Overcoming the wicked one

I'd like you to turn with me first of all to 1st John, chapter 2, and we'll read from verse 1. 1st John, chapter 2, and verse number 1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, or the righteous one. And he is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Now look down to chapter, please, verse 12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. 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, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.

I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world. Ye are the things that are in the world.

If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Verse 20, it says, But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Now another reading in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 4, verse 1. Matthew 4 and verse 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of, or by, the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward unhungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Now we know that God always blesses his precious word.

Apostle John was quite a man, he lived to an old age, and he had quite an audience, quite a few different people that he wrote to. We all know of course that he wrote his gospel to the world, and we all love that John 3 and 16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now when he wrote the second epistle, John's second epistle, he wrote to a woman, and he wrote about her children, and he was so glad that they were going on in the truth of God.

And then when he wrote the third epistle, he wrote to a man, a man called Gaius, and you could take great heart from this man Gaius, because John said to him that what he desired was that his body would prosper even as his soul prospered. So if you're ever sick, it doesn't mean that God's bringing something upon you for something you have done, because you can have a sick body, but you can have a prosperous soul. Now when we come to the book of Revelation, of course you all know he wrote to seven assemblies.

But when he wrote in 1 John, he wrote to the family, and it's a wonderful thing for us to know that we're all part of God's family. We have a father, and we're all in the family of God. You say we know that, but sometimes I wonder if we live with that in view.

We're all part of God's family, and he wants us to enjoy the family relationship. Sometimes families in this world can be a bit dysfunctional, and I get along great with my two sisters and my brother, because they live about 4,000 miles away, so we have no problem at all. But God wants us to enjoy that family relationship.

Now in that relationship, we read, if any man sin, sin can disturb that relationship. It doesn't ever bring us out of the family. Once we're born into God's family, we're always in the family.

But we can lose the enjoyment of our salvation and the enjoyment of being in God's family. But thank God there is a provision for that. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

It's often been pointed out that we have a high priest with God, but we have an advocate with the Father. So the family relationship isn't disturbed as far as me being cut off from the family. But God wants me to enjoy it.

Now, we should never excuse sin, and we should never excite sin. And if we read there, he's a propitiation for our sins, a satisfaction for our sins has been made, and not only for ours, but also for the whole world. A price is paid sufficient for all.

So you're preaching the gospel, you can preach to whosoever. And when I don't care what anyone says, I'm going to keep on preaching to whosoever. There's salvation for anyone and for everyone.

It's not something that's limited to a certain group. Now, in a family relationship, you expect to see the children grow. It's sad, isn't it? Sometimes you see little ones that don't grow.

There's something wrong with them. Always touches my heart. But a normal family, you'd want children to grow.

And in this family of God, we read, first of all, there in verse number 12, I read unto you, little children, and it says, because your sins are forgiven you, my little children. He said, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. So that's how we became children.

And this little verse covers everybody. We're all part of God's children because our sins have been forgiven. But then in this family, you remember how we read in verse 13, I write onto your fathers and I write unto you young men.

And then he said, I write unto you little children. So you have three here. You have little children and you have young men and we have fathers.

Now, he's not just saying when he speaks to fathers that you have to be a father to enter into this. Whether you're a brother or sister, God expects you to grow and he expects us all to make a little bit of progress. And when he's speaking about young men, this isn't something just that's preached to these men up here in the choir, up here in the front of the hall.

But he's talking about some that have made a little bit of progress. And when he speaks of children, he's speaking of those that maybe haven't made very much progress. It could be because they haven't been saved very long.

But sad to say, there are some believers that don't ever seem to make much progress in the things of God. And none of us can boast about the progress that we have. I remember Mr. Paisley told me one time, he said, I've been 40 years in the Lord's work.

And I said to him, you haven't made much progress, have you? He said, I'm not made to be called an apostle. Well, thank God there are men like that that made a lot of progress. None of us can brag about the progress that we make.

But he said about these little ones, you have known all things. Well, you say that's something, isn't it? For a little child to know all things. Maybe some of us when we were younger thought we knew a lot of things, but that's not what he's saying.

And to keep it in context, and I'm not going to go into all these verses by any means. But I think he's saying, you know, you're saved by the grace of God. That's the important thing.

There were false teachers at that time that were teaching things. A man called Serenthes and his followers, they were teaching things about the Lord Jesus that weren't according to the word of God. But he said, you know, this is the one that you're trusted in.

Don't be led astray by anyone else. Just tell you, this is the one that died on the cross at Calvary. God's son, the one that was from the beginning, the one that came from the glories of heaven into the sinful world.

He's the same one. And this is something that, you know, and because of that, he said, yeah, you know, you have a father, you know, you have a father, you have a father, and we're all part of his great family. Now, God just wants us to make a little bit of progress.

And I want to speak more maybe about the young men. But you can't really separate these things. Well, what about these young men? What characterized them? Well, they've overcome the wicked one.

How could you ever overcome the wicked one? Well, he goes on to say, because you're strong and the word of God abideth in you. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's what Brother Portman was bringing before us, I think. And I want to try to think of my message and maybe fit in with that.

But I'm not trying to add anything to it or correct anything, just trying to drive it home. The importance of knowing the word of God. Don't just be a child all your life as far as the things of God is concerned.

Say, well, I know, I know I'm saved. And then just go to heaven like that and not know anything else. Well, God wants you to get into the word of God.

And especially we can speak to the young men, but it's for everyone. Get into the word of God. That's what I was asked, told to do.

I'm not saying I did it like I should. But he said, Bill, get into the word of God and get the word of God into you. And the man that told me that, he said, especially the first five books of the Bible.

And they're very important. The Old Testament and the New Testament, wasn't it? Paul told Timothy, remember the things that I've taught you. From whom you learn these things.

And among others, among many witnesses. That was the New Testament, the apostles doctrine. And then he said, remember that from a child that was known the holy scriptures that are able to make the wise onto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Remember the Old Testament that you were taught as a child. And we need all the word of God for all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. So that's why we need to get into the word of God and get the word of God into us.

The word of God abideth in you. It's at home and you get end of God's word. And I'll give a little commercial for the book room.

There's lots of lovely books back there. And I'm glad that when I didn't have a book room when I was saved, but I went down to the local bookstore and I tried to find books that I could remember. One of my father's bookshelves in the old country.

And there was a brother came and he gave me John Ritchie's book on the Egypt, the Canaan, the tabernacle in the wilderness, the feast of Jehovah. And I devoured those books. Maybe I need to get back to them again.

You might think they're simple, but those are basic truths. And McIntosh's notes on the, on the Pentateuch, Mr. Chivas, one time an old preacher, he said, that's what's wrong with the world. Too much CHM.

My, all the brethren wondered what he's talking about. He said, that's Churchill, Hitler, and Mussolini. Well, we're not talking about them.

We're talking about CH McIntosh. And there's other books. There's lots of good books and help.

There's none of us when we went to school, discarded all the textbooks. We couldn't learn it all by ourselves. Some people think they can.

Well, maybe you're smarter, a lot smarter than I am. You probably are, but I needed all the help that I could get. So we're kind of enduring you to get into the word of God.

Now, there are things that would hinder us from getting into the word of God. What is that? Verse 15, love, not the world. My, the world is great attraction.

You say, what does it mean? The world, God, you just quoted God so loved the world. Well, that's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about the world, according as it is to the God of this world, the political world, and it's the prosperous world, the pleasure world, the popularity that is in the world, the Satan, the world that Satan has formed just to keep you having satisfaction without God.

That's the world he's talking about. Now we're living in the world. And maybe we're in it more than we mean, but we don't really love the world.

You know, when you read John's epistle, it says black or white, there's no gray. It's either saved or lost. You'll be confused if you don't look at it that way.

So you see a person that really loves the world wouldn't be saved. But we can dabble a little bit in the world. And that's the point today.

All the men that we have learned from, they were men that weren't dabbling in the world. That's for sure. They never learned God in the world of pleasure.

But we're letting things slip today, I think. And as believers, they'll go to movies and shows and things like that. We weren't even allowed to go there before God saved us.

Not saying I didn't sneak off a few times. But you see, you never learn God in those places or even in the sports world. You'll never learn God there.

What sports? I loved sports. I was involved in sports. But you know, that's not where you learn God.

No, that keeps people from thinking about other things when they're not thinking about the things of God at all. And while we're believers, we could be occupied in things like that or prosperity, trying to get on in the world. No, if you're going to be linked with these young men here in that category, you need to get into the word of God.

And all those things will never help you in the things of God. Now, you can see what the world is involved in the world. For all that is in the world, verse 16, it says, is the lust of the flesh.

That would take you back to the Garden of Eden, wouldn't it? It was look good to eat. The loss of the flesh. And, you know, that's what the what they tell us in the world today.

If it feels good, you do it. Why? No, don't let anybody tell you what to do. Don't be subject to the thing.

Just you go ahead. If it feels good, you do it. And that could apply to many things in our lives.

And then he said, it's pleasant to the eyes. Why? That was the fruit was pleasant to the eye, wasn't it? And desire to make one wise, the pride of life. And this is what Satan still uses today.

The same bait that he used in the Garden of Eden so that we might be kept really from the things of God and kept in disobedience from God. That's what Adam and Eve did. They disobeyed God.

And the result was that sin comes in. Now, if I'm going to get into the word of God. What's the next step? The next rung in the ladder is the father's because you have known him that is from the beginning.

And you might have noticed that we have the same expression exactly in verse 13 and verse 14, because you have known him that is from the beginning. In other words, there's no greater occupation than to be occupied with Christ. So when we read the word of God and we want to get a knowledge of the word of God, it's not so that we can answer all the questions.

None of us can do that anyhow. But but that's not the point. It's to get to know him.

That's the motivation for reading the word of God. It's not that no more than others or and I'd like to know enough to able to answer all the questions that people would ask. We can't do that.

That's why we need one another. That's why we have Bible readings so that we can learn from others and ministry meetings as well so that we can learn from others. So get into the word of God and learn the truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think that's the first thing that anyone should should learn. I know I have heard. I'm not sure if this is really true, but I heard of a young man years ago come into assembly fellowship.

And the first day he was received into fellowship, he give a little word after the breaking of bread. And you know what it was about? The qualification of elders. Listen, young men, anyone don't don't don't be like that, especially if you are young.

If you if you're young and you want to give a little word, give a little word about the Lord. That's the important thing. Later on, when you're mature, you'll find that some of the things you were so sure about that you would have done.

I remember trying to encourage brethren to take part. I was a young believer. If we didn't take part of the breaking of bread, we were told, don't become a silent brother.

And Mr. Old Mr. Stewart used to say, did you not bring your prayer book with you this morning if you didn't take part of the breaking of bread? But. I'm glad that we were encouraged to take part and not to become silent brothers. But if we're going to take a little bit of part in worship, we have to know the Lord Jesus if we're going to worship good to get into the gospels.

And when you get older, maybe you're attracted back into the gospels because you can see what what it's all about. Learning more of this wonderful person. How am I going to do that? Well, we're really our brother was telling us if we we want to know him, not just to have a knowledge of the things about Christ, a theoretical knowledge, but we want to know him in an experiential way.

In other words, we want to be like him. That's what we need. We don't need to start in the book of Ezekiel or Zechariah or anything like that.

Get into something that that's plain and simple, something you can enjoy. And and over the time comes in, you can maybe share it with others. Wonderful if someone will get up and humility and just give a little word, something they've been enjoying.

That's really what cheers the hearts of God's people, isn't it? So we need to get into the word of God. We can't speak about Christ if we don't know him and we can't be like him if we don't know him. And God saved me that I might be like him.

We shall be like him or we shall see him as he is. So that's what it's all about, being like Christ and making a little bit of progress and growing in grace and in the knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when we come to Matthew's gospel, our brother already alluded to this as well.

What do we have? We have the Lord Jesus in times of testing. And, you know, he quotes from a book, the book of Deuteronomy. I've often said that it reminds me of David going out to meet the giant.

He took one stone out of five and the Lord Jesus took one book out of five out of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, the book of Deuteronomy. He took on this book to confront or to reply to Satan. And it's interesting.

I thought that Moses wrote this book after he was in the wilderness for 40 years. And now the Lord's 40 days tempted in the wilderness and he hungered. How did he answer Satan? How would we answer Satan in times of difficulty or temptation from the word of God? So you see, that's the importance of the young man getting into the word of God to make progress, to be occupied with Christ.

So we might be like him, even in this way, that we'll be able to confront the wicked one as he did. It is written. It is written.

When he stood up in the synagogue and looked chapter four in Nazareth, what did he do? He quoted from the prophets. So here's from the Pentateuch and he could quote from the prophets. He was, could we say this reverently and view of ourselves familiar with all the word of God.

That's, we don't know what, what, what's going to help us in times of temptation or times of difficulty. That's why we need to get into all the word of God, not to be specialists, not to be all like I was a man in South Africa and he was a good man and the pioneered. But you know, when he, when he, when he came to live in South Africa and when he went back to the UK, you know what they called him? Tabernacle Brown.

He seemed to preach on there. Nothing wrong with a tabernacle, but that was just a one string in his fiddle. Unfortunately, sometimes we could be the same, but it's the whole word of God that is a safeguard.

And the Lord Jesus, he used the one that was applicable at that time. Make these stones bread. Wouldn't that be associated with the, with the flesh? Remember the enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil and first John two.

Well, that would be the, uh, the, the flesh make these stones bread. My, they look good. Good for food.

That's what he said to, uh, to Eve. But what did the Lord say? It is written or you could translate it this way. It stands written.

In other words, it's never going to change. The word of God never changes. Satan has lots of tactics, but we have the, uh, the, the same power.

If we quote the, uh, the word of God, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And then we have the pride of life. I would take it.

And the next one, he took them up to the pinnacle of the temple. Temple was a tremendous building. The disciples were all taken up with the temple and then they asked the Lord, did you see this great big building? So on and all the lovely stones in the temple.

And, uh, you know, uh, he told him that they're going to day coming when it's all going to be demolished. There won't be one stone, uh, upon another. And I think it's in the gospel of Luke.

If you keep on reading, what do you find? You find a stone that the builders rejected. The same has been made the head of the corner. All those other stones meant nothing.

They were associated with Judaism, but here's a real cornerstone and we have been built into that building. But anyhow, they said, cast thyself down. The test test God.

What will God really save you? Why he said he would, you know, he'll give his angels charge concerning thee and their hands. They shall bear thee up less at any time. They dash thy foot against a stone.

What was the answer again? It stands written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. We don't test God. We believe what God says.

We don't need to put him to the test. We know he's going to be as good as his word. So we can absolutely go according to the word of God.

And then he takes him again. And if that's the devil telling him, well, it's a pride of life. I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world.

And he showed them and it wasn't a false claim. They were all under his authority. He had the he had the world in possession.

He didn't have it entitled. And the day will come when the Lord will take up the title deeds of the world, the scroll and revelations five. But Satan has it in possession now.

And he said, I can show you all these things. Well, he said, you know. You have to if you fall down and worship me.

You can have all these things. What was missing? Well, Calvary, really. But he said, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.

Then the devil leaveth him, of course, for a time. Worship the Lord thy God. You know, when it comes to worship.

We should use scriptural terms. And how are we going to use scriptural terms by going according to the word? And then I thought, you know, that when the Lord went into the temptation in the wilderness, it's associated again with a brother brought that out with a temptation with the wilderness journey of the children of Israel. And how they tempted God in the wilderness, something.

But here was a wilderness with wild animals. Adam and Eve, there was no wild animals on that day. And the children of Israel are coming through the wilderness and make these stones bread.

Think of the manna that our brother brought before us. Manna, small round thing, purity. If I'm going to feed on that, I'm going to be like the Lord.

Am I not? I'm going to be pure in my life and I'm going to be humble in my life. You know, the old adage, they say you are what you eat. It's still true.

You can look at me and. Well, I was going to. I was thinking I shouldn't say some of these things, but you know what the squirrel said? If you are what you eat, I must be nuts.

I like nuts, too. Maybe you could tell that. But you really are what you eat.

It shows, especially when we're thinking of the things of God. And manna, you remember one thing they had to stoop down to get it. It speaks of Christ in humility.

How could I get through this wilderness world? I'd have to do it in humility. But you say maybe you don't know much about humility. Maybe I don't.

But I think humility is going according to the word of God. Not my will, but thine be done. That's what true humility would be for us.

And that's what the Lord's doing here. He took the subjective place and he's going according to the word of God. That's what true humility is.

And if you and I are going to get through this wilderness world unscathed, we'll have to do it going through humility. But, you know, they didn't like it. We don't like this light bread, they said.

And, you know. Hard for some to be humble. Likely, isn't it? It shouldn't be, because if we realize what we really are, we shouldn't be humble.

They told a story, you've heard an old one about the Irishman that he practiced being humble for two years, but he gave it up because nobody even noticed him. And you see, people have pride in them and they like to be noticed. And they like others to see what they're doing and all.

What does it matter what others see? We were in the Bible reading there of Abraham and Isaac. It was brought out that there was nobody there to watch Abraham and Isaac. We wouldn't have.

It wasn't an inspired word of God. We wouldn't know. He wasn't doing it to please men or to get allocates from men.

He was doing it because he had a heart of devotion for God. And he's going according to the word of God. So you have that make these stones bread.

And then you think of the next part, the pride of life. And again, as written, and the children of Israel, they had their pride and the lust of the eye. And they loathed the humble bread, didn't want to be humble.

They wanted to be proud. But you know, when you come to the next part, you have the testing God, as they did at Marah, fall down and worship me. But you see, as I mentioned, and as you know, something had to take place.

And that's why we have the brazen serpent lifted up. The children of Israel were 38 years in the wilderness from the giving of the law to the lifting up of the brazen serpent. And what do they characterize by just complaining? Always complaining.

We miss the things of the world. We miss the onions and the leeks and the garlics and the melons. All those things that you can tell a person's been eating them, you know, the garlic.

And you can tell what Christians have been feeding on too by what comes out of their mouth sometimes, can't you? You can tell whether they're feeding on the things that would color your breath or whatever, or whether they're feeding on the things of God. But you know, when you come to the gospel of John, if you read the word of God, I like to try and put things together. You have the brazen serpent lifted up in John 3. You have the springing well in John 4. They're both in numbers 21, aren't they? And when you come into the next chapter of John, you have a man at a pool.

How long was he there? 38 years. Same length of time that Israel was in between the giving of the law and the lifting up of the serpent. And it just shows their helplessness.

They need to get their eye on the Lord. And so do we. We need to get into the word of God.

And we need to get into us and be saturated, if we could say, if we could just be saturated in the word of God and learning it. Why? What's the motive? To get to know this wonderful person. Get to know him more, that I may know him.

Paul knew him as a savior, but he wanted to know him in a deeper, in a greater way. And how was it? He wanted to be like him. You read Philippians chapter three, and you'll find that's what he was saying.

I want to know him in an experiential way, not a theoretical knowledge of the Lord, but to know him so that I would be like him and not shun the difficulties or the reproach. I think he's saying as the Lord Jesus reached his resurrection in a difficult pathway, and I'm not going to reach mine the easy way. We're all inclined maybe to drift along.

They talk about going with the flow, but that's not what should characterize us. We should be living as the Lord lived. And when temptation comes, be able to face it with the word of God, just as the Lord Jesus Christ did.

So may the Lord help us. Maybe you could sum up what I'm saying. To help us to make a little bit of progress in our Christian lives.

That's what I would like to do. I'd like to grow a little bit. There's something wrong in the family of the children aren't growing.

And I'd like to grow. Wouldn't you like to grow a little bit? Well, if you do, you need the food. As we've been reminded, the food is the word of God and better still Christ himself.

So may the Lord help us to be more like him and to be overcomers in this world by the word of God. So may the Lord bless his word.