I'm always reminded of a favorite poem about
trees.
Some of you might know it.
Joyce Kilmer was the composer, a World War
I veteran.
In Brooklyn we had Joyce Kilmer Square with
a tree.
It goes something like this, I think that
I shall never see A poem lovely as
a tree A tree whose hungry mouth is
pressed Against the earth's sweet-flowing breast For
poems are writ by fools like me But
only God can make a tree.
Why do I think of that when I
come to the subject of sonship?
Because as a tree is a supreme statement
of God's handiwork, creative ability, power, so also
is a son.
A son is like an ultimate expression of
God's great nature, creative power, and holiness.
So if a man can celebrate a tree,
how much ought we to celebrate a son?
Someone ought to write a comparable poem.
I think that I shall never see so
great a thing as a son.
And in fact, what is a son but
a tree of planting of righteousness?
So today in chambers, how does he begin?
And what is the title for August 9th
prayer and the father's hearing?
He's still on the subject of father.
And he writes, when the son of God
prays, he has only one consciousness and that
consciousness is of his father.
God always hears the prayers of his son
and if the son of God is formed
in me, the father will always hear my
prayers.
I have to see that the son of
God is manifested in my mortal flesh.
So when I come in contact with the
occurrences of life as an ordinary human being,
is the prayer of God's eternal son to
his father being prayed in me?
In that day you shall ask in my
name.
So what is he saying?
This whole genius of incarnation is the son
of God in us whose continual mode is
to pray to the father.
He prayed in his own earthly body and
now he's praying in us.
So that our prayer is his prayer and
it continues to the father.
And he says, and my father always hears
me.
Why?
Because I'm always praying to him.
So he's receiving in kind what he himself
invested in his own earthly life and continues
to express through us.
It's prayer to the father.
And I was reminded that in chapter 11
of John, in that great climactic moment when
he stands at the tomb of Lazarus, put
up or shut up.
If Lazarus is to come out from that
tomb, something monumental has taken place in history
that will affect his own death and resurrection.
But will it take place?
Will God hear his cry?
Is there any assurance that though he has
been obedient and withholding himself from coming to
his beloved friend's side in sickness and now
has come when he's four days in the
tomb and by now he stinketh, his body
is already beginning becoming corrupt, that there will
be this outstanding miracle to testify of the
calling of Jesus as a son praying to
the father that Lazarus should come forth.
I'd be a lousy Hollywood film writer to
present the scenario and its dramatic possibility.
But do you get the point?
Do you get the sense of what is
at stake in this moment?
Jesus standing at the tomb, people mourning already
for the one who is dead and passed
and he now to pray and call on
the father for this remarkable resurrection and deliverance.
And he prays in this way in verse
41.
He lifted up his eyes and he said,
Father, how does he begin?
Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard
me.
How does he know that?
The demonstration, the answer has not yet been
given.
He knows it because he knows the father.
That the father hears the son who calls
upon him in his name.
I thank thee that thou hast heard me
and I know that thou hearest me always.
That's not a remarkable confidence.
Can I just interrupt and say, is it
yours?
Do you have a confidence like that?
I know that you hear me and I
know that you always hear me.
Only a son can have that confidence and
a son has obtained that confidence by the
continual dependency upon the father.
So when you go into a meeting in
Burkina Faso in Africa to 150 or so
ministers who have come from distant places and
the temperature is 98 degrees and you're dissolving
in your own sweat and they are dulled
by what has preceded your speaking and are
gazing at the ceiling wondering what they're doing
there and why had they come at that
distance because they heard some report that somehow
a man is coming that is worth their
hearing and their sacrifice to come and then
you have prayed in the hotel room and
you have a faint presentiment of what the
subject might be but no confirmation but now
as this morning the hour has struck and
you have got to open your mouth.
I'm saying all that to say this you
need to have a confidence that that prayer
that took place two hours ago in the
hotel room is now going to have its
object.
It's now going to be answered that God
did hear your prayer what were you praying?
Lord, the hour is critical these men have
come at distance and at sacrifice their congregations,
Africa itself is at stake because Africa is
in so desperate a condition in its political
and social condition that the church is its
only hope and if the church is its
only hope then its ministers to the church
are altogether critical and therefore what is to
be spoken now in this once and for
all time will not be given again so
I'm asking that you would give them a
word from the throne of heaven that is
on time and totally appropriate in your wisdom
and love for them that's the prayer, something
like that two hours later you're standing before
these black men as I said humorously as
the white cork bobbing in a black sea
and you open your mouth and believe that
your prayer has been heard and that what
is going to come forth now is God's
answer to that prayer hey guys, this is
the long and the short of it this
is what it's about whether you're in Africa,
Timbuktu, Omaha, Nebraska your own locality whether you're
before a congregation before ministers in your own
family, in your own fellowship in whatever their
private, personal, intense dealing it's the same issue
that you believe as a son having historically
and continually called upon the father that he
always hears you and he hears you now
then you can have confidence to open your
mouth and to speak whatever you find in
it got that?
this is no small thing this confidence is
critical because we are going to find ourselves
in situations in these last days so totally
unprecedented so new and staggering in the dimension
and the stakes that are represented that no
past experience of God's faithfulness will be appropriate
for the crisis now it's a new crisis
that has got to be met afresh by
the same God and you have to trust
that whatever you're going to speak and do
is that answer so it requires a son's
confidence in the father who hears because up
till now all of your prayer has gone
forth to the father and it has been
received has been answered sometimes in ways that
surprise you and because you have always prayed
to him he always hears you and that's
why Jesus says I know that you always
hear me so now when it's put up
or shut up and my whole identity status
before the nation Israel which is the greatest
crisis of recognition that they have ever been
required to make that a man in the
flesh has come among them that purports to
be not only their Messiah but their God
that whole issue that staggers Israel to its
foundations and for which nothing in its history
has prepared them is now at stake and
what your answer to my prayer will be
as I stand before the tomb of this
dead man for whom these people are weeping
at the loss the stakes are great and
if you're a son you know that whatever
the situation the stakes are great whether it's
Africa whether it's the tomb of Lazarus whether
it's an ordinary daily transaction whether it's something
in your own fellowship the stakes are always
great eternity is always at issue if you
don't see it like that if you think
it's only a momentary thing or a light
thing that you can afford to pass or
fail you're not seeing as a son you're
seeing humanly you're not seeing spiritually everything is
weighted with eternity don't you see that even
right now even today even the way in
which we're conducting ourselves at this school and
in this school well tomorrow is another day
yeah but that's tomorrow this day will have
passed it will not be given again we
dare not bumble and fumble and miss it
out of even our best intentions it has
got to be what is now what is
appointed what must come forth or tomorrow makes
no sense tomorrow will not be a reality
if it's not in the continuum of today
but what about today lord now has come
the bell has rung the class is assembled
the recording instruments are on something has got
to come forth sonship the responsibility the acute
moment and you are it and you feel
altogether alone I, no one else I alone
am it and then you open your mouth
as Jesus did here with that prayer in
the hearing of those about him punctuated by
the word father he could have said dad,
abba but it wasn't a devotional moment he's
calling god in a name that is appropriate
to his holy stature but he's calling upon
him as one who is in precious relationship
with that father I thank thee that thou
hast heard me by the way there's gratitude,
there's praise right in his opening statement and
I know that thou hearest me always but
because of the people stand by I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast
sent me so I don't want to go
on and make this a text for a
sermon but the issue of what Jesus represents
about the reality of god as one sent
hinges on the moment of the answer he'll
receive from the father to whom he's praying
I mean it's colossal for Israel that he's
the one sent a man who palpably sweats
and exhibits the frailties of humanity is actually
the sent one, the messiah, the hoped for
deliverer and very god himself, no way and
as my Jewish kinsmen tell me in New
York, if god wants to change our understanding
that we have held now for all these
thousands of years that were given at Sinai
in fire and thunder and all of the
dimensions of god's majesty that made us to
tremble, if he wants to change anything he
has to speak to us again in equally
a climactic moment we need another Sinai if
we're to believe that what we understand about
god is to be altered but not a
Jesus not someone who comes in frailty and
in his own humanity and weakness and has
not a place to lay his head cannot
be the avenue or the mode by which
god is going to bring us up to
date on his latest revelation of how he's
to be perceived and understood understand what they're
saying?
we demand another Sinai god gave us his
initial statement in law, in fire and in
smoke, and if he's going to change it
he'll have to do it again in fire
and smoke but not by some upstart, not
by some character who's uh who is dubious,
so everything is at stake here that they
might know, I'm saying this aloud to these
people who are hearing that they might know
that the father has sent me on the
answer you will now give to my prayer
as I call upon you as father what
if our every moment was charged with something
as significant as what was at stake in
that moment with Jesus and what I'm saying
is if we don't see our every moment
as being charged with uttermost significance, we are
not seeing, or we are not living that
our moments can be so charged we're living
beneath the call of god, and we're not
making ourselves available to god that the issues
of our life will be his issue and
require his answer to verify to confirm and
to perform his work so when he had
thus spoken he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus come forth and he who is dead
came forth bound hand and foot with grave
clothes his face was bound with a cloth
and Jesus saith unto them loose him and
let him go it's almost like Elijah at
the contest at Carmel with the false prophets
of Baal, you build your altar I'll build
mine, you slay your ox I'll slay mine
and you call for your god to consume
your sacrifice with fire, I'll call for my
god let that god who answers my fire
be god he's confronting an entire apostate nation
who actually desire in their hearts that he
should fail they are already compromised they have
already altered between two opinions they don't want
to see Elijah succeed because his success would
mean back to square one, the giving up
of the false gods of Baal and their
idols and the confidence and satisfaction that the
carnal have derived and a return to a
true relationship with the living god that requires
earnest authentic sacrifice and a life of total
dedication and consecration they don't want that return
they don't want to see the fire fall
and so he gives his opponents their first
opportunity, who leap on their sacrifice, cut themselves
nothing happens, there's no real god upon whom
they're calling and then he calls them, draw
closer wet that sacrifice with twelve dials of
water make it even less amenable to an
answer from god by fire and then he
turns to god and says, if I have
done these things at your word and nowhere
in the text does it indicate that he
has done these things according to his word
though god has spoken to him conspicuously previously
move to this place go by the stream
Jabbok you'll be fed by ravens do this,
do that, in this crisis, nothing is indicated
in the text that god has told him
to do what he's doing it could be
that he had not heard a voice as
explicit as the voice that told him to
go to this stream or to be fed
by ravens or to go to Jarapheth or
any of the things that Elijah arose and
did according to the word of god but
where was the word of god here?
maybe it was no more than an intuition
maybe it was a hunch an inward sense
that god is requiring this ultimate showdown with
apostate Israel and requiring it in this way
but what if the hunch is wrong what
if Elijah has a propensity for melodrama and
he's set up for a climax that was
not god's intention and though all Israel has
been gathered and the stakes are ultimate and
great what kind of answer will now come?
you think that he has a supreme confidence
that fire is now going to fall or
is there a tremor of apprehension and trembling
that though I have believed all these things
according to your word I may yet be
wrong I may yet have missed it my
batting average till now has been 100%
but there's no guarantee for now there's always
the prospect that I may have missed you
and missed you of all places and times
at the most crucial moment ever nevertheless now
the moment has come and I raise this
prayer to the father if I have done
these things according to your word lord, give
answer before this people that they might know
that you alone are god and boom the
fire of god descended consumed the sacrifice and
the nation did go down and cry out
the lord is god, the lord is god
I'm saying all that to say this, well
for Jesus at the grave of Lazarus and
Elijah at Carmel however precious the relationship with
god however sacrificial however consecrated however previously honored
by god in his faithfulness is no uttermost
and total guarantee and assurance in this moment
that a man may not miss it and
yet is required to act and to call
and to believe and to trust praise god
that god did answer but the prophet needs
to be prepared that the answer will not
come and then who will be slain at
the brook not the false prophets but himself
and he has to be prepared for that
disappointment that failure, though god being god, maybe
has a greater purpose of bringing fire maybe
there's yet a longer period of apostasy through
which Israel must pass, maybe he will never
be vindicated in this life, so lord, help
me here to persuade your saints that sonship
knowledge of the father trust, prayer even in
the last moment, there's a trembling an apprehension
and a prospect always that we may have
missed you that your answer, if it comes
will not come as expected or may not
come at all, and yet we're required to
act, so what's the answer for that, we
need as faithful a relationship with god over
a history that we, by his grace are
able to obtain but when we come down
from the hotel and stand before these black
men who have come from distant places and
now open our mouths we need to be
prepared for anything that may come or may
not come so that faith in that moment
is a kind of dying, trust is dying,
praise god that it did come but I
can think of other occasions in my little
history with god when it did not come,
and my prayer was as sincere then as
it was in Africa where what came was
a dull thud or a disappointing silence or
some other contradiction and that we need to
be prepared for the one as for the
other and that this willingness for such moments
where your heart stops beating and where the
stakes are enormous and you're not going to
get a second shot at this is at
the very essence and at the heart of
sonship and the relationship with the father of
trust and relationship through prayer I know that
you always hear me that's why it's more
beautiful than a tree for god to raise
up a son like that and how far
will god go in making an exquisite son
who will be obedient in the death of
that moment and be willing to prepare and
to receive the failure of an answer as
well as to rejoice in an answer and
that the one will be as satisfying as
the other if it serves the purposes of
god and his glory that the son is
willing to suffer a personal disappointment and a
failure of expectancy if that failure is more
congruent with god's ultimate purposes than the fire
itself got that that's a son you guys
that's a son anything less is just a
practitioner a religious functionary a guy who does
it by the numbers and has a certain
kind of human macho expectation that is not
a son's reverence for the father's glory that
is greater than the issue of the success
of a moment and a son like that,
sonship like that is not born in a
day, sonship like that is groomed is wrought
out has a history has a dealing has
an involvement has an investment, has a suffering,
has disappointment with men in whom you have
constantly trusted and loved and experienced their rejection
and even their vile rejection, their hostility men
with whom you have gone into the house
of god together have lifted up their heel
against you with whom you've broken bread betrayal
are all constituent elements in god's program and
the preparation that they're bringing forth of the
most golden statement that reveals himself and glorifies
him, a son will not be it until
we appreciate what that word means and it
is as much under abuse now as every
other holy word like worship, which is being
batted out of recognition out of shape, or
faith or the blood or whatever it is,
every word of god is suffering abuse and
defilement in our time truth is being turned
into truisms and the word son and sonship
is suffering exactly the same so part of
our prophetic function is jealousy for the word
what it connotes, what it represents it represents
the revelation of the father who has sent
his son which is Israel's salvation and that
of all mankind is at stake in an
answer to prayer to the father to a
relationship to prayer as a life of prayer
and not an expedient means of commerce and
transaction with deity to obtain our ends the
prayer with the father is out of a
life of prayer, as P.T. Forsyth says,
the soul of prayer, it's not a mechanism
for the obtainment of expedient expedient answer it's
a life, Jesus prayed to the father before
the day began in communion not in detailed
instruction as Jim said the other day now
I know that you always hear me and
now I'm standing before these people and praying
like this that they might know that you
have sent me not that I should be
gratified but that they should be saved so
come now when everything hinges upon your answer
and give it and the father did these
are the remarkable tensions of the faith which
only a son is willing to bear if
you're not experiencing it as tension I can
almost say you're outside the faith and you
have reduced the faith to some kind of
formulaic parody of the faith that just quotes
scriptures and has certain principles and doctrines, if
you're in the faith you've made yourself a
candidate to bear the agonizing tensions because in
the last analysis you're on the spot as
a son something has got to come forth
you cannot absent yourself or withdraw or go
back to your hotel room something is on
the line right now and it's got to
come forth through you and the father himself
is waiting for your faithfulness and performance to
express it and so there's the remarkable dynamic
between father and son in a historic moment
whose time has come and if we cop
out because we're unwilling for the death which
is that tension and the trust then to
open our mouths and express it, we have
failed him but how can we fail the
father but this will save us from reducing
the faith to some formula, formulaic faith, presumption
is the conduct of the arrogant the bumptious,
the immature the self assured the fleshly, the
carnal the religious, the practitioner makes these presumptuous
assertions but he's outside the dimension we're talking
about and more than that he's not reserved
for those godly moments where the issue of
the revelation whom God has sent is at
stake, he will be involved in some religious
claptrap some entertainment for charismatics or some other
kind of a thing as a televangelist in
which the great issues are never at issue
boy where did that statement come from so
where did that boldness come from where did
that assurance that makes the hearer startle and
performs the act it came out of the
trembling it came out of the deaths, it
came out of the trust, it came out
of the history it came out of the
prayer it comes out as boldness but it's
the auspices is humility and suffering that the
son dependent as he is on the father
is also an instrument upon which the father
is dependent, if the son doesn't come through,
he doesn't act he doesn't if he's unfaithful
the father has been has been left stranded,
disappointed that the father is willing to extend
himself the issue of his name and his
honor predicated on the faithfulness of the son
to express what is needful in those given
moments there's a remarkable reciprocal relationship from father
and son, if the son dies multiple deaths
in his faith and believing and trusting how
much is the father also I won't say
trembling but he's committed something to the son,
there's something reciprocal it's not just a one
way street we need to appreciate the father's
investment in his son and the trust in
the son in his faithfulness and obedience without
which the work in the earth will not
take place so I want to get to
that then to give us the fuller picture
of the relationship between father and son, because
that picture is the issue of God himself
the revelation of God is nowhere better more
aptly given than in the relationship between father
and son in fact it's relationship that always
reveals truth it's not some static thing or
a statement or a single act it's in
relationship that's why the body of Christ is
the demonstration of the wisdom of God to
the principalities and the powers of the air
not a single man's ability or what's the
word it's something, a demonstration through the church
where in it's relationship something of God is
revealed in the relationship between the father and
the son not just something but maybe the
essence of God is revealed in that relationship
so we need to contemplate that relationship because
the contemplation is the revelation of God as
God that had waited for that moment of
time in which he sends his son who
knows God the father well enough that you
can act when he's not speaking and act
out of an intuition of a sense that
is the product of a history with God
in an untoward moment for which there's no
precedence and yet you're required to say something
and do something and the face of what
you say and do will give the carnal
ammunition to say you've missed God that's not
God, that's not the way what he would
say or do and you may not be
vindicated in the moment and maybe you'll not
even be vindicated in your lifetime and yet
in heaven and eternally you'll hear from the
father this is my beloved son whom I'm
well pleased, well done, good and faithful servant
because you were able to act when I
did not tell you what to do because
that obedience would not have glorified me as
much as the act that issues out of
your intuition of what would be appropriate out
of your history of relationship with me in
a moment that has come that takes you
by surprise and for which you've had no
preparation that is the essence of a son
and I know that I know that I
know that such moments are ahead of us
and that these are the discerning moments and
these are the defining moments of the faith
in the last days against a world that
is apostate and where we are even opposed
by our own Jewish kinsmen in their ignorance,
opposing themselves on us in their own ignorance
and yet we shall be required to act
speak or do something in a way that
by their every measure will seem to be
contrary to God and an offense to God
and he has not told us to do
it how then do we know how to
act in that moment?
It issues out of an intuition a sense
of God as God that has been obtained
over a history with him that now fits
you for this moment and when I mentioned
to a brother who is no longer with
us how intuition is so much a component
of the prophetic life, he laughed me to
scorn as if intuition is a faculty for
which God has no respect whatever so I
want to say he has great respect.
Intuition is not just a hunch of a
carnal kind, I guess, I guess, I guess
intuition is presentiment, is sensing is discerning having
an inward notion of something that is appropriate
to God how do you know that?
Because you know the God to whom it's
appropriate and I'm always asking the church do
you have a history with God?
that they blink and look at me like
what are you talking about?
they've never before even heard the concept that
a believer should have a personal history with
God in which he has been brought through
trials, crises of a kind unique to him
and appropriate in his growth that God will
give periodically out of his wisdom and love
for which there's no other substitute but it's
every time fearful, every time painful every time
a death and many will not open themselves
to that dimension they want a formulaic faith
where everything is pat, prescribed nailed down, they
don't want to open themselves to this experiential
unknown realm of being dealt with by God
and the bringing forth of a son so
sonship is a voluntary and willing surrender to
be entered into a process by which one
is formed and which suffering is a conspicuous
aspect but the end thereof is glory to
God the Father so this brother writes what
exactly was Jesus saying about his relationship to
God when he called him Father what should
we understand by that what is the importance
of that relationship for the whole structure of
the gospel the answer is everything in what
sense is the relationship between Jesus and his
Father unique and to what extent can others
share in it is it just a once
and for all between Jesus and the Father
or is there a way in which we
by union with the Son can also be
in that relationship of Son to Father and
in fact because of that union as Chambers
is saying the Lord is still calling upon
the Father through our prayer see so these
are remarkable questions that he's sounding from the
beginning of this chapter if we do not
know that Jesus related to God as his
Father we know nothing about him at all
if we do not know that Jesus related
to God as his Father we know nothing
about him at all not only to him
Jesus but the Father him we don't know
the Father at all and we don't know
Jesus at all if we do not know
how Jesus related to the Father because that
relationship both revealed the Son and the Father
both then and now our relationship now reveals
again the Father as we ourselves have revealed
as sons that same dynamic the genius of
it that Jesus was the first begotten Son
to demonstrate now is explicated and set forth
again by the many who have been called
to glory as sons but the principle the
reality the mode is exactly the same for
us as it was for Jesus or much
the same he had certain advantages that we
don't enjoy as God so as well as
the obvious dependence of the Son upon the
Father there is a complementary dependence the other
way around of the Father upon the Son
whoever thinks about that that the Father would
be dependent upon a Son isn't that unbecoming
to his deity that he should allow himself
to be brought to a situation where he
has some measure of dependence upon the Son
shouldn't he be all sufficient unto himself and
guard the integrity of his deity doesn't he
make himself vulnerable when he allows for a
situation where if the Son is not obedient
and faithful the Father himself suffers loss what
kind of a Father would take that risk
naturally and humanly speaking that his integrity his
name is very much dependent upon the conduct
of his Son and yet God the Father
is willing for that dependency and it's important
for us to see and know that or
else we will not understand the totality of
what Father and Son mean in their relationship
the dependence upon the Son the dependence of
the Father but not excluding a dependence of
the Father upon the Son something had to
be performed in a moment of time in
Burkino Faso on that day when I came
down from the hotel room to commence speaking
to these ministers that had to issue freely
and voluntarily out of my faith and what
I am in him in a given moment
or the Father would have lost the thing
for which that investment was given there's something
free here, something voluntary here that's not automatic
that's not cut and dried there's a dynamic
of trust faithfulness and dependency that's very much
alive and that the Father is willing to
bear that with Jesus and with ourselves so
that puts upon us a heightened sense of
importance for our obedience and our faithfulness.
We can disappoint God.
We can fail him by copping out we
can fail him by withdrawing ourselves because we
don't want to face the tension of that
moment and disappoint that woman whose child is
being prayed for there's something required from us
for his sake that if we do not
perform it he will lose something and that
heightens the reality of what we are about
but if I did not open my mouth
the Father would have been denied or if
I had spoken something already proven and tested
that had been a success on other occasions
just to get by on this occasion the
Father would have been failed I would have
kept my dignity and my reputation so to
speak but his purpose would have been lost
forever so there was an obedience required of
a son that happens when you open your
mouth and trust and give your voice believing
that what you have been prayed for will
be answered and the moment that your voice
goes forth the Lord is there with his
word are we willing to be disappointed and
believe that that disappointment has served God's purpose
and we are as able to receive that
with grace and praise as an answer that
would have glorified and exalted us as his
ministers because he cannot fail and he will
give an answer but are we prepared for
an answer that can be construed and experienced
as failure do we have to be gratified
do we have to see men go down
do we have to see the remarkable unction
and anointing what if men would yet appear
to be bored or look at you hostilely
and shoot arrows at you because you appear
to them as the white man and you're
a representative of what is to be feared
or despised or resented and you don't see
the gratitude, are you willing and maybe this
is the answer to presumption, we are willing
in God's answer to be disappointed it does
not have to fulfill our expectancy but only
his sometimes it will exceed our expectancy and
then our joy is unspeakable full of glory
and do we need to be vindicated in
that moment do we need to see our
obedience honored what if there's no present moment
of vindication what if it doesn't come till
the following year or next year, what if
it doesn't come at all in this life
these all died not having received the promise
and yet they were faithful until death and
their compensation will come in a way that
I have not seen in the earth not
heard eternally as bliss imagine hearing that great
consolation the words well done good and faithful
servant but when do we hear it we
don't hear it in the day in Africa
and we may not hear it until the
day of eternity but we can believe for
it and trust and intuit what is the
response that God is wanting sonship, I don't
have a word for it it's it's adventure
what's the word it's an undertaking it's a
creative remarkable tension of relationship of trust between
heaven and earth in crisis things that have
great portent for time and for eternity that
are alive that are the reflection of a
history of relationship in the formation of things
through obedience and the answers of the father
over a period of time I'm feeling my
way, I can't define it, but I'm groping
so much as to say it needs to
be appreciated it needs to be esteemed as
an ultimate thing this is the purpose for
which you have been saved, but it's not
automatic, you're not being punched off the assembly
line you're a unique son but the quintessential
elements of sonship are the same for you
as for any in the school of obedience
with God the father what is the school
to which you need freely to enter and
to submit yourself this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased hear ye
him Exodus chapter 4 where God says let
my sons go that they might serve me,
Israel is my son, my first born so
the very designation of Israel and the concept
of God is as sonship and sonship is
always relative as someone has said to regality
to being crowned, to governmental function in the
kingdom of God we're called to rule and
to reign share the throne of God in
authority as sons we're being prepared for something
of a millennial and of eternal kind that
requires a maturity and the character of God
in its performance for which this life is
preparation so a son is not just a
vacuous title, a son is one who's called
to rule and Psalm 2 says that I've
set my son on the holy hill of
Zion, I've not set a child on the
hill, I've set a son I've set a
tempered matured son who's been trained through suffering
and I've given him rule I've given him
the nations for his autonomy and he will
break them with a rod of iron worship
the son bow down, lest he be angered
against you kiss the son, everything is the
son the son, the son and so it
is that son and we ourselves as sons
call to rule and reign with him because
we share that maturity that responsibility and that
character because the ruling and reigning of God
is not a mechanical bureaucracy it is a
holy dispensation of wisdom and kindness and mercy
in instructing men how to live righteously that
only a son can convey to administer the
kingdom of God because the scepter of that
kingdom is righteousness not autocracy or bureaucracy a
son doesn't allow himself to lapse into stagnation
and into silence and isolation a son is
a fervent and active entity in the relationship
with the father he receives responsibility trust for
the grace of it we're not just living
for the present moment that there are consequences
of our present moment that have implications for
the future that need to be weighed and
for which we will therefore make a sacrifice
that we would be reluctant to make if
we thought it was only now it's the
consideration of what follows that enables us to
be more heroic and larger in our obediences
than perhaps we would otherwise be and more
faithful in what we perform and more jealous
for that performance and that the whole thing
hinges on an intuition of a moment but
that moment is loaded not only for now
but for all the future what God sowed
in Africa in those speakings is immeasurable I
cannot tell you, I cannot estimate it but
I know that something was sown and set
in motion that will have consequences for those
nations and for the continent that would not
have been if that particular word had not
been given in that authority that power, that
anointing in that moment it has a continuing
consequence and what does that mean?
it will affect life and death conditions will
take place by which life that would have
failed in infancy will now be preserved where
men will have engaged in violence and disease
they will be diverted and moved toward God
all of the consequences of a church coming
into its reality as church will affect the
continent and those who would otherwise suffer and
would have perished will have been saved from
the presence and the thing that the church
now expresses because of the investment that has
been made into it by men who have
come in obedience to the father and have
spoken and performed the appointed thing so these
considerations are part and parcel of a son's
consciousness and you know to begin to think
like that and to live like that will
mark you in this world and in this
life as being strange and your own wife
may be offended because you've become now so
heavenly minded or you're not attending the practicalities
that make for her security because women are
insecure more and need to see the practical
things being attended like the garden being watered
and there you are with your lofty considerations
that make them to tremble a tremor of
insecurity that you have to factor in and
work through as part of the grip of
this remarkable heavenly call as it is being
acted out in the earth in the reality
of the conditions which God himself has established
wow who asked for this we thought we
were just getting saved no you're being called
to be a son in the image and
the pattern of the once and for all
and begotten son who is the pattern son
therefore it behooves us to dwell upon his
obedience his conduct, his relationship his faith, his
knowledge of the father is our prototype that
we might be groomed as sons being fitted
for glory this is a study it's an
exertion it requires an involvement and an investment
that those who have no heart to be
sons are unwilling to give but you guys
have come at distance sacrifice and expense for
these purposes and so much as I'm able
to recognize the Lord is pouring out to
meet that need that that desire that you
might become it praise the Lord so much
so last night yesterday that by the time
I got home you couldn't pick me up
with a blotter there wasn't anything left I
was drained through and through I may experience
that today but the Lord is pouring out
why?
that's what he is in himself he doesn't
give us by the spoon fills he's lavish
you've called you've come he's given you in
great measure that you might be formed as
sons unto glory so I'm delighted what if
David's failings were needed for all of the
subsequent generations that have followed including your own
what if David did not fail because of
some intrinsic moral defect what if his failure
and the shame of his staggering sins were
necessary for him especially to experience as the
sweet singer of Israel as the great psalmist
whom we have quoted as the king of
Israel all the more that we ourselves would
receive a comfort in our own failing when
we see ourselves in the light of his
that David made himself a voluntary candidate for
shame as Jesus himself degraded David later in
order to benefit the generations that would follow
now David's failing and nowhere does scripture say
this this is pure heresy pure subjective prophetic
fancy but I wouldn't put it past God
that when he found a son in whom
he was well pleased a beloved how to
say a man in my own after my
own heart he found a candidate who was
willing for shame disgrace failure in order to
set forth the deepest statement of repentance, remorse
and contrition and return that has served generations
of believers more profoundly than any other statement
in the entire holy written he found a
man willing and that's a son that's a
son and Jesus was such a son who
exactly wore that shame became sin itself the
loathsome thing for him for which he said
let this cup pass was not the physical
suffering of crucifixion it was the moral shame
the loathsome experience of actually becoming as sin
that he had to bear and that he
would become so in an offense to a
holy father that the father would have to
withdraw himself and he would have to cry
my God my God why has thou forsaken
me who has lived eternally in your presence
I can't bear the absence have you guys
ever had a moment like that where God
has withdrawn his presence never presume upon God
and think that what issues out of you
has anything to do with your ability your
persona your skill your anything it is all
together and totally given and at any moment
when God will withdraw it you are as
a dead piece of meat you're capable of
nothing so what did I'm saying we'll have
to say this what did it feel like
for Jesus at the crisis moment of the
cross who experienced the absence of what he
had known all of his eternal life long
in the most intimate fellowship with the father
before his coming down from glory and now
when he most needed it it's gone that's
what he bore in the same way of
the indignity and shame of David for his
transgressions blood out my transgressions my bones are
broken I can't stand it my sin is
ever before me what does he mean the
anguish of it the moral horror of what
I performed has broken on my consciousness and
I cannot take it from my memory not
only the deeds that I performed but the
condition that made those deeds possible that condition
is ever before me blood it out only
you can only your blood only your hyssop
or I've got to live with the anguish
of this iniquity he bore that so that
we would have comfort that if God could
redeem and restore God can forgive that there's
a place of repentance for the most hideous
and abominable sins performed even by the greatest
and most righteous sons and he bore that
that's a sign are we willing also to
be sons of that God or do we
want to be sons who swim in glory
and honor and distinction and praise and compliments
are we willing for the other side are
we willing for the inexplicable things the disgrace
where you're not able to give answer and
you can't explain yourself where you'll be misunderstood
just by the nature of the thing and
you have to bear that where the word
falls flat like lead where in Russia as
my brother knows the ministers refused to come
upstairs to the meetings because they were offended
by my first message and stayed below for
the whole series of days and had to
bear that indignity but there's instance after instance
if we're not willing for the one we
shall not be candidates for the other sonship
is not only a glory it's a suffering
and it's a voluntary and a willing suffering
or we shall not attain to it I'm
a dead man without you father I can
do nothing if you really believe that you'll
be breaking your neck to get to the
communion table and you could not get there
fast enough and often enough once a month
not enough you need to be refurbished renewed
and have the quality of God's life in
his body and blood administered afresh by your
eating and drinking it's not just a thing
that takes place periodically that to which you're
required to give yourself you'd rush to the
communion table because you know you're a dead
man without him you need his strength so
while you guys were turning over in your
beds this morning what was I doing upstairs
last night?
I was having communion I've got my little
bottle of wine my little ziplock bag with
stale matzo and before I even begin my
devotional reading and prayer I'm taking it you
know why?
Because unless the Lord is renewed in me
and the power and the reality of his
life how shall I even extract from the
devotional material what I ought and how shall
I pray as I ought at the commencement
of the day when the stakes are so
enormous and God has brought such a measure
of his sons and daughters here I need
his life before I even begin to be
renewed by the taking of his body and
blood afresh we neglect this great sacrament because
deep in our hearts we have no conscious
sense of its need it's not that we
are dead men we're all too capable and
somehow we can get by, we can perform,
we can function we can succeed but our
son knows he's as good as dead because
he's not called to success he's called to
glory and it's the glory of God forever,
eternity is at stake, not just the present
condition of Africa though that itself is monumental
I think that I shall never see a
poem as lovely as a tree I think
that I shall never see an accomplishment grander,
more glorious more God honoring than the formation
of a son God forbid my God that
that great word should be trafficked in, made
merchandise another little present current phrase that has
become popular and lose its enormous value that
has come to us through the example of
a son who has come down from heaven
into the earth and showed us what it
means to be a son to a father
who is in heaven he's after something ultimate
and creation itself is trembling and prevailing waiting
for the manifestation of these sons not any
other statement but sons will relieve nature from
its own bondage thank you oh what a
call what a call Lord we reiterate our
commitment my God with a greater depth of
comprehension than ever we knew before you've been
spelling out and punctuating what it means, it's
not a cheapie it requires ultimate investment and
disgrace and shame and misunderstanding and agonizing Lord
that can't even be spoken and we're willing
because it's an eternal masterpiece in the image
of him who is the and we welcome
being conformed to that image take from us
presumption of any kind and not the least
of which is our own image of what
we think we ought to be spiritually our
own lofty sanctifying ethereal spirituality my God that
is phony and strip us of all of
that and get down to the root and
the core and deal with it and shape
up at your hand my God what is
in your image not our own true sons
will not fail you my God when your
honor and name is at stake thank you
Lord oh bless these sons whom you've sent
into this place in these days and work
and perform my God those things for which
you have called them thank you Lord oh
let there be a celebration in heaven let
the invisible power of witness clap their hands
my God for they have been waiting for
this consummation without which they themselves sons that
they are are not made perfect without us
thank you for our participation into so great
eternal and cosmic glory yes Lord thank you
my God for which you sent your son