PT-7 Intro To: "How to Recognize an Overcomer" (1 John 5:1-5)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 03-04-2025

 

My Worship Time                              Focus:  PT-7 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?”

 

            I continue quoting from John MacArthur’s sermon in these verses.

 

            “Very clearly then what John is wrapping up here is that the first test to give evidence or proof that you’re an overcomer is your faith – is your faith. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ and all the fullness of that, you’re born of God. If you’re born of God, you’re overcoming the world. And what is it that makes you an overcomer? It’s your faith. It’s because you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. John just goes around and around that same great truth. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith – even our faith, hē pistis, our faith. The faith of us – the faith of us, now in the Greek, the faith of us. What does that mean? Could mean our personal act of faith. It also could mean the faith which is ours, the Christian faith. You say, which? I think both. I think there’s a purposeful ambiguity here. It is our faith in the true faith. Isn’t it? We talk about Christianity as the true faith, Don’t we? And we’re not talking about a subjective faith. We’re talking about an objective body of truth. Jude calls it “The faith once for all delivered to the saints, the Christian faith.” What is it that overcomes the world? It is that which makes us the children of God. What is it that makes us the children of God? It is believing that Jesus is the Christ. And what is that? That is believing in the revealed faith, a faith once for all delivered to the saints. So it is our faith in the Christian faith, it is our faith in the true faith that makes us overcomers.

            “Our victory then starts at the moment of our salvation and we are given a permanent faith that never ever runs out. Moments of questioning, moments of doubt – sure. And the Lord is gracious to us in our time of doubt. Doubt is a temptation. Doubt is a sin. But if you are a true Christian, doubt will always be a wrong response, a sinful response, because if you are God’s, your salvation is forever and so is the faith that He gave you. He has defeated every enemy. He has triumphed over Satan, demons, the kingdom of darkness, death, hell, sin, the law, the world, false teaching, and you are a super-conqueror, because you’ve been given a permanent faith. And that faith, for the one who is believing, is because you have been begotten of God. And having been born of God, as verse 4 says, you are an overcomer and your victory was gained by our faith. And who is the one, verse 5, who has overcome the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

            “In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we don’t have time to go there but what is the great commodity that is celebrated in Hebrews 11? Faith. “By faith” – and then you have all the heroes. Right? By faith Enoch, and by faith Abraham, and by faith Sarah, and by faith Moses, and on and on and on it goes. By faith, by faith, by faith and you come in to chapter 12, “We’re surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses,” and what do they witness to? They witness to the power and validity and permanence and strength and endurance of faith. You could do whatever you wanted to those people. You could saw them in half, Hebrews 11 says. You could martyr them in any form by any means and their faith endured – their faith endured. They literally are the heroes of the faith. Their faith was unbreakable.

            “Job summed it up, he said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” You can’t break my faith. And that was the great test. You know, Satan goes to God and say, “You know, You blessed Job and he worships You, but if You didn’t bless him, he’d hate You.” Well Satan doesn’t understand the enduring quality of saving faith which had been granted to Job. And so God said, “Go ahead, do whatever you want short of killing him, and you’ll see that nothing can separate him from Me, and nothing can break his faith.” And that’s exactly what happened. Satan went after him, destroyed his family, everything he owned and possessed, inflicted him with these terrible illnesses. “Though He slay me,” he says, “yet will I trust Him.”

            “You can’t destroy this faith. It endures. And that’s the message of Hebrews 11, you can read it on your own. By faith they went through the sword and the fire and all the other horrors of persecution and hatred and animosity from the world and Satan. But their faith was firm to the end, even though the chapter says they hadn’t received the full revelation of Christ that we’ve received. Nonetheless, enduring faith, unbreakable faith, unconquerable faith, overcoming faith is the evidence of regeneration and new life. So overcomers are characterized then by faith in the Son of God.

            “Now that’s just the first point, but I don’t want to go any further because I’ll get involved in that and keep you too long. Next time, next Sunday night we’re going to talk about the next two proofs or evidences that you’re an overcomer – love and obedience. Boy, the time does go rapidly, as we heard in the baptistery tonight. And it all goes so fast when you’re studying the Word of God.”

3/4/2025 11:49 PM