Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.
Estimating our Own Character
We take the words of the text in their more general reference. They are such as we ought all to use. Glory is ascribed to God; a proper view and estimate of our own character is taken.
I. GOD HAS SPOKEN TO US. Daniel speaks of “the voice of the Lord our God.” So Paul--“God, who spake in time past unto the fathers,” etc., “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” And he exhorts us not to “refuse Him who speaketh from heaven.” The meaning is a direct communication. Not mere intimations--as by sign, works--leaving us to collect inferences. The Scriptures are--by the inspiration by which they were given--the actual voice of God to us, on all the subjects to which they refer. Fully realise the solemn truth--The great and dreadful God hath spoken to us.
II. “BY HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS, HE HATH SET HIS LAWS BEFORE US.” Here is the purpose of His voice. Man is distinguished from all other earthly creatures by his moral capacities and faculties. He is thus made in the image of God. Constituted God’s subject. Bound by the will of God; that will, expressed, is the Divine law. This is done in Scripture. Its principles, its prohibitions, its requirements; by direct precept, by larger explanation, in various examples, are there set before us--as the law of God, the sanctioned expression of His will.
III. THIS VOICE “WE HAVE NOT OBEYED.” Speak not now of our natural condition--our fallen nature. We have followed our own inclinations; and the action has been as the originating principle.
IV. WE ARE THUS GUILTY OF REBELLION. God is our Sovereign. We have, as to our hearts and lives, sought to dethrone Him. We have refused to His law its just supremacy. Other lords have thus had dominion over us.
V. FOR THIS REASON, “CONFUSION OF FACE BELONGS TO US.” Shame one of our natural emotions. Called for by humbling sense of real impropriety and wrong. We may be hardened; we may mix ourselves with the general mass; still, rightly viewed, sin is a shameful thing. When Divine light is received and obeyed, we feel our personal guilt. We have no excuse.
VI. NEVERTHELESS, “ TO THE LORD OUR GOD BELONG MERCIES AND FORGIVENESS.” It is a fact--not merely good to the obedient, but long-suffering to the guilty. His words reveal it as a perfection of His nature. Describes the wisdom that has devised means for its fitting and consistent exercise. God is merciful, and it is in Christ. Pardon may be had--it is through Christ. The wickedness of sin. It is rebellion against a sovereignty of purity, wisdom, love. (G. Cubitt.)
To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses.
Of God’s Mercies and Forgivenesses
There can be no so prevalent a persuasive and inducement to repentance, no so powerful a charm to win the hearts of sinners, and melt them down into a relenting compliance with the Divine will, as the serious consideration on the one hand of God’s gracious dealings with us, and of our own ungracious returns on the other hand; of His mercies and forgivenesses, and of our rebellions and disobediences. The whole business of religion is comprised in these two heads, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. How can we better come to the knowledge of God than by studying those attributes of His which make up the perfection of His very nature? And what likelier way for us to arrive at the true knowledge and right understanding of ourselves than to contemplate the pravity and corruption of our natures, and the provoking sinfulness of our lives? There being nothing else in us that we can truly and properly call our own. Divine goodness is here recommended to us by two obliging terms, of mercy and forgiveness
1. Mercy, the essential character of His nature. Forgiveness, the gratuitous product and expression of His gracious will. Mercy in the Father’s self, for He is the a Father of mercie.” Forgiveness for the sake of His Son, the Mediator. Mercy in the ordinary course of Providence; and forgiveness upon the terms and covenant of grace. Consider, then, what a gracious God we have to do with, whose very nature and being consists of mercies and forgivenesses. Let us fill our souls with a reciprocal love and answerable affections to the Lord our God. ‘Tis this mercy of our God that makes Him God: and ‘tis this mercy of His that should oblige us to His service, and make Him our God.
2. What less could be expected from a merciful God than this, that He should forgive sins? This is the special instance of mercy, that He is a God forgiving sins, and pardoning iniquities. Let us assure ourselves that what mercy we find at His hands, as we are His creatures, the same forgiveness we shall obtain of Him as we are His redeemed’ ones. (Adam Littleton, D.D.)
Forgiveness of Sins
Such is the utterance of prophetic lips. Daniel hero speaks, wrestling with God, and valiantly refusing a repulse. The words sparkle as a bright gem in his diadem of prayer. It is superfluous to state that this proclamation is not limited to supplicating Daniel; it pervades the book of Revelation as fragrance the sweetest garden. (Exodus 34:7; Isaiah 55:7; Acts 13:38-39.) To estimate forgiveness rightly, its need must be distinctly seen. It will be poorly prized, unless its value be weighed in balances of truth. What, then, is forgiveness as appertaining unto sin? It is remission of due penalties, the obliteration of incurred guilt, the withdrawal of just displeasure, the blotting out of accusing handwriting, the burying all offences in oblivion, the hushing of the loud thunder of the law, the cancelling of its tremendous curse, the consigning to a sheath the sword of justice. It is the frown of Jehovah softening into eternal smiles. It encounters sin, and strips it of its destroying power. Hence evidently forgiveness implies that sin has preceded. Where no offence exists, no pardon can be needed; they cannot be restored whose feet are always in right paths. Thus we reach the fundamental position that sin gives occasion for forgiveness. Sin is the need which calls for its intervention.
I. Sin’s essence. What constitutes its character? No unanswerable question is here asked as to the parent of its birth; here is no search into its originating cause. The simple inquiry is, Where is its sphere of work, and what is its distinctive nature? Scripture states in terms intelligible and incontrovertible, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4.) God, as supreme in all His universe, fixes His mode of government. This essence appears in frightful enormity when the purport of this law is viewed. The sum of its requirements is worthy of the great Lawgiver. In Divine simplicity it only requires love. The whole inward man must be bright in one complexion--love. Any deviation from this course constitutes sin. This sublimity brightly shows the origin of the law to be Divine. As a mirror it reflects Jehovah’s excellence; it is the transcript of His glorious being; it is holiness on its highest throne; it is purity in its loveliest form; it is perfection without one alloy. How abominable, then, is that principle which hates and resists such code, and strives to crush it beneath insulting steps! It follows that the need of forgiveness is universal, for sin exercises a sway coextensive with all human life. It grasps each mother’s son in its vile arms, and stays not its assaults while time endures.
II. This need becomes more apparent as advance is made from sin’s essence to some of its developments. Here it appears a many-headed hydra, a fiend of various forms. Its outbreak towards God, towards the soul within, towards the world around, betray it.
(1) Let diverse instances show its conduct towards God. Its feelings may be thus classed. Alienation. Whatever departs from God’s rule departs from Himself. Contrariety to His law separates from His mind.
Disinclination to His will moves altogether in an adverse course. Hatred. “The carnal mind”--and every mind is such in which the Spirit dwells not--“is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neitherindeed can be.” (Romans 8:7.) Sin has strong inclinations, and they all are arrayed against His righteous ways. It has ungodly bias towards the abominable things which God hates. Contempt. With haughty look it sneers at sacred precepts. It scorns them as weak precision. It spurns the restrictions of godly walk as derogatory to man’s liberty. Defiance. It raises an insulting head. It braves displeasure. It ridicules all penal consequences. Rebellion. It shivers the yoke. It breaks restraining bands. It ignores submission. Treason. It enters into conspiracy with all Heaven’s foes. It joins hands with every adversary. Robbery. God, as Sovereign, has a right to exact obedience. Sin defrauds Him of this due. Such, and many more, are the developments of sin in reference to God. Thus the position is established, that vast is the need of vast forgiveness.
(2) The picture darkens when the developments of sin in reference to the soul are seen. It changes this garden of the Lord into a waste howling wilderness. Fragrant flowers cease to bloom; thorns and briars usurp their place. It dims the noblest jewel of God’s creation.
(3) The case assumes more frightful hue when sin’s inroads on the world around is added. Doubtless sin is inborn. It is an hereditary disease; the seeds of every evil are innate in each heart. Unaided by contagion it would universally exist; but yet by contact, influence, example, it multiplies, and becomes more rampant. A spark from without kindles the dry stubble; bad men wax worse by bad fellowship. To the forgiveness of sins attention now reverts. The subject justly claims large share of pious thought. Angels may gaze and marvel, but they have no experience of its joys; for none of that pure company exult in pardon. It is the heartfelt property of the redeemed.
I. Sin’s guilt. Guilt is that property of sin which links it to God’s wrath. It constitutes its criminality, and forbids immunity. That sin has this property is clear; it stands confessedly a convict. It cannot plead that it is guiltless; therefore avowedly it merits punishment. Thus in reference to God it has been proved to be alienation, hatred, contempt, defiance, robbery, treason, rebellion. Can such be its guilty state; can it evidently work havoc throughout all creation, and shall God sit indifferent, as though He saw no evil? The very thought strips Him of the glories of His holiness. Righteousness is no more righteous, if it withholds the righteous condemnation, Truth lies low in ignominious steams, if the words be not fulfilled, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23.) Thus the guilty cannot be screened as guiltless. Doubtless God is rich in His mercy; His mercy endureth for ever; His mercy reacheth unto the heavens. “To the Lord our God belong mercies.” But mercy cannot annihilate the attributes which sit as conquerors on the glorious throne. It lives co-equal with them. Its delight is to exalt, to magnify, to glorify them. Who now can fail to feel that the guilty sinner needs mercies and forgivenesses? Let the page of experience be next read. It is written throughout with testimony that tremendous indications of Divine displeasure pursue guilt. Amid sweet rays of mercy striving to break forth, big drops of wrath often descend. The present aspect of earth is mournfully significant; the whole creation groans and travails together. Tears and sighs and anguish in multiform misery tell what sin has brought into this earth; sufferings and agony point to their prolific parent. Thus the wide spread of misery proves that the guilt of sin awakens just displeasure. Mark, next, the terrors of conscience when aroused from apathetic slumber by the Spirit. See the man awakened to the real perils of a guilty state. He is brought into a new world, where all is dismay. The past cannot be recalled; the present must move onward; the future cannot be escaped. In what mirror are these terrors seen? Surely in the mirror of sin’s guilt. Conscience, in the Spirit’s light, convicts of sin. Guilt is its inseparable companion; vengeance from Heaven closely follows. The awakened conscience knows this and quakes. Annals of the past confirm this statement; they exhibit terrific outbreaks of Divine wrath. Let the old world toll its awful tale. Its wickedness exceeded all that is denounced as wicked; its trespass grew up unto the heavens. Enormity of evil cried aloud, and enormity of vengeance slumbered not. Thus far the guilt of sin has been viewed, as exhibited in time, and as endured on the little space of this passing scene. But sin’s results end not with earth’s brief moment.
II. Sin’s final doom now meets us. Scripture abounds in warnings; their plainness is only equalled by their awe; their terrors are all faithfulness and truth. They speak loudly that men may ponder and recaps. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) (Romans 2:8-9) Such are the penalties to which its guilt is righteously amenable. Such is its sure condemnation. It will be happy if through this dreary passage a glorious prospect is attained. It will be so to all who now clasp to grateful hearts the good news “To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him.” Let, then, the reviving truth now have free course and be glorified. A remedy is provided. A refuge is erected. Let the tidings be devoutly prized, “Christ has suffered the just for the unjust.” In Him all manner of sin is forgiven to the children of men.. Let men be wise to seek in an accepted time this inestimable gift. Let not the only hope be slighted. It shines in Christ and in Christ alone. He is the treasure-house in which forgiveness is stored. (Dean Law.)
Views of Guilt and Views of Mercy
I. OUR FIRST VIEWS ARE VIEWS OF GUILT. Man is a rebellious subject, inasmuch as:
1. We have refused tribute. Tribute, as it respects human governments, is the sum raised, for their support. As it respects the government of God, it implies merely the homage rendered to its validity and glory.
2. We have disobeyed the law. Both the precepts and the prohibitions. In our thoughts, in our conversation, in our behaviour. We have committed sins against ourselves, against our fellow-creatures, and against our God.
3. We have abetted the enemy. He who committeth sin is of the devil, that is, he resembles him, and serves him.
II. OUR SECOND VIEWS ARE VIEWS OF MERCY. God is a merciful and forgiving Sovereign. The term mercies would be too general. In the term of forgiveness there is something specific.
1. Consider what we sometimes observe, and what we never fail to admire, among mortals. Is it not the display of compassion, forbearance, and generosity? Shall God sink in the comparison?
2. Consider the Divine precepts.
3. Consider the Divine assurances. Happy for us that they are too numerous to be recounted.
4. Consider the mediation of Jesus Christ.
5. Consider experience and fact. Believer in Jesus Christ, much more art thou a witness. (The Evangelist.)