Lecture V
We were led, in speaking of the three classes of Christians, we were led to see, in the last specially, it is warnings against the seductions of Antichrist.
In the first, to the fathers, it is, that they have known Him that is &om the beginning. In the second, to young men, they have overcome the world; and in the last, to the little children, it is warning them against the seductions of Antichrist. And now we resume at the 28th verse, “And now, children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If ye know that He is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of Blm.” On this the third chapter is founded. Being born of Him, there will be the nature and character of Him of whom we are born.
That’s the character throughout the epistle. “He that does righteousness is righteous.” If the life of Christ is there it will show itself; if the eternal life that was with the Father was manifested in righteousness, it will be manifested in righteousness in us. If I see righteousness in the sense that Chriat is righteous, 1 say ttia ^«tMl life is there; that person is born of God. I don’t mean righteousness as between man and man. We see in Christ that righteousness is having no will of one’s own; that ’s never found in an unconverted man. Again, we see He never did a single thing for Himself, yet you find Him full of joy. Well, that kind of righteousness is only found where the divine life is. Where God is the motive for everything to the heart and conscience, the motive of the heart characterizes the man, the thought of the presence of God governs the conduct. Take an honest man in the world. There is righteousness between man and man, but what detects the unrighteousness of the world is, God is entirely shut out. It is man’s righteousness, and not Christ’s righteousness. Man’s righteousness never brings God in. If a man has wronged his neighbour, he is condemned by all as a bad man. God may be wronged over and over again, all their life through, and they don’t care. They say nothing about it; they will let God be what a man pleases, and say, “It is between him and God; it does not concern us. We have nothing to do with it, provided only that he is honest with men.” And that’s horrid unrighteousness, because self is the centre from beginning to end; that’s how the world is governed. It may be seen in a child at school wanting to get a prize, to the exclusion of others; for only one can get it That’s what’s called emulation, which men are so ready to praise. Self ia the spring o£ eNex^CtiMi^^sA^^
God; 80 if there is righteousness in the things of men, righteousness in the things of Grod is altogether left out, and Gk)d must call that horrid unrighteousness which is called honour in the world. We should be thankfid for government; but when the young man in the Grospel came to Jesus, and said, “Bid my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me,” He replied, “Who made me a divider and a judge? “He leaves the question of right according to man (for it was right that he should have that which belonged to him), and shows what is under the surface: ‘’Beware of covetousness.” The Lord is our pattern in everything, and when the Lord is the pattern it detects the motives of the heart; so He said, “Beware of covetousness,” The one desired to have it, the other desired not to give it up. Take care that the motive and spring of conduct is God, and not self. There He strikes at the principles of covetousness; there must be that state of heart in which Grod is the spring of the wilL Christ is the test — “He that is born of God.”
“Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of G^d.” Now let us see what are the privileges and condition of those in such a state. Bom of God, think of the love expressed in our being ‘’ called sons of God.” And what a thought it is; not merely I’m safe, but I am connected with God’s nature. I can delight in God’s nature and affectdons. I have the nature of God lx delight in, and enjoy God in the character of a son; and knowledge of the nature Christ came to tell of, and to declare in the character of Father. He who knew it as dwelling in His bosom from all eternity, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him,” told us God’s character. He who hath enjoyed the outgoings of the Father’s love, He came to tell us of that love as He knew it to be. If I am to give you the character of my father, it must be as I have known him. Christ has entered into, apprehended, and enjoyed all that God was as the Father. “In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” He in whom all the divine nature rested. He has declared Him. Christ having become a man, and come down from heaven to declare the Father, takes this place as Son on the earth, that we might know the relationship of sons; and the heart of the Father came out in approbation, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Christ having enjoyed His sonship down here, desires that ive should know down here all that love, that our souls should understand the relationship of what God was to Christ down here, and know that the Father loves us as He loved Him, “I have declared thy name unto my brethren, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them “— this our souls may know. It may be very feebly, but we are called to know God in fellowship mlliGlim»S5w»^”^^K^ down here we are to see in what He was to Christ, what He is to us called sons of God, “that the same love may be in them, and I in them.” He is the conductor of all this love into our souls.
How can we know Gk)d? The mind can never find out God. “Who by searching can find out God?” Nothing but faith can put God in His place. If I am to find out God by searching, my mind must be master of my subject, and then God wouldn’t be God. The mind can’t judge the character of God; we can only take it where it is revealed. It ’s in Christ We learn it there, not as a matter of knowledge, but as that which should sanctify our souls. I know we fail, but there is such a thing as dwelling in God. There is acquaintance with God, so as to give settled peace. “Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace.” “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Don’t say it ’s too high for us, as if it were an attainment in philosophy. No, it’s not the mind. How do I begin to know God is love? Why, He loved me, a sinner. I thus begin at the lowest point. “Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” I know it by the incarnation of the Son of God; there He ’s become everything to us. He is perfect love, perfect patience, perfect goodness; all that is nearest to the every-day wants of a soul, the commonest wants of humanity.
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God” — we are called sons of God, thus called by the same name as Christ, and the world knows us not, but thinks we are mad — “therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” It was just the same thing with Christ. They said He was mad, had a deviL No wonder they don’t understand what we are: “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” Who? JETim, Christ The Apostle’s mind was so occupied with Christ, he did not even name Him; he thought everyone must know. Suppose your child was sick, and I were to ask you, “How is he?” you would know directly I meant your sick child, because your mind would be dwelling on nothing else, so here it is taken for granted, you know; therefore he does not tell us, does not say who it is. His mind is occupied with Christ, the eternal life that was with the Father, and has been manifested to us. He dwells in you, and you in him; that’s where the world has no knowledge, and that ’s how the world is no match for a Christian. It does not know his resources; nay, it will even taunt him on that score, as Eabshakeh did Hezekiah when he said, “Now I will give thee 2000 horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.”
“Now are we the sons of God;” not merely when we are up where we shall be, but now. It ’s the only relationship we can be in to God. A man under the law was a servant ‘, liAxLO^ ^^”^i-vOwba.
come, born of a woman, born under the law, and we are sons. We can’t be anything else, as in the case of the prodigal son. God can’t take His child into His house as a servant, because His heart could not be satisfied. He could not treat as a servant for this reason one whom He loved as a son. When the prodigal knows the father’s love, he does not say as he had intended to say, ‘* Make me as one of thy hired servants.** How could he say it when his father’s arms were hanging on his neck, and when all the house was. to be happy because the father was happy and satisfied with his son? He could do nothing but wonder and adore; and, as it has been remarked, we lose sight of the prodigal, and all we get after is about the father and his house. Now as the father’s house was approached, what fears and tremblings, what questionings were in his mind, such as. What will he say to me? and the like; and the nearer he got, the more uneasy he would grow, until the father was on his neck, and then all was over. So it is with a soul getting to God. There is uneasiness, if the work of the Spirit is there, until God’s mind has been accepted from Himself; not from any progress or experience we may have known, but from Himself; and the nearer the heart gets to God, it is always the more uneasy until we know God’s mind and get it from Himself. Then we know it for ourselves. When we have learned to take our thought of our case from God’s mind we get peace. It would be inconaiatent for us to say we are not sons because we are so failing; for if the Father is Father, the son must be son. He h8U3 no other place to give us but sons; for He can’t take us out of Christ and make us something else. “Now are we the sons of God.” We have our place as sons on earth. We know the perfect relationship, but we don’t know the glory yet, “what we shall be.” “We, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness.” I don’t wait to be a child, I am one; nor wait for righteousness, I ‘ve got it in Christ; but for the glory which is the hope of righteousness.
How am I to know the clue for all this, that I may understand it? I must get back to Christ as the pattern of revelation, the model Man; “for we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him.” He is the first-bom among many brethren. “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” All the glory is BUs who became a man, that He might take us back into all the joy of the Father’s presence. It is this that makes Christ’s coming again the one object, the one hope of our heart, though death would be gain to me. I don’t hope for death. I might rejoice, but I don’t hope to die. I hope for Christ to come; “not that I would be unclothed, but clothed upon;” not to put off this tabernacle, but that mortality may be swallowed up of Ufe. He’d got eternal life, having got hold of it in Christ; and he has such a sense of the power of this life, that he longs to be in the enjoyment of all its coMecvvfeTkR.^. “SaSs*^- ways confident: “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” If I drop the body I have life, eternal life, in my soul, and I m looking for the glory if I die. Blessed as it is to see a saint die (and it’s the most lovely sight in the world), that’s not the hope of the saint. Our only hope is, when Christ shall appear “we shall be like Him.” We shall not all die, but we shall all be conformed to the likeness of God’s Son. It’s God’s intention to confonn us to the likeness of His Son in glory. I don’t look to be conformed to Him in the grave, but as He is; for we shall be witnesses of His victory over death. The thief on the cross said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” But Christ said. You shall not wait till then; you shall be happy to-day with me in Paradise, thus bringing in the separate state of blessedness of a soul; and it surely is a blessed thing. But God’s intention is to conform us to Christ in glory, and Christ’s coming is the only hope of the Church. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him.” And what is more, “We shall see Him as He is;” not see Him as He was, but as He is. In one sense, I am not nearer to His likeness at the day of my death than at the day of my conversion; but morally I am, and they are never separated. The revelation of the glory to my soul shuts out everything inconsistent with it. Paul says to the Philippians, “If by any means I might attain unto the leavjctxeXAOTL cS. llvs dead,” nothing can ever satisfy my soul but that. There is present fellowship with his suflferings, looking forward to the prize of his high calling; but he says, I have not got it yet, “I press toward the mark.” “Our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Actual glory with and in Christ, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before.” He would not have or allow one atom of his life to be inconsistent with the resurrection. We ought sdl to be able to say, * This one thing I do; forgetting the things which are behind, I am reaching forward to be like Christ.’ “He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure.”
Take Christ’s love in Ephesians: “Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church.” The application of the Word did not make the glory brighter, but was preparing for it The revelation of Christ as He is forms the soul to think. If I am to be like Him by-and-by, I’ll be as like Him as I can now. “He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure;” so that he may be like Him now, having the blessed privilege to get this as the measure, “evii ^a’^Sa.^Nssfe? “I aanctify myself;” that, la, B.^ ‘la xJw wa ‘e^ apart as the one according to GocTs mind, as the model, that we may look at Him and be like Him. “That they also might be sanctified through the trath,” the Holy Ghost taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto us. “We beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.” The real practical power of the hope of the coming of the Lord sanctifies and forms the affections of the heart, and the revelation of the glory of Christ is the means of my purifying myself as He is pure, the Word revealing Christ, and drawing forth the affections of the heart to Him, that I may grow up to Him in all things.
In Colossians it is that He might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; that is,havingthe heart fully set on everything that belongs to Christ, “who is the image of the invisible God, in whom it pleased the Father «dl fulness should dwell.” After developing all these things of Christ’s glory, he says, “I want to get every man perfect according to these glories of Christ;” and that which makes it so blessed is, that it is the joy of being like Christ. It ’s not as giving us a law to walk by, or precepts to guide us. There are precepts; but that which purifies is the affections being set on Christ, to be like Christ now, as it is the purpose of God that we should be conformed to the image of His Son. I would just say, Christ’s coming is to receive the Church to Himself before He appears, as in Thessalomas ^xid thia is the delight of the heart’s affections (it is a little different to the appearing with Him in glory); “so shall we ever be with the Lord.” We get the thought: we are all to be caught up together to meet the Lord. I might say, “There’s one so strong in faith and good works, he will surely go up first.” No; all distinction fades away in Christ; all is gone in the thought, we all get there together. When I look back and see the devotedness of Paul, I think of the love of Christ, who takes us all up together to be with Him for ever. That there may be no difference, all alike are to be conformed to the image of God’s own Son. Christ ’s love rests perfectly upon the Church, because it is Himself; He cannot hate His own flesh. That which is most intimate in affection is common to us all. We go to be with the Lord; not to appear with Christ, blessed as that is, but to be with Him, It is a special blessing to he with Christy which is far better than to appear with Him as partaker of the glory. It is a marvellous honour to be honoured with Him, but it is better to be with Him; therefore the Apostle says, “So shall we ever be with the Lord.” He is satisfied with that In Colossians it is, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory;” and he immediately connects it with responsibility. “Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth;” but when he speaks of being with the Lord, oh, that will not be connected with wjl growth or progress I may laav TiiajiLfcls ^’vjl Ski^ common ground of Christ’s love to His own! I can look at the saints, even at Paul, and say, We shall be with Him together. The appearing with Christ is connected with responsibility of service. I shall delight in the Thessalonian believers when in the glory as well as Paul; but they won’t be my crown of rejoicing, but Paul’s — the reward of his service. That principle is never to be the motive of conduct. The hope of reward should never lead me into service; but when tried in service, as we surely shall be, then it sustains the soul in the path. What was Christ’s motive? Infinite, divine love. But what is said of Him, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,” is also said of Moses: “He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible; for he had respect unto the recompence of reward.” If I am preaching to sinners the love of Christ constrains me, but I want something to sustain me in the path. Love is the motive, but we need to be sustained by the hope set before us as we tread the path from the cross to the crown, when we shall be conformed to Him. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” We have not to enquire if we are sons, but take that as the ground of our now being conformed to Him.
Our souls must get to delight in Gk)d. God has
imfolded Himself. “Oh,” you ’11 say,” that ’s so
high!” Well, but Christ has come as the link to
what is so high by coming so low (and He stooped
lower than any), and He made ^itaaA^ wsx only object. It ’s not the power of the mind that thinks about it, but the singleness of the eye that looks at it; the single eye has no object but Christ, The old nature is not to act. The new man has no other object than Christ.
You are called to know God. “Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace.” That was always true, but you are now called to know God in Christ. Oh that the world may not get into our hearts in such sort as to make us incapable of enjoying God! He is leading us from circumstances by the communication of the divine nature to the knowledge and enjoyment of God. If I am in sorrow, God is my comfort; if I Ve suffered loss, Christ is everything to me. We are to cast all our cares upon Him, great and small; and so ‘* the peace of God shall keep our hearts and minds by Christ Jesus.” Is His throne shaken by your cares, because they are so many, and so great? No; His throne is unaffected by them all. Thus, while it is applicable to the commonest cares, all these things but bring us into the knowledge of God.
May our communion and fellowship be such as that we may know His peace; not peace with Him, but the peace in which He dwells; to know that His throne is not disturbed by all our cares, and thus to know Him, and find our joy in Him, and wait to be like Him, “purifying ourselves even as He is pure!”