DIVINE SUPPORT FOR FOUR PRISONERS
Revelation 1: 9; 10, 17–19
I wanted to say a little, dear brethren, as to divine support in days of captivity and breakdown. We have come, as we readily acknowledge, to difficult and perilous times. They have been predicted prophetically, and nothing has taken divine Persons unawares. It has all been foretold, and divine provision has been furnished—fully, richly, wonderfully, to sustain us in the truth in such times. I have read of four persons who were captives. Ezekiel was among the captives—he was not the only captive. In some sense we are all in the captivity; because of the great public breakdown of the church the path of the true Christian is morally apart, yet publicly still in the great house; not stone monastery walls—maybe they had some idea—but that is not the separation that makes me a prisoner. Our walls are moral, resulting from ardency of love for our Lord and Teacher. We are in days when the public position is in ruins, and if we are a testimony to anything it is to that. But it is a testimony. Every person who professes to love Christ must render that testimony. It involves accepting conditions of limitation and captivity amidst the ruin.
So we have read of four prisoners who proved divine support amidst such conditions, and that same support is available to us. Many of us would have to say that without the sustaining grace of Christ and the Spirit we never would get through. There is ample provision, beloved brethren, for the days we are in to meet every situation that can ever arise, and we can go through as more than conquerors through Him that has loved us. It is a time of overcoming, not in our own strength, for in His strength alone is there power to overcome. I verily believe those overcomers would understand captivity in those seven assemblies. The truth essentially is brought through in the principle of the overcomer. I do not know what you, dear brethren, would think, but I see no reason why those overcomers would not walk together in Christian fellowship, involving and including the Lord’s supper, as apart from the outward public profession, morally declaring their position as pilgrims and strangers here. It is wonderful to be a captive in the chains of love, attached to a Person at the right hand of God, where no failure or breakdown can ever come. Dear brethren, our links are with a risen Christ. He has led captivity captive, and He lives up there for an Ezekiel or a Daniel, or a Paul or a John.
I wonder whether we have accepted the search and the test that we are in captive conditions. Loyalty to Christ involves separation from evil, and precludes the mixture of all that, alas, surrounds us in this poor world of profession, in which the pure testimony of Christ is going through in that lamp-stand all of gold, Zech 4. The supply is all there in the Spirit of God. He has not departed. He has felt the public ruin of the church. He has been grieved and quenched. Let us fully recognise the Spirit. We sometimes hear discouraged persons say there is nothing collective left. That is not the truth. What was established at Pentecost has been somewhere in someone, right to this moment. It is wonderful that we should be privileged to set forth something, in captive conditions, that answers to the heart of Christ. Someone has held it, maybe in secret, in suffering and in martyrdom through the centuries, but we have come beloved brethren, to the unique time of the recovery to the unchanging fact that there is a Head in heaven and that the assembly as His body is still here in this world in the power of the Spirit.
Have you found it? To do so makes us a captive in separation from this world, a prisoner here, but released into the most wonderful things connected with Christianity. I believe the best has been kept to the end, but worked out in small numbers, in weakness, in frailness, and in all, these conditions the Spirit of God brings out of His treasures, and I believe there is something special reserved for the final moment of the testimony before the Lord comes. Dear brethren, it is very near. You say, I have heard that said many times. You have never heard it too many times. It is a fact that the Lord is near, and that God is here—among us by the Spirit. How self-judged we need to be and careful in His presence, where our innermost motives and thoughts are searched out. The Spirit of God knows where we are, what we are thinking, where my feet take me. He would read us into the very choicest things connected with the vessel so near and so precious, to the heart of Christ.
Now I wanted to speak just briefly on how divine support sustains us amidst these conditions as seen in Ezekiel. He suffered because of the state of the people. Few prophets suffered as he did. In some sense all the prophets suffered, and to be a prisoner or a witness involves it, but in those sufferings a man was standing by, pointing to the One who has gone before and marked out the path that we tread. There is not one step we take in faithfulness to Him wherein we do not prove His priestly power and support in standing by. Think of all those days Ezekiel lay on one side and then on the other side, and the food he had to eat, how it entered into him morally, what the state of the people was. Oh, beloved, how searching this is! What is the Lord feeling about Christendom? What did He feel about Judaism when He wept over Jerusalem?—and how much more over the assembly publicly. “How often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not”, Matt 23: 37. Thank God, He is gathering persons now—those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. I walk with persons who walk in the truth and who love Christ, and who thus demonstrate their love for Christ. Be careful of any thought of an ecclesiastical position. It is rather a moral one, seen in persons formed in the truth and apart from all the profession around but held in the power of divine love and supported by divine grace.
So Ezekiel sees the heavens opened to him. Wonderful things are open to these who gather together unto Christ’s name. “There am I”, the Lord says, “in the midst of them”. And the greatest things open up. Oh, to have His presence is to have everything! All is in that Person. Where, my dear fellow-Christian, are your links with Jesus? Where are they? Prove their genuineness, prove your reality, prove your love for Him, demonstrate it in your committal. To be in the company of one like Ezekiel would involve that. As I said, he suffered on account of the state of the people. He went through it unflinchingly, his outlook being towards the gate in the east. Our hope is the Lord’s coming. The sun is about to rise; the morning star has already risen in our hearts. Has it risen in yours? How easy it is to be caught in the lukewarmness of mere outward profession and lose the preciousness of that living touch that quickens your desire for the Lord to come. He shall appear to those who look for Him the second time without sin for salvation. I believe this kind of exercise prepares us for the east gate where the glory is coming in. We touch it at the Supper. Oh how we need to accustom ourselves to spiritual conditions, for at any moment we shall finally ushered into them. Every natural thought and opinion, all such things, will be gone. The glory of the coming King in all the brightness and blessedness of His appearing will govern that scene of display. ‘Where are we now?’—In the few moments that remain let us accept captive conditions, because of His rejection here, and find there is a Man standing by.
Now Daniel is similar; he was taken captive when Israel and Judah were finally disowned, but where were his interests? Where are yours? Oh, beloved brethren, what exercises, what calamities, we have had to face over these years!—Is Jerusalem still your interest? Three times a day he knelt down; that would show how intense he was. He knelt down with his windows open in his upper chamber towards Jerusalem—not the world. Let our outlook be heavenward where the assembly belongs. “I Daniel”, it says here, “was mourning three full weeks”. How much do we mourn? How many tears do we shed that, go into God’s bottle, in regard to His chief interest here in the assembly? Dear brethren, it is still here. Can it be located? Yes, but only in its moral features. Get back to your links with Christ by the Spirit, and He will lead you into the choicest thoughts regarding the assembly. But this dear man Daniel represents—like John—the kind of man that continues to the end. There is no record of Daniel going back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. Some went back, but he did not go back, but his interests were there and his prayers were there. It shows how we can be preserved in a hostile world on the principle of the overcomer. He refused the delicate food of the king. With purpose of heart he fed on the right food. I would exhort you, beloved younger brethren, to keep near the precious humanity of Jesus; feed on the Man of the gospels. May you be preserved in the life-line that will lead you into the very richest possible thoughts in the recovery of the truth.
Now I want to come to Paul and then finally to John. Both were captives. We are all captives, dear brethren, publicly. I believe that is our position. We are captives because of our link with the Person of Christ. Everything really rests on that. Every issue really is Christ. If it is not Christ, beware of it. A great rallying point, dear brethren, is to find an affinity with one another, by loyalty to that Man. The greatest bond between human hearts, as our brother quoted earlier, is consecration to the Person of Christ. Take that step and you will find that it is so. It is not just a theory or a doctrine, it is an experience within your reach. Now Daniel was known in heaven and greatly beloved. What a wonderful thing to be known in heaven—someone heaven takes account of. Why? I think it points to what we are here as overcomers among men and in superiority to all the influences around. Daniel maintains what is true to the interests that centre in Jerusalem and not in Babylon. Babylon is this world, religiously, socially, and in every other way that excludes the Person of Christ. Jesus fitted in nowhere when here, nor does He now, and if you are true to Him you will not fit in either. This is very searching and if you can fit into the societies of men—what is the matter? Where are my links with Jesus? If true, I am a stranger here and a pilgrim, and not wanted here, but I am wanted and known up there where He is, at the right hand of God.
Now Paul is a prisoner with a chain about him, probably chained to a soldier. We read of one, Onesiphorus, who sought him out. I suggest you do the same, if you have not already done so. Seek diligently, until you find where the recovery to Paul’s ministry, involving the body of Christ, operates, leading to the assembly. Paul refers to “the house of Onesiphorus”. Oh; what mercy we need in our households, beloved brethren. That scripture itself would suggest to us that the Christian household is going through. Just let the precious truth of Paul’s ministry into your life, into the practical conducting of your household. “The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he sought me out very diligently and found me”, 2 Tim 1: 16, 17. It may not have been easy to find him. Onesiphorus may have had to search up this street and that street. Where is Paul? He is in Rome a prisoner, maintaining everything according to the counsels of God. It is a wonderful comfort, dear brethren, if you can find those walking in the truth as recovered to Paul’s ministry. I want nothing more in this sad, sad world where there is so much anguish, so much sorrow, so many broken homes and relationships, than to enjoy Christian fellowship, involving the Lord’s supper, the service of God, and the glad tidings and it is all wide open for you as you wash your robes and establish your right. So it was with Paul; “At my first defence no man stood with me”; he is near the end, near martyrdom, and he knew it, and what does he say? “All who are in Asia … have turned away”. He sees the sorrow of the breakdown, and there he is a captive, but in victory he says, “The Lord stood with me”—a beautiful touch. You notice, not just ‘by me’—that would be support, but “with me”, He had His company. Dear brethren, let us cherish more and more the company of the Man who stands by. “The Lord stood with me”. All the others, he says, deserted me. How searching! Could you stand alone? If there was not another person, would you stand alone? Paul would say, Yes, and John would say, Yes. I verily believe we have to come to it, that if there is not another, I must stand alone in loyalty to Christ rather than compromise. I see no other standard but fervent love for Jesus as a testimony suited to the close of the dispensation. That is Paul here, deserted, but a Man was standing by. The Lord had been through it all Himself, for at the cross they all deserted Him. Think of Paul in the spirit of his Master saying, “May it not be imputed to them”, and then he says, “But the Lord stood with me”. I want to commend that to the brethren; find the company of Jesus in the hour of pressure. When all combined seems to overwhelm you there is a Man standing by who understands, and He is saying to Paul, ‘I am going to go through this with you’.
So Paul goes on, “The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work, and shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for the ages of ages. Amen”. Think of this man in victory. Such are on the winning side; publicly, about to be martyred, inwardly, the glory opening up. Oh how near it is! The suffering of the present time is not worthy to be compared with the coming glory. Prove it! Paul has gone. Most have gone; they are with Jesus; they have “fallen asleep through Jesus”. The next move, as far as relates to what is public, will be the resurrection, and the graves will be opened as a witness to the power of resurrection. We, the living, will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. I speak of these things, well known amongst us, but they are so near. At any moment this will be. Together for a brief moment, the whole assembly will be here, and then caught up together to be with the Lord. Does it not quicken a desire within you to be fully identified with the present testimony of our Lord? It will happen at any moment. Let us be ready and fully committed to the testimony of our Lord. He has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and love, and wise discretion. We need all that as divine resource in a day of breakdown, all there available to the faithful lover of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul’s heart is going up in worship. He says, “to whom be glory for the ages of ages. Amen”. How near we are to finality, and we know the One who is able for it.
That brings me just to say a word as to John in the isle of Patmos, also a prisoner, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. He was there, it would seem, alone. John’s ministry is for our time. In some sense John is a pattern Christian—as was Paul. It is wonderful that the Spirit of God should record those whose faith we may imitate. Some of us were looking at Stephen the other day as a kind of pattern Christian, morally too great to remain here, but John represents the kind of man that does remain until the coming of the Lord. The Lord did not mean that he would not die; Peter was quickly adjusted as to “What of this man?” The Lord meant that that kind of man, that character of man, will be here at the Lord’s coming, and that should appeal to us. So John is alone. We come back to it. Could I be sustained alone, if there was not another Christian in this city? or the world? Yes. If you love Christ and keep His Word, “We will come and make our abode with him”. Such a one has the full support of divine Persons as morally superior to the whole world system. Oh what an appeal this is, dear brethren.
So he says, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus”. “Your brother”; that is the family, that is John’s line. What a wonderful thing to know that we belong to the family of God. You look around the dear brethren, “your brother”, your sister; we belong to the family of God, of the same origin, born of God, born of the Spirit, born of water. He is your brother; John emphasises that side. We will never work things through effectively in our local meetings if there is not the background of family affections in oneness and support and sympathy and respect amongst the brethren. He is your brother, and he adds, “in the tribulation and kingdom and patience”. Does not that portray the very conditions that we are in—all those things together? What patience is needed as working out matters, recognising He has it all under control, and that there is never a situation in which the Lord does not know what He is going to do. So we take it all to Him. He is able for everything.
And then John says he became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. How he would value the Lord’s day. He would not have the Supper on his own, it needs two for that. You know, it is a wonderful thing the Lord has made the Supper so simple, and yet so profound, and we need to be simple too. It would need at least two. “Two of you”; not necessarily two brothers, a brother and sister, two assembly persons can remember the Lord. But John, I suppose, went as far as he could, he was so abstracted from the conditions of his prisoner-ship that he became in Spirit on the Lord’s day. Oh, beloved brethren, we know of beloved brethren who do this, and let us all develop the power of abstraction to be vessels for the Spirit. He will lead us into the greatest disclosures of the divine mind. We know of beloved sisters do we not, who set the table and sit around it; they go as far as they can in devotedness to the Lord. Ah, are they not loved in heaven? Surely they are. Heaven takes account of every bit of devotedness to the Person of Jesus. Think of John in the isle of Patmos. Away from his home—because he had a home, where he took our Lord’s mother, so what had happened we are not told —but he is alone here, a captive on the isle of Patmos, isolated from his brethren and his family. How do we get on when we are apart from our brethren? Oh the need to learn to live in the realm of the Spirit! He became in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Let us respect the Lord’s day. It is His day, and the Lord’s supper is the Lord’s supper; it is a lordly Supper, not the Father’s supper or the Spirit’s supper, it is the Lord’s supper.
John would respect that, and so do we need to respect it, and he is in the Spirit and close to Christ. He knew the bosom and the breast of Jesus. He had felt the heart-beat of his Lord and Teacher. Seek the company of Jesus; there is nothing like it. Here, it is not so much the side of privilege, but as getting a view that he had never seen before and it is the Lord’s view of the breakdown of the church. Beloved, we are in that time and we need divine support to see that what is according to God is going through. It is going through in the twos and threes gathered to Christ’s name. And He will clothe the whole assembly with what is found in faithfulness in the twos and threes. Just as He fulfilled His promise as to Israel in Caleb and Joshua, two men who came right through into the inheritance, so will He in this dispensation fulfil His promise in regard to the church and those that gather to His name. What an appeal!
So as John saw Him he fell at His feet as dead. Oh how we so easily trifle with these things! These are wonderful things. We are not able to speak of them as we ought to be able to speak of them. We are in the presence of the most wonderful realities which could ever engage the human mind and heart. John fell at His feet as dead. He had never seen the Lord like that, with eyes as a flame of fire. Oh how the Lord feels it, in the jealousy of love, when in the profession the love of the many has grown cold. Let not your heart get cold; let it get quickened. Let it be warmed up in the atmosphere of this meeting; in the company of those who love the Lord. You cannot remain in indecision a minute longer. His appeal requires an answer, as seen in John in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Presently we shall be there—unless the Lord comes tonight—at the Supper in the morning to make way for the Lord to come, as He has promised, “I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you”. The orphan spirit, as bereft, is over against the profession that says, “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow”. How obnoxious to God! A true Christian is an orphan, because of the cross and Him that hung upon it. What are you doing for Him when He has done so much for you? Are you identified with a rejected Christ, and soon to come out with Him in the time of the display of His glory?
So John fell at His feet as dead, and the Lord laid His right hand upon him. This is divine support coming in in the presence of judicial indictment though not yet executed. Oh, thank God, we are yet in the time of the gospel, and there is not one person, or one case, that cannot be met through the gospel. But finally it will be that He says, I will judge your judgment upon her. What an awful hour that will be! Now He puts His right hand—that is power, I think—on John and says, “Fear not”. Oh, would love just to leave that simple word with the brethren, ‘Fear not’. There is no need to fear. All power is in His right hand. He has measured the tribulation. A dear sister wrote to me some months ago and said the ten days’ tribulation will not be eleven days; and it will not be nine; it will be ten.
Take courage, dear brethren, the glory is in view. We shall look back then and see the value and the necessity of every hour of sorrow and anguish wherein we proved the tender sympathy and support of the Man that stands by. His right hand you can trust. He put it upon John and said, “Fear not; I am ... the living one”. He is beyond death now. He became dead, as His own act in love, but no one took His life from Him. He had authority to lay it down and to take it again. He says, “On this account the Father loves me”, John 10: 17. And we have a reason to love him too. He has taken His life again in a new condition where the shadow of death will never fall. Beloved, we belong to Jesus there. That is where we belong. Really, a Christian’s life begins as justified in a risen Man. Oh let the grace of the Lord Jesus and the grace of the Spirit revive and quicken us in these wonderful days. The path of the just, is a shining light and it goes on and brightens until the day be fully come. That is very, very near. The whole matter publicly the Lord will resolve. Later it says John wept because there was no one found able to open the book, but the Lion of the tribe of Judah He is able to take it up, and resolve the complex problems of the whole world, particularly the West. Every matter will be resolved in divine righteousness. Now where is the secret side? John represents that, the pattern man, “until I come”. Let us be attached to Jesus and shine as witnesses here in captive conditions, claiming nothing, assuming nothing, but demonstrating the genuineness of love for Him, love for the truth, and love for the assembly, as being identified with that blessed risen and glorious Man. May God bless the word.
MELBOURNE
3rd May 1986
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