The Spirit of the Over Comer

Text:  I John 5:1-15

¹ ‍Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born‍^a‍ of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. ‍ ² ‍By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.‍ ³ ‍For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.‍ ⁴ ‍For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.‍ ⁵ ‍Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?‍

⁶ ‍This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.‍ ⁷ ‍For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.‍ ⁸ ‍And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.‍ ⁹ ‍If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.‍

¹⁰ ‍He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.‍ ¹¹ ‍And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.‍ ¹² ‍He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.‍ ¹³ ‍These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.‍

¹⁴ ‍And this is the confidence that we have in‍^b‍ him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: ‍ ¹⁵ ‍And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.^[1]

Isn’t it amazing what types of things people survive these days?  We hear of people surviving cancer, abuse of all kinds, natural disasters, financial setbacks.  It’s wonderful to survive, but we all want to do more than just survive.  God wants us to do more than just survive. God wants us to thrive.

I John does not say  ⁴ ‍For whatsoever is born of God survives the world: and this is the victory that survives the world, even our faith.‍   No!  It says we overcome the world.

To overcome means to prevail, to pass over, and to gain the victory.  We don’t want to settle for surviving, we want to gain the victory!!!!!!!

The spirit of the overcomer has victory in their sights!  You must see victory to gain victory!

The Scripture is clear: in I John 2: 14 I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.‍ ¹⁵ ‍Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.‍ ¹⁶ ‍For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.‍ ¹⁷ ‍And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.‍ ^[2]

If you want to overcome, the stuff of the world cannot stay.  You’ve got to kick that stuff out of your life!  Lying, cursing, booze, drugs, immorality, immodest ways of dressing, ungodly music, ungodly movies.  It all must get an eviction notice, and the sooner the better.

Jesus said in John 16 ²⁸ ‍I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.‍ ²⁹ ‍His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb‍^d‍. ‍ ³⁰ ‍Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.‍ ³¹ ‍Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?‍ ³² ‍Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own‍^e‍, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ‍ ³³ ‍These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.‍

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The scripture is clear that as God’s children, we will face opposition in this present world.  Plain and simple.

Helen Keller, famous for the difficulties she overcame being born blind. made the observation that, “The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were not limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.” It is the difficulties in life that give us the opportunity to know what it is like to have victory.

To be an overcomer, a birth is required.  The Bible says In I John 5:4 that  ‍For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: ^[4]  There is no way to be an overcomer without being born again.  Jesus told Nicodemus that a person must be born of the water and the Spirit.  Being an overcomer demands that we be born again. There is not one lost person alive today who can honestly say that they are living joyful, fulfilled, victorious lives. That person does not have the ingredient necessary for a victorious life. There is a void in their lives that can only be filled successfully in Jesus Christ.

To be an overcomer requires a belief.  He said that the victory that overcomes the world is our faith.   You do not become an overcomer by trying alone. You become an overcomer by trusting with your whole heart. It is by belief or faith, that we are born again; repented, baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost.

If you want to be victorious, it is time to stop trying to work everything out on your own and start trusting the One who created your soul. What are you trusting in? If it’s self:  it will die, if it’s pleasure, it will go away, if it’s money, it will be spent, if it’s your job, they won’t always need you, if it’s the world, they will chew you up and spit you out.

Verse 6 declares that its by the blood of Jesus Christ that we are made overcomers.  it’s the blood that gives us the victory over sin and death!

“Years ago in London, a liberal minister who didn’t believe in the gospel, was visited by a young boy who had been sent by his mother. He said, ‘My mother is dying. Please come and get here in!’ At first he believed the boy meant that his mother was out drunk somewhere so the minister said to the boy, ‘Get a policeman, it is raining out and I don’t want to go out. Get a policeman to get her home.’ The boy replied, ‘She is already at home. She’s not drunk she is at home and she is dying.’ Now the minister was stunned as he understood that she needed words of comfort to face her Maker, so he was worried about what to say. When he arrived at her bedside, he told her that she had lived a good life. ‘You’ve nothing to fear,’ he said, ‘God is Love.’ But his words gave her no hope. The pastor became desperate. All he could remember was a hymn his mother had sung when he was a boy, so he began to sing, ‘There is a fountain filled with blood drawn Immanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.’ Seeing the woman’s face brighten, he falteringly related what he had been taught in his youth – that Christ took the sinner’s place on the cross. In those moments the dying woman found peace and hope in the blood and by trusting Jesus as her Savior.  The next Sunday he told his congregation about his experience. He concluded, ‘Not only did it get her in, it got me in too. From now on I’ll preach Christ and him crucified.”

We know there is more to salvation than that, but the point being that it starts with Calvary, the blood, and trusting Jesus, and that is what this world needs.  Baptism and the Holy Ghost are sure to follow when people get a real taste of what Jesus did at the cross.

We must live like overcomers:

John  said in Revelation 12: 10

¹⁰ ‍And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.‍ ¹¹ ‍And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.‍ ^[5]

⁴ ‍Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.‍ ⁵ ‍They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.‍ ⁶ ‍We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.‍

⁷ ‍Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born‍^a‍ of God, and knoweth God. ‍ ⁸ ‍He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.‍ ⁹ ‍In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.‍ ¹⁰ ‍Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins^[6]

If you have been born again, you have already been made an overcomer in Him. We have already been given the victory through the blood of Jesus Christ.

If you have not been born again, tonight is your night!