The Overcomers
Rev. Res Spears
Walking in Truth and Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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A friend of ours stopped by the house yesterday on his way home from Ocracoke. We were sitting out on the patio, chatting and catching up, and somehow the conversation turned to driving habits.
My friend said that someone had told him recently about the terrible state of driver’s education these days. And I responded that one has only to watch other cars on the road to know just how poorly new generations are being trained to safely operate their vehicles.
And as I was thinking about this conversation after he left, I recalled an incident that took place yesterday morning, as I was driving to work.
I had pulled away from a stoplight on Route 17 and was speeding up in the left lane, when I noticed the car beside me pacing me. The faster I went, the faster he went.
Now, contrary to what Annette thinks, I really DO try to keep my speed under control.
So when I noticed that I was already topping 60 miles an hour, with the other car continuing to speed up, I checked my rear view mirror, saw another car coming up behind me in the left lane, took my foot off the gas and moved over into the right lane behind the car that had been so committed to keeping me from getting in front of him.
And then, the car that had been behind me in the left lane sped up and got beside the car in the right lane. So what do you think happened next?
Well, the car in the right lane wasn’t going to allow this OTHER car to get in front of him, either, and they both hit the gas and sped away, until the lanes merged and I saw that car in the right-hand lane pull in front of the other one. They must have been doing at least 75 mph at the time.
I guess everybody wants to be first, regardless of what they have to do to come out on top. Whether it’s on the road or in other aspects of life, most of us want to emerge as the victors.
And today, as we look at the next couple of verses in our study of the Book of 1 John, we’re going to see that the Apostle speaks to this desire we have for victory.
And the encouraging thing is that he tells us that victory IS ours — that we who have followed Jesus in faith can have the present experience of overcoming the world.
But our victory, he says, has nothing to do with how hard we’re pressing the gas pedal. It has nothing to do with how doggedly we fight against the evils of this world.
In the end — indeed, from beginning to end — our victory is in Christ Jesus and through our faith in Him.
Let’s look at verses 4 and 5 of chapter 5 to see what John says about victory through faith. Then, in a few minutes, we’ll look at an Old Testament example of what victory through faith looks like for a little context.
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?
Doesn’t it seem sometimes as if the world is spinning out of control? As if evil is winning? As if, no matter how hard we try to make good overcome evil, evil is always pressing the gas just a little bit harder?
Well, the truth is that there IS a sense in which evil is growing. There IS a sense in which bad things are getting worse. Read the first chapter of Romans sometime, and you’ll see that this is the result of God turning the lost world over to its sins.
As Paul puts it there, people suppress the truth about God. They fail to honor Him and worship all manner of other things in His place. And so He gives them over to the lusts of their hearts.
They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and so He gives them over to their degrading passions. They choose not to acknowledge God, and so He gives them over to their depraved minds, which are full of all kinds of wickedness.
And in this downward spiral that Paul describes at the end of Romans, chapter 1, what we see is people who not only participate in evil deeds, but actually celebrate the evil done by others.
And that’s pretty much what the world looks like these days. You don’t have to look far into the headlines or deep into culture to see folks celebrating the darkest kinds of evil. And for many of us, it appears that their car is pulling way ahead.
So, how can the Apostle John describe us as overcoming the world? How can he say that we are are overcoming — note the present tense there. Indeed, how can he then say that we HAVE overcome — this time, it’s past tense — the world?
How can he say that we have overcome and that we continue to overcome the world and its systems that are opposed to God?
He gives us the answer at the end of verse 4. It’s faith. Faith in, as he explains in verse 5, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
This is the same Jesus who, the night before He was crucified, said, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.”
But how could Jesus say He’d overcome the world and its opposition to God and to Himself if He knew that He would be crucified the very next day?
And how can we who are IN Christ by virtue of faith in Him and His completed work at the cross and the empty tomb say WE have overcome the world when evil seems to grow unchecked?
Well, to see the answer to those questions, let’s turn back to Joshua, chapter 6, and take a look at the account of the destruction of Jericho.
While you’re turning there, let me give you the context of what was taking place. The generation of descendants of those Israelites whom God had rescued from slavery in Egypt 40 years earlier had entered the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.
And Jericho represented the first line of defense of the residents of Canaan against the people of Israel.
J. Vernon McGee believed that the first three cities the Israelites confronted in Canaan represented the three great opposing forces Christians face in our own lives.
Jericho represented the world. Ai represented the flesh. And Gibeon represented Satan himself.
And so, we can look at the “Battle of Jericho” as a sort of metaphor for how we as followers of Jesus can overcome the world. Look at verse 1 of chapter 6.
1 Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.
Jericho was ready for the people of Israel. The people in that city had heard the Israelites were coming. They knew of their victories in the wilderness.
They knew how the people of Israel had crossed the Jordan at flood stage, as God had stopped the flow of the river and parted the waters for them to cross on dry land.
And so, Jericho was buttoned up tight. The people were ready to defend their city against anything.
So, it must have seemed strange for Joshua to look upon this fortified and protected city and hear the Lord say to him in verse 2: “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.”
That’s certainly not how things would have looked to Joshua, the great Hebrew general. Perhaps the Lord had some brilliant tactical plan He was about to share with Joshua.
And He did, but I’ve got to imagine that Joshua was surprised by the plan when God shared it with him. Look at verse 3.
3 “You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days.
4 “Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
5 “It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.”
There’s nothing here about a siege. There’s nothing here about archers. There’s nothing here about a battering ram to knock down the gates of the city. There’s nothing about special forces scaling the walls.
Instead, we’ve got this: Joshua, have your soldiers march around the city in silence once a day for six days, with the priests carrying trumpets and the ark of the covenant.
Now, imagine what the soldiers arrayed along the top of those walls of Jericho must have thought on that first day. “Well, here come the people of Israel. Let’s get ready to fight!”
And then, the soldiers and priests of Israel turned and simply walked in silence around the city. And then, they left.
Jericho’s warriors must surely have been perplexed at such behavior. Perhaps they thought that the Israelites had scoped out the walls and the fortifications and simply decided to move on.
But then, they came back on the second day and did it again. And the third. And on through to the sixth day. Same thing each day. They walked up to the city, turned and walked around the city in silence.
By the sixth day, the people of Jericho must have thought the Israelites to be mad. In fact, when they arrived on the seventh day and began to walk around the city, I imagine the people on top of those walls were taunting the Israelites. I’ll bet they were jeering and laughing and saying all manner of evil things about them and about their God.
Kind of the way the lost world jeers and taunts and laughs at we who believe that Jesus will return one day and vanquish all His enemies with a word.
But remember that Jesus said, “I HAVE overcome the world.” In His sinless life, He had demonstrated His power over sin. In His sacrificial death, He would claim victory over sin. And in His supernatural resurrection, He would claim victory over death itself.
The battle has already been won. What remains for the end times is simply the mop-up campaign.
And that’s all that remained at Jericho, too, even though the walls still stood and the city’s soldiers awaited the fight, because God had already declared the victory.
And so, when the people of Israel came to the city on that seventh day, they had ALREADY overcome it. Look at verse 15.
15 Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.
16 At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.
Now, one of the meanings of the word that’s translated as “shout” here is “to shout in triumph.” And that’s the meaning that seems most fitting here, because Joshua says, “The Lord has given you the city.”
So, they shouted. They celebrated. They raised up a cry of Hallelujah for what the Lord was about to do. Look at verse 20.
20 So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.
When did Jericho’s walls fall? AFTER the people had shouted. AFTER they had celebrated.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews mentions this event in chapter 11, the faith hall of fame.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
What was it that allowed the people of Israel to overcome Jericho? It was their faith!
Joshua was, indeed, a great Hebrew general. But it wasn’t any tactical plan of Joshua’s that brought the victory that day. It wasn’t a military victory at all. This was a victory of faith.
The same faith that the Apostle John says makes followers of Jesus able to overcome the world.
And who has this kind of faith? Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son. Those who believe that He died to pay the penalty we sinners deserve for our rebellion against God.
Those who believe that He rose again as a demonstration of His power over death itself. Those who believe that WE will be bodily raised, just as He was, to spend eternity in His presence.
Those who believe the right things about Jesus, and who demonstrate their love for Him and for God through their obedience and love of one another.
Our faith allows us to live and operate within this fallen and spiraling world as people who already have overcome it.
Charles Spurgeon once said: “All my hope lies in this: that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. I am a sinner, I trust Him. Then, He came to save me, and I am saved.”
WE haven’t overcome the world any more than the people of Israel overcame Jericho. We who have followed Jesus in faith are overcomers, because JESUS overcame the world.
It is only in Him that we have victory, whether it’s over our own sins or over the systems of the world that are opposed to Him.
Folks, we have elections coming up and another, more important, round coming up this time next year.
You’re probably already hearing advertisements from various candidates promising that they’re going to fix everything that’s wrong with this nation.
But the simple fact is that only Jesus can do that. Only as people turn to Him in faith will they be able to overcome their own sins. And only HE will vanquish evil from this nation and this world.
Frankly, it pains me to see followers of Jesus trying to make this nation more moral. We can’t do that. And even if we COULD do that, that’s not our calling. And it’s not our calling, because making people nicer sinners still leaves them as sinners.
OUR calling is to love God and love others. Which means wanting the best for them. Which means wanting them to have eternal life through faith in Jesus.
Which requires us to tell them the good news of a Savior who died for their sins and offers reconciliation to God through faith in Him and His sacrifice.
For too long, the Church has focused its energies on trying to make the world a better place by telling people all the things they shouldn’t do and by legislating good behavior.
Yes, we should desire godliness in the world, and yes, it’s right for us to want our nation’s laws to reflect godliness. But Scripture is very clear that the world CANNOT be godly without faith in Jesus.
We can’t expect sinners to act like anything but sinners. And we do them no favors by making them think that there is ANY salvation in their good behavior.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone.
Yes, we should oppose sin in all its forms, especially as it appears in each one of us. But when all that the world hears is “Stop sinning,” we’re no better than the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.
They thought they could earn their way into the kingdom of God by being good, and we’re essentially telling people the same thing when we tell them they need to clean up their act.
No. Only Jesus can do that through His Holy Spirit in the lives of people who have turned to Him in faith. Without faith in Jesus, they can’t clean themselves up any more than any one of us could before we were saved.
This is why I’ve stepped away from politics and all the political causes of our world today. All my hope is in Jesus.
If He doesn’t bring down the walls, they’re not coming down. If I don’t have victory in Him, I don’t have victory at all. If I don’t overcome through Him, I will not overcome at all.
But He has ALREADY overcome. And because of my position IN Christ, then I have also overcome. I have overcome even the temptations and sins that still are within me, even the ones I still struggle with.
The walls may still be standing, but God has promised in His word that I am an overcomer. And I will shout praise for the victory, even if it still seems out of reach.
And I will dedicate myself to telling others not just that they’re sinners, but that Jesus LOVES sinners, that He died for sinners, and that placing their faith in Him can make THEM overcomers, as well.
Make no mistake. The walls of our Jericho are still standing. But God has already given us the city. The battle has been won. Victory is already ours. Let us shout Hallelujah together in triumph.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!