Part 5 The Seven Churches in Revelation… A Case Study of Love Grown Cold

GOD’S WAY BIBLE STUDY

The Seven Churches In the Book of Revelation... An Explanatory Case Study of Love Grown Cold

Part 5: Righteousness, God’s Better Side

Tuesday May 13,  2025

Deuteronomy 32:1-4 NKJV "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. [2] Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. [3] For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. [4] He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

What are the biggest obstacles to loving God?

• Too much of self love

• Wrong beliefs about God

Wrong thoughts about God will lead to a wrong world view. 

• The Two Sides of the One and Only God

We must relate with God in reverent familiarity. Hebrews 5:7

 We gain access with restrictions;  we accept His invitation but respect His boundaries; we draw near but not too close. 

When a king invites you, to not honor the invitation is ill-advised. When you honor the invitation, there are places in the palace that are out of bounds.We must learn of, relate with and preach about the two sides of God. 

In His self-introduction to Moses, God reveals His two sides. 

Exodus 34:5-7 NKJV

Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and 

proclaimed the name of the LORD. [6] And the LORD passed before him 

and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, 

longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, [7] keeping mercy 

for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means 

clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children 

and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

Any presentation of the God that overemphasizes one side above the 

other is dangerous, no matter how noble or kind the intentions may 

be. 

Desiring to make God more attractive, more approachable, modern 

preachers emphasize God’s goodness and diminish His severity. 

Wanting to scare people straight, many old time preachers preached 

only fire and brimstone. Both fail to reveal why Paul called the whole 

counsel of God. 

Acts 20:27 NLT

for I didn't shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

Believing in the power of God, and in the wisdom of God; (1 Corinthians 1:20-21)

The love and the righteousness of God; 

The mercy of God and His justice (Psalm 51:4)

With God nothing shall be impossible, except… lying, denying Himself, and changing in His nature.

2. We must let God speak for/about Himself and then believe His testimony 

Isaiah 45:6-7 NKJV

I am the LORD, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, [6] That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting That there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; [7] I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the LORD, do all these things.'

The righteousness of God and the mercy of God are not opposing

qualities. They are in fact two sides of the same coin. If one side is

defaced, the entire coin loses its value. 

The devil’s greatest goal is to make us doubt the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God. 

Genesis 3:1-5 NKJV Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the 

LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 

'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" [2] And the woman said to 

the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; [3] but of the 

fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You 

shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" [4] Then the serpent 

said to the woman, "You will not surely die. [5] For God knows that in the 

day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, 

knowing good and evil."

• If the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God is maligned, His LOVE will be Questioned.

Faith is nothing but confidence in the character of God. The enemy is the accuser whose chief aim is to cast aspersions on God’s character. 

The enemy tries to make the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God look like a bad thing. 

God’s righteousness is often presented as unattractive, unavoidable religious  taxation and duties, demanded by an angry, fun-killing, party-pooping, hate-filled, cranky, old man who has no greater pleasure than to impose meaningless duties better suited to the stone age than to our modern times.

 This misrepresentation of God’s righteousness is an attack on His integrity, on His character. 

The temptation to doubt God’s power, wisdom, love and even His existence are all hinged on a full frontal attack on His RIGHTEOUSNESS, His integrity.

A witness in court will become irrelevant if his character can be brought into question.

The most skillful worker will lose clients if he is found to be untrustworthy.

If the devil can get a person to doubt God’s character, he has landed a fatal blow against that person.

Atheism is more a denial of God’s integrity than of His existence.

We often think of an atheist as a person who merely denies the existence of God. Such people are lightweight atheists. Those who merely doubt God’s existence simply lack data. A presentation of data, the preponderance of evidence will cure such people. 

The aggressive and even militant atheists are soldiers who have been recruited to fight against God, not because He doesn't exist, (that would be an irony) but because they are convinced He is unrighteous. No wonder the devil works so hard to malign God’s righteousness. 

Is it possible that many people in church share this trait with atheists?

God’s Better Side

We have been well taught in the love and mercy of God, but His righteousness is often presented as an unfortunate bad side that we must put up with in order to enjoy the benefits of His good side. 

The truth though is that the best thing about God is His righteousness.

If we are to foolishly play a game of finding God’s better side, we will find that while His love is His good side, God’s righteousness is actually His better side. 

It is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God that makes His LOVE attractive. 

 It is actually the righteousness of God that makes Him attractive. 

Another word for righteousness is faithfulness. It is God’s faithfulness 

that makes His love consistent and dependable. 

Psalm 136 is often misunderstood as a praise of God’s mercy, when it is actually a praise of His faithfulness.

For He is good and His mercy endures forever. (See vs. 10-22)

Lamentations 3:22-23 NKJV

Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His 

compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning; Great is Your 

Faithfulness.

God’s greatest quality is His Righteousness.

Psalm 100:5

For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

God’s righteousness, his faithfulness, His inability to lie is what makes all His other qualities attractive. His righteousness makes Him reliable.  His love, power and generosity are dependable only because of His righteousness.. 

If you have ever been betrayed by a person who claimed to love you, you will value God’s righteousness.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thankfully, God’s righteousness means He is incorruptible. If He was not righteous, His great power would be a terror to us. 

Hebrews 6:13-15 NKJV For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no 

one greater, He swore by Himself, [14] saying, "Surely blessing I will bless 

you, and multiplying I will multiply you." [15] And so, after he had 

patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

The reason God can be trusted is not because of His power but because of His righteousness. 

Isaiah 45:23 NKJV I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in 

righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow, 

Every tongue shall take an oath.

We must learn to love the righteousness of God if we are to truly love Him. [Psalm 71]

Many people see the righteous demands of God as troublesome and burdensome. They would wish God was a bit more flexible and not so demanding. What they fail to know is that God’s righteousness is actually His defining quality. God’s righteousness is the foundation for all His other qualities. Everything God is is conditioned, flavored and substantiated by His righteousness. God doesn't always use His power; His mercy is shown to some while His judgment is shown to others; He sometimes sends rain and at other times drought; He sends the heat and then replaces it with the cold. The one thing God is all day long, from eternity to eternity is RIGHTEOUS, FAITHFUL, TRUTHFUL, JUST.

If we don't love God’s righteousness we don’t truly love Him.

Take righteousness away from God and what you have left will be undependable, wicked and diabolical… in other words, the devil. The devil can disguise himself in all ways except righteousness. He has power, and he can fake love, beauty, generosity, goodness, etc. The only quality of God he cannot fake is RIGHTEOUSNESS.

A conviction of God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS will keep you faithful in your love when things go contrary.

I know in whom I have believed

Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie, promised before time began

Before time began, before you were born, God made you a promise which He will keep after time ends. The only thing we can trust is the righteousness of the One who has promised. 

Hebrews 11:13 NKJV  These all died in faith, not having seen the promises, but having seen them from afar off, were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 

God is only as great in your life as He is in your eyes. 

You can never rise above your opinion of God. 

If you hold a low opinion of God, you will do yourself great harm. 

No one can be greater than his god; no creation can be greater than its 

maker.