So, I think the Lord wants to continue
from his statement yesterday morning.
If you didn't hear it, you were not
here to see Simon about getting a copy
of it.
It has to do with fatherhood and calling
upon God as Father, as being more than
just a little amenity, a little piece of
polite punctuation, that that ability and that privilege
is fraught with unspeakable significance, because the whole
issue of father is the issue of God,
and if we do not give him his
proper designation, we might well be barking up
the wrong tree, because merely to use the
three-letter word God could be a route
to deception.
It's too ambiguous, and lends itself to many
uses, particularly for those who are deceitful in
their hearts.
So, God gives certain designations to make sure
we're on the right track.
The God of Jacob, the God of Israel,
is among the most profound designations that God
gives, and the church, the Gentile church that
walks at that kind of acknowledgement forfeits a
knowledge of God in reality and dimension that
can only come with the agreement of that
designation.
God chooses it because it's offensive to the
Gentile to see if they will walk, or
they will swallow and receive whole, how he
chooses to identify himself as the God of
Jacob.
Isn't that remarkable?
With all that Jacob connotes as schemer and
usurper, and all those kinds of things through
which Jacob had to pass before he became
Israel, God yet clings to the name and
identifies himself as the God of Jacob, because
he was with Jacob throughout his entire scheming
career, until he came to the end of
it and became the Israel of God and
the progenitor of an entire nation.
So, we need to pay attention to how
God designates himself.
Is it Genesis 15 or 17?
He speaks to Abraham in a new way
and introduces himself as, I am God Almighty.
I think it's El Shaddai.
He had not before ever used that designation.
Why does he use it now?
Because he says, walk thou before me and
be thou blameless.
I am God Almighty.
Because you'll not be able, you'll not conduct
yourself in that way except by my almightiness.
So, as I give you a call that
is beyond any capacity in yourself to fulfill,
I'm also giving you the indication of the
means whereby it is to be fulfilled.
I am God Almighty.
So, we need to be attentive to the
way that God designates himself.
Because the greatest tragedy is to lose God
as God, even while we are enunciating the
word God.
So, one of the greatest provisions is God
the Father.
And that saves us, as yesterday we shared,
from ambiguity.
It's a specific God that we have in
mind.
And Father is not only his title, it's
what he is in himself as his person.
Because the word Father not only indicates authority,
but something of a kind that will evoke
affection.
And it's an affection we got that God
wants, and an obedience to him out of
affection and out of love.
And so, because there's a father, there's also
a son.
No son, no father.
So, here we have the great mystery of
father and son.
That Jesus, how shall we say it, certifies
that there's a father by virtue of his
own sonship.
So, when I was confronted with the New
Testament 41 years ago, and read of Jesus
for the first time as a Jewish atheist,
where he said, the words that I speak
are not my words, but the words that
my father has given me, or that I've
come from the father, or if you see
me, you see the father.
I did not know there was a father
until there was a son to proclaim him.
The issue of the father is the issue
of the son.
And so that we are called to be
sons has got something to do then with
our own relationship with father.
That has not changed, but remains.
So, in today's selection in the Oswald Chambers,
my utmost was highest.
In fact, the last few days, this is
coincidental.
Have you noticed how often it is that
the devotional readings for the day are right
smack dab on the very thing that is
at hand with God.
Yesterday's is titled, Prayer in the Father's House.
Today is entitled, Prayer in the Father's Honor.
So, let me read you part of this.
If the Son of God is born into
my mortal flesh, is his holy innocence and
simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a
chance to manifest itself in me?
Tremendous question.
If Jesus was the Son by which the
Father was made manifest and his thoughts expressed,
is that same phenomenon continuing now in the
sons that we are?
If we have been birthed by the Holy
Spirit and have become sons, and that the
Son is incarnate in us, is he still
serving the Father as he did when he
was walking in his own body?
Is he still speaking only the words that
the Father gave them now as then?
Is he still as obedient now as then
to the Father?
Only now it's through us as sons?
This is a remarkable continuum.
It did not end when Jesus finished his
earthly course and was taken up to the
throne of heaven.
It continues still in the sons that have
been birthed by his Spirit but by the
same phenomenon of serving the Father and honoring
the Father.
So, the Son of God is born into
me by the direct act of God and
I, as a child of God, have to
exercise the right of a child, the right
of being always face to face with my
Father.
Am I continually saying with amazement to my
common sense wife, why do you want to
turn me off here?
Don't you know that I must be about
my Father's business?
One of the earliest pronouncements in the youth
of Jesus when he was delayed in Jerusalem
and his parents learned later that he wasn't
with them and found him back in the
temple area hearing and questioning the authorities in
the law and he was astonished that they
were concerned about his absence.
Don't you know, he said, that I have
to be about my Father's business?
So, this issue of a son cognizant that
his purpose for being is his Father's business
comes as one of the earliest expressions even
in the youth of Jesus as a child.
And so what Chambers is asking, you as
a child, have you come to that same
recognition in your relationship with the Father?
Are you about the Father's business?
Jesus said, I must be about my Father's
business.
There's an imperative because the son who is
not about the Father's business has forfeited being
the son.
The whole purpose of being the son is
to be about your Father's business.
Got the idea?
Whatever the circumstances may be, the holy, innocent,
eternal child must be in contact with his
Father.
That's the must here.
Must be about his Father's business.
Must be in contact with his Father.
I only wrote in one word that Chambers
did not employ.
Must be about a conscious relationship with his
Father.
This is a chosen, voluntary, imperative.
There's a must because how can you be
about your Father's business if you're not in
relationship with the Father?
How can you know what that business is?
Or how it should be prosecuted or performed
except out of a relationship with the Father?
So the thing that distinguishes Jesus in his
whole three and a half year ministry was
the continual and frequent prayer with the Father.
Not just to receive instruction.
It may well be that he never once
obtained an explicit instruction of what he was
to do that day.
But he obtained a communion with the Father.
A sense of reality because God the Father
is the pivot of reality.
And then walked out the day in what
was gained and imbued in him in that
devotional time in relationship of a son to
a father.
It's so alien to our consideration because we
are so expedient and utilitarian in our mentality.
Like we'll give our Father or any authority
a minimal attention only with regard to what
is to be obtained for us by it.
But that's no longer devotion, that's commerce.
Jesus had a devotional relationship with the Father.
The Father was dear to him as the
son was dear to the father.
And unless that is the environment of the
relationship between father and son nothing else follows.
So here we are talking about sonship and
sons and sons of God but it's with
an American western utilitarian mentality that is mechanical
and we've missed the whole emotional warmth of
a cherished and dear relationship of a son
to a father maybe because we have not
known that in our own earthly life.
But we've got to know it spiritually.
Chambers is facing us with these questions.
There's a must be in conscious contact with
his father.
If you read today's chapter in the book
of Proverbs today is August 8th it has
the most remarkable statement in the last part
of that about the pre-incarnate life of
the son of God before he came to
the earth that he was with the father
as a cherished son and child and creation
was established with him and that it was
always his delight and it's a remarkable glimpse
of what that pre-incarnate life must have
been that Jesus forfeited when he came down
to earth.
We can't begin to imagine what that was
for him and the sacrifice of leaving it
the actuality of that communion and presence with
the father to be separate and come into
the hostile environment that the world is for
the world is at enmity with God but
to maintain that essential connection though physically distant
by conscious contact through devotion called prayer not
prayer of petition but prayer of devotion marked
the relationship of Jesus as a son with
the father there would have been no being
about his father's business if it was not
first about his father's relationship Chambers asked am
I simple enough to identify myself with my
lord in this way is he getting his
wonderful way in me is God realizing that
his son is formed in me or have
I carefully put him on one side because
of the clamor of these days everyone is
clamoring for what there's no room for the
son of God just now no room for
quiet holy communion with the father is the
son of God praying in me or am
I dictating to him is he ministering in
me as he did in the days of
his flesh ministering through me so these are
wonderful questions about the continuation of the remarkable
father-son relationship that Jesus established and exemplified
in his earthly walk and is given to
us to continue will there be no fulfillment
of the father's business it's not a mechanical
thing that God will dispense to anyone who
is religiously willing to work it's given only
to sons because sons have a regal responsibility
the issue of sonship is the issue of
government and participation in the rule of God
and that's more than just a mechanical ability
it issues out of sonship out of a
relationship with father that is emotive and affectionate
and regards him and is jealous to be
about his business and about his name and
about his honor and that's why praying as
Jesus encouraged us pray this way our father
which art in heaven is more than just
a nice suggestion you know that wonderful scripture
the call to Israel, an exhortation, a rebuke
even if I be a father, where is
my honor I think it's in Hosea, one
of the minor prophets if I be a
father, where is my honor why do you
call me father and only use me as
an expedient for your purposes where is my
honor, where is the regard that is due
me from a son by which I am
esteemed and sought for not for what I
can do for you but for what I
am in myself because I think somewhere he
said the father is greater than I so
the father is the hub I don't have
a word, there is no English term appropriate
to show the centrality of God as father
everything issues from him he sends the spirit
down from the throne, he sent his son
the father is the wisdom the ancient of
days so Jesus himself right as he was
in his humanity never acted out of it
but only what he saw from the father
or was given by the father and if
that's what typified him as son, what about
us so are we then at liberty to
do our thing I'm not talking about carnal
thing, I'm talking about religious things or spiritual
things, are we at liberty to speak our
words, do our thoughts, run our business conduct
our ministries, send out our mailings advertise this,
perform that and in fact is that not
the description of the way in which Christendom
conducts itself today and is not ashamed to
use the word son and talk about sonship
as if they actually occupy that place and
bear little reflection to Jesus who would never
once ever initiate anything out of himself listen
to this statement from A.W. Tozer how
many people know that name who was himself
a remarkable son of God and a prophetic
man talking about man and religious men in
their pride men assert their will and claim
ownership of the earth well for this time
it is true that this is man's world,
God is admitted only by man's sufferance I've
always been astonished, if I can interrupt myself
how little acknowledgement is made in the world
about God and that men think that they
can conduct the affairs of nation and the
affairs of state independent of him when we're
told clearly that God himself is wisdom so
that a bush or anyone any head of
state, they make plans, they connive this they
draft treaties thereafter Iraq to come up with
a constitution what's taking you guys so long,
get it together get this act together, do
this, perform that or we'll send our armed
forces or we'll bring greater force to bear
in arms and expense we'll perform this, we'll
get this through no acknowledgement of God, he's
shaking the earth and bringing catastrophes and showing
the cost of living independently of him, but
no one seems to take note that the
earth is the Lord's and the nation's and
the fullest thereof, as if he's not a
God to be consulted or that he's not
there to be consulted and as if he
has nothing to say and no advice to
give and no wisdom to express by which
we can find our way out of this
mess have you been struck by that?
or have you taken it for granted, this
is the way it should work the world
is one thing, the church is another let
the world go on by its own wisdom
and we'll conduct ourselves in our own understanding
of God and never the twain shall meet
if we have any prophetic call we need
to deeply be chafed at the anachronism the
terrible injustice, I don't have a word for
it the anomaly, the disgraceful neglect of God
who has created the world and has set
aside as if he has of no consequence
for the world and that we as Christians
conduct our own business and even our own
ministries or our own communities in very much
that same spirit and the world is not
going to change if the church itself is
acting in independence of God so let me
continue this, God is admitted only by man's
sufferance, as if the Lord is waiting with
his hat in his hands at the door
if the world will let him in he's
treated as a visiting royalty in a democratic
country, everyone takes his name upon his lips,
especially at certain seasons, he is feeded, celebrated
and him, but behind all this flattery, men
hold firmly to their own right of self
determination what I am reading is the antithesis
of sonship if you want to know what
something is one of the most profound ways
to learn it is not to read the
synonyms but the antonyms, see what the opposite
is, tells you what the thing itself is
and that's what this is, Tozer is nailing
the world for its rejection of God the
way the world conducts itself by treating God
ceremonially but not actually, opening up the sessions
of congress by reciting a prayer or swearing
someone in to office by having him put
his hand on the Bible now they're drafting
new laws by which it doesn't have to
be the Bible, it could be the Quran
or some new age thing, whatever it is
that suits the conviction of the one who
is swearing in that will suffice, it doesn't
have to be the Bible anymore, showing how
ceremonial shallow it was in the beginning, a
gesture God is again being used, not being
revered I'm reading you an antithesis of sonship
you want to know what sonship is?
Exactly the opposite to what I am describing
here, what Tozer is describing where God is
celebrated but behind this flattery men hold firmly
to their right of self-determination, don't get
in my way, I don't want to hear
what your thought is, I have already my
own determination of what I'm going to do
even for your sake, even for the church
even for your kingdom, don't tell me very
opposite of Jesus who would not do anything
or say anything except he had first seen
to the hurt of his father he had
no program of his own as long as
man is allowed to play host he will
honor God with his attention, but always he
must remain a guest and never seek to
be the Lord there's a scant acknowledgement, you
may be God but I'm unwilling to acknowledge
the rest of what that means that you're
also Lord what was the first angelic pronouncement
at Bethlehem?
it was born through this day in the
city of David a Messiah, the Lord the
first announcement talks about God's provision for sin
and atonement, but also in connection with the
Lord and I think that in the greatest
number of instances where we have difficulty in
witnessing to unsaved people who even acknowledge that
God is God but they will not surrender
to God as Lord that's what he's saying
here, people are willing to make this shallow
acknowledgement but they don't want the implication of
God as Lord they want to make their
own determinations man will have it understood that
this is his world he will make his
laws and decide how it shall be run
God is permitted to decide nothing the very
opposite of what a son is in which
God is permitted to decide everything whether you're
going to school, college what course you're taking,
what program you're getting married, should you, and
to whom, when your money that's being saved
your future, your time who makes those determinations
unless those determinations are totally the Lord's how
then are you the sons or daughters of
the Most High because the thing about sonship
is its totality, if there's any exception any
veto power, any area in which we reserve
our right to make these determinations, yes God
can decide the cosmic issues, but the lesser
things like my money, my time, my leisure,
my future my choice of career, my business,
my marriage I'll take care of that, nothing
nothing doing sonship is total there's a must,
must be about your father's business, must be
in conscious relationship with him, must be a
total yieldedness to God the Father, who is
the Ancient of Days, who is the Wisdom
of Wisdom and Righteousness, he's the All in
All, he's the Great God, that we earthlings,
we pieces of dust should think ourselves capable
of making a wise decision independent of him
the fact that it works is not reason
enough the fact that we even prosper by
its working is not reason enough, because the
issue of a son is not whether something
works or whether I will prosper by its
working, the issue of a son is, will
this eventuate at the glory of God the
Father did you get that?
If you got that you can go home
now if you got that you got everything
the issue of a son is not whether
it works, not whether it will prosper the
issue of a son is, does this redound
to the glory of God the Father and
unless there's a jealousy for that glory you
have forfeited sonship it's sacrilegious to invoke God
in a shallow and ceremonial way without any
real intent of honoring him if I be
the Father, where is my honor and if
you're not honoring the earthly expressions of his
fatherhood in the authority that he has established
in the body and the church, how are
you honoring him who gave it, because Paul
said no man takes for himself an office,
Paul is not an apostle because he chose
to, he's an apostle because he was called,
and being called he's given the authority appropriate
to that call, and that authority calls for
a certain acknowledgement and recognition from the church,
which for the want of a better word
would be called honoring, and you want to
know you dear saints, you dear American Western
Canadian saints honor is no longer a vital
word in the English language that's why you're
not even understanding it now, how can you
how can you understand what it means to
honor you're too young, you have not my
advantage of having an earlier history when that
kind of word was still being used and
was understood, thou shalt honor thy father and
thy mother, that your years might be long
in the earth, something like that, is one
of the is it the fourth commandment, you
shall honor what does that mean, what if
he doesn't deserve it what if he's an
insensitive father, what if he's indifferent, what if
he's reckless, what, no God says honor you
honor him because not of his track record,
not of his performance but because of his
role his office, which I have conferred so
that to honor him is to honor me
and if you're not honoring him, you're dishonoring
me and if there's no honor, what then
is the world and what is life in
the world it's a jungle of disrespect and
contempt for authority that we see with our
kids today and in the courts and in
the classroom and with the teachers the whole
complex structure of what we call civilization that
saves us from a jungle existence is destroyed
when honor is removed, so why won't men
honor the father, why does God have to
sting Israel and say, why do you call
me God the father if I'm your father,
where is my honor why does he raise
the question, because they've not extended it while
at the same time they're performing their sacrifices
the smoke is going up, the sacrifices are
being hacked and hewed, the priests are laying
them upon the altar and God is complaining,
where is my honor how come, because he
sees right through the subterfuge of the easy
ability to hack something in pieces and lay
it on the altar and put fire under
it and call that the sacrifice that God
requires as he has his life in us,
he is as obedient now to the father
as he was him because he has not
lost his sonship the distinctive of his sonship
is obedience to the father in everything, the
honoring and reverence of the father while he
was in his own body, but now that
he's in our bodies, has anything changed?
the father is still the sum and subject
of what a son is about, to reverence
and to honor and to call upon and
I can't say enough for the importance of
calling upon God the father and that Jesus
himself made that his continual practice my father
who art in heaven hallowed be thy name,
my father if this cup could pass for
me if it cannot everything was father, father,
father every communication is prefigured by the word
father, he called upon the father and it's
more than just a little courtesy, it's more
than a technique it's a profound acknowledgment that
this father is the sum and substance of
all things, not only is he honored by
the act that will follow, but the enablement
for that act comes also from him, he's
both the source and the purpose for life
and being and the church has lost this
sense of God the father, as the brother
I quoted in his book I had with
me yesterday he said the charismatics have honored
the Holy Spirit and forfeited the father and
the evangelicals and fundamentalists celebrate Jesus and have
forfeited the father but to forfeit the father
is to forfeit God where the father is
at the nexus and is himself, very God
and the source of all things including the
son himself though he is equal, all of
the persons of God are equal to the
father and yet Jesus says he's greater than
I and the completion of the ministry of
Jesus as we've said now a few times
is to bring all kingdoms unto himself and
turn them over to the father that the
father might be all in all so the
consciousness of God the father has got to
be restored and our ability to call upon
him upon him as father is a great
privilege, a great distinction and who is it
that has that right who is it that
can dare call upon God father because to
use the word, intonates and implies not only
an honoring but a sense of what that
word resonates and a warm affectionate and reverential
regard for father because just to use it
as an invocation in a mechanical way destroys
it it's not God honoring father, if it's
only something that has got to begin a
prayer for us to be correct, it's no
longer valid if you're going to say father,
my father, my God it's got to be
spoken as a son and not as a
mechanical necessity to make your prayer acceptable so
that you might receive its benefit, got the
idea there's a catch here and so it
requires a remarkable grace just simply to call
upon God the father but if we cannot
call upon God as father to whom then
shall we turn and to whom shall we
plead and what shall we do with our
petitions and how will we find guidance and
direction in the complexity of the life to
which we're called in these last days, this
is the whole matter if we miss it
here, we miss it everywhere, we lose it
so I'm raising the question that Carl Bott
raises in this last of his books these
are the fragments that remain after 14 volumes
of church thought matters which I have upstairs
in my library these little pieces that are
so of a choice and he raises the
question where does anyone get the gall, the
chutzpah the presumption to call upon God the
father as if he's your buddy buddy who
are you, where do you get that unless
the privilege is given you and in fact
more than that unless God himself is requiring
it of you and gives you the grace
to perform it and that's the point that
I want to read right here that comes
from our relationship with Jesus Bott writes, how
does it come about that through Jesus Christ
people are set in the relation to God
in which the problem of his nature and
existence is no longer a problem for them
it's a great question which is how astounding
that earthlings pieces of dust, he knows our
friends we are his dust can dare have
a conversation with God the father, the creator
the redeemer, the most high the almighty, the
ineffable the unutterable that no man has ever
seen whose eyes are too holy to look
upon our sins that we in that condition
can dare call upon him that's Paul Bott
is raising the staggering question and we ourselves
need to be staggered by it or we
will not appreciate what our privilege is as
believers to make that call got the idea
you guys our whole spiritual life needs to
come into a focus of greater intensity and
seriousness and comprehension or we are just knocking
about in the kingdom of God and our
little present or eternal value and somehow the
subject of father and our ability to call
upon God the father in a meaningful and
significant way gets to the grip of the
whole mystery of the faith itself that mere
earthlings have been given the privilege to call
upon the ineffable that means unspeakable God as
father with the intimacy as if we know
him and as if he is our father
though he is in heaven that's how Jesus
called upon him and that's how God would
have us to call upon him no man
can call upon the father except through me
or except by me and even to call
upon the father is a preposterous suggestion from
those earthlings that we are it's a remarkable
privilege it's a bridging of time and eternity
to call upon God as father we need
to be staggered by the immensity of what
that means it's not a light thing, a
piece of traffic something that we perform at
will it's not a little cutesy piece of
punctuation father, it's a solemn deep reverential acknowledgement
that he waits to hear as it is
rightly expressed only by the grace which is
given because no man can any more than,
no man can say that Jesus is lord
except by the holy spirit, yes he can
mouth the word lord, that invocation that human
speech can perform but to speak the word
lord with recognition is impossible to man except
by the holy spirit, the same principle is
true I'm suggesting to call upon God the
father except a grace is given for that
call because if that grace is not given
and we're only invoking the word out of
our own capability for speech he's not hearing
it, he's not receiving it and our petition
falls to the ground and we have gained
and obtained nothing which may well explain why
it is that so little progress is being
made by the church in the world and
so little of the reality of the heavenly
kingdom is being established because perhaps it may
be that our prayer is not heard because
it's too much our prayer, it's a mechanical
invocation we have not recognized the immensity of
the preposterous thing that we should communicate with
God the father the ancient of days the
creator of the heavens and earth and all
that in it is who has ever been,
ever existed holy, holy, holy that it takes
a grace to call upon God the father
as father and not only is that grace
given but it is given through Jesus who
even enjoins us to use that call that
whatsoever you ask the father in my name
it will be given you but if you
don't ask the father there's nothing given and
I have to say 41 years in the
faith if I would assess any percentage of
the prayers that I have sent up to
the father I would say at best 5
% 10% most all my prayers are
almost universally to the lord though he has
said pray to the father in my name
I'm praying to him, why?
because there's something about the word father that
catches me in the gut, I'm not comfortable
with the word father, I have had no
earthly father I was born by one but
I didn't grow up with one, the only
two episodes I can remember from the depression
years of my Russian alcoholic father were not
pleasant to remember there was no influence, I
had no benefit and when I saw the
kinds of fathers that my other Jewish friends
had I counted myself privileged, better to be
without one than what they had to suffer
so I grew up in a vacuum when
it came time for spiritual birth I didn't
know what father meant, I don't know that
I'm sure now so I have never been
comfortable to use the word father and I
don't know to what degree of loss has
been paid for the want of that inability
and now remarkably I'm being looked upon here
and there as a spiritual father I guess
it's because I'm getting gray or because there's
such a conscious need of young believers for
the kind of things that only a father
can express authority, counsel, firm direction, reprimand, rebuke
chastisement, they need that but who gives it,
who will not be a soft touch and
condescend and just say and do the kind
of thing that is a blandishment and a
condescension to the condition of that young man
rather than a rebuke a father's love is
rare, a father's wisdom is rare, a father's
requirement is rare so there is such a
profound need for fathers where Paul even says
many pieces of you fathers but if we
have not the father as prototype how shall
we be father, I'm suffering right now two
sons whose condition is abysmal, leaves much to
be desired mainly the victims of my failure
to be the father that I ought and
was unable to convey because I had no
intimate connection with the prototype of all fatherhood
who is the father who is in heaven
and therefore we're taking this occasion to exhort
the church and getting back to the fundamentals
and to the foundations to establish this foundation
or nothing else can be established after that,
nothing follows if we have not made this
connection that has been lost and maybe for
the same reason that I've lost it, there's
a propensity in sons to exceed their fathers
and to see themselves as even being superior
in wisdom and understanding what is that joke
about the son who is now the age
of 21 or 31 all of a sudden
he sees his father with new eyes dad
I didn't realize how wise you are well
it's only because now you've had a sufficient
life experience to see how fatuous you were
in your own presumption, I've always been the
same there's an egoistic there's an issue of
ego where the younger one wants to exalt
himself at the price of the older and
show himself even superior in judgment and in
ability I'm not saying this properly but we
need to recognize this propensity in our humanity
that probably keeps us from recognizing and honoring
authority in the body and it even impedes
our acknowledgment with God as father is the
desire to lift ourselves up have you noticed
that there are certain ones who want to
put a feather in their cap and see
through a supposed authority and show just what
kind of clay feet he in fact has
and that he should not obtain the admiration
that seems to come to him that others
have granted without seeing as we have seen
how vulnerable he is, how lacking he is
because we have a more acute spirituality that
we can see right through his pretense and
blow the whistle on him in our superiority
have you seen that?
Who is free from the power of that
egoistic gratification that can exalt itself at the
expense of another who is older and in
the position of authority and would distinguish you
as being more uniquely discerning than anyone else
because she's gotten away with it for years
until you came on the scene and you
saw through with your superior and exalted spirituality.
Got that?
That's why Chambers elsewhere says anything that you
see that's deserving to be criticized is not
given for your criticism is given for your
intercession and in fact what authority that God
has established in the earth and in the
church has not played feet is not human
all through human, is not shot through with
contradiction, paradox, shortcomings and failings.
The greatest of the patriarchs every single one
of them has a history of defect.
David himself the great king of Israel and
the sweet singer of Israel was an adulterer
and a murderer.
It's as if God is saying you want
to find fault you don't want to honor
the authority here's ample reason if you want
to get off the hook so that you
can exalt yourself at that expense but when
you do so you lose everything you lose
honor, you lose the recognition that I have
established that king I have set in this
authority and you're not honoring me by finding
it only as an object of your critique.
That great decision of David shows the heart
of God.
He revealed the heart of God by refraining
himself from removing the greatest threat to his
own life and to his own future kingdom
and trusting God for his safety and his
continuance without raising his own hand.
That one decision was the issue of the
kingdom and the revelation of God the father.
That's what God is himself that's how God
is self-deferring himself.
This is God David prostrated himself on his
face and he called Saul who was his
intended murderer, my father.
He gave Saul deference and honor totally undeserved
in terms of his apostate conduct but wholly
appropriate to his title and anointing given by
God it wasn't a self-serving device it
wasn't a salesman accommodating himself so it would
do well for him it was a deeply
felt expression of honor that broke Saul's heart
so Saul would say you are more righteous
than I and your kingdom will be the
enduring kingdom so make note of that in
that episode go back and read it David
prostrates himself before Saul and cries out my
father in a deeply felt and affectionate respect
that was not artificial or counterfeit in order
to serve his purpose in ingratiating himself to
Saul so that if he butters him up
that way Saul in the future will not
again persecute him the fact of the matter
is Saul again persecuted him and David knew
it that this was not going to change
the character of this apostate king nevertheless he
still honored him and that's what he brought
into his kingdom and that's the kingdom that
God is yet waiting to establish that can
only be expressed through sons who have such
a character such an acknowledgement for authority and
God's fatherhood that is yet lacking in the
church because what is a son?
A son is one who is passionate in
his singular regard for the honor of his
father and not his own in fact that
honoring requires the forfeit of his own consideration
so a son is a remarkable phenomenon and
here we are using the word so glibly
and so loosely as if anyone could take
it to himself who hasn't even begun to
approach what sonship itself means as Jesus exemplified
it in his own earthly walk and seeks
to continue to do so now through us
as the incarnate risen and ascended son but
the understanding needs to come to us we
need to yield and desire this kind of
sonship because as I tried to show you
the world is exactly the opposite it will
not honor God it will not defer to
God it will displace God contentiously and arrogantly
it doesn't believe that he can hear and
that he can answer what's the point of
calling upon God the father it's just a
ceremonial bleep it doesn't amount to anything there's
not a God who's going to hear there's
not a father who's all powerful all righteous
and all able so we need to contend
for this faith seek it and believe that
and begin to walk in it and express
it also in the earth and prospects that
are before us within the church itself and
its authorities what's appropriate for sonship is appropriate
as much for women as believers as it
is for men okay I haven't gotten to
this principle point of what justifies and gives
us authority and enablement to use that invocation
God my father to pray to God the
father and Karl Barth here says God himself
being directly present as their father in the
demonstration of his nature and existence can neither
be overlooked nor refuted the question we have
given is that the confrontation of these people
with the reality and truth of God as
their father takes place as Jesus Christ enables
invites and summons them to invoke him as
such let me underline that the Lord summons
us to call upon God the father we
didn't coin this thought he said pray to
father in my name the disciples said teach
us how to pray he said here's how
you pray our father which art in heaven
so what God is directing us to that
the commission to call upon the father has
come from Jesus himself the directive but also
the grace and the enablement is from Jesus
Jesus enables invites and summons them to invoke
him as such obedient to him as their
lord they came to be and are set
in that unproblematical relationship to God the father
as they call upon him as such according
to the permission to command and order of
Jesus Christ God the father in his nature
and existence comes before them unmistakably and irrefutably
this is the theologian he's nailing it that
this is not something that we pluck out
of the air that we decide we're going
to begin to pray this way and make
this honoring and this acknowledgement this is part
of the divine commission and the authority of
Jesus that is given to those who have
submitted to him as lord he's telling us
to call upon God as father he's inviting
us to summon the father in prayer by
calling on that name and he's giving us
the enablement and the grace so that it
will not be a mechanical invocation but one
with an awareness of who the father is
because the enablement is not just to make
the auditory sound father but to have the
sense of who it is to whom you're
calling the lord himself is the provision to
call upon God as father and if the
lord does not give that provision and invite
us to employ it it's not something that
we can initiate and undertake of ourselves it
would be presumption and preposterous got the idea?
Here's the beauty of a theologian who has
wrestled with this deep loss of the fatherhood
from the church and is probing and finding
where we have gone amiss and failed to
recognize and see and what the connection is
in our relationship with Jesus as the very
key to the father and truly no man
can come to the father or to him
through the father no man knows the father
but the son to whom the son will
reveal him there's a remarkable conjunction between Jesus
and the father that enables us to approach
the father because he has commissioned us, enabled
us invited us, even commanded us when you
pray pray this way, see what I mean?
So I appreciate this statement because it gives
us a legal, how shall I say it
a justification, a right to make this call
otherwise it's presumption we need to be reminded
that Jesus is bringing many sons to glory
and he's establishing the quintessential constitutive elements that
comprise sonship by himself being the example and
by himself in his own authority commanding us
and then joining us to call upon God
the father because who else would know the
father better than he?
Who else can communicate what the father is
but one who's had an eternal courtship and
relationship before he ever came into the earth
who knows the father better than Jesus and
who the father is and invites us to
to make that connection in his own authority
and gives us the grace and enablement so
we do see what a remarkable thing this
is what the Lord is doing for us
to establish the foundational linkage with the father
that grants us an identity as sons we
need to dwell on the Lord's prayer maybe
we'll do it, our father we're calling on
him, which art in heaven hallowed be thy
name your name and its honoring is the
purpose of my call I'm not calling for
the expediency of needing this or that but
my call has as its ultimate intention that
your name should be hallowed because if your
name is not hallowed what then is there
in the world and in the earth that
will serve to mediate some grace into this
otherwise grim thing that is called life if
your name is not hallowed what then is
what is holy, what is deserving of respect
if your name is not hallowed so this
is not a jealous deity desiring to be
puffed up in his godly egotism for our
sake his name must be hallowed so teach
us how to pray, pray this way our
father, which by the way means not just
my father, my individual god that serves me
in my private and personal need but the
god with whom I share relationship with a
body our father and god loves to hear
that because he himself is triune, he himself
is composite he himself is a sweet company,
he himself is corporate so when he sees
our reflection of our corporateness not as a
begrudging necessity but as a delight and privilege
by which we say our he hears that
and what's the purpose of our call hallowed
be thy name men become in our gods
children then by gods grace which is his
possibility and not theirs this privilege and this
call which is the key to everything is
not presumptuously for us to take or to
initiate, it's a grace, a great grace and
it's by the goodness of the father it
is not originally intrinsic to them nor is
it accessible to their own grasping and disposing
rather it is freely intended for them and
addressed and promised to them as the grace
and goodness becomes a present event in their
life and thought in action and suffering so
that they acquire thereby their genuine freedom to
cry father well this is recorded shall I
read that again it's a summation of all
that the theologian is bringing us to consider
of the privilege of calling upon god as
father is being summed up here men become
and are gods children until we call on
god the father how then are we rightfully
children, we become children and sons in exact
proportion as the acknowledgement and the ability to
call upon god as father, no father no
sons no father no children, see the two
things are inextricably bound but how do you
make the connection you don't appoint it yourself,
you don't express it yourself, it's not something
we initiate for ourselves that would be presumption,
this is too holy and so he goes
on to explain, it's by gods grace which
is his possibility not theirs, he has chosen
to give us this privilege not we ourselves
to take it or to assume it it's
by the goodness of god the father that
even this privilege to call upon god the
father should enhance our respect, admiration and love
for him that he gives us such a
privilege because if he were any kind of
god worth his weight he ought to keep
himself aloof from such as we are, not
give us the right to come barging in
to heaven and calling upon him he ought
to retain his own integrity keep at a
distance, that's why jews are offended at the
gospel, that this god came down to suffer
and to die, no way, he's going to
be born in a stable no way, he's
going to die outside the camp on the
cross for criminals no way, that's not the
god we know, but the god that they
know is not the god who's god, this
is god this is the grace of the
father to enable us to call upon him
as children and as sons, my god where
would we be without that we'd be a
bunch of dum-dums, we'd be staggering around
in ignorance, we'd be walking into walls, we'd
be doing injury to our own children, in
fact as we are to the degree that
we have not understood and appropriated this great
distinction of blessing, our children are the victims
and the church is the victim for the
want of a fatherhood that comes to children
who acknowledge the father and recognize what a
great grace it is that has been extended,
that need not have been given, grace is
not compelled it's freely given out of the
very nature of the father himself, this is
what the father is in enabling us to
call upon him and that he's going to
hear that call and he's going to answer
that call however choked and spluttering our prayer
is however inadequate, he's not going to weigh
it in terms of our eloquence, he will
hear it, I'll show you that later on
and receive it and give us an answer
exceedingly abundantly above what we think to pray
and to ask or else where would we
be we have not sufficiently esteemed the father
in the very grace of allowing us to
call upon him with cognizance, respect, reverence and
affection and what follows from that call and
yet the first miracle at the gate beautiful
was in the holy name of the child
Jesus and in today's selection in Chambers he
talks about the innocence there's something I don't
want to rush by and ignore that somehow
is a needful thing in the process of
sonship is the innocence of childhood and trust
and I don't understand it but Chambers uses
that
reference maybe I'll read it here again if
the son of God is born into my
mortal flesh is his holy innocence and simplicity
and oneness with the father getting a chance
to manifest himself maybe what he's saying is
there's something about a child and it's innocence
that understands, loves and trusts the father that
we must not quickly pass by and a
certain quality of that innocence and trust must
be in us to make that connection and
give that respect so that we can go
on to be sons I talked about the
failure to give honor where honor is due
in authority, the other side of that coin
is giving an honor where it is not
due because I've seen in our charismatic generation
that certain figures because they are grey headed
and look stately and give an outward affectation
of maturity and fatherhood are esteemed as fathers
and are later on complete collapse in homosexuality
alcoholism for which they do not even repent
when they are caught so why was it
that they were celebrated as fathers and even
offered as an image to the body of
Christ as a father because they look like
it what we think a father should look
like and we're very quick to latch on
to the external and false replica of it
how come?
because we have not an inward and deep
sense of the fatherhood of God that would
immediately reveal the fraudulent counterfeit for what it
in fact is, we would not be impressed
with mere white hair for its own sake
because it is not necessarily the statement of
wisdom could be, so why were we suckers
to quickly latch ourselves on to these men
because we need a spiritual father but they
were not fathers in fact they themselves were
deficient in their own character they had not
themselves come to sonship let alone to fatherhood
but they look like it so what am
I saying?
what saves us from being attracted and lifting
such men up who do not deserve the
acknowledgement is a deep inward sense of the
mystery for the want of a better word
of fatherhood as is contained in God the
father himself when you have this unarticulated inward
sense it guards you from the counterfeit and
in fact the same sense alerts you to
the real thing when it is available however
rare that is so I'm making a case
for an inward subjective sense of God as
father that does not come to us cheaply
but it comes to us from the frequency
of the must relationship with him in devotion,
got the idea?
he's invisible but he's a real person he's
a real father, he has real qualities of
character and disposition that we need to sense
and every time we come to him in
the place of devotion in the early morning
hours some measure of that is being communicated
even when we're not conscious of it there's
a residue of inward intuition that is coming
into our inner man that is invaluable so
that when the phony thing makes its appearance
we're not at all impressed when the real
thing makes its appearance we immediately identify but
how do we get this sense of God
it's not cheap it's as often as you
will call upon your father who is in
heaven in the early morning time when you
do not come to him for a fix
or you do not come out of a
religious obligation I've got to put in so
much prayer time and I've got to read
so many chapters this is a devotion and
you're starting from scratch and you're feeling the
cold air the draft on the floor and
you're feeling groggy and sleepy and you'd rather
go back to bed you have no incentive
to remain in that place of devotion but
that's where the action is that's why Jesus
rose early while it was yet dark and
found a place apart to seek the father
as Jim said not to receive instructions for
the day to receive communion for the day
the sense of the father that inward presence
because the father is reality you dear saints
the world is dying for the want of
reality it's going askew it's spinning headlong into
a grave and what tumult of confusion and
mayhem because of the lack of the sense
of God as God which is the principle
of reality itself this has got to be
coveted sought and it waits for your invocation
my father who art in heaven when have
you prayed that last when have you prayed
that comfortably when have you prayed that with
faith and received something of the sense of
the father who is God we discussed the
tent of Shem and why is it that
God so honors Shem and that at the
end Japheth must dwell in the tent of
Shem and also him because the tent of
Shem is the repository of godliness and why
Shem because Shem covered his father I would
not look upon his naked disgrace but walk
backwards and cover him so that nothing of
the esteem or respect or affection for the
father was lost because of this momentary lapse
of drunkenness why because Shem knew God and
conferred to his earthly father what was in
his heart for the heavenly father and was
to cover and not to expose and so
the tent of Shem which is Israel's calling
is God's provision for all the Japheth world
and if it will not dwell in that
tent it will go about making war and
doing its usual damage because Japheth means expansion
it needs to be tempered by what is
to be found in that tent alone by
the son who covered his father in respect
and did not say oh now I'll rise
to the head of the class my father
has had his shot he's already what 500,
700 years old and I'm young and he's
now disqualified himself let him languish in that
condition I'll now take over and be the
superior son nothing like that it was a
respect it was an honoring it was a
covering and God the father honored that because
that's the statement of God himself that's what
God is what a test for the church
historically that a fallen Israel has constituted how
do we look upon God's ancient people in
their drunkenness and their origins and their fallenness
and their apostasy do we brush them off
do we look with contempt well they've had
their chance and blown it now we take
over which is so much the attitude of
the present church or do we cover them
do we remember that our fathers have come
from them the patriarchs the apostles prophets and
God will honor those fathers and they're only
temporarily fallen as Paul has said so we
have an attitude of esteem which ought to
be expressed to Jews presently and if it
had been expressed rather than the disdain and
superiority of Christians our relationship with the Jewish
community would be different than other than what
it presently is they would be much closer
to the kingdom and much more amenable to
hearing our message of the Lord if we
had treated them with the respect and disposition
that would be honoring even in their failing
see what I mean but what do we
do when we see one fail we rub
our hands in glee there's something ironic about
the church particularly in Slavic countries that delights
in fallen ministers why because you're exalted at
their expense instead of sorrowing for the fallen
one or covering him and being an instrument
of restoration they're quick to reject and to
condemn so the kingdom is yet distant just
a final remark we'll take a break when
do we hear the voice of the father
sounding from heaven and saying this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased it's
when Jesus comes up out of the waters
of joy why did the father wait for
that moment and the spirit come down as
the dove upon his head to abide because
she came down and into in my opinion
the condition of the nation itself he identified
with its sin he identified with its shame
he didn't stay on the bank and look
down and say you suckers you sinful blah
blah blah blah he came down and joined
and identified himself with the plight of his
people in a priestly way so that he
could also raise them up out of their
apostasy of unbelief into the place of God's
intention for them as a royal nation a
nation of priests and a light to the
world when the father saw that he said
this is my beloved son because when my
son did that he revealed to me when
my son humbled himself when he went down
into the muddy waters he was showing again
his descent from heaven he came down out
of heaven in his privilege pre-incarnate life
into the earth now he's coming down again
because coming down in humiliation and identification with
the lost and the sinful is what I
am as God this is my nature this
is what I am as God the father
and my son has set me forth by
his conduct without being instructed to do it
he just intuited and knew what is the
right action in that moment as a son
so Lord may we know in the moments
that come before us to show you forth
in such a way my God as to
win the attention and the astonishment of many
who do not know God as God so
thank you Lord instruct our understanding you are
the very prototype Jesus knew what to do
not because he had been detailed in instruction
but because he had been in communion with
you in the 30 years that preceded his
earthly ministry and everything flowed out of that
knowledge of the father because of the frequency
of his communion with him that made that
action a natural and inevitable expression of God
himself and Lord we want to be sons
like that because not to be a son
like that is not to be a son
and so there is no cheap and easy
quicky but you have ordained, you have summoned,
you have given us authority to call upon
God the father in more than just a
mechanical gesture but in a reverential and affectionate
way that we might glean in that call
something of the sense of him and express
it Lord as the occasions are given thank
you so far for this morning give us
an opportunity to catch our breath to inwardly
take this in to digest to let it
have its working and to be find its
expression Lord because this is not just an
academic luxury you are wanting something wrought in
your people being called as many sons unto
glory in Jesus name Amen