Forgiving Our Iniquity
Exodus 34:6,7,
This was probably one of the most exciting and thrilling, never-forget moments in Moses’ life. In the previous chapter, Exodus 33, remember, he made that request, he asked God if he could see His glory. Now Moses had seen God up close before you could say, in terms of the burning bush. He also had a number of other close-up engagements with God, he was called a friend of God. And so, if you think of Old Testament history, Moses probably more than anybody else had more close-up dealings with God than anybody else. But he still had a hunger and thirst for God. And look at what he says in chapter 33, God answers his prayer. He wants to see His glory and God gives His glorious manifestation.
My first introduction to the Puritans was my third year at Bible college in Toronto. Dr. J.I. Packer showed up on the doorstep, and he gave some instructions about the Puritans. He compared them to the golden redwoods in California in terms of their stature. If you've ever read that book, Quest for Godliness, where he gives a more full presentation of the Puritans, he says they are described by their maturity. And we don't probably realize it to the degree that we should, but we have been influenced by the Puritans in a number of ways.
He said that there were two great gifts that the Puritans gave western civilization, in a way that we didn't appreciate them before. The first gift was marriage. They gave us a better understanding and appreciation of marriage. Going back to the original creation ordinances, marriage is one of them. Here's what one of the Puritans says,
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and sin…”
This was probably one of the most exciting and thrilling, never-forget moments in Moses’ life. In the previous chapter, Exodus 33, remember, he made that request, he asked God if he could see His glory. Now Moses had seen God up close before you could say, in terms of the burning bush. He also had a number of other close-up engagements with God, he was called a friend of God. And so, if you think of Old Testament history, Moses probably more than anybody else had more close-up dealings with God than anybody else. But he still had a hunger and thirst for God. And look at what he says in chapter 33, God answers his prayer. He wants to see His glory and God gives His glorious manifestation.
My first introduction to the Puritans was my third year at Bible college in Toronto. Dr. J.I. Packer showed up on the doorstep, and he gave some instructions about the Puritans. He compared them to the golden redwoods in California in terms of their stature. If you've ever read that book, Quest for Godliness, where he gives a more full presentation of the Puritans, he says they are described by their maturity. And we don't probably realize it to the degree that we should, but we have been influenced by the Puritans in a number of ways.
He said that there were two great gifts that the Puritans gave western civilization, in a way that we didn't appreciate them before. The first gift was marriage. They gave us a better understanding and appreciation of marriage. Going back to the original creation ordinances, marriage is one of them. Here's what one of the Puritans says,
"There's no fountain of comfort on earth as marriage. God, in His first institute of marriage, gave the wife to the husband, not to be his servant, but his helper, counselor and comforter."
And then Matthew Henry gives that other. You've probably heard that famous graphic he gives of a wife,
"God took her out of the man, not out of the head, to rule over him, nor out of the feet to be trampled upon him, but out of the side to be near his heart, to be protected by him and to love him."
Another man who's done a lot of study of the Puritans, a man by the name of Leland Ryken, here's what he says,
"The Puritans elevated marriage to a level of dignity and delight that previously had not been enjoyed in Christian history."
But there's something else the Puritans gave us. They gave us a better understanding and appreciation of marriage, but they also gave or recovered and stabilized the Christian doctrine of the Sabbath. They promoted it in terms of spiritual delight, not legalistic doom. Dr. Joel Beeke probably knows the Puritans better than anybody. He said,
"The Puritans were the strongest defenders of the Fourth Commandment, They made the Sabbath the centerpiece of their spiritual discipline."
The third thing they gave us, I think they did. They gave us a greater understanding of the doctrine of sin. They call it the greatest of evils. But they didn't just preach against sin, they did that. They knew they had to preach against sin, so sinners would be convicted, but they didn't preach it to drive sinners to despair, at least not believing sinners. But they preached it so we would appreciate Christ all the more. Again, quoting one of the Puritans,
"If sin be not bitter, Christ will not be sweet."
And you can say that of all of us, if we are going to be strong, mature Christians, we have to take sin seriously. We should be regularly confessing our sins. Jesus thought we would, didn't He? Matthew chapter 6, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
And the reason I brought this up is I thought back to the past Lord's Day. You had two messages and two great sins came into focus. Right? We dealt with heart sins. The sin of envy, from Psalm 73, Asaph, he's struggling with that particular heart sin of envy, and then he goes into the house of the Lord, into the synagogue, and he understands himself better, but he also appreciates God a lot more, and he also understands the ultimate destiny of the wicked. And then in the evening, Pastor Mark brought us to that passage in Philippians dealing with the sins of the tongue. So we had sins of the heart and sins of the tongue, Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling, and disputing.” And then he reminded us that we need to guard our hearts, and to guard our tongues if we're going to live the Christian life.
And the good news, going back to where I started things, the good news is that there's always forgiveness with God. That's what makes God so good. He's a God who loves to forgive. Exodus 34:7, “Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” That's why we should never be crippled or paralyzed by our sin. We could always go to the throne of grace. We should as quickly as we sin, don't delay repentance. But no matter what sin you've committed, no matter how frequent, there's always forgiveness with God. That's because of the cross, because of the goodness of God. He's a forgiving God. So let's give thanks for forgiveness. Let's even give thanks to God when He shows us our sins so that we can appreciate more what Christ has done for us.
And the reason I brought this up is I thought back to the past Lord's Day. You had two messages and two great sins came into focus. Right? We dealt with heart sins. The sin of envy, from Psalm 73, Asaph, he's struggling with that particular heart sin of envy, and then he goes into the house of the Lord, into the synagogue, and he understands himself better, but he also appreciates God a lot more, and he also understands the ultimate destiny of the wicked. And then in the evening, Pastor Mark brought us to that passage in Philippians dealing with the sins of the tongue. So we had sins of the heart and sins of the tongue, Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without grumbling, and disputing.” And then he reminded us that we need to guard our hearts, and to guard our tongues if we're going to live the Christian life.
And the good news, going back to where I started things, the good news is that there's always forgiveness with God. That's what makes God so good. He's a God who loves to forgive. Exodus 34:7, “Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” That's why we should never be crippled or paralyzed by our sin. We could always go to the throne of grace. We should as quickly as we sin, don't delay repentance. But no matter what sin you've committed, no matter how frequent, there's always forgiveness with God. That's because of the cross, because of the goodness of God. He's a forgiving God. So let's give thanks for forgiveness. Let's even give thanks to God when He shows us our sins so that we can appreciate more what Christ has done for us.
Posted in Pastor Devotional