Wednesday, October 14, 2015

We will overcome - by the Grace of God!

Dear Heavenly Father, please open our sightless eyes so we may see Your truth. Please increase our faith so we may believe. Please clothe us with Jesus Christ's righteousness, because we have none of our own. Bless us as we read and study, as we seek to keep the sayings of Your prophecies. 

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Excerpt from Daniel and Revelation by Uriah Smith

"If Any Man Hear My Voice."--

The Lord entreats, then, as well as knocks. The word "if" implies that some will not hear.

Though He stands and knocks, yet some will close their ears to His tender entreaties. But it is not enough simply to hear. We must open the door.

Many who at first hear the voice, and for a time feel inclined to heed, will, alas! fail in the end to do that which is necessary to secure to themselves the communion of the heavenly Guest.
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Reader, are you ears open to the entreaties which the Saviour directs to you? Is His voice a welcome sound to you? Will you heed it? Will you open the door and let Him in? Or is the door of your heart held fast by heaps of this world's rubbish, which you are unwilling to remove?

Remember that the Lord of life never forces an entrance. He condescends to come and knock, and seek admittance; but He takes up His abode in those hearts only where He is then a welcome and invited guest. Heavenly Guest.

Then the promise! "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me."

How forcible and touching is the figure! Friend with friend, partaking of the cheerful and social meal! Mind with mind, holding free and intimate converse! What a festal scene must that be where the King of glory is a guest!

No common degree of union, no ordinary blessing, no usual privilege, is denoted by this language. Who can remain indifferent under such tender entreaty and so gracious a promise?

Nor are we required to furnish the table for this exalted Guest. This He does Himself, not with the gross nutriment of earth, but with viands from His own heavenly storehouse. Here He sets before us foretastes of the glory soon to be revealed. Here He gives us an earnest of our future inheritance, which is "incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Verily, when we comply with the conditions and receive this promise, we shall experience the rising of the daystar in our hearts, and behold the dawn of a glorious morning for the church of God.

The Promise to the Overcomer.--

The promise of supping with His disciples is made by the Lord before the final promise to the overcomer is given. This shows that the blessing included in that promise are to be enjoyed in this probationary state.

Now, added to all these, is the promise to the overcomer:

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne."

Here the promises of the Lord culminate. From being at first rebellious, and then fallen,
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degraded, and polluted, man is brought back into reconciliation with God through the work of the Redeemer. He is cleansed from his pollutions, redeemed from the fall, made immortal, and finally raised to a seat upon the throne of his Saviour. Honor and exaltation can go no farther. Human minds cannot conceive that state, human language cannot describe it. We can only labor on until, if overcomers, we shall know what it is.

In this verse there is not only a glorious promise, but there is also an important doctrine.

We learn by this that Christ reigns consecutively upon two thrones.

One is the throne of His Father, the other is His own throne.

He declares in this verse that He has overcome, and is now set down with His Father in His throne. He is now associated with the Father in the throne of universal dominion, placed at His right hand, far above all principality, power, might, and dominion. (Ephesians 1: 20-22.) While in this position, He is a priest-king. He is a priest, "a minister of the sanctuary;" but at the same time He is "on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Hebrews 8: 1, 2. This position and work of our Lord was thus predicted by the prophet Zechariah: "Speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts [God], saying, Behold the man whose name is The Branch [Christ]; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord: . . . and He [Christ] shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His [God's] throne; and He [Christ] shall be a priest upon His [God's] throne: and the counsel of peace [in the sacrifice and priestly work of Christ in behalf of repenting man] shall be between them both." Zechariah 6: 12, 13.

But the time is coming when He is to change His position, and leaving the throne of His Father, take His own throne. This must be when the time comes for the reward of the overcomers, for when they enter upon their reward, they are to sit with Christ on His throne, as He was overcome, and is now seated with the Father upon His throne. This change in the position of Christ is set forth by Paul:
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"Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all." 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28.

The truths taught in this scripture may perhaps be most briefly expressed by a paraphrase, and by giving, in every instance, instead of the pronouns, the nouns to which they respectively refer. Thus:

"Then cometh the end (of the present age), when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom (which He now holds conjointly with the Father) to God, even the Father; when God shall have put down all rule and all authority and power (that is opposed to the work of the Son). For Christ must reign (on the throne of His Father) till the Father hath put all enemies under Christ's feet. [Psalm 110: 1.] The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For God (then) hath put all things under Christ's feet. But when God saith, all things are put under Christ (and He begins His reign upon His own throne), it is manifest that God is excepted, who did put all things under Christ. And when all things shall be subdued unto Christ, then shall Christ also Himself be subject unto God that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."

From this it will be seen that the kingdom which Christ delivers up to the Father is that which He holds at the present time upon His Father's throne, where He tells us He is now seated. He delivers up this kingdom at the end of His priestly meditation, when the time comes for Him to take His own throne. After this He reigns on the throne of His father David, and is subject only to God, who still retains His posi-
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tion upon the throne of universal dominion. In this reign of Christ the saints participate. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne." "They lived," says John, dating from the first resurrection, "and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Revelation 20: 4.

This we understand to be a special reign, or for a special purpose, as will be noticed in that chapter, for the actual reign of the saints is to be "forever and ever." Daniel 7: 18, 27. How can any earthly attraction divert our gaze from this enduring and heavenly prospect?

Thus close the messages to the seven churches. How pointed and searching is their testimony! What lessons they contain for all Christian in all ages! It is as true with the last church as with the first, that all their works are known to Him who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. From His scrutinizing gaze nothing can be hidden. While His threatenings to the hypocrites and evil workers are awful, as in justice they may be, how ample, how comforting, how gracious, how glorious are His promises to those who love and follow Him with singleness of heart!


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AMEN.

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