KNOWING THE FATHER
C.R.Byng
The Spirit would help us, I think, to lay hold of the prophetic touch in our hymn (Hymn 120), so that we are enlarged in our detailed knowledge of the Father. We are being helped to develop our links with the Lord Jesus personally. If we think of our bodies physically, we need Him as the Saviour of the body. The completion of matters here, the transformation of our body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory, will be by the power that Jesus has even now. Those of us who are still here will, of course, be quickened by the Spirit into the new order of things, and yet the power of the Lord Jesus as Saviour will enter into it. The more we are strengthened in our know ledge of the Lord Jesus, the more we shall learn to have confidence in the Father. There is depth of instruction, no doubt, that when John begins to speak of the way that God has been declared he relates it to the Son, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father (see John 1: 18). Who can unfold to us, beloved brethren, the richness of the grace and love of the Father, as the Only-begotten? If we think of the great creatorial order of things, we trace it back worshipfully to Christ, the One through whom every thing received being. When we work that out in Christianity we find that we are connected by the Spirit with the Father. We would normally give thanks for our meals to the One whom we address reverently as God and Father. Creation itself was the work of Christ, God operating by Christ, and yet the realisation of what we are as creatures, and our dependence on help as creatures, relates us at once, thankfully, to the Father. Mr Taylor has an interesting expression: he would have in mind that the word of God would come to him for each meal (Vol 85, p 393). He does not say he would read a scripture, he would have in mind to have a word from God; so it would be far more than a happy custom to give thanks to the Father; every meal would be intended of the Spirit of God to cause us to not only feel our dependence on the Father but to feel increasing confidence in the One who is a faithful Creator.
What meaning there must be when the Lord Jesus says, "My Father ... is greater than all", John 10: 29. That would be, of course, speaking as a dependent Man, and yet immediately the Lord guards the greatness of His own Person by saying, "I and the Father are one", John 10: 30. That is mystery. Mystery is intended to baffle the mind of man, but is wonderful food to the worshipful believer. Beloved, let us lay hold of some fresh impression of how great the Father is, as the Lord Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I", John 14: 28. When the Lord says, "My Father ... is greater than all", that is over against "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life", which is of the world and not of the Father (see 1 John 2: 16). I think the Lord and the Spirit are bringing us increasingly into the understanding of the greatness of the Father as the One who is greater than all. So it is intended to enter into the details of our lives; whether, as our brother has been saying, in relation to business matters, or home matters, or other matters, we would view them all as related to the Father. We would not invoke Him as Father and pass our time here without fear. That would not be consistent. If we reverently and happily address God as Father, and are enlarged in our understanding of His care for us, then we would understand that everything has to be related to the Father. lt is not that we relate things to this or that or the other; we relate things to God, and in this wonderful dispensation of grace through Christ and by the Spirit to the Father.
And so, where the Lord speaks here, He brings it in in connection with food and raiment, with the detail of life, eating and drinking. He says, "Fear not, little flock". We link that with all saints. It has been a feature of the recovery that brethren have learned to know God as having a little flock here; not a position of outward strength and yet spiritually impregnable. A little flock: defenceless, as men would think, and yet what the Spirit has wrought out in the time of the revival in relation to the little flock! It is not without significance that the hymnbook we use has for many years been 'for the little flock'. All the saints in the world do not get the advantage of it, but we would have to grieve over that and pray that more might be brought into the gain of the treasury that we have in the hymnbook. I do not think we need be concerned about taking time to revise the hymnbook. Let us value the hymnbook we have. Maybe some of us need to be concerned to know it better, so that we can use it more. Let us hold it as available to the little flock and as the divine provision of the Father. The Lord says, "Fear not, little flock". One of the ways in which our confidence in the Father would be increased, and thereby our independence of every source of man, would be to take advantage of the depths of prophetic power in our hymns. What depths there are in those hymns of beloved Mr Darby. They have not had to be revised (although perhaps altered here and there to make them suitable to sing) because they are the result of the Spirit's touch over a man who was with God. Many hymns are written by sisters, many by brothers. That is just detail, the vessels that the Lord chooses to use. The purpose of the hymnbook is to relate us to God, whether we think of the Father, or the Son, or the blessed Spirit of God. Under the prophetic touch of Christ it is to enrich us in the knowledge of God. So that when David set on the service of song (because Moses did not set it on, although I suppose the oldest psalm that we have of which we know the author is the psalm of Moses, the prayer of the man of God; whether other psalms go back as far as that is not clear; many of the psalms would seem to have been recorded at the time that the service of song was set on by David), one of the touches that he has as to the service is that they "prophesied at the direction of the king", 1 Chron 25: 2. So the King would use the hymns that are related to the little flock and increase our response to the Father Himself. The very way in which we learn to know the Father, in all the details of our lives and above all in the assembly, is intended to enrich the service of God. We have been, no doubt rightly, instructed that the main part of the service of God would be to the Father. The Lord as the Minister of the sanctuary, and the Spirit of the Father as strengthening us within, would see to it that, as we are subject to Their direction and Their strengthening, there is full response to the Father.
So the Lord here would direct us to the Father. He says, "It has been the good pleasure of your Father to give you the kingdom". Well, you get confidence in that, the confidence that "Your Father knows that ye have need of these things", Luke 12: 30. How in dependent of the resources of man it makes us as we desire to be developed in true piety as fearing God! Piety, we have often been reminded, is the basis of spirituality. I suppose none of us would claim that we are spiritual, but it would be right to desire to be spiritual, and piety as the basis is within our scope because we have the Spirit of God to help us. Whilst the main part of the service of God would be to the Father, perhaps if we searched into our individual experience with God we might find that many of our prayers are either to the Lord Jesus or to the Spirit, and that we have not been so enlarged in practical, current experience in speaking to the Father. Let the Spirit of God encourage us and increase our confidence in the Father Himself. Think of the desires of One so great as the Father to see His children prospering here! How false it is to think of the Father as looking for faults! That is absolutely foreign to the very thought of the Father. The riches of the glory of God as made known in the Father would assure us that divine Persons are looking and expecting to see us doing what is right and delighting in it. How active divine Persons are to protect us in doing what is right and how quick They are to warn us if anything comes in which might hinder the enjoyment of our communion with the Father, and with Christ, and with the Spirit. The Lord's word here is, "Fear not"; so let us be strengthened in our confidence in God and especially in our links with the Father Himself. The Lord says, "The Father himself has affection for you", John 16: 27. What confidence that gives, that we can have· direct access to the Father, and it is in the name of Christ and as strengthened by the Spirit of God. May the portion that the Father has from our hearts and from our lives be increased as we are related to the assembly of God, remembering that the assembly is Christ's chief interest here. Let us ensure that all that we do tends towards enlargement of the place that the Father has amongst us, so that men may see that the Father is being glorified in persons moving here in the dignity and power and joy of sons.
London
28th August 1973