Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

by H. J. Vine.

“I Come Quickly: Hold Fast”

Revelation 3:11

The Lord is coming again, and Scripture shows plainly what will mark those who are prepared for that momentous event. Enoch was ready to go when God took him, and Elijah also, in his day, and they were both translated.

Those who are in practical readiness for Christ’s coming have Himself—His Name, and His return immediately before their hearts; they abide true to His word, and assemble together. We have the highest authority for saying this—the Scriptures of Truth.

The coming of the Lord must be near; and just as Scripture foretells, Laodicean lukewarmness as to our Lord Jesus Christ marks the large mass of those who belong to the church by profession. Neither His personal glory nor His love have any true value for them. Great amalgamations are also in swift progress which will lead to greater self-sufficiency and boasting and independence of God and the exclusion of Christ Himself. They will make for the unified confusion and corruption, which will be state-established, which is Babylon, as Revelation 17 shows, before its final fall and doom. The prime movers think mainly of world-serving, and not of serving our Lord who is still world-rejected. It is a fatal snare. Obedience to the revealed mind of God in Scripture is not considered, for its authority has long been undermined for them; therefore the Lord Himself and His own Word are set small store by.

Many, too, whose slackness is so culpable, will be caught in the gathering floods which hasten thitherward. To Lot, as he “pitched his tent toward Sodom,” it looked like the garden of the Lord. Let us take warning and turn away into the secure path, and consider the sure road, divinely marked out for our feet in the last days, the highway for all the saints to tread, so shall we be preserved from gradually drifting towards delusive but doomed Babylon.

The Lord Himself will be before the hearts of all who are loyal to Him. This is the hall-mark of the true assembly. He loved it, and gave Himself for it, and will come again to present it to Himself (Ephesians 5:25-27). He is all to it, but He was crucified and is still rejected by the world. The Object of the heart of the true bride has been refused here. Babylon, which is the false and unfaithful woman, says, “I sit a queen, and I am not a widow.” She is full of self-importance, and has no sense of Christ’s rejection. It is nothing to her. The real have, so His name is everything to them, and they cleave to Himself. His interests are paramount in their thoughts. and they are cheered by His word, “I come quickly, hold fast what thou hast, that no one takes thy crown.” This stimulates them to faithfulness and steadfastness; and they are preserved from losing what they have, and from being deceived by “up-to-date” doctrines and schemes, which can only lead away from Him.

His return is expected by them at any moment. It is immediately before their hearts. Christ is precious to them; for His love, which was shown out at Calvary for them, is no false dream to them. They deeply desire to see His face. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Revelation 22:17). Ecclesiastical and political failure, confusion in the church and the world, only intensifies their longing for His return, knowing that He alone can put things right. They have “a little strength,” but they do not use this in attempts to rectify that which Christ alone can adjust. They cleave to Him. His Name avails for them as they await His coming. The word of His patience is treasured by them. Long has He been refused His rights. Patiently has He waited the Father’s time when all shall own Him as Lord. This they know and value. Before the hour of the great tribulation strikes, the Lord Jesus will take them to Himself at His coming; and He will show to all that He has loved them. This is true of the whole assembly, of course; but we are speaking of those who are practically prepared for the Lord’s return. Till that moment, those described in Revelation 3:8-11 will be here.

Meanwhile they have His own Word, and this they keep. The Scriptures are esteemed as divinely inspired by them; and, through faith in Christ Jesus, they get divine encouragement, comfort, and edification through them. The Spirit teaches them; and it is also through the Scriptures they learn the Word of Christ, which they delight in, and cleave to, even as they do to His Name. This preserves them safe in Christ Jesus amidst the general departure from the truth. His word affords abundant food as well as direction for them, and it is the exhaustless theme of their converse. They become formed by it. Doubtless, some more than others, but all in some degree. Like those spoken of at the close of the Old Testament days, they speak often one to another, as they think upon His Name, upon what He is. They assemble together, and He is the Centre and Object of their gatherings.

It is not a question of coming to hear a preacher or teacher. They have a common interest, a common bond, a common theme and object—Christ Himself; and they edify and encourage one another in Him.

Love of the brethren also characterizes them. That is the meaning of “Philadelphia.” “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.” The Lord Jesus loves them, and this shall be made known (Revelation 3:9). “I have loved thee,” He says; and till He returns He sets before them “an open door, which no one can shut.” This remains. If some complain and murmur and do not avail themselves of it, there is no reason why others should swell their complainings. Let us avail ourselves of the great grace of our Lord, and enter into the positive and abiding things that are ours until He comes, taking full advantage of His unfailing favour.

Granted that this description of those who are in practical readiness for the Lord’s return is scriptural, it remains for us to examine ourselves in God’s presence, to see if we bear these marks; and, if not, it is high time to bestir ourselves, for His coming draws nigh. There is grace abounding for us to draw upon. We have but to feel our need of its supplies, and receive from Him who “gives more grace,” so that we may be in a state that is well pleasing to Him. May we indeed be like unto men that wait for their Lord, and give a glad as well as ready response to His call when He comes.

“I have Loved Thee … I Come Quickly”

Revelation 3:9-11

These words are said by our Lord Jesus Christ, not to men who are prominent in world affairs or who are famous for great learning or successful work, but to His saints who have a “little power,” and who look with eager longing for His return; and who use the power they have to keep His Word, and that in consistency with who and what He is—not denying His Name.

In the prophetic and symbolic book of Revelation the assembly in Philadelphia represents these. Philadelphia means “love of the brethren.” This is always found where God’s love is known, for is it not written, “We love because He first loved us”; and again, “We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren”? If we love Him that begat, we necessarily love those who are begotten of Him. These marks given in the Spirit’s writings through John abide. It is said also of those saints that they keep the word of “Christ’s patience.” They remain true to their absent Lord, unseduced from Him by the world or Satan or any plausible schemes of men who would put the world right without Him. They wait for Him, their quickly coming Saviour, who will take them up to Himself before the clock strikes “the hour” of the great tribulation!

With a word of encouragement and exhortation THE HOLY AND THE TRUE cheers these loved ones: “I come quickly,” He says. “Hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown” (verse 11). There is nothing “adverse” in these words, nor in all that He says to them.

There is nothing spectacular in waiting on and for the Lord; in simply keeping His word and not denying His Name. There is nothing in that that the Daily Press would care to chronicle, and those who are doing this maybe despised for it all, but they need not be dismayed, for their risen Lord says to them, I have set before thee “an opened door which no one can shut,” and the key of David is in His hand. Regal authority belongs to Him. The royal treasures are under His care: the throne of glory, the riches of His Father’s house. He is the great Administrator. He has opened the door for them, and He loves them, and He will keep them till He comes to take them up to be with Him for ever. “I come quickly” He says to such. Even the “Behold” is left out in their case—as though their attention did not need to be arrested by this great truth, because it was already the joy and hope of their heart.

What a solemn contrast we find in Laodicea! Neither cold nor hot! Lukewarm! Nauseate!—about to be spued out! Nevertheless, these Laodiceans are boastful and self-satisfied! Someone has said a great store of truth had come down to them from Philadelphia! God says the opposite!—they are “wretched” and “miserable” and “poor!” The truth cannot be in Laodicea for the truth would have set them free had it been received by them. They possess none of “the excellent spiritual wealth” which would have produced an excellent spiritual condition. They “SAY” they are rich, but the One who cannot lie says they are poor and wretched and miserable. Who tells the truth in this matter? We believe God. There is no hint that Philadelphia will cool down into lukewarm Laodicea. Philadelphia is “kept” by her quickly coming Saviour, but Laodicea is spued out by “the Amen, the faithful and true Witness.”

The condition of Laodiceans is described as “blind and naked.” They are without the anointing which gives sight, and without the white raiment which would cover the shame of their nakedness, without the gold that would make them rich, yet they are boastful, and say they have need of nothing. They can even do without the One who could supply them with the true riches, for He stands outside their door. A true description of that sphere where intellectual attainments are crowned, and the power of the Holy Ghost despised, where “modern” thought is preferred to the Word of God, and where man vaunts himself and Christ has no place at all. On the other hand, although He is about to refuse them altogether, yet He reminds them of the door of repentance, just as He wept over Jerusalem and pleaded with her before her doom overwhelmed her, for He rebukes and disciplines “as many” as He loves (verse 19). If any individual therefore who heard His voice as He stood at the door and knocked, and opened the door to Him, He would grant an individual communion of a personal nature, as He says, “I will come in and sup with him and be with Me” (verse 20). Precious as this character of communion is, it does not suggest the heights of intimacy we read of elsewhere. It is suitable to the condition and relationships in view. It is the same in regard to the overcomer: a part in regard to His throne, when we shall reign with Him, does not indicate such a deep and abiding portion as other Scriptures speak of. Further, in regard to every condition of the assemblies, it is taken for granted that there are those at all times who have ears to hear what the Spirit says to them—to all the assemblies—not to one phase only. This is specially true in regard to the final four, where the hearer is addressed last of all, and not as in the former three, where the last word is said to the overcomer.

The wise man was once moved to write—and with good reason—“Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? For thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). We cannot improve or alter the past, and we may be in glory with Christ tomorrow; wisdom says, Follow that which is good now! and do it earnestly. Christ abides, and He still says, Follow Me. The remnant of Malachi thought upon His Name and ordered their path according to that. Philadelphia keeps the word of His patience, and He keeps her right on to the end, she is true to His Name. And the door is still set open before her, the door of devotion to her Lord and for the maintenance of His testimony. Nowhere does the Word of God say she has “lost her crown,” or that she has “cooled down into lukewarm Laodicea.” If Scripture does not say so, who has authority so to do? Could Ephesus become Corinth? It is equally impossible for Philadelphia to become Laodicea. The two are quite different and remain different till the Lord returns as these addresses to them show.

The Lord Himself is the test, to Philadelphia He is everything: to Laodicea He is nothing. It should be a question of solemn moment to all who bear the Name of the Lord as to which of these two conditions or spheres we move in. It becomes increasingly solemn and momentous as we hear His voice saying, “I come quickly.” It is true that none who are His will be left behind when He comes, but who would care to be dragged out of a state of things wholly obnoxious to the Lord, as Lot was dragged out of Sodom? Would it not be for His pleasure and our joy to have Enoch’s testimony at last—“God had translated him, for before His translation he had the testimony that he had pleased God” (Hebrews 11). The hand that holds the keys of David has opened this door for us and keeps it open, and we may to the very end keep His word and not deny His Name. We may have as our greatest treasure the knowledge of His love that passes all knowledge, and have as our brightest hope His speedy coming again.

“I Have Overcome”

Those who believe on the Son of God have something to overcome. Eternal life is theirs through faith in Him and they can never perish, but there is that which is antagonistic, and it is dangerous to be indifferent in regard to the matter, lest we be overcome instead of being overcomers. In various forms, the Holy Spirit shows us in Scripture, it is the world which has to be overcome.

We have not to look far to see many being overcome by the world, but we may seek rather to learn of the Son how we may be preserved, and in soul-rest with rejoicing, overcome with triumph, notwithstanding the subtle snares of the world-system. The Lord Jesus said, “Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world!”

We must be careful not to mistake what is to be overcome, namely, the world in its moral or immoral character and nature. There is (1) the world as a place, (2) the people in it, (3) the moral world of which we have spoken. As regards the first it is said, “The world was made by Him” and “I came into the world.” The world in this sense is the earth which is “the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” which, when He returns (after taking the assembly up from earth to heaven to be with Himself) He will fill with glory as the waters cover the sea. The second is the people in the world rather than the place, and, it is said God gave His Son in view of their eternal blessedness—“God so loved the world.” God sent His Son “not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” Nevertheless, the world (i.e. the people) knew Him not.

It is not therefore (1) the place, or (2) the people, but rather (3) the moral system which is to be overcome. This it important since well-known religious leaders teach that the world, which the Lord warns us of, is only that portion of it where the faith is not owned. The inspired writings however emphasize the very opposite; and it is said especially to the strong, who have overcome the wicked one, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that does the will of God abides for ever” (1 John 2:15-17). The third therefore is a permeating system of “lust” and “pride,” which spreads everywhere in the race of fallen Adam, showing the nature and character of sin in its diverse subtleties. Thank God, it has been overcome, and it may still be overcome.

THE WORLD IN JUDAISM

Fulfilling the long-foretold coming of the Messiah to suffer, the Lord Jesus appeared primarily to Israel, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” Judaism rejected and crucified Him. Its character and nature were thus exposed. He was “meek and lowly;” lust and pride had captured the Jews’ religion. To its then leaders the Son of God said, “Ye are from beneath; I am from above; ye are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). The world had overcome the place and people where profession of the true God was made. Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, ye would love Me … Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” What a condition for those to be in who said, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man!” This shows how the world deceives its votaries.

The Lord Jesus perceived its snares, and, amidst the Judaism of that day, He found pleasure in always doing what pleased the Father. He said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28). The Son of God found in that fallen dignitary, Satan, His great antagonist; the Father and the Father’s love found the world in opposition; and the Holy Spirit the flesh. We are told that Satan—the prince or “ruler of this world”—is judged (v. 11); nevertheless, as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) he blinds the thoughts of the unbelieving that “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them.” In both a governmental and religious way therefore his activities have the world in view. The Son of God however has brought about his just overthrow, and has also overcome the world in every form. He has kept His Father’s commandments and abode in His love through every trial, yet the world hated Him. They crucified the Lord of Glory. That exposed the awful condition of Judaism. There is however for faith another side to the Saviour’s death—to His going away from the world to the Father—even as He said, “Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world!”

When Jesus said, “I leave the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28), the disciples—to whom He had spoken of the Father’s love—and in whom desires had been awakened as to the Father—replied, “Now we are sure that Thou knowest all things.” That was true, and He forewarned them of the trials which awaited them, adding, “These things I have spoken unto you, that IN ME ye might have peace.” Therefore they were not to be despondent, but to rejoice. In John 17, the words are recorded by the Holy Spirit, which they were allowed to hear Him speak to the Father, that they might have His own joy fulfilled in themselves. Twice they heard Him say, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (vv. 14-16); and in one form or another the world is mentioned in the Lord’s prayer not less than eighteen times!

The Lord Jesus had called His loved disciples out of Judaism, and out of the world which characterized it, for He said to the Father, “I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world” (v. 6); but dark and dense indeed was its ignorance of God, even if the disciples’ divinely imparted knowledge was superlatively blessed. This is shown in verses 25 and 26 (New Translation), “RIGHTEOUS FATHER—and the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have made known to them Thy Name, and will make it known; that the love with which Thou hast loved Me may be in them and I in them.” Herein lies the secret, not simply of overcoming the world, but of being preserved in fullness of joy and blessing apart from its lust and pride, whether in Judaism or elsewhere.

THE WORLD IN CHRISTENDOM

Now if our Lord Jesus Christ came to Israel, He likewise came from the Father in view of all nations. The Roman empire came immediately into responsible contact with the Son of God (for it held imperial rights even over the nation of Israel) as we see in the governor Pilate. Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” He was “the Lord of glory” whom none of the princes of this age knew; and, having been handed over by the Jewish leaders, to the Gentile governor, they united in crucifying Him, though Pilate emphasized the guilt of this action by declaring that Jesus was faultless. After the actual resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and after His bodily ascension to the Father’s throne, the Spirit was sent in His Name to proclaim forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation for all who believe—thus calling them out to be the assembly. This was divinely initiated by various acts of power from God which introduced “God’s dispensation which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1:4, New Translation).

We read often of “the faith” in the New Testament: it was delivered once and for all by God to the saints, with unimpeachable witness, needing neither repetition nor continuation. The inspired writings abundantly show this. We have spoken above of “CHRISTENDOM,” not indeed as rightly representing “the faith” which is true and real, but as that great sphere which is marked by the outward profession of our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet is permeated by the world-system that has to be overcome. Here again the words of the Son of God come for our encouragement—“Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world!”

We have seen the way He victoriously overcame in the midst of defiled Judaism, and though we are called to overcome in the midst of corrupt Christendom, it is the same moral or immoral world of lust and pride that has been largely dominant in both. The church, or, more correctly, the assembly, is apart from the world, but both the teaching of Scripture and actual fact show the rise and spread of worldly influences in the assemblies as early as the apostolic days. Indeed, in the symbolic and prophetic history of the assemblies, recorded for us in Revelation 2 and 3, we see the departure from first love at Ephesus, the first of the seven, ending at Laodicea, which has become so blind, shameless, self-satisfied, in a Christless profession of worldly religion, that the Faithful and True Witness stands outside the door knocking, before He spues it out of His mouth (3:16). When this state of things prevails—even as it does today—a Voice is heard saying, “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with Me in My throne; as I also overcame, and have sat down with My Father in His throne” (verse 21). The One who speaks here in regard to Christendom is the same who said in the midst of Judaism, “Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world!”

We see in the epistle to the Galatians that it was the Judaistic form of worldly-religion which endangered the Spirit’s work of grace among them. They were therefore reminded in chapter 1:4, that our Lord Jesus Christ “gave Himself for our sins, so that He should deliver us out of the present evil world according to the will of our God and Father.” Again the apostle says to them, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (6:14). In 2 Timothy 3 we are told on the other hand of heathen characteristics prospering in Christendom, similar to those described at the end of Romans 1. Because of this, times of peculiar difficulty obtain. This is to be ‘known’ by us. Self-love and money-love head the list of these ungodly traits, and while love for what is good disappears, love of pleasures instead of love for God becomes rife. In both lists the beautiful natural affections (which are nourished and developed where God’s love is known) not only become withered, but are altogether lost (Romans 1:31; 2 Timothy 3:3). Moreover, disobedience to parents, boasting and slander also mark both; yet, awful to contemplate, when “lovers of pleasures” complete Christendom’s list, rather than Heathendom’s, we are told, they will have “a form of piety,” from whom those who remain loyal to their rejected Lord are to “turn away.”

Overcomers are to “know” what is to be overcome. Being forewarned they are also forearmed! Let this stimulate faith in Him who foretold us all before it came to pass, because His fore-knowledge was perfect. Let this cheer us in the One who told us to be of good courage, for He Himself has overcome. He educates His own today to be overcomers. He also shows us where true rest is found, and fullness of joy also, for the overcoming is a prelude to the in-filling, the conflict of faith to rest divine, the victory over opposition to rejoicing in the Son of God, to delight in the riches of the Father’s love.

“Brought to rest within the circle,

Where love’s treasures are displayed.

There we drink the living waters,

Taste the joys that never fade.”

Overcoming is, as we have seen, a necessity, because of the antagonism which at all times exists against what is of faith. Furthermore, overcoming is not in itself the final object in view, but rather something beyond the victory in a severe battle is followed by honour and rejoicing, the labours of the toiler yield pleasant fruits afterwards, and the crossings of difficult mountains and raging torrents bring the traveller home to rest and joy. “Who is He that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:5, New Translation).

This ends our reading for this session. Until next time, have a great day, and God bless.