God’s Refusal to Give Up on Man

Introduction

Powerful song that we were just singing. And I hope the lesson can make that song seem real to you. We have a big task in this lesson today. What I’m going to try to cover is the whole Bible. So I’m telling the story of the Bible with an emphasis on the fact that God loves us and refuses to give up on us. This is the greatest book that has ever been written. The Bible is first and foremost the story about God. It is no accident that the subject of the first sentence of the Bible is God.

And as Genesis 1 1 to Genesis 2 3 tells us about the days of creation, the name God is mentioned 35 times in 35 verses. To miss the fact that the book of Genesis and the whole Bible is a book about God is to miss the whole point. This is a revelation first and foremost about him. And the second most important character of Scripture is man. And I use that, not of a particular gender, but I use that in a description of all people who revealed to us in Scripture. Scripture deals extensively with God’s relationship with Israel and God’s relationship with the church, his people in the New Testament. But the Bible tells us about God’s trying to reach out to the world. The second key character of Scripture is man.

And the Bible is about God seeking to bring man into fellowship with him. God seeking a relationship with man. Man sins, man rebels against God, and God keeps reaching out to man to bring man back to himself. One phrase that I love in the Bible is the phrase, I will be their God, and they will be my people. In many ways that sums up this theme we’re talking about. The Bible is about fellowship between God and man. And so we’re going to try to attempt, in very abbreviated form, you understand, to tell the story of the Bible, emphasizing these profound truths. In Genesis 1 through 11, the Bible tells us about God’s creation of man in Genesis 1 and in Genesis 2. And then there are four basic accounts mixed with genealogies and a table of nations.

1. Man Sins, God Punishes, but God Is Merciful

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve. Genesis 4, Cain and Abel. Genesis 6 through 9, Noah and the flood. And Genesis 11 in the Tower of Babel. And those stories keep highlighting the same themes. Man sins. Man sins. He eats the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3. Cain kills his brother Abel in Genesis 4. In Genesis 6, God saw that the faults and the imaginations of man’s heart was only evil all the time. In Genesis 11, man seeks to make a name for himself by building a tower that reaches up into heaven. In Genesis 1 through 11, we see, as the Bible emphasizes man’s early history, we see man sinning and man departing from the living God. And we see in these sections, we see in these accounts, God punishing man for their sin.

God drives Cain and Abel from the garden. God makes Cain a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth. In Genesis 6 through 9, God sends a flood to cover the highest mountains to devastate the earth because of man’s sins. And in Genesis 11, God confuses man’s language and scatters man on the face of the earth. Man sins, God punishes man for his sin. But God is merciful to man in spite of his sin. After Adam and Eve sin in the garden and they’re driven from the garden, God makes garments of skin to cover their nakedness. Cain protests when God says, I’m going to make you a vagrant and wanderer, that whoever finds me will kill me. And God puts a mark on Cain that no one would kill Cain.

And if one does, vengeance will be taken upon them sevenfold. If you read the story of Noah and the ark carefully, you will see that that story says as much about the salvation of Noah and his family as it does the judgment of the wicked world. The point.

2. God Works Through Abraham; God Is the Hero

And God is merciful to man in spite of his sins. But God begins to work through one man through him planning to reach all nations for him. In Genesis chapter 12, God gives his promises to Abraham. These promises are so important in the rest of Genesis, in the rest of the Old Testament, and even in the New Testament. The first verse of the New Testament says that Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the son of Abraham. As one friend of mine likes to ask, how much of the New Testament do you have to read before an old testament background helps you to understand the story? From the first verse, understanding the Old Testament background helps you. And in Genesis chapter 12, the Lord told Abram, Go from your country, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation.

I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all families of the earth will be blessed. Great promises that God gives to Abraham. And Abraham is a man of faith. And sometimes his faith leads him to boldly obey God. In Genesis chapter 12, when God called him to leave your country and leave your kin, he got up, not knowing where he was going, according to Hebrews 11, verses 8 through 10. But he obeyed God. He obeyed God. Genesis 22 is a remarkable account of Abraham’s heroic faith. After Abraham had waited so long for a son in Isaac, God tells him, Take your son, your only son whom you love, and offer him on a mountain that I will tell you as a sacrifice.

Abraham’s obedience to that command was prompt. Genesis 22 verse 3 says, Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took his young men and took Isaac. His obedience was prompt. But I’ll tell you something else. His obedience was prolonged. What do I mean by that? In verse 4, the text says, On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. He was quick to obey, and he continued to obey. He continued to obey, though he had a long time to think about it as he was on his way to this mountain where God told him to sacrifice Isaac. His obedience was prompt, his obedience was prolonged, and his obedience was complete. When God tells him to sacrifice his son, he takes his son in verses 9 through 11.

He ties him down to the altar, he draws his knife to slay his son, but then he hears a voice. Abraham, Abraham, he says, Here am I. He says, I see, I know that you love me, for you’ve not withheld your son, your only son with me. And he sees a ram and offers him instead of his son. What I’m saying with these illustrations is Abraham was a man of incredible faith. But Abraham is not the hero of this story. While he was a man of incredible faith, he was a man that it sometimes leaves us scratching our head, thinking, why did you do that, Abraham? For example, in Genesis 17, when Abraham was 99, he was promised a son. In Genesis 18, again, the promise of a son, I’ll surely return to you at this time next year.

And your wife Sarah will give birth to a son. God promises that Sarah is going to have a child. In Genesis 21, God kept these promises. And Abraham and Sarah have a child, though they are well past the age of child bearing. But in Genesis chapter 20, it’s very interesting to see the placement of this passage right before Genesis, right after the promises in Genesis 17 and 18, and before the birth of Isaac in Genesis 21, what does Abraham do in Genesis 20? When he’s down in the land of Gerar, the Bible says that he says of Sarah, she is my sister. She says, of him, he is my brother. And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, takes Sarah into his harem. It looks like Abraham’s throwing everything into jeopardy by his actions.

I’m not doing that to diminish his great acts of faith. I’m doing that to emphasize, in spite of those acts of faith, he is a sinner. And God is the hero of this story. God is the hero of this story. And if we think that Jacob, if we think Abraham does some bad things, read the rest of the book of Genesis. The other day I was teaching a friend Genesis chapter 34. That is such a sad and heartbreaking chapter as Dinah, Jacob’s only daughter that is mentioned specifically in Scripture. She’s right. And then the men of Jacob, the sons of Jacob, answer the men of Shechem with deceit. And they get them to be circumcised. And then when they are weak and unable to defend themselves, they go through the city and slay all the men.

They use as their excuse. Look what he did to our sister. And they return that evil with a worse evil in Genesis chapter 34. And I’ll tell you something else. You look at Genesis 34 closely, and you know what you’re not going to find in that chapter. You will not find Hamar and Shechem. You will not find Jacob and his sons. You will not find any of the characters in this chapter mentioning the name of God. God’s name is absent. Genesis 37. Joseph’s brothers are jealous of him. Their father likes him. They hate him. They can’t speak to him on peaceable terms. And so they end up stripping him of his coat, throwing him in a pit, seeing some Midianite merchant men come by. They sell him to the Midianite merchant men.

They take his coat. They dip it in the blood of the goat. They present it to their father. This, we found this coat. Look and see if it’s your son’s coat. Jacob sees it. He says, It is my son’s coat. He draws the conclusion they wanted him to draw. He’s been killed by a wild animal. These are the people of God. This is how they’re acting. And yet, you know what’s remarkable? That God uses their wicked act to bring deliverance to them. Later, Joseph is to say, in Genesis 45, verses 5 through 8. And Genesis 50, verse 20, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. The very sins that the brothers commit, the very wrongs they do. God uses that to bring about deliverance and salvation for his people.

3. God Delivers Israel and Doesn’t Give Up on Them

God is the hero of this story. And the people go down to bondage in Egypt. Originally, as they go down in the days of Joseph, they are treated well. For Joseph has contributed much to his Egyptian civilization. But there arises another king who did not know Joseph. And he makes the Israelites’ lives bitter in bondage. He tells the Hebrew midwives: if a Hebrew boy is born, kill it. If it’s a girl, you can let it live. When that fails, he tells his own people, you throw the Hebrew boys in the river. If it’s a girl, you can let it live. And in this time, God brings into the world a man by the name of Moses, that God will ultimately use to bring deliverance to his people from Egyptian bondage.

But in Exodus chapter Exodus 3 and 4, when the Lord calls Moses to his task, Moses is reluctant to go. Moses doesn’t want this job. But God tells him to go down. When he goes to Pharaoh, originally things get worse and they do not get better. But God is going to perform mighty acts. When Moses came before the Pharaoh, Moses says, This, thus says the Lord God, let my people go. Pharaoh says, Who is the Lord? That I should obey his voice. I like the words of one writer who said, God signed Moses, uh, God signs Pharaoh up in a correspondence course called the plagues to teach him who the Lord is. And God sends plague plague to devastate the land of Egypt. And he brings his people who were slaves in this powerful nation, who were slaves and oppressed and mistreated.

God brings them out by his mighty hand and by his outstretched arms. He saves them, and they sing, The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. God delivered his people from Egyptian bondage. But these people who were delivered from Egyptian bondage travel three days in the wilderness. And they come to some water and they’re unable to drink. And they began to grumble. Now remember, they’re grumbling before a God who has divided the waters of the sea and let them cross over on dry land. And now they’re going to complain because they come to some waters and they’re bitter. And Moses takes a tree and Moses throws it in the water, and the water becomes, it is so that the people can drink.

God provides for them. And this happens over and over again in this wilderness period. The people complain. The people murmur.

Yes, he does call them into account. He does force them to experience punishment for their sins. But I’m amazed with God’s mercy to these people. Think about Exodus 32. When Moses goes up on the mountain to commune with God, the Bible tells us that the people come to Aaron and say, As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him. Make us gods who will go before us. Aaron said, Break off your silver and gold and bring it to me. And they brought it to him. And he fashions it into a golden calf. And it says the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. When Moses is coming down from the mountain, he says, What is that commotion that I hear in the camp?

And Joshua says it implies it sounds like a battle. He says, it’s not the sound of victory, nor is it the sound of defeat. It’s the sound of singing that I hear. And Moses’ anger burned, and he throws down the tablets of stone, shattering them at the foot of the mountain. I don’t think that’s a good illustration of the fact that Moses sinned by being angry. If you look at the text of Exodus 32, the Bible says Moses’ anger burned there around verses 19 and 20. But if you look earlier in the text, the Bible talks about God’s anger burning against the people in verses like 10 and 11. The point. Moses’ anger in throwing down the tablets of stone, I think is a living illustration of God’s anger at the sin of the people in worshiping the golden calf.

But you know something. God doesn’t give up on them. God doesn’t give up on them. The Bible’s about God. The Bible’s about man. The Bible’s about God seeking to bring man into fellowship with himself.

In Exodus 25 through 31, God gives instructions for building the tabernacle. In Exodus 35 through 40, those instructions about building the tabernacle are carried out. Now that’s on both sides of that account of the people worshiping the golden calf in Exodus 32 through 34. And what was the reason of building the tabernacle? The whole point of the tabernacle, according to Exodus 25 in verse 8, let them construct a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among them. In Exodus 29, Exodus 29 and verse 42, it shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak with you there. And in verses 45 and 46 of Exodus 29, I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God.

And when the tabernacle is completed in Exodus 40, verses 34 and 35, the cloud covered the tent of meeting. The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The point I’m trying to make, while the people are guilty of gross sin in Exodus 32 through 34, God still doesn’t give up on them. He is still seeking to bring them in fellowship with himself. And that wasn’t the last of their sins in the wilderness. In Numbers 13 and 14, as spies are sent to search out the land of Canaan. They go to search out the land of Canaan, and ten of them come back, and they said, the land is a good land, but we’re not able to take the land.

Look at their words in Numbers 13, in verses 25 through 33. They said, We’re not able to fight against them. We’re not able to take the land. Well, God has already told you these are nations stronger and mightier than you. No, you’re not able in your own strength and your own power to take the land. You’re not able in your own power. But as Joshua and Caleb said in Numbers 14, verse 8, if the Lord delight in us, he will give us the land. But the people say, let’s choose a captain and go back to Egypt. And God says, All you adults, all you adults who have complained and said these things, all you males are going to die in the wilderness. And you’re not going to enter the promised land.

4. The Distressing Days of the Judges and the Kings

The book of Joshua is unique in this section in that the people are generally obedient to the Lord. As God is keeping his promises to the people and giving them the land of Canaan. God told Abraham, I’m going to give this land to you and your descendants after you. And not one word failed of all these great promises to God, according to Joshua 21 and verses 43 through 45. God kept these promises. The people are generally obedient in the book of Joshua. But Joshua gives them warnings near the end of his life. He says in Joshua 23, verses 11 through 13, take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God. For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of those nations which remain among you and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them, and they with you know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive out these nations from before you.

Had they received that land, then Joshua’s warning them what they must do, or saying, if you don’t do it, you’re going to be driven off this land. One of the first commentaries I ever remember looking at on the book of Judges had the title, The Distressing Days of the Judges. And these are distressing days. Some of you who have taught the book of Judges know that you have a cycle that repeats itself over and over in the book of Judges. The people sinned against God.

The people sinned against God. Then the Lord handed them over to foreign armies who oppressed them and mistreated them. Then the people cried out to God. And then God raised up a deliverer. One of the places you see this cycle, you see it described at the beginning of the book of Judges in chapter 2, in verses 11 through 19. But you see this continually being referred to in the book. These are dark days. These are distressing days. These are days where we read of characters like Jephthah and Samson. And the book of Judges ends in horrible fashion. In Judges 19 through 21, the Bible tells us of a Levite and his concubine and his servant who come to the city of the city of Gibeah of the tribe of Benjamin.

And the men of Benjamin gather outside that house and said, Bring out those men who came to you, that we may know them, that we may have relations with them. And the man said, No, no, no. But finally, this Levite pushes his concubine out to the crowd. They rape her all night long. And she dies the next morning. He sends word throughout the tribes of what has happened. And all the tribes gather together against Benjamin, and they say, You surrender the people who did this. Benjamin said, We won’t do it. And so all the tribes go to war against the one tribe, Benjamin. It is dark days. These are dark days. These are distressing days. These are supposed to be the people of God. And they are committing hideous acts like this.

And the book of Judges ends with the statement, there was no king in Israel. And every man did what’s right in his own eyes. But still, God doesn’t give up on the people.

And they said, Samuel, you’re old, and you don’t walk, your sons don’t walk in your ways. Give us a king who will go before us and fight our battles so that we may be like the nations round about us. And Israel enters into the united kingdom, period. Would a king be a solution for all their problems and their ills? They said, Give us a king. We want a king. We want to be like the nations. Saul gets off to a good start, it looks like at first. He seems like he’s humble in 1 Samuel 9 through 11, when he is given a victory over Nahash the Ammonite in 1 Samuel chapter 11, and some of the people want to kill Saul’s enemies. He says, Not a man will be put to death today.

For today the Lord has brought about a great salvation in Israel. He seems to get off to a good start, but it quickly goes downhill. Among the most famous sins of Saul are in 1 Samuel chapter 15, when the Bible tells us that Saul was told to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites. You destroy all of them. He killed most of them, brought back Agag, their king alive, brought back some of the best of the livestock. Samuel went down to confront him with his sin. Saul continually protests, I’ve done the will of the Lord. The people have done this. The people have been the ones who have committed this sin. And he uses the excuse, we brought them back to do sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel says, as the Lord is much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as an obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold, to obey is better than the sacrifice and to hearken to the fat of rams. And later in that chapter, Samuel tells Saul the kingdom is going to be taken from you and given to your neighbor who is better than you. We are introduced to that young man in the next couple of chapters. And that is David. And in 1 Samuel 17, David gets off to heroic start when there is a huge giant who is threatening the people of God, saying, You choose a man to fight me. If you defeat me, we’ll all be your servants. But if I defeat him, you’ll all be our servants. All the men of Israel would listen to that, and they would run away in fear. But David did not.

Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? That he has defied the armies of the living God. He said, You come to me as sword and spear and javelin, and I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And he takes his sling and he kills, he slings it and hits that giant and takes his own sword and cuts off his head. And the people chant, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands. And the rest of Saul’s life, he spends more time fighting David than he does. The enemies of God’s people. And David, David is said to do justice and righteousness. In 2 Samuel chapter 8 in verses 15 through 18. But an account that we mentioned last night. David looks out from his roof and sees a beautiful woman bathing and commits adultery with her.

And his life was never going to be the same after that. And in 2 Samuel 13, his son raped his daughter. One son kills another son because of it. And then we have a civil war. Absalom, whose name ironically means my father is peace, starts a civil war against his own father. Now, if you followed closely, remember how the book of Judges ended? The book of Judges ended with a rape, with murder, and with civil war. But some of the people may have thought, if we just had a king, things will get better. Now Israel hath had their best king. And how does 2 Samuel, what does it emphasize about David’s reign? You have rape, and you have murder, and you have civil war. Their problems are bigger than just needing a human leader.

Solomon in 1 Kings 1 through 11. His greatest accomplishment was building the temple of the Lord. It took seven years for his workmen to do this. And when Solomon, when the temple is completed in his day in 1 Kings chapter 8, in 1 Kings chapter 8, in verses 10 and 11, listen to what the text says. It came about when the priest came from the holy place, and the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house. Just like when the tabernacle was completed, when the tabernacle was completed, the glory of the Lord filled the house, and Moses couldn’t enter there. And now the glory of the Lord is filling the temple, and the priest cannot enter there to serve.

God is showing in a visible way, in a dramatic way, that he is dwelling among this people. And yet Solomon was to marry foreign wives who turned away his heart from serving God. It seemed like the best of days, but it was the worst of days. The best of times, but it was the worst of times. The kingdom divided. What had been one nation under Saul, David, and Solomon became two nations, with Israel in the north and with Judah in the south. In its 200-year plus history, Israel was not going to have one good king. Not one good king in its 200-year history. And some of the kings were incredibly wicked. In the days of Ahab, for example, Ahab married a wicked woman by the name of Jezebel.

And Baal worship practically became the national religion of Israel. Why would I say that? Because in 1 Kings 16, in verse 22, he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. He builds an altar of Baal and a house of Baal. And in 1 Kings 18, verse 4, in 1 Kings 18, verse 13, we read that there was a policy from the king to kill the prophets of the Lord. And while they killed the prophets of the Lord in 1 Kings 18, verse 19, there were 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah that worshipped at the king’s table. And so Baal worship has virtually become the national religion in this place, in this nation that God has saved from the land of Egypt.

But God raises up a prophet by the name of Elijah. And God tells, and Elijah speaks to Ahab and says, It’s the Lord God of Israel lives. There’s not going to be any dew nor any rain till I say so. Do you know that archaeologists have found drawings and inscriptions of Baal pictured with a lightning bowl in his hand? These nations believe that Baal controlled the rain, and Baal controlled the Jew, and Baal sent the lightning. And Elijah is taking their new God on his home turf. Okay, you think your God controls this? As the Lord God of Israel lives, as Yahweh lives, there will be no dew nor rain till he says so. In the mighty contest that Elijah has with the prophets of Baal, he says, You choose an ox and you cry out to your God, and they cried out from morning till midday, saying, O Baal, hear us.

But there was no voice, and none answered. But Elijah rebuilds a temple, rebuilds the altar of the Lord, which had been in a state of disrepair. And he humbly prays to God, begging God to send down, to send down fire to consume the sacrifice. As the fire comes down, the people shout, the Lord He is God. The Lord He is God. How much more clearly could God have shown himself to this people. Yet still, in all their years, there’s not a good king in all the land of Israel. And they go into captivity.

5. In Captivity, God Hasn’t Given Up on Them Yet

While these things are going on in Israel, things aren’t a whole lot better in Judah. You’ve got kings like Ahaz and Manasseh. And there’s some overlap between these two periods that are on the board. But you have kings like Ahaz and Manasseh who make the house of the Lord a sinner of idolatry. They make the house of the Lord a sinner of idolatry and sacrifice children to other gods in the nation that God has saved from slavery and bondage. There are good moments. There are highlights. There are kings like Hezekiah and Josiah who trust in the Lord, who seek to follow him, but they’re the exception, not the rule. Finally, 587 BC, a dark day in the Israel, in the history of Israel. The Babylonians, the Babylonians break through the walls of the city of Jerusalem.

They break through the walls, they capture Zedekiah, the king of Judah. The last thing Zedekiah sees is his children being killed, and then his eyes are put out, and we never hear from him again as far as the biblical story goes. Their king has proved helpless. Their temple is burned. Their temple is burned, and the people are taken off the land that God promised to Abraham and God gave to Abraham. They’re taken off their land and carried into captivity. And it would have seemed to the people that the promises to Abraham had failed. The promises to David had failed. Where was God in the midst of our crisis? Why have foreign nations come in and torn down our temple? You can read about that in Psalm 74, Psalm 79, and at the end of Psalm 89 in verses 38 through 52.

And do you know how people, how would the Babylonians have interpreted that? The Babylonians come into the city of Jerusalem and they burn down the temple of their God. They take vessels from that place, carry them into Jerusalem. How would they have interpreted that? They would have interpreted that to say our God is stronger than their God. God’s people by their sin and by their wickedness and by their sinfulness have brought shame on the name of the Almighty God. And yet, yet God hasn’t given up on them yet.

Excuse me, as Israel treated God, let me be very careful with that. I’m convinced any of us, if we had mates that treated us like Israel treated God, we would have given up on them and divorced them long ago. I’m convinced if any of us had children like Israel treated God, had treated us like we would have given up on those children and washed our hands. Now you may be an exception. But I really believe that. But you see, God doesn’t give up so easily on Israel. He is longing to bring them into fellowship with himself. I stated just a moment ago that people would look at this when the Babylonians burned down the house of the God of Judah, they would have said, that shows it.

The Babylonian God is stronger than the God of Judah. But oh, God’s not dead yet. Daniel 3, when Nebuchadnezzar makes a golden image ninety feet high, and says, You bow down to this when you hear the sound of the instruments. And if you don’t bow down, you’re going to be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace. When he sounds that, everybody seems to comply. But some come forward and they say, Nebuchadnezzar, isn’t this what you said? I want you to know that there’s some Jews here, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who pay no attention to you, who don’t regard your word. They haven’t bowed down to your image. Nebuchadnezzar calls them in. He says, in effect, he says, I’ve heard this about you. And he said, if you’re going to bow down to my image, the next time you hear the musical instrument, all will be forgotten.

But if you don’t, you’re going to be cast in the midst of a burning and fiery furnace. And what God is able to deliver us from your hand. From my hand. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednes go say, We are not careful to answer you, O king. Our God is able to deliver us. But even if he doesn’t, we will not bow down to your image. Or we will not bow down or worship the image that you have set up. They cast them into the fiery furnace. The furnace is so, the heat is so intense that the people who throw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fire are overwhelmed by the flames. And they die. And the king says, Didn’t we throw three men in the fire?

Why is it that I see four walking around? And the fourth one is like the son of the gods. And they say, and Nebuchadnezzar says, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out. I wish they had answered, like Paul answered in Philippi when they probably cast him out of prison. Why don’t you come yourselves and cast us out? I wish they’d answered like that. But they come out, and there’s not the smell of smoke on them. You see? God’s name has been mocked. God’s name has been profaned. But God is still God. And God’s promises aren’t dead. And God’s love for Israel is not dead. He hasn’t given up on them yet. And remarkably, 70 years after the people go into captivity, Cyrus makes a proclamation that all the Jews who want to could go back and rebuild this house of the Lord, this temple of the Lord.

And though the people who come back, they face discouragements. They face discouragements from within because those who have seen Solomon’s temple, they see this temple and they see how it’s not as beautiful. They face discouragements without because they’re mocked, they’re criticized. In Ezra 4, verses 1 through 5. But finally Hagai and Zachariah encouraged them to build the temple.

And the people rise up and they build. And they complete that temple. You remember what happened, though, when the tabernacle was completed, and how the glory of the Lord filled that in the book of Exodus. Do you remember how the glory of the Lord fills the temple in 1 Kings 8, verses 10 and 11? You don’t read of that in Ezra. I’m not saying that God doesn’t approve of their task. He clearly does. As Hagai and Zachariah have been raised up by him to preach his message to build the temple of the Lord. But I am saying that that temple is still waiting to be filled with the glory of the Lord. And I believe it’s filled with the glory of the Lord. When Jesus enters and teaches and ministers in that house of God.

6. God’s Persistent Love Shown in Jesus Christ

And the greatest display of God’s persistent love, God’s love that refuses to give up on us is shown in Jesus Christ as the word was made flesh and dwelt among us in John 1.14. It tabernacled among us. The glory of God is dwelling with man. And if Jesus, if all the things that could be said about Jesus were written in a book, even the world itself could not contain all that could be written according to John 21 and verse 25. Jesus was a great teacher. Jesus was a great miracle worker. Jesus healed the sick, and Jesus gave sight to the blind and raised the dead. But more than anything, Jesus came to die. He came to die on the cross. Look at the gospel of John.

You will find in John 2 4, John 7 6, John 7 8, John 7, verse 30, John 8, verse 20, passages where Jesus says, My hour is not yet come. Or the or the inspired writer says, His hour is not yet come. But then in 1223 and 13 1 and 17 1, his hour has come. The hour for which Jesus had come into the world was the hour in which he would die. As John the Baptist said about him, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. All those sins of man, all man’s rebellion against God, and God refuses to give up on him. Even giving his son to die for our sins, for our shortcomings. As Jesus died, they continued to mock him.

They continued to ridicule him. As Jesus is laid in his grave. And as Pilate says, You have a watch, make it as secure as you know how. Death cannot keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior. He tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord. The text tells us that Jesus rose from the dead. The book of Genesis ends with the death of Joseph. The first five books end with the death of Moses. The book of Joshua ends with the death of Joshua. But the gospels don’t end with the death of Jesus. They end with the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is alive. And through him, we have hope of forgiveness and hope of salvation. And there were twelve men who were apostles who were so frightened. They were meeting after the death of Christ behind locked doors because of fear of the Jews.

But these frightened, trembling men are changed into mighty men, speaking forth God’s truth as they go to preach his word to all nations, teaching them, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I’ve commanded you. They go forth into the world and turn the world upside down. As you look in Acts 2, 3,000 were there. And then Acts 4, 5,000 men throughout the book of Acts. You continue to read progress reports. They are sometimes called. As you see the spread of the gospel, even in spite of persecution from Jewish sources, from Roman sources, in spite of that, in spite of difficulties among God’s people, the word of God keeps marching on. And all of it. Because God loves each one of us.

Conclusion

And as God is seeking to bring each one of us into fellowship with himself. All of us have sinned and fallen short of his glory. Others may have washed their hands of us a long time ago. But God refuses to give up on you and seeks to bring you into fellowship with himself. Let us pray. O Lord our God, you are mighty, you’re worthy of worship, you are worthy of praise. To you, O God, be all the glory. We are in awe of how you love us and how you refuse to give up on us. We’re in awe of that. Thank you. And may we tell the story to others. We pray, O Lord, that you bring us home so that you may be our God and we may be your people forever in heaven.

In Jesus we pray. Amen. I do appreciate your attention. I was hoping to sum it up in 45 minutes, and it’s been more like 55. I do appreciate your attention. I hope you see why this book changes so many people’s lives. Because there is no love story like the story of God’s love for us. We have sinned. We have fallen short, but God refuses to give up on us and keeps seeking to bring us back to Himself. If we can help you today to be right with God, if you believe that Jesus died and that he rose again, if you want to repent of your sins and be baptized into Christ to have your sins washed away, we invite you to come as we stand and sing.