Welcome to the Beacon Broadcast from Beacon Baptist Church in Burlington, North Carolina, featuring expositional Bible teaching by Pastor Greg Barkman. If you'd like to correspond with The Beacon Broadcast, or if you wish to support this radio ministry, write to The Beacon Broadcast, Post Office Box 159, Alamance, NC 27201, or find us on the web at BeaconBaptist.com. BeaconBaptist.com. The Beacon Broadcast is supported in part by the gifts of faithful listeners. Now with today's message from God's Word, here is Greg Barkman. We still have one more area to consider in our study of 1 John 5, 4 and 5, that wonderful text that talks about God's children overcoming the world. We read in verse 4, 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. The text begins with an assurance of victory. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Not may overcome the world, not sometimes overcomes the world, not has the potential to overcome the world, but may not do so. But the text is very explicit, very clear, very dogmatic. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. If that's you, then you are an overcomer. You have overcome, you are overcoming, you will overcome the world. The text also tells us what is the means of victory. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. I talked about that on the broadcast yesterday, but I repeat that the only way you will overcome is through the exercise of faith. This is why I think I mentioned on the broadcast several days ago, maybe even several weeks ago now, that foolish, foolish, foolish position that I read in a book a number of years ago. that said if you have ever once believed, past tense, in Jesus Christ, you are saved and will be in heaven regardless of what takes place after that. You could even subsequently become an atheist and still go to heaven. Wrong. It's wrong on so many levels, but right here. It's clear that the only way to overcome the world is through faith. We must be believing. It's not enough to have believed, but if our having believed was genuine saving faith, then we will continue to believe. We will have a persevering faith. And it is faith that achieves the victory. It is faith that overcomes the world, and only those who are exercising faith in Christ, in the Word of God, in the God of the Word, only those are going to overcome the world. But we now need to talk about the identity of the victors. Who are the ones who overcome the world? And in some ways we've already touched on that, but there is a whole verse that talks about it. And so we'll take that up on this Friday, December 21. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for helping us with the financial cost. And would you consider a special year-end gift? The year is rapidly passing by. This would be a good time to consider a special year-end gift to the Beacon Broadcast. Thank you for your consideration. Well, verse five identifies very clearly who it is that overcomes the world. When it says, who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Now I think we need to start by talking about the victorious Savior, Jesus, the Son of God. The only reason why believers in Jesus Christ are victorious overcomers is because our Savior is, was, and is a victorious overcomer. It is Jesus who destroys the works of the devil. John told us that in chapter 3, verse 8. It is Jesus who has overcome the world, we're told by the Apostle John in his Gospel, chapter 16, verse 33. It is Jesus who secures the victory for his people, according to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 57. And so if we're going to be victorious, it's because we are going to believe in the one who is victorious. We're going to believe in the one who is the supreme victor, who is on the Lord's side, who will serve the king. He is the one who secures the victory. And everybody either lines up with him or doesn't. That's the big dividing line. Everybody in this world either believes in Jesus Christ or doesn't, either is a follower of Jesus Christ or isn't, either is clinging to Jesus Christ or is not, either is identified with Jesus Christ openly and clearly or is not, either is a soldier in the army of Jesus Christ battling against the forces of sin and Satan, or is not, or is actually part of the opposing army and is serving a different master. And so it's the victorious Savior that guarantees the victory of his people, and who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So it starts with the victorious Savior, Jesus, the Son of God, but then we consider the victorious saint, the overcomers. And who is that? Well, it is the victorious brother. We read in chapter four, verse 21, in this commandment, we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. It is our brother who is believing in Jesus who is the victorious saint. Who is the victorious saint? It is the enabled believer. For we go on to read about keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome, verse three. This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. Why are they not burdensome? Because those who are saved by the grace of God have been enabled by the work of the Holy Spirit and by the ongoing indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to address the commandments of God with joy and with delight and with the prayer for help to accomplish obedience to them rather than finding them irksome and burdensome and unwelcome. And so the victorious saint is the victorious brother. The victorious saint is the enabled believer. The victorious saint is the identified brother, because here is a rhetorical question in verse 5. Who is he who overcomes the world? How do we answer that question? Well, it answers it for us. The question is not given in order for us to supply an answer, but for us to think about it for a moment before God, through the apostle John himself, supplies the answer. Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. That one is a victorious overcomer who overcomes the world, that one and only that one, that is all of the ones, those ones, who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The conflict is not over as long as we are in this world, but victory is sure. We are battling on, but we can battle on with the assurance that we are on the winning side and that victory is secure. And there is this clarifying statement, who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. And here we come back to it again. We've come to this type of statement in John's epistle so many times. And this is a way of saying whoever believes the truth about Jesus. In this case, the statement is that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is his human name. the baby that was born to Mary was named Jesus, because Joseph and Mary were told by the angel to name him Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, which means Jehovah is salvation, but Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And so Jesus is the human being the babe born in the manger who grew up with his sinless life and died upon the cross and rose again from the dead and went back to heaven, rose bodily from the dead and bodily ascended back to heaven, and whoever believes that Jesus, this one, this Jesus of Nazareth, is the Son of God, which really, understood properly, is a way of saying has the same nature as God. He is God. He is the Son of God, because He has the same nature as God. I have the same nature as my Father. He was a human being, I'm a human being. Jesus Christ has the same nature as His Father. His Father is God, He is God. And so, Jesus is the Son of God, and that comes to us by apostolic revelation, by apostolic declaration, and it summarizes the Gospel. And faith lays hold on Christ and appropriates His power. And only the faith that embraces a divine Savior, I shouldn't say a divine Savior, there's only one, the divine Savior, is the faith that overcomes. And faith in anything less is faith in a Jesus who did not and cannot overcome. A Jesus who is not the Son of God, did not overcome and cannot. A Jesus who is not divine, who is not God come in the flesh, did not overcome and cannot overcome. A Jesus who did not live a sinless life and die a vicarious death, shedding his blood for others and rose bodily from the grave, did not and cannot overcome. But everyone who believes in the Jesus of the Bible The Jesus that John the Apostle has presented to us in his epistle, everyone who believes in that one will overcome at last. What a promise, what an assurance. And so this text is telling us something about how to engage in spiritual warfare victoriously, how to defeat the world. And it's not by escaping from the world, it's not by subduing the world militarily, as in the Crusades of previous centuries, it's not by winning the political battle and putting people in office who will carry out different values, because that's not going to overcome the world either. It is only by engaging God's truth. That's how to defeat the world. Truth, believed and lived, starting with me, moving on to my family, moving on to my church, moving on to other churches. And that's how we engage in true spiritual warfare, and that's how we defeat the world. This also tells us how to prepare for spiritual warfare. How? Regular, honest self-examination. Don't think you can compensate for your sins by damning the sins of others. You've got to deal with your own. It takes humble repentance. Acknowledge your sins, confess your sins, forsake your sins, change your life to conform to God's word. How many Christians today are guilty of fornication and dishonest business practices and prayerlessness and lying and gossip and slander and covetousness and on it goes. And we must deal with our own sins that we may overcome the world. Until next week, Greg Barkman saying, good day. May God give you His eternal peace.