PHILADELPHIA—THE TRUTH OF THE ASSEMBLY
MAINTAINED TO THE END
I am not going to give an exposition, but only a little word of encouragement. I believe the Lord would encourage the hearts of His people in connection with the truth of the assembly. I think we have been slow to take account of the relation of the assembly to Himself; if its relation to Himself were more vividly present to our spirits, we should take a much greater account of it. It has been thought by some that to speak much of the assembly detracts from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the very opposite to that; we could not think so if we really understood the relationship of the assembly to Christ.
The assembly in Revelation 2: 3 is seen in the completeness of its local character. Seven is the number of completeness, so seven assemblies figuratively speak of the church in its completeness, yet the seven assemblies in these two chapters are seven local assemblies, and hence they speak to us of the completeness of the assembly in its local character. The Lord has established the assembly, in the character of which I speak, to be in testimony for Himself. The idea of a lamp or candlestick is light, and light is testimony, and the assemblies here are spoken of as on the ground of responsibility. The character of responsibility attaches to them; the responsibility is to be here in testimony for Himself.
Now if the Lord has established His assembly in this way and character, and it is incontrovertible from this scripture that He has, we cannot conceive of the Lord failing to maintain here a testimony for Himself in connection with the assembly, however great the ruin.
We all know that the first assembly of these seven—Ephesus, is marked out as the beginning or starting-point of declension, and, speaking generally of these seven assemblies, they set before us a downward course of declension and failure. They go from bad to worse, and when we reach the last, things have gone to the very worst; so much so, that the Lord says to Laodicea, “I will spue thee out of my mouth”. That is final and decisive; the Lord actually and absolutely rejects it; there is no hope of recovery held out to Laodicea.
I want to speak about Philadelphia—the last but one of the seven of these local assemblies. Now Philadelphia stands for that which is perfectly suitable and agreeable to the Lord; it stands for that which He can approve of and encourage. I would like simply, without any attempt at argument, to bring before you the fact that Philadelphia was literally an assembly, and hence it furnishes a suitable representation of the truth of the assembly, and Philadelphia goes on to the end. I want you to see this because the question is raised sometimes—Will the Lord sustain to the end the truth of the assembly, will He maintain it, will it be here, or must we give up faith with regard to it? Must we abandon ourselves to the alternative of trying to do the best we can under the circumstances? I think the Lord’s message to Philadelphia provides a very clear and distinct answer to that question. It encourages us in the assurance that the Lord will sustain the truth of the assembly down to the very close, so we need not give up.
Things must be stated clearly. To speak of the truth of the assembly is not pretension or assumption! No, the Lord never did sustain pretension. To say He does not is nothing peculiar to the present moment, for He never did; but I cannot conceive of the Lord giving up the truth of His assembly, I mean in the sense of having the truth of it maintained down here in testimony to the end.
If you have given up all thought of the truth of the assembly being maintained at the present time, I can only say that I am not a bit in sympathy with you, and if you do not treasure in your soul the truth of the assembly, I am sorry for you.
Let me emphasise this—the Lord is not taken up with certain persons or individuals as such. I will tell you what He is taken up with—with the truth of His assembly, and that because of its relationship to Himself. I cannot conceive of the Lord not being interested in that which so closely concerns His own honour and glory. I can understand ourselves not being interested in it, though it is to our shame, but I cannot conceive the Lord becoming indifferent to what involves His honour and glory. If He encourages Philadelphia, it is because the saints there are found identified with the truth of what His heart is set on.
Now as to what involves the Lord’s glory down here, we get three things mentioned—“my word”, “my name”, and “the word of my patience”. Just think soberly before the Lord of those three things. The Lord is not here. From the standpoint of this book He is absent, but His word, His name, and the word of His patience are here; and those three things involve His honour and His glory. The Lord approves those in Philadelphia, and encourages them because they have kept His word and have not denied His name. That was true locally in regard to that local assembly in Philadelphia, but speaking of that assembly, which existed, one thousand nine hundred years ago, is not enough, the message of the Spirit to that assembly must have an application to the very end, because it goes on to His coming. He says to Philadelphia, “I come quickly: hold fast”, &c. The whole construction of the message supposes that this assembly continues to the close. No one dies in Philadelphia, there are no deaths, Philadelphia is here till the rapture, hence it is He says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee”. How does He keep them out of the trial? Just the same way that the Lord kept Enoch out of the flood by taking him away before it came, so He will “keep” Philadelphia by taking her away before the hour of trial comes. Enoch was never in the flood, God took him before the flood came, and so it is here; Philadelphia goes on to the end, until the Lord comes to take His assembly to Himself.
Pressure may have come upon you to let go, to give up the truth of the assembly, but this message is most encouraging, for this message of the Spirit is the assurance that the Lord is going to maintain the truth of His assembly to the very end. I am in sympathy with Him about it, and I would like to be in the testimony of it. Would not you? God maintains it. Philadelphia presents that which the Lord approves, and which the Lord encourages, and which the Lord vindicates. It is not a question of the Lord approving you and me, but that He will maintain the truth of His assembly to the very finish, and He encourages our hearts to be in accord with His heart. God’s people often get their eyes on themselves, or on someone else, and they get into confusion and trouble—doubting and fearing. We want to get our eyes off ourselves and off others, and to have our eyes fixed on Him and to get back to first love and hold fast the truth as involved in My word, My name, and the word of My patience, because in keeping those three things we hold fast the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time.
Then another point in Philadelphia—there is no trace of publicity; there is no trace of anything that men as such can take account of, no indication of anything that lies under the eye of man. There was once, for instance, in the assembly at Corinth, as we can see in 1 and 2 Corinthians. If you had gone down to that city they would have told you there were three classes of people there—Jew, Gentile, and the assembly of God. If you had asked—Where is the assembly of God, an intelligent Corinthian might have answered, They have a meeting and break bread and you can go there next Lord’s day. Publicity was there and there was what men could take account of; but in Philadelphia there is no publicity. Failure and ruin has come in in regard of all that is public, so that the day for that has passed by.
There is more involved in this than you might think. We like publicity, we are slow to give it up, we linger around it. Some of us were trained to publicity and had public religious positions, but I call your attention to this—there is no publicity in Philadelphia, and I say beware of publicity; it is connected with what is outward, and formal, and perhaps material; but what I understand by Philadelphia is that it embodies the truth of the assembly, not publicly, nor outwardly, but inwardly and spiritually and vitally.
All power is connected with the unseen presence and operation of the Holy Ghost, “Whom the world cannot receive”. He was never sent to the world, the world cannot receive Him, it is impossible, because it “neither seeth him, nor knoweth him”. All power in Christianity is connected with the unseen Spirit. Verse 8 should read: “thou hast a little power”. Why is it little? Because of the ruin that has come into all the sphere that is under the eye of men, but there is a sphere under the eye of Christ. Keeping his word and not denying his name is predicted of Philadelphia in connection with the “little power”, so I would warn you against publicity. We are going to be public enough by and by, when Christ comes out and all the saints in glory. We shall have publicity then, but beware of it now. It is the rock on which all the terrible wreck has taken place, organising churches, etc. Why do they like steeples, painted windows and architecture? For its publicity. What have such things to do with the assembly of Christ? Nothing. The more these things abound the further you are away from not denying His name. Philadelphia is not an outwardly organised company of saints; that is the force of the Lord saying, “I know thy works”; they are under My eye, I am acquainted with them. It is sometimes said as a taunt—you people do nothing! Well, you are not trying to do, you are on the line of keeping His word and not denying His name. Those two are the grand considerations in your soul which profoundly exercise you and move you in your inmost soul before the Lord.
If Ephesus is the point of departure, Philadelphia is the point of recovery, because those in Philadelphia have been brought back to the point which was left in Ephesus, and that point is “first love”. First love involves Christ’s love to the assembly; it is said to Ephesus, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen”. They had fallen from the top—it was not a little fall—they had fallen from the very top, and Philadelphia is recovery. There is first love in Philadelphia. How do you know? Because the Lord can say, “Thou hast kept my word”. And He has told us—“If a man love me he will keep my word”. Philadelphia is keeping His word; the fruit of love is there. He is loved and the proof of it is His word is kept. Then there is the second proof: “thou hast not denied my name”. When “name” is spoken of it supposes that the person is not present. If I am a thousand miles away from my children I think a great deal of their keeping my word, not denying my name, and when Christ is absent it is a wonderful thing to keep His word and not to deny His name. In Philadelphia they have come back to the point of departure. Mr J B Stoney used to say a remnant means a bright bit of the original11. If you look at Exodus 14: 31 you will see what marked the Israelites on the Arabian bank of the Red Sea. They “feared the Lord”, the Lord had got His place with them. There is plenty of failure with them all along the line, but when we come to Malachi 3: 16 we find, “Then they that feared the Lord”. Oh, that was a great deal to the Lord. The Lord expresses His appreciation of that company: “they shall be mine, saith the Lord”, v 17. So, I think if I want the brightest bit of the beginning of the assembly I would go to Ephesus, that is where the top was realised. It is in the Epistle to the Ephesians that you get the love of Christ to the assembly; it is properly there, “it passeth knowledge”, and there is the answer to that love in the assembly. I believe the apostle’s prayer (chap 3) was answered in those Ephesian saints, “and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”, v 19. Ah, from that point they fell, and from that point the Spirit has wrought and recovered the saints in Philadelphia. I believe the mark of the operation of the Spirit is the recovery of saints to “first love”. Have you been recovered? You need not tell people who are recovered what they ought to do; it is people who are recovered who keep the word of His patience, they are under the mighty power of the love of Christ and there is an answer produced in them; they are recovered to the love of Christ—His love for His assembly. Give me the recovery of Philadelphia, let me be recovered to first love to Christ in the assembly, let me respond to the love of Christ—that is what He approves and supports. And He says, they “shall know that I have loved thee”. How glad the Lord is to tell out His heart to those who keep His word, and do not deny His name. I would like to speak so that the Lord’s people might be encouraged on that line. I do not mean any little section of the so-called Plymouth Brethren. I mean the whole of the Lord’s people; we all want a stirring up in the direction of being agreeable to the Lord. I want to be agreeable to Him. Do you not? Those in Philadelphia were agreeable to Him and they maintained by the power of the Spirit the truth of the assembly.
It is the truth of the assembly, while it is made good in each soul individually. Some have a difficulty as to what is individual; the truth of Christianity must be made good in each individual soul. If it is not made good in your soul, as far as you are concerned, you are not in it. I may break bread, but if the truth is not made good in my soul, I have no vital part in it. But what kind of truth is it? It is the truth of Christ’s love to the assembly. Now and then you will find some one taking the ground that Elijah took when under the juniper tree. He said: ‘I am the only one left’. There is nothing in that but unbelief and self-occupation. What did the Lord say to Elijah? He put seven thousand before the “one”—seven thousand and one. Was not that quite a nice little company? The Lord is still maintaining the truth of His assembly; you will never be reduced to one like Elijah; you will find others there too, and you will be able to go on. And you will find that the Lord will maintain the truth of His assembly to the end for His own glory. If you look on three hundred years from Malachi, you find Simeon and Anna looking for redemption in Israel, and it was to those and not to the Pharisees to whom the Holy Ghost had to say. In that little company there was maintained the truth of that dispensation.
The Lord would encourage our hearts in what He is doing. I would like to say more, but the time is gone. Turn for one moment to Revelation 22, the last chapter in the last book of the Bible. At the very end of the present time—the end of Christianity—the Lord presents Himself as “I Jesus”, &c., and “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, v 16. If you and I had written that verse, we should have said—there are perhaps a few brethren saying, “Come”. No, it is “the Spirit and the bride”. That is the end—the finish—the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The bride is here, she is duly represented in all her bridal affections and she is longing for Him. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”. The Spirit of God has written it down in these last few verses of the Bible. I want to be in that. Do you? Is it not cheering and inspiring in these last few moments to have such words as these? Oh, He is coming in the eventide—the heavenly Isaac. Eleazar has brought Rebecca to Him. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”.
May the Lord greatly encourage our hearts. I am encouraged. Are you?
I remember one of the last messages Mr F E Raven sent to America was, ‘Tell the brethren never to give up’.
Beloved! we are not going to give up. Are we?