The relationship between the Father and the Son

What I want to do today is to look at something of the relationship between the Father and the Son. I was at Ankeny last weekend and I had in mind that I had two things before me. I had this subject and I had Psalm 26, compassing the altar, and I decided I'd compass the altar with taking each compass point of the altar and seeing Christ in it.

And if you're interested and do know a work like that, you'll really enjoy it. It's much encouraging and refreshing and uplifting. I want to read in John's Gospel chapter 8, verse 29.

And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him. The life of the Lord Jesus was bent on pleasing the Father.

In John chapter 1, we read of the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. And I understand from the grammar that that gives the thought of an eternal dwelling place. He always was in and he never left the bosom of the Father.

That relationship was one. When we come to John chapter 10, verse 30, the Lord Jesus says, I and my Father are one. That was an absolute unity.

He was never out of communication with the Father. And we're going to learn as we go through of how the Lord indicated the relationship between himself and the Father. In Philippians 2, 6, the apostle writes, Who being in the form of God thought it not a thing to be grasped that to be equal with God.

And here the thought is an equality in quality, an equality in being. He was equal with God. He never thought himself as being less than God, but was subject to God as the Son before the Father.

When we come to Colossians, we read he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Here it's the figure or the likeness of the invisible God. He was a manifestation of God to men.

And the Lord Jesus always showed forth his Father. You know, it's nice when you meet someone and say, Oh, I've met your son. He's just like you.

Well, unfortunately, there's a problem because all my boys are about eight inches taller. So I don't know how to come up with that idea, but they're probably good looking. So that's maybe what it is.

I'm not sure. We'll just get by it. But the beautiful verses, Hebrews 1 and 3, who bring the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, of his substance.

And that's the thought of the, Mr. Paisley used to talk about the hypostatic union, big word. Here's what it simply is. And I, my hands don't fit straight together, but if you put your hands together and you turn them both ways, identical, there's no, there's not supposed to be any, but identical.

Whatever way you looked at the father and you looked at the son, there was likeness. There was equality. And what the Hebrew writer is saying is he's the brightness of his glory is the express image of his substance.

The Lord Jesus at all times showed forth and lived for and worked for and taught for the father. My teaching is not mine, he could say, but the father which sent me. Now that's something we have to be careful about.

I should never say anything on this platform. It's not in my Bible or substantiated by it. And the Lord Jesus never said anything that was not given to him by the father.

He never did any work that the father had not showed him before. And he walked 100%. And we're going to see that in the will of his father.

And then the beautiful verse in John one and 14, the word became flesh. You'll notice in your authorize, the word was made flesh. Well, there's really only one thing.

The Lord Jesus was made. You come to Philippians chapter two and you'll find it was made again. It was made in the likeness He became in the likeness of men.

It was a voluntary act. And here he wasn't made flesh. He became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. When they looked at the Lord Jesus, they saw the father.

We're going to look at some verses through John just in a moment to show that the word became flesh. I've asked this question to a number of people get different answers. I should only get one answer.

When did the word become flesh? Now I would like to ask you all one by one for an answer. I can't do that. I'll just make one statement.

This was not his birth. Thank you, brother Eric. This was not his birth.

And if you want a verse in scripture against murdering a child in the womb, here it is. At conception, there was a babe in the womb of Mary, who was Jesus, the son of God, and he was flesh. If you and I could understand that, it would save a lot of problems and difficulties in the environments that we're in.

John says, we beheld his glory. In what way did he behold his glory? Well, immediately you go to Matthew 17 and you think right away after the mount of transfiguration. Well, just turn your Bible over to chapter two.

This beginning of miracles that Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory. What did he do? He turned water into wine. There was no bright lights like there is on the mount of transfiguration.

There was no voice from heaven. There was no great scene. It was simply do what the master tells you.

Pour the water out of these big jugs of water. And the water was made wine. Can I suggest to you that in the seven miracles recorded in John, and they're really signs about the Lord Jesus, that they really showed forth his glory.

And there was other scenes that happened and we might not call them miracles. For example, John chapter six, the disciples are in the middle of Galilee. They're about five kilometers from the shore of Capernaum.

Capernaum is there on the west side. The Lord Jesus, I take it is on the east side on the mountain. And he's looking at them and a storm comes up and they're upset.

And the Lord comes to them walking on the water. You say, that's a miracle. I'll read your Bible carefully.

John six, the Lord was taken into the ship. And my Bible tells me anyway, immediately they were at the other side five kilometers in a moment of time. There's not a ship in the world can go as fast as that yet.

And that was a miracle. There's another in John six, another, you know, I read Mr. Darby, the new translation. I like to check on these different translations.

And this is just by the way, by the way, in John chapter six, because I appreciate when I see some of the elders working around helping in the, in the facilitation of the meals and so on, and keeping the buildings clean. Mr. Darby tells us that as well as the disciples distributing the food that the Lord distributed to the people, you read your new translation and you'll find that the Lord not only gave to the disciples to distribute, but he did it himself. A wonderful thought of the Lord Jesus.

I've got to move on because time is going. So that's John one and one, John one and 18. We read that the Lord's in the bosom of the father.

And now in five and 18, the Jews and the Pharisees that the problem with the Lord Jesus, you know why they sought to kill him because he was making himself equal with God. We may not understand everything that the Lord said and did as being that, but there was no question in the mind of the Jews. This man is making himself equal with God.

When you move over your Bible and come to chapter eight, the Lord Jesus says before Abraham was, I am, that's one of the wonderful I arms of the two Greek words. And they appear many times in John's gospel, but there's a number of times they're very special in the context that you find them in. And they understood what he was saying.

He was making himself equal with God. And again, they sought to slay him. Move over to chapter 10 and you find again, because of his claims, they sought to slay him.

Go over to Luke chapter four and you'll find the Lord is reading the scriptures and what he says, they sought to throw him over the brow of a hill because he was associating himself with God and they couldn't stand that. Or he was claiming what condition that they were in. And the Lord Jesus never ever said he was not God.

He never ever denied his relationship with the father. He never ever denied his sonship. And that was the problem that the Jews had with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In John's gospel, there are seven, there are seven statements made that show this relationship between the father and the son. In chapter five, we read this. All men should honor the son, even as the honor of the father, he that honoreth not the son honoreth not the father which sent him.

So you're going to honor the son. You will honor the father. You see, the Jews were quite willing to honor God, but they weren't willing to honor God, the father and God, the son.

And if we're going to honor the son, we have to honor the father. And if we're going to honor the father, we have to honor the son. Remember in the book of Esther, that man, Haman, he, he was asked by the great king what he should do to the man whom the king delighteth to honor.

Remember the poor man came up with all the glory and the dressing up and all the rest of it. Then he found that it was his mortal enemy that was going to be honored. The man was going to be taken through the city.

You know, I believe the Lord Jesus, remember in Matthew 21, they honored him. They, they strewed palm leaves before him. And he came in riding on a colt, the fall of an ass.

You know, I firmly believe in a great day coming that that scene will be reenacted and, and Zechariah 9 will take place again. That behold, I King cometh riding upon a colt, the fall of an ass, just and lowly. And I think the Lord Jesus again, and I'm putting some scriptures together.

But, uh, if you, if you see the Lord after the battle in revelation 19, that great battle, and, uh, he's a conqueror and Isaiah is going to come riding out of the wilderness and he's the victor. And when you read the last verse in Psalm 110, you read this, he shall drink of the brook by the way. And I think that's a period of refreshing at the brook Kidron, right at the foot of a Mount Zion, leading right into the gates and the East side of Jerusalem.

And they're going to come. And I think again, the colt, the fall of an ass, I'm sorry, that, that is in certain circles, the, the vehicle by which royalty rides, because it will be covered with Royal groves and cloths. The Lord's going to ride into the city in that day, and he'll be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

It's interesting. We stood on the Mount of Olives and we looked over at the, uh, at the hillside and the gates are all bricked up. There's gates right there going in.

There's a temple inside where it was anyway. And they're, they're all bricked up and right in front of it is a Muslim graveyard because they don't think the Lord will cross the graveyard. Well, you read your Bible carefully right at the end of the great tribulation.

And I believe the, the seal judgments in probably the last six months, I'm a little bit different from some of their writers on revelation. I was sent to someone the other day. I think the, the, the, the judgments are spread out and the first set of judgments will probably take place.

The, the, the whole of the seven years, the seal judgments, the trumpets, probably the last three and a half years, the great tribulation, the vile judgments. I think I said seal before it should be vile. The vile judgments will be the last six months and the awful calamity, the awful end and the destruction that will take place and a third of the earth will be destroyed.

And here's what Mr. Dunsire thinks. I have to say that because I don't get in my Bible. So this is not in my Bible, but this is what I think will happen.

That graveyard will be annihilated. Those gates will be opened. The bricks will be torn out.

And when the Lord comes as a triumphant Victor from the bottle, he'll get on his horse at the, he's called the fall of an ass at the foot of a hill and he'll ride in glory into the city. King of Kings and Lord of Lords, honor the son. You honor the father that that day he will be honored.

But watch on believe this. Jesus cried and said in chapter 12 and 44, he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on the father which sent me. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in the son of God? We sometimes land in a difficulty that we take parts of the word of God and we apply it and we say, that's what we have to do.

And there's other parts. And we very careful not to go too closely because we don't want to apply them too closely in our lives. And I'm not picking on anybody, not point fingers at anybody in the meeting.

So don't get any ideas. But let me just give one point and it's a little bit off my subject, but I think it's important because it's to do with his glory. And I go back to Scotland and a subject I never, very rarely hear spoken on here is the hair, heads and hearts.

You know, the three H's of Corinthians 11, headship, head covering and long hair. And I go into the assemblies and I see headship recognized. And I see head coverings recognized.

And I'm thinking on one assembly I was at the last time I was over, the younger sisters had long hair and the older sisters just about all had short hair. The word of God makes no distinction between the one and the other. If you believe that Paul is speaking on behalf of the Lord Jesus, you believe it's the word of God.

If you believe me, believe my father. If you believe the father, you believe the word of the father. The word of God should be believed in every instance.

And I just use that as a little example of where we take one thing and we make it a big thing and we take another thing and we make it a small thing. And with no business to do it, you believe the son, believe the father, honor the father, honor the son, believe the father, believe the son. Now he says in John chapter 13, he said, verily, verily I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me.

And he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. You know, I think I see that wonderfully working in the assemblies as the people of God move about from place to place. And I've been in various countries in the world, met with various Christians.

And you're welcomed as if you were a long lost brother. And some of the brethren here have traveled far more than I have. And you go into those other lands and the saints greet you and they look after you and they show kindness and love to you.

They receive you as they're receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. The unsaved unfortunately don't work that way. And if they're rejecting Christ and you're preaching Christ, they'll reject you.

I still remember it's, it's maybe a little bit funny, but we were going out with the Dewey Bibles in the south of Ireland, that's Roman Catholic country. And the Dewey Bible is a Bible with the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic church on it on the inside page. So the Roman Catholics will take a Dewey Bible.

And I knocked at the first door and a woman came out and she found out what I was doing. And she chased me down the path with her broom. What are you going to do? So I had a bit of an argument with the Lord.

I did. He says, Lord, if this happens again, I'm going home. I've had it.

I wasn't used to that. I was used to in the mine getting teased and everything by the other apprentices. But here going around the doors, no one in Scotland had ever done that to me.

And here in Ireland, the place of friendliness, they weren't receiving me. The Lord Jesus knew all about that. The apostle Paul knew all about that not being received.

The next door I went to, come on in, sit down, cup of tea. And the Irish farmers were like that. You brethren would love it.

You go and sit in and they give you a cup of tea and we'll go and call the men in. And you're half an hour to an hour in the house. And generally it's lovely.

But that one, I was ready to go home. He that receiveth me, receiveth my father. And if you receive the father, you receive me.

If you believe me, you're going to believe me. If you honor me, you're going to honor me. But watch this in John 12 and 45.

He that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. Now we've read some verses about the equality of the father and son. What I see in the father, I will see in the son.

What I see in the son, I will see in the father. I think of the love of the Lord Jesus. And that's a wonderful thing.

And throughout John's gospel, we get the thought of the father loving the son. Right from chapter 3, chapter 5 and so on. The father love of the son and showeth him all things that he himself doeth.

He's given all authority unto the son. You know, the wonderful thing in John's gospel, and I've maybe said this here before, doesn't matter. In John 14, the only place in your Bible you get it, mark this now, but that the world, this is the Lord Jesus speaking, just ready to leave the upper room, but that the world may know that I love the father.

And as the father giveth me a commandment, arise, let us go hence. I know of no other verse. And if you find one, please tell me if you know one.

I've searched, I haven't found it. And I've got all the tools to find that kind of stuff and I haven't done it. The only time in my Bible I get the statement that the Lord loves the father.

So how do I know before that the Lord Jesus loved the father? I know by submission, by his doing the father's will, by his being subject to the father in all of his going, in all of his saying, in all of his moving. The Lord Jesus loved the father. Just one more.

John 3, 16. Do you know any other verse in your Bible like John 3, 16 on the brother? You know, your Bible like a dictionary brother stand. Do you know another verse? He's a man of from Ireland.

He should know if there's any, there isn't for God's soul of the world. And John is the only one that's going to tell us that God loves the world. And John's the only one that's going to tell us that the Lord Jesus loves the father as well as telling us that the father loves the son.

And you know, the beauty is when you go to chapter 13, as I have loved you, so you to love one another. And then we're told that the relationship between the love between the son is seen and he's loved to us. And so we're that link between the son and the father.

If you see the father, you see the son. All that we see in Christ, we're going to see in the father. Now I'm going to say something.

You may get onto me for it, but okay, I'll take it. I think in heaven, God is spirit and God never took humanity. You agree with that? I'm not aware in my Bible where God took humanity, but my Bible tells me that God sees.

My Bible tells me God looked down from heaven and they listened to the cries of the people. I read of God having hands. I read of God walking in the garden and Genesis in the cool of the day, but I never read of the Lord becoming man, of God becoming man.

The Lord Jesus did. Now I don't know what I will see in relation to the father in heaven, but I know this. I'm going to see the Lord Jesus and I sort of think now I do a lot of thinking and sometimes it's not entirely in line with what you should be thinking, but I sort of think that the vision that we're given that John got in revelation chapter one, apart from the sword coming out of the mouth, there's going to be something of the vision that we're going to see in relation to the Lord Jesus through eternity.

Something of, it's an awesome glory and it's the glory of the son. And as I see the son, I'm going to see the father. Everything about the father is in the son.

Let's continue. Here's chapter eight, verse 19. Then said the unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered, you neither know me nor my father.

If you had known me, you should have known my father also. That's a general knowledge, knowledge of the father, a knowledge of the son. The Jews says that the Lord Jesus questioned them about his father.

Do we know divine persons? Are we in a relationship with divine persons? I'd love to tell the story. Albert Leckie told it, so that should give it some credence. But, and I've probably told it before.

I just love to tell that. I don't remember even what I spoke on last year here. So I don't have that kind of memory, but the preacher was going in the Highlands knocking on the doors and he came to a door, a little, little Highland cottage, thatched roof, no other houses near, knocked on the door, no answer.

Knocked on the door again, no answer. But he listened and he heard voices in the house. Okay.

Not again. And an old lady came to the door. So he told her why he was there.

And he says, I understand you have company, so I won't take much of your time. Oh no, she says, I don't have company. Oh, well, excuse me, but I thought I heard you talking to someone.

Oh, she says, that's the Lord. He lives here. You know the son? You know the father? Do you know him? But read all about the father.

We'll learn all about the son. Unfortunately, there's a, there's two verses that are not too good in relation to that. In John 15, we read, hate the son, hate the father.

First John two, deny the son, deny the father. And that's where Israel stood. Time's going, I'm going to move on.

I want to see seven witnesses of the Lord Jesus in John chapter five. See, when you want to know about the father and son, you have to go to John. You understand that we go to Matthew and we learn about the kingdom.

We'll learn about the king. We come to Mark and we learn about the Lord Jesus. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for the many.

We come to Luke and we learn about the son of man, but we come to John and we learn about the son of God. And almost, I say about three or four chapters in John, you do not get the father mentioned, but in most of the chapters you've got the father mentioned. And only in John do you get the, the, the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus in chapter 17, as well as only in John do you get the upper room ministry from chapter 13 through to chapter 16.

So John has got a unique relationship. He presents to us of the father and the big problem in John and why they sought to slay him because he took the place of being the son of God. Now, if you do not believe that Jesus is a son of God, you're not saved.

You understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal son of God. He was the son and eternity. He never became son.

I know we get confused with uh, Psalm two, uh, acts 13, Hebrews one and Hebrews five. Thou art my son this day, have I begotten thee. I'm not going to get into it, whether it's resurrection or whether it's birth, it's nothing to do with him being born and becoming a son.

It's the thought of manifestation. It's the thought of being showed forth and whatever sphere it is. He was manifested as the son of God.

Listen to Isaiah unto us, a child is born, but unto us a son is given. There was a big problem in Scotland when I was a boy about the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus. And even in the assemblies, it was creeping in and I could mention names to you that for a while they thought that Lord Jesus became son at birth.

The father sent not the one who became son. The father sent the one who was son and he ever is. He's the eternal son of God and that's been challenged.

So the Lord Jesus in John chapter five, I'm going to finish with this in verse 31 of chapter of chapter five. This is a personal witness of the Lord Jesus. He says, if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

You say, well, that's not much of a witness. Well, you come along to John seven, it's repeated and you'll find it's the same as personal witness as to the sonship. The Lord Jesus personally witnessed to being the son of God.

As I said already, he never denied he was the son of God. And because of that, they sought to slay him. And in fact, that was the final enmity against them.

They brought their witnesses against them in Caiaphas house, in Pilate's judgment hall, and they were all proven false. But the one thing that stood against him as far as the Jews was concerned, because he called himself the son of God. But then you have the witness of the spirit of God.

There is another that beareth witness of me. And I know that the witness, which he witnesses of me is true. Verse 32 of chapter five.

And I believe that's the spirit of God. And John, and I think it's chapter 16. It says the spirit of God will bring to your remembrance all things that I have showed you.

And we find that it's the spirit of God in first Corinthians chapter two, that teaches us the deep things of God and that the spirit of God is the witness of the Lord Jesus. And he's the one that's going to show us the truth of the word of God. What are you going to find in the word of God? You're going to find all about the Lord Jesus.

You know, many times I read Luke 24 and it's beautiful. The Lord Jesus is on, uh, meets the two on the road and he starts talking to them and he starts opening up the scriptures. I'd love to, I'd love to have must've been two hours.

And I think he'd probably start in Genesis one and often do it in my mind. And he showed them the things in the scriptures concerning himself. You ever done it? You ever just went over it? And then he comes to the, to the room where the disciples are hiding out.

And he went into the books of Moses and he went into the books of the prophets. But when he comes to the room with the disciples, he does the books of Moses. He does the books of prophets and he does the Psalms.

And he talks to them about things concerning himself. The idea was given a little bit in the meeting yesterday that we don't read our old testaments like we do. They've all read our old Testament.

And I'm not meaning this yearly through your Bible. I used to be a speed reader. I can't know because my eyes are not so good, but I could just flip through pages reading.

And it was good in a way because I could read a book twice and, and still enjoy it because I couldn't remember what I'd read before. That's not reading. When you read your Bible, you want to stop.

You want to slow down. You want to take little bites. You know, they tell me the way to eat an elephant is little bites.

Well, your Bible is an elephant and you take little bites. And then, you know, we were coming up and we saw some cows in the field. Some were standing up and everyone had his head down eating that was standing up, but there was a number laying down.

Do you know what they were doing? They had eaten and they were what they call ruminating. You know, the cows got a number of stomachs in the past, the food through the stomachs. I call that in the spiritual sense, meditating.

Now here's what you do. Try it. It works.

Get yourself something in the scriptures that you enjoy. Start thinking about it through the day. Go to bed thinking about it.

And guess what? You'll wake up in the morning thinking about it. Now have a fight with your wife. Go to bed mad.

She better keep out the road in the morning. You're probably still mad. It doesn't go away.

But you go to bed thinking on the scriptures. And that's what I love to do. When you're driving, when you're on your own, meditate on the word of God and work it through and work it through.

You know, sometimes you've got something that's a difficulty and it just opens up to you and becomes wonderful and true. We've got the witness of the spirit. Then we've got the witness of John.

You sent unto John in verse 33 and he bear witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that you may be saved. He was a burning and a shining light and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

So the witness of John the Baptist. John the Baptist had a great attitude. One of the characteristics of a true believer should be humility.

John says, here's what I want. I want everybody to come and bow before me and recognize me as being a great prophet. No, he didn't.

John says, he must increase and I must decrease. I'm really not worthy to take the latchet off his shoe. John had a right appreciation of the Savior.

His eyes were fixed on the proper goal. When John's in prison and he's beginning to worry, he sends his disciples to Jesus. Ask him, art thou he that should come or will look for another? You know what the Lord Jesus does? Boy, that John has let me down.

I thought he was a man for, no he doesn't. Says there's none greater born among women. And he praises John up.

He elevates John for the man that he is. Let me say something, Christian. Just because you have a little slip, you have a little day when you're down.

The Lord knows your weakness. He knows my weakness. You know, when he talked about Jacob, he says, Jacob have I loved, malak I want.

Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. When he talked about David and David was an adulterer, a murderer, a liar, a bad father. He says, he was a man after mine own heart.

Let me tell you something I've learned in my years. God doesn't judge me on the failures in my life. He judges me on my life.

He looks at me as what I am now, not what I was yesterday. Be encouraged, go on in the things of God. Then we've got the works of the father in verse 36.

And he says, the works of my father, they bear witness that the father hath sent me. All those things that he did that brought glory to him. They were a demonstration.

He was sent by the father. What an insignia to have upon him. The father's name, relationship with his works.

What you and I do in Christian service is what the father has sent us to do. That gives a dignity to it, dignity to it. And that tells us that what we should be doing is in accordance with the word of God.

As I said earlier, I have no right. And I did give you some Dunsire theories, but I told you what they were. I have no right to try to teach the word of God and place in it the doctrines of men.

Let's stick to the word of God. I'm going to move on. We've got to get finished here.

The father bears witness. Then he says, search the scriptures. They are they which testify of me.

Now I understand that there are over 300 old Testament scriptures, which directly or indirectly speak of the Lord Jesus. And that's a good exercise to do. But if you're like me, you're a little bit lazy.

You could go into your computer and you can get them all listed. And you get page after page after page. And you could sit down and take a month and go over each one and learn something about the Lord Jesus in all the scriptures.

We just recently had a series of ministry on the minor prophets. And one of the things we were looking for was the prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Some had very little, almost none, and others were full of it.

And it was a lovely time going through those minor prophets. Then finally, the seventh one, and I'm finished, says, do not think in verse 45, do not think I will accuse you to the father. There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom you trust.

For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me for he wrote off me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? As you read the writings of Moses, and Moses wrote of him in Deuteronomy 18, and he prophesied concerning the Lord Jesus, that the prophet would arise, there would be a great prophet. Moses spoke of him.

And all the scriptures will learn of Christ. The attestation of this, the Lord Jesus was the son of the father. He was the son that pleased the father.

He was the son that delighted the father. He was the son that glorified the father. He could say, father, I have glorified thy name.

Glorify me now with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Child of God, one day we're going to be with the son. And we're going to be changed.

And we're all going to be like him. These bodies of humiliation will be changed. And we'll have bodies like unto his body of glory.

Well, let our hearts rejoice in this glorious relationship of the son who pleased the father.