EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2-28-2025
My Worship Time
Focus:
PT-3 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.
“And
here, back to 1 John, having touched those other elements of overcoming, we
come to verse 4 in chapter 5, “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” We
overcome Satan; we overcome death, including sin and the law; and here we
overcome the world. Three times it says we overcome the world. This is also an
echo of what John has said earlier. Back in chapter 2 verse 15, “Do not love
the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him.” If you’re still loving the world, if you’re still
attracted to the world, if you have not yet overcome the world, the love of the
Father is not in you. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the
world and the world is passing away and all its lusts, but the one who does the
will of God abides forever.” We have overcome the world. It no longer
overwhelms us. It no longer is the object of our attraction.
“In
chapter 3, “See how great a love,” verse 1, “the Father has bestowed on us that
we should be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world
doesn’t know us because it did not know Him.” What that means is it has no
ongoing relation to us. We’re in the world no longer of the world. Its
allurements don’t pull our hearts. We are drawn by the Holy Spirit. We are drawn by the love of Christ. We are drawn by
righteousness. We are
drawn by the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world. We love not
this world, but the kingdom of God. And so in the very real sense, we who are
in Christ have overcome the world. Verse 13 adds to our understanding of this. “Do
not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you.” You are so much not a part of
the world that you have become its enemy. You do not love the world, and it is
so evident to the world how alienated you are from it, that you are perceived
to be the enemy.
“Chapter
4 begins by reminding us, as you will remember, that many false prophets have
gone out into the world but we don’t listen to them. Verse 4, “You are from
God, little children, and have overcome them.” You talk about being an
overcomer, you have overcome Satan. You have overcome in defeating, triumphing
permanently over Satan the whole of the kingdom of darkness. All the demons and
all the demonic lies and falsehoods. You have overcome death and having overcome
death also overcome the power of sin and the penalty of the law. You have
overcome the world, in the sense that you don’t love it, in the sense that you
are so alienated from it that it perceives you as its enemy. You have overcome
the world also in the sense that you no longer are deceived by the false
prophets who ply their lies and deception in the world. But being from God and
having an anointing from God and knowing the truth, you have overcome false
teachers.
“Then
this great statement of verse 4 and chapter 4, “Because greater is He who is in
you than he who is in the world.” We are from God. And he who knows God listens
to us. This is an extensive identification of the believer. And we are not just
sort of barely overcomers. We didn’t just barely eke by. It is not a fragile
victory that we enjoy. We didn’t win by one point in overtime at the buzzer. We are super-conquerors.
And there never will be another game where we lose our victory. We are the
reigning champions and the championship which has been won for us in Christ is
a forever championship.
When
it says there in chapter 5 verse 4 that we have overcome the world, we’re
talking about the world – we’ll go back, we’ve talked about it a lot in John,
I’ll just briefly identify it. But what it is really saying is that we have
overcome the invisible spiritual system of evil. When we talk about the world
in the New Testament, we’re not talking about politics as such, we’re not
talking about education as such, we’re not talking about culture as such,
civilization, society. We’re not talking about human structures of any kind,
formal or informal. What we’re talking about is the spiritual system of evil
that exists without God, opposed to God, dominated by Satan, ruled by him as
the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world. It is the system
of Satan but it is also the system of man dominated by carnal ambition,
dominated by pride, dominated greed, dominated by self, dominated by pleasure,
by lust and desire, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of
life. It is a system by definition that is ignorant of God in open rebellion
against God, run by Satan set up on earth.
And
as a Christian we have overcome that. Literally the text says in verse 4, “Whatever
is born of God overcomes the world” – is continually overcoming the world.
Present tense, is continually overcoming the world. Very important that the
Greek uses that tense. It is habitual; it is permanent; it is ongoing. We are
permanently triumphant, permanently the conquerors. We can never lose. The
victory can never be taken from us. We may fail along the way. We may fall
victim to the enticements of the world here and there. We may lose some
skirmishes but the great war has been won. The victory is ours. That is a
settled fact forever, never to be altered. “We have been forever delivered,” Colossians 1:13, “from the domain of darkness and transferred
into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” We are no longer of the world, though
we are still in it. We do not love the world. The truest and purest part of us,
the new nature, the expression of the power of the Spirit of God in us drives
us toward God and toward the Kingdom of God and the love of God and the love of
His Word and obedience. The
world still assaults our fallen flesh and that’s why we long for the day of
resurrection. Philippians 3:20 puts
it this way. “Our citizenship is in heaven.” That’s where our hearts are.
That’s where our Father is. That’s where our Savior is. That’s where our name
is written. That’s where our room is being prepared. That’s where we’re headed.”
So
it looks like I will continue to quote from this sermon by John MacArthur as
there are so many truths in it that will help us live a life for Christ.
2/28/2025 7:00 PM
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