God Is Forgiving
I.
God is
forgiving
A. Psalm 99:8-He is a God
that forgives, He is a forgiving God
1.
KJ-Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast
a God that forgavest them
2.
AMP-You were a forgiving
God to them
3.
Psalm 86:5 MSG-You are well
known as good and forgiving
4.
Isaiah
55:7 NLV-Let him turn to our God, for He
will for sure forgive all his sins
B. Psalm
85:2-He is a God who forgives people’s faults, puts their sin far out of sight,
carries it off and doesn’t hold onto it – Think about that
1.
Definitions
a. Forgiven-To take away, to carry off
b. Covered-Hide, conceal (That means he’s
not looking at, holding onto it, paying attention to it)
c. Iniquity-Perversity, fault
2.
Translations
a. KJ-Thou hast
forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
b. CEB-You’ve forgiven your people’s wrong doing
c. MSG-You put their sins far out of sight
d. AMP-You have forgiven & taken away the iniquities of your people, You
have covered all their sin. Selah [pause,
& calmly realize what that means]
3.
Psalm
86:5-AMP-For You, Lord, are good, & ready to forgive [our trespasses,
sending them away, letting them go
completely & forever]
4.
Psalm 103:3-VOICE-Despite
all your many offenses, He forgives and
releases you
5.
This
is what God does with sin-Micah 7:18-God doesn’t hold unto your mistakes
a. ASV-Who is a God like unto thee, that pardons iniquity
and passes over the transgression…He
will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot;
and you will cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea
1)
Passing
over and casting into the depths of the sea is the opposite of harping on it
and holding onto it
b. BBE-Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for
evil doing and overlooking the sins
of the rest of his heritage…He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins
under his feet: and you will send all
our sins down into the heart of the sea
1)
Overlooking
and sending away is demonstrating a separation
2)
CEB-You
will hurl all our sins into the
depths o f the sea
c. MSG-Where is the God who can compare with you – wiping the slate clean of guilt, turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your
purged precious people? You don’t nurse
your anger and don’t stay angry
long, for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love the most.
1)
With
God there’s no marks against you because the slate is clean
2)
NCV-You
don’t look at the sins of your
people…You will not stay angry forever because you
enjoy being kind.
3)
NIRV-Once
again you will show loving concern for us. You will completely wipe out the evil things we’ve done. You will throw all
of our sins into the bottom of the sea.
d. God is making an on purpose effort to not harp on and
hold onto the wrong you’ve done; He is overlooking and passing over and wiping
the slate clean and completely wiping out and turning a blind eye and a deaf
ear and not looking at your sins, and not nursing his anger and hurling your
faults into the sea and sending them away
C. Daniel
9:9-Forgiveness belongs to God (KJ-To the Lord our God
belong mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him)
1.
JUB-Of the Lord our God
is the ability to have mercy & to
forgive – The
ability to have mercy and to forgive is of God; He has that ability
2.
GNV-Compassion and
forgiveness is in the Lord our God –
Forgiveness
is in God
3.
DARBY-With the Lord our God are mercies and
pardons – Forgiveness
is with God
a. Psalm 130:4-There is forgiveness with the Lord
D. Psalm 103:3-God will
forgive anything and everything (KJ-Who
forgives ALL your iniquities)
1.
The
first benefit mentioned is God forgiving all your iniquities – This is a
big benefit to have nothing between you and Him
2.
AMP-Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities
3.
CJB-He forgives all your offenses
4.
MSG-He forgives your sins
– every one
5.
Isaiah 55:7 BBE-Let the
sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to
the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him
E. Isaiah
55:7-God abundantly pardons; God is a big time forgiver; God is not tight when
it comes to forgiveness; He lavishes it upon people
1.
KJ-Let
the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him
return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon-to forgive
(Abundantly pardon-Greatly forgive)
2.
CEB-So
that he may have mercy on them, to our God, because He is generous with forgiveness
3.
MSG-Let
them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God, who is lavish (over the top, extravagant)
with forgiveness
4.
NLT-Yes,
turn to our God, for he will forgive
generously
5.
VOICE-God
will excuse our past wrongs. Our God’s
forgiveness is inexhaustible
F. Psalm
32:5-God instantly forgives, He is quick to
forgive
1.
KJ-I acknowledged my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
2.
AMP-You instantly forgave
me
3.
MSG-Then I let it all
out: I said, “I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God. Suddenly the pressure was gone –
my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared
4.
Isaiah 55:7 GNT-Let them
turn to the Lord, our God; he is merciful and quick to forgive
G. Psalm
86:5-God is ready to forgive, plenteous in mercy
1.
One
of the goodest things about God is that he’s ready to
forgive; He
instantly forgives because He’s ready to forgive
a. KJ-For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee
b. NLT-O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive. So full of unfailing love for all who ask for
your help
c. TLB-You are so good and kind, so ready to forgive, so full of mercy for all who ask for your aid
2.
Read To
Forgive-Forgiving,
ready to forgive
a. Isaiah 55:7-GNV-He will have mercy upon him; and to our
God, for he is very ready to forgive
H. Micah
7:18-God delights in mercy, He desires to forgive, he takes pleasure in it and
is pleased to do it
1.
This
verse reveals to us that forgiving is a mercy act and therefore if God delights
in mercy, then he delights in forgiving
a. KJ-Who is a God like unto you, that pardons iniquity,
and passes by the transgression of the remanant of
his heritage? He retains not his anger forever, because he delights in mercy. He will turn again, he will have
compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea
b. Not holding
onto is a mercy act and that’s why God doesn’t hold onto and retain your wrongs
because he likes mercy better
2.
God
delights in mercy (Delight-Take
pleasure in, desire, be pleased to do)
a. MSG-For mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love
the most.
b. GW-You will not be angry forever, because you would
rather show mercy
c. TLB-You cannot stay angry with your people, for you
love to be merciful
d. GNV-Mercy pleases Him
e. CJB-He delights in grace
f.
NCV-You
enjoy being kind
g. GNT-You take pleasure in showing us your constant love
h. NLV-He does not stay angry forever because he is happy
to show loving-kindness
i.
CEV-You
are glad to have pity and pleased to be merciful
3.
It’s
God’s will to forgive-Psalm 86:5-CEV-You willingly forgive
4.
Most
people don’t delight in mercy, instead there is attitude is, “Ugh I got to
forgive.”
I. Exodus
34:7-When the Lord proclaimed his own name to Moses, the Lord chose to tell
this about Himself, “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” and
therefore this must be a huge part of who he is; He could have said a lot of
things, but one of the things the Lord chose to say about Himself was forgiving
1.
Numbers
14:18-Moses is trying to get God to forgive these people and he said remember
God, you said you are forgiving
II.
God’s forgiving ability
on display
A. Ahab
1.
1
Kings 16:30-33
a. 30-Up until this point he
was more evil than anyone that came before him
b. 31-He married Jezebel and
worshipped Baal and built an altar to Baal in the house of Baal that he built
c. 33-He did more to provoke
the Lord to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him
2.
1
Kings 21:25-29
a. 25-There was none like
him-He took wickedness to new heights
b. 26-He followed idols like
the Amorites
c. 27-Word came from the man
of God that judgment was coming and when he got light he repented
d. 27-A lot of us would have
said he’s too evil, he needs to go to hell, and never have forgiven him
e. 29-The evil came in his
son’s days because he was worse than Ahab was
B. Manasseh-2 Chronicles
33:1-13
1.
2-He
lived like the heathen
2.
3-He
built altars to Balaam in the House of the Lord and worshipped them and served
them
3.
6-He
burned his children as an offering to his god
4.
6-He
practice witchcraft
5.
6-He
did MUCH evil in the sight of the Lord and provoked the Lord to anger
6.
9-He
made the people do worse than the heathen
7.
2
Kings 21:16-He shed innocent blood very much until he filled Jerusalem from one
end to the other; he’s killing innocent people
8.
12-13-Inspite
of all this the Lord forgave him when he repented and the Lord put him back in
his kingdom and restored him
III.
God is like this, but
what about us? Should we be like this? Can we be like this?
A. We are supposed to
imitate God-Ephesians 4:32-5:1
1.
He
tells us to forgive the same way God has forgiven us and then says be an
imitator of God (referring to forgiveness)
a. Be an imitator of God
obviously means in everyway, but this verse is pinpointing that we need imitate
God in how He forgives
b. Ephesians 5:1-This tells
us to be like God and that means we need to be forgiving like he forgives
2.
And
walk in love – The next thing he told you to do AFTER he told you to
forgive is to walk in love and that’s because the walk of love begins with
loves first act, which is to forgive; You can’t walk in love if you don’t first
forgive
B. ***We should be striving
to be the forgivingest bunch of people on the Earth, that hold nothing against
anybody***
1.
That
doesn’t mean that we don’t have standards and accountability, it just means hey
we don’t have anything against you
a. Exodus 34:7-God never
lets the guilty go unpunished so there are standards and accountability
2.
Psalm
130:4-If there is forgiveness with the Lord and we are to imitate him, there
should be forgiveness with us
C. ***Begin
to cultivate the desire to forgive***
1.
Matthew
5:6-If you don’t get hungry for this you’ll never develop in it
a. There
is a life available to the believer where the sun can rise and they can roll
out of bed and start their day and not have anything against anybody; And you
don’t know what living is until you live not having anything against anybody
b. I want
that life, I want to forgive like God forgives and be forgiving like He is
2.
If
you don’t pursuit this you’ll never develop in it
a. 1
Timothy 6:11-Follow after-To seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavor to acquire
b. 1
Corinthians 14:1-You can’t “follow after” love without “following after”
forgiveness
3.
Get
excited about the results a forgive gets
a. Mark
11:24-25-Enhanced prayer life
b. 2
Corinthians 2:10-11-No advantage for Satan
c. Galatians
5:6-Working faith