00:00
00:00
00:01
脚本
1/0
This morning, continuing in Systematic Theology, our look at the doctrine of God, at the attributes, the perfections, the character and essence of God. This morning we're going to look at one that has been the source of some confusion, as really it boils down to the use of the word and what the word means. But we're looking at the fact that God is a jealous God. So as we understand the term, and as we look at that in human relationships, jealousy is usually a negative thing when we talk about it. It is a possessiveness, it is a selfishness, it is me reacting either in pride or defensiveness or in greed or out of envy or out of covetousness because I want something or think that something is mine and I want to keep it to myself. That jealousy though, as we look at what the term means, at its root, the problem is not the word jealous, the problem is the fallen human heart and what we do with characteristics and with attributes. But as we understand what jealousy means, MacArthur defines it, God's jealousy is his zealous protectiveness of all that belongs to him, his name, his glory, his people, his sole right to receive worship and ultimate obedience. And Grudem says God's jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor. So what this boils down to is a jealousy that is not a selfishness, it's not based on a possessiveness, it's not based on envy or covetousness, but it is a passionate protection of God's own name and honor. That God is holy, He is just, He is righteous, He is perfect, He is good. And this is why, by the way, as we look and understand the number of times that He tells us about Him being a jealous God, this is why we're commanded not to take His name in vain. You understand that the commandment, don't take the Lord's name in vain. That's not just using God as a swear word, or using Jesus as a swear word. In fact, that's really not at all the root or the heart of what the commandment means. The commandment means to take for myself the name of God and claim that I Him is, and then live in a way that dishonors that name, and His character, and His nature, and His reputation. So to take God's name as vain is to claim to be His and then to disobey Him. When Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments, the issue there is if you claim that you love Jesus but you don't obey Him, then do you really love Him? You may feel, but remember love is not a feeling, love is a decision of the will as to how we will act and relate to someone. So loving Christ is to submit to Him and to be obedient to Him. We express our love to Him through obedience. In fact, 1 John 5, verse 3, this is the love of God that we keep His command. So God equates loving Him with obeying Him. When it comes to jealousy, it simply means that God is continually seeking to protect His own honor. His glory is worth defending. His reputation is worth standing up for and not trying to taint. How easy is it for us to taint the name of God in the gospel and the church with scandal and with sin and with selfishness? Happens all the time. Well, God is a jealous God. So it's not wrong for God to seek His own honor. And here's why. Who is the only being in all of creation, in all of the universe, and in all of eternity, who truly and fully deserves to be honored? Well, of course we raise our hands and we want to be honored, right? Honor me, give me what I want, give me what I desire. This is at the heart of some of the prosperity gospel, isn't it? That God is there to give me whatever makes me happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. That God is there to serve me. No, it's the point that God God is the only one to whom honor fully and totally belongs. God is jealous of His name and of His honor, and He seeks His own honor and glory because He is the only one who fully deserves it. At that point, then, it's not a point of pride because it's reality, the only one worthy. We see the church singing in the book of Revelation, don't we? Around the throne, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive honor and glory and power. He alone is worthy. Isaiah 48.11 says, For my own sake, I will do it. For how should my name be profaned? And I will not give my glory to another. Now this, I'm sure I've read this before, but didn't know until I sat down to study this again. Did you know that one of the names of God was jealous? Boy, that would look good on a banner, wouldn't it? Because we do misunderstand it. But Exodus 34, 14, "...for you shall worship no other god for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." And how can he claim that as a name? Because that's one of his attributes. This is who he is. This is his essence. He is going to strive to protect his honor and glory because he alone is worthy to receive it. So he works everything out. according to His purpose and plan for His maximum glory. You shall worship no other god for the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Exodus 20 verse 5, You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations, to those who hate Me. The point is that God will protect His reputation, and if you stain that reputation, In the Old Testament here, it was the case of idolatry. If you're involved in unfaithfulness, that unfaithfulness is going to taint generation after generation after generation until you deal with it. This was the problem that Israel and Judah ran into, wasn't it? Even with godly kings. When Josiah came up after Hezekiah and Manasseh, and Hezekiah had some reform that we're learning about in Isaiah. By the time Manasseh becomes king, he just totally goes back to the idolatry, to the evil ways, he gets judged, he gets taken off into captivity. He actually bargains his way out, comes back, but then when he dies, his eight-year-old son Josiah becomes king, and as he is trained, and as they clean up the temple, and as they find the Word of God, and as they begin to read the Word of God again, as they reinstitute... Passover and the feast and the festivals, and they look at what it means to actually truly worship God as He desires and as He commands. Then Josiah goes on a campaign of tearing down the places of the idols, burning the idols, getting rid of it. But what you see in 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, as you're reading the history of these kings, so many of them would start to tear down the places of idol worship. But the one thing we learn with every one of those cases is they never went far enough. They always left some. There were always some places for idolatry that kept springing up and didn't get dealt with. So it was never fully uprooted. Well, you realize that this is putting up a competitor against God. I'm going to worship an idol instead of God, who alone deserves to be worshipped. To the point that by the time Josiah began his reforms, idols were everywhere, even around the temple. They'd even been set up in the temple. And so as all of that was purged and was cleansed, the only problem was that Josiah fell a little short and he didn't completely rid the land. We see that this is something that is an iniquity that just runs through our veins because we're born sinners, we're born idolaters. It is so easy for us to set up an idol in our own hearts. God says, I'm a jealous God. When it comes to you worshipping or serving others, I am a jealous God. I will protect my reputation. There will be a cost for that unfaithfulness. Deuteronomy 4.24, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. He will protect His glory and His honor and His name. Deuteronomy 29, starting in verse 18, "...so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and to serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness of wormwood." And so it may not happen when he hears the words of this curse that he blesses himself in his heart saying, I shall have peace even though I follow the dictates of my heart. as though the drunkard could be included with the sober, the Lord would not spare him, for then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven." We talk about God being a jealous God when He says His name is jealous because He wants to protect that honor, that glory, that goodness, that perfection that He is. God's serious about this. When He says it's a consuming fire, when He says, you do these things and every curse that's written in this book is going to settle on you, that's similar to what John said at the end of Revelation, isn't it? If you change, if you add to or take away from the words of this prophecy, then all the horrible things you read about in this prophecy is going to come on your head. We don't change the Word of God. Why? Because to change the Word of God is to misrepresent the character and the nature of God. You understand? That's His Word. Well, what happens if you put lies in somebody's mouth? And that makes us pause and stop and think. When we teach, when we preach, why are teachers held to a higher standard? Because we are representing God to the people. And if what we say is not what God says, we are putting words in His mouth. Potentially, putting lies in his mouth, potentially leading people astray to believe things about God that are not true, presenting a false picture of God, helping people set up an idol in their heart, and the result then of that false teaching is that the false teacher will bear an even heavier judgment because he has misrepresented God to the people that he's leading. And God is so jealous of his name, and of who he is, and of his word, and of what he's done, that he tells us if we do that, we will bear a heavier burden. at the judgment, because we are here to represent Him by presenting His Word, by standing just like the Old Testament prophets and saying, this is what God says. Spurgeon said, and several others have said rightly, that he never trembled at the devil, but he shook every time he walked into the pulpit. The devil can't do anything to us outside of God's allowance anyway, but to stand and to present God and His Word to people. It should be a frightening thing, but the danger there is that as we present these things, It's not that we're scared of the devil, but it's the fact that we're standing here representing God to people, and as we do that, we know that we're going to give an account. That God will hold us responsible for what we say about Him. And that's true even in the way we live our Christian lives, isn't it? Because our lives... Our testimonies. Our marriage is supposed to be a picture of the gospel. If we are misrepresenting God to people, He's a jealous God. There will be consequences for that. So we need to strive to know Him, to know Him better, to know His Word. And I know it sounds like a high standard. It almost sounds like I'm asking you to be perfect Christians. Well, you know, that's exactly what Christ demands. that we'd be perfect. In fact, we're supposed to be perfect even as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Now, can we do that before glorification? No. This is why we are so glad for the imputed righteousness of Christ, for His finished work on our behalf, for what He has done to make us right with Him, knowing that we're going to fall short, knowing that He is a jealous God, so He has made allowance for our sinfulness. Because His Son died for us, He has given us full and complete pardon, and will continue to forgive us as we continue to confess. Deuteronomy 32, 21, They have provoked me to jealousy by what is not God. They have moved me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. God knows how to call us back. He knows how to stir up within us the right desires. But here He's telling the people, you've provoked me to jealousy. Not just that He is a jealous God, but that He's been provoked to that jealousy. Because He says, by what is not God, they have moved me to anger by their foolish idols. Psalm 79. Asaph writes, O God, the nations have come into your inheritance, your holy temple they have defiled. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps, the dead bodies of your servants they have given as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. Their blood has been shed like water all around Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those who are around us. How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste to his dwelling place." As the people of God are being attacked, as war is being waged, the prayer to God is, will your jealousy burn like fire? This is a request. would that you would set your jealousy loose on these people who are attacking and killing your people. So remember that as we pray, to pray and ask God to act according to His nature. To ask God to use and to act upon His attributes. This means when you see the wicked prospering, pray that God's jealousy would come into effect. Is this not what the martyrs under the throne are doing even right now in heaven? We see that picture in Revelation 4, the martyrs under the throne, and what are they praying? How long before you avenge us? Avenge us. They're calling out for God to exercise His jealousy. in the defense of his people and their reputation as being faithful even unto death. Joshua 24, 19, we have to remember that as we serve a jealous God, he is holy and his holiness plays into his jealousy. Joshua said to the people, you cannot serve the Lord for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. This is the warning. You choose to serve God or to serve men. And if you choose to serve men, you're not going to be able to please God. You're not going to be able to because He's holy, because He is jealous. Because of His character, because of His nature, God doesn't let you serve two masters. Jesus said the same thing, didn't He? In fact, He said it that plainly. No man can serve two masters. He'll love one and hate the other. Now he's representing there the difference between serving God and serving the things of this world, mammon, money, greed. But it's true, you cannot serve two masters. So Joshua asked the people at the end of the book, who are you going to serve? And we all know the quote, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Well, if you choose not to, then there's the warning. If you choose not to, you will not be able to because He's a holy God, He's a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. James 4 verse 5, Do you not think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? God's Spirit is jealous for us. He has been given to us, indwells us, seals us. He's keeping us for that final day of redemption and He yearns in us jealously for holiness, for righteousness, for sanctification. So have you ever thought about that battle between the flesh and the Spirit in those terms? That your flesh, as you struggle against the Word of God and against the Spirit of God, that you are provoking the Spirit of God to jealousy? To fight for you? That's part of where the fuel comes from fighting the flesh, by the way. It's the Spirit in us, being jealous, to keep us holy as we ought to be. Ezekiel 39-25, Therefore thus says the Lord God, Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. God's promise of redemption of the people who were in captivity to bring them back was based on God's jealousy, because He told His people He was going to send them into captivity. He told them He was going to bring them back for His own namesake, to prove that He meant what He said and would do what He said. So God then jealously defends His promise. I said that I would bring you back, so I'm bringing you back. I'm going to bring you back into the land. You're going to rebuild the wall. You're going to rebuild the temple. You're going to do these things because I said you would. I am jealous for my holy name." Because the people doing that, it didn't give them credit. Who did He give credit? He gave God credit, who all these years before had said, this is what's going to happen. And when it does, everybody will then realize, oh, that's right, God said this would happen, and it happened. We also see that God, in His jealousy, chastened sinful people. This is the basis for discipline. God protecting and upholding the honor of His name. This is why God disciplines us, not only because He loves us, but because He's a jealous God. Ezekiel 16, 42, "...so I will lay to rest my fury towards you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be quiet and be angry no more." In other words, once that jealousy has done its part, and we have been chastised, we've been disciplined, we've been discipled, trained, and brought back to where we need to be. Remember that part of that in discipline, is a correction, a restoration to where things ought to be. And as things are corrected, then God says, my anger is going to reside, my jealousy is going to depart, I will be quiet and will be angry no more. Because His jealousy has motivated in His love a defense of His honor and His name. Ezekiel 23, 25, I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal furiously with you. They shall remove your nose and your ears, and your remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and your remnant shall be devoured by fire." Part of the threat here of the captivity and a future judgment is that God says, you're going to be disfigured. It's going to be horrible. It's going to be unimaginable. People are going to be wounded, disabled, and die if you continue in this sin. Why? Because I will set my jealousy against you. Because I have told the world, you are my people, and you have said, you are my God, Well, I'm going to hold you to it, God says. I'm a jealous God, and I expect my people to be holy. He repeats it, and understand, this is not just angry God in the Old Testament. This is God throughout, because what does He tell us in the New Testament? Be holy. And what is the basis for the requirement for us being holy? For I am holy, says the Lord. I'm holy, so if you're going to fellowship with me, claim my name, claim to be my child, claim to be mine, then you must be holy also, because you are reflecting to people me and my character. Now, we have to admit, we're not very good reflectors, are we? We don't reflect that very well. Well, God knows, He's jealous, He disciplines, but we have those promises that even though He is a jealous God, He is also a just God and a merciful God and a gracious God, and He will be quick to forgive, slow to anger and quick to forgive. In this jealousy, God promises to restore His people. Not only is there discipline, not only is there correction, but there is restoration. In 2 Kings 19.31, for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. In the Old Testament especially, when you see the word zeal, oftentimes it is the same word, the same root as the word jealousy. So when God says He's going to preserve a remnant, who's going to escape and be brought back to Jerusalem. He says, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. This is the same thing as saying, in my jealousy, this is what I'm going to do, to protect my honor, my people, my promise. Because God promised to preserve a remnant, didn't He? He always does. He promises always to preserve a remnant. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 63, 15, "...look down from heaven, and see from your habitation, holy and glorious, where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?" A question from the prophet to the Lord. Show us your zeal, your jealousy. Show us your strength. Show us what you desire. Show us your mercy. The question, are they restrained? Really, it could be asked, are you restraining them? Basically, what the prophet is saying is, show it to us. Show us yourself. Don't hold back. That's really a frightening request, isn't it? To ask God, don't hold back. That's when you are so glad there is a mediator between you and Him, because that mediator has both paid the penalty and awarded us His righteousness, so we're in a right standing, and no accusation can be made against us that will stick. That's the amazing part of grace, isn't it? Because we all know that there are things we could be accused of, that we've done, and God says, no accusation against you can stick. Why? Because Jesus took it on the cross. He paid for it, He paid it in full, and God, in being jealous for His name, says, I'm giving you His righteousness. That means, by merit of what Jesus has done, no accusation can stick to my children. Whew! That gives you goosebumps, doesn't it? Because we know we get accused all the time. A lot of times it's our conscience. We know we've messed up. We know what we've done. And God said, Jesus took it. He paid it. It won't stick. It won't stick. I've forgiven you. How many times does God have to remind us that we're forgiven? Like daily. He's forgiven us completely and fully. Now, there are those then who say, if God is jealous like this, but if God forgives like this, then, and I've heard people, I've heard them say this, well, that means we can just live however we want because God's going to forgive us. It's all covered so we can do whatever we want. Look, you understand the debt that's been forgiven. You understand the debt that's been paid. You understand the peace that comes in your heart, in your spirit, in your conscience, because no accusation can stick against you because of the work of Christ. That ought to make you run from sin as far as you can. To be so grateful for what He has forgiven that you don't want to run anywhere back into it. We so often have a wrong view of sin. A lot of that has to do with our terminology, because we've changed the words. We don't call it sin anymore. We call it an addiction, or a weakness, or a mistake, or a failure, or a sickness. MacArthur said it this way, we preach about sin so often today that you think people need therapy. They don't need therapy, they need to be raised from the dead. They need salvation, they need regeneration, they need repentance, they need forgiveness. Isaiah 37, 32, "...for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion." And this is a repeat of the 2nd Kings verse. Isaiah repeats it to the people, reminding them, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Now that's something when you see the same verse in two different books. Now why is that? It's because Kings is quoting Isaiah and Isaiah is quoting Kings. Same thing, but he's reminding the people, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. We'll be there in two weeks, Lord willing. Today is Isaiah 35, so we'll be in chapter 37, and we will see what Sennacherib does to boast against the Lord, and what Hezekiah's reply is, and what God does to protect His people. And the promise is that God is going to do what He's going to do because He is a jealous God. Isaiah 63, 15, "...look down from heaven, and see from your habitation, holy and glorious, where are your zeal and your strength, the yearning of your heart and your mercies toward me? Are they restrained?" Isaiah 6 also shows us that there is a role that God's jealousy has in establishing the kingdom. In this messianic prophecy in Isaiah, "...for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forevermore." And look at the last phrase of the prophecy, "...the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Jesus came because God is a jealous God. Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecy about who He was, who He would be, and what He would do, because God is a jealous God. Because what is God ultimately protecting and providing in sending Christ to save sinners? He is protecting His promise, His Word, His character, His essence, because He is a saving God, and He is providing for us salvation. Exactly what He said He would do. The promise goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? You realize that, that the first seeds of the good news are found in the curse itself. Because God says that the seed of woman will crush the seed of the serpent. Genesis 3.15, there is the seed of the gospel. Why is that? Because this was God's plan before He ever said, let there be light. This was the plan. This is what He was going to do to bring glory to Himself, to protect His name, to prove His holiness, and His justice, and His mercy, and His grace. So when we have that promise, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Beautiful verse, beautiful passage. It especially gets magnified around Christmas time. I dare you, this Christmas season, and it's coming quickly, it's only 140 something days away, I hate to stress you out, but it's coming. As Christmas comes around again, you should send out Christmas cards this year that says, aren't you glad God's a jealous God? Because He's jealous, for unto us a child is born. He did this out of the zeal of protecting His holiness, His name, His character, and His reputation. Everything. Do you see this as we're studying His attributes? Everything God does is to promote and to further glorify Himself. And that's amazing to us. Because we do look at some circumstances and wonder, how can God be glorified in that? Well, if He couldn't be, it wouldn't be happening. Let that sink in a minute. If He didn't glorify God, It wouldn't happen. You say, well, how can God be glorified in some of these things? Well, here's the power and the goodness of God, is that He can take something as badly as we in our sin and depravity can mess it up, and He can still bring redemption, and He can still turn it around and bring glory to Himself. Things that we would never even be able to explain or fathom. How can this be used for the glory of God? Wait, God will show us. because he is jealous. His name will be upheld and it will be honored. We also see in jealousy vengeance on the enemies of God. Now this is when we all breathe a sigh of relief because we're not God's enemies. We were, by nature, children of wrath. He demonstrated His love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Praise God, God loved His enemies. But what about those who attack the people of God? Isaiah 42, 13, The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man. He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud. He shall prevail against His enemies. Can you imagine God in a zealous jealousy, as a man of war, going to fight for His people and crying and shouting? Can you imagine God yelling at you? Here's the good news, when God disciplines now, you understand the good news about discipline is that God starts as gently as He possibly can. But have you noticed in your Christian life that when you don't respond to the gentle reproof, Yeah. He turns it up just a notch here and there. And have you ever noticed that when you're under conviction, and you're running, and you're refusing to repent, and God is gently disciplining you, and then He's a little bit more firmer. Have you ever been... Songs come on the radio, people come up and say things to you, just out of the blue, and it just goes right into your heart because it's right there about that sin you're dealing with and not repenting of. That God sends you reminders, I know what you've done. I'm calling you back. I'm waiting. And we run, and we push, and we refute. God's a jealous God. We're not going to get away. We're not going to get away. We're not going to escape. He's going to pursue us until He breaks us. That's the law of sheep, isn't it? He's going to pursue us until He catches us and brings us back. Isaiah 59, starting in verse 16, "...he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him, and his own righteousness it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head." You'd think we were reading Paul in the New Testament, wouldn't you? He's got righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on His head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies. The coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun, when the enemy comes in like a flood. The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression. And Jacob says the Lord. God is a saving God because God is a jealous God. And He's chosen us to be His people and will do what He has to do to protect us. Ezekiel 5.13, "...Thus shall my anger be spent, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged. And they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in my zeal, when I have spent my fury upon them." Interestingly, when we talk about the zeal and the jealousy of the Lord, there are more verses talking about that characteristic, that attribute, that deal with Him bringing vengeance upon His enemies than any other case. God, in His jealousy, will protect his people and save them, and will bring vengeance upon his enemies. Ezekiel 36.5, Therefore thus says the Lord God, Surely I have spoken in my burning jealousy against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession, with wholehearted joy and spiteful minds, in order to plunder its open country. Nahum 1.2, God is jealous, and the Lord avenges. The Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies. Zephaniah 3, therefore, wait for me, says the Lord, until the day I rise up for plunder. My determination is to gather the nations to my assembly of kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, all my fierce anger, all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. We have to understand that when we start talking about whether or not hell and the lake of fire and the judgment for sin is forever, and there are those who argue it's not forever, that the wicked are just annihilated, or that it's just for a short time and then passes away. If we argue about shortening the time of the penalty and the wrath of God towards sin, you understand that's not an attack on the doctrine of hell. That's an attack on the very character and essence of who God is. Because the wrath, and the vengeance, and the recompense flow from Him being a jealous God wanting to uphold His honor, His justice, His glory, and His holiness. So to say that what God tells us is not true and will be shortened doesn't change really anything about what we believe about the doctrine of hell. What it really says is we don't believe that God is as holy as He says He is, or as jealous as He says He is. because God says, I am so holy and you have fallen so far short that if you have to pay the debt you owe, you will never be able to satisfy that. Truly, if we could satisfy the righteousness and holiness of God, if there would be some point in time after some length, what the Catholic Church teaches in Purgatory is that you still have works that have to be worked off. Jesus wasn't enough. You still have to work and pay it off. And this is what they don't tell you. And they tell you that you can buy indulgences. and you get time off. I want you to understand, the teaching, the tradition of that church is that purgatory is millions and millions of years per person. So that means even if we do our best, it will still be several million years suffering in purgatory before we finally get to heaven and see Jesus. But here's the problem with that. What that means then is that there is some point in time, however many years it is, that you by your works can satisfy the wrath and the justice and the holiness of God. You see, there's the real problem with the doctrine of purgatory. Not only does it attack that Christ has not done enough, but it tells us that we can add to what He has done and eventually add enough that God will accept us. If it's up to what we can work off, Our even trying to work it off only adds to the debt. Do you see that? Our trying to work it off just piles more on. We can't. He is a jealous God. We cannot satisfy Him on our own. As a communicable attribute then, when we talk about God being a jealous God. How is it that we're to exhibit this? Now please, do not leave here today and tell everybody that your pastor told you that you can be jealous now. Okay? Be careful how you define that. But it is a communicable attribute. That means this is something we can reflect in the way we live. So for the Christian, jealousy is to be an earnestly protective or watchful attribute. Grudem says we're to be deeply committed to seeking the honor of God and the welfare of others. We need to be jealous for God's glory. for His name, for His Word. 2 Corinthians 11.2 says, "...for I am jealous for you..." This is Paul writing to the church. "...I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Paul says to the church, he's writing to Corinth, "...I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy." Jealousy is not to be a zealousness for our own honor, but is characterized by humility and a desire to serve others, to serve God and to serve others. 1 Corinthians 4.7, "...for who makes you differ from another? Or what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" Part of being jealous for the truth is to understand that everything that we have, we've been given. repentance, faith, blessing, grace, the goodness of God, everything we have, we've been given. So we need to be jealous for that truth, to remind ourselves of that, to humble ourselves in light of that truth. We have nothing to boast for. In fact, Paul does tell us we can boast in two things. We have permission to boast about two things, and this is it. If you want to boast, if you want to be proud, if you want to tell people, look at what I did, here's what you can boast about. The cross of Christ and your infirmities. Oh, we don't boast about infirmities, we whine about infirmities. No, Paul says boast in your infirmities. Why? Because it's when you're weak and absolutely incapable that God's strength shows through. It's when you can't that you see God can. I know, I know, I know, I know you read it on the internet somewhere that God will never put on you more than you can handle. Oh yes, He will. Read the Bible. Look at your life. Look at 2019. God will absolutely put on you more than you can handle. Here's His promise though, He will never put on you more than He can handle. And that's why He puts it on you, so that you turn to Him. And so that you turn to others. Do you understand that's one of the reasons that we are part of a local body? That's why we are in the church, to bear one another's burdens. That refers to more than hauling washers and dryers across town, right? We bear one another's burdens. We help one another in the journey. Why? Because we're jealous for the truth. We're jealous for the love of God. We're jealous for the family of God. We need to have that jealousy for one another like what Paul had for the Corinthians. Revelation 4.11. Reminds us, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. If we want to properly understand jealousy, we need to see that the only one worthy of glory... Understand, this doesn't mean saying he's the only one worthy. It doesn't mean he's worthy and you're worthy if you follow him. The only one worthy. of honor and worship and glory and praise is the Lamb that was slain. God is the only one worthy. We are not worthy. Realize that. Now, being unworthy, I want to clarify this, being unworthy does not mean we're worthless. Christ died to redeem us, to make us worth something. We are not worthless, but we are not worthy. He alone is worthy. And that's the proclamation around the throne in Revelation 4. The saints from all time gathered around the throne. Can you imagine? Just imagine this moment. Imagine all of the redeemed from all time standing around the throne together and in unison proclaiming the worthiness of the Lamb. Can you imagine? Thankfully by then we will have been glorified so we can all sing. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. God is a jealous God. He has something to be jealous of because He is perfect in holiness. And as He protects zealously His name and His honor, He invites us to come in and to honor Him as well, to share in that praise, to share in glorifying His name, in magnifying His name, in exalting Him. Again, we can't make Him any bigger than He is, we can't exalt Him any higher than He is, but what we can do with our own minds, our own hearts, our own emotions, and the lives of the people around us, we can magnify Him and make much of Him. And people, as they see us do that, should go, I never understood that God was that gracious, that merciful, that loving, that jealous, that worthy. As we live in obedience and as we strive to have this attribute of godly jealousy, a zealous passion for protecting the honor of God, that should change the way we think and talk and live, shouldn't it? This jealousy impacts the way we act because we know that how we behave outwardly, which originates with how we think inwardly, directly reflects upon God. I know people think we're crazy. People think that we're nuts. Here's the truth. We are. They're right. We're fools in the world if we look like Christ. If they see Him in us, they hate us because they hate Him. If the world hates you, that's fine. Understand, they know that we claim to be Christians. They know that we do, even if we've been vocal about it or not. They know. Now, that might mean that they're watching us with a little more scrutiny. Fine. We're going to fail. What do you do when you fall? You want to demonstrate the jealousy of God when you fall? Get up and demonstrate humble repentance. When you fall, especially in front of sinful people, have you ever thought to go and ask them to forgive them for your representation of Christ to them? To say, I blew it over here and my blowing it makes you think less of me as a Christian and therefore it makes you think less of Christ who saved me, so I need to ask you to forgive me for failing to portray Christ rightly. That is godly jealousy. To humble ourselves in order to protect the reputation of God. Not our reputation. but how we represent Him. Be jealous because He is a jealous God. He will fight to uphold His honor because He alone is worthy to receive glory and honor. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank You this morning for Your Word, for the truth that You have motivated us to be zealous about godly things. You've stirred our hearts to want what is pleasing to You. as you promise us that you're a jealous God, that you love us, that you discipline us, that you chasten us, because you are jealous. Because you will uphold your name. Because at the end of it all, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, because He is. Remind us that your name is jealous. and that you alone are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, praise and worship and exaltation. Father, I do pray that we would be sensitive to defend your reputation, to be careful about how we represent you, to be quick to own it when we fail, to get back up and in humbleness, to repent, to seek the forgiveness of those where we've misrepresented you, especially, first of all, to come to you. to confess to You, knowing that as we do, You will forgive us. You've given us unimaginable pardon in Christ, and You will be zealous for Your name. Help us to walk in that zeal, in that desire for holiness, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
God's Attributes: Jealousy
系列 Systematic Theology
Systematic Theology - Lesson 36 - God's Attributes: Jealousy - Exodus 34:14; Isaiah 48:11. God's jealousy is His zealous protectiveness of all that belongs to Him – His name, His glory, His people, His sole right to receive worship and ultimate obedience. (MacArthur, pg. 185) God's jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect His own honor. (Grudem, pg. 205) It is not wrong for God to seek His own honor because He is the only One who fully deserves it!
讲道编号 | 813191754403478 |
期间 | 41:09 |
日期 | |
类别 | 主日学校 |
圣经文本 | 出以至百多書 34:14; 先知以賽亞之書 48:11 |
语言 | 英语 |