God Is More Tolerant Than He Used to Be

INTRO: “I M GLAD NO ONE REALLY BELIEVES the Bible anymore, or they’d stone us7 Those were the words of a gay activist, replying to a Christian who was using the Bible to condemn homosexuality. The activist’s argument was clear: Since the penalty for homosexuality in the Old Testament was death, how can you say you believe the Bible? And if you don’t believe it, then don’t use it to argue against homosexuality!

How do we answer those who insist that God is more tolerant today than He was in the days of the Old Testament? Back then, the law dictated that homosexuals be stoned to death, along with adulterers, children who cursed their parents, witches, and blasphemers. I have discovered about a dozen different sins or transgressions that Jewish law considered capital crimes in Old Testament times.

Today everything has changed. Homosexuals are invited into our churches; parents are told to love their rebellious children unconditionally; adulterers are given extensive counseling. Yes, murder and incest are still crimes, but witches are allowed to get rich practicing sorcery in every city in America.

§ We hear no more stories of Nadab and Abihu, struck dead for offering “strange fire.”

§ We read no more documented accounts of people like Uzzah who touched the ark contrary to God’s instructions and was instantly killed (2 Sam. 6:6—7).

§ Today people can be as irreverent or blasphemous as they wish and live to see old age. As R. C. Sproul has observed, if Old Testament penalties for blasphemy were in effect today, every television executive would have been executed long ago.

1. First, we want to know whether we are free to sin with a minimum of consequences.

a. Can we now live as we please, with the assurance that God will treat us with compassion and not judgment?

b. A young Christian woman confided that she chose a life of immorality in part because she was sure that “God would forgive her anyway.” She had no reason to fear His wrath, for Christ had borne it all for her.

c. At one time Christians in America might have been described as legalists, adhering to the letter of the law. No one would accuse us of that today. We are free—free to skip church meetings, free to live for the present, free to watch risque movies, gamble, free to be as greedy as the world in which we work—free to sin.

d. Is it safer for us to sin in this age than it was in the days of the Old Testament?

2. There is a second reason we want an answer: we want to know whether it is safer for others to do wrong today.

a. If you have been sinned against, you want to know whether you can depend on God to “even the score.”

b. The girl who has been raped, the child who has been abused, the person who was chiseled out of his life’s savings by an unscrupulous salesman—all of these victims and a hundred like them want to know whether God is so loving that He will overlook these infractions.

c. What is the chance that these perpetrators will face justice? So we wonder: can we depend on God to be lenient or harsh, merciful or condemning?

Many people decry God’s apparent silence today in the face of outrageous and widespread sin. The question is, how shall we interpret this silence? Is God indifferent, or biding His time? Has he changed?

1. Religious liberals believe that the Bible reveals two Gods: the wrathful God of the Old Testament and the more loving, inclusive God of the New.

1. This is based on the premise: as humanity changes, so our ideas about God change.

2. In primitive times men’s ideas of God were harsh and unrelenting; in more enlightened times, men’s conceptions are more tolerant and loving.

3. This, as we have already learned, is building a concept of God beginning with man and reasoning upward.

1. His standards are the same, but He has chosen to interact with people differently, at least for a time. In fact, when we look we will discover that the attributes of God revealed in the Old Testament are affirmed in the New.

2. In the Old Testament we see the severity of God, but also His goodness; we see His strict judgments, but also His mercy.

3. The neat division sometimes made between the Old Testament with its wrath and the New Testament with its mercy is not a fair reading of the text.

4. Yes, there were strict penalties in the Old Testament, but there also was grace; in fact, looked at carefully, God appears tolerant. Note David’s description of his “Old Testament God”:

Psalm 103:8-12 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

5. The fact is, the same balance of attributes is found in both Testaments. There are compelling reasons to believe that God has not changed a single opinion uttered in the Old Testament; the New Testament might emphasize grace more than law, but in the end God reveals Himself with amazing consistency. Properly understood, the penalties also have not changed. And thankfully, His mercy also remains immutable.

6. Join me today as we probe the nature and works of God; we will see the magnificent unity between the Old Testament and the New. And when we are finished we will worship as perhaps never before.

2. The living God, has always existed, for He is, as theologians say, “the uncaused cause?’

3. Scripture tells us, Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

4. From eternity past to eternity future, God exists, and as we shall see, He does not change.

§ God cannot grow older; he does not gain new powers nor lose ones He once had.

§ He does not become stronger; He already is omnipotent, powerful to an infinite degree.

§ “He cannot change for the better’ wrote A. W. Pink, “for he is already perfect; and being perfect, he cannot change for the worst” “

§ James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

1. Sometimes we say things we do not mean, or we make promises we cannot keep. Unforeseen circumstances make our words worthless.

2. Not so with God: Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

3. David agreed when he wrote, “Psalm 119:89,152 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.

4. God never has to revise His opinions or update His plans. He never has had to revamp His schedule.

1. The Ten Commandments are not just an arbitrary list of rules; they are a reflection of the character of God and the world that He chose to create.

§ we should not commit adultery because the Creator established the integrity of the family.

§ “Be holy, because I am holy” is a command in both Testaments (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16).

§ Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. The command to love the unlovable is rooted in the very character of God.

§ God’s attributes are uniquely balanced. He combines compassion with a commitment to strict justice, describing Himself as “

§ Exodus 34:6-7 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

§ The God who called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees called me into the ministry.

§ The Holy Spirit who visited the early church with great blessing and power indwells those of us who have received salvation from Christ.

§ The Bible could not state it more clearly: God has not changed and will not change in the future. The prophet Malachi recorded it in six words Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not;

A. How then do we account for the difference between the consequences of disobedience in the Old and the New Testaments?

1. If God cannot be more tolerant than He used to be, why are the Old Testament penalties not carried out? Why does it appear to be so safe to sin today?

2. God’s judgments abide, but His method of managing them has changed. He is neither more tolerant nor more accommodating to our weaknesses. Let me explain.

3. ILLUSTRATION: When a four-year-old boy was caught stealing candy from a store, his father gave him a spanking. Let us suppose that the same lad were to steal candy at the age of twelve; the father might choose not to spank him but to give him some other form of punishment, such as a loss of privileges or a discipline regime. If the boy repeated the practice at age twenty, there might not be any immediate consequences pending a future date in court. My point is simply that the parents’ view of thievery does not change, but they would choose to deal with this infraction differently from one period of time to another. Rather than lessen the penalty as the child grows older and has more knowledge, his parents might exact a more serious penalty.

4. Just so, we shall discover that God’s opinions have not changed; God hates sin just as much today as ever. Thankfully, He offers us a remedy for it.

5. In Hebrews 12:18—29 we see the unity of God reflected in both Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary. Here, like a diamond, the fuller range of God’s attributes are on display. We see that God has not lowered His standards; He will in the end prove that He has not mellowed with age. Those who are unprepared to meet Him face a future of unimaginable horror. No, He has not changed.

6. This change in management can be represented in three ways. Stay with me—the contrast between Sinai and Calvary will give us the answers we seek.

The author of Hebrews gave a vivid description of the mount at Sinai when he reminded his readers:

Hebrews 12:18-21 “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)

1. On Mount Sinai God’s glory humbled Moses and Aaron into silence and worship. God called Moses to the top of the mountain to see the fire, lightning, and smoke. Moses then returned to tell the people that they would be struck down if they came too close to the mountain.

2. The physical distance between the people and the mountain symbolized the moral distance between God and mankind. Not even Moses was able to see God directly, though he was given special privileges. The word to the people was, “Stay back or be killed!”

3. Imagine the power needed to shake a mountain! Even today we see the power of God in tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. God accompanied this special revelation with a physical act that would remind the people of His power and judgment. They were to stand back because He is holy.

4. There was also a vertical distance between God and man. God came down out of heaven as a reminder that we are from below, creatures of the earth. He is separated; He exceeds the limits.

5. Imagine a New Ager standing at Mount Sinai; engulfed in bellows of fire and smoke, saying, “I will come to God on my own terms. We can all come in our own way!”

6. Sinai was God’s presence without an atonement, without a mediator. It pictures sinful man standing within range of God’s holiness. Here was the unworthy creature in the presence of his most worthy Creator. Here was a revelation of the God who will not tolerate disobedience, the God who was to be feared above all gods.

7. Now comes an important contrast. The writer of Hebrews affirms, “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb. 12:22). When David conquered Jerusalem and placed the ark on Mount Zion, this mountain was considered the earthly dwelling place of God and later the word Zion was applied to the entire city. Centuries passed and Christ came and died outside of its walls, fulfilling the prophecies that salvation would come from Zion.

8. Mount Zion represents the opening of heaven, and now we are invited to enjoy six privileges. Look at Hebrews 12:22—24.

a. First, we come to “the heavenly Jerusalem” (v. 22). As believers we are already citizens of heaven. As we have learned, we are invited into the “Most Holy Place” by the blood of Jesus.

b. Second, the writer says we come to the presence of “innumerable company of angels” [1] (v. 22). We come to celebrating angels whom we join in praising God. Don’t forget that angels were present at Sinai too (Gal. 3:19), but the people were not able to join them there; these heavenly beings were blowing the trumpets of judgment. Like God, they were unapproachable. But now we can join them, not for fellowship, but for rejoicing over God’s triumphs in the world. Whereas Sinai was terrifying, Zion is inviting and gracious. Sinai is closed to all, for no one can keep the demands of the law; Zion is open to everyone who is willing to take advantage of the sacrifice of Christ. In Jesus the unapproachable God becomes approachable.

c. Third, we come to the “church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,[2]’ that is, the body of Christ (v. 23). Jesus said that the disciples should not rejoice because the angels were subject to them, but rather because their names were “written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). The names of all believers are found there in the Book of Life; all listed there are members of the church triumphant.

d. Fourth, we come to God, as “the judge of all men” (v. 23), for the veil of the temple was torn in two and we can enter “the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus” (Heb. 10:19).

e. Fifth, we come to “the spirits of just men made perfect” (v. 23), which probably refers to the Old Testament saints who could only look forward to forgiveness, pardon, and full reconciliation with God. The bottom line is that we will be united with Abraham and a host of other Old Testament saints. What a family!

f. Finally, and supremely, we come to “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel[3]” (v. 24). God accepted Abel’s sacrifice, but his shed blood could not atone for his sin, much less for the sin of his brother. Jesus’ blood, however, is sufficient for us all.

§ Sinai is symbolic of judgment and death; Zion is symbolic of life and forgiveness.

§ The message of Sinai was “Stand back!” The message of Zion is “Come near!”

10. Does this mean that God’s hatred for sin has been taken away? Has Christ’s coming made the Almighty more tolerant? It’s too early in our discussion to draw any conclusions. Let’s continue to study the passage, and our questions will be answered. But it will have to wait till next week.

[1]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[2]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

[3]The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.