THE LORD’S THRONE
J. Wright
Revelation 3: 14–22; 1 Kings 7: 6–8; 10: 18–20; Matthew 19: 28; 25: 31–33
I would like, beloved brethren, to speak of the Lord’s throne. He is not actually on His own throne at the present time. He is on His Father’s throne, but He is soon to take His throne. I had in mind especially what the Lord says as to the overcomer in Laodicea, “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”. The overcomer
Laodicea is going to have a part in the Lord’s throne and I am sure we would all desire to be among the overcomers in Laodicea. We are in the time, beloved brethren, of Laodicea and the Lord is about to spue it out of His mouth. In these conditions He is looking for overcomers, those who will sit with Him in His throne. He has overcome. He says, “I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne”. That is the present position, He has sat down with His Father in His throne, and He has reached that position by overcoming. The Lord Jesus is presenting Himself here as an overcomer. When He was here He overcame.
That would be an incentive for us to be overcomers.
The Father’s throne is the throne of grace, it is accessible to us at the present time because the Lord Jesus is there. He is there as the great High Priest, He is sympathetic, and we can approach the throne of grace because He is there. I want to draw attention to the Lord Jesus as an overcomer. The Lord Jesus overcame that the principle of grace might be maintained—
So that He could sit down with His Father in His throne where grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. The Lord Jesus did not give way, He maintained the principle of grace. He had much opposition from the Jews because He maintained that principle. He maintained the day which He brought in as the day of grace, “the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4: 19), and He suffered for it. He overcame, He did not give way. In John 8, when they brought to Him the woman taken in adultery, and they said that she should be stoned, the Lord said, “Let him that is without sin among you first cast the stone at her” (John 8: 7), then they went out one by one, and the woman was left alone with Jesus. He said to her,
“Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee? And she said, No one, sir. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee”. He maintained the principle of grace. As coming in He was full of grace and truth. He maintained that principle to the end.
At the cross where they crucified Him, Luke tells us that He
said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34); that was the principle of grace. It runs through the dispensation. Stephen had to make a judicial indictment against Israel in Acts 7 but he maintained the principle of grace. He said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”, Acts 7: 60. There is nothing punitive in the dispensation of grace; the Father’s throne is not punitive. There may be necessity for chastisement but it is not punitive.
The Lord Jesus maintained that principle and He overcame, He did not give way, so that now He is sitting in the Father’s throne and that throne is accessible to us. But He says here, “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne”.
I want to speak of that, beloved brethren, that the Lord Jesus is soon to take His throne, and there will be persons who sit with Him in His throne. I think it will be persons who understand what that throne is, who have been with the Lord now and have overcome. The throne would maintain the rights of Christ and the rights of God. Those rights of course are being maintained at the present time in mercy, God is maintaining His rights on the principle of mercy. Beloved brethren, I wonder if each one of us will have part in His throne? It is not open to everybody to sit with Him in His throne; it is to him that overcomes. What is the foundation of Christ’s throne? He is the One who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
That is the foundation of His throne. Those who overcome will be in accord with Him; they will be persons who love righteousness and hate lawlessness.
The Lord Jesus presents Himself to Laodicea as the “Amen”. All God’s promises are fulfilled and accomplished in Him. Whatever state the church has got into publicly, everything is secured and accomplished in Him, “the Amen, the faithful and true witness”. The witness of the church has failed but the Lord Jesus remains, “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”. That is the presentation of Himself to Laodicea, “the beginning of the creation of God”. That means that the whole creation is going to take character from Christ. When things are so dark as they are in Laodicea, so obnoxious to Him, He is presenting Himself. We are not Philadelphia. Philadelphia is a condition not a position, but we are surrounded by Laodicea; that is the condition in which we find ourselves, and the Lord is appealing to persons in Laodicea. He is appealing to us today as to whether we would be overcomers, and be in accord with Himself.
He says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich”. That would be righteousness; if we are to be in accord with the throne we must have righteousness.
The foundation of His throne is based on the One who loved it, He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. So it says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire”. The Lord Jesus suffered here for righteousness. That was included in His overcoming; He maintained the present dispensation and He suffered for righteousness. He loved righteousness and He suffered for it. The gold He is offering is righteousness, it is purified by fire. This could not be available apart from His sufferings, apart from His death, apart from His atoning sufferings. Righteousness is available and we get it from Him. It is a great thing to have this transaction with Christ, and obtain righteousness, “gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich”; not claiming to be rich, but having true riches, having righteousness.
Then He says, “and white garments, that thou mayest be clothed”. He has white garments to give. James speaks about pure and undefiled religion, that is “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world”, James 1: 27. That is the white garments, “to keep oneself unspotted from the world”. The Lord Jesus when here kept Himself from the world, He was not of the world, there was no taint of the world in Him. He has white garments to give, “that the shame of thy nakedness may not be made manifest”. Then He has, “eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see”, to see things clearly. What a need there is among God’s people today to see things in their true perspective, to see things rightly. The Pharisees said that they saw, yet they were blind, but the Lord Jesus has eye-salve that we may see. I believe that as getting these things from Christ, we can be with Christ in His movements and we can be overcomers here. We can be in accord with the throne.
“I rebuke and discipline as many as I love; be zealous therefore and repent. 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 …”, (Revelation 3: 19, 20). Think of the Lord coming to a person who opens the door to Him. It is a wonderful thing to open the door to Him, to have Him come and sup with us; but then there is something greater, “and he with me”. How blessed that is, to sup with Him, to be with Him in His own surroundings. That is what I wanted to say as to this scripture, that we might be overcomers, that we might be persons who sit with the Lord Jesus in His throne.
I wondered if these scriptures in Kings bore on the way that the Lord’s throne in the sense of judgment operates at the present time. I think it is mainly what is discriminatory in judgment.
We have to learn from the Lord Jesus how to discriminate between good and evil, and I wondered if the scriptures in Kings bore on that. The scripture in 1 Kings 7 speaks of the porch, “And he made the porch for the throne where he judged”. I think this would relate to the present time; He is not judging the world, He will do that. He is going to take up His rights and reign and judge the world; but I think the Lord’s direct rule and His discriminatory judgment are to be known in the assembly at the present time. I believe the Lord would use assembly exercises and sorrows that we may learn from Him to distinguish between good and evil. In this scripture it says, “And his house where he in dwelt had another court within the porch, which was of the like work. And he made, like to this porch, a house for Pharaoh’s daughter”. I think that brings in the assembly and we are to learn from Christ how to discriminate between good and evil. What is judicial may be necessary, but I think the main thing is what is discriminative, discriminating between good and evil. We have to always keep in mind the present dispensation of grace. The Lord’s dealings in that way, His judgment, would not be different or out of accord with the spirit of the dispensation. It would not be out of accord with His present position on the Father’s throne. Yet the Lord does move in a judicial way. That is brought out in Revelation; He moves among the assemblies in a judicial way, discerning, discriminating, and the great thing, beloved brethren, is to be with Him and learn from Him how to distinguish between good and evil. The assembly is to be expressive of that, to be in accord with the throne where divine rights are maintained. I believe it all enters into our education here in view of having part with Christ in His throne, sitting with Him in His throne.
When you come to chapter 10 you get the magnificence of Solomon’s throne; there was no throne like it. Solomon speaks of Christ glorified and, of course, He is yet to take His throne publicly, but the idea of the throne is there, the discriminatory judgment of Christ. So it says, “And the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with refined gold”. The throne of ivory I suppose would indicate that death has come in, the death of Christ. It would speak typically of the death of Christ, that things are judged in accordance with that, so that nothing is allowed which is out of keeping with the death of Christ. Think of what has been removed in the death of Christ. Then it says, “and overlaid it with refined gold”. It is gold of the very best quality. Divine righteousness would be seen; it is going to remain eternally.
‘God’s righteousness with glory bright,
Which with its radiance fills that sphere’. Hymn 88.
It is not a thing to be afraid of, everything that comes from that throne is infinitely fair and just. Then “there were arms on each side at the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the arms; and twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps”.
That reminds me of the way that the Lord has reached the throne; think of the overcoming, the steadfastness, “the lion ... which turneth not away for any”, Proverbs 30: 30. It says in Revelation that the lion which is of the tribe of Juda has overcome (Revelation 5: 5). And it says in the scripture that “the righteous are bold as a lion”, Proverbs 28: 1. Righteousness is operating in that way. He is on the throne as the righteous One. He is there as our Advocate, “Jesus Christ the righteous”, 1 John 2: 1. When we sin He takes up our case, what a wonderful thing that is, but righteousness is there. It is going to pervade the world to come, and it is to be seen now in the Lord’s distinguishing ways, but it is not out of accord with the present dispensation. The two things are maintained; it says “and twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps—there was not the like made in any kingdom”.
I wanted to refer to these verses in Matthew because the Lord speaks of His throne. He says in Matthew 19, “when the Son of man shall sit down upon his throne of glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”. That of course applies especially to the twelve, they have that distinctive place, sitting on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel; but the saints will come in to the matter of discriminatory judgment with Christ when He sits on His throne. Paul has to say to the Corinthians, “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?”, 1 Corinthians 6: 3. The time of education for that is now, and the very point that the Lord is bringing out here is that there are those who follow Him, it is a great thing to be following Him and learning from Him. As they followed Him they would take account of how He dealt with and handled things. They would be learning from Him as following. So the
Lord would have persons with Him when He sits down. It says, “when the Son of man shall sit down upon his throne of glory”. That would be a greater and more glorious throne than Solomon’s.
In Matthew 25 it says, “when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit down upon his throne of glory, and all the nations shall be gathered before him” and He will discriminate, some to His right hand, some to His left. Those on His right hand will be the nations that come into blessing in the millennium, and those on His left hand will be the nations that go into judgment, to the lake of fire. There will be those who will be with Him. I want just to apply this at the moment, that the Lord will have those with Him when He sits down on His throne of glory, and what the Lord is speaking about here are those who have treated Him rightly, those who have considered for Him, “Then shall the King say to those on his right hand, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the world’s foundation—for I hungered, and ye gave me to eat; I thirsted, and ye gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me”. The Lord says later, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me” (Matthew 25: 40). Think of the Lord taking account of the way these nations have treated His people! It bears on the way we regard and care and treat God’s people. Those who are righteous will have part with Him when He sits down in His throne of glory. Well I just feel that I have presented this rather feebly, but I do think that we have to learn now from Christ and being with Christ, how to be overcomers in the very conditions that exist at the present time, so that we might be among those who sit with Him in His throne. May we be helped in it, for the Lord’s name.
Address at Denton, Texas
15 November 2003