18 November 2018
Dear Phyllis,
This morning I had a rare privilege to preach. The Lord laid upon my heart to speak on the four relationships that we have with God, as the sons of Adam.
Apart from what we have from Moses' account of creation and the first 2,000 years it is difficult to form any clear understanding of what interaction God had with His created being. Obviously some men knew God and had a relationship with Him. Adam certainly knew God as his creator and it is interesting that humanity had a firsthand witness of creation all the way to Noah. By drawing a time line we see that it is possible that Noah's father personally knew Adam. Noah was the first recorded man born after Adam's death.
Abraham obviously knew God and enjoyed the unique testimony as a “friend of God”. In Abraham we see the genesis of a unique covenant. God said would uniquely bless the decedents of Abraham and multiply his seed. We have a very restricted historical account of Abraham's seed up to Joseph and Israels migration to Egypt. The book opens 400 yeas later when Moses appeases and the exodus. At Sinai God made a covenant with Israel as they would uniquely be His chosen people. And the rest of the OT is the recorded history of that relationship. But in all this God appears to simply be known as God the creator.
When Jesus appeared He introduced us to a radically knew relationship. Jesus told us, “When you pray, say, Our Father”. This was radically knew. God was never known as the Father in the OT.I never really thought about this until I read Bilquis Sheikh's amazing book I Dared to Call Him Father. Bilquis shared her search for God and how she was diligently studying both the Koran and the Bible. She desperately wanted to know the true God. In her search she noticed that Jesus had instructed us to address God as Father. In her search one day Bilquis wanted to speak with God and said “Father”. With that the Holy Spirit fell upon her and she was born again. This was almost blaspheme in Islam to address Allah as Father. This term is utterly unique to the NT and we are indebted to Jesus for bringing us to that point. The reason the NT is different from the OT is that in before Pentecost, there was no such thing as the new-birth.. John was the first one to share with us that the only way that a person could be the son of God was to be born of God (Jn. 1:13). And by virtue of the new-birth we literally are born of God and naturally should address Him as Father. There is a direct linkage between our birth and His Fatherhood, and no one who is not born of His Spirit can factually call Him Father.
The third relationship we have with God is that Jesus is our Brother. It is highly significant that after the resurrection Jesus told Mary to go tell His brothers that He was alive (Jn. 20:17). That is the first time Jesus used that term outside of His immediate family. This is underscored by Hebrews 2:11,12 where we see Jesus addressing us as brethren. In that He is fulfilling the promise made in Ps. 22:22 and the statement Jesus made at the end of His prayer in John 17:26.
When approaching God I am tremendously encouraged to know that my Brother is closely related to God. When it is unthinkable for me to speak to God or I have an urgent need to know that my Brother has an intimate relationship with God that gives me a unique access. I am not as intimidated in speaking to my Brother as I am with speaking to God.
Going ahead with my message let me say now that the fourth relationship with have with God is by marriage. I believe the Bible is the Word of God. There is nothing in this life more basic than that truth. Throw away the Bible we would have no reliable, detailed, understanding of God. I believe every word in the Bible. It grieves me that there are so many Christians who trash the Word of God and selectively throw out some portions. If indeed the relation Christians have with Jesus is by marriage would it not be reasonable that He should give us some light on that subject? He has but a large percentage of Christians look with horror at it because they don't understand it. Shortly after I was saved I discovered the unusual book of the Song of Solomon. I thought this was a treasure box but I didn't have the key. Since then the Holy Spirit has taught me more through this marvelous Book than any other portion of Scripture. In chapter 4 and 5, in addressing His Bride, we see Jesus emphasizing our human relationship with Him more than any other place. Four times Jesus speaks to us as His sister His spouse (S of S 4:9,10,12; 5:1). This emphasizes the truth that He first came to the earth to participate with us in our humanity. He can call us sister because He is literally our brother having become one of us. He is a decedent of Adam just like us (Lk.: 3:21,38). This underscores the brother relationship we have with Jesus. He came here first to identify Himself with us in our humanity in our brother sister relationship, to enable Him to take us up to identify us with Him in His heavenly position in the Godhead.
The fourth relationship with the Godhead is by marriage. We know this and yet we don't. There should be no Christian saved more than two years that doesn't know that the Church is the Bride of Christ. John the Baptist first spoke of this when he said, “He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom” (Jn. 3:29). He considered himself to be privileged to be a friend of the Bridegroom. In at least two parables Jesus spoke of His relationship with His Bride in marriage (Mt. Mt. 22:1; 25:1). The most extensive discussion we have of marriage anyplace in the Bible is in Eph. 5:22-32; but then Paul added, “but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” and called it a great mystery. The culmination of this is Revelation 19:7-9 and 21:9 where we see the Bride of the Lamb. This is our ultimate destiny.
Any human being should acknowledge that God is there creator. Those who have been born of His Spirit know the reality of looking up and say “Father”. It is a huge encouragement to know that Jesus is our Elder Brother and He is with the Father on our behalf. But to realize the relationship we have with Jesus is that we are members of His Body and the Church is the Bride of Christ. This is the most fundamental point in being a Christian. But it is one that most Christians consider almost offensive. I have said many times, Samuel Rutherford is a man who lived that and unless a person knew the Song of Sol. the Letters of Rutherford would be bewildering to the point of offensive. More than any writer I know Rutherford lived that relationship. There is much in S of S that simply bewildered me. I couldn't understand how Jesus could speak to His Bride in such terms. Many times I said to the Lord, “Jesus, that is wonderful but You are not talking about me.” There is nothing in me that could excite such affection. Then the Holy Spirit showed me that it was not because of who I am but what His heart is like. Josephs brothers didn't deserve his love, but he loved them because they were his brothers. It blows my mind to think that Jesus loves His Bride the way He does. When I look at myself and others around me I wonder, how is it possible? One explanation why Jesus loves His Bride so much is because the Church is the Father's love gift to His Son. Because believers are the ones the Father has given Him Jesus loves them very deeply. The other day I saw a You Tube of gal who died, went to heaven, met Jesus and came back. She told about her own unworthiness and inability to believe that Jesus could love a person like her but when she saw Jesus she was stunned to see that He was in love with her. That hit me with force.
Oh we don't know 2% of it. We know God as creator. If we are born of His Spirit there is something inside us that calls God Father. It is wonderful that Jesus calls us His brothers and we can understand this because he became one of us and we have the the same Father. But oh what will it be like when we are brought into His direct presence and know that He loves us as His Bride.
I don't know if anyone got anything out of this, but thank God, it's true.
bill
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