The following sermon was preached at Christ Reformed Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you are interested in our church or would like more information about us, you can visit us online at ChristReformedChurchTulsa.org. If you have your Bibles today, turn to 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2, and we're going to begin reading today in verses, verse 12, and we're going to read all the way down to verse 14. This will be our focus of our study today. 1 John chapter 2, beginning in verse 12. John says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His namesake. I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I'm 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. 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. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us by the gospel today. We pray that you would fix our eyes and our gaze upon Christ, who has made an end of all of our sins and who has brought us to the Father to know God just as he is. Lord, we thank you for Jesus, who is our high priest, who has opened the way for us to go right into the up to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Lord, we pray and ask now that you would speak to us in a mighty way. Lord, I pray that you would, by your spirit, anoint me to preach your word with boldness, with conviction. And I pray that your word would go forth in much power, and it would be received by all who hear. Lord, we ask all of these things in Jesus's name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, we come once again to the book of 1 John. And today we're going to be looking at our blessed assurance that we have as Christians. Every Christian, every believer should know where they stand with God. There should be no doubts, though sometimes we do doubt, but we should not linger there. But we should know with certainty that our sins have been forgiven and that we know God. And that is what the Holy Spirit is going to remind us here today through the Apostle John. For those who are in Christ, we will find here that No matter where we are on the sanctification process, we have our sins forgiven and we know God. That's what John's goal is throughout all of this book, is that we might know that we have eternal life. That's what he said in 1 John 5, 13. He writes this book. He writes these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. That's his goal in all of this letter, that we might know that we have eternal life. Now, we know that eternal life is not just living forever. We know, as Jesus said, this is eternal life, that you might know him, that you might know God. And so John starts off with that. He starts off with Christ and what he has done and who he is. And he proclaims Christ, who is our eternal life. And he proclaims Christ to us that we, too, might have fellowship with the father and with his son. That's what eternal life is. And John wants to want you to know that you have this relationship, you have this fellowship with God, if you have repented of your sins and trusted in Christ alone for your salvation. Now, the reason that John is writing this letter is because the false teachers had cropped up among them. These false teachers were undermining the assurance of the believers to which John was writing to. They were doing this by trying to deceive them with false notions about who Christ was, who He really was. They were, for example, denying the Incarnation. They were denying that Jesus was the Son of God. And they were denying that Jesus was Christ and that He was not Christ at all. All of those things. And because of this, it was causing all kinds of problems in the congregation. These people who claim to have fellowship with God, who were claiming these silly notions, these false notions about who Christ was, they were going along living as though and proclaiming that they had fellowship with God, but there was no love in their life and they continued in sin. And so they were blurring the lines of what it meant to be a true Christian. Not only that, but by attacking Christ, they were attacking the gospel itself. And when there is no gospel, when there is no good news, If Christ is not truly come in human flesh, then we don't have an assurance of eternal life because there has not been one who has come who has identified us within every way and who is God and has taken away our sins. And so John writes, as we saw in first John, he proclaimed he starts off with the fact that Jesus has come in human flesh. He that was in the beginning, that is, God, he has come. We have heard him. We have seen him with our eyes. We have looked upon him. We have touched him with our hands concerning the word of life. And John proclaims this from the outset, this good news of the gospel, that Jesus has come down so that we might have hope. that we might have hope that there is one who can take away our sins, who is the propitiation for our sins, that is, he has taken away the wrath of God. And so that's what John is doing here. And out of that, he shows that It is those who truly know Christ. They are the ones who walk in righteousness, not those who go on sinning. They have never they do not. Even though they say they have fellowship with him while they walk in darkness, they lie and they practice the truth. They are self-deceived. Not only that, but those who proclaim to know God, but yet deny Christ and deny certain things about him and do not have love in their life and do not keep the commandments, they don't know him either. It is only those who have a right understanding, a biblical understanding of who Christ is, and they have received this truth and believed upon him and walk in righteousness and walk in love and keep the commandments. These are the ones who know Christ. Now, in saying all of this and giving us these tests, because that's what John has done so far, he's given us the doctrinal test about who Christ is. He's given us the moral test of if we are Christian, we will walk in righteousness. He's given us also the love test, all these tests to show what a true Christian is. But lest anyone get caught up who is a true Christian in all of this and think who has a very sensitive conscience. Well, I don't really know if I'm a Christian because I still see lingering sin or I still see things in my life that are not yet perfect. John takes a pause in the midst of these tests. And here in verses 12 through 14, he reassures his readers, he reassures those who are true Christians that they know God and that their sins have been forgiven. That's what we're going to see in this passage today. Now, before we dive into this text, I want us to take note of how we are going to look at these verses. Typically, we walk verse by verse and we go from 12 and then into 13 and then into 14. But given the construction of how John puts this together, we see here that he will address, for example, the children twice, the fathers twice, the young men twice. He'll basically repeat himself. And so what we're going to do is we're going to take his address to the children we're going to deal with that in verse 12 and then at the end of verse 13. And then we're going to address or deal with the fathers and how he addresses them both times. And then we will end by looking at what he says to the young men. And we will also identify who those people are. For example, when John uses the word children and fathers and young men. He isn't referring here to how old they are or where they stand on the timetable of life. But as we will see, he's using all three of these terms in a spiritual way. For example, when he speaks to the children, he's not talking about little kids. But what he's talking about here is he will we will see in just a moment he is addressing all Christians. And when he speaks to the fathers, He's not talking about males who are a certain age, like 60 or 70. He's talking about those who are mature in Christ. And then when he talks about or he addresses the young men, he's not speaking specifically to a group of men who are in their 20s or 30s, but he's speaking to those who are young in the faith. And we're going to see that in just a moment. But also we want to take notice of our reading here that he is very redundant. Many times he will repeat some of the same statements when he addresses this or that group, whether it be the children or the fathers or the young men. But that shouldn't bother us. We find John doing this all throughout. He is a good teacher. That's what good teachers do. They repeat themselves often. And so it's there for emphasis. But let's begin our study here in verse 12, where he addresses the little children. Let's read verse 12 and then we'll go down to the third portion of verse 13. He says in verse 12, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. Now drop down to the third part of verse 13. He says, I write to you, children, because you know the father. In these two verses, John uses the term child, though a different Greek word in verse 12 and a different Greek word in verse 13, though I don't think we should make much of those two things in regards to the different Greek words used, but he's addressing children. He is referring to these people, these in general, as children. And as we have seen over and over again, and as we will continue to see, John uses this term as a term of endearment. He uses this term in a way of referring to Christians and all ages, regardless of their spiritual condition. He writes and uses this term children to show his affection, his pastoral care to those to whom he is writing. We see this term, for example, being used in several places. We see it in 2.1. There he said, my little children. In chapter 2, in verse 18, he will say, children, it is the last hour. 1 John 2, 28, he'll say, and now little children abide in him. In chapter 3, in verse 7, he'll use the same language. Little children, let no one deceive you. And then in chapter 3, in verse 18, he will say, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And so when John uses this term, children, as we see in all of these places, it has nothing to do with age. or spiritual maturity. It's just a general term of endearment and affection that John uses in his old age. And it's a way of describing those who follow Christ to which he ministered to. And so in this case, John is addressing every believer. And when he says your sins are forgiven for his namesake and that, you know, He is saying those two things about everyone wherever you are. If you're a new believer or an old believer, He is saying these two things about you if you are a Christian. He says that every Christian has their sins forgiven. He says also that they know the Father. Now let's break this down. First of all, he says that our sins are forgiven. Now think about what John is doing here. John is once again writing to bolster their assurance of eternal life by reminding them of what God has done for them. He is reminding them in one way or another of the gospel. They now can know God intimately and personally because their sins have been forgiven. That is what John wants them to know here. This is what he has been trying to say all along, all throughout this book. Unlike the false teachers and others who were going around saying they hadn't sinned or they didn't have any sin in their life, who were self-deceived, John is reminding those who have confessed their sins, as he said in 1 John 1.9, that those who have hoped in Christ, in the name of Christ, to save them, they are the ones who have their sins forgiven. They have confessed their sins, they have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and so God, in his faithfulness, forgiven of them of their sin and wipe their sins away. Why can he do this? Because not because of who they are, but because of who Christ is, because it is Christ who, as we have seen, is our propitiation. It is Christ who is our advocate. You see what he is doing here. He is telling every single believer, whether they are mature or whether they are immature, young or old, he is reminding them that their sins have been forgiven. Now, this is something that we have to do all the time. We need this reminded constantly. We need to be reminded of this constantly as believers, because we are prone to forget this truth. We need to hear this over and over and over again. As believers, your sins have been forgiven. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We need to hear those types of things. We need to hear the gospel. Why? Because we're so prone to forget it many times as a Christian. As a Christian, we are sensitive to sin. We hate sin. But yet we're still in this process of sanctification and sin sometimes crops up. As John said, if anyone does sin, he anticipates that there will be times that we will sin. And so what happens many times as we begin to focus on our sin and our guilt and all of that, we take our eyes off of the cross. And so when we do that, we grow despondent. We grow in despair. And so we need to hear the words constantly. If we're young or whether we're old as a Christian, we need to hear that our sins are forgiven. And this is what John wants them to hear, because when you hear these things that John has said, he has he has not lowered the bar or the standard of what it means to be a Christian. A Christian does not walk in darkness, but sometimes we do sin and we will fall. And so we need to hear this, that our sins are forgiven. This bolsters our assurance. If we don't continually gaze upon the cross, we don't continually gaze upon the gospel, what happens? We have doubt that slips in and we lose that assurance of eternal life. So that's what John is doing here. I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. Now, why does John put it that way? I like the way John writes. He says things, but he's honest about everything. When John says, I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake, notice how he turns everything upside down in our modern society. In our day and age, we hear pastors and preachers talking about the gospel. It's all about you. It's all about you. God did all this for you. Well, yes, Christ did lay his life down for us. That is true. But how often do you hear that this was done primarily first and foremost for the glory of God? Many times we don't hear that. But that's what John is getting at when he says this, that your sins are forgiven for His namesake. First and foremost, God saves sinners for His own glory. Turns the modern-day message on its head. All of the biblical writers do this. All who know the Word of God do this. We know that our salvation exists first and foremost for the glory of God. As Jesus even prayed before He went to the cross, He talked about how he had come and he had done all of these things for the glory of God. That's why Christ died first and foremost. Now, we see this in many places. Psalm 25, 11 says, For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Psalm 106, 47 says concerning the Lord saving Israel, Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from the nations that, why, we might live happily ever after? No, that we might give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Psalm 109, 21, we find that King David asks, But you, O God, my Lord, deal on my behalf For your namesake, because your steadfast love is good, deliver me. And even the Lord, in Isaiah 48 and verse 9, said this, For my namesake, I delay my wrath. For the sake of my praise, I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another. You see that John is very tender with them. He's very pastoral with them. And he shows them, yes, your sins have been forgiven. Believer, those of you who have believed upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Here's why. It's not because of you. It's not because of anything you have done. It's not because you are deserving of it. God saved you from your sins for his glory. We don't hear that very often, but the Bible is clear that our forgiveness is not because of anything we have done. but it is to magnify his name and to display the glory of God. Now, we move on here. We see here in John, when he's writing to all of us who are believers, he tells us that our sins are forgiven. But notice what he also says here at the end of verse 13. He says, I write to you children, because you know the father. In the test that John gave back in chapter one, and the beginning of chapter 2, John made it clear about those who continue in sin and those who do not have love and do not obey the commandments. He said in 1 John 1 6, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 1 John 2 4, he said, he warned whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But as we see here in verse 13, the opposite is true with the Christian. First John 2, 13, I write to you, children, because you know the Father. Now, what John is saying here is that if you were a Christian, not only are your sins forgiven, But you know the father, you have fellowship with the father, you have communion with the father, you are able to approach the father. Why? Because Christ has taken away your sins and brought you eternal life. And what is eternal life? We've pointed this out over and over. And I don't want you to get I don't want you to miss this. Eternal life, as Jesus said, is that our eternal life is this, that they might know you, that they might know God. That's what eternal life is. This is the natural result of redemption. No longer is God angry at you if you are a Christian, but because Christ has come, because he has come in human flesh and yielded his life up as a sacrifice, as a propitiation to take away the wrath of God, because he is your advocate. You and I now have a unique relationship with God, a relationship that we did not have before when we were still in our sins. Now, through Christ, God is our Father. This is the teaching of the doctrine of adoption. John is hitting on this here. This is what he is talking about, this great doctrine of adoption. This is the teaching of Romans 8 15, which says, You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. That is, when you became a Christian, as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Now, think with me, believer, about what John is saying here when he says, You know the Father. Think about what he is saying here. You know, intimately, personally, relationally, God is your father, not as judge, but as your father, as the one who will care for you, as the one who will receive you, love you, hear you and provide for you. He is no longer hostile to you, but he is tender towards you. He is gracious towards you. As J.I. Packer said in his book, Knowing God, if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God as his father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls you and your whole outlook on life, it means that you do not understand Christianity very well at all. Do you see how important these words are that John utters? This is one of the most important things that a believer can know, that God is your father. That is the most important thing, one of the most important things. But I fear that we have often forgotten this truth. I fear that we don't often operate in light of this truth. We may be good at understanding justification and we may dwell there long and and hours on end. We may talk about justification a lot that We have been declared righteous now before a holy God that our guilt has been taken away. All of those types of things. We may dwell on sanctification, which is a good thing. We need to dwell on that. We need to dwell on justification. We may get all of those things. We may glory in the cross and think about how Christ laid down His life and the beauty of that all. And now we can have our sins forgiven. We may even dwell on that. But how often do we dwell? on the end goal of all of that, of the cross. What was the end goal of the cross? Why did Christ go to the cross and lay down his life? Was it just so you could have your sins forgiven? Well, it was to forgive you of your sins so that he could provide forgiveness for your sins. But what was the ultimate end of the cross? And I think that we don't dwell here enough. The ultimate end was to bring you to God. That's why. Because you see, our sins had separated us from God. There was no fellowship. We were enmity with God. But in Christ, God was reconciling us to himself. He was reconciling us to himself that we might have fellowship with God. That is what John wants us to understand. And we must not miss this. We can dwell long and hard on 1 John 5, 13, that says, These things I write to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life and we can think about eternal life. But what is eternal life? It's knowing God. And that's why John said in 1 John, that's why he starts by proclaiming to you that He that which was from the beginning, that is God Himself, has come down and we've heard Him, we've seen Him, our eyes have looked upon Him, we've touched Him with our hands. It's true, He has come down. And why is that such good news? Why does John proclaim that first and foremost in this letter? Well, he says in verse three of chapter one, that which we have seen and we have heard, we proclaim also also to you. Why? So that you too may have fellowship with us. In other words, that you might have a fellowship like ours. Indeed, our fellowship was with the father and with his son, Jesus. Christ, do you see this, what John is trying to accomplish here? He is wanting us to know that we have eternal life and that eternal life that he wants us to know is that we know God, that we have fellowship with God, that we are able to approach God. And why can we do that? Because we have have have one who has come down, God himself, taken on human flesh. He is our high priest. He is our advocate. He is the one that has removed the wrath of God so that we can go right into the Holy of Holies and right up to the throne of grace and fellowship with our Father. That is what John is getting at. That is why he says this to all who are children of God. He tells us that our sins are forgiven. And in light of that, we are the ones who know God. It's not the ones who go on and sin. They don't have fellowship with God. They lie and they do not practice the truth. But those whose sins have been forgiven, those who have confessed their sins, those who walk in the right way and obey the commandments because God has changed their heart, they are the ones who know God. They are the ones who can fellowship with God. My question for you is this. Do you see this? Do you understand this? Children, Christian, you know the father. You have been brought near to God. He's now your father. Live in this truth. Go on in this truth. Let it be in the forefront of your mind. Operate your lives around the fact that your sins have been forgiven and they're no longer a barrier between you and God. And out of all of that, you can now go right up to God. You can spend time with Him as a father. And think about what a father is. A father loves his children. A father wants to hear from his children. A father wants to be with his children. That's what a father wants to do. He wants to provide for his children. He wants to be there when they're struggling. He wants to minister to them. He wants to take care of them. And that's what God is to those who are believers, to all of those that John call little children, to you here today who have believed upon Christ and repented of your sin. You know the father. Now, why did John have to say that? You know the father. I mean, don't they already know this? Well, maybe. But once again, it's just like the forgiveness of sin. We need to hear this over and over because what happens when we sin or we stumble, we don't feel like we can go to the Father. We feel guilty. We feel at a distance. We feel like we have to do certain things or a time has to go by before we can go back and be with the Father. That's not the truth. Because of what Christ has done, you know the Father. He is your Father. Let's move on here. We see here that the word children addresses all Christians generally, but now he breaks those Christians up into two groups. There are those who would be classified under fathers and those who would be classified under young men. Now he uses the masculine here. He doesn't say, um, mothers or he doesn't say young women. He doesn't do that. It's kind of like when you refer to all of man, all the human race, how does the Bible refer to the human race? It calls them in the masculine men. That's how we're all referred to. And that's kind of what John is doing here when he talks about fathers and when he talks about young men, he's not speaking primarily just to the men. or the young men in this congregation, but everyone who is either mature in Christ who are not so mature, maybe younger, have just come to know the Lord. But let's look at these two groups. Let's start with the fathers. Verse 13. He says in verse 13, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Now skip down to verse 14. He says, I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Now, in this section, John is writing here to fathers, which would include those who are spiritually mature, those who have meditated long and who have come to understand the deep things of scripture. They're firmly planted. They're like the tree who has been planted. They are like the The oak of righteousness that the Lord's planting, the one that is by the water whose leaves do not wither. That's who John is addressing here. They are the ones who are unmoved by these false teachings that are attack upon the deity of Christ and the incarnation of Christ. These fathers here, as John says, they are the ones who know him who is from the beginning. Now notice he doesn't change anything here. He says the same thing in verses 13 and verse 14. He says, I'm writing you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you. using a past tense fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. In other words, they have come full circle in verse 13. He uses the present and first verse 14. He uses the past tense. So here we have it. They have come full circle. These mature ones, they started out in the in the past and they came to know Christ. They put their trust and faith in him. And they, like all children, they know the father. They know him. But here he gets specific. They know him who is from the beginning, who is from the beginning. First John one, one, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, we have seen with our eyes. He's talking about Jesus here. He says they know Christ. They have known him from the beginning. And you fathers, even now, you who are Christian and have matured and have come a long way in your life, even maybe you're at the end of your life. He says, you know. Him who was from the beginning. He doesn't change anything here about what they know. They knew Christ in the beginning and now they know Christ at the end or in their maturity. as a Christian. They have come full circle. Not only they come to Christ at the beginning, but they know Him now. They don't know a false Jesus like the false teachers do, but they know Him who is from the beginning. Who is from the beginning? They know the One who has truly come down. The Christ, the One whom is God's Son. They know Him who has come down and they have believed all of these things. They believe these things about Christ. And so they believe that and that truth they have held on to. And here they are more firmly planted in it than ever before. They even now, present tense, know him who is from the beginning. The ancient gospel they came to know years ago is the gospel that will lead them home. They go on in it. Now, that's true of every believer. We start out in Christ. And we will continue in Christ and we will continue to want to know him. Think about what Paul said. Paul knew Christ. He had seen the resurrected Lord. But in Philippians chapter 3 in verse 10, in one translation, it puts it this way. He is. Paul said this. My determined purpose is that I might know him. Know who, Paul? Christ, I thought you already knew him. He does. But he wants to know him even more. He wants to be acquainted with his sufferings. He wants to identify with him. And that's every believer. And that is what John is saying here. He is just reassuring. He is bolstering their assurance. These fathers, these mature in Christ, they've not really been shaken by these false teachers because they know God's word. They know who Christ is. But he wants to continue, no doubt, to bolster their assurance. And he says it this way. You know him, don't you? You know him from the beginning and you know him from the beginning now. Now, as we go on to this last group, he addresses the young men, that is the Christians who are younger in their walk, those Christians who are not as aged and matured as someone who has been walking with the Lord for for years. And notice what John says to them in verse 13. He says, I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. And he goes on to say in verse 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. Like I said, John is writing here to those who are what you might call babes in Christ, those who are not as mature as those fathers that he has just addressed. These are the Christians who are still learning to walk the Christian life. They're ones who They're living the Christian life, but they may not have got all the fundamentals down of the Christian life. And so they are young in their faith, but they are growing. They are believers. And to them, John reminds them of their confidence and their assurance of salvation by saying, you have overcome the evil one, i.e., that is, you are no longer in bondage to Satan. You're no longer bound to sin. You have been delivered from these things. Or as Paul puts it in Ephesians 2, though they've been dead in sin, now you are alive in Christ. Or as Paul said in Romans 6, once they were in bondage to sin, now they are no longer under the dominion of sin. That's what John is telling these young believers. And why would he say that to them? Well, what does a young believer often go through? Maybe he's young in his faith, maybe midway into maturity. He is in a struggle. He's in a battle. He's in a war. There's still temptations, there's snares, there's all kinds of things around him to trip him up. And so one of the things that we need to know is that we've overcome the evil one, that we're no longer in bondage to sin, that we're no longer under the dominion of Satan and his kingdom. Instead, we are now children of God. We have overcome the evil one. He no longer that Satan no longer controls us. Now, think about how important these words are for a young believer. I remember when I first became a believer, it wasn't probably 30 minutes after I had cried out to God to save me that immediately I knew I was in a battle. And that's how we all are. But we need to understand, even though we're doing battle with the flesh, even though we are at war with sin and we may feel weary, We need to hear these words. You have overcome the evil one. It's true. It may not seem like a reality in the in the midst of the battle and the conflict, but we need to hear this. The victories won. You know, as John will say later on, he talks about faith. It's the. The thing that causes us to overcome the world, our faith, and it's the same thing, our faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, because of all that he has done, we have overcome the evil one. The victory is ours. It may not seem that way, but it is true. The victory is ours. That's what every young believer needs to hear. We have overcome the evil one. Now he goes on here. with this powerful truth. He restates it, but he adds something to it. He said, 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. There it is again. He says you have overcome the evil one. He restates himself. He repeats himself. He wants them to get this. But how did this all happen? Did they overcome the evil one in their own strength? Not at all. When I read this, and he says, because he's talking about this spiritual battle, he says, I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you. I couldn't help but think of that passage that we looked at in Ephesians chapter six when we went through the book of Ephesians. There we learned what? What is John or what is Paul say in the midst of spiritual battle and the spiritual conflict? What are we to do? He says, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. And what does John say here? You are strong. Why are they strong? Because they're strong in the Lord. And then Paul goes on in Ephesians 6 to talk about how we are to put on the armor of God and be strong. We are to appropriate the gospel. We are to appropriate the word of God. We are to make use of it. We are to put it on piece by piece. And that is how we do battle. And that is what John seems to be saying here. You are strong. And how are you strong? The word of God abides in you as you are. Think of what the psalmist said in Psalm 119. How can a young man keep his way pure? by keeping it according to your word. When God's word is abiding in us and we know the truth, we shall not be shaken. We are strong in God's word. We're not strong in and of ourselves, but we are strong as believers when the word of God abides in us. And when the word of God abides in us, we have also overcome the evil one. All of these things working together, and they all go back to what God has done in us and is doing in us presently. It is by the power of God that we are strong. It is by the word of God that he gives us and by what Christ has done that we can overcome the evil one. That is what John is saying here. And he's using all of this to encourage these young believers with these things in the midst of the battle, in the midst of living out the Christian life. And they were in a battle because the false teachers that they were having to deal with. As John said in verse 26 of chapter two, he said, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. They were trying to deceive them. They were trying to get them to not believe the truths about Christ, which would undermine their assurance. And so John is reminding them of all of these things. He's reminding the old, the young and all of them of the gospel. He's reminding them of Christ and the victory that is theirs, that their sins have been forgiven. and that they know God and that they are strong and the word of God abides in them and they've overcome the evil one and they know him who is from the beginning, Jesus Christ. It is these things that will strengthen our assurance. And it is these things that John writes in order to do that very thing, to bolster their assurance. He writes that they might know that they have eternal life. And this is one of the things that he writes. He reminds them of all that is theirs in Christ and who they are in Christ. That's what we need to know as believers, all of us, no matter where we are on the spectrum of life in the Christian life, whether we're young or old, whether we are not as mature or mature, we need to know the gospel. We need to have the gospel always put before us. May we dwell on these things. May we dwell on the things that we have learned here today. May you remind yourself that you are forgiven in Christ. May you remind yourself that you know the Father. May you remind yourself that in the midst of temptation and all of that, you've overcome the evil one. You've overcome because you are a conqueror in Christ. Christ has set you free from sin and death. He has delivered you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son. That's what God has done for you, believer. If you are not a believer here today, if you've never trusted in Christ, when I say believer, I mean you've never trusted in Christ alone for your salvation and you've never repented of your sin. And none of these things are yours. You're still in your sins. And if you continue in your sin, it means you do not. If you continue in sin, it means that you do not have eternal life, but you have eternal hell awaiting you. If you are still in your sins, you do not know God, despite what you may say, despite who you may deceive. You do not know God. You do not know him at all. You do not know him who is from the beginning and you've not overcome the evil one. The evil one has overcome you. And you're under his influence, you are under his in his kingdom, and he is the one who works in you. Why? Because, as John will say later on, you are a child of the devil if you have never trusted in Christ. But the good news of the gospel is this, that even though you're a sinner, even though you've rebelled against the holy God and there's no reason whatsoever that he should save you or save you or to to cleanse you from your sins, He has done that. He's made a way possible through Jesus Christ. And if you will repent of your sin, and you will trust in Christ alone for your salvation, and cry out to God to save you, He will save you. Because those who come to Christ, He will by no means cast out. He will abundantly pardon, and He desires to be gracious and merciful to sinners. And He does all of this for His glory. Let's pray. Father, as we come to you, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the gospel truths of who we are and whose we are in Christ and all that is ours in Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us through this. I pray that you would bolster our assurance, not just that when we die, we will go to heaven, but that, Lord, we know you, that our sins have been forgiven and we can approach the throne of a holy God. Help us, Lord, to get this. And in the midst of this battle that we go through in this world, fighting with sin, struggling against the things that seek to just cause us to stumble. I pray, Lord, that you will remind us of these truths, remind us that we are strong in the Lord, that we have the word of God, the truth that we can wield as a sword against the air that comes against us. And we have overcome the evil one because of what Christ has done, who has come to destroy the works of the devil. Lord, we thank you for the gospel. Strengthen us in it today in Jesus's name. Amen.