God the Father - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, March 10th. A lot of people refer to God as their Heavenly Father, but only those who have trusted in Jesus for salvation actually have a relationship with Him. Let's continue with the series on the character of God. We're to pray. He said we're to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven. When He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, Oh, Father, if this cup could pass from me. When He stood before the closed tomb, in this 11th chapter of John, at the raising of Lazarus, listen, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee. I believe with one exception, maybe with one exception, every time Jesus prayed, He always addressed God as Father. And of course, on the cross, He said what?

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Jesus revealed to us the kind of relationship we ought to have with Jehovah, self existent, eternal God, Elohim, infinite in power, absolute in faithfulness, Adonai, Lord and Master and ruler of life.

These characteristics and attributes that describe an incomparable unlimited God. Jesus says, I've come to tell you, there's another side to Him, and that is that He is a loving, gentle, forgiving Father. And Jesus attempted to teach those apostles and to teach us that we are to relate to Him as a loving Lord, a loving Father and not be afraid that He's going to clip us off at any moment.

He's a loving Father. Now, look in John chapter 17. Here is His prayer for His apostles and for us and I want you to see how He addresses the Father in this particular passage. Listen, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Now I want you to watch, stay with me. Verse one, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify thee. He started out by saying Father, verse five, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, for the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Verse 11, And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are one. Verse 25, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.

How more beautiful could Jesus have taught us? He's our Father. He's not only His Father, but He's our Father. And He said what? Listen, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.

What did He say? He said, I and the Father are one. Now, Jehovah Elohim Adonai is spoken of His Father. Jesus is spoken of His Savior and Lord and Master and many other things.

The Holy Spirit is spoken of His Comforter and the Empower and many other things. But Jesus said, We are to see Jehovah God as our Father. And look in John chapter one for a moment. And John has probably as clear a definition of the fatherhood as anyone, if not clearer, probably.

And now looking at it, you recall in this first chapter, John chapter one, verse 11. He came unto His own and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to be what? To become the sons of God. How do you have become a son unless you become a son to a father? Become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but what? Born of whom? God, who is our Father. How does a man become a child of God?

Born what? Not of the flesh, not of his works, not the will of man, but what? Not of blood in some genealogical race, such as a Hebrew race, but he becomes a child of God and the Father becomes his Father.

How? He is born into the kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ, as many as received Him. To them gave He the power and the privilege to what? To become the sons of God so that they are no longer strangers, no longer just friends, no longer servants, but sons, the children of God.

How many times does John say in that first epistle, my little children, my children, beloved children, my little children, what does he say? He's helping us to see that we are to see ourselves as the children of God. Not just, now watch this, not just the worshippers of a religion of some ethereal force out in the universe somewhere.

The only religion in the world that knows Jehovah God as intimate, personal, warm, helping, comforting, loving, forgiving Father is the Christian faith plus nothing. And when somebody says all these religions gonna get to heaven one of these days, I don't know how they're gonna do it. Because there's only one true God, and there's only one true son, and there's only one true Savior, and there's only one way to get to the Father. Now I want you to remember what I'm telling you. The longer you live, the more the society in which you live will be more antagonized when you tell them there is only one way.

Now you mark that down. We're living in a society and an age where the devil is loose, and I'm here to tell you it's going to be more and more a point of agitation, irritation. It is going to be more and more the reason for persecution when you and I tell people there is only one way to heaven. There is only one God, and there is only one hope and that hope is to be found in Jesus Christ, because the devil hates that theology.

He hates and despises that because what he wants is he wants to run a counterfeit right along beside that the state of the world. The real God takes everybody in. Jesus Christ came to reveal, listen, that an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, holy, righteous God is willing to have fellowship with folks like you and me.

Now I got to thinking about God the Father and many of the scriptures here. I got to thinking about the thing that you and I most interested in. That is, you and I need to learn to relate to him as Father.

Did you know the most difficult thing in the world today is people learning how to relate to each other? Here's what we do. We say, Oh, we want to be intimate friends with everybody. Don't get too close. When somebody comes up to you and they want to be your friend, you reach out to them. What do you say? You say, I'd like for you to be my friend, but just don't look inside.

I don't mind being your friend as long as you don't get too personal. Let me tell you something. You never learn to love and to be loved until you're willing to become vulnerable to being rejected and known for what you are. In order for us to know God, we've got to be willing to bear our soul to it. If I'm ever going to understand that God is my Father, I've got to be willing to trust him. You see, we pull the same trick on God. We say now, Lord, and we confess all these sins and we put him way up there and we stay right in here and we think as long as he's up there and I'm down here, I'm a little bit safe because I got Jesus between us. Isn't that the truth? That's exactly what we do. You see, how many times have you confessed surface stuff?

I mean, you knew it was deeper than a mile deep and you just said, Lord, I want you to forgive me for so and so, as if you didn't want God to know what was down there. Now, I want you to listen to them because if you listen, something can happen in your life. If you don't, you're going to be a loser. You only love people.

Now watch this. I don't mean this, hi, love you, bless you. And sometimes people say that who know how to love, they mean that. You never really and truly deeply love somebody until you get to know them. You say, oh, I don't know some folks, the more I know, the less I like them.

That may be your fault and not theirs. How can you love genuinely what you don't know? When you and I are willing to open our heart and just shed it all, take it off and say, God, here I am. You know what happens?

I'll tell you what happens. The gap between you and an omnipotent, omniscient, righteous, holy God begins to close and the father and you begin to grow intimately with each other because you stop wearing a mask, masquerading, keeping the net of counterfeit over you. And God will open his heart to you and the two can become one. And until that happens, you'll always feel that God's up there somewhere. And I'm down there. And even though you know that he's down here through the Holy Spirit, you see the intimacy and the warmth of oneness. But now watch this.

I want you to get a hold of this. You will only open yourself if you're willing to take the risk of being hurt. This is why I'm sure how foolish this is. Why don't we open ourselves to God? We saw it as if, you know, if I told him everything, he wouldn't forgive me. He knows all of it. Before you were ever born, he knew every sin you'd commit. But you see what we do? We get so caught up in the world's way of thinking, we think we are hiding something from God.

Now watch this. God is our father. And listen, he knows us. He knows how many cells are in these old human bodies. He knows every heartbeat. He knows when the next beat. He knows when the one millionth beat from right now is going to hit. He knows everything. Now, you can't keep anything from him.

There's no way to hide anything from him. But listen, what we are doing, we're not hurting God as much as we are depriving ourselves. Of a relationship to him, because we won't be open to him.

Let's think for just a moment. How are we to relate to our Heavenly Father? Let's let's put this in the terms of an earthly father. I've got to think about how does a father relate to his children? Well, first of all, what does the father do? He provides for his family, for his children. He says in Matthew Chapter six, he says, Your Heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things, even before you ask him.

A father provides for his children. Then the Bible says what? A father is to love his children. Does not our Heavenly Father love us? And I want you to look at one verse here.

Let's see. Chapter 16 of John, verse 27. For the father himself loveth you. Listen, for the father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God.

I came forth from the father and in coming to the world again, I leave the world and go to my father. An earthly father, what does he do? He loves his son. What is he saying to us? God loves us.

You see, look at if you can just picture for just a moment, the Heavenly Father, in spite of the fact that he's sovereign, omnipotent, transcendent and all the rest. He says, first of all, what? He's going to care for us.

Secondly, the Bible says that he loves us. The third thing he's going to do, he's going to chastise us. He didn't say punish. He said chastise.

Hebrews Chapter 12. He says, you've heard earthly fathers who chasten you. So will the father of spirits also chasten us.

What else does he do? A father after he and even before he chastens his son, what does he do? He's already forgiven him. What did Jesus say? A simple verse that you recall. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

All of us have had to be forgiven of our earthly father or parents and all of us fathers have had to forgive our children. What do we do? We provide for them. We love them. We chastise them. We forgive them. And what else do we do?

We instruct them. And he says, speaking of the Holy Spirit, back in the 14th chapter, look at two verses here. Verse 16 says, I will pray to the father, he shall give you another comforter. The Greek word is alos, which means another one just like me that he may do what? Abide with you forever.

Now watch this. A comforter does not a father comfort his children? And then if you'll notice in verse 26, but the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. What does the father do? He instructs his children and he comforts them when they need to be comforted and held and assured and reminded of his confidence in them.

What is another thing he does? Romans Chapter eight, verse 17 says what? That we become the joint heirs with Christ to the father's fortune and a father does what? He leaves his children in his will.

They become joint heirs of everything he has. And listen, if you will take every facet of an earthly father's life, how he is to respond and relate to his children. You come to the Bible and you'll find the verse of scripture that says that our heavenly father will do the same thing for us. Now, one of my favorite verses is Matthew Chapter seven. I want to read this whole passage here beginning in verse seven. And I want to show you something. I want you to see how lovingly Jesus is expressing confidence. Ask Matthew seven, seven and it should be given to you.

Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receive it. He that seeketh findeth the him that knocketh it shall be opened. What man is there of you whom if his son ask for a piece of bread? Will he give him a stone or if he ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

Now, watch this. If you then being evil, being a sinner, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more will your father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Fellows said to me today he was just so blessed and he was just about to fall all over himself. He said, I'll tell you, God's blessing my business and God's blessing my family and God's bless this. He said, I'm scared to death. I said, now, wait a minute.

What are you afraid of? But it can't last. He said, I'm waiting for the bomb to drop out. He said, I'm waiting for the thunder to come any time. Have not all of us. When the blessings were just pouring out upon us, we said, I'm not sure.

Somebody may be tracking me down. What are we doing? We are expecting God to do something ugly or painful in our life. You know what that says?

We don't know him as the father of seven, seven through 11. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more would the Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him to listen? How many dads sitting here would say, well, some going to raise your allowance, going to buy you a new car, going to pay your way through college, going to buy you a new suit of clothes, going to do all these things. Then the father says, and about three months later, I'm going to lay it to you.

Take away your automobile, cut your allowance in half, take you out of school and strip you of your new suit. That is exactly the way we categorize God. Now, listen, it's funny to us, but it grieves God. If your son came to you and said, I'll tell you, you've been so good to me, you're bound to be getting ready to get strapped at any time. That's what we tell God. We act as if he's a father, but begrudges being so.

And let's be honest, that is the way we treat God. You know why? I'll tell you why.

We won't open up. Now, watch this. When you and I are willing to say, OK, God, I want you to see it all.

Here's my whole life. Then when we've laid it all out before him and he says, my son, forgiven. And we accept that, then we'll be able to accept the love and the forgiveness and the kindness and the goodness of a gentle, loving Heavenly Father. Thank you for listening to part two of God the Father. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.