A FIRST AND LAST WORD OF CHRIST TO THE CHURCH
[p. 217] A FIRST AND LAST WORD OF CHRIST TO THE CHURCH
Revelation 2: 1 - 7; Ephesians 3: 14 - 21
It might be a matter of interest to us to pay a little attention to what one may call a first and last word of Christ to the church, that our attention might be taken up with the things that are.
The apostle John was charged to write the things which he had seen, which I take to refer to the vision of Christ in chapter 1. “The things which are”, that is, the church as a witness here, and “the things which shall be hereafter”, after the church has ceased to occupy the place of witness here on earth. The proper place of the church down here is that of witness. In the ways of God the church is set to be a faithful witness, or light-bearer; that thought is conveyed to us under the symbol of the seven golden candlesticks. The thought of God has always been that there should be a witness of Himself; even among the idolatrous gentiles God did not leave Himself without witness. Israel was established as a witness in the earth on the part of God. In Isaiah God continually refers to Israel as such — a witness against idolatry. The time came when Israel ceased to be a witness for God; that moment had arrived long before Christ came; then Christ came, and He was the true witness. Now at the present moment, until Christ comes again, the church is the witness; the church was established as a witness here to the Man in heaven, at the right hand of God, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. The Holy Spirit has come down as witness to the glory of that Man; but the Holy Spirit must have a vessel in which the witness is maintained; that vessel is the church: hence you get here the symbol of the golden candlesticks. It is very important [p. 218] to understand the place the church has as witness. In the end of chapter 3 you get Christ coming in as the faithful and true witness when the church has not proved to be a faithful witness. Christendom is not a true witness of Christ, for the witness of Christ to be effectual must be a witness morally, not merely by word of mouth; and christendom is not that. The church has not maintained that place, hence we get these epistles written to the seven churches; and now the time is near when Christ will appear as “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”. Adam was not the beginning of the creation of God, he was historically the first man; Christ is the beginning of the creation of God, and He is the faithful and true witness when everything has failed. What will come to pass is that Israel will come again into the place of witness in connection with Christ; the golden candlestick in the holy place was symbolic of Israel in that way in the world to come; that is the issue of things here on earth.
Now what I want to touch upon is the first word of Christ to the church after its defection. If you pass on to the close of the next chapter you get the last word of Christ to the church; it is extremely important to take these into account. If by the grace of God we have been led to return, in any measure, to first things, you may be pretty sure that history will repeat itself in us, and the defection will be much of the same character as at the outset. It is a fatal mistake now to set up to be anything here on earth. If we have returned to the first things in any measure, we are exposed to the same defection that overtook the church at the beginning. I am going to speak a little as to what that was, and at the same time to say a word as to the promise to the overcomer. The overcomer is essentially individual, and the promise is not to the church, but to the overcomer: the very thought of an overcomer implies that the current is against you, and [p. 219] if you do not go against it, you will not be an overcomer. It is a proof of vital energy to go against the current; the Lord has pleasure in the overcomer. I have often thought of the promise to the overcomer in Laodicea when things had got to the worst. The Lord says, “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”. The Lord will have the company of the overcomer with Him there; such a thought as that ought to engage the attention of every christian. It is wonderful encouragement that the Lord will have the overcomer to be associated with Him, that He will have his company with Him in His throne.
The point of departure which marked the church was that it had left its first love; it is extremely important to see the principle and character of the defection. The Lord commends everything that it was possible to commend, but in leaving its first love it had given up its place of witness. There was no longer fidelity in the place of witness; nothing can be more important than to understand that the church was left here as a witness in the absence of Christ. The Bridegroom is in heaven, and the bride on earth; the church should be mourning the absence of the Bridegroom, and yet have the Bridegroom dwelling in the heart by faith; that is the true position of the church. Not going in the current of the world, not overcome by the power of present things, but in a sense desolate in the absence of the Bridegroom, and yet not desolate because Christ is dwelling in the heart by faith. The practical effect would be the Bridegroom set forth in the bride, and at the same time the bride entirely taken up with the interests of the Bridegroom. That is what I understand by Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, and for that everything depends upon the appreciation of Christ. There was evidently a drawing back in the church, and the appreciation of [p. 220] Christ was obscured, and that was the point of departure. Worldly, chilling influences came in, and the effect was like with the children of Israel when turning back in heart to Egypt — they forgot the pleasant land.
Now a word with regard to how we are led into the appreciation of Christ. Christ is presented to us in the gospel in the first instance as a point of attraction; even in the Old Testament we have the figure of the Sun of righteousness; you cannot entertain the idea of the sun without the thought of a power of attraction. The Lord says, in John 12, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”. If Christ is to draw to Himself, it implies that there must be a power of attraction in Himself; and that power is that every thought of grace on the part of God towards man is presented to men in a Man, and that Man is Christ — “God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”; that is what I should understand to be the principle of attraction which resides in the Sun of righteousness. It is quite true that nobody is drawn to Christ unless God works, but that does not alter the power of attraction in Christ. The fact that men do not come to Christ proves the terrible deadness and insensibility on the part of man to all that is of God; as I said before, you cannot entertain any thought of grace on the part of God towards man save in a Man, and that Man has taken up every liability under which men were, in order that in Him the grace of God might be presented to man, so that he might be attracted to the Sun of righteousness; it is the first principle in the ways of God in regard to man. The next point is you become attached to Christ, and that attachment is brought about by the Spirit which Christ gives to the one who is responsive to the grace presented in Him. There is a link formed between the believer and Christ, and that link is in the Spirit.
[p. 221] It is by attachment to Christ that we shall be kept from the evil of the world. The Lord says, in John 10, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”. You do not want the shelter of a fold; you are kept, whatever the condition of things in the world, by the power of attachment to Christ; you are saved, are in liberty, and find pasture. The most gifted intellect in the world could not explain how a christian is kept down here, preserved from evil and temptations and allurements, and at the same time finding pasture. He does not go to the world’s fields to find pasture, he is independent of them. The secret of it all is attachment, which exists in the Spirit of Christ, the living water which Christ gives, and which springs up in the believer unto everlasting life. What follows is that you get the knowledge of Christ. “I ... know my sheep, and am known of mine”. The apostle Paul says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. It is a great point to arrive at the appreciation of Christ; then it is we are prepared to part with ourselves, because we have found in Christ that which is supremely excellent; and in result we have Christ dwelling in the heart by faith.
Every true wife is attached to her husband; she does not appreciate him all at once, but the bond has been formed, and the more she knows him the more she appreciates him. The wife proves the care, love, and attention, all the good qualities of her husband, and she appreciates him more and more. So it is with believers in Christ. We are “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. We appreciate the holiness, righteousness, grace, and gentleness of Christ; it is by this we bring forth fruit to God. In the absence of the Bridegroom, the bride has the Bridegroom dwelling in the heart by faith; the practical [p. 222] effect is that being rooted and grounded in love, you comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; you get a survey of the whole expanse that is centred in Christ; and you know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled into all the fulness of God (Ephesians 3: 17 - 19); that prayer was, I suppose, fulfilled in measure in the Ephesians.
Then you come to the defection — the Ephesians had got away from the first appreciation of Christ; they had left their first love; Christ was not dwelling in the heart by faith; they had lost that which separated them from the present course of things. I do not think any christian can be maintained in separation from the world except in the appreciation of Christ. And when I speak of appreciation of Christ, I speak not only of what Christ is personally, but of all that of which He is the centre; that vast system of which He is the beginning and the end. He is the Head of all principality and power; Head of every man; He is the Head of every family; of the church, Israel; hence we need to entertain the thought of Christ in that light. But at the same time we need to be led by the Spirit into the appreciation of what He is morally, because it is in that way we understand the character He gives to every family in the universe of bliss. “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”. The church takes her character from Christ at the present time, and is left here, that the excellencies of Christ might be displayed in her. The point of departure was in getting away from the appreciation of Christ, and we have to be on the watch against this. We need to be continually vigilant; there are dangers around us on every side; the things that are passing around us tend to dim our appreciation of Christ. I wish that Christ might be so brought before our vision that we might be led by the [p. 223] blessed Spirit of God into the vast expanse of all the purpose of God in Him. We are not in the presence of a heathen world, but surrounded by christendom, where the name of Christ is, in a sense, borne, but yet where all the principles of the world are found. We need the greatest possible vigilance as to influences here (Satan is transformed into an angel of light), that our appreciation of Christ be not dimmed. Christ ever appreciates affection, attachment to His Person. He also appreciates zeal; but, after all, it is not zeal that is paramount in the mind of Christ, but affection. He appreciated Peter’s zeal; but still more the affection of John, so in Martha and Mary; with Martha it was zeal, and the Lord appreciated her service; but He appreciated Mary still more, for she sat at His feet and listened to His word, and He says, “One thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her”. The Lord will appreciate zeal and service, but above all, affection; that may be the reason why so many women are introduced in the gospel narrative, for they are more marked by affection than men. The Lord looks down upon us and appreciates good marks which we cannot see, but you may depend upon it that our place with Him depends upon our attachment to Him. Just one word with regard to the overcomer: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God”. This is a contrast to what took place in connection with Adam; he never ate of the tree of life. God drove the man and his wife out, that they should not eat of the tree of life; it was a proof of divine mercy and consideration for them, lest they should eat and live for ever alienated from God through sin. We do not get the tree of the knowledge of good and evil here; all that was connected with that tree was met and answered in the death of Christ. Paradise is a place of perfect delight. The Lord said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”. Paul was caught up into paradise; it is the third heaven, the scene of supreme delight, where everything is governed by God Himself; everything answers to God; the tree of life is in its midst. It is a great thought that we should come to know the power that will maintain satisfaction and delight in the universe of bliss. It is found in the paradise of God. Every circle in that universe will be dependent for satisfaction and delight on the tree of life. Young people are often marked by restlessness of mind; they are hunting about for food for their minds. Did you ever think of heaven? What books will you read in heaven? Christ never, I suppose, read books when on earth. Do you think God has not other ways of ministering food to man? It is wonderful to think of the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations; that is an encouragement to us to be overcomers. The current is strong against us; we can only overcome by attachment to Christ. “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us”. It will be a great thing when Christ gets us into the paradise of God and gives us to eat of the tree of life there. May God give us to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith.