Knowing God - His Love
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
What a great thought!!!
God Love you and me!!!
But what does that mean?
“Well,” you say, “it means he died for us.”
And while that is absolutely true, His love for us goes deeper than that.
This study of this great perfection of God is going to be a memorable study of His love.
First things first:
God’s Love is unlimited in its power.
God’s love is so vast and powerful that it has the ability to reach, save, and secure every single person that would ever live.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
So, God’s love is unlimited in its power.
Second, God’s Love is Limited in its extent.
The question that is often asked is, “does God love everybody the exact same way?”
Or to put it in theological terms; is God omnibonevelent?
The answer is NO!
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Now, there is a sense in which God does love everyone equally, and we call that “common grace.”
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
God allows even the hardest of sinners to enjoy life; the beauty of a sunrise, the warmth of the sun, the feeling of the love of another person.
Even Hitler and Stalin enjoyed these common graces.
But there is a love that God has for His people that He shares with no one else; that is the Love that we will look into some detail.
I. The Meaning of God’s Love
I. The Meaning of God’s Love
The Love of God is one of the most beloved perfection of God, but is also one of the most misunderstood of all the perfections of God.
It is also one of the most illusive perfection of God.
Men have written more volumes than the world can contain on the love of God and man has not been able to wrap his brain around the love of God.
And it is not much the meaning of the Love of God as it is the why of God’s Love.
The Love of God is an illusive doctrine because as finite beings, we find it difficult to completely understand the love of God.
Because we do not love that way.
And like most of the perfections of God, the goal here is not at the end for you to say, “I completely understand the Doctrine of the Love of God”, but the goal is for you to see the Love of God in the Scriptures and for there to be a better appreciation for the love that God has for us.
There are two Greek words, that you all are familiar with, that describe the love of God.
The first word is the word “ἀγάπη” and the other word is “φιλέω.”
“ἀγάπη” speaks about God’s love of affection.
Now, that is kind of a broad term for God’s love for His people, so lets see if we can dive a little deeper into this love of affection.
One of the most striking passages on the Love of God is Hosea 11.
The entire prophecy of Hosea 11 is an astonishing portrayal of the Love of God.
God is likened to a betrayed husband, but His passion for the covenant nation comes to a climax in Hosea 11.
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
The more God call Israel, the more they drifted away.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Yet they did not recognize him; they sacrifices to the Baals and loved idolatry, so God promised judgment.
He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.
So God pronounces judgment on Israel.
But then it is almost as if God cannot endure the thought, and in an agony of emotional intensity, God cries:
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.
They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.
God’s love of affection is so great and so vast, that no amount of sin could keep His covenant people away from Him.
That was true in the OT and for the covenant people of Israel and it is as true today and the covenant people of God.
God’s love for His covenant people is so deep that no amount of sin could hinder His continual dealing with them.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
This love of affection is what caused God the Father to send God the Son to provide an actual atonement for sins.
God the Son is our priest and a priest is appointed to act for other in things that are pertaining to God.
The priest of the OT did not make a potential atonement for the people of Israel, but made an actual atonement.
And as Jesus Christ is our high priest, He does not make a potential atonement for His people, but He makes an actual atonement.
The love of affection caused God the Son to sacrifice Himself to make an atonement on the Cross that actually paid the sin debt for His people.
The book of Leviticus describes this work of the High Priest.
And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
And then the high priest preceded to place the sins of the nation onto the scapegoat and then the scapegoat was led out into the wilderness where the scapegoat, and also, the sins of the people that had been placed on the scapegoat would never return.
The Love of Affection caused God the Son to make an actual atonement.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And then you have all of the other blessings that flow from the actual atonement; propitiation, justification, sanctification, imputation, and glorification.
Then there is φιλέω, which the love of concern.
And by the way, both of these kinds of love is a prefect love, because they are the attributes of the perfect God who does all things good, right and perfect.
The one love is a sacrificial love and the other love is a love of a friend.
The Love of God is not only the Love of sacrifice, but it is also the love that shows concern and care for His people.
A. A Provision Giving Concern
A. A Provision Giving Concern
And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.
The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?
This great concern that the Lord shows for his own is wrapped up in His love of Concern.
B. A Prayer Granting Concern
B. A Prayer Granting Concern
We have been invited to pray, knowing:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
The problem why we do not think that our prayers are being answered is not because they are not being answered; because they are.
God may not answer them the way we ask, because we are not asking in His will.
We are either asking in order to receive material gain, or for selfish motivation; but not in accordance with His will.
We have been invited to pray knowing that as we truly pray in the will of the Father, we will have the petitions that we ask.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
These are God’s Love of concern; concern for our Provision and concern for our Prayer.
God’s Love for his people as we define it exists on these two levels.
The Love of Affection; which causes the atonement.
It caused God the Son to take all of the wrath of God on Himself for sins of His people.
To propitiate or satisfy the wrath of God for sin.
Which causes justification; God declares the repentant sinner to be righteous through Christ.
Imputation, God, because of His love of affection, imputes to the repentant sinner the righteousness of Christ, because he imputed the sin of the repentant sinner onto Christ.
Glorification, as God one day takes the repentant sinner to His glory and strips away the alien righteousness of Jesus Christ and gives us a righteousness of our own.
This all because of His love of Affection.
And His love of Concern causes Him to provide for us and causes Him to hear and answer of prayers.
So, how do we define the Love of God?
It is a love of affection and it is a love of concern.