The image of God in the Bible is the one who comes near. He is, after all, God Emmanuel. He sees us when we are burdened. He knows us when we are broken. He hears us when we cry out to him.
One of the most beautiful imageries in the scripture personally is the imagery of God in Revelation, where we hear he wipes away our tears. We are made to draw near to each other in our relationships. That's because we're made in the image of God, who draws near to us. But what about the other attributes of God? Today on Renewing Your Mind, we join Reverend Joel Kim from Ligoneer's 2026 National Conference as he answers the crucial question.
Who is God? And please listen until the end to learn how you can receive a study guide and hardcover edition of Dr. R. C. Sproul's book.
Heroes of the Christian faith. But right now, here's Reverend Kim. Romans chapter 8. Verses 31 through 39 as we attempt to answer the question: who is God? Hear now the word of the Lord.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 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? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us? From the love of Christ. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
for I am sure that neither death nor life Nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation. will be able to separate us From the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
So far the reading of his word. I think it's actually right to say that many of us, and especially many Christians in our day, are practical deists. Perhaps you've heard that word before in some form, but according to the sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Denton in their groundbreaking work in 2005 titled Soul Searching. the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers. They coined the term moralistic.
Therapeutic deists to indicate to us how we functionally practice our faith. each and every single day. And this is how they summarize what this deism might look like. Here, a deist is someone who believes that there is a God who created the whole earth and orders the world and watches over human life. Certainly, there is resonance with Orthodox theology.
God, number two, wants people to be good. Nice and fair to each other as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. And certainly, none of us wants to dispute that morally good people are good things. Three, that the central goal of life is to be happy. And to feel good about oneself and the pursuit of that is what many people have in mind.
Four. God does not need to be particularly involved. In fact, he's detached and separated in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve problems. whether it be individuals or corporate bodies. And then finally.
Good people go to heaven. When they die. Good people go to heaven. When they die. This doesn't actually summarize the creeds and confessions of our church, as you might hear.
And in fact, this God is unengaged. Detached. And distant. And functionally, that makes the believers independent. Self-reliant and conditional in the way they relate to God.
In many ways, they place God in certain restrictions because certainly He's bound by some of these restrictions that we have created in our own minds. And the question for us tonight is: Is this the God of the Bible and the confessions that you and I share together? I cannot overstate the significance of this question. Misunderstanding of God leads to idolatry that deforms. But right understanding of God leads to worship that reforms.
All of us.
So here tonight, the question is simply this. In the passage that we read, who is God according to the Apostle Paul? As we begin to get into Romans chapter 8 in particular, you realize he's actually ending a section with an argument, with a question that he poses when he says, What then shall we say to these things? And certainly many writers have different opinions about what these things may refer to. But as a whole, I think it refers to the whole Bible, at least Romans in particular, between chapters one through eight.
He began with the introduction, and then in chapter 1, verse 18 and on, he gets into the discussion about the universality of sinfulness: that you and I have sinned before the perfect God. All have fallen under, that is, sin, and fallen short of the glory of God.
Well, chapter 3 makes a pivot where we are told that though all of us are in sin, God had a rescue planned for us, and that was mainly in the person of Christ Jesus. him coming He'll living. Him dying and him resurrecting. In Christ Jesus, we have life. We are justified, receiving forgiveness of our sins, called sons and daughters of God, ultimately children of God, and with right standing before God, not because of what you and I have performed, but simply because of what Christ has done on our behalf.
And then in chapter 6, he begins to say: Not only are we saved by grace alone, we are sanctified. We are made more holy by the grace of God. It's not as if he saved us by Christ Jesus, by faith alone, that somehow he leaves us to be. No, he continues to work within us. By the work of the Holy Spirit.
And just as we are saved by grace alone, we are sanctified by grace alone, where God is at work among us. This leads to the question that Paul begins with when he says: What then shall we say to these things? Paul is a preacher, after all. Having taught the most profound theology for the church and for the posterity of the church, he could not stop there. He wanted us to understand the significance and the meaning of what he has taught.
And he wants the hearers and listeners and readers like you and I for us to better understand what it means for us to believe all these things to be true. And he does this. In a rhetorical way, where he builds his case, as many of you know well, for questions that build upon one another. And in order for us to ask the question, who God is, we want to be able to explore these four questions and find in them answers. About who God is.
And the first question he asks is simply this. If God is for us. Who can be against us? If God is for us. Who can be against us?
Now, these are rhetorical questions, which means that you obviously know the answer to these questions. We're not asking you to shout them out. But you are to answer in your mind and your heart what the question is asking and what the answer is.
Now, friends, if Paul had simply said, Who can be against us? My guess is that many of us might have answers that we wanna share with God. One only needs to look at verse 35 alone to list out a catalog of hardships that are possible in the lives of most Christians. Things such as. tribulation.
Distress Persecution. I realize that many of us may not have felt this directly, but there are many brothers and sisters throughout the world whose daily life. are marked by these things, tribulation. Distress, persecution, simply because they call upon the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He goes on.
He talks about famine. Nakedness, danger. And the only one that he hadn't experienced by this point was the final one: the sword. Where he says all these things can be indicators or things that we might perceive as things against God who stands for us.
However, friends, the essence of the question being asked is in the if. Claws. There is no doubt in Paul's mind that God is indeed. For us, and perhaps it might be more accurately translated if this clause can be rendered since. Since God is for us.
Who can be Against us. Who is this God that Paul heralds? Do you not know? Have you not heard Isaiah declared? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of heavens and the earth, he said.
The fear for many of us, however, in this day and age, we relate to God. in the present, which can be best described as being casual. We have a casual relationship about who God is. Words like fear. Oh.
Reverence that here the scripture indicates to us often, and now it's been replaced by things such as. Friend. Our lover. Our helper in need. Sunday worship is no longer divine service when God.
When God descends to be with us, and it's his service to his people, not our performance before God, but now it's just simply a spiritual gathering. People who gather to sing praises, pray together, and fellowship. with one another. As many of you might have heard, I grew up in a pastor's family. My grandfather was also a pastor, which means that no one earned money in our family.
And here, as we were growing up, Sunday was a very important part of who we were. In fact, if you bought new shoes and new clothes, you wore them first on Sunday. Not to school for a fall. You wear them to church first before you're able to wear them anywhere else. If you're getting ready for Sunday, the offering that we bring before the Lord as a small gift of our thanks was such an important part of what we do on Saturdays.
We would sit there and iron our bills. For those of you who are young here, you may not even know what ironing means. But here, we would take the dollar and then we would iron it because. God did not deserve crumpled up dollars. What he needed were crisp dollars.
Now, we can think about all these things, and we're not trying to say you have to get back to those days, but simply to remind: here as we come before the Lord in worship and Sunday. There was reverence and awe. Our God was big to us. There is an understanding of who God is where we recognize that indeed He is mighty and he is powerful. We need to hear the words of Paul the Apostle, who reminded us here as we talk about Easter and the Resurrection Sunday in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 9, as he defines who God is, he said, God who raises the dead.
There are different ways you can explain and define who God is: God who creates, God who redeems, God who comforts, God who loves. Yet, what Paul wants to say, having repeated for us, are God delivers. Because many of us felt small, almost besieged, but that was to rely not upon ourselves, but on God, Paul says. And this God, who is He? He's the one who raises the dead.
This God, who is able to raise the dead, is for you, Paul says. And if this God is for you, who can stand? Against us. This, for us, is such an important preposition for us. It's one thing to know God who exists, who created all things.
It's one thing for us to understand theologically that He is there, but this God is there. is for us. He is personal. And mine. I see so many beautiful children here and babies as well.
We love babies. We love seeing babies on our campuses. Also, we recognize how smart they are, especially to their parents and grandparents. They're the most beautiful kids that are out there. And these are the kids that are gonna succeed in life in many ways.
And I believe them when parents tell me. But as beautiful and as smart as these kids are, they pale in comparison to my kids. My babies were really beautiful. And they were off the charts smart. And they continue to be blessings to us in many ways.
But I think you know what I mean by this. It's one thing for us to imagine and theorize what it means to have a God. But in this case, this God who created the heavens, this God who redeemed us in Christ Jesus, this God is for me. And for us. We are told in a previous paragraph, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ Jesus. Every one of these verses speaks of filial terms: sons of God, as sons, children of God. Children, this chapter eight's description of those of us who are in Christ Jesus are so opposite of what we were called in chapter five, only verses before, where we were told in chapter five: apart from Christ Jesus, we were weak.
Ungodly. Sinners, but now because of Jesus. Because you and I believe in Christ Jesus as the one who has come, died, and resurrected on my behalf and on our behalf. we have now become sons and daughters of God. We are sons and daughters.
And if our God is our father to us, And he stands. For us, the question becomes: if this father of ours is for us. Who can stand against us? Our god is our protector. No one and nothing is what we say to ourselves and what we whisper within.
But Paul's not actually done. He's only beginning to build his case. Because in verse 32, he begins by asking the question: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Now, If Paul had asked the question, will God not give us all things? My guess is that my younger friends here would have a list of things. That they've been praying for and wanting, that they haven't received. And my guests, even my older brothers and sisters here. Would have things that they have been praying for and thinking about, yet the Lord doesn't seem to provide.
It's an equivocal answer at best. But notice what Paul does here. Paul begins by pointing out the costliness of our redemption. He says, God who did not spare his own son. Romans 3 reminds us, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a freely given gift.
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. In saving us, God went to the limit. What more could God have done? We cannot know the pain felt by the Father and Jesus on that cross at Calvary. Yet, we can say this.
If the measure of love is what it gives, then there never was such love as God showed to sinners at Calvary, and there never will be. For God so loved the world we memorize. And this is where the first part of this message and the question he asks makes the question possible. He is arguing from the greater to the lesser in terms of his argumentation. And Paul argues: if God is not sparing, His own son for us All things will be given.
There is nothing that will be spared from you. That indeed, everything else pales in comparison to the gift that He has given to us. In his son, despite our protests. And when he mentions this, he is indeed talking about the fact that there is this promise given to us about our salvation. All that we need until the day we see our Father's face without a veil, as that hymn says, here the Lord will continue to provide.
All that we need for our preservation and perseverance will be provided, that one day He will bring us home. That's exactly the point of Dr. Thomas's message: that indeed we will be preserved until we see him at our heavenly home. But it's not only about our salvation. That is, all that we require and need will be provided.
But even on this side of glory, all the things that we require and need. Notice what we're saying here. Not everything you wish for and desire and that you dream about. All that you need, spiritual and material, are included here that we may require and need in our lives until the day of glory. The Lord will not spare.
And we know this to be true because he sent his son to die for us. And that. itself proves the fact that there is nothing on this side of glory. Our Lord will prevent in our lives. That he would provide all that we need.
To be home one day, and until that day, the needs of our lives He promises to us. This teaching seems to go against all who seem to think that our God is a holy other and therefore distant in some way, disengaged, therefore uncaring. But the image of God in the Bible is the one who comes near. He is, after all, God Emmanuel. He sees us when we are burdened.
He knows us when we are broken. He hears us when we cry out to him. One of the most beautiful imageries in the scripture personally is the imagery of God in Revelation, where we hear he wipes away our tears. He wipes away our tears. Perhaps this is what you need to hear tonight, some of you.
And certainly, it's one of those things that provoke and evokes in us emotion toward our Father in heaven, where he recognizes our brokenness. He doesn't dismiss them, nor does he ignore them. He recognizes the brokenness and, in many ways, the pains and tears you and I experience on this side of glory. He also particularizes them, reminding us that it's each tier that he cares for. It's not the general category of brokenness and sadness he has in mind.
Here, he wipes away your tears. Your tears. Your tears. Here, the image of God in Scripture is one who knows us and He cares for us. Not only is He one who is our protector, our God is also our provider.
Provider, he who did not spare his own son. Why would He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things, He says, and we know Him to be our eternal Provider. But yet Paul is still not done. As if these two questions were not deep enough, he gets to the third question found in verse 33. He simply asks this.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Now, Paul does not for a moment deny that Christians fail and fall, sometimes in a very serious way.
And perhaps you've seen or perhaps experienced this. In fact, in the second half of Romans chapter 7, I recognize that there are debates as to how Romans 7 should be understood. This is how he explains the way we sometimes feel. That is, for I do not do what the good that I want to do. But the evil I do not want to do is what I keep on doing, is the divide itself, that he says, sometimes rages within.
He also does not deny that there are many who do and will accuse us. and oppose us. You may be asking, who are these people who may stand as opposition? We can name many. Our conscience accuses us.
Despite the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, that the dominion of sin has been taken away from us, yet we often find ourselves reverting back to where we were. In terms of our standing before the Lord, asking ourselves the question: would God really love me? Despite the X, Y, and Z. that I have done. It's hard for us to believe.
James Boyce many years ago told a story of how incorrigibly self-righteous we are. He talked about a mountain climber who was climbing the mountains and slipped. And as he began to fall, he grabbed onto the only branch that was sticking out of the side of these rocks. And he's holding on for dear life. He looks up, he looks down to what seems to be his eventual death, and he cries out: Is there anyone who can help me?
There was a baritone voice because God's voice is always low. And he cried out, he said, I will save you. I am God. What should I do? The climber asked.
And God said, trust me. Let go of the branch. And the climber looked up. The climber looked down. The climber looked up again and looked down and asked, Is there anyone else who can help me?
Because the thought process is, we must accomplish what we ought to do. And in many ways, we accuse ourselves of not performing enough before the Lord. for the proper standing that Christ has already won for us. And certainly the world accuses us. The world has priorities and the standings that they always measure us by, and we never seem to be good enough.
There are people who are much more mature, much more red, and certainly much more godly than we are, and in comparisoning ourselves to them, and sometimes being accused of a lack of maturity, sometimes makes us shake before the Lord and wonder about our standing before the Lord. and certainly the evil one. After all, the word Diablos simply means a slanderer. Many who accuse us, and even the evil one accusing us, grabbing at our sinfulness and simply saying, you're not good enough. But Paul denies emphatically.
That any lapses now can endanger our justified standing before God. None of the allegations brought to the self, whether it originates in oneself or from others, even from the evil one, can be sustained. The reason is simple. In this courtroom drama, nobody. Nobody is in a position to get God's verdict overturned.
In the spiritual world, he is the Supreme Court. where the verdict cannot be changed or overturned. You and I know well that one of the central issues of the Reformation was the recovery of justification by faith alone. In other words, Our status before God is not determined by what we perform or do, as if we can do enough to earn God's perfect favor. But by the living and dying and rising of Christ Jesus, and only by faith, grasping on to life in Christ Jesus, by trusting and believing in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, we are told according to Romans 5: since we have been justified by faith, we, Have peace.
with God. This is what's been repeated to us. Our God, who saved us in Christ Jesus, cannot and will not change his mind. And this is where we run into trouble because though we are created in the image of God, we often imagine God to be created by our own imagination. Our limitations and shortcomings are assumed.
and attributed to God. We change. Therefore God must change his mind. We are conditional. Therefore God must place conditions upon us.
We are fickle toward others in our love. Therefore, God too must be fickle. in terms of the way he deals with his people. But this is where Paul reminds us. He denies that change can ever be possible in God and argues that our God is a promise keeper.
That our God is a promise keeper. Not only does he protect Not only does he provide, he keeps his promise toward his people in his son, Christ Jesus. How else would we understand the words, the glorious words of the Apostle Paul found in only the two verses before the paragraph that you and I read? when Paul summarized for us by saying this, for those whom he foreknew He also predestined. and those whom he predestined he also called And those whom he called he called He also justified, and those whom he justified.
He conditions them for the future glory is not what he says. He simply goes on to say those whom he justified He glorified. It is a done deal. For our God is a promise keeper. As he builds the case, the Apostle Paul then finally reaches the pinnacle of what he wants to say.
And when he reaches the pinnacle, he asks question number four. found in verse 35 when he says Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who? shall separate us from the love of Christ. Love is underestimated about God.
God's love, we think, is kind of like ours: conditional, selfish, and changing in many ways. But what scripture reminds us is that our God's love is unconditional, sacrificial, and unchanging. And our whole section, verses 35 through 39, is enveloped. It's hugged. By the love of God.
We call it inclusio, where he begins the paragraph with the love of Christ Jesus, and he ends the paragraph with the love of Christ Jesus, just to remind us the beginning and the end are the same. Our God's love surrounds us, we're told, because from chapter five and on, we're told, but God demonstrated his love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us, we say. And the evidence of God's love for you and me is found in what happened in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is not because our apostle Paul is unaware of the difficulties of life.
Only in the same chapter 8, verse 18, he talked about the sufferings on this side of glory. In fact, he says in verse 18, for I consider. that the sufferings of this present time, he admits, On this side of glory, where sin prevails, we recognize that things are not the way they're supposed to be. And you and I, even as believers, recognize the kind of travails and burdens that you and I carry, whether it be just the limitations we have as human beings. Or perhaps the relationship and the brokenness of relationship, whether it be individual, family, or even nations, as you and I are very well aware.
And you come to recognize that even the world around us, natural disaster, is what we see. Brokenness is seen all over the place, and Paul recognizes this to be the marks of our day on this side of glory. And he says, this sufferings of this present time. He knows this. And in fact, in chapter 8, he goes through various ways to describe what living on this site feels like when he talks about suffering.
Futility. Bondage. And in fact, creation itself eagerly longs for freedom and restoration of God, we're told. Suffering is all around us, whether from weak and weakening bodies, broken relationships and families, constant natural disasters, struggles through daily uncertainties. We daily realize that this is not our home.
And therefore, as verse 28 indicates to us in chapter 8, we live in weakness. In place of order, we have disorder and rebellion. In place of peace, we have discord and brokenness. In place of health, we experience pain and illness. In place of life, we experience death itself.
All these things are true about you and me and our lives. But this is where Paul turns and he asks: Can these sufferings and weaknesses of life? ever separate us. From the love of Christ Jesus. This rhetorical question deserves an answer, and the answer is simply no.
Nothing. Paul dares to argue that not only will we overcome them, but we will triumph over them. As he says, we are more than conquerors, not squeezing by, not squeaking by, not just barely making it, not by the skin of our teeth here, as we say, but that we are more than conquerors. But here's the catch. This is not our own doing.
But through him who loved us. We're told. The climactic thought to which Paul rises in his fourth question is that no separation from Christ's love can ever befall us. He knows that you know this. He knows that you've heard this.
He knows that you confess this. But I think Paul also knows we're weak people who forget this. Especially at the moments where we are to remember who God is, we forget this truth. And so he repeats it again. When Paul and Scripture, therefore, repeat something more than once.
You have to pay attention. It's important they're highlighting. In case we are faltering or lacking conviction, he says this one more time when he says, not we know. But he says, I am sure. The NIV Bible I grew up with, we used to call it the nearly inspired version.
Actually, it has these words when it says, I am. Convinced. Not maybe. Not perhaps. He says, I am convinced.
This triumphant statement is the result of Paul's conviction that God is adequate as our keeper and as our end. And what is he convinced of? he is convinced that nothing Literally, nothing can overcome the love of Christ Jesus in us. He knows that there are candidates. And in fact, he mentions every possible fear or hindrance that can and will try to overcome the love God has for us.
He lists them here in verses thirty eight and thirty nine. for I am sure he began that neither death nor life Certainly when dying takes place, you wonder. nor angels nor rulers. Nor things present, nor things to come. Nor powers, nor height.
Nor depth.
Now, all the coverage is found here, except Paul also knows there's going to be a clever person who's going to say, Paul, you forgot X, Y, and Z.
So he actually has a bucket category. Because he ends by saying, nor anything else in all creation. That is to cover everything else he might have forgotten. in those categories there. nor anything else in all creation.
will be able to separate us. from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is our protector. He is our provider. He's our promise keeper.
He's our preserver. Preserver.
Now I recognize, friends, that there are times where this doesn't seem to be. There are days, as the psalmist said, Where are you? How long, O Lord? Where we don't seem to know and experience the presence of God in our lives. And oftentimes we wonder, does that mean the Lord is not engaged and is distant from us?
You and I may ask. To use a silly example, let me try to explain it this way. When I was single, and obviously without children, I was an expert in child rearing. I don't know why, but when you don't know, you seem to know. And so, when my older sister got married first and she started having children, I started to instruct her because it was necessary how to raise her children well.
But one of the things that we saw, and maybe young people here recognize this as well, when she had her first son, she has two now, but when she had her first son, she used to have this thing like a backpack that kids wear. And then there is a rope on the end of that backpack where the kids roam around, but the mom always held hands and is able to keep the children in check.
Now to me, that looked like how people raise their animals. And so as a good theoretician, I reminded her, I don't think that's a good way to raise a child. And then you come to realize we get married, Sharon and I, we have a girl who was perfect. She sat and read. She could do something for half an hour.
She listened to what we say, and the Lord gifted us with a boy.
Now he's a great kid. But boys at the age of one to two, very different. He had places to go. He had things to destroy. And there are many other things that attracted his eyes.
He was always moving. It was around this time, my in-laws gifted us a cruise for the first time.
Now, as you can imagine, as you think about a cruise, all you can think about is the fact that at the end of the cruise, there's an edge, and over the edge is the ocean. I don't know if you know this. And I kept dreaming our son running to the edge of the boat. Sharon and I prayerfully thought about this, and we made the decision for the sake of our children. We bought a backpack.
As a two-year-old, he didn't know any better. He loved it. He was wearing it. He put his books, cars, toys, and trains in there. He was walking around with about a 10-meter rope, and we're holding on to a tide.
As we were embarking, it was very busy. People are getting in the way. When he turned around and saw us, he would smile big because he could see us. And at times, as the rope gets stretched out, people would get in between. And for their small child looking back, sometimes he couldn't see his mom.
And you could see the panic in his eyes. as he starts looking for his parents, and once he found us, he would smile again. But the very thing my child never understood was there was never a moment Never a moment. where when he was cut off from his parents. Never a moment.
when the eyes of his parents were not on him. Never a moment, despite the fact that he may not see. and he may not fully understand. Wear this love of Christ Jesus in our lives. Has never been severed from us, is the point that Paul wants to make.
Our God is not distant. Our God is not uncaring. He is present. With us, amongst us, loving us. Protector, provider, promise keeper.
and preserver. You come to recognize a picture of who God is in these words. And there are many ways that we can paint a picture of who God is. But if this doesn't do it, I'm not sure what does. Because friends, when we ask the question, who is God?
It's not that all of you do not know who he is as you approach the word. We recognize it, but sometimes we let other priorities get in the way. Recently, an older friend of mine reminded me of the words of G.K. Chesterton. In his book Orthodoxy, he wisely observed that the case for holding to established ideas rested upon the reality that if we leave things alone, Deterioration will surely set in.
He advised that if you leave a thing alone, you leave it to a torrent of changes. If you leave a white post alone, he says, it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white, you must always be painting it again. That is, you must always Be having this recurrence of teaching to remind us. As we celebrate the Lord's manifest blessings on a prior generation of the church's work, now and for the next generation, together we are repainting the original fences.
is how we think of it. not creating a new one. And almost unnatural vigilance, Chesterson said, is really required because of the horrible rapidity with which human institutions grow old. And all the teachings we receive during this time. Frankly, it's not We are here to repaint the posts.
To remind us, standing upon the word, who God is and what he has done on behalf of us. And friends, I cannot add much to this except to end with the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 26. Having grown up in the Dutch Reformed churches, the Heidelberg Catechism was my catechesis. And here, question 26 asks, in variation, the question we've been asking, which is simply this. What do you believe when you say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heavens and the earth?
It's the Apostles' Creed, isn't it? What do we mean when we say that? Listen to these words as we hear the echoes of Romans 8. that the Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them. Who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence.
He is my God. and my father. For the sake of Christ his Son. I trust God so much. that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul.
And will turn to my good, whatever adversity he sends upon me in this veil of tears, he says. And then the catechism concludes by saying, he is, that is, God is able to do this. Because he is Almighty God. He is big. He desires to do this.
Because He is our faithful Father. What a lovely combination. He is able to do this because he is Almighty God. He desires to do this because he is a faithful father. May the Lord by His Spirit remind us of this truth.
Whatever we doubt and ask the question, who is God? remember. He is the Almighty God. who protects who preserves, who provides, who promise keeps. And he desires to do this.
Because He is our Father. in heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a blessing to have a relationship with so great a Father. If you enjoyed that message by Rev. Joel Kim, it was just one of more than a dozen from our 2026 Ligonier National Conference.
all of which you can watch for free on Ligonier's YouTube channel. You can also support the ongoing work of Renewing Your Mind more directly this week by calling with a donation at 800-435-4343. or by giving a gift at renewingyourmind.org. With your donation, you'll receive a hardcover edition of Dr. R.
C. Sproul's book, Heroes of the Christian Faith. along with a digital download of the study guide. Your support helps Renewing Your Mind reach more people around the globe.
So thank you for your generous donation. You know, we hear so much about identity these days. What is your identity? Who are we in relationship to God? Tomorrow, we'll continue to address crucial questions with a message from Dr.
Michael Reeves answering the question, what is my identity? I hope you'll join us here. on Renewing Your Mind.
