REVELATION 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 451] REVELATION 3 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It is very important for us to take account of the position in which we are through divine grace as being here on earth for Christ, and what comes out in the seven assemblies is that the Lord is taking account of how we fill the position. It is an important consideration. There are two great sides of the truth: what Christ is for us, that is the gospel; then what we are for Christ, that is the assembly. These cover the whole ministry: the ministry of the gospel and the ministry of the assembly. In that connection it is interesting to take up the gospel of Matthew. It is largely made up of miracles and parables. The miracles are what Christ is for us, but the parables are what we are to Christ.
Rem The parables are the secrets of the family.
CAC It is a matter we ought to be very much exercised about. The result of accepting the gospel is that there is something here for God, and when we come to that side of things the Lord exercises discrimination. He acts on the principle of selection. This comes out clearly in these addresses to the seven assemblies. He marks out what is pleasing to Him.
Ques Do you connect our responsibility with the parables?
CAC Yes, it has to do with God’s work in us. You get it in the first parable in Matthew — the sower. There is something in man for God. All the miracles show what God is for man.
Ques Is it the same in all the gospels as to the thought of the difference in the miracles and the parables?
CAC The gospels differ. There are not many parables in Mark, because it is the presentation of God’s holy Servant. In Luke there are the parables of grace: the creditor, the good Samaritan, the great supper, and chapter 15 with the [p. 452] sheep and the silver and the son. Grace is unfolded there. But you also get quite a different set of parables in Luke, and they treat of how grace affects men. The grace parables in Luke correspond to the miracles in Matthew. If people are not clear on the miracle side it is no use talking to them of the parable side, for you cannot bear to hear the parables till you know the miracles. People preach the gospel from the parables in Matthew! It is quite a mistake. The parables are put in that form because they are not for outsiders. You are not supposed to have anything to say to the parable till you know the miracle. All the parables in Matthew have to do with the assembly because they are on the ground of there being something in man for God. The gospel is what there is in God for man. All that fallen and needy man wants is found in Jesus. The miracles are not just accounts of what happened, they are pictures and shadows of the wonderful deliverances God effects in souls.
Ques What do you mean by not preaching the gospel from the parables?
CAC Some people are so clever they can preach the gospel from anything! But really the parables in Matthew are God looking for results in men. You get in the parables the principle of selection: the good fishes, the treasure, the beautiful pearl, the many called and the few chosen. The Lord is entitled to select, and He selects what pleases Him. Here in these addresses to the seven assemblies He is doing this. You see in the parables the way man takes up the gospel, the use he makes of it. It is not the gospel itself, but the use or misuse of it comes out, the different kinds of ground that receive the seed. The parables in Luke do really unfold the gospel wonderfully. It is grace and it is teaching.
Ques What is the effect of the Lord selecting?
CAC It awakens exercise. What estimate is the Lord forming of us? How have we been affected by the preaching of Christ? Are we in accord with Him? That comes out in Philadelphia.
[p. 453] Rem It is a triumph for God to have such a company down here.
CAC The Lord delights in a company in accord with Himself. It seems to me like David blessing his house. He had brought up the ark with great rejoicings and then he blesses his house — that is the circle that is in accord with David. It is a great thing to be David’s house in that way, and come under his approval and blessing.
Rem It is a pleasure to the Lord to have what He can commend.
CAC And it ought to move all our hearts. The supreme desire of each heart must be, ‘I would like to be in accord with Him’. It is a wonderful thing to be in accord with Him. Michal was not. She represents the feelings of the natural man. It is pretty much the state of christendom at the present day. What God is working at is to put us in accord with Christ. A greater favour He could not show us. Think of what David did for the ark. He pitched a tent for it. He did not build a temple for it, and he did not take it back to the tabernacle. It had not been in the tabernacle for many a year, but he did not take it there. He spread a tent for it, nothing grand and nothing official. All that was official was still connected with the tabernacle. I think that is a picture of the present state of things. Christianity was set up at first by God in all its grandeur and all its order. Through man’s unfaithfulness it failed. The system goes on but there is no ark there — Christ has not His place there. It is very solemn. And now in these last days, God has been spreading a tent for His ark; that is Philadelphia. There is nothing official connected with the tent. David spread the tent and provided singers and priests, not sacrificial priests, that would have been official, but priests to blow with the trumpets. He wants a few hearts to give Christ His right place and then you get singing and testimony. It is neither the tabernacle, which is past, nor the temple, which is future, but it is something in between. Christ has His place, and there is singing and the [p. 454] sounding of the trumpets, so that a true testimony may be given to Christ at the end. He has not had His place for long centuries.
Rem Zion is a wonderful spot!
CAC Zion is the place of sovereign mercy. What is it but mercy that has given us an appreciation of Christ? God has taken great pains to show that we are not better than others. He lets things come in to prove it: first of all to you yourself — that is the most important. You have to know that you are often less faithful than those with less light, but yet God has ministered Christ to us, and produced in our hearts an affection to Him. It is fine how He is presented here. “The holy, the true”. True is ‘genuine’. We must take character from Christ if we appreciate Him. I like to look round and see a company that has taken character from Him, real and genuine, with no outward show where there is nothing to correspond within; not with all the sails flying where there is no ballast.
Rem David was true.
CAC David was a remarkable type of Christ, “a man after my heart, who shall do all my will” (Acts 13: 22), and he has a house in accord with him; that is Philadelphia.
Ques Why has the Lord the key of David here?
CAC Oh, I think it is to give admission to David’s house. What comes out if we follow the type is that it comes into David’s heart to build a house for God. ‘No’, God says, ‘It is not the time for that. I will build thy house’ — and all the blessing of God is found in David’s house, and Eliakim has the key (Isaiah 22: 20 - 22). Christ has the key to let us in to all the blessing of the house, and it is found with those who are in accord with Christ.
Rem David had a wonderful sense of the blessedness of God.
CAC Well, that is the position of things now. The temple is not set up yet. All the blessing is with David’s house. What do you think of Christ? That is the great test today,
[p. 455] and the Lord has opened the door. Go back to Isaiah and you will see. He can give admission to all the blessing of God. It is a great thing to have such a door before us. Perhaps we have not entered much into it yet, but everything of value to God subsists in Christ. He is the ark of the covenant and He sustains the saints according to God. Everything now hangs on Christ, the “small vessels” as well as the great! If we get hold of that, it will take us away from ourselves. I do not want any contribution from man in the flesh, I am so completely set up in what I have in Christ. I am independent of every other person. “Thou ... hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”. Christ is everything to them, and they have taken character from Him, and have come under His selection as altogether suitable to His love. That is what I covet for myself. He would crown us. The idea of a crown is that you have come into the full splendour and blessedness of what has been established in Christ, and through Christ.
Rem It marks out the company as distinct from mere profession.
CAC Yes. We ought to understand there is a select company.
Ques All this is expressed in a company, but how is it learnt?
CAC It must be learnt individually, but then you could not have a proper setting forth of what is connected with His word and His name but in a company. One alone would not be equal to it.
Ques When will it be known “that I have loved thee”?
CAC I think that in the future the Lord will make all those who are like Michal know how He values the company that appreciated Him. The synagogue of Satan is the great centre of opposition and enmity. Where you get man in the flesh taking up christianity you get in result the synagogue of Satan. It is a time of suffering now, and no one will inflict more suffering than the synagogue of Satan. The [p. 456] Lord will vindicate His own, but all we want now is to know that we are agreeable to Him. We may have great opposition and suffering — what is to sustain us? That He approves.
Rem We are slow to see the peculiar blessedness of the moment.
CAC It is a wonderful thing to be there in connection with God’s thoughts. All are centred in one Person, and we are to be in accord with Him, and if so we are in discord with all the world.
Ques. What is “my name”?
CAC That covers all He is as Man. There has been a Man in perfect accord with God. He is not here now, but His name is, and that is where the test comes in. They had not denied His name. Nothing was allowed inconsistent with God’s blessed anointed Man. Is our first question, ‘Is this according to Him?’ All the forces of earth and hell are against that Name, and that Name is to be kept unsullied in the hearts and ways of the company that is in accord with Him. There is nothing that says ‘No’ to that Name in this company. What an exercise that means! You are carrying that Name now, and your ways must be in accord with it. Eleazar was sanctified to keep the ark. Depend on it, Uzzah was never sanctified. A sanctified man has come under the influence of the Holy and the True, and that will put an impress on his whole moral being. The Christian is thoroughly genuine because he is in the spirit of self-judgment as to the flesh. I do not want to be just an outside Christian! Then you come out not denying His name, and keeping it in all its truth and all it means. You maintain it in a position that costs you something. Do not expect an easy time! It will be hard, but what of that? Once I had to face a certain matter, the decision as to which cost me something (I mention this specially in connection with the young here tonight). And I opened the Book and my eye fell on those words, “Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly” (John 12: 3, Authorised Version). The Lord likes costly gifts from those He loves. So often we [p. 457] want to take the cheapest course. Would you not like to take the costly course? If He were here and we met Him would we think anything too much to give Him? He likes costly things.
Ques Is there time to say a little on the overcomer?
CAC The fact that the overcomer comes in here proves that however excellent the company, your own personal exercise must never diminish. You can never relax your own personal vigilance even in Philadelphia. This word to the overcomer wakes up every conscience, and so we are kept in exercise. When the temple is built you will be compensated; now you have to do with the tent pitched for the ark, and have to suffer for it. You have to fight, but you get compensation even now. It is very fine — the compensation is that you carry His name. He makes us descriptive of God and of Himself. That is His reward, and it appeals to our affections. We belong to a company that is to be for the pleasure of Christ.