This morning we take test #3 for proving if we really know God. That test involves remembering your spiritual growth as is mentioned in 1 John 2: 12-14. This test involves remembering. It’s a good thing to remember.
It’s good to remember what stories you have told so that they don’t come back to haunt you. A young man’s boss asked him, “Boy, do you believe in life after death?” “Yes, sir,” the young man answered. The boss said, “Well that’s good, because about a half hour after you left yesterday to go to your grandfather’s funeral, he came in to see you.”
I supervised a man like that once. He must have 8 grandmothers. He was always taking off work to go to her funeral. You see, he didn’t remember that he had already used that story.
Read Scripture.
This passage seems repetitious at first glance, especially if you are reading from the NIV. In that version a portion of verse 14 says the same thing as verse 13, word for word. This is why I encourage you to study God’s Word from several translations.
Many other translations, including the NASB that I just read from divide this passage into two basic sections. The “I am writing this to you” section and the “I have written to you” section. So this is, in part, the way we will look at this passage today.
In the introduction of this study, I mentioned that John never addresses a particular group or church or person in this writing. I said that this is what makes this book so applicable today. It seems to be written to the church at large.
Then we come to this passage and it appears that he is writing it to three groups of people within a church, the children, the fathers, and the young men. But there are more than three groups in any church. There are more than children, and fathers, and young men. What about the women? What about the full grown men who are older?
It is doubtful that John is addressing only the fathers and young men and children in the church. Otherwise, the rest of you could go home, and we don’t want that! This points rather strongly to the fact that John is addressing the stages of spiritual growth.
So today we are going to do the same. We will address each stage:
- Dear Children – the newborn Christians. We have quite a few newborn Christians in the fellowship of our church.
- Fathers – the spiritually mature with a deep and rich knowledge of God.
- Young men (and women) – the mature believers. These are not necessarily those with a deep and rich knowledge of God, but nonetheless, they are mature believers.
Now test #3 is a test of us remembering our spiritual growth. But before we get to that part, let’s categorize the different groups in our church by these stages of spiritual development.
First there are the DEAR CHILDREN. We have quite a few dear children in our congregation. Again, I am not speaking of age but of spiritual maturity. The dear children are those of you who have just received Jesus Christ and have begun to follow Him.
John’s writings speak to you this morning. He wants you to know that if you are a newborn Christian, remember this: your sins are forgiven. You are:
• No longer guilty of sin
• No longer to be judged for sin
• No longer to be condemned for sin
• No longer to be punished for sin
You have trusted Jesus Christ as the great Bearer of your sins. You believe that Jesus took your sins upon Himself and bore the condemnation and punishment for them. You believe that Jesus became your substitute in bearing the judgment for your sins. So you are cleansed of your sins, you are forgiven.
The point is this: all believers must remember that their sins are forgiven. But young believers—you who are young in the faith—you in particular must remember this.
Because you are young in the faith, because you have just recently left the world and its pleasures and possessions, you are more likely to forget what Jesus Christ has done for you. And John is telling you that you must focus and concentrate upon Jesus Christ, upon the glorious fact that He has forgiven your sins. You must guard against returning to the world and its enticements.
Then there are the FATHERS. As was said, the fathers that John is speaking of are those who are spiritually mature believers with a deep and rich knowledge of God. What could John possibly have to say to this spiritual group who have walked so faithfully for so many years?
He says to them and to you who are here in our congregation: remember, you have known God from the very beginning of your conversion, and you have faithfully and diligently served Him. Day by day you have:
• Fed upon the Word of God.
• Set aside time for prayer and learned to walk in prayer all day long.
• Learned to fellowship and commune with God all day long, striving for an unbroken communion and fellowship with Him.
• Witnessed the saving power of Jesus Christ.
• Been loyal to the church, its members, its mission, and ministry.
• Committed your life to minister to the needs surrounding you and reached out beyond to the world through your prayers and gifts.
• Given all you are and have to Christ and His mission, meeting the desperate needs of the world.
The point to John’s statement is this: the spiritually mature who have a deep and rich knowledge of God must never forget where they have come from, never forget how they grew in Christ. Remember how you gained such a deep and rich knowledge of God. And remember to continue to grow in the knowledge of God.
Never stop growing. Think about any organism, whether plant or animal. From the day it is created, the day it is born, the day it sprouts, it is constantly growing. We may not always see that growth on the outside, but the cells of that organism are increasing, either in size, in strength or whatever. The only thing that really stops that organism from growing is death.
Our spiritual lives are no different. You are born again as a new Christian. From that time on you should continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding of God. What happens when you stop growing? You become spiritually dead. John is telling us to remember how you grew from the first day of your conversion experience, and continue to grow.
Next we have the YOUNG MEN (and women). I want you to really listen closely as we talk about the YOUNG MEN & WOMEN because I think that most of us fall into this category. And we have the most to remember as you will see in a moment. Again, we are not speaking of age when we say YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN. These are the mature believers. These differ from the FATHERS in that they don’t have as much deep and rich knowledge of God. They still are mature in their beliefs, however.
John says, “I want you to remember how far you have come. You have come a long way. You have fought many battles. You have overcome the wicked one.”
For you in this category, you have walked faithfully with Christ over a long period of time and have overcome many of the temptations of the wicked one. Now the temptations don’t strike as often or with the force that they once did. It was a hard battle along the way because it’s never easy to die to self. It’s never easy to give up all one is and has to Christ and His mission.
In fact, after we have committed our lives and possessions to Christ, the wicked one attacks us more fiercely than ever before. Satan doesn’t want to lose us and our loyalty to sin. He wants to cause God as much pain as possible. So right after we accept Christ, Satan attacks us with far greater force than ever before.
But the mature believers, the YOUNG MEN, as John labels us, overcome all these hurdles that Satan puts before us. But John says that we have to remember how we overcame because Satan stays after the believer as long as he is on earth. The attacks may not come as often or be as fierce as when the believer was younger, but the believer must stay strong or else be caught off guard and fall into sin.
I think that most of us fall into this category of YOUNG MEN & WOMEN in our spiritual maturity. Because of that, I think we need to spend a moment talking about how to overcome Satan. How do believers overcome Satan?
1. We overcome by drawing near to God, by praying and asking for wisdom. The Bible says that “if any of you lack wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5) Peter then told us that “if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials . . .” (2 Peter 2:9)
2. Another way we can overcome Satan is by using God’s Word, quoting it over and over in our minds, to conquer the temptation. There’s no better way to get Satan out of the picture than by quoting Scripture.
3. We can overcome Satan by learning and knowing that God allows temptation to teach us endurance. James wrote, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” (James 1:2-3)
4. We overcome Satan by clothing ourselves with the armor of God. Again the Bible tells us “put on the whole armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground . . .” (Eph 6:13)
5. We overcome Satan by being on guard and watching for the tempter’s temptations. We already talked about temptation at last Sunday evening’s service.
6. We overcome Satan by not giving in to anger, not giving a foothold to the devil.
7. By submitting to God and resisting the devil.
There are a lot of things we must do to overcome Satan. So in verses 12 and 13, John is saying that he writes these things to all of us no matter what stage of spiritual growth we are in. He tells us in these verses to remember our spiritual growth. This is the “I am writing this to you” section.
But then we come to the last part of verse 13 and verse 14 and John is telling us to remember our great relationship to God. When we look at verses 12-14, it seems like John repeats himself. But in this second part of these verses John is stressing the believer’s relationship to God and His Word. This is the “I have written this to you” section.
John is saying that I have written all this to you to stir up your relationship with the Father. No matter what stage of spiritual growth you are in, you must never forget who it is that you know: God the Father.
We have the greatest privilege in the world, the privilege of knowing God Himself, of being adopted into the very family of God. SO:
DEAR CHILDREN – the newborn Christians, remember that you have known the Father. God the Father is not some abstract energy way off in outer space. God is a Person, the only living and true God. And he wants to relate to you. How do you remember this on a daily basis?
• Bring your needs to Him
• Trust Him to look after you.
• Ask and depend upon Him to teach you.
• Trust Him to discipline you when you need it.
• Study Him and His Word, and listen and do what He says.
• Love Him and receive His love.
• Do nothing that would shame Him.
• Share with others what a wonderful Father He is.
FATHERS – those who are spiritually mature and have a deep and rich knowledge of God, you need to remember that you have known God who is from the beginning. You, too, must remember everything that we just mentioned with the DEAR CHILDREN.
But in addition, you must never be lifted up with pride—no matter how long you have walked with God. Never act as though you have arrived and there is nothing more you can learn. Remember from where you have come and continue to seek to know God.
YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN – those who are mature believers, besides remembering everything we have just mentioned, you must remember 3 additional things.
1. Remember that you are strong. Know your strength and have confidence in the strength you have gained. Remember that your strength comes from Jesus Christ.
2. Remember that the Word of God lives in you. No matter what a person may say or think, there is no spiritual growth apart from God’s Word.
3. Remember that you, too, have overcome the evil one.
So how do you know if you know God—by remembering your spiritual growth. Do you remember your spiritual growth? Do you remember how you have grown in Christ from the beginning of your conversion? Do you remember how God has grown and matured and developed you in Christ?
If you really know God, then you have grown in Christ; you have developed and matured stage by stage. Have you grown in Christ since you have professed Him? If you have, then you know God. You are a child of God.
If you haven’t grown in Christ, then you really don’t know God. Only a person who is truly converted continues to grow in Christ.
And here is the closing point to wrap it all up. A person who truly knows God follows God. He grows spiritually. He grows in the knowledge of God and of His Son, Jesus Christ. The person who truly knows God remembers his spiritual growth. He has a spiritual growth to remember.
So: Remember your spiritual growth. Confirm who you are. Confirm whose you are. That’s a sure test of knowing if you truly know God.
