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Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2025: God's Love and Justice

Mark Finley

01 God Loves Freely

02 Covenantal Love


We're diving into our second lesson this quarter, God's Love and Justice. This quarter leads us deeply into an understanding of God's love. The title of lesson number 2 is Covenantial Love. And let's pray before we actually study the lesson. Father in heaven, we thank you for these lessons on God's love.

They are touching our lives deeply. They have a profound influence in our lives. And I pray that as we study this lesson, Covenantial Love, that you will move upon our hearts as we are navigating through this lesson together and going over each day. We pray that the Spirit of God that prompted the author to write the lesson, that same spirit that prompted the Bible writers would prompt us just now, open our hearts and minds in Christ's name, amen. The title of the lesson kind of intrigued me when it said, covenantial love.

What is covenantial? What's a covenant anyway? A covenant is an arrangement between 2 parties. We talk about the marriage covenant And at the marriage altar, the man makes certain vows, the wife makes certain vows. It's an arrangement between the 2 of them.

A covenant, sometimes if you're in a homeowner's association, There's covenants that you have to assign, certain basic agreements in housing that have to be signed. So a covenant is this arrangement, an agreement between 2 people, and it has terms of the covenant. Now, the interesting thing about God's covenant is this. It is not based on human behavior. God is the author of the covenant.

God is the initiator of the covenant. God's covenant is based solely on the foundation of his love. Now we have responsibility, as I will point out in the lesson and as our author points out, to respond to that. But we don't determine the terms of the covenant. We don't determine the specificity, the specifics of the covenant.

We can determine our response to the covenant and receive the blessings of the covenant. I like it what our author says in the introduction to the lesson. Dr. Peckham puts it this way, "'Scripture also teaches that God's love is not unilateral.'" In other words, his love flows from his heart, but deeply relational. It makes a profound difference to God whether or not humans reflect his love back to him and to others.

So God establishes this covenant of love with us. But God doesn't just establish this covenant and sit back unaffected by our response to it. Our response to this covenant can bring joy or sorrow to God. You remember in Luke 15, it says, "'There's joy in heaven over 1 sinner that repents.'" In the book of Lamentations, it says, "'Is there any sorrow like my sorrow, you that pass by?' So God is affected by our behavior, he's affected by the way we relate to others. But that does not change the terms of the covenant.

God's love flows to us. Now in Sunday's lesson, we talk about the everlasting love of God. Psalm 33, verse 5, sets the tone for the lesson. It says, God loves righteousness and justice. Our theme for this quarter is God's love and justice.

So verse 5, God loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. So God's covenant is based upon his what? What's it based upon? His love or his goodness.

God's love is his goodness. Psalm 145 verse 9 puts it this way. We're studying that theme of God's love and God's goodness. God's love to me is his goodness revealed to me. Psalm 145 and verse 9, the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works.

The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. The Lord is good to all, even to poverty-stricken people, even to people who are born with deformities, even to a divorced woman whose husband had beaten her and abused her. The Lord is good to all. When it says the Lord is good to all, in my understanding it means this, that in spite of what happens to me in life, if I look to God, His goodness will flow into my heart and heal my deepest hurt." What it means to me is the poverty-stricken child, the young man suffering with leukemia, the woman who's been abused, As they look to God in ways that are divinely mysterious, God's love will be poured into their hearts and they will ultimately have a certain sense of peace in their life because God will never break his covenant of love with us. God's love leads him to desire that every human being be saved.

And at times in life, circumstances take place to lead people to depend totally, only, completely upon God. In the lesson on Sunday, we look to 2 passages that actually the author lists 3, I'm going to look at 2 that have become 2 of my favorite passages in all the Bible. You know, people say to me, Pastor Mark, what's your favorite passage in the Bible? And I tease them often and say, the 1 that I'm reading. But these, I would have to say, are 2 of my favorite passages of the Bible.

Second Peter chapter 3, verse 9 is really an incredible verse, profound. "'The Lord's not slack concerning his promise, ' this is 2 Peter 3, verse 9, "'as some men count slackness, "'but his longsuffering toward us.'" This word longsuffering means he suffers long. Not only is he patient, but he suffers long with the agony, the heartache, the sickness, the suffering in our world. He suffers long, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Why hasn't Jesus come?

Why is he suffering long? Because he doesn't want anybody to perish. He wants everyone to be saved. That's what love is. Love wants the best, and the best is salvation.

The best is eternity. The best is yet to come. The best is living in heaven with Jesus, and he doesn't want anybody to perish. We look at 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, a similar passage. Very similar.

You see the linkage in the Bible. You see in the Bible the interrelationship between passages. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, and I read, who desires. Well, let's go back and read verse 3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, all men and women to be saved, to come to a knowledge of the truth.

What's God's goal for every single 1 of us? God's goal for every 1 of us is to be saved, to come to an amazing knowledge of the truth of his word. That is why he's established this covenant of love. We find it here in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6 to 9 in Monday's lesson. Monday's lesson sets forth the fact that God's covenant of love is not dependent on our behavior.

We're looking there at Deuteronomy 7, verse 6 to 9. Some people have the mistaken idea that God only loves them when they do right, that if they do wrong, God doesn't love them. Our rebellion against God's will does not stop God from loving us. It stops us from receiving the blessings of that love. It shuts the door of heaven upon us because of the fact that we are incapable of living in a land of purity if we're impure, of honesty if we're dishonest, of peace and harmony if we're angry.

So the reason that our rejection of God's love shuts the door of heaven to us is not because he stops loving us, but because we become incapable of living in the land of eternity. Deuteronomy 7, verse 7 to 9. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people. For you are the least of all people. But because the Lord loves you, because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh of Egypt.

Therefore, know that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps the covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments. So here, God's love reaches out to us in spite of our obedience, but God's love will never give us the abundance of his blessings without obedience. And that's what the Bible means when it says, he keeps his covenant and mercy for a thousand generations, those who love him and keep his commandments. His love for us never changes, but our love for him can change. But if we love him and obey him, We receive the blessings of his love.

Last paragraph, Monday's lesson, God's steadfast love is the basis of all love relationships. We could never match that love. God not only freely gave us existence, but also in Christ he gave himself to us. Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." Last sentence under Monday's lesson, no question, the greatest expression of God's love was revealed when Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Now, God's love is demonstrated to us in ways we cannot even fathom, can't conceive.

His love for us is so deep, so broad, so great, he wants us to be saved so much, but we can reject that love. We can turn our backs on that love. We can rebel against that love. We find this in Hosea chapter 9 verse 15. Throughout the entire Bible we see the tragic results of rejecting God's love, the tragic results of turning our back on God's love.

We come to the book of Hosea, the ninth chapter, the 15th verse, and here the scripture says, all their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them because of the evil of their deeds. I will drive them from my house. I will love them no more. All their princes are are rebellious. Wow.

These are pretty strong words. He hated me. I love them. But what's he talking about? If you put everything in the context of the Bible.

It's not that his love changes, but it is that they can no longer receive God's love. They become incapable of receiving it. You remember when the Bible says God hardened Pharaoh's heart, did God actually harden Pharaoh's heart? You know, most of the places in the Bible, it says that Pharaoh hardened his heart by the choices that he made. So the same thing here, sometimes God's active will is God's permissive will, God's permissive will.

So God gives permission for people to make a choice, to accept or reject his covenant of love. If they reject that, his love is still there, but they cannot receive his love, therefore they have placed themselves beyond that love. Jeremiah 16, verse 5, these texts will help us to understand this even more. Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Chapter 16, verse 5. If God's love is an everlasting love, and if we cannot change his love by our behavior, what does it mean when he says he'll love us no more?

Jeremiah 16, verse 5. For thus says the Lord, "'Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or moan before them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, lovingkindness and mercies." So they reject the covenant of love, turn their back in rebellion upon him, so that they cannot receive the blessings, the blessings of his loving kindness, the blessings of his mercy. Romans 11, verse 22, Romans 11, verse 22. This is a serious section in our lesson. Romans 11, 22.

"'Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God "'on those who fell severity, but toward you goodness, "'if you continue in his goodness, "'otherwise you'll be cut off.'" So God's goodness constantly, as the song says, runs after us. God's goodness flows to us. But if we turn our back on his goodness and his love, we cannot receive it. And as the result of that, for us, the door of love is closed. Not because he stops loving.

Tuesday's lesson points out more on this conditional relationship that we have with God. As you go down to, for example, Jude 21, the last text in our lesson for Tuesday, Jude 21, about this. And Jude, right before the book of Revelation, Jude 21 says, keep yourselves in the love of God. In other words, keep yourselves in that love. He loves you, but you gotta, by your choices, keep yourselves in that love, looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

So it's not that his love toward me changes, it's that my choice enables me to keep myself in his love. Last paragraph, Tuesday's lesson, these and other texts teach that maintaining the benefits of a saving relationship with God depends upon whether we'll accept God's love, which involves willingness to be vehicles of that love as well. Again, this does not mean that God's love ever ceases. Rather, just as we cannot stop the sun from shining but can cut ourselves off from the rays of the sun, We cannot do anything to stop God's everlasting love, but we can finally reject a relationship with God and thus cut ourselves off from what it offers, especially the promise of eternal life. The sun shines.

I can't stop the sun's rays from shining, but I can go in my room and hide under my covers and live in the darkness. Does that mean the sun is stop shining? No. But does it mean that I don't receive the benefits of vitamin D out in the sun? It sure does.

Wednesday's lesson talks to us about mercy forfeited. First John, Chapter 4, we're going to look at 2 passages, First John 4, verse 7 and verse 9. First John 4, verse 7 and verse 9. Beloved, let us love 1 another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God." Now verse 9, it says, In this the love of God was manifest toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Now, verse 19.

We love him because he first loved us. So God's love is revealed to us in ways that we cannot imagine. The debt that we owe to God is so great. And all we can do is respond to that love. Can we ever earn eternal life?

Never, never. But we can reject the offer. You remember the story that the Bible tells about the man that owed money and he owed a certain amount? Let's look at it in the lesson. There are some new insights that I had here that are quite remarkable.

It says in the lesson, Wednesday's lesson, second paragraph after the question. In the parable, we can see that there was no way the servant ever could be repaid for what he owed the master. According to Matthew 18, the servant owed his master 10, 000 talents. How much did he owe? How much?

10, 000 talents. How much is that? 1 talent amounted to 6, 000 denarii. Now what's a denarii? A denarii is 1 day's wage.

So 1 talent is 1 day's wage. So 6, 000 talents would be 6, 000 days of labor. But was, well, 1 talent would be 6, 000 days of labor. That would be, the person have to work 300 days a year and earn 300 denarii a year. So it would take the average laborer approximately 20 years to pay 1 talent.

So 20 years to pay 1 talent. You got it? But wait a minute. The debt was 6, 000 denarii and 6, 000 denarii would be 6, 000 times 300. That would equal 20.

But to earn 10, 000 talents, what would that be? It would be 200, 000 years. Did you get that? 10, 000 talents with 1 talent, a mighty to 6, 000 denarii, 6, 000 times 10, 000 talents would be, wow, 200, 000 years. In other words, a servant could never repay the debt, never pay the debt.

You remember this 1 forgiven servant refused to forgive a far small amount of a hundred to nary to his fellow servants. And the master had him thrown into prison over the debt. The mass was moved with anger. He rescinded his merciful forgiveness because this man, this man. Who was forgiven so much when a guy wouldn't pay a hundred denarii, he threw that man into prison.

Look, friend, the servant forfeited the love and forgiveness of his master. Although God's compassion and mercy never run out, 1 can finally reject and even forfeit the benefits of God's compassion and mercy. The person that was forgiven so much of 10, 000 talents would not forgive somebody for a mere hundred talents. You know, there's a story that Corrie 10 Boone tells that is quite remarkable. Corrie 10 Boone, you remember, was in a prison camp with her sister Betsy.

And in that prison camp, they were treated cruelly. They were always hungry. They were cold. They were shaking, shivering. Her sister died in that prison camp and through a mistake in the records, Corey was released from the prison camp.

She established a home for people who had experienced the horrors of war and particularly people who were in the prison camps of Dachau and Ravensbrück and some of those horrible places where the fires of the chimneys burned 24 hours a day and people were gassed and thrown into the burning fires and 6000000 Jews were killed. It was a terrible, terrible situation with Hitler's Third Reich in Germany at that period of time. But after Corrie got out, she said she noticed that unless people forgave, they would not be healed internally. 1 night she was in Munich preaching on the love of God, preaching on healing, inner healing, preaching on how we can be healed from our brokenness. And she noticed a man walk up the aisle.

He was a short, stocky man. And she recognized him immediately. He was 1 of the cruelest guards in Ravensbrück, a god that slapped, a God that beat, a God that would knock you on the ground and stamp on you, a God that would deny you food that should be coming. He was a cruel wicked God. And this guard reached up his hand and he put it out to Corrie and he said, will you forgive me?

And Corrie said, I wanted to spit in his face. I wanted to slap him. I wanted to turn and run from that place because all those horrible memories came back. Then she remembered the concept of Ephesians 4.32, where it says that God has forgiven you. Be kind to 1 another, compassionate to 1 another, and forgive 1 another, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you.

And she said, if Jesus has forgiven me this great debt of like 10, 000 talents How can I not forgive this man? And she reached out and said I forgive you And she said when she did that, a flood of just a flood of joy and peace flowed over her. Is there somebody you need to forgive? A wife that's betrayed you, a husband that's betrayed you for somebody else, Children that have turned their backs on you. Is there somebody you need to forgive?

Another elder in the church? When I come to the generosity of God, the amazing love of God, And I see how much God has loved me and forgiven me. Thursday's lesson makes so much sense to me. You have freely received, freely give. In 1 John 4, verse 7 to 12, I read these verses.

1 John 4, verse 7 to 12, "'Beloved, let us love 1 another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifest toward us, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also want to love 1 another. Who is it that God wants you to reach out to touch with his love today? Who is it that you need to forgive today because you are forgiven? Who is it that you need to love today because you are loved? Who is it that you need to embrace today because you're embraced by God?

Reach out and touch somebody with God's love today. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your love and grace. Thank you for your goodness and mercy. Thank you, Jesus, that you love us with a love that never dies.

We don't want to turn our backs on that love. We want to respond in mercy and grace to your love. We want to reach out in love to others. In Jesus' name, amen. AudioVerse or if you

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2025: God's Love and Justice

02 Covenantal Love

Parent Series

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Other Teachings in Series

01 God Loves Freely

21m

02 Covenantal Love

23m

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