So we turn to a number of Scriptures this morning.
Revelation 3:21
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with Me in My throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.
Revelation 5:5
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof.
John 16:33
These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace.
In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
1 John 5:4-5
For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.
And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
Revelation 14:4-5
These are they that were not defiled with women; for they are virgins.
These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
These were purchased from among men, to be the firstfruits unto God and unto the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no lie: they are without blemish.
Revelation 17:14
These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with Him, called and chosen and faithful.
Romans 8:37
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
2 Corinthians 2:14
But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savour of His knowledge in every place.
1 Corinthians 15:57-58
But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord.
Let me bow together in a word of prayer.
O Father, as we come to Thy Word, now we want to recognise once again before Thee that apart from Thee we can do nothing, neither in speaking nor in hearing. If it is devoid of Thee, Lord, if it is not from abiding in Thee and Thou in us, we know that it will all be futile.
But we praise Thee that Thou hast brought us to our place in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou hast granted to us this wonderful and blessed ministry of the Holy Spirit: to lead us into the things of the Lord Jesus, to make them real to us, to declare them to us.
O Father, as in my weakness I seek to glorify and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ, wilt Thou grant, Lord, that Thy power shall be perfected; and wilt Thou grant that, both in speaking and in hearing, we shall know that marvellous anointing of the Holy Spirit. We ask that this time shall be a meeting with Thyself, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
So this morning we have a glorious subject. If the Holy Spirit will only help these poor lips of mine and this poor part of man, I want to speak about Jesus as the Overcomer.
Because it becomes perfectly clear that there is, in the mind of God, no such thing as overcoming apart from Christ. He is the Overcomer, and everyone who overcomes, overcomes in the Overcomer and through the Overcomer.
What wonderful words those were: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with Me in My throne, even as I overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.”
We are to overcome as He also overcame. And that is the key to all overcoming, both its nature and its power. It lies in the way that the Lord Jesus overcame. If we can discover the part He took, if we can see the way He overcame, then we shall have in our hands a key to overcoming.
What a remarkable word that was in John 16:33. Did you notice it?
These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace.
In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Now, what comfort is that to us? It might almost be depressing if we do not see the link. We know that He overcame, but He is so special; He is unique. How can that help me if in the world we have tribulation? What connection is there between our tribulation and His words, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”?
Surely the Lord Jesus is saying, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world—not just for the future, but there is a key to your gaining the victory in the fact that I am the Overcomer. In relation to Me, you will know, in much tribulation, that you will not be beneath; you will not be the tail, but you will be the head.” Do you understand?
Again, is it not remarkable the way John records those words in 1 John 5, when he says, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
Now, Jesus was the Son of God, but Jesus is the Son of God—the One who has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Then again, those wonderful words in Romans 8:37: “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” Some Christians think they should be delivered from these things. Notice the list: tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. Then he says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
That is the only way to overcome. The New American Standard Bible, I think, has something like “overwhelming victory.” In all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Overwhelming victory—not merely coming through battered, scarred, and limping, but overwhelming victory. This is not talking about the future. This is not talking about the millennium. This is not talking about the ages to come. This is talking about a time when we shall know tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword; and in all these things overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus Christ, through the Overcomer.
Then there is that other wonderful word we read in 2 Corinthians 2:14: “Thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph.”
Dr. Conybeare, many years ago, translated this. It was given to me by a dear old saint who was a true overcomer in Egypt, and all these years it has stood on my desk. It has always been a comfort to me:
Thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph, to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ; and by me sends forth the knowledge of Him, as the fragrance of incense, throughout the world; for Christ is the fragrance.
Is that not a beautiful rendering? “Thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph.” He is the great Victor, and we are in the train of His triumph.
Paul was borrowing a picture from those great triumphant victors who went back to Rome. Behind their triumphal carriage was a great procession of kings and others who had been made captives. It was a tremendous triumphal procession. And he says, “We are in the train of His triumph to celebrate His victory.” We are celebrating His victory. Oh, what a wonderful picture this is.
The point is simply this: if we are to come to the throne, if we are to reign with Him in eternity to come, we must follow Him in the path He went to the throne. There is no other way to the throne. There are no shortcuts.
We have to follow in the path in which He trod. In John 12:26 we find one of the most beautiful words of our Lord:
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.
Now those words were preceded by these:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.
There is no other way to the throne than the way the Lord Jesus went. Where is He now? In His Father’s throne. And if we want to serve Him, we must follow Him; then we shall come to where He is. But the way is the same way He went. We must lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s. We must fall into the ground and die.
In 1 John 2:6 it says:
He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.
Or again, the Apostle Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2:21:
For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps.
Christ overcame what we have to overcome: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Of course, the Lord Jesus met it on a much vaster scale than any of us will ever know. The whole thing was concentrated. The whole armoury of Satan was flung into operation; the powers of darkness were mobilised. The Lord Jesus met the whole thing fully.
But is it not wonderful, when we think about it, that He overcame basically what you and I have to overcome: the world, the flesh, and the devil? Although He was without sin, He tasted testing such as none of us will ever know, and overcame it all. Now, in Him, He will overcome again.
In the time that we have this morning, I want just to underline one or two keys in the overcoming of the Lord Jesus which, I believe, will unlock for us this whole matter of overcoming. There are a number of such keys. We cannot take them all, but I will lightly touch on five.
The first is union with the Father. Union with the Father.
Is it not interesting? Christ, as the Son of Man, without sin, holy, unblemished, spotless, incorruptible, yet would do nothing from Himself. He had an absolutely pure self-life. There was no sin in His self-life, no self-centredness in His self-life, nothing of the defilement of the Fall in His selfhood. Yet He says, “I will do nothing from Myself.” It all had to be the Father in Him.
Even as a sinless Man, even as One who was absolutely holy, everything had to be out from the Father in Him. Have you ever noticed that? Take your Bible and we will just look at it.
John 5:19
Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.
Is that not remarkable? Did you get it? “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing.”
John 5:30
I can of Myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous; because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.
John 8:28-29
Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things.
And He that sent Me is with Me; He hath not left Me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.
Now do you begin to see the lesson of the life of Jesus? Everything is of God. “Whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world.” Even Jesus, as Man—sinless, holy, true, pure—would do nothing from Himself, but only that which was from the Father in Him.
John 12:49
For I spake not from Myself; but the Father that sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
You see, the Lord Jesus spoke not from Himself, not out of Himself, but out from the Father.
John 14:10
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works.
Take hold of that phrase: “Not from Myself.” That is the key: not from ourselves, but from the Father.
He overcame by doing everything out from the Father in Him. He spoke from the Father in Him. He worked from the Father in Him. He did the will of the Father in Him. Do you understand?
There is no way to overcoming except through dependence upon Christ. Just as Christ was dependent on the Father, so you and I must be dependent upon Christ. I can do nothing of myself if I am going to gain the victory. It must be out from Christ in me.
All has got to be of God. All has got to originate in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
Or again, I think of Philippians 1:21: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” What did the Apostle Paul mean? He meant this: my life is summed up in terms of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my life. He is the sum of my life. He is the basis, the energy, the power, the object, the content, and the circumference. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
What he meant was, to live is Christ; to die is more of Christ. Oh, what a philosophy! What a wonderful word: live, Christ; die, more of Christ.
Colossians 3:3-4
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.
Wonderful, is it not?
John 7:37-39
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake He of the Spirit.
Where do these rivers come from? Your soul? No. Where do these rivers come from? Head knowledge? No. Where are they from—your devotion? No. Where are they from—your zeal? No. Where then do these rivers flow from?
He has been released. He has broken through the outer wall of your life, and the rivers of living water are flowing out. It is the only way to overcome. We must learn to abide in Him.
The Lord Jesus, in the very last things He ever said to us, spoke of this matter in John 15:
Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing.
But, my dear friends, we can do an awful lot without Him, cannot we? I can preach without Him. Do you know that? It is possible to preach without Him. It is possible to pray without Him. It is possible to witness without Him. It is possible to read your Bible without Him. It is possible to do almost anything without Him. You can have a meeting without Him.
There are thousands of Christian meetings that are outside of Him, or that are not from abiding in Him. They are our way of doing it, according to our mental idea of the kind of pattern God would be happy with. So we have a meeting. Anyone can do it. Get a few Christians together and we can do it all.
But, you know, it is a different thing when we are abiding in Him and He is in us. What did the Lord mean when He said, “Apart from Me ye can do nothing,” since we can do almost everything?
He meant there is nothing that reaches the throne. There is nothing that goes into the kingdom. There is nothing that contributes to the building of the city of God. There are no materials out of which the city of God is produced that come from outside of Christ. Only when we abide in Him and He in us is it of eternal value.
There are so many other Scriptures we could take. “I do nothing from Myself.” Half the trouble with our Christian lives is that they are from ourselves. Half the trouble with Christian service is that it is from ourselves. Half the problem of our church life is that it is from ourselves, instead of from the Lord Jesus in us.
That is the way to overcoming. There is no other way to the throne, no other way to gain the victory, no other way to know overwhelming victory through Jesus Christ. It must be that we are in Him and He is in us.
Nor is this a life of terrible tension. I feel so sorry sometimes when we talk about this deeper life, because people get into a kind of spiritual neurosis. They are frightened to do anything—frightened to witness, frightened to pray, frightened to meet, frightened lest it be from themselves.
You know what I call spiritual adolescence? The slightest thing will upset us. We feel we are all pimples and spots, very conscious that everyone is looking at us—introverted, introspective. But that is not it.
The Lord Jesus was not like that. The Lord Jesus was not a case of spiritual neurosis. You did not at all times get a feeling of tension with Him, or strain with Him—trying to keep Himself back, always asking, “How am I doing it from the Father?” No, it was a wonderful spontaneous life.
“In Me ye shall have peace.” No neurosis, no tension. In Me ye shall have peace.
One of the most wonderful little words in the New Testament is found in 1 John 2:17. I never fail to read it without being moved. There is just something about this sentence:
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Is that not beautiful? So simple, so profound. He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Then there is a second key to the overcoming of Christ: it is a life laid down from the beginning. Make no mistake about this. Many people think the Lord Jesus laid down His life at the end of thirty-three years. He did not. He laid down His life right at the very beginning.
There would have been no Bethlehem if the Son had not laid down His glory. It was as if He let go.
Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;
and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Christ overcame by laying down His life, by letting go of His life, by losing His life.
John 10:11, 17-18
I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep.
Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again.
No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
We know that there can be no laying down of anyone’s life until you will. You will never enter into the experience until you are willing to will the will of God.
There comes a point when you have to say, “I cannot do it. I cannot do it. I cannot fall into the ground and die by trying.” Just try to fall into the ground and die—you cannot do it. But you can say, “Lord, I am ready,” and then God will send a wind.
The wind will shake the ear of corn until all the grain falls into the ground and dies. You will not like the wind. Some of your nearest and dearest will be the wind. They will shake you.
People come to me and say, “How can I be crucified?” I always say to them, “Listen, first of all, you are crucified. Secondly, do not worry about practical experience. Your nearest and dearest will nail you to the cross.”
Your beloved fellow-members of the Body—just get to know them behind those shining faces, and you will find they will nail you more truly to the cross than anybody else in this world.
You want to know the practice of how you can lay down your life? First, you must say, “I lay down my life.” You have to see that in Christ it is done, and then you have to will. But just wait.
Bethlehem was the first example of His laying down His life, was it not wonderful? Bethlehem—when He was contracted to human hands; when He, the Lord of glory, was nursed in a woman’s arms; when He became dependent on that woman and dependent upon human beings.
Do you find it hard to accept limitations, restrictions, difficult circumstances? Did you ever think of the Lord, the Overcomer, who allowed Himself restricted circumstances? The Lord of glory, the Maker of heaven and earth, through whom all things were created and unto whom all things were created, allowed Himself such limitation that He had to be fed at the right time, had to be nursed, had to be protected.
Think on. Have you got difficult circumstances? It is an Overcomer who can live in you. He knows all about limited circumstances, all about things that restrict, and His life in you can overcome.
I have got the life in me that was born in Bethlehem. I have the life in me of One who knows from the inside how to overcome in restrictions, limitations, and human weakness.
And what about Jordan? When the Lord Jesus was thirty years of age, when He reached the age at which the Levites, the priests, entered service, then He went down to the River Jordan.
I do not believe heaven helped Him for one single moment in that decision, because those waters of the River Jordan spoke of the death of the cross.
Why was Jesus baptised? People say, “Well, because He was to give us an example.” We know He was not baptised because He had any sins to wash away. He was without sin.
But the reason He was baptised was because those waters spoke of the death of the cross, three years before He came to it. It was as if God the Father was saying, “Now then, are You ready to commit Yourself to the work of the cross three years before You come to it? If not, nothing You do in those three years will be of any value.”
I do not believe heaven helped Him at all. Jesus had to make a cold-blooded decision, and He went down into those waters, committing Himself to the work of the cross three years before He came to it.
From then on, He knew what it was to die daily. It became the basis of His whole public ministry, of His service to God and to man. No man could have ever lived the life Jesus lived for three years—pressed on by crowds all the time, questions upon questions, people wanting healing, people wanting help, day and night—unless He had committed Himself to the work of the cross, unless He had died, unless He had laid down His life.
When He went down into those waters and was baptised, it was as if heaven fell over itself to speak; as if God could not contain Himself any longer. The heavens opened, and God said:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
“I see in Him My own nature. I see in Him the readiness to sacrifice Himself for others—others, others, others.”
Then from heaven came the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Why a dove? I used to hear people say, “Well, a dove is the picture of gentleness, meekness, and sweetness,” and they think of that lovely little hymn, “Jesus, meek and mild.”
Quite honestly, Jesus was not always meek and mild—not in that sense. He once made a whip of cords and drove them out. I do not call that very mild. At other times it says He was angry. I do not find that so dove-like.
I used to ponder so much why it was a dove, but then I saw it like this. If you were a rich person, one of the aristocracy, you took a bullock for sacrifice. If you were middle class, you took a ram. But if you belonged to the vast, vast number of the poor, the working class, you took two turtle-doves or two young pigeons.
When John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit coming down, he saw Him coming upon One who had laid down His life, and he said:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
He understood instantly: sacrifice, sacrifice. That is why the Spirit of God had come upon Him.
My only contention with the charismatic movement is this: unless we understand that the Holy Spirit comes upon us in order that we may lay down our lives, it must end in mere emotion and exhibitions.
The end of the work of the Holy Spirit is to empower us, to enable us, to lay down our lives, so that from then on others come first.
We find it again in the Transfiguration. When Jesus went up on that mountain, He was transfigured in glory. Oh, how wonderful! It was a Man who was transfigured in glory, not a spotlight coming down out of heaven upon Him.
Sometimes we imagine some marvellous spotlight of divine glory shining upon Him and making Him glitter. No, it was as if suddenly something was switched on from deep down within Him and shone out through His very flesh and bone, through His throat, so that the whole being was transfigured. He was glorified.
In that moment, as a Man, He succeeded where Adam failed. Adam fell short of the glory of God. Jesus attained to the glory of God. He could have stepped into the kingdom, unto the throne, for ever.
Yet He turned aside from His glory and came down to an epileptic, demon-possessed boy and healed him. Within a week or two, He was dead—crucified. He laid down His life.
In the Garden of Gethsemane it was the same thing. So tremendous was the battle in the Garden of Gethsemane that, at one point before the most severe testing of all, an angel of God had to appear and minister to Him.
Then, in the most intense part of the battle, it was as if drops of blood came out of Him—such mental and emotional anguish that His blood came into His sweat.
What was it? I do not believe Jesus questioned our salvation, asking, “Father, is there not another way to save them?” He knew from the very beginning that He had to give His life. But it was the cross.
Suddenly, He became aware, as Man, of the tremendous cost of becoming sin, of being made our sin, of knowing the wrath of God, of being smitten by God, of being cast off by God, forsaken by God. Suddenly, as the temptation came in, “It will be for ever. It will be for ever. Once You have been alienated, it will be for ever.”
I do not know. All I know is that the devil brought before the mind of the Lord Jesus the most horrible prospects, the most terrible apparitions, until finally it says, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.”
He could have died in the Garden of Gethsemane before He ever came to the cross. And the whole thing was won in one simple sentence:
Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.
No child of God will ever overcome, and all of us, one day sooner or later, have that hour. It will never be like our Lord’s, but we all have to go into our little garden of Gethsemane. The only way to overcoming is the same as the Master’s: “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
He was the only One who had peace. When they came, that great armed band, He was the only One who had absolute peace. He healed Malchus’s ear. He spoke words of comfort. The rest were panic-stricken.
Some people will not do the will of God and will not pay the price because they are afraid of what they might lose. They are afraid of the conflict, afraid of the strain, afraid of the battle.
My dear friend, there is nothing like the peace of doing God’s will. I would rather be in the centre of a hurricane doing the will of God than in some paradise outside the will of God. There is nothing like the hell that there is outside the will of God. You can have a paradise all around you and be in hell.
You can be in a human hell doing the will of God and have peace.
Overcoming? I am so glad I have got the One in me who said, “Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” That has been my salvation again and again. When I have faced things and have not known how to get through, and have not even been willing, I have said, “Oh, Lord, Thou art within me. ‘Not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’ Say it, Lord, again within me.”
Well, my friends, I am only just trying to say a few things, but do you begin to see the principle? There is no way to the throne but by laying down our lives.
Jesus said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
1 John 3:16 is a remarkable complement to John 3:16. Have you ever noticed it?
Hereby know we love, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Revelation 12:11 says:
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
There can be no overcoming if you love your life. If you preserve your life, you will lose it. My dear friend, hold on to your ministry, hold on to your youth, hold on to what you have of the Lord—you will lose it.
Let go, and you will find it as life eternal. It is a principle. We lose our lives to find our lives. We die that we might know the power of His resurrection. We fall into the ground and die that there might be a harvest. We humble ourselves, and God exalts us.
We make ourselves of no reputation, and God gives us an eternally known name. We are broken that others might be blessed. We deny ourselves and discover the fullness of God. We take up the cross, and He brings us to the throne of His glory.
Until we are prepared to lay down our lives, we never know the real nature of the old man. Did you know that? Not even in Christian service, not even in church life.
I used to puzzle again and again why the Lord said to Moses, “What is that in thy hand?” And he said, “A rod.” He said, “Throw it down on the ground,” and when Moses threw it down, it became a serpent.
Then He said, “Pick it up by the tail.” Now, I do not know about vipers here. Someone told me that you can take them up by the tail here. They must be very extraordinary ones, that is all I can say. But all I know is that in the Middle East, the one thing you never do is take a snake up by the tail, for it will turn round in an instant.
But this rod was the rod of his authority. This was the rod that he lifted up over the Red Sea, and it parted. This was the rod that he pointed toward the rock, and water flowed out of it. This was the rod that symbolised the authority of the living God. How could there be a viper?
Only when you lay down even what you have received from God, only when you throw it down, let go of it, surrender it, do you find the poison of the self-life. You suddenly find that what you thought was so much of God had your own self-life right in it—the poison of the serpent.
Then you have to take it up by the tail—not behind the head, which is the only safe place naturally.
Then He said, “Put thy hand into thy bosom.” Next to your heart. “Take it out.” Leprosy.
What are you doing for the Lord? What do you take from the Lord? What do you receive from the Lord? You know how often the heart is deceitful. It is only when we begin to let go that we find out that the leprosy of sin is there.
Lay down the life.
Another key to the overcoming of the Lord Jesus is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and manifested the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He manifested the gifts of the Holy Spirit. By the power of the Spirit, He fulfilled the work of our salvation.
In Hebrews 9:14 it says:
Through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God.
Do not be afraid of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, and manifested the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Still, He needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit when He was thirty years of age.
Before He could enter upon His public ministry and service, the Holy Spirit who was in Him, of whom He was born, had to come upon Him.
There is no other way to overcome. There is no other way to be able to say, “I do nothing of Myself, but what the Father doeth, that I do.” You cannot do the work of God except by the Holy Spirit.
By the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body.
Child of God, there is so much in this matter of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If my Lord needed to know the ministry of the Holy Spirit in order to come through—He who was without sin, holy, blameless, undefiled—how much more do I need to know the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
It is a very interesting thing: our Lord says to the overcomer, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.”
It is interesting that the words of the Lord were:
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Olive trees: men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, anointed by the Holy Spirit, emptying out the golden oil—life and nature—into the lampstand for light.
No other way. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”—not merely children of God, but men and women who are growing up and who will be able to manage the Father’s business.
Then there is a fourth key, and that is love—perfect love.
Do you think that the Lord Jesus came into this world with gritted teeth? Do you think He lived His life out of a sense of duty, that somehow or other it was something to be endured, simply as a wearisome, burdensome duty for God and for the kingdom?
Do you think Jesus simply endured it all so that He might get to the throne, that He might exhibit His glory, that He might become the centre of a new universe? Do you think that is why He went through it all?
It says He endured the cross, despising shame, for the joy that was set before Him. But what was the joy that was set before Him? Was it the joy of self-satisfaction? Was it the joy of exhibition, that He was able to sit down at the Father’s right hand and manifest His glory? Or was the joy set before Him the joy of bringing many sons unto glory?
My friend, I know the Lord—little as I know of Him—I know that was the key. He had no other objective. It was not to get to the throne to be something. It was not to get to the throne to exhibit Himself or to become the centre of the kingdom.
No, it was out of love for the Father, and love for you, and love for me.
Ephesians 5:25-27
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it;
that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
He loved the church. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
There is such a beautiful word in John 13:1:
Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
Love. There will never be a way to overcome except to love. Hear it: duty will never bring you to the throne. Gritting your teeth will never bring you to the throne. Only love.
Perfect love casts out fear. Why is it that we have so many issues? Why is it that we hold back on so many things? Because of fear—fear, and fear, and more fear. Perfect love casts out fear.
Listen to these wonderful and well-known words in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love suffereth long, and is kind;
love envieth not;
love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked,
taketh not account of evil;
rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never faileth.
That is how the Lord Jesus got to the throne. And that is the only way you and I will get to the throne.
Now I will simply say one last thing. Maybe we will be able to tell something more about it on another occasion. The fifth key is perfection through suffering.
There is no other way to the throne. It is amazing to consider that Christ, though sinless, was yet made perfect through suffering. The word means complete, full, ended, filled out. Do you understand? Sometimes we use the word perfect in the sense of complete.
His way to the Father’s throne was through suffering. You must look up Hebrews 5:8-9, Hebrews 2:10, and compare them with Philippians 2:8.
Though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which He suffered;
and having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation.
He was perfected through suffering. The character of His service, of His kingship, was made full, completed, filled out by suffering, by learning obedience. He learned the full meaning and nature of obedience through the things which He suffered.
The kingdom of Christ is not based on pedigree, position, or title, although He is the Son and He has a position and a title. It is based on character. His supreme claim to the throne of God is character.
When He was stripped of every single thing that men consider essential to royalty and kingship, He revealed character. He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.
With God, kingship can never be merely a matter of status, title, or pedigree. It has also to be a matter of character and experience. God cannot have kings who have shallow experience.
The Son had to learn obedience through the things which He suffered. Through His experience of suffering, He came to understand mankind from the inside, as a Man.
The universe in the ages to come will be in a sorry state if it is going to be ruled by some Christians. Do you think that just because you are saved, you have the ability to reign, to rule, to administer? No, dear child of God. If the Son had to be perfected through suffering, you and I have got to go the same way.
So God takes our routine life—the kitchen sink, our business, the facts we face, our college, our circumstances—and He makes it all a school: the school of discipline, the school of training, the school of tempering.
It is the way we shape up there that will determine whether we shall come to the throne. How are you shaping up in the school of God’s discipline?
There is so much about this matter of being made perfect. I have to leave it all now with you. Only through the things through which we come do we, if they produce in us the sensitivity, compassion, and understanding, become qualified for the throne.
The Lion of Judah is the little Lamb as it had been slain. On one side, we see the Lion of Judah—majestic and powerful, full of authority. But on the other side, it is the little Lamb as it had been slain.
That is God’s idea of kingship. On the throne, the Lion is a little Lamb as it had been slain.
No one can ever come to sit down in the Lamb’s throne who has not become like the Lamb.
Shall we pray?
O Father, we have sought to set forth the Lord Jesus as the Overcomer. He said, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with Me in My throne, even as I overcame, and sat down with My Father in His throne.”
Hear, Lord, we ask Thee. We who are all so weak and such poor material—Lord, Thou didst work so wonderfully in Thy Son, to perfect Him through suffering and bring Him to glory. We are grateful that Thou hast worked enough.
Bring us by Thy way, the same way, to His throne. Lay every one of our hearts yielded and surrendered before Thee, and willing to do Thy will.
For we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.