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00:00:00 scripture reading uh today's scripture reading is 1 John 5 verse 1- 21 everyone who believes that Jesus in the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves the fathers loves his child as well this is how we know that we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commands in fact This is Love for God God to keep his commands and his commands are not Bome for everyone born of God overcomes the world this is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith who is it that overcomes the world only the one who
00:00:51 believes that Jesus is the son of God this is the one who came by water and blood Jesus Christ he did not come by water only but by water and blood and it is the spirit who testifies because the spirit is the truth for there are Tre that testifies the spirit the water and the blood and the tree are in the AR agreement we accept human testimony but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God which he has given about his son whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony whoever does not believe God
00:01:44 has made him out to be a liar because they have not believed the testimony God had given about his son and this is the testimony God has given us eternal life and this is is the life is is in his son Whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life I write this these thing to you who believe the name of the son of God so that you may know that you are you have eternal life this is the confident we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to him his wheels he hears us and if we
00:02:34 know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we ask him if you see any brothers or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death you should pray and God will give them life I refer those who whose sin does not lead to death there is a sin that leads to death I am not saying that you should pray about that all wrongdoing is sin and there is sin that does not lead to death we know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin the one who was born of God keeps them safe and the evil one
00:03:21 cannot harm them we know that we are children of God and that the world whole world is under control of the evil one we know also 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 by being in the son Jesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life dear children keep yourself from idols thank you Nidan for uh doing the scripture reading uh it is uh on purpose that uh this morning we have a a Sunday school kid to read the text uh because uh we
00:04:17 want to remind you that we have a vibrant Sunday school Ministry and this is he is one of them okay so uh the reason why I to remind you is because uh the ministry is uh doing is is growing very fast okay uh we have a dedicated team of teachers and helpers to to to run the ministry and uh nen is standard five is a product of that Ministry and we want to urge more to join us as teachers and helpers because we we are already short of resources so if you uh are interested to L A Hand in this Sunday school Ministry please uh come
00:04:56 and see me or Vicki the head of the ministry all right that is my uh promo on the Sunday School okay once again uh it's my joy and privileged to be uh standing here sharing with you from the word of God and this morning we have come to 1 John 5 today's sermon is the last in our study of one John today we shall wrap up this short series on the first Epistles of John which we started back in uh in March and after this we shall uh embark on two concurrent series on James and exodus and a quick look at this spit
00:05:37 lineup over the next few weeks uh for the next two Sundays uh Dr Peter will kick off uh the study on James with uh understanding the nature of Temptation and then uh are we saved by faith or by works and after that Elder Arnold will launch The Exodus series with the hardening of the heart okay with that out of the way our text uh today from chapter 5 of 1 John concludes this Epistle of John not just in this chapter but but throughout the whole letter we find that there is a lot of stuff packed into the
00:06:21 text and while writing this epistle the author seemed to have so much to say his thoughts were were like jam up in his mind and they were like rushing out of his pen uh in a in in kind of a rush and as a result the verses can uh come across rather uh convoluted to get a sense of of what the what was in the alter's mind I shall offer you a a structural analysis of the chapter but not before I share with you the background to that book then only we will look we will zoom into today's topic on overcoming the world and so the
00:07:03 the background first and then the structure and then later in the sermon we shall discuss the main topic let's begin with a word of prayer Our Father in Heaven Shine Your Light into our hearts and Minds as we consider this last chapter of one John May these verses come alive so that they will hasten a difference in the conduct of our faith may your word speak to us through the persuasion of your spirit so that we may be found commendable in your sight and we ask this in the name of your son amen last April uh lean and I and our
00:07:49 two kids we met in Tokyo and we spent a wonderful 10day family vacation in Japan it had been almost a year since we last saw the kids and you can imagine my wife and I on Cloud 9 being able to spend time with them we were beyond happy holidaying together doing things together eating talking sing and also bonding now being together as a family is is always nice which is also what happened uh at the recent Church camp in p lean and I enjoyed ourselves spending time at this time with our spiritual
00:08:37 family doing things together talking eating learning and fellowshipping if you didn't go for the church camp you miss the lot I cannot resist showing you the best photo from the cam taken by ulam what a contrast can you guess who these two persons are yes I know know if you know Chinese this is uh hangang from the song you know the Chinese song now I don't know when the the next Church camp will be but but make sure you don't miss it okay now back to the Japan trip one night we were having dinner in
00:09:28 this Lively District of Shibuya in the western part of Tokyo so after a Sumptuous meal we took a stroll along the busy streets and I chanced upon a most amazing site we walk past a church a church in the middle of a bustling entertainment area where the rent is Skyhigh and besides barely one to 2% of Japanese are Christians so what's the church doing in Shibuya above the door the name of the church is just the church and interestingly the sign on the right of the entrance says in Japanese for now all of us must
00:10:20 repent sounds like the words of John the Baptist so I was curious but the sign on the left says in English no cover church now I was confused perhaps the this church doesn't collect tax and offering so I looked inside to see what what is going on in their evening service it was dark and crowded with people dancing and smoking the music was loud with generous flow of alcohol so you guessed it it was a pup it was a pop masturating as the church inside you would't find the spirit with the capital S instead you'll
00:11:11 find spirit with a small s if you know what I mean and just to be sure I asked the the lady at the door this isn't a real Church isn't it is it and it was an unnecessary question and she answered no and when I took a photo she was so shy that she she covered her face maybe it was very embarrassed to be there now this is just an introduction to the sermon related to today's topic and here we have the facade of a church of what looks like a church but inside we see the world or what represents the
00:11:47 world I was wondering isn't this like many churches today they appear to be a church but inside we find the world or traces of the world or perhaps it's also descriptive of many Christians today they are Christians or they say they are Christians but they are also worldly at the same time we shall come back to this later when we address the question of uh overcoming the world now before diving into the into the serma proper let me share some background to the book of one John some knowledge of the of the
00:12:27 background or context in the study of any biblical text is always useful now according to Scholars collectively 1 John 2 John and three John they they occupy a special place uh in in in the in scripture as they are said to be the last books to be written or the second last altogether the Apostle John pent five books of the Old test of the New Testament The Gospel according to John the three Epistles of John and revelation now Revelation was uh was written while uh while John was living in Exile in the
00:13:08 penal island of Patmos and apparently after his release from Exile he spent the winter years of his life uh in around the city of Ephesus where he wrote um these uh three Epistles including one John now Revelation is placed at the end of The Bible and rightly so because it's about end time events but it is not necessarily the last book of the Bible to be written according to to to some Scholars one John 2 John and 3 John can be dated after Revelation to around 1995 ad it has been said that John also wrote uh
00:13:47 The Book of John one of the four gospels while he was in Ephesus but in any case it is noteworthy because it lends a special quality to these three Epistles of John when John wrote them including one John he was already A Very Old Man as depicted in this uh piece of art he had had many years to think about the time he spent with Jesus to ponder upon all that Jesus said and did he had decades to do so and he was now more insightful more reflective and as he composed these three Epistles under the illumination of the Holy
00:14:35 Spirit what he had written come across as deeper and more intense and this is worthy of note when we study one John and there is something else about John's writings among among the 12 disciples of Jesus three of them were closer to Jesus pet Peter James and John and they constituted the the Inner Circle and among the three in the Inner Circle John is the closest to Jesus in fact John describes himself as the one whom Jesus loved and he was sitting right uh beside Jesus on his right at the Last Supper
00:15:18 and being the one closest to Jesus is reasonable to think that what John wrot would come across as more profound or to put it in a strange way he had in Insider information so that's what we must remember when we read one John now a bit of the context uh to the three Epistles of John they were written by John to counter or argue against some serious false teachings that were uh uh uh permeating or infecting the church and one of them is the teachings of gnosticism now brother Victor on um had already explained this in his sermon in
00:15:58 early April on 1 John 1:8 and then 2 to 2:2 and I I will not repeat what was preached except to say that those false teachings were causing tension and hostilities within the church and it was serious enough to compel John to write his three letters we can we can imagine John's consternation uh uh at all this heresies going around as he passionately defended the gospel as he refed refuted the the false teachings and this is yet another reason why John's Epistles come across as very intense and throughout the letter we see
00:16:41 we see this this evidence of such intensity first we find John describing uh the false teachers as Antichrist in chapters 2 and 4 he also called them Liars in Chapter 2 Children of the children of the devil in chapter three he labeled them as deceivers in his next letter to John this is what he thought of them in fact he was a bit angry among the several heresies uh pedal by the false teachers which brother Victor uh uh had elaborated in sermon the most serious is that they denied that Jesus is the son of God you
00:17:25 also they pushing the idea that Jesus is not the Messiah or the Christ and that's why throughout one John we see the author pushing back pushing back continually that Jesus is the son of God that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ and I picked this up from every chapter in the book especially from chapter 5 our text for today I won't read all of this but you see here Jesus is the son of God repeatedly Jesus is the Christ again and again so much for the background and context to John John 1 John 5 we we now ready to
00:18:07 dive into the chapter but before I show you the structure of the text let's follow through what uh what on John's insistent that Jesus is indeed the Son of God and the Christ you see he goes on to point out that those who believe that Jesus is the son of God and that Jesus is the Christ they are the children of God they are children of they become they become children of God they can address God as father and is right here in verse one of our text everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is
00:18:44 born of God now this is big it's born of God and in verse 5 it talks about these same people who believes that Jesus is the son of God born of God means children of God he in uh to to the True Believers in the church it also applies to us we who believe that Jesus is the son of God and the Christ it follows that we are the children of God born of God don't take this term lightly children of God children of God in chapter 3 John keeps referring to Believers as children of God now to to continue with with his line of reasoning
00:19:32 John goes on to describe what the children of God are like or what their dominant features might be he is eager to show the the differences between those in God's Cam and those in the Heretics Cam and here the the author uses a literary technique known as contrast By by putting two opposing entities side by side for comp Arison a little like uh the two contrasting hair colors just now and hence John talks about those walking in the light versus those walking in the darkness from chapters 1 and two those on the side of Truth and those
00:20:18 who dwell in lies from two passages in chapter two those who are children of God versus Children of the devil from chapter 3 those were of life versus those who remain in death also from chapter 3 light versus Darkness Truth versus lies children of God versus children of of the devil life versus death John is like saying to his people and to us we are not like them they are not like us the contrast is huge total opposites don't be like them don't go there as they've been LED astray and they are
00:21:03 going against the faith so do you see do you see the flow of thoughts here John begins with Jesus being the Son of God and the Christ if you believe this is true then you are a child of God and if you're a child of God you walk in the light you're on the side of Truth etc etc you don't belong to the other camp and this is useful because we don't belong to the world you are supposed to overcome the world now here we we ask this question how do we know if a person belongs to cam a or Cam B now a person may claim to belong to
00:21:50 cam a how do you know he's not actually from kamb be in fact throughout the book John likes to use the phrase if we claim or whoever claims or anyone who claims sure anyone can claim to be a child of God in Camp a how do we know he is really one and interestingly throughout the letter John is also fond of using the phrase this is how we know this is how we know for example in in verse two of our text many times he would write this is how we know and it goes on to tell us and so there are there's a way of
00:22:30 telling if a person is in cam a or Camp B in fact there are several ways which we want to extract from 1 John 5 so let me present you the structure of 1 John 5 the five ways of knowing which cam you belong to I've seen this referred to as the five test obedience test three willing test four Eternal eternity The Eternity test and finally the repentance test all the corresponding verses from chapter 5 is given are given on the right but why call them tests one analogy is the SPM exam now the results for the 2022 batch will
00:23:24 released recently on 8th of 8th of June you see after 11 years of education how do we know if a student has acquired all the necessary knowledge to become a functioning citizen how do we know if he has acquired the uh the the has met the required standard in academics what do we do well we put all 17 year olds through a comprehensive examination we test them we see how they measure up well the the the five tests of faith in one John is a little like that like SPM after being a Christian for say 20
00:24:13 years how do you measure up actually this can be called SPM spiritual performance Matrix but if you if you think that the word um uh exam or test sounds frightening perhaps a better way is to look at these as the five evidences of Faith because if you are a child of God and you if you belong to his then there must be some sort of evidence I've often asked how do we know is someone who claims to be a Christian is a True Believer and truly saved how do we know we look at a person we won't know but we can know by
00:25:08 his fruits Jesus says in Matthew 7 you will know them by their fruits a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit and hence you may you may refer to the five tests of Faith as the five fruits of Faith so let's go through the five tests or five evidences of five fruits of Faith but let's also be clear these are not conditions for salvation they're not what you must do to earn salvation now we have been saved by grace through faith we have been redeemed by the atoning blood of Jesus on the cross that
00:25:53 alone brought us into salvation these tests are not meant to to award you with salvation only if you pass them no they have it's not that these evidences will will make salvation possible or rather our Salvation will make these evidences possible and I must also add that all these tests in 1 John 5 they have actually already been put forward by John in all previous chapters of one John and the author is not presenting anything new in this chapter so what we see here in chapter 5 is actually a summary of all that has been taught by
00:26:32 John in chapters 2 to 4 and since the previous preaches here have already touched on most of them I'll do a recap on each of them in order to s in order to set the stage for the main discussion later on on how to overcome the world number one the love test not the love test between husband and wife okay the love test right at the beginning in verses 1 and two everyone who loves the father love his child as well this this is how we know that we love the CH the children of God by loving God now we
00:27:15 have the the singular child in the in verse one and the plural children in verse two a bit confusing there uh but many translations render the child in verse one as children and so these two Es are are are synonymous exactly the same but we have a an AB ba pattern here love God love his children love his children love God so the evidence of faith is simple here if you are born of God we will love God and by extension we will love our Brothers and Sisters in Christ as we love God and experience his
00:27:57 love we will reflect or radiate his love to people around us especially those in the community of Believers God is love and love must be an integral part of our spiritual DNA and as mentioned Is Now John has already elaborated this in earlier chapters of of his of his letter let's let me go through them quickly chapter 2: 9 and 11 9 to 11 this is conveyed in both uh negative and positive statements anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness anyone who loves their
00:28:35 brother and sister lives in the light also in the chapter 3: uh 10 11 this is how we know who are the children of the devil are who the children of the devil are anyone who does not love their brother and sister for this is the message you heard from the beginning we should love one another and also further down in uh in verse 23 this is his command to love one another as he commanded us and more of the same in chapter 4 which I won't read you get a picture verses after verses throughout the book
00:29:11 on just this one point the author seems to be like going on and on know repeating the same thing remember that John Was A Very Old Man when he wrote All This and old people tend to be very long- winded yours included uh Yours Truly included but I think it's not so much long-windedness it's more because he really wanted to press across this point this this thought just keep coming back to his mind last Sunday Dr Peter already gave us a very good Exposition on the Christian in love based on 1 John uh 3:
00:29:51 11-24 and then chapter 4: 7- 21 it was very long passage last Sunday and he went through uh that two passages so I won't go any further except to say that if we are born of God we will love God and by extension we will love our brothers sisters in Christ number two the test of obedience found in the verse three This is Love for God to keep his commands or to carry out his commands from the end of verse two this is related to to the love test if we love God we will keep his Commandments which Jesus implored us to
00:30:34 do during the Last Supper he said if you love me keep my commands and he said that not once but three times as recorded in John 14 vers 15 21 23 and so the second evidence of faith is clear here we're trying to identify who actually belongs to to God's cam the second evidence of faith is clear here if you are born of God if we are born of God we will be obedient children of God we will not take God's Commandments lightly our obedience to God pleases our heavenly father just as an Earthly child who is obedient pleases
00:31:17 his Earthly father during Good Friday service last April we were reflecting at the cross and in my sermon that night I dwelt at length on this subject of obedience and once again John already discussed this in Chapter 2 we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person it goes on and if a if if anyone obeys his word love for God is truly made complete in them this is interesting there not now
00:31:58 we saw obedience as as a consequence of of of love for God but now we see obedience producing other consequences namely we get to know God better our love for God is made complete moving on we're moving very fast here moving on to the next test of faith the worldliness test is taken from Verses 4 and five everyone born of God overcomes the world this is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith then he asked the question who is that who is it that overcomes the world only the one who believes that Jesus is
00:32:44 the son of God verse verse 4 B the second part of verse four can be a bit hard to understand this is this is the victory that overcome the world even our faith sounds a bit like Old English one translation conveys this meaning more clearly our faith is what gives us the victory the faith is is related to believe and so these two these two verses are somewhat synonymous again meaning overcoming the world is made possible because of our faith SL belief in Jesus which gives us the victory but what does it mean to
00:33:25 overcome the world overcome the world World other translations use the phrase to defeat the world or we're still to conquer the world but why the need to defeat the world what does the word world even mean here now certainly it doesn't mean the world as a place where people live for example when we say traveling to see the world such as traveling to visit Tokyo I didn't go to Japan last to defeat Japan brother William NE in his sermon in April on the 1 John 2: 12-1 17 a part of the series explained that the world
00:34:12 here means the system of the world he was preaching on on what's wrong with loving the world meaning there are aspects of the world that are corrupt and bad in one translation verse four here says everyone born of God overcomes the corrupt world that is a bit more specific and this worldliness test is also implied further down in verse 19 in our text we know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one so children of God are supposed to to distance themselves from a world that is corrupt
00:34:52 because it is under the control of the evil one Satan has a has a firm grip on the world and once again you see John has already talked about this in Chapter 2 do not love the world or anything in the world if anyone loves the world love for the father is not in him so I I give you the test then from chapter 5 after that I give you the the you know the corresponding passages in the previous chapters the author is presenting worldliness test in here in a in a Converse way if you love the world or if
00:35:30 you cannot overcome the world then you don't love God and the next verse is interesting because it defines the world the the word world lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and the pride of life stay away from such things and brother William already detailed all this in his sermon and hence the the third evidence of faith is evident here the one born of God is is not worldly meaning he doesn't love the world and is not compromised by the ways of the world and we will zoom into this later when we when we uh discuss ways to
00:36:11 overcome the world let's go on fourthly The Eternity test which we see in verses uh 11 to13 this is a testimony God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son Whoever has a son has life whoever doesn't have the sun does not have life we're talking about eternal life here and to continue I write these things to you who believe in the son in the name of the son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life three verses and the emphasis on eternal life so the the evidence of faith is very explicit here if you are
00:36:54 born of God you have eternal life and you are sure you have eternal life meaning when you depart this world you are absolutely certain that you will with be Jesus for eternity if I ask you do you have eternal life some may say maybe not sure I hope so or say like Malayan often do see how we have this we have this amazing two word phrases no see how if you say see how to eternal life and when it's too late you have to say now how so don't say see how when asked do you have eternal life if any of these is your answer then you
00:37:50 are not born of God because children of God will answer very sure and0 % sure not just 100% you know 110% sure meaning more than sure those born of God are absolutely confident of their Eternal Destiny with Jesus that's the fourth evidence of Faith the certainty of eternal life and once again for the fourth time I'm saying this is not the first time that John John is addressing this so we look back at other passages he already pointed this out in Chapter 2 in two sections in verse 7 and then verses 2425
00:38:30 whoever does the will of God lives forever this from chapter 2 and a few verses down so that you have heard so that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you if it does you will also remain in the son and in the father and this is what he promised us eternal life and there are more similar verses in chapter three but you get an idea and finally the last test of faith in 1 John 5 the repent repentance test based on uh Verse 18 further down the chapter anyone born of God does not continue to sin
00:39:06 does not continue to sin just one line but it's super important our brother John Lee uh gave a very solid sermon on sin at the end of March from 1 John 1 uh 10 to5 5 to 10 sorry and he explain not just sin but also the meaning of this phrase continue to sin continue to sin and once again say for the fifth time the author has already mentioned this earlier in in in the early chapters uh in chapter 3: 6 and here is more he's more elaborate no one who lives in him keeps on sinning no one who continues to
00:39:45 sin has either seen him or known him and also in verse 9 in chapter 3 no one who is born of God will continue to sin because God's seed remains in them they cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God so we we see the phrase keeps on sinning go on sinning which means the same as continue to sin and perhaps it useful uh to check other translations uh to the top right at the top right corner which renders this as make sin a way of life or make a practice of sinning or habitually sinning and hence the fifth and and last
00:40:25 evidence of Faith becomes more parent the one born of God does not make sin a habit his life is not marked by sin he's not trapped in sin of course he still commits sin we all sin Yours Truly included but when he sin when he sin he's remorseful willing to confess seeking God's forgiveness and and his repentant I'll leave it at that because brother John Lee had already covered this in depth in summary we have pieced together a patent profile of a Believer born of God namely he loves God and his people he's an obedient child of God
00:41:19 he's not worly he's sure of eternal life and his repentant when he sins and these are the descriptions of of those firmly established in God's camp and since these are tests of faith we ask God to to coach us to teach us so that we can do better and better so that we get higher and higher marks well we have come to the um to The crucial part of the sermon to the main uh topic of today on overcoming the world but just hold on uh a couple of minutes I I really feel that I have to address uh two sections
00:42:03 of the text that are a bit hard to understand so please just bear with me this will just take a couple of minutes I just want to be sure uh that you don't get stuck with two two areas of the text that are a bit difficult to understand the first difficult uh uh part of the text is in verses 6 to 8 it says in verse seven down there uh the second last verse that there are three that testify now testify what is not stated in this slide but in further down in in in in verse 11 is about the testimony
00:42:36 that God has given us eternal life the three that testify to this are the Spirit uh the water and the blood from verse uh8 down there okay the spirit the water and the blood no okay for the Holy Spirit to testify to this truth about our eternal life now this is quite understandable quite easy to understand but what about the water and the blood I mentioned three times in these three verses now from verse six they they you know they relate to Jesus this is the one who came by water and and blood
00:43:14 Jesus Christ so we know water and blood refers to Jesus now what is this water and blood no this needs a clarification okay the first you would agree that the blood here points to the crucifixion of Jesus blood you know the blood of Jesus At The Cross and that's that's most likely what it is but water here is a bit hard to understand and there are various views and I shall offer you two firstly the water could refer to the Waters of baptism now Jesus was baptized not as a sinner for he is sinless yet he chose to
00:43:50 be baptized as a way for him to identify with Humanity you know like setting us an example and his baptism occurred at the start of his Earthly Ministry and so water and blood could be John's way of uh book ending you know the start and end of of Jesus mission on Earth now the other the other view is based on John 19:34 while Jesus was hanging on the cross uh a soldier pierced his sight you know with a spear causing water and blood to flow out and hence water and blood together could Point jointly to
00:44:23 the crucifixion now I have no preference as to which view is the more correct one you may want to uh ponder over this on your own Now quickly the second difficult part of the text is in verses 1617 it talks about this one is uh when you read it it's like what is this you know it talks about sin that leads to death and sin that does not lead lead to death this but this is actually easier to unravel what is this sin that leads uh that leads to death of course all sins lead to death because the wages of sin is
00:45:01 death but since John is talking about a brother here a brother in Christ who is saved so it cannot be spiritual death it cannot be spiritual death rather the author is talking is talking about physical death because there are sins that can lead to physical death and we are reminded of one Corinthians 11 a number of members in the Corinthian Church they were guilty of partaking Holy Communion in in an unworthy Manner and some of them died you can read that in 1 Corinthians 11 and so there are sins that can lead to death in that in
00:45:35 in that chapter and also we reminded of uh the case of ananas and safira in Acts chapter 5 same thing so there are some sins that can lead to that but John is also careful to point out that not all sins uh lead to physical death otherwise nobody will be around here and that's why he mentions that there there are sins that does not lead to death and these are the sins that we we you and I commit to which we confess and for which we seek forgiveness and from which we repent that's all I want to just address
00:46:06 these two uh small points and with that settled finally we turn our attention uh to the uh main topic overcoming the world finally the question before us is how do I overcome the world now what we have examined about the the difficult verses in the text they're just technical not very important but now comes the important part now comes the the the Practical part of the sermon I I've devoted much time to discussing the five evidences of Faith actually what I've been doing all along is to lay the
00:46:44 foundation to answer this question how to overcome the world I've been building the case for what I'm going to uh share with you so drawing from the structure of the text this is very similar to the structure of the text here are five strategies to help us deal with worldliness to overcome the world we need to adopt one a god centered and others centered position two a word-based platform three an eternity perspective four a Victorious posture I should explain one by one now if you if you recall the church
00:47:24 in Tokyo that looks like a church but isn't a church outside we see the trappings of a of a church but inside is the world in Matthew 7 Jesus described this as wolves in sheeps clothing so to overcome the world we need to flush out all traces of the world from inside us both collectively as FBC and individually as a child of God and the strategy is to to to put God first put God first and he will lead us to putting others before for self we must develop a god centered and then other centered position remembering that the first
00:48:06 evidence of faith is love for God and love for others because the thing about the world is that or at least the part of the world controlled by the evil one it is typified by self love self love love for the self El elevating oneself above God and others and we all guilty of it now if you study the definition of of the word world in 1 John 26 1 John 216 which I show you just now it is the L of the flesh the L of the eyes and the pride of life they are all facets of self love including self gratification self-importance
00:48:49 Etc in Matthew 16:24 Jesus says that if you want to be his follower you must deny self selflove is a form of idolatry idolatry is the worship of anyone or anything other than God anyone including yourself and so notice that in it's no it's no coincidence that in at the end of the of the chapter uh John ends with an exhortation to keep away from Idols just one verse but it won't be easy because we want to be the captain of our own ships we want to be the master of our own destiny we reluctant to se control to
00:49:35 God because we think we know what's best for ourselves so the key is to tell ourselves that if we are in control and not God in control the outcome will not be good second strategy to overcome the world is to is to dive deep into the word of God to build a word-based platform remembering that the second evidence of faith is obedience but how do we become more obedient to God by knowing his Commandments and his teachings and that requires serious Bible study searching the scripture should be an exercise that
00:50:15 we do often with commitment with Zeal it's not surprising that in the set of armor of God that Paul asks us to to put on to stand against the schemes of the devil the most crucial piece of the armor is the sword of the spirit the word of God from Ephesians 617 without the sword which is the word of God the soldier cannot be on their offense FBC is a is a word based church that emphasizes the faithful teaching of God's word and this happens at at at at various levels from the Sunday sermons to to to gamma to Bible study at live
00:50:54 group meetings we even host the the the the ladies BSF classes here you would do well to to actively participate in as as many of these as time allows I mentioned you know uh uh sermons by Brother John Lee you know uh brother Peter in fact you can get you can hear all these sermons from at the FBC website now if as many members of the congregation dedicate themselves to Serious Bible study then this church will not be become like the church I saw in Tokyo the third strategy is to fight worldliness is to embrace an eternity
00:51:36 perspective an Outlook that sees beyond our Earthly Earthly life because remembering that yet another evidence of faith is the certainty of eternal life a 2021 survey conducted in the US shows that only 37% of Americans are sure they will be with God in heaven and I'm I assume these 37% are are mostly Christians now I check other statistics they show that 63% of Americans identify themselves as Christians so if you work in the 35 the 37% from the survey if my math is correct about 40% of Christians are not
00:52:21 sure if they have eternal life that's a lot four out of 10 Christians are not sure if they have eternal life but if you if you survey this group then of course the percentage uh would be much lower I mean the percentage of people unsure of eternal life why because these people belong to God's Camp not just because they in a church camp but the trouble with us is that we may know for sure that we have eternal life but our lifestyle doesn't reflect that we don't bother the choir an eternality perspective we often too too spiritually
00:53:04 mopic too rooted in the material world not realizing that we take nothing with us when we die in the words of job naked I come naked I go and so the key is to is to constantly remind ourselves that this world is not our home I almost want to sing it to you you know this this world is not my home I'm just passing through say say this to yourself many many times this world maybe even put in your car you know a little poster this world is not my home I'm just passing through and this based on Hebrews
00:53:43 1314 this world is not a permanent home we are looking forward to a home yet to come Eternal perspective and strategy number four to counter the world is to assume a Victorious posture and this has to do with our propensity to sin the world under the under the rule of Satan is defined by sin what is sin sin is missing the mark transgression of God's law rejection of God's way from uh brother Victor's sermon but remember that those born of God do not continue to sin they don't get entangled in sin
00:54:27 John's advice for us is to claim victory over sin and what does that mean he explains in verse 18 the one who was born of God meaning Jesus the one who was born of God because the one is capital O and was born the one who was born of God keeps us keeps them safe and the evil one cannot harm them meaning Jesus will protect us no sin has no dominion over us in the words of Paul we are free from the curse of sin there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus also the words of Paul but when we sin especially when we
00:55:08 when we keep on sinning the devil likes to whisper to us look you are a bad Christian God is so disappointed with you God will reject you but if we assume a Victorious posture we can have power over sin knowing that Christ has already achieved victory over sin we can overcome the lies of the devil why go back to the things associated with defeat and that's it there you are the strategies for overcoming the world wait a minute it says five strategies but there are only four here actually I put this light up on purpose
00:56:01 to test whether you falling asleep and nobody pointed out there are five strategies there's one more the passion for prayer now all they have laid out all these strategies would be completely useless if not underg guarded by prayer I cannot overstate the importance pray is like the petrol we need to keep our cars going without prayers your your car is stuck there at the side of the road how do I picked up where do I picked up this strategy this last strategy one last look at the text verses 14 to 15 this is the confidence
00:56:43 we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us and if we know that he hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we ask of him John is asking us to pray and to be confident in prayer this middle this part in the middle of the text is is about prayer the whole thing must be is is is anchored upon this and he continues in verse 16 urging us to also pray for our Brothers and Sisters in Christ so that we can progress together in closing there are there's a bit of of
00:57:22 the world in all of us no Christians can uh can claim that he is 100% free of worldliness it's a bit of world in all of us and but even to dismantle that is a tough long life lifelong process and perhaps the the anti the best antidote against uh whatever uh traes of the world that we have inside us is that Christ must increase we must decrease in the words of John the Baptist Christ must must increase we must decrease and think I think that is the best antidote against worldliness and going by the the earlier
00:58:07 slide that uh you see that the first letters of the of the keyword spell lower I I I did that intentionally because we must lower ourselves and God must be higher we must lift God higher in our lives let's close in prayer Father in Heaven uh keep us ever close to your sight and free us bit by bit from the clutches of the world so that your name be lifted up through our lives and we say this in the name of your son the Messiah amen now shall we all rise for the closing uh hymn this is is a hymn um I'm so glad that uh we we have a hymn
00:58:55 to end this the service uh beow my vision all right and the and the words hopefully will help you uh to to to be motivated okay uh on this topic of overcoming the world Andrew Andrew you don't mind I joined the worship team for the closing song you can be thou my Nation Oh Lord of my heart not all all else to be sa that th th my best my day of by now waking of sing thy presence my life all my and now my [Music] true I am with me and now we me Lord now my father and I you [Music] th and come on church
01:00:49 [Music] sing and be praised how my inheritance now [Music] and now and now in my heart I of Heaven my [Music] Tre I all my victory one may I reach heaven Oh [Music] My My Own Heart [Applause] [Music] whatever still be my vision all ruler of all to be my oh [Music] ruler please uh please remain standing for the malediction people of God receive now blessings from him the king of the high King Of Heaven may God be your vision and your wisdom may he be your light the heart of your own heart may you not be swayed by riches
01:02:34 nor man's empty praise but may God be your treasure and your best thoughts and may He also be your inheritance and your Victory go now in the love joy and peace of God Amen the service is over please don't uh just rush off join us for Fellowship in the Garden Cafe we love to get connected with you if you need prayer um the some pastors and Elders are in front here
