God's Heart is Still Loving

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Warren Brosi
April 28, 2024
Dominant Thought: The loyal love of the LORD lasts forever.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to understand the LORD’s loyal love is multidimensional.
I want my listeners to feel encouraged by the LORD’s lasting love.
I want my listeners to extend loyal love in their relationships through generosity and faithfulness.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13.8). We continue to look at what has stayed the same and over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at this passage from Exodus 34.6-7 that highlights God’s name or His character, His heart. “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” To review: The LORD is compassionate like a loving parent. The LORD is gracious giving favor when we don’t deserve it. The LORD is slow to anger. He is patient with us to give us time to repent. Today, we look at the LORD’s abounding love. We have chosen to follow the Bible Project’s lead and describe this character trait as loyal love.
I want to give credit to the Bible Project for their podcast series on the character of God found in Exodus 34.6-7 along with the videos that highlight these five character traits. You can find those teachings online (podcast: https://bibleproject.com/podcast/most-quoted-verse-bible/ and here for the videos: https://bibleproject.com/explore/category/character-of-god-series/).
Some calculate this word for loyal love is found almost 250 times in the Hebrew Bible. About half of those times are in the Psalms.
The word translated as “love” in Exodus 34.6-7, is a difficult word to comprehend in English. The Hebrew word sound like “Khesed.” There is no one English word to corresponds to it. Over the years, Bible translators have rendered this Hebrew word as: love, kindness, lovingkindness, mercy, and steadfast love. Tim Mackie with the Bible project offers “loyal love” as a possible understanding of this word. In our time together, I’d like to highlight four dimensions of the LORD’s loyal love.
First, the LORD’s loyal love is…Relational.
God’s loyal love is relational as it is based on a covenant relationship. Most people do not talk about covenants any more. We still have one covenant relationship, marriage between one man and one woman. The bride and groom stand before witnesses and make promises to love, cherish, honor one another and forsake all others and be faithful (we’ll look at that word next week), so long as you both shall live. And then, the preacher says something like, If you promise, then say, “I do.”
We’ve seen in Exodus 19-34 this picture of God entering this relationship with His people. He gave them the 10 commandments in Exodus 20. Then in Exodus 24.3, the people say in one voice, “Everything the Lord has said, we will do.” This promises lasted days…maybe.
The LORD’s loyal love is relational.
In 1 Samuel 20, we see loyal love in the friendship of David and Jonathan. Jonathan is the prince, the son of King Saul. David was in service to King Saul, but Saul has grown jealous of David.
In 1 Samuel 20.5-7, David visits with Jonathan about asking him to cover for him at the New Moon feast. Essentially, David is thinking, “Your dad doesn’t like me. I want to see if my thinking is correct. Tomorrow at the feast, I’m going to skip out. You tell your dad, ‘David asked my permission to go back to to Bethlehem for a sacrifice with his whole family.’ If your dad, Saul, is fine with my excuse for being gone, then I know I’m safe. However, if he loses his temper, then I’ll know he intends to harm me.”
Then in 1 Samuel 20.8, David says, “As for you [Jonathan], show kindness [Khesed] to your servant, for you have brought him into covenant with you before the LORD....” David says, we have a special friendship as brothers. Show loyal love to me by seeing if your dad really wants to harm me or not.
Here is Jonathan’s response in 1 Samuel 20.13, “But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father. But show me steadfast love [Khesed] of the LORD, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever...” (1 Samuel 20.14-15, ESV).
Jonathan supported his friend David even at the cost of the throne. Think about it. If your dad is the king, then who’s in line to be the next king? The prince or Jonathan was in line to be the next king. We’ll unpack it more next month, but the kingdom is moving to David. Jonathan was caught between a paranoid father who is king and his best friend who will be the next king. Jonathan and David both maintain a loyal love for one another. Later on, David takes one of Jonathan’s sons who was crippled and invites him to dine at his table (see 2 Samuel 9.3).
Second, the LORD’s loyal love is…Generous.
In Exodus 34.6, we read “abounding in love.” The word can mean plentiful, enough, many. In other words, God’s loyal love is generous.
As we look at the loyal love of God in Exodus, we only encounter it four times: twice in our text of Exodus 34.6-7, and also in Exodus 15.13 and Exodus 20.6.
In the song celebrating their rescue from Egypt, Moses and his sister Miriam sing in Exodus 15. They sang earlier how God’s anger destroyed the Egyptians (Exodus 15.7). Now listen to them sing about God’s abundant, unfailing love.
Exodus 15:13 NIV
In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.
Dallas Willard, To love is “to will the good of another” (quoted in The Good and Beautiful God, p. 119).
Third, the LORD’s loyal love is...Protective.
In Exodus 34.7, we read, “maintaining love for thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin.”
The word for maintain is also described as keeping or protecting. It could mean to watch over or guard a vineyard (Job 27.18), a fortress (Nahum 2.1).
The word “forgiving” can mean to take away or lift up. In the Hebrew language, it looks like “nasa.” NASA, who sent the first Americans into space and the moon may may provide a visual illustration of God how far God can take away our sins.
Psalm 103:7–12 ESV
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
John 1:29 NIV
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
All possible categories of sins are highlighted in the list: wickedness, rebellion, and sin. God forgives all types of sin.
The prophet Joel leans on these words from Exodus when he calls the people repentance. Listen to his words in Joel 2.
Joel 2:12–13 NIV
“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
The LORD’s loyal love is protective. He protects and keeps it for thousands and takes away our sins.
Fourth, the LORD’s loyal love is...Enduring.
In the giving of the 10 commandments, we encounter the loyal love of the LORD. It is similar to our theme text of Exodus 34.6-7.
Exodus 20:5–6 NIV
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
The LORD’s loyal love endures for thousands of generations to those who love Him and keep His commands. Remember the guilty are punished to the third and the fourth and the loyal love is given to thousands.
In the book, God Has a Name, by John Mark Comer, he gives a simple illustration of a see-saw of God’s Mercy and Justice with a reference to James 2.13, “mercy triumphs over judgment.”
In Psalm 23.6, we read, “Surely goodness and mercy [Khesed] shall follow me all the days of my life...” The LORD’s loyal love is enduring.
The loyal love of the LORD lasts forever.
The beloved disciple John wrote a letter to early Christians we call 1 John. In 1 John 4, he describes the type of love God is and the love Christ followers are to live.
Read 1 John 4.7-21. As we look over these verses on God’s love. We see all four dimensions of God’s love displayed in Jesus. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4.9). The LORD’s love is relational and generous. He sent to us His one and only Son. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4.10). In 1 John 4.13, John writes, “He has given us of His Spirit.” The LORD’s love is protective and enduring.
As we look over this final text, we see three responses to the loyal love of the LORD.
1—Remember God loved you first (1 John 4.19). The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34.6). Remember, our LORD loves us. He loved us first.
2—Remain in God’s love (1 John 4.16). The NIV says, “Rely on God’s love.” Remain or abide are better understandings. Why would you want to leave our Father’s love. Stay close to Him. Talk with Him. Spend time with Him and His people.
3—Reach out to others in love (1 John 4.21). Those who love God will love their brothers and sisters. Earlier John encourages the Christ followers, “Let us love one another for love comes from God” (1 John 4.7). While people cannot see God, we can give the world a good picture of our loyal loving Father by how we treat one another.
Last fall, Michael took a group of students down to Ozark Christian College for a Tuesday tour. My wife, Beth, and our son, Walker were on the tour. During their time on campus, one of my friends, Fred Hansen, saw Beth and Walker. Fred and I have been friends for 24 years. We met and studied together in seminary. He preached at Blooming Grove Christian Church outside of Palmyra, IL and I was preaching here in Berlin. Fred and I have kept in touch over the years, but we have had little opportunity to visit with our families or meet each other’s children. On that campus tour, Fred came up to Walker and asked him to stand up. Fred gave Walker a hug and said, “You don’t know me and I don’t know you. But I know your father. And because I love your father, I love you.” Fred recounted that story a few months later during a workshop for the Preaching and Teaching Convention. I was in the classroom as Fred told that story. As he told the story of loving my son because he loved me, tears came to my eyes, too. Fred, then said, “There’s some kids that I have never met, but I would die for them because I love their fathers.” That’s a picture of what God’s loyal love is like. It’s a family love based on a covenant relationship. It’s a relational, generous, protective, enduring love. May it flow from God’s heart into our hearts and to everyone we meet for His glory.
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