Attributes of Goodness (2)

As we were singing the first song just thinking about what a privilege it is to come and study theology. I'll never forget my first year in Bible college, Dr. Charles Stevens, who was a founder of Piedmont Bible College. It was called at that time, standing up in the classroom, he was in his 80s then, and he said, theology is the queen of the sciences. And it really is because, think about it, there is no greater blessing or privilege than to through the instrumentality of God's Word, which he's given us to literally hear from him about himself, to hear him describe for us who he is. It's almost like sitting at the feet of God himself, allowing him to describe for us, this is what I'm like, this is who I am, this is what I've done for you. And there's nothing better than that, there's nothing greater than that, than to have that awesome privilege to really let him through his Word describe for us who he is. And we've been doing that for a number of weeks now, and it is such an amazing privilege. I hope I don't think we can grasp that completely. But I hope we can get a little bit of a sense of what it's like to really have the privilege of coming to know in a deeper way, in a better way, in a way that hopefully makes us better followers of Christ, who he is. And we've been looking at the attributes of goodness, attributes that we, at least to some degree, can share with God. And we have already looked at the attributes of holiness, and the fact that God is true is truthfulness. And we saw that when we looked at the fact last week that God is true, we saw that in two different senses. God is true in the sense that He's genuine, He's the real article, He is the true God in contrast to all the false gods, or pretend gods. And He is also true in the sense that He's accurate, He is truthful, all of His statements are true. And we looked at both sides of that. Well, tonight we come to one of the most well-known attributes of God, and one of the ones that is just so amazing in its complexity. The love of God, the love of God is just like a multifaceted jewel, and you can look at it in so many different ways, and its beauty, awes you every time you look at it from a different perspective. So I'm sure this could be said of each of the attributes of God, but there is so much that about God that can be seen under the characteristic of His love, and we're going to see a number of those things tonight. But let's begin, before we do that, when we were singing this song, I just couldn't help, but focus on verse three, which we're saying, I think it's one of the greatest lines of poetry ever written. One of the greatest lines of him that he ever written is the third verse of the love of God. Think about it for a moment. Think about how the writer expresses the depth and breadth and height and amazing nature of God's love. Could we with ink the ocean fill? I think about that for a minute. You have as much ink as there would be in the ocean. And we're the skies of parchment made. Got a lot to write on. We're every stalk on earth, a quill. Every little stalk, every little weed or any, anything protruding from the ground becomes a pin that you can write with. And every man ascribe by trade. So every person who is living on earth now, six billion or so, or has ever lived, would do nothing except write with this ocean full of ink with these quills on the parchment of heaven. If that were a never ending task, the writer is saying to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. I don't know if there's ever been any poetry better written to describe the love of God. It is an amazing, amazing subject. And we will barely scratch the surface tonight, even though it's very tempting just to stay here on this particular topic. So let me begin with a definition. The word love is used in many ways. As you know, it's used sometimes of physical attraction. It can be used sometimes of just natural affection, kind of a family affection. It is sometimes used of an aesthetic appreciation. You just find something or see something that is attractive or aesthetically pleasing to the senses. That is one way the word is used. Lots of different ways the word love is used. But I want to define the love of God this way. I came across this definition a number of years ago. And I'm not sure where I got it, but it's, I think it's a great definition of the love of God. It's lengthy. So I'm going to give it to you. And then I'm going to go back and parse it out a little bit, expand on it just a little bit section by section. The love of God is that in God, which moves him to give himself and his gifts spontaneously, voluntarily, righteously, and eternally, for the good of others, regardless of their merit. Or response. Let me break that down a little bit because I think it's a masterful definition of the love of God. The love of God is that in him, that in God, which moves him, it moves him. It compels him. It drives him to give himself and his gifts. That's a very important part of the definition because love, especially the word that's used of God's love in the Bible, the word agape is a giving love. It is a giving it always acts to give. So that in God, which moves him to give himself and his gifts, spontaneously. You see the joyful part of love there, the freedom of love there. God gives spontaneously. And then he gives voluntarily, just of his own free will. He gives, he's not compelled by any outside action or force to do so. He gives voluntarily, righteously. His love is always coupled with his righteousness because in our experience, because of our fallenness, because of sin, love can be twisted and perverted and made something dirty and dark and sinful. But not so with God. God's love is always given righteously. So it is that in him, which moves him to give himself and his gifts, spontaneously, voluntarily, righteously. And eternally, there is no end to God's love. You could not write it on the parchment of heaven, given all those conditions, the himness talks about. For the good of others, it is always others center. God's love is always poured out on others regardless of their merit or response. Love is given freely. And we're going to see that one of the, one of the subcategories of God's love, we're going to talk about tonight is his grace. And so love is given freely, not because we earn it or deserve it or merit it. It's not because God saw something that was lovely in us and that drew him to us. That's not it. He gives his love regardless of merit or response. God's love is not earned. God's love is not okay. If you do this, then I'll love you. You've heard it said, I'm sure God could not love you anymore and he could not love you any less. So I think that's a really great definition of God's love. Let me describe some of the facets of it. Some of the things God loves, God's love includes. And these sometimes in different, different authors will take these as separate attributes of God. But they can be kind of brought under the umbrella of God's love. His love includes for one thing, his benevolence. Benevolence means that he is concerned for the welfare of others. He is concerned that needs be met. And that's where the unselfish giving side of love comes in. Even the fact that God so loved the world that he gave his son is an evidence of his benevolence. But we're going to see some other evidences of his benevolence tonight as well. So God's love includes his benevolence, his concern for the welfare of others that needs be met. It also includes secondly God's grace. And God's grace is that aspect of him, that evidence of his love where he deals with us not based on our merit, but based on our need. And he deals with us from his generosity and goodness, not based on what we deserve, but based on our need. And his love flows out to us not because we deserve anything from him, but because he is good and because he is generous and because he sees our need. And that moves him, his love moves him to meet those needs. That's grace. And then it also includes his mercy. Now, mercy is often defined much too narrowly. It's often defined just as God withholding his judgment. And that's a part of it, but it's not all of it. It's not near all of it. Mercy, really, both the New Testament and Old Testament words both have to do with tenderheartedness. Mercy means that God is tenderhearted, that He has loving compassion. The scriptures talk about him taking pity on us. And it's not pity that is removed, that looks from afar. Mercy is recognizing a need and being moved to meet it. That's mercy. That's tender compassion. Being moved to reach out and meet a need that touches your heart very deeply. That's what mercy is. And then it also includes fourthly. His love includes his long suffering. His long suffering. And this is the sense in which God's love includes the fact that He withholds judgment and He continues to offer grace and mercy to us and salvation. Over time, over long periods of time, God is long suffering. The word kind of describes itself, doesn't it? He suffers long with us. He does not give up on us. And rather than quickly judging us, He restrains His judgment and continues to offer grace and mercy to us. All of those things, and many more, I'm sure, can be subcategories of God's love or descriptions of His love. And so that's all what love means. That's all under the definition, the meaning of love. So you can see, and I feel a little frustrated tonight because we're just barely scratching the surface. There's so much depth. You remember what Paul said in Ephesians 3? He wanted the Ephesians to know the depth and breadth and height of God's love. You know, all the dimensions of it, and it stretches in so many different ways. So it's hard to grasp it all. But before we move on to some of the scriptures, the biblical teaching, any comment or question about just the idea, the meaning of God's love, what all includes? Okay? All right. Let's look at some of the evidences of it in the Bible. First of all, in Isaiah 49, Isaiah 49 verses 14 to 16. I really have to kind of lead up to this because the context is so powerful here in Isaiah 49. What Isaiah has been talking about? He's like all the other prophets who pronounce God's judgment on God's people for their sin and disobedience and rebellion. But he also offers a bright future that God will restore them, that although he must judge them because of their sin, he will in the future restore them. And it is that restoration of Israel that is in view in Isaiah 49. Look at verse 8. Let's begin there. This is what the Lord says. In the time of my favor, I will answer you and in the day of salvation, I will help you. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances. Now what's being talked about here is the future kingdom. This is very common in the Old Testament. God's people are going to go into judgment. Their land is going to be absolutely devastated. But someday in the future, he's going to bring them back to their land and establish his rule among them, his kingdom. And so that's what this is talking about. It's talking about when Christ will come back to the earth to set up his millennial rule, his thousand year rule on this earth, with Israel at the center of God's government, Jerusalem as its capital. And that's when Israel is going to be restored. There is nothing in history, not the return from the exile, not 1948. When Israel was made a state or a nation, there's nothing that fulfills everything that the Bible talks about by the restoration of Israel. That's yet to come. It's still future. And notice how he describes it. Verse 9. To say to the captives, come out and to those in darkness, be free. They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them besides springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar, some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan. Shout for joy you have and rejoice you earth, burst into song you mountains for the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones. That's a common theme in the prophets where God restores his people, rules over them and they are now back in their land. All their needs met, all their enemies gone. Everything is just as God wants it to be. Now that is the lead end to the expression of God's love for them and how it can never end. Look at verse 14. But Zion says, Israel's response is, the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. Now why would Israel say that in Isaiah's day? What are they facing in Isaiah's day? Invasion. They are facing invasion by the Assyrians. Isaiah prophesied the captivity of the northern kingdom and even the invasion of Assyria into the southern kingdom of Judah, although they would not take Judah captive. Babylon would do that later, but they are facing invasion. They are facing judgment. And so as Israel is looking at what's right in front of them, they say, God's forsaken us. God's left us. He doesn't love us anymore, right? And notice Isaiah's response. Verse 15. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? I mean, think of that. The comparison with a mother's love. Can a mother not have compassion on her child and notice how the verse ends, though she may forget, I will not forget you. What the prophet does and what God says is he takes the greatest expression of human love that we can imagine. And that is a mother for her baby. Is it possible for a mother to do harm to her, to her own baby, to forget her own baby, to forget her own child? Is it possible? Well, we would think not that the greatest human love we can imagine, but it does happen occasionally. And that's why the prophet says, those she may, those she may forget. And there are reasons why mothers can forget their children or turn against their children, those she may forget, though that might rarely happen in the human experience, it will never happen with me. He says, I will never forget you. For 16, here's why see, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands and your walls are ever before me. As a nation, as a people, they are engraved on the palms of his hands. They are ever before him and his and the walls of the city, the place where Israel calls home, their capital is ever before him. You see, God can never forget because of his great compassion and love for his people. It is stronger than the greatest human love we can imagine. What an amazing description of the love of God, the love of God. But here's more. Look at Isaiah 63, Isaiah 63, 9. In all their distress, and he's talking about Israel again, in all their distress, he too was distressed. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy, he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. In this passage, he's talking about how God had shown his love to Israel in delivering them from their enemies. First of all, from Egypt, then in the period of the judges, when they would rebel against him, and then they would be, you know, other nations would invade their land and destroy their crops. And they would cry out to God and God would send them a deliverer, a judge, because he loved them so much. This is what he's talking about. In their distress, he too was distressed. And there you see that very tender side of love, that mercy, that feeling, that pity and compassion. When God's people are distressed, he is also distressed. And because of that, in his love and mercy, he redeemed them, lifted them up and carried them. So again, God's amazing love. Look at Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31. Verses 3 and 4. Again, nobody had a stronger message of judgment than Jeremiah. And he was ministering to the southern kingdom of Judah. He was ministering to them at the very time that Babylon was invading them. He saw all three invasions of Babylon into the land. And at the very last one, he was left with some of the older poor people, as most of the nation was taken captive. It was just an incredible story, the story of Jeremiah. He's an amazing story. But this is what God says. Verse 2, this is what the Lord says. The people who survived the sword will find favor in the wilderness. I will come to give rest to Israel. In verse 3. The Lord appeared to us in the past saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again. And you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again, you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful. He's speaking there again of that restoration when when Christ will come to set up his kingdom. And Israel will be restored to her favored place as God's people. The restoration of Israel after strong judgment and exile and all of the rest, God will bring them back. Why? Because his love is everlasting. His kindness is unfailing. He cannot stop loving his people. A couple of New Testament passages you're well aware of. These are familiar. John 3, 16. Don't let this one become too familiar though. For God so loved the world. What's the extent of his love? What's the depth of his love? What's the height of his love? What's the breadth of his love? He's so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. And we become so accustomed to that. It's the core of the gospel. And we hear it so often that we just kind of let it roll off of us. And if we ever do that and we do, I do it. Maybe it would be wise for us to think of what it would be like to give up your child for someone who hates you. Now, let that sink in sometimes and you begin to understand the depth, height, breadth of God's love. How amazing it is. He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And then that familiar passage in 1 John, chapter 4 describing the love of God. 1 John 4, verse 7. So just a few of the verses, there are many others that talk about the love of God. You know, you're thinking of some of them right now. Romans 8, what can separate us from the love of God? Nothing can separate us from his love. The Ephesians 3 passage I mentioned. So many others that describe the amazing nature of God's love. It is again a multifaceted jewel. Before I move on to talk about some of how it's manifested to us, any comments or questions? Yes, John? Yes. Yes. The concept one of only son or only begotten son is one of a kind, unique. Yes. And that is literally what the word begotten means. Only begotten does not mean he was born in the sense of birth like we think. It is a phrase which talks about his nature of being unique. One and only is a good way to translate it. Yes. Okay. John? Okay. Go ahead. Are you ready? Okay. I think I know what you're struggling with. It's something that a lot of us struggle with if we just take that phrase out of the context of the book itself. If you just look at that one phrase, it sounds like anybody that has a loving nature is going to heaven. They're born of God. So just love people. Just be real loving person and that'll get you to heaven. Right? I mean, it's a wet sounds. But that's not what he's saying. In the context of the book, you have to understand the reason why first John was written. John tells us at the end of the book these things have are written under you that believe in the name of the son of God that may have life. You know, might know that the son of God and he says these things. I've written to you that you may know that you know him. Okay. That you know that you have eternal life. The reason for the book is to give us certain tests that we can apply to our lives so that we can have objective verification or confirmation of the fact that we do have eternal life. They're kind of the evidences of salvation. If you really want to kind of look at your life to see, is there really evidence of new life that I really am born again that I really do know the Lord? What does that look like? What are the evidences of that? And John gives us several. One of them is a desire to obey the word of God in chapter two that we keep his word. He says another is that we have the Holy Spirit and the evidence of the Holy Spirit in us for John 4.13 talks about that one. So there are several of these evidences, but one of the most familiar ones in the book starts in chapter two is your love life. Okay. Do you love brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you love other believers? Do you have a family kinship with other believers? And then he says, if you're really born of God, you don't love the world system and you don't live by its principles of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and proud of life. So who we love and what we love is a manifestation of where a heart is. So in that context, what he's saying here is one of the evidences that you're really born of God is that you do love the people of God. They're your people. You fit there. You don't fit in the world. You fit with God's people. That's who you love. That's who you want to be with. That's where you have a kindred spirit. And it's in that sense that he's saying you know you're born of God is one of the evidences of your salvation when that kind of love is is in you because he's talking about loving one another in this passage. That is a very perceptive question. Okay. Anything else? All right. Let me give you and this again, I just feel so frustrated because we're just barely scratching the surface. Manifestation of his love. How is it manifested to us so many different ways? One way that God shows his love is by doing good impartially to all people. A theologians call it God's common grace. In other words, it's God's good gifts given indiscriminately impartially to everyone regardless of whether or not they even know him. That's one of the evidences of God's love, his great love and probably the one of the one of the best at least passages on this is Matthew 5. So just flip over there real quick to Matthew 5 and we'll see that God's love is demonstrated in this passage. He's doing good impartially to all to everyone. Friend and foe, child and enemy. Matthew 5 beginning of verse 43. You have heard that it was said, Jesus is speaking, the sermon on the mount, you've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Why? Why would he tell us to do that? Well, verse 45, that you may be children of your father in heaven. Paul's right there for just a moment. We've dealt with this before, but it's very similar to the question John just asked moment ago. He's not saying that you become children of God by loving your enemies. And that's the liberal approach to the sermon on the mount that Jesus was teaching us how we get the heaven. No, he's not. He's teaching us how we are to represent our father in this world. And so when he says, when he says that you may be children of your father in heaven, what he's talking about is so that you will truly represent him. There will be a family likeness. People will be able to see you are a child because you look like God. You're acting like God. This is not normal for people. It's not normal for people to love their enemies. But if we do love our enemies, we look a lot like God. There's a family resemblance. And in that sense, we're showing ourselves to be his children. Now notice how God does this. If you read on what Jesus says that you may be children of your father in heaven, verse 45, he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sins reign on the righteous and the unrighteous. True, isn't it? I mean, that's observable. That's verifiable. God sends rain on people who are absolutely wicked. God gives sunshine to people who are evil. Not just his friends, not just those who love him. This is a part of the expression of God's kindness, mercy, grace, his love, his common grace, grace that is showered upon all people. Okay. Now, verse 46, the application of you love those who love you. What reward will you get? Are not even tax collectors doing that? And even the worst of people can do even that. They can love just people who love them. If that's all there is to love, even the worst pagans can do that. And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect. Therefore is your heavenly father's perfect. And we talked about this passage when we talked about the perfection of God. But the point here is that one of the ways God evidences his love is that common grace, that doing good impartially to all people, to all people regardless of their response to him. That is an amazing evidence of God's love. There's so much there. You know, it is those very people so many times who shake their fist in the face of God and say, why do you allow this? Why are there tragedies? Why is there evil in the world? And the very fact they can breathe an evidence of God's love. The very fact they're alive, have anything to eat, have any sunshine, anything is an evidence of God's love. And yet, we don't recognize that tremendous expression of God's love. Remember the story of one of the first cosmonauts that was sent up by the Russians and got up into space, looks up a little window of the spacecraft and says, this is proof there's no God. I'm a pirate anyway, I also been, I don't see him anywhere. I remember here in one preacher one time said, if he'd taken that space suit off and stepped outside the spacecraft, he would have seen God real quick. He would have seen God. He would have known there was a God. You know, that's like an ant, like a little ant crawling out of an ant hill out here in front of the church looking around and saying, there is no Chicago. I don't see it anywhere. God is so much bigger than our puny little senses can grasp and his love is expressed in such incredible ways even to people who look around and say, I don't see him anywhere. And everything they have around them is an evidence of God's love impartially doing good to all. But one of the greatest manifestations of his love is the giving of his son, right? We know that. John 316, I think this one's on the screen for God so loved the world that he gave his one or only son. We saw that verse before. Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. What an amazing manifestation of God's love. You know, Paul's talking about the fact that that's so far beyond human love. When we think of laying down our life for someone else, we might do it. Paul says for someone who's good. For righteous person, but God did that for people who were sinners who were rebellious against him. That's the measure of God's love. A third manifestation, God suffers with and for the objects of his love. We looked at this verse earlier, but it's back on the screen for you. In all their distress, he too was distressed. God suffers with the hurts of his people and Psalm 103, 13. Psalm 103 is one of my favorite chapters. As a father has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Here's a comparison of God's love with again, one of the best examples of human love that we can think of. Isaiah compared it to a mother's love for a baby and here the Psalmist compares it to a father's compassion for his child. And in the same way that a father has that compassion for a child, God suffers with and for the objects of his love. When he sees us fail, it hurts him. I had a parent say to me recently when their child did something that grieved them, I didn't think my heart could break anymore. And when I heard that, it's just... You know, there's a depth to which your love goes for a child. And you think you have exhausted the ability to hurt anymore when they fail. But it happens again or they go deeper and... Well, God has that same love, that parent love as a father has compassion on his children. So God loves us. And it grieves him deeply when we fail. That's an amazing manifestation of his love. The parent manifestation of his love is his hatred of evil. The reason God hates evil is because it is the enemy of those he loves in a special way. Psalm 45 verse 7 says that you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, is set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. And so, a messianic prophecy is actually quoted in Hebrews referring to Christ. So, it's referring to the Messiah, to Jesus, hatred of evil. God hates evil because he knows it's our worst enemy. He knows it will destroy us. And he loves us too much to see that happen to us. And so, he hates evil. He hates wickedness. And then let me give you one more. And that is disciplining his children. Proverbs 3 verse 12 on the screen because the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father, the son, he delights in. And that is quoted in Hebrews 12, which is the more expanded passage on God's love being demonstrated in his discipline. You know, love, all of us who have been parents know that love is demonstrated in discipline. It's not the only way to demonstrate it. But it is demonstrated in discipline. How many of us have told our children, you know, this hurts me more to hurt you or I'm doing this so that you will learn this. You will grow, you will understand, you will learn how bad that choice is. You know, in so many ways we've tried to tie discipline to our love. And we're not perfect at that. We failed at his parents. But God disciplines us as his children because he loves us. Because he does not want to see us destroy ourselves. And so he disciplines. He corrects those that he loves. And Hebrews 12 talks about that quite extensively. Those are just some of the manifestations of God's love. And there are many of them. I'm not going to even begin to talk about the questions regarding his love because there are a couple of questions that we need to deal with that that throws some confusion into the idea of God's love. The Bible sometimes seems to indicate that God stops loving or God hates certain people. And so we need to deal with those questions, which we will do next week or we're out of time tonight. I don't want to get started into that. But before we go real quickly, any questions that can be answered in 15 seconds or less? The Muslim puts the Muslim leaves a such an example. The locals that leave are they are killed. Yes. That they love the Muslim people. They love the Muslim people and they dare to act as a group. Yes. And they get killed for it. Yes. And I wonder about that here. It is so true, Audrey, that believers who are converted to Christ from Muslim backgrounds many times pay for it with their lives and love God enough and love their own people enough to try to reach them. And that is very humbling, isn't it? Convicting. Okay. The love of God is like the hymn writer said, no way to exhaust it. No way to write everything there is to say about it or say everything there is to say about it. It's an amazing topic. All right. Let's pray and then we'll go. Father, thank you for your great love for us and it is such a multifaceted jewel. We've just looked at a few glistening sides of it this evening and we've only begun to understand how to admire it, how to admire you and your love for us. May we relish your love, may we cherish your love and may we not violate your love. May we not choose that which you hate because it's our enemy because you love us. And may as John instructs us may we love each other as you've loved us. Or a lifetime challenge that is father help us to do it more like you in Jesus name. Amen.