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[00:00:00] The first is in chapter one, revelation. Chapter one, verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show unto his servants even the things which must shortly come to pass. And he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear witness of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things that are written therein. For the time is at hand.
[00:01:01] John, to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who was and who is, and who was and who is to come. And from the seven spirits that are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us and loosed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto his God and father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
[00:01:47] Amen.
[00:01:49] Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him. And they that pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him even so.
[00:02:00] Amen.
[00:02:01] I am the alpha and the omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.
[00:02:12] I, John, your brother, and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, which are in jesus was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. And I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches, unto Ephesus, unto smarna, unto pergamum, unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that I that spake with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about at the breasts were the golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto burnished 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. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. And I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
[00:04:04] Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are. And the things which shall come to pass hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand. And the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars of the angels of the seven churches. And the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
[00:04:25] Then if you will turn to chapter 21 and verse nine.
[00:04:34] Chapter 21 and verse nine. And there came out one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues. And he spake with me, saying, come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a Jasper stone, clear as crystal, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates. And at the gates twelve angels. And the names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the lamb. And he that spake with me had for a measure a golden reed, to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square and the length thereof is as great as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed 12,000 furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal.
[00:05:56] And he measured the wall thereof, 144 cubits according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof was Jasper. And the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass.
[00:06:12] Then verse 22.
[00:06:18] And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God the Almighty and the lamb are the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamp thereof is the lamb. And the nation shall walk amidst the light thereof. And the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof shall in nowise be shut by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie. But only they that are written in the lamb's book of life.
[00:07:04] Verse three of chapter 22. And there shall be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the lamb shall be therein, and his servants shall serve him.
[00:07:15] And they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more. And they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun. For the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever.
[00:07:32] Verse 16.
[00:07:34] I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things for or over the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David the bright, the morning star, and the spirit and the bride say, come. And he that heareth, let him say come. And he that is athirst, let him come. He that will, let him take the water of life freely. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city which are written in this book. He who testifieth these things saith, yea, I come quickly.
[00:08:30] Amen.
[00:08:31] Come, Lord Jesus.
[00:08:41] Now, this evening we come to the third and our last study on this subject, the testimony of Jesus.
[00:08:53] You will find here on the table the notes of the previous studies entitled why are you at Halford House?
[00:09:03] Tonight we shall be concluding this studies, these three studies on the testimony of Jesus. And next week I hope that you will be able to have the notes of the three studies so that you can look at them yourselves.
[00:09:26] Now, we can't really go over much of what we have already said, except that I will take up one thing and just refresh your memory from last week upon it. That is the phrase in revelation 19 and verse ten. And the last part of the verse, the testimony of Jesus, is the spirit of prophecy.
[00:09:56] In that one sentence, you have got, as far as I can see, the most comprehensive statement in the whole Bible concerning this little phrase, the testimony of Jesus. It only occurs, as you know, a few times, mostly in the book of Revelation. A few times elsewhere, it has been obscured in some of our more modern colloquial. Versions. But it is nevertheless a very, very important and significant phrase.
[00:10:30] What is the testimony of Jesus? It is not merely or in a general way, our witnessing. To him, the testimony of Jesus is the testimony that he himself bore.
[00:10:48] And it is not only a question of what he said or what he taught the light he gave.
[00:10:56] It is much deeper than that.
[00:11:00] It is a question of what he was and is.
[00:11:06] That is the testimony of Jesus. He is the light of the world. It is not only that he gives light, but he is the light in that lies, really, the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That is, the testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content or in its import or in its nature.
[00:11:38] Now, what do we mean by that? Prophecy is not just predicting the future. It can be the interpretation of history. It can be the explanation of the present. It can be giving significance to the future. It can be actually predicting or foretelling what the future holds. That is prophecy. It is a revelation, the revelation of the mind of God in a given situation to given people.
[00:12:12] Now, the testimony of Jesus is prophetic in its content. That is, he is the very revelation and expression of the mind of God. He is the interpretation of all history. He is the explanation of the present.
[00:12:31] He is the one who gives significance to the future, whether future time or future eternity. He is the one through whom. By whom the future makes sense.
[00:12:51] That is the testimony of Jesus.
[00:12:55] And that testimony which he bore, which he gave, has been vested and committed to us.
[00:13:04] That's why we get the little phrase in the book of revelation, holding the testimony of Jesus. We hold the testimony of Jesus, a very strange phrase.
[00:13:16] We hold it. We don't just give it, we hold it. It's something committed to us, something vested in us. Now, last week we ended on the matter of the golden lampstand.
[00:13:32] And you will remember that I said, of all the symbols used in the Old Testament, of all the furniture or vessels in the tabernacle or temple, the one that supremely symbolized the testimony of Jesus was the lampstand, all of gold, not candlestick as in the authorized version, but correctly, lampstand. It was a stand. In the ancient world, especially in the ancient jewish world and middle eastern world, there was a stand and lamps fitted into the stand, sometimes only one lamp. You've got it in Matthew five, I think it is verse 22 where the Lord Jesus says, neither does a man light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but he sets it on the stand, you see? In other words, it's a stand specially fitted and molded top into which a special little lamp holding oil with a wick fitted. Sometimes it was two, sometimes there were three. Sometimes there was one. Now the one in the tabernacle temple had seven branches and held seven lamps that fitted into it. Now it is this golden lampstand that supremely is taken as the supreme symbol of the testimony of Jesus in the Bible. You find it all the way through. You remember last week we went through it in Exodus 25, you get the first mention of it. And in Exodus 27, then you take a great leap, apart from the fact that it was in the temple, of course, till you come to Zechariah, chapter four. And there in all this great point of crisis in the history of God's people, just at the point when the house of God had got to be rebuilt, just when the temple had got to be restored for the coming of the Messiah, we find a vision is given to a prophet called Zechariah. And the vision is all to do with a golden lampstand and two olive trees on either side. Only then do we discover that this golden Lampstand stands for the house of God and is actually a symbol of all this reconstruction and recovery and restoration and rebuilding.
[00:16:02] We take another great leap and we come to revelation chapter one, two and three.
[00:16:09] Now tremendous amount has happened. The Lord Jesus has come into the world. The Messiah has been born. He suddenly came to his temple. The temple came into collision with the Messiah and the Messiah. They excommunicated a blind man. So the Messiah excommunicated the temple and said, I am the door by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in, and shall go out and shall find pasture. They crucified him, the Lord of glory, and the Father raised him on the third day. And then he ascended into heaven to the right hand of God the Father. And then he obtained the promised Holy Spirit and poured him forth.
[00:16:50] And so we come to the day of Pentecost when a spiritual house of God came into being. When living stones were produced by the action of the Holy Spirit, it was the golden lampstand, although it's not mentioned, we jump over to revelation chapter one, chapter two and chapter three. And we find the Lord is in the midst of these golden lampstands and he's speaking, and he's speaking to we find seven churches. These seven golden lampstands are seven churches.
[00:17:31] You take another leap and you come down to revelation chapter eleven. And we have that mysterious chapter. First we see the outer court of the temple. Then we see the temple. Then we see into the temple. And then we hear about two witnesses, and then we hear the strange words. These are the two golden lampstands that stand before the Lord of the whole earth and the two olive trees, whatever that signifies. Whether it is two prophets at the end of the dispensation, whether it's a company of the Lord's children who will be prophetic in their being, in their corporate existence. I don't mean a particular local company, but I mean worldwide. Whatever it is, we don't know. But what we do know is that this company or these two profits draw out the antagonism of this world and the fury of Satan, so that finally they are destroyed like their master and raised up like their master after three days most remarkable, and ascend into heaven like their master.
[00:18:45] Well, I leave that with you. We'll have to wait till we come to the book of revelation there. But this. We're back to the golden lampstands again. Another leap to the end of the Bible, to chapter 21 and chapter 23, and we find the golden lampstands there. I'm not going to say any more about that, because we're going to look at it tonight more. Now, that's what we have come to. What is this golden lampstand? Well, I think we all realize that it is filled with significance. It was pure gold, that is, the pure gold of the nature and character and life of Christ.
[00:19:20] The material out of which this golden lampstand was made was pure gold. His nature, his character, his life. The second thing we notice is that it was beaten work, that is, the lampstand, is produced out of inwrought travail and suffering. It is in the fellowship of his sufferings, in the filling up of the afflictions which would be a lift for us for his body's sake.
[00:19:52] Beaten work, beaten work and turned work, not each branch made separately and then brazed on or soldered on, but out of one piece of gold it is beaten and hammered and then turned and turned and turned until seven branches appear out of one piece.
[00:20:16] That speaks of the travail of our master, of our Lord, and of the inestimable privilege granted to us as children of God to enter into something of the fellowship of his sufferings.
[00:20:34] Paul said, I, my little children, of whom I am again in travail again, always been in it once before, of whom I am again in travail till Christ be fully formed. And it literally, it is among you, in you all. Not just one, but in you all. Corporately and then we know that, of course, that it was of one piece. We've already just said that it is absolute unity.
[00:21:09] The whole lampstand is one piece.
[00:21:14] We know that speaks of the absolute unity of the Lord Jesus, the oneness of Christ into which we've been born by his spirit. All right. And then the oil. Very careful instructions are given to us in Exodus 27 and verse 20 about the oil. How the olives are to be the best olives, how they're to be crushed, how they're to be sieved, as it were, so that it is the finest of the oil.
[00:21:41] What does that say? Well, we all know that oil speaks of the Holy Spirit. It is the life, the pure oil of the spirit of life, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God. We know that. So this lampstand is to contain the pure life of the spirit of God, the risen life of Christ.
[00:22:09] And then again, we are told in chapter 27 of Exodus, verse 20 and 21 that it is to burn continually throughout all your generations. Never is it to be allowed to go out an everlasting light through day and through night.
[00:22:28] What does that speak of? It speaks. Surely the lighted oil speaks of the light of his life. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life, the Holy Spirit within us giving rise to light, his life giving rise to light. Not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which makes us independent of God, but the kind of knowledge that comes with the tree of life which makes us dependent upon it.
[00:23:11] Well, there's all that, the golden lampstand. Surely, therefore, it is of very great and real significance that the book which deals so much with the testimony of Jesus, the book of revelation, and the church's holding of that testimony should begin, should commence with the Lord in the midst of seven golden lampstands. It's an extraordinary vision. Of course, we're all used to it, unfortunately, so it doesn't, the impact of it doesn't come home. Just what an extraordinary vision for an apostle to have to see his risen Lord glorified, triumphant, alive forevermore, with the keys of death and hell in his hands. And what's he doing? He's standing in the midst of seven golden remsens. They're in a perfect circle right round him, seven of them, mark you. At first the apostle doesn't realize that it's churches that are symbolized. He just sees the Lord in the midst of these seven golden lampstands, that's all.
[00:24:31] What is it really that we find represented here? What it is is this.
[00:24:39] The Lord is in the midst of those seven golden lampstands, representing seven local churches or representing the church in its practical expression on earth in time.
[00:24:57] And he is judging everything, everything in those churches, in the seven churches, in relation to their holding of this testimony.
[00:25:13] Everything is judged in the light of the testimony.
[00:25:19] You can see it quite clearly again and again. The word comes as the Lord points to this that's wrong and that's wrong and the other that's wrong. And the word comes, I will remove the lampstand out of its place.
[00:25:35] What does he mean? He's judging everything in relation to the testimony. In other words, these little things amongst you, this jezebel here, this problem here, this nicolaitanism here, this erroneous teaching there, it all has bearing upon the testimony of Jesus. I will remove the golden lampstand out of its place. In other words, the church seemingly will go on. They will still have their prayer meetings, they will still have their Bible studies, they will still have their evangelistic meetings. It will all seem to rumble on outwardly. But the testimony is gone.
[00:26:12] The testimony of Jesus has been removed in God's sight. It is no longer the church.
[00:26:21] Now, that's terrible, but that's precisely what we see in the first three chapters of revelation.
[00:26:30] What is the word that comes as the Lord's puts his finger on this and that and the other again and again to every single church, where the commended or not, comes the word to him that overcometh.
[00:26:50] He is judging everything in relation to the holding of his testimony. To him the job of. Have any of you ever been a little bewildered at what is promised to those that overcome?
[00:27:02] He shall eat of the tree of life. What do you say? But surely if we're christians, we have eaten at the tree of life? He shall not be hurt of the second death. Well, we say we are not going to be hurt at the second death, are we? Just wait, you've forgotten. You've overlooked something. It's the testimony of Jesus.
[00:27:17] You see, the testimony of Jesus is the life of God given to us. Him that overcometh is in it to him that overcometh. He shall not imper to the second death.
[00:27:30] No death.
[00:27:33] You go on and you go on. You find he speaks about writing my new name upon him, the name of the city of my God and the name of my God, finding it is quite too clear to him that overcometh shall I grant to sit down in my throne as I have sat down in my father's throat.
[00:28:00] It's the testimony.
[00:28:03] Now, this means that this overcoming is all in relation to the testimony. If you look through those first three chapters, I'll just put my finger on certain verses. Chapter two, verse three.
[00:28:20] Verse five.
[00:28:23] Chapter two, verse five. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. Or else I come to thee and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent.
[00:28:45] I think most of us have got the idea that if the lampstand were to be removed, we should immediately feel it.
[00:28:51] I say that we must be very sensitive to the spirit of God. To know when the lampstand's gone. It is perfectly possible. And, dear children of God, the whole of church history bears me out. It is perfectly possible for the lengthstand to be withdrawn and for the saints not to even realize it.
[00:29:13] So dull do we become. So insensitive do we become the lamp stand.
[00:29:24] If you look at chapter two, verse 16, we have the same thought. But not if we're not told about lampstand. It's the same thing. Repent therefore, or else I come to thee quickly. And I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. Chapter three, verse three.
[00:29:43] Remember therefore how thou hast received, and didst hear and keep it and repent.
[00:29:48] If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief. And thou shalt not know what hour I come upon thee. I am sure that is in connection with the removing of the lampstand.
[00:29:59] Verse 16.
[00:30:00] So because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
[00:30:07] It's the same thought all the way through. Now, if you go back again, chapter two, verse seven. We read this. To him that overcometh. To him will I give to either the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God, or the garden of God. Verse eleven.
[00:30:25] He that overcometh shall not be hurt at the second day.
[00:30:29] Verse 17. To him that overcometh. To him will I give of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
[00:30:42] Verse 26.
[00:30:46] He that overcometh and he that keepeth my works unto the end. To him will I give authority over the nations. And he shall roll them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers as I also have received of my father. And I will give him the morning star.
[00:31:05] That clear.
[00:31:07] And then again.
[00:31:09] Chapter three, verse five. He that overcometh shall be thus arrayed in white garments, and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.
[00:31:27] Verse twelve. He that overcometh, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out thence no more. And I will write upon him the name of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven for my God and mine own new name. And lastly, verse 21, he that overcometh, I will give him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne. So you see, this book of revelation, which deals so much with the testimony of Jesus, begins with the Lord in the midst of seven golden lampstands which represent the church on earth and in time, and he is judging everything in them in relation to their holding of his testimony.
[00:32:30] Even this word overcoming is all to do with the testimony of Jesus.
[00:32:42] The same book ends with the holy city of God, the New Jerusalem, the bride, the wife of the lamb.
[00:32:59] What does it signify? What does it signify? Now, when you read those last two chapters of the Bible, what do you get? You've got a most extraordinary picture. I mean, it is extraordinary. You won't find this in the notes because it's far too long and intricate to put down the notes. Don't be forever typing.
[00:33:18] The fact is, you've got the most extraordinary things. One thing is, it's a city, but you've never heard of a city that's a woman.
[00:33:29] This city is a bride.
[00:33:31] This bride is the wife of the lamb.
[00:33:34] Then we go back and we find that this city is quite extraordinary.
[00:33:39] It is as high as it is broad as it is long. It's an absolute cube.
[00:33:47] Now, the holiest place of all was an absolute cube. In other words, the whole thought is this. There's no temple. It is the temple.
[00:33:59] Now, you know that in the Bible that we have in English just the word temple, but in Greek and in Hebrew, there is a different word, one word signifying the whole temple and the other signifying the sanctuary that is the holiest place of all. And that was the cube or square.
[00:34:26] Now, what does it mean, this bride, this wife of the lamb, this city, this new Jerusalem, is the sanctuary of God. It is the holiest baseball, it is the holy of holies.
[00:34:42] But something more extraordinary, you've never heard of a city which is hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles long and just the same, many miles wide and just the same, many miles high, with only one street.
[00:35:07] It would be a most circuitous street. Yet it says there's only one street in that whole city.
[00:35:16] Then again, we're told that it's precious stone. Yet we're told in the same breath that it's gold, transparent as glass.
[00:35:27] In other words, you can see through this enormous city from end to end.
[00:35:32] It's crystal clear.
[00:35:35] Now, what is it all about?
[00:35:38] What does this all signify? I tell you what it signifies.
[00:35:43] You won't find any church in it. You won't find any chapel in it. You won't find any synagogue in it. You won't find any temple in it.
[00:35:58] What is it? It signifies the final and absolute and gloriously eternal union between the Lord and his children.
[00:36:15] They have been fused together into an absolute unity, never to be divorced.
[00:36:25] The bride and the lamb are wet.
[00:36:30] The city is just like glass.
[00:36:34] God is in it, and his light streams up through it. Now, I've often said this. When you take an electric light bulb, and it is a clear, transparent electric light bulb, when you not got the light on, you can see the bulb. But the moment you put the light on, the bulb is lost in a blaze of light. That's this city. As soon as the glory of God lights it, you don't see the city.
[00:37:05] All you can see is the glory of God. All you can see is the Lord himself.
[00:37:12] You see, it signifies this absolute union which God, from the very beginning of time, had longed for.
[00:37:24] Now, of course, it's not our study this evening to speculate as to what's going to happen in the future. All we know is that the Bible begins with this great desire of God to be one with us and for us to be one with him, with himself. This great desire of God to incorporate us into himself. And that's the exact word, to make us a body, to incorporate us into himself, and ends with the accomplished fact. In other words, this city, this new Jerusalem, this bride, this wife of the lamb, signifies that the eternal purpose of God and the object of our redemption in time have both been fulfilled.
[00:38:19] Remember, God had a purpose before man fell.
[00:38:25] God's redeeming purpose was because man fell. And therefore, in this city, we see both his purposes come together.
[00:38:35] His original purpose, his eternal purpose for us and the object of our redemption is saving us together.
[00:38:45] Now, what is it?
[00:38:48] Well, you see, to put it in another word, it may not appear to be so. We touched on this last week. It may not appear to be so clear, but it's there. What have you got? This city of God, this new Jerusalem, this bride, this wife of the lamb, this sanctuary of God, what is it?
[00:39:09] It is one golden lampstand.
[00:39:18] That's all.
[00:39:19] And the lamp thereof is the lamb, and the light thereof is the glory of God.
[00:39:30] Now, you've got that. If you take those two chapters, I will point it out to you. First of all, verse eleven.
[00:39:40] Verse ten, you see, showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Verse eleven. Having the glory of God, her light was like unto a stone, most precious, as it were a Jasper stone, clear as crystal. Now, in some of the very modern versions, I see, it says, her brilliance or her radiance. Perfectly right.
[00:40:07] We get the word from this phosphorus. Light giving light, bearer. That's the word. Then if you look at verse 18, you will see the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass.
[00:40:23] Verse 21, the last part. Pure gold, as it were, transparent parent glass. Now, verse 23. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it. Now, here we've got it. For the glory of God did lighten it.
[00:40:45] That's its light. It's fire, if you like, it's flame. And really one of them should always be translated torch. Not the kind of torch you use, but the old fashioned torch which you dipped into oil and lit. You know, the great roaring thing, that kind of torch that gave up. The other is the word used of a lamp, the lamp which contained oil specially made to go in a stand.
[00:41:14] And here you've got it. The lamp thereof was the lamp.
[00:41:22] And how. The next verse, verse 24. And you've got the stand, and the nation shall walk amidst the light thereof. So you've got the stand with the lamp, the Lord Jesus and the glory of God in the lamp, shining out and giving light to everything.
[00:41:46] And the idea is that this whole city is like this great golden lampstand, giving light, revealing divine things, expressing the character of God, showing the heart of God, revealing the mind of God, proclaiming the word of God, giving light.
[00:42:11] You've got it again in chapter 22, verse five. There shall be night no more. They need no light of lamps, neither light of sun. For the Lord God shall give them light and they shall reign forever and ever. The Lord God shall give them light.
[00:42:33] Well, now, all that is rather wonderful. What does it mean? It means this, that the book of revelation opens and closes with the lampstand, all of gold, the testimony of Jesus.
[00:42:48] Now, if you turn back to revelation, chapter one, verse two, we read, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ. And we've read that a number of times in these last three weeks. Verse nine. For the testimony of Jesus. For the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Verse nine. Now turn to the last chapter of the Bible, chapter 22 of revelation, and look at verse 16.
[00:43:19] I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you. It's the testimony of Jesus to testify unto you these things. For the churches. Not to the churches. Not to the churches. The word is literally over the churches. Concerning the churches. For the churches.
[00:43:48] I am the root and the offspring of David the bright, the morning star, and the spirit and the bride say, come now. Verse 18.
[00:44:02] I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the apostle. Who is this testifying? It's not John the apostle. It's the Lord. It's the testimony of Jesus. How solemn. How solemn.
[00:44:20] Everyone that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man had.
[00:44:26] If any man take away.
[00:44:30] Listen again. Verse 20. He who testifieth these things saith, yea, I come quickly. So the book of Revelation opens with the golden lampstand seven and the Lord in the midst. And it ends with the golden voice. One golden lampstand. The Lord Jesus himself. The lamp, the glory of God, the light. It begins with the testimony of Jesus. And it ends with the testimony of Jesus.
[00:45:10] I say that that to me at any rate, is full of very real significance. And I tell you why I find it extraordinary that we have here in verse 17 this phrase. And the spirit and the bride say, come. If you really sit down and think about it, it is quite extraordinary, isn't it?
[00:45:34] I mean, if we head there and the Lord says, come.
[00:45:42] But it seems so extraordinary. The spirit and the bride say, come. Now, what is this? What is it? See what he says. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things over the churches. Concerning the churches. Now I am the root and the offspring of David. The explanation of the Old Testament, the morning star, that is the beginning of God's day, the day of God, as opposed to the knight of man.
[00:46:21] Now he says, what next? Before he says anything more about the testimony? Here we've got it. Suddenly the spirit breaking and the bride, the spirit and the bride say, come.
[00:46:34] To whom are they saying it? To the churches.
[00:46:39] To the churches.
[00:46:41] The Spirit and the bride are saying, come. Now then, all this that's written in this book, take note of it. Take note of it.
[00:46:49] The spirit and the mighty come. Let him that will come so tender.
[00:47:00] He that is athirst, let him come. He that will, let him take the water. Of life freely.
[00:47:09] Whatever holds us back.
[00:47:12] This is the testimony of Jesus.
[00:47:15] It's the spirit and the bride that say come. In other words, this whole matter of this golden lampstand, this whole matter of the testimony of Jesus is all to do with the bride and the Holy spirit. Energies are bent on the producing and the preparation, the equipping of that bride.
[00:47:44] That's why we find it's the Holy Spirit who introduces the Bible. If I may put it reverently, but perhaps very untheologically, it is the Holy Spirit who's going to give the bride away.
[00:48:01] The Holy Spirit is going to give the bride away.
[00:48:07] The kind of picture you've got, it's the wedding.
[00:48:11] And the spirit says, don't be out of this, don't be denied this, don't come short of this.
[00:48:24] The spirit and the blight come.
[00:48:27] He that is athirst, let him come.
[00:48:32] He that will. That's it, isn't it?
[00:48:36] He that will, let him drink of the water of life. Oh, how we love to blame others when we're not being met. But the scriptures, if you can get it, just go direct to the Lord, will let him come.
[00:48:57] But we can't just stop there. We've got to say something more. In concluding this matter to do with the testimony of Jesus this evening, it is in fact even more revealing to note that the term churches is used alone throughout the first three chapters of the book of revelation. You will find no other term except churches or the church at.
[00:49:29] Write this to the church at Ephesus. Write this to the church at smart, and so on.
[00:49:35] Now, we've already said that that term churches signifies the church in its practical expression on earth and in time.
[00:49:47] That's what is in view the church locally expressed. Now, it is not without vital significance that that term churches never again appears in the whole book of revelation till it reappears in revelation 22, verse 16.
[00:50:07] I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you unto the churches these things concerning the churches or over the churches.
[00:50:22] In other words, I think we are to understand that there is an essential link between the churches and the city of God.
[00:50:34] There is an essential link between the churches and the city of God. Otherwise, why does the Lord come back to it? There's so much in the first three chapters, then absolute silence as far as this term is concerned until we've reached the conclusion of everything. And then the last, as it were, epilogue. We're back again to the matter of the churches.
[00:51:00] Now what is it?
[00:51:03] The thing that the Holy Spirit tries to underline through this is the link between the church in its practical expression on earth and in time, and the eternal church or the city of God. The bind if you turn, for instance, revelation 22, we've already read that, 17.
[00:51:29] Then turn back to revelation two first chapters, verse seven to him that overcometh, verse eleven to him that overcometh, verse 17 to him that overcometh, and so on to all seven churches. Now, if you turn to revelation 21 seven, we he that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son.
[00:52:11] In other words, we find that overcoming in the context of the churches is linked to being part of the bride.
[00:52:29] Now, of course, we all accept that. Possibly, I don't know, but in practice it's the hardest thing of all.
[00:52:41] In other words, it means this. There is no fire escape, there's no way to get out. When things get too hot for you, you've got to stay and you've got to go through. Providing the lamp stands there.
[00:53:02] Now, it is an extraordinary fact that the lamp stands there in spite of all kinds of seaminess, dirt and much else.
[00:53:14] The Lord in his mercy and grace keeps and will not remove it without severe warning.
[00:53:23] He will not permit anyone to escape.
[00:53:26] His whole message is overcome in this.
[00:53:32] Overcome in this.
[00:53:35] You're not going to get away from it. If you do, you'll lose your part in the Bible.
[00:53:44] And don't you agree with me that that's just the line that devil takes with that how he inflates things, how he blows up things, how he magnifies things with one great objective to get us out. We think it's all flesh and blood. We think it's all a question of people being difficult. We think it's all a question of things being wrong.
[00:54:06] But behind it all is the enemy trying to cancel our place in the city.
[00:54:17] He that overcomes. Now, once you see this, you realize how amazing this book of revelation is. Now, it's not taking away from the majesty of the visions, the dramatic content of the visions of the book of revelation, to bring it all down to a matter of the church locally.
[00:54:48] Not at all.
[00:54:50] Indeed, I go much further and say that the whole of this book, with its tremendous visions of dragons and harlots and beasts and false prophets, and I don't know what is all to do with the churches.
[00:55:17] In other words, put it like this against a background of colossal conflict, of colossal conflict and upheaval.
[00:55:29] You get it in the book of revelation all the time, seas heaving, great beasts coming up out of the sea. Then another beast coming out like an earthquake out of the earth, frogs coming up, unclean demons, amazing things, upheavals, signs in the heavens, angels going earthquakes, a third of the earth being burned up, a third of the living things in the sea dying, a third of the green things shriveling, upheaval, colossal conflict against that kind of background, against a background of satanic cunning and antagonism. You see it all the way through, hold a hatred of Satan. That dragon waiting for that woman to give birth to the child and trying to swallow it up. And God outwits the devil by catching the man child up to heaven. And then the dragon is furious and goes off to make war with the rest of the seed of the woman and those that hold the testimony of Jesus.
[00:56:36] It's extraordinary. Satanic cunning. Why? You see this scarlet beast and on it a beautiful lady. Oh, she's absolutely beautiful. Painted, beautiful, seductive, beautiful features.
[00:56:57] She's gilded, that is, she's pure gold.
[00:57:03] And then she's all precious stone and power.
[00:57:07] All. You think it's satanic cunning and antagonism?
[00:57:13] She's a prostitute.
[00:57:16] She's not the virgin bride of the lamb, but the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.
[00:57:26] What is this satanic cunning and antagonism?
[00:57:31] Well, you could say much more in this book of revelation. If you know it, if you read it, even if you don't understand it, there's an awful lot there that speaks of satanic cunning and antagonism all the way through.
[00:57:46] That's the background. And against the background, not only that, but against the background of an iron like worldwide antichrist system in which everything that has gone before in civilization of man, out of which, particularly western civilization, has been produced a conglomeration of the whole thing going right back to Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome and modern democracy and so on. There emerges this iron like Antichrist system with trade unions that control everyone stamped identity cards with the mark of the beast and no one can buy or sell unless they've got that identity card. They must starve to death.
[00:58:39] An antichrist system. That background and then a counterfeit church. I've spoken of her.
[00:58:48] There are two women in the book of revelation. One is the bride, the wife of the lamb, the other is a prostitute. One is New Jerusalem, the other is Babylon.
[00:58:58] One is the lamb, the other is a beast, a second beast that looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon.
[00:59:12] It's a worldwide counterfeit church.
[00:59:15] That's the background against the background of the final, ultimate climax of the long battle of the ages, going right back to when Lucifer said, I will be like the most high and fell, going right back to the Garden of Eden, to the moment when man fell, going right back to the long story from when Cain murdered Abel, right the way through the long, sordid history of mankind.
[00:59:56] A tremendous battle.
[00:59:59] Oh, how many times Satan has tried to destroy Christ.
[01:00:04] He's tried to destroy the messianic line. He's tried to destroy the promised seed of the woman, but he's never, ever succeeded. It's the long battle of the ages. Think of it, in the days of our Lord Jesus, when Herod, in fury, slew every man child up to the age of three years of age in Bethlehem and the whole surrounding countryside. What a battle. What sorrow, what misery.
[01:00:32] But it was all Satan. People just thought it was some cruel despot, but it wasn't behind. It was Satan trying to get at God's Christ. He hates Christ because Christ is the one who will fill the throne of God. And Satan said, I will exhort my throne to the throne of God, or it right the way down, doesn't matter where it is.
[01:01:00] When the christians were murdered, persecuted, wherever it has happened, the dark ages of the church, when Satan tried to destroy the light and overcome it and stamp it out until that tremendous outburst of divine light, the lampstand was back.
[01:01:24] Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, and so on and so on. Well, you can go on, but here in this book, you've got the final.
[01:01:38] It's. It's the climax. It's called Jacob's trouble.
[01:01:44] Now, Jacob has had a lot of trouble.
[01:01:49] It seems to have been the lot of Jacob to have trouble, but it's called Jacob's trouble, something such as has never come upon man in the whole history of this world.
[01:02:10] The Lord Jesus himself said, pray that it may not come upon you. I see the Lord saying that to us.
[01:02:18] Daniel says, it will be a time such as has never been nor ever will be.
[01:02:25] It's the climax of the battle of age. Now, against that, the whole progress and ultimate triumph of the testimony of Jesus is set.
[01:02:38] And it begins with the most mundane, ordinary routine, local churches.
[01:02:47] Isn't it extraordinary? Only God can do that. If I was writing a book like this, I would say we will have to cut out places like that.
[01:02:56] I mean, we must start in some great conference.
[01:03:02] We must have a sort of great gathering, all the christians together. Marvelous singing, wonderful times. That's where we'll start. And then we'll trace the whole story of the progress of the testament of Jesus right through it all, till finally it's triumph in the end. But not the Lord. He brings it all down to little mundane local situations. This church here, that church there, the other church there, and so on and so forth.
[01:03:32] What is the Lord trying to do?
[01:03:35] I tell you exactly what the Lord is trying to do.
[01:03:41] He is putting everything into its right context.
[01:03:44] At the beginning, the book of Revelation, the whole story of the testimony of Jesus, its progress, its ultimate triumph, is connected with the church in its practical expression, in time and on earth. That means you and me.
[01:04:09] That's it.
[01:04:11] Now, the testimony of Jesus is intimately bound up with the churches.
[01:04:19] If they lose their true character, their true constitution and their true function, the testimony is gravely compromised, dishonored and even lost.
[01:04:41] In other words, the lampstand is removed. And then what happens? The thing which was a mighty movement of God, it was prophetic in its content. Things happened. Things happened. Marvellous things happened, significant things happened. There was a sense in these mundane, ordinary, unworthy, insignificant lives brought together and built together. There was something that was a sense of the moving of the spirit of God, some sense of eternal destiny, some sense of purpose. It all goes and the thing becomes meetings and preaching and theology and colleges and degrees and positions and so on.
[01:05:24] Isn't that church history?
[01:05:27] Go back to the Puritans.
[01:05:29] Go into the library and see some of those books. So and so, minister of the gospel in the church, etcetera. And so, so and so. And just take the titles. What a moving of the spirit of God. There was.
[01:05:43] Things happened. Take the Waldensians.
[01:05:48] Why do you know the. Sometimes it was no one, hardly breathe it, that they spoke in tongues and had interpretation that upset the Roman Catholics, not the Anabaptists, that much maligned group called extremists, fanatics.
[01:06:13] Maybe there were some, but there was much also that was of God. It was a moving of God.
[01:06:20] The early Methodists.
[01:06:23] Why, you've only got to read Wesley's journal and see some of the things, things that happened. The testimony was there. People were being changed, they were being transformed. There was the most extraordinary foreordination of events.
[01:06:40] What is it? It's the testimony of Jesus. But what happened? Look at church history. You can almost tell, well, at least we know some 20 years after, when the lampstand's gone, that thing is just dead. It died.
[01:06:54] It's now a monument to what's happened.
[01:06:58] It's a kind of gravestone. Rest in peace.
[01:07:02] Here lies the body of Quakerism. Born so and so, died so and so. Rest in peace.
[01:07:14] Or here lies the body of what? Something else. Born so and so, died so and so. Rest in peace.
[01:07:27] What has happened? It's the lampstand that's gone. When the lampstand was there, it was vibrant with life.
[01:07:38] This is just the situation, dear brother, dear sister, we face today.
[01:07:44] I believe it is the suppression supreme battle of the spirit of God.
[01:07:49] The testimony of Jesus lost. Now I know people will say to me a lot about personal sanctification and, well, we'll just say one word about that. But the situation we face today is just this. The testimony of Jesus gravely compromised, dishonored and lost.
[01:08:11] For the majority, surely the greater part, the golden lampstands have been removed. Where can you go in the earth and feel in your spirit? The lampstand is here.
[01:08:25] The lampstand is here.
[01:08:31] There are places, thank God.
[01:08:35] But when you think of the christians everywhere there are Christians.
[01:08:39] Where is the Lopez stand?
[01:08:42] What has happened?
[01:08:45] I say this is the supreme battle. No wonder the Holy Spirit confronting that prophet Zechariah at a point when everything was in ruins. And the building which was partly started but not finished, was all just round the materials everywhere. No wonder the Lord said to him, see?
[01:09:07] And what did he see? A golden lampstand.
[01:09:11] And what more did he see? Two olive trees pouring gold into it.
[01:09:18] No wonder. Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, God is seeking by his spirit to recover that testimony.
[01:09:31] We must never forget, however important the question of personal spiritual character and growth is.
[01:09:48] This matter of the testimony of Jesus is more than that.
[01:09:54] Now, I must just make myself clear on this point. I don't want to give the wrong impression.
[01:10:00] It's true, absolutely true, that the Lord is concerned vitally with our personal walk with him.
[01:10:17] The very way the Lord speaks to each of those churches reveals that. What does he say to him that overcome? Not to those that overcome. He doesn't speak collectively. All right. Those of you who overcome will be in it. He says to him, to her, to him.
[01:10:45] It's vital, this matter of the personal walk, absolutely vital.
[01:10:54] The law desires truth in the inward parts of our being, so that in each of our lives there is a consistency with the testimony that has been entrusted to us.
[01:11:11] That must be so now, whatever it is, whether it is depth of spiritual character, whether it is progressive growth in Christ personally, each one of us, whether it is fullness of devotion to him, whether it is personal faithfulness, all of that is absolutely foundational.
[01:11:45] It is absolutely foundational that no one hide in the corporate let no one hide in the collective in this matter. It's to him that overcome.
[01:11:57] But let's get this quite, quite clear. Having said that, we must underline the fact that the recovery of the testimony of Jesus is very, very much a question of the recovery of the true character and organic constitution of the church.
[01:12:28] Now, if you don't understand that, go away and ask the Lord about it. Rarely ask him. It is essential.
[01:12:36] People seem to think that the question of the testimony of Jesus is just a matter of our personal walk. It is not that foundation is essential.
[01:12:45] The message is to him that overcomes. But that's not the point. The point really is in the recovery of the testament of Jesus is the true character of the church and its organic constitution. If that cannot be brought into being by the spirit of God, the lampstand's not there in the first place.
[01:13:05] It's not there.
[01:13:10] How tremendous that is. Now, all these points we have mentioned, they are all vital in these previous studies. They are all vital to this question of the testimony of Jesus. The headship of Christ, the heavenliness of Christ, the fellowship, the life of Christ, the fellowship of Christ, the oneness of Christ, the practical expression of Christ, the manifested presence of Christ. All these things are summed up in the testimony of Jesus absolute law, all of God, all of God produced out of his life, organic, not organized.
[01:14:05] The fellowship, one beaten work forged together all part of him. The oneness of Christ.
[01:14:15] He is the oneness, his life, his character, his nature, the local expression.
[01:14:27] Where were the seven golden lampstands, Ephesus, smyrn, Tharatara, Pergamon, and so on? That's where they were.
[01:14:41] That's where Christ has gone. But the testimony of Jesus is brought down to mundane, ordinary terms, but Bible terms. Talk about loving the saints. God says, how do you get on with them? Where you are worshiping, where you're supposed to be gathering together, talk about the unity of Christ. How are you getting on there? So it's all brought down to practical, down to earth terms. And of course, the manifested presence of Christ. That that is the most essential thing of all. Without it, we're nothing. The church is the place where the Lord is seen, where he's known, where he's expressed, where he's understood, where the world can touch him and he can touch the world.
[01:15:23] That's us.
[01:15:25] Or should we put it this way? That's what we should be.
[01:15:30] And by the grace of God, that's what he would like to do with us.
[01:15:34] Shall we pray?
[01:15:50] Dear Lord, we do pray together.
[01:15:54] That thou wouldst make real all this to us. Thou knowest our need, Lord.
[01:16:00] We are a needy people, but we praise the Lord that thou art with us and that thou art ready, Lord, to take us on with thyself.
[01:16:11] And we pray that thou wouldst make each one of us true overcomers. Because of thyself.
[01:16:19] Thou hast bidden us to come. Thou hast said any that are athirst, let them come to thee. O Lord, we pray that we might be those who really know what it is to come to thee and drink of thee. Hear us, Lord, as together we place all this into thy hands, as we commit one another into thy hands and into thy keeping. And pray, beloved Lord, that thou wouldst make us, those who really in our hearts understand what that testimony is.
[01:16:52] And those, Lord, who hold it, we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:17:01] Amen. Amen.
