Understanding God's Compassion: A Deep Dive into His True Nature

In this sermon, Reagan delves into a Biblical exploration of God's nature, focusing on His overwhelming and perfect compassion. Reagan invites the audience to look into Exodus 34, Psalm 145, and Jonah 3, among other scriptures, to understand God's self-description and how His compassion manifests throughout history. The sermon also touches on the importance of not confusing human compassion with divine compassion, emphasizing that true love and mercy align with God's will. Reagan concludes by highlighting the simplicity and accessibility of God's salvation plan, urging listeners to embrace God's compassion and respond to His call.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Anecdote
01:59 Understanding God's Character
03:46 The Compassionate Nature of God
05:48 Biblical Examples of God's Compassion
16:30 God's Compassion in the New Testament
20:29 We Are Not More Compassionate Than God
21:50 Compassion and Morality
25:36 Compassion and Doctrine
30:31 Compassion and Salvation
32:02 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Brooklyn and I flew out Sunday night of last week. Flew to Florida for the Florida College Lectures and then came back on Wednesday. It's a Bible Lectureship. I always enjoy that a great deal. And it's It's fun because Brooklyn has been with me the last couple of years and we've met my parents there.

And I get to spend some time with them as well. And Monday night, before the Monday night lecture, we went out to eat with some friends of ours. And so I was sitting at this big round table and I had my back to the wall and Brooklyn was on my right side and my mom was on my left. Kind of nice. Kind of cool.

Right? And we're having this conversation. And our mutual friends asked my mom a question about someone who seemingly is always involved in some conflict. There's just, with conflict with people all the time, it seems like. And after my mom said some very nice things about this person, she said, well, you know, he can be a little gruff, like the billy goats.

And so at that time, Brooklyn kind of pulled on my arm. And so I, I said something to her. She asked me a question. I came back and then I hear. My mom say, now I can be the same way. And I interrupt and I say, whoa, wait a second. I said, you have never been gruff to me in 39 years. Now you've been firm, but you've never been gruff in 39 years.

And she's kind of taken a back ball of this because I missed apparently a sentence in between. And she wasn't talking about her being gruff. She was talking about something else. But I knew her character well enough that I wasn't going to let that stand. This kind of misconception about who she is and what she does.

Are we the same way about God and his character? Do we know his character well enough that accusations that are made about him, misrepresentations of him, and attacks on him and his true nature ring hollow to us? Because we know him as he really is. His character as it really is. And do we align, especially those of us here this morning who are Christians, do we align our understanding of the world and God's actions to this world with what we know of him.

With that in mind, I want to examine one aspect of God's character this morning. I want us to consider for just a few moments, the compassionate God that our God is. If you have your Bible with you, I invite you to take it out and turn to the book of Exodus, to Exodus chapter 34. We'll begin reading in verse five here in just a moment.

We'll read down through verses eight or nine or so. So Exodus chapter 34, beginning in verse five, As has already been mentioned, thank you so much for being here this morning. We have a few who are visiting with us. We especially appreciate your presence. You are our honored guest, and we, we really mean that.

We want you to feel welcome, and we hope that the things that we do and say here today, The prayers that we offer, the songs that we sing as we have partaken of the Lord's Supper and remembering of Christ's death, we hope all of these things glorify God, that they rise up to Him as a sweet smelling aroma.

We also hope that we give you the opportunity to know God better. And the things that I'm going to say this morning from God's Word will be helpful to you as you strive to know God more clearly and be more who He has called you to be. So let's consider this idea of the compassionate God for just a few minutes this morning.

The first thing that I want us to consider as we consider God and His nature as being compassionate is that God is overwhelmingly and perfectly compassionate. Compassionate if you're if you're there in exodus chapter 34 This is the clearest self description of god that we've had to this point in the biblical text So genesis and exodus we get to exodus 34 and kind of for the first time god describes himself This is who I am.

This is what i'm about and it's one of the Clearest self portraits of God in all of the Bible. This is how God describes himself. So Moses is before God, and he wants to see God's glory. And God only allows him to see his back. But this is what God says of himself. Verse 5. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him, Moses there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord, the name of Yahweh.

So God is going to proclaim His own name. This is who I am. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. Moses is given this description of God by God Himself. And Moses writes these things down for the children of Israel, and by extension writes them down for us so that we might know God's true character. Back in May, I used this passage to talk about God's character as being unchanging, that God does not change.

And after I preached that lesson, The Unchanging God Harold challenged me and he said, I want you to preach several lessons that describe these various aspects of God's character, how God can be described in, in these one word. So he's the unchanging God. And now this morning, I want us to consider what these verses tell us about God's nature as the compassionate.

Of the seven descriptions of God that we find in these two verses, in verses six and seven, six of them are about His grace and longsuffering and forgiveness. A six to one compassion to judgment ratio, if you want to put it in those terms. This is who God is, and this is who God has always been. It's unchanging, as we talked about back in May.

God is compassionate. God is gracious. And God is generous. Among other things, our text says he shows his steadfast love, his mercy, his loving kindness to thousands. And certainly that is true that God has shown compassion to thousands and millions, billions through the centuries. But I think what is really being said here in this verse is that it's contrasting His just visiting of iniquity, that we see in the same verse there, in verse 7, with this idea of him visiting people and keeping people in mercy for thousands.

As the New Living Translation and other paraphrases translate it, his steadfast love is not just to thousands, it is to a thousand generations. So, God's, God's visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, or to the third and fourth generations within. A one period of a family being alive at the same time, but he shows mercy compassion To a thousand generations.

You know, we have difficulty conceptualizing really large numbers. The difference between a million and a billion is tough. The difference between a billion and a trillion is tough. And whatever's going on in the government right now, I think that's what makes the national debt not that big of a deal to us a lot of times.

Is because, what's the difference between, you know, two billion and two trillion? They're just all made up numbers to us. A thousand generations, I think, is kind of like that. It's difficult to conceptualize how much compassion we're talking about. So he says this to Moses. That was a long time ago, maybe 3, 500 years.

3, 500 years ago, God says these words to Moses, that I show compassion, mercy to a thousand generations. Most historians consider a generation between 20 and 30 years, so we'll say 25 years for a generation. If that's the case, Moses was alive when these words were said, how many generations ago? 150 generations ago.

To get to a thousand generations from Moses, it will take us forward in time to the year 21, 500. 21, 500 years is what it's going to take to get to a thousand generations. And you say, well Reagan, you've figured it out. That's when the Lord's going to come again. Whether that's the case or not, I know God will continue, both then and forevermore.

Yes, God visits iniquity on the third and fourth generations because He is just, but He shows loving kindness to a thousand generations, which paints this picture, painted by God Himself, of His compassion and mercy as 250 times more prevalent in His character than His righteous punishment of the wicked.

Now, we know in one sense God is perfect in both of those things, in His, in His justice and judgment, and in His mercy and in His grace. But God desires, who God is, is to be gracious and merciful and compassionate. Same phrase in describing God's long suffering and mercy and graciousness, as He describes Himself in Exodus 34, is used here.

a dozen times or more in our Old Testament from this point forward. I want to just point out two of those occasions. Turn first to Psalm 145, the 145th Psalm, and we think about the overwhelming perfect compassion of God. I think sometimes God shows compassion on occasions where maybe we would not. King David was a man after God's own heart.

He loved God, and he wanted to serve God, but he made some awful, horrible decisions. He committed some heinous sins, adultery and murder. And yet when we think about David, David was one who needed God's compassion. And I don't know, as I look at him and his leadership and who he was called to be, and sometimes who he was, I don't know if I would have shown as much compassion on him as God did, but it's encouraging, isn't it?

But if David found compassion because of his heart, then God can show compassion to me because of my heart as well. If you're there in the 145th Psalm, read with me there beginning in verse 4. Again, we have this idea of generations. One generation shall praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.

Then David says, I will meditate. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works, men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts, and I will declare your greatness. They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and sing of your righteousness. David was a prophet. He was inspired.

But I don't think this is necessarily saying, now I see into the future and at Timberland Drive in the year 2025, they're going to sing of your goodness. I think what David is just saying here, this is how awesome you are. This is how compassionate that you are, that people for every generation to come will sing.

of that compassion. And then he quotes from Exodus 34 verse eight. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercy. are over all his works. Everything, verse nine tells us, is touched by God's compassion. He has compassion over and on all that he has made because of his goodness, because of his love.

If you turn to Jonah chapter three, the, the minor, Jonah in the third chapter in verse 10, Jonah saw this overwhelming compassion in God. Even though he didn't really like it even though to him, God was too compassionate. Certainly on his enemies. We're familiar with this story.

Jonah and the big fish. Well, Jonah is sent to preach to the people of Nineveh. A people who are going to be destroyed by God. And he does, eventually, go and preach to them. And this people show beautiful repentance. ashes. They're not presumptuous. They say, perhaps it's not too late. Perhaps God will be merciful toward us.

And God is, indeed, merciful toward them. Verse 10. Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and He relented from the disaster that He said He would bring upon them. And He did not do it. He's compassionate. But it, verse 1 of chapter 4, displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

And he prayed to the Lord and said, quoting from Psalm 34, Ah, Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? Why did you send me here to preach to these people? Because I know this about you, Lord. This is what he's saying. Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in long suffering.

One who relents from doing. Jonah says, I knew this about you, God. You're just looking for an excuse to save people. What a wonderful thing to say and with such a poor attitude. Because this is who God is. He is looking for an excuse to save people. And it's interesting, the little thing that God does next is He's looking to save Jonah too.

He's looking to work on Jonah's heart as well. And this little tree rises with the shelter, and God prepares this plant over Jonah to give him shade, and Jonah's very grateful for the plant. But in verse 7, But as morning dawned, and the next day God prepared a worm, and so it damaged the plant, and it withered.

And it happened when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head, and he grew faint, and he wished death for himself, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. Then God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, It is right for me to be angry even to death.

But the Lord said, You have had pity. Maybe your translation says, You have had compassion. You have had compassion on the plant for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city? And which are more than 120, 000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, and much livestock.

120, 000, what we would call innocent people. Children, in all likelihood. Much livestock! That's always weird to me, right? There's an Aggie joke in there. But God has, as David said, He has compassion on and over all of His works. God even has compassion for animals, and the plant, and His creation. Amen.

Because this is who God is. He is a God of compassion. In the New Testament, God is portrayed as the source and definer of all compassion. Go to 1 John chapter 4, if you would. 1 John chapter 4. Now don't panic, I'm still on my first point. I meant to tell you at the very beginning, we gotta get this, and then the two secondary points kind of flow from that.

But if you turn to 1 John, 1 John chapter 4 and verse 9, that's the God of the Old Testament, and as we preached back in May, God is an unchanging God, but we see His compassion even more clearly under the New Law. In 1 John chapter 4, beginning let's start there in verse 7, Beloved, let us love one 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 manifested. It was revealed. It was made known. It was demonstrated, Romans 5 says, toward us. That God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live. In this is love, not that we love God, not first, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the paid price for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love. Love is from God, and God is love. He is the source of love. He is the definer of love. He gives us the ultimate example of real love for us to imitate. God is a God of great compassion. And our love should look different than the love of the world because we know what love is.

We get our love from the source of love, God himself. We see what compassion is because God is overwhelmingly, perfectly compassionate. I had a really interesting conversation with Miss Nancy and a few others last night. Miss Nancy is the important one from that gathering. But we were talking and she was telling me something I'd not heard before about the gospel coming into Ireland.

We've already talked about Scotland, now Ireland this morning. And how the gospel came into Ireland oftentimes with slaves who were Christians who were captured by these pagan people living in Ireland at that time. And she told the story that has been passed down of a woman whose husband had been sacrificed to appease the pagan god.

And this woman is exposed to the gospel by one of her slaves. And this idea of God sacrificing himself for us, instead of us sacrificing to him, was radical. This is the new commandment of Jesus. A kind of radical compassion that is willing to give everything. That is willing to give his only begotten son, and that that son is willing to freely give himself.

It is a new commandment because there has never been a love like this before, that we love one another as Christ has loved. Jesus shows us what love really looked like. Our God is the compassionate God, overwhelmingly and perfectly.

That's our main point. Before we go any further, here's your opportunity for an off ramp I guess. Do you agree that this is an attribute of God, that God is overwhelmingly perfectly compassionate? And in fact, I'm going to ask you to give me a thumbs up if you agree that God is overwhelmingly perfectly compassionate.

Then let me say this very clearly. You are not more compassionate than God. I'll say that again. You are not more compassionate than God. And neither am I. And neither is anyone else who seeks to show some sort of compassion. toward people outside of God's will. The reality is nothing contrary to the will or nature of God can ever really be compassion.

Not as God defines it because God is love. God is compassion. He shows mercy to a thousand generations

and there is no true real compassion that can be found outside of the will and nature of our God. And we have to get this point, because we live in a world and in a society that is calling on us to somehow be more compassionate than God is. And that's true, that I am not more compassionate than God.

That is true in matters of morality, in what is right and wrong in terms of our behavior. Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, if you would. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. You know, the church in Corinth had all kinds of problems, but they viewed themselves as really kind of sophisticated. You know, because of God's grace, we're just very accepting of people.

We're accepting of people, however they come to us. You know, come as you are, you don't have to change anything. And in chapter 5, Paul has to correct this. And he says, no, you're missing the point. It is actually reported, verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 5, that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that a man has his father's wife.

And you are puffed up, verse 2. You're arrogant about this. You're, you're proud of this. and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. They were saying, look at how sophisticated and compassionate and loving and gracious we are. You can have any sort of sin and God's going to make it all right.

Don't worry. And Paul says, you're, you're missing it because, among other things, you're not more compassionate than God. for I indeed, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have already judged as though I were present him who has done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that he might realize the consequences of this kind of sin, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

The compassionate thing, Paul says, the thing that leads to salvation. It's not pretending like this sin doesn't matter, not pretending like morality doesn't matter. It is making clear what is right and what is wrong in terms of our behavior. And I, I cannot excuse sin and call it grace and compassion because God doesn't call it that.

I can't say that God is okay with behaviors that He has condemned. I am not more compassionate than God. Now please don't misunderstand me. God is forgiving of any repented sin and I should be as well. But to call evil good, that is not compassionate to those who are living in that sin. And I've even heard that phrase used, maybe you have as well.

If you loved me, you would be okay with this. You'd be okay with what I'm doing, the way I'm living. But that's not godly love. That is not love that imitates the compassionate. You know, in this same book, 1 Corinthians, now in the 13th chapter, we have one of the best descriptions of love in all of the Bible.

And I want you to see what it says there in verse 6. After describing love, suffering long, and it's kind, and it doesn't behave rudely, and later, it bears all things, and believes all things, and hopes all things, and endures all things. We talked about Grand Marilyn at, at her funeral service and how these qualities certainly applied to her.

But I want you to notice what it says in verse six. Love does not rejoice in iniquity, in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. God's compassion does not rejoice, does not extend to the wrongdoing. to blatant immoral behavior. That's not truly compassion. Instead, love, compassion, rejoices in the truth. And so we are not more compassionate than God in matters of morality, but also in matters of doctrine, in matters of the truth.

I cannot excuse false teaching in the name of Compassion, unity, or any other such thing. Now, I cannot be arrogant and self righteous in that, that, you know, I know what's right and everybody else doesn't know as well as me. But, I cannot simply ignore something that I genuinely believe to be contrary to the gospel, because I'm being compassionate on those who believe such things.

Because I am not more compassionate than God. And it is not compassionate to allow someone to continue in what they believe is the truth when I know it or believe it to be error. And when I believe that I have the truth from God's word in that, How compassionate is them to continue to believe something that is untrue, that isn't the true teaching of Jesus Christ.

Who in here, either you or your kids had to take spelling tests in elementary school, spelling tests, okay? Who in here is a really good speller? Who in here is a really poor speller? I raised my hand on the first one, that's not true. I'm a bad speller. I'm so grateful that, you know, I don't have the whiteboard anymore where y'all all make fun of me writing on the board for how poorly I spell the words.

Well, the girls are not the best spellers in the world unfortunately, because they got some of my genes, I think, on that. But we had spelling tests in elementary school, right? And there were tears there were knock down drag outs about these spelling tests. You know, as a, an educator, a former educator, I really don't think those spelling tests were the best thing in the world for them to learn how to spell.

That's just my personal opinion. That's what the teachers did, so that's what we had to do.

Would it have been compassionate of me, with all of these tears and all of this difficulty and all that we're going through, when they come to me the list, okay, I spelled the words you called out, Daddy, I say, oh, that is so very good. Everyone is spelled right. When it wasn't? Would it be compassionate when the judgment day comes, by that I mean the day of the test, and they fill these out in thinking to themselves, I've got it right, I know what I'm doing.

And when they receive the grade back from the teacher. They see for the first time that Daddy wasn't totally honest with them.

Is that compassion?

How much more?

How much more are we betraying the compassion of God? If we believe what the Bible says about something to be truth, and we hide that or minimize it with others in the name of compassion, we are not more compassionate than God. And God gives us these commands, as we read in Bible class this morning, for our good always.

The compassionate thing, for is in humility and in love to share what we believe to be the truth. And sometimes there's some specific, specific things. I'll give you a few examples that maybe we're tempted in, in this way, allowing divorce and remarriage for reasons other than adultery. Well, what about this?

Isn't it compassionate to allow

What about women in church leadership roles? Well, you know, anyone can do anything. I've got two daughters. They can do stuff, right? Well, isn't it compassionate to allow women into these leadership roles? What about the use of church funds from the treasury in the support of non saints and their needs?

But they're in need, and isn't it compassionate to fulfill that need? It is, when we can fulfill it in the way God has commanded. What about the social gospel? Well, we can reach so much more, so many more of the lost if we make it about physical things, not about spiritual things. Isn't that compassionate?

All of these and more have been justified in the name of compassion. God's commands and examples in these areas come from His compassion, loved ones. And He has a better way for us to follow, the way of true compassion. And we are not more compassionate than Him. Paul wrote to the Galatians and says, I marvel that you've turned away from the simple gospel to another, which is not another.

But there are some who want to distort and pervert the gospel of Christ. In Galatians chapter 1, verses 3 through 8, we are not compassionate if we distort the pure gospel. Which bleeds into the next idea, we are not more compassionate than God in matters of salvation. We have questions about that, about salvation, right?

What if someone never hears the gospel? What if someone is never baptized into Christ? What if someone is absolutely sincere, but they're wrong? On, on big matters of doctrine. What if someone messes up right at the end of their life? What if someone is in the wrong state of mind and that's leading them down the wrong path?

What if someone isn't really accountable for what they're doing? What if someone's background has led them to where they are now? And we have all of these questions about salvation. Let me tell you, God will judge righteously, but even more, God will judge compassionately. And I am not more compassionate than God.

God desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. So I need to unashamedly preach the gospel in the God given assurance that those with good and honest hearts will respond and then leave judgment in God's hands and all of those things, knowing that he is a compassionate God. And I cannot, as Paul said in Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17, I cannot be ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

I am not more compassionate than God, but I need to show God's compassion by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others, so that they might come to know Him and obey Him. So, where does that leave us? Well, God is overwhelmingly and perfectly compassionate. And you and I, we are not more compassionate than God.

But, may I suggest in one sense that God has made it easy to receive His compassion. Because that's the kind of God that He is. God has made salvation easy. Now I know there's another sense in which salvation is difficult. God requires each of us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.

But God has done in His compassion, He has done all of the hardest parts already. He is so compassionate that He made salvation despite my sin, despite when I was an enemy of God, condemned, unclean. In His compassion He made salvation possible and attainable and simple. Turn to John chapter 3. John chapter 3.

We'll read a couple of verses there and the lesson will be yours. We'll start with the most well known verse in the entire Bible. John chapter 3 and verse 16.

Have you ever thought about that Jesus is the one saying these words?

For God so loved, not just loved, He so loved, perfectly and overwhelmingly, the world that He gave His only begotten Son, The one saying these words, that whoever believes in him should not pay, but have everlasting life. God's desire is for all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. And he gave his only begotten son to make that possible.

You remember, who, who remembers watching PBS as a kid? Yeah, PBS. And you, you'd watch these shows, you know, Mr. Rogers and so forth. And afterwards, during the commercial break, well, first of all, there's that little jingle, right? After these messages, we'll be right back. But they also had like a list of all of the organizations and so forth that helped sponsor some of these programs like Mr.

Rogers and, and so this program made possible by, and then they would list all of these things and then, and then viewers like you, right? Salvation made possible by God's compassion.

17, did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, because it's condemned already, he's going to go on to say, but that the world through him might be saved. That's why Christ came. That's what God wants, but He will not make us do it. Instead, in His compassion, because He loves us and wants us to love Him, He gives us the choice to come to Him.

He makes it simple. He makes it easy in so many ways. But we have the choice. The end of this chapter in verse 36 of John chapter 3 says this,

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God? Well, God wants you to have everlasting life. Won't you obey what it is He commands for you to do? And it is not some great thing that He asks, nothing beyond your ability. And there is example after example after example in the New Testament of people hearing and believing and obeying and being saved in one setting in one occasion with one preacher because of God's compassion.

God has made it so that we can be saved so simply and so easily. Easily through the blood of his son and if you're here this morning and you're not yet a christian submit yourself to christ Repent of your sins confess jesus as lord and christ be baptized Into christ so that you might rise to walk in newness of life made possible by The compassionate and it is not reagan mcclenney who calls you that it is that god who quickly and overwhelmingly and I ask you Respond to him come now while together we stand.