There are no categories and no degrees of sin so far gone that they cannot be forgiven and that's why God said he is merciful and

gracious and forgives iniquity transgression and sin.

How do we know that God is slow to anger and forgives our sin?

That's the question John Piper answers from Exodus 34, 1 to 10 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on October 7th, 1984.

V. V verse 6 of Exodus chapter 34

is revelation of God's name and an unfolding of the implications of that name.

The Lord, the Lord, or Yahue, Yahue, and then the unfolding. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,

a bounding in steadfast love, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving

iniquity and transgression and sin.

In the last three Sundays we've looked at a God who is, a God who is free and a God who is omnipotent. And there's a connection between those three truths

and God is merciful today.

And we're going to come back to that at the end of the message, but there are two problems to deal with first in this text.

And those who read carefully and try to put pieces together sense those problems, I think think when they read this text and let me

point them out and try to point you to a biblical solution to each one of them.

The first problem is that in verse 7 the Lord says that he forgives iniquity and transgression and sin

and it goes right on to say but who will by no means clear the guilty. That's a problem because everybody in need of

forgiveness is guilty. Who are the guilty he forgives and who are the guilty that he will by no means forgive?

Now, in trying to solve that problem what I did was try to ask how did biblical writers

understand this verse because this is a very frequently cited verse in the Old Testament. And I chose Joel and Jonah. In Joel

chapter 2, the people have rebelled against the Lord. They are sinful and the way Joel encourages them to turn to the

Lord and gain courage and hope and forgiveness is this. He says, quoting the Lord, yet now even return to me with all your heart and with

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