After we have been together before the table
of the Lord, worshipping our God and our
Lord, we have reached the climax of this
time together.
And anything that is done or said afterwards,
to me at least, I feel it's a
little bit too much.
So I will not trouble you with a
long message.
I will be very brief.
I do desire that we may go away
with just one thought, the Lord.
Not only in our thought, but in our
heart.
We have a very beautiful picture at the
very last, Revelation chapter 21.
Revelation chapter 21, we'll read from verse 1.
And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth are passed away, and the sea
is no more.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of
the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with man, and he shall dwell with
them, and they shall be his peoples, and
God himself shall be with them, and be
their God, and he shall wipe away every
tear from their eyes, and death shall be
no more.
Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor
pain any more.
The first things are passed away.
And he that sitted on the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new.
And he said, Write, for these words are
faithful and true.
And he said unto me, They are come
to pass.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end.
I will give unto him that is a
thirst of the fountain of the water of
life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and
I will be his God, and he shall
be my son.
Chapter twenty-two, verse one.
And he showed me a river of water
of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the Lamb,
in the midst of the streets thereof, and
on this side of the river, and on
that was the tree of life, bearing twelve
manners of fruits, yielding its fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no curse any more,
and the throne of God and of the
Lamb shall be therein, and his servants shall
serve him, and they shall see his face,
and his name shall be on their foreheads,
and there shall be night no more, and
they need no light of lamp, neither light
of sun, for the Lord God shall give
them light, and they shall reign forever and
ever.
A new heaven and a new earth, and
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God, made ready as a
bride adorned for her husband.
This is the picture of the church in
eternity.
We remember that way back in the beginning,
when God created man, he created man with
a very definite purpose.
He wanted that man to be an overcomer,
to subdue the earth, and to bring the
earth back to God.
And this man is not just an individual
person.
This man from the very beginning is a
corporate being, male and female.
Out of the side of this man, Adam,
Eve was built.
And together they are supposed to be overcomers
for God.
But we all know the history.
The woman was deceived.
And the man loved the woman so much
that he deliberately rebelled against the word of
God.
But finally God has found his man, the
second man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we find that our Lord Jesus Christ,
he is the overcomer.
He is the man of God's own heart.
He has overcome.
And throughout the ages we find that out
of his side he is building his woman,
the church, his counterpart.
Now even though throughout the century the woman
is again and again being deceived.
This is the history of the church.
How we are deceived again and again.
But during the whole time our Lord is
calling for overcomers.
The overcomers of the church.
And these overcomers, as we say, are like
the first fruits.
They are to maintain the testimony of Jesus
on behalf of the whole church.
But thank God, here you'll find in Revelation
chapter 21 and chapter 22, you'll find this
woman is finally completely delivered and redeemed.
No more deception.
No more failures.
But here you'll find this holy city, the
wife of the Lamb, is made ready and
adorned for her husband.
Men may fail, but God never.
We may fail, but God's purpose must be
realized.
And here you'll find this holy city, the
new Jerusalem, is the counterpart of the Lamb.
The church is the counterpart of Christ.
Here you'll find this holy city is full
of the glory of God.
It takes eternity to investigate, to examine, and
to understand this holy city.
So we do not need to spend much
time on it.
We'll leave it for eternity to do the
exploration.
But anyway, you'll find here as you read
the two last chapters of the book of
Revelation, you'll find this holy city, the new
Jerusalem, is the picture of an
overcomer.
In the very beginning you'll find there was
deception.
The woman was deceived, and the men rebelled
against God.
But here you'll find all things are passed
away.
The cause and effect, the consequence of fall,
of sin, have all passed away.
God has made all things new.
Everything and anything that is negative, disappears.
And everything that is positive, in God, has
been broken.
This is the new Jerusalem.
The Garden of Eden did not have a
wall.
It was not protected in a sense.
And a serpent got into it.
But here you'll find the new Jerusalem is
a wall city.
And the shining of the wall is the
shining of the glory of God.
Wall for protection.
Gates for entrance, and also for protection.
And yet you'll find there are twelve gates.
But these gates are never closed.
That is the picture of final, perfect victory.
If the enemy is not completely defeated, you
have to close the gate.
At least in the night.
But there is no night.
The gates are never closed.
You'll find a picture of complete and perfect
victory.
The city itself is an overcomer.
In other words, it is not just a
few in the church are reckoned as overcomers.
But in the finality, we find the whole
church is an overcomer.
In perfect union.
I am struck especially with these two verses
in chapter 21.
Verse 6 and verse 7.
In the second part of verse 6 it
says, I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water
of life freely.
Here you'll find the promise of giving the
fountain of the water of life freely.
Free gift of God.
Whosoever will shall have it.
And then the following verse said, he that
overcometh shall inherit these things.
And I will be his God and he
shall be my son.
Give freely.
He that overcometh.
We have said a lot about these overcomers.
How they must come out of great tribulation.
How they must have shed tears.
Gone through difficulties.
How they must have suffered.
How they must lay down their life for
the Lord.
As if all these things will make them
overcomers.
But dear brothers and sisters, these are things
that we see in the process.
When the process is going on, we do
see these things.
Tribulation, suffering, the cross, tears, and so on
and so forth.
But when you reach the end, at the
very end, you'll find everything has come back
to the simplicity that is in Christ.
It is very simple.
God gives freely.
And we who have received are made overcomers.
In other words, it is all his doing
and not our working.
Will you please turn to 1 John chapter
5, verse 4.
For whatsoever is begotten of God, overcometh the
world.
And this is the victory that has overcome
the world, even our faith.
And who is he that overcometh the world?
But he that believeth that Jesus is the
Son of God.
Whoever is begotten of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that overcomes the world,
even our faith.
Our faith in the Lord Jesus.
He that overcomes the world is he that
believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Again in chapter 4, verse 4.
Ye are of God, my little children, and
have overcome them, because greater is he that
is in you than he that is in
the world.
Who are those inhabitants of the holy city?
They are not only those who make up
the holy city, but they are the inhabitants
of the holy city.
Now, who are they?
They are those who have drunk the fountain
of the water of life, freely given by
God.
In other words, you'll find here, those are
people who have received the gift, even Christ's
gift.
Those who have Christ in them.
He that is in you is greater than
he that is in the world.
In finality, in final analysis, is not what
you have done.
Is not what you have gone through.
It is not all these things that make
you an overcomer.
In the final analysis, we have to humble
ourselves before God and say, it is thy
free gift.
It is Christ in us who has done
it.
We overcome the world because he is in
us.
It is Christ who overcomes.
He is the only overcomer.
And here you'll find these people are in
such union with Christ, therefore his victory is
their victory.
They are those who overcome and they are
those who can inherit all these wonderful things.
So dear brothers and sisters, we would like
to close just with this statement.
Christ is the overcomer and the church in
union with Christ also overcomes.
Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, we know that it is
thy will that we should not be distracted
into anything, however good it may be, but
it is thy will that we should look
oft unto thy Son, our Lord Jesus.
Oh, we do pray that thy Son, our
Lord Jesus, may be ever set before us,
not only at this time of gathering together
before thee as we go to different places,
lonely places, as we will be facing many
problems and difficulties.
We will be enticed, tempted, tested to the
very limit.
We may be pressed beyond our measure, but
we pray that thou will keep thy Son,
our Lord Jesus, ever before us, thee great
conqueror, thee great overcomer, even our Lord Jesus
Christ.
And we do pray that in union with
him we may experience that he that is
in us is greater than he that is
in the world.
Oh, make this very real, very true in
our life, and we do look forward to
that day when that new Jerusalem, the holy
city, shall come down from heaven to manifest
publicly the glory of Christ.
We ask in the precious name of our
Lord Jesus.