Systematic Theology (part 21)

The Goodness of God and the Communicable Attribute of Love

So the goodness of God. We looked at the rich young ruler as the text and we defined the goodness of God as all that God is and does is worthy of approval and he is the final standard of goodness. So we saw how God in his character is good how God in all that he does is good.

And because this is a communicable attribute how we are meant to live out this goodness of God as God transforms us into the image of his son. So we saw primarily from that text where the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and he says good teacher.

And then what good thing must I do in order to be to have eternal life. And Jesus points back to the truth that God alone is good. The standard of goodness is God and God alone there's no other standard.

And he talks about what it means to trust in him and exclusively to give up all his riches in order to have eternal life. So today we're going to be looking at another attribute the attribute of love.

We're going to do today a little differently. So hopefully all of you have this handout a two-sided print. Basically these are just verses that are grouped together in a certain way. And my goal is similar to what we've been doing with the other attributes.

We're going to focus on God's attribute of love. Look at a few verses as we reflect upon God's love and then look at it as a communicable attribute. How are we called to love today. And and to reflect this attribute that God himself has given us now before we.

So if anyone needs any copies of the printout please raise your hand. I think I probably need to leave this somewhere in the back. Uh Ferdy you can grab one. So as we start can someone define love. If you had to say what love is how would you.

How would you define love. It's one of those hard abstract concepts. Yes ma 'am. Okay. So there is a sense in which love in biblically talks about from the bowels you know you have that deep affection and a feeling of care and well-being toward another person and that would be love.

Very good commitment. So this is not just a feeling that comes and goes so I feel like I have love but rather we are committed to love the people even when we sometimes don't have that warm and fuzzy feeling.

Very good. Excellent. So uh this is not just merely a feeling or an emotion but it actually results in doing something that causes the well-being of the other. So it's and James warns against us he says don't just say you know be warm be filled.

But rather you want to feed or clothe the person who has a need and you thereby show your love. Because empty words don't really demonstrate the love of God in our hearts. Was there another hand. Yes unconditional positive regard.

Wow. You always give me the heavy words. But that's true. Love ought to be unconditional isn't it. I mean if we say it is conditional then basically we are just talking about a transaction business transaction.

I get something and I give you something quid pro quo. Whereas the love of God as we see in the Bible is always unconditional. He loves first. We're going to see that and we love we toward God. It is because he loves us we love him back and because he changes our heart he gives us a heart that is able to love God.

And when we love our neighbors we ought to love them not because of something we get from them but because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. Excellent. So these are all good. Oh yes go ahead.

Excellent. So it's a decision and I think you know combining the commitment and the unconditional aspect of it we actually make that choice to love and to love freely. And I think you know we want to keep both these sides in our mind as we start to look at the text one of which being this choice to to love the other person I'm going to read the definition here for the love of God God is freely and eternally giving of himself for the good of others.

And this is using first John 4 8 where it says God is love and let me repeat that one more time God is freely that is he's not coerced to he is eternally. He is always loving the other persons of the trinity and then the objects of his creation and his redemption that is believers.

And he's freely and eternally giving of himself for the good of others. So we get to benefit we. He is a benevolent God in his love toward us and we gain by his love and affection upon our lives. So the first half of it I want you to think of is the commitment and the action that results from love.

And then one of the things that I tend to minimize sometimes is this affection and the deep-seated care and desire for the well-being of the other that that is in our hearts now the in the contemporary church today you can see sometimes a little bit of an imbalance.

You know you see a lot on when you say love is just warm and fuzzy. We visited a church this past week and some of the things they were talking about I couldn't quite grasp. And then I realized they were focusing on on this aspect so much that they kind of lost the objective unchanging eternal truth of God's love.

So there are people who just say love means you don't be feel warm and fuzzy. That's not true. But there is a deep-seated affection of God and you're going to see some texts for that but ultimately agape love is a self-giving love.

It's a commitment that God has made to himself to love others freely. So with those two in mind let's get into your text. So some of you who came in if you don't have a handout I think the last row there are some that you can pick one from and let's begin with.

I have two sections. There are sections on the love of God. It has a title God on the top and we're going to look at some of those categories and then we're going to look at man and look at some of these categories.

This is one of those attributes I want to take some time to get a little deeper. We've been going kind of very quickly through but this is I think a very central part of the gospel and we should be very clear on what the love of God is and how we are to love others.

So we're going to begin with this example. So right on the top you have Genesis 39 21 and Genesis 39 is one of those chapters that you should remember in your head. Who knows what Genesis 39 is about Joseph.

Yes and it's one of those chapters that will just rock your world. If you just read it slowly and prayerfully it is just amazing what God does in the life of Joseph from the beginning of 39 to the end of 39 and the way in which his life kind of goes up and down up and down it seems like he's in a yo-yo you know from a human perspective completely thrown about by the fortunes of life.

You know if you looked at it without the God's perspective. And yet when we look at it from the biblical perspective God gives his word he tells what he's doing in Joseph's lives. And and you have one such event in verse 21 and it says I have the full verse here the Lord was with Joseph and he showed him steadfast love.

It's unchanging steady love and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So if you think about Joseph's life the things that happened here was this favorite child of his daddy hated by his brothers sold into slavery goes to this Potiphar's household as a servant.

The Lord shows his favor raises him up. And then Potiphar's wife comes along. And then this man resists the temptation. And then he's accused falsely thrown into prison goes back into the dungeon. And there again we see this verse where the Lord gives him favor raises him to manage the dungeons.

And then you have the case where the Lord again helps him to interpret dreams of these two men. One of them promises to go and tell the king that here is an unjustly imprisoned guy. Two years go by nothing happens.

And then two years later the the king has a dream and then he interprets that dream and he now becomes the right hand of pharaoh as the Lord uses him. And if you look at those 17 years through which he goes up and down from being the favorite child to in the end being the right hand of of pharaoh that journey is one of those journeys that none of us would say shows the steadfast love of God unless you knew the God who is working in the life of Joseph.

So we look at merely the events in Joseph's life we'd say you know what. Maybe God likes him. Maybe he's blowing hot blowing cold. But God knows exactly what he's accomplishing in Joseph's life. So let's take a moment here to think about what.

How does this Genesis 39 exemplify the love of God in the life of Joseph. And maybe even in a more broader sense can how can you see the evidence of God's steadfast love from Genesis 39. Excellent. So when we look at that specific event you can see how the Lord has actually gifted him later with interpretation here with his ability to lead and manage this area the Lord gives him favor.

It's very explicit there. It's not that Joseph was just a charming guy. And he you know and and the Lord watched over this person in a very very dark circumstance. That's that's a specific example of the love of God.

What else. And I think you know that's one of the things that we as finite creatures we that kind of live every moment and then forget what happened and lose sight of what's ahead can need time in the word to reflect upon.

And I think you said the multi-year plan. You know God knew exactly what he was doing. And he was always with Joseph. We never want to forget that first part of that verse. It's not like God just sent him off and said you know what do.

Well when the time comes I'll come and get you out of jail. He was with Joseph through this entire time and he had many things he was accomplishing not just in Joseph's life. He was doing things in Joseph's brother's life.

He was doing things to show his steadfast love. Judah was one of the brothers from whom Jesus would come. We have Israel or Jacob the dad and his family. And the love that he was showing to Abraham that was going to come to pass through this process where in the end you will have this nation in Egypt.

He had the love for Joseph. Joseph was this little brat that was here and the Lord takes him out to be a leader of a nation. Practically. Well he is growing and sanctifying. And so when we look at it from the eyes of the world it seems like oh you know what wealth peace and prosperity.

That would have been pretty good for God's love. But God's love is a lot more deeper than that he was. He was shaping Joseph and his people through these events. And there was no event here that was outside of God's love.

As he shapes his people to conform to his plan and to accomplish his purposes. And his purposes are always good as we saw last week. So I think we want to be thinking of the love of God. You know sometimes when we talked about these two things I tend to sometimes think of maybe it's a guy's way of thinking.

It's like oh there's the plan you know it's happening. But God loves Joseph. He is a God of steadfast love. He is committed to his people and he cares deeply for the people as he is working in their life.

So just keep that in mind we'll go through a couple more verses. So the next text is in Exodus 15 and this as you know is the song of Moses after the redemption from from Egypt. So Exodus 15 13 says you have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

It talks again about the same aspect of the steadfast love of God. Now when we think of the chronological events in the life of Israel so we just did a quick summary of Abraham to Jacob, Jacob to Joseph in Egypt.

And then the 400 years pass where they become a big nation. They are oppressed in slavery. And then God raises up Moses and demonstrates his power in rescuing the people from Egypt. He showed that and that's what Moses is talking about.

You guided them by your strength. He takes them out of this land where there seemed to be no hope slaves under this mighty Egyptian ruler. And then God redeems them and and then you see how he leads them.

And this is just the beginning as the Red Sea is parted and the Pharaoh's chariots are destroyed. And then he would continue to do that for the next 40 years where their souls of their feet shoes would remain their clothes nothing wears out until they've reached their destination.

Now with these two examples I just want you to be thinking of the big picture love of God. God is the one who cares for you as if you are a child of God he knows exactly what he's doing in the ups and in the downs that he ordains in your life.

And those are not just some strategic plan. They are plans that come out of the deep love that God has for his people that he accomplishes in our lives. And he does that through the path he is with us and he uses his power to uphold us through those times.

So those are just some two examples I want you to keep in mind because sometimes we talk about things like truthfulness or goodness or love. We kind of become a little too abstract and I want us to have some concrete examples before we get into the text talking about the character of God.

So the next one I have is character. And if someone can read those verses exodus 34 6 and 7 this is one of those verses that we have we have been looking at for a while. Can someone if you can open the bible and read this.

I just have those aspects on love exodus 34 verses 6 and 7. Yes Charlie thank you. So here we have Moses asking to see the glory of God. God takes him up into the left of the rock and then passes by and declares his character.

And each of these attributes here you know some of the theologians call the goodness of God as a broader character. And then under that you have love and several of these other attributes. And some of the other theologians put love as the broader attribute and you have the benevolence and goodness and mercy and things like that.

But here it just lists the Lord God enumerates who he is Yahweh the covenant-keeping God. We talked earlier about the nature of the love of God. It's it's a commitment that he has toward his people. And here in the old testament he was exemplifying his commitment to his nation Israel that he had chosen.

Today as believers we have the sure promises of God in Christ that what his love will endure forever. But let's look at the attribute of God here merciful gracious slow to anger or long-suffering abounding in steadfast love.

And that's one of the things we're going to be seeing from other verses today just he is not just you know got a bottle of love and that will run out. And then he is not going to love anymore. He is overflowing.

His love is is is boundless. It's abounding and faithfulness. And we saw some of this earlier and then keeping steadfast love for thousands. This is not just you know we saw not just for a small period of time not just for one man's life but for the generations that he would choose to work out his love in action in our lives.

How does he do that. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And each of us here who know Christ as our Lord and Savior we know because we have experienced the love of God in the forgiveness of our sins with the guilt being removed and for us to be able to have eyes that can see God and worship him and enjoy him because of what God has done out of his love for us.

And then on the flip side you also have there is this tension that people see sometimes and they say oh you know the love of God and the justice of God. Maybe you need to pick one and not the other. And God is a God who exercises all of his attributes equally and at the same time.

And so we have the justice of God in dealing with sin and guilt for those who would not trust in him. So let's just keep that in the character of God. And let's look at a few other verses. No actually before we go any any thoughts on Exodus 34.

It's one of those passages we should memorize and keep in our hearts. So if you yeah go ahead a couple of things you said charlie just to repeat uh i think it's helpful. The last thing you said you know God's overarching love will make sure that we the end of our lives is benevolent.

So we receive all the goodness that God has given and he takes us along the exact path that would accomplish his good and perfect will in our lives. That we would as christians flourish in his love. That we would reflect the goodness and the character of God in our lives and we would enjoy him forever.

But at the same time through those moments he i think you said sprinkles or he he he does exactly what we need to experience his love and his presence in our lives. And to um and i think you know the that comes to my mind is uh you know we were not uh tempted more than we are able to bear.

So when we go through those trials and temptations he doesn't say you know what i'll push him too far. And then when he's like gone then i'll somehow get him out of it. He knows exactly the level of trial that we need to go through.

His grace is always sufficient for us in our trials. And most importantly he is with us in those trials. And as many of us here can attest we can think back and give glory to God especially in those times of trials you know when the time goes well sadly we as believers can tend to be more inward focused than upward focused.

And actually i have a little testimony here i i got a job this past week and we the Lord has chosen to keep us here in this area and you know thankful to God. Thanks for many of you who have prayed the Lord's been so good.

I mean it's been eight nine months now and i can tell you as you were just talking the mercy and the love of God has been so rich and full during this time as he has revealed himself and his love and his presence in a way that you know i don't think i've enjoyed it in the past and it actually exposed the lack of trust that i had which i wasn't aware of.

You know before i lost the job i always used to tell my boss you know let me go i will. My God is the one who provides it's not this company it's you know i'm very thankful for it but we knew we were downsizing so the time would come don't feel bad when i need to go.

And then when i left i'm like my heart is not where i thought it was and the Lord has to keep working in me because he knew exactly what i needed. You were both big but i'm glad you testified to your boss but i know your heart and you need to know your heart.

So you know let's let's work on this. And so now uh through this period i have grown so much more in an appreciation of God's providence and like you just said that sprinkling of things. And i thank you Lord you know maybe if you if i need this a little longer that's okay because you know best i don't.

I would always want the path of leith's resistance but God knows what is good. And i think the second thing you mentioned was this married couple versus the um newly married to the old the ones who've been married for a long time.

And i when we talked about that feeling of love and emotion and the passion that comes from a newly wed couple um just like how i was boasting about my ability to trust God without a job. Most of the times a young couple think that they're loving selflessly.

But really it's it's not. They haven't understood the depth of what it means to be a committed deep love for the other person until you actually walk through those times. And then you are changed by God into understanding the love of God in your life that you can actually love the other person.

And as an i know some of you have been married many years and you don't want to lose that that affection. Deep-seated affection as the commitment grows in its immensity. But at the same time this is such so much more richer that no matter whether the person is ill whether the person is sinning against you your love is a steady and steadfast love reflecting the love of Christ for your spouse.

And um and you know when we talk about love being a communicable attribute that's one of those key ways we can emulate the love of God for us in the way we love our children. And the easy way is you know they want a candy they admit throwing a tantrum give them a candy or just discipline them just so they'll shut up rather than shepherd their heart i mean guilty.

You know i've been sinfully so done things that just gets me past this my trial that they are crying and rather than saying you know how can i love and shepherd their heart. So they can look to Christ understand that this is who they are and how they need to look at sin and evil and what Christ has done on our behalf.

And so excellent. So and i think especially with our children we can experience that deep-seated affection when they're not crying and yelling and throwing a tantrum. But Suresh and Achu just had a baby.

So i'm sure as you look at that little baby you something's just flow out of your bowels. You know you just love that little baby that you're holding in your arms. And um and then you want to express that with that commitment of what can i do for this little child as she grows or he grows so that they will follow Christ and they will love him as he loves us.

The Fear of the Lord, Hope, and Steadfast Love

Okay so let's move to the next section. So here we have a few verses and i'll have um actually if i can have different people read this. Um if someone can read the psalm 33 if you can open the text and read it not just the portion here psalm 33 18 jeremiah 31 3 and hosiah 3 1.

Who can read psalm 33. Uh ferdy. Who can read jeremiah 31 brad. And who can read hosiah 3 1. Thank you all. Right. So let's begin with psalm 33 verse 18. Thank you. Uh jeremiah 31 3. Thank you. So we have here uh three elements of the love of god working in the way in which it expresses itself.

Uh toward the objects of his affection that is his people. So the first one very interesting verse. It says the eye of the lord. Obviously an anthropomorphism. The lord sees not that he needs a physical eye like us but he is keenly observant from heaven on the actions of his people.

So he his eye is on those who fear him on those who hope in his steadfast love. So the we we see many verses talking about the fear of god. The fear of god at fear of god being clean and pure. There is only one person we are to fear with a holy reverence with a complete awareness of this almighty god who is transcendent far above all that we can imagine in his in his majesty his splendor and his glory.

And we as his finite creatures who deserve justly his wrath and yet are objects of his mercy. So that's the god we are to fear and hope in a steadfast love. Can somebody just tell me how do you did you hope in the steadfast love of god this week.

Hope. I mean i hope for a lot of things. But how can you think of maybe some couple of examples. How did you hope in the steadfast love of god. Because if you did the of the lord was on you this week.

Excellent. Uh. So when you're going through a tough circumstance in life you know many of us don't maybe explicitly think this way. We know that god saved us and he will walk us through this time. But it what is that.

What is that one attribute of god that is just so rich and deep and enduring that you can hope with the you know actually let me talk about. Can someone tell me the difference between the biblical hope and uh hope that the world typically has.

What's what's the difference between the hope that uh psalm 33 18 is talking about versus yes steven it's like you know i hope i get a job. You know i'm going to do my best but my hope my ability is nothing certain.

The availability of job market isn't certain. But when i hope in god god is certain and his steadfast love never changes. And that's something i can anchor on take to the bank to for sure. And it and the biblical hope whether it's first peter one they all talk about something that is already accomplished.

We're just waiting for the fulfillment as opposed to something that i just kind of hope it happens. This is a certain certainty in the character of god we see here in psalm 33. It's the events are coming they're transient they're passing.

But i place my hope upon him. And what really am i doing when i say i hope in um god's steadfast love. I'm saying i believe i trust i trust in god through this time. And there is one attribute of god in particular that i that i uh remember and thank him for through that time of trial when all around me things seem to fall away.

Yes amen. And i think you know and as i'm standing here and teaching i'm thinking you know here is the maturity of a believer in christ. We want to be living this out as we reflect god's own love in our lives.

And sometimes i forget and i hope this doesn't discourage some of you maybe who are new believers who are just learning the love of god and learning to love god more deeply because all of us are in various stages in our sanctification it's progressive and some of us here are more mature than others.

And some of us we know we stumble more often and we pick up and say well i should have trusted in the love of god but i didn't. And then the lord keeps teaching us. He's patient with us he grows us through these times.

But i liked what you said about ministering to one another. Um i remember when i was i've had days which were really low and one of you would either write me a note or call me or drop by and say something.

And they normally say you're an elder in the church. That's probably what they're thinking. But they'd say you know you probably know this already but you know i i thought of this verse or here's something that you know to remember.

I absolutely need that each of us needs that you know many of us know scriptures well in our minds. But we need to be reminded of these things because we still struggle with the flesh. The flesh wars against the spirit uh in a believer's life.

And we need to and the lord has placed us in this body so that we can encourage one another we can point one another to the lord. So we uh grow together in one body uh to to honor god together. So uh as we were talking about paul paul went through many of those trials and he reminds us you know when we go through these trials we want to be uh able to help others who would go through similar trials also so you know those areas where the lord has blessed you with.

You want to help others as they are struggling because in in one sense you have the word of god about the character of god that is unchanging and applies to all different circumstances. But uh i now have a much deeper appreciation of someone who's without a job for a longer period of time.

And you know in the past you'll be like yeah you don't trust god. I know you should trust god but i know how hard it is too because we are still in the flesh and we want to come alongside and help others who are struggling.

Uh trusting not trusting god is a sin. So struggling with that sin where in our human human frailty we struggle to uh grow in the sanctification that the lord has placed in our lives. And there is um dave's not here.

Dave copper was such an encouragement to me. You know he was without a job before. And i know uh we have dad. We have several others here who have exemplified that character and and it reminds me it's almost like hebrews 11 i look at these godly people in our church whom the lord has uh equipped during these times.

And i say you know the lord is faithful. He has uh shown his steadfast love to others. And he has shown to me in other events. And in this one too i can trust him because i can hope in him. And we kind of went a little detour here back to this verse i want to just focus on the eye of the lord.

It's very interesting because in one sense uh god's love for us is unconditional. You know the previous verses we looked at this is who he is his character. He loves us when we do not love him. He loved us when we did not love him.

And here there is a specific sense in which the lord deals with the people that hope in his steadfast love. And i think i want you to just keep that in mind as we look at the other two verses. The next one uh which brad read was from jeremiah 31.

Uh he says i have loved you with an everlasting love. But the context of that verse makes that verse just so much rich. What do you think jeremiah 31 is talking about. I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore i have continued my faithfulness to you. Uh it's an easy it's not a trick question. Yes yeah jeremiah weeping prophet here is nation in rebellion going to go into captivity. And here god is talking about the steadfast love that he has toward his people.

And and this is one of the darkest moments in uh in judah's life. You know the southern nation. And they're going to go off into babylon and god is here talking about what he's going to accomplish as he brings them back because his love never changes even through that darkest of times that they're going to go through.

And the next verse is very similar in hosea 3 -1. And the whole book of hosea is just such an example of the love of god. This man marries a woman who does not love him and who is unfaithful to him. And then it exemplifies the love that god has for his nation that would not love him in turn that would go after these foreign gods.

And then god reaches out and brings back draws his people back to him when they are wandering off behind these other gods. And so so you want to just think of these three examples and think of the steadfast love of god.

What is the nature of our god that uh acts in love toward his people. Let me let me stop that any thoughts. I realize we're almost short on time. We may do one more section any thoughts on any of these verses before we move ahead.

How many of us thinking of this as a communicable attribute would want to exemplify this kind of love in our lives toward those whom god has placed in our circumstance. I hope many of you could hear what charlie was saying.

And actually this morning i was reading erickson on this subject. And millet erickson is another theologian. I don't agree with him on some things but some things he makes you think. And one of the issues with love that he brought about was you know we know that god loves unconditionally.

And yet is there a backward motive toward him. And i didn't i didn't intend to bring it up today but not that you forced the issue. Uh it's you know he he was trying to find a balance that would do justice to everything that we know about god.

Um in terms of why he uh loves his the objects of his creation. And i think you know we need to be very clear that there are several texts that clearly talk about it being unconditional. You know it's an at what did we read as the definition god is freely and eternally giving of himself for the good of others.

So he has our well-being in mind as he actually um we'll maybe next week we will see this. You know some of the things he does in loving the world so much that he gave his son his only son. And there is a another side to this and i think we need to be careful not to uh under emphasize this because in the end um it is about god's glory god.

Um i think you mentioned the children when they come up and they reflect something of ourselves. You know there is a you said there's a selfish motive to that sometimes you know we don't want to be like oh the tealax you know i know who they are you know you you want them to like edward's children.

I think pastor steve or someone recently said you know here are all these people who are the generations that followed after jonathan edwards and here were. You know i think it was a hundred pastors or something like that that came out of his line.

And you want people to reflect god you know to to honor god with your life. But god is unique in some ways. And this is what i was thinking of but i didn't settle in my mind yet. Because when we talk about god being jealous he can rightfully be so as the creator and owner of all.

Um and i i don't believe that there is a sinful selfishness. I i don't. I know there is no simple selfishness when god desires his glory you know and the bible is completely filled with that. You know he works out his purposes to glorify himself and that is not sinful because that's he is god and we are not.