← Defenders Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript26 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig today the Doctrine of God, Part 21. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonablefaith.org today we want to bring to a close a major section of our Defenders class dealing with the attributes of God. And we are going to look at an application of of the moral attribute of God, his love. We saw in the lesson last time that God exhibits agape love, universal, unconditional, impartial love, and that even while we were hateful enemies of Christ, God loved us and sent His Son to win us back to Himself. So what application might we draw from from this attribute of God's love? Well, first of all, we should bathe in the sunshine of God's love for us. Ephesians, chapter 3, verses 14 to 19. Ephesians 3, 14, 19. Paul writes, for this reason I bow my knees to before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and depth and length and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. What an incredible description of our union with Christ that we are rooted and grounded in love. And Paul asks that we might know the depths, the extent, the height of Christ's love for us. Love which he says even surpasses knowledge for all the knowledge that we might acquire, the love of Christ surpasses that, and that is the love that we have as we are in Christ, and we need to revel in that. We need to bathe in that love that God has shown toward us. There is no fear in this sort of love. As we read in First John, chapter four and verse 18, First John, chapter four and verse eighteen says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. Remember, we saw that the holiness or the justice of God is equally essential to God as his love, and his grace and fear of God springs out of that terrible holiness and justice. But for the one who is perfected in love, he need not fear God anymore, because in Christ we are his beloved, and all of God's love is showered upon us. Paul says that there is no separation from God's love that he has exhibited toward us in Christ. Romans, chapter 8, verses 35 to 39. Romans, chapter 8, verses35 to 39. Paul says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril or sword. As it is written, for thy sake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So insofar as we are in Christ, we are invulnerable to these perils and attacks upon us. Nothing can separate us from God's love in Christ. The only person who can separate you from the love of Christ is is yourself, if you separate yourself from him by rejecting his love. And so Jude, verse 21 tells us, keep yourselves in the love of God. What an interesting exhortation from Jude. Keep yourselves in the love of God. And in the Book of Revelation, chapter two, we're reminded that we need to review ourselves, assess ourselves, to see if we are holding to our first love or if we have begun to cool in our love and our commitment to Christ. In Revelation 2, verses 4 and 5, the angel says to the church in Ephesus, I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen. Repent and do the works you did at first. We need to review our lives to see if we are holding to our first love or if our ardor has begun to wane as we have grown older in Christ. And then return to that first love and keep ourselves in the love of God, as Jude tells us to do. So we need to bathe and revel in the sunlight of God's love for us. Secondly, God's love then becomes the basis for our self love. God's love of us is the basis for our love of ourselves. You remember we saw in our discussion of divine omniscience that God knows everything about you. There is no skeleton in the closet, no hidden sin, no secret fault that he does not already know. And yet he loves you unfailingly and unconditionally. God loves us despite everything that is wrong with us and that provides the basis then for self love. If God loves you that much, then why can't you Accept yourself on the basis of God's love for you. If you believe what God says, then you can accept yourself. And these feelings of inferiority and failure and guilt ought to be driven out. Because if God loves you that much, you should be able to accept yourself as well and fight against those emotional vestiges, perhaps of an unhappy childhood or a dysfunctional home or other influences that have left it difficult for you to accept yourself and to love yourself in the way that God wants you to. So that's the second point is a deep realization of God's love for us can be the basis for our own self love and self acceptance in a healthy way. And finally, number three, God's love is the basis for our love of others in turn. First John 4:1921 makes this point. One John 4:1921. John says, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. So on the basis of God's love filling our lives, this should be then extended toward others and and we need to forgive others who have wronged us and to love them with the love that God gives to us. Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 and 44. Well, all the way to 47, really. Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount, verses 43 to 47 talks about the kind of love that Christ calls upon us to exhibit. Matthew 5:43, 47 Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Just as God loved us while we were yet enemies, so here Jesus says, you shall love your enemies, love those who hate you and persecute you and use you. We're to love them. And notice that he says, if you only love those who love you, you're no better than these execrable Roman collaborators. The tax collectors who were regarded as traitors by the Jews. Or you're just like a Gentile whom the Jews thought of as dogs. And Jesus is saying that you've got to have more love than the kind of love that even these people exhibit. Your love needs to be love like the Heavenly Father. And it is on the realization, or on the basis of the realization that God's love was directed to us while we were yet hateful and enemies and rebels against him, that we can ask him to give us that love for those who oppose us and hate us as well. It's been said that love is measured by service, and service is measured by sacrifice. Love is measured by service and service and is measured by sacrifice. Look at God's example. Look at the depths to which he was willing to go for our sake in becoming incarnate as a man, taking on the limitations of human existence, and then becoming a sacrifice for sin, bearing incomprehensible pain, undeserved innocent suffering, simply for our sake because he loves us so much. Christ's example is the example of this self giving, sacrificial love. And so we need to look for opportunities, I think, again, to be intentional about this. Now Andrea and Eric are going through this terrible surgery and are going to be needing service. They're going to be needing help during her recovery. Will we step up to the plate and sign up on this list that Stephanie's putting together, or will we be apathetic and indifferent and say we'll let others do it? This requires intentionality and effort. But as I say, the depth of one's service and the sacrifice you're willing to make is going to be a measure of the love that you are to exhibit toward others, especially to the brethren. So those are some thoughts about an application of God's love in our lives. Is there any discussion or comment that anyone would like to make at this point? Yes, over here. David, is it right? Okay.
- [13:57]
B
I'd like to make a comment or testimony type deal at work, like you said, going out and trying to find somebody to minister to. So I remember my brother challenged me to it, saying, you need to find somebody to go ahead and, you know, evangelize to. So I've never done that. I kind of just prayed before, you know, saying that somebody would come up to me and I would, you know, reach out to them. But he challenged me, says, well, why don't you just go out to Walmart, find a person who's maybe disabled in the way and help them to take their car to the car and then minister. So I said, okay. So that night I prayed, but God led me to do it at work. So I hardly ever went out with anybody for lunch or whatever. I just kind of went home or had my own or whatever. So now I just go out to do lunch with somebody once a week. And just last week, I just happened to find another person that I could reach out to and have a conversation. And hopefully I can invite this friend of mine next week to this class.
- [15:09]
A
That's wonderful.
- [15:09]
B
And that's just how it works. It really just that simple. Just go.
- [15:13]
A
Yeah.
- [15:13]
C
Yeah.
- [15:14]
A
Thank you.
- [15:14]
B
Things work out for the best, really.
- [15:16]
A
Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, Bruce, over here.
- [15:20]
C
Well, I had to step up into this. You know, the church has emphasized a lot of come and see ministry. Even our church, that's good. Like our church is. We do a lot of foreign missions. But, you know, part of the gospel is go and tell. Not necessarily come and see. It's sad that we don't have any visitation. And, you know, if we have a barbecue, you have 500 people. If you say you're going to. To knock on some doors in the neighborhood and give them a church brochure, you'll have about 20. So this is what you have to. It's all aspects of that and to have tools with you. Evangelism bracelets, a good track, a good card that has Christian movies on it and things you can carry with you. But it's amazing how many conversations get started when you do that.
- [16:13]
A
But fantastic.
- [16:15]
C
But you've got to have both go and tell and come and see.
- [16:18]
A
Yeah, I've never heard it put that way before, but that's nice.
- [16:21]
C
And so we used to say from the announcements up at the front, if you fill out your connection card, we won't knock on your door. That's exactly what we should be doing is going and knocking on the door. And very few people resent that when you do it. But anyway, that's just some input. But I think intentionality is important. That's why mission trips are good.
- [16:51]
A
Yes.
- [16:52]
C
And there's a lot of people that have never gone on one. But, you know, the intentionality in providing a time or a situation or looking for those situations. God will reward you if you show up.
- [17:04]
A
Yeah. Amen. Okay, anybody else? Yeah, Cindy. Cindy Fox down here.
- [17:10]
D
First, just, I guess, a comment on God's love, at least in. Maybe it's just my experience, but I have to rely on God's love through me because it seems as if it's so difficult Me and my own sin nature to love the way he wants us to love. And I find I've become judgmental or critical and that is so foreign to him. And I have to really focus on, you know, pushing back my sin nature so that his love will come through. And then once if you're successful and hopefully through prayer, you can be. It's a whole different experience.
- [17:54]
C
Right.
- [17:55]
A
The Christian life cannot be lived in the power of the flesh.
- [18:00]
D
Right.
- [18:00]
A
Can it? It needs to be through the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
- [18:04]
D
And I don't know that on this, in this life we can fully, constantly do that. It just takes the Holy Spirit. And you have to really, I think, rely on that and to just focus on it. That's just one thing. The other thing I wanted to mention is that my daughter uses this approach in reaching others that I think is excellent. She says, by the way, is there anything I can pray for you about? And that kind of opens the door, even if it's a non Christian or whatever, it lets them know where you're coming from. But then sometimes they'll say, well, as a matter of fact, you know, and then it just opens that door. And I thought that was an excellent tool.
- [18:49]
A
I wanted to share. That's a nice opener. Let's see. I think there was a comment over here.
- [18:54]
C
What is your take on the practical application of love your enemies in an ISIS world?
- [19:01]
A
I differentiate between what you as an individual have the right to do and what the state has a right to do and the agents of the state. When an armed service member kills a person that's in isis, he is not acting on his own personal initiative. He is acting as an agent of the state. He is authorized by the state to conduct warfare on behalf of the state. And Paul says in Romans 13, with regard to the Roman emperor, he does not bear the sword in vain. Rather he is God's instrument to execute justice. So we need to be sure that the wars that we engage in are just wars. But then if they are, it seems to me that we one is entirely morally justified in resisting the enemy with violence and trying to defeat the enemy by violent means. Let me with that, bring our lesson to a close because I want to conclude this section of the class. We have now surveyed some of the principal attributes of God. And I hope that it has served to expand and magnify your concept of who God is. God is not only infinite, self, existent, eternal, omnipresent and immutable, but he is also personal, omniscient, omnipotent, Holy and loving. What a God. God is the God that we worship before the creation of the world, when God alone existed. God knew and planned to take on human flesh and to enter human history as a man for our sake and for our salvation. And he did this because he loves us so much and would do this to win ourselves to Him. The infinite God loves you that much. And I want to conclude with the words of Charles Spurgeon, with which we began. The proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature of the person, the work, the doings and the existence of the great God, whom he calls His Father. Let's have a word of prayer to close. Our Father, we do worship you as the infinite personal God, and thank you so much for your infinite love that you have showered upon us in Jesus Christ. Help us to live out this love and this life in this world below, faithfully as servants of your kingdom. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. The copyright for the content of this recording is held by Dr. William Lane Craig. For more go to reasonablefaith.org.