Faith Series: Faith is the Victory

Faith Series: Faith is the Victory

All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to 1 John chapter 5 for our scripture text this morning. 1 John chapter 5.

We have seen quite a number of truths about faith in these past weeks. And my heart is drawing to a conclusion this morning with this matter of faith, not that I've exhausted everything that is to be said about faith. But my heart was drawn to this passage in 1 John chapter 5 where we have been reciting recently 1 John chapter 5 and verse number 4. But let's go back if you will. I want to read beginning in verse 1. This is our text for this morning. 1 John chapter 5 beginning in verse number 1 and coming up to verse number 4.

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him that begat 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.

I think of how does a man, how does a woman, a boy, and a girl, how does an individual become a child of God? By faith. By faith. We're born again by faith in the righteousness of Christ revealed in the Word of God. And how do we, a man, a woman, boy, or girl, how do we grow? By faith. How do we face our trials we've seen by faith? How do we get the victory by faith? By faith. So that it may not be of ourselves but the gift truly be of God. If there's anything that is any part of our salvation that originates with us then it's not God's salvation. If it originates with us we are completely indebted to the Lord by love. We can't pay our sin debt but we're indebted by love to Him. And how are we to walk? By faith. By faith. Because we believe the love He had to us. We love Him because He first loved us.

There's that natural affection that we talk about. What is it? Story gay? I think it is in the Greek word for it. It's a familial affection. The kind of affection that you have for a child of yours. You have it for your parents. You have for your siblings. You love those that are, well even Philadelphia, the idea of brotherly love. But you love those that are your own family. It's unnatural. It's unnatural for a mother to abort her child. It's unnatural. And yet we've come to a time where it's very unnatural isn't it? There is that familial love that is not there. In many cases it's actually the devil has a very strong grip on the hearts and minds of men to the point where a person would abort the child in their own womb. And believe the lie that this is not a human life. This is just a fetus. Which is merely the Latin word for baby.

But we see that now in this passage this morning we're told about a familial love that is spiritual. A love in the first few verses of this passage, 1 John 5, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And what should be that familial affection among us as those that are born of God? It says in everyone that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. Right? We love the children of God because we believe Jesus is the Christ. We believe we're born again by faith in the one who God gave himself for us. And by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. And for this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. And we know that His commandments are not grievous. And so it should be out of a heart, a heart that believes the Lord Jesus Christ, it should be natural to love the brethren. Love those that are likewise born of God. Love those that are of the same spiritual womb.

And then we read that it is the same faith in God that not only produces brotherly love, but it is said here in verse 4 that whatsoever is born of God, of course by faith, overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I alluded to this in a comment I made this morning. You know when you really summarize and we took time. We took the time a number of years back to summarize and go through the main tenets. We even printed out the little cards that were reminders of what are the main tenets of each of those religions. Whether it be Islam, whether it be the cults, whether it be Roman Catholic belief. So many different ones, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, so forth. When you boil it down, what all the other religions say is they might use the word faith, but they say, well, you've got to add something to it. You've got to do something to achieve. You know, if you do not go through these, if you do not go through these sacraments and go through this thing and jump through that hoop, then you can't be saved. But the Bible says, faith. My grace, how you say, through faith. And not of works, lest any man should boast. It's very clear. It's very clear.

We are in 1 John 4 here in verse 16. It says, for we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. And God's in Him. We sang that hymn this morning, for the Sunday school hour, my faith has found a resting place. My heart is drawn back to verse 3 again. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name, salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me.

Are you? Am I? Are we resting on the finished work of Christ? Do we believe that the Bible is the truth of God? For the very beginning of this series, we have seen that definition that we shared that what was it the missionary to? I think it was the missionary to the New Hebrides Islands, was translating the Bible and was putting it into the… When He comes and sits across from Him and he flops in the chair, exhausted from the hunting trip and says, You know, so good to put my whole weight down on this chair and that thought that came through in that translation, to put one's whole weight, to stretch one's self out on the Lord. That indicates, we nothing in my hands I bring. I don't bring anything. Not of good that I have done. There's nothing I have to offer but to cast myself upon the Lord and trust Him completely to trust in my Savior as my all and all. Stand on His promises, not because I have something to contribute to the matter, except my need and my dependence upon Him.

We love Him, we've seen, 1 John 4, 19. We love Him, but that's not even… that isn't even originate with us. It's a response to His love. We love Him because He first loved us. His love is the cause and our love is the effect. Our love is the response to His love. And John makes it very clear that only those who have faith in Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, are born of God. Only those, only those who not, not via some earthly mediator, not through some after having done enough works, but by, like the man with a chair. I lay my sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God. He takes them all and bears them. He takes the curse for me. He takes death for me. I have nothing in my hands to bring. I cast myself on the Lord. And we, if you're a child of God, you have done that. But as we live, how do we get the victory in our daily lives? As in the same way we receive the Lord Jesus Christ, I have nothing to contribute to this. Except, I must believe, I must take my faith that what God says is true. I've entrusted my soul to Him. And now I need to entrust all of my cares and all of my troubles and all of my weakness and all of all of it to the Lord. Casting our care upon Him for He careth for you. Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for me. Our tendency is to try to help the Lord out, isn't it? You know, I'm gonna, I got something to contribute here. I have nothing to contribute. I have nothing, nothing to offer. But a heart of faith, a heart of faith in the Lord.

It is the lack of that. It is the failure in recognizing. I have nothing to offer, but just to cast myself upon the Lord that sometimes we live as victims, we might say, instead of victors in their Christian lives. We live as victims. Well, you know, I tried my very best. Well, that's not good enough. Your, your very best is not, it's not good enough. Now, I mean, that can mean a lot of things. I understand that. But most of the time what we mean is we, we tried it in our own strength, isn't it? We tried to do it instead of casting ourselves truly upon, upon the Lord. We read here that whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. Whatsoever is born of God has victory. And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith. There's the key right there. There's the key. The faith. Faith. We're living in the world. We've seen, but we are not of this world. We're not of this world. We're not of the, we've been called out of this world. We came out of this world even though we're still living in the world. We're not part of the world from the very moment that we placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've seen this many times before. We are saints. We are called to be saints set apart from this world. Even though we're working in it, we're living in it, we're rubbing shoulders with people. And as we go day by day, but we're not of this world any longer. And, and the church, the body, the local church is a, is a, we have a sanctuary where we come, think the word, there's quiet. There's peace in here where we are don't have, you know, some, some places do have, I think in Mexico and some of the places there, you just hear the bottom boom, boom constant. Now some, some Sunday evenings we hear a Lord of that coming through the windows. We have a place that we come apart to worship the Lord and we, that the church is not this building, but it is the assembly of the saints meeting together. And as we go out, we are representing the Lord in this, in this world. But we've seen, we have seen that we cannot, as we walk in this world, we cannot rely on our own feelings about things. Because every time that we do that, we fall prey to the deceitful workings of the enemy of our souls, don't we? Instead, we are, as we saw this morning of the Sunday school hour, my word is a lamp to my feet. It's a light unto my path. I must walk by faith in the light, the truth of God's words.

Remember when we were just the other week we were in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and we spoke about how faith changes how we view our lives. We view everything in life. Faith is the lens by which through which we are to view life. Now we, the Gentiles seek after what I am aware what I am going to eat. Where is the fountain of life? I can, I can, fountain of youth, I should say. Where is the fountain of youth so I can just stay young forever. Well, bodily exercise is profitable. We do want to take care of our bodies, but we're not by faith now. We don't, we don't just live for the horizontal anymore. We're cognizant. We're aware. We're anticipating that we're going to receive a house eternal in the heavens, a tabernacle that is not temporal in nature. It's eternal. It's incorruptible. This corruptible is going to put on incorruption. This is going to receive a glorified body and we're going to be forever with the Lord. And that is through that lens that we're now to view these. We're not to look at our temporal issues of life the way the world looks at them. Because even though we're in the world, we're not of this world anymore. We're to view things by faith. The way we use to view things was through the lens of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. I see it. I want it. I want to have it so I can then show other people what I have. And that I have somehow achieved something that somebody else hasn't achieved. And so people can look at me and say, wow, look at him. No, that's not how we view our lives now by faith. Faith.

In order to have genuine biblical faith, we have to be emptied of ourselves and humble before God. I have nothing to offer. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And thank God we can know and we do know the joy of forgiveness. Being forgiven, but even though we have joy, we must never go back to the and continue to pursue the pride of life. We must ask the Lord humble, purify any of that in me. If there's any wicked way in me, Lord, get it out. And they are burdened, heavy to be born. Is it something that's a drudgery? It ought not to be. It ought to be. I delight to do that will. I delight in the Word of God. That is the language of faith, isn't it? I want to do what the Word wants me to do. Isn't that, isn't that in the infancy of it all? Isn't that what a baby Christian does? What would you have me to do? What does the Lord want for me? That's that eager anticipation of faith. Faith. Not nothing down in faith.

Well whatsoever is born of God. We read here. Whatever is born of God. Overcometh. Overcometh. That doesn't mean that there is never any defeat in the life of a Christian at all. That doesn't mean that they do not experience it. We do not experience ever some defeat. But what this is telling us is that the habits and the characteristic of that life is that it is one of overcoming. It is one of victory and overcoming. And if we sin, and advocate with the Father and we get up and we move forth above, we do not stay down in and grovel in the pit of victimhood in a Christian life. No, we have, as it says here, whatsoever is born of God. Overcometh. The world. And we are overcomers through Christ that dwells within us. The Christ that dwells within us. Because we are born of God. We are born of God. It is futile to try to overcome the world unless you are born of God. A bird can fly, but I can't fly. And it would be futile for me to get out there and it would be deadly for me to get up on the edge of this building and say, I'm going to do my very best to try to fly from the edge of that building over to across the streets. And I'm aware because it is impossible. I will find out very quickly that no good thing dwelleth within me as it pertains to flight. I'm going to hit the grounds quickly.

I think we've given the illustration before I shared an illustration I heard a pastor give of, you know, and I used the Lucas as an example. He may say, I am going to do my very best to jump up and touch the top of that flagpole over here. And he may jump as hard as he wishes. He is not going to touch the top of that flagpole. No matter how hard he wants to do it. And he is going to get discouraged. He is going to get weary. And he might be tempted to just give up on trying to do that. And less maybe granddaddy comes over and picks him up and holds him up in the air. So now you can touch the top of that flagpole. And that is even a tiny picture of what it is to walk by faith. To live by faith. If we are born of God, we have the ability to overcome the world. It does not mean automatically that every time it will happen. But we have the Christ living within us. Doesn't mean we will never experience defeat or some lapse. But we ought not to be defeated. We ought not to be overcome anything because we have no excuse to be because we have Christ. So to speak. There to lift us up and give us the victory. To give us the ability to mount up with wings as eagles. To run and not be weary. To walk and not faint. We have the Christ living in us. Because we are born of God. But he gives grace to who? The humble. He gives grace to the humble. He doesn't give grace to the proud. He doesn't give grace to the individual who in their foolishness is looking at whatever they are facing through either fear or through pride. Because what is in this world is the spirit of fear. And what is in this world is the pride of life. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. All of that. If we look at it in any other lens than faith. Try as we might. We won't be able to fly. We won't be able to touch the top of the flagpole.

But we are reminded you ought to have the victory because if you are born of God, that which is born of God overcomes the world. Not because of anything in you, but because of who is in you. But because of the Christ that lives within you. What kind of victory does Christ give us? What ways? There are a multitude of ways that Christ gives us the victory in this world. But some very practical ways that he gives us the victory is in our thoughts. In our thoughts. How do we think about things? Well, if you spend all your time watching videos and listening to commentary on the devices of life, your thoughts will be. And not in the word of God, your thoughts will be molded to think. And to begin to regurgitate all that the world is saying about things. If that's your constant diet, then that's how you're going to think about life. But, the word, have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against the? It is God's word. If we meditate there and day and night, he gives us the victory because his word shapes our thinking. It shapes how we think about the world around us, about our brethren, about everything. It shapes the way we think. And this victory comes as we saw in our study not too long ago about the sins of the Spirit. Every one of those sins of the Spirit we looked at, there was a corresponding or contrasting grace of God to enable us to overcome that sin of the Spirit. It wasn't it. There are sins of the Spirit that we must ask God to give us the victory over it. So that we will not. We will not continue and sin that grace may abound. That's we will not continue in those things. There's the victory in our words and the words that we speak one to another. About one another. Victory in the words that we speak. We should be slow to speak. We should be gracious in our speech. We should not let any corrupt communication proceed out of our mouths. But that which ministers grace to the hearers. Well that is so different than the world's philosophy because the world we're living in says our lips are our own. We'll say what we want to say. We'll talk about what we want to talk about. The way it's going to tell us what to say. That's not the mindset of the Christian. The one that is born of God. My faith overcomes by faith overcomes the world. This is the victory even our faith.

And then we have victory even in our actions. Our actions. We're to serve one another by love. The scripture says. We are to bear one another's burdens. We're to defer one before the other. And that has a lot to do with our actions. Doesn't it? How do we practically act? I think a lot of is one with another. And then how do we act towards those that are without? How do we treat? How do we treat one another? Well we certainly see in our texts this morning in the verses leading up to verse number four. That the one who is born again by faith loves the children of God. And when we went through this epistle, first John we saw that love is not merely in word but it's indeed isn't it? Love is in action. Love is in acts.

And so my heart as I was thinking over these things and I was thinking about how the Lord gives us the victory. And he gives us the victory first of all in our thinking. How do we think? How do we speak? How do we act? I've just reminded of that five-fold picture that we saw a number of years ago at the beginning of a year that we look through. What are our priorities? What are our priorities as children of God? So they're far different than the world's priorities. They're far different than the things that the world, we're told to seek first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things. All the things that the Gentiles ring their hands and they pull their hair out over. What are we going to make it? We'll be added to us. They will be added to us. But we must walk by faith. The first thing that we see when it comes to, when it comes to, if we can apply, faith is the victory to these areas. And I believe it does apply very, very much so is that in order to have the victory, we must, our number one priority must be our walk with God. Our number one priority must be first of all, I must walk with God. I must walk with God in, not, that's not just on Sunday. That's just not just on Wednesday night when we get it for prayer meeting. That's not just at certain times of the day or the, I must walk with God. I must have a prayer life. I must have, I must be in the word of God. I must, in fact, my life, these, the look like Saul would bless it as a man. They walk with God and the counsel of the God. You know, all those things that we read there, but instead he meditates in the law of God day and night in his law of the meditates. He shall be like a tree planted by, no, even in a time of drought, he's going to be by like Jeremiah 17 talks about. He's going to be like, by a river bringing forth fruit in season. Well, this is, that sounds like victory to me. That sounds like even that passage we read in the Psalms, isn't it? Where it says those that be planted in the house of the courts of the Lord. So even in all days they'll be fannin' flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. Well, it's not because of any strength in them. It's because of the faithfulness of the Lord that they are getting, even in all days, they're not bitter and grumpy and just like everybody else in the world around them. They're not gossip and and and and trite souls. They are flourishing in the Lord because they trust in him. They trust in his word. They meditate in his word. And therefore they're bringing forth fruits, bringing forth fruits to show that the Lord is good. The Lord is upright.

And we and we saw in that fivefold thing as well that we pointed that we brought out about the priorities was our family, our family. Now some of you may, you know, not have any more immediate family that lives at home. You live at home with the word may have taken them. And yet I think everyone here has family that is in the area at least. And our family. We might say that's kind of our Jerusalem so to speak as an individual. We have a responsibility to our family. I have a responsibility to my wife. I have a responsibility to my children. And faith. I don't even want to I don't even want to use the word effects. Faith or the lack thereof determines how I treat how I relate to how I think about my family. How I how I interact with my family. I can say that anything that I've said or done towards my family that has not been good or helpful. It was not done in faith. It was not done in faith. It was done in selfish pride in some form or fashion that that did some damage. Even if but temporary it was it was harmful in some way. Our families, our homes are definitely under attack today. There is a feeding frenzy on homes and families in this world. The devil would love nothing more than to obliterate every home and destroy every marriage. He could possibly possibly damage and destroy. And so by faith we need. We need to put on the whole armor of God and fight for our families and fight the good fight of faith as it comes to our homes. And what does that look like? Husbands love your wives as Christ love the church. It looks like wives submit to your husbands and you know it looks like children. obey your parents as unto the Lord. As unto the Lord if we are trusting if we're really putting our full weight down on God's plans for us as families. And being tender to acknowledge when me as a husband as a father what I am not fulfilled. When I'm not walking my faith as I ought to as a relates to my family. The Lord helped me to see that and to make them at a right. We see that the time that we have with our family is so crucial. And we need to get the victory. We need to get the victory for God's glory in our relationships with our family. So that we were not thinking, speaking, act towards one another like we see around us because it can rub off, can it? That spirit can rub off on the way that we interact with one another.

We see our church family is another priority that God has given to us, our church family. We certainly need, well as we said, among other things, to not forsake be assembling of ourselves together, to serve one another by love, to speak often one to another, to put one another in remembrance of things. You know, exhort one another. We gave that word recently, reminded ourselves, we were reminded of that Hara Calleo through call to one side, encourage one another. Those are very important. There's so many commands that are given to us as it relates to our church family. But may God help us to have faith in the way that we think about one another. That we may get the victory. The devil was very busy to try to divide and to split up churches. He's very, very, very busy in that. And often the trouble comes not so much from without, but it comes from within, comes from within. We have the priority of others in the body of Christ that may not be a part of our local church. We have the priority of also, as we have opportunity to do good unto all men, especially those that are of the household of faith. Those that may not be a part of our local assembly, but are at a distance or not, you know, that we have contact with even that are not a part of our assembly, that we may encourage one another. Every conversation matters, doesn't it? Every conversation, every letter, every texts. You know, every phone call that we have, it matters, every email. Those are very important.

And then finally, we have a responsibility to walk by faith or those that are without. Faith in God. Lord, give me the victory. I'm not the one that saves the soul. I'm not the one, I'm not the one that in myself. I cannot win any soul to the Lord. I cannot change. I'm not the Holy Spirit, but I can pray, Lord, would you work in the heart of this person? I know I'm going to, maybe I'll work right beside them. I know David talked about a man that, you know, a man that he works beside and he's had some conversation with. I said, well, you've mentioned such things, but people that we rub shoulders with, Lord, would you give the victory? Would you save this soul? Would you give me the victory in, and give them either wisdom of what to say and when to say it? As it relates to those that I am coming in contact with. Sometimes we fall short in that department and yet can we learn from that? Can we learn? Can the Lord help us to say, well, what did I do wrong? What was wrong in my thinking about that or did I fail to speak when the door was opened when I should have spoken? Faith is the victory. The Lord is the one who gives that victory. It is not at all originating from ourselves. The victory comes through our Lord Jesus Christ and he lives with us. He lives within our hearts, so may the Lord help us in all these different areas that we've talked about this morning. Give us the victory. May we claim Paul says, I've not already apprehended, but this one thing he did that he was forgetting those things which were behind and reaching forth to those things which were before. That he would apprehend that for which he had been apprehended in Christ Jesus. He would lay hold of it. May we do that. We already have the Christ living in us, but may we claim, maybe they hold of victory by faith.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for these moments that we've had in your word and with your people today. Oh, how we need to live by faith. Oh, how I need the victory in my personal walk with my family, with as the pastor of the church, but also as a brother in Christ to each of these brethren, Lord, help me, help each of us, Lord. As it pertains to those that are in the community, help us, Lord, in our relationship with others that we would know this victory that is provided through our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us too, as we said, as we were reminded of the Scripture, you give grace. God resisted the proud, but gave grace to the humble. We pray now these things. We ask that you bless this final hymn. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.