Our Forgiving God

Introduction

Good morning. I’d like to appreciate Cody and his work in not only leading singing in an excellent and orderly way, but picking songs by reading my mind. That’s always something I’m thankful for. We led the song 474, Grace Greater Than All Our Sin. I literally was thinking this morning, I wish that song was led. I wish I had told him that yesterday. I should have known Cody would know to lead that song. Of course, you can catch the theme of God’s grace and forgiveness, and this morning we’re going to talk about our forgiving God, but in a surprising place. If you look with me in the book of Judges, in Judges chapter 2. Of course, in Judges chapter 2, we find the people of Israel about to go through one of the most obvious and dysfunctional cycles that they will ever go through.

And we often point to the book of Judges and we say, the Israelites just did not understand what it meant to submit to God. The Israelites continually rejected God, no matter how many times and how many ways God did great things for them. Of course, we’ll see that cycle in Judges chapter 2. If you’ll pick up the reading with me in verse 10, though, we start with the downside, one of the most depressing verses in the Bible, Judges chapter 2 and verse 10. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers, and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. Certainly that verse could be unpacked in and of itself. But you see the tragedy in that verse that there was a generation, and the one that followed them did not follow the Lord.

It says, even they did not know the Lord, and specifically what the Lord had done for them. And so in verse 11, the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Astaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them. He sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies so that they could no longer withstand their enemies.

Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them, and they were in terrible distress. As we see this picture of Israel here, you don’t really get the warm, fuzzy feeling of our forgiving God, do you? In fact, rather you see a people who stubbornly and rebelliously rejected God despite the fact that they at least should have known better. The truth is they did know better, but according to the text in verse 10, they didn’t even accept the Lord at all. It says they did not know him, or even the things that he had done for their fathers or themselves as a nation. You see this people, and what did they do?

They sinned, and so God did what? God would punish them. Why? Because he’s mean? No, he’s trying to teach them, mold them, change them, not only into the image of his holiness, but also into a way in which they could be glorified as God’s people, and that God would be glorified for being their God, and even other nations around would recognize God as the creator of the heavens and the earth. But rather than do that, of course, we read in verse 11 of a people who would sin against God, and God would punish them in verse 14 and 15. How would he do that? He would send other nations to them. We see plunderers, we see enemies, and how bad would it be? With God in control.

It was exactly as God had planned. When the people came and plundered, what did they do? They completely plundered them. When God sent enemies, it was so severe that they could not stand any longer against their enemies. But I want to focus on the next few verses, beginning in verse 16. Then, then is this point at which Israel had rejected God at every single turn, and the Lord was punishing them for their guilt. Not because he was mean, not because it was arbitrarily timed for this, but because Israel was guilty of sin. And by the way, if you go back to verse 13, what sin in particular is noted? They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Astaroth. What you might say is the most fundamental principle of believing in God and serving him is don’t serve other gods.

Recognize that they are nothing, that they are idols created by human hands. Don’t reject God at all. But certainly don’t reject him and choose other gods instead or in his place in any way. Verse 16, then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they hoard after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. More bad news, and then in verse 18. Notice that then the people are sinful. Notice that then they served the Baals and the Astaroth. Notice that then they were worse than their fathers before them who were actually obeying God.

In verse 18, whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge. And he saved them from the hands of their enemies all the days of the judge. One more time. When was this then? When the people of Israel rejected God, so much so that he would send plunderers and enemies, when they were serving the Baals and the Astro, when they were rejecting God unlike their fathers who walked in his commandments and walked in his ways. And yet in verse 18, the Lord would save them from the hands of their enemies. Why? The last part of verse 18 for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. What did God do? He was moved to compassion, to pity by what?

By their groaning. These people who were wicked and rejected God at almost literally every single turn, except for a short time, while God would send a judge and the people would be faithful while the judge was alive, we learned from verse 19. God still cared for his people.

That when they would cry out, not just that they were being hurt or that they were being punished, but crying out in recognition of rejecting God, of being guilty of sin before him. Our God showed faithfulness to an unfaithful people. He showed forgiveness to a stubborn and rebellious people. Our God is a forgiving God. And that’s a powerful blessing that we need to see this morning. Of course, we could look at a million different lessons from the judges. We could see that God will punish sinners. That God does have a set way that he expects us to follow. And that when we don’t, our God is no longer not just with us, he will be against us if we make ourselves his enemies. We could talk about how if we stay faithful to God, he will bless us for the time.

And that, yes, we could fall from faithfulness, as is written about in Hebrews chapter 3. We can fall away from the living God. But this morning I want to focus on this difficult question we sometimes grapple with. Will God really forgive his children who struggle with sin? I’ve certainly struggled with the question, perhaps you have as well. Will God really forgive me, knowing what I’ve done? Will he forgive me having been aware of all that I have thought, all that I’ve said to others, all that I have done in open rebellion to him? This is not a lesson about saying, just go ahead and do whatever you want, say some magic words at night, and God will forgive you. That’s not the picture, and you won’t see that this morning.

But how do we know that God will forgive us? I think when it comes to how does one become a Christian, we’re pretty clear on this issue. The New Testament is clear on this issue. You must believe in Jesus. You must confess him as Lord and the risen Savior in Christ. You need to repent of your sins. That is not just saying them out loud, but turning from them, changing to a life rather than rebellion, but of submission to God and being baptized for thee, as Peter would say in Acts 2.38, forgiveness of your sins. But what about for the Christian? What about the child of God who struggles with sin? How can we know that God will forgive us? I want to offer up three case studies this morning, and perhaps we can take some joy from that and then make some application.

1. The People in the Judges Cried Out

The first group, of course, is in the judges. Look in Judges chapter 3. We saw kind of the overview text in chapter 2 of what would come during this awful period, you might say, by and large. The period of the judges for Israel. And we say it’s awful because here’s this generation that arose did not know God. They consistently turned against God. They would sin, and so God would have to punish them. And Judges chapter 3 and verse 7, we see that one of these patterns emerge. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushon Rishothiam, king of Mesopotamia.

And the people of Israel served Cushin Rishim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them. Of the son of Canaz, Caleb’s younger brother. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he judged Israel. In verse 11, the land had rest for 40 years. If you track this very quick moving story, how does it start? In verse 7, just like our pattern in Judges chapter 2, Israel sins. And so how does God handle sin? Well, we see in verse 8, therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Why? Because they were serving the Baals and the Asherah. They were guilty of idolatry. They were rejecting God.

And so he punished them. As they’re being punished, he sold them into the hand of the king of Mesopotamia. And for eight years they were in this punishment. This is no small issue. But notice verse 9. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel. He raised up Othne. What a powerful and mighty and loving God we serve. Amen. We have to understand this text is not just a referendum on sin, which it is, not just a referendum on violating God’s will, which it stands firmly as, but also as a beacon of our God’s willingness to forgive anybody. If Israel could be forgiven time and time and time again for rejecting God and serving idols, and God would still be moved by their pity.

2. Manasseh, One of the Worst Kings of Judah

He would hear their groaning, he would care about this stubborn and rebellious people. And we know we have a forgiving God who will listen and hear our cries, our groaning, our concerns. We see it doesn’t just end with the book of Judges that, although we could make the same story time and again in chapter 4, in chapter 7, in chapter 10, chapter 11, over and again, God would be there for his people. But also look somewhere else in your Old Testament with me, in 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Many here may know this is my favorite Bible story for exactly the purpose of the lesson this morning. In 2 Chronicles chapter 33, we’re introduced to, if you just read the 2 Kings 19 account of this king named Manasseh, you’d recognize Manasseh as one of the absolute worst kings of Judah.

And yet this is a happy story. It doesn’t start that way in 2 Chronicles 33. It sounds a little bit like the book of Judges. We see in verse 5 to begin here, and he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He burned his sons as an offering in the valley of the Son of Hinnum and used fortune telling and omens and sorcery and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of the idol that he had made, he set in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon and his son, in this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.

And I will no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, all the statutes and the rules given through Moses. Verse 9 punctuates this. Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel. Make no mistake again, it comes out in every study of this kind that God punishes sin. God is severe, not just on the Israelites sin, by the way, but the sins of the nations around them. But in verse 9, how bad was Manasseh? How badly did he entice the people into sin? They did more evil than the nations whom God had destroyed around them.

But note where the story changes in verse 10. Just like in the book of Judges, verse 10, the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. Now note verse 13. He prayed to his God, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea, and brought him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. And then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. What you keep reading about in the book of 2 Chronicles in chapter 33 is that not only does Manasseh change and repent, not only does God deliver him from his bondage and captivity, he takes Manasseh out, and Manasseh doesn’t just get changed mentally by this understanding that the Lord is God.

He changes, he tears out the altars. He does what he can to undo his wrong and to serve God. It’s a powerful picture of repentance. But going back to our question, will God really forgive his children who sinned? Who was Manasseh king over? Well, we see in verse 1, he reigned 55 years where? In Jerusalem. As we go throughout Old Testament history, of course, we have that split or schism between the ten tribes of Israel, we often say it, and the tribes of Judah in the south. And the tribes of Judah had some good kings. We think of Hezekiah, by the way, directly related to Manasseh. We think of Josiah. We think of all the good people and things that happened in the kingdom of Judah while nothing good happened in the north according to the kings of Israel.

3. Saul, a Religious Terrorist Forgiven

But as we think about what God did here with Manasseh, he didn’t just take a wicked person and forgive him. He took one of the worst people. And when he was humbled greatly, when he cried out to God, God heard his plea. Again, we have to understand, agree, and be dramatically moved by the fact our God is an awesome and forgiving God. In the New Testament, we see some of this as well, of course, with Saul. If you look at me in Acts chapter 8, I know I have chapter 22 on there, but in Acts chapter 8, of course, we read a little bit about Saul. You want another bad resume? Look with me, beginning in Acts chapter 8 and verse 1. Saul approved of his execution.

Who is that? Well, at the end of chapter 7, this was at the feet, Saul stood at the feet as Stephen was being stoned to death. In fact, we read a little bit about what Saul was doing. Saul was one of the worst, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. We think about Paul or Saul’s resume here. He was truly a religious terrorist. He was approving of execution. He was dragging Christians off and putting them in prison, no doubt, in various forms of torture in so doing.

This is the Saul who’s spoken to in Acts chapter 9, as he’s on his way to Damascus, and in verse 4, Jesus speaks to him, saying in Acts chapter 9 and verse 4, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. Of course, he’s blinded and he goes, and he finds a man named Ananias, and we read in Acts chapter 22, as Paul is telling the story, he’s retelling what occurs in Acts chapter 9. It’s punctuated in verse 16 when he is told, Rise and wash away your sins, being baptized, calling on the name of Jesus.

If Saul could be forgiven, whether through baptism or whether Manasseh could be forgiven through a prayer of repentance, or the people in the book of Judges could be saved, redeemed from the land in the hand of their enemies, because God heard their prayer, he heard their entreaty, and he listened to their humility and their changed hearts. We have to know that we can be forgiven too. As we think about this lesson, I will add, when we examine the question, will God really forgive me when I fail? And how can I know? It starts with the same way all the Old Testament books essentially start with. God telling his people, You know who I am, and you know what I’ve done. We read this time and again in the Bible.

How many times have you read a passage that says something like, I am God, the God of your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am the God who led you out of the land of Egypt. I am the God who filled in the gap. God expects us to trust him and have faith in him on the basis of what he has already done. And what has God done? He had forgiven the Israelites time and again, despite the fact that they were a stubborn and rebellious people from generation to generation. He forgave Manasseh, even though he enticed the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom God had already destroyed from around them. He forgave Saul and allowed Saul’s life to be one chosen by Jesus Himself to be a light to the Gentiles, to be the great apostle Paul, who we recognize as one of the foundational writers of the New Testament, who started as a religious terrorist, who rejected God and rejected God’s followers.

4. Some Conditions to That Forgiveness

That’s a powerful message from our God. And so, first of all, I have to know that God will forgive. But then I have to consider that there are some conditions to that forgiveness. If you think about Judges chapter 3 once again, how long were they under the hand of the king of Mesopotamia? Eight years. In 2 Chronicles chapter 33, when was Manasseh forgiven? After he had been led away with bronze hooks out of his kingdom. When was Saul forgiven? After he was struck blind on the road to Damascus. It wasn’t just that God just kind of sits up there and, and like, as is often pictured in American society, some loving grandpa says, You do what you want, I’m going to forgive you no matter what.

You can’t do anything about it, I’m just going to forgive you. No. They were absolutely conditions. In 1 John chapter 1, we read about our faithful God, we read about our just God, and we read about the condition for forgiveness. Read there with me. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9. 1 John chapter 1, beginning in verse 8, even. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 9, carefully, if we confess our sins, He is faithful. He is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is a powerful statement from the Word of God. If we will just confess our sins, recognizing wrongdoing, be willing to admit that we have fault, not lying, not deceiving ourselves.

If we confess our sins, they can be forgiven. Why? Because our God is faithful and just. Because God has promised to forgive us. So here’s the rub of the lesson this morning. When I question whether or not God will forgive me, it’s a valid question and a difficult struggle. It’s not a question of God. God has promised. God has delivered on his promise of forgiveness over the ages to men and women from what we might call some of the worst generations in biblical history. And some of the most vile persecutors of the way. But if God has forgiven, and I’m questioning his willingness to forgive when he has promised in 1 John 1 and verse 9 to forgive those who confess our sins, the problem is not with God.

The problem is with me. And it’s not something that can’t be fixed. That’s the good news. But it means I have a faith problem. Because my faith has to be strong enough to know that my God is faithful. To know that my God, as verse 9 says, is just to forgive us our sins, that he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that God has promised that he will separate our sins and keep them so far as from the east as from the west, that God will forgive those who seek him in humble repentance. We have to believe that. We have to know that. Our entire identity as children of God is knowing that we have been redeemed, that we have access to salvation. That is the good news of the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.

If I accept his conditions, if I accept his commands and change my life.

And here’s where some of that faith problem enters. You see all verse 8 again. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. This is in the context of a passage beginning in verse 5 that talks about walking in light or walking in darkness. Don’t fool yourselves, don’t deceive yourselves. A good person does what God says. Somebody rejecting God rejects him. There is no in between. You either walk in the light or you walk in the darkness. Christians don’t zigzag. Sure, there are mistakes. Absolutely, as verse 8 decrees for us, there is sin. We have to confess that. We have to confront that truth. But the difficult part with accepting God’s forgiveness sometimes isn’t that God will do it, because he has.

It isn’t that we don’t know if God has promised it because we can see that he has. It’s because I feel like I don’t deserve it. And the truth of the matter is, Manasseh wasn’t forgiven because he was such a good person that God was willing to forgive him. The people of Israel were not so good that God was demanded of them to forgive. And he says, you know what? These people are so great, these are so wonderful people that I’ve already punished by the way that I just have to forgive them. Our God’s grace is greater than all our sin. You can see why those words of that song were in my mind this morning. God’s grace is greater than all our sin. That doesn’t mean we take the Roman concept that Paul had to debunk in chapter 6 and say, well, we should just sin more so we can have more grace.

Of course not. What did Manasseh do when he repented when God delivered him out of the hands of his captors? What did he do? He went back into his city and he changed. He had repented. What did the people of Israel even do, albeit for a short time? While the judge lives, Judges 2 and 19, the people were faithful. Do you remember in Judges chapter 3? What was the last part of that verse that we read? The land had rest for 40 years. Why? Because the people God forgave, the people God delivered, truly trusted in him. That’s how our faith grows, trusting in God, who has always and will continue to always deliver on his promises. We will not be forgiven because we are perfect. We will be forgiven because we have a perfectly loving and forgiving God.

5. By Grace You Have Been Saved Through Faith

And so we have to understand Bible passages in that light. Ephesians chapter 2 becomes a very difficult passage to understand based on the way others have wrangled with clear scriptures today. And Ephesians chapter 2. You can see how this would be a proof text for many. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Here is the good news in verse 4.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. Verse 8, by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are as workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We often look at this verse and we have a problem. Because the religious world today teaches the idea in verse 8 that when it says, By grace you have been saved through faith, it is not of result of works, it is not your own doing.

We kind of have this problem throughout religious history. You can see it’s called the pendulum problem. And that’s where a group of people kind of go too far to the left. And then what is the response? Well, people go too far to the right. Well, then that’s a problem. So we go, what does this passage mean? Does this mean do nothing? Does this mean that God is just going to randomly arbitrarily choose people? No. By grace you have been saved. How, verse 8? Through faith. What does faith do in Hebrews chapter 11? It made Abel offer, it made Noah build, it made Abraham go. Faith works. By faith, the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea as though it was on dry land. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell when they had been encircled for seven days.

God gives victory to those who are faithful to him. That is why we can sing the song Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. How do we understand this then? If it’s not going that far, what does it mean? Not as a result of works so that no one may boast. The passage very clearly means that we cannot earn our salvation. We cannot demand that God give it to us because we are great or we are wonderful or we are perfect. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 1 John 1 8, if we say that there is no sin in us, we deceive ourselves. The power is not in us, but in God who works through and for us. We have to trust God for forgiveness.

And stop trying to outpace our sin with more good works. We need to serve God because our faith demands it. We need to serve God and look out for opportunities to serve others because walking in the light means walking in the ways of the light, who is God, the creator of the heavens and the earth. Will God really forgive me when I fail? Yes, absolutely he will. If we will confess our sins. If we will walk in his ways. It won’t be because I am or will be perfect. It won’t be because I deserve it or have done enough good things to where God says, I’d better forgive this guy over here. God will forgive because God is faithful, because God has promised and he always delivers on his promises.

6. A Covenant Enacted on Better Promises

God was faithful to the old covenant. He was faithful to his people. When you read the book of Judges, he was just fulfilling his promises to them. You look in the book of Deuteronomy. What would happen if the people disobeyed him? There would be a list of, we might say successive or building curses. If they would obey him, there would be blessings. God said, Obey me, trust in me, it will be well with you. But disobey me and there will be curses. I need you to understand the faith that I require. What it means to believe in me. Over the generations, some understood, some did not, but God was always there for his people. And read with me one final passage this morning in Hebrews chapter 8.

And Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 6. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant, he mediates is better. Why? Since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. What’s better? What’s greater about this covenant? It’s Christ. What did Jesus bring that is better, that is stronger in verse 12? I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. What is the strength of the new covenant? Jesus. What does Jesus bring that makes it enacted on better promises?

Conclusion

True, total and final forgiveness of sins. Will God really forgive me when I sin? Will God really forgive people who are stubborn, who are obstinate to his ways, and who struggle with sin? Yes. If we confess our sins, if we walk in his ways, our God’s grace is far greater than all of our sin. Will you go to God in prayer with me? Our dear God and most gracious, merciful, loving and forgiving Heavenly Father. We’re so thankful to you for this day and this opportunity to worship you, the ability that you have blessed us with in this generation to look at your word, to see a pattern of your kindness, love, forgiveness and mercy towards your people. Forgive us of when we sin. Help us to recognize the wrongdoing in us, to cut it out, to repent, and to walk in righteousness as Jesus has given us the perfect example.

As we try to follow in Jesus’