Romans 16:25 - 27; Ephesians 3:8 - 12.
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak especially of the revelation of the mystery and of the administration of the mystery. In Romans it speaks of the mystery as to which silence has been kept from the times of the ages, and in Ephesians 3:9 it speaks of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God. We are living in a day when the mystery is revealed and it says in Romans 16:26 that according to the commandment of the eternal God it is made known for obedience of faith to all nations. It is a remarkable expression "the commandment of the eternal God".
It is often overlooked that the proclamation of the mystery has the same authority behind it and has the same scope as the glad tidings. The glad tidings are preached for the obedience of faith to all the nations. In connection with those God commands all men everywhere to repent. But the mystery was to be made known just as widely as the gospel, and this by commandment of the eternal God. In other words, God did not intend that those who receive the gospel should remain ignorant of the mystery. His intention is that men should obey the gospel and that they should equally obey the truth of the mystery. Satan's effort is always to separate the two. Many believers are prepared to go on with the gospel but they ignore the commandment of the eternal God as to the mystery. The mystery in its fulness was revealed to
Paul. Therefore we need to give heed to Paul's ministry. We were speaking of leadership last night. A true leader according to God will always draw attention to Paul's ministry. He will have in mind that the saints should work out the truth of the mystery. It needs to be the first concern in all our lives. We shall not help the saints if we make our business or other private matters our first concern. If the saints are to be brought into the truth of the mystery it requires full committal to the truth, as Paul says to Timothy, "Occupy thyself with these things, be wholly in them", and God would look to us all to be wholly in the truth of the mystery.
Now I wish to refer to three great branches of the truth. The first is the declaration of God. There is only One Declarer of God. No apostle could declare God. "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared (him)". The declaration of God is the work of the Lord Jesus Himself. It stands in all its grandeur.
The next great line of truth is the glad tidings, and particularly Paul's glad tidings. The glad tidings is to bring us into the gain of the declaration of God, that man might know God, and it is to bring us into the blessing which is in the heart of God for us. So that Paul's glad tidings brings out the truth of sonship and makes it clear that those blessed at the present time are the first of all the families. They are the assembly of the firstborn. We have a place in the Father's house more blessed than that of any other family. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. All that enters into the
The third line of truth is the ministry of the mystery. The mystery refers to the truth of the assembly which is Christ's body. The assembly is necessary if there is to be an adequate response to the blessed Person who came out from God, and to the God from whom He came out. I would like those three lines of the truth to be in our minds: The declaration of God, which was the Lord's own work, the ministry of the gospel to bring us into the blessing which is in the heart of God for us, and the ministry of the mystery to secure a vessel in which there is adequate response to the heart of Christ and in which the worship and praise of God proceeds in a manner worthy of the way God has declared Himself.
I think we can see how very important the third line of truth is. Of course, the declaration of God is the greatest thing, but our hearts being so selfish we readily stop at the truth of the gospel, satisfied with our blessings, forgetting the needs and desires of the Blesser. The third line of truth is essential if the Blesser is to get His portion. It is essential if Christ is to have His portion, it is essential if God is to get His portion. Therefore we need leadership in relation to the truth of Paul's ministry.
A man who has the ministry of the mystery before him is not beating the air. He knows what he is aiming at. Paul knew what he was aiming at. He was a wise architect. He had the whole plan of the assembly before him. He was the minister of the assembly. He filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ for His body's sake, which is the
Now God would have us all understand the truth of the mystery. It was hidden throughout the ages in God. You can understand, now God has come out in revelation, that what was hidden in Him should also be revealed. This mystery hid in God relates to the vessel in which there would be a full answer to the God who has come out. How wonderful that we should be let into this great secret which was hid in God! God had in mind from a past eternity that He should secure the assembly. I would like to leave an impression of the greatness of this vessel. It is a great vessel of service. The assembly is the bride of Christ. What delight Christ has in her! The assembly is spoken of as the Lamb's wife! She is His helpmate, His like. Think of God forming a vessel which would be of such service to Christ. His helpmate, His like, one He can trust. One who always acts as He acts, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. He will trust the administration of the world to come to His wife. But the assembly is also the tabernacle of God, the vessel in which Christ is enshrined. The ark was enshrined in the tabernacle of old, and so Christ is enshrined in the heart of the assembly. And the assembly is entirely of Him, even as the tabernacle was made of the same material as the ark and the veil. And so the assembly is the suitable dwelling place of God. It is also the city of Christ's God, where God is praised according to the greatness of His Name (see Psalm 48), and the city sheds her influence and light over the whole universe. What a vessel the assembly is!
Now Paul's ministry is to bring us all vitally into our place in the Assembly. All who compose it have been blessed through the gospel, so that all are sons. Sons desire to serve. Where can we serve? We serve in the assembly. God said, "Let my son go that he may serve me". But where was the son to serve? The son was to serve in the tabernacle, thus we are to serve in the assembly. The assembly is a vessel of service. We have to distinguish between the family and the assembly. The family is the place of blessing and privilege. There is no thought of service in the 15th of Luke. It depicts the joy of the House in which the Father takes the lead. But the assembly is the place where the sons serve. Everyone of us is given a place in the assembly which is Christ's body. We are all members of Christ's body. There is no thought of a member being inactive. No member of our human body is inactive. The idea of a body is that every member has its own function and is acting.
In the liberty of sonship we can all accept the place given to us in the body. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God. That is Romans 8. If we are led by the Spirit of God we shall answer to the truth of Romans 12. In the liberty of sonship we shall present our bodies a living sacrifice with a view to filling out our place in the assembly. The first element of God's will is that we should find our place in the assembly and fill it out. So that after speaking of the good and perfect and acceptable will of God in the 12th of Romans the apostle exhorts the brethren not to be high minded "but to think so as to be wise as God has dealt to each a measure of faith", and he
goes on to say, "we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other". God has dealt a measure of faith to each one of us to enable us to be efficient in our place in the body. It is a measure of faith given to us to enable us to be active in the body in the place God has given us in it. And we look round on the brethren and we see that God has dealt to each a measure of faith, and we merge together as one body encouraging each to fill out his place in the body. What a wonderful living and active thing the body is! If only we were all acting according to the measure of faith God has given us! As I said a moment ago the assembly is a vessel of service. It is a vessel of service to one another, it is a vessel of service to Christ, it is a vessel of service to God. God has given to each of us a measure of faith that we should be active in service in our place in the body. And the first thing is to learn to be right in our relationships with each other. That is how Paul begins this great subject in Romans 12. We are each one members one of another. That links up with John 13. If we understand it we shall love one another as Christ has loved us, and we shall be at one another's feet seeking always to set one another free to fill our place in the body. Let us encourage one another, dear brethren. Let us serve one another in love, so that we all realise our place in the body, and we all function every brother and every sister, whether we are together or whether we are apart; because the body is working all the time not only when we are together in the meeting, but in all our contacts with each other.
In 1 Corinthians Paul develops the truth further. He shows that we need to learn to give the Spirit His place in the body. First we learn to give the other members their place. We must be right with one another, but then we must be right with the Holy Spirit; and so in 1 Corinthians 12 he says, "To each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit". And further down in that chapter in verse 11 he says, "But all these things operates the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each in particular according as He pleases". If we are right with each other and loving one another according to John 13, what liberty the Spirit will have to distribute as He pleases. We shall get the gain of the Spirit, we shall experience manifestations of the Spirit, as in verse 7. That is how we get the gain of the temple of God, there are the manifestations of the Spirit through the members of the body, and so the light of God shines in the temple.
Then in Colossians the apostle goes a step further. He tells us who the Head of the body is. He tells us that the Son of the Father's love, Who is the image of the invisible God, the One by whom and for whom all things were made, is Head of the body the assembly. The great point in Colossians is that we should hold the Head. We are to be right with one another, and right with the Holy Spirit, and we are to be right in our relations with our beloved Head. He is the Son of the Father's love, and He is our Beloved. How blessed to have such a Head! He "is the image of the invisible God" and "in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". What a glorious Head! We are not to listen to anybody who does not hold the Head.
Then the apostle proceeds further in Ephesians. Ephesians gives us the climax. It brings out fully what the assembly is to Christ. Colossians is what Christ is to the assembly. He is the Head of the body, the assembly. But Ephesians is what the assembly is to Christ. "The assembly which is His body the fullness of Him who fills all in all". The assembly is so precious to Him that He loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. The assembly is so precious to Him that He leaves father and mother to be united to the assembly. How great the love of Christ for the assembly! How precious the assembly is to Christ! But you see if we have not travelled the road that I am speaking about there will be no such vessel available for Christ, there will be no true assembly features here. We must begin in Romans 12 and be right with one another. We must learn to give the Spirit His place according to Corinthians. We must give full place to the greatness and blessedness of our Head, and then the Lord Jesus will have the assembly for His pleasure in its practical features here on earth at the present time.
And then Ephesians gives the climax with regard to what the assembly is to God. In the passage we read in Ephesians 3 it speaks of "God who has created all things, in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of Him". Here we have presented the assembly as the vessel in
which God's all-various wisdom is displayed. This is the climax. It refers to the assembly under the headship of Christ, moving under His impulse and influence as a true wife under the influence of her husband, engaged in the service and interests of God. In verse 8 Paul speaks of "the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ". He is our Head, He endows the assembly with all these unsearchable riches. Solomon of old endowed the assembly of Israel with vast riches in order that the service of God might proceed in the assembly of Israel. Now the Lord Jesus, the true Solomon, endows His assembly as under His influence and direction, so that the service of praise and worship to God proceeds in the present time in the assembly. The heavenly principalities see wisdom in the assembly administration. But they see the wisdom of God in the fullest sense in the ordering of the service of praise to God. Solomon's wisdom was seen in administration but the greatest expression of Solomon's wisdom was in the service of God to which he gave direction. When the queen of Sheba saw his ascent there was no more spirit left in her, and in the ascent we can move with our living Head, for it says here in verse 12 "In whom we have boldness and access in confidence". No limit is put upon this access. There always is a creature limit, but no limit is placed. It is not said to be access to the Father, it is left open "in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of Him". It involves the highest level of the service of God, and we can understand if we know something of such movements under the leading of Christ there
will be glory to God in the assembly. It says "To Him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus". I have said already that the assembly is a vessel of service. This is the highest service the assembly is called upon to perform. It is ascribing glory to God, in a manner in which no other creature vessel could offer it.
It is remarkable to think of the assembly as a creature vessel but not like any other creature vessel. In the first creation God spoke and it was done, but the formation of Eve was special. She was taken out of the man. What a marvellous vessel the assembly is! A creature vessel distinct from every other part of creation because she has been taken out of the man, and that Man from whom she is taken is, in His Person, no less than God. We can understand "To Whom be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus".
Well, may the Lord help us to have the truth of the mystery before us in our labours. Paul says in Ephesians 3:9 "To enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery". It is not only a question of knowing the mystery, but knowing the administration of it, that means the practical working out of it. And I have sought to give tonight a few remarks as to the practical working out of the truth of the assembly. It is a constructive line. It takes in Romans, Corinthians, Colossians and Ephesians. Let us have this truth before us in our labours. Let us make it our chief concern so that there might be even now an answer in praise to the God Who has declared Himself, for His Name's sake!
Revelation 2:4, 10,17 (from "... to him that overcomes ..".); Revelation 3:2 (last clause), 4, 8, 15, 19; Revelation 22:16, 17.
I wish, dear brethren, to speak of one feature in each of the seven churches. I think each is a salient feature, and I think there is no doubt that what the Lord has in mind in these addresses to the churches is to bring about recovery to first love. In fact, I would think John's writings have that in view generally, both in the Gospel and in the book of Revelation. John the Baptist says, He that has the bride is the Bridegroom, and the Gospel shews us from beginning to end, what a marvellous Person the Bridegroom is, with a view to securing affections proper to the bride. As far as we know, it was the last portion of scripture to be written. How calculated the Gospel is to bring about that result!
Then the Book of Revelation has the same end in view. Take these books together and we see really what John's ministry had in view, that there should be first love at the end. There was first love at the beginning, but it is a question of first love at the end. There is one thing to notice, that is, that it will never be there unless we are in company with the Spirit. First love at the end is expressed in that cry "Come". It is a more testing cry than perhaps we realise. To really say "Come" to Christ challenges my own heart as to how far, if Christ came now, it would rob
me of things I am living in. If I am seeking life and satisfaction in anything here, then I will have some reserve about Jesus coming. My cry will not be the whole-hearted "Come" that must result if Christ is my life now. The test of Christianity, and I answer to it very poorly myself, is as to finding all-sufficiency in Christ now. "For me to live is Christ" Paul says, "and to die, gain". He was looking for the Lord's coming, but even to die would be gain. What a thing first love is, therefore! It means that your whole heart is entwined around the Saviour. So that, when you think of Him coming, there is not anything that would tend to hold you back, nothing that would cause you to hesitate in the slightest degree in saying "Come" to Jesus.
So the first challenge is as to first love as in the word to Ephesus. "I have against thee" -- think of the Lord having something against us! Has He something against me? I could not say I am yet marked by first love. I would like to be. You think of the Lord looking at us now, and He may say "I have something against you". He may say 'you have done well, you have done many things for Me, and I appreciate everything you have done and everything you are doing, but I have one thing against you -- that I am not everything to you'. I would like Him to be everything to me and I believe one great point in current exercises is that He should become everything to many. Let us go through with these exercises. Let our works be complete before His God. What else could be the end in the way God is leading us and the way the Spirit of God is leading us, but that
Christ should really be our life? "For me to live is Christ". Only a person like that can honestly and truly, without any reserve, say "Come" to Jesus. I would like to be able to say it, without any reserve, as the one great longing of my soul.
And so He says, "I have against thee". As long as we are not giving Him the supreme place there will always be that. It is not that the Lord is hard at all; it is because He loves so intensely. How He feels it if we do not love Him with a corresponding intensity!
He therefore says, "Remember therefore whence thou art fallen". We have to remember that we cannot measure the drop when first love is gone. Whatever else there may be down here, it is of small value compared with first love. "Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent". Repent? But I do love the Lord! But do you love Him with your whole heart? Is it first love? If not, you have something to repent about. "Repent", he says, "and do the first works". There is a lustre about works that flow from first love. You cannot do first works without first love. Even in human affairs, how sensitive love is! If one partner in marriage is only doing a thing because it is his duty, the other partner soon realises it, and the value of what is done diminishes. The extraordinary thing is that the Lord says that if there is not repentance the lamp will be removed. He may allow time, but He is such a Lover that He cannot regard any testimony as worthy of Himself except that which flows from first love. We would like there to be a real testimony for the Lord at the end.
Now, the other features, I think, flow out of this,
and help us as to what goes to make up first love. So, to the second church, He says, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life". In human affairs we regard that as the proof of true love. True love would be faithful unto death. It is a comprehensive word. It bears on much that we are thinking about at the present time, as to fellowship and what is due to the Lord's name down here. It is easy to take an easy path. But the Lord says, "Be thou faithful unto death". It is not that we inflict sufferings on other people. The idea of the altar is that I am prepared to suffer myself. Pharisaical separation would inflict sufferings on other people -- Laying burdens on men that are grievous and hard to bear. But the idea of the altar is that the Lord Jesus bore all the sufferings and cost Himself, rather than sacrifice one iota of what was due to God in His nature and character. And the Lord says to us, "Be thou faithful unto death". Be in fellowship with the altar (1 Corinthians 10:18). He was faithful unto death. He addresses Himself to this assembly, as the One who became dead and lived. And this is the word for us: "Be thou faithful unto death". And in principle, this has to go on even if we are not faced with actual death. Paul says, "I die daily". He denied himself, denied popularity, denied all that men would esteem good. He was as the offscouring of all things. If he had been prepared to sacrifice principles he would never have been the offscouring of all things. "All in Asia have turned away from me", he said. Why? Because he was prepared to be faithful unto death. Those in Asia
did not give up their Christian profession, but they were not prepared to go to that length. But first love would go that way.
Then when we come to the third item, "To him that overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the hidden manna". Sweet thought, the hidden manna, the life of Jesus here as treasured before God. It is called in Hebrews, "The days of His flesh". He has left us a model that we should follow in His steps. We are called upon to walk as He walked. "He that says he abides in Him ought to walk even as He walked". The manna sustains us in that path. We feed on Jesus in the blessedness of His pathway here. But then what governs the person is the white stone. Our relations with Christ are on the basis that we are seeking His approval only. How long it takes us to be free from looking for man's approbation! But the overcomer in Pergamos is seeking only the approbation of Christ; in everything to please Christ! He could say that He did all things that were pleasing to His Father. A feature of first love is that we do all things with a single eye and heart to please the Lord. "Walking worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true (or full) knowledge of God".
In Thyatira an important principle comes in. We know that the last four churches go on to the end in character. Thus elements of the beginning of revival are in this church where indeed it began historically. I am not speaking now of Luther's time but the period that preceded it -- the underlying state that made way for Luther to come forward. The Lord says in verse
23, "All the assemblies shall know that I am He that searches the reins and the hearts". He is presented in verse 18 as the Son over God's house, the Son of God, His eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass. I believe this is the secret of revival, that souls get a sense that the Lord sees them through and through -- He is searching the reins and the hearts. He takes account of works, but He is looking at the motives, and present exercises are to help us, each one, to come under His all-searching gaze, and allow ourselves the consciousness that He sees us through and through. Everything is naked and laid bare before the eye of Him with whom we have to do. Let us allow Him to search our hearts. We shall learn, if we do so what we are by nature; we shall come to it in our own judgment. We shall take the place that Paul took, the chief of sinners, recognising that we deserved to be hanged upon a tree. Our old man has been crucified with Him. Our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Yet there is something else through God's grace. Our hearts have been purified by faith, to the end that the Christ may dwell through faith in our hearts.
Christ is looking into our hearts, not only to expose to us the evil, but to see if He is there. If first love is existing, and He is looking into your heart, He will see Himself in your heart. Let Him shine out in your life and He will see that too, but what He is looking at is your heart. Is He in the centre? What a thing it is when this One whose eyes are as a flame of fire, sees us through and through and finds Himself enshrined in our affections! It is the reins and the
heart. The reins refer to the kidneys, the purifying organs -- purity of motive. The Lord would keep us under His all-searching gaze, that our motives might be kept pure -- that our kidneys spiritually might be functioning properly and rejecting every selfish motive, that Christ only might be the spring of thought and action. That is the basis of recovery; it begins within. Mr. Stoney wrote a tract called "Exclusivism, its ground and history". It was not the usual kind of history. It was a moral history, and he said that exclusivism begins within, in one's own heart; that you come under the all-searching eye of Christ and find that your heart is a chamber of horrors, and you never want to open that door again. So it begins within, you learn to exclude all within so that Christ might be the only motive. Then you come to what is without and you desire that when He comes to us, as we are gathered together, there might be nothing unsuited to Him, but Christ everything and in all. He searches the reins and the heart. The kidneys were always for God in the sacrifices at the altar. They were, in a special way, His portion.
The Lord says to the overcomer in Thyatira, He that overcomes and keeps to the end My works. I do not attempt to define what the Lord means by My works; the result of submitting to His scrutiny will be to keep to the end His works. He says, I know thy works, but then, what about keeping to the end His works? As to walking as He walked, His feet are like fine brass. If we correspond with Him in this we shall be like the pillars round the court. Their bases were of copper. It bears on fellowship. But there is one
feature I would like to point out as to My works. I cannot define the scope of the expression but I believe one thing included in it is shepherding. There is only one Good Shepherd, one Chief Shepherd, and one Great Shepherd. But whatever else the Lord is doing, as long as we are down here, He is shepherding. It says of God, He led His people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. So that as the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, He is shepherding us through the wilderness, leading us by the hand. Then, if you get into the land, David the king was the shepherd. God took him from the sheepfolds to shepherd His people Israel. So that, though the Lord holds the greatest offices, whatever one He is acting in at the moment, He is still the Shepherd. But, you say, why do you think "My Works" includes shepherding? It is because of the word here, "I will give him authority over the nations, and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod". How do you think you are going to be qualified to shepherd the nations if you have not learned to shepherd the sheep now? I am not suggesting that you would shepherd the sheep with an iron rod. The nations will need that; although there is something good about that, because iron is inflexible. Divine commandments are inflexible. Let us not think we can tamper with them. The feet like fine brass would deal with all those things. But I do think there is a tremendous call for shepherding at the moment. It is a service that perhaps is more needed than any. And it must go on day by day. Rachel was shepherdess, so the sisters are not at all out of this. We need shepherds and shepherdesses.
Jesus never ceases to be a Shepherd till all the sheep are safe home eternally. Love one another, He says, as I have loved you. A shepherd love is not a lazy love. It is a very active love -- heat by day and frost by night -- day and night work. But it is a great help to us in seeking to carry it out to think that the Lord would say, He kept to the end My works. There is nothing I would like better than to be told that. Well, there is an opportunity for you to be told that, dear brother or sister -- to get this commendation that you kept to the end His works.
Think of how the sheep are scattered at the moment! What are we going to do about them? Some under this kind of influence, some under that; some have these thoughts, some those. What are we going to do with them? The Lord would look for us to develop large-heartedness as shepherds, to be prepared to go after one sheep that is lost, not only in the gospel, that comes into it, but one who is straying away from the path of God's will. We would have none of the brethren to be lost to the path of God's will among the many who, in mercy, have been delivered from bondage; we are anxious that not one should use his freedom as a cloak for the flesh. So shepherding is needed. I need it, you need it, we never cease to need it while we are here. We never cease to need the Great Shepherd. As long as we are each in touch with the Great Shepherd we are safe. Follow thou Me, He says. As long as I can maintain that link with the Great Shepherd, I shall be safe, but who of us does? So, if anyone sees me or anyone else tending to stray away from the Great Shepherd, let us help
him to get back. A Christian shepherd does not seek to draw disciples after him. What we have to do is to get saints back to their links with the Great Shepherd. We have not got any flocks of our own. Feed My lambs, shepherd My sheep, feed My sheep. And what was Peter's qualification for so doing? Follow thou Me. Keep your link with Christ yourself and then you can help other people. I would like to encourage everyone here to take up shepherd service, so needed in every locality where the saints are. Let us keep in mind the Lord's words: "Keep to the end My works". Think of what He has done -- and is doing all down the ages! And then think (it is put as an encouragement) of qualifying to shepherd the nations with an iron rod. A shepherd needs a rod. "Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me". Were it not for the rod at the present time we would go astray. I am counting on the Lord to use His rod. Some prophesy that those who have moved out to the Lord will disintegrate. What can stop them? Thy rod and Thy staff. It is a comfort that He has a rod and is able to deal with every one of us; Moses' rod and Aaron's staff.
Well now, we come to Sardis. He says I have not found thy works complete before My God. There was the great liberation from bondage, from Rome. Vast numbers were delivered. What happened? They disintegrated. Look at all the sects of Protestantism. A brother was quoting to me the other day a message sent to Luther when he was in captivity: "What a mess we are in, everybody is doing something else". So you see, the Reformers had to face
this kind of thing. But what they did not apparently discern was what it says here, "These things saith He that has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars". The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. Brethren begin to break bread in a locality. However will the localities hold together? Well, it is the Lord who has the seven stars. Count on the Chief Shepherd. Every local meeting is responsible to Him. It is He who will deal with every local meeting. We array ourselves under His direction, and maintain our living faith in the One who has the seven Spirits of God -- the power of the Spirit available -- and He has the seven stars. There is no reason why our works should not be complete before His God. We have got to see that things go through to completion.
One of the things that the enemy has used to stop things from going to completion from the outset is separating the church from the gospel. Let those who have a heart for the ministry of the gospel, and we value them, not forget that their ministry will not be complete without a ministry of the church. The gospel is to bring people into the church, otherwise, your works are not complete. Works of Protestantism generally are not complete. The Lord would encourage us to seek to go on to completion at the present time. The truth of the body and the truth of the House of God, far from being surrendered will be held livingly in the power of the seven Spirits of God, with the few who may be available. If so, we shall be attractive to those in whom God will be pleased to work. The House of God is an attractive place --
joys, songs, gladness, merriment; not the merriment of human innovations -- choirs, organs and the like, but the very merriment of heaven, the Father and the Son known as abiding there.
We want to come to these things because the church is the pillar and base of the truth, it is the background of the gospel. You can say to men, Come and see what this brings you into, the merriment, the joy and the song of the House of God, the love, the mutuality of the body relations. You do not get these unless you maintain holiness. You cannot get them without white raiment. A few in Sardis, He says, who have not defiled their garments. After the great revival in Luther's time, the trouble was defilement of garments, man's mind working, not relying on the Spirit, the seven Spirits of God, not relying on the One who has the seven stars, so that most of the churches settled down to be national churches, having no active faith, nor reliance on the Spirit, as systems: though individuals in them had some appreciation of these things. Let us go on with what is according to God, dear brethren. In the last chapter of Romans the mystery is to be made known by command of the eternal God for the obedience of faith to all nations. I want to see more and more going out in the gospel, but I would like to see those going out too with the truth of the mystery. Let us begin at home -- in our localities, and have the gospel and the church both livingly borne witness to; and let us not defile our garments, for that is of all importance.
Now we come to Philadelphia, and the Lord says, Because thou hast kept My word and hast not denied
My name. This is another feature of first love -- we can trace all these things back to first love, faithful unto death, seeking only the Lord's approval, the hidden manna, keeping to the end His works, going on to completion as to the church -- and who that loves the Lord could fail to go on to that? The gospel meets man's need, the church meets Christ's need, and the need of the heart of God. It is a cold-hearted person who doesn't think of Christ's needs, of what God desires. Now, keeping His word relates to the internal furnishings of His abode. You would have everything suitable to the One you love -- you keep His word, not only His commandments but His word. The more you enter the place above, the more you want everything amongst His own below to correspond with the place above. That is what keeping His word is. You want home conditions for Christ down here. "If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Such an one provides home conditions. It is an individual doing so. But Philadelphia as a company of saints were doing that. What a place for Christ -- the true home for Christ at the close of the dispensation, just a few brothers and sisters it may be, but a real home for Christ; the Father and the Son can abide there.
And now finally, there is the question of zeal -- of being hot. He says "Thou art neither cold nor hot". So he says, Be zealous therefore and repent. I would like to finish on that note. First love would lead to zeal. If we had more zeal we should get more conversions,
people converted from the world by the gospel and brought into the true church. The Lord rejects lukewarm christianity as distasteful to Him. First love means that we should be hot, -- like John the Baptist, a burning and a shining lamp! You cannot shine if you do not burn. If all those who have come out to the Lord were burning, surely there would be some results! If we are burning, other believers who are hungry for good things will notice the shining. It will be like the flaming torches of the five wise virgins. Behold the Bridegroom! Go forth to meet Him! The idea was that they poured the oil on the torch and it flamed up. I wish we were like torch-bearers with flaming torches so that nobody could help seeing us. I wish I were like that! You ought to have (or rather to be) a blazing torch. This book would lead to us all saying Behold the Bridegroom! We would go forth with our torches.
It all comes back to first love, you see. And what a response on the Lord's part if we repent! "I will come into him and sup with him and he with Me". The five virgins might be likened to a little local company. The Lord would help us in these things. All these seven features would mark us I believe if we came back to first love. And then we shall truly say to the Bridegroom, Come. So in the last chapter, the Lord says, Behold I come quickly. We need the seven Spirits of God, and He is available, oil in our vessels, so that we are burning and shining and then in company with the Spirit we say, Come. The mainspring of evangelical zeal is first love for Christ. If that is there, there is a remarkable evangelical
testimony. "Whosoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely". May the Lord help us in these things, for His Name's sake!
FEATURES OF FIRST LOVE