By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading: Psalm 103:13 Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we [are] dust.

There is a story that is told of an evangelist who tried to evangelize the young street children of a large American city. These rugged young people needed to know that God is a wonderful person; and as the evangelist was trying to communicate to them what God was like, he said, He is just like a father. Then one of those young ruffians turned around and said to him, If He’s anything like my dad, I don’t want to know Him!

What is your impression of father? In this world of sin we have two images of father. One is a harsh, austere, cruel dictator telling me what I have to do, and what I don’t want to do I have to do, and all the like – a man who creates fear inside of a child. Then there is another class of father, the one who is like an indulgent sugar-daddy that lets the children have everything they want, and they don’t know where they stand, whether he loves them or not, because he never corrects them. These are the two kinds of character of father – one engendering fear and hate in the child, and the other leaving a child without knowing whether his daddy loves him because he never corrects him anyway.

How do fathers who are trying to be good fathers in these bewildering times govern in a home? Parents need to be governors in a home. They need to teach the children what government is all about. When fathers have the problem of having to control a child and yet be a friend of that child, it is a task which bewilders many a father. When the Bible says, Spare the rod and spoil the child, the parents think, Okay, I have to punish my children when they are naughty, otherwise I am going to spoil them!

Proverbs 19:18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

It sounds a bit cruel, doesn’t it? You are punishing a child, and it is crying, yet you are not to spare for its crying. The child turns around and says, You are so cruel, dad. The father and the mother have a terrible task nowadays to bring up children.

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Those are very weighty words, because it says, “Train up a child.” There are many ways of training, but the parents are to train the child in the way he should go. Not the way that they think the child should go, but in the way that God wants him to go. And when he is old, he will definitely stay on that path.

But here we are today. Children are bewildered and scarred by parental failure. We are told by Jesus Christ how to address God. What does the Lord’s Prayer commence with? Our Father which art in heaven. The expression of this introductory phrase “Our Father” creates an image upon our mind from the perspective of what we understand fatherhood to be. It is the perspective from which we come in our experience of fatherhood that affects and moulds our perceptions of God.

…our whole spiritual life will be molded by our conceptions of God’s character. {TMK 262.2}

What you think in your mind about God will mould your spiritual life. Meditate on this.

The whole spiritual life is molded by our conceptions of God, and if we cherish erroneous views of His character, our souls will sustain injury. {TMK 263.4}

When we hear the words “Our Father which art in heaven,” can you appreciate why this young street child said to the evangelist, “I don’t want to know Him”? “From my perspective of father, which has been introduced to me by my upbringing from my father, I don’t want to know such a God.” I know by my experience in relationship to people I have studied with, that people have an appreciation of God that is coloured by their experience with their father, or lack of father if that be the case. We don’t have an understanding, a role-model of the Father in heaven. Therefore our spiritual perceptions need to be enlightened by the true representation of father.

Now let us improve the precious opportunities to become acquainted with our heavenly Father, {TMK 262.3}

We want to get acquainted with our Father in heaven.

Job 22:21 Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

Become acquainted with Him so that good will come unto you. If we can come to an appreciation of our heavenly Father and of His character, good will come; spiritual perceptions will be for our well-being. It will create peace. It will create perfect abandonment. Wouldn’t you like to cast yourself upon the bosom of a father who can really and truly release you from all your stresses? Wouldn’t that be nice? Acquaint yourself with this Father.

John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time;

If you haven’t seen Him, how can you know Him?

John 1:18 …the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].

If I want to become acquainted with God as a Father, the person who can best illustrate to me that father image of God is Jesus, because Jesus was the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. How close is that? As a son who is in the bosom of the Father, can He tell us what the Father is like? Isn’t it perfect? He hath declared Him. I want to acquaint myself with God – the true father figure. I want to become acquainted with the true father figure. Jesus says, I am the first born Son, the only begotten. I am in the bosom of the Father, I can let you know. I can help you to become acquainted with the father figure that He really is. How well would He know the Father?

Jesus, who came to this planet, is so much part of God the Father that He is the same:

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God.

And this Word that was in the beginning with God is further qualified here:

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,

In the beginning there was God who created, and in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is very much part of God. Like we often say, you live with a person long enough you become like them. Jesus is so much part of God that He is like Him. That is what Jesus came to reveal – the Being with whom He dwelt from eternity, His Father, or, an equal to Himself.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:

A son. We want to know what the Father of this Son is all about.

Isaiah 9:6 …and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

According to these words, we are directed, in our desire to acquaint ourselves with God as our father figure, to look to Jesus who is going to be best able to reveal Him to us. When the disciples that were with Jesus wanted Him to show them the Father, Philip came and said to Him, Please show us the Father. What did Jesus answer?

John 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Philip was a bit hard of understanding:

John 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, 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? 10 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 doeth the works. 11 Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

Jesus said to Philip, “You have seen Me at work, you have seen Me living day by day, you have been with Me all the time. You are asking Me to show you the Father? You can see Me, you can see Him. He is part of Me.” In our study of Jesus, of the way He was as a human being, we have an acquaintance with the father figure of the God of the universe. We want to appreciate what Jesus was all about to understand what the Father is all about.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love;

If you want a definition of love, it’s God.

1 John 4:16 …and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

God is the definition of love. Here we have the beginning of our acquaintance with Him as a father figure – He is a father who is pure love.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

There is much to meditate upon in this scripture. This world is going to perish. Why? Because it turned against God; it broke His law. The government of God is that, to be happy, to have a perfect kingdom under which we can live peacefully, we have to keep the commandments. Have we broken them? So what happens if you are a rebellious child? We think, Oh oh, now I’m going to get punished. We fear God because we’ve broken His law. But God is love; and God so loved us that He has given us His only begotten Son, that if we will believe in Him, we will not perish, even though we were rebellious, and even though we were off the track.

We want to become acquainted with God, and what His love is like is now manifested to us:

1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.

That word propitiation is very important to understand. We have fallen out with God; we have broken His law, and we have an estrangement from God. We feel estranged, just like a child that is rebellious against his father; the father is like a stranger figure to him. But God says, I love you no matter what you have done. I love you and I want to save you from the destruction of your own sins. I am going to do it this way: I am going to give a gift – propitiation is a gift to take away the wrath, a gift to ameliorate between the wrath of God and us. God loved us so much that He wanted to prevent us from being overwhelmed by the wrath of God; because there is a broken law here, and God hates the broken, sinful nature around us.

Let us meditate upon this. When a child is rebellious, uncontrollable, incorrigible – have you seen it around you? Have you had experiences like that, when you want to bring a child under your control because it has to be under your control in your house, otherwise your house is in chaos – the child is uncontrollable, and the father pulls his hair out, What am I going to do to control this child?? How do fathers bring them into subordination, generally, if all else fails? They get the stick and, Come on, do as your told; and if the child isn’t obedient, they let it rip. The Bible says, Don’t spare for their crying, but correct and chasten them. That seems to be all that is left to bring an incorrigible child under control to human beings. That is what we imagine has to be done, and the Bible even sort of suggests that.

Let us watch God with that same predicament, with the inhabitants of this planet. Are the inhabitants of this planet incorrigible? Are they rebellious? Are they easy to be entreated? Are they easy to be won over to God? No. That’s the problem, isn’t it? How does God meet with these incorrigible children? Here we are observing the role model of father:

Psalm 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God.

What did He find?

Psalm 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.

There we have an insoluble problem: none want to come to God. They all regard Him as a fearful stranger. What happened with Adam and Eve when God came to commune with them after they had eaten of the fruit? They ran for their lives. They hid. God was a stranger to them; they weren’t in love with Him anymore. This is the human race. God looks down and sees the mess. This is the problem that He had to face:

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips: 14 Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

The nations don’t care about God, and destruction and misery is the result. If you go into the detail of their wars and of the way they slaughtered each other, blood, gore, ugh. God is not in their mind. These are the rebellious inhabitants of this planet. How can He bring them around to submit to Him? How can you bring a rebellious, unwilling child to submit to the parental control? How is that possible?

The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all intelligent beings depends upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. {PP 34.3}

What is the foundation of God’s government? The law of love. “God is love.” That is the foundation of His government.

God desires from all His creatures the service of love–service that springs from an appreciation of His character. {PP 34.3}

If you have a wrong appreciation of fatherhood, are you going to serve with love, or are you going to serve with fear? You are scared, “I better do as I’m told, otherwise I’m going to get some severe punishment.” Is that God’s father figure picture? Not at all. He wants us to obey Him because we have an appreciation of His loving character, and I then want to obey Him because He is just a wonderful person.

He takes no pleasure in a forced obedience; and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service. {PP 34.3}

This father does not want us to obey Him because we are scared of Him. That is not His agenda at all. Here we are a rebellious people; the nature within us is to rebel against any authority that wants to control me, No! I see it around me. I see it as part of our problem today. God has this problem and He says, The only way I want you to obey Me is because you love Me; I don’t want you to fear Me, I want you to appreciate Me, and because you appreciate Me you will obey Me.

The earth was dark through misapprehension of God. {DA 22.1}

The earth is dark because they don’t really understand what God is like.

That the gloomy shadows might be lightened, that the world might be brought back to God, Satan’s deceptive power was to be broken. {DA 22.1}

How can God break this power?

This could not be done by force. The exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God’s government; {DA 22.1}

God does not use force for you to obey Him. It is against His government.

He desires only the service of love; and love cannot be commanded; it cannot be won by force or authority. {DA 22.1}

Like parents often say, Do as I tell you! Why?? says the child. Because I said so! This is not God’s picture of fatherhood.

Only by love is love awakened. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan. This work only one Being in all the universe could do. Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it known. Upon the world’s dark night the Sun of Righteousness must rise, “with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2. {DA 22.1}

Who is that only one? It is Jesus. God had to do some work here. Many people say, Why doesn’t God just get rid of Satan? Why doesn’t God just stop all these cruel things and start all over again?  Well, God is not like that. He does not use force. We want Him to use force, but if He uses force then we are in trouble ourselves anyway. He has to be very careful, and that is why this world has been going on for over six thousand years. That is why Satan wasn’t destroyed straight away.

The first step that the God of love, the father figure, has to reveal, is to show that what we do wrong is going to end me up in trouble – cause to effect. It is to convince us that, Your punishment is not Me giving you a wake on the head, but it is for you to meet the consequences of your own actions. God says, I am not going to punish you arbitrarily. If you jump off the edge of a cliff you are going to end up squashed at the bottom. That is cause to effect. If you are going to break any of My commandments, says God, it is going to cause war, bloodshed, and destruction. Do you want that? No, daddy, I don’t want that. He has convinced me. Now, the second step. To the person who says, I don’t want that, He reveals a yearning for His salvation. He says, Well, I don’t want to pull you either. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to suffer the consequences of breaking My laws.

Here comes this amazing revelation. We have broken the law, we have the consequences to meet, and God says, Alright, I am going to give you hope:

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

When we were yet without strength – I don’t want the consequences, but I can’t help myself. I keep on doing the wrong. Isn’t that what Apostle Paul said? The good I want to do I can’t do. I have no strength to do the right thing. While we are still weak, while we can’t even obey God because we have this horrible character, He says, I want you to see how much I want to help you; I am going to give Jesus Christ. I love you so much that Jesus has to come and suffer the consequences of your sins.

Romans 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He says, Here is the consequence of your disobedience. I don’t want that, Lord. So He says, Alright, you can’t help yourself. You will do the exact opposite to what you want to do. So I am going to send Jesus Christ to this planet, and while you are still grovelling around in your mess, while you are still functioning according to your human pride, having wars, and struggles, and consuming each other, I am going to come right down there in the form of Jesus Christ, and I am going to let your grovelling mess destroy My Son. Is this not why Jesus died? The Jews were angry against Jesus because He was so good and He was showing them how bad they were. They wanted to kill Him. That was the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders. And God let them. This is the love that God commends to us.

Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

What is the father figure we see here? He says, You can’t help yourself, so I am going to throw My Son into your midst, so that you will see what you would do to Me as your father. You would even kill Me, wouldn’t you? So the sinner says, You want to help me, You love me, and You are prepared to do that for me? Oh. Then God says, Your sinful life is going to cause wrath upon you – which is not arbitrary, it is the result of your action – but I am going to save you from that wrath by Jesus suffering that wrath. And if you will look at Jesus long enough you will love Me so much that you will do anything I say.

Have you ever saved an animal that was heading straight for death? The animal is squealing and carrying on, and you come there and save it; like a little dog that has been terribly punished and that is suffering so bad, and you pull it out of the mud, as it were, and you clean it all up – what does that doggy do for the rest of its life? Doesn’t it become your greatest friend? That is exactly how God wants us to understand Him. And He has demonstrated it by the gift of His Son.

A rebellious person can have a change of heart because he sees this father figure that is indescribable in His love toward him. This is our God. This is our Father. Listen to the way He keeps on speaking after He has already done what He has done through Jesus Christ. Notice His heart of love demonstrating itself:

Ezekiel 18:32 …I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn [yourselves], and live ye.

Have you ever watched movies where the cruel person is finally punished and killed, and you say, “Beauty, got him”? Have you ever done that? God is not like that. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I don’t want them to die; I want them to be saved from this horrible condition they are in. The Lord says, I have given you My Son, now please, turn your heart towards Me because I love you so much.

Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Jesus said that when He would be lifted up, He would draw all men unto Himself. Ultimately, even if they have been rebellious and do not accept Christ’s cross, later on people will see it and say, Yes, how foolish I have been to reject this love. The whole world will come and realise that they have done absolute cruelty to the God of heaven.

Isaiah 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, what did He say? “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me.” There was the description of God having to turn away from the terrible corruption that was there; and Jesus felt as if God had forsaken Him – in a little wrath. But what did Jesus say? He remembered God’s love, and He said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and He died. But He rose again, because God loved Him and pulled Him up. In Jesus Christ is demonstrated God’s love for the whole human race. He would pull them up even though they might be destroyed for a little while by the consequences of their sins. He will resurrect them as He resurrected His own Son.

Psalm 103:13 Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Why?

Psalm 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we [are] dust.

God knows what we are like. He knows what has happened to us, and He knows our weaknesses. He is like a tender, pitying father. Although we have sinned against Him He is plenteous in mercy. He pities His children like a father. The correct father figure is here displayed. It is not one who will say, I am angry with you because you have disobeyed me; I have warned you and you didn’t hear me. This is the natural, human way or reacting. But God is not like that.

This is the true father figure. And as we contemplate this we begin to see that we can call the God of heaven Daddy. We can come to God and put our head upon His bosom, and be completely relaxed and totally removed from stress.

Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;

This is important language. The spirit of, not just to be scared, but the very motive-spirit within us. We don’t have to have that spirit of fear anymore.

Romans 8:15 …but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Daddy. That is what Abba means. Oh daddy, I love you. It is the spirit of adoption. I have been a rebellious child, and I thought I was completely cut off from Him, but no, the Spirit tells me, Look at what Jesus did, look at what God’s attitude is; and I will break upon the Rock. I will say, Oh, He loves me! Dad!

Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And what sort of a position does that put us in?

Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.

Heir of God? Does God ever die? He never does. But He has made it possible that His Son, whom He brought down to this earth, died and rose again, so that we together with Jesus may have an eternal heirship of God. We can be one of the family – Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and redeemed, all together. This is the father figure.

Now the children being so endeared to their father, what will they then do? If they really come to know this image of the Father, just like I described about you saving a happy dog from destruction, what will they do?

Psalm 96:6 Honour and majesty [are] before him: strength and beauty [are] in his sanctuary. 7 Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. 8 Give unto the LORD the glory [due unto] his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

What is it simply saying? Give Him everything. He is your Father, you can pour your heart out to Him, and you can obey Him no matter what He says because you know He loves you. He doesn’t want anything bad for you. Therefore, when He says, I want you to keep My commandments; I do it because it’s good for me, and I love Him. That is why I want to do it.

This is the meaning of the first angel’s message, Fear God, and give glory to Him. Give Him the glory. Give Him your heart. He is a wonderful God, why would I want to keep anything from Him?

Psalm 100:2 Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Of course you will, because you see Him as such a loving Father.

Psalm 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he [is] God: [it is] he [that] hath made us, and not we ourselves; [we are] his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Did you ask your father to give you birth? No. Your father gave birth to you through your mother. So the Father in heaven has created us, and we are His people, His children, and the sheep of His pasture.

Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name. 5 For the LORD [is] good; his mercy [is] everlasting; and his truth [endureth] to all generations.

In these words we get the true setting of what they were meant to convey. They were to convey that because He is such a loving Father, we will give Him the glory. We will serve Him, we will do anything. He just has to say, Jump, and we say, How high? because we love Him. And He has given us plenty of proof that He loves us, in a way that is beyond all human comprehension.

O shall we not love God, and show our love by humble obedience? {TMK 263.4}

Shall we not love Him? What has He done? Shall we not love Him by humble obedience?

All through the Scriptures, God is represented as one who calls, woos by His tender love, the hearts of His erring children. {TMK 263.4}

What sort of children? Erring children. He woos them.

No earthly parent could be as patient with the faults and mistakes of their children as is God with those He seeks to save. {TMK 263.4}

Can you see why the planet has been going on for so long? Because He keeps on bearing with all of our mistakes, and His coming is not hastened because He wants to make sure that we will come through. He bears long with us, with our faults and our mistakes, because He seeks to save us.

No one could plead more tenderly with the transgressor. No human lips ever poured out more tender entreaty to the wanderer than does He. O shall we not love God, and show our love by humble obedience? Let us have a care for our thoughts, our experiences, our attitude toward God, for all His promises are but the breathings of unutterable love. {TMK 263.4}

Is it not an unutterable love?

I want to give one example of a kind of obedience to a father who is like this – Abraham. Abraham is called in the Bible the father of the faithful. In other words, he was to the Father in heaven what all the faithful people will be. Abraham had Isaac. Isaac was the one son that was given to him; he had no children from his wife Sarah apart from Isaac, the only begotten. Abraham ruled his house with gravity, the gravity of heaven. He was a proper dad who kept his household under the control of a heavenly fatherhood. The first faithful that was born to Abraham was Isaac. The story is that Abraham was told by God to go and take his son and sacrifice him on Mount Carmel. His son was a strapping young man. He could have stopped his father. When Isaac finally said to him, But father, we’ve got the altar here, we’ve got the wood there, where is the sacrifice? now Abraham had to tell him, It’s going to be you. What could the son have done? The son could have said, Dad, you are losing your mind here, you’re not going to kill me, I’m your only son! But did he do that? No, he was perfectly obedient to his father. He offered himself to lie on the altar, and he said, Okay dad. The father went down with his hand, but the angel stopped him, and said, Now I know that you obey your Father, and that your son is obeying you. There is the sacrifice over there; and there was a ram caught in a thicket.

The attitude of submission to parental control is illustrated in Isaac. Who was he obedient to at forty years of age? His father. How is it today? Children want to get married to whom they will. Samson was such a person. He did not obey his parents. It was Abraham who directed his servant to find a wife for Isaac. At the age of forty Isaac accepted the father’s choice for his wife. Is that obedience? Perfect obedience. This was the first of the faithful after Abraham, and we are to be children of Abraham. We are to obey God because we love God as Abraham and as Isaac loved Him, and as all the genuine believers in God loved Him, because God is such a wonderful Father. We can obey Him even if it seems wrong to us. We know that He is right.

Let us no longer delay perfect obedience. But rather, let us be ready to say, God, what do you want me to do? If He says, Jump, and it looks like it is going to be a very unpleasant experience, we jump; God is going to help us. He is going to bring us through because He loves us. He does not want us to suffer. To us who are touched by the Father’s love come these concluding words:

John 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.

Our peace and our joy can be found in no other way. May God help us to take these words, this picture that has been painted before our mind’s eye, that we may come to love God and recognise the true father figure that is found in Him.

Amen.