Reading: Isa. 1:9; Rom. 9:27,29; 11:2-5,26; Isa. 8:17,18.
After long and very deep
exercise of heart and weighing things solemnly before the Lord, I
am led quite strongly to the conclusion that His message for us
at this time, and not for us only, but for His whole Church, is
concerning Overcomer Testimony. The definition will wait upon all
that we have to say; I do not stay to try to explain that in any
preliminary word. You will notice that I leave out the article
and just say "Overcomer Testimony", not something new
in itself perhaps to any of us, but I believe in the intention of
God, new in emphasis. We begin by reminding ourselves of the fact
of overcomers throughout the whole history recorded in the
Scriptures, the fact of Overcomers in Divine history.
The Fact of
Overcomers
Overcomers date from the very
first spiritual declension. Abel marked that development and was
the first Overcomer, and Overcomers are found at every point of
spiritual climax; when things had proceeded and their whole
tendency or actual course was a departure from the essential mind
of God. When that course reached a climax, at that point you find
Overcomers. Enoch marked such a climactic point, and he not only
historically signified something which stood against the general
spiritual course, but was in himself prophetic of this whole
course and consummation; prophetic that throughout history God
would have that which was quite different from things in general
spiritually, and a positive counter thereto. The little reference
to Enoch, as you know, comes right there in the midst of the
monotonous recounting of men's deaths and burials. The whole
course is just broken into, suddenly, strikingly, with the simple
statement before the old course is resumed - "And Enoch
walked with God; and he was not; for God took him" (Gen.
5:24). Then you revert to death and burial. Noah and his family
were the embodiment of the principle of overcomers. Joseph again
took up that principle, one of a whole patriarchal family. The
spiritual level had become very low, a period of spiritual
paralysis had been introduced and was about to run four hundred
years. Right into that situation, Joseph stood as something
different, distinguished. In himself and in his testimony and in
his experience, he embodied very much of that which goes to make
the Overcomer.
It is not our intention to stay with all those
details. Every one of the Overcomer features in all these people
would occupy an hour. That is not our business. Joshua and Caleb
form a link in this chain when death is rampant, active, running
its course to wipe out the whole generation of the Lord's people
because of spiritual failure. Joshua and Caleb maintained God's
original position and are maintained by God against the course of
things, and are brought through into the full inheritance. Elijah
undoubtedly occupied that position and fulfilled that capacity of
the Overcomer in his day. Indeed, we may say of all or most of
the prophets. Daniel stands out amongst them. The seven thousand
who bowed not the knee to Baal were the Overcomers of their day,
and the hundred prophets hidden by Obadiah in two companies of
fifty. Ezra, Nehemiah and the Remnant - they stand in this
succession, until we come to the end of the Old Testament to find
what is almost like a Remnant of the remnant in Malachi when even
the Remnant has declined. "Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one with another" (Malachi 3:16 - Overcomers of
the end.)
We move into the New Testament
and are immediately in the presence of Overcomers - Anna and
Simeon in themselves, and then they spoke to all those who looked
for the Redemption of Jerusalem. But they were a distinguished
people, they were waiting for the Lord. In the Gospels, this is
exactly what is happening. The Lord Jesus made no national
appeal, and certainly no political appeal. He gathered out a
nucleus - if you like - as to things as they were then, a
remnant, for those who came into living association with Him: the
twelve, the one hundred and twenty were something different
spiritually from the religious life, and the best religious life,
of their day, and they proved to be Overcomers indeed.
Then we pass to the end of the
New Testament, and we know that sevenfold repetition of the very
phrase in the second and third chapters of the Revelation -
"to him that overcometh". And what is represented by
the seven seems to be gathered up into one in Chapter 12 and has
now become a corporate expression or representation of Overcomers
in a Man-child concerning whom it is said - "And they
overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the
word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto
death".
Very rapidly, that is a survey
of the fact of Overcomers, and from that survey we are
able to see that such are definitely recognised by God. They are
taken account of by God Himself and to such He makes special
promises. They are of account to Him in a special way. That is
expressed in the words concerning the little company in Malachi's
time - "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in
the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure". Now,
perhaps all that needed little emphasis and perhaps hardly needed
to have been said. Nevertheless, we must have our foundation of
Scripture for all that we have to say.
The Nature of
Overcomers
1. Negatively
So we pass from the fact of the
Overcomers to the nature and function of Overcomers, and firstly
just a word negatively, what Overcomers are not. They do not
stand related to anything partial. I do want you to take very
careful note of this. It is most important that we are clear as
to what it is we have in view. I repeat therefore that Overcomers
do not stand related to anything partial. They are not the
sponsors and champions of particular doctrines and
interpretations, and such things. With them, it is not a matter
of certain conceptions of truth and practices in relation
thereto, although from time to time a specific emphasis has been
necessary because at certain points particular weakness and
failure has arisen. Nevertheless, in the thought of God it is the
whole counsel of God which He was seeking to restore and not some
part of it. Overcomers, if they are according to God's mind, are
not people individually or collectively who simply underline
certain truths and keep to that. Therefore they cannot be a
separate and distinctive movement marked by just particular and
specific teaching and separated from all others for that reason.
They cannot be joined, you cannot join the Overcomer band. You
cannot argue, discuss, reason out Overcomer truth and adopt it or
reject it. You cannot have a Round Table for considering this
thing, and then deciding what you are going to do with it. All
such conceptions, mentalities and activities are ruled out. It
cannot be taken up, for it is not an "it" as something
apart from all God's thought. It is the very embodiment of all
God's thought. We have heard a certain interpretation given to a
fragment which is repeated in those early chapters of Revelation.
"If any man", and "to him that overcometh"
and the explanation, the interpretation, is that at the end
things are no longer corporate but just individual, and the
suggestion or implication of that interpretation is that all that
is in Ephesians is cancelled out by Revelation, that all the
teaching on the corporate nature and expression of the Body of
Christ is now suspended and it has become resolved into a
personal and individual matter. "If any man," and
"to him". Dear friends, I have always found very great
difficulty in believing that any one part of God's Word rules out
another part, and especially such parts as Ephesians; and while,
as you shall see in a moment, there is an element of truth in
that interpretation, unless it is safeguarded, it is very
dangerous and misleading. Anything that is misleading is very
dangerous.
Rather should not the
interpretation be this that while the corporate remains, we can
only be in the corporate by a personal revelation. An Overcomer
is one who has a personal history with God in these
matters. What I have just been saying is that it is not a thing
that you can take up, that you can have meetings about and you
can discuss and argue and decide upon in a collective way, so
that you get the resolution of the meeting as to what is going to
happen and what course you are going to take. That is not so. It
comes down to this - it is something between the individual and
God. It is a very immediately personal thing of what God has been
doing and is doing in the life, in the spirit, in the being of
those concerned. Anything corporate must come out of that. Of
course, that has always been the law of the Church. But here at
the end in order to get back to a full and adequate corporate
testimony, the individual has got to have a very living history
with God as to what God is really after, has got to know that he
or she, no matter what is happening to all the rest, he or she is
under the hand of God and God is doing something. That is the
bedrock of Overcomer testimony, and if what I have already said
is not wrong, that Rev. 12 is the sum of Rev. 2 and 3 in its
spiritual essence, the corporate is found in Rev. 12 in a
Man-child. A Man-child is born which is spoken of firstly as a
single entity and then referred to as "they". It is
many in one; it is the corporate, but it is the sum total of all
those individuals who have overcome, the "any man"s,
the "to him"s now brought into a final collective
expression. What I am trying to emphasize is this, that the
essence of Overcomer testimony is that God has done something
very definitely and very specifically, something much more than a
general operation in the heart in relation to something which is
very near to His own heart, and which the whole body even of
Christians will not be prepared to accept and follow after. Well,
that is the negative side - what it is not.
2. Positively
(a) Life and
Spirituality
Let us come to the
positive side. We begin from the circumference. God has His own
very great thoughts and intentions as to His creation. Oh, I do
pray God that I may not fail in this one thing that is in my
heart, that Overcomer testimony is not some little thing, some
little hole-in-the-corner thing, some little departmental thing -
(I mean the testimony). People may be small, as we shall
see later, but the Testimony is great. God has His own very great
thoughts and intentions as to His creation. They are far, far too
great for our comprehension at any one time. We can only grow
unto them and into them. We have not the constitution to bear the
full unveiling of the thoughts of God; we should just go to
pieces, crack under the strain, we could not stand it. It is
always true, - "I have yet many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now" (John 16:12). Have you never, even
in the poor, limited, fragmentary revelation that has come to you
by some means had to say, Stop! I cannot go any, further, I have
enough to occupy me for some time to come. Think of all the vast
range and significance of Divine thoughts and intentions. At no
one time can we comprehend them all. Moreover, it will take a
vast multitude, a countless number, to grow into those thoughts.
The most that anyone could ever comprehend will be a mere
fragment, an atom. It will require that great multitude which no
man can number to comprehend and express the thoughts and
intentions of God.
And let us at once
say that these thoughts of God are not just ideas and abstract
mental effusions. They are all embodied and expressed in a living
Person, His Son, God Himself incarnate. God's thoughts have been
brought to us in that way. We must remember that, while the Lord
Jesus had an individual consciousness, He also had a race
consciousness. While He, in His own mind, was a Person, an
individual Person, He was in Himself also a vast corporate
company, He was the nucleus of a great multitude. That is why you
can never come into the Lord Jesus and be an individual. If you
are in Christ you are only a part of something very vast, and all
these great, these vast thoughts and intentions of God are all
centred in His Son, embodied in Him, and eventually, so great is
He, so vast is He as the sum of all God's thoughts and
intentions, that He will fill all things. That, of course, at
once puts a great strain upon even our brains, and I hope it is
not just going to be brain work. Vital union with Christ
and vital union in Him is essential to the comprehending
of these thoughts of God. The way of such knowledge is the way of
life, and the way of life is positive corporate union with the
Lord Jesus. The way of God's teaching is not the way of the
classroom. The way of God's teaching is the way of practical
handling of us and bringing about situations in which we have to
know Christ in some new way, which knowledge alone can save us
from despair, which knowledge alone can deliver us, which
knowledge is absolutely vital and essential to our existence. It
becomes a crisis like that, so that the true spiritual life is
one of a series of crises which are ends and new beginnings; the
end of something inadequate, the beginning of some new discovery
of Christ, some new knowledge of Him. It is practical, vital
knowledge, taught by and through experience. That is the way of
comprehending God, His thoughts and intentions, and it is the
only way. It is the only way to that position where there will be
an issue in triumph.
The situation is sooner or later going to be
one of defeat or victory, and utter defeat or utter victory. It
is going to be right through and right out, or it is going to be
the other way. That is the issue for the Overcomer, that is the
issue for the Church, and it will only be those who, in this way
of experience, under the hand of God, have come to know the Lord,
to know Christ inwardly, who will go right through and right out.
That is the revelation of the Overcomer, the Manchild, in Rev.
12. It is knowledge of Christ in life and growth, and that on the
principle of the Body, organic and corporate, and again that by
reason of deathless life. Oh, listen! Deathless life in which
there is no old age or senility. I say that because many of us
are very conscious of the latter. We know that old age is
creeping towards us and we are very much aware of senility
overtaking, that is, growing limitations in mental powers,
concentration and application and mental endurance and in other
ways; which means that naturally we are not going to learn a
great deal more in that way, we are not going to comprehend very
much more. We are going to reach our limit and then perhaps
decline naturally. But what I am saying now is this, that there
is that in us which in extreme old age can still be comprehending
the vast, and going far beyond the capacity of nature. Spiritual
knowledge is so different, spiritual apprehension is so different
from natural. The capacity of Divine life knows nothing of decay,
of corruption, of limitation, of coming to an end or declining.
It is possible and it ought to be the experience of every true
child of God that even in old age they bear fruit; in this sense,
that there is that which still is fresh and still in growth when
natural powers are declining. Therefore I say this knowledge of
Christ on the principle of life knows nothing of old age and
senility; it goes on. Do not surrender to nature; that is, do not
surrender your Christianity to nature; do not surrender to nature
your birthright, which is eternal life; and do not think of
eternal life as only that you are going to survive after this
scene. Remember, it is a quality of life with all God's
potentialities in it, all the potentialities of reaching the
vastness of those Divine thoughts in Christ. Later, if the Lord
wills, I may have something more to say about that, but I just
leave it there, and for the present hasten to round it off.
We were saying
that these are not just abstract ideas, this is positive,
practical, experimental knowledge, the result of the free action
of Divine life in us, the mystery and wonder, the marvel of
Divine life within which knows no limitations. Thus, fulness is
governed by two things. Firstly by life and spirituality. Those
two are one, one is but the definition of the other. Life and
spirituality; it is spiritual life, it is a spiritual state which
that life produces. It is related entirely to all spiritual
things, related to association with God, union with God,
knowledge of God. That life makes the link and defines the nature
of spirituality. Fulness is based upon that. If any of us live on
the basis of nature, in the measure in which we do that, we are
unspiritual and miss God. If, for instance, you are just trying
to get round and get over the immensities of God's thoughts by
reason, projecting your head into that realm and trying to
comprehend with natural reason, you will not only do yourself
harm and bring yourself to despair, but you will miss the way
entirely. This requires the renewed, re-born spirit indwelt and
taught by the Holy Spirit. You people who call yourselves
thinking people, your reaction is, Where does human reason come
in? Is it not a Divine gift? Yes; but it is an after instrument.
You do not begin with it. You have to have it in order to
communicate with other people who are on the same level, rational
people. To be able to say to others what God has shown to you
requires your brain, but you never get that revelation by means
of your brain. You will undo yourself if you try, and you will
miss the way. So it is on any other line of the natural, we will
miss the way. How often we have been brought to the point where
in despair we have said, I give it up, I cannot see, I cannot
understand! and we have fallen down before the Lord and said, I
have extended myself to the last fraction to try and understand
and apprehend; now I give it up unless you show and reveal it to
me. In the very simplest way, with the greatest of ease, light
just begins to filter through, and you do not know exactly when
it happened, but you are able to say, I see now! That is the
nature of spiritual knowledge. It is always like that, it will
ever be like that. It is life, it is spirituality. It is that you
are in living union with God, and not as merely a fact but a
process, you are continually living in union with God.
(b)
Corporeality
And secondly,
corporeality. We have earlier said that it will take the vast
multitude, the countless host, to really comprehend and express
the greatness of God's thoughts and intentions. The measure of
our spiritual growth will be very largely the measure of our
fellowship with those who are growing. The Lord never just lays
down laws in order to set up a system of laws. His laws are
always the embodiment of His own thoughts, His laws are
principles. It is a tremendous thing to be able to put your
finger upon principles. Very often when precedent is not in
existence, principle comes in with the power of law. You may not
have a precedent for something, but there is a principle, and the
principle is the precedent. Do you understand what I mean? You
get the principle of a thing and you have the key to it all, and
God is moving on principle, and anything that He says is not
something just said to have things in a certain legal order, but
because they are the embodiment of some great spiritual
principle, because God is Spirit and everything that comes from
God is spirit. When God says, "Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together" (Heb. 10:25), He does not mean, Keep
your meetings going. "Forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together... and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching". What day? The day of fulness, the day of
consummation. Unto that you have to grow, and growth is
corporate.
You know quite well, if the Body is more than a
metaphor - and it is - that if you detach a member from the rest
it will not grow any more. It is a simple law of corporate life.
It depends entirely for its own increase upon its vital
relationship to the rest, and otherwise any development of it
will be entirely artificial. You might perhaps sever a member or
organ from the body and give it some artificial stimulant and get
some kind of growth, but it would be artificial because it is not
governed by all the other governing functions of the body. The
Body is no mere metaphor. It is a Divine thought embodying Divine
principles and spiritual realities. This is why I said at the
beginning - and I am keeping very close to the matter of
Overcomers - that this is not something that you can join, take
up, discuss. This is not something of special truths, the Church
for instance, the Body of Christ. No, it is not doctrine just as
truth. Overcomers are not those who are standing for truths, in
that sense. This thing is the embodiment of spiritual laws
without which, and without the observance of which, and the
operation of which, these great ends and thoughts of God cannot
be reached. The teaching of the Church which is His Body will not
get us anywhere as teaching. We might well have meetings and
circles and classes to discuss that, but that is not it. It is
the spiritual reality of this, and you can only come into this
organically. That demands the corporate, relatedness, the
fellowship. So ultimately, you will find that the principle of
the Overcomer works out like this - "Then they that
feared the Lord..."; "and they overcame..."
It begins with us individually and ends with us corporately.
I think I had
better finish there for the present. We have only just got a
little way into this matter of the nature of Overcomers. There
are other very important things to note. Do not forget that God
is after something which will be, as far as possible now in time,
and then afterward, the embodiment of His full thoughts, not
partial thoughts, not partial truths, not specific things, but
the whole. If you look at Overcomers they represent a greatness,
a wholeness, a comprehensiveness. It is the others who have lost;
they are the greater company, but they have the lesser measure.
The Overcomers are the smaller company but the greater measure,
and that is what God is after, and it is that testimony to the
greatest, fullest measure of God in Christ that God is seeking to
have in a vessel; the greatest measure of Himself in Christ
revealed in and through a vessel, call it a remnant if you like,
call it Overcomers, what you like. It is the peculiar treasure
and it is peculiarly a treasure of God because in it He finds a
way for the larger measure of Himself.