Amen. I want to remind you of a couple of words that we just sang before we pray and enter into our study. I turn to wisdom not my own for every battle you have won. My confidence will rest in you. Your love endures. Your ways are good. Every battle you have won. That is our theme every day. The battle is the Lord's and he is the victor every time, all the time. Let's join our hearts together in prayer. Father, thank you for the privilege that we have to worship you. Help us as we study your word that we would draw near to you. that your spirit would engage our human spirit, that we would be responsive by your grace. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. 1 John chapter 5, please. 1 John chapter 5. It has become a trend in the NBA to kind of join forces and make super teams. Like we can't just have like a team that has like 11 or 15 players, whatever it is, and they're just all normal players. They've got to get all the superstars on the same team. This is what the Miami Heat did for four years. It was fairly successful for them. They went to the championship game or championship round four years in a row. The whole time they had their super team together. Other teams are following like they want. to have the best team. They want to get all the best players and keep them all on one team so that there can be this winning team. The reason is, quite natural, we all want to win. If we have the choice between winning and losing, we choose winning. Don't we? Isn't that your natural inclination? You're playing a board game. You'd rather win than lose. You're in a spelling bee. You'd rather win than lose. Whatever it is, we'd prefer to win. I have a little secret for you. I know who's going to win. Do you know him? Do you know who's going to win? Because he already has one. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the victor. And so the question we have before us this morning is, are you an overcomer? Are you an overcomer? Another name for Christians, another name for believers, another name for born-again believers is overcomers. Let's look, please, at the passage we have before us this morning, which is 1 John 5, beginning in verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. John is convinced He's convinced that born-again believers are overcomers. They are. It's not a question. It's not doubtful. The one who has trusted in Jesus Christ is, in fact, an overcomer. There are 28 instances of the word overcomer in our New Testament. Four of them are outside of John's writings. That means 24 are left, all in John's writings. He likes the word, Overcomer. He likes the title, Overcomer. We're going to take a couple of moments and we're going to look at some of these instances, not all of them, but some of these instances to get a feel for what he's trying to tell us that an Overcomer is, and who exactly are these Overcomers. Revelation chapter 2, please. Revelation chapter 2. Are you an overcomer? Revelation 2 and verse 7. We're going to try to move somewhat quickly through these because we're just getting the flavor. We're not doing an exhaustive study of any of these verses. Verse 7. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Who is this one? Where is this place? And what is this fruit? Those who have eternal life will be in the paradise of God. Those who are God's children will eat of that tree of life. Believers are overcomers. Chapter 2, now in verse 11. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. What is the second death? Eternal, everlasting judgment. That's what the second death is. Who is it that will not be hurt by the second death? Those who have received a second birth. I know it's just a cliche, and I try to stay away from cliches, but here it is. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. Overcomers will not be hurt by the second death. Born twice, Only die physically one time, and then it's all glory. Overcomers are believers. Chapter 2 and verse 17, please. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. Anyone ever sing a song, I have a new name written down in glory? Well, I don't know if it's mine, but I'll have it. It may be someone else's name, however. The overcomer is a believer in Jesus Christ. The overcomer is a born-again believer. Let's follow it a little further. Verse 26. We'll start in verse 25 for a little context. But hold fast what you have until I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also have received from my Father." Who is it that's going to rule and reign with Christ? Are only a select group of believers? Or is every believer in Jesus Christ going to rule and reign with Him? So the question is, are you an overcomer? Are you an overcomer? Chapter 3, please, in verse 5. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. Who are these people? Believers in Jesus Christ are the ones that are draped in Christ's righteousness, the white robes. Believers in Jesus Christ are the ones who God, who Jesus will proclaim as His brethren before the Father and before the holy angels. Take a look a little further, verse 12 now of chapter 3. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name." Who are these overcomers? Well, John tells us it's those who trust in Christ, that Jesus is the Christ. All of those who trust that Jesus is the Christ, that one, everyone is born of God. That's what he told us at the beginning of chapter 5 in verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Every believer, by John's definition, is an overcomer. Sometimes we don't feel like we're overcomers. Chapter 3 and verse 21, to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne. I want you to think about that for a moment. Hold on to that statement. And I want to remind you of what the Apostle Paul said in Colossians 3.1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is. Okay, it's good that Christ is there. What else does he say? Set your affection on things above, and not on things of the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden in Christ, with God, or with Christ in God. Isn't that what he just said? To him who overcomes, I will grant you sit with me on my throne. And Paul said, everyone who trusts Jesus Christ is in him with God. So we have this beautiful symmetry between Paul and John because God, the Holy Spirit really is the author of scripture, isn't he? Those who are overcomers, those who are believers are overcomers. In what way have we become overcomers? This is a very important question. So we're still talking about overcoming, because that's the heart of 1 John 5, 1 through 5, is a faith that overcomes. In what way then do we become overcomers? I want to remind you of the words of someone you like. At least I hope you like him. His name is Jesus. And he said something to his disciples in John 16, 33. These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. Listen carefully, but be of good cheer. I have tribulation. Overcome the world. Friends, the victory, the overcoming that we have is not of our own doing, of our own resources, of our own obedience, of our own goodness, or our own kind. It is an overcoming that comes from another. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. This is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Take a look at chapter 12 of Revelation. You're already in the book of Revelation. Look at chapter 12, beginning in verse 7. The picture is of a time future. John is having a vision by God of the future, and here's what he writes. And a war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail. Big surprise to us. Nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation! and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they did not love their lives to the death therefore rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell in them woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows he has a short time. What was the source of the victory, friends? The blood of the lamb. Look at verse 11 again. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. The source of victory is not us. Take a look at chapter 17 in verse 14. 17. 14. It says, then these will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them. I think we're surprised. Are you ever surprised when the Lamb wins? Are you ever surprised when God wins? These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and those who are with Him are called chosen and faithful. One more about this. Chapter 21 of the book of Revelation. The beautiful picture that the Apostle John paints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, the new earth, And God dwelling with his people in verse three. Verse four, God wiping away every tear in everyone's eyes. Verse seven now. He who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. Brother, sister, who are the overcomers? The super saints? the spiritual champions, the LeBron James of the spiritual world, the Michael Jordans of the spiritual world, the Peyton Mannings, the Tom Brady's, the Eli Mannings, whatever you want to call it. Are the superstars the ones that are the overcomers? Why not? Because our resources get us nowhere. our resources fail. Listen, you wake up in the morning and you go through the day. When you see failure, you can look yourself square in the face and say, this is because you're in control. On the flip side, you wake up in the morning and you have a good day and you see the fruit of the Spirit abounding in your life, and you're loving your wife and your children the way you ought to, and you're the right kind of employee at work that you should be, and on the road you're not a maniac raging, you can look yourself in the mirror and say, thank God you weren't in control today. An overcomer is one who trusts in the right source. This is why John said in 1 John 4, 4, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them. Because he who is in the world, excuse me, he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. It comes back to the one who has all authority. Remember Jesus said something about that. God has given me all authority in heaven and earth. Go therefore in that authority. Go and live in that authority. Take a look back in 1 John now, chapter 5. So here's the question we have before us. Because we see the victory. We kind of stole the thunder here. The overcomer is not us. The overcomer is Jesus Christ. He's the victor. And the time that we are the overcomers is because we're found in Him. So the question we have to ask ourselves as we read the passage is this. How do we know if we have an overcoming faith? How do we know if we have an overcoming faith? How do we know we're part of this that's portrayed here? I think that's what John is answering for us in these five verses. And that's what we want to try to look at in the brief time we have together. We're going to look at it in, I think, four segments. The first answer of how do we know we have an overcoming faith is this. Overcoming faith is based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. Overcoming faith is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Let's look at this just for a moment. We're going to look through this passage, because we need to feel this. I know we're not much about touchy-feely stuff around here, but you need to feel this. Verse 1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who was begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? who believes that Jesus is the Christ. Now, if you isolate it down, which is the way we usually view things, and we just look at verse 4, we usually isolate things down to little segments and we strip them apart and then we don't have any meaning. This is one of our problems, is we are bad interpreters when we strip things down to one single verse. And we just read verse 4 and we say, hey, look it, my faith is what helps me to overcome. Wrong. That's wrong. Faith in faith gets you nowhere. There are a lot of people that have a lot of faith. And they're still going to reside separate from God in the lake of fire for eternity. And it's a horrific thought to us. Faith in faith accomplishes nothing. Hmm. We are not victorious because we have faith. We are victorious because of the object of our faith. John could not make this any more clear. He starts in verse one by telling us to believe that Jesus is the Christ. He ends in verse 5 by saying, Who is He who overcomes the world, but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? He focuses our attention not on faith itself, but on the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. Do not deceive yourselves and do not be deceived. Faith doesn't do anything unless It is founded upon the rock. And that rock is Jesus Christ. Friend, upon whom are you staking your everything? Upon what do you stake your life? I'm not talking about your retirement. I'm not talking about what are you staking on paying your mortgage next month. I am talking about what do you stake the most important element of who you are? What do you stake that on? Your future. It's an eternal future. Everyone's soul lives forever. No one's soul ever dies. Souls last for eternity. What are you staking your soul on? It had better be Jesus Christ, because faith in faith He doesn't get it done. Faith in Christ does. Here's what the Apostles said in Acts 4.12. Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men. Can you say the rest with me? Whereby we must be saved. Must! Must be saved. In the name of Jesus Christ. Let's listen to the words of the Apostle Peter, if you would. Turn with me to Matthew 16. Matthew 16. Overcoming faith is based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's not based on me. It's not based on a church. It's not based upon a tradition. It's not based upon a doctrine. It's based upon a person. His name, I love to hear it, is Jesus. It's the name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Do you believe that? This is the name upon which we stand. He's the one we trust. Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13. Jesus asks them a question. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I am, that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist and some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. the Christ, the Messiah. Everyone that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That's what John said. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus responds, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Do you know what that means? That God is the one that unlocks the key. He unlocks the door, opens the eyes to see the glory of Jesus Christ, and to understand that life is found in Him. Faith in faith accomplishes nothing. Faith in Christ changes the world. More specifically, it will change you. And it will change me. An overcoming faith is based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. We go forth, friends, we go forth for the sake of His name. That's an overcomer. Let's look back at 1 John chapter 5 and we want to see another element that tells us that we are the overcomers. whether you are an overcomer. The one who possesses overcoming faith loves God. Very simple. The one who possesses overcoming faith loves God. Look, again, he doesn't leave us with any wriggle room here. There's no option here. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves him who begot, everyone who loves him who begot, that's talking about the Father, right? So he's kind of putting it in a conditional way. Look at verse two. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God. How about verse three? For this is the love of God. This is how we know we have love for God. It goes without saying that God's children love Him. John has already told us this in the last chapter, in verse 19. We love Him because He first loved us. Take a look again at another passage from the Gospels, Matthew 23. Matthew 23. It goes without saying that God's children love Him. While you're turning, I want you to think about this for a moment. Do you ever feel that your love for God has grown dim? Do you ever feel the love not expanding but contracting? At a time, in a moment, for a week, or for a month, do you ever feel that? I don't think any believer has gone through their entire life thinking at every moment, I'm always expanding and my love for God is just growing all the time, every day, every second. Sometimes we wane in our love and it's a little discouraging. What do you do in the face of that? I don't know if this is the right answer, but I'll tell you what I do. Lord, help me to love you more. What's the source of love? God, because God is love. Where does love come from? The Spirit. Do you think that loving God is something God wants us to do? Yea or nay? Yes? Does God answer prayers in accordance with His will? God, help me to love you more. I think that's a prayer that God will answer. In fact, I know it is. In Matthew 23, a lawyer comes to Jesus. They've been questioning Him already. A lawyer comes to Jesus and asks this question. You're very familiar with it. Matthew 22 and verse 37. The lawyer says in verse 36, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, for this is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Let me ask you a question. Does God want his people to love him? Is love for God an evidence of one who's born of God? Yes, it is. An overcomer, the one who possesses an overcoming faith, loves God. Secondly, heading back to 1 John 5, there's another element of evidence for those who are the overcomers. The one who possesses overcoming faith loves God's children. Loves God's children. Well, Jesus' answer to the lawyer's question kind of touches on this, doesn't it? Love your neighbor as yourself. Can you like do that? Can you love your neighbor as yourself? I'm serious. If your neighbor has no food and you have one can of beans left, And that's it. Can you say, you know what, let's split this, me and you. That's loving your neighbor as yourself. Because you're hungry, and he's hungry. That is not natural. If you have eight million cans of beans, tossing them to seven cans is no issue. But if you've got one can of beans left and you're both hungry, splitting that thing is not happening of our own accord. Listen, if I had a lot, I would certainly help you out. But I only have one left. So I guess one of us is going to have to figure something out, right? So we're not talking here about a natural growing kind of love where we, okay, I'm more self-sacrificial this year than I was last year. We're talking about a supernatural love that is, like, real. That self-sacrifice. Take a look again at verse 1. I know we've read it several times. I tell you, I read this passage, verses 1 through 5, several hundred times this week. There's some interesting things in this passage. Verse one, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of him, and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. Now, a reading of that could be, you think, okay, well, Jesus is the only begotten of the father, right? So we could take it that way, but he takes the mystery out of it by saying in verse two, by this we know that we love the children of God. So it's not talking at the end of verse one about Jesus, the begotten, the only begotten. He's talking about the one who is begotten of God, the born of God, doesn't only love God, but he loves everyone that's born of God. So he loves other born-again believers in Christ. He takes that mystery right out of the equation for us. There's no doubt. By this we know that we love the children of God. Now it's very interesting. When you read verse two, I read this, I have no idea how many times I read this, and I was scratching my head, and I wanted to say, well, I'm not gonna talk about 1 John chapter five on Sunday, because I really don't know what this means. And I was so thankful the light bulb came on, because it really is not hard. For some reason, I complicated it, and I was trying to find some mysterious thing going on in this verse. Verse two, by this we know that we love the children of God. when we love God and keep his commandments. At first glance, I think that's a little confusing. But what he's doing here is he's just turning around a statement that he made at the end of chapter four. Look what he says at the end of chapter four, verse 20. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. So what he tells us at the end of chapter four is, you say you love God, right? Yes. But if you hate your brother, you're really lying because you can't say you love God whom you haven't seen when the people that God has begotten, you don't love them. This is a problem. And then he gets us into the next one. He says, instead of saying, I love God, he says, here's how we know we love the children of God. When we love God and keep his commandments. Why is that connected? There's an interconnectedness. Listen carefully here. To know that we love God's children, we must know that we love God. We know that we love God when we keep his commandments. This is what he told us in John 14. If you love me, keep my commandments. So the tangible evidence of loving God is keeping his commandments. The tangible evidence of loving God's children is keeping God's commandments. You want to know why? Because you can't love God, you can't keep God's commandments, and you can't love the children of God without supernatural help. It's impossible. All three of them are impossible. We come once again to the radical nature of grace. Grace is not, hey, I'm better today than I was yesterday. That is our conception. That is not God's conception. Here's the radical nature of grace. When we are controlled by grace, we live perfectly. When we are controlled by grace, we love perfectly. When we are controlled by grace, we obey perfectly. Being controlled by grace, friends, listen carefully, is the same thing as being spirit-filled, is the same thing as walking by faith, is the same thing as putting on Christ, is the same thing as the Old Testament concept, the fear of the Lord. They're all the same concept. And when I am walking in the power of the Spirit, or walking by faith, or walking by grace, any one of those descriptors you want to put on it, when I am walking in the power of the Spirit, I obey God. When I'm walking in the power of the Spirit, I love God. When I'm walking in the power of the Spirit, I love God's children. When I'm not walking in the power of the Spirit, I don't love God. I do not keep His commandments and I do not love God's children. Because it is a supernatural love we're talking about, not one that we can mirror. We try to mirror it because we've learned what it looks like. We have recall and say, okay, yes, this is what it's supposed to look like and this is the way we're supposed to do it. And so we go about that, and sometimes we mirror it for a long enough time, we get used to that being what love looks like, and what love is. And it's not supernatural love. It's my own manifestation of a manufactured love, because I've learned what it's like. Listen, when we are filled with the power of the Spirit, real love comes out. For God, for His children, and obedience comes out. This is what happens. So John is saying here, We know we love God's children and we love Him and keep His commandments because they're all related to the same thing. Dependence upon God to accomplish what we cannot accomplish. Is this clear? Somewhat. That was kind of like a, yeah, yeah. Is this clear? Okay. To live in disobedience to God, listen carefully to this, to live in disobedience to God, is the greatest disservice we can bring to the church and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Because when we're living in disobedience, we can't love them because we don't love God. They are related. Love is a gift. Faith is a gift. Service is a gift. Obedience is a gift. It's a gift of God's grace, and it is constantly employed in the life of the one who renders himself to God. It's not me, but you. How do we know if we have an overcoming faith? First of all, overcoming faith is based upon the person and work of Christ. Secondly, the one who possesses overcoming faith loves God. Thirdly, the one who possesses overcoming faith loves God's children. Here's a fourth one. I love this. I think you're going to enjoy this. The one who possesses overcoming faith is not burdened by God's commands. Is not burdened by God's commands. Here's what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that God's commands don't apply. I'm not saying that God's commands are passé. I'm not saying that God's commands don't matter. I'm not even contrasting between Old Testament commands and New Testament commands. Because just so you know, while there are 619 commands in the Mosaic Law, there are 1,050 commands in the New Testament. So God is not, like, not caring about commands. He didn't say, well, I've become a new God now that Jesus came. He's the same God. Yesterday, today, and forever. He doesn't ever change. The one who loves God, that means he's empowered by the Spirit, is not weary of God's commands. Look again at verse 3. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. Burdensome! What do we mean by burdensome? Well, we have grievous, I think, in the King James Version. His commandments are not grievous. I don't feel this heavy weight. What am I going to do? Now, we had our children watch John Bunyan on Tuesday. John Bunyan wrote a book, remember, called The Pilgrim's Progress? And this Christian, his name was Christian, had a heavy weight on him. He was burdened. And this is how he felt about God and His commandments. I can't do this. I am unable. Listen, this is the way we should feel. I am incapable. Yes, correct. I am burdened down. But the believer doesn't feel burdened down by God's commands. But there are many who have faith of some variety and they are wearied of God's commands. I'll remind you of a few of them. In Matthew 23 and verse 4, Jesus said, for they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move with them with one of their fingers." You know, what is he saying? The Pharisees, the religious people, then and now, they're very, very capable of talking about all of God's requirements and trying to extract those requirements out of people and browbeating people and making people feel, this is how I picture it, handcuffed and cowering as if this God is an ogre in the sky ready to crash down upon them when they disobey his commands. This is how many people view God. Friends, that is a false God. That's not my God, the one that's described there. Does that mean that God doesn't judge? He does judge. But just remember this, for the one who has overcoming faith, all of your sins have already been judged in Jesus Christ. Well, so what do we say here? We look at the scribes and Pharisees and they're trying to extract heavy burdens. And sometimes when we're Preaching God's Word, we're trying to do the same exact thing. You must be like this, and you must think like this, and you must do these things, or you're not a Christian. Well, let's compare and contrast that with Jesus' words in Matthew 11, verse 28 and following. Come to me, listen carefully, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest in your souls for my yoke is easy And my burden is light. I wanna ask you a question about this. Did God simply let up? Hey, listen, don't worry about those things. Don't worry about sin. Don't worry about the things I've told you to do. It's all right, I'll take care of it. You just go do what you wanna do. This is some people's conception of grace. That's not God's conception of grace. You know what Jesus just said? See this yoke? It ties two ox together, oxen. It ties them together. Hey, take my yoke upon you. I'll drag you along. I'll take all the stress. I'll take all the burden. I'll take all the weight. Just come with me. You gotta stick your head in the yoke. Come to me. I will do it. The burden, friends, is gone. The yoke is easy. The burden is light because He pulls the sled. And here I am. I say, Lord, here I am. I'm yours. His commandments are not burdensome. I wonder if you feel weary under the weight of the Word of God. Do you? You feel weary under the weight of the Word. When you read, you think, man, I really wanted to do this, and now this is saying I can't do it. Friend, I want to tell you, give it up. God will help you. He'll help you to not be burdened by that any longer. But you have to take His yoke upon you. His burden is easy. when you're yoked to Him. The burden is light when you're yoked to Him. If you're trying it on your own, guess what? The burden is not so easy. In fact, it's impossible. It's impossible. You cannot fulfill the demands of the Word of God. It's impossible. In Christ, however, it is very possible. In fact, it is. It's a sure thing. Grace makes all the difference. Jesus makes all the difference. Rather than our feeble attempts to fulfill God's purpose, God enables us to do exactly what He desires. I've shared this short poem with you before, but it fits in very nicely here. Some people have attributed it to John Bunyan. Others, other people, I really have no idea. I'm not a historian. Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings. It bids us fly and gives us wings. I can't think of a better description of grace and gospel than this. Because grace is not God saying, listen, stay there and be a slob the rest of your life. That is not God's grace. God's grace says, here's the standard. I will help you meet this standard. You will meet this standard. You will look like Jesus Christ. You will think like Jesus Christ. You will speak like Jesus Christ. You will do like Jesus Christ. The Gospel tells us not only what the standard looks like, but it enables us to meet the standard. Whereas the Law, what it does, is it binds these burdens and says, figure it out. You can preach Law out of the Old Testament. You can preach Law out of the New Testament. The Law is everywhere. Wherever you see a command, you see Law. And you see grace everywhere too, because wherever there's a command, God says, I will help you do this. Do you see grace on the pages of scripture? If you don't, you're missing the picture. Here in first John chapter five, it may feel like law to you, but I assure you it is not law. What he's telling us is that there is a faith that overcomes. It overcomes the world. It's a faith that is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ? It's a faith that results in love of God the Father who has begotten us. It's a faith that results in love of God's children because they're begotten of God. It's a faith that results in obedience to God's commands because God enables us. This is the kind of faith that you have received if you've trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. And I want to ask you a question as we conclude our time together. Are you an overcomer? Don't you want to be on the winning team? Don't you want to join your forces to the one that you know wins everything? All of eternity is won by the Lamb, Jesus Christ. You just need to be on His team. Being on His team is simply this. I believe that Jesus is the Christ. Everyone that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of Him. Who is He who overcomes the world but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you know who He is? Do you know what He's done? He is the Conqueror. And you, friend, can be joined together with Him, in Him, the Conqueror. When we place our faith in Christ, we become one in Christ. And therefore, we then become the overcomers. We become the conqueror because we're in Him. I beg you, friend, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, today, this is the day. Give yourself to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's no doubt about it, you will be saved. Believer in Jesus Christ, don't settle. Don't settle for a sham kind of love. Don't settle for a kind of obedience. Only settle for what the gospel enables. You know what the gospel enables? righteousness and real love. Don't settle for anything less. Let's pray together. Father, we believe these things and our hearts ascend to your glory and praise. And we magnify our great God. We magnify you. And then in the face of challenge, sometimes we find ourselves weary. We find ourselves weak. We find ourselves not rendering to you ourselves because we choose to do things our own way and we're frustrated by this. And we come to you admitting to you that we struggle and that we're in desperate need of your help. And we know that if we really desire your help, if it's truly a desire for you to help us, you will. You'll bring forth that help, and it will manifest itself in righteousness. It'll manifest itself in real love. And so we ask you to help us today and throughout the week. I pray, Father, for anyone here that's never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. We know that you are the God of salvation. You're the only one that can bring this to a full realization, but even in this moment, that there will be cries out to you for salvation. that they would realize their desperate need and call upon the Savior. And there would be the result of being born again, a child of God with the full ability to fulfill what you've called us to. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing one last song. And then at the end of the service, we're going to be dismissed and For those of you that would, everyone is welcome to come to our dinner. There's a lunchtime downstairs. We'd love for you to come and be a part of that fellowship and food. So if, when you leave, you can leave this way and make your way into the fellowship hall down the side stairs over here. That would be excellent. We'll have a great time of fellowship. If you are in the a quandary. You don't know your spiritual condition. You don't know if you're headed for heaven. We want to help you with that today. When we're dismissed, simply just walk to the front. We'd be glad to share with you the gospel so you can settle this issue. You can know for sure that you're headed for eternity with God because you are one of God's children when you trust Christ as your Savior. We want to help you with that. If you are in that situation where you're not sure, come to the front. We'd love to share the gospel with you, share God's word with you, how you can know for sure you are one of God's children.