WBC ABCs of Christian Life 2/3/2008

Study 22 – Victory

Victory

The greatest single need in the personal lives of the majority of Christians is that of VICTORY

– not simply a victory here and there, but the experience of a consistent, daily, victorious life.

Sadly, so many believers are living defeated lives.

You have been saved for some time now. You have been working through these lessons for

many weeks. Ask yourself this question… “Am I living victoriously?”

If you are defeated, or if your life consists of a roller coaster path of spiritual ups and downs,

this lesson could be of immense value to you. But studying it will NOT be enough – it must be

applied!

1. Does God want His children to have victory?

A. Read John 10:10 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I
am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. The
Lords wants you to have an abundant life.
B. Read Psalm 16:11 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of
joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. The Lord intends me to
experience fullness of joy.
C. Read John 8:31 – 32 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye
continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. The Lords intends for the truth of His Word not
only to make me his disciple but to set me free.
1) This freedom from sin does not mean the absence of sin – but as Romans 6:14
declares (14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but
under grace), freedom from the power of sin.
D. Does God want me to experience a life of VICTORY? – YES

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Study 22 – Victory

2. Steps to Victory in your life.

A. The Bible teaches there are 3 enemies that you will face as a child of God (which will
be supported by scripture).
• World
• Flesh
• Devil
B. To enable you to enjoy the victorious life, understand the following steps:
1) Identify your enemy.
2) Understand your enemy.
3) Realize God’s provisions for victory.
4) Translate victory into your own experience.
Apply the 4 steps to have victory over these three enemies.

3. How to have Victory over the “World”.

A. Identify your enemy: When the Bible speaks of the “World” in the context of
opposition to you, it is not referring to God’s creation – but to the world system which
is organized on selfish principle, improper motives, ungodly standards, and is
opposed to the things of God.
1) Read John 18:36 (Jesus before Pilate) 36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of
this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I
should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
2) Read John 15:18 18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated
you. The world system hates the Christian.
3) Read John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. We are in the world… but not of it.
4) James 4:4 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of
the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is
the enemy of God. FOR CHRISTIANS TO BE WORLDLY ONLY BRINGS

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Study 22 – Victory

ENMITY [feeling of ill will] WITH GOD. YOU CANNOT WALK THE LINE
BETWEEN GOD AND THE WORLD!
5) Matthew 6:24 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon. There is NO common ground between God
and the “world [system].”
6) Read II Timothy 4:10 10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present
world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto
Dalmatia. Defeat by the world leads to forsaking Christ.

B. Understand your enemy

1) How does the world attack Christians? It ENTICES the Christian away from the
Lord.
2) Read I John 2:15-17 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the
lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. According to verse
16, what ways will the world attempt to entice you?
a) The lust of the flesh
b) The lust of the eyes
c) The pride of life
3) According to verse 15, what does the world seek to gain from you? Loss of the
love of the Father… transferred to the “world.”

C. Realize God’s provision for Victory

1) Read John 16:33 33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world.
2) The Lord Christ said He has won the victory for you! Jesus does it, not you.

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Study 22 – Victory

D. Translate Christ’s victory into your own experience.

1) Acknowledge you are on the side of victory.

Read I John 5:5 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God? OVERCOME the world by belief in Jesus
Christ. BELIEVE in Jesus Christ!

2) Claim your victory by Faith I John 5:4 4 For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith. Faith is simply believing what God has to say in His Word and acting upon
it – total reliance upon God.

3) Do the will of God always

a) Read I John 2:17 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
b) Also Ecclesiastes 12:13 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

4) Set your affections on heavenly things. If you dwell on worldly things, wrong
things, you will be easily enticed
a) Read Colossians 3:1 1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
b) Read Colossians 3:2 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on
the earth.
c) Matthew 6:21 (from verse 19) 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through
and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
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For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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Study 22 – Victory

d) THINK ON THESE THINGS… Philippians 4:8 8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever

things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things.
(a) Things that are true
(b) Things that are honest
(c) Just things
(d) Pure things
(e) Lovely things
(f) Things of Good report
(g) Things of virtue

4. How to have Victory over the “Flesh”.

A. Identify your enemy.
1) When the Bible speaks of the “flesh” in the context of opposition to you, it is not
referring to your literal body – but to your old sinful nature, the corrupt Adamic
nature which belongs to all men.
a) According to scripture, when you were saved, you were made a partaker of
the divine nature (However, your old sinful nature was not removed.) Read II
Peter 1:4 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
b) In the flesh (your old nature) dwelleth no good thing. Read Romans 7:18 18
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the
good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I
do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
2) As a Christian, you have two natures: the flesh and the spirit, the old and the
new, the sinful and divine.

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Study 22 – Victory

B. Understand your enemy. How does the flesh attack the Christian? Answer: It
produces conflict and inner turmoil. It cooperates with the world and the Devil.
1) According to Romans 7:21, Paul discovers evil is always present with him and
more... 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: The Spirit wars against the
flesh.
2) Read Galatians 5:17 (starting with verse 16) 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the
other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
3) According to Romans 7:23 23 But I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which
is in my members. THE WAR OCCURS IN YOUR MIND.

C. Realize God’s provisions for your victory.

1) What was Paul’s question in Romans 7:24? 24 O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?
2) The answer for deliverance comes from JESUS. Read Romans 7:25 25 I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law
of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

D. Translate Christ’s Victory into your own experience (how to do this). YOU MUST
constantly walk with the LORD.
1) Galatians 5:16 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust
of the flesh.
2) II Corinthians 5:7 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
3) Romans 13:14 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision
for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. THINK about CHRIST ALL THE TIME.
LET CHRIST become a blockage against the flesh.
4) Recognize your position in Christ

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Study 22 – Victory

a) My old sinful nature (flesh) has been crucified. Read Galatians 5:24 24 And
they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
b) Galatians 2:20 20 I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
c) Romans 6:6 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

THIS IS A FACT: The old Adamic nature was crucified with Christ – but
crucifixion is a slow painful death, and what you experience in the inner
conflict of your mind is a doomed enemy still trying to raise it’s ugly head
and control your life.

5) Reckon this fact into the reality of your daily life! Write out Romans 6:11 (and
more) 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your
mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto
God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are
not under the law, but under grace.
6) According to II Peter 2:11 11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

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Study 22 – Victory

5. How to have Victory over the “Devil”.

A. Identify your enemy.
1) Before going on, review Study #5 which deals in more detail with Satan.
2) The Devil is your adversary. Read to I Peter 5:8 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour:,
B. Understand your enemy. How does Satan attack the Christian? He uses DEVICES
to attack us. Read II Corinthians 2:11 11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us:
for we are not ignorant of his devices.
1) Satan uses temptation. Satan is a master at using the world to entice you. Read I
Thessalonians 3:5 5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to
know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our
labour be in vain.
2) Satan uses wiles (crafty deception). Read Ephesians 6:11 11 Put on the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
3) Satan uses pride. Read I Timothy 3:6 6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with
pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
4) Satan uses discouragement. (Moses speaking the Israelites about conquering
the Promised Land.)
a) Read Deuteronomy 1:21 21 Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go
up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be
discouraged.
b) Read Deuteronomy1:28 28 Whither shall we go up? our brethren have
discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than we; the
cities are great and walled up to heaven; and moreover we have seen the
sons of the Anakims there.
5) Satan uses firey darts . Read Ephesians 6:16 16Above all, taking the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

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Study 22 – Victory

C. Realize God’s provisions for your victory.

1) Read I John 3:8 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from
the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he
might destroy the works of the devil.
2) Read Hebrews 2:14 14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he
might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
3) The Lord Jesus has won the victory for you!

D. Translate Christ’s Victory into your own experience.

1) Remember you are on the winning side. Read I John 4:4 4 Ye are of God, little
children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than
he that is in the world.
2) Read the Word of God. According to I John 2:14 14 I have written unto you,
fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written
unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in
you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
3) You are to put on the whole armor of God. Ephesians 6:13 13 Wherefore take
unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand.
Spiritual armor traits are listed in Ephesians 6:14-18 14 Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of
righteousness; 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace; 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

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Study 22 – Victory

4) The sword of the spirit is the only offensive tool we have.. just like Jesus use
the Word of God. (Let God do the fighting.)
5) RESIST the Devil. According to James 4:7 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
6) Read I Peter 5:9 (from verse 7) 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for
you. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. 10 But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish,
strengthen, settle you.
7) We are to give the Devil NO PLACE in our lives. According to Ephesians 4:27 27
Neither give place to the devil.

6. The promise of Victory.

A. Romans 8:37 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors…” through
him that loved us.
B. I Corinthians 15:57 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
C. II Corinthians 2:14 14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every
place.
D. Philippians 4:13 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

7. The Person (Christ Jesus) of Victory.

A. Romans 8:37 (again) 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors…”
through him that loved us. Victory is obtained Through Christ Jesus.
B. I Corinthians 15:57 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.

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Study 22 – Victory

C. II Corinthians 2:14 14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour [sweet aroma] of his knowledge by us in
every place.
D. Philippians 4:13 13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

8. The path of Victory. The The God's

Bible Word FAITH Victory
general theme to victory over
the World, the Flesh, and the
Devil has a common theme in Believing God's Word
and
translating victory into your putting it in to practice
own experience: in your life

A. Hide God’s Word in your heart… so you do not sin. Read Psalm 119:9-11 (from verse
1)1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed are they that
keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in
his ways. 4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. 5 O that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes! 6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
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I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 8 I will
keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly. 9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by
taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not
wander from thy commandments. 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee.
B. According to Matthew 26:41, what are the two things we should do to avoid falling into temptation?
(from verse37) 37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be
sorrowful and very heavy. 38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. 39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and
prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but
as thou wilt. 40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter,
What, could ye not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

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Study 22 – Victory

Victory - Outline

1. Does God want His children to have victory?

2. Steps to Victory in your life.

3. How to have Victory over the “World”.

4. How to have Victory over the “Flesh”.

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Study 22 – Victory

5. How to have Victory over the “Devil”.

6. The promise of Victory.

7. The Person of Victory.

The God's
Bible Word FAITH Victory

Believing God's Word

and
8. The path of Victory. putting it in to practice
in your life

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