The Message to the Church in
By B. W. Newton.
(This
article was originally printed in the '
This
passage stands in marked contrast with the address to the Church in
But
that which chiefly marked the distinctive character of this Church was, that
they had kept the word of His endurance. They had regarded Christs directions and not
despised His words, and that will ever be found to be a path of endurance. Were
I to say to you those paths will be very difficult to
walk in; you will find many things to which you naturally cleave must be given
up; many friendships and associations, etc. will have to be broken; many
sacrifices made; you had better yield to circumstances and become acquiescent. Do not seek to maintain too steadfast a
testimony for Truth, but give way, for it will cost you too much faithfully to
adhere to it: spare thyself; do not for the sake of a truth which does not seem
a very important truth, or that practice which does not seem a very important
practice, do not for the sake of it incur detriment to thyself. Now suppose I addressed you so, that would not
be the word of Christs endurance; that would
not be teaching you to endure; but on the contrary to give way,
feeling it would be too great a sacrifice of things deemed desirable here.
But
suppose I were to say the reverse: suppose I said hold fast these things; buy
the Truth and sell it not; keep it with a tenacious grip; compromise it not
either by thy words or by anything thou doest; and if thou hast to give up
things in consequence, well, give them up; bear what is to be borne; let the
yoke rest on thee, those would be words of patient
endurance. And the
Philadelphians had done this: they had not tried to make Christian Truth
flexible, to be bent by circumstances like a rule of lead; but they had striven
to make circumstances conform themselves to it as a golden rule: therefore, as
a reward, they were given the promise of being kept
from the great coming hour of temptation; the hour of Satanic delusion!*
[* Here
is proof of selective rapture. Compare
this passage in Revelation 3: 10 with Luke 21: 34-36: Take heed
to yourselves, lest haply your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and
drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you suddenly as a
snare: for so shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of all the
earth. But watch ye at every season, making supplication,
that ye may prevail to escape all these
things shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
R.V.
The
people of God today need to get their act together and take an interest in
Bible prophecy in these evil days of apathy and apostasy. For the things revealed concerning the Great
Tribulation at the end of this evil age, are neared now than they have ever
been; and consequently regenerate believers should be intensely concerned to
rightly understand and interpret the warnings and prophecies of Holy Scripture:
and you do not have to be what the world calls academic
quality to understand conditional promises and prophetic scriptures. How foolish it is to disregard Gods truths as
unimportant! The Holy Spirit will lead
us into all truth: and He begins by making a distinction between what we get as
a Reward from what we receive, (by grace
through faith in Christ Jesus) as a free gift
(Rom. 6: 23).]
Now,
though those to whom this was first addressed have been removed, these same
features may be found in others, and whenever God sees this same character of endurance, He would recognise a Philadelphian so to
speak, and to such, this promise in all its certainty shall remain. Scattered they may be and few,* but they shall
be regarded as successors in the place of blessing that the Philadelphians were
then ostensibly holding. So we must not
suppose that these promises have lost their practical power. God does not look at them as dependent on
outward circumstances, but He looks to see where the same characteristics are
rooted in the heart; and wherever they are, He says There exists the family
which I have promised to protect and preserve.
[* Many
are called, but few are chosen.]
Great
indeed is this promise of protection, and the blessings are two-fold: those
which are granted here and those which are granted above. If Christ speaks of final blessing to be known
in the New Jerusalem - the City of God - He also speaks of a present blessing
here; of having the Key of David, and of being
able as a Steward to open all the resources of the palace of the Great King! When the hour comes for the glory of God to be
displayed, this is one of the great offices Christ will hold visibly and
manifestly to
Now
this was an instance of the way Christ was able to unlock and supply
everything. It is not limited; so that
whatever faith asks wisely according to the mind of God, that He says I can do.
Is not this a rich and great blessing in
an hour when Satan is to be allowed to open other doors, to give access to his
resources? Glorious, resplendent indeed,
will that hour be with everything in which nature glories. Satan could shew all the glory of the world in
a moment, therefore he has his resources. And we know what is to be the end thereof! Yet that is what civilised humanity is about
to come to, when men will rejoice for a season, but perish for ever!
So, if we expect that tribulation to
come, when there will be a dearth, not of bread but of hearing the Word of the Lord; when it will be a sealed book (Isaiah 29); we see the blessing of this promise
that, in that day the door should remain open before all those who have
Philadelphian faith! But it is connected
with practical grace. To him that hath shall more be
given, and where this practical grace is found, God is able to meet it
with multiplied grace. So always
remember the connection between practical grace and the increase of practical
blessing.
Then
in verse 9, another promise is given. How continually do we see the effort of Satan
to bring into contrast with that which is really of the Spirit of Christ and of
His Truth, that which assumes to belong to Christ because of ceremonial
ordinances and outward ritually-defined position! We can easily understand how it would be so. There had been a ritual order established by
God religiously among the Jews of old by means of appointed ceremonies, as also
there is a governmental order established in the world by God under Kings,
governors, magistrates etc. (It may be a Nero, but if in the place of
authority, we must bow to him as having the authority of God. God may displace him, but it is not for us to
raise the hand against him).
Now,
whilst that principle is introduced by God into the government of the world,
has He introduced it into the government of His Church? The corruptions of Christianity have said Yes, whenever you see a person outwardly appointed, there is
to be recognised the real authority of God; the real power of the Spirit of God!
But it is not so. In the Church of God grace and spiritual gifts'
are always needful even in such a matter as being elders of a local Church. Even the apostles never thought of creating
those who should be capable of ministering to the
They shall come and worship before thy feet and know that I
have loved thee. How, and in
what way this will be performed it is not for us to say. Christ says that so it shall be; therefore,
those who have maintained these Philadelphian principles will be acknowledged
as loved ones; the synagogue of Christ - a
congregation of blessing - when others
will be marked as being the synagogue of Satan!
Verse 11. See the importance that is
attached in these addresses to the Churches to holding
fast, because it is the reverse
that is now seen in the professing Church. It is the special characteristic of the overcomers, and we find here an exhortation given. Exhortation is often made the means of
causing those developments of grace in the saints of God which He, in the
purpose of His own grace, intends there should be in them. Hold fast that which thou hast
is a necessary warning to us all.
We
have to consider what it is that we have received from God -what instruction,
what doctrine, what practice, what truth in any sense - and then keep fast hold
of it and not let it go. We always have
to remind ourselves of the things we have received lest they should slip from
us. It is wonderful how things
which we thoroughly know are often allowed to evaporate from our hearts! We sometimes see in outward things a substance
vanish, when touched by another substance that science brings near to it; and
thus, Satan by his skilful hand is able to bring something that eliminates some
of the most precious things which our souls have known: so what need we have of
watchfulness!
Observe
the definition of the word overcome in verses 10, 11 and chapter
16. It is made dependent on holding fast. Persons
who hold fast are overcomers. Those in the professing Church who fall away - who do not continue to the end - let the
treasure go; they let it slip from their grasp; Satan snatches it from them, or earthly things cause them to
relax their hold.
No
doubt in these Philadelphians there was a humble not a proud consciousness of
this holding fast. They clearly valued what they had received
from Christ. They were like Levites to
whom the boards and curtains and vessels of the Tabernacle were committed. It was a happy service in a waste howling
wilderness to be entrusted with the care of the holy Tabernacle of God. There was not a socket that was not borne
along by their means as well as the
And so with Gods Truth. It is a holy harmonious combination which we
have to bear along for the blessing of our own souls and the souls of others;
thus we shall be likely to hold that Truth fast. But suppose we turned from it to something not
connected with Truth at all, then most likely some of its precious things would
be forgotten! It is very important for
the soul to remember Pauls injunction to Timothy with respect to the care of
Christs Truth, Meditate on these things: give thyself
wholly to them.
Then as to the future (v 12). There is a certain adaptation in the encouragements
which God gives to the practical apprehension of the souls to whom they are
spoken; and this is of great importance to those who desire to be strengthened
and comforted by them. Not that all the
promises will not be given finally to all saints, but God cannot always use
them as a practical stimulus to hearts, because they do not all appreciate
them, so we find what we should naturally expect, that the highest promises are
put before persons who have made the highest advance in practical grace. The promise to this Church is Him that overcometh will I
make a pillar in the Temple of My God. The word pillar denotes that which sustains a fabric, and the
Men
have their buildings; their systems; and they know who have been and who are 'pillars' in them, and
they honour them. They are able to point
to this one or that as a support and sustainer of
these buildings, and praise the skill and energy and wisdom to which they feel
indebted. Think e.g. of the Church of
Rome and other wicked systems, whose sustainers are marked with honour. These would be pillars in the temple of
Satan; but God will by-and-bye govern, and there will be certain holy
principles connected with that government and worship, and it is said of the
saints that they shall sustain these! It
is His intention to use His saints in all those things that will by-and-bye
give blessing to the New Creation of God! He could do it without them. He could dispense with them if He pleased,
but, for their sakes, for their honour, for their blessing, He will cause them
to be those on whom things so momentous in their consequences will rest in
order to be sustained; so that indeed believers will feel themselves to be necessary
according to Gods appointment, for the carrying out of things on which the
blessing of all will hang.
There
is no greater happiness perhaps than being employed and being necessary to the
carving out of that, the momentous importance and value of which we well know. If the temporal comfort and happiness only of
a household depended on a certain relation being sustained we should feel it no
doubt a privilege to be the sustainer of anything
that would bring blessing to that household.
Now,
if there be a blessed happy feeling in this, and if we feel it an increased joy
when the things which we sustain are the eternal things of God, so that we are
able even here to be employed about them, what will it be when all the counsels
of God are evolved and manifested, and when we are employed in sustaining them?
And he shall go no more out. We shall not be as we are now, called away to
things which perish in the using, things which
we have to do as earning our bread. We
shall not be called away any more by the necessity of these things. The priests of old might have to go out from
the sanctuary; from its fragrance, from its light: they might have to go away
into the waste howling wilderness where defilement was around them. They might say we
like to remain where the incense is, where the light is burning: we had rather
be sheltered by that than be in the midst of a scene where sorrow is. Still, then it was needful for them to go
there. But an hour is coming when we shall go no more out. All will be encircled by the blessings of
redemption. All will then be enclosed
within the cords of the Tabernacle. All
will be brought within its blessed circumference. All will be shrouded in the canopy of God, so
there will be no need to go out.
Then as to the other blessings. I will write upon him
the NAME of My God, and the Name of the CITY of My God, and I will write upon
him My New Name. Three great
spheres of glory to which believers are to have access! That which pertains to the throne of God; that
which belongs to the heavenly city of the saints: and that which pertains to
Christ as Head of the New Creation of God; to walk within them, to be as it
were at home in them! From none of those
spheres are those who overcome to be excluded! They are to be allowed to enter; to know them;
to contemplate them: to view them as things with which they have fellowship,
because of that being written on them which gives access and title to enter,
and designate, them as belonging there finally!
It
is right our minds should be directed to
these future blessings. Feeble are
even our best thoughts about the things which are reserved to be known
by-and-bye fully! Suppose we were
brought to God and yet had no power to love Him there, to serve Him there. Suppose we felt the glory overwhelming; the
holiness overwhelming; we could not be said to live
there. Or, if we were placed in the
heavenly City and felt unsuited to it, saying we feel
it is a blessing, but it is too high, we cannot feel it is our home,
that would not be fullness of blessing. Or,
if we were brought to see the peculiar
glory of Christ which, when John saw, we read he
fell at His feet as dead. If we
were brought to see that, without
having the same power of life communicated to us, that
too would overwhelm us. But His promise here is, that He will so write on those
who overcome the Name of His Father; the name
of the Heavenly City, and His New Name, that they shall have full power to live
and act in every one of those distinct spheres of glory!
May
we remember these are the heritage of the feeblest that believe: given by Him Who is faithful and true. I beseech you to remember these things are
true because God has said they are true, not because we appreciate and
apprehend them. That will vary according
to our faith and grace and power of apprehension. If we choose to measure what God has said by
our own thoughts, no wonder that our thoughts darken everything; but, if we
remember that His Word is true and faithful, and that He intends we should
credit it so that we may learn to live by faith and not by sight then we shall
find that the true basis for the establishment of our souls comfort is firm
beneath our feet!
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HOLD THAT FAST WHICH THOU HAST
THAT NO MAN TAKE THY CROWN.