Thirst Student Ministries

Knowing God - The Love of God, by Stuart McCray - May 27, 2007

I have two questions. What is it to really know someone? So, real quick, right off the top of your head you might say things like, "To know what color they like" or, "To know their middle name" or, "To know their favorite foods" or, "To know their likes or dislikes" (what do you guys have to add?). My other question is, why does it matter, to really know someone (ask for opinions)? It matters because we will not only be able to better interact with them but we will also know how to respect them and appreciate them more if we truly know them. This same logic applies to God as well. To better appreciate who He is and to better interact with Him (i.e. worship Him and praise Him) we had best have a good idea of who He is than just saying he is simply, he's God.

This is the goal with this ongoing series we are about to jump into called "Knowing God". Over the next two to three weeks we will be studying different characteristics of God. Different attributes that make up who He is and therefore why He does and or stands up for certain things.

But before we get into our first attribute of God - The Love of God, I want to talk about the surveys I had you guys take last week and also I just want to thank those of that were able to take the survey. It was a real simple and short and it was not a big deal so for those of you that were sweating about it for some reason or another it's not that big of a deal I just wanted to get a general idea of what you all knew about some different things and also what the general consensus was going to be with the question, "Would you say God is more of your…Friend, Lord, King, Judge or Savior".

I was most intrigued by this one. I was very curious to know what would be circled the most (which one do you think had the most circled?). Out of 28 surveys, "Lord" was circled the most followed by "Savior", then "Friend" and then finally "King" / "Judge" tied for last.

Actually I was so thrilled to find this out. I really thought that "Friend" was going to be the number one or even "Savior" but "Lord" was number one. This was very encouraging to my heart because as you should know at this point the most supreme title that you could give God or Jesus is Lord. Do you remember when we talked about this? Lord means in the Hebrew Adonai or translated into English, it means Sovereign. Now remember God's Holy name is Yahweh but his supreme title is Sovereign and this is to proclaim him as the King of Kings (this would be like saying that The Presidents name is George Bush but his supreme title is President). So needless to say I was very thrilled about this and again thanks to those that were able to take the survey.

Now are you ready to dig into today's topic on the Love of God? I have a very unique and hopefully insightful perspective that I would like to share with you this morning on the Love of God.

Definition of The Love of God
The Love of God, God is love; this is a true a biblical statement (1 John 4:8) it is His nature to be Love. God's love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.

The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God
But I think it is hard and or difficult to have a right view of God as being "love" in this day and age. D.A. Carson says this in his book entitled, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God,

dis

Defining God by Us and Not by Him
Look the reason for the difficulty with the teachings of the Love of God or that God being love is difficult to really get a biblical grasp of, is that instead of making God and all that he is, who he is, we make his attribute of Love the litmus test, the last stand, for all other things that he is. And then on top of that we take our image of what "love" is and then apply it to God. And here is the problem with that, (and you will hear me say this concept again and again through out this series) you might say, "Well we are sort of in his image and sort of have some righteousness and sort of have some power and intelligence and some morality and so you can point to us and then point back to God".

The problem with this is that you never start to define the Definer with the Defined. Stated another way, never define God, who does the defining of what things are, with ourselves, that which has been defined by him. That's backwards, that's putting the end before the beginning, the cart before the horse, it can't be done and every time you try, you will end up backwards and confused.

This is a huge issue with how we try and view God. We can't start with us when defining God; we must start with God to define anything. We often start with trying to draw comparisons with who we are and therefore then who God should be. But the problem with this method is that we will skew who God is badly when we start with us, a fallen creature, and not with God, the perfection.

God is Not Barney
Let me just say this on that topic, I have often thought that we, this culture of Christians, we have made God out to be something that He is not. We have made God impotent, crippled, gutless, helpless, inadequate, incapable, ineffectual, nerveless, powerless, weak and wimpy. The fact is that we have made God into Barney for the sake of making Him into our image of "love". So much so that we have sacrificed everything that he is to make him what it is to us "loving" instead of realizing he is God, he is all these "things" that the Bible talks about (sovereign, all knowing, wrathful, patient, good, righteous, holy and justified just to name a few).

Oh, it's no longer OK for God to be justified with sending sinners to hell for not believing in Christ as the only true way, because that would just not "love". It is no longer OK for God to have a redemptive plan, like he has had for all time and all through out the bible, because if he happened to impose his will on ours then he might be "unloving". It is no longer OK for God to be omniscient or all knowing, because if he really knew all things then he wouldn't really allow certain things to happen then right(?) because then He might not be, "loving". It is no longer OK for him to be the commander of the wind and the rain, because if someone happens to die in a storm, then God would be cruel and "unloving". I love the way that when God spares us for thousands of years and than when a tragedy strikes he becomes our whipping boy. He gets no glory for being merciful through the thousand years of when good things happen, when merciful things happen, but when something goes wrong he goes under the microscope to be judged. God is the judge, not us; we're out in the audience simply to be in awe of his wonder. Who are we; we all deserve death, but in his grace he gifts us with life; not out of our merit or doing but out of His pleasure he gifts us with life. Stop putting your standards on God and start to realize that God is who creates and puts standards on things.

God is a God of Love
So yes, God is a God of "love"; he is, even with all his other attributes that we might not understand completely. But don't start with your standard of what he should be and rather start with who the Bible says He is. Take all of who he is and pray that he will continue to reveal himself to you in powerful ways so that you will come to know and glorify the God who is all things.

God is love. As I said before this can be difficult in the biblical sense to get, because of outside influences on our thought processes, but I want to move forward and show you the different ways that God is love. I see seven beautiful and glorious ways in which the Bible describes God's love that I want to share with you this morning. Are we ready? This is going to be awesome, let's check it out.

Seven Ways God's Love is Described
The love of God is uninfluenced. What I mean by this is that there was nothing in us, in his creatures that he created, that caused him to love. Simply stated again, "God is love", 1 John 4:8. The Word tells us that it was out of his own being that he decided to put his favor upon us, "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you..." (Deut. 7:7-8). A.W. Pink says it like this,

"nothing about the creature can be the cause of what is found in God from eternity. He loves from Himself: "according to His own purpose" (2 Tim. 1:9)". In fact there is nothing to be found in us, before Christ comes into our heart, that God would find appealing or pleasing at all. The Word tells us that we are, "by nature children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3), "dead in trespasses and sins." (Eph. 2:1) Paul tells us that, "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God (which is what every mind is set on before Christ comes into our hearts), for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Romans 8:7-8) Can't you see that the reality is that everything that was in us before salvation actually occurred, repelled God, so it had to be within Him for why he loved us? The Word says, "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). So God's love is uninfluenced.

The love of God is eternal. Check it out-this is an easy if / then statement. If God is eternal (meaning having no beginning and no end), which he is, then his attributes or his nature of being "love" can neither have a beginning or an end. So, God's love is eternal because He is eternal. The Word states this clearly, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued (with loving kindness) my faithfulness towards you." (Jer. 31:3) What wonderful good news to hear that God set his affections on "His own" before heaven and earth were ever called into existence, "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will," (Eph. 1:4-5). What amazement we should be in of our holy God, that his love had no beginning and so therefore can have no end!

The love of God is sovereign. This too is an easy equation. Since God is sovereign, under no restraints by outside influences, a law unto Himself, doing and accomplishing everything simply out of His own will and pleasure and since He is love, then it would follow that His love is also sovereign. A.W. Pink says this about God's love being sovereign,

"The sovereignty of God's love necessarily follows from the fact that it is uninfluenced by anything in the creature. Thus, to affirm that the cause of His love lies in God Himself is only another way of saying, He loves whom He pleases." Maybe for a moment we should assume the opposite to make this point even clearer. What if God's love was governed by something other than His own will? Pink says,

"in such a case he would be under a law of love, and then so far from being free, God would Himself be ruled by law." Also, think of it like this. If God's love was a conditional thing and God was in a position to give his love based on something someone did, he would be in debt to that person, to love them based on what they have done to merit his love. This idea of God being in a place of debt flatly contradict scripture, "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" (Romans 11:34-35)

Check out what the scripture has to say as to why God loves us and chose us, "In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will," (Eph. 1:4-5). Why does he love us (?), according to what purpose (?) it was, "according to the purpose of his will...".

The love of God is infinite. Meaning there is no limit to how much he can love. In fact everything about God is infinite. His essence/being fills heaven and earth, His wisdom and power and without end. There is a depth to his love that none can fathom. John Brine says this about God's infinite love,

true

ocean

fountain

God's love is immutable. Meaning his love as with his him has, "no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17) His love for us never changes nor diminishes. And there is great joy and security in knowing this. The Word tells us because of his immutable love that, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

God's love is holy. The word holy calls attention to all that God is as well as towards his love. Pink says it best,

"God's love is not regulated by caprice, passion, or sentiment, but by principle. Just as His grace reigns not at the expense of it, but "through righteousness" (Rom. 5:21), so His love never conflicts with His holiness." When the Bible telling us and describes to us that God's love is a holy love, it means that even though he is love God will not over look sin to thereby sacrifice his holiness. Take this to heart thought, God being a God of love is no weakness or softness on his part. The scripture says this, "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." (Heb. 12:6) For his love to be holy it means for it to be pure and set apart differently, a cut above the rest if you will, then anything that we can experience or give from and to another.

Finally God's love is gracious. As we have already learned God's love is uninfluenced and sovereign and because of His love being brought about in and because of Himself he graciously, "shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) While we were still slandering him and cursing him he put Christ on the cross for his children to forgive them. When ever you doubt that God loves you, his child, look back at the cross, look back at Calvary. Pink says this awesomely,

"Here then is abundant cause for trust and patience under Divine affliction. Christ was beloved of the Father, yet He was not exempted from poverty, disgrace, and persecution."

Christ was loved by the Father, "Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;" (Isaiah 53:10). So don't call into question God's love for you when he allows you to meet trials of various kinds. James says this to the question of what does it mean when we meet trials or tough times, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)

God is love, but are you like those who pick and choose how God should "love"? Are you putting your own impressions of what love should be onto God instead of taking what the Bible offers you and tells you about what God's love is? I want to remind you that we all too often start out trying to define God, the Definer, with ourselves, that which is imperfect and that which has been defined by Him. We get God backwards when we do it like this.

So I challenge you to come humbly to the Word, come humble towards God and put aside your preconceived notions and worldly standards and come wanting to seek who the Biblical God truly is. And make it your prayer that God would reveal himself to you in powerful ways.

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