FAITH IS THE VICTORY
INTRODUCTION
A. The world often looks upon Bible-believing Christians as a bunch of losers who are totally out of step with reality and the mainstream of society:
1. John would agree that true Christians are out of step with the world, but that this makes us winners (1 John 5:4).
2. John could still hear the words of Jesus (John 15:18-19).
B. Faith is the victory, but we must understand our enemy.
I. The Devil’s Shock and Awe Tactic
A. The devil’s favorite tactic—the one he seems always to use first when attempting to destroy the seed of God—is persecution (Rev 12:13,14,17).
B. However, Paul warns the church at Corinth about the devil’s willingness to take either side of an issue and turn it to his own advantage.
1. The church was so open-minded and sophisticated that not only had they accepted a man who had his father’s wife but also had taken pride in the fact.
2. Things changed after Paul’s strong rebuke and instruction for disciplining the man.
a. The devil changed his tactic and tried to incite them not to forgive the penitent. Some, it seems, wanted to keep their feet on his neck.
b. In effect, Paul says, “Let him up now” (2 Cor 2:6-11). Forgive him and reaffirm you love toward him, ‘in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes’” (2 Cor. 2:6-11).
II. The Focus of Victorious Faith
A. President Eisenhower has been quoted as saying that the American government makes no sense “unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith.”
1. Before we appropriate his name or memory to the cause, we need to hear what followed the dash in his statement. The statement was “unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith—and I don’t care what it is.”
2. John is not calling upon the world to believe something and believe it passionately. When John speaks of faith, he means faith in Jesus Christ, of whom God himself has testified that it is in him that we have eternal life (1 John 5:11).
B. John would have us focus on at least four things about Christ.
1. His person (1 John 5:1,5)
2. His propitiation (1 John 4:10).
3. His presence (1 John 4:15, NKJV)
4. His promise (1 John 5:14-15).
C. The writer of the Book of Hebrews summed it all up (Heb 12:2).
III. The True Character of Victory
A. A focused faith is a victorious faith, but spiritual victory often resembles defeat in the world. The Bible is filled with examples, but we will consider three:
1.First, there is the example of Christ himself (Lk 24:21).
a. Satan and those whom he had incited to crucify Christ appeared to have defeated Jesus (Acts 2:22-24).
b. The cross had smashed the hope of the disciples, but the empty tomb had turned the agony of defeat into the glory of victory. The resurrection cast a new light on the cross itself (1 Pet 1:3-7).
2. In our second example, the infant church appeared to be on its way to defeat. Saul of Tarsus was making havoc of the church, entering their houses, dragging them off to prison, and casting his vote for the death penalty for all who believed.
a. The church was scattered. But instead of hunkering down in the shadows, they went everywhere preaching the word. The gospel was taken to the Samaritans, many of whom gladly received it (Acts 8:1-8).
b. That which Saul and Satan had designed to destroy the church caused it to spread even faster and farther.
3. In our third example, Saul the persecutor has become Paul the persecuted.
a. His former comrades, enraged at the desertion of this traitor to the cause he formerly persecuted, had tried to kill him in Jerusalem. To protect his life, he appealed to Caesar and was shipped off to Rome, with Caesar footing the bill for the passage. When he got there—a place he had longed to visit for years in order that he might preach the gospel there—he was held prisoner for two years. Chained to him was the Praetorian or palace guard.
b. Caesar and Satan failed to consider the fact that by chaining guards to Paul, they were giving the captive a captive audience. They had chained the cross’s top recruiter to their top guards. They had sent the chickens to guard the fox.
c. Like Joseph, who told his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good”—Paul said, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ” (Phil. 1:12-13).
B. From these examples we can sketch an image of our victory.
1. First, victory in Christ does not always bring recognition from our opponents of the rightness of our cause. Jesus told the faithful Philadelphia, “I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you” (Rev. 3:9).
a. Sometimes our enemies reluctantly admit the righteousness of our cause. Sometimes our enemies embrace the cause.
b. Sometimes they blaspheme and persecute us to the bitter end.
2. Second, victory in Christ does not always mean relief from the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet 3:13-15).
3. Finally, victory in Christ does not mean that we are rewarded before our enemies while we are in the flesh (Rev 2:10)
C. If victory does not come in recognition, relief, and reward, in what is it to be found? There are at least five characteristics of our present victory.
a. Rest from the yoke of legalism (1 John 5:3; Matt 11:28-30; Acts 15:10).
b. Release from the burden of sin (1 John 2:1-2).
c. Renewal of the heart even while the body decays before our very eyes (2 Cor 4:16-17).
d. Refreshing of the spirit in times of great stress (2 Tim 1:13-18
1) I recall when Dee and I were still in our 20’s and had three small children to raise that we were far from any of our family in a very difficult domestic mission work. We were down, down so low that a flea couldn’t crawl between the ground and us.
2)Then one Sunday morning I looked up from my notes and there sat a smiling couple from back home. For the next several hours, God refreshed us just as he had refreshed the land of Israel when he sent rain to the parched land after the three-year drought in the days of Elijah.
3) The brother’s work had brought him to a city just 45 miles away from us. God continued to refresh our spirits through them until the day we moved on to another work.
e. Revelation of God’s will.
1) God appointed various supernatural gifts to the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27-29).
2) Paul also says that God will give wisdom concerning disagreements: “Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you” (Phil 3:15, NLT)
3) Jesus affirms this truth (John 7:17).
CONCLUSION
A. We know the outcome. When the dust from the last battle has settled, Satan and his army are burning in the lake of fire and brimstone; but God has wiped every tear from our eyes and we live eternally in the great city, the holy Jerusalem, whose gates shall not be shut (Rev 21).
B. But much of the battle—the bloodiest part no doubt—lies before us. Therefore, we must arm ourselves with the mind of Christ and his armor, which enables us to stand against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (1 Pet 4:1; Eph 6:10-20).
