CONQUERORS OR CONQUERED
To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with
me in my throne
In
a vision on the isle of Patmos in the
The
revelation of
The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, finds no
Church without defilement or weakness. Few
are without some glaring iniquity. Through
His perfect knowledge of the hearts of men, the Son of Man speaks His reproofs
and warnings. He takes notice of their
service and suffering, but also reminds them of their declension and calls them
to repentance. Much of their performance
cannot be accepted of God. Heavenly
glories and priestly honours and high seats on His Throne are bestowed upon
those mortifying the corruptions of the flesh and overcoming the temptations of
Satan and the world. But awful are His threatenings and
tremendous His judgments upon hypocritical profession and upon the dull and
lifeless performance of religious duties. Failure is seen in all seven
Churches. And we find the spirit of
these seven Churches in the Church to-day. Each one goes on right to the end, but
one does not render null or void the other.
Every man's work shall be made manifest
"I know thy works, thy labours and thy patience ... Nevertheless I have something against thee because thou hast
left thy first love. Remember therefore
from whence thou art fallen; and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and
will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent."
This
terrible reproof was rendered to the
Each
of the messages to the seven Churches is introduced with the words, "I know thy works." Standing in their midst, the
Lord searches through and through, every work and service. Our appraisal of the Churches is almost
entirely sectarian and denominational. This
is in striking contrast to the Lord who divides the Churches simply into they
that overcome and they that fail to overcome. He is: not appraising the Churches as
Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, etc., He is not judging the virtue of doctrine
at all, but on the line of overcoming. Strange as it may seem, the Lord is dealing
with individuals rather than organizations. The seven Churches are judged by Him who holds
them in His hand as Overcomers or they that fail to
overcome. Scholars translate the word
"Overcomer" as conqueror. So in the final analysis the Churches
stand in the judgment of God as CONQUERORS OR CONQUERED.
Conybeare translates this verse:- "We must all be made manifest
without disguise before the judgment
seat of Christ." There was
no guile or disguise in Christ. But in
us much is disguised. Few of us appear
to be what we are. But at the Judgment
Seat of Christ all veneer and pretence will go. We will be shown up for what we are. We will be weighed in the balance. If we have indulged a secret spirit of pride
or criticism or harboured an unforgiving spirit; if we have "kept back part"
as did Ananias and Sapphira;
or if we have failed to overcome the devil on the grounds of Calvary's finished
work, it will be all made manifest at the Bema Seat of Christ. How carefully then should our days be lived
out in the searching light of the judgment Seat of Christ .
More than Conquerors
The
enemy of God's people is today trying to blind them to the matter
of rewards. The First
Begotten from the Dead puts before the Seven Churches the incentive of rewards
He wants them to obtain. He puts before
all Christian believers the possibility of an overcoming life. He wants us to be ambitious overcomers. Some
have knowledge of these things but it is not experimental. The Lord wants us to have the overcoming
experience!
What
is there to overcome? The
flesh that lusts against the Spirit; the world that seeks our love and
affection; the devil who seeks to seduce and ensnare. May the Lord stir us up now to overcome where
we have failed. Most of us are guilty of omission rather than
sins of commission. It is not the great,
dreadful sins, but the little foxes that are spoiling our vines. If we judge ourselves we shall not be judged. We need to be saved from self-deception. O let us judge ourselves NOW as we read
these lines and go through our praying, our service, and our stewardship. The normal, scriptural Christian life is one
of full overcoming. "And now, little children, abide in Him; that when He shall appear we may have
confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." One commentator in translating this expression
renders it thus :- "To
turn with shame from Him; shrink with shame from Him; flee and seek to hide in
shame from Him at His appearing."
The Judgment Seat of Christ
The
rapture brings us up to the judgment seat of Christ. Paul includes himself when he writes:- "We all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every
one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done,
whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5 : 10). The Lord's People are called upon to give
account, not of sins blotted out, but for their Christian stewardship,
as to how they have used their testimony, time, influence, talent, money, etc.
His wife hath made herself ready
In
Scripture the Church is typified as a virgin. Paul wrote, "I
have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to
Christ." According to Christ's
parable, ten virgins await the Bridegroom's coming. In Scriptural numerology ten is used to
express worldly completion. Each virgin
carried a lamp. A lamp implies light. Five were accounted wise because they had
oil. Five were judged foolish because
their lamps were going out. The
Bridegroom tarried right up till the midnight hour and the virgins were wooed
by sleep, or as one version has it, "they all
nodded." They were not
sleeping soundly, but were not awake, alert and watching (Luke 21:34-36). Now the foolish had had oil but not enough to
carry them through the long night of strain. Great grace will be needed to overcome in this
hour. Satan is tirelessly seeking to
wear out the saints of the Most High. Awakened
at the shout of the Bridegroom's coming the foolish virgins discover themselves
unready. They attempt a hurried
spiritual trousseau. But the Bridegroom
has come, and the door is shut.
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