Now I'm going to preach this
morning from the book of John, 1st John rather, chapter 5, if
you'd like to turn in your Bibles there. 1st John chapter 5, beginning with verse 4, where John, writing by inspiration
of the Spirit, he says, for whatsoever is born of God, and it could
be whosoever. He's talking about people here.
or whosoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God." Just those two verses on this subject, overcoming
the world. It has been often said that that
the true believer, the true child of God, has three great enemies. And they're described in this
order, the world, the flesh, and the devil. You've heard that. There's a lot of legend, a lot
of stories that revolve around that. But it's true, even in
the scripture, the world, the flesh, and the devil, each of
these enemies. the world, the flesh, and the
devil, each of them would surely defeat all of us except for one
thing. And that one thing is the sovereign
grace of God to save us and to keep us. To keep us in his grace,
in his salvation, in his blessedness, in his kingdom. based on the
victory that we find, not in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus
Christ and based on his righteousness alone. That's it. Now think about it, the devil,
he's our enemy, isn't he? In relationship to believers
as their enemy, the devil is called the accuser of the brethren. He's the adversary. Well, how
can we turn back and be victorious against the accusations of Satan? You say, well, Satan tells lies.
Well, yes, he does. The Bible says that he's the
father of lies. But let me ask you this. If Satan,
if you were standing before God at judgment, And Satan came along. You know, there's a picture of
this in the Old Testament, a dream that God gave Zachariah the prophet
about Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
the Lord in judgment. And Satan, the devil, the accuser,
standing beside him, accusing him day and night. Book of Revelation
speaks of it. So let's picture us standing
before God at the judgment, and the devil comes along, And he
looks at Bill Parker and he says, now Lord, this Bill Parker, he's
a sinner. Now I'm not saying he gets up
and he says, you know what he did the other day? Or you know
what he thought the other day? No. He's a sinner. That's enough, isn't it? He doesn't
have to flash a screen of my impure thoughts on the wall. He's a sinner. And you're a God
of judgment and justice and fairness, and you must punish sin. Justice
demands it. Your holiness demands it. Now,
how are you going to be victorious in that? How are you going to
have victory at the judgment against these accusations of
that great enemy, the devil, who accuses me of being a sinner,
which I am? There's only one way. Read it
in Revelation 12, we won't go over there, I've got so much
scripture here and we can't turn to all of it. In Revelation 12,
they turned him back by the blood of the lamb. That's it. They didn't turn him back by
saying, well, she gave her heart to Jesus when she was 12. You know what happened if you
really do believe in Christ, you didn't give your heart to
Jesus, he gave you a new heart. That's what the Bible says, isn't
it? Or they joined the church when they got older, or they
got baptized. That's not gonna defeat Satan. All that'll bring about is to
hear Christ say, depart from me, I never knew you, workers
of iniquity. So there's only one way to defeat
this enemy named Satan. And that's by the blood of the
lamb. That's the righteousness of Christ. I stand before God
in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness.
And Satan's arrows of accusation cannot penetrate the shield,
the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith, which
causes me to look to Christ as the Lord, my righteousness. Well,
what about, what about the flesh? You know what, when you say that
our great enemy is the flesh, you know what it's actually saying?
My greatest enemy is me. Now the flesh in this context
refers to the remaining contaminations and presence of sin in my heart,
in my mind, in my affections, in my will that I can't get away
from. And as the Holy Spirit gives
us the knowledge and the desire to do what? To fight sin, how
are we going to have victory? Well, I'm going to stop doing
this and start doing that. Well, you may need to stop doing
this, whatever this is, and you may need to start doing that,
whatever that is. You may need to do that, but
that's not going to give you victory. That's not going to
defeat the enemy. called the flesh, called yourself. You say, well, I've got a bad
temper, and I need to start learning to control that. I agree with
you. And I hope you're successful.
And I hope God gives you the grace to be successful. I hope
you have some victory that way. But it's not going to defeat
the enemy. It's not going to give you victory over the flesh. How are we going to have victory
over the flesh? Well, Romans 7, 24 and 25 and 8, 1 tells it. Remember what Paul said? Oh, wretched man that I am, who
will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. He said, with the mind I serve
God. And he said, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ. That's the only
victory. We have victory, and you know
what that does? It causes us to cling to Christ continually. You hear that song, I need thee
every hour? Let's change the words, I need
thee every second. One second without Christ is
defeat, isn't that right? We plead his righteousness continually. I never plead my own. Never claim
my own. It's always His righteousness
imputed to me. That's the only, His blood that
washed me. Follow Him, fight, and now I
can fight the flesh, I can war against the flesh in a way that's
honoring to God, knowing that one day I will be free totally
from this body, the body of this death. And why? Because of Christ. It's not because I'm persevering.
I will persevere, but that's not the ground of my glory. You
see, that's why I tell you all, these people who believe you
can be lost one day or saved one day and lost another, they're
not clinging to Christ now. They're not. They may think they
are, they may say they are, and they may look like that, but
they're not. He saves me and He keeps me.
My victory over the flesh is Christ, crucified and risen from
the dead, His blood, His righteousness. Well, here's the third enemy,
the world. Now in verse four here, he says, whatsoever is
born of God overcometh the world. He said, this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Well, what is our
faith? Our faith is not in our faith. That's the way most people
interpret that. Most people don't have faith
in Christ, they have faith in their faith. In other words,
their act of believing. That's not what he's saying.
He explains it in verse five. Look at it. Who is he that overcometh
the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
This Savior who did this work, he's the Son of God. This Savior
by whose blood I'm washed clean from all my sins. My sins are
paid for. He is my victory. This Savior, this Savior who
wrought a righteousness that I had no part in producing and
which God has imputed to me, He's my victory. This Savior
from whom I have spiritual life in the new birth whatsoever is
born of God. Where did I get that life? It didn't come to
me naturally. I was born dead in trespasses
and sins. I fell in Adam into sin and death. I was born dead
in trespasses and sins. So how did I get spiritual life?
It didn't come from my goodness. I didn't have any. It didn't
come from my will. My will was against him by nature. It came
from him. What is my faith? My faith is
in Christ. It's not in me. Not in my decision. Not in my baptism. Not in my
going to church. It's in Christ. What is the world? You know, sometimes the world
refers to the world of God's chosen people. Turn to John chapter
3. God's chosen people. God's elect. I don't get embarrassed about
saying that. That's what the Bible says. Look at John 3 and verse 14. He said, and as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be
lifted up. He's talking about the cross.
Christ must be lifted up on the cross. Why? He's the surety of
his people. He's the representative. He's the substitute. He's got
to die for their sins charged to him, imputed to him, accounted
to him. Now, why must he do that? Verse
15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. If Christ, now think about it
this way. If Christ had not done his great work on the cross to
put away our sins and work out righteousness for us, we could
believe in him until we're blue in the face, but we'd still perish. See, the key to this is Christ
being lifted up. He was lifted up on the cross.
to die for our sins and to work out righteousness whereby God
could be justified. He died, he was buried, he arose
again, he was lifted up out of the grave because he established
righteousness and secured the salvation of his sheep, his church,
his elect. He was lifted up unto glory,
and he now is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living
to make intercession for us, whereby we cannot be charged
with sin. 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, who
ever liveth to make intercession for us. And then he's lifted
up every time the true gospel is preached in the message of
grace. It's all about Christ. The gospel's
about preaching Christ. It's not about self-improvement. It's not about how to get more
money. It's not about how to live a better life now. If you're
in Christ, you'll live a better life now. Don't worry about it.
But it's about Christ and what he accomplished and what he's
doing and his continual work as our intercessor. And then,
thank God, sometimes by God's grace, he's lifted up in the
heart of a sinner when they're born again by the Spirit. So
think about it that way. Verse 16, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son. The word world there, you
know, it's cosmos. He's not talking about everybody
without exception there. In fact, you will not find one
verse in the Bible where the word world is literally talking
about everybody without exception. It's not there. Now we're talking about Christ
overcoming the world, us overcoming the world. So that's a different
world, isn't it? But here's a world that he loved.
and he gave his only begotten son." Now who's he talking about?
Look at it. "...that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life." That's who he's talking about. God's
got a people all over this world out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He sent Christ to die for their
sins. He sent Christ to do for them
what they could not do for themselves and they won't perish. Verse 17, for God sent not his
son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. And then he goes on to tell us
that the world was already condemned. Look over at John chapter 16. Mark read part of this. Now look,
now remember, you remember back in verse 15, verse 18. Here's the word world. Sometimes
the word world, it means the universe, the cosmos. Sometimes
it means the inhabitants of the world. Sometimes it means, there's
another word that it means the age, this sinful age. And sometimes it means God's
people, God's elect. Verse 18, if the world hates
you, hates who? He's talking about a division
here. Here's a world that hates God's people. All right, so here
he's not talking about everybody without exception. If the world
hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you
were of the world, the world would love his own, but because
you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. Now, what's he talking about?
Here's the world that is in opposition to Christ, and then here's the
world of his people called out of the world who are not of the
world, but they're citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Look over
at verse eight of John 16. Just across the page or on the
other side. When he has come, that's the Holy Spirit, when
he has come, he will reprove or convict the world of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment. Now what world is he talking
about there? He's talking about the world of people whom the
Holy Spirit convicts of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
That's the gospel. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. The world at large, the fallen, cursed, sinful world,
doesn't even know what sin is in the eyes of God. Until the
Holy Spirit convicts them of sin, showing us that without
Christ, in God's sight, it's all sin. Isn't that right? It's all iniquity without Christ. If I don't have Christ, nothing
I do pleases God. If I don't have Christ, nothing
I do is accepted with God. No matter how it appears to men
now. And that's why it takes a work of the Holy Spirit. Now
that's why he said, he that is born of God overcometh the world. He says of righteousness, because
I go to my father and you see me no more. How was Christ going
to the father? As the one who settled the debt,
as the one who paid the price, as the one who suffered the just
for the unjust, as the one who redeemed his people, as the one
who established righteousness. That's how he was going to the
father. you remember it says he's seated
at the right hand of the father he did the work that's his righteousness
imputed and he says of judgment verse 11 because the prince of
this world is judged when christ died on that cross satan was
defeated and cast down Because the ground of the justification
and the salvation of all his people, Old Testament and New
Testament, was settled in time. And that's why Satan's arrows
of accusation cannot touch us. We have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's law and justice. Turn over to
1 John 2. Now I won't work you to death
this morning, but You all need to start reading
the Bible now. You know, I'm just teasing. I
know you do. 1 John 2, verse 1. He says, my
little children, these things write I unto you that you sin
not. And because we sin, or if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the
propitiation. Now propitiation, what does it
mean? It means a satisfaction made. Sin bearing sacrifice who
brings satisfaction. He's the propitiation for our
sins. That means our sins can't be
charged to us. That means we have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice. And he says, and not
for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now,
if that's referring to everybody without exception, you can mark
it down. Everybody's going to be saved and in their glory. But does the Bible teach that?
Well, the answer is no. Look over at 1 John 5 again and
look at verse 19. John writes here, and we know
that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness, literally
the wicked one. The whole world is deceived by
and follows Satan in his deception, even in their false religion.
And he says in verse 20, we know that the Son of God is come and
hath given us an understanding. It's an understanding that this
world that he's speaking of here doesn't have. But it's an understanding
that the world who's convinced of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment does have, because the Holy Spirit has convinced
them. Which world do you live in? Is it in the world of God and
His kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of His dear Son,
the kingdom of light, the kingdom of righteousness, or is it in
the fallen, sinful, deceived, cursed, dark world? who at its
best is under the deception of Satan. He said that we may know
him that is true. We're in him that is true. And
even in his son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal
life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. So sometimes it refers to the
world of God's elect, the church, the sheep. Now, other times it
refers to the cursed, fallen, unbelieving world. And that's
what he's talking about in 1 John 5 and verse 4. For whatsoever
is born of God. Christ said you must be born
again. And you're born again by that
life, that spiritual life. See, we're spiritually dead by
nature. We've got to be given spiritual
life by Christ through the Holy Spirit. That spiritual life comes
through Christ who is our life. Some old writers called it the
resurrection life of Christ. And they made a point here that
needs to be made. It's because of his righteousness
that we have life. Did you know that? It's because
of his righteousness imputed that we're justified before God
legally. That I stand before God not counted
with my sin, not charged with my sin, but charged with his
righteousness. But it's because of his righteousness
imputed that we have life because his righteousness is the source
and the power of spiritual life. Romans 8.10 says, this body is
dead, But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Sin
demands death. Righteousness demands life. Where
are you going to find life? In Christ. For as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So, the Bible teaches
that without His righteousness imputed, there is no new birth.
There's certainly no justification before God, is there, without
His righteousness imputed? But without it, there's no new
birth. You understand that? Well, this
world here that we've overcome is the whole corrupt mass of
fallen humanity out of which God takes a people whom He's
chosen for Himself and redeemed by the precious blood of His
Son. A people He quickens by His Spirit and whose business
it is to overcome the world, to overcome its foolishness.
What does the Bible say about the world's foolishness? It says
the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them who are perishing.
Its deeds are evil, even its best deeds, even its appearances
of righteousness are evil in the sight of God. Its course
is rebellion. Christ overcame the world. by
coming into the world, not because he was corrupted by the world
or connected to the world. He remains separate and dying
on the cross for his people resulting in righteousness and resurrection
from the dead. And Christ overcomes the world
by bringing his people out of the world. Sometime when you
get an opportunity, sit down in a quiet place and read John
chapter 17. It's the Lord's high priestly
prayer. And he talks about the world there. Remember here, he
said, I pray not for the world, but I pray for those that I've
taken out of the world. He said, I don't pray that you
take them out of the world yet. They're in the world, but they're
not of the world. We overcome the world. How do
we overcome the world? By believing in Christ, by resting
in Christ, by pleading Christ, his blood and righteousness,
by following Christ. We can talk about worldliness
in other ways too, an undue attachment to this world, living for this
world, its riches, its honors, its joys, its cares, its principles,
even its religion. Godliness is the opposite, that's
living for God, His glory, living in the light of His glory and
truth in Christ, it's living under the Lord. How do we overcome the world?
Listen, look at it again. Verse four, for whatsoever is
born of God overcometh the world. This is the victory that overcometh
the world. Even our faith. Then who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
The measure of our faith and the assurance of our victory
over the world, the flesh and the devil, is not in how much
or how sincere we believe. but in whom we believed and what he accomplished. Paul
wrote, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Now what have I committed unto him? I'll tell you what
I've committed unto Christ. My whole eternal well-being is
committed to him. is not committed to you. Yours
is not committed to me. I hope it's not. It's committed to Christ. Christ told his disciples in
John 16, 33, in the world you'll have tribulation, trouble. Are
you ever amazed or ever taken by surprise when trouble comes?
Well, Christ said in the world you'll have trouble. But he said,
be of good cheer. Why? Because you're such a good
boy or girl. No, because I've overcome the
world. Remember what Job said? Man is of what? Few days and
full of what? Trouble. Oh, there are times
of joy, but they don't last long. So how do we overcome the world?
Well, Christ overcame the world by casting out the prince of
darkness, the prince of this world, we've already seen that. Christ overcomes the world by
bringing his people out of the world. He said, my sheep, I know
my sheep and I'm known of mine. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
they follow me. And then Christ overcomes the
world by preserving us unto glory while we're in this world. And
that's how we overcome the world. Look back over at verse 18 of
chapter five. Look here, he says, we know that
whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Now what does that mean? It's not counted against us.
Remember over in first John three, he said, he said over there in
first John three in verse nine, whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. What's he talking about? That
means that person is in Christ. He can never leave Christ because
he's preserved by the power and grace and goodness of God and
his sins cannot be charged to him. If that means what a lot of people
think it means in verse 18 of chapter 5, we know that whosoever
is born of God sinneth not. If that means we never sin, then
none of us are born of God, folks. And anybody who claims to be
is a liar. He said that over in verse John
1. He said, if we say we have no sin, we make God a liar. The truth is not in us. Paul
said that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners of
whom I am, present tense, chief. Not was. So in verse 18, we know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
Satan cannot, cannot successfully accuse us before God, because
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's delay? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Yea, rather, is risen again.
seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. And you know who he is? He's
Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the Lord my righteousness.
And that's how our faith overcomes the world, by not looking to
ourselves or our faith, looking to Christ as the Lord our righteousness.