Your Heavenly Father
The sermon emphasizes the loving relationship between God and His children, highlighting the privilege of calling Him 'Our Father' and the significance of the word 'Father' in representing heaven, love, and security.
C.H. Spurgeon emphasizes the profound relationship between God and His people, who are both His creation and His adopted children through Christ. He highlights the privilege of addressing God as 'Our Father,' which carries both authority and affection, urging believers to respond with loving obedience rather than servile fear. Spurgeon illustrates the depth of a father's love, asserting that just as earthly fathers care for their children, our heavenly Father provides and protects us with even greater devotion. The sermon calls for a joyful and willing service to God, recognizing His mercy and love as the foundation of our relationship with Him. Ultimately, the term 'Father' encapsulates all our needs and desires, offering a glimpse of heaven itself.
Text
God's people are doubly His children, they are His offspring by creation, and they are His sons by adoption in Christ. Hence they are privileged to call Him, "Our Father which art in heaven." Father! Oh, what precious word is that. Here is authority: "If I be a Father, where is mine honour?" If ye be sons, where is your obedience? Here is affection mingled with authority; an authority which does not provoke rebellion; an obedience demanded which is most cheerfully rendered--which would not be withheld even if it might.
The obedience which God's children yield to Him must be loving obedience. Do not go about the service of God as slaves to their taskmaster's toil, but run in the way of His commands because it is your Father's way. Yield your bodies as instruments of righteousness, because righteousness is your Father's will, and His will should be the will of His child. Father!--Here is a kingly attribute so sweetly veiled in love, that the King's crown is forgotten in the King's face, and His sceptre becomes, not a rod of iron, but a silver sceptre of mercy--the sceptre indeed seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of Him who wields it.
Father!--Here is honour and love. How great is a Father's love to his children! That which friendship cannot do, and mere benevolence will not attempt, a father's heart and hand must do for his sons. They are his offspring, he must bless them; they are his children, he must show himself strong in their defence. If an earthly father watches over his children with unceasing love and care, how much more does our heavenly Father? Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath uttered better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach. There is heaven in the depth of that word--Father! There is all I can ask; all my necessities can demand; all my wishes can desire. I have all in all to all eternity when I can say, "Father."
Sermon Outline
- I. God's People as His Children
- A. Privileged to call Him 'Our Father'
- B. Authority and Affection
- C. Loving Obedience
- II. The Kingly Attribute of Love
- A. Veiled in Mercy
- B. Forgotten in the Tender Hand of God
- III. A Father's Love
- A. Unceasing Love and Care
- B. Defence and Protection
- IV. The Power of the Word 'Father'
- A. Heaven in the Depth of the Word
- B. All Necessities and Wishes Met
Key Quotes
“Father!--Here is a kingly attribute so sweetly veiled in love, that the King's crown is forgotten in the King's face, and His sceptre becomes, not a rod of iron, but a silver sceptre of mercy--the sceptre indeed seems to be forgotten in the tender hand of Him who wields it.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“Abba, Father! He who can say this, hath uttered better music than cherubim or seraphim can reach.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“I have all in all to all eternity when I can say, 'Father.'” — C.H. Spurgeon
Application Points
- We should respond to God's love and authority with loving obedience, running in the way of His commands because it is our Father's way.
- We can trust in our heavenly Father's unceasing love and care, knowing that He will defend and protect us.
- Saying 'Abba, Father' is a powerful declaration of our relationship with God, representing heaven, love, and all our necessities and wishes being met.