I'm going to take my text this
morning from 1 John chapter 5. We're going to be looking at
the first four verses. 1 John chapter 5. I'm going to take my title out
of verse 4. This is the victory. Now let's read these verses together
beginning with verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Now just hold your place there
for a moment. Let me kind of give you a little
running commentary as we go through these verses. The Christ is the
promised seed which God began to reveal to men after the fall
of Adam in the garden. He came to them there to reconcile
them and spoke to them in the cool of the day. Before the night
of God's wrath settled in for good, He came to them and He
reconciled them. And He took a lamb and He slit
its throat or killed it in some fashion And he built there an
altar, and he laid that lamb on the altar, and he took its
skins, and he covered them with those skins. He covered their
nakedness. And then he gave to them the
promise of the coming Redeemer, the woman's seed. And he said,
Satan's going to bruise his heel, but he's going to crush Satan's
head. This is the Christ. This was
the first Messianic prophecy of the Scripture, this coming
Redeemer, the woman seed. Woman seed. In Christ the promised
seed, which God began to reveal to men after the fall of Adam
in the garden. And He came to Adam and Eve and
He gave them this wonderful promise. And then He took a lamb and He
demonstrated to them what this was all about. A virgin will
conceive and bring forth a child who by his own death would crush
the head of the serpent and redeem God's chosen race from the curse
and power of sin. And God verified this promise.
He verified this promise, Messiah, on the altar of Abel. God testifying
both of his gifts and by those gifts he yet speaketh, he said,
from the altar of Abel. And this promised seed was pictured
in Noah's ark, God putting in Christ everything He purposed
to preserve from the fury of His wrath against sin. And this
promised seed was given in covenant promise to a man God called Abraham. To Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. Galatians
3.16. And this Christ was then represented
in Abraham's son, Isaac. God said, take thy son, thy only
begotten son, Isaac, and you take him up on this mountain.
I'm going to reveal to you where it is. You just come with me,
and we're going to go up on that mountain, and I want you to offer
your son a sacrifice unto me. This boy Isaac, whose birth is
altogether of God, ordered to be taken up on this mountain
of worship and be slain on an altar before God. And Abraham's
beloved and only begotten son is laid upon the altar and his
hand draws back with the knife. And Abraham begins to plunge
it, fully willing to do what God told him to do. He believed
God. And God stayed his hand, he said,
stayed his hand. and revealed to him a substitute,
a ram caught in the thicket. And he says to his son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And then he calls this
man named Moses to reveal this dying lamb. And he raises up
a typical nation out of a man he calls Israel and his children. And he covenants with him and
his children. And this typical people, he gives
typical promises. Deliverance out of Egypt. Pictures
of deliverance from sin. Passage across the sea. Preservation
in the wilderness of sin. And rest in the land of Canaan. While they were out there in
that barren wilderness, he gives them the heavenly pattern of
the tabernacle. certain sacrifices to be offered,
a priesthood to offer them, and an altar on which to offer. All
of which he tells us in the book of Hebrews were just carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation, until the time
of the coming of this Christ. He tells us they were figures
for the time then present, patterns of things in the heavens, and
shadows of good things to come. And by the presence of these
things, the Holy Ghost signified, he said, that the way into the
holiest of all was not yet made manifest. And then this coming
seed was pictured in Joshua, who came into Canaan, won the
victory, and by David that God raised up, contrary to the will
of the people, and made him king over Israel. And then by the
prophets, his person and work represented from the beginning
was foretold in greater detail. He took all of those past things
that had happened to Israel and all the present things that they
were going through and began in detail to describe that coming
Redeemer. Most of the old writers, Brother
Henry used to refer to it all the time as the Gospel of Abraham
or the Gospel of Isaiah. This representative seed of the
woman, the substitutionary sacrifice, the loving, obedient son, the
great high priest, the faithful prophet, the victorious king.
And then by a virgin named Mary, she conceived of the Holy Ghost
and brought forth a son. And she, according to the instructions
of an angel, called his name Jesus. That's the same as Joshua. And she was to give him this
name for this cause, for he shall save his people from their sins. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. You see what he's saying here?
They're not just calling on the name Jesus and twisting their
hands in the air. They know on whom they call. This was the promised one from
the very beginning, who in detail has been set forth throughout
the Old Testament. That Old Testament laid the foundation
for what He came to do. And then He came and accomplished
it. And God raised Him up and set Him down at His own right
hand. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of
God. And everyone, 1 John 5, 1, that
loveth him that begat saw in this manifested Christ of God
the love of God for chosen sinners. Everyone that loveth him that
begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Both Christ
who is the firstborn of God and those He chose in Him and begats
according to His own will through His gospel. Verse 2. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.
Now what he's saying here basically is this. He's not changed his
subject. He's still on the same subject.
But he's saying this. There can never be any true love
for God that's exclusive of God's love for His elect. There can never be any love for
God that has no love for God's elect. In other words, this man
said, well, I love God, but he won't have anything to do with
another believer. He doesn't share in his pain.
He has no sympathy for his wants and hurts. He doesn't pray for
him. By this, he said, we know that
we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.
God said to love one another. commanded us to love one another. You can't love God and hate His
children. You cannot love God and be indifferent
toward His children. And the keeping of the law here
is not our own works of righteousness, but by faith, seeing and obeying
the law through our substitute, and seeing that love of God manifested
in His keeping of that law, seeing that love demonstrated. And there
is no higher form of obedience to God's law than to see it honored
and exalted in Christ. That's what makes an abomination
for you to try to work out your own righteousness. You're taking
your righteousness and putting it up beside His. And you're saying, ignore His
and look at mine. That's an abomination. And if
men understood what they were doing, they'd quit bragging on
their righteousness. And they lay hold of His. There is no
higher honor. And there is no higher form of
obedience to God's law than to see it honored and exalted in
Christ. We bow to that. We see it. We rejoice in it. We hope in it. Verse 3, For this
is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments
are not grievous. His law and His justice do not
grieve us anymore, because we've been reconciled to see these
things Satisfied, accomplished, fulfilled in Christ Jesus on
our behalf. Taken to their loftiest place
on our behalf. We discern His love in it and
by it, and we love Him for it. And we are grateful to Him for
it. Now watch this, 1 John 5, 4. 4. Based on these things, whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. The curse of it, the darkness
of it, the glitter of it, the power of it, the end of it, and
even the existence of it, He overcomes. And this is the victory. Boy, don't miss this. Here's
the victory that overcometh the world even our faith. Now anybody who honestly reads
this book and is at least vaguely familiar with its contents knows
that this cannot be talking about something we generate in the
flesh. That's not, he's not talking
about a faith that stands and does, that's not what he's talking
about. Faith is not produced by fleshly
reason. It's not produced by fleshly
reason, and it's not by wisdom and will and strength of the
flesh. The Apostle Paul preached. He wrote to the Corinthian church,
and he said, I preach to you a certain way on purpose. I don't
use these lofty words of man's wisdom and I don't appeal to
fleshly reasoning and this type of thing. He said, I preach the
way I preach on purpose. Oh, Paul, you're too dogmatic.
I'm doing that on purpose. I'm doing that on purpose. Sometimes
you offend people. I can't help it. I can't help
it. He said, I preach this way on
purpose that your faith might not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God. You see what I'm saying? Faith
is not produced by fleshly reason and willpower, but he says pointedly,
very pointedly, it's not of him that willeth. Is it? Huh? But we sure won't try to
get somebody's arm and get up here and make them willeth. It's
not of him that willeth. We won't get somebody and make
them run. I won't get behind them and make them run. Get them
excited. Get them enthused. Get them down
the road. Get them excited. But it's not
of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. And what this is talking about
is the glorious person and work of the victorious Christ, which
all gods elect are brought to embrace. Whosoever believes that
Jesus is the Christ, that's the key to 1 John chapter 5. Whosoever. But this revelation, in whom
this revelation has come, God's opened His eyes, John, and His
ears, and His heart, and He receives it, and He sees it, and He goes
back to Genesis, and He sees it in the creation of the world,
and He sees it in the woman's sea, and He sees it in the ark,
and He sees it in the land, and He sees it in the tabernacle,
and He sees it in the in the Ark of the Testament, and he
sees it in the shell bread. He sees it in the manna that
falls down from heaven. He sees it everywhere he looks.
He sees it. He perceives it. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, he's born of God. And that man born
of God whatsoever it is in him that's born of God overcomes
the world. You know why? Because he's embraced
Him who made the world. That's why. Here's the victory. The victory ain't in your running.
It ain't in your willingness. It ain't in your devotion. It's
all in Him. There's the victory. Talking
about the glorious person and work of the victorious Christ,
which all God's elect are brought to embrace. Faith embraces the
person of Jesus Christ as God sets Him forth in His promises.
As God sets him forth in his types, in his person, this promised
one, this sin-atoning substitute, the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth he is. I'm telling you this, you're
still debating about where this righteousness is? Then you're
in no better shape than Israel. You're still ignorantly wandering
around trying to produce your own righteousness. He's the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Everyone that believes. All who believe on Him, He said,
every one of them, do enter into rest. Ain't that what He said?
Every one of them. Him who declares the righteousness
of God in the salvation of believing sinners. The full and complete
Restorer of the children of God. Faith is altogether about a person. Faith sees Him as foretold in
the volume of God's book, coming, appearing on this earth to accomplish
the will of God. And by His eternal appointments
and offices, and by His glorious supernatural character, and by
His loving obedience and death on the cross, He sanctified and
perfected us once for all. It's done, He said. Ain't that
what He said? It's finished. It's finished. Put your shovel
up. Quit digging. Put your guns up. Quit biting. It's over. It's over. And having done the will of God,
God raised him up and sat him down, it said in Hebrews chapter
10. Having made this one all-sufficient, all-glorious sacrifice, God Himself
raised Him from the dead, justifying us from our sins, and took Him
up in ascension by His angels, and sat Him down at His own right
hand, and put a crown on His head. Put a crown on His head. And said, now you've done called
Him everything you're going to call Him. Now He's going to wear
my name. A name above every name. And at that name, everything
in heaven, earth, and hell is going to bow. And they're going
to confess with their mouth the glory of God in Christ. They're
going to confess it. And he sat down. He's not pacing
the banisters of heaven wondering what will become of his elect.
He's not weeping anxious tears wondering how things are going
to turn out that he gave his life to accomplish. He's not
kneeling down in prayer in some ignorant concern as to whether
or not men are going to accept what he did. He sat down expecting,
it said, until his enemies be made his footstool. He's just
sitting there expecting. Huh? What's he expecting? Huh? You ever thought about that?
Here he sits. He's done, Winston. He's done. He finished the work. He ascended
up to the Father. The Father gave him a name above
every name. Put that crown. Omnipotence now
reigns in the person of a man at God's right hand. And he sat
down. He put his feet up. And he sits
there expecting. What's he expecting? Let me give
you seven things real quick. Sitting at the right hand of
God, our Lord expects providence to be arranged according to His
Word for the good of His people and the glory of His great name. He expects it. And it's going
to happen. It's going to be exactly the
way He expects it to be. Boy, if that just wouldn't have
happened. It had to happen. Because that's the way he expects
it to be, and that's the way it's going to be. Oh God, teach
this poor, doubting sinner to rest in whatever comes my way,
whether it's sunshine or rain, stroke or good health or heat
or cold or prosperity or poverty, good health or bad. Teach me.
All things are rank. Not a sparrow's going to fall
to the ground in the providence of God without Him. Nothing. All things are arranged by a
loving King overruled for my good. And though they seem overwhelming
and out of control, let me rest in this knowledge that the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. He's always in complete control,
and He's not upset in the least. He expects things to go exactly
as He orders them. Secondly, seated in His royal
robe, with His crown of glory on His head, He expects his gospel
to go forth into all the world and arrest chosen sinners in
their sins and bring them to faith in Christ. He said, all
power is given unto me. Now you go preach. Why? Because he expects it to be done.
And it's going to be done. It's going to be done. I'm going
to tell you something, preaching is not some random universal
call shot from the hip like a shotgun. That's not what it is in hopes
to hit something by chance. I saw a sign over here at one
of the churches. I won't even call their name,
but I saw a sign on there the other day that said, plant enough
seeds, something will grow. It sure will. Yeah, tares, that's
what will grow. It's not about that. It's not
just throwing seeds out all over creation. Preaching's not casting
the gospel net into a dark sea, hoping to look up on a school
of fish. That's the way you and I fish. That's not the way God
fishes. He said, Peter, push out a little
bit. Now, that's far enough. Now put
your net down. Huh? Now the net gets broke.
Can't even draw them in. Christ told Peter where to let
down his net, and that is word. He's let it down. Preaching not shooting a bunch
of arrows up in the sky and hoping some are going to land where
they ought to. God draws his arrow back, John, and shoots
you dead in the heart, because that's where he aimed. He's not
like us. I sat up there for three years
waiting on a deer to come along and shot at him and missed him.
God doesn't do that. He hits what he aims at. Paul told those Thessalonians
God chose to save them by sanctification of the Spirit, belief of the
truth, and therefore he called them by his gospel, called them
on purpose. And when they heard that gospel,
they didn't hear it in word only, but they heard it in power, and
they heard it in the Spirit of God, and it arrested them. God
has a people out here. He's chosen to salvation and
Christ came in their room instead and obeyed the law on their behalf
and suffered and died for their sins. Gave himself to be one
with human flesh for all eternity. Married himself to his people.
You really believe that God's now going to let their final
end be up to chance and circumstance? You really believe that? That's
foolishness, isn't it? He raised us up together, He
said, quickened us together with Christ, made us sit together
with this sovereign, omnipotent King in all of His victories,
sit with the victorious Christ in an eternal union of covenant
love so that in the ages to come He might tell you about it. Huh? That's exactly right. He's going
to tell you about it. He might show unto them the exceeding
riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Thirdly, the sovereign victorious Christ sits at the right hand
of God and expects the Holy Spirit to go forth and convince and
convert and preserve. He expects it. He said, it is
expedient for you that I go away. If I don't go away, He won't
come. But if I go away, I'll send him. I'll send him to you. Huh? He expects. I don't care where
we are. I don't care how far we go. I
don't care into what depths we're clawing. God will cross our path
with the gospel and God's Holy Spirit and cause it to be cherished
in the heart. I don't care how far you run.
I don't care how deep you went. Don't make no difference. Listen
to this. This is a man after God's own
heart. You know, we pray these silly little sentimental prayers
more like a shopping list than it is anything else. This man
was a man after God's own heart. When he prayed, he poured out
his heart to God. And he said, O Lord, he said,
Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and my up rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassionate my paths,
and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. There's not
a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon
me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high, and I cannot attain
unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? That's what we're
talking about in here. Whither shall I flee from Thy
presence? If I ascend up to heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. And if I take the wings of the
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, behold, thou
art there. Even there shall thy hand lead
me and thy right hand shall hold me. Paul preached in the power
of God's Spirit, and the election of the Thessalonians was made
known. He preached as the Spirit of God opened effectual doors,
and even to the heathen Gentiles, as many he said as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. Why? Because he sits at the right
hand of God and expects it to be done. Fourthly, faith sees
the victorious Christ expecting a work of grace in the hearts
of believing sinners, and it's going to be done. You know that
great chapter there in Ephesians chapter 2 where he said, By grace
are you saved through faith? That not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For,
he said, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained. That we walk in them,
and we're going to walk in them. What God expects in the victorious
Christ who is God, come into human flesh, seated at the right
hand of God, He expects it, and that's the way it's going to
be. The way it's going to be. What can a natural fallen son
of Adam do? He can't do anything. He can't
do anything. Because he receives not the things
of the Spirit of God. Because left in his ignorance
and blindness, everything that God tells him through his preacher
seems like foolishness. But when God takes over and takes
up his abode within, and he says to every man who has the mind
of Christ, he said, work out your own salvation in fear and
trembling. Why would any man tell a helpless,
fallen sinner that? Huh? He tells you why. For it
is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do. He is good
pleasure. Believers can love God because they can perceive
the love of God in Christ, what sets them apart from the world.
Believers can walk before God because they have a righteousness
and a justification that pleases God. Believers can worship God
because they are in the Spirit and know the truth. Believers know God because Jesus
Christ came and gave them an understanding. And believers
obey God because with the command comes the ability to do it. Lazarus, come out of that tomb. He couldn't. But he did. He did. Bartimaeus, receive your
sight. He was born blind, but he saw,
didn't he? He said to that poor helpless
cripple laying there next to the pool of Bethesda, he said,
take up your bed and walk. He couldn't, but he did. And he tells you, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't, but you will when
he calls. Because with the command comes
the ability to do it. Come unto me and find rest for
your souls, and you will. And then fifthly, seated at the
right hand of God, the victorious Christ expects his people to
be with him where he is. He said, if I go away, I'll come
back. I'll come back. And I receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. He expects
that, don't he? He purchased that. He bought
the ride. He sits on the throne. What he says, go! Father, I will,
that all those which thou hast given me be with me where I am. That's where they're going to
be. Every one of them. Every one of them. Oh, let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Let me tell you something. For one
soul for whom Christ died, for one
soul for whom Christ died and intercedes for in glory, and
who expects to be saved, for that one soul, just one, to be
lost, would be for God to sacrifice the glory of His name, sacrifice
His eternal purpose, admit defeat, and cease to be God. Now that's
what has to happen for one of His sheep to perish. They're
not going to perish. They're not going to perish. He doesn't leave poor kiddly,
dying sinners to accomplish His work. He accomplished it Himself. And now He sits in glory. And
what He does and is pleased to do in you and through you, He
does. He does. And if you do anything
that's effectual to Him, if my voice touches your heart this
morning, if God speaks to you through me, it ain't me, it's
Him. It's Him. We're sanctified, he said, in
God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called by the
Spirit of the living God. All right. Sixthly, the victorious
Christ sits upon the throne, crown on his head, victorious,
not upset, and expects one day to physically raise every son
of Adam out of the earth and call him up before his throne.
and judge him in strict righteousness and judgment according to his
works. God hath appointed a day in the
which he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man. And that's the way it's going
to be. He expects that. He bought that right and he's
going to have it. He's going to have it. He's the discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart and no creature that was ever made
can keep himself from being manifest in his sight. All things are
naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
You can read about that over in Hebrews chapter 4. And then last of all, this victorious
Christ, the head of his beloved body, the church, sits expecting
this glorious return. when he shall raise these vile
bodies out of the corruption of the tomb, raise them up out
of the earth. Job said, though worms devour
this body, yet I'll stand on this earth and see God. I'm going
to see Him. I'm going to see Him for myself.
I'm going to be seen as myself in my body. Those apostles, when
they got up there on that Mount of Transfiguration and Christ
was transfigured before their eyes, begin to see that heavenly
vision there before them, they saw Moses and Elijah. How'd they
know it was Moses and Elijah? Huh? Because that was Moses and
Elijah. That's how they knew it. How
are they going to know it's me in glory? Because I'm going to
be me. But in the perfection of Christ, He's going to raise
these vile bodies, give them a body like unto His glorious
body. raise us up out of corruption,
present us to His Father, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable. I can't even conceive of that.
Unreprovable. God Himself in His glory can
look at me and can't find one thing to change. That's unreprovable
in the presence of His glory. You see what he's talking about
here? Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Even
our faith. The man who sees, who sees and
able to perceive the expectant Christ, he expects men to believe. Huh? That's right. I expect men to
believe. How can you expect this ignorant
rebel, surrounded and raised in the
falsehoods of this world, how can you expect one to believe?
Because I know who is going to sit on the throne. And I know
what he expects. And he expects them to believe,
so I'm going to too. So when the man, he said, can
these bones live? He said, you know. You know. He said preach to them. He expects Christ to have His
way. He expects to understand the
Word of God. He expects to be led of God.
He expects Christ to walk with Him through the valley of the
shadow of death. He expects to live in His presence
forever and ever. What do you expect? Huh? What do you expect? Real saving faith overcomes all
the obstacles and all the enemies and all the temptations of the
world because it expects the expecting Christ to have His
way. And He's going to. He's going
to. He sat down. He sat down. I tell you, that one that faith
embraces sits. He ain't upset. He ain't upset. No reason for
me to be, is there? Not if I see him. Not if I see
him. Oh, our Father, what glory, what
magnificence, what majesty, what a treasure. Your sovereign grace
is seated at your right hand. Oh, make our hope. Weed out all
other things. Make our hope to be in Him. We
ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.