Revelation 3:22 reads, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” As I concluded the previous article, I was talking about the Lord’s promise given to the ones who overcome. Believers fight against sin, the world, and the devil. They fight a good fight of faith and become conquerors. They are victorious. If we have to fight and to win victories, then what kind of conflicts do we expect?

There are plenty of examples in the Bible for our fights. When Moses refused the pleasure of sin in Egypt and chose affliction with the people of God, this was overcoming – he overcame the love of pleasure. When Micaiah refused to prophesy smooth things to king Ahab, though he knew he would be persecuted if he spoke the truth, this was overcoming, he overcame the love of ease. When Daniel refused to give up praying, though he knew the den of lions was prepared for him – this was overcoming, he overcame the fear of death. When Matthew rose from the receipt of custom at our Lord’s bidding, left all and followed Him – this was overcoming, he overcame the love of money. When Peter and John stood up boldly before the council and said, “We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard” – this was overcoming, they overcame the fear of man. When Saul the Pharisee gave up all his prospects of preferment among the Jews and preached Jesus whom he had once persecuted – this was overcoming, he overcame the love of man’s praise. The same type of thing which these men did, we must also do if we would be victorious. They were men with similar passions as ourselves, and yet they overcame. They had as many trials as we can possibly have, and yet they overcame. They fought. They wrestled. They struggled. We must do the same.

If we want to know of the secret of their victories, it must be their faith. They believed on the Lord and believed they were held up by the Lord. In all their battles, they kept their eyes on Jesus, He never left them nor forsook them. They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of His testimony, and so may we. Let us resolve, by the grace of God, to be overcoming Christians.

If we have peace with the Lord’s enemies, we have no quarrel with sin. It is not the way to heaven. We ought to “be doers of the word and not hearers only.” No victory – no crown. Fight and overcome. Every concession will make us weaker. Our course may be hard. The battle we have to fight is sore. Sometimes we may be tempted to lay down our arms altogether and say, “it is of no use.” We may lose a bottle of two, but we will not lose all. Even if we shall fall seven times, we shall rise up again. Resist the devil, and he shall flee from us. Come out boldly from the world, and the world shall be obliged to let us go. What can we learn from all these thoughts?

1. All who are loving only for the world must be warned and take heed what they are doing. They are not friends of the Lord. The Lord knows their daily life and daily ways. They may forget how they lived and what they did, but the Lord remembers. Tremble and repent.
2. All who are formalists and self-righteous people must take heed that they are not deceived. They fancy they will go to heaven because they go regularly to church. They indulge an expectation of eternal life because they are always at the Lord’s table and are never missing in their pews. But where is their repentance? Where is their faith? Where is their evidence of a new heart? Where is the work of the Spirit? Tremble and repent.
3. All careless members of churches must beware lest they trifle their souls into hell. They must have lived year after year as if there was no battle to be fought with sin, the world, and the devil. They pass through life smiling, laughing, gentlemen-like or lady-like person, and behave as if there was no devil, no heaven, and no hell. Careless churchman ought to awake to see eternal realities in their true light. Awake and put on the armour of God. Awake and fight hard for life. Tremble and repent.
4. Everyone who wants to be in the kingdom of God must be warned and not to be content with the world’s standard of religion. Surely no man with his eyes open can fail to see that the Christianity of the New Testament is something far higher and deeper than the Christianity of most professing Christians. That formal, easy-going, do-little thing, which most people call religion, is evidently not the religion of the Lord Jesus. The things that He praises in the seven epistles (Revelation 2-3) are not praised by the world. The things that Jesus blames are not things in which the world sees any harm. If we would follow Christ, we should not be content with the world’s Christianity. Tremble and repent.
5. Everyone who professes to be a believer in the Lord Jesus must be warned not to be content with a little religion. Of all sights in the church of Christ, none is more painful to the faithful followers of Jesus Christ than a Christian who is contented and satisfied with a little grace, a little repentance, a little faith, a little knowledge, a little charity, and a little holiness. If we have any desires after usefulness, if we have any wishes to promote our Lord’s glory, if we have any longing after much inward peace, then be not content with a little religion.

6. Rather, let us seek every year we live, to make more spiritual progress than we have done, to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus; to grow in humility and self-acquaintance; to grow in spirituality and heavenly-mindness; and to grow in conformity to the image of our Lord. Let us beware of losing our first love like Ephesus, of becoming lukewarm like Laodicea, of tolerating false practices like Pergamos, of tampering with false doctrine like Thyatira, and of becoming half dead, ready to die, like Sardis.

   Let us rather covet the best gifts. Let us aim at eminent holiness. Let us endeavour to be like Smyrna and Philadelphia. Let us hold fast what we have already and continually see to have more. Let us labour to be unmistakeable Christians. Let it not be our distinctive character that we are men of science, or men of literary attainments, or men of the world, or men of pleasure, or men of business, but men of God. Let us live so that all may see that, to us, the things of God are the first priority, and the glory of God the first aim in our lives, to follow Christ our grand object in the present time, and to be with Christ our grand desire in time to come. Let us live in this way, and we shall leave good evidence behind us when we are buried. Let us live in this way, and the Spirit’s word to the churches will not have been spoken to us in vain.

   Lovingly,

   Pastor Emeritus Ki

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