But it's his will to do it Jesus said I praise you for what I found out to be your will even though I don't comprehend it all I praise you for it. And then he says The 3rd thing is this and that is that the message is revealed to infants which is very counterintuitive because nobody wants to be an infant nobody wants to be a child everybody wants to be a grown up and in fact there's a bit of a paradox here because in the New Testament it does say grow up be an adult in fact the end of 1st Corinthians it tells them act like men be strong you know and so there's this real there's this kind of paradox on the one hand there's this this idea that Governor of eels things to children and yet on the other hand he wants them to grow but he never wants them to grow being children isn't that weird as so many there's so many paradoxes in the Christian experience but this is the opposite of the way we do everything the opposite of our way to be an infant to go back and be a child when Jesus talked to make a Demas who was anything but a child I mean it could Demas was really important at the top of his game at the top of society he was in all probability wealthy he was very well educated he was at the top and Jesus said You need to be born all over again in academia said What are you talking about all over again you know be a child. Interesting theme this business of being a child before God Jesus said I praise you father that you reveal this to people who are willing to be children now let's go to 1st John will be in Chapter 2 beginning in verse 12. Where there is some poetry that reference is children. I'm going to spend the rest of our time looking at this and fact this is just part one this will be 3 parts in this section verses $12.00 to $14.00 we read John and we sometimes don't get it 1st time through in fact he might not get John's writing the 1st or 2nd or 3rd or 4th time through he doesn't write in particularly linear ways he comes back like a poet and he repeats things and this is very much poetry but let me bring you up to speed there were some people that John dealt with who were tired of being children before God they got too smart for God They grew their intelligence actually they got smarter than their brains could handle so smart they got dumb you can be so open minded your brains fall out. And in fact there's a whole industry in which you can pay good money to have that happen to you. In our culture. There were some people had broken off from the Christian church they had appeared to be Christians for a long time and then they thought they had a better idea than the Gospel is the gospels actually fairly simple is very profound but it's simple and you don't get to be elitist if you stay in the Gospel you don't get to be an elitist you never become an expert that gets to look down on other people contrary to popular belief in some circles and these people want to be elitists and so they develop basically a cult when they came out of Johns Communion this happens about 35 years after what we just read when Jesus said those words we just read 35 years later John is the last living apostle who heard the words that we just read from Jesus the last living apostle who had been there at the original and he's now a very old man he's in his ninety's he's speaking to his Christian friends and it's a church in which there's been a break off and a cult has started and the cult basically says and I'm trying not to belabor this but you've got to know it in order to understand why John says what he says in 1st John of The Cult said basically 3 things and I word it differently that each time but it's basically same thing 1st of all day at the developed of a kind of spirituality in which they didn't need these 3 things they didn't need the cross and the crown of Christ they didn't need the propitiation the cross they didn't need the Lordship of Christ they had developed a form of spirituality where the cross and the work of the cross was not needed and neither was the Lordship of Christ that is the result of the cross all of that is part of the Gospel and so what they're basically had developed a form of spirituality with Jesus's name on it that did not have at its heart the cross the propitiation that was done there which means it didn't have the incarnation which is why later he talks about this if you deny that Jesus has come in the flesh that God has come in the flesh in Christ and so on that's anti-Christ and these people had started to move in that direction they've moved out of the Body of Christ developed a new religion and John says. Later on in Chapter 2 he says they went out from us because they were part of a sexually if they had been part of us they just stayed with us that's the proof that you are one or one of the proofs so they went out they didn't need the cross or the crown of Christ secondly they had spirituality without repentance or the forgiveness of Sins Of course if you don't need the propitiation if you don't need the cross of all you need advice on how to be spiritual and stuff to do to make yourself feel spiritual and have mystical experiences or stuff to do to make yourself holy and have religious you know merit that you're in you're developing then you will not need to repent you want to really admit that you need to be forgiven more than you need to be understood for but understand that it's you need a human being needs forgiveness more than they need therapy. But a lot of people substitute therapy for forgiveness and they can't figure out what doesn't help them that much. Forgiveness but this group didn't they didn't think they needed forgiveness partly because some of them might as said they never did sin in the 1st place that's what our secular culture says basically no such thing as sin or that they did sin but it didn't matter that's another big deal that it's very you can convince people you can say are you are you a sinner and if they have any church background then go yeah probably but it's pretty obvious they don't think that's a serious problem and so that's the thing with these folks either they thought they never sinned or that it didn't matter or that somehow they had stopped sinning and in chapter one verses 8 and 9 he goes into this we saw it before somehow they had ceased to sin and did not need any more grace see that was the idea we don't need grace we don't need the Cross we're past that we're really super spiritual There's a bunch of theories about you know we're these people gnostics or whatever but that's not we don't need it doesn't matter the point is they definitely did not believe in the cross on the crown of Christ they didn't need it they didn't need the Incarnation secondly they didn't need repentance and forgiveness of sins and 3rd they didn't need moral or spiritual transformation and this is why John goes into great lengths and over and over in the book to say you know you can tell a person really knows God because they're morally transformed they actually change on the inside and they're they actually take seriously what God says about moral reality and John says that these folks this cult group they were not walking in the light. Particularly with regard to love for one another as we saw before and loyalty to Christ in his words so that those 3 things this new spirituality without the cross and the crown without repentance and forgiveness without moral or spiritual transformation you can have these things but listen friend I'll just write this right off the nod let me tell you real Christianity focuses on all 3 of these things it really is based at the cross in what and who God is what he did at the cross and subsequent to the cross and the crown the Lordship of Christ it really is about repentance and faith I mean you have to admit that you need to be forgiven more than you need to be understood and 3rd you have to see and you have to want to see moral transformation in your soul you have to want to this is very it's very disturbing when you find people who claim to be Christians and it's quite obvious by their lifestyle that they couldn't give a rip about any kind of moral goodness or integrity in their life they don't care but they claim they claim that they're Christians and so John says look that's a false thing that's going on now I want to point out part of this was the elitism that came with it we don't want to be treated like children. We've outgrown that we have a more ality that stands even above God and you hear this a lot in in the liberal culture of the West in both Europe and the United States more ality that stands over and above God. Ality dad has outgrown this simple thing called faith and yet all of the moral stuff in all of that moralistic writing is hijacked directly out of the Bible so what people do is they take what God says about what is good they hijack it pretend they're the ones that came up with it then use it to criticize what God says in the Bible. Does you follow what I'm saying there I mean this happens all the time in the elite structures of our culture watch out for it anyway so John basically is saying that it's not it's not the way things are that kind of spirituality and all of various different forms that it takes and so in that what we saw last week in the weeks before John has deliberately questioned the spiritual condition of these teachers he's really called into question he said there they're walking in the darkness he says they're lying about knowing God they don't really know God And so what has happened is he's thrown what I think I through to into your heart some of your hearts and that is a question about whether you're really a Christian. By some of the questions I got and some of the comments I got after the last few messages and it won't be the last time I know. People worried you know they go Well you know maybe I'm not seeing enough growth maybe I'm not seeing enough what am I really a Christian now 1st of all I want to say I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to make you ask that question it is a very valid question to ask you need to ask it. Are you a real one and any real one always asks that question and by the way it's a sign that you're a real one that you asked the question because you want to be serious about it however as John moves into verses 12 to 14 he changes his tone for a couple of reasons partly because of what I just said he's already questioned the salvation of these well he basically said these false teachers had look like they're really not Christians which makes everybody sit up and go wow am I a real one partly because in the next few verses after this which we'll see next year. Christmas is coming. We'll see those in the weeks to come he's going to make a strong answer to about how the show. Relate to the world and so here we have an interlude and it's poetic and what he's doing is he's encouraging them any he basically addresses the these people in 3 different ways as children as young men and as fathers and he says the same 3 things. A couple of times in the poetry but I want to tell you it's because he's a good pastor he wants to encourage them in the midst of this questioning they're doing and fear perhaps that they have he wants to assure them and he wants to strengthen their real faith and then he's going to instruct them some more so let's read it verse 12 I'm writing to you little children different Greek word than we saw in Matthew but synonyms these are all synonyms just different Greek words I'm writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven are forgiven for his name's sake not for your righteousness sake but for is name his identity his authority. I am writing to you little children because your sins are forgiven for his name say I am writing to you father and he goes to the other end of the spectrum of the older ones because you know him who is from the beginning I am writing to you young men the people in the middle in their what we might say super productive years young men because you have overcome the evil one I write to you children I repeat it because you know the father I write to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning and I write to you young men and he expands it here because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you to and you have overcome the evil one each of these is rich I tell you there we don't have time to do it all this was going to be 3 parts of this one thing we're going to talk about the children this morning we'll talk about the young men of the fathers in the weeks to come. By the way does everybody get past the gender about using male terms to refer to everybody that's perfectly legitimate in the Bible is just a literary device don't let it don't let it get on your case it means men and women . These are all male terms but it doesn't matter in the Bible it means men and women and everybody knew that it's just recently people don't know that but it is true. I'm not kidding I mean it's literary foolishness to argue about that it's silly don't get into those arguments so he's saying he's writing 3 sorts of people children fathers and young men and in that order any seeing some really good news he seem to children are forgiven of their sins and they know the father he's seen the father's know the one who's from the beginning it's really important it's really important and we'll see why. Tune in again. And the young men are strong he says they've overcome the evil one they have the Word of God abiding in them and there's that's very very rich will look more deeply into it in the future but right now I want to see why John calls us little children you see the theme now back to where Jesus says you reveal these things to the name to the infants and John uses other 2 Greek words for for little children here are 2 different words he uses from the one in Matthew but also different from one another a total of 3 terms but they all refer to little kids kids like $23.00 everything from infant up to 5678. Years old the cute age is more or less yeah that's really kind of. What it is and John refers to everybody this way this isn't a strict chronological thing is talking about here because he was 1st of all the Christians as little children ends not just because he's 90 some odd years old you call anybody little kids if you're 90 some odd years old but it's more than that he got this idea of calling us children for Jesus this is what Jesus calls us and there's some real. For this is a very Jesus kind of a theme if you take notes jot down John chapter one verse is 12 and 13 Jesus it says John says of Jesus that he was rejected remember the rejection kind of theme and motif that you find in John chapter one verse 12 and 13 most people rejected him but those who accepted him those who received Him It says to them he gave the right to become. The children of God he says and they were born not by human arrangement but by the Spirit of God God gives them a new life and makes them his children by the way the liberal doctrine it is dogma by the way within the liberal forms and when I say liberal I don't always mean it pejoratively by the way I'm in a conservative environment and I'm a conservative myself but when I say liberal I don't always mean it pejoratively and I don't always mean it politically there's a liberal theology in which the emphasis is on the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God but I need to point out that that's actually not what the Bible teaches it's not the universal brotherhood of man and the universal fatherhood of God That's partly true but that's a very very small part of what the whole Bible says what the whole Bible says is that actually only the people who are in covenant with God are actually called his children and that's why in John chapter 11213 he says to many as received Him to them he gave the right to become the children of God so everybody's not a child of God in this way. That's kind of shocking for a lot of folks raised in our culture to know that and he also says in Matthew 19 verse 14 Jesus this is all Jesus kind of thinking he regenerates people like this we just saw but also they Kingdom is populated he said these are the kind of people in the kingdom he had a little child in front of a many and he said this is the kind of person said my kingdom and He is the word for a little child now we'll see more about what he says then. He says of course 2 crucially important things your sins are completely forgiven and you know the father but we'll talk more about that next week what I want to talk about now and for remaining time is 4 things about why he calls his children because if you're Christian you are indeed a child of God and if you're thinking of becoming a Christian you're going to become a child of God you're not going to become a grown up of God 1st. And if you come swaggering into the kingdom thinking that God should be glad that he has you on his team there's a painful surgery that will occur. In your heart and ego ectomy and those are just really painful. Because humility which is one of the key virtues of knowing Christ is best accomplished by humiliation and so so it's best to just set that aside and say Ok Well alright if I'm thinking of becoming a Christian then what I'm thinking of becoming is a real child in a very significant sense before God why does he referred to us as children and I'll give you a hint it's not because we are sweet and innocent and sometimes people think that's always so nice that govern for us to us as children because they think of the sweetness of children and children of course really our sweet grandchildren actually are sweeter than your original children. If you've noticed them view. I'm only joking about their rights to save e-mails. But you know what I mean there's this sweetness among it's actually giving a compliment but that's not actually what he's doing and by the way if you have more than one child you know they're not innocent I mean the idea that kids are innocent is really. A great myth. Perpetrated by either folks who never had any never around any children or people who worship their children sometimes people do that and they think that it's a mistake if you have more than one child even if you have one but if you have more than one and the more the merrier you will discover they are what makes life livable is that they're too small to actually destroy more than just a few things in the house. Honestly they're not innocent and what So whatever God is saying here he's not saying I choose children and make you children because they're innocent and sweet Well then. Why well there's 3 reasons and 4 actually and they're all found in 1st John they're all not just in this text of 1st John although some are but all throughout 1st John here they are all tell you what they are and then I'll tell you what they are then I'll tell you what they are again they are. Children have no franchise. In this age. They do not own the businesses they do not run things in this age children Secondly they are not autonomous they don't have self law they're under someone else's authority and they know it. 3rd they obey out of trust and loyalty. Rather than out of a theoretical idea that obedience will get them anything. They obey out of trust and loyalty No We're talking kids little little children Ok before you're bribing them with allowances and forth they have everything debt they have they have everything that they have by an inheritance which means it's a gift that was not earned by them it was earned by somebody else but it is still their interest in so this actually makes it perfect for us to be called children and yet it is humbling So let's go back through those 4 things 1st they have no franchise in this age and you see it clearly in John Chapter 2 verses 15 to 17 will talk more about that in weeks to come children do not run the world they believe someone e