The Perfect Father

Thank you for the kind introduction. It's a privilege to be here. We've enjoyed the really enjoyed our time of fellowship here. Very special work, I believe God is doing here. And Lisa and I, we believe you're greatly encouraged this week. So thank you so much for your graciousness and the good food. We like to have the temperatures a little cooler, but, you know, that's the way it is. I think it's that way in Georgia and back in Louisville now, everywhere now. So anyway, so let's be about the business for which we are here. And I need to take your Bibles in turn to Galatians chapter four. And tonight we'll be talking about the perfect father. The perfect father, fatherhood, and I am privileged to be employed by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and so fatherhood and things related to gender in the home and church are topics that I am very passionate about, and so And I don't want to look at fatherhood. So I want to read, I want to deal with only verses four through seven, but I want to read the entire rather verses one through seven. So Paul writes on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, also, we, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, father. So you're no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Let's pray together. Father, we ask now that you would prepare our hearts to receive your word, that you would make the soil of our hearts good and that you would plant your word deep in our hearts and cause an abundant harvest of righteousness to grow up in us. I pray, Lord, that we would not be guilty of trafficking and unlived truth, but we would live these things for your glory, that you might conform us to the image of your son, the image of the one who died and gave himself up for us, this brother, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you would do this for your own glory. In Jesus name, Amen. So we give two testimonies about fatherhood. And incidentally, this is kind of going to sound like this morning. I don't always begin every sermon with like two illustrations that I read to read to you. So it's just sort of happened as I sit there, realize that these terms begin almost the same way. So this is not always the way we begin. But just today, this is how we begin. Testimony number one, and these were given to Mary Cassian, who's one of our board members at CBMW. My relationship with my dad is an extension of my relationship with God, the father. I enjoy being with my dad a lot. Dad loves life. He is affectionate. He gives and wants affection. He is generous. And with my dad, I always felt safe, supported and provided for. This has made it easy for me to accept God as father. I think I would be a mile behind in Christianity had it not been for a strong relationship with my dad. Testimony number two, not as encouraging. My dad was constantly angry. If I did something wrong, he would fume and rant and rave. If I was late, if I misplaced something, if I made a mistake, he would be on my back like a hawk with talons extended. He was impatient with me. I can hardly remember a time when he wasn't stressed and angry about something. Dad rarely smiled. I continually sensed his displeasure, even when I wasn't doing anything wrong. When I think of God, the father, I picture him as an angry judge, I feel like I need to perform and be as perfect as I can, lest his anger be directed at me. To me, God, the father, is the angry God who vengefully punishes sin and cast sinners into fiery torment, a totally fire and brimstone type personality. What do you think of when you think of your earthly father? Chances are, when you think of your earthly father, what are you what you think of him will largely determine if we are not informed by scripture, our consciences are informed by scripture will determine what you think about God. But it is, as John Calvin said, genuine wisdom consists in knowledge of God and knowledge of self and what Calvin meant by that was simply this. Now, when we know God as holy and righteous and just and good, then we'll know ourselves as sinful and depraved and undone and desperately in need of grace. So when you know God accurately, you will know yourself accurately and vice versa. And so our consciences, our minds must be informed by scripture. It is very critical that we have a clear and accurate picture of God, the father, but one informed by scripture. In fact, J.I. Packer said this, You sum up the whole New Testament teaching in a single phrase if you speak of it as a revelation of the fatherhood of the holy creator. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life. It means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. So what do we think about fathers? What do we think about our father? What do we think about God, the father? Well, then my purpose here, I had purposes essentially twofold. This is by no means a sermon merely for fathers. I want to accomplish two things with this teaching. First, if you are a father, I want you to see a picture of what your own fatherhood should look like or if you're a future father. And guys in here, you're either a father or hopefully a future father, Lord willing. So I want you to see a picture of what your own fatherhood should look like, because God is our father and he is the earthly the pattern for earthly fatherhood. As a father, you must pray for God's grace to be a father in this mold, in the mold of our glorious God. And secondly, all of us have earthly fathers. Some of you, some of us were blessed with godly fathers, but many were not. I was I'm very, very thankful that God in his mercy saw fit to give me a very godly father who was a very accurate picture. I think of God, our father, not perfect by any means. There are no perfect fathers and we'll get to that in due time. But if you we want you to rejoice, I want you to rejoice if you have a good earthly father who is godly, but if not, I want you to come to see that. God is your true father, and you must not view God through the lens of your sinful earthly father, but you must see God as he really is the only perfect, wise, holy, loving, just, strong father, the absolutely perfect leader, provider and protector. The only one is perfect. So we must not determine our view. of God, our heavenly father, through the lens of our fallen, sinful, imperfect, earthly fathers, which all of we fatherless on some level are fallen and sinful and imperfect. And I say that as a father. Rather, we must derive our view of fatherhood through the lens of God, the perfect father. Now, in order to see what we're after, I want to read testimony number three. I think this is getting closer to the ideal. When I think about my two fathers, earthly and heavenly, the picture that comes to mind is that of a warped, smudged window. God is on the other side of this window. My dad is the window. I see God through the warped window of my dad so that the image I have of God, the father, is really warped. Emotionally, I fear ridicule. I fear not meeting his expectations. I fear closeness and intimacy, but. God has revealed to me through his word that my heavenly father is not anything like my dad. I have begun to pray that God would give me the strength to move the window of my earthly dad aside so I can see my heavenly father clearly for who he is. And so it is. We must always be informed by scripture, our authority. So that's what we're after. Now, again, to set the context. Paul is here in the midst of arguing that sinners are justified, made right with God by faith in Christ and not by keeping of the law and showing that Christ has redeemed them, the Galatian church, from the curse of the law because the Galatian church was in danger of embracing the heresy of salvation by works. While Paul calls another gospel, and there is indeed no other gospel, he says, and we're in all times and all ages, we're in danger of embracing this other gospel, this heretical gospel of salvation by words and Paul's correcting their erroneous view. And specifically here in this chapter, in chapter four, Paul is speaking of the way in which the new covenant under the grace of God, under the grace of Christ, differs from the old covenant under the law of God. And so a three main point, three main attributes of our father. And the first one is this. God is a kingly father. Look at verse four. But when the fullness of time had come. God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law, God is the author of history, our father's written the books of history, you see him speaking of books in Scripture, he's speaking typically of the book of history. God has made all things in a superintending history to his desired end. And at the right moment in history, God brought his incarnate son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to rescue his people from sin and death through Christ's virgin birth and sinless death and resurrection. And God has written the book of human history and is superintending every millisecond, every day, every person, every event to bring about his plan for the good of his people and the glory of his name. And this means, similar to what I said this morning, that God, our Father, is sovereign over every molecule and every atom, every grain of sand, every cancer cell, every universe and planet and star and insect, every microburst, every automobile, every breath, every day we have on this earth is a gift from his hand. And he is sovereign and ruling and reigning over it. So if you are alive tonight and you're here to hear this, you are in attendance tonight, then you are Brought here by the grace of God, because, as I read this morning, Psalm 139 in your book, the book of history were written every one of them. The days were planned for me, even as before any of them existed. God is the author of history. And so what are the implications of this for us as his children? I think one implication is that God is our protector. He is our fatherly figure. He will always protect us. He will always keep us. We have a father who will always protect us in every circumstance. And maybe it won't turn out as we planned, but according to his good, by his grace, I mean, for his good and for his glory, God will always protect us. Because before the world began, God planned to send his only son at the right time to die in the place of sinners. This is similar to what Paul says in Romans 5, 6. He says, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. What good news that is, and it's while we were still weak at the right time in the fullness of time, Christ died for the ungodly. And in time, God executed his plan of redemption first by choosing an ethnic people, Israel, who came from one chosen man, Abraham, entering into a covenant with them, redeeming them from slavery out of Egypt. And then through the types and shadows and pictures as seen in the sacrifice of of bulls and goats and temple worship and in the ceremonies such as the Passover, God promised to send one who would finally and fully put away sin once and for all in a way that the blood of bulls and goats never, ever could. And so at the right time, God sent his only son, born of a woman, to bear the wrath for undeserving sinners on Calvary. And on the third day, he raised him from the dead. I think about it. We mark time this way. The central event in human history is the cross of Christ. We mark time by B.C. and A.D., before Christ and in Odom and in the year of our Lord. We live in 2010, A.D., in the year of our Lord. So the central event in human history is the cross of Christ as we mark it on our Gregorian calendars. Jesus said it this way in Mark one, 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. God, our father, did all this in his power and infinite wisdom, there was nothing at all left to chance and because he is sovereign and the sovereignty includes all those other attributes, his omniscience, his omnipotence, his omnipresence, all those things are bound up in this God. The father is a kingly father and he is able to protect us to the uttermost. Secondly, he is also a rescuing father. Again, this is even an extension of our protection. Of course, he rescues his children from sin and death. Second part of verse four, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. And in this relationship. Between God, the father and God, the son, the first person of the Godhead and the second person of the Godhead, we see the beauty and the crucial nature of gender language in Scripture. And in his language, we must not tamper with this language has become in Bible translation somewhat controversial in our day, the rise of feminism, but we must not tamper with it. And God uses male pronouns, not because he has a male fixation or he is a male, but because the symbolism most accurately represents his essence. Who he is in relationship with the other members of the divine nature, the Trinity, and who he is in relationship to human beings. There's so much significance in this. God is father, Jesus is son, father and son is how they relate. And this tells us there's so much profundity in this language, in these small words. I mean, the Holy Spirit inspired all of it, every jot, every title, every pronoun, masculine or feminine. And the symbolism most accurately represents his essence and who he is in relationship to the other members of the Godhead. The imagery is extended to the father's relationship with us, and that means the ladies that redeemed women along with men are figuratively sons of God, so all of us are sons of God, and this should not be a reason for offense by us. We relate to the first person of the Trinity as a child relates to a father. Using other gender imagery, the Bible teaches that redeem men together with women are the bride of Christ. So if the lady should be offended at being called sons and we men should be offended to be calling the bride. But no, there's so much rich significance in the gender language. Christ has a husband wife relationship with his church, according to Ephesians five. And so there's much significance in that as to what our marriages and our homes should look like. Guys loving our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her and ladies submitting intelligently, graciously to your husbands as unto the Lord. But, of course, many in our day want to edit this language out and smooth it out. They want to edit God. Many find the gender imagery discriminatory. And some translators have begun to gloss over it or even rewrite it out of the Bible, their translations that actually take this approach. And that's part of their appeal. That's part of their selling point is we are gender neutral. But. Not only do we insult God by changing his self-revealed designation, we also lose sight of deep, profound, beautiful object lessons that Scripture intends to teach by the use of this specific gender language. I mean, God has made us male and female, and this fact is not trivial or unimportant, but on the contrary, it is vitally important that we honor God's design for male and female. Because the male-female relationship was meant to mirror deep, profound truths about the nature and character of God. When we talk about God making us male and female, we say something about God. I don't mean anything like God's feminine side or anything like that. There's a lot of really goofy and strange and heterodox teaching out there about this. But the Bible uses gender imagery for a reason. And the reason is not, as some have argued, that God favors one sex over the other. I said God has a male fixation or the authors of the Bible have a male fixation. The author of the Bible was the Holy Spirit of God. God does not refer to men as bride because he values women more than men, nor does he call women sons because he values males more than females. And he seeks to lessen their significance. No, he calls men bride to teach of the love and intimacy and oneness of Christ's relationship to the church. He calls women sons because, ladies, you are included by grace in the same category as his only son, Jesus, and this speaks of his depth of love for you. And Jesus is God's begotten son, I am God's adopted son. So if we think the symbolism has something to do with one sex being superior than the other, we are totally missing the point. Because the symbolism has little to do with us and everything to do with God, remember who's the hero of scripture, it's God. It's God, and far from being exclusive, we would be hard pressed to find symbols that include women in God's agenda to a greater extent than the ones he has revealed. The gender imagery of the Bible is beautiful and it ought to be embraced and not neutered. So God, the father, has a son and in love, he sacrificed him for sinners. Who is this son? The son is both God and man. The text tells us God sent forth his son born of a woman that speaks of his humanity and his deity. I think about it. He is both the son of God and the son of man. He is the divine son of God. He sent forth his son, God's son. So Jesus is fully God, he is also fully man as one who was born of a woman. So here we have a very concise form, the incarnation. And as the divine son, Jesus is the exact imprint of his father. If you've seen Jesus Christ, the son, you have seen the father. Scripture also tells us that Jesus has the same personality as the father, so he is just and loving and patience and forgive sins and all these things that God the Father is so Christ is. Jesus does what his father does are our Lord knows his father intimately. And he is the way to his father's house, this is the one whom he is sent to redeem sinners like us to rescue us, how? You see, God, the rescue in the second part of verse five, Christ was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. God came to rescue his people from the prison of the law and slavery to the law. And what do I mean by this? How are we shut up in prison? How are we enslaved to the law? Turn back a page to Galatians three verses 13 and 23 through 26. Chapter 3, verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Verses 23 through 26. Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law. There it is. We were held captive. We were enslaved by the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. So there it is. We were under the elementary principles of the world, chapter four, verse three says we were condemned by the law, we were cursed by the law, we had God had, we'd come into the world and we were under the curse of the law and Christ bore the curse for us. We were enslaved. We could not earn our own righteousness. So Christ came and lived a sinless life, fulfilled the law in our place, and we were made right. How? By that perfect righteousness imputed to us by his keeping of the law. Both his active and passive obedience are given to us as the only man who ever kept the law. So Christ fulfilled the law. He did not come to do away with the law. Now, I'm not saying that Christ came to abrogate the law. I don't believe that. I believe Christ came to fulfill the law, but not to abrogate the law. The law has meant much significance for us today, but not as a means of salvation. We're no longer a slave, no longer condemned by the law. I mean, think about it, we deserved to bear the punishment for our sins, we deserve to bear the curse of the law, every bit of it, every sin. And yet Christ on the cross bore it in our place that we so richly deserve, he became a curse for us. And now we are reconciled to him. And this provision of our great father should give us immense comfort in Romans 8, 32, he did he who did not spare his own son, but freely gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? What a blessed redemption, what a great rescuing father we have in heaven. I mean, think about God's great wisdom and adoption. I mean, all three members of the Trinity are involved in adoption here. You see God sending forth his son, sending the son born of a woman. Christ comes, redeems those who are under the law. And of course, the spirit is sent into our hearts, crying out the father to apply redemption. So you see the beauty of this redemption, the richness of it. All three persons of the Godhead playing a different, a significant role, but a different role. These these these each one equal in deity, equal in value, equal in essence, and yet playing a different role. And that says much about our own marriages and homes. And I won't go into that as a different teaching for a different time. But there's great significance in that. But he gave us all three members of the Godhead were involved in this adoption. So God is a father who rescues us from the orphanage of sin and death. And he is also a father who adopts us into his family. And that is my third point. God is also an adopting father. Verses five through seven. To redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Adoption, we talked about this in Sunday school, I love your adoption Sunday school class sat in there this morning was greatly, greatly edified and encouraged their adoptions becoming part of the fabric of this congregation, because adoption is when God makes you and me rebellious sinners, a member of his own family. That is adoption. I mean, what manner of love is this for rebellious sinners when God's word tells us in first John three one, see what kind of love the father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are. And the reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. So not all of us are adopted. There's a teaching out there. This is we're all sons and daughters of God. No. Not all our sons and daughters, not all are adopted. The reason why the world does not know you is that all that it did not know him, not all were adopted brothers and sisters, but you are if you're in Christ. And I know of no better human illustration than my dear friend Russ Moore. You're reading his book in the adoption class. Russ and Maria Moore have been friends of ours for many years, and they adopted these two sons, Benjamin and Timothy, out of a Russian orphanage. We remember this process very well and Russ telling us how filthy and just rotten this orphanage was and how they went in there and saw these two boys lying in their own filth and how it broke their hearts and how there were so many children lying in there, their diapers being changed only maybe once a day, being fed once a day, covered and spit up flies all over the place. But think about this. This is this is adoption. This is what God does just as Russ and Maria. What a beautiful picture of the gospel. They go in and they adopt these two boys into this family. They come. They take them out. And it's precisely what God does for us while we were sinners, while we were shaking our fists in his face and going our own way and living our own lives. He loved us and gave his son for us. What a what a beautiful picture of the gospel adoption is. Because he sent his son. And what was our response to the son? We murdered him. We killed him. And yet God graciously adopts these same sinners, you and me, into his family. What marvelous love is this? What matchless grace is this? That he adopts us out of this orphanage of our own sinfulness, our own squalor, our own filth. J.I. Packer calls adoption the highest privilege that the gospel offers. You might say, well, why? Why not justification? I mean, justification by faith, after all, this was one of the great doctrines recovered in the Reformation. Luther called it, a sinner called it the standing or falling of the church. And of course, justification was one of the great doctrines recovered in the Reformation. I mean, it is, after all, God's forgiveness of our past and future sins. And it is a declaration that we are righteous and right with God. The law condemns us, as we've just read, but God justifies us by his grace. And yes, it is true, justification is a fundamental blessing of the gospel, the first and most immediate consequence of Jesus' death and resurrection. But adoption is an even higher privilege, Packer says, and I agree with this because it tells us not only has the judge declared you right with him, but the judge has loved you and has become your father and has made you a member of his own family. He has given you a home, he has given you a father. And the family that is adoption, I mean, to be made right with God, the judge is a great thing, a glorious reality. But the love, but to be loved and cared for by God, the father is greater still. Because through adoption, we see and feel and experience in a most tangible way, the unspeakable riches of the new birth or birth into a new family. We think of the staggering implications of this. Again, think of the language of Scripture, brothers and sisters of spirit inspired every word. And we must take every word seriously and tease out the implications of every word being adopted. At least three implications here quickly. First of all, adoption is a family idea. I kind of alluded to this earlier, but think about it. I heard this in the adoption class today. This is great. This means that you now have a new family, a new family. Is your earthly family deeply dysfunctional? Welcome to Genesis three world. All of our families, no matter how many how much blue blood we have in our families, are at some level dysfunctional. There are no unbroken families in this world. I mean, was or is your father a deadbeat dad? If you have trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, you have a wonderful new family of brothers and sisters in Christ and a new father who is perfect in wisdom and love, perfect in providing for you, perfect in protecting you. And he will never leave nor forsake you. You now have the only truly promise keeping father that exists, there are no promise keepers on this earth. Perfectly, I mean, strictly speaking, God is the promise keeper. Because even the most godly earthly father remains deeply, deeply flawed. That's why our fatherhood must be informed by Scripture. Think about this new family, it's God's new ethnos, his new people, there is a new ethnicity encompassing every tribe and tongue and nation. I am no longer a Georgia boy or a Southern boy or an American or a Russian or an Asian. I'm a Christian. It's a new family and this is my true family. Jesus said this in so many places, did he not? This is my true family. I mean, you have now have brothers and sisters, a new family called the church who will love you and pray for you, who will encourage you, will help guard your life and doctrine through membership in the new family. That's why church membership is so vitally important. Church discipline is absolutely irreducible Christianity, I think. Because we love each other enough to keep each other, to keep each other accountable, to watch and guard our life and doctrine together, just like we would our own families. And there's these analogies are direct here. So adoption is a family idea. Another implication, adoption is for eternity. Adoption abides. Of course, the breakup of the American family has been well, well chronicled. It is one of the great tragedies of our age and the fallout and the wreckage from it are all around us. But the family of God is neither dysfunctional nor will it collapse through divorce or betrayal or death. The familial standing of a child of God is assured and he will be kept by the grace of God, he will call you to persevere in faith. Right now, he is birthing through his intercessory work, birthing faith in you, causing you to continue to believe, causing you to continue to be a part of this family. I mean, let's face it, sometimes bad fathers throw children out of earthly families, they make them leave, they send them away. But God is a perfect father and his adopting love is certain in your position in this family is secure. So adoption is for eternity, third implication. You have a glorious new identity. You've put on something entirely new. I'm no longer primarily a Robinson. I'm a Christian, you're no longer you are no longer a slave, but a son. And this should be the controlling truth, just like as J.I. Packer mentioned of your new life in Christ. Because Jesus always thought about himself as son of God in a unique sense. So he always thought of his followers as children of his heavenly father, members of the same family as himself in many places in Scripture. Just one example, Mark 335. He said, whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother. So whoever God's will is being done in this world, there you find the family of God, the people of God, those adopted sons and daughters of God. This is who you are. This is your primary identity. It is bound up in Christ and in his covenant people, the church. Those are three obvious implications, I know there's many, many more, but through adoption, God has also given you his spirit. In verse six, he has placed his spirit in your heart, crying, Abba, Father. I love what Paul David Tripp says is God has literally unzipped you and climbed inside you in the person of his Holy Spirit and has taken up residence in you. Wow. I mean, God has, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, sealed you with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee or the down payment of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. And so now you call him of a father, an intimate title of father, a title appropriate only from the lips of children aimed at a father. No longer near need fear God as judge, a judge who will condemn you, who is primarily angry, who has anger issues. We need to fear him as that God. And God is wrathful. We don't we don't mitigate his wrath. And we certainly do and must proclaim his wrath because the scripture proclaims it that way towards sinners. You're no longer you're no longer a slave, but a son. You relate to him in an intimate way, an intimate way as father. Paul puts it this way in Romans 8, 15 and 16, for you did not fall back into fear. But you have received the spirit of adoption. There it is again, the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba Father and the spirit himself bears witness with us that we are children of God. And so we are by his grace. God provides us assurance of sonship through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Then in verse 17 of Romans 8, he goes on to say the same thing. He says here in our final verse in Galatians 4, 7, he says, and if you were children, then you were heirs, fellow heirs with Christ. So it is the spirit of his son he has placed into our hearts as part of our inheritance. And he is conforming us by the spirit into the image of this son, conforming us into his own image, because you've seen the father, you've seen or you've seen the son, you've seen the father. So God has given you his spirit, he's also made you an heir. Verse seven, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. You are no longer. A slave imprisoned by the law, which you have broken and been condemned by. You've been condemned through the law, condemned to death, been taken off death row and made a son through Christ, your brother. And you've been adopted and have, Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, 4, an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You have a great inheritance. You've inherited a new family. new identity, eternal life through Christ, your brother, and as a son of God, you've received all the blessings and privileges of the kingdom of God as Christ's co-heir. I mean, can even the greatest, the best, the most godly earthly father give you an inheritance like this? No, we cannot, but. It is the task of every earthly father to be pointing his sons and daughters to this great inheritance, to this great father beyond himself, to this unfading inheritance. To this invisible city, which is more real than the city we see now, as Augustine said, two cities, the city of God and the city of man driven by two loves, love to God and love to self. But this city we cannot see is far more real than the city that we can see. Fathers, part of your task is to point your sons and daughters to that city, much as evangelists did to Pilgrim Christian and Pilgrim's Progress. Because you have an unfading inheritance, and if you are in Christ, you have a new father, one who is a kingly father, one who is a rescuing father, one who has adopted you into his family. So what implications does this have for earthly fathers? Very quickly, in closing, I give you four. four implications for earthly fatherhood. Why is pray for your pray for your husband, so they will be this kind of father, children, pray for your dad, you'll be this kind of father. First application, just as God reigns as king over his created order, so, dad, you have been called to be the head of your own home. Just as God held Adam in Genesis responsible for sin and death, the sin and death that wrecked the world. After he allowed his wife to foolishly take the fruit and disobey God and feed some to him. So God will hold you accountable for how you have led in the home. God has called you to a solemn task. To be his vice regent in the home, so how are you doing, Dad? Are you leading your wife by serving her, by loving her as Christ loved the church and gave him up for her? Is your headship loving and nourishing of your wife? Does it encourage spiritual growth in her? Does it empower her to carry out the gifts God has given her as your sister in Christ? Does it empower her for spiritual maturity or is it your version of headship? Is it is it harsh and bullying? Is it just woman get my chips? Because it is it is a biblical headship, but a sinful distortion. Biblical headship. You must repent and ask God to teach you about genuine, mature, servant oriented headship from his word. It's a crying need of the hour in our churches as godly men to lead the church and to lead the home. Deeply burdened for our churches on this on this score. What about your children? Are you bringing your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord? Or are you teaching them that dad spend most of their time at the golf course, at work or playing Xbox? or something else. Training them in godliness is a fundamental part of your calling, dad, and you will give an account to God. I will give an account to God for how you carried out this masculine mandate. Let us be faithful. Second application. Just as God is a father who rescues his people and protects them, so you are called to provide for and protect your family. And first, I think the implication is is clear. I mean, are you providing a living to meet your family's needs or. Do you have your wife out in the workplace so you can have all the big boy toys and a lot of debt and all these things you're seeking to service? You're called to be the primary provider. I know there are all kinds of situations we can talk about those for a long time. But you're called to be the primary provider and are you protecting your family from influences both outside and inside the home? Are you protecting them spiritually by teaching them a thoroughly Christian worldview so that when they go to college, they can stay, they stand firm for Christ when they're brilliant? But atheistic professor tells them the Bible is filled with errors and that Jesus Christ was merely a man who died and had his body eaten by dogs. What are you teaching them? Because you are rescuing them by teaching them a thoroughgoing biblical worldview. And Ephesians 6 says, fathers, you are given the task of raising them, the discipline instruction of the Lord. Just as Adam gave an account, so will we. Third implication or application, God has left you a great inheritance fathers, but what kind of inheritance are you leaving your children? Is it merely stuff? I'm kind of piggybacking on this morning, I guess, but is it merely stuff, land and money and houses and cars? I mean, that's all well and good. And there is certainly a biblical precedence for leading your children to good material health. But what about the really important things? What about the Christian faith? Are you leaving them a heritage of having led them in worship and a study of the scriptures regularly in the home? Are you doing family worship or the Puritans love to call family worship? Are you leaving them a legacy of service and worship in the local church? Are you a churchman? I hope that's part of your legacy, must be part of our legacy. All they remember about us. Final application for those who had ungodly fathers or even perhaps no father. I mean, maybe you had a dad who was absent or abandoned you and your family. Maybe he was just a disinterested dad or a moody dad whose temper was a ticking time bomb. Maybe he was a drill sergeant dad. A control freak dad, a lecturing dad, a heavy handed dad, an abusive dad, a stingy Scrooge dad. Maybe he was a sugar daddy dad. He gave you money, but gave you nothing else. Maybe he was a passive, wimpy dad, an impersonal, unaffectionate dad, a fair cycle, fault finding dad who had his finger in your face all the time. Maybe he was a guilt trip dad, a promise breaking dad. A self-centered, self-absorbed dad. Maybe he was a hypocritical dad. He claimed to be a Christian, but there was no fruit in his life. Maybe he was a manipulative dad. He used all people in all circumstances for his own ends. Maybe he was a sexually abusive dad. A dysfunctional addict dad. Or maybe you yourself fit to some degree in one or more of these categories. I mean, we all there are no perfect dads in this world. If you had a father like this, you have a father who is in heaven, who is loving, a loving and perfect king who has clothed himself in human flesh and stepped out of heaven and in love has come and rescued you through the death of his only son. And he has given you an inheritance that is beyond comprehension, one that even the best earthly dad cannot give. He is a father who loves you and will never leave you or forsake you, and he has made you part of a new family. You want to become a godly father whose children will know you for the godly inheritance you have left behind. You have a model and have it to him to look and you're indwelt by his spirit and he is transforming you. Pray that he will help you to become a father who will give an accurate picture of the one perfect father, our God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is his father. First Corinthians six, 16, 18, says this of him, and I close with this. God has said to you, I will live in you and I will walk among you and I will welcome you and you will be my sons and daughters. Pray that your husband or your father will be this kind of dad and dads. Pray God will make you this kind of father for his glory. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray for myself. As your son and as an earthly father. That you would conform me to the image of your son, that you would make me and remake me in the image. Of Christ, that I would be the kind of father who gives my children an accurate picture, an accurate barometer of who you are. Oh, how we need your grace, how the fathers in this church and in the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention need your grace to do this. Father, I pray you would raise up godly men in the home, godly leaders in the home who lead by conviction, who lead by example, who are known for their worship, who are known for being leaders in the church as well, who are known as churchmen, who are known for their worship, whose children will always build a picture of them standing and worshiping in joyful exaltation of the one true God. Father, I pray that you do this in my heart and in my mind, that you renew us and do this for your glory. We are not up to this task. We desperately, desperately need your grace, Lord. We ask for it and seek it tonight. That our families might Give the world an accurate picture of the gospel. We might love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. And we might be worthy of being called the head of the home. Worthy of having our wives submit to our servant, patient, loving, caring leadership, servant leadership for your glory. I pray this would be true of us all by your grace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Thank you.