Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles with the message, I'm going to be preaching from
the book of 1 John, chapter 5. It's the last chapter of this
book of 1 John, John's first letter. to the church, and the
title of the message today is Overcoming the World. Overcoming
the World. Now, I dealt with the first few
verses of this chapter in the last messages, but I'm going
to go back and read just to get the context. What we're going
to be looking at mainly is verses 4 and 5. But let's go back and
just read from verse one. And it says here, and this is
John writing by inspiration of the Spirit. It says, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So to believe
that Jesus is the Christ is not just saying words, saying Jesus
is the Messiah or Jesus is Lord. But there's meaning behind that
name. Jesus is the Christ. He's the
Messiah. And the Messiah is identified
and distinguished in the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. And so to say that Jesus is the
Christ is to believe the gospel. he that believeth the gospel
shall be saved. And that's the good news of salvation
by the grace of God in and by the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute,
the redeemer, the preserver, the intercessor of his people.
All of those things are involved. So Jesus, the name Jesus means
He shall save His people from their sins. The name Christ means
anointed, or the title Christ means anointed one, means Messiah. And what was the Messiah? Who
is the Messiah? He's Jesus, God manifest in the
flesh. He's the Christ, He's the one
who would come and die for the sins of His people whom God had
given Him before the foundation of the world, those whose names
are written on the Lamb's book of life, the elect, the church,
His sheep, all of those titles, and He would bring forth, He
would put away their sins by His death on the cross. The blood
of Christ, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin, John
wrote in chapter one. And by that, he would bring forth
an everlasting righteousness, which is the merit of his obedience
unto death, by which God would justify his people, that is,
declare them righteous in his sight. And out of Christ's death-bearing
resurrection comes eternal life, spiritual life in the new birth
for all of God's sheep, All of God's elect, as the Holy Spirit
brings us under the gospel, gives us spiritual life, eyes to see,
ears to hear, a new heart, new life. And He preserves us unto
glory. There's no such thing as being
saved one day and lost the next, because Jesus is the Christ. He's the Messiah, He's the Savior.
Salvation's of the Lord, conditioned on Him, not conditioned on us. So, 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. Now
that reaches back to the commandments that John is talking about. We're
gonna see that here in these next verses. keeping the commandments. And the commandments that he's
talking about is, we see it back in verse 22 of chapter 3, where
he says, and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we
keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing
in his sight. That doesn't mean that we're going to get anything
and everything we ask for. He's talking about salvation
and the blessings and benefits of salvation. And everyone who
believes on Christ has those. And he says, and this is his
commandment, verse 23, that we should believe on the name of
his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. So the issue here is believing
in Christ, loving Christ, loving his truth, and loving those who
are in that family. Loving the brethren. staying
with the brethren, united to the brethren. And so he says
in verse 2 of chapter 5, by this we know that we love the children
of God when we love God and keep His commandments. That's not
talking about the Ten Commandments or the old Mosaic Law, if it
were, we'd all be lost. But it's talking about the grace
that God gives His people. to believe in Christ and the
love that the Spirit sheds abroad within the hearts of God's people,
to love God and to love His people, the church, brethren, brotherly
love. And I've talked about that, verse
three, for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments,
and His commandments are not grievous. His commandments are
not legal mandates by which we earn salvation, which is an impossibility
anyway. That would be a grievous, burdensome
commandment. If God were to tell us that he
would save us or bless us based upon what we do, that's a grievous
commandment. But the obedience of faith is
the obedience that's motivated by grace. love, gratitude. In other words, it's not a legal
effort trying to earn our way into God's favor, and it's not
some kind of a mercenary work whereby we're trying to earn
our reward. It's a gift of God's grace. Now look at verse four. Here's
the text that we want to go to today in overcoming the world.
For whatsoever or whosoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Now let's read verse five
before I make some comments on this. Verse five says, who is
he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Overcoming the world. The word
world in the Bible is a very interesting word. The Bible,
in the Bible, the word world can sometimes refer to the people
who are connected to the world, which is unbelievers. The word
world never refers to every individual without exception. And so it
can refer to those who are connected to the world, which means unbelievers. Like back over in 1 John 2, in verse 15, he says, love not
the world. Now the world there is talking
about an ungodly spiritual connection to the world, which in essence
is spiritual death. And he says to believers, to
those who look to Christ and rest in Him for all salvation,
in 1 John 2, 15, love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. He says if any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you're connected
to the world and not to Christ, then the love of God is not in
you, the love of the Father is not in you. And he says in verse
16 of 1 John 2, for all that is in the world, and here's what
he means, the lust of the flesh, that's the desires of the flesh,
and let me say this now, when you think of the word lust, don't
just relegate that to sexual desire, that's concluded, but
it's any unlawful desire. And I always use this as an example
to put it in perspective for you. If you desire salvation
from God based upon your works, that's lust. That's an unlawful
desire because God has forbidden that. Salvation is by grace,
through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not through
your works. And so if you reject God's way
of salvation, by His grace which glorifies Him and exalts Christ. And if you reject that and opt
for salvation by your works which glorifies you and exalt yourself,
that's an unlawful desire because God, the gospel in essence has
the force of law. Believe the gospel. The gospel
is the power of God and the salvation. You say, well, what do you mean
it has the force of law? Well, it's not a suggestion. God's
not saying, I suggest, if you have a mind to, believe the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's a command. That's what it is. It's not even,
in essence, as men think of offers, it's not just an offer, it's
a command. It's not just an invitation,
it's a command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. And that faith is the gift of
God. We know we don't have it in us naturally. So when you
see the things that are in the world, and when he talks about
the lust of the flesh, religious lust is included there. And he said the lust of the eyes,
verse 16 of 1 John 2, that's judging the value of things based
upon what we see not upon what God says. You know what, there's a verse
in Luke chapter 16, I believe it's verse 15, where he's talking
to the Pharisees who judged righteousness and holiness by their own human
standard, which was a sliding scale. And they believed they
had attained righteousness by their works. And he spoke these
words to those who judge themselves righteous. And he said in Luke
16, 15, he said, but that which is highly esteemed among men
is an abomination to God. And what he was talking about
is their works of righteousness that they claim were righteous,
that they highly esteem. The Apostle Paul spoke of that
in Philippians 3 when he spoke of his conversion. He said that
which he thought was profitable, that which he thought was things
that he did by which he attained salvation, he now counted loss
for the revelation of God in Christ who is the only righteousness
that God will receive. You see, my righteousness before
God is not what I do or what I think or what I feel. It's
Christ, the Lord, my righteousness. It's His righteousness imputed,
accounted to me. And that's the standard by which
God will judge the world. I quote it all the time, Acts
17, 31, God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained and that
He hath given assurance unto all men. in that he hath raised
him from the dead." And that's Christ. I must have Christ's
righteousness charged to my account. As my sins were charged to his
account and he died for those sins and put away those sins,
satisfied justice, I must have his righteousness charged to
me. And Paul said, I count it all
loss. He said, I even count it but dumb. So the lust of the
eyes that indicates a connection to the world is a sinner who
judges the value of things not by what God says, not by the
standard that God gives, but by what he sees naturally. You've heard the old saying,
everything that glitters is not gold. Well, everything that seems
righteous to men is not righteousness to God. Understand that. Now he goes on in verse 16 of
chapter two, for all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And that's
self-righteousness. The pride of life is self-righteousness.
The pride of life is a sinner thinking that he's attained enough
by his works to please God and to be saved. That's the pride
of life. It's a person who says, I have
life because I've done this, that, or the other. But you see,
humility, which is the opposite of pride, is when a sinner is
brought to submit to God's way of salvation in Christ. A sinner
who's like that old publican in Luke 18, beating on his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I have no righteousness
to plead before God. I have no works that are worth
pleading before God. It's all Christ, His blood, His
righteousness. That's what it's all about. And
so He says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but that's of the world. When God brings a sinner, and
this is our text now, he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ
overcometh the world. Who is he that overcometh the
world? He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. When
God brings a sinner to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
sinner repents of the dead works of the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He turns
against that way, turns completely away from it, and looks to Christ
as the author and finisher of our faith. That's overcoming
the world. That's overcoming the world.
And from then on, the world will be against you. Over in the book
of John, chapter 15, beginning at verse 18. The Lord
taught his disciples this very thing when he told them. He said
in verse 18, if the world hate you, now why would the world
hate God's people? Well, let me break from that.
I'll come back to John 15. I know I'm going over the scriptures
here, but this is important for us to understand. Over in the
book of John chapter three, We have some of the most profound
words you'll find in the scripture concerning a believer's relationship
in Christ against the world. And he says here in verse 18,
this is John 3, 18, he that believeth on him, that's Christ, he that
believeth on Christ, is not condemned. Faith in Christ is an evidence
that we've been saved by the grace of God. It's an evidence
that we are God's elect. Faith in Christ is not the cause
of our salvation, it's not the ground of our salvation, but
it's the fruit of what Christ has accomplished to save His
people. And so when you have the gift
of faith, you see, Ephesians 2, 8, you know, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. When
you're given the gift of faith, you give evidence that you're
not condemned. You're saved, you're justified
in God's sight. Your sins have been put away
by the blood of Christ. And you have been declared righteous
in God's sight, based upon Christ's righteousness imputed. And when
God the Holy Spirit gives you the faith to believe, that's
when you're aware and you're given the knowledge of that,
and your conscience is cleansed by the blood of Christ. So he
that believeth on him, John 3, 18, is not condemned. But he
that believeth not is condemned already. My friend, if you do
not believe the gospel of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ
and this book, and you continue throughout your life in unbelief
and die in unbelief, that gives evidence that you're condemned
already. And it says, because he had not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Christ is the one and only way
of salvation. And verse 19 says this, and this
is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world. Now what
is the light? That's the gospel, that's Christ.
Christ himself is the light. And his gospel truth is the light
that shines forth in him. So the light is coming to the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. And the deeds there is speaking
of their religious deeds. Remember that in John chapter
three, Christ is talking to a man named Nicodemus, who was a religious
Pharisee. And his deeds were evil. And
it wasn't because of his lack of sincerity, as some people
say, it's because he didn't believe in Christ. He sought righteousness
by works of the law rather than in Christ. And so he says in
verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. Neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, discovered. The concealment of human morality
will be removed because those works are aimed at glorifying
the sinner, not the Savior. And so over here, back over in
John 15 now, Christ says in verse 18, he says, if the world hate
you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were
of the world, verse 19, the world would love his own. But because
you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hated you. You see that? The world
hates Christ and his people. because our very existence shows
that their deeds are evil when we tell them the truth. And so
they're against us. So when we are brought to faith,
go back to 1 John 5 now, our text. In order to be brought
to faith, you have to be born of God. Faith is not natural
to you and me. Left to ourselves, as people
talk about free will, which is not scriptural, Left to ourselves,
we will willingly turn against any notion of salvation by God's
grace. But when we're born of God and
brought to believe in Christ, that's when we overcome the world. And the victory, verse four of
1 John 5, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith. Our believing didn't give us
victory over the world. are believing in Christ who gave
us victory over the world. Do you see the difference there?
A lot of people say, well, it's my faith, it's my belief. You
cannot separate, in the Bible, you cannot separate faith from
the object of faith. It's Christ who has overcome
the world. Back over in John chapter 16,
he makes this statement. This is verse 33 of John 16. He told his disciples, these
things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
trouble. But be of good cheer, I, Christ,
have overcome the world. So our believing is not what
overcomes the world. It's Christ in whom we believe
that overcomes the world. And that's why he says in verse
five, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the son of God. You see, it's not our faith that
makes the difference. It's Christ who makes the difference. It's not our believing that is
the ground upon which we are victorious. We do believe and
believing is necessary, but that's the gift of God which comes from
Christ by whom the world has been overcome and by whom victory
has been obtained. Oh, you remember in 1 Corinthians
15, oh, death, where's thy sting? Oh, grave, where's thy victory?
Well, who gained victory over the sting of death and the grave?
Christ did. And our faith is not in our faith. Our faith is in Him, if we believe
in Him. Over in 1 John chapter five,
you know, when the Bible talks about the world, the context
tells you who it is. Many people quote John 3.16 and
say, you know, for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. That's not talking about every
individual in the world. The Bible says that God hates
the workers of iniquity. Those are sinners to whom God
imputes sin. Now his elect, his people whom
Christ redeemed on the cross, God does not impute sin to them.
Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifies, who can condemn us? It's Christ that
died, yea rather is risen. At the right hand of the Father,
making intercession. That's talking about the world
of God's elect, Jew and Gentile, God's people. And how do you
know who they are? They are those who believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Give you an example of that,
look at 1 John 5.20 since we're at that passage. Here, John concludes
his book, his first epistle by these words, and we know that
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. Now
he's talking about believers, isn't he? We'll look back at
verse 19. He says, and we know that we
are of God. Who is of God? Those who believe
that Jesus is the Christ, those who have overcome the world because
looking to Christ who is the victory, those to whom God has
given an understanding, that Jesus is the Christ, we know
that we are of God. And the whole world lieth in
wickedness. The whole world lieth in the
wicked one. They exist in the wicked one.
They follow Satan. Now all of us follow Satan by
nature as we're born dead and trespasses and sin, but God,
who is rich in mercy, as we're told in Ephesians chapter two,
wherewith he loved us, has brought Christ into the world to save
us from our sins. And the evidence that we're of
that number is when God gives us faith to believe in Christ.
Do you believe in Christ? You believe that Jesus is the
Son of God, that he's the Christ, the Messiah, who accomplished
the full redemption of all the people for whom he died on that
cross? That his righteousness alone
demands their salvation and he overcome the world. That's the
issue. That's how we have victory, not
in ourselves, but in Christ. He said, I have overcome the
world. That's why he says, be of good
cheer. Be of good cheer. He says, I have overcome the
world. And all that he has for his people,
all that he gives to his people is a victory, victory in Christ. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.