He loves his son, he delights in his son. Remember, the whole premise in our study on the affections of God is that God is not just a static being who just has a mind and a will, but God also, as infinite and eternal, has perfect emotions. And what we've started to do is we've started to unfold the really, the numerous passages in Scripture. In fact, there's so many more that we can look at. You read through your Bible and you realize that all over the place, not only do you have God's thoughts, not only do you have God's will, but you also have God's affections, or God's emotions, or God's feelings. And we started by pointing out that the Father loves and delights in the Son, and of course, Scripture is filled with that kind of language. God delights in justice and mercy. And not just his own justice and mercy, but he delights in demonstrations of justice and mercy on the earth because those are reflections of his image in man. And so he delights when justice and mercy takes place. He rejoices in his people. And that is one of particular comfort and joy to us. Because the language that God uses to express his rejoicing over his people is strong language. He rejoices over his people like a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. He rejoices over his people with loud singing. He rejoices over them by being quiet in his love. And so here are these passages that manifest that the God of heaven actually has exquisite perfect delight and joy in his people. And again, it's not because his people are intrinsically enjoyable. It is because his people are a reflection of his grace and of his glory, and as he works in them and through them, what he sees in us really is himself and a reflection of his Son, and in that he rejoices and delights. We also saw that God is a God who experiences pleasure, there are things that he is pleased in, and one of the things that he's pleased in is doing whatever he wills. Psalm 115 and verse 3, our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. And we pointed out last week, what is God's pleasure? It is his will. What is his will but his own good pleasure? And by the way, God is the only being for whom that statement is always true. We saw a number of other texts where God actually, for instance, Ephesians 1, where he elects us, predestines us, adopts us. redeems us through Christ according to the good pleasure of His will. And so the idea is that God experiences pleasure or delight in doing things, exerting His sovereignty, demonstrating His grace, and so forth. Then we took up the area of God grieving. We looked at the rather famous text in Genesis chapter 6 God creates man, and then Genesis 6, 5 and 6, God sees that the violence of man is rampant, the imagination of man's heart is only evil continually, and the text tells us that God actually was sorry, or he grieved, that he made man. And it's important for us to keep this in mind. The sovereign God, the immutable God, the God who does not change, the God who has decreed all things, the God who has a predetermined plan, the God who predetermined actually even man's sin in a way that led to the degenerate days of Noah, that led to the flood, the God who planned those things, is still also the God who so interacts with his creation that he grieves over their sin, grieves over the fact that he needs to judge them, and in fact you have Something very similar in the book of Ezekiel. First of all, I believe it was in Deuteronomy 32, God actually says that he takes delight in judgment. What that means, I think, is that what God delights in, what God takes pleasure in, is that when judgment does come, it is a demonstration of his own holiness and his own justice, and God ultimately must rejoice or take delight in any time his attributes are put on display. But then, in Ezekiel chapter 18, God says explicitly, I do not take delight or pleasure in the death of the wicked. Why will you die, O house of Israel? And so, remember, God is a far more infinitely complex being, a being that goes so far beyond our comprehension, our ability to understand. But God is so complex that on the one hand, he can delight in the demonstration of his judgment because it is a perfect reflection of his own holiness. And on the other hand, he can grieve and say, I take no delight in the death of the wicked. There is something that grieves my heart when the wicked perish. We need to make sure that we have an understanding, an idea, a biblical notion of God that does not nullify or somehow mitigate the fact that God loves the lost and grieves when lost people perish. We can have a form of Reformed theology that is so high, so lofty, that it becomes unbiblical in that we begin to posit the idea that in the decree of reprobation, God delighted to predestine the reprobate to hell, and God doesn't care about the reprobate, He doesn't care about the lost, and that would be an unbiblical caricature of the character of God. God does love the lost, and he does grieve when they perish, and he does not delight or desire their death. A few other texts, the one we looked at in Judges, God actually moved to grief by the misery of a rebellious, recalcitrant people in Judges 10 and 16. Another text I'd like us to look at tonight is Psalm 78. Psalm 78 is a is a psalm that celebrates redemptive history, gives redemptive history and perspective. And. Verse 40, Psalm 78, verse 40. The psalmist says how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert, and notice verse 41 again and again and again, they tempted God and pained The Holy One of Israel. The idea is that those 40 years that the Israelites spent in the wilderness, I remind you that they didn't spend 40 years in the wilderness because they failed to ask for directions. They didn't spend 40 years in the wilderness because they decided that they liked the desert. They spent 40 years in the wilderness as an act of divine judgment. God, as it were, sentenced them to 40 years in the wilderness. And by the way, the reason they get 40 years is because they were spying in the land for 40 days. And God basically gave them a year for every day that they were spying the land and came back with an evil report of unbelief. And so it's God who sentences them to the wilderness. It is God who also prearranges their trials. whether it is lack of water, whether it is lack of food, whether it is lack of meat. The fact is that God, as it were, prearranged these trials to test them. Deuteronomy 8.3, God put his people to the test, and yet, as God interacts with his people in the wilderness, over and over and over again, because of their grumbling, because of their complaining, because of their unbelief, because of their rebellion, which God knew all about before it ever even happened. The psalmist says they grieved him in the wilderness and pained him in the desert. And so once again, here is a picture not of a static God who is unfeeling and unmoved. Here is a here is a picture, a snapshot of God who every time his people grumble. Every time they challenged Moses, which was ultimately a challenge against God, right? Every time the people expressed unbelief, every time the people complained, every time he brought judgment on them, which he did, of course, time and time and time again, it actually grieved the heart of God and pained him to see their rebellion and then to have to respond in a way that upheld his honor and glory. Psalm 95. We're going to be getting to Psalm 95 fairly soon in from Hebrews, chapter three, and notice this is this is what God says. So what I want you to see is the comparison. He was grieved and pained. Now, Psalm 95, 10, for 40 years, I loathed that generation. And said, there are people who err in their heart and they do not know my ways. Therefore, I swore in my anger, they shall not enter into my rest. And so on the one hand, we have God being grieved and we have God being pained because of the people's rebellion. On the other hand, we also have God saying, I was flat out angry with the people for 40 years. And it was in my anger that I loathed them. And remember, once again, and this is very, very helpful for us, does God, in his holiness and justice, hate rebellious, unregenerate people? The answer is Psalm 5, Psalm 7, yes. The question is, does God love unregenerate, rebellious people? And the answer is yes. Remember, God is a complex being, and the God of perfect love is also the God of perfect holiness, and so His Father's heart was being grieved by this recalcitrant, rebellious people, but God, the Holy One of Israel, was also flat-out angry with these people because of their rebellion. Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. And again, it's the same thing, it's the same scenario, it's the same period of redemptive history. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit, therefore he turned himself to become their enemy, and he fought against them. Then his people remembered the days of old, of Moses, where is he who brought them out of the sea, the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them? Now notice this, what Isaiah 63.10 does is it actually brings both of these things together. They rebelled and God was grieved. By the way, This is the basis of Ephesians 4.30, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you've been sealed for the day of redemption. So the Spirit of God, who of course is one with God, is grieved, but then he turns around and he says, and he turned himself to become their enemy. And so on the one hand, grief over their rebellion, and on the other hand, turned against them in his anger, which brings us to the next area of God's emotions, and that is anger, wrath, and detestation. Now, let me just qualify this before we get into these texts. When we talk about the anger of God, when we talk about the wrath of God, when we talk about things that God detests or that God abhors, we need to remember that this emotional element of God's being is different than ours. We need to qualify this because even though the Bible teaches us that there is such a thing as righteous anger, Ephesians 4.26, be angry and do not sin, for us, anger is one of those emotions, and by the way, anger is an emotion. Alright? It is a response to something, and it's an emotional response. When we get angry, very, very infrequently are we manifesting principled, pure, holy, measured anger. I don't know of any time off the top of my head, and it would probably take quite a long time for me to ever think of an example, if I could even come up with one, where I've thought about something and said, That is a travesty, that is an injustice, that should not be. My response to that should be anger, and then to have that visceral response to the thought process of saying, this is something that should make me indignant. Okay? That's not usually how it works for us. Right? Our anger, our wrath, our abhorrence of things is a visceral response that is often an immediate response to something, and it is not measured. In other words, there are things that should make us more angry than they do, but for most of the time, we get more angry at things than we should. So, our angry response is not measured, it's not proportionate, it's not pure, Most of the time, not always, but most of the time, it's not principled. You want to test for this? I'll address the dads for a second. Think about when you get mad at your kids. Most of the time, let me speak autobiographically here, all right? If my children were here tonight, they would be able to tell you he's telling the truth. Most of the time, When I get angry with my children, it is not a principled, measured response to something that they've done. Most of the time when I get angry with my children, it is because I have become irritated with something that they've done that may or may not be worthy of some level of indignation. But that's how we are. That's how we operate. And when you think of the anger and the wrath of God, you can't think like that. God's anger and wrath is on a totally different level than what we experience in terms of anger or wrath. It is pure. It is holy. It is undefiled. It is perfect. It is principled. It is measured. It is always proportionate. All right. But make no mistake about it, the God of heaven does get angry and the God of heaven does have wrath. Let's look at a few texts together. Let's begin with Exodus 22. Exodus 22. Now, remember, God loves justice and righteousness. Notice Exodus 22, 22, he says to his people, you shall not afflict any widow or orphan if you afflict him at all. And if he does cry out to me, I will surely hear his cry and my anger will be kindled. And I will kill you with the sword. And your wives shall become widows, and your children fatherless." Now, what God expresses here has a number of dimensions to it. First of all, God is committed to justice and righteousness for the oppressed, for the orphan, for the stranger, for the foreigner, for the immigrant, if you will, for the widow. That is a reflection of his own heart, okay? You do not oppress those who are less fortunate than you. You do not oppress those who have fallen on hard times. You do not oppress, you don't oppress the stranger who comes to you from another country. You do not oppress the widow who is unable to fend for herself, provide for herself. You do not oppress the orphan. And the reason God hates that is because it is the height of injustice. To take advantage of a widow, or to take advantage of an orphan, or to oppress somebody who cannot fend for themselves or provide for themselves is something that angers, kindles the anger of Almighty God, because it is absolute injustice. That, by the way, is why abortion is the height of injustice, because it is oppression of those who are least able, out of anyone, to defend themselves or provide for themselves. And so, God says, I am a just God, I demand a just society, and if you treat the widow or the orphan in a particular way, and they cry out to me, I will hear them. And what I will do, and notice this, This, by the way, is the law of what is called Lex Talonis, the law of retaliation based on an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. God says, I will do to you in kind. I will execute you so that your wife is a widow and your children are orphans. That's the law of retaliation. In other words, God's angry response is in kind, is in proportion to that which kindled his anger. All right. So for us, we live in a pretty sheltered place. We live in a pretty nice place. You know, we don't have beggars all over. We don't see what Anna is seeing on a daily basis. We don't see what Vic and Bertie got to see. In the DR, we live in wonderland, really, compared to what most of the world lives in. Honestly. The rest of the world lives in the real world. We live in a world that is blessed beyond all imagination with prosperity and affluence. But God says that he hates He despises that his anger is kindled when orphans and widows are oppressed. You can find other passages of God. I think that it's safe for us to say that because God is just, he hates, despises racism. Treating somebody unjustly because of the color of their skin. Now, we don't talk a lot about racism. We don't talk a lot about oppressing the poor and those kinds of things. But the fact of the matter is, you read your Bible and it's all over the place. You read the minor prophets and that's the focus of the minor prophets. God punishing, judging his people because of injustice done to the poor. And it is safe to say that God's anger is kindled when there is injustice and oppression to those who cannot help themselves. Psalm 5. Verse four. For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, no evil dwells with you, the boastful shall not stand before your eyes, you hate all who do iniquity. Now. It's not going to work to appeal and say that's the Old Testament, OK? The statement is straightforward. You hate all who do iniquity. Now, I grant that this is not going to make it on the front of a tract, gospel tract. God hates you and has planned terrible things for your life. But the fact is that the Bible says it right straightforward. God hates those who do iniquity. Again, you know, we live in a nice, polite society. We live with nice people. We're all nice people. We do nice things. And it's hard for us to, in a sense, relate to the fact that God hates those who do iniquity. And, of course, who does iniquity? Well, I mean, everybody. There's something inside of us that basically says, now I can understand God hating Hitler. And I can understand God hating some of these warlords in Africa that go in and kill everybody in the village and then take the children and terrorize them and abuse them and turn them into killers. 200,000 children soldiers in Africa, orphaned, abused, desensitized, to put an AK-47 in their hands so that they can go and kill other people in villages. Right? I can see it's easy to hate somebody like that. I'm sure God hates somebody like that. But God says, no, I hate all who do iniquity. And the reason that we relate to the one thing and don't relate to the other is because we don't have a perspective like God has a perspective. We look at ourselves as generally nice people, and who are nice and polite, and we do nice things, and we don't see our iniquity the way God sees our iniquity. Has it ever occurred to you that every time you fail to disobey God, every time you fail to trust God, every time you transgress His law, every time you violate His righteousness, that that is, from God's perspective, that's cosmic treason? That's why God says in the book of James, to transgress the law at one point is to be guilty of the whole thing. You, at that point, are a lawbreaker. And as a lawbreaker, the just God of heaven is angry. And so, on the one hand, we would say that not all sins are created equal. unbiblical and incorrect to say that there is not degrees in sin, because there there is a degree in sin. Some sins are more grievous than other sins. Some sins have graver consequences than other sins. That's why you have statements like when Jesus says to Pilate, those who have betrayed or those who have given me over to your hands are guilty of the greater sin. That's why you have degrees of punishment, for instance, Luke chapter 10. That's why, for instance, you have statements about the violation of the ceremonial law is not as significant to God as a violation of the moral law. Isn't that exactly what he tells Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 15? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. In other words, And in fact, David reflects this in Psalm 51. If all you wanted me to do is keep the ceremonial law, I could have done that. But what you want is a broken and contrite heart. In other words, there's degrees. But how many sins does it take to incite the just wrath of God? Just one. Just one. So, it doesn't nullify the fact that there aren't degrees of sin, and degrees of punishment, and degrees of gravity, and consequence, and so forth, but the fact is that it's just one. That's all it takes. Just one sin. I would remind you, just one sin on Adam's part got Adam cast out of the garden forever and plunged his entire posterity into sin, misery, and death. Just one sin. And so, when God says, I hate all who do iniquity, what God is saying is, I am so holy, I can't dwell with wickedness. I can't stand impurity in my sight or in my presence. Habakkuk, you are of a pure sort. Your eyes cannot look upon iniquity. The idea is that God cannot have fellowship with darkness. He's pure light. And therefore, God says, there's something in me that is morally repulsed when somebody has total disregard for me, desecrates my glory and transgresses my law. The psalmist describes it as hate. Psalm 7, verse 11. God is a righteous judge, a God who has indignation every day because he is righteous, because he's a righteous judge, he has indignation every day. In other words, he is righteously angry every single day. Now, as we noted Sunday morning, the wrathful God is the loving God. Don't forget that. The wrath of God is the loving God. And by the way, you have to understand this part of God's character in order to fully appreciate the propitiation of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. If you end up trying to neuter the wrath and anger of God, then what Jesus does on the cross ends up being nothing more than a good deed. You understand the wrath of God. You understand what Jesus was bearing in his own holy soul. Then you begin to realize the tremendous price that Christ paid for our sins and for our salvation. Proverbs, chapter six. Proverbs, chapter six. Verse 16. There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven, which are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies and one who spreads strife among brothers. Now, by the way, the there are six things, yes, seven, that is a literary device of X, X plus one, which means that this is, in a sense, a comprehensive statement. God's anger, God's God's detestation of sin is perfect. It's complete. There are six, seven, seven, the number of completion. OK, in other words, God hates all sins. These are the ones that get marked special. Now, again, you know what this reflects to us? God hates all sin, but may not hate all sin equally. There are six things that God hates, seven that are an abomination to him, and then you go through and you look, and actually some of these overlap. Haughty eyes, that is the proud look, a reflexive proud heart, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies that's similar to a lying tongue, although here it is perjury. Maybe, maybe this text needs to be preached before all of our Senate hearings. I mean, have you noticed? I mean, it's It is as if it is of no little consequence, or it is little consequence, to actually perjure yourself today. People do it all the time. Now, sometimes, to be honest with you, some of the things, it's all politically motivated, but the fact is that God hates the person who says, I'm going to testify under oath as a witness to something, and then lies. The reason is, is because not only is God a God of truth, this is what you teach your kids, right? God hates lying. Why does God hate lying? Because God is truth and he always speaks truth. But there's also something more. God has said that on the basis of two or three witnesses, every fact shall be established. So this is the structure by which God has established a system of jurisprudence by which people would be tried. And so you begin lying and you begin to destroy the foundations of justice in a society. God says, I hate it, I hate it. And the one who spreads strife among brothers. Now, you might want to notice what's not in here. It's not to say that God doesn't hate the sins that aren't mentioned in here, but it's often interesting to notice that God's lists often aren't our lists. Notice what gets seventh place here, the one who spreads strife among brethren. God says whether it's the liar on the witness stand. the one that sheds innocent blood, or the one that goes around spreading strife among brethren. I hate that. I hate it, despise it, detest it. Recently we preach of the book of Malachi. Malachi chapter 2, verse 16. Remember what God says? God says, I hate divorce. Well, in a country where half of all marriages end in divorce, is it not correct to say that God has indignation every day? God hates divorce. And by the way, what he also hates from that passage is treating the wife of your youth unjustly. Putting away a wife unjustly. God says, I hate it. Why? I made the family structure. The family structure is a reflection of my image. It's a reflection of the fellowship within the Trinity. It's an expression of love. It's an expression of my love. The family is to be this unit. And when it's destroyed, I hate it. Now, again, does God have exception clauses? There aren't any exception clauses to I hate divorce, but there are exception clauses for divorce. Track with me here. God says I hate divorce. God hates what divorce does. It destroys the covenant bond. God hates divorce because of what it does to children. There's 101 reasons, 1,001 reasons, innumerable reasons why God hates divorce, but then God turns around and He says, if there's infidelity, I permit divorce. Isn't it interesting that when God, take for instance the prophet Jeremiah or the prophet Hosea, when God wants to communicate to His people the nature of their idolatry, He uses the imagery of adultery. God says that the marriage covenant is precious to me. Why? Because it's a reflection of my covenant with my people, right? It's a mirror image. When you are unfaithful to me, the best analogy I can give you to what that is like is being unfaithful to your spouse. And so God says, if you're unfaithful to your spouse, the spouse has so violated the marriage covenant, which I love. That I will permit you to terminate the marriage covenant. Because although I hate divorce, there's something that I hate more than divorce. And that's covenant breaking. We live in a culture of covenant breaking. And God hates it. He so hates it, especially in the bonds of marriage, that he says if the covenant is violated, you can do that which I hate. The other exception clause is 1 Corinthians 7, abandonment. The minute that a person abandons the marriage, the minute the person abandons their marriage partner, that person has done what? They have violated the covenant, the one flesh covenant. Scripture teaches that the husband is to do what? Is to provide for, protect. So Paul says, if a man will not provide for his own, his own family, he has denied the faith and he's worse than an unbeliever. When a man abandons his family, he says to the woman, even though I hate divorce, I hate what abandonment is more. You are free to terminate the covenant. There are lots of things that God hates. A lot of things that God detests. There are a lot of things that make God angry. I'd like you to turn to one last text. By the way, I should probably tell you where it is. Psalm 38. You know, the most famous sermon ever preached in America. Jonathan Edwards. Sinners in the hands of what? An angry God. Still in print. Almost 300 years after it was first preached. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. R.C. Sproul suggested that in modern American church life, if Edwards was to preach that sermon today, he would have to preach God in the hands of angry sinners. But the fact still is, is that God is an angry God. And most people don't like that. But the question comes down to, okay, If Jesus Christ has propitiated the wrath of God in my place by dying for my sins, and there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and all that good stuff we talked about Sunday, Jesus bearing every ounce of God's wrath in our place so that we don't bear it anymore, the question is, is there any sense in which God ever gets angry? With us, his people. I'd like you to look at Psalm 38. David says, Oh, Lord. Rebuke me not in your wrath. And chasten me not in your burning anger. For your arrows have sunk deep into me and your hand has pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. and there is no health in my bones because of my sin." Now, the question is, in light of what David says here, how do we understand God's response to us? If His wrath has been forever placated in the Lord Jesus, if our condemnation has been forever removed through the death of His Son, then is there a way in which he can become angry with us. And I want to answer carefully because some of you have grown up with the idea that God is such a perfectionist. He's perfect, but you think he's such a perfectionist that he is the cosmic cop. who has this infinitely long nightstick, and he's waiting for you to mess up. And when you mess up, he, with a grin, smacks you as hard as he can. Some of you have an idea of God that he is this exacting employer. who is just waiting for you to do something wrong so he can write you up. And some of you were brought up with that idea of God, and what I want to make sure you understand is that because of Jesus Christ, nothing can separate you from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. What you need to understand is that God cannot love you anymore than he already does in Christ. And God promises never to love you any less than he does right now in Jesus Christ. And you'll never be separated from Christ. You'll always be in Christ. God does not say you haven't cut it as a Christian. You're out. OK. You are in his hands, never separated from his love. The work that he began in you is the work that he will complete. You are kept by the power of God through faith, verse Peter 1 5. And he loves you with an everlasting love. He is not the exacting employer. He is not the sadistic cop. He is not the, you know, the one up in heaven waiting for you to do something wrong so that he can turn around and smack you. On the other hand, we have so turned God into a sentimental, unprincipled, form of sloppy agape that it doesn't matter what we do, doesn't matter what we say, doesn't matter. None of that matters because God just accepts me. God accepts me. Now, God does accept us. But God accepts us in the beloved because he chose us before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. It is not unprincipled acceptance, it is principled acceptance. It is not unprincipled love, it is principled love. And so what we say is that God loved us enough to save us as we were, but he also loves us too much to leave us that way. Okay? We are so stinking psychologized. One of the most common phrases that you'll hear is God has unconditional love, unconditional love, unconditional love. Let me tell you something that is better than unconditional love. Because unconditional love is the idea. Now, I believe wholeheartedly in unconditional election. There's no conditions in me by which God chose me. But unconditional love is actually a psychologized term that says, basically, God loves me no matter what I do. God's love for you is better than unconditional love. God's love for you is sovereign love. God's love for you is sanctifying love. God's love for you is disciplining love. So, it's not a matter of God just unconditionally accepting us No matter what we do, no matter what we are, no matter how we live, it is God loving us enough to save us in our sin and then loving us enough to change us. It's not just some bland, unconditional love. It is triumphant love. It is conquering love. It is love that changes me. And so, is it possible that I, as a Christian, as one of God's children, would do something that would bring displeasure to my father. And the answer is yes. Now, the question is, does that displeasure disinherit me from my sonship? The answer is no. Does that displeasure disqualify me from being in fellowship with God? The answer is no. Does that displeasure somehow mean that God is going to strip me of my justification and in turn condemn me? The answer is no. As a parent, you always love your children, right? Even when they do bad, stupid, sinful, wayward, rebellious, ignorant, intentional – can I keep going? – things that are a contradiction to everything that you've ever taught them. Now I know, with this sterling group of parents, that none of our children have ever actually gone that direction, right? We all know what it is, right? We all know what it is. We all know what it is to be... Have you ever been disappointed in one of your kids? I can't believe you did that. I can't believe you said that. I can't believe you treated that other little boy like that. I can't believe that you talked to your teacher that way. I can't believe... I mean, you're getting the gist, right? And there's a sense in which you go, You know what? If there's ever been a time where I feel righteous indignation, it's right now. Go to your room. It is whacker time, right? And so you go into the room. Are you mad? Are you upset? By the way, you hear this nonsense. I've probably even said this before. Don't ever spank your kids when you're mad, when you're angry. I'm not sure that that's right, actually. Does God discipline us when he's angry? Yeah. Okay. Does there not need to be at least some level of connection between a sense of righteous anger and the discipline that follows? Now, I'm not talking about losing it, flying off the handle. and smacking your kid because you're so irritated you can't see straight. That's sinful. Flat out sinful. But to go in and say, you know what? This is what you did. And this is why it was wrong. And I'm mad. I'm angry. You're going to be disciplined. And to actually have them feel the heat. I tell you the truth, I don't understand parents who spank their kids with a limp wrist and barely brush that whacker across their bottom. What's up with this spanking your kid through his diaper? Diapers are meant to be taken off. You'll find out when your kids get older, the boys know the spanking's coming, they go into their room, If you go in there quick enough, you know what you find them doing? Putting on more underwear, okay? Like you're not going to notice, you know? Four pair of underwear, three pair of sweats, you know? They look like they gained 40 pounds, you know? And when you spank them, is there an element of, this upset me, this was wrong? And the answer is yes. But does your love for them diminish even as you're applying the rod of correction? The answer is no. No. I mean, your love for them as a parent doesn't diminish one bit because you're spanking them. You may be very angry. You may be very upset at something that they've done. Whatever the punishment may be, whatever the discipline may be, whether it's, you know, you're going to stay in your room until you're 30. Don't say things that aren't true. I say things that aren't true all the time, and it's just bad. So I rebuke myself publicly right now. I tell them, you do that again and you won't come out of your room until you're 18. Well, that's not going to happen. But you know what I'm saying. So whatever the punishment is, you don't sit there and just say, oh, I can't stand that kid. I'm sorry that they ever came into my life. I wish they... Let's call an adoption agency and put them up for adoption. Let's take him down to the SPCA. You don't ever say that. No matter how mad you are, you still say, that's my son. That's my daughter. I love her. I love him. And even in the midst of the discipline, the love is not diminished one little bit. That's why I was careful to say on Sunday that God's wrath as judicial anger is forever put away in Christ. That's different. Judicial anger and paternal anger are two different things. Greg Nichols in his lectures says, about Psalm 38, he says, this is not the prayer of the wicked, but of the righteous. Don't misunderstand God's anger toward the righteous is the parental anger of a loving father, not the judicial wrath of a judge. The text addresses God's parental rebuke and chastening of his beloved children for their sins. He does this for our prophet to make us holy. You know where that comes from, don't you? Hebrews chapter 12. And so even in God's displeasure, even when he has to discipline his children, and how does God discipline his children? He disciplines his children in all different kinds of ways, but it is always loving discipline. Sometimes it is the word of rebuke from his own word. Sometimes it is some kind of affliction. But the fact is that God can discipline His children in 101, 1001 different ways, and even though we may have provoked Him, in a sense, even though we may have incited His displeasure towards us, He doesn't stop loving us for one single solitary minute. And in fact, the discipline that He enacts upon us, the writer of the Hebrews tells us, chapter 12, that it is not pleasant, But we should learn, the writer says, that even our own fathers disciplined us for our good as it seemed right to them at the time. And of course, God is the perfect father, the father of spirits. And he disciplines us so that we can partake. Of the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So God's intentions, even I know, I know that there are times. where you just you just feel like you have grieved God. You feel like you just grieved your father's heart and you know it. You know it. There are times where you know that that was that must have been so ugly to God. Now, there's a sense because my life is hidden with Christ. That God is not going to say, well, you know what? You're damned now because of that. That's not what he's going to say ever, because my life is hidden in Christ. But as I walk with God who loves. As I walk with a God who feels, as I walk with a God who knows what it is to be angry, I can, as his child, displease him in a way that incites His fatherly anger towards me. Now, I don't have to worry about him throwing me out of the family. But shouldn't we order our lives in such a way? That based on the finished work of Christ. Our greatest pleasure in life should be God's smile. And our greatest fear. should be his frown. You can do that in a way that works, or you can do it in a way that you completely understand what it means to be justified in Christ, reconciled to God, and adopted into his family unchangeably. Look at a few other texts. Since we're in the Psalms, let's turn over to Psalm 25. Psalm 25. Verse four, Psalm 25 is one of those great Psalms that every time you read it, you just there's so much here. David says, verse four, make me know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, your compassion. And your loving kindnesses, for they have been of old. God not only grieves, God not only has anger and wrath and detestation and abhorrence, but God also feels compassion. And again, compassion, compassion is an emotion. In fact, you can't get away from the fact that in both Hebrew and Greek, the word for compassion has to do with the bowels, the viscera. It has to do with what we would simply call our gut. And the idea is, is moved to pity. Now, we don't like the word pity very much, but when it comes to God towards us, pity is really good. Okay. You know, you may not want my pity, I may not want yours, but we really want God's pity. We want God to be moved with compassion. We put it like this. We want God to feel sorry for me. Now, again, that doesn't sound very flattering either because we don't like people feeling sorry for us, but the idea is to be moved with compassion and compelled to act. That's what compassion is, right? If you go down to downtown Sacramento and you see some drunk and he's laying in the gutter and he is just completely out of it, you could pity that person, right? What would compassion look like? Well, compassion would be not only the pity, but it would be followed up with action. That's what compassion is, it's being moved to pity, to act on behalf of somebody for their good. And God is filled with compassion. In fact, how many times do we see in the Bible that God is full of compassion, right? And his compassions, Lamentations 3.23, his compassions what? Never fail. He is the compassionate God. And of course, we would expect to see in our Lord Jesus, This very same characteristic, and in fact, is this not the primary emotional characteristic we see in the life of our Lord? Compassion. Seeing somebody in need and being moved with pity in such a way that you act for their good. Psalm 103. Psalm 103. And verse 13. Just as a father has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. One last text and then we'll close with this Isaiah chapter 49. Did you see the way that the psalmist actually made the comparison as a father has compassion for his children? There's something that is particular in a parent's heart towards his own children. You don't like to see your kids picked on. You don't like to see your kids mistreated. You don't like to see your kids in any state of need or want. And you're moved. That's what Psalms says. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him, and notice in Isaiah chapter 49, we go from a father image to a mother image. Verse 15. Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hand. Now, what do you think the likelihood is of a nursing mother forgetting her nursing child? And the answer is it's not very likely, but you know what? Sometimes it happens, right? Sometimes the mother has enough and so they put the baby on the front porch of the local Catholic Church or whatever, but it's a rare thing. Why? Because there is a maternal instinct that is so powerful, that's so strong, and that maternal instinct drives that mother. And so the minute that either her milk starts to come in or that baby starts to cry, she is moved to want to take care of that child, right? And God says to his people, and the analogy is absolutely beautiful, can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? You know, fathers are great. Fathers have compassion. But you know what? When you think about parental compassion, who comes to mind first? Mom or dad? Your mother. Your mother. There's something that is special and unique about moms. Right? Can a mother fail to have compassion? Can she fail to be moved? with love for the very one that came right out of her womb? The implied answer is no. Then God says, you know what? Even these may forget. But I won't forget you. I've taken your very name and I've inscribed it right across the palm of my hand. And I won't forget you. And I won't forget to be compassionate to you. You are as close to me as if your name were inscribed right on my hand." And so we sing that, don't we? My name is graven on his heart. My name is written on his hand. And so God is a God of tremendous compassion. He is a God who has moved with love for his people. Next week, we'll finish this up. We'll look at God's love for the lost and for his own, and then we'll wrap it up with some implications. But just stop and consider this for a second. Those are a lot of different emotional dimensions, aren't there? You have joy, and you have grief, and you have sorrow, you have anger, you've got wrath, you've got compassion. You have this multi-faceted emotional dimension in the character of God. And He never, ever, ever changes. which means that he loves you and has compassion on you. He knows exactly what you are enduring. Isn't this what we saw Sunday night? We have a great high priest who was made just like us so that he could be a merciful, compassionate and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. To make propitiation for the sins of his people and to do what? And seeing that he suffered in the things in which he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. There he is ready, willing and able with a larger heart for you than you could ever, ever imagine. Yes, there are things that make him angry. There are things that displease him. But if you're in Christ, If you are in Christ, that love for you never, ever changes. That compassion never, ever fails. And so why would we want to grieve the Spirit of God by whom we've been sealed for the day of redemption? Why would we want to provoke our Father's anger that would drive Him to discipline us and to, as it were, remember foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction drives it far from him. Our father so loves us that he's committed to driving all the foolishness out of us. For some of us, that's going to take a little longer than others. But even in the midst of discipline, he loves us. Let's pray. Father, you are a great God. Greatly to be praised, worthy of our love. worthy of our adoration. And Father, we pray that we would learn more of you. Father, we ask that you would help us to expunge from our own minds all of the silly and false notions that we have about you, Lord, whether they've come from the traditions of men, whether they've come from our own imaginations. And we pray, Father, that you would give us a biblically robust view of who you are, that our own hearts might be filled with wonder and love and praise for you. And Father, we thank you for loving us. We thank you that you love us for Christ's sake. We thank you that you're committed to us. You're in covenant with us. We thank you that you're a faithful God. And Father, we ask that who you are would be the very bedrock of who we are and what we do. In Jesus' name, Amen.