The Attributes of Goodness (3)

We've been looking at what we call the attributes of God. Those are the characteristics of God, those qualities that the Bible describes. As it talks about God and who he is and what he does, what he's like to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and understanding of who God is. And so as we piece together what the Bible teaches about God himself, then our understanding is filled and at least broadened to understand a little bit more about who God is. We've been looking at attributes of greatness. Those are attributes that describe the awesomeness, the greatness of God. Attributes qualities that we do not share, things like God is omniscient, He has all knowledge, He's omnipresent, He's everywhere present at the same time. He's omnipotent, He has all power, He's immutable, He never changes. All of those kinds of attributes are attributes of greatness that we do not share with Him. They set Him apart from us. But in the last couple of studies we've talked about attributes of goodness. Many theologians call these attributes of goodness. And these are attributes that we at least to some degree can share with God. We've looked at the attribute of holiness and the attribute that God is true. Last time we talked about the fact that God is love and we spent most of our time on that particular quality or characteristic of God. Probably would be good for us just to review a bit there because we're going to finish that attribute tonight. I don't want to jump right into the point where we left off and kind of begin with a jagged edge like that. So let me just remind you of the definition of love. When we talk about God's love, we defined it this way. 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 the good of the good of others. So that's a lot to put into definition. But we took that kind of word by word and described what that meant about God's love, what it meant for us. We saw that God's love is so broad, so all encompassing. Paul speaks in Ephesians 3 about praying that we understand the height and the depth and the breadth and the length of God's love. All the dimensions of God's love are so incredible. We found that there are lots of other things that can be seen along with God's love. It includes His benevolence, the fact that He is concerned for our welfare and our well-being. It also includes His grace, the fact that He deals with us not on the basis of merit, but on the basis of need. It also includes His mercy, that He's tenderhearted, He has loving compassion. It includes His long suffering, that He withholds judgment and continues to offer grace and salvation. We looked at all of that last time. Those things are all included in the love of God. And then we looked at some of the demonstrations or the manifestation of His love. His love is manifested in what many call His common grace, that is He does good impartially to all. As Jesus said in Matthew 5, He sends His reign on the just and the unjust. Impartially to all, God showers some blessings and that's a part of His love for all of mankind. We saw that another manifestation of His love was in the giving of His Son. The fact that He gives His Son for us. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It's manifested in His suffering with and for the objects of His love. We saw a tremendous verse in Isaiah 63 that talks about the fact that God suffers with His people. When they hurt, He hurts. And that's an outflow of God's love. His love is also manifested in His hatred of evil because it's the enemy of those that He loves. The Bible says that He hates evil. And then finally we saw that it's manifested in the disciplining of His children. God disciplines those He loves as children. And so the love of God is very deep. It's very high. It's very wide. It's very broad. The dimensions of God's love are infinite. And it's you almost feel like you're just scratching the surface a little bit when you talk about the love of God. Where we left off last time, and the reason I wanted to kind of lead into this is because this is a difficult question concerning the love of God that didn't want to start with this. But there are some questions regarding His love that a couple of passages raise. And we need to deal with those and try to understand them. The first one is found in the book of Hosea. And so if you'll turn to the book of Hosea, chapter 9. Hosea is the first of the minor prophets right after the book of Daniel. So Ezekiel, Daniel, and then Hosea, chapter 9. Where there's an interesting statement made by the prophet about God actually God makes this statement about Himself. Hosea, chapter 9 verse 15. Look at this. Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them. All their leaders are rebellious. Okay, now help me out here. First of all, who is he talking about? Who's God referring to here? Who are His people in the Old Testament? Israel. Speaking of Israel. Okay, do you remember what was in Gilgal? Do you remember anything about that in the Old Testament? It was one of the worship centers that was established in Israel when they went into idolatry. When Israel separated from Judah and left the worship of God in the temple in Jerusalem, they formed a worship center. One of them was in Gilgal. God is saying here because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, in other words because of their idolatry, because of their false worship, I hated them. I will drive them out of my house because of their sinful deeds. I will no longer love them. Is that passage telling us that God hates some people or that He can love you at some point and then stop loving you? Sure sounds like it doesn't it. The reason why this passage is so difficult is because we have difficulty in the 21st century in the Western world understanding the mindset, the way people thought in Israel, in the Old Testament. They didn't think in the same way we do, didn't think in the same terms and often the terms love and hate were used differently than what we would use them today. We use love and hate in terms of relationship or in terms of feeling. And that was not how the ancient Israelites always use those words. In fact, sometimes they would use them of choices. So when God says I love them, He is making a choice to move toward them or to bless them when He says I hate them, He's making a choice to judge them. Now why does He say He's hating them here? What have they done? Because of the rebellion, all the leaders of rebellion, He says, middle of the verse, verse 15 says, because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house, I will no longer love them. If you'll skip down to verse 17, you'll see what it means that God is no longer going to love them, that He hates them. He's basically saying this, verse 17, my God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him. They will be wanderers among the nations. Now okay, that sheds a little light on what it means that God will no longer love them, God hates them now. It's not that His affections have changed toward them. It's not that His relationship necessarily has changed toward them. It simply means that He's going to judge them. He's rejecting them in the sense that He's going to judge them. He's going to send them into captivity. That's what the message of the prophets is all about. Jose is one of those prophets that gives this message of God's judgment on His people because of their idolatry and because of their sin and the rebelliousness against Him. So God's going to judge them. He's going to send them into captivity. That's what it means that God now hates them or God no longer loves them. It's not in the terms that we think of those two words, but God is rejecting them, sending them into judgment into captivity. By the way, what is the overall message of the book of Jose? Do you remember? Do you remember Jose actually lives out this message in his own marriage? Come on, help me out a little bit. You're a little sleepy tonight. Forgiveness, yes. Forgiveness is a part of it. Restoration. That's right, Jim. Forgiveness, yes. Aha. How did Jose in his own personal experience illustrate God's love for His people? Do you remember what happened to him? Took the wife back. A wife who had been unfaithful to him, right? And had even born children out of wedlock with someone else. The whole purpose of the book, which is lived out in Jose's experience, is to demonstrate God's unfailing love for His people. That's the whole purpose of the book. So you can't take two verses out of a book that is teaching us, God will never cease loving His people. And all of a sudden say, well, God doesn't love His people anymore. It's clear that in the context, the love and hate here are spoken of in terms of, I will judge them. I will reject them in the sense that I will send them into captivity. But that's not going to last. In fact, if you'll go back to Jose at chapter two, look back at chapter two. He's talking about in chapters one and two, basically, Jose's own experience demonstrates that God will judge His people, but then look at verse 19. He's talking about, I'm going to bring them back. And in verse 19, he says, when I bring you back, I'm going to betroth you. I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you in righteousness and justice in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord. And he talks about how he will bless them in their land. Verse 23, I will plant her for myself in the land. I will show my love to the one I called not my loved one. I will say to those not my people, you are my people. And they will say you are my God. So the whole book is describing God's love is unfailing for his people. Now because of their rebellion and disobedience for a period of time, he must judge them. He's going to send them into captivity, but that's not going to last forever. He's going to woo them back and betroth them to himself again proving that his love is everlasting, that it's eternal, that it can never fail. So the love and hate in Hosea 9 is not his affections have cooled toward them. His relationship has stopped with them. It is a temporary suspension of his blessing so that he can judge them for their disobedience and then he will woo them back in his love and compassion. Does that make sense in the context of the whole book then? Okay, hope so. See, this is the kind of verse that people pull out and say, okay, the Bible says God hates people. Not really, not in the sense that we use that term. In the context of the whole book, it's talking about a temporary suspension of blessing in order to judge his people and then his love is renewed as he brings them back. Good mother. Okay. The correction doesn't feel good and it doesn't feel like love, does it? But then you know in the long term that love is there. It's a good analogy because God uses that of himself. He disciplines us as a father or parent disciplines his children. Hebrews 12 and it's because he loves us. Doesn't feel like it. In fact, Hebrews says no chasinging for the present time seems good. Doesn't feel good, but it is ultimately for our good. So God even in his chasing is demonstrating love, isn't it? Like a parent. Good point, Tommy. Okay, anything else? Yes. That's fine. New people are free to ask questions. Initially, she did not, but he wooed her back. If in chapters two and three, you kind of get that process of how he brought her back and won her back to himself. And ultimately she did. Yes, ultimately she did want to be back with him. But in the beginning, she was not seeing that. Yeah. And that becomes a clear illustration of God's persistent love for his people. That even though at first they spurn his, his wooing of them, he finally wins them back. That, that sense of love is, is there. Good question. Okay, anything else before we move on to one other difficult passage and it's also in the prophets. All right, Malachi one, Malachi one of the very last prophet in the Old Testament. This is one that really stumps folks sometimes in Malachi one. Malachi begins his book on this note, an oracle, he says. An oracle is a prophecy of doom or judgment. And so you know this is not going to be a very happy message through the book, an oracle, the word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi. And this is the way it starts verse two. I have loved you says the Lord, but you ask, how have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, the Lord says, yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. And I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals. I have loved Jacob. I have hated Esau again. It sounds like God is saying some people I like, some people I hate. Okay, really sounds like that. We have a New Testament commentary on this passage. Do you remember where it is? The New Testament passage it refers back to this one. Kind of a difficult passage, but it helps explain what's being talked about here with the love hate thing. It's Romans 9. There I even tread into Romans 9, but this passage is quoted there. Let me say this before we look at it's it's use in Romans 9. Basically again God is saying in the context of Malachi and in the history of the Old Testament in the story of Jacob and Esau. God is talking about his choice of Jacob to be the son of Isaac through whom the blessing would come. You know, God had promised blessings to Abraham. And those blessings came through Isaac, not Ishmael. And in Isaac's children they came through Jacob and not Esau. And loving Jacob hating Esau again is used in that Jewish Old Testament mindset, not of affections, not of feelings, but of choice. Chose one son through whom the blessing would come did not choose the other, rejected the other. And that's what Romans 9 says in Romans 9 verse 10. Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one in the same father, our father Isaac, yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose and election might stand simply the fact he chose one, not the other. Not by works, but by him who calls she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written. He quotes from Malachi one Jacob. I have loved, but Esau, I hated. So we're not talking here about love, hate in the sense of feelings. We're talking about God chose one of the two through whom his blessings would come. It could not be both. It was one line through whom the blessings would come. And it would be his to send it Jacob's 12 sons, which would become the 12 tribes of Israel. And God would bless the nation through Jacob. That's what the love hate thing is talking about there. Okay. Comments or questions about that before we move on to an application of the love of God. Okay. All right. So those those difficulties aside. And I think we need to understand that within the cultural mindset of the way in Israelite would use those terms in the Old Testament. Those difficulties aside, the Bible teaches that God loves all people and God's love is boundless in its dimensions. It is eternal and infinite. Now how should we apply this truth, the application of this truth? What do you think? How does God's love apply to us? What does it mean to you? Okay. Certainly we're as sinners, we are saved by God's grace, which is an evidence of his love that he gives us not what we deserve, but he just freely of his own love offers us salvation. Salvation is motivated by his love. Yeah. Yes, we do need to get to know him. And part of knowing him is understanding more about his love isn't it? Again, like Paul prayed for the Ephesians that he would long for them to know the height, depth, and breadth and width of God's love. All the dimensions of it. Yes, we do in order to understand God's love for us and how that ought to be manifested out as we have to step outside ourselves and focus on the other person. Really that's what love is all about. It is a giving, a selfless giving, sacrificial giving for the good of another person. That's God's love for us and certainly to be our love for others. In fact, there's a verse that tells us that specifically, 1 John chapter 4 and verse 11, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another. Okay, and he talks about what that love means. Dear friends, back in verse 7, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves and born of God knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God. This is how God showed his love. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an attaining sacrifice for our sins. So God's love is seen in his actions toward us, selfless, sacrificial giving of his son. And then he says, Dear friends, we ought to love one another the same way. God loves us, we ought to love each other with that same sacrificial, selfless giving. Alright, anything else about the application of this truth to your life and mine, what it means to you? No greater love than this than that of Mandelaide down his life, for his friends, yes. John 15, 13. Jesus said that on the night before he would do that, the night before he gave his life for us. Yeah, that is the greatest expression of love. Ready to move on? Alright, we're going to talk about the fact that God is righteous, another characteristic of God or attribute of God is that he is righteous. Or you might write out beside this word just. He is righteous or just because God's righteousness has to do with his justice, the word justice would be another way of saying it. Now let's talk first of all about the meaning of righteousness, what righteousness means or righteous means. One of the best ways to understand God's righteousness or the fact that he is righteous or just is to link it back to his holiness. Now remember we talked about the fact that God's holiness has to do with his character. God is holy in himself. He is completely separate from sin. He has never experienced, never known, thought, acted, said, anything simple, he's completely separate from sin. God is holy in himself, righteousness or righteousness or justice is the manifestation of his holiness or the outflow of his holiness toward others. God is holy in himself, he's righteous toward others, he is just toward others. So, holiness has to do more with his character, who he is, righteousness has to do justice has to do with how he treats others, how he responds to others, how he interacts with others. So, he's righteous toward us. The book of Psalms talks about the fact that God's law is righteous. In the words God only declares what is right and just. And he himself acts in accordance with that law. Let me just read a few verses for you in Psalm 19, verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord, all of these are characteristics or descriptions of God's word. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure in doing forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold, sweeter than honey and honey from the honeycomb. So, God's word is described in words that we would think of describing him and his character. His word is righteous, his word is pure, his word is right, it is trustworthy, it is perfect. So, everything God commands is right, it is just. It is the expression of his holiness in relationship to us and to others. And all of his actions are in accord with the law that he himself has established. So, if God's judgments, if God's word is righteous altogether, then God himself always acts in line with his word. Whatever his word says, he always acts in line with his word, his actions are also righteous and just. Okay, any questions about what we're talking about here, about the way by virtue of the term that God is righteous or God is just? Any question there? Okay, let's look at some scriptural support. The biblical teaching will begin with Psalm 11, Psalm 11 and verse 7. The Lord is righteous. He loves justice. Now both terms are used here. Upright men will see his face. God himself is righteous, which means he expresses his holiness toward us. He always does what is right. He loves justice. He always does what is just toward us. And I like the way the verse ends. Upright men will see his face. In other words, he gives special access to his presence and his blessing, his smile, if you will, you can see his face. If you live a righteous life, if you are upright, see all those terms kind of go together. Righteous, justice, upright. God loves justice. He is righteous all together. And when we live righteous lives, then we have the privilege of seeing his face in the sense of experiencing his favor. Remember the custom and the Old Testament of someone who appeared in the presence of the King. If he extended his face toward them and extended his scepter toward them, it meant that you were received. You were accepted. If he turned away from you, you are in deep weeds. You are in bad trouble. Things are not going to go well for you. But if he extends his face toward you, then that is his favor. And when we live upright lives, that reflect his justice, his righteousness, then God turns his face toward us. And we experience his blessing. Another passage, Psalm 145 and verse 17. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made, righteous in all of his ways. His commands, his word is righteous and he is righteous in all of his ways. Everything he does is righteous and just. I love this next passage in Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23 is a prophecy of the Messiah, prophecy of Christ in his kingdom. And it comes out of a context of unfaithful shepherds who are giving spiritual leadership. They were supposed to be giving spiritual leadership to Judah. The Southern Kingdom, Jeremiah is offering God's judgment on Judah for announcing God's judgment on them. And he says in verse 1 of chapter 23, If you woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, the clairs of the Lord. Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says to the shepherds who tend my people and he declares his judgment on them. But then notice verse 5, the days are coming, declares the Lord. When I will raise up to David, a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. It is a tremendous passage. It has great hope for Israel in that it talks about their future. They are going to go into captivity to babbel and the nation is going to be decimated. The nation is going to be judged. But then Jeremiah looks off to the future. The days are coming, he says. It is not always going to be like this. The days are coming when the Lord says, I will raise up to David. In other words, from the seed of David, the kingly line, I will raise up a righteous branch out of the stump that David, it looks like the tree has been cut down but there is going to come a branch, a tender shoot out of that stump. He will be righteous. He will be a king. He will reign wisely. He will do what is just and do what is right. In those days, Judah saved Israel and the rest of Israel is the people back to the land. He is talking about the millennial kingdom when Christ will come to rule on this earth. When he is king, his kingdom will be marked by justice. He will always do what is right. That is not always true in human government. Any human government is flawed because there are sinful men and women who are leading that government. Just like us, we are sinful people and we don't always do everything right. But Christ's kingdom, when he comes to rule, he will rule wisely and justly. Everything will be perfect. He will be the righteous king. His name will be called the Lord Our Righteousness. So there it goes beyond just the fact that he is righteous toward us but he bestows upon us his righteousness. It kind of foreshadows the New Testament teaching about Jesus becoming our righteousness. This Messiah, this king will become our righteousness because he died to give us his righteousness. It is an amazing gospel proclamation really in the Old Testament. Any questions about that passage before we look at a couple of New Testament passage, a couple of verses in Romans. Romans 3, this is a tremendous statement about the righteousness of God and how he can be both righteous and yet declare us righteous when we are not. That is the conundrum. How can a righteous God who does all things right declare us righteous when we are not. We are sinners. How can he do that? Paul describes that in beautiful language here in Romans 3, verses 25 and 26. He is talking about the death of Christ, verse 25, where justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus, verse 25. God presented him as a sacrifice of attunement, literally a propitiation, a satisfactory offering. Through faith in his blood, he did this. Now notice, he did this to demonstrate his justice because in his forbearance, he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He is talking about the sins of Old Testament believers. They had not yet been punished. They were kind of being stored up, held in reserve, if you will, until Christ came to pay for those sins. He had left those sins committed before unpunished, verse 26. He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. Now here is the tension. God is just. He always does what is right. So if God is just and is a God of justice, who demands that sin be punished, who demands that the law which condemns us be satisfied, the penalty must be enforced, that is justice. The penalty has to be enforced. The law must rule. But how can he be just and require that the law be satisfied and the sin be punished, not just overlooking it, even though for a time he overlooked Old Testament sins until the time of Christ's death? But how can he be just and still justify us because after all justification means that he declares us righteous? It means that he simply looks at us and says, I consider you righteous now and I'll put that on my record book in heaven. How can he do that if he is just and the sin must be punished? Well how did he do it? Through Jesus, right? Jesus is the one who provided the answer and that is what the whole passage is about. We are justified. We are declared righteous through faith and him, through his redemption, through his propitiation or toning sacrifice, through the sacrifice that he made that was pleasing to God, that satisfied God. Jesus took our sin on him so that God can now look at us and say, I declare you righteous because the penalty has been paid. The law has been satisfied. The condemnation of the law has been met. I'm not just brushing your sin under the rug and looking the other way, like it never happened. God could not be just if he did that. The only way God can be just, which means he must deal with sin and still justify us, which means he declares us righteous, is for someone else to pay the penalty for us. The only way we could ever be saved, the only way we could ever be right with God, is through one who took our place and bore our punishment for us. That is exactly what the gospel is all about. Jesus did that for us. So the justice of God is satisfied. God is right. He is just. He has punished the sin. He has also been able to declare the sinner righteous because Christ took our punishment for us. What an amazing plan of salvation. That is amazing. That is a tremendous passage about the justice of God. He is always right. What about the application of this truth? How would you apply God's righteousness or his justice to us? The fact that he is right, that he is just. What does that mean to you? Good point, Trevor. In God's justice, he doesn't make distinctions between people, does he? No respecter of persons. Yeah. Isn't that at the root of much injustice in human society and government? If you have money, if you have power, if you have position, if you have compulsorings, then you can get justice. Which is not real justice, right? But God does not see people that there is no respecter of persons. Yeah. Pure justice. We have the need to in law that would be the reason that justice is so many people can go back. But they never need that. In the Old Testament? Because they didn't understand what all we understand from the New Testament? Right. You are looking towards the cross. Yes. God was looking toward the cross. The way people were saved in the Old Testament, same way we are saved, really. They just didn't have all the information we have got. But it's like Abraham. The Bible says in Genesis 15, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. In other words, righteousness was placed on his account. He was justified just like we are. But he did that by believing God's promise. God had made a promise to him. Exactly. The people that God did not speak to. Here's where you have to understand that God, first of all, makes himself known in creation. Romans 1, nobody is without excuse because there is enough information in creation to know that there is a God and there's a powerful being when people respond to that in the Old Testament, then they are given more light. The other thing is that the nation of Israel was supposed to be a light and a witness and a testimony to all those other nations. They were supposed to be the evangelists like we're supposed to be today, missionaries that would take the knowledge of the true God to other nations. They miserably failed in that. Many people left this life and went out into eternity in darkness without that light because of Israel's failure. But you know the same thing is true today, isn't it? There are people across the world who never hear about Jesus and that's because of the failure of the church to be as aggressive and getting the gospel out to the world. So, yeah, there were people in the Old Testament who did not have all the light and certainly did not have the knowledge of Christ but like Abraham, when they believed whatever God told them, they were counted righteous. Yeah, well that's a difficult one. I don't know if you watch the creation of evolution debate last night with Ken Ham and Paul and I, the science guy or Bill and I, the science guy. Ken Ham, the creation man. It was an interesting debate, that was a whole lot you could say, but almost through my computer out of the room when Bill and I started talking about, started raising this issue, what about the people who've never heard? You're saying people who don't know what you know or condemned, that's not even the issue of the debate to begin with, but that takes about an hour answer to explain a lot of background from the Bible, which Bill and I has zero knowledge of the Bible. And that was clear last night, it didn't understand anything about the Bible. And so it was frustrating to have that raised in the context of that debate, but it is a question that many people raise and seek to attack the justice of God. Yes. Right. And that's really, it's a good way to end and we have to end because our children are being let loose downstairs, but it's a good way to end to bring us back to the fact that the most important thing for us to do and the easiest thing for us to do, something that all of us can do is to share the gospel, to share the gospel with people. And that's the urgency of doing that is because people are going to die without Christ and up an eternity in hell if we don't share the gospel with them. And so it all comes back to that, doesn't it? Jesus came to give us life and we need to share that gospel message with other people. And you know, if half the energy spent in debating the issue of what happens to people who have never heard, we're spent in trying to reach those people who have never heard, we'd be a lot better off. And so point well taken there. Okay, let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your justice. Thank you for your love for us. And Lord, thank you that your love and your justice meet as Psalms says, righteousness and truth have kissed. Your love and your justice meet in Christ. Thank you, Father, that you loved us enough to send him to satisfy the demands of your justice so that we might be declared righteous. Thank you for the salvation that we have in Christ. May we be eager to share that with others. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.