I John, 5:4-5

Jesus is the Son of God. OK. Well, let me just kind of point out what I noticed. When I started studying this verse, I noticed that the last clause, starting with the and, His commandments are not burdensome. At first, it's not obvious, but there's a connectivity between this last clause and the first clause in the second verse. And one of the key things is this conjunction for I want to show that the next slide. But that I actually think that if I hadn't split the verses this way, Brad would have had an easier time with his commandments are not burdensome, because this really gives us a strong indication of why they're not burdensome. And it's kind of obvious. a person who is born of God, that's Christ's life. There's no tension between commandments and Christ's life. There is tension when we are not walking with Christ, but there's no tension between the believer walking in Christ and his commandments. I think if I'd split it differently, it would be a little more obvious, and I'll show you that in the next slide here. Let's go on here.

Okay. What I was trying to point out is that this, oops, this conjunction Hati, is a subordinating conjunction. So that means that it's going to be subordinating to something in this clause right here. And actually, there are different. You can translate this hot tea that for because and there's a few other possibilities as well. And what I also notice is after a little bit of study, there's something called a positive conjunction, and this seems to be the case here, that this is going to explain the cause for this to be true.

His commandments are not burdensome, and I believe that because is a better translation, because whatever is born of God overcomes the world. So you kind of think about that. His commandments are not burdensome, or actually, as Brad pointed out, this is like the idea of weighty, or weighting you down. They're not going to weight you down because Speaking of the believer, whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Our condition as a believer is a born-again one. And so there's really no tension, there's no conflict between God's commandments and the believer.

There is tension between the world and God's commandments. There's a terrible tension because God says, this is right, this is wrong. The world says, no, I want to do whatever I want to do. I'll define what's right and wrong. God says, no, this is what's right and wrong. And so the born again one wholeheartedly agrees with that because that's God's very life or Christ's very life in that person.

So it really helps out the explanation of this if you render that because. And that's what I think is a better translation. So actually what I just did, I just took that clause, His commandments are not burdensome. The verb is are, there are not. And so the subordinate conjunction that links the other clause is because whatever is born of God overcomes the world.

And it's always wonderful, the Lord provides, when I go and look in Uist, and what do I find? But Uist renders it because as well. And that gave me even further. And here's Uist rendering. And his commandments are not burdensome because everything that has been born of God is constantly coming off victorious over the world. Now, we'll get into the overcomes. Overcome appears three times in the victory part.

This really, I think, helps out. And if, like I said, we had that last week, it would have made it a lot easier, which it was fine. It's just that this really kind of nails it down, I think, and makes it obvious. So any thoughts on this or you kind of see what? OK, OK, well, we're going to talk about that in just a second. I'm not sure I can explain it totally, but it's it does kind of a strange phraseology, whatever it sounds like. Are you are you a whatever? A Brad, whatever it April, whatever. So anyway. All right. Yeah, I'm going to go on. We're going to go. OK. Yeah, we're going to get to the world, too.

Okay, so the first, in verse 4, it says, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And like I said, I think a better translation is, Because whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And in this little clause, the subject is really a participial phrase. And actually, that little arrow should point to, it's ganao, is born of God. And we're going to look at that in a second.

So the subject of this is whatever is born of God or all that is born of God. And kind of to your question, Vonnie, all that is the word pas in the Greek. It means all, none excluded. So I'm taking that all the ones that are born of God, all believers, all that.

I like the all that better than whatever. And actually there's some other parts in here which I didn't quite pick up on. There's some other aspects and I'm not sure I can really speak to them. But I think all that has been born of God. Speaking to what I think is all the company of believers.

And so the very fact that they're born of God, that by their very fact they're overcomers. You can't separate a born-again one and its position as an overcomer. He may not be an overcomer in his condition. He may go off in left field and do all kinds of crazy things, but this is one of the great things that we have, like the riches of God's grace. We are an overcomer. Not because we've done anything, but because Christ, and we'll see that this all goes back to what Christ has done. Christ, I've overcome the world.

I want to come back to this. Let me just jump ahead. Probably should have had it a little bit differently. Let me just go on. I want to look at the Gna'o a little bit. Oh, and another thing. Let me just step back one second here. This is kind of cool. We have our favorite tense here.

Perfect past completed action, right? With results up into the present. So this is saying all that have been born of God in the past, It continues up into the present. So that born-again state, or born-of-God state, continues up into the present. We're the born-again ones. And also what's kind of cool is, it's in the passive voice. We didn't get born-of-God or born-again all of a sudden. We didn't produce that. That wasn't our action. We were acted upon.

So boy, this is just where following the Greek tenses just really pays off, because you can nail that down. It's not something that we have to go out and do. We don't have to go out and try to become an overcomer. I'm going to tell you how to become an overcomer.

Some churches, like Brian and I visit our relatives sometimes, they're going to go out and storm the gates of hell today. I want you in this body, we'll get up and we'll march out those doors and storm the gates of hell. And we're thinking, my goodness. And after church, we didn't storm the gates of hell. We went home and had lunch. Okay. But it's sad. I mean, the problem is, you know, poor, you know, poor exegesis, poor, you know, looking carefully at scripture. You just, you know, you just got to do that.

I went through just quickly and looked at the phrase, born of God or born of Him in 1 John. And we've had quite a few here, and we have a few to go still. In 1 John 2. you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him. Practicing righteousness is a characteristic of a born of God person. And then in 3.9, no one who is born of God practices sin. That's the lifestyle, that's Christ's life living out in you. He doesn't practice sin. Christ's nature, life cannot sin. 4.7.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God. Another aspect of Christ's life in you. And then Brad did this last week. Whoever believes that Jesus is a Christ is born of God. And then we'll come to 5.18 here in a couple weeks. We know that no one who is born of God sins, once again speaking of Christ's life in us, but he who is born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him.

So I just wanted to kind of show you, and I'm not sure this is everyone, but this is most of them. So let's just go back now. I want to spend some time on overcome, and it's Nikkei. It's to overcome, to conquer. It comes from, I want to say Nike, it's not Nike, it's Nikkei. Thank you. You get that emblazoned in your head and you can't get it out. Nikkei.

Which is the word. This is a verb and it comes from a noun which is for victory. So the verb form would be to be victorious. So actually, in this first, we're going to see this root word. four times. We have three overcomes and one victory. So they're all kind of linked together. And it seems like they kind of repeat themselves and to emphasize the point. And then the last thing, we're overcomers in relationship to the world. And this is our favorite word here, cosmos.

Cosmos, I like Dr. Schaefer, Most of the time, and I think we point out before that there's very, you know, occasionally we'll see other renderings of what it can be, but typically, especially in this case, this is the ungodly world system with Satan in his head. This is a world system that is totally against God. So basically that's, and that's a wonderful thing. Whatever is born of God, the believer, has overcome this ungodly world system because of Christ.

And Christ says, and I'm going to show you some verses here, I've overcome the world. In fact, let's look at a few of those. We still live in it, and we're here in this world system. And we're to obey the King, right? We're to render Caesar what's Caesar's. We're to be law-abiding citizens in an ungodly world, an ungodly world system. So let's look at, someone turn to Colossians.

Colossians 1.13. Yeah, 1.13 Colossians. For he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.

Alright. I was thinking about this. This is one of Mike's favorite sayings. You know, we're not from around here. We've been transferred, right? You know, you've been in your company. They're going to transfer me. When we became a believer, we were transferred. We're not from around here. That's a wonderful thing. Okay, let's look at John 15 here. John 15, and let's look at verses 18 through 19.

The world paid to you now that it paid on you before it paid to you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, that I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Isn't it wonderful that he's chosen us out of the world?

We're no longer part of this world. But as Doug says, we do live in this world. And sometimes there's temptations of this world. And we get caught up in that too, as a believer. But he says, no, you're not part of this world. I've chosen you out of the world.

So this idea that we're an overcomer, that we're a conqueror, by definition, in our position, is a wonderful truth. I mean, it's part of a cerebrodia truce. The believer has the world, the flesh, and the devil as adversaries. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. And this is one of the major adversaries of the believer, the world system, the ungodly world system that's contrary to us.

It's not part of where we are to be, but we're here. OK, one more. And actually, we're going to have this a little bit at first, John. So actually, Brad, we'll do this with almost the very last class, 15, 19, first on 15, 19. I'm sorry, 15. Let's try 519. I've got some extra verses in there. I said, man, this class is going a lot longer than I thought. Oh, man. 519? Yeah, thanks.

Do you know that we are out of thought? and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Boy, that contrast between we're of God and the whole world is in the power of the evil one. That contrast is so sharp in scripture. This is declaring that because whatever is born of God or all that is born of God overcomes the world.

I want to go on and look a little bit closer at overcomes. And this is Nikao. I mentioned that before. Actually, there's kind of maybe three classes of uses, primary uses of overcomes, addressing uses of God the Father, of Christ, and of believers. So in this verse I have on the screen there, I want to go back and just look at the previous verse here. Let's see here. I just want to turn to Romans just for a second. I want to get the context here. OK.

OK, so it starts off the previous verse to verse four says, what then if some did not believe their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God? So it's Nullifying the faithfulness of God precedes us. May it never be. We can't nullify the faithfulness of God. May it never be.

Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, that you, God, may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. And so prevail is our word, nakao. you're victorious, and actually some have rendered that may come out victor when you're brought to trial. I mean, it seems kind of ludicrous, man would bring God to trial, but they kind of do. If you think about it, man brings, you know, God, why did you do this? They bring God to trial, and they say, God, you shouldn't have done this, you should have done that.

Why didn't this work out? Why didn't that work out? What did you hear the other day this guy was going to do about, oh, on the Titanic? He said, what was that you're reading to me? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, it was about blaming something about God doing something in terms of the Titanic. I'm sorry. I should have written it down, but it just struck me. God, why did you do this? A man does it all the time. And we do it. I'm not saying I don't do it. You don't understand. You don't know why. So we bring God on trial. Why did you do this, God?

Well, it says that he will be shown to be conqueror victorious in what he's done. Okay, then this Nakao in terms of Christ, this is really another cool verse. These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. So once again, as with other aspects of the Christian life, we realize in our position we're an overcomer. but there's going to be trials and tribulations. We know that we've overcome because of Christ and we're to count upon that Christ has overcome in our Christian walk. In the next page I listed a bunch of verses All right, so, and these are all in 1 John, and basically the first one is, it talks about the young men, and we covered that back some time ago. I am writing to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

So this seems like to me, I mean, let's see if you kind of agree, it seems to me he's speaking maybe more of their condition. You know, overcome in many times is used as a positional statement, but this, seems like it might be talking about their maturing, their Christian walk, so maybe that you come to a state where you're trusting the Lord and you're overcoming because he's overcome.

And that's actually twice in 13 and 14, the same idea, you have overcome the evil one. And then in 4.4, this is somewhat similar, almost a parallel verse. You are from God, O children, and have overcome them. And it kind of implies, I think that was speaking of the spear of the Antichrist. I think Josiah did that one. If you look back, you've overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

So that's that first phrase, first clause is sort of similar to what we're doing today. And then here's Here's our for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. Very, very similar kind of phraseology. And then we'll get down to five here in a little bit. OK. Sometimes this works right. Sometimes it works terrible. Is that where I want to be? OK.

So the second part of verse 4, and this is a victory that has overcome the world, our faith. So the second clause in verse 4, and this is a subject. We have our favorite verb, amy, and it's basically in the present tense, present indicative. And then the subject compliment, which identifies what this is, is this word victory, which is, you know, so we're you'll see that they overcome. So now we have Nikkei Victor. So this is a victory. It identifies this as a victory.

And then the last part is our faith. And actually, I didn't put it in there. I do here. Okay, yeah. And then the participial phrase is, that has overcome the world. And this is in the Aorist, so it's, I think this is looking, the one having overcome the world, and this is a victory, and this is a victory, that, I'm sorry, that has overcome the world, our faith. So as I said before, victory is, Victory, actually, is a noun. There's two words in the Greek.

Nikkei occurs only in 1 John 5.4, but this Nikkas occurs in these couple of verses here.

In Matthew 12.20, a battered reed, he will not break off. and a smoldering wick he will not put out until he leads justice to victory. And I wanted to read this one here. So let's look at 1 Corinthians. I like to read the whole passage here. 1 Corinthians 54 through 57.

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on the mortality, then will come about the same that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Right. So the word here, Nikos, is used quite a few times here in this passage. I've got a question. Sure. Overcome, victory, is that a future tense? In this case right here? What I'm getting at, we have tribulation when we're here on earth. Are we saying that overcoming the victory now is when we're no longer on earth? No, I don't believe so. While we are here on earth, we have the victory then is what you're saying. We come. We come to the world while we're part of the world. We're in the world, but not of the world, right? We're walking around this world, but we've changed addresses. We're no longer, this is not our home. We're heavenly citizens, right? Okay, so the point, so I'm not sure I understand your question exactly.

You're saying, where do I have victory? Well, Christ says, I am victorious. I'm saying are we looking at ultimate victory? No. We actually already have ultimate victory if you think about it. Christ said that he is victorious over this ungodly world system. Christ said, I've overcome the world, right? And he stated that's a statement of fact and it continues to exist, right? And we're to believe that, right? We're to believe that he has overcome the world. Just like in terms of, we have truths about our sin nature, truths about the devil, he's overcome The devil is defeated, right?

But he's still out there roaming around. He's still in operation. The world system is still in operation, but it's defeated in a sense. I see a parallel between what God did with the devil and what he's done with the world system. We're not part of that world system. We've been taken out of that world system. and we're to count upon that we have been, now that we have temptations to be drawn back into it. We can enter back into the world system, right? But he said, I've overcome the world. And we just read that we've overcome it because we're born of him. So hopefully that hangs together. Does that answer your question?

Okay. Let's see here. Okay. All right. So here's my question. Don't look at your next chart. You probably already have. What is the relationship between faith and victory from this verse? Good. Good. Okay. I like that. So you're in good company. Our faith is a victory. If you look at that, you know, and this is a victory. that has overcome the world. You can almost take our faith and just put it in place of this. This is a babysitter, it's a placeholder.

Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world. We've trusted that the Lord has overcome the world. This is back to almost Doug's quote. We've trusted that the Lord has overcome the world. By faith, we trust that we've overcome the world. And then I like Dr. Schaffer's little quotation here. Everyone, without exception, if born of God, does, by that birth, overcome the world, being saved out of it, by believing the one by believing one becomes an overcomer. So we're by definition an overcomer.

We may not feel like an overcomer. We still struggle, right? People still do us wrong. People cut us off when we drive. And we probably cut them off. It probably works both ways. He cut me off. Why would I cut somebody else off? I think that way too.

So we trust. We operate from our position. We operate that we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies and we're an overcomer. And that's how we live our lives. Otherwise, we live our lives as trying to work it out somehow for ourselves or in our own strength. All right, verse 5. And this is almost like Hebrew poetry again. We're going to go back and we're going to redo this idea again. We're not finished with this idea. We're going to flip it around and say it another way. Now, so he asks a question.

Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Didn't we sort of cover this before? This is neat too. Who is the one who overcomes the world? Who is the subject? Amy is a verb and also both both in the present tense. This is right now. And the subject compliment, which identifies who is the who is the one overcoming the world is probably a better rendering. The one overcoming the world. Who is the one overcoming the world? And we'll get the next part in a second. And we surrender this.

Who is he who is constantly coming off victorious? Weasley likes this. He takes the present tense and makes it present. You're constantly coming off victorious. We are victors. We are conquerors. We are overcomers because Christ is an overcomer. That's our position. You don't think about that. I'm a conqueror. I'm an overcomer. My boss is going to beat me up big time. I'm going to get raked over the coals. You don't feel like an overcomer, but you are. All right, the second half.

So this kind of answers the question, but he who believes, the one believing, Jesus is the Son of God. So this is a wonderful statement. And I want to show you that we have a whole bunch of these. Here's this declaration about our Lord. Jesus is the Son of God. And this is the subject complement. So the Son of God identifies who Jesus is.

In my computer search, just real quickly, it doesn't take real long to do this, but the 129 times the Son of God is spoken of in the New Testament, and many, many of the times it's a declaration of who Jesus is, or that he claimed to be the Son of God. Many, many times. And then there's a bunch of these in 1 John. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have a whole bunch that are future here, future verses to cover.

The one who believes in the Son of God has a testimony in himself. And then 12. He who has the Son of God has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And then in 20, and we know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is true God in eternal life. So, you know, that wonderful declaration of who Jesus is. He's the very Son of God.

Okay, so I thought just to put this in context, I kind of alluded to this already, you know, the fact that we're conquerors, overcomers, is part of a set of truths that are really wonderful, you know, the opposing forces in the Christian life, the world, the flesh, and the devil. So here's some verses that kind of address those. Here's our verse, and this is a verse that you'll hear quoted many, many times, showing that we are overcomers, we are conquerors. And then the flesh and the devil, actually, was really cool. I noticed this before.

The same word, kargeo, to render an operative, is used to describe the freedom from the flesh and the freedom from the devil. So the freedom from the flesh is, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away with, which isn't probably the best translation, because you get the idea of it's eradicated, but it's not. It's just rendered inoperative. And then Hebrews, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

And this is kind of a last thought here. If you notice that faith, and this goes back almost to the Hebrew poetry part, faith or belief, which are really Pistis, the root word, and Pistuo, the same exercise of faith or belief on our part, That's how we become, that's how we're overcomers. We've had faith in Christ, the Son of God. So, whether it's stated in verse 4 here, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is a victory that has overcome the world, our faith, or who is the one that overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

I think I was fortunate. I got the pretty quick versus something back in. OK, that's good. So any other thoughts or comments or actually just before you came out, you know, this is probably better rendered because it links back to the previous verse. I think it's because whatever is born of God, probably a probably better rendering. I think if the word overcome me. Overcoming the world doesn't mean everything's great. And that's a good point. We can be in the midst of just horrible things. Absolutely. It's not overcoming us, you know. We can handle it. Right. Because we're trusting that He has overcome us. And that's what every wonderful truth that we have. You know, like Dr. Schaefer has these 33 riches of God's grace. You know, we're born again, we're seated in the heavenlies. He enumerates all these wonderful blessings.

Well, this is one of them. I have to go back and look. It fits in there. One of his categories were conquerors, overcomers, because he's an overcomer. So everything we have is something that Christ has already done and is a wonderful truth that we're to remember. As we come to know him, we come to know that we're overcomers. Not that we have to feel like an overcomer, but it's because we are, as he declares that. So often when we say faith, it's a last resort thing. Excellent.

Right. Dr. Christian's wife is really bad, but I have faith that God will say it'd be the end of the lowest. Basically, it'd be just the last. Right. We'd hang on by and risk this for totally different reasons. Right. We're to exercise faith. That's our Christian life, you know. That's the one to see.

Faith is to be an ongoing... We came to the Lord by faith, we're to walk by faith. Faith is a constant condition of the believer. Faith in who God is and what He's done. We continue to do that moment by moment in our life. That's where He wants us to be. So we need to know what we have faith in. We have faith in Him who has accomplished all these wonderful things. I didn't say, that's not my words. I mean, that's the Lord's words. Faith is victory. It's, yeah, yes, okay, I'm sorry. Yeah, I can, that's like the thing about, I think Brad, as I pointed out, what is it? Oh, I'm losing it here, Roger. I don't know.

You can take a truth in scripture and you can make it, you know, just love. You know, love, it doesn't say what love is, there's no object for love. I'm just going to love. I just have faith. Faith in what? It's faith in a person. It's faith in Christ.

That's true. And it's defined. He defines it. Actually, one of the reasons why we have verse 5 is he nails it to the wall. He says, But he who believes in Jesus, he doesn't say just faith off in the ether, it's faith in the person of Christ. So that's, you know, thinking it through a little bit more, that makes verse 5 even, you know, extremely valuable because you have just have faith. Well, a lot of people say they have faith. In this context too, this isn't a tribal tribulation. I know, it's not. Right, isn't that interesting? Yes, right.

We really can't keep His commandments unless we exercise faith, because we want to be walking in Him, but He's keeping the commandments. I do a poor job of keeping the commandments. I make a list and keep track of it. Yeah, faith has to have a subject. Right, and that's exactly, that's a good, excellent point. And verse 5 just really clarifies that. Right.

I'm not sure. I've been disappointed a lot of times. Actually, I have a story. I'm not too good a storyteller, as Vani always tells me. She's trembling now. This is another family story. This is Vani's brother-in-law. It was one of our trips back to Pennsylvania. And for a time period, he was. What was the church where they were in the parsonage? And he was and he was kind of the United.

All right. OK. All right. So. But he was doing a little bit of ministering there. He was like, I remember one service that her brother in law was conducting. And this is not unique to that, you know, those folks. But at the end of the service, he asked for anybody that had had difficulty.

Do you have a. a problem. Is it drinking? Is it drugs? Whatever it might be. There's some problem you got. You'll come up front here. We'll pray with you. Which is, hey, no problem. We'll pray with you. And we'll pray that you get the victory over that problem.

So they bring people forward and it's just, Lord, give us a victory. Give us a victory. It's almost like a mantra. He's given us a victory. It's just that slight change. Not remembering that we have the victory and we're to count upon that. You're imploring the Lord, give us a victory. Give us a victory over this drug problem. Give us a victory over my marriage. Give us a victory over this.

It's that constant mantra. Well, the Lord doesn't want us to be there. He wants us to be realizing that He's accomplished the victory, and we're to count upon that. So it's a different, you know, we have the same scriptures, but boy, what a difference. What a difference. And the person's almost gone on to say they now have victory. Yeah, I know. That's good. And when I noticed is that it takes time to trust the Lord that we have the victory.

Because what we see in our life is things don't just smooth out and that problem goes away. It takes years, maybe a lifetime, maybe never. I mean, some issues in life may not be resolved while we're here. We desire that they are, but they may not be. How about the faith chapter?

That just blows me away. All these things happen, but I didn't see the outcome of their faith. I never saw it. Boy, that's incredible. That's incredible stuff. So many times we don't see the outcome of our faith, but the Lord tells us to trust and to rely upon Him.

Well, let's close. Dear Father, we thank You so much, Lord. We thank You for this day, Father. Thanks for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that we can rely upon that You are the conqueror. You're victorious, Lord. And we can count upon that victory, Lord. And day by day, moment by moment, And we thank you for accomplishing your purpose in our lives. In Christ's name, amen.