Attributes of God - The Love of God (Deuteronomy 7) (Sermon 13)

In this series of sermons we are Exploring the Attributes & Excellencies of God

• Exploring the Attributes of God ought to be giving us an Enlarged Vision of our Mighty God.
• It ought to increase our hope for the Rapid Expansion of the Church of Christ!
• It should cause the Church to become a Mighty Force in the Hands of a Mighty God!
• If we take this theme seriously, it ought to have a Transforming Effect on Our Lives.

A Church's Spiritual Temperature may be gauged by her Conception of God:

Martin Luther challenged Erasmus, saying:

"Your thoughts of God are too human."

J B Philips challenged the Church of Christ almost half a century ago, saying:

"You have an inadequate image of God - Your God is too small."

Jim Packer, in his book Knowing God, says:

"Ignorance of God - ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion

with God - lies at the root of much of the Church's weakness today."

One of the Biggest Causes of the Church's Weakness this Century has been an

Inadequate Conception of the Love of God

• A wishy-washy Conception of God's Love has led to a wishy-washy Gospel.
• It has led to a wishy-washy Church that sees no need to Evangelise the Lost.

• It has led to wishy-washy Christians who argue that, because God is a God of Love,

he will never allow anyone to go to a Lost Eternity in Hell.

• It has led to the idea that a God of Love cannot possibly be a God of Wrath & Judgement!

This is a very Distorted Conception of the Biblical Doctrine of God's Love:

• A true conception of God's Love takes into account God's Holiness & Man's Sinfulness.
• It must take into account the fact that God Hates Sin and must Punish Sin.
• The Love of God cannot be Divorced from the Wrath & Judgement of God.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones said:

"We shall never really understand the Love of God, until we see what sin is in the

sight of this Holy God whose wrath is upon it."

It is the Apostle John, who declares that 'God is Love' (1 John 4:8),

who also declares that 'God is Light, in him there is No Darkness at all' (1 John 1:5).

- Therefore, we must remember that God's Love is Only One Attribute Among Many:

• God's Love is related to his other Attributes and must never be divorced from them.

Jim Packer, in his book Knowing God, says:

"God's Love is not the complete truth about God as far as the Bible is concerned.

It is not an abstract definition which stands alone, but a summing up … This statement,

Disobedient; for it is precisely the God who does these very things that John is speaking."

This evening I want us to look at Three Facets of the Love of God.

1. God taught the People of Israel that his Love is Unconditional

• The most amazing thing about God's Love is that he Loves Us when we don't deserve it.
• Furthermore, God's Love for us remains steadfast, even at times when we don't respond to it.

• In other words, God's Love is very different to human love.
• As human beings we show more love to those who love us & less love to those who dislike us

God's Love is not like that, because the Love of God is Unconditional.

God revealed his Unconditional Love to the People of Israel:

Can you see what God is saying to Moses here?

There is no human reason whatsoever why God should love the people of Israel.

• They were not a Mighty Nation because they were not a numerous people.

They were the Weakest Nation on earth because they were the fewest of all peoples.

God did not love Israel because they were Any Better than the Other Nations:

• Shortly after God had said this, the Israelites asked Aaron to make the Golden Calf.

Note what God said to Moses & the people of Israel at that time (Deut 10:14-16):

- The Israelites were a Rebellious & Stiff-necked People; but God still Loved them.

Why did God Love this weak, rebellious & stiff-necked nation?

• God answers this question through Moses, saying:

"It was because the Lord Set His Affection on you …

"It was because the Lord Set His Affection on your forefathers & Loved them …

It was because He Chose you, their descendants, above all the nations" (Deut 10:15).

• God's Love is not given to these people because they themselves are worthy of being loved.
• God Chose to Love them despite their rebellious & stiff-necked nature.
• God's Love is Not Dependent upon Israel's love for him; He loved them Unconditionally.

• All that God loves, he loves freely. Those that perish, perish because of their own sinfulness,

but all that are saved, are saved by his Divine Choice & Prerogative.

Charles Wesley summed up this teaching by saying:

"He hath loved us, He hath loved us, because he would love."

No reason for his love can be given except his own Sovereign Good Pleasure.

The principle of the Unconditional Nature of God's Love remains true in the N.T. Era:

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says to the Romans:

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly

… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,

Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6 & 8).

• Again, it is very clear that God's Love for sinners is an Unconditional Love.

The Greatest Demonstration of Divine Love, says Paul, is this:

"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"

Romans 5 may be described as Paul's Exposition of John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life"

• God the Father Loved the World so much that he sent his Son to Die for Sinners.
• God the Son died so that those who believe in him should have Eternal Life & Never Perish.
• God sent Jesus knowing that they were Sinners & Enemies of God.
• This is a demonstration of the Unconditional Love of God for those who were still sinners.

Paul also says that the Love of God is an Unconditional Love;

"God loved us when we were Still Powerless

… God demonstrated his love us in this: While we were Still Sinners, Christ died for us"

• Just as God chose to Love Israel when they were a weak, insignificant nation;

God chose to set his Love on people who are powerless to save themselves.

• Just as God chose to Love Israel when they were a rebellious & stiff-necked people;

• God chose to Love us while we were still sinners.

Paul is not talking about Our Love for God, but about God's Love for Us.

• Paul is saying that Our Salvation does Not Depend on Our Love for God;

• It depends on God's Love for Us.

• We would never be worthy of Salvation if it depended on our love for God.

There is not one good thing in any of us that merit's God's Love.

• We are a Sinful & Rebellious People, who deserve the Wrath & Judgement of God.

• God does not love us because we are loveable, or because we are worthy of his love.
• He Loves us because he Chose to Love Us with an Unconditional Love.

We must never forget that it was God the Father who sent his Son to Save Sinners:

Jesus said: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one & only Son" (Jn 3:16).

• Salvation always depends on the Love & Action of God the Father.

This is why the Psalmist says:

"Salvation belongeth to the Lord … Our God, is a God who Saves" (Ps 3:8; 68:20).

This is why the Apostle Paul says: "The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation" (Rom 1:16).

• It is a completely False Notion to depict God the Father as a Passive Being, who simply Responds to the Pleading of His Son to grant us Salvation because of his Sacrificial Death.

• Salvation depends on the Unconditional Love of God who sent God the Son to Die for us.

Go back to Rom 5:5 & note the manner in which God has given us this Unconditional Love:

"God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

• The Greek Verb used here literally means: poured or tipped out.
• It is the same word used of the outpouring of the Spirit himself in Acts 2:17 & 33.
• The word suggests a free flow & a large quantity - an inundation.
• The New English Bible grasps this meaning by saying:

'God's love has flooded our inmost heart."

• Paul is talking about a deep & overwhelming love.

Scholars tell us that this verb is in the perfect tense.

• This implies a settled state consequent upon a completed action.

• The thought is that the Love of God, having flooded our hearts, still fills them now.

• Paul is saying that we will continue to live with a strong & abiding sense of God's Love.

The Apostle Paul says that the Highest Thing he could desire for the Ephesian Christians, was for the Holy Spirit to continue to flood their hearts with God's Love (Eph 3:17-19):

"I pray that you, being rooted & established in love, may have power … to grasp how

wide & long & high & deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses

knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

This is the Greatest Gift that any believer could ever receive or desire:

• To be rooted & established in love; To grasp the full implications of the Love of Christ;

• To know how wide & long & high & deep is the Love of Christ.

Do you want to be Filled with All the Glory of the Fullness of God?

• Then you must grasp the full measure of the Love of God in Christ.
• You must learn to understand what it means to say: 'God IS LOVE'.

We are looking at Three Facets of the Love of God

1. God taught the People of Israel that his Love is Unconditional
2. God taught the Prophet Jeremiah that his Love is Eternal

Listen to what the Lord God said to the Prophet Jeremiah (31:3):

"I have loved you with an Everlasting Love; I have drawn you with Loving-kindness."

This message comes in Jeremiah's Prophesy about the Restoration of Israel after the Exile.

Having predicted the imminence of the Fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah says (30:3):

How could God's people be assured that God would keep his Promise of Restoration?

The Lord God himself gives a Twofold Reason in Jeremiah 31:1-3:

Firstly, the Lord God says:

"At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they will be My People" (31:1)

• The Lord is saying: I will Re-affirm My Covenant with My People.
• They will know that I am Their God & they are My People.

• The Lord declares that he will bring them out of Babylon,

just as surely as he delivered their forefathers from the Egyptians.

God's people are now, just like they were then:

"A people who survive the sword … a people in the desert (in the wilderness)" (31:2).

• God's People may well have felt Lost & Forgotten whilst they were in Exile;

But God says: I have Not Forgotten My Covenant with My People.

Secondly, the Lord God says (31:3):

"I have loved you with an Everlasting Love; I have drawn you with Loving-kindness"

• Note how this declaration of God's Everlasting Love is prefaced by Jeremiah:

God is saying:

• Remember that the Covenant I made with Abraham was an Everlasting Covenant (Gen 17:7).

• Remember that I Renewed this Covenant with my people through the Prophet Moses,

after I brought them out of the Bondage of Egypt (Deuteronomy 29:12-13).

Jeremiah reminds God's people that the Lord is Renewing his Everlasting Covenant again:

"Remember that the Lord appeared to us in the past saying,

I have loved you with an Everlasting Love."

The Lord is reasoning with his people, saying:

• In your Exile, you may feel that the Covenant Relationship has been suspended for a time,

but never forget that my Everlasting Covenant is founded on my Everlasting Love.

The Lord God goes on to say: "I have drawn you to myself with Loving-kindness" (31:3b).

• You did not choose me, but I chose you and have drawn you to myself.
• God is reminding his people once again that God's Love is an Unconditional Love.
• If it depended on their love for God, they would rot in exile forever.

But this Promise of Restoration is founded on God's Everlasting Love.

The Apostle Paul taught to the Ephesians that God loved us from Eternity Past:

"For he chose us in (Christ) before the creation of the world to be holy & blameless

in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,

in accordance with his pleasure and will" (Eph 1:4-5).

Paul is explaining how God Blesses us with Every Spiritual Blessing in the Heavenly Places.

He begins by emphasising God's Eternal Love for his people in Two Ways:

Firstly, Paul says that God 'chose us', in other words he loved us, set us apart,

Secondly, note how Paul says: "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons."

• If we were asked to explain how we have received Salvation & Spiritual Blessing

we would probably begin by talking about the Life, Death & Resurrection of Christ.

• But Paul does not speak in that way.
• The Apostle says that All the Spiritual Blessings which are ours in Christ

• God chose us and set us apart for Salvation before the Creation of the World.

• Paul goes right back to Eternity & says that God Loves us with an Everlasting Love.

Paul gives the same teaching in 2 Thessalonians 2:13:

"But we ought always to thank God for you, loved by the Lord, because from the

• Paul says that the Lord Loved us from the Beginning. He Loved us with an Everlasting Love.

God Loved us from Eternity Past, but he will also Love us to Eternity Future.

Since God's Love for his people had No Beginning, it can have No Ending!

• He loves us from everlasting to everlasting.

The Apostle Paul asks a Vital Question about the Love of God the Father & God the Son:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution

or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" Then Paul gives his reply: "No, in all these

things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that

neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor

any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to

separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39).

Paul gives the obvious answer by the very question he asks:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

• Paul is asking: Who will separate us from the Love of the Eternal Son of God,

who has Loved us together with God the Father from Eternity?

• The Love of Christ is like a magnet that has taken hold of us and will not let go of us.

• The answer to this question doesn't depend on us at all!
• Paul is not asking, Can Our Love for Christ stand these tests of trouble & hardship etc?

The proof that this is the meaning of the term 'the love of Christ' is clear from Paul's answer

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors Through Him Who Loved us."

• It is through him who loved us with an Everlasting Love that we will triumph

• Paul has already stated that God loved us when we were 'powerless & ungodly'.

• If God loved us when were sinners & enemies & blasphemers & aliens,

there is absolutely no reason why God should not continue to love us for Eternity to Come!

• He sent the Lord Jesus to bring us Eternal Life, therefore he will Love us for Eternity

At the very end of this statement we have this same truth:

None of these things 'will be able to separate us from the love of God.'

• Jesus is now in heaven, interceding for us, which guarantees our Perseverance to the End.

This is why the Hymn-writer, George Wade Robinson, could say:

"Loved with an Everlasting Love, Led by grace that love to know,

Spirit breathing from above, Thou hast taught me it is so.

Ah, with what a rest is bliss Christ can fill the loving heart!

Heaven & earth may fade & flee, First-born light in gloom decline,

But while God & I shall be, I am his & he is mine."

We are looking at Three Facets of the Love of God

1. God taught the People of Israel that his Love is Unconditional
2. God taught the Prophet Jeremiah that his Love is Eternal
3. God taught the Apostle John that God's Love For Us Demands that we Love Others

The Apostle John says:

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God & knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is Love" (1 John 4:7-8).

The Fundamental Statement is that 'God is Love'.

• John doesn't merely say that God loves us, or that God is a loving God.
• John goes beyond that and says: 'God IS Love'; God is Essentially Love;

God's very Nature is Love; God would not be God without possessing this Essential Attribute.

John says: Because God is Love, if we say that we know God, we must Love One Another On the basis of God's Love, he gives Four Reasons why believers must Love One Another

Firstly: We must Love One Another because 'Love comes from God':

• Love flows from the One whose Essential Nature is Love.
• Love is something that Only Comes from God; This kind of love can't come from anyone else

Note that John is NOT talking about Human Love here:

• The whole idea of human love is debased & sinful;
• Human Love is carnal or fleshly love; it’s the love we hear about in Newspapers & on TV.

• John is talking about a different kind of love - the Love that Comes from God
• He is talking about loving one another in the manner in which God Loves us.

Secondly: We must Love One Another because it is Evidence of our New Birth.

"Dear friends, let us love one another … Everyone who loves has been Born of God."

• What makes us Christians is that we are Born Again of the Spirit of God.
• We do not become Christians by accepting an Intellectual Proposition about a set of Beliefs.
• We become Christians by being Born of God & being made partakers of the Divine Nature.

John says, if this is true of us, we will display the Divine Attribute of Love.

• Showing love toward one another is Evidence of the Fact that we are Born of God.

If we do not display this love, at least in some small measure, we are not true Christians.

• Ask yourself: Do you feel any love for those you would naturally dislike?

• Do you feel any love for those who show contempt or even hatred toward you?

• If you are Born of God, you must show genuine love toward such people, however feebly.

Thirdly: We must Love One Another because it is Evidence of Spiritual Knowledge:

"Let us love one another … Everyone who loves has been Born of God & Knows God."

• John puts this same truth negatively: "Whoever does not love does not know God."

• John is saying: It is by manifesting this life of love to one another that we give evidence of the fact that we have a True Spiritual Knowledge; that we really do Know God.
• In other words, loving one another is the Logical Development of true Spiritual Knowledge.
• God is Love. Therefore, the more I Know God, the more I will Know about God's Love;

Knowing the Love of God experimentally is a gradual developing process.

• We begin the Christian Life by Knowing a little about the Love of God.
• As our Knowledge of the Person of God increases, we know more & more that God is Love.
• At the beginning we may have doubts that God loves us; but our Assurance will increase. This will result in a Deeper Knowledge of God's Love & a Deeper Love for God's People.
• The more we Know about God's Love, the more we will understand the

Paramount Importance of Believers Loving One Another.

• Conversely, the more we Love One Another the more we Prove that we Know God.

Fourthly: We must love one another because God gives us an Example to Follow:

"This is how God showed love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that

we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and

sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:9-11).

John tells us that we must Learn to use the Logic of the New Testament

by Following the Example of God's Love for us:

• Note the Logic of the Apostle John here:

"Dear friends, Since God so loved us, We also Ought to love one another."

• If I believe this about God, then I must love like that.
• If God Loves me, I must Love Others after the same manner that God Loves Me.
• To put it negatively, I cannot truly say that I believe this about God,

unless I demonstrate my belief by loving others in the same manner.

Think of the situation that faces us as Christians:

• We are Christians in this world, along with other Christians.
• The problem is that we find some of these people rather difficult to live with.
• These people irritate us and rub us up the wrong way from time to time.

What does Human Logic tell us that we must do in this situation?

• Our natural reaction is to feel that the other person is treating us Wrongly & Unfairly.

• We feel that we have no need to change; rather, they ought to change their attitude toward us

• Human logic asks the question: How can I love that person after what they have done to me?

What does the Wisdom & Love of God tell us to do in this situation?

• The Apostle John says: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us

& sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10).

• The Apostle Paul says: "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).

If you really believe that, apply it to your own situation. Follow the Example of God's Love!

God loved us when we were rebels & enemies:

• Therefore, you must Love the people who hate you.

• Love people whether they love you or not. Love them Unconditionally.

• You must force yourself love them, because Scripture says you ought to love them.

God loved us while we were still sinners:

• Therefore, we must see other people as sinners just like us.
• Instead of looking at their Offensive Actions towards us, we must see them as Victims of Sin
• We must Love Others when they are Still Sinners.
• We must love others when they are still doing wrong to us.

• We must love them as people who need God's forgiveness & Our Forgiveness as well.

How do you do that?

Talk to yourself & say: If God loves me Unconditionally, that is how I should love others.

Say to yourself: God loved me as a sinner, therefore I must love others who sin against me.

• Ask yourself this question: Am I loving others in the same way that God loves me?

• The Gospel brings us face to face with ourselves. It tells us to look at ourselves before we look at others; It tells us that we ought to treat others the same way that God has treated us.

If you look at yourself before you look at others, what a difference it makes!

• When you lift yourself above another person, you will look down upon them.
• When you see yourself grovelling in sin & in need of God's Love & Forgiveness,

you will look at the other person from a completely different perspective.

When the Love of God is operating in our hearts, we ought to look at others differently:

• When God's Love is within our hearts we must look at others through the Logic of Scripture.
• We must say to ourselves: Since God is Love - So we ought to love one another.

Finally, when we think of Loving Others, let us Remember the Parable of the

Unmerciful Servant in Matthew 18:21-35:

• A Servant owed his Master the Vast Sum of Ten Thousand Talent - about 2 Million Pounds.
• There was no way this Poor Servant could possibly pay back such a Great Debt.
• The master ordered that this Servant, as well as his wife & children should be put in prison.
• He begged his master to have mercy & forgive him, & his master cancelled the debt.

This Unmerciful Servant refused to cancel a much smaller debt owed to him by another.

• This man who had had his Huge Debt cancelled,

had his fellow servant thrown into prison for owing him a mere pittance (about Fifty Pence).

• His master called this Unmerciful Servant "a Wicked Servant" because he refused to forgive the much lesser offence of someone else.
• In his anger his master turned him over to the jailers until he should pay back his own debt.

Jesus said: "This is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you

This is why we must constantly pray the words of the Lord's Prayer:

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" (Mtt 6:12)

The Apostle John tells us that we must apply the logic of this Parable

to our relationships with fellow-believers.

• Since God Loves us so much that he Forgives our Infinite Debt, so we ought to love others and forgive the person who wrongs us in a far lesser manner.
• If God Forgives us to the extent of our Two Million Pounds,

how can we refuse to forgive someone else a mere Fifty Pence?

The logic of our Saviour is clear:

How can we expect God to Forgive us if we Refuse to Forgive One Another?

How can we say that we Love God, if we refuse to show His Love to others?

How can we say that we Believe that God is Love, if we do not love one another?

If you say that God is Love, then you must put that love into operation in your life.

• This is the command of the Saviour who Died for you:

"A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must

love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another"

(John 13:34-35).