Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Eloheen, infinite in power, absolute and faithfulness, Adami, 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
(00:26):
attempted to teach those apostles and to teach us that
will to relate to him as a loving law.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to in touch the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley.
God is thoroughly holy and perfectly righteous, but instead of
being unapproachable, he wants a close, intimate relationship with you.
And the good news is that you can get to
know God the Father. Our series on the character of
(00:55):
God continues.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I want you to turn first of all to John
chapter fourteen, and in John chapter fourteen, let's just begin
the first verse there so you will sort of get
the context of what Jesus to say. He says, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Also in me.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were
not so, I would have told you I go to
prepare place for you and if I go and prepare
place for you, I will come again and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.
And whither I go you know, and the way you know?
Thomas saith unto him. Lord, we know not whether thou goest,
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And how can.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
We know the way? Jesus saith unto him.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I am the Way, the truth and the life. No
man cometh under the Father, but by me. Now watch
what he says. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also, And from henceforth ye know
him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
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show us the Father. And it sufficeth Us, that is,
if you'll show him to us, then they will be satisfied.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time
with you?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And yet hast thou not known me, Philip, he that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father? And how sayest
thou then show us the Father? Believest thou not that
I am in the Father and the Father in me.
The words that I speak unto you, I speak not
of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He
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doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father in me, or else believe me
for the very work's sake. Now, if you should ask
someone tell me what you think about God, or describe God.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
As you know him.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
I wonder how many people would start off as saying
God is Father. Most people will say God is Creator,
God is sovereign, God is Lord, God is merciful, God
is love, God is God of wrath, God is God
of justice.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They'll name all of these things.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
The last characteristic that most people will give us about
God is that he's our father. Now, when you think
of God being a father, what kind of father do
you think about? Do you think about God the Father
as this father with long gray hair, more like a
grandfather than a father, sitting up in heaven on some golden, silver,
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emerald speckled throne with all these cherubim and seraphim and
the wings and the noise and all the things that
are going on up there. Or do you think about
him as a heavenly father who's loving kind, reaches out,
pats you on the shoulder. You think of him as
a God who's able to smile. You know, most people
can't think God can smile, do you know why, because
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they see him as a God of wrath and justice
and love and mercy. But even his love and mercy
have a different connotation to it. God is a loving, generous, kind, gentle,
intimate father who wants to get down on our level.
That does not mean that he ceases to be holy.
When we say that God is transcendent, that means that
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he is above and beyond all things. But at the
same time, he's the kind of loving heaven and Father
who has condescended to be born in the flesh of
a baby, come into this world, even willing to be
crucified on the cross. If he's willing to go that
route to show me that he loves me, then he's
willing to get down on my level and talk to
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me in a way that I can understand, and listen
to me in a way that I can know that
I'm being understood and listen to you.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
See, somehow, while we see God as the sovereign creed.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Of the universe, we must likewise be able to see
him because he did it.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We didn't do it to see.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
The same God who came down in human flesh, and
the Bible says he became a servant humbled himself and
became a servant of mankind. And do we not say
that a father to be the kind of father he
ought to be, or a service wife and service children
and help them to grow up to be the kind
of people that God wants them to be. So somewhere,
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somewhere in the strata of a transcendent God who is omnipotent, omniscient,
I'm the present, but who is serveiled above and beyond
all things, somehow in our minds we must be able
through the scriptures to watch God not come down from
his lofty position as far as his holiness and power
is concerned, but to see him move down out of
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joy and love and concern for us, and come down
here and mix himself his life with our life, in
order that what not that we stay down here, but
that He might bring us up to the level of
wondereness with him, because one of these days we are
going to live up there with him forever and ever.
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God the Father is our eternal father, and he'll be
that forever.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I want to begin tonight by correcting one statement that
you'll hear over and over and over again. You'll hear
people say, if somebody were to ask you, do you
believe in the universal fatherhood of God? God is everybody's father.
And they use this phrase in order to deceive or
(06:27):
to confuse. For example, if God is the father of
all mankind, and he's a God of love and goodness
and mercy, God is not a god of judgment in wrath.
God isn't a god of condemnation. He's a father. And
so they used analogy would you throw your kids out?
Would you do this?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Would you do that? Would you do the other?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And they use three scriptures primarily to push this.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So let's look at them.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Number one Malachi, chapter two, verse ten. And all that
sounds real, wheed and mushia. The only problem is is
just a big lie. There is a single verse in
the scripture to say that God is the father of
all mankind, the way that the Bible teaches the fatherhood
of God. Now I want you to watch this Malachi two,
(07:15):
verse ten. Now I want you to see the distinction here.
Malachi says, have we not all one father? Hath not
one God created us? He said, that's good enough for me.
The Bible says all of us have one Father. But
now watch this in what way does that teach that
all of us have one father? He is speaking of
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the fact that God is our father by the fact
that he ultimately created all mankind. Look if you will
in Luke chapter three and the last verse another verse
that's oftentimes used. He says, which was the son of Us,
which was the son of Seth, which was the son
of Adam, which was the son of God, which.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Means that means that all of humanity are the sons
of God in creation. Yes, the fact that God.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Started with Adam and created him, and from Adam the
whole human race has come. Acts seventeen, when Paul was
on Mars Hill.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
You recall verse twenty two of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said,
you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You are too superstitious.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
For I passed by and beheld your devotions. I found
an altar with this inscription to the Unknown God. And
they reason they met an altar to the Unknown God.
They had so many gods, they're afraid they're going to
leave that one. So they said to the Unknown God.
He says, you have an altar to the Unknown God.
Whom therefore you ignorantly worship him. Declare unto you God
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that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwell if not
in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands,
as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all
life and breath and all things, and hath made. Now
watch this, and hath made of one blood. All nations
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of men thought to dwell on all the face of
the earth, and have determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitations, that they should seek the Lord,
if happily they might feel after him and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us,
For in him we live and move and have our being,
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as certain also of your own poets have said, for
we are also His offspring. Those three passages of scripture
seem to indicate at first the fatherhood of God.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
But now here's the distinction.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It is one thing for God to have created all mankind,
that all of life originated from him. It is one
thing to see God as the creator. Now watch this,
because here's the key, and you can eat say that
God is the father of all mankind. But only if
you say that he's the father of all mankind in general.
(10:09):
The thing that makes the difference is this God is
only the father to those who accept him personally as
their father. So when the man says that you believe
in the fatherhood of God, what you believe in is
that God is father only as the creator of all things.
He is not the father of a man who's rejected
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his son. He's not the father of a man who
denies the presence of God. When the Bible says that
God is a father, God is spoken of as a
personal father in the New Testament to those who have
received him as such.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
We do not believe in the.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Fatherhood of God of all mankind, only in general as
the original source, as the creator. God is the father
of the human race, but only as the creator and
the beginning fountain head of all of creation. But a
man cannot say, our Father, who are in heaven simply
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because God created him throughout him thousands of years ago.
The only man who can say, our Father, which are
in heaven is a man who knows him personally. Everybody
cannot prayer our Father, which are in heaven any more
than they can say the Lord is my shepherd. The
most unbelieving, vile people, when they get in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Trouble, what do they do?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
They pull out the old Bible and say, bull, let
me find Psalm twenty three. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. They don't know anything in.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
The world about Jesus Christ being the shepherd.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
What they're looking for is somebody to pull them out
of an emergency. The only person who can say the
Lord is my shepherd is a man who has accepted
Jesus Christ is his personal savior and knows Christ to.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Be his personal shepherd.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Because everything else that follows in Psalm twenty.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Three is only available to believers.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I shall not want. He leads me in paths of righteousness.
Then just think about this for a moment. Here's a
fellow who's living like the devil, gets in trouble. He says,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He
maketh me to lie out in green pastures. He leads
me to side the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
He hasn't a bit more idea about his soul getting
restored than anything in the world. He leads me in
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paths of righteousness.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
For his namesake. He doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The only part of that verse that appeals to the
lost man is the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want and I'm about to die and I need help.
Apart from those two phrases, he does know anything else.
That passage teaches there is no such thing as the
universal fatherhood of God.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But now, how do you and I call upon him
his father? We call upon him his father.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Because you and I have had a personal experience with Him.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
How we were born into his fad. That's the way
you and I can call him fath. Anybody who's not
born in his family can't call him father. The Bible
says that we are accepted the blood, that you and
I have been adopted what into the.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Kingdom through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
We've become the sons of God by adoption, he says,
accept the man be born again.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
What is he born into? He's born into the family
of God.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
We can say God is my father because we have
been adopted into the kingdom.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We have been born into the Kingdom. And the only.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Person who can call God father is one who has
accepted Jesus Christ, who reveals the father and only through
him can he talk about God being his father.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Now, I don't want you to forget that when we
think about the fatherhood of God. Let's go back to
the Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Somebody says, law for the Old Testament Bible teaches that
God's father, though it does in the Old Testament. Listen,
he's the father of the Hebrews. God is seen in
the Old Testament as the.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Father of that nation.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Now, Jesus came for a number of reasons, primarily to die.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
One of the reasons he came was to reveal.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
The other side of God, the true nature of God
that the Old Testament saint couldn't see.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Now watch this, you say, well, now is the Old
Testament wrong? The New Testament right?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
No, Listen, revelation is progressive from Genesis Arwin revelation.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What's God doing?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
He keeps pulling up shade, he keeps drawing back to veils,
and what is he doing? But he is enlightening men
by simply giving them a deeper and deeper and deeper
understanding into the true nature of who God is. So
that when we come to the New Testament, what do we.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Find we find in the very beginning?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
For example, Let's look at the sermonal Amount for just
a moment, and you recall the last verses of the
sermonal Amount in chapter seven says, while you're turning to
chapter five, it came to pass when Jesus.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And into these things.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The people were astonished at his doctrine, for he had
talked one having authority, and not as the scribes. Now
they knew God as what creator. They knew him as
the father of the nation of this reel, but they
didn't have the concept of seeing God as an intimate, warm,
personal father to them.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
When Jesus came, he began to talk about his father.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Look, if you will, beginning in chapter five of Matthew,
look in verse forty five.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Let's just go through. Let me show you something here.
Let's look in verse forty three.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
First, you've heard that it's been said thou should love
thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say to you,
love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the
children of your Father, who is in heaven, For he
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maketh his son to rise on the evil and on
the good. Send it his rain on the jest and
the unjust. For if you love them which love you,
what reward have you? Not even the publicans the same?
If you salute your breathren only what do you more
than others? Do not the publicans the same? Be therefore
perfect even as your father, which is in heaven. It's
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perfect now Chapter six and verse one. Take heed that
you do not your arms before men to be seen
of them.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Otherwise you have no reward of your father. Verse six.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
But thou, when thou prayest in into thy closet, and
when thou prayers shut thy door, pray to thy father
verse eight. Be not you therefore liking unto them. For
your father knoweth what things you have need of. After
this manner, therefore pray ye our father verse fourteen. For
if you forgive men they're trespassage, you're heavenly father. We
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could just go on down through there and all the
way down to say the sixth chapter in verse thirty two,
for after all these things that the gentile seek, for,
your father knoweth what things you have need of. And
verse eleven of chapter seven. If you, then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children. How
much more should your Father, which is in heaven, give
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good things to them that ask him. He began to
unfold to them a whole new concept that God was
a personal father, not.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Just the father of the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Eddie had a hard time with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Look if you will in John chapter eight for a moment.
He had a hard time of them, because here's what
Jesus says. Jesus says, everybody has a spiritual father, and
he named the two choices. He had a big argument
going on here verse forty one, John eight. You do
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the deeds of your father, then said they, unto him.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
We be not born of fornication. We have one father,
even God.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you
would love me. That is, if God Jehovah Yahweh elohem
Adam I were your father, you love me.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He's not your father.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You would love me, for I proceeded forth and came
from God. Neither came I of myself, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you
cannot hear my word, You are of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father, you will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
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he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for
he is a liar and the father of him.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Now, God says, everybody has to spared your father.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
His father is either Jehovah God or Satan himself. So
when somebody says, well, I don't believe in Jesus Christ,
but I do believe God's my father, know what they're
saying is, if I don't believe in Jesus Christ, my.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Father is the devil.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Now I tell you, probably make a lot of enemies
into her if you said, no, the devil's your dad.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
But see that's what Jesus said.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Jesus said, you know, if God is your father, you
love me because you don't love me.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
He's not your father.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Jesus in the fourteenth chapter, no man cometh under the
Father but by me.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Now watch this. There is no way for.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
A person to have a personal relationship with Jehovah God,
who desires to be the father of all men personally.
There is no way for him to be father until
first of all, that person accepts the father's son. He's
in the son, the son's in him. To accept the
son is to accept the father. To deny the son
is to deny the Father. What did he send that
(19:29):
fourteenth chapter? He says, Thomas, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. The Father and I are one. I
am the Father. Father and me have in the world
and a man. So I believe in God. He's my father,
but I don't believe in his son. You see, biblically, scripturally, doctrinally, theologically,
it is absolutely impossible for a man to have God
as his father and reject his son.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Doctor Stanley's message explained that since God the Father and
God the Son are one one, it's impossible to embrace
the Father while rejecting the son. If you're not a Christian,
receive Jesus as your savior today and be adopted into
the Family of God. To listen again, click on Today
(20:15):
on radio at in touch dot org and we'll hear
more about God as our heavenly Father tomorrow. You can
order a copy of Today's complete message from our online bookstore.
The title is God the Father, or order our teaching
set the character of God again. You'll find these resources
(20:36):
at in touch dot org or call one eight hundred
in touch to write to us. Address your letter to
in Touch Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia,
three zero three five seven. The way we live in
front of our kids matters. A message to Dad's is
(20:57):
coming up in today's moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
In Touch Plus you streaming on Local Now featuring all
the best of doctor Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
We have to have strong convictions based on the word
of God. He's working out things that you and I
would never know about in our future.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
In Touch Plus you're streaming network for quality Christian programming twenty.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Four to seven.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Now watch this in Touch Plus streaming free on Local Now.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
At times life can be stormy and each one of
us will face many trials. Questions are asked and doubt
may set in. The answers are found through faith in Jesus.
He is within every believer, always ready to offer his comfort,
hope and peace in times of great trial, so you
can trust Him with any circumstance. To order doctor Stanley's
(21:53):
book How to Let God Solve Your Problems, call one
eight hundred in Touch or go to in touch dot
org slash.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
St you're listening to in Touch. It's important for believers
to behave in a godly way, and being a godly
father is more important than you might think. Here's a
moment with Charles Stanley, and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I want to send the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That understanding that God is our heavenly Father.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Ought to say something to all of us dads, because
the truth is that.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Our children pick up in their early life a basic
concept of what God is like by what.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
They see, and all of us who dads.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That may be good for some of us, and it
may be bad for some of us. If our children's
concept of God in their early life, it's what they
gathered by, first of all, what we said, how we
said it, what we did, how we did it. Our
added too, the way we held them, the way we
cared for them, the way we pushed them away, the
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way we chastise them, the way we comforted them, the
way we encourage them, the way we had fun and
a happy time with them, or the way.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
We shut them up.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You'd be surprised how many people if you really begin
to talk and depraved a little deeper, a little deeper,
a little deeper. How many people say, my dad did this,
my dad did that, my dad didn't do the other thing.
It is amazing how much of our concept of God
we picked up subconsciously and didn't even realize that by
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the way our own earthly Father treated us. Because our
children are going to copy us, that can be very
very bad or very very good.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You'll find insight and motivation to live a godly life
your kids can emulate with our online resources at in
touch dot Argene. Tomorrow on in Touch, the Gospel writers
made it clear we can learn about God, the Father
from Jesus. Our study of the character of God continues
Friday on in Touch, the Teaching Ministry of doctor Charles Stanley.
(24:18):
This program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia,
and remains on this station through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts
Eloheen, infinite in power, absolute and faithfulness, Adami, 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
(00:26):
attempted to teach those apostles and to teach us that
will to relate to him as a loving law.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to in touch the teaching ministry of doctor Charles Stanley.
God is thoroughly holy and perfectly righteous, but instead of
being unapproachable, he wants a close, intimate relationship with you.
And the good news is that you can get to
know God the Father. Our series on the character of
(00:55):
God continues.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I want you to turn first of all to John
chapter fourteen, and in John chapter fourteen, let's just begin
the first verse there so you will sort of get
the context of what Jesus to say. He says, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Also in me.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were
not so, I would have told you I go to
prepare place for you and if I go and prepare
place for you, I will come again and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.
And whither I go you know, and the way you know?
Thomas saith unto him. Lord, we know not whether thou goest,
(01:43):
And how can.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
We know the way? Jesus saith unto him.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I am the Way, the truth and the life. No
man cometh under the Father, but by me. Now watch
what he says. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also, And from henceforth ye know
him and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
(02:09):
show us the Father. And it sufficeth Us, that is,
if you'll show him to us, then they will be satisfied.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time
with you?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And yet hast thou not known me, Philip, he that
hath seen me, hath seen the Father? And how sayest
thou then show us the Father? Believest thou not that
I am in the Father and the Father in me.
The words that I speak unto you, I speak not
of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, He
(02:42):
doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father in me, or else believe me
for the very work's sake. Now, if you should ask
someone tell me what you think about God, or describe God.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
As you know him.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
I wonder how many people would start off as saying
God is Father. Most people will say God is Creator,
God is sovereign, God is Lord, God is merciful, God
is love, God is God of wrath, God is God
of justice.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
They'll name all of these things.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
The last characteristic that most people will give us about
God is that he's our father. Now, when you think
of God being a father, what kind of father do
you think about? Do you think about God the Father
as this father with long gray hair, more like a
grandfather than a father, sitting up in heaven on some golden, silver,
(03:36):
emerald speckled throne with all these cherubim and seraphim and
the wings and the noise and all the things that
are going on up there. Or do you think about
him as a heavenly father who's loving kind, reaches out,
pats you on the shoulder. You think of him as
a God who's able to smile. You know, most people
can't think God can smile, do you know why, because
(03:58):
they see him as a God of wrath and justice
and love and mercy. But even his love and mercy
have a different connotation to it. God is a loving, generous, kind, gentle,
intimate father who wants to get down on our level.
That does not mean that he ceases to be holy.
When we say that God is transcendent, that means that
(04:19):
he is above and beyond all things. But at the
same time, he's the kind of loving heaven and Father
who has condescended to be born in the flesh of
a baby, come into this world, even willing to be
crucified on the cross. If he's willing to go that
route to show me that he loves me, then he's
willing to get down on my level and talk to
(04:40):
me in a way that I can understand, and listen
to me in a way that I can know that
I'm being understood and listen to you.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
See, somehow, while we see God as the sovereign creed.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Of the universe, we must likewise be able to see
him because he did it.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
We didn't do it to see.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
The same God who came down in human flesh, and
the Bible says he became a servant humbled himself and
became a servant of mankind. And do we not say
that a father to be the kind of father he
ought to be, or a service wife and service children
and help them to grow up to be the kind
of people that God wants them to be. So somewhere,
(05:20):
somewhere in the strata of a transcendent God who is omnipotent, omniscient,
I'm the present, but who is serveiled above and beyond
all things, somehow in our minds we must be able
through the scriptures to watch God not come down from
his lofty position as far as his holiness and power
is concerned, but to see him move down out of
(05:41):
joy and love and concern for us, and come down
here and mix himself his life with our life, in
order that what not that we stay down here, but
that He might bring us up to the level of
wondereness with him, because one of these days we are
going to live up there with him forever and ever.
(06:01):
God the Father is our eternal father, and he'll be
that forever.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I want to begin tonight by correcting one statement that
you'll hear over and over and over again. You'll hear
people say, if somebody were to ask you, do you
believe in the universal fatherhood of God? God is everybody's father.
And they use this phrase in order to deceive or
(06:27):
to confuse. For example, if God is the father of
all mankind, and he's a God of love and goodness
and mercy, God is not a god of judgment in wrath.
God isn't a god of condemnation. He's a father. And
so they used analogy would you throw your kids out?
Would you do this?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Would you do that? Would you do the other?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And they use three scriptures primarily to push this.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So let's look at them.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Number one Malachi, chapter two, verse ten. And all that
sounds real, wheed and mushia. The only problem is is
just a big lie. There is a single verse in
the scripture to say that God is the father of
all mankind, the way that the Bible teaches the fatherhood
of God. Now I want you to watch this Malachi two,
(07:15):
verse ten. Now I want you to see the distinction here.
Malachi says, have we not all one father? Hath not
one God created us? He said, that's good enough for me.
The Bible says all of us have one Father. But
now watch this in what way does that teach that
all of us have one father? He is speaking of
(07:37):
the fact that God is our father by the fact
that he ultimately created all mankind. Look if you will
in Luke chapter three and the last verse another verse
that's oftentimes used. He says, which was the son of Us,
which was the son of Seth, which was the son
of Adam, which was the son of God, which.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Means that means that all of humanity are the sons
of God in creation. Yes, the fact that God.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Started with Adam and created him, and from Adam the
whole human race has come. Acts seventeen, when Paul was
on Mars Hill.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
You recall verse twenty two of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said,
you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
You are too superstitious.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
For I passed by and beheld your devotions. I found
an altar with this inscription to the Unknown God. And
they reason they met an altar to the Unknown God.
They had so many gods, they're afraid they're going to
leave that one. So they said to the Unknown God.
He says, you have an altar to the Unknown God.
Whom therefore you ignorantly worship him. Declare unto you God
(08:49):
that made the world and all things therein, seeing that
he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwell if not
in temples made with hands, neither is worshiped with men's hands,
as though he needed anything. Seeing he giveth to all
life and breath and all things, and hath made. Now
watch this, and hath made of one blood. All nations
(09:11):
of men thought to dwell on all the face of
the earth, and have determined the times before appointed and
the bounds of their habitations, that they should seek the Lord,
if happily they might feel after him and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us,
For in him we live and move and have our being,
(09:33):
as certain also of your own poets have said, for
we are also His offspring. Those three passages of scripture
seem to indicate at first the fatherhood of God.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
But now here's the distinction.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It is one thing for God to have created all mankind,
that all of life originated from him. It is one
thing to see God as the creator. Now watch this,
because here's the key, and you can eat say that
God is the father of all mankind. But only if
you say that he's the father of all mankind in general.
(10:09):
The thing that makes the difference is this God is
only the father to those who accept him personally as
their father. So when the man says that you believe
in the fatherhood of God, what you believe in is
that God is father only as the creator of all things.
He is not the father of a man who's rejected
(10:31):
his son. He's not the father of a man who
denies the presence of God. When the Bible says that
God is a father, God is spoken of as a
personal father in the New Testament to those who have
received him as such.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
We do not believe in the.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Fatherhood of God of all mankind, only in general as
the original source, as the creator. God is the father
of the human race, but only as the creator and
the beginning fountain head of all of creation. But a
man cannot say, our Father, who are in heaven simply
(11:08):
because God created him throughout him thousands of years ago.
The only man who can say, our Father, which are
in heaven is a man who knows him personally. Everybody
cannot prayer our Father, which are in heaven any more
than they can say the Lord is my shepherd. The
most unbelieving, vile people, when they get in.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Trouble, what do they do?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
They pull out the old Bible and say, bull, let
me find Psalm twenty three. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. They don't know anything in.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
The world about Jesus Christ being the shepherd.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
What they're looking for is somebody to pull them out
of an emergency. The only person who can say the
Lord is my shepherd is a man who has accepted
Jesus Christ is his personal savior and knows Christ to.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Be his personal shepherd.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Because everything else that follows in Psalm twenty.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Three is only available to believers.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I shall not want. He leads me in paths of righteousness.
Then just think about this for a moment. Here's a
fellow who's living like the devil, gets in trouble. He says,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He
maketh me to lie out in green pastures. He leads
me to side the still waters. He restoreth my soul.
He hasn't a bit more idea about his soul getting
restored than anything in the world. He leads me in
(12:24):
paths of righteousness.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
For his namesake. He doesn't mean that.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The only part of that verse that appeals to the
lost man is the Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want and I'm about to die and I need help.
Apart from those two phrases, he does know anything else.
That passage teaches there is no such thing as the
universal fatherhood of God.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But now, how do you and I call upon him
his father? We call upon him his father.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Because you and I have had a personal experience with Him.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
How we were born into his fad. That's the way
you and I can call him fath. Anybody who's not
born in his family can't call him father. The Bible
says that we are accepted the blood, that you and
I have been adopted what into the.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Kingdom through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
We've become the sons of God by adoption, he says,
accept the man be born again.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
What is he born into? He's born into the family
of God.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
We can say God is my father because we have
been adopted into the kingdom.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We have been born into the Kingdom. And the only.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Person who can call God father is one who has
accepted Jesus Christ, who reveals the father and only through
him can he talk about God being his father.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Now, I don't want you to forget that when we
think about the fatherhood of God. Let's go back to
the Old Testament.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Somebody says, law for the Old Testament Bible teaches that
God's father, though it does in the Old Testament. Listen,
he's the father of the Hebrews. God is seen in
the Old Testament as the.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Father of that nation.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Now, Jesus came for a number of reasons, primarily to die.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
One of the reasons he came was to reveal.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
The other side of God, the true nature of God
that the Old Testament saint couldn't see.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Now watch this, you say, well, now is the Old
Testament wrong? The New Testament right?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
No, Listen, revelation is progressive from Genesis Arwin revelation.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What's God doing?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
He keeps pulling up shade, he keeps drawing back to veils,
and what is he doing? But he is enlightening men
by simply giving them a deeper and deeper and deeper
understanding into the true nature of who God is. So
that when we come to the New Testament, what do we.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Find we find in the very beginning?
Speaker 1 (14:41):
For example, Let's look at the sermonal Amount for just
a moment, and you recall the last verses of the
sermonal Amount in chapter seven says, while you're turning to
chapter five, it came to pass when Jesus.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
And into these things.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
The people were astonished at his doctrine, for he had
talked one having authority, and not as the scribes. Now
they knew God as what creator. They knew him as
the father of the nation of this reel, but they
didn't have the concept of seeing God as an intimate, warm,
personal father to them.
Speaker 3 (15:17):
When Jesus came, he began to talk about his father.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Look, if you will, beginning in chapter five of Matthew,
look in verse forty five.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Let's just go through. Let me show you something here.
Let's look in verse forty three.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
First, you've heard that it's been said thou should love
thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say to you,
love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that you may be the
children of your Father, who is in heaven, For he
(15:51):
maketh his son to rise on the evil and on
the good. Send it his rain on the jest and
the unjust. For if you love them which love you,
what reward have you? Not even the publicans the same?
If you salute your breathren only what do you more
than others? Do not the publicans the same? Be therefore
perfect even as your father, which is in heaven. It's
(16:11):
perfect now Chapter six and verse one. Take heed that
you do not your arms before men to be seen
of them.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Otherwise you have no reward of your father. Verse six.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
But thou, when thou prayest in into thy closet, and
when thou prayers shut thy door, pray to thy father
verse eight. Be not you therefore liking unto them. For
your father knoweth what things you have need of. After
this manner, therefore pray ye our father verse fourteen. For
if you forgive men they're trespassage, you're heavenly father. We
(16:43):
could just go on down through there and all the
way down to say the sixth chapter in verse thirty two,
for after all these things that the gentile seek, for,
your father knoweth what things you have need of. And
verse eleven of chapter seven. If you, then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children. How
much more should your Father, which is in heaven, give
(17:04):
good things to them that ask him. He began to
unfold to them a whole new concept that God was
a personal father, not.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Just the father of the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Eddie had a hard time with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Look if you will in John chapter eight for a moment.
He had a hard time of them, because here's what
Jesus says. Jesus says, everybody has a spiritual father, and
he named the two choices. He had a big argument
going on here verse forty one, John eight. You do
(17:37):
the deeds of your father, then said they, unto him.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
We be not born of fornication. We have one father,
even God.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you
would love me. That is, if God Jehovah Yahweh elohem
Adam I were your father, you love me.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
He's not your father.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
You would love me, for I proceeded forth and came
from God. Neither came I of myself, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you
cannot hear my word, You are of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father, you will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
(18:23):
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for
he is a liar and the father of him.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Now, God says, everybody has to spared your father.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
His father is either Jehovah God or Satan himself. So
when somebody says, well, I don't believe in Jesus Christ,
but I do believe God's my father, know what they're
saying is, if I don't believe in Jesus Christ, my.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Father is the devil.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Now I tell you, probably make a lot of enemies
into her if you said, no, the devil's your dad.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
But see that's what Jesus said.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Jesus said, you know, if God is your father, you
love me because you don't love me.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
He's not your father.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Jesus in the fourteenth chapter, no man cometh under the
Father but by me.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Now watch this. There is no way for.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
A person to have a personal relationship with Jehovah God,
who desires to be the father of all men personally.
There is no way for him to be father until
first of all, that person accepts the father's son. He's
in the son, the son's in him. To accept the
son is to accept the father. To deny the son
is to deny the Father. What did he send that
(19:29):
fourteenth chapter? He says, Thomas, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. The Father and I are one. I
am the Father. Father and me have in the world
and a man. So I believe in God. He's my father,
but I don't believe in his son. You see, biblically, scripturally, doctrinally, theologically,
it is absolutely impossible for a man to have God
as his father and reject his son.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Doctor Stanley's message explained that since God the Father and
God the Son are one one, it's impossible to embrace
the Father while rejecting the son. If you're not a Christian,
receive Jesus as your savior today and be adopted into
the Family of God. To listen again, click on Today
(20:15):
on radio at in touch dot org and we'll hear
more about God as our heavenly Father tomorrow. You can
order a copy of Today's complete message from our online bookstore.
The title is God the Father, or order our teaching
set the character of God again. You'll find these resources
(20:36):
at in touch dot org or call one eight hundred
in touch to write to us. Address your letter to
in Touch Post Office Box seventy nine hundred, Atlanta, Georgia,
three zero three five seven. The way we live in
front of our kids matters. A message to Dad's is
(20:57):
coming up in today's moment with Charles Stanley.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
In Touch Plus you streaming on Local Now featuring all
the best of doctor Charles Stanley.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
We have to have strong convictions based on the word
of God. He's working out things that you and I
would never know about in our future.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
In Touch Plus you're streaming network for quality Christian programming twenty.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Four to seven.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
Now watch this in Touch Plus streaming free on Local Now.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
At times life can be stormy and each one of
us will face many trials. Questions are asked and doubt
may set in. The answers are found through faith in Jesus.
He is within every believer, always ready to offer his comfort,
hope and peace in times of great trial, so you
can trust Him with any circumstance. To order doctor Stanley's
(21:53):
book How to Let God Solve Your Problems, call one
eight hundred in Touch or go to in touch dot
org slash.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
St you're listening to in Touch. It's important for believers
to behave in a godly way, and being a godly
father is more important than you might think. Here's a
moment with Charles Stanley, and.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
I want to send the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
That understanding that God is our heavenly Father.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Ought to say something to all of us dads, because
the truth is that.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Our children pick up in their early life a basic
concept of what God is like by what.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
They see, and all of us who dads.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
That may be good for some of us, and it
may be bad for some of us. If our children's
concept of God in their early life, it's what they
gathered by, first of all, what we said, how we
said it, what we did, how we did it. Our
added too, the way we held them, the way we
cared for them, the way we pushed them away, the
(23:05):
way we chastise them, the way we comforted them, the
way we encourage them, the way we had fun and
a happy time with them, or the way.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
We shut them up.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
You'd be surprised how many people if you really begin
to talk and depraved a little deeper, a little deeper,
a little deeper. How many people say, my dad did this,
my dad did that, my dad didn't do the other thing.
It is amazing how much of our concept of God
we picked up subconsciously and didn't even realize that by
(23:35):
the way our own earthly Father treated us. Because our
children are going to copy us, that can be very
very bad or very very good.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
You'll find insight and motivation to live a godly life
your kids can emulate with our online resources at in
touch dot Argene. Tomorrow on in Touch, the Gospel writers
made it clear we can learn about God, the Father
from Jesus. Our study of the character of God continues
Friday on in Touch, the Teaching Ministry of doctor Charles Stanley.
(24:18):
This program is a presentation of in Touch Ministries Atlanta, Georgia,
and remains on this station through the grace of God
and your faithful prayers and gifts
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