Address—B. Prost
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One 68168 The night is far spent and the day is at hand.
No sign to be looked for The stars in the sky. Rejoice then, ye Saints, tis your Lord's own command. Rejoice, for the coming of Jesus draws nigh. 168 Just the 1St 3 verses.
Well, I trust I have the Lord's mind tonight in turning back to Revelation chapters two and three that we had before us in our recent meetings in Des Moines.
I don't mean to recap what we have had there, but as we can appreciate, we covered only, at least in part, some of the truths that we have in these two chapters, and I'd like what the Lord's help to take up.
Not the whole of the two chapters, but some thoughts that I have enjoyed concerning the address, first of all to Ephesus, the first church addressed, and then to the Church of Laodicea, which is the last one addressed. We'll leave out the intervening ones tonight. It's too much to try and cover them all anyway. And what I particularly had before me was what the Lord had to say to the church at the beginning of its history, and then what the Lord has to say to it at the end of its history.
Let's read then, in Revelation chapter 2, the address to Ephesus here as we find it.
Revelation 2 and verse one unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, writing these things, that he that hold of the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
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I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and has found them liars, and has borne and has patience, after my namesake hast labored, and has not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore from whence thou art fallen.
And repent, and do the 1St works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
But this thou past that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also need.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.
A couple of thoughts, first of all in connection with the church in Ephesus.
I know perhaps everyone here wasn't at the recent meetings in Des Moines. I don't know, maybe you all were. But I suppose it's nothing new to most of us here to say that what we have in these seven churches has given to us in Revelation 2 and three are very clearly what we might call a panoramic history of the church.
But God gave them to John in the way that they are given here. Because if it had been clearly evident in the Apostles day that this was a panoramic history of the church, then I believe the church could have read them and said, well, we're only in Ephesus now. So there's a lot of ways to go yet before the Lord can come. Or they could have said, we're in Smyrna now. But evidently there's a long ways to go yet before the Lord can come.
And So what God does is take up seven churches. And if you've never done it before.
Get out of that sometime and look them up. They're all clustered fairly close together there in what is known as Asia Minor, now part of Turkey, not too far from one another, much like a cluster of assemblies that we might know in our day. And here they were all in different states. And I believe that these states existed as we read them here. These assemblies were in those states. And So what impresses my own soul is that, yes, this forms a panoramic history of the church.
And that is important. I believe we lose much if we don't see it that way. But also we need to recognize that each of these individual assemblies was an assembly in which what we read about here was going on, and the Lord was speaking to them as individuals at that time. And I believe that's the way they took it when they first received it. When John wrote the Book of Revelation, I don't believe that the Saints looked at it and said well.
This is very clearly a panoramic history of the church. In fact, I stand corrected on this. But I would go so far as to say that I very much know if the understanding of this as a panoramic history of the church was understood until the last century, at least not in its right way. And I believe that would have been intentional on the in the mind of God, because the proper hope of the church is always the Lord's coming. And if you read.
Through the New Testament you find that, for example, in Thessalonians, Paul gives them the truth of the Lord's coming as if it was something that would occur at any moment. Then we which are alive and remain. Paul has been with the Lord probably 1900 years or more now, but he could talk like that as if he would be here when the Lord came. And so that was always the proper hope of the church.
The true love of the church is always glory. There's no future for the church other than glory in the Word of God.
Someone once asked a novit servant of the Lord in the last century when troubles and difficulties came in amongst the people of God, said, brother, whatever is going to become of us if these things go on. I thought his answer was so nice. He said I know of no future for the Church of God, the glory, no future for the Church of God. But we do know from this, this history of the church that there were these various stages that it went through and what I want to dwell on tonight particularly.
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If the Lord's help is not to.
Shall I say, look upon this and say no, here was the period that characterized this and we'll apply it to them. We'll do that in one sense, but at the same time I'd like to apply it to myself and each one of us to apply it to ourselves.
We know that Ephesus represents the period of time that occurred immediately after the apostles left the sea. The Apostle John was the one that lived the longest. I suppose it's history tells us that he lived to be almost 100 years of age. And we know that the book of the Revelation was written approximately at the time AD 9798. Something like that.
When John had been banished to the Isle of Patmos, and this was the state of things that was coming in right after the apostles had left the sea. And I just want to dwell on a couple of things here that have impressed itself upon me.
In emphasis, everything was going on outwardly well, and the Lord notices that, and the Lord commends that.
They labored while reading verse two. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience are perhaps endurance. And how about cats not bear them, which are evil, and so on.
And those tried them which say they are apostles under not and has found them liars. Well, there were those that came on the scene right after the apostles had left, and they took the place of being apostles. They took the place of being sent of God in that capacity. And here in Ephesus there were those that had the discernment to see through that, and they had shown them to be liars.
And God commends all that, and has born, and has patience, and for my name's sake hast labored it, hast not fainted, all very, very commendable. But then he says, I have somewhat against thee, verse four, Because thou hast left thy first love.
You know.
We're going to have a wedding in our family in about six weeks.
And.
You know, it's a joy to my heart to see first love. It's a joy to my heart to see my daughter and her fiance enjoying one another's company. What characterizes it?
Oh, there's, there's love, there's joy, there's a romanticism about that love which only those who have experienced it can understand. We all, I suppose, at one time or another, those of us that are married have experienced that and I hope, I hope we still do. But we know what it's like first love. It's something that.
We can't really explain it, but it's a wonderful thing. It's been a joy to my heart to see it again.
And here we have the apostles, saying to them, Thou hast left thy first love. What did he mean? Or I believe he meant very simply.
That everything was going on as it should. And God commends that. He doesn't say you're wrong to do it, not at all. But the communion with the Lord, the Moses spring of it was gone. It was gone.
And that's the departure I suggest. For each one of us is a state of soul.
Where Christ is not.
I was going to say Christ is not my object, but that gets to be an overused cliche sometimes.
And I'd rather put it this way, The Lord Jesus Christ is not.
Precious to my soul as a dear friend. Brother Harry Hayhoe used to remind us very often the secret of a happy Christian pathway is to commune with the Lord as with a dear friend.
And I covered that from my own soul. What? We need more of us to be in his presence. You know, our brother Hendricks reminded us of the meetings.
That the Church was at its best and closest to the Lord when it knew the least.
When the church in the book of the Acts was in its time of first love, they had no epistles to read. They may have had the Gospels, they may not even have had all of them. I doubt it. I doubt if they had the book of Luke at that time. I doubt if Luke had written it by then. And maybe the other Gospels hadn't been written. I'm sure Mark hadn't been written by that, because I don't think Mark wrote his gospel until after he'd been restored. So they didn't have much of anything as far as the New Testament is concerned, the new the least.
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And yet all what joy there was.
Oh, grace, great grace was upon them all. They had all things common. The fulfillment or answer to the Lord's Prayer in the 17th of John was carried out there and then Phaedra came in very rapidly, and we've never seen it since. First of all, first of all, and they knew the least. It wasn't a question of how much they knew. And you know what concerns me most about myself and what concerns me most about the Saints of God?
Is not that we don't know the truth? Thank God, I believe those in this room know the truth. Thank God, I believe the Saints know who the Lord is. But what it concerns me that we know the truth, we should. I don't say it doesn't concern me, but it doesn't concern me as much as a moral state that goes along with it. That is what exercises my own heart the most. And how can I have a moral state that is in keeping with the truth that I hold? Oh, that Blessed One, to whom the truth points and who is the embodiment of it all, who is the source of it all.
To whom at all points, who is the center of it all? That blessed man?
Must be precious to my own soul. And if he isn't?
Then something's wrong. Well, the point of departure in every case, the Lord identifies here, and I believe we find that that is the point of departure in every case. If we get away from the Lord, it's first of all because the Lord didn't mean that much to me. I didn't communicate with Him as a dear friend.
Later on, maybe something came in, but you know, if I really want to get before the Lord, well, I'll tell you a story that illustrates it. Many years ago, I only heard this story because I never knew JB Dunlop. But Mr. Dunlop, he lived up in our area, traveled extensively. He knelt down at his bedside. And I think there are children here tonight, and I want to speak simply so we can all understand. He knelt down at his bedside one night to pray.
I hope we all do that. Any meltdown to pray. And when he came to pray, he found that he couldn't see me to pray and the words wouldn't come very well. I mean, his mind kind of wandered and there seemed to be some difficulty. And you know what he did? He didn't do the way I have often done. Just said it all must be pretty tired. I'm too tired. I can't think straight tonight. And rolled in the bed. He didn't do that.
He said, Lord, what is what is it?
And he cast back in his mind to see if there was something that had come in between himself and the Lord. And you know, the Lord showed him that there was something that he had done earlier that day. And I even forget what it was, whether it was a sharp word he'd had with someone, whether it was a wrong thought that he'd entertained and not judged it or whatever it was, I don't remember. But the Lord said you've got to judge that. Now we use that word a lot. We've got to judge that. And sometimes, as I as a boy used to think of a judge sitting on a bench with a gavel in his hand. And that's not what it means. It simply means that I have to.
Come to the Lord and say.
That was sin. I'm sorry, I confess. It is sin. That's what we need to do.
And the moment Mr. Dunlop did that, then he was able to pray, then somehow the barrier was removed. It's just the same way if you've done something that you know has made someone very unhappy, it's not very easy for you to go to that person and strike up a conversation because you just know there's something that, well, you really should settle it first. And how much easier it is if you go and say I'm sorry for what I did the other day, or I'm sorry for what I said to you earlier today, or whatever might happen to be.
And the other person?
If their gracious says that's okay, thank you very much, I accept it, Let's forget about it. Then you can talk for you. That's what it means, first love. It means that I value the communion with the Lord above anything else. Above anything else, I believe that's what it means.
And notice what happens in verse five if we don't do that. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen. Oh, you say, had they fallen that far? Yes, it was a serious fall. Outwardly it didn't look like that, but it was. And repent and do the 1St works. Oh, you say they were doing lots of works. The Lord says, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and so on. For let my namesake hast labored, and hast not fainted. And yet the apostle says through the.
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The Spirit of God says through the apostle, do the first words. What does he mean?
Well, I'm just going to suggest to you that it is the motive that lends value to the app.
If I do something for you and you know in your heart that I have said something to you.
It wasn't right or I'd done something to you that wasn't right. Everything I did for you would somehow lose its value, wouldn't it? It would lose its value. It wouldn't. It wouldn't be the same. The 1St works. It doesn't mean that the works themselves were wrong, but it means that there had to be the right move. There had to be the right motor. And you know, the energy in your heart and mind should be for Christ and for nothing else.
Suppose I say we'd like to have a nice gospel testimony. I'd like there to be more people coming into the gospel. I'd like to see more blessing in Sunday school or whatever it might be. Isn't that right? Yes, that's good. But what is the object of it all? Oh, I speak to my own heart sometimes. It can be very subtly so that I can just see a nice company sitting there and I can have the satisfaction in my own soul. Well, I'm doing my best. We're doing our best.
I've had that time and I had to get before the Lord devoted and say, Oh Lord, help me first of all, to have thy heart toward all these things. That's what he means by the 1St works. And then everything that I do flows not from anything to do with self, but because I have Christ and his love and his desires and what concerns him before me. Why do I want to have a good gospel? All because I want to see the Lord Jesus Christ glorified first and foremost. Do I want to see souls saved? Yes I do.
But I want to see the Lord Jesus glorified first and foremost, and then I want to see souls brought to Christ, and so on. But then he says, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Well, we mentioned it at the meetings that the removing of the Candlestick is simply that God said you're not representing what I have in mind anymore, You're not representing what I want you to do anymore. You know, the United States has ambassadors to many countries. US has an ambassador to Canada. But there are occasions, it doesn't happen very often, but there are occasions when an ambassador doesn't represent the interests of his country very well. He doesn't represent what his country expects him to represent.
They may not recall him right away. They may wrap him on the knuckles the first time and say, hey, that isn't the character that we want you to represent. Suppose the ambassador from the United States to Canada. I know where the American embassy is in the capital of Canada and Ottawa. It's right across the road from what we call Parliament Hill, right across the road from the seat of government in Canada. And sometimes this happens here in Washington, DC.
People think they have a.
A case of beef, if you want to use the word, with the government. And so they make a big demonstration on Parliament Hill, same way they do in Washington. I came through on my way down here. When I crossed over into the United States, I guess the demonstration was on the Canadian side, but I had to navigate about 3 or 4 miles of semis to get to the border because they thought they were being unjustly treated. What would the US think if there was a big demonstration on Parliament Hill and the US ambassador said, I agree with them. I think they've got a legitimate point.
So he gets the staff of the embassy out there, and they go out there with the American flight, and they start demonstrating along with them. Oh, I'm sure Washington would immediately step in and say, listen, that isn't what you're there for. That isn't the character that we sent you there for. You're not there to mingle with these rabble rousers and create a demonstration. That's not your position. You're an ambassador to represent the interests of another country.
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And we want you to be sure and carry that out well. And if you don't, you can be replaced. That's what they would say, wouldn't they? Well, the Candlestick was the testimony on earth of a heavenly company, the heavenly calling of the Church. And where is the head of the Church in heaven? What does the Lord want us to do here? Represent His interests.
But the church sucked down to the level of the world. It rejected the high calling that it had. God's is over.
I'll remove the Candlestick, and the Candlestick was removed, and the church went down, down, down, further and further. Oh, you say, yes, that's too bad, it all happened. Well, let me apply it to myself and to my own heart, because as I say again, what concerns me more in my own soul and for the Saints of God is not how much truth we know, but is there a moral character that is in keeping with it? When the world looks at me, does it say there is a man who is living for another world instead of this one?
It's not a question of what I have or how much I have that that isn't the point. But do they see in me that my sights are beyond this world and not down here?
I can remember the late father-in-law, Albert Hey Jose, saying something to me which really struck home and I'll pass it on to you, he said. There are two ways that the world can view us.
He said they can view us like this.
There are people that are pretty much like ourselves. They do the same things, they have the same aspirations, they act the same way, they buy the same insurance. They want all the same things as we do. Oh, they've got some queer ideas about religion that you kind of have to put up with, but otherwise they're pretty much like the rest of us. And I wish they'd get rid of those funny ideas about religion.
Because that would be much easier for us to get on together. That's one way they could look at us. Or they can look at us and say there are people who are living for another world. Yes, they have jobs the same way as the rest of us do. Yes, they carry on family life. Yes, they engage in enterprises appropriate to their abilities in this world. But their whole thrust and aim down here.
Has that which is not characterized by the ways of this world, but everything they do is with a view to eternities.
Well, I asked myself that question. Is that the way the world looks at me, or do they look at me efficiently?
Well, very searching stuff.
But what does it say here in the end?
Is a word of encouragement here to the overcome? To him that overcometh? Will I give to even the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God?
Now that might seem like an unusual expression at first glance, and I don't pretend to be able to explain it fully, but let me let me tell you what it means to me. In the Garden of Eden, you'll remember there were two trees, weren't there? A tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And you'll remember that God never told Adam that he couldn't eat of the tree of life. He told him not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he never told him he couldn't eat it, the tree of life.
But what Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
Expressly doing what God had said not to. You remember that God put them out of that Garden of Eden, and it says He put an Angel there with a flaming sword that turned every way to do what it says, to keep the way of the Garden of Eden. No, the tree of life. Why? Oh, because if man had gone and eaten that tree of life, eaten of that tree of life, he would have lived forever in a sinful fallen condition.
I can remember talking to some boys and girls at what is known as the detention home in Toronto, Boys and girls that had been accused of very serious crimes. They're all under 16, but it doesn't seem that there was anything that some of them hadn't tried Drugs, immorality, armed robbery, burglary.
Even heard more than once I have read in the newspaper about a young man who had committed murder before he was 16 years old. And you read about it in the newspaper and the next week you were sitting across the table from the detention hallway.
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Almost unbelievable. And yet here were these young people and I said to them once I said, how would you like to live forever? Oh, I'd love to, but I said remember not the way you're sitting there now in the full blown health and strength that you enjoy at the age of 14 or 15. You're going to get old, but you can never die. Would you like to live like that?
Oh, no way, They were saying your own way of telling, would you like to live like your grandmother or whoever you can think about that has arthritis and whose mind is failing and whose eyes are failing and whose body isn't capable of doing all the fun things that you like to do. And yet you knew that you were going to live forever under the effects of all of that. I said God was wise not to allow that, was it? But I'll hear. What does it mean? Eat of the tree of life, which?
Which is in the midst of what the Garden of Eden knows. Paradise of God, if man spoiled God's paradise down here.
God says I'm going to take you to a paradise that you can never supply. And what is the thought of eating of the tree of life? Oh, I believe that when God came down into the Garden of Eden, the cool today, he wanted to do what? To commune with Adam. But you remember after Adam sinned, he went and hid because he had a bad conscience. To me, what this verse says that to the overcomer will be the enjoyment of that communion, not temporarily, but for all eternity.
Eating of the Tree of Life to me is figurative, and it brings before us the fact that the enjoyment of that communion up there.
Will be for all eternity.
Well, let's turn over now. Our time is going to the address to lay it Asia.
And once again, let's read it together.
Revelation 3 and verse 14.
And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans right these things set thee. Amen. The faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works. Same expression is with Athensis that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou Wert cold or hot. So that because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will skew the art of my mind, because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.
He knows not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor, blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy me gold, tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white, Raymond, that thou mayst be clothed, and at the shame of thy nakedness do not appear.
And anoint thy eyes with I serve the dullness, see.
As many as I love, I rebuke, chase, and be Celeste therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him, and will Sup with him, and he with me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throat, even as I also overcame and sat down with my Father in his corner. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said unto the churches.
Well, here we have the end of the churches history. That was just the beginning of departure. Everything that God told would happen has happened. There was a repentance, at least not as a general body. The Candlestick was removed and the church went down, down, down until when it came to Thyatira, God said there's no recovery for the whole body as such. Now I'm going to have to talk to individuals.
Well, we won't go into, as we had before us at the meeting, Sardis in Philadelphia, but I want to say a word here about Leo, to see you, because that is the period of time I suggest that you and I are living in. Although in one sense we can't talk about the period of time because we know that all of the last four churches go on to the end. Thyatira representing, I suppose, Roman Catholicism, Sardis representing Protestantism.
Philadelphia representing a condition.
A condition of things characterized by keeping His word and not denying His name. And then Laodicea. A condition represented by indifference. Indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ and what is due to Him, and lukewarmness in living in the good of what He has given to us. But notice here some expressions.
The Lord says these things set thee, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. You know that is a marvelous expression right at the end of the churches history when the whole testimony has ruled and the church is in ruins as far as its testimony is concerned.
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We know the foundation of God standeth sure, the Lord no offend that are his. The Lord knows that the body is complete, every true believer part of it. But as to its outward testimony, which is what is in view here, it's in ruins. And yet the Lord Jesus says the beginning of the creation of God. What does that mean? Well, there was a creation in the beginning that was a creation by God. But we might say, if we might say it reverently, it wasn't a creation that was of God.
Because it was a creation that man could spoil. It was a creation by God, and God saw that everything was very good, but it wasn't a creation that in every way exemplified the mind of God. And that first creation was characterized by a man, Adam, who failed and who brought failure on the whole of his posterity until after 4000 years of failure. God has to right across the whole thing that man is a Sinner.
There's nothing good in that control. But then what does God do? Oh, God says, I'm going to bring my man forward. If I might say it reverently, the 1St man is of the earth, earth, and the 2nd man is the Lord in heaven. And God is going to have a creation that is not merely by God, but it's going to be of God where everything is in keeping with His mind. And that which God says, man will never, never spoil the beginning of the creation of God. That means that Blessed One is the head of it all.
And the origin of it all.
And here's a little exercise that I have enjoyed. Look at the first creation and look at the second creation and see the differences between the two, the exact opposites of one another.
The first creation began.
With the heavens and an earth, and it ended with the creation of man. The new creation begins with a new heaven or with a man and ends with a new heaven and a new earth. And we could multiply those, We could go on, but we won't take the time. It's reversed because when God starts something, he brings it into perfection. And it's the opposite of the way that the first creation began. And it's something that will never be spoiled.
To me, that's beautiful that God brings that in when he deals with this fallen testimony here. But what I want to dwell on particularly is what we have here, not merely as it applies to a general condition of things, but as it applies to me.
And to you remember there was an assembly that was characterized by what we have here. It can characterize me individually if I'm not careful. Verse 15 I know that works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou Wert cold nor hot.
You know, I like hot drinks and I like cold drinks. And even in the summer I enjoy a good hot cup of coffee or a hot cup of tea. And in the winter time I like a good hot cup of or a mug of hot chocolate. We all do. And when it's it's hot weather, I like a nice cold drink. Good cold drink of water is just fine. Or a good cold glass of Coke or lemonade or something like that. We all enjoy that.
There's something that's lukewarm.
I used to work with a man and he would always get a great big mug of coffee about 9:00 in the morning when he started his work, and it seemed to take him half the morning to drink that cup of coffee. I don't know how he did it because he'd still be sipping that cup of coffee at 10:30 when it was back to room temperature. I don't know how he did it. He somehow managed to finish it up half the time and never did get finished. Why? Because the taste was bad. He didn't like something lukewarm.
We like things cold or hot, and you know, that's what the Lord wants us. He wants us to be hot when it's something that is for Him, and He wants us to be cold when it's evil. He wants us to be clear and definite as to these things, not take the attitude well, anything goes well, you have to make allowances and so on. No, He wants us to be clear, indefinite. But what does he say in verse 16? So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot.
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Spew thee out of my mouth? I'd like to make a comment or two upon this because the question has often been raised. Will God ever spew a true believer out of his mouth? Does this refer to a true believer? And when it says in the next verse thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, does that refer to a true believer?
Ultimately, yes, it does refer to an unbeliever. It does not ultimately refer to a true believer. The Lord will never spew a true believer out of his mouth. And I believe the ultimate end of what we have here is the false church. Because you know, when the Lord comes, they're still going to be those that outwardly profess to be Christians. There are still going to be those who outwardly go on with a form of religion.
Probably known as Christianity, but it will all be false and God will undoubtedly spew that out of his mouth because there's no reality there at all. No question about it. And when the scripture talks about those who are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, the word naked is used in scripture of unbelievers, no question about it.
But equally true, equally true, that's the end of the road. That's where it leads.
But may I suggest to your soul and mind that the condition, the condition of indifference to Christ and lukewarmness can characterize any of us, and that that condition is equally nauseous to the Lord? And So what we may say, He will not spew a true believer out of his mouth. I suggest that if you and I take refuge under the shelter of saying, well, I know Christ is my Savior and therefore I don't need to worry about these things applying to me. That applies to people who pretend to be Christians and who are not really.
I say we're missing half the truth.
Because the whole thrust of what we have here, I believe, is not so much who is real and who is unreal, who is saved and who is lost, who is pretending and who is really saved. But I believe the thought is that the full condition of indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ and His claims and who He is and what is due to Him, that is what is Nautilus to Him. And in that sense let me take to heart.
That he will spew that out of his mouth in the sense that that whole condition is nauseous to him. And so to me, the worst state for me to be in as a Christian is to pretend to be what I'm not. If I'm in a low state, if I'm weak, the Lord will always meet me in my weakness, blessed be his name. And the Lord will never upgrade me for my weakness or my ignorance.
Much as if I as though I much as.
As I deserve to be upgraded for the Lord will never do that if I am simply weak, if I'm ignorant.
If I haven't been going on, perhaps as I should, if I come to the Lord, even confess it, He'll always meet me in my weakness.
In blessing and according to my state. Now it might be nice if I were in a better state so that I could take in more, but the Lord will always meet me in my weakness and there will be blessing. And so we never need to appear to come together in weakness and own our weakness. I can remember meetings that I have been at where brethren looked around, conferences perhaps, and they said, boy.
Too much gift here this time. Wonder what's going to happen. Did you know? In many cases they've been some of the happiest meetings that we ever had because we relied on the Lord, and the Lord came in in a wondrous blessing.
But to pretend to be what we're not? Oh, that is the serious thing. And an upright person in Scripture, you know, isn't someone that never makes a mistake. An upright person isn't someone who never fails. But an upright person is one who owns his failure and wants to get right with the Lord and doesn't pretend to be what he's not. That is what Laodicea was doing. I am rich, increased with goods.
Mr. Darby renders that I am rich and am grown rich.
In other words, they took credit for it for themselves. We did it, we made the money, we did it. I know it's not money that's in you here, but they take the point, the view that we did it, look what we've done and have need of nothing and know it's not that. And the emphasis is on the thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And so I believe the moral import of this address is each one of us, both individually and perhaps collectively.
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Ask ourselves, is this our attitude? And yet recognizing that the ultimate end of what we have here will be the false church. No question about it, but God expects repentance.
You know, if I were to get on to Interstate 80.
And I were to start traveling West.
And I said, you say, where are you going? What, I'm going to Davenport.
No way you're you're headed for Des Moines, but I'm not in Des Moines. Yes, but that's where you're going to end up if you stay on this road. But hopefully I listen to you when I turn around at the next exit and start going east, so it'll end up where I walk to go. That's the thought here. If you go on like this, this is where it's going to end up. And God doesn't. I suggest your soul and mind for the moment, take up the question of who's real and who's unreal. It's the question of what he sees.
Are you real?
Then this may characterize you as far as your condition. Are you not saved? Then you better turn around because you're making an empty profession. And if you keep on that road, this is where you're going to end up getting spewed out of my mouth as part of the false church. And so the what is the the remedy? Oh, I love this. I counseled you to buy me gold. Tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich. Gold is divine righteousness, and that's what the unbeliever needs.
The one who is lost needs Christ as his righteousness.
But it doesn't stop there. Don't let me point the finger at the unbeliever and say you need the gold.
Maybe I need it, but what do I need? Practical righteousness. Practical righteousness. We saw that in the meetings in Des Moines. The first departure is a bad state of soul, then a bad conscience, then giving up the truth. Ephesus began with a bad state of soul, getting away from communion with the Lord. But when it's a question of returning to the Lord, I have to come in reverse. I have to get rid of the bad conscience first, and then.
I can come and have a pure heart. And so this is there, that in my life which doesn't answer to that divine righteousness which I have before God. Does my practical life bear it out? Or are there those things in my life which are not right? Maybe they're things that are done behind the scenes.
What would happen if God suddenly were to take my life and turn it inside out in front of all of you to see? Would it stand the test of what we have here? It's a searching thought, isn't it?
White raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. Well, we know that nakedness is spoken of as an unbeliever. He has nothing to clothe himself with. And White speaks of that white robe with which God clothes us when we're saved. That's what the unbeliever needs.
But do I need it? A memorial character that goes along with my profession? You know, clothes speak of a standing before God, but they also speak of a moral character in this world as my moral character go along with the truth that I hold. Because someone has said that Laodicea may be nothing more than Philadelphian light, but without Philadelphia character manifested in our lives.
And annoyed thy eyes with I Sabbath L may see what does the unbeliever need. All that says in Second Corinthians chapter 4, I believe.
The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was the image of God should shine under them. What does the unbeliever need? Heinous needs eyes to see beauty in Christ, that blessed One. What does the believer mean? He needs ISAF too. He needs ISAF to discern his true condition in the sight of God. He's a nice have to recognize he's gotten away from that Blessed One, and as such he doesn't realize what a mess he's in. He doesn't realize that he's wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
He needs the Isaac. But it doesn't come first. First of all comes a good conscience, divine righteousness, the goal. Then comes a moral character that's fitted for it. And then comes the discernment. Do we wonder why we don't have discernment? Do I wonder why I don't have the discernment that I should have? Maybe I need first of all the gold and then the white rain, and then maybe I can get the eyes out that I may see.
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And then verse 19, as many as I love the word here for love is somewhat interesting. It's not the word for divine love. You can look it up if you wish, but it's not the word for divine love. It's the word filio, which is, you might say, the love that exists between individuals where there is a reciprocation on each side. It's more intimate and more intense in that sense than divine love. I don't want to be misunderstood when I say that, but divine love has more of a general thought.
Where for God so loved the world divine love. But if I say I love my wife the word there is feeling it. I love my wife because of what she is in herself and there's a reciprocating on her side and the more we go on together, the more that love grows. Oh, I love this as many as I love. I rebuke and chase him. Does the Lord love every believer equally? Yes he does I believe he does but you know if you.
Let me put it this way and I'm going to try and say this so that it doesn't come out wrong. If there is a desire in your heart to go after Christ and his things and His claims, we can depend on the Lord to work against. Oh you say I need such a massive thing sometimes I want to please the Lord. I was talking to a sister not too long ago and with tears in her eyes she said I make such a mess of things but I want to please the Lord. And she was telling me about some experiences in her life that the Lord had put her through.
And I thought to myself, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase. And the Lord saw that desire there. He knew she wanted to please him, and He didn't let her just go on. He brought things into her life so that she would be brought to be more like Christ. I rebuke and chasing. Are there troubles and difficulties amongst us?
As many as I love everything from chasing, Does the Lord allow trouble in my life? As many as I love, I reducing chasing. Oh, May God give us to see it all from the hand of a loving Father. And if there is a desire in your heart to please the Lord, then He'll bring it about. But it may take some rough schooling. At least it does in my life.
Verse 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will suffer him, and he will be. Oh, that's community.
The Lord wants your heart and mind, but it's come down to the individual here. Maybe I say, well, I don't see the things going on in Christians generally that they'd like to see. Maybe I may not.
Think that I see it even in the assembly? Well, let me be careful that I'm not lifted up in pride. But assuming perhaps that it's true, what does the Lord say? I'm the same to you as an individual. Nothing has changed. There's no reason why you can't enjoy the Lord as much as the Apostle Paul did. Individually, he's the same. You can come just as close to him as the Apostle Paul did. God doesn't have any favorites at any time during the dispensation. No, I will suck with him.
And he with me. Isn't it wonderful to be able to enjoy a meal with someone that you really love and care for? Isn't it wonderful to be able to sit down with someone and enjoy a meal and sit and chat together about things that you mutually enjoy? The Lord says if you'll apply the remedy that I give you here, if you let me in the door.
That's what I want. I want to do that with you. Do you want the Lord to come in in this way? He says I want to. You have to make the move and then just one last comment. Our time is gone to him that overcometh verse 21 will I grant.
Not to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God, but a similar thought to sit with me in my throat even as I also overcame. And who sat down with my Father in his throne. I suggest to you that the emphasis here is not on the throne, but the emphasis here is on the with me, my father. It doesn't say that I am sat down with God on his thrill, although that would be true when its father, its relationship, it's not.
What I grant to sit in my throne.
That's true, but the emphasis is on the with me, with me.
And he brings himself into it all. What wonder squeeze.
That Blessed One went through all of the pathway down here, endured every kind of opposition that a sinless man could endure.
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And he overcame. Now we want to be clear on this. The Lord never had to overcome.
The central tendencies that we see here. But he had to overcome the opposition from without. And it's rough to try and live in the midst of a Laodicean condition because it tends to weigh you down. And we tend, perhaps, if we're not careful, to be like it. Well, let us for our part, never seek to point the finger at others, but simply to act as an individual on this. And then the Lord says, I'll grant you to sit with thee.
Oh, it brings us full circle right back to the beginning.
Because what the Lord wanted in Ephesus was the communion with His people, and what the Lord wants him later to see it is the communion with His people and the southern substance of the reward. In both cases I suggest to your heart and mind is really the same. In one case it's a question of the tree of life, which expresses to me the continuity of it for all eternity. In this case it's the throne, which to me expresses the exaltation and the association with that blessing wife whom God has put as head over all things.
Well, May God encourage our hearts with these things. They're very, very searching, and they have been to my own soul. But I believe that God has written them for us in order that we might take them to heart, first of all individually, and then perhaps collectively, and that we might desire what He desires above and beyond all things. And that is that intimate enjoyment of the community between Christ and ourselves. Let's sing the last two verses of that hymn that we sung at the beginning. 168.
Or pardon us, Lord, that our love to thy name is so faint, with so much our affections to move.
Our coldness might Phyllis with grief and with shame. So much to be loved and so little to love.
168 versus 4:00 and 5:00.