Exploring the Love of Our Heavenly Father - Part 01

Liz Ayala: There is so much to learn about our father's love, much more than just an intellectual understanding. We'll talk about it today right here on Messianic Perspectives. Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctive first century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Ayala. Today our Bible teacher, Pastor L. Runge, is discussing the love of our heavenly father. I'll be back at the close of the program to tell you about our special offer. And now here's Pastor Runge.
Albert Runge: I'm beginning a new series of messages on the love of our heavenly father. There is so much more for us to learn about his love than from merely intellectual understanding. We can learn best of all by experiencing his love. In this first message of the series, I want to focus on the yearning love of our heavenly father. You heard me right. It may surprise you that God, who is all powerful and can do anything, has a yearning love for children. Love is the reason God created mankind in the first place. He created us in his image and after his likeness so we could have fellowship with him. Listen to what God's word states in Genesis 5:1. And the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and called them Adam in the day they were created. It is amazing to me how much we are like him even in our fallen nature. We have an innate desire to love and to be loved unconditionally. Nothing expresses the love of God as the love of a mother for a newborn child. At the first look in the face of her new baby, a motherly love fills her heart for the little stranger that brought her so much pain and discomfort. I began to understand God's love better when I became a father. When my son David was 10 years old, he had severe pains in his right side. I rushed him to a doctor who refused to do anything about it. He said, oh, he'll be okay, but he was not okay. And then I took him to another doctor. She rushed him to the hospital and he was operated on. I prayed to my heavenly father earnestly and touched his fatherly heart. After the operation, the doctor told me that David's appendix had ruptured, but for some reason a sack of tissue around the appendix contained the poison, preventing it from escaping into my little boy's body. As a father, I experienced all the emotions of love. I would have gladly taken the place of my son on the operating table. When I heard the good news of his successful operation, my heart was filled with gladness and praise to God. I began to understand better God's pain when his children are in need and his desire to help them in times of distress. Although God created us in his image, it was marred and distorted by willful sin and disobedience. God was creating man in three stages. Listen. First, he took a handful of dust and created the physical body. And then he breathed into Adam and gave him an immortal soul. Our creator's third and final step was for man to obtain eternal life if he had chosen to trust him. God intended mankind to live forever and that's why he planted the tree of life in the midst of the garden and gave Adam and Eve permission to eat of its fruit so that they might live forever. The only tree that was prohibited was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The final test of Adam and Eve was a test of faith. Would they choose to trust God and love him or would they refuse to trust his love? Unfortunately, they foolishly decided to trust the serpent who was a stranger in the garden and thereby doom themselves and their descendants. Listen to God's word in Genesis 3 verse 22 and God said, and now since man has eaten of the fruit and distrusted me, lest man put his hand forth and take of the tree of life and eat and live forever, he banished them, sent them out of the garden of Eden. Now God had warned them that in the day they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. God had every right to put an end to them and thereby eliminate their future generations from being born. This brings us to a very important question. Why did almighty God allow Adam and Eve the freedom to decide if they would trust or distrust him? I'll tell you why. God allowed our original parents a freedom of choice because love cannot be forced and remain true love. Trust cannot be forced. God did not make us robots without the ability to choose. Another question is why did God allow Adam and Eve to survive after they fell? Why did he allow them to produce children in their fallen image? God could have easily destroyed them and started all over again with another hand of dust until he created a worthy race. I would tell you why God did not destroy Adam and Eve even though he had the right to do so, even though he had warned them of the consequences of distrust and disobedience. He told them that they would eat die in the very day they'd eat of that forbidden fruit. So why did God spare their lives? The reason God spared Adam and Eve was because he created all of their future generations in them. If God had destroyed Adam and Eve, all their future generations would have been wiped out even before they came into existence. God's love prevented him from doing it. Instead, God's love devised a redemptive plan for all who would choose to trust him. This redemptive plan does not include the fallen angels. The Bible tells us that Lucifer deceived and misled 1/3 of the angels to follow him in rebellion against God and against his authority. Those angels fell with no possibility of redemption and the reason they were excluded from redemption were is simple. They knew God and still rejected his authority and love. They refused to trust God. But Adam's future generations of unborn children did not have a chance to know God. Redemption is only provided for the descendants of Adam. God's love prevented him from giving up on us. He knew that even though some entire generations would be lost, there was coming a day when many would choose to trust him and become his children. As far as we know, only a few trusted God in the early generations of human history. There were people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. Today there are many who trust him. Thank God, there are many all throughout the world that are listening to the good news of the gospel of our Lord Jesus and are deciding to trust him. Now the apostle Peter explained the reason behind the Lord's delay, why he has not yet returned. Look with me in God's word to 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 3. Knowing this first that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. Now listen to 2 Peter 3 verse 8. But beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Peter informs us that God is not subject to the limits of time like we are. Human life is short, but he is God from everlasting to everlasting. And secondly, Peter reminds us of God's long suffering. When he sees evil, he is deeply hurt and angry, yet he holds back his anger. The reason for his delay is that he's not willing that any should perish. God wants every generation to have an opportunity to choose to trust him. God is waiting for Adam's generation to be born. I'm glad the Lord did not come back in 1920 because I was not born until 1928 and I'm glad he did not come back in 1940 because I was not saved until 1943. God is waiting for others to come into life, to be given the opportunity to believe him and repent or to reject him. The original sin was unbelief and the way into salvation is by choosing to believe. Unbelief drove us out of the garden of Eden and denied us the tree of life. Even so faith in the son of God will open up heaven for us so that we can live forever. The Lord is waiting for you to believe in his son so that you might become his child. You know the greatest lie of the devil is to tell you that you can't trust God because God is out to get you. Don't believe that God is waiting to catch you in some misstep and sap you into hell. We have a wonderful message of the love of God for this lost generation, this lost world. I'll never get tired of quoting John 3:16 and 17. Will you listen to this? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. You know D. L. Moody was a famous evangelist and he said if we could just convince mankind that God truly loves them, that God would be faithful to them, we could win the world. Every person must decide, will he trust God or will he not trust God? And we must make that decision. We can't get away from it. My daughter Sharon went to a Bible college. She came home for some holidays and went to a friend's house where a number of young Christians gathered. Their zeal for God was obvious. They loved to pray and read the Bible and Sharon said to a friend, you know, I lack a zeal for God like your friends. Her friend asked her when she accepted the Lord. Sharon could not remember the time. Her friend suggested that it was possible that she had not been really saved. Sharon came home quite dismayed and unhappy. She went to a room. She decided not to sleep until her salvation was assured. At about 3:00 in the morning, she had that insight, a vision of Jesus dying on the cross. He looked at her and said, Sharon, I love you. That is why I died for you. It was the first time Sharon realized that Jesus loved her in a personal way. We all need to look at Jesus. Look into that wonderful face and realize how much he loves us, how much he wants to bring us into his family. God yearns for you. God yearns for you. God yearns for you. Think of it. Oh, why do you delay? May at this very moment you say, Lord Jesus, I trust you. I accept you, thou son of God, into my life. And God will manifest himself to you. God will make himself known to you and you will live under his love and blessings. May you do that now. This is my prayer for you and I pray it all in the wonderful name of my Lord Jesus. Amen.
Liz Ayala: Thank you, Pastor Runge. You've been listening to Albert Runge, our associate Bible teacher here on Messianic Perspectives and his discussion of exploring the love of our heavenly father. You'll be glad to know we've placed the entire series on one convenient CD. It's available for a gift of just $6 or more to the ministry of Messianic Perspectives. Just ask for Pastor L. Runge's series titled Exploring the Love of Our Heavenly Father. Visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, P. O. Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. Let me remind you that when you order the materials we offer here on the program, you're not only enabling us to remain here on your station, but you're also helping us take the good news of Yeshua Ha Mashiach to Jewish people and Gentiles all over the world. Even if you're one of our regular listeners, you still may not know that we're much more than just a radio program. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries, one of the largest missionary organizations in the world. We currently have missionary families serving the Lord all over the world, including the United States, Canada, South America, England, France, and of course Israel. So when you write, consider helping us with a gift above the suggested amount. We'd be very grateful. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you are listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Ayala. Join us next time, won't you, as Pastor L. Runge continues our series of studies on Exploring the Love of Our Heavenly Father right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas and is made possible on this station by the free will contributions of our listeners in this area.