Tag Archives: God the Father Almighty

“The sea of God’s compassion can drown thy great sins” by Thomas Watson

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“Question: But will God be a Father to me, who have profaned His name, and been a great sinner?

Answer: If thou wilt now at last seek to God by prayer, and break off thy sins, God hath the compassion of a Father for thee, and will in no wise cast thee out.

When the prodigal did arise and go to his father, ‘his father had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him,’ Luke 15:20.

Though thou hast been a prodigal, and almost spent all upon thy lusts, yet, if thou wilt give a bill of divorce to thy sins, and flee to God by repentance, know that He hath the compassion of a father.

He will embrace thee in the arms of His mercy, and seal thy pardon with a kiss. What though thy sins have been heinous?

The wound is not so broad as the plaster of Christ’s blood. The sea covers great rocks. The sea of God’s compassion can drown thy great sins.

Therefore be not discouraged,—go to God,—resolve to cast thyself upon His fatherly compassion.

What comfort is there to such as can upon good grounds call God, Father. There’s more sweetness in this word Father, than if we had ten thousand worlds.”

–Thomas Watson, The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855), 390-391.

“Behold the glory of God in the pieces of His art” by Stephen Charnock

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“Study God in the creatures as well as in the Scriptures. The primary use of the creatures, is to acknowledge God in them.

They were made to be witnesses of Himself in His goodness, and heralds of His glory, which as the glory of God the Creator ‘shall endure forever’ (Psalm 104:31).

That whole psalm is a lecture of creation and providence. The world is a sacred temple. Man is introduced to contemplate it, and behold with praise the glory of God in the pieces of His art.

As grace doth not destroy nature, so the book of redemption blots not out that of creation. Had He not shown Himself in His creatures, He could never have shown Himself in His Christ. The order of things required it.

God must be read wherever He is legible. The creatures are one book, wherein He hath writ a part of the excellencey of His name, as many artists do in their works and watches.

God’s glory, like the filings of gold, is too precious to be lost wherever it drops. Nothing so vile and base in the world, but carries in it an instruction for man, and drives in further the notion of a God.

It’s as if He said of His cottage, ‘Enter here.’ God disdains not this place.

So the least creature speaks to man, as well as in the highest creature. Every shrub in the field, every fly in the air, every limb in a body: ‘Consider me, God disdains not to appear in me; He hath discovered in me His being and a part of His skill.’

The creatures manifest the being of God and part of His perfections.

We have indeed a more excellent way, a revelation setting Him forth in a more excellent manner, a firmer object of dependence, a brighter object of love, raising our hearts from self-confidence to a confidence in Him.

Though the appearance of God in the one be clearer than in the other, yet neither is to be neglected. The Scripture directs us to nature to view God.

It had been in vain else for the apostle to make use of natural arguments. Nature is not contrary to Scripture, nor Scripture to nature, unless we should think God contrary to Himself who is the Author of both.”

–Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, Vol. 1 (Robert Carter & Brothers, 1682/1853), 86.

“Almighty wisdom” by J.C. Ryle

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“Let us notice, secondly, in these verses, how all things in our Lord’s passion happened according to God’s word. His own address to those who took Him, exhibits this in a striking manner: ‘the Scriptures must be fulfilled.’

There was no accident or chance in any part of the close of our Lord’s earthly ministry. The steps in which He walked from Gethsemane to Calvary, were all marked out hundreds of years before.

The twenty-second Psalm, and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, were literally fulfilled. The wrath of His enemies,—His rejection by His own people,—His being dealt with as a malefactor,—His being condemned by the assembly of the wicked,—all had been foreknown, and all foretold.

All that took place was only the working out of God’s great design to provide an atonement for a world’s sin. The armed men whom Judas brought to lay hands on Jesus, were, like Nebuchadnezzar and Sennacherib, unconscious instruments in carrying God’s purposes into effect.

Let us rest our souls on the thought, that all around us is ordered and overruled by God’s almighty wisdom. The course of this world may often be contrary to our wishes.

The position of the Church may often be very, unlike what we desire. The wickedness of worldly men, and the inconsistencies of believers, may often afflict our souls.

But there is a hand above us, moving the vast machine of this universe, and making all things work together for His glory. The Scriptures are being yearly fulfilled.

Not one jot or tittle in them shall ever fail to be accomplished. The kings of the earth may take counsel together, and the rulers of the nations may set themselves against Christ. (Psal. 2:2.)

But the resurrection morning shall prove that, even at the darkest time, all things were being done according to the will of God.”

–J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark (London: William Hunt, 1859), 322–323. Ryle is commenting on Mark 14:43-52.

“The great Master Gardener” by Samuel Rutherford

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“My dearest love in Christ remembered. As to the business which I know you would so fain have taken effect, my earnest desire is, that you stand still. Haste not, and you shall see the salvation of God.

The great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with His own hand, planted me here, where, by His grace, in this part of His vineyard, I grow.

I dare not say but Satan and the world (one of his pages whom he sends on his errands) have said otherwise. And here I will abide till the great Master of the Vineyard think fit to transplant me.

But when He sees meet to loose me at the root, and to plant me where I may be more useful, both as to fruit and shadow, and when He who planted pulleth up that He may transplant, who dare put to their hand and hinder?”

–Samuel Rutherford, “XVI – For Marion M’Naught” in Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1664/2012), 62.

“The discerning hand of God” by Charles Spurgeon

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“So far as personal sorrows are concerned, it would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by His hand, that my trials were never measured out by Him, nor sent to me by His arrangement of their weight and quantity.

Oh, that were bitterness indeed! But, on the contrary, the prophet here sees the hand of God in all his trials, and I pray that you and I may do the same.

May we see that our heavenly Father fills the cup with loving tenderness, and holds it out, and says, ‘Drink, my child; bitter as it is, it is a love-potion which is meant to do thee permanent good.’

The discerning of the hand of God is a sweet lesson in the school of experience.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “Woe and Weal” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (vol. 57; London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1911), 99–100.

“His everlasting arms can bear us up” by Thomas Manton

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“God is a great God, who taketh the care and charge upon Him of the sustentation and government of all things to their proper ends and uses. How soon would the world fall into confusion and nothing without His power and care!

Now this should recommend Him to our esteem and love. Oh, what a blessed thing is it to have an interest in this powerful and almighty God! All His strength and power is engaged for the meanest and weakest of His children.

1 Peter 1:5, ‘We are kept by the power of God to salvation;’ and therefore we are bidden to be ‘strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’ Surely they are blessed that have such a mighty God on their side, and engaged with them against their enemies.

1 John 4:4, ‘Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.’ He can enable them to do their work, satisfy their desires, maintain them in the midst of opposition: John 10:29, ‘My father, which gave them Me, is greater than all.’

Such is the efficacy of His providence, that He can subject all things to Himself, make them servants, to do what He would have them. Oh, how safe is a Christian in the love and covenant and arms of an Almighty God, whom he hath made his refuge!

Our trials are many, and grace received is small in the best. But our God is great. He that made all things, and sustaineth all things, and governeth all things, and possesseth all things, is our God.

Surely ‘His grace is sufficient for us,’ 2 Cor. 12:9, and His everlasting arms can bear us up: Deut. 33:27, ‘The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.’ He can recover us from our falls, and lift us over all our difficulties.

If we could but rest upon His word and lean upon His power, why should we be discouraged? Oh, let us rejoice, then, not only in the goodness but greatness of that God whom we have chosen for our portion!”

–Thomas Manton, “Sermon XCVI – Psalm 119:91” in The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, Volume 7 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 418-419.

“The pivots of history are microscopic” by Charles Spurgeon

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“On how small an incident the greatest results may hinge! The pivots of history are microscopic. Hence, it is most important for us to learn that the smallest trifles are as much arranged by the God of providence as the most startling events.

He who counts the stars has also numbered the hairs of our heads. Our lives and deaths are predestinated, but so also are our downsitting and our uprising. Had we but sufficiently powerful perceptive faculties, we should see God’s hand as clearly in each stone of our pathway as in the revolutions of the earth.

In watching our own lives, we may plainly see that, on many occasions, the merest grain has turned the scale. Whereas there seemed to be but a hair’s-breadth between one course of action and another, yet that hair’s-breadth has sufficed to direct the current of our life.

‘He,’ says Flavel, ‘who will observe providences shall never be long without a providence to observe.’

Providence may be seen as the finger of God, not merely in those events which shake nations, and are duly emblazoned on the page of history, but in little incidents of common life, ay, in the motion of a grain of dust, the trembling of a dew-drop, the flight of a swallow, or the leaping of a fish.”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. LIV (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1908), 25-26.

“What do you believe when you say: ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty’?” — The Heidelberg Catechism

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26. Q. What do you believe when you say: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?”

A.That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them,[1] who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence,[2] is my God and Father because of Christ His Son.[3]

I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul,[4] and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world.[5]

He is able to do this because He is almighty God;[6]
He desires to do this because He is a faithful Father.[7]

[1] Gen. 1 and 2; Ex. 20:11; Job 38 and 39; Ps. 33:6; Is. 44:24; Acts 4:24; 14:15. [2] Ps. 104:27-30; Matt. 6:30; 10:29; Eph. 1:11. [3] John 1:12, 13; Rom. 8:15, 16; Gal. 4:4-7; Eph. 1:5. [4] Ps. 55:22; Matt. 6:25, 26; Luke 12:22-31. [5] Rom. 8:28. [6] Gen. 18:14; Rom. 8:31-39. [7] Matt. 6:32, 33; 7:9-11.

“What do you understand by the providence of God?” – The Heidelberg Catechism

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27. Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. God’s providence is His almighty and ever present power,[1] whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures,[2] and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty,[3] indeed, all things, come not by chance[4] but by His fatherly hand.[5]

[1] Jer. 23:23, 24; Acts 17:24-28. [2] Heb. 1:3. [3] Jer. 5:24; Acts 14:15-17; John 9:3; Prov. 22:2. [4] Prov. 16:33. [5] Matt. 10:29.

“The sun is an astonishing creation” by Andrew Davis

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“The sun is an astonishing creation– a raging inferno of power that in some ways displays God’s transcendence to an arrogant human race. There is nothing humanity can do to the sun, good or bad. We cannot make it brighter or dimmer, larger or smaller, nearer or farther, hotter or cooler. If we decided as a human race that we wanted to destroy the sun, there would be nothing we could do to it.

If we amassed all our thermonuclear weapons and sent them as intergalactic rockets to explode on the surface of the sun, they would never make it but would be incinerated millions of miles away from their destination. NASA is presently planning a solar probe mission that will be able to get only within 3.5 million miles of the surface.

The sun burns on day after day without any visible diminution of its power, so bright we cannot look at it steadily without being blinded. The sun glorifies God by its astonishing power and brightness, and yet the sun was designed with human beings in mind, shining in the sky ‘to give light on the earth’ (Gen. 1:17).”

–Andrew Davis, Creation (The Gospel Coalition Booklets; Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 16-17.