Our Heavenly Father

 

“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”                                                   -- Luke 11:13

 

What a delightful title for our God! Here our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us that his Father is our Father. He who is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our heavenly Father. Here are some facts revealed in the Word of God that I trust will help you meditate upon, more fully know, trust and worship God your heavenly Father. These are distinct works ascribed to God the Father that should cause our hearts to adore him and rejoice to look up to heaven and call him, "Our Heavenly Father."

 

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS THE ETERNAL FATHER OF THE ETERNAL SON (John 1:14).I will say no more about this great mystery than is plainly revealed in the Word of God. As the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father from everlasting to everlasting, full of grace and truth, so God the Father is the Father of the Son from eternity. There never was a time when the Son began to be the Son or the Father began to be the Father. Yet, Christ is the eternally begotten Son of the eternally begetting Father. We know no more about the subject than that; and even that is too profound a mystery for our puny brains. I do not pretend to understand this mystery; but I often contemplate it with utter amazement.

 

We understand and rejoice in the fact that OUR HEAVENLY FATHER CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND ALL THAT DWELL THEREIN (Heb. 1:1-3). The creation of all things is ascribed to God the Father. He is here described as creating the worlds by his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That does not mean that the Son was the mere instrument by whom the Father created all things, but that the Father and the Son together are the co-efficient cause and Creator of all things.

 

How our hearts rejoice to know that IT IS OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WHO DICTATES AND RULES ALL THE AFFAIRS OF PROVIDENCE (Rom. 11:33-36; Isa. 46:9-11; Dan. 4:35). He who is the Captain of the ship of Time, he who sits at the helm of the ship and steers the course of all things, according to the map of his own sovereign purpose, to their appointed destiny is our heavenly Father! Sometimes we have nothing to fall back on except this. But when a person can fall back on this, "My Father did this!", he needs nothing else to fall back on! With confident hearts, in the face of the most tragic of events, believers can and should say, with old Eli, "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good" (1 Sam. 3:18).

 

Not only does our heavenly Father rule all things in providence, HE DOES IT ACCORDING TO HIS OWN ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GRACE IN SOVEREIGN PREDESTINATION. Do not be afraid of or ashamed of the Bible doctrine of predestination. He who predestinated all things is God, our heavenly Father. He did it from eternity. He did it for our salvation. And he will never alter his purpose or turn away from the objects of his love, his children, for whom he predestined all things (Eph. 1:11; Rom. 8:28-31).

 

Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For Today Radio Message #801

2734 Old Stanford Road - Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net