CLS God is Love Exo 34_6-7

Church Life series

God is Love

Exodus 34:6

Secular:

I have notice a trend on the Television…
Love is a very bizarre “state” as portrayed by Hollywood’s finest actors and actresses
One week… they are “in love”
The next week they are not…
Though professing love… they sleep with someone else…. (powerful story lies usually make it a friend… or their arch enemy)
Crazy…. Tension filled… unreliable… hedonistic love….
All about the moment…
Event the movie that ends well…. Does it?
Intead of something wholesome… founded on something greater…

It is some tawdry emotion

Biblical:

Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

Personal:

Glimpses of glory… Glory is the foundation(holiness)
In glory God declares his holiness… righteousness… his lovingkindness
Love is an expression… not his Essence

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Bridge:

Know the Lover of Your Soul
This is intimacy

Compassion…
Peace…
Joy…
Truth…
Freedom…
Hope…

This is the Love of God….

Body:

How glory, righteousness, and love relate….

Ex 34… holy… righteous… loving

Uniqueness of God- His Holiness

Exodus 15:11 "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
Hanna taught Israel to sing… 1 Samuel 2:2 "There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
Isaiah 40:25 "To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?" says the Holy One.
Quoting J Piper… everything else belongs to a category… we are human, rover is dog, oak is tree, Earth is a planet, Milk Way one of a billion galaxies, Gabriel is an angel, Satan a demon, … but only God is God… holy, utterly different, distinct, unique.
All things apart from God have been created… He is the Creator of all things. All things have beginning… He always has been and always will be… all else is dependant… He is self-sufficient.
Diamonds are valuable because of their rarity and how may conditions have to be right for their creation…
God is of infinite value… for He is most rare… He is one of a kind… can not be made… reproduced… was never created…
Jeremiah 10:6 There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might.
Collectors long for one-of-a-kind or extremely rare things…
Revelation 4:8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME." AND…11 "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honour and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."
God’s worthiness and value… extolled… declared… proclaimed!
Not for some task he completed… but for who God is… His holiness… uniqueness… his perfection… is of immeasurable wealth. Nothing can be compared to Him… for He made everything! Whatever makes there to be value in the thing created it is a million times greater in the Creator!
God’s glory radiates from his holiness… like a floodlight… Isaiah 6:3 And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."
The holiness of God is the absolute unique and infinite value of His being and His majesty. To say that our God is holy is to say that he is of greater value than the sum of all He has created!

Righteousness of God- His Standard

At the root… It is God’s right assessment of His own ultimate value…

God would be ultimately unrighteous and unreliable if He failed to act in line with His own ultimate value… Glory hound?.. Chief End of Man? Of God?
Psalm 143:11 For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.
Psalm 31:1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me… 3 For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me.
Daniel 9:16 "O Lord, in accordance with all Your righteous acts, let now Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. 17 "So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary.”
If God is righteous He must seek and give honour to that which is deemed worthy… God must honour His holiness… and radiate it in His Glory…
Ephesians 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Everything in our salvation is designed to give glory to God and magnify his glory!

"His holiness is the absolute uniqueness and infinite value of his glory. His righteousness is His unswerving commitment always to honour and display that glory. And His all-sufficient glory is honoured and displayed most by his working for us rather than our working for Him. And this is love."-JP

The Love of God – To His Glory

Love is at the heart of God… because is not something He needs to do because of anything lacking within himself… but that his love is the very expression of his perfection and his righteousness… his sovereign grace

For it is more glorious to give than to receive… and God is the most glorious giver of all…
Mark 10:45 "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."… no lacking in God

Jesus didn’t come looking for employees…
Sign up here… Uncle Sam… God Needs You Poster
We do not live to work for God…

We live in Christ to glorify him…
It is an expression… not works
Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favour, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

We have our relationship by faith alone…
What is with Philippians 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;”
Struggle to live commands…. (with Spirit? Apart?)
We can’t lift a finger to contribute to our salvation… but we are called to live in the light of God’s love…
No less demanding… but it is the right motive…
Even Paul who laboured hard…. 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I laboured even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. An Expression… God within
Life as expression of love toward God… is why Paul vows… Romans 15:18 For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me…
No blessing in this life is attributable to works Romans 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
It is all for God’s glory we are redeemed…

And He insists that He works for us
Not us for him
He is the physician… we the patient
He is strong… we are weak
He is the mechanic… and we are in need of repair

1 Peter 4:11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Our love is an expression…. Not an emotionally driven… not leverage… not something fulfilling something lacking in God.
Just as God in his perfection… his holiness… and his righteousness…
Demonstrated his love… John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Conclusion:

God is perfect holiness…

Unique and invaluable
Worthy of all worship

God is perfect righteousness…

Just and good
Always doing what is right

God is perfect love.

Knowing his Holiness
Being just and good
Motivates his love…. To offer the undeserving… the weak… and the sinful… his Grace… glorifying his name in redeeming us!