The Power of the Word in the Believer's Life, Part 2

Selected Scriptures

We've been saying that there are really two areas we that want to discover in our study, one is WHY we should study the Bible and the second 'is HOW we should study the Bible. I think that the first one is important because we have to have motivation, if we just come in and. say, "Hey, here's how to study the Bible", somebody's going to say, "Why is it that important?" So we've got to begin with WHY It's important to study the Bible before we study HOW.

And in our first study, last time together we shared with you that the reason to study the Bible, to begin with is that It is Goals word, it's an incredible book. We talked about the fact that the Bible is infallible that is in total there are no mistakes, it is inerrant, in parts there are no mistakes, it is complete that is nothing is to be taken away and nothing added, it is authoritative when it speaks, it is the last word, it IS sufficient that is the Bible is able to do for you everything you need done, It is effective, it will do what it says it will do and it is determinative, in other words by what you do with the Bible you reveal your spiritual character. We said, then that the Bible because it is all these things is the only book in the universe with such quality and character. It is God's holy word.

We suggested to you also, that there were several lines of evidence that show us that the Bible is God's word, experience is one. People read the Bible they respond and it does in their life what it claims to do. That's a great proof, that's a great evidence. Secondly, science; when the Bible speaks scientifically, it is right. Thirdly, the very person of Christ; when you see the word. of God and you listen to Christ and you see Him there, and you behold the majesty of His person and you see how He held the scripture up as the absolute authority, this is a great evidence as well. Then we talked about miracles and we talked about prophesy These five things, experience, science, Christ, miracles and prophesy, being strong evidences to cause us to believe that the bibl is what it says it is, the very word of God.

Then we suggested to you that there are six reasons why we should study the Bible. Six great motivators. First of all we said that we should study the Bible because it is the source of truth. Jesus said. in John 17:17, "Thy word is truth". A great statement especially in our world where everyone's looking for the truth. lie talked about the cynicism of Pilate who said, "What is truth." And that's true of a lot of people who bail out who give up because they've never been able to find the truth. The Bible should be studied because it is the book of truth. What a tremendous thing to be able to say, "I know the truth". And you know when you think about it, it isn't even intellectual, it isn't even a matter of cognitive ability, it isn't a matter of how smart you are or how educated you are, in fact, Jesus said He had hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Incredible as it is you and I in our simplicity and Paul said to the Corinthians, "Not many noble, not many mighty" just us plain folks, "know the truth that a world of intellectually brilliant people are searching for and are unable to find". The Bible, study it; it's the book of truth.

Secondly, we suggested to you that we should study the Bible because the Bible is not only the source of truth but it's the source of happiness. It's the source of joy. In fact, we quote from the words of Jesus that "if you hear My words and keep the, My joy will remain in you". The words of John, "These things I write unto you that your joy may be full". The words of the Proverbs, "Happy is the man who hears Me". The words of Luke 11:28 "Happy are they who hear the word of God and obey it". Real happiness is found in responding to the word of God. Now I know enough about h man nature to know that everybody wants to be happy. No body really enjoys sorrow and sadness and misery and trouble, they want joy and there's a gilt‑edged, guaranteed promise from the lips of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Himself, "That if we will respond to the truth o the word of God, we will be happy people". We'll have Joy in act the whole purpose for which Christ came is to give us abundant life and that abundant life is wrapped up in a response to the Word of God. As we obey the word of God and we respond to it's precept God begins to fill our lives with rejoicing.

Now we need to talk a little bit about that and add a footnote to what was said in our last time together. When we talk about obeying the word of God there are two kinds of obedience and maybe we ought to differentiate. First of all is what I call legal obedience, secondly what I choose to call gracious obedience. Legal obedience or you would better call it legalistic obedience pertains to the covenant of works, the old covenant, the Mosaic, "Mount Sinai "as the writer of Hebrews says, "with it's thunder, fire and smoke". And legalistic obedience demands an absolute perfect obedience without a single failure. If you fail, that's the end, good‑bye, it's al over. One false move and it's the end, finished.

Now this is legal obedience. This is the covenant of works but in contrast to that you have a covenant of grace in the scripture. This is loving and a gracious and a merciful and a forgiving attitude on the part of God. This is how gracious obedience works. Legalistic obedience says you better keep every rule or you're finished, gracious obedience says this: if God sees into your heart and sees there a spirit of grace, He sees there a willingness to obey, He sees there a sincere and loving and humble sense of obedience, He sees there a positive response to His word even though there are times when we fail, He counts us as obedient, because that's the spirit in our hearts. Even though our gracious obedience may be filled with defect it's the attitude that He's after. That's a tremendous principle. I want to illustrate it to you because I think it's so important. In John 21, a favorite passage of mine that graphically illustrates a lot of spiritual truths, it's all about Peter really and Peter has gone fishing when he shouldn't have gone fishing, the Lord had already called him into the ministry and now he's going fishing and violate the Lord's call so he's fishing and you remember the story in John 20, they didn't catch any fish at all and morning came and they had fished all night and was totally fruitless and Jesus appeared on the shore and. asked them if they had caught anything and Peter like the rest had nothing to show and it was a great lesson to them because God was saying to them, 'Hey, if you think you can fish anymore, you're wrong; you've been called to the ministry that stuff is finished. I'll reroute every fish in every sea you approach, you're My man', so then He called them over to breakfast, they were sitting round the sea of Galilee and the Lord had made breakfast and I imagine the Lord made breakfast like He makes everything ‑ Breakfast ‑ and there it was. They were sitting there having breakfast and Jesus pointed out Peter and this is what He said, "He said to him, Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonah, lovest thou Me more than these?"

Now that was an interesting statement, Jesus used the most grandiose word for love that was in the Greek language, agapao we get the word agape from it, Do you super love Me? Do you love Me to the limit of love? Peter responded, I sure like you a lot Peter used another word speaking of a lesser love. I sure like you a lot And the Lord said, "Feed My sheep". The second time Jesus said to Peter, "Peter, do you super love Me?" And Pete said, "Well Lord, I like you a lot He said, "Feed my lambs". You know why Peter kept saying, I like you a lot and he wouldn't use Jesus' word? Simple, because his life didn't match such a claim. He knew that if he said, Lord, I super love You. Jesus would have said, 0 that's why you don't obey, have you forgotten t at I told you a long time ago that if you love Me you'll keep My commandments. How could you stand there and say you super love Me hen you don't even do what I say. That's the number one manifestation. Peter wasn't about to get himself in that trap so he said I like you a lot "And the third time Jesus said to him, 'Peter, do you like Me a lot?' "and that hurt. You see, Peter thought he was fair and he wasn't even going to claim the super love and Jesus even questioned the love that Peter claimed. Peter thought he was on solid ground with that stuff and it says, "Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time 'Do you love Me a lot and Peter said, 'Lord You know everything, You know I like you a lot. And he appealed to the doctrine of omniscience. He said, You've got to read my heart it isn't obvious from my life. The doctrine of omniscience is great. I use to think when I was a kid it was bad, you know God's going around spying on you but now I realize that if God wasn't omniscient there are plenty of times He wouldn't know that I loved Him because it wasn't obvious. And so Peter says, Lord you know everything you know that I love you. And do you know what the Lord Jesus did? The Lord is so good, the Lord said to that guy who couldn't even claim the supreme love, that guy who couldn't even obey, that guy who couldn't even stay awake at a prayer meeting, that guy who stuck his foot in his mouth every time he had an opportunity, he almost drowned when he could have walked on water, that guy who wanted to tell Jesus not to go to the cross, that guy who grabbed a sword and tried to chop up the whole Roman army and foul up everything, He said to that character who had fouled up almost every opportunity he had, "You're My man" . Three times He said "Feed My sheep, feed My lambs, feed My sheep". Do you know what's so incredible about that, He took Peter on the basis of his heart attitude of willing to obey even though he goofed it up. Now God works with us on the primus of gracious obedience not legal obedience. Here was a guy who failed to obey over and over again but in his heart he really wanted to do it. His spirit was willing but his flesh was weak. And the Lord Jesus knows that, that's how God looks at us. He says, "My word is the source of joy if you obey it and if you'll obey My word I'll fill your life with joy".

Now He doesn't mean, now if you ever fail one little deal in My rules it's the end of joy, it's all over, misery down your track. That's not what He is saying, He's saying; if I read as a pattern as an attitude of heart, a style f life a commitment in You, a desire to obey I will pass over those failures. It's the deep commitment that He's after and that's the source of joy. You study the word, you hear what it says, you draw out it's principles, you obey those principles because it's in your heart to obey them and God pours out the blessings and the joy. Do you want to know something?

Let me te11 you this, you could crank out obedience in every legalistic manner you wanted but if in your heart you didn't want to o it and you were fighting against it, He would never give you the joy because you see, to do good deeds without a right heart doesn't count. Let me show you what I mean. The Bible talks about fruit, it talks about different kinds of fruit and it talks about the fruit of the Spirit and that's attitude stuff and before there's ever the fruit in your life such as winning people to Christ or studying the word of God or whatever it is t e Bible talks about as fruit, praise, giving all the good works b t before the fruit on the outside means anything it's got to come from the fruit of the Spirit on the inside.

Now listen to me, legalistic, I should say action fruit, things you do with attitude fruit what you feel is pure legalism, phariseism. You can crack out all the stuff you want on the outside, you can be a legalist to the teeth like the Pharisees and you'll never know joy. On the other hand if your heart is a heart of obedience and a heart of attitude, you can fail on the outside and God will give you the joy because He sees the gracious obedient spirit in your heart. That's that He is after. So the promise is this, study the Bible. Why? Number one, it's the source of truth and number two it's the source of rejoicing. You say, "Hey, MacArthur, I really appreciate what you are saying but I've got news for you, I study the Bible all the time and I've got lots of pain, I've got lots of problems".

Well, I've got a verse for you; fortunately, I don't want to leave you hanging with that thought. God doesn't tell you just exactly when you're going to get the joy, right? You might have to wait a little while. So in John 16 and He's looking at the disciples and tells them, "I'm leaving" and they're all just sitting there moping, you know, they put all their proverbial eggs into one basket, everybody left his trade, they've all been following Jesus f r three years and then Jesus ups and says, I'm going now guys, I'm going to leave you, I'm going to have to go away and that's the way it is. And they're all going Whoa, wait a minute ere, we joined. this baby thinking that the kingdom was going t come, some things happened and they were very sorrowful and very sad and Jesus said in John 16, verse 20, "Verily, verily I say u to you, ye shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice, you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow will be turned into joy".

In other words, you've got to realize sometimes that's there going t be sorrow before there's ever going to be joy. In fact, do you wan to hear something interesting? It' you didn't know sorrow you wouldn't know joy when it came. That's right. If you didn't know pa n, you wouldn't know pleasure. I was reading recently an interesting little article that was saying, The difference between an itch and a tickle cannot be defined medically and yet a tickle is something that makes you happy and an itch is something that irritates. A very fine line. Did you know the difference between pleasure and pain is very fine line. For example, sometimes there's nothing more wonderful than a really hot shower and you get it really hot and you just one elbow and you just uh‑uh‑and you sort of ease in it and. i Is pain then all of a sudden ahhh. A thin line between pain and pleasure. You know I played football when I was in college and all through college I faced that thin line of pain and pleasure. You torture your body like some kind of maniac and it's pain and all the time you're loving it with some kind of horrendous kind of pleasure. The thin line between pain and pleasure. And I guess if we didn't know pain we wouldn't know pleasure, if we didn't know pain we wouldn't know the joy that pleasure can bring. I think one of the reasons God allows sorrow in our lives so that we will understand joy when it comes. And so He says, you're going to have sorrow for a little while, be patient. Listen if you obey the word of God, He'll give you that joy, ma be not instantaneously when you want it but always when you nee it.

So, why should I study the Bible? What should motivate me to bibl study? Number one, the Bible is the source of truth; number two, the Bible is the source of joy. And I'll tell you, no matt r what happens in my life, externally and circumstantially, when I study the word of God there's is an exhilaration and a joy that is untouched by any circumstance.

Third thing; a third motivating force, a third reason to study the bib e is that the word is the source of victory. I don't know about a 1 of you but I like to win, I don't like to lose. I lose a lot but I don't like it. I like to win. I figure if you're going to do something, do it all the way. My dad use to say that to me from he time I was a little kid. Listen Johnny, held say, "if you're going to do it, do it to the best of your ability or don't do it". I grew up with that, the striving for excellence. I like to win, I don't like to be under it I like to be on top of it. And I see that in my own Christian life I don't like to give an occasion to the anniversary. I don't like to give him an advantage over me as it says in Corinthians. I don't like to see Satan victorious, I don't like to see the world master me, I don't like to see the flesh override my spirit I want to win. I have a desire to win. I remember my football coach use to give us the typical Knute Rockne lecture about " you can't be beat if you won't be beat" and I guess we ought to be like that if we're Christians. There's no reason to give in to the enemy and as you study the Bible you find out that the word of God becomes the source of victory. David said this, and you remember it as well as I do, "Thy word, have I hid in my heart that

I might not sin against thee". The word then is the source of 9 victory over sin. As the word of God is taken in it becomes the resource which the Holy Spirit uses to direct us. It gives handles to the Holy Spirit. You have no way of preventing yourself from being 1 d into sin unless the word of God is there so that It can kick it into your subconscious mind. I'll tell you something simple, as a Christian you'll never function on what you don't know. It'll never happen. You'll never be able to operate on the principle you never knew. You'll never be able to apply the truth you haven't discovered. So as you feed into your mind the word of God it becomes a handle by which the Spirit of God directs and. guides.

Now let' see, for example, the fourth chapter of Matthew, the classic illustration of facing Satan with the word of God. And here we meet Jesus Christ and it says in verse 1, "Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested or tempted by the devil", as far as God was concerned it was a test because He wouldn't fail, as far as Satan was concerned it was a temptation because he hoped He would. The word can mean either one pirasmos can mean a temptation or a testing, it's a neutral word it could mean good or bad from Satan's angle he wanted it to be bad from God's angle He knew that it would be good. So the Spirit led Him into the wilderness knowing Held pass the test, Satan was there waiting for Him hoping Held fail. "And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He was afterwards hungry." Not surprising. But it's interesting to me that because Jesus was such a perfect human being without sin that His body must have had. powers beyond anything that we would ever experience, He must have been so strong and so virile and so much of whatever human­ ness could be in it's untapped potential at least as we know it, that He was not hungry appreciable for all those forty days until afterwards when He really knew the gnawing pain of hunger.

Finally after forty days, the tempter came to him and said, and then He gives Him three temptations and you remember them. In each case Jesus answered with the word of God. First he said, "If thou be the son of God command these stones be made bread" what he's really saying to Him is "You're the Son of God, you're God in human flesh, You're the Messiah, You deserve better than this, what are You doing out in the devastation, what are You doing out here in the boondocks, what are You doing out here in this wretched wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and creeping things, what are You doing out here starving to death, You're the Son of God, grab some satisfaction make some bread, You deserve it". He was really tempting Him to go again t God's plan for his own satisfaction. He was saying Do your own thing, don't depend on God, God hasn't met your need yet. Here You've been forty days, You're hungry, You're worthy of more than this. He was really tempting Him to distrust the care of God. "He answered, and said, It is written" and He quoted Deuteron my, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God", what He was saying was Look, go He promised Held care for Me, I'll keep My trust in His promise, I'll never use My own powers to violate the promise of God. He count red the temptation with the word of God. Then the devil takes Hi into the holy city Jerusalem, elevates Him up to the pinnacle of the temple, probably that protruding strut that stuck out over the valley of Henim which would be about 300 feet straight drop, p t Him up there and He said, "Why don't you dive off?" "Cast You self down after all, you want to quote scripture I'll quote it too, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee and they shall bear Thee up lest that any time Thou dash Thy foot against the stone. You want to trust God, You're going to hang on to God, You're not going t make bread, You're going to believe God well why don't You really believe God and take a swan dive off here and see if He fulfill His word. Sounds good, Satan's clever, You tell me how much You trust God here's a good way to prove it, dive off, let Him catch You. Jesus said, It's written again, thou shalt not put the Lord, try God to the test. You trust God, said Jesus, you don't presume on God. You believe Him to care for you in the trip; you don't 1ay on the freeway. There's a difference. Satan then shows Him from a high mountain the world, he says ‑ Look, I'll give you all that stuff if you fall down and worship me. Jesus said unto him, Get out of here, Satan. One was bad enough, two was intolerable, three is absolutely enough, leave.

For it was written, Thou shalt worship the Lord God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And then the devil let and the angels came and ministered to Him. God fulfilled all His promises. The point is this, Jesus answered the temptation of Satan three times and every time He quoted directly out of the Old Testament. Listen as a Christian it is the capturing of biblical truth in your conscious mind that gives you the capacity to defeat Satan. You can't do it on your own. Jesus literally triumphed over the divine through the word of God. It is the source of victory. You can' reason, you can't just hassle Satan. It's incredible people wi11 imagine that they can argue Satan out of his temptation on their own logic. It can't be done.

Another interesting illustration is Luke 4, verse 33, "In the synagogue there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice", he was a possessed guy in the synagogue which must have be n rather disruptive for the services there, we've had a few in our church from time to time so I know the feeling, and "he kept saying Let us alone what have we to do with you be thou Jesus o Nazareth, art thou come to destroy us?" This guy's Just full of these demons and they're all just howling, "I know Thee who Thou art, the holy one of God and Jesus rebuked him saying, Hold thy peace and come out of him and when the demon had thrown him down in the midst he came out of him and hurt him not and they we e all amazed. and spoke among themselves saying. What a word is this, for with authority and power He commanded the unclean spirits and they come out".

You know what Jesus did right there He established His authority and His power over Satan with His word. With one word He just vanquished the demons with one word He said, Begone Satan; with one word He chased a legend of demons out of a maniac. They said of Him, never a man spoke like this man. He speaks as a man of authority not like the scribes and the Pharisees. Listen the word of Jesus Christ is absolutely authoritative. Now when you know the word of God, you'll know victory. Let me show you another illustration. In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17, in Paul's discussion of the armor of the Christian, we find that it wraps up with this great piece of armor, verse 17, "Take the helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit which is the word of God", this is a tremendous text, now he says ‑as the final piece of armor is the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

Now when you think of a sword, you think of some 5 foot thing that he flailed around. That is not what this is, that is the Greek word romphaia, this word here the Greek word for sword is makaira. Makaira was a Greek word referring to a short small dagger the sword of the Spirit is not a great huge broad sword that you just flail around hoping you'll whack off the head of a demon sooner or later, it is not something used indiscriminately and wildly, it is not buying a great big fat hard cover New American Standard and beating demons in the head with it, it isn't that at all. The sword of the Spirit is a makaira, it is a Jagger, it is short, it is incisive, it must hit a vulnerable spot or It doesn't do any damage. The sword of the Spirit then is not something general but specific.

Now notice further, the word word her is not the word logos. The normal Greek word ‑logos would be used of a general word. The Bible is the logos, Christ is the 1ogos a general word is the logos. When the Bible wants to speak of a specific it uses the word hrema. Now here is the word hremata, now watch, this means a specific statement, now are you ready for this, the sword of the Spirit is the specific statement of the word of God that meets the specific point of temptation. People say, "Well, I have the sword of the Spirit, I own a Bible".

Listen you could own a Bible warehouse and you won't ha e the sword of the Spirit. Having the sword of the Spirit is not owning a Bible but knowing the specific principle in the Bible t at applies to a specific point of temptation and the only way you'll know victory in the Christian life is to know the principle of the word of God to make that application to the specific point where Satan attacks, the flesh attacks where the world attacks. As you fil1 up yourself with the word of God, it becomes the source of victor . Now you can't even approach the Christian life without Bible study. It's the source of truth, it's the source of joy, it's the source victory.

Let me give you a fourth one. The word of God is also the source of growth. Everybody wants to grow. We have in our church a wonderfu1 ministry to the mentally retarded people. Some of them, believe it or not, are thirty years of age and they have a mind of a baby an. they're still in diapers. That's a sad thing. Bless those dear people and we love them and God, loves them and I believe they have a special part in His kingdom but it's such a sad thing to see somebody ho didn't grow. You know something that's almost as sad? To see Christians that don't grow, retarded, stunted, never grow. And the reason they don't grow is because they don't get into the word. They may go to church and. sit there, they take a thimble to church, it gets filled up and they spill it on the steps while they're leaving. Nothing ever happens. That's sad. Peter says this; this is a great text, I Peter 2:2, "As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow by it".

In other words, the word is the source of growth. Everybody wants to grow. When I was younger as a Christian, when I was in seminary, in college I was involved in all sorts of stuff and I didn't grow much at all, I was goofing around then I got to seminary and I got a taste of the word of God, and I wanted so much of the word that I could hardly stand it. I wanted to grow and grow and grow. I got this tremendous desire to grow and I realized there was only one way it was going to happen and. that's if I got into the study of the word of God. And so during my seminary days I learned. to really systematically study the word of God and that's when I began to grow. My growth, and I'll tell you frankly, my growth is directly proportionate to the amount of time and effort that I put in to the study of the word of God. When I have a time period when I may not study the word of God, I flatten out and when I begin to study I accelerate. I guess maybe the worse times in my life in terms of growth are my vacation times when I just kind of flake out and I don't do much and I kind, of flatten out. It's good though, cause I get to meditate a little bit but the growth pattern isn't nearly what it is when I'm really into the word. Peter says like a baby desire milk. I'll tell you babies desire milk, the first thing they do when they come into the world they start squalling, they want something and they'll scream their heads off until their 3 years old if they don't get it. That's a tremendous drive and that's the way it ought to be with us. Every once in awhile a person will come to e and say, "John, we go to a Church and the word of God is not thought and we'd like to come over to this other church where the word of God is taught, we hunger for the word of God, what do you think we ought to do, we just don't know whether we ought to leave this church where the word of God is not taught?" Do you know what I tell them? Leave it. The Bible says you're to feed on the word of God. Go where you can gain that feeding and maybe you can hare some new dimensions of ministry to the church you're in so there can be some feeding. But you have every right to desire that wit all your heart. Interestingly enough, verse 1 kind of lays the ground work. It says, first of all we have to lay aside all malice; that's the Greek word. kakia which means general evil, you've got to set aside sin, guile ( guile means deceit, it's a Greek word for fish hook) hypocrisy, envy and evil speaking.

In other words you set aside all the evil things, confess your sin, get your life straightened out, get your act cleaned up then you hit the word with a tremendous desire and then you begin to grow. That's what the word can do In your life, make you grow. You know, the more you grow the more exciting it becomes. The word is a source of life, you mat re, your enriched, you grow stronger, as you grow stronger you're able to defeat Satan, as you grow stronger you know more about G d and. His character, your enriched in every possible way. In John 6:63 Jesus said this, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and, they are life". Jeremiah said, "Thy words were found and I did eat them". Feeding on the word of God. And again in James, chapter 1 in verse 18 it says, "Of His own will begot He us with the word of truth". The word is a life‑giver, the word is a life sustainer, the word Is a life‑builder. It is tremendous nourishment. I think It's I Timothy 4 that adds to our understanding of this, in verse 6 he says, "It' thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ", listen to this great line, "nourished up in the words of faith". The word nourishes us, it feeds us, it builds us, it causes us to grow. The end of II Peter after he's given the tremendous statements about the collapse of the universe, he talked out the elements melting with fervent heat and all those other things and how it's all going to come down in a crash, he says, "What shall we do? Grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ". To grow, to grow and we grow as we feed on the word of God. God wants us mature. He wants us built up. He wants us strong and if you examine I John, chapter 2 you'll find the pattern of growth right there. One of the most important scriptures in all the Bible.

Listen to what it says, "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've known the Father." You see three categories, fathers, young men and little children. And you 11 notice three differences. I write unto you little children because you've known the father, I write unto you young men because you've overcome the wicked one, I write unto you fathers because you know Him who was from the beginning. Now do you know what those three things are? Those are categories of spiritual growth. Those are not literally little children, young men and fathers It wouldn't do any good to write the verse to little children, they couldn't read it anyway. It's talking about levels of spiritual growth.

Now we all start out as little children and we know the Father, that's spiritual da‑da. You don't know much when you're a new Christian but you know Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so. God is my Father and it's great and so forth, spiritual goo‑goo. But you don't want to stay there. That's really sad. You go to the second level, young men. What is the characteristic of a young man, he has overcome the wicked one, past tense. Who is the wicked one? Satan You mean to tell me that I could reach the point in my life where I actually overcome Satan? Absolutely right. You mean I can say ‑ I have overcome the wicked one? That's right. How? Verse 14, "1 have written unto you fathers because you have known it was from the beginning, I've written unto you young men because you're strong and the word of God abides in you and you've overcome the wicked one", now listen to this, to overcome the wicked one you'd have to be strong, there's only one way to be strong and that's to have the word of God abiding in you. Do you know what a spiritual young man is? A spiritual young man is someone who really knows the word. Here's why I say that. Satan, according to II Corinthians 11, comes disguised as an angel of light. I believe Satan, according to the Bible, spends 99.9% of his time in false religious systems. I think the bars and the prostitution problems, the crime and the lust and the world and the materialism and all the rest of the crude I think all that stuff is pretty well taken care of by the flesh. You read Galatians chapter 5, the works of the flesh are these: and they list them all. I don't think Satan is running around poking you in the ribs about some little sin, I think Satan is developing world‑wide systems of evil. Satan is appearing as an angel of light, his ministers are angels of light, He works in false religions. And a spiritual young man is some­body that has overcome Satan in the sense that he knows enough about the word of God that he is not enticed by false religions, he is rather angered by it.

For example, the characteristic of a spiritual child is according to Ephesians 4:14, "He is tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine", spiritual babies have trouble with false doctrine. Spiritual young men are people who know their Bible. They know their doctrine so that false doctrine from Satan doesn't appeal to them at all. But there's a third level, he says,"I write unto you fathers because you've known Him who as from the beginning".

Now listen to this, do you know who the father is? That's the person who's gone beyond the page. He doesn't just know doctrine, he knows the God behind the doctrine. In these three steps you have the progress of spiritual growth. We start out as babies and as we feed on the word we become strong, we never overcome the flesh but we can overcome the world, our faith does that, I John 5 says. We can overcome Satan's efforts of false religion, doctrine does that. We'll never overcome the flesh that will always be a problem but we can have the joy of overcoming Satan's false religious systems. I'v