THE LORD'S PRESENT MIND AS TO THINGS HERE
THE LORD’S PRESENT MIND AS TO THINGS HERE
What I desire to bring before you in reading this passage, is the thought that the Lord has His mind in regard to the whole state of things around us in the professing church. I think this is a point of the greatest moment for every Christian to apprehend, and it ought to be the desire of everyone to be in the secret of the Lord’s mind. We get what I may call the whole history of the professing church brought under our notice prophetically in the second and third chapters. There is no doubt that there were these seven churches existing in Asia when John wrote, and they are taken up as having certain marks and characteristics which enabled the Spirit of God through them, to portray the history of the professing church on earth, from the beginning to the end. I do not think that anyone acquainted with Scripture can doubt this. There was a time when we knew but little about the book of Revelation, but it is better understood now.
Now there is a great principle running through the word of God, that is, that whenever God places Himself in relation with a people, He marks the fact that He is God, by foretelling the end of the dispensation from the beginning. Critics may disdain the idea of prophecy, but facts remain, and God in that way has proved that He is God. I might go through the Scriptures in detail, and show you how the result has always verified the forecast. God makes the forecast, and God only can make it. Men talk about forecasts, and to a certain extent a shrewd man may make such. I can understand a man putting things together, and discerning the probable operation of [p. 247] principles, and so giving a judgement of what will probably be the result of the working of things in the world, but it is in the power of God alone to make a true and certain forecast. God can make known the end of a dispensation from the outset, and He has done it again and again, and the result has invariably proved that He is God.
I will just give you an example or two, because it is important. Before Israel entered Canaan God foretold their captivity. They carried with them into the land, in the book of Deuteronomy, the witness of what would befall them there.
Again the prophet Isaiah, before the Babylonish captivity, takes up the subject and shows how God would bring back a remnant from Babylon, and would present Christ to them and that they would reject Him. I need hardly say that God spoke truly. Another case is when God gave up His people in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and committed supreme power to the Gentile. At that time, God foretold what would be the end of it. I have heard of wise people, or rather those who think themselves wise, who tell us that the book of Daniel never was written by him, but I prefer to believe on the authority of the Lord that it was written by Daniel. Daniel did not prophecy of what was to take place in the succeeding few years merely, but he gives us the whole of the times of the Gentiles, and speaks of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, that should fall upon the feet of the image and break to pieces the whole Gentile power, every bit of it, from top to bottom. All that goes on to the future. Now when you come to the New Testament you find the kingdom of heaven set up, and the Lord in Matthew 13 foretells the end from the beginning. It began with the sowing of the seed, but the end is described in a variety of parables — tares, mustard seed, leaven, etc. From the time the seed was sown, the Lord predicts what the end would [p. 248] be; that it would become a great conspicuous thing like a tree and the fowls of the air should lodge in its branches; and the Son of Man finally sends His angels and gathers out of the kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity. Then in the Revelation we get the same principle in the seven churches. The history is taken up from Ephesus, which was a remarkable church in many ways; its history is largely traced in Scripture, and going on from Ephesus to Laodicea, we get a complete picture of the whole time of the church from the beginning down to the end.
My point is this, to give you an idea that the Lord has His mind, specially and very definitely in regard to the whole state of things by which we are surrounded down here. It greatly affects me. I hardly know any thought which has affected me more distinctly than that. One may have a thought more or less right as to things but if I have the Lord’s thought that must be right. How many would be concerned if they thought that the Lord had a mind about things here? The fact is that Christendom goes largely on the assumption that the Lord has no mind about it at all, that all is left to man. If you see that, it leads you to think very seriously. I know it affected my life very much when the truth was brought home to me, that the Lord was watching with interest all that was going on in His name down here, and it still greatly affects me, and I think many here can say the same. We want to be in the secret of His mind, to have His thought: “He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”.
Now I venture to say, that the Lord has not any particular mind with regard to the world; the world is looked upon in Scripture as that which has rejected Him, and in that sense it is left under the hand of God. Christ will have His mind as to it by and by, but not now; now, He has a thought in regard to the church.
[p. 249] There are two ways in which I can speak about the Lord in connection with the church. One is that He is the Minister of the sanctuary; He orders everything connected with the worship of God; He has to do with those who are true Christians; He leads them in the worship and service of God. He is the antitype of Aaron, who had to carry on the service of God; he was charged with the ordering of the lamps and the shewbread, and had to do with the vessels of service. In all this he was a type of Christ. Christ takes the place of Minister in resurrection. In Psalm 22 He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. He is Leader. We get this amplified in the epistle to the Hebrews. He is the Minister of the holy places, of the true tabernacle; the true antitype of Aaron and of Moses too, but the antitype of Aaron. The priesthood being changed the character of the service is changed. Christ has offered the sacrifice that can cleanse our consciences; we have purged consciences, but that is not all the truth. When it comes to serving the living God then it is that He, properly speaking, leads the praises of His people. He is the Minister of the holy places: He is a great deal more, because He is the antitype of Moses, but He is the true Priest. The order of Christendom is all against this; there are many priests there, also a great many Christians who have no idea of being companions of Christ. Every Christian has his part in the service of God, just as each son of Aaron had his part. I can tell you why things subsist as they do in the common order of Christendom — ministers, clergy, people, etc.; it is because all sense of the power of the Spirit of God has been lost. Order and rule of a human kind came in when Christians lost the sense of the presence of the Spirit. If they had any sense of the power and presence of the Spirit of God, they would understand what it is to be associated with the High Priest — who [p. 250] leads the praises — in the service and worship of God. There may be some in every congregation who ought to be taking their part in the service. In a general way in Christendom, all is entrusted to one official and the others — many of whom are perhaps qualified by the Spirit of God — are concealed, and this one man is put over them by the ordering of man: the reason is plain enough, Christians have lost all sense of the presence and power of the Spirit of God.
But there is another character in which Christ stands to the people of God; He is Son over God’s house. When I speak of the house of God, the term covers all those who profess the name of Christ. There are many in the great mass of profession around, who are really Christians indwelt by the Spirit of God, but then there is the great external system — and my point is, that Christ has His mind about that in every part of it — this is a point of importance to understand.
I will now make a few remarks on the chapter read. To begin with, it is exceedingly important to notice, that to the angel of the last three churches, the Lord speaks of Himself in titles connected with the millennium. It shows me this — that if attentive, we shall find ourselves in the light of the world to come and consequently be discontented with all that is here, as must be the case if our hearts are in the light of the world to come; I will just explain this in detail.
In Sardis He has the seven Spirits of God, that is the Spirit in relation to the millennium; the Spirit is not spoken of in this way except in relation to the earth. In Philadelphia He is the Holy and the True, but there is another point, viz.: that He has the key of David and opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. A key is a symbol of administration, and it is the administration which Christ has in relation to the earth. When I pass on to Laodicea, I find Him [p. 251] there as the Amen; the confirmation of the promises of God; the faithful and true Witness, which is the place that He Himself takes in the millennium, when every other witness has proved unfaithful. It is well to weigh these titles; they bring us very much into the light of the world to come. Everything for God is established in Christ, and if you are in the light of Christ you are in the light of the world to come. Christ has come, redemption has been accomplished. God has exalted Him and has given Him a name above every name, not simply in this world, but in that which is to come. He has set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, and every promise and purpose of God is established in Him. We are in the light of that.
I pass on now to speak a few words on what comes out in the addresses to these churches. There is Sardis on the one side and Laodicea on the other. I think that each of them depicts a state of things with which we are familiar. We have a great mass in Christendom in this part of Europe who are marked by having become political and worldly, having a name to live, because what they are connected with (as having started with) was the vindication of the word of God, and escape from the corruption of popery, but spiritually all has become dead. Of what does the Lord warn them? I will come on thee as a thief if thou shalt not watch. One of the characteristics of a Christian is that he watches, and the Lord here says, “If you do not watch I will come as a thief”. That is, He treats them as the world; the Lord comes to the world like a thief in the night, that only tends to show you the moral identification of Sardis with the world. Protestantism has become political and worldly, and the Lord will come upon it as a thief; they will not know the hour in which He comes. He does add, “Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments”. That is, they have escaped the corruption of the world. That is one side.
[p. 252] Now I will ask any thoughtful person here, to look abroad and tell me whether that is not the true character of things around us; the savour of the truth, and the idea of the coming of the Lord have been lost, but the Lord is deeply concerned in all that is going on. I do not point to any particular body, but Protestantism has largely become a vast political machinery, and we can understand the Lord saying, “I will come on thee as a thief”. One of the Lord’s last sayings was, “Watch ye, therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning”, and the last word of that passage is: “What I say unto you I say unto all, watch”. Sardis does not watch. I should not like to be here and not watching, to be overtaken by the Lord as a thief. People will be; when they say, “Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them”.
Now turn to the other side, to Laodicea. What marks Laodicea is the pretension of the human mind, higher criticism and the like. They are rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; but do not know that they are “wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. They do not know the misery of their spiritual condition. That is what I understand by being rich and increased with goods. They say, Man’s mind is competent for everything; we can trace the sources from which the word of God came and can judge of it all: and yet after all they have not the faintest spiritual idea of what the word of God is. They deal with the letter only, and that in the most superficial way. If they were asked to explain what is meant by “The letter kills, but the Spirit giveth life”, they could not tell you; nor could they explain the meaning of the expression “The Lord is that Spirit”. They may be very clever and able in oriental languages, and all that kind of thing, and you might pay attention to them as regards the [p. 253] text; but in forming judgements and deductions on God’s word, they will find the letter of Scripture a very deadly thing to handle — the letter kills. I have sought now for many a day to get at the spirit of Scripture; the Lord is that Spirit, and when you find Christ in it you will find much profit. For instance, what dull reading Leviticus would be, in the letter; but if we want to know the details of the sacrifice of Christ, how wonderful is the instruction we there get; so too the detail of the feasts would be dull reading, if it were only an account of the feasts of Israel; but when their typical character is seen, what God has done or will do in Christ, how different all is! Christ is the spirit of Scripture. What you want to reach is the spirit, not the letter. I only say that, in connection with criticism which merely deals with the letter, the critics have no conception of the Lord who is the spirit, and yet they say, ‘We are rich and increased with goods’. Thus you have the vast mass of worldly Christianity on one side, and on the other, higher criticism which pretends to be able of itself to deal with the higher things; but between the two there is another thing, and that is Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is so important because it reveals to us what is according to the pleasure of the Lord; in the midst of all that of which I have spoken, there is still something down here which meets His mind and is according to His pleasure. It is very small and unpretentious, nothing in the eye of man; yet according to His mind, what He says to it is: “Thou hast a little strength”; “Hold that fast which thou hast”; “I come quickly”. His word is kept; in this you have the spirit of Scripture; that which He has brought to light; all that has come out by Him in His word. His name is not denied; it is that which is set forth in Him. All this is kept and guarded, and has to be kept and guarded. We want our souls to be in the blessed sense of what He is; of all that [p. 254] which God has been pleased to set forth in Him; that is His name and is what is cherished by those who love Him. They keep His word and they do not deny His name.
Does that mark us? Is your heart in the full light of that revelation which Christ has brought, in the full light of the love of God? Is Christ everything to you? Do you refer everything to His name? Is Christ a real living Lord to you, a real living Head? Is His name that which you cherish in His absence? It is His name that we speak about now in the time of His absence, we should not want to do so if He were present, but it marks His absence.
These two things are the great safeguards of the saints. I judge everything around by His word and His name. I look to see whether things are consistent with what God has been pleased to set forth in His name for it is the touchstone; at the same time my soul is in the light of His word, of the blessed testimony which God has been pleased to give. All God’s righteousness, holiness, love, power, have come to light in Christ, and God has given Him a name above every name.
Now I call your attention to what the Lord engages Himself to. Look at verse 9: “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie”. I judge the synagogue of Satan to refer to those who take successional Jewish ground here upon earth. The synagogue of Satan had previously appeared; chapter 2: 9. I do not think it is literally the Jewish synagogue, but those who take that sort of ground here upon the earth: “I will make them to come and do homage before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee”. I doubt if that refers to what will take place in heaven. I believe that if in this day of general deflection, we are found true to Christ, and not denying His name, God will put honour upon us. I feel confident of this, that [p. 255] those who set up this Jewish pretension will be made to know that Christ has loved us, despised as we may be.
Thus we see on the one hand, worldly political power; on the other, rationalism, and we see too, the synagogue of Satan, high churchism, that which settles upon earth, with successional priesthood and sacrifices. The Lord says, “I will make them to come and do homage”. Depend upon it we are in a very critical moment. In the midst of all this, it is the mind of Christ that there should be a feeble few really in the light of His day, keeping His word and not denying His name, and the Lord knows how to confer honour upon those who honour Him.
Just one word more: He says, “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”. That is another engagement. It signifies that they will not pass through the tribulation that is to try all that dwell upon the earth. This has its application to the whole true church.
Then He says, “Behold, I come quickly, hold that fast”. It is not long we have to wait. Now the injunction is: “Let no man take thy crown”. A great word for us. May we not break down at the close. We have to guard ourselves, the coming of the Lord is imminent. This word is given to encourage us so that we may go on and hold fast what we have, that no one take our crown.
Just a word as to the overcomer. You have always to overcome in any state of things down here; to go against the current. That is a sign of vitality. If you see a fish going with the stream you conclude there is no life there, a living fish goes against the stream; so it is in regard to us, the real test of vitality is to go against the current. The constant tendency is in the [p. 256] way of deflection. Whatever the state of things that has been set up here by the Spirit, always and without exception deflection has set in. To go against the current is to overcome, each soul being maintained in freshness and vitality, in the power of the Spirit. Each one of us has to see to it that he is an overcomer. In the kingdom, you will be distinguished by everything in which you have been faithful here; nothing will be forgotten on the part of the Lord. He says, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Why? Because he stood as a pillar of the temple down here. “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”. Why? Because he was jealous here for ‘the name of my God and the city of my God and for my new name’. It will be true in regard to every one of us, that what you are marked by down here, as an overcomer going against the current, will make you conspicuous in the kingdom; you will come out in that colour, the colour of your own faithfulness down here. It is immensely important to see, that in the midst of Sardis and Laodicea there is a little spot, an oasis in the desert, where is found that which is pleasing to the Lord. The Lord has revealed what is agreeable to Him and for His pleasure; the effect upon us is that we want to answer to it. I do not expect to do great things or to see great things done now. To keep His word is not a great thing to do, and one would like to be found among those keeping His word and not denying His name; and our compensation is great. The Lord says: “I have loved thee”. That refers to what Christ is to the church. Those who seek to be true to Him realise it; they come to the blessed consciousness of His love to the church. It is a great thing to be without pretension in a day like this; the bright days of the church never will be restored. Now that which began [p. 257] so bright has become leavened with Judaism, rationalism, and popery, with all their assumption, it is a great thing to be unpretentious and simple seeking simply to answer to the mind of the Lord. He will conduct our souls in the full revelation of His name, so that we can test everything by it, and not care to touch anything unsuited to His name, or carry out His work otherwise than in keeping with His name.
He that is holy, He that is true. God has given Him to be all for us, all in regard to His people.
I come back in conclusion to what I started with, there never was a state of things down here in the church as to which the Lord had not His mind. He is not simply Minister of the sanctuary, but Son over God’s house, and He walks in the midst of the candlesticks. With regard to all the pretension and rationalism, though outside, He says, “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 sup with him, and he with me”. The Lord says that, even to a church like Laodicea, but He cannot stand at the door and knock always, He waits now, that someone may open the door. That is how the Lord attends on the church and waits.
May the Lord give us light and the sense that no power can shut the door He opens — I cannot conceive a greater encouragement than that; and to know that He has His mind about everything here. We should be jealous to be unpretentious and simple, but morally answering to His mind.