Hello, I'm God! - Part B

Either Jesus takes the punishment for your sin or you do.

Which do you want? Do you want to stand before God on your own? Yeah, I'll do it. I'm good with it. I'll take my chances.

Dumb idea. Better to say I'll let Jesus take it for me and God is willing to do that. He is ready to forgive. Can God be both merciful and just?

He can. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Skip explains many of God's attributes, giving you great and encouraging insight into God's character. But first, we want to invite you to see the very places Jesus walked, taught and performed miracles. We're going to enjoy the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus spent so much of his time.

We'll stop at Mount Carmel and Megiddo. Then I look forward to walking with you through the gorgeous port of Caesarea. We'll baptize people in the Jordan River. We'll tour Masada and we'll even float in the Dead Sea. Then the High Line up to Jerusalem, where there is so much to see and do. Finally, we will enjoy a powerful time of worship as we take communion in the Garden Tomb.

Those are just the highlights. There is so much more on this tour and Lenny and I hope that you will make plans now to see Israel with us on this trip. Here's more information. A pre tour excursion to Rome. There's still time to join Skip and Lenny Heitzig for an epic tour of Israel. Registration is open now. Connect with Skip dot com slash Israel.

Now we're in Exodus chapter 34 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. Grace and mercy have nothing at all to do with fairness. You know, we always say I want I want fairness. I want justice.

You say that. But you don't always mean that. For example, let's say on your way to church today, you looked at your car and go, man, I'm going to be late. I better I better just, you know, be heavy on the gas pedal. So you go five miles over the speed limit, 10, 15, maybe you're up to 20 miles over the speed limit. A police officer pulls you over, looks at your license, you know, you were speeding 20 miles over the speed limit. Yes, officer, I know that. And the officer says, okay, I'm going to write you a citation for that. That is called justice.

That's fair. You deserve that ticket. But let's say the officer says, you know what, I'm just going to give you a warning this time. You are 20 miles over the speed limit.

I'm not going to write you a citation, but just stop doing that. And you go, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Lord, thank you. That's mercy. That's not getting what you deserve.

But let's just say you do 20 miles over the speed limit, police officer said, I'm going to write you a ticket, have to do it, write you a citation, hands it to you. And then before you can put it away, takes it out of your hands and says, don't worry, I will pay for it myself. Now he's giving you money to cover your infraction. That's grace.

By the way, ain't never going to happen. But if it did, and it does with God, that is grace. God is merciful, compassionate. God is gracious. Here's a third word that describes him, long suffering. Now, whenever you say that word, you ought to say it like this, long suffering, because some translations render it slow to get angry, slow to anger. It simply means God doesn't fly off the handle. God does not need anger management classes.

The word long suffering, the literal Hebrew word means long nosed. And here's why. When a person gets angry, his face turns what color?

Red, right? You can see the blood flowing in the face and the nose appears to burn. He's really, really mad. So the idea is the longer the nose, the longer it takes to show or display anger.

So the name or the word literally means a long nose. So it's as if God takes a deep breath before he deals with sin. He is slow to anger. You should know the Bible reveals that God has a legitimate basis for anger. It's grounded in his holy, perfect character.

And there will be a day when those who reject Jesus Christ will stand before God at the great white throne and be judged. But you ought to know this, God is in no hurry for that day. He has anger, but his anger kindles very, very slowly. He's not up in heaven with some celestial flyswatter waiting for you to do something wrong so he can go, got him.

He's slow to anger. As Peter said, he's not wanting that anyone should perish, but that everyone should come to repentance. So these three attributes sum up his benevolent character. God is merciful, God is gracious, God is long suffering.

Now I want you to notice the next category, and that is his bountiful attributes, and there are two of them. It says in verse 6, and abounding in goodness. For a long time now, churches for centuries have set a very simple little refrain. Somebody says, God is good, and the other person or people say, all the time. All the time, God is good.

It's a great thing to be mindful of. God is good all the time. But to say that God is abundant in goodness means that God's goodness will never run out so there's always enough goodness for you. He never runs dry of his goodness. God is abounding in goodness.

Now this is a word that you need to know. The Hebrew word is hesed. And when it's used in human terms, it means loyalty. When it is applied to God, it speaks of God's consistent, unchanging love. In ancient times, a king was expected to demonstrate hesed, goodness, to the people that he was in covenant with, whether it was his own people or a conquered people. So God is abundant, never runs out with goodness.

Let me tell you my favorite memory with this word. A few years ago, I had the privilege of being in the office of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, and we were having a discussion about Jesus. And he said, you know, I've been reading about Jesus lately. And he said, what I've discovered about Jesus is that Jesus had an extraordinary, he said Jesus displayed an extraordinary amount of, and he paused because he was thinking of the English word. He and his aide was sitting next to him, he said, Jesus displayed an extraordinary amount of hesed, hesed. Now that was one word, I don't know Hebrew, but I knew that word. And when he said hesed, I go, loving kindness. And he goes, that's it. Jesus displayed an extraordinary amount of loving kindness.

And I said, well, I agree with that. And that is often how this word is translated in the Old Testament, loving kindness, or goodness, or mercy. Now, do you know that there was somebody in the Bible who was actually mad that God was so gracious and so good? Remember what his name was? Jonah. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach a message. Jonah didn't want to go.

He ran the other direction. God convinced him, brought him back to Nineveh, and it worked. Nineveh heard the message, turned to God. Jonah doesn't like it, his ministry was too successful, he gets mad at God. Jonah chapter 4 verse 2 says, Jonah became angry. Now this is Jonah talking to God, listen how he quotes Exodus 34. He said, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness. This is Jonah getting mad at God.

So God is slow to anger. Jonah is quick to anger. Jonah had loving kindness, or God had loving kindness, Jonah lacked in kindness. God is merciful, Jonah is mafioso.

He wants to destroy Nineveh. Not really great if you're a representative of God. Jonah was called to represent God before the Ninevites. I have a question for you. How well do you represent God? Is your life a reflection of these attributes in this section as God reveals this is who I am?

Because Jonah, God's representative, wasn't. I was reading recently, in fact yesterday, I was reading an interesting article. Do you know the South Pole is considered the healthiest place in the world to live? It's the South Pole, Antarctica. And that's because there's no pollution, there's no dust, and there are no germs. It's so cold. An article that I read yesterday said Antarctica is the one continent untouched by the coronavirus.

They've been doing social distancing for years. Only 4,000 people live on that continent. So if that's true, if Antarctica, if the South Pole is the healthiest place to live, why aren't people beating down the door to live there? Easy answer. It's stinking cold there.

Gets to 100 degrees below zero. Now my point in using that as an illustration is there are some people who are like that. They know the truth.

They have no chance of survival in their environment, but they are so cold-hearted. They don't represent this God very well. God says, I want you to know who I am. I'm merciful.

I'm gracious. I'm long-suffering and I'm abounding in hesed, in constant love, in goodness. So that's the first abounding or bountiful attribute. The second one is that He abounds in truth. Or it says, and abounding in goodness and in truth.

The word means certainty. It simply means God is reliable. God is dependable. You can depend on His character. You can depend on His promises. You can depend on His warnings. God keeps His word. If God says something, take it to the bank.

Never going to change. I have a friend I've been friends with for a long time. We have in this little group, we've given ourselves little nicknames or we've given each other little nicknames.

And I won't tell you who it is in real life, but this one guy in our little circle of friends, we've nicknamed him Pencil. And that is because if he gives you a date that he'll be there, we always say, well, I'll pencil it in because it might change. You might change your mind or you might have something that comes up. And so we'll pencil it in. You never have to pencil it in with God.

You can write it in stone, man. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus said, my words will never pass away. Heaven and earth may pass away.

My words will never pass away. So what that does for us when saying God abounds in truth, it makes us live with certainty. And because we live with certainty, we live with joy.

Because you can count on God. Now, this is different in other religions. For example, in Islam, God, Allah changes. God has the right to change, they say.

They even have a little Arabic phrase, which speaks of abrogation. God might say something today, change his mind and say the opposite tomorrow, say something completely different next week. So because of that, one never knows where he stands with Allah. But when it comes to Yahweh, you know where you stand and God is always abounding in truth.

So those are his benevolent attributes and his bountiful attributes. We end in verse seven with his balanced attributes. Look at verse seven, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But here's the balance, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation.

Now, let me impact that verse quickly. When it says keeping mercy for thousands, the word mercy is that word has said again, that means goodness or loving kindness. So the question is, why does God have to use that word again?

Why does he repeat himself again? He is simply saying, Moses, my covenant love, my hesed, my goodness isn't just for you, but it's for your descendants. All the people that are going to come through you, I'm going to be available in my goodness and mercy and kindness for them.

Right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So God's love is for all people of all times, in all places.

God's love is for the African, the South American, the European, the Middle Easterner, the American, the Australian. Following that, keeping mercy for thousands is forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Do you notice three different categories for an infraction? Iniquity, one, transgression, two, and sin.

I'm not going to tell you the difference between all of them would take too long. Let me just put it this way, whether you sin just a little bit or a whole lot, God is ready to forgive. God loves to forgive. The first words of Jesus from the cross were, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. I got to believe Jesus couldn't wait to say those words. And the cross enabled him to say those words.

Father, forgive them. So not only is he slow to get angry over sin, he's ready to pardon you when you do sin. I guess you could say this means God has a big eraser and he loves to use it, loves to whip it out and erase your record. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin. But now we flip the coin, now we balance all of these wonderful attributes of God with another attribute of God and that is his justice.

So it says, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. You see, though God traffics in mercy, though God delights in forgiveness, God cannot annul his justice. Simply put, God can never forgive unrepentant sinner. You can't just automatically live your life any way you want and expect when you die God will just overlook it and forgive it.

That wouldn't be just. God's perfect character demands justice so he doesn't forgive unrepentant sinners. He's provided a way to be forgiven. But if you reject that way of forgiveness, it's on you and all bets are off. And so you boil it down to this. Either Jesus takes the punishment for your sin or you do.

Which do you want? Do you want to stand before God on your own? Yeah, I'll do it. I'm good with it. I'll take my chances.

Dumb idea. Better to say I'll let Jesus take it for me and God is willing to do that. He's ready to forgive.

But if not, if you refuse that, by no means clearing the guilty. Now this next part, this little last part of this verse has bothered a lot of people. It says visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children.

What does that mean? Let me tell you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that children will get the punishment that the parents deserve. Because Ezekiel 18 makes that clear. In Ezekiel 18 people were saying, well the fathers have eaten sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge. The parents sin, but God's going to take it out on their kids. God's going to punish the children and children's children for what their parents do. God says, nope, I'm holding people accountable for their own stuff. So what this does mean here in this verse is that God will not erase the natural consequences of sin.

Can I give you an example? Let's say you decide to get drunk and you walk out into traffic and you get your leg broken. Or let's say a person who's an unbeliever walks out into traffic and gets his leg taken off completely. But in the hospital he gives his life to Christ. Question, will he be forgiven if he asks for it?

Yes. Will his leg grow back automatically? No, he will still suffer the natural consequence for the decision he made. Or if a drug addict receives Christ, asks for forgiveness, will he be forgiven or she be forgiven?

Yes, of course. But that might not reverse any brain damage or health consequences as a result of that person's choice. Now many children and grandchildren have had to experience consequences of parents' decisions.

Abuse from a parent, absence from a parent's relationship. But what I want you to notice is the comparison between the generations. Notice it says, to the third and fourth generation, but look at the beginning of the verse, keeping mercy for thousands. The way it's written in the Hebrew, it would be translated keeping mercy for thousands of generations. The consequences last to the third and fourth generation, but the idea is God's mercy, goodness, and love overshadow it infinitely more for thousands of generations. So God's designation, I'm Yahweh, I'm God.

His description, he gives a list of attributes. And then there's an expectation that Moses complies with. Verse 8, so Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and he worshipped.

We covered this in part last time we looked at it, but here's the idea. As soon as Moses heard this little theology lesson from God, he did what was proper, what was expected, what anybody should do. He bowed down and he worshipped.

Here's the point. Good theology is the foundation and impetus for true worship. I always tell worship leaders, if you're going to write worship songs, make sure you pack some good theology in it.

Just don't make it a great little hook and a nice little turnaround with the music and a middle eight with a good beat. Add some substance and take your cues from the old hymns. I mean, I don't know if you have spent much time studying hymnology, but some of those hymns, it's a theology course. And some of those hymns, I mean, it's not like three verses or two verses. Some of them have eight verses. It's like a Bob Dylan song. They just keep going on and on and on.

But they're so rich. And that's because good theology is the foundation and the motivation for true worship. And that's why we always have a closing song. We're not doing this for an artistic punctuation point at the end of the service. Let's all get up and sing a song and I'll get out of here.

It's not that. It's now we are responding to God. It's our turn to tell God that we love Him based on what we just learned about Him.

That's why we always do that. And that's what Moses did in this section. Would you pray with me as we close this? And let me just say as we are closing this, it could be that you don't have a personal relationship with this God who introduced Himself to Moses, the God who is full of mercy and grace, who is slow to anger, who abounds in goodness and truth, who loves to forgive people. Maybe you don't have a relationship with Him. And I'm going to say if you would like to change that, you can right now by simply talking to Him and giving Him your life.

You could say something like this. Lord, I give you me. I come before you as I am. I know that I am a sinner. I ask you for forgiveness. I'm sorry for my sin and I turn from it. I believe in Jesus, that He died on the cross, that He rose from the dead and I turn from my past and I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message.

Hello, I'm God from the series 2020. Right now, we want to share about a great resource that will help you understand the significance of what Jesus did on the cross for you. What is truth? The question may seem like a postmodern musing or maybe the core of the Christian deconstruction movement, but scripture records that Pontius Pilate famously asked that very question just before he handed over Jesus to be crucified. So what is truth?

Here's Skip Heitzig. You see, the Bible makes truth claims and some of those claims are, well, pretty absolute. Here's one. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. But how can you know it's really true? We want to help you get started in answering that question with two truth focused resources. The booklet, Why Truth Matters and Bloodline, both by Pastor Skip. It's our way to say thank you for your gift of thirty five dollars or more today to help connect more people to God's truth through Connect with Skip. Jesus is absolute truth.

Pilate thought it couldn't be found, so he dismisses the case. And in effect, he dismisses Jesus from out of his life. Get your copies of these two powerful resources when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how God's omniscience can be inspiring rather than intimidating. You don't want to miss it. So be sure to listen. Imagine knowing somebody who knows everything about you. Now, imagine somebody who knows everything about you and loves you anyway. That's what we're dealing with when we deal with the knowledge of God. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.