Love is the fiery, zealous nature of God. Sometimes people say, “God is love… but He’s also holy,” as though holiness is in contrast with love. God is actually holy love, simultaneously. God has a holy determination to see His purpose accomplished that is unmoved by what any human or spiritual being does. And also, His purpose is carried out through loving relationships with His people. Tune in to this episode to learn more this zealous love.
Additional Resources
Abiding In the Father’s Love Book
Transcript
As those of you who have been here these last weeks, I concluded last week, a series called Pleasing God, Bringing Delight to the Father’s Heart. And the amazingly wonderful thing is, we can all do that. And it’s not by trying hard enough, it’s not by being perfect. It’s just by believing God, trusting God, accepting what he says. It’s called fighting the good fight of faith. Faith pleases God, and when we believe what he says to us and about us, it pleases his heart. And so, as those of you who have been here in these last weeks, I shared with you an understanding of the Hebrew word that is translated mercy in the Psalm that Pam just read from. The Hebrew word is chesed. That’s not important. But it’s hard to bring the concept into English because we have to choose between a number of English words to try to capture the thought. I read something to you last week from a Hebrew scholar, and he said that when we’re translating this Hebrew word, he says, in general, one may identify three basic meanings of the word, which always interact; strength, steadfastness, and love. And he said, any understanding of the word, in other words, when we translate it, you can find it in your Bible, different translations will say mercy, some will still say steadfast love, and some will say loving kindness. They’re all capturing a part of it. But the richness of it is that the mercy of God toward us is a great big concept. This is one of the key Bible words from the Old Testament. And our understanding of it will will determine how we grasp and take hold of what the Scriptures teach about God’s mercy.
So I’ve titled The message tonight Zealous Love, because I want you to see God’s love in a new way. A premise that I have learned over the years is, it’s really not hearing a concept and saying, Oh, I understand that. Because Bible concepts unfold to us over time and revelation from God, and they deepen and they enlargen and they broaden to where they mean so much to us. Think for a minute, when you were first saved and you read The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Well, that really meant something to you. The Lord is a shepherd, He cares for us. He’s kind, he’s merciful. The Lord is our shepherd. But think about somebody who’s walked with the Lord for over 50 years. And think of what the Lord is my shepherd means to them. You see, the word hasn’t changed. But the concept has deepened, and become richer and more powerful in their life, and more meaningful.
And Bible truth is like that. We live in an intellectual culture, and we want to gather facts. And there are facts you want to gather and you want to gather them correctly. But revelation is not a collection of facts. Revelation is spirit imparted knowledge at the deeper level of your being. And what Mike and Sue are talking about for this class, is taking the Scripture and letting the spirit open it up to you, and apply it to your life. There’s a difference in the Bible, between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is to collect or to apprehend the facts. So knowledge has to do with gaining factual information. Wisdom, however, is knowing what to do with the facts, how to apply the facts to your life, and to your circumstances. Well, Father wants to give us wisdom, so we know how to better live. He wants to impart light and understanding to us, so that the facts of Scripture are not theology, but they’re practical things we do in our Christian life.
So understanding mercy, I’m hoping that what we’ll see tonight marks us in a way where we, when we see the word mercy, we just can’t slip over it real quick, we have to stop and think, Oh, that’s right. There’s more to this than just kindness, there’s more to this than love. One of our problems in our culture is that love, I mean, you know, I love my cat. You know, I love my car. I love, you know, you can say I love things, and what you mean is you you’re you’re fond of them. But the Bible meaning of mercy is more than God sort of cares about you. You see. If he is merciful towards you… First of all, you have to realize that anything that comes from God is supernatural. Right? God is a Spirit, and so when something comes from his heart to you, it’s by nature supernatural. You see, it’s not just, “Well, God thinks nice thoughts about me.” No. There’s a supernatural element to God’s mercy. Because he is a spiritual being, and you are a spiritual being. And when he communicates with you, it’s his spirit to your spirit. And God gave you a new spirit in the New Covenant, so that your Spirit and His Spirit could fellowship together and receive. You could receive from him and he could receive from you. That’s an important thing. You see, God wants to receive from you as well as give to you. He wants to receive relationally with you. He wants to relate to you. How you feel, what you think, what you’re going through is important to him. And he wants to interact with you about those things, and give you his wisdom, so that you can better deal with the issues of your life. So it’s supernatural power, because God is a Spirit, and it’s strength.
Mercy is one of the primary words of covenant in the Old Testament. Something that our culture is not really clear on, but covenant is the essential backbone of Scripture. God made a covenant with Adam in the garden. And he said, I have created you in my image, and I give you dominion over the fish of the sea, and he says, subdue it and have dominion. We know what happened. He disobeyed God, and he fell prey to a deceiving spirit, nd it undermined the assignment that God had given him. And he was now naked and ashamed before God. Well, you know, we know what a tragedy that was on a human level, but what do you think it was for God? I mean, He created man, with the desire of fellowship and relationship. And he He created man to extend his rule. The garden, I read a fascinating book recently. It was a Hebrew scholar, or actually an ancient culture scholar, who was talking about how that in the day the Bible was written, the descriptions of things fit… well, it’s a big story. But basically, here’s what he said. He said the Genesis One story is God bringing the created things into order so he could inhabit the temple of humanity, and have man be his king and priest and rule. And so it was like, putting things in order to have his man created, so his man could rule on his behalf, and he could extend his rule through this new species that he’s created. Well, when when that was undermined, here’s the thing. I’m getting ahead of myself because I’m excited. Sorry, just little attack there.
But this mercy, this power is motivated by the Divine Love of the Father. Now, in our weekly prayer meeting, we have a really nice time. Amen. And oftentimes we get fresh insights that sort of just drop on us as we’re praying together, because there’s an atmosphere of agreement and zeal for God. And, and so a couple of weeks ago, I’m praying and this little thing just falls on me and I’ve never really seen it before. The love of God is determined. God is zealous. The Bible, in the Old Testament, the Bible says God is a jealous God, but it actually means zealous, passionate, intent, focused, determined. But it’s not what we often think of as a determined person full of self will. No, God is love, but he’s determined to see his character and his nature, rule the earth. And He created man for that imageand that plan was undermined. But it did not cause God to lose his zealous determination to see his nature expressed through a race of beings, who actually would defeat the rebellious spirits in the universe.
The Bible says in Ephesians, chapter three, that God wanted to unveil his mystery to us, so that we could show the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God. Here’s your assignment. You’re in God’s school, your assignment is to grow up in Christ, and show the angels and principalities and powers, how utterly wise God is, by what they see as they look at you. Talk about the high calling of God in Christ, Jesus, my goodness. So there’s a holy determination that God has to see his purpose accomplished. And he’s unmoved by what anybody does, any beings, any human or other kinds of spiritual beings. No matter what they do, God is utterly determined to have his purpose accomplished. And that holy determination is part of the divine nature, which Peter says, we partake of, through the promises of God. So let’s just think about this now.
You remember, in the book of Numbers, Israel comes up to the promised land. And God has been saying, I have given you the land. And the 12 spies go in, and they come back and 10 of the spies all they can see is the Giants. But Caleb and Joshua say, Well, if the Lord delights in us, they’re bread for us, and exhorts them, the rest, to not throw off God’s promise just because there’s giants in the land. And so God says, alright, I’m gonna eliminate them. And I’m gonna raise up of people who will obey me, and Moses says, No, Lord, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. He says, you remember back there and on the mount when you You appeared to me, and you said, your name was merciful, gracious, long suffering and abounding in mercy? Well, Lord, remember what you said and forgive these people. And here’s a real nugget. God said, All right, Moses, because of your words, I’ll forgive them. All Moses did was remind God of his words. And God said, Okay, Moses, because of your words. I wonder if we should speak the word of God. Sounds like God might be in the favor of that. But then he says the most interesting thing and the point of what I’m sharing, he says, Alright Moses, I’ll forgive them. And he said, Caleb and Joshua have followed me. And he said, I’ll tell you this. It doesn’t say this quite this way, but basically what he says is, no matter what men will do, the whole earth will be filled with my glory. And that’s what dropped on me in our prayer meeting. And I saw that God’s holy determination is to have a people for Himself.
There’s a theme that runs through Old and New Testament, it says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. That’s God’s divine intention. And I’ve got good news for you, nothing’s going to stop it. You know, sometimes people say, Well, I read the end of the book, we win. But I always say, Well, no, I read the epistles, we win. We won. Because our God, His purpose will be accomplished, and we’re volunteering to be a part of it. This mercy is an embodiment of holy determination, God is going to see his love prevail over all selfishness. The passage that we read in the example that Mike and Sue gave tonight talked about the new creation being constantly renewed to reflect the divine nature. And what I saw in that was that God wants to reveal Himself to me, by showing me himself in me. Whoa. So, you submit to the Lord, and He pours His grace and mercy into you, you begin to reflect that, and then you go, Oh, it’s him. Yeah.
So the glory of the Lord is going to cover the earth, like the waters cover the sea. And you’re a part of the unfolding eternal purpose of God to see that accomplished. So the thing we want to do is just find our place in his plan and purpose, and go for it. Go for it. Well, what if there are difficulties, challenges and difficulties and more difficulties? Well, that’s proof you’re on track. You know what the reward for overcoming small trials is? Greater trials. Now they’re not coming from God. God isn’t sending the trials but you see, the devil, sometimes the devil is smarter than we are, because he understands that if God gets ahold of us the way he wants to, if God is free to work in us the way he wants to, he can’t stop us. So he keeps telling us Well, you’re not what God wants, you don’t measure up, you’re not spiritual enough, you’re not holding up. Well, you know the way you are, you know where you came from, you know what your past is like, you know that problem that you have. And he constantly gives you this barrage of spiritual BS. Oh, that’s, we’re in church. What was I thinking? That He just tries to undermine your confidence in God and your faith towards God.
But if you listen to heaven, Father, God is always telling you what Jesus did is enough. You say, Well, I’ve struggled and I’ve failed. Well get up. The Bible says, if you’ve sinned, confess it, and he’ll be faithful and righteous to forgive you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And you know what, how many have ever developed a habit? Ever developed a habit of any sort? Good ones. Yeah, no bad ones. No, no, no, no. Well, getting forgiven is a habit you can develop. You see? You’re always invited to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So what more needy time than when you failed? You see? But here’s the good news. What Jesus did was adequate, so that you’re always able to come. And you know when it says, He’s faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness? Faithful to what Christ has done. You see, it’s not like he looks at you and says, Well, I don’t know, I doubt if they’re gonna keep keep on track. No. The New Covenant, Hebrews chapter eight brings this up. The New Covenant quoting Jeremiah, he says, Their sins and lawless deeds, I will remember no more. So draw near with full assurance of faith having your heart sprinkled by the blood of Christ from an evil conscience. That’s what we talked about in a Pleasing God series is that the key to successful Christian living is knowing your right and privilege to come to the throne and obtain mercy.
So, it’s an embodied holy determination. And it’s unintimidated. It’s unintimidated by human failure. See? All of us have failed. All of us have made mistakes, all of us have been misguided. And sometimes we thought we were doing right and then down the road figured out we weren’t. But you see, God is not deterred in his fiery, zealous love, and His purpose. He’s not deterred by that. And so it’s so important that you don’t stay in wallowdom. You ever, ever been to wallowdom? I have. You know, where you fail, and then you Oh, and you fail. And then, you know, pretty soon you’re apologizing to God every time you try to pray. And you think like, well, I’ve got to go through my laundry list and get cleaned up here if I’m going to be effective. So Lord, I know I did that wrong. I know, I know. And you look, you start searching through everything you’ve done recently, so that you can get a clean slate before God. Well, it’s legitimate to confess your sin, but here’s the thing, the devil wants you into a sin conscious mentality so you never feel like you’re confident before God and welcome in his presence. But what Jesus did, for you to honor what Jesus did, you’ve got to take Hebrews 4:12, 4:16 seriously. Come boldly to the throne of grace, obtain mercy, find grace to help in time of need.
Christianity is relationship not law. We’re learning to live by an indwelling presence, not by an outside standard. Now, if you live by the indwelling presence, you won’t commit adultery, you won’t covet. You won’t covet your neighbor’s wife, you won’t covet their car and their home and all those things, because this indwelling life will deliver you from those things as you learn to yield to that in indwelling presence.
So it’s a supernaturally empowering, determined, holy love. Now, think about this, if I’m telling you the truth about mercy, and if God wants you to come to his throne to obtain mercy, what will that mercy imparted produce in you? It will produce in you a holy determined steadfast love that cannot be dissuaded. You see this in Jesus. It says, you know that the the Hebrew believers in Jerusalem were being persecuted for receiving Jesus as their Messiah. And in the letter to the Hebrews, they’re being tempted to go back under the law to avoid the persecution. And so the writer exhorts them, and he says, Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. He says, Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you grow weary and faint in your minds. Now, the tests and trials of life can wear you out. Have you ever noticed that? You can get really weary. I mean, you can be so weary you need a major download of mercy. You need God’s holy, zealous, determined love toward you working in you to get you up and on track and moving ahead in God.
In 35 years of pastoring, you know, I would say Christians are often looking for some new thing that’s going to straighten them out. My premise is, it’s the old things with a deeper understanding that’s gonna straighten us out. You see? It’s like the word grace. Well, you know, that means unmerited favor. Well, that’s a nice definition, and it’s not bad. But how about unmerited, divine enablement? Grace is God’s power working in you. You see? So, if you can come to that throne and obtain mercy and grace, what can’t you conquer? Didn’t Paul say we are more than conquerors through him that, what, loved us. But you see, I’ve been saying this, but I want to repeat it because I believe it’s important to really get it. Love is not a sentimental, nice feeling. Love is the fiery, zealous nature of God. You know, we hear people, you know, sometimes, you know, sometimes people say, Well, you know, you say, Well, you know, God is good. God’s in a good mood. Yes, but He’s holy. As though Holiness was in contrast. It’s like, well, on the one hand, God is love, but on the other hand, He’s holy. Well, no, God is holy love. Yeah. And I’m sure if God, you know, if the Lord Jesus walked in here tonight, we’d have two simultaneous emotions. One, we’d be aware of everything that’s wrong with us, because light exposes all darkness. But two, because he’s love, we wouldn’t be afraid.
You notice who it was that was drawn to Him when He was on earth? The sinners. They came to him because the love drew them. Was he holy? Yes. But holiness isn’t, I am religiously uptight and if you don’t straighten out I’m going to squash you. That’s how sometimes people think of holiness. Holiness just means he cannot be compromised by selfishness. Is his presence overwhelming and awesome when people have visions and revelations of it? Yes, it is. But I noticed something in the Scriptures, when God shows up in vision in Revelation, and the Prophet falls down before him, the first thing Jesus does in the book of Revelation is get them back up.
Now, God wants to get you back up. No matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, God is in the process of getting people back up. But not only back up, but working in them with his zealous, determined, holy love, until we are strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. You know, the apostle Paul had so many examples, opportunities to say, Well, where are you God? Here we are in prison. We are out preaching your word, and now we’re in prison, and they’ve got us in these chains. And here we are, oh, God, what are we gonna do? No. Barnabas and Paul start singing praises in the prison. You want to get out of your prison? Start singing praises. Maybe God will send an angel and cut off your chains. And maybe there’ll be a revival in your prison because of the goodness and mercy of God.
All right, I could go on. But let me just give you a quick conclusion. The life of faith is as much about learning to be a good receiver as anything else, coming to the Father in the name of Jesus and receiving the inworking of this mercy. Our Father expects nothing from us that doesn’t proceed out of our relationship and our fellowship with Him. Amen.
