"I
turned to see the voice which spake with me. And having
turned, I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the midst
of the lampstands one like unto the Son of man, clothed
with a garment down to the foot, girt about at the
breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair
were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were
as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto varnished
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." Revelation 1:12-16.
Revelation
of Jesus Christ. We have already indicated that this
whole book which bears those words as its title is
gathered into one tremendous consummate issue; that of
the government of this universe, heaven and earth, as
determined by God, centered in His Son Jesus Christ. This
book is the revelation of the processes and progress in
the culmination of this world's history unto the final
establishment of that government.
In that
setting, this afternoon we were occupied with the victory
of God's Son, as in this first chapter. This evening we
take this short section, these four verses which set
forth the character which lies behind that victory.
It's a
mighty victory. We have seen His declaration of Himself
as the Living One - Who became dead but is now alive unto
the ages of the ages - sets forth the greatness of His
victory. We have seen it was no small power that was
exercised and exerted by the great Roman Empire for the
destruction of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. In the vision
of that empire in the book of Daniel, it is rightly
symbolized by iron. A symbol of great strength and power
to break everything. And the great strength of that, the
mightiest of the empires, was directed toward and
concentrated upon, the extermination of the testimony of
Jesus, which testimony was that He is Lord. That Jesus
survived the exhausting of that mighty power and
triumphed over death and is alive unto the ages of the
ages, is no small testimony to the greatness of His
victory.
Combined
with the Roman Empire was the Jewish nation. It would
take a lot of time to tell and describe conditions of the
Jewish nation in the times of the New Testament. I myself
have been very deeply impressed as I have read anew
during the past week the account given by the great
Jewish historian Josephus about the wickedness of the
Jews at this time. He's a Jewish historian. He says that
there never was anything so utterly wicked as the
condition of the Jewish people in New Testament times.
Terrible thing to say and he shows how that was, and it
is only an exposition of what the Lord Jesus meant when
He said "this WICKED generation" - this wicked
generation of downright wickedness of those people. Not
only in their crucifying the Lord Jesus, but their
condition behind all their religion; their moral
condition - using that word in its most general sense.
And they, as we know, exhausted their malice to DESTROY
the Lord Jesus and all that He represented. If Saul of
Tarsus was really their representative and agent, he
himself tells us in many words how utter he was in his
determination there should not be left a relic of Jesus
of Nazareth. He persecuted this Way unto the death, both
men and women he cast into prison.
All that
vicious, vehement hatred, malice, concentrated upon Jesus
Christ as Lord. All that and what more? Behind it, around
it and over it Satan and his vast kingdom calling upon
all their resources to quench this Light, finish this
Testimony, to blot out this Name, obliterate this Way.
And He says "I am He that liveth, I became dead but
I am alive unto the ages of the ages". What a
victory, what a victory! We can almost say 'is there
anything left over which He can triumph'? If He HAS done
that, if our Christian faith is true, if what we declare
as to the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ is
true at all, it's a far, far greater and vaster thing
than we have comprehended. And that is the message here
and as we have said before, that is the blessing of this
book: if He can do all that, what cannot He do? That's
hope for the end. But when we have said all that about
His victory and much more that we could add to it of
truth, this fact remains - the victory, the throne, the
government of Christ and the Church is based upon His
essential character. It is not just objective and
official, that is, it is not just something that is done
by the exercise of superior might - as might. It is
something that is accomplished in virtue of His glorious
character; it rests upon that.
Here is a
combination of two things which, mark you, always go
together with God; the combination of power and
character, nature and strength. With God character is
power and power is character. He seems to have written
this large in the universe, in nature. It almost appears
that He has established it as a law that these two things
go together. You see all that God does combines these two
things. You go into the alpine country; you are on the
one side impressed at the massive and awesome strength of
the mountains, the terrific force, volcanic force which
heaved them up and the mighty strength that they
represent as they tower over you. It's awesome! And yet
as you stay to climb their massive slopes, in their
crevices and on those slopes you find the beautiful
edelweiss. The beautiful flower. The combination of
strength... and beauty. Nature has done it - balanced
these two things. Come to the English countryside, you
see the massive towering oak tree and nestling at its
roots - the beautiful violet. Just nature, not arranged,
quite spontaneous - strength and beauty, power and
character - in balance and combination. And we could go
on like that drawing upon creation for illustration. But
you go back through your Old Testament, you find in the
typology and the symbolism, all that comes from heaven,
this wonderful balance of strength and character. And
here it is! In all this and particularly in this passage
before us, we have God saying, "If there is to be
power, dominion, victory, ascendancy, might; there has
got to be goodness and if there is goodness, that is the
greatest might!" It's the nature of Christ that is
set forth here which is the foundation of His Kingdom, of
His Throne.
So you turn
to this description or portraiture of Him. You notice the
power lying in His eyes as a flame of fire; His voice,
the voice of many waters, the sound of many waters; His
mouth, out of which proceeds a sharp, two-edged sword;
His countenance, as the sun shineth in its strength. All
that is the symbolism of power! We go back again to
character, His garment down to the foot, a girdle about
His breasts, the whiteness of His hair and the purity
represented by the refined brass of His feet. All that
speaks of the other side, it speaks of His nature, His
character.
Now it is
that that we are going to be occupied with for the time
at our command tonight. But may I remind you that we are
here in the presence of One Who is called "THE
SON OF MAN". We ought to be duly impressed with
that. He is not here in this book called the Son of God,
He is that, but for the purposes of this book, His title
is that of "The Son of Man". We are familiar
with that title in the Old Testament, in the prophets: in
Ezekiel, in Daniel. And we are familiar with it in the
gospels. In the gospels only, the title is used of Him
eighty-five times; no fewer. In the Old Testament as
applied to the prophets, it is 'son of man', in the New
Testament as applied to Him it is THE Son of Man. What
they were partially, He is absolutely. And we know that
the very title itself, 'son of man' or 'The Son of Man',
is related to God's full thought for His people.
In the
prophets, as we have pointed out already today, their
business was the recovering of God's full thought for His
people; and so they were representative of that thought -
son of man. And that very thought of God or those
thoughts of God had to be wrought into their very
experience and life and history and they became the
embodiment of those thoughts, hence they were made a sign
unto the people of God. And that is the essence of this
very title: Son of Man - a sign of God's thought for His
people. You come to the Lord Jesus and you find that in a
full, and final and utter way, He is THE Son of Man in
this sense: that He embodies to the full God's primal
conception for man. What God ever had in His mind in
conceiving the humanity idea, the manhood conception as a
special and peculiar creation, that is realized and
expressed in this One Whose title here just means that:
THE Son of Man. THE One in Whom ALL God's thought AS TO
MAN is realized.
We're in
His presence here as you notice: "I saw one like
unto the son of man" then the portrayal. We look all
so briefly, inadequately, at the features of this Son of
Man.
"I
turned to see and having turned I saw one like unto the
son of man, clothed with a garment down to the
foot." And of course there has been a division
of opinion as to what that garment was. Dr
Campbell-Morgan said it was the garment of the Governor.
Other equally able expositors have said it's the garment
of the Priest. I'm not at all concerned to take sides in
that matter - it doesn't trouble us which it was. What we
want to get at is the meaning of a garment at all; not
what kind of a garment it was exactly, but WHY a garment
at all, down to His feet. Whatever the robe was, whether
of governor or of priest, it speaks of character; for
garments always did from the beginning speak of
character, they were the symbol of the man. That's true
right up to date. The garments, the dress, betray the
person. I won't dwell upon that too much, it's dangerous
ground! But nevertheless it's true. Right from the first
garments that ever man wore, made by God Himself,
garments have always been the symbol of the person,
indicating what kind of a person, or sometimes, what the
person thinks of himself or herself. That is character. I
mean, in the days of the Lord Jesus they loved to wear
long garments, and they wore their phylacteries, they
pretended to be something but they were not, but that was
their character; their character was a pretense but that
was the people - revealed in the way they dressed. See
the point.
Here,
whatever the garment was officially, undoubtedly it was
symbolic of the Person. It does not say so, but I have no
doubt that in the light of things which follow in this
book, that it was a white robe... it was the white
linen... that would be true of priest or of governor. And
we know from this very book the white linen is the
righteous acts of the saints and we know from the Old
Testament typology, the white linen garments always spoke
of the character of righteousness in the presence of God,
covering the unrighteousness of man that no flesh should
appear before Him. And here, right in the very first
thing, describing this Person, the Son of Man, you have
Him enfolded and enwrapped in a character of spotless
purity. And it is that that gives Him His regal position,
it is His holiness, His purity. It is enough to say that
and leave it.
But this
robe is girt up with a golden girdle around His breasts.
How full of significance! Well, a girdle is always the
symbol of strength. Gold in the Bible is always the
symbol of what is precious among minerals or metals;
precious. And the breasts are always the symbols of
devotion. And if you put those three things together,
what a wealth they contain. Here this One is
characterized by a passionate devotion to that which is
precious to God, of pure gold. The strength of this One,
the strength of this One is that He is girded with this
passion for what is precious to God. That runs right
through this book, it comes right out at the other end
with the City, it is an underlying, fundamental thing,
and as I repeatedly say, it is the key to the throne. His
throne is established in His character, by His character
and all, ALL victory is that, where God is concerned.
This is going to be a very searching thing through this
book, it's going to be a very deciding thing everywhere
in the churches. We shall meet it again when we come to
the churches in the will of God. It's a deciding thing as
to the rise and the fall of the Church and the rise and
the fall of individual Christians, and the rise and the
fall of nations - their character. "How much of the
character and nature of Christ is there?" is going
to be the deciding thing, come back to that again. Well,
there it is: the strength of devotion to what is precious
unto God. Remember that; that is the secret of spiritual
victory in any life.
"His
head, and His hair, were as wool, white wool, as white as
wool". What is it? Well, here we have another
combination, purely of age. We get this figure in the
book of Daniel and it's the "Ancient of Days"
that describes this one. You get age - if you like -
eternity. It's not always true that white hair is the
mark of age, but usually it is. The symbolism is a very
common one, it speaks of that which outlasts time, that
which transcends time, that which is not of time but
which is of eternity. And it speaks of purity. And seeing
that this is His head and His hair, the strict and exact
interpretation of the symbolism, we have the permanence,
the endurance, the time outlasting power of truth, of
purity. Here are His judgments, His thoughts, His mind,
and there is nothing impure in His thoughts, nothing
unclean. How exact the Word is; "white as white
wool", both to doubly emphasize the utterness of
this purity and cleanness.
Dear
friends, though we may not be very much enamoured of the
symbolism, the truth behind all this is tremendously
important. The fact is again that His kingdom which is an
everlasting kingdom, is that because His judgments are
right and because it is founded upon absolute truth. It
is a mind that is freed of everything of mixture and
duplicity; what is contrary to God. The apostle Paul
writing to the Philippians said "Whatsoever things
are PURE, think on these things" that's the
mind of Christ. That's the mind of a character of Christ
"let this mind be in you... whatsoever things are
pure, think on these things... whatsoever things are
lovely" for here it is; that is what He is like! A
mind, that is, the mind of Christ, not our mind, is
something that is a very strong thing where God is
concerned. If we can only get the viewpoint of the Lord,
if we can only see as the Lord sees, if only we can get
the mind of the Lord about a person or a situation; we're
in a tremendously strong position. Let me put that the
other way, so much of our weakness and our failure and
our breakdown is our WRONG mindedness, isn't it like
that? We've got the wrong attitude of mind, we haven't
the singleness of mind for the glory of God, we're
affected by how things touch us. Well, He was never like
that, He was never like that. And that character of right
judgment of absolute truth, absolute truth - was the
strength and is the strength of His government, of His
kingdom.
Let these
things come out of the Bible and out of this high
symbolism to us as spiritual lessons, spiritual
instruction. Do you want to go on and go through and
endure and abide? Do you want spiritual strength? For
that is not something that He can give you, that He can
give you as from the outside. Oh, how we ask for power,
how we ask for strength... It is only something that He
can do IN us; He will make us strong by making us good.
What a lot that explains of His dealings with us! So
often when we ask for strength He puts us through an
experience that is going to change something in us of our
character, our attitude, our mentality; that is His way.
"His
eyes were as a flame of fire". Well, all we
need to say here is that these eyes, symbolizing His
discernment, His discernment, His real discernment and
perception and grasp of things and seeing into things and
seeing through things and arriving at RIGHT
conclusions, was due to the fact that His mind is what we
have said it is, like that. You know dear friends,
discernment is a tremendous thing in the Christian life.
Oh, what a lot of mistakes we make, for want of real
spiritual discernment... If only, if only we had this
spiritual discernment, if we were able to perceive, to
recognize, to discern, to understand the meaning of
things; what a lot we would be saved. There is a great
deal of strength in spiritual discernment. There is!
People who are always making confusion and messes because
they lack real discernment, they are in a state of
weakness, unable to see the meaning of things, see
through, beyond appearances of what is on the outside.
Because His Spirit is what it is, His mind is what it is,
He is able to rightly discern everything. Oh, we are
going to come onto this when we come to the churches,
seeing through and seeing things as they are truly, no
deception can come through those eyes. No, He is in the
mighty strength of clear discernment, His eyes are as a
flame of fire, there is nothing but truth there, no
falsehood, no carnal-mindedness (to use Paul's phrase)
therefore He can see. The pure in heart shall SEE God.
Shall see! See... What we see depends on the state of our
heart; His eyes as a flame of fire were that because of
the purity of His heart.
"His
feet were as varnished brass as though it had been
refined in a fire". How meticulous is the
description. Well, feet simply, we know, represent a
man's ways, a man's goings and a man's quests - what he's
after, what he's aiming at, and toward which he's moving;
the object of his movements. That's just the symbolism of
feet everywhere in the Bible; the goings of a man. And
here we have brass, varnished brass refined in a fire.
Brass is always in the Bible, as you know, the symbol of
strength and the fire is always the symbol of purging.
Then brass becomes righteousness, the strength of
righteousness which has come out of the fire.
Righteousness, the Old Testament says, is the girdle of
His loins and the foundation of His throne. Here again,
the quest, the objects, the interests, the movements, the
ways, the goings of the Lord Jesus are always PURGED
ways, CLEANSED goings, no self-interest in this - nothing
but the pleasure of God. "I come to do Thy will O My
God". His ways are all tested in the fire; purged of
all unworthy motives.
"His
voice was as the sound of many waters". This is
very beautiful. The sound of many waters! What is the
sound of many waters? Not of much water, but many waters;
all coming from all directions, and this way and that way
and the other way, rivers and the rivulets are all
coming, converging and blending and harmonizing. And this
one has its note and that one has its note, the other one
has another note and yet in their converging and coming
together they form a beautiful harmony like a choir of
many notes. The sound of many waters. Diversity in unity,
unity in diversity.
Now, you
say that's all a beautiful picture and it sounds all very
nice; what do you mean? Go back to your gospels and sit
and listen to the Lord Jesus or follow Him with open
ears, listen to His voice and you will hear sometimes the
note of deepest sympathy and tenderness... His kindness.
Where a situation calls for that note, it comes -
gentleness and kindness and sympathy and understanding -
"Leave her alone, for my burial she's done
this" and many other instances of the sympathetic,
understanding, kindly voice... But we dare not take the
time for it all. But you will find sometimes there's a
sharp rebuke like a clap of thunder and out they go,
convicted, from the oldest to the youngest. They've been
smitten as with a flash of lightning from His mouth.
There's sympathy, there's judgment, there's
condemnation... oh, there's every note in His voice, and
He's a combination of them all. His voice is the sound of
many waters. You and I have heard that, sometimes we have
heard His voice of sympathy and consolation, sometimes
we've heard His voice of rebuke, sometimes of exhortation
and encouragement. It varies but His is the voice as of a
sound of many waters. You're going to come up against
that when you come to the seven churches, you will find
there are seven notes in His octave. For the churches a
wonderful harmony, as a voice as the sound of many
waters.
"And
out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword".
Our letter to the Hebrews chapter four verse twelve
interprets that for us: "the word of God is quick,
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to
the dividing of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, laying
bare the thoughts and intents of the heart".
Two-edged sword - discriminating, dividing, putting
things in the place to which they belong - that belongs
there and that belongs there and you're to put those
things in their right place and don't confuse things and
call something by a name that does not belong to it.
Dividing asunder - a sharp two edged sword. This is His
character; that He cannot have confusion and mixture and
contradiction; two things that do not agree. That is the
character of the Lord Jesus and mark you, there's a great
deal of spiritual strength in that. One thing that God
has always hated is mixture, is mixture: is contradiction
in the same place, speaking with two voices at the same
time. God hates it. If there's one thing about God that
is true it is that He is of one mind. He is perfectly
clear as to what He means and what He wants. Two-edged
sword divides, puts things where they belong and there's
a good deal of strength in doing that, dear friends.
"And
His countenance was as the sun shineth in its
strength". Of course the countenance is the sum
of all the features isn't it? It is the expression of the
person. It is possible, of course, to hide yourself
behind an expressionless countenance but in the main,
generally the countenance is the betrayal of the person
behind it; the expression of the life within. And so the
countenance here is the sum of all His features. When you
sum up everything and what you have to say, there is no
darkness at all. There are no shadows here; it is as the
sun shineth in its strength. In Him was light - in Him
was light! In Him is no darkness at all, there is no
variableness with Him, neither shadow cast by turning, by
changing, by being of two minds; He is all Light, no
darkness, no shadows.
Now dear
friends, we've said all this but we've got to sum it up.
We have set out to show that the end of it all is not
only Christ in the place of absolute sovereignty and
Lordship and Kingship and dominion, but His Church with
Him, His Church with Him. If the City means anything it
is the Church with Christ enthroned! If we are to come
there, let us not make it too objective and far off,
belonging to some remote or near future time, let us see
that He's at work upon this thing in us now. Paul has
given it in the revelation entrusted to him, has told us
that we were foreordained to be conformed to the image of
His Son. The Holy Spirit had this in view when He first
drew you and me to the Lord Jesus. And if He has meant
anything in our lives at all, this is the thing that He
has been engaged upon and is engaged upon: to conform us
to the image of God's Son, working into us the character
of Christ, with a view! With a view; oh, I wish I could
remember this always, I wish you could remember it
always, when He's trying to do something inside in the
life, in the nature, in the character to change it, when
He's dealing with something which is not Christ and
hammering it and battering it and shattering it; giving
us an awful time because of what we are in ourselves. It
is not just for destruction, He is seeking to make room
and way for the Lord Jesus in our characters! That out of
this shall come something that is more like the Lord of
patience, of love, of thoughtfulness and generous impulse
and all that that is Christ-like, to bring that in. Ah,
but not that THAT is an end in itself... because
it's that kind of person and that kind of Church that is
going to be His instrument of government in the ages to
come. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it
that He might present the Church to Himself, a glorious
Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That
is the governmental vessel and instrument at the end,
it's a thing of character and its character is taken from
the Lord Jesus. The whole thing begins with the Church.
When we have said that, we have just got to the end of
the contemplation of Himself personally. As the Lord
leads us on in this, we shall see how all this is brought
down to the seven churches and that everything there is
tried, tested and dealt with on the basis of this
personal portraiture of the Lord Jesus.
Now does
this throw some light upon what He's doing? All that He
is allowing in our lives and all that He is working at in
us... why is it? If we suffer we shall reign, and it is
through the suffering, the tribulation that we're going
to come to the throne and through much tribulation we
shall enter the kingdom, and come to reign together with
Him. It is necessary for us to see the Lord Jesus - the
revelation of Jesus Christ, that we should see Him.
I suggest
to you, I urge upon you, dear friends, that your constant
and earnest prayer shall be: "Show me Christ. Let me
see the Lord Jesus, not objectively in some vision, but
by the Holy Spirit let me see what Christ is. May He make
me more and more uncomfortable as to myself but then ever
remind me that the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal
Him and then make me like Him. For we shall be like Him
as we see Him as He is." That must be our prayer.
May the
vision of Christ break upon our hearts and see His glory
and His beauty; see what God desires and is working at
where we are concerned and all again, all again, with the
Throne in view. For whether it be a literal throne,
whatever the reigning means, I think we are learning just
now that government and ascendancy is a spiritual thing,
it's a spiritual thing. This Stone that wrecked the Roman
Empire was cut out without hands. That simply means that
the kingdom of Christ is a spiritual kingdom, not made by
man, it's a much more powerful thing than all the
kingdoms and dominions that man made whether they be
Nebuchadnezzar or the Caesars; a spiritual kingdom is a
far more powerful thing than all [kingly] systems. That
is the truth that you and I have got to learn; the
transcendent importance and power of spiritual life and
spiritual character.