Hebrews 12: 1,2; Revelation 3: 21,22; 21: 2-7
(iii) John Brown (Grangemouth)
I have been encouraged to read these verses and would seek the Spirit's help to say a little about overcoming. Our brothers have referred to the maintenance of divine standards and the maintenance of what is right in the household setting. That requires the practical experience of overcoming. We all need to be overcomers, and so perhaps this word can be for everyone here. It is good to see so many brethren gathered for such a happy occasion as the marriage of our dear young brother and sister. We are gathered to commend them to the Lord and we certainly do that, but are we all here to hear what the Lord Jesus might have to say to us individually? There are many of us here who are set in households as parents, children, or as heads of houses. All of these relationships exist, and in every one of them overcoming is needed.
There is much to overcome, but I do not want to dwell on what is negative. I want to dwell on the One who was the overcomer par excellence, the Lord Jesus Himself. Paul (at least I suppose that the writer is Paul) begins this chapter by speaking of these negative things. Everyone here would know something about them, these things that entangle us. They can entangle us in our married life and in household matters, just as much as in our individual lives, things that are not necessarily evil or explicitly wrong. There are the sins too; but there are these weights. I would commend the word to our dear young brother and sister, and to everyone of us here down to the very youngest, that the Lord Jesus Himself would help us to be overcomers. I can say, as knowing our young brother, that he is an overcomer, and that feature will be needed with us all until the Lord takes us from this scene. Then Paul brings in the Lord Jesus: "looking steadfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith". Oh, what an overcomer He was! What joy lay before Him as He went into death - ''who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross". Think of the merchant seeking goodly pearls, and he found one of great price. The valuation that the Lord Jesus put on that pearl - "he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it", Matt 13: 46. Think of what the Lord Jesus has done to secure what is for His heart's pleasure.
We read in Revelation 21 of this wonderful city, the assembly, the bride for His heart's pleasure. What a wonderful thing it is to be reminded of the Lord Jesus and the satisfaction that He has in this wonderful vessel. But we need an object for our faith and for our help, and Jesus is our object. Think of those to whom the heavens were opened. Paul had that experience on the road to Damascus. Then Stephen, even while he endured the stoning, beheld the heavens opened and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. I would just like to pass on to our dear young couple, and to the brethren, an impression gained from something I read recently. When the heavens were opened to Jesus it was not exactly that there was an object there for Him: rather, He was the object of divine acclamation. The heavens were opened to Him and the Father's voice came: "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight", Matt 3: 17. Oh, what an object of heaven's delight He was! I believe it is true to say that every overcomer, in however simple a matter, is an object of pleasure to heaven. May our young brother and sister know something of overcoming. They will need it, as we all need it in our household settings and in our individual exercises; to overcome to maintain divine standards, to overcome to be pleasing to divine Persons. None of these things can be brought about without overcoming.
But then what a reward there is! What a word this is to the overcomer in Laodicea! You might say that there are many more problems there, they were neither cold nor hot. Think of the things that the Lord Jesus has to say to Laodicea: but look at what He says to the overcomer there: "He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne". What a wonderful thing it is to have our eyes on this blessed One who overcame everything that stood against Him; He overcame the power of death. He says to the overcomer, "to him will I give to sit with me in my throne". What a promise that is and how attractive It is!
Then in chapter 21 we see something of what the Lord Jesus had in view when he endured the cross and despised the shame - this holy city, "new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband". Our dear young sister is an example of this today. It goes on to say "Behold, I make all things new". But then it says, "He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". I believe, dear brethren, that the promises made to the overcomer are very rich and full indeed, but to overcome we need an object, and that object is the blessed Son of God. He overcame all, everything that stood against Him, so that He might have this object for His heart's affection.
May we all be exercised not to allow these other things to entangle us and weigh us down. May our dear young brother and sister, as they set up house with us locally, in the Lord's will, prove what it is to overcome and to be here for the Lord Jesus and for His pleasure, along with each one of us, for His Name's sake.
BUCKHURST HILL
2 November 1991