Isles, Paul: 1John-39 Faith That Overcomes The World 3 ~ 1John 5.5

Continuing on in this last point, the hallmark of the child of God, the hallmark of someone who is being begotten of God. It's the last point, isn't it, of the person who has been born of God, beginning at chapter five verse one down to chapter five and verse five of First John. And we are finding this in verse four. This is the final point about a person who is a true believer. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Now that person we have learned in verse one, is a person who is begotten of God, who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This person who has that belief, who has that faith, has a faith which overcomes the world. And what we're doing is we are working our way through, as it were, the meaning on of that fact, because it is a fact, and also discovering how it works in practice, and then learning how to put it into practice. First of all, we notice that it is a fact, we have that faith, and we have overcome the world. The world in its power, in its evil, can never take us captive again. We have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, and that's a fact, and it cannot be reversed. The wonderful thing is that sin, Satan, death, hell, and all the world's got can never take us away or take us out of his hands. So there is a faith, and there is that way in which that faith has already overcome the world, and the world will never overcome us. That's a fact. Now, that fact is put into practice in daily life. It is learnt, and it is, and it grows, and it's practiced, and as it practiced, it grows. It's exactly the same as going back to verse one to three. It says, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, so that we've been begotten of God. A person who is a child of God will always love God. Love for God is put there in that new nature, in the heart of the believer, when they are born again, when they become a child. So the love for God is already there, but you spend the rest of your time of your life, the rest of your life, working out what that means, practicing it and perfecting it. Just as we do have a victory over the world, but you spend the rest of your life working out what that means, practicing it and perfecting it, and learn how it is done. So also, as we learn how we to love God, we already have a love for him, we learn how to daily practice it. The person who has been born of God has a love for God's people, and we've been discovering in the last six or eight months how hard it is to learn to put that into practice and to perfect it. The child who's been begotten or born of God automatically wants to please the Lord. These are normal signs of normal life. However, it can be difficult, and we have a lot to learn, but we get to that point where his commandments are not grievous, they're not a burden. We want to do it, and we learn to do it. So you see what I mean? It's there at the beginning of our pathway as believers, as we put our faith and trust in Christ, in the new nature, these possibilities and abilities are already there, but we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, as it were, having got it, work out what it means and how to live it and how to practice it. Salvation is not something you just learn about in doctrinal terms, because to every doctrine there is a practice. So you learn its teaching, its doctrines, and you put them into practice. Now we've got the same thing. We have got a faith that overcomes the world. However, how does it work every day when we're actually in the world? And so we learn our lessons. We learned the first le- lesson, and I used it, and I said it was a passive thing. We have a faith that in every situation, under every attack, has learned to go back to rest and to rely on God. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it, and he's safe. Fine. As we went along learning what this meant, you know, to really wait upon the Lord, to trust in him, to lean on him, we found it wasn't such a passive thing after all. It was something you really had to do every time. And we climaxed last week with the life and lessons in the life of Jacob, who is a much older man, finally learned not to rely on himself, not to rely on his wisdom, not to act so quickly, not to solve his own problems, but the Lord taught him a mighty lesson at Peniel. He taught him, Jacob, you must learn to leave it to me. Realize your own inherent weakness, not your strength. Be not wise in your own eyes. Don't lean onto your own understanding. Don't do it. Stop, Jacob. And the Lord put his hand on Jacob that night. He saw God face to face. He intervened in the man's great problem and preserved his life and left him a different man from that day forward. Now, that's a huge lesson to learn. Let me just, can I just say this? When I went home, I did some looking up, and I found an absolutely magnificent sermon, in my opinion, by Dr. Campbell Morgan, and it's on the life of Jacob, the experience of Jacob, I should say, at Peniel. And he uses a verse from Hosea, which is a beautiful verse. In his strength he strove with God, yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. Then look at the change. He wept and made supplication unto him. That's a beautiful verse. Now, I've copied some of these out. I would recommend that you ask me and I give you a copy, I can get plenty more. Why do I recommend it? We will learn a lot of things from this. It's put far better than I could put it. I wish I'd almost used it to start with, but I didn't. Read it for yourself and learn the lesson. Those of you who preach, read it for yourself and learn how to use the word of God and discover the literal lessons in the passage. All right, read the blue, you'll learn how to read it closely and say what it says. You won't have to make up things about it. You won't have to add to it. It's got excellent teaching, excellent encouragement. Those of you who are learning, I recommend you read it. Those who are your readers, I recommend you read it. I got a great blessing from it. Jacob learning how to depend on God when he wept and made supplication, not in his strength when he strove with God, not when he had the power over the angel, but when he clung and when he relied. So there you are. I commit it to you. Widen your horizons in reading, please, some of you brethren, what sisters, widen them. Learn there's depths and treasures hidden in the word of God that are well worth discovering. So I've, I've photographed a few, and I'll photograph some more if you want them. Now we're moving on, and we're going to work out further what it is that how faith is put into practice, how we're faced with certain experiences and situations, and not just feeling overwhelmed, not feeling helpless, not feeling beaten, but starting to learn and to become strong in faith. First of all, as you go through life, you learn from previous experiences. You learn how the Lord helped you last time, how he delivered you last time, how he answered your need last time. You learn that God is a God who is faithful. God is a God who doesn't change. He is committed to us as his children. He is interested in our well-being and our preservation, and his eye is on the righteous. That's lovely to think about that every day. His eye is over the righteous, and his ear is open to their cry. Please learn from experiences, your own experiences. I've often said, and I say it again, only a fool doesn't learn from the past. Only an utter fool doesn't learn from his mistakes. There is no need for me to go on making the same mistakes unless I am an utter fool. I learn from my mistakes. I've added to that, a wise man always learns from the experiences of others. So it's wise to watch other believers, how they handle it. Watch those who are, I'll use the word successful, in every area of your life you want to learn, watch what they are doing, learn from other people, then watch other people's mistakes and learn from that. No, don't learn how stupid the other person was and criticize them. Learn that but for the grace of God, that could have been me, and you just draw, and you're growing in your wisdom. You are learning some weapons to use in the warfare, to weapons to use and strength to have for your faith. Say it again, learn from the past. I've said it before here, and I want to say it again because we're getting very practical on this. It's ever so helpful to keep a diary, a record of your experiences with God, the verse he gave you in the day, the answer he gave you in your trouble, the help you got when you went and you heard the word of God taught or or or preached, something that really meant something to you, life-changing things, because, you know, it is so easy to forget. And I've always used to keep a diary, a five-year diary, and I used to have five years on one page, just a gap, and I'd write significant verses, significant events, significant deliverances, significant stupidities, significant massive failures, and I'd find I would be writing halfway down or down the bottom of the page on the 5th year, and I'd cast my eye up and I'd say, oh, two thousand and six, oh, I'd forgotten that, haven't. Isn't that wonderful what the Lord did then? And you give him thanks again. And what's in the past, you see, forms part of, part of your present strength. And it's something that you may not write much, you may not write a lot, you may not write very often, but you write when the Lord blesses you, helps you, when you've learned something, when there's been a significant step taken in your life. I recommend it. As a matter of fact, I recommend it a lot more than Facebook, where you splatter all your emotions over the universe for everybody to look at, load of swiping nonsense, and it doesn't mean anything. Very dangerous thing, you know. You just keep that little diary shut. That's between you and God. You see, it's like Jacob at Peniel. Nobody else was there. It was you and the Lord. You and the Lord. He told you something about yourself, and it wasn't very nice, but you needed to remember it. And he told you something about himself, and that was very beautiful, and you need always to remember it, and you'll finally forget. And I'll tell you what happens then, and I want to dwell on this a minute. We're learning from previous experiences. If you go back and read the history of the children of Israel, you will see that this is one of their f- their fundamental pitfalls, you know? Here they are, um four hundred years down in the land of Egypt, all right? Things are terrible. They're slaves. And on one Passover night, the Lord mightily delivers them. On the one Passover night, they're set free. Not only that, on the same night, every house in Israel is weeping and wailing for the loss of a firstborn child. Gone, dead, wailing throughout the land. No wailing in the house of the Israelites because they've been delivered by the blood that was shed and put on the doorpost and the lintel, and they set off on their journey. They set off loaded with goods, spoiling the Egyptians, set free and delivered. Everything is fine. They haven't gone very far, and they hit the waters of the Red Sea, and Pharaoh and his army is pursuing after them, and the sea is in front of them, and they're trapped. What are they going to do? Sit down and, well, what are they going to do? You know, they're going to perish now out by the Red Sea. And the Lord just tells Moses what to do, and the waters open, and through they go. You think this is absolutely marvelous as they look back and they see the way the Lord has led them. And then they go a little further, and they're thirsty, and they find water, and it's salty. What are they gonna do? What does God do? He says, you just take the tree and cast it in the waters, and the waters will be made sweet. So they're provided for again. And then they go a little bit further, and they're awfully hungry. And they say, oh, here we go again. We're in trouble again. You've just brought us out into the wilderness to perish, and you've brought all our children, and you've taken all our cattle, and we're all gone out. We're going to perish in the wilderness. I mean, just why don't you feel like putting your hands up like Moses must have felt so frustrated? Look, for any favor, people, you've just been delivered from the greatest power that the world knew at the time when you were slaves. You've been walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. You were given bitter waters, and they were just made sweet. Don't you think the same God will deliver you now? And he did. He gave them manna, remember? In a miraculous way, bread from heaven every morning. Well, you see, they're right now. They'll never complain again. They'll never be overwhelmed. When their faith is tested, they'll stand strong. Oh no, they got thirsty again. And they said to Moses, well, we've got to stone you. That's what we're going to do. Look what you've done to us. You're going to stone you in the wilderness. And Moses turns to the Lord, and the Lord says, see that rock over there? Dry as a bone, that rock is. You just go and talk to that rock, and the water will come out. And it did. And if you go through the story of these people, it's just forget, forget, forget, despair, overwhelm, and complain. Well, now you say that's a pretty poor sort of journey, but it's a perfect reflection. Honestly, it is. It's a perfect reflection of how I handle attacks. I despair, I groan, oh, it's not again. How will we cope? Oh, those rotten people that did so and so to me. Why did this happen? Why did God allow it to happen? No, you learn from period- previous experience that God is able, that God brings you through. Troubles do come, and they will come. You do make mistakes, and you will make mistakes. You do stumble, and you will stumble. That's the teaching of the word of God, but you're not cast down, you're not destroyed, you're not overthrown. And please, I want you to understand that out of the worst trouble, out of the greatest mistake, and out of the deepest bitterness, there can come blessing. You know, God can make good out of bad. Only God can do that. He can do that, and he will do that. But it comes to if you'll go back and you'll rest in him, and you'll rely on him, and you'll believe in him, and you'll trust him, and you will leave it with him and accept the situation as all part of the pattern in the weaving that he has planned. All right? So that's number one, learning from the previous experience. Learn to keep a record of it, it's extremely helpful. Secondly, as you're growing in your faith and understanding, you get to know who the Lord Jesus Christ really is. He is, we've said, we've noticed that it's he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Now that means he has got all the power of God. All power is given unto me, both in heaven and upon earth. He has all the strength and all the resources. Satan is well and truly lesser than that. You learn this. First John three and verse eight, the same book has already told us, for this cause was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy or undo the works of the devil. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, who is man, who became man and he was still God, who is still God though he were man, he has overcome sin, Satan, and death, and all power has been given to him both in heaven and upon earth. If he is your Lord, if he is your savior, if he is your God in whom you have trusted, then he is a God who is able to deliver. He has proved it by the mighty power that he has shown and the victories that he has already gained. Therefore, I have my faith in a living and a conquering Christ. And I rest. I think, aha. Do you know, you say glibly, it's not glib. You say the Lord is able. The Lord will take care of me. He knows how to deliver the godly out of trouble. So that's your next point. Thirdly, you get to know what the world is. Now, I know every parent and everybody, well, every Christian that cares for the younger generation, although the younger generation mightn't always know they care for them, and they mightn't always know their parents actually do care for them. Uh, they might only see them as nagging them or annoying them or restraining them or stopping them or generally sort of frustrating them, and you know what I mean? It's not that at all. The fact is, when you're young, you often get deceived by the world. As time goes back, you goes on, you actually start to learn what it's all about. There's nothing like knowing the enemy, nothing like it. You've won half the battle if you know the enemy. What do I mean by that? Well, you're not going to get deceived again. He comes in a different face, he comes in a different form, he uses different methods, he uses different styles, but you can rest assured, if it comes from a world which is in the darkness, a world without God, a world that's ruled by the devil, right? If it comes from that source, it'll be bad every time. Mightn't look bad, mightn't start bad, it will always end bad. And so you read the word of God and you see what the world is, what it can, what its system is really all about, who runs it. It is anti-Christ, it is anti-God, it is anti-Christian, it is darkness. We'll deal with that tonight when we go further into John one which we were doing the other week. The world lying in darkness, it's the power of darkness. And so sometimes, you know, with a certain naivety, often sadly coupled by a certain headstrong mentality. When you're young in the faith, you think you know, but you bitterly learn, and you find out what the world is really all about. So what happens is you're no longer sucked into it. You're no longer deceived from it. There's such a thing as the deceitfulness of sin, right? And when you start justifying darkness and the world on the ground that it's not too bad, I know how to handle it, I'm not going to go too far, all right? He's already got you half in his net, but as you have stumbled and fallen, or if you're wise, you've learned from your peers who have stumbled and fallen, you get it? So it is that you are able to avoid the situation, and you are getting stronger in your faith, and you are resisting instead of falling, and you are not getting drawn in, you are able to stand back, and there's times when you just plain run away. The next one is, I've realized who Christ is, I realize what the world is, I've known those previous experiences, and then I come to that point where I realize that I am in him. Phil brought this out the other week. Look, the Lord Jesus has won the victory. Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. I am in him. I am part of him. This is an amazing truth about the Christian. You are actually now part of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize that? We are in him that is true. First John five, in this very chapter and verse twenty, as he's bringing the whole thing to a grand and glorious climax. That's what he says. We know that the Son of God is come. He has given us an understanding. We know him that is true. We are in him that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. See how it's climaxing, coming up to this glorious climax of understanding, and the Lord Jesus has been in this very world. He has trodden the path of faith from first to last. That's one of the meanings of the author and finisher of faith. He's actually lived the life that we are living. He's actually trodden the path from babyhood to manhood, from life to death, and along the way he met the devil face to face and was tried and tempted with every kind of attraction and power that the devil had in the wilderness, and he overcame, you see. He overcame sin, he overcame Satan, he overcame death, and he overcame darkness. Now I know that, and I'm in him, and all that is in him and all that he is, is now mine and available to me, and I look again and I say I've got these unlimited resources from this conquering Christ, this Jesus who is the Son of God. No limit to his power and no limit to the help and power that he will supply to you and me in the conflict and battle and walk of life. Victory in Jesus. That's what it means, you see. What is it? He that has his faith, he overcomes. What is it? He overcomes the world. A faith that overcomes the world. And I wrote down some verses here. Let's read them together, and you'll see the beauty of them. Philippians four verse nineteen. Philippians four and verse nineteen. No, it's not verse nineteen. Oh, I'm in Colossians, no wonder it's not me. There it is. Verse nineteen: my God shall supply all your needs. Now that's not just money, and that's not just food. It's blessedly true about every need we have. He would supply them according to his riches in glory. That is, he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He's got the whole wide world in his hands, but more than that, he's got far greater riches still up there in glory. You see, an unlimited resource upon which he was sup- he which he relies, from which he draws, and in turn comes down to the one who is begotten by him or begotten of him, and the one who has believed that he is the son of God, according to his riches in glory. I'm glad it didn't say according to his riches on earth. No. Marvelous, mind you, marvelous, but in glory, the treasure house of heaven is available to the believer, and in that unlimited supply, I move forward in faith with a faith that can, I know, can overcome the world, and the world cannot overcome me. You can go to Colossians two nine and it says, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is when I understand, this is when I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. All the fullness, all the power, all the might, all the glory, all the strength, all the faithfulness, all the truth, it's in my Savior Jesus Christ, and I am in him, and of that fullness we have all received grace upon grace, wave after wave, flow after flow, supply after supply. As I said before, and I love the picture of it, when I stood one day down at Palm Beach on that little part that juts out on that rocky headland, and I watched the sea. It just was endless. It just rolled in, and it smashed over the rocks and soaked the rock, and it just... water ran back into the sea. And then in came another wave, and over the top of the rock, it soaked the rock, and then the water ran away into the sea. And I stood there watching, and I was thinking, I wonder how long this has been going for. You know, ever since creation almost, you can see the wave just pouring in its supply over the rock, refreshing it and wetting it, washing down the sides of it, rolling away. In comes the next wave. That's like the grace of God for the child of God. Wave after wave. As long as there shall be time, wave after wave, he will supply all your need. You'll receive grace upon grace. Go and have a look at the different kinds of graces in the scripture. I wonder if I asked you how many one there are and asked you to supply them one by one, could you list them off? Just go and look at enabling grace. Oh, enabling grace. God who enables us in the conflict. Any questions on that so far? It's very encouraging, this. If you can grasp this, you're already on the winning side. Should lift us out of our circumstances, enable us in the trial. Now, I've got down here, the next heading is, now I am attacked. All right? I'm attacked. First of all, I want you to realize one thing. It will happen. Please don't let anybody sell you a story of Christianity whereby once you get saved, everything's fine. No, no, no, no, no. The devil will see to that, that you have your tribulations, you have your trials, you have your temptations, you have your trouble. He'll do it through the world that's outside of you, responding to the flesh that's inside of you. It's the two things that he works on, your sinful nature, which you've still got, and you'll always have this side of heaven, that within you which can be appealed to to do wrong, and that which is without, outside of us. We've been through all this, what the world means. Number one, it will come. You remember Ephesians six? Would you keep this verse in your mind, that we may be able to withstand in the evil day. I've done this before many times, I just impressed to press it on again. The evil day will come, and the evil day is the day when the devil attacks you. It will come without any doubt, and it comes a lot more readily than we think. Number one, we're so often not ready for it, and that's usually, of course, surprise attack is the best way to go. You don't tell the old enemy if you're going to attack him, you don't give him a big bugle warning before you've come over the hill, do you? You know? You don't give him a few days notice that, you know, I'm going to attack in a couple of days, so get yourself ready for me. The devil doesn't work like that. He comes in with that surprise when you're not expecting it, when you're not ready of for it, and he will come because of his devices and his deception. He will come in a way with it you're not aware of. He'll be there before you realize it. He'll be in the situation before you've even been aware of it, and for that reason it's called the evil day. Now you think it through, evil day. It was an evil day for Samson when he went wandering through the land looking at the daughters of Timna, and he spotted a woman, remember we mentioned it, oh, he said, take her for she pleases me well. And her parents said, oh, look, look. Stop off here, Samson, go and marry one of the daughters of our own children. But oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was his evil day, and that became his Achilles heel. And the Nazarite, with all his strength for God, had much of his life blighted and ruined because of the evil day. All right? You want to take the day that that David was on the rooftop looking out, and he saw what it would better off not seeing, and he kept looking, and from the sight and the look came the desire and the sin, and he turned into an adulterer and a murderer, and he turned into a man under the weight of a tremendous conscience. It was an evil day in the life of David, and it's a massive blight upon the man's life. Do you remember when Peter went to warm his fire by, warm his hands at the fire in the high priest's palace, warming his hands, and the maid came along? Oh, who's worried about a maid? Just a little girl, you know, no social standing. Oh, she said, by the way, you're the, you're one of these Nazarenes, aren't you? An evil day, you know. The man ended up cursing and swearing and saying, I know not the man. The devil knows how to do it. He brings the strongest of us down if we do, if we would. It was an evil day for Eve when she stopped and had a long conversation with the devil in the Garden of Eden, and she wrecked mankind. No, her husband wrecked it, because he listened to her. Right at the man's doorstep. You see what I mean? Evil day. It was an evil day for Joseph when that wife of that woman tried to seduce him. He's a good lad, you know. seventeen, he up and he ran away. Sometimes you've got to do that. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe. Free youthful lust. That doesn't just apply to young men, by the way. Free youthful lust, it applies to all of us. So you see what I mean? Now, he doesn't attack every one of us the same. Please understand that. You're not like me, and I'm not like you, and you can be very thankful for that. All right? Every one of us have areas of weakness. We have infirmities. An infirmity is an area where you lack strength. That's what it means. What I like about infirmities is this, that the Lord Jesus, as our high priest, as one who gives us strength, sympathizes with our infirmities. He doesn't sympathize with our sins. When you give way to your infirmities and let them rule you, you'll fall into sin. But he sympathizes with the areas where we lack strength, and we go to the throne of grace to get grace to help in time of need. See, we're drawing from the resource, all right? Everybody's infirmity is different. Satan studies his target. He knows your weakest spot, whether it's your temper, whether it's your lack of self-control, whether it's your laziness, whether it's your anger, whether it's your unforgiving spirit, you know what I mean? Whether it's your Jacob-like character, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And on that point, he will attack in the evil day. Let's go to First Peter chapter five verse eighteen, And we get the proof of all this, not my words. So I think, you know, anybody that's been saved any length of time knows how true and ugly it all is. Verse eight, sorry, First Peter five. He said, but be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour, and he will devour us. However, resist steadfast in faith. Got it? Realizing where your strength is and your trust is. Steadfast in faith, resisting the devil, a roaring lion. He's only doing that because he's on the prowl and he's hungry. All right? Now go to Romans eight, please. Romans eight. Turn the pages with me, Romans eight. Have a look at Romans eight. And there's a lovely victory march in Romans eight as the chapter comes to a climax. Verse thirty one, who can be against us? Verse thirty three, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Verse thirty four, who is he that condemns us? Verse thirty five: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We have got a faith that overcomes, that overcomes the world. Then he says, will tribulation, with all the troubles that come, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Why does he bring that in? Because these forces against the believer exist and are active. Verse thirty six proves it. For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. That who does the counting? Who does the counting? Who accounts us as sheep for slaughter? The Lord counts us as the one of the sheep which belongs to his flock for whom he cares. Who is it that counts us as sheep for slaughter? It's the world, it's the devil, it's the adversary of the soul. Got it? And he looks at you and I and every true believer of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says, I'm counting him as a sheep for the slaughter. I'm marking him as for destruction. He's in my kingdom. He's invading my world of darkness. He's bringing the light. He will not submit to me. I'll reckon him as a sheep for the slaughter. I used to work down there on Creek Road in Carina, and on some of the, I remember several times watching the big trucks go by with the cattle in, you know? Where are they going? Don't they have to have a nice feed in the paddock? Some kindly farmer bought them to look after them. No way. They were heading off to the abattoirs. They had tags on their ears, they were numbered one by one as they got off the truck, and they were put in the killing yards, and they were moved from yard three to yard two to yard one. They were counted, you get it? They were counted as sheep for the slaughter. And there came a time when the old slaughterman just grabbed them and shot them, and there come a day when the devil will fire a fiery dart at you because he wants to kill you. All right? So that's what it says. What does it say here? No, verse thirty seven, in all these things we are, in all these things, not because we don't have these things, in the situations we are more than conquerors, conquerors through him that loved us. You get it? It's a practical thing, it's an eternal thing. It's a position thing and a practical thing. And he goes on with this glorious outburst that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, what he's saying is, oh no, we have a faith that overcomes the world. All right? Okay, now go to Ephesians six. Now we go to Ephesians six. And in Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. I can't really miss out. I know we've had a bit on Ephesians six, quite a bit, it's very, very helpful, but look, Ephesians six just really tells you how to put to use the faith or the salvation that you have. That's what it tells you what to do. In practice, take what is already yours. Ephesians six verse ten down to verse eighteen. The thing you have to, the thing you have to do in this situation is, number one, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might, and put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the devices or mischiefs of the devil. Now look, the first thing you get from this is this. The strength which you need comes from the Lord. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. The power that you need comes from the Lord and in the power of his might. It is not your strength, it is not within you. It is not using your power or worry that you haven't got the power because it's not in you. It's in a resource, it's in a reservoir that's outside of you, yet it's you are part of it. It is in Christ. He has it there for you and your protection and your preservation. More than that, and put on the whole armor of God. The whole armor that comes from God. The strength comes from God. The power of his might, the power comes from God. The armor is there available, supplied by God. It's a wonderful time, and it's helped me enormously when in times of fear and a sense of being not able to cope or manage, that it comes to you. You're looking in the wrong place. I'm looking in here. What I can do, what I've got, my feelings about the situation. Then I look to the Lord, and the picture just goes click, and it changes completely. I told you the other Wednesday night, some time ago, a very recent experience when I was trying to grapple with John's epistle here, and I thought, how am I going to tell him about this in a Bible class? I'm blank. I can't do it. I can't understand it. It's beyond me. I can't get the things clear in my mind. And Saturday night I was in a rare sweat. I guess preachers know about being in a rare sweat. And it just hit me. Be strong in the Lord. Okay, well, come on, Ivy, you're sixty odd, you know, you knew that when you were fifteen. No, no, I knew it in a fresh way. I thought I'm looking in the wrong place. The Lord is able. I've got a task, the Lord is able. And straight away you just turn, and it's like getting a victory on the spot. And from then on you move, not even aware of you, not even concerned about your own weakness. You know that you're weak, you know you're unable. It's not the point. Our God is able, and if the battle is the Lord's and the work is the Lord's and my desire is for the Lord, then he looks after the rest. Be strong in the Lord. Now, can I say it again? The strength comes from him, the power comes from him, and each piece of the armor is supplied by him. All right? And really, you realize that it's there, and you put it to good use. In other words, you're realizing the meaning of your faith. That's what you're doing. And you put it to good use. Now, some people say you put on the whole armor of God every morning. Ah, there's some truth in that, and I, I certainly wouldn't discourage that. In one sense, you should never take it off, but look, no, you literally, see, we're working out our faith now. You actually remind yourselves of these things, and whatever area there is in yourself, it would be a power, a point of attack for Satan, a point of weakness, or a point where you could fail, there's some kind of armor to cover it. There really is. He tells you to get your loins, your real strength, that's girding your lo- you know, say, gird up your loins, man, you know? Stand up straight and face things and be a man. Well, you gird your loins about with truth. Frankly, this is the whole purpose in this assembly why we want to teach the truth. Teach the truth. When you've got the truth of your salvation, the truth about your savior, and the truth about your faith firmly in your understanding, I tell you what, you can stand up a lot straighter, and you won't be blown about by every wind of doctrine. And when the devil says, oh, you're not saved, you say, rubbish man, I'm messing on Christ, not on me. You say, well, you can't face this situation. Oh, you say I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. The God who helped me in the past is the God who's going to help me in the present, and he'll help me in the future. You see what I mean? You're getting truth, you're understanding, you're learning, you're growing. It's terrible when you see people call themselves Christians who don't want to learn truth. Something wrong. So you've got that point, loins gird about with truth. And, you know, you might find that your heart fails you sometimes. You know, a sense of unworthiness, a sense of fear. There's a breastplate to cover that part of you, to cover that weak, that, that area where you may have a weakness in your feelings, in your emotions, in your fears, in your sense of inability and incapacity. There's a breastplate of righteousness, not yours. No, the righteousness of Jesus Christ is just hugs you round and keeps you in and strong and settles your soul and your spirit and leads you to gratitude and thanksgiving instead of interfere in- into fear. You may feel you're going to slip, you see, you know, you slip inside where your your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. There's short-footedness, you've got a good grip in the ground. Satan pushes you, but no, you're firm in your faith, you understand the gospel of peace. No, it doesn't mean that I'm running around the world every day with the gospel of peace and saying, how beautiful on the mountains are the footsteps of those that publish peace. No, no, no. This is me putting on my armor, understanding I stand in Christ, I stand on Christ, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, and I'm firm in my faith, and I'm firm in my grip as I walk and as I move, and when I'm pushed and I'm blown, I've got it right. I've put my shoes on. Hey, stop slipping. We're not walking on a glacier in bare feet. All right? We're standing on a gospel that is made of Christ, which is made peace, who has made peace with God. So it goes on and on and on, all right? And then out of the blue, you get attacked. He shoots a fiery dart at you, just shoots it at you. You're not ready for it. You're not aware. You thought, oh, wherever did that come from? And you get the shield of faith, and you block that fiery dart. We won't go through the details of it, but you know it had a, a shield on a cover on the front that put the fire out. It was fireproof. That's not the point. You go back to your faith. In this every situation, go back to your faith. What do you mean by that? Well, what's faith? Well, faith is my feeling. No, it is not. Faith is what I have done and believe, I've just got to start believing again. No, no, don't get into the feel, don't put yourself in the equation, you'll end up being so weak. Faith immediately says God. Get it? Says God. That's where your faith is, it's in him. So when you put up the shield of faith, in a, in the worst of situations or most difficult of situations, the most overwhelming of situations, even your own, the situation of your own failure and where you're feeling overwhelmed by it even, God! I speak reverently, put him in the equation. You've got a victory already. The pictures, that's what the shield, that's what faith does. It points to God like an arrow. Take that shield and say, God! And everything's that, it's all different. Your feelings are different. Your strength, realization, where it all is. The shield of faith. The mind on some people can be a terrible thing when you've got a helmet of salvation, to keep that mind upon the right things, to preserve it from wandering, from becoming so muddled and overwhelmed. You keep in it all the blessings of God's salvation. And then, of course, we've got the word of God, and we've got the one I'm always talking about, and that is prayer, and I'm going to keep talking about it, so hopefully I've learned something about it, and if I learned something about it, maybe you'll have learned something about it, and if you and I have learned something about it, then we will have learned something about it, and if we've learned something about it, we'll be a greater power for God, and we will understand what it means to have a faith which overcomes the world. Briefly, and then I will stop. It happens, all right. What'll I do? What are you going to do when you're attacked? Well, in a way, I'm gonna leave you to think about it, but look, you're firstly gonna do the things that we've mentioned about. Sorry, I'm, I'm missing there. I have been attacked. We know it will happen. We've got guidelines as to what to do. Then you get defeated. Anybody ever been defeated in the attack? Been defeated, have you? Well, so you've been overcome, eh? Cast down, eh? Destroyed, lost, ruined, wrecked, blubber, depressed. You get the idea? The devil's got you where he wants you, and he'll keep you there for the rest of your life if you can. Look at why you get defeated. Well, you think sometimes you can handle it, and everything's all right. And what you did was forget to run into the strong tower, the name of the Lord. Maybe you didn't pray. Maybe you thought later on you'd pray. Maybe that dependency, that limp of yours, you know, you didn't take a little walk and see yourself going up and down and not carry one. Remind yourself every day, strength isn't in yourself, it's in the Lord. And I don't think there's any of us here, no matter how long we've been saved, that can't look back and relate to these things. We did it without that prayer. We did it with a sense of, well, not that dependency upon God. We, we failed really to turn and go where we should. Very often also you'll find, and this is a great failure of many of us, I know it myself, you can be very impetuous. If you're faced with a situation and you don't understand self-control, you're almost a goner. What do I mean? So I understand self-control when sin's put in front of me, I, I control myself and turn away. Yes, that's true too, dead right. But maybe, maybe you're faced with a situation that's, you know, of injustice. Maybe you're faced with a personal attack, and the first reaction is anger or indignation, or you're faced with a situation that something has to be done, so you act. Never be impetuous. Never move too quickly. Learn to wait on the Lord. Learn to give him room to do it for you. I really mean this. Learn to give the Lord room to work. I've said this many a time in discussions. Look, hands off the steering wheel. Let's pray, look and wait, give the room, give the Lord room to work, time to work, you know? Maybe the answer isn't what you think it is at all. Maybe the disaster you see happening won't happen a- at all. Maybe the way you're going to handle it and solve it will make it even worse than it really is. So, impetuosity, no, but still I've got defeated, all right? Well, we've dealt with that. One John one and verse nine. One John one, Verse eight: uh If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Yes, you'll fail. If we confess our sins. This is the Christian, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I have confession as a means of that renewed fellowship, that communion, my relationship with the Lord, my relationship as a child of God, it was never, never broken because the advocate in chapter two looked after all of that. And though I was defeated, God's purposes and God's intentions were never under question or under threat. They were never defeated. I enjoy the conquest and the victory again as I confess and I'm cleansed and I move on forward, still in the good of all that Christ has done, thanking God daily for all that Christ is doing, so that I have a faith that has overcome the world.