He Is the Righteous Father
The sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding God's fatherhood as a righteous and just God, rather than a universal and indiscriminate one.
C.H. Spurgeon emphasizes the distinction between the true 'Righteous Father' and the misguided notion of universal fatherhood that lacks justice and accountability for sin. He argues that the world often trivializes sin and its consequences, failing to recognize that a just God must also be a loving God. Spurgeon highlights the importance of understanding God's righteousness and the necessity of atonement through Christ's sacrifice, which is often rejected by modern thinkers. He asserts that true knowledge of God comes from the Holy Spirit, who reveals the righteousness of the Father. Ultimately, Spurgeon calls for a recognition of God's justice as integral to His love.
Text
Worldly wisdom talks of "the universal fatherhood of God," and babbles for ever about that mere dream, that fiction of folly, against which the Bible is a plain and pointed protest. Universal Fatherhood indeed, when our Lord Jesus said, "If God were your Father ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." Is it not described as a special wonder of love that we should be called the sons of God? (1 John 3:1.) Did not the Holy Ghost say by his servant John, "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."
The philosophic Christian world knows an effeminate, indiscriminate fatherhood, but not "the righteous Father." It will not bow before the majesty of his justice. According to the tenor of its teaching sin is a misfortune, transgression, a mere trifle, and the souls that suffer for wilful guilt are objects to be pitied rather than to be blamed. The world's "thinkers" are continually drawing upon our feelings to make us pity those who are punished, but they have little to say in order to make us hate the evil which deserved the doom. Sin according to them does not of itself demand punishment, but penalties are to be exacted or remitted for the general good, if indeed they are to be executed at all. All necessary and inevitable connection between guilt and its punishment is denied. They dare to call justice revenge, and speak of atonement as if were a solatium for private pique. The Christian world does not seem to have learned the truth that "a God all mercy were a God unjust," and that a God unjust would soon be discovered to be a God without love, in fact, no God whatever. "Righteous Father!" This is the peculiar revelation which is received by those who have been taught of the Holy Spirit, and to this day Jesus Christ may say, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee."
Men kick against the doctrine of the atonement, they quarrel with substitution, they are fierce in their sarcasms against the mention of the precious blood of Christ, and sneer superciliously at those who hold fast the old truth. They stumble at this stumbling stone, and strive evermore to overthrow this rock of truth; and yet, depend upon it, this is the test question by which we shall know whether a man knoweth God aright or knoweth him not.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Righteous Father Known And Loved," delivered October 14, 1877.
Sermon Outline
- I. The World's False View of God's Fatherhood
- A. Universal Fatherhood, a mere dream and fiction
- B. The Bible protests against this view
- II. The True View of God's Fatherhood
- A. Special wonder of love, being called the sons of God
- B. Manifested in righteousness and love for one's brother
- III. The Philosophic Christian World's View
- A. Effeminate and indiscriminate fatherhood
- B. No reverence for God's justice
- IV. The Importance of the Righteous Father
- A. A God all mercy would be a God unjust
- B. The atonement is a test question for knowing God aright
Key Quotes
“A God all mercy were a God unjust, and that a God unjust would soon be discovered to be a God without love, in fact, no God whatever.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“If God were your Father ye would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.” — C.H. Spurgeon
Application Points
- We must reverence God's justice and not view sin as a mere trifle.
- The atonement is a test question for knowing God aright, and we must accept it as such.
- We must love our brothers and demonstrate righteousness in our lives.