A Faith Which Overcomes
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Please turn in your Bible to 1 John 4:20-5:5 as we look at A FAITH WHICH OVERCOMES.
Faith is an integral part of the believers walk with Christ. Not only is a person saved through the channel of faith, but they are also called by God to live by faith.
The writer of Hebrews define faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Then he went on to write about men of faith.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Then he went to write:
By faith Noah ...
By faith Abraham ...
By faith Sarah ...
By faith Moses ...
By faith Rahab ...
Toward the end of the chapter we read this:
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.
36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—
38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Faith is an integral part of the Christian life. And it is also John’s subject in the first paragraph of chapter five of his first epistle.
As we work our way through our passage we will look at false, familial, active faith, and overcoming faith.
Let’s read our passage together.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Let’s begin by looking at
A False Faith
A False Faith
Note that,
All True Believers in Jesus Christ will Bear the Fruit of the Spirit in their Lives
Look at verse 20.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
We looked at this briefly last week, but I have become convinced that the last verses in chapter 4 set the stage for what John is speaking of in the first paragraph of chapter 5. Perhaps this is one of those instances in which the chapter division was placed in the wrong spot.
There are many forms of false faith, and John has been combatting those which were present in the area of Ephesus at the close of the first century. It was the presence of false teachers which caused John to write this epistle in the first place. Since he was the only remaining apostle, and since he had some sort of leadership role in the churches of Asia Minor, the Spirit moved him to write this treatise against false teachers. Most believe that the heresy John was contending with was the early stages of what would come to be know of as Gnosticism.
While emphasizing compassion, Gnostics viewed love as a consequence of achieving gnosis, or "secret knowledge" of the divine within, and often involved separating from the material world and its "uninitiated" masses.
The song I mentioned last week by Whitney Houston, THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL, would seem to have fit into the mindset of the Gnostics of John’s day. Rather than love being a side effect or benefit of achieving gnosis, John states that it is the focal point of the gospel as well as the commandment of Christ.
If love for a brother or sister in Christ is not present in the life of one who has made a profession of faith, there is great reason for concern. A person who abides in Christ will bear fruit. They cannot help but to do so since the Holy Spirit takes up residence within them. And the fruit of the Spirit is love … As I said last week — it is a part of our new nature to love one another with a sacrificial kind of love.
I don’t know if this person wants to be named, so I won’t name them, but there is someone who has been loving up on our family ever since I broke my toe. They have been bringing their lawn mower over to our house and mowing my lawn for me. That is an act of sacrificial love in my mind.
Let’s move on to look at
A Familial Faith
A Familial Faith
For those unfamiliar with the term familial it has to do with family resemblance. I bear a familial resemblance to my brother Darryl. And Gail bears a familial resemblance to her four siblings. And resemblance comes down from our parentage. And the believers spiritual resemblance comes from God.
As we look at this we are going to consider the standard, necessity and the object of faith.
Let’s look first at
The Standard of Faith
The Standard of Faith
Note that,
The Standard of Faith is Found in the Commandments of Christ
Look at verse 21.
21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Where did John get this from? On the day after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Monday of Holy Week, He and His disciples returned to Jerusalem and entered the temple. While there He was challenged about so many things. He was challenged about His authority. He was challenged about paying taxes to Caesar. He was challenged about the doctrine of the resurrection. And the last challenge came from a lawyer.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
These two commandments are so tied together that it is impossible to observe one without observing the other.
Let’s look now at
The Necessity of Believing Faith
The Necessity of Believing Faith
Note that,
This is the Same Believing that Christ and the Apostles Exhorted Men to Exercise
Look at the first part of verse 1.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
John loves to use the verb “believe.” This term comes from the same word as does the term faith. Faith is the noun form, and believe in the verb form of the word. So, we could define believe as faith in action. The message which Christ went around preaching was this:
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Jesus was not calling for mere mental assent to the gospel (although mental assent is a part of it); He was calling for an active faith in the gospel. How does one express active faith in the gospel? It begins with repentance. But what is repentance? The Greek word for repent, metanoia, means a "change of mind" or "thinking afterwards" or “a change of direction.” It goes beyond mere regret to an active, inward change of thought that leads to a change of conduct.
Note that,
This Believing is the Duty of All People
Look at verse 1 again.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
Everyone who has ever been born, since the time of Christ, has a duty to believe the gospel. It is a universal call to repentance and faith. But only those who actually repent and believe will be saved. Any who ignore the call will suffer the consequences — they may not suffer the consequences in this life, but they will in the next.
But how does a person come to the point when they will express faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Note that,
This Faith is the Gift of God
While our text for today does not emphasize this truth, it is emphasized elsewhere.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
As I mentioned at Easter time, while I was preaching on that passage, the term gift refers back to the term saved. Salvation is a gift which comes through God’s grace, and it comes by the channel of faith. I think of salvation as being the set, and grace and faith as the subsets. This means that it is all the gift of God.
Let’s look now at
The Object of Believing Faith
The Object of Believing Faith
Note that,
Saving Faith Rests on Jesus Christ, Who is the Object of our Faith
Look at verse 1 again.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
Spurgeon wrote, “The faith intended in the text evidently rests upon a person—Jesus. It is not belief about a doctrine, or an opinion, or a formula, but belief concerning a person.” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: 1 John, ed. Elliot Ritzema, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 1 Jn 5:1.)
So, the object of our faith is Jesus Christ, and the outcome of faith is that we are born of God. As John mentioned in the prologue to his gospel account:
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
As Christ spoke to Nicodemus.
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Being born again is also referred to as regeneration. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit. Man cannot accomplish this great work, but God can.
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
We have been looking at a false faith and a familial faith. Let’s turn now to
An Active Faith
An Active Faith
As we consider an active faith we will look at a loving faith and an obedient faith.
A Loving Faith
A Loving Faith
Note that,
The Activity of Faith is to Love
Look at the last part of verse 1.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
If we truly love God then we will love those who have been born of Him.
Ronald Sauer wrote, “It is expected that a believer will love his heavenly Father, just as a child loves his earthly parents. And in a family, it is typical and expected that the children of the same parents will love their siblings. So the child of God should love the Father’s other children. Here the new birth joins together faith (believes) and love.” (Ronald Sauer, “1 John,” in The Moody Bible Commentary, ed. Michael A. Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014), 1983.)
I would be remiss if I did not contrast this love with the sibling rivalry of Cain and Abel.
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Rather than having a hatred toward our spiritual siblings, we should show the same kind of love which Christ showed.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Those who are believers in Jesus Christ have been justified by faith in Christ, and therefore we are at peace with God. Simultaneous with our justification is our baptism in the Holy Spirit.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
With the entrance of the Holy Spirit into our lives we are given a supernatural love which He pours out into our hearts. Therefore, we have the supernatural ability to demonstrate the same kind of sacrificial love which Christ demonstrated for us, for the sake of our spiritual family members. That is what we are called to do. That is what we are commanded to do.
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
Let’s look now at the need for overcomers to have
An Obedient Faith
An Obedient Faith
Note that,
Our Love for God is Expressed in our Obedience to His Will
How many dog lovers do we have here? Have you ever noticed that most dogs aim to please their masters? It is their driving goal in life to please their master. Now, I’m not calling y’all dogs, but that should be our aim in life as well, to please our Master in heaven. We do so by living our lives in a manner worthy of our calling in Christ.
Look at verse 2.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
Leon Morris pointed out that “John keeps insisting that love for God and love for other people are closely connected. Usually he speaks of love for God as shown in love for people, but here he reverses the process: we know that we love the children of God when we love God. Love for God and love for people go together and form a unity. John’s practical turn of mind does not stop at the thought of love for God but goes on to include carrying out his commands. Real love is shown by a concern to do God’s will.” (Leon L. Morris, “1 John,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1408.)
Note next that,
God’s Will is that We Love Him with Everything that is in Us
This is what God expressed through Moses to the children of Israel, and it is what God expressed through Christ as well.
4 “Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!
5 “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
This is the will of God for our lives.
Note next that,
God’s Will is that We Love our Brothers with a Sacrificial Love
This is the point which John has been driving home throughout this epistle. And it is the commandment which Christ gave to His apostles on the night of His betrayal.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. The greatest form of evangelism or outreach which we as a church body can do is to have a genuine love for one another — a love which costs us something — a love which doesn’t expect something in return.
Note that,
Obedience to God Brings Delight to our Souls
Look at verse 3.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
What does it mean that His commandments are not burdensome? MacArthur noted that, “Those who love God will obey His law, because they want to honor His holy nature. They do so not out of dread, but out of loving adoration.” (John MacArthur, 1, 2, 3 John, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2007), 184.)
This reminds me of what the psalmist wrote over and over again in Psalm 119.
14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
24 Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.
47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.
77 Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.
174 I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight.
Our attitude toward obedience to God’s will should be like that of the psalmist. And the primary commandment that we have been given to obey is to love God, and love one another. This is not drudgery — rather, it is sheer delight.
So far, we have looked at a false faith, a believing faith and an active faith. Let’s look now at
An Overcoming Faith
An Overcoming Faith
As we look at an overcoming faith we will look at our spiritual birthright, and our spiritual weapon.
Our Spiritual Birthright
Our Spiritual Birthright
Note that,
We are Spiritual Overcomers by the Right of our New Birth in Christ
Look at verse 4.
Note that,
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
The truth is that we who are believers have already overcome the world. We did so when we placed our faith in Jesus Christ who delivered us from our former allegiance to the ruler of this world, Satan, and transferred us into His own kingdom. It is not we who have overcome, but our new birth which has overcome the world.
Spurgeon, speaking of regeneration, wrote, “Being born again makes us something more than God’s creatures; we are God’s children. You know that blessed truth of adoption, by which God takes men and adopts them into His family, but regeneration is a great deal more than adoption. We are not only God’s adopted children; if we are indeed born from above, we are God’s newborn children. The divine nature is actually put into us when we are born of God; is that not a wonderful thing? And that miracle of mercy must be wrought in all of us who are ever to conquer the world.” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: 1 John, ed. Elliot Ritzema, Spurgeon Commentary Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014), 1 Jn 5:4.)
So, we are overcomers by right of our new birth in Christ. Our Birthright as believers in Jesus is an inheritance which awaits us. From the moment we were saved we were sealed by the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of this awaiting inheritance. And the thought of this inheritance, to me, is overwhelming. Peter referred to it in his first epistle.
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
This inheritance is death-proof, sin-proof, time-proof, and theft-proof since it is guarded by God Himself.
Let’s turn now to consider
Our Spiritual Weapon
Our Spiritual Weapon
When I think about the phrase “spiritual weapon” it reminds me of what Paul wrote about spiritual warfare to the church in Ephesus. Look briefly at
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
While John doesn’t refer to faith as being a shield, I think that concept still fits.
Note that,
Faith is the Shield by Which we are Protected from the Onslaught of the World
Look at verse 4-5.
4 And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the only time in John’s gospel or his epistles that he uses the noun faith instead of the verb believe. As I said earlier, he prefers to use the verb form of the word. But in this case he chose to use the noun.
When false teachers try to lure us away from the apostolic faith which was once for all delivered to the saints , hide behind the shield of faith.
The fact that we have faith doesn’t always mean that our faith is as strong or deep as it ought to be. I often find myself crying out “Lord, I believe; help me with my unbelief.”
MacArthur wrote, “Christians are victorious overcomers from the moment of salvation, when they are granted a faith that will never fail to embrace the gospel. They may experience times of doubt; they may cry out with David, “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? (Ps. 13:1; cf. 22:1; 27:9; 44:24; 69:17; 88:14; 102:2; 143:7; 2 Tim. 2:11–13). But true saving faith will never fail, because those who possess it have in Christ triumphed over every foe. The “great … cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1; cf. Rom. 8:31–39)—the heroes of faith described in Hebrews 11—testify that true faith endures every trial and emerges victorious over them all. Job expressed the triumph of faith when he cried out in the midst of his trials, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him” (Job 13:15).” (John MacArthur, 1, 2, 3 John, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2007), 179.)
This morning we have looked at a false faith, a familial faith, an active faith, and an overcoming faith.
How would your faith be described? Never be afraid to come boldly before the throne of God and ask for the Lord to increase your faith.
Perhaps there are some here who do not have faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I ask you to prayerfully examine the evidence about Christ. If you would like for someone to help you examine the evidence, I would be more than happy to do so, as would many others here. You are here today by divine appointment. It is no accident that you came rather than following Lionel Richies advice to have an easy Sunday morning.
Know that God demonstrated His love by sending His only begotten Son into this world to live as a man, to die a cruel death as the substitute for those who trust in Christ. Recognize that you are a sinner, and repent and believe the gospel.
Let’s pray.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I am overwhelmed by Your extravagant love for me. How deep is Your love for me, how vast beyond all measure. That You should give Your only Son, to make this wretch Your treasure.
I pray Father, that You would help us to love others with the same type of deep, vast love with which You have loved us.
Lord, I pray for any here who are not believers in Jesus Christ. I pray that You would take the seed which has been planted this morning, and cause it to spring forth into new life in Christ.
I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Closing Song: #486
Closing Song: #486
Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers, rise,
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies.
Against the foe in vales below
Let all our strength be hurled;
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.
Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O, glorious victory,
That overcomes the world.
2 Corinthians 13:14 “14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
