Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Revelation chapter 3 and verse
21. Revelation 3 and verse 21. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame and am
set down with my Father in his throne. And that which is upon
my spirit is the promises to him that overcometh. You'll find
a similar word following every one of the seven letters to the
churches in Asia, that in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, every one of
them have a promise to him that overcometh. We would be reminded
of the vision that the first chapter closes with, which is
a vision of seven golden candlesticks. and the Lord is in the midst
of those seven golden candlesticks. He also has seven stars which
are in his right hand and that is interpreted in the last verse
of chapter one. The mystery of the seven stars
which thou sawest in my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks
The seven stars are the angels or pastors, ministers of the
seven churches and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest
are the seven churches. What follows then in the next
two chapters are letters or messages to the angels or to the pastors
of those seven churches. They were literal churches in They are a word from the Lord
to the Church right through these Gospel days to when He returns
again. Some have felt that each letter
virtually traces out periods in the history of the Church. I don't feel so, and many godly
commentators also don't feel so, but feel it more that in
the picture of individual churches, there's picturing the varying
situations in those churches, the things that they had to overcome,
and those things that God's people in all of them, they experienced. And what a message, when we view
it like that, we immediately know that the church on earth
is not perfect. We must not expect a church in
which there is nothing wrong, no error, and in which everything
is perfect. It is true that there are two
of the churches here, Smyrna and Philadelphia, of which nothing
is said against them. But in every one of the churches
there are things that are to be overcome. There are difficulties,
there are trials, there are things that if we were left, they would
overcome us and not we overcoming them. It is helpful when we have
pictures in the Word of God. It's hard to see our own faults. It's hard to see our own faults
personally and as churches. But when we have held up before
us another church, or a picture of another church, then this
is the way the Holy Spirit is used to speak to the churches. And so again, after each message,
we have the word, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches. So, we have messages to these
churches, and they are to us warnings, warnings of what we
are likely to encounter and what needs to be overcome. And I want to look at that in
our first point, what is to be overcome, looking at what is
highlighted in these churches here. And it may be, of course,
that you get mixtures. the things in one church and
joined to another church, but the picture is given as individual
churches. And the second thing is the secret
of our overcoming, which is through our Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Revelation 12, they
overcame him by the blood of the lamb. And then the promises
to those that overcome, which are also mentioned in these letters,
there's promises there. And it is designed to be an encouragement
to a church in tribulation, encouragement to the people of God, who perhaps
the devil will say, well, if the true church is what you're
in, then it will be perfect. and there won't be problems and
there won't be things to overcome. And this addresses that, that
there will be, and it may be as well, that our desire is to
overcome something in ourselves that is threatening us as part
of the Church of God, the professed Church of God, and we struggle
with it. Look for help, help through the
word and help through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is an
encouragement in saying, yes, there is a fight, there is a
wrestling, there is to be an overcoming, but there are people
that do overcome. and that they are delivered and
that they are saved, and there are the promises to them and
encouragement, because sometimes we get so discouraged, so weak,
so despondent, and we need those encouragements. When we can stand
with those and we say, well, instead of our experience being
different than all in the Word of God, it actually accords to
the Word of God, it accords to the Church of God as well. and
we need a right expectation of what is before us here below. That perfect church is above,
the spotless church is above, but here below it is the church
of militant. And our Lord said, in me you
shall have peace, but in the world you shall have tribulation.
And that also includes the church. You've only got to look back
to the book of Jude and you find again, a warning of those creeping
into the churches and bringing false doctrine and error and
troubles and trials in that way in the Church of God. And so
I want to look then at what is set before us in the churches
here, look at each one of them one by one, and you see what
the Holy Spirit has set before us as those things that are to
be overcome. Our text is in the last of the
seven churches, but we're going to begin the beginning in chapter
two, in the first church, which is the church at Ephesus. And
in that church, what was said against them was that they had
left their first love. And that first love, of course,
was the church of God, is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The church where love to the
Lord is waning and their love of the world and the things of
the world and the things that are not of God are becoming very,
very strong. You know, often it is that the
persecuted churches, maybe in other nations at this time, they
look upon a church that is at ease and has much of the things
of the world, and they see the real danger, the same danger
what the Lord warned through Moses for the children of Israel
going into the Promised Land. On one hand, they were promised
with blessing, with houses they did not need to build, vineyards
they did not need to plant, and they were to prosper. They had
the Lord's blessing there. that they were warned to take
heed, that when the Lord had blessed them, that then their
heart departed from the Lord, and that they then served idols
and just lived in ease. And that seemed to follow the
Church of God so often, even when they came back from Babylon.
There they were making themselves sealed houses, looking after
themselves while the house of God was laid waste and they needed
the prophets to come and encourage them again to build and to seek
the things of the Lord. And so we might think it a strange
thing that the Church of the Living God should become a church
that really does not evidence a real love to the Lord Jesus
Christ and we know that how much springs from love. The love of
Christ constraineth us. And our Lord, when he met with
Peter, and Peter had been restored, his question was, love us thou
may. Three times, and each time a
direction, a command to feed the church of God, feed his lambs,
feed his sheep. But the first thing was love. And we know from John's epistles,
we love him because he first loved us. So the challenge, as it were,
for those in this church, in the Ephesian church, was that
though that church as a body was a church that had lost and
left the love of the Lord, that they were to overcome that, that
they were not to be infected with that lack of love, but that
they were to see that they might remain in the love of God. In one sense, this speaks to
individual members of a church. You see something that is wrong
in that church, you see something that is really sapping the life
of it or unlike the Church of God. And the message is that
that is the very thing that you are to overcome. You're not to
join with them, not to go along with them, but you're to overcome
lest you be drawn into that same way. into those same errors. And so the church here at Ephesus,
are we like that? Are churches that we are part
of like that? They don't seem to have a love
to the Lord. There's a love to the world,
maybe a love of other things. But Christ is not their first
love. Christ is not what they delight
in. And so that is what the people
of God are to overcome, or that particular church as well, to
overcome that lack of love. But what about the next church?
The next church is the one at Samana. Now that was a church
that nothing was spoken against. You might think, well what has
that church then got to overcome because the Lord does not reprove
her at all. But we are told of that church
that it is a suffering church. They are suffering tribulation.
In fact, some of them were going to be imprisoned, some of them
would be put to death. So for them, to overcome was
not to be ashamed of their testimony of Christ, and when they entered
into those troubles and imprisonments and even death, that they were
to overcome and even be faithful unto death. So we mustn't again
think, well if a church is right, then it won't be persecuted,
it won't have trouble, it won't have trial, it will. The Church
of God is a persecuted church. The Lord has said, I've given
them thy word and the world hath hated them and he that endureth
unto the end shall be saved. And so where we have those tribulations
and the adversary is much in persecuting the Church of God,
that is where we should concentrate our prayers, our effort, our
desire to be helped, saved by the Lord, to overcome in that
particular point. And I think to mention at this
point, what is so vital is to identify those things that are
likely to overcome us. We mustn't think, well, we'll
fight against this and this and this and this, But the very thing
that is likely to overcome us, we're actually ignorant of and
are letting it go. We might be able to identify
many things, but it might be with a worthiness, a lust, a
desire for the things of this world, and we don't really identify
that as really threatening us. And we're very zealous and diligent
on many other things, But there's one thing that is attacking us
that we're not really concerned about. And what is here, it's
highlighting those things that are actually attacking. Many
people can be very bold and very say they're fighting of things
that really are not threatening them. But if we neglect those
very things and especially and I speak against myself really
as pastors if a pastor sees something that is threatening his church
and he neglects to preach against that and he's preaching against
everything else being very zealous in exposing all sorts of errors
and troubles elsewhere, but the one thing that is threatening
the church, he doesn't touch that. Well, that might offend
people, and that might send people away, so he doesn't touch that. But that is the thing that is
actually threatening to overcome, and that can be individual as
well. You know, with the children of
Israel, when they're fighting against the Philistines, When
Goliath was risen up, it was Goliath that had to be overcome
to win the battle, not anyone else, not someone else. That
was the threat at that time. And throughout Israel's history,
there were nations that came against them. There were things
that they had to deal with in their midst. And those were the
things that were threatening them that had to be dealt with
at that time. And so here, With the church
at Smyrna, it is the very persecutions that arose because they were
a faithful church. They were called upon to suffer
for the truth. Then we have the church at Pergamos. This is a church that has told
us in the Word here that Satan had his seat. He had actually
residing there and it evidenced itself in false doctrine and
even in the doctrine of Balaam which was teaching the children
of Israel to commit fornication and idolatry. That was the church
there. It's all a thing when a church
actually has those that hold false doctrine in it. And it
slowly is like leaven permeates through that church, undermines
the faith of the people of God. But here is those that hearken
to this word, those that overcome and they identify that false
doctrine. We are told that there must needs
be heresies among you. Heresies are serious errors,
they're not just Things that are not a deadly error, they're
deadly errors. It's something like saying that
the Lord Jesus Christ is not the eternal Son of God. That's
why in J.C. Philpott's day, he contended
for the eternal sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't
just a son from birth. He saw how vital it was to contend
for that truth, to fight against that error. There were those
in the churches at the time, churches that thought, well Mr
Philpott, you're making a big to-do about nothing, it's not
an important matter, just don't trouble the churches, just let
things go. But he saw how vital the need
was to contend for that truth. among you, not outside, not in
another church, but among the people of God, that they that
are approved might be made manifest. So it brings those out of the
woodwork that actually know the truth. You might get a situation
where the pastor and the elders are silent, or deacons are silent,
and they don't highlight this error. that one person that perhaps
they might not even as yet be a member of the Church of God,
and yet God has given them life, he's given them light, and they
see what the error is, and they must need to speak out against
it. And so we are not to expect that
the Church of God won't have those that bring in errors. It
should always be like the Bereans, even when the Apostle Paul preached,
They searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were
so. They didn't just say, well, it's
the Apostle, it must be right. No, they got their Old Testament
Scriptures and they tested what he was saying by those Scriptures. We're only to follow a man as
far as he follows the Lord, and we are to test everything by
the Word of God. And so, here we have those that
overcome in this church because they do not follow along with
those errors that have been set forth and proclaimed even in
that church. The church of Pergamos then was
one where Satan had his seat and where there was false doctrine
that was held. But what about the church of
Thyatira. They went in one step further. They did not only have those
that held error, but that they actually taught error. They allowed
them. That church allowed them to teach
and to seduce the people of God. And it was to commit fornication
and to eat that sacrifice to idols. Teaching away from true
and living God and causing them to sin against the Lord, to do
that which wounded their conscience, and that which went against the
Word of God. And so again, we have those that
are to overcome, and they're to overcome those that are actually
teaching the error, and to not be drawn away with that teaching. We have those that we are worn
against in the word, that have men's hearts or men's persons
in admiration because of advantage. And it's easy for those that
say have had theological training, or those that are trained in
the original languages, and they say to people, oh, that doesn't
really mean that. If you know the Greek and Hebrew,
this is what it means. And you can't challenge me because
you're ignorant and you don't know the original language, and
I do. So people say, oh, really? You
must be right then. And you have a whole church,
as it were, bowing down to the supposed superior knowledge of
this one that's coming before them. And this is where it must
be very, mindful to overcome such teaching because the Lord
has always ordained his word to be proclaimed throughout all
the world. And David says, thy word have
I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. And the
word he hid in his heart was a word that he understood. It
was a language he understood, not some strange language. And so that applies, if that
word is going to be of any use to the people of God, it is to
be in their own language. And it is to be really noted
that though the Lord used the confusion of languages to spread
the people throughout the world at Babel, yet when the Holy Spirit
was given, then was given the And though that instantaneous
without learning languages is seldom if ever given now, yet
there are those that have great skill and understanding in languages. Interesting, only just a day
or so ago, I read of a young boy and their parents were very
frustrated because whenever he heard another language, He just
picked it up straight away. And he could be speaking another
language and they didn't know what it was. He could learn so
quick. And the Church of God has given
those that have the ability to learn languages, and not only
that, they have grace. And they have a love to the Lord
as well. It needs both that, a good knowledge of one language,
a good knowledge of another to be able to translate, and a knowledge
of the truth in the heart to translate in a right way, a gracious
way. And so what was used then in
the New Testament church was persecution to spread the gospel,
not a difference in languages. And so the Lord has ordained
that the gospel be sent into all the world and that we should
have it in our own tongue. And though you might say, well,
that's how one version is translated, one word better than another,
yet by comparing scripture with scripture, where we have a faithful
translation, and we believe in the authorized version, we do
have that, has the mark of God's providence on it, in giving it
to the Church of God, we may trust that in our own tongue,
our own language, not be then deceived by others that will
try and lead us away from the Word of God because they say
they have a greater advantage, a greater knowledge of the Word. So whatever way it comes, there
are those that teach error, lead away from the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a needing to overcome. How many churches there are that
once were faithful, once were good, but now are not. How did it begin? How did that
slippery slope start going on? And how did that error start
to come in? Didn't come in all at once, coming
gradually. And it's a great blessing if
there are those in that church who are not overcome of that
error. Then we have the church at Sardis. Sardis is the next
one. And those, God said that their
works were found not perfect before God. They were exhorted
to strengthened that which remained. The church was ready to die,
and yet there were those in it that had not defiled their garments. In other words, their walk, their
conduct was still as becoming the gospel. Again, in overcoming
that, to have a church that is walking in a wrong way, seems
to be ready to die in a very low air, very worldly perhaps,
very carnal in the things that they do, and yet to overcome
that and to stay faithful and to stay close to the Lord was
what those in that church were called to do. Then we have the
church at Philadelphia, it's a church like Sardis, that nothing
was spoken against. But lest we think, well, because
there's nothing spoken against by the Lord, there's nothing
to overcome. But she was a small church, and
a small church, how easy it is to become discouraged, disheartened,
and to be ready to give up. And this was then what they were
called, to overcome, overcome that despondency. Elijah was
not the last one that we think that he's the only one left,
or to feel so isolated and low, and he makes that complaint to
the Lord. The Lord said to him he'd reserved
7,000 that had not bowed the knee unto Baal, but Elijah was
very low and downhearted. But this church at Philadelphia,
they were to hold fast, and even though they had little strength,
yet they were to continue to hold the Word of God. That is
what they were commended for, and faithfulness to the Word
of God, and they were to overcome and really I think today one
of the big dangers when there is a withdrawing of the Spirit,
when there's few that come into the churches generally, the church
then is a great temptation. What can we do to encourage people
in? We'll change our methods of evangelism,
we'll make it attractive to the world, we'll hold some amusement
days or or some get-togethers in ways that will bring, entice
the world into the church, and then we'll teach them the things
of God. I believe many, many causes of truth have gone down
a slippery slope that way, and because they are small, and they
are trying then to attract the world in, instead of being faithful
and bringing the Word. I remember years ago, here at
Cranbrook, and we do evangelism here, we do leaflet, the town,
and it wasn't, I believe, said in a way that reflected the leaflets
that we're using, but the local pastor, the Charismatic Church,
he said, be very careful in the message that you give to the
town in your evangelism, that it is true to what you are as
a church. So that when people, if people
come in, they don't get a shock and say, hmm, this leaflet gives
an impression we're going to come into a lively, worldly church
and they come in and there is a traditional, sober, reverent
church. Well, this is not what we thought
it would be. Sometimes if you look at the
university, websites, they have the student union websites, and
I wish those of our churches that were near universities put
about their churches on them, because seldom do you find one
of our churches represented, but you get all sorts that are
represented, and they'll say things like a lively church,
a welcoming church, this group, that group, all the things that
they do. And it gives the impression of a very worldly church. The
student unions, they always recommend to their students, go around
and try several churches and see where you fit in and where
you can find that you're happy. But the sad thing is that our
churches are seldom there for them even to find. And yet they
should, because we know that the Lord will direct his people
to where the truth is, and what a blessing for those that come
in, and that they say, well, we have not found what we wanted
in really religious social clubs, but here is the word of the Lord. It's very important that whatever
ministry a church has, whether it's in the schools, or whether
it is in the community, reflects the same doctrine, the same teaching,
the same atmosphere in every place. When I go into the schools,
I don't just go in casual, I go in just the same as I'd be today,
in the suit, and bring the Word of God and speak to them in the
same way that I'd speak to you. Try to keep it, of course, in
language that I understand and simple, but not do reverence
of the House of God and the Word of God. So a small church in
some ways does open up many challenges to actually stay faithful to
the Word, not be discouraged, and to overcome those things
that you're likely to fall into otherwise. Then we have the church,
the Laodiceans. where our text is found. And with that church, there's
really, there's nothing spoken good about it at all. And it's
a church that was lukewarm in the things of God. And yet, she
was saying she had need of nothing and did not know that she was
wretched and miserable and poor. And she was a chastened church. The Lord was chastening that
church and calling her to hear His voice. Verse 19, as many
as I love I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent. A lukewarm church, a church that
did not give the impression that the message that she had was
vital, that she was preaching the gospel to dying sinners,
a church that gave the impression, well, true religion didn't matter
and the saviour really wasn't anyone to be greatly sought after. Ones in that church had to overcome
that lukewarmness and that neither cold nor hot, that which the
Lord said was so nauseating to him. So we have the picture of
the Church of God through these seven churches and the various
things in it that were not good or that were threatening to lead
us in the wrong way. and the individual members and
the church as a whole were called to overcome those things. Not to just lie down, not to
just succumb to it, not to just throw away the church or be offended
that such things should be in the church, but overcome such
things. So how in the second place were
they to do that? What is the secret of our overcoming? He mentioned, as we gave our
points, that which is written in Revelation 12 and in verse
11, or if we read the verse before, we heard a loud voice saying,
in heaven now is salvation and strength and the kingdom of our
God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night,
and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto
the death. And we think of this especially
or the church at Smyrna that were persecuted and even unto
death. But whichever way it is, there
is only one way of deliverance. It's not through our own strength,
it's not through our own might, but through the Lord. They overcame
Him, not only just through the Lamb, but through the blood of
the Lamb. It is Christ that died. In the
end of Psalm 25, We read these words, redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles. And the Church of God, as we've
seen, does have troubles. And the only way that they are
to get out of them is to be redeemed out of them. That is through
the precious blood of Christ. God is a just God. And instead
of just passing over transgression and sin, Not justly, He punishes
His dear Son. He lays upon Him the iniquity
of us all. And that power that is needed
for anyone to overcome self and sin and Satan and the adversaries
of the Church of God, it must be through the Lord Jesus Christ. A church that overcomes is a
praying church. A church that seeks that help
from the Lord, that cries unto Him and that relies upon Him
to send deliverance and help. He mentioned about David and
Goliath before. And we think of the children
of Israel, and what was threatening them at that time. And no one
could be found for 40 days in Israel that would be able to
overcome Goliath. And then there is Jesse, and
he sends his son. And his son David is obedient
to go to his brethren. And the Lord in that providence
brings David to hear Goliath, and he is called to by God to
overcome him. They was a beautiful time of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was sent by His Father. He did His Father's will. The
condition there in fighting against the Philistines, that it was
a victory that was wrought by David against Goliath and the
children of Israel looked on, the Philistines looked on. And
the victory was gained, and we look upon Christ, and we look
upon Calvary, and we look upon what our Lord accomplished, and
that's why we have, and this is why I chose this particular
verse amongst the seven in these two chapters, where it speaks
of overcoming To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father
in his throne. The Lord Jesus Christ hath conquered,
he hath endured the wrath of God, he has gone down into death,
he has been raised again from the dead, he sits on the right
hand of the throne of God, He is our Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous. He appears in the presence of
God for us. He is the Captain of our salvation. He is the Bridegroom of the Church
that is His Bride. He is the Firstborn among many
Brethren, the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. There is no salvation in any
other but Him. And where He quickens into life,
where He gives life to His people, I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hand. The working of that out is in
a very real way in the church and throughout their lives. The
Lord overcoming for them all of those things. The fires shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. And solemnly there
is many, and we think of the parable of the sower, the seed
that is sown. Only one brought forth fruit,
only one. The seed fell into prepared ground. The others, some took up with
the word, with joy, and then soon it went away. Some it was
because of the Things of this world just choked the world,
it became unprofitable. Others, because of persecution,
then by and by they were offended. And each there was a reason why
they fell away, why in one sense they were overcome. Instead of
them overcoming the lukewarmness, them overcoming in the hour of
temptation and in the hour of persecution, or them overcoming
with all of the pull of the world and the attraction of the world,
they were overcome. And they're never again found
in the ways of the Lord. But here is a blessing spoken
of those that did overcome. And we must never forget the
secret of that overcoming. is not in our own strength, is
not by our own might. It's as we call upon the Lord
and the Lord appears for us and helps us and delivers us and
saves us, they overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. The crown
shall be on the Lord's head, there shall not be any that get
to heaven and say, well, look at all of these that fell away,
and I didn't because I was stronger than them. Or even say, well,
I prayed more than them, or I was more watchful than them. There'll
be those things in our lives that will take away our pride,
it will take away our glory and put the crown and the glory on
the head of the Lord. And if that is to be so, then
it'll be like it is in Psalm 107. Again and again they fell
down, there was none to help, and they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. And he that shall observe these,
wise and shall observe these things, even they shall understand
the loving kindness of the Lord. And there is a secret to overcoming. And in one sense, part of that
secret is, those that feel threatened by the very threatening, by the
very things that are likely to overcome them, they're drawn
closer to the Lord. What a message it is to any who
feels ready to be overcome from whatever thing it is, that the very sense of that need,
like Peter, the waves were to overcome him, sinking, Lord save
me. It immediately brought forth
those cries to the Lord, the Lord using even the things that
threatened to overcome to bring his people closer to him, more
dependent upon him, more to be looking to him, and more to be
prizing that strength. and that help from Him. And so
may we be very aware of the secret of overcoming our Lord Jesus
Christ that overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. But then I want to notice lastly
the promises to those that overcame. Again there are varying promises
that are attached to each of the churches, but really all
the promises of God are yay and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in some of these churches,
if not all, you can see some kind of a link between the promise
and the trial that they actually were walking through, that which
they were threatened to have overcome. We think of the church
at Ephesus. They were those that had lost
their first love. To the one that had overcome,
there is the promise that the Lord would give to eat of the
tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That is to feed upon Christ. And really that promise is the
very thing. There's a lack of love. more a reward or more a blessed
promise of a soul that is seeking to overcome that lack of love
than to feed upon Christ. Christ be precious to them. The
Lord says in John 6, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is that true manna, the meat and drink for the people
of God. And that is the promise that
is given to one in that case. What about the case of the church
at Smyrna then? They were the church that nothing
was spoken against, but they were in tribulation, and some
of them were being put to death. So the promise that is given
to them is that they should not be hurt of the second death. After death, there is a judgment.
And then there is eternal death. And so the promise to those that
overcome there, in other words, not overcome so they escape physical
death. Our Lord said, fear not them.
They kill the body, and after that, there's nothing more they
can do. But fear Him that after you have killed, have power to
cast both body and soul into hell. Yea, fear thou Him. And so the promise to those that
overcome there is that beyond death, beyond the grave, there
is eternal life. And you shall have that. You
shall not be hurt of the second death. You will not know eternal
death. Yes, you will know death for
the world, the same as the martyrs did. But they went from those
flames to eternal life and to be with the Lord. Now you can see the link. with
those promises that are given to those that overcame there. What about where Satan's seat
was? That is the one of Pergamos. Those there are given the promise
that they shall eat of the hidden manna, that they shall have a
personal assurance of the things of God. a stronger fence against error
and against Satan than a personal experience of the truth. If you
read John 9, you have a dear man who was born blind and the
Lord healed him. And the scribes and the Pharisees,
they tried all they could to blacken the name of the Lord.
They said if this man, if he was God, he would keep the Sabbath
day and we'd be Moses' disciple. You can be his disciple. And
they cast him out of the temple. But that dear man, he said, that
if this man were not of God, he could not do anything. And
he said, one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. That was what was offence against
all the attacks that they brought against that man. One thing that
he knew. Remember the part on the road
over in Australia, driving to work, and a particular temptation
that came in. How small your experience is,
how little you know of the things of God. And how do you know,
you know, that you're alright? You have those that know so much
more And not meaning to question others' experience, but it come
in in this way. Yes, I hear what others have
had of the things of God, and whether they're true or not,
I must leave with the Lord. But the things that Lord has
done for me, however small they might appear, they're real. I've known those things. And
the Word of God says, which hath great recompense and
reward, and also despise not the day of small things. It is so much better to have
a little that a righteous man hath than to have great things
and yet perhaps they not be real things. The Lord has given us
real things and given us that sweet assurance that he will perform it unto
the day of Jesus Christ. The Church of Thyatira, the one
that suffered false teachers and had false teachers in it,
the promise given to that one that overcame was that she should
have power over the nations. That is gospel authority. What better answer and promise? Here are false teachers. And
the Lord says to those who overcome those false teachers, I'll give
you authority in the truth. Remember when our Lord contradicted
and fought against the scribes, the Pharisees, they said, and
it was recorded, that he taught them as one having authority
and not as the scribes. They couldn't gainsay his words. And it is a blessed thing where
there is given that in the gospel, in the things
of the Lord, to positively teach and set forth the things of God. The church of God is not only
to be on the defensive, but on the offensive. Not only is she
to have a shield against error, she is to set forth truth. And that is the promise that
is given to this church in that case. We think then of the church
at Sardis, which her works were not found perfect before God. There were those that had not
defiled their garments in that. But the promise that is given
to them is really the promise that they shall be clothed in
white raiment. In other words, the righteousness
not of their own, but of Christ's. not overcoming in the sense that
they're trusting in their works, but they're trusting solely in
Christ. Too often with the church, when
it does descend into openly wrong works, those that would challenge
against them and say, oh, you're legal. You're being too strict. You're being too legal. You're
trusting in your works. But the promise given to these,
they weren't. They were contending for the
truth because they love the Lord, because they wanted to walk worthy
of his name. And the promise that was given
was that the righteousness that they had would be Christ's, not
their own. So then we have the Church of
Philadelphia. Nothing was spoken against them,
but they were a little church. So what was their promise that
they should be? They should be a pillar a pillar
in the temple of my God, that they should have the names of
God three times as it were written upon them, even here below, to
be of those that were upholding truth, those that were pillars. You wouldn't think of a small
church as being a pillar or something to hold up, hold up a a building
or an edifice, or to be like the pillars at the entrance to
the temple. And yet the promise here is that
this small church is not going to be insignificant, it's going
to be like a pillar. Then we have, lastly, where our
text is. And we read in our text, to him
that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my throne,
even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his
throne. What a grant to those that overcome
the lukewarmness, those that overcome the deadness, the apathy,
neither cold nor hot. And yet the Lord says, you, shall
sit with me on my throne." And adds to it this beautiful reason
and lightness, even as I also overcame and am set down with
my Father in His throne. In this picture, these churches,
it's a very real picture of the trials and tribulations of the
church, very real encouragement that we be not overcome with
all of these things, but rather overcome them through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And in the promises, there is
that which to strengthen us and to help us to look to Christ
and to count more precious than anything those things that he
has set before us that shall be ours as we obtain that victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ.
To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father
in his throne. Lord, make this word a help,
especially to any struggling with a particular aspect, be
covered in a very broad brush, as it were, through these churches.
that you can be sure with each one of us it may be one particular
thing, and as that is threatening us, that's where our prayers
will be, Lord help me. That is where we all want to
overcome in that one point, and it may be tonight with you, is
that one point that is so threatening and so looming, those dark and
threatening clouds. May the word be an encouragement
and help for us