THE OVERCOMER IN RELATION TO GOVERNMENT (1)
THE OVERCOMER IN RELATION TO GOVERNMENT (1)
SMcC The thought in mind in suggesting this passage is in relation to the idea of the overcomer and the thoughts of government that come out in relation to the overcomer, but there are one or two things that we may take notice of in the word to each of these assemblies. It is very interesting that so much should be made of the idea of government in the two final phases of church history which run together, in Philadelphia and Laodicea. The allusions to the temple of God and the city of God are distinct allusions to the idea of government, for the temple was the centre of all government of old in Jerusalem, as it will be in the world to come. Then there is the thought of the throne and the promise to the overcomer in the Laodicean position. “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne.”
The references to the overcomer in these passages would help us to understand the dignity of divine administration and divine government. Preceding this is the word to the angel of the assembly in Sardis, pointing us to the time of the Reformation and what has been since that time, where the Spirit of God is stressed to begin with. No doubt the basis of the Reformation was good and many godly men had part in it, and God was with certain features of the movement to a large extent, but it degenerated into the employment of the human mind and human strength, and the Spirit of God and the resources linked with the Spirit were set on one side. Therefore we get conditions as they are in the public body around us.
But when we come to Philadelphia, stress is laid on the dignified and refined features of divine administration, in the allusion to Christ as having the key of David, and the promise to the overcomer. “And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David, he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open.”
In the suggestions of “the Holy,” and “the True,” and “the key of David,” the Lord is indicating that the best is before us in this suggestion in relation to administration. “The Holy” and “the True” stress the moral conditions that are linked with it, and the thought of “He who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open” would help to establish us in regard to what the Lord has done, His service to us, so that the ground might be held in the light of that service.
HW These are very helpful suggestions you are bringing before us. In this matter of divine administration you have the present moment in mind?
SMcC Yes, exactly. The fulness of the administration will work out in the world to come, but we are to understand it morally and spiritually now, for Christ in having taken His place in heaven is functioning as Man in relation to the great administration which is working out from that position. There is also the world to come, but it enters into the present moment in a particular way, the Spirit here in the assembly standing in relation to the provision of Christ on high, functioning as Man in heaven, the Centre of this great administration.
EBMcC It is important that the Lord says, “I know thy works”?
SMcC It is. That is, the Lord is looking over the position here. “I know thy works.” There is nothing passes His knowledge.
EBMcC These conditions may obtain, they may be true, but no company could claim today to be Philadelphia, would you say?
SMcC No. That would be presumption of the highest kind and character. The Lord, as we have been taught, has nothing less in mind in what He speaks of in regard to Philadelphia than the whole assembly. We may get certain concrete expressions of the features of it in those who are walking in the truth, but the Lord has nothing less than the whole assembly in mind in this “ ... and shall know that I have loved thee.” He is not speaking to any particular section of the assembly but to the whole assembly.
FRG “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?” It represents every believer who has the Spirit of God.
SMcC Yes. The bread never includes less than all the saints. It may find practical, concrete expression in those we know and walk together with in our partaking of the one loaf, but abstractly the loaf always includes all the saints.
FDC In Isaiah 22, to which I suppose this scripture alludes, the feature of glory comes in very prominently in connection with the administration. Have you that in mind, that there should be glory in the administration today?
SMcC Very good. Read that passage please.
FDC “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkijah; and I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father’s house, the offspring and the issue, all the small vessels, as well the vessels of cups as all the vessels of flagons.” Isaiah 22: 20 - 24.
SMcC We have a remarkable reference there to the character of the administration that is suggested here. “He that has the key of David” involves glory, and all right administration according to God involves glory, and involves the making room for all that there is among the saints. In that verse reference is made to the small vessels as well as the large. Where you get administration working out according to God, there is room made for every bit of the work of God among the saints. It would be the heavenly side that would be stressed, so that the key of David opens up the best.
HW Would you say that there is recovery in a large measure to original conditions, Ephesian conditions, seen in Philadelphia?
SMcC Yes. The thought of David enters into Ephesians. In Colossians the “Son of His love” would be an allusion to Solomon, but in Ephesians “accepted in the Beloved” is more the reference to David, and the fact that “out of heaven” is made mention of here, and the holy city which comes down out of heaven, stresses the heavenly side. It is important that we should make room for love of a heavenly character. David is the great love man of the Old Testament. He knew how to love and he knew how to be loved. His whole administration is characterised by that.
JP-s-n So in speaking of the matter of government he says, “The ruler among men shall be just.”
SMcC Very good. “He that has the key of David” would bring all these thoughts into our mind, and it is important that we should see the idea of justness, because where you get administration according to God working out among the saints, it will be marked by fairness and justness.
RJW The Lord says, “He who opens and no one shall shut” before “and shuts and no one shall open.” Is that the divine administration of grace?
SMcC That is it. It links with the Magna Carta suggested to us in John 20. “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted to them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” The remission comes first, and the opening comes first.
HW We may not all understand your reference to the Magna Carta.
SMcC I am alluding to what beloved Mr. Taylor said in Sydney in 1947 that John 20 was our Magna Carta. The great idea is opening first. Remission comes first, emphasising the spirit and the grace of the dispensation. The key of David would suggest that side of things. David represents par excellence the thought of grace in the Old Testament.
EBMcC It was David who opened up the great praise service, which we have come into now. Would “the key of David” suggest what he unlocked and opened up?
SMcC Yes. Where you get administration according to God working out among the saints, you will find the saints promoted in liberty in the service of God. If they are not, the question would be whether the administration is marked by the right features.
HW Therefore, would you say, the great importance of our studying the way the Lord presents Himself to us in each letter and being formed by it?
SMcC Exactly. “The Holy” and “the True” is a very important reference, because a correspondence would be expected on the part of those to whom it is addressed. It is a presentation of the Lord Himself outside the features that are named in the first chapter.
Every other reference begins with something that marks the Lord as presented in the first chapter, but not when we come to Philadelphia. There seems to be something special here.
DBJ Would you develop that a little more, “the Holy” and “the True” and its bearing on us in administration?
SMcC I think that where you get the Davidic side stressed, you always get correspondingly, conditions in the saints responding to it; as for instance in Revelation 22, when the Lord says He is the Root and Offspring of David, you get immediately following “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.” That is, there is a subjective answer. So it was when David overthrew Goliath, there was the subjective answer in the daughters singing and dancing with tambours, with joy, and with triangles.
FDC Does it involve the testimony as well as the service of God?
SMcC I think so. That is what one is thinking of. There is an administration of grace involved in “He that has the key of David,” but linked with this is “the Holy” and “the True”, stressing moral conditions among the saints, not just ecclesiastical position.
EBMcC Is it in mind that every fresh line of truth that comes out would call forth an answering melody and song to it? Is that why we needed a new hymn book?
SMcC Yes, exactly. You would expect where administration is working out properly and rightly an enlargement in the service of song.
EBMcC We read of David’s stringed instruments, and he speaks of the instruments which he had made. Would this involve our being formed in love?
SMcC Yes exactly. There is great stress on the love side in Philadelphia. Philadelphia itself means brotherly love, and David means the beloved. Then the Lord says in verse 9, “I will cause that they … shall know that I have loved thee.” Even to Laodicea He mentions certain whom He loved, as if the love side is stressed in these two words.
JP-s-n I was wondering if you would help us so that we might have enlarged thoughts as to administration or government.
SMcC Administration covers a very wide sphere. It underlies the service of God and enters into the matter of the gospel and the matter of the care of the saints. Careful perusal of the Old Testament will show that every great administrator was marked by a care and love for the people of God, a peculiar care in the matter of the flock, the flock being linked with every great administrator in the old Testament, Joseph, Moses, and David, they were all men who had a care for the flock.
HK Could we have a little help as to verse 8, “ ... and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”?
SMcC That shows how the Lord values the keeping of His word. It is an important matter that we should come under the influence of Christ and not let the word of man govern us, but be marked by keeping Christ’s word.
“I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.” The preciousness of that Name! The renown linked with it! It comes into the great administrative gospel. Matthew 18: 20, “For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Great value is placed upon the name. Matthew is very important in that way. The Lord Jesus is the true Son of David, and Matthew mentions Son of David before Son of Abraham, stressing the importance of the Davidic side in the working out of administration. What you find with David is the great regard he had for God’s anointed and his care for such as the young man he found at Ziklag.
VTS Is our strength in administrative matters dependent on these basic features being worked out in us?
SMcC Yes. The stress is on the basic side.
HW Does all this help to emphasise the need of moral conditions if there is to be administration according to Paul’s setting up and teaching, “ ... as I ordain in every assembly”?
SMC We do not depend on force or human power in administration and the maintenance of the truth, but on heavenly influence and moral power. The great point is heavenly influence and government here, the Lord having the key of David. No one had more moral power than David. David acquired moral power because of what he was. When we come to verse 12 what is specially stressed is the matter of heavenly influence and government.
FRG There is a feeling in this country that we have been too much governed by rigidity instead of fluidity in relation to administrative matters.
SMcC Well, I am sure it is important that we should see the greatness of what is in mind in regard to Philadelphia. It is a choice phase in which the Lord has peculiar delight, specially coming in over against the synagogue of Satan. The assembly is in His mind as particularly marked off over against all that is around us in the public profession.
DBI Is that seen beautifully in Abigail in 1 Samuel 25?
SMcC Abigail is a remarkable woman. She is one of the choice ones who understand administration. She comes in with a definite supply to meet the conditions. She not only has the supply, but the spirit and grace that mark her are in keeping with the supply. The Lord would set every one of us on the line of overcoming. The overcomer in Philadelphia comes in for the best and most exalted thoughts that are in the Lord’s mind. “Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown.” We are to be concerned that what we have should be held.
JB Patience and endurance entering into the matter?
SMcC Exactly. “I also will keep thee ... “ What a promise that is!
EBMcC Did the keeping of His word and not denying His name come in with Mr. Darby?
SMcC Exactly. I think the principle of it is operating all the time in this day of revival.
EDW Do we get that in David, his patience is waiting for the time when God would move for him? He would not put forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed.
SMcC It is a word to us tonight that the Lord has personally given to us (see note g) an opened door which no one can shut. Not just opening the door, but giving us an opened door. We should all be concerned as to the blessing promised to the overcomer. While in many ways it may look forward to what is to come, the point to see is that we are to come out in features of the overcomer now. We should bring into our local gatherings these rich thoughts, this heavenly influence. We should come out in this choice Philadelphian influence now in regard to administration. “And I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem …”
These figures or symbols bring into our minds great richness of thought in regard to administration.
HW Would you be free at this juncture to say something as to Christ’s God, My God, so repeated here?
SMcC I suppose it would link with John 20, “ ... My God and your God.” The Lord is bringing the fullest thoughts into our minds, so that it is His God. It is not just the city in its millennial relation, but the city in its eternal relation. It is Christ’s God, and that is what is before us in John 20, “My God and your God,” only in John 20 “your God” is mentioned, but not in Philadelphia.
HK Is it right to say that we are brought as near to Deity there as is possible?
SMcC Exactly. We are alongside of Christ here, Who knows God in a way we could never know Him. The thought of Christ’s God would involve the knowledge of God in the fullest sense. These are exalted thoughts.
JP-s-n That would give real substance in the soul in rising to the highest thoughts in the service of God.
SMcC And also in the working out of the administration publicly.
FRG It would always be in the dignity of this feature of “a pillar in the temple of my God.”
SMcC That is it. A pillar suggests stability and dignity. The administration would be marked by that in the overcomer. “He shall go no more at all out” stresses the heavenly and the eternal side. “I will write upon him the name of my God.”
HW Does the writing upon him involve that he is descriptive now of that great thought of representing God?
SMcC That is what I thought. That is, as you take account of a brother or a sister, you get a true impression of God, Christ’s God. He is coming out in the representation of God, marked by what marks God. That is what the Lord is seeking to help us in regard to, writing upon us the name of His God. We are to be representative of God as peace-makers, etc., as in Matthew 5.
VTS Is that why in those opening chapters of Matthew, in His words of instruction to His disciples, He speaks of stability? We shall not fall if our house is established on the Rock.
SMcC Matthew helps us greatly as to abstract thoughts. It is the great administrative gospel. He alludes to Jerusalem, the city of the great King, and he also alludes to the pearl of great price, and the assembly against which the gates of hades shall not prevail. We are to understand the dignity of thoughts that are divinely presented in an abstract way. Whatever the breakdown may be and the failure, we are to make room for this kind of thing in those that overcome, the city of Christ’s God, the new Jerusalem. Think of brothers and sisters appearing with the renown of that city marking them, the refined character of their speaking and thoughts, and shedding the benign influence of heaven. All that enters into the writing of the name of the city of Christ’s God.
HM Would you say that Mephibosheth was a true overcomer in that he could say with regard to Ziba, “let him even take all”? 2 Samuel 19: 20.
SMcC Mephibosheth is a remarkable man. He held the ground in patience and was faithful to David in relation to all that came in. In type he kept the word of Christ’s patience.
Verse 12 involves a great range of administration and government morally, seen in its fulness in the holy city in the millennial day and throughout eternity too, but to be seen now in the overcomer in the Philadelphian phase. It is important that we should see to this in our localities.
AWW Is all this developing the feature of glory in the saints, so that when we come to chapter 21 the holy city is seen coming down out of the heaven from God having the glory of God?
SMcC The assembly is a great vessel of administrative glory.
AWW So that as a young brother or young sister stands before a tribunal, the feature of glory is being worked out.
SMcC In the verse referred to in Isaiah the person becomes a throne of glory. Not only is the Lord Jesus the One who supports everything, but He is the throne of glory to His Father’s house. It opens up the way that the administration works out under His hand, glory marking it. The dignity of sonship would enter into verse 12, because the great feature of the city is liberty, the saints formed in the light of Paul’s ministry.
FDC Does this help us to understand why sonship is hinted at in Matthew 17 and then the little child is mentioned in the next chapter, going on to the truth of the assembly and administration in the assembly? The overcomer would move in the dignity of sonship.
SMcC I think that enters into this verse. The Lord suggests that these things are to be seen in the overcomer. The whole thought of the city would be seen in the overcomer. The administration is not arbitrary; it is not the bringing of things through by force and dint of human strength. It is a question of moral conditions, moral authority, moral weight and power among the saints, in persons who are under the hand of Christ. There is what Christ makes us as under His hand.
ARG The thought of “the Holy” and “the True” would be a real challenge to us.
SMcC It is important that we should be corresponding to Christ in that relation. We have often heard a good deal about the assembly, and it is a great thing that we should come out as overcoming in the features of the assembly in her heavenly glory as suggested here, as coming under the hand of Christ.
GLS So that what would be seen would be a development of the Lord’s personal teaching as in John 10, the sheep hearing His voice.
SMcC Well exactly, so the only right way we can influence anything, as John’s gospel would help us to see, is by coming in from heaven, as formed in the spirit and grace of heaven, in matters. That is the kind of influence and rule and government that counts.
JB Is that seen in Moses at the end of Deuteronomy, “My speech shall flow down as dew”?
SMcC Yes. Moses was a great administrator. What a man of moral influence he was! What love he had for all the saints and how he cared for them. The door is open to every one of us to come under the hand of Christ in this way, so that we should each be concerned as to this matter that there might be a right representation of God and the city of Christ’s God among us.
FRG Although this is a collective setting, the assembly at Philadelphia, does what you have been saying in relation to overcomers show that in a day of brokenness the thing can only be maintained on the basis of what is individual?
SMcC That is the way it is put here.
FRG There is the danger of our setting up a little assembly and just moving en masse. Is the position held on individual lines?
SMcC Yes. We work out the collective position through 2 Timothy 2 as departing from iniquity as individuals.
EBMcC As we come into the city, the new Jerusalem, we are touching what is collective.
SMcC As we come into it through the door of 2 Timothy 2, the whole spiritual range of blessing in a collective way is opened up to us.
FRG One feels that many of the administrative mistakes which have been made, have been because we have wanted to move together and have not taken account of individual exercises.
SMcC It is a great thing to see that, and the Lord would promote the concern with every one of us. The assembly is in His mind and the assembly is to be in all our minds, but we are all to be concerned individually as to this matter of overcoming. It would set up an exercise with every one as to where we are in this matter. “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne.” Think of the dignity and glory linked with divine administration in that setting, and all the benefit we derive at the present time from that administration!
HM Would you say a little as to what is involved in, “ ... I also have overcome ... “?
SMcC Well, He overcame. He went right through. Overcoming would allude to His going right through death and rising again. It is not just presented here on the basis of the arbitrary exercise of divine power in raising Him from the dead, but He has gone right through on the line of overcoming, and has sat down with His Father on His throne.
HW His last word to the disciples in John 16 is, “In the world ye have tribulation; but be of good courage: I have overcome the world.”
SMcC The Lord would bring to our minds that word, that every one of us might be set on the line of overcoming. This brings wealth into the local position,
that there are those who are prepared to be overcomers, to face things and overcome and bring in power.
DBJ The book of judges begins with Caleb offering his daughter Achsah to the man who could take Kirjath-sepher, and Othniel took it. Should we be concerned to overcome in order to come into the enjoyment of God’s thoughts as to the assembly?
SMcC Very good. There is special need of overcoming the city of the book. We want to overcome the city of learning, the city of mere human intellect. The power of the Spirit of God is linked with those who are prepared to overcome on that line. The believer has moral authority in himself, with himself, so that he is not overcome by features in himself; and he has moral authority with others.
JB What you are stressing is what is needed in out local administration.
SMcC Well exactly, so that the brethren are carried in all administrative matters on the basis of this kind of administration, that is coming in from heaven.
HM There was no argument in Acts 15. James simply said, “Brethren, listen to me.” Is that moral authority?
SMcC Well it is. The Holy Spirit comes into the matter. They link the Holy Spirit on with what they arrive at.