The Love of God - The Divine Diagnosis

[00:00:00] If we could turn to the book of revelation and chapter two, we will read from verse one, revelation, chapter two, from verse one, to the angel of the church in Ephesus. [00:00:21] These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false. And thou hast patience, and didst bear for my namesake, and hast not grown weary. [00:00:56] But I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love. [00:01:04] Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. [00:01:19] But this thou hast, that thou hatest the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. [00:01:25] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. [00:01:41] And chapter three and verse 14. [00:01:50] And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write these things, saith the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. [00:02:03] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot so, because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest I am rich and have gotten riches and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art the wretched one, and miserable and poor, and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold, refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest. And I salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see as many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. [00:03:02] Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. He that overcometh I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith to the churches. [00:03:35] Shall we just bow together in a word of prayer? [00:03:40] Dear Lord, we do want to thank thee that thou art here in our midst and that we are gathering together unto thee. [00:03:51] We thank thee for this ministry and song to our hearts. [00:03:55] Lord, we thank thee for receiving something of thyself. [00:04:00] We now want to ask, Lord, as we come to thy word, that thou wilt take thy word and make it live to us. Lord, deliver us from somehow bypassing thy word or evading the challenge of thy word. Allow that word to find its target. Lord, we pray in every one of our hearts. [00:04:25] We pray, Lord, that that spirit of grace and power may be upon us all tonight. Speaker and hearer, may, Lord this time be a meeting with thyself. May it be a life changing time for some of us. May it be for all of us. Lord, a receiving from thee. O Lord, we commit ourselves to thee. Wilt thou in human weakness make thy strength perfect as thou hast promised? And this we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:05:09] The burden that has been on my heart is centred in those words of the apostle Paul contained in the philippian letter, chapter one and verse nine. I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that ye may approve the things which are excellent, that ye may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ. [00:05:46] The burden that has been so much on my heart is this whole matter of the love of God. And on that first night, other than the introduction, we spoke about the divine command. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And the second great commandment like to it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. [00:06:17] And then last night we spoke about the divine challenge that summing up of the gospel of John, bringing us, as it were, to the heart of the matter. Lovest thou me? [00:06:35] Tend my lambs, feed my sheep, tend my sheep? [00:06:45] Now this evening I want to dwell upon what I have entitled the divine Diagnosis. [00:06:55] The divine diagnosis. [00:07:00] You have left your first love because you are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. [00:07:14] I will spew you out of my mouth. [00:07:21] Now, thats a solemn word, but theres hope in it. [00:07:30] I want you first of all to look at the divine goal, because I said to you that first evening when we talked about the divine command that there are certain books in the Bible which, as it were, go over a whole lot of previous material and almost seemingly say the same thing again, but generally with an added note, which is all important. Deuteronomy is such a book and we saw that the added note was the love of God. Not only that he has chosen us because he loves us, but we should love him with all our heart and with all our soul and so on. And one or two chronicles is such a book. This also goes over all that we have, from the book of Genesis to the little book of Ruth. And that's a lot of history and a lot of God's ways with mankind. But one and two chronicles goes over the whole, and especially the four books of the kingdom. That is the first and second book of Samuel and the first and second book of kings. It goes over the whole history again, only this time it adds something more and brings us to the whole matter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of the house of God, of priestly service. [00:09:05] The Gospel of John is such a book. It is not the same as the first three gospels, which we call synoptic gospels. They are just the historical facts. They tell us the whole story from different angles. John's Gospel certainly completes the picture with its telling of the story, looking at the Lord Jesus as God. [00:09:32] But it is much more than that. The Gospel of John is a summing up of everything, as if the Holy Spirit is saying, now, with those first three gospels, you have a tremendous amount, but you still have not come to the heart of the matter. And in that wonderful gospel, we are brought to the simple fact that it has pleased the father, that all the fullness should dwell in the son. [00:10:02] The Book of Revelation is also such a book. [00:10:08] Indeed, the Book of Revelation is quite remarkable because it sums up the whole Bible. [00:10:15] It goes right back to Genesis and traces the whole story not in a kind of full way, but takes the spiritual theme and, as it were, draws all the strands together. Now, there have been an awful lot of books written on the book of Revelation, and I have often felt that the more you read the books on revelation, the more muddled and confused you become. You feel sometimes like putting an ice pack on your head and then going back to the Book of Revelation for relief. [00:10:54] There are so many conflicting, complex theories that are built upon this book of revelation, and sometimes I can't help feeling that some of it is because it is taken as if it is independent of all the other books of the Bible, whereas you cannot really understand the Book of Revelation. Not that I claim to understand it fully at all, but you cannot understand the Book of Revelation without an understanding, for instance, of Daniel and an understanding of Ezekiel and an understanding of Joel and an understanding of Zechariah. These four books, you've got to really understand and know before you can come to the Book of Revelation, because it draws from these books and much of it. The pictures that we find in the Book of Revelation are drawn from other pictures that were previously given to these prophets. But that's not what I want to say. What I really want to say this evening is this. The Book of Revelation has come, by the divine ordering or ordination, to be the final book of the canon of scripture. Now, it is an interesting fact that until the fourth century, it occupied different places. Sometimes it was attached to the Book of acts of all things, sometimes to the Gospels. [00:12:27] It was questioned until the fourth century by many as to whether it should be in the canons. But finally, God brought it to the place it ought to occupy, the last book of the 66 books of the Bible. [00:12:44] And the wonderful thing about this book of revelation is that it covers the whole of our life. Now, I'm not going to say anything, if you expect me to, about the prophetic nature of the book of revelation, about what it might say about things future and all the rest of it, 666 and Antichrist and the false prophet and the beast and all these things that have fascinated christian hearts and minds for years. [00:13:22] But what I want to say is this. John was. The apostle was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos in a forced labor camp. He was a political detainee. He was being worked to death. It was the policy of the roman empire that if there were people who were dangerous politically, then they put them away and they worked them to death. Rather like the nazi concentration camp over which used to be written, arbeit macht frei, work frees you. The idea was that by working those people to death, they somehow or other produced some value for the empire and got rid of political problems and dangers. [00:14:14] John the apostle, we don't really know why, was imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos in such a forced labor camp. It was the last place on earth you would ever expect a man to have visions. Most people think that if you're going to get a vision, you need to go up some glorious mountainside, away from all the noise and bustle of the city and all the problems of daily life. And there you sit with glorious views and marvelous sunrises and glorious sunsets and twittering birds. And then finally, suddenly, God shows you all kinds of things. But God doesn't do it this way. He gave some of the greatest revelations that have ever been committed to human beings, to a man who was chained to a soldier. [00:15:15] And there he sat, dictated letter after letter after letter which have come to us to be almost the high tide, the high watermark of revelation. I think of Ephesians, I think of Colossians, I think of Philippians. And so we could go on that those marvelous letters of the apostle Paul, not written in some wonderful retreat, but written under house arrest, written with a roman soldier chained to him day and night, written under the most adverse and contrary conditions. It was so with John the apostle. What he was doing, we don't know. But on a certain day, he called it the Lord's day. Whether it was Sunday or whether it was the day of the Lord, we're not absolutely sure. It doesn't really matter. The fact was that on this day, whether he was working or what, we don't know either. He suddenly heard a voice behind him. [00:16:22] And turning round, he saw seven golden lampstands alight. [00:16:31] And in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, he saw the risen, glorified, ascended Messiah. [00:16:42] And then he was told, write these messages. And one after another, the Lord Jesus gave to John a message for seven churches, all in what we call asia minor. [00:17:02] And after that, John saw vision after vision after vision after vision. [00:17:10] Visions that were horrific in some ways and glorious in other ways. Dragons and serpents and beasts and false prophets and martyrdom and persecution and worldwide anti christian systems not allowing to sell or to buy unless you were registered with them. All these things. He saw the nations of the world brought together. He saw a world government emerging. He saw a great prostitute riding on the beast. [00:17:52] All kinds of extraordinary visions. He saw the lamb standing on Mount Zion and 144,000 sealed with the seal in their foreheads. He saw all the martyrs under the altar of God crying out, how long, O Lord, before thou dost avenge us? He saw at one time that great sign in the heavens, a woman giving birth to a man child, who, as he was born, was caught up to heaven so that the dragon could not swallow him. [00:18:30] What amazing visions this man saw. Visions that have intrigued and perplexed and often divided believers down through the years. [00:18:44] And it ended with the destruction of the whole anti God, antichrist system and the dynamic and spirit of that whole system, Satan himself thrown into a bottomless abyss. [00:19:02] And then he saw, coming out of heaven, the new Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for a husband. [00:19:18] Now, whats all this got to say to us tonight? [00:19:23] It has quite a lot. [00:19:27] First of all, id like you just to note one wonderful thing. Whatever we may feel about the prophetic interpretation of the book of revelation, one thing seems to me reasonably clear. The first three chapters and the last two chapters correspond in the most remarkable way. [00:19:48] In the midst of those seven golden lampstands was the risen Christ. [00:19:54] And we are told expressly in revelation, chapter one and in verse 20 that those lampstands represented seven local churches. And we're given the names of the seven local churches. Now there are people who believe that they represent different stages of church history. And I find that a very, very fascinating and inspiring, constructive interpretation. I've often felt with the book of Revelation that it admits of a number of interpretations which are valid. I find that quite remarkable. Only the word of God could do that. It's like a diamond. You turn it different ways and it flashes different color, different lights from its different facets. And you can't do that with Shakespeare, you can't do that with Goethe. You can't do that with Mark Twain. [00:20:50] I thought I had to get in an american somewhere. [00:20:59] You can't do that with ordinary literature, even when it's the work of genius. [00:21:03] But when you have the Bible, it is quite remarkable. Now there are those who believe the seven churches represent different phases in church history. It is a fascinating and instructive interpretation. [00:21:17] But I cannot help feeling that although it's valid and the basic interpretation has to be that you have seven churches that were selected to represent the whole church of God in time, on earth and in given places. [00:21:39] These were not church by name. [00:21:43] These were real churches. They had all the problems, the church down here on earth, all the immorality, all the division, all the false teaching, all the faction, all the lukewarmness, all the many problems that beset us. But these seven churches were selected to represent the whole church of God in time, on earth, in given localities, in given places. [00:22:15] The risen Lord in the midst speaks to each church. [00:22:20] He encourages them, he comforts them, he strengthens them, he corrects them, he rebukes them, he warns them. [00:22:33] And each to each church he ends in the same way. To him that overcomes will I grant this or that or the other. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. [00:22:52] When we come to the last two chapters of the Bible, the scene has changed. It is no longer the church on earth, in time, in given places. Now suddenly we are looking into eternity. [00:23:09] And we find a most wonderful thing. We find in revelation and chapter 21 and verse 23. 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. Now the old version used to say candlestick, which is a very unfortunate translation because it is lampstand. And I think it's been corrected in the modern versions that some of you are using. [00:23:46] A lampstand has a stand and has a lamp that fits into the top of it. The menorah, the seven branched lampstand that was in the temple had seven branches, and on the top of each one fitted in a lamp. [00:24:02] Now, when John saw those seven golden lampstands, he saw exactly that. Not candlesticks, but lampstand. [00:24:11] When John saw the city coming down out of heaven, having the glory of God, he heard this word. It has no need of sun or moon to lighten it, for the glory of God lightens it. And the lamb is the lamp thereof. The sevenfold lamp is the lamb. What is the standard? The city. [00:24:37] The city is the stand. [00:24:39] So you have at the end of the book of Revelation the lampstand again, only this time it's not to do with the earth and with time and with locality or place. It is to do with eternity. [00:24:54] Then you find the same word to him that overcometh. In revelation 21 and verse six, he said unto me, there come to pass. I am the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. [00:25:23] Not my child, my son, because it has its way. God is saying, I want someone who has not only a baby, but has grown up from childhood to be my son, that he may inherit these things and administer these things. [00:25:44] And you have the same word about hearing chapter 22, verse 17. And the spirit and the bride say, come. And he that heareth, let him come. [00:25:56] Now, surely this correspondence between the last chapters and the first chapters is no coincidence. Somehow here we have something that spans the whole book of revelation and all these complex and mysterious visions that are contained within it. And surely it must have tremendous bearing upon all of us. [00:26:24] For what the Lord is trying to say as he depicts the whole scene that we shall pass through in this age, what he is saying is the key to the whole thing is not just being saved and not just serving the Lord. It is being involved in the building of his church that is the key to the whole age. It is the key to the ages of time. [00:26:59] It's as if God is saying to us all, don't just look upon those last visions in the Bible as wonderful, glorious ideals and pictures. If you are going to be part of that bride. If you are going to come to reign with Christ forever and ever, if you are going to come to his throne to be with him and to sit with him in his throne, then you have got to be involved in all that he is doing on earth in time and place with other brothers and sisters. [00:27:52] What is the divine goal? [00:27:57] The divine goal is abide. [00:28:01] Come sit it. Now, I have often said to you what an extraordinary combination of contrary matters this is. You dont normally think of a bride in a city having a relationship. No man speaks of his wife as my city. [00:28:21] No one would think of speaking of Washington. I should think it would be crazy if President Carter said my bride. [00:28:32] I mean, it just doesn't. It doesn't make sense, does it? We're all used to it because it's in the Bible. [00:28:40] Some people say this city is a literal city. I have no doubt that there will be a city because there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. And somewhere the headquarters of God are going to be located. [00:28:55] If there are going to be nations, if there is going to be righteousness from end to end of the earth, if the glory of knowledge, of the glory of God is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, somewhere there is going to be a capital, a hub of administration, the center of everything. [00:29:13] So I don't doubt that there is somewhere a city. But what I have to question is whether the city that we have in revelation 21 and 22 is to be taken literally as a city in the first place. [00:29:27] Because if you look very carefully at this city, it is an extraordinary city. I think I've mentioned this to some of you before. [00:29:34] I mean, it's as long as it is broad as it is high. [00:29:38] Now that is quite extraordinary for it to be 1800 miles long and borders one thing but for it to be 1800 miles high is another. [00:29:48] Now, I know in this country you do build hides, but even you haven't gone up to that yet. [00:29:57] I've no doubt they've got plans possibly sometime for doing something somewhere up in space, God forbid. [00:30:06] But I dont think thats what this city is talking about because it only has one street. [00:30:13] We sing hymns that say were going to tread the golden streets. [00:30:18] But theres no such thing as golden streets. [00:30:22] Theres only one golden street. [00:30:25] How do you get one street in a city so immense and so high unless it's a spiral, you know, and somehow gets in all the gates as you go up? I mean, it doesn't make sense, does it? And then it's transparent as glass. Who wants to live in a city transparent as glass? It's bad enough having your friends all in and out the whole time. But I mean, to live in a house which is glass. So that people can see clean through it and out. And you can see everything, everybody else and everything they do. Oh, I don't know. I know we shall be different in those days. But still, I would have thought privacy is part of something to do with the man and woman. I don't know. There's something. It's amazing, isn't it? [00:31:16] You've never heard of a city that's produced out of gold and precious stone and pearl, have you? [00:31:23] That's a sure sign. There can't be any crime anywhere or they'd be hacking it to pieces. [00:31:30] You couldnt have such a city. [00:31:33] Now, taking all these things into consideration, we have to come to a conclusion. And the conclusion is that we have a spiritual reality, a spiritual entity, an eternal reality. Represented by these wonderful symbols. [00:31:55] Now, im not going to go into all of that. I think Stephen has already touched upon it this morning. And said enough for the Holy Spirit to start to work in all our hearts. But what I do want to say is that a bride represents the most intimate love and union known to mankind. [00:32:22] A city represents administration and commerce. [00:32:30] A capital city represents the central administration. For a whole nation and empire. [00:32:40] Now, in the most incredible way, when you come to the end of the Bible. God brings two things together which were there in Genesis. He said to man, have dominion. [00:32:53] Subdue the earth, replenish it, rule it. [00:32:59] And then he put him in a garden and said, now keep and guard this garden. And if only man had not failed, God would have said that the time has come now for you to add an allotment to the garden. And another allotment to the garden. And another allotment to. And slowly man would have moved out from the garden to subdue the whole earth. It wasn't that there was necessarily sin, as some believe, in the earth. Which meant that it had to be subdued. It could just be that life is a riot. [00:33:32] Remember that. You can't have life. You know you can't have life. So every single thing goes there. Life has to be trained. It has to be pruned. It has to be disciplined. And when God said, let the living things be. And they all began to grow everywhere, wildly, in a great riot. We know that there weren't the same amount of weeds and thistles and thorns. Because that came in with the curse. But nevertheless, there was a riot of life, and man was to subdue it. But he failed. If he had only won, wouldn't it have been an amazing thing? Dominion. Dominion. That was one of the first things God ever said to man, have dominion. And that is one of the themes of the Bible. Why did God create us that we might reign. Why did God create us that we might learn how to have dominion. Why did God create us that in union with himself, we might learn first in the kindergarten of paradise, the kindergarten of Eden, we might learn the first elementary fundamental essence. And then we would have moved on. If man hadn't fallen, to have learned more. And at some point, man would have been transfigured in glory. [00:34:48] He would have obtained the glory of God. He would have succeeded instead of failing, he would have been like Jesus on the mount of transfiguration when it wasn't a spotlight of light, spotlight coming out of heaven, an open heaven shining on him. And as it were causing everything to be seen clearly. But something happened inside of him as a man. [00:35:15] And his whole skin and body radiated glory so that his clothes were transfigured and his flesh was transfigured. It was like the sun being switched on inside of him. Do you know thats what you were made for? Only we sinned and fell short of the glory of God. Thats what youre destined for. Isnt that wonderful? [00:35:45] And if we had gone on, God would have said, now theres more to subdue and more to it. Now you must learn not only to conquer the earth and subdue the earth and have dominion over the earth and over the wild beasts of the earth, as well as the domestic animals of the earth, but you must learn. Now, wouldn't it have been wonderful to have had that experience that joy Adamson had with born free? That's what you were born for. You should have been able to have patted a lion and spoken to a tiger and said to an elephant, more firewood. [00:36:19] That's what we should have had in the kindergarten at the beginning. We would have dominion over the wild beasts as well as the domestic animals. And then God would have said, now into a new dimension, a spiritual dimension. Now you must learn to rule in the invisible, where there are invisible thrones and powers. Now you must learn to reign there. What a tremendous thing. Man fell. All through the Bible, you have this theme of government. All through the Bible, you have this theme of dominion. All through the Bible you have this theme of authority. All to the Bible you have this theme of kingship. [00:36:55] Man fell. [00:36:59] But God sent his only begotten son to save us and to bring us back into his original purpose. And so what is God doing with us? He is seeking to make us kings and priests unto him. Now the other thing you have right through the Bible is not only this matter of reigning when Jesus said to him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with my father in his throne. [00:37:28] But you have this other matter of the bride. In the second chapter of Genesis, you have the story of the institution of human marriage, and we know from the way God speaks about it later that this was instituted to replicate, represent the spiritual reality that he was looking for and for which we human beings were created. [00:37:56] Marriage is only till death do us part. [00:38:00] But this marriage that God speaks of is forever. [00:38:07] Marriage was instituted for time, but this marriage between the lamb and the wife of the lamb is for eternity. Now, when you go through the Bible, you see it again and again and again. I alluded to it only the other night, so I'm not going to go over it again. But when you come to the end of the Bible, these two themes are brought together and we find that the bride is a city and the wife of the lamb is the New Jerusalem. And the two things come together. You have not only the most intimate, loving relationship and union known to mankind only in a spiritual way, forever between God and his own, between Christ and his bride, but you have also that city which is to be the eternal centre of God's administration for all the ages to come. We dont even know what God is going to do in the ages to come. We dont know whether therell be new universes. When God has filled this whole universe with his glory, he might say to us, I think, well create another universe with a sort of new principles. Well, wont it be exciting? I dont know. We have to be very careful because its all speculation. But God is. I mean some people seem to think that God has exhausted himself, you know. No, don't pray too much to God. I mean he gave you intelligence, I mean he's old, he has to lie down in the afternoon. [00:39:53] You mustn't bother him too much. He's got too much on his head already with all these millions of people all asking him things. So don't you come with your little. I mean, isn't it so, isn't that the way subconsciously we think of God, that somehow or other he's worn out, tired and that this world has really taken it out of him. [00:40:12] I mean, you know, he put every single thing he had into this world. And now he's quite exhausted because he wouldn't give up. [00:40:21] And he's persevered with us, but he's just about coming through. [00:40:26] And so when finally sin is finished with and Satan is finished with, and as a new heaven and a new earth, it's as if God says, well, I haven't got anything more to do. I couldn't do anymore. I've exhausted everything. I mean, it's nonsense, nonsense. [00:40:44] God hasn't started yet. [00:40:47] You just wait. People get so excited with these pictures of Mars. [00:40:58] They like to see the other side of Venus and Mars and so on, and all it looks like is some moonscape. [00:41:06] Can't think of anything more ghastly. [00:41:08] And this wonderful planet that God has created with its infinite and delicate balance in which only within that little sort of area can this, the life that we know exists. It is incredible. Do you think that God has exhausted them? Never, never, never. [00:41:29] Even this universe has only a pale reflection of what God originally intended for it. One day, as the apostle Paul said in Romans eight, when that bondage to corruption is finally broken, then somehow the trees will evolve into something else and other things will evolve. What does it all mean? We only know that the prophets speak about lions lying down with lambs and children playing with adders and asps and bears and kids feeding on straw together. I mean, it's an amazing picture. It's a sun almost. It has to be in Sunday school language so that we can take it in. But that's only the beginning. [00:42:14] You don't think that God is just going to have us forever and ever and ever and ever, looking at these animals eating straw with one another and some child playing with an adder, and then he'll say, no, I think we'll get enough of that. We'll have a thousand years of hallelujah chorus. So we all go in and we all sing a hallelujah chorus for a thousand years. And then he says, now go out and have another look at the animals. So we all go out and have another look. The child plays with the adder again, and we see the bear and the kid eating straw. I mean, it's so nonsensical. No wonder people laugh at us. They say, what a boring eternity those christians are going to have. They're pretty dull anyway. And then they're all going to be up there forever and ever and ever, boring one another to death. Now, I know that the best amongst us will say, but the Lord is so glorious and so beautiful that just to look at him will be satisfying and fulfilling. But God is not proud. [00:43:10] God doesn't just stand there and say, I want to be admired. All of you stand around me and forever tell me how wonderful I am. God isn't like that. [00:43:21] God is, may I say it reverently, is inherent genius. The genius in mankind is the palest reflection of the divine genius. And God has been inhibited by the fall. He has been, if you know what I mean. I wrestle with human language. He's been inhibited in what he wanted to. And so we have a parenthesis of sin and time. But one day that whole parenthesis will be over and the first and former things will have gone forever. And then God will turn around and say, no, my bride, let's get on with it. Let's go out into the ages. Well, dear folks, I think it's worth being saved to be in that. [00:44:05] That's all I can say. A little bit of affliction here and a little bit of suffering here and a few bad circumstances and a few inexplicable problems. Quite honestly, when we're there, we'll laugh about it. Won't you wait? I'll have you to tea and we'll sit down and we'll have a good laugh and I'll say, do you remember that inexplicable problem that you spent so much time crying over and everything? Look what it's done, radiating glory. [00:44:35] You'll hardly be able to talk. [00:44:38] You'll say, it was worth it. Oh, the love of God. The love of God that gave me that problem. The love of God that brought that inexplicable thing into my circumstances. You won't say, oh, how can a loving God do this? You will say, oh, it was the love of God. I see it now. It was the love of God. It was a pin prick of time, and he brought all that into my experience and he pressed me almost beyond measure and he drove me to himself and I found out his love for me and I began to love him. And, oh, I can't tell you how thankful I am for every single thing that he did. [00:45:19] It's brought me to the throne, it's brought me into the bride, it's brought me into a union with the lamb, which is forever and ever. I feel so sorry for christians that are filled with bitterness and distrust. They think God is some victorian grandfather who hates them, who loves them to be miserable, who will pile problems upon them. If you look at time, of course, it's like that. But if God shows you a horizon, gives you an eternal horizon, suddenly it's light affliction, which is but for a moment, which works for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory, whilst we look not at the things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are not seen are eternal. [00:46:11] Yes, dear friends, this book of revelation is the most precious book in the Bible. [00:46:18] It may be the most mysterious book or the most complex book, but it's surely the most precious. And that's why it says at the end, everyone who reads this book will get a blessing. [00:46:30] And I know many people who haven't got a blessing. In fact, they've come to me and said, you know, this blessing certainly escaped me. [00:46:39] I got so worked up, almost to a spiritual neurosis over this book. I can't understand it. Trumpets, bowls, plagues, vials, seals. I just don't understand it. Where is the blessing? [00:47:01] I tell you where the blessing. Is it in an understanding of the profound simplicity of the book of Revelation, forget for a moment the complexity and the mystery and think of the bride and the city. Oh, what profound simplicity. [00:47:19] The whole Bible is a love story. [00:47:27] God loves you. He doesn't want one of those bureaucratic, eternal civil services where people sit behind sorted computers and tap them or machines, you know, mask like humanless faces that sort of give you a form to fill in and stamp something and give it back to you. [00:47:55] But we think of this administration. God says, don't you think of my administration like that. I don't want anything to do with that kind of administration. I want an administration that comes out of love. They have loved the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, soul, with all their mind and with all their strength. And they have loved their neighbor as themselves. They have laid down their lives as I lay down my life. They have followed me the whole way. [00:48:22] And now I want to bring them into a union with myself, which is eternal, an intimate, personal, direct union that they belong to me in a most direct manner. They are bridesmaids. My bride. They are my wife. They are my family. They are me. [00:48:42] And together we will reign from the throne of God. [00:48:48] Dear people of God. [00:48:52] I think that's something worth considering. [00:48:59] No wonder the Bible says that you have such a high calling. [00:49:06] Did you know it? [00:49:08] Did you know that God has saved you with this calling in view something so tremendous, he wants to bring you to the throne. Only he doesn't want to bring you to the throne in a kind of dutiful manner, a kind of mechanical manner. He wants to bring you to the throne by the way of love. [00:49:31] Now, there's so much more that I could say, and I wish we in some ways had the time to say it, but maybe it would lead us away from what I want really to underline tonight. [00:49:45] But I do want just to say again, do you see the divine goal? [00:49:52] The divine goal is this wife of the lamb, this bride of Christ. Now, what the aim of God is in the ages to come, I don't know. [00:50:03] Does anybody? [00:50:06] What the Lord is going to do in the ages to come. He knows. [00:50:11] And it is enough for me to know that he wants me to be in a bridal relationship to him. That's how the Bible ends, with a marriage. [00:50:21] And out the two go into the ages to come, united, married. [00:50:29] A home set up, a divine home set up. And from that home there will be a government that will administer the will of God and the kingdom of God. That's enough for me. [00:50:46] I know just enough of the Lord to know that all his ways are wonderful and all his ways are grace. And I cant think of anything more wonderful than ages to come in which we shall forever be seeing the works of God and the ways of God. Fathomless, inexplorable. O glory, im glad im saved, even if you arent now the sphere of our practical involvement in this bride. This city is tied to those seven golden lampstands in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. [00:51:41] As if the Lord is saying, dont think you can just sort of float through life. [00:51:48] You can just somehow go through with unsettled issues. [00:51:52] Never know anything of spiritual discipline or authority. Never know anything of submitting to fellowship. Never know what it is to be built one to another. Never know what it is to submit one to another. Never know what it is to go through together. [00:52:11] It would be a wonderful thing, I know in many people's eyes, if God could wave a kind of magic wand in a fairy tale and suddenly say all these difficult questions, may they be perfect. [00:52:26] And then suddenly, in a flash, we're all wonderful. [00:52:33] Human personality is not like that, if I may so speak in human terms. God took the greatest risk that ever he took when he created man, because he created man spirit, soul and body. [00:52:57] And in creating human personality, God created something so beautiful, so complex, and when it goes wrong, so diabolical. [00:53:19] Now, it takes a lot of training and a lot of discipline and a lot of education to bring fallen men and women saved by his grace, born of his spirit through the school of Christ, to the place where they can reign with him and be his bride. God is being very careful about this matter. [00:53:50] I have no doubt that it is one of the reasons why he deals in the way he does with some of his choicest servants. [00:54:00] He takes an apostle Paul, that we could have well had down here, and have had written a few more letters. And at the early age of 66 he is martyred. [00:54:15] Think what more we could have obtained. We would have kept him. God takes him. God takes a watchmanly and puts him in prison for 20 years, only to die at the end of it. What a waste. [00:54:33] Why does he do it? [00:54:36] As I've often said, I can think of many of us who could have well done with a spell inside. [00:54:42] It might have cured us of a lot of things, but we could have done with Wathanees ministry, his counsel, his fellowship, but not God. [00:54:53] You see, God has special candidates for special position, and God brings into those lives all kinds of things, because in the end he is carefully training and educating for an eternal vocation. [00:55:16] He will therefore sometimes take us out of the running and put us aside. [00:55:22] Sometimes he will do exactly what he's done with our brother or with others in different ways, but it adds up to the same thing, because he is training with an eternal vocation in mine. [00:55:38] Dear brothers and sisters, this matter of the church down here is very, very important. It's all important. [00:55:52] I will leave this matter except to say one other thing. Do you notice that to every one of those real churches, in spite of all their and problems, God speaks to those, to him that overcome. [00:56:11] Some people don't like any teaching on overcomers. They say it is a kind of separatism, it is an elitism. We are making a kind of elite group. Yes, I understand that. If we're going to talk about some kind of elite group who know that they're overcomers and the west or not, I think it's very, very wrong indeed. But I remember Mister Sparks once called overcomers the advance working party, and for me that delivered the whole idea from elitism and put it into its proper perspective. God takes people who will give him everything and he takes them right the way through, and he pioneers away by them, like Joseph going down into Egypt. And then the rest of the brothers come into the blessing. [00:57:04] Its not elitism, but it is training. [00:57:12] Now do you begin to see something? [00:57:15] I dont know if you do, but you see, this matter of love is essential. [00:57:24] No man no woman will be an overcomer except by divine love. [00:57:32] You will count the cost and fall out. [00:57:37] You will find the sacrifice too much, the warfare too fierce, the problems too inexplicable. You will fall out. It's only those who have first love that will ever be overcome. [00:57:56] No lukewarm Christian will ever be an overcomer, not in a million, million years. [00:58:03] You can have all the understanding of the Bible so that you can write theological treatise on it. You can have an understanding of the purpose of God so that you could preach from now till next week on the eternal purpose of God. You can have a knowledge of church truth, that you can distinguish the things that differ and put everything into its place. But if you do not have first love, you will never be an overcomer. [00:58:33] By the grace of God, you will never come to that throne of his to reign with him. You will be saved. [00:58:42] You will be in the kingdom, but you will not reign with him. [00:58:47] For if we do not suffer with him, we shall not reign with him. The book said, now do you see what I meant when I entitled this message this evening? The divine diagnosis? [00:59:10] You see, you probably, if you've been following me and not asleep, you will probably think, well, why didn't he call it the divine goal? [00:59:19] That's what he's been talking about. [00:59:21] Ah, just wait. I don't want to leave you with the divine goal. Too many of you know something about the divine goal. That's not what I want to emphasize and underline. What I want to underline is the divine diagnosis. You see the beginning of this book of revelation in these messages to these seven churches which represent the whole church in time on earth, in given places. [00:59:49] The first message to the first church is to do with love. And the last message to the last church is about love. [01:00:00] We cannot escape that. [01:00:04] I have this against you. [01:00:07] You have left your first love. [01:00:12] Repent, therefore, and do the first works, or else I will come and remove your lampstand out of its place, except you repent. [01:00:27] I know your works. [01:00:30] You are neither hot nor cold. [01:00:33] I would that you were either hot or cold, but you are lukewarm. [01:00:41] Therefore I will spew you out of my mouth. [01:00:52] Ephesus was a church which, if we compare it with other churches, was marvelous. [01:00:58] Listen to what the Lord has to say to it. He says that, I know thy works in verse two, and thy toil and thy patience. [01:01:12] Thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves apostles, and are not, and didst find them false good discernment and thou hast patience and didst bear for my namesake. What a beautiful thing theyve endured. [01:01:35] And then he says, I have this also. You hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. [01:01:43] That is some come commendation. [01:01:47] Now I would say that if we were to judge the normal fellowship of God's people, the normal community of God's people, by this standard, many of them would come off well. We would say, well, here we are. We've got a reasonably good standard here. I think most of us would be very happy if the churches you were in came up to this standard work of God. Toil for God, patience in adversity and problem, discernment over error and false teaching and false leaders endurance and not grow unweary. [01:02:28] I think that's some commendation. And yet in spite of it all, the Lord says, no, I will be through with this, I will turn my back on it. [01:02:41] Its a sham. [01:02:45] They have left their first love. [01:02:49] Dear child of God, do you think the Lord might say that of you? [01:02:54] Could he be saying it of me? [01:02:58] Could he be saying it of us? [01:03:05] Why is he seemingly so harsh? Why? Because he loves so much, that's why. [01:03:14] He has loved you and me so much and us so much, has given so much for us, that he cannot bear anything to be substituted for love. [01:03:29] Love demands love. [01:03:33] Love requires love. There is no other alternative. You cannot satisfy someone who loves you with work and toil and patience and discernment and good judgment. It's obnoxious. [01:03:54] It's obnoxious. [01:03:56] If a person loves you, they want your love first and then those other things. [01:04:03] Otherwise, if it's a substitute for your love, it becomes something that pains them, grieves them, quenches them, makes them sick. [01:04:19] Oh, the lukewarmness of present day Christianity. [01:04:26] How comfortable we are, how affluent we are. [01:04:32] We have our routine, everything goes, we feel. Look, dont go for us, we go twice a day on Sunday and once in the week. Isnt that enough? In our busy lives, please don't disturb us. [01:04:52] We have to work it all out, we've got to organize ourselves. [01:04:57] But God says, I wish that you were cold. [01:05:02] What a thing for God to say to the church at Laodicea. I wish you were cold. [01:05:07] This lukewarmness I hate. [01:05:11] I wish you were either white hot, frozen solid. [01:05:17] But there's luke one that I can't bear, and he uses a word in Greek which is really dreadful. He says, I'll vomit you out. It's so vulgar. [01:05:30] That's what it's brought the Lord to. [01:05:33] He doesn't spare words, he doesn't use nice words, even though the king James puts it rather nicely. But if you think of it, spewing you out isn't really a very nice word, is it? [01:05:46] What a thing for the Lord to say to a believer. You make me sick. [01:05:52] I'm not being funny. That's exactly what it says in one of the modern versions. You make me sick, I shall vomit you out. [01:06:03] Now, some of you may be quite shocked when you hear a person like me saying this and think, well, I didnt come to hear that kind of thing. [01:06:12] Thats not nice. [01:06:15] But I want to tell you, dont have an argument with me. You have an argument with the Lord, because im only saying exactly what he said. [01:06:29] Lukewarmness. This church was something they said. We are rich, weve gotten riches, we have need of nothing. [01:06:44] Do you feel like that? Oh, we love these conferences. [01:06:50] Were rich, weve gotten riches, need of nothing. Feel so sorry for those poor people in such and such a denomination, and those others in that denomination and the others. But you know, we're something. [01:07:08] We've got it, we've seen. [01:07:14] Note the threatened action. [01:07:16] I am coming to you. Listen, this is exactly how it is. I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place. [01:07:32] I will spew you out of my mouth. [01:07:38] We often take that verse 20 of revelation three as being an evangelistic message. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and will sup with him and he with me. I myself found the Lord on that verse, so I'm very thankful for it. [01:07:59] But it is not an evangelistic message in the first place. [01:08:06] It is to a New Testament church, a real church, that the Lord had been cold shouldered out of by Luke warmness, not by outright frigidity, not by outright antagonism. Just Luke warned them. [01:08:25] He was outside knocking. [01:08:31] Behold, I stand at the door of the church here, of the living church of the house of God, and I knock. Is there anyone who can hear me? [01:08:45] If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and will sup with him and he with me. The renewal of love. [01:08:58] There can be no genuine fulfillment of God's purpose, no reaching of his goal without love. That is the message of revelation. [01:09:09] Ere all those other wonderful visions and mysteries and so on we'll leave to another time. [01:09:16] But the message that runs right through it is more essential than all the others. If you do not keep within your first love you will never come to the throne, you will never reach God's goal, you will never be part of that bride of his. [01:09:41] Now, may I just say, and we must draw this to a close, may I say something about the essential nature of first love? [01:09:50] Let me just say a few words about it to explode any false ideas. First love is a quality of love. It is not an indication of its sequence in time. [01:10:05] Most people think of first love, may I use a colloquial slang? They think of it as puppy love, calf love. [01:10:17] And we think, oh, the Lord's saying, you've left your first sort of affection, your first explosion of emotion. You've left your puppy love, you've left your calf love when you were all doe eyed and sort of, you know, all walking on air with me. That's not what the Lord said at all. First love is not an indication of its sequence in time. It is a quality of love. It is a sensitive, total love which is committed to the object of its love totally, completely. [01:11:00] What does it mean? It is the kind of love that is ready for any sacrifice, at any time, in any place, for the one it loves. [01:11:16] It will go anywhere, be anything, do anything, spend anything out of love for that one. [01:11:30] First love. [01:11:34] It's ready for a week of prayer, a night of prayer, ready to put aside the routine and wait on God. That's first love. [01:11:47] It doesn't immediately raise a million objections. All we can't do that will upset this, will upset that. No, no, no. [01:11:54] First love says will do it. [01:12:00] First love will take a person to fall into the ground and die in a place like New guinea or somewhere in the Amazon or in some industrial dark area of a north american city. City. [01:12:22] Such is first love. [01:12:25] I cannot tell you how moved I was some years ago when I was taken by an old and godly servant of the Lord, a sister who had served the Lord with Rhys Howells and others for many years. And then in the latter part of her life in Israel, to a little unknown place in the mountains of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem. [01:12:53] And there I met three aged moravian sisters. [01:13:02] The leader of them was 84 years of age. I had not for many, many years touched the Lord in a person as in her. [01:13:16] And in the day that I went, which is quite some time ago, they had spent the whole day washing the clothes of the 13 lepers that were their charge. [01:13:28] The arab women and men that came in wouldn't touch the clothes, so these sisters did it instead, day in, day out. For 42 years that sister has cared for lepers one of them no legs, no arms and blind in one eye, another one with no feet and only one hand and no nose. [01:13:58] They have to be carried to the bathroom, they have to be fed, wash, everything done. [01:14:10] No one knows of these. [01:14:12] No one has sung about them, no one has written about them. [01:14:18] They are not popular. They have never been thanked. [01:14:22] They come from a mother house in eastern Germany from which they are cut off. So even their money is very little. [01:14:32] I was more humbled by my visit to them than by many, many other visits I paid to other servants of the Lord. [01:14:45] Now I only mention it because I saw in that sister a first love. [01:14:52] You know, she never said, oh, this terrible work, get people to pray for us. [01:14:58] She was radiant. [01:15:01] And when the sister turned round to me and said, you know what they've been doing all day? Washing the clothes of the lepers, I couldn't believe it. They were radiant, full of the spirit of the Lord, three seeds that had fallen into the ground and died. [01:15:22] I can't help feeling that such must somewhere come to the throne, somewhere, sometime there must be some recognition that is first love. [01:15:36] No thought of being popular, of being written about, of being famous, of somehow or other everyone. At least if you lay down your life, it's nice to know that people know it and sort of say, wasn't it wonderful? So and so laid down his life. Did you see it? [01:15:53] But to do it where no one sees you, where no one knows, really, and perhaps it seems nobody cares. [01:16:01] That is first love you have left your first love, you will lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. [01:16:23] This is a quality that God looks for in you and me. Think of one. Corinthians 13. [01:16:32] You know, we all think of many of you who have got that up, written on some plaque or on some parchment or whatever on the wall, because it is so wonderful. But I wonder if anyone has ever noticed the searing nature of the words. Listen. If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am become sounding blast or a clanging cymbal. [01:17:08] And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [01:17:28] And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. [01:17:43] I say, forget the sentiment for a moment. These words are searing. [01:17:51] Oh, if I had the tongues of men and angels, many would so desire, but have not love. [01:18:05] I am become a sounding brass, sounding brass, a noisy gong is how the new american standard Bible puts it. I wonder how many noisy gongs there are here. [01:18:22] How many clanging cymbals? [01:18:27] Or again, listen to this. [01:18:31] If I have the gift of prophecy and have knowledge and know all mysteries, all mysteries and all knowledge and have not love, I am nothing. A noisy gong, a clanging cymbal, nothing. [01:18:57] And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing. [01:19:18] First love. [01:19:26] First love. [01:19:31] What an indictment. [01:19:34] Years of work, of zeal, of study, of energy, even of faith, to remove mountains, of sacrifice, even of revelation, and it amounts to nothing. [01:20:01] What is the divine solution? [01:20:05] God does not give a diagnosis without a solution. [01:20:09] Here it is. [01:20:12] Remember from where you have fallen. Did you hear that? [01:20:17] Remember from where you have fallen. [01:20:22] Go back and think. [01:20:27] Remember, it's the first part of the solution. And here is the second. In chapter two, verse five, repent twice he says it. And in chapter three and verse nine, be zealous therefore, and repent now. Don't think that you cannot repent when God tells us to repent. Every one of us can repent. Some people think that you only repent when you get converted. No, God says to believers here in the church at Ephesus, repent or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place. Except you repent. What is repentance? Its to turn deliberately, to turn toward God and say, oh, God, forgive me, I repent of this thing. Its not just a failing a week weakness. It's not. I can't make an excuse. You see, we've all people of excuses. Oh, Lord, you know, I'm so busy. You know, I've got so many circles. You know, the problems with the family. You know the problems with so and so or so and so or so and so, you know. But the Lord says, no, I won't. It doesn't wash. I don't want any excuses. [01:21:44] Repent. [01:21:50] Be zealous, therefore, and repent and do the first works. [01:22:03] What does he mean, the first works? [01:22:06] He means all the things you're doing that are right only with first love. [01:22:14] Maybe you must give your good to. [01:22:17] Maybe your body will be burned one day. [01:22:22] Certainly you should have faith to remove mountains. Weve got plenty of them that need removing. [01:22:27] You ought to have a knowledge of mysteries. Wouldnt it be wonderful if you had a knowledge of all mysteries? Id like to talk with you. [01:22:37] All knowledge. [01:22:39] I wish you had the tongues of men and angels with first love. [01:22:51] No wonder the apostle says when he ends this marvelous word, he says, make love your aim, or it is put in another version. That's Philips. In another version says, pursue love. [01:23:12] Pursue love. This is the most excellent way. [01:23:17] Dear brothers and sisters, it is never easy to talk like this, but we have to at times. [01:23:32] Would to God that everyone of us were still in our first love. [01:23:37] But if we are not, may God get through to you and me this evening. [01:23:45] May there be tears shed and hearts melted. [01:23:51] And somehow or other may God bring us back into that first love. So that we will not be amongst those whose love waxes cold, because in itself abounds. But we shall be those who put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation, the divine diagnosis. [01:24:19] You have left your first love repentance and do the first works, or else I am coming and will remove your lampstand out of its place, except you repent. [01:24:41] Shall we pray? [01:25:08] Have a moment of quietness, shall we? [01:25:18] Dear Lord, do we pray in thy great compassion and mercy and love, be gracious to us this evening. [01:25:34] Thou knowest our hearts altogether, Lord, there is nothing we can hide from thee. [01:25:40] Thou knowest the condition of them. Thou knowest the condition, Lord, of all the companies of thy children that are represented in this place tonight. [01:25:51] O Lord, we pray that we may have an ear to hear what thou art saying and a will to obey thee and to respond to thee. [01:26:08] Dear Lord, work in our hearts, we pray, by your spirit. We are living in days of great danger and crisis and change. [01:26:19] We pray, o Lord, that we shall be those who by thy grace are overcome. Us. [01:26:25] And, Lord, we pray, o tonight, if we have left our first love, bring us back, whatever the cost, whatever it means, however much it means. We must humble ourselves if we have to go to one another and confess things, if we have to apologize to one another, if there are things that need to be forgiven and forgotten, cleansed away. Oh, give us grace. Lord, we pray that we may have no obstacle in returning to our first love. Help us to understand, for each one of us, if this word is applied to us, what repent means. [01:27:18] When thou didst say, be zealous and repent. Help us. Lord, we pray to understand what it means for us to be zealous and to repent. [01:27:30] Lord, have mercy upon us and by thy spirit move in all our hearts. Lord, we pray, thou dost love us so much. [01:27:44] Win us again to thyself. [01:27:48] We ask it for thy name's sake. [01:27:51] Amen. Now let us just remain quietly.