God Cannot...(2)

Good morning, CHURCH!

(Opening joke)

So, this week A highway patrol trooper pulled over a car that was weaving on the highway.

When he walked up to the car he realized it was a priest but he also immediately smelled alcohol on his breath.

The trooper also noticed an empty wine bottle lying on the passenger seat.

“Have you been drinking?” the officer asks.

“Just water,” says the priest.

The officer asked him, “Then why do I smell wine?”

The priest looks at the bottle and shouts, “Lord Jesus! He’s done it again!”

“When I left home that was a water bottle in my seat”

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s go to the book of 1 John 4:7-8 for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination 1 John 4:7-8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

We are in a series titled:

God Cannot…

Last week we talked about an attribute of God that benefits us and that is our God cannot change.

Its also known as the immutability of God.

God cannot change the truth that he is patient, he’s a provider, he’s full of grace, he’s a promise keeper or covenant keeper and so on.

Were you able to see last wee how something that God cannot do, can actually build your faith, hope and trust in him.

Today’s message title is:

God Cannot Stop Loving You

God’s love is the divine attribute that indicates God’s disposition to be self-giving and for the good of all he’s created.

And he can’t change it.

Just think about that for a moment.

God’s love could be looked at as the chore of his attributes in that all other divine attributes are but expressions of his love.

Remember all the attributes of God we mentioned last week, (He is wisdom, power, holy, merciful, patient, just, good, full of grace and truth and there are many more.)

The God of love has revealed himself to be self-giving, self-sharing, and self-communicating.

His love is personal and relational.

God’s immanence is to be proclaimed as passionately as his transcendence (existence beyond the normal or physical level).

God told me to tell you that he is knowable, perceivable and graspable.

Not fully, but as much as we can handle.

He is a God who draws near to his creation.

He is a God seeking fellowship with his creation.

He is a God who sought reconciliation with his creation.

God’s love is a communicable attribute in that it is to be imitated by humanity.

I am aware that our love is in a limited human fashion but often it’s been far too limited, if you know what I mean.

However, we know that most of humanity is lost and don’t know the love of God.

But us who have received God’s divine love, we should return love both to God and to each other.

And don’t forget our neighbors.

And don’t forget our enemies.

By his own actions, God teaches us to love actively and sacrificially.

And not just those within our own family or friend zone but as the scriptures tell us, our neighbor.

Matthew 22:38-39 ESV

This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

And as I stated the scripture also teaches us to love our enemies.

Matt 5:44 ESV

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Lock in on this.

God demonstrates his love not only in his goodness, mercy, grace, compassion, and faithfulness, but also in his holiness, justice, jealousy, and his wrath.

Pastor J, I’m good with God’s goodness, mercy, grace, compassion and his faithfulness.

It’s his holiness, justice, jealousy and wrath that I have a problem seeing as loving.

His love is holy, just as his holiness is loving.

Let me stretch your theological thinking just a bit.

This view about God’s justice, jealousy and wrath being loving falls is in line with the three main theological tensions related to the doctrine of God’s love.

• The difficulty of reconciling a God of love with a broken and suffering world:

Its the problem of evil. Evil exists. Evil is not of God. If you live long enough you will experience it.

• The relationship between God’s love and his justice:

Can God be said to be loving when he eternally punishes those who rebel against him?

Please remember, it’s not God’s desire that anyone should be separated from him.

• The tension between God’s love and the doctrine of divine impassibility:

can God be said to be loving if he does not “suffer” with his creatures?

God can identify with our suffering because Jesus suffered worse than all of us.

Let’s get into this a little more with my 3 points for today.

Point #1

God’s wrath is love.

God’s wrath is his disgust for evil.

It’s his displeasure with sin and sinners.

The wrath of God is not a popular concept here in the western culture. We like to only talk about blessing and being rich.

God’s wrath is often times ignored and often reinterpreted.

There are over 580 references in the Old Testament using more than twenty different words to describe it.

In the Old Testament it is often portrayed in dramatically personal terms.

Nahum 1:2 ESV

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.

(Thank God that he can’t change that about himself.)

In the New Testament God’s wrath is also mentioned frequently.

Romans 1:18 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

John 3:36 ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

It is important not to equate God’s anger with often-sinful human anger:

God does not have mood swings and does not “fly off the handle.”

When the Scriptures speak of God’s anger it is anthropopathic. (ascribing human feelings to something that is not human)

God’s wrath is his indignation at sin.

His revulsion to evil and all that opposes him.

His displeasure at it and the way he has chosen to exercise that displeasure.

It is his passionate resistance to every will that is set against him.

And at the end of the day, God’s wrath is intended to turn others away from sin, which is an act of love.

Point #2

God’s jealousy is love.

It is important to understand how the word “jealous” is used.

Its use in Exodus 20:5 to describe God is different from how it is used to describe the sin of jealousy in Galatians 5:19-20.

Exodus 20:5 ESV

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

God is jealous when someone gives to another something that rightly belongs to Him.

Galatians 5:19-20 ESV

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,

The use of the word jealous, here is in the sense of being envious of someone who has something we do not have.

When we get jealous it may be things like.

*I’m jealous or envious of another’s possessions.

*I’m jealous or envious of another person’s ability or skill level (such as athletic ability).

*I’m jealous or envious of another’s looks or beauty.

God is not jealous in that sense of the word.

But he is the one true (OG). The original God.

You don’t ascribe something to carved images or created things that should only be ascribed to God.

God knows that if you worship created things then your love will be misguided.

However, if you worship him, he is the only one that can steer you in the right direction.

He also is the one who loves you.

Created things and images can’t love you.

Point #3

God’s justice is love.

God’s justice is his divinely righteous action that promotes equality among humanity.

His justice is used in relation to uplift the righteous and oppressed while degrading the unrighteous and oppressors.

And only he sees everything and knows everything about mankind.

Job 34:21 ESV

“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.

Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that justice is based on God’s character as a God who attends to the needs of the widow, orphan and sojourner.

Deuteronomy 10:18 ESV

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

And he expects us as his people to mirror this characteristic in our interactions with one another.

The children of Israel regularly failed to do this so God judged them for their injustice which eventually led to their exile.

Justice is a central biblical theme. It is associated with the very being of God and by extension it should be associated with God’s people.

Throughout the Old Testament God is identified as the God who rescued the children of Israel from Egyptian slavery.

God is a God of justice who loathes mistreatment of people because all people are created in God’s image and are of unimaginable value to God.

I know that sometimes it doesn't seem like it in this dispensation but that is because of God’s patience.

But ultimately God is going to judge all injustice and set the record straight.

(e.g. That’s one thing I loved about my son as he grew up in school. Although he was always pretty popular, he stood up for those that other kids would try and make fun of.)

So, when we read the scriptures and we see God’s wrath, God’s jealousy and God’s justice, know that it all comes from the same place his mercy, grace, compassion and faithfulness do.

It’s from his love.

Because God Cannot Stop Loving You

(Closing illustration)

Sometimes in this life we don’t feel loved because of what we’ve gone through with those who have said that they love us.

They say that they love you, but they make you feel unloved.

Today I want you to think about the love of God.

He doesn’t inflict pain and suffering on you.

But he is there with you when you go through pain and suffering.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?