Sermon on God the Father-Fundamental Belief #3
Text Revelation 4:11
God the father is often very misunderstood. Many of us in the world today and in the past are quite familiar of the mission of Jesus Christ to earth for humanity and we have gone over extensively now the role of the Holy Spirit as we have walked through the first five chapters of the Book of Acts, but what has the Father to do with us?
Let us pray!
Fundamental belief #3 declares God the eternal father is the Creator, Source, Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creation. He is just and holy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. These qualities and powers exhibited in the Son and the Holy Spirit are but revelations of the Father.
Is God the Father as many today would claim, in contrast with the gracious, loving, passionate and grace filled Son Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, totally removed from the world in which He has formed from His own word! As some would proclaim, the absentee landlord, the unmoved first cause!
Or is He as some would think of Him as the God of the Old Testament—a God of vengeance, characterized by the dictum “an eye for an eye”, and a “tooth for a tooth”, and exacting God who requires perfect works—or else!! A God who stands in utter contrast to the New Testament portrayal of a loving God who places stress on turning the other cheek and going an additional mile if asked to carry another coat a mile.
When I was in seminary one of the papers I was tasked to write was on Genesis 6 and the flood. I was taught by my Old Testament professors that God was in deed the God of vengeance and wrath and that Genesis 6 proved it without a shadow of a doubt.
AS I read through Genesis 6 I saw that God was angry at humanity and that He declared with ultimate finality the complete destruction of thousands of people just like that and I began to think the Old Testament professors might be actually correct in their summation of God!
I prayed long and earnestly for God to bring me relief from this view of God the Father and to open my eyes to what God is really like in the Old Testament.
One day I was walking through the campus of the university and all of a sudden an epiphany struck me out of the blue and I understood. You see brothers and sisters in Christ, the Bible is very clear that all of humanity had rejected God at this point in time with one exception and that was Noah and his family who were still loyal to the sovereign Lord of the universe!
Now as sovereign Lord, as creator God has the right to step back and say you know the human race in which I placed my love and life has rejected me entirely and since I am the creator I will wipe the slate clean and start over. God has that right as the sovereign Creator.
If you and I were to create a beautiful synthetic organism that was create to serve us and carry on a relationship with us and all of a sudden after many years that synthetic organism turned on us and rejected us, in all reality we would simply turn it off and try again!
Yet we know and understand that God created the entire universe in order to place us on earth in order to have a personal relationship with His creation, and God was not about to let that cease to exist.
God found one family, one family out of all humanity that was loyal to Him and he decided to start again with them because He was a God of love, compassion, mercy and relationship and He could not, absolutely could not destroy those who loved Him!
So with that one bright spot in a sea of darkness God found goodness and light and the hope of humanity, the spark of light ignited again in God and He saw a future out of darkness because with light, darkness cannot exist.
And it was because the loving God of the universe did not want to give up on the love that was shown to Him by Noah and his family, and because God the father loved his Creation so much He knew that if He did not act now, that His creation, humanity would be lost forever more and that would break His heart!
So God acted in the only way possible to save the creation He so loved by starting over through Noah and the human race was saved by God because He loves us to much to give up on us. Amen!
God the Father in the Old Testament
The unity of the Old and New Testaments an dof their common plan of redemption is revealed by the fact that it is the same God who speaks and acts in both Testaments for the salvation of His people.
We see God’s Supreme revelation manifested in His son Jesus Christ in Hebrews 1:1-3
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
“who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
Now although the old Testament alludes to the Persons of the God-head, it doesn’t not specifically distinguish them. However, the New Testament make sit crystal clear that Christ, God the Son, was an active agent in Creation John 1:1-3 and that He was the God who led Israel out of Egypt.
What the New Testament says of Christ’s role in creation and the Exodus suggests to us that even the Old Testament often conveys to us its portrait of God the Father through the agency of the Son.
That correlation is further supported with the text in 2 Cor’s 5:19
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
So let’s look at some texts from the Old Testament and let us see what the Bible and the Bible alone describes about God the Father!
A God of Mercy
No sinful human being has ever seen God. (Ex 33:20) We have no photograph of His features, no snapchat or iphone shot. Yet God has chosen to demonstrate His character by His gracious acts and by the word picture He proclaimed before Moses
Exodus 34:6,7
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, “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.”
Yet we must understand that mercy dos not blindly pardon but is guided by the principle of justice. Those in this world who choose to reject God and His mercy will reap His punishment because they have made a free will choice!
When we look on the news and see people rioting in the streets over racial issues in this world, they have made a conscious decision to forgo the justice system as we know it, which if allowed to run its course if necessary, to see that the individuals involved are given a fair chance to prove their guilt or innocence in a court of law.
Instead of rioting lawlessly in the streets, let us instead if we see flaws in the justice system then go to school and become a lawyer, a judge, and make a difference. Let your voices be heard positively and not in a negative light like we see today! If you are really upset with the lwas then become a congressman or congresswoman and make a difference. That’s what God the Father of love and mercy declares to humanity, not death, and violence!!!
God’s law its sovereign, firm and fair, but is also guided by mercy, compassion, and love for His creation!
At Mt. Sanai, God expressed His desire to be Israel’s friend—in other words God desired to be with them just like in the garden of Eden when God walked and talked to Adam and Eve before sin was introduced into the world by Satan.
He said to Moses in Exodus 25:8 “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
Because my friends it was God’s earthly dwelling place, this sanctuary became the focal point of Israel’s religious experience for many years. Just like this sanctuary here at Grasonville is the focal point of our worship experience with God, yet as I have started many time already as seen in the early church in Acts the church is so much more than just a building; it’s about relationships forged in the fires of trials and tribulations when we cry and laugh together as a church family. That’s church is its most basic and profound example.
“A Covenant God”
Being so eager to establish loving and lasting relationships, God made solemn covenants with individuals throughout Bible history such as Noah and Abraham. These covenants reveal a personal, loving God who is keenly interested in His people’s concerns. Far be it from the accusations blasted against God by those who claim He is a distant and uncaring God.
To Noah He gave assurance of regular seasons and that there would never again be a worldwide flood and to Abraham He promised numerous descendants and a land flowing with milk and honey in which Abraham could nurture and grow his descendants.
“A Redeemer God”
As the God of the Exodus, He miraculously leads the nation of Israel out of bondage and into freedom.
And He can do the same for us today my friends through His Son Jesus Christ, who through His sacrifice at the cross of Calvary opened the window of opportunity for all of humanity to experience God’s redeeming love and salvation, if only we will accept the free gift of grace!
This great redemptive act of freeing them form bondage is the backdrop for the entire Old Testament and an example of His longing to be our Redeemer, which is a far cry from one who is supposed to be distant, detached and uninterested in our existence!
God the father is actively involved in the affairs of mankind as seen throughout the entire Bible! He is the one who cares and weeps over the loss of even one of His children.
The psalms particularly were inspired by the depth of God’s loving involvement:
Psalms 8:3,4
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
Psalms 18:1,2
I will love You, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
Psalms 22:24
“For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.”
A God of Refuge
David saw God as One in whom we can find refuge—very much like the six Israelite cities of refuge, which harbored innocent fugitives. The psalms recurrent theme of “refuge” pictures both Christ and the Father. The Godhead was a refuge as we see in psalms 27:5
psalm 27:5
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His Tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
The psalmist expressed a longing for more of His God:
One of Vilma and I’s favorite contemporary songs is written and composed from psalms 46:1 “As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee.”
David testified in Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
I hope at this point in time brothers and sisters of the living God that you are beginning to see clearly that according to the Word of God the accusations of an unloving, distant and uncaring God are not supported and should not be taken seriously if you are a believer and supporter of the Word of God! Amen!
A God of Forgiveness
After his sins of adultery and murder, David earnestly entreated “Have mercy upon me, o God, according to your tender mercies, “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me”
Psalm 103:11,12
David was comforted from the Word of God in psalm 103:11,12 in which he declared
“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”
A God of Goodness
God is the One who “executes justice for the oppressed.
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners and opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord raises those who are bowed down and the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the strangers in your house and He relieves the fatherless and widow.
A God of Faithfulness
In spite of God’s greatness, Israel wandered away from Him many times and still, God is depicted as loving Israel as a husband loves his wife. The book of Hosea illustrates poignantly God’s faithfulness in the face of flagrant unfaithfulness and flat right rejection by Israel’s leaders.
Even though Israel was permitted to experience the calamities she did God made sure through her prophets that it was their fault, not God’s, for their pain and suffering.
Even while attempting to correct her ways God still embraced her with His tender mercy.
Isa. 41:9,10 clearly shows that the Lord did not reject them even when they rejected Him.
‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away: Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
And the same goes for each and every one of you here today. No matter what you may have done in your life, God is always willing to forgive if and when you are ready to repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ in your heart!
For a long time, I thought to myself that all the drinking in my life and the way I treated others was beyond the forgiveness of God and that I was doomed to hell. At least that is what I had been told in the past, before I took a close look at God the Father from Genesis to Revelation and I saw that God the father was a caring, compassionate and loving God. Yet He was also!!!
A God of Salvation and Vengeance
The Old Testament description of God as a God if vengeance must be seen in the context of the destruction of His faithful people by the wicked.
God gave several warnings to His people not to intermix with the nations they would be interacting with as they traveled to the promised land because they were wicked in nature and ungodly people who brought pagan worship to the Israelites that eventually brought forth judgment upon the chosen people of Israel.
The bottom line is when God gives us a command not to do something it is not because it is forbidden just because God forbids it, but that God knows that we as human beings tend to not logically think all things through before we do them!
I am sure most of you would agree with that statement and so the Lord in Hs infinite mercy and love forbids us to do things that He knows will hurt us in the long run. So the best thing is not to get angry at God and say why not,
but to say ok Lord as you command and be thankful that a loving and all-knowing and wise father only wants what’s best for His people, and leave it at that.
In other words, put it in God’s hands and trust Him to give the outcome that he sees fit because He is our sovereign Lord and saviour of the universe!
God the Father in the New Testament
The God of the Old Testament does not differ from the God of the New Testament. God the Father is revealed as the originator of all things, the father of all true believers, And in a unique sense the father of Jesus Christ.
The Father of All Creation
Paul identifies the Father, distinguishing Him from Jesus Christ: in
1 Cor’s 8:6 he says
yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
He testifies,
Eph. 3:14,15
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named”
In New Testament times the spiritual father-child relationship exists not between God and the nation of Israel but between God and the individual believer. That understanding alone was one of the sparks that ignited the protestant reformation with Luther. The understanding that God wanted a personal relationship with us and an intermediator was not required nor desired!
Jesus provides the guidelines for this relationship in Matthew 5:45: 6:6-15 which is established through the believers’ acceptance of Jesus Christ into their lives.
Through the redemption of Christ has wrought, believers are adopted as God’s children. The Holy Spirit whom we have just completed a comprehensive study on in the book of Acts facilitates this relationship. Christ cane to redeem those who were under the Law, that they might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.
Jesus Reveals the Father
Jesus, God the Son, provided the most profound view of God the Father when He, as God’s self-revelation, came in human flesh (John 1:1,14)
John states in John 1:18
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
John 14:9 states
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
The epistle to the Hebrews stresses the importance of this personal revelation:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir to all things, through whom also He made the worlds”
A God Who Gives
Jesus revealed His Father as a giving God. We see His giving at Creation, at Bethlehem, and especially at Calvary.
In creating, the Father and the Son acted together. God have us life
in spite of knowing that doing so would lead to the death of His Own Son.
At Bethlehem, He gave Himself as He gave His Son. What pain the Father experienced when His Son entered our sin-polluted planet! Imagine for a second the Fathers feelings as He saw His Son exchange the love and adoration of thousands upon thousands of angelic hosts for the hatred of sinners; the glory and bliss of heaven for the pathway that lead to His death!
But it is Calvary that gives us the deepest insight into the Father. The Father, being divine, suffered the pain of being separated from His Son—in life and death—more acutely than any human being ever could. And He suffered with Christ in like measure. What greater testimony about the Father could be given!
The cross reveals better than any other example—the truth about the Father!
A God of Love
Matthew 5:44,45
Jesus’ favorite theme was the tenderness and abundant love of God. “Love your enemies” he said. “Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for this who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust”
In stooping down and washing the feet of His betrayer Jesus revealed the loving nature of the Father. When we see Christ feeding the hungry, healing the deaf, giving speech to the mute, opening the eyes of the blind, lifting up the palsied, curing the lepers, raising the dead, forgiving sinners, and casting out demons we see the Father mingling among humanity, bringing them His life, setting then free, giving them and us hope in a future secure with Christ in our hearts. Christ knew that revealing the precious love of the Father was key to bringing people into repentance.
God the Father as portrayed in the Bible is a God of infinite love who wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us now and forever. Amen !
