God’s Faithful Love / People of Promise

 God’s Tenacious Faithful Radical Love
   November 6, 2022   

1. Introduction:
   1. We have completed going through each of the major covenants that we are going to cover in this series. so today and the next few weeks we just want to close up with a few details that help us better understand the context of these covenants.  
   2. This morning I want us to see it is God’s tenacious, faithful, radical love that is the ultimate driver of these covenants.
      1. We have placed this series in the context of the big story of the Bible with the covenant promises being the major structure, the backbone, the major thoroughfares to the story
      2. It is possible that so far in the series you’ve seen these covenants more as a story line or a legal contract of how God would relate to Israel and ultimately us, rather than a love relationship
      3. While at times covenants were used to legally define the relationship between nations or a superior over an inferior, the covenants we studied were based on a love relationship between God and the people he has chosen to love.
   3. We have said all along that there are two key words throughout the Scripture that go hand and hand with the covenants, faithfulness and loving-kindness.   They help us clearly see the motivation of God’s love behind these covenants.
      1. Loving-kindness – an intense deep desire and active pursuit to bless your covenant partner.  It is both an attitude and an action
      2. Faithfulness – speaks of the unending nature of a covenant as long as each member of the covenant is alive.  It gives confidence that one covenant partner will never leave or forsake the other covenant partner.   
      3. Some other words that reveal God’s heart in the covenants are kindness, mercy, peace, steadfastness, loyalty and friendship.
   4. What I have to say today I believe can be a major encouragement to those who feel unloved or unlovable because of the neglect they’ve received from key relationships.   And for those who have committed major grotesque sins against God and others resulting in feeling as if they’re not worthy of God or maybe even lost their salvation because of it. I think everyone in between those two should be encouraged as well!
   5. Today’s message gives us another window to see the truth in 2 Timothy 2:13 
      1. When I see the way God deals with Israel in the midst of their unfaithfulness and disobedience by not quitting on them it gives me greater understanding and personal encouragement regarding the way God deals with me when I am unfaithful and disobedient to the Lord and that he will not quit on me.
      2. We will see the truth of 1 Corinthians 13:7 regarding love in action.   

• So today I want to look at some things that helps us see …

1. God’s tenacious faithful radical love!
   1. Is first seen in the very nature of a blood covenant.
      1. We have said repeatedly in this series that God joyfully bound himself to do these promises:  
         1. If he just bound himself to do them, it can feel legal 
         2. But when you recognize that he joyfully bound himself to do these promises; the aspect of love is at the heart of it
      2. The fact that God used covenants showed them how serious he was to be tenaciously faithful to them at all cost since: 
         1. A covenant is kept until death and since God will never die, he will be faithful throughout eternity.  They are everlasting covenants
         2. God would be worthy of death if he breaks his covenant promises with Abraham, Israel and David.
      3. In the Mosaic covenant, God says he will discipline Israel for their rebellion but that he would not break his covenant with them!   
         1. Listen to what God says he will do if they repent!  Read Leviticus 26:42-45
         2. Yes, God is going to spank them with discipline but he is not going to break off the relationship with them just as our parents spanked us but did not end their relationship with us!
         3. Thus, he remains tenaciously faithful to these promises and his people in spite of their disobedience!
      4. Turn to Deuteronomy 7.  Read v 6-9
         1. V6 – becoming God’s chosen people was what the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants were all about.  
         2. Listen now to why God set his love on them and choose them.  
            1. Read 7-9
            2. God set his love upon them because he loved them period.   
         3. It was God’s unconditional, unprovoked, tenacious, faithful, radical love that moved God to make and keep his covenant promises.
      5. Turn to Micah 7 which talks about the return of the Lord and the time of new covenant goes into effect with the forgiveness of their sins!
         1. Read v18-20
         2. Unchanging love is the Hebrew word for loving-kindness so the translators are saying God’s loving-kindness equals his unchanging love.
         3. In verse 20 when he talks about God’s unchanging love/loving-kindness towards Abraham that he swore to him, they are basically equating or describing God’s covenants with his unchanging love/ loving-kindness  
      6. In Mary’s magnificat in Luke 1 listen to what she says
         1. Read Luke 1:54-55  
         2. She views the covenant promises and Jesus’ birth to fulfill them, as God’s mercy to his people.   
      7. Finally, the existence of Israel in the land after nearly 1900 year of being out of it is unheard of regarding any other nation. This helps us see God’s tenacious faithful radical love for his people

• As we prepare for
• Communion 
  1. Listen to this amazing account of Israel’s history with God and how he loved and responded to them and loves and responds to his children today even though we may be unlovely or unfaithful  
  2. Ezekiel 16 where God married (v8) the abandoned and unloved Judah and poured his amazing, tenacious, faithful, radical love upon them. Read 13-14
     1. But then they played the harlot on him in the boldest way! V15, 32-34, 46-47, 51 – 
        1. Samaria in was the northern kingdom, Israel’s capital
     2. God said he would give them into the hands of their lovers who will tear them apart; just as he told them in the Mosaic covenant. 
        1. Read v37-39.     
        2. Yes, he will discipline them for disobedience
     3. But we also learn in this passage that in spite of their disobedience and discipline God will not break his relationship with them but he will restore and bless both Israel and Judah in light of their repentance, which we learned in both the Deuteronic and new covenants that God brings about.  read v55, 61; 
        1. He establishes his covenant with them when they repent and God forgives them.      
        2. That is the new covenant in the future when Jesus returns to fulfill the covenant promises.
     4. Now I love this word at the start of v60, nevertheless.  
        1. Nevertheless means in spite of this 
        2. So even though their sins were much more and grosser than Israel and Sodom, both who were judged for their sins, and even though Judah was being disciplined for their sins.
        3. In spite of this listen to what God says he is going to do!   Read v60-63   
     5. My hope is that this sermon has become different windows for us to look in and see God’s amazing grace and mercy to Israel
        1. God’s amazing grace and mercy to you and me!
        2. God’s amazing, tenacious, faithful, radical love to all his children.
     6. As we take communion today let God’s love sink into your heart and respond as your heart moves you.
        1. Reflect
        2. Take communion