How Faith Overcomes the World, Part 2

1 John 5:3-5

September 7, 2003

            As we examine 1 John 5:1-5 we are struck by four different themes: being born of God, faith, love, and obedience. These four themes sum up the Christian life, and they are all brought to bear on our hearts and minds and souls in this text. In these 5 brief verses the Apostle John sums up the Christian life. We have been putting his summary like this: The Christian life is a life of God-wrought faith that manifests itself in loving the brethren and that overcomes the world. The flow of thought through the passage goes like this. First, being born of God produces faith, and faith always moves us to love the children of God. It follows that if we love the children of God, we will love God and observe His commandments; therefore, being born of God results in obedience to His commandments. God’s commandments are summed up by these two: love God, and love your neighbor, and these commandments are not burdensome for the one born of God.

Why is it that these commandments are not burdensome? John Piper, in his book Future Grace, puts the question like this: “…what force will move us out of our contented living rooms to take upon ourselves the inconveniences and suffering that love requires? What will propel us to greet strangers when we feel shy, to go to an enemy and plead for reconciliation when we feel indignant, to tithe when we’ve never tried it, to speak to our colleagues about Christ, to invite new neighbors to a Bible study, to cross cultures with the gospel, to create a new ministry for alcoholics, to spend an evening driving a van, or a morning praying for renewal? None of these costly acts of love just happens.” What is the power that moves us out of the comfort of our own homes and our own confined living rooms to places outside our comfort zone, perhaps places we’ve never been or ever thought we would be, to minister sacrificially out of love to those who are in need or perishing? And what is the power that makes these sacrificial acts of love joyous rather than burdensome? The reason these acts of love are joyous and not burdensome to the Christian is because the Christian is born of God. In other words, the Christian has faith, and faith conquers, or overcomes, the world.

            What is the world? The world is all that is against God. The world is the allurements and temptations and desires that make God’s commandments feel burdensome. The world is all that is opposed to God’s kingdom, and it is the system that competes with God for men’s love and affection. Faith is the victory that overcomes this idolatrous system called the world. It is faith that brings victory over the world’s calls to worship it, and to love it, and to place our trust and our hope in its promises. The world sings like a Siren to pilgrims that travel through this world, and its song is irresistible to every ear but the ear that, by faith, hears the promises of God as more sweet and more desirable than the wealth of this passing world. It is only by faith that the world’s deceptions and seductions can be overcome.

            And so the question now is, “How does faith silence voice of the world’s Sirens and give us victory over their cries to us to forsake Christ for passing pleasures?” How does faith overcome the world? If faith is the victory that overcomes the world, how does faith fight the battle, and how does it prevail over the enemy?

As we discussed last week, to correctly understand the answer to this question, we must first understand what faith is. What is faith? Faith is God’s work in us that moves us to look forward to His future promises with desire and longing, and backward to His love manifested in Christ on the cross that secures the fulfillment of His promises. Faith looks forward to what God has promised with hope and great expectation, and it looks backward to the cross, believing and trusting that Jesus’ sacrifice bought and secured all of those promises for God’s children.

You cannot reduce faith to less than that. If faith only looks backward to the cross, then it is deficient because God has given us numerous promises to believe that we have not yet seen fulfilled. Hebrews 11:6 says that if you want to come to God you must believe that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. You cannot come to God only looking backward and be pleasing to Him. You must look forward to the reward, namely, eternal, perfect, personal fellowship with Him through all eternity. Faith, then, cannot only look backward to the cross.

On the other hand, if faith only looks forward to the promises, then faith has no foundation and no root. We have no basis to claim the promises of God for our future redemption and glorification apart from the cross. If faith is not grounded and rooted in the cross, then any future-looking faith is vain, because the promises are given in Christ, and a person must be in Christ to receive them. The only way to be in Christ is by faith in Jesus and what He has done for sinners on the cross. You will never inherit the promises of God without Jesus’ blood and righteousness. So if your faith only looks forward and pays no attention to the cross, then your faith is like a house built on sand, and when the winds come, it will be blown down, and it will collapse, and it will not stand on the day of judgment. Faith that overcomes the world looks both to the cross and to the future promises of God.

This morning I want to show you how faith fights this battle against the world. Faith overcomes the world by believing two basic truths. Faith overcomes the world by believing in who God is, and by believing what God has promised. I say that because I believe that is what the writer of Hebrews was explaining in Hebrews 11:6, when he wrote, And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Faith overcomes the world by believing these two things: God is, and God rewards. Faith is victorious because it believes that God is, and it is victorious because it believes what God has promised.

Faith believes in who God is

            Let’s start with the first half of that statement. Faith overcomes by believing in who God is. The one who comes to God must believe that He is. In our time, most people stumble at this point. We live in an age of relativity and subjectivism, where the highest learning centers in our nation are teaching that there is no absolute truth. “God is whoever we make Him to be,” is what most people believe today. It is an age of tolerance where no absolutes can exist, because if my absolute says that you are wrong, then I am not tolerant. Therefore, we have tried to eliminate absolutes from our thinking, our education, and, sadly, even from many churches. But faith that overcomes the world demands an objective, absolute Reality that we do not and cannot define. Faith that overcomes the world demands that we believe in God as He is, not as we would make Him out to be. Faith that overcomes the world demands that we recognize that reality is what God makes it, not what we make it. He is the Potter; we are the clay. You cannot have faith that overcomes the world if you do not first and foremost believe that God is who He is. What are some of the things that would be included in this heading?

            Look at Hebrews 11:3. The Holy Spirit says, By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. By faith we understand that God is the Creator. By faith we believe and know with certainty that this visible, physical world was created by the unseen God who is Spirit. Creation was prepared by the word of God. It was not an evolutionary big bang. It was not the process of millions and millions of years of transformation and evolution. By faith we believe that God is the Creator of all things, just as His Word explains that He is. By faith understand, we know, that God is the Creator. What are some of the implications of this?

            This means that God has absolute rights over His creation. By faith we understand that we are His creatures. By faith we understand that we do not have any rights against Him. By faith we understand that as Creator He has all rights over and against us. By faith we understand that however God wants His universe to run is the way it should run and must run because He is the Creator of it. It belongs to Him. By faith we submit to God as our Creator, and we do not put ourselves above Him, we do not think we have the right to judge Him, we do not feel we are wise enough to question His actions or commandments or sovereignty, and we do not act as if He owes us anything, but we realize that we owe Him everything. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God. Our conviction is that the unseen God is the Creator and He has all the rights and power over His creation. Faith believes that God is the Creator. He is in control, He is supreme, He is sovereign, He has all power and authority, and He will accomplish what He has set out to do. When we open our Bibles and read in Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, that is shout and a call for all creation to bow down and worship God, who is the Creator. It is not historical information about our origins only. It is intended to bring us to our knees in worship and reverence and fear and awe and wonder and desire for this God who created the worlds by His own word of power.

How, then, does believing in who God is, especially this aspect of Him as Creator, overcome the world? Peter, in 1 Peter 4:19, answers this question. He writes, Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. You overcome the world, or, as Peter says it, you do what is right by trusting yourself to the Creator who is faithful. What he means is that when you suffer, when you are tried, when you are in manifold temptations, the way you do what is right and overcome giving in to this world’s promises is by trusting in God who is Creator, which means that you recognize that God creates solutions where solutions do not seem to exist. Since God is the Creator, He is omnipotent. He is Almighty. He is sovereign. If God could speak the worlds into existence with a few words in a mere six days, how easily can he handle the difficulties and present trouble in which we find ourselves? How easy must it be for the Creator to help His creature who is so far beneath Him! God’s word is power, and when God speaks, what God says happens. Our faith is not in a man-made idol, a dumb god that cannot speak or hear or move or think. Rather, our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases (Ps 115:3). No matter what trial you are suffering, or what difficulty you are facing, God is the Creator, and if He could speak the worlds into existence out of nothing, then surely He could speak a solution to your trial and suffering into existence even if you do not see how it can be solved. God is the Creator, and nothing is too difficult for Him. When we suffer according to the will of God, what is it that keeps us going? It is the fact that we have a faithful Creator who has the power to make the wrongs right and deliver us from every trial and temptation and bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom.

            Do you believe, my friend, that God is? Do you recognize that He is the omnipotent, almighty Creator of everything that you see and all that exists? Do you realize His mighty power and His sovereign authority? Or do you have a small god who cannot help you? Do you perhaps believe in a god who is weak, impotent, and distant? Expand your view of God. Believe He is who He says He is in His Word, and entrust yourself to the faithful Creator.

This must be an integral part of your faith if your faith is ever to overcome the world. Do you see why? If you don’t believe that God has a solution and is able to bring that solution to pass, how will your faith ever withstand the onslaughts of Satan and his emissaries? If you don’t realize that God is the faithful Creator, how in the world are you ever going to trust in Him when you don’t see any solution in sight? How are you going to live upon God who is invisible, as John Bunyan said, if you don’t believe that this invisible God is mighty and able to deliver you and bring you safely to His own presence and everlasting joy? Faith overcomes the world because it has a big view of God. Faith doesn’t fall to the world’s enticements because it sees God as bigger than the difficulties, bigger than the temptations, bigger than the suffering. Faith overcomes because of the God in whom it believes. If you don’t believe that God is who He is, you will never overcome the world, because you will always be compromising and trying to find your own small solutions to problems that God alone can solve. You’ll always be anxious and worried that things won’t turn out right, and you’ll constantly fail to trust God unless you realize that He is who He is, and He has created by the word of His power. Faith overcomes the world because faith recognizes the infinite greatness of who God is.

Faith believes what God has promised

            Faith not only overcomes the world by believing in who God is, but also by believing in what God has promised. That’s what the writer of Hebrews meant when he said, He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. The rest of Hebrews 11 bears out that statement. To overcome the world faith must believe that God rewards those who seek Him. Faith believes in what God has promised to those who love Him. How does faith overcome the world by believing the promises of God? Let me suggest three ways.

            First, faith overcomes the world by believing that what God has promised is true. Faith believes that God’s promises of eternal life and eternal reward and eternal fellowship with Him are true promises and that God will fulfill them. Faith believes the promises of God are sure, and this overcomes the world.

            Let me give you an illustration from Hebrews 11 because Hebrews 11 is an exposition of what world-conquering faith is and how it works. In Hebrews 11:17 we are given an illustration of Abraham and Isaac. We read, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” This story is from Genesis 22. God told Abraham to go and offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. This, of course, presents a problem, because Isaac is the one from whom it was said that Abraham’s descendants would come. So if Isaac dies, then God’s promise fails, and redemption cannot happen. The Messianic line is destroyed if Isaac dies, and there is no salvation for sinners without the Messiah. Abraham had a promise from God that the Messiah would come through his son Isaac, and God commanded Abraham to kill Isaac before Isaac had borne any children. Do you see why this is a major problem for Abraham, and for us who are thankful for Jesus of Nazareth and His shed blood on the cross? If Isaac dies, if he perishes, then so do we, because there is no Savior if Isaac does not have a child, which he would not if he was dead.

            What is Abraham’s response? By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. In other words, Abraham knew that God’s Messiah, the Christ, would come through Isaac, and he believed that God is faithful to His promises. Abraham knew that even if he killed Isaac, somehow Isaac would have a child, and that child would carry on the line of promise. There was no one else, remember, who could carry on the line. The promise was through Isaac. It wasn’t as if God could give Abraham another son to fulfill the promise. That was not an option. Isaac was the child of promise. Abraham believed that God would keep his promise, so he went to offer up his only son. He didn’t know how it would all work out, but he knew that since God had promised, God would fulfill. The writer of Hebrews even tells us that Abraham considered that maybe God would raise Isaac from the dead to keep His promise! Look at Hebrews 11:19. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead. “How is this going to work, Abraham? How is God going to fulfill His promise to you now?” someone might have asked. I think Abraham’s response of faith might have gone something like this, “I don’t know how God is going to keep His promise, but I know that He who promised is faithful. I know my God, and He will keep His promise to me, and to the nations who are in desperate need of a Savior, even if it takes raising Isaac from the dead.”

            Faith believes the promises of God. When the odds seem against God and His word, faith holds out to see how God will work everything out and be faithful. Faith sees the promises of God as certain realities. Faith that overcomes the world believes that what God has promised is true.

            This is so vital if you are to have the type of faith the Apostle John meant when he said that faith overcomes the world. If you don’t believe the promise of God will come true, what will you do? Where will your rock be? When the storms rage around you, and you are tossed here and there by the winds of life, what will be your anchor if you doubt that God will fulfill His Word? The reason that faith overcomes the world is because faith sees the promises of God as sure and certain. Faith does not see God’s promises as contingent, but as certain, concrete realities.

            Secondly, faith overcomes the world by believing the promises of God are desirable. Faith sees the promises of God as good, sweet, desirable, pleasing, lovely, glorious and all-satisfying. You cannot overcome the world if you do not believe that God’s promises are beautiful and lovely and glorious. Why? Why is it essential that you see God’s promises as glorious if you are going to overcome the world? The reason is this: Your affection will be set upon what seems most desirable to you. The human heart will have affection for something or someone. Humans are created to worship, and we will worship. You cannot try to nullify your affection for the world and not replace it with a desire for the promises of God. You will continually fail to overcome the world if you simply try to stop loving the world. You must replace within your heart your desire for the promises this world holds out to you with a desire and faith in the promises God offers to you. Thomas Chalmers said it like this: “There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world – either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment, so that the heart shall be prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one.” Chalmers concluded, based on solid biblical reasoning, that trying to nullify the heart’s affection for the world without setting before it a more worthy object of affection will never be successful. We must believe the promises of God are true, and that they are desirable to overcome the world.

How desirable, how satisfying, how glorious does faith apprehend the promises of God to be? Faith sees the promises of God as more satisfying than the comforts of this world. Faith recognizes that the promises of God in eternity are more satisfying and more glorious and more wonderful than houses, and lands, and cars, and boats, and comfort, and ease, and relaxation, and sleep, and family, and anything else this world has to offer. Faith sees the promises of God as more worthwhile and more satisfying than all the comforts of this world.

Where do I get that? There’s nothing sinful about owning a home, and there’s nothing sinful about loving your family, so why do I say that faith prizes the promises of God more than these things? I get it from the life of Abraham, the man of faith, and the explanation of Abraham’s life given in Hebrews 11:8-16. The writer of Hebrews says, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. Abraham was called by God to leave his family and his home and his comfort and everything he had in this world to go to a place that God would show him. He was going to receive an inheritance, and he didn’t know where God was leading him. He left, he obeyed, he followed God by faith.

If we read on we see that Abraham made it to the promised land. When he did, how did he live? Look at verse 9. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. Abraham arrived in the land God was giving him, and he lived in tents. He lived in his new homeland as if he were not at home. He lived there as if he were in alien living in a foreign land. Abraham had every right to erect a house in the promised land, but he didn’t. He lived as an alien in the land of promise. There he was, in the geographic location that was to be his and his descendants, and he lived like it was a foreign country.

Why would he live this way? Why would he live in tents and not build a house? Look at verse 10. For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Abraham lived as a stranger in this world, even in the promised land, because he was looking for an eternal city. He was not willing to settle for a piece of earthly property when he knew God had promised eternal salvation and eternal life on eternal real estate, so he did not make this earth his home, even though it was the promised land. He did not love lands and houses and things of this world as much as he valued the eternal promise of salvation that was made by God. In verse 13 we read that Abraham and those of like faith confessed that they were strangers and exiles in the earth. They openly admitted that this world was not their home. Why would they say such a thing? Verse 14. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. What country are they looking for? Skip to verse 16. They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. Abraham, Sarah, Noah, Enoch, and Abel all admitted that this world was not their home. They were desiring (notice that word) a better country. The promises this world held out to them were insignificant compared to the matchless promises of God! They lived as aliens, exiles, pilgrims, sojourners on this earth because they valued the promise of God of a heavenly country more than they valued this temporal life.

Faith also overcomes the things in this world that are inherently sinful because faith values the promise of God more than it values the pleasure of sin. Faith overcomes the world because it values the promise of God more than the pleasure of sin. I say the pleasure of sin because sin does have pleasure. The Bible even admits that in Hebrews 11:25, but the Bible also makes clear that the pleasure of sin is passing, but the promises of God are eternal. The one who has world-conquering faith overcomes the world because his faith values the eternal promises of God more than the passing pleasures of sin.

Moses is the illustration the writer of Hebrews gives us this time to prove this point. In Hebrews 11:24-26 we are reminded of how Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He refused, in other words, to set himself up to receive worldly blessings. If he became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he would no longer be a part of Israel, and he would have put himself outside of God’s covenant people. In other words, he would have denied God, which is sin. But, if he kept his status as an Israelite, he would remove himself from worldly blessing, set himself up for ill-treatment and suffering and exile, but remain in the covenant people of God. Which did he choose? Look at verse 25. We read that Moses by faith chose rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. This means that for Moses to have remained the son of Pharaoh’s daughter would have been sin. Moses chose the eternal blessings rather than the fleeting, worldly blessings that he could have had by remaining the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Or, to say it another way, Moses chose to suffer rather than to live a life of sin. He only had two options – the passing pleasures of sin, or suffering with the people of God. And we only have two choices. Which do you choose? Moses chose to suffer rather than to sin.

The question is, Why? Why did Moses make this choice? Was he simply in it because suffering is noble? Look at verse 26. We read that Moses did this because he was considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. Moses saw the eternal reward of Christ, and he gave up the treasures of Egypt in exchange for suffering, and he chose to suffer because he understood that he who desires to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for the sake of Christ will keep it for life eternal. Moses didn’t choose to suffer because suffering with God’s people was noble in and of itself. No, he chose to suffer because he wanted eternal life. He chose suffering. It didn’t happen to him, it wasn’t an accident. It was a choice Moses made because he believed that by making this choice God would reward him. He believed that God was a rewarded of those who seek Him, and he could not seek the treasures of Egypt, which were the passing pleasures of sin, and the Lord his God at the same time. So he chose suffering for Christ..

The treasures of Egypt just represent the things of the world. How did Moses overcome the world? By faith! His faith believed that God’s promises were more desirable than the pleasures this world was offering, and so his faith was the victory that overcame the world. Moses did not overcome the world by works, or by his own effort, or by convincing himself that the world was evil and sinful only. No, rather he believed God’s promises were certain and they were desirable and satisfying, even if it took a life of suffering to gain them. Thus, faith overcomes the world because it believes God’s promises are more desirable than comfort and more desirable than the passing pleasures of sin.

Faith overcomes the world, lastly, by it believing the promises of God are more desirable than life itself. At the end of Hebrews 11 we read of men of whom the world was not worthy (v. 38) because of their faith. They performed many great works because of their faith and by faith all of them overcame the world. I want to point out a few examples to show that they valued the promises of God more than life itself. In verse 35 we read that some of God’s children in the Old Testament were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. Read on, and you see that others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. How would you like to experience that list? Would you choose it? Tortured. Mocked. Scourged. In chains. Imprisoned. Stoned to death. Sawn in two. Put to death with the sword. By faith these men chose to lose their earthly lives to gain eternal life rather than to enjoy life on this earth without God. They gave up their lives so that they might gain them for eternity. They treasured Christ more than life itself. And we are told that they are men of whom the world was not worthy. These men that the world killed for their faith were too noble for this world. The world was not worthy to have men like this in it because they had faith that conquered this world and did not give in, even when they had the chance, because they wanted a better resurrection.

How does faith overcome the world? Faith overcomes the world by believing that the promises of God are more desirable than even life itself. The one who has faith says with David in Psalm 63:3, Your lovingkindness is better than life. Faith overcomes the world by believing that these precious promises are true, and that if we endure we shall have them at last. And faith overcomes the world by believing in who God is, and that God is able to make His promises come to pass. He can do what no one else can do because He is the Creator God, who speaks and brings worlds into existence.

How is your faith this morning? What are you treasuring? Does your faith overcome the world? Do you prize the promises of God over the things of this world, over the passing pleasures of sin, and over life itself? Can you honestly sing what we sang at the beginning of our service this morning, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever”? Or is your faith less than what it should be? Do you find the commandments of God grievous? Do you find them burdensome? Are you weighed down under the law, or is it honey to your mouth and air to your lungs and light to your eyes? The commandments of God are not burdensome because faith in Jesus, the Son of God, overcomes the world. This faith overcomes the world and wins the victory by believing in who God is, and by believing that His promises are true and more desirable and satisfying and glorious than anything this world can offer, including life itself. God, grant us faith like this for the glory of Christ. Amen.

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