The Family of God: Part 2

Part 2

We have been looking at the three classes which the Spirit of God brings before us in this chapter, passing over the first class, which does not concern our present object or purpose.

We will now look a little further at what is said here about the two classes, “babes” and “young men,” these terms being understood (as I explained before) spiritually, not naturally. Just as there are babes, young men, and fathers, in an earthly family, so there are in God’s family. I should like, before we proceed, very briefly to bring to your remembrance the speciality of each of these two classes, and what belongs to each.

A “babe,” which is the lowest class, the infantine state, “knows the Father.” “I write unto you, babes, because ye have known the Father” (v. 13). It is a most important thing to be assured in our souls, no matter how feeble we may be, or how short the time since we knew the forgiveness of our sins, through faith in His blood, that the blessed work which has secured the forgiveness of our sins for us, has likewise brought us into God’s family. I have a Father, and a blessed thing it is to know, to be assured of the fact, that I have One to whom I can tell my troubles, to whom I can go with my griefs, to whom I can pour out my sorrows, under whose wings I take refuge in difficulty and temptation. This is part of the blessedness of it — the sure sense of the Father’s love; and there is not merely comfort in it, but immense practical power as well. For I do not find, as a rule, that those who are ignorant of the Father’s love have the security, the solace, the stay, the stability, which keeps them from the world. What can keep a “babe” from the world is the knowledge of the Father’s love; and, beloved friends, let me assure you, that, if you know the Father, you do not turn to the world for help. To have some one to whom we are an object, is inseparable almost from our very nature. This is what we long for; and whoever makes an object of us, we make our object. The two things are closely connected together, and I doubt not, if you have not the sense in your heart that there is One up there in heaven to whom you are an object, you will be looking for some one on the earth to fill up the deficiency, the blank. Thus it is a “babe” is enticed into the world. Now the knowledge of the Father provides against that. Suppose I have difficulties, or wants, or cares, or troubles, I do not go to the world to help me out of them, or to get solace in my sorrows. I have a Father. And that is the simplest thing the soul knows. I have a Father who knows all about me.

Do you know in your hearts what that is? Can you who are “babes” in Christ here say, “I know the sweet, unspeakable blessedness of being able to say, My Father knows”? You will remember how the Lord Jesus speaks to His disciples; and I suppose the state in which they were at the time would correspond very much to this infantine state we are speaking of. He says to them, “Fear not, little flock.” Why? “It is your Father’s good pleasure” to be a Father to you, for that is the meaning of “to give you the kingdom.” That is what takes the fear out of one * s heart. I am not afraid of want or care. Why? Because I have my Father, and, more than that, my Father knows. I may not, and do not, know what is before me, but He does. People say, “If I do that, if I adopt such a narrow path as that, I do not know the difficulties I shall be in, and the troubles, and trials, and losses. How can I ever meet them all?” Just this — “your Father knoweth.” Now that is the infantine condition.

One thing more: a person may pass from that condition of infancy into the next stage, or even into the highest condition, that of a “father.” But the blessedness of the infantine state is not lost, though he may be, as I say, even a “father,” though he may know “him that is from the beginning.” And that is the very highest thing. The highest knowledge in the things of God is the knowledge of Christ. It is not the knowledge of things about Christ, but of Christ Himself. And the most excellent of all sciences is the knowledge of Christ. There is no science like it.

Well, the person who knows “Him who is from the beginning” is a “father,” but such a one has not lost the sense of the Father’s love. You do not lose anything that you ever learned; but it remains still true that the characteristic of a “babe” is confidence in the Father’s love, the characteristic of a “father” is knowledge of “Him who is from the beginning,” and the characteristic of a “young man” (what I shall now speak of) is divine strength, power, and vigor to overcome Satan. That is the characteristic of this second class in God’s family, and perhaps represented more than any other class in this room this evening. I suppose that though there are many who come under the designation of “babes,” yet there are many more who, in some little measure, answer to “young men.”

“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). Note those three things. Now, you perceive a “babe” is not exposed to meeting the devil in this form. Such a one is sheltered in a way just as in our earthly homes. The law of love in our Father’s home above is that which ought to exist in our homes on earth. The infantine state is protected by the love that occupies itself with the very infirmities and feebleness, and exposure and inability, so to speak, that are found in infancy. A little infant, in any of our families, is the object of the parents’ special consideration and care. But when you come to manhood, there you have to meet and encounter the positive obstacles of life; and in God * s family, the first thing that meets a person when he gets into this manhood state is the devil — Satan.

The question of meeting Satan is a solemn one for every one of us. It is most important to look at it well, because it brings up the question of temptation. Now the great point presented here is, that “the word of God abideth in you.” I do not know anything that is more important for young Christians than that — to have the word of God abiding in them; because, let me assure you, if that is not the case, you will not be able to use that word against the devil as occasion demands.

The real secret of being able to use the word of God against the devil is this, that the word of God is keeping your own soul. If your own soul is not commanded by the word of God, if it is not abiding in you, you cannot use it offensively against Satan. Now, how is it with you? Does that word govern your ways, your affections, your hearts? Do you ever prayerfully say, “I must search and see what the word of God, as the expression of His mind, says about this or that?” If you do not, how can you meet Satan? Satan will deceive you, because he is wily. He knows exactly how to dress up counterfeits, and I will tell you one of the greatest counterfeits of the devil now. You may often hear it said, “I do not feel that so-and-so is wrong; I do not see that there is any harm in this or that.” Now, where did they get that thought? What guided them as to that feeling? Where did it come from? You say, “Well, my conscience does not reprove me. Neither did Saul’s conscience, when he was persecuting the church on earth, and hating Jesus in heaven. Oh, believe it, there is nothing at this present time that is a greater counterfeit, and a more dangerous power of Satan than this, that he makes what people call their conscience the guide of their actions. If you make conscience the umpire to which everything is subjected as to your ways, you will fall into the snare of the devil. There is nothing that can pilot us according to the mind of God, except this blessed book, which is the revelation of His mind: conscience is a witness, that which keeps the record, so to speak, as to how far this word acts on me. It is a witness; a true witness, if it is divinely informed, a false witness if it is not. It is thus all the more dangerous. Why is that? Because, to speak of a person’s conscience not condemning this or that, sounds exceedingly fair and good, and it is because of this it is to be so carefully guarded and watched. There is nothing so dangerous now as the thing that wears the appearance of truth, but is not the truth; because Satan knows quite well that it is by that saints are most easily caught — the perversion of that which is right in its place. And I say it is a thorough perversion of conscience, and of the place God intended it to occupy, to make it the standard of my actions.

It is this word that is to be the guide in everything; and I commend it to you tonight, and I can speak of it, thank God, as knowing a little of the blessedness of it for myself. And that, you know, is the only ground upon which we ought to speak, “I believe, and therefore have I spoken.” David said of Saul’s armor, that he had not “proved” it, and so he had it taken off him. It is the thing you have proved that you can speak of for a certainty; and how blessed it is that when you come to divine things, it is,” we know,” “we believe, and we know.” The one is the objective power of faith, and the other the conscious knowledge in the soul by the Spirit.

But, as I was saying, there is nothing like making that word the test of everything, subjecting all to that word. It does not matter what it is: my position in this world, my occupation, in fact everything. And the question is not what I may do, or may not do, but, “What saith the scripture?” Because the scripture is the embodiment in writing of the mind of God. If the word of God abide in you, you are strong; there is the energy of faith, and you have overcome the wicked one.

Now, beloved friends, I trust you see the blessedness of the word abiding in us, it makes us subject to God; and when the devil meets a person that is subject, he meets a person that he has no power over. The secret of getting power over Satan, of overcoming Satan, is, that we are, in all our affections and ways, governed by the word, subject to it. You have a perfect instance of it in the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, there was nothing in Him that answered to the temptations of Satan outwardly, as there is in us, because we have a fallen nature, but see how He acted with Satan. Satan came and said, “If you are the Son of God, and have power as the Son of God, take yourself, by the exercise of that power, out of the place of dependence.” You see Satan allowed a certain amount of truth for his purpose. But the Lord Jesus Christ kept the word, and He used it: “It is written”; and we can never use it, unless we keep it. I think we often forget these two things in the account of the temptation. It was not only that our Lord used the word against the devil, but he kept it.

There is immense power, beloved friends, in using the word against Satan, when that word is kept in our own souls, abiding there, and deciding for us as to everything that God would wish us to be and to do.

What is Satan’s great power now? Have you ever thought what the peculiar characteristic of Satanic power is now? Is it not this — in concealing himself, and acting in such a way that you do not know he is present? If he can persuade you, by keeping behind, so that you do not see that it is Satan, he will get the mastery over you. The power of a saint — of a “young man” — over Satan now, is being able to say, through this word abiding in him, “That is the devil.” The moment you are able to say, “That is Satan,” you have the victory, you have mastered him; but until you can say that, you are in danger. That is the character of the warfare at this moment.

I note it for you, because it is important. Supposing a person is tempted; well, if his conscience says, “I do not disapprove of that, I do not think there is any great harm in keeping that company, or going to that place, I do not see what harm that can do to me”; that is the devil, beloved friends, concealing himself, and working through that which makes something of you, because it exalts your conscience. That is a terrible wile, it exalts something in you, putting your conscience in the place that the word of God ought to have over your soul; and the consequence is, you fall under the snare. I know many who have fallen in that way. They have made their good, their prosperity, the touchstone of their conduct, and their conscience the guide of their ways, consequently they have fallen.

Now, what scripture proposes, in contradistinction to this, is, the pleasure of Christ , the touchstone of what we ought to call for, and the word of God the chart to guide us along. Those are the two things. If I say, “I think this will do me no harm,” I make myself the measure of my conduct, and my conscience the guide of what I ought to do. But it is a totally different thing if I kept this before me — “Would this please God? Would this minister to the pleasure of Christ?

Would this suit Christ? Would it give him delight? What does the word of God say?” This brings in true motives and a divine object, and, I say it distinctly tonight, our only security at this time is in having the incarnate Word as our object, and the written word as our chart. The man who has the incarnate Word as the one object of his affections, and the written word as the chart of his conduct, is able to unmask the wiles of Satan.

I shall not dwell on that longer, but I turn now to the point that I did not touch upon much last week, which is very important. As I observed then, there is another danger even to those of whom the apostle writes, that they have “overcome the wicked one.” From whence is that danger? From the world. Now, what is the world? That question is constantly asked. Well, I believe it is a far more insidious, a larger, and more diversified thing than many of us have the least conception of. I will give you a general definition, as far as I understand scripture, of what the world is, and you must apply it for yourselves. I cannot give you details. “Happy is the man that feareth always”; the person who is most afraid is the person who is most safe.

The world, then, or age, as the scriptures speak of it, is that ordered system of things around us, not the literal world, that, of course, God made. There is a great difference between the world that God made and what He calls “the age of this world.” (See Eph. 2:2). God did not make the world in this sense. He made the literal world; there is not a tree, or a leaf, or a creature, on the literal world that He did not make. But He did not make the age, that is, this ordered system that is called “the world.” That is what the apostle is speaking of here. Who is the author of it? The devil is the author of this age, this “evil age.” What is it made out of? This age is made out of man’s rejection of God * s Christ! Just as Cain went out from the presence of God, and manufactured his world, after he had killed Abel. There was no world of Cain until after Abel was killed; and the man that slew his brother went out from the presence of God, and became the father of every one who was prominent in the things that characterized Cain’s world, and which made it comfortable, and all without God. It is just the same now. Do you know this, that Satan is “the prince of this world”? He was displayed in that character when he had driven on man to crucify Christ. Then the world was manifested as it is, and Satan was displayed as its prince. Where is Christ? Did you ever think of that? I ask you, because it is a solemn question for every one of us. How is it that He has gone out of this world? I read in the scriptures the account of His death and resurrection, and I know He died as the Lamb of God, but let us never forget that He also died as a martyr at the hands of man. He was murdered. Who murdered Him? The world, the age, and that which goes to make up this world morally is not one whit better now than the world of that day, which crucified the Lord of glory. They would crucify Him just as much now. There is just as much hatred, enmity, bitterness, dislike of Christ and God today, expressed in a different way, it may be, but the elements, the principles, the seeds of it are just the same. Now this is the world, and I ask you, is it not a solemn thing to think that we are left in this very scene, the world that hated Christ, scorned and rejected Him? What is the object of everything in it? The three things you find here — “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” There is nothing in this world that has any other motive than one of those three things. Point out to me, if you can, one thing in this world that has any other motive. All that which goes to make something out of man — something to elevate man — something to please his senses, his flesh, his pride, where does it come from? “It is not of the Father, but of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof.” That is the divine answer.

Well, now, the reason why the apostle puts this in here is this — because those who are “young men” (in God’s family, I mean) are especially prone, and especially tempted in that direction, and that notwithstanding the energy, vigor, and power which they possess. And you know very well there are attractions in the world still — I mean for young Christians. There is something about all these things which addresses, and appeals to, and suits our nature. I remember, not long ago, a person said to me, “I can go here or there, and I can listen to that, or look at that, and I can go into that scene — but none of it addresses itself to me.” Now I say that person has yet to learn what flesh is, and I say further, that person is in great danger; because there is nothing in this world that does not find an answer, and an echo, in our nature. There is a response in every one of us to those three things I mentioned just now, and in none more so than those whose energies are least crippled, least subdued, who have not been tried as others, have not gone through testings and siftings, have not learned what death is. What our Lord said to Peter illustrates it: “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.” A person who as yet is in unsubdued and unbroken energy — all the freshness of youth, so to speak, without anything of ballast or balance of any kind — is especially prone to the attacks of Satan through the medium of the world, and thus it is we get such an admonition addressed to the “young men”

in this chapter. If you have escaped the pollutions of Satan, then take care lest you fall under the attractions of this world.

But many will say, “I do not love the world.” Do you love anything in it? — that is the question. Let me say a word about that. I purposely omit going very much into details about it, and I will tell you why. Because what I find, is, that souls are a great deal more alive to how a thing bears upon themselves than they are prepared to admit. They say, “Give me details about this,” but all the time they know quite well how a thing bears, and their very uneasiness, the way they try to palliate, shows perfectly well that they see the bearing of the thing, but they want to turn aside the sharp edge of it. All I say is, and this especially to my younger brethren and sisters tonight, cultivate a tender conscience, not as a standard or guide, but as a witness. There is nothing more blessed than to have conscience as a witness, tender and susceptible. What I long for myself, and for you, is, to have a conscience like a sensitive plant — you know what that is — the least touch makes itself felt. How is that to be secured? Just in this way, living by every word of God, that word loved, looked to, trusted in, held fast. That will give you a tender conscience.

The more you have Christ before you, and the more the word of God is that to which you appeal, the more your conscience gets tender. What tends to make a man’s conscience not tender, is, making it his guide. That inevitably, sooner or later, stupefies conscience. It is marvelous what your conscience of itself, apart from the world, will let you do; but if you make Christ the touchstone, and the word of God the guide, you will have a tender conscience, and you will find that the least deviation from His pleasure and His word, will have the same effect upon you as a person’s hand would have upon the leaf of a sensitive plant — it will shrink.

There is another thing in connection with this — we should walk in fear . I do not mean slavish fear, but the holy, blessed, proper, right fear which comes from the affection of the heart, “I fear to grieve the One that loves me with such a love.” That is proper fear. I am afraid. Why? Because I am in the midst of a world that is full of pitfalls and snares. If you see a man walking through a place full of traps, and snares, and gins, and pitfalls, you find him walking cautiously, circumspectly: he would be alive to the dangers. We ought to walk like that, without, however, getting into any kind of bondage about it. I fear the mode in which many have been converted in these days does not secure this holy fear. I tell you why. Because deliverance from this present evil age is not preached, as well as forgiveness of sins; and the consequence is, people are not taken out of it. The character of the testimony that has reached them has not taken them out of the world. They have not the sense of the Father’s love, and the consequence is that too many have their consciences made easy to go on with the world. I speak of it, because I have seen it. I am giving facts. I know young Christians — I have such before my mind now — who, whilst their consciences were not relieved, were timid, careful, watchful, vigilant, afraid lest they should be tripped up. There was in them a zeal, an earnestness, a desire to answer to the mind of God, although, as yet, in bondage. And what then? Why, a kind of testimony reached them which took their consciences out of the power of bondage, but did not bring them consciously into a new position, with a new object before them; and the consequence was, that the burden being off their consciences, without there being an object for their affections, it was an easy and natural thing to go on with the world which they were afraid of before. I know it well I have an instance before me now, and therefore I say to you tonight, that the mere fact of the forgiveness of sins, though relief , is not in itself power .

I will give an illustration of it. Suppose a man to be involved, having a large and increasing debt, or liability, hanging over him, which he cannot discharge. Some one comes in, in large-hearted benevolence, and pays the debt. That debtor is relieved from the pressure of his debt, but he has nothing to live upon. The mere fact of his having his debt paid will not keep him.

Thus you see, beloved friends, the importance of the very youngest of us knowing not only that our consciences are relieved, but that we are positively brought into a place where there are divine resources, and that we have a new object before us in that blessed Christ who has done all this for us. We have now One to please. Have you the sense of that in your heart, that you have One to please up there in heaven? Do you say, “I have relief in my conscience, I have my sins forgiven me”? Then, I ask, what are you doing? Do you say, “God has given me everything here to enjoy, and I am enjoying myself now. I have this world, and I am to enjoy the world. I am, of course, to keep myself from the grossly evil things in it. I would not go to the theater, or to the opera, or to a hall, or a concert, or anything of that kind”? But do you think, that, because you have obsequiously abstained from all that, and have kept away from those gross things, you are out of the world? Oh, be not deceived. You may have abstained from those things because they offended your conscience, but you are not necessarily apart from the world, because all that is in the world, that comes under either of these three heads, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

I trust you see what an important thing it is to have this brought before you, that it is Christ, and not yourselves, that you have to study. If you act upon that before God, honestly and in faith, you will find it a wonderful help for your soul in every detail. Suppose you were tempted to do something, or there were some company you would like to keep, or some association you would like to get into, and you were to sit down, and say, “Would this please Christ? would this suit Christ?” Oh, how different the result would be! Surely it is a knife that cuts all round, it cuts in a circle. “Would this please or suit Christ? He has left me here on this earth to be His representative. Would this be a representation of Him? Would this be giving a true character of Christ, a true expression of Him?” Now, beloved friends, do you know anything of such exercise of soul? Does your heart ever go through that testing process before God? That alone can keep a person from the world. That alone can give you a holy horror of this age, with all its defilements and snares. Perhaps you say, “I like to look into the shop windows as I pass along.” Yes, one * s nature likes it, but do you ever see anything there that makes Christ in heaven more precious to your heart? On the contrary, there is a great deal that takes your thoughts and affections away from Him. There is no use in denying it, beloved friends, there is nothing in the world itself that helps a person spiritually; but, on the contrary, everything tends to hinder.

The things that you see as you pass along affect you in this way, if you yield to them, that you lose your taste for what is spiritual. Your taste becomes soiled. If a person lies amongst the pots, does he not get blackened? If you touch pitch, will you not be defiled? Or can you live in a place, the atmosphere of which is entirely saturated with impurity, and not suffer from it? Oh, yes, a great deal more than you think. We are not aware of the soiling influences which this world has upon us. All the things that are in it tend to drag and keep us down.

They are not of the Father. The Father is against the world, the Son is against the devil, and the Holy Ghost is against the flesh.

“The world passeth away.” Do you know what will become of this world? It is very solemn. This “age” will receive the devil’s man. That very world that people like so much, that very world will receive Antichrist — will welcome Antichrist. Is that the world you love? Is that the world you want to have your pleasure in, or your recreation, or your gain in — the world that hated Christ, and that will receive Antichrist?

Now just look at 1 John 2:18, which goes further into this point. I do not offer any apology at all for specially dwelling upon this. The apostle addresses himself again to the “babes,” to the infantine state, to the lowest class. “Babes, it is the last hour.” Now, beloved friends, how important it is, even for the youngest, to know the time we are in! Many might say,” Why do you speak to babes about that? Why do you talk to them about the character of the days?” I answer, Because God does so. He does not address Himself to “fathers”; that struck me very much when I looked at it first, or to “young men,” but to “babes”; because He would have all His children, all His family, every member of it, the infant as well as the old and the middle-aged, to know that it is “the last hour.” To my mind that is very solemn. Oh, eternity will never give us back this moment. You will never get in eternity the opportunity you have now. To me, when I reflect, it is a most wonderful thing, the most wonderful favor and grace conceivable, to be allowed to live for Christ in a day like this. You will never have it in eternity. You will never get the opportunity then of showing that your heart appreciates the love of Christ. You will never get the opportunity then of standing out in the presence of the haters of Christ, and saying, “He is my Savior and my Lord.” Now this makes this hour very solemn. It is the only opportunity that God will give us of casting in our lot with His own Son, who is hated and rejected by this world. Are you casting in your lot with Him, rejected as He is? Is Christ worthy of it at your hands? Is He worthy of your life, of every power of your heart? Is He worthy of your every affection? Suppose you had a thousand worlds, and could lay them all down at His feet, would even that be an adequate expression of what He is worthy of from you? Supposing you had a thousand lives, and could spend them all for Christ, would that be an adequate expression of what He is worthy of? Oh, beloved friends, how I wish I could awaken your hearts to a sense of what it is to be allowed to live in such a day as this! How blessed it would be, if only one soul, as a result of these two evenings we have had together, could say, “Well, I have a greater sense of the wonderful nature of the place I am in, and what it is to live for Christ before men, and to be for Christ, and to study His pleasure.”

Yes, it is “the last hour,” and “it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed; the night is far spent.” We are, as it were, in the passing of the last grains of sand out of the great hour-glass of time. We are in the last hour, and it is not the beginning of the last hour, no, nor the middle of it, but the closing seconds of it. Let me urge upon you, on the very youngest here tonight, the feeblest and most youthful, here we are, in the very close of the last days, on the very eve of the archangel’s voice, and the trump of God!

One word about this, and then we separate for the present. Let me ask you, what is the state of your heart as regards the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? I ask, if you were informed by an angel from God, that before midnight the Lord Jesus would come, that He would come before midnight tonight, if such a positive, distinct intimation