God is My Father

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by recalling his New Year's message on biblical truths as 'ballast' for the soul, necessary for navigating the coming year. He briefly reviews the first two truths…

Ancient sea-going vessels used barrels of water as ballast to keep them stable. Martin uses this to illustrate the need for fundamental biblical truths stored in our souls to keep us from being 'tossed about on the sea of life' in the coming year.

Those of you who were with us last Lord's Day evening will remember, I trust, that I began to preach a New Year's message, which at that time I said I had every intention of continuing and completing as a communion meditation tonight. However, as I labored at more detailed preparation for tonight, it became evident to me that if I were to preach in a responsible way and respect the restriction of time that we believe is appropriate for the ministry of the Word prior to a communion service, that I would have to take two more evenings to complete that New Year's message. And so, God willing, I w...

0:04 - 1:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The apex, the very pinnacle of redemptive privilege, is not our justification... but it is adoption.

After declaring sinners righteous (justification), God 'steps off His throne from the place of the moral judge... goes into His parlor, and invites us... and then He gives His presence and holds out before us a duly drafted legal title to becoming His sons and daughters.' This illustrates the intimate and legal nature of adoption.

ground of our acceptance with God, that truth was designated during the period of the Reformation with renewed clarity as the article of the standing or the falling church. And I stand with the great historic stream that had been buried for generations and centuries and broke those who assert the place of justification by faith alone. However, justification, the declaration by God to the penitent believing soul that all of his sins are cancelled and that all of the perfect righteousness of Christ is credited to that believing sinner, justifying grace is not the apex or the privilege or the pin...

6:08 - 7:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Live honestly with your Father, knowing you cannot hide from Him.

Children attempting to hide naughty behavior from their earthly father (e.g., listening to forbidden music and quickly changing the channel) illustrates the human tendency to hide from authority and the importance of knowing God as an 'all-seeing' Father to live honestly.

And that happened with you kids. If you think you can do something naughty and secret and your Father won't see you then you're bold enough to attempt it. You're not going to conceive of something that's a blatant disobedience to your Father's revealed will and go right out in the middle of the living room and say hey Pop come here watch what I'm going to do. I mean you have got to be one cheeky dude to do that.

28:26 - 28:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not project upward to God an unprincipled father who can be worn down by cutesy behavior or button-pushing.

An 'unprincipled mushy soft unrighteous father' who doesn't chasten his son (like Eli in Proverbs) is used as a negative example to contrast with God's principled fatherhood, emphasizing that God's chastening is a mark of His love and righteousness.

perfect equity justice kindness all of his attributes together funneled down upon the head of a hell deserving sinner who has fled to Christ he's a principled father that's how he's described in Hebrews 12 4 when some of these Christians are complaining that things are getting rough and getting kind of hot in their Christian experience he says you've not resisted unto blood striving against sin but you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as sons Hebrews 12 5 my son do not regard lightly the chastening of the Lord nor faint when you're reproved of him for whom the Lord loves h...

32:39 - 34:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not project upward to God an unprincipled father who can be worn down by cutesy behavior or button-pushing.

Job's extreme suffering (loss of children, wealth, health) is presented as an example of God's 'principled fatherhood,' even when His dealings appear ruthless. It illustrates that God has cosmic purposes and seeks deeper self-discovery and repentance in His children, beyond immediate comfort.

and you could come in and you could push those buttons you could get anything you wanted God's not your push button pop he's a principled father and when he sees that we need his rod of chastening he'll bring it upon us and all our whimpering doesn't move him a bit he may say like my mother would say to my father give him some more dad he's not sweet yet and God's dealings with us at times can have the appearance of ruthlessness the appearance of ruthlessness where do you get that in the Bible read the book of Job here is God's son righteous above all other men in his generation look at him si...

34:06 - 35:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not project upward to God an unprincipled father who can be worn down by cutesy behavior or button-pushing.

Paul's three prayers for the removal of his 'thorn in the flesh' and God's refusal are used to illustrate God's principled fatherhood. God's answer, 'My grace is sufficient for you,' reveals His wisdom in allowing weakness to prevent pride, demonstrating His loving but principled discipline.

with God and God was doing something in the discipline of his child to answer to those cosmic powers and to bring Job to a new level of self-discovery and self-disclosure and you read his repentance in Job 42 not a repentance for shacking up with other women not a repentance for taking advantage of his servants he protests all through the book the innocency of his conscience in matters ethical and moral because he's not before God and men but he had new levels of discovery of God's inscrutable sovereignty of God's right to do what he will with his own and God dealt with him in a way that had t...

35:35 - 37:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Never forget that God is 'our Father who is in heaven,' maintaining reverence and awe, and avoid a casual, 'buddy-buddy' approach.

Martin critiques the casual, 'buddy-buddy' approach to God, likening it to 'tripping into God's presence anywhere anytime pop up on his lap and say hi daddy.' This analogy highlights the error of forgetting God's heavenly majesty and holiness, which demands reverence even in intimacy.

out of the Sermon on the Mount your father in heaven your heavenly father what is Jesus doing by constantly saying father in heaven heavenly father he's underscoring that all the intimacy with which he enters into communion with us as his children giving us the freedom of addressing him as our father putting within us the spirit of God the spirit of adoption enabling us to call the God who was our judge to now call him our father but we never forget he's our father who is in the heavens literally he is our heavenly father he does not cease to be God exalted God majestic God terrible and awesom...

41:31 - 42:58 Read in full sermon