1 John chapter 5. We begin there in verse 1. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep His commandment. For this is the love of God that
we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not grievous.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this
is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith. Who is
he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. I hope this morning we can look
at victorious faith. Many people, I've had the opportunity
during this last week or two trial we've had in this local
area to speak to several people. And the topic of faith has come
up often. And victorious faith has come
up a few times. And I hope we can see what victorious
faith is and who the believer's victorious faith is. Every believer
that's born of God, that has a new spirit born in them, they
overcometh the world. That means they have overcome
the world. Right now they're overcoming
the world, and they will ultimately overcome this world. This body
of death will be passed from us. Now in verse 5, John asks
this question that many who hear this for the first time, that
they will ask too. He says, Who is it that overcometh
the world? Who are these people? Is this
me? Is this you? Those that overcome the world
are those that believe Jesus is the Son of God. How do we
do that? In verse 4, he says, Whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, our faith. Our personal faith, what
belief and trust that you and I as humans muster up, we thank
as faith. That is not what victorious faith
is. the object and the source of
our faith, Christ Jesus the Lord, He's the victor. He's the one
that's victorious. He has overcome the world and
believers that are made one with Him, we too, as He is, are victorious
in overcoming the world. We've looked at this word, world,
a few times lately. But what John is referring to
in our text here, this word world means all depraved men and women. born of Adam's corrupt seed.
It refers to our flesh. It's earthly nature. We come
in from our mother's womb. Every human that has, is, or
will ever be alive except those that God has done work in. Those
that are born of Him. Except those that are born of
God. Those that the Lord makes overcome. Throughout the scriptures,
God refers to the world as evil. Wicked, proud, terrible, says
that it hates God and loves itself, that all their thoughts are only
evil continually. We drink iniquity like water.
He told us in Isaiah 13, I will punish the world for their evil
and the wicked for their iniquity. He uses the word there. It's
not a physical world. It's a people he's talking about.
Humans. And I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease
and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. This is the
world that our text says that believers have overcome. That's
me. The whole world is constantly
being tricked by the devil. There in Revelation 12 it says,
The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. That's
where he walks to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. Every person
that you and I know that does not believe on Christ, in spirit
and in truth, they're being deceived by the devil. The majority of
people walking the streets, they think that they know God. They
think that most other people that they know, know God. that
the majority of people know God. But our master said, O righteous
father, the world hath not known thee. Many people think they
can figure out the scriptures on their own, or salvation on
their own, or that they can know the mind of God on their own.
But we can't know God through our own wisdom. We can only know
him through Christ who is our wisdom. That's why Paul wrote
to the Corinthians and said, for after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. Our intellect can't
help us. Look over to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. In man's natural state, the way
we're born, our evilness and our wickedness, being constantly
fooled by the devil, We're just content in thinking that we know
what's best. The world makes its own religion
out of anything except Christ. Christ alone. In our natural
born, our physical birth, we add to the gospel of Christ,
we take away from the gospel of Christ, or we twist the gospel
of Christ. That's our nature. It puts all
the glory on the human and their will. whether it's under the
guise of religion or if it's in the absence of religion. Now,
the religion of the world is anything except Christ. Now,
outside of organized religion, it's called philosophy. And inside of organized religion,
that lifting up of man, the Scriptures call that vain deceit and will-worship. Look here in Colossians 2, verse
8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain
deceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the
world. All these things are of the world and not after Christ. Well, look to the signs. Look
to the universe. Look to the weather, the Mother
Nature, Lady Fortune, all those things. Look to you and your
vanity. You can do something. The traditions
of men. Wear these robes. Go to church. Read your Bible every day. You've
got to do something. After the rudiments of the world.
That's the works of the world. And it's not after Christ. Look
here in verse 9. For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him. What's the world say? You're
not complete in Him. You've got to do something. You've
got to get holier. You've got to thank this. You've
got to pray this prayer. That's not complete. You've got to get
more sanctified. Complete. Ye are complete in
Him. It's not as though. I've heard
that many times. It's as though Christ was made
sin. It's as though we were justified.
There's one time in scripture it says, as though. Look here
in verse 20, Colossians 2.20. Wherefore, if ye be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though, as
if, living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? Were
not. Touch not, taste not, handle
not, which are all to the parish with the using. after the commandments
and doctrines of men, after that philosophy and that vain deceit,
which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship. It looks wise. It looks like
they're doing the right thing in those traditions of men, but
it's in will-worship and in humility and neglecting of the body. They
whip themselves and, oh, I can't eat that. I can't drink that.
Not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. Let's look back
here in our text in 1 John. Let's look at chapter 2. 1 John
chapter 2. Here we see what the desire of
this world, the people born into this world is, and all who have
not yet been called to know Christ. This is our flesh. 1 John 2.15. Love not the world, neither 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,
Everything. Everything in this physical world
we walk on. The lust of the flesh. That's
living to please ourselves. In comfort, in food, in pleasure,
in riches. Try to get all you can and can't
all you get. The lust of the eyes. The lust
of others to see us. To see what a good job we're
doing. How much power we have. How much control we have over
our own selves. Well, I've got discipline. I don't do those
things. I refrain from those things.
But they want to be seen of. Lust of the eyes and the pride
of life are self-righteousness. Every bit of that is not of the
Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away. All
that's going to be gone and the lust thereof. But he that doeth
the will of God, he that's born of God, he that believes Christ,
loves the brethren, abideth forever. This is what's wrong with the
whole world around us today. It's the result of a corrupt
heart we're born with. Everything going on in our society
right now. The root cause isn't a person, it's not a party, it's
not a way of thinking, it's not a history, it's a heart. That's
a problem. This is not of the father, but
is of the world. So Paul wrote to Timothy, he
said, This know also that in the last days perilous times
shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves. Goes
on to say lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having
a form of godliness. It looks righteous. It looks
like it's correct. But denying the power thereof,
Christ the power of God, from such turn away. Run from it. These born of God in the Spirit
are constantly at war against our worldly flesh and the world
around us. That's a great conflict. And
if I don't have the world around me, if I ignore the world around
me, if I go build a log cabin way up in Colorado and sit by
myself, that war's raging inside of me. Because I'm living in
this flesh. That seed was planted in this
old wicked body. If it were possible, even the very elect would be
deceived. if it were possible. Boy, ain't that good. I could
be tricked. I may buy a car with a blown
engine. I may buy a house with a roof that leaks, but I can't
be deceived from Christ. Ain't possible. And this is the
great temptation to our flesh. The world would attempt to get
us to practice its traditions. Fundraisers, bake sales, ceremony,
fancy wording. I got called this week for a
A local place encouraged us all to go camping or something. They have some kind of Christian
service they're providing. Of course, it costs money. And
they said they could use it. And I said, I'll bet. The world
attempts to get the believer to compromise on the gospel. Maybe just smooth the edges out
a little bit. say, limited atonement so much,
or don't talk about blood so much. Maybe just talk about the
good things. Smooth the edges. Be more inclusive. Maybe you
should have more things for the children to do. Something to
entertain them. Maybe you could talk about current
events more, and that would get more people to come. They try
to convince you. Compromise. You can compromise
on anything in this world. Never compromise on the gospel.
A believer can't turn from it. And most of that line of thought
comes from the world thinking that the true gospel of Christ
is old-fashioned. They've grown and they've matured
past these things that were of years ago. Those things that
are declared in the scriptures. The picture that shows Christ
in marriage. Him marrying His bride. That's
old-fashioned. We've grown past those things
nowadays. Or the condemning of sin that brings reproach on this
gospel. There's things we shouldn't do,
we don't want to do as believers. They say, oh, that's old-fashioned.
We've grown past that. We have to be accepting nowadays.
And the world may think that they agree with you. They may
tell you they agree with you, subtly. Oh no, we believe the
same thing. Just go along to get along, right?
So those that overcome the devil, those that overcome our own spiritual
ignorance, The world's will-work religion, all their philosophy,
all that vain deceit, the lust of the world, the lust of our
own depraved heart, overcoming all of that is not ourselves
overcoming that. We didn't do that. It's Christ
in us that does that. The only way a sinner overcomes
the world is by being born of God, by giving a new heart, a
new spirit in them. There in verse 4, 1 John 5 verse
4 says, For whatsoever is born of God overcometh You have to
be born to overcome the world. Let's look over in Titus chapter 3. We saw in the
message Wednesday, man has nothing to contribute to our spiritual
birth any more than we contribute to our physical birth. To be
born of God is to be born of God alone. He does it. We are sinners with no ability
to rebirth ourselves. Look here in Titus 3 verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, but After
that, the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Every sinner that God regenerates
comes into the world loving the world and hating God like every
other sinner. So Paul said, just as were some
of you, just as we were, every one of us, God alone makes the
difference. So Paul told us there in Ephesians
2, but God who is rich in mercy, For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath He quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Grace
is His work, by His hand. We're born of God, we're given
a new spirit, and we have the love of the Father put in us. It is perfected in us. Paul said there in Romans 5,
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. We didn't earn it. We didn't
work our way into doing that. We didn't learn our way into
doing that. We're given that new spirit put in us. And then,
in that new spirit, God teaches us the truth in that new man.
Corinthians 2.12 says, Now we have received, not the spirit
of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God. He puts a
spirit in you. He teaches that spirit and He
says, Here's everything I've done for you. And we rejoice
in Him for doing it, don't we? And that good news is preached
to a believer. The Lord Jesus, our prophet, gives us the Word
of God, that incorruptible seed, making us be born again, separating
us out from the world by the truth of the Gospel. And He continually
prays for us that that faith given to us, His faith, fails
not. He provided the gift of faith
that we're justified by. And He prays, Christ prays, that
our faith that He gave us does not fail. People say, how's your
faith? I was from Christ and he prayed
that I'll keep it forever. I think it's fine. It's his faith. It ain't mine. He's given it
to us. So we cannot boast. The new birth
is of God alone, by the Spirit of God, by the Word of God, by
Christ who is our prophet, who himself is the truth. who Himself
is the victor, who Himself is our faith. Now back in our text,
1 John 5, the victory believers have is our faith from and in
Christ, our victory. Trusting Him alone to save us. Trusting that when He said, it
is finished, that He was telling the truth. It's done. It's completed. Then to verse 4 there it says,
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even there
is italicized. Here's the victory that overcomes
the world, our faith, Christ our faith. As soon as John speaks
of our faith, he speaks of the object of our faith, Christ our
Savior. There in verse 5 it says, Who
is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Now what does it mean to believe
that Jesus is the Son of God? It's to believe the record that
God has given concerning His Son. Believe everything that
the Lord told us in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the
epistles, everything His Word declares Christ is, you believe
the record of Christ. What He said, look there in verse
11, 1 John 5.11, And this is the record that God hath given
to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. When you
believe Jesus is the Son of God, then you believe God's Word that
God's salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ and is only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's all. He's our only hope.
He's our hope of glory. When we believe in Him, when
we believe on the Son, we believe God's sovereign, electing grace
in Christ. Among all this evil, this murderous
world we're living in, this wickedness that the world's made up of,
there are some, out of all that, God chose in Christ before the
world was made. Now we don't only love and believe
the doctrine of election. We love and believe the God of
election. Not just that God chose a people. It's not just that,
well, everybody's bad and I'll take these. He chose us in Christ. He chose Christ first. He said,
this is mine to elect. My firstborn. And in Him, we're
elected. We're chosen in Him. When we
believe on the Son of God, we believe that all righteousness
is in Christ. When we were enemies of God,
Anything but righteous. An entity with Him. The Son of
God came in human form. Made like us. And He represented
His people as our head. And by His obedience, we are
made the righteousness of God in Him. He is all. He is all my righteousness. John
16.33 says, These things have I spoken to you that ye might
have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." Oh,
how am I going to get through this world? You've got to overcome. You've got to rise above. Pick
yourself up by the bootstraps. All this bad stuff going on around
us. All these trials we've got. You're going to have trials.
Christ said, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. John's
telling us that we, me and you, we've overcome the world. How? Christ's overcoming. We're one
with Him. Put in Him before the foundation
of the world. The Spirit of God bears witness in our new spirit
that salvation is in Christ alone. Who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption so that we glory
in Him alone. That cuts out everything, anything
we can stand on. It's in Him. Faith is the victory
because the faith that God gives His children is to trust Christ,
who gives us victory through His blood and His righteousness
on that cross at Calvary. Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians
15, but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through
our Lord, Jesus Christ. He also told the church at Galatia,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. We quote that a lot. Think about
that. This world's dead to me and I'm dead to it. What's that
mean? I can go out and talk to anybody
and be friendly with them, get along good with them. And then what do you do? I'm
a pastor. Where's that? What do y'all preach
down there? And I start telling about who my hope is. Who my
faith is. And boy, you talk about turning
a conversation. That transaction is expedited. They bring me up fast. I'll get
out of there quick. Changes things. Why? I'm dead
to them. That's just foolishness. And
the world's dead to me. What if I got everything? I gained
the whole world. I was a rich man and powerful
and made all these executive decisions and the world looked
to me and just praised me. Every day was wonderful. Gained
the whole world and lost my soul. What's that? I don't want the
world. I want Christ. I want to be found in Him. That's
what I want. And this world is dead to me. I've said this multiple times
to you, but believe on Christ, if you haven't believed on Him,
and you shall overcome the world. Turn to Him. Run to Him. Look
to Him now. And I pray that... I stand up here and say words.
I can't tell you anything that could help you of myself, but
the Lord makes His word effectual. And I pray that He just use me
as a tool and plant that incorruptible seed in His child and make it
grow. and water it. Something that's happened, all
that seed work happens underground, we don't see it do it. We see
the results of it, we see the fruit coming out of the ground.
All that heart work, I pray the Lord would use that and draw
His children to Him. They may overcome this world.
But now through overcoming the world, through faith in Christ,
that He provides as that free gift to His elect, We read in
Revelation 2 or 3 what we're given. I'll just summarize it
for you quickly. But there's seven things you
go home tonight, read through Revelation 2 and Revelation 3,
it always says, and those that have ears, hear. It tells us
seven things. That's the number of perfection.
Seven things we have in overcoming this world, Christ overcoming
the world for us. First, we have eternal life.
We live in Him forever. We have no condemnation. Christ Himself, we have Him and
His name. He talks about that white stone
on a ring, and there's a name that only the one that has it
knows what's written in it. That's a diamond. That's a wedding
band. When a bride marries a husband
in this, well, hopefully in this day and age, they take their
man's last name. They take His name. We're His
bride. He gives us His name. We have power of Christ to judge
the world. Christ will be our righteousness
and our advocate in the day of judgment. Oh, that's wonderful. Face the holy throne of God in
that final day. What do I have to stand in? Christ,
my righteousness. What if I can't say that? He's
my advocate. He says it for me. It says Christ
makes His church and His city. He builds it. That ain't on our
shoulders. He uses us, puts us to work in
the furtherance of His gospel. He draws His children. He builds
His holy city. We have glory with Christ as
joint heirs. Eternal inheritance. Joint heirs
with Christ as the sons of God forever. Brethren, guard your
hearts. Don't let this world be a rival
to Christ and His gospel. Don't let the things, pleasures,
lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, don't let
that overcome you. Cling to Him. Paul said there
in Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you may present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable
to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will
of God." That's our reasonable service. When we see all that
He's done for us, we just want to be with Him. We're only pilgrims. Turn over to Philippians chapter
3 and we'll close. Philippians 3. We're only pilgrims sojourning
through this land. I told you before about Brother
Scott Richardson. He was in a motel and somebody
came to visit him. And the picture on the wall was
crooked. And they said, Scott, ain't that driving you crazy? Straighten that picture up. And
he said, I'm only staying here tonight. I don't care if that
picture's crooked. We're only staying here for a lifetime.
Just one. It don't matter if these pictures
are crooked. Brother Clay used to say, we're just passing through
a bad neighborhood. You ever take an exit, you're
heading to a nice place, you're heading to paradise for vacation,
and you stop to get gas, and you're like, ooh, I better fill
up quick and get out of here. That's what this life is. We're
just passing through. Look here in Philippians 3, verse 20. Philippians
3, 20. For our conversation is in heaven. That word means citizenship.
That's where our passport is. That's what has claim on us.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look for the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We look to His coming, who shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even
to subdue all things unto Himself. Brother Mike read, that fervent
heat will come, and it'll melt all the gold that men can stack
up. Those elements will be consumed. There won't be no elements left.
It'll all be gone, and he'll come in that cloud thunderously.
And this old vile body, this old flesh that's me, is going
to be done away with, and I'm going to be conformed to his
image, be made like him, be allowed into his presence, be able to
worship him truly. Be able to preach truly, be able
to pray truly for Him, and He'll subdue all things unto Himself.
That sounds victorious. I think He's our victorious faith. He's overcome the world. And
if you believe on Him, run to Him, cling to Him, don't let
anything in this world get in your way. And through Him, we
overcome the world too. Because our citizenship's with
Him and His kingdom. Amen. Let's pray together.