Encouragement for God's Little Children - Tim Conway

"I am writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven

for His name's sake.

I am writing to you, fathers,

because you know Him who
is from the beginning.

I am writing to you, young men,

because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children,

because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers,

because you know Him who
is from the beginning."

Him who is from the beginning.

The "He" and the "Him"

throughout this section is Christ.

The Father is called out distinctly

by "Father" or by the
term "God," the title.

The name.

Him who is from the beginning

throughout 1 John is

the Lord Jesus Christ.

"I write to you, fathers,
because you know

Him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men,

because you are strong

and the Word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one."

Now, I'm just going to tell you right off,

this might be a little
bit strong to say this,

but John perplexes me.

And I don't know how else to say it.

His mind does not work

the same way mine does.

He has an inspired mind,

so if there's any fault here,

it's undoubtedly with me.

To me, Paul is systematic.

I like Paul's way of thinking.

I love Paul's letters.

I can follow his logic.

He somewhat goes on a straight line.

John is just so different.

I'm not saying he's not logical,

but he's just different.

John Piper I think hits it on the head.

He likens John's mind to a bee

that's coming up to a flower.

Here you've got the flower

and the bee just kind of
buzzing around like this.

(buzzing)

That's kind of how his mind works.

He likes to circle.

In other words, he likes to come around

to the same things over and over again,

but he doesn't take exactly the same

trajectory each time.

He's kind of buzzing around the flower.

When you get the feeling Paul -

he's out here and he
just goes right in there.

And I think that's a good way.

And that's what we see right here.

I mean, we're going to see this

all the way through 1 John.

John is going to repeatedly

come back around to the same ideas

over and over.

He uses a little bit
different terminology,

it's true but you're going to see,

it's clearly the same thing

all over again, and all
the way through the book,

he just continuously does this

same kind of thing.

Yes, as he buzzes around that flower

he tends to introduce
some new information.

He takes us deeper.

He takes us further.

But he just keeps buzzing
around in these circles.

He's doing it right here.

I mean think about it.

"I'm writing to you, little children..."

"I'm writing to you, fathers..."

"I'm writing to you, young men..."

You get the feeling if that was Paul -

I get this feeling:

if it was Paul, he would have given me

an order that was like,

little children,

young men,

fathers.

I mean, there's descending

or ascending order.

There's order there.

And he would have said it once.

But that's not good for John.

He has to come back around and say it

all over again.

"I write to you, children..."

"I write to you, fathers..."

"I write to you, young men..."

And you know if you look at it,

he says some of the things

exactly the same,

but he changes some things.

And he adds different details.

And that's just John's style.

You can see this.

And I'm not saying that
there's anything wrong.

John is not illogical.

And repitition can be good, right?

Wise teachers repeat themselves.

It's like, you know, John is buzzing

around this thing,

and if he goes around it
once and you didn't get it,

well, he's going to buzz around it again

and he's going to say it
a little bit differently.

So probably, if you
don't get it the first time

you can get it the second
or the third or the fourth time.

And each time, he's going to develop it

a little bit more for us.

And like I say, we're going to see

in the months ahead throughout 1 John,

you're going to feel like,

weren't we already here?

Yep, just look back a chapter.

John already had us right here.

So, anyway, we see that circling style

in these three verses before us.

Now, what I want to do here

is give you an observation

and ask a question or two,

and then seek to answer those questions

before we move on.

Here's an observation.

Throughout 1 John -

I just want you to think about this.

I can tell you,

since I've been reading my Bible

as a brand new convert 25 years ago,

every time I'd read this,

I guess I would wonder,

why is it even here?

Why does John have to say it twice?

Why aren't these folks
apparently in order?

Doesn't he deal with all the Christians

that he's writing to as though

they're little children?

I see that title repeatedly

throughout this letter

when he's addressing everybody.

Why in this one place does he call out

fathers and young men as well?

I just want you to see this.

Throughout 1 John,

notice 1 John 2:1.

"My little children..."

Who's he writing to?

He's writing to everybody.

Everybody that he's
writing to who's saved.

Let's just say that.

He is making a distinction
throughout this letter.

He definitely has Christians in mind.

But he calls all the Christians

in 1 John 2:1 "my little children."

"I'm writing these things so that

you may not sin."

Well, he certainly isn't excluding

the older, more mature whatever

and saying I don't care about you guys.

Obviously, he's talking to everybody here.

"If anyone does sin..."

If anyone. He's talking
to all of them there.

1 John 2:18

"Children, it is the last hour

and as you've heard that
antichrist is coming."

Again, he uses two different Greek terms

throughout 1 John for "little children,"

but nevertheless, he uses both of them,

by the way.

The first time in v. 12 he uses one,

and then when he refers to the children

again at the end of
v. 13, he uses the other.

But he's using both of these titles

throughout the book

to speak to everybody.

1 John 2:28

"Now little children, abide in Him."

That's everybody.

Everybody needs to abide in Him.

1 John 3:7, "Little children,

let no one deceive you.

Whoever practices righteousness
is righteous as He is righteous."

That's everybody.

1 John 3:18 "Little children,

let us not love in word or talk,

but in deed and truth."

1 John 4:4 "Little children,

you are from God."

1 John 5:21 "Little children,

keep yourselves from idols."

That's the observation.

The observation is that

all the way through 1 John,

he deals with all of the Christians

as being little children.

So, here in 1 John 2:12-13 -

(incomplete thought)

actually all three of these verses -

John does something that he does

nowhere else in his writings.

Not just anywhere else in this epistle,

nowhere else in any of his writings

does he ever call out

distinct categories of Christians.

That's my observation.

And the question is: why?

And before we try to answer,

perhaps a second question
should be asked as well.

Why does he throw these categories at us

in such a seemingly random order?

Little children, then fathers,

then young men.

And you know, who knows, right?

(incomplete thought)

Here's a possible solution.

Why does John address three groups here

and in the order that he does?

I mean here's a possible scenario.

The use of "little children,"

"fathers," "young men,"

and the order that they're in

may have originated something like this.

It's very possible that
what John's doing here

in v. 12 "I'm writing to
you, little children..."

is he does what he does everywhere else

in the book.

He is talking to everybody.

But then, what he does,

just this one time

and perhaps for no other reason

than respect,

just to show honor,

he feels led to address

these two specific groups directly

just this one time.

And the reason I say that

is with some biblical validity.

Think with me here.

You don't need to turn to it,

but let me just tell you

how Philippians starts.

Philippians - Paul is addressing

the Philippian believers.

He says, "Paul and Timothy,

servants of Christ Jesus..."

Listen to how he addresses them:

"to all the saints who are at Philippi

with the overseers and deacons."

Now you think about the
three categories there.

The first one is all-encompassing.

And then the second and third,

he calls out distinct people

in the church.

And he calls out those that are to have

the highest honor first

and then those that are honorable,

but not quite with that
venerability second.

That seems to be perhaps why we get this.

"Little children" is very endearing.

He calls them all by that.

But John knows he's got these

venerable, grey-haired

warriors of the cross out there

and these vibrant, spiritually strong

young men as well.

And I don't think it necessarily needs

to be gender specific.

He might be encompassing the grey-haired

and those that are young,

but he calls them out.

Like I say, maybe for no other reason

than just to identify them

and show his regard for them

and to show respect.

Anyway, Philippians 1 gives me

kind of a pattern for this same thing.

And so I think it is a
worthy cross reference.

It is worthy to look at.

Another observation that
I would make here:

As you read through this,

you never want to say,

ok, well, I'm not in two
of these categories.

I'm only in the third,

and so only what's in that third category

applies to me.

Listen, I can tell you this.

Every single thing said

in each of these categories

is said of everybody

somewhere else in 1 John.

In other words,

my observation is this.

When John addresses "little children,"

when he addresses "fathers,"
when he addresses "young men,"

he does not mean that what he says

about the fathers is only applicable

to them and not to you

if you're not one of the fathers.

You follow what I'm saying?

What's true about one here

is true about all.

1 John will show us clearly

that knowing the father,

knowing Christ, overcoming the evil one,

having the Word of God abiding in you,

these are all realities that are true

of all Christians.

John applies these truths

to specific groups that are real

and true and valid for the whole church.

So you don't want to skip over
any of these verses as though

they don't apply to you.

What's true in each category is true

of every Christian here.

That's just an observation.

So, now, I think we need
to really ask ourselves,

why are these verses here?

Now, look, if you're not really acquainted

with 1 John;

if you just read this letter through

over and over and over,

I think it will begin to jump out at you

that these seem to interrupt the flow.

They almost seem misplaced.

I mean, I'm thinking about

if I'm going to write to somebody

and tell them why I'm writing -

"I'm writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven
for His name's sake."

If I'm going to tell somebody
why I'm writing to them,

I'm typically going to tell them that

at the beginning of the letter.

Why am I just going to jump in?

And the thing about this,

get a feel for the flow here.

(incomplete thought)

Let's read down through these verses

and omit v. 12, 13, and 14.

We have these tests of true Christianity

coming at us one after another

after another.

I mean, if you just think about 2:3.

"By this we know that
we've come to know Him

if we keep His commandments."

Bang! You're hit with this.

Do you keep His commandments?

If you keep His commandments,

you can know that you know Him.

This is a test of true Christianity.

"Whoever says 'I know Him,' (v. 4)

but does not keep His commandments

is a liar and the truth is not in him."

Wow! John's being dogmatic about

who is in and who is out.

"Whoever keeps His Word (v. 5),

in Him truly the love
of God is perfected."

I mean, he's saying,

you need to be those that

keep His commandments.

You need to be those that keep His Word.

"By this we know that we are in Him."

How? "Whoever says he abides in Him

ought to walk in the same way in which

He walked," and if you
don't, you're not true.

You're not real.

He goes on to talk about

this one commandment.

Love. "I'm writing you no new commandment,

but an old commandment,
that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment
is what you have heard.

At the same time, it
is a new commandment

that I am writing to you,

which is true in Him and in you

because the darkness is passing away;

the true light is already shining."

He says this about that commandment:

"Whoever says he's in the light

and hates his brother is in the dark."

You are not true.

You are not real.

"Whoever loves his brother
abides in the light,

and in him there is no
cause for stumbling."

"Whoever hates his brother
is in the darkness

and walks in the darkness and
does not know where he's going

because the darkness has
blinded his eyes."

Now you skip over to v. 15.

"Do not love the world or
the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world,

the love of the Father is not in him."

Again. He goes right back to the tests.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

You love the world, you don't know God.

The love of the Father is not in you.

That means you're lost.

"All that is in the world,
the desires of the flesh,

the desire of the eyes..."
He goes on in v. 18.

"Children, it is the last hour.
As you have heard that antichrist..."

In v. 19, "they went out from us
because they were not of us."

I mean, what's a good indication
that somebody's not real?

They go out from us.
If they go out from us,

they're not of us.

I mean, he's got these tests -
one after another.

Why in the world did he just stop in v. 12

and say, "I'm writing
to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven."

It's like John, this interrupts the flow

of these tests.

It's like we're getting this barrage,

and then here's all these tests

coming at us;

shaking us with the reality

of true Christianity

and John just sort of unexpectedly

injects v. 12-14.

So what are we supposed to make of this?

Well, I think it's clear.

I think if you have any pastoral bone

in your body,

it's clear why he does.

Just compare 1 John 2:4 and 1 John 2:12.

Compare them.

1 John 2:4

"Whoever says, 'I know Him,' but does not

keep His commandments is a liar

and the truth is not in Him."

Now, let's do that all over again

with me adding this;

with you thinking about this.

How does this make you feel?

"Whoever says I know Him but does not

keep His commandments is a liar

and the truth is not in Him."

How does that make you feel?

1 John 2:12

"I'm writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven

for His name's sake."

How does that make you feel?

Now, I recognize I changed my tone.

(incomplete thought)

But that's kind of the feel.

Why does he stick these in here?

I have a feeling he's sticks them in here

just because of the rigors of these tests.

These tests can shake you.

They sift us.

John knows this letter is tough.

And it is, is it not?

I mean, he knows.

He's calling people out.

He's calling people liars.

This is tough stuff.

(incomplete thought)

What happens when you start

telling people, "by this we know

that we've come to know Him,

if we keep His commandments."

I mean, where are your minds going?

Man, what does my life look like?

I mean, am I keeping His commandments?

We just came off
the one about loving.

I mean, you start thinking,

am I really loving the
brothers and the sisters?

Am I really loving them?

I mean, any of us that have consciences -

our imperfections, our failures,

they begin to jump up and down

in front of our face

and we're saying, ok, we know

this isn't perfection;

we know that this is a pattern of life,

and we're asking ourselves, I hope,

trying to ask ourselves honestly,

is there an evidence that God has

done something in my life

and produced this kind of person

out of me?

I mean, he knows that he is

describing true Christianity

in terms that are strong.

Isn't John dogmatic?

If you say you know Him,

but this isn't true,

you're a liar!

He doesn't have much grey area.

It's just boom!

This or this!

This is true or this is true!

That's it. Two categories.

There's no in-between.

And you can come out of these things

and feel beat up.

And you can imagine,

John - what's the reputation
we have of John?

He's the one that Christ loved.

He was also called
"Boanerges" with his brother.

The sons of thunder.

This feels kind of thunderous here.

But you can imagine John feeling like,

perhaps - think about it -

preachers know this.

You say hard things.

You get a feeling when, you know,

you're hitting people with hard things.

You get that feeling.

And undoubtedly, he's feeling,

wow, I've been really forceful;

I've been intense with people.

(incomplete thought)

What happens?

What happens when you start

laying tests out like this?

You know another thing preachers know

a lot of times is they take out

the spiritual shotgun

and this thing is full of bird shot,

and they aim at a certain person

or they've got certain people in mind

that this is really applicable to

and kaboom!

They blow a person off the front row

that they did not mean to hit.

But that's one of the problems

when you speak like this,

you have people that sit there

who are genuine Christians

with very tender consciences.

And you start talking like this,

and the hardened professing sinner

back there in that back row

who this is every bit meant for -

right over the top of their heads.

You shoot them and they've got

the bulletproof vest on.

It just bounced right off of them.

And you blew away sister so-and-so

in the third row.

And she's feeling crushed,

like going out of there thinking,

I can never be a Christian.

Her failures are there in her face

and she's going out.

She's wounded.

And that's the kind of thing that

he recognizes happens.

This very kind of thing.

As a child of God,

you can begin to feel like

you're made aware of your weaknesses.

You're made aware of your own failures

and your own struggles,

and John knows.

You say hard things like this;

strong statements.

You end up wounding people

and so what he does is

he actually interrupts these hard things

and he sticks something very comforting

and very encouraging right here

in verses 12, 13, and 14.

He's backing off.

He's certainly not backing down

from anything that he said.

But he's backing down from his

rigorous dogmatism

as to who's a liar and who's true.

He seems to turn aside for a moment

of comforting his hearers before he

goes back and he resumes again

the strong and rigid doctrine

that goes back to sifting
the hearts of men.

Now, I think the thing we need to ask

is well, ok, how are these
verses encouraging?

Because here's the thing;

here's the thing I'm thinking about.

Let's say I have a revelation from God,

just like he did.

And I know,

there are lost people

who profess to be Christians in this room.

And I come up here

and I'm giving you the test.

And I begin to lay these tests down.

I seek to weed out those who are false.

I stress you have no
true fellowship with God

if you walk in the darkness.

I stress that you're a liar
about knowing Christ

unless you keep His commandments.

I mean, I'm hitting you hard.

I have this revelation from God.

I know some of you are not real.

But at the same time,

I know that I'm likely going to wound

some of God's true ones.

I don't want that to happen.

But I know in trying to get to the others,

I've got to speak that strong.

But I also know how true Christians

are going to deal with this.

My question is this,

if I'm speaking really strong

and you've got sister so-and-so there

who is trembling.

She feels like I'm weak.

There's these doubts that are cropping up.

She's questioning.

She's wondering: am I true?

Am I false?

And you know the devil can
take advantage right there too,

and say, you're not keeping
His commandments.

Think about this time and this time.

You're not loving so-and-so.

Think about your failures here.

He can come right along.

That standard is so high,

you've never measured up to it.

Just listen to how he's talking.

Just listen to John's words.

And a feeling of
condemnation can creep in.

You feel like there's no hope.

And here's the thing,

if you're a true Christian
sitting out there

and you suddenly are flooded

by what are unwarranted doubts,

by these tests,

how is it going to be encouraging to you

for me just to interrupt all these

strong assertions,

and say, "I'm writing
to you, little children,

because your sins are
forgiven for His name's sake."

I mean, if you've just been shaken

to even wondering if you're
truly a child or not,

and I come along and I say
"I'm writing to you, little children,"

you're saying, yeah, but he
knows some of us aren't true,

and I think I'm one of those.

So I'm not even in that crowd.

How does that comfort me?

What does that do for me?

How does that help?

If your assurance has been shaken

by these things,

some of you, your assurance

should be shaken by these.

But if you're genuinely a Christian

with a sensitive conscience,

the devil's there throwing
accusations at you,

if your assurance has been shaken,

how does a verse like this

rescue you from this?

I mean, do you see what I'm saying?

If you're already doubting,

how does this take away your doubts?

Wouldn't you just be minded to say

I don't even think I'm in that group?

He comes along here

and he's really positive

that somebody's sins are forgiven

for Christ's name's sake.

But we can tell by the way he's talking,

he already assumes some of us aren't real.

And I'm thinking I might
be one of those people.

And so when he goes and he starts talking

just to the little children,

how does that help me?

How does that rescue me

from my assurance being shaken?

Here the Holy Spirit undoubtedly prompts

John to back off for a second

in order to comfort and encourage

the true people of God

lest they become overwhelmed

by a false sense of condemnation.

How does saying this rescue them?

If they come away from
these tests with doubts

by the highness of the standard,

the dogmatism of John,

then he just shifts gears

and he throws these three verses at us.

"I'm writing to you, little children..."

Isn't this person just going to conclude

that they probably aren't really

one of the little children
that John's addressing?

And brethren, it happens all the time.

The devil is an accuser.

And you start setting up things like this.

Look, there's not one of us that have

loved the brothers and sisters perfectly.

There's not one of us that have
kept the commandments perfectly.

There's not one of us that is

imitating Christ, walking like
Christ walked perfectly.

And as soon as we start looking at this

and examining this in our life -

and these are the tests.

You don't want to ignore them.

These are God-given tests.

These have to be true in your life.

You are in one camp or the other.

We have to take these things seriously.

But as we're sorting through our life,

I think any of us that are honest,

this makes us feel like

this is a high standard.

Who can measure up?

Does anybody feel like that

when you hear these things?

(incomplete thought)

And I know this.

I hear this from Christians.

They struggle.

They just feel like I don't feel like

I'm loving the brethren like I ought to.

I don't feel like my life

is committed to Christ as it ought to be.

I don't feel like there's
a level of purity there

that I know there ought to be.

Here John, he sees
the Christian struggling,

and he interrupts things.

Just interrupts by saying,

"I'm writing to you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven

for His name's sake."

Isn't there a possibility that

that Christian is just going
to get carried away

with their doubts and assume that

John's probably not talking about them?

You know John knows

that there's imposters among us.

So he doesn't for a second believe

that we're all little children.

How does this really help bolster

the assurance of the true Christian?

That to me is huge,

because I'm looking at this

and I'm recognizing,

we get this.

I know we get people that struggle

with their assurance,

and they need to struggle with it

because they're not measuring up.

But we get people that get shaken

and they ought not to be shaken.

They're not ones that God
wants us to weed out.

They're His true children.

And so I'm really interested pastorally

to just examine this and say John,

teach me here.

Teach me how to help and to comfort

the little children when they get shaken.

So how does it help?

Well, look, to the best

that I can decipher here,

it helps just this way.

If you think about what's being said here.

John stops.

He looks at the Christian

who is feeling condemned;

who is feeling overwhelmed;

who's seen these tests

and is somewhat unsure,

and he says, look,

walking like Christ walked,

walking in the light,
confessing your sins

when you sin,

keeping Christ's commandments,

loving the brethren,

are you feeling that
this is way out there?

Are you feeling like this is
only for Charles Spurgeon,

Amy Carmichael?

Only they can live this way.

Do you feel like this is just impossible

for the average Christian?

Do you feel the standard is just too high?

And that what he's saying in this letter

is just being too dogmatic

and there's no hope for you to live

up to this standard?

The devil's throwing accusations

of your failure at you

and your own ineptness

at loving the brethren?

He comes and he says,

"I'm writing to you, little children,

because your sins are forgiven

for His name's sake."

You see what he's doing?

He's saying, look, you're thinking

these things are hard.

But he says, I know there's reality

among you.

I see it.

I know it.

He says precious children.

Let's take your eyes off the tests

for a second.

Let's just get your eyes off those

rigorous tests of true Christianity,

and turn your eyes

back to the initial wonders
of being a Christian.

Just forget your own failures.

You are forgiven for His sake.

Now you just need to dwell there.

It doesn't depend on your performance.

Because that's where
tests like that take us.

They take us to examining our life.

Rightly so.

But you can't get away from it.

You start looking at your life;

you start looking at your failures;

you start looking at your performance,

and he backs off this for a second.

He says, eyes off performance.

I want to take you back

just to the wonders

that you encountered in Christ

at the beginning.

It does not depend on anything

you have done or are doing

or will ever do.

Forgiveness of sins.

It's all about receiving a gift.

And it is free. And it is by faith.

And you know what?

The enemy of your souls may hound you

and accuse you and condemn you.

That may be true.

For your sins and failures,

and yes, they're there.

But you know what?

You can answer the snake.

But as much as anything,

you can answer your own conscience.

I mean here he is and he's saying,

I wrote to you because your sins

have been forgiven for His sake.

For His sake.

They haven't been forgiven you

for keeping any of these tests.

They've been forgiven for His sake.

You need to remember that.

You need to go back there.

Answer that snake every time

that he brings up accusations.

You bring up the name,

the blood, the righteousness

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know what you do not want to do?

You do not want to argue your performance

with the devil.

Don't do it.

Let him back you right into the corner

where your eyes have no place to go

but back on the Lord Jesus

just like in the very beginning.

It's for His name's sake.

You rely absolutely and utterly

upon Jesus Christ and upon Him alone.

He is your only hope.

You can be sure that
your sins are forgiven.

Why? His name is at stake.

It's for His name's sake.

It must be.

And he goes on to say this -

and I'm going to deal with these in pairs.

If you go down to 1 John 2:13,

to the end there,

"I write to you, children."

This is the second thing he says.

To the children - the little children -

"because you know the Father..."

You know the Father.

Brothers and sisters,

again, this backing away

from these rigorous tests.

And it's saying this:

I know this.

The Spirit is known as
the Spirit of adoption.

And as the Spirit of adoption,

what does He produce within us?

What comes out?

What comes forth?

What's the cry?

Abba, Father.

Abba, Father.

Again, he backs them off of these tests

just to the glories,

just to the simplicity.

Christian, have you not found

that God is no longer some far off force?

Some distant, out there God

on the horizon?

So often, the lost man just has this idea

of God either as Santa Claus

or is opposed to Him.

But it's not that anymore.

He's not some old man upstairs.

Suddenly, God produces something in you

when He saves you that cries,

not just "Father," - "Abba."

There's an endearment.

And it's true. It's real.

Do you not find a sweetness in that?

It's like he's pulling these Christians

back from "you're a liar,"

if you don't do this.

He's pulling them back in to

just come back to the very wonders

of the foundations upon which

your Christianity is built.

You've been brought into this family.

And then he says this,

1 John 2:13 "I'm writing to you, fathers,

because you know Him who
is from the beginning."

In 1 John 2:14 where he
addresses the fathers

the second time, he says,

"I write to you, fathers,

because you know Him
who is from the beginning."

He says exactly the same thing

about the fathers both times.

And I don't necessarily think

Scripturally speaking that we need to

think just of fathers in an age -

a physical age sense,

but more so the spiritually mature.

But think about this, "Him
who was from the beginning"

as I pointed out before,

this is speaking of Christ.

And it's just come back from ideas

about your performance

and just think.

John's saying I know
this is true about you.

I can see it.

You've been professing to be a Christian

for a long time, and I can see.

There's an intimacy you have with Christ.

I can stand off to the side and watch

as some of these glorious lines

come off these songs.

I'm putting myself in John's position

if he could see.

He's saying, I know.

I can see.

I can see it in your eyes

when the name of Christ comes up.

It's not just some cold, dry,

like you think when you're lost

about the idea of religion.

It was just dry.

But the name Christ comes now,

there is a sweetness.

There is a beauty.

He can look and say, I know.

You guys have been walking with the Lord.

I can see it.

You know His voice

in a way you used to not know it;

His promptings.

I see this.

Not just knowing His voice,

not just knowing His promptings,

but knowing His silence.

Just coming to know His dealings

with His people.

He says, I see it.

I know it's there.

This is spiritual maturity.

John says I know,

some of you might be shaken

by the high standard that I put up.

But I look at many of you,

I look at your lives,

I can see Christ is special to you.

I know you are not serving Him the way

you want to.

I know you're not living the way

you know He's worthy of.

But I can see your eyes
light up at His name.

I can see the pain that you have

when He's dishonored.

I see that you know Him in a way

that the rest of the world
just doesn't know Him.

You see, he's bringing these people

to a place where he's going to

some of the basics;

some of the rudimentary realities

about our walk,

and how we view Christ.

How we relate to Christ.

And then he says this,

he's going to talk to the young men

about the devil.

1 John 2:13 "I'm writing
to you, young men,

because you've overcome the evil one."

He says just the same thing,

but adds more detail

like that bee that he is,

he circles back around

and deals with it the second time.

1 John 2:14 "I write to you, young men,

because you are strong,

and the Word of God abides in you,

and you have overcome the evil one."

It's like can you imagine?

You get all these tests thrown at you.

And you're feeling like

you've not measured up so perfectly.

You feel weak.

You feel defeated by
John's high standards.

And John says,

what are you talking about?

I can see you.

I know you're not perfect.

But weak?

When you sit there and talk about

your weakness and your failures,

it's sheer ignorance.

Really?

What does he see that we don't see?

John says I know you fail,

but as I mentioned,

the true Christian is going to confess it.

I'm writing to you that you don't sin,

but when you do,

the true Christian is going to find

an Advocate in Christ.

Their hope is only going to be there,

and the propitiatory work of His

upon that cross in satisfying God.

He says it's ignorance when you talk about

weakness like this.

That's strength.

We look at it as though,

well, it's only strength
if we live perfect.

He sees strength.

He sees triumph over the evil one

when we sin and we go to God

and we confess it.

And we look to the healing blood

of Christ.

Do you recall what this same John

tells us in Revelation 12?

How do they overcome the evil one?

By the blood of Christ.

How does the conquering take place?

So much of the conquering is here

that when we do fail,

when we do sin, where do we go?

We go back to the blood.

Remember right before that verse,

it says he's an accuser of the brethren.

You see, it's in his accusations

we overcome by the blood.

How?

Because you don't want to argue

performance with the devil

How do you overcome?

You know what the way
to deal with the devil is?

And even the accusations
of your own conscience?

It's true. I failed.

But let me tell you about the blood.

Let me tell you what that was shed for.

Devil, I did just fail.

I can list lots more failures
in my life than just that one.

But let's talk about the blood.

Let's talk about what that
accomplishes in my life.

These realities are found in Scripture.

He's talking to these young men

about the fact that this Word of God

is abiding in them.

And John's saying, I see you out there.

I see you that are reading your Bibles.

I see you that are affected
by the truths in there.

I see those of you that
see the Christ in there.

And He's your hope.

I see that.

I'm writing to you because you're strong;

you're not weak.

These things may make you feel like that,

but you have to recognize,

the Christianity that God puts forth

is for the average Christian,

if we can talk that way.

It's not just for the Charles Spurgeon's

and for the Amy Carmichael's.

This is for us.

And what these things look like in reality

is the kind of Christianity

we're living out in this place

by and large, most of us.

Those of us that are true.

What does it look like?

Yes, there's going to be failures.

Yes, that's going to be there.

Yes, we're going to fall
on our faces at times.

We have doubts and things will crop up.

And we're not perfect.

And we know it and John knows it

and the devil knows it.

But we don't deny those things.

We confess it.

We know. We acknowledge we sinned.

But devil, you tell me,

how do you answer to the blood?

Are you going to keep
on with your accusations?

It says we conquer him that way.

The truth is he has no answer to that.

And you know what
happens when you do that?

You just overcame the evil one.

Really? Wow!

See, that's what he's saying.

You're strong!

You're strong when you do that.

John is just looking out at many of us

and he's saying, I know your faith.

It may be weak,

but though it's weak, it clings to Christ.

I see you hesitating; I see you at times

questioning at the
forcefulness of these tests.

Yes, they're forceful.

They're strong.

Yes, your obedience is not always perfect.

Our love is certainly not always perfect.

But he says, look, there's evidence;

there's evidence of reality.

We must not expect this to be easy.

Because it's not going to be.

We're told to strive to enter in.

Many are going to seek to enter in there

and they're not going to be able.

We must not expect everything

in this Christian life to be automatic.

A lot of Christians, they become unsettled

because they feel like,

well, if I truly got saved,

this shouldn't be so hard.

They just feel like the switch

should just get turned off

on these lusts and desires of the flesh

that wage war against my soul.

It's just like, well, if
I was really saved,

wouldn't I stop feeling that?

Wouldn't I stop feeling
the pull of these things?

Well, as the Christian,

you battle this with truth.

You battle this with the blood.

Certainly, if you're born again,

you're a new creation.

But we know - Peter lets us know,

it's still a battle.

You're going to face combat.

You're going to face conflict,

fierce warfare.

It's hard.

We feel the hardness.

We watch others fall away.

It may cause us to tremble all the more,

but John says I see you there.

You have foundations in place.

I see there are those
of you that struggle,

but you show promise.

I write to you because I see those things.

Take courage. Take heart.

Be brave. Be courageous.

Press onward; upward; forward.

You may feel weak.

But you've got to remember,

when you deal with sin by the blood,

you overcome a mighty fallen angel.

You're showing strength.

You show yourself strong.

Not in yourself, but in Christ.

This seems to be what these three verses

are meant to do;

just to bring us back

to the wonderful glories

of being a Christian.

Some of these things that are just

they're there, they're realities.

John can look at them and say,

"I'm writing to you, little children,"

because I know these things
are true about you.

I see these things are true about you.

Look, if these things are
not true about you,

then Christ bids you -

He bids you to seek Him

while He may be found.

He bids you to cry out to Him.

He bids you, like He says,

"Come unto Me, all you that labor

and are heavy laden."

He bids you to plead for mercy

in the name of Jesus Christ.

He bids you do that.

We don't want to give the dogs

the children's food.

But at the same time,

He doesn't want the children all shaken

about these things.