YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD!
1 John 5:4-5
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. 2 veterans were talking about the Korean War.
2. “What knife did you use over there?” enquired the first.
3. “I didn’t have a knife,” said the 2nd. “I figured that if I needed to use a knife, I was too close to the enemy!”
4. We’re taking that approach tonight; not seeing how close, but how far, spiritually, we can get from the enemy.
B. TEXT
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”—1 John 5:4-5.
C. THESIS
1. What is this “world” that we have to overcome? By “the world” is meant all mankind who remain under the power of sin, out of which God has taken a people chosen for Himself, quickened by His Spirit, and whose destiny is to overcome the world.
2. The world—the power of evil—will war against them, and we must war against it. There remains for us only two outcomes; either the world will overcome us and we surrender to it; or else we must overcome the world and make it to submit to us.
I. THE CONQUEST ITSELF
A. WHAT IT’S NOT:
1. What does it mean to overcome the world? It doesn’t mean to go around bullying everybody until they do what we want.
2. Nor does it mean to withdraw from the world like a monk, so you’re never tempted to sin. Any soldier who slinks away from the battle and hides, refusing to fight, is considered a coward, not a conqueror! To be useless in the battle between good and evil is not what God is talking about.
3. No, Church; we’re supposed to roll up our sleeves, and go into the world, and work like other people; to sweat and toil – yet with victory! We have to be in the world, and yet conquer it.
4. We’re to be examples of Jesus in the world, doing what’s lawful and right; yet, all the while, being conquerors over the evil spirit of the world.
B. WHAT IT IS:
1. TO BE CUT LOOSE FROM THE WORLD’S CHAINS.
a. People in the world give themselves to the pleasures, the amusements, and the frivolities of life. To overcome the world means, first, to sever all the connections that hold us on that course.
b. Some of you want to take that decisive step of commitment; but you never have yet. Why not tonight?
c. Some people have just enough of God that they can’t enjoy a life of sin(because they know too much) and they can’t be happy in God because they won’t completely sell out!
d. That’s the first part of overcoming the world—breaking loose from its bonds, so that one can say, “I am not tied down by it any longer; by God’s grace, I am a free man in Christ Jesus.”
2. TO MAINTAIN THAT FREEDOM
a. But that emancipation is merely the beginning. Overcoming requires we maintain that freedom. Oh, this is where the battle is! It’s not child’s play to say, “I’ll never be a slave again! I’m free and I’ll fight to keep my freedom!
b. It’s a tough battle—when the world surrounds us everywhere;
—when pleasures tempts us,
—when money tries to entice us,
—when poverty tortures us,
—when evil people try to sway us,
—when our bodies break down with long term illness.
Remaining conquerors throughout our lives is where the real battle lies.
3. TO LIVE ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES
a. Part of overcoming the world requires we live above circumstances. Paul sat in prison shivering with cold, but he said, “I know how to be abased and I know how to abound.”
b. Christians can be happy without having their cup always full. “I have learned,” said the apostle Paul, “in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Happy is everyone who has learned the same lesson, for this is overcoming the world.
4. TO LIVE ABOVE THREATS AND BRIBES
a. To overcome the world is to be above its threats and its bribes. A person who becomes a non-compromising Christian will usually experience the sneers and jibes of the world. They think we’re either fools, fanatics, or hypocrites.
b. The Overcomer is like the man who entered a tuberculosis ward where the air and the people were saturated with disease, but because he had such a healthy immune system, no disease could find a way to attach itself to him!
II. THE CONQUERING NATURE
“Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world.”
A. ONLY DIVINE NATURE FIGHTS THE WORLD
1. We have a kinship with God. Being born again makes us something more than God’s creatures; we are God’s children.
2. Adoption makes us part of God’s family, but regeneration causes a far greater personal change than adoption. You may adopt a child, and though he/she be your heir, there is no genetic similarity to yourself.
3. But regeneration infuses God’s divine nature – His spiritual genetic power – into us.
4. John tells us that no nature but the divine nature will ever try to overcome the world; people of the world won’t fight against the world.
5. When the holy nature of God enters into a man he feels he must be wholly free from sin. There are two Opposite Natures: the sinner sins in order to be happy(conforming to his nature), and the born-again man abstains from sin in order to be happy.
6. ILLUS of man who bet he could make a Mule into a Racehorse.
B. WHY THIS NATURE MUST TRIUMPH
1. The believer must triumph because he has the Spirit of the Father, the world’s Creator in him. The world will never be a match for its Creator!
2. Our new nature also has Christ in it. The world couldn’t get a hold on Jesus, because there wasn’t any evil in Him. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”
3. We also have the Holy Spirit in us. The Bible says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world!”
4. So, Church, Don’t you see that you must overcome the world, or else perish? But you cannot overcome the world as you are. You must be born again!
5.ILLUS. A man went to an auction & bought a Queen Anne chair. He took it in the elevator at his hotel, and since it was crowded, invited a lady to sit in the chair. On the 5th floor a drunk started to enter. He looked at the woman and suggested, “If I were you, I’d ask for a bigger room!”
6. I’m encouraging all you Christians to expand your vision and get into a bigger room for God.
III. THE CONQUERING WEAPON: FAITH
“This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”
A. THE TREE WILL BE KNOWN BY ITS FRUIT
1. It looks unlikely that most professing Christians will overcome the world, because many of them have already surrendered to the world!
2. Many are trying to see how close they can get to the world and still be saved. They ought to be asking, “How far can I get away from it?”
3. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
B. THE CONQUERING WEAPON
The weapon with which the new nature fights against the world is faith.
1. Faith conquers, first, by regarding the unseen REWARD which awaits us. The world offers temporary pleasure as the reward of sin; but faith says, “There are greater pleasures to be gained by abstaining from sin.”
2. As faith grows, it recognizes the unseen PRESENCE which is with us. We come to realize that God is walking with us and we would rather incur the frown of the world than the frown of God!
3. When faith rises still higher, it takes pleasure in what God takes pleasure in. To the genuine Christian, Christ is life’s one aim. Obedience to Jesus brings Him pleasure.
4. The aim of lost people is worldly achievements, but the Christian is ever aiming at Christ. He is the “treasure hid in a field, the which, when a man found it, FOR JOY went and sold everything he had and bought that field!”
IV. 3 STEPS TO LIVE IN VICTORY:
A. THINK VICTORIOUS
1. Gloom breads failure. People like to be on the winning side. People like to be around people who are winners; who encourage them, make them laugh, or give them hope.
2. We’re not only are “spiritual” Conquerors, we are “Intellectual” Conquerors over the world! Our FAITH is a revelation of Victory; We Win!
3. Some armies enter battle already defeated. Other armies enter battles knowing that the victory is already won: they just need to go through the motions to claim it. That’s Us! We have God’s promise of ultimate victory!
4. You are a Conqueror. You’re on the winning side! Psalms 98:1 says, “O sing unto the LORD a new song; for He hath done marvelous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, have gotten Him the victory!”
5. You can live in doom and gloom or you can live in faith and hope. David had bumps in life, battles, failures, and difficulties -- BUT he learned to live in praise!
6. Jesus already defeated the worst the world could throw into battle; we’re just in the cleanup operation. The victory’s already won!
B. GET YOUR EYES OFF CIRCUMSTANCES
1. Peter got out of the boat & walked. Peter focused on Christ not the storm. As his attention shifted, he began to sink.
2. Lame man at pool of Bathesda. John 5:3-9. Man laying there 38 years.
3. The King of kings walked into the man’s presence. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” The man, focusing on the circumstance, said, “I have no man to help me…” Get your eyes off the circumstance and get your eyes on Jesus.
3. Sometimes attacks come and they are so heavy.
Loss of health
Loss of loved one
Loss of possessions
Attacks are hard and they hurt, they bring pain and suffering into your life.
4. But Jesus is our CHAMPION, our REFUGE, our STRONG TOWER, our SHELTER in the storm.
5. He is the God of HOPE. Focus on the Promise not the problems.
C. NEVER ACCEPT DEFEAT
1. Too many Christians come under attack and they give up. They think “If I don’t do anything maybe the devil won’t notice me, and he will leave me alone.” WRONG. You only weaken the Lord’s side by not entering the fight.
2. When your Pray life/ Devotional Life/ Commitment to serve -- is stopped, you are living in defeat.
3. Some folks are sitting in pews and haven’t done anything for the kingdom in years.
a. Blame lack of time; “I’m am to busy”
b. Blame burn out; “I did it now let someone else do it”
c. Look for any excuse not to be profitable for the
Master
4. Don’t live in defeat do something.
5. ILLUS. “Put Johnson in!”
a. It was the middle of a high school football game, and the home team was losing. They just could not do anything.
b. One irate fan yells at the sidelines, “Put Johnson in!” The sidelines yell back, “Johnson is in!”
c. The fan yells again, “Well take Johnson out!” In other words, do something.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, a 40-year old nurse from Austria, became the first woman to reach the world’s 14 highest peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen.
2. She clinched the record when she conquered the notoriously treacherous mountain known as K2. This Himalayan giant, the second highest mountain in the world, claims one out of every four climbers that sets foot on her.
3. It was a mountain that Kaltenbrunner had tried to climb six times before. How did she eventually conquer it? With much perseverance. For example, there was as stretch that took her six hours to climb 180 meters. Can you imagine that? Six hours to crawl from the church driveway to the back parking lot!
4. Even if you’re not into mountain climbing, you have to be somewhat envious of Kaltenbrunner. Wouldn’t it be great to have accomplished what she did? She has stood on the 14 highest points in the world and did it by her own effort, not by flying to these peaks in a helicopter.
5. But today Jesus has provided that even the youngest and frailest among us has accomplished something even greater – We’ve Overcome the World!
B. THE CALL
[This message is primarily from C.H. Spurgeon, with section 4 having some thoughts of Greg Cooper]
