Those who are saved have seen themselves in the light of Christ and they have in, godly sorrow, repented and turned away from all sin and turned to God through Christ. These are all indwelled by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, who takes up the task of teaching and leading and empowering those who are truly saved to do all that God would have them to do. Most of the Bible and it’s commands are written for those who know the Lord, so my attempting to tell you that you can be an over-comer without being saved, is like telling a goat to count or say the alphabet.
God commands his children to be over-comers and because He has given us the Spirit to empower us to do all things; and we are able to obey God. God even assures us in Romans chapter eight and verse 37, that we are more than able to be over-comers. That verses tells us that "in all things" we are more than conquerors, which means the same thing as over-comer. That means that no charge can be brought against us, no one can condemn us, no one can separate us from the love of Christ. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13). The idea that most who preach today like to leave with us is that we are all in the "same boat", we are all sinners and we sin all the time every day, and normally the preacher will say, and I am the worst sinner in the church. Hear me well now, that is a lie off the mudsills of hell. It is not to be found in the Bible!
We are not all in the same boat! There is a boat for those who are saved and that boat is headed to heaven with Jesus Christ at the helm. There is another and it is loaded with many good people, good in the sense of worldliness, but it is headed to hell with Satan at the helm. Don’t be fooled, be sure you are on the right boat. Repent and turn from sin to God through Jesus Christ, placing your absolute trust in Him and His work on Calvary. Those in Jesus’ boat are all over-comers while none in Satan’s boat will ever overcome sin and death.
I speak of death there as the second death, all die one death, the physical death of the body but those who do not overcome will die the second death, eternal separation from God in hell.(See Revelation 2:11). If you are born once, you will die twice. If you are born twice, you will die only once. While you live in this world you have an opportunity to seek God and ask Him to give you that new birth. Do it now!!
Now, have you ever run in any kind of race, or played some athletic game, or taken a test to qualify for a job? Did you win the race of the game or come out ahead on the test? If you did win, you were an over-comer, at least in that particular trial.
In this lesson we will apply ourselves to understand what the command to overcome means to the Christian. God has commanded us to be over-comers, in our verse for today, there in First John 5:4, which says to us that "anyone who is born of God overcomes the world". The victory that has overcome the world is our faith. What we want to prove from God’s inspired Word, the Bible, is what overcoming means, how we overcome, what we overcome, and who will ultimately overcome. The genesis of our understanding is found in our Scripture verse for this lesson in 1st John 5:4; and that verse makes it clear that those who overcome have been born twice. Once in the physical realm, and then we are given the "New Birth" in our salvation.
Those who are born only once, will never overcome the world and sin; but those who have been reborn, born again of God, will always overcome the world and sin. You may ask, "well brobob, what does the Bible say about the new birth? Let’s look at the gospel of John chapter 3 and verses three, five and seven. In verse three we find Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ as He speaks with a leader of the Jews, Nicodemus. You will remember Nicodemus because he is the member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, who came to Jesus by night and said "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou does, except God be with him".
Then Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Verily, Verily, or Truly, Truly, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". The best translation of born again is "born from above". We must have a new birth and the Bible says that those who are truly saved have had that new birth, in fact, verse 10 of Ephesians chapter two tells us that those who are saved by God’s Grace through Faith in His Son Jesus Christ, are born again of God. Verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2 says "for we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them".
In verse five of John chapter three, Jesus speaks of the new birth again, when He says to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Then in verse 7 of that same chapter of John, Jesus says "Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again". So three times Jesus deals with Nicodemus about the absolute necessity of the new birth. In verse three Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless he is born again, he will never be able to see the kingdom of God, then in verse five Jesus says that unless a man is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Then in verse seven Jesus says to Nicodemus that it should not surprise him that He had said that he must be born again. Nicodemus was a Bible scholar or he would not have been a member of the Sanhedrin.
Nicodemus should have known that God must do a work (new birth) in the lives of men before they can be what God requires them to be. He would have known about the Prophets like Isaiah who spoke, as they were inspired of God, about the sacrificial sacrifice of the man of sorrows for the justification of many.(See Isaiah 53).Nicodemus would have known the Scriptures from Ezekiel chapters 11, 18 and 36, which speaks of God giving some new hearts and a new spirit. We may in our daily lives overcome in many different areas but overcoming in the way that God speaks of overcoming in the scripture, is impossible for the flesh. We know from Chapter eight of Romans that because the flesh is weak, it could never keep the law of God.
God has given His Son Jesus Christ up to the Cross to give those whom God calls out of the world, to change us from men and women who live by and for the flesh, to people who are Spiritual creatures, who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. Those who follow the desire and impulses of the flesh will never be able to satisfy God, but those who are born again and obedient and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, are able to fulfill the law by loving God with all of our heart, mind and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves. The saved person is placed "in Christ", by God in Salvation and from that moment on, that person is a Spiritual Creature, who has been forgiven all sin, because Christ paid the price for his sin, past, present and future. We, who are saved, have overcome in Christ, and we will continue to overcome sin, worldliness, and death as we walk in the Spirit.
In the book of Romans chapter 12, we are told to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God , which is our reasonable service. (Romans 12:1). That chapter goes on to lay out for us things that we are to over-come and how we go about the practical life of over-coming. Notice as you read that entire chapter that we are to over-come pride, we are to overcome evil with good, we are to overcome unkindness and love the brethren.
We are told to work as if we were working for the Lord, which is what we are doing, distributing to the necessity of saints, never recompense evil for evil, being honest and if at all possible live peaceable with all men. We are to leave vengeance to God and if our enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty give him to drink. We should be able to live the same way that our Savior Jesus Christ lived. We are "in Him" and He is in us and His Spirit leads us to do all that we are supposed to do. How do we overcome? We overcome by the Grace of God, because Grace once it saves us, becomes our teacher and it "teaches us , that denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." (See Titus 2:11-12).
We who are born again and obedient to God can and do overcome sin and death. That is what Jesus called everyone of the seven churches in Asia that He sent the letter to by John. He saw problems that they had allowed to slip into their worship and Christ called them to repent; and then He made this statement to each one, "To he that overcometh, to the church of Ephesus, I will give to eat of the tree of life: to the church at Smyrna, shall not be hurt of the second death: To the church at Pergamos, I will give to eat of the hidden manna and a new stone with a new name written in it: To the church at Thyatira, I will give power over the nations: To the church at Sardis, the same shall be clothed in white raiment and I will not blot his name out of the book of life: To the church at Philadelphia , I will make a pillar in the temple of my God and I will write upon him the name of my God: To the church at Laodicea, I will grant to sit with me in my throne. All overcomers will enjoy all of the blessing that Christ pronounced to these seven churches.
We will close by asking you to examine your life and your heart. Are you born again, are you that new creature that is the work of God in salvation? Have you overcome the world and sin? God will be the judge not me; but it is my job as a man called to preach to ask you to make sure. Don’t delay!
Until next lesson, this is brobob. 
