The Overcomer:

The Overcomer

It may be true that the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation are the most ignored passages of the entire Bible.

Why is this, do you suppose? My opinion is that what Jesus is saying here goes against current Christian doctrine. The two chapters are stating that if we are to receive the increments of authority and glory mentioned here, which really are steps toward the Throne of God and the first resurrection from the dead, we will have to do more than just belong to a church and make a profession of belief in Jesus Christ.

We will have to overcome through Christ the temptation to become too involved in the spirit of the world; the temptations of the flesh and spirit; and the temptation to follow our own will instead of what Christ wants us to do. These three pressures attempt to entice us into doing what we know to be wrong.

(5/11/2008) I have been preaching and teaching victorious Christian living for more than half a century, telling God’s people we can overcome the world, the lusts of our flesh and spirit, and our self-will. Through Jesus Christ we can gain victory each day. We cannot be forced to sin, as long as we are willing to look to Jesus for strength and wisdom when we are tempted.

I know we have been taught that we have to sin while we are living in the world and so we have to rely on grace to save us. This is not scriptural, as we can observe in the following passage:

@SCRIPTURE = Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you dill die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12,13)

In context this indicates we will not be clothed with eternal life when our body is raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord.

Paradise was on the earth at one time. Then Paradise was withdrawn because of our sin.

But Paradise is meant to be on the earth, with its fruit trees, all the beauty of nature, and animals, and so forth. Paradise was not designed to be located in the spirit world.

Therefore God is permitting the insanity and murder that always has characterized mankind on the earth to continue for thousands of years. God has a purpose for allowing this cesspool to occur. It is that He might select out people who demonstrate that they are candidates for rulership.

When God has identified His rulers, Christ will return with and in them. Working together they will install and maintain Paradise on the earth. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God.

You and I can be members of this governing priesthood. But to be competent and qualified we will have to overcome through Christ the obstacles that God allows to test our character, especially our faith.

Let me tell you of the following dream that I had in the early 1950s, when we were living in a trailer. The trailer was on the grounds of the tent in which Pastor J. O. Dowell was holding services. The tent was located on the border of National City, just before you came into San Diego.

I was on a ship. The ship was foundering in the waves. Many of the passengers were jumping over the side.

I also jumped over the side, and was kind of paddling around, keeping my head above water. I had done a lot of swimming while I was growing up and am at home in the water.

I could see the shore in the distance, maybe two or three hundred yards away. I could make out the sailors standing on the beach. Perhaps they got there in lifeboats. They had joined hands and appeared to be playing Ring Around the Rosy, or some childhood game like this.

I looked back toward the sinking ship. I could see the passengers in the water. They were thrashing about and drowning in their terror.

I suddenly noticed that my feet kept touching the bottom. So I stopped thrashing and stood up. The water was only waist deep. The passengers were panicking and drowning in waist-deep water.

I looked again at the shore. The sailors still were playing their game.

I turned back toward the passengers to tell them to stop struggling and stand up straight.

Then I awakened.

I wondered what the dream meant. I knew it was from God.

After about three days the interpretation came to me. “Although the churches (the sailors) do not always tell us so, it is entirely possible to overcome sin and live righteously.

God’s people remain bound and guilty when it is not necessary to live in such a condition. They have not been taught how the new covenant operates. They do not understand that the same grace that forgives their sin has the power to set them free from sin.

When I got out of the Marine Corps I went to Bible school, because the Lord had called me to preach while I was in the service.

Although I had several Christian friends while still in the Marine Corps, the Berean Bible Institute in San Diego was my first immersion in the contemporary Pentecostal culture. I had not been raised in a Christian home.

The teachers and students of the Bible institute were good people and sincere Christians. But I heard the same idea expressed in different ways: “As long as we are in the world we have to sin. We will keep on sinning until we get to Heaven.”

As I think about it, it must have been God who put it into my heart to decide that we do not have to sin. Through Christ we can overcome sin.

I can’t remember what I did of said about this decision, except I told God I would do His will whatever it proved to be, provided He gave me the grace to do it.

When I had the dream about the sinking ship, which occurred a couple of years after Bible school, it came to me that God’s people are ignorant of the victory over sin we can have through Christ. We can overcome sin!

So I have been preaching ever since that through Christ we can overcome sin each day. We can be perfect one day at a time. Finally, if we do not stop somewhere along the way, we will be perfected, fully redeemed from sin. Then we have eternity to grow into the image of Christ.

It may be noted that the promises we ordinarily associate with salvation, such as ruling with Christ, are reserved for “him who overcomes.”

I have never in my sixty years as a disciple of the Lord heard a sermon on what it means to overcome, or a discussion of the rewards to the overcomer.

Someone said recently that every person who makes a profession of belief in Christ is automatically an overcomer.

But stop and think. The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation are addressed to the seven churches of Asia Minor. It can be assumed, I believe, that most of the members of these seven churches professed belief in Christ.

If this is true, then all the members of the seven churches were overcomers by virtue of the fact that they had made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. In this instance, the two chapters do not make any sense.

Every day of our Christian experience we have the choice of yielding to sin or not yielding to sin. Every day we choose either to do what is right or to disobey God.

I am here to say that each day you can choose to do what is right, and the grace of God that is given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ will enable you to do so.

You can overcome through Christ

You can live in victory over sin.

Stand up straight and fix your eyes on Christ.

The water is only waist deep.