Systematic Theology (part 22)

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Systematic Theology (part 23)

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A loving and gracious father we thank you lord for this morning. We thank you for your love toward us that is
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Insurpassable and it's incomparable with all the other loves we meet in this world help us oh lord as we open your word to Get a fresh glimpse of who you are and how you love us and help us to worship you and to love you
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With all of our heart soul mind and strength in christ's name. We pray amen Okay, so uh
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Today is a little lighter crowd so we can have a lot more discussions so We've been looking at this adventures.
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Thank you pauline. We've been looking at this adventures in theology And in the last several weeks we've been looking at different attributes of god and The last attribute we rested upon a couple of weeks back was the love of god now, uh, let me just read a few definitions here so that way we
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Uh have this broader picture in our mind before we get into the text um,
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I mentioned last week that uh There are some theologians who call the goodness of god as the umbrella
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Attribute when it comes to this moral Aspect of god's love so the goodness or the benevolence of god under which you have the love of god the mercy of god the grace of god and those other
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Kindred attributes as you if you will so let me just begin by reading out these definitions And then we'll get into these texts
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So the definition I have for the goodness of god all that god is
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And does is worthy of approval and he is the final standard of goodness
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And last week we saw the definition of love god is freely and Eternally giving of himself for the good of others freely and eternally giving of himself
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And then a few other attributes we haven't seen this yet, but I want to just read them So you have them in the back of your mind the mercy of god god's kindness toward those in misery and distress
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Kindness towards those in misery and business or you can actually call it the goodness of god Specifically to those in misery and distress and then the grace of god
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This is god's kindness or goodness toward those who deserve only punishment
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So the object of god's grace is extended toward those who are worthy of punishment then we have patience god's kindness and withholding punishment of Those who sin over a period of time
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So if there's someone sinning god's patience withholds that judgment that is to come
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And then you have holiness where god is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor
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God is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor
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All right. So we have a few people coming in. So if you Can grab a sheet it's a handout for today's sunday school so we've been
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Looking at the love of god the last time when we looked I mentioned this comment and I want to use that as a jumping board to explore god's love toward us
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I made this statement that Love is central to the gospel of jesus christ
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Love is central to the gospel of jesus christ You know, I know everybody here if I just pulled you up I'm not going to and said, you know, give me the gospel in 30 seconds.
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You'll be able to give me a quick Big picture, you know, here's what the gospel is the good news now
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How would you connect the love of god in that elements of the gospel who would want to just take a
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Quick gander at it. How is the how is love connected with the gospel? How is it central to the gospel?
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Excellent. So john 3 16 for god. So Loved the world. It wasn't just some mechanical aspect of you know, here are some sinners
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Let's get them over to this other side and you know, we're going to send our son to do it god loved he he
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We we saw the definition of love. He is freely and eternally giving of himself for the good of others god
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Loves his people. Yes, steven. Excellent Romans 5 8 we are going to be spending some time in romans 5 this morning as we look at this
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Key aspect of the love of god and I want us to bring that out So that we understand the depth of the love of god toward people who are lost who are in rebellion against him now
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We're going to be looking at three verses as we begin So the last time if you look at your handout, we have two sections one talking about the love of god
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And then the other about the love of man. We remember love is one of those Communical up communicable attributes.
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So the love of god, uh compels and impels us to Love him and love others as he loves us.
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And so we're going to be looking at the love of man Maybe next week or the week after But last week we looked at the first three points we looked at some examples we looked at joseph and how god's love was steadfast
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While joseph was going through the vicissitudes of life as it would seem from a human perspective.
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We looked at the love of god on Redeeming his people, uh israel from egypt and how he brought them out
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We looked at the character of god and I think that verse exodus 34 6 and 7 is One of those key verses that you probably want to memorize
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His steadfast love he keeps for thousands and then we ended with this verses on the nature of god
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We looked at how his eye is upon those who hope on the love of god And we looked at jeremiah passage the judgment of god and yet his love would bring his people and it is an everlasting love and we looked at hosea where god loved the people that would um
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Not love him in turn. So They turn to these other gods and yet the lord god has a fixed a
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Covenant love with his people Now with that let's come to the section on response and I want us to maybe just read these.
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Uh, uh three verses and then I want us to look at Another aspect of love that sometimes we may not look too closely upon.
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So We have amos 5 micah 6 and john Jonah 4 so who who would like to read amos 5?
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15 Thank you. Vicky. Uh, micah 6 8 Mark and jonah 4 2
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Thank you Um, jonah there quotes, uh what we saw in exodus 34 Gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and that's um, you know as god declares who he is this is what um
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Characterizes his action toward his people now The reason I have these verses here and the title of response is really for a moment to just step back a bit and say
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Who does god love And why does he love the objects of his affection?
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This is going to be a little bit of a challenge because I I picked these verses mainly because we normally don't think about this
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As much as we should As evangelicals so but before we get into these texts
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I want to I want to give you a I want to set the foundation, right? So I don't I don't
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Communicate incorrectly what i'm trying to communicate. So let me ask a few questions before we get into these texts
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On what basis? Does god love you? Why does god love you excellent on the basis of his own free will god's free will his choosing
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And it is unconditional. It is not on the basis of anything that we have done that he that he loves us
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And I think those are two key elements to keep very firmly in mind before we get into these texts. One is god chooses on his own
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Can you think of some texts that will help us? Substantiate that theological statement
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That's right and ephesians 1 where we have the father son and the spirit he talks about predestination
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He talks about how he for his own purposes and we're going to be looking at one aspect of it Which is in love he produced predestined.
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So love is very closely tied in with What he chooses, uh to do toward the people or the objects of his love and the other one is unconditional um, maybe for this one the verse you can think of is um,
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Uh, how about why Israel was chosen as a nation as a people that god would covenant himself with Do you remember what the bible says why did god pick israel as a nation among all the nations was it because they were great and mighty and Wonderfully following god
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No, they were the least of all the nations and yet god for his own purposes unconditionally chooses them
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Places his favor upon them and then Sets them up like a light on a hill and brings out his salvation to all the nations through that one particular nation
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So it's it's god's own purposes that he brings this redemption now So I want you to keep that in the background because what we're now going to be talking about is a little
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Offshoot of what happens to the objects of his love So now I want you to think as an evangelist
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And i'm going to act as if i'm a Non -believer who's hearing the gospel and i'm going to be responding wrongly and I want you to correct me the way
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I should Rightly think I hope that was clear. So i'm an unbeliever I'm acting like an unbeliever and i've heard the gospel and i'm thinking i'm going to respond back to you
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What I think the gospel is and I want you to correct me So i've heard what the gospel is and I hear you all saying that You know,
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I don't need to do anything in order to procure my salvation god doesn't Uh, he's not just pleased with the works.
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I will do and then save me He just saves me fully on the basis of jesus christ and his finished work.
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All I have to do is believe And I believe and trust in jesus and that's good and there is really no works
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I can do in order to make myself more appealing or pleasing or Favorable toward god because god just loves fully and unconditionally on the basis of his own eternal love
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Okay, I that's a pretty good deal. I I I think I believe I believe in jesus and So it doesn't matter what
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I do Right. I mean god loves me no matter what I do. Um That's a very nice nice, uh equation here
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So what you're saying again i'm speaking as an unbeliever here. So what you're saying is uh I don't do these works in order to gain god's approval but because I love god
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I need to um Show my love okay, so uh
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Because I love him because I truly believe in him I want I will express my love as a child toward a father and respond to the love that god has given toward me
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Okay Now comes the main question that leads us into these three verses Why If god would choose me when
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I am the worst of sinners When god chooses me not on the basis of anything
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I do Why does god care so much that I would?
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Love him and act like him and follow him After I mean, this is not even before now i'm already in the kingdom
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Why does he care so much that I would be like him after? I I think that's that's the crux of what we are going to shoot for god's glory
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He is passionate about his glory and he accomplishes his glory through a very specific means. Okay, i'm not talking as an unbeliever
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Switching roles. I hope i'd believe as a talk like that, but uh, god is passionate about his glory and he is uh, he brings his glory through Uh his creation as he redeems sinful people and showcases his his goodness and his love and his power
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Actually the term you use better, you know, we use good better best and when it comes to um
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God, we normally just stick with the good because that's almost like the best. There's really no
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Comparison in terms of you know, the standard of goodness. We looked at this a couple of weeks back And there is something good that god deeply cares about that is entrenched in his own nature
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So we've been looking at how god is love How do we define love it is because of who god is that we understand what love is and when it comes to goodness as well, we saw the definition we saw was um
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All that god is and does is worthy of approval and he is the final standard of goodness so god's the bar as it were for how we must live and he cares deeply about good
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Just because he unconditionally elects just because he picks us out of the gutter, you know filthy and and Unlovable doesn't mean that god's standard changes and I think this is one of the big confusion with Some of the people
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I witness to they they we talk to them and they're like, oh, you know what christianity? I see your you guys you go into that little booth
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You say I did this thing and to that priest and then you come out and you think you're fine You go back and murder somebody else.
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I mean all the mafia movies have this right? So it's like, you know, no big deal you go say this and then you're you're all fine and they they missed the whole point
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That the crux of the gospel is not just the love of god, but the holiness of god god cares deeply about righteousness and and holiness and he is
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And that's why jesus christ the only man who ever did everything, right? Who never sinned?
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Had to be a substitute. It wasn't just that god was sweeping things under the rug. Jesus paid the penalty of our sin
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And he is on the business of changing people like you and I into the image of his son
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So we should never lose sight of the holiness of god while we are looking at the love of god that is freely given to all
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People unconditionally. Okay. So with that the big introduction, let's get into the text. Um, any any questions before we get in?
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All right. So amos 5 15. Um, so Does anybody here know what the book of amos is about who was amos actually before even that what are these three books have in common
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What are they generally? All of the minor prophets each of these men who wrote this is a prophet as well
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Uh, although the last guy we'll talk about him a little More closely later, but yeah, all these men are prophets
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They were speaking on behalf of god to the nation of either israel or judah and they had a communication
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Primarily of judgment of sin as well as of redemption and hope in the future should his people repent
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So with that in mind amos amos was a prophet from the south. He was a Prophet from judah.
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He's one of some people think he's probably the this is one of the first of the 12 minor prophet books that were written and he
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Doesn't Speak to judah, but to israel to the northern kingdom of israel as you remember judah was after King david you have king solomon the kingdom splits and the southern kingdom of judah is just as um, uh doesn't always follow god as it should but it has a few kings that would come back and uh, and And worship god, but the northern kingdom of israel under uh, jeroboam and the other kings would be consistently
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Idolatrous, they would not worship god and the nation would be the first to go into captivity. So here
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Amos as god's spokesperson as his prophet says these words hate evil and love good establish justice in the gate
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So these this first half of these words is talking about what the people must do So it's god's command through amos
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To the nation of israel the people of the northern kingdom of israel the half uh kingdom
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And then the second half it may be that the lord yahweh the covenant -keeping god the god of hosts of the armies of heaven the angels that he will be
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Gracious and the term there, you know in the umbrella benevolence that we are focusing on is here gracious to the remnant of Joseph, so those of you who remain as the descendants of joseph, maybe the lord will be
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Gracious too. Okay. So here comes the controversy first half of the verse god is talking about a demand a command for the people to Live a life that is godly
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A life that meets his righteous demands. One of the thing is to put off evil and to love good and uh, john mentioned this aspect of The better the good, you know, there is something that is inherently right that must be done
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And one of the things that was not being done was uh justice established justice in the gate
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There was injustice that was rampant in israel And this is what god commands and then he says it may be that the lord will be gracious to the remnant of joseph
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Actually, the next verse is very similar, but let's just stop here in amos for a moment Uh, many of you probably know what happened in israel
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This nation of israel went after amos spoke The people didn't repent and they go off into captivity as asaria comes and takes them away, and then
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Soon after we'll see in micah same thing happens with judah Now let's
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Take that context what happened what happened to the nation of israel was given as an example
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Uh for us today in terms of how we need to remember the work of god among his people and there are some
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Parallelisms and some things where there is a distinct difference between israel and the church And I know scott goddard and nye.
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We read a book or he actually gave you the copy of continuity and discontinuity And so you need to be very careful when we apply things from the old
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Covenant into the new And yet there is a the nature of god that doesn't change here. So having that in mind
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How do you think this text applies to the church of god today to you today
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Does this matter how god responds and what does it tell you about the character of god?
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What are the things that god loves and cares deeply about? How does it apply?
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short version Is this text, uh
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Relevant. Yes Me Okay, good. Uh, you just started something that I need to know respond to but I I I I like the
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Emphasis you brought back to the character of god This is the nature of god and he doesn't change in the old testament versus the new there is a specific command given in the old testament and We'll talk about the command in the new
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Right. Okay. That's good because I think that's another aspect of god's covenant love with his people that we should never lose sight of Because as we began this whole thing we talked about the gospel being free and unmerited what he begins by grace
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He finishes by grace We he is the one who started the good work in us and he will finish that work to the very end
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And therefore he never changes in his love toward his people his elect Now the challenge here that comes and I think we'll we'll take a moment to unpack this.
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This is um One of the things I didn't want to spend a lot of time on but I think it's helpful for us to think this through Especially as we'll read the bible and say how does the word of god apply toward me?
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You know, what must I learn about god? And what is it that i'm commanded to do? So let's begin with uh what cory said earlier and There are different views among christian theologians.
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Not not just the Quote unquote christian but among evangelical bible believing christians when it comes to this
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Relationship between israel and the church and how we need to interpret the commands in the old testament with the new there are some who would break the commands in the old testament into the
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Ceremonial where you have the temple sacrifices, then you would have the Civil yeah civil social political, you know
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The kind of governance things that were given to the nation of israel either before they became a kingdom or after and then you have the moral and very often and people would try to Glean the moral elements out because they should be timeless.
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They're not specific for people and uh and uh time and they reflect god's character and therefore we can
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Inherit them as a church from the old into the new and uh There is certainly some some weight to that View because again as cory you rightly pointed out god's character doesn't change and therefore his demands do not either
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Now the challenge with that position is this because because the
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Bible itself doesn't delineate these three categories very neatly you will find a lot of difficulty in actually
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Picking out what we typically call moral and the bible doesn't um Explicitly draw them out as applicable to the new testament church.
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So what we believe here is that everything that you see in the old testament that is talking about the righteous requirements
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Of god and again not talking about the mosaic law, but talking about the nature of god himself is fully and completely
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Revealed to us in much greater perspicuity in the new testament books
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So for example, when we look at the sermon on the mount matthew 5 to 7 We have the kingdom principles as you will, you know, if you belong to the kingdom of jesus christ
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Here's what it looks like, you know, here's what good looks like, you know Here was a people who were just so used to legalism, you know, here's the mosaic law
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Here's how we translate it into our pharisaic law and here is how we do our business to please god
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And jesus comes around turns it upside down and he says oh, you know murder yeah, sure one of the ten commandments, but Let me tell you what?
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I care about deeply in my kingdom and he brings it to another level. It's about way how you think
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Your anger toward your brother calling him raka would count you guilty of the council
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So there is there is something much more new in the new covenant the new testament that reveals the nature of god in much clearer
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Ways than we could grasp in the old so that's so when we look at the commands that the new testament
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Believer is under we look at the new testament commands the imperatives that are given and these are what we are required to do
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In order to understand the will of god in our lives and to respond I think as brad you rightly said In love as a child toward a father it is not something that we do in order to gain his approval
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But rather to demonstrate our love for him. So we we showcase this by Uh the revelation of god in the new new testament to his people in the church
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Okay, let me stop that. This was a little bit heavy any questions or comments before we move to the back to amos
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Was it clear? Any disputes? I know I had one last time I talked about this subject
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Um Because this good bible believing christians do have differences on on this subject
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But we as a church, this is what we teach and I hope what I explained why makes sense to you All right, so with that let's go back to amos 5 15 now
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Now taking amos 5 15 not as a command for the new testament church, but as reflecting the nature of god
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This is the kind of god that we worship. So there's it doesn't mean that Uh, we should not hate evil that it doesn't matter if you don't love good
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Of course, all of these are reiterated in the new testament and more in in brilliant color
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And to establish justice, so let's just take the principles that are here rather than as commands How do you think that applies to You let's not take the church in general to you
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How does this verse apply in terms of how I must live my life before god, um, think of it as a as a as given in the original context of amos, which is a prophet speaking to a nation in the time of people not following him
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Excellent. So this just reveals more about how we are called to worship him Yeah Complete the transaction here clint eastwood with his guns, you know, okay,
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I can I can solve this right now um, I mean that that is very interesting. I I honestly
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I didn't um, uh, I wasn't going there, but this is a secondary application that you can draw out of this obviously, you know by hating evil and loving good
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God alone is the judge executioner and jury or whichever order we put it because he is he is the
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He is the all and he is the standard and he is Just in executing it and none of us are there.
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So that's a that's a good point Um the established justice in the gate just a couple of other comments there So in ruth you have the elders of the of the town at the gate.
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That's where they would it's like our courts So you go and bring a case before them and they would resolve it or they would do it according to what god had told
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Them in in terms of settling disputes and if for us today, you know, if you want to think of the court system
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You know here is justice it and in amos's time in in the nation of israel.
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Justice was perverted There was no one who cared for what was right and wrong. They just were looking for personal gain
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They were just doing the things that were abhorrent to god so there was evil that was set up as a standard and good was lost and here is god who passionately cares about his character his
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Glory, and he is here warning these people. This is what? reflects myself in the nation and you always have to keep remembering when you think of israel as a
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As an object lesson for the for us today, uh before he brought them into canaan the land spewed its people out because They had reached or filled the cup of their sinfulness
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You know god was going to wipe them out and bring this people that would reflect his goodness And now here after several generations you have the nation of israel that is doing the same thing they were actually
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Not reflecting god's goodness, but they were reflecting evil. And so god here warns them and When he says it may be that the lord the god of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of joseph
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Here is god speaking to an apostate people. They just had the name of god over them just because they were descendants of jacob
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And of abraham but they were not a people that were following him and god here is saying I will
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Be gracious just as god was gracious to us and be in saving us. So also, you know if you would repent if you would reflect my life, uh in your
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In your country in your codes in your personal life. I will be pleased to say
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You know, that's basically what amos is saying You need to repent is the message that is coming and I think the closest equivalent for us today
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We'll be looking at this Maybe a next week or the week after Uh is first john, you know, there is a lot of people today in our church
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Here in bbc as well. It could be me could be you But say you know what gospel
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I know it. Well, I can recite it. I know i've read the bible several times I know everything that god demands.
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I know that salvation is by grace through faith alone and Then when
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I look at my life Maybe at work maybe at home maybe in my closet
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It doesn't look anything like amos 5 15 You know, what are my personal views of evil and good and justice?
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Do they reflect the nature of god and that's basically what first john is here Do you obey what god care do you care about the things that god cares about so you would obey them?
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Do you love other people as god loves because god has loved you or is this just a academic exercise, you know
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I'm an evangelical family. I'm used to all these things but when I go about I know my heart and it shows nothing of the heart of god in my
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Own self and really that's the essence of amos 5 that we want to take away from here is here is the people
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Who had the name of god kind of plastered over them? They kind of knew all these things but their lifestyle was completely antithetical to the nature of god and god's warning them
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Unless your life demonstrates the so -called faith you have It's useless.
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You will be judged for your sin so that's that's really the the crux of what I want to bring here because As evangelical sometimes we can talk so much about grace.
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We forget that that grace is not just uh, You know like water that is just poured. It is more like Gasoline that is poured and it's lit up.
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So you changed by the grace of god that is working in you It is powerful the grace of god galatians all talks about what god's grace does in his people by faith
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We are transformed rather than by faith. We are You know just sinking into the morass even more
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Sorry that became like a preaching session, but but that's important. I think as in our churches today, this is vital
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We don't want the world to look outside and like that unbeliever that I represented which is okay
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You know, you just go confess and then you go shoot and you're fine We need to be a people who are like a lamp that is
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Set up on a hill who want to actually I think you have a song. Isn't one of your songs that uh,
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Yeah, yeah you I thought you had a song that had that uh lamp Too many songs.
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Okay Uh, oh by the way, your cds are out there, right? Oh, okay, why not?
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Why not? Okay Well, I know it's available online so um um so so back to the love of god, uh, god loves us freely and unconditionally and his love is given to us to glorify himself and part of that love is
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You can never disconnect the love of god from the holiness and the righteousness of god and he loves us enough to transform us
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As he places his affection upon us. So let's look at micah 6 8 quickly and then we'll spend a couple of minutes on jonah
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Um Micah, uh southern prophet again, but this time he's speaking to the nation of judah and very similar verse
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He has told you oh man, what is good God reveals the standard of goodness to us in his in the in the bible
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What does god require of you but to do justice to love kindness and to walk humbly with your god?
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These are things god cares about and I and I and I forget forgot what I mentioned what I remember what
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I forgot to mention When we talk about god's love upon us being unconditional as wretched creatures, we need to remember that god loves goodness and yet he loves
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Everything but good people and his goal here is to transform
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Sinners who are worthy of hell to become good in the person of jesus christ
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So when he saves us he sees us through the righteousness of christ and then through sanctification he he makes us more holy and one day he will present the church jesus christ as Spotless as good with having no evil and but yet here on earth while we are being sanctified
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We have a responsibility to grow in the grace that god has given to us All right.
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So, uh With that let's get to jonah and actually turn with me to jonah chapter 4 Actually just the book of jonah.
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We're going to look at a few things here Because jonah is so different than the other two books, all right four chapters not a very big book
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But i'd like you to start in chapter one And whoever gets it don't raise your hand.
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Just read it out loud Look at what is said to the nation of nineveh
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And what nineveh responds in kind so let's begin with chapter one because the entire four chapters are consumed not really with a message that is going to a nation, but really with a message that is to the messenger jonah was supposed to be a prophet speaking god's word to uh, the nation of uh,
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Assyria that will actually Destroy israel at some point down the road, but the bulk of the message is really toward jonah so I want us to take those pieces that are given to um
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Nineveh the capital of assyria And then we'll see what was the message and what was the response and what was the character of god?
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that comes out through this so chapter one, what do you see as a message or Communication from god to Nineveh just say the verse and read it
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Okay excellent, so, uh
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Their evil the evil that the people of nineveh have done has come before god, you know the patience of god
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Here is the reckoning of the justice of god and the righteousness of god and that's what's communicated
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So that's what you have. You really have nothing else here I don't think with regards to um
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Nineveh anything in the rest of one or chapter two No, okay.
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How about chapter three? What do you see in chapter three just read the verse say the verse number and then read it
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Okay Uh before you read six, is there anything before six? Two, okay
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Uh, just go ahead read read verse two Okay, so call out against it.
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There is a sense the message is not mentioned here but it is there is something that is Against nineveh that is going to be said and it would probably be similar to what was there in chapter one verse two
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Okay, what else? verse four What was the message? All right.
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So there was this very simple straightforward message you have 40 days and then there is judgment.
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Yeah, that was that was it Oh, wow um and So that's all that was said or at least recorded for us that was said to the nation of israel from god through jonah
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Uh to nineveh. All right. So now what did what happened in nineveh as a result of this message of judgment?
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Verse five Excellent.
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So we read here first and foremost. They believed god here was a people who really had no I mean if you think of the northern nation of israel being unjust here was a surya who really doesn't
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Know anything about what righteous standards mean they were wicked cruel Inhumane people and yet they believed god and then they responded with a fast
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Showcasing that they cared deeply about what was communicated to them with sackcloth and this is not just a few but it was
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All through the ranks greatest to the least. Okay. Now, let's look at six maybe thirty if you can read that Thank you.
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Um, and so here you see the response what really the people did so they believed they Repented the king himself makes a proclamation and this is powerful stuff as a people who do not know god to want to come after god and to and to hope in the mercy of god
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When all that was proclaimed to them was judgment for their sin So there is something about the nature and the character of god that this king seems to have understood
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Where he calls for all the people to repent now Let's get now to the main text that we were looking for if someone can read
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Um verses one and two of chapter four, so we get a little bit of the heart of jonah here what he really wanted
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For nineveh and what god ended up doing there instead So let's let's just take a few moments to look at verse two
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Is this not what I said when I was yet in the country? I knew You were gracious and merciful
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Knew you were slow to anger. We looked at this aspect of slow to anger You know long nose god doesn't just have a quick temper and burn people down He is very patient with his people.
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He is he when he judges it is in the fullness of time it is not just as a
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Rapid response to To sin And then the comes the verse abounding in steadfast love.
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He is steady and steadfast in his love now um The question we have here now, this is not even a uh covenant people, you know, we saw israel
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We saw judah. These were people, uh that god initially established a covenant. It was a conditional covenant you know if you would seek after me,
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I will guard you protect you and if you would If you would Forsake me then
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I will bring these enemies and uh, yeah asaria being one of them to Take you into captivity, but I will still have a remnant to bring you back.
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Whereas here in asaria. There is really no Uh god has not Uh, I think andrew you mentioned this, you know
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God has not staked his name upon this people to guard and preserve and protect God has no obligation as if you will in terms of what he has covenant before with these people and yet He is a god who cares.
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In fact, I want you to just look at the very last verse of jonah 4 he says Um, should I not pity nineveh that great city in which there are more than 120 000
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P persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also so much cattle god cares about cattle just we sometimes just lose sight of the love of god and the and the care of god for his as the sovereign over all of creation and how he
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Watches over even these sinful nations and giving them The opportunity to repent and so with that said
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Let's just turn the focus back to our nation to our world to the churches that we have in the
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Christendom today and the love of god the steadfast love of god
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That is exhibited In these circumstances, let's just take a few comments. I realize we're out of time and then we'll we'll wrap it up How do you think this text jonah 4 2 applies to our world today?
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reflecting the character of god and his actions Hmm amen, we are a people who have received great grace and we need to be very careful in our
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Extension of that same grace to a world that does not know him yet And in the case of nineveh, they will be judged eventually for their sin
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But god's long suffering withholds that judgment god's long suffering Protects this people for a season until they accomplish his will which would include the
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Um captivity of the northern kingdom of israel before they are finally judged as you were just saying that I was reminded of romans 1 18 through the end of one where the wrath of god is revealed as He gives up people into their sinfulness rather than protect them and so we
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The reason I wanted to just take just these three verses was just to reflect upon the love of god
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That has been poured in our hearts that we would be careful that we care deeply about the things that god cares about about justice and and holiness and goodness and Never lose sight of the fact that we live in a world that doesn't know these things
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And we are not here. I think like andrew said as the executioner. We are here as a people of uh,
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Dispensing the grace of god the gospel that people might know him and just as god is long suffering and patient That we would be a people that don't just come to quick judgments and just say, okay
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I'm here in this little isolated Castle safe from the wrath of god, but care deeply about the wrath of god that is to come in a world
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That is just gone haywire So let's pray Lord, we thank you for your love.
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We thank you for your goodness in saving us and even this morning as we worship our father fill us oh lord with a fresh glimpse of who you are and your
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Power at work in us and through us for your glory in christ's name. We pray.