I Believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth

  Almighty Father and Creator

Seventeenth after Trinity

Collect: Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always both precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Text: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

The two most important questions we need to ask are: (1) Who is God? (2) Who am I?*

The article of the Creed we consider today begins to answer those questions: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” This article tells us three things about God: (1) He is Father. (2) He is Almighty. (3) He is Creator. They tell us about ourselves.

1. God is the Father.

1.1 God’s only-begotten Son. I have five sons. God has one Son. But God’s Fatherhood of his Son is different from my fatherhood of my sons. God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and Christ is the only-begotten and eternal Son of the Father. When we say that the Father is the Father of his Son, we do not mean that there is a beginning to the Son’s existence.

When we say the Son is begotten by the Father, we mean that, as a son has the nature of his father, so God’s Son has the nature of his Father. When we say he is the eternally begotten Son, we mean he was Son with the Father’s nature in eternity. When we say he is the only begotten Son, we mean the Father has only one Son who is just like him because the Son shares his Deity.

In eternity the Father and Son exist is the closest possible unity, fellowship, and love. We might say that they “enjoy each other’s company” as a Father and Son who are one in nature, who fully understand each other, and who live in perfect harmony.

Not only did the Father and Son love each other in eternity. They also loved one another when the Son came to earth as the Messiah. The Son’s joy as the Messiah was to please the Father. The Father delighted fully in the Son, the Messiah, saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The Son addressed the Father as “Abba.” Abba is close in meaning to “Dad” or “Daddy.” It expressed the intimacy and love between the Father in heaven and the Son on earth.

God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1.2. God’s adopted sons. God the Father has other children, too. We are sons and daughters of God.

We need to note two things about God’s children:

1.2.1.There is a difference between God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and God’s other children. Christ is God’s unique Son, because he shares the Divine nature. He is God’s “natural Son.” God’s other children are adopted children. We are not like the eternal Son, but are adopted into God’s family. God is our adoptive Father.

1.2.2. Then not all human beings are God’s children. It used to be popular to talk about “the universal fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man.” But God is not the Father of all except in the sense that he is the Creator of all human life. But the Bible means more by God’s Fatherhood than that the God made us; Fatherhood means the love, intimacy, delight of God the Father in his children. Only those who trust in Christ as Savior are adopted by God as his children.

1.2.3. God takes us into his family. We have a Father in heaven who is not embarrassed to have us as children. He loves us, watches over us, cares for us, provides for us. Our Father wants us to address him as Jesus did - to call “Abba.” He is our “Dad in heaven.” We treat him with respect as our holy Father, but with the confidence that comes from knowing he accepts and loves us.

Not everyone has a good relationship with or memories of their earthly father. Some fathers abandon their children. Some are cold and distant. Some are harsh and condemning. Some are mean and abusive. Bad experiences can create psychological barriers to getting the comfort from knowing God as our Father. But those who have had bad experiences with earthly fathers need to remember that God is not like them. God is the perfect Father, everything a father should be. He is the Father you can trust, confide in, and count on.

In Jesus Christ, God is your wise and loving heavenly Father.

2. God is Almighty.

2.1. Kids used to brag, “My dad’s stronger than your dad.” The Christian can say, “My Father is Almighty.” “Almighty” is the combination of two words -  “all” and “mighty.” God has all might, all power, all strength. The God of the Bible, our Father, is “all-mighty” over all things.

2.2. What can God do? As a boy I learned a Catechism. It asked the question, Can God do all things? God can do all his holy will.

Is there anything God cannot do? In one sense, yes, in another, no. Is there anything that God lacks the power to do, if he wills to do it? No. He is almighty. But is there anything God cannot will to do? The answer is, Yes. God has a perfect moral nature, and he cannot will anything contrary to his perfect nature. The Bible tells us specifically that God cannot lie. He is the God of truth. The God of truth cannot cannot lie.

There is great comfort in knowing that. God is not like an immoral dictator who does whatever he wants because he can. He is not guided by a moral character or ethical code. He has a murderous spirit, so he murders people. He has a thieving spirit, so he robs his people. He makes promises and breaks them, because he is a liar. He treats people like toys he plays with for fun.

But God the Father is not at all like that. He is good, holy, righteous, just, truthful, loving, faithful, kind, and merciful. He cannot act contrary to who he is. Be assured that whatever you are going through it is not because your Father is mean or torturing you. Because of God’s character, you, as Christian believer, can count on him and rely on his promises.

But can God do what he wills to do? Absolutely yes. Can the devil keep God from doing his will? No. Can man keep God from doing his will? No. “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth…” (Ps. 135:6, ESV). Our heavenly Father can do whatever he will because he is Almighty. Nothing outside himself can restrain and control him. He wills only what is consistent with his nature and character. But he has the power to do all that he wills. In God perfect character and unlimited power are joined.

Your Father the Almighty. Rejoice and take comfort in that reality.

3. God is the Creator.

3.1 Creator of all things.

I learned two other things from that Child’s Catechism: “Who made you? God. What else did God make? God made all things.” The first verse in the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” which means, “God created everything” or, as the Nicene Creed puts it, “of all things visible and invisible.”

If you came over to the Rectory, I might point out some projects - mulched flower beds, a driveway no one knew existed now dug down to the hard surface, landscape timbers on either side of the driveway, the newly painted porch. You might ask, “Who did did all these things?” and I would answer, “Susan did it all.”

In Genesis 1 Moses takes us on our tour of the world - light and darkness, the sun, moon, and stars, the seas and land, the fish and birds, all the land animals, and then the greatest and most complex thing God made - human beings. Pagans had various gods who made different things. But the Bible says, “The Lord God made them all.”

God began with nothing. Then he created the stuff of creation. Then he shaped it all to be just what he wanted it to be. Then he pronounced it all good.

You cannot begin to understand the universe or yourself till you know that God created everything.

3.2. Creator of man. God made man in his own image - both male and female.

You are the greatest thing God made. Of all the things created you are most like God. You are the pinnacle of his creation. The rest of creation is like a painting that reflects the artist. Human beings are like a child that looks and acts like the parent. We are the greatest thing God made, but we are not God. We cannot forget that God made us. We owe our existence to us. He is King over us. He is infinitely greater than we. He is Uncreated and our Creator.

God gave us the creation to rule over, to manage for him. Sometimes people reverse that and act as though humans are supposed to be subject to creation - that nature is good, and man is bad for nature, that man should submit to the creation. That reverses God’s plan. Man is in charge of creation.

But we are not the owners of creation. We must not forget that God is the ultimate Owner and Ruler. We are God’s stewards or managers who answer to him. The creation is not man’s lord. Man uses the creation and imposes his will on it. Nature is not lord. But God made us not to destroy the natural world, but to be good stewards and keepers of it.  This is our Father’s world.

God is Father, Almighty, the Creator of everything. He is your Father. You are under his Almighty care. You live in a world God made.

* “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is, to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (John Calvin, Institutes, vol. I, p. 35, Battles translation).



















































































































































































||