Revealing the Family of God; with their father, in the world, in the last days.

Kilmarnock, Scotland:
John Ritchie, Publisher of Christian Literature.

Preface.

These Lectures, delivered in Beresford Chapel and the Iron Room, Upper Clapton, were taken down in shorthand for the pages of a magazine for Christians, through which channel they have been used of God as a means of enlightenment and comfort to thousands of the Lord’s people.

After careful revision and considerable enlargement by the Author, they are sent forth in the present collected form, with the earnest hope and prayer that the Lord may still more abundantly use them for His glory, in the edification of His own people during this “little while,” so soon to usher in the morning without clouds—the hour of His appearing, who hath promised to come to take us

“To dwell with Him, to see His face,
And sing the glories of His grace.”

The First Epistle of John.

Lecture 1.

The subject of the gospel of John is the Son of God. The subject of the epistle of John is the sons of God. The whole epistle is divided into two parts. The first, comprising the first two chapters, shews us the family with their Father. The second, comprising the last three chapters, gives us the family in their life in the world.

The first of these subjects is subdivided into two heads, or divisions. I think these aid in impressing the matter upon the minds of those who hear.

First, then,—A glance at the family together.

Secondly,—A glance at the family looked at in their different relationships, viz., fathers, young men, and children.

The first subdivision consists of four pieces,— thus:

1. About the communion of the family with their Father.
2. What the character of the Being with whom they have communion—a Being of perfect light.
3. The manner in which that communion is possible, seeing we sin; and that is found to be through two things—the blood and the Person of the living Christ.
4. An objection met, as to how those persons who say they are His people, but do not walk as such, are to be dealt with.

Then it opens with stating that He was from the beginning. Anybody can see the allusion to the gospel of John. We remember how that commences. There is a slight variation from the manner in which the gospel begins. In the gospel Christ is seen “in the beginning.” In the epistle, He is seen to be “from the beginning.” Is there any reason why this is so? Why did not the Holy Ghost commence the epistle the same as the gospel? Why did He use the words “from the beginning?” There is a reason for everything in the Word of God. Can I make it plain? I think I can. We have seen men with the Father in the epistle of John; it is the family at home with their Father. The epistle opens by showing the children at home with their Father. Every child of God must begin with Himself. So Christ must begin with coming down to us. Because the picture is of children at home; so the picture is at once the Son of God descending to the state in which we were, to bring us there.

These next words suggest this coming nearer and nearer. You will observe there are four verbs used, “Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life.” If you analyze this, you will see the Lord Jesus Christ drawing nearer to us. The verbs are arranged in pairs; the last two are parallelled (so to speak) with the first two.

“Heard,” in the remotest distance; because you can hear a person frequently, before you can see him. A person may be so situated, that you can hear, but not see him. The second verb represents a nearer place within sight; anybody can see the progress of thought from the first to the second verb, “which we have seen,” and, as if that were not enough—with our very eyes. (I must pause a moment, the thought is so precious. We want to see Him, and therefore we cannot rest till we are with Him.) There is a great difference between “seen with our eyes,” and “looked upon.” The word translated “looked upon” means really, attentively contemplated. The more you look at Him, the more you see the glories which are in Him. A plough-boy might see Him; but only a Christian could attentively contemplate Christ, so as to see the unveiled glories of our God.

“Handled” is rather a peculiar term. It is doubtless in allusion to the 20th of John: “Handle Me, and see.” This epistle of John begins where the gospel leaves off. Did you ever observe this fact about the gospel of John. In the beginning of the gospel Christ is seen in the Father’s bosom, and at the end of the gospel a sinner is seen in the bosom of Christ, showing us where our Father would have us be.

“Word of life” is explained in the second verse. It explains what it was that came down. Christ is life. It was He who came down from the bosom of the Father. The Life died that dead sinners might live. Thus, whilst He is seen coming forth from God, He is still seen to be with the Father, and the Father with Him. It is implied that He was with the Father, even when down here. Christ came down, because, as we find in the 8th of Proverbs, “My delights were with the sons of men.” Wisdom, or Christ, was always rejoicing. Then we see He was, as it were, preparing to come forth from God, to lift us up to where He is. “My delights were with the sons of men.” Don’t be stumbled because it says “wisdom.” It is the same as “the Word “in the Gospel of John; the difference between the two is—Wisdom is the Word unuttered, and the Word is wisdom uttered. Before you speak you think, and thought precedes spoken language. When Christ came forth, it was as a revelation of God.

Fellowship, or communion. God wanted sinners to have fellowship or communion with Himself. Fellowship is an old Saxon word, and communion, an old Latin one, meaning the same thing

When some good people, therefore, say, “The fellowship and communion of the Holy Ghost,” &c, it is simply repeating the same idea twice. To bring this subject nearer of comprehension, I will use a word all are familiar with. Fellowship means partnership. Then we are told the sons of Zebedee were partners, co-owners of the ship. It is the same word, then. They were all partners together. The Son of God wanted partners, wanted companions. Oh what a precious view one seems to get of Christ. Christ did not want to enjoy His God and Father all to Himself. He wanted companions. It seems to leap forward to the end. Can you not see now, why the preposition “from” is used in the first verse. Why already it seems to link one eternity with another—to link one to the time when we shall share with the Lord Jesus Christ all His glory, as the heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

“Truly our fellowship,” our partnership, our companionship, “is with the Father,” etc. Here observe another difference between the gospel and the epistle. In the gospel, God is seen seeking our worship. In the epistle, He is seeking our companionship.

There is a further advance made there. Need I tell you the difference between worship and companionship. The difference is just this. Companionship is in advance of worship. We feel more at ease in the thought of companionship. In worship, the thought is rather of the condescension of God towards us sinners at all. But in fellowship, we are so taken up with the love with which God has loved us, as rather to lose sight of the greatness of the Being who exalted us.

Fourth verse: “These things,” etc.

I believe any spiritually taught soul must see that the position of the epistle of John is divinely arranged. I do not think that the Holy Ghost has left the order of the epistles in the hands of men. I believe John to be the most advanced of the apostles. Paul is beyond Peter; he alone speaks of the mystery of the church, and the Holy Ghost uniting all believers in one body. But John is beyond Paul. Paul’s writings are about grace; but John’s are about the root of grace. Paul would say, You are complete in Him; but John would put it in this way: You are in Him; the eye would be on Him alone, not on our completeness. Do not suspect joy—it is the atmosphere of heaven. It is almost the first fruit of the Spirit. It is your new power and strength in service. No, God tells you of His desire and will, that you should be His sons and companions on purpose, He says expressly, that your joy should be full. Let it be!

Well, now I go on to the next division of this section.

2. The sort of Being with whom we are to have companionship. “This then is the message,” etc.

If we say we have companionship, or partnership, with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. He did indeed come down in our place; but not to tarry there, and we cannot tarry in our old place. Believing, is taking His place. Now we are to abide in the light; not for a moment only, but always; this we see from this very suggestive verse. His object was to bring us into full fellowship with the Father, and partnership with Himself.

I sometimes picture the Lord Jesus Christ standing among His knot of disciples, saying, “Children, little children, My Father has sent Me to you, because He wants you with Him; and I have come after you. But I tell you, God abhors sin, and I abhor sin, and there cannot be any complicity with sin in my presence.”

The light came forth from God; it was broken up on the cross—its distinctive rays and colours you now behold there. But the object of God is the reproduction of His life in us. To make us partakers of His own nature; and then we shall be able to have communion with Him in light. You see how different all this is from the heathenism in the world. God is light. The gods of the heathen are all darkness, coming into and enjoying human-darkness.

God is light; if that word searches us, (as it does,) there is gospel even in that word light. A shining body is for others. God is light. It shows us what He wants us for—to bless us. A dark body would be wrapped up in itself.

God is light—is strikingly in place where the family is seen with the Father. “God is light”— “God is love.” Like as in the bright orb of day, there is light, and there is heat; so in the living God we find these two characteristics. He is light—He is love, and it is instructive that the Holy Ghost puts the fact that God is light first. There is a tendency with Christians in the present day, so to exalt the love of God, as to put out of sight the fact that God puts light in the forefront.

I believe God’s truth lies in extremes; but never in one extreme without the other. We are so prone to lean on one side, and if we do, we are going wrong. We are what Roman catholics would call heretics. Heresy is not what it is generally thought to be—heresy it truth—but a selection of truth; a person who leans to one side of a truth without the other, is a heretic. As if we were in a boat, and leant too much on one side of it. God is light, and God is love. God does not want you to steer between them. Go to the extreme; the only care required is to keep the two together—God is light, God is love. Note this order, then, of light put first. Grace only through righteousness. Whatever mercy is shown to us, is shown righteously. If we are to be brought quite up to God, it is because no other place suits us, now that we are made the righteousness of God in Him.

None but those who have the knowledge of God, can appreciate God. So it says, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have,” &c. If you are a child of God, you have the same nature as Christ. He died, that His life and nature should be communicable.

We are born of the Spirit. We are children of God. We walk in the light, as He is in the light. I can quite imagine Christians saying: “I, how can I walk in the light, as God is in the light; and if I do not take one part, i.e., walk in the light as He does, I cannot take the other, have fellowship with Him.”

But it is possible to misinterpret these words. It does not refer to how you walk; but it refers rather to where you walk. Whether it is there, not whether it is correct; in other words, is the eye pointed to Christ? It is not meant that your walk is as correct as was Christ’s; but that you walk not in Jewish shadows, or in the world. You are to stay in the place where His blood put you.

Pray notice, every time you and I come short, it is put here as coming down from our proper place—whether through sin or worldliness. Declension is nothing else but forgetfulness of position; tumbles from access into unbelief, or Judaism, or sin. We stumble out of access—the blood makes us at home there. Like if you put a cork in water, you may press it down for a moment; but take the finger away, it rises. It does not refer to your enjoyment, but to your position. It is not a position you have to work yourself into; but the position is there. We are simply put there, and we have simply to stay there, where Christ by His death hath entitled us to be, and where we may be always.

For instance, the Jew was naturally prone to walk in Judaism. He saw God a great way off from him. The tendency of his religion was to keep men away from God. (See Hebrews 12:12.)

The tendency of the new revelation is to cause us to come near, to draw near to God. In other words, the New Testament is the antipodes of the Old in this respect. There only the high priest could come near to God.

Now we are all priests to God, not by trying to feel very good. If you believe in God’s love, you have not to work yourself there. You are there in God’s own pure light, just there by the blood of Christ. Sometimes I do not enjoy nighness, as I do at other times. In fact, I suppose I never enjoy the nighness as I should But whether I do or not, I am brought nigh. I have been put upon the bosom of God. It does not refer to the manner in which we walk, but to the place; and the light in which we are placed and exhorted to walk makes us intensely sensitive of sin, and at the same time more vividly reveals the value of the blood. Thus are we sustained there.

Fellowship one with another. That is, not one believer with another merely.

John was seen to be lying on the bosom of Jesus at supper. “The embosomed one,” as he was called. John says: I tell you there is the saved sinner’s place, that you may see where you are. We are all equally near, equally dear to God.

Third division—How this companionship may be brought about, and sustained; and that I believe all of us taught of God know very well.

“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin,” and not only cleanseth us, but keeps us clean.

Christians are so prone to stop at that passage, that they forget there is something else beside the blood.

The divisions into chapters are human, they are uninspired; and here they are specially unhappy. There is a living Christ out of death. We do not glory in death only—we do not glory in a dead Saviour; in fact, there is no such person as a dead Christ. There is a Person who was dead; but He lives, and He is living in the power of that life in resurrection. I often quote that verse in the 5th of Romans, 10th verse. I love to quote it to God in prayer. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” There is the same allusion to the two, viz., the death, and the Living One out of death, in the 10th of Hebrews, verses 19—21. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all through the blood of Jesus,” (where Christians are again prone to stop.) And then follows, “Having a High Priest over the house of God.”

Here is precisely the same double thought in our chapter. The blood cleanseth; that is, it keeps us clean. It does not mean that it washes us clean again every time. If you will have it, that every time you sin you have again to be washed, you are bringing the blood of Christ down to the level of the Old Testament sacrifices. The idea is, the blood puts me there, and keeps me there, and nothing can tarnish that blood, and then there is that Living One to take possession for me, and actually to lift me up to where He is.

What am I to do when I do sin, according to the Word of God?

“What can a believer do when he is conscious of sin? Cry, “Lord forgive me?” I believe it is very easy to say, “Forgive us our trespasses,” and never forsake them. What we are to do is to confess it. If, when you sin, you say, “Lord, that was sin,” you will not be able to go into that sin so easily as before.

Whenever you are conscious of sin, go to the Lord, and say, “Lord, that was sin.” Then He says, “I am faithful and just to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”

“Little children.” Do not think that is a mere expression of form or of friendliness. There is a peculiar reason why we are called little children, which is just this: even though you are conscious of sin, you are still My little children. In our condition, after the allusion to the fact of failure, it comes in so sweetly—little children. God does not cease to love us, even when we grieve Him.

God’s children get many names in the Word of God—believers, Christians, brothers and sisters, and kings and priests; but there is one name the apostle John persists in giving us. I like to read that word. Once you hated Me. God replies, “Little children.” You only know a little of My love yet. He classes us all as little children. We may have gray hairs in His service, sixty years, still it is “little children.”

You will find nothing will help you so much against sin, as to know the value of that blood— what it cost Him.

You must not sin. You must be clean, very clean. If you are trusting in Me, you are clean, very clean—clean every whit, and nothing indisposes us so much to sin as the felt consciousness of being clean every whit. God says you are very clean; for the blood of Christ cleanses you, keeps you clean; but you must not sin.

I think we do not teach enough the positive value of being washed in the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the most costly thing God has. Supposing you were to clean knives with diamond dust, then you would have some little symbol of what it is to be washed in the blood of Christ. When you are washed, you are beautiful before God (comely), for you have God’s righteousness put upon you.

The word sin, in the 1st verse of second chapter, is rather, did sin. The present tense denotes something done many times; the past tense a thing done once.

If any man sinned, we have an Advocate with the Father.

When you sin, your position with God is unaltered. You have no advocate with God. It would be sad indeed if you had—it would imply matters were not settled. Matters between the believer and God are irrevocably settled. But we have “an Advocate with the Father.” A father has naughty children sometimes; but they are His children still. We have an Intercessor with God, to lift us up to where He is; but we have an Advocate with the Father.

He wants our companionship, and He has got it. If you believe in Christ, He has got you for ever, and He will never give you up.