Well, lots of people today believe in God. Lot’s of people today believe that we are all God’s children. But these types of beliefs are very different to belief in God as the Father Almighty. Here’s what some famous people have said about belief in God:
George Clooney says "I don’t believe in heaven or hell. I don’t know if I believe in God."
Poet, Emily Dickinson said, "They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse."
Albert Einstein wrote, "I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals…"
God to these people is either non-existent or impersonal & distant.
Then there’s those who want to set their own agenda with God or make up their own gods:
Napoleon says: "If I had to choose my religion, the sun as the universal giver of life would be my god."
& Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, of the merchants a merchant."
Imelda Marcos says, "God is love. I have loved. Therefore, I will go to heaven." – perhaps what she’s really saying is, "God is love, I have loved. Therefore, I am God."
And where would a discussion about God be without the atheist? We have Nietzsche’s famous quote: "God is dead." And of course now, as the university student says - so is Nietzsche.
And a great line from Woody Allen goes, "How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter?"
Here we have some confused & strange ideas about who God is & how He relates to us. Is God impersonal, far off, mysterious & distant, so that we may never really know him? [pause] Well no, the first line of the Apostles’ Creed reads "I Believe in God, the Father Almighty." Christians don’t just believe in God, whoever that may be, but we affirm that we believe in God, the Father Almighty.
So this is my first point this morning:
Point 1: Belief in God is not the same as belief in God the Father Almighty.
Belief in God as Father means having a personal relationship with God.
Being a child of God is not something that happens automatically, being a child of God is not a birthright. Despite what many in our society think, no-one is born a Christian.
[Jn 8:41-43] Jesus tells this to the Jews, who thought that God was their father as a birthright, They said to Jesus, "We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself." Jesus replies to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here."
Jesus clearly denies that God is the Father of all and he says that God is only the Father of those who love Jesus.
So this is my second point:
Point 2: Knowing God as the Father, comes through having a relationship with Jesus
Having God as Father is not an automatic privilege, status or birthright. The Bible’s says we’re created in God’s image, but it doesn’t say we’re all God’s children.
So we must be clear that we’re not born the children of God, we’re not born as Christians, rather we must become Christians, we must become God’s children. The Bible gives us a clear distinction between the "children of light" and the "children of darkness".
So we become a child of God, not by biological birth or genetics, but by faith in Jesus Christ. [repeat/pause]
Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that we were "by nature children of wrath." This is in the sense that our natural state is as children of sin. This sin will meet God’s wrath and judgment, leading to spiritual and physical death and this is what it means to be children of wrath. [pause]
In the Ephesians passage we read, Paul says: [Eph 2:1-10]
You were dead through the sins in which you once lived…following the ways of the world and the devil. All of us once lived like this in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.
But now says Paul, a transfer takes place:
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ— For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
So Paul tells us that for Christians a transfer from the realm of sin and death to the realm of God’s grace has taken place. This transfer comes through having a relationship with Jesus and believing that his death on the cross paid the cost for your sin, so that the transfer from death to life could take place.
In my years as a Lawyer I did a little bit of conveyancing. If there’s anything after sport, the beach, bbq’s & holidays that Australians love, its conveyancing. That great Aussie dream of owning your own home. [pause] As most of you probably know, when you buy a house, a transfer takes place. The house is transferred from the owner to the buyer & unless that transfer takes place, there’s no change of ownership.
Now the bit the lawyers like is that the transfer can only take place when the purchase price is paid. Money is the payment for the transfer of ownership, the money is the cost that’s paid to complete the transaction & the transfer can only take place when the purchase price is paid.
The point is that becoming a Christian involves a transfer. Knowing God as Father involves a spiritual transaction. A transfer takes place which includes a great cost. Jesus pays the price for your sin that means you can be transferred from the realm (or power) of sin, to the realm of God. Believing and trusting in Jesus is how you enter into the contract, Jesus pays the price. You are no longer a child of wrath, now you are a child of God and can have eternal life. [pause]
So many people today will claim a belief in God, but unless this transfer has taken place they will not know God as their Father. [repeat]
So this leads us to my 3rd point:
Point 3: You are not born a child of God, you must become a child of God.
Jesus talks about being a child of God in the sense of this spiritual transfer. This transfer is as radical as when a baby first emerges from a mother’s womb. It’s this radical because it’s new life. The old life is gone and the new life begins.
So just like our house transfer, the old place is gone and a brand new house awaits. This new house is washed clean, floor boards are polished, the rooms are painted. All the dirt and grime and muck are washed away.& the best thing about it, is there’s no price to pay & no mortgage. The price is paid by Christ and this is a gift from God.
Becoming a child of God, and so calling God Father, depends on a spiritual transfer – we can’t pay for it or earn it or be good enough to get it ourselves, as we saw from the Ephesians passage – it’s a gift of God’s grace. Our spiritual transfer can only happen through the work and power of the Holy Spirit.
John’s gospel makes this absolutely clear when he says: [1:12-13]
Yet to all who received [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So to know God as Father and to enter into God’s family, you must be born again. This is the Bible’s way of explaining the transfer.
But how can this happen, how does the transfer actually take place, how can we be born again? – These are the exact questions Nicodemus asked Jesus. Nicodemus wanted to know God but Jesus told Nicodemus that no one will see the Kingdom of God unless they are born from above. And so Nicodemus asked Jesus:
[3:4] "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?"
Jesus answer was, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit…"
So here Jesus is talking about a spiritual rebirth, a spiritual transfer.
But Nicodemus again asks, "How can these things be?" [pause] and Jesus answers that the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
What Jesus is alluding to here is that he must be lifted up on the cross, to be given by God, to die for our sins, so that we who believe in Jesus may have eternal life.
These verses also show us the Fatherly love of God. God the Father wants to be in a relationship with us. God so loved the world, and he loves you so much that he gave Jesus so that you could have eternal life. God wants us to accept, receive and believe in Jesus so that we won’t perish as children of wrath but we will be born again and become God’s children. [pause]
So it’s only through the death and resurrection of Jesus that the cost is paid for your sin so that your transfer from spiritual death, to eternal life, can take place. There’s no other way, you can’t earn salvation or ever be good enough for it, it’s only through the death of Jesus that the cost is paid for your sin so that your transfer can take place.
So this brings me to my fourth point:
Point 4: If God is our Father, it changes the way we relate to God
We say in the Apostles Creed "I believe in God, the Father Almighty". because as Christians we have entered into this new relationship as God’s sons and daughters. When we’re born again, when the spiritual transfer takes place in our lives, what happens is that we not only move into a brand new house where all our sin is washed clean, but we’re also adopted into God’s family.
Paul says this in Rom. 8:14-16. When we live for God we show that we’ve been adopted into God’s family and we can call God Father. Paul says:
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
When we say in the Apostles’ Creed "I Believe in God, the Father Almighty," we’re not only affirming our faith, but we’re actually allowing God’s Spirit within us, to confirm in us that we are indeed children of God.
So when we truly live as God’s children, we show that our faith in Jesus is real, that this spiritual transfer has really taken place. We turn our backs on the old life in the old house and we live in the new house. We no longer live for sin because we’ve been adopted into God’s family. And our new relationship with God as his children frees us to pray to God as Father.
So this is the 4th point, when we have a relationship with Jesus we confirm this relationship by living for God and by doing this we show that God is our Father & we can speak to him & relate to him as father.
My last point this morning is:
Point 5: God is our Father Almighty
When we call on God as Father Almighty, we’re not only giving Him praise and honour, but we’re acknowledging His authority over us and over the rest of the world.
In this word "Almighty" we’re saying that God’s power extends over everything in creation. His power is unlimited and unrestricted, he is God Almighty. Our God is not one of many gods or a god that we can make up as we please. God Almighty means he is the only God, a God that is in control of his creation and who exercises dominion over it.
God is love, but He is also the Almighty God of the universe. God forgives us but he must also be Lord over our lives. When a father loves his child, the father will discipline the child. God disciplines his children because he loves them. Hebrews 12 says:
Heb 12:7 Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? …he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness.
But God’s discipline of his children doesn’t mean punishment and judgment. When we’re in a relationship with God we receive God’s amazing grace. Human fathers may get angry & punish us, they may be distant & uncaring & even abusive, but our God is not like this. God promises to be compassionate to those that love him. Psalm 103 says: [Psalm 103:8-13]
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
So God is our Father Almighty. We have a relationship with God when we accept by faith that the price paid for our sin, is Jesus death and resurrection. We can’t pay the price. If we accept this we undergo a spiritual transfer & become God’s children. We call God Father because he loves us, forgives us, washes us clean & adopts us into his family. We call God Almighty, because he’s the sovereign ruler of the universe & also the ruler and Lord of our lives, the lives of his children. [pause]
There’s many Psalms that declare God’s majesty, might and power. Where going to listen now to Psalm 24 & watch some slides as the music plays.
Psalm 24 came at a time of reverent celebration when David brought the ark into Jerusalem. The ark symbolised the very presence of God, so this Psalm talks about exactly who is in our midst and about the reverence that is due to God.
It’s possible this morning that you’ve come to church but you don’t know God as your Father. It’s also possible that you’re here today and you don’t know God as Almighty. [pause]
If you’re in any of these positions then you need to make a fresh start with God.
So as we listen to Psalm 24, please take some time to reflect and talk to God and
tell Him that you want to know God as both Father and Almighty. There’s no special or magic words you need to use, just simply talk to God about these things & please come and talk to me or to Chris after the service & we’d be happy to pray with you and talk with you some more about this.
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