Lecture IV

A5T of yoa who were here last Tuesday will remember we were dwdlii a little on the three characters of the common position of Christians, which are twice repeated; yiz fathers, young men, and litUe children. Fathers are addressed in the fourteenth verse, young men from the fourteenth verse to the seventeenth, and little children from the eighteenth to the twenty-seventh. That which characterizes the fathers is the knowledge of Him that is from the b;inning, Ye have known Him that was from the binning;” that is, Christ. In the Gospels we get what He was from the binning; but John goes further than the other (rospels. These pretenders thought to bring in something else, to add something else by way of precept to what He was down here, and the Apostle draws their attention to Him that was from the beginning.

Now Christ being risen, and ascended up on high, has become the communication of that life (which we have received) of which He was the expression. The fulness of eternal life was manifested in Him, and is reproduced in us. The only real value of experiences is that they are the mean a of developing what Clitla. lap VstaJdu down what we are, so that we may gradually lose sight of ourselves, and grow up into Him. When he comes to young men and little children he has a great deal to say; when speaking to the fathers he has nothing to say but “you have known Him that is from the beginning” — simply tells them of the fulness of Christ, and that is sufficient to draw forth their affections; but to the young men and children it is different: “I have written to you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.” The characteristic is not that of knowledge of Him that is from the beginning, but conflict with Satan. That which characterizes the babes in Christ is the knowledge of the Father. They were more sensible of His love as little children, and as such were in danger of being seduced; “but ye have an unction from the Holy One” to judge them that would seduce you. The Apostle refers to that which is the power by which they are to overcome them.

You 11 find three great contrasts: Christ in contrast with Satan, Spirit in contrast with flesh, and the Father in contrast with the world.” Christ put the world to the test, and found it wanting when He says, “But when the Spirit of truth is come. He shall convince the world of sin,” &c., not wicked men of their sins, but the world that rejected Christ. “The Word was made flesh.” The Son of God came and is gone away. What the Holy Ghost calls the world to account about is the aJoaeiifi oi V!JHmli ^Ska

Cain and Abel, not merely, “Why are you naked?” but, “Where is Abel, thy brother r Adam had been turned out of Paradise because he did not obey God in the garden. Now in his posterity there is hatred in his heart against his brother, but more than this, against Christ Christ was presented, and man’s enmity broke out. It was not only Gain had slain Abel, but his blood cried from the ground; and as God said to Cain, “Where is Abel?” so now He says by the Holy Ghost, “What have you done with my Son V It is not merely that the law of God has been outraged, but when God Himself came into the world as a man they rejected Him. Satan is the prince of this world, was always so from the fall of man, but was first called so in connection with the scene of Gethsemane.” I have yet one Son; “I ’11 send him, it may be they will reverence my Son; “and when He came they said, This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” They crucified God’s Son, and there is no more to be offered to the world, nothing to be presented, as if it were a question whether the world should be condemned or not. Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers; but the Jews would not have Him, and the Jew now has no title whatever to the promises, but must come in as a sinner on the same ground of mercy and grace as the Gentiles. The testimony of the Holy Ghost is, “that the whole woiVd lieJOtL Sxv Vld&fiArness,” all that is in the world. Therefore these things are valuable in the world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” Satan manages the world by them, and men manage one another as well as they can. Satan is of the world, the Son is of the Father. He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and the energy of nature. Just so far as we have the Spirit of Christ in us we shall be dead to the world, not for peace, for that God gave us in Christ — inward peace I mean. Here he puts the young men in contrast, as overcoming the world, and shows where their real strength is, divine strength. “The word of God abideth in you,” not merely you refer to it, but it abideth in you. If you look to Christ in the temptation, His answers to Satan, there was no lust of the flesh, could be none; but He was hungry. Satan says, “Make these stones bread,” to tempt Him, “Cast thyself down,” then shows Him all the glory of the world, and says, “All the glory of this world is given to me; the world is given to me, worship me; and all shall be thine, own me as the prince of this world, and you shall have it all.” His answer was in every case the word of God. All Christ’s thoughts and life were the expression of the word of God abiding in Him. He was the Word, the living Word. So what characterizes the young men is having the Word abiding in them, 1. & ii’^^. £kKt recollecting something to say, or finding out something in the Word when we want it; but the word of God must be the spring of our actions, and that’s what he means by the word of God “abiding in you.” A “young man” does not fly to it just when he wants it, but lives in it. God’s words living in his mind, he knows all that is in the world is not of the Father. If I get my thoughts from this world, and talk of riches, I shall say,” That man has a fine fortunty The Lord says it ’s almost impossible for a man with a fine fortune to get to heaven, though all things are possible with God. Many are the expressions of our desires in this world. If the mind is living in that sphere of thought, our taste and habit will be formed by it. The Spirit of God has a world of His own, and the written Word becomes the guide for everything. That’s how we are to judge everything by the word of God. I can do so according to the state of my souL If the word of God is abiding in me, the world and everything beside will be judged by it.

For example, Israel was called out to be put into the land, and certain things were stated on the ground. of which they might get into the land; but they had totally failed, and they were in a peculiar condition. One book (Deuteronomy) contained the precepts which were to conduct them into Canaan. Well, Christ was sent in the proper time as Messiah to take tbia ^osv^Aii mth the poor people, but their consciences did not recognize Him. That book formed His mind. The Lord quotes out of that book: “Cast thyself down.” No, “I ‘m with my people to obey God.” He had got into Israel’s place where God’s mind and Spirit put the godly. His soul was fixed; His soul and life were in God’s thoughts, and so if your mind were habitually formed by God’s word, instead of living in the world, you wouldn’t want to be getting a text for what you do, but you would be living in the Word, and the world would be at once judged; that ’s what it is to have the word of God abiding in you. Some did not discern Christ, because, as He says, “Ye have not the word of God abiding in you.” If their hearts had not been in a fleshly state they would have known John the Baptist. All the poor and needy ones did. They would have known Christ; but they said, “He hath a devil, and is mad.” John came in the way of righteousness, dwelt in the desert apart from all men, and ate locusts and wild honey, and they said John was mad. Christ came in grace, eating and drinking with men, and they said He was a glutton and a wine-bibber; but God’s wisdom was in Christ, and in John, and wisdom is justified of her children. “John proclaimed that the axe was laid to the root of the tree;” but when Christ came it was to “bind up the broken-hearted,” &c. The poor broken heart said, “That ’s what I want.” Wisdom is justified of her children. The Word apodi<^lxil5AscL^*^^’^

D how the staxpiig man was bound. It was not by a miracle wrought by the putting forth His power, or we could not be enjoined to do it; but by meeting him with “It is written,” and we are to use Scripture as He did, not looking for a scripture to meet it when the temptation comes, but having the soul in that state through the word of God abiding in us, that Satan can’t touch us. Satan attacks the flesh; but if I ‘m walking in the Spirit he can’t touch me, for the new nature can’t sin when cast into temptation.

Thus I ‘m not to have to seek the Word for a text to suit my case, but to be living in it; for it ’s the delight of the new man to be living by every word of Gk)d. There is strength and real liberty, and Satan can’t touch me if my soul is living in that; all the rest is set aside. I am not harassed or uncertain. I may have sin in me, but my meat is to do the will of God. The heart’s at liberty, and the Spirit of God feeds it with Christ. We are not perfect; indeed, none of us are as perfect here as we might be; but we have the privilege, that though we have the flesh in us, we are not obliged to live and walk after it, or even to think of it. The word of God abideth in you, not for you to fly to it when temptation comes. We are to keep Satan out, have the door barred against him. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” A woman may be alone in a house, by herself, and a robber be attempting to break in; but if the dooi is abut shft ia not in danger. As long as she keeps the door shut she need not fear robbers; for the question is not as regards her own weakness, but the strength of the door. So we are to be dwelling in the Word to keep out Satan. Having Christ between us and Satan we are safe, whatever his artifices.

A Christian has no right to have a will of his own, nor should he desire it, but rather “to know what is that good and perfect will of God.” All that is in the world is not of the Father; the affections of the flesh are in the world, and there is the power of Satan. The Father delights in Christ. If I delight in Christ there is communion of affection. I have the affections of the Father: “If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him,” and the fashion of this world passeth away; “but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” All His counsels He will make good morally. I am brought into the way of God’s will, and He is not going to destroy His own will; it abideth for ever. I am to grow up into Christ

The address to the little children would be esteemed by many the most obscure part of Scripture. It is the last time. The thing that marks it is there are many Antichrists. That which characterizes the last time is the corrupting and spoiling God*s last testimony of good, and thus bringing weakness where there ahoviii. V^-“^ power. We see in the case of tli ^!a.CiV^’^’Sk ^A.*Ow dumb spirit that man is not able to use the power God gave to cast out Satan’s power. “Why could not we cast him out? “which brought out the exclamation: ‘’ faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” As much as to say, “It ’s no use my staying here if there ’s not power to put out the eviL” It ’s the last time. There are many Antichrists. That ’s a solemn thing. God’s patience, how wonderful! As long as there is a soul to win God’s patience goes on bearing with wickedness and corruption; but many Antichrists are come in. It ’s often thought to be something requiring depth of knowledge. No; little children are told of it; it ’s a common truth. Antichrist was to come; but that before he comes there are many Antichrists, and they might seduce them, there is the danger. The antichrist is to come, who will deny both the Father and the Son. They can’t mistake him; there ’s no subtlety in Antichrist His is a bold, open denial; but John speaks of antichrists already come. He says,” They went out from us because they were not of us.” Jude says, “There are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.” It was a common doctrine that Antichrist was to come, and the babes knew he would come in opposition to Christ, to oppose and set aside what Christ had done, but the Apostle tells them there are many Antichrists now; there were those before the Antidoiiat c»)Xclq. That they would need the unction of the Holy One, as well as the warning of the Apostle, to be able to detect; for “Satan transforms himself into an angel of light.” It ’s the seductions of the Antichrists now in the world, against which he warns them. Those who, by the power of Satan, set up to seduce away from Christ, not to frighten away, but to ensnare those who have not the unction from the Holy One. He does not tell them there were many Antichrists to come; but many now, and it ’s the direct power of Satan. That ’s what characterizes properly Antichrist. Satan is not only called a liar, but a Serpent. Antichrist is a religious character; he works miracles, and all that have not received the love of the truth are seduced by him. He is a prophet, has a religious character, as spoken of in Thessalonians, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of imrighteousness, not merely civil power.

Of what is Satan the Prince? Of this world. And how? By the lusts of this world. Where the object of the heart is the grandeur of the world, or prosperity in this world, the character of it is to obliterate that which shows what man is. The spirit of the world hides from man the secret of man’s departure from God. I must keep myself from it The saint has to be kept out of the spirit of the world. Whatever has not the character of the word of God is of the world, and Satan is the prince of it, and 1 ci^XL^la;M^^’«)^asiL’5.

prosperity without having Satan’s idols. If you take Christ and His glory, you must take His cross; you can’t have Christ and the worid that rejected Him. Where there is the unction from the Holy One (if the Spirit is not grieved in us), though only a babe, we can say at once, “It’s not of the Father, but of the worid.” The Apostle said, “He that is of God heareth vsP Where there is not due place given to the word of God, there is no protection against the seducers. Is the place of the Church of God in the world that rejected Christ? No; it ’s in heaven, joined to Christ, and the Church takes the word of God as a guide while on earth. If I have a desire for a single thing in the world, it ’s not of the Father, it ’s of the world. Speaking of responsibility in Christ, I don’t see how we can be kept from imbibing the spirit of Antichrist, except it is as being not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world.

First, then, we must have the word of God abiding in us; next, there must be the unction from the Holy One, by which everything will be judged; and, lastly, there must be the perception of the distinctness and definiteness of the place of the Church of God. The world cannot know the place of the Church. “They went out from us because they were not all of us; but ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.”

We are to judge the many Antichrists, not the Antichnat, but the many Aiit.cl[vtvEt.», before he aes, that which ministers to the flesh and uces from the Father. “Come out of her, my ►pie, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and t ye receive not of her plagues.” It ’s a moral Qg to be kept from the things of the world; y are not of the Father. We must be iden- 3d with Christ if we would realize joy and )ngth.