Christ And Calvary — Cecil Andrews

Well, friends, it's a real joy for both Margaret and myself to be here with you tonight. As Keith said, we left Balna Hinch this morning just after 10 o 'clock. We were able to stop at an apple green on the way down.

We did take two slight detours, one of which I found myself heading back towards Balna Hinch at one stage, but thankfully after about seven miles, I was able to get turned around and come back the right way.

But there was a nice bit of scenery in that stretch that we went backwards and forwards on, so Margaret appreciated the scenery that we did see there. It's our joy to be with you, our joy to be with Brother Keith once more.

We're sorry, of course, that Sister Candace is not able to be here tonight. They have been much in our prayers over the last few years since before even we came down to do the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses a couple of years ago.

But we love them and the Lord dearly, and we have been able to meet up with them a few times. They've bravely crossed the border up into the north, and we got a carry-out, I think, from Newcastle or something like that, and enjoy it.

John Max, I think it's called. People know I like John MacArthur, and they said they didn't know he had an outreach by way of a chippy in Newcastle, John Max. John MacArthur was once asked, what's the greatest need of the church?

And he came back with the answer, discernment. And you know it's true. There are so many churches today that they just do not practice or exercise discernment. They take everything at face value because somebody claims to be a Christian, and they've said it, it must be okay.

Testing All Things by Scripture

But no matter who says it, we must test all things by the Scriptures, and that's why Paul praised the Bereans. They were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and that when they listened to Paul, they didn't just say, well, if he said it, it's okay.

They went and checked out what he said against the Scriptures to see if it was so. When I messaged Keith a lot of weeks ago and said, Margaret and I were thinking of coming down for a wee break in Limerick, he said, great, what night will you preach?

He didn't say, do you want to preach? He just said, what night? So we settled on tonight. And he told me that the church is not calendar-driven, in other words, we don't just conform to what everybody else is doing, but at the same time, at this particular time of the year, a lot of the world, even the unbelieving world, for some reason or other, they have an awareness that this is so-called Holy Week, and they know that this week is leading up to a remembrance of events that happened 2 ,000 years ago at a place called Calvary.

So I think it is right for us to be aware of what the other people out there are thinking, and that we should indeed look at the Scriptures to see what the Scriptures have to say about Christ and Calvary, and that's what I want to look at.

When I was speaking a couple of years ago on the subject of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, if you remember, I said there are usually four features by which you can identify what constitutes a cult.

They have an earthly head or founder, they have an authority which is in addition to or in place of the Bible, they have a wrong view of the person and work of Christ, and they have a wrong view of salvation.

And these are like links in a chain, one leads to the other. And so they end up with a false view of salvation. And tonight as I look at Christ and Calvary, I'm really going to be looking at point three, the person and work of Christ.

They have a wrong view of it. And of course, in consequence, they have a wrong view of salvation. I will be reading two portions of Scripture, one now and then one later in the presentation. I wanted this stage to turn our attention to Matthew chapter 16.

Jesus is with his disciples close to Caesarea Philippi. And we're going to pick up the narrative in verse 13. This is God's Word. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Verse 21, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go on to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Amen. And we pray that God's blessing would be upon it. So Christ, who was he? In that portion of Scripture that we have just read, the Lord Jesus Christ uses a title for himself, Son of Man, and he accepts a title given to him by Peter, the Son of the living God.

And those two titles, Son of Man and Son of the living God, they affirm that this is the unique God-man, that he was both fully man and fully God. Now, if you're a believer here tonight and you're a man, you're a son of God.

If you're a woman, you are a daughter of God. In 1 John 3 and verse 2, the apostle John wrote, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. Prior to our conversion, we were very different. We were children of disobedience.

We were children of wrath. In other words, the wrath of God was resting upon us. But because of Christ, because we have been converted to faith in Christ, a wonderful transaction has happened. We have been adopted into the family of God.

Paul wrote in Galatians 4, 4 and 5, When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

So no longer are we children of wrath and children of disobedience. We have been adopted into God's family. Now, when a believer like you and like me claims that we're now a son or daughter of God, nobody takes out of that we are actually claiming to be God.

Very different where Jesus is concerned. When Jesus claimed that God was his Father, that's exactly what he was claiming to be. And the Jews of his day, they knew that. The main leader of what's known as the prosperity gospel movement, the health and wealth gospel, is a man called Kenneth Copeland.

He's been around for decades, and he claims that in one of the many face-to-face encounters he claims to have had with the Lord Jesus Christ, he says that Jesus told him that when he was here on earth, he never claimed to be God.

Christ's Deity and Equality with God

Well, that just demonstrates an abysmal ignorance of the Scriptures on the part of Kenneth Copeland. In John chapter 5 and verse 17, Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. And what do we read in the next verse?

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. In John 10 and verse 30, Jesus said, I and my Father are one. And immediately it was evident that the crowd wanted to stone him to death.

And so the Lord said to them, you know, what are you going to stone me to death for? Was it one of the good works that I've done? Is that what's riling you? And in verse 33 we read, the Jews answered him saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy.

And because of thou being a man, makest thyself God. You see, the truth is that the Lord Jesus Christ was not crucified for what he did, but for who he claimed to be. There's another example in John chapter 8 and verse 58.

The Lord was in debate, as he often was with the Pharisees, and the subject of Abraham came up. And basically the Pharisees were thinking, what would you, a whippersnapper, if you like, of 30 plus years, what would you know about Abraham?

The Lord says in John 8 verse 58, Before Abraham was, I am. He had just appropriated to himself the very name of God. Because you remember when Moses was confronted by God at the burning bush, and he was told to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh, you have to let the people go.

And Moses says, well, who shall I say has sent me? And the answer came back, I am that I am. God is the eternal self-existent I am. And when Jesus said before Abraham was, I am, and in fact, all of the I am's in John's gospel are a declaration of his divinity.

Not only did he claim divinity, he exhibited divinity. Remember in Mark chapter 2, there was four men carried a friend who was sick of the palsy on like a stretcher. And they couldn't get near Jesus, so they went up onto the roof and they cut a hole in it and they let the friend down.

And the first thing that Jesus said was, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. People often wonder, why did he say that? Well, just imagine it, the man's up on the roof and his friends are digging a hole on it and Jesus is down below preaching.

And I'm sure he was preaching the need for repentance from sin and faith in God. And this man is up here hearing this and God knows the intent of our heart. And I believe that that man came under a great conviction that he needed his sins forgiven more than being able to get up and walk.

And I believe that is why the Lord said, son, thy sins be forgiven. So he demonstrated divinity, he forgave sins, he received worship. Thomas in a post-resurrection appearance fell down, if you like, and said, my Lord and my God, literally the Lord of me, the God of me.

And that's an expression that Jehovah's Witnesses don't like to have to deal with, but he received the worship of Thomas. He didn't rebuke him for referring to him as my Lord and my God. He raised the dead on several occasions, at least three occasions we know of.

He stilled the storm. You remember the disciples were out on the boat in the Sea of Galilee and the master was asleep and the storm blew up and they began to panic. And so they woke him and he stood up and he said, peace be still.

I mentioned Kenneth Copeland earlier and he wrote an article in his magazine some years ago and he said, the disciples didn't need to do that. They should have been able to stand up and they could have rebuked the wind and said, peace be still.

He says, we have the ability to control the climate. And my thought is, well, he lives somewhere in the Texas area, which is close to Tornado Alley. So when there's a twister on the horizon, why doesn't he get into his car, drive out and get up onto the bonnet and say, peace be still.

Well, we know what would happen. He would end up like Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz somewhere over the rainbow. But the Lord Jesus Christ was able to still the storm. But there was one thing in particular that marked out his divinity and that is the fact that he was holy.

As the hymn says, guilty, violent, helpless we, spotless lamb of God was he. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ was not a son of Adam. I remember some years ago, I did a debate in Trinity College, Dublin with a Muslim spokesman and there was a question and answer afterwards.

And one young Muslim man said to me, you say Jesus Christ was sinless. How could he have been? He was born of woman. And he quoted a verse from, I think it's somewhere in Job. And he said, how could it be?

I said, well, you have to remember there was no mortal man involved in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Holy Spirit who overshadowed Mary. And because of that, when Christ was born, he was not in Adam.

He was not in the line of Adam. Whereas you and I are born in such a state and as in Adam, all die because of that original sin back in the garden of Eden. So, he was holy. Not only was Jesus called son of God, a title that bears witness to his divinity, but he was also called son of man.

He used himself in Matthew 16, who do men say that I, the son of man am? And that bears witness to his humanity. And the Bible clearly testifies to the humanity of Christ. He was born in the flesh, John chapter 1, and the word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

And in Luke chapter 2, verses 8 to 20, you have the story of the angel appearing to the shepherds in Bethlehem, and they had to go and see this newborn babe. He was born in the flesh. He grew and he developed physically.

That little baby that was in the manger, later on he became the boy in the temple, and eventually he became the body in the tomb. He hungered. He thirsted. He became tired. He slept. He wept, and he died.

He had to become obedient unto death, because death had no claims upon them, whereas death has a claim on you and I, as in Adam, all die. But Christ had to become obedient unto death. Jesus was not only truly God, son of God, he was also truly human, son of man.

And I want us to see tonight how only one who was both human and divine was fitted and equipped to be our savior. We've looked at Christ, who he was. I want to look now at what he did. In the reading from Matthew 16, Jesus told of how he must go on to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Christ's Work as Savior

Jesus is known as the savior. And you know, words like saved and salvation, they kind of trip off the lips of believers like you and me. But I sometimes wonder what unbelievers make of all of this. When they hear these terms, do you need to be saved?

Do you need a savior? Have you been saved? Do you possess salvation? I wonder what their understanding is of that terminology. Do they really grasp what saved and salvation are all about? If you were asked, how would you explain salvation?

In fact, if you were asked, what did Jesus save you from? I wonder how you would respond. Well, I think probably the most common answer is that people would say, he saved me from my sins. And that's perfectly biblical and scriptural.

In Matthew 1, 21, Joseph was told, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. But again, does that answer actually mean anything to those who are not yet Christians, who are still unbelievers, or even to members of other faiths like the Muslims for that wee leaflet that there is?

Well, I feel to use a well-worn phrase that was used up in Northern Ireland some years ago, I think clarification is needed. And there was another well-worn political phrase that was used many years ago, I think by John Major, and it didn't really do him much good.

It was that we need to get back to basics. Saved me from my sins. Well, I think to understand that we need to understand what happens when somebody sins. Well, first of all, what is sin? Well, sin is the transgression of God's law.

That's what the Bible teaches. In other words, when somebody breaks one of God's laws, whether it's the Ten Commandments or something like that, then they have sinned. And when someone commits a sin, there are two things that happen.

Firstly, God is angry. Now, that's not a very popular concept in the world of Christendom that you and I are currently inhabiting, if I could put it that way. People don't like to think of God's anger.

All the seeker-sensitive churches that emerged over recent years and so-called progressive Christianity, which is really on the march around the world, they don't like to think of an angry God. Their singular mantra is, God is love.

Full stop. Well, yes, the Bible does say that God is love, but it also said He's a consuming fire. And when you portray a half-truth as the whole truth, it actually becomes a lie. You have to declare the whole counsel of God, and Paul at Ephesus didn't shun to declare all the counsel of God.

But these people who basically think God is love, full stop, well, in their mind's eye, they must think that He's going to turn a blind eye to our sins. He's not going to get angry. Well, what does the Bible have to say?

Well, in 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 6, there was a young man called Manasseh who came to the throne in Israel. He was twelve years of age, and he led the people into all sorts of occultic wickedness, things that are abominated by God in Deuteronomy chapter 18.

He got the people involved in all of these things, and it says in verse 6, so much so that he provoked God to anger. Psalm 7 verse 11 says, God is angry with the wicked every day. And in John 3, 36, there's great news for those who believe they have eternal life.

Well, if you don't believe, the wrath of God abideth on you. When we're born into this world, because of original sin, we are actually born into death row, and God's wrath is hovering over us. But when we are born again and converted to Christ, that wrath is gone.

The Lord Jesus Christ got quite angry at times. When he went out of the temple and he saw that the outer court had been turned into a marketplace, and all these people were selling animal sacrifices and all the rest of it at exorbitant prices, and you only were able to use a particular currency and so on.

He made a whip, and he chased the animals out, and he overturned the money tables. I think that was a demonstration of righteous anger by the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Matthew chapter 23, he pronounced at least six, maybe more, woes upon the Pharisees, and a woe as he was calling down the curse of God upon these people.

So, the Lord certainly demonstrated righteous anger. So, the first ramification of sin is that God gets angry. But the second thing is this, man is guilty. Every time a sinner commits a sin, it is, if you like, charged up to their sin account.

And friends, some of us ran up very big overdrafts of sin, if I could put it that way. And why is that? Because there is none righteous, no, not one. There are some people who sin more than others, less than others, but all have a sin account in the sight of a holy God.

That's why it says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So, if a Savior is going to be able to save people from their sins, then whatever he does has got to deal with these two problems, God's anger and man's guilt.

Propitiation and Expiation

I have many books in my office back in Balna Hinch, and one is a theological dictionary of theological terms by a dear brother in the Lord who died actually a year or two ago, Alan Kearns. And in it, there is a particular word that is defined like this, the appeasement or turning away of God's wrath against sinners.

Well, isn't that just what we need to deal with the first problem of sin, God's anger? And the word that is defined as the appeasement or turning away of God's wrath against sinners is the word propitiation.

So, the work of a Savior, if it is to be effective, to be of true value, it must involve propitiation. It must deal with God's anger. So, we need God's anger to be propitiated. And then in the same dictionary, there's another word that is defined like this, it is the removal of guilt.

Well, isn't that just what we need to deal with the second problem, man's guilt? And the word that is defined as the removal of guilt is the word expiation. So, the work of a Savior, if it is to be effective and of value, it must involve expiation of man's guilt and it must involve propitiation of God's wrath.

That's the dual problem that a Savior needs to deal with. And the reality is that only someone who was both truly God and truly man could effectively do that. Paul wrote, there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ, Jesus.

A mediator has to be able to, if you like, understand both parties who have fallen out and there is nobody better placed to understand that problem between sinful humanity and a holy God than the perfect God, man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I said, the Word of God teaches that only one thing appeases or turns away God's wrath against sinners and is an acceptable propitiation. We were singing about it and the blood will never lose its power because the one thing that propitiates the wrath of God is sacrificial shed blood.

And we learn that right from the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden where sin made its entrance into the world. We learn in Genesis 3 verse 21, remember Adam and Eve have sinned and they're hiding from God.

They've become aware that they're naked. And so, nakedness and sin are inextricably linked. I'll bury that in mind because I'm going to say something shortly. But it says, first of all, unto Adam also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.

That which was the evidence, if you like, of their sinfulness, their nakedness, it had to be covered up. And for that to happen, an innocent animal had to die. Its blood had to be shed and the clothing, the coat that it had was used to make a covering for them.

The Bible doesn't tell us which animal it was that God used. I sometimes wonder, was it a lamb, the most innocent of creatures? Because you remember what John the Baptist said when he saw the Lord coming to the river Jordan, behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

I said about how nakedness and sin are inextricably linked. You've maybe seen oil paintings that have been done by the masters over the centuries of Calvary and Christ is there on a cross. And for the sake of modesty, he's wearing a loincloth, if you like, on the cross.

That's not how it happened. He would have been absolutely naked to the onlooking crowd because as it says in 2 Corinthians 5 21, God made him to be sin for us. And in the nakedness on the cross, he was fully identifying with sin ever since Adam brought it into the world.

The blood of an innocent animal had to be shed to propitiate God's wrath. We saw that in the first Passover in Egypt. The whole temple sacrificial system that was set up demonstrates the power of sacrificial shed blood.

Going back to Egypt, God had sent a whole series of plagues because Pharaoh was so stubborn he wasn't going to let the people go. And eventually a plague was foreordained, the firstborn will die. But the children of Israel were told, you take a lamb without spot and without blemish and you kill it and you take the blood and you put it on the doorpost and the lintel of the house.

And when the angel of death passes through the land of Egypt, God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Those sheltering behind the shed blood were absolutely safe from the wrath of God that was being poured out.

It can't just be any blood. It has to be absolutely acceptable blood. That's why the lamb had to be without spot and without blemish. And when it comes to dealing with sin and the whole temple sacrificial system, the blood that was shed there on the Passover ceremony, there must have been rivers of blood if I could put it that way.

But it was necessary because God says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. The shed blood was evidence that a life had been forfeited as a substitute for another. And only the blood of a perfect, flawless, sinless sacrifice would satisfy God.

And the Word of God testifies to the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Heaven testified to it on two occasions, at his baptism and at the transfiguration, the voice from heaven declared, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Not only heaven testified to it, but hell testified to it. There was a demon-possessed man in a synagogue at Capernaum, and he said to the Lord Jesus, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. So heaven testified to it, hell testified to it, humanity testified to it.

At his trial, Pontius Pilate declared, I find no fault in this man. And in contrast to all the rest of humanity, Jesus Christ knew no sin. That was penned by Paul, the great philosopher and deep thinker.

Jesus Christ did no sin. That was penned by Peter, the man of action. And in him is no sin. That was penned by John, the constant companion, the beloved disciple. So Jesus Christ, a Son of God, one who was truly holy, is God's representative to man.

He's an anointed prophet, and only his blood could satisfy God's anger. So that's the remedy for God's anger. But what about man's guilt? How can that problem be resolved? As I said, people when they sin, they are accumulating a huge mountain of debt.

Every sin is charged to their account. It's like a charge sheet. You know, if you were in court, and the charge sheet was read out, just think of the charge sheet of all the sins that you've committed and that I have committed.

We'll be here for a lot of years whilst they're read out. Every violation of God's law plunges you and I and sinners deeper into the red, or perhaps I should say the scarlet. If we go by Isaiah 1 verse 18, it says, That debt must be discharged.

God will not allow it to go unpaid. The Word of God states plainly that nothing can stop judgment falling when a sin is committed. A debt can only be removed when it has been paid in full. In Jewish culture, if someone was deeply in debt and they couldn't pay it, it was quite legal for another member of the family, if he was willing and able, it was legal for them to pay off the debt.

Such a person was known as a kinsman redeemer. We find an example of that in the book of Ruth when you read the story of Boaz and Niobe and Ruth. A kinsman, one of the same family, a redeemer, one who would pay off a debt.

And Jesus Christ, as Son of Man in His humanity, is man's representative to God. He's an anointed priest, and He identified with the rest of humanity. He was our kinsman, and He was willing not just to be our kinsman, but to be our kinsman redeemer.

He was willing to expiate our sins, do away with the guilt, remove the guilt. On Calvary's cross, Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself to save His people from their sins. Now, if Jesus Christ is truly a Savior who can save people from their sins, we must ask and answer one important question.

Was His death propitiation for God, and was it expiation for man? In other words, was it all sufficient? To answer that, I want us to consider what was known as the Day of Atonement. We read about it in Leviticus chapter 16, and I'm going to read some selected verses from Leviticus chapter 16 if you want to turn to it.

The Day of Atonement and the Two Goats

Some people think the Old Testament really isn't of any great relevance. There's a preacher in America called Andy Stanley, and I don't know why he bothers. I don't think he has the Old Testament in his Bible, but that's another thing.

But anyhow, Leviticus chapter 16 verse 5, the Day of Atonement. This is when God was going to deal annually with the sins of the nation of Israel, and there's instructions being given as to how Aaron, the high priest, what he has to do.

And we read in verse 5, and he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering. Verse 7, and he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat in which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with him and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Verse 15, then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil. And at the end of the verse, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.

Verse 21, and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.

And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. Now in verses 9 and verse 15, we read of the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell.

And that goat died physically and his blood was sprinkled in the presence of God. It was taken into the Holy of Holies, sprinkled upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. The blood was evidence that a life had been forfeited.

On Calvary's cross in full view of the crowd during the three hours when the sun was still shining, Christ shed his precious blood. That's what the wine at the communion table speaks symbolically of. And in Romans chapter 3 verses 24 and 25, Paul wrote of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.

Christ's blood alone was acceptable as of a lamb without spot and without blemish. The work of propitiation which was pictured by the slain goat on the day of atonement was fully accomplished by Christ on the cross and it was visible to all looking on.

And then in verses 21 and 22 of Leviticus 16, we read of the fate of the scapegoat. How the priest had come out from the Holy of Holies and he laid his hands on the head and it wouldn't just lay, he was pressing down heavily upon it and that was symbolizing the transfer of the guilt for sins committed by the nation of Israel onto the head of that innocent substitute.

And then it was taken out into the wilderness onto a land not inhabited. And that pictures how that innocent substitute was separated, isolated and totally forsaken. It's interesting that the path that would have been taken for the scapegoat would have taken him over the Kidron Brook and that is the path that the Lord took from the upper room to go to Gethsemane.

He would have passed over the Kidron Brook. I've talked about the hours of daylight on the cross and then there was a supernatural darkness enveloped the whole world. And in those hours of darkness on the cross, God made him, that is Christ, to be sin for us.

The guilt for sins committed by the ungodly was transferred onto Christ, the innocent substitute. In the hours of darkness, Christ was separated, he was isolated and he was totally forsaken. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And for you and for me, Christ went into the wilderness onto a land not inhabited. What does that mean? It means he endured your hell and my hell. He was in outer darkness. He was outside the city of Jerusalem in outer darkness.

He thirsted. He was beaten with many stripes. And friends, we learn from the parable or the story of the rich man and Lazarus of how the man who was suffering torments thirsted and he was being beaten.

And the Lord says in other parts of the scriptures about those who will be beaten with few stripes or many stripes. But stripes are symbolic of the punishment of those who go to hell. And who was doing all this on Christ?

Oh, you hear so many things about who was responsible for the agonies they went through. It was his heavenly Father. Because Isaiah 53, 6, the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. That punishment, that hellish punishment was being inflicted upon the sinless Christ by his heavenly Father.