Now we must go on to the pillars in the New Jerusalem. Revelation 3:12 says, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out anymore, and I will write upon him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God, and My new name." In this verse we see the consummation of the pillar in the New Jerusalem.
According to Revelation 3:12, we all may become pillars in the New Jerusalem. In Revelation 3:8 the Lord Jesus said, "You have a little power and have kept My word and have not denied My name." Then in Revelation 3:11 He said, "Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown." Firstly, the Lord tells those in the church in Philadelphia that they have a little power, that they have kept His word, and that they have not denied His name. Then He tells them to hold fast what they have. They must keep the word of the Lord and not deny the name of the Lord. If we do this, we shall be overcomers, and the Lord will write upon us the name of His God, the name of the New Jerusalem, and His new name. Now we must consider what it means to keep the word of the Lord and not to deny the name of the Lord. These matters are deep and difficult to explain.
A superficial understanding of keeping the Lord's word is that the Lord speaks a certain word and we keep it; He tells us to do something and we do it. This is correct, but it is shallow. In order to keep the Lord's word we must do two things: on the positive side we need to receive all that He is into us, and, on the negative side, we need to kill all our concepts and opinions. It is not simply a matter of the Lord telling us to love one another or to wash one another's feet and of our proceeding to love others and to wash their feet. This understanding is too superficial. The Lord's word represents the Lord Himself. If we would receive the word as the expression of the Lord Himself, we must drop our opinions and concepts.
Your opinions frustrate you from keeping the Lord's word. Probably, you have rarely kept the word of the Lord because you have been hindered by your opinions. In this message we have been speaking about transformation. As Romans 12:2 indicates, transformation primarily deals with the mind. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, which is the source of our concepts and opinions. To be transformed is to have our concepts and opinions slain. None of us can say that he has no opinions or concepts. Some may ask, "Should we be wooden boards without any feeling, knowledge, or sense?" Of course not. We need to be living. But the more living we are, the more we are filled with opinions and concepts. The more I have prayed about this matter and considered my experience, the more I have realized that to keep the word of the Lord is actually to be transformed.
The way to be transformed is to receive the word of the Lord into us and to keep it. Most of us do not keep the Lord's word because we are hindered by our opinions and our concepts. Everyone is opinionated. Those who minister the Word often pray that the Lord would remove the opinions of those hearing the Word and take away the veils of their concepts. A word may be clearly uttered, but your concepts and opinions may frustrate you from keeping it. If we would keep the Lord's word, we must firstly drop our opinions and then have the Lord Jesus added into our being.
Now let us consider what it means not to deny the Lord's name. A name always denotes a person. When I call a brother's name, the brother himself comes. Therefore, not to deny the name of the Lord means not to deny the Person of the Lord.
All denominational names, such as Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian, must be forsaken. A name means a great deal. Although you may not realize it, if you take a denominational designation, you are actually rejecting the name of Christ, and thus you are rejecting the Person of Christ. Although you may not intend to do this, this is nonetheless the fact. If it is not your intention to deny the name of Christ, then you should not have any denominational name. In the past some missionaries and pastors have consulted me about this matter. They have all told me that they do not care for the denominational names. I told them that, since they did not care for these names, they should forsake them. It is a serious matter to take another name above the Lord's name. Apparently, for many, it is insufficient merely to be a Christian. They take on other names and say, "I am a Lutheran," "I am a Presbyterian," or, "I am a Baptist." To do this is to deny the Lord's name. One hundred and fifty years ago the Brethren saw the light on this matter and forsook every other name and declared that they held just one name—the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the unique name. However, it is not merely a name in letters, but a name in Person.
If we do not deny the name of the Lord, then we have His Person as ours, and His Person becomes our designation. When you go to work, perhaps in a large corporation with hundreds of employees, there is no need for you to label yourself as a Christian. You simply need to express the Person of Christ. To fail to express the Person of Christ actually means to deny His name. We must live in such a way that Christ is expressed through us. If we express Christ, the One we express will, in the words of others, become our designation. Others will say that we are Christians. The Person we express becomes our name, our designation. People will not say that you are Chinese or a "Yankee." The only designation they will give you is that of being a Christian.
Approximately forty years ago, a brother was an employee in a large company. His fellow workers called him "Jesus." When they saw him, they said, "This is Jesus," apparently in a despising way. At the time of the Japanese invasion of China, many of the employees in this company were planning to escape. Having money and other valuables that had to be left behind, they looked for someone to whom they could entrust their possessions. After considering a number of possibilities, they finally decided to entrust their money and belongings to the brother, the one they called "Jesus." This shows that they were trusting in Jesus. The brother, of course, never said that his name was Jesus. Rather, he expressed the Person of Christ in his living, and his life was his designation. This is the true significance of not denying the name of the Lord. The church in Philadelphia lived by the Lord, and His life was lived out by that church. Therefore, His Person became the name of those saints.
To keep the word of the Lord and not to deny the name of the Lord means to forsake our opinions and concepts, to receive the Lord's word into us, and to gain more and more of the Lord Himself. If we do this, we shall live Him out as a Person. The name of this Person is Jesus. To keep the Lord's word is not merely a doctrinal matter, and to confess His name is not simply to utter a few statements. To keep His word means to receive Him into our being, letting go of our concepts and opinions that He may have the ground within us; and not to deny His name is to live out Christ as a Person so that He becomes our designation. This indicates transformation.