People write letters for a variety of reasons. I don't know if you've had the joy of receiving a handwritten letter in your life. In fact, this past week, Jeff and I received such. And it was a joy because these friends had taken the time to actually write with their hand a personal letter to us.

I can remember growing up when we didn't have the computer, and we didn't have email, which I use, or messages, which I tend to use a lot, waiting for the letter from my grandmother. Now, my grandmother did not have a lot of education, but she'd learn what she could learn on her own so that she could write to me. and I was separated from them. And so often I did not get to see them. So, I would write an anticipation for her letter. And even though it did not say a lot, it communicated a lot. What it communicated was her love and care for me.

Well, in Paul's and John's day in the first century, we're talking 2000 years ago, Letter writing was common in some respects. It was certainly an arduous, that is, a labor-intensive effort, because to write a letter, you had to write it out on parchment, either of animal skin or papyri, sort of a paper product. So I can visualize the aged apostle John, as he takes a quill that is probably like a feather, and he dips it in ink, and he writes to the church in Ephesus.

Now, the church in Ephesus is where John had been pastor, and perhaps he's still pastor. The church in Ephesus, however, because the churches met in homes, like we do, it did not hold a thousand people. That would mean that there would be various meetings in the area. And those groups that met in those particular locations would have elders; they would have leaders in the church group. But John is like the overseeing pastor. He was the founder. And so, he has concern on his heart for his children in the faith. And he writes his epistles to them.

The first John is written to the groups. He calls him, my little children, my beloved children. He uses that word frequently in his letter. He writes to them as their spiritual father. For many of them, possibly he had led the faith in Christ and many of them he probably trained in the fundamentals of the faith.

Now the church is always in danger. It's always confronted with enemies from without. and many times enemies that are within. Because you see, the enemy is ever vigilant. He is ever looking for opportunities to undermine the church, to destroy Christ's work, or to work in the lives of people that they are shamed and shame their Lord because of their behavior, to infiltrate the church with false teachings, teachings of doctrine that can undermine the very truth of the message of Christ, leading to false ideas of how one can relate to God, and to false assurance that one has a pathway to God when it does not truly exist.

So, John's letters are very important, and they're an expression of his heart. Now, as we have been reading his letter, we notice that he begins with what we might call a preface, and really, he's saying at the very beginning, I'm writing about the word of life. And he talks in terms of the incarnation. So, we know that the word of life and eternal life is Jesus Christ himself. We find that in 1 John 1, verses one through three. And also, it is paralleled in many respects to the gospel of John's prologue, where again, we're confronted with the fact that the Word has always been with the Father and that the Word became flesh. He became incarnate and dwelt among us. And so, John writes about the Lord Jesus Christ but then he takes up challenges, the challenge of the true versus the false. And we looked in the past about his challenge of those who have the wrong idea about sin and their relationship to it and their relationship to God.

John's writing at times is stark, at times is very disconcerting. And if we do not follow the chain of thought, it can even be a little confusing. You see, the demands of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are never lessened. We sometimes have a tendency because they are impossible demands, the life that God has marked out for us, humanly speaking, are just impossible. You look in the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus finishes it with these words; be you as perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. That's our standard. Our standard is that we are to walk as Jesus walked. We're to live like Jesus lived. We're to talk like Jesus talked. We're to live holy lives, totally dedicated to God. Those are the demands.

And just last week, we read in his letter about the two commandments. The commandment that's old but ever new. that we're to love God with all that we are, and we're to love God just like Jesus loved the Father. We're to walk and live as Jesus walked and lived in relationship to the Father. And our love for God must be reflected and overflow to our love for one another as members of the family of God. So, love God and love the brothers and sisters, love the church.

Now John's been writing this and now he knows there's the danger of false teaching. He's gonna pick that up again. And there is the danger of sin in the life of believers. There is the danger of false professors being in the church, infiltrating and influencing the members of the church. Influencing them to believe wrong, to act wrong, to neglect what God wants him to do.

I can imagine that John in some respects has sort of a heavy heart, a joyful but heavy heart. I don't know if you've experienced this sort of contradictions almost within our lives. Because of what God in Christ has done for us, he ever has joy and he's writing so that the joy of those to whom he writes will be full. He wants the joy to be complete. And the Christian life is a joyful life because we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have a future, a bright future that those who are not in the family of God do not have. We have an eternal future.

Even if death invades and it will, even if death comes to us, and it will unless Christ intervenes by coming again. And even then, we must be transformed in the resurrection. We must be transformed in the meeting to Him in the air we are living. In other words, our mortal bodies must become immortal through the work of God in Christ in the resurrection of the dead. But to do so, we will then be in eternal fellowship on a new heaven, a new earth. Christians have a bright and glorious future.

But you know that struggles, the struggles of life, the struggles that are confronting the church both within and outside, and the necessity of living a completed and fully dedicated life to God in Christ can be at some points almost overwhelming. And yet we must never make excuses. We must never lower the bar, either for ourselves or for what God expects in those who belong to Him. But we must understand that the Christian life is lived through relationship with God in Jesus Christ and by the presence and in working power of the Holy Spirit. We are not left defenseless and therefore we are without excuse. So, John's been writing, and I can imagine he's been thinking, oh, this is a heavy, this is a heavy message. And he thinks, will this cause my people to be discouraged? Will it cause them to be overwhelmed? And I think it's this internal mental thought. We're not told this. So, I am projecting myself into the mind of John. I'm assuming as if I were John, I would think, you know, my people may be discouraged or overwhelmed by my warnings and by my effort to show the difference between the genuine believer and the false professor.

The one who is in league with the enemy of our souls and therefore sowing false doctrine and moral problems within the life of the church and those who are joyfully living the faith. Let me show you what I'm talking about. If you take the Bible and you turn to 1 John 1-2, 1 John 1, and then 1 John 2. You know, we have this in chapter one, walk in the light, be no darkness. He talks about the power of Christ to forgive us of our sins so that our fellowship is maintained. He points to Christ as our advocate. And then he comes to this, by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. And so, he tells us what those commandments are, which I've already spelled out for you.

And so, he writes in verse 11, but whoever hates his brother is in darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. Drop down to verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of eyes, pride and possessions is not from the father, but it's from the world. Now notice by my reading verse 11 and then reading verse 15, there's continuity, right? But instead, he gets to the end of verse 11, what we call verse 11, and then he says, "I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. 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're strong and the word of God abides you and you have overcome the evil one. And then do not love the world for the things of the world.

It's sort of like, It's almost like he's out of place, right? It's a parentheses. If I'm writing this letter, I can take this parentheses, what I just read, I can take it out, extract it, and the letter flows on. And yet John, as if he's been overcome my conjecture, with what might be happening in the minds and emotions of those to whom he writes. He wants to pause and he wants to encourage them and comfort them and assure them that they belong to God in Christ. He's not meaning to sow doubt. He is wanting to give a warning and he is wanting to give us the goal that we must press with all of our power toward. But on the other hand, he does not want us to become overwhelmed, discouraged and for that falter. And so he writes, I'm writing to you. And notice it's very structure, very structure. He writes six, basically six statements. And those statements are in a set of two with three in each set. He addresses little children, little children. Now, little children, we think Levi, right? He's a little child. Or even in his younger days, it's a little child. Is he writing little children, these things, chronologically, biologically? Throughout the letter of 1 John, he uses the language little children. So, we know he's not writing chronologically. He's writing to their relationship to God and to him.

My little children. They're his spiritual children. He loves them very much. He's related to them as a father to his children, spiritually speaking, because they've been birthed by the word of God. and nurtured by the word of God. So, I'm writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. And then he goes on, I'm writing to you fathers.

So it could be that he has in mind the older, but you know, spiritually speaking, biology, chronology of biology, biological chronology, I'm tripping on that word, right? It really doesn't amount to anything spiritually because you can have a man to be in his 60s when he comes to faith in Christ. Well, because he's 60 and he becomes a faith in Christ does not make him, i.e., a strong believer. He is birthed into the kingdom of God just like the teenager that came to faith in God. He's a little child, spiritually speaking to God.

So, I don't believe John's talking in chronological age physically, but he is talking about maturity, spiritual maturity. The fathers in the church are those who have spiritual maturity, and from them, the leadership of the church should come. But there's no indication that he's only writing to elders. He's writing to spiritually mature believers.

I'm writing to you, fathers. because you know him who is from the beginning. And then I'm writing to you young men. Again, we might think of late adolescence and early adulthood when there is the strength of life physically. When we're moving toward the apex of our strength and abilities, you know, late late 20s, the early 30s, mid 30s. We're at the apex. We're moving strong, you know, virulent. He writes to the young man because you're strong.

Now there's a little distinction he makes. He makes these parallel statements, and he's doing sets of two. So, there's a difference in the children, in the faith, and the young man, by addition. He says the exact same thing to the fathers both times.

Now we're gonna explore this for just a minute because by doing this, John is giving us three essential fundamentals. that every Christian needs to know. And although these may be related spiritually to these developmental ages so that we need these particular words at these stages in our lives, the truth is that we all need all of this. So, though he addresses particular groups, we're all to benefit and to have the same reality in our lives.

So let's look at them together. I'm writing to you little children, the Christian standard writes, since your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. A few translations says that, but I think the primary best translation is because. He's writing it for a reason, and these are the reasons He's writing them. He says, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. Dear children, your sins are forgiven you. for the sake of the name Jesus Christ.

So, the very first thing that we need to know, this very first fundamental, is that we are forgiven we need to understand the reality of the forgiveness of our sins and how that comes about. Those who are not related to God through faith in Jesus Christ, who are not his little children, do not have the forgiveness of sin. But the first reality that a Christian has when they come to conscious faith in Christ and that's expressed usually in baptism, is that they are forgiven. They know the joy of the forgiveness of their sins. And the second thing is that they know God is their father.

Notice the second parallel statement about the children. He says, first, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven. And down below, I'm writing to you, children, because you've come to know the Father. So, there's two basic realities that occurs in the life of a person when they come to faith in God through and in Jesus Christ and His atoning work for them.

The whole reason God can forgive the sin of any person is because Christ has taken the punishment of that sin upon his own body on the tree. And when we have faith in him, the guilt of our sin is transferred as it were to him, though this has already occurred objectively in history. and the righteousness of Christ that he wrought by his own righteous life and the punishment that he paid, that pays the debt of our sin, is transferred to us. So, there's this great exchange, our sin and shame, Christ takes, his righteousness and relationship to God, we take. That's a glorious exchange. A wonderful exchange.

Little children, I'm writing to you because your sins have been forgiven. It says on the account of his name, that shows why. Why have my sins been forgiven? Why? Why is it possible or righteous for God to forgive me of my sin? It's because of Jesus Christ in his name. Let me share some scriptures with you. I'm writing to you children because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

We're getting ready to celebrate the festival of the incarnation. That is, we're remembering when the word became flesh and dwelt among us as the man, Christ Jesus. Matthew 1, 21 says, Jesus is being referenced. The angel is speaking to Joseph. He says, she that is Mary will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, or Hebrew, Yeshua. for he will save his people from their sins. The whole reason for Jesus coming into the world is to save his people from their sin.

The book of Acts tells us how the early church interpreted the command of Christ and what sharing the gospel is, how we're to share the gospel. In Acts, we have repeatedly this idea of the forgiveness of sin. Listen, I'm going to read several verses chronologically. On the day of Pentecost, when the crowd cried out, what must we do? Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Belief in the name, that is belief in the person and work of Jesus Christ results in the forgiveness of sins. Then expressed in baptism.

Acts 4.12, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men, given among people by which we must be saved. The only saving name is the name Jesus, the Messiah Jesus. When Peter is making a defense before the religious leaders, he says in Acts 5 31, God exalted him, that is Jesus, at his right hand as leader and savior to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. When Peter goes to Cornelius' household, he presents the gospel to him, and then he says in 1043, to him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him, he's talking about Jesus of Nazareth, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. And I could go on in the book of Acts, or we can open up almost any of the epistles, and we'll find the same truth. The forgiveness of sins can come to us only through Jesus Christ. God forgives our sins on the basis of the name of Jesus Christ.

This doesn't mean speaking his name like some kind of formula. It means His name as His person, His work, believing who He says He is, and believing in what He has done by His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. So, Paul writes in Ephesians 1, we in Jesus, in Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. How is this done? Peter tells us, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed.

And Paul wrote in Romans 3, 24, we are justified, that is, we're declared righteous by His grace, that His undeserved favor as a gift, as a donation through the redemption that is a purchase by blood that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation, that is, is the sacrifice that bears the punishment of sin through a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in him, divine forbearance had passed over former sins.

You see, all of this supports the commission we're given in Luke 24, 47. Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. John wants his believers, his little children, to know that they have been forgiven, that they have a relationship with God, that sin has been dealt with, and they're justified, that is, declared right before God. Their status before Him is the status that's bestowed upon them through Jesus Christ.

Now, the earlier letter, words that he wrote, he's talking about our relationship in reality of the fellowship of walking with him here and now. He's speaking about what we call sanctification, the Christian life. And so, we forgive; we confess our sins week by week. We do it as a congregation. We become aware that we not lived up to all the expectation to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors ourselves. And honestly, before God, we name it before him.

Now, Christ has already taken care of that. We are justified before God, but we need to be cleansed. And Jesus gave the great parable when he washed his disciples' feet. Peter said, wait, take care of my whole body. And Jesus said, if you've already had a bath, I only need to wash your feet. And so, we come to wash our feet as disciples of Christ, as forgiven sinners who are experienced in the reality of our daily lives, the cleansing renewal that the blood of Christ brings to us. It keeps our relationship and our fellowship with God fresh, vital to neglect the forgiveness for confession of our sin is to invite a separation of our conscious awareness of God in our lives.

Well, the second thing is not only do we have the forgiveness of sins, and he's not talking about, I've loved how Lloyd-Jones expresses that, sometimes we have to understand things by a group of negatives, a statement of negatives. For instance, when he says the forgiveness of sins, he does not say because you're hoping you'll be forgiven. He didn't say that. He doesn't say you're uncertain about your forgiveness. He doesn't say that. He says, I'm writing to you because your sins are forgiven. A Christian, A true believer, one who is related to God through faith in Christ, knows that his sins have been forgiven for Christ's sake. He knows he is a forgiven sinner because of what Jesus did on the cross.

There's a second thing. He writes; I write to you little children, verse 13, because you know the Father. What prayer did Jesus teach us to pray? When the disciples ask him, teach us, Lord Jesus, how to pray. We see you praying; we hear you praying. We know about praying. We say and pray the Psalms. And Jesus said to them, when you pray, say, our Father. Let this be our model of prayer. Approach God as your Father. Because you know the Father.

You see, Jesus, He's the only begotten Son of God. He's the unique Son of God. He is the Word who has always eternally existed with the Father. There's never been a time when the Word did not exist. But there did come a time when the Word became flesh. And he related to God the Father as a human being on the same level, in the same dimension of life that we're in. And in his own body, the man Christ Jesus, who retained his deity, wrought for us our salvation by his cross work. The result of that, is that He establishes for us, those who believe and trust in Him, the same relationship to the Father that He has.

Because you are sons, Paul writes in Galatians 4, 6, and because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, Abba, Father, Papa, Daddy, Father, Abba, Romans 8, verse 15. Speaking of Christians, Paul writes, for you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by sonship, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Yes, we are the servants of God, but we're choice servants. We're sons and daughters of God. Who serve Him because we love Him, who serve Him because He loves us.

This is the first essential reality of the Christian, to know the forgiveness of our sins and the fact that God is our Father. Now, our Father, under the biblical pattern, under the God pattern, is one who provides abundantly for his children in accordance with his own means. And God has what means? All means. God has everything and who protects his children and who aids them in coming to maturity. Now, maybe your father was not like that. Maybe your father is. But God the father is always like that. The one who protects, the one who provides, the one who loves, the one who is there to guide, to teach, and to instruct.

Well, that's just the little children. But we need to know it, don't we? All of us need to know that. And this is the first basic reality. of our relationship to God, our fellowship with God.

There's a second. It's related to, now notice he says fathers. You would think he would say children, young adults, father. No. He breaks it up. He says little children and father. Why? Because he just got through speaking about father. It's what he says. You fathers, I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Now, I've not burdened you with all the different explanations about this and that verse. Because you know him who is from the beginning. We would think on the context he has referenced to the father, and perhaps it is to the father, at least indirectly, it's always to the father. But we know that he began his letter talking about who? Talking about Jesus.

So if I turn to 1 John 1, and I read these words, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we've seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father; it was made manifest to us. that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ.

So, he's speaking about who? It appears to me He's speaking about Jesus Christ, because you've known him who is from the beginning. So, he's talking about those who have grown in Christ to a state of maturity.

Listen to John 14, 7. If you had known me, Jesus says, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. How do we know the father? We know the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. That's what John 1, 1 is saying. And in Gospel of John, it says that the Word was in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Jesus says this in Matthew 11, 27, all things have been entrusted to me by my father. No one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. So, I write to you fathers because you've known him who was from the beginning.

Now, why does he call these mature Christians fathers? Well, he's not talking about chronology and biology. He's talking about spiritual development. Those who have shared the faith and nurtured others in the faith. those who have spread the gospel by proclaiming it, teaching it, living it, and they have had spiritual children birth from their witness and their teaching. You've known Him. You've known the Father.

So, there's this idea of a passing of time and progress in the faith. Hebrews chapter 5 begins to take up this. He writes to the Hebrews and he says, by this time, you should be able to eat the food for the mature, but I'm afraid you're a little retarded in your development, so I've got to give you some milk. I know that's not politically correct terminology, but nevertheless, it's what the scriptures say. In other words, they're slow development. Where they should have been mature, they're still in childhood or young. adolescence.

So, the fathers, I write to you because you have known the father, because you know the father, because you know him who is from the beginning. And then he writes to the young men. Now it's interesting because the young men he takes the most time with. I wonder why. I mean, again, I have to do a little conjecturing here, which means it's not written in black and white, okay? But it is, I think, a valid inference from the word of God.

Who must bear the brunt of spiritual warfare? Now, it's true that the young children in the faith can certainly be attacked by the enemy, but many times at the very beginning, they are full of the knowledge of the forgiveness of their sins and the relationship with the God that's been established. So that the enemy sort of is a little hands-off, he can't quite penetrate that. But as time goes on, what happens? Whoop, bing, temptation comes in, bing, uh-oh. I stepped aside from the path. And then that starts to work on us, right? Well, as we grow in the faith, young men in the faith, we're not on an easy road toward our heavenly destination. We are in the war. And we're called to bear the brunt of the battle The battle against false teaching, the battle against immorality, the battle against those things that would undermine the Christian lifestyle.

The Christian lifestyle is the life like Christ lived. We're to walk as Christ walked. I write to you, young men, Now, it is a little startling how he says these things. Just let it hit you, okay? I'm writing to you, young man. I think this is verse 12. I need to be sure I have it in front of me. I'm writing to you, not verse 12, but verse 13, B. I'm writing to you, young man, because you have conquered the evil one.

Now, doesn't that strike you? He doesn't say, I'm right at you because, you know, you're in the middle of the battle. That's part of the way I presented it, right? But John didn't do that. He presented it this way. I'm right at you, young man, because you have conquered the evil one. Now, if you're a young man in the faith, you may be scratching your head and thinking, well, you don't know the last battle I just had that I feel like I didn't quite make it. So, what is he talking about?

Well, he's talking about the fact that in Jesus Christ, remember, your faith is where? It's not in you. Your faith is in Jesus Christ. And who has defeated the enemy? Jesus. And where did he defeat the enemy? He defeated him at the cross. Now that's a paradoxical statement because it appeared, and this is certainly what the Jewish leaders thought, ah, he's done for now. But no. On the third day, he rose from the dead. And in between his death on the cross and his resurrection, he visited the land of the shadows, and he proclaimed his victory, not only for himself, but for all those who are united to him.

What's the first promise God gives about the gospel? Genesis 3, 15. After Adam and Eve have sinned and openly transgressed the command of God, and they're cast out of the garden, God provides a cloak for them by the shedding of the blood of an animal. And then he says to Eve that, well, actually he says that all of this great promise is spoken directly to the serpent. The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. We call that the pro evangelum, the first word of the gospel.

I'm writing to you, young man, because you have conquered the evil one. We conquer in Jesus Christ. He expands it in verse 14. I've written to you, Father. I'm sorry. I'm written to you, young man, because you are strong. Notice these words. These are words of encouragement. Their words are reminding you who you are in Christ. This is so important. If you want to win in the spiritual battle of life, you must know who you are in Jesus Christ. You are strong. I'm writing to you, young men, because you are strong. Where are you strong? You are strong in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, Paul's, I mean, John's gonna go from here to the great battle we have, worldliness. If there's a battle that we are constantly losing in the Christian church today in America, it's worldliness. Worldliness affects the church negatively, but it's accepted. We'll wait for that. Pastor Jeff will tend to that next week. I render you, young man, because you're strong." How are they strong? What's the basis of their strength? Well, he tells us, God's word remains in you, and you have conquered the evil one. I'm strong in Jesus Christ where my faith resides. And I'm strong because God's Word remains in me, and by means of the Word, I have conquered the evil one.

Now, this should tell us how important it is that we hear the Word read, that we read the Word for ourselves, that we hear the Word taught and preached, and we, in turn, internalize it, memorize it, sing it, share it, preach it. God's Word is essential to your spiritual life. You must not depend on the verse of the day. are just what the preacher says in the sermon, where many churches, they only read a little text of scripture, and that's the only scripture you hear in the word, in the word of service. No, read the word of God. You must hear it read.

In the early church, they didn't have these Bibles they could carry with them, and they also could not whip out their phones. What did they do? They had to listen. Listen as the word was read by the reader. And they had to pay attention as the word was taught. And they had to try to internalize it, memorize it, share it with others. This is what we're called to do.

And as we do so, it's like the exercise we do with our bodies. You take good food, good nourishment of the word of God, and you exercise, exercise your body, exercise your soul, exercise your mind. And you do that. by a life of devotion, of worship to God. We must not depend only on Sundays or Saturdays. We must daily have an intake of God's truth. If you can't read it, at least recall it. And really there's no excuse in our day and age. Certainly not for me. Have you seen the house? The Bibles are everywhere, but it must be where? In the mind, in the heart, and use.

How did Jesus overcome temptation? And the temptation was strong. He would say to the enemy, it is written. And then when the devil quoted scripture to him out of context, Jesus said, it is written. And he showed him the other scripture that helped understand the first one. It is written.

Now he's gonna follow all of these statements of status, of realities, of the essentials that we need to know with strong warnings against worldliness and against the Antichrist. And the antichrist he's talking about is not one that's to come, but one that's already here and active. We'll see that in the future.

So, where are you in your spiritual development? There's a particular word that God has for you in these verses, but the word is also applicable to all of us. in all of our life. These are the fundamentals. I know my sins are forgiven because of Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done for the salvation of my soul. I know God the Father in Jesus Christ, and therefore, in the forgiveness of my sins, I have a relationship with God to where I speak to him, Father, Abba, Father, the relationship of love, the relationship of caring, the relationship of obedience and I have a relationship with God that calls me to engage, not set on the sidelines, but engage in the spiritual warfare.

In the spiritual battles in the world, the spiritual battles that come against the church of which I'm a part, the spiritual battles that seek to undermine my own relationship with the Father, the spiritual battles that seek to prevent the spread of the gospel of Christ. But I have all I need. I have Christ and I have his word that remains in me. And by means of it, I have conquered the evil one. I believe this is a word for us today. A word of encouragement, also a word of challenge. If you do not know the forgiveness of your sins, if you do not know that that's the reality in your life, then the word of God says, come to me. Come all you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.

The invitation that God gives us is to believe in his son, who has undertaken the work on our behalf. Born our sin in his own body on the tree, so that if we yield our lives to him, we give ourselves in faith. That's the work of God. We trust him. We look to him. We cling to him. That's a change. A change takes place.

In fact, it's a change that produces this. We're given new life, life from above. And that life is always expressed, expressed in faith, expressed in a change, a change in our lives, a change in our thinking, a change in how we want to live and how we relate to God. God's ready always to save those who come to Him through faith in Christ. We can know the forgiveness of our sins, and we can know God as our heavenly Father, not remote, not just some cosmic force, but the person of God, and the great reality of His triumphant being, and so that it becomes natural to us and our own lips to speak, Father, Father, I come to you in Jesus' name. Hear me, hear me.

I'm writing to you, little children, and to you, fathers, and to you, young men, because your sins have been forgiven. You've known him who is from the beginning. You conquered the evil one, and you were strong. God words remains in you to go on winning the spiritual battles in which you are engaged. May God help us to realize who we are in Christ and to live accordingly. Amen.

We shall respond by singing hopefully an appropriate hymn

I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. What have you committed? Your soul, your very life, your life in Christ.

Father, we thank you for your word that is revealed to us the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ and is granted to us an increased knowledge of who we are in him. Take now your word, O Lord, and work it deep within our minds and deep within our emotions to inflame us with great zeal and passion for you and vigilance with the word of truth that we might fight as strong men and women against the wiles of the enemy that would seek to undermine our lives and to weaken your church. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.