My Little Children | 1 John 2:1-6 | Pastor Matt Nettesheim

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

Romans 10 · chapter mention

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

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

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

John 1 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

with me at verse number five. Look at Hebrews

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

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

John 13 · chapter mention

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.