God: A Short Autobiography - Part B

God makes a promise. It's done. It's engraved.

It's in pen, not in pencil. You can rely on God to keep His promises. How different is this God that we serve than say the Muslim God?

The whole idea of abrogation. That God can say something one minute and then in another era completely negate what He said and change His mind and call what He called good last year evil this year. Our God never changes. Theologian Albert Mohler said, One of the most pressing challenges of our times is the task of speaking rightly about God. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip examines several important attributes to help you take your understanding of God to a new level. At the end of the program, Skip and his wife, Lenya, share about the attribute of God that enhanced his walk with the Lord. It's God's holiness. It's what I would call God's most unpopular attribute in Isaiah chapter six and Revelation chapter four. But, you know, to me, how God can mix His perfection with our imperfection. You know, He is so utterly holy and we are sinful and we need Him.

Thank you, Skip and Lenya. Be sure to stay with us after today's message to hear the full discussion. Right now, we want to tell you about a special resource that explores God's character and nature and shows you what it truly means to be His friend. Someone once said that if you want to know about Michelangelo, you need to study what he said, what he did and what he created. Well, the same is true if you want to know God. You must devote yourself to His words, actions and what He created.

That is one of the reasons I wrote the book The Biography of God. It's available now and I hope you'll join me on this noble, demanding and even rewarding journey. Here's how to get your copy of my newest book, The Biography of God. Skip's new book is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now, we're in Psalm chapter 139 as we get into the message with Skip Hyten. I used to love getting Nate's stuff as a little kid. I loved to go shopping with him and get himself. In fact, my wife had these little fun days called I love Nathan days and it just meant he got to choose what store to go to and what activity to do.

It was all his choice. In fact, there was a time when he and his cousin got into a fight and disobeyed her and she did something very unusual. She said, get in the car, got in the car, took him to the store and bought them a gift. And, you know, Nathan's looking like, when's the other shoe going to drop here?

I mean, this isn't right. This is what are you going to take it away from me now and spank me here in the store? And she just says, I want you to learn a lesson that the way God treats us is often this way. Not only am I not going to give you what you deserve, even though my heart is broken by what you did, I'm going to give you a gift to show you how good God is to us.

He said, Mom, I'll never forget that. Then look at the third, long suffering. God is long suffering. You may have a translation that says he's slow to anger. What does that mean? Well, you know what that means. He doesn't fly off the handle at you.

Aren't you glad? God doesn't need anger management classes. God is slow to get angry.

Oh, no mistake about it. God will execute his wrath in judgment upon this world, but it sure takes him a long time to get there. He's long suffering. Here's what the Hebrew word literally means.

You ready? It means to have a long nose. Some of you with long noses, like me, are very grateful for this translation. It's a good thing. Long nose, because when a person gets angry, they show it in their nose.

It gets red, their nostrils flare out, and the idea of a long nose is that it takes a long time for it to affect the whole nose. I know it's a strange background, but that's the root of this word. God doesn't have a bad temper. In fact, in 2 Peter, God is not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. There's been so many times, I've wondered like you have, God, why don't you do something about that?

And I know what the answer is. God is saying through his word, I will do something about that. But not yet.

Not now. He's very patient. It takes a long time before he will definitely judge. So those are some of God's attributes. Those are his beneficial attributes. Let's go on and there's two more that I call his bountiful attributes because notice the next word, abounding. Abounding in goodness and abounding in truth. Now the word abounding, you know what that means. It means a lot. It means to be great or to be filled or even to be overflowing.

What that means to you and me is there's enough of this for you. He's abounding in goodness. We love to say it. God is good. All the time.

All the time. Say it. God is good. Good thing to be reminded of. Not only is he good, he's got a lot of goodness. He's abounding in goodness. The Hebrew word is sometimes not translated goodness. Sometimes it's translated loving kindness or love. And it's the word chesed, chesed in Hebrew. In human terms, sometimes it is applied to human beings.

It simply means somebody who's loyal to another person, a loyal friend. But when it's ever applied to God, the fuller idea is that it's speaking of God as utterly constant and unchanging in his love. God's love for you never changes. It's not like God said, you know, I used to love you a lot more years ago.

But now I've learned a few things about you and I've watched you. I don't love you as much. His love for you will never change.

And that's the word chesed. That's a loyal, steadfast, constant, unchanging love. Psalm 136, verse 1 reminds us, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His faithful love, that's the word chesed, endures forever. He's abounding in goodness.

Look what's next. He's abounding in truth. Or as Eugene Peterson's fun and excellent translation, the message puts it, He is so deeply true.

Or we would say reliable, trustworthy. I have a friend, we used to nickname him Pencil. We call him Pencil because whenever he would make an appointment, in his appointment book, he'd always put it in pencil.

He'd never write it down in pen because he would change it so often. So though he would say he'd be there at a certain place at a certain time, he might be there at a certain place at a certain time. God makes a promise, it's done, it's engraved, it's in pen, not in pencil. You can rely on God to keep his promises. How different is this God that we serve than say the Muslim God? The whole idea of abrogation, that God can say something one minute and then in another era completely negate what he said and change his mind and call what he called good last year evil this year.

Our God never changes. He's abounding in that kind of truth. So these are great qualities, right, so far? Great qualities. Did you know that there was a prophet in the Bible who was mad at God for these very qualities that God describes himself with?

Yeah, you know his name, don't you? Jonah. Jonah quotes what we just read in part but not like, I love these attributes, I hate these attributes.

I want you to see it. If you brought your Bible, turn to Jonah chapter 1. You have to go almost to the end of your Old Testament. It's tucked in the minor prophets.

And if you don't want to turn there, I'll just read. Jonah chapter 1, it says, Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it. Now he should love that because he hated the Ninevites. For their wickedness has come up before me. So again, Jonah should say, excellent, I've been waiting for this day. I can't wait to breathe condemnation down on these Ninevites.

God will destroy them. Look what he does. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, you know the rest of the story. When he's really down in the mouth, he comes to his senses. And after his whale vomit, he decides, I'll go. And he goes. And he preaches the message of judgment.

You're doomed. Forty days, this whole city is going to be toast. God doesn't destroy them. He doesn't destroy them because the whole city, in an unparalleled fashion, never has this happened before, even in any Graham Crusade, the whole city repents.

You'd think any man of God would be so excited. Not Jonah. Chapter 3, verse 10. Then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way. And God relented from the disaster that he had said he would bring upon them. And he did not do it.

Now watch this. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly. And he became angry. And so he prayed to the Lord. And he said, now allow me to put a little emotion into what I think he prayed like and how it sounded. Oh, Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundance and loving kindness, the one who relents from doing harm.

He's quoting what we just read in his own memory. Therefore now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. The Lord said, is it right for you to be angry?

This is, to me, amazing. It's a paradox. Here you've got a God who is slow to anger and a prophet of God who is quick to anger, the very opposite of God, angry. He got angry, it says, at God. Here you've got a God who is merciful and you've got Jonah who is mafia.

He wants them all destroyed. Now what a paradox this is. You've got God and you've got a prophet misrepresenting God and this leads me to the question based on the attributes that we have read and how Jonah treats this. Ask yourself this question. Do people see in you a reflection of the character and nature of God? Merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abundant in kindness, abundant in truth.

It's an important question to ask. It's simply important because we are Christians. We are followers of Christ.

We are believers in God. And what did Paul say to us? He said, be imitators of God as dear children.

Hey, if dad's like that, then like father, like son, or like father, like daughter. Be imitators of God. Jonah was the exact opposite of God.

And he was a representative. You know, I discovered that the healthiest place on earth to live is the South Pole. It's the healthiest place to live. There's no germs. They can't survive. And winds begin at the South Pole and move all of the contaminants northward.

That's where the wind starts and they blow all of the germs, all of the contaminants, all of the dust out. So it's regarded as the healthiest place to live. Yet, nobody really wants to live there. Nobody's signing up to go on a vacation to Antarctica.

It's because it's 100 below zero most of the time. God's truth is here, burning in all of its glory. And yet, sometimes God's people are so cold about His truth. Yes, they're there to defend the gospel and to stand up against error. And germs can't be around them. They're quick to lash out at who's wrong and what's wrong.

And while that is important, they're difficult to live around. Like Jonah, he's so cold-hearted to the very God that he says he represents. Let's go back to our text and we'll finish it up. There's a couple to finish up with, and that is what I call his balanced attributes. Notice verse 7 that there are two phrases given and then two other phrases that balance it out beautifully. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.

But now flip the coin. By no means clearing the guilty and visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Now it says keeping mercy to thousands.

Here's what's amazing about this. The word hesed that I just mentioned, covenant love, loyal love, constant love, the word hesed is used again in this verse. Here it is, keeping mercy, hesed, but notice four thousands. So why does God say it once and then say it again? Simply because he's saying, Moses, it's not just for you and it's not just for your people. It's for thousands.

And the idea is it goes on and on. It's for everyone. It's for everyone. God's love is not limited to one period of time, one nationality, one people group. Here in this phrase he opens the door of his love to all peoples, all peoples. What did Jesus say? For God so loved the world. What did the angel say in announcing the birth of Jesus Christ? I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people, all people. God's love is for the African, the South American, the European, the Australian, the Albuquerquean, everyone. His mercy, his love is a door wide open to the entire world. He says forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. God loves to forgive people. I love seeing ultra calls.

I love doing them. I love to see people coming forward. And I know that at that moment as they're praying, I know that God is so jazzed to be able to forgive the sin of those who are coming forward.

How do I know that? Because it says when one sinner comes in repentance, all the angels in heaven are rejoicing. That must mean that God is also rejoicing. What were the first words that Jesus prayed on the cross? Remember what they were? Father, forgive them.

First thing out of his mouth. You know why? Because that was man's greatest need, to be forgiven. So forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and I won't bother to tell you the difference between those three at this time. The word forgive here means to lift up and to carry away. Because that's what God does with your sin.

He lifts it up and carries it away. So he's not going to bring it up again. You know, remember a couple years ago when you, and it's over, it's done. And I love what Corrie Ten Boom used to say. He throws your sins into the deepest sea, and then he posts a sign that reads, no fishing allowed.

Move on, get over it. Psalm 32. Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt. That's forgiveness. Boil it all down, God has a big eraser. For anyone who will admit their sin and turn from it, God will forgive it all.

But flip that coin, and it's done right here. By no means, notice, by no means clearing the guilty. Now that's the balance of God's nature. The coin of God's eternal love is now flipped in this verse. This is the other side of his bountiful love and of his beneficial love.

It's to balance out the truth that he just gave that was so important and he headlined it with those attributes. What he's simply saying here is that God is still just. God is still holy. And God can't repudiate his justice and just let sin go unchecked. He must judge it. He must deal with it. By no means clearing the guilty.

And this is how it works. Either you will let Jesus Christ be punished for your sin, or you will be punished for your sin. Those are the only two options. You either let Jesus become the sin bearer for you and it's over, or you bear it yourself and it is never over. He's willing to forgive, he's willing to take iniquity and sin and get rid of it, but by no means clearing the guilty. He's provided a way for sin to be forgiven. If you refuse his solution, there is no other solution.

There's none. Finally, and we close, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. What does that mean? It means that it's God's nature to forgive but not to remove consequences of sin. That's what it means. Some misunderstand this verse to mean that God is going to punish children for their parents' stupidity or sin.

If he did that, that would be unjust. Ezekiel 18 says God does not do that and he says it over and over again. Now I'm going to read this same verse to you in the New Living Translation, which I think is helpful at this point. God says, I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity and rebellion and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty, and I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. The entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generations. He's not saying I'm going to punish your kids, but I'll allow the consequences that you enacted and it will affect all of their lives. Many children have suffered the consequences of their parents' sin. An abusive parent, children suffer.

Alcoholic parents, children suffer for the choices of their parents. That's what it means. He won't remove the natural consequences. Now this takes us all the way to Jesus Christ.

And you know why it does? Because here's God giving his name, and name is more than just a tag. It's a designation.

It's a description of his character. And so he says, not only I am that I am, but this is what I am to you. I am merciful. I am gracious.

I am longsuffering. I am abundant in mercy. I am abundant in truth, et cetera. That takes us all the way to Jesus Christ because in the name of Jesus we have, I would call it, God's best name, the fullest name. The name Jesus in Hebrew, Yeshua, means Yahweh saves. God saves. In Philippians 2, God has given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Yahweh saves, Yeshua, Jesus.

In the name of Jesus, you have the great I am with all of these attributes reaching down to us at our level, helping people. And he does that first by saving people. You shall call his name Jesus, the angel said to Joseph, for he will what? Save his people from their sins. That's primarily why this great Savior came to the earth.

So rather than listening to that ad that says stop worrying about it and enjoy your life, I'm saying come to Christ where you don't have to worry about eternal life because it is yours. It is yours. But you have to receive it. All that God is, God will be to you, whatever you need.

And tonight some of you in here, if you're hurting and you're here tonight, hear this. Everything that you need that are listed in these attributes God is willing to give to you. But like any gift, you have to receive. And it comes first of all by receiving him. You can't say well I want the gifts but I don't want the giver. It doesn't work that way. You've got to receive Jesus.

That's the key. That's Skip Heising with the conclusion of a message from the series The Biography of God. Now, here's Skip and Lenya to share about the attribute of God that enhanced his walk with the Lord. Today we talked about some of God's great attributes. That he's merciful, gracious, abounding in truth and just. Skip, which of God's attributes was one of the most surprising for you to learn and how has it transformed your walk with the Lord?

Well, and I'm going to dialogue because I'm going to throw that back at you in a minute. But I think in this text, the one that we're talking about in Exodus, it's God's long suffering. That God takes a long time to get angry.

It's so different from human emotion. I mean, he gave the Amorites a total of 800 years before he kicked them out of the land that they were living in. I think in general, it's God's holiness. It's what I would call God's most unpopular attribute in Isaiah chapter 6 and Revelation chapter 4. But, you know, to me, how God can mix his perfection with our imperfection. You know, he's so utterly holy and we are sinful and we need him. So how God mixes like justice and mercy and perfection and our sin, it amazes me.

Hard to get my head around. I think the thing that most, was hard for me to grapple with is it says God's gracious or his grace. Because I tend to be a people pleaser and I want to do something that's going to get their favor or make them happy or reciprocate and to learn that there's nothing I can do, nothing that I can add, that his grace is sufficient has been an ongoing conundrum for me because I want to be an overachiever and there's nothing really that I can do or achieve that is going to make him more gracious toward me. That his grace is safe. Thanks Skip and Lenya. We hope you enjoyed getting to know Skip and Lenya through this conversation. Now we invite you to help keep these teachings coming your way as you connect more listeners like you to God's Word. Just visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig talks about the all-knowing nature of God and how to continue growing in your understanding of him. You don't want to miss that. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.