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Well, we began two weeks ago looking at the names of God, and I'm going to read something from Wayne Grudem. Oh, before I do that, though, I don't know how many of you know this, but did you know that Pope John Paul II is on his way to becoming a saint?
Which I think, you know, I guess if you die and then you're gone long enough, maybe then you can achieve what born-again people achieve in life. I don't know if that's true or not, but you know what his title now is?
He's not a saint yet, but you know what they call him? I just think this is kind of wild. Blessed. He's blessed. I don't know what that means. Well, I'll tell you exactly what it means. When you get away from the Bible, you know, everything goes.
I mean, Paul to the saints at Rome, Paul to the saints at, Paul to the saints at, you know, and never once, so Paul to the saints in heaven. He never wrote one letter to the saints in heaven, but I digress.
Okay. Talking about the names of God in Scripture. We talked about how in the Bible, a person's name is synonymous with their being, with their person. So my name, being Stephen, who knows what Stephen means?
What does it mean, Kelly? Crowned one. Thank you. Thank you very much. My mother used to crown me very often. Yeah. And it was an accurate description of my character too. But the names of God in Scripture are synonymous with his character.
God's name is equal to all that the Bible, and as Grudem says, all that creation tell us about God. It's interesting. He says, when we pray, hallowed be your name, as part of the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6, 9, we are praying that people would speak about God, listen, in a way that is honoring to him and that accurately reflects his character.
That's how people ought to talk about him. To honor God's name is therefore to honor him. The command, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. By the way, one of the reasons why I dislike that as, you know, one of the good person test things, you know, do you take the name of the Lord in vain?
And people think of it only as a curse word because it's, it's not a complete picture of what it means to take the Lord's name in vain. Listen, Grudem says this, it's a command that we not dishonor God's reputation, either by words that speak him in a foolish or misleading way, or by actions that do not reflect his true character.
So when you say, for example, I'm a Christian, and then you don't act like a Christian, you're taking the Lord's name in vain. It doesn't just mean using the Lord's name as a swear word, but if you bear the name of Christ, if you wear a t-shirt that says, I am a Christian, and then you, you know, you act in a way that's unbecoming of a Christian, you are taking the Lord's name in vain and breaking one of the 10 commandments.
So a better good person test, I guess, would be this. Are you a Christian? Person says, yes. And then you just start talking about what a Christian is and you go, I don't, I don't really know. You might be a Christian, but it sounds to me like you might be taking the Lord's name in vain.
That would be rough. The Bible gives many individual names to God, all of which reflect some true aspect of his character. Again, name equals character or some aspect thereof. German theologian Hermann Bavink, whom I'm sure many of you have read, ah, just kidding.
In his book, The Doctrine of God, gives a long list of descriptions of God taking from creation. Listen to this. Listen to all these. God is compared to a lion, an eagle, a lamb, a hen. Who can think of where that is?
All right. On the Mount of Olives, overlooking Jerusalem, when Jesus says, you know, many times, I long to gather you as, there you go. As a hen does. It's whatever they're, oh yeah, chicks. Okay. There you go.
Uh, let's see. A hen, the sun, the morning star, a light, a torch, a fire, a fountain, a rock, a hiding place, a tower, a shadow, a shield, a temple, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And what do these all tell us?
They all tell us various aspects about God, about ways, explaining God in ways that we can understand and ways that we can relate to. Then he says, taken from human experience, Bavink finds an even more extensive list.
Listen to these. God is called a bridegroom, a husband, father, judge, King, man of war, builder and maker, shepherd, physician, uh, et cetera, et cetera. Then it goes on in terms of human actions, knowing, remembering, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, sitting, rising, walking, wiping away tears, and so on.
And then he has human emotions that are attributed to him, such as joy, grief, anger, love, hatred, wrath. And then even though God doesn't have a physical body, scripture uses various parts of the human body to describe God's activities in a metaphorical way.
So, uh, speaking of God's face or his countenance, his eyes, his eyelids, his ears, his nose, his mouth, his lips, his tongue, his neck, his arms, his hands, his fingers, his heart, his foot, and so forth.
Uh, other characteristics are described of him such as good, merciful, gracious, holy, just, and many more. And so what do we get? We get from all of this, a bigger picture of who God is, what he's like.
And I like what, uh, Grudem says here, all the things that we know about God from scripture come to us in terms that we understand because they describe events or things common to human experience. We call that anthropomorphic language, language that speaks of God in human terms.
This should not be troubling to us. This shouldn't bother us because if God is going to teach us about things we do not know by direct experience, he has to do it in terms that we do know ways that we can understand it.
If he used, if obviously God could do this, if he expressed himself in a perfect way, meaning in a way that would be understandable to him, it would be above our comprehension. So he does it in a way that we can understand it.
And then Grudem gives this example. We have an idea of love from human experience that helps us to understand what scripture means when it says God is love. But our understanding of what we mean by love when we apply it to God, it's not exactly the same thing.
So we just get a degree of it. But this language, this anthropomorphic language should remind us that God made the universe so that it would show forth the excellence of his character that is, and that it would show forth his glory.
And finally, he says here, as we learn about God's character from scripture, it should open our eyes and enable us to interpret creation rightly. As a result, we will be able to see reflections of the excellence of God's character everywhere in creation, because as Isaiah said, when he saw God, when he saw the revelation and the holiness of God, he said, what, that the whole world is full of his glory.
God has many names in that we know many true descriptions of his character from scripture, but God has no name, God has no name in that we will never be able to describe or understand all of his character.
In other words, there's no name that we would know God by that would fully describe him in a way that we would get it. There's not just one name that would instantly reveal everything to us, and so we have all these many different names for God so that we might understand him better.
So last time we started talking about Yahweh, about Jehovah, and by the way, I don't know if I said this last time, because I don't remember everything I said, which is scary, but Psalm 51, hymn 51 in the hymn book is guide me, O thou great Jehovah, and I always like to say to myself, it's guide me, O thou name that never occurs in the Old Testament, because that's not right.
It's the Germanic form of Yahweh, but it's just kind of not 100 accurate. In fact, I think our good professor is going to say something about that. Let's open our Bibles to Deuteronomy 32, just to kind of, we went through, in fact, you know what, before we even go there, I mean I was just rereading again here this week 1 Samuel, the story of Hannah, and it's just interesting how many times when you are relying on God.
We're going to go to Deuteronomy in a second, but just in verse 12 it says, as she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth, and she, praying before the Lord, it's Yahweh, it's the covenant keeping God of Israel.
Hannah was speaking in her heart, only her lips moved and her voice was not heard, therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman, and Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.
But Hannah answered, no my Lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit, I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord, before Yahweh. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.
So where is she going to go when she's anxious, when she's concerned, when she's irritated? She's going to go to the God who is a promise keeper, who is the covenant God of Israel. That's what she did, she didn't go see a counselor, she went and saw the counselor.
Then Eli answered, go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him. And she said, let your servant fight in favor in your eyes. Then the woman went away and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord, and they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. In a due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she named his son Samuel.
For she said, I have asked for him from the Lord, from Yahweh. And God answered her prayer. And last time we just, we went through Genesis 15, which again, Yahweh appears, the name Yahweh appears over and over and over again, because here we had in Genesis 15, God promising to Abraham these, or making evident that his promise that he had made would be carried out by setting up a covenant between God and Abraham, which we call the Abrahamic covenant.
But in this case, as I said before, instead of the two parties, which would be typical, I mean this is perfect right here, and instead of the two parties, if these were the animal pieces, instead of the two parties walking down the aisle to signify that if either one of them broke, I almost knocked it over, if either one of them broke the covenant, that they would be cut in half just as the animals were.
God alone went through the cut up animals to signify he was making that promise with himself so that Abraham would know that the promises of God, that the promises of Yahweh were sure by virtue of the fact that God's saying, listen, if I don't do these things, it'll be my destruction, which is impossible.
That's a great comfort. And so we are in Deuteronomy 32, and this could take just a moment, so I'm going to read that Deuteronomy 32 again to give us a picture of God, Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, the one who is self-existent, who keeps his promises.
And this is Moses, and he writes this, give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass, and like showers upon the herb.
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, Yahweh, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness, and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
This is nothing but theology, he's just giving us basically a sermon in theology. They have dealt corruptly with him, they are no longer his children because they are blemished, they are a crooked and twisted generation.
Do you thus repay the Lord, this covenant faithful God of Israel, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your Father, who created you, who made you and established you? Remember the days of old, consider the days of many generations, ask your Father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you.
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the numbers of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage, in other words, they belong alone to God.
He found him in a desert land and in the howling waste of the wilderness, he encircled him, he cared for him, and he kept him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest and flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.
The Lord alone guided him, no foreign God was with him, he made him ride on the high places of the land and he ate the produce of the fields and he suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, curds from the herd and milk from the flock with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats with the very finest of the wheat and he drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.
And it just goes on and on, all these promises, or all these ways that God took care of Israel. And so we talked about, and we're going to be looking at this a little bit more as we go through this, but we talked about, this is known as the Tetragrammaton, meaning it is a four-letter name of God, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh in the Hebrew.
And often said Yahweh, it appears a thousand times in the Psalms alone, short for Yah, or it can be said in short version as Yah. And so this is where we were last week, and listen to this, in verse 3, it says, For I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
This is the personal proper name Israel had for their God. Later in the psalm, Moses says for Yahweh shall judge his people in verse 36, showing again the special character of the name as personal and as of meaning to his people.
This was, Yahweh was the God of Israel alone. I mean, he did things for other peoples, but this was the group that he had promised to be their God. And the word judge in verse 36, the verb there, means mainly to rule as magistrate.
What were the judges in the Old Testament? If you read through the book of Judges, is that the Supreme Court of Israel? What were the judges? Well, they were the Supreme Court of Israel in a sense, but not in the traditional sense.
When we read through, I mean, the book of Judges is kind of a wild book to read through. In fact, I had a seminary professor once, he said, you know what, if you want to empty out your church, there's an admirable goal.
Teach verse by verse through the book of Judges, Brian. Well, they were God's hand of chastisement, true, were they upon his people, Bruce. Right, they were God's men, women, appointed by God to deliver Israel from the hands of their enemies.
I mean, for example, we think of Samson. Samson didn't pronounce, when you talk about, you know, a wild situation, Samson did not pronounce judgment on Israel for their sins. In fact, the situation was basically this, that the Philistines had kind of co-mingled with the Israelites.
They could have thoroughly wiped them out. They didn't. And they were kind of absorbing them. And so God sends Samson into the fray, basically announcing to his parents that he was going to do this. And he used Samson throughout his life, not as some holy proclaimer of the truth, but as someone who just stirred up strife between the Philistines and the Israelites until at the very end of his life, he killed a bunch of Philistines, and he literally caused war between the Philistines and the Israelites.
And so the idea of a judge means to rule as a magistrate, not, you know, as a, let me just emphasize, to rule, because we think of judges as just having robes and a gavel, and, but the judges were actually the leaders of Israel under, still under a theocracy, still under God, but the judges were the leaders, primarily military leaders.
And it's interesting here, he says that after the exile, it became nearly, this name Yahweh, was so carefully guarded that people wouldn't even say it anymore, and that's how they lost the kind of correct pronunciation of Yahweh, that they don't say it.
And in fact, even now, if you're in a Hebrew, we did this in Hebrew reading class, I took it during the summer when I was still in seminary, and when you come to the four-letter name of God, Yahweh, what do you say when you're reading the Hebrew Bible?
For those of you who have taken Hebrew, what do you say? Is there anyone in here who's taken Hebrew? Okay, me. What you say when you get there is not Yahweh, you say Adonai, because you don't want to, you know, it became kind of, you don't take the Lord's name in vain.
Well, here was the idea, that if you're reading along and you say Yahweh, and all of a sudden you sneeze while you're saying Yahweh, you've taken the Lord's name in vain. So they wouldn't even say it, that way they were safe from taking the Lord's name, you know, it's just a legalism, is all it is.
But when the, this may or may not help you, but I think it was about 600 AD, 700 AD, the Hebrew Bible has no, they wrote only in consonants, no vowels in there. And you say, oh that must be kind of tricky, well it is.
So they went in, in the 6 and 700s, and they put the vowels in there, they have these little marks that signify the vowels. And when they came to Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, Yahweh, they put the vowels in there for Adonai, so that you wouldn't even say it, because it would be virtually unpronounceable.
And over time, it became something like Jehovah, that's what they, how it became pronounced. But anyway, scholars today believe that Yahweh is closer to the original pronunciation. Now this is the part I like here, while Jehovah, this is Culver, he says, while Jehovah is certainly incorrect, it does have the advantage of long established use.
In other words, it's not right, but people have been saying it for so long, it just seems like it's right. I like that part. Let's see, back to verse 3 of Deuteronomy 32. He says, clearly there is a shift in verse 3 where Moses appears as a character witness on the Lord's behalf.
I don't know if you're familiar with this kind of language. When you hear this, give here, oh heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, I mean this is kind of, this is almost judicial language.
It almost sounds like there are plenty of times where God will call the heavens and the earth as a witness against his people, Israel. Well this is kind of Moses saying, I'm going to call in some witnesses that they can hear my testimony.
Give ear, oh heavens, and I will speak. It's that same kind of poetic language to show what's going on here. And Culver says, there's a subject shift in verse 3 where Moses appears as a character witness on the Lord's behalf.
Also addressing the heavens and the earth, he extols the Lord's greatness, especially the public proclamation of his name, that is, of his reputation. I mean, what we just read here this morning, he just goes on and on describing characteristics of God.
The rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness. But look down at verse 6, look what he says, do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is he not your father who created you, who made you and established you?
Remember the days of old. Remember when you were in captivity. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you. In other words, you young people today don't understand who God is.
Go back and talk to your fathers. Go talk to your grandfathers. They will tell you about the Lord, about how great he is. And they've kind of gone astray. The Israelites had. Verse 6, he says, such behavior, the accusation reads, is an incomprehensible response to the loving beneficence of God, their father and creator.
It bears all the marks of an obtuse and irrational people, a people willing to abandon sonship in favor of their own selfish ways. The thought of any people rejecting their God was almost beyond belief, but the Lord was more than just God.
He is the father of Israel. He is the creator of them, of creator of all things. The personal interest, Culver goes on to say, and intimacy surrounding such a concept staggers the imagination and makes all the more incredible the possibility that any people could reject the God who initiated this love and intimacy.
But this is precisely what Israel did and was expected to do in the future. And you say, well, okay, how does this impact me? Here's what I would say. If you are here this morning and you are in Christ, what has God done for you?
I mean, I'm not going to get into like in a spiritual equivalent of Egypt that you were enslaved, you know, but these, that would be true, right? Enslaved to sin. He set you free. He brought you out of captivity, brought you out of the wilderness as it were.
And do you ever treat him incorrectly? Do you ever think of him improperly? Does someone ever see need to say to you, have you thought about the Lord today? Have you thought about all the things that he's done on your behalf?
You are grumbling. You are not happy with your life. Have you considered what God has done for you? That's exactly what Moses is doing here. He's saying, you people, what is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?
He gave you everything. He found him. He found Israel in a deserted land and in the howling waste of the wilderness. And then listen, he encircles him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye, like an Eagle that stirs up its nest, the flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them, uh, on its pinions.
He cared. He hovered over you too. Culver says to underscore this centrality of Israel and the salvific purposes of God. In other words, his salvation, his plan of salvation, Moses described them as the Lord's own portion, his special inheritance.
And he puts together the imagery of an Eagle and it's young. When the time comes for the Eagle to fly, the Eagle just kicks him out of the nest. No, stirs up the nest. She will agitate her offspring and thus prepare for the next phase of their development, but she will do so protectingly and not prematurely.
At the same time, she is encouraging her little babies to fly. She is hovering over them with comfort and assurance. When the Eaglets ventures forth for its very first flight, its parent is there to fly beneath and if necessary to catch the new flyer on its own outstretched, outstretched wings.
In this manner, the Lord had carefully and tenderly sheltered his own offspring, Israel. And even after Israel had begun, had begun to be mobile, he was there to protect and preserve. It's that same way for believers.
God, as it were, hovers over us. He protects us. When we fall, he catches us. Hosea used comparable imagery to describe the Lord's Exodus deliverance of his people. The prophet, however, viewed Israel as a child, one whom God called out of Egypt and whom he taught to walk, taking them by the arms.
Let's look at Hosea, Ezekiel, Daniel, Daniel, Hosea chapter 11, the same kind of imagery. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. The more they were called, by the way, you remember that verse there out of Egypt, I called my son was applied later to Christ.
But here applies to Egypt. I'm sorry to Israel. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the bales and burnt offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.
I took them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love. And I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws. And I bent down to them and fed them.
They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to turn to me. Saves them out of Egypt. And in response, what do they do? They lovingly follow him.
They worship him. They, oh, wait, they fall after false gods. Time and time again until he said, Okay, fine. You want to reject me, then I'll bring in Syria. Assyria. I mean, this is so this is so much like, again, the picture of the New Testament, the Christian.
What happens when Christians stray from God? Does he just say, That's fine. You know, go your own way. The Lord disciplines those whom he loves. And that's what he did with Israel. Time and time again.
Let's keep going here in Hosea. I think he's back to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 32 again. This is basically if we were to summarize the story of the Old Testament, what would what would somebody summarize it?
How would you summarize the Old Testament? If you could give me a one sentence summary of the Old Testament, what would it be? They will be my people and I will be their God. I think that's a good summary.
The only thing I would say that that that that sort of leaves out is what? Well, two things. It will. I mean, if I'm going to summarize, I think it only leaves out two things. They will be my people, even though they will rebel against me and I will be their God showing loving kindness over and over and over again, because that's the picture of the Old Testament.
God sets his affections on Israel. And what do they do? They say, Oh, thank you. We will worship you. We will obey you. We will keep all your commandments. And then the weekend comes. Right. I mean, these are these are Sunday only.
Well, Sabbath only. Sorry. These are Sabbath only believers. I mean, they just flee, you know, as soon as I mean, I you know, one of the things you have to love about the Ten Commandments of the movie is what happens.
You know, they get out and they see the the Egyptian army smashed in there. I don't know. You know what? Like the next day, Moses goes up on the mountain and comes back down and they've made a calf and they're dancing around and carry it on.
And you just go, Wait a minute. Did you guys just did you not short term memory? Not so good. Long term memory. Even worse. But this is this is the picture of exactly what happens again and again. I mean, we talked earlier about judges and what happens is the people rebel against God.
They worship idols. Then God brings punishment upon them and then they cry out for relief and God sends a judge to deliver them. And then as soon as they're delivered, they start worshiping idols and the whole thing starts over again.
And it's just, you know, wash, repeat, wash, rinse, repeats. It's just over and over and over again. And that's basically the summary of the Old Testament. That's exactly what happens time and time again versus back in Deuteronomy 32 verses 15 to 18.
But Jeshuron grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, stout and sleek. Then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. Isn't that harsh? They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods.
With abominations, they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the rock that bore you and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
They just ran to, you know, the God of the month, whatever new flavor was coming along. You know, if we were to talk about the church today, I don't think it's that much difference. Always looking for something new, something improved, something different, because church is just boring.
God is boring. I watched, I watched a debate this week. I don't know how many of you saw Time Magazine or, you know, does hell still exist? What about hell kind of thing, you know, with a new book by Rob Bell?
And so I watched the debate, this was between Bill O 'Reilly, Fox News commentator, and then a theologian, yeah, Bill O 'Reilly's Catholic, a theologian from a university in North Carolina someplace, is a doctorate who does counseling.
And so O 'Reilly, this was great because this is like one pagan debating another on the existence of hell. And O 'Reilly says, he says, there has to be a hell. I mean, this is how I used to think before I got saved.
There had to be a hell for really bad people. And he starts naming them off, you know, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, you know, people like this. There has to be a hell for those people. And this professor says, well, you know, I understand what you're saying, but if there's a hell and it's eternal, then we're really turning God into a monster.
And I counsel so many people who are so concerned about going to hell, and it's very destructive to their self-image. And I'm just, I'm just watching this and just going, you know, so here are the two positions.
Be a good person, at least don't be a mass murderer, and get to heaven. You know, because certainly Gandhi, he even said this, O 'Reilly did, certainly Gandhi's in heaven. You know, and the other guy who says, you know, God's too loving to ever put anyone in hell.
And I'm going, this is it. This is the debate. Sad times. And these are two people who would describe themselves as Christians, which only goes to prove once again, that not everybody who says they are of Christ is of Christ.
But back to verses 15 through 18, the Lord's gracious goodness notwithstanding, Israel had rebelled against him at every turn, trampled his grace underfoot. That's the nature of Israel. That's the relationship they had throughout the Old Testament.
That's why God finally does what? He sets Israel aside. He says their fatness made possible by the abundance of the Lord's provision led to their abandonment of their God. Now that's just counterintuitive.
If God blesses someone, we would expect them to rejoice and to give thanks to God. What do they do instead? We're fat, which in the Old Testament, by the way, was good. They wouldn't have understood our obesity scale.
They would have thought that's crazy. The heavier you were, the more blessed you were. And I'm working on my blessings. Isn't that funny that we want to get rid of blessings? I don't, I don't get that.
But so the picture is he was pouring out blessing on them. And instead of thanking him and worshiping him, they rebelled against him. I mean, when do people turn to God, even in your own experiences, when do you turn to him the most?
Is it when things are going great? When your job is going well, when your relationships are going well, you know, when you're getting eight hours of sleep a night, are those the times where you just think, God, I love you more than ever.
I need you more than ever. Or is it when you get fired, your relationships are on the ropes, you're estranged from just about everyone, you know, you can't sleep, you can't eat. And then it's, you know, God help me.
It ought not to be that way. Culver goes on to say, talking about verses 15 to 18, he says, now this is an understatement. Israel's rebellion to that point did not bode well for the future. I mean, look, if God is taking you out of Egypt, he's taking you out of the wilderness, he's giving you the promised land, he has guided you and guarded you and blessed you.
And your response is rebellion, the stiff arm, the kind of in your face, God, we can do it on our own. Then what does that say about the future? What else is God supposed to do for you? How much more can he bless you?
How much more can he bless you again? Good times. And again, if, if you are in Christ and I will close on this, but if you are in Christ this morning, what else is he supposed to do for you? Having taken every sin that you've ever committed, ever will commit, and even are committing right now in this class and nailed it to the cross forgiven it forever.
What more is he supposed to do for you? And if you can't rejoice in that and worship him for that, then what does that say? What else does he need to do to get your attention? If you don't want to go through, by the way, here's my little nugget for this morning.
If you don't want to go through the disciplining correction of the Lord, then yield your lives to him today. If you belong to him, act like it. If you bear the name of Christ, do it in a way that honors him.
Don't take the name of the Lord in vain. Don't say I am of Yahweh and then live as if you are of Satan. Let's close in prayer. Our great God, you are gracious. You are a savior. Father, you have set your affection upon your people.
And Lord, even so, as we think about you, the great covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, we are prone to wander, prone to sin and to rebel against you and forget the very God who has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.
Father, would you make us a people not who forget you when times are good, but who rejoice all the more, who think this is just a foretaste of what we will experience for all of eternity? Lord, would you grant to us minds that are transfixed by your goodness and your love and your mercy toward us?
Would you cause us to live in light of that, to rejoice each and every day, knowing that you are as an eagle hovering over us, watching us, protecting us? Lord, let us never doubt that. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.