The Seven Churches of Revelation

… The theme for our meetings for these four evenings, if the Lord will, is chapters two and three of the Revelation. But since I have chosen to concentrate more in more detail upon chapters, chapter three, then I will only be able to touch here and there upon chapter two. Nevertheless, I can only read the whole of it and pray that the very reading of the scripture in itself the Lord may speak to us immediately. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for thy name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive. I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saith he that receiveth it. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things doth the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and thou last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden, but that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall there be broken to shivers, even as I received my father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. From my earliest readings of this chapter, there was one particular aspect of it which appealed very strongly indeed to me, and it seemed to me that it was the voice of the Lord speaking directly to me from this portion, and that is that we must often say to each other, we must often say to ourselves, when we reflect upon the frightening confusion that surrounds us in Christendom, and when we reflect how that confusion may sometimes cause us to stop and ponder whether the way that we have found and taken and have been led by the Lord is the right way, how good it would be if over the general course of things that has been so strange in the Christian profession, if we only had some indication of what the Lord thinks about it himself, what's his reaction to it, what advice would he give, what would he say to stir up our consciences to show us our shortcomings, what would he say to bring fuel to the fire of an increased response in love to himself, what would he say to confirm us and strengthen us, and what promises would he give us? Well, this is exactly what we have in these chapters, and for that reason alone, apart from the intrinsic interest that breeds out of almost every word of them, for that reason alone, every Christian who loves the Lord and wants to do his will must find a very important place in his heart, not only in his knowledge, but in his heart for the words which the Lord Jesus speaks to the angels and through them to the churches in these verses, and it's a very wonderful thing indeed. I am just going a few thoughts ahead in saying it to begin with. It's a very wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus Christ puts in the very forefront what if we had stopped to think we realized that he would put in the forefront, and that is in the fullest possible measure, he'll be satisfied with nothing else than to have the love of the hearts of his people. That's what he wants. A church that has left its first love is already a fallen church, and a great thing which at the very beginning of the stream of evil that seems to have carried all before it, the Lord Jesus pinpoints it, and he speaks to the hearts of every one of his own, and says thou hast left thy first love. That's spoken to the church, and yet what a wonderful thing that one of the marks, I've already mentioned one of the marks of these chapters, and indeed many parts of the book of the revelation, is that there is never a time, never a time when things are so difficult in the way of persecution and tribulation and death, and never a time when the power or the seductions of the enemy are such that there isn't a wonderful promise and an open door of opportunity for the individual. That individual may very well find other individuals, but let us never forget that the place that we have taken in the things of God is a place that begins with an individual response to the word of the Lord Jesus, and it's only after that we find that there are others who are willing with us to gather simply and humbly in the name of the Lord, and then we find the fellowship of perhaps two or three. Well, the particular way in which we can see that the Lord Jesus is speaking, presenting himself to the church here, is, so far as scripture is concerned, a unique way. We are all very well instructed in those great central figures of speech that are used in holy scripture to present us the truth of the church, the things we rightly and specially rejoice in, the things which belong to our union with Christ in glory, that we are his body and we are to be his bride, and also the the fact that the church is the house of God. These are the great dominant pictures of Bible teaching concerning the nature of the church, but what we have here is a very unusual thing in scripture concerning the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and a very unusual thing, so far as scripture is concerned, in the view of the church, and a view that, without doubt, we too often forget. And the Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us here as we read of him in the first chapter. Now, we haven't had time to read the first chapter, but we find there that the one whose thunders are going to fall upon the very concentrated essence of evil and destroy it with the breath of his mouth, he'll be coming in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and believe not the gospel. Well, that one who is going to be seen in this book as the judge of the world, the one through whom the wrath of God will fall upon the world, that one turns an eye of discernment, of the most deep and careful examination, and of judgment towards the church. Now, that's very special, but it's true to other parts of scripture. You remember the passage in first Peter where we read that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if judgment begins at the house of God, then where will the ungodly appear? Well, what we have in this book of the judgments of God, in these two chapters, we have how judgment begins at the house of God. The world entirely ignores the discerning eye of the Lord Jesus upon it. Oh, how sad if we who form his house, oh, how sad if we who are here to be witnesses for him ignore the voice of the one who is judging, first of all, the house of God. But, of course, just as there is always the most vivid comfort with the sternest word for our consciences, so we have that lovely little verse in the first chapter. In verse 17, so terrible was the sight that John saw when he saw the Lord Jesus like this. He said, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. And so the same person whose hands are the hands of judgment, so far as this particular vision is concerned, yet for his true servant John, there is not only the most tremendous impression of the aspect of the Savior that is here presented to him, but there is immediately the strongest comfort and strength in the Savior's voice to him personally. I am he, I'm alive now, I was dead, dead for you, dead as a sacrifice for sins, I was dead, but I am alive forevermore. And so we have these two sides to the presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the judge, he's the all-discerning eye, his voice, his words are the sharp-twedged sword, but he's also the one who, risen out of the dead, can put the hand of comfort upon every one of those whose hearts respond to him. Fear not, he says to John, fear not, and all the content of light and instruction that goes into that fear not from the one who has conquered death and is alive from the dead is in these chapters. It says to us, fear not, I, the one concerning whom John had already said unto him who loveth us and hath loosed us from our sins in his own blood and made us kings and priests unto God, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. He's the one who speaks to John and says to him, fear not, and John therefore has all the time in the knowledge that the risen Savior, who is to be the judge, who is at the right hand of God amongst all the other things that he does, he is here walking amongst the churches. Now, when John saw this vision, we read that he turned to see the voice that had spoken to him, and he saw seven golden candlesticks, and of course this is the aspect of the church that we have presented to us in these chapters, that each individual church, and here is the plainest possible indication, that the local gathering is a church in the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ. These churches were, in his eyes, golden lamps. Now, there can be no question at all about what lamps are for. The Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew, in words that are very familiar, men don't light a lamp to put it under a bushel or hide it in some other way. They light a lamp to put it on a lamp stand so that they give light everywhere in the house, and the churches are judged in this particular aspect that they present to the Lord Jesus Christ as to whether and to what extent they really have fulfilled their responsibility, because responsibility is the point that we have here, fulfilled their prime responsibility of being witnesses. That's what light is, that's what the lamp is for, it's to be witnesses. Now, you and I don't pay much attention to the voices that keep saying to us the church has failed, because we know that they just don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what the church was charged to do by the Lord Jesus Christ and by Holy Scripture. Most of those who reiterate like parrots the phrase the church has failed, they mean the church has failed to stop war. They mean the church has failed to bring about disarmament. They mean the church has failed to banish hunger and to banish the racial riots that are everywhere in our country and other countries. They never stop to think whether there's the slightest indication that the purpose for which the Lord formed and left the church here in the world was to do these things. It was not to do these things. What was it to do? It was to be, each one was to be a golden lamp with the manifestation of the nature of God showing it forth into the world in the widest possible way. The churches are judged in the degree in which they have fulfilled their privilege and responsibility to be lamps, and this is something that we all ought to take particular account of, because it goes right through. It's the general character imprinted upon the vision, and the Lord Jesus says, I will remove thy lamp out of its place. In other words, we can easily see. Now, I want to draw very clear attention, although perfectly well known to most of us, that although there is a voice in every case of unchanged encouragement to the individual, as I've said several times and will continue to say several times, nevertheless, the general direction in which these churches develop is a downward direction, a direction of increasing displeasure to the Lord, so that he puts his finger upon the very first step of departure and declension and failure in being witnesses here in the world when he says thou hast left thy first love. No one but the Lord himself might be able to see this. It's a very wonderful thing to me that he gives full encouragement. He says not a word of condemnation regarding that they had worked for him, but you and I have often heard it said, we've often said it to ourselves, and it's a matter that we frequently are referred to, that there can be a great deal of work without the real inner spring of the heart that responds to the love of Christ. We've said it often, and here it is as plenteous could be. The Lord Jesus speaks well of those works. There's no indication that those works should be given up. He approves of those works, but beyond and behind it, he puts his finger upon the point, upon the question as to whether behind it there lies first love, so that at the beginning of the series, we have the finger of the Lord Jesus put upon the first step of departure, but it's the all-embracive, and it's the really final step of departure, thou hast left thy first love. In the end, in the last of the letters that we haven't read this evening, then we read these frighteningly final words, one could hardly have thought that the church of God would ever come to be spoken of like this, I will spew thee out of my mouth. The whole thing is rotten in his sight. The whole thing is abhorrent to him. The whole thing is neither luke nor warm. I will spew it out of my mouth. There can be no question, therefore, that if we don't consider the individuals who, in spite of the run of the stream, have been overcomers, and the church from the beginning has been in a downward path and will end by utter rejection by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm taking it for granted, of course, that we all understand that I'm speaking primarily of these churches as a presentation of the features seen by the Lord in the seven successive, generally successive, periods of church history. Now, I would say to you, especially the few younger persons who are here, don't be distressed if when you read general Christian writings you read nothing of this. Don't be a bit surprised. It was one of the special insights given to those who have been our leaders so far as teaching is concerned, have been the instruments in the hand of God to teach things that have been hidden for ages and from generations. It was one of the special sides and marks of that insight that they did see that this succession of seven churches is a picture, in the Lord's eyes, of the seven successive periods. Now, obviously, this is not the whole meaning. It's the one I'm going to concentrate upon, but I can, I have to say very plainly that the first meaning of these seven letters is that they were addressed to seven actual churches in Asia, and these churches are named, and they had special characteristics, and they represented a complete spectrum of the reaction of the church to its responsibility as a lampstand. And they would, let us stop and consider the matter, they would be read in those churches. With what response? Perhaps it will almost appear that some of them would be read with scorn and with indifference and a careless nonchalance as to what the Lord thought about it, but there were others whose heart would be moved. Individual hearts would be moved at what the Lord Jesus said, and that's what we desire for ourselves. In the second place, these letters to individual churches are messages for local churches or periods in which there is this particular kind of danger or this particular kind of suffering. Who could doubt that the suffering saints behind the iron curtain will be finding comfort tonight, although they're long, long after the Smyrna period, they'll be finding comfort tonight in the voice of the Lord Jesus, be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. These very things that we read about this church in Smyrna. There will be prison, there will be tribulation, there will be suffering, there will be death, they will find comfort. And that's the second meaning, I believe, of these letters that wherever there are saints of God in the particular trials, the particular sufferings, the particular dangers of either by power or by seduction, and these words will speak to them on behalf of the Savior. But that their prime meaning is a view of these seven generally successive periods seems to me without question. If we look at the familiar verse in chapter one, we look at the familiar verse 19. It has often been said, and it cannot be doubted, that this is the Lord's own analysis of the divisions of the whole book of the Revelation addressed to these seven churches. Right, the things which thou hast seen, one, the things which are, two, and the things which shall be, after these, not hereafter, after these. Well, what John had seen, there can be no question, it was the first chapter, the vision. What were the things after these, there can be no question, because if you turn over to chapter four, you'll find the phrase repeated to help you to understand it. In chapter four, verse one, after the addresses to the churches are being completed, and John hears a voice like a trumpet saying, come up hither, and he's ruptured to heaven, and sees first of all the throne. The voice says, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be after these. So we are told very plainly that John was first of all to present the vision of the Lord Jesus that he'd seen. He was then to present the things that are, and after that the things that shall be after these, and therefore the whole of the church period is covered, up to the time when the saints are ruptured to heaven, of which John's being ruptured to heaven was doubtless a picture. Now, the many points that might be said in support of this cannot be said for the sake of time, but that tells us that these seven churches are intended to cover the whole of the period between the first preaching of the gospel, the first establishment of the candlesticks, to the time when, oh sad to say, the church of Laodicea is spewed out of his mouth. Because, you see, the view taken is not primarily the view of the faithful core that really formed the body of Christ. It's the view of the outwardly seen body, calling itself a church, which was intended to be a witness and has progressively failed to be so. Now, when you look at the details, then it's indisputably obvious that they do speak about the divisions of church history. John, who wrote this, and the others who read it, couldn't have known how true it was going to be to the successive ages of the history of the church. But we, from the vantage point of the end of that course, we know very well that the apostolic period was succeeded by the most intense period of persecution that the church has ever known. And don't let us forget that all the matters that are spoken of in Bible prophecy are really for settlement, not in Russia, not in America, but they're settled in Europe and in the Middle East. They're settled in the area, especially, of the Roman Empire. And therefore, what happens in Russia or America is, to a certain extent, to a certain degree, not on the heart of the scene of the prophetic scriptures at all. Now, in that realm that I've spoken of, then this exactly did take place. The first apostolic period was covered by a period of the most terrible persecution. The fact that it set in the last 10 days has got so many possible fulfillments that it couldn't possibly be more plain. Many people, and I, when I was a lad, I was very much impressed by a brother who would repeat the 10 persecuting emperors. The fact that somebody else said it was six didn't upset me very much. He said it was 10 persecuting emperors. I've always thought it more likely that it referred to the absolute climax of this persecution under the last persecuting emperor, Diocletian, was in fact 10 years, 303 to 313, when the edict of toleration was given and everywhere the persecution stopped instantly. Thou shalt have tribulation 10 days, but be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. We know it's as plain as could be that that period of intense persecution, when Satan, like a roaring lion, was attacking those who were to be forming the candlestick, it was succeeded by a time when the government, the empire, smiled upon the believers, and there was very quickly a most unholy alliance between the church and the world. Now the word pergamos, we don't have to be very well instructed in language matters to see that the word pergamos means a spurious marriage. The syllable per means spurious. A perjury is a spurious oath, and one could think of quite a number of other examples, and the syllable gamos is very obviously marriage. Bigamy is a person who is convicted of two marriages, and polygamy presents that condition of society where there are many marriages by one person. And so the word pergamos means a spurious marriage, and everybody can see that there was indeed a period of spurious alliance between the church and the world. But it became deeply intensified when the pope, the bishop of Rome, began to assert his authority over the kings of the earth, and began in the spiritual way to continue in illicit intercourse with them, and introduced idolatry into the church. All this is so plainly known by everybody, but it's perfectly plain to us, looking at the matter from our standpoint, that these letters were indeed to be this. Now I spend what time I can on a few very special details about these churches. First of all, in the first church, Ephesus, I would like to come again to emphasize and to put, seek that the Lord may reach down into the place where we are sitting, and reach down into our hearts, and put his finger upon this verse, nevertheless I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. You'll notice that I am emphasizing the fact that the word somewhat is in italics, and it's no small detail of a thing that the Lord has against these, it's the one thing that matters. My son, give me thine heart. We read in the Proverbs, and at the very heart of the matter, the Lord Jesus Christ said, thou hast left thy first love. It would be very well worthwhile, and it would be in itself a sufficient result from our coming together to speak about these things, if we were to go away, and set ourselves down in the secret chamber, and ask the Lord Jesus Christ himself to put his finger upon this verse, and upon our hearts. Because I maintain, I can't prove it, but it could be that your own heart and mind will respond when I say so. I believe that the overcomer, what the overcomer can do is open in all ages, right to the very end, and quite apart from this book. In the end of the book, we're told that there is a special promise for the overcomer, and therefore, I feel that it is open to us, to be overcomers regarding the particular thing concerning which the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to each church. And it could very well be that in that church, which is called itself brotherly love, there was a real awakening, of a response to the heart of the Lord Jesus. Now, it's very natural for us to think of this first love, as the love of a person first converted. And almost all that I have heard about this, has appeared to me to be taking that point of view. That we are referred back to the moment when first the brilliant joy broke upon us, when the darkness was dispelled, and we realized that we turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. But I can hardly think that this is the first and prime intention of the Lord Jesus in sending this message to the angel and to the church. It seems to me far more likely that that aspect of our response to the love of Christ, which we have in the Ephesian epistle, is more likely to be the case. So that these words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Ephesian church, were intended to reawaken the touch of the Savior and the Holy Spirit, that had been awakened only a few years before, when they had read to know the love of Christ, that passeth knowledge. The apostle didn't spring instantly into that prayer, but he bowed his knees to the Father. And that was a very special thing in itself. He bowed his knees to the Father, and he came up to it by degrees, that they might be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that being rooted and founded in love, they might be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length. A little earlier, I passed it by accidentally, that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, and then that they might know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. How many times have our hearts thrilled to these words? And is it not so that it is generally speaking, and very often a matter of being together in community, that these words make the strongest appeal to us, because they're deeply connected with the very heart of Paul's doctrine, and that is what the church is to the love of Christ. I've often said that for 10 people who might know that the church is the body that has a history here upon earth, there might be no more than one for whom the church means that body, which has that very special place in the love of Christ, as well as in the counsels of God, that he loved it, and gave himself for it, that in the end it might be for himself, and more than anything else, he desires that it might be so now. Was there that response, that special response, awakened before and after amongst the Ephesian believers, which was for them their first love? And I think what I've said is perhaps confirmed by the fact that the word employed first here is slightly different from the word, generally speaking, the first in time. It's the word used for the best role. It's the word used for the chief men, or the chief women, or the chief city in an area, in the narrative parts of holy scripture. And so it seems to me very likely indeed that in these words the Lord Jesus Christ is drawing us back to that which has indeed been the great center of that to which we have been called, and that concerning which the epistle of Timothy has said to us, possess it, make it your own. He had said to us, hold it fast. Well, it's that scheme of divine truth that centers, for your heart and mine, in this prayer to know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. Every aspect of the love of Christ is of supreme importance to us in every department of life. The kind of love that made the Lord Jesus Christ sympathize with the sorrowing sisters. The kind of love that he had for Lazarus before he died. Every aspect of the fact that the love of Christ is set upon us. The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But we might be forgiven if in this church, a letter to the church at Ephesus, we are reminded that above all the Lord Jesus Christ desires that in the way of a community response to him, there might be the knowledge of his love. Well, whatever it may be, the Lord himself can and will speak to us if here and now, and in our secret devotions, we earnestly desire him to speak to our hearts about this verse. He will indicate to us what he would desire our response to be. But we would really be overcomers if we did this. And I am suggesting that the overcomers has a very wide view indeed. Now when you come to the overcomer in Ephesus, is it not wonderful what tremendous streams of thought and truth come before us when the Lord Jesus says in verse 7, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. One of the more brief of the promises to the overcomers. And I'd like to make a suggestion here. I'm quite sure that many of you, young, serious students of holy scripture, desiring to have divine light upon it, often wrestled with the question, how does it come about that the things promised to the overcomer are things that every true believer will have? How can we understand that this is so? You and I, if we are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, will not be hurt of the second death. And I believe it's true of all the promises to the overcomers. They are things that every believer is going to have. Well, perhaps it is, it has sometimes appealed to me like this. That if we think of the verse in particular, that we are speaking now of verse 7, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Then the Spirit saith to the churches, the Spirit saith to him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life. I don't know whether in a few words I make plain what I mean, but it's that the Spirit saith to the overcomer these things. In other words, these truths that are in fact the portion of every heart that truly trusts in the Savior. Yet it is the special realization of them now that is brought before the person who is an overcomer, so that now in them he might conquer. He might more and more conquer. It's to those who do not succumb to the general failure, but to those who overcome in the strength of the Lord that these wonderful promises are given to be their strength in the pathway of the overcomer. He will eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Since we read of it on the first page of Scripture, and since we read of it in the last page of Scripture, even if there's not a great deal about it in between, it must be something very sweet and very precious and very important to consider the tree of life. When we first read about the tree of life, it is in a mysterious way, to me it's very difficult to understand exactly the narrative that you have at the beginning of Genesis, but in a mysterious way it is connected with the other tree which speaks of responsibility. They were both open, but when, regarding the tree which dealt with the responsibility, thou shalt not, when they broke down, then the way to the tree of life was closed to them, and the flaming swords of the cherubim closed the way to the tree of life when man fell and sinned and in responsibility broke down altogether. And therefore, you see, to put the matter very briefly indeed, one of the most marvelous outcomes and evidences of the way that Christ, the Son of God, has done away with the works of the devil is that the way is open to the tree of life, not in the midst of man's paradise prepared for man by God where Satan entered, but in the paradise of God where the deceiver's feet shall never enter, nor the defiler shall ever enter there. In the paradise of God, the believer, the saint, the overcomer has access to eat of the tree of life. Everything that life means, everything that life means, it means light, it means joy, and it means love. In associations with the person with whom that life is shared, the believer is going to eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. That's a very wonderful promise to the overcomer, and I'm sure that it's intended to be available to us. For the time being, I will have to pass by because I only want to have to speak for two or three minutes more what might have been said about the, in more detail, about the sufferings of the saints in the Smyrna period. But there's a very important point, it seems to me, in the Pergamos period in verse 13. They were in a desperate plight in Pergamos. There was this spurious marriage with the world, which is the Spirit's way of saying that the church and the world entered into an illicit association with each other which never should have taken place. And of course, the idea of the establishment of the church is alive today, as just alive as it was then. The Church of England is by the law established. The whole principle of establishment came in with the Emperor Constantine, and it made it when the world was seen to be so wicked a world, but it's just as true today. They lived where Satan's seat was because he's the prince of this world. But in spite of the corruption with which the church at Pergamos was associated, yet it says here in the middle of verse 13, thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith. Now it's not at all unknown to you that the very period of the Emperor Constantine was the period when the great heresies first arose, and when men of God, like Antipas, the faithful martyr, so stood for and searched the Holy Scriptures to find the truth that they were unable to preserve the faith of Christ, and they're able to remain faithful to all that's contained in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was said of them that in spite of all this, they held fast his name and did not deny his faith. There was the greatest possible temptation to let philosophical thought take all the heart and core out of Christian truth. The things that they wrote, the creeds which came out of the great councils of those days, they don't contain the throbbing loving heart of our faith, but they do delineate its frontiers. Outside the frontiers marked by those creeds, though no one has the right to be called a Christian. It's been, it was true from that time, and it's true today. The first two great heresies were first of all Arianism, which is as alive as it possibly could be because Jehovah's witnesses are all Arians, which means that they believed by a misapplication of scripture that the Son of God was the first being to be created, and by him all the rest was created. In other words, he was a great person. He was divine, but he was not God. Now then, this was after a great deal of difficulty and many martyrdoms. It was clearly decided at that time, not that they themselves knew what the truth was, but they inquired of holy scripture. They inquired of what the holy apostles of the Lamb had taught, and they realized that the faith that was to be maintained is that the Son of God was the Son of God and God without a beginning, and he was therefore fully God. The second of the great heresies was taught by a person called Apollinarius, and it's been called Apollinarianism, and it was exposed there and then, and it is a heresy that in our circles we've always been slightly prone to, and it has cropped up again and again in certain circles, and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ had the body and the soul of a man, but not the spirit of a man. He wasn't completely a man. The place of the spirit in spirit, soul, and body was taken by God, who is a spirit. Therefore, he was neither fully God, nor was he fully man, and this was exposed. If he wasn't fully a man, he could not redeem us men. If he wasn't fully God, he couldn't declare God. If he wasn't fully man, he couldn't make a sacrifice for our sins, and from those days, you see, the truth, not, I repeat, the throbbing, loving heart and center of the truth, but the boundaries outside which a person has no right to be called a Christian, was delineated in those days, and the brethren have always recognized, and when they used the word heresy, they didn't say so, but when they used the word heresy, this is what they meant. They meant that a person was an addict to one of the false doctrines, most of which arose in those early days. Of course, they use it for other, more refined attempts to take away from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the word heresy was used in the sense that I'm using it now, and we should understand it, and therefore, it's a very important thing for us all to understand, that we have a separate path. We believe the Lord has called us to a separate path from the whole of the professing church, which has the marks of iniquity, which we've been taught to recognize, but many of them, we know and rejoice in the fact that our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, when we meet them in the street, when we meet them in the home, we can enjoy sweet fellowship together in the things of God. They don't share our separate position, which we believe the Lord rejoices in, but they are our fellow children of God, and we rejoice in it. But those sects that fall down on these truths concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, they have no right to the name of Christianity at all, and we ought to be very clear indeed about this, the oldest of us and the youngest of us. There is to be no truck, there is to be no merciful fellowship with them, there is only to be a witness against their errors, and then not the right hand of fellowship unless they renounce them. Well, I have no time. You possibly feel that I've already exceeded my time, but the church at Thyatira is the great period of the dominance of the Bishop of Rome. Perhaps from the 6th century to the 16th century, and the events introducing the Sardis period, we had that woman Jezebel who taught. You see, it wasn't only that the thing was brought in under the guise of a liberation from persecution, it wasn't only that it was brought in by a kind of power, beginning to smile instead of frowning and killing, but inside the church there was a woman who taught my servants to commit fornication and to introduce idolatry. It's the sea of Rome, it's the Bishop of Rome that is that woman, and the three times in the New Testament when a woman is said to destroy the inner heart of what is of God, this is one of them. There's the woman who hid leaven in the meal, the three measures of meal. Many times in scripture, being the food for God and his people, there was a woman who introduced evil into the doctrine which is the food of the church. In the end, there is to be a woman, a scarlet woman, who is given over to this illicit intercourse with the world and will be destroyed first of all when the day of judgment comes, and that's the woman of which we speak here. It's a very wonderful thing indeed that in the Thyatira period, the Lord speaks with such love and such approval and such compassion of that small remnant, and yet the fact that it says that their works were better at the end than at the beginning, I'm sure that represents the growing voice of those who witnessed to the true salvation by faith in the precious blood of Christ. It began with a few. It began with a witness that was almost inarticulate until in the end it really broke out in the reformers raised by God, and therefore there was in every case those who were overcomers, and there was wonderful encouragement for them. When they were delivered altogether from the power that had an illicit intercourse with the world, they really would be with Christ. They would be given real reigning power. They would be with the one who would dash the world in pieces like a puss vessel and rule and shepherd with a rod of iron, and it is to them that first of all is given that they should have the morning star. …

… The Revelation, chapter 3. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast to name, that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If thou therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let us recall that what we have before us in these letters is nothing less than the appraisal of the Lord Jesus Christ of the situation amongst the churches. Not viewed, the church not viewed in its single beauty and perfection as the body of Christ and the bride of Christ, nor viewed as the house of God, but using a figure which as far as I can see occurs nowhere else, regarding the individual churches as lamps. This is the criterion by which the Lord Jesus Christ is judging the churches. Let us recall also that we have here something that is so very well known to most of us, and that is it is the risen and ascended Christ who is speaking to us. We have his view, and in this church at Laodicea we have something very clearly, very nearly approaching the state of affairs in which we live. It's the appraisal by the risen Lord of what he sees in the churches. Now let us never forget, because we can easily forget, the criterion is the lamp. To what extent are the churches fulfilling their privilege and that for which they've been equipped by the gift of the Spirit, to what extent are the churches fulfilling their function as lamps? And I don't think any of us would doubt that according to the well-known passage that was quoted yesterday evening by the Lord Jesus Christ says, men do not light a lamp to hide it away. They light a lamp to put it into a lamp stand that it may give light to everyone around. These were the words of the Lord Jesus himself, and these are the kind of concepts that we have to have in view when we consider the Lord is judging, he's appraising the churches. He presents himself in the first chapter in a most unusual character, is the character of a judge with eyes like a flame of fire and a two-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth, the word of God used in judgment. And we have therefore in these chapters the exact fulfillment of the word of Peter, that judgment must begin at the house of God, and then after that where will the ungodly and the unrighteous appear? Although therefore these considerations make our reading of such passages of tremendous importance, yet at the same time how unspeakably beautiful, how unspeakably tenderly appealing to our hearts is the kind of comfort that we have in these passages. Beginning with the comfort given to John, when he fell at his feet as one dead, and that comforting, strengthening right hand was placed upon him, and he was given the assurance, fear not, I am he that liveth and was dead, and in those words is the victory over every contrary force acting upon the church, because our hope and our strength is in himself that can never fail and his spirit. But all these promises that we have, the fact that the overcomer will eat of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God, and one by one we go through the comfort that there is for us in these words. So there is an appraisal with the need therefore for repentance and the willingness to see ourselves through the eyes of the Lord in the greatest possible mercy given us here. What Christ thinks of the church now, we're in no doubt about because we have it here. And therefore there is the conscience work that is required when we are confronted by such appraisal by the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh how wonderful that there is also the comfort and the strength available to him in him, and that is depicted in the opening to every one of the letters. Now I suppose it will be wise for me to say at the beginning that Sardis is Protestantism. Some of us who have responsibility for the work in Zaire not long ago received a sheaf of papers from the president of what calls itself the Church of Christ in Zaire proclaiming that in the year 1979 there would be the celebration services with great rejoicing, and I suppose banners flying and drums playing, there was going to be the celebration of 100 years of Protestantism, the very word that we are using, 100 years of Protestantism in Zaire. Well of course there's been a great deal more than 100 years of Protestantism in this country, and it's a very good thing for us to know what the Lord Jesus thinks about Protestantism. Now one of the things that puzzled me for many years as I read this passage and heard the kind of things that are said about it is if this is what comes after the Reformation, how has it come about that we have so little that can discernibly be applied to the Reformation and the Reformers? And I've discovered of course that there is an extremely plain and straightforward answer to that, and I hinted at it last night, and that is that these letters do not tell us the events providentially brought about by the interposition of God on the stage of history. These letters do not say anything at all about the events that brought about these states of affairs. We read nothing about the accession of emperors from Nero forward, disposed to persecute the church, and continuing until the beginning of the fourth century, nothing at all about these emperors. They would think that they were the people who mattered. There's nothing at all about this, but there is only the condition of a lamp in the church of Smyrna consequent upon the fact that they were in a period of persecution. What a tremendous event historians make of the fact that there was a Christian emperor who acceded to the throne and put an end to the suffering and brought in toleration. Not a word about that, but what there is is the judgment of the Lord upon the results of it, the consequences of it, the unholy marriage between the church and the world, and so it is here. There's nothing at all about the great event by which God providentially brought about the recovery of so much precious truth that had been lost throughout all the dark ages, but after this had done its work and after the reaction to it and the response to it had become manifest in the system established by the Reformation, that is Protestantism, the Lord gives his verdict upon it. So this is not the Reformation. This is not the Reformers. We owe a tremendous debt to the Reformers. We owe a tremendous debt to those men who hazarded their lives and very often gave their lives that we might have the Word of God in our hands, who so toiled that the Word of God was set free with such tremendous results. But what happened afterwards? What happened when these privileges were available in the churches? Well, this is what this letter tells us. They soon came to the situation when, because of all this, they had a name to live and they were dead. Now, as we approach this letter in detail, I want to say another word or two about the fact that there is a recognizable pattern in the structure of each one of these letters. They all begin with a certain presentation of himself that the Lord Jesus Christ gives for that church. We are left to understand and to believe that if these churches had taken account of that character that was made available to them in their Lord and Savior, that they would have not fallen into the traps that they did. And we are left to understand also that if there are individuals who are willing to take hold by faith and response to what the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself, the way the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself in these letters, then it's by this that they can be overcomers. So the first thing that is in every letter is the Lord Jesus presents a particular facet or a particular set of facets of himself and all that's available in him for the church as a lampstand. And they all end with exactly the same little paragraph which deals with the overcomer, the individual response, the individuals who do not succumb to the seductions, the blandishments, or the terrors of the world, no, they don't succumb, they overcome. And the last few words are in every case addressing most precious promises to the overcomer, together with a call that he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now in between we have a rather varied collection of little paragraphs in which we have appraisal by the Lord Jesus Christ of what he sees in the churches, of revelation of the failures of those churches, of counsel as to what he wants them to do if they will listen to his voice, and in some cases a special word of commendation to some who actually did conduct themselves in a manner pleasing to him. It's varied except for the first, that is the presentation of Christ himself, and the last, that is to the overcomer. But if we cast our eyes down this particular letter, the letter to the church at Sardis, then we see that the presentation of the Lord Jesus of himself occupies the first part of the first verse only. He that speaks is the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. The appraisal of what the Lord Jesus Christ sees in this church is also only a half of the verse. It's the rest of verse one, I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. And then in verses two and three we have the Lord's counsel. He wants to bring them the things that they should do in response to what he has to say, but in with this counsel there are a few extra words of appraisal that are very important that we should understand them. In verse four we have rather a special feature, and that is the actual pointing out that there are few individuals. So special is this that their very names are indicated. Thou hast a few, even in Sardis, a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. And then finally, in verse five, the promise to the overcomer and the call that the opened ear will hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. It's always pointed out that what the Spirit saith to the appeal to him that will hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, in the first three churches comes before the overcomer. But in the last three churches, the last four churches rather, we find that the call to hear comes after the overcomer, as much as to give a hint that it's likely in these cases so far has been the declension that it's only those who are overcomers whose ears really will be open to what the Spirit saith to the churches. How much we would desire to take account of ourselves by our very presence here this evening on these chapters of being read. How much we'd like to take account of ourselves as those who have ears and desire to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. These are the words of the Lord Jesus from heaven, the one who was dead for our sakes and is alive again at the right hand of the throne of God. They're made available to us by the Spirit. We want to be amongst those who hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. Let us think, first of all, of the introduction in the first part of verse three. These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God. Now that might be a confusing difficulty to us. We know that it's a very important part of our creed, so clearly understood in Scripture that there is one Spirit of God. The unity of the Spirit in what he does is emphasized in so many places. There is one Spirit of God. How then does it come about that in the first chapter, when it speaks about the Spirit, it says in the fourth verse of the first chapter, grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come, that's God of course, and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne. And when we come also over to chapter four, we read about the seven Spirits that are before his throne. Now the one who speaks here is the one who has the seven Spirits of God, and understanding it cannot possibly mean that there is more than one Spirit of God, then this manner of speech seems to indicate the absolute plenitude and fullness of the power and everything that's needed from the Lord Jesus Christ, it is available to us through the Holy Ghost. The Lord Jesus Christ possesses the seven Spirits of God. Now most of you will be aware of the passage in Isaiah chapter 11, which comes as near as could be to explaining this to us, at least so it seems to me. In Isaiah chapter 11, we are immediately following the last destruction, the destruction of the last great enemy of God's people Israel, that is the Assyrian. It almost reads to me like a series of newspaper headings telling about the progress of that last great assault upon Jerusalem by the Assyrian, and he's cut down, verse 34, he's cut down, and then we read that the earthly reign of the Lord Jesus Christ begins. Verse chapter 11, there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Very rightly, the translators have put a capital B there, a branch shall grow out of its roots because it is no other than the first of the Messianic King, our Lord and Savior. In verse 2, now notice that we have a sevenfold statement in verse 2 of the activities of the Spirit of God in the perfect government that's going to come upon the earth. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. I'm sure you'll have seen that there's first of all a single statement, the Spirit of the Lord, and then after that there are three pairs of statements dealing with wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, and knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Now that seems to me to be a passage which gives us an explanation of what the Spirit of God means by speaking about the seven Spirits of God. It talks about the plenitude, the fullness, the complete adequacy of the spiritual power that's in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how different would have been the history of the Protestantism if there had been a full understanding that the complete power to meet the needs of his churches were in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no need to find light, there was no need to find wisdom and understanding anywhere else than that which begins in the fear of the Lord. There was adequate provision through the Spirit of God from whom we receive the Word of God and the power to understand it and to fulfill it, a special attention drawn to the fact that in the Spirit, in the plenitude of his power and adequacy that's portrayed in this expression, there was that which would have delivered Protestantism from its worst excesses. And by the same token, how wonderful if we see that this is true and we find that it is true in the Word of God, in our experience, then it is this will make us overcomers. Now it also says only two things said about the Lord Jesus here. And the second one is that he has, possesses not only the seven Spirits of God, but he possesses the seven stars. Now because of the wide range of the matters which came before us yesterday, I don't think a single word was said about the stars. And a great deal of ink and paper has been expended upon speculations as to who the stars could be. Well it seems to me that there are some plain indications as to what is meant by this. First of all, the word angels means messenger. Its general use, almost universally in scripture, is to a level of spiritual beings higher than man on the scale of creation, the angels, those beings who veil their faces in the presence of the Lord, those angels who are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them that would be heirs of salvation. But it's obvious that this is not the meaning here. These were people who were there and they were with the Apostle John. And it seems very plain to me that therefore the fundamental idea in saying that they're angels is back to the original meaning of the word messengers. They were the messengers who come from these seven churches to John in his exile in the island of Patmos. And John was commanded to give these letters to the seven messengers of the churches and send them back. Now the second stage in our understanding of what they were is that it was by these men therefore the light coming from the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven was conveyed to the churches. They were the ones who, so to speak, stood to those churches in the part of Christ himself. They were the channels by which the light and the power and the blessing that should flow from the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven would flow to them. And that gives another indication what is meant by this. And therefore, it seems to me that we should think of these as being in totality, viewing as one whole, the means whereby the will of the Lord Jesus Christ is communicated to the churches. Therefore it's an expression which gives the totality of the work of the gifts and perhaps also of the offices in the church. It represents order and authority and the means whereby the Lord Jesus speaks to his own. Now if in the Reformation churches they had understood that the Lord Jesus Christ had it in his power to make full provision for order and rule and light and ministry in that church which was his own possession in order to further their work as lamps, they wouldn't have gone so far astray as they have done in the appalling mass of complete disobedience to himself relative to order and gift and ministry in the church. It's a striking thing that in the first letter, the seven stars are in his hand. In this letter, there's something less implied by saying that he has the seven stars. He could have given them all that was needed for a communication from himself perhaps by order and ministry in the church. He's the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. And the more I reflect upon these two brief characteristics of the one who speaks, the more it seems to me that it's a complete answer to where the churches that came from the Reformation went astray. They didn't realize the plenitude and adequacy of the power of the Spirit of God that was in the hands of the Lord, and they didn't understand that the Lord was himself making adequate provision. You see, up to the Reformation, order and ministry in the church, such as it was, was by apostolic succession, nothing else, apostolic succession. Well, when this was broken down at the Reformation, what an opportunity there was to go back to the fountainhead in Scripture. Instead of that, we see a most appalling array of the ideas of man about order and rule as well as ministry in the church, instead of recognizing the fact that the Lord Jesus had the seven stars and could have controlled this matter completely. Now, I would like to take together the two parts of the appraisal. The first is in the end of verse one. I know that thou hast an end that thou livest and art dead. Incidentally, I believe that the always repeated introduction to this part, which says, I know thy works, really means that nothing that you are doing is hidden from me. My eyes, like a flame of fire, and my mouth, like a sharp, two-edged sword, there's nothing at all hidden from me. I know what you're doing. The works simply mean what you're doing. I know whether it's good, whether it's bad, whether it's something, whether it's nothing. I know what you're doing. Nothing at all is hidden from me. If I were to go back to that passage in Isaiah chapter 11, the next part of it tells us that when he comes, he will not judge after the hearing of his ear. He'll judge with righteousness. Now, all human judgment, at its best, comes down to listening to what somebody heard or what somebody saw, and justice can never be better than the evidence provided by what somebody heard or what somebody saw. But when the Lord Jesus comes to reign, he will not judge by the hearing of the ears or the seeing of eyes. He'll judge with justice and with judgment, and so it is for the churches. The Lord Jesus Christ knows what we are doing. It's a serious voice to our consciences. The Lord Jesus Christ knows our consciences, and our only right attitude is to be before him judging ourselves in those things that his presence reveals are displeasing to himself. And unjudged actions and thoughts of ours, which we know to be displeasing to himself, how must they not be a large cause of the weakness that there is? The Lord Jesus Christ says, I know what you are doing. And then, consequent upon this, he says, Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Now, we can easily see how it was said of Protestantism that it had a name to live. When you think of the tremendous things that came out at the Reformation, and I'll speak of them exactly in a moment or two, then it's not surprising that the Lord Jesus says here, you've got a name to live. Why? Because you've got the word of God. You've got an open Bible. You've rejected all other kind of authority, and you seek to obey my authority by the word. They had indeed a name to live. But as time passed, and as this verdict became more and more manifest that the Lord Jesus Christ says of the mass in Protestantism, there are a few exceptions in the end, but of the mass, although you have a name to live, you are dead. And it is not true. But there's a tremendous amount of absolute death, lifeless profession in the great mass of the Protestant churches. It isn't up to us to judge this, but the Lord Jesus says, Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Now the second part of the appraisal is in verse two, I have not found thy works perfect before God. Now then, the great deal that might be said about this, I have not found thy works perfect before God. If we survey the geography of these seven churches, you would, if you looked at the map, you would see that in your mind you take a journey from south to north, up the coast of Asia Minor in the Aegean Sea, and after the third one, you go a little bit inland and then come back in a parallel course on your tracks. You see Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos, pretty well on the coast. And then very close to them, you have Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, they're very close together. And the fact that this series begins with Ephesus and ends with Laodicea, we mustn't think of Laodicea before we came to these letters as the absolute end of unfaithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ that's going to be spewed out of his mouth. The church at Laodicea is mentioned alongside the church at Colossae in the last verses of Colossae. And it seems to me very plain that in this particular selection of the seven churches, we are thinking of the churches at the very height of the revelation of what God had given. The very truths concerning Christ and the church that were needed to complete the Word of God, they were available in this area and in these churches. And the first and the last, that is Ephesus and Laodicea, read in terms of the epistles only a few years afterwards, seems to me to indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ is judging of these churches not only in view of the fact that there were intended by him to be lamps and witnesses during the whole of his absence to all the truth made available to them by the Word and the Spirit, but also he is judging them in view of the fact that in this particular area, the last stone was laid upon the marvelous edifice of divine revelation when the Apostle Paul brought out, as moved by the Spirit of God, the truth of the mystery. Oh, that which is so, so very great a thing in the heart of the blessed Lord himself, the truth of Christ and the church. I spoke about this just a little yesterday, but I hope that it comes across to you that the Lord Jesus, we must take, I feel, convinced as judging of these matters in the light of the fact that they were intended to be witnesses in the widest sense of what they knew from himself and that they were being judged in terms, they were being appraised in terms of the fact that the very highest truth, the very last stone in the edifice of revelation had been known, had been made known to these very churches. Thy works, I have not found thy works complete before God. In Colossians chapter 1, verse 25, so familiar that it's hardly necessary for me to turn to it, Colossians chapter 1, verse 25, the Apostle Paul, having first of all spoken about himself as minister of the gospel, then goes on to speak himself as minister of the church or the mystery. And he said, in this sense, it was given to me to complete the word of God. The mystery it was that was required to bring out the last of the great truths that remained unrevealed. You see, it doesn't mean that the last book was written because the revelation goes over many truths and uses many figures and expressions that are already well-known. It's the close of a story that had long been told in the Holy Scripture. We only needed to know the end of it, but when the Apostle Paul wrote the epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians, it was given to him to complete the word of God. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ says of the church at Sardis, of Protestantism, I have not found thy works perfect before God, I'm sure, I'm as sure as possible that that has a quite specific meaning. Now let us go back to what the works, what the work of the Reformation was. Well one could put it in three ways, and they're absolutely tremendous, all of them. The first of all, and even the secular historian admits this, the first thing they did was to liberate the word of God. Up to that time, it had been hidden away in handwritten manuscripts, in monasteries and in other places, and in languages that were hardly known to anyone. Latin, of course, was known, but it wasn't one of the original languages of Scripture. But it was given to the Reformers to set free the word of God. Connected with their works was the great work of Bible translation in all our European languages, and by printing instead of hand-copying of manuscripts, the word of God was set free to do its own work in bringing light and life wherever the beams of its light were shining. So the first great thing was that they set free the word of God. And you and I are able to sit here tonight with open Bibles in our hands because of that great work of the Reformation. How could it possibly have gone wrong with such a beginning? It did go wrong because the result here is that there was an aim to live and they were dead. The second great work of the Reformation was that they repudiated—and this is what gave them so much difficulty—they repudiated the authority of the Church and the Pope in all matters relating to Christian faith and behavior, and they substituted the very Bible that they had set free. And what a tremendous thing that was. With all the might of the Church and the Empire, the Pope and the Emperor against them, these few lowly men, and the hand of God, they did this wonderful work. They repudiated, and millions have accepted the result of that repudiation. Our authority is God himself, and it is made known to us not by the Pope and the councils, but it's made known to us in Holy Scripture. The absolute authority for the Christian in all matters relating to his faith and conduct is the word of God. It's everyday stuff to you and me, but it was absolutely a revolutionary beginning in the hands of the Reformers, raised up by God to do it. And the third great thing they did was to uncover the true way of salvation, not by paying money into the Pope's coffers, not by doing the works of the Church, not by pilgrimages and penances, but salvation due to the one sacrifice of Calvary, bringing justification by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now these were tremendous works, and we have every reason to thank God for them, and we have no reason at all to take these letters as being an indication that these weren't three tremendous works. In the work that was then begun, we read here that it was incomplete. It wasn't carried to a proper conclusion. Now in what respect was the work therefore not carried to a conclusion? There was absolutely no attempt to follow the Reformation principle of obedience to the word of God into the matter of order and government in the Church. And there was absolutely no recovery of the truth of Christ and the Church. The Reformers and all, very many of those who follow them today, do not discern the true unique wonder of the Church in the sense of the place it occupies in the counsels of God and the love of Christ. Those who follow the Reformers' tradition in the Reformed Churches believe that the Church has been the same body from Abel and it will be to the end, and that Moses and David were just as much pillars in the Church as the apostles. They failed entirely to uncover the New Testament truth concerning the Church, and so it says there, therefore, that he had not found the works perfect before God. And it leaves the matter wide open, you see, for some completion of the work of the Reformation in applying its principles to those great things that the word of God speaks of in the Church, in its worship, and in the true nature of the Church, and above all and especially what it is to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ who loved it and gave himself for it. Now, this is what is written over Protestantism as a whole, and the more you find out about it, the more you'll find out that's exactly what the state of affairs is, a name to live and dead in its widest way. But I want to go immediately to verse 4, Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Now that's a very lovely verse indeed. The Lord Jesus Christ looking down upon this strange mixture, he has to come up with unsparing condemnation and no church except Laodicea is so scathingly treated, if we may with reverence use such a word, as Sardis is. The Lord Jesus Christ plainly tells us what the truth is about Protestantism, but it does say Thou hast even in Sardis a few names of those who have not defiled their garments and they are worthy. We've got to think of that in view of the lamp, you see. Those few names must have been people who had a special impact upon the church's responsibility as lamps and there were a few names who had not defiled their garments. Now I didn't expect to be quite so long in reaching it as I have been, but I want to occupy about five minutes or so of the time which I hope you will permit me to read a few extracts and I want to tell you exactly why I think these extracts are so important. In the first place, they illustrate exactly what it means to say that these few names had not defiled their garments. Next, it shows how though they had such tremendous zeal and their hearts were moved by such love to Christ, yet they were all the time stultified and opposed and their service was made difficult by the ecclesiastical systems in which they had to work. And at the same time, we find that they in the most, perhaps the most perfect and full way that we've ever seen, they did carry out the wonders of the great works of the Reformation and that is the word of God and the proclamation of the gospel. And I maintain that you and I have a great deal to learn in one of our principal failures today from these few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. You could tell me the names as well as I can tell you. Richard Baxter and John Bunyan, John Wesley and George Whitefield, and Cowper and John Newton, all names in Sardis of men through whom the light of the word of God and the gospel shone when with unexampled devotion they fulfilled so far as their lights were concerned the function of being a lamp. Now the things I've said are illustrated in a story of a person much less known than the ones I've quoted, but nevertheless, step by step illustrates the point. It was William Grimshaw and he enjoyed the title of perpetual curate of the parish of Howarth in the Yorkshire Moors. I suppose it would be the same place with which the Brontes were collected. Before that, he was at a place called Todman. We begin the story in 1731, and I'm only reading a few minutes' extracts. The 11 years during which Grimshaw resided at Todman were beyond doubt the turning point in his spiritual history. About the year 1734, Grimshaw began for the first time to feel deep concern about his own soul and the souls of his parishioners. He was already a clergyman of many years' standing. A change came over his life and behavior. He laid aside the diversions in which he had hitherto spent the greater part of his time, such as hunting, fishing, card playing, reveling, and merrymaking, you see, unnamed to live and was dead, and his garments defiled on every hand. Hunting, fishing, card playing, reveling, and merrymaking, and he began to visit the people and press upon them the importance of the truth of Christianity. At the same time, he commenced the practice of praying in secret four times a day, a practice which there is reason to believe he never left off. There is nothing to show that his views of Christianity at this period were any but the most dark and obscure of the distinctive doctrines of the gospel, salvation by grace, justification by faith, free pardon through Christ's blood, and the converting power of the Holy Ghost, he probably knew nothing at all. But after the struggle between light and darkness had been going on for years, the final result was that after these several years of severe conflict, Grimshaw no longer walked in darkness but had the full light of life. The scales fell from his eyes. He saw and knew the whole truth, and the truth made him free. Then he came to his work in Haworth. His principal testimony is to the power of the scriptures at this crisis in his spiritual history. It is very striking and instructive. Like many others, he found the Bible almost a new book in his hand. In the middle of his spiritual conflict, and before he had found peace, it is related that a poor woman came to him in great distress of soul and asked him what she must do. He could only say, I cannot tell what to say to you, Susan, for I am in the same state myself, but the despair of the mercy of God would be worse than all. You see, he was very much a member of that which had a name to live and was dead in an absolutely nothing to give until such time as he was converted. Grimshaw began his work at Haworth after a manner very different from his beginning at Todberdon. He commenced preaching to his wild and rough parishioners the gospel of Christ in the plainest and most familiar manner, and followed up his preaching by house-to-house visitation. Wherever he could find, wherever he could get people together in a room, a barn, a field, a quarry, or by the roadside, he was ready to preach. His visiting was not a mere going from family to family to gossip about temporal matters such as sickness and the children, life touched that, such as sickness and the children. Wherever he went, he took his master with him and spoke to people plainly about their souls. This was the kind of work in which he spent his whole life at Haworth, preaching publicly and privately repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ for the whole of his 21 years of ministry. And then the fact that he was in Sardis becomes manifest in the fact that he got complicated with the toils of the interposition of the ecclesiastical authorities because he didn't keep to his parish. It says he was a man of rare diligence and self-denial. None ever worked harder than he did in his calling, and few worked so hard. He seldom preached less than 20 and often nearly 30 times in a week. In doing this, he would constantly travel scores of miles, content with the humblest fare and the roughest accommodation. And then I'll proceed to read you about the ecclesiastical authorities coming to him. You see, I hope this comes to you as it has done to me over the last few years. Out of Sardis, out of the Lord's commendation for a few names who had not defiled their garments, there comes to us the most terrific challenge of what it means to be a servant of Christ in the gospel. There was no big organization, but there was toil and prayer and exercise and searching the people day and night, week in and week out, for these long periods. Well, the story of the interposition of the ecclesiastical authorities serves also the purpose of showing what the results were. A thing that is really wonderful—incidentally, this was written by a bishop of the Church of England—the thing that is really wonderful in the history of Grimshaw's extra-parochial labors is the non-interference of ecclesiastical authorities. How the incumbent of Haworth can have gone on for 15 or 20 years preaching all over Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire without being stopped by bishops and archdeacons is very hard to understand. But though he was never actually stopped, we must not suppose he escaped persecution. The prince of this world will never willingly part with any of his subjects. He will stir up opposition. On one occasion, he was accused of preaching out of his own parish, and he was called up before the archbishop. "'How many communicants had you when you first came to Haworth?' He answered, "'Twelve, my lord.' "'How many have you now?' was the next question. The reply was, "'In the winter, from three to four hundred, and in the summer, nearly twelve hundred.' And on hearing this, the archbishop could only express his approbation and said, "'We cannot find fault with Mr. Grimshaw.'" Now, I'll stop there and not tell you any more of the story. But you'll see how—at least I hope you'll see—how that story illustrates the whole truth, dark and shade, good and bad, about Sardis, about Protestantism. There was in the first place a man with his garments fearfully, fearfully soiled by contact with the world. It was a man, at the very best, absolutely limited by the ecclesiastical system to which he belonged, a person who had a very limited amount of truth to proclaim, but a man who went all out and was used by God as a lampstand. What he knew, he witnessed, far and wide, to rich and poor, in the power of the seven spirits of God, he witnessed it. And there were these few names in Sardis who did this. And considering what is said about their having not defiled their garments, the promise is that they shall walk with me in white. I suppose that what is said here about the Lamb's Book of Life is one of the things that may be found a little puzzling. With regard to the overcomer, with this I close, we read that I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life. And we all, to begin with, say to ourselves, how can a person's name be blotted out of the Book of Life? But of course, if we take the widest view of this particular point in Scripture, we can see that over the earlier part of Scripture, the Book of Life is only mentioned regarding a person being blotted out from it. And a good example is Moses. If I can't, if you can't, go with us, then, he says, blot me out of thy book. And in the Psalms, it talks also about being blotted out of the Book of Life. And we can see what it was here. Those who had a name to live, but those whose names were ostensibly in the Book of Life. But when all was said and done, and when the promises were made to these few insiders, it says, I will not blot out his name. All these others, I'm already saying, although they have a name to live, they are dead. But these, no, their names will not be blotted out of the Book of Life. And when we come in the end of the book to read about that particular thing, the Lamb's Book of Life, then those who have an entrance into that golden city, where God is the light and the Lamb is the Lamb, then they will be there, because their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and no name will ever be taken from this. Well, the message of Sardis, as the whole situation indicates, leaves an impression of imperfection, because it is an incomplete state. And I do trust that there comes out from it, in the first place, a beginning of a glimmer of a wonderful appreciation of the work which has brought us, humbling as it should be to us, has brought us the knowledge as a daily substance of our understanding of Holy Scripture, the daily substance of our rejoicing in the Lord, the very things that were left short in the Reformation. And to remember that even out of those dark and difficult days, there's a voice that seriously condemns us for our shortcomings relative to whether and to what extent we are lampstands. The things that we are speaking of, they should be mediated to others, with one of my intentions that it should be so this week. The things we know regarding the gospel, if Grimshaw was so much on fire about it, then we should at least be pleading day by day the command of the Lord Jesus Christ that we should pray that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. …

… We shall be reading in the Revelation, chapter 3, beginning at verse 7. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out. And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. We've been placing the greatest importance upon the fact that the view taken of the churches in these letters is that they are candlesticks, or as we have always expressed it, they are lamps. And although we only have this at the beginning, and in the first letter we have the word of God, a warning that the Lord, if they didn't hear his word, would come and remove the lamp out of its place, yet there's no question, since there are seven lamps to correspond to the seven churches, we're to keep in mind right through to the end that the churches in this particular aspect of them, not viewed as a heavenly body, but viewed as a community of churches, each in closest fellowship with each other, but individually intended to be as lights and as witnesses. Witnesses in the widest sense to God as he has made himself known fully in the Lord Jesus Christ. Witnesses to all the truth. Witnesses to the person who here presents himself to us as the holy and the true. How far the churches, by the time we come to Philadelphia, had slipped away from this, then we have been taking note day by day. Now we obviously come to a very, a stage of very special interest to us as we read the address to the church in Philadelphia. And let us first think of the manner in which the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself here. The days that must be upon the church in Philadelphia, there must be closing days. There must be days when everything that ever appeared great of Christianity in the eyes of the world is gone. If there is strength, there is only a little strength. And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself as one who is fully adequate to the responsibility to be lamps of the churches in closing days. He presents himself first in what he is, and second in what he does. And both these aspects of what the Lord Jesus Christ says about himself in this presentation are particularly suitable to the closing days of the responsible history of the church here upon earth. He is the holy one. When the church had fallen so far in all the sad history of corruption and departure that we have followed as we have gone down the history of the churches, as seen by him, the Lord Jesus Christ, these are no human histories, their history as seen by him and as imparted to him personally to the churches being what they need to know in order to make them and keep them faithful in their own time. The Lord Jesus Christ presents himself against, over against, in contrast with, indeed the very word means, in separation from all the corruption and evil that has manifested itself in the churches. And so we first of all get the very essence of what it means to be a separate person. That's the basic meaning of holiness. The one who has that quality in himself which is entirely apart from, entirely separate from evil of every kind. And then from the very earliest days we have seen how God looks with pleasure upon a man who was separated even though he was separated from his brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, over against all the corruption and all the evil and all that is false that has shown itself in the church, the Lord Jesus Christ is the holy one. And I feel sure that there's a similarity in the intention with which the Lord Jesus speaks to us of himself like this, a similarity to what he said to the father in the hearing of the disciples in John 17, for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. You see, there you have sanctification or separation or holiness on the one hand and you have it connected with truth. For their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. The knowledge of the holy one separated in heaven is adequate to sustain the people of God when separation becomes necessary and vital. Now the other thing about himself that the Lord Jesus says, the Lord Jesus risen and in the midst of the throne, he is, he speaks and says, and the true. Now this does not strictly and straightforwardly mean truth speaking. Of course the Lord Jesus Christ is truth speaking. All that he says corresponds absolutely with reality. But the thought behind this word, the holy and the true, the thought behind that word true is the complete in contrast with the partial. It is the final in contrast with the temporary. And it is the substance in contrast with the shadow. You see, all these words that I've used, the partial, the temporary, and the shadow, they applied to the knowledge of God that came in the Old Testament. There was that knowledge. It was the knowledge of the true God. But it was a partial knowledge. It was a temporary knowledge to be superseded by the perfect. And it was the shadow but not the substance. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who here presents himself, is the one in whom God's last word has been spoken. There's not a word to be spoken upon any theme after the Lord Jesus Christ has been fully manifested and known. He has fully made known the Father. All truth rests in him. And it's a very cardinal element in the teaching of John in his gospel that in the Lord Jesus Christ we have the truth. He's the true light. He's the true bread. He's the true vine. He's the true God. And this is the quality that is contained in the name that he gives to himself, the description for our strengthening and for the satisfaction that we need in heart and mind. He is the holy and he is the true. How rightly do we make so much of this. How much mood when we sing about the holy and the true. And all that we receive as we look to him in this character in the kind of days in which we live. But then he goes on to present himself in what he does. And this we have in the same verse. We have been speaking about the fact that he says, he that is holy, he that is true. This is the speaker. What he says that the speaker is able to do is he openeth and no man shutteth and he shutteth and no man openeth. He has the key of David. Now this of course is practically a direct quotation from the 22nd chapter of the prophet Isaiah. But its meaning is quite abundantly plain to us because it is in the name of David that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to take power over this world. In the wider sense he'll be the son of man. But then he is going to take power and the governmental power over this world as David. And therefore to say that he has the key of David indicates that he is able by intervention, by the power that's going to rule all the world, he has the power of intervention by providential means at the present time to give special opportunities to his people. And this is what he says here. In the presentation he says, I am the one who opens and no man shuts and the one who shutteth and no man openeth. But when we come to the next verse we find how the Lord Jesus Christ in connection with this particular church has used that power, the power of intervention in earthly affairs, the power of providential intervention, he has used it to set before them an open door. Now I want to speak quite a bit about this question of the providential intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ. But first of all let us take a general look at what the Church of Philadelphia might stand for. We have seen in Laodicea, we have seen in Thyatira, a great ecclesiastical system which is marked by teaching within it which leads to the most frightful corruption. We have seen it partially replaced by another great ecclesiastical system that cuts a great figure in the sight of the world, in the eyes of the world. Now when we come to Philadelphia we find a church that has very different marks indeed and that is it has these special marks that it has a little strength. It has kept his word and not denied his name and it is marked by the love of the brethren. That's the meaning as we all know of the name Philadelphia. It's a very striking thing that in these two churches, all springing out of Pergamos of course, in Thyatira and Sardis, we have the church as it cuts a very big figure in the establishment of the world. It's a force to be reckoned with and it does make itself heard in the matters of the world. I often think about the way the ecumenical movement makes itself known relative for example to the black races in Africa. What is it concerned with the ecumenical movement which so nearly joins together Sardis and Thyatira? What is it concerned with? It's concerned with racist things. It's concerned that there should be an absence of racial feeling. It is concerned with the fact that the black races should have equal political rights. There's not a single word about concern for the salvation of their souls and their being brought to Christ and that's a very striking picture of what these churches that are great in the establishment in our time manifest their true character. They want to intervene in the things of earth. Well now apart from all that you see the very fact that there is a separate church indicates that it's separate from all that we have this church of Philadelphia and it's a church that has a little strength. There is strength but there's a little strength. It has kept his word and not denied his name and it is marked by brotherly love. Now I want to come back to those features a little later but for the time being I want to come back to this most important concept of the providential intervention of God. Now the church at Philadelphia has always been subject to the greatest interest of the brethren. From my earliest days I've bawled over these passages and I've heard them explained and expanded and I would like um in the simplest possible way to repeat myself by saying this. The brethren do not claim to be Philadelphia. What they do is they aim to be Philadelphia and I feel that I would carry a good deal of conviction with you when I put it like that. We do not claim to be Philadelphia but it is in our hearts because of the effect upon us of words like this spoken by the Lord Jesus it is in our hearts to aim to be Philadelphia. It is perhaps necessary to clear the air just a little by saying that to start with. Now we saw in the earlier churches an important fact that I have myself not often heard explained and expressed and that is that in these churches we do not get the providential acts of God that set the stage for them. We get the results of changes brought about under the providence of God. We don't read anything about the accession of persecuting emperors. We don't find anything about the reasons which changed Nero from being for five years a reasonably good ruler to a murderous murderous persecutor of the Christians. We don't read anything about that but we do read what happened, the result. There was a church suffering, a church in tribulation, a church in prison, a church in death, and it's to these the Lord Jesus Christ said be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. We don't read anything about the accession, the providential intervention of God, the accession of a Christian, a professing Christian emperor who brought toleration and therefore peace to the church. When we come to Sardis, and this is the thing that puzzled me for years and years, when you read Sardis you don't read anything at all about the reformation. The providential intervention of God that brought about the tremendous changes were very great and these men are strongly to be commended for what they actually and positively achieved. But the result of what they did we do read about and it's one of the saddest parts of the whole story. After such a name to live, you see, in what the reformers achieved. After such a name to live it was dead and it's dead today and its works were not complete in the sight of God. Now let us keep that particular point in mind. This after all is said and done about the great wonder of the beginning and the end of having only a name to live and being dead and the explanation its work was not perfect, not complete before God. Now we would therefore expect that if there is a restoration and revival, I say that because as we all know there's no reproach at all to Philadelphia. There's something there very precious to the heart of the Lord. There's everything to encourage it and there's nothing to condemn it. But we would expect that in its character, in its beginning, it would have some connection with the completion of the work that was left incomplete by the reformers and those who came after them. Now what was the particular nature of the imperfection of their work? The great principle of the reformation was the word of God. They physically set free the Bible from being hand-copied manuscripts hidden in monasteries in languages that nobody knew. It became translated and it became printed and became liberated so that all the people could have the word of God in their hands, in their own tongue. And then they acted upon the fact that that scripture, that word, that they had set free, it was the sole authority in matters relating to life and faith. And then they preached the great gospel doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone through the blood of his sacrifice. Well that was a very great principle, the word of God alone, faith in the word of God alone, obedience to the word of God alone, but they took it no further. And the churches that stand in their tradition take it no further. They do not carry the principle of the reformation, which is obedience to the word of God, into the matters of the church and its doctrine and its worship. And I cannot spend very long on that negative side of our story, but any careful inquiry that you care to make will show that this is so. The great theologian of the reformation, whose name still commands the greatest possible respect amongst the evangelicals in Salis, he was a person who never got to the knowledge of the true church. He believed that the church was one from Abel to the coming of Christ. It was all one body, and Abraham and Moses were just as much pillars of the church as the apostles were. They failed altogether to discern the true church, and very particularly what they failed to do was to discern the place that the one pearl of great price has in the counsels of God and the love of Christ. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. The idea that the church was to be a lamp might be understood by them, but the idea that the church in its wonderful, lovely beauty and unity was the object of the love of Christ, to be in the end, through his sacrifice and his ministrations, perfected and beautiful to be presented to himself for the satisfaction of his heart. And this was the counsel of the Father. This is hidden. Now, it was at this point, although I would be, and I think we would all here be quite backward in claiming that we ourselves or any whom we know are fully Philadelphia. Why? Because there's no reproach, and we know very well that there are many ways in which we ourselves do merit the reproach that might come from the Lord. But nevertheless, the Lord Jesus himself has given this. He set it before us as what we aim to be in these closing days. Although I may wish, and we all may wish, to be humble and careful in the statement of who is Philadelphia, there's absolutely no doubt as to the providential intervention by which God opened this door. It's this to which the Lord Jesus refers when he says, I have set before thee an open door. Now, the question as to who, under God, recovered these truths that I've spoken of, there can be no question at all. They were hidden. When we look back to the first revelation of the truth of God, that revelation was incomplete. In that sense, it was perhaps, in some senses, rather like Sardis. The revelation was incomplete until such time as after the gift of the Holy Ghost, we're told that the Apostle Paul received by revelation and taught to others for the first time what had been hidden from ages and generations, and unknown to the Old Testament saints, he taught them the mystery, that is the truth of Christ and the church, so precious to the heart of Christ as I've spoken of it. Now, the Apostle says about this, after saying that he was a minister of the gospel in Colossians chapter 1, he says in that same chapter, verse 25, that he's minister of the church, the mystery, and because it was given to me to complete, to make fully perfect the word of God. It wasn't the last book, but it was the last doctrine, the last great truth to be revealed. The Apostle John had made known the great truth of the Father, and the last truth to be revealed. In it, the word of God was completed, was the truth of the mystery, Christ, and the church. Before this was made known, then the edifice of revelation was incomplete. Now, after Sardis, the work of the recovery of the truth that was there in the word of God all the time, it was incomplete. The process of the recovery of lost truth was not complete, but under God, J. N. Darby was the person who was raised up providentially to do this, and it's a very interesting thing to me. If anyone doubts this question, it's a very interesting thing to me that even the enemies of the truth have had to confess to this. I've sometimes asked myself strange questions, like if we were to take other movements, other movements of the last 200 years, the last 150 years, and say, how do we know that these aren't Philadelphia? How do we know that these aren't the great prime result of a special providential intervention of God? We think of General Booth, a very great man in many ways, a very great man in many ways, a man who did some wonderful things, and his followers are greatly devoted people, devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, devoted to the spread of the gospel, devoted to the compassions of God. But we can see that there was absolutely nothing at all distinctive about an advance in the knowledge of revealed truth in that movement. It could not possibly be that which is required to come after Sardis. Many would say, surely the charismatic movement is what we want. You and I don't say that, but other people would very likely answer us and say, that's what it really is. It's the revival of really spiritual truth. Now, of course, I can't stop at this moment to speak about that, but there are one or two points which make it absolutely plain that this is not of God. When you think of all the centuries that intervened between the scripture days and the days of the last hundred years, then obviously tongues and miraculous gifts have ceased. Well, now the Holy Scripture expressly speaks about that kind of state affairs. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we have what is tantamount to being a scale of values in spiritual gifts, and nobody could imagine that the apostle Paul is putting tongues at the top. In the scale of values of spiritual gifts, it's at the bottom, and yet he says, covet earnestly the best gifts. If you haven't got it, you are not to spend your nights praying for it. You are not to covet it. It's not the thing to be sought for. It's edification. It's the best gifts that we are to seek for. And therefore, you see, it couldn't possibly be that, as the continuance of the line of things suggested by the imperfections. But what I'm saying concerning the work of that servant of God who called himself unknown and yet well-known bears the marks exactly of being used by God to recover the last part of revealed truth so that the whole New Testament truth of God is made known. I've written down what two of his enemies have said. They might not like to be called that, but it seems to me very plain that the name is justified. Code. C-O-A-D. Code. He says at the same time in the early 1830s, he was developing his characteristic contrast between the earthly, in inverted commas, hopes of the Jewish church and the heavenly, in inverted commas, the heavenly hopes of the Christian church. Now, when I write that down, I write sick and sick and sick because he uses terms that the gentleman himself would never have used, but he's got to admit that he was the first person who really saw the contrast, the sharp contrast between the earthly hopes of Israel and the heavenly hopes of the church. A person whose word is very much more to be held in esteem, it seems to me, is Ian Murray, the secretary of the Banner of Truth. He held that the church is Christ's mystic body and will be complete at the rapture. The Jews and Gentiles converted after the rapture will never be Christ's bride. I deny that saints before Christ's first coming or after his second are part of the church. You see, the distinct calling of the church to be a heavenly body, to be the bride of Christ, they think that they're saying something vituperative about it. They think that they're saying something condemning what he said, but thereby doing this, they're absolutely admitting that the one who under God brought this out. So, the saints have had it as the very breath of their new life ever since was the person that I've named. Now, the particular providential aspect of it is this, it seems to me. I don't know whether you remember the story of the Reformation going back to this providential interposition once again, but it was not only that Luther saw the doctrine of justification by faith. He was taught that himself from a long memory. I'm not quite sure of the name of the superior monk who taught it to him, but I think it was Staupitz. He was taught it by another monk, and that monk was doubtless taught it by another. The truth of justification by faith was known and deeply treasured by certain individuals, but it was in the providence of God that a man of iron came out who with the strength given by God could stand against the pope and the church and the emperor and the empire. It was the two together, the truth and the vessel for the establishment of that truth in its right place was what was the providential intervention. Well, J. N. Darby was not only a person of given that special insight into the truth of God to bring to us that which is most precious to the Father and the Son and is precious to us and is the subject of our fellowship and worship, but he was a man of such tremendous energy and selfless toil that he traveled over the world and he was given providentially a long, long life. And at the end of his life, there were in all the English-speaking countries and in all Western Europe something like 1,500 assemblies where these truths were the very breath of life, the very treasure which they possessed. And every time one of those assemblies goes off the book, then we have failed to hold fast. A tremendous part played in holding fast is the maintenance, the care, the pastoral care, the growing by the gospel of those assemblies where that truth is known. And it's the very substance of the communion of saints and the prayers of the saints to hold it fast. It's a very important part of holding it fast that we should be increased and confirmed in the individual assemblies. Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Every prayer meeting that's given up, every meeting which becomes small and fades away is just another failure in holding fast. It's one aspect of the failure but we must never think lightly of it because it's a very serious thing that the area over this which this treasure is treasured in the hearts of the saints is diminishing by these sad events that we see around us. Now let us come back for a few moments to speak about the marks of this church which I spoke of in the first place. A little strength. Now I'm personally convinced and I should think most of you are already personally convinced that the best example we have of the meaning of that little strength is in the restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah. There was no priest with Urim and Thummim. There was no Shekinah glory to fill the temple. Only a tiny proportion of what I believe to be the millions of Jews to whom the opportunity was given of the open door to return and occupy the old ground and have the eye and heart of God upon them as it was in the days of Malachi. It was indeed a little strength but the eye of God was there and the heart of God was there and the moment that we get to think that we've got a lot of strength then we are slipping off into the position occupied by a Thyatira or a Sardis. The brethren of former times were very very frequently quoting to each other and I'm not quite sure that I get the words in exactly the right order but it's from the prophets and it says that they are an afflicted and poor people but their trust is in the name of the Lord and that's what we are and that's what we want to continue to be an afflicted and poor people understanding ourselves to be such but above all our trust is in the name of the Lord because you see that's the next thing they kept his word and they did not deny his name. Now we were once known to be a people who knew the word and older people are still people who know the world very well indeed but oh how much we want to be careful about this. I have read and many of you will read I won't in this case disclose the author but many of you will read have read about a lady who had been brought up in an evangelical family and she was heard to declare her belief that the story of the woman at Sychar's well would be found in the gospel of Saint Luke. Now the writer said now no earnest sister would ever have been guilty of such a blunder not only from the habit of turning to it in the pages of Saint John but because of an intense if inarticulate certainty of its Johannine character and of course this is intended to be a joke but it is it's exactly true. We should be we rejoice to be we desire to be a people who keep his word keep that means treasure that means God we want to be a people who treasure that is we possess it it's our own and we continue through life in making it our own and doing what the Jews did not do being brought by it to the Lord himself who is eternal life and it says they have not denied his name. Well of course I suppose one of the central ideas of the name is it means the person himself is absent and those who did not deny his name they gave the honor due to him they gave the honor due to him to his name which was the gathering center here upon earth. There's a very wonderful pictures of what the importance is of assembling to the name of doing all honor to the name of the Lord. Little Samuel when he was brought up he had a father who went to Shiloh and that was the very first place Jeremiah told us where the name of the Lord was placed. He was brought up in a home where they were diligent in keeping to the practice of gathering together to the name of the Lord. A people who keep have kept his word and have not denied his faith and then of course I did mention that the very name Philadelphia signifies brotherly love and how much we do desire recognizing the great love that God has set upon us recognizing all that's contained in the words of the Lord Jesus as I have loved you he says this is my commandment that ye love one another. There's not time for me at this particular moment to give the final touch to the explanation of this providential intervention but it's a theme that is very well worth inquiring for and in in in sticking fast to it and that is I've spoken about the establishment under God of assemblies marked by their rejoicing in the treasure of the knowledge of Christ and the church the love of Christ how he loved it and gave himself for it the love of Christ that passeth knowledge I've spoken about the fact that the establishment of churches where this was known was the essential part of the providential intervention of God like it wasn't only the truth of justification that made Luther that intervention but the fact that he was a man formed by God to take on these immense powers and not to be got down by them and that is that there were special certain special scriptures that were used in this great work when the work was done in Dublin and in Plymouth then there was a good deal of feeling the way there that the the the constraint was at first of all the Church of England perhaps the people who call themselves Jews and are not but the synagogue of Satan the constraint was first of all the Church of England not very long after the constraint was the tongues movement under Edward Irving and when he went to Geneva the constraint was the reformed faith which means the Calvinist faith well by the time he got to Geneva the truth regarding the gathering of the saints had become clear before that there was a good deal of trial and error and taking a wrong step step of being helped by the law to write it again but by the time he came to Geneva the scriptures were clear in his mind and from that time forth almost like wildfire the knowledge of these things spread there were five particular scriptures and I'll only mention the first two the first one was let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity it's absolutely impossible to treasure these things that always being questioned by others unless we are in a separate position and that separate position is an absolutely fundamental part of the intervention of God the establishment of a separate position so that these things could be enjoyed in peace I cannot name the wells that Elijah that Isaac re-dug but he expended his toil upon reading the wells that was a tremendous thing which we all ought to do every generation must re-dig the wells for itself and if every generation doesn't re-dig the wells for itself then the wells will cease to be enjoyed but it was only when he got into the position where he was the well was called rest or peace in other words he moved away and moved away and moved away but it was only when he really left the philistines that he could enjoy the wells in peace and so it is it's only in a separated position that we can enjoy the things that are disputed all the time you cannot have as some of the meetings have found out you cannot have a peaceful constructive bama reading studying the word of God you've got somebody who is always wanting to argue that there's no millennium it's a bee in his bonnet always and he can't leave it alone and there's no peace to enjoy the presence of the Lord and the precious things that we can enjoy if we are left in peace to do so let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity and the second was that seeing those scriptures in second Timothy were all individual scriptures then the question arose did God intend in making that a personal matter let him that nameth the name of Christ depart if a man purge himself from these all intensely individual we must become separate as individuals that's the clear teaching of holy scripture we must become separate as individuals but then was it the will of God that they should continue as separated individuals no one can understand when they were thinking like this and they were seeking light from God what heavenly music was in the words where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst we they might have said we don't have big numbers they might have said we don't have the best preachers but they did say as long as we are assured of the presence of the Lord what could we possibly lack and so it is of course the gifts will be given but the first thing is that they did gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus and in a certain way all the rest followed from this now my time is gone i'll have to move over the concluding verses of the letter to Philadelphia he says there are certain things that are said that the Lord Jesus will do there will be opposition and he will bring this opposition in the end into subjection because he says i have loved thee and one of the most precious things about this letter standing in such contrast with the desperate defilement and corruption of the others the way that this church is in personal communication personal nearness with the Lord Jesus Christ the one who's writing i will keep thee from the hour of temptation the hour of trial i come quickly well we know that this is one of the great promises that the church will not pass through the great tribulation it's not alone of course and of itself it might only apply to certain parts but we know from the careful comparison of scripture with scripture that it is indeed true of every true believer he will be kept from the hour of tremendous trial that's going to come upon all the world to try them and the great um promise that the Lord Jesus Christ says behold i come quickly we have often noticed that it is from sire tyra onward that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks about his coming but it's never just quite like this the personal speaking of the word something perhaps like the midnight cry the Lord Jesus Christ to this church says behold i come quickly and seeing everything has depended upon what he has done first of all he has become the savior he has given himself he has given his all in order that the pearl might be his in order that by his precious blood we might be cleansed and justified he is the one who has intervened with this providential action he is the one who's given these special promises and in the end he says in that same personal note spoken to every one of us behold i come quickly and then hold that fast which thou hast now that's said to some of the other churches it's said to the remnant who had things precious but far removed from the completion of what belongs to the knowledge of the precious things that we've been speaking of the knowledge of the father and the place of the church in the love of Christ and its destiny to be with him in his glory it's in connection with this that this call comes hold that fast which thou hast now that's the same word which is translated in the second timothy from which i already quoted that that which that good thing which has been deposited that that good thing that has come to you then hold it fast guard it and the word really does mean that we've got to treat it like a treasure it's liable to loss by theft by corruption by corrosion and it's in this sense that we are told that we are called upon to hold that fast guard that treasure that we possess because the crown that comes from faithfulness to the lord jesus himself is the end of the pathway there are some wonderful things to the overcomer one that i love to reflect upon is the fact that somewhere in the stormy sects of the 19th and 20th centuries somewhere there are individuals who are preparing the bride that will come down as a city the new jerusalem out of heaven shining with its streets of gold and its gates of pearl well there is no need of the sun for god is the light and the lamb is the lump thereof and god shall wipe away all tears from their eyes somewhere in the sects of the 20th century that city is preparing and the promise to the overcomer here is hit to him that overcometh i will write upon him the name of the city of my god the new jerusalem i picked that one out simply a matter of time there are four things that i leave that one with you to him that overcometh i will give that i will write upon him the name of the city of my god the new jerusalem that cometh down from god out of heaven …

… The Revelation, chapter 3, verse 14. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith thee, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and of need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. 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. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. We have reached the last of these seven letters addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ in his character as a judge walking amidst the churches, and in many ways a sad end it is, but we rejoice that for the open ear it is shot through with hope and with opportunity. True, the emphasis is laid not upon the door opened by the Lord himself, as it was in Philadelphia, but the emphasis is upon the door that may be opened by the individual in their desire who hears the word of the Lord Jesus. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with me. I suppose most of us would agree that there is no more precious promise in the word of God than that, but it comes down to our first responding to the voice of the Lord Jesus and opening the door. Well, we've been trying to see exactly what the Lord Jesus thinks about the church in its character as a witness, because that, of course, is what is meant by the fact that these churches are considered as lamps, candlesticks or lamps. They're lightbearers, they were intended in the fullest sense to be witnesses of the greatness of that which has reached us from God and his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. We had the opportunity, the churches had the opportunity of being witnesses to the Father and the Son. How have they carried out this? Well, we can easily see that it's a record of a downward road. In the very first letter we read that the Lord Jesus Christ puts his finger upon the point. Everything outside, everything outward in those who appeared good and right, that the Lord Jesus Christ said, but I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. And although that letter relates to a phase of the church long since closed, we feel in our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ has put his finger upon a spot for us, that it is responsive love to himself which lies at the core of every right response, and it is the failure in this that lies at the core of every failure of which the church and ourselves have been guilty. We have listened to the words without any reproach of encouragement for those who were in suffering, tribulation, prison, distress, and death, and the Lord Jesus Christ without reproach says to them, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. A direct word for those who suffered under the persecuting emperors, but a word also, and we can never forget it today, a word for those suffering like things behind the Iron Curtain, and in all the police states that there are in the world where the people of God suffer, to them, in like manner, the Lord Jesus is saying by these words, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. I'm sure that no true believer believes that he can be faithful unto death. I'm sure that no true believer believes that he would ever stand the test of being faithful unto death. Yet the records of the history of the church and these words of the Savior indicate that when the grace that is needed is not to be an overcome in living, but when the grace that is needed is to be overcome in dying, then the fount of strength is found equal to that in what comes from the Savior. My grace is sufficient for thee. And we reviewed the phase, the period, when instead of suffering, the church was patronized by the emperor, and it dwelt in the place where Satan's seat was, that was the world. But we read a very wonderful thing there, and that is that they remained true to his faith and to his name. And we gathered up the wonderful fact that in those days, the frontiers of the faith were delineated once for all. And in those words, the Lord gives his approval to the way the brethren of those days searched, not that they might invent what were the limits of the faith, outside which a man should not be called a Christian, but they inquired, what did the holy apostles of the Lamb say? What did the holy scriptures say? This is what they wanted to know. If we have to die for that faith, we want to be absolutely certain what that faith is. And so, once for all, with the Lord's approval, they drew the frontiers, the map of the frontiers of faith, outside which no one should be called a Christian. And that's a very important thing today, because lots of the people who come to our doors are not only people who we've been taught to turn away from, but they're people who have forfeited the right to the Christian name at all, because they don't believe that Jesus is God. And that decision, that recognition rather, comes from the Pergamos phase. Then we reviewed the great church period, when the bishop of Rome claimed and established his claim, not to be ruled by the emperor, but to rule the emperor, and succeeded in dominating the world. But at the same time, that woman, Jezebel, taught the most fearful corruption in the church. However, there were those in that system which is very much alive around us. There were those who were faithful. There were those who kept his name, and the Lord gave the greatest encouragement to them, and the most wonderful promises to the overcomers in Thyatira. Then we came to the period resulting from the Reformation. And I would like to repeat again the lesson that I felt we ought to draw from this, and that is the beautiful words of approval to the few in Sardis who had not defiled their garments. They had the Lord's approval in Sardis. Now that means, you see, that in the special phase of being a lamp or a witness that was appropriate to those days, it was after the recovery of the true gospel had taken place by the Reformation, but as a whole, the church merited the view of the Lord Jesus expressed when he said, Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. And the great mass of Protestantism is just like that. From the Reformation it has a name to live, but it is in fact a mass of death. And amongst it there were those, and I read you some wonderful specimens of the discipline and the devotion to the Lord and to the Word which drove some men, whose names are well known to us today, to take what they knew of the Word of God and to be what they should have been to be a part of the lamp. We know the names. There were the poet Cowper and Newton. There was Wesley and Whitefield. There were many others of those days whose names we know who present to us a most tremendous example of being faithful in the circumstances in which they were. But as we, with so much light, can't hold a candle to them, ourselves as individuals in the devotion that they gave to the witness of the Gospel, which is what they knew. Now we know that they were aiming at the wrong things when they preached the Gospel. They thought the Gospel would convert the world. They were in a time of real delusion, but they did preach Christ and him crucified and forgiveness and justification through him and the Lord greatly blessed these men's fulfillment of the purpose of the Church in the world, and that was to be lamps, to be witnesses. And then we spoke yesterday about another phase in the Church's history when there is nothing at all to condemn, but that a company apart from the two great systems that everyone can see, the Catholic system and the Protestant system, there was another company apart from them who loved the name and kept the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And though they had a little strength, they went through the particular door of opportunity that the Lord Jesus Christ opened for them, and they were promised that if, since they were keeping the word of his patience, he would keep them from the hour of trial. Now when we come to Laodicea, there's one point that this Church shares with Philadelphia. If you look at Philadelphia in verse 10, verse 10 says, Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of temptation or trial, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Now I don't think I specifically mentioned yesterday that that involves the rapture. It is by the rapture that the Lord Jesus Christ keeps his people out of the great tribulation. And that's a matter which is confirmed by many other passages. But a point I'm at this moment making is that that promise is fulfilled at the rapture of the saints, when the Lord Jesus Christ takes his own out of the world, and he takes them out of the world to leave the world for its period of greatest trial and its tribulation. Therefore, this is the first one of the Churches concerning which it is directly said that the rapture of the saints, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, takes place in these conditions. Now, the Church concerning which we have read tonight also specifically refers to the rapture. The other side of the coin is in verse 16. I'll come back to this, of course, afterwards. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. It means I will utterly reject thee, this Church, the Laodiceans. I will utterly reject thee. You have two things, therefore. In Philadelphia, I will keep thee out of the hour of trial. In Laodicea, I will spew thee out of my mouth. That means the Lord Jesus Christ, as I've said, would utterly reject it. When does he utterly reject it? He utterly rejects it when he takes his own people out of the world by the rapture of the saints. At that moment is a spewing of the rest out of his mouth as abhorrent to him. And so we are here really at the very end of the story, and it's a very, very serious point for us to understand. At the end, therefore, we have those who are marked by taking the opportunities that come to them through an open Bible and a completion of a recovery of the truth. And by reason of this, their hearts are at every stage with the Lord Jesus. And we notice that in the letter to Philadelphia, whereas in Laodicea, we find there is absolute indifference to the Lord Jesus, and therefore that body is rejected. Although there are still touching appeals. Now, it's a conviction, it's my conviction, and I wouldn't be a little bit surprised if it is the conviction of everyone who has, through their lives, reflected upon these letters. It is my conviction that the honor of Saia Tyre is as alive today as ever. The Catholic churches to this day are absolutely brimming with people. They pour out of the mass half a dozen times in the morning. The Catholic churches are not lukewarm. There may be signs that we don't know about, but there's every mark of the fact that such as their religion is, they're keen about it, and they are very active in it. But when we come to Sardis, it is my conviction, and I believe it will be shared by many of you, that from those days, and right through the days which we live, permeating the face of Sardis, and not by any means without its effect upon the face of Philadelphia, but the stream, the current is set. It has set in. The current is strong towards Laodicea. That's the way the tide is flowing to a greater and greater indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all know, if we are swimmers, we know what it means to swim against the current. If we were navigators, we know what a lot of way is lost if the ship has to go against the current. The current is set, and it's streaming fast to the indifference of Laodicea. And therefore, what happens here is the greatest possible warning to us. I sometimes think that you could imagine the scene inside a house, and the group of people there is discussing the saying of a well-known statesman, we've never had it so good. They're discussing the fact that they have accumulated, and perhaps how they've accumulated, and how smart they've been in accumulating. But who is that knocking at the door? Well, it doesn't matter. We don't worry about who it is knocking at the door. What concerns us is our riches. And we are increased with goods, you see. Our dividends are increasing all the time. And we are taking counsel how we can forward this process, and we can enjoy the goods. But who is that knocking at the door? Oh, we're not concerned about who wants to draw attention to us. We don't care about that. We are concerned about our material possessions. And they go on and rejoice in the fact that they have need of nothing. But all the time, behold, I stand at the door and knock. There was once a thorn-crowned brow. There are the marks of his passion in his hands and in his side. He's standing there, ignored. Who ever imagined such a scene as this? Something more truly pathetic than the Savior knocking at the door of the church, and he's outside. Now that's the situation to which the current is very strongly set. We live in a time when material possessions, the exact things that are spoken of in this verse, you see, the one that I was quoting, verse 17, we live in a time when material possessions are everything. Now I don't suppose it's possible for us to imagine that we can go back to a world without refrigerators and without motor cars, without lots of the things that sort of delineate the material forms of the present life. But I am quite sure that the Lord can keep us without our hearts being in them, without their being our real treasure. We would thank God for them and keep them in their place, therefore, and desire that our hearts might be responding to the Lord Jesus Christ and never, never keeping him outside for the sake of a greater concentration upon these things. Where are the people who used to throng this hall? Where are they? The tide is setting very much, and we know it well, it's setting very much to indifference. It's setting very much away from a serious attention to the Lord's things and to the word of God and to his institution in the ministry of the word. We have to be really aware of this, and oh, how we ought to pray for our young people, how we ought to pray for them. It's easy to criticize them. We do lament their absence from the fellowship of the saints on many occasions, but oh, how we ought to pray for them because the tide is flowing so strongly in the direction of being indifferent to the things of Christ and the person of the Savior, and a tide flowing so strongly to a complete immersion in material things and material possessions and the kind of activities that go with these forming the centerpiece of our lives. Now, it will be necessary for me to go over the details in more detail of this letter, beginning at verse 14. The Lord Jesus Christ, as always, presents himself in characters appropriate to the church which he's addressing, and there are many ways in which you might regard the purpose of this presentation. This presentation is one which would, if the saints had taken account of it, if they had sought to know the Lord Jesus Christ in these particular characters, they would have been kept. You see, they would have been kept, however strongly the current may be setting, they would have been kept if they'd only had their eye upon him. Why is it that every one of these letters begins with, I know thy works, I, and the Lord Jesus Christ presents himself in some of the varied glories and characters and powers and authority that he has? It's in order that we might begin in every case by fixing our eyes upon him and opening our ears to his word. And the first great lesson of what the Lord Jesus Christ thinks about the state of the church is presented by these presentations of himself. Now he says here, these things, says the Amen, the first thing, the faithful and true witness, the second thing, the beginning of the creation of God. I wrote down an extract about the fact the Lord Jesus Christ is the Amen. It's from Hamilton Smith. And could I say, by way of passing, that if you don't know about it and you would like to read something really both clear and straightforward as well as deeply heart-moving about these seven letters, then the little book by Hamilton Smith entitled The Letters to the Seven Churches you would find very helpful. As the Amen, he is the one in whom all the promises of God have been taken up and affirmed in all their bearings to bring to pass every good and overthrow every wrong and eternally to glorify God in so doing. And that struck me as being a very wonderful comment upon this statement of the Lord Jesus, I am the Amen. He is the affirmation, the unalterable affirmation, which makes sure that every promise of God and every element in the eternal counsel of God, it is affirmed, it's available to us today, and it will certainly come to its fruition. Why? Because there's this person who says, I am the Amen. In the first chapter of 2 Corinthians, you have it, in him is the yea and in him the Amen to the glory of God by us. The Apostle Paul is admitting having changed his mind. Well, I don't suppose he knew the word, so what? But it seems to me very much as though in that passage the Apostle is saying, yes, I did change my mind, so what? It doesn't prove that I use lightness, it doesn't prove that I was careless, but I did have a fresh communication with the Lord which made me change my mind. But there is one who never changes. What he has declared, he will perform. What he has undertaken will come to pass, and all that's needed to glorify God will come to pass because he is the Amen. What a wonderful presentation for Laodicea. Rich, increased with goods, need of nothing, but Christ outside. And all that they should have been doing in being a lamp of witness to the Lord and his truth, it could all have been carried on, it could all have been kept going, and in fact nothing that will fail because the Lord Jesus says to them, I am the Amen. He then says, the faithful and true witness. Now that's very suitable because this just is exactly what in this particular aspect the church ought to have been. I haven't said this evening, although I've said it many times before, that this is not the only figure of speech under which the church is described to us. In fact, it's the last one. But the others, of course, are of central importance in the counsel of God, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the house of God, the saints on earth united by the Holy Ghost with Christ in heaven. That's the main picture that we have of the church in the New Testament. But here at the end we have this other picture of the churches, and that is the churches were intended to be lamps shining in the night of the absence of the Lord Jesus Christ, a witness to all that he is and all that he is doing and all that he's going to do. Well, it's a very wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus Christ can present himself in the midst of those where the lamp of witness is on the point of expiring, and he can say, I am the true, I am the faithful and true witness. Oh, what a strength that would be for those who really feel the move to be true witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ and his truth. There are many things that are said concerning the Lord Jesus about his own witness. There was his witness to himself. When Pilate said, Art thou a king? He said, Thou say'st it, for this cause came I into the world to bear witness to the truth. And so he witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, as the apostle says to Timothy. He bore witness to himself. He was there as the sent one of God, as he'd said so many times. He bore witness to the truth about himself. He bore witness to heavenly things. You remember in the third chapter of John, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? He then goes on to say, of his witnessing, that which he knew, and that which he had seen, the witness of the Lord Jesus Christ is an unfailing witness about the heavenly things that belong to those who are the possessors of eternal life. Oh, how much our hearts would be rejoicing if we were searching more and more into the knowledge of what the Lord Jesus Christ witnesses. And then, very striking, how in the setting of this book at the end, he says, I've sent my angel to witness these things in the churches, and the things that we have that belong to the book of the Revelation. The witness coming from the Lord Jesus to the seven churches, the totality of the churches here is a witness. The Lord Jesus Christ has deigned to tell his servants things which must shortly come to pass, so that, in addition to the impetus that comes to them from the love of Christ, they may receive also the impetus that comes from them, to them, from the knowledge that the earthly scene, the worldly structures that are liable to fill our lives are going to be destroyed by him. He has sent, he has sent his servant to witness these things in the churches. So, not that we might be serene persons able to write the history of the future, but persons who, to the motive of the love of Christ, might be added the motive of the world falling about us to be steadfast and unmovable in the service of the Lord Jesus. He's the faithful and the true witness. And then it says he's the beginning of the creation of God. Well, I suppose, in the absence of a precise statement here, that it's true of the first creation as well as the new creation. It's often been said, and I think a great deal could be adduced in support of it, that the first creation was the work of God's hand, but it's the new creation that is the work of God's heart. And even though it be true that the Lord Jesus Christ was the beginning of the first creation, by him God created, by him God upholds, in every sense, he's the firstborn of all creation. But how wonderful to realize that there is to be a new creation, and that's especially pertinent to the moment when the shadows fall upon the history of the church as a lampbearer. He's all finished for those whose true faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. No, the new creation's stainless joy gleams through the present gloom, that world of bliss without a loy, the saint's eternal home. I've often quoted, and you've often heard it, but it strikes me as being a very remarkable cry of the emptiness that the natural man at his best feels in the world around us, how much there is wrong, how much there is a heartbreak in it. It's the Persian poet, and he imagines himself, the poet imagines himself speaking to his lover. Our love, could thou and I with fate conspire to grasp this sorry scheme of things entire? Would we not shatter it to bits and then remold it nearer to the heart's desire? He knew, the Persian poet, the ancient philosopher knew that the world was worthy to be shattered to bits and remolded, but whose heart would it be remolded after? Nearer to the heart's desire. If it was nearer to man's heart's desire, it would land where it did before because man is unchanged in his existence away from God. Nearer to the heart's desire of man, of failed man, of sinful man, would be no solution to the problem, but the new creation is the work of God's heart. It's God's heart that has planned it. It is God's heart that has given the one who in his resurrection glory and power is the beginning of the new creation. And every time a soul is saved, then it's new creation. And by that we have the assurance not only that the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the beginning of the creation of God, but that you and I who belong to him have our footing and our life in that new creation. Our lives are hid with Christ in God. Now, we have in verse 15 that element which occurs in all the letters and that is the Lord's appraisal of the condition of the church. Now I've mentioned this but we have to look at it more carefully. I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. We, in a certain sense, in our age, are proud of the fact that we live in the age of toleration. Certainly, certainly the ecumenicals will be proud of the fact that we live in an age of toleration. But if we look more closely at it, when the Catholic priests in Spain were burning the heretics alive, it was a dreadful moment and no one would dream of bringing it back. But it meant that both the persecutors and the persecuted were alive and on fire themselves about this. They knew that they were concerned with matters that were of the deepest possible importance. And toleration, although in the mercy of God we can rejoice in the fact that we have not to face such suffering as they faced, but it really means that the whole thing doesn't matter. That's why they don't burn people today, because they think that religion doesn't matter. And in rejecting religion, they're rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and the things of Christ don't matter. And that's the spirit, you see, that's engulfing us if we aren't watchful for it. The spirit that says that our zeal and our fire can be in other things but about the Lord Jesus Christ Luke 1. I've read, I don't know to what extent it's true or right to adduce it here, but I've read that the three cities in Asia Minor that are mentioned in the New Testament were very close, you know, within 12 miles of each other or so, were Colossi and Hierapolis and Laodicea. All those places are mentioned in the letter of the Epistles of the Colossians. I've read that one of the greatest differences between these three places on a purely natural scale was this, that Colossi was close to the springs and enjoyed the most refreshing cold water coming to them directly from the springs. Hierapolis was at a place near the hot springs, which were like all hot springs, they were curative and life-giving and reckoned to be very valuable. The Laodiceans were a long way from the hot springs and the water that came to them was lukewarm. Well, maybe that there's some value in that fact or not, but the great point that we have here, you see, is that it's not cold and it's not hot. It's indifferent. That's the point that we have to take account of. And the very fact that we live in a world of toleration makes all the time for the fact that we don't care about these things if we're not careful. We'll slip into the position of being lukewarm. And we might very, very often rejoice in the fact that some such hymns as we sing are put into our lips. Thine is an eternal love Higher than the heights above Deeper than the depths beneath True, free, and faithful Strong as death This alone is our complaint That our love is weak and faint Yet we love thee And adore, oh for grace To love thee more If a contemplation of the lukewarmness of Laodicea makes us go away praying a prayer like that, how wonderful it will be and how willingly will the Lord Jesus respond to it. Because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth. It's a fact which is not very vividly presented on the page of Scripture. But nevertheless, it's a fact that a careful reader of the Scripture would ask. In the parables of the ten virgins there were five wives and they went in. And there were five foolish and they were shut out. And here, a great mass of the professing church is spewed out of his mouth. What happens to them ecclesiastically? This is the close of the story of anything that bears the name of a true church here upon earth. There's only one place for them, all of them, in the prophetic Scriptures and that is Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations that's going to be destroyed by the ten kings before the utter and final apostasy of rejecting every form of religion that the beast assumes. That frightful burnout that we have in Revelation 17 and 18, that's the reserve for those who are shut out and those who are spewed out. There is no hope for them when that once takes place. But here, I've dealt in some detail upon verses 17, upon verse 17, but here we do have the indication that the state of affairs, even in Laodicea, prior to the event which is still spoken of here as future, that is the spewing out of his mouth, the same moment as the keeping of the true saints out of the hour of trial. There is counsel and there is wonderful comfort. I counsel thee to buy of me. Now one might well ask what is involved in buying. Surely we cannot buy in any ordinary sense of the term. Well, I can only go back to Isaiah chapter 55. Buy of me without money and without price. There was something about the transaction which made it appropriate to call it buying, but it was not an exchange of money. It is without money and without price. It surely means a direct and personal transaction between the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ. Buy of me gold tried in the fire. Now that is being clothed with himself. That is the divine righteousness with which we are clothed once we become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the inward truth. That is the inward truth of the preciousness of what we receive when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ. But there is also the outer truth that they are counseled to buy white raiment that there mayst be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Now that white raiment is explained in the later part of the book to be the manner of our lives. These Christians, these professing Christians at any rate who were rich and increased with goods, they didn't have the details of the manner of life that belonged to the new man, that belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. But we can have it from him because if we come to him then in doing so we have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new. And that will appear to be in the time, the future time of appraisal when we are with the Lord it will be the white raiment which is the righteousnesses of the saints. As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. Rebuking and chastening comes to all but it becomes effective for those who are exercised by it. And it's a wonderful thing to see that after the heart rending indifference that is manifested by these persons that the Lord Jesus Christ still speaks of the troubles that came to them as a manifestation of his love. And then in verse 20 Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. Supposing we did feel and is there a heart here? Is there a conscience here? That doesn't feel that the Lord is speaking to us about our indifference? About our potential engrossment with the things of this life? If it be that the Lord speaks to us and brings us some measure of conviction about this then there's a wonderful hope because there never was a more precious promise in Holy Scripture than this. Behold I stand at the door and knock. It could be that the ministry of the word is the Saviour knocking. I'm sure it has been as I've been reflecting on these things anew many and many a time in my life. It could be that the Lord Jesus Christ is awakening us to the realities of our own position as truly his people but oh so liable and swept up in the current which is set so steadfastly to the lukewarmness of Laodicea. Then the Lord Jesus Christ is knocking. He's knocking by his word and his voice. And he says if any man hear my voice and open the door. Now there can be no question you see about what this means. When we were speaking about the open door in Philadelphia we understood that the Lord Jesus Christ by the providential interposition in the affairs of history had brought about a new opportunity for these brethren to enter in to the true knowledge of heavenly things and to live with and alongside the Lord Jesus Christ in the knowledge of these things. And therefore we understand always that an open door is the plainest possible symbol of an opportunity. If any man hear my voice are our ears day by day open to the voice of the Savior. If any man hear my voice secondly and open the door. Now to open the door to the Lord Jesus Christ is to give him the opportunity to come in. How many times we have to admit that our lives are filled to overflowing every minute of every hour and every second of every minute occupied and involved in the always necessary affairs of this life. And I think above all the means whereby you and I can open the door is to give time to seek the secret place in the spiritual sense the upper room and there wait upon the Lord so that he may speak to us. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in. He won't fail it's us who fail he won't fail and the person who does this can have the upper room discourse with the Lord Jesus all to himself. I will come in and sup with him and he with me in living moving power for our hearts he will speak to us of the Father's house and the fact that I'm going to be with him there. He'll speak to us of the Father coming and making his abode with us in the meantime. He'll speak to us by the Holy Ghost to lead us into all the truth and in us and through us to glorify his name. I will come in and sup with him and he with me. I want to leave you with the impression coming from the Lord through this scripture no more precious promise no more appropriate promises made to those who are so liable to be engulfed in the current setting towards Laodicea and this promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and there are overcomers in Laodicea. What can it mean? But the overcomers in Laodicea are those who have bought gold and have bought white raiment and above all the overcomers in Laodicea those who are going to be awakened afresh by the Lord to be lamps and to witness all that we know of him to those who need it so much. Witness to our fellow Christians being witnesses for him then if we are awakened to a re-understanding a new understanding of the fact that we are left in this world in the churches to be lamps shining in the night for him then we are told that we shall be with him he shall sit with me upon my throne. I don't think it's the first importance that it is upon his throne but they shall be with me some spewed out and some with him they will sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and am set with my father on his throne. I'm not aware but I might be corrected upon this I'm not aware that the expression my father's throne occurs elsewhere. He's at the right hand of the throne in heaven he's in the midst of the throne in chapter 4 but we are told here that when the Lord Jesus Christ went up into heaven he went to sit on his father's throne. The time when he will have his own throne is not yet come and that's what it means to speak about the patience of the Lord Jesus. He's patient for the time when he shall have his bride with him. He's patient for the time when he shall sit upon his own throne. In the meantime we're told that when the time comes that he sits upon his own throne at the time when the millennial glory is introduced and his people will sit with him as he also overcame and is set down with his father on his throne. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. …