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Muskegon SDA Church

God is Love?

Kameron DeVasher

01-Because The Bible Says So

02-Did God Make the Devil?

03-God On Trial

04-Pardon & Power

05-Watch Out

06-Antichrist Evidence, Part 1

07-Antichrist Evidence, Part 2

08-The Law of Love

09-God’s Signature

10-The Return of the King

11-The Day the Devil Dies

12-The Good News About Hell

13-What Happens When I Die?

14-Heaven On Earth

15-The System of Sacrifices

16-The Bible’s Longest Prophecy

17-Jesus Is The Answer

18-The Antichrist’s Accomplice

19-The Mark of the Beast

20-The Final Warning

21-The Testimony of Jesus

22-Temple Maintenance

23-The Beauty of Holiness

24-Burying the Dead

25-Too Many Members

If you would, please take out your worksheet, worksheet number 3, another provocative title, God on Trial.

Is it possible that God is being examined?

In fact, I believe we're doing it right now.

Look at the title of our series, God is Love, with a great big question mark.

Is it possible that he's really who he says he is?

Now, if you recall, on our very first evening together, we talked about how the question of whether there even is a God, or if the Bible is trustworthy, is prominent in most people's minds.

And what we decided, what we discovered from that book is that God himself anticipated that question and said if there's any other God let him come before me and do something that only God can do, which is tell the future.

And God says, I'll not only claim to know the future, but I'll tell you in advance the things that are coming.

And from the time of Babylon, we found that in Daniel chapter 2, he gives an outline, step by step, of the political history of the world until Jesus comes.

And we're living on this end of it, and we have the benefit of history, the hindsight that's 2020, that can look back and see that every single step that God said has come true exactly as He said it would.

So now we can demonstrate, objectively, that God's word is trustworthy.

But then we open and read it and we find out, wait a minute, if this is such a good God, as the Bible claims, not only that he says that he's loving, but he is love himself, then how come The claims of the Bible about the character of God don't seem to be met in the world.

How come there's so much natural disaster?

How come it's a political unrest and wars and famines and all these awful things?

How can there be a good, powerful, loving God in a terrible, awful world?

Well that's what we looked at last night was Matthew chapter 13, the parable of the wheat and the tares and how he said, I take no responsibility for the presence of evil.

I created a perfect being in a perfect place with every opportunity and he chose to rebel.

Evil was started by the choice of a perfect being in rebellion.

And now that it has started, he said, we're going to let it run its course so that all can see.

So now we're gonna take a look at this worksheet number 3, God on Trial.

But before we begin our study tonight, let's begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much For the safe travels you've given everyone here, I thank you for the opportunity to be here and to study your word.

Lord, I would ask that your Holy Spirit be here now, not just in a vague kind of general sense, but very specifically, Lord, send your Holy Spirit to open your word to our minds and soften our hearts where there might be stubbornness.

The Lord, give us a picture of who you really are so that we may see for ourselves the contrast between good and evil.

Let's begin tonight in the book of Exodus, the Old Testament book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 33, and that's going to be page 85 in your pew Bible.

Exodus chapter 33, And we're going to start with verse 18.

Here we find Moses, that great leader of God who the Lord used to call his people out of Egypt and to lead them to the promised land.

Exodus chapter 33 and verse 18, this Moses has a very particular request of the Lord and he says, please show me your, and what is the word he wants?

Now, I don't know about you, but oftentimes, at least growing up, when I heard the word glory, I would think of something shiny or something sparkly like, oh bright, luminescent, glory.

And I'm guessing that's what Moses he's had conversation with God, he's had the law of God, but he says, Lord, I want to see you.

Verse 19, then he said, that is God in return, I will make all of my, what's that word?

Now we're setting up a biblical equivalence here.

Moses asked to see the Lord's glory and God says, I will show you all of my goodness.

The glory of the Lord apparently is his goodness.

And he notices, he says again, verse 19, then he said, I will make all of my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.

I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

But he said, you cannot see my face, and no man can see my face and live.

He said, I want to see your glory, and God says, I'll show you my goodness.

And then we see it actually occur in the very next chapter Starting with verse 5 exodus 34 starting with verse 5 now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

So all these positive attributes, He's patient, He's kind.

In fact, this sounds exactly like 1 Corinthians 13's definition of love.

Again, verse 6, he proclaimed the name of the Lord, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

And then he also includes, but by no means clearing the guilty, right?

So he's like, I'm gonna have mercy and patience and kindness and all of those good attributes, right?

But also, don't think that I'm a pushover and I won't let things just, I'll let things just go on and on and on, but by no means clearing the guilty.

Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generations.

Is that going to be thorough in my work of judgment, but at the same time I'm going to be fair and just and I'm going to be merciful and gracious.

He describes in response to a question about seeing the glory of the Lord, he responds by explaining and revealing the character of the Lord.

Which brings us to our first fill in the blank.

When Moses asked to see God's glory, the Lord described his character.

Now, notice it said here that no man can see my face and live.

Why can we not just approach this glorious, merciful, gracious, loving God and come right up face to face?

What is the actual Now, what is the actual problem?

Isaiah chapter 59, page 716 in your pew Bible, Isaiah chapter 59, verses 1 and 2, Notice what it says here.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.

But notice verse 2, but your iniquities, and what's another word for iniquities?

Your sin has separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.

So notice the issue is not that God can't talk to us or doesn't want to talk to us, but the issue is we have a sin problem.

We have cut ourselves off from direct access with the Lord.

Now the Lord doesn't just give up, praise the Lord, and say, oh man that's too bad, and then just leave.

He said, no, no, no, I'll be gracious, I'll be merciful, I'm gonna woo you and try to get you back, but we cannot have this just pretend everything's okay kind of relationship.

But I love you and I want to be long-suffering and patient and kind at the same time.

Moses asked to see his glory and God said, let me tell you about my character, who I am.

Now, that's the Lord's description of himself from his word.

Merciful, gracious, kind, long-suffering, all of those wonderful things, and at the same time fair and just.

Now, let's contrast that with Satan's representation of God's character.

Because we're going to build a theme tonight that what God says he is and what God actually is is nothing like what Satan paints him to be.

What God actually is in reality, Satan has tried to smear this character of God.

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Series

God is Love?

03-God On Trial

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Keys of Revelation

4. God on Trial

59m

God is Love?

11-The Day the Devil Dies

1h

Freedom From Fear 2006

Who is the Devil?

57m

Plenary

A Slinky Down the Stairs

50m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

04 The Truth About Angels

49m

Emmanuel Core Workout

State of the Dead Part 3c

23m

Emmanuel Institute Bootcamp

3. Great Controversy

2h 44m

A Better Way to See Yourself

1h 9m

Keys of Revelation

6. Antichrist Evidence- Part 1

1h 11m

Even More Questions Angels Ask- Part 1

47m

Does God Care? - Part 1

1h 8m

Sound Doctrine