34 The Relationship

The Relationship "My father’s God." Exodus 15:2 The children of godly parents are peculiarly favored; they have so many privileges, enjoy so many blessings, and are surrounded by so many inducements to seek the Lord. But their responsibility is equally great. If they do not improve their privileges — they abuse them. If the blessings they enjoy do not soften the heart — it becomes harder by the perversion of them. If they are not induced to seek the Lord, they wander farther and farther from him. My dear young friends, I feel peculiarly solicitous about you. I ardently long for your salvation. I want to see you as the joy of the church, and the ornament of the congregation. Allow me very affectionately to direct your attention to your "father’s God." That father may be still with you earnestly seeking your salvation, or he may be now in Heaven happy with God. Let me, First, notice your father’s conduct toward his God.

He worshiped God — not with the lip only — but with the heart. His worship was adoration. It was the ascent of the soul. He prayed, pleaded, and praised the Lord. Worship was his relief, his solace, his delight. The closet was his banqueting-room, and the throne of grace was his paradise. Do you worship your father’s God?

He trusted in God. He carefully read his word — firmly believed his promises — committed his soul into his hands — rested on his faithfulness — and found joy and peace in believing. Do you trust in your father’s God?

He loved God. His religion was not characterized by fear — but love. He loved his perfections, his people, his courts, his word, and his ways. Love stimulated him to holy activity, and cheerful obedience. Do you love your father’s God?

He enjoyed God. His religion was happiness. The thoughts of God cheered him — the presence of God filled him with delight — and the prospect of being forever with God, made him triumph over death. He was happy in God. Do you enjoy your father’s God?

He obeyed God. Obeyed him from the heart. Obeyed him openly, cheerfully, and without reserve. His obedience was filial. It was constant. It was acceptable. Do you obey your father’s God? Allow me now, Secondly, consider the kindness of your father’s God to him.

God MANIFESTED himself unto him. Your father knew God. He perceived his character and glory. He felt his love. He realized the light of his countenance. He had an inward, spiritual, transforming manifestation of God to his soul. This distinguished him from others, gave a reality to his religion, and made his face to shine. Has God ever manifested himself to you?

God LED your father. This kept him from running into sin, falling into snares, and losing his way. Your father asked counsel of his God, and he received it. He was led by the right way to a city of habitations.

God FED your father. It was God who gave him all his temporal mercies, and sent him all his spiritual supplies. He gave him food to eat, and clothing to wear. He fed him with the bread which came down from Heaven.

God TRIED your father. But it was only to . . .
test his principles,
exercise his graces,
purify his nature,
endear his promises,
stimulate him to prayer, and
make him fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.

God always HEARD your father when he called upon him, relieved his distresses, cheered his spirit, and delivered him out of his troubles.

He was a God to your father, and he has or soon will receive him to his kingdom and glory. Is your father’s God yours? Does he lead you, feed you, try you, and hear your prayers? — Is your father in Heaven? If so, let me,

Thirdly, show you what your father would now do for his God if he could. He would recommend him to you. He would speak to you of his glorious perfections, of his precious promises, of his provision for the needs of sinners. He would speak to you of the incarnation, labors, sufferings, and death of his beloved Son. He would bear testimony to his goodness, grace, condescension, and faithfulness. He would assure you that no life is so happy, or so honorable as a life spent in communion with God. He would urge you to avouch the Lord for your God, and to do so immediately.

Allow me to speak for him. Would you delight your father’s heart — would you answer the end of all your father’s care — would you secure your own present and everlasting welfare — then choose your father’s God for your God! Go worship at his throne. Go appeal to his mercy. Go offer him your heart, just as it is. Go commit your soul to Jesus. Go and consecrate yourself to his service and praise. Look to the blood of Jesus, that will ensure you acceptance. Plead the promise, that will secure you the blessing. Yield yourself unreservedly to his will, and he will graciously receive you. To encourage you to do this, I will remind you,

Fourthly, of the conduct of your father’s God toward you. He has ever been your friend. He is your friend now, though, if you are living in sin — you are his enemy. He gives you the same invitations as he gave your father. He bids you come to him. He assures you that he will give you rest, bestow on you living waters, in a word, make you wealthy and happy. He makes you the same promises. He promises to receive you graciously, to love you freely, to save you immediately, and to bless you eternally. He bids you come to him for all that you need — for body and soul — for time and eternity. You have every encouragement to seek, enjoy, and find your father’s God as your portion.

Remember, if you sin, it is against your father’s God; and it would grieve your father’s heart, if it could be grieved. If you refuse to take the Lord for your God, you reflect upon the soundness of your father’s judgment, who preferred a saving interest in God to all things beside. You throw a doubt upon your father’s testimony, who declares that nothing is to be compared with having the Lord for our God. You question the consistency of your father’s conduct, who made . . .
the knowledge of God — the object of his pursuit;
the word of God — the rule of his life;
the glory of God — the end of his actions; and
the enjoyment of God — his highest happiness.

Dear young friends, think of your father’s God, seek him while he may he found, obey him from a principle of love, follow on to know him that you may be happy, and make the eternal enjoyment of his love the highest object of your ambition. Believe in God, call upon God, walk with God, aim to honor God — and you shall, with your father, eternally enjoy God! Your father’s God invites you, he calls you to him with more than a father’s love. He says, "Come unto me." He calls to you among the multitude, now you are mixed up with the ungodly, and his kind words to you are, "Come out from among them, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you and be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty!" 2 Corinthians 6:17-18.