“I Come Quickly”
“I COME QUICKLY”
These verses we have read, dear brethren, come in after the revelation proper has been completed. That is to say, the unveiling, which the word revelation means, was really completed at verse 5, but then the Lord addresses to us these verses we have read as a kind of appeal to us all as to what our attitude is going to be as having been given this wonderful book of Revelation. It is a great message from God that we should be made intelligent as to all that is to come to pass, because the world around us knows nothing; it may have its fears but it knows nothing as to what is about to happen, but to us it is given, in the grace of God, to be intelligent in all that is to arise, and that I believe is a feature, dear brethren, of sonship, that God loves to have His sons intelligently with Him in all that He has in mind to do.
Now in connection with these verses I wanted to draw attention to the fact, that three times over the Lord says, “I come quickly”. In the first place in verse 7: “I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book”, and then again in verse 12: “Behold, I come quickly, and my reward with me, to render to every one as his work shall be”, and then finally in verse 20: “Yea, I come quickly” with nothing added. It is Himself there; the final word is Himself—“I come quickly”, but one desired to draw attention to this thrice-repeated word, “I come quickly”, and what stands connected with it, and also to draw attention to one or two other features that appear in the passage, and especially the thought of bondmanship which was alluded to last night, and which is a prominent feature, as we know, of this book of Revelation. It says in verse 6, “the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to show to his bondmen the things which must soon come to pass”. There can be no doubt, dear brethren, that the present time calls for bondmanship, indeed, the testimony of God has always called for bondmanship, and so the angel who has to rebuke John because John was prepared to fall down and do homage at his feet, says to him, “See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-bondman, and the fellow-bondman of thy brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book”. That is to say the angels are bondmen, and the prophets have been bondmen, and we are to be bondmen, bondmen of God; that is, wholly committed to God’s things; in no other way can the testimony go forward to completion, save in the spirit of bondmanship, and so one would remark, in passing, that of the five writers of epistles only two of them (that is, Paul and Peter) call themselves apostles. Peter, in his second epistle, adds bondman. He says: “bondman and apostle of Jesus Christ”, but James addresses us as “James, bondman of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
John, in his epistles calls himself “the elder” and in Revelation calls himself “his bondman John”, that is, the bondman of Jesus Christ. Jude says he is “bondman of Jesus Christ and brother of James”. That is to say these three writers of epistles, although they had authority by reason of the place the Lord had given them, do not explicitly assert it, but rely rather on their moral authority by reason of their love for the saints as evident in their epistles. James constantly says “my beloved brethren” and Jude speaks of the saints in similar terms, and John, as we know, is the great one who loved, and they certainly had moral authority by reason of their love for the saints, and I question whether we have any moral authority if we do not love the saints, and I doubt if our moral authority is any greater than the measure of our love, but I say these three writers do not assert authority in their epistles, but rather present themselves as bondmen, of God and of the Lord Jesus. And so they would incite us all to take up that attitude of mind. Indeed, beloved brethren, bondmanship of God and of the Lord Jesus is not merely something to be taken up, as it were, voluntarily, it is our normal relation to God and to the Lord Jesus. As was stated yesterday, the epistle to Romans develops how we are in fact to become bondmen of God; having been bondmen of sin, the grace of God has come in in order to make us practically bondmen of God, and the way it comes about is worked out in the early chapters of the epistle to the Romans; the 6th chapter especially, our mind coming into the matter—a right reckoning in the light of the truth as it is presented, and then the 8th chapter bringing in, in the Holy Spirit, the power to make it good. But I say, dear brethren, that bondmanship on our part to God and to the Lord Jesus arises properly from the fact that we are their absolute property; that they have an absolute right to us, both creatorially and through redemption, so that bondmanship to God is simply the recognition on our part that they have an absolute, incontestable right to us, and our happiness and our power in the testimony depend upon the measure in which we are prepared to yield ourselves to that position which is right for each one of us.
There is the thought of bondmanship, also, in relation to the saints. As Paul says: “we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”. That is bondmanship in relation to the saints, taken up in love, under the influence of love—for Jesus’ sake—and that is an important matter too, and a matter that will greatly contribute to the well-being of the saints, if in every locality there are those who are prepared to be bondmen of the saints for Jesus’ sake. But as regards this thought of bondmanship in this chapter in Revelation, and indeed in the whole book, for it is a characteristic expression of the book of Revelation, the idea of bondman really flows from the fact that both God and the Lord Jesus have an absolute right to us absolutely. And the Spirit of God has come in in order that it might be real and effective. The Spirit of God is able to control our minds and hold us for the service and pleasure of the blessèd God, and the way the Spirit is being emphasised at the present time is intended to encourage us to seek to know Him personally, and intimately, and to accord Him without any reserves the place that He is entitled to. He has come in in order to secure us, spirit, soul and body for God and for the Lord Jesus, and to enable us in liberty and intelligence to fill out our part in assembly service, and also to enable us to stand here as committed to the testimony, with no private interests that would conflict in any way with divine interests. The Spirit is here in order to bring about in us this attitude of mind of bondmanship to God and to support us in it.
I said earlier, in that position we are in the company of angels and of prophets and of those who keep the words of this book. And so it says: “the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets”. What an important matter that is—the spirits of the prophets, for we are living in days when evil is increasing, when things that are done may strike us as unreasonable and arbitrary, and how necessary it is, if we are to be here representative of God, that our spirits should be kept. “The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets”. God places great value on the spirits of the saints, and hence the importance of the fact that the Holy Spirit has taken His abode in us, as James says. God attaches great importance to the spirits of those who represent Him, and we do represent Him, beloved brethren, as having the Holy Spirit, we are here as representative of God in His testimony in this world, and in that position we come under divine notice and protection; as it says: “Touch not mine anointed ones, And do my prophets no harm”. On the other hand the opposition may be allowed to do harm to the bodies of the saints, but it is not contemplated that they can overcome their spirits, and so we have in Stephen one of the first and one of the greatest prophets of the New Testament. We see how his spirit was so blessedly preserved, as he says as he falls asleep: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”. How God attaches value to the spirits of His prophets; those who represent Him in this world, and are capacitated in the Spirit to convey His mind, He is the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets. You remember what a beautiful spirit Ezekiel showed when one of his opponents as he prophesied fell down dead, and Ezekiel cried, “Ah Lord Jehovah, wilt thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”. What a spirit to show; no rejoicing over the cutting off of a bitter opponent, but the spirit of intercession, and how much more so with us in this dispensation of divine grace.
And now the first time the Lord says, “I come quickly”. He says, “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book”. That is, keeps them in mind, and is affected by them, and that raises the question with us all, dear brethren, as to how much we know of the book of Revelation, and how much we are carrying it in mind, and how much it is regulating our outlook, and affecting us; what a book it is! We have the 2nd and 3rd chapters which give, as we well know, an epitome of church history as the Lord has seen it, and how we are to be affected by it; we ought to be affected by it as tracing the history of the declension of the assembly, from all that it enjoyed as set up under Paul’s ministry at Ephesus, and then what it became in Thyatira, and that is all around us to-day, and then the Lord’s word to Sardis, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”, showing that the Lord is looking for completeness, as again we were having last night. The Lord is looking for completeness, that there should not be a single element wanting in God’s thoughts regarding the assembly. He is looking for a perfect answer to it, and if the Lord addresses Sardis and says, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”, He presents Himself as the One who has the seven Spirits of God, as though to say, I have at My disposal available for you all that is necessary to bring about completeness—completeness can come about in the Holy Spirit—there is fulness of power, fulness of resource in the Holy Spirit to bring about a perfect answer to every thought of God regarding the assembly, and hence one can rejoice, dear brethren, unfeignedly for the place the Holy Spirit is now getting amongst us. Is there anyone who has difficulty about it still? If so, I beg of you to take account of the fact that the brethren are coming into it and are rejoicing in it, and it will be your greatest loss if you do not come into it yourself.
The Holy Spirit has been recognised and known by us, in a sense, all along, as the One who alone gives power in divine things, and we have proved His help in the past, but now He is being brought before us in His own Person in a personal way; as the Lord says, “another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever”, and again, “he shall guide you into all the truth”. What could be more blessed than that, and that He is there to be referred to, and there to be communed with, and there to be availed of, and He has taken up His abode in us; in each one of us individually; each one of our bodies is “temple of the Holy Spirit”, and He has come in to take up His abode in the assembly, and to be with us right through to the end, and again I say to guide into all the truth. Hence, dear brethren, how important it is, if any of us have reserves or difficulties in regard of this matter of the Spirit, that we should really get to the Lord about it, and get to the Spirit Himself about it, so that we may be relieved of our difficulties and reserves, and that we may come fully and happily into the joy of that which is known and proved among the saints. And so, dear brethren, without the Spirit we shall never reach completeness, but in the full recognition of the Holy Spirit, and as increasingly affected individually by the presence of the Spirit, for the presence of the Spirit requires increasing subjection on our part, increasing dependence, increasing concern as to holiness, increasing sensitiveness, the presence of the Holy Spirit with us requires all that, but as we are prepared to face up to the exercises that the presence of the Spirit involves, I say we shall find in increasing measure what He is to us as in the assembly, and we shall find that He will really guide us into all the truth; not only opening up the mind of God, but giving us the capacity to understand it and to move in it in liberty and dignity and power. The Lord had to say to Sardis: “I have not found thy works complete before my God”, but then how we rejoice in the light of Philadelphia and all that it means; assembly revival, recovery of all the truth, as the Lord says to Philadelphia, “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. What a crown it will be, dear brethren, if we are enabled to arrive at a complete answer in life and intelligence and dignity, to all the thoughts of God regarding the assembly. What a joy it will be for the heart of Christ; what joy for the heart of God; what a crown to the assembly, if after all its history in the past that is what is arrived at, and that is what we are to have in mind.
You can understand the Lord saying, “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book”. And then you pass on to chapter 4 of Revelation, and you find that there is a throne in heaven and one sitting upon it, as though we are not to be unduly disturbed by all the occurrences in the world.
There is One sitting on the throne; the throne is there and One sitting on it; there is no need to be disturbed; “the Lord sitteth upon the flood; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever”, and that is the light that is brought to us in chapter 4 of Revelation, and in the meantime while the Lord is not intervening publicly in an outward way He is seeing that the rights of the throne are maintained in the assembly. That is to say the assembly is here as a sphere on earth where every feature of the rights of God is intended to be maintained. It becomes thus a testimony to what will be brought in publicly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and what we find in that 4th chapter is that elders are identified with the throne, and living creatures are identified with the throne, as though God would say to us that He wants us to be identified with Him in the maintenance of all that is due to His throne. He does not want to assert His power apart from the saints; He wants to assert His rights through the saints, and to have us with Him in the maintenance of all that is due to Him in the assembly. We cannot put the world right, but we can see that things are right in the assembly, and it is our responsibility and our privilege to do so, and not only will it afford a clean place for God and afford pleasure to God, but it becomes a testimony to that which will be brought in publicly at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then there is chapter 5 and the presentation of the Lamb. As we were saying this afternoon, a diminutive idea, a defenceless idea, and so He is seen as a Lamb standing, as slain. That is to say faithfulness to God had carried Him along that path of outward defencelessness and littleness, but He would not surrender. “He was led as a lamb to the slaughter”, it says, and on those lines He has achieved victory. He has not been overcome; He has overcome, and so the Lamb in chapter 5 is seen as the “lion which is of the tribe of Juda”, the one morally entitled and alone fitted to take the book and open the seals thereof. And so the Lord would raise the question with us, dear brethren, as to how much we are keeping the words of the prophecy of the book. How much they are in our minds; how much we are affected by them, because it will greatly alter our outlook and greatly conduce to restfulness and peace of mind if we keep the words of the prophecy of this book in our hearts, and it will also stimulate us to see that there is nothing allowed in the assembly that is inconsistent with the rights of the throne. And so you could pass on right through the book. We know that in chapter 18 there is the judgment of the great harlot, and then in chapter 19 there is the rejoicing over her, a great voice heard in heaven, and then in the middle of chapter 19 we read: “And I saw”, and I just mention in passing, that from that point onwards you will find that in eight successive paragraphs it starts “and I saw”, going right on to the eternal state; John is telling us what he saw, and we are supposed to see, too, dear brethren. The book of Revelation is given us for that very purpose; that we may see things carried right through to an issue, as God is able and going to do. He will bring everything to an issue.
In the middle of chapter 19 you have “And I saw the heaven opened” and then we have the setting forth of the coming forth in glory of our Lord Jesus Christ who is called “Faithful and True”. That is, His moral features of faithfulness and truth are brought forward first, giving His moral right to take up things for God, and then it says He has a “name written which no one knows but himself”—a beautiful allusion to the inscrutability of His Person. Blessed the way the Lord brings in from time to time that which reminds us of the glory of His Person. We have it later on in this very chapter 22, in verse 13: “I am the Alpha, and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end”. The Lord is saying all these things to the assembly. As it says: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”. It is the whole assembly that is in mind, but it is the local assemblies that are being addressed, because the Lord is speaking in view of practical results, and practical results are seen in local assemblies; it is in the local assemblies, dear brethren, in localities that things are right or not right; that the rights of God are maintained or not maintained; that things are in readiness for the coming of the Lord or are not in readiness; it is in localities that these conditions come to light, and therefore the Lord says, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies”. The Lord is looking round, you might say, on all the assemblies, to take account of the conditions that are found there in view of His coming. He says: “I come quickly”. Three times over He says it, and in connection with the first He says: “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book”. And so as I was saying, in chapter 19 John sees Him coming forth, called “Faithful and True” and then having “a name written which no one knows but himself”, and then His name is called “the word of God”. That is, as the Lord Jesus comes forth in power to establish the rights of God upon the earth and to deal in judgment with all that is opposed, He is just as much the Word of God, the perfect expression of the mind of God, as when in grace the Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us. And then finally it says: “He has a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords”. That is His public glory, His public vindication, “King of kings and Lord of lords”.
Well now John sees that—He says: “And I saw”, and then, as I said, seven further paragraphs, each one beginning with “And I saw”, covering the whole closing up of things in this world, leading up to the overthrow of the beast and the false prophet, and the chaining of Satan for a thousand years, and then, when the thousand years is completed, the great white throne, and evil finally dealt with and the lake of fire finally brought in, showing God’s ability to carry matters right through. As Solomon said to his son: “Let thine eyes look right on”, and the book of Revelation is given us for that very purpose, to enable us to have our eyes looking right on, and I say again, dear brethren, that the more we keep the words of the prophecy of this book the more we shall be in peace and steady in regard of all that is happening in the world, because we see that God has the ability, and is going to do it, to carry everything to an issue that is according to Himself, but what He is occupied with at the moment is the assembly, and the completion of His thoughts regarding the assembly, and the securing in the assembly of a sphere in which all that will be brought in publicly at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is already secured among the saints. And so the last “And I saw” that John gives us is in chapter 21. He says, “a new heaven and a new earth”, and then he says, “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. That is the last thing that John specifically says he saw. He is shown something after this, and, of course, he saw it, but he is specifically shown what follows, but what I have alluded to is what he sees as carefully observing what the Lord is bringing before him, going right on to completion, and hence the importance with us of keeping the “words of the prophecy of this book”. He says: “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. We have been much impressed of late, dear brethren, and again in these meetings, with the sense that the assembly comes down out of heaven; she is heavenly; heavenly in origin, as has often been said; heavenly in constitution too, for in the Holy Spirit those who compose it partake of the life and spirit of the heavenly One, as it says: “such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones”, and the idea of being heavenly is to take possession of our minds.
So here in the eternal state John sees the “holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared” it says “as a bride adorned for her husband”. As has often been said, that is after the thousand years, showing that during the millennium there is no deterioration, but she is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. A bride likes to look her best; it is a figure used; it is not exactly the bride, although of course it is the bride, but I mean it is not exactly presented in that way as the bride, but rather the figure is used—“prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. What bride does not want to look her best, and are we concerned, dear brethren, to look our best, if I may use that expression. Is the assembly concerned to look its best; is it considering what the Lord would love to see in us, for that is the idea; what kind of features would the Lord delight to see us marked by, for what is seen when the assembly, the holy city, new Jerusalem, in the eternal day comes down out of heaven from God, is that she is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That is to say the features of beauty that mark her have been the subject of a good deal of preparation on her part, and the governing consideration in the preparation is what kind of features will the Lord love to see. I need not say, dear brethren, that they will be features that correspond with Himself. Where can we learn what is really attractive to God, save in Christ, and the more we consider Christ, dear brethren, the more we find that He was always considering for the pleasure and glory of God, never considering for Himself. He never sought His own glory, He never did His own will; the more you follow Christ through the gospels and other scriptures that speak of Him you will find that He is always considering for the glory of God. As it says in the epistle of Peter, “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ”. That is brought down to us; it is to govern us in our service; it is to govern us in all that we do among the saints, “that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ”. And so the more we consider Christ, and the more we consider what He would delight to see, the more we shall find that we are considering for the glory of God; that no other motive is governing us, as it says: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all things to God’s glory”. We are very shortly to come out as the vessel having the glory of God, to come out in the millennium as the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God, able in that way to express it, and hence, dear brethren, if we are to be fitted for that we have to learn from Christ, and consider the kind of features, the kind of adornment, the kind of spiritual refinement which He would see marking the saints, and the more we consider Him and consider what He will take pleasure in, the more it will work out in our being formed in ability rightly to express end glorify God. So in verse 2 the holy city, it says, comes down out of the heaven from God, “And I heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God”. That is something that is included in the words of the prophecy of this book, and it involves, dear brethren, that we are to be formed in love. The tabernacle of God is with men, not a temple, not a grand official idea, but rather the simple, the homely kind of dwelling, if one may use the expression, which the tabernacle suggests. “The tabernacle of God is with men”, God dwelling with men, how wonderful it is, and the assembly is being formed as the tabernacle of God, by means of which He will be placed in touch with men in the eternal day.
And so after all these things that John says he saw, we find in the middle of chapter 21 that an angel, one of the angels that had been given the seven bowls, comes to him and says: “Come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife”. And so he is now shown something, as though the Spirit of God would enlarge on the assembly, for the bride the Lamb’s wife is the assembly, and she is God’s great masterpiece, and the result of the Spirit’s unremitting labours for two thousand years, and so John is shown the bride, the Lamb’s wife, and he sees a city. It can be measured, and its wall can be measured and its gates can be measured; a great vessel of administration in love, for love is the great matter, as Paul says in that great administrative epistle, the epistle to the Corinthians, “let all things ye do be done in love”, and again he says, “if I ... have not love I am nothing”, a most sweeping statement; I might have prophecy, and understand mysteries, and have faith to remove mountains, and so on, but if I have not love I am nothing. And the present time is the time of formation in love, and hence the Supper, week after week, dear brethren, giving us a fresh start in a fresh week under the influence of love. It is the first thing that we touch as a fresh week begins, that we come afresh under the influence of love. “This do”, the Lord says, ‘for the calling me to mind’. It is love in expression in Christ towards the assembly, and while, of course, the immediate end in view is that He should be called to mind, and that conditions of love towards Himself should come into evidence, so that He may come in and take His place, and then the service of God proceed, at the same time what is required is love amongst ourselves, and every week we come afresh under its influence so that we may be formed by it. And this city as the great administrative vessel is really a vessel formed in love, for God is love, and all its influence and all its administration must be in love. And therefore its gates can be measured, and its wall can be measured. What an important matter the wall is, dear brethren. The wall is that which is built up; it is a question of what is built up in our souls in the appreciation of the Man Jesus Christ, so that all that is out of keeping is refused, and all that is according to God is preserved. The city has a wall great and high, and what a wall there was in the early days in the Acts! There was no code of regulations as to what they were to do, and what they were not to do, but the Spirit of God was unhindered and ungrieved, and there was holiness there among the brethren, holy love, and when evil came in with Ananias and Sapphira it was immediately dealt with in power, and then it says: “Of the rest durst no man join them”. No one dared join himself to them. There was a wall great and high in the essential holiness that was there among the saints, and it preserved all that was of God and it excluded all that was evil, and that is what the Spirit of God is labouring to bring about more and more. Thank God we can say it is coming to pass. It has to go on more and more, the abounding in love and the developing in holiness, and it becomes a wall great and high, and it says first of all of the city that “Her shining was like a most precious stone, as a crystal-like jasper stone”, and then it says (verse 11 of chapter 21), “the building of its wall was jasper”, and then it says in verse 19: “the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone; the first foundation, jasper”. So that there is a three-fold allusion to the jasper in connection with the city, and the jasper means transparency, and the Spirit of God insists on it three times—transparency. And so you remember that John before he had got very far in his first epistle, says, “this is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”—no darkness at all, and hence the Spirit of God, dear brethren, would exercise us continually to walk in the light as God is in the light. Let the smallest things as well as the greatest things be exposed to the light, and let all that is inconsistent with the light be refused, because jasper has got to mark the city, and it has got to mark the foundation of the city, and so, dear brethren, “this is the message”, John says. It is not simply an item of ministry, so to speak; it is a definite message which he received from the Lord to convey to us, that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all”.
And now the Lord says: “I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book”. And then we come down to a solemn word in verse 11: “Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still”. We were speaking yesterday in our first reading of what is judicial; what is judicial in Christendom, and I believe this is in keeping with it. The time has come now for things to be fixed judicially, and God is doing it—a most solemn consideration—that He is fixing things judicially; that those who have done unrighteously are doing it still, and those who are filthy are making themselves filthy still, and then in contrast with that it says: “let him that is righteous practise righteousness still; and he that is holy let him be sanctified still”, as though the Lord would say, the time is very near, do not let yourself be overcome at the last moment. Satan may bring unions and other things to bear upon the saints, and it is all an effort to overcome them at the last moment; to rob the Lord of His portion in the assembly; to rob God of His portion in the assembly just at the last moment; the pressure is increasing with that in view, and in view of that the word is “let him that is righteous practise righteousness still; and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward with me, to render to every one as his work shall be”. Thank God there is the reward. The reward is not the greatest thing to the hearts of those who love Christ; the Person of Christ Himself is the greatest thing, but the Lord graciously says: “I come quickly, and my reward with me”, as though to assure every one that if faithfulness to the truth involves surrender, involves loss, involves anything of that nature for the moment, you may rest assured that it will not be without its reward. And so He says: “I come quickly, and my reward with me, to render to every one as his work shall be ... Blessed are they that wash their robes ...”. There is an opening left there for anyone who wants to be free of uncleanness and iniquity; there is an opening. There may be what is judicial all around us in Christendom, and yet there is this wonderful opening in grace. “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”. And then it says what is without. A terrible catalogue of what is without. Ah! dear brethren, we belong to the within. The Holy Spirit makes a complete severance between the saints and the world. The Lord says, “whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him”, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the saints sets us completely apart from the whole course and spirit of the world without. We are the ‘within’ through grace, and it says, “Without are the dogs and the sorcerers ...”, and so on.
And now we have this personal word of the Lord, which we so often delight in: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David”. He is David’s Lord as well as David’s Son. “I am the root and the offspring of David”. It is most affecting, that speaking in this affectionate, familiar way, you might say, to the assembly, the Lord should bring in the truth of His Person. So that there should always be the adoring, worshipful appreciation in our hearts of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as in His prayer to the Father, which He allows us to hear, He says, “and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”. We are to carry that glory in our hearts in relation to the Lord Jesus, and yet He speaks to us as to the assembly which He loves, and He says: “I am the root and off-spring of David, the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. Could we have anything more precious, dear brethren, as to the personality and personal service of the Holy Spirit than this word: “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. That is what is in view in the way the Spirit is now being given prominence amongst us, that we should understand that He is personally serving us; One of the Godhead, wonderful grace! One of the Godhead come in to be with us to the end, and to conduct us in bridal affection and suitability to Christ. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely”. And now we have this final word from the Lord: “He that testifies these things says, Yea, I come quickly”. No question now of reward. This is better than reward. “Yea, I come quickly”. It is the Lord Himself: “Yea, I come quickly”, and so the answer is immediate: “Amen; come Lord Jesus”. In our hymn we sang, ‘come quickly’, because it was there in the hymn, but actually we do not say “come quickly”—we say “come”—that means come now. ‘Come quickly’ means come in a very short time, but “come” means come now, and that is the true assembly response: “Amen, come Lord Jesus”. Well, may the Lord grant, dear brethren, that we may really keep “the words of the prophecy of this book”—keep them in a living way in our hearts, so that they affect our outlook and have their proper place in our affections, so that we really desire, so far as in us lies, that all that is proper to the assembly should be found marking the assembly, in view of being ready for the coming of our Lord.
LONDON
19th July 1950
From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 183
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