THE ROOT AND OFFSPRING OF DAVID

^[p. 272] THE ROOT AND OFFSPRING OF DAVID

I would speak now of the Lord’s faithfulness in testifying and sending His angel, and then the response. Further He says, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 16, 17. He is speaking now of what He is to the erring church. He sent His angel to testify, but He says, “I am the root and offspring of David”. He is now appealing to a movement that He has brought about in some, however few. It is normal characteristically of the assembly, that the assembly knows who Christ is. The Lord has been challenging us in recent years as to who He is. He says, ‘I am the root of David’ and ‘the offspring’, too. It is as if He would say, Do you understand? He challenged some opposers as to David calling Him Lord, “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?” Matthew 22: 45. They could not understand that. The church can answer that; it is His deity, dear brethren. You know how the creed has cast a shade on the deity of Christ for about fifteen hundred years. The saints have been under a shade, their minds have been beclouded as to the deity of Christ by the accepted creed of christendom saying that He was begotten of the Father before the foundation of the world. That has cast a shade on His glorious Person, but the church normally does not hold that. John did not hold that, his gospel contradicts it. There is no begetting in past eternity; it is here on earth — “This day have I begotten thee” (Psalm 2: 7) — that is in time as a Man below. The assembly understands that. John represents normally the understanding of the assembly. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. That is the ^[p. 273] statement, the enemy cannot get rid of that statement, it keeps Christ before the saints in His true dignity and deity and we are to hold it fast, on the other hand glorying in the fact that He has become a Man, which opens up the side for us to be His brethren for ever. ‘The root of David’ — and ‘offspring’, which is His humanity. His Person is unchanged and unchangeable. He has taken a new condition, but He has not changed His Person, He remains who He is. “Before Abraham was, I am”, as He said. He is the root of David, but He is the offspring, and moreover, the bright and morning star.

May the Lord move our hearts as we think of it, as He presents Himself in this way. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, The Spirit takes the lead. When the failure took place in Thyatira, the Lord addressed Himself to Sardis as One who “has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars”, Revelation 3: 1. What a great fact that He has the seven Spirits of God! The Spirit has asserted Himself in these last days and in asserting Himself He has made everything of Christ. As Christ presents Himself in this way the Spirit says, Come, and the bride says, Come — there is a perfect lead. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14.

Then there is the word John adds, thinking of the saints and the gospel, for the gospel was near to John’s heart. In the main he wrote to assert the deity of Christ, but you get statements in John that you get nowhere else about the gospel. So here, “Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”. It is as if the coming of the Lord would suggest that. Every true lover of Christ would say, Let us tell everyone about Christ! “Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”.