Sermon Transcript
Well, grab your Bible if you brought one or your phone or whatever you got that will help you get to God’s Word or the bulletin. Inside the bulletin is a message note sheet and I have some of the scripture on that we’re going to be looking at this morning. But we invite you to turn there with us to 1 John chapter 4. It was mentioned that we’ve been studying through the book of 1 John. We’re now in chapter 4.
So the book has 5 chapters. So we’re getting there. It’s been really fun this past few months. Digging into 1 John. The passage this morning is fascinating because it connects with the world in terms of the hacking.
Have you noticed there’s a lot of hacking going on in the world these days? And by that, I’m not talking about, you know, your cold and the number of people around you that are coughing and that sort of thing. I’m talking about the people throughout the world that are getting into hacking online, and they, you know, malware comes your way. From somebody who’s malintent. And really, this is not something we were thinking about 30 years ago, but now we talk about it all the time.
We have to be aware of it because we have to deal with it. Actually, as I began working on this message, the first day that I got into this study, I received an email with 2 words at the top of the email. They said, final warning. And then from there it said, do you really think it was some kind of a joke or that you can ignore me. I know what you’ve been doing the past couple of days.
I’ve been observing you. If you’ve not— if you don’t fund this Bitcom address with $1,500 within the next 2 days, I’m going to contact your relatives and everybody else on your contact list, and I’m going to tell them what you’ve been doing.
That’s pretty typical, isn’t it? You know, hopefully you haven’t been doing anything wrong, so they got nothing on you. But, you know, where does it come from? It comes from people who hack into other people’s lives to get a few bucks. Or in this case, $1,500 if they can.
Same day I received this email, I got another email from supposedly a friend who supposedly wrote me and said, Dave, hi, how are you doing? I need your help. Let me know when you get this. Thank you. That was it.
Fortunately, before I wrote back, I received another email actually from that friend that said, I’ve been hacked. Don’t respond to an email from me asking for help. If I needed help, I’d call or text you. My guess is you’ve probably had this kind of thing happen from time to time. Our staff actually gets emails from me from people who pose as me.
The hacker usually asks them to send checks, cash, or iTunes credit.
Usually in that order, right? As far as I know, our staff has never come to my rescue. By that I mean none of them have paid out the ransom, you know, get me out of trouble, and I’m really glad that they just ignore the emails and so forth. But if you’re a part of our world today, you’re going to be hacked. I mean, that’s just kind of— if you’re online, you’re going to be hacked.
It’s likely to happen. You got a phone, it’s likely to happen. So what can we do about it? Because it’s probably not going away. It’s going to probably be a part of life as long as internet is here.
So what can we do about it? Well, we take precautionary measures to protect our identity, and we also give ourselves security measures and other things like that. Because we got to, you know, be careful with people with malintent. Well, all of that’s to say in similar ways, we come to a section of Scripture this morning that even more significantly says we need to protect ourselves, and in this case, from false teachers who would come along and attempt to undo a person’s faith, especially faith in Jesus Christ. In some cases, the harm that they could do could devastate our relationship with God, like the first man and the first woman’s relationship with God was devastated by the first false teacher.
Who is that? Satan, a.k.a. the liar, the crafty one, he’s called. He’s the one in the early chapters of the Bible, you can read about it, who called into question the one prohibitive command that God gave Adam and Eve. Remember this?
You guys can eat off of any tree in the garden except for one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don’t eat off that tree. And if you know the story, Satan came along and said, well, did God really say you can’t eat off— and then he said it this way— any tree? Actually, he didn’t say it that way. But then he went on to contradict God by saying, you will not die.
You will be like God, knowing good and evil. So, what did Adam and Eve do? They ate the proverbial apple. They said yes to God’s— or to Satan, excuse me, to Satan’s deception that led to sin and death and pain and misery and separation from God. And that’s continued to spread throughout the world.
So, it’s obvious every Everywhere you go today, Satan and his cohorts continue to hack into people’s faith. In fact, a couple weeks ago I got a Twitter from— Twitter came up from Ed Stetzer who serves as Dean of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership at Wheaton College. He posted this on his Twitter feed. He said, I talked to an old friend tonight. I talked to an old friend tonight.
He was a key leader in a church we planted and then went on to plant another church when they moved. He was not a pastor. But a significant lay leader. Tonight he told me he is no longer a Christian. My heart is broken.
Come quickly, Jesus. And then he said, can’t really share details, but you can pray for Ed’s friend if you think of it. That was just a couple weeks ago. Another Christian casualty, another one of the many who profess to be Christians, who once had a vibrant Christian faith, and But somebody hacked into their faith. Something changed in their faith.
Some of you, like Ed, have people in your life right now who once were people of faith, but now they’re not. Could be somebody in your family. It could be a close friend. Could happen to any one of us. Point of this passage this morning is that there’s ever-present danger for anyone who is a Christ follower.
Your faith could be hacked. So, we need to take precautionary measures. And 1 John 4 is an immense help to us so that when people come along and potentially wreak havoc on our relationship with God, it doesn’t happen. So, let me read the passage again in light of that. Dear friends, 1 John 4:1, dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.
Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. Now, if you would, just note in verse 4 the word overcome, okay? Highlight it, underline it, write it down. This word comes from a word you know, nike.
You ever heard that word before? Nike. Nike is a Greek word that’s used to describe victory in battle, prevailing over an enemy, or conquering an opponent. In each case, somebody’s on the winning side, and this one on the winning side overcame an obstacle, overcame a contest, overcame an opponent. And that’s what John’s calling out here.
You need to be overcomers. But that kind of thing isn’t guaranteed. In fact, Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:1, the Spirit clearly says that in latter times, this would be even the times we live in, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Paul is saying to Timothy and to this church at Ephesus, I don’t want you to be among the some. Of course, the Lord doesn’t want us to be among the some.
That would be terrible if it happened to us, if we abandoned— it would be kind of like abandoning our U.S. citizenship and joining forces with ISIS. I mean, you know, like, prepare— I mean, perish the thought to walk away from what we have for that, to walk away, in this case, for what we have in Jesus Christ in the kingdom of light and to walk into the kingdom of darkness. Are you kidding? Really, we would do that? It can happen.
So John says we need to overcome, and he gives us 3 marks or safeguards of an overcomer. First of all, an overcomer exercises spiritual discernment. Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? You can’t believe everything you hear, especially when it comes to spiritual beliefs.
Somebody’s going to come along They’re going to have an addendum, an addendum to what you believe or what you’ve been taught. They’re going to attempt to replace the Bible and what the Bible actually teaches with what might be called counterbiblical beliefs or extra-biblical beliefs. In fact, some will come along and even call into question the authority or relevance or truthfulness of God’s Word. Have you ever heard somebody doing that? Have you ever had somebody come into your life and say, you know, the Bible is out of date.
You can’t really trust the Bible. Well, what is that? That’s a satanic ploy. It’s the continuation of Satan’s work with Adam and Eve. And just like the outcome was devastating for Adam and Eve, it could be devastating for us too if we buy into the lies.
And that’s why he’s saying you can’t believe every spirit. And so John, he’s just a loving parent, isn’t he? That’s why he begins with dear friends, or beloved is the translation in some of your Bibles. So like a parent, who loves his children. He’s just saying to his children, don’t believe every spirit.
There are many false prophets that have gone out into the world. Verse 5 says they are from the world, therefore they speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. And that’s not surprising. We’re all on the same page. But don’t be among that group.
That’s what John’s saying. So this is like a loving parent saying to the kid, don’t eat that. Why not? Because it’s contaminated. I said this this week to one of our grandkids.
We were in Disneyland. We were having some lunch, and one of the older brothers of a 2-year-old was trying to feed the 2-year-old a lemon slice. Now, first of all, that’s kind of, you know, evil in itself, but trying to feed the kid the lemon slice, but in this case, the lemon slice had dropped onto the table. And he picks it back up and says, here, you can have this. Are you kidding me?
I’m watching this and I was thinking, yep, this is typical, right? She didn’t know to say no, so I helped her. I said, don’t eat it, it’s dirty and it can make you sick. Now that’s what John’s doing here. He’s pointing out there are false prophets in the world.
They’re reinterpreting God’s word to fit their thoughts and their opinions, and basically they’re saying Hey, this is really good for you to eat. But John is saying this is contaminated, and it’s contaminated by the spirit of the Antichrist, verse 3, and it’s also filled with falsehood, verse 6. So don’t fall for it. It’s worldly thinking. It doesn’t square with God’s truth, that which ultimately brings life.
They say that you can eat and drink and it’s going to be good for you. No, go back to the source. You remember the source thing? Remember in school somewhere along the way somebody taught you that you were to check the source and that you wanted to primarily use primary sources and not secondary sources? Well, man’s word is secondary.
It’s a secondary source. God’s Word is a primary source. We need to— this is God’s Word. We need to submit to God’s Word. It’s not that man’s word, you know, is dominant.
We’ll put it up here, man’s word. So, the point is, is that we come back to the primary source. What is God teaching us? That’s our protection. A few hours before the lemon incident came up this week, it was interesting, the 2-year-old’s mom, who’s my daughter, asked me for a drink of water from my thermos.
And the reason she asked for a drink of water from my thermos was because her kids had slobbered all over her thermos. And she said, you know, Dad, I think I could drink something from yours because it’s safe, right? Well, there’s a picture here. God’s Word’s pure. It’s safe.
It can be trusted. It needs to be our primary source of wisdom. But you got to be warned, and this is what he’s trying to do here, is that it’s not as easy to recognize deception when Satan’s involved. Satan will come along, make something that’s not good look good. I was talking to a guy on Friday right now.
He’s having all kinds of issues with immorality. In his life, he’s been duped into believing that an immoral life is going to be good for him and it’s going to be good for his marriage.
He’s got to see that the ways of the world and the ways of the flesh and the ways of the devil are not for his betterment. They are not the path to life. So, John is saying, exercise spiritual discernment. And then John adds this, this is how you can recognize the Spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you’ve heard is coming and even now is already in the world. In verse 1, John says, test the spirits. Do you see that there? Verse 1, test the spirits. So now what John does, he gives them a basic test.
I think this is very interesting. Because when I first looked at this, I’m like, can you give me a few more? But he essentially gives one test. I call it the Jesus test. An overcomer exercises spiritual discernment and secondly uses the Jesus test.
And the Jesus test is to just simply consider the source or consider the information in light of the question, who is Jesus? Who is Jesus Christ? So, consider this offer, consider these beliefs, consider these practices, these writings, whatever it is, in light of who is Jesus Christ. And what John does is he says Jesus Christ is God incarnate. He came in the flesh from God.
He is the Son of God. In fact, Jesus, the word, the name itself suggests that He is our Savior, Yeshua, which speaks of God our Savior. He came to save us from our sins. He is Christ, which speaks of the Messiah, the promised Messiah. In fact, in Matthew 16:16, you’ll remember that Jesus asked the question, who are the people saying I am?
He asked this of the disciples. Remember their answer? It’s kind of like, you know, Family Feud. 4 answers, top 4 answers on the board. Some say you are John the Baptist.
Others say you are Elijah. Some say you are Jeremiah. Some say you’re one of the prophets. Jesus said, well, who do you say I am? And John said— or excuse me, Peter said, thou art the Christ, the Son of of the living God?
That’s it. That’s the question you’ve got to ask. That’s the test. Do people believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do we believe what ultimately Thomas, the skeptic, the skeptic came to believe?
He was the guy that, you know, after the resurrection, the others had seen Jesus, he had not seen him. He said, I’m not going to believe it. But finally, he had opportunity to believe it. Jesus appeared and let him touch Him. And Thomas in response said, you are my Lord and my God.
That’s it. My Lord, my God. Jesus is the Son of God. He was sent by God to the world to save us from our sins. And an overcomer is a person that’s not going to be duped by other beliefs in that regard.
They are going to ultimately believe that Jesus Christ in fact is God’s Son. In fact, John says in the 5th chapter of this book, 1 John 5:5, who is it that overcomes the world? Question, who is it that overcomes the world? Answer, only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. That’s pretty narrow.
That’s to say that He is the only one that saves. He is the way, He’s the truth, and the life, and there’s nobody that’s going to get to the Father except through Jesus Christ. He is the one that saves us from our sins and brings us to God.
And a lot of people run around not saying that. John says, just go back to the test. What do they believe about Christ? In fact, I want you to notice the word in verse 2 and also verse 3, acknowledge. Do you see the word acknowledge that’s found there?
That word acknowledge is the word homologeo. Homo, same. Logeo, speak. So to speak the same is what that word means. It’s just to agree.
It carries the idea of full agreement. Usually this word is translated confess, confesses, confessing, or confessed. It just is translated with the confess word. 17 times the word that we use to translate this word is confess, 2 times here only. In 1 John, in the New International Version, which is the translation I’ve given you this morning, it uses the word acknowledge.
I think confess is a better translation. I really do. Confess is the word that’s used actually in 1 John 1:9, even in the NIV. It says, if we confess That’s that same word. Our sins, if we say the same thing about sin that God says about sin, sin is sin, that we don’t minimize it, we don’t, you know, try to put it under the carpet, sweep it under the carpet, but we really deal with it, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and to purify us from all unrighteousness.
So this word speaks about complete alignment with with God’s authority on this matter. And in this case, when it comes to Jesus Christ, what is being asked for here is complete alignment, not just sort of an acknowledgment, but complete alignment, agreement with what God says about Jesus, what the Scriptures teach us about Jesus, that Jesus was preexistent. He existed before He existed on earth. He is God. He’s the promised Messiah.
He’s the Savior. He’s born of a virgin. He’s both man and God. He’s 100% man. He’s 100% God.
He’s sinless. He’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He’s the only way to God. Jesus died on the cross to pay our sins. He gave up His life so that we might have life with God now and forever.
Jesus resurrected from the tomb on the 3rd day just as He said He would. After appearing alive over a period of 40 days, Jesus went back to heaven. He ascended to heaven and He left His followers with this promise, I’m going to return in the same manner that you’ve seen me go. Now, to confess Christ, then, is to understand that, is to understand that with regard to Christ, that Jesus is Lord, and it’s to believe in our heart. In fact, Romans 10:9-10 says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and you believe, you shall be saved.
So this confess and believe, in a sense, are used as synonyms there. If you confess and believe in Jesus Christ, you’ll be saved. A while back I was trying to sort this out in terms of how much does a person need to believe in order to be saved? How much about Jesus do they need to believe in order to be saved? And I called one of my seminary profs and I asked him for his take on the matter.
He said, well, you know, Dave, I go to John— excuse me, I go to Acts 16:31. He said, you remember the conversation that the Apostle Paul had with this jailer? You may know the account. Paul and Silas had been imprisoned. God wanted them out of prison, so sent an angel and, you know, boom, the place is open now and they’re ready to go.
And the prison keeper sees this happen, scared to death. He figures his job’s on the line, his life’s on the line for that matter. And he then comes to Paul and Silas and he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Acts 16:30. And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.
There it is.
My professor said, for me, my perspective is that’s what a person needs to come to ultimately. They just got to come to believe in the Lord Jesus. But to say, I believe in the Lord Jesus, isn’t just an acknowledgment. It’s to confess that I am aligned— in line with what God says about Christ, that he is God incarnate. He’s the Savior of the world.
I come to believe that. And if that’s what you believe, I hope you do, don’t let anybody come along and mess you up. Don’t let anybody come along and take away that belief of what you have, that belief you have in Jesus Christ, of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Past September, we had an annual celebration picnic out on the patio after the worship services that morning, and near the end of the morning, there was a guy who came up, and I had about a 5 to 10 minute encounter with this guy. He was a proponent of spiritual beliefs, but not sound biblical spiritual beliefs.
He was way off base in that regard. That all became obvious after I asked him a question. The question was simply this, who is Jesus Christ? He said, well, Jesus is one savior among many saviors. In fact, he said that he was a savior.
I knew at that point we’ve got a problem. The problem was, is that he wasn’t open to biblical correction. He was just here to spread his false teaching, which is in line with what verses 5 and 6 are talking about. There are people, these false teachers, who are not going to listen. They’re into their falsehood.
They’re not going to be swayed from their falsehood. So, I said to him, you know, we’re not interested in what you’re teaching. In fact, you’re not welcome here in terms of teaching your heretical beliefs. He had a few words for me at that point, and then he turned around and left and said he was going to file a lawsuit against me. There’s really one question that you’ve got to come back to every time.
When it comes to this whole matter of salvation, and that question is, who is Jesus Christ? And who is Jesus Christ to me? Do not let the evil one dupe you into believing a lie that ultimately could lead to the undoing of the relationship that you have with God. Like, you know, if you can just do it this other way, it will be better for you. No.
It’s better for you through Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus said it’s better to lose every other relationship in life than to lose the relationship that you have with God. Don’t put these other relationships before God. Don’t put a teacher before God or a friend or a family member or a colleague or a spouse or you name it. Don’t put them before God.
An overcomer exercises spiritual discernment, uses the Jesus test, and then there’s one more quality here, and this is usually the verse that gets all the attention, at this point in the Gospel of John. 1 John 4:4, you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. An overcomer is somebody who relies on the Holy Spirit, he’s saying. It’s somebody who relies on the Holy Spirit, because victory over the evil one, you’re going to need something powerful, more powerful than you are. You’re going to need the Holy Spirit to overcome the one who’s in the world, and the one who’s in the world is Satan.
He’s the one who tricked Adam and Eve. He’s the one that can do more harm in your life as well. So the question we ask when we look at a verse like that is, how conscious am I of the Holy Spirit’s work in my life? Do I live with the awareness that I’m not gonna be able to do what it is that God has planted me on earth to do in my own strength, but I need to rely upon the work of the Holy Spirit? In fact, Jesus, you remember this, right before he left earth, He said to his disciples, I want you to stay put.
I just don’t want you to go anywhere yet. In fact, you stay where you are. Don’t go out, try to do any ministry until you receive the power from on high. Until you get the Holy Spirit, don’t you attempt to go out there and work for me. You’ve got to have the Holy Spirit, and you need to rely upon the Holy Spirit.
Now, my guess is, is that many of us right now are in situations where there is one thing that we know that we need, in order to succeed. I don’t know what it might be— to succeed at your work, to succeed in your calling, your schooling, your sport, your education, whatever it is. There’s one thing that you need in order to succeed. Oftentimes you come back to this one thing over and over again. This crossed my mind as I was working on this passage of scripture.
I went back to my days at Westmont College, and I realized there was one thing that I came to realize I needed if I was going to succeed there. And it really came after my first test where I got an F on it and the second test where I got a D on the second test. I could begin to see there’s a little bit of a pattern developing here. Maybe if we stick around for a long time, we might actually get all the way up to A or something. But I knew I needed something that I didn’t have at the time, so I went to see the dean.
I went to see the dean. Dean didn’t ask me to come to see him, Dean Jones. I went to see the dean. I went to see the dean Made an appointment with the dean, and I asked the dean a question. I said, what can I do?
I gotta do something. This isn’t working good for me so far. He said, you need to do the same thing that your mom was probably telling you for years to do. Imagine that, kids, paying attention to your mom. How about that?
Save you a lot of, you know, trouble later on. The dean was telling me, he said, what you need to do is you need better study habits than the study habits than you have right now. Actually, that’s a little bit different from my mom’s information. She said just, Dave, you need study habits. Nothing better in it.
But anyway, so the dean gave me sort of a grace moment there. But he said, you need some better study habits. And he began to work with me on some study habits and that sort of thing. And you know what happened? It had a great impact on my college experience at Westmont.
I actually graduated. In fact, I did well enough that it put me through to the next level, and I got a master’s degree, and then I went on and got a doctorate. And the irony of all of this is that today, you know what I spend most of my time doing? Studying. And it still requires study habits.
I could not do what I try to do without good study habits. And what Jesus is saying to them is, if you guys think you’re gonna overcome without the Holy Spirit, forget it.
You’ve got to learn to rely the Holy Spirit.
Do we do that? You say, well, I don’t know. I want to. You know, in Romans chapter 8, verse 9, it’s talking about the difference between what the Spirit of God can do in a person’s life and living without the Spirit of God. Paul writes this to the church at Rome.
He says, you, however, are controlled by not by the sinful nature. He could see a change in their lives. You’re not controlled by the sinful nature, but you’re controlled by what? The Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
See, the Bible’s not asking us to try to do something in our own strength. He’s— the Scripture is very clearly teaching that this strength is not found in us, it’s found in God. It’s found in us abiding in God. And if you come to the place where you do confess Jesus as Lord, you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you receive that gift of life, if you do come to that place, the Scripture tells us the Holy Spirit’s going to come and live within you. In fact, if you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you’re not a Christian.
You’re not a Christ follower. That’s what it’s saying. You get the Holy Spirit the moment that you come to faith in Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit is one that we want to depend upon. We want to be filled with.
We want to be controlled by. Galatians 5 is all about the work of the Holy Spirit. And so Paul says in verse 16, so I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. So here’s the key. You got to walk in the Spirit.
You got to pay attention to the Spirit. Don’t grieve the Spirit. Don’t quench the Spirit. Spirit speaks to you about something, say yes. Don’t fight the Spirit.
Verse 18, if you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under law. That’s good to hear. But the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22, wow, doesn’t this look good? This list: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and keep going, self-control. All of that is the fruit of the Spirit.
Wouldn’t you like that in your life? When I do a wedding, I oftentimes say this to the couple. Does this sound like something you want? Of course, yes. It’s found in walking in the strength of the Lord, relying on the Lord.
Since we live by the Spirit, verse 25, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Don’t get ahead of the Spirit. Don’t lag behind the Spirit. Keep in step with the Spirit. Jesus is saying to His disciples then, and we need to get it now, that we’re not going to be able to overcome without the Overcomer doing a great work in us.
And so Satan is going to be defeated, yes, but he’s defeated through the work of the Holy Spirit through us. That’s to say Satan is not going to roll over and die, you know, oh, You know, I wish I could do something. Satan is called the prince of this world, John 12:31, the god of this age, 2 Corinthians 4:4. He’s also called the ruler of the kingdom of air, Ephesians 2:2. So all of that’s to say he’s got enough power to make your life miserable, to steal, kill, and destroy your life.
And that’s destined to be our destiny if we’re not walking in the Spirit. It doesn’t have to go that way. We can be conquerors. We can overcome. We can be on the winning side.
We can defeat evil. We can keep the faith. We can have a better life now and in the future if we’re walking as overcomers in this world. So there’s the point. You want to be an overcomer.
I was kind of done putting this message together, and then I thought about Revelation chapters 2 and 3. You familiar with those chapters? Revelation chapters 2 and 3— this is actually the book of Revelation, is written by the same writer, John, and it’s written about 30 years after this book, about 95.
And John is writing here at the beginning of this book through the words of Jesus to these 7 churches who are no longer overcoming, who have fallen prey to the culture, and it’s not good for them at this point. So John says things like this to the church at Ephesus: He who has ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. That sounds good. You mean if I overcome, there’s going to be something better on the other side?
Yeah. To the church at Smyrna, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. To the church at Pergamum, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna.
I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him. Who receives it. To the church at Thyatira, to him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations. Sardis, to him who overcomes will then, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.
To the church at Philadelphia, him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will also write on him my new name. To the church at Laodicea, to him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
What’s Jesus saying? I mean, it’s pretty obvious, right? We got to be overcomers. The fruit, the reward is found in overcoming. It’s not by falling victim to this world, it’s by overcoming this world.
Every one of those churches at one point in time was a great church, but then they fell into the culture. They— take the church at Ephesus. The church at Ephesus did what? It left its first love, left its first love. It was a great church.
This is the church that Paul founded on his second missionary journey. He came back to the same church in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, and he lingered there for 2 to 3 years. He taught this church. He cared deeply about this church. He loved this church.
A decade later, he wrote them the letter of Ephesians. He was in Rome at the time. He was concerned about a couple things, but also he primarily praised this church in Ephesus. A short time after that, the Apostle Paul sent another pastor to pastor the church. His name was Timothy.
We read about that in 1 and 2 Timothy. It was an amazing church, but here it’s 95 and the church has left its first love, and John is saying to them, you need to repent. You need to remember, and you need to repeat what it was that you did before. You need to come back to the Lord. You need to overcome the culture that you’re living in.
Did they? We’re not really told. Here’s what we do know: in the 2nd century, the church at Ephesus was dead. It no longer existed.
That could happen to any church And of course, if it happens to any church, then that’s to say it happens to the people who are the church, and that’s not what God desires. God wants us to be overcomers. Is that what you want? I hope so. There’s so many things we’re going to face in life that are going to test our mettle, so to speak, and ultimately we’re going to have to fall back on the Lord in this thing.
We truly are. You’re gonna have to take a stand, take a stand against the evil one. We have to put on the armor of God. What’s the first armor? The belt of truth.
That’s what we’ve been speaking about today, truth. It’s to come back to the truth. It’s to live under the truth. It’s the primary source. It’s to live under the truth.
You want to be an overcomer, don’t we? We want to be overcomers.
So it’s found in exercising spiritual discernment, using the Jesus test, relying on the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray together.
It’s pretty hard, Lord, in this world to walk against the grain, to run against the grain, to go against the flow of where the world’s going. And yet you’ve called us to be people who don’t give in to the evil one and his ways and evil thinking that’s contrary to yours, but to bring to our culture the kingdom of light in the midst of a kingdom of darkness. So we pray you’ll help each one of us do that even this week, even right now. Maybe there’s a circumstance that we’re faced with that We’ve been pretty much just going with the flow, but it’s really just the wrong way. So I ask that you’d forgive us and you bring a new confession in our heart where our heart is in line with yours.
We want what you want. And when we don’t have that right, Lord, help us just own it. Help us admit it. Thank you that you do forgive us of our sins. Help us get on the same page as you.
Cleanse us from sin and give us a fresh start, just like you were calling each of these 7 churches to a fresh start, Lord. If we need that fresh start this morning, give that to us. May this be a year where collectively we together as a church overcome. We overcome the evil one. We see your light shine brighter and brighter.
And if there are any here this morning that have not yet confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in their heart that you raised Jesus, your Son, from the dead. We pray today might be the day of salvation for them. And if that’s the desire of your heart, tell God that. He’ll hear that prayer.
Lord, help us all connect with you in ways that are transformative, and may that be reflected in our lives and the life that we live today, the weeks to come, the years to come. May it be to your glory, for we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
