I would like to ask you to turn to Revelation—the Revelation, as it is called—Chapter 2. I will read some verses concerning the churches, the letters to the churches.
Revelation 2:1-2
To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write:
These things saith He that holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamps.
I know.
Revelation 2:7
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
To him that overcomes, I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Revelation 2:8-9
And to the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write:
These things saith the First and the Last, who became dead and lived.
I know.
Revelation 2:11
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
He that overcomes shall in no wise be injured of the second death.
Revelation 2:12-13
And to the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write:
These things saith He that has the sharp two-edged sword.
I know.
Revelation 2:17
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
To him that overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna.
And I will give to him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he that receives it.
Revelation 2:18-19
And to the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write:
These things saith the Son of God, that has His eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass.
I know.
Revelation 2:26-29
And he that overcomes, and he that keeps unto the end My words, to him will I give authority over the nations;
and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod, as vessels of pottery are they broken in pieces;
as I also have received from My Father.
And I will give to him the morning star.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Revelation 3:1
And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write:
These things saith He that has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.
I know.
Revelation 3:5-6
He that overcomes, he shall be clothed in white garments; and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, and will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Revelation 3:7-8
And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write:
These things saith the Holy, the True, He that has the key of David, He who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one shall open.
I know.
Revelation 3:12-13
He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more at all; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
And finally, the last church.
Revelation 3:14-15
And to the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write:
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.
I know.
Revelation 3:20-22
Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking. If anyone hear My voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with Me.
He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with Me in My throne, as also I have overcome and have sat down with My Father in His throne.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
And finally, just two more verses in Revelation 12:10-11.
And I heard a great voice in the heavens, saying, Now has come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren has been cast out, He who accused them before our God day and night.
And they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony, and have not loved their life even unto death.
Let us just have a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to You again. We have read Your Word, but we do not say it flippantly. We say it with real dependence. You alone have the words of eternal life.
If You withhold speaking, there is no value in this time. But if You speak, we will be helped.
So our simple prayer—our simple prayer, like Samuel—is, “Speak, Lord.” That is what we ask, in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I think you all know that I have been sharing, in those times when I have had responsibility to share, about the concluding words of God. Now, I do not want to go back and cover all that we have covered.
You know, I shared three times from the Old Testament—the actual concluding books of the Old Testament: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These were three so-called minor prophets, post-exilic prophets, who were so greatly used by God to revive a depressed remnant, to restore the glory of His testimony, and to recover God’s testimony in the end.
They were greatly used. You cannot imagine the conditions they were under from their return, and yet these three men, used of God and called of God, gave His concluding words to those in the Old Testament.
Now, that is what we have shared. I do not believe those concluding words are just for them. You remember, I quoted from 1 Corinthians 10:11, when Paul was writing to the Corinthian believers and thinking of Moses and the children of Israel and their experience in the wilderness.
He made this statement, and it has often spoken to me:
Now all these things happened to them as types, and have been written for our admonition.
Now get that. You should get that. When these brethren in the first century walked with the Lord, the Word of God was the Old Testament. They did not have Galatians, and they did not have Revelation, and they did not have Thessalonians. They had the Old Testament. It was the Word of God.
And it says it was written for our admonition. But listen to this—this has often struck me: “upon whom the end of the ages has come.” For our admonition.
So we shared on those things. Two weeks ago, I began to share on the concluding word of God in the New Testament, from the book of Revelation. It is the last book in the Bible and the last in the canon of Scripture.
Now, there is disagreement about the date. We mentioned that last time. Some believe it is John the apostle’s earliest writing, like Graham Scroggie. I happen to like that, and he has his justification from internal evidence as to why.
Others believe just as firmly, and just as vehemently, that it was John’s last writing, at the end of the first century, when the church seemed to be in great declension.
Now, whatever your view, do not get hung up, and please do not argue with me about what your view is. I respect your view, but this is true: all agree that it is the concluding word of God in the New Testament, in content and in spirit.
And I think it is a word to us in this hour. Just like those words in the Old Testament, it is not a bygone word for the Old Testament saints, nor is it a bygone word for those in the first-century church. It is a word to us in this hour.
And I happen to believe, brothers and sisters, we should pay attention to last words.
Now, I just want to hit a few points, because already our time is nearly gone, and I would just like to share a few thoughts with you.
Last time, we spoke about Revelation. There are some things you need to understand about this book, the Revelation. First of all, the central theme of the Revelation is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
A lot of people read this book, and in their mind the title is Revelations, plural. They think and talk about it: “Well, I was reading Revelations the other day.” I do not know if you have heard it, but I have often heard it.
It does not say Revelations. It says Revelation. And not only that, the Holy Spirit seems to have added an emphasis: it is the Revelation.
The apostle John, when he began to write that book, left no ambiguity when he said what the central theme of that book was about.
Revelation 1:1
The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
He is the central theme of the whole book.
Now, I happen to believe—I like the way Jerry put it—our deepest need in this hour, this concluding hour that we live in, is a living revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If things are going to be recovered, if things are going to be restored, if the glory of His testimony is going to once again shine in the earth, it is going to be through those who first and foremost have a living revelation of the Lord Jesus.
That is what John had. And it says of John, “I fell down as dead.” That revelation was so enormous. Our brother already covered that revelation, and I do not think I need to take the time, but I think it is our chief need.
Paul’s prayer to the church in Ephesus, I think, is something that should always be our prayer. He prayed this first and foremost:
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
Sometimes we pray, “Lord, give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation.” But Paul made no doubt about what that spirit of wisdom and revelation had to do with. It was in the full knowledge of Him. That is what we need.
The second thing we talked about was the concern of Christ. You cannot get far into this book of Revelation without seeing how the Lord begins to pour His heart out to John.
You cannot go far before you begin to understand what the concern of the Lord Jesus is. His concern is for His church. It is clear.
The purpose of this book, He tells John, is to write to the seven churches, to tell them what is and what shall be—to tell them all these things. He gave the names. He named them: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
His concern is for His church.
Now, I never forget this. Somehow I shared this, but it is worth repeating. I will take the extra time to repeat it. When our brother Stephen said, concerning that revelation given at Caesarea Philippi in Matthew 16, that there is first and foremost a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but secondly the Lord Himself begins to share a revelation of His church.
He used the word, quite frankly, I had never heard him use. He shared what is uppermost in His heart.
This is what the Lord’s concern is. Now, we ended with the thought: Is this our concern? You know, sometimes all our concern is what the Lord gives us. Thank God He gives us so much. Sometimes our concern is what we see.
But here, very clearly, you cannot understand the book of Revelation if you do not understand that in the beginning the Lord begins to pour out His heart for these seven assemblies. He shows that, first and foremost, His concern is for the assembly.
The third thing we shared was the condition of the churches. You know, sometimes I read the condition of the churches in the seven letters of Revelation, and it is depressing.
You know, if you want to get depressed sometimes, read the seven letters. There is commendation, but there is great condemnation.
And you read the condition of the church, and I wonder if you are not like me just a little bit. Maybe you never admit it. Some will, some will not. But maybe you begin to wonder, “Is it possible that the church can never return to her glory? Look at the condition.”
Why does the Lord Jesus not just give up on this concern? Why does He care so much? Why has He put all this interest in this concluding word—an eighth of this book—to write these personal letters, to pour out His heart, and to say, “I know your condition”?
He repeats it seven times: “I know. I know.” Over and over, He says He knows the condition of the church.
I said sometimes we think we know the condition. Beware of people who insist they know the condition. Only He knows. And we should cast ourselves on His all-seeing mercy, that He would restore and revive.
Well, those are the things we began to look at, and we concluded, as Keene said, with Laodicea, the last church. We hear that great call:
Behold, I am standing at the door and knocking.
If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.
This is His concluding plea.
I was so touched. I was reading what Newell said. He said, “This is the plea of One who is meek and lowly in heart.” He said, “This is the plea of an active, yearning love.” He said, “This is a plea of the deepest concern.”
He went on to say, “This is the most tender plea of all the seven assemblies, and is made to the lukewarm assembly.”
Brothers and sisters, this is His heart for His church. Can you imagine, just for a moment, the Head of the church outside the door of the church?
I know you, like me, have often made this a gospel text and used it for someone to open the door of their heart. But it means much more than that. It is the Head of the church outside the door of the church, knocking on the door, never giving up.
The words are always in the present tense. He says, “I am knocking.” He did not say, “I knocked, and then I left.”
Linda and I have a little secret. When those people come around our neighborhood—which they often do—we know they will not keep knocking. We sit upstairs, and they knock once. Sometimes they are insistent; they will knock twice. We are hiding like children. You cannot believe it.
And then soon they give up knocking. They walk away. But the Lord never walks away, brothers and sisters.
There can be no stronger things said about a church than what was said about Laodicea. You see, they thought they knew their condition. They thought they were rich and made rich, and that they were in need of nothing.
And He said, “Yet you do not know that you are poor, miserable, and blind.” Then He gave that urgent appeal.
Well, that is what we have shared already. Today, we just want to talk about two things. First: the call of the overcomers.
Now, I believe most of us, given those awful conditions—and many say that Laodicea is representative of the church age that we live in today—would ask whether there is any hope whatsoever.
They say that the modern church is the Laodicean church. If that is the case, is there any hope whatsoever?
But I am so thankful that the God of all hope never gives up on His desire. That encourages me. You do not know how that encourages me. It encourages me to no end to know He never gives up.
It encourages me to know that word, breathed by the Holy Spirit, is in the present tense and not the past tense when He says, “I am knocking.” He never gives up.
So what does He do? We have to be absolutely clear. What He does is issue a call, and the call that He issues is the call to the overcomers.
Now, I want to be absolutely clear here. Some people think this is a sea change in the Lord’s thinking—that somehow He has given up on His desire for the church and turned to the individual. They think He now has a new concern for the individual and no longer for the assembly that failed.
Now, brothers and sisters, there could not be anything further from the truth. What it means simply is that He loves His church so much and cares for her condition so much that He is looking for some in the assembly who will respond to Him and hear this call of the overcomers.
If there are some, that is sufficient. There He can hold and maintain His testimony among His church. He is not abandoning His church. He is not giving up on His church. He is not now just saying it is the individual and no longer the church.
He is saying, if there are some in the church who hear this call, then He sees it as His testimony. It is not the overcomer and now no longer the church; it is the overcomer in the church. Do you understand the difference?
I think there is a modern way that people begin to think: “Now He is interested in the individual. I no longer need to gather. I no longer need to be concerned about the local assembly. It no longer matters.” But I do not believe there could be anything further from the truth.
The other thing I saw in meditating on these words is something you cannot miss—even ones as dull as I am. You cannot miss this. The clear thing is that there are seven identical calls.
Now, brothers and sisters, just think about that. If the Lord says something once, we ought to listen to it. If the Lord says something twice, we certainly should pay heed to it. Three times, that goes off the Richter scale.
But can you imagine? This Lord who is sharing His heart, His burden, and His concern for His testimony says seven times:
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
This is the concluding word of God at the end of the age. “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.” Seven times—to every church.
This is what His heart is. This is the call. This is the identical call.
Now, brothers and sisters, I believe we have a little bit of a hearing issue. You will not be offended by that. I have discovered, as I get older, I have a hearing issue. Linda believes it is entirely selective, but it actually happens to be true.
If I get into a crowd where there is a buzz of noise, and some sweet little thing comes up to me with a low voice, I am totally lost. I do not know what on earth they are saying.
Linda calls me on her cell phone, and I say, “Speak up, honey.” It is my hearing condition.
I believe the church has, first of all, a hearing condition. And the appeal, the call, is:
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Look at Deuteronomy 29:4. I will just go there. Deuteronomy—for those that do not know, that is in the Old Testament.
This is Moses speaking to the children of Israel in Moab:
But the Lord hath not given to you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
I believe our prayer, number one, ought to be, with this concluding word of God in view, “Lord, would You give us ears to hear?” Unless You give us ears to hear, we cannot hear.
You may have big ears, but you still cannot hear. I tell people, the Pittmans have big ears, along with skinny legs. Some people would think I was Dumbo the elephant. But it does not mean I can hear.
Unless He gives ears to hear, we cannot hear.
To Israel, Isaiah said the same thing in Isaiah 6:10: “You do not have ears to hear, lest you be converted.” The Lord Jesus, when He was speaking in parables, took this very same verse in Matthew 13:13-15 and quoted Isaiah 6:10: “You do not have ears to hear, lest you be converted and I heal you.”
That is our problem. It is a hearing problem. Do not go to your doctor and say, “Doctor, I have this hearing problem.” Go to the Lord and say, “Lord, we have this hearing problem. We are not really hearing what Your concern is.”
We are altogether caught up with what our concern is. We are not hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Would You speak to us? Grant us that hearing ear.
Now, what are we called for? I believe, when you look at this seven times, it is unmistakably clear: we are called to be overcomers.
He is calling us. This calling to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches is, in fact, a calling for overcomers. That is what He is after. That is what He wants in the assembly. That is what He is looking for in the assembly.
That is the reason He is walking through the assemblies. As He walks through those golden candlesticks, He is looking for Himself, and He is looking for people who will respond. He is looking, in the end, as we have read again and again, for those who overcome.
That is what He is looking for, brothers and sisters. This seems to be the concluding word of God in the whole of the New Testament.
Newell was describing an overcomer, and he said it is simply this: there are those who overcome, and those who are overcome.
Now, that may not explain it to you. It is pretty simple, but I like simplicity, and I think that explains it. In the church there are those who are overcome in their condition, and there are those who take the grace of God, discover what is made available in Christ, and are able—not by their own strength or power or wisdom, but in circumstances of blight—to overcome.
That is what an overcomer is. They are victors. Lang put it this way: “The simple meaning of the term is conquer. Win the victory.”
What He is after—what He has made provision for—is that every one of us might be able to overcome. You may be a newborn in Christ. You may be an aged saint. You may be a middle-aged saint like myself. Nevertheless, absolutely everything has been provided that we might be able to overcome.
And that is the substance of the call. When you look at the conditions in those assemblies, in many cases they seem to be appalling. But the Lord does not give up on His church.
I often said—I said last time, and it is very humorous to me—you can forgive me if you think my humor is off-the-scale wrong, but when it says of the church, “where Satan dwells,” I think, “Boy, what a testimony.”
Can you imagine if that were on your signboard on the street, welcoming people to your church? “Come meet with us where Satan dwells.” That would get people in the door.
What condition! What is the solution? Those that will overcome. Brothers and sisters, we need to hear that call, and we need to respond to that call.
Another thing about this is that it is a call with a promise. As a matter of fact, it is a call with a lot more than one promise.
There is a key word: “I know your condition.” That word occurs seven times: “I know. I know.” But in the end, the key word changes. It is, “I will. I will. I will.”
Over and over, to every church, it does not matter if they are Laodicea; it does not matter if they are Philadelphia. To every church He says, with His ultimate promise, “I will.”
That is good news. It is a call with a promise.
To me, you have heard me say it before—you may already be bored of me saying it—but that is what I like so much about Peter’s calling. When the apostle Peter was called in Matthew 4:19, and the others were called, it says:
Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.
To me, it is a calling with a promise: “I will.” Brothers and sisters, how encouraging that is.
The call to overcome is something we need to respond to, but it is His promise that makes the call to overcome even possible in the first place. It is not your strength. It is not your standing. It is not your ability. It is not your intelligence. It is His promise that makes the calling happen.
And I think of Peter at the end, in John 21. You know the scene, when the Lord is making breakfast by the shore, and Peter recognizes Who it is when he is told. He swims to the shore, and then those famous words come, “Do you love Me?” over and over.
Then that call comes at the end and simply says, “Come. Follow Me.”
I believe the Lord’s great promise, exposing, dealing, and working in Peter’s life was a continuous making process. In the end, he succumbed to the call, and he followed. But it was only because of the promise.
Now, this is the point. I hope I have not put you all to sleep and you have lost the point. The Lord knew Peter’s condition. He knew Peter would deny Him. He knew Peter would always be the one sticking his neck out.
He knew Peter was the one who would cut off the servant’s ear in the garden. He knew Peter’s condition. We could write those very same words: “I know.”
But even though He knew, He called Peter. He made promise. He restored. He recovered. Then Peter stood that day on Pentecost.
Well, this is a calling with a promise. I think there are exceeding great and precious promises when you read them quite carefully.
Some of the promises in the letters to the churches may cause you to stumble because they do not fit into your theology. But remember, these promises are written to the overcomers. They are not written, in a sense, to the church in general. They are written to those who respond to this call and are the overcomers.
That is the reason they have the kingdom in view. They do not have salvation in view; they have reward in view.
So sometimes you can get hung up when you read, “I will not blot your name out of the book of life,” and think, “Oh my goodness, that just blows my whole theology out of the water. All of a sudden, I thought once saved, always saved. My goodness, I need to become Pentecostal holiness and believe every day you can lose your salvation.”
It does not mean that at all. It is the utter and complete assurance to the overcomer that there is not a chance that their name could ever be blotted out of the book of life.
Now, I think Govett helped me with that. He said, “Well, you know, it does have the kingdom in view. It does have reward in view.” So, during the kingdom period, it may be as if those who were overcome and who did not respond have their names blotted out.
But no believer’s name will ever be blotted out of the book of life.
Look at Ephesus. Let me just turn back to Ephesus.
Revelation 2:7
He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
To him that overcomes I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
This is a great promise: “I will give him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
Now, every believer drinks freely of the water of life for eternal salvation, but these ones—so precious is the promise, so great is the promise—they will eat of the tree of life.
And it says another thing: it is in the paradise of God. Now, you know the tree of life, back in the time of Adam and Eve, was in that paradise. You remember the garden, and you know all that happened, so we do not have to explain it.
There is another paradise, by the way, in the Scripture. The Lord said to the thief on the cross, “This day you shall be with Me in paradise.” It is the place of departed souls waiting for resurrection.
But this is different. It says, “in the paradise of God.” Think of it. What a promise.
Brothers and sisters, there is nothing I can explain this with except 2 Corinthians 12:4, when Paul was opening up in that great autobiography and said, “I know a man.” You wonder if he is talking about himself.
He says that he was caught up into paradise and heard things that were unspeakable for man to mention. This is the promise to the overcomer. Is that not grand?
These promises, this call and these promises, are so grand. Think of Smyrna, Revelation 2:11:
He that overcomes shall in no wise be injured of the second death.
Now, all you believers here, I suppose, know the second death is spelled out, I think, in Revelation 20, concerning the lake of fire. But it says here that no one will be injured in the second death.
Again, when you read that, it begins to blow your evangelical theology. You say, “Oh my goodness, is there a chance I could taste of the second death, of that eternal fire? Is there a chance?”
Now, I like what Brother Nee said. He said there is a difference between being injured and actually being cast into that lake of fire. There is a difference.
Some writers have said that those who do not overcome may receive discipline or training. You may use the word some versions use: they may be hurt. But you will never be cast.
This grand assurance, this great promise, comes to the overcomer: in no way will you taste of, or be hurt by, the lake of fire. These are tremendous promises in every way.
You think of Pergamum, where it talks about the hidden manna. That is a strange thing about manna. Manna was never hidden. I mean, good grief, the stuff fell out of the sky, and the children of Israel had to gather it. They were told not to gather more than they could use in one day or it would go bad.
Boy, I wish Hardee’s breakfast biscuits would fall out of the sky. Sorry.
Manna was never hidden. But He says those that overcome will be given hidden manna.
Brothers and sisters, there was manna that was taken and put into the ark of the covenant. We read about it in Hebrews 9:4, and we read about it in the Old Testament. It is the hidden manna in the ark.
This is what is referred to in John 6 by John the apostle. He is the bread that came out of heaven, down to the earth, that we eat of and live. He is the hidden manna.
Those overcomers eat of Christ, know Christ in a way that others can never know. He is their source. He is their supply. He is the hidden manna to them.
Then Pergamum talks about the white stone and the new name. One has said this is a peculiar personal privilege. This white stone, shining white, with a new name on it—no one can take it away from you.
These are the great promises. We could go on and on. He talks about authority:
I will give you authority over the nations.
He talks about the rod of iron to break into pieces. That is only spoken of the Lord Jesus Himself in Psalm 2:9. No one has this promise; no one has this privilege, but the Lord Jesus and those that overcome. Is that not grand?
Brothers and sisters, these promises seem to be so great. They seem to be beyond reach.
Or think of Sardis: clothed in white. Some people say this is not just the garment of righteousness we are given—His imputed righteousness—when we believe in the Lord Jesus. It is not just that woven garment of needlework that we read later in Revelation. It is a special garment.
It is a white garment, all of white. Some have said that white garment speaks of the first resurrection to glory that these overcomers experience.
We have already talked about, “I will not blot his name out of the book of life.” Then there is Philadelphia. What special promises!
Philadelphia, the church at Philadelphia—which means brotherly love—is called the church of little strength. Then it says, “I will make you a pillar.”
Now, I have been designing pillars all my life. A pillar is something strong. A pillar is something that can take the load. A pillar is something that will hold up everything put on it, if it is done right.
I will never forget the University of Richmond. The architect, at a new international center, forced me to put in these teeny little pillars because the architecture could not be violated. These things were about this big around, holding up this three-story building.
I pleaded with the architect, and I pleaded with the owner. I said, “Please cover those things up before someone thinks this structural engineer has lost his mind.”
But these, of little strength, become a pillar in the temple of our God. You could go on and on—overwhelmingly precious: a new name, the name of My God, the name of the city of God, all these great and precious promises.
And then Laodicea. Look at Revelation 3:21:
He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with Me in My throne, as also I have overcome and have sat down with My Father in His throne.
Brother Nee said this may be the most precious of all the promises given to the church. Can you imagine the privilege? Can you imagine sitting with Him in His throne?
I do not think you can imagine it. This is the privilege. This is the promise to the overcomer.
Well, all this reminds me of 2 Peter 1:4. I like the old King James Version, where it says that there are given to us “exceeding great and precious promises.”
You cannot quantify or classify these great promises in any other fashion than to say they are exceeding great.
Those are the promises to the overcomers:
That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Brothers and sisters, I want to share one last thing. In Revelation 12, we cannot separate Chapter 12 from Chapters 2 and 3. They are inseparably linked.
Chapter 12 is actually a continuation of Chapters 2 and 3, the letters to the churches. In Chapter 12, we again see the overcomer, but we see something else about the overcomer. We see the overcomer’s conquest. We see his secret of victory. We see how the overcomer actually overcomes.
In Chapters 2 and 3, you see the condition. In Chapters 2 and 3, you hear the call, and the call has to do with overcomers. But it is not until Chapter 12 that we begin to see how the overcomer overcomes. This is the secret.
Now, there is a lot in Chapter 12 that we could talk about, and we are not going to talk about it. But the man-child, who is about to be birthed from the woman, is the overcomer. The woman represents the church.
The great dragon, as it is explicitly explained, is Satan and the devil. All his energies are directed to consume that man-child—waiting, just waiting, for the birth of that man-child.
The devil knows that when the man-child comes into what he is to be, his defeat is sure. We read in this chapter the end of the great battle of the ages, and we see Satan cast to the earth.
It is all because those in Chapters 2 and 3 heard the call in every age, responded to the call, were caught up to the heavens, and overcame the enemy. That is what Chapter 12 is all about.
Now, I tell you, when I read Chapter 12, I think it all has to do with the secret of their overcoming. It is not a complicated thing.
Somebody, I know what you will say: “Oh, it is up to T. Austin-Sparks. He was an overcomer, but I can never be an overcomer. It is up to Brother Stephen. He is an overcomer. But think of me—I am just a schoolteacher. Think of me—I am just a housewife. I am a plumber. Think of me—I am just an engineer.”
But brothers and sisters, this ability to overcome is given to every saint. It is not a complicated formula.
I have dealt with some complicated formulas. Jerry and I were sitting in some crazy seminar not long ago, and this guy on blast design pulled out a formula that stretched all the way across the page. It was so complicated, he was embarrassed to show it to us.
He had all these psis—if you know what Greek letter psi is. My rule is, if you ever have to pull out a psi in a formula, you are in deep trouble, and it is way too complicated.
But he did not just have psi one; he had psi two and psi three and psi four. This poor speaker—it was a brilliant engineer, really—began to apologize. He said, “I do not expect you to use that formula or remember that formula.”
We could not even remember it. All we wanted to do was sigh. That is engineering humor, poor as it may be. You got it.
It is not a complicated formula. They say three things. They say—meaning the overcomers, and notice now that it is corporate. They represent that corporate testimony.
It is no longer just “he that has an ear.” It is no longer just “he that overcomes.” The whole plurality has changed, and now it is, “They overcame.”
I love the way Darby puts it:
They overcame him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.
Three things—so simple, not complicated. We make the Christian life too complicated, and we rule out ninety-nine percent. We talk about politics—only the one percent can do it.
Brothers and sisters, they had a simple formula: the blood of the Lamb. If the blood of the Lamb ever loses its power, we are sunk.
It is the blood that is able to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. It is the blood that is able to take care, in total, of all your past, no matter how dark, no matter how bad.
I will never forget some of the best counsel I have ever heard as a Christian. I have heard it more than once. When someone was struggling with their past and bringing up things from their past, I remember a brother looking at them and saying, “What is under the blood stays under the blood.”
That was their simple secret. That was their formula for victory.
You remember in the Old Testament, when the children of Israel were leaving Egypt. You remember the story. The blood of the Lamb was their secret for success.
They took the blood—that was all they had, the blood of the Lamb—and they put the blood of the Lamb on the lintel. Because the blood of the Lamb was there, the enemy, the destroyer, death, could not enter into that house and could not touch them.
They overcame by reason of the blood of the Lamb.
Brothers and sisters, it is not only blood that is able to forgive us from all our sins and put those sins as far as the east is from the west. When we read 1 John 1:9, we discover it is blood that is able to restore us in fellowship.
So many of us lose our fellowship and our communion. But this blood—their secret was this blood—is so powerful that they never have to risk losing their communion. And if they do lose it, they can get it back.
For the blood of Jesus, if we confess our sins—it does not say, as some believers seem to have in their newfangled version, “He is reluctant to forgive our sins.” Does your newfangled version say that?
It says He is faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This was their secret. Is it your secret?
When the enemy comes to accuse, what is your stand? Is your stand, “Well, I have been a Christian forty-six years, having missed a single meeting—one conference one time, but nothing else”? Is that your secret?
Your secret has to be the blood of the Lamb. If that blood loses its power, you are lost. When the enemy comes, it is the blood.
Secondly, it was by reason of the word of their testimony. Now, I think some people read this as their testimony, like it is their testimony.
You know, we get people to stand up and say, “Well, I was so bad, death did not touch me. I was so bad, people walked on the other side of the street. I was so mean.”
By the time the testimony is done, you think, “Well, are they talking about the Lord Jesus, or are they just talking about themselves?”
But the word of their testimony was Christ. You remember Paul shared his secret to the Philippian believers in Philippians 1:21:
For to me to live is Christ.
That was their secret. It was not them living at all. It was not, “I was just a bad old thing—bad, bad. Now I am a new person. Now I am going to live.” That is not the secret of the Christian life.
Paul said, “The secret to my Christian life is, for to me to live is Christ.”
You know, brothers and sisters, the blood of Jesus, the salvation of the Lord, the dying of Christ on the cross, enables you so that you no longer have to die. But the co-crucifixion—the dying of you with the Lord, co-crucified and included in Christ’s death, that we read about in Romans 6—means you never have to live.
Is that not cool? I wake up some of the teenagers. Is that not cool? You do not have to live the Christian life.
I think we are beating our heads against the wall. These overcomers had this simple formula: it was not them living at all. It was the Lord Jesus living in them. That is the secret of the overcomer, brothers and sisters. That is the secret of the Christian life.
I cannot tell you the impact that had upon me the first time I saw it. To this day, Linda and I have taken that verse, Philippians 1:21, and it is framed in our foyer as you come into our home.
It is the overcomer’s secret, and it ever shall be.
I think of Galatians 2:20:
I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who gave Himself for me.
That is the difference. They were trying to live the Christian life. You do not have to try to live the Christian life. You do not have to struggle to live the Christian life. He lives the Christian life in us.
And then finally, I think it is a word often lost:
And they loved not their life even unto death.
I do not know if you have thought much about that. I think that gives a real impact to concluding words, remember? That is what we are talking about.
I believe, in a large way, this secret is lost in the church today.
Now listen to me. Some of you might be offended at this. I do not intend to offend, but I believe it with all my heart. It is not that we love ourselves so little; it is that we love ourselves so much.
The Bible assumes self-love. It does not teach self-love. And these selfless individuals did not love their life even unto death.
If it meant death, they were willing. But daily they died. These are the ones who took up the Lord’s injunction in Matthew 16 and told His disciples:
He that follows Me, let him take up his cross daily and follow Me.
He that loses his life for My sake will find it.
I remember when I was only saved a week and I had my little Good News for Modern Man, that tiny little Bible. I remember reading through the Bible and running upon those verses in Matthew 16.
It says, “He who loses his life for My sake will find it”—life eternal. Brothers and sisters, I did not know what that meant, but I knew one thing for sure: this was a secret that I knew I needed.
This is the secret of the overcomers. This is how they overcame.
Well, brothers and sisters, that is the burden the Lord has laid upon my heart. I do not know if it is clear for you. I hope some of it is.
But I believe in God’s concluding words we need to see what the Spirit of God emphasizes. In God’s concluding word in the New Testament, we need to see that the central theme is the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to see that.
But if you see that, and if we draw near to the Lord, you will begin to understand what His chief concern is. And remarkably, it is for His church. Is it our concern?
Then you will begin to understand, as you read these letters, their condition. You know, it is kind of like when a doctor comes in and says, “Condition ain’t good. Ain’t good here.”
But brothers and sisters, even in that condition, He keeps calling. And if He can find one, or two or three, who are not sure of anything in themselves, who are not capable of anything by their own efforts, but are willing to hear the call, willing to respond to the call, and simply say, “Yes,” then just maybe, in those few, He can find the overcomer.
And in those, His testimony can be maintained.
If you do, there are exceeding great and precious promises. And if you do, there is a secret that all of us can live by. It is the secret of the overcomer. May God help us.
Let us pray.
Lord, we come to You in deepest need today. We do not want to live out our lives not having heard what the Spirit says to the churches.
Lord, You know, I hear people all the time saying, “The Lord spoke to me. The Lord spoke to me.” Lord, are we hearing what the Spirit says to the churches?
Lord, give us a hearing ear. We offer ourselves to You. Lord, we want to be those that respond. We do not think we are special. We are certain we cannot do it.
But we believe this is Your call. In the midst of circumstances so daunting, this is Your call. And in those circumstances, You make every provision for us to overcome.
Oh Lord, open our eyes. Grant us the willingness to respond and to follow You. In Jesus’ name, amen.