Introduction
1.
2. As we continue to study our Biblical ABCs...
We come to the letter V...
V is for Victory...
According to the dictionary...
victory refers to success or triumph over an enemy in battle...
or a successful outcome in a struggle...
or overcoming an obstacle.
In the Bible...
Victory and its forms is found 56 times....
Let’s look at a few of them...
Read Text: Psalm 44:3
1. Victory in Battle
A. One of the predominant uses of the word victory is found in relation to battle...
Of course, that is everyone’s goal in battle...
Our military goal in Iraq is to establish a young democracy...
there are those who are fighting it...
We hope and pray that the United States will be victorious...
But it remains to be seen if that will happen.
B. On the other side, the terrorists are hoping to be victorious over us.
In Bible times, God often led the people into battle...
in order for the Children of Israel to be able to occupy the Promise Land...
it took many battles...
Children still sometimes sing, “Joshua fought the battle of Jericho”...
What is astounding...
as you study the word victory in the Bible...
it is amazing how many state that GOD gives the victory...
Deut. 20:4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.”
Josh. 10:10 The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon.
Judg. 12:3 ... the LORD gave me the victory over them.
Judg. 15:18 ¶ “You have given your servant this great victory.
1Sam. 19:5 The LORD won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad.
2Sam. 8:6 The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.
2Sam. 8:14 ¶ The LORD gave David victory wherever he went.
2Sam. 22:36 You give me your shield of victory;
2Sam. 22:51 He gives his king great victories;
2Sam. 23:10 The LORD brought about a great victory that day.
2Sam. 23:12 But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
1Kings 22:12 ¶ “Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious...for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
1Kings 22:15 ¶ “Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for the LORD will give it into the king’s hand.”
2Kings 5:1 ¶ Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram.
1Chr. 11:14 But they took their stand in the middle of the field. They defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
And quite a number more!!!
C. The Point I want to make is that victory in battle...
when the battle is in the Lord’s will...
does not come because of the size of the army...
victory does not come because of superior of armament...
(Just look at David and Goliath!!)
Victory comes because of the Lord...
The LORD brought about great victory....
as long as the battle was within the will of the Lord...
2. Another kind of victory we see is Victory over Sin
a. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians...
1Cor. 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
1Cor. 15:57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin is like another battle...
And to be honest, the battle against sin...
is a bigger battle than our war with Iraq...
It is bigger than all the battles in WW2 or WW1...
in fact, if you add all the battles ever fought...
you will see that it still doesn’t begin to compare with the battle with sin...
B. we have been battling sin since the days of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden...
We’ve been battling sin for over 6,000 years of recorded history...
But, praise be to the Lord...
He gives us victory over sin!!!...
We do not have to be enslaved by it any longer...
I love that hymn...”Glorious Freedom”...
Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters;
Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain.
But I received a glorious freedom,
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
Refrain
Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom!
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator—
Now and forever He shall be mine.
And then the song goes on and tells us about all our freedoms in subsequent verses...
Freedom from all the carnal affections;
envy, hatred and strife;
vain and worldly ambitions;
pride, all sinful follies;
love and glitter of gold;
evil temper and anger;
C. Our freedom comes because of Jesus...
He is our emancipator...
What Jesus did on the cross...
gave us victory over sin...
D. Of course, this begs the question...
if we have this victory over sin...
why are we still fighting the battle with sin...
And the problem is that not everyone has acknowledged our victory...
and they certainly haven’t acknowledged the source of our victory...Jesus Christ...
I’ve heard stories where solitary men in jungle areas will continue to fight for years against an enemy...
long after the war was over!!!
And that is what is happening in the battle against sin...
the battle has been won...
the war is over...
but, for whatever reason,...some people continue to fight... (and for many of them, they are losing the fight)...
and they don’t even realize that the battle is over!!
3. Victory over Death
A. 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, ““Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
When Jesus rose again...
death lost its victory...
death has lost it’s power...
and while we still die...physically...
spiritually, we will live for eternity...
eternity in heaven...if we have chosen to live for Christ...
or eternity in hell...if we have chosen to reject Christ...
B. Those of us who have accepted Christ...
those of us who have invited Him into our hearts...
no longer does death hold such sway over us...
there might be a little anxiety...
because it is still unknown...
But the sting has been taken out...
because death is not the end...
it is just the beginning of our eternity with Jesus Christ!
C. A vacationing family is driving along in their car,
windows rolled down,
enjoying the warm summer breeze of the sunny day.
All of a sudden a bee flies in the window and starts buzzing around inside the car.
A little girl, highly allergic to bee stings, cringes in the back seat...
crying and frantic...
If she is stung, she could die within an hour (or sooner).
"Daddy, Daddy, it’s a bee! a Bee!! It’s going to sting me!"
The father reaches out and catches the bee in his hand...
After a moment, the father lets go of the bee.
The bee is loose in the car again.
The little girl again panics, "Daddy, it’s going to sting me!"
The father gently says, "No honey, he’s not going to sting you now. Look at my hand."
The bee’s stinger is in my hand!
D. And that is what Jesus died at calvary...
"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death is your sting?"
Jesus is just like that little girl’s father…
He says to us, "Look at my hands."
I’ve taken the sting for you...
4. Lastly, we have Victory for living for Him each day.
A. 1John 5:4 says, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”
As we sang earlier, “faith is the victory”...
Our faith in God gives us victory in the battle...
Our faith in God gives us victory over sin...
Our faith in God gives us the victory over death...
and, victory is not just for when we get to heaven...
we can live in victory each and every day...
Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly”...
an abundant life is a life of victory...
sure, we still struggle with pain and disease...
just like anyone...
But, when I last talked to Terry Thomas before his surgery...
he said that his faith was in God...
Julia Snow told me this week that everything is in God’s hands...
If a non-Christian was told that they would be paraplegic for the rest of their life...
it would be devastating...
and I’m sure it was quite a load for Julia to bear...
but as she began to pray...
and as we began to pray for her...
It is simply amazing at how well she is handling it...
and I attribute it all to her faith in God...
faith IS the victory...
not faith in the government...
or faith in another human who might let us down...
but our faith is in Jesus Christ...
who took the sting on our behalf...
Conclusion
1. J. Alistair Brown said...
Walking through a park, I passed a massive oak tree.
A vine had grown up along its trunk.
The vine started small--nothing to bother about.
But over the years the vine had gotten taller and taller.
By the time I passed, the entire lower half of the tree was covered by the vine’s creepers.
The mass of tiny feelers was so thick that the tree looked as though it was covered in it.
Now the tree was in danger.
This huge, solid oak was quite literally being taken over;
the life was being squeezed from it.
But the gardeners in that park had seen the danger.
They had taken a saw and severed the trunk of the vine--
one neat cut across the middle.
The tangled mass of the vine’s branches still clung to the oak,
but the vine was now dead.
That would gradually become plain as weeks passed...
and the creepers began to die and fall away from the tree.
How easy it is for sin, which begins so small and seemingly insignificant, ...
to grow until it has a strangling grip on our lives.
And yet, Christ’s death has cut the power of sin.
Yes, the "creepers" of sin still cling and have some effect.
But sin’s power is severed by Christ, and gradually, sin’s grip dries up and falls away.
2. I’m so glad that we don’t have to live every day under a cloud of defeat...
Because of God...
we saw that the Children of Israel had victory over her enemies in battle after battle after battle...
Because of Jesus...and His sacrifice on the cros...
we have victory over the power of sin in our lives...
Because of Jesus...and His resurrection...
we have victory over death...
He has taken the sting...
And, it is because of Jesus that we can live victorious and abundant lives each and every day...
“Praise be to God...
HE give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”
