Revelation 3:21

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me.

The Christian raised to the throne of Christ

I. “To him that overcometh”; this supposes a conflict.

1. You must contend against yourself. The main battle is fought on the field of your own heart. Your closest foes are the affections which struggle there.

2. Allied with your heart and habits stands the world. God has so mercifully made us that we hail as a light upon our path the beam of kindliness in the eye of a fellow man. Even this will be turned against you.

3. But self and the world are but visible weapons of an invisible hand. Behind them, setting their edge and thrusting them home, is your great adversary the devil. Watchful when you are drowsy, plotting when you are unsuspicious, laying snares when you are tripping heedlessly, bending the bow when you are exposing your breast, he is ever going about seeking to devour.

II. Here we have a promise to stimulate us to overcome.

1. Whatever this promise means, it must mean at least that the faithful Christian will be received into the immediate presence of his Lord. And this is a thought you must set well before you.

2. But as you linger on these words of promise your heart feels that they tell of more than merely of the abundant entrance. “I will grant to sit with Me in My throne.” Ah I this seems, you think, to say that you shall be wondrously close to Him.

3. This seems to declare also that, if faithful, you shall share at last in the very honours which Invest your adorable Head.

4. But, lingering still on this rich promise, your heart gathers from it another assurance, and one that to us in our struggles is wondrous sweet. “In His throne,” you repeat, “in His throne,” what foe can approach me there? In this wide world I can find no inviolable rest. But “on His throne,” surely eternal repose dwells there.

III. Here you have the example set before you for your encouragement.

1. Your Captain does not lead you to a warfare in which He is a stranger. You will meet no foe whom He has not met.

2. Consider, then, the example of Him who passed through every kind of temptation which can assail you, and in a degree of aggravation to which it is not possible that you should be liable. His victory is the pledge of yours, for His strength is your strength, and your only foes are His vanquished assailants. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

The condition of celestial kingship

This is the promise of the ascended, victorious, crowned, and almighty Saviour to men whom He would have imitate and reproduce the life which He lived while upon the earth. This promise implies that life is a struggle with foes which assail it for the mastery. This truth has its illustrations in all forms and spheres of life. Many fail where one succeeds. The higher you rise in any sphere in life the smaller do the classes become. There are more Canadian thistles than Yosemite pines. There are more ants than eagles. There are more men who can read and write than can weigh the planets in scales and call them by name, paint a Madonna, build a Parthenon, write an epic. So there are more men who succeed in temporal pursuits than attain grand Christian characters and live a Christlike life. The first great truth implied in our text is, if men would live that higher life which is governed by the principles of the gospel and in the eternal world sit down with their Lord and Master on His throne, they must resist the temptations which assail them, vanquish the foes which would destroy them. The dangers which beset each one in this life-battle are special. The rock on which your neighbour struck, the reef on which your friend lies stranded, may not imperil your safety because you are steering in another direction. There are men whose integrity money could not buy, in whose keeping the uncounted millions of the mints and treasury of the nations would be safe. But there are others who are ready at any moment to part with reputation, character, aye, sell their very souls for its possession. Take spirituous liquor. There are some to whom in any form it is as distasteful as vitriol, as poisonous as croton oil. There are others--God pity them!--in whom the appetite is so fierce, powerful, overmastering, that if they saw a glass of rum on one side of the mouth of hell, and they stood on the other side, they would leap across, at the risk of falling in, to get it. There are two things which differentiate and specialise each human being’s danger. The first is natural constitution. No one denies the law of heredity, that physical resemblances, mental aptitudes, and moral qualities are transmissible, and sometimes travel down family and national lines for centuries. But while a man may inherit tainted blood and receive a legacy of disabilities from his progenitors, it does not relessions arrive? We learn from our text that it will arrive when the mystery of God shall be finished. God’s great object in creating this world and its inhabitants was to gratify and glorify Himself. Now, God at once glorifies and gratifies Himself when He displays His perfections in His works. Some of His perfections, as, for instance, His power, wisdom, and goodness, He displayed in the creation of the world; and they, as well as some other perfections of His nature, are still displayed in its providential government. But the principal display of His perfections is made in the work of redemption by Jesus Christ, the great object to which all His works of creation and providence ultimately refer. Agreeably, inspiration informs us, that for Jesus Christ all things were created; and that to Him there is given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him. When the purposes for which this kingdom was given to Christ, and set up in the world, are accomplished, the mystery of God, mentioned in our text, will be finished. Now the purposes for which this kingdom was given to Christ include two things. The first is, the complete salvation of all who are given to Him by the Father. The second is, the complete and final subjugation of His enemies.

III. What will be the attending circumstances and consequences of this event?

1. With respect to ourselves, considered as individuals, the end of time, or, which is the same thing to us, the end of our lives will be attended by circumstances, and followed by consequences, most important and interesting.

(1) We shall then be separated at once from all temporal and earthly objects.

(2) With the end of time our state of probation and our day of grace will end. We shall be removed from our present religious privileges and means of spiritual improvement.

(3) When time ends, eternity will begin. The moment in which we leave this temporary and mutable state, we shall enter a state which is eternal, and, of course, unchangeable.

2. The circumstances and consequences which will attend and follow the end of time with respect to the human race.

(1) When the end of time shall arrive, the general resurrection will take place.

(2) At the end of time, the day of judgment, the great day for which all other days were made, will arrive.

3. It remains only to consider what will then be the fate of the globe which we inhabit. Then the gold, the silver, the jewels, and all the glittering but delusive objects, for which so many thousands have bartered their souls, shall be destroyed. Lessons:

1. In view of this subject, however insignificant, how unworthy of an immortal being, do all merely temporal and earthly pursuits appear I

2. In full view of the end of time let me ask, are you all, my hearers, prepared for it? (E. Payson, D. D.)

The end of time

I. There is a period set at which time shall be no more.

1. Time had a beginning. There was a day, a year, that was the first, before which there was not another. But eternity was before, and will be after time; which therefore appears at present like a small island lifting up its head in the midst of the ocean.

2. Time has run from the beginning, and is running on in an uninterrupted course of addition of moments, hours, days, months, and years.

3. Time will come to an end. It has run long, but it will run out at length. The last sand in the glass of this world will pass. The period is set in the Divine decree, the last day and hour, though no man knows them.

(1) This present world shall be no more; these heavens and earth shall pass away by the general conflagration (2 Peter 3:10).

(2) New years shall be no more. The year will come, the month, the day, hour and minute, after which there shall never be another. Let us improve our years then for eternity, and count our days so as to apply our hearts to wisdom.

(3) The different seasons will be no more. There will be no more summer and winter, seed-time and harvest. There will be an eternal spring in heaven; but an eternal winter, as it were, in hell, where is gnashing of teeth.

(4) The business of this life shall be no more. There shall be no more tilling of the ground, tending of flocks, merchandising, nor trades. How unhappy must they be who have no pleasure nor satisfaction in anything else, since these are not to last!

(5) The means of sustaining this life shall be no more. There shall be no more eating, drinking, nor sleeping.

(6) Relations shall be no more. Time going dissolves them all, as fellow-travellers part when come to their journey’s end. There shall be no more magistrates and subjects, ministers and people, husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants (Job 3:19). Only the relation betwixt Christ and His people as head and members, which is not of this world, shall remain; and so the relation to God as His children (Luke 20:35); who are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

(7) Space for repentance shall be no more.

(8) Tribulation and adversity of the godly shall be no more.

(9) The prosperity and comfort of the wicked (Luke 16:25) shall be no more.

II. The weight of this truth, and its concern to mankind.

1. That it is of weight and concern to them appears in its being sworn to them; which implies--

(1) That men are very heedless about it, and slow to believe it, and be impressed with it.

(2) A legal intimation made to them of its ending.

(3) That the period of time is unalterably fixed, the bounds of it set, beyond which it cannot go; for it is set by an oath.

2. The weight of the thing lies in these three.

(1) That then that which concerns mankind’s happiness or misery is completed; the state of probation is over, and the state of recompense takes place in perfection, both as to their bodies and souls.

(2) That then eternity succeeds the state of all for ever unalterable, no end to be expected more.

(3) That now or never must be done what is done for eternity.

Use. Then be exhorted suitably to improve this intimation of time’s ending.

1. Look beyond time, this world, and the state of things in it; carry your views into the other world, to eternity (2 Corinthians 4:18).

2. Lift your hearts from off the things of time, and set them on those that are eternal (Colossians 3:2).

3. Use this world passingly, as pilgrims and strangers in it (1 Corinthians 7:29).

4. Let not the frowns of this world, the troubles and trials of the present life, make deep impression on us: they will not last.

5. Be not lifted up with the world’s smiles, nor value yourselves on worldly prosperity; for time will put an end to this also.

6. Improve time while it lasts, for the ends it is given you for.

(1) Laying a good foundation for eternity, getting out of your natural state into the state of grace, believing on Christ, and repenting of sin.

(2) Living to the honour of God, endeavouring to act in your sphere for propagating the name and kingdom of Christ.

(3) Serving your generation in usefulness to mankind, seeking to forward the spiritual and temporal good of others; as David did (Acts 13:36). (T. Boston.)

The mystery of God finished with time

I. We shall consider the mystery of God in His Kingdom among men.

1. We shall consider what that mystery of God is. A mystery is a secret or hidden thing.

2. I will show in what respects it is a mystery, the mystery of God; or that the kingdom of Christ, and His management, is a mystery, the mystery of God.

II. We shall consider the mystery of God as begun and carried on in time.

1. We shall consider the first opening of the mystery.

(1) In the promulgation of the promise of the gospel (Genesis 3:15).

(2) In the offering of the first sacrifices, with the skins whereof our naked first parents were clothed (Genesis 3:21).

2. We shall consider the gradual opening of the mystery. Of this we have an account in Hebrews 1:1.

3. We shall consider the progress of the mystery.

(1) It has never been interrupted since it began in paradise; the salvation of the Church has all along been carried on, and matters managed for that end.

(2) It has made such progress, that by this time it is drawing towards the period of finishing it.

(3) It is going on in our day, in the same powerful hand that has managed it all along.

But for a more full view of the mystery, as executed in time, we shall consider the eight following particulars of this mysterious kingdom, in every part of which there is a mystery.

1. The head of it, Jesus Christ, is a mystery. And He is a mystery, a mysterious Head:

(1) In the constitution of His person, being God and man in one person.

(2) In His offices.

(3) In all circumstances about Him.

2. The subjects of it, believers, are a mystery too. They are in the world indeed, but unknown to the world (1 John 3:1).

3. The erection and conservation of it is a mystery (Luke 17:20).

(1) The beginnings of it were very small; how vastly soever it has spread.

(2) The means of erecting and setting it up were very unlikely and unusual, viz., the despised preaching of the gospel (Psalms 110:2).

(3) The opposition to it from the beginning has been very great; yet it has made its way in face of all opposition.

(4) The means of keeping it up, even such as it was set up by. Not the power of the sword, but the preaching and teaching of the word of the gospel, and setting that home on men’s consciences; prayers, and tears, patient suffering even unto death (Revelation 12:11).

4. The seat of it is a mystery too.

5. The extent of it is a mystery, whether it is considered--

(1) In respect of the kind of jurisdiction He has in it.

(a) The kingdom of grace is in His hand.

(b) The kingdom of glory is in His hand too (Luke 22:29).

(c) The kingdom of providence is in His hand likewise.

(2) In respect of the bounds of it. It extends itself over both worlds (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18).

6. The privileges of it are a mystery.

(1) Their union with Christ is a mystery (Ephesians 5:32).

(2) Their justification is a mystery.

(3) Their sanctification is a mystery.

(4) Their perseverance in grace is a mystery.

7. The life and practice of it is a mystery.

8. The manner of the conduct and management of it is a mystery. It is the manner of this kingdom--

(1) To prefer the most unlikely, baulking them that stand fairest for the preference in all human appearance (Matthew 20:16).

(2) To let things go to an extremity, to the utmost point of hopelessness, before a hand be put to help them, and set them right again (Deuteronomy 32:36).

(3) To give the sharpest treatment to the greatest favourites. This is not the manner of men, but it is the manner of God (Psalms 73:5; Psalms 73:14).

(4) To meet men with astonishing strokes going in the way that God bade them, while they have a fair sunshine that are going in the way of their own hearts (Ecclesiastes 8:14).

(5) To lay by accepted petitions, and let them long lie by, time after time, while yet unacceptable requests are quickly granted.

(6) To answer accepted prayers quickly with some one terrible thing or other, which yet are to be graciously and bountifully answered in due time (Psalms 65:5).

III. We are to consider the mystery of God as finished with time.

1. Let us consider when this mystery of God shall be finished.

2. Wherein does the finishing of this mystery lie? It lies in these three things following.

(1) The accomplishment of the remaining prophecies.

(2) The gathering in of all the elect.

(3) The completing of the salvation of the Church of the elect. This is the delivering up of the kingdom to the Father mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:24.

3. It remains to show the import and consequence of this finishing the mystery of God. It is of greatest importance to the honour of God, and to the children of men. For then--

(1) The eternal purpose of God concerning mankind is fulfilled; the contrivance laid from eternity in the depth of wisdom about them, is executed.

(2) The covenant between the Father and Christ, the second Adam, is then fulfilled on both hands.

(3) Then the whole frame of the ordinances, now or since Adam’s fall, in use in the world for bringing in of sinners, and edifying of saints, is laid by.

(4) Then the matter of the Divine conduct towards mankind is altered so that it is quite new (Revelation 21:5).

(5) Then Christ’s conquest is complete, His enemies made His footstool, which He is this day in expectation of (Hebrews 10:12).

4. Then the mystery is opened, and appears in a full light; though before veiled, the veil is then taken off.

5. There will be no more mystery of God; then it is finished.

IV. We shall consider the relation betwixt the mystery of God and time.

1. Time is the space appointed for the mystery of God its being executed.

2. The subsistence or continuation of time depends on the mystery. Had there been no mystery of God to have been carried on, time once polluted with sin, had ended soon after it began.

Hence we may learn:

1. Whence it comes to pass that there is so much stumbling of wicked men at the Divine conduct by Christ in the world. The matter is: it is a mystery, and their natural blindness hinders them to see it, so that they know it not (1 Corinthians 2:14).

2. How the godly come to have other thoughts of it; and true Christians admire the beauty and glory of it, which carnal men despise. It is the mystery of God, which He reveals to His friends and rearers of His name (Psalms 25:14).

3. No reason to despise religion because the world generally do so.

4. Time is not continued as a sleep without a design. Oh, that men would consider that it is lengthened out on a particular design; which, being compassed, it shall end for good and all!

5. It is not this world’s business, but Heaven’s business, that is the great design of the continuing of time.

6. The mystery of God must be a matter of singular excellency, and of the last importance, that for it time is continued.

7. The mystery of God has, in the execution of it, been of long continuance; but it is drawing to a close.

8. When there is no more time requisite for the mystery of God, there will be no more time for other things neither; time will end with it; for it is for the sake of it that it is continued. (T. Boston.)