I (ii)

I (ii) Jim Pye

Revelation 3: 21, 12

I feel tested in speaking but I feel that something which maybe I did not appreciate in our brother was his overcoming. Our brother has spoken about our brother's limitations and how he rose above them. It was almost as if he did not have any limitations: it was wonderful. I do not think in the time he had been local here, that I fully appreciated it until he has gone, but how wonderful it is to see one in such physical weakness and yet overcoming, prepared to give a word, prepared to give a word to the young brothers. He was always earnest in desiring that the young brothers should continue in the faith. That was mainly in what he said among us, that we should be overcomers and what an overcomer he was!

I read these verses because I think the Lord finds special joy in those that overcome. He says, "He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome". Do we realise how much has been overcome? The world has been overcome, death has been overcome. What a Saviour we have! He says, "as I also have overcome". What overcoming! Think of the pressures that bore upon my Saviour at Gethsemane! How terrible! How fierce! How relentless they were! Yet, did He back away? Dear friends, He overcame. There was no disciple there to support Him, or to comfort. His disciples had to draw back. We had a touch in the reading last night as to the cross. He overcame that. How, outwardly, man would have seen our Saviour, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, there, dying, bleeding. What a spectacle! Man would say, He has been overcome, circumstances have overcome Him. But He overcame the circumstances There was nothing too great for my Saviour. How wonderful that is! He has overcome death, the whole thing that stood against man. He has overcome it all and our brother was in the enjoyment of it.

He says, "I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne". Our brother was an overcomer and I seek to leave that with us, that we should become overcomers. There were those that stood at the cross, accepting reproach, accepting the shame, and yet they were not turned away! They stood there. The overcomer stands. He does not just drift away. Persons might persuade others to drift away but the overcomer stands. He will not be moved because he has his foundation in Christ. He is overcoming all obstacles because Christ is His main object. That is the Man who is in the overcomer's sight.

I read here, "He that overcomes, him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God". How wonderful these pillars! There are going to be many pillars in that temple. Many who have gone before have been overcomers, not going along with the trend, or with the stream, but standing, holding fast what they had. What pillars there will be in that temple! It is not just a brick, not just something in the wall, but it is a pillar, something that is unique, different. It would blend in, but it would stand out. In these wonderful cathedrals, you see the mighty pillars holding up the whole structure. How wonderful to be such in the temple of Christ's God. What pleasure, what joy the Lord has in those that are overcoming!

And, it says, "And he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem". Our brother has no more to go out. He is at rest now, at rest in the Saviour's love. How wonderful is his portion! But our portion is to continue steadfastly, overcoming. I read that the overcomer is like a man at the top of the mountain: he is not in the valleys. He is not pressurised by circumstances, but he is at the top of the mountain and he sees that all God's ways are perfect. And that was our brother. He was at the top of the mountain. He saw that all God's way was perfect. He might have said, Why have I been disciplined in this way? He might have rebelled, but, no, he saw God's way was perfect. May we prove it in our daily lives, whatever may come before us, that we are at the top of the mountain, seeing that God's way is perfect. May we find more in this matter of overcoming for His Name's sake.