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Our God and Father, this indeed is the first reading of this conference. Let me ask for special blessings. We know that Thy Word is divinely inspired Spirit of God, and so we can only understand it and be in the enjoyment of it through the hours of Spirit. So we pray that that Spirit would be obvious.
In the remarks and in the reception, in each of our hearts of Thy words solely, thank You for the opportunity of so many being here from other places, and some we know so well and some we know, but we find that we're all known to Thee. So when asked for a special question upon this meeting and other meetings.
If thou just leave us here and beloved to come.
And my precious name, Lord Jesus, Amen.
I have had John's ministry very much on my heart lately.
And I had a chapter that I had particularly been enjoying and thinking about.
Then Jim read from it in the prayer meeting.
Would the Brethren consider taking up First John chapter 3?
Many years ago, Very many years ago. Back in the 1800s.
A well taught brother on his death bed made a remark which I read and never forgot, he said.
Don't let Johns ministry be neglected in favor of Paul's. I don't think anyone was more appreciate appreciative of Paul's ministry than he was, but he recognized the need for John's ministry and.
I believe it's very necessary for us. Would that be OK?
First John, chapter 3.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.
That we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knows that not because it knew him not.
Beloved.
Now are we the sense of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be.
But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
Whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the law.
For sin is lawlessness.
And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins.
And in him is no sizz.
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.
Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Little children.
Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous.
He that committed sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy for work of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God does not commit sins.
For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
In this the children of God are manifest.
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And the children of the devil, whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and flew his brother.
And wherefore blew him?
Because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous.
Marble, not my brother, if the world hate you.
We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the President. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Hereby perceived we the love of God.
Because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoso hath his word?
This world's good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him. How dwelleth the love of God in him?
My little children, let us not love in Word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.
For if our heart condemneth.
Condemn us. God is greater than our heart and noeth all things.
Love, if our heart condemneth not, then have we confident for God, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments.
And do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of the of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us commandments.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him.
And he is young, and hereby we know that He abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us.
John's ministry we know is quite different from Paul, because of course Paul's ministry deals with the truth of the church. And in Paul's ministry all the councils of God are displayed, aren't they? From 1 eternity to the next eternity, so that Paul can say in Colossians that he was to complete the word of God.
There's no new revelation since Paul's ministry. Uh, others like John perhaps filled in after Paul, some of the details, but as far as any new revelation, uh, there is no new revelation since Paul's ministry. But John's is different, isn't it? And it's wonderful to see he doesn't deal with the church. In fact, I don't believe he even mentions the church, at least not in its.
Broad character mentions a local assembly, perhaps, but not a He doesn't deal with the truth of the church in in that sense, he deals with you and me as the family of God.
And what a wonderful thing it is to recognize that and to enjoy it, because in order to enjoy all the things of God, we have to have a life and a nature suited to it. And that is what we have been given. And so John's ministry exemplifies that and shows us that which is really presently displayed now.
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That is the new life that God has given to us in Christ, and of course some of the dangers that are present in living out that new life.
I suppose if you wanted to impose a structure on the book and.
We have to be careful about imposing man made structures on things, but sometimes they are helpful.
The second chapter perhaps brings before us more danger from the world. This chapter perhaps more danger from the flesh. The 4th chapter perhaps more danger from the devil. But over and above all of that, we have the wonderful privilege of a new life in Christ that you and I can live out here in this world. And of course, it's in contrast to.
The family of the devil, the only other family there is in this world, and all that characterizes that family.
So it's a wonderful thing, as we get in the beginning of this chapter, to be part of the family of God.
Though we speak of Paul's ministry and John's ministry, we should ever keep in mind that they are perfectly in harmony with each other. There is a real danger that we set one over the other, but it's not as if there are two preachers and all. I prefer his style over his style.
They all, they gave us the inspired word of God. It is all the word of God. And so there is a danger that we can set Paul's ministry aside in favor of John's ministry, the world, uh, Christendom as a whole.
Enjoys the thought of the family of God. That is as wrong as to send John's ministry aside in favor of Paul's. It's all the Word of God. And in the first chapter, In the second chapter of the three epistles.
What is it that characterizes the child of God who sort of keepeth his word in him is verily the love of God perfected. The word is the word of God. Not just John's ministry, not just Pauls ministry, but both, but John wrote at a very critical time in the history of Christendom. If you if your Bible has a date, it's written around 8090 AD and at that time the heart of man as it is, he's always seeking fresh light, something new.
And John, uh, steps in as the aged apostle, and he gives us these epistles where he takes us back to not something new, but to that which was from the beginning. And he gives us the characteristic life, that new life that we possess, uh, in the believer as expressed in the believer. And so that's what we get through this, these chapters of this book, that which characterizes the life of the believer, and also that which we might use to try the spirits so that we might be able to discern that which is false, the error which was rapidly coming in to Christendom in that day.
Against that which was true, the truth of the word of God. So if we understand the context of the book, I believe it's, it's, it's, uh, it's very helpful in understanding the book and the, and its mode of expression. It doesn't look at experience because if you looked around you in that day, experience was telling you something that was contrary to the word of God. If we look around us today in Christendom and seek to understand what Christianity should be based on experience, we gonna come away with the wrong picture.
So John presents things has often been said in a very abstract way and we'll see that particularly as we go through this chapter as we would if we picked any chapter of this book.
Thank you very much, Nick. That is so important, as you say, because Gnosticism was coming in right at that point, wasn't it? Where man was seeking some kind of new revelation, some kind of, well, where did it come from, visions, whatever, and seeking something new and exciting. And as you say it, it was just at that point that God brought John's ministry in to take them back to.
What was at the beginning, excellent?
It's all all of John's ministry is really for that, isn't it? And so is Colossians too.
Yes, he cut to a counter Gnosticism, which was the Greek philosophy saying that the, the body or the flesh or every material was evil only, uh, the only thing that was pure was the spirit. And so you get in the Colossians the fullness of the Godhead dwelled in him bodily and just, uh, you know, to bring that out because I do think it helps to.
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Understand the book, when you go down back to John, you find out in just those first few verses, he just destroys, uh, by teaching the truth, he destroys that whole, uh, concept of Gnosticism. He says in the beginning was the word. And so that is what manifest the bringing the mind of God. He was the one who manifests the mind of God by words. You understand that And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
And same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing.
Was, uh, not all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And then he goes down and he says and the word was made flesh where it became flesh. So this is to overthrow all that thing. And this really inundated the church for the 1St 200 years.
Really inundated that because it, it, uh, it spoke to the intellectual intellectualism of man and, uh, just a simple truth, uh.
They tried to, it's like today, they tried to put the word of God and psychology together, you know, and make it palatable. But, uh, so I, I think it helps if you see the Colossians, he was counteracting the very same truth that was coming into that day, and he didn't do it by telling us what Gnosticism is.
He he did it by telling us what the truth is.
Paul called it the science, falsely so-called hymnosis knowledge. Falsely so-called it was false knowledge. They professed to know more than what the Bible had. They denied Christ as Messiah. They denied Him and his relationships to the Father, denied him in his sonship, eternal sonship, and his humanity and his relationship to men. And when you deny that, what happens to our relationships with God? They come under fire as well, and they crumble and our relationships with one another.
Crumble as well. And so it starts out in this chapter with a manner of love with which we've been loved. We've loved with the same love that He has for His Son. Well, if you deny his relationship to the Father, then you touch God's love to you and to me.
Mm-hmm, Which is the basis of our love for one another. Everything begins to crumble. So this needed to be brought back. It was eroding, uh, the very fundamentals of Christian relationship. And one thing I've really enjoyed about John's epistles, they come in and they give us the proofs of reality, but it's always in a positive light. By this we know, not by this we don't know.
It's always by this we know it's never to bring the believer into the place where he questions.
His relationship with God, but to reassure him of that relationship, because the attack of those evil doctrines was to undermine that.
Was thinking of that, that well known saying that you quoted from the 1800s. I've read that myself from that brother on his deathbed and he goes on to say an explanation I think in that little note.
He goes on to say call gives us the dispensation or stewardship in which the display is John, that which is displayed.
And so in Paul we have man taken up into glory and finding acceptance there, that heavenly side of things in John, characteristically, not exclusively always, but characteristically in John we have that divine life come down and being displayed in John's gospel chapter one.
Where we were just referring, it says in him was light.
That's it. But God was pleased to display all that He is in that one man, Christ Jesus, the eternal word, Son of God taking flesh. But now in the first epistle of John, the plot thickens because of God's desire to carry out His eternal purpose, redemption having been accomplished. Now if you go back to chapter 2 of this epistle, it says which thing is true in him. That's John one and in you.
And now this life is really an astonishing thing that is displayed in the children of God.
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As we get older and the ones we love, uh, we see them only occasionally, like at conferences and we see someone we've known and then we see their children. You know, it almost brings tears to your eyes because you see someone you've totally loved and you see that life displayed in them, the way they talk or their, the way they move there. And it's, it's that life reproduced. So it's beautiful in this epistle we see.
This wonderful outflowing of that eternal life. So when the Lord Jesus was here, it says, we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John in his epistle here at the beginning, says, we have seen in our hands of handle of the word of life.
But as we have been saying, the Lord Jesus is not here in this world the way he was.
When he walked amongst men 2000 years ago and those glories shone out in everything he said and did, there were even flashes beyond his moral glory that those observed on the Mount of Transfigurations when they came to take him in the garden.
He could say at the end of it, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. But I believe it's a very serious thing and very exercising to realize that all of this world is going to see a Christ. Today is what indicates of the Word of God. And as we've been saying, John's ministry brings before us not so much exhortation, but it brings before us that which is the characteristic of divine life and that which ought to be.
Displayed and exhibited in your life and mind today.
As we walk in newness of life and in the power of the Spirit, because the Spirit of God is the power, uh, for that life. And I just say this too, that in connection with John's ministry as to Paul and Peter in Paul's ministry and Peter's ministry at the end of their ministry, they both speak of the last days of the closing days. But John brings us down even further than that. Just back up and notice in the second chapter in the 18th verse.
He says little children, it is the closing time, or if you notice Mr. Darby's translation, it is the closing hour.
Isn't that interesting? He brings us right down to the closing. Not just the last days, not just the closing time, but he brings us right down to the closing hour. And brother, don't we have to admit that's where we're at now? We're at the closing hour. We're just at the end of this dispensation. And what characterized what John speaks of as the spirit of Antichrist and what characterized things in his days, We can certainly see the seeds of it.
Have, uh, risen and we must be right in the closing hours. So it shows how important and relative John's ministry is. One other comment, not to belabor it, but it's interesting that almost the last words Paul records by inspiration are that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That interesting that is Paul that records that. And I suggest this simple thought. It's the Spirit of God anticipating whether the the fact that there would be a tendency to give up one or the other.
But Paul says it's not just my ministry that's given by divine inspiration is all scripture. And as has been said, Paul John writes a little later than Paul, but Paul has already confirmed that that which has been and would be written by divine inspiration was all profitable. And he gives a list there in second Timothy three of those things that it is profitable for. So just confirms how necessary and important and relevant.
The ministry we have in this chapter really is.
Spiritualize them away and they don't have any effect on our souls and on our lives. But umm, appreciate what you say, Steve, that when he writes in the 5th chapter, he says I've written unto you these things. Not that you may know if he had eternal life, but that you have. And so as we read what this life that we have is like.
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It's not so much designed. It should exercise. It's indeed and will, but it's would it be more that we would say, oh, that's the life I have. I want to know more with the reality.
Preciously.
Yes.
And in that sense, there are commandments mentioned over and over again, aren't there in John's ministry, but they are commandments that are in keeping with the new life that we have. Paul, as we heard, gives us more exhortation. But.
That divine life that we have, God wants to see it exhibited in this world.
It's characteristic. And so when there are commandments, it is in keeping with that new life that we have. And so the world doesn't know anything about that new life. As Jim was saying, all it can see is what it sees in you and in me.
Is that an exhortation? Not in the same way, but it certainly lays a burden and a, shall I say, a, an encouragement on our hearts, doesn't it?
And I believe not.
To go on in the chapter, but I suggest and will get to it later, but it's in keeping with this remark.
That, I suggest is why it says in verse 20 for if our heart condemn us.
In verse 21 of our heart, condemn us none.
If I fail to obey an exhortation.
Or I disobey the word of God. It's my conscience that condemns me.
He had failed to allow that new light to display itself. It's my heart that condemns me. That's in one sense a deeper thing, isn't that? It hits right home to the root of the problem.
Do I have that new life? Yes, I do.
Am I walking in fellowship with the one who gave it to me? Is it being displayed practically to deeper things? Isn't it?
Brother, would you repeat the emphasis on the conscience and what you emphasize in the heart?
Or just saying that in verses 20 and 21 of our chapter.
John mentions that if our heart condemns, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things.
There it is. If I am not walking in communion with the Lord, my heart condemns me, and then I have to recognize that there is one who knows it all. But.
If my heart does not condemn me, then we have confidence before God. But what I was pointing out is if I deliberately and willfully disobey an exhortation of Scripture, it's more my conscience that condemns me. But if I fail to display that new life practically down here, it may not be the overt disobedience to the Word of God.
But my heart condemns me, not because I am overtly doing something wrong, but because I am not allowing that new life to display itself properly because I am not walking in communion with the Lord.
Would you agree with that?
And I can make it not close. But John, he doesn't tie sinkers on it. He doesn't modify the truth. It's objective. And so you get that just in the second chapter there. It's, uh, what's to say It says, uh, uh, in the ninth verse it says he that saith that he's in the light and hateth, his brother is in the darkness even until now. Well, you know that that contradicts, uh, some of my feelings because sometimes I've had feelings against my brother.
But that's not the new life that's modifying it. My experience is modified what is what is true. So it's just good to see that all the way through. He that, uh, is born of God, send it not, you know, well, am I not born to God? No, because it's telling the thing which is characteristic of that life that he's given. So there's no, he doesn't modify things.
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Tell them like they are.
That would narcissism has already been mentioned. It comes from the Greek word to no. But so happens that John loves the word to know and so it's like he counters what Gnosticism has. But if you ever look into that subject and just a few years ago, one of the so-called Gnostic gospels was published by none other than the National Geographic Society. So this world is still very much occupied with it. One thing that characterizes them is secret knowledge.
But as believers, we don't have some secret esoteric knowledge that we're aspiring to. Throughout John's writings, he says Ye know, ye know, ye know. To complicate things a little bit, there's two Greek words, but no, which we want to get into right now.
But that those those distinctions between those two words aside, we know. And if we know there is that which should characterize our lives. There is that which should practically manifest itself in our lives. And that is what we have right here in these post couple of boasts of the men throughout this chapter.
I believe that's why in the Darby translation the word Suns here in the 1St 2 verses really is properly children, isn't it?
Not that we aren't sons, but the word sons brings perhaps before us more the thought of a maturity, and that's a wonderful thing. But the thought of children brings in the expression of relationship, doesn't it? God emphasizes the beauty and the warmth and closeness of that relationship.
And it's very practical, isn't it? Because if you and I walk through this world in the conscious sense that every step we take, we are consciously the children of God.
We have His nature, not independent of Him, but a derived life, if we could say it, that is dependent. But it's the same life, the same life as Christ has. We have that new life, and if we walk in the good of that and in the enjoyment of His love.
I speak to my own heart. What a difference it makes.
Does the world understand? No, the world knoweth us not.
The world doesn't. If we could use a common modern expression, the world doesn't get it when it sees the Christian. It just doesn't understand. But you and I have that new life and.
As it says in verse 2.
Looking at us.
It doesn't yet appear what we shall be. We don't have new bodies yet. We've mentioned a few people this morning that are facing the end of the journey because of disease and things that happen in this life. And there are some of us here that are not feeling as strong and healthy as we did a few years ago because we're getting older. That's part of living down here too. But there is a day coming when we will be perfectly like Christ. We will see them as He is.
Well, there's no exhortation in that sense connected with it, but.
What a difference it makes to our hearts when that's a living, present reality in our souls. So it's the Father here, isn't it? Because as you say, it's the children in relationship to the Father and His love. When we present the gospel, we often present it in the light of God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And that's right and proper. But that's not what we have here. We have something far beyond that.
We have the intimacy of relationship the father and his children, and here he begins this chapter. This chapter begins with that love of the father because what characterizes children in a family is they're loved by the father.
If things are normal, I know that natural relationships are out of whack on every level today and it's a day without natural affection. But in the normal course of things, if things are in order, that's what characterizes the children in a family. They're loved by the father. But I want to just go back to something that was alluded to. It might have been Steve alluded to it a few moments ago, and that is brother and I don't believe we can really understand.
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Or appreciate fully the love of the Father for his children until we see something else that we have in John's gospel. And I'd just like to take a moment and go back and make a little connection of Scripture, first of all, in the third chapter.
Of John's Gospel.
John's Gospel, chapter 3.
And the first part of verse 35.
The Father loveth the Son. This expression is repeated three times in John's Gospel. You have it in the 5th chapter and again in the 10th chapter. The Father loveth the Son.
And I believe, brethren, you know, it's it's so easy to just be what what the Father is to us and what his love is to us and to be the center of things. But I believe to really start with this, the Father loveth the Son to consider the one who was daily the delight of the Father, not only in his pathway here, but from a past eternity, the one who a comp came down to accomplish the Father's will, the one who glorified him on the earth and finished the work.
The one that's been received back and seated now at the Father's right hand is a glorified man. The Father loveth the Son. Now keep this in mind and go to the 17th chapter.
Chapter 17.
And I just want to read the last part of verse 23. And hath loved them.
As thou hast loved me, this a tremendous statement. Brethren, The love that the Father has for his children is no less love than the Father has.
For His only begotten Son, just to stop and consider that in fact that you and I, as the children of God, are loved with the same intensity of divine love that He had for the only begotten of the Father. But just go back to the 15th chapter.
Chapter 15 and verse 9. As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you. Continue, ye my love. Here's something else. Not only are we loved by the Father with the same love that the Father has for the Son, but the Son loves us.
With that same intensity of divine love. Now, not to get off our subject, but while we're in the 15th chapter, just notice the little exhortation in that light, verse 12. This is my commandment, that ye love one another.
And He doesn't stop there, as I have loved you. The love that is characteristic of divine life and that we are to display practically 1 to another is the same love that the Father has for his Son. The same love that the Father has for each of his children. The same love that the Lord Jesus has for each of his own is the same love that is to be practically displayed.
In your life and mine and we have the very life and nature that can display in a practical way that love. So when we consider that and then come back to the opening of this chapter and find that we are loved in this way, not just by God. That's true, but by the Father and drop down to the 16th verse of our chapter to the. I think it's important to see little again. The translators added a little couple of words in italics but in the 16th verse of our chapter here by.
Perceived we love.
Again, that's the character. What's the character? What characterizes the family is that love, and we are to seek by the grace of God to enter in to that love that the Father is not so much, again, the love of God here.
Translators added that but it's the love of the father for his children, and the more we enter in to what that love was for his son, the more we will understand and appreciate what it is toward us. Brother Jim some time ago.
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I was struck.
No, the first mention of love in the Bible in the Old Testament is in connection with Abraham's love for his son Isaac.
And so the Lord says to Abraham, Take now thy son, thy only son whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt off.
Well, we know that's a picture.
Of the love of God the Father for his Son Jesus. I thought to myself, now where is the first reference?
To love in the New Testament.
Oh, the heavens were opened under him, and saw the Spirit of God descending like a dog.
Inviting upon him a lower voice from heaven. Same. This is my beloved son in human welfare.
Years ago I remember being in one of these corn mazes.
And it was easy to get lost in the Mace. Some of you perhaps have experienced it.
But there was a announcement made that all could hear that if you find yourself lost.
And you run into somebody that you don't know, you've never met before. Just remember, you're not strangers.
They're just friends that you never met before.
And I thought to myself.
Because I did get lost.
And I did find I was mingling with others.
Are these ones really friends? It's true I've never met them before, but I was inclined to think they were more like strangers than they were friends. But when I come to a conference like this?
There are many here that I've never met before, I've never seen before.
But the wonderful thing is.
That one is never met before. Why is this? It's because of this very truth we're speaking about here.
That the believer as a divine nature.
And what characterizes that nature is that.
In the same family and brothers and sisters.
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Lord Jesus Christ, we can't get around that fact. It's yes, it's the Christianity is Christ is everything and I believe the closer that we are to the enjoyment.
Of the sun.
Might manifest the the laws of thought.
Well, it's a wonderful thing, isn't it, to realize that there's a day coming when all the hindrances are going to be removed and that which hasn't been such a clear picture in our lives is going to be absolutely a clear picture in that day. There are things now that hinder and distract us, and we don't always manifest properly the characteristics of the of the divine nature, but there's a day coming when there's going to be a full manifestation.
Not only of himself, but of his heavenly company. And we are all going to.
Not only be with Christ, but like Christ, when the Lord spoke to the disciples in John's gospel in anticipation of his return to the Father, he simply there said, for their comfort, I will come again.
And receive you unto myself. But he didn't develop it. But isn't it beautiful that John gives us a further little detail in connection with this, that not only are we going to be with Christ, that's true, but we're going to be like Christ.
And in the day of manifestation, when He comes forth in glory, we are going to come with Him.
And when the world looks on, they're going to see a full manifestation of the divine nature wherever they look.
Just take a minute and go back to Paul's ministry for a moment in Second Thessalonians.
Because He gives us something very beautiful there in Second Thessalonians chapter one, speaking again of a day, of a future day of glory and manifestation.
He says in verse 10 of chapter one when he shall come to be glorified in His Saints and to be admired in all them that believe out the italics in that day. What is that day? Well, that day is a future day of manifestation and it throws my heart rather than to think that there is a day coming when the heaven opens up to reveal the Lord Jesus coming back in power and glory, crowned with many diadems, and we are going to come with them.
The world is going to look up, and wherever they look, they're going to see a reflection of the glories of Christ. What they see in my life now is sometimes a very clouded picture. I don't always manifest the characteristics of divine life.
But there's a day coming when we're going to be with Him, we're going to be like Him, We're going to be manifested in that way. And what is if we really have this hope firmly implanted in our souls, this hope in Him, what is going to be the result? It's going to have a practical purifying effect on your life and mind. Now when I see a brother or sister in Christ.
Who? It manifests practical godliness and piety in their life, I'd say there's a person, there's a brother, there's a sister who's enjoying the love of the father, and a brother, a sister who is.
Looking on with glad anticipation to that future day of manifestation.
And so in that sense, we do have something in the third verse here which is very practical for us, isn't it?
Every man that hath this hope in him. The hymn refers to Christ. It should be thought of in that way.
Purified himself even as he is pure.
00:55:00
We live in a world today when the general attitude is what Paul gives us.
In First Corinthians 15.
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
The horizon.
Of the thoughts of most in this world today are live for today because tomorrow looks terrible. The future is so uncertain, so live it up now because you may not have tomorrow. Well, if we had hope only in this life, that might be a reasonable philosophy to live by.
But if we have the Lord's coming before us, if we have eternity before us, what a difference it makes.
And it's the losing sight of the Lord's coming in my heart that makes me want to settle down here, that makes me want to go after the things in this world, that makes me want to let all of the things that the family of the devil enjoy.
It makes me want to enjoy them too, because after all, there is pleasure in sin or season. There is fun in this world. There is pleasure here, up to a point, and Satan dangles that before every one of us, even if we are not so young anymore. It is perhaps a little different ways we get older, but it's still there.
But God wants you and me to be as much as possible like Christ while we're still down here, doesn't.
Every man that hath his hope in him purifieth himself. And what's the standard? Even as he is pure, he would reach it down here. If someone thinks they have, I'd like to meet you after the meeting.
No, we don't reach it down here. But God never sets any standard less than that before us, does He? Because we have a new life. It is the same life as He has.
Change into the same image from war into YES.
Changed into the same image from glory to glory. Thank you.
Maybe see if we could just read that scripture and speak of it for a moment in, uh, Second Corinthians 3 I believe it is.
Yes, Second Corinthians 3, because I believe it goes along with what has been ministered to us in the last few moments. And I believe it's an important, uh, truth to consider first. Second Corinthians 3 and verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Or if you notice another translation looking on, the glory of the Lord with unveiled faith are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And very simply, what this verse is saying is in the measure in which you and I are occupied with Christ where he is now. In that measure there will be an unconscious reflection of Christ in our lives. It's no doubt an illusion back to when Moses went up on the mountain met with God.
But when Moses came out from the presence of God on the mount, the children of Israel couldn't look on Moses.
His face shone to such a degree that he had to veil his face. But, brethren, for you and for me, the veil's been removed.
And we can look as we used to sing when we were young people, look full in his wonderful face. And what is going to be the result? That we try to create some testimony or we try to emanate the characteristics of divine life. No, when Moses came out of the presence of God on the mount, his face shone. But it says he with not that his face shone. It wasn't that he tried to anoint himself and make his face shine in a certain way.
It was the unconscious reflection of being in the presence of God on the mouth. And that's what He wants in your life and mine. Now He's going to have it fully as we said according to 2nd Thessalonians 1 and so on.
In a coming day of glory and manifestation. But He wants us to have that reflection in our lives now. And how much is it true? If we're occupied with ourselves, with one another, with circumstances, we're not going to have those characteristics in our lives, but occupation with Christ and what He is to us is what is going to manifest those things.
Just say in a practical way, umm, I'm not saying you haven't, But just to say it this way, you'll find the sweetest moments in your life are the moments in which you are occupied in personal meditation on the glories of the Son of God. There isn't anything that gets better than that down here. There really isn't Trump and I know.
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2nd Corinthians 3 specifically the Lord and glory. But from the Manger to the glory, from glory to glory, one after another, and it will be our endless occupation, one glory of the Lord after another.
But here, the sweetest moments that our souls can have.
Enlargement of heart, you know we fall out of the psalmist said I will run away. I'm sorry in Psalm 119 there's a verse that says I will run the way of thy commandments after thou shalt enlarge my heart. So we we often quote in Second Corinthians. I think it's chapter 6 be not.
Let me, let me turn off my heart, Bibles open to it.
In in the verse that's often quoted the the practical exhortation of verse 14 of 2nd Corinthians 6 is be not unequivocally yoke together with unbelievers. That's one of those things I suppose that pulls the cork down that you were speaking about 1/2 hour ago, but just before that it says, Holy Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
Then verse 13 now we're recompensing the same. I speak as unto my children be also enlarged. Our hearts are enlarged by this formative, uh, occupation and enjoyment with the personal Christ. Not abstract virtues per SE, such as patience or humility, but these things seem in the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. It really hasn't affected upon us.
And lo and behold, we find that.
We are taking care of things in our right for purifying ourselves. I remember standing around when I was first staying with some brothers in the local meeting and.
The custom there amongst the men who were saved later in life was they were very heavy smokers, very heavy use of tobacco and they used to get nervous when the laboring brothers would come through from.
Montreal to the Maritimes and vice versa, because we were on the way. And you see a lot of uncommon on this, you know, and, and I remember a conversation once where a brother said, well, why don't you just, you know, get rid of that? I mean, it's, it's, you know, what, what is it? What good is it? And he made a comment, well, the Lord hasn't taken it away from you.
And, you know, I'm young and they're older and.
I've pondered that for some time. And I said, you know what? That's not the right thing at all. We're supposed to be purifying ourselves. And so the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, let us cleanse ourselves, right?
Small filthiness of the fleshly spirit. And so we have that duty, just like in natural things, The adults here, we didn't just wait for someone to wash us up and shave us in the morning, right? We took care of ourselves. And so that's the way we are to be in our spiritual life, and not in a routine way. But when the heart has been captivated, things get pretty simple and easy, OK?
That's really what we have here, isn't it? It's the one that has this hug. He is the one that purifies himself. There is a practical manifestation of that in our lives.
And you say, well, there isn't always. But remember, John is not talking about my experience. He's talking about what should characterize or what not should, but what will characterize us if we have that hope within?
And what spoils it is what we get in the next verse, verse 4.
And the correction, and I was so glad that Bruce made it when he read the chapter, is very necessary here. It should read Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth, and notice it says also the law.
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Four, sin is lawlessness.
That is, the essence of sin as we know, I hope, is not merely the breaking of a known commandment, but rather the exercise of an independent will before God.
And that is what is characterized or what is characteristic, I meant to say of the natural man, isn't it exercise of an independent will? And it never gets any better in the believer that old sinful self still wants to exercise its own will. And so sin is really that will of mine wanting to.
Push itself against what God wants me to do as manifesting that new life. And so I can spoil that purification. I can spoil it by allowing sin in my life and.
What did God do about that?
He was manifested to take away our sins.
And in him is no sin.
That latter comment.
Brings before us not only the.
The fact that in the person of Christ there is no sin, but it also leads into what we have next.
And that is that the new life which you and I have cannot sit.
And so God brings before us here the seriousness of sin. And if I don't realize the seriousness of sin, and sometimes I don't, I need to go back to the cross. I need to see what was necessary to put it away in order to have it driven home to my soul how serious sin is in the sight of God.
It is so easy to let the spirit of the age affect us, and whatever we have in the world will often affect the people of God if we're not careful. And in regard to what has just been said as to sin being lawlessness.
Isn't that what we see manifesting itself more and more in this world today? Because it began with self will in the garden. And it's going to, uh, that's going to be the final climax of man's history of sin. And self will and human rights have always been practiced from eating down, but they're not just practiced today. They're preached and glorified. It's my right, it's my way, I can do it the way I want and, and so on.
But we need to be careful, brethren, that we don't get caught up in the in the spirit of the age. In fact, man's history of sin is going to culminate by what it says of the man of sin in a future day. It says the King shall do according to his own will.
Unbridled self will and lawlessness is what is going to finally climax man's history of sin and bring down God's judgment on the on this on this world. But I say again, we want to be careful, brethren, that we don't get caught up.
You know, as many believers today who are caught up in in human rights and it's my right and and and and I deserve it and it's owed to me and so on. Brethren, the only thing I deserve with the Lake of fire.
And what I have by grace is only by by grace. And so sin is lawlessness, but it is not what characterizes the divine life. Christian liberty is not the liberty to do what I please.
Christian liberty is the liberty to act in the characteristics of the divine nature.
Did we say the first and last dances of 234?
Verses 1:00 and 5:00.
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Nsnoise.
4642, 5/2.
Three.
Change from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place. The last verse, please, of 296.
Uh.
Nsnoise.