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About God (3).

12). God is a God of Love

John in his letter tells us that ‘God is ________’ (4.8). This is both the most wonderful and the most misrepresented statement in the Bible, and we must first remember that the same writer also said ‘God is _______’ as opposed to ____________ (1 John 1.5). Both are central to the character of God. His love is expressed in the light. John is saying that not to love is to be alien to God, but he is also saying that not to be in the light is also alien to God, for God’s love is righteous love. This has little to do with what the world usually means by love today, which is a mixture of sentiment and sexual awareness.

The Bible tells us that in the face of man’s sin and rebellion God has revealed His loving mercy. But it also warns of the consequences of rejecting that love, and we must therefore look at God’s love under two headings, that of His general benevolence towards mankind, and that of His love towards those who have received Him.

12a). God’s General Benevolence.

The Psalmist tells us that ‘The Lord is _______ to all, and His ____________________ are over all His works’ (Psalm 145.9). So he can add ‘the eyes of all ______ for you, and you _____ ________________ in due season. You open ____________ and satisfy ____________ of every living thing’ (Psalm 145.15-16). For ‘He makes his sun ____________ on the evil and the good, and sends _______ on the just and the unjust’ (Matthew 5.45). This is God’s witness to all men that ‘He did _______, and gave you from heaven _________________________________, filling your hearts with food and gladness’ (Acts 14.17). And it is this general benevolence to the undeserving that makes God ___________ (Matthew 5.48 in context). And His love does not just concern their material welfare for God is a merciful God.

But significantly this mercy of God divides the human race into two, those who respond and those who do not. He ‘shows ________ to thousands of those who ________________________ _______________’ (Deuteronomy 5.10), but visits judgment on ‘those who _________’ Him (Deuteronomy 5.9). It is true that His ‘________ is great unto the Heavens’ (Psalm 57.10). For the Lord is ‘______ and ready to _________, and plenteous in ________ ‘ (Psalm 86.5), but notice who that mercy is shown to, ‘towards those who ______ Him’ (Psalm 86.5). So when God appeared to Moses He declared Himself as ‘The Lord, a God full of __________, and _______________, slow to ____________ and plenteous in __________ and _________, keeping ___________ for ______________, ______________ iniquity and transgression and sin, and Who will by no means ________ the guilty’ (Exodus 34.6-7).

And the greatest revelation of this is that ‘God ________________ the world that He gave His __________________, so that whoever believes in Him may have __________________’ (John 3.16). But while ‘he who believes in Him is not __________,’ ‘he who believes not _______________________ because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God’ (John 3.18).

12b). God’s Love For Those He Has Chosen

The true Christian rejoices in God’s undeserved love and favour. We ‘were, by nature, children of ________ just like others’ (Ephesians 2.3). ‘But God, Who is rich ____________, for His great _____ with which He _________, even when we were _________ in our trespasses, Made us _______ together with Christ’ (Ephesians 2.4-5). He did not save us because we deserved it, ‘but when the ______________ of God our Saviour towards man appeared, not by ____ of _____________ which we had done, but according to His _______ He __________ us, through the washing of _______________ and _____________ of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3.4-5). So John in his letter can say, ‘Herein was the _______________ of God revealed on our behalf, that God has ______ His only begotten Son into the world, that we may _______ through Him. Herein is ______, not that we _________ God but that He _________ us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4.9-10). (Propitiation here means to bear punishment and avert wrath for others). For, says Paul, ‘God commends His ________ towards us in that while we were yet _________, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5.8). The result of this is that we can ‘behold what _________ of _____ the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called _______________________, and such we are’ (1 John 3.1). For ‘as many as _____________ Him, to them gave He the right to become ______________ ______________, even to those who believed on His name’ (John 1.12), and they were ‘______ of God’ (John 1.13).

So God shows a general benevolence towards the human race, But the depth of His love is only experienced by those who respond fully to Him. They alone can call themselves the true children of God.

13). God is Gracious.

There is, of course, a real sense in which God’s love and grace are expressions of the same attribute. But a different word is used (charis = grace) which basically means the unmerited exercise of God’s undeserved favour. Its total emphasis is on God acting towards us without any deserving or action on our part apart from faith, and there is in the idea of grace a strong element of being chosen by God.

His grace is revealed in that He ‘_________ us in Christ before the foundation of the world’ with the aim of making us ‘holy and without __________’, before Him, foreordaining us to the privilege of being ‘adopted as sons’ This was because of his _____ which He ‘freely bestowed on us in the Beloved’ (Ephesians 1.4-6). So it is by grace that we are ________ through faith, totally exclusive of works (Ephesians 2.8-9), and we are ‘justified (put in the right before God) _______ by His _______ through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus’, which results from His death on the cross (Romans 3.24-25). And as a result of this being ‘_____________ (put in the right before God) by His grace’ (Titus 3.7), we are made ‘heirs according to the hope of ________ _________’ (Titus 3.7). And that this also holds promise for the future is confirmed in that ‘in the ages to come’ He will show ‘the exceeding ________ of His _______ in His ____________ towards us through Christ Jesus’ (Ephesians 2.7). So we are given ‘eternal __________ and good _________ through grace (2 Thessalonians 2.16). How rightly we can say ‘and of His ________ have all we received and ______ upon ______’ (John 1.16).

14). God is a Merciful God

As with love, so God’s mercy must be seen in a twofold way. Firstly a general mercy on the world as a whole which benefits the world and prevents the righteous judge from destroying mankind until the final day of judgment, and secondly a specific mercy which is towards ‘those who reverentially fear Him’.

14a). God’s General Mercy

The Bible tells us that ‘the Lord is _____ to all, and His _______________ are over all His works’ (Psalm 145.9). ‘Have I any pleasure in the ____________________?’ asks God, ‘and not rather that he should ______ from his way and should _____?’ (Ezekiel 18.23). And He confirms this positively when He says, ‘As I live, I have no pleasure in the __________________, but that the wicked turn from his way and live’ (Ezekiel 33.11). And Jesus illustrates this when He tells us we should be like Him and says, ‘Love your enemies and do them ______, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is _______ towards the _________ and _________. Therefore be ____________ even as your Father is ____________’ (Luke 6.35-36). As we have seen earlier, He ‘makes His ____ to rise on both good and evil, and send rain on the ______ and _________’ (Matthew 5.45). How thankful mankind should be that ‘His mercy _________________’ (1 Chronicles 16.34).

14b). God’s Specific Mercy The Bible tells us that God’s mercy to those who fully respond to Him is boundless. He says ‘I show _______ to __________________ who love me and do what I command them’ (Deuteronomy 5.10). So the Psalmist can say, ‘Your ______ is great unto the Heavens, and your _______ unto the skies’ (Psalm 57.10) and ‘you Lord are _____ and ready to forgive, and ________ in ______ to all those who call upon you’ (Psalm 86.5). And the greatness of His mercy is revealed in that He is ‘a God full of ____________ and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in _____ and ______ (Exodus 34.6; Psalm 86.15). He is ‘the faithful God who keeps His promises and ________ towards those who ______ Him and obey His commands to a thousand generations’ (Deuteronomy 7.9). But ‘He will not be slack to him who ______ Him, He will repay him to his face’ (Deuteronomy 7.10). Yet to those who are His ‘His ______ is ______ __________________________ (Luke 1.22). His people then should be ‘____________, for they shall obtain _________’ (Matthew 5.7). So when we have sinned we can ‘come ________ to the throne of ______ so that we may obtain _________ and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4.16). Paul tells us that God ‘is ______ in mercy’ (Ephesians 2.4) and Peter tells us that it is ‘in accordance with His _______ mercy that He has begotten us again to a _______ hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ (1 Peter 1.3). Which is why Jude tells us ‘Keep yourselves in the _____ of God, looking for the ________ of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life’ (Jude 1.21).

15). God is Longsuffering

Because He is good, loving and merciful God puts up with man’s failure for a long time, but one day it will come to an end. God is ‘a God full of compassion and __________, slow to anger and __________ in mercy and truth’ (Psalm 86.15). But Moses tells us that while ‘the Lord is _______________ and plenteous in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression’, He will by no means _______ the guilty’ (Numbers 14.18) and Paul asks, ‘Do you __________ the riches of His goodness, and _____________ and _____________, not knowing that the __________ of God should lead you to repentance? (Romans 2.4). He tells us that even when God was ready to show His wrath against sin and make His power known He ‘endured with __________________ ___________ vessels of wrath fitted to destruction’ (Romans 9.22), and Peter adds that even when He was about to bring about the judgment of the Flood He did not do so immediately, for ‘the ____________________ of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was in preparation’ (1 Peter 3.20). But in the end the Flood came, and only eight were saved.

16). God is Sovereign.

God is over all and will finally bring about His purposes. As Moses says, ‘has He ______ and shall He not do it?’ (Numbers 23.19). All things belong to Him. God is ‘God most ______, maker and possessor of Heaven and earth’ (Genesis 14.19), and. ‘Unto the Lord your God belongs the ________, and the _________________________’, and ‘the earth with ____ that is in it’ (Deuteronomy 10.14). He cannot be persuaded to act against His will, for ‘the Lord, you God is the God of ______, and Lord of _______, the ______ God, the mighty and terrible, who regards not persons nor accepts reward’ (Deuteronomy 10.17).

King David was a mighty king but he declares, ‘Yours, Oh Lord, is the ____________ and the _________ and the _________, and the _______, for all that is in the ________ and in the _________ is yours. Yours is the Kingship, Oh Lord, and you are exalted as ______ above all. Both riches and honour come from you, and you _____ over all. And in your hand is _______ and might, and it is in your hand to make ______, and to give strength to all’ (1 Chronicles 29.11-12). And King Jehoshaphat adds, ‘Are you not God in Heaven, and are you not _________ over all the kingdoms of the nations? And in your hand is power and might, so that none is able to ____________ you’ (2 Chronicles 20.6).

Nehemiah, right hand man to the King of Persia, declares, ‘You are the Lord, even you alone. You made the __________, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the ________ and all things that are on it, the ______ and all that is in them. And you ____________ them all, and the ________________ worship you’ (Nehemiah 9.6).

The Psalmist tells us ‘The Lord most High is __________, He is a ______________ over all the earth ,’ (Psalm 47.2), ‘God ___________ over the nations and sits upon His _____________ _____ (Psalm 47.8). And God can declare, ‘Every beast of the __________ is mine, and the cattle on a ____________ hills (Psalm 50.10), ------- ‘if I were hungry I would not tell you, for the _______ is mine and the fulness of it’ (Psalm 50.12 ). So the Psalmist can say, ‘He has done whatever He __________’ (Psalm 115.3), and can add, ‘I know that the Lord is _______, and that our Lord is above all gods, whatever the Lord __________, that has He done, in Heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deeps’ (Psalm 135.5-6). He is the controller of history, for He states, ‘I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the face of the earth, by my _______ power, and by my _____________ arm. And I give it to whom it seems _______ to me’ (Jeremiah 27.5).

Paul tells us, ‘God who made the world, does not dwell in __________ made with hands, nor is He served by men’s _______, as though He needed anything, seeing He Himself gives ______ to all, and _______ and all things’ (Acts 17.24-25), and ‘in Him we live and _____ and have our _________’ (Acts 17.28). And ‘He has appointed a day in which He will ______ the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained’ (Acts 17.31). And the multitude in Heaven declare, ‘the Lord our God, the ___________ reigns’ (Revelation 19.6).

So God is sovereign over all things both in Heaven and earth. He does what He wills and acts as He pleases in accordance with His sovereign will.