Means By Which We Overcome (Rev. 2:7)

The point: Maintain fervent devotion to Jesus Christ's person, ensuring the heart's affection does not decline, even if doctrine is straight and service is busy.

A fertile countryside fed by many rivulets from one main river illustrates how a Christian's many graces (rivulets) are fed by one source (the main river): devotion to Jesus Christ. Damming the main river (losing first love) will eventually dry up the rivulets, even if they appear to flow for a time.

tree of life which is in the paradise of God. Will you try to imagine with me a countryside, one that is the very picture of fertility and fruitfulness? And as you draw near to discover the secret of the fertility and fruitfulness of that particular countryside, you notice that the land is fed by a hundred little rivulets which, making their way through various parts of that countryside, keep it moist and fertile and fruitful even in times of drought when other places are parched and unfruitful. As you check the source of those little rivulets, you see that they all have a common source in one...

1:30 - 2:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using an analogy of a power plant and filaments, Martin distinguishes between the source of power (divine begetting) and the means (faith). He introduces 1 John 5:4-5 as the key…

The source of artificial light (a power plant) is distinct from the immediate means by which light comes (filaments or gas). This illustrates the difference between the source of overcoming power (divine begetting) and the means by which it becomes operative (faith).

And in this divine beginning, in the experience of the new birth, what Jesus called the new birth, we are liberated from the binding power of our sins and we are furnished with everything necessary to be overcomers. Now this morning, we come to address ourselves to the question, what are the means by which we overcome? If the source of overcoming power is the divine life imparted in God's regenerating grace, what is the means by which that power becomes operative in our lives? The source of the light that shines in this building this morning, the artificial light, not the natural light, the so...

10:10 - 11:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But though God has given us many weapons, there is a primacy, a supremacy given to faith as the grace above all, which enables us to overcome so that when John says, this is the victory that overcomes the world, he focus…

Luther's years of trying to overcome sin through penance, fasting, prayer, and pilgrimages, yet remaining tormented by guilt, illustrates the futility of self-effort and the necessity of discovering the way of faith for acceptance with God.

if you are a stranger to faith, to biblical faith, you cannot possibly be an overcomer. And this is what staggers flesh and blood, and causes people to stumble. Luther stumbled for years because he tried to overcome the problem of sin by a way that seemed too simple to him. You remember the history of Luther, the biography of Luther, that with this tremendous sense of guilt, he knew enough of the scripture to know that God was holy, and I trust you do, and that as a holy God, he hated sin.

16:39 - 17:17 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are a stranger to biblical faith, you cannot possibly be an overcomer and are still in bondage to sin, the world, and the devil.

Whitefield's similar period of intense fasting and prayer, hoping to gain acceptance with God, further illustrates that human works cannot achieve what only faith can.

Until as he was preparing his lectures for the seminary students, teaching from the Psalms and the Book of Romans, the Holy Spirit began to open his eyes, and he saw that he must come into an acquaintance with the way of faith. That the way of acceptance before God is not the way of penance, the way of works, the way of self-effort, but the way of faith. Some of us have been reading George Whitefield's biography on this 300th anniversary of the death of Whitefield. Yes, of the death of Whitefield.

18:47 - 19:20 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Bible says there's a certain kind of faith that'll send you straight down. Straight to hell. Yes. In 2 Thessalonians, it says that they all might be damned because they believed a lie.

Martin quotes a song by Roy Rogers and his wife, 'Have faith, hope, and charity. That's the way to live successfully,' to exemplify the common, unbiblical notion that generic 'faith' is sufficient, contrasting it with the Bible's emphasis on the *object* of faith.

Having looked then at the primacy of faith as an overcoming grace, now consider in the second place the necessity of a right object of faith. John goes right on to say, having declared this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith, that it's not just faith in anything or anybody, or in ourselves. He says, who is he that overcometh, but he that believeth a specific thing, that Jesus is the Son of God. Just as clearly as the scripture sets out faith as the primary grace in overcoming, so it reveals that that true overcoming faith has a proper object. Now we live in a day when fait...

21:04 - 21:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring how faith in Jesus as the Son of God overcomes the devil's tactics, starting with deception about sin's nature. He argues that the incarnation and…

The devil's temptation of Eve, telling her she would 'not surely die' if she sinned, is used as the primary example of his work to deceive about the nature and consequences of sin.

Look at this matter of deception about the nature of sin. John 8, 44 says, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and a liar, for he is the father of lies. The devil sought to deceive our first parents about the nature of sin.

33:56 - 34:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring how faith in Jesus as the Son of God overcomes the devil's tactics, starting with deception about sin's nature. He argues that the incarnation and…

Parents telling a child not to go out of the yard because 'lions might get you' is used by the devil to suggest God overstates the case about sin's consequences, implying God is not serious about judgment.

God has sort of overstated the case to keep you from falling just like parents sometimes who are well-meaning will overstate the case to keep a child out of trouble. They say, Don't go out of the yard. If you do, the lions might get you. Well, they only say that because they love their children.

34:41 - 34:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins exploring how faith in Jesus as the Son of God overcomes the devil's tactics, starting with deception about sin's nature. He argues that the incarnation and…

Imagining being a 'fly on the wall' during the angel's announcement to Mary about Jesus's conception helps listeners grasp the profound mystery and humiliation of God becoming flesh, underscoring the extreme seriousness of sin that necessitated such a sacrifice.

If you were to stand there that day, and I've tried to do this in my mind's eye on some occasions, something similar to this. You try to be a fly on the wall. The day a little 16, probably 17-year-old, virgin, is in her humble home, and all of a sudden the room blazes with light.

35:31 - 35:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Sin is a little thing, a little thing that demands the enfleshment of God in a virgin's womb, a little thing that demands the Father turning his face from his own dear Son, a little thing, little lies, little dishonestie…

Continuing the 'fly on the wall' metaphor, observing Jesus's sinless life and agonizing cry from the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' illustrates that sin is so terrible it demanded the Father's wrath upon His own Son, countering the devil's lie that sin is a 'light thing.'

And my friend, if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you overcome the devil's lie that sin is a light thing. A light thing that demands the enfleshment of God? Unthinkable. And then you follow him and you watch him living that sinless life, growing up a perfect son, never disobedient, never grumbling, never sassing mom and dad, never fighting with brothers and sisters, but a true man, true boy.

37:50 - 38:22 Read in full sermon

The point: To overcome the devil's despair regarding the consequences of sin, hear and believe the gospel that God has made a way through Jesus to forgive guilty sinners.

Making God into a 'doting, nearsighted grandfather who flips your quarter when you come and visit him every six months' illustrates how people rationalize their sins and create a comfortable, unbiblical image of God, avoiding serious confrontation with His holiness and justice.

You once take God's holiness seriously and something of the enormity of your sin seriously and my friend, you're in trouble. Deep trouble. You can go flitting through life careless about God's holiness. Making a God in your own image.

44:47 - 45:01 Read in full sermon

The point: When fiery arrows of deception, doubt, or despair come, 'take up the shield of the faith' by laying hold afresh of who Jesus is and what He has said and done as the Son of God.

The historical practice of shooting arrows with cotton wads soaked in pitch and set on fire illustrates the 'fiery darts of the enemy' (Ephesians 6:16), which are extinguished by the 'shield of the faith' (the objective truth about Jesus as the Son of God).

Above all, or in connection with all, taking up, the shield of faith. And I always thought that meant, take up the shield of your faith, that is your subjective trust. But in the original, there's an article in there, it should be translated this way. Taking up the shield of the faith, wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy.

48:25 - 48:52 Read in full sermon