God the Father

We've had two sessions so far. First of all, we revived our doctrinal statement, and we thought it would be good just to go through the doctrinal statement. We handed them out a couple of months ago, and I don't know if there's any more available back in the foyer, but if you would like a doctrinal statement and there's one there, just see Sue Anderson and she'll get you a copy. Is that fair, Sue? So here's what we've been doing, looking at the contents of the doctrinal statement.

First thing we looked at is the Bible, in terms of the Bible being the inspired word of God. Next, what we did is we're looking at the second item on our doctrinal statement, which is God. We looked at God's Trinity. Today, we're going to look at God the Father. Eventually we'll cover God the Son, Holy Spirit, and then cover all of the rest of the topics on the doctrinal statement. So as you look through scripture, and what I did is I went through the New Testament and in looking at God the Father.

It was very interesting in doing that. I found out that you could essentially group them group the Father into three primary designations. The first group, it talks about God the Father, or God and Father. And these expressions or statements are used about 19 times.

So an example for this is in 1 Corinthians 8.6, it says, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things. Just look at these words. From whom are all things, and we exist for him. And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him.

The second group that you find, it says God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there you'll see that expression ten times. An example would be in Romans 15, 6. It says that you with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The third group you'll find is God, our Father. Now it's personal. It's our Father, or sometimes it's our God and Father. there 16 times. This morning, what I'm going to do is just briefly, hopefully, go through each of these three categories. First thing I think we need to do is understand what the definition of father is. So we're going to look at that.

And whether you look at the Hebrew, which is Av or Ava, or the Greek, which is Pater, for you Greek students who I was thinking about this morning. There's probably 20% of the fellowship now that has either been through Greek, first-year Greek, or in the process of first-year Greek. But both, whether it be the Hebrew or the Greek, they have similar meanings and associations. meaning or association you'll find is creator and ruler for father. Another is originator. Another is source or author or sustainer, progenitor, relationship.

And you'll find father used in relationship in terms of love, care, protector, provider, nurture, headship, commissioning, intimacy, and we'll see some of that this morning. But depending upon the context, father is used in these different ways. So if you take a look at say creator, origin, resource, ruler, sustainer, so what I did is I lumped a lot of these together, you'll see that He's the father of lights, talking about the celestial bodies. He's the father of physical conditions.

And then what you need to do when it says the father of lights, you need to say, well, is it creator, originator, source, ruler, sustainer? So when he's the father of lights, certainly he's the creator. Certainly he's the originator. Certainly he's the source. and he's the ruler, and he's the sustainer of all the celestial bodies. So you can go through all of those uses with respect to Father. But what we want to do is take a look at the three categories.

God, the Father, and God and Father. So you see I've underscored the definite article there, the Father. So what is this saying? whatever it was, 19 times, talks about God the Father, or God and Father. What is this little statement saying? I think what it's saying is this, that God is deity, or the Father, I should say, is deity. The Father is deity, is what it's saying.

And the reason why it's saying that is because God and the Father are words which are in Now, all you Greek students know that you have words in apposition, where you have two words and they mean the same. They are one and the same. So, if I say George Bush, the President of the United States, they are one and the same. So, these are in apposition. So, the father is deity. They are one in the same.

And so what it's saying is this, that there is only one father who is God. Now, others may say they have a father, but there's only one father. that is truly God. As we looked at just previously, he's the source of all things, and I just re-quoted that verse again, but unto us there is but one God, the Father. And that really nails it in terms of the Father being God.

He's also designated the first person in the Trinity. Now, does that mean that the second person in the Trinity and the third person in Trinity are second class and third class citizens? So we talk about the Father being designated the first person in Trinity. Does that mean that he's above the Son and above the Holy Spirit? What does that mean? Are they not equal? So why do we make the distinction that the Father is always the first person in the Trinity? The reason is this.

It's because of the irreversible order that you find in Scripture. You always find that the Father sending or commissioning the Son. You always find the Son sending or commissioning the Holy Spirit. It's the order that you find in Scripture. So I don't care where you look in the New Testament, you'll see the Father commissioning or sending the Son. If you have 5'5 eyesight, you may see this in the back of the room.

But in John 5.24, it says, Truly, truly, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me.

Every time you'll find the Lord Jesus Christ, when he refers to the Father, He's always referring to Him as the One who sent me. And when the Lord Jesus Christ wants people out there to know Him, He always says, but I want them to know the Father who sent me. He's always referring back to the Father who sent me. And then in John 6, verse 44, it says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day."

And then the same thing now is true with the Holy Spirit, that it's God the Son who sends or commissions the Holy Spirit. And in John 14, 26, when Christ is talking to his disciples, he says, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

So there's the distinction. It doesn't make them unequal. They are equal. They are three persons making up the Trinity. And we saw this last time. I don't know how you depict God, but the way I try to depict God here is to show that there are three distinct separate persons co-equal in the Godhead, but yet they're one. Right? There's only one God. And their oneness is in their essential essence, in terms of who they are. That's where their oneness is.

And so, to show the equality of the three persons, in John 5.18 it says this, For this cause, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, here he healed somebody, and on the Sabbath, but also, listen, look at what it says, was calling God his own father. And when he was saying that, the Jews in their mind knew that he was making himself equal with God. So there's no question in these unbelievers' mind, the Jews' mind, that that the Lord Jesus Christ was co-equal with the Father. So, the question is, as we looked at that long list in terms of the usage of Father, Which of those aspects of Father is God to the Lord Jesus Christ?

You understand the question? So let's look at the list. Here's the list. Creator, Ruler. Is God the Creator and Ruler of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is God the originator of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he the source or the author? Is he the sustainer? Is he the progenitor or is it one of relationship? So which aspect of the Father is God to Christ?

I think the answer has to do with relationship. None of this is strictly relationship. And so as you look at that list, you go down to relationship, there's some things on the relationship like love, headship, commissioning, intimacy, that there is where the relationship is. So if we take a look now at that relationship and just look at love and intimacy. As you go through scripture it's incredible in terms of seeing that love relationship between the Father and the Son.

The Lord Jesus Christ talks about the reason for the love relationship and he gives us the reason in John 10.17 It says, therefore does my father love me, reason or because, I lay down my life. Think about that. That there's this love relationship between God the Father and God the Son. And one of the reasons for that is that the Son lays down his life. So what is that all about?

You think of John 3.16, For God so loved the world, He loved you and me, that He gave His own Son. And so look at this love relationship, and the Father loves you so much and me so much, that he sent his son to lay down his life for us. One of the reasons for this love and intimacy.

Then the other passage of scripture is in John 17, 22 to 26. Now, I couldn't put that on the screen. So I said, but this is a must read. So would you turn in your Bibles, please, to John 17, If you really want to see this love and intimacy between the Father and the Son, read the entire chapter of John 17. I would love to do it this morning, but we don't have the time, but I just picked out these verses.

So look at verse 22, because verse 22 starts out, and it has to do with you, and it has to do with me. And here's what Christ says to the Father. He says this to the Father, and the glory which you gave me, the glory which you gave me as a man, I have given them. And the them is the ones who would believe on the word of God.

So if you're a believer here this morning, the very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that he has had as a man, he has given that glory to you. You have it. It's your possession. It is your absolute possession. It's your possession in Christ. You have his glory. Isn't that incredible? I find that incredible. And here's the reason for Christ giving us his glory.

That they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me. That they may be made perfect or complete in one, and that the world may know, look what it says, that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will, or my will, that they also who you have given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory in that incredible that here's the Lord Jesus Christ prayer for you and me as believers that we may be with him where he is and where is he he's in the bosom of the father that we may be right there in the bosom of the Father, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. In verse 25, O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. and I have declared unto them your name, and will declare it, and the love which with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them."

Wow. We could spend just weeks just going through this one passage and looking at the intimacy and the love between the father and the son. There's a relationship then also. of headship between the Father and the Son. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, it says this, But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man. Right? Are we the boss head? You have a problem with your wife?

Just take her to 1 Corinthians 11.3 and show her that you're the head. Is that what that means? It doesn't mean that. And the head of Christ is God. So if you take a look at this headship relationship, looks like this. Here you have Christ, who is the head of man. Every man is Christ. And then the head of every woman is man. And then the head of Christ is God.

So you have this relationship, and it's a headship relationship. So as you go through scripture, you'll always find this headship of God, Christ, man, woman. And then there's another side of that that goes the other way, which is submission. The woman is to be in submission to the man, man is to be in submission to Christ, Christ is in submission to God. Now, so here's the question.

Because of this headship relationship, Does that make man and woman unequal? I don't see anybody saying no. I don't see anybody saying yes. You know, in Galatians, in the book of Galatians, it talks about that there is no distinction between what Jew and Gentile bond or free, and then it goes on to say what?

Male and female, in God's eyes they're equal. And we just saw the equality between Christ and the Father, and so there's an equality between man and woman in the sight of God, but yet this is his plan in terms of in terms of our everyday living here on earth, in terms of headship and sedation. Okay, we're going to go to the second category, which is God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The verse that comes to mind when you think of God or God being the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is in John 1.14, like in John 1.1, it says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, and when you get down to verse 14, it says, and the Word became what?

Flesh. And He dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us. And we beheld His what? His glory. The glory of what? The only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. Now, when you read that, don't you think that there's the begetting? Is that talking about begetting? Like, I begat four children. Did God beget the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that what the only begotten of the Father means? Well, it's very interesting. With respect to this word, only begotten, it's monoghanes in the Greek. And it's a very unique word.

It's used about seven or eight times. And all but one of them is not used in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. but all six or seven are used with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. The other usage of that word is to Isaac. And monogamous means unique one, just like Isaac was unique. The Lord Jesus Christ is a unique one, the incomprehensible one.

So when it talks about the only begotten of the Father, It's talking about his nature and not his source. It's just talking about his nature. As you look through scripture, like in Hebrews, it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ being the exact representation of the Father. So it refers to his nature, not his source.

Christ is designated the Son, not due to His birth, but because He is eternal and infinite. So, you look at the prophecy in Isaiah, for unto us a child is what? Born. And unto us a son is what? Given. And notice the distinction between the two. A child is born. Talking about the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and unto us a son is given. Not born, but given. So it talks about his eternality. He existed for all eternity, but he was given. So here is the big question.

Is God the father of every person? I don't want to embarrass anybody. I won't have you raise your hands, but kind of, you know, mentally think about that. Is God the father of every person? Answer, no. Only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are God's children.

And we know that by looking at John chapter 1 verse 12 and 13. It says, but as many as received him. So the many are whoever has received him. The him is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we receive him? We receive him by faith. It's the only way that we can receive Christ is by faith. So it says, but as many as received him, to them gave you the right, or the power, or the authority, depending upon which translation you're using, to become children of God.

Now, here's the interesting thing. That little word become there is an essence verb in the Greek. It's not a verb of status quo, but it's an essence verb of change in state of being, so that he gave them the right to become children of God. They were in a state of being that they were not children of God, and they came into a new state of being by becoming children of God. How did they do that? They received Him. How did they receive Him? They received Him by faith.

It goes on to say, and then there's a little participle there that clarifies it. It says, to the ones believing in His name, and it modifies children. So children is modified by this little participle to the ones believing in his name. So there's no question, there's no shadow of a doubt that only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are God's children.

So when it talks about believing in his name, when you think of name, a name represents someone. And the name represents, in this case, a person. Not only the person, but the work. So it's believing in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the eternal son of God. and his work that he died on the cross for the sins of the world and he was buried and he rose again the third day.

Then it further describes how one is not a child of God. who were born not of blood. And it's interesting because the word blood is in the plural, blood, not born of blood. And so I think what that means when it talks about blood, it's talking about one's heredity, one's ancestors, if you will.

And then it says, nor of the will of flesh. So there's no human desire that can make one a child of God, or power. One doesn't have this desire to say, well, I'm going to be a child of God. previous verse we looked at, you remember in John, it says that the father must draw him, right? The father must draw him. It's not the will of the flesh. Then it goes on to say it's nor the will of man. And the word man there, and there in the Greek, It talks about a husband.

So it's not a husband's desire to have children and to say that these children are going to be children of God. No, the children have to receive Christ and believe on his name. goes on to say, but the spiritual birth is of God. And it's not any other way but of God. So the only way that we can have life, that is Christ's life, is by receiving him.

Just to further underscore this, saying that God is not the father of unbelievers, In John 8, 41-44, there's this dialogue that's going on between the Pharisees and the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, the Pharisees are the religious leaders of the day, and they've got it all. They have all of the righteousness that they need. and all of their righteousness is self-righteousness.

And here comes the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's telling them, you know, all that you do, all of the work that you do, the deeds that you do, your deeds is of your Father. Now, what were they thinking of? What were these Pharisees thinking of when Christ said, your Father? Were these Pharisees thinking of their physical father? Here's their response. Their response is, we have one father. So they interpreted spiritually, we have one father and our father is God. And in a split second, the Lord's response was, If God were your father, and what this statement is saying, God is not your father, but if he were your father, guess what?

You would love me, but you hate me. You're trying to kill me. see, and Abraham knew me and loved me and he knew me and his attitude was not your attitude towards me. He goes on to say, for I proceed forth and have come from God for I have not come on my own initiative. Then the crowning blow, in verse 44, he tells them who they are. He says, you are of your father, who?

The devil. So, there's two fathers in the world, today's Father's Day. There are two fathers in the world, two spiritual fathers in the world, God and Satan. and all of mankind aligns itself under one of those two Fathers, and no one else. There's just those two Fathers, spiritually.

So, here's the question. How about your relationship to the Father? Now we're going to look at the third category, which is God our Father. And so the question we want to answer is What is your relationship to the Father? What is my relationship to the Father?

And the Lord wants it the same as Christ, one of love and intimacy. Here's a wonderful part where Christ is. He's in the bosom of the Father. In John 118, the Lord It says, no man has seen God at any time, the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father. I want you just to notice this for a minute. See that word, only begotten, right?

Where we saw the only begotten Son in John 1.14, same word, monogenes. But notice what follows it. Son doesn't follow monogenes. God follows monogamies.

Is that saying that Jesus Christ is deity? It goes on to say that he has explained to him, and the word is interesting, in the Greek it's exegetes him, that the Lord Jesus Christ reads out the Father. So if you want to know the Father, you look at the Son, because the Son exegetes or reads out the Father.

So, as we look at your relationship and my relationship to the Father, you're in Christ, in a living union with Christ, right? Our identification with Christ. We're in this living union with Christ. And since Christ is in the bosom of the Father, we're you. Can you be anywhere else? You're in the same place, I'm in the same place, in the bosom of the Father. So wherever Christ is, that's where you are, and that's where I am. It's a place of nearness, it's a place of love, and it's a place of wonderful intimacy. Well, let's see. Don't mind this.

Many people I've talked to say, you know how, if I can only see God, if I can only see the Father, then I'll believe. Or if He would just show me a sign. If I could just see a sign, then I would believe. And unfortunately, God is not going to give a man a sign, and he's not going to show himself, because no man has ever seen God except the Son. So, you and myself who believe came by faith.

And the result is that we can see the Father and we can't see him physically. But we can perceive Him. We can know Him. We can know who He is and what He's like. So the Lord Jesus Christ said, if you have seen me or perceived me, you've seen the Father or perceived the Father. And so we behold Christ.

In John 1.14, where it says, the only begotten, and that we beheld the only begotten son. The word there, behold, is to theater. Think of yourself in a theater and looking at someone and scrutinizing a character or a person.

And we can scrutinize the Lord Jesus Christ. And the way we do it, obviously, and the only way we do it, is through the word of God. And as we do that, we can see his love, his grace, his mercy, his comfort, his peace. And we can see all those aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we're seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, then we're seeing the Father, because they're one and the same in terms of essence. And when we think about it, we're in the bosom of the Father.

We're in this wonderful place of nearness and intimacy, and it's positional. That's our position. And that position is immutable. It will never ever change. It's eternal for all eternity. But that's our position, this position of love and intimacy. Now the big question is, is it conditional in your life and my life? Is it or what? Is it our walk moment by moment? God's desire is that the position that we have of this love and intimacy in the bosom of the Father be our walk moment by moment. Amen? Amen.