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Well, if you'll open your Bibles to 1 John, 1 John chapter 2, we're going to be looking at verses 12 through 14, 1 John chapter 2, 12 through 14. One of the nice things about not preaching frequently, being a new preacher, is that you get to rest in the fact that the power doesn't come from yourself, but it comes from the Word of God.
We're talking about assurance tonight, and that's my assurance here, that God's Word does not return to him void. So, 1 John chapter 2, verses 12 through 14, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.
I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. 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. The Word of the Lord.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your Word, for inspiring men through the Holy Spirit to write infallibly, inerrantly, and giving us truth that we can come to know you. And thank you that your Word doesn't leave us doubting our salvation, but assures us that we can rest in you, that we have assurance through Christ.
In Christ's name, amen. Well, several months ago, I decided to go hiking with Bill. Bill takes Wachusetts frequently, and I do not. But I thought, I'll go with Bill, and I shouldn't have a problem. We went early in the morning.
I know Wachusetts is just barely a mountain, so even though I don't hike much, I thought, no problem. But I did have one requirement in my mind, and that is I would not slow Bill down. I did not want to be the guy who's like, hang on, give me a second to breathe.
I've got to make it, and I've got to match Bill's pace. What I didn't know is that Bill can hike much faster than I can. So like halfway up, maybe a third, I don't know how far we were up, I thought, I'm either going to pass out, throw up, or both.
It was not good. Fortunately, Bill slowed down for me, but my biggest problem was that I didn't know how far I had left to go. I knew I had a little energy left, but I'd never hiked Wachusetts before, and I didn't know how close we were to the top.
What I needed is somebody to come by me and tell me, you're almost there. You can make it. I know how strong you are. I know how far the top is. I needed that assurance to say, yes, you can do that. And the Christian life is similar.
We need assurance. Depending where you are on your walk, whether you're a new Christian or you've been a mature Christian, we all need that assurance, what I'm calling assurance along the way, assurance that we will make it.
You probably can all name people that you know, friends that you've had who professed faith in Christ and seemed to love God, and then suddenly they abandoned the faith, walked away and denied Christ, denied even the existence of God.
And sometimes you think, is that me? Is my faith a lie? Am I not truly saved? We need this assurance. Good. That's good. No. That's what I'm going to tell you. No. So, Christian, John in this passage wants you to know three things.
He wants you to know, Christian, that you can have assurance that your sins are forgiven. You can have assurance that you know the Father, and you can have assurance that you have overcome. This is a special place in John's epistle because it's the only time that John breaks into poetry.
And even though he's writing in the Greek, he uses Hebrew parallelism. You know, he's steeped in the Old Testament, so he uses this Hebrew parallelism. He talks about children, fathers, young men, and then he turns around again and goes, children, fathers, young men.
So as we're looking at the first point, be assured that you're forgiven, it's important that we first know who are the children. Is he just talking about the children or the newly saved people who are forgiven?
And then maybe, you know, you can lose your salvation later on. Well, the interesting thing here is that even though he starts Hebrew parallelism, he basically immediately breaks it. If you look, he uses the same word for father both times, same word for young men both times.
But when he talks about children, it's two separate words in the Greek. That's why in the ESV, you have little children at the top, and then later on, children. And he does that for a very specific reason.
He wants you to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when he says children, he's talking to you, the entire congregation. How do I know that? Well, that's the address that he uses throughout this epistle to refer to all believers.
Look at verse one in this chapter. He says, my little children, same word, I'm writing to you these things so that you may not sin. If you look at chapter three, verse one, he says the same thing. See what kind of love the father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.
So he starts out by addressing the entire congregation. And we could say one more thing about this word here. It's a term of endearment. It shows, it really displays a pastor's heart. It's not a common word.
We only see it in John's epistle here, and then once more in the entire New Testament on the lips of Jesus in John chapter 13, I think. But Jesus is telling his disciples that he's about to go up to the, he's about to be betrayed.
And he says, my little children. It's a term of endearment. John heard it on the lips of Jesus and he takes it to show his love and compassion for his flock. And isn't it a wonderful thing that we have pastors and elders like that, elders who aren't just up here or pastors who just aren't up here to get a paycheck, preach, go home and forget about it.
But pastors who really love us. It shows the heart of a pastor there. But what does he want to tell the little children? He wants to, he was writing to them first because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.
We hear that language, sins, forgiveness all the time. So sometimes it's helpful to stop and define it. What John is talking about when he says sins, he defines in this epistle elsewhere. So in chapter three, verse four, he says that sin is lawlessness.
That's why the Westminster Shorter Catechism can say that sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. Basically, sin is not doing what God commands and doing what God commands not to do.
And we know that the root of sin is unbelief. You know that in the beginning, the very first sin, man had that choice. Am I going to believe what God says or am I going to believe what Satan says? Satan's temptation is did God really say?
So at the end of it, sin is unbelief. But what what happens to our sins? They're forgiven and forgiveness. We often think of in terms of forgetting, you know, we say forgive and forget. And that's true.
God remembers our sins no more. But the fundamental meaning of that word is actually separation. It's even used in First Corinthians to talk about divorce. He's saying that your sins are separated from you.
So Psalm 103, we have that as our sins have been separated as far as the east is from the west. And then notice one more thing. I really don't like talking about grammar because I really don't like grammar, but I have to in this text because it's just wonderful.
He says your sins are forgiven. It's in the Greek. It's something that's happened in the past with continuing significance in the presence. What he doesn't say is that your sins will be forgiven. He doesn't say your sins are in the process of being forgiven, but your sins are forgiven.
And he doesn't qualify sins. He doesn't say the past sins before you were a Christian are forgiven. And now you have to make up if you, you know, you don't just have this clean slate that you better not mess up again.
No, your sins, all your sins are forgiven. Well, what's the ground of that forgiveness? John says here, your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Again, what does he not say? He doesn't say your sins are forgiven because you walk in the light.
He doesn't say your sins are forgiven because you keep his commandments and he doesn't say your sins are forgiven because you love your brother. Those are all things he's talked about previously in this epistle as as evidences that you are saved.
They're the fruits of your salvation. But that's not the ground of your salvation, the ground of your salvation. Your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. Here, the translation is not quite, quite right.
It would be better translated on account of his name. For his name's sake sounds a little bit like your sins are forgiven so that you can glorify God, you can glorify his name. That is true. But that is not what John is saying.
Your sins are forgiven on account of his name. And when John says on account of his name, he refers to the person and work of Christ. It's just shorthand for who Christ is and what Christ has done. What John is saying is Christian, your sins are forgiven.
Why? Because God, the incarnate son of God, he came down, he became man. He lived a perfect life and he died the death that you deserve. So that's the encouragement. That's the assurance John wants to give to all believers.
Why are you forgiven? You're forgiven because of what Christ has done. And that's wonderful because it's no longer based on what you've done. It's not even your sins are forgiven because you've confessed all your sins.
Because you could you imagine if that was the requirement that as long as you confessed every sin, then you would have forgiveness. Because I know in my life, I'll suddenly realize something I did, you know, two weeks ago, maybe just two minutes ago, was sinfully motivated.
And I had no idea if we had to confess all our sins, we would be in so much trouble because we don't know the depths of our sinful nature. But our sins, our forgiveness is not based on the quality of our confession.
It's based on the quality of Christ's life. It's based on account of his name. But what does forgiveness lead to? It's not just this thing where you, you know, it's not your get out of jail free card that you get a monopoly and you sit down, leave it there.
You forget about it until you finally get in jail. You know, you don't do that with your forgiveness. You don't put it in your back pocket, wait till you die, and then you pull it out and get to take the train to heaven.
That's not what John is saying here. Forgiveness has implications and we find those implications in what he says to the children in the bottom of verse 13. He says, I write to you children because you know the father.
The implication of forgiveness is adoption. You're brought into the kingdom of God and you're a child of God now. Again, that that word, no, it's the same type of thing. It's not like you've been forgiven.
Now learn about the father. It's, you know, the father, it's a completed action in the past with continuing significance in the presence. But what is this type of knowledge? Really? I know some of you have those Pokemon cards that have all the stats of the Pokemon that you, you know, when you can play, you can read what the Pokemon does.
Is that the type of knowledge? Is it just merely intellectual? You can pull out your God card and say, oh yes, I know God because he has attributes, is incommunicable and communicable, and we can talk about his aseity and all of that.
That's how I know God. It's all up here. No, that's not at all what the word no means. The word no is covenantal language. It means you have an experiential relationship with God. And we see that even because John doesn't say, you know, God, but he says, you know, the father.
What passage is John thinking about here? It's very clear that John has in his mind as he's writing to the children, Jeremiah 31, that wonderful new covenant promise that God gave to Jeremiah. If you look at Jeremiah 31 verses 33 through 34, I'll just read them.
This is God speaking for this is the covenant that I will make with the house, the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God.
And they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, no, the Lord. For they shall all know me from the least of them. That's why he can say it even to the children from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord.
For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. So even in this passage, we see forgiveness and the knowledge of God tied together. Later on, John's going to say, and we already read this, John 3, 1, see what kind of love the father has given us.
That's that forgiveness that we should be called children of God. And so we are. And what does it mean to be adopted? Well, I think one of the best summaries of what it, what adoption is, is found in the London Baptist confession.
So if you read that confession, you should be reading it occasionally because you did sign it to become a member of the church. But if you read the London Baptist confession, take a look at chapter 12.
It's very short. I'm going to paraphrase it here is a very short chapter explaining what adoption means. What does it mean to be a child of God? It says all those that are justified, God conferred in and for the sake of his only son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption.
And here's what adoption means for you by which you are taken into the number. So you're made, you know, a number you're saved and you enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God. And here are those privileges.
You have his name put on you. You receive the spirit of adoption. You have access to the throne of grace with boldness. You are unable to cry, Abba, father, you are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father.
Yet never cast off, but you're sealed to the day of redemption and inherit the promise as heirs of everlasting salvation. So this forgiveness leads to adoption. And again, it's not something that you have to earn.
It's not now that you're forgiven, live up to being a son of God or a child of God, but you are now a child of God by Christ's work for you. And I think we kind of lose the significance of this because of that strain of liberal theology that talks about the universality of the fatherhood, you know, the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, where all God's children were all brothers.
You know, let's sing Kumbaya. That's not found in scripture. Scripture knows nothing of the universal fatherhood of God. You are, everyone's a creature of God. Everyone's created by God, but you don't get to call God your father just because he created you.
You only get to call God father when you're brought in to Christ. And now you have Christ's life substituting for yours. Some of you, maybe not some of you here, but some of us in the church have been adopted.
I say some of us, like I was adopted, but I wasn't. Some of you have been adopted and have been adopted early, late enough in life so that you can actually remember when you were adopted. And what did you say when those adoption papers were finally signed?
You know, when your parents finally finished the last little bit of red tape so that they could call you their son or daughter. Did you say, yes, now I have an inheritance. No, of course not. You said, yes, now I have a family.
I have a father. I have brothers and sisters and that's what our forgiveness leads to. It's not, it is, yes, I have an inheritance. I have the most glorious inheritance ever because I'm, I'm saved. But also I have a father and that father is God himself.
So if I were to try to apply this and I can't give you any commands tonight because there's simply no commands in my text, but if I were to try to apply this, I'd say, how do you view forgiveness? Do you think of forgiveness as that little ticket that you just keep in your back pocket?
Or do you think of forgiveness as bringing you into a family relationship? You now have brothers and sisters of Christ who can call God their father. And do you long for that father-child relationship?
Do you treat God as a father? Do you see him as someone who chastens you, but chastens you in love? Is that how you view God or do you view him as cold and distant? Well, that's the assurance that John gives.
I'm writing to you because you're forgiven. And then he goes on to give you another piece of insurance. I'm writing to you because you know Christ. This is the second point. Be assured, Christian, that you know Christ.
He says, I'm writing to you, father. So does he mean literal fathers here? As if to say, you know, all you men in the congregation who have had children, you know Christ, but the rest of you, sorry. No, that's not at all what he's saying.
What he's talking about when he's saying father is he's talking about the mature and the mature in Christ. And what he's saying here isn't even excluding those who are not mature. He's just giving the fathers, the mature, what they need to hear in their particular situation and in their particular trials.
Look at what he says in verse three of chapter one. I'm going to start randomly in the middle of verse three. He says, our fellowship is with the father. He's talking to all believers here. Our fellowship is with the father and with the son, Jesus Christ.
So what we can see here is this is not applied only to the mature in Christ, but he's giving it to the mature in Christ here because that's what they need to hear in their particular trials. Again, knowledge, it's experiential and it is something that's happened in the past.
With continuing significance, I'm going to say that a lot and do this hand motion a lot because all of my verbs are the same. They've happened in the past with continuing significance into the present.
Well, who is him who is from the beginning? I've already told you who I think it is because I've just straight up said, you know, Christ, but him who is from the beginning, it does refer to Christ. But how does it refer to Christ?
I think most of us, and when I first read this passage, I thought what this is saying is that the mature in Christ know Christ in his pre-existence, his pre-incarnate sense, the sense that he has been existing from eternity past.
So I took it to mean that if you are mature in Christ, then you have a fuller understanding of who Christ is. But like I just showed you, this applies to all believers and this is not what John is saying here.
When John uses the phrase from the beginning in his epistle, he's not actually pointing back to eternity past like he is in his gospel when he says in the beginning, he's actually pointing to that phrase from the beginning is pointing to the beginning of Jesus's ministry.
So, for example, in John chapter 15, this is the gospel of John. Jesus says this, but when the helper comes whom I will send you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me and you will also bear witness.
He's talking to his disciples. You will also bear witness. Why? Because you have been with me from the beginning. And that's the exact same phrase in the Greek that from the beginning, what he's saying here is that that from the beginning refers to the beginning of Jesus's ministry.
So how does that give you comfort? You said I'm here because you said you were preaching on insurance. How does it have assurance to say that, you know, Jesus, who is from the beginning of his ministry?
Well, think of the context in which John is writing. He's writing to a group of believers who have this heretical strain that they're starting to hear this thing called docetism, which basically says that God or that Christ didn't actually take on bodily form.
He didn't actually die. He only appeared to die because in their thinking, the material world is evil. So he can't be he can't actually have taken on flesh. So imagine you're a mature Christian. You've been a believer for several years.
And suddenly you start hearing different ideas about who Christ is. Suddenly you're like, have I believed all this in vain? Do I really believe the true Jesus? John says, no, you know him who is from the beginning.
It's an indication that we can rest on the eyewitness account of the apostles that they give us in the Gospels and not only the the apostles eyewitness testimony, but the testimony of the Holy Spirit who inspired them to write these.
So there's the assurance there because you know him who is from the beginning. And even in later on in this chapter, he's going to talk about antichrists, those who have gone out from us because they are not of us.
They're preaching a different, different Christ. He says in chapter two, verse twenty four, let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. So as a maturing Christian, you're going to start to hear new theories, you're going to begin to wonder, have I spent all these years in vain?
Do I believe a lie? It would to two applications we see here. First, where are you getting your information on Jesus? If you said, I want to learn a little bit more about Jesus, is the first place you go, you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or is the first place you go, Amazon and type in biography of Jesus?
I did go to Amazon and I typed in biography of Jesus and I found one. It casts an entirely new light on the history of early Christianity. That's unfortunate, and you'll hear all the time, everybody has their own idea of who Jesus is.
I love Jesus. I just don't like what his apostles say. You'll hear some people say, I actually in applying this, I want to warn you away from one specific, very dangerous idea of of a new Jesus. It's very dangerous because whoever came up with it had an incredible PR stunt because he's called the historical Jesus.
And you're like, of course, I believe in the historical Jesus. Right. But how do you get the historical Jesus? You get the historical Jesus by taking the gospels and then you cut them into tiny little pieces and you say, this part was inserted by the Hellenistic church.
This part was inserted by the church in the Jewish church. And whatever we have left over, which is like a very tiny little bit, that probably is all we can really know about a historical Jesus. The problem with that is it completely gets rid of the biblical Jesus and the historical Jesus at the same time.
So don't be afraid, Christian, when you hear of new Jesus is what we're approaching Easter. Right. Inevitably, National Geographic, The New York Times, somebody's going to have an article on the resurrection.
And who was Jesus really? You're going to say, no, I know him who's from the beginning because I can go back to my gospels. I can see the witness of the spirit on who Jesus is. So we've seen so far two assurances.
Your sins are forgiven. You know him who is from the beginning. And then John says, I write to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. And then at the end of verse 14, he repeats that. 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.
Again, this is true of all Christians. First John, chapter five, verses four through five, says for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Well, how do you overcome the world? Conveniently, he answers that question.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And who is it that overcomes the world? Maybe it's not me. Right. Maybe I don't believe enough. Maybe I haven't done enough. Who is it that overcomes the world?
Except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God. Whoever said Jesus gets a thumbs up. Because and again, this is one of the this is probably the the verb tense that would most surprise you if you have this work sense, a work idea that you have to work your way to heaven because he doesn't say young men.
And by the way, when he talks about young men, he's talking about those who have recently been saved, those struggling with the early temptations. You see the weight of your sin and those old habits that die hard.
Young men, you will overcome. No young men, you are in the process of overcoming. No young men, young men who is dealing with temptations. You have already overcome. And why have you already come overcome?
Because Christ has already overcome. And because you are in Christ, what Christ has won for you is applied to you. You have overcome the evil one. And then he adds to that is if he John knows that that this is probably one of the hardest groups he has to talk to, the people who are struggling with temptation and weary with that heavy burden.
Maybe they have habitual sins and they think, I certainly can't be a Christian if I continue sinning like this. I confess my sins. I hate my sin, but I just can't stop sinning. You have that that whole put on, put off thing that we've been talking about in the morning services and you're struggling to put off the old man.
Well, he gives you even more encouragement. He says at the bottom of verse 14, I write to you, young men. Why? Because you are strong. What does he do with strength? He fronts it in the Greek. He's emphasizing the fact you are strong and it's not you are becoming strong, but you are strong.
This is not the Joel Osteen strength. You know, Joel Osteen's advice is when you wake up every morning, you get up, you look at yourself in the mirror and you say, I am strong. I am powerful. You know, you're you're saying these good things to release God's blessings.
And as long as you have no negative doubts, you're good to go. That is not what John is saying here. John is saying you are strong. Why are you strong? I mean, how could you not be strong? Christ is your king.
He subdued you to himself. He's reigning over you. He's defending you and he's restraining and conquering all your and his enemies. That's why you are strong. You're not strong because you are strong.
You're strong because Christ is strong and you have Christ's strength. You have the Holy Spirit, do you not? The Holy Spirit who convicts you of sins, the Holy Spirit, when you are too weak to pray, he intercedes for you.
He says, because you are strong and because the word of God abides in you, and I'd like to say here's an encouragement to memorize scripture, but that's not what John is saying. This is not the same verb tense.
He's not taking you over here. It's completed in the past and has continuing significance. This is the word of God is continually abiding in you. It's not a command. It's a statement of fact. But the statement of fact is that word of God continues to abide.
Well, what is the word of God? It's not specifically scripture in general. Very specifically, it's what Jesus preached. It's the gospel. John uses the same phrase in John chapter eight. In John chapter eight, 46 to 47, Jesus again speaking.
He says, if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. So what he's doing there is he's contrast. He would not contrasting. He's equating truth with the words of God, the truth that Jesus spoke with the words of God.
And why do you not believe him? He says, because the reason why you do not hear is because you're not of God. But not you, Christian. You have the word of God. You have the gospel remaining in you already.
It abides in you. There's there's the reason you're strong. There's the reason you've overcome because you've believed in the gospel. And he repeats again at the end, you have overcome the evil one. This is just wonderful for that, for those of you who may be struggling with habitual sins, particularly, it's wonderful for you, you know, just struggling with normal sins.
But if you have habitual sins that come again and again and again to understand the fact, not that I have to overcome this, I have to work harder. It's all on me. God has saved me. And now I just have to work hard to put away my sins.
No, you've already overcome. And that's the key here. Once you realize that you've been brought out of the old Adam and into the new Adam that you've put off your old ways and you can put on the new ways, it's not just a new way of thinking.
It's you are a new creation, a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. The temptations that you face, what are they? But the death throes of that dying snake that Christ crushed to the head of the head of on the cross, the death throes of the dying snake.
Remember in Genesis, that promise that the snakes, the serpent's head would be crushed. And so we see throughout these three verses a golden thread. It's Christ, Christ, Christ. Children, your sins are forgiven because of Christ.
Fathers, you know, Christ and young men, you have overcome. Why? Because Christ has overcome. I'd like to. Well, I actually wouldn't like to. But sometimes you want to just throw throw the I was going to say throw you under the bus.
I don't want to do that. You want to just give commands from the pulpit. Right. And sometimes that's good. And sometimes that's necessary. But there's no commands here. Calvin says on this section that the holiness of life ought indeed to be urged.
The fear of God ought to be carefully enjoined. Men ought to be sharply goaded to repentance. Newness of life together with its fruits ought to be commended. But still we ought ever to take heed, lest the doctrines of faith be smothered.
That doctrine which teaches that Christ is the only author of salvation and of our blessing. Never confuse your need to to live wholly with your justification. Never confuse the fact that because now you are new creations and you need to put off sin with never confuse the fruits of righteousness with the means or the grounds of righteousness.
Christ is your righteousness. And that is why you can have assurance. If it was up to you, if it was up to me, I would never be assured of my salvation. I could throw it away in three or maybe four seconds if I was, you know, doing particularly well that day because I can sin quite frequently.
But your assurance is based on what Christ has done for you. So while climbing that mountain with Bill, what I needed to hear was somebody to come alongside me and say, you can do this. You have the strength to do this.
What we have in this text is something even better. It's not you can do this because you have the strength to do this. It's it's already been done. It's there's no dues. It's all done. Christian, do you lack assurance because you see the weight of your sin?
Well, your sins have been forgiven. Do you lack assurance because of the many theories of Jesus, those new ideas of the historical Jesus? Well, you know him who's from the beginning. Do you lack insurance because you constantly fall into temptation, Christian, you have overcome.
And if you're not a Christian. If you haven't overcome, if you haven't come to Christ for forgiveness, don't you want this assurance, this ground, this unshakable truth that you have forgiveness, come to Christ, flee to Christ, and he'll freely give you all this.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that you don't leave us without hope. You don't even leave us with hope that can be uncovered if we dig deeply, but it's hope that is clearly seen.
We praise you for this and we thank you for your word in Christ's name. Amen.