Fight with God's Strength

Is that how we should do coffee and devotions? No. Good morning, good morning. Good morning, good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. We don't have coffee because it's like 11 o'clock at night, but we're going to do some devotions so we're not behind in the schedule. So, we're going to hang out as a family a little bit, so we thought we'd jump on here tonight to make sure we are kind of ahead of schedule. So, we are at 1 John chapter 2, just two verses, verses 12 through 14. 1 John chapter 2, we're going to do 12 through 14. And he's got something to say to a young man like you.
Let's find out what it is. Do you want to have some invisible coffee? No. No? You want to pray? Sure, I can do that. God, thank you for, you know, good day. God, please help us to understand and meditate on what we are going to read from Paul. And please help us to affect our lives in a positive manner. And God, thank you for giving us your word to study his name. Amen. But it's not from Paul. First John Paul wrote John that'd be weird. Okay, first John chapter 2 12 through 14 quite a poetic section. Go ahead.
I write to you little children because your sins are forgiven you Forgiving you for his namesake. I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning I write to you young men because you have overcome the wicked one and I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Lord of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
Okay. So, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what is the first verse to summarize? The first verse? You're tired. The best verse to summarize. And C, what are we called to do? So, what do you think this passage is about that John is writing? I don't know. Look, there's a little subtitle here. The spiritual state. That's what it's called. Whose spiritual state? The people he's writing to. And who are those people he's writing to? He has three groups of people in mind. Children, father, young men. Right. Children. Tatekna. Fathers. And Nianoski. Young men.
What's he got to say about those kids? Because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Yeah, right, so he's writing to the kids and he's got the thing he wants to tell them about first is what? Uh, sin. Yeah, their sin. It's still sticking with them, right? It's like, oh, you kids, you're just still so sinful. I can't do it. You can't get rid of your sins. No, it's your sins forgiven. By the way, Azriel, I'm not talking about Tecna, it's Bathia. So, even little kids. So, you hate your little kids, right? Your sin. Like Isaiah. Yeah.
Your sins are forgiven you. Because you have known the Father. Their sins are forgiven them because they know someone. Who is it that they know? God. God. Do you think it's just that they have an intellectual knowledge of Him? Think this is spiritual. Yeah, right like this. This is that they they grasp them. They know him He's there.
He's their father good and then Right, I'm writing to you fathers Because why Because you have known him who is from the beginning I write to you who's the one who's from the beginning I There's God in the beginning, and there's Adam in the beginning. So it's probably talking to Adam or the God. So specifically about God.
That's what I thought. Yeah, so the interesting thing is here, ap-arkis, right, is from the beginning, but it can also be like from the chief. Arki is beginning, or chief, or head, something like that. Well, yeah, sometimes head. But the point being, right, is you know the one who is before everything else, and who is in front of everything else.
And then he writes to the Neoniski, the young men. What's he got to say about those young men? I write, because you've overcome the way to run. No, no, no. Verse 14 still. Verse 14. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you. But we weren't at verse 14, we were at verse 13. Oh, you're right, we were at verse 13. I'm so silly. I was looking at verse 14 when we were talking there. Oh man, it was technia at first. I write to you, technia. Oh man, I'm all over the place. We should probably just go to bed.
Sometimes it's late, and you're trying to do devotions, and when you're trying to do devotions in Greek, boy, you're in English, and I get all messed up. Anyways, all right, so there's kids, right, and the kids have their sins forgiven, right, through His name. The fathers, they've known Him from who's beginning, and He writes to the young men because they have overcome What's your translation say? Because you have overcome the big one.
The evil one. Yeah. Are you a slave to sin? No. Who's stronger, Satan or you? Ooh, be careful. Satan. You think so? So you have no hope? He's just gonna beat you all the time and I'm gonna fight? Oh, you can fight, but... So it's just a losing battle? No, because you can't do it on your own. With God's help, yes, you can. Boom, shakalaka, who's in you? God. That's right. You've known him from the beginning, right? Young man, you are not a slave to sin.
This world is going to try to tell you all over the place that you just can't fight it. You're just innate with these passions and desires and you're never going to overcome them. Especially you are predetermined in this life to have certain advantages and dispositions and you're just going to be an oppressive person. Hogwash. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Don't let Satan convince you that somehow he's stronger than Christ who's in you.
All right. Good. So he's gonna write to the little kids first 14 baby up because they've known the father. He's gonna write to the fathers because they've known him who's from the beginning. I thought he was a detective. Well, now it's Bethia, 14. 12 is Technia, 14 is Bethia. And once again, he's writing to the young men. There's nothing about little children in 14. What's it say in your verse 14? Fathers and young men.
I have written to you fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you young men, I Write to you the idea because you have known the father There may be a text critical thing there. Let's see if there's any uh Oh, it's nothing about that Well, I'd have to go back and look, because it's... So... You've known the Father. Yeah, so, yeah, you've known the Father. And I write to you, fathers, because you have known the One from the beginning. And I write to you, young men, because you are what?
End of verse 14. Because you're strong in the world of guys biting you and you have overcome the wicked one Yeah You know, you're almost nice. Maybe like a hero style fighting except it's not he was quick. I Well, John is a Semitic Greek speaker. Semitic is a class of language, but he's a Hebraic speaker. Oh, okay. You'll find that type of stuff. Wow, that's very paravocal. Yeah, right. So there's a there's parallelism here.
And here I put John loves that he loves bringing up an idea and then bring it up again later and then kind of massaging that idea around. But the point is, again, fathers have known the one who's from the beginning. And the young men, you are strong. God has given you your strength to fight evil. and to fight for what is good. Right? And so that's what he's saying, right? And but you are strong. Even the Word of God, which abides in you. How will you be strong? For God's glory, I guess. Well, that's the why will you be strong, but how? How are young men made strong? What's the mark of their strength? The source of their strength?
Go to verse 14. And the word of God by his image. Yeah, because the Word of God abides in you. I think there's a double possible meaning here. One, right, what we're doing right now, oh, how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day. How can a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed according to your Word. Meditating on God's Word, the Word. But, The Word, you see here, Nathan?
The Word of God. What is, what else is called O Logos? In Arki, O Logos. God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And the Word was? God. What's the word there? Is it saying the scriptures were always with God? No, it was... I'm pretty sure it's a practice thing. Lord God says in...
Christ. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of God. Christ in you. You get the words of God in you because you got Christ in you. And that's how you become strong. That's how you fight Satan. That's how you overcome the evil one in this evil age. And so we try to rely on our own strength. How do I do when I try to rely on my own strength? As a dad and as a husband and as a father. Well, dad and father, same thing. Disciple. As a preacher. As a preacher.
Yeah. I just say. you get going and then you very quickly fall on your face. Yeah. But in my life, I'm just asking this honest thing, right? What's the difference that you notice when I'm walking by the Spirit versus walking by the flesh, trying to be strong in my flesh versus being strong in Christ? For me, I think it's I noticed this for me too. It is when you just like, I'm just getting muscle through this.
I'll just keep doing it. Whatever. Like I don't care. I'll just do it. And then you end up becoming a mean angry jock. Yeah. Because you just got to get it done. Yeah. Versus being, I want to glorify God in this. So let's lovingly do this. Yeah, right.
When you when we try to be stronger on a strength, you're right, we often end up being I know I'm my propensity is to be a jerk. But that's, that's not how that's not the tenor of the Christian man's life. The young man's life is to conquer. You ever seen on different athletic clothes, there's like a little checkmark almost on it.
You know what company makes that? Nike. Nike. Nike is a Greek goddess of victory. Nike is from the Greek goddess of victory. And he says, you have conquered the evil one. That gives a lot of hope, huh? Yep. Yeah. So yeah, you're right. Maybe Satan's stronger than you. not stronger than the king of kings.
You ready to pray? God, we pray that we would put on the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth. We cling to the shield of faith. We pray that we would have our feet shod with the gospel and our hands upon the sword of the Lord, the word, which is a double-edged sword. God, we pray that you would please help us not rely on our own strength, our own reason, our own understanding. But God, we pray that you indeed would bless the children, that they might know you, that you would strengthen fathers, that they would know you who is from the beginning, and that you would be with our young men, that they would indeed conquer the evil one. God, please give us strength in Christ. the Word of God who dwells in us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you. May He bless you with strength to fight with courage until the end. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.