In this sermon, the speaker raises the question of how we can call upon God as our Father. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the true meaning of sonship and honoring our earthly fathers. The speaker highlights that honoring our fathers is not based on their performance, but on their role and office that God has given them. He warns against the disrespect and contempt for authority that is prevalent in society today. The sermon emphasizes the need to recognize and honor God as our Father, as it is through Him that we find guidance and direction in our lives.

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