The Word becoming flesh is also God’s affirmation of all His promises, and the assurance that He will carry out His purpose. Promises are part of purpose.

• God purposed certain things, but He brings in promise because men need it to encourage their faith.
  • God’s glory requires that every promise shall be fulfilled,

  • and His heart requires that every purpose shall be fulfilled. What He purposed is the requirement of His love.

• Now the Word becoming flesh is the great affirmation of everything, and that is what the Lord says in the address to Laodicea,
  • “These things says the Amen”.

• He is the great affirmation of everything. Nothing that God has purposed, nothing that God has promised, can fail, because Jesus has come, and He is the Amen.

• Now when I speak of Jesus having come, I am not only referring to His days here in flesh. When John says in his epistle,
  • “This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ”,

• he is including under the term “he that came”: His birth, His death, His resurrection and His ascension.

• He came into His present position of glory and testimony by water and blood. His birth was essential, but He came into that position through His death, by water and blood; and it is as thus before God now that He is the Amen.
  • “Whatever promises of God there are, in him is the Yea, and in him the Amen, for glory to God by us”.

Then He is the faithful and true Witness. The church has broken down as a witness, but He remains the faithful and true Witness; the perfect setting out of the mind and will of God is seen in a glorified Man.

• And He is the beginning of the creation of God; everything in God’s creation takes character from Him. Even in the present creation all things received being through Him.

• He is the beginning of everything, because everything receives being through Him; but in new creation everything is patterned after Him. How could you be lukewarm as regards a Person such as He?

I deplore the lukewarmness of my own heart, as I think of my whole life in testimony. One could not speak about being a Philadelphian, for how much one has been marked by what is Laodicean. The Lord says,

• “I would that thou wert cold or hot”.
• Think of the Person one has been seeking to present, dear brethren. If we apprehend Him, how could we be lukewarm? What is the proof that we are not lukewarm? We bear witness!

• John the baptist was a burning and shining lamp. He was not lukewarm, he was burning. May the Holy Spirit set our hearts on fire in responsive love to this glorious Person, who at the close could say,
  • “These things says the Amen” – everything depends upon Him – “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”!

• Does it not stir your heart? Does your heart not begin to burn? Do you not feel that you would like to go outside and proclaim His name and bear witness to Him? He is the faithful and true Witness.

• The church has broken down in witness. Why? Because of lukewarmness. The virgins who had the oil went out with flaming torches.

• In the East there were the torches, and the oil was poured on and the torches blazed. That is the idea of witness – we go forth with blazing torches, which everyone can see.

• What a happy thing it would be if at the close of the dispensation that were to mark us all – all like virgins with blazing torches, and going forth to meet the Bridegroom! What a testimony! That is proof of love for Christ.
  “O kindle within us a holy desire,
  Like that which was found in Thy people of old.
  Who tasted Thy love, and whose hearts were on fire,
  While waiting, in patience, Thy face to behold”.

But then there is an added reason why we should love Him, and that is because He has said,

• “I go to prepare you a place”.
• How much we should love Him because of His love for us! He could not bear to think of eternity without us. Thank God, we cannot bear to think of an eternity without Him. But think of Jesus saying,
  • “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”.

• He loves us so much that He must have us there with Him where He is, with Him in the very inside place; and with Him in the nearest place that the creature can possibly be to Him, and to His Father and to His God. And so He says,
  • “I go to prepare you a place; and if I shall go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”.

• What a place for us! How this should make our hearts burn. How could we be lukewarm if we understood this?

That brings me to the point of eternal life.

• Referring to that which was from the beginning, John speaks of what the apostles had heard, and seen with their eyes, and contemplated, and their hands handled, concerning the Word of life. He goes on to say,
  • “We have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us”.

• In Christ eternal life was seen at its highest level – that eternal life was with the Father. What had they contemplated? An only-begotten with a father!
  • The most exalted idea of life in man is seen in the Lord Jesus, and the relationship in which He lives as Man.

• But then while God has given Him authority over all flesh, so that as to all that He has given Him He should give them life eternal – and that would apply to every family, for every family will come into eternal life on some level –
  • the saints of this dispensation come into it on the highest level that the creature can know.

• They are to be with Jesus where He is; in the direct presence of the glory radiant in Him. What a level of life we are brought into as brethren of Christ and sons of God! What a place is to be ours in actuality soon; but it is to be entered into now!

• The epistle is written that we might know that we have eternal life, and this life is in His Son; and it tells us that if we abide in that which we have heard from the beginning we shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

• Surely if we are dwelling in the Son and in the Father we are touching something of eternity now!

But later, in John 14, the Lord is seeking a place for Himself and for God, and seeking it even in an individual. John speaks of our dwelling in God and God in us.

• There could never be a place for God in us, a dwelling place, if we did not first learn to dwell in God. We must first know the place prepared for us, at least in some measure.

• It is as we enter into those eternal relations of life in this wondrous economy that we are capacitated to think – and in fact our hearts would require us to think – of suitable conditions for Christ and for God.
  • So He says, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me”.

• Who could help loving Him? Has everyone here got His commandments? Have you ever troubled to read them? Do you know the first epistle to the Corinthians, the sermon on the mount, and John 13 by heart? If you do not know them, how can you say you have them?

• I would lay it upon everyone here to have the Lord’s commandments. Get them into your mind, heart and soul! Do the young people love Jesus? Well, be sure you have His commandments ready at hand, in mind and heart.

• Under the new covenant God’s laws will be written in mind and heart, but are the Lord’s commandments in your mind and heart?
  • “He that has my commandments and keeps them” – the second thing is to keep them – “he it is that loves me; but he that loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him”.

• What a reward for us! But I am not thinking about that just now, but that we should all be lovers of Christ, and prove it by having His commandments and keeping them.

• That begins to provide a place for Christ and a place for God down here. He has prepared our place up there, but what about a place for Him here?

Then He goes on to say,

• “If anyone love me, he will keep my word”.
• It means that you are near enough to Him to know the very longings of His heart; not only the commandments, the essentials – a commandment is a necessity of the Divine nature – but His words, the longings of His heart, which He does not command, but counts on His lovers to supply.
  • “If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him”.

• It would imply in this connection that you are near enough to Christ to know just what is suitable to Him and to the Father in the way of abiding conditions. It is not just a manifestation.

• I am not belittling manifestations, but I feel we link Christianity with manifestations. Thank God for them! But do not let us link Christianity only with manifestations.

• If we love Him and keep His word, we shall be conscious of God dwelling all the time, because we shall be near enough to the Lord to know what is suited to Him and to His Father.

• God wants to be with us all the time – not an occasional visit, but dwelling.
  • “I will dwell among them, and walk among them”; that is not an occasional visit.

• There is plenty of room for what is special. But what about dwelling?
  • “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him”.

• Think of the Father and the Son moving together to come to him. Such an one already has the Spirit.

• This passage supposes that the believer already has the Spirit; you could not have the Lord’s commandments and keep them without having the Spirit. It supposes that the Spirit is already in the believer; but now the Father and the Son are coming.
  • “My Father will love him, and we will come to him” – not just on a visit – “and make our abode with him”.

• I do not know of anything more blessed than this, from our point of view. Think of one person indwelt by the Spirit, and keeping Christ’s word, and he has not only the Spirit, but he has the Son and the Father!
  • What a blessed thing! God dwelling – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

• The Spirit will remain, even if we grieve Him; but so long as we are grieving Him we shall never have the Father and the Son abiding with us.
  • Oh, dear brethren, let us go in for what is permanent – the abiding presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Now while John 14 puts this on the individual plane, making it available for a day of small things, it shows at the same time the way of recovery, because it is persons affected thus who are in mind in 2 Timothy 2: 22,

• “Pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”.
• Such love Christ and keep His word. If a number of individuals are doing that, you have a company, and that is the idea in the last days.

• By way of John’s ministry individuals are secured, so that we have enough to carry things out collectively “with those”. There are others doing the same.

So the address to Philadelphia shows that a place is being secured for God assemblywise, and that is what we are all to be concerned about.

• We must begin individually; but then the thing is to work matters out assemblywise. This requires much workmanship, much toil – the work of the Lord.

• We are all privileged to be in it, to work with one another and help one another; so that there should be a company on earth, composed of individuals who have withdrawn from iniquity, who love Jesus and keep His word, and who are concerned for a place for God assemblywise.

• The Son has prepared a place for us. How much it means to Him if even one person provides conditions so that He can say,
  • “We will come to him, and make our abode with him”!

• The address to Philadelphia shows that the dispensation is to close with more than one.

• There is to be a place for God assemblywise amongst those who love Christ and keep His word, and that is what we are labouring for. Let us all be labouring; let not one here, young or old, be out this work.

• David is an example; he would not give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelid, till he had found a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty One of Jacob. Our place is secure; but what about a place for God? We should not be behind David.

• I would speak to the young men and women here – David was a young man when he made that vow in Psalms 132. What a thing it would be if all the young people left this meeting with a vow like David’s in their hearts.

• They may be working for a living, and with a view to getting married and having a house of their own, but they are not going to rest in that.
  • Their resolve is that whatever they have, and whatever they do, shall serve this great objective – a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty One of Jacob.

• If we love Christ, if our hearts are burning, we could never have less than this in mind, because that is just what He had before Him. Jesus had in mind a place for us. He says,
  • “I go to prepare a place for you”.

• But in what a marvellous way Jesus had before Him a place for His God. Oh what an objective Christ had before Him! The temple of His God, the city of His God, and the tabernacle of God, these were the things that were before the heart of Christ.

• He would prepare a place for us; He loves us, and He could not bear eternity without our companionship in the place which He has prepared, so that we can dwell in God.

• But then He wants us to be so formed in responsive love that there is, in us, a place for God.

Now this is a great matter.

• “These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David”.
• I have referred to David; it links on with this idea of a place for God. We must get down to this, dear brethren, for there is not much time left.

• We cannot claim to be Philadelphia. If we weigh things over, we may begin to see that we are in danger of Laodicea; we are very lukewarm.

• “A distracted heart” – or is it ‘mind’? “is the bane of a Christian”, J.N.D. said. Oh to have a heart wholly set on Christ!
  • “If anyone love me” – what an appeal!

• Now when you come to the assembly side of the matter, you can see the link, because the Lord says to Philadelphia,
  • “thou … hast kept my word”.

• In John 14 He is saying, “If anyone love me, he will keep my word”; but in Philadelphia He finds a company who have done it. What a joy to the heart of Christ that at the close there should be those to whom He can say,
  • “I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut, because thou hast a little power, and hast kept my word”.

• It rejoices my heart to think that there should be a company at the close who have kept His word, and have not denied His name. No lukewarmness there!

• He puts it in a negative way, “have not denied”, because all around there is the denial of Christ’s name, His Deity, His glory and His redemptive work.

• But this company was not lukewarm; they were bearing witness. Their lamps were burning, their hearts were on fire, they loved Jesus and they kept His word.

• So that you see if we are concerned about a place within for God, there will be testimony without. If we love Christ, we shall be keeping His word; and there will be a place suitable for Him and for His Father amongst us.

• But on the other hand there will be a flaming testimony without, and that is what we should have in mind at the close. Then He goes on to say,
  • “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience”; that is really endurance.

• Think of what the Lord has endured! You may say that the path is hard and difficult; there are so many obstacles. It says in Nehemiah, There is so much rubbish that the strength of the bearers of burdens fails; and that is the position today.

• There is so much rubbish to clear away from people’s minds; how little patience we have got! You meet Christians, and you begin to put the truth to them, and they do not seem able to take anything in because there is so much rubbish there.

• Have we enough endurance to labour patiently to get rid of the rubbish? It may take a long time; but gradually the glory of Christ may begin to dawn upon them, and their affections may begin to be stirred. They begin to love Him, to have His commandments and to keep them.
  • “The word of my patience” – how Jesus endured!

• How He endured with the twelve – what patience! How He has endured all through church history! We shall never get through with these things without endurance.
  • “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”.

• He is referring there to the whole church being kept out of the hour of trial; He clothes the whole church with the qualities seen in Philadelphia.

• There are assembly conditions where the Spirit is free, and thus the Father and the Son can come and make their abode. What the heart of God longs for is there, and the Lord clothes the whole church with that;

• and He will keep the whole church out of the hour of trial, because the true features of the church are seen in Philadelphia. How He would desire that they might be seen in us!

I would like to say another brief word as to ‘commandment’ and ‘word’.

• The Lord’s commandment in 1 Corinthians involves that we should govern ourselves by the truth of the cross, the passover, the altar and the body. Now without the working out of the truth of the body there will never be a place for God. That is basic.

• We must learn to walk and move bodywise. It is a testing thing, more testing than the family; but it is a question of working out the truth of the body locally, the members functioning in their place.

• But then what about the ‘word’? I feel that the keeping of His word is based upon the truth of the body. What the heart of Christ longs for is the bride, the wife.

• What His heart also longs for is a place for His God, the temple of His God, the city of His God. The body is the essential necessity if any of these other truths is to be known.

• There will never be, in a corporate way, bridal response to Christ, until we have learned to work together bodywise, and to be one in mind and heart and soul;

• and when those conditions are secured, which are a Divine command, we shall be able to answer to the longings of Christ’s heart as the Bridegroom.

• And all this enters into the work at the moment, that there should be in every locality the chaste virgin to Christ, in principle.

• And, flowing from this, there will be the functioning of the temple of God, and the administration that is connected with the city of His God; and thus there will be a place for God.

• The features of the bride, the wife, the temple, the house, the tabernacle and the city, should all come into expression in those who are available at the close. So the promise to the overcomer here is, as we have often noticed,
  • “him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God” – how the Lord would write upon us now –

  • “and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven, from my God, and my new name”.

• It is not, ‘my new title’; it is not a question of title; it is what He is in Himself – His name.

In closing I desire to say a brief word on government in this connection, and the Lord’s part in it.

• We have all learned a little of the history of Europe, but you do not need to learn much from history books. What is known in the way of general knowledge is quite enough.

• But things the Lord says in the addresses to the churches bear on the history of Europe. He has made way governmentally for this revival, for a Philadelphian revival to take place. So He says to Thyatira in regard to Jezebel,
  • “Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works”.

• These activities of the Lord have been specially manifested in the last 400 to 500 years; they largely account for the wars of Europe.

• The Lord has cast Jezebel into a bed; if He had not done so we should not be here tonight. Some of us were hearing last night what conditions are like in Spain, where Jezebel still has a good deal of sway.

• We could never be here like this had the Lord not cast Jezebel into a bed. Have you ever thanked Him for doing it? Have you ever spoken to Him about it, and asked Him to keep her there?

• Do not let us look too lightly on Rome’s efforts to regain power; let us speak to the Lord about it. Speak to Him about His promise to cast her into a bed.

• We cannot afford to let Jezebel revive; she never will, of course, because of the Lord’s promise here; but then there is our side of it.
  • “I will cast her into a bed, and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation”.

• So you find every country which has remained allied with Rome is in poverty, distress and great tribulation. What a mercy it is that the Lord has done this! Who could have handled Jezebel but He?

• It is a great, an awful, system; but the Lord has cast her into a bed. What a mighty One He is! But then He says to Philadelphia,
  • “I have set before thee an opened door”.

• It means, spiritually, an opened door into all the thoughts of God, by the Spirit; but it also refers to what is governmental as is seen in the recovery from Babylon of old. Have we thanked the Lord enough for the opened door which no one can shut?

• Jezebel would have shut it if she could; but she is in a bed. And those who keep up their links with her are in great tribulation. What a mercy! There could not be an opened door governmentally otherwise.

• The Lord says,
  • “I have set before thee an opened door, which no one can shut”.

• This again, no doubt, accounts for certain events and upheavals in Europe. The Lord is maintaining the opened door. Do not take any credit nationally for victory in this war or that. It is the Lord operating relative to the assembly. He is doing things.

• But in the address to Laodicea He says,
  • “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.

• Let us not forget that, while the Lord has promised an opened door that no one can shut, there is, alongside the Philadelphian condition, the Laodicean condition, which we can easily slip into.

• Indeed I believe that if we thought we were Philadelphia, it would prove that we were Laodicean. Even in Philadelphia you have to be an overcomer to be a true Philadelphian. So the Lord says,
  • “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.

• Do not let us forget that, alongside the opened door, the Lord reserves the right to use government in a disciplinary way.

• We have proved that in the last two wars. I have no doubt that the last two wars have saved us by a narrow margin from Laodiceanism; the Lord has snatched us out of it by discipline.

• Thank God that, having allowed the discipline, He still maintains the opened door. Let us avail ourselves of the opened door – governmentally, as well as spiritually.

• But all this should enhance the glory of Christ in our minds. He says,
  • “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne, as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne”.

• Let us not forget that although the Father is the great Governor of the nations, the Son is with the Father in His throne, and the Son is concerned about everything which affects the assembly; and so He has His part in government in that sense. He says of Jezebel,
  • “I cast her into a bed” – not the Father. He says to Philadelphia,

  • “I have set before thee an opened door”; and He says to Laodicea,

  • “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.

• The Lord is with the Father in His throne.

I trust these thoughts will remain with us. A place for us, connected with our very life in this great economy of love in which we shall live for ever; and then a place for God.

• It is going to be fully secured in eternity, a place for God for ever; but our concern is a place for God now. That is what the Philadelphian would seek.

May the Lord grant that we may all be seeking this, for His Name’s sake!