Who Is God the Father?
Michael Woody
Doctrine for Life • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 9 viewsOur view of God is hindered by the Fall but corrected by the Scriptures
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Who Is God the Father?
Who Is God the Father?
Why This Topic?
Why This Topic?
John Calvin, commenting on Isaiah 55, makes this statement:
There is nothing that troubles our consciences more than when we think that God is like ourselves; for the consequence is, that we do not venture to approach to him, and flee from him as an enemy, and are never at rest.
Our Confession has this in chapter 2, paragraphs 1-2
These statements speak to God’s immutability, His immortality, His sovereignty, His holiness, and His infinite wisdom. They also speak to His loving, gracious, merciful, and patient Person. That He overflows with goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. That He rewards those who seek Him diligently and, at the same time, He is perfectly just and terrifying in His judgments. That He hates all sin and will certainly not clear the guilty.
Our confession upholds the doctrine of the Trinity, This divine and infinite Being consists of three real persons, the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three have the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence without this essence being divided. The Father is not derived from anyone, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. All three are infinite and without beginning and are therefore only one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being. Yet these three are distinguished by several distinctive characteristics and personal relations. This truth of the Trinity is the foundation of all of our fellowship with God and of our comforting dependence on Him.
A formal definition of God is, The supreme being and Creator of the universe. Known by the personal name Yahweh. The New Testament sees God as Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit.
I recently preached on the Father of mercies and then on the fact that God says He yearned for Israel - I want to follow up on a wider survey of the person of the Father.
The reason we need this is we can either fabricate a god, and call it the Father, or we can think God is just like me.
Within theology (the science of God) are attributes of God: some are unique to Him (He is everywhere at once, omnipresent, He knows everything, omniscient) and others are communicable like love, grace, etc.
How you understand God needs to have these truths part of it:
Who Is God The Father?
Who Is God The Father?
Our theology must be Scripture based, and we must be comprehensive in our perspectives.
For example, we know God is love but we also know He judges sinners: going to one side results in a mushy God while to the other side is a God who is vengeful.
Where truths exist we must allow them to stand fully versus watering down what are “seeming contradictory” truths.
1. He is Holy (Isaiah 6:3)
1. He is Holy (Isaiah 6:3)
There is no place we should start differently than here; if we do not grasp the holiness of God the less you grasp who God is.
The less you are gripped with God’s holiness, the less awe you will experience in your faith.
The more you know of God the less you will believe in your righteousness.
It is because of the awesome holiness of God we see the work of Christ as we must; you will have no problem believing in imputed righteousness.
Awe of God proceeds from knowing and experiencing his holiness—his otherness.
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
2. He is Creator (Isaiah 40:28)
2. He is Creator (Isaiah 40:28)
Because God is the Creator, which includes the Father, means that we find our identity and purpose with that God.
You do not find value in your uniqueness or individuality; we are created in the image of God. We are of value because we were made by God for God.
We find this in the SC Q1, What is man’s chief end? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. What this does not answer is WHY? It is because of creation that this is the case.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
3. He is Omnipotent (Psalm 115:3)
3. He is Omnipotent (Psalm 115:3)
So often we realize our powerlessness. Do you ever feel like a ping-pong ball being thrown around by forces? I have quite often.
We are weak, but God is not!
You are weak but the sovereign God of the universe is with us and He is for us.
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
4. He is Omnipresent (Isaiah 41:10)
4. He is Omnipresent (Isaiah 41:10)
God is not bound by time or space, He is everywhere at once: this should dispel our anxieties and comfort us in loneliness.
We know the words of Jesus in Matt 28:20 where He promises to be with us always.
We need to learn to rest in the reality of God’s presence, this will cause us to trust versus worry in the midst of things that drive fear into our hearts.
fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
5. He Provides (Matthew 6:26)
5. He Provides (Matthew 6:26)
In Sunday School we studied Providence; our Father governs all things and He is personally involved in everything that happens.
Whatever your situation God is there, He provides for your needs and He provides grace needed to persevere until the end.
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
6. He is Good (Psalm 25:8-9)
6. He is Good (Psalm 25:8-9)
This is a source of some of our struggles: you may believe the Father is sovereign but do you believe He is good?
Believing He is sovereign but not believing he is good will do us little good.
Because He is good we can trust him at all times.
Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
7. He is Omniscient (Psalm 139:1)
7. He is Omniscient (Psalm 139:1)
This is a truth we have learned early: God knows everything!
The fact that God knows all things means He knows you.
The Father knows your life, circumstances, fears, anxieties, doubts and afflictions - He knows you personally.
The Father knows what you need, not just what you ask for; He knows what you can handle and what is too much; there is nothing He does not know.
The simple adage is, Has it ever occurred to you that NOTHING has occurred to God!
God has searched you and He knows your heart; therefore, we can rest in Him.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
8. He is Patient (Psalm 86:15)
8. He is Patient (Psalm 86:15)
In seminary I would sometimes go to hear Jesse Boyd preach and he would speak of God’s longsuffering.
Has God ever failed to be patient with you? When has He ever been impatient with you.
Perhaps you have a darling sin, one that the Father should reign upon you discipline, but He has not; He patiently waits for you to love you more than your sin. He may not always wait, but He did not rain discipline upon you every time.
The Father is not tolerating you, but lovingly calling you to Himself
Don’t misunderstand the patience of God toward you. It is not that he simply has “a long fuse.”
He isn’t overlooking your sin.
He remains patient toward you because justice has been satisfied.
God’s wrath against sin is settled. Therefore his patience toward you is leading you to continue in repentance from sin and reliance on his grace.
Do not ignore his patience. Do not delay in your response to his love and faithfulness. The time he has given you is time to turn to him, know him, and worship him in spirit and truth.
But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
9. He is Love (1 John 4:8; Romans 8:32)
9. He is Love (1 John 4:8; Romans 8:32)
The love of God is His Sovereign benevolence toward you in Jesus Christ.
The love of God is with you in your afflictions, teaching you that God has not left you or forgotten you, nor does he intend to hurt you.
His love means that he remains ever present and intends even these difficult days for your good.
The love of God as your heavenly Father is a guardrail that protects you from veering off the path of faith and godliness.
This is why I believe we need to have our theology guide us in how we think about God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Scripture has a way of arguing for God’s love in Romans 8:32 that goes from the lesser to the greater.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
10. He Forgives (Psalm 103:1-5)
10. He Forgives (Psalm 103:1-5)
Thorn talks about our two kinds of guilt: the reality of our culpability before God (we have transgressed the law and are guilty), and the other is our sense of corruption (this is that Holy Spirit awakening to just how wicked we are).
Thorn says,
Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God (10. He Forgives)
The first kind of guilt is true of you because everyone is a sinner. But not everyone knows the second kind. Until a person knows his guilt, he cannot know pardon.
Until you feel the bondage of your guilt, you cannot find the freedom of forgiveness. In this sense, guilt is not your enemy.
Unchecked the guilt we can feel will destroy us - this nearly happened to Luther as he could not repent enough to take away his sin. It was not until he saw that the just live by faith.
People commit suicide over guilt.
People go to substance abuse because of guilt
Guilt can also guide us to Christ - the Psalmist testifies of the forgiveness God gives.
Says Thorn,
Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God (10. He Forgives)
It’s good that your sins bother you. They should. They are an offense and affront to God. But your tendency to lose hope in light of them is not of faith, because faith believes and receives the pardon of God. He forgives his people.
Read that again: God forgives his people. He sees your guilt, takes it from you, and gives it to his Son, who willingly received it and its punishment on your behalf.
This is what it means to be saved. You have been pardoned for crimes you have committed, rescued from the justice of God to rest in the mercy of God.
The Psalmist summed it up this way:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
11. He Is Unchanging (Malachi 3:6)
11. He Is Unchanging (Malachi 3:6)
We dealt with this in our study of LBCF chapter 2 - we should find great comfort in this truth
We sing the hymn, Christ the Solid Rock
People change for the worse: spouses change and stop loving the other
Thorn says,
He is always just, good, full of mercy, and committed in his love for his people. He will not break his promises to you. He will never abandon you.
He will never change his mind in regard to your eternal welfare. He will never cease causing all things to work together for your good.
You might be a person who hates change, like my wife; or you might be a person who embraces change, like me. This isn’t is what this is completely referring to.
We are affected by outside events - circumstances outside of our control, emotions that make us act in a way we need to later repent of - the Lord is not like this.
The Father will never grow tired of us and just let us have it.
When you are in the valley it isn’t because God has deserted you - He isn’t distant or unconcerned.
The love and patience and faithfulness of God never changes.
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
12. He Is Jealous (Exodus 20:4-5)
12. He Is Jealous (Exodus 20:4-5)
When we think of jealousy we think of manipulative, controlling, oppressive, etc. which stems from a lack of trust in another.
When Scripture speaks of God being jealous we cannot put these emotions to God who is perfect in every way
He loves you, He desires you and for you, and He doesn’t wan to share your heart with anyone else (Isaiah 62:3-5).
You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married.
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
He knows that sin and Satan will sift you and harm you and with a godly jealously He wants you to trust Him to not go there.
The jealousy of God calls us to faithfulness
God’s jealously is not out of lack of trust - He knows us and He loves us with a perfect love.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
13. He Is Listening (Psalm 4:3)
13. He Is Listening (Psalm 4:3)
Have you ever felt that God is distant? You have prayed and asked God but you get this feeling in your heart that He isn’t listening.
Another example, have you ever had someone tell you a story and a short way, or long way, into the story you are no longer interested. You want to say, can we wrap this up? (My wife says this to me often)!
Thorn makes this statement that I found important and telling:
Experiencing the Trinity: The Grace of God for the People of God (13. He Is Listening)
This somehow bleeds into your prayer life. You sometimes feel as if smaller matters don’t warrant prayer. As if God were too busy to deal with your smaller issues. And when you do pray, a question lingers after you say Amen: “Did he hear me?”
But the Lord never tunes you out or wanders in his thoughts away from your prayers. The all-powerful God is all-hearing and is turned toward the needs and cries of his people. He hears. He listens. And it isn’t because you’re so interesting, or that your issues are greater than another’s.
He listens to you because of his love for you. As the God who has chosen you, saved you, and is involved in the details of your life, he knows your thoughts before you speak them. The great comfort in this is not that he simply hears you, but that you have his undivided attention.
God not only hears our cries but He answers our prayers
No matter how small God wishes to hear your prayers; he ins’t at your beck and call, He isn’t your genie in a bottle, but he is your Father in heaven and He cares for you.
14. He Disciplines (Hebrews 12:5-6)
14. He Disciplines (Hebrews 12:5-6)
Because God loves you he will discipline you when necessary.
God will bring afflictions of the mind, body, or circumstances to get your attention; to confront you and bring you back.
The reason God does this is because He loves you - He isn’t looking to harm you but He loves you (Hebrews 12:5-6).
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
Are you going through a time of obstacles where events seem against you? Let me say that nothing just happens.
God might be teaching you patience
God might be pruning you so that He might use you
God might be discipling you for hardness of heart and sin. David said in Psalm 139:23-24.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Don’t discount that God might be bringing adversity because you are living in sin!
15. He Is Your Father (Matthew 6:9)
15. He Is Your Father (Matthew 6:9)
Do you believe God is your Father? Do you believe God is a lesser Father than you are dad (Matthew 6:9; Matthew 10:29-31)?
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
It is because of Jesus you are called a son of God (Romans 8:14)
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
You are created in the image of God, you are valued by Him, He truly loves you.
How Should This Change My Life?
How Should This Change My Life?
I should want to better know my Heavenly Father (1 John 2:12-14)
I should want to better know my Heavenly Father (1 John 2:12-14)
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
How do you read the Word of God - is it give me a spiritual snack today?
Do you read the Word of God seeking to know him more
I should want to spend time with my Heavenly Father
I should want to spend time with my Heavenly Father
I do not have a text for this as it is common sense - tell me you love someone whom you do not spend time with and I will question that love.
It might be a love for your benefit but it is a very immature love.
I should recognize the love of my Father (1 John 3:1)
I should recognize the love of my Father (1 John 3:1)
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Do you realize the love that God has for you? He sent His only, unique, son to die for you.
Furthermore, He made Himself known to you - do you not see the great love of God for you?
O LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO
O LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO
George Matheson was a 19th century Scottish pastor. He was born with an eye defect that left him totally blind by age 18. Shortly after this, his fiancée left him, deciding she would not be content to be married to a blind preacher. Years later, at age 40, Matheson was alone on the night of his sister’s wedding. Something happened, perhaps the memory of being rejected by his own fiancée years before, that caused him severe mental suffering. Suddenly, the words of a hymn came to him as if dictated by some inward voice. The whole thing was done in five minutes and he never had to edit or correct it. The first verse is:
O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe
That in Thine ocean-depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
The third verse reflects Matheson’s experience of God’s love through suffering:
O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thro’ the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
In his blindness and loneliness, perhaps feeling forsaken by the love of a woman, Matheson sought and found comfort in the unchanging love of God.
Although human love is wonderful, God’s love is far greater. It is the most life-changing force in the universe. The apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians 3:17-19
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.