John 1 John chapter 5 we are
going to recap the way we opened up last time on the first side
of your outline It says faith in Christ in evidence of the
rebirth faith faith in Christ in evidence of the rebirth so
we're going to touch on that as we follow John through the
last chapter of 1st John and Hopefully we can make our way
into Verse 4 and 5. Hopefully we can make
our way into verses 4 and 5. But if you recall last week,
we affirmed the statement that John makes in chapter 5, verse
1, part A, whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born
of God. We paid careful attention to
that language and we understood that very frequently people misunderstand
and do not comprehend the nature of faith. If you understand the
language there, the way that John opens up chapter five, he's
not really changing subjects, but he is now emphasizing and
focusing on the subject that he's been building in chapter
four. And that is faith in Christ. The way he opens up is this way,
literally whosoever or everyone who is presently believing. That's our Greek term, Pantos,
and it means all or everyone, and it's in what we call the
present indicative verb form. Everyone that is presently believing. So John is saying that there
is a category of people who at this moment believe. We are not
necessarily talking about what we believe. We are simply talking
about the act of believing and it's in the present tense. And
we talked about last week the fallacious notion that some people
have that you can be a believer at one point and then at some
point not be a believer. And this is often based upon
people's experience of religion where they have gone to church
and learned certain doctrines or embrace certain practices
in the church and those practices over time have waned in their
life and they found themselves leaving off with a pattern of
religious conduct or protocol that they constituted faith.
And they woke up one day and they were not believing. They
woke up one day, they were not trusting God. They woke up one
day and they were filled with doubt. They woke up one day and
they were saying, I'm not sure if the Bible is the word of God.
They woke up one day and so overwhelmed by their sin, They said, I don't
think I'm a child of God. They woke up one day and they
were overcome, which is the language of first John chapter four. He
warns about being overcome. He says, those that are of God
overcome the world because greater is he that is in you than he
that is in the world. So we're going to talk about
overcoming because One of the reasons why a believer obtains
faith is that he might overcome. And the idea of overcoming, ladies
and gentlemen, is the idea of withstanding tests, withstanding
trials, enduring opposition, dealing with and prevailing over
temptations, overcoming faults, overcoming challenges in your
life, so that faith is not something that operates in a vacuum. merely
a theoretical concept that we embrace on an intellectual level,
faith for the believer is his life. And so what John says is
when we have authentic, true, saving faith, and I guess you
can take those predicates and apply it to the concept of faith
because we can if we wanted to argue that there are certain
kinds of faith in the scripture that we know are not saving faith. We know that. So if one wanted
to develop the doctrine of faith from a biblical perspective,
we could say there is temporary faith. There is a shallow faith. There is a carnal and superficial
faith that that a human being can manifest And all such types
of faith would have been mere efforts and works of a person's
own heart or flesh are rooted in traditions that were passed
on to them by their forefathers or their parents, a kind of believing
that is kind of just passed on, but it doesn't have the root
and source of God in it that is required for them to overcome
the kinds of opposition, which true saving faith finds itself
engaged in. So we can say, as the Lord had
given us the parable of the sower and the seed, there are some
who believed for a while and then fell away. We can say that. And then we can talk about every
form of apostasy. You know what that is. That's
standing away from the truth that you used to believe as a
kind of falling away from the faith. We would describe that
as a non-saving faith issue, that it was a faith, but it was
not a true faith. It was not a faith that John
describes here in 1 John chapter 5 as being born of God, as being
born of God. So you do need to know those
categories because there are people who will argue that you can be
saved and then lose your salvation. You do know some of those people,
right? And there are those who hold tenaciously to the idea
that if you and I were to embrace a category of faith that says
that once saved, always saved, then we are in danger. But what
we would say is, what kind of faith are you talking about?
If you have a faith that is not born of God, is not produced
by God, is not created by God, then that faith has to be something
that is human in origin or demonic in nature. And we can certainly
say that kind of faith can fail. A human faith can fail. A carnal faith can fail. A faith
born of human systems of religion can fail. A faith that's based
upon you pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and saying,
you know, I am the captain of my soul. I am the master of my
destiny. That kind of faith undoubtedly
can fail over against the temptations that the Bible says come against
all men. So when we ask the question,
what is faith? We're talking about what is the
source of your faith? What is the grounds of your faith? What is the basis of your faith? What is the origin of your faith? What is the nature of your faith? And I can go on and on and on.
Those are the kinds of questions you have to ask when we talk
about saving faith. So here's what the Bible says
in 1 John 5 verse 1. Everyone that is presently believing,
now watch this, that Jesus is the Christ. So now you see the
object of the faith that's in view. He's talking about faith
in the present tense. Not a yesterday faith or tomorrow
faith, but faith in the present tense. Now he's talking about
the object of that faith. Jesus, the Christ. Everyone that is presently believing
that Jesus is the Christ, now follow this, is already born
of God. We already talked about that
too last week, and it's important to just bear up under that. The
idea of faith being born of God, being born of God. This is critical. And what that means is that you
don't become born of God because you believe. You believe because
you were born of God. That your act of believing you
are sent to biblical truth is not the grounds upon which you
now become a child of God. And I know that seems so, um,
so backwards to what goes on in much of our religion today,
because you are compelled when you go to most churches to make
a profession of faith. And then therefore you are a
believer. But what the Bible says is you are a believer by
the evidence of the faith that comes out of your life. The foundation
is being born again. The fruit is believing the gospel. Do you see how important that
is? Ladies and gentlemen, It's important for you to see that.
So what John is about to do is actually describe the character
of saving faith in relationship to something that is gonna be
a little bit more important down the line, and that is the testimony
of God. So we can say this as we're about
to work through this portion, as we did last week. He is talking to us about the
source of faith, the object of faith, and then the characteristics
of true faith. Do you struggle with faith? Does
anybody here struggle with faith? Good. If you do, then you're
probably on the right course. If you don't struggle with faith,
you probably are on the wrong course. The nature of faith is
designed to cause you to struggle because faith by its definition
is the substance of things hoped for, future oriented. the evidence
of things not seen, things that do not manifest themselves on
an empirical level. And because you and I are very
limited and tangible and fickle creatures, The nature of faith
in conjunction with our humanness constitute to struggle. It's
a struggle every day to believe God. It's a struggle every day
to trust God. It's a struggle every day to
rely upon the promises of God in a way in which our souls can
be comforted and our souls can be strengthened. And yet, nevertheless,
if we are true believers in Christ, that struggle is the very thing
that causes us to grow in our knowledge of God. Is that true?
And so it's not a, it's not, you ought not to be afraid to
say I struggle with my faith. My faith is designed to cause
me to struggle. It's part of the transformative element of
what it means to be sanctified. Faith humbles you. Faith brings
you low. Faith exposes you for your lack
of trust in God. That's kind of oxymoronic, isn't
it? I'm a believer in Christ and what believing in Christ
does is demonstrate to me how little I believe in Christ. That's an evidence that I'm a
believer. One of the things that we see in the narrative and excursion
of our Lord Jesus in his incarnation, working with his disciples, is
that all through the ministry of Christ and the disciples was
the fact that the disciples discovered how weak their faith was. By
the time they made it to Calvary, by the time they were at the
apex of our Lord's ministry, the disciples were asking questions
then like, who can be saved? They were raising questions like,
Lord, increase our faith. They were they were very much
now much more introspective and humble about who they were in
relationship to the one who had called them out of darkness into
their marvelous into his marvelous life. So what I am saying is.
When we actually have biblical saving faith, what it's designed
to do is humble us and give us an accurate assessment of our
own inabilities so that our dependence upon God is much more sincere
and authentic. Because a religious system of
faith can make you proud. You can be taught things that
are pseudo faith or false faith oriented and make you feel like
you are strong, make you feel like you are grounded, make you
feel like you are mature until the trial comes and washes all
of that garbage away and you realize you don't have anything.
It's very important for you to know this. It's very important
for you to know this. The true believer who actually
has derived by the grace of God, the gift of faith, and we are
very unashamed here at Grace to teach that faith is a gift
from God. We never ever allege that human beings have saving
faith. We know that saving faith comes
from somewhere else. We know that it's a gift of God.
We know that we're not born with faith. We know that your IQ does
not give you access to faith. I don't care how smart you are.
Smart folks go to hell too. Right? According to the testimony
of scripture, God saves the base things of the world. And so we
are very clear that the origin of faith is on the outside of
ourselves, but let's assume that we have it. If we do have saving
faith, here's what's going to happen with saving faith. It's
going to work you down to the point of a childlike trust in
God, where it strips you of all of your assumptions of self-righteousness. even boasting in faith now, I
want to say this as we go on to pick up on the Grounds and
source of faith here in first John chapter 5 verse 1 port a
If you are boasting in your faith, you probably don't have saving
faith Because saving faith destroys all boasting. It's the nature
of the gospel the gospel destroys all boasting When faith is planted
in your heart where you are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, what
the Spirit of God does in the, what we call the symbiotic relationship
between the believer and Christ, what the Spirit of God does is
bring you so low in yourself that you don't trust in yourself,
you trust in Christ. So it's a trust that launches
outward. It's what we call an existential
trust. The Pharisees trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. Believers do not trust in themselves
that they are righteous. So true saving faith is an existentially
oriented faith. It leads you away from yourself.
Are you following me? It leads you away from yourself.
And every day your old man rises up to try to establish some personal
credibility. Then the spirit of God goes to
work in demolishing your old man so that he persuades you
to look away. Look away from yourself to Jesus
Christ. Look away. from yourself to Jesus
Christ. And to the degree that we look
away from ourselves to Jesus Christ, now we are laying hold
of the object for which God gave us saving faith, and that is
the Son of God. And we're gonna learn some things
in that process of looking to Christ that will affirm the faithfulness
of God in our life. God is faithful. Do you believe
that? God is faithful. And so this
is what John is saying. First John chapter five, verse 1.8.
Everyone therefore that is believing, everyone that is believing that
Jesus is the Christ is already born of God. We call that the
perfect tense. It's a perfect tense verb form, which means
the act was established and it fully executed its objective
for which now when once a person is born again, and what we call
the perfect tense, He doesn't have to be born again. He will
never ever have to be born again, such as the analogy of being
physically born. We talked about it last week.
When a man or woman is born into this world, you will never ever
have to be born again into the world. You will exist for all
eternity. The moment the soul is conceived,
it is perfectly a human being in all of the natural and ontological
sense of the soul being a human being. That soul will exist for
all eternity. That soul in its ontological
nature does not have to grow. It is an eternity-bound soul
from the moment of conception. Are you following what I'm saying?
It's not like we are abounding in our humanity until one day
we become perfectly human. No, you are perfectly human upon
conception. Now you may grow within the framework
of your humanness, but you are altogether human and you will
altogether exist for all eternity because that's the nature of
God. So it is with saving faith. So it is with being born again.
The born again, the born again believer can grow and we are
growing and the growing process I might add is the most difficult
part about this whole journey, but it is also the affirming
evidence that I'm born again. The growing part is the most
difficult part of the journey, but it is the affirmative evidence
that I'm actually born of God. In your outline, chapter five,
verse one, A, believing is in the present tense. He's already
born of God, that is, is born of God is in the perfect tense.
And John says, one of the descriptors of, if you're born of God, then
this is true. Everyone that loveth him, I mean,
he that is born of God, He that he that believeth Jesus is the
Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begot loveth
him Also that is begotten of him now if you weren't here last
week that again is some of Johannin apparent redundant speech But
really what he's doing is talking about what we said last week
is letting us in on the first family Privilege the first family
privilege to be born again is to be born into the family of
God It's a first family privilege And the evidence that I am born
into the first family of God is the fact that I love the one
who does the beginning. Who is that? That's the father. You got that? Everyone that's
born of God loves the who? Obviously. Why on earth did he
give us the spirit of adoption by which we cry what? That's
right. We're born of God. But not only
do we love the Father, the text says not only those who are born
of God love him that begots, but he loves those that are also
begotten of him. Isn't that what it says? And
who is that? The Son. That's exactly right. That's why we call it a family
affair. To be born again is a family
affair. When you are born again, you
are born into the first family. the family of the father and
the family of the son and the family of the Holy Spirit all
three persons operate in your regeneration did you know that
you are born of the father James chapter 1 verse 17 you are born
of the word first Peter chapter 2 verse 24 and 25 we are begotten
of the Word of God then we are born of the spirit that's very
clear we have to be born of the spirit all three persons operate
in your rebirth process because they are a family, they're family
unit. Now we are children of God. Now we are sons and daughters
of God. Now we are, according to Paul
in Ephesians four, three rather, we are part of the family of
God of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
This is how I know I'm born of God because God has made me aware
through regeneration and faith that I'm his son. And I love
the father and I love the son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
we saw If we love the father and the son, then that means
we also love whom? All the children of God. That's
right. That's implied in the text. And
then it's explicated in verse two. Let me say it like this. Everyone that is presently believing
that Jesus is the Christ has already been born of God and
everyone that loves him that is the father who does the beginning
beginning loves him also that is begotten that is the son and
those who are begotten by the father who are also the sons
of God. And by this, we know that we
love the children of God. There it is. And I like the way
John, the translator's right in the King James, changes the
term from begotten of God or born of God to children of God
in verse two. By this, we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and what? Keep his commandments. So in your outline, you are very
clear in verse chapter 5 verse 2 the expression of that love
is what our obedience obedience obedience write that down listen
to what he says now again you and I know that John operates
in concentric circles he establishes points and in the framework of
the establishing of his present subject he starts a and embarks
upon another subject and he creates a circle within that subject.
So he's going to come back to that circle. And I've told you
that when you listen to John talking about commandment keeping,
when you and I talk about commandment keeping with John, what are we
talking about? We are talking about evangelical
commands, right? We are not talking about the
legalistic commands of the Old Testament, uh, system of, of,
of moral and ethical laws. In the first sense, we are talking
about the command of faith, the command of believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look again at first John chapter
three, verse 23, this is critical for you to grasp. Otherwise you
will miss the primary mission that God has called the church
to in first John chapter three, verse 23. Are you there? And
this is the commandment, or this is his commandment, what? That
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
what? Love one another as he gave us
commandments, see it? So now, the New Testament corollary
to the Old Testament principle of to love the Lord your God
with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor
as yourself, that's the Old Testament command. That's what the prophets
all knew on these hung all the law and the commandments. Master,
what is the greatest commandment of all? You know, the commandments
to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and
strength and your neighbor as yourself. Well, we're all laid
low, aren't we? We're all laid low. If we had
to hold on to those two commandments as the basis of our salvation,
we'd all be lost. Am I telling the truth? Because
you don't love love nothing with all your heart soul mind and
strength not even yourself Am I telling the truth? But but
God gives us those two commandments because within those two commandments
we have what is called the essence of obedience And the essence
of obedience is love The essence of obedience is love do not miss
it the essence of obedience to love. See, I'm still operating
out of the father-son paradigm that you guys have been learning
in biblical theology for a long time now. The father-son paradigm,
this is the covenant of God. This is the way God is revealing
himself to us. God has a right to tell his children to obey
him because within the framework of obedience, he is affirming
sonship. The father has the right to tell
us to obey him. Am I making some sense? It is
not unnatural. Neither should it be something
that is obtuse or coarse or difficult or something with which we repel
or draw back from. It should be a natural inclination
on the part of all of us if we are born of God to want to obey
him simply because we have the incorruptible seed of Christ
in us and our soul echoes the son of God. And the son of God
always did those things that pleased the father. He loved
to obey his father. It was his desire, his passion
to do the will of his father. Is that true? Well, that seed
is in us. I want to do my father's will.
It's natural to me. In fact, what John says a little
later on is, and his commandments are not what? They're not grievous. They're not burdensome because
they're not predicated upon a slavish damnation that will be the consequence
of disobedience. It is based upon predicated upon
a relationship that's secure. Now, follow this. If God comes
to you and tells you you are his son and you are his son for
all eternity and nothing in the universe can change that, isn't
that the greatest motive in the world for you to attempt to obey
your God? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So what I'm talking about is when we talk about evangelical
obedience or evangelical commandments, we are not talking about white
knuckling it, trying to merit favor with a holy God with whom
we are on the outside of a favorable relationship, trying to get on
the inside. Commandment keeping for the people
of God is a postpartum product of what Christ has already accomplished
for us on Calvary Street. In other words, I'm obeying God
out of a finished work of obedience that was already wrought for
me so that my obedience to God is secure based on his obedience
to God for me. My obedience to God is secure
based upon Christ's obedience to God for me. In fact, I am
called a son of God because Christ stood as my substitute in surety
and made sure in the covenant of redemption that I would be
a son of God. So now I am obeying or attempting to obey out of
love. So now that's the motive of my
obedience and that was the motive for which God told me to obey.
You and I are hearing now the echo of our master through John
constantly in the gospel of John when Jesus says, if you what?
Keep my commandment, right? If you don't love me, I'm not
giving you commandments if you don't love me, because you're
in trouble already if you don't love me. But for those of you
who do love me here, here's what I want you to do. Keep my command.
Master, what is your command? Tell everybody that Jesus Christ
is Lord. Got it. and then incompatibility
with that major testimony of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Live out of that knowledge of yourself, in yourself, a life
of love and a life of obedience to God and to your neighbor.
Live out of that evangelical reality in yourself, a loving
disposition, a loving characteristic, a loving witness that's not based
on fear, It's based on love. So he says, by this, we know
that we love the children of God. When we love God, keep his
commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his
commandments and his commandments are not what? Burdensome. They're
not grievous. They're not burdensome. And so
you have in your outline under chapter five, verse two, John
14, 15. You don't have to go there, but that's what Jesus
said. If you love me, keep my commandments. I will dwell with
you, my father will dwell with you, and we will make ourselves
manifest to you. What kind of love is this then?
It is an evangelical love. You have A and B in your outline,
1 John 3, 23 and 24. We just looked at that. It's
a gospel-centered love. Then the Part B says, Matthew
28, 18 and 19, it's evangelical. Now, I'm not going to stay on
this long. I certainly do not believe that
when I emphasize the evangelical gospel centered obedience that
you and I are called to as children of God, that we are excluding
keeping God's commandments of not lying, stealing and all that
other stuff. You don't believe that, right? You don't believe
that to obey or emphasize our focus on the evangelical call
to tell men and women about Jesus Christ means that we are now
free to set aside all the other moral commands of God. You don't
believe that, right? So I don't have to go into that.
That would be a non sequitur. It doesn't follow that if the
emphasis of my message is evangelical, I am therefore saying be unethical
or immoral. That's crazy. But the emphasis
of our message is evangelical and the emphasis of my obedience
is evangelical. Follow this now because it's
not about me. It's about Christ. So before we jump into the next
part, which is going to be dealing with the overcoming element,
I can tell that's all we're going to get to tonight. And we'll
come back next week and deal with the testimony of God. If
I, if I fail to understand that the priority of my relationship
with God is really evangelical in nature, in the sense that
God is calling me to know him through Jesus Christ in a deep
and profound way so that I see the glory of God in the person
of Jesus Christ. So much so that my desire and
my passion is for people to know Christ like I know Christ. If
my priorities are right and I am growing in my knowledge of Christ
and Christ is making an impact in my life. His forgiveness,
his grace, his patience, his kindness, his love. his sacrifice,
his commitment, all of the things that are displayed in Jesus Christ
as they are made known in the scriptures, they make an impact
in my life. If I'm making that a priority
in my life, then my obedience to share the gospel with men
and women is going to be much more effective. Am I making some
sense? Because really what I am doing
is by the grace of God and by the spirit of God, maintaining
that position number one in the rules of engagement we talk about
in marriage with my husband the Lord Jesus I being his bride
I am seeking to know him as he knows me and out of that intimacy
in that deep pervasive pursuing of Christ it's going to be easy
for me to talk about the one I love. Are you following me? You talk about what you love
And it's that basis upon which the Spirit of God was given for
the believer to be able to talk to people about Christ, which
is the chief commandment. Going into all the world and
preach the gospel. Tell everybody everywhere as
the door opens about Jesus Christ. This is the greatest act of love
you can commit towards someone. So now, stay right there. Okay,
so if we are evangelical, if God gives us the opportunity
to be evangelical, you know we're gonna get on people's nerves
when we're evangelical, right? But if we're doing it out of
love, then the Spirit of God is going to assist us in that,
right? Okay, so I still, along with wanting people to know my
Savior, want to live in a way that honors Him with respect
to the whole testimony of Scripture. So I'm asking God, along with
Him giving me grace to tell men and women about Jesus, because
He has granted me a knowledge of Him, to remove from me every
form of inconsistency and hypocrisy that would impede my testimony
to Christ. Did you hear what I just said?
Because what you will discover, child of God, this is what you
will discover. You will discover that if you
make a dichotomy between what you know and what you do with
regards to what you know, you will be ineffective in your witness
of Jesus Christ. At some point you will have to
submit to the reality that the Spirit of God is not only calling
you to know Christ, but to submit to Him in personal obedience
as a precursor and premise to effective witnessing. Give you
an example. Go with me in your Bible to Acts
chapter 5. I want you to see what Peter says in Acts 5, 32.
And this is actually going to get into the testimony of God
for which faith is given. I'll say that here in a moment,
but I just want you to see this in Acts chapter five. Now, one of the things that you
discover when you are a new believer is that there is a great amount
of joy that enters into your life when you hear the good news
about Christ and that joy can preoccupy you for a long time. but it doesn't preoccupy you
forever. And over time, that joy that you have in knowing
God and getting to know God, it has a tendency to what we
call settle. It doesn't wane. It settles.
It settles. And now that knowledge turns
into the privilege and obligation of reciprocating with the one
you have come to know. This is where sanctification
now emerges up out of faith. And faith really is a by-product
of sanctification. Sanctification is what God does
in you. Justification is what God does for you. Glorification
is what God does to you. You see the prepositions? Justification
is what God did for you outside of you in the person of Christ
2000 years ago to make you right with God for all eternity. Clothing
you are giving you his righteousness. sanctification, which produces
faith and that faith produces the life and the relationship
that you have with God that abounds in many different areas of knowledge
and, and service and commitment and obedience and failures and
reconciliation and confession of sin and asking for grace and
saying, God cut this off and God put this on and help me,
Lord, to live to your honor. You see what I'm getting at now?
That's all called faith. That's all called faith. We're
getting ready to get into that part. So faith settles down in terms
of the objective truths of Christ becoming formidable in your life.
You becoming clear of what the scripture says about who he is
and what he did. And now you are moving into a larger category
or a capacity of witnessing where now you are trying to conform
your life to the image of Christ, right? You look up after a year
of the honeymoon and you go, OK, I got it. I got it. I got
it. Now you look around your life and you realize this is
a bunch of stuff needs to be fixed in my life now. Is that
true for you? And so now what you are doing
is you're not you're not establishing a whole different department
for your relationship with Christ. You are expanding that department
to include your life in your pursuit of a knowledge of Christ.
You want it to be an integrated whole. You want who you know
to impact what you don't, what you do because of who you know.
I want that to impact me. I want that to permeate my life.
I want my life to be brought into conformity to Jesus Christ. And, and I know to the extent
that that happens, I'm actually going to be a better witness.
Is that true? So now watch what it says. Acts
chapter 5, verse 32. This is Peter after he has already
preached the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior. He
says in verse 32, and we are his what? Now that's where John
is going in 1 John. We'll get there. Where John is
going in 1 John, as he closes out the book, is the primary
objective for which faith is given to the believer. And that
is for you and I to affirm, to enjoy, to declare and defend
God's testimony. That's what faith is designed
to do. Now notice what he says. You are his witnesses of these
things. We are his witnesses of these things. And so is also
what? The Holy Ghost whom God has given
to them that listen to him. What did he say? Got it. Now, you know, in the evangelical
sense, listening is the first principle to obedience. But the
Spirit of God is given to them to obey. He becomes what we call
the immediate presence of Christ in our life, the immediate lordship
of Christ in our life, so that we are led by the Spirit if we
are the sons of God. and that leading of the spirit
is going to be leading us into areas of obedience that's both
internal and subjective, as well as external and objective. There
are two aspects to witnessing, to the witness of God in our
life. It's our external witness that we share with other people,
and then there's the internal witness of the spirit as he bears
record with our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God.
There's a dynamic that goes on. There's the witness that you
testify to other people about Jesus, then there's the witness
of the Spirit of God testifying in your own life. He does a great
deal of witnessing to you, doesn't he? He does a great deal of working
on you with regards to maintaining the credibility of the witness
that you have been privileged to have with others. So the Spirit
bears record with our spirit that we are sons and daughters
of God. Is that true? And the Spirit is working in us to conform
us to the image of Jesus Christ. So there is going to be this
relationship between our privilege to tell people about Christ and
the responsibility of the Spirit of God to bring our lives into
conformity to Christ. It's just so. So what Peter does
right here is certainly remarkable. He has been now called upon to
witness to the person and work of Christ, and he says everyone
that has been called to be a witness of Christ has been given the
Spirit of God to obey. He's been given the Spirit of
God to obey. He's been given the Spirit of
God in order that we might obey the Spirit, and he's been given
the Spirit of God in order that through the Spirit of God we
might obey the gospel. Got that? So now, go back to
our text, because I think I want to get into one other area tonight,
one other area tonight. And then next week, we will come
back and deal with, as I said, the aim of 1 John chapter 5 is
to bring us into the area of the testimony of God. That will
be some time that we will have to spend in that subject, the
testimony of God. But here's what I want you to
recognize, and this is an important truth. That's part of your journey
as a believer. That becomes a real difficult
thing. In first John, chapter five,
verse three through five, this is what John says. Get there. For this is the love of God.
that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God
does what? Overcome the world. And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our what? Faith. Who is He? that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that what? Jesus is the Son of
God. So now what John does is says,
okay, you guys, we're headed towards the primary objective
for which faith was born in your life. And that is for you to
be willing to tell the world that Jesus is the Christ. We're
headed there, he says, but what I want you to understand is in
your moving towards the privilege of telling people that Jesus
is the Christ, you're going to have some trials. You're going
to have some troubles. If you don't know that as a child
of God right now, then you may just simply take knowledge of
church history with regards to the time of John the apostle
and the Christians of the early church. Moreover, you might recall
what our Lord said in the gospel of Matthew, Mark and Luke. If
any man will come after me, let him do what? Deny himself, do
what? Take up his cross and follow
me. And what our Lord very clearly
taught was that to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ was to
set yourself over against the whole world system and find yourself
at dire straits against the world. that to be a believer in Christ
was to find yourself ready to have to deal with all the opposition
that the world brings against you to, as it were, destroy your
faith or as it were to discover whether or not you have faith
in the first place. When John uses this word overcome,
which he has done before, as you know, the word to overcome
is a Greek term that we have for some of the tennis shoes
we wear. What is it called? Nike, Nikeos. And the word means to triumph.
It means to have victory. It means to win a battle. It
means to overcome opposition. Nike it's a Greek term that actually
described a pagan God of that day of war and battle and his
ability to overcome Opposition and so the implication of what
it says in verse 4 and 5 again 1st John chapter 4 and 5 is this
for whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this
is the victory that overcomes the world even our what our So,
okay, this overcoming, this triumph, this victory is over against
the world. Now, who knows what we mean by
the world? 1 John 2, verse 15. Remember that? All that's in
the world is the lust of the? And the lust of the? And the
pride of what? It is of the world, it is not
of the Father. What John says is these entities,
These things that constitute what drives this world system
is going to try to overthrow your faith. It's going to come
against you. It's going to test you. You're
going to have your struggle right there in that sphere. That's
where you struggle. That's where you're troubled.
Is that true? Stay there for a moment. Is there
anybody in here who just walks through this world unscathed,
untouched, unmolested, unantagonized, untempted, untried by the world? Are you so insulated in your
faith that you kind of got this bubble around you where you just
kind of flow through work and flow through school and flow
through life? You can make it through the checkout
stand at the grocery store without being tempted to look at the
magazine, fellas, the girly magazines, ladies, the dress magazine. And
you can make it through the grocery store. I'm just talking Safeway
without without coming out, having to say, Lord, have mercy on me.
And I'm speaking of the lowest level of temptation. You can
make it through radio stations and radio programs and different
music and different this, different that. Can you make it through
the television? Can you make it through the gossip
at work and the gossip at the gym and the gossip in the church?
Can you make it through your unprincipled girlfriends and
boyfriends and relatives and cousins and uncles and aunts
and people who wanna get close to you and tell you things that
you know you shouldn't be listening to and you know you gotta stand
up to and you know you gotta say what's right? Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? This goes on every day. So you
can pretend like it's not a trial if you want to, but you're not
living in the world that I'm living in. And this is the world
that John says the believer lives in. He or she lives in a world
that is diametrically opposed to God's principles, God's commands,
God's glory, God's son. And every day it's a battle for
the believer. And what is it that overcomes
this world? Our faith. Our faith. Our faith. It's a battle. It's
a struggle. It's a challenge. It's a challenge
to get up in the morning believing God, go to bed at night believing
God, and wake up in the morning still believing God. It's a challenge. Don't you fool yourself. It's
a challenge. And it's a miracle of grace that you wake up the
next day still believing God. Here, I'm here to tell you there
are some people among you that are not believing God today.
They used to believe God yesterday or the week before or the month
before, and they're not believing God. But we already talked about
that in the beginning of the study, didn't we? If it's true
saving faith, then it's rooted in God, it's based upon His work,
it's born of God, and it's going to keep you. That's why John
is constantly affirming faith will keep you over against the
world. But I want you to get a good depiction of the battle
that John is himself anticipating and basically warning us about
with regards to overcoming. In your outline under chapter
5, verses 3 through 5, a recap on overcoming. It means to have
victory. It means to triumph. It means
to prevail. And I want to read the verses that are in 1 John
concerning overcoming. And then I want to read through
some portions of Revelation because whether you know it or not, the
book of Revelation is about overcoming this world. It's the battle of
overcoming in the church. It's the battle of overcoming
in the world. That's the whole tenor of the
book of Revelation. It really inherently is describing
a warfare, a warfare, a war. Faith is a battle. Do you believe
that? Listen to what John says in first
John chapter two, verse 13 and 14. Let's revisit this for a
moment. We got a little bit more time.
First John chapter two. 1st John chapter 2 verse 13 now
notice what he 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 what overcome the wicked one It doesn't say that the old
man didn't overcome, it's simply saying that the old men have
already gotten past that test, and they have grounded themselves
in the primary objective of knowing the Father, and knowing God,
and knowing Him in His glory, and knowing Him in His eternality,
and are resting in the reality that they know Him. what we have
with regards to the young man is a normal indicative or a state
of being where the young man is fighting theological battles,
fighting spiritual battles, watch this, and fighting the youthful
impulses of his fallen nature. Is that true? That's where the
young man is really right. He's really at war with his old
man. And if one is not careful about
that internal struggle, one can fall. But what John said was,
and I write unto you young men, and I am writing unto you young
men, or have written unto you young men, because you have overcome
the wicked one, and I write unto you little children because you
have known the father. Look at verse 14. I have written
unto you fathers because you have known him from the beginning.
I have written unto you young men, here it is again, because
you are what? Strong in the Lord not strong in yourself Strong
in the truth, which is in Christ not strong in yourself strong
in faith Not strong in yourself. You guys got that Now notice
what he says I've written unto you young men because you are
strong and here it is Are you ready the Word of God abides
in you and you have overcome the wicked one? implication The
goal of the devil is to either snatch the word out from your
mind so that you don't have it as your thesis to go to battle
against him or to cause you to doubt that word that you have
in your mind so that you don't utilize it to go to battle against
him. Is that true? The goal of the
devil for the young man, for the young woman who is growing
in the knowledge of scripture and becoming confident in God's
promises towards them, the goal of the devil is to get you to
let go of that truth And that's part of the five deeds of the
devil to distract you, get you so caught up in other things
that the word of God now is distant from you. Distant from you. Or have the subtle allegiances
of your heart directed towards something else. Now, stay here
with me. I'm going to help you with this, young people. The heart
is complex. Don't ever think of the heart
as a simple entity. It is a complex unit. filled
with diverse passions and diverse aspirations and diverse objectives
and diverse goals. It is complex. It is too complex
for you to fully know. It is filled with lusts, multiple
lusts. It is filled with different objectives
and sometimes those objectives are contradictory to each other.
You know what we call that? Conflict. Can the heart be in conflict
with itself? Can you find yourself believing
one thing and then be inclined to something else and be ambivalent
about it? That's what we mean by a complex
entity. The heart is very complex. You
and I, if we are not conscious, however, can also find that our
heart, our emotions, or our passions, or our inclinations can actually
be leading us in a direction that is not consistent with what
we know. And sometimes we are not cognizant
of it. And we'll find ourselves going
in a wrong direction in our passion, even though our mind is thinking
something else. And we're going, what's going
on? Well, we didn't check really the core of our motives to make
sure that our motives were consistent with the truth we say we believe.
Am I making some sense? That's the battle that we fight.
It is very easy to have your thoughts in one direction and
your heart driving you in another direction. The good that I would,
I do not. The evil that I would not do,
I find myself doing. So there's a law in my members
leading me into the captivity of sin in my flesh because I
have not apprehended that I can be thinking one thing in the
forefront of my mind, but in the deep motives of my heart,
I'm really actually being distracted by something else like a carrot
in front of me. And what John is saying is the
young man or the young woman who is preoccupied with studying
the word of God, learning the word of God, submitting to the
word of God, clothing themselves in the word of God, is by that
word going to overcome the wicked one. Now remember again, the
wicked one is bringing the test of the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eye, the pride of life. Just got to stay there
one more second. So just in case you don't get
it, young people, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,
the pride of life, That triad is what's coming after the young
person every day. It's working surreptitiously,
it's working in a subterranean covert fashion to strip you of
your allegiance to Christ in order to bring you into bondage
to its own agenda. So that what amounts to what
your priorities ultimately are in their manifestation is that
subtle lust that latch the hold of you and cause you to lose
allegiance to the agenda of God. You woke up in a snare and the
only thing that's gonna deliver you is the very word you found
yourself imperceptibly letting go. That's the thing that's gonna
deliver you from captivity and put you back in a right place
with God so that you can keep going. Am I making some sense?
This is why we love 1st John, because 1st John already told
us in 1st John chapter 1, and this is what we call fellowship
with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And the blood
of Christ cleanses us, keeps cleansing us, and the present
tense always cleanses us. from all unrighteousness? How
is my fellowship sustained with God? Remembering that I need
the blood atoning work of Jesus Christ in my life every day.
Every day, I need the power of the efficacy of the atoning work
of christ in my life every day I need to remember that christ
died for my sins. I need to remember that he is
my propitiation I need to remember that he is my mediator. He's
my advocate with the father I need to remember that I can go to
christ in time of need and ask for mercy To help me out of that
snare I got to remember that now all of that remembrance Is
the word of god? Am I telling the truth? That's
all the promises of the scripture that's going to get me out of
this snare that I found myself inclined into either willfully
or ignorantly. What do I do as a young man or
a young woman snared by the passions of my own lust just as a natural
thing? And I really want to be where
God wants me to be. Confess your sins to him. He is just and faithful to cleanse
you from all unrighteousness and get you back where you ought
to be. Well, that's how we overcome it. That's how we overcome him. That's how we overcome him. So
now watch how John puts it now. First John chapter four, verse
four and five. You are of God, little children,
and past tense have overcome them, because what? Greater is
he that is what? Than he that is in the what?
Now, so now what we learned when we dealt with first John chapter
four was this. When we talk about faith, We are talking about a
commodity that has its origins in God. Faith is a gift from
God, Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 8. It's very clear that faith
is born of God. It is actually a derivative of
his presence in you. We learn that in 1 John chapter
3. So faith is not like some abstract thing. It is an extension
of God's nature planted in you by the incorruptible seed of
God. And that faith, like fruit manifesting on a tree, is sustained
by the husbandman. Faith is sustained by God. Do
you believe that? God sustains our faith. He purges
us and he prunes us and he causes our faith to grow as being the
faithful husbandman in that true vine, which is Jesus Christ.
And we being part of that vine, the mystery of how God works
in our life on a daily basis to humble us. I'm going back
to the early part of our study, humble us and bring us to a place
where we stop depending on ourselves or, and where we stop presuming
on God. Do you know how we can do that?
We can kind of get on a roll where we're presuming on God.
We kind of got everything, all of our ducks in a row. You know,
I got my job going well, I got my house going well, I got this
going well, everything's going well, I got my God, I got my
gospel, my God, my gospel, this, that, they're all lined up. And
now you have just created an idol out of all this stuff because
you made it equivalent to your God and everything else. You
got that? So you're presuming upon God and you're kind of operating
out of a, uh, automatic pilot and then boom, the test hits
you. You wake up and realize you wasn't trusting God. So God
has to bring you back to that place where you are consciously
and deliberately and intentionally trusting God. So he calls you
and I to a relationship. He calls us to a relationship.
Now, listen, if this is all difficult, I'm really just describing faith.
I'm sorry. This is what faith is and the
dynamic and vitality of faith. That's what it is. It is not
a static objective propositional fact sitting up on the wall that
if you get all of the credo statements right, you're good to go. Sorry.
Faith is inherent. Revelation of who God is in the
dynamic of not only what he did for you at Calvary But what he's
doing in your life right now We are talking about overcoming
the world by virtue of the one who loved us and gave himself
for us We're talking about overcoming the world by virtue of the one
who loved us and gave himself for us So now we read in first
John chapter 5. They are of the world therefore
They speak of the world and the world Here at them, I don't wanna
follow that anymore. Go with me in your Bible to Revelation
chapter two, I'm gonna read about seven verses in Revelation and
then we're gonna shut it down. In Revelation chapter two, which
was written shortly after John wrote the epistles to the Asian
churches that we are reading, first John, second John, third
John, Revelation chapters two and three deal with the seven
churches of Asia minor, of which John was an overseer. And the
Lord Jesus Christ upon addressing each church dealt with this whole
concept of overcoming as part of the condition for that church
remaining committed as a faithful institution and witness of God.
For instance, in Revelation chapter 2, 7, 11 and 17 and 26, note
what it says as he deals with the churches. Revelation chapter
2, 7, he is dealing with now the church at Ephesus. And here's
what he says. In verse seven of chapter two,
notice what he says. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, plural. To him
that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the paradise of God. Do you guys see that?
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which
is in the midst of the paradise of God. And so the warning to
the church is you've got to overcome. It implies a future tense. It implies. Engaging in a battle,
overcoming that battle and being rewarded with the blessing of
being a partaker of the. Of the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the paradise of God look again over at verse
11 verse 11 And I think here he's now talking to the church
of Smyrna He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit
said unto the churches He that overcometh shall not be hurt
of the what second death this this is a profound promise. I
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
He that overcometh will be able to eat of the tree of life in
the paradise, in the midst of the paradise of God. He that
overcomes will not be hurt of the second death. These are some
profoundly important promises that God is making to us. And again, at verse 17, notice
what he says. And this here would be to the church at Pergamos. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit said to the churches. To him that overcometh,
I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white
stone, and in that stone a new name, which no man knows, save
he that receiveth it." Now, all of these promises to overcome
in all of these churches are promises that have to do with
future blessings, that have to do with eternal glory. Very profoundly
interesting promises. Tempted to go there, but we don't
want to go there. Look at verse 26. Here's what he says. And
he that overcomes and keeps my works unto the end, to him will
I give power over the nations. Do you see that? What a promise
for just overcoming. Again, go with me to Revelation
chapter 3, verse 5. In Revelation 3, 5, listen to
what he says as he deals with the church at Sardis. He that
overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot his name
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before
my father and before his angels. Profound. Every one of these
promises is based upon our what overcoming. And these are words
that are given to us directly by our mediator and high priest,
Jesus Christ. They are to be regarded with
the greatest care. The greatest care. Now notice
what he goes on to say. In other words, what we are saying
is Christ is not using hyperbole. He's not using exaggerated speech. He's not telling you something
that is not attainable and important, critically important. Look at
verse 21. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne. It's crazy. Do you see that? To him that overcometh, will
I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also, what? And I'm sat down with my father,
where? All right, stop right there. So now what we would call
these series of promises that culminate in verse 21 of chapter
three are a series of promises that have an exegetical to the
term overcome, an explanation to the term overcome. Because
Christ now has just identified himself as having what? Overcome! Isn't that what he said? Even
as I overcame, now I have somewhat of a framework for defining overcoming. See, for Christ to have overcome
was for him to have done the will of his God Believed his
God suffered for his God and died for his God and rose again
from the dead You guys got that see really the text is saying
this For the believer to be an overcomer he has to live by faith
and die in faith So that the net result of his life is having
believed on the Son of God Being ready to suffer for him even
unto martyrdom. Because the ultimate and the
quintessential test of the devil coming after you and I is to
get us to deny that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God. And he will threaten us even
with what? Death. That's the context of
1 John. That's the message that Christ
said, listen, if you're going to be my disciple, you've got
to be ready to die for this gospel. That's what we're dealing with
here when we talk about overcoming. This is what John is dealing
with as he now moves into the last chapter and talk about faith.
When he says, whosoever believes that Jesus Christ is the son
of God or Jesus is the Christ is already born of God. He is
saying that birth of faith in your life is going to be tested
by trials that are going to come against the testimony of God
that you and I are called to uphold. God has a testimony. That's what we're getting ready
to get into next week. The testimony of God, which testimony
many believers died for, didn't they? So here you and I are have
been called out of darkness into his marvelous life. He's given
us his word. He's given us his spirit. And
now we are learning about God. Wonderful, isn't it? And you
and I in the 21st century here in America at present are not
yet tested with the ultimate test like some of our brothers
and sisters around the world are tested. I can stop right
now and start telling you about what's going on in the Congos.
I can start telling you what's going on in different parts of
Africa. I can tell you what's going on in China. I can tell
you what's going on in the Middle East. I can tell you what's going
on in Ethiopia concerning our brothers and sisters in Christ
who are now dying at the hands of the beast. Are you hearing
me? So the term overcome is used
also in the book of Revelation concerning our enemy, the Antichrist,
the false prophet and the beast in Revelation chapter 12 and
13. And he overcame them and killed them. But that term overcome
simply means that the enemy has the ability to kill our bodies,
but not take our faith. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So in our world, it's very possible that us as Americans
10 years from now, 20 years from now, because we are looking at
all of the evidence that's taking place politically and socially
and policy-wise that is setting itself up over against a biblical
worldview even right now as we live here in America. legislation
and policies that are taking place, a strong growing military
state all across our country in preparation for all kinds
of upheaval. And if we are right in terms
of biblical prophecy, ultimately politics always at some point
turns against the Christian gospel. All politics at some point turn
against the Christian gospel because ultimately, humanism
is going to rise up out of its roots and says, we will not have
this man to rule over us. The Christian church will either
be persecuted or it will go apostate. Am I making some sense? It will
become a humanistic system that basically is a shell of the truth,
very much like communist Russia and communist China, where they
have state sanctioned churches, where they just kind of do homilies
on moral and ethical issues. But they are not emphatic about
the lordship of Jesus Christ and the gospel of our glorious
savior. So they don't have a problem
with communist ideology. They're compatible because communism
says, love your neighbor and do good. But communism denies
God and it denies his glory. And you're going to see next
week as we work towards the primary objective for which God gives
us faith is to maintain, affirm and defend the testimony of God.
To maintain, affirm and defend the testimony of God. And you
and I are going to be able to once again be privileged with
the labor that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost puts into affirming
his love towards us in the death and sacrifice of Christ with
this one condition placed on us, that by the grace of God,
we love Him back. Got it? What the Spirit of God
does is show us the love of the Son in His sacrifice towards
us, and the love of the Father in giving the Son to sacrifice
His life for us, affirm that in our heart and then tell us
to be ready to die in response to that love of God revealed
to us. And let us know that he has given us every supply of
grace to be ready to do that. This is the difference between
true believers and false believers. You guys got that? At the end
of the day, the gospel is about the grace of God for you and
I to sign up to be a witness of God's glory in a world that
hates God. But the love of God shed abroad
in our hearts, we are promised is more than able to help us
overcome the world. As we continue to humbly look
to God and ask him for his grace to keep us day by day by day,
you know, you know how you know how I think about it. It's been
30 something years, almost 35 years for me. I'm done here.
Here's how I think about this is the honest goodness truth.
I'm letting y'all in on this. This is free. Back when I was like
the young people, 18, 19 years old, when God started drawing
me by his grace and he saved me. And I was living in the middle
seventies at this time when late great planet earth in 1988 and
all the end of the world stuff, Tim, you had a world in 10 common
market, Russia, the nuclear war, all that stuff was going. How
many of you guys lived in that era when I did? See, I got a good group of brothers. And God had already been dealing
with us in terms of the gospel, right? And we were thinking the
imminency of the end is right at hand, right? And here we are
almost 40 years later, and the world has not ended. Stay with
me now. But any Christian who has lived
from that time to this time knows what I know, if not explicitly,
intuitively. We are closer to the conditions
that make for biblical prophecy today than we were back then.
And the thing that we have to be careful about as children
of God is do not stumble at the slow process of the development
of the dark days that God prophesies will come. Don't stumble at it. Don't stumble at it. It's coming.
It's getting closer. It's getting closer. It's getting
closer. Back in the day, we were looking through the side view
mirror because of our ignorance and lack of perspective. You
know the side view mirror analogy, right? Things appear closer than
what they really are. Right? But now we know it's getting
closer. We know it's getting closer because
we can see all the signs. We don't know where we are in
total, but we know our salvation is nearer than when we first
believed. We know that these are days in
which you and I have to be sober. We have to be vigilant. because
our adversary the devil is going about like a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. We know that 10 years ago there
were people who were running with us in the gospel that are
not running with us today. We know there were people who
were zealous about Christ 15, 20 years ago that we don't see
them now. We know there are lots of people
who have fallen off from focusing in on the primary thing and that
is worshiping the true and the living God and letting men and
women know about Jesus Christ. We see all these things happening
because this is part of the fulfillment of scripture So next week as
we get into it the lord willing let us live till next week We
will get into the objective for which god has planted faith in
our heart and that is for us to know Love adore affirm and
defend the testimony of god. Let's pray father. We thank you
for this time We thank you for the study on faith. We thank you for the sober reminder
that faith is the gift that you gave us by which we overcome
the world. We are very clear too, Lord,
that faith is designed to humble us in such a way that there is
no grounds for legitimate boasting. We are so clearly aware that
in ourselves we are weak and vulnerable. We are vacillating
creatures fickle on every hand We are much like your disciples
and the believers in the word if it wasn't for your grace Keeping
us if you didn't keep us we'd be lost every day We thank you
Lord that you keep us in our right mind and you restore us
When we lose focus on you grant us grace to keep our eyes on
you as we go our way Give us traveling mercies. We pray in
Jesus name. Amen. God bless you