Divine provision for overcoming (Col. 3)

… 1 John, chapter 2, verse 13, I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Turn to chapter 4, we're going to read from verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Chapter 5, just two verses, verses 4 and 5. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Wonderful privilege to be here with you this evening to look at God's word together. You will have noticed in these three separate passages in the epistle of John that we have the thought of overcoming mentioned in each one. In fact there are five, I believe. It's not my purpose to expound these verses, but to speak of what I believe we find here, five divine provisions for overcoming. God doesn't ask us to do anything but what he gives us, the provision for it, the enablement for it. But we must be clear as to what that enablement is, what provisions he has given to us for overcoming. First of all, we say there's certainly a great need for overcoming. We have in all seven of the letters to the seven churches in Asia, Revelation 2 and 3, a word to the overcomer in each one of them. And there are precious promises that are given to the overcomers. But there's the appeal to the overcomer, showing that at every age, every period, the history of the professing church, there is need for overcoming. Now what is it that we need to overcome? We notice in our passages in the second chapter and in the fifth chapter, he speaks about overcoming the world. And also in the second chapter, to the young man he said, you have overcome the wicked one, Satan, the god and prince of this world. Then we read there about the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. That's the enemy within, the flesh within us. So we have a threefold enemy, the flesh, the world and the devil that needs to be overcome. I think we can all see this and we know it from experience. There's constantly the need for overcoming and we might be victorious. I want to be very simple tonight. I like to help young people and none of us are so old in the faith. I'm not talking about years now and how many years we're converted, but advancement in the faith. And I find that we need again and again to have the essentials of the Christian life brought before us. And if we're simple enough, if the children get it, the young people get it, well us older ones will get it too. Now, I'm going to start here with the fifth chapter. And we read in this fourth verse, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. There's mentioned again the world. Perhaps before I come into this divine provision here, we should say something about this world, this world system. John Bunyan, in that wonderful old book, Pilgrim's Progress, greatest allegory of the Christian life, he pictures how Christian started out on the road to the celestial city. He lost his burden of sin at the cross. That's the place. Then he started on this pilgrim way. And you may remember that he describes how a city called Vanity Fair was built right across the pathway of Christian. And he means to set forth how Satan, the one who brought sin into the universe, into the heavens, and then into the world of mankind in the Garden of Eden. He built this city to allure the pilgrim, to make him forget his pilgrimage. That after all, he had set out for the celestial city, representing heaven. And in this city were all kinds of things, Vanity Fair, a very apt name, appealing to the eye, to the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These two, Christian and hopeful, pressed right on. Well, this is just what it is. He had the right vision way back there in 1600, didn't he? Satan has built up a great world system to attract us, and it has everything that appeals to our fallen nature. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. They were in the Garden of Eden when Satan came to Adam and Eve. She saw these three things there, good for food, true to be desired to make one wise and pleasant taste. He brought these same things to our Lord Jesus Christ in these three temptations. He is our enemy. He's very treacherous, he's very cunning, and he knows that he has an ally right within us. This is the humiliating thing, isn't it? As one has said, the evil without would knock at our heart, and the evil within us would say, As one has said, the evil without would knock at our heart, and the evil within us would say, I like this. That is the flesh. It needs to be overcome. But we have these provisions. Now then, starting with verse 4, with the first provision. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. Very simple, positive statement. And I may say before we get into that, if you're not born again, you cannot overcome the world of Satan. You'll be overcome. This is the only way. Our Lord Jesus said, Except a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And there's no other way. A new birth. And you cannot accomplish this. Nicodemus, that learned man, teacher in Israel, he said, How can these things be? Man cannot bring it about, but God by his spirit brings it about, a new birth. If you've been born again, everyone here this afternoon, that's the starting point. When you believe the word of the gospel, the word about yourself, that you're a sinner, lost and undone, and that Christ is the perfect and complete Savior, that he's died for your sins on Calvary's cross, just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, and you believe, trust and commit your soul to him, you'll be born again by the Spirit of God. I like to repeat oftentimes this little word. Someone said to one, Why do you always preach you must be born again? And he answered and said, Well, because he must be born again. It's just that simple. It's just that. The Lord has said so, and it's a must imperative. But now then, when we're born again, what happened? Did we lose all temptation for sin? No, we received a new divine nature. As Peter puts it, we're made partakers of the divine nature. And John tells us in this third chapter here, verse 9, he says, Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he's born of God. Now, this might be a little puzzling, but remember, John is looking at the child of God according to the divine nature. He's not taking into account the old nature that is still there, which we need to overcome. We could say, whatsoever is born of God, the new nature that is born of God cannot sin. His seed remaineth in him. It's the nature of God. And isn't that a wonderful provision? We're born again, given a new nature. Oh, yes, we will soon discover that the old is still there. With all its capabilities, and it hasn't improved one bit. I remember when I was a young, newly saved, I used to look at some of the older brethren, and I'd say, My, it's wonderful when you get along like that and you don't have any trouble with the old nature. But I soon found out that wasn't so. And my hair, our white hairs are white now, what's left of them. And it's still just as bad as it ever was. The old nature within us. But, as we said the other night at the conference, Scripture teaches us we came to an end. Flesh before God has been ended at the cross of Christ. No use trying to improve that. But we're given the new nature. And it has new desires. New capabilities. Any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed away, all things have become new. Well, yes, you say that's very wonderful. But is that all there is to it? You may say, Well, I know I'm born again, but I do not find that I'm overcoming. I'm being overcome. Something like the picture of the man in the seventh of Romans. The good that I would do, I do not. But the evil that I would not do, that I do. O wretched man that I am. Yes, we'll find there's something else. And to be very practical, I believe we must look at it this way. We have the two natures within us. We must feed the new nature. That it may grow and be strengthened. And we must starve the old nature. That's part of the old man that's been cut off in the cross of Christ. So then, if we would be overcomers, we must feed and develop the new nature. And not go after the old nature. Now everything round about us is either feeding one or the other. In fact, everything in the world round about us would minister to the lusts of the fallen nature. God taught the children of Israel this lesson. At least they should have learned this. That the manna, the sustaining food came from heaven every day. They had one food to feed upon. And the Lord Jesus said, in John 6 as you know, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. He that eateth of me, and so on. So we must feed this new nature. And the food that the new nature delights in are the things of Christ. The things of God. The word of God is the food for the new nature. So if we would overcome, we must feed the new nature. And not feed the old. If we're going to feed both, we're going to have a struggle. It was illustrated to me, the years gone by, that a believer is like, could be likened to a dog and an eagle chained together. The eagle likes to fly up and soar away into the heavenlies. The dog likes to grovel around the earth, digging up earthly things. Now if you feed the dog, you'll be starving the eagle. And the dog will be strong and drag the eagle around. But if you feed the eagle, representing the new nature, and starve the dog, the eagle will get strong and soar up and carry the dog along with him. And there'll be the victory. You can see the lesson. So we're born again, we have the capabilities of enjoying the things of God. This is wonderful, you know. The unsaved person cannot enjoy the things of God. They that are in the flesh cannot please God. The flesh is opposed to God. But we have the new nature that enjoys the heavenly things, enjoys fellowship, and it needs to be developed and fed. Well that's point number one here. The second, he says, this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Here's another wonderful thing. Faith is given to us. Faith that believes God. You know, we have that whole wonderful 11th chapter of Hebrews on faith and the heroes of faith. The warriors of faith are given to us there. And we read that he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. This is what faith does. Well we're told in scripture that the faith to lay hold of the Lord Jesus, by which we're saved, is not of ourselves. Man is an unbeliever. Man is an unbeliever. And even as believers, my brother said once, what unbelieving believers we are. We have to say to one, Lord, help my faith, help our faith. Faith needs to be strengthened and developed. It is the gift of God. It's not of ourselves, we're told that. It's not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. But then we also read in Romans 10 that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Wonderful thing. The word of God is given to us. Develops faith. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing the word of God. So we have faith. Otherwise we wouldn't have been saved. Faith to believe God. It takes him at his word. But faith is not only given to us to believe God and to salvation. The apostle Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians 5 and he says we walk by faith and not by sight. So there again, it's very practical. We must exercise faith. We must walk by faith and not by sight. And then we'll be overcomers. There are many temptations. And when we're young or maybe older also, there are practical problems. Decisions to make as to school, as to employment, vocations in life and all of these various things. How are we going to decide where we go, what we do? Well, the principle of faith is so important. To walk by faith. If we have a desire to please the Lord and that's the new nature within us. We want to please the Lord. Well, it's not going to be so easy. There may be professions and things that we have to do. Certain things and we ought to have an exercise conscience. Void of offense toward God and toward man. And want to grow and develop in our Christian life. Say, well, if I take this position in the first place. There's no assembly of the Lord's people that we know that I can have fellowship with. He'll take me away and I'll lose out. Well, Satan will tell us and the flesh within us will tell us, you're going to lose out. Look at the lucrative opportunity you have here. Good salary, chance for advancement and many things like that. You say no. You can only do that by faith in God. You can only do that by faith in God. As we said already in Hebrews 11 says, Do you believe that God will reward faith and taking a position for his honor and glory? And may cost you something at the moment? Do you believe he will honor? He will. And he wants you to prove him. God likes us to prove him. He will never disappoint a trusting soul. Doesn't say he's always going to give us everything we'd like. He's promised to supply at once. But I've seen this again and again where the Lord rewards faithfulness. Where we take a stand by faith and overcome the temptations. Satan to draw us aside and pull us down in our souls. Time fails to give illustrations and you know, many of you, older ones have experienced these things. Know how God comes in. So we would encourage you to walk by faith. Take God at his word. Take the promises. You know, promises in the Bible are just like checks. They're only good if you cash them in. You can have a whole stack of them in your room and a drawer and look at them every once in a while. They won't do you any good unless you cash them. And so with the promises of God, you must cash them. Act upon them. Take God at his word and you'll prove his goodness. To have faith in the goodness of the Lord. In the 27th Psalm, the psalmist said, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I call that the persuasion of faith. I found recently a dish of peas there too in that lovely psalm. And that's one of them. The persuasion of faith. Well, we need to move on. Faith. What does faith do? It brings us, I believe, to the next thing we have here in this little verse. These two verses. The third thing. Verse 5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? Faith puts us in touch with the Lord Jesus. The Son of God. The almighty, all-powerful one. He says, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is so essential, first of all, of course. Jesus is not just a man. He's the man Christ is. He's the man Christ Jesus, the Son of God. The creator and sustainer of the universe. But I want to make a practical application of this. I'm not going to give a theological explanation here, but make it very practical and living as I have enjoyed it. Faith puts us in touch with the Lord Jesus, the Son of God in the heavens. And he is the great overcomer. Faith would set him before us as the example, as the source of all strength, all our resources in him. As one of the Psalms says, we sang in that hymn this afternoon, this evening, all my springs are in thee. That's what faith does. Gives us to look up, puts us in touch with Jesus, the Son of God. Now what does he say? The end of John 16, I think it is, he says, in the world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. He's gone through all this scene. And I dare say no one could have been tested and tried more than he. Oh, you read that chapter in the Gospels where the Pharisees came and the Sadducees and the lawyers and all. And they all tried to trick him up, so to say, brought fantastic things to him, imposterous situations. And he answered them all, and you read at the end of that chapter, and after that, no man dare ask him anything. When I read that whole chapter, I think of the word in Hebrews, who endured such contradiction of sinners against him. Yes, we'll meet up with all kinds of things, and it'll get worse as men and women have less and less and hardly no faith in God and in his word. You know, this scene is really preparing for the Antichrist. The devil is working and shaping everything up for the Antichrist, because when the rapture takes place, it'll soon all be over with. Things will happen tremendously fast, so they have to get all ready before. Well, the Lord Jesus overcame, and he tells us in the promise to our own day, Laodicea, Revelation 3, He that overcometh, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne. He reminds us, doesn't he, in this very day of Laodicea, the promise to the overcomer in Laodicea, he reminds us that he has overcome. The world cast him out, but he is set down with the Father in his throne. He says, if you overcome, I'll grant you to sit with me on my throne when he sits on the thrones of this world as King of kings and Lord of lords. Wonderful, encouraging promise. But how does this work out in real practical help? Well, it causes us to look up and away from the things down here, and we have the Lord before us, as has been pointed out in the meetings we've been having recently, conference and all. Have the Lord before us and see him as the all available one. And I like to think of it like this, a real homely, simple illustration. Sometimes, you know, you go about and young people know something of this, and we like to be adventuresome and go somewhere and you find a little creek or a bloody body of water. You've got to cross, get across, and there's no bridge there. You want to get over to the other side. You see a stone here and one over there and another one. And you say, I don't know if I can make it. I don't want to slip and fall in the water. But then one of your pals steps out and he gets across. Oh, it was a little slippery, a little rugged, but he made it. He's an overcomer. He overcame the difficulties and he stands in the other side and says, come on, you can do it. You can do it. So you are encouraged, aren't you? You look at the one who overcame. He got across. You say, well, I'll get across too. So just in that simple way, it seems to me, if we have one before us who has overcome, it encourages us to press on too amidst the difficulties. And so we look at the Lord Jesus, who is the Son of God, who has overcome all the way in this life, and he has sat down. He has run the whole course. So he's spoken of in Hebrews 12 as the author and finisher of faith. This encourages us. And he says, looking unto Jesus, he makes application of it, doesn't he? And you know, faith is so important there. You have all these wonderful things in the epistle to the Hebrews. The first 10 chapters giving us about the person and the work and the place in the heavenly sanctuary where he is and where we can draw near into the holiest of all to worship. Did you ever stop to think then, why does that 11th chapter of Hebrews on faith come in just there? Because he shows this is only made good to you by faith. You can only enjoy his work and his person and the heavenly sanctuary that is our place. We can only enjoy that by faith. And so he brings before us all these worthies of faith who got the victory, some even in death, they got victory. By overcoming, they were overcomers. Now, let us go to the second chapter for the fourth provision for overcoming. We've had three here. Born again, received a new nature. Secondly, faith, the gift of faith. Thirdly, faith that has the Lord Jesus, the great overcomer before us. Now here in the second chapter, he's writing to the young men. Verse 13, I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked one. Many wonderful things in this passage here, but I'm just concerned with this afternoon with the thought of the provision for overcoming. And he says to the young men that they had overcome the wicked one. Then in the 14th verse, how did they overcome? This is what we want to get a hold of. He says, I have written unto you young men because you're strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one. This is what made the young men strong spiritually. This is what made the young men strong spiritually. And he's referring to them now as the babes in Christ, the little children and the young men in the family of God and then the fathers. But to the young men, they were strong because the word of God abode in them. And you have overcome the wicked one. So here's another provision, isn't it? We have somewhat anticipated already when we refer to the promises of God, the word of God. Isn't this a wonderful provision that we have the word of the living God? And the Bible, the holy scriptures should become more precious and wonderful to us. We ought to do like Ezekiel who was told to eat the roll. Eat the book. Eat it up. Feed on it. And then it will abide in you and control your life. And you will order your steps according to the word. As the psalmist in 119 psalms said, order my steps in thy word. There's no other way to get victory in the Christian life. But by giving the word of God a great place in our lives, in our hearts. Read the word and pray. There are no substitutes for that. And the more you go into this wonderful book, the more you will love it. And then seek to practice it and find how it works out. Be like the old lady that Spurgeon visited. And she had alongside of passages in her Bible T and P. This aroused his interest. He said to her, what's all this here? T and P over here and over here. Oh, she said, that means tried and proven. That's good practical Christianity, isn't it? Read the word. Try it. Prove it. And you'll be able to write there too, T and P. And you'll prove the promises of God. And they fill your soul. They feed the new nature. Strengthen faith. And that's the only way to overcome Satan. By the word of God. What did the Lord Jesus do? Satan tempted him for 40 days. He had nothing said about that further. But then we have three temptations that were brought to him. And how did he answer? It is written. It is written. It is written. Now, when Satan came and he caught on, he says, oh, you can quote the Bible. I can quote scripture too. Don't forget, Satan knows the Bible. But you better watch out when Satan starts quoting scripture to you. You better listen carefully. You better check and double check. He cannot quote the scriptures just as they are. He left out, I think, five words of that scripture quotation. He came to the Lord. He says, it is written. He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee. But he left out, in all thy ways. And the Lord answered him. That trickery thing he pulled. The Lord said, it is written. Shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And he referred to the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy. It's so wonderful about the word of God. We should write it on our doorposts. Have it before us when we rise up and when we lie down. And he said, it is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That's inspiration, isn't it? Proceeding out of the mouth of God. That's what the real rendering in 2 Timothy is. Every scripture is inspired or God breathed. Come right from God. We ought to be anxious to want to get as close to the original scriptures as possible. What God really said. The Lord said, how readest thou? You should read carefully. And notice what is said and what isn't said. Well, we can meet. Satan's temptations with the word of God. I'll make a strong and overcome. And then there was the danger to love the world. So he says to the young men now, love not the world. It passes away. It has nothing new. Once you taste the joys of the Lord and serving him and doing his will. You can say like the words of the hymn writer or with the words of the hymn writer. Oh, worldly pomp and glory. Your charms are spread in vain. I've heard a sweeter story. I've found a truer game. We come to the fifth now. In the fourth chapter. He speaks of overcoming again. And here. It was the spirit of error. That was abroad. They had to try the spirits. He said many false. Prophets are gone on into the world. But he says hereby, you know, the spirit of God. But to come right to our fifth provision for overcoming. It's found in the fourth verse. He says, you are of God, little children and have overcome them. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Who's in us? The spirit of God. The spirit of God. As he says in verse two. This is how we know the spirit of God. The spirit of God gives a clean cut confession. As to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is. And anything else is of the Antichrist. Who will set himself up. As a man of sin to be worshiped. But he says, you have overcome these false teachers. Because greater is he that is in you than he's in the world. The spirit of error. Greater is he that is in you than he's in the world. The spirit of error. Is in the world. Spirit of the Antichrist. But the spirit of the living God. Is dwelling in every child of God. Born by the Holy Spirit. And he's the power. Many scriptures speak of this. And how wonderful this is, beloved. That in addition to a new nature. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. I don't think I need to prove that. In this audience from the scriptures. It's a fact of scripture. When you believe the gospel of your salvation. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And this is unto the day of redemption. The spirit of God dwells in the believer. But as one of our brothers said once. He should not just be resident. In our life. He should be president. If we want to get victory. We need to walk in the spirit. As we're told in Romans 8. As many as are led by the spirit of God. They are the sons of God. And in Galatians. If he walk in the spirit. He shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. This is the way of victory. To overcome. This all nature. We will find that. I believe we can say. Looking at Romans 7. That in one way. The old nature is stronger than the new nature. But we're given the power. The Lord said you shall be endued with power. From on high. And all that the Lord Jesus did. In his life. He did as a dependent man. In the power of the Holy Spirit. He was anointed of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon him. And he is our example. Then you see. He was a dependent man. And he walked in the power of the Holy Spirit. So if we would get victory. If we would be overcomers. We must walk in the spirit. And the first thing is. The spirit of God. Will give due place to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is much that claims to be of the spirit of God. But you watch it. You examine it. And is it exalting Christ. Or the flesh. What is it making much of? If I may talk much about the Holy Spirit. And then believe that I can lose my salvation. This is a dishonor. To my savior. This is doubting his ability to save and to keep. And save us to the uttermost. All the way home. I believe in an all the way home savior. So do you. He is able to keep. Even from stumbling. The word of God says. So we need to test. These things. Try the spirit he says. But the spirit of God. Magnify Christ. Make much of him. A little of ourselves. To put us in the proper place. I think of the scripture in Ephesians. It says strengthen with might. By his spirit in the inner man. We need that divine strength. And it's found there in him. How many times we read in the book of Acts. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. One baptism of the Holy Spirit. At Pentecost. We come into that baptism. Baptized by one spirit into the body of Christ. But many fillings. Many fillings. Be filled. May be filled today. And. Need to get filled tomorrow again. Constantly going on. And there's the power. There's the power for overcoming. Victory. You have overcome them because greater is he. That is in you. And he that is in the world. So here we have these four. So here we have these five wonderful provisions. For overcoming. Born again. Where we receive the new nature. But we must feed it. We're given faith. We must walk by faith. Develop faith. And I'm reminded just. With this little. Thought. That brings us home. One wrote. In a little. Couplet. Yesterday he helped me. Today I'll praise his name. For I know that tomorrow. He'll help me just the same. This is what experience and faith. Proves you see. You prove the Lord. Your faith is strengthened. For something else. Maybe something harder. And further. So. Walking by faith. Then. Thirdly. We are put in touch with Jesus. The great overcomer. Having him before us. As the example. Faith. Would keep him before us. A person. Fourthly. We have the word of God. But it must dwell in us. Control us. It doesn't say. You know the Bible from cover to cover. We may know it in our head. But how much is in our heart. And how much gets in our feet. To walk it out with our feet. Then we know it. Then fifthly. The spirit of God. Dwelling in us. To walk in the spirit. But we mustn't grieve the Holy Spirit. Or quench the Holy Spirit. Then he's not going to help us. Then we have to confess. And on where we failed. But he is the power. He is the power. May God help us. To prove. His wonderful help. And strengthening. …