God the Father

BF&M 2000 Says

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7

Memory Verse

Matthew 6:26 CSB

Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?

God relates to us as Father! This Fatherly love is the foundation of our being and the assurance of our future with Him.

Psalm 103:13 CSB

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.

Providential Care

Providence: God’s care for and guidance of His creation against all opposition.

Basically, God cares for His own, he provides all we need. Go back to the Memory Verse!

One of the ways God provides for our needs, is providing for our need of reliability. We live in a world that seems chaotic and every changing. That stuff is just surface level! Because we actually live in a created world with predictable natural order, due to laws.

The law of gravity!

Planetary rotation - the stars in the sky, lights for telling time and seasons.

You can do a study of the reliability of God and how he reveals himself to us through how HE created a reliable world.

This is all part of His providential Care and Protection.

Study the life of Joseph. We see God’s Providential care all through Joseph’s life. From his brothers wicked plan, to how God had far greater plans.

Genesis 50:20 CSB

You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.

I want to point out something here that is often misunderstood due to our American modern usage of the word.

The Bible says: You PLANNED evil, God PLANNED it for Good.

The Hebrew Word is (hasab-tem’) - it means to WEAVE

So we see that while Josephs brothers weaved together a wicked plan, our FATHER WEAVED together a GOOD plan!

God’s Providence can be seen in his Provision!

The Story of Elijah in 1 kings 17.

1 Kings 17:2–7 CSB

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. You are to drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.” So he proceeded to do what the Lord commanded. Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he would drink from the wadi. After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

What did Elijah eat?

How did he get it?

God knew Elijah’s need and provided! God knows your need as well.

Jeremiah 31:3 CSB

the Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.

God knows you better than you can possibly imagine, He created you; and He loves you with an everlasting love!

Let’s look at how the story of Elijah is taught later by the prayer taught by Jesus.

Matthew 6:9–13 CSB

“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

‘give us today our daily bread’.

so often this line is taken and spiritualized. But this line is very specific. Bread is commonly used in the Bible as a representation of physical nutritional needs.

Bread naturally represents food in general, and all that is necessary to support life, of which bread is commonly esteemed the most important and indispensable part.

John Broadus (1827-1895) One of the founders of SBTS

Matthew 6:25–34 CSB

“Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus instructs us to not worry about life.

Life is more than food!

The body is more than clothing!

Because God has given us our lives and our bodies, He will give us all that we need.

God feeds the birds.

God cloths the wild flowers.

Because GOd provides for the birds and the wildflowers, he will provide for US!

God’s providence is seen in the moral structure of the universe.

Cause and Effect

Sin leads to disaster.

Obey God leads to blessing.

Disobey God leads to curse.

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 CSB

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Galatians 6:7–8 CSB

Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.

These are Attributes of the Father.

All powerful

Omnipotent - All powerful

El Shaddai - God Almighty

Genesis 17:1 CSB

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. Live in my presence and be blameless.

God is creator of all, which means He is the source of all: including all powers.

This means that no power, in heaven or on earth, can thwart God’s plans, frustrate His will, or force His hand.

God’s omnipotence is a source of comfort and security for His people.

God’s plans cannot be messed up.

What God set’s out to do, he does.

There is no competing power, because there is no equal power!

It’s like me arm wrestling with Rhett! He can try all he wants, but he only wins if I let him. He can’t beat me.

All knowing

Omniscience - God’s knowledge is all encompassing and perfect (complete)!

God knows all things: past, present and future.

Romans 11:33 CSB

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!

Nothing is hidden from God’s sight!

Psalm 50:11 CSB

I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.

Psalm 139:1–4 CSB

Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord.

Now, even though God knows all, we are still fully responsible for our own decision and will. Sounds confusing, but this is just due to our limitations of understanding.

Just because God knows all things, does not mean, or imply that God CAUSES all things: this is called determinism. We do not believe this, because they Bible teaches that we are fully independent and responsible for our actions; while God always knows what our actions lead.

God knows all: including the future. He does not have to ‘see what will happen’. This should be comforting because God sees what you are in, knows what you have been though; and knows what you are about to go through. AND He is weaving all of this for the Good of His children.

Jeremiah 29:11 CSB

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

All loving

1 John 4:8 CSB

The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God IS love.

The BF&M says that God’s love is His self-giving nature - His very character as demonstrated through countless acts of compassion and mercy.

He love is not just bigger or stronger than out love. There is no comparison. Our love is only a measure, and a poor reflection, of the love of our Father.

His love is perfect (complete), consistent, unwavering, unending, and our FINAL security.

Psalm 33:5 CSB

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.

Romans 5:8 CSB

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

All wise.

Wisdom exceeds knowledge. All wise and all knowing are not the same.

Wisdom is the right ordering and understanding of knowledge - the understanding of ultimate meaning and significance.

Romans 11:33 CSB

Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!

Wisdom is more than understanding, because wisdom is tied to morality. The RIGHT behavior and action.

God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

this dispels any notion that God is obligated to save all people. Without faith in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation. There is NO universalism.

He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

Our duty is to tell all people, so that they may make the decision themselves. We tell people HOW they can be saved, how they can know the Father by coming to Him through Christ. Only then will they know.