Little Children and Their Enemies

Teaching

It is important that we review foundational truths from last week. The child of God knows God in two ways:

• Sonship

• Sonship is the relationship we have when we’re born again.

• When we’re born into the family of God, we become sons and daughters of God.

• It is settled; when we are born into God’s family, we can never be unborn.

• Fellowship

• If we disobey our Heavenly Father, fellowship changes.

• God, like a loving Father, chastens those whom He has received.

• Sonship is fixed by birth; fellowship is determined by whether or not we are obeying the Father’s instructions. If we are truly saved, our sin will never be brought up against us in order to condemn us; but our sin can interrupt fellowship with the Father. If we are truly saved the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin. Fellowship is restored when we confess our sin according to 1 John 1: 9.

TRUTH: When we’re clean, we have fellowship with God and with one another. John gives us a test to make sure we are a child of God: If you are hating your brother, you are dwelling in darkness. If you are loving your brother, you are dwelling in light. The light of God comes down into our heart and life. Our love for God goes up, for we love Him because He first loved us. If we are walking in the light down here, it means we are going to love our brother also. You cannot say you love God and hate your brother.

At this point John departs from the theme he has been following and begins to talk about the three different degrees of believers. Read 1 John 2: 12. In this verse John’s “little children” refers to all believers, regardless of their age or their maturity. The basis on which all Christians rest is the forgiveness of sins because of the shed blood of Christ. Some Christians stay in that position of little children and never move out of that area.

Read verse 13. “Fathers” are the saints who have known the Lord Jesus for many years and have grown and matured. These believers have been engaged in fellowship with the Father on a personal level and have much wisdom to share. Then he addresses the “young men” that are not as mature as the fathers, that is, they haven’t had the experience the fathers have had, but they have learned the secret of overcoming the enemy by the blood of Christ. The last category he addresses is the “little children” who are the ones who know they are the children of God, but that is about all they know—and some of them feel that is all they want to know. They may be mature in age but not in spirituality.

Read verse 14. John has something more to add; so, he goes over each of these degrees of believers again. He makes it clear that the fathers have truly known the Father from the beginning. They know Him because they know Him in the Word of God. That is where He is revealed. The Word of God is the Bread of Life. If we feed upon the Word just once a week, we will be spiritually malnourished. Again, he mentions the young men that he describes as strong and the word of God abides in them and they have overcome the wicked one. The secret is: “The word of God abideth in you.” If we are going to be able to defend ourselves against the devil, we will have to have a good knowledge of the Word of God. The Christian’s armor in Ephesians 6 is listed, piece by piece, and the weapon of offense is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The reason so many believers are succumbing to the sins of the world is that they are not studying the Word of God—feasting on it daily.

John, the Apostle of Love then returns to the theme “Love.” John has been telling us how we as God’s children can know that we are His children. He has said that the way we can know is by the fact that we love Him and keep the commandments which the Lord Jesus gave, for we have been brought into the Holy of Holies into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I John is how we approach the divine presence. The way in which we can have assurance and be proof not only to our neighbor but also to ourselves that we are genuine children of God is by our obedience to Him and our desire to please Him in all we do. Whatever we do we must be done out of love for the Lord and not for the praise of people. When we obey the commandments of Christ because we love Him, a great many of the family problems will be solved and a great deal of the uncertainty in our own heart will disappear. Christianity is based on a love relationship. Salvation is a love affair.

Read verse 15. What world is John talking about? He does not mean the world of creation, that is, the system and order found in God’s physical creation. This is not the world we are warned against loving. This is the world God created for our enjoyment. John is not speaking of the world of humanity or mankind. We are told that “God so loved the world”—the world of people, of human beings…that He gave His only begotten Son. The Greek word for “world” here is kosmos. It means the world system, the organized system headed by Satan which leaves God out and is actually in opposition to Him. The thing which we need to hate today is this thing in the world which is organized against God. This world system in operation today is satanic. John 14:30 says, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” The prince of this world system in our civilization that we are in today belongs to Satan. This is why I believe that God directed our research to expose the evil deeds of darkness and to make us realize how it has affected us all more than we ever imagined! The world system belongs to Satan. He offered the kingdoms of this world to the Lord Jesus. The kingdom of this present darkness is about to be judged, and you and I are going to be able to witness it! Paul in Ephesians 2:2 says, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world…” The course of this world system refers to the order of arrangement which Satan has organized the world of unbelieving mankind upon his cosmic principles of force, greed, selfish ambition, fleshy pleasure, deceit, lying and danger. This world system is imposing and powerful with military might; is often outwardly religious, scientific, cultured and elegant; but seething with national and commercial rivalries and ambitions and dominated by satanic principles. This is the world we live in, and John says that we are not to love the world. We are living in a godless world that is in rebellion against God. Our culture is anti-God, and the child of God ought not, to love it. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We need to recognize that we are going to be obedient to one world or the other. I believe that God has brought us together at such a time as this to fully understand the swamp and deep state we are living in so that we will draw near to God and be salt and light. There stands between us and this satanic world system, a cross. Both are bidding for our attention, and as a child of God, we must be obedient to Him! It is time for us to wake up and realize the spiritual battle we are in and take a firm stand for Christ! We live in a world that is corrupted and rampant with evil. John’s challenge is “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We can run with the Devil’s crowd all week long and then run with the Lord’s crowd on Sunday, but it is obvious that the love of the Father is not in us. Paul describes the conflict going on in each of us in Romans 7—a real conflict which goes on in the heart of the Christian as long as we are in the world. There is a constant battle going on within us against the flesh and the Spirit. The old nature is geared to this world in which we live and we are born with it.

John gives us stern warnings in 1 John 2: 16. Read. These temptations which we face are also the temptations which Satan brought to Eve (Genesis 3:6) and to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 4: 1-11).

The Lust of the Flesh: Eve saw that the tree was good for food and she desired it! Scripture condemns gluttony and the many other sins of the flesh. So many things appeal to the flesh. There is an overemphasis on sex today both in the church and out of the church—it is all about the flesh. Satan brought this same temptation to the Lord Jesus: “And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” (Mt. 4: 2-3) The Lord Jesus could have done that. He was being tested in that same area we are tested—the desires of the flesh. We are being tested, and there is no sin in being tested. The sin is in yielding to the temptation. This same principle applies to sex or to any other realm of the desires of the flesh. The Epstein files are a clear example of how the lust of the flesh has corrupted this world!

The Lust of the Eyes: Eve saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes. Remember that Satan offered the Lord Jesus Christ all the kingdoms of this world if He would bow down and worship him. There is a godless philosophy known as Luciferians which is trying to get control of the world today. There will come a day when Antichrist will arise—he is coming to rule this world for Satan. Satan is trying to push his agenda ahead of God’s timing which is what we are witnessing today. We must remember that God has a plan and He is in control and His Spirit in the body of Christ is the restrainer holding back the Tribulation. God is not finished with His Church and He will prevail!

The Pride of Life: Eve saw that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. Many people like to pride themselves on their family, their possessions, and their status in life. This is pride of life. It is that which makes us feel superior to someone else. It is found even in religion today. Satan took the Lord Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and said, “Cast yourself down. A great many people will witness it, and You will demonstrate to them Your superiority.” The Lord Jesus never performed a miracle in order to demonstrate His superiority.

These are the three appeals that the world makes to you and me today. These things are of the world, and they become deadly. We are told that we are not to love these things because God does not love them—He intends to destroy this world system someday and I think it is sooner than later! What is our enemy? The world, the flesh, and the Devil. This is the same temptation which Satan brought to Eve and to the Lord Jesus. He has not changed his tactics. He brings this same temptation to you and to me and we have a moment by moment, day by day choice to make—to be separate from the world or join it!

John gives us the reason we are not to love this world in 2:17. Read. Matthew 24:35 states, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” This verse, spoken by Jesus, refers to the ultimate transformation of creation at the end of the age. The “passing away” of heaven and earth signifies a complete renewal, not a destruction into nothingness, but a transition to a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). The world, as we know it, will be replaced. The earth will be purified by fire (2 Peter 3:10), and the universe will be renewed (Romans 8:19–21). This change underscores the eternal nature of God’s Word and promises**. The present world order is passing away (I Cor. 7:31); but those who live according to God’s will inherit eternal life.**

Read verse 18. The word translated “little children” here is slightly different from the word that is translated in the same way back in verse 12. There it is a term of affection and implies all who are born into God’s family, God’s little born ones. These little children here indicate the degrees of spiritual experience—the fathers at the top, then the young men, and then the little babies. The little babies haven’t grown up yet. They are passing through this world, and the chances are that they have been tripped up by one of these three things that John has just mentioned—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. It is the last time—it has been the last time for 2000 years. This is the age when God is calling out a people for His Name—the Church. Any time during this period can be deemed a time of salvation, “Now is the acceptable time. Today if you will hear His voice.” Many antichrists had already appeared in John’s day but there is coming the Antichrist. What was the primary definition of an antichrist which we are given in 1 John? The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:5 “…many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” That is antichrist—instead of Christ, claiming to be Christ.

Read verse 19. John is saying that some who had made a profession of being Christians in that day had all the outward trappings of being Christians. They bore the Christian name, and they identified themselves with some local assembly, some church. They were baptized, immersed, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They took the bread and the cup at the communion service. But John says that the way you can tell whether or not one is really a child of God is that eventually a man will show his true colors and will leave the assembly of God if he is not a child of God. He will withdraw from the Christians, the body of believers, and he will go right back into the world. There are many who make professions of being Christians, but they are not really Christians. Remember that the Lord said of Judas, “But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.” (Luke 22: 21) Right there, at the first communion service, there was a traitor, Judas Iscariot, and he was one who was identified with the group of faithful disciples. We read in John 6: 70, “Jesus answered them. Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a demon?’ Judas was never anything else although he looked like an apostle, he acted like an apostle, and he had power to perform miracles. He went out with the others, and they were not able to identify him as being a phony, but he was. Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn. 3:3) There are serious questions that each of us must face: Have I really faced up to my sins in the light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have I come to God in repentance, owning my guilt and acknowledging my iniquity? Have I cast myself upon Him and Him only for my salvation? Have I evidence in my life of being a regenerate soul of God? Do I love the Word of God? Do I want the Word of God? Is it bread to me? Is it meat to me? Is it drink to me? Do I love the brethren? And do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? These are the things which we need to consider. The important question is: Are you a new creation in Christ Jesus? Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” The child of God, after he has sinned, is going to go to God with hot tears running down his cheeks and crying out to Him in confession. If he doesn’t do that, he’s not God’s child. God’s child must hate sin. Today we have a light view of sin that is not scriptural as sin is being accepted as okay because everybody is doing it. We all have come short of the glory of God. John showed that the real test is: Do I delight in the will of God? Do I love His commandments? If we are a child of God, we have a new nature and we want to please Him. Proverbs 28: 13 says, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Though we know that the blood of Christ does indeed cover us from all sin, we cannot walk and live in sin and at the same time have fellowship with God and with other believers.

Read verse 20. Unction is anointing. We have an anointing, and that is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells every real believer and is able to reveal to him all things “…Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit…” (1 Cor. 2: 9-10) We have the Spirit of God dwelling in us who can reveal to us the things in the Word of God. We have an anointing that every person can have assurance of salvation. Ephesians 4: 30 states: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” This sealing is a divine act that occurs at salvation, signifying ownership, protection, and assurance of final redemption. The Holy Spirit acts as a “pledge” on the believer’s future inheritance (2 Cor. 1: 22; 5:5 and Eph. 1:14), confirming that God will complete His work in the believer until the final day. The seal is God’s own work, not human effort. (Jn. 10: 28-29) Believers can grieve the Holy Spirit through sin and disobedience (Eph. 4:30) but does not nullify the seal but affects fellowship with God**. John is saying that we need to let the Holy Spirit be our Teacher. It is up to us whether we want to learn or not. Everyday we need to open up our Bible and ask God to teach us something He wants us to know.**

Read verse 21. They had the Gospel; they had the truth. John is not writing something new to them. He is writing to them for a twofold purpose. One is to encourage them, and the other is to warn them because there was false teaching going out in that day and continues. John is saying that they had the truth, but now lies were coming in. There were many voices against truth just as we are experiencing today. John exposes them.

Read verses 22-23. John is asking “Who is a liar?” In other words, all lies are summed up in the one who is the prince of liars, the Devil. Again, he brings up the Antichrist. There is coming a man who is Satan’s man, and he is the liar and does not tell the truth. John gives us now the definition of antichrist. This will be the embodiment of the Antichrist, but there are many antichrists. They are they that deny the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who deny that Jesus the man is the Christ, the Messiah, the one who is God, the one whose name is Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the one who is pictured in the Old Testament as the Lamb of God. To deny that is being antichrist. We have many systems in the world today which deny Him. They are against Christ, and they also imitate Him and try to take His place. In the early church it was Gnosticism that said Jesus was the son of Joseph and born after the manner of other men. Liberalism and all of the cults and “isms” today have also denied His deity. There are those that say that there are many roads to God—Buddha, Mohammed, Hinduism, Bramma, New Age and others. They all deny the deity of Christ as the only way to God. Jesus declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This exclusive claim is echoed by the apostles: Peter stated, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). John reiterates this truth in this verse: You cannot deny the Son without denying the Father. It was necessary for God to become a man in order that you and I might have redemption. Emmanuel is “God with us” who made a satisfactory sacrifice for sin. When we say that we believe in God and deny the deity of Christ, we really do not believe in God, certainly not the God of the Bible**. John’s whole point is that we need to beware of false teachings that is the spirit of the antichrist.**

Read verse 24. “The beginning” in 1 John goes back to the incarnation of Christ, that which we heard concerning His life, that which we heard concerning His death and resurrection—in other words, that which the apostles had heard from the beginning when the apostles began to preach the Gospel. When we abide in these truths, it is the evidence that we are a child of God. It is essential, therefore, to have a living faith which rests in the One who came to this earth more than 2000 years ago. John wrote, “the Word was made (became) flesh, and dwelt among us.” (1:14) Then he wrote in verse 1: 18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” The important thing in this whole section of Scripture is communion with the Father and with the Son. The emphasis is not so much upon having life in Christ through faith in Him, but it is upon having communion and enjoying fellowship with Him.

Read verse 25. John then focuses on the promise of the life in Christ through faith in Him. The only kind of life that God offers is eternal life which refers to that which is everlasting, without beginning or end. If we lose it tomorrow or next week or next year, it isn’t eternal life that we have. It is some other kind of life, but not eternal life.

Read verse 26. Seduce means “to lead astray, to lead from the truth.” Seduce applies in exactly the same way in both the physical and spiritual realms. In other words, a person is led to commit spiritual adultery when they are led away from the truth. Even in John’s day there were those coming along who were beginning to deny that the Lord Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be. They were seducing some of those who were professing Christians. They were casting doubt on the promises of God. John says that the thing which we must hold onto is that God has promised us eternal life if we put our faith in Christ, and we do not need to add anything to that. We are to come to the knowledge of the truth of God’s Word and grow in grace and knowledge of Him. We need to take heart to the words of John the Baptist who said, “He (Christ) must increase, but I must decrease.” (Jn. 3:30) John is saying to us, “You know Him as your Savior—hold on to that—but now you also want to have communion with Him and the Father, and to have fellowship with Him and the Father and with other believers.”

Read vers 27. Two words jump out of this verse that call for further examination in order to grasp its full meaning. First, we see the word “anointing” in the biblical context referring to the act of applying oil to a person or object as a symbol of consecration, divine appointment, and empowerment by God. In the Old Testament kings, prophets and sacred objects were anointed signifying there role for God’s purposes. Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of the anointed one prophesied in the Old Testament confirming His mission as Prophet, Priest and King. Christians are anointed by the Holy Spirit at salvation empowering believers for service and sanctifying them as “priests and kings unto God.” (2 Cor. 1: 21-22) Anointing reflects God’s presence and power. John in 14: 26 says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” Then in John 16: 13 he said the Spirit guides believers into all truth. John is not saying that teachers are not essential, but he is saying that one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to teach us. Believers are anointed to get into the Word of God and study it. The other word that John keeps repeating to us is “abide.” To abide in Christ is to live in Him or remain in Him. When a person is saved, he or she is described as being “in Christ” (Romans 8:1; 2 Cor. 5: 17) and held secure in a permanent relationship. (Jn. 10: 28-29) To abide in Christ is to know Him who is the Word. This is not merely intellectual agreement but a continual, active commitment to live under Christ’s authority, guided by the Holy Spirit and rooted in Scripture. The Greek word meno (used 17 times in 1 John and 10 times in John’s Gospel) means to remain, stay, or endure—a continuous relationship with Christ and His truth. John sums it all up in verse 27—abiding in truth brings eternal life, assurance of salvation, and spiritual freedom. In other words, we ought to get to the place where the Spirit of God is our Teacher day by day as we study the Word of God and ask the Spirit of God to teach us and lead us. When we sit down to read the Bible, we need to ask God to teach us what He wants us to see—to make it real to us.

Read verse 28. John is addressing all of God’s children in this verse. John is speaking here of fellowship. To abide in the Lord Jesus is to live in fellowship with Him—to have communion with Him. None of us know the number of our days or the time of the return of Christ in the Rapture so we are always to get ready and stay ready. A Christian ought to live in the light of the imminent coming of Christ. To be ready is to be walking in the light—to be doing what Jesus wants us to do. Today we hear a lot of people talking about the coming of Christ; but it certainly is going to be embarrassing for some of them because they will not have the confidence and they are going to be ashamed before Him at His coming. Why? Because of their lives. The Lord Jesus says, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” (Rev. 22: 12) Both John and Peter warn about false doctrine and false living, about true doctrine and true living. Why? Because false doctrine leads to false living. True doctrine leads to true living. There is nothing that will affect our life as much as the knowledge that we are going to stand in the presence of Christ and give an account of our works. Every believer will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul writes, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:10) The issue of salvation has already been settled because we are His children and sealed by His Spirit until the day of redemption. It is a question of whether or not we are going to get any reward or recognition. According to Paul, “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1 Cor. 3: 15) If we have walked in the light and lived our lives to please the Lord, we will receive rewards but if we have continued to live for the world to please ourselves our works will be burned up! God is giving us an opportunity to get into a right relationship with Him and help others to get into a right relationship with Him.

Read verse 29. This is the final proof, this is the litmus paper which is put into the solution to tell whether it is acid or base. The Word of God is the real test. In effect John is saying that God’s children look like the Father—they take after their Father. If they don’t take after the Father, they must not be the Father’s children. Ps. 119: 32 says, “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart.” Has God “enlarged” our heart? Where do we need to ask Him to bring growth? Holy Spirit, please enlarge our hearts today and every day!