Week of Meetings 05 1 John 2: — Svend Christensen

Brother Mr. Christianson was with us for this conference, you know I was at the conference at lookout mountain on the last uh July the believers bible conference. We had brother Sven Christianson and brother John Bramhall you know.

And they both got smiles right across here and we ended up for me. Well I left early. I think if I'd stayed the whole week I'd have had one of those annual mouths. You know churches from year to year you know because they their smile is really infectious.

It's lovely to have people with us who really enjoy the lord and the service to the lord. It's a joy to have you with us brother Sven. Trust the lord will bless your ministry this morning. I hope the two again I may be full.

Preach up in 10th heaven island. It's when he's sick. You to study the word of the fishing leaves. Then think of it I don't know. Study book. Then you start about three or four three in the morning and he had a old kerosene lantern.

By the light of that kerosene lantern in the fishing boat he met us and he heard something we're talking about. These are the things I believe god showed me those things on my knees of the fishing boat wife which is the top baptismal regeneration.

And that being said he used to sit down and play on the piano. And uh get a tremendous visit. You had uh him in a in an auditorium mix uh and all the people here and since wall filled with good singers.

He'd be all the bass you need such a big boyfriend. He used to say to his wife that she's still living. He just went to be a little last but his wife is still living. He said oh said he as he could say that he chanted behind her.

He said I said he like I'm gonna burst. You will know all this joy that I have after his lovely wife was saved the trouble but full of the joy. That man certainly knew something about that joy and that stamina.

The way I admit to me last summer we were up there. He was with the lord and we certainly met this brother and being among the saints up there. Now let's look again to the word of god. Reading chapter two we know him.

Keeping God's Word as Evidence of Knowing Him

Keep his commandment. Healer said I know him and keep it none. His commandment is a liar and the truth is not in him but who should keep it. His word in him. Verily is the love of god perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him.

He that said he abided in him or himself also. So the war brethren I write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which you've had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning again a new commandment.

I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darkness is passed through light now shining. He that said he's in the light and he that his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abided in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

He that hated his brothers in darkness and walking in darkness and all none whither he goeth because that darkness has blinded his eyes. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have all come the wicked one. I write unto you little children because you have known the father.

I've written unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men because you're strong the word of God abided in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.".

May the Lord bless to us from His death night the spiritual adjustment that we need and the Lord Jesus gives him. How wonderful that is to have the Lord Jesus that can give us this adjustment. We spoke about the need of cleansing, we say that we have no sins, and if we confess our sins, which is the fruit that that fruit produces, we have the need of cleansing, we have the method of cleansing, if we confess our sins, and then we have the extent or the range of cleansing.

He cleansed us from all righteousness. About the advocate that we have, thank God for the Lord Jesus, in contrast to many advocates today and an attorney, he is the righteous one, and he is, for right now, in God's right hand, as the righteous one.

Spiritual Progress Through Knowing and Abiding in Christ

Now we go on to a new section from verse three on in chapter two, and we see spiritual progress through personal experience with the Lord Jesus. We have the principle of spiritual progress in verse three to dict, in union with him, we're in him, and then abiding in him, knowing him, that's the introduction to him.

We're introduced to the Lord Jesus. So many times it's an absolute necessity to know him, to know him that you may know that you're eternal life. We know him. Do you know him this morning? You have to possess eternal life this morning.

He said, I've come that you might have life. He wants you to know him. He says, come unto me. Oh, you're either late or the heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He invites you. He says, and learn of me.

I want you to come to know me. You know one another. The more you know each other, the less you wish you knew each other. So with the Lord Jesus, the more he becomes. And this is what the progress you have here.

You start with knowing him, and those are the two knows there. Hereby we do know that we know him, a double know, K-N-O-W. And then it goes on to increase, the union with him, in him. We increase in him as we grow in grace, as we walk with him, as we talk with him, as we commune with him, and we realize our union with him.

I'm seated with him. I'm linked with him. I'm in him in the heavenlies. I'm heirs with him. I'm joint heirs with him. Our union with the Lord Jesus. And as we get to appreciate him and we appreciate our union with him, there's a continual progress.

You might say erratically experimental. Then we really come down to where it's the intimacy of this. It becomes an abiding. We are in him. But God wants to work this out in reality, in our lives, and constantly we're walking with him.

The fruit of John 15, if you abide in me and in my words, if I in you, and so on, you'll be a fruit. The abiding in him. Later on we get the word dwelling in him. Constantly we are in him, we abide in him, and enjoying his constant communion.

This is intimacy of the day. This is spiritual progress. You come to know him. You come into real realization of your union with him, and then that union with him is made practical. We have that intimacy.

John himself was a lovely example of that, wasn't it? The secret things of the Lord belong to them that fear him, says the psalmist. You remember when the disciple wanted to know who was going to betray him, who did they ask?

There's one laying in the bosom of the Lord Jesus, wasn't there? They said, you ask him. John, you're closest to him. He'll tell you, John. He might be like that. That's why John is so qualified to write a book like 1 John.

From the experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Spiritual progress. And then you have the fruits of the spiritual progress right here, in verses 3 -6. What's the evidence of spiritual progress? Verse 3, we keep his commandments.

Verse 5, keeping his. And then the first one, then, is obedience. When we think of keeping his commandments, I don't think the old testament ten commandments are referred to here, but when we think about keeping commandments, it's often a sense of duty.

And this is also Mark's progress. Keep his word, I think this has more of the thought of we do so because we love to do so. Keeping his commandments sort of has the thought more of you do things because you feel a duty to do so.

Well, that's not high enough a motive. It needs to be the love of Christ constraining us that we want to do this. I think it could be illustrated by the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus says this to remembrance of me.

And you remember the Lord in the breaking of the bread and the drinking the cup? You take the cup, the bread, you break it, you thank God, you do the same with the cup, and then go home. You have fulfilled what he asked you to do.

We decide, well, here we are a group of the Lord's people, we really love him. What's wrong with spending some more time in his presence and really worship him and tell him what we think of him? Just what he asked us to do.

By obedience, we keep his word, not just his commandments, but his word. It's like a mother. She has different duties for her children to do. And after they do these duties, they run out to play. But one of them realized the mother's not feeling very well.

And he says, Mother, could I do this or could I do that? Is there anything else I could do for you? That's going beyond the commandment. This is out of love, you see. Love goes beyond that. Spiritual.

Who's to keep his word in his presence to do what we love goes beyond that. We come to remember him and just go through the routine of breaking the bread and breaking the comfort. We swell all voices, our heart goes up in him to love.

We go beyond just what he asked us to do. In him, really, is the love of God perfected. Hereby know we that we are in him. And the second proof is walking. Then he abided in him ought. And the word ought here suggests the thought of a debt or moral responsibility.

Even as he walked. How did the Lord Jesus walk? He walked in the Spirit. It says walk in the Spirit. And so you're not fulfilled or lost in the flesh. I think when he spoke about to walk, even as he walked, he didn't, he intends to us that he met.

Walking Like Christ in the Spirit

Now you can walk in the water. But as the walk of progression here. Jesus as a boy, he was obedient to his parents. Then as he progressed into adulthood. The early steps there. I should say we read in Acts 10 38.

The Lord Jesus was anointed the Holy Ghost. He went about doing good. He progressed in his walk. As he thought about the purpose of going to the cross, the purpose of walk, of being a Savior, the Saviorhood of the Lord Jesus.

He set his face at the flint, I say a set. And he set before him to go to Jerusalem. Progression of walk. And this is what you get later on in the chapter too. You have the little children, the young lambs.

Then you have the more, the younger, the young men. The growing lambs. And then you have the full grown ones and the mature ones, the fathers. Progression. Even as he walked. He said, did you ever see a cat go across a yard on a wet day?

Walking circumspectly. In the spirit, walking with our eyes upon height. Walking very carefully through this filthy world. Where we are looked, where people see us. With a walk even. In verse 3, now there's more.

I read years ago in that little book, one of the little books, there's 70 lessons. A familiar lesson, one of these that George Goodman wrote. He wrote about the Elisha raising the widow's son. Not the widow's son, but the boy that took the sunstroke out in the field with his dad.

He stretched himself on this boy and the boy came back to life. He sneezed seven times. And George Goodman points out, suggestively, the children of God. And here is one of them right here. Seven here in John.

I just want to point them out to you now that we have come to them. And hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his word. This is the mark of a born-again believer if you really are one that desires to keep the word of God.

This should be the mark of a believer. It's a most unhealthy sign when a believer says he's saved and he has no real desire to do God's word or to keep God's word or to do God's will. Verse 7, we just turn back.

As he is in the light, not as any man being Christ is a new creation. That new light should mark us. We walk in the light. We are children of the light. That should be the evidence. You can teach a parent to say, I'm saved.

For the Holy Spirit, for the Lord. So you keep his word and so you walk in that newness of life. You walk in the light. In chapter, you have the third one. He says, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him.

Everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. He does not commit sin. He does not practice sin. His life will be a life consistent with his Christian testimony. Verse 14, from death unto life because we tolerate the brethren.

Not a feast. There's nothing like the fellowship of saints. Finally, the blood of the Lord. It's a bond. We love him because he first loved us. That divine love has come in there and loved again. And we love those that he loves and those that he's been begotten part of him.

And hereby we know that he abides in us by the Spirit. He that keepeth his commandments again dwelleth in him and he in him. Seven particular verses. Whosoever or whatsoever is born of God. Now going on with the progress here.

Genuine Spiritual Progress Versus Mere Profession

For verse 7 through to verse 12, I think is really where this section ends. And then it comes and picks up the three different ones viewed. The fathers, the young men, and the little children. But here you have a contrast between processional progress and that which is only professional.

The professors. And that's what you get. You get this terrific contrast in this next section. The word Beloved is found five times in this official. Say Beloved. 2 to the 2. 3 verse 21 that is again Beloved.

To 4 verse 1 Beloved. Verse 11 Beloved. Beloved. What a term of endearment. He said I don't write no new commandments unto you but an old which ye have heard from the beginning. Which ye have heard from the beginning.

It was all with that commandment that ye love one another. This is an old commandment. It's a new commandment. Love is ever new. When I saw McPherson going back to Genesis and others. Just back to the beginning of when the Lord Jesus came in.

But this is not. It's an old commandment and yet it's ever new. We do love one another. Another came he said later on who hated his father and murdered his father. He that loveth is born of God. This is a.

Here's the commandment. Here's the meaning. Initially know that ye are my disciples. How? Such a badge of Christianity. Love. Behold how they love one another. Worth and all when everything else fails.

Paul the first Corinthians chapter 30. Love. Never. Love with the Lord and love with one another. What an atmosphere. It's right for the blessing of God. John you know he speaks. He can also speak so plainly and so strongly.

Can he not? And it's right in that tremendous contrast here in how he talks. Talks such endearing terms to Christians. And yet he talks such straight language. He talks such straight language against false teachers.

And against false professors. Verse 9. I say before we go into that. That word. The last part of the chapter. Verse 8. The darkness is passing and the true light now shining. He says there's a new commandment.

Again a new commandment I write unto you. Which thing is true in him and in you? Because the darkness is passing and the true light now shining. Shining. Now shining is what came in through the Lord Jesus.

The darkness is passing. The light has shined into our hearts. What did our hearts claim? Now verse 9. He that said he's in the light. Hated his brother is in darkness until now. Let's jump down to verse 11.

For he that hated his brother is in darkness. And walked in darkness. And knoweth not whither he goeth. Because that the darkness hath blinded his eyes. He is in darkness. Progression here. Because he's not saved.

Because he's still a child of Adam's fallen ways. He is in darkness. He said he's until now. He is in darkness. I believe this is a false professor. A man that's never been saved. He's in darkness. Verse 11.

Walking in darkness. A person not saved. He's in darkness. He's in darkness intellectually. He's in darkness every way you take it. Some people think that education is light. Education is not light. Some of the people that are in the greater darkness are all intellectuals today.

Or scholars and all these. These men are in terrible, dense darkness. In the dark. They're walking in the dark. They're living in the dark. Darkness be playing. Think of the darkness we were in before the grace of God reached us.

Back in my own life I'm thinking of the awful darkness. I can't understand. It's so difficult for them to. How do you get saved? I just can't understand it. It's just so difficult to look. What is it?

Take the mind of their mind. There's darkness. All the darkness that people live in. And that they walk in. But that darkness progresses. When you profess to be in the light and you're not really in the light, that darkness increases.

There's no stumbling for men in light. But in contrast, a man that's in darkness, he's stumbling. He's groping in the dark. He's walking in darkness. He knows not where he's going. Because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

He's groping around in the dark. He can't find his way. Did you ever really get lost in the dark? You're groping around there. You're trying to feel your way around. Awful feeling. You really get into a dungeon way back someplace in a cave.

And all the lights go out and you lose all sense of direction. And you're groping around in the dark. It's a terrible feeling. And some people that die of telekinesis, when they're dying, groping. And then, where does he go?

He lives in darkness. He walks in darkness. He's groping in the darkness. And he doesn't know where he is. Do you know where you're going today? Do you know for sure that you're saved? Do you know for sure that you've been brought into the light?

Walking in the Light of Forgiveness and Fellowship

Seven spaces full of you. Darkness into light. Light into day. There's no location of stumbling in here. Little children. To these, he hopes that we've forgiven you for his name's sake. Your sins are forgiven you.

And you've been brought into his marvelous light. You've been brought out of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. Into his marvelous light. Let's walk in that light. Let's enjoy that light. And how a communion you have when you're in this light.

Maturity, Spiritual Fathers, and Continuing Growth

We introduce the next section. Come to the end of verse 28. Here you have spiritual progress, degrees of progress. Next time, Lord, we'll... He says you may have 10 ,000 instructors, but you haven't got many fathers.

How we need the fathers. With the maturing fathers. Men that will take responsibility. He's writing to the fathers. Those that take responsibility. And I just want to say this in closing. You know in April in 1961, as a girl, she was brought up in the assembly there.

But after she got married, she got away from the assembly. She married this fine young man, Ed Scott. News that Mr. Tate was going to build or speak at this new chapel on Highwater Road. They came just to want to hear Mr. Tate.

And then they signed the gift book. I followed them up. And followed them up. And followed them up. And followed them up. And followed them up. There's no exaggeration. It takes a tremendous amount of invitation sometimes to get one person.

Gradually, he went to another group and he was active there. But gradually, walk in the hall. Doing all the different things of God. He started coming to the chapel. Until now, we can see this man is just a progress.

All the time up. He's a man, I'd say, around 40 now. Not quite 40. But he is a considerably young man. He's going to be a real father. Spiritual father. The death of this brother now. The pastoral heart he has.

I hear this at the hospital. Brother Scott was in to see me. Brother Scott was in to see me every day I was in the hospital. Brother Scott was down here to see if everything was all right. Brother Scott arranged for the brethren to come and painted my house for me.

He's there, he's there. You don't hear things from him about it. But you hear from these others. Brother Scott, he was here to visit us. A shepherd. He sees things to do and he does them. He's continually going ahead.

A real father. A spiritual elder. A man of ability. And thank God, you see, these men coming from young men. Mature. Next time. Put me in reprograms. We never get too old. You never get to that place.

None of us should ever get to that place where we say, well, I'm alive. Call for me to learn. You can make me. Keep us humble. And they receive continually glory and grace. Glory for little children. Young men.

Into adulthood and maturity. As promised. Return to hymn number 287. 287. I am thine, O Lord. I suppose we can all say that. I am. I am thine, O Lord. And it told thy love to me. Rise in the arms of faith.

Drawn to thee. 287. One to the other. Bless us now as we go on our way. We pray in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Go.