Expounds on Revelation 1:19, dividing the book into "the things which thou hast seen" (chapter 1), "the things which are" (chapters 2-3), and "the things which shall be hereafter" (chapters 4-22). Chapters 2 and 3, the "things which are," are presented as prophetic previews of church history from the apostolic era to Christ's return, with each of the seven letters corresponding to a specific historical period. The sermon highlights how the imagery and warnings within these letters, such as allusions to Genesis, the wilderness, and specific historical figures like Jezebel and Caleb, reveal God's ongoing dealings with His people and the church's progression through periods of light and darkness, faithfulness and apostasy. The core lesson emphasizes that while God's covenants (symbolized by the rainbow around the throne in chapter 4) remain, the church's spiritual condition is critically examined, urging believers to walk according to the light of God's word and to be overcomers who hold fast to Christ.
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Well, it's nice to be back in St. Louis. That's a little louder. Fifty-four years, it was last January since it was my privilege to be in St. Louis for the first time. At the conference of the Bible Hall arranged for a new year, and for some reason no preachers were expected. suppose they had inspected somebody. But by Christmas time, in the conference of being convened in Kansas City, Missouri, they sent word to say conference of English, but no speaker's coming.
So our brother Bruce Gilbert was approached by somebody, I don't know who, and elderly brother Mr. Leonard, Ponce and Madraska. And Bruce approached me as to whether I would come along. I was in Kansas City Conference just to listen for the word of God. I was at that time a student at a teaching college. So I came along with Bruce and the two of us with our brother Leonard, Shaden Park, very well-token. January of nineteen nineteen, well that's a long time ago.
Then after that in nineteen, in June of nineteen, I was here and after that when we, when we got married we came here for what is called the Hanuman. And that's where the believers in the Bible Hall at that time also. It was nice to be back after many years in many parts. Since my last visit here in sixty-four or fifty-five, when they got to England, my wife died in October sixty-seven, and after that I went out to India for another period of six months, then to Malaysia.
Then for a year to minister the Word of God in Australia and another twelve months in the New Islands of New Zealand, in a very full program, then back to Australia, where I now have a daughter and a son. I spent some time with my daughter in Tasmania and with my son in Perth, and went back to India for another six months. of very full program of ministry and Bible teaching there. And two months in the city of Colombo. In Colombo I stayed in the flat owned by the, or rented by the, back to the Bible.
Mr. Rubesh was at that time away in the States. So they were glad for me to use the flat. Attending to my own breakfast very early. I retreat very well from seven o'clock, going out to lunch and evening in one of the restaurants and meetings every night. I got busy and wrote out my studies on the heat, on the Jewish festivals, and also on the official to the Colossians. These have since been visited. I have one or two copies of them there at the back that we shall bring more of them here in the will of God on Thursday evening.
On our way, on my way home from India, it was a privilege to call with your family in Kuwait, in Persian Gulf, in Bahrain, and up to the, to see the work in Addish Ababa and give a little help to our president, serving the Lord in Ethiopia. From there down to Sunni and down to Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, with the twelve days with your family there, And after returning to the UK, we go for a change from the property dropped to the Arctic. I was up in what are known as the Faroe Islands, governed by Denmark, southeast of Iceland.
Twenty-four volcanic islands. The work was started there in Very hard and difficult work to begin with. It was twelve years before they saw any fruit for their labor. Today in the twenty-one inherited islands there are assemblies in seventeen of them. And two of the assemblies are over six hundred in fellowships. A little town of four thousand with over six hundred in assembly fellowships. A capital town of about eleven thousand The assembly building is the biggest in the town.
There are over six hundred meetings to remember the Lord. About nine hundred to the Gospel meetings. And about fifteen hundred to the annual conferences lasting for a week in mid-November. And an open-air meeting in front of the building on the Sunday, on the Gospel Hall every Sunday evening. The great joy to be there with them for altogether about five and a half months. And then in Denmark, with the assembly in Copenhagen, for nearly a month, more than a month altogether. Then on the way here, you call in Iceland for a visit with the assembly in Reykjavik.
Iceland invites a number. There's a brother and his wife have gone there from the States recently. Seventy percent of the Lutheran ministers in Iceland are reported to be There's a very sad condition there, very different to the condition spiritually in the Kero. It's actually a town of a hundred thousand. A lot of a rarer way to the northeast, another hundred thousand, but the island itself absolutely barren. And he would ensure our brethren there would value prayer. I have a few slides of the work in these cases.
The little assembly in Reykjavik is very small. I had a letter from the brother there just recently, and I'm sure they would be glad for the fellowship of the saints in prayer. Now that this brother and his wife have gone there, of course they will take some time, they'll have to learn Icelandic, and they're going to be able to communicate with the people at all. It's no use for man going to any country to serve the Lord for any length of time unless he learns the language of the people with whom he wishes the community. That's one of the first essentials in connection with missionary work.
We can't get into personal contact with people unless there is he, unless the language barrier is completely broken. But tonight and on Thursday night, I want to consider with you one or two things from the book of Revelation, especially with regard to chapter two and three. But before we go on to chapter two and three, let's look for a moment in chapter one, verse nineteen. Write the things which thou hast seen.
and the things which are, and the things which have been hereafter. In verse eleven, we almost know you for thousands of years, write in a book, send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. So again in verse nineteen that we've read together, the law shall begin again, write the things which thou hast seen. that merely refers to chapter one, the things which are, that I believe refers to chapters two and eight, the things which shall be hereafter, refers undoubtedly to what we have in chapters four to the end.
Now in order to give evidence for that, third chapter four, believe in verse one, chapter four and verse one, are the words translated or the words, two words translated hereafter in verse nineteen of chapter one are found here twice in chapter four verse one. After this, that's the translation of the same two words. After this, I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, or the voice which I heard at the first, was, if it were a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show these things which shall be, which must be thereafter.
Now that word thereafter is the translation of the same two words, translated literally after this. John is caught up in heaven. And it's being raptured up to heaven is, I believe, symbolic of the rapture of the overcomer. That is, of the true believers caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And then after death, we have the events referred to in chapter four on. Connected with chapter two and three, we have the Lord Jesus upon the throne of the Father.
In chapter three, verse twenty-one, he says, I am sat down with my father in his throne. There he is the judge of his people. There he examines. There he passes verdict upon the assembly. Each one, he says, I know thy work. He commends where he can and condemns what is not in keeping with his own mind and will. commendation and condemnation or censure are found in each of the certain letters. The Lord is the judge of his people. He's like the high priest next to his service that went in and removed the ashes from the lamp in order to make that lamp burn brighter.
But when we come into chapter four, we have another throne. a throne which has a rainbow around it. In the very fact, there's a rainbow around the throne linked with the covenant God made with Noah. There's no rainbow connected with God's dealings with the church. But in God's dealings with the earth, you have a rainbow mentioned in Genesis chapter nine. When I bring a crowd, then I will cause the bone to be seen in the crowd. For here before the last great storm of wrath breaks, and the crowds of gatherings, or that awful day of tribulation, we have John given a vision of a rainbow and purple throne.
God is remembering his covenant made with Noah regarding the earth. There along with that you'll notice in verse three, and he that sat upon was to look like a just verse. and the Sardine stone. Now those two stones may represent in the best place of the high priest in Israel the first and the last of the kind. The chapter was the stone that represented Benjamin. The Sardine stone was the stone that represented Ruben. So we have here in the use of these two stones suggestion that Israel is coming into view.
No reference to Israel in chapters two and three. All we have in chapters two and three, as we have is we turn back to chapter one again here. Chapter one. Look at verse, the end of verse six, please. And it comes in all sorts of fun, kindness in its strength. John is in the light of the full war of the revelation of God in a glorified Christ. The gates of our wars were such a sun shining in its sledge. Its mid-day splendor. The sun that is zenith.
Perfect light now. Part of the just because of shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day or until the day before he comes. When we come here the day of fully come. The promise of the prophecy that we have in Genesis and teaching all along, come here into the full Lord's right. All the complete revelation of God, a glorified Christ, a God's right act. John is in the light. But then along with that, we have in verse twenty, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest.
Now here we have stars. Stars don't shine in the daytime. Stars are suggestive of mid or night light. And there is no reference to any moon. It's midnight darkness. There is a people living in complete darkness with nothing but the light of the stars to shine. Here is dawn in the light of the sun at noon day. Here's a contrast. Little wonder John in his epistle speaks of darkness and light, or those that walk in darkness and those that walk in the light.
John was a representative of those who are in the light. The world is in darkness. This field represented or illustrated by the light of the moon is not in the picture at all today. The stars are there. And as you can see, those stars, they are referred to as the angels of the churches. They represent those who are the servants of God, ministering the word of God, whether locally or in a wider sphere. But there are those to whom the Lord, and through whom the Lord communicates his message, and his message is through your family.
So here's the picture we have then. in the end of chapter one and covers chapters two and three. The believer himself in the light. We have to walk as the children of the light. That's what the Ephesians will tell us. Walk as children of the light. Walking in the light. That's who of every Christian. That's where we walk. Every Christian is in the light. Every Christian is walking in the light. But every Christian doesn't walk according to the light. It's one thing to be walking in the light. It's another thing to be walking according to the light that God has given to us in his word.
God wants us not only to be walking in the light. It is true of every Christian, every true born again believer. The Lord says, neither tolerate me, shall not walk in darkness. He shall have the light of light. that he wants us to walk according to the light. So when we see the picture, we're not here. Those of you that are artists, you may see on the one hand the lenders light, good Lord, light of the sun at noon. And that's the eastern, mid-eastern sun. And there on the other hand, midnight bloom and midnight darkness.
The two tremendous conscious we have. So what we have in chapter two and key represents the period broken up. They are the things that are. The things with which God is concerned today. The things that occupy the mind of heaven at the present time. And as the Jesus was built, got in these heaven letters, there's a prophetic preview of the history of the church from the clothes of apostolic days right under the coming of the Lord.
And having said so, one of course must give some reason, formation and statement like that. You must not be expected just to accept it because I've said so. Every pre-church will give reasons for making a statement of that character. You must establish the ground upon which he draws that conclusion. I want to give you a few reasons for that. The first you have in chapter one and verse three. Blessed is he that he did it. That is reading publicly. And they that hear the words of this prophecy.
That covers the whole of the Book of the Revelation. God only contracts us more on to the end. But the whole of the Book of the Revelation is prophetic in its character. And that verse really is enough to establish that which I believe is the intention of the Spirit of God in these letters. to give us a preview of church history, out of the way the which is forgotten, has been born during these past nineteen hundred years.
It's necessary to give reasons for believing this, because there are many today who refuse to accept what is called the prophetical view of these two chapters. When I began studying these letters, They back some thirty years ago now. I read several books. I read some who said that they were prophetic and I was trying to accept their view. But I wanted to get something in the letters themselves that would satisfy me that there was a prophetic element in these letters.
And I read them and I read them and I reread them. And one day my mind, my attention was drawn to two things. In the letters of the church at Ephesus, we have in the message to the Overcomer. The hymn of the Overcomer will I give to each of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. That's really an allusion to the book of Genesis. That's really an allusion to the Garden of Eden.
The Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise, in the midst of the Garden. Hanukkah, you have in verse one, these things that you hold the stars, the seven stars in his right hand. and the walk in the midst of the lampstand. That's the suggestive of the Lord walking in the midst of the garden. And then you have in verse five those awful words, the number, therefore hence thou art smallness. That's a terrible word. Hence thou art smallness.
Return on to the last letter. And he has a message to the overcomer in Geodesia. The hymn that overcomereth in verse twenty-one, will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in his throne. Now here is not an allusion, but a clear reference to the exaltation of Christ. You know, danced with joy almost, and I saw those two things. The first is an allusion, a clear allusion to Genesis, and the last is a clear reference to the exaltation of Frank.
And then I went back over the letters to see if there was any historical secret in the subject matter of the letter. As we turn, we'll talk over Smyrna for the time being. We turn on to the third letter in the letters of Church at Pergola. There we have in verse fourteen a reference to Caleb. And down in verse seventeen, the hymn that over cometh I will give to each of the hidden manner. There we are in the wilderness now. Not only in the wilderness, But in the closing year of the wilderness, the closing year of the wilderness, Caleb appeared in the potty of the year of his first journey through the wilderness.
It's the concluding days of any period and of the period covered that we have specially referred to in these letters. Again, if you may keep that in mind, it will help us. What we have in the first letter, is illustrated not in Adam and Eve before they held, but in Adam and Eve after they had fallen. Remember, hence our fallen is the conclusion of a period. And what we have, I believe, in Smyrna is illustrated for us in the persecution of Egypt. In the closing days of the persecution of Egypt, the greatest empire of the day, trying to crush that nature that was to be a channel of communication and a channel of revelation and a channel through whom the Messiah was to come.
And the devil using all his powers to try to make it impossible for the promise of God for the seed of the woman to be fulfilled, or the seed of Abraham to arise. Here we have them. In Pardama, Satan again introducing confusion, idolatry and immorality. When we come into the last, or rather into the fourth, we come to Chaya Chira. And there we've got Jezebel, a reference to Jezebel. A woman by the name of Jezebel, he says, you have been in the Italian Chaya Chira.
a symbolic name, I am no doubt. But Jezebel was the wife, the Gentile wife of Ahab. It was the apostrophe of Israel of its work. No one like Ahab told themselves to do anything. Very shortly after that they were sent into a jillion, this activity. They have gone right down to the bottom. God abandoned them. This other he was no longer possible. God laid them against their idolatry.
So he lied here. He is a provocation. I hope you refer to him. He will have stated in what he got in verse twenty four. Of chapter two. But unto you I say, reading out the word and, unto you I say, unto the rest in thy attire. many of them not disgust me. I will face upon you none other burden. The whole path that we shall have shall I come to the first time we adhere the promise of the coming again of the Lord. There's a remnant now. Thyatira as a body, nurse as a whole, non-beyond recovery, just as the days of Ahab and Jezebel, The ten tribes were beyond recovery, and there were tens of interceptivity into Assyria.
Here we have a remnant. There were seven thousand, ten thousand thousand each a day, and there were others. And Dr. Neelizer, a picture of the great days of the Reformation. When we come down into Svabi, we have We will overcome it in verse five. We shall be clothed with a change of raven. We'll come down to Zechariah chapter three there. The clear reference there is to the days of Zechariah. So the early days of the remnant that came back under the rubble. Then when we come into Philodontia, you've got a reference to the pivot and the reference there.
is the Old Testament picture there. It's the second group that came up under Ezra, the building of the walls in the gates of Nihamaya. That little remnant that was so weak, only a few thousand, only two thousand, including women and children, without any political power behind them, without any military strength to help them. They waited upon God, passed by the river Ahara and trusted God to preserve them from the frigate. The Jews that were on that long journey between Babylon and Jerusalem.
You see, in the days of enlightenment, you see, in the days of Ezra, or rather in the days of the Rababu, there was no only spiritual power There was a military power, Cyrus stood behind them. There was a spiritual, in Karabagal, I mean Joshua, later in Hadiyah, in Shetaraya. But there was a political power as well. But when he came to Ezra, there was no political power. And those of us, we are aware of the fact that in the days of the reformation, In the very early days of war, there was persecution.
Hut was burnt and Whitney was burnt and lovers. But later, those military power behind this reformation. The German government stood behind Luther. Henry VIII stood behind the reformation in England. And he was nothing but a, he was anything but a faith. He was only a military faith. But when it comes to the revival later, it's a pure spiritual revival. Those are the historical teachings in the events that are referred to in these letters. You don't look to history.
You don't, it's not, the history is not tumbled up by down here. You don't have the events of Malachi in the letter to Ephesus. And you don't have the letter, in the letter to Leah this year, a reference to the Book of Genesis as a historical secret. And in that connection, we have just no attention to this fact. You got to hear that some of you here are still in the study of the Scripture. Human history, how far a good faith or God is concerned, may be divided into three periods of time.
A very few steps. Human history, as far as scripture from God is concerned, may be divided in the three periods of time. This does not contradict in any way the dispensational view, but some would advocate. And it's a mere statement of thought. The first period is covered in the book of Genesis, a period of about two thousand years. And which case for God in the book of Genesis was born by individuals? You've got Adam and Abel and Henry, Enoch and Noah, Adrian, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph.
There are seven men there in the book of Genesis, around whom the gift of for God is named David. They are the men. The family was a unit. and individuals were the ones they forgot. Then, when idolatry came in, in Genesis, and they built the Tower of Babel, and the Savioury thing that after it in Bartholomew day, God gave them up. Or in the Romans chapter one, God gave them up. In their own heart, blood, and God called out Abraham.
out of that abundance there and now God called out Abraham a new beginning now and through Abraham God was going to raise a chapter of that but for as far as the book of Genesis confirms you're still individual then we have the notion of Israel the notion of Israel and the witness born by it lasted about two thousand years Now we have got the history of the church. The history of Israel failed. Israel failed. Israel was spewed out. In accordance with the prophecy of the Leviticus twenty-six.
God warned Israel. In those of very the word of God, it will be spewed out. Just like the land spewed out the nations before them. Israel was spewed out. Now for nearly two thousand years, Mistrates of God in the world have been born by individuals, but not by any nature, but by companies of the Lord's people. We are referred to as the land, and by individuals referred to as stars. But the remarkable thing is that these three fields are exactly the same, in their commencement, and in their continuation, and in their continuity.
They begin and they end exactly the same. Let's look at the beginning of the wisdom for a moment. Genesis begins with Eve. Adam and Eve and the God. And then we have Satan coming in. Satan deceiving Eve. And Eve is sailing. to recognize that Adam is the head. If they will go, they will acknowledge the truth of that scripture, not holding the head.
She was, I think, the first president of what is called the Women's List. She acted independently of our husband. And if she hadn't, she would have been there. If you acted on a road, if you have said Adam is responsible, you must have faith. You would have been saved. If you acted on a road, you took responsibility into our hands. It was a tragic result. You were deceived. No, you've got on the hands of Genesis, you've got Eve deceived. Now we have in...
Second Corinthians, eleven, a reference to that. Let's use that verse. Second Corinthians, chapter eleven, and verse two. Paul writes into the Corinthians, He says, For I am jealous over you with godly jealous of you, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may tend to exalt the virgin to Christ. So here the church is compared to exalt the virgin. very attractive, very submerging. But I will tell you, right here that was the enemy.
That was the serpent. That was the serpent. That by any means of the serpent, I will lead through its subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from that simplicity. That will be given Christ from that simplicity and purity of heart towards Christ. It is the phrase that the church should follow. the same path of eavesdrop, that would be deceived. And the church would fail to hold the hope, fail to recognize that her gift is accepted in Christ. In the case Virgin would do it, deceived and defiled corrupting.
So Paul draws a comparison between Eve and her being deceived with the church in her Christian world. She's in her Christian purity. The church in her Christian purity. I don't have to draw that analogy. The Apostle Paul is clearly drawn for us here. Elizabeth Israel is the Jew. Jacob had one daughter. He had seven sons only had one daughter. Shiner. The daughter of Leah. There's only one event recorded of her husband of Zainas in the book of Genesis.
You have no record of her ever having been married. You have no record of her ever having had any children. The only thing that is recorded of her is a very sad event. And she was defiled by the sons of Shachim, of Amor, of Shachim, the virgin daughter of Israel. was defiled by construct with a Gentile. Prophetic, I have no doubt, of the way you see him, would be defiled by construct with a Gentile later. Though we have lived defiled, deceived and defiled, the diner deceived and defiled, where the church burgeoned, deceived and defiled.
So at the end of each of these two periods, we have an analogy drawn between the fall of Eve, the fall of Zion and the fall of the earth. Remember when Thou art Paul? The church often shifts in purity and glory. If you choose and turn away from simplicity and purity of heart towards Christ, He's a man, he's a warrior, he's got a first name, from time. That's the beginning. Sarodaki and Zalab Kriya.
Tells us about the yogi puya. Very sad picture. We have a very culture for yogi puya. Dolceya. Tawadriya. I mean, people good. For those thoughts of the Lord, be resurrected one, be miserable one, poor, blind, and naked. For five things about us, be not directed one, not be miserable one, then two things, forerizing us. Poor, blind, naked. Clearly the picture is the blind man of John chapter nine.
Poor, blind, Negis, a beggar, just as that poor blind man was a picture of his hair. So here the Lord applies it to the picture, as a picture of the church of Nehemiah. The overcomer in Nehemiah gets to the probe. The overcomer in the book of Genesis is closest. and he gets to the throne. When we come into the history of the King of Israel, as a nation, we have the Lord Jesus, the overcomer, and he gets to the throne.
In the churches, the overcomer gets to the throne. So we have a very remarkable comparison between the beginnings and the ending of these three. Church history at the beginning, or rather Genesis history at the beginning, you've got to use the trees and the fire, the overcomer on the throne at the end. History of the additional diner, the files and the trees. Christ the overcomer on the throne. In church history, we have opposite. The most highly privileged, the heavenly of all the ancestors of the family, turned aside, fallen.
And at the end we have the overcomers ascending to the whole. These are not coincidences. These are just coincidences only. They are divinely ordained. Clearly a reunion to us. But what we got in the Old Testament is a false adderings of what we got in the news. So this is some other picture that we have here. Israel's history is divided in the three periods.
Israel's national history. There was a few of Catholic periods. A period when God was there too. They are covered in the book of, right from the days of activity, right through to the days of judging. So the days of chagrin. God was there changing. And when they tried for a change, the Lord said, let them have a change. The children grew, they are rejecting. They are rejecting me. They don't want me to roll over. They didn't want the ostracist. wanted monarchy.
What's the end of that period? How does it end? It ends with a blinded trumpet. It ends with a blinded cloud without. It ends with a blind blue light. A priest set aside. And the priest no longer holding the place of rule and government that he, that God intended to keep with your hands. Monarchy comes in. In that monarchy period, what have you got? Starting with David.
Generally with Zadakaya. Zadakaya. As if I is now is doubt. Jadakaya. The last thing he was given to see was the murder of his two sons. And he saw his two sons killed before his eyes. Then the girl she finds us, a blind, scared attire. We come down to lose the remnant period, period that began historically. in the days of Elijah, that the remnant came into, more into, into the openness it was, recognized as the remnant testimony in the days of Sarabha Book, and continued from there on in the days of the Lord.
But when the Lord came, what have we got there? Blind charity, blind rulers, blind readers of the blind, for that when the Lord seeks to live in John chapter nine, part of the healing of that blind man, recognizing the craftness of the tracts of our Lord's word, they challenge him and say, are we blind also? Are we blind also? You are blind and they didn't know. When we come into the record to the church that's at that day of this year, They are poor, blind, naked.
Confucian, utterly complacent. Richer in peace with good. Rokha, concessions in the poverty, of filth and filth in the village of Kuruksha. Poor, blind in nature. You are proud of the fact that he is rich and who keeps his good, having ease of number. That's the condition of the end. If you even feel good, even bore upon a certain nature after the war, after your complacency and pride, not to characterize the charity, there were the descendants our very spiritual group.
The parishes and the tribes were the descendants of men like Ezra, who's already thrived in the law of the law. But they're degenerated. The spirituality that characterized the tribes in the days of Ezra have not, have been lost to all the others. And that's a great dream, Gemini. That's a great dream, Gemini. They say, Oh, yes, they're in the line of men. Oh, born real witness for God's dinner and again. Oh, God preserves in his grace and mercy from shooting upon the ashes of a burnt-out exteriors.
From the ashes of a burnt-out part, historical, historical king, without knowing the heat and the warmth. the power, the spiritual power of these things in our own heart and soul. Who we have in the Old Testament. So then the pictures of what they've got here, in these two chapters. They're very searching letters. There's nothing right than anywhere in the Word of God. There's such a lot of children are little. in a small compass. So then there's no material within a few verses.
Then the holy commentator says, we need nothing so precious for those who are the careful souls of these letters. You know this is the way before I told that these letters is the death of the angel of the death. To the angel of the church, if you look in chapter one, chapter two, rather. To the angel of the church of Ephesus, Christ. The treasure is sent to him. Just like Paul wrote the Trinity.
Timothy was there. Paul writes to him. He had a responsibility in the ministry. Epaphras is the true illustration of the angel of the church. The lead of him was a fellow laborer of the apostle, and we had him laboring in connection with Colossae and Hierapolis, and in there he's here. He represents those in the assembly who are responsible before God for the condition of the assembly. I know him, the Lord was very responsible for all the spiritual condition of the Athenian.
Then we have the letter sent to the Athenian. You see, in the closing verses of the... Do that happen here, verse seven, living here, but the Spirit has come to the churches. The letter to Ephesus, he sent to all the churches. No church will say, Oh, well, that's not sent to us, that will send to them. or sent to Ephesus is sent to them all. There is no message to them all. They were all individual companies, autonomous in their government and territory, not a few years into any way into any denomination. Nothing of that about them. And the stars were not a few years into any mission. The stars were held in the hand of the Lord.
This is true New Testament Christianity. The Lord says to Philip, rise and go. He goes. He says to Paul, to Peter, rise and go and go. He says to Paul, rise and go and he goes. Over time when he acts, he has the Lord telling his servants to rise and go. And they go. They're under the direct control of the law. responsible to the Lord.
And He walks of it's the land. That's the Lord's people Christ recognized in a family. You get to them Christianity. Do the opposite. See what we have there. The lesser is sent to the churches. And then we have the word. See that's happening here. Let him hear. The hymn that overcoming. So that the appeal to the individual. You say, well, why do you apply the term angel to those who are the servants of God? Whether they are men giving their time fully, or whether men who are occupied in work or immaterial, that's not irrelevant at all to the matter.
How a man lives, whether he's in employment or whether he's full time in the service of God, does not affect the matter. The question is, are they... Are those men responsible? Do they exercise responsibility in the assembly? Are my reasons are taken them to be the representative of spiritual leaders in the assembly? And in Sushantam generally, it is that in the prophecy of Malachi, angels were called, or rather priests were called angels. And Prophet John the Baptist is called an angel. messengers of the Lord of hosts.
So the priests, on the one hand, and prophets, on the other hand, they were the spiritual leaders of God's people. There were those who could have been leading God's people, and they were. And here they are. They're spoken of in this way. And I say it is that the term is a very questionable term. It can apply to people who are even not converted. Famous in service, there was a name to live, but not yet. terms are very plausible for us. But as far as our families of believers are concerned, we need to remember that this person of death as the angels here represents those of us who take the minutes or the word of God, whether locally or moving about among God's people.
This man brings a message rather than a potion comes along and drops a letter into your box. He doesn't know, it's not in him whether the letter contains bad news or good news. Whether it's the news of somebody's death or the news of some money that's been left. Whether it's a bill or a check, which may surely prove to him, he drops the letter in the box and that's his worst thing. But no teacher can do that. No servant of God can minister like that. The words of the angel or the word to the church through the angel. It is first of all the word through the angel.
And the angel digests it. If the Lord worships John the Jesus, John the Jesus. He teaches and he must teach it, because it becomes part of his very being. O brethren, those of us who minister the word of God, and that that word becomes a very part of our being. And that it enters into the very matter of our soul which ever be able to minister in power through the heart of others. The word brought, coming to the Indian, comes to the Italian, comes to individual. Your family can't blame the elder. Your family has a responsibility. Elders are responsible, your family is responsible.
And the individual is responsible. And one will say to the rich included in the exorcism. After this chapter thirty-four. You remember Moses went up the mount. And before he went up the mount, he said, Aaron is with you. If any of you got any matters to look to, come to Aaron, go to Aaron and her. Moses was away a month, forty days. And that period of testing found them. utterly famous, rained in the balances and found water.
And we have them at the end of the month worshipping a golden calf. Apostles here said, Now Motiv comes back. And when Motiv comes back, this is all I want to draw attention to India. Look down to the verse twenty-one. Moses said unto Aaron, what did these people introduce? That thou has brought so great a sin upon them? Aaron is now responsible. He has to give account. He has to give an account.
Use a chain before motive of his return. Failure. Use a jaded shift to use the highest position of responsibility. And of him much was to be required. Guru Narayan, in a very naive way, he said, I know it's the people. I know it's the people. You'd all know it's the people. You'd all know it's the people. You'd all know it's the people. The voices of people. I have to do what the people wanted, isn't it? to take to the trail what in the dark? And where we have it?
Here I'm saying, I've told them to give me some gold, and I've put it in the fire. And they're asking me to be a craft, you know. I wonder if you expect that Moses to believe that. There are some incentives to convey that, I don't know, but it sounds like that when I read it. I took the gold and put it in the fire and it passed. No. Wow. That's a miraculous thing. What is that? But then when you come lower down, in verse thirty, Moses said unto the people, You have claimed a great place.
So he claimed to lay at the feet of the feet of Aaron, but the people are to be blamed. And two thousand of them died. And then a little lower down. If you ever assume that you are such a thing, then you'll have a lot out of my books as individual responsibility. You've got to let me give these letters to researchers. That's the mysterious responsibility. That's collective or family responsibility. That's individual responsibility. My brother, young or old, my sister, young or old, everyone in the assembly either contributed to the well-being of the assembly, or is a hindrance to the assembly.
Everyone is either a helper, a hindrance. It's actually for us to ask ourselves, tonight is it, what am I? Am I a hindrance to the assembly or am I a parasite? Am I, and do I contribute to the spiritual well-being of the attendees? Now, on Thursday night, God willing, we'll go into the letter to the church of Ephesus, and we'll draw a comparison between that, what we've got there, and the books of Judgment and Group. And I hope to have some books here dealing with these letters available for anyone who gets a purchase.
I've intended bringing some along tonight, but some of them were sleeping this morning over at Napal. I'm at Maplewood tomorrow night and Tuesday, and we will be going on with these letters, at Maplewood tomorrow night and Tuesday night, and in all likelihood, and then stay at Maplewood. you