Tonight, let's turn back to 1
John, and this evening we're in 1 John chapter 5, reading the first five verses
in this chapter. 1 John chapter 5, 1 through 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And every one that loveth him
that beget loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not
grievous. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Now, some of the commentators
that I like to read, they were of the opinion that these first
three verses would have gone better with chapter four, that
the chapter division might have been better made after the first
three verses. because the subject is the same. The subject continues, which
is love of the brethren. This is the truth that the apostle
John declares, that God has his love for his people, and that
love should and does produce in his children love for their
brothers, or love of the brethren. If you notice in verse 20 of
chapter four, John declared that It is in loving the brethren
that we can see. We can actually see the brethren.
We cannot see God. God is a spirit. For a man to
say that he loves God, whom he never has seen, but does not
love his brother, is a liar. The truth is not in him. Verse
20, if a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And then in the next verse, verse
21, we say that it is in loving the brethren that we obey God's
commandment because this is his commandment, verse 21. And this
commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his
brother also. And then in the first few verses
of chapter five, the subject of love continues. And we see
in verse one that it is in loving the brethren that we love him. That is, we love the brethren.
We love those who are begotten of God. Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth
him that beget. God is the one who does the begetting. He has begotten us, the Apostle
James tells us, with the word of truth of his own will. He's the one who does the begetting,
and those that he begets love him. And because we are members
of his family, we love our brothers who are also members of the same
family. Tonight, I want us to look at
three other subjects, though, that we see in these verses.
Just very shortly, but I want us to look
at three subjects that we find in these five verses. The first
subject is the new birth. John mentions the new birth twice
in these verses. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And then in verse four, whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world. What is the new birth?
I believe there's a lot of confusion about what the new birth is.
And many people, I believe, are confused in thinking that it
is some kind of an experience, and it is an experience, but
some kind of an experience that a man or a woman, a boy or a
girl has, almost like it's out of the body type of experience. What is the new birth? Here's
the definition that I wrote down. It is a supernatural work of
God by which a person who is dead in trespasses and sins is
quickened, quickened and given spiritual life, the new birth. It is supernatural work. It's a mysterious work. We know
that from what the Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter three.
It's like the wind, the same word that is Translated spirit
is also translated wind, and just as the wind bloweth, so
the spirit bloweth. It's a mysterious work, and it's
a sovereign work. As we read just a few minutes
ago there in the Gospel of John chapter 5, that those five porches,
and five is the number of grace, isn't it? Those five porches
were filled with impotent folk, blind people, halt, all of them
needed healing. All of them needed the Lord to
do something for them, and yet the Lord Jesus Christ singled
out that one man and went directly to him and asked him, will thou
be made whole? Now that question is, will thou
be made whole Will thou receive thy healing? Without any help
on your part, without any help of some man putting you into
the pool, wilt thou be sovereignly made whole? And the Lord, of
course, quickened him, made him, or healed him. And that's a picture,
of course, of the new birth. by the power of God the Holy
Spirit, hearing the gospel. Now, God uses his word. God uses preachers. How shall
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? God uses preaching. Paul calls
it the foolishness of preaching. Not foolish preaching, but what
the world And especially in our day, what the world considers
to be foolish, that is, that we come together and a man that
God has set apart stands up and opens up the scriptures and preaches
unto us the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's foolish.
We'd much rather be entertained. Can't you bring some great sports
figure in here to talk to us and give his experience or some
comedian to come or some group of singers to come and entertain
us for just a few minutes? No. God has still ordained the
preaching of the gospel and saving his people. The new birth is
a sovereign work. It's a mysterious work. And God
the Holy Spirit uses this scripture in calling or quickening His
people. The Lord Jesus said in John 5,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the hour is coming, and now is. That's very important. Because
just a verse or two down, He says, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, the hour is coming. That's in the future. It's still
going to come. When that hour comes, all the
dead, those who are, the bodies are in the tombs, they're going
to come out when they hear the voice of the Son of God. But
he said, the hour now is when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Our Lord said,
my sheep hear my voice. and they follow me. They know
His voice. Look in 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1
and verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible In every birth, there is a seed.
There is a seed planted in every birth. And in the new birth,
the word of God here is referred to as the incorruptible seed,
the incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. God has chosen. through the preaching
of the gospel, to give people life and as evidence of life,
not to obtain life, but as evidence that a person has been given
life, faith, faith and repentance, turning from our sins and turning
to Christ. Back in our text, that's what
John tells us. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Whosoever believeth with the
heart, Paul tells us in Romans 10, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. Well, what does that mean? Believe
that He is the Christ. The word Christ, of course, means
anointed. It means anointed. that he is
the one who was not only promised from the dawn of creation almost,
from the garden of Eden, just after man's sin, God promised
that there would come one who would be the seed of the woman,
who would be the deliverer. And then more and more and more
about him is revealed as we go through the Old Testament, but
all showing that he is the appointed one and he is the anointed Christ. And he has those three offices
as Christ. He's our prophet. He's that prophet
that Moses said to the nation of Israel, God's going to raise
up a prophet like unto me. And you must hear him or perish. He is that prophet that is anointed
of God. And he is that priest who offered
that one sacrifice himself for the sins of his people. And he
is our king. He reigns and rules over his
church. His kingdom is not of this world,
but it is within us. So, whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And a man must be born of
God. Our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Why is it necessary that a person
be born again? Because a person is dead, spiritually
dead. and cannot see, cannot perceive,
cannot understand the things of God unless he is given a new
life, a life that is in Christ. He is our life. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Now, the second subject that
I want to mention for just a few minutes in this text is the world.
Notice the verse again, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ,
is born of God, and every one that loveth him that loveth him
also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,
and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born
of God overcometh the world. Whosoever is born of God overcometh
the world. What is meant by the world? Well, you know, he's mentioned
this before. If you look back in chapter two and verse 16 or verse 15, he
said, love, not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the father is not in
him for all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world. Now back in our text, in verse
three, John tells us that the believer's love of God is manifested,
first of all, he tells us, by faith in Christ. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. So the first way that
that the new birth is manifested is faith in Christ. But then
also we keep his commandments. We love God and keep his commandments. That's what he says in verse
three, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. So our love of God is manifested
in keeping his commandments. Now, when John says commandments
here, I'm convinced he has reference, especially to those commandments
he mentioned in chapter three and verse 23, but not, not exclusively
these commandments and John first John three and verse 23. He said,
and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name of the Son of Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave
us commandments. Whosoever is born of God overcometh
the world. He keeps the Lord's commandments
that we should believe on the name of His Son and love one
another. Two things always go together.
Actually, there's three, but we only see two here in that
verse, and that is faith, love. What's the third one? Hope. They
always go together. When a person is born again of
the Spirit of God, he has faith. He trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has love. He loves God and
loves God's people. And third, he has hope. He's
begotten again unto a living or lively hope, a blessed hope,
in fact. But what is the world here? The
world. I came across this definition
this past week, and I liked it. If you look at the verse again,
Verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments,
and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born
of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. What is the world? The world is anything and everything
that makes God's commandments to be grievous. Think about that. Any commandment that becomes
grievous to us, that's what the world is. That's what the world
does. It causes us to look upon God's
commandments not in love, and thanksgiving, but to be grievous,
because the world, the God of this world, Satan, he shows us
something, he tempts us with something that we would really
like to be engaged in and we would really like to follow after,
but the commandment tells us, love not the world. The commandment becomes grievous,
doesn't it? So the world Think about it,
the world is anything that will cause God's commandments to become
grievous to us. By nature, a new nature, a new
heart, we love God's commandments. We delight in the law of God. But then the world comes along,
Satan, or the flesh, or the world, whatever it is, and presents
something to us in our old nature. The flesh has those desires after
those things, and yet we know what the commandment says, and
so the commandment becomes grievous to us. That's one definition
of the world. Satan is called the God of this
world, and he is able to make God's commandments grievous to
us. He will point out all that is
in this world, the lust of the flesh, and then he will point
out that God's commands keep you from enjoying those things.
That's the very same thing he did with Eve, wasn't it? Yea,
hath God said thou shall not eat of every tree in the garden? That's the way he works, isn't
it? To question, to make God's commandments grievous unto us
by the things that he shows us. He showed Eve that fruit. And
she of course was tempted and fell. You know, false prophets,
they come along and they misuse the commandments of God. And
in misusing the commandments of God, they cause God's commandments
to become grievous to a believer. making us think that we have
to somehow keep the commandments perfectly if we are to be saved,
failing to recognize that Christ came into this world to save
sinners. And no one is saved by keeping
the law. In fact, the Apostle Paul in
Romans 8 said that what the law could not do, What is it that
the law could not do? It could not give man a perfect
righteousness. For what the law could not do,
Paul said, in that it was weak through the flesh. Now the law
wasn't weak, but we, sinful beings that we are, we are weak, and
we are not able to perfectly obey God's law as God requires. Well, what did the Lord do then? Well, here comes the gospel,
right? That what the law could not do and that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh Now, He didn't come in the likeness of flesh, He was
made flesh, but He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. In other words, He looked like
everyone else there, every other man in Nazareth. The Lord Jesus
Christ, there wasn't something about Him physically that was
attractive. No. God sending His own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. For the sins of
his people, condemn sin. God laid the sins of his people
upon the substitute, upon Christ, and condemned our sins and in
our substitute. That's the gospel, isn't it?
And for sin, condemn sin in the flesh, his flesh. So that he
became that one offering. He himself is that offering.
His flesh He gave for the life of the world. There's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. You know, the gospel comes to
a sinner who maybe has, by the power of
the Holy Spirit, come to see that the law is spiritual. Saul of Tarsus, you know, before
the Lord revealed himself to him, he could have stood up,
he could have easily been that rich, young ruler who came to
the Lord. He wasn't, but he could have
easily said, all these things have I done for my youth up.
Why? Because he was looking at the
law strictly from outward observance. He didn't see that the law is
spiritual, and the very desire that concupiscence, that very
beginning of desire for something that God has forbidden. In Paul's
case, he said the law came alive to him when it said, thou shalt
not covet. And what happened? It slew him. He lost all hope of being his
own savior, didn't he? That he might look to Christ,
they might trust in him. But when the Lord does that for
a person, the gospel comes, this is found in Isaiah, to give beauty
for ashes. Can you see yourself on an ash
heap? Just covered over with ashes
with sin. Dirty, filthy, sinful. And the gospel comes, the message
of Christ, and he gives beauty for ashes. He cleanses us, doesn't
He, through His precious blood. And then it says He gives us
oil of joy for mourning. There we were weeping and crying
because of our sins, convicted that we had sinned against God.
What an awful, awful thing to sin against someone who is altogether
lovely, who has never done anything other than for our good, for
our benefit, and yet we paid him by our wickedness, our disobedience,
mourning. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. He gives the oil of joy. The gospel brings joy, doesn't
it? And the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
the garment of praise. We couldn't praise God before
because we were so burdened down with our sin. But when the Lord
Jesus Christ delivers us, when that burden of sin is taken away
through the blood of Christ and that righteousness is imputed
unto us, now, now what do we have? We have a garment of praise,
a garment of praise. Notice the last subject here. So we've seen the new birth.
And then I looked a little bit at the world. Now, the third
subject is the victory of faith. Verse four, the victory of faith.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Victory is assured to every believer
who continues to look to Christ. All who are born of God overcome
the world. That's what he says there. For
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. There's no doubt.
There's no question. He that's born of God overcomes
the world. Now, we know there is that initial,
that initial immediate victory over the world that we experienced,
but we are to continue to experience victory over this world as we
go through this world. And we do so by keeping our eyes
upon Christ, by looking to Christ. Jesus declared that it is our
faith in Christ, or John did, declares that it is our faith
in Christ that gives us the victory. You know, look with me in Hebrews
chapter 11. We're in this chapter, and I
know you're familiar with chapter 11 of Hebrews, but we're told
of many different men and women in the Old Testament and what
they were able to do through faith by looking to Christ. I want you to look at two verses
here, verses 33 and 34. Who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths
of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of
the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Now, when we read
quenched the violence of fire, we think of those three Hebrew
children, don't we? They would not bow. They wouldn't bow to Nebuchadnezzar's
giant statue. They would not bend when Nebuchadnezzar
brought them before him and gave them a choice. They could bow
and they wouldn't be thrown into the furnace, but they wouldn't
bend. And number three, they wouldn't burn either. He put
them in there. But they came out, and don't
you love that passage which says where the old king, wicked old
king said, how many men did we throw into that furnace? Well,
we threw three in there. Well, I see four. And that fourth
one is like unto the son of man. The Lord Jesus Christ was there
in that fire with him, wasn't he? And so they came out. They didn't even have the smell
of fire on them. But I want you to look at the
last few words in that verse, and I want us to think about
this in closing. Turn to flight the armies of
the aliens. I want you to go back with me
to 1 Samuel. And this is what these men and
women were able to do by believing God, by trusting in him. But
they turned to flight the armies of the aliens. And here in 1
Samuel chapter 14, I would imagine that could apply to many different
men in the Old Testament, like David and some of the others.
But I want us to see this in the person of Jonathan. Jonathan,
who was King Saul's son. In verse 1 of chapter 14 of 1
Samuel, And get the picture now, here's
the nation of Israel, and as several times we see them, they're
cowed down. They are afraid of their enemies,
the Philistines, just like when David had to come and kill the
giant Goliath. But here's another case when
they're afraid of the Philistines, they're arch enemies always.
Now it came to pass upon a day that Jonathan, the son of Saul,
said unto the young man that bare his armor, Come and let
us go over to the Philistines' garrison that is on the other
side, but he told not his father. Now, get the picture there. There's
the Philistines over there in their garrison, and here the
Israelites are, as I said, afraid for their lives. And Jonathan
says to his armor bearer, let's go over there. Look in verse
four. And between the passages by which
Jonathan sought to go over onto the Philistine's garrison, there
was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other
side. And the name of the one was Bosus
and the name of the other, Senneth. The forefront of the one was
situated northward over against Mishmash, and the other southward
over against Javea. Now, get this in your mind, this
picture. Here are these two men. They're going to the garrison.
They're going to fight these Philistines, two against, I don't
know what the odds were, how many Philistines, an army of
them. And they've got to go through
a passage that has two sharp rocks, two sharp stones on either
side of that passage. And Jonathan said to his young
man that bear his armor, verse six, come and let us go over
unto the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will
work for us for there's no restraint to the Lord to save by many or
by few. Do you see faith there? Do you
see him? confessing his faith in God,
the God we serve, the numbers have nothing to do with it. It
can be two against a hundred, two against a thousand, that
has nothing to do with it if God is on our side. And his armor bearer said unto
him, do all that is in thine heart, turn thee, behold I am
with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we
will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves
unto them. In other words, we're just going
to stand up out there in the middle of nowhere and say, hey,
here we are. We're going to discover ourselves
to the Philistines. Now here's the thing. If they
say thus unto us, Terry, until we come to you, then we will
stand still in our place and will not go up unto them. Now,
if they had done that, God would have given them the victory.
It would still have been two against however many Philistines
there were. But the way God does this is
in such a way that he's going to receive more glory. And both
of them discovered themselves under the garrison of the Philistines,
as verse 11. And the Philistines said, Behold,
the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid
themselves. And the men of the garrison answered
Jonathan and his armor bearer and said, come up to us. Well, now they knew what God
had for them to do. Not to stand still and the Philistines
come to them to fight, but they were to go up. And the point
I'm wanting to make, I want to make here is, I don't think their
situation could have possibly been more disadvantageous, as
we see the way they have to go up between these two rocks. Notice
verse 13, and Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his
feet. Now, here these men, these Philistines,
they've got the advantage. They're up above Jonathan and
his armor bearing. Here they come climbing up on
their hands and feet. Surely the Philistines have a
tremendous advantage over them. They're trying to get up. They're
setting ducks, so to speak. But God was with them, and they
believed God. And his armor bearer after him,
and they fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer slew after
him. And that first slaughter, which
Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about 20 men within,
as it were, a half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow. And there was trembling, now
this is the point, there was trembling in the host, in the
field, and among all the people, the garrison and the spoilers,
they also trembled, and the earthquake, so it was a very great trembling. And the Philistines, notice verse
16, and the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked,
and behold, the multitude, that is the Philistines, they melted
away. And they, Jonathan and the armor
bearer, went on beating down one another. Faith is a grace
that God gives us. It's a fruit of the Spirit. Love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, temperance, faith, kindness. It's a fruit
of the Spirit. But faith is a grace like every
grace that must be fed. And the food for faith is the
Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. And not only must faith be fed,
but it must be exercised. We must believe God, trust God. In Daniel, the scripture says,
they that know their God shall do exploits. And that's what
we see in Hebrews 11. Our faith, the faith that God
has given us, it overcomes this world. Let us sing a couple of
verses, Bill, of a hymn, and we'll be dismissed.