By J.C. Philpot
Preached at Zoar Chapel, Great Alie Street, London, on Lord's Day Evening, July 6th, 1845
"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son." Revelation 21:7
The Scriptures, describing the path of the Christian, represent it under various figures, but all implying opposition to the path he takes. For instance, it is sometimes spoken of as a conflict: "Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me" (Phil. 1:30). Sometimes as a race: "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1). Sometimes as a fight: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. 6:12). Sometimes as a struggle: "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb. 12:4). Sometimes as a contest: "If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully" (2 Tim. 2:5).
All these figures bear upon this one point, that the path of a Christian is one of internal and external opposition. But there is more to be observed than this. It is not a fight without a victory; it is not a conflict without success; it is not a race without reaching the goal; it is not a struggle that ends in the defeat of the contender. A victory is represented as the termination of the battle. "Nay, in all these things," saith the Apostle, "we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37). The Lord, in the Book of Revelation (2 and 3), in each of the addresses to the seven churches, assigns a distinct promise "to him that overcometh." A gracious promise is also contained in the text: "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."
In looking at these words, my endeavour will be, first, to describe what it is to overcome; and then, if the Lord enable, to unfold the twofold promise which is given to him that overcometh: 1. "He shall inherit all things;" and 2. God will be his Father, and he shall be God's son.
I. In endeavouring to unfold what it is to overcome, we must premise a few observations. Observe, then, that this overcoming is not by our own strength, by our own wisdom, or by our own righteousness. The kingdom of God is not promised to anything done by the creature. The Apostle lays down a certain rule in the text before quoted: "If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully" (2 Tim. 2:5). In other words, it is not a bare striving, but a striving according to certain rules. But these rules are spiritual rules, and being spiritual rules, exclude everything of sense, reason and nature. Now man, in an unregenerate condition, whether he be in a state of profanity, or in a state of profession, has no spiritual knowledge of the way by which to overcome. He may strive against his lusts, he may endeavour to overcome those things that conscience bears testimony against, but he is not crowned, because he strives not lawfully. He strives in his own strength, contends in his own wisdom, and trusts in his own righteousness. Such strugglers and such overcomers (if overcomers they ever are) are not crowned, because they strive not according to the rules laid down in God's Word. This at once excludes all creature righteousness, human wisdom and natural strength. This takes the crown completely off the creature, and puts it on the head of the Redeemer. There are certain rules, then, laid down in the Scripture, according to which we are to fight and to overcome. For instance, the Lord of life and glory is held out in the Word as our pattern: "He hath left us an example that we should follow His steps" (1 Pet. 2:21). He fought the battle before us, and He gained the victory, not for Himself only, but for His people; and He has left us here below to walk in His footsteps, and to overcome in the same way as He did; as we read, "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" (Rev. 3:21). All striving, then, and all overcoming which is not in the steps of Christ, and precisely (in a measure) in the same way in which Jesus strove and overcame, is not the overcoming which is crowned with God's approbation.
