Please turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 2, verse 7:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Chapter 3, verse 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.
And in the same book, chapter 12, verse 11:
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.
That is, they overcame the accuser by reason of the blood of the Lamb, by reason of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their soul-life even unto death.
Dear Lord, as we gather here this morning, we pray that the spirit of victory, the spirit of overcoming—Thy Spirit—may descend upon each and every one of us. Deliver us from our complacency. Deliver us from our passivity. Bring us into the full provision that Thou hast given to us, that we may be overcomers to glorify Your name.
Lord, do speak to our hearts. Produce fruit for Thyself, especially in this last moment. Lord, we pray that we may enter into the fullness of the salvation which Thou hast provided for us. Deliver us from ourselves, and bring us into Thyself. O Lord, may spiritual reality be our testimony. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.
We are still on this matter of spiritual exercise. Spiritual exercise has much to do with overcoming, and by overcoming, we will receive life in the age to come.
Now, brothers and sisters, I know that the word overcomer is so familiar to many of us. But the point is not whether we are familiar with theological terms, but whether we are in the reality of what overcoming means.
Overcoming is the strategy of God. It is His strategy in the recovery of the testimony of Jesus in the church. So it is not something minor; it is something of tremendous importance, especially to us who are living in this last day.
So, brothers and sisters, I hope this matter of overcomers is not something that we can neglect. It is life and death to us. It is not only important to us; it is so important to the work of God that He is calling for us to overcome.
And if we do not overcome, the damage is not only to us, but the damage will also be brought to the Lord’s testimony. So, dear brothers and sisters, I am deeply burdened with this matter of overcoming.
You know, God entrusted His own name, His own testimony, to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel was supposed to bear the testimony of God in this ungodly world. They were to testify to the world that there is a living God.
But unfortunately, they failed. And while they were failing, the Lord raised up a remnant. When the children of Israel were taken into Babylonian captivity, after seventy years God raised up a remnant of the children of Israel.
Most of the children of Israel were in captivity, and they were content with their captivity. Because they were given a certain amount of freedom, they could build their houses, they could do their businesses, and they were prospering financially.
But where was the name of God during those days of captivity? The Bible never mentioned God as the God of the heavens and of the earth. During that period, God was only addressed as the God of the heavens. In other words, He had no testimony upon the earth.
But thank God, man may fail, but He never fails. So He, by His Spirit, raised up a remnant among the children of Israel. They were stirred by the Spirit of God. They were not content to live just for themselves; they wanted to live for God, for His testimony.
So a remnant among the children of Israel answered the call of God and returned to Jerusalem, a ruined place, and there built a temple that the name of the Lord might be recognized on earth. That is the remnant principle in the Old Testament.
Now, in the New Testament, we find that our Lord Jesus gave His testimony to the church. What is the church for? The church is for the testimony of Jesus.
The church, those who are saved, is to declare the excellencies of the One who has saved them. The name of the Lord Jesus is intertwined with us, His church. That is the reason why the church exists on earth. The church is not to speak of itself; the church is to declare the name of the Lord Jesus.
We find that when the church began on earth, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came upon the one hundred and twenty believers who were gathered together in that upper room, praying with one accord.
These one hundred and twenty individual believers were, in the Spirit, baptized into one body. They were no longer one hundred and twenty individuals; they were one hundred and twenty members of the body of Christ. That is the beginning of the church.
And with the one hundred and twenty as the body of Christ, on the very same day three thousand were added. The Bible tells us, if we read the book of Acts, that daily the Lord added to the church, to the body of Christ.
Those who believed in the Lord persevered. They continued in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer. They were such a testimony among the world. They showed the world who Jesus was.
The name Christians was given to them. It was a nickname, because the world looked at these people. They gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus, praising the Lord, praying to the Lord, talking about the Lord Jesus, and living for the Lord Jesus.
They had a way of life totally different from any way of life in the world. It was neither the Jewish way, nor the Roman way, nor the Greek way. But those who believed in the Lord, out of the Jews and out of the nations, had a way of life totally different from the way people lived on earth. It was a heavenly manner of life.
So when people looked at them, they did not know what to say about them. Who were they? And people, joking, said they were Christians—they were Christ-men and Christ-women. What a testimony we find.
And even within thirty years, the gospel was preached not only in Judea and Samaria, but to the end of the world as it was known at that time. It was a conquering church, a victorious church, a church that faithfully bore the testimony of Jesus.
It was a church that did not live for itself or make itself known, but a church that made Jesus Christ known to the world.
But unfortunately, after another thirty-some years, when you come to the end of the first century, you find, as you read the book of Revelation, chapters 1, 2, and 3, that John the apostle was exiled to the island of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God. He was faithful.
But on that Lord’s Day, he was in the Spirit, and he saw a vision. It was the vision of the risen Lord ministering to His church.
When you read the condition of the churches at that time—the seven churches in Asia—you find that aside from the church in Philadelphia, which had the praise of the risen Lord, the church in Smyrna had no praise, but also no fault. They were encouraged to be faithful unto the end.
But in the other five, you find their spiritual conditions were such that the Lord had to call them to repent. The church, as it were, had lost the testimony of Jesus.
If the church has lost the testimony of Jesus, it has lost the meaning of its existence. So you find, even with the church in Ephesus, the Lord said:
If therefore thou wilt not repent, I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.
In other words, physically they may remain, but spiritually their testimony before God has no existence and no recognition.
And when the church has failed in its mission, has failed in its testimony, what happens? Man may fail, but God never fails. So that is where the principle of overcomers comes in.
When our Lord Jesus looked at the situation of the church, then He called:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
He that overcometh—
In other words, as a reaction from the risen Lord, He calls out of the church overcomers.
Now, who are the overcomers? What do they overcome? Brothers and sisters, we are living at the very end of this age of grace. The end is coming.
And while we are living in this critical time, we need to know our real condition before God. Do we, as a people of God, faithfully bear the testimony of Jesus to the world, or have we fallen from that testimony?
The call to overcome is the last call from God to His church. If we miss this last call, we miss our calling. The last call to the church is to overcome.
The Lord knows the condition, situation, environment, and world in which we are living. He fully understands. But He knows that we are called to overcome. We are called to bear the testimony of Jesus to the world in this last day.
What do we need to overcome? What makes us overcomers?
When you look at the outward situation, we will say that we, as the redeemed of the Lord, have to overcome the power of sin. Why? Because our Lord Jesus has borne our sins in His body on the cross.
He has forgiven our sins. He has redeemed us, and we are supposed to live a holy life, a life of righteousness, a life that will glorify God. So first of all, we need to overcome the power of sin. We will not allow sin to overcome us.
What we should not do, we should be able not to do. What we should do before God, we should have the power to do it.
But, brothers and sisters, when we look back to our experience since we were saved, what has happened to this matter of sin? Is the matter of sin already solved in our Christian life, or is this something still bothering us?
Just as you find in Romans 7, you find the apostle Paul, after he was saved, knew what was right and what was the will of God, and he wanted to do the will of God. But he found, to his dismay, that what he should do, he could not do; and what he should not do, he did.
He even said that it was not he who did it, but sin dwelling in him that did it. How he cried out:
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
Brothers and sisters, do we have these experiences? Are we still under such experience?
It seems as if, in our life, most of the time we are defeated. Maybe once in a long while we have some victory. Now, that is not what the Lord has ordained for us.
How can we overcome the power of sin? If we only know that when Christ died on the cross, He not only bore our sins in His body, but He also bore us in Him and with Him to the cross.
In other words, the old man was crucified with Christ. Have we experienced this co-crucifixion, co-burial, and co-resurrection with our Lord Jesus?
We can only find victory in Christ, not in ourselves. No matter how we struggle against sin, we will be defeated. But thank God, He has overcome. So you find in Romans 7, he says, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
It is only through Jesus Christ that we can experience overcoming the power of sin.
Now, what are we going to overcome? We need to overcome the world. We live in this world, but we are not of this world.
Now, is this not our daily experience? Do we find that the world still attracts us—not only attracts us, but even has its ascendancy over us? We cannot help but love the world.
You know, I remember when I was in Albuquerque at one time. A few of us were sitting in a room and talking. In the midst of the room there was a table, and on the table there was a dish full of candies.
Suddenly, a boy came in, and he began to circle around the room. The circle got tighter and tighter until he reached the table. Then he took a candy, put it in his mouth, and circled out.
After a while he came back again, and he did the same thing. After several times, every eye was upon him, and he was conscious of it. So when he took the candy, he said, “I know I should not do it, but I just love it.”
Is this what we are doing today? We know we should not love the world. We should not be friends with the world, because to be friends with the world is to be an enemy of God. But we cannot help it.
But who can? If we only know that in Christ Jesus, the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world.
What else must we overcome? We must overcome our flesh. Even though we are saved, we find that our flesh is still here. We are still carnal, and we find the works of the flesh in our life. How can we overcome our flesh?
The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life—we cannot overcome these things in ourselves. But if we only look to the Lord Jesus, we find:
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.
What must we overcome? We must overcome this self-life, the life that controls our soul and expresses itself through our thinking, through our emotions and feelings, and through our will and opinions.
Whatever comes out of us is not Christ, but ourselves: “This is what I feel. This is what I think. This is what I like.” Instead of the love of Christ, the feeling of Christ, the thought of Christ, the mind of Christ, and the will of Christ, there is only ourselves.
Now, how can we be delivered from ourselves? We cannot, but He can. Brothers and sisters, have we experienced the overcoming life?
Now, of course, we know that behind all these things we have mentioned there is Satan, the enemy. He was the one who brought sin into this world. He is the usurper of this world. He is the one who is in control of our flesh. He is the one behind everything. How can we overcome Satan?
He is an archangel. He is of a higher rank than man. His intelligence is beyond ours. His experience is longer than ours. And if we try to fight against Satan—unfortunately, many people try to do that—you cannot do it. You will be overcome.
Now, these, in a sense, are just negatives. But we know in the Scripture there is a positive reason to overcome. That positive reason is that we may keep, have, and maintain the testimony of Jesus. That is why we must overcome.
Brothers and sisters, if we read human history rightly, we find failure and failure, so far as God’s purpose and God’s testimony are concerned. That is the reason why Satan is still considered the god, the prince, of this world. He is still in charge, as it were.
But in human history, we do find an exception, and the exception is our Lord Jesus. As God, He is higher than the angels, but He became a man.
Now, that is God’s wisdom. You know, it is nothing to God to destroy Satan. We often think that if God would destroy Satan, everything would be solved. How good it would be! Why is it that God did not do that?
Because for God to destroy Satan does not give Him glory. Just like a strong man beating a little child—there is no glory to that man.
So, in the wisdom of God, He wants someone lower than the angels to destroy the work of the archangel. And who is lower than the angels? Man.
Man is created lower than the angels, and yet God wants to use man to destroy the works of the enemy and to bring glory to Himself. So that is why we are on this earth. We are not here just for ourselves. We are here to defeat God’s enemy. We are here to glorify God by faithfully bearing His testimony. That is why we are here.
But unfortunately, starting from our forefather Adam, you find failure after failure after failure. So finally, God sent His own Son into this world.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth.
Our Lord Jesus was the second man. In the sight of God, there are only two men: the first man, Adam, failed; the second man, Christ, succeeded. He came to earth as a man, as a man according to God’s mind.
You find His whole life, even when He was twelve years old. He said:
Knew ye not that I must be in My Father’s house?
Throughout His life, He lived as the perfect man. He did not live for Himself; He lived for the will of God.
You know what temptation was? When Satan tried to tempt Him, the temptation was, “If You are the Son of God, You can do this; You can do that.” Surely, if He was the Son of God, He could do all these things. He could turn stones into bread. That is true.
But our Lord Jesus always stood on the ground of the Son of Man. He said:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
He refused to exercise His right as the Son of God. He maintained His place on earth as the Son of Man. As the Son of Man, He was tempted in all things. He was tempted by sin, He was tempted by the world, He was tempted by self; He was tempted by everything.
But He denied Himself. He took up the cross and followed God. He gave Himself to God, obedient to God even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
He overcame the enemy.
When you read John 12, you find that even the Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Humanly speaking, it was the most glorious time of our Lord Jesus on earth. The whole nation seemed to go after Him; even Greeks, foreigners, wanted to see Him.
That was His time of glory. But no, our Lord said that the hour of His glory had come, but His glory was different. He said, “Father, glorify Thy name,” and He spoke of His death.
In other words, His whole life was given for His Father’s glory, for the testimony of God, and not for Himself. So He said, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
He has overcome. So, brothers and sisters, who is the overcomer? Christ Jesus. He is the overcomer.
We cannot overcome, but He has overcome. It is on the basis of His overcoming that He said:
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Brothers and sisters, the church is built on the victory of Christ, the overcoming of Christ. Because He has overcome, therefore we too shall overcome.
But how? The way we enter into this overcoming life is the way of faith.
Now, what is faith? Faith is not something we develop in ourselves. Oftentimes we try to hypnotize ourselves: “I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe.” If we continue to repeat, “I believe,” it is as if we do believe. But it does not work. That is not faith.
Faith is not looking into yourself; it is not there. Faith is not looking at your environment; it is not there. Faith is looking away from all these things and looking unto Jesus. That is faith.
He is the Author and Perfecter of faith.
So, brothers and sisters, we find in 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?
So, brothers and sisters, our victory is based upon our faith. It is not based upon our own struggling. It is based upon our believing in our Lord Jesus. We take Him at His word. We take Him at His finished work. That is faith.
I cannot help but tell the story that I love so much. Once, a little girl believed in the Lord Jesus, and she was happy in the Lord.
A man came to test her. He asked, “Little girl, do you believe in the Lord Jesus?” She said, “I do.” “Are you happy in the Lord?” She said, “I am.”
Then the man said, “Suppose Satan came to you. He knocked at your door. He wanted to come in. What can you do? You are just a little girl. Your strength is so small, and Satan is a mighty warrior. He can just push the door, come in, and you are finished.”
That little girl thought for a while, and she answered, “If Satan came to knock at my door, I would turn to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, will You please open the door?’”
“And our Lord Jesus would go to the door and open it. When Satan saw the Lord, he would say, ‘Excuse me, I knocked at the wrong door,’ and he would flee.”
Now, that is the secret of victory. You cannot overcome the enemy. Oh, how we try! How we try to put our whole strength upon the door and say, “You cannot come here. I do not want you.” But he is just pushing, and you are finished.
But brothers and sisters, where is the Lord? Are you in fellowship with the Lord? Are you exercising your spirit? Do you forget the Lord in your life? Do you turn to the Lord and say, “Lord, please open the door”?
This is spiritual exercise.
You know, the provision is there. The Holy Spirit who dwells in us, He will remind us of what is not from the Lord. He will warn us to keep away from it. He will show us where the conflict is.
But when He is doing that, we need to respond, and the response is spiritual exercise. If you do not exercise your spirit, then the voice of the Holy Spirit is just a passing voice, coming in one ear and going out from the other ear.
Only if you really exercise your spirit—that is, exercise your conscience—will you let the Spirit of God speak to your conscience. Do not rebel against your conscience. Try to submit to the voice of the conscience.
By what power? By looking unto Jesus. Jesus is in you. The Holy Spirit is to bring the victorious power of the Lord Jesus into your life.
When you are struggling, He says, “Do not struggle. Believe Me. Trust Me. Give yourself to Me. Let go of yourself, and let Me take over.” Brothers and sisters, that needs spiritual exercise.
We are exercising our mind all the time—thinking, trying to figure out how to do and what to do. Brothers and sisters, do we exercise our spirit?
Draw near to the Lord. Tell the Lord of the situation. Tell Him you cannot, but He can. Trust Him. Look to Him, and you will find that He is more than sufficient.
We can enjoy being more than conquerors over all things around us. This is the secret of victory.
By doing that, we will not only overcome the forces around us and within us; we can even accomplish the purpose of God in keeping and having the testimony of Jesus.
Why is it that the Lord calls for overcomers? What will be the consequence of overcoming in this age? If we overcome, we will enjoy the Lord. We will enjoy His life, even in this age.
Furthermore, if we overcome and keep the testimony of Jesus, what will happen in the age to come? That is what you find in Revelation 2 and 3.
You find that, to him that overcomes, there will be a result. All the results that you find in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 are, actually, promises of life in the age to come.
Not only will overcoming give you such a victorious life on earth, enabling you to bear the testimony of Jesus, but by overcoming, you will find that in the age to come you will enjoy life. Strictly speaking, all the promises for those who overcome are to be experienced in the age to come.
For instance, in Revelation 2:7, He says:
To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.
Even though, if we overcome, we enjoy life in this age too, the promise is to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God. That refers to the kingdom age. In the kingdom age, you will enjoy life—eternal life, the life of Christ in the kingdom age.
It is just like the five wise virgins, how they entered into the marriage feast of the Lamb. That is enjoying life.
Then you find, to the church in Smyrna:
He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Now, this is a problem to many Christians, because it is said that he who overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death. What is the second death? The second death is the lake of fire. That is the second death.
The first death is physical death, but the second death is eternal death, the lake of fire. So can it be that a Christian, a believer, will lose his salvation and go into hell? No.
He says we will not be injured by the second death. Now, what does He mean? I think the best illustration you can find is in Daniel.
You find the three friends of Daniel, how they refused to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar erected. They were to be thrown into the fire, and Nebuchadnezzar was so indignant that the fire was increased sevenfold.
The fire was so hot that the soldiers who brought the three helpless men to the furnace were burned to death. They were not thrown into the fire, but the fire came out, and they were burned to death.
Now, that is to be injured by the second death. In other words, it is not the second death itself, but being injured by the second death.
But those who overcome will not be injured by the second death. Remember what our Lord said to that wicked servant: that he would be cut asunder and have his portion with the unbelievers—injured by the second death, but eternally saved.
So, brothers and sisters, as you go on into all these promises, you find that they are promises of life. For instance, Revelation 2:17 says:
To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
We know that hidden manna refers to life. When God sent manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness, there was some manna that was put in a pot and put in the tent—the hidden manna. In other words, you enjoy life that was unknown to the people.
A white stone—in the old age, when they had games, the victor would be given a white stone with a name inscribed on it. It is a reward in the kingdom of the heavens.
Then again, you turn to Revelation 2:26-28:
And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of My Father:
And I will give him the morning star.
Now, all these refer to the kingdom of the heavens. You can go on and on and on, and when you come to Laodicea, you find:
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.
Because our Lord Jesus has overcome, He is now seated with the Father in His throne. But one day He will be given the kingdom, and it will be His own throne. The overcomers will sit with Him in His throne.
So, brothers and sisters, this is why spiritual exercise is so profitable. It is profitable not only for this life, but it is profitable for the life to come.
And dear brothers and sisters, how can we be so foolish that, for the sake of a little temporary benefit, we miss that which is so great, so glorious, so marvelous?
So may the Lord help us that it may really be our heart’s desire: “Make me an overcomer, a victor to the end, to the glory of God.” Amen.