortal body. God promised it, and whatever God promised, He will perform. God keeps His Word, and whatever God promised, He will perform. God keeps His word.

And whatever promise God made to His people, He will perform. You see, this is what Abraham was saying, or Paul was saying about Abraham in Romans chapter 4. He's saying that Abraham grew in faith and gave God the glory, knowing that whatever God had promised, He was able also

to perform. You see, Abraham finally, oh, listen, can you imagine, Abraham finally got the point. God had promised him a son, but Abraham felt like it was up to him to perform it. And the result was Ishmael, of course. But finally, Abraham caught on and realized that if God makes the promise, then God will perform it. So ought not to let the time, the age that I am, and the age that Sarah is, and the incapacity that we have for bearing children, that doesn't enter into it.

Now, if I had made that promise to God, if I had said to God, Lord, I'm going to give you a son, then I'd have something to worry about and fret over. But I didn't make that promise. God made that promise. Well, it's God's promise, and it's up to Him to keep it. It's up to Him to perform it. What God has promised, He will perform.

Pledge. And God gives us these little pledges along the way, don't we? In times when we need to be encouraged. I remember when our first son died. I don't know that I've ever mentioned this much at all. And I don't think I've ever mentioned it here. But the day after his funeral, Stephen at that

time was going to the First Baptist of Dallas Academy downtown. And we would either Kay or I would drive him to the mall and we'd wait there for him to be picked up by whoever was driving the group of kids that week. Well, it was about the 1st of December, 2nd of December, and we had to be there a little before 7 and it was still dark when we got there. So I pulled up and parked at the mall, and of course, you know, we were still very much under the burden of what had happened.

Just had the funeral the day before. I was feeling mighty low, and Stephen wasn't saying anything, and so we were just sitting there in the dark. And I turned on the radio and got a station. They were playing Christmas music. And all of a sudden, they started singing, playing the Hallelujah Chorus. And at that precise moment, I didn't know I was facing east. At that precise moment, the sun began to rise in the east.

And that sun rising in the east, accompanied by the hallelujah chorus, did something to me, boy. I mean, it did something for me. It was like God was saying, keep your eye on the eastern sky. Because there will be resurrection. Just as the sun rises in the east, it is a pledge and promise that there will be resurrection. He is a God of promise, and He keeps His word. Well, would you bow your heads with me now for a moment? I think I'd like to end our service tonight with Nanny could come and maybe we could stand in a moment

after we pray and sing a chorus, a verse of something and give you an opportunity tonight to maybe respond to what God has said to you maybe not just to the night but to know any other night you may just want to respond there and the pew where you are you may feel the need to come and kneel at the altar. We're just going to do this very briefly. We're not trying to get a large number of people to respond. I just want us to end on this note. And there may be someone here that does not know Christ.

This would be a good time to come and trust him as Savior. So, Father, I thank you for this week that we've had. I thank you that all we can say about you, all the wrath and the judgment and the anger that you have towards our sins, that that's never the final word. That the final word is always a word of grace, a word of pardon and power and promise.

And there may be many of these tonight who right now are walking through some kind of darkness and unable to carry themselves and unable to walk and unable to even pray. Pray that you'd give them the assurance that you're a God who carries us. We don't have to save you. You save us. And maybe it may appear to some of us that the promises have been eliminated, that the contract's been canceled, that all the promises that we thought were ours in Christ

are not real after all because of so many problems that we've encountered. I pray that you would encourage us that present judgment, present trial does not affect your eternal purpose and promise to us. And so I pray this time just be a time of praise and worship and

meditation and response if that's what we're to do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.