THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING THE FATHER

W. McKillop

1 John 3: 1; Matthew 5: 44, 45; John 4: 23

I was struck, beloved brethren, on Lord’s day—we were speaking in relation to Colossians—

as to giving thanks to the Father and the importance of knowing the Father. I would suggest that in these three short passages I have read we have, in the first one, the Father’s favour,

“See what love the Father has given to

us, that we should be called the children of God”. In the second scripture we have our responsibility as knowing the Father. The Lord says, “that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in the heavens”, and, in John’s gospel, chapter 4, we have the privilege of being among the true worshippers who worship the Father.

It greatly encourages our hearts, I believe, that He says, “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”. Our brother remarked in prayer, that we would have what is current in what is spoken tonight. It says, beloved, now are we children of God—that is current, but it is the result of the Father’s favour, the Father’s love that is given to us, that we should be called the children of God. That is, it is recognisable in us that we belong to the family of God, because the children of God constitute the family of God. As the passage indicates, we are waiting for the great change that is to take place, which we sang of in the hymn. In the meantime, we have the consciousness that we are children of God. That is the relationship in which we stand to the Father. So, that is to encourage and strengthen us as we go through an adverse scene and are tested and tried by a good deal that the Father, in His love and wisdom, allows in order that we might come to know Him better and that we might trust Him more. We are down here in a scene which is adverse and a great deal confronts us about which humanly we can do nothing. The Father would remind us that now we are children of God and, therefore, the objects of divine care. So, much that we can do nothing about, the Father is perfectly able to meet and to support us as we go through it. It would be a great relief to our spirits as we are together from time to time to have the consciousness that we belong to the family of God. It is a great comfort too, when we are individually pursuing the path of faith to be conscious of the Father’s favour. It is what He has done. In Colossians 1, it is the Father’s own action. He has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light and has translated us into the kingdom

of the Son of His love. That is what He has done. So in John’s epistle it is what the Father has done—what love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God.

In Matthew 5, because we are still down here, the Lord is instructing His disciples as He would instruct us, that not only are we to grow in our trust in the Father’s love and increase in our dependence on Him, but we are to increasingly manifest His moral character in a scene where everything is contrary. We sang in the hymn about the Lord’s steps and how we treasure them. He has left us a model, as Peter says, that we should follow in His steps. His steps involved that at every step He manifested the Father’s moral character. He never returned evil for evil, or anything of that sort, and here He is instructing His own, and we are now among them. He says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who insult you and persecute you, that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in the heavens”. That puts a great responsibility on us that we should manifest the Father’s moral character in a world where we may be cursed and persecuted and hated. But we have the Father’s Spirit and, what He would bring out in us as we make way for Him in the presence of contrariety, is the Father’s moral character. So the Lord says that ye may be the sons of your Father who is in the heavens. It is not that we are not sons, we are clearly all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus, but the Lord has in mind that the Father’s moral character should come out in those that He says, may be the sons of your Father who is in the heavens. That is where the Father is; and He says, “for he makes his sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust”. Before He finishes, He says, “Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. The Father does not alter at all in His character and disposition in spite of hostility and enmity and other things that unregenerate men manifest. The Lord is saving that we should be like the

Father in that respect. Well, I think it is worth something to seek the Spirit’s help to manifest the Father’s character. He says here He makes the sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust. So that those features coming out in us, which were seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus, must gladden the Father’s heart.

Responsibility in one sense is one matter and relates to our position down here, but privilege according to John 4 relates to something else. So, the Lord says, “the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth”. It is clear the Lord is viewing the worshippers here among the sons, and the worship of the Father is not a wilderness matter. We know the Father in relation to our wilderness position and our needs as in the wilderness, but through the Lord’s own manifestation of the Father and declaration of the Father’s name, we are able, in the assembly, as outside of the wilderness, to have the privilege of worshipping the Father in spirit and truth. In spirit, of course, would be in contrast to the dead ritualism of Judaism and the dead ritualism of Christendom, so that our spirits are active in the worship of the Father. But the Lord says, also, in truth. The worship is governed and regulated and enriched by the way God has come out as Father. The truth is really how God has come out in Christ and, in John’s gospel, what is specially in view is how the Father has been made known. So, the Lord says, “the hour is coming and now is”—again, that is a current matter, what is going on currently—“when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth”. Then we have this touching matter that we often quote, “for also the Father seeks such as his worshippers”—He seeks the true worshippers who worship in spirit and truth. Think of the Father seeking such persons. It does not say He seeks worship, but He is looking for that and it is our privilege to provide that.

You will remember at the end of the Old Testament,

after that long history of Israel, He says, through Malachi, “if then I be a father, where is mine honour?”, Malachi 1: 6. That is a question that could well be addressed to Christendom.

If God is their Father, where is His honour? But, I am thinking of the true worshippers. We are among the family of God because of the love the Father has bestowed upon us, and are called the children of God. We are also, through divine grace, among the true worshippers, a most stimulating and, I think, soul-moving thought, that this great and glorious Person, the Father, becomes the object of our worship as among the true worshippers. That is going on currently. The Lord says, “the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth”. The Lord has not introduced here any thought of our wilderness need, or how we display the Father’s character in the wilderness; it is here how the worship of the Father is going on in the assembly on the part of the true worshippers who worship in spirit and truth. They worship the Father, that Person, and it is a soul matter, a spiritual matter, and it is also a matter of intelligence, for it is not only in spirit but also in truth.

May the Lord stimulate our hearts with these thoughts as to the Father and our relation to Him as children, as sons on the moral line, and as among the true worshippers. As I remarked at the outset, it is the Father’s favour, then our responsibility, and then our privilege to be among the true worshippers at the present time.

Word in meeting for ministry, Ormond Beach
11 June 2002