After we have been together before the table of the Lord, worshipping our God and our Lord, we have reached the climax of this time together. Anything that is done or said afterwards, to me at least, feels a little bit too much. So I will not trouble you with a long message. I will be very brief.
I do desire that we may go away with just one thought: the Lord—not only in our thoughts, but in our hearts.
We have a very beautiful picture at the very last: Revelation 21.
Revelation 21:1:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God:
and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write: for these words are faithful and true.
And He said unto me, They are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that thirsteth of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.
Revelation 22:1:
And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein; and His servants shall serve Him;
and they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads.
And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
A new heaven and a new earth, and the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband—this is the picture of the whole church in eternity.
We remember that, way back in the beginning, when God created man, He created man with a very definite purpose. He wanted man to be an overcomer, to subdue the earth, and to bring the earth back to God.
And this man is not just an individual person. This man, from the very beginning, is a corporate being, male and female. Out of the side of this man, Adam, Eve was built; and together they were supposed to be overcomers for God.
But we all know the history. The woman was deceived, and the man loved the woman so much that he deliberately rebelled against the word of God.
But finally, God has found His Man: the second Man, our Lord Jesus Christ. So we find that our Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Overcomer. He is a Man after God’s own heart. He has overcome.
And through all the ages, we find that out of His side He is building His woman, the church, His counterpart. Now, even though throughout the centuries the woman has again and again been deceived—this is the history of the church, how we are deceived again and again—yet during the whole time our Lord is calling for overcomers, the overcomers of the church.
These overcomers, as we say, are like the firstfruits. They are to maintain the testimony of Jesus on behalf of the whole church.
But thank God, here in Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, you find this woman is finally completely delivered and redeemed. No more deception. No more failures.
Here you find this holy city, the wife of the Lamb, made ready and adorned for her husband. Man may fail, but God never. We may fail, but God’s purpose must be realized.
Here you find this holy city, the New Jerusalem, as the counterpart of the Lamb. The church is the counterpart of Christ. Here you find this holy city full of the glory of God.
It takes eternity to investigate, to examine, and to understand this holy city. So we do not need to spend much time on it; we will leave eternity for the exploration. But anyway, as you read the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, you find that this holy city, the New Jerusalem, is the picture of an overcomer.
In the very beginning, there was deception. The woman was deceived, and the man rebelled against God. But here, all things have passed away.
The cause and effect, the consequences of sin, have all passed away. God has made all things new. Everything and anything that is negative disappears, and everything that is positive in God has been brought in. This is the New Jerusalem.
The Garden of Eden did not have a wall. It was not protected, in a sense, and the serpent got into it. But here you find that the New Jerusalem is a walled city, and the shining of the wall is the shining of the glory of God.
There is a wall for protection, gates for entrance, and also for protection. Yet you find there are twelve gates, but these gates are never closed. That is a picture of final, perfect victory.
If the enemy is not completely defeated, you have to close the gate, at least in the night. But there is no night. The gates are never closed. You find a picture of complete and perfect victory. The city itself is an overcomer.
In other words, it is not just a few in the church who are reckoned as overcomers. But in the finality, we find the whole church is an overcomer, being in perfect union with Christ.
I am struck especially with these two verses in Revelation 21:6-7. In the second part of Revelation 21:6, it says:
I will give unto him that thirsteth of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Here you find a promise of the fountain of the water of life given freely—the free gift of God. Whosoever will shall have it. Then the following verse says:
He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.
Given freely. He that overcometh.
We have said a lot about these overcomers: how they must come out of great tribulation, how they must have shed tears, gone through difficulties, how they must have suffered, how they must lay down their lives for the Lord—as if all these things would make them overcomers.
But, dear brothers and sisters, these are things that we see in the process. When the process is going on, we do see these things: tribulation, suffering, the cross, tears, and so on and so forth.
But when you reach the end, at the very end, you find everything has come back to the simplicity that is in Christ. It is very simple. God gives freely, and we who have received are made overcomers. In other words, it is all His doing and not our working.
Will you please turn to 1 John 5:4?
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?
Whoever is begotten of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith—our faith in the Lord Jesus. He that overcomes the world is he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Again, in 1 John 4:4:
Ye are of God, My little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
Who are those inhabitants of the holy city? They are not only those who make up the holy city, but they are the inhabitants of the holy city. Now, who are they?
They are those who have drunk of the fountain of the water of life, freely given by God. In other words, you find here those people who have received the gift of God, even Christ Jesus—those who have Christ in them.
He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world.
In finality, in final analysis, it is not what you have done. It is not what you have gone through. It is not all these things that made you an overcomer.
In the final analysis, we have to humble ourselves before God and say, “It is Thy free gift. It is Christ in us who has done it.” We overcome the world because He is in us.
It is Christ who overcomes. He is the only Overcomer. And here you find these people are in such union with Christ; therefore, His victory is their victory. They are those who overcome, and they are those who can inherit all these wonderful things.
So, dear brothers and sisters, we would like to close just with this statement: Christ is the Overcomer, and the church, in union with Christ, also overcomes.
Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, we know that it is Thy will that we should not be distracted into anything, however good it may be. But it is Thy will that we should look off unto Thy Son, our Lord Jesus.
Oh, we do pray that Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, may be ever set before us—not only at this time of our gathering together before Thee. As we go to different places, lonely places, as we all will be facing many problems and difficulties, we will be enticed, tempted, tested to the very limit.
We may be pressed beyond our measure, but we pray that Thou wilt keep Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, ever before us: the great Conqueror, the great Overcomer, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we do pray that, in union with Him, we may experience that He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Oh, make this very real, very true in our lives.
And we do look forward to that day when that New Jerusalem, the holy city, shall come down from heaven to manifest publicly the glory of Christ. We ask in the precious name of our Lord Jesus.