The Last Letter

“The Last Letter: Game of Thrones,
Crown of Thorns—1”
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» Revelation 3:21

• The promise: You will sit with Me on My  one day.

• The condition: You must first today.

• Sigve Tonstad: “Awareness of conflict changes the way we construe victory and defeat. While Jesus makes promises ‘to everyone who conquers,’ with no object in the sentence, the tenor of conflict is better preserved if we translate it ‘to everyone who overcomes .’ It is not wrong to say that the believers ‘overcome’ or ‘conquer,’ but it is implied throughout that they are engaged in a .”

• Revelation 12:7-9, 12, 17

• “If the curtain could be rolled back, and each one could discern the constant activities of the heavenly family to preserve the inhabitants of the earth from Satan’s seductive
wiles, . . . [t]hey would see that the armies of heaven are in continual warfare with satanic agencies, to obtain victories in behalf of those who do not sense their danger, and who are passing on in unconscious indifference. Angels are belting the world, refusing Satan his claims to supremacy. . . . We hear not the voices, we see not with the natural sight the work of these angels, but their hands are linked about the world, and with sleepless vigilance they are keeping the armies of Satan at bay.” (In Heavenly Places 98)

• “To the one who overcomes as I  .”

• John 16:33— “‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have the world!’”

» Why don’t more Christians live victorious lives?

• Reason #1—We do not fully appreciate the sinfulness of  .

• Vaughn Allen: “We do not realize how utterly detestable sin is; we do not comprehend how contrary sin is to God’s character and how terribly offensive it is to Him. We have lived with sin and its results so long and toyed with it so much that for us it has lost much of its horror and repugnance.” (The War Is Real: And So Is the Victory 71)

• Steps to Christ: “We shall not renounce sin unless we see its  .” (23)

• Vaughn Allen: “The absolute horror of sin can be seen only when we look at the  . It would be well for us each day to pray that God would give us a genuine abhorrence of sin and a  for it because of what it did to the Son of God and because of what it does to us.” (71)

• Reason #2—We are not convinced that   sin is possible in this life.

• Great Controversy: “If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away. Through defects in the character, Satan works to gain control of the whole mind, and he knows that if these defects are cherished, he will succeed. Therefore he is constantly seeking to deceive the followers of Christ with his sophistry that it is impossible for them to overcome.” (489)

• Signs of the Times: “Without Christ we cannot subdue a single sin or overcome the smallest temptation.” (August 10, 1891)

• Jesus: “‘Without Me you can do nothing.’” John 15:5

• Philippians 4:13—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

• Jude 24—“Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

• Selected Messages: “He who has not sufficient faith in Christ to believe that He can keep him from , has not the faith that will give him an entrance into the kingdom of God.” (3:360)

• 1 John 2:1, 13-14; 5:3-4

• Revelation 3:20

• Before Jesus commands Laodicea to “ ” the devil, He invites us to “ ” the door.

• Selected Messages: “John pointed the people to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. He said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ There is a great deal in that ‘taketh away.’ The question is, Shall we keep on sinning as though it were an impossibility for us to overcome? How are we to overcome? As Christ overcame, and that is the only way. He prayed to His heavenly Father. We can do the same....When tempted to speak wrong and do wrong resist Satan and say, I will not surrender my will to your control. I will cooperate with divine power and through grace be conqueror.” (3:195)

“Faith is the Victory”