Our attention and our hearts are here arrested by the opening words of this 20th verse (Revelation 3). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”! “The faithful and true witness” can no longer be identified with that which-set to be the “pillar and stay of the truth"-is so grossly indifferent and latitudinarian, so boastful and self-satisfied, that it wants not the Giver of real treasure, of divine comfort and becomingness, and of spiritual intelligence. He is outside, standing at the door and knocking! “Having loved His own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end,” is still blessedly true; and so, though refusing to be identified, as we have said, with the corrupted state of things, He does not forsake His own, but standing at the door, He knocks that to the one who hears and opens, He may come in and “sup with him, and he with me"! The blessed Lord Jesus longs for communion with His own down here, that we too may have the deeper joy of communion with Him even now in this world! Oh, wondrous love! Is He not indeed the everlasting lover of our souls? And shall we deny Him this quest? Let those who will, doubt our having fellowship in heaven (!), the simple, restful Christian is assured that, as we are even now called to the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:99God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)), and are written to by the beloved apostle “that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:33That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:3)), so our fellowship in heaven will be sweeter still, unhindered and without alloy.
But what is most affecting is that the Lord Jesus not content, may we say, with the presence of heavenly hierarchies, the general assembly of myriads of angels, the called out gathering of firstborns enrolled in heaven, the spirits of perfected just ones (i.e. of just ones who had “perfected,” or completely run their course here below), still desires and seeks communion with His own now traveling through this squalid scene, wherein, nevertheless, we are day by day to keep ourselves “unspotted” (James 1:2727Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27); Peter 3:14; Jude 2323And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 23)), refusing within or without whatever has not His approval. We are not exonerated from our responsibilities because of the condition of the professing church. We learn that it is grieving to Him if we allow even in our midst any that hold what is obnoxious to Him (2:14, and compare 2 John 7-117For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 7‑11)). And as we are called to walk before Him well pleasingly, both personally and in our associations (of whatever kind, ecclesiastical or otherwise), love, divine love, His love counts upon hearts that so respond and are true. If others faithlessly plead in excuse that departing from evil will not end the evil left behind! the plain, unequivocal incumbency, nevertheless, abides, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:1919Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19)).
The professing mass will still remain and go on, with Christ outside it, to end in the apostasy-the giving up of all divine truth, denying the Father and the Son. But the true and faithful follower of the Lord Jesus, seeking only that which meets with the Master's approval, discerns His voice, and opens the heart to Him. So doing we shall not find ourselves alone. We shall, above all, find Him whom our souls love. We shall find others calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart, who with us shall contribute to His heart's joy in the communion of His love, and ourselves shall know still, what many of us have already long proved, His grace and faithfulness unchanging. May we, as Paul exhorts, “continue in the things we have learned,” seeking only His will in all things, not hereafter, but now, before He comes.
“If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Have you then opened the door to Him? and in the enjoyment of His entering in to sup with us and we with Him, do we disavow and refuse whatever is not according to the loving desire of His heart as richly made known to us in the abiding word of God? So shall we grow in grace and in the deeper knowledge of Himself.
E. B. T.
(Concluded from page 96)