Chapter 3:12
We will linger a little longer on this precious, verse. If you refuse all the names of a divided Christendom, you will then have to bear some name of reproach. He knows it all, He feels it all. Was He not called Beelzebub? He says, of the overcomer, “I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
Oh, how dear to His heart are the overcomers in this day. What are the names and honors of Babylon, compared to the holy delight that awaits us in the city of His God, the new Jerusalem? Not titles emanating from Rome, or this world’s universities, but “coming down, out of heaven, from my God.”
Titles may come from heaven or hell, which would you prefer?
Let it be well remembered, that again it is only the overcomer that is expected to have an ear to hear. And “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” This address then, to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, is the special word of the Lord to the churches or assemblies in this day. And the overcomer, whose ear is open, will thus know the mind of the Lord at this very time.
The church, as it was in the beginning, has failed.
Thyatira, or Romanism, as Jezebel, has failed; Protestantism, or Sardis, has failed; all have failed as a testimony for God on earth. Now in Philadelphia, there is an entire change; it is no longer a church, or assembly, or church principles, but Christ in His personal glory and purity: “he that is holy, he that is true;” and He on whom the sole government rests. Thus the Spirit sets the Lord Jesus before us, and thus He speaks to us. Now in this day of utter ruin and departure, is your ear open to Him, or closed?
It will not do to rest now on church principles; we must have to do with the Person of Christ; and, whatever weakness, there music be the reality suited to Him. If there be an attempt to set up an imitation of the church, it will fail. It is a feeble remnant, or a single overcomer, who has Christ alone.
From this hour may He be the one blessed object of our souls; and our ears be open to hear Him.
Verse 14. We now come to the very last stage of recognized Christendom; after this it becomes Babylon, or the beast. “ And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”
When all have failed, He is still the Verily, the Amen. All the purposes of God are fulfilled in Him, the last Adam. In the past eternity, He said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;” and He is the faithful One. In the end, in the midst of all that is false, He is the faithful and the true witness. In all things surely He has the pre-eminence; He is “the beginning of the creation of God.”
Now He speaks, may we hear His judgment on a boasting Christendom. “I know thy works.” Unconverted, proud men, may boast of being the true church. He says, “I know thy works.” Is there a secret thing unknown to Him? He says, “Thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.” Surely, it would be more honest to make no profession of Christ, than whilst making such a profession to be utterly indifferent about both His blessed Person and His holy teaching. No one can fail to see the increasing indifference about Christ.
How is it with the reader? Is your time spent in idle gossip, or pleasures, or zeal for forms of godliness, denying the power, and with no heart for Christ? If so, let us further hear the word of the Lord. “ So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Yes, so far from the world being converted, the lifeless professing church is to be utterly rejected, as nauseous to Christ; and for these very reasons—“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
What a description! And mark, these words are spoken to the angel of the church in its last state, to that, or those, who should truly represent the assemblies of God. Do you say, Well, the angel means the clergy and ministers of these days? It may be they think so, and take this place. But if this is so, then what words, what a description of the clergy? “Wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” We must not forget the few names of Sardis known to Christ. But if these words of Christ are addressed to a proud, boastful clergy, of these very last days of Christendom, is it not awful, and high time to awake from the fatal slumber? There is not one thing about these that Christ can approve. No, these are marks of the unconverted. They are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. If these lines should ever meet the eye of one unconverted clergyman or minister, do ask yourself, Do these words describe my real state? When you think of death and judgment, are you not wretched and miserable? As to all enjoyment of the present favor of God and true riches, are you not poor indeed? As to all certainty as to where you will spend eternity, are you not utterly blind, not knowing whither you are going? And as to the righteousness of God, are you not naked? Can you say tire righteousness of God is upon you? No, but you are naked, and unfit for the presence of God, and yet you are boasting of riches and increase of goods!
You hope to acquire righteousness by works of law, and this you preach to others. Do you not see that you cannot do this without rejecting the righteousness of God, accomplished by the death and resurrection of Christ? What is the death and resurrection of Christ to you? What is it to you that the holy One has passed through the fire of divine judgment, a sacrifice for sin? Jesus says, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” You must admit you have not got it yet; your seeking it by works of law is the proof you have not got it; no, you are naked; He says so, and He does not counsel you to seek to be clothed by works of law, or ritualism: you must come to Him for divine righteousness. Do you say, And must there be no practical righteousness then? Yes, He says, “and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed.” Divine righteousness, justified, accounted righteous before God first, then practical righteousness before men—white raiment. There never is, or can be, the latter without the former, and in this divine order. And then “anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Do not rely on the teaching of man; for the natural man, however educated, is not, nor has, the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
We must not, however, limit these words of Jesus to the clergy of this day. Are they not of vital importance to all who make a profession of Christ—this boasting Christendom—about to be cast off forever as God’s witness on earth. Are you trusting in its boasted riches, its vast machinery, prosperity, and worldly power? Do you think outward prosperity in this world an evidence of divine favor? What a mistake “No;” Jesus says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” Be in earnest, and change your minds on this matter. Chastening is rather a mark of divine love, as in Heb. 12.
Oh, poor deceived Christendom, do not vainly suppose the Lord is with thee, and approves thy doings. No; He says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: 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.” Thus, in the very end there is nothing of a corporate character the Lord owns as a whole He is outside, but knocking still. Oh, the riches of His grace! He seeks the individual communion of His saints. This must be so, until we meet Him in the air, as revealed to Paul. (See 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15, 18; 5:23.)
In this last stage there is no body of Christians owned as such; and to get the end, as to believers, we must go back to Philadelphia; and for this reason, the coming of the Lord is most distinctly brought out in Philadelphia, but not named in Laodicea. Until He comes, if any man hears the voice of Christ, he will then cease to be a Laodicean, and no doubt will be caught up to meet the Lord; but the mass of Christendom, unconverted Laodicea, will go on to the full-grown Babylon, as we shall see further on in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Thus we know that they who are not Christ’s will be left behind, as surely as all that are Christ’s will be taken up to meet Him, and be forever with the Lord.
It is also remarkable that the promise to the overcomer in verse 21, is so worded as either to be adapted to the individual overcomer until the Lord come, or to the overcomer who shall be saved during the terrible crisis that shall follow when Christ comes, not to take His saints, but to reign with them, as we shall see at the completion of the first resurrection. (Rev. 20:4.)
Are these things so? Have the seven stages of Christendom run their course? Is it a fact that any day the Lord may come; and all who are His be taken up to meet Him, and all the rest of Laodicean professors be left to. then, worse than Laodicean darkness? To which state do you answer—that described in the address to Philadelphia, or that to Laodicea? We do not ask to what body of people do you belong, but what is the state of your soul? Mark, the case is revealed in the clearest possible way. There is nothing our Lord Jesus blames in the former: there is not one thing He approves in the latter. Christ is everything to the soul in one state; He is nothing to the soul in the other. You cannot be in both these states. Which are you in then? Are you about to be caught up to be forever with Him who loved you, and gave Himself for you, or left to be punished with everlasting destruction at the coming of the Lord, with all His saints? You may succeed for a brief moment in your worldly designs, you may hate and despise the true followers of Christ with little strength; but do you know what awaits them? We will pass on next to the scenes that await the redeemed of the Lord.