Letter From a Church Father

You know, as we go through life, one of the things that we, I think, is really helpful to a lot of people is to have a mentor, someone that we can talk to who has been through some of the things that we've been going through before, and to kind of help us keep our focus on what we need to do, where we need to be, kind of direct us to the pitfalls along our way and kind of just encourage us.

And I know for many people, just watching my older son, primarily, you know, that for him, I think it was his grandfather's. And I would see that as he would talk with his grandfathers, it was in a different way than I would talk to him.

I think fathers have a way of just kind of being, well, whatever. Maybe different. Grandfather's talking a different way, and I'm looking forward to my grandson as he grows up, hoping that the relationship with him, I can help him and my granddaughter through some of the pitfalls of life as well. I never, I really, I knew who my grandfathers were, and I remember them, but they were both dead by the time I was six.

So I never had that opportunity. But I have always appreciated at work to have someone who is older, who's known the ropes, who can, you know, counsel you through the way, or just talk to you and just have that relationship. And in the Church, it's very good to have some of the older people with us who have been in the Church for 30, 40, 50 years. You can tell us of their stories, who have weathered the storms, if you will, gone through trials, and through it all have been able to stay true to the truth, stay true to God. Because it's not an easy way that God has called us to.

Certainly, it's an awesome way that God has called us to. It's a way that leads to joy and happiness and everything good that we could never have experienced. But there are trials along the way, and we battle against ourselves. We battle against Satan. We battle against family members sometimes who maintain and who stick true to the truth that we've been given. And it can be very good and helpful for us to have someone that can help us to see what that course is. We have, of course, Jesus Christ and God the Father, who lead us.

We have Christ's own words in the Bible. We pray. And that is certainly, I don't mean to minimize that at all, it's hugely important that we do get our direction from God.

And He does speak to us through His Holy Spirit and direct us and guide us and through the words of the Bible. But the Bible is full of, well, not full of, but has some letters in it from some people that really are in that category that I'm talking about. And one of them is the Apostle John. And I have been thinking about the Apostle John and reading his Gospels, his writings for more than a couple weeks now, and I just can't get off of what he has written.

The Apostle John, you know, he is such an example for all of us. The commentaries tell us that, you know, he may have been the youngest of the disciples that were called. If he wasn't the youngest, certainly he was one of the younger ones. He walked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years. The Gospels tell us he was the one that Jesus Christ identified with.

I mean, the beloved disciple is what he was referred to. So we know that there was this relationship with him that was very close. John was the only disciple that was there at the time of the crucifixion. When Jesus Christ was dying, all the other disciples ran away, but John was there. It was him that Jesus Christ, as he was dying, pointed to his mother and said, take care of her, because he trusted him that much to do that. John was there from the beginning and he was loyal to God.

We have his gospel that he wrote in around 50 AD, the commentaries will tell us. He says in John 20, verse 30-31, that the reason he wrote that gospel is because he wanted people to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He wrote about the miracles, and he saw all those miracles that we read about. He knew, absolutely, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah that the world was waiting for. He lived his life right until the very end, being loyal to that calling, being loyal to God. At the end of his life, the commentaries would say, in the 90s AD, he wrote three epistles to us, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John.

God selected him to have the vision and to record the revelation to us. Sometime around 100 or between 100 and 110 AD, John died. John died. Having lived a life where he was totally and completely committed to Jesus Christ, the calling that he was given in God the Father, he saw what was going on in the church. He had to be disappointed when he saw people come in and then leave.

But you know, he was very joyous when he saw God call people, and they would respond to that call. And through his epistle, 1 John, that I want to talk about today, he really gives us a message. He talks about the church and he talks about the people that he loves because he loved God and he loved God's people. And in that epistle, he tells us many, many things. He's looking at it from the end of life, and if he was standing here today, he would say the same words to you and me because we live in exactly the same type of time that he lived in.

You know, he wrote the commentary saying before the time of the great persecution on the Christians because he never mentions the persecution. But he does warn the people of God that there are things that will take them away from the truth that they've been called to. One of them was going back into the way of the world and allowing the allure of that to take them away, steal from them the truth and eternity that God had given them, or listening to false doctrines.

However, little false, still false. And he encourages them that you maintain and you stick to the truth. In the last week or so, I've sent out some at-home Bible studies. I call them on 1 John. And you may remember, if you've looked at those, that in Chapter 2, we talk about 17 we-know statements that John gives in that little five chapters of the first epistle of John.

I don't know if you've taken the time to look those up, but I want to read through a few of those we-know scriptures. And think of it from John's standpoint.

90, 90, 90-some years old that he was at this point having seen it all, having been in the church, if you will, for 40, 50, 60 years.

Having seen everything he did and being loyal. Let's just read a few of those. I'm going to read a couple and then I'm going to break and give you a definition from the Greek on the word know. So listen closely to the first couple and then we'll read a couple more. In 1 John 2, 3, the very first time that he says we-know, he says, now by this we-know that we-know him, if we keep his commandments. He emphasizes it. You know, people have said that, right? We-know that we-know. I-know that I-know. Now by this we-know that we-know him, if we keep his commandments. Two verses later, he says, whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we-know that we are in him. We-know that we-are in him. 1 John 3, 2, he says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now when John says we-know, it's something that he knew right down to the depth of his soul, and it's something that we as Christians better be knowing down to our souls. The word know, K-N-O-W, in those verses. You've heard me talk about the word believe, and we're going to see the word believe. You'll remember, I hope from the past, the Greek word, bestoio, where believe doesn't mean believe like we would use it in everyday language in English, but it means something that is so riveting that really changes the way we think, changes the way we live, because the belief is so deep. The word know, the Greek word translated know in these verses, has the same type of impact. Let me read to you from Barnes' notes. The word know, K-N-O-W, most every time you read it in 1 John and in the Gospel of John, and most places in the New Testament, has this connotation to it. Here in the Barnes' notes, he's referring to John 17, verse 3, in the midst of the beginning of Christ's recorded prayer, where is Christ's will that we know God? He says this, The word know, here, as in other places, expresses more than a mere speculative acquaintance with the character and perfections of God. It includes all the impressions on the mind and life which a just view of God and of the Savior is fitted to produce. It includes, of course, love, reverence, obedience, honor, gratitude, supreme affection.

To know God as He is, is to know and regard Him as lawgiver, sovereign, apparent, and a friend. It is to yield the whole soul to Him and strive to obey His law. And then he talks about knowing Christ. Many people will say, Oh, I know Christ. Simply to have heard that there is a Savior is not to know it. To have been taught in childhood and trained up in the belief of it is not to know it. To know Him is to have a just, practical view of Him in all His perfections as God and man, as a mediator, prophet, priest, and king. It is to feel our need for such a Savior, to see that we are sinners, and to yield the whole soul to Him. It's from the Greek word ginosko, g-i-n-o-s-k-o. It means in the sense that we come to know over a period of time. Something that we recognize, but then over the course of our life we really, really know it. And if we really, really know it, we won't depart from it. When John says, we know, he spent three and a half years walking with Christ. Sixty years from the time that he was called and walking with Him. When he said we know, he's telling us we should know. These are facts in our life that should define us, that are no questions in our minds. And not for all of us today, we're not there. But we'll see in a minute that John addressed that as well in this epistle because it's written to all people. It's written to those who are brand new, that God is called, as well as to those who have been in the Church 30, 40, 50, 60 years. It's a message. It's a letter from a Church Father that is for all of us and written for us and He wants us to know. Let me read another few we know, we know, statements before we get into the rest of this. 1 John 3.14. We know, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love, and that's the Greek word agape, the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. 1 John 3.18. John, affectionately calling the people he writes to, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And this we know, we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him.

1 John 4.6. We are of God. He who knows, the Greek word ganosco, he who knows God hears us. He who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The last one I'll read for now, we'll see a few more of them through the sermon. 1 John 5.15. If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

When we know who God is, when we know what His calling is, when we know what our life is to be, we have complete faith. In here we'll see what He has done. Let's turn over to 1 John and see what He wrote to and what He wrote of and how it applies to us today. 1 John 1. We'll begin in verse 1. As we read through these first few verses, look and see how John stresses what we have heard, his qualifications for writing this to us, and how he talks about what you have heard from the beginning.

Because you know, John is a testament that what he heard from the beginning, what he heard from Jesus Christ back in the time that he walked and talked with Him, he lived the rest of his life. He never veered from it. Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever, God in Malachi 3.6 says the same thing. What you have been taught from the beginning from the Word is the way of life we are to live and become part of us. Verse 1, 1 John, 1 John, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning the word of life.

You see how he lists his qualifications? I walked with him. I touched him. I know who he is. I know it's the truth. I know what's going on. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you.

Because he wanted people to know. Now, you notice as we open this letter, it's not addressed to any one church. Many times when you read the letters of Paul, it'll say to the church in Galatia, to the church in Ephesus, to the church at Rome. Not this letter. Not this letter. If you look at some of the commentaries, a couple hundred years down the road, they'll say, oh, he addressed this to the church in Parthia. And we know Parthia, there were Israelites of the scattered twelve tribes that were living in Parthia.

But John doesn't say this. John is writing to a group of people through the ages that are Christians. And I have to wonder, God, write this and preserve it for everyone, including us today, because we live in exactly the same time. We live in a time where persecution isn't extant. We don't have to worry when a knock is on our door that someone's going to say, you bow down to me, or I'm going to cut off your bank account, or worse yet, cut off your head.

We don't have to worry when we come to church that someone's going to wonder, what are you gathering together for? We live in a time where there just isn't persecution, except that individual people may cause us problems. At the time that John is writing, this is exactly the same time as before the tremendous persecution on Christians began in 95 AD. And so, the letter pertains to us. And in verse 3, he gives us a reason he's writing this letter. John gives reasons why he does these things.

He says, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you may also have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father So, he says to you, who know? This is why I'm writing. I want you to have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. And he says, I want you to have fellowship with us as well.

We're a body of believers. One of the things that John knew through his life is this is what God wanted. Now, the Greek word for fellowship we've talked about before, poinonia, it doesn't mean fellowship and just light conversation. And yes, I know your name and you know mine. It means a partnership. We're working together in some area. The one common area, I guess, that we use the word fellowship in the world today is among surgeons and you and I guess other doctors as well.

Surgeons have a fellowship that they enter into. When they graduate from medical school, they'll enter into a fellowship. They may specialize in oncology. They may specialize in some other surgical area. And when they enter into that fellowship, it's a pretty close bond that they have.

They're working directly with people who have that experience. They're there to learn so that they can go out and they can be better than the people that they learn from. They dedicate their lives to it. So when God or when John says, I want you to have fellowship with us and I want you to have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, it's not just know them the way the world would say, but know them the way the Greek word ginosko means.

I want you to learn from them. I want you to become like them. I want you to study them. I want you to enter into a participation and a joint partnership with them to accomplish the will that God has given. And we know that God the Father and Jesus Christ have a plan. I hope we all know that. It should be why we're here. And what John is saying, join in that. Be part of what God's plan is. He's opened our minds to see what that truth is, to see what that plan is, and He wants us to learn what it is He wants us to learn.

Now keep your finger there in 1 John. Let's go back to the Gospel of John. John wrote 1 John near the end of his life. The Gospel of John, he wrote a little bit earlier, most commentaries will say 30 to 40 years earlier. And in his Gospel, he talks a lot about the miracles of Jesus Christ and he records a lot of the words of Jesus Christ, especially in the time after the Passover when Jesus Christ went out and He was speaking to His disciples and telling them of things that would be, things that they didn't understand or then that they would understand later.

And in John 17, he records the prayers of the prayer that Jesus Christ said when He was done talking to the apostles, the prayer that He offered before He was arrested. In John 17, verse 3, we see that what John is telling us in 1 John is the same thing that he heard Jesus Christ say. John 17, verse 3, this is eternal life, that they may know, Greek word ganosco, this is what I'm praying Jesus Christ or this is what Jesus Christ is praying, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Drop down to verse 10. All mine are yours. Of course, it's God who calls. God gave Jesus Christ to the disciples. They followed Him. All mine are yours, He says, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Verse 11, Christ says, I'm no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father, keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are. I want them to be unified. I want them to be together. I want them to have the same mind, just as God the Father and Jesus Christ do.

That's what I want them to come to know. I want them to know you. Drop down to verse 17. Set them apart, Christ prays. Set them apart, sanctify them by your truth. The Bible is the word of truth. Set them apart. Open their minds. Let them follow you. Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I've sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

I don't pray for these alone, but also for all those who will believe in me that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

It would be obvious what Christ's will for us was, right? That we would be united in one with Him. United in one with the Father. United in one with each other. That His body of believers would know Him, know God the Father, and would know each other. Would love Him, love God the Father, and, as we'll see in a little bit, love each other. That's the fellowship that He wanted us to be part of. Now, if we turn back to 1 John, and let's skip verse 4 for a moment.

We'll come back to that in a minute. But in verse 5, as John continues his introductory comments here, his letter, as he's giving us the reasons that he wrote, he says this in verse 5, this is the message which we have heard from Him, and the message we declare to you. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, remember that's what God's will is, that's what Jesus Christ's will is, that's what John says we should want, if we say that we have fellowship with Him.

But we walk in darkness, we lie, and don't practice the truth. Verse 7, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. So when He talks about the fellowship, He tells us part of the qualifications.

It's not graduating from medical school with a specialty in surgery. It's walking in the light, not walking in the darkness at all. And over the course of life, as we come to know Him and know His way, walking more in the light with each passing year, less in the darkness with each passing year. Fellowship with Him, one with God, one with Jesus Christ, one with each other. Let's go back up to verse 4. So one of the reasons He's writing this book, I want you to have fellowship.

I want you to have the fellowship, and John's going to show us how to have that with his years of experience. In verse 4, He gives us another reason that He writes this letter to you and me. Verse 4, And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.

That your joy may be full. I want you to have fellowship, and I want you to have joy. Now, where did John get that idea? He heard it from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's will was that our joy would be filled. Let's go back to John 17. In the midst of the verses that we just read a few moments ago, in verse 13, Christ prays this. He says, Now I come to you, Him praying to God the Father, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

This is what I want for them. I want them to be one with you and me and each other, and I want them to have the same joy that I've had. Now, Jesus Christ, at the end of His life, was not anything that we would want. And He knew. He knew what He was going to experience before He went through the agony and the torture and the humiliation of the crucifixion. And yet, He never lost sight of joy. Let's go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. And an admonition to us who God has called, who has opened our minds, says in verse 1 of Hebrews 12, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and it sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Even in the midst of all that pain, even in the midst of all that humiliation, even in the midst of death, and people jeering at Him and crying out for Him to be killed, He never lost sight of the joy that was set before Him. The question we can ask ourselves, do we have that joy?

If we have the Holy Spirit of God, we know the joy. Second fruit listed. Love, joy, peace, long suffering. There's a joy that only the people of God understand. If you think back before the time you had the Holy Spirit, you might have had very happy times. You might have said, my life is good. And there were times I was very happy, but I never understood what joy was or is until you have God's Holy Spirit. Because there's a sense that even when things go wrong, there's just something about life that's so much better than it was before. Everything that God is, you can't even describe it, you just know it. I guess it's ganosco. And I didn't know it the first day I was baptized, but I've come to understand what joy is a little bit more. I can't articulate it very well, but you know what I'm talking about. The joy. That's what Jesus Christ wanted for us. That's what John says, I'm going to write to you because I want you to have that joy. I want you to have that fellowship.

Back in John 10 this time, back in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ talked about it more than one time, not just in His prayer. In John 10, and beginning in verse 16, and beginning in verse 9, He talks about the same thing, what He wanted His disciples to experience.

Verse 9, He talks, as He's talking to His disciple, about Him being the door to eternal life. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he'll be saved, and we'll go in and out and find pasture. And then in verse 10, He talks about the thief. The thief. And rightly, Jesus Christ talks about the thief because Satan, who is death, I mean, there's one way to life, and that's through Jesus Christ, and Satan, following His way, is the way to death. But Satan is the thief. What he wants is to steal from you and to steal from Me what God has promised. And there's any number of ways that he does that, as we've discussed in the past, but he's a thief. He wants to take from you what God wants to give you. The thief doesn't come. The only reason he comes is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. On the other hand, Christ says, I have come that they may have life, and they may have it more abundantly. I want them to enjoy life more than they ever thought possible. I want them to appreciate life. I want there to be a meaning and a purpose that transcends everything that we do on a normal physical basis. We do all those things, but there's a calling that God has given.

And it helps us to see the joy. And John says, I want you to experience that joy. I want you to have that joy that John had, that joy that Jesus Christ had, the joy that God wants us to have. And in this epistle, he gives us how we can have that. If we go back to 1 John, we find one more reason that he wrote this relatively short letter to everyone.

We find that in Chapter 2. My Little Children. John writes affectionately because he loved the people of God. And he loved the people that God called. My Little Children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. I want you to have fellowship with God, Jesus Christ, and us. I want you to have joy. I want you to not sin. Because the key to the other two is sin can't be part of our lives. Yet we all sin. We all fall short. And he says, in the last part of verse 1 there, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He knows what life is like. He knows the trials and the temptations that we've gone through. He's there to help us through. And he's there as our intercessor is, it says, as Paul writes. He's our advocate. But he wants us to be on the right course. When we sin, we don't just continue in sin, we repent. We pick ourselves up, we repent before God because the goal that he sets for us is what? Purity. So is that in verse 3 here? That's where we're going. And if we have God's Spirit, and if we're following Him, and if we know Him, that's the direction we're going. And we let Him weed out those imperfections from us. So John was writing to everyone. Let's go over to verse 12 here, 1 John 2. He wasn't just writing to the people who have been in the church a long time, he wasn't just writing to the brand new people, and he wasn't writing to the people who have been here for a few years. Let's see what he says in verse 12. He says, I write to you, little children. Now this time when he talks about little children, it's not the affectionate as in my children because he was the, if we want to use the word, patriarch of that time, he was the one to whom people looked up to. He was a disciple of Christ and continued through his years. So now he's writing to little children. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. And then down at the last part of verse 13, he says, I write to you, little children, because you've known the Father. When John is writing here, what he's addressing are people who are new to the truth, people who have come in who are beginning to understand God's way. Because, you know, God didn't call people just once. He didn't call, he continues to call people right until the time of Jesus Christ's return. And we have those among us who have been here just a short while. And, as we'll see, some who have been here a little while longer, and a lot longer than that. But he's writing to those as well, and you know what? They're all part of our family. They're all part of the fellowship that John is talking about. When he talks about little children, well, when we talk about little children, you know, I have two grandchildren. Many of you have children. I see little children around in the church here, and those families love those children. When our kids were born, our families embraced them. When our grandkids were born, we loved them. We love little Nicole, Oliver, Elijah, and the others that we see running around here. They're part of the family. But we don't expect them to be where we are.

We just love the fact that they're here. We love watching them grow, and we consider them an important part of who we are. That's what John was talking about, but he wasn't really talking to the one, two, three, four, five-year-olds. He was talking to those who are young in the faith that God has added, who are here because God has put them there. And you know what? We love everyone that God brings. We don't expect the same thing from someone who's been here for a year that we do from someone that's been here 30 or 40 years, any more than we expect our one- or two-year-old to do the same thing that our teenager can do. But they're part of the family, and we love them, and we learn from them. You know, I remember when our kids were growing up, how many things I learned from them. They had no idea they were teaching me, but it was wonderful to see the excitement in their eyes on the things that in the world around us. It was great to see the innocence and the total belief and surrender they had when they were young to everything that we said. When Jesus Christ, what did He talk about when He said? We had the blessing of little children every year. He said, Suffer the children to come to Me. I love them. And we can learn from them. And He tells us, You become as them. You become teachable. You become humble. You become trusting in your Father. You rely on Him. You don't go to the outside and wonder, What is Dad telling Me? You just believe what He has to say and you follow it. You prove it because God's given us His Word. But you don't defer or you don't divert from it. You continue in it because He promises if we continue in it, there will be the blessings. There will be the joy. There will be the fellowship. There will be eternal life. So He says, I write to you, little children, this is for you just as well it is for the older people as well. And so, little children, learn the first things. We see the first love. We teach again and we appreciate seeing the elementary doctrines as the author of Hebrews says, the repentance, the faith, the being called to God. And He says, you know, you're young. Look at that! You believe in Jesus Christ. You know that He has forgiven your sins. That's a wonderful thing that God has called you and you see that and you know it and it's the first step to believe in Him.

I write to you, little children, because you've known the Father, you know who God the Father is, you know who Jesus Christ is. He's called you and you've responded. It's a wonderful thing and this book is for them. And it's also in verse 13 to fathers. I write you, fathers, because you've known Him who is from the beginning. Oh, they've been around a long time. Dads, the older people in our church have been around for a while and you know what? They're still doing the same thing they were called to do. Still following the same law. Still reading the same Bible. Still understanding or still growing, but understanding the Word of the Bible and not veering off into different directions.

And in verse 14, He says, I've written to you, fathers, because you've known Him who is from the beginning. You're the pillars. You're the people that people look up to. You've stayed the course. You've been here for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years. You've weathered the health trials. You've weathered the financial trials. You've weathered the family trials. And you're still here, just like John was still there. You know, the Apostle Paul says the same thing, basically, back in Titus. When he's writing, when he's writing to a young minister there, he says this in Titus 2. As he's instructing them, he says in verse 1, as for you, Titus, you speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

You teach them the truth from the Bible. Teach them this, that the older men, the fathers, the more spiritually mature, that the older men be sober. And when I say older, we can be older, but it doesn't mean that just because we're 50, 60, 70, 80 years old, that we fall into that category. He's talking also here in terms of spiritual life, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, sound in love, sound in patience. You show them how a spiritually mature Christian is. You be that example. You've grown. God has grown you. Peter says in 2 Peter 3.18, grow in the grace and knowledge. You've matured to that level. And it's not just for the men. He says in verse 3, it has to do with the women as well, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. You, older, spiritually mature women, teach those that. Show them by your example. When you're asked, teach them what it's like to be a father or a mother in the church. In the back of 1 John, he's writing to the older, spiritually mature, this epistle is for you, and it's for the middle-aged as well, or the young people. Verse 13, middle of the verse of 1 John 2.

I write to you, young men, because you've overcome the wicked one. And then, in the middle of verse 14, I've written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

We know when we look at lives, and our lives, in our physical life, women in our 20s and women in our 30s, we're at a lot of risk, spiritually, because we have families that are growing, we have careers often that are growing. We're in the world every day. We're hobnobbing with people who are at work. We become friends with some of them, just because we get along well and see each other so much during the day.

There's things that we can do. There's so much that can happen in the world, and all of it, or so much of it happens on the Sabbath, and so much more of it is just inappropriate for Christians to even partake in. But it can be a lorry. It can be tempting.

And it takes a lot for a young man, a middle, a young man, to stay the course, to choose, in spite of everything that his friends would say, and all his co-workers would say, and all his college buddies would say, you know, it's not going to matter. You're not working if you do that basketball game or that football game on Sabbath. Come on, we'll have a good time, and whatever. It's a tempting thing to do. But John is saying, thank you, young man. And I say, thank you to our young men and those who stay the course and who choose and make the choice to follow God rather than follow the world, because it is not an easy thing to do. It's a tough thing to do.

But John commends those in our church who have been around and who are growing and who are in that middle age who could fall prey to all the calls and lures of the world because there are so many out there. And we need to be aware of that as well in the church. The pressures that are on are young people. Now, when they stay and when they choose God, we should pat them on the back. And John says, you have done that. You have overcome. And I would say, continue on. Don't ever let the world take you away. Don't ever let Satan steal from you. The thief come in and take away from you what God has promised. We see, John says, where their strength is. The strength that the older ones have learned over the years, the strength that the young children will learn over time. I've written to you, young men, because you are strong. You are standing up. You are saying no. You are choosing God in eternal life rather than momentary pleasure and death. I have written to you because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you. It lives in you. You embody it.

You know it. You live it. God is living in you as we take in of His Word and we stay close to Him.

So, the source of all our strength is God and His Holy Spirit and His Word.

John is saying. So, He's writing to all of us. He's writing to all of us and all age groups in this epistle. And He tells us, as we get down here to John 2, one of the first things that can happen to a Christian in a time of non-persecution. And we've unfortunately seen it, and you know of people who have made the fatal mistake. He talks about it in verse 15. Don't love the world or the things in the world. And of course, He's talking about society, not the earth itself, but the system that we live in. Don't love the world or the things in the world. Paul says, Come out of her. Revelation says, Come out of her. And then He makes a point-blank statement that puts it all in black and white for us. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.

If anyone loves the world, if that's what you choose first, if you choose to be like friends, if you choose to do all these things that you can do that you know are not the right thing to do, that you can't find in the Bible, you love the world. The love of the Father is not in you.

I don't think you can get any clearer than that. And the Bible is very black and white in so many cases. It's gray in some areas, and God has us apply the things that we learn into some of those gray areas. But in most, in a lot of cases, it's black and white. Don't love the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Because if the love of the Father is in us, we won't leave. We will be at odds with the world. It doesn't represent who we are. It doesn't represent the things that we think, the ideals and the morals that we have. It doesn't represent where our heart and where our desires would go. It's different because we know that the world is not under the sway of God. As John says later, we know the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one.

So he says, don't love the world. It's the same thing that Jesus Christ said, even back, well, even the Old Testament says back in Deuteronomy 30. What does God say? I've said before you this day, life and death. It's black and white, right? Two ways of life. Life and death, blessing and cursing.

And what does Christ say? It should be a very easy decision. Therefore, choose life, that you and your seed may live. But how many people really choose life? How many people really choose life? Because choosing life means we have to make choices that are different than what our natural selves would say, that our friends would say, that our families would say. We have to follow God and follow Him implicitly and deny self as Jesus Christ would say. We read it back in 1 John, one light and darkness. Light. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

And if we walk in the darkness and say we know Him, it's not true.

Apostle Paul uses the same analogy back in Ephesians 5. He says, be children of light.

Don't be children of darkness. God called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Walk in the light. Good and evil. Blessing and cursing. Darkness and light.

Love the world or love God. Can't be both ways. And in the septical, He encourages us. Follow God. Verse 16, He tells us what the world is like. And if we look around us, we know exactly that these words are true. All that's in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. It's not what God has called us to.

He didn't call us to follow any of those things. He called us to a life of humility.

He called us to a life where we desire what He desires. And if we have the Holy Spirit in us, then we think more like that. We become more like that. And the allure of the world fades and fades and fades as He puts His Spirit and His nature in us.

And we begin to want the things that He wants. So, a question is, we look toward Passover and we examine ourselves.

Who do we love more? Do we love God more? Do we love the world more? Do we love our families more?

Do we love our children more? Because as we look at ourselves through the eyes of the Bible, and last week I mentioned looking at ourselves and our choices through the eyes of the First Commandment, putting God first. Do we always put God first? None of us are perfect in that.

I'm not perfect in that. But we need to be coming to the point where, when we pray, thy will be done, it really is His will that we are looking to fulfill. And not making excuses, not making compromises, understanding what God's will is, His truth abiding in us, His spirit abiding in us, choosing the things that He chooses, even when it goes against everything, the family, self, work, and everything would say.

Too many people, too many people have been called. Too many people have started walking in light.

And over time have allowed themselves to go back to the allure of the world.

My friend says this, and I want to believe this. My friend says it's okay and I think it's okay, and so I will compromise. And all of a sudden, little by little, over time, they choose the world over God. John says it's a sad thing to see. We know it's a sad thing to see, that someone would choose the world over God. They're just not thinking clearly, but it could happen to any one of us if we allow the time, the temptations, to come that way. So one of the things he says is, you've got to be a part. You've got to follow God. You've got to follow His way of life. And then in verse 17, he does finish the thought. He says the world is passing away. And we know that if we believe God, if we believe His Word. The world is passing away. Who would ever choose to follow something that the end is determined? The world is passing away and the lust of it. But He who does the will of God abides forever. So making family happy, making work happy, making anyone happy before we follow God, we wouldn't do that if we were thinking clearly. We would find and we would seek eternity that God has opened the door to us for. And then in verse 18, he tells us another one of the dangers that can befall Christians. True Christians. Little children, he says affectionately to the group that he's writing to. It is the last hour. And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many Antichrists have come. By which we know that it is the last hour. We see what's going on in the world around us. And of course, he talks about Antichrist. It really means anything that's against Christ. Any teaching that's against him. And the world is full of teachings that are against Christ. Back in that day, there was the people that were saying Jesus Christ isn't the Son of God. The Jews denied that he was the Son of God. They promised they promised a whole lot of their beliefs on the fact that he was just a great prophet and denied that he was the Son of God.

Today, we have a lot of people who say, I know him. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, but they don't know, as in Genosco, they know they recognize it, but they don't do the things Jesus Christ says that they should do if they really knew who their Savior was. And so, anyone that would preach to you that Jesus Christ said that the law has gone away is an Antichrist. Because Jesus Christ said just the opposite of Matthew 5.19. He said, I don't think that I've come to do away with the law of prophets. I haven't come to do away with them, but to fulfill them. I have come to complete them. It's not enough to just physically obey. You need to have the spiritual application as well. There are some who say that Jesus Christ didn't exist before he was born, that he was a created being, and they deny Christ in that respect. It's a false doctrine.

There are plenty of false doctrines out there. The truth is in the Bible.

And anyone who teaches something different about Jesus Christ than what the Bible teaches, you don't want to follow them. You don't want to put your stock into them. You don't want to open that door to them because many have fallen prey to that route. Some who used to sit here with us have fallen prey to that route, and all of a sudden they let things go in their mind. And pretty soon they are believing a false doctrine and something that is not what the Bible taught or nothing that they were taught while they were here. And John saw that happening in his in his time. He saw people yielding to the world. He saw people going out and listening to these things. And it hurt him. And it hurts us when we see that happening. And none of you want to see that to happen to anyone in this room. I don't want to see that happen to anyone in the room. We all need to keep our focus and our eyes on what God has called us to and our eyes on Jesus Christ, our eyes in the Bible. We need to ganosco the Bible, know it, know the truth, and live by it. John admonishes us to do that. In verse 19 he talks about something that envelops the fellowship that we enter into because we make a commitment to God to learn, to follow, to be part of. He talks to these people who went away because of doctrines or things or just let down their guards. They went out from us, but they weren't of us.

Isn't that a scary thought? They went out from us, but they weren't of us. They weren't really of the fellowship. They never really gave themselves to God. They never really knew Him.

If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest, but none of them were of us.

But you, he says to you and me, we have an anointing from God. You know, you ganosco, you come to know all things. I have it written to you because you don't know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

Over in chapter 3, he talks about sin, and he talks about keeping the commands of God and how we begin to have fellowship with God and what the requirements of those things should be. Chapter 3 and verse 1, We know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself just as He is pure. Everyone who has that hope has a goal of becoming like Him. That means all the wrong attitudes, all the wrong behaviors, all the wrong thought processes, all the sin that does so easily with His head, all those things weeded out, wiped out, not by our power, not by our might, but by God's Holy Spirit. It does take us to choose to do that. God won't do it for us. He'll give us the power and the ability to do it. We have to make the choice. We have to make the choice to do that and to follow Him. And sometimes that choice isn't easy. And then in verse 4, He gives us the definition of sin. And the King James version, frankly, has a much superior translation here than the New King James. The New King James says, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. The Old King James says, sin is the transgression of the law. When you violate God's law, those Ten Commandments, that way of life, you sin. And we know when we sin, we earn the death penalty, so we absolutely require the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without that, we were all lost souls.

Verse 5, you know that He was manifested to take away our sins. In Him there is no sin.

And then He says in verse 6 something that can confuse us once in a while, whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

Oh, we know that we all sin. What He's talking about here is when we are called of God, when we have this Holy Spirit, God sees us and He is directing us toward perfection, but we're not there. Wouldn't it be nice if we were there on the day we were baptized? God took away all of our past, purged our minds completely. We no longer had the wrong temptations, wrong desires, wrong thoughts that have been built up in our minds from the time we were young kids. No, we take the rest of our life to yield to God, to choose to have Him purge those sins and use His Holy Spirit to cleanse us and purify us. But when we sin, and we all do, we don't continue in that. We don't say, oh, you know what? I'm going to continue to sin because God will always forgive me. No, we realize we fell short. We don't continue in sin. We repent because repentance is one of those first works. It's something we do the rest of our lives. If we continue in sin, if we never make the choice to move forward to perfection, if we continue to just do the same thing over and over again, yeah, we are living in sin. But as long as we have our future and our focus on God, when we repent and when we move forward and are led by His Holy Spirit, that will eventually be weeded out of us.

Let's drop down to verse 10.

Verse 10, And this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever doesn't practice righteousness is not of God. Whoever doesn't continue in that way in his life is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. So John switches gear on us a little bit.

We continue in his law. We continue to practice righteousness.

And when we do that, we're walking in light.

When we do that, we continue in fellowship with him.

When we do that, we love each other. A complete fellowship. God, Christ, each other.

Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

Verse 11, For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. And you all know where John heard that. John 1335 is where he heard that. Christ himself said that love would be the mark of his disciples.

Agape love. Not just emotional, hey, I like you, you like me type love. That's great. We all have that spirit. I hope we're developing that spirit of brotherhood. But the choice that we make, the same choice that Jesus made to show that he loves us by giving his life to us, the same choice we make to love each other. And if we are living, if we are walking in the fellowship, if we are walking in light, if we are obeying God, if we are choosing to follow him, led by his spirit, we will love. We will love each other. It just happens. Verse 14, we know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren.

He who does not love his brother abides in death. Pretty clear, pretty clear, something we could use as we examine ourselves. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love. He demonstrated it to us, Jesus Christ did, because he laid down his life for us.

And we should love each other enough that we would lay down our lives for the brethren.

It's a pretty big, pretty big statement, isn't it? That's how much John said he hoped and that we would grow into as we mature, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, that we would even lay down our lives for our brothers. Jesus Christ says, if you love me, keep my commandments. But let's go over to chapter 4 and verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. For love, agape, is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, ginosko. He who does not love does not know or ginosko God.

For God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, John says affectionately, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

So, as we look ahead five, six weeks to pass over, and as we examine ourselves, we could ask ourselves, do we love each other? Do we love each other? Indeed and in truth, as we read early on in verse John 3, verse 18, I think it was.

And there, as you can write down Ephesians 4, I think it begins around verse 31 or something like that, where it talks about the things that we do if we love one another and the things that we should weed out of our lives. If we want to know how we know whether we love each other, well, Jesus Christ showed us the example of love. He's our advocate. He's merciful to us. He's compassionate to us. He's interested in us. He's interested in us. He's interested in what you do each day. He's interested in what I do each day. For some reason, He cares, and He's interested in how we spend our time. He's interested in what our families are doing. He's interested in the things that impact us, eager to help us, to learn how to walk through the paths of life.

The Bible would tell us, exhort one another, help one another, pat each other on the back, when necessary, even point out a fault to someone, lovingly, kindly, not judgingly, and not disparagingly. How about forgiveness? Forgiveness is something we should always be looking at leading up to Passover. Is there anything between us and another person that God has called? Any grudge that we have? Anything that's standing in our way?

There shouldn't be anything. There shouldn't be anything we wouldn't be able to forgive, because God's forgiven us so much. If we look at ourselves and we say, would you, you, if you were going to die for this person being me, no, I wouldn't. Yet He was willing to die that our sins could be forgiven, and that we might have future, eternity, purpose, joy, fellowship, life, eternal life. And Jesus Christ, the example of forgiveness, that He could be on that cross or stake with people who were nailing into His wrists, nailing into His ankles, people who were jeering and mocking and making fun of Him, and wishing Him dead, that He could look down and say, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. But I would say there shouldn't be a thing between any brother in this congregation or about anyone all over the world that is a true believer. If there's something there, it needs to be cleared up. Because I will guarantee you there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that we shouldn't be able to forgive if Jesus Christ could do that. And if you think you have something that keeps you apart from a brother in the congregation, and you think it's more important than what Jesus Christ did to forgiveness, then I want you to come and tell me because I'd like to know what that is. Nothing. God said one of the keys of His people, one of the identities of His people, we will love one another, there should be absolutely no boundaries.

That's what love is. He gave Himself to us. And every single one of us love each other, regardless of position, title, health, wealth, whatever it is, we all love each other equally just the way Jesus Christ and God the Father loves us. And John said, look at that. Know that. Become that way. Become one. Jesus Christ prayed as the Father and Jesus Christ are. The same thing that He wants for you and me. One with each other, united in purpose, united in the Spirit. One body that loves each other as He loved us.

And let's conclude in chapter 5. Let's read through a few verses in chapter 5.

We see a few of the Greek words that we've talked about here today. Verse 5, chapter 5, verse 1, whoever believes, remember the Greek word, festoio, and I hope as you're reading through the New Testament, when you see that word believe, you realize it's a much deeper believe than the world or the English says. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves Him, agape, who loves Him, who begot, also loves Him, who is begotten of Him. We love each other. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. Let's drop down to verse 18. We know, one of those we know verses, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin, is marching toward perfection, that isn't willingly sinning or willfully sinning or just continuing in sin, believing that God will always forgive, that has their eyes focused on purity because that hope is in them. We know that whoever is born of God doesn't sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one doesn't touch him. He'll tempt, but with the Spirit of God we can resist, and when we resist He flees. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true. In His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And then John, a father in the church who's seen everything and seen the pitfalls of people who go through whose will is that we continue in His way, closes with an interesting thing that we leave here today with. Little children, he says affectionately, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.