Sermon of the Week: “The Fatherhood of God”

Welcome to a new series on the Lord’s Prayer. Found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4, Jesus lays out the blueprint for all petitions made to the Father. Each week, we will highlight a sermon by Charles Spurgeon that focuses on a different part of the Lord’s prayer and draws out its devotional implication. Below is the first sermon in this series titled “The Fatherhood of God.”

The opening of our Lord’s prayer invites us to the wonder and amazement of knowing God the Father—“Our Father which art in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9). To call the Lord of all creation our Father baffles the mind, but it is true! However, this relationship is not given from birth but is fastened through adoption. “I believe that in this prayer we are to come before God, looking upon him not as our Father through creation, but as our Father through adoption and the new birth,” says Spurgeon. Through faith in Jesus, we have been adopted into a relationship with God as our Master, our Lord, and our Father.

Spurgeon then flips the spotlight on us, for to call God our Father implies that we are His children. Just like children coming to their loving father, we can come to God with our wants and desires, knowing that He will listen with eyes tender towards us. “If I be thy child, then thou wilt regard me, and poor though my language be, thou wilt not despise it.”

But we must not forget our duties as children to our heavenly Father. He adopted us into His family, and now we are given the privilege to follow His commands. We can do so through the power of the Holy Spirit and in gratitude for His grace. “We must recollect that our being sons involves the duty of obedience to God. When I say ‘My Father,’ it is not for me to rise up and go in rebellion against his wishes; if he be a father, let me note his commands, and let me reverentially obey[…]” What depth of truth and so much more can be pulled from just six simple words, “Our Father which art in heaven.”

Excerpt

If I come before a judge I have no right to expect that he shall hear me at any particular season in aught that I have to say. If I came merely to crave for some boon or benefit to myself, if the law were on my side, then I could demand an audience at his hands; but when I come as a law-breaker, and only come to crave for mercy, or for favors I deserve not, I have no right to expect to be heard. But a child, even though he is erring, always expects his father will hear what he has to say. “Lord, if I call thee King thou wilt say, ‘Thou art a rebellious subject; get thee gone.’ If I call thee Judge thou wilt say, ‘Be still, or out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee.’ If I call thee Creator thou wilt say unto me ‘It repenteth me that I made man upon the earth.’ If I call thee my Preserver thou wilt say unto me, ‘I have preserved thee, but thou hast rebelled against me.’ But if I call thee Father, all my sinfulness doth not invalidate my claim. If thou be my Father, then thou lovest me[…]

Read the rest of the sermon here.