[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you grab your Bible and turn to First John chapter 5?
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be in verses 1 through 12 that Mr. Robin just read for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're new to citizens, welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Jayman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am one of the pastors here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're visiting us, we are honored to have you worshiping.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has filled this church with godly, kind, gentle, gifted women who are a gift to their families and a gift to this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is a joy just to honor you today, to all of our moms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for who you are, thank you for trusting Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are a gift to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was with the group of pastors a few weeks ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, guys who, uh, pastor churches in this area and many of you maybe know them or know their churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was Kyle and Adam and Rob and JR and we got together for a day just to talk about ministry and life and all that and at lunch, Kyle asked a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Harry Potter.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you had to rank them,
[SPEAKER_00]: one to five, how would you rank them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like based on your favorite to least favorite of all of those stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I made him a steak.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went first, and I think I ruined a few relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had very strong opinions about what I had to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord of the Rings, I think, is just incredible token.
[SPEAKER_00]: His world building, his creativity, the way he rides, is just amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Chronicles of Narnia books mean a whole lot to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've read them to my kids, because I want my kids to be super popular.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so those are top of the list for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love those stories, and then I won't tell you how I finished the list, because I don't want to cause division in the church we've got.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone around, and they answered their own question, and then the question just devolved into which stories the strongest plot and which of the books or the movies are the most like re-readable or re-watchable, and which of them like start slow, but they, you know, finished strong, and it was a very thoughtful conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a very nerdy conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do we like these stories?
[SPEAKER_00]: You like these stories, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked the nine and someone in the nine just shook their head like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so maybe not everybody likes these stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many of us like these stories, and maybe you don't know all of them and maybe you don't like all of them, but you probably know and like one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reason why is because these stories, like these fantasy stories, these multi-layered epics, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They reflect something that's true about the world and about our life and even about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are, friend, part of a larger story.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were born into a larger story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's deeply true about God and the world and your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the story that the Bible tells.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember with me about the Bible, it is not a collection of loosely connected morals and stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible's one story.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's 66 books, 40 plus authors, 10 different civilizations, 3 continents, 3 languages, inspired by God tells one unified story of redemption, one plot, one plan, one champion.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a couple ways that you can trace the plot and theologians have done this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can tell the story of the Bible as a story of divine romance.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story starts with a wedding, and it ends with a wedding.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end, there's a wedding where Christ's a groom is forever united to the church's bride.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can tell the story of the Bible as the story of God with us, God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story begins with God walking in the garden, the story ends with a city descending, heaven-earth being reunited, and God forever dwelling with His people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can tell the story of the Bible as a story of a cosmic battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's why we like the books in the movies, because there's something true about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see in them something that's true about our life in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an enemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a good beginning that we're trying to get back to.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a galaxy that's at peace, a dinner table, full of love, the shire, a peaceful home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's real evil that threatens the good life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The dark side, the white witch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He who shall not be named, the evil eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the face of some sort of powerful threat, the story needs a hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: It needs a chosen one, a rebel, a lion, an avenger, a wizard, something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: One who can defeat the enemy and rid the story of evil and restore the good beginning so that life is happily ever after.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Christian story is that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story of a cosmic battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: John has talked about it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a good God who is a Trinity.
[SPEAKER_00]: the Father of love, Christ the Son, and the Spirit of truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there is an enemy that is an anti-trendity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father of lies, anti-Christ and false spirits.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that anti-God, that anti-trendity wages war against the one true God, and wages war with the weapons of lies,
[SPEAKER_00]: and sin, and accusation, and death, and that's a battle that's been going on since before creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone, me and you, have been born into this world under the weight of that evil and under the responsibility of those weapons.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the fight will not last forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hero, there's a chosen one, Jesus, the Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't have to discover his powers, he didn't have to overcome his past, he didn't have to grapple with who his dad is or decide who's side he would be on.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has eternally always existed as pure and righteous and holy and powerful and strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he enters into this world with his face set towards defeating God's enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: The schemes
[SPEAKER_00]: and strategies of hell are no match for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians II says in his death, he disarmed the principalities and powers and he put them to open shame, because death is the final weapon of the enemy, in his resurrection, Jesus disarmed the kingdom of darkness, and so when the kingdom of death fights against the power of resurrection, it's not a fair fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: It means Jesus has won, and Jesus will win.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the ring has been destroyed, and the death star explodes, and the curse of winter has broken, and the infinity stones, or I don't know what they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're good, they're fine, they're in better hands or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: The true story of the world is the story that the Bible tells, and it's a cosmic battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is the hero, the kingdom of Christ wins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, the King reigns forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you in this story?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you a good guy, are you a bad guy?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you on the right side, the wrong side?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you main character, are you supporting cast, are you an extra that doesn't really matter?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a word John has used a few times in this letter that he repeats three times in the section we're in.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Robin was reading all 12 of these verses, my daughter leaned over to be in and said, how are you gonna get through all that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And the answer is, I'm in a hone-in on a word that we see repeated in this section.
[SPEAKER_00]: John uses this word six times in his letter three times here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to read every instance of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter two, verse 13, I'm writing to you young men.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are young believers, because you have overcome the evil one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I write to you young men because you are strong in the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter four, verse four, little children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then our passage this morning, specifically verse 4 and 5, for everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, who is it that overcomes the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word used here for overcome, it means Victor, it means conqueror, it means winner.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's where the name Nike came from.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Christ,
[SPEAKER_00]: you are one who overcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the story of cosmic battle, if you are a Christian, you will overcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And notice the tension here, it uses it in a few different ways, you will overcome, and also says you have overcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just future, but it's present right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I could mix my metaphors a bit, sometimes before one of my kids' games they'll ask me, dad, do you think we're gonna win the game?
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes I say, yeah, I think we're going to beat this team.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked up their record, I'm that kind of dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked up their record and I think we're going to beat this team.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then other times, I'm like, you know, it's going to be tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, some of their players are out of town this weekend or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think we'll win?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's yes, sometimes it'll be tough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's maybe in the story of cosmic battle, if you ask God, do you think we will win?
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, you already have.
[SPEAKER_00]: You already have.
[SPEAKER_00]: you have overcome the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are a part of the kingdom that lasts forever and you are hidden with the king who reigns forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we just went around and asked that question, how do you feel victorious in Christ today?
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd probably get a bunch of different responses to that
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm fighting a battle you've already won.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do that feel?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you sing that with excitement?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you sing that with confidence?
[SPEAKER_00]: Had you checked into all this or restill a bit, checked out?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know many of us are struggling with sin in our failures or like front of mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is much suffering in our church right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that can be incredibly discouraging.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if the question is, does Victor and Christ feel real to you this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure some of us would say, yes, I'm confident.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got courage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Others would say, I'm a bit tired and fatigued.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us would say, no, I feel defeated.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we need this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe we need to be convinced of it a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse four says that like this, and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a relationship between the ones who overcome
[SPEAKER_00]: and the faith and how we define our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to understand this, we need to see the verses that come before it and the verses that come after it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So verses one through four and then again, verses five through twelve.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've just put kind of two points over it this morning that I hope helps.
[SPEAKER_00]: The victory of obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: which is the fruit of our faith, and then the victory of Christ, which is the object of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And having this clear picture of what faith is, of what we put our faith in, and what faith produces in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm prayerful, and hopeful, will increase our confidence that we are the ones who overcome in this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at me again at verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we love God and obey His commandments, for this is the level God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not to burden some.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: When John talks about the world, and overcoming the world and resisting the world, he's not talking about God's good creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: He isn't talking about the grace of sunlight or the joy of a good meal or children or relationships or honoring moms or meaningful work or creativity or overcoming the world doesn't mean despising what God made or despising what God still loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: When John talks about the world, he's talking about the darkness of the world, the dark empire behind the world, the evil that has infected God's world in chapter two.
[SPEAKER_00]: He names it, the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the desires of the flesh, the pride of life, it's the spirit in the world that wants us to live in God's world, but not in God's way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's the lies and the deception that destroys and steals and diminishes us in God's world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who has been born of God overcomes that.
[SPEAKER_00]: In one of the signs that we've overcome the world is that we keep God's commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: We obey His word.
[SPEAKER_00]: We trust His voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do His will.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live in God's world, not according to the ways of the world, but according to the ways of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And John says it in this little line that I really, really love.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever tried to obey the sermon on the Mount,
[SPEAKER_00]: You've heard that it said, don't murder, but I say, don't be angry in your heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you pray, don't pray for people's approval, pray because you enjoy God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're gonna pass judgment on another believer, make sure you've confessed all of your sin first.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't worry about tomorrow, but store up treasures in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever tried to do any of that, you know what that is?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really hard, it's really hard to keep the commands of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really, it's really,
[SPEAKER_00]: The commands of Christ, if we're not explaining them away, if we're not like excusing it, if we're not like hyper-spiritualizing our disobedience to those things, if we're actually trying to keep the commands of Christ, it's very difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: John agrees that it's difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's already told us if we say we have no sin, we make God a liar, and then John has already given us instruction about how to confess, not if we sin, but when we sin, because keeping the commands of God as a sinful foroh human being is really, really difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all God's people said,
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can something that is difficult and full of failure not be burdensome?
[SPEAKER_00]: Two things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because those who have overcome and will overcome, those who have placed our trust in Christ, we
[SPEAKER_00]: discover, acknowledge, and admit that the commands of the world do not work.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do not work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone serves a master, no one's truly free.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one is their own, truly their own God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone has submitted to somebody else's voice in their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So everybody is wearing and carrying around the yoke of some ideology, or some voice, or some definition of what makes life worth living.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the world, the ways of the world it demands its own obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the demands of the world will lay a very heavy burden on you, trust in yourself, follow your heart, define satisfaction in life this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: What it promises is freedom, the result of it is it will actually weigh you down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christians are those who have realized that the promises of the world, the ways and schemes of the world are empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so keeping the commands of God, it's not a burden, it's a happy rebellion to the ways of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way.
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime, establish justice, or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment, or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a lack of tranquility.
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as we believe all that, we're not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who have overcome and will overcome in Christ are those whose appetites are changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our appetites for the ways of the world, the things of the world is growing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And part of how it's growing,
[SPEAKER_00]: is that the promises of the world, the ways that running contrast to God's ways are losing their grip in our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's liberating to acquire an appetite for the world of grace, which means we have to see that under God's commands are his good intentions for our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And under the temptation to sin are false promises.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Piper says it this way, it's another long quote, but it's worth our time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a burden to be sexually chased if you believe the message of the world that fornication or adultery really will give you more satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a burden to be honest on your tax return if you believe the message of the world that more money would bring you satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a burden to say, I'm sorry, I was wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you believe the message of the world that more satisfaction comes from keeping up the front of strength, but if the world could be overcome,
[SPEAKER_00]: In the commandments of God would not be burdensome, they would be the way of joy and peace and satisfaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: What can overcome the temptations of the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: What can unmask the lives of the world answer God can?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he does it by causing us to be born again so that we see the infinite superiority of the promises of Christ over the promises of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you seen that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe that Christ and His promises are infinitely superior than the empty promises of the world?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us beloved.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm about to make a statement, it's not about the state of your salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a statement about your experience of freedom and Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us do not experience Christian life as one who overcomes because we still have an appetite for the way the world defines satisfaction, meaning value and purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though it's failed us, even though we know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes what that means is, means we have to chase the empty promises of the world until they ruin us so that we discover the only thing harder than obedience is sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing will burden your life like disobedience to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The commands of God are for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They will liberate and lighten this life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not in the sense that it will make life easier, but in the sense that it makes life full of meaning and consequence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the second thing about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.
[SPEAKER_00]: His commandments are not burdened some, because our appetites are changing, and his commandments are not burdened some, because we love God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If God loved us after we keep His commandments, then His love would never feel safe, and His commandments would feel like a burden.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that transactional I do this for you, and then you love me in return, that's never safe, that always feels suffocating in any relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we'll see in a minute, Obedience is the fruit of our faith, Christ is the object of our faith, so we're free to obey because love comes before obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our obedience is a response of love to God, because God, as John has already said, first love does.
[SPEAKER_00]: My wife is a wonderful mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a wonderful mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: We met when we were 18.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, she was 19.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was mature for my age.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have known her more years than I have not known her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the great joys of my life is watching how motherhood has changed her.
[SPEAKER_00]: and refined her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's sacrificial, she's deferential, she's thoughtful, she needs loads of grace like we all do, but she genuinely loves our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this thing that we started saying to each other when our kids were young, like when the kids were young, and we were just in the havoc of raising young children.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's this thing we would say to each other, your turn.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just kidding.
[SPEAKER_00]: We said this.
[SPEAKER_00]: This, this is the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like in the middle of the task of raising young children, dinner time and bath time and bedtime in the, they're refusing to nap time, this is the point.
[SPEAKER_00]: As much as we want to break as much as we want to breathe, as much as we want time alone, we're not trying to get through their childhood, we're trying to be faithful within it.
[SPEAKER_00]: and soak up every minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is the point, like these are the days.
[SPEAKER_00]: We prayed for this, we asked for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I don't want to just power through it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to, by God's grace, be faithful in it and enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's believed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has believed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's returned to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have seen that bless our children.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so my kids are excited to honor her today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so yesterday, Ash, Ash, Dad, what are you doing for mom, for Mother's Day?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, she's your mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: like what I'm going to say nice things during the sermon, that's what I'm doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what are you doing for Mother's Day?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, I don't know, what would you do if you were me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I said, I would buy our flowers, I would clean the house, and I would tell her I'll ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, I don't have any money.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not good at cleaning, but I will tell her I love her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think he's got something else planned.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he asks, and he wants to do what would honor her?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he loves her.
[SPEAKER_00]: He genuinely loves her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love the heart that asks the question, what would mean a lot to her?
[SPEAKER_00]: As somebody who has loved me, how can I honor her in return?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, how do I keep it from getting mad on Mother's Day or how do I make sure she's not disappointed?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's how can I show her love?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how it is for the Christian in keeping the commands of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I show love to God?
[SPEAKER_00]: A God who has first loved me, a God who has irrevocably loved me, a God who unconditionally loves me.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I honor Him by offering my obedience as a token of love?
[SPEAKER_00]: Over and over and over again, offering that to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the fruit of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fruit of faith is obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: It obeys because my appetites are changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It obeys because the promises of the world are empty.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it obeys because I love the God who first loved me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not burdened by commands, but walking in the victory of obedience.
[SPEAKER_00]: One commentator said it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remaining faithful to God despite the allores of the world is itself the victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as those who have overcome our lives of obedience, our evidence that Christ has won any will win.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verse 5 with me, who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is He who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Spirit is the only testifies because the Spirit is the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: For there are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood in these three agree.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever,
[SPEAKER_00]: believes in the Son of God, has the testimony Himself, whoever does not believe God has made Him a liar because He's not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning His Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in His Son, whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of John's chief concerns in this letter is that we would see Christ clearly, and in seeing Christ clearly we would have confidence in him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: So most are not encouraged by that, because when we think about our faith, we immediately think about the strength of our faith instead of the object of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: John is directing our attention to the object of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I ask you a question, if I ask you how high can you jump?
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I asking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm asking about mostly the strength of your legs, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And many of you would probably say, I don't know, you probably haven't tested that recently, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I'm asking you how high you can jump, I'm asking you about how strong your legs are.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I ask you, will the ground collapse underneath you?
[SPEAKER_00]: What am I asking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not about the strength of your legs.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's about the strength of whatever you're standing on in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're standing on a decaying floor and it gives way, it doesn't matter how strong your legs are in that moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're standing on solid ground, even if your legs fill, you won't fall very far.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be held.
[SPEAKER_00]: Faith is not about the strength of your legs but about the strength of where you stand.
[SPEAKER_00]: John throughout this letter has over and over and over again in his argument, beautiful and strong in compelling has said this about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ground will not break.
[SPEAKER_00]: on Christ the Solid Rock you stand, and we have confidence that we will overcome because Christ is a strong, steady, unbreaking object of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: John names three witnesses to make his point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, people left the church, they're preaching this distorted gospel, preaching these things about Jesus that are false.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so John makes this case.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, there's three that testified to the truth of Jesus, the water, the blood, and the spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Likely, John's recalling a memory from his own life with Jesus, a hard day from his own life with Jesus that has become a beautiful day.
[SPEAKER_00]: He writes about it in his gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the only male disciple that stays at the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least he's the only one that we're told about that stays at the cross, everyone else runs away.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he hears.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the cross, he hears every word Jesus speaks, Father forgive them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is finished, I thirst.
[SPEAKER_00]: John is there and Jesus looks at John and says, take care of my mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then finally, Jesus says, Father into your hands, I commit my spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus stops speaking and stops breathing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He gives up his life and he dies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And John stays after he dies.
[SPEAKER_00]: The guys next to Jesus are still alive and the Jewish leaders wanted them to die before Sabbath started so they ordered the Roman soldiers to break their legs because they breaks their legs, then they can't push up to breathe anymore and they'll basically suffocate faster.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they come to break Jesus' legs and here's what happens according to John.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is John 19, verse 33, when they came to Jesus,
[SPEAKER_00]: They did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once, blood and water came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: John says this about himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe his testimony is true and he knows he is telling the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's standing there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus decides his peers to an out of the exposed flesh, blood and water, spills out.
[SPEAKER_00]: So meaningful for John, he writes about it in his gospel and then years later is an old man writing this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says this to the church, the water is a witness to the truth, and the blood is a witness to the truth, and I was standing there, and I am a witness to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It matters that this really happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: John starts his letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you remember what we have seen, what we have heard, what we have touched.
[SPEAKER_00]: We proclaim to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the point?
[SPEAKER_00]: In Jewish law, you had to have two to three witnesses to prove your case before the court.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so part of what John is saying here is, this is true, it actually happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: The testimony that Jesus lived and died and rose is true.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the kind of hero that's not myth, it's history.
[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is good news, it's not wishful thinking, but real event.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blood testifies, the water testifies, the spirit testifies, what we have seen in her, we proclaim to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This actually happened, it's real.
[SPEAKER_00]: The object of your faith is strong, and one of the reasons it's strong is because it's history, it's true, it's reality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also,
[SPEAKER_00]: These images are packed with meaning and symbolism in the biblical story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blood is sacrificed for sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Water is cleansing of impurity.
[SPEAKER_00]: The spirit is what generates life, what births life, what gives life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Charles Spurgeon says about this passage, it highlights the purifying and partining effects of Christ's work for his people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The water purifies the blood partens, the songs of it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rock of ages?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cleft for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me hide myself in the let the water and the blood from the wounded side which flowed, be of sin, the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: The testimony of water says that you have been cleansed of all filth and impurity and shame.
[SPEAKER_00]: The testimony of the blood says that you've been forgiven of all sin and freed from all punishment and guilt.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the testimony of the spirit says, it's not just true for some, it's true for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because only the spirit of God can open your eyes and change your heart and raise you to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you Christian have in Christ the double cure saved from wrath and you have been made pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 11 and 12 says this, and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son, whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eternal life,
[SPEAKER_00]: is the happily ever after in this story.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story of the cosmic battle, the one that you have been born into, and I have been born into.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has a beautiful conclusion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ returns, heaven and earth are reunited in a tear-free, sin-free, death-free world that is full of the beauty of creation and the joy of God's presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what it's not is it's not happy ending, it's eternal life.
[SPEAKER_00]: The story is not over.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last chapter goes on forever and ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's another song that says when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing his praise than when we first began.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who gets that life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who gets to live eternally like that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever has the sun.
[SPEAKER_00]: whoever believes, whoever has trusted in the water, blood, spirit, gospel of Jesus Christ that partens and purifies and brings to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the victory that overcomes the world our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is good news because the victory is in the object of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: You do not get that because your faith is strong, you do not forfeit that if your faith is weak, we overcome because our faith is not in our faith but in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus who has risen in rules and reigns, he is the solid ground and the firm foundation and even those, even those who trust in Christ with weak legs will overcome because they have a strong savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the story of cosmic battle, Jesus is the hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life forever with Him in a renewed earth is the final chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you, you, Christian are one who overcomes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You win, you share in His victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bear the fruit of faith, obey Him, obey Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep His commandments, they are not a burden, and be confident in the victory that overcomes the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stand, stumble, sprint, fall on the solid ground of Jesus, the Son of God, who shares His victory with all who trust in Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we need you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you, Lord God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you, Lord God, because so many of us need you to reach right into our heart and remove every last desire we have for the ways of the world, the lies of the world, the empty promises of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are vestiges left remaining in our heart and our soul that wants to run from you,
[SPEAKER_00]: of faithful commandment keeping.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you because so many of us, so many of us, spend so much of our life with you looking at our legs.
[SPEAKER_00]: evaluating the strength of our faith and the quality of our belief.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need you to direct our eyes off of our self and onto our Savior who has won.
[SPEAKER_00]: To our Savior who holds our inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, and unfaithing that is kept for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the work that we need Spirit of God, the work that we need you to do is we need
[SPEAKER_00]: Increasing our appetite for your will and your ways that we would not find obedience burdensome or boring.
[SPEAKER_00]: But our obedience is one of the ways we wear the metal of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: and declared to a watching world that we have and will overcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we need you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need you to help us believe that our feet are firmly and finally planted on a waterblood spirit, steady, sure gospel of God the Son.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if I could just say out loud, God, in your presence with your people, we will overcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will overcome the sin that we just habitually.
[SPEAKER_00]: and hypocritically return to, we will overcome the fear and anxiety that haunts us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will overcome the lesser loves and cheap desires that distract us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will overcome the sicknesses that hurt our bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will overcome the conflict that ruins our relationships.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will overcome not because we are strong but because you are Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.