Revelation 1:12-18
And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands;
and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like unto a Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded 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 became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
Revelation 2:1-4
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, He that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:
I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false;
and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
Revelation 3:14-17
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God:
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of My mouth.
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.
Lord, we do want to thank Thee for gathering us together this morning. We have read Thy Word, and now we just look to Thy Holy Spirit to reveal Thy Word in us.
Bring us into oneness with Thy living Word. O may Thy Word really become life and spirit to us.
May Thy life shine upon us and reveal all that Thou hast seen in us, that we may truly humble ourselves and repent before Thee.
We praise and thank Thee because Thou art the God of grace, and Thy grace and Thy mercy endure forever.
We ask in the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I hope everybody knows by now what is the theme of this conference.
I ask this question because I feel that, even though we may know the letters, whether we have really entered into the spirit of the theme is another matter.
It is on the recovery of the testimony of Christ.
We have said before that this is not just a thing for us to consider. We believe that this is a truth, a reality. It is something that we have to take to heart and, by the grace of God and by His Holy Spirit, be led into the recovery of the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The apostle John was one who was closest to our Lord Jesus. He knew the Lord, in a sense, more than anybody else on earth. We can say that he was one who really knew the Lord.
But there you find him exiled on the island of Patmos for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day, he was in the Spirit, and then he saw a vision. It was the vision of our Lord Jesus—the revelation of our Lord Jesus.
Yet you find that it was a vision of our Lord that he had never seen before. There is always something more in our Lord Jesus than we know.
No matter how much you think you know our Lord Jesus, you will discover that He is far, far more than you really know. He is infinite.
There the apostle John saw something of our Lord that he had never known before.
John saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands One like unto a Son of man.
Now, we all know that the seven lampstands stand for the seven churches in Asia, because this mystery is explained to us in Revelation 1:20.
The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven lampstands are seven churches.
In the midst of the seven lampstands John saw One like unto a Son of man. As a matter of fact, the seven golden lampstands serve as the background, and the One who stood in the midst of the seven golden lampstands is in the foreground.
The church is only a background to Christ Jesus. We cannot just see the church and not see Christ. If there is no Christ, there is no church. But when you really see Christ, you see the church, because the church is the background of our Lord Jesus.
There he saw our Lord Jesus in His tenfold glory.
He was One like unto a Son of man. We know that the Son of man is a term that our Lord Jesus used frequently while He was in the flesh, and He was One who was well known to the apostle John.
But somehow He looked a little bit different. So John said He looked like a Son of man.
John knew the Lord Jesus so well when He was in the days of His humiliation. But now the Lord is in glory. So he found that He looked like the Son of man that he knew, and yet he found that it was so very different, because He was no longer in the day of His humiliation. He is now in glory.
John found that this Son of man was clothed with a garment reaching to the feet. Now, garment in Scripture always represents righteousness. So here we find Christ as our righteousness, and His righteousness is a perfect, full righteousness.
On the other hand, we find that the priests who served in the temple wore long garments. So our Lord Jesus here is the One who is righteousness itself, and also He is our great High Priest.
What is the Lord doing today in heaven?
I remember there was a story of an elderly sister who wanted to be baptized. She was being questioned by the elders, and one of the elders asked this question: “What is the Lord doing in heaven?”
She answered, “He looks down from heaven and finds fault with me.”
I do not know whether she passed or not.
Now, what is our Lord Jesus doing today? When we read the book of Hebrews, we discover a living truth: our Lord Jesus is our High Priest. He liveth forever, making intercession for us.
We can be Christians today. We can live a Christian life. It is all because He is our great High Priest.
How our Lord Jesus serves us every moment of the day! How He serves us with all that He has accomplished while He was on earth. We cannot live a Christian life without knowing that our Lord Jesus is our High Priest.
His ministry in heaven is as important as His ministry on earth.
But when you read the book of Revelation, you find another aspect of His being the great High Priest. It is not just to individual believers. Of course, we need Him as our High Priest every day, and we are receiving His ministry day by day.
But sometimes we forget that, while He is in heaven as the great High Priest, He is actually ministering in the true tabernacle. In other words, He is there ministering to the church.
John, at that time, was in exile. He was unable to minister to these churches in Asia.
Most likely, on the Lord’s Day, he might have been sitting on a rock and looking over the sea. He could faintly see the outline of Asia Minor. He was thinking of these churches to which he had ministered before he was exiled.
He wondered, “What will be the condition of these churches?” He was burdened with them. He might be taken away from these churches that he loved.
But there is one great High Priest who is ministering to the seven golden lampstands unceasingly.
We know that our Lord Jesus is in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. He never leaves His beloved church. He is always there, interceding and ministering.
He was girded about at the breasts with a golden girdle. We know that in the old days, especially when you wore a long garment, when you wanted to do some work, you had to use a girdle to bring up that long garment. Otherwise, it would interfere with your working.
But, strangely, you find this girdle is not around His waist. You find that His golden girdle is over His breast.
In other words, that shows us that the work of redemption which He has accomplished is already finished. But the same spirit of love is over Him.
He girded Himself and served people while on earth, and now in heaven He is still girded. On the basis of His accomplished work, He is ministering to His church.
His head and His hair were white like white wool, as snow. White hair usually represents wisdom. But, so far as human beings are concerned, it may not be true. You may see white hair and find that he is a fool.
But with our Lord Jesus, you find that He is full of wisdom. As a matter of fact, He is wisdom itself. When you read the book of Proverbs, you find wisdom personified, and that is none other than our Lord Jesus.
His eyes were as a flame of fire. In other words, He has such sight.
You remember when Simon was first led into the presence of Jesus. You know what happened? The Bible says the Lord Jesus looked at him all over—perhaps from his head to his feet. This look closed the mouth of Simon.
Simon was a very talkative person. That was his human nature. But when our Lord looked at him, he was speechless, because our Lord Jesus does not look at appearance. The Lord looks into the very heart.
Not only did the Lord look at Simon and know what he was at the time when he met the Lord, but the Lord also knew what he was going to be—not only his past and his present, but also his future.
There is nothing that is not naked before the eyes of our Lord Jesus. We may hide ourselves from the sight of man, but before the Lord all things are naked.
Then you find His feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace. Brass in Scripture always represents judgment.
You remember the altar of sacrifice in the temple. It was made of brass, because brass in Scripture represents judgment.
What our Lord Jesus sees, He judges. His judgment is not according to appearance. He judges as God judges. He judges the right judgment because He sees everything through and through.
You cannot judge until you see rightly. Our judgment is so undependable, but His judgment is according to righteousness.
His voice is as the voice of many waters. It means how majestic His voice is, how powerful He is.
He has in His right hand seven stars, and that shows us that the messengers of the seven lampstands—the messengers of the seven churches—are in His right hand.
The right hand is the hand of might, power, and responsibility. So all the people who are responsible for the churches are in the right hand of our Lord Jesus. He not only holds them responsible, but He supplies them with all their needs.
Out of His mouth goes forth a sharp two-edged sword. The two-edged sword represents the living and operative Word of God. It penetrates and divides the soul and the spirit, and exposes all the thoughts and intents of the heart.
His countenance is as the sun shining in His glory. In other words, you find all the beauty of our Lord Jesus there.
This is the Patmos vision that John saw. He saw something of our Lord Jesus that he had never seen before.
He realized for the first time that our Lord Jesus in heaven is the High Priest ministering to His own church. This was a new revelation to the apostle John. He saw the Lord Jesus as the great High Priest over His own sanctuary.
Our Lord Jesus is ministering to His churches. But, dear brothers and sisters, when we think of ministry, probably our first thought is that He is supplying every need.
But ministry, in the right sense, does not begin with supplying the need. You cannot minister without first judgment. If you cannot discern, if you cannot distinguish, how can you supply?
In the ministry of our Lord Jesus, there is an element of judgment which we usually neglect. We think of One who ministers to us as One who pats our shoulder and says, “Everything is all right.” That would be deceiving.
Our Lord Jesus is so true and faithful. Here you find a picture of our Lord Jesus in His ministry, and yet the description that you see is the One who judges.
He is qualified to judge. He discerns everything. What He sees, He judges; and what He judges, He supplies. Therefore, His supply is never failing.
Do you think that our Lord Jesus will not judge us? Thank God, He was judged on the cross in our stead. The judgment of the great white throne is over. The judgment of eternal life or eternal death is already decided.
He was judged and delivered us from that great judgment. Now we are His beloved. Do you think that because we are His beloved, He will never judge us again?
If we are not disciplined, we are not loved. He is as a father who chastises his son. So, brothers and sisters, there is an element of judgment that we have to receive.
Today, among God’s people, we do not like to hear the word judgment. We say that the judgment is already over. But, dear brothers and sisters, whom the Father loves, He chastises.
Put it another way: He is judging us for a positive reason. It is child training. It is very positive.
He disciplines in order to bring us into His glory. Without discipline, we will never grow up. We will remain as babes in Christ.
But God wants sons. You cannot be a son until you are disciplined. Through discipline, we grow up.
The same thing is true with the church. Our Lord Jesus today is judging His own church.
For the time is come for judgment to begin at the house of God.
—1 Peter 4:17
When the apostle Peter wrote this first epistle, he already told us that the time of judgment had begun first in the house of God. We believe that this judgment has already begun, because this is what you see in the Patmos vision. He judges that He may perfect.
We mentioned before that when we turn to the book of Acts, we see how gloriously the church began on earth.
The Holy Spirit came down from heaven and filled the whole house. All the one hundred and twenty were baptized in one Spirit into one body, and they all testified and witnessed to the Lord.
You remember how the rumor went out, and many people in Jerusalem began to gather together. We believe it could not have been in that upper room, because it could not accommodate so many people. Probably they moved to Solomon’s Porch, and the people really gathered around.
Peter stood up with the eleven, and there you find how Peter preached the first gospel message. What did he declare?
He said that what you see and hear proves one thing: it proves that the One whom you crucified has been crowned as Lord and Christ.
Because of this message—this witnessing and testifying to the testimony of Jesus—three thousand people were converted and baptized.
The early church was so glorious. They were all together. They broke bread together, and they prayed together. They were all delivered from self-possessiveness.
You know, self-possessiveness is an instinct in human nature. Even little children show it. A child has a toy, and with his little friends they are sharing. Then suddenly he says, “Well, this is mine.”
Who can deliver us from self-possessiveness except the Lord Himself? Something happened, and they lived together in love and holiness. The Holy Spirit was so evident in their midst.
It had a glorious beginning. But, dear brothers and sisters, that does not mean there were no problems.
The enemy of God hated to see the church maintaining the testimony of Jesus, because he knows that the testimony of Jesus, which the church bears, will be his downfall.
So he will try every means to pull down the church, that it may not be able to bear the testimony of Jesus. That will, in turn, delay the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
Unfortunately, you cannot blame everything on Satan. On the other hand, you find in our fallen nature something that always responds to the temptation of Satan.
Unless we allow the cross of Christ to work in our lives, to put the self-life to death and allow the life of Christ in us to be manifested, you will find there is always a fifth columnist in you. You are allied with the enemy.
Because of these two sides, you find that even in the early church the enemy tried to slip in, tempt the old man in us, and destroy the testimony.
When you see the first four chapters of the book of Acts, you find everything was so glorious. The early church at that time was able to fulfill her mission.
What was their mission? Their mission was to bear the testimony of Jesus. They were not there to proclaim themselves. They were there to proclaim the Lord Jesus and Him crucified.
They were there to declare that our Lord Jesus is truly the Lord of all. He is the first and the last. He is the Living One. He became dead, but He lives forever and ever. How gloriously they fulfilled their responsibility.
But when you come to Acts 5, you find that many brothers and sisters had come from the Passover. Jews were coming from all corners of the world because three times a year they had to come to the temple.
After they were saved, they came into such a wonderful life together that they would not return home. That is the reason why those who had properties in Jerusalem not only opened their homes to all the brothers and sisters, but also sold their property so that those who remained might have food.
Then you find a couple. They saw other brothers and sisters selling their properties and laying the money at the feet of the apostles so that the poor ones might be supported.
But instead of seeing this, they saw that those who did it were praised by people. Something from the enemy entered their hearts. They wanted to get the praise, so they sold their property, secretly held back part of it, and gave the rest to Peter.
They deceived the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit at that time was so prevailing that immediately Peter, by the Holy Spirit, knew what was happening.
You know the result. I often say, in the church there are always problems. The problems are not problems if they can be solved rightly; they become a blessing. If you cannot solve them, then they really become a problem.
Not only in Acts 5, but look into Acts 6. At that time there were so many gathered in Jerusalem. Some were Hebrew Jews—that is, Hebrews dwelling in the promised land—and there were Hellenistic Jews who lived in foreign countries and had come over for Pentecost.
There were many widows, too, because life was very hard during that time. The church tried to supply the needs of these widows.
But unfortunately, those who did the supplying were Hebrew Jews. So the widows from the Hebrew Jews were fully supplied. Initially, they did not know much about the Hellenistic Jews, so their widows were neglected.
It was not intentional. It shows that human beings are so limited.
There was murmuring. You know, as murmuring begins to grow, the right consequence is rebellion.
But thank God, the Holy Spirit was so prominent. Immediately the apostles realized their weakness, and they opened it up to the brothers and sisters. They told them to choose seven men to take care of the food.
Thank God, of the seven persons chosen, perhaps not one was a Hebrew Jew. They chose all those who came from the Hellenistic Jews.
There was no jealousy. There was confidence and faith. The problem was solved, and the church prospered.
Go to Acts 8, and you find Philip was greatly used by God in Samaria. Many came to the Lord, and even Simon the magician came to the Lord.
But you remember the story. When Peter and John came to Samaria, they laid hands on these believers, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Why was it so? Because the Samaritans and the Jews had nothing to do with each other. If the Holy Spirit had come upon the Samaritans separately, then you would have had a separate church.
But in one Spirit we were baptized into one body—neither Jew nor Gentile. So the Holy Spirit withheld Himself purposely until people from Jerusalem came and laid hands on them.
The laying on of hands means identification. We are no longer Jews nor Gentiles; we are one in Christ, and they were baptized into that one body.
Thank God, you find how the Lord solved the problem and how the church overcame.
When you come to Acts 15, you find a bigger problem. There were the Judaizers. They had been devout Jews before, and now they believed in the Lord Jesus. But somehow the past still had a hold upon them.
They said, “You Gentiles should not only believe in the Lord Jesus; you have to be circumcised. You have to keep the law. Otherwise, you are not saved.”
There was such great controversy, and you find that council in Jerusalem in Acts 15. Thank God, God overruled and solved the problem.
But though it was solved, you find this problem continued throughout the ministry of the apostle Paul. These Judaizers followed him and added trouble to him.
So you find that even in the first thirty-three years of the history of the church, it was glorious, but it did not mean there were no problems. Thank God, most of the problems were rightly solved.
Now you come to Revelation. My brother’s responsibility is church history, so I will leave that with him. My burden is the causes of the decline.
If we want to find the causes of decline, Revelation 1, 2, and 3 are the best place to find them.
First of all, I would like to ask a question: What do you mean by decline?
When we say the church has fallen, when we say the church has gone downward, what do we mean by that? How do you measure this matter of decline?
When you see people beginning to get smaller and smaller, do you say that is going downward? When you have thousands of people, do you judge success and failure by outward numbers?
How do you judge a church that declines or a church that grows? You do not judge it by anything that you know, because our judgment is never accurate.
We do not have those eyes like burning fire. Man looks at appearance, but God looks upon the heart. Our judgment is never right.
But there is One who has the authority to judge, and He has a measurement by which to measure our fall or our growth.
To put it very simply, what do you mean by growth, and what do you mean by decline? When the church grows, by what measurement do you measure it? When a church declines, by what measurement do you measure it?
This is why, in the first chapter, you find the vision of our Lord Jesus—the revelation of Jesus Christ. That constitutes His testimony.
A failure of the church is judged by the vision of the testimony of Jesus. The vision you find in Revelation 1 is the measurement of the growth or decline of the church.
This is our only measurement. This is the golden rod. This is the measurement of the sanctuary.
That is the reason why, in every letter that our Lord Jesus wrote to the seven churches, He always revealed a part of Himself to them at the beginning of the letter.
When you put the seven churches together, then you find the full revelation of our Lord Jesus. That is the testimony of Jesus. That is the testimony that has been committed to the church.
The church does not exist for itself. The church exists for Christ. Unless it can fulfill the testimony of Jesus, it fails.
That is the criterion.
Brothers and sisters, that is the reason why in every letter our Lord reveals Himself in part. He takes the whole church for the full revelation of Jesus Christ.
The church is responsible for what is revealed to it of Christ Jesus. This is our responsibility.
May we be delivered from all human measurements, and let us all be measured by the measurement of God.
With this standard established, then you can discover the causes of decline.
In the church in Ephesus, if you judge by outward works, the Lord Jesus said, “I know thy works, and thy toil, and thou canst not bear evil men. Thou hast tried them who call themselves apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars. Thou hast endurance, and hast borne for My name’s sake, and hast not grown weary.”
Here you find a church in Ephesus. They had labor. They had works. They had the knowledge to distinguish whether one was a true apostle or not. They would not allow evil in their midst.
You find they had everything good. If we could find a church as good as that, we would praise the Lord—and praise ourselves.
But, brothers and sisters, the Lord does not look upon these things. We care for activities. We care for appearance. We care for numbers. We care for knowledge. But these things do not measure the decline or growth of the church.
Our Lord Jesus looks into the heart. In spite of all that, the Lord Jesus says, “I have this against thee.” It is a strong word.
Because you have lost your first love.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord never looks at appearance, activities, numbers, or knowledge. He looks at the heart. Is there first love? Is there the spring of all outbursting?
If the spring is not there, everything is pretense. The Lord hates pretense.
What is the cause of decline? The losing of first love.
It is true: when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, I can recall my own little experience. I was under the burden of sin for a whole year, and then the Lord delivered me. I was so grateful, and I wanted to give everything to the Lord.
It was as if nothing was too hard to give up, because He had won my heart.
But then we begin to consider our environment and consider other people. We begin to be conformed to other people.
Our life with the Lord is no longer so absolute. We do not spend time with Him. We do not enjoy His presence. We may still read the Bible, but it is out of duty. There is not an inward enjoyment.
Brothers and sisters, how easy it is for us to lose first love.
First love is not confined to the first time you believe in the Lord Jesus. First love is love of first quality.
It is like a chaste virgin whose heart is fully occupied with her future husband. She prepares herself. She does not live for herself; she lives for her future husband.
First love is seeing the Lord with a single eye. We do not have evil eyes, double eyes, or a double mind.
The Lord is truly our first and our last. He is the Living One. He is my life. He died for me, but He lives forevermore, and He holds the keys of death.
Is the church maintaining that Person? If the church maintains its first love, then it maintains the testimony of Jesus.
F. B. Meyer said, “If I am not the Lord of all, I am not Lord at all.”
That is personal. Brothers and sisters, this is how we find the church beginning to decline. The church may maintain the outward appearance. It may seem to have all this so-called biblical knowledge. The church can do many commendable works.
But where is the first love?
Without going through every church, let us go to the last one. We often say that Laodicea is the fallen state from Philadelphia.
The church in Philadelphia has the testimony of Jesus. But when you come to Laodicea, everything outward remains, but there is nothing inside. You are neither hot nor cold.
The problem is spiritual pride.
God has blessed much. By the grace of God, they entered into much of the truth of God. They may still keep the Word and deny not the name of the Lord.
They have a glorious past, but they live on tradition. Unfortunately, they are proud of themselves.
Before a fall, there is pride.
So, brothers and sisters, we find that unfortunately, throughout the centuries, we keep the outward things and lose the inward reality.
Do you think we need judgment? Will we surrender under the judgment of Christ? Submit yourselves under the judgment of Christ, and in due time He will raise us up.
Thank God, we may fail, but the testimony of Jesus never fails.
Dear Lord, as we come under Thy judgment and Thou lookest upon us, Thou hast revealed to us the root of our decline.
Have mercy upon us. Restore us to that first love, that Thou mayest be everything to us, that we may lay all at Thy feet.
Deliver us from so-called spiritual pride, that we may be meek and lowly as Thou art.
Finally, we ask in Thy name.