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The chapter on my heart for the last few days, and I guess even yesterday I was asking the Lord if it was something that we might take up.
The hymn that our brother gave out seems to confirm it when it says we taste the love that knows no less of ABBA as of God. I wonder if the brethren would consider taking up first John chapter 5.
We know, of course, that John's ministry is.
Quite different from Paul, it doesn't take up the councils of God in the same way, or give us the whole picture of truth from eternity to eternity the way Paul does. But at the same time John gives us that eternal life come down to earth and the wonderful blessing that results for those who believe in Christ and thus have eternal life.
And.
I suggest that this chapter perhaps would have something for us. But do my brethren think of that?
I think the next to the last verse of it, that chapter is almost the most wonderful verse in all the Bible.
That's just one verse.
First John, chapter 5.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone that loveth him, that begat loveth him also, that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
Well, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God, which He has testified of his Son.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God has made him a liar. Because he believe is not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. He has the Son have life.
And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that he may know that he had eternal life, and that he may believe on the name of the Son of God, and.
And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
If any man see his brother sin, a sin which is not on the death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them. That sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I do not say that he shall pray for him.
All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God.
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8:50 But he is begotten of God, keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not, and we know that we are God, and the whole world lies in wickedness.
And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Well, just as an introduction, as we were saying a moment or two ago, John's ministry, we know is quite different from Paul's, although the two of course complement each other and are not in conflict in any way. And John's ministry?
Brings before us.
That eternal life.
That we have in Christ. In fact, someone has said, and I appreciated it. He said we can summarize John's writings in this way. John wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote the epistles of John, and he also wrote the Revelation. And he said John's gospel is eternal life come down to earth and the person of Christ. The epistles are the wonderful blessings.
That are, for those who accept him and who thus have eternal life, the revelation is the awful consequences for those who reject him. So that's a simple way of looking at John's writing. And so here in these epistles of John, particularly the first epistle, we get that eternal life spoken of. And as we've often heard in the past, but it bears repeating, John often speaks in the abstract, that is.
Things are either black or white, aren't they? And so if he's talking about the new light, it cannot sin. And he speaks about it in the character in which it really is. If it is the old nature, the old sinful self being allowed to act, that's like the family of the devil. And so he speaks of that is what is characteristic of it. But here in this chapter, it's particularly touching because we don't want to get the impression that.
John never refers to anything that's practical. It is intensely practical. But it's wonderful that John points us first of all to Christ into all that he is and to the character of that new life that we have in him. And then of course, other things like keeping his commandments and the enjoyment of his love. And everything flows from that, doesn't it?
Helpful, perhaps, to say that John Paul's ministry was more focused.
On the Church of God.
Peter's ministry was the Kingdom of God, and John's ministry is the family of God. And what's characteristic, like you say, of the family of God is they all have eternal life. And so in this chapter, in the very first verse of this chapter, you have been born of God.
In Paul's ministry, we are children of God by adoption.
Because he chose us before the foundations of the world that.
What we have in John's ministry is coming into the family of God by birth, and we have that verse in well known verse in John's Gospel chapter one and verse 12. As many as received him to them gave he the power to be the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of flesh.
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Nor of the will of man, nor blood, but of God. So we were born the first time by the will of man. Our parents desired children. We were the result. God desires children too, not by our will, but by his will. We've been born into his family. And So what we have in John's epistles, it's beautiful. It's that eternal life as seen in the.
Believer in the Lord Jesus who is born into God's family.
There's a nice little picture that we have in Mark's gospel of the calling of Peter and of John. And I'd just like to point it out in chapter one of Mark, you might sometimes wonder if there's a portion of Scripture that might help to bear out what is being given as a, an outline of Paul's ministry and Peter's ministry and and John's ministry. And here you have in Mark's gospel chapter one.
That umm in verse 16 Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew's brother casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they first took their necks and followed him. And when he had gone a little further, then he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their necks.
Well, here you have Peter called and, uh, you have John and Peter was, uh, fishing And so largely his, uh, umm, work, his ministry is uh, in connection with the, the, uh, fishing and the Kingdom of, uh, God. And so he's uh, seen as umm, opening, having the keys to the, uh, umm, church, so to speak, uh, to the Kingdom of heaven. And uh, he opens the door for the Jews and then for the Gentiles, for the Samaritans and uh, Acts chapter 8 and then.
The Gentiles in Acts chapter 10 and so then you have John here and he was mending Nets and so his ministry not only has to do with the family and eternal life, but maintaining communion in the family, maintaining communion with the father. And so you have in in first John chapter one that.
Really. A picture of that?
In verse 6.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. And then you have in connection with the Apostle Paul in chapter 18 of Acts, you have there the fact that he was a tent maker and I'll just point this out.
In umm.
Chapter 18 of uh verse uh, chapter 18 of after verse three because he was of the same craft, he abode with them and wrought for by their occupation. They were tent makers. And so his ministry Paul has his ministry has to do with the church and with the he was used of God in setting up assemblies and in their establishment. And his ministry has to do with good order in the assembly in a temporary dwelling place for the people of God while they wait for him to come.
And so you have the three there. One is Peter the Fisher of men, one is mending the Nets, and one is the tent maker. And the character of their ministry is seen in that way.
There's a character of life connected with every kind of life. There was an Ant on the table in the middle of the room. We would look at the Ant and say that Ant has a certain nature.
It has a certain type of life and it's different than our own. And each one of us in this room, uh, were born into this world with, uh, what we might call a natural life and our lives have a certain nature connected with them. But now what we have in this wonderful.
Epistle of John is life, and connected with that life is a different kind of a nature. It's a nature that is different than the nature's we were born with.
Consequently, we sometimes use the expression that we all have two natures. That's because we have two lives. We have the natural life and its nature, and we have a new life.
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That comes from God. We're in this first verse begotten of God and He tells us something that's about the not the nature of the life we have. In the rest of the first verse He says everyone that loveth him, that begot.
Loveth him also that is begotten of Him. That is the nature of this life that we have in Christ, is the nature that loves like God loves. And if you love one that is begotten of God, then it shows that by your nature that you love God himself. But if I don't exhibit to one that I can see my brother or sister in Christ the life.
Upgrade then from John's way of looking at it. Well, if that nature is not present, then that person doesn't have that life. And so it's an important thing. It's right. It brings it out, as Bill said, in a very practical way too, even though it presents the thought as we use the expression abstractly, yet the display of it is anything but abstract. It's very practical in our lives. How do I show the life that I have? Well, it's, it's seen and how I treat the person sitting next to me and then across the room and so on.
Do I exhibit the light?
And if I do, then God says yes, and that shows you love me too.
It's helpful, I think, Don we speak of love is to realize the character of the love of God.
God is love, He loves.
When they go to the youth village over in Indiana, I went up and asked the young people there in the village, speaking to them.
Why does God love you?
First answer I almost always get is because we're his children.
I said well if you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior and not his children, but He does love you, why?
Because we're his creatures is the next answer. Well, there's something to that, I suppose. But there's another reason. And, and I think it is so helpful to understand. God loves not because of what the object is. God loves because of who he is. God loves because God is love. That's the simple truth of it. So if you've been born of God, you have that same nature.
You will love in that same way. Maybe somebody has done you in, maybe they have really treated you badly.
If you're born of God, you have a love that can continue to love in spite of the way you've been treated. Oh, how important it is.
And this first verse of our chapter says everyone that loveth him that begat. Of course that is God.
Loveth him also, that is begotten of Him. So for the real true believer in the Lord Jesus, to love God is to love all the children of God.
Question, Bob, is there a difference? Well, let me back up a bit. We know that it says, and it's in John's Gospel for God so loved the world.
And as those who have the capacity for divine love, our love should reach out to lost sinners too. But then here it talks about love within the family of God.
And obviously there is a difference. What is the difference, then, between the divine love that ought to be extended to a lost Sinner and the love that ought to be extended to my brother or sister who is part of the same family? Sad to say, both of them may at times, unhappily not appreciate that love. Even a child of God, as you pointed out, can treat another child of God badly and not really appreciate the love. And certainly the unbeliever can. Is there a difference?
I am asking a question. How would you explain that?
The same love, isn't it?
The love that flows because of who God is.
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But I think in verse two this chapter it shows that there is.
A way that that is shown that love. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
Well, I suppose I don't know whether we can explain it fully. Some of these things have to be felt and enjoyed rather than explained in in language. But when it comes to an individual who is not saved, my heart of love ought to flow out to him. As you say, Brother Bob, it is the same love.
The same love that God extends this world ought to be in my heart. Why? Because the love of God reaches out to them. But it can go only so far. Because if there's a rejection of the love of God, I may continue to love them, but then I can't really go any further with it, except to continue to bring before them God's claims and his love. But when it's a child of God? When it's part of the family.
Even if there is an unwillingness, even if they are not walking, even if they are not, as John says, abiding in Christ, yet there is the wonderful recognition, at least as far as we can know it here. The Lord knoweth them that are His. We know, but as far as we can know it, we can say. But He is as far as I know. And I trust my brother. She is my sister in Christ.
And as you say, I believe verse 2 here comes into the picture because the display on the one hand in your life and mine of obedience and the return of that love can have an effect on that new nature in that other believer. The unbeliever has nothing on which to work. The Spirit of God has to give him that new life through the Word of God.
But if there is that new life already there, then you and I have something on which we can work, something which is there that can be reached. There is, how shall I put it, our brother Gordon Hayhoe often used to say.
Whenever you are talking to an unbeliever, remember that even if they resist you, their conscience is on your side. And I would use the same expression whenever you and I are talking to a believer. Remember that if you are speaking according to God's Word and with His mind, even though they may resist you, the new life that they have is on your side, and so is the Spirit of God that they have. And so in that sense.
I just suggest that while it's the same love, there is a difference when we address the child of God because there is something there that can respond and we trust will respond to what is displayed of Christ in you and me. Would you agree with that? Yeah, maybe a little more along that line of thought we did in chapter one.
And, umm.
Verse 5.
Chapter one, Verse five. This then is the message which we have heard of him. And declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not be true. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Suppose.
A person, believer or otherwise.
Churns their back on God.
Comment was made while or did that then darkness and Mr. Darby made the comment. No, the light still shines on their back. That is, man can only have fellowship with God in the light.
But God's nature isn't changed by whether man responds to it or not, and so in the way of fellowship it has to be according to the light.
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Or with God there can't be fellowship. And with believers, if there's life, the life in Christ, the true basis of fellowship, if it's of God, is according to that same light. Well, it's also true in the matter of love, that if a person responds by their conscience to God, to his love, then they come in faith and are saved. A fellow believer though, the same can happen. They may turn their back on.
A. Another.
But it doesn't change the outflow of the law. If it's there, the law will shine on the back, if you will, of the person. And sometimes we get those thoughts wrong because of something like discipline that comes in or disobedience in a family and so on. I believe there should still be in the in the person that is being disobedient or with whom we're not having.
Might say enjoying fellowship. That person should still have the sense in their hearts that they're being loved. That's important because that love is what draws the soul. The goodness of God leads to repentance. And if a person is cut off or shut off in some way, disconnected from us and they don't feel our love, then it's not flowing from the heart as it should be, even though it may be restrained.
And can't be shown in the same way. There should still be that sense in the recipient of the law. And just one other comment here that's perhaps has helped me. God in his love.
Is absolutely sovereign. He's free within himself to love without restriction.
And he's not subject, and this is the point. He's not subject to commandments.
But God has brought us by new birth into a relationship in which we are in the family of God, but we are still creatures.
And creatures that we are are always, and forever will be, even in heaven.
Subject to the place of obedience with God. Our relationship isn't based on obedience. It's based on being part of the family. It's not like the children of Israel who had a relationship of the 10 commandments or the whole law, and it was based on their relationship was based on keeping that. That's not our relationship, but that does not change the fundamental character.
Of what we are as creatures and that is to always be obedient and consequently when he says if it's our lobby seen in obedience, in keeping the commandments is an expression of the fact that we are creatures and are always we're not totally unrestrained even in having the love of God. It's in US, but it is governed by obedience to God.
In his sovereignty and his relationship to us. So we're not free to act independently of God in the love that he has put in US and say, well, I did that because I have a sovereign love for that person and I and well, I just, that's what I felt toward them. So I did it and put aside something of the word of God. No, we can't do that. It's not truly the expression of the love of God in us if we do.
Because the love of God that is in US will always be in fellowship with and submission to, in obedience to God Himself.
That's verse two that keeping his command that sits on the verses one and two are like a full circle of the love I I I want to tell a personal experience when my shelf became a father for the first time.
I looked at that little child and, uh.
I must say I questioned within myself.
Will I be able to love that child or will I love that child be a good father?
Uh, there was some question in my mind about it, but I tell you, as the days went, mine, I held that child, it flowed naturally. It came out it, it was natural to me as a father to love that child because it's part of me. It's a, we're of the same nature, the same likeness. Uh, and.
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That's what it is in the spiritual realm too, isn't it? We, we love because we're the same family, but we, we need, we can check our love in verse two. It's, uh, it's the opposite order by this we know that we love the children of God. Now we're, we're checking up our love. Is our love really according to God if we don't keep his commandments. That is the.
God's love and its order.
Then it's really not love to the children of God that we do. And so we need to, uh, uh, God would never have us loving and in a way that's not according to God, who is love. That's so important in the day we live in because we tend to adopt, adapt our standards according to people look at them. And we say, well, he needs a little consideration on this side. And so we change the standards a little bit.
That is not true love and it's really beautiful how this second verse keeps the focus right. If you do not love God and keep His commandments, you are not loving the children of God as you should.
This has a practical application to parents because.
It's natural and a natural love sometimes to give a child something.
That the heart wants the child to be happy and satisfied and it will give the child something that is not governed by God's love and it's not in the long run. The very giving the wants of the to the wants of the child without consideration of how God would give is often very harmful and will end up in the child being harmed in the long run.
By having been given something or allowed to do something which the natural heart of love says, well, they say it will make them happy.
And so the heart says, I want him to be happy, you know, give him anything they want. But but God's love is with wisdom that sees beyond the name, natural things and gives.
Or restrains from giving in love, the same love that gives us, the same love that withholds according to his own understanding of what is truly for the good. And we are never wiser than God.
In the expressions of our love, they have to be, or they if they're to be of God according to the new nature, they have to be according to the light that God is, as well as love.
The Old Testament uses this word commandments as well, and if you turn to the 119th Psalms you see it there first mentioned in the 119th Psalm and verse 6.
It says, Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments? And so the commandments in this sense are divine instructions, divine direction from a holy God for the man of God, that he might walk through this scene and in a in a dignity. And so it says in verse 6, here then shall I not be ashamed. And so we walk in the dignity of those that are the sons of God.
Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, those that are members of the family of God. And if we take the divine instructions of the heart of God himself, divine directions and instructions from his heart of love as to what is appropriate for the family life and that which will please him and manifest before God and before this world, the character of Christ himself, we're going to walk in dignity. We're not going to be ashamed. And so John in this sense here speaks of the character that is.
That which is of the child of God. And he says this by this in verse two, we know that we love the children of God. You have a nature and I have a nature. We're born of God that loves the children of God. It has, it knows no hatred. We have the very life of Christ. And so we also love God. We have an expression of love for God our Father in the fact that we walk in obedience to his word and we have affection for His word, for his instructions. They're not grievous unto us.
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We love His word. We have a nature that loves the word of God, that wants to obey, that loves the Father, and that loves the children of God, and that doesn't find any grief whatsoever in reading the word of God and obeying it and sees it as the course of wisdom in that. Lovely that the Lord just wouldn't give us anything less but bring us into the family and give us his own nature, the very life of Christ that we might be able to live the sons of God in this scene.
In the dignity and not live in shame and self will while we wait for him to come.
The New Testament is full of commandments and.
And it's not just 10 like the 10 commandments of the Old Testament. It's full of commandments. I like the way Mr. AC Brown used to talk about God's commandments. He says they are divine directives for that new life that we have in Christ. You have a life that delights to do the will of God.
The Lord Jesus could say prophetically in Psalm 40.
Yeah, Thy law is within my heart. I delight to do thy will. Yeah, Thy law is within my heart. It's the heart desired to do what he tells us to do. So in this very book we have one command as many commands, but love not the world it's command tells us.
Something not to do. And in the end of verse 3 here in our chapter, it's interesting, it says his commandments are not grievous. In other words, they're not there to make you unhappy. They're there to prosper you in your Christian life. It's another verse that I think helps in John chapter 12.
That speaks of his commandments.
In the very last verse of chapter 12 of John's Gospel.
Jesus is speaking and he says I know that his commandment is life everlasting. He doesn't give you those commands to keep you from something you want you won't think you will enjoy. No, it's to help you. It's to direct you in the proper way. That's what we mean when we say his commandments are divine directive.
For that life that you and I have in Christ.
It might be helpful to contrast, and I think that's why sometimes our minds and hearts have difficulty with this, and that is because we're born with a life and a nature that hates to do the commandment of God. Whatever it is, it is grievous because we're in a state by nature of rebellion against God.
And whatever best is to do, man wants to do the opposite. That's just his. That's the character of his lost condition. He is in a state. And so when we talk about the commandments of God and not being grievous and so on, it's essential to recognize it's the new man. It's the life of Christ in US. Who could say, as Bob just quoted, I delight to do thy will, Oh my God.
Every act of his heart and the Lord Jesus is a man here on earth. It was a pleasure to him to be obedient as a man to the will of God. And when we find ourselves reluctant to do something that the Word teaches us, we can be quite aware of the fact that the real problem is the flesh in us is expressing itself and saying I don't want.
To do that, umm and so on. So it it's as Bob used the word divine directive because it's a directive in the sense that it's not difficult to the new life to want to respond positively to the direction that's given. Rather, it truly is a delight to us. It's like when your mom the difference between when your mom told you to eat your liver and onions and when she told you to eat apple pie, Alamo.
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She tells you eat liver and onions. You don't like it.
Is contrary to you, and that's the old nature. But when she tells you eat apple pie and you love it, then it's not hard. You have a nature that likes it, and so is a new man. God's directives are not contrary. You have a nature that loves to do it, The commandments of Moses.
Were that you might live continuously on the earth, it didn't really promise eternal life.
The commandments of men in Matthew 15 really bring death.
The commandments of fathers.
Bring.
A longer life on the earth.
The commandments of Jesus are not to get life.
Therefore, to direct a life that already exists by faith in Him.
So what a totally different motive the Word of God gives us in the New Testament for keeping His commandments. In the Old Testament it was a matter of trying to gain that which man could not attain to, and no man ever could. They took pride, sad to say, in what they did keep of the law, and then making it so complicated with tradition and all sorts of things added to it, but.
The fact remains that man could not keep that law. But now these commandments are based on the new life that you and I have in Christ. And as uh, Doug and Lemoyne were saying, the new life delights to do that. It delights to fulfill those commandments, not in order to get something, because God has already put us there. Well, that makes a tremendous difference, doesn't it? No, of course there is government, we know.
In the House of God, and that's not particularly the subject of John's ministry, but we know there is government that God has for his children, just as there is government in every home here. To some extent, at any rate, families, there is what is expected of those within the family, and there are consequences for bad behavior. But that is not the normal way in the family, is it? What would we think if we sat down at a meal table with a family?
And before he gave thanks, the father said, now I hope everyone's washed their hands here. And I want everyone to know that if there's any bad behavior in this house or at this table, there are serious consequences for that and so on. So let everyone just be be cognizant of that before we start to eat. Oh, you would say what appalled that casts over the meal table. What a what an atmosphere. Something is wrong here.
That isn't the way God deals with us either, does he? He sets before us all the love of his beloved Son in going to Calvary's cross for us, the fact that he's given us new life in Christ, that delights to keep his commandments. And then he says, as our brother AC Brown remarked, here are these divine directives that will help you understand how I want you to display that new light.
What a wonderful difference that makes, doesn't it?
I think sometimes young people, and perhaps older ones too, struggle.
Because they do not distinguish what you are mentioning, Don. The two natures that we have, that life, that is the sinful life, that life we were born with. Just like to read a verse that describes that life in Romans chapter 8.
Because it's important to distinguish it. I've seen sometimes young people who say I feel like a hypocrite because I really do want to do things.
Out there, yes, that's the old man that wants to do those things and you have to learn to distinguish that and recognize.
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That that is not the life we've been given in Christ. But Romans 8 speaks about that in verse seven says because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be so then they that are in the flesh cannot.
Please God, pretty strong words as to that nature that each one of us are born with. When we are born again, we have a new life, new desires, a new nature. And you're not a hypocrite when you say I want to go to meeting, I want to read the word of God.
Yes, that old nature inside of you going to say.
I don't like that. I feel like a hypocrite. You are not a hypocrite. You have a nature that wants to do that properly. And that old nature, we are to reckon it dead to sin and alive, and we're to reckon ourselves death to sin and love life to God. So we have to think clearly as to those emotions that sometimes.
War inside of us the flesh lusteth, begins the spirit.
And the spirit against the flesh. Once that is clear, then you can distinguish those things. I think it is important.
John in his gospel tells us about the flesh as well as the Spirit and in chapter 3 of John he begins he says six things in his gospel and outlines the weakness of the flesh in chapter 3 and verse three it says there he cannot see.
The Kingdom of God, except a man be born again, he cannot see, so he's blind. And then in verse five he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. And then in verse 27 he says a man can receive nothing except that he given him from above verse 32.
No man receiveth his testimony and then a little bit further on.
In chapter 6 and verse 44, no man can come to me.
So even if we could, we wouldn't come. We don't want to come in verse chapter 8 and verse 14.
You cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. So there's no no perception of divine things or the divine person. And then the 6th one is in chapter 8 and verse 43. You cannot hear my word, and so the flesh is dead.
Toward God cannot hear, cannot come, cannot tell. There's no perception God, uh, God words, but the man that's born of God, why he has the same desires that the Lord did. I'll just point out it says of the Lord Jesus himself in four times in the Gospel of John that it was his will to please the Father. In chapter 4 and verse 34, it says my need is to do the will of him that sent me.
And to finish his work, that was his purpose.
And his desire was to please the Father. And then if you turn over the page in uh, chapter 5 and verse 30.
I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me. And then verse chapter 6 and verse 38, the third time in John's gospel, I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And I think the last ones in chapter 8.
Chapter 8 of Johns Gospel verse 29. I do always those things that please him. And so when we get up in the morning, we have one of two people that we're going to please. We're either going to please ourselves and go on in self will and self pleasing, or we're going to have the Lord Jesus as the divine object for life for that day. One day at a time, one hour at a time, we're going to have Christ before us.
And we're going to desire to please him, or else we're going to walk in the flesh. And as Bob read in Romans chapter 8, they that are in the flesh cannot please God, not possible to please God. I can't do both. And so I either have to please the Lord or please myself. And so here in John, in first John chapter 5, when we're reading, whosoever is born of God overcometh the world.
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And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. And so we walk by grace. We walk by faith, not according to the flesh, which is dead toward God, but we live in newness of life and their fruit for the Lord as a result.
We have a fine life, but we also have the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God is the power of the divine life.
So as we speak to you, this command to the sometimes enrollment in the future verses and Roman says we can go back there.
But it says that the right, that the law might be fulfilled enough to walk not after the blessed, but after the superior. And so not only do we have a new life.
We move on the Spirit of God we've been given to us to be pressed based on Christ and.
1St 3 verses.
We've had before us the.
Character of the life is a life that is.
As it is in US, it's a life that is obedient. In the next two verses we see another character of the life is dependent, and that dependence is expressed by faith. And so it is with us as God's creatures, having this wonderful life, eternal life from God. As it is in us, it is a life which is obedience.
And it is dependent, and it is set to us in contrast with God himself and with the old life. God Himself has a right to be independent, and He is subject to none. He has the right to be sovereign in His will and all that He does.
Man after the fall, who even before the fall, was put in a place of dependence and obedience to God.
But after the fall he became in his will, independent and disobedient.
But now God has brought us back to Himself and given us a life which is the life from God Himself. But in us, the creature, it displays itself in obedience and independence, and where there is that dependence of faith, it overcomes every obstacle against the life which the Lord perfectly showed in His own life in the world, and which will be seen in our lives in this world.
If it is lived out in its dependence and obedient character, then we will also overcome the world and enjoy.
The fact that God is honored in that.
We are to be obedient because God has all authority. We are to be to bend them because God has all power. And that's the place of a creature. We will never be anything more than creatures. And so that is our place.
But it is beautiful to see that that word in verse four and five overcoming.
What does it mean to overcome?
How would you explain that?
Well, you know what the word means, don't we? It means to gain the victory. It means to win.
And the believers in a hostile world, isn't he? He's in a world that was against the Lord Jesus. He's in a world that's against him. And not only is the world against him, that's what we have here, but the flesh inside him never ceases to rise up in opposition against that new life and against everything that is of God. But in faith and independence, we can have an overcoming. We can overcome, can't we?
I.
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See, so often the tendency when we encounter problems many times is escapism. Let me out of here.
That is not overcoming, is it? And if you just escape a problem, you're basically going to take your problems right along with you and you'll face it another time. But overcoming is different. It's going.
Through the difficulty with confidence in God. And that's what faith does. Faith brings God into the picture, and I like to think of it in this way. We enjoy the story of David and Goliath.
And we think of the conflict as David versus Goliath.
But what made David an overcomer?
To David, it was not David versus Goliath, it was God versus Goliath. He put David and Goliath together and compare them. Who's the biggest guy?
And he's going to say Goliath. There's no question about it. He's going to win here.
But David viewed the whole thing from a different view vantage point.
We viewed it from God's vantage point, he says. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Was God that was in the picture.
Your difficulties may be big.
Bring God into the picture. That's what faith does. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Bring God into the picture.
Difficulties may would be way too big for me.
They said big for God, bring him into the picture that's overcoming.
It's important to recognize, too, that the world itself is in slavery.
We live in a world and a system of things that Satan is behind.
That keeps his subjects.
Overcome and in slavery.
Man is presented with the idea through his philosophies and his entertainment and what he puts before man to go after.
Things that will free him from dependence and obedience in God, or even the knowledge of God or even the recognition that there is a God and that's presented to man. You be free. You don't need all that, those ideas and so on, but it is very much behind it is Satan and as Peter says.
In second Peter I think chapter 3.
And Mr. Darby's translation? The thought is while they promised them liberty.
They are themselves the bond slaves of corruption, and that's what the world is. It promises liberty and the very people that themselves promised to fellow man liberty, Scripture says they're the bond slaves of their own corruption, and so man can only be truly liberated.
My God and God has given us a life which frees us from that corruption and that slavery that this world walks in and it's only enjoy by it's only overcome in practice, in in a practical way when it's carried out in faith.
Freezes not only from the world, but it freezes from ourselves. And it, it, uh, really impresses me rather than that in our country we are enslaved to.
Ourselves.
Our thinking, our desires, our wants, everything itself. I don't think we realize how much.
That affects us. I, I hope you don't think I'm pointing the finger at anybody, pointing the finger right at myself. Recognize that I'm affected by that way of thinking. We need to be delivered from it, delivered from ourselves. You think of those in other countries who are suffering persecution, what they go through and gladly go through and joyfully go through, for the Lord's sake, they've been freed from themselves.
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Now thinking about pleasing themselves. It's beautiful, brother. That's Christianity.
Go ahead, brother Lauren.
I'd like to turn to chapter two of first John verse 16. I believe this is the the key to how Satan controls us and ourselves. It's really Satan in control.
Says in chapter two of first John, uh, love not verse 15 love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Uh, if any man loves the world, they'll love the father's not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. If these three things that Satan uses to captivate us and maintain us in slavery to sin in our own nature. And so in that way man is captivated to himself. He likes what the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
It's appealing to him and He gives himself over to us. That's how the world developed back in when after Adam and Eve, sin disobeyed God and distrusted him and his love and power. There was a further digression of departure. Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and built the city. That was the beginning of what is the world. And it did in that city that he built. He was controlled by these three things.
And and that to this day goes on and controls man because he loves those things. And so he's captivated by those three things. And no man is free unless he has the power that's greater than that. And that's the Lord Jesus that gives us the true deliverance. Well, I think our time is really up, brother. But, uh, that's the way I understand it.
Believe the question on the table. The Lord leaves us here to the next reading.
MMM MMM.
This is the last two verses 142.