Good evening. Before we start,
I asked Brandon if the live webcast was going on tonight, and it
is. So, I'm going to take advantage
of my 15 seconds of fame and act like them nuts on TV and
say, hi, mom and hi, dad. I love you. I hope they're watching.
Okay. Second Peter, chapter 2. 2 Peter 2, I was reading through
here, and in verse 19, there's a word in there that caught my
attention, so I wrote a sermon about it. So, we'll see how it
goes. 2 Peter 2, verse 19, While they, or these false prophets,
promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption,
for of whom a man is overcome. of the same as he brought in
bondage. And that word overcome caught my attention. And in this
instance, it means to make worse, to rate lower, to be inferior. And that's what sin has done
to us, for sure. I want to look at three instances
of where people have been overcome in Scriptures. First of all,
all men and women are overcome by sin. We're born in sin. Secondly,
I don't like talking about it, but it's in Scripture. There
are some outwardly professing believers that can be overcome
by false teaching and worldly cares and lusts and deny and
leave the gospel. It's in here all over. There's
warnings in the Scriptures about watching out for false prophets.
So we'll look at that a little bit. And then the last one is
the best one. That all true believers, the elect of God, have been overcome
by saving grace and then given the victory by Him that has overcome
the world, Christ our Savior. And here the word overcome means
to subdue, to conquer, to get the victory. That's a good overcome.
Alright, so we'll look at first, all men and women born into the
world are overcome by sin. And when you talk about being
overcome, Some of you that have gone through emotional issues,
you know, you can be overcome by emotions to where you cannot
control yourself and you just, it sweeps over you and there's
nothing you can do about that emotion, whether it's joy or
sorrow or whatever. Sin has done us the same way.
It's overcome us to the point to where we can't stop it and
we can't control it and we're rotten to the core, unfortunately.
Most of the time, we don't really feel this way, that we have this
disease of sin. We think we have just a mild
case. It's not a full-blown leprosy. But with God, there's no mild
or severe. There's no in-between. Todd's
always taught us that God deals in absolutes. You're absolutely
sinful or absolutely holy in His eyes. And there's no in-between. Now, it's all through the Scripture
how sinful we are. I want to look at a couple instances
in Ecclesiastes that we don't look at quite that often. Right after Proverbs is the book
of Ecclesiastes. Look in chapter 7. We'll look
at one verse in chapter 7 and one verse in chapter 9. Ecclesiastes
chapter 7, verse 20. Here's a description of me and
you, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. That's plain and to the point.
Now look over at Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 3. Here's another description of
us in our flesh. This is an evil among all things
that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto
all. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil,
not partial, full of evil, and madness is in their heart while
they live, and after that they go to the dead. We're a bunch
of madmen, crazy, and we go to the dead. That's our description
by nature. We are, in reality, the lowest
form of life on the earth, I think. On the side of a mountain, we
didn't have any flat spots. So on the side of a mountain
full of trees, right in front of our house was these four or
five huge poplar trees, 60 or 80 feet high. And every spring,
they grew their leaves, they shaded the house, they gave nests
to the birds, they converted the CO2 to oxygen. Every spring,
year in, year out. Every fall, they dropped their
leaves, fertilized the ground, let the sun come in through the
cold winter days and heat the house up. Year in, year out. No complaining, no murmuring.
Doing their job, giving all to the glory of God without sin.
Can we say that? No. We think we're something. We're not as good as a tree,
really. They give all their glory to God without sin, without complaining
or murmuring. And look at us. So we're lowlifes
in our flesh. And if you've been given eyes,
new eyes, you can see this. And the Lord, if He shows you
that, He'll show you Christ. But so all men are overcome by
sin. Where there's nothing that's got control of you, we're sinners. Now, the next overcome I was
wanting to talk about was the subject being that some outwardly
professing believers can be overcome by false teaching
and worldly cares and lusts and then will deny and leave the
gospel. I don't want to spend too much time on it because we
all have this little hypochondriac in us, that if we talk too much
about something, we'll think we got it. And so the more I
read about this, people in here leaving the gospel, I thought
I had it. So, watch out. Sometimes if you read too much
about some stuff, this hypochondriac will take hold of you, and you're
looking at yourself and how you feel, and not looking at Christ. So, let's turn back to 2 Peter
chapter 2. 2 Peter 2, we're just going to
look at a couple verses through this chapter that's speaking
of these people that were following these false prophets. Outwardly,
they were believers. Look in 2 Peter 2 verse 1, but
there were false prophets also among the people, among the believers.
Even as there shall be false teachers among you who privately
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, and many shall
follow their pernicious ways. That's what scared me, that word
many. By reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of, and through covetousness shall
they with feigned words make merchandise of you, whose judgment
now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not. Look in verse 10. And here's a description of how
they walk and the people that follow them. But chiefly them
that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and
despise government or authority. Presumptuous are they, self-willed,
they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Be careful
if you're slamming our president or our governor. They're putting
that right in there with unclean lust and flesh, people that despise
the government and speak evil of authorities. The Lord put
them there. We're to obey them and honor them and respect them
and not speak evil of them. Look in verse 12. And then here's
verse 18, how they carry out their their wiles when they deceive
these people. For when they speak great swelling
words of vanity, they puff up the flesh, they allure through
the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were
clean escaped from them who live in error. Now that word clean
escaped just means for a little while. They were professing outward
believers for a little while, but then they started missing
services or started just listening to somebody else on the radio
or some false prophet. And before long, they're overcome
and taken away. And in verse 19, while they promised
them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption,
for of whom a man is overcome, of the same as he brought in
bondage, and before long they returned to the bondage and slavery
to the law, to the works, and they've been overcome by the
flesh. Now, verse 20. Four, if after
they have escaped the pollutions of the world, worldly religion,
through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end
is worse with them than the beginning. Anytime you start listening to
anybody that's not preaching the truth, the gospel, out of
the scriptures, you're dealing with some touchy issues there. Because the latter end could
be worse with you than the beginning. That's the unpardonable sin.
If you're confessing to follow Christ and you deny and leave
the gospel, there is no pardon for that sin. And the latter
end with you is going to be worse than the beginning. Todd's always doing this to us. He said, if what I preach doesn't
match up with Scripture, call me out, tell me about it. He's
honest. He wants everything to come right
out of here, and so do I. And the reason is, there's a
verse in Romans 3 chapter 4 that says, Let God be true, but every
man a liar. That means that every book written
on the face of this earth was written by a liar. except this
one book here written by God. So every book on the face of
this earth is fiction. And this is the only nonfiction
book on the face of the earth. So let's keep our nose in here
than other places. I don't, there's nothing wrong
with reading books, but just realize you're reading a book
written by a liar. And this book is not written
by a liar. It's written by a God who is a truth. And they become entangled again.
And we won't turn here, but in Hebrews 10, verse 29, it describes
these people that become entangled again. They trodden underfoot
the Son of God and have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith
He, or wherewith Christ, was sanctified and set apart to save
an unholy thing and have done to spite and to the Spirit of
grace. That's turning your back on Christ. That's the unpardonable
sin. And it happens. It's all through
the Scriptures We need to learn two things out
of this. Mainly, well the first one is
be careful who you keep company with and who you listen to up
behind the pulpit. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33, be
not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners every time. But mainly, what we need to learn
from this believer, professing believer being overcome, is turn
back over here to 2 Peter 1, verse 10. Here's how we're to approach this. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Four, if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall. What things? Look back
in verse five of 2 Peter chapter one, verse
five. And beside this, giving all diligence,
here's that diligence he was talking about, add to your faith
virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance,
and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and
to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For these things be in you and
abound, and make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You'll have fruits
of the Spirit." But notice, the first thing in verse 5 he mentions
is faith. The last thing he mentions in
verse 7 is charity or love. And everything in between is
a faith which worketh by love. Every believer has that. You've
been given that as the fruit of the Spirit. And a faith which
worketh by love, that faith looks and trusts Christ alone and loves
his brothers and sisters in Christ. And in doing those two things,
you've kept the gospel commandment in 1 John 3, verse 23. This is
his commandment. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and love one another, as he's given you commandment. You will
not fall, you will not be overcome, if you keep your eyes on Christ.
You cannot. His word says it. So keep your
eyes on Christ. Which leads to my last point.
That even though we're all overcome by sin, there is an elect remnant
of people on this earth, even though they're overcome by sin,
as all men are, yet the Lord in mercy overcame them with saving
grace. And then He gives them the victory
over sin, Satan, death, and hell by Him that has overcome the
world, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And remember, we said
that word overcome there means to subdue, to conquer, to get
the victory. Now, every believer that's been
shown their exceeding sinfulness will then be shown the exceeding
beauty of our Savior and the beautiful promise that He gave
Himself. Look in John chapter 16. John chapter 16. Verse 33, here's his promise
to his people. John 16, verse 33, these things
I have spoken unto you that in me, in Christ, you might have
peace. In the world, you shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Christ overcame the world, world's
religion, world's boss, Satan, ruler of the air. The Lord overcame
all of that. He did it when He came to this
earth and lived perfectly under God's law and then took the sin
of His people to the cross. And every sin that I've committed
in my worldly religion, He took with Him and it's gone. And every
believer's sin is gone. And when He said it is finished,
He meant that battle that we fight with self and Satan and
sin and death and hell. It means the battle is over,
the victory is complete, the conquest is settled, the war
is over, the enemy is defeated. He did it all and he said it
was finished. He gives us the victory, he fought
for us, he goes to battle for us all by himself and then he
gives us saving faith to believe that. 1 John chapter 5, I'll
read these verses to you. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world but he that believeth? There's our faith that Jesus
is the Son of God. Our faith didn't save us. We
know that. We know Christ did it all. He lived and He died
for us. Faith didn't do it. But sometimes we, in our effort
to lift Christ up, which we should always do, we knock faith down
too much. Christ ain't gonna do you no
good without saving faith. Faith is precious, and Christ
did what He did for His people, but if you don't have saving
faith to believe on Him, what He did does you no good. So it
is true that we say Christ did it all, faith didn't save me,
faith didn't die for me. But you got to have saving faith
to partake of the fruits of Christ. So faith is very important. And
sometimes I think we kind of knock it down a little bit more
than we should. So we win this battle of sin
and Satan and death and hell because the fight is not ours,
it's our Lord's. He did all the fighting for us. I want to look at a couple examples
in the Old Testament of Israel going to battle. And let's see
how they approached the battle and carried out the victory.
And this is speaking of spiritual Israel. Anytime we're speaking
of Israel, we're speaking of spiritual Israel, believers.
Turn to Joshua, chapter 23. Joshua 23. Joshua 23, we'll start in verse
1. This is Joshua nearing the end of his life. He's older,
up in age, and so he's given out some advice here in his older
days. Verse 1, And it came to pass
a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from
all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken
in age. And Joshua called for all Israel,
and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges,
and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken
in age, and ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done
unto all these nations because of you. For the Lord your God
is he that hath fought for you. Behold, I have divided unto you
by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your
tribes from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off,
even unto the great sea westward. And the Lord your God, he shall
expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight.
He took our sins and expelled them when He went to that cross
and they're out of our sight, they're out of God's sight. He
can't remember them anymore. He remembers our sins and iniquities
no more. And ye shall possess their land as the Lord your God
hath promised unto you. Be ye therefore very courageous
to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law
of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or
to the left. Keep your eyes straight ahead
on Christ. that you come not among these
nations, these that remain among you, neither make mention of
the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve
them, nor bow yourselves unto them, but cleave unto the Lord
your God, as ye have done unto this day." And here, I stopped
in this verse and looked up that word, cleave. It means to cling
to something or to stick close to something or somebody. Proverbs
18 verse 24 says, a man that hath friends must show himself
friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. My brother's in Spokane, Washington,
a couple thousand miles away, I guess, but we're pretty close
as we can be, being that far apart. Talk, text, play golf,
we're pretty close. But the closest he can be with
me is right by my side. There's a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, and that's Christ who's in me. And that's
closer than a brother. That's him and me, and me and
him, we're one. And that's the friend and that's
the brother that's closer than our brother. Look in verse nine,
for the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations
and strong, But as for you, no man hath been able to stand before
you, and to this day, one man of you shall chase a thousand.
For the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as
he hath promised you. We chase a thousand, we overcome
all of our enemies of sin and Satan and flesh and self with
one simple strategy of war. We rely on our Lord to fight
for us. That's faith, and that's saving faith. And the only people that will
do that are the weak and helpless. This world is kind of backwards
on that. In man's religion, the strong
survive. He's got great faith, he's got
great love, he's done great things, great charities, great missions.
But in God's religion, the weak, the helpless survive. For when
you're weak, then you're strong. And then you turn to Christ alone
and completely depend on Him, not for help or assistance, but
to do everything for me. Alright, the next instance of
Israel being delivered in war, we're going to look at in 2 Chronicles.
2 Chronicles chapter 20. 2 Chronicles chapter 20, we'll
start in verse 14. I'll try to get through these
names. Then upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of
Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Madaniah, a Levite of
the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the
congregation. So the spirit came down on these people. So these
warriors in this battle had a word from God under the power of the
spirit. And their word was this in verse
15. And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
for the battle is not yours, but God's." The word, his word,
his preaching to this group of people is simply this, the battle
is not yours, but God's. And what amazes me about that
statement This battle that begun is all our fault. We're the ones that started this
battle against sin. We brought sin into the world. We can't
finish the battle. We can't defeat our sin. Hell's
eternal because the punishment of sin can never be accomplished. We started it all, but He takes
the battle for us and finishes it. And that's mercy for Him
to do that for us. Now, verse 16. Go ye down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jeruel." Here's how we're to carry out this battle.
He told Israel this, and he's telling believers this tonight,
I hope. Ye shall not need to fight in
this battle, but here's what you're to do. Set yourselves. That means stand firm, feet like
poured in concrete, stand firm on the foundation of Christ.
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. Set yourselves on Christ, stand
in Him. Set yourselves, stand ye still. Don't move a muscle, don't lift
a finger, don't contribute anything from you towards a battle for
your salvation. It's in His hands and not ours. As soon as we put
it in our hands, we're asking for trouble. 2 Kings 22 verse
17, here's what happens when we put the works of our hands
in there. Because they have forsaken me
and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke
me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my
wrath shall be kindled against this place and shall not be quenched.
We don't triumph or win this battle with our hands, or our
works, or our efforts, or our contributions. It only draws
out His wrath. Here's how we triumph. Turn to
Psalm 92. Psalm chapter 92. Look at one verse. Psalm 92,
verse 4. For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. That's how we triumph. In the
work of His hands. His hands took my sin away and
made it His very own and put it up to the cross and put it
away forever. His hands came down here on this
earth and obeyed the law perfectly. And then He gives me that righteousness.
His hands does it all. And He gives it to us freely.
That's how we triumph in the work of His hands. So how do we respond to seeing
what He's done for us? He's fought the battle for us.
We're more than conquerors through Him. And He's gladly went to
war for us. He says in Hebrews 12 verse 2,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who
for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. It was a joy for him to come down here and to live
and die for his people. And that makes me glad. And now
he's sat down because the work of salvation is finished, the
battle's over, the victorious conqueror sits on his throne,
and we're sitting right there with him because we're seated
in heavenly places in Christ right now. I don't understand
that, but it's in His Word, so we're right there on the victor's
throne right now in Christ. Victorious. Even though we're
sitting here struggling and feel like we're losing the battle,
we've already won it. We're more than conquerors through
Christ. You can't get any more victorious
than that. We're already sitting on the victor's throne in Christ.
Our response? Let's turn to one verse and we'll
finish up. 1 Corinthians 15 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57. Here's our response to our Savior,
but thanks be to God. which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be thankful. We're to
be thankful, not complaining and murmuring and forgetting
like we do, but thankful for that battle that he came down
here and fought for us, that we started, that he ended. And
we're to be thankful and we need grace to do that. But He overcame. He overcame the world. He did
it all. He overcame sin, Satan, death,
hell, our flesh. We were right there with Him
because we've always been united to Him. So we overcame when He
overcame. And He gives us the victory and we're seated in Heaven
right now in Him. And I'm thankful. Let's pray.