THE LORD COMING JUDICIALLY

W. Lamont

Revelation 1: 12–18; 2: 5, 6, 16, 25; 3: 3–11, 20–22

We speak much and rightly, beloved brethren, of seeing Jesus where He is, a wonderful privilege; by faith we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour (Hebrews 2: 9). That is His present position, irrevocable, it can never be reversed, it can never be interfered with; He is installed in the highest spot in the glory. God has made Him both Lord and Christ. No matter what the enemy might do, he can never interfere with that, what Christ has been made as Man, glorified in the presence of the Father. I trust every one here, young and old, has seen that glorious sight by faith, Jesus crowned with glory and honour. It is a privilege to be able to do so by faith and have a link with Him where He is. One’s exercise for this address is that it is equally important we should see the Lord in His present judicial appearing. The dispensation had not gone on long here and John is writing of the Lord appearing in judicial garb, but this goes on till the end, the Lord having direct relations with every one of the assemblies.

Alas, in God’s ways there are no assemblies consisting of believers walking in the light of Christ and the assembly in these parts now. That is a solemn thing to take account of. Why, in God’s ways, it should be so, who knows. Paul at one stage could say, “all who are in Asia ... have turned away from me”, 2 Timothy 1: 15. It was not that they had ceased to be Christians, but they had turned away from Paul. It is like the day that we live in. A great test for every believer today is not only our relations with Christ as Lord and as Head, but how we stand related to Paul’s ministry. So those in Asia had turned their back on Paul. He speaks not only about these assemblies but he speaks about an individual, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved the present age”, 2 Timothy 4: 10. I was interested in a remark of Mr. Darby’s as to that, he wrote, ‘It is not said that Demas had ceased to be a Christian—had publicly renounced the Lord; but it was not in his heart to bear the cross with the apostle’. Synopsis Vol. 5, p.153. That is worth thinking about in the day in which we live. We need to be more evangelical, beloved brethren, I am sure of that. Preaching in the open air, and other evangelical activity is very much needed, but I think today, as always, the enemy is out to divert us on to a certain line, which leads to consideration for man at the expense of considering for God.

The Lord appears here judicially, and I think we need to get a view of Him as John sees Him here. How affected John was! He had lain in His bosom, he had leaned on His breast, and now he saw Him in this judicial garb. John says, “when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead”.

What an effect it had upon John, the Lord appearing judicially, I stress that. He is not appearing in love to these local assemblies, though His love lies behind it, but He is appearing judicially, “girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle”, meaning His affections are restrained. I want to press that point, the Lord’s affections were restrained because of the conditions in these local assemblies. Only to two of them, Smyrna and Philadelphia, the Lord has nothing to say at all in the way of criticism. He speaks positively to Smyrna which, as, we know, was a suffering assembly, and also to Philadelphia where the elements of brotherly love were known.

John fell at His feet as dead, then says, “and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead”. What a thing that was, the Lord Himself saying that, “I became dead”. He was saying, in the words of the type, I went out by way of the Jordan—“What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?”, Psalm 114: 5. What a thing that was, the Jordan speaking of the death of Christ when the waters rose and stood up in a heap, as far back as Adam (Joshua 3: 16). What a sight it must have been! Someone said that the waters standing up as a heap was death saluting a superior. The only One who had the right to live went that way, by way of the Jordan as shown in the type of the ark. So the Lord is indicating to John and to every one of us here, that if we are to be in the testimony rightly we must go that way, the way of the Jordan as representing death. I wonder how many of us know what that is, not only the Red Sea aspect of the death of Christ, that is, His death for us, but the truth of the Jordan, that is my death with Him. It is very important. These things are all in the good teaching that we should be reading so as to be in the gain of them.

He is telling John, “I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages”. That is, He is a risen Man and He is in control of the whole situation; there was failure in these assemblies but He has not yielded control. The Lord says at the end of Matthew, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, (Matthew 28: 18). He is not giving up that control to anyone. He will maintain it till the end. No matter what failure there may be in any one of us or in any local assembly, the Lord is going to maintain control right to the end. Then He says, “and have the keys of death and of hades”. That is He is in control of everything. That is a great comfort, dear brethren, to know that the One whom we love is in control. He became dead, it was an act of His own, just as coming into manhood was an act of His own, the Word became flesh, it was not imposed upon Him. The Authorised Version says that the Word was made flesh, but the Darby translation says that He became flesh (John 1: 14), an act of His own; just as it is here. He became dead, an act of His own, no one took His life from Him (John 10: 18).

Well, He appears to these assemblies, and you will observe that the verses I have read refer to Him coming.

What we look forward to is the Lord coming for His saints when the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we the living who remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air and we shall be always with the Lord. That ought to be the hope in the heart of every Christian. You will observe however that many of these scriptures refer, not to the rapture or the appearing, but to His coming in judicially in certain of these local assemblies. That is a very solemn thing. There is the side of divine sovereignty, and we are here because of divine sovereignty, but clearly we are here also on our responsibility, and we are to live up to our responsibility. I am quite sure, as has been seen in the history of the testimony (which you will see if you study it), that where persons have not been faithful in responsibility to God’s sovereignty, the Lord has come in judicially. It is evident in so many instances in the history of the recovery where persons have failed to act responsibly according to divinely given light, the Lord has most definitely come in judicially. His love lies behind it, of course it does, but His love lies behind it in order that things should be right for Himself. That is the great desire of the Lord, that things in each local meeting should be as He wishes, not as we wish, nor for the assertion of our wills, but for the assertion and maintenance of the will of God.

So He speaks here to Ephesus, “I have against thee. that thou hast left thy first love.

Remember therefore whence thou art fallen”. I think if Paul had heard the Lord saying that his heart would have been broken. What Paul sets out in the epistle to the Ephesians, especially in chapter 3, leading on to the great matter of response to God, is the acme of every Christian experience, to have part in glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus. What it would have meant to Paul to have heard the Lord say, “thou hast left thy first love”, followed by exhortation that they needed to repent. Then it says, “but if not, I am coming to thee, and I will remove thy lamp out of its place, except thou shalt repent”. In the history of the testimony there have been places where persons have not hearkened to the Lord’s word and have not repented, and the Lord has removed the lamp out of its place. He only has the right to give a local assembly its franchise, and He alone has the right to remove that franchise. Let us remember that clearly. He credits them in some things but is very straight with them in others. So He exhorts them to repent, and says, “but if not, I am coming to thee”. What a solemn word that is! That is not the rapture, that is His appearing in a local assembly judicially. I stress His love lies behind it, but He has a right to appear to a local assembly judicially, and to remove its lamp out of its place. He repeats the need for repentance. He says, “Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent”, then He says again, “except thou shalt repent”. It works out individually, but it is also a reference to a local assembly repenting.

When we come to Smyrna, there is nothing said against Smyrna, it is a suffering assembly. What these dear saints suffered the Lord knows. He says, “Fear nothing of what thou art about to suffer”. Then He says, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give to thee the crown of life”, Revelation 2: 10. In the addresses to the first three assemblies, the hearing comes before the overcoming, and in the last four which represent the history of the church going on right down to the end of the dispensation, the hearing follows the overcoming. Now that is applicable today. When matters arise, when points of truth arise, when difficulties arise, some may say, We do not see it, we do not understand it. That happens universally, and the reason is that some persons do not have an overcomer’s ear. If you do not have the overcomer’s ear you will not answer to the divine word. The Lord is speaking to the angel of these local assemblies. You may say, Who is the angel of the local assembly? The answer to that is, Responsible persons. The next question is, Who are responsible? We are all responsible; any one of responsible age in a local assembly is responsible for the carrying out of the divine will. That is imperative. So the Lord says to them, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give to thee the crown of life”.

Then, in verse 16 in regard to Pergamos, “Repent therefore—but if not, I come to thee quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword of my mouth”. These are not just words, the Lord is the same today, in regard to professing Christendom, and also ourselves, as He was in this day when He spoke to these local assemblies. He spoke these harsh words and it is as true as ever. I want to stress that, beloved brethren. He says, “Repent therefore—but if not, I come to thee quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword of my mouth”, that is persons who are not in line with His mind. When He says, “with the sword of my mouth”, it is not literal but it is spiritual, and if we do not repent we shall lose our place vitally in the testimony.

We come to verse 25 of Revelation 2. He is speaking to those who are in line with God’s will, “but what ye have hold fast till I shall come”. This is similar to the word to Philadelphia—“hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. Beloved brethren, we are not called on today to pioneer anything. I think the truth is out in its scope, and we should work it out in its detail. Our responsibility is to hold what we have; hold fast till He comes. I am sure that is a reference to His coming for His saints to take them out of the responsible pathway. What a day that will be, one’s heart longs for it, when we shall be taken out of the pathway of responsibility, and local responsibility.

When we come to Revelation 3 verse 3, again the exhortation is for repentance, “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and keep it and repent”. Beloved brethren, we have received and we have heard; think of the cost of these things that we enjoy. We speak about the books on our bookshelves, how precious they are! I would exhort the young men especially to read and re-read them; fill your soul and your mind with them, it is a way we come to a knowledge of the truth. I was reading the other day about an auction, where a letter of a so-called famous man was sold for £2,500. The letters of Mr. Darby, Mr. Raven, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Stoney and Mr. Coates, no monetary value could be put on them; but they have little value in the eyes of the world; that shows how the world looks at things. What we have received and heard, what treasure we have let us value it, beloved brethren, and let us hold it fast till He come.

Then He says, “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee”. We might not discern the Lord’s coming; He might come in in many ways. We have seen situations in the testimony where there has been an impasse. It has been so from the beginning, and also in these days in which we are, the time of recovery of the truth and recovery to the truth, when the Lord may come into a matter Himself. So He says, “I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee”. What a terrible thing that is, not discerning the Lord’s coming. We speak about the normal setting of the Lord’s coming every Lord’s day morning, and we are anticipating even now that He will fill out His promise to us—“I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”, John 14: 18. That is the great key to all that follows, the Lord coming to us, making Himself known in His love to us, where there are normal conditions. We cannot claim the Lord’s presence, He comes to us on a moral basis. He does not come to us because we break bread in a certain room in Cumnock, or in Peterhead, or Aberdeen, or elsewhere, that is not the reason for the Lord’s coming. The Lord comes to His saints where there are moral conditions to receive Him; that is as clear as can be, do not let us presume otherwise. Do not let us take His coming to us for granted. But how He loves to come where conditions are suitable to Him. We will prove it as we gather tomorrow morning if our state is right to receive Him and discern Him.

To Sardis, He says, “But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments”, just a few, that is the day we are in in the midst of the pretension of Christendom.

What defilement has come in in Christendom; what defilement of the garments in membership of unions and associations; Christians mixed up in everything dishonouring to the Lord’s name, yet professing His name, but mixed up in the world in all its aspects.

Separation is not a new thing, it was set on at the beginning quite clearly. It was set out in Paul’s ministry, and referring further back when he quotes from the Old Testament saying, “Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 6: 17. Separation is not a negative thing, it is really very positive. The truth sets us free from, and the Son sets us free for, having in view another world altogether. That is the only way to be in the gain of these things and enjoy them. Another has said that Christian blessings are unconditional, but the enjoyment of them is conditional.

When we come to verse 11 of chapter 3, there is another assembly which the Lord has nothing against. What a fine thing that is! I think sometimes we like to regard ourselves as Philadelphia and that is a great danger. I trust there are Philadelphian conditions amongst us, that is conditions of brotherly love. I am sure they exist, there is a great evidence of it, but let us be sure that we are in the spiritual condition of Philadelphia. As to the importance of communion, someone said, If I allow anything to interpose between my soul and Christ, immediately my Philadelphia becomes Laodicea. How true that is! Beloved brethren, if we lose communion with divine Persons we become morally part of the great mass of profession.

So the Lord says here, “I come quickly”, that is a reference obviously to His coming for the saints, and may extend from the rapture to the appearing. Paul says, “ye announce the death of the Lord, until he come”, 1 Corinthians 11: 26. That is more than a reference to the rapture; it is a reference to the appearing, when He will come and take up His own rights. What a day that will be! He says here, “I come quickly—hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. I think that would be persons who are holding the truth in love, and would involve the great truth of Christ and the assembly. It is not only what the assembly means to us, which is very precious, but what the assembly means to Christ. He says, “I come quickly”, just a little while; hold on for a little while. That is a word for us today, “hold fast what thou hast”, just hold on for a little while! We speak of the sufferings, the reproach, the pressure on the spirits of the saints, but let us just hold on for a little; the Lord’s word is, “I come quickly”.

We come to Laodicea, where the Lord says, “Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking; if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him”. Think of the Lord knocking, the shame of it, standing and knocking at a door and having no answer.

I was reading recently about an old coloured believer in New York, who saw a ‘whites only’ church and he tried to get in. They would not allow him in and he said, I will need to tell the Lord about this. He told the Lord about it when he prayed, and the Lord said, Well, I have also been trying to get in there for years and they will not let Me in. What a comfort that was to him. I think the Lord is knocking on the door of Christendom. In all these men who have suffered to bring out the truth, Mr. Darby and others, there was clear evidence of the Lord knocking at the door of Christendom. Think of the Church of England in Mr. Darby’s day, when he went on with it for a time, then came to it that he would have to leave it. He made plain his incontrovertible reasons for leaving it in his treatise, ‘The Notion of a Clergyman dispensationally the sin against the Holy Ghost’. That was the Lord knocking at the door of Christendom, and there have been many other examples. The Lord was saying, “if any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. Think of the state of the spouse in the Song of Songs where she was asleep, and the Lord in type knocked at the door. O, she says, I am not getting up, I have put off my tunic, I am not going to open the door to Him. Then alas, when she went to open the door, she found her Beloved had gone. What a thing that was, she loved Him, no question about that, but she was lazy, indolent. The Lord wants us to be hot in our affection for Him. Christendom is neither cold nor hot, they could not care less, but let us see, dear brethren, if it marks us, a state of indolence, a state of lukewarmness. The Lord says He wishes they were either cold or hot, the Lord hates lukewarmness. It marks Christendom, do not let it mark us, beloved brethren. So He says, “I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. It is not a one-sided thing, “sup with him, and he with me”. The Lord is prepared to take us on in the intimacy of communion with Himself.

Then He says, “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne”. It is not My God here; He refers to the name of My God to Philadelphia, but He does not say sit down with My God here, but with My Father in His throne, showing it is still the day of grace. It is the Father He speaks about. He is with the Father in His throne. What grace! Paul could say, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ”, Colossians 1: 2. O beloved brethren, let us have a sense of the restrained affections of the Lord with regard to what is merely profession, and let us get into the current of real affection for Him, and committal to Him, in the warmth and flow of His eternal love. It is open to us.

So He says, I have “sat down with my Father in his throne”; it is not His permanent position. It goes on to the end of the dispensation, when He will arise from the Father’s throne, and He will take His own throne. How very judicial it will be when He takes His own throne! Some think the millennium will be introduced with great blessing. The millennium will be introduced judicially, especially in this third part of the world where the gospel has been known. It says, “at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God, and those who do not obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ”, 2 Thessalonians 1: 7, 8. Dear young people, learn the knowledge of God, learn to obey the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus Christ, and let all of us, beloved brethren, come into the wealth of the present time. One could speak of the Lord, when in His love He can look upon us with an unrebuking gaze. Let us tomorrow, and as long as we are left here, provide spiritual and moral conditions which He can come to and make His love known as He has promised to do, where there is the orphan spirit. May it be so for His name’s sake.

Address at Peterhead
18 May 1997