Latest / Providence Baptist Church - Sermons / Emotions - Week 1
Transcript
- 0:00A very good morning to you all. Please join me in your copy of God's Word in the book of Malachi.
- 0:07I hope that you're as grateful as I am to be part of a church that sings songs the way that we do them, the types of songs that we sing, whether you recognize it or not, or feel it to be good or not.
- 0:21We just sang a song that was a systematic theology of suffering. What a wonderful thing to be taught as we sing together.
- 0:31Now, if you're being astute this morning, you'll notice in your bulletin that this is not the text that's in your bulletin.
- 0:38And so I want to speak a little bit to our preaching plans and why I'm here and why we're not doing what was previously planned.
- 0:46We have in our intention, Clay Naylor's been preaching on the life of David through some selected texts.
- 0:54I believe the bulletin says 1 Samuel chapter 16.
- 0:59I can tell you that I was looking forward to hearing on that passage today.
- 1:05However, he is not well. His family has had the flu this past week.
- 1:09We were praying that he would be spared from it.
- 1:12And last night he texted me, 101 fever and shivering.
- 1:16And I said, please stay home.
- 1:19So he's not here with us this week for that reason.
- 1:22He also, as part of the original plan, was not going to be with us for the next two weeks.
- 1:29One a trip to go see some dear friends of our church as they get ready to head overseas.
- 1:34And another in recovery from a minor surgery that he's going to be having.
- 1:38So we already had planned for two weeks that I was going to step in and interrupt the life of David work that he's doing.
- 1:47And now I'm just adding to that today.
- 1:49So in the following two weeks, I want to explain what the Bible says is the improper and the proper place of emotions in the life of the Christian.
- 2:04We generally want to preach through the Bible.
- 2:08We generally want to preach through the Bible, verse by verse expositions.
- 2:10But it's good from time to time to stop and think.
- 2:13What does the Bible say about any given subject?
- 2:17And so we're going to labor to do that over the next two weeks.
- 2:21What is the place, improper and proper, of emotions in the life of the Christian?
- 2:27This morning, with the responsibility of preaching added to my day at the 11th hour,
- 2:34I want to peel out a bit of that teaching and expand upon it for our benefit.
- 2:41So this is my introduction as planned for next week, and I'm just expanding it a bit.
- 2:46It may be a bit brief this morning for that reason, but we shall see.
- 2:51We're going to take some time in the coming moments to consider an oft-neglected attribute of God.
- 3:01You have likely never heard of this attribute, or if you have, heard very little about it.
- 3:09The attribute I want us to think about is the impassibility of God.
- 3:15Now let me tell you immediately, before I tell you what it is, that this does not mean that God can't be passed by in some race.
- 3:23The impossibility of God does not mean that.
- 3:28But before I define the attribute and tell you why it matters, we need to define some terms.
- 3:35Historically, careful distinctions have been made between the words emotions, passions, and affections.
- 3:45Emotions, passions, and affections.
- 3:48You perhaps could add to that feelings, although I don't think that's a very good word.
- 3:54I feel things when I cut my finger that has nothing to do with my emotions.
- 3:59We tend to lump, though, those three words, emotions, passions, and affections, all together, and use them without any distinction at all.
- 4:10However, it's important to draw from the Bible a more nuanced understanding of how the soul interacts with truth and experience.
- 4:21So let's talk in brief about the distinctions, and we'll work some of this out further in the next two weeks.
- 4:29First, emotions.
- 4:31Emotions are the broadest category encompassing all human feelings, both rational and irrational, fleeting and enduring.
- 4:42All those feelings that work around inside of us.
- 4:48They can either be governed by truth and grace, or can be led astray by sin and the flesh.
- 4:56The word emotion comes from the Latin word immovere, which translated literally means to move out,
- 5:04and from the following Old French immovoir, which means to excite or to stir up.
- 5:12I think that we do well to use this term in this broadest of sense,
- 5:18and to note that our emotions include passions and affections.
- 5:27So passions.
- 5:28Secondly, passions are the more instinctual, bodily, and uncontrolled aspects of emotion.
- 5:38We often use this term positively.
- 5:42He's so passionate.
- 5:44But often, and most often in history, it was used negatively.
- 5:49Passions are reactionary, often tied to the flesh, and can easily lead to sin when not disciplined by the truth and grace.
- 5:59The word passion comes from the Latin word passio, which means to suffer.
- 6:05In its simplest form, it means to suffer, but its use is not limited to the emotion associated with grief or pain.
- 6:17Richard Sibbes, a Puritan pastor, warned against unrestrained passions,
- 6:22which he saw as the enemy of Christian piety and self-control.
- 6:25He believed that passions must be subdued under the governance of the Holy Spirit to avoid sin.
- 6:34Thirdly, affections.
- 6:37Affections are emotions of the will.
- 6:42They are rooted in the soul and directed by the truth and grace.
- 6:48The word affection comes from the Latin word afficere, which means to influence.
- 6:54Affections.
- 6:55Affections are the highest form of human feeling.
- 6:58Not mere reactions, but deliberate inclinations of the heart.
- 7:06Jonathan Edwards, in Religious Affections, argued that true Christian experience is marked by holy affections.
- 7:14Affections governed by the truth of God's word and the work of the Holy Spirit.
- 7:19And so that's how we're going to use these three words across these coming weeks.
- 7:24Emotions, passions, and affections.
- 7:28Okay, so when we speak of God's impossibility, in the simplest of terms,
- 7:33we are saying that he does not suffer.
- 7:36He does not have passions.
- 7:40But in broader terms, we mean that God's emotions are not acted upon by outside forces.
- 7:46Forces.
- 7:47We're not saying he's unemotional.
- 7:50But what we're saying is that his emotions are not acted upon.
- 7:54He is never overwhelmed, controlled, or altered by anything outside of himself.
- 8:00If you would like the fancy word for God's godness, it's his aseity.
- 8:05He is self-existent.
- 8:07Impossibility is a necessary aspect of God's immutability, which is his unchangeable nature.
- 8:18If God were subject to emotional turmoil, he would be less than God.
- 8:25This is not a denial that God loves, rejoices, or even expresses those emotions along with wrath.
- 8:35But rather a declaration that these are not reactions forced upon him.
- 8:40They are the perfect, eternal expressions of his unchanging nature.
- 8:47The church fathers upheld this doctrine.
- 8:50The reformers defended it, and the Puritans cherished it.
- 8:56It is a doctrine often denied today.
- 8:59One of my favorite systematic theologies.
- 9:02In the section on immutability, the author just flatly denies impassibility.
- 9:07And his simple explanation is, because God has emotions.
- 9:10And I don't think he, tragically, didn't take the time to define his terms
- 9:15and understand what is meant by the doctrine of impassibility.
- 9:19I think because people don't want to think that God does not have emotions,
- 9:24because the definitions of the affirmation words have just been flattened in our cultural moment.
- 9:31It is a doctrine that we must reclaim, because it is essential to our understanding of who God is,
- 9:39and I think it is an important place to begin our thinking about our own emotional lives.
- 9:46Now, I want to be clear, just for a moment, this is not a communicable attribute.
- 9:52So I just want you to know, over the coming weeks,
- 9:54I'm going to not make the case to you that we should be without passion.
- 9:59There's a proper place for it in the life of a Christian.
- 10:02We're not trying to emulate God and his impassibility,
- 10:06but the fact that he is impassible is a really great place for us to begin thinking about emotions in our own lives.
- 10:15So Malachi, chapter 3 and verse 6.
- 10:21This is where we'll start.
- 10:22This is not a complete exposition of this passage.
- 10:26Much more could be said about it.
- 10:28We'll need to go to some other texts as well,
- 10:30but we'll start here.
- 10:32Before I read it, let me remind you, beloved,
- 10:34that this is God's word to us,
- 10:35written for his glory and our good,
- 10:38that we might believe its promises,
- 10:40obey its commands,
- 10:42and have affection for its author.
- 10:47May we hear it and respond accordingly to it.
- 10:52Malachi 3 and verse 6 says,
- 10:54For I, the Lord, do not change.
- 10:58Therefore you, O children of Jacob,
- 11:02are not consumed.
- 11:05And what's been going on in this chapter in Malachi,
- 11:08as a judgment is being declared,
- 11:10God will come and he will judge.
- 11:14And there's language about bringing Israel back into conformity with his will.
- 11:20And then the nations that will be judged
- 11:22because they're not in conformity with his will.
- 11:26And he roots that, right?
- 11:28God's people will not be consumed
- 11:30because God does not change.
- 11:34He has made promises.
- 11:36And he is sure to his word.
- 11:41And so I have a four-point brief outline for us this morning.
- 11:46I'm going to repeat these points.
- 11:47They're a little bit wordy.
- 11:48But I want to run through it so you know where we're going
- 11:50and then we'll get right to it.
- 11:51Number one, the unchanging nature of God.
- 11:56Number two, the nature of divine emotions.
- 12:02Number three, the impossibility of God in Christ.
- 12:08And number four, why this doctrine matters for us today.
- 12:13So let's think together first about the unchanging nature of God.
- 12:18There in Malachi 3.6, God himself declares,
- 12:22I, the Lord, do not change.
- 12:27He is static.
- 12:29He is immovable.
- 12:31Nothing acts upon him.
- 12:34He acts, but nothing upon him.
- 12:38He doesn't derive his power from anywhere else.
- 12:40He is self-existent.
- 12:43Plugs into nothing, but everything plugs into him.
- 12:47Another place, James 1, verse 17.
- 12:51James says,
- 12:51Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
- 12:54coming down from the Father of lights,
- 12:57with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
- 13:04No variation or shadow.
- 13:06No changing in God because of the circumstances that surround him.
- 13:13God is immutable.
- 13:14Immutable is that term again for you.
- 13:16Immutable.
- 13:17He does not change in his being, his purposes, or his promises.
- 13:24If he did, he would cease to be God.
- 13:29Impassibility is a necessary inclusion of immutability.
- 13:34It is part and parcel with it.
- 13:37When God declares in Malachi 3, 6,
- 13:41I, the Lord, do not change,
- 13:42he is also talking about his emotions.
- 13:48A being subject to fluctuating emotions or reactions
- 13:52would be a being in process.
- 13:57If he is being changed by outside forces,
- 14:00he would be a being in process.
- 14:03And there is a theology called process theology,
- 14:06and it is a heresy, right?
- 14:08God is not in process.
- 14:11God is complete.
- 14:13It's accomplished who he is.
- 14:17He's the eternally perfect, self-existent,
- 14:19and self-sufficient God that we see in the Scripture.
- 14:25God is not becoming.
- 14:27He is being.
- 14:31If God could change in his love, his mercy, or his justice,
- 14:37he would not be reliable.
- 14:41He would not be reliable.
- 14:43We could not trust anything that he says if he changes.
- 14:49The very foundation of our faith rests on the fact
- 14:51that he is always as he has always been.
- 14:55He is always as he has always been.
- 15:02This is why Malachi 3.6,
- 15:03there God assures us that we, God's people,
- 15:07are not consumed because his faithfulness does not waver.
- 15:16I think as a church,
- 15:16we generally wrap our minds around this concept of God's immutability
- 15:20and appreciate it.
- 15:22But we want to press beyond to the implication
- 15:25that God is also impassable.
- 15:28God is impassable in his nature.
- 15:33Secondly, let's think together about the nature of divine emotions.
- 15:39In Numbers chapter 23 and verse 19, we can read,
- 15:43God is not man that he should lie,
- 15:46or a son of man that he should change his mind.
- 15:50Has he said and will he not do it?
- 15:53Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?
- 15:57And in 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 29,
- 16:02and also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret,
- 16:07for he is not a man that he should have regret.
- 16:13The Bible often speaks of God's emotions,
- 16:18his wrath, his love, his joy, his grief.
- 16:23But we must interpret these descriptions in a way that is consistent with his divine nature.
- 16:32When scripture attributes human-like emotions to God,
- 16:35it is using anthropopathism,
- 16:39a way of speaking about God in human terms
- 16:43so that we can understand him.
- 16:47God, however, does not experience emotions as we do.
- 16:53God's love is not a reaction,
- 16:57but an eternal attribute.
- 17:01The last part of 1 John chapter 4 verse 8,
- 17:04there John declares,
- 17:06God is love.
- 17:10It's who he is.
- 17:11Not because we're lovable does he love us,
- 17:14but God is love and therefore he loves.
- 17:18His wrath is not an uncontrollable passion.
- 17:25Praise God.
- 17:26But his settled opposition to sin.
- 17:31God's wrath is not reckless.
- 17:34His love is not reckless.
- 17:36God is never reckless, to be clear.
- 17:40Romans chapter 1 and verse 18,
- 17:41For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against.
- 17:46It's pointed at something.
- 17:47His wrath is pointed at all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
- 17:54It's not an uncontrollable passion.
- 17:56It has a purpose to play out.
- 17:59God's love is not an emotional high.
- 18:02Excuse me.
- 18:02His joy is not an emotional high,
- 18:04but his perfect delight in himself and in his purposes fulfilled.
- 18:12Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 17.
- 18:15The Lord your God is in your midst,
- 18:17a mighty one who will save.
- 18:20He will rejoice over you with gladness.
- 18:22He will quiet you by his love.
- 18:25He will exult over you with loud singing.
- 18:31If God's emotions were subject to change,
- 18:34he would be vulnerable to external forces.
- 18:38That would make him dependent on his creation
- 18:40rather than the sovereign Lord over all.
- 18:44This is why we must not sentimentalize God
- 18:47or reduce him to a being who merely feels things the way we do.
- 18:54Emotions like his love, his joy, his wrath
- 18:58are always expressed in perfect harmony with his character.
- 19:04Thirdly, let's think together about the impassibility of God in Christ.
- 19:14I hope that some of your minds,
- 19:17as soon as I said that God is impassable,
- 19:21ran to Christ and said,
- 19:22but wait, but wait,
- 19:24what about Christ and his suffering?
- 19:28That bears a dressing.
- 19:31He is unable to sympathize with our weakness,
- 19:33but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
- 19:38yet without sin.
- 19:40He experienced everything we experience,
- 19:44and yet did not sin.
- 19:46Philippians 2, verse 6 and 7,
- 19:50Christ, though he was in the form of God,
- 19:52did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
- 19:56but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant
- 19:59being born in the likeness of men.
- 20:05Some argue that the incarnation
- 20:07disproves divine impassibility.
- 20:09After all, did not Jesus suffer and weep and feel anguish?
- 20:18He most certainly did.
- 20:21You have likely heard the life and death of Jesus
- 20:24referred to as the passion of the Christ.
- 20:29A phrase that long outdated the movie you may know of.
- 20:34The answer to this question
- 20:37is found in the hypostatic union,
- 20:42the mystery of Christ's two natures.
- 20:47When Christ took on human flesh,
- 20:49He was, at the same time,
- 20:52truly God, 100% God,
- 20:55and truly man.
- 20:57100% man.
- 21:00And it is a mystery.
- 21:01And it's a thing for us to marvel at
- 21:03and try to work out.
- 21:07In His divine nature,
- 21:10Christ remains impassable.
- 21:13He's fully God and does not suffer as God.
- 21:17In His human nature,
- 21:19Christ experiences suffering and emotions.
- 21:23He truly weeps,
- 21:25grieves,
- 21:26and endures pain.
- 21:29Yet in both natures,
- 21:31He remains sinless and sovereign.
- 21:35His emotions never control Him,
- 21:37nor do they compromise His divine nature.
- 21:43The impassibility of Christ,
- 21:45coupled with the passibility of Christ,
- 21:48makes His life and death
- 21:50all the more wonderful.
- 21:53A thing for us to just consider
- 21:56and mull over.
- 21:58The fact that Christ,
- 22:00in His humanity,
- 22:02suffered for us,
- 22:03is what makes Him
- 22:04the perfect High Priest.
- 22:07Reference in Hebrews 4,
- 22:09and verse 15.
- 22:11He understands our frailties.
- 22:17Yet as God,
- 22:19He remains unshaken by them.
- 22:23You see how the two work together
- 22:25in some mystery.
- 22:28The Scripture tells us that
- 22:30Jesus Christ is interceding for us.
- 22:34This means that when we pray,
- 22:36we come to an intercessor
- 22:38who is both transcendent
- 22:40and is near.
- 22:43He is both sovereign
- 22:44and He is sympathetic.
- 22:49Christ knows how to pray
- 22:50on our behalf
- 22:52to the Father
- 22:53because
- 22:54He was both
- 22:55impassable
- 22:57and
- 22:58passable
- 22:59in His hypostatic union.
- 23:03Fourthly,
- 23:04why does this
- 23:06today?
- 23:08God's love
- 23:09is
- 23:10unshakable.
- 23:12His love is not a fleeting passion
- 23:14but an eternal
- 23:16commitment.
- 23:18Romans chapter 8,
- 23:19verse 38
- 23:20and 39.
- 23:21Always working
- 23:23for
- 23:23our
- 23:24good.
- 23:26Regardless of how you might
- 23:28feel
- 23:29if you belong to God,
- 23:31God
- 23:31is
- 23:32for you.
- 23:34God's
- 23:36justice
- 23:37is
- 23:37unwavering.
- 23:40He does not
- 23:41cool down
- 23:42over sin.
- 23:44He does not
- 23:44set it aside.
- 23:46If you
- 23:46belong to Him,
- 23:48He corrects us
- 23:48as a loving
- 23:49Father.
- 23:50Hebrews
- 23:51chapter 12.
- 23:53If you have been
- 23:54wronged,
- 23:54someday there will be
- 23:56proper punishment
- 23:57for that wrong
- 23:59against you.
- 24:00Perfect justice
- 24:01will
- 24:01be
- 24:02accomplished
- 24:03because God's
- 24:04justice
- 24:05is
- 24:05unwavering
- 24:08and His
- 24:09wrath
- 24:10is
- 24:10perfectly
- 24:11just.
- 24:13Revelation 19
- 24:15and verse
- 24:1515.
- 24:17We can know,
- 24:19we can rest
- 24:20in the fact
- 24:21that everything
- 24:22is going to be
- 24:23sorted out
- 24:23exactly as
- 24:24it ought
- 24:25to be.
- 24:26I suggest
- 24:28to you
- 24:28that that
- 24:28sorting
- 24:29is going
- 24:29to far
- 24:29surpass
- 24:30our own
- 24:31perception
- 24:31of what
- 24:32might be
- 24:32just.
- 24:34God will
- 24:35make it
- 24:35all right
- 24:37in the end.
- 24:39God's
- 24:40promises
- 24:40are
- 24:41certain.
- 24:43His
- 24:43faithfulness
- 24:44does not
- 24:44fluctuate
- 24:45with
- 24:46circumstances.
- 24:48promises.
- 24:48I need
- 24:49to be
- 24:49reminded
- 24:50of this
- 24:50all
- 24:51the
- 24:51time.
- 24:52God has
- 24:52said it,
- 24:53it is
- 24:53true,
- 24:54and it
- 24:54does
- 24:55not
- 24:55matter
- 24:56how I
- 24:57feel
- 24:58about it.
- 24:59Numbers
- 25:0023
- 25:00and verse
- 25:0119.
- 25:04God's
- 25:04comfort
- 25:05is
- 25:06secure.
- 25:09He does
- 25:09not grieve
- 25:10as man
- 25:11grieves.
- 25:11He remains
- 25:12our
- 25:13steadfast
- 25:15rock.
- 25:16We can
- 25:17rely on
- 25:18Him.
- 25:18We can
- 25:18flee to
- 25:19Him.
- 25:19We can
- 25:20depend on
- 25:20Him for
- 25:21comfort in
- 25:23times of
- 25:23trouble.
- 25:25In a
- 25:26world full
- 25:26of uncertainty,
- 25:28emotional
- 25:29instability,
- 25:30and shifting
- 25:31sins,
- 25:33we need
- 25:34a God
- 25:35who is
- 25:35unshaken.
- 25:38And as
- 25:38God's
- 25:39people,
- 25:39we ought
- 25:39to have
- 25:39a great
- 25:40confidence.
- 25:41The world
- 25:41around us
- 25:42is being
- 25:42shaken.
- 25:44We ought
- 25:44to stand
- 25:44firm because
- 25:45we stand
- 25:46on a
- 25:46foundation
- 25:47that is
- 25:48unshakable.
- 25:51The doctrine
- 25:52of divine
- 25:52impossibility
- 25:53does not
- 25:54make God
- 25:55distant.
- 25:57It makes
- 25:57Him
- 25:57dependable.
- 26:00If God
- 26:00were like
- 26:01us,
- 26:02we would
- 26:03have no
- 26:04sure foundation,
- 26:05no rock
- 26:06to stand
- 26:07on.
- 26:08He is
- 26:09never taken
- 26:09by surprise.
- 26:11He is
- 26:12never
- 26:12overwhelmed.
- 26:14He's able
- 26:14to bear
- 26:15every
- 26:16one
- 26:17of your
- 26:18external
- 26:19forces.
- 26:21Because of
- 26:22this,
- 26:22we can
- 26:22trust Him
- 26:23absolutely,
- 26:25without
- 26:26hesitation.
- 26:28Our
- 26:28salvation is
- 26:29secure,
- 26:29our hope
- 26:30is unshaken,
- 26:31and our
- 26:32worship is
- 26:33rightly
- 26:33directed to
- 26:34the God
- 26:34who is
- 26:35the same
- 26:35yesterday,
- 26:37today,
- 26:38and forever.
- 26:40Hebrews
- 26:4113 and
- 26:42verse 8.
- 26:44Let us
- 26:45rest in
- 26:46the truth
- 26:46that our
- 26:47God does
- 26:49not waver.
- 26:50You see,
- 26:50perhaps why I
- 26:51think this is a
- 26:51good place to
- 26:52begin thinking
- 26:52about our
- 26:53own emotions.
- 26:55We have a
- 26:55God who
- 26:56is not
- 26:57passionate.
- 26:59That's a
- 27:00good place
- 27:00for us to
- 27:01start processing
- 27:02what is
- 27:02true and
- 27:03how that
- 27:04truth should
- 27:04be shaping
- 27:05how we
- 27:06feel.
- 27:08God does
- 27:09not need
- 27:09to be
- 27:10rescued.
- 27:11He is
- 27:11the
- 27:11rescuer.
- 27:12He does
- 27:13not suffer
- 27:14loss.
- 27:14He is
- 27:14the giver
- 27:15of life.
- 27:17He is
- 27:18our rock,
- 27:19our fortress,
- 27:21our deliverer.
- 27:22To Him
- 27:23be glory
- 27:23now and
- 27:25forevermore.
- 27:26Amen.
- 27:27Let's pray
- 27:27together.