Is God Father to everybody? Yes, to everybody. He is Father to the humblest, the poorest, the most degraded. God said, “Let us make man in our likeness,” and in the image of God created He him. All men belong to God’s family, and upon all some trace of the family likeness is to be seen. The old Greek poet, whose words Paul quoted in his memorable speech at Athens, had a glimpse of this truth when he wrote, “We also are his offspring.” Yes, God is the _Father_ of all men! That is the truth that has been rediscovered within the last half century, the truth of the Universal Fatherhood of God, and a blessed and glorious truth it is. That many men have forgotten God and rebelled against Him does not affect the reality of His Fatherhood. Absalom turned out a wayward, disobedient son. He brought trouble, shame, and distress upon his father David. But the son’s wickedness could not destroy the father’s love. When news came that Absalom was dead, David wept long and sore, and the agony of his broken heart found expression in that pathetic cry, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom; would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son.” And you can parallel that story of David and Absalom from modern life. I read of a young man who had sunk into a life of excess and sin and shame. He brought disgrace upon all connected with him, and one by one men turned their backs upon him. One only clung to him—his poor old father. The one who had suffered most at his hand was the one who continued to bear with him. “Why don’t you turn him out?” said his friends to the long-suffering old man. “I cannot,” replied he; “I am his father.” Those are hints, suggestions of the truth about God. God is the Father of men, and though men sin, the Father still loves. That is what Jesus would teach us in that most precious of all the Parables—the Parable of the Prodigal Son. God is Father not only to the obedient son, but He is Father also to the son who has strayed into the far country and is wasting his substance there with riotous living. The Father’s heart yearns for that absent and wayward child; and when that son returns in his rags and with penitent heart, it is the dear word “Father” that leaps to the prodigal’s lips, and it is with the word “Son” that the father welcomes him home again. Yes, God is the Father of _all_. His love embraces _all_—the lost, the ruined, the undone. His family is co-extensive with the race. But let me go on to say—paradoxical as it may sound—that though God is the Father of all men, _all men are not sons_. Wendt, the great German scholar, puts it in this way, “God always is the loving Father of all men; nevertheless, men must _become_ sons of the Heavenly Father by attaining His spirit of gratuitous, forgiving love.” That is the Bible teaching I myself firmly believe. This old book proclaims the Fatherhood of God, and yet talks about men _becoming_ God’s sons. It talks about _receiving_ the spirit