The Last Great Revival
Ministry by J. B. Stoney
– Part One

In Eden and after the fall, man is restored to God, or rather, God renews His favour to men, in the midst of the wreck which his own unbelief had caused.

• And before the flood Enoch is translated; there is an expression of divine favour, enjoyed, and witnessed of, in a peculiar degree, before the old order of things is superseded.
  • The son of Enoch must have lived to the year before the deluge.

Thus with Noah. He fails; losing self-control, he forfeits the place of power and government, in which he was set here;

• but subsequent to his fall and in the very scene of it, the favour of the Lord is assured to him, and he can prophesy of the ways of God with his posterity in power and honour.

Thus also with the children of Abraham. Though Jacob falls away to the land of Syria, and there is marked defection from the standing and hope vouchsafed to Abraham, and enjoyed by him,

• yet Jacob again before the discipline, and entire setting aside of that order of things, tastes of the favour of God in the old order, and in a very special way.

With the children of Israel in the land the same kind of thing occurs. After the captivity, after the destruction of Jerusalem,

• there is a return of a remnant to the land, and the rebuilding of the temple, etc., the Lord saying, "From this day will I bless you".

• Great was the renewal of favour when, to this restored company, the Son of God was born of a woman among them.
  • A wonderful revival, or recovery of truth, before the approaching hour when their house should be left desolate; when their history as a nation among men should be closed; before this mountain should be carried into the depths of the sea.

So also with the assembly; though sunk in ruins, though torn into sects through internal divisions, though covered with reproach among men,

• yet before it is finally set aside, before it is spued out of Christ's mouth, as no longer fit in any way to be the vessel for testimony here, there is a marked revival of the truth.
  • The nature and mode of this reviving I desire to dwell on.

In each dispensation, after the ruin of it, there has been, as we see, a reviving of the truth before the final dissolution of it.

• The truth revived in each case is the greatest and most important; the one in which the people of God had specially failed;

• but it is restored by an act of pure grace; God visiting His people and showing them how He can turn the dry ground into water-springs.

• He recalls their hearts signally to the blessing which they had forfeited by unbelief.

Thus it is with the assembly in these days; the saints are recalled to the greatest truth; that in which they had failed most, is the one revived;

• and the knowledge and effect of it constitutes a Philadelphian.

The truth the assembly has most failed in is with reference to Christ's relation to it, and its relation to Christ; and this has so affected the most pious souls, that

• for centuries this greatest of truths has not been known and, as might be supposed, with the loss of it all the other truths were compromised or falsified;

• but with the recovery of it, all the others have been restored to their true and vital character.

In the Lord's rebuke to the assembly for her first failure, "Thou hast left thy first love", we are prepared for all the darkness and ruin which followed;

• for this, because of its gravity, entailed the removal of the candlestick out of its place.

• Surely, if first love, the new and peculiar sense of Christ's worth, declines in the soul, the most perfect knowledge of mere doctrines will very soon become ineffectual.

The revival of truth that constitutes a Philadelphian is that, by the signal favour of God, he is awakened to comprehend Christ's relation to himself individually, and to all His saints;

• and Christ therefore appears to the assembly of Philadelphia in the way best calculated to help on and sustain them, as thus revived in truth.

The truth revived is the disclosure, to the heart of the saint, of Christ in His place and relation to His people – simply, the knowledge of Christ.

• The state of the Philadelphian is, "Thou hast a little power", he must abide in Christ, for "without Me ye can do nothing", and "hast kept My word, and hast not be denied My name".

• This comprises the gospel of John; the word and the name, the commandment and the character.

You are not a Philadelphian if you are not in this state, and if you are not a Philadelphian, you cannot avail yourself of the aspect and grace in which Christ appears to the church of Philadelphia.

• But as we have seen, in each dispensation, the leading and energy of His Spirit is to revive the greatest truth which they had in their deadness surrendered, because it is the greatest which goes first.

• Now in order to revive this truth, He must begin at the very beginning; He must begin at the point of departure and,
  • as it was about Himself personally, He must needs go back to the same course which He adopted with the disciples at the first, who had believed on Him on earth.

We find in Luke 24 and John 20 that there were two lines of truth in which the disciples must be instructed, as necessary and essential for the new ground in which the saints would now be set.

• Mary Magdalene, and the two disciples going to Emmaus, are all believers. The truth they are taught there is communicated to them after their conversion and in advance of what they had already comprehended.

• Mary Magdalene represents the heart mourning the absence of Christ from the earth, as we find the bride in Canticles. She learns that the Lord is risen indeed, and now she is instructed in the truth of present association with the Lord, which she is directed to communicate to the disciples.

• The two disciples going to Emmaus are sad because of Christ's death; they have no hope of the redemption of Israel. They are encountered by the Lord and taught three things:
  1. First, how the Scriptures speak of Christ, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself".

  2. Secondly, He was known of them in breaking of bread; He is known in resurrection.

  3. And thirdly, He takes His place in the midst of the disciples, already instructed through these two channels, according to the varied and important truth imparted to each.

• After these communications had been made, the Lord appears in their midst, constituting and inaugurating the new ground which they should now occupy with relation to Him.

• As risen from the dead, He imparts unto them the virtue and the blessedness of His own elevation. He conducts them practically into it, and breathes upon them.

• They are then formally and in reality introduced into entirely new ground. It has now begun, and is now known for the first time in power; established and promoted on the descent of the Holy Spirit, but now originated and propounded.

• It is a wondrous scene – one of unequalled light and joy – when the soul enters into the effects of being in the presence of the risen Lord, though still in this scene where His death was required and where we are commemorating it.

This was The Beginning, and thus only can there be a true sense of my relation to Christ or of His relation to His saints on earth.

• This was lost for centuries, and it is now revived, but not through the instrumentality of books.

• When the truth is revived, it is, as it was at the first, through channels immediately instructed by the Lord Himself. This is the revival and the manner of His grace in this day.

• As He taught Mary Magdalene, as He taught the two disciples, so does He in His gracious loving-kindness teach in this day.

• The same steps have to be trodden, the same exercises have to be passed through.

The church, so-called, with its writings of centuries, and its pious ministers, contribute nothing to this revival. It is entirely and absolutely effected by the Lord's instructing, and leading souls into it, as He did at the beginning;

• so that He can say of the Philadelphian assembly, "Thou hast a little power" (no power but from abiding in Christ), "and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name".

• His word and His name are His doctrines and His character; and one who keeps this is a Philadelphian; and this is the way in which he is taught.

The Lord give us to see the nature of the great revival in the present day, and to partake of the untold blessings connected with it.

As each of these truths has been maintained, a direct opposition has been raised against it.

• The violence and malice of Rome was, and is, arrayed against the first, whilst against the other two there are special adversaries which are only unmasked in proportion as there is persistent faithfulness to the truth.

The first thing for the saint to accept is, that distinct and important truths have been revived.

• No saint nowadays will deny that justification by faith is an all-important truth, though many in Luther's day, and even subsequently, have conscientiously opposed it.

• Many saints in the present day do not see the immense importance of the truth of the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, and that the body of Christ is here, formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit;
  • and inasmuch as they do not receive these truths, they do not enjoy the grace conferred by them, nor are they competent to be witnesses of Christ on earth.

• Without the doctrine of justification by faith, there could be no assurance to the soul of escape from divine judgment. No one could have a sense of pardon without accepting it.

• But many who have a sense of pardon have no guarantee or seal of the divine work in their souls.

• They do not believe that the Spirit God dwells in them, or that the Holy Spirit forms the saints into one body, or that He dwells here to testify for Christ;
  • so that they cannot, though assured of safety because of justification by faith, be happy individually,

  • nor can they understand their privileges and responsibilities corporately, nor the nature or manner of testimony for Christ here.

• Thus there must be ignorance on these most important subjects, unless the truths brought out in these late years be accepted and maintained.

Now these truths are united and yet quite distinct. We see in John's gospel that the Comforter would be sent by the Father for the comfort of the individual saint (John 14: 26),

• while for testimony it is the Lord who sends Him. "The Comforter … whom I will send unto you from the Father … He shall testify of Me", chapter 15: 26.

• Paul alone speaks of the body: "By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body".

Now these truths are in advance of the doctrine of justification by faith without works; no exercised heart can deny that they offer and propose a progress far beyond that of justification by faith.

• A sinner is lost unless he be justified; this is the beginning; but what advance can there be if there be no unqualified known certainty of it by the indwelling Spirit, and if there be no apprehension of our corporate privileges, nor of the testimony for Christ here?

• Yet these truths which confer so much are as little known in this day as was justification by faith in a former day, and the ignorance and opposition of heart to them are as great; otherwise, why are the saints not ready any eager to receive them?

Now let us see what these truths involved. First, individually there is no seal nor earnest of the inheritance unless the Holy Spirit dwells in the saint.

• When the saint knows himself to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, he is assured both of a present salvation and of a future inheritance.

• Surely very few believe this, and fewer still enjoy it; but that this truth, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, should have been brought to light in this day, is a momentous fact, and involves great responsibility to all who hear of it.

• For if the doctrine of justification was great, this must be still greater, inasmuch as it confirms and establishes, perfectly and eternally, what the former commenced.

• The knowledge of forgiveness of sins does not preserve from the flesh. It is only as we walk in the Spirit that we shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. It is Christ living in us and setting us free from everything of the old man.

• Many a one who fully believes in justification by faith finds, to the pain and sorrow of his conscience, that he has no control over the flesh, and that he is continually led by it;
  • and this is because he does not believe that the Holy Spirit is the One who would now dwell in his body, to rule and order it for Christ.

• If one did not know how the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, one would be surprised at the hesitation of any saint to bow to this truth or to raise any question as to it.

• But surely many a pious one in an earlier day raised questions as to the genuineness of justification by faith, and we ought not to be surprised at finding still greater and more subtle opposition to this.

Alas! the flesh is the great opposer to this truth. All that the flesh likes is opposed to it.

• There is a personal opposition to it, because it sets aside man in his own will completely; and therefore, though the deliverance be desired by the conscience,
  • there is an unwillingness to give up oneself, and to acknowledge the Holy Spirit as the guest who is to rule and order instead.

• Besides, unless a saint is in himself a temple of the Holy Spirit, unless he has drunk of the self-same Spirit, he cannot see how we are all baptised by one Spirit into one body.

• But when he enjoys the privileges which are his through the indwelling Spirit, he enters also into the responsibilities of the great calling of the church is committed to the apostle Paul, and taught in the epistle to the Ephesians.

If saints are members of the body of Christ, formed into one body by the Spirit of God, they are bound to preserve this unity in the bond of peace. They have to refuse everything which would grieve or hinder the Spirit.

• I cannot confine myself to my own conscience, or to the consciences of those immediately in fellowship with me. Whatever is necessarily incumbent on me, as of the one body, is equally necessary and incumbent on any other member of it as a member.

• I am not speaking of matters of mere conscience; but whatever would defile me as a member of Christ's body, I must regard as defiling to any other member; otherwise I do not understand the unity of the body, and that it is formed by the Spirit God.

• If I understand that I am a member of the body of Christ on earth, I feel that I have a claim on every saint on the earth, and every one of them has a claim on me;
  • and we are bound, in a common responsibility, to meet together and to avow ourselves as of this oneness – "one loaf" – at the Lord's table, thus expressing our unity.

• Hence the table must be one, however extended; it is only one, as the Holy Spirit is one, and any one member received or excluded at one place must be received or excluded at every place.

• If there be but one table – and there is but one – anything done or maintained by any one, with disqualifies him from the table is binding on everyone forming the table.

• The length of the table does not make that right or allowable at one end, which is wrong, contrary to the Lord, at the other. The whole is answerable for a part, for it is an expression of the body. It must be so, otherwise there would be a denial of the unity of the Spirit.

Now the maintenance of this truth would impose on us an order of union and service to one another unknown and unpracticed in the church generally,

• and would expose every one maintaining it to painful separation from, and exclusiveness with regard to, every saint refusing to bow to the great responsibility of belonging to this high position;
  • for a member who will not be a true member is like a dislocated one, causing suffering rather than being of use.

There is no truth that the art and malice of Satan so assails as the truth of the mystery of Christ.

• It connects the saints so distinctly with Christ in heaven, and with one another by the Spirit of God, that one who realizes it is superior to everything of man, although a man himself, and living among men;

• and hence there is no truth so little known or enjoyed, nor any which so many have in a sense received, but have afterwards surrendered as untenable. There is no truth so difficult to hold in any measure along with what is ordinarily received.

• Let any one ask himself how much he enters into being united to Christ as Head, and to the saints in one body here on earth, by the Holy Spirit, and he will see, if he judges truly, that he knows little of this wondrous truth.

• And it is because it is the greatest and the most blessed truth that Satan, the spirit of evil, is more opposed to it than to any other;

• and this accounts for the laxity, so deadly and terrible in its character, which has sprung up, and will ever spring up fiercely, as the truth is maintained fully, in order to neutralize it.

Now the great opposition to this truth does not come from the saints who are utterly ignorant of it, but from those who in word avow that they hold it.

• New as it is, and long as it was lost to the church, they profess to be enlightened in it, and assume that they are all but martyrs for this truth of the unity of the saints;

• and yet, from not understanding the nature and the susceptibilities of this divine union and what it claims, they really undermine the truth by their hollow and partial imitation of it.

The greatest wile or by-path is that which comes nearest the true thing, and the curious strategic way in which they defend and propagate their laxity, while avowing this truth in word, is astounding.

• Brotherly love and social intercourse are in their mind the two great evidences or results of this truth, and thus they are deceived.

• But however satisfied they may be with themselves, they never come to the knowledge of it divinely, but subvert in principle what they profess to know, and
  • therefore they are, as Sanballat and Geshem in a former day (Nehemiah 6: 2), to be especially resisted and avoided.

• The great thing for the faithful to note is the form in which Satan seeks to undermine this truth. Each corps of adversaries is to be known by its facings.

But I press that nothing shows the importance of this truth more than the peculiarity of the weapons which have been used to neutralize it, and by those too who in conscience consider they are upholding it.

• The more one has the anointed eye, the more one is astonished at the art and subtlety in which this strange warfare has been carried on.
  • It is not an open enemy, but mine own familiar friend, he that supped with me, who hath lifted up his heel against me.

• Since the days of Judas down, I suppose there never was a more fearful trespass committed in the church against Christ than the opposition of those who in word accept the truth of the unity of the body, and yet are lax in their separation from those who are in association with unsound teaching.

• I speak not now of individuals; I only call attention to the fact of the character and nature of the adversary, which by assuming the truth can come near enough to strike the deadliest blow.

But besides the Holy Spirit being here to than comfort and establish the individual saint, and to unite each to the other in one body with the Head in heaven,

• He is dwelling here to witness for Christ; He is the power of testimony for the absent Christ.

The Jew, to whom God had committed the lively oracles, has rejected the Son of God; and the gentile has used the sword of power, which God had placed in man's hands, against the Lord of glory.

• Man had in a twofold way proved his unfitness to be the agent for Christ in His absence.
• Hence the Holy Spirit is sent down to dwell here, not only to comfort the hearts of the saints, but to testify of Christ, convicting the world, giving evidence of its guilt, and of God's judgment.

• So distinctly and altogether is the Holy Spirit the instrument of all power that He does not, and could not, accept co-operation or countenance from man as man or from the world,
  • seeing that He is evidence of the world's position before God, and also that He is able to affect everything by Himself according to mind of God.

• No human means of any kind whatsoever can impart or secure divine comfort to our hearts, and neither can any other than the Holy Spirit testify for Christ.

• If through faith I accept Him for the one, I must accept Him for the other; for I am really weak in my apprehension of the first, which I need for my own individual blessing when I do not see Him in the second. He is neither the Comforter in power for my own heart nor for service.

The maintenance of this truth imposes on us a very peculiar path, for everything has been carried on in the professing church on quite a different principle;

• and as no sect in Christendom accepts this truth in this simple way, I must, if I hold it, run counter in testimony and service to every known denomination.

Although the Holy Spirit as the sole agent of testimony for Christ here is plainly revealed, yet men's mind are so warped by habit and theological tradition that they do not see how they are diverted and debarred from the true path of a servant on the earth.

• Now as soon as any one seeks and by faith enters on this new path, a path lost sight of until late years, so soon will he be assailed in every conceivable way, according to his earnestness of heart, to go back in measure to the things he has left.

• It makes Satan desperate to see even one able to stand forth and express entire confidence in the Spirit of God on earth, and to work on patiently without having recourse to any of the expedients which even the godly use for the dissemination of the gospel.

But seeing that this is one of the great truths revived in this day, shall we not boldly insist on it and maintain it, as in their day the martyrs insisted on justification by faith?

• Let us not confuse our minds by asking, How can we do without this or that? How can the ark be carried without a cart?

• We should simply accept the truth of God as set forth in His word.

The worst opposition comes from within, and from the true-hearted, who cannot understand how they can carry on the testimony without the means and appliances to which they have been accustomed from time immemorial.

• This is the great trial of this day; but God will indicate the faithful. May our eyes be more simply turned to Him!

The assembly had long slumbered and slept, but when the cry came, there was an awakening. The last revival was, as has been always, that

• after all hope of restoration to the first state was impossible, there should be, though in great positional weakness, a reviving of the moral qualifies which marked the first state.

• When the cry, "Behold the bridegroom" awoke up the faithful, then, I conclude, Philadelphia in the characteristic phase began.

The Lord then appears to the faithful, who seek Him in a threefold way, which together would afford guidance and support for souls awakened to His claim, in the midst of the ecclesiastical rules and prejudices almost sacred from antiquity.

• Those three were, I am "He that is holy, He that is true", and, I am "He that has the key of David".

• The first two would impart the moral qualifies, which would afford the awakened soul a clear path of escape from every association, and separation unto God; and this must unmistakeably be the clue to get extricated from any religious labyrinth.

• Thus the Lord presented Himself, and every one, awake and seeking Him, found grace from Him to be holy and true; and in addition to this, they found what was so necessary, even that there was unfailing support from Him.

• I am "He that hath the key of David". Nothing can resist His power; however great the opposition, all would be surmounted.

Now those to whom this revelation of the Lord was vouchsafed, were marked by three things,

• "Because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied My name". These three qualifies define a Philadelphian.

The first I understand to flow from abiding in Christ, according to that word "without me ye can do nothing".

• There is really no power apart from Christ; and hence, to have even a little power is evidence of abiding in Christ.

• When the cry had been effective in awakening hearts to Christ, there was a practical result; there was not only a little power, but they held fast His word.

The great and distinguishing mark of the last revival was the diligent and exclusive way the word was studied and held to; the marvellous revolution in thought and habit which the simple adhering to the word brought about.

• The most cherished and ancient theologies were renounced, and the greatest self-sacrifices were incurred, in response to the word of God.

• A new and unprecedented course was insisted on, as the only one befitting the bride going forth to meet her lord;
  • and the aim was that everything, in public and private, should be subjected to a remodelling under the light which Scripture was now found to contain.

• Men eminent for piety, and leaders in religious communities, severed ties that were dearer than life, that they might obey the word of the Lord;

• and in private life, professions, positions, and prospects, were surrendered at its dictates, and because of simple faith in it.

It was seen too that not only was the word to determine and define every course of action, but that all that would tend to deny the name –

• the character or manner of life of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that His name embraced, was to be reprehended and refused;
  • and to do so was the simple desire of the heart and, in seeking to respond to this, the general bearing at home and abroad were the simplest and plainest.

• In the midst of a slumbering the assembly, here and there one and another were led to accept in faith the wondrous truth of the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth and,
  • because of His present help, such could speak of the things revealed in the word apart from any ordination or divinity schools.

What is now received as part of a great theory – that a man could preach the word without preparing, was then an innovation, as great as it was singular, and only known in complete dependence on the Holy Spirit;

• and while there was neither seeking or accepting credentials of any kind from man, there was a reaching the ear of believer or unbeliever by humble and patient labour; no expectancy or assumption to get an ear in any popular way;

• the chief work was carried on in private rooms, and small preachings in cottages.

• Publicity was not sought or desired, or the means to attain it made use of. The Holy Spirit was reckoned on and nothing else.

• The ear in any measure circumcised, that is, capable of appreciating the truth now revived, was exceedingly jealous and careful how it listened to, or received, anything of a lower kind.

The desire for a more perfect knowledge, both by prayer and waiting on God for it, was remarkable; and to increase in the mind and ways of the Lord was the eager and all-absorbing pursuit.

• Callings and employments were sought to be regulated and determined by the one question, were they according to the mind of Christ, and what He could approve of ? –
  • and this more especially and strictly in those who took part in public ministry.

• While making the service to which they were called their chief pursuit, they retained their employments until the work of the Lord required their undivided attention;
  • and when they were cast on the Lord for support, their moderation and self-sacrifice was an example to all.

Now on tracing declension from this brightest movement, the first step, as it appears to me, was

• the practical denial of the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide and direct in the assembly; and this was so serious that, had there not been a resistance which ended in a distinct separation, there would now be but a small trace of the truths which have been recovered.

This leaven, though thus mercifully arrested, has insinuated and betrayed itself in another form.

• With the increase of numbers and evangelists, the testimony took a more public character.

• Evangelization became more general, which disarmed many of the opponents, whose general taunt had been heretofore,
  • Why do you disturb the minds of the godly by propagation of your opinions instead of preaching the gospel to the unconverted?

• Thus popular preaching led to popularity; and not only so; but to the desire for it; and human means, public notices, public rooms, were adopted
  • to attract the public, and to obtain large assemblies, with a view to carrying on the work more effectually, but really departing from complete dependence on the Holy Spirit.

• An exciting mode of preaching was found more effective, and was resorted to and adopted, and this fostered a descent to a lower order of things for instruction,
  • instead of a constant, and persevering seeking to reach, and to discover in its integrity and purity, the way and mode of the Spirit of God.

• The attention of servants became pre-eminently directed to gospel preaching and the conversion of souls,
  • instead of the more difficult work of enlightening saints as to their true place for Christ:

  • and this, while it led to intercourse with worldly people, could be carried on with an allowance of worldly ways and habits, which the other could not; and the ear has become less sensitive to what the word simply enjoins.

• All this has popularized the advocates of the truths lately recovered, and now much accepted; and once the nature of their mission became characteristically evangelical, and not ecclesiastical,
  • there was consequently less scrutiny as to the nature of the employments which they followed, in which links with the world were unbroken and sanctioned.

I am very far from confining declension to one class of service, or to one class of saints. I feel it has been a wave from which all have suffered –

• and that the numerous additions, thought there are many of them bright and devoted, yet the bulk have accepted the ground in the light of the word, without being laid hold of and formed by it.

• I speak of the servants as being most prominent and, necessarily, most exposed to attack; an it cannot be denied that, while there are many most zealous and self-sacrificing evangelists,

• pastors and teachers have not kept pace with them in activity, nor have these gifts proportionateley increased, or been developed.

Now we are not to conclude, because of their non-appearance, that they have not been given for the assembly.

• There is no lack of gift from the Head; but, from lack of devotedness, the gift has not been disclosed and expressed.

I am not condemning the zeal and activity of the evangelists, further than demonstrating that they in their zeal have had recourse to other means than the Spirit of God; and hence a tinge of the world clings to them in to their ways.

• But I do think it is a great evidence of declension that there is not a corresponding zeal in pastors and teachers, and all servants, to shepherd and feed the flock of Christ, and separate them more from everting not of Him, to Himself in heart and spirit;

• and I venture to account for this last by the simple fact that no pastor or teacher can sincerely attempt to expound or press the life and ways of Christ on others beyond the measure in which he is truly seeking to be conformed them to them himself.

• If he cannot avow that there is power and known power in Christ to separate a man from the world, in any particular instances, how can he effectually teach it?

• If a servant be a part of a system or machinery of the world by office, appointment, or voluntarily ministering unto it in some form, how can he freely and fully insist on uncompromising separation from it? How can he urge the beauty and the joy of Christ's unique path here?

It may be retorted – what are they to do? I submit that it is not a question for a Philadelphian. His only question is, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

• I am accounting for the manifest declension and practical inability of the pastors and teachers to insist on the bright unsullied path of our Lord Jesus Christ,

• and therefore they often enroll themselves among the evangelists, in order to do something to escape the responsibility and demand that would be imposed on them, were they to present the word in its full and simple force to the assembly of God;

• so that, in my judgment, in order to counteract the declension, and renovate the Philadelphian type, the pastors and the teachers must be true to their gifts.

In conclusion, I would say that I believe Satan's aim and effort against us is to neutralize the effect of the great truth which has been revived in this day – the presence of the Holy Spirit.

• Baffled in his effort to get it denied, he then seeks to weaken its force in an insidious way.
  • This I believe he has succeeded in doing amongst us, as to it practical power, though in point of doctrine it is fully acknowledged.

• But there is ever a tendency to separate the advantages of a truth from is responsibility, and so it is now.
  • Many who rejoice in the truth of the indwelling Spirit, for their own comfort, are not alive to the responsibility which His presence on earth in testimony for Christ involves.

The Lord lead each of us to be so interested in His interests that we may be helpers together of one another in the path of life.

I believe it impossible to be a Philadelphian individually, and to submit to an ecclesiastical position which denies all that should characterize a Philadelphian (see Revelation 3).

• The danger is of being in a position avowedly Philadelphian, and yet unexercised and untaught in soul in the moral status of one.

• But it would be glaring inconsistency to have learned and accepted the status of one and then consent to an ecclesiastical position which would deny it.

• On the contrary, when I am one, when I purge myself from the corruption of the great house, I seek those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart [2 Timothy 2: 19-22].

It is said to be assumption to take the place of a Philadelphian;

• all I can say is, that if we are not Philadelphians the sooner we learn our lesson the better.

• If we are the church of God, that is the highest position, and it is greatly to our disgrace if we are not of the faithful remnant.

• It is only an exceptionable character who adopts an alias. If I am honest and true I abide by the family name, and if it be a high one, I only labour the more not to tarnish it, but to act worthily of it, especially if the other members of my family have compromised it.

Like Jacob at Peniel I must go to God's side,F if I would have my name of Israel (a prince with God) come out in its true strength and value.

• It is God who has made me great, and as I am near Him, I am sustained in keeping with His greatness.

• If I turn to my own side I am no match for the flesh and it supports, and I have to compromise my name in order to suit my company.

The awakened ones found that there was no food for their souls in the systems around, and the faithful course of a few produced an astounding effect.

• The seats of learning and centres of theology were stirred by this great moral revolution.

• Habits of life in private and in public were subjected to the scrutiny of the word of God; everything – dress, houses and employments – was now required to be in conformity with a new rule of life – namely, Christ.

• The Holy Spirit was relied on as the only power for testimony; and it is here the first step of declension has occurred.

No sooner had the evangelistic work become ardent and engrossing, that the pastors' and teachers' service began to decline; and with this increase of seeking souls in the world, arose the use of human means in reaching them.

• The Spirit of God was not simply and entirely relied on, and with the increase of human means to obtain congregations, there has been a manifest falling off in the supply and devotedness of pastors and teachers.

• I am not excusing the pastors and teachers, far from it. I say the world has hindered them: the evangelists introduced the use of human means, and this has produced a weakness, corresponding to the strength required, in the department of each.

• Had there been an increase in every department as well as in one, the results might have been different, but the zeal in one has not been without a stooping to man, which has tended to enervate everywhere.

• The Spirit of God has not been honoured; hence there is not the same care and earnest service to the saints; the gifts are undeveloped –

• gifted men are connected with things in private and in public which, though not morally wrong, deter them from being very powerful expositors of the life of Jesus; for a man cannot really press on another what he is not living out in himself.

Thus worldliness and decline have set in widespread; though I doubt not there is a deepening in many souls of affection for Christ, and waiting for Him,

• and as when He left this earth He saw in the crowd one who answered fully to His mind, "she hath cast in all the living that she had",

• so when He returns there will be a phase of the church, though unseen to man, most pleasing to Him – "The Spirit and the bride say, Come".

In the beginning of Revelation 2 I find the church has lost her first love, and in the end of chapter 3 He will do without her as a witness.

• In Laodicea the vessel of testimony is spued out of His mouth.

• And the terrible thing is that as soon as He thus rejects it, there is another power ready to pick it up – a power that rises and says, This just suits me!

• The church unfit for Christ is fit for the beast. As soon as Christ has done with the church, the beast will arise and say, I will carry it, as we get it in chapter 17.

Now this is a terrible thing – a very serious thing, if we lay it to heart, to see how it is produced; and I think none of us can escape censure on the point, though we may escape judgment.

• For it is evident that Laodicea springs out of Philadelphia; it is evident that the state of the last of the churches is consequent upon the preceding one.

What then is a Laodicean?

• There are four phases of the church of God which run down to the end; these are Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea:

• Thyatira being Romanism; Sardis, the Reformed religion;

• Philadelphia, the last revival – the most of brilliant unfolding of the truth that had been lost;

• and after this, Laodicea, Latitudinarianism.

I will explain first what a Laodicean is, and seek to apply it to our conscience afterwards.

• A Laodicean, then is one who has got Philadelphian light and has not got Philadelphian power.

• You see a Laodicean is not in system; he is neither in Romanism nor in Protestantism, and you must be in either of these two to be in system. I trust this will come home very closely to every one of us.

• It is a very important thing to get light, and light does lead out of system; but light is not everything.

• A Laodicean is one who has got light, but who has not that which the light should produce. Hence the Lord appears to Laodicea, saying, "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God".

A Laodicean says what even a rich man would not say: "I … have need of nothing".

• I would say to any such, You have got the light, but you have not got Christ in power.

• A Rationalist said, "I have got rid of the author of Christianity, but I have kept the morality of it", and that is just what the beast might say. What does he wants Christianity for?
  • He wants Christianity to so improve the man that he may be independent of God.

The Christianity of the present day will issue in Babylon, that great city where there will be the aggregate of all that suits man upon earth, where everything that magnifies him will be brought together, where man will get on without God.

• We are not Babylon, and, thank God, never shall be the harlot; but we are warned that we fall not into the state of things that will characterize her.

I may say here, there are two great structures going on at this present moment – the new Jerusalem and Babylon; the one the bride of Christ, the magnificent display of all that He is; the other all that naturally suits man; every natural beauty will be found in it.

• The one, all of Christ, when there is nothing of Adam; and the other, where there is nothing of Christ. Just as the bridegroom forms the bride, so it is here: everything in the new Jerusalem will suit Christ.
  • She will come down from heaven, having the glory of God, to show out the beauty of Christ here upon earth, where we have all failed.

• In Babylon, on the other hand, will be found all that gratifies man. People often say, What is the harm in this or in that? But that is not the way to put it.
  • The question, whether it be a bit of furniture or a bit of dress, is whether it suits Christ or whether it suits man. Is it meeting man in his natural tastes, or is it meeting Christ in the counsels of God?

God tells us what things are coming to, in order that we should not in any wise contribute to them.

• What a sad thing it is to think that the light we have may only minister to our condemnation!

• If you receive the light that comes out of Philadelphia, and do not have the same time refuse the human element, you are preparing for Laodicea.

Suppose any one says to me, I know I have received the grace of Christ. I say, That is all very well; but what are you studying?

• Are you trying to improve people's natures – trying to make a man good-tempered or temperate? Then you are working at the old creation.

• And you have got light from Christ, the beginning of the creation of God! It is a fearful thing in the sight of God to have light and not to walk according to it.

• In all the great theological works you will not find the new creation taught; and yet the authors were true godly men.

• Why then was not the church spued out of Christ's mouth long ago? Because they had no light.

• Now, when we have light, if it prove ineffectual to produce Christ, we are nauseous to Him. All through Scripture we find instances to prove what I am saying.

I say, then, a Laodicean has light; but man in nature is his object, and not Christ.

• The first example I find is that of Eve. She had light, but she did not act up to her light. The word of God told her not to eat of the tree, and she did. It was a very bad case I admit, but it is a case.

• I give up the light in self-consideration; she had the pure light in a state of innocence; it was perfect light from God Himself; and what a power of sin was that in her when she said, I will give up the light and please myself.

• That was Laodicean in principle; and when the church gets to that state the Lord says, It does not suit Me. It cannot be of any use.

There are more examples of this in the word that I could possibly think of or put together now; but one or two will show you how the principle of the evil comes in.

• Who was it helped the children of Israel into idolatry? No one less than Aaron, the brother of Moses. Was there a want of light there?

• No; he had plenty on light, but he wanted to please the people. He was the one who was to carry out the words that Moses gave him from God, and this very man, whilst Moses was gone up the mountain to God, says: Give me your gold, and I will make a calf for you.

People talk of light, and are boastful of it; but with the knowledge of that light, I say, take care that you keep out the human element.

• If you are ministering to man in any way, no matter how – be it in your house, your furniture, your dress, anything – you are just paving the way for Laodicea, you are helping it on, for you have got light and are not walking in the practical power of it.

• It is a point that must be settled practically. The crisis is coming when people will say: There is plenty of light. They are trying to improve man by it, and Christ really is unthought of.

• Can you say people are more for Christ now then they used to be? I know that years ago saints used to be far more for Christ with less light than they are now.

I turn to another case, in 1 Samuel 15. The point to get hold of, and it is a difficult one if a person does not work it out in his own heart, is that

• we are the people who are to blame, because by giving a place to the human element in our preachings and teachings, we have produced a type of Christianity which is very human.

• In this chapter king Saul is sent to destroy Amalek. There is no mistake about what he is to do; he is not in the least ignorant; yet he keeps what suits himself, while he destroys the vile and refuse.

• He could not say he was not able to walk up to the light; but he spared the best, that which ministered most to man, what most pleased himself.

Again, in 2 Kings 5, Gehazi is sent to communicate the truth to Naaman. Gehazi has the truth; but, when the prophet will not take anything from Naaman, he will.

• This is the principle. "Went not mine heart with thee", says the prophet, "when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and maid servants?" – all to suit himself.

• Then he adds: "The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow".

• That is a Laodicean. He had light, but he considered for himself; he had not self-control, not self-mortification enough, to keep himself from coveting things that belong to Naaman.

I turn out to the New Testament, to Matthew 16. Here the Lord says to Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven".

• The greatest light is shown to Peter; nothing could have been more wonderful than the Father giving such a revelation to him; it was light of the highest order.

• He had been given this light about the church. And, would you believe it, that this very man, in this very same chapter, foreshadows what a Laodicean is! He has the light about the church, but he will not have the cross.

• Read farther on: "Then Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall from not be unto Thee. But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men".

• Thus it is possible that the person who has the greatest light may make the greatest mistake. Peter wants to spare the man.

How differently the apostle Paul uses the cross! "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world".

• If this be so, what is left of you? Why, the new creation, and nothing else. That is what is left – a new creation, not only a new creature.

The same Person who was going to build this wonderful structure, the church, is the One who will set aside man in His cross.

• Oh, says Peter, I do not like that! Then, says the Lord, you are Satan.

That is exactly the principle of the thing, and this is where we have to judge ourselves.

• The light is here, and the question is whether I am bringing out that upon earth which will shine out in the new Jerusalem.

• It was thus that the Lord left His disciples here. He could say of them: "All mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them".

• Truly we have failed in this; but He turns round in the book of Revelation and says: You are the Bride to Me, though you have failed in everything else.

I make only one more remark. The apostle says in 2 Timothy 1: "All they which are in Asia be turned away from me".

• It was not that they had turned away from Christianity, but that they would not have Paul's teaching; they would not have Christ instead of the man here.

• And when you leave Christ out of Christianity it is Laodicean, and sinks into Babylon; when you leave Christ out of Christianity Christ does not want the church.

I would warn you to see to it, that the more light you have, the more you exclude the human element.

• People have gone on for 1800 years, knowing but little and with but little light; and till the light came, the Lord, as it were, says, I tolerate it all.

• But now all is changed. We can no more speak of the ignorance: the light has been given us. If the light increase, be careful to see that the light produces Christ in you practically.

And now, having shown you what a Laodicean is, I will show you the remedy for it, how the Lord can keep you from being one, and how He can deliver you if you now are one.

• He says, "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".

• It is not any particular truth He brings in; He brings in Himself. He says: I will make you know Me in the intimacies of daily life; I will come and sup with you and then you shall learn what it is to sup with Me. I will throw Myself into all your circumstances, and then you will come to Mine.

We get the practical illustration of it in John 11 and 12.

• First, the Lord walks beside Mary to the grave of Lazarus, and weeps with her there.

• And then she says, anointing Him for His burial: This world, with all its beauty, is nothing to me! He is gone out of it, and I have buried it all with Him in His grave.

The day we live in is a critical one. I am sure it ought to be a solemn thought that

• we are a corrupting instead of a sanctifying people, when we propound light without promoting and manifesting Christ, the new creation.

The Lord lead our hearts to understand how we may thus only injure souls instead of being a blessing to them.

• The apostle tells us in Timothy that unless we have conscience about what we believe, we shall make shipwreck.

May we take the subject to heart for His name's sake!

The Laodicean state is when there is so much intelligence and acquisition that there are data for boastfulness with so much self-satisfaction that there is "need of nothing".

• When the assembly reaches this state fully, that is, boasting of its intelligence and possessions, and yet Christ is not the object,
  • then it is plainly unfitted to be the vessel of testimony, and the Lord spues it out of His mouth.

• In all other phases of the assembly there was at least no boastfulness as to their condition.

• It is quite true that very soon the assembly lost its true place as the witness for Christ on the earth;
  • but there never as before boastful self-satisfaction as to intelligence and Christ literally outside.

• True, for centuries the assembly had lost the great truths of eternal life and the new creation, now revived;
  • but though these truths are restored to the Laodiceans they have no real effect upon them, the do not cultivate Christ, so satisfied are they with their acquisitions, etc.

The Laodicean state may be simply defined thus: the greatest intelligence combined with self-consideration;

• and when this is the case, the truth has no power and its owner only subjects it to miscarriage.
• Beautiful garments only suit those who are worthy of them. The truth in Laodicea is but "a jewel of gold in a swine's snout", the most valuable thing reduced to the level of an unworthy possessor.

• No simple follower of Christ could boast of his acquisition because he would have the sense that he now only sees in part, and that he has not yet attained.

• When the church avowedly and characteristically promulgates a boast of the possession of truth and the advantages of it, and this coupled with indifference to Christ, then the Laodicean state has fully come.

We shall find all through Scripture that it is the intelligent person, who is not under the control of the truth which he knows, who is the one who chiefly mars the testimony for the time.

Eve had light and knowledge through the word of God, but drawn away by self-consideration,

• when she saw what was good for food, pleasant to the eye, and to be desired to make one wise, she took thereof and did eat,

• showing that self had more control over her than the word of God, and thus the first state, the state of innocence was lost.

• The one who knew the truth had turned from the holy commandment delivered unto her.

Noah had light, to him was given the power to rule and suppress evil, but he drinks of the fruit of the vine – gratifies himself, so that he is disqualified for his position;

• not from ignorance but because he swerved from the control of God's word, to think of his own gratification, not that he intended to unfit himself for his calling by intemperance,

• but once self- gratification is yielded to by one who knows better, and who is called to higher things, his fall is inevitable, and the testimony is not only marred but ignored.

Isaac had the light and truth respecting Israel's future, but he was warped in his mind because he did eat of Esau's venison, and he attempts to confer the blessing intended for Jacob upon him.

Aaron, the mouthpiece of Moses, the one who had assisted in all the wonderful deliverances which God had wrought for Israel, the one appointed to stand between the people and God, makes a calf for Israel, thus contravening the whole truth of God.

• The one in ability and knowledge most qualified to propound and maintain the mind of God, lends himself, in order to be popular, to disgrace himself, and defame it.

• He doubtless did not intend to annul it, but in attempting to reduce it to man's mind, he "Changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass", Psalm 106: 20.

Samson, the strongest of men, highly honoured of God, assured of the secret of his strength, led away by self-gratification and indulgence, became the sport of the enemy – a blind prisoner in his hands;

• not from ignorance, but from being wrought upon through his natural affections, by a designing and degraded woman.

Solomon, the man to whom God says, "I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee", loved many strange women,

• "and the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and has commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.

• "Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant", 1 Kings 11: 9-11.

I might adduce other examples, but one in the New Testament will suffice.

Peter, to whom at the time the greatest light was revealed, to whom the Lord says, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven".

• Yet we find that almost in the same breath, he attempts to rebuke the Lord for speaking of His death; unwittingly he would spare man;

• he was possessed of the greatest truth, but he could not bear that the man, as man here, must be set aside in the cross;

• and this is such a subtle and pernicious error that our Lord, in the most scathing way, denounces it, saying to him,
  • "Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men".

In Paul's epistles the teaching is that the first man should be kept out, by the power and knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

• It is not so much that the truth of the gospel is denied, but there is a continual attempt of the flesh to get some place in carrying it out.

• The servants of God who have the most light and who, in any measure or degree, sanction or make use of man naturally in inculcating the truth,
  • however unwittingly, promote and generate the Laodicean state; they really make the cross of none effect; that is, man is not ignored.

• They may argue for it their success in arresting and winning souls; but the end can never justify the means, and certainly the work of those servants bears the marks of the workmen.

• Though their converts have received grace from Christ there is no thought or intention of living Christ here, but they go on in the world as usual, only more morally and respectably.

When a soul is converted or taught by one who acts on the affections by human means, the more light that preacher or teacher has, the more does he indirectly sanction the human thing,

• so the truth he has is proved inoperative to ignore the old man; consequently, the assembly becomes "the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me".

• When there is boastful self-satisfaction as to possessions of light and knowledge but all is directed to the benefit of man,
  • and when even unintentionally Christ is not the object or aim of their hearts, this is the Laodicean state;

• and when this state characterises the assembly, it is evident it can no longer be used by Christ as a vessel of testimony, and then, alas! it is fit and suited for the beast to carry, in order to consummate Babylon.

Christ's death on the cross closed the history of the first man before God. He in love, and doing the will of God, accomplished righteousness in bearing the judgment on man, and in His death ending the one before God for whom He was judged;

• and hence, rising out from among the dead by the glory of the Father, He is the source and founder of a new race.

• This definitely and of necessity involves the judicial ending of the old race before God; for if a new race succeeds and displaces the old, there is proof positive that judgment has passed on to the latter, and a judgment which rested on the life.

• The life has been claimed in righteousness, and surrendered in judgment; and as surrendered, it can no longer be assumed, or reckoned on, or acknowledged; but this is the very thing that man in nature cannot accept.

• Skin for skin, all that a man hath will he give for his life; and this leaven we find, more or less, running through whole history of church.

In Corinth a place was given to the flesh. It was not crucified, it was sanctioned; and hence every variety of evil sprang up.

• Divisions (1 Cor. 3: 3), reigning as kings (4: 8), internal disunion, external self-satisfaction (4: 18), no sense of defilement by contact, no discipline (chapter 5), going to law one with another before the world (6: 1-8), no sense publicly of their unique position (6: 9-20), eating in idols' temples (chapter 8), profane carelessness at the Lord's table (chapter 11), willfulness in the use of gifts (chapter 14), ending with the denial of the resurrection (15: 12) which was the climax, Satan having gained control over the mind of man.

In the churches of Galatia, they, having begun in the Spirit, were seeking to be made perfect in the flesh, seeking to reform and subdue the flesh, by placing it under law,

• instead of maintaining that in Christ they had crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, so henceforth were to walk in the Spirit, and not in the flesh; Galatians 4: 9, etc.

In Colosse there was evidently a borrowing from Judaism and philosophy, or rationalism; and there man received a twofold exaltation, one in ordinances or outward exercises, the other intellectually.

Now we must remember that all these forms of evil germinated in connection with Christianity; so much so that we can hardly be surprised to find the apostle warning Timothy when in Ephesus (1 Timothy 4) of the direct energy of Satan in the latter days,

• introducing a standard of sanctity in the flesh, forbidding to marry, commanding abstinence from meats, in order to set aside and divert souls from the godliness which the presence of Christ alone can impart;

• and again in 1 Timothy 6, of another activity, that of counting gain godliness, anything which would raise man in the scale, and this is in fact our modern radicalism.

• Thus the two lines in which the flesh works are presented in these two epistles – the religious line, and the positional line;
  • the former exacting testimonies of self-denial and self-control, in order to prove that there is inherent virtue in the old nature;

  • the other seeking to prove that self-elevation was just and suitable.

• These are apparently diverse activities; but both contribute to man's status in nature; they were reduced to system, as we have seen in Colosse, and the progress of them comes out in 2 Timothy;

• the latter – the intellectual – being what the church in its normal state would suffer from, and what the apostle warns them all of in the Acts 20.

There is first the desertion of the truth which had been learned from Paul: "All who are in Asia … have turned away from me" 2 Timothy 1: 15;

• and secondly, a turning to profane and vain babblings, saying that the resurrection is passed already; 2: 16-18.

• One deserts the truth that had been accepted, and the other audaciously destroys it, thus indicating the low and irreparable state of the house of God as to the vessels in it.

Consequent on this state of things as recorded in chapter 4, "they will turn away their ear from the truth, and will have turned aside to fables", the creations of their own imaginations,

• which reach their consummation in the last days (chapter 3), when there would be a form of godliness but denying the power thereof;

• and when these teachers are compared to Jannes and Jambres, the magicians who resisted Moses by imitation (Exodus 8), so do these withstand the truth,

• and their followers are described as "silly women", a class marked by effeminacy of the weakest kind, and hence ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

This is the state of things in the Laodicean times of which we are forewarned, when the leaven had so affected the mass that the church as the vessel of testimony here is spued out of the mouth of Christ;

• and thus we get how the eye of Christ views things in the last days, and the message which in consequence He sends to the church of that time.

In 2 Timothy the servant is instructed how to deal with this state of things. Here (Revelation 3) Lord declares His own judgment of the state,

• and accordingly He sets forth the condition of their hearts and the self-satisfaction with which they regard their own ways.

• He denounces them as wretched, and miserable and poor, and blind, and naked; while they said of themselves, "I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing".

It is undeniable that there was very great activity, great cause for self-laudation externally;

• for they must have had good data for their assertion, one which the Lord quotes as their own advertisement of themselves.

The manner in which the Lord presents Himself to them is as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.

• He brings before them the line of truth by which He is measuring them, to strengthen them if they are in it, as those in Philadelphia were, but to convict them if they are not.

The Laodicean leaven is the full-blown result of 2 Timothy 3; the claim of true godliness has been lost, and while the form is specially retained, the power is denied.

• And man by imitation supersedes the real thing so completely that he can assert he has need of nothing;

• but when this is measured by Him, who is the beginning of the creation of God, the faithful and true witness, the One who alone fully declared God, there is nothing really within or without for His eye to rest on;

• there is no gold tried in the fire, no white raiment; there is not the creation of God, it is not the truth thing; and with all the display and boast, there is not that which He can commend.

• He says, "Thou art lukewarm". He does not say there is no warmth, but a mixture of hot and cold; and the result of that mixture is that there is a state of things highly satisfactory to the natural eye.

• It is, in fact, all in a human way; it is the human element which is active and which is satisfied.

I am not considering the extent of this Laodicean leaven now. I am only tracing its growth, and how we have to beware of any tendency to this state of things.

• We are not to suppose that because we have escaped from the delusions of popery, we are proof against the leaven that is working all around in the church.

• That leaven is Laodicean, and its test is "the Amen, the faithful and it true witness, the beginning of the creation of God".

Now we must guard against everything assuming to be service for Christ which in any degree partakes of this leaven;

• and if we are walking with the Lord, we shall not fail to see and detect what is not in keeping with His mind.

Whenever flesh is allowed a place, this leaven is assuredly working, and one cannot fail to see it in the way the senses are addressed in every popular religion.

• On one side the senses are addressed through genuflexion and bodily exercise, on the other through the intellect; but in neither is man ignored in the presence of God's Son, risen out of judgment on the first man.

• The national churches are notorious for the first, the dissenting more for the latter.

• Popery and Puseyism are the extreme of the one, independency and rationalism of the other.

But where true saints are most in danger in the present day is in connection with evangelicalism, because of the blessing brought to souls through what is called revivalism.

• This is an element not easy to grapple with, but one which eventually will render the church nauseous in the eye of Christ, and lead Him to spued and out of His mouth because not of the creation of God.

• It is here, I repeat, that the true hearted are likely to be ensnared and damaged.

• In all the activity, in which I admit many have been converted – not in the mummeries of the ritualist, but in the specious and attractive form of sensational preaching and appeal to the feelings –
  • man is made so prominent that there is in those converted under such preaching no sense in the soul that man as he is must be utterly repudiated. There is not real repentance.

• I do not deny that there is true and genuine conversion in many cases; but I think I am warranted in saying that rarely, if ever, do any under this teaching find the church, or give up the world.

Now we know that there is no true sense of being material, petros, for the structure which Christ builds, except as the soul receives from God the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew 16: 18).

• And this is the selfsame truth which enables one to overcome the world; 1 John 5: 5.

The reason for this darkness is apparent. The gospel preached is simply forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. Man's need is the only thing pressed on souls.

• They are not convicted of being by nature in that man which is judged before God on the cross, and they have no real peace; they are not clear of Egypt and the Egyptian, of all that which has been judged on the cross.

• The gospel presented is imperfect and one-sided, only occupied with man; and the name Jesus, which is almost exclusively used by them, indicates that they confine Him to our level,

• as if He imparted forgiveness to us in our old standing, instead of seeing Him in resurrection, the Lord of life and power, imparting to us an entirely new standing altogether apart from and superior to the old one.

The works which flow from this order of preaching bear the stamp of human feeling rather than of divine power.

• Their charities are more those of benevolence, conferred as from benefactors, than the expression of love, occupied with its object and extending from the inner circle of Christ's affection to the good of all men.

• Again, if there is association, it is socialism without discipline; and lastly, there is no advance in the knowledge of Christ and His ways.

Nothing is so markedly painful and foreboding as the patent fact that any, however true, who are held under the influence of revivalism,

• never seem to get one bit farther in light and truth than that which they received in the freshness of their new birth.

Now that which will set aside and prevent Laodicean leaven we are told by the Lord Himself in Revelation 3: 18: "I counsel thee" He says "to buy of Me" –

• first, gold tried in the fire, divine righteousness proved in the heart which is exercised in the ways and mind of Christ – this is the internal thing;

• secondly, white raiment, practical righteousness, the true, proper clothing for the saint;

• gold within, and white raiment without; reality of the finest order and value within, and everything pure, comely, and divinely beautiful without;

• not the mere ways and manner which men could approve of, but what God approves of.

• Finally, the eye so anointed that there is power to receive the truth as it is.

If the eye be sound, if its vision be unimpaired and unaffected by influences around, if it be simple, entirely engaged with Christ,

• then the truth will be received without any mixture, and the body will be full of light; for the disciple is practically the transcript of Christ, whom the anointed eye receives and possesses.

Now where the gospel is truly known a man has "joy unspeakable and filled with the glory"; he is not "wretched and miserable".

• It is very remarkable that of the last church it should be insisted on how little they had learned the gospel truly; for they are "miserable and poor", and Christ is outside!

The gospel is that the man under judgment has been removed in judgment in the death of Christ, while He, the Man of God's pleasure is "raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father";

• so it is clear that if you know the gospel you are out of the man in the flesh, and in Christ; "all things are become new".

• This is the first great point with Laodicea, they have not known the gospel, they have not changed the man in the flesh for the man in the glory;

• Christ is not formed in them, "I am crucified with Christ; Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"; there is no new creation.

It is deeply affecting that it is to the last of the churches the painful fact is divulged that after all the church in not established in the gospel!

• While assuming to have all the blessings bestowed on the church, it comes out that the source of all their blessing is not in their midst: He is outside the door!

• It is deplorable to see the assumption to which man can come in the church of God, to aspire to the highest position,
  • and at the same time not to know the beginning and foundation of all, namely, the gospel of the glory of Christ.

In testimony he is lukewarm, no apparent vitality in his manner of life; on the contrary, to the eye of God, they were "wretched and miserable", with all their boast of great possessions they have nothing, they are not happy, their inside condition is "miserable";

• their outside condition is that they are "blind", they cannot see what an ordinary Christian sees; and naked" – their blemishes and defects are conspicuous to those who can see.

• There could not be a more lamentable company assuming to be the church of God.

But no one could know his place in the church who had not Christ formed in him. If Christ be formed in you He lives in you. Evidently this company does not know what it is to have Christ formed in them.

• If Christ be in me, it is not I but Christ; I know that Christ lives in me. It is a very different thing to know that Christ liveth in you and for him to be outside, knocking at the door.

• It is really inconceivable the degree of incongruity to which the human mind can run, to suppose that such a company can be a part of Christ.

• In the first place they do not need Him, they are lukewarm in action, as those not interested about Him; and in the second place, they have not a single trait of Him!

• Those who speak the most of the greatness of their possessions have none of the energy or vigour of those who really possess.

The remedy the Lord proposes to them shows where they are; they must buy, they have nothing to give for it except themselves. It is plain they have not done so.

• There is no bargain made to give up oneself for another, no exchange; they have not sought the righteousness of God through conflict, "gold tried in the fire".

• In every way they disclose that they have never changed from Adam to Christ; they are not in the Spirit; they are in the flesh.

Those who say that everything is pure grace, limiting God's grace to all that He has done for us, and who overlook the working of His grace in us,

• correspond in a way to the Laodicean state; and they disclose the characteristic of men walking in the flesh, and not in the Spirit.

• You notice this very strikingly in what is called the objective school; they are very conscious of the greatness of their possessions but they never give you the idea of being possessed by them.

Early in this [19th] century in a very special way the Lord revived the knowledge of His grace, and exposed the folly and ignorance of the Arminian school;

• but those who are exclusively wedded to objective truth betray that they do not understand the work of the Spirit in them.

• No one could be in company with either of these schools without seeing how each has suffered loss;

• but it is worse for a man to assume to have great possessions while having none of the virtues of them, which is to be too objective,

• than for one to be wishing for them, as if he by his own assiduity could acquire them, which is to be too subjective.

The Lord's remedy is most gracious, embracing the whole moral destitution in a way beyond all conception. He knocks, and if any man open the door He comes in to him to sup and be with Him.

• So that the reform of Laodicea is new in every particular, a reflex of the life and manner of the Lord Jesus Christ – He is inside with them.

• Wonderful change from the greatest moral distance to the greatest social nearness.

The church of the Laodiceans describes the full blown and worst state of apostasy – profession without principle,

• while those delivered from it are made, by association with Christ, an epitome of Himself. A beautiful triumph of the grace that "worketh in you".