"Far From Deserved"

"He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." (Psalms 103:10)
This is just getting good, so stick around, if you are into a good punch in the gut. I heard a small portion of a message the other day, maybe it was last week; either way, I have saved it up for this day, the time when this verse might come before us. It was about this very verse, a small part of a message that dealt with the fact that we come nowhere close to getting what we deserve; and those that think that they don't deserve any punishment for sin at all, those are the ones who need it the most. But, as many of us might observed, they don't seem to receive it; as a matter of fact, they seem to skate through life with all the toys and all the pleasures laid out before them. Surprisingly, I don't think that those wonderful gifts are from God. I know the Bible says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," but those who reject God's love and mercy and are blessed, they are blessed by the god of this world, within whom there is "variablenees, and shadow of turning." Amazing how that works, but James really had some pretty good insight into the spiritual wickedness, not only in us, but around us. Regardless of who you might be, or how good you might think that you are, compared to what you deserve for your sins, you have not received any part of it. If you can't quite see what I mean, then examine the punishment that Jesus took for our sins, and then try to justify your case as to whether or not you deserve any punishment yourself. He took it all, the humility, the beating, the pulling out of His beard; He even lived a simple life, not even having a home to call His own, at least not here on earth. All the power that He had at His disposal, yet He did not raise a hand against any one of His accusers; He did not even raise His voice, but as an innocent Lamb, He went to the alter willingly for you and for me. More than that, from the cross He asked His Father to forgive those that were crucifying Him, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Imagine that, those that crucified the Son of God, the very ones that should have been worshipping Him, were having Him nailed upon a cross; and yet they did not even realize that they were sinning; as a matter of fact, they thought that they were doing righteousness and serving the God of their fathers, putting to death a man that they thought pretended to be God. Is it any wonder that we can feel justified in our sins? After all, if we have not murdered anyone or committed anything worthy of death, then we should be alright and deserve a fair trial, right? If that is what you think, then I have a word for you, that Jesus was pleading for you from that cross! Who do you think it is that draws us to Jesus? "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44) The good and perfect gift that comes down from above, is that we can actually see our great need for Jesus Christ...
""Now we are being punished because of our wickedness and our great guilt. But we have actually been punished for less than we deserve, for you, our God, have allowed some of us to survive as a remnant. But even so, we are again breaking your commands and intermarrying with people who do these detestable things. Won't your anger be enough to destroy us, so that even this little remnant no longer survives? O LORD, God of Israel, you are just. We come before you in our guilt as nothing but an escaped remnant, though in such a condition none of us can stand in your presence.""
(Ezra 9:13-15) NLT