God’s Love and God’s Wrath
(Preached first on 09/08/09, Sunday)
Introduction (Secure Attention) and FCF:
Do you want to know as to why sometimes you are not able to love the Lord?
Take feedback from the congregation.
This morning, you will discover the secret of loving the Lord more than ever before!
Today, we are going to close the series on the “Attributes of God”.
This morning, I’m going to talk about God’s love and God’s wrath.
I. God’s Love.
The Bible specifically identifies three aspects of the nature of God:
1) "God is Spirit" (Jn. 4:24)
2) "God is Light" (I Jn. 1:5)
3) "God is Love" (I Jn. 4:8, 16).
This means that God is not merely one (among many) who loves, but that God is Love itself.
When we say that "God is Love" today, people have the wrong idea of what love is.
God’s love is NOT a passionate desire to have (a lust).
God’s love is NOT a compromise on truth and justice.
God’s love is NOT a sickly sentiment, patterned after human emotion.
God’s love is His voluntary decision to do what is best for anyone irregardless of their worthiness.
A. THE MOTIVE OF HIS LOVE.
What would cause God to love a people who do not deserve His love, perhaps do not want His love, but desperately need His love?
God loves us because He is love!
God’s love is unconditional, yet conditional.
Illustration: A mother is having a test of wills with her two-year-old. The young boy wants to continue playing, but it is time for bath and bed. Mom has already given him a five-minute grace period. Now she insists he will do as she says. If the child could speak articulately, he might say, "If you really loved me, you’d let me do what I want." As adults, we can identify with Mom here. She is expressing love, but is it unconditional? Yes, in the sense that she will love her son even if he disobeys. But no, in the sense that she is requiring conditions.
But if we continue to disobey, the Lord may even discipline us or punish us.
B. THE MANIFESTATION OF HIS LOVE.
Jn. 15:13 – Christ’s sacrificial love.
God’s Love is Sacrificial.
Illustration: A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There was nothing else to say.
I John 4:9-10
"How did God love us?"
Verse 9 - "showed"
While love is an unseen virtue, love that is unseen is not love (the unseen virtue of love will always make itself seen).
1. GOD’S SACRIFICIAL LOVE WAS COSTLY (V. 9a).
The price tag on God’s love was His Son.
Agape love gives - Jn. 3:16.
You can sacrifice without loving (I Cor. 13:3), but you cannot love without sacrificing.
God sacrificed what was dearest to Him.
Illustration: How hard it would be to give up one of your children to save someone else.
2. GOD’S SACRIFICIAL LOVE WAS GRACIOUS (v. 9b).
The purpose of God giving His Son was so that we might live by means of Jesus.
Agape love is selfless. Our best interest was in His mind.
God did not send Jesus into the world just to show us that He loved us, but to do something for us, to give us life.
3. GOD’S SACRIFICIAL LOVE WAS UNDESERVED (v. 10a).
God loved us when we did not love Him.
Nothing in us attracted us to God or made Him love us.
We were sinful, depraved, corrupt, with "no good thing" in us (Rom. 3).
Rom. 5:8 – While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 Jn. 3:1 – God has lavished His love on us.
In a sense, as Christians, nothing we give to God is a sacrifice.
We are merely doing our duty, paying a debt of love, and rendering a "reasonable" service (Rom. 12:1).
4. GOD’S SACRIFICIAL LOVE WAS DESPERATELY NEEDED (v. 10b).
Jesus became the "atoning sacrifice for our sins".
Agape love meets needs.
We had a problem that we could not solve, nor could all the angels in Heaven -- only God’s Son could solve it.
We needed propitiation. We needed to have our sins paid for (covered or atoned for).
5. GOD’S SACRIFICIAL LOVE WAS RIGHTEOUS (V. 10b).
Jesus became "the atoning sacrifice for our sins."
It is said of God "The LORD loves righteousness and justice" (Ps. 33:5).
God in showing His love did not violate any of His just demands.
God’s love did not overlook sin or forgive it without His righteousness being satisfied (cp. Rom. 3:24-26).
Rather, His love found a way to justly pay for it.
God’s love never condones sin, compromises with sin, or withholds punishment in the name of sentiment or emotion.
C. THE MEASURE OF HIS LOVE.
God’s Love is incomprehensible by finite minds.
1. GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS INTIMATE.
a. The Father loves us with the same love He has for His Son (Read John 17:23).
Because we are one (united) with Christ, both the quality of love and the quantity (degree) of love that the Father has for the Son, He has for us.
b. The Father loves us so much, we are called "sons of God" (I John 3:1)
2. GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS INFINITE.
Everything about God is infinite. For example, His knowledge, wisdom, and power and so is His love.
Ps. 57:10 – His love reaches to the skies.
While the holiness of God necessitated Calvary, the love of God provided Calvary.
His love is boundless (Ephesians 3:17-19).
God’s love for us is broad, long, deep, and high.
Paul’s prayer is that the believers who have been firmly rooted into God’s love, and have been solidly placed upon God’s love (v. 17) might come to grasp how much He really loves us (v. 18, 19).
D. THE DURATION OF HIS LOVE.
God’s Love is Eternal.
Jer. 31:3 – everlasting love.
Exodus 15:13 (in English) – God’s love is unfailing.
Illustration: Some people commit suicide because their love has failed. Worldly love may fail, but God’s love is unfailing.
1. NOTHING CAN SEPARATE HIS LOVE FROM US.
Nothing can come between us and God’s love.
Things can come in between us and our love for God (such as "worldliness" - I Jn. 2:15), but nothing can come in between us and His love for us.
Read Romans 8:35-39
Present trials and sufferings are no indication that God has withdrawn His love from us.
Even though the Father allowed His Son to suffer, He did not stop loving Him.
The Father deals with His adopted sons as He dealt with His unique Son (cf. John 16:33).
But we have to understand that only as we remain in Christ Jesus as “our Lord” can we have the certainty that we will never be separated from God’s love.
Practical Application of God’s Love
How can I love God?
Read I John 4:19
If it is true that we "love Him because He first loved us", it is imperative that we really know how much He loved and loves us so that we will love Him more.
No one loves God (in the true sense) who has not first experienced His love.
The times we love God are the times when we see clearly His love for us.
In order for us to truly love God, we must know (be assured of) His love for us.
Why do some Christians leave "their first love"? (cf. Rev. 2:4)
ANSWER: They lose sight of God’s gracious love for them.
1. We lose sight of the cross (when first saved, this is all we thought about).
2. We forget what wretched sinners we were when God’s amazing love found us.
In order for us to truly love God, we must know (be assured of) His sacrificial love for us.
And finally, if we love God, we will love others too.
II. God’s Wrath.
Most people do not want to think of God’s wrath at all, preferring to think and speak of God’s love.
Many seem to believe God’s wrath is an Old Testament truth, and that with the coming of Christ, we are now safe to think only in terms of God’s love.
This is wrong thinking about God.
The wrath of God is not just taught in the Bible, it is a prominent truth in the Scriptures.
The wrath of God is an attribute of God as much a part of God as any other attribute, an attribute without which God would be less than God.
There is no contradiction between God’s love and God’s wrath.
God’s love is just love and His justice is loving justice.
Divine wrath is God’s righteous anger and punishment, provoked by sin.
A. Divine Wrath in Old Testament
Numerous instances can be seen in the Old Testament where God’s wrath is demonstrated.
After God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave them His laws to guide and govern their conduct so they might be a holy people in whose midst He would dwell.
In Deuteronomy 28:1-14, God described the blessings which would result from obedience to the covenant He made with them at Mount Sinai.
Verses 15-68 provide a much more extensive and graphic description of His judgment as a consequence of breaking this covenant. This list is longer than the list of blessings!
In Old Testament times, God not only displayed His wrath toward rebellious Israelites, He also demonstrated His wrath against wicked pagans.
He destroyed the inhabited earth by means of the flood (Genesis 6-9).
He also destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19).
B. Divine Wrath in New Testament
Luke 13:1-5 – unless you repent, you will perish.
Luke 16:19-31 – Story of Rich man and Lazarus.
Jesus talked about hell more than anyone else!
John 3:36
Acts 5 – Ananias and Sapphira.
Read Rev. 16:1-11
Practical Application of God’s Wrath
1) The first and most obvious implication of the biblical doctrine of divine wrath is that sinners desperately need to repent of their sin and place their trust in Christ, who bore God’s wrath for their sin at Calvary.
2) The biblical doctrine of the wrath of God should motivate Christians to evangelize, to warn the lost of the impending wrath of God, and to urge them to be saved.
3) The doctrine of the wrath of God is an incentive for the Christian to live a holy life.
Our desire should be to please God (2 Corinthians 5:9), and this will be done as we pursue holiness and flee from sin.
We should hate sin.
4) The doctrine of the wrath of God instructs us not to fret over the wicked.
While they may appear to be getting away with evil, they will come under the wrath of God: Psalm 73:12-13, 16-20.
Rom. 12:19 – “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Conclusion
Illustration of a 22-year old woman – the Lord asked a servant of God to pray for this woman for 6 hours!!! – this woman was captured by the Holy Spirit and the Lord led this woman to the servant of God at 12 am – the Lord told the servant of God to tell this woman that Jesus loves her and that He wants to save her!!! – the woman returned Rs. 10,000 to the man with whom she sinned – that man kept pestering her to come again to sin with him – she calls up the servant of God and tells that this man is asking her to sin with him again – few days later, he died of heart failure!!! – both God’s love and God’s wrath is seen in this true story.
