Life is hard. To be sure, there are many good things to be enjoyed in
this place. But that does not remove the fact that life is hard. And when
someone is confronted with some hardship of life what he does, in one way or
another, is appeal to his god. It is increasingly clear that many are doing
that by appealing to a god who is not Yahweh, the living and true God. There
are those who appeal to money. Others appeal to government. And there are those
who look to pleasure to make life work. That’s just a sampling. There are many
more false gods that so many place their hope in. This is one reason why there
is an increase in depression which is just another word for hopelessness. That’s
what happens when it hits you that your gods have failed you, and you have
nowhere else to look, no one else to appeal to. And for so many of these, the
solution is to end the pain by suicide.
Being a Christian does not mean that we are able to avoid the
hardships of life. Life is hard for us as well. In some respects, we can say
that being a Christian makes life a little harder. And like everyone else, we
need to appeal to our God. We need to look to Him to act as our refuge and
strength as we deal with life.
However, to do this we need to know our God. We need to know Him well.
We cannot appeal to Him as a refuge if we do not realize that He actually is a
refuge. He cannot be a strength for us if we don’t know how He can be that for
us. There are too many Christians who struggle needlessly with the hardships of
life because they do not know their God very well. They do not understand Him.
They do not know what He has to offer.
Those who do not know their God very well will not appeal to Him
wisely in times of hardship. They do not know what to ask of Him. And that is
because they do not know, with appropriate detail, what He has to offer, how He
can actually make a difference. To be sure, there is benefit in simply
shouting, ‘Help!’ to Him. But how much better to pray instead, something like, ‘I
need You to give me Your peace now as I am tempted to fear.’
What does our God offer to us? What can we expect of Him? These are
important questions that we all need to have good, clear answers to. We need to
start on that now even though we will be spending an eternity developing better
and more detailed answers. So, today, we look at God.
Now, you could say that we do that every Sunday. And we do. But our
look at God is usually indirect. We consider some event that He has
orchestrated or some promise that He has made and, in that way, consider who
our God is. Today, we do something a bit different. We look at Him more
directly. Today, we look at God as He describes Himself. So, there is no
inferring what He is like from things He has done and the like. Today, we
consider words that God Himself uses to answer our questions: What does God
offer us? What can we expect of Him? What is He like?
Listen to the true God describe Himself to Moses.
Then the Lord passed by in front of him and
proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps
lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet
He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of
fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth
generations.” Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. Exodus
34:6–8 [NASV]
We’re going to work through this bit by bit.
Our God is compassionate. What kind of image comes to mind when you
hear that word? Here’s what comes to my mind, and you might think similarly. I
think about my mother. My mother was a strong-willed, feisty Puerto Rican. But
I always knew that I could go to her with anything because I always knew that
she cared. She cared about me with heartfelt compassion.
Someone who is compassionate feels for others. He - or she -
sympathizes. Actually, to say that better, he or she empathizes. Such a person
enters into the life of the other with a desire to relieve the pain. There is a
tenderheartedness here, a deep concern.
That is your God. He is not cold and distant. He does not fly off the
handle at a moment’s notice. He is not too busy. No. He is like a caring mother
who feels for her child. He feels for you.
It’s significant that this word is tied to the next word that God uses
to describe Himself, ‘and gracious’. What’s this? I suspect that you usually associate
this word with the notion of forgiveness. And that’s fine. But the Hebrew sense
of this word also includes the notion of being favorable toward someone, taking
his side, being for someone. When you include that aspect of being gracious
toward someone, I think that you can see why it is tied to being compassionate.
The God of the Gospel is not detached from the action. He doesn’t take a
neutral view of things. He is for you. He is on your side as you face life with
all its hardships. He is for you because He is gracious toward you. Believing
this when you are confronted with some difficult situation will completely
change your perspective on what is happening. He is your gracious God. He is
for you.
Then, there’s ‘slow to anger’. This is an interesting way God uses to
describe Himself as patient. And I suspect that, especially in this day and
age, it is so very necessary for people to understand this about Him. I think
that we’ve all discovered that people can be very impatient. It’s something
that most of us know from experience. Was there a parent, a teacher, a friend
or employer who was not slow to anger, was not patient with you? Experiencing
this particularly as a part of growing up can poison the rest of life. It is so
easy to simply assume that no one will be all that patient with you. That
results in certain kinds of defenses being erected so that we aren’t hurt by
their impatience.
And so, for too many, it is easy to think that even God won’t be
patient with them, that even He will be quick to lose His temper. But He’s not
like that. Sadly, that is hard for some to believe. They are so used to the
impatience. They scurry about trying to please so that no one will hurry them
along, so that no one will yell at them, even in that polite way that reveals
serious impatience. But your God is not like that. He really is patient.
It is so important to know this because we are so slow to understand
things. Whatever it is that the Spirit is working on getting into our souls,
who gets it quickly? And we’re sure that He’s there, impatient, with that
irritated look on His face, waiting for us to get it into gear, waiting for us
to finally get whatever it is that He’s been trying to teach us. Of course,
there are others who no longer feel this way. But that is because they are sure
that God has given up on waiting for them to get it. But He’s not like that.
And what peace comes as a result of knowing Him in this way, knowing what He’s
really like.
Next is a word that covers so much territory. And there have been many
choices on how to translate it. The New American Standard that I read to you
has ‘lovingkindness’. The ESV has ‘steadfast love’. The King James, both the
old and the new, has ‘goodness’. A more recent translation, the Christian
Standard Bible, has ‘faithful love’. And there’s one more, newer translation
that chooses: ‘loyal love’. What most of them have in common is the notion of
love. But there is another Hebrew word that means ‘love’. What is different
here? What is different is that this is a love that is an expression of a bond
that exists between the one loving and the one being loved. There is a personal
commitment out of which comes this love. And that is what God’s love is for
you. He may love lots of other things. He even loves the wicked. But His love
for you is an expression of the bond that He has with you, a bond that He doesn’t
have with those outside the community of His people. So, this is a love that is
like the love of a husband for his wife. ‘Till death do us part.’ Our God will
never die. And neither will you. He has pledged Himself, pledged His honor, to
love you, to do you good, for as long as that bond exists, which is forever.
Whatever is going on in your life, He is loving you with this special love.
In this self-description God ties His love to His truth. And simply
put, that means that He will never lie to you. So, when He promises to love you
with that loyal love, that committed love, He is speaking the truth. And your
knowing that, being sure of that, makes such a difference, especially when life
gets harder.
And please note, of all of the qualities that God uses to describe
Himself, it is only to these two that He adds, ‘abounding in’.
The Lord, the Lord God … abounding in lovingkindness and truth…
He overflows with this love for you and His commitment to always tell
you the truth. There is great comfort here.
The next quality that God applies to Himself is so necessary for
people like us. He,
forgives iniquity,
transgression and sin;
What good are all the other qualities if there isn’t this one. We are
sinners. And we sin a lot, much more than we realize. What would happen if our
God were not a forgiving God? Without forgiveness we forfeit any benefit from
the other qualities of God’s character. They are gone, at least for people like
us. But He actually is a forgiving God. All of our sins have been dealt with,
taken away, never to be remembered - at least not by the Father. It is this
benefit of the work of Jesus that makes our enjoyment of His other qualities
possible. Where would we be without Jesus?
There is one more item on our list for us to look at.
yet He will by no
means leave the guilty unpunished…
Our God is still a God of justice. And that means that sin is always
punished. Always punished. That is what the Cross is about. Jesus was punished
for sin, for our sin. And that is the only reason why we are not punished for
it. But there are those whom God labels ‘the guilty’. And these will not go
unpunished. But it’s not that their sin is somehow worse than ours. It’s that
while our God is patient with those who are struggling and faltering and yet,
still trying to live well according to His ideas of living well, He is not
patient with those who refuse to work at this. And bear in mind that He is not
talking about those out there in the world. This is about those within the
community of the people of God who are refusing.
Some words of warning from Hebrews fit here.
It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:31
But for those who, in humble reliance on the grace of the Holy Spirit,
endeavor to live as becomes the followers of Christ, for those who work at this
by repentance and faith, this God is compassionate and gracious, patient, rich
in love and truth, and so very forgiving of even the worst of sins.
It is when you are confronted with some hardship, struggling to deal
with it, at times feeling overwhelmed by it, that you can find refuge in this
God. He cares and He will act. He will be to you as a rock, the epitome of
stability, when life seems to be anything but stable. And when you run to Him,
you can say with David,
I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my
salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord,
who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. Psalm 18.1-3
Those who, with David, are growing in their knowledge of this God will
find Him a comforting refuge as they fight their way through life.
There is, however, a problem. There are too many times when we do not
run to Him. There are too many times when we try to find refuge, solace, help
elsewhere. And we are tempted to follow this foolish way of living by that trio
that I’ve mentioned before: the world, the flesh, the devil.
We are so affected by the world around us. You need to remember that
the world has its own gospel when it comes to how to deal well with life. The
world today tells us to depend on ourselves. Hard work and smart decisions will
keep us safe. That is the world’s wisdom. But consider this foolish wisdom. One
example. Life is filled with danger. And the way to keep danger at bay is by
having lots and lots of money. Money can solve a lot of problems. Or so they
tell us. But why do they say that? It’s because they don’t have a god like our
God who makes outlandish promises of love to us. They don’t have a god like our
God who promises us that He will care for us because He cares about us. And
remember, He never lies. He will do what all the money in the world cannot do.
He will keep us safe. The issue here isn’t about how much you have in the bank.
Remember, Job was rich. It’s about where your hope is. Don’t listen to the
world. It has put its hope in things that cannot keep you safe, things that
cannot provide refuge, things that cannot be your strength. But that is exactly
what your God has promised to be.
Then, there’s the flesh. God created humanity with desires, with good
desires. That means that it is not wrong to want to enjoy God’s good gifts. But
our flesh, the sin that remains with us, twists things up. It corrupts those
desires until they are a complete mess, good desires run amuck. But our God,
the God who made you with those desires, promises you that you will have each
and every desire satisfied. He promises that - if not in this life, then
certainly in the one to come. And He understands the pain of having to wait for
that to happen. He understands the struggle, the frustration. Remember, He is
compassionate. So, He provides a way for you to wait in peace and contentment.
Then, there’s this. Our ancient foe hates you with a hatred that goes
beyond what you can imagine. He hates viciously. But he can be quite subtle in
how he works to undo you. And one ploy he uses is to tell you that your God
lies. He softly whispers things like this. ‘The promises that God makes simply
can’t be true. They are too good to be true. Think about it. He’s made
grandiose promises about things He gives, but where are they? Where are these
wonderful gifts? They are nowhere to be found. So, if you’re smart, you’ll just
take matters into your own hands. Make a way for yourself instead of waiting
for some impossible promises to be kept. Don’t be stupid and find yourself high
and dry.’
This is where it is so important to remember that your God does not
lie. He never has, and He never will. Even those promises that talk about complete
satisfaction and contentment and honest-to-goodness happiness all the time - He
will keep even those promises. Believe Him. The alternative is to believe
Satan, and that is never a good idea.
You have been fooled by these three. And you will be fooled again. And
because of that, you will need to do two things. The first is to repent. Admit
your sin when the Spirit points it out to you. Don’t minimize what you have
done. Don’t lie to God by softening the evil of your sin. Be completely honest.
You can do that because you know that your God is a forgiving God. Jesus has
come. The Savior who died, lives. There is no sin that is greater than the
forgiveness that He provides. Repent.
And then, the second thing: believe. Believe the part of the gospel that
you weren’t believing. Believe the aspect of God’s character that you were
doubting. See your temptations in those terms. What is it that Satan doesn’t want
you to believe? What part of the Gospel? What quality of God’s character?
Repent of your unbelief and then believe the truth. As you do that there will
be forgiveness from Jesus and change by the Spirit.
One more thing. Over four decades ago I bought a Bible. It was my close
companion for many years. If you were to open it to the bit of Scripture that
we have worked through this morning you would notice that the last sentence of
our text is underlined, twice.
Moses made haste to
bow low toward the earth and worship.
When I first read this passage, many years ago, Moses’ response to God’s
self-description stood out to me. It did, and still does, because doing what
Moses did, making haste to worship this God, is the only sane thing for a
person to do once he hears God describe Himself. Anyone who fails to do that
just doesn’t get it.