Will you read with me from the first chapter of the book of Revelation? Read the first clause, and then pass to Revelation 1:4.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace, from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come;
and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne;
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood;
and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father;
to Him be the glory and the dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Behold, He cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see Him,
and they that pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him. Even so, Amen.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, Who is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.
I John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And I turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
and in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
and His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Revelation 4:5.
And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Before we proceed with the message itself, dear friends, may I repeat something that has so often been said in times like this as to this ministry?
Firstly, it has always been, and does still remain, to see that the messages given lead to very practical issues—that the people who hear them are really faced with those practical issues. That is, we are not at all concerned with, or interested in, just teaching as an end in itself. If it cannot lead to something quite definite, then we realize that we are wasting our time.
Well, that is true, and it is always added: of course, no teacher can ever make actual in his hearers the things which he imparts. That is not the intention of his ministry.
He gives what he believes to be the message that God has given him, commits it to the Lord in much prayer, and the rest is with the people and with the Lord.
I remember Dr. Campbell Morgan once saying, with emphasis, “God help the preacher whose hearers do not fulfil his ministry.” That is what we feel about it.
Now, as to this message: you see, we come back to this book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ in keeping with what we have just said about the essential practical nature of ministry and a message.
We come to the book which, I fear, has resulted in too much that is of little practical value. There is no book in the Bible, perhaps, that has resulted in more confusion than this book.
This book has produced a considerable number of conflicting schools of interpretation. To mention them by name would be only to open the door to the confusion. It is not my intention to do so.
But this is certain: God never intended any part of His Word to lead to confusion. Confusion is not a characteristic of the Lord. He is not the God of confusion.
Therefore, it becomes necessary that we reduce the whole matter to some very simple conclusions.
I think the first three chapters of this book, as forming a distinct section, are an excellent example of how the whole book can and should be reduced to a simple conclusion.
You are at liberty to leave the place names, if you like. You can project Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and the rest, as names and as places. You can indeed leave quite a lot of the symbolism—not all of it, because some of it is so obvious—but you can leave it.
You can resolve this section in this way: firstly, we are here in these first three chapters in the presence of timeless spiritual principles.
They are truly being applied to particular conditions, situations, and places. But there is something more than the place and the time and the particular situation. There is a spiritual factor that is governing everything.
We are in the presence of those factors which are more than local, more than geographical, more than their time settings. They are age-long; and more than that, they are eternal.
So that is the very first thing that we have to recognize and grasp as we come to this book, and to this section as an example: here we are being presented with something that is in the mind of God which touches this situation, or all these situations, which are set forth here.
What we have to do is to get hold of that which is in the mind of God. It is one thing; it has many aspects, but it is one thing. To get hold of that one thing is the key both to this section and to the whole book. I will not mention for the moment what it is; we are coming to that presently.
Secondly, we are in the presence of one of those crisis points. It may be the last, when the Lord calls to account for all that He has given.
That is, of course, quite clear in this section. It governs all the rest of the book, but stick to the section. The Lord had given much to the church and the churches. They had received a lot through His apostles, through His servants. They had a great wealth of spiritual inheritance.
When the Lord has done anything like that, at any time in history, it is as though, at a given point, He comes back and says, “Now, what about it? What about it?”
“I have given. I have made known. I have entreated, I have implored, I have exhorted, I have won. Now the time has come when some reckoning has to be made, and an answer given.”
You would think that the Lord has done that more than once in history. But here we are in the presence of such an occasion. I say it may be the last, because this book does stand in relation to the end, does it not—the Lord’s coming?
But here is a principle, as well as a time application of the principle: we are here in the presence of a crisis, the nature of which is this: the Lord is saying, “How do you measure up to all that I have given you? How do you stand in the light of the whole deposit that has been made with you?”
This crisis is a very serious one. It is critical indeed, as you notice, because the issue is the alternative between continuance or discontinuance: the vessel, the lampstand, remaining or being removed. That is the crisis. It is the whole future.
Thirdly, we are here made aware that the Lord’s desire is to bless. His is a positive attitude, not a negative.
While He has to put His finger upon the things that are lacking, the things with which He does not agree, you will notice that He invariably ends His quest with, “To him that overcometh, will I grant.”
The Lord’s desire, in every case, in every situation, however bad it is, is to bless. He is on positive lines. There may be rebuke, there may be exposure and uncovering, there may be warning, there may be exhortation; but there is a promise suspended over everybody—a wonderful promise.
Everybody is based, ultimately, not necessarily with judgment, but with the good pleasure of the Lord. His desire is to bless. He may condemn, but His condemnation is to clear the way for blessing. He may have to judge. He may have to break. But that is to provide the ground for blessing.
He may warn with a solemn voice, but His warnings are coupled with His desire that these people should come into something more of His grace, of His goodness.
You cannot read these promises to overcomers without being tremendously impressed with this. It seems that the greatest delinquents, those who have failed most, are offered the highest message.
So it was for Laodicea. You cannot get any further than to sit with Him in His throne, and that is the offer to Laodicea. All the things that are judgeable are found there, but the highest reward is offered. It is from the very depth to the very height. That is His thought for His people.
Finally, and supremely, we are confronted with that for which the Lord is looking. That is going to be the point on which the message turns: that for which the Lord is looking, and, if it has to be said, without which He cannot justify the continuance of a vessel of testimony.
That is the thing on which we have got to focus. What is it that the Lord is looking for?
Now, many things were thought by these churches to be the things that the Lord was looking for, and they were not. They were not. It turned out that they were just not the things that the Lord was looking for.
He had His own object before Him, and He could not be satisfied with anything less, or other, or an alternative to that.
Now, that is the summary of this first section in the first three chapters. I hope you have been able to grasp it—that I have simplified the interpretation—that you can see, even if only in the last thing that I have said, this supreme thing, that one thing, for which the Lord is looking when He has given so much to His people.
From that point, we come to the method—the method employed by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, for reaching the end upon which the heart of God is set.
The method employed is, of course, comprehensively and inclusively seen in the presentation of the Lord Jesus which we have in Revelation 1. That is always God’s method, always the method of the Holy Spirit: to bring Christ in His supreme fullness into view.
No one meditating upon that vision of the Son of Man given in that chapter could doubt that you have a presentation of the fullness of Christ. Powerful!
I confess to you, dear friends, in meditating for many days—a long time now—I have found my greatest difficulty to be to comprehend the fullness of every fragment.
I am not exaggerating when I say that into almost every fragment of this presentation of Jesus Christ you could crowd a mass of what is in the Bible. What to leave out is the difficulty.
The Holy Spirit’s method comprehensively is to bring back Christ, not partially, but in fullness—Christ in fullness.
As you look at it, you will find that it is a sevenfold characterization of the risen and governing Son of Man. Into those seven aspects, so much is crowded. Everything is compressed.
We may just mention what they are:
Who can comprehend all that? Sevenfold characterizations of the Son of Man—that is presented, projected before, in this case, the churches; if you like, the church in its fullness, representatively.
This sevenfold characterization is the basis of the examination which is going to take place and of the judgment which is going to be declared. According to what is here, at every point, everything is going to be tested and determined.
These are the features that constitute His quest. If you ask, “What is it the Lord is after, is seeking?” the answer is: that which corresponds to these features of Christ. If you can understand what they signify, then you know exactly what He is after.
This presentation is of Christ, first of all, personally; and then you find that it becomes corporate. He is holding the churches in His hand. He is moving to and fro amongst them. He and they are, in a sense, identified.
What He is really seeking is that what is true of Himself shall be true of His church in every place, in every location.
Now, in Revelation 1:4, you have this phrase: “The seven Spirits Who are before His throne.” Let you pass over to Revelation 4.
At this time, you have another reference to those seven Spirits, but in a particular form: “There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”
Of course, seven Spirits is another symbolic way of speaking of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, we may put it—and we have authority for so doing—in a sevenfold expression. It is one Spirit mentioned here in the symbolism of seven Spirits before the throne.
The throne, we know and understand, is the symbol of heavenly authority. Lamps of fire: the throne functioning as lamps of fire—the Holy Spirit.
We know what lamps of fire are. Originally, the word is “torches.” We know what that means. The function of lamps or torches is, first, to reveal; then to test; and then to determine. The throne is in action here in that way, quite clearly: to reveal, to test, and to determine. We shall have more to say about that presently.
Let us come back to Revelation 1: the expression of Christ by the Holy Spirit in a sevenfold characterization. They are before the throne. It is the throne that is here in action. Let us keep that in mind. It is a throne that has come into action here by the Holy Spirit in relation to the fullness of Christ in all the main features of His character.
The picture is quite simple, even through the intricate symbolism. The throne: here is the seat of God. The ministry of the Spirit is sevenfold—what the Spirit saith to the churches. Notice that seven times: “What the Spirit saith.”
The Spirit is saying as from, or before, the throne of government. What He is saying is that this One Who is brought into view is this, and is that, and is that—seven major characteristics of Christ. Christ is there; the throne of government stands by that. The Spirit challenges concerning them.
In fact, seven lamps of fire, which are the seven Spirits of God: it is what that throne is looking for, requires, and demands. So that the ministry relates to those divine features which are the features of the Son of Man.
We cannot hurry on, much as we want to. We are brought up short by that title at once: “One like unto a Son of Man.”
The margin corrects it, because the same writer wrote in the Gospel, John 1:51, and there you cannot mistake it. That is, “the Son of Man.” Jesus said to Nathanael:
Hereafter ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
And so it is here, this One presented. Does it not impress you, dear friends? I hope I am not wearying you with too much detail. Does it not impress you when you read this description of the Lord? Look at this description in all its details, and then hear what He says about Himself.
Does it not impress you that this One is described as the Son of Man? Why, you would expect, of all places in the Bible, that here you should find “the Son of God.” He is the Son of God, but that is not what He is called here in this particular connection. The Son of Man.
What does that mean? It is a title which comprises, firstly, God’s original first thought as to this special creation called man.
God said, “Let Us make man.” He was doing a new thing. He was embarking upon a particular kind of creature, a special creation. In so doing, He had a thought bound up with that—or large thoughts bound up with mankind.
“Son of Man” embraces that thought of God originally concerning man.
It embraces, in the case of the Lord Jesus, God’s loss as to His purpose and desire concerning man. God lost—oh, when man departed from the way of God, God lost in that man what He had intended.
In the Son of Man, that is taken up: God’s loss, that of which God has been deprived by man’s sin and wilfulness and Satan’s interference.
But this term also embodies God’s redemption of man. Son of Man—that is related to God’s redemption of man, and to all of that which He had lost.
Further, Son of Man includes the divine perfection of the man which God made. We are getting very near to the vision now, are we not?
Finally, Son of Man, as relating to the Lord Jesus, is God’s model for all His further activities where man is concerned.
There you have the fivefold component of this title, Son of Man. Now you know what the Lord is after—what the church and the churches are intended to be in the mind of God.
What God is seeking, what the Son of Man is seeking, what the Holy Spirit in His sevenfold activity is seeking, is one thing: correspondence to the Son of Man.
That that Son of Man shall be found repeated in character in all men. The churches are chosen for that. Seven lamps of fire: they reveal how far that is true and how far that is not true. They test everything on that ground.
Does this answer to what Christ is like, to what the Son of Man is like? Having found the answer, He judges accordingly. That is the question: to illumine and search, to discriminate between what is Christ and what is not Christ, to purge, if it may be, from all that is not Christ, and to establish what is. That is the sum of these three chapters.
Lamp one—the first aspect of Christ with which we are met, the ground of the Holy Spirit’s searching activity. What is it? A garment down to the foot.
A garment down to the foot. This is not the priestly robe, and this is not the kingly robe. This is just a garment. It does not describe the whole; it simply states that He was clothed, and with a garment down to the foot.
He was truly and fully clothed—wholly clothed.
You remember that the very first effect of man’s sin was the consciousness of nakedness. It was sin that brought about that consciousness. We are told precisely: immediately man had sinned, they knew that they were naked.
Their consciousness was changed because their nature was changed. The changed nature was first marked by a sense of shame.
You notice that the very first genuine work of the Holy Spirit toward redemption and recovery is to produce a sense of shame. I am afraid many supposed, professed conversions lack that, or lack it sufficiently. But any true, genuine work of the Holy Spirit begins there: to cover our feet—consciousness of our undone-ness, of what the Bible means by nakedness in the sight of God.
Look here, Revelation 3:17:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
Few more terrible judgments could be passed upon anybody than that. You have no sense of need or of shame. You have no consciousness of how you really stand before the eyes that are a flame of fire. You think you are all right. You think you are covered.
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich;
and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest.
This is symbolic language relating to spiritual truth.
God immediately proceeded to make clothing to cover man—to put away from His own sight man’s sin.
Now you come to the Son of Man, the last Adam. Here He is clothed down to the foot. He, in other words, has a high and keen sensitivity of what is fitting to the presence of God.
Do you not feel that searching? In so many instances and matters in these churches, that was just the trouble. They had not that true sense, that fine sense, of what is suitable to God—what is right for God, what becomes God.
You can put all sorts of things forward, but no, no. This one thing was so often missing.
Now this is capable of very wide and manifold application. Clothes are usually the expression of the person who wears them. Untidy clothes and brushed clothes, careless clothing, portray the person. We could go over that whole ground, could we not? A searching word for the whole question of clothing, or not clothing, in these days before God.
But here the symbolism is spiritual. It is spiritual. It is what we are in ourselves before God, as producing shame—self-abasement.
But then, thank God, what the Son of Man has secured and provided for us is a garment of righteousness, that we can stand in the presence of God.
I said to you a little while ago, friends, that you could crowd into every one of these fragments a mass of the Bible. Into that one word, “clothed,” you could crowd the whole of the letter to the Romans, and again the letter to the Galatians, and much more.
It is this question of the righteousness which is through faith in Jesus Christ—the righteousness of God. It is the righteousness of God given to us in Christ, the Son of Man.
You see what a large realm that opens up. How do we stand before God? Are we projecting ourselves before God? Are we standing as before the Lord, amongst His people, or alone, or anywhere in this world, and obtruding our natural life in any form upon the eyes and consciousness of those around?
Not only that, the rest—even in our religion and even in our spirituality—making the impression of meekness or whatnot, and behind it is the impression of ourselves. Oh, no.
We are right at the beginning, the foundation of everything here. What is our standing before God? What is our standing before our brethren? Our standing at all can only be what we are in Christ.
It must never be anything other than that: what we are in Christ; what Christ has been made unto us as wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Put off the old man.” The figure there, quite clearly, in the original language, is that of garments: one garment being put off and another being put on. You put off that garment of the old man, and you put on Christ—another garment, another clothing.
The first challenge of the Holy Spirit is this: how much of you, of us, is appearing? What we are, making an impression. God save us from wanting to make an impression—for being outstanding and singular and different, in order to register something that brings us into view. The Lord have mercy on us.
It is Christ—our clothing, the only fitness, seemliness, for the presence of God.
Believe me, dear friends, the ultimate question of all these searchings is the presence of God—standing in the presence of God, that you may stand before the presence of God.
We cannot do that in our natural condition, because that is nakedness and shame. You know how much the New Testament says about this matter: when we appear before Him, and when He appears, whether we shall be naked before Him in that day.
Again, it is a symbolic word, but how certain it is. How blessed it is. How it will drive us again to our most blessed of all blessings: clothing, a righteousness that is not our own, but the righteousness of Christ through faith in Jesus Christ.
But I say again, it deals with all this—every aspect of ourselves coming into the picture. The Spirit, as a lamp of fire, exposes and determines.
I close at this point, for the time being, with this: the Lord lead us to seek more and more that we may have this fine sense of what is proper to God.
You will see what that means in the natural, coming to the presence of a person of honour. I remember reading of the seer of Chelsea, Carlyle, going on a visit to Queen Victoria and being hotly watched.
The philosopher and the recluse never bothered about how he dressed, and he appeared most shabbily at the palace—most shabbily. What a scandal it was to Queen Victoria. She never got over it.
All his philosophy, and all his genius, and everything else went for nothing. The man had not any sense of what is fitting for the presence of a queen.
Well, that is only a sidelight. It works like that in the natural. But how much more for the Lord! When we come together, what is fitting for the presence of the Lord?
We would always be in His presence. May the Spirit check us up continually on that which is not suitable to abiding in the presence of the Lord, and say, “Now, that is not consistent with the Lord. You will have to change your clothes a bit in this matter.” See what I mean?
Well, is that practical? Is that just teaching again, a subject? I think, beloved, very little could be more searching than that.
The Lord lead us to this same quest as is in His own heart. For, on this matter, remember, He puts on the one side the highest value, and on the other side the most searching denunciation.
Listen to Him with the Pharisees. Their fine clothes, their garments, their pretty consistency, their outward adornment—He saw right through for their nakedness.
Oh, how scathing toward hypocrisy, pretence! God save us. God save us. No, that will not do.
But here is a blessing for those who will seek continually to cultivate that sense of what really belongs to the Lord—the honour of the Lord.
The Old Testament exhortation comes back to us with new force:
Worship the Lord in holy array.