EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2-27-2025
My Worship Time
Focus:
PT-2 Intro. To “How to Recognize an Overcomer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 5:1-5
Message of the verses: “1 Whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the
child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For
whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has
overcome the world — our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the
world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Now as promised I want to continue to look at John
MacArthur’s sermon on these verses until I get to the point that goes beyond
his introduction to these verses.
“The
word is used by our Lord Jesus Himself in John 16:33 He uses the verb form when He says, “In this
world you shall have tribulation, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
I have won out in conflict with the world. I have defeated the world. I have
conquered the world. I am the victor over the world. And of course, there is a
form of that word used in one of our most favorite portions of Scripture,
Romans chapter 8. At the close of that great eighth chapter where Paul is
speaking about the unconquerable position of Christians in Christ, he says,
verse 37, “In all these things we are more than conquerors.” That’s the
Authorized. The NAS says, “We overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
Paul says we’re not just overcomers; we’re not just nikē; we are huper nikē and
he compounds the word and adds huper, which would be in English saying, “We’re
super-conquerors. We are the ultimate conquerors.” We have through faith in
Christ entered the condition of being unconquerable. We are super conquerors.
We are, to put it another way, invincible, unconquerable. So much that, “Neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other created thing shall be
able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There is nothing that can conquer us, not tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. We are super-conquerors. We are the
unconquerable. We are the overcomers.
“Reading
history many, many years ago when I was a student, Lord Nelson came back and
reported to the British Admiralty, the great victory over the French in the
Battle of the Nile. And he said this – this is a great quote – “Victory is not
a large enough word to describe what took place.” And I would venture to say
that that is true of our salvation, victory is not a large enough word to
describe what took place. And so, when Paul spoke of the victory, it wasn’t
just victory; it was super victory. It was huper nikē. As we think about that,
as we think about that concept in relationship to our Christian blessing, we
can kind of break it down a little bit and let’s look at what that actually meant.
“First
of all, at the point of our salvation and from then on we have become super
conquerors of Satan – super conquerors of Satan. We have overcome the evil one.
As it says in Revelation 12:11,
“They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb.” They overcame him because
of the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. And that’s not only
true of Tribulation saints, that’s true of all of us. In the fifteenth chapter
of the book of Revelation, John sees a sign in heaven and in verse 2 he sees a
sea of glass mixed with fire. He looks into heaven and he sees those who had
come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of
his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God and singing the song
of the Lamb. As John gets a glimpse of heaven, he sees the redeemed there who
are super-conquerors who have triumphed over the worst that Satan could
possibly bring and they stand on the sea of glass in the presence of God. In
the view of heaven that comes in Revelation 21, verse 7 says, “He that
overcomes shall inherit these things.” Overcomes get not only triumph over
Satan, but a triumph over Satan that results in an eternal heaven. And all that
heaven is becomes ours. We are the true victors.
“John
certainly affirmed this idea earlier in his epistle if you go back to chapter
2, for a moment. And verse 13, “I’m writing to you young men” – and he’s not
talking about chronological age, but those who spiritually are growing up – “because
you have overcome the evil one.” How so? Verse 14, end of the verse, “The Word
of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.” As soon as you
believe the truth, you defeat his lies. As soon as you embrace the power of
God, his power is neutralized. And so, we are overcomers because we have
overcome the evil one. He is, as Paul says to the Romans, under our feet. He is
a defeated foe. The Scripture says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from
you.” He is vanquished.
“Not
only have we become overcomers of Satan as powerful as he is, but we have
become overcomers in the realm of life as well. That is, we have overcome
death. I think the most notable portion of Scripture that speaks to that is 1
Corinthians 15, and just a reminder, it says at the end of
verse 54 in this great fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, “Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting.”
The sting of death is sin, the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God
that gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over death
because victory over sin, victory over law. That is to say we triumph over what
sin wants to do to us. We triumph over what the law wants to do, the perfect,
holy, righteous law of God crushes us because we break it. It sentences us to
damnation for our sins. But in Christ we triumph over the law, over sin, over
death, which is the penalty the law imposes.”
Lord
willing more tomorrow of these quotes.
2/27/2025 11:00 PM
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