All right, take your Bibles, turn with me to
the book of 1 John chapter number two. 1 John
chapter two, what a great start to the service,
and man, it's good to be in the house of God.
It's good to be among Bible -believing people,
and the word of God's quick, powerful, and sharper
than any two -edged sword. You know, we live
guided by God's holy, precious word, and God's
word is, it's just an amazing book. It's God's
word, and you and I, we don't have to walk around
and not know where we're going. We can see into
the future with the word of God. It's a light
into my, a lamp into my feet and a light into
my path. And this morning, here in First John,
we're gonna notice something very important that
God wants His children, His children. Well, look
with me at the first three words of chapter number
two. Read those with me. My little children.
Say it again with me. My little children. Now,
this is a theme here in the book of 1 John, my
little children. There is something different
between older children and little children. When
we went camping, I had my oldest son, John, he's
a pastor down in Elizabeth City, he brought my
grandson David with him, but there's something
about a 32 year old, there's a difference between
an older child, my 15 -year -old child, Daniel,
on Friday morning, I'm sleeping, at five o 'clock
in the morning. He had been fishing at night,
about two, three o 'clock. And he comes and wakes
me up, and he's holding a fish in my face right
there. Look what I caught, Dad. And I had my
eyes barely open. I said, that's a great son,
great son right there. But there's something
different between an older child and little children.
My littlest son is Amos. He's right there in
the blue suit right there. Just turned six years
of age. And what we did, I'm not saying this
was good to do at that camping trip, but on Friday
night we had our church service and then we got
the little children together to tell them a bear
story. And a bear story. And looking back, I
probably wouldn't do it quite like I did it.
But it got dark. It's past 9 o 'clock. Gathered
all the children together. And we told them about
bears in the forest and the dangers of bears.
And then, taking a long story and making it short,
Brother Jerome, we gathered them. And we began
to take them on a bear trail walk. And the kids
are gathered together. My Amos grabbed ahold
of me. My Nehemiah grabbed ahold of me. And we're
walking through. And we had probably 12 or 13
little children with us. And around every corner,
the Lord made it a breezy night. There was a
thunderstorm coming. And it was spooky. We got
to this area, sat all the kids down, and it is
pitch dark. And I began to tell them about this
story, about this family. and this family that
was surrounded by bears living in this place
right there. And I said, the dad came out and
growled like a bear to scare all the bears away.
And we had Brother Joe Blandino, he got there
and I said, Brother Joe, show them how he growled.
And Brother Joe, and right before I said, now,
they didn't know that rather than scaring the
bears, they caused the bears to attack. And Brother
Joe, he went. and next thing you know, we had
Brother Barry hiding behind them, and he came
out like a bear, and it wasn't good. I don't
advise that, I look back, it was a bad bear story.
But there's something different between older
children and little children, and we're gonna
look at my little children. You can stand with
me for the reading of God's word. We're just
gonna read one verse to begin with. And we're
gonna read 1 John chapter two, verse number one.
We'll read it all together in unison. Are you
ready? My little children, these things write
I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. My little children. The first
three words, say it with me again. My little
children. That's the title of the message. Before
we go any further, let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Dear Father in heaven, we love you. And it's
an amazing opportunity we have, first of all,
to have your word, but to be able to open it,
to read it, to study it. And I pray that you
help us to be really in unison this morning with
open hearts and open ears to what your word has
to tell us. I pray that you help me as the pastor
to decrease and your word to mightily increase
this morning. I do pray, if there's a soul here
this morning that's not saved, I pray that this
would be the day of salvation for them. But Lord,
we need you. Lord, we love you. Please help in
Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Now look
back with me, the first three words of chapter
number two, it says, read with me, my little
children. Now look at verse number 12. Look at
verse 12, chapter two verse, I write unto you,
what does it say? Now verse 13, look at verse
13. I write unto you fathers, because you have
known him that is from the beginning. I write
unto you young men, because you have overcome
the wicked one. I write unto you, what? Little
children. Now go forward a little bit further,
verse number 18. First two words, it says what?
Little children. Go to chapter two, verse 28.
Or verse 28, it says, and now, Now turn to the
next chapter, chapter number three, first John
chapter three, verse number seven, first two
words it says, little children. And then first
John chapter three, verse 18, go to verse 18,
my little children. Chapter number four, the
next chapter, chapter four, verse number four,
ye are of God, then it says little children.
Then chapter number five, if you look at verse
21, the first two words, little children. And
over and over again, my little children, little
children, little children, my little children.
Now, if you go back with me to verse number one,
it says these, chapter two, verse number one,
my little children, these things write I unto
you that ye sin not. And first of all, when we
get this, my little children, these things write
unto you, he's writing to the children of God.
As you begin to study this passage, it's an amazing
book in the Bible, but remember, John the beloved,
he wrote the Gospel of John, then God used him
to write first John, second John, third John,
and then he wrote the book of Revelation. And
the Gospel of John was written that ye might
believe. And you might have life through his
name, that believing you might have life through
his name. The Gospel of John was written so that
you might believe and have everlasting life.
But the first book of 1 John, John has explained
not how to become a child of God, but he's explaining
how a child of God, a little child of God should
live their lives. And so as we go there, I want
you to turn over to John chapter one, if you
will. This is important, there's sort of a homework
in the middle of our sermon. But John chapter
one, the gospel of John, chapter number one,
and we'll read this, verse number 12 together.
If you're there, John chapter one, verse number
12 says this. But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God.
even to them that believe on his name. Now, I
noticed some of you were in 1 John, chapter one.
We're in the gospel of John, chapter one. Turn
back over there, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Look
at John, chapter one, verse 12. Try to read it
loud with me. But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on his name. And the
importance of this, this is very my little children,
my little children, my little children. He's
talking about a child of the king. He's talking
about a child of God. And the Bible clearly tells
us how that we can become the children of God.
By the way, a child does not become a child every
morning. For example, my son Amos, yesterday
he was my son Amos, and today he wasn't born
again as far as saying, hey, you're now my son
Amos. He was my son after he was born. There
is a physical birth and there is a spiritual
birth. In other words, in John chapter one, it's
saying as many as received Jesus Christ, Jesus
Christ came born of a virgin, lived a perfect
life, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and
then three days later, he rose from the grave
proving he's God. And when you accept Jesus Christ
as your savior, you receive him. You, as it says
in Romans chapter 10, you submit to the righteousness
of God. When you accept the gift of eternal life,
you become a child of the King. The only way
to heaven is Jesus. Jesus is the way. And there
is a moment when you are passed from death to
life. There is a moment that you're born of the
spirit. There is a moment in time when you receive
that gift of eternal life. And as many as received
him, to them gave you power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name.
My son Benjamin, I was thinking about this. My
son Benjamin, he pastors down not too far from
here, just really a few miles from here in Grassfield.
Remember, he was a young teenager. We were working
on a house over in Virginia Beach, our own house.
And my son, Benjamin, and Jonathan got in a squabble.
And you could sort of hear him squabbling and
fighting. And then my son, Jonathan, came into
the room I was working on. I was on my knees.
And I tried to open the door where Benjamin was.
And I halfway opened it. Benjamin slammed the
door and hit me on the head. And I saw stars.
And then he opened the doors and he goes, you
know, that face, I did that to my dad. Uh -oh.
Now he hit his dad and he did slightly get in
trouble. I won't go into all of that, but he
was my son. He did say sorry and saying sorry
did not return him into my family. He was already
in my family. But when he hit me, all of a sudden
it did have a relationship effect. Do you understand
what I mean? We are God's children because of
the new birth. We're God's children because Jesus
died on the cross for our sins. Look at verse
number two. It says, and he is the propitiation
for our sins. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the world. In other words, propitiation
says Jesus paid the debt. our sins created. Jesus
satisfied the righteous demands of a holy God.
Jesus took our punishment so we could be forgiven,
you might say. In other words, Jesus is the way
to heaven. Jesus is the payment for our sins.
Hey, if you want to go to heaven when you die,
the only way you'll ever go to heaven when you
die is to accept that gift of eternal life. It's
to receive him. And as soon as you receive him,
You become a child of God. As soon as you accept
that gift, you're born into the family of God.
Ephesians chapter 1, it says, you also have to
get you trusted. It talks about how you were
sealed until the day of redemption. Hey, you're
a child of God. We are children of God. Why?
Because Jesus paid what we could never pay. You
do not obey God to become a child of God. You
obey God because you are already His child. And
you're important. Remember John chapter 1, but
as many He has received him. To them gave he
power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. Now go back to verse
number one. First John chapter two, verse one.
My little children, these things write I unto
you. Now what's that next four words? That ye
sin not. My little children, these things write
I unto you. That ye sin not. In other words,
he's telling the children of God, the children
of God, he's saying little children don't live
a life of sin. John's goal is not that believers
become comfortable with sin. By the way, believers
should not be comfortable living in sin. But
John's goal is that the children of God live
a holy life. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.
God never saved us so we could continue living
in sin. The book of Romans, shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? Then it says two
words after that, God forbid. God forbid that
we should continue in sin. Jesus saved us from
the penalty of sin, but so think about sin for
a moment. When a child of God lives a life of
sin, well what does that mean? Sin hinders you
and I from fellowship with God. Well think about
my son Benjamin. When he slammed that door on
my head. We had some fellowship problems at that
moment right there. And we begin to think about
our lives right there. When we sin against the
Holy God, our fellowship is hindered with the
Almighty God. Sin steals our joy. Sin robs us
of that peace that passes all understanding.
Sin weakens our testimony. Sin brings the chastening
of God. Now, I'll give you an example of that,
my son Levi. Oh, he's over there in the junior
church with the bus kid church right now preaching.
And I'm thankful for my son Levi, but I bought
a brand new truck back in the day. He was a little
kid and we had just gotten a trampoline and he
would love that trampoline. He would jump up
and down on that trampoline. Brand new truck,
just a few weeks old. And I go outside and he's
on the top of my truck jumping up and down and
dented the whole thing in. And Levi! No, no.
But when Levi did that, though he did not know
that was wrong necessarily, you know what he
did is he said, I'm sorry. And when he said a
sorry, boy, there was forgiveness. But imagine
this, he said, Dad, I don't care what you think,
I'm just gonna continue to jump on what I wanna
jump on when our relationship would be hindered.
A bad attitude and pride hinders a relationship.
Would you like you to turn over to the book of
Hebrews chapter 12, if you will? Hebrews chapter
12, this should be a familiar passage of scripture
for you. If it's not, I would like it to become
familiar in your heart and your mind. And we're
talking about a child of God. A child of God
should not live a life of sin. Amen. You're looking
for Hebrews. I remember always thinking Hebrews
was an Old Testament book. But Hebrews is a Old
Testament sounding name for a book found in the
New Testament. In Hebrews chapter 12, look it
with me at verse number five. Look at Hebrews
chapter 12, verse number five. And ye have forgotten
the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children. My son, despise not thou the chastening
of the Lord. Okay, so stop right there for just
a moment. God's chastening. He scourgeth or he
chastens every son. He loves his children, he
loves his children. So when his children sin,
God chastens them. By the way, we live in a society
today. that scorns chastisement or punishment
or spanking, but done properly biblically, chastening
and spanking is biblical and it's right, and
a father who loves his child spanks his child,
and that's saying that God, when we sin against
God, he chastens us. Look at verse number seven.
If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you
as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? It's insane. You can't imagine
that a father would never chasten a son. It just
doesn't make sense because chastening is good
for this child. In other words, when I was a
kid, my dad told me to take out the trash. And
I looked at my dad and said, I didn't say it
out loud. I said in my heart, I ain't taking
out the trash. My dad went to work. I disobeyed
my dad. My dad came home, I hadn't taken out
the trash. Do you think my disobedience made
my relationship with my dad great? No, my dad
still loved me. He didn't kick me out of the
family. But my dad did give me a spanking. And
he spanked me because he loved me. And by the
way, at the end of the spanking I said, dad.
forgive me, dad, I'm sorry for what I did. And
I went from headbutting with my dad because of
my sin right there, and all of a sudden we and
I said, I'm sorry, dad. I went back to my dad's
blessing right there. Look at the next verse
right there. And verse number eight. But if ye
be without chastisement wherewith all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons? A child of
God who sins, God chastens them. God corrects
them. And if you're not chastened by God, it's
saying, hey, you need to become a child of God.
And the way to be a child of God is to receive
him. And oh, what a blessing. The relationship
with God is established by grace. For by grace
you save through faith. But fellowship with God
is maintained by walking with God. And he's saying,
hey, if you wanna have a relationship with God,
you wanna have. fellowship with God. My little
children, don't live a life of sin. My little
children, don't live a life displeasing God.
Hey, my little children, it is saying, live a
life of obeying his commands. I'm not trying
to get ahead of myself, but little children,
when you live a life of sin, doing your own thing,
and sinning, you create a relationship with God
where you're gonna spend life headbutting with
God. The most miserable people in this side of
eternity are Christians who've been saved by
the blood of the crucified one who lived their
life headbutting with God. and then saying no
to God, and they don't get forgiveness with God.
And it's important, my little children, don't
live a life of sin. Now look at verse number
one again. Chapter number two, verse number one.
My little children, these things write I unto
you that ye sin not. And if any man, what? We
have an advocate. Advocate. Advocate. Say that
word with me. Advocate, say it one more time.
Advocate, with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. Now that word advocate, advocate,
I stopped, I parked, I planted, trying to figure
out this word. It's hard to preach something
if you don't understand it yourself. So I was
trying to figure out what is advocate, what Jesus
Christ, the righteous, is my advocate. But what
is an advocate? Advocate. By the way, as we begin
to look at the little children, remember you
have an advocate. When you sin, it says if any
man sin, we have an advocate. So think about
it this way. When you sin, don't give up. When
you sin, your life is not over. When you sin,
you have an advocate. An advocate is someone
who stands for you when you cannot stand for
yourself. An advocate is someone who takes up
your cause. An advocate is someone who steps
in when you have failed. I thought about it like
this. An advocate is someone who stands beside
you when you've done wrong and helps you to make
things right. So Jesus is your advocate. You
sinned. And by the way, he doesn't want you to
continue in sin. But Jesus doesn't give up on
you. He doesn't kick you off the curb and say,
your life's over. He wants to restore you. He
wants to help you get back up. He wants to help
make a life. And by the way, people sin, and
sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot with
sin, and they messed up. And by the way, it hurts
when you mess up. It hurts when you shoot yourself.
But shooting yourself in the other foot doesn't
make you feel better. So sometimes people sin.
and rather than restoring the relationship with
God, they jump off a cliff into deeper sin and
think life's gonna get better. And no, it's saying
no, when you sin, you have an advocate. You have
Jesus. You have someone who'll stand beside you.
Somebody who, when you sin, will help you to
make things right. An advocate is someone who
doesn't leave you when you failed. An advocate
is someone who stands beside you when it's seeming
like everybody else would walk away. When God's
children sin against the Heavenly Father, Jesus
doesn't throw them away. He stands up for them.
And by the way, Jesus has not given up on you.
Jesus has not given up on you. I thought about
this. There's probably somebody in here today.
You're here, but inside, you're struggling with
a sin or an area or something in your thoughts
or something you've done or maybe even something
in your path. And me in life, you think your
life is over. You have an advocate. You have
somebody who loves you and cares for you. When
I got saved, I got gloriously saved in 1994.
I was in the Navy, and man, I got on fire for
God, seven months. You've heard my testimony.
But then the Navy transferred me to San Diego,
and it's amazing how quickly you can go from
excited about the things of God into the whole
of sin. And in San Diego were five dark months,
and boy, I was hurting on the inside, shooting
myself in the foot with sin, and shooting myself
in the other foot, and my life was spiraling
out of control. The Navy shipped me over here
to Newport News, the shipyard. And I had an advocate.
There was a man named Billy who had originally
invited me to church. He came over and he said,
listen, God's not through with you. Hey, there's
hope for you. And he stood there and he encouraged
me. He stood beside me when I'd sinned and helped
me to make things right. I had an advocate. Now
we all have an advocate. His name is Jesus. And
Jesus has not given up on you. In other words,
some of you are harder on yourselves than Jesus
is on you. And that's important to remember.
You have an advocate named Jesus. Do you remember
the Bible, the man named Peter? Do you remember
Peter? Peter says to Jesus, I'll follow you even
unto death, John chapter 13. And next thing you
know, shortly after that, he denies Jesus not
just once, but three times. Do you remember that?
And then Jesus dies on the cross. He rises from
the grave. And Peter, Peter had really done wrong.
But then Jesus said those words, go tell the
disciples and then end Peter. Hey, I've forgotten
about you, Peter. I got a plan for you, Peter.
I got a purpose for you, Peter. They had an advocate,
Peter had an advocate named Jesus. Now go with
me to verse number three. Go to verse number
three. Oh, little children, little children,
little children. Remember whose child you are.
If you've been born again, if you're not born
again, get born again. And then little children,
don't live a life of sin. Don't live a life of
sin. They're little children. Remember, you have
an advocate. Then verse three, look at this.
And hereby we do know that we know him. I like
that phrase. We do know that we know him. Say
that with me. We do know that we know him. And
this is interesting. You pay attention. The book
of 1 John is written to help believers live for
God. The book of 1 John's purpose is to help
believers like you and me to live for God. And
hereby, we do know that we know him if we keep
his what? He that saith I know him and keepeth
not his commandments is a liar and the truth
is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in
him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby
know we that we are in him. Now look at verse
number six. He that saith he abideth in him ought.
Ought, use this word ought. Ought, say it with
me. Ought himself also so to walk even as he
walked. We begin to think about that word ought.
It's important. He's saying you have an obligation.
If you're a child of God, you ought to live for
him. If you're a child of God, you ought to also
to walk even as he walked. You ought to keep
his commandments right there. I saw Mom, and
I've seen the same story happen many times. It
was in the grocery store, and the kid's going
for Mom. Mom, can I have that candy bar? No,
son. And so the kid, obviously mom, mom says
no, and he grabs the candy bar. And then next
thing you know, mom's saying, hey, put that down,
put that down. And a fight breaks out and mom's
chasing around a little bit. And then finally
she says, just put it in the cart. And puts it
in the cart and buys it for the kid. But that
kid ought to treat his mama better than that.
That kid ought to obey mama. And that's why they
say you're a child of God, little children. You
ought to keep his commandments. And that's literally
the heart of this verse right here. When we study
chapter one and now going to two, my little children,
he's talking to believers. He's talking about
fellowship, your joy, walking light, confession.
He's talking about an advocate. These are family
truths. These are for believers. And when we
come to these verses right there, it's not how
to determine whether a person is saved. He's
saying children of God ought to live like children
of God. So it's not a stamp of is a person saved.
It's saying children, we ought to live for God.
It makes no sense. If I see an unbeliever or
a believer, somebody who professes Christ, living
differently, it makes no sense. I'll give you
an example of that. I was with an older man.
He was in his 80s. and not a member of this church,
not a part of this congregation. And we went
to lunch together years ago off of Indian River
Road and Kempsville Road. There was a Mexican
restaurant over there and a Christian man in
his 80s and invited me to lunch. I went to lunch
with him and I sat there and part of the conversation,
good, but then all of a sudden his conversation
led to some subjects and some things that shocked
me. And there were some things he said, some
places he went, that I couldn't believe that
he said that was very awkward. And as a child
of God, there's some things you shouldn't say.
As a child of God, and what I'm saying is things
you shouldn't say. the sinful things you should
say, shouldn't say. There's some places you ought
not go. And we as children of God, we ought to
keep God's commandment. And you saw in verse
number six there, or verse number three, it talked
about God's commandments. Hereby do we know that
we know them if we keep his commandments. And
John is not emphasizing whether we can say we're
saved, he's emphasizing and saying you ought
to obey him. The issue isn't just a profession
of faith, it's obedience to Christ. Little children,
don't live a life of sin. Don't live a life of
sin. Don't live a life of sin. Don't live a life
of sin. Now, we're getting very close to the
end of the sermon. Okay, amen. Amen. My little
children, first of all, I pray to God there's
been a time in your life you become a child of
God. You've been born again. And if you don't
know what that means, what are you waiting for?
You can know for sure that when you die, you
go to heaven. You can have eternal life. and
the way is to receive Christ, to accept him as
your savior. The way to heaven is very, very
simple. It's Jesus and Jesus alone. But little
children, if you're saved, you ought not live
a life of sin. And think about in our church
here today, you're here today, you go into church
on Sunday, but what about tomorrow? How are you
living? Boy, is there sin in your life? Is there
something in your life that does not please your
heavenly father? And your heavenly father looks
and he just shakes his head. And by the way,
if you're a child of God living in sin, boy,
it's a rough life. The least happy people in
the world are children of God who are being chased
by God. It's a terrible way to live. Come back
to the father. You have an advocate. He's cheering
you on. He's not wanting you to shoot the other
foot with sin. He wants you to live for him.
He wants to pick you up. He wants to help you
get along right there. And then keep his commandments.
You have the word of God. Read the word of God.
Study the word of God. Make the word of God a
part of your life. Little children, let's pray.
Dear Father in heaven, we love you. We thank
you, Lord, for your goodness. First of all, Lord,
thinking that we can be your children adopted
into your family, and that's just a great day
in my life when I was born again. And Lord, if
there's somebody here today who's never been
born again, I pray that this would be the day
of salvation for them, helping to realize that
it's not their goodness or their works, it's
you, Jesus. Then I pray for somebody here who's
struggling, living in sin, and they're unhappy,
they're... They're really headbutting with you,
you might say, Lord. Help them to understand
they have you as an advocate, one that wants
to help them up. And God, I pray that you help
them to be restored, get in that place where
they can be used of you. Then Lord, I pray that
you help us as Christians to hold tight to your
commandments and your word. Help us to study
the Bible, read the Bible, then live by the Bible,
Lord. We sure do love you. We pray that you bless
the invitation. In Jesus' name, amen. Stand with
me, if you will. We're gonna have an invitation
and wow, piano organ are gonna play in a moment.
I'm gonna come down there to the front. If you're
here and you're not sure that if you were to
die today, you'd go to heaven, come tell me that
and I can have somebody from God's word help
you make that decision right there. Then if you
just. some decision, whether it's living in sin
or you need an advocate, go to God and deal with
him in prayer and ask God if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but have
a relationship with God. It's a piano and the
organ play.