Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

I. God’s nature is love

When we say God’s nature is love, what do we mean?

What is the nature of something?

na•ture \ˈnā-chər\ noun

1 a: the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing: essence

b: disposition, temperament

2 a: a creative and controlling force in the universe

b: an inner force or the sum of such forces in an individual

8: the genetically controlled qualities of an organism

God’s motivation is Love because it is His nature.

Therefore we are to understand that when God moves, He is motivated in His moving by Love.

John through Scripture confirms our title and thought...1 Jn 4:8

​1 John 4:8 ESV 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

In the gospel of Mark His love is perfectly expressed within the Trinity Mk 1:10-11

​Mark 1:10–11 ESV 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

In the NT “beloved” used exclusively of Divine and Christian love, an affection begotten in the community of the new spiritual life in Christ, e.g.

“b. in the Lord” (Rom 16:8).

Therefore the nature of God’s love should be displayed in the fellowship of the Saints.

Pratt, D. M. (1915).

Beloved.

In J. Orr, J. L. Nuelsen, E. Y. Mullins, & M. O.

Evans (Eds.),

The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Vol.

1–5, p. 432).

Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company.

Many more scriptures confirm God’s nature as love.

See also Jn 5:20; Jn 10:17; Jn 14:23; Eph 1:6; Col 1:13

​John 5:20 ESV For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.

And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

​John 10:17 ESV For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

​John 14:23 ESV Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

​Ephesians 1:6 ESV to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

We see this idea again in Colossians 1:13...

​Colossians 1:13 ESV He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

[There are 4 characteristics we’ll discuss about God’s Love…]

II.

Characteristics of God’s love

A. It is eternal

​Jeremiah 31:3 ESV 3 the Lord appeared to him from far away.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

As mentioned in 1 Cor 13:8 God or love never fails...

See also Ps 103:17; Ps 136:1–26; Is 49:15–16; Is 54:8; Is 54:10

B. It is a covenant love

​Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

God’s is Love and that love is a promise; a covenant in which we can be secure and significant if we would trust and abide in that love...See also Ex 20:6; Dt 7:12; 1 Ki 8:23; Ps 106:45; Da 9:4

C. It is lavish

​Exodus 34:6–7 ESV 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Exodus speaks to the lavish nature of God’s love when it mentions a “thousand years” keeping steadfast love...See also Ne 9:17; Ps 103:8; Joe 2:13; Jon 4:2; 1 Jn 3:1Nehemaih reminded the people when they returned to Jerusalem...

​Nehemiah 9:17 ESV17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.

But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

The Psalmist puts the love of God to poetry...

​Psalm 103:8 ESV 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Jonah recognized the lavish nature of God’s love...

​Jonah 4:2 ESV2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.

The love Apostle reveals the lavishness of God’s love...

​1 John 3:1 ESV1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

D. It is Holy and Just

​Psalm 33:5 ESV 5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

The love that is God and from God is not warped or unseemly, twisted nor inappropriate.

See also Ps 37:28; Ps 99:4; Is 61:8

What are four characteristics of God’s Love discussed in this lesson?

God’s Love is Eternal

God’s Love is a Covenant Love

God’s Love is Lavish

God’s Love is Holy and Just

III.

Images of God’s love

God’s love is demonstrated to us in images of father and also as husband...

A. God as a father:

Dt 1:31; Ho 11:1–4; Lk 15:11–32; Heb 12:6; Pr 3:12

​Deuteronomy 1:31 ESV and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

We even are told of the discipline of God’s love because He wants the best for us...

​Hebrews 12:6 ESV For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

​Proverbs 3:12 ESV for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

B. God as a husband:

Je 31:32; Ho 2:14–20; Re 21:2

​Jeremiah 31:32 ESV not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

​Revelation 21:2 ESV And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

IV.

God’s loving actions

How about the many ways we can experience the love of God...

A. The gift of God’s Son is a unique act of love

1 Jn 4:9-10

​1 John 4:9–10 ESV 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

See also Jn 3:16; Jn 15:13; Ro 5:7–8

B. God sets his love on the unlovely

Dt 7:7-8

​Deuteronomy 7:7–8 ESV7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

See also Eze 16:1–14; Ro 5:8; Eph 2:4–5

C. God always acts in love towards believers

Ro 8:38-39

​Romans 8:38–39 ESV38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

See also 2 Co 13:14; 2 Jn 3

V.

God’s love transforms human love