Reading: Rev. 12
The Assault upon the Church's Life
We are concerned with the "overcomer", and in our
previous meditation we were mainly taken up with one of the three
aspects of the overcomer, namely, the state which is basic to the whole
matter of overcoming, the state of righteousness which is through faith
in Jesus Christ. If that state is so important and means so much to the
overthrow of the whole kingdom and power of Satan, the great red dragon
of Rev. 12, then his objective will always be to corrupt. We spoke of
overcoming him by, or because of, the Blood, which signifies the
incorruptible life of the Lord Jesus which is ours through faith. The
enemy therefore will seek to destroy our faith relationship to that
incorruptible life of which the Blood speaks, and to do this he will
endeavour to bring about a condition which is corrupt, thereby to smite
us and have ground, judicial, rightful ground before God of accusing us.
Now, we must recognize one thing which it is very
difficult to understand and more difficult to explain, that the Word of
God does make it perfectly clear that in some way Satan has access to
God in relation to His people. That is the significance of the word in
Rev. 12 - and, mark you, it has a close connection with the overcomer -
"who accuseth them before our God day and night". The Old Testament
touches upon that, as we know, in the case of Job and also in that of
the high priest, Joshua, where Satan is seen standing at his right hand
to be his adversary, his accuser. There are other similar touches, and
here right at the end in the Revelation, where the climax of things is
being reached, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren which
accuseth them day and night. Somehow he has access to God.
That demands two things, as we were seeing in our previous
meditation; firstly and primarily, that faith position with regard to
the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ; and
secondly, that we see to it that the position is not contradicted by our
conduct: otherwise Satan has power to strike a blow at the value, the
effectiveness, of our position. I do not say that he can destroy the
position itself, that is, that he can destroy our acceptance as
justified by faith, but he can destroy the effectiveness of it. He can
destroy, in other words, the testimony to it; and you must always
remember that the testimony is a tremendously important thing. That, of
course, is our third aspect, which we shall not reach in this
meditation. Thus we have first a state, then a position, and then a
testimony. Satan is after the testimony. The testimony comes from the
position, and the position comes from the state. Now, Satan is after the
state in the first place, and therefore his object is to corrupt. Thus
you find that, in the case of each of the churches in the first chapters
of Revelation, "to him that overcometh" is the word that is spoken in
relation to this particular activity of Satan to corrupt. If you have
any doubt about it, look and see for yourself.
"But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of
the Nicolaitans, which I also hate" (Rev. 2:6). Here is Satan's desire to get in something hated of
God. His object is to corrupt by introducing something that God hates;
and, mark you, if there is something in the Church that God hates,
Satan's power is established, and God's hand is paralysed. That is what
Satan is after.
"But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some
that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a
stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed
to idols, and to commit fornication" (Rev. 2:14). To corrupt! You
remember the story. Balaam, who could not bring about a state of
condemnation by direct cursing, went round to the back door and taught
corruption. If Satan cannot come in and succeed at the front door, he
will go round the other way. The end is to corrupt, so that God cannot
stand by and behold, and in order that Israel may be robbed of his place
as a prince with God. a princely nation to rule.
"So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the
Nicolaitans in like manner" (Rev. 2:15). That very thing to which we
have referred in verse 6 is found here. This pernicious doctrine or
principle is now within this church at Pergamum and Satan has got the
thing hated of God in there, corrupting in that way.
"But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest
the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth
and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things
sacrificed to idols" (Rev. 2:20). We must take these, of course, as symbolical names,
not literal people; something there in principle after the nature and
working of Jezebel of old, a link between the people of God and that
which is opposed to God in its very nature. Here it is, and Satan has
got corruption in. "But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not
defile their garments..." (Rev. 3:4). You see what it is here. Again and
again, it is defilement, corruption. The enemy is seeking to insinuate
it in order to get at the position of the Church, so that the testimony
of the Church is destroyed. I think we can best point that out by going
on with our next aspect of the overcomer, namely, the overcomer's
position.
The Church's Position
We have said that the state of righteousness through
faith and righteousness of conduct in accordance with the state lead to
the Church's position. What is the Church's position as the result of
that state through faith? Well, it is not without significance that, in
dealing with the churches, Ephesus comes first. There is a sense in
which Ephesus is inclusive and basic. All these churches in Asia came
into being through Paul. You look at Acts 19. In the first place it
says, in verse 10, "all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the
Lord". This was as out from Ephesus. Paul is at Ephesus in Acts 19. In
verse 26, Demetrius says that not only in Ephesus but in all Asia this
man Paul has turned many away. All Asia! Here you have seven churches in
Asia. Now, Ephesus is the key, the heart, to the whole thing.
(a) In the Heavenlies in Christ
What then is the Church's place, centrally and supremely? It is what
you have in the letter to the Ephesians (so-called), which was an
encyclical letter to the churches including that of Ephesus. Well, the
Church's place is there seen to be in the heavenlies in Christ. That is
the ringing note throughout the letter to the Ephesians. First of all,
blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; then
seated with Him in the heavenlies; then ministry in the heavenlies -
"that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies..." So
you go on to the end, the warfare in the heavenlies: our wrestling is in
the heavenlies. In virtue of a state of righteousness through faith, the
Church is represented as having a spiritual position above. Let us
beware of the danger of a too geographical and literal idea here, and so
of being occupied with glorified and aerified nothings. This whole thing
is a matter, in the first instance, of a spiritual position, and of
spiritual ascendancy, and that is a matter for almost every moment of
everyday life. I mean, this whole question of being in the heavenlies
comes down very often to such a matter as washing dishes. You can be up
in the heavenlies while you are washing dishes, or it can be very much
otherwise with you; it depends on the spirit in which you do it. Begin
to complain and grumble, This is too menial a work for a child of God,
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven; fancy me having to do this! and
you are not in the heavens. But, let your attitude be this: Well this is
a very menial job indeed, but let us do all things to the glory of God!
and you are in the heavenlies. It is a spiritual matter, a moral matter,
a matter of moral power in a spiritual sense. That is the meaning of the
heavenlies. It touches every moment of our lives, wherever we are. Do
not think you have to escape this mortal body and get on a cloud and fly
somewhere away up there! That is not being in the heavenlies.
(b) Ascendancy in Christ over the Power of the
Devil
Well now, position: it is a matter of ascendancy over
the power of the dragon, the serpent, "he that is called the Devil and
Satan", the accuser of the brethren, the deceiver of the whole earth, a
matter of spiritual "aboveness"; that is the position of the Church. You
can never be there if you are under a spirit of condemnation. If you are
under a spirit of accusation, if you are occupied with your own
miserable self, you are very much other than in the heavenlies. So that
this righteousness which is of faith means a spiritual position of
ascendancy over the enemy. This is what it is "to be in the heavenlies".
Now let us get right back with that behind
everything. God's thought - and we saw in our previous meditation that
the overcomer is the one or the company standing for God's full thought
in a day when that full thought has been lost - God's thought concerning
His people from before their creation was, and has ever so remained,
that they should be a heavenly people.
Everything in the visible creation of God is a
representation of some heavenly thought. Remember that. It is not
something in itself.
It was never meant to be something in itself.
Everything that God has made of a material and visible kind is a symbol,
a representation of some spiritual and heavenly thought. Oh, if I were
to start on that, we could go on for a very long time, but I will just
briefly touch upon it to indicate what I mean.
You find two scriptures, linking Genesis right at its
beginning with the advanced revelation of the heart of God in the letter
to the Ephesians. The letter to the Ephesians is the fullest revelation
that we have of God's eternal thoughts, His counsels. In that letter
there comes out in a fuller way than anywhere else in the Scriptures
what was in the mind of God before the world was. And then you find that
from the second chapter of Genesis a passage is taken up and quoted in
Ephesians 5.
"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is
great: but I speak in regard of Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:31-32).
You have to take Ephesians 5 right back to Genesis 2, and beyond, to see
a Divine thought, and this oneness of man and wife is said to be but a
symbol, a representation of a Divine thought from all eternity, namely,
of Christ and the Church; and Paul says that is a mystery hidden from
all ages and generations. It was back in the Divine mind, but it has now
been made known. So that human relationships, such as those of husband
and wife, are a representation of something in the thought of God, a
heavenly something. I only select that as an illustration of what I
mean. Anywhere in God's visible creation, you will find the same
principle holds good. It is a representation of a spiritual thought, a
Divine idea.
Now then, God has created man, not just to have this earth peopled,
populated, occupied, but with a spiritual idea, a heavenly thought, to
be a heavenly being, to be a heavenly people right at the centre of
their being. Heavenliness is the great governing thing in all God's
creation and especially in man. Now this is where, if the Lord would
give us revelation, it would make such a tremendous difference to us.
Oh, this is what Paul meant when he prayed, as we too ought to pray for
ourselves and for one another, that He would give a spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him, that we might know what is the hope
of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in
the saints. This is the heavenly thing - His inheritance in the saints!
The End of Heavenliness - the Manifestation of
God's Glory in the Church
In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15, the
Apostle uses words like these:
"As is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly" (1
Cor. 15:48). "As is the heavenly" - that is something
established. Something is established as heavenly. Then we have the
latter part of the sentence: "so also are they that are heavenly". That
speaks of conformity to something that is heavenly. Well, this
inheritance, this heavenliness, again what is it? What is God's object
in creating His universe and especially in creating man? It is no less a
thing than the shining forth of His own glory as in His own nature. The
shining forth of His nature in its essential glory, the glory of the
nature of God, is something before which sinful man must fall helpless,
prostrate, broken, impotent. It is God in what He is, His essential
nature manifesting itself. He made man for His glory, and he was so made
that eventually when God should have perfected him, not only as a
physical being but as a moral being through testing, man should be a
vehicle through which the moral glory of God should be manifested, and
God should have a whole universe manifesting God in what He essentially
is in His moral nature. That is glory, unspeakable glory, and all that
is brought now to us along the line of redemption in His Son. God has
"shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ". Oh, get rid of the physical idea
again! The face simply means the presentation; it is the man, the
representation, and the glory of God has come in Jesus Christ
representatively. Christ moreover is in our hearts, and Christ in us is
the hope of glory. What glory? That eventually that people whom God has
secured and conformed to the image of His Son should be in the centre of
this universe what the sun is in the heavens now, the very centre and
fulness of the radiation of God's moral glory. Think of a universe like
that! and that too as over against the world in which we are living now.
That is what the end is to be. "Unto him be the glory in the church and
in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever." That is the
heavenly thought of God, that is the heavenly people of God, that is the
heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus.
What a marvellous thing this heavenliness is as a
power, as a principle, as a nature! And there are given unto us
exceeding great and precious promises whereby we may become partakers of
the Divine nature. It is just there of course that Satan has jumped in
with all the errors that he has ever propagated, just to turn that
thing. The errors of Satan have always borne upon this very matter of
the revelation, the manifestation of the nature of God in man. On the
one hand, the person of the Lord Jesus Himself has been taken hold of by
the errors of Satan and the Divine Sonship has been made something other
than it is, less than it is. On the other hand, the companion error is
that man is inherently Divine: the end of the evolution is the
deification of humanity, the Divine in man. Oh, poor philosophy today!
However, let us leave that. You see all the errors that Satan has
introduced touching upon this very thing, and I am steering clear of
these errors when I speak about the nature of God being manifested in
man. It will be in Jesus Christ in man. It will be as we are conformed
to the image of God's Son. It will be moral glory, not the glory of
Godhead. We are never going to be God, never going to be deified. No,
Deity will remain something in itself, Godhead will ever be infinitely
apart from the creation, but the moral glory, the moral nature of God in
Christ is going to shine forth in the Church throughout all ages, world
without end.
Now that is heavenliness, and that is the position to
which we are brought morally and spiritually, through a right and
adequate apprehension of the righteousness of God through faith. It is a
position, a tremendous position, and Satan knows that the end of that
means God's end when reached is a universe absolutely purged of all
Satan's corruption, and therefore of all his power, and a universe
shining through and through with the glory of God.
Satan's Objective - the Nullification of the
Church's Position and Warfare through Corruption
What then is ever Satan's objective? To corrupt, and thereby to pull
down the Church from its spiritual position. Hence we have such a word
as this: "Consider from whence thou art fallen". That is said to the
church at Ephesus. "Thou hast left thy first love." Go back to Acts 19
and note that first love. Paul comes to Ephesus, and what happens
through his presentation of Christ there? Why, many of them brought
their valuable and perhaps priceless books of magic arts and made a
great fire of them, and the sum is taken of their value, an immense sum;
and it all went up in flames! In a city like Ephesus where Demetrius is
so concerned about the profits of trade, where capitalism is such a big
factor, where money means a lot, an immense fortune is thus sacrificed.
Why? Because they turned to the Lord with all their heart. The
testimony of Jesus is accepted and established. What a thing! You
remember Paul's talk to the Ephesian elders. What a wonderful
disclosure, what a relationship in spiritual things! Well might he,
through the enablement of the Holy Spirit, write that letter, which had
Ephesus as its base, to go round all the churches in Asia, a letter of
heavenly unveilings. What a revelation, what a position! And now to
Ephesus in Rev. 2 "Thou hast left thy first love"! You do not value
Christ, you do not value the inheritance, you do not value heavenly
things as you once did: "consider from whence thou art fallen". Fallen!
Here we have spiritual collapse, the work of Satan in bringing down from
an Ephesian position. Thus the overcomer is the one or the company that
stands for God's full revelation, and God's full revelation is a
heavenly people in whom there can be a growing and ultimately full,
perfect manifestation of the moral glory of God in this universe. That
is the city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven,
having the glory of God, her light like unto a lamp most precious. That
is the end to which God is working.
Now, beloved, remember that the rulership of this
world and this universe is centred in the heavenlies. Let us not forget
that. In this age there are the world rulers of this darkness in the
heavenlies. In those heavenlies just now the principalities and powers,
the world rulers of this darkness, are operating, and they are doing
their work thoroughly. Oh yes, never was a day such as this. The
manifestation of the evil work of Satan in the nations, the moral
degradation in the nations, is coming out, it is being manifested. The
rulership is there in the heavenlies, so far as this world is concerned
outside of Christ. I am leaving room for the sovereignty of God over all
that, but we are talking about the judicial and rightful government of
man, and Satan has it outside of Christ because of man's consent; and
man still does consent. The very people who even here in this country
deplore the iniquitous procedure that is going on in the world, and who
would most loudly and vehemently decry the wickedness of what is going
on, if you speak to them along these lines of enthroning Jesus Christ,
they would not listen to you. Giving God His place? - that is pious
talk! They are going to deal with it in other ways. Satan has such a
grip that even those who deplore iniquity do not give God and His
righteousness a place. However, that by the way.
Now, the rulership, the moral rulership, is vested in
or seated in the heavenlies. The evil hierarchy that is seen there as
yet is to yield its grasp, and the destiny of the Church is to take the
place of the principalities and powers and world rulers of this
darkness, to occupy the heavenlies. So in Rev. 12 as we have seen, we
have the "overcomers", the "man-child", caught up to the throne of God,
and then no more place is found for the red dragon and his hosts in the
heavens.
Thus at present there is a spiritual warfare between
the Church and the principalities going on in the heavenlies - yes, down
in your kitchen! I must say this in order to keep you from becoming
nebulous and abstract. Amidst irritating daily work, that is where the
battle in the heavenlies is going on. You have not got to reach some
geographical point to have a battle in the heavens. It is spiritual and
moral. The Church is fighting that battle in daily life.
Then the issue - Satan knows the issue is a very
great one. It is his place of rulership over the inhabited earth, the
deceiving of the nations, the holding of them bound, the directing of
them contrary to God, the opposing of God's end in His own, that is at
stake. The Church is fighting that battle spiritually now. The battle is
going to be fought and fought and fought within our own spirits. It is a
question of whether we in spirit are going to overcome or Satan. It is
the position that is in question; government, dominion, rulership.
What then is Satan's objective? In the first place it is to corrupt
in order to pull down. It will then be the displacement of believers
from their heavenly position, the displacement of the Church... Ours is
not some position to which we have to rise, to attain. The letter to the
Ephesians does not put it in that way at all. It presents it as an
accomplished fact: "hath seated us." Beloved, do grasp this, that if
really by faith in Jesus Christ you have, with both hands, apprehended
the righteousness of God as yours, you are in the heavenlies, you are
above Satan morally. Your business is to hold your position. Satan is
not out to keep us down, he is out to hurl us down. We are there. This
is a position we have to hold to by faith. So that to dislodge, to
displace, will be his object. But oh, just as his ways for corrupting or
bringing accusation and condemnation are countless and always beyond our
power to anticipate, so are his ways to bring us down, to bring God's
people down spiritually and morally from their heavenly position.
The Prophecy of Balaam
What are his schemes, his devices, his cunning? I
referred to Balaam. Let us go back to Balaam. When Balaam was hired by
Balak to curse Israel, Balaam came and climbed the hill and got to an
eminence which overlooked the plain, and there was Israel spread
throughout the plain. Balaam wanted to curse Israel in order to paralyse
Israel. The hand of God came upon Balaam and under that hand Balaam
opened his mouth and began to speak. We will note two things in
particular that were said. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob." Well
then, no curse can operate here. "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob."
Why? Because there was no iniquity in Jacob? Not at all! There was
plenty of unrighteousness in Jacob. Why did He not behold it? Because
there was a tabernacle, an altar, a sacrifice and precious blood, a high
priest, a Holy of holies and a mercy seat at the centre of their life.
They were gathered round that. "He hath not beheld iniquity." Here we
are looking upon the figure. Carried over into the New Testament, it is
the righteousness of God which is ours by faith in Christ Jesus: not
ours inherently, but which we receive in Christ. Well, the curse is
nullified as we abide on that ground.
Now the next thing Balaam said was this: "It is a
people that dwelleth alone, and shall not be reckoned among the
nations". Not reckoned among the nations. Oh, that is glorious! That
puts Israel not only apart from the nations, but on top of the nations.
Now, if there has been one thing which Satan has ever tried to do with
the people of God in all ages, it has been to get them reckoned among
the nations. I speak solemnly and carefully. Right at the very heart of
Christendom as we have it today is the desire to be recognized.
Recognition! Everything that organized Christianity does is to gain
recognition. What are all these churches? I mean, in this instance, all
these elaborate and imposing buildings. They are to gain recognition.
They are in order to be reckoned something. To what end is all the
procedure, the advertisement, and the much else besides? It is in order
to get recognition, to be accredited here on this earth, to be reckoned.
Yes, that is Satan's triumph. That is where spiritual power has gone
out. That is where the Church has ceased to be something to be reckoned
with up there. It has, in spirit, come down here, to be reckoned among
the nations. If only Satan can get the people of God into a position
where they are taken up by this world, written up by this world,
made something of by this world, he has triumphed and pulled the Church
down out of its heavenly place and made it an earthly thing. That is the
principle right through the Old Testament. That too is seen to be the
trouble in the Revelation. God will not have it. Satan's success is
along that line. He has pulled the Church out of the heavens. Somewhere
he has made it touch earth, form a link in some way with earth.
All this has behind it this object, to take from the
glory of God by involving the Church in that to which God cannot commit
Himself, from which God must stand back. Thus to some of these churches
the Lord has to say, "I will remove thy candlestick out of its place,
except thou repent: I cannot let you go on unless you put this right.
You have got down there, you have got mixed up with this other thing
which in principle is not Myself, is not My moral glory. You must wholly
forsake that and come up and come out of it, or else I must remove your
vessel of testimony out of its place. There is no justification for your
going on. You are here in this world to be a vessel of the heavenly
testimony of the glory of God." That is the object of the Church.
What we have just said does touch us in so many ways, yes, in
countless things, this question of being reckoned among the nations in
principle, this coming down from the heavenly position. The Lord never
meant His Church on this earth to be something that would be taken up by
this world, to be something that would be reckoned among the things of
this world, recognized and accredited by this world. What He meant, and
what obtained when things were right, was that the world itself could
not bear the presence of the Church, did not want it. That is the power
of the Church to testify against the world.
The whole question runs right through the Scriptures.
You see it in Noah, who we are told was "a preacher of righteousness",
and of whom it is further said that "being warned of God concerning
things not seen as yet, moved with godly fear, (he) prepared an ark to
the saving of his house: through which he condemned the world, and
became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." The
presence of the righteous in this world is not with a view to their
becoming "au fait" with the world but to condemn it. Oh that the Church
had that power today! What will the world do with these? It will do with
them just what it did with those of whom mention is made in the book of
Revelation. That is what makes them overcomers. "They loved not their
life even unto death." That is the cost of being an overcomer. I am not
going to attempt to apply this all the way round. You must ask the Lord
to show you where the principle applies, how it applies, this
heavenliness of the people of God. Listen again to these warnings and
exhortations: "Consider from whence thou art fallen"; "He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith"; "To him that overcometh..." In
piecing the fragments together, this is what is said in effect: Those
who preserve and maintain their heavenly position against all the
down-drag, enticement, force and fury of the enemy, the adversary, shall
come to the throne and reign where the adversary now reigns. That is the
issue; a tremendous thing. And then, if it costs everything to be an
overcomer, let us remember that they that suffer with Him shall reign
with Him, shall be glorified together with Him.
Well, perhaps you have glimpsed a little of the heavenly thought of
God and seen what God is working at and toward, what His thought is - a
heavenly people. Oh, this is where the Church needs vision! It does
indeed need vision. If the Church saw this, what a different Church it
would be! The overcomer is that one, or that company, which has vision,
which the majority have lost. Ask the Lord to give you vision for the
sake of all His Church; for the overcomer - let me say it again - is not
someone or something apart, but related to the whole, God's link between
His full thought and those who have lost it. That is the overcomer. If
the Lord would open our eyes, open the eyes of a number of His people,
it would be to the value of the whole Church. Let us ask Him then to
answer Paul's prayer for us, "The riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints"! "Now unto him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus
to all ages for ever and ever."