From
"The Work of the Ministry" - Volume 2
Reading:
Revelation 3:7-11.
You will
notice that the words of our title are linked with the
Lord's coming - "I come quickly". And with His
coming imminent He addresses these words to His children.
The issue, after all, at the end, in the coming of the
Lord, will be that there is that which draws out His own
heart and makes it possible for Him to say this kind of
thing - "I have loved thee!" And this is a
discriminating statement. We must place an emphasis upon
the "thee" because that represents a certain
condition that does answer to the heart of the Lord. The
Lord loves ALL His children, but there seems to
be something special here.
Straitness at the Time of the End
From
this message to Philadelphia, which has the Lord's coming
in view, we know how a faithful testimony may find itself
at the time of the end. Undoubtedly the terms of this
message indicate that the Lord's testimony will be in
straitness, in limitation, hedged up, shut in. These
words "key" and "door" surely
indicate that there is something that is locked up,
something that men would shut out, lock out, something
men would hinder and frustrate and curtail and limit;
doors that men would close and lock. Over against this,
though it may be like that - and it will be like that to
the end for a faithful testimony - the Lord says: 'I have
the key. And no matter what doors men may close, I can
set before you a door which no one can close. Keys and
doors ultimately are with Me, in the presence of the
severest straitening, curtailment and difficulty'.
The True Testimony and the False
And then
we have this word which says there are those who
"say they are Jews, and they are not", but are
"of the synagogue of Satan", implying that
there is something which seeks to simulate and represent
what is of God, but which is not true and not pure. That
is why the Lord introduces Himself as the One that is
holy and the One that is true, in contrast to that which
is false and impure, which is not transparent, which will
not stand up to the scrutiny of those eyes of flame, with
which He is presented to us at the beginning of these
messages to the churches. He is looking through and
exposing the false. But a true testimony will find it is
based upon something that is true, as over against the
seeming true which is false, savouring of that which is a
lie - a synagogue of Satan, a legalistic system in
antagonism to a pure, clear, full, free testimony of the
Lord Jesus. That is how it may be in any expression in
fullness of the Lord's mind towards the end. It is not
going to be popular and have all the doors open in all
directions, with everyone acclaiming and sponsoring. It
is going to feel very much shut out and find many doors
closed. 'Never mind', says the Lord; 'I know, I have the
key. The issue is with Me'.
The Divine Approbation of
Faithfulness
But what
is it that brings out this divine approbation? 'I am
going to make them know that I have loved thee'. There is
a partiality of God - not just for persons, for people,
as such; it is not a selectiveness among people which
draws out His partiality. But there is a partiality of
the Lord towards faithfulness itself. It is that which
draws out this word, "I have loved thee". I am
sure it must have been very heartening to the saints at
Philadelphia to get a message like that. It must almost
have startled them in their difficulties, in everything
that seemed to say that the Lord was not with them and
was not prospering them. There is so much that is against
them; there are so many difficulties. Then suddenly a
letter arrives, and in it the Lord says: "I have
loved thee". Almost startling! Why? Here are the
oppressed saints at Philadelphia, and the Lord says,
"thou hast a little power". They themselves are
more conscious of weakness than of power, seeming to be
very much weaker than otherwise, and yet there is that
there which speaks of the Lord, something that the Lord
can light upon and say: 'In all your consciousness of
weakness, in the seeming overwhelming insufficiency,
there is that there which is My foothold, which speaks of
Me'. "Thou hast a little power, and didst keep my
word" - 'you have been faithful to My revealed
thoughts and mind' -, "and didst not deny my
name" - the Name of absolute supremacy and honour
and glory -, and "didst keep the word of my
patience".
"The Word of My
Patience"
"The
word of my patience". A strange phrase. What does it
mean? Surely just this - that, all down the ages, God
spoke a word to His servants, gave them something from
Himself, and then it seemed He went away and left them,
and they had to wait and wait and wait. They were tested
by the word, having to pass through a long period of
waiting for the word to be fulfilled, for God to honour
His word. "The word of the Lord tried him", it
says about Joseph (Ps. 105:19). He evidently had
something from the Lord at some time, and now he is in a
dungeon. His soul enters into iron. "The word of the
Lord tried him". Here in Philadelphia they had the
word, and had not given it up; they had held on through
difficulties, through the darkness, till the word should
be fulfilled. "Kept the word of my patience."
Upon all that the Lord comes back and says: "I have
loved thee".
We see a
grand illustration and embodiment of all this in Daniel -
the man who was so conscious of his own weakness, who had
to be helped up on to his feet by stages, first to his
knees and then to his feet, so conscious was he of his
weakness (Dan. 10:8-11). "O man greatly
beloved" (vs. 19). His strength was in God and not
in himself. Daniel was one who 'kept the word' of the
Lord. We recall how he came to know "by the
books" - he had read Jeremiah, he had the word of
the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah - that 70 years should
pass over Israel in captivity, and then they should be
restored. Seventy years is a long time. He had discovered
the word of the Lord and he did not let it go. He kept
the word through all that time in Babylon: he held the
word - THE LORD had said it.
And if
ever a man had 'not denied His Name' it was Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar was a great name in Babylon, and every
thing is now between the Name of Jehovah and the name of
Nebuchadnezzar. And he did not deny His Name. He and his
brethren held to the Name of "the God of
heaven", Jehovah.
And as
for the 'word of His patience', well, it was a
long-drawn-out business for Daniel and his brethren. He
was an old man when these later scenes of his prophecies
were enacted. All the time his patience is being tested.
If this happens or that happens, what about the Lord? And
how many things could have happened! The fire could have
devoured, the lions could have destroyed. The word of the
Lord - where is it? Knowing God, neither fire, lions, nor
anything else can upset that word. It is going to be
fulfilled. "O man greatly beloved". "I
have loved thee". Oh the faithfulness of Daniel in
all these ways. He held on to His word.
It is so
easy to say, 'Well, you see, everything has gone to
pieces, and there is no hope now for a real testimony. I
will make the best of things as they are. Jettison
Ephesians, jettison Colossians. It may have been all
right at one time, but give it all up now.' "Thou
hast kept my word". Still holding on, if only it be
in a remnant, a small representation of the whole, to see
something that answers to the word of the Lord. Still
holding on to the absolute supremacy of His Name over
every other name, cost what it will and may. Still
enduring many difficulties, many frustrations, knowing
many closed doors and all that, and yet the word
of His patience kept. 'The Lord is going to fulfil His
word - He is going to fulfil His word sooner or later'.
That is
faith, and that is the ground. It is a simple word, but
that is how we may find things. The Lord is coming soon,
and He wants to find, even if in a small way so far as
numbers are concerned, a faithful people like that. He
wants to be able to say, 'Your vindication will come',
and the greatest vindication that you could ever desire
or hope for is that He should say through it all, "I
have loved thee". Do you want more than that? None
of us wants more than that the Lord should say, "I
have loved thee", "O greatly beloved".
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, May-Jun 1954, Vol 32-3