Back to Basics

 

Back to Basics part one

The Bible

 

Today’s text: Psalm 11:3, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

 

Never in the history of humanity have there been so many voices calling us

in so many directions and all at the same time. In days not too far removed from our century, before the advent of the printing press, information was typically conveyed only by word of mouth, from one person to another. It took days, sometimes weeks for news to travel from one community to another – IF that news even reached outlying communities.

 

But today, on June 25, 2023, email, text messages, cable news networks, radio talk shows, multiple social media outlets, electronic billboards, and dozens of other sources of information inundate our eyes and ears clamoring for our attention. And, to add to the confusion, all of those voices claim to be telling you the truth.

 

And let me say it right up front, at the beginning of this message: Anyone who tells you anything about God, about the incarnation of Jesus, about sin, righteousness, and eternal judgment – ANYTHING that is not supported by the whole of Scripture in context with the rest of Scripture and the historic teaching of the Christian Church from the first centuries – then they are liars, frauds, and deceivers who wittingly or unwittingly are workers for Satan.

 

Yes, those are severe accusations I make. But I stand with the apostle Paul who wrote to the Christians at Galatia: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:8-9)

 

And let me also add this word of warning – every heresy that has ever been whispered from the bowels of hell gets its strength by denying the inerrancy, infallibility, and full divine inspiration of the entire Bible.

Satan’s most often used strategy to lead people into moral and theological error has always been to convince them that the Bible is not the very words of God to us in printed form. That it is full of error, myths, and archaic philosophies and culturally assigned attitudes.

 

At Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the Roman governor said to the Lord, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

At that last statement, Pilate mocked, “What is truth?” he scoffed. (John 18:37-38) Then he turned and walked away without waiting for an answer.

But the faithful follower of Christ knows precisely where truth can be found – truth about God, about faith, morals, sin, forgiveness, and eternity . . .  We know such truth is found only in the pages of the Bible. And THAT is precisely why the enemy of our souls works tirelessly, tenaciously, and quite effectively, to seduce men and women away from confidence in the inerrancy and the infallibility of the Bible.

For millennia, Satan has convinced huge swaths of humanity – and a growing number of people in church pews and pulpits – that the Bible is untrustworthy, unreliable, and filled with myths and archaic ideas and attitudes unfit and unworthy for modern cultures.

Listen, my brothers and sisters –none of us is too old for Satan to have given up on trying to win us back to himself. And one of his strategies is to confuse you and me about the full inerrancy, infallibility, and inspiration of the Scriptures. That is why, as your pastor, I am focusing our attention once again on the Bible’s complete reliability and trustworthiness. I feel it necessary, especially as heretics and liars circulate in various churches around the country, I feel it is necessary to reinforce that foundation of our Christian faith because if we don’t stand firm on that point, then we will each remain at serious risk of losing the prize for which we have labored in Christ all our lives.

 

As I said at the beginning of this message, I’m referring to Psalm 11:3 for my primary text: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Let me remind you what the Lord Jesus said about foundations in His Sermon on the Mount?  “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Jesus told everyone there who was willing to hear – as He tells everyone today in this place who is willing to hear – His words are truth, and are the foundation of our life, AND of our eternal destiny. And because Jesus is Almighty God incarnate – Almighty God in the flesh – that means ALL of His words, from Genesis through Revelation are truth and are the foundation of our life and our eternal destiny.

But from the first days of human history, Satan implemented a nearly flawless strategy to beguile men and women away from truth. What was that strategy? He seduced Eve into questioning God's word, and all humanity has suffered because she got the answer wrong. And we suffer today because WE also continue to get the wrong answer.

 

I’ve spoken on this subject of Biblical inerrancy and infallibility dozens of times and in many contexts, but let me take a few minutes to review our terms:

 

Inspiration of the Bible means that “God breathed out” the words of the scripture, using human writers as His instruments. This does NOT mean the writers robotically wrote what God dictated. Divine inspiration means God ‘moved’ on these writers who then wrote as God the Holy Spirit guided them, using their personalities, their educational levels, their experiences, even their particular grammar and rules of language. However, the final result of their writing was the fully and final authoritative word of God.

Inerrancy means that, in the original manuscripts written by the hand of the original authors, such as Moses, Daniel, Isaiah, Matthew, John, Paul, or Peter – in the original manuscripts the Bible is without error. Period. This includes references to geography, history, science, and theology. The entire Bible, from Genesis through Revelation does not declare anything to be true that is, in fact, not true.

 

Infallibility means that the Scriptures are not only fully and finally authoritative when it comes to morality, sin, and judgment, but that God's laws are permanently binding on humanity. What was true of morality in the 15^th century B.C. is just as true in the 21^st century AD. When the Lord Jesus said, “the Scripture cannot be broken,” He meant it. And when He said further that not even a jot or tittle can pass away until all is fulfilled, He was not joking (John 10:34-35, Matthew 5:18).

 

The reason this doctrine of inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility is so vital to our salvation is that if we cannot trust the word of God to BE the inerrant word of God, then who gets to decide what is TRUTH about anything related to faith and morals, about sin and judgment? As the Psalmist wrote, and as I mentioned at the beginning of this message, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3)

If we succumb to Satan’s lies about the Scriptures, then we can end up following men like popular spiritual author Richard Rohr, who teaches a New Age heretical Christ, or we will follow some local false shepherds and pastors I have heard in the last couple of years who preach principles of pantheism and Hinduism; or another local pastor who told his congregation that homosexuality is a legitimate sexual expression.

 

For good reason, St. Jude warned the flock of God: “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)

 

Christian! Beware. A sure sign of a false teacher is one who does not believe in the full inerrancy, infallibility, and divine inspiration of the Bible. So then, let’s take a few minutes to remind ourselves WHY we can and should have confidence that the Bible is God's inerrant words to us.

 

The skeptics you challenge your faith in God's word are most often people who have NEVER actually even looked at the abundant evidence well- documented in theological and historical textbooks and journals, and all across the internet, evidence that proves to any open-minded and honest person that our Bibles are fully reliable and trustworthy.

First, let me also say this: It is a totally logical and rational position to believe the Bible is without error. Why? Well, consider for example what St Paul said when he stood trial before King Agrippa and Governor Festus. Paul’s defense centered around the resurrection of Jesus. As he looked across the faces of the religious clergy, the Roman politicians, and dignitaries before whom he stood, the apostle asked them all: “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8)

There could not be a more reasonable question. After all, God is, by very definition, omnipotent. That means He is ‘All Mighty.’ And it was this All Mighty creator who simply SPOKE and thereby created the entire heavens and the earth, the seas, the skies, the birds, the animals, and all the rest. It was this All Mighty God who created the first Man from the very dust of the ground, and then the woman from one of his ribs.

So, the crux of Paul’s defense rested on one specific detail: The All Mighty Creator did all that He did at the beginning of creation, so WHY is it so difficult to believe He could do something as SIMPLE as raising a corpse to life?

Likewise, if the All Mighty Creator merely spoke worlds into being – surely He is capable of doing something so simple as to preserve His words  through the pages of Scripture to His creatures, and to preserve them intact and without error.

If for no other reason than that, every Christian can and should have total confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible they hold in their hands.

Yes, there are certainly more, shall we say, ‘scholarly’ reasons we could offer the skeptic for our confidence in the Bible’s inerrancy and infallibility. I will mention some of them now only in passing, and I do so to simply demonstrate that the work of multiple historians, archeologists, linguists, and textual critics merely corroborate what any honest and rational person ought to know intuitively and instinctively – the Bible is God's infallible, inerrant, and inspired communication to humanity.

For example: “Archaeological finds in the 1920s confirmed the presence of cities much like Ur, described in Genesis 11, which some skeptics doubted had existed so early. Engravings discovered in an Egyptian tomb depict the installation of a viceroy [ruler] in a manner that exactly matches the biblical description of the ceremony involving Joseph (Genesis 41:39–42). Clay tablets dating to 2300 BC have been found in Syria strongly supporting Old Testament stories, vocabulary, and geography. Skeptics doubted the existence of the Hittites (Genesis 15:20; 23:10; 49:29), until a Hittite city, complete with records, was found in Turkey. [found at https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-reliable.html ] And these are only a few of the archeological evidences that support the Biblical narratives.

Then there is the favorite argument used by many skeptics to try to dismiss the Bible’s reliability – the parlor game known as ‘telephone.’ They argue that just as a phrase can become corrupted when whispered along a line of participants, so the Bible became corrupted after being copied by hand over the course of centuries.

However, such an excuse does not fit in the least with the known history of how the Scriptures were copied. More than a millennia ago, Jewish scribes solidified a process for creating copies of Torah which was carried through for centuries.

 

For example, each column of writing could have no less than forty-eight, and no more than sixty lines. The scribe had to verbalize each word aloud while they were writing. They also counted the letters, words, and paragraphs in each completed page, and the entire document became invalid if two letters touched each other. And finally, and only for the sake of time now, the scribes ensured that the middle paragraph, word, and letter had to correspond to those of the original document.

 

Then the ‘telephone’ skeptic has to explain what the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrated about the transmission and copying of the Biblical texts. Until 1948, the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament dated back to 895 A.D. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered some scrolls inside a cave West of the Dead Sea. These manuscripts dated back nearly 1000 years earlier than the earliest OT manuscripts scholars had available. The scrolls comprised every book of the Old Testament except Esther.

 

And guess what the biblical archeologists discovered when they compared the Dead Sea scrolls with the later manuscripts they had? The later manuscripts displayed a meticulous precision of copying. Only a miniscule number of differences could be found between the older and the newer manuscripts, and none of those discrepancies affected theology in any way.

 

How many skeptics who mock the idea of a reliable Bible know the history that supports the Bible’s reliability and trustworthiness? More important is the question, “How many are happy to simply scoff at the truth than to do a little investigation themselves?”

SO, why so much doubt and confusion about this fundamental and critical issue? Well, let’s go back to the Bible and we’ll find the answer. Since the very beginning of earth’s history, humanity’s mortal enemy has attacked the very foundation of what would define and nurture our relationship with our loving heavenly Creator.

What was it he said to Eve? “Indeed, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1) And with only minor permutations, he has used the same strategy to seduce men and women to doubt God's word, or to add to God's word, or to remove from His word, or to neglect it, avoid it, burn it, or despise it.

Again, we ought to ask ourselves the question, “Why is it so incredible to believe that God has spoken to you and me through the Scriptures, and that He has also preserved those Scriptures intact over the millennia?

Reader: You CAN trust the Bible to be the very word of the All Mighty God to you. It remains inerrant, infallible, and fully inspired. So, humbly read it. Study it. And practice what it says.

It is the foundation of your life now, and into eternity.

You will remember what Jesus said of the devil: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) And please also hear what the Lord said to those who followed Him – which is the same promise He makes to you and me: “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

As I close this message for today, I want to warn all of us: Satan still wants to enslave us to sin, to spiritual darkness, and to eternal agony. His strategy to accomplish those things is wrapped neatly in the package called: The Bible can’t be trusted.

Satan does not want us to know truth. He doesn’t want us to be free. He doesn’t want us to know he exists. He doesn’t want us to know about sin and about God's forgiveness. He doesn’t want us to know who God is – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He doesn’t want us to be convinced that God loves us, that He yearns to be reconciled with sinners. That He has prepared a place for all of us in that realm called heaven.

Listen – why is it so unreasonable to believe that God, who spoke everything we can see and cannot see into existence – why is it so unreasonable to believe the All Mighty God could ensure an accurate copying and transmission of His words to us in 2023 as written by the prophets and apostles?

Archeologists, linguists, historians, and textual critics only corroborate what every rational person should already know – the Bible we have in our hands is the very same Bible given to us by those prophets and apostles.

Are you consistently reading your Bible? Are you hiding it in your hearts? Do you believe what it says? Do you obey what it says?

 

Next time we will look at some of the things it does say – especially what it says about the incarnation of Jesus, and why it matters.

 

God of the Hills

 

For fifty years – yes, fifty – my agnostic friend, Gary, and I have had the same conversation: Does God exist, or doesn’t He? Does He care for us, or not?  

 

During those discussions, Gary sometimes vacillated between a tentative faith and a confident disbelief. And he never moved beyond the opinion that if there is a God, He rules only in heaven. To this very moment as I type on my keyboard, my childhood friend remains certain God is too busy to involve Himself in the affairs of each of the several billion members of the human family. If God exists, Gary argues, He set earth spinning and then left us to fend for ourselves. 

 

In more ways than he might imagine, Gary sounds like the Arameans of Elijah’s day. If it’s been a while since you’ve read the story, you’ll find it in 1 Kings chapter 20. Don’t let the foreign-sounding names like Ben-hadad, Aram, and Arameans distract you. The narrative is pretty simple to understand, even if you stumble over the names.  

 

Anyway, the Aramean army suffered a defeat at the hands of Ahab, who was the king of Israel at the time. Aram’s superstitious king reasoned: "Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they” (1 Kings 20:23). 

 

Sadly – and it will prove tragic if he does not change, Gary is somewhat like the Arameans. He doesn’t understand God is not limited to one place at a time. Nor is he aware of how intimately God knows us -- our thoughts, hopes, dreams, heartaches . . . . 

  

The Arameans lost their battles on the hills and in the valleys because they didn’t believe Almighty God extended beyond the hills. But Gary is in danger of losing something far greater because he won’t accept the truth that God’s embrace extends beyond the billions of men and women on this planet and reaches for his own specific heart.  

 

God is sovereign King of heaven and earth. And He longs to be our closest and most intimate and personal Friend. All we need to do is ask Him to forgive our unbelief and our sins and take us to Himself. 

 

We have His unchangeable promise: He will NEVER turn away any who asks Him for a new life, for a new start. 

 

 

We Can Trust It

 When St. Paul stood trial before King Agrippa and Governor Festus, his defense centered around the resurrection of Jesus. As he looked across the faces of the Jewish clergy, the Roman politicians and dignitaries before whom he stood, the apostle asked a most reasonable question: “Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead? (Acts 26:8)

Reasonable. And logical.

God is, by very definition, omnipotent – meaning, ‘All Mighty.’ And it was this All Mighty creator who simply SPOKE, and thereby created the entire heavens and the earth, the seas, the skies, the birds, the animals, and all the rest. It was this All Mighty God who created the first Man from the very dirt of the ground, and then the woman from one of his ribs.

So, the crux of Paul’s defense rested on one specific detail: The All Mighty did all that He did at the beginning of creation, then WHY is it so difficult to believe He could do something as SIMPLE as raising a corpse to life?

Which brings us now to another defense today’s Christian can make regarding our faith. It’s a reasonable and logical question we should ask the skeptical clergy, scholar, politician, and man and woman on the street. This question has to do with the inerrancy, infallibility, and full inspiration of Scripture.

I mean, since the All Mighty Creator spoke worlds into being – surely He capable of doing something so simple as to preserve His communication (the Bible) to His creatures intact and without error.

Yes, we could examine now the various evidences that support the Christian’s claim of Bible inerrancy. And yes, many historians, archeologists, linguists, and textual critics have examined such evidence over the centuries. But all they have done is to merely corroborate what any honest and rational person ought to know intuitively and instinctively – the Bible is God's infallible, inerrant, and inspired communication to men and women.

So, why so much doubt and confusion about the issue? Well, go back to the Bible and we’ll find the answer. Since the very beginning of earth’s history, humanity’s mortal enemy has attacked the very foundation of what would define and nurture our relationship with our loving heavenly Creator.

What was it he said to Eve? “Indeed, hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1) And with only minor permutations, he has used the same strategy to seduce men and women to doubt God's word, or to add to God's word, or to remove something from His word, or to neglect it, avoid it, burn it, or despise it.

Again, we ought to ask ourselves the question, “Why is it so incredible to believe that God has spoken to you and me through the Scriptures, and that He has also preserved those Scriptures intact over the millennia?

Reader: You CAN trust the Bible to be the very word of the All Mighty God to you. It remains inerrant, infallible, and fully inspired. So, humbly read it. Study it. And practice what it says.

It is the foundation of your life now, and into eternity.

Father's Day Message

 

June 18, 2023

Father’s Day

 

Today is Father’s Day – the day set aside to honor our fathers. Originally, the sentiment behind the honoring of fathers was rooted in a loving familial relationship between children and their fathers – although our culture has so dissolved and devolved that such a loving relationship seems to be more the exception than the rule.

 

Some of you know my own experience with my fathers – plural. Al – my first father, the one who gave me his DNA – Al left Mom and my sister Andrea when I was four years old. I saw him only on rare occasions afterward. When I was 18, I asked my mom to set up a meeting with him. I wanted to ask him why he deserted me and Andrea. I vividly remember his response. Without a moment’s hesitation, he told me: “Because I wanted to.”

 

Tom Maffeo, the man who married mom several years later and who legally adopted me and Andrea, was a very angry and mean-spirited man. When I got older, I was able to cut him some proverbial slack because I learned his own father was an abusive alcoholic. But, nonetheless, Tom Maffeo never embraced me. Never told me he was proud of me. Never visited my scout meetings or high school football games. He was an essentially absent father who seemed to think his role as a parent was simply to bring home his paycheck.

Although many of you here had wonderful and loving fathers, in a group as diverse as this, statistically I can be confident that my story is not too dissimilar to some of your own. Or, if not similar to your stories, mine may be similar to the stories of children that you know – grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or the children of close friends.

I didn’t know how endemic this tragedy is until I did some research for this message. According to a 2022 US Census Bureau report, one in four children today – 25% -- are living without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. That’s 18.4 million boys and girls. To give us some perspective, that’s enough fatherless children to fill New York City twice, or Los Angels four times.

And so, because of the so many tragic stories around us, my message today is an important one for you, for me, and for all who never knew the loving embrace of a father.

Why? Because the comforting, consoling, and heartening truth is, everyone, anyone can each have a deeply personal and passionately intimate relationship with the One who created us to have that kind of relationship with Himself.

Jesus and all of the New Testament writers speak of God as Creator. But it speaks of God as Father to only those who are adopted by Him through their faith in the atoning sacrifice of God the Son, who is the second Person of the Triune Being we know as God. At the conclusion of this message, I’ll come to this point about who is truly a child of God, but for now let it suffice to only say that God WANTS all men and women to be His children.

So, since this is Father’s Day, and the Fatherhood of God is so vital to our life and our sense of self-worth, I will spend the rest of our time today looking at this one question, “What is God the Father like”?

The answer is not as difficult to determine as it might seem at first. Do you remember when Jesus told the religious leaders: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30). What Jesus meant by that simple phrase – and the religious leaders knew precisely what Jesus meant, which is why they picked up stones to execute Him for blasphemy – Jesus meant that He and the Father are one substance. One essence. Jesus, along with the Holy Spirit, are co-existent, co-equal, and co-eternal with each other. He meant that there never was a time when He did not exist.

That’s part of what the Holy Spirit tells us in that first chapter of John’s gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This is important to the question, “What is God the Father like?” because it dovetails precisely to the conversation He and Philip had in the 14^th chapter of the same gospel.

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:8-9)

So, to answer the question of what the Father is like, we need only to look at what Jesus is like, since He and the Father are one essence, one Being, although three Persons.

And what is Jesus like?  For the sake of time, we will look at only a few of His attributes in answer to the question on this Father’s Day.

First, St. John tells us God ‘IS’ love. St Paul defines love this way: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13)

Now while we cannot now take the time to unpeel these characteristics of love as they each relate to God (meaning, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) we should recognize that the Triune Being is PATIENT. And KIND.

That means He is not standing at His throne, combing through the affairs of your life, systematically seeking a reason to whip you into line. That’s because He already whipped His only begotten Son who stood in YOUR place.

But some might ask for proof of His love, especially when their life is so full of disappointments and heartaches and loss and pain.

I remember asking Him that question a long time ago. Nearly half a century ago. I accused Him of not loving me, not caring about me, because of all I was going through at the time.  But then, in the midst of my accusations, I suddenly saw Him. I won’t say I had a vision, but I saw Him as clearly with my mind’s eye as if seeing Him in person.

As I looked into the cloudless sky, a cross appeared. As I stared at it, it slowly turn on its axis, 180 degrees. And then I saw the Father’s proof of His love for me, even in the midst of my own pain. I saw Jesus hanging there. He was looking right at me. His eyes soft. And tender. I will NEVER forget that moment.

How do you know the Father loves you?  Because Jesus, who ‘IS’ God in the flesh, went willingly to that cross, willingly STAYED on that cross, until the penalty for your sins and mine was fully, totally, eternally paid.

It doesn’t matter what was our experience with our earthly father – whether it was a good relationship or a terrible one. It doesn’t matter, and it SHOULD NOT matter when we are comparing our earthly father with our creator and heavenly Father. He alone in all the universe of universes is perfect and pure in all ways. And He loves you.

As we look at Jesus to explain and define for us the Father, we turn to Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome: ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . .  ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Your Father on this Father’s Day – and on EVERY day – is not itching to beat you into submission. Don’t let that lie of Satan, who wants us to think our Father is perpetually angry with us – don’t let that lie sink into your soul.

Which brings us to the second point about who the Father is. For this, let’s look at Jesus’ opinion of hypocrites. What did He, who is God incarnate -- what did Jesus warn those who practiced hypocrisy, especially as it relates to Christian faith?

¹³ “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in . . . . ¹⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves . . . ²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. . . . ²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you . . . outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness . . . ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?”

Whoa! Our Father in heaven had some pretty hard words of warning for hypocrites, didn’t he? Think of all the hypocrites you’ve known in churches you attended and who, because of their hypocrisy, caused many to stumble and fall away from Christ. Think of the church leaders and televangelists who lived hypocritical lives and, when their sins were found out, led multitudes away from Christ.

And don’t think for a moment that our HOLY Father in heaven does not also warn us against our own practice of hypocrisy. Don’t think for a moment that He ignores how WE cause others to stumble when our walk consistently undermines our talk.

Which now brings us to yet another attribute of our Father in heaven as seen lived out in Jesus. God is eager to forgive our sins. Even the most egregious of sins.

Remember what Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery. “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

FORGIVENESS. Why else would God the Holy Spirit move St Paul to write: Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:1, 8-10)

And a few chapters later, Paul follows up with this promise of God: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

It does not matter – it MUST NOT matter – if our earthly father held a grudge against us for things we did wrong. Our heavenly Father NEVER holds a grudge. He “does not take into account a wrong suffered.”

Which now brings us to the final attribute of God the Father as evidenced by God the Son on this Father’s Day. He promised to never leave us. That means our heavenly Father never rejects ANY of His children. Nor will He ever do that.

Here is yet another example of how our human experiences with people – even with earthly fathers – can dilute and color our confidence in our heavenly Father’s trustworthiness. It is the experience of far too many of us that people have rejected us, time and again. Whether by parents, or friends, or children, or a spouse —such things happen all too often in life, either to us or to those we care about.

But – and this is an important word, ‘But.” But such things NEVER happen with regard to our Father who is in heaven. Did not Jesus say, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you?” (Hebrews 13:5) Did He not say, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age”?

On this Father’s Day when we remember all the good things that our earthly father was – or the good things we WISH our earthly father was – we must get it into our souls on this Father’s Day 2023 – and every day for the remainder of our earthly lives – that our heavenly Father is above all that we can ask or think or even dream about regarding what it means to have a father who loves us.

Let me bring this message to a close in this way: If you are a child of God, if you belong to Him because of your faith in God the Son, then you have a Father in heaven unlike any earthly father who has ever lived and who ever will live.

You have love like no one has ever or can ever be loved apart from Him. You have a Father who demands you and me to live in holiness. You also have His vow to always forgive us and to embrace us each time we fail Him but return to Him in repentance. And if you are a child of God, you have His vow to never, ever leave you.

All these, and so much more that we could not examine today for the sake of time – all these unalterable promises belong to the child of God.

Which rightly brings me to the critical question: Are you a child of God? We all must know that not everyone is His child. Yes, we are all His creation, but we are not – by that act of creation – we are not all adopted into His family. The scriptures tell us: “He [Christ] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:10-13)

I must ask it again – are YOU a child of God? Have you confessed to God that you are a sinner through and through, and that you deserve His wrath because of your sins?

Have you told Him you’re sorry for the way you’ve lived your life, and that you want to now serve Him as a slave for the rest of your days?

Have you asked Jesus to wash away your sins with His blood shed on that cross? Have you followed Him in water baptism? And are you striving each day to live a life of obedience to His commandments?

If you answer yes to those questions, then I will repeat what I have said in this message: Every promise God has made to His children – every promise – applies to you. Say it aloud – Every promise your heavenly Father makes to His children belongs to YOU.

Today is Father’s Day. Most of us in this room have long ago buried their fathers and are therefore no longer able to honor them. But our Father who art in heaven – He lives forever.

Take time today to thank your heavenly Father for His love, His commandments, His forgiveness, His continuous presence with us every moment of every day of our lives.