Overcome The Wicked One 1 Jn 2:12-14 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

John said to the young men in 1 Jn that ye have overcome the wicked one [1 Jn 2:13-14].  And this is true of born again believers [1 Jn 5:12-13].  Now once you have overcome the wicked one through salvation he will still try to take advantage of you through his wiles [Eph 6:10-18].  Thus, you need to do the following to keep from giving him an advantage [2 Cor 2:11].

Love not the world – 1 Jn 2:15-17 – if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you [you can’t love them both] – when we love the Father the world hates us [1 Jn 3:11-15] – the closer we get to the coming of the Lord the more the affection of men will love themselves and pleasures [2Tim 3:1-4] – look what happened to Demas [Col 4:14; 2 Tim 4:10].

Keep yourself from antichrist – 1 Jn 2:18-29 – abide in Jesus instead. Those who follow antichrist deny the Son, they don’t have eternal life, they do not have the Holy Spirit, and they don’t do righteousness – they may have their own righteousness like Paul said in Phil 3, but they do not have the righteousness of God – a good example are the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Don’t commit sin – 1 Jn 3:1-10 – lots of doctrinal and spiritual questions arise about this passage – we certainly know that the new man, who is born of God, cannot sin because he is born of God – it is this new man in us that does righteousness – a lost man can’t do righteousness because he does not have the righteousness of God in him – and in this distinction you can see the difference between the child of God and the child of the devil.

Love your brothers in Christ – 1 Jn 3:11-24 – the forgiveness of 2 Cor 2:6-11 is rooted in love and keeps from giving the devil an advantage over us [see also Eph 4:30-32].

Conclusion: So, in this portion of the epistle of John you find four things you can do that keep the devil from getting an advantage over you after you are saved.