The Compassion Of God Series

The character of God.

Sermon number 1.

I want to continue this series on the Character of God with a statement on just who God is.

God is independent, unchangeable, eternal and omnipresent. He exists as a spiritual being, having no form or dimensions, and is omniscient (all-knowing), wise, truthful, faithful, good, loving, merciful, graceful, patient, holy, at peace, righteous and just, jealous for His own honour, wrathful towards sin, perfect in every way, beautiful beyond comprehension, and is glorified through the revelation of Himself.Today is communion Sunday in our church.

Today I want to emphasise for you something of the nature and character of God.

Last time I preached on the character of God I preached on God’s sovereignty

Today I want to balance that view of God by preaching on His love.

Of course there are many things that we could say about God’s character.

But today because it is our communion Sunday I want to emphasise for you God’s love and compassion.

Genesis chapter one says an incredible thing.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth.

God made the heavens and the earth but his concentration his emphasis seems to be on planet earth.

It is this one small speck in eternity that is the focus of his attention.

But that is no ordinary little speck it is the planet earth the Jewel in God’s crown of creation.

The English Imperial State crown can be seen on the Sovereign at the opening of Parliament. This is also the crown that is usually seen on the newly anointed Monarch’s head out on the balcony to greet his/her subjects. (This crown weighs in at just under 3 lbs, and it was originally made for Queen Victoria’s

coronation.) It is part of a "set", if you will, because it contains the Second Star of Africa, also part of the Cullinan Diamond in the Sceptre. © Crown Copyright

This diamond is the second largest cut diamond on earth the first is in the royal sceptre.

My point is it is that it reminds us that earth is the glory of God’s creation second only to

God’s pervfect powerbase heaven itself – the place of the royal sceptre.

God is a loving creator.

The way we can appreciate any creator is by their works.

How do you know if someone is a good musician or artist.

Listen to their works or look at their art that will tell you.

How do we know if god is a loving creator – by understanding the investment of love in His creation.

How God maintains the world at just the correct orbit in relation to the sun a raging, boiling vortex of unbelievable heat is beyond us.

And the stars are other suns, so far away from this solar system that distance is measured not in miles but light years.

A light year is the distance that light, at 186,000 miles per second, can travel in one year. In a book on astronomy it says that if a person lived on a planet rotating around one of the nearer suns (“stars”) presumably at the correct distance – and could see with a high powered telescope all the way to this earth, he would be able to see Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

God’s great act of love and his character of love is first seen in his amazing creation.

God created this amazing planet and it has a troubled history.

It is a used planet – according to the ecologists it has been chain smoking too long and is struggling to gasp for breath.

People are reproducing at incredible rates and there is murder, violence and incredible injustice at an alarming rate.

20 centuries have passed since the birth of Jesus and one thing is certain – we are in a bigger more sinful tangle than ever before.

Everyday in Baghdad it seems some car bomb goes off and kills innocent civilians many woman and children .

In Somalia there is suffering and murder beyond belief – the Chinese practise State powered genocide that would have embarrassed Hitler – or maybe he would have admired their efficiency.

Even here in our own Country children are systematically terminated at the whim of parents and there is increasing violence and murder and idolatry.

If earth were a used car you think the owner – God – would give up and buy a new model.

But not so.

God continues to sustain life on earth.

But you know there is one thing to sustain something and another to love it.

In John chapter 3 verse 16 – We read 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.