Gooding, David: 2 - Christ amidst the Golden Lampstands

Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, head of the church. We would now prepare our hearts before thee, for we come to read how of old thou didst appear to thy servant John, and through him dictate to thy churches thy messages of encouragement and consolation, thy generous approbation and praise, yet thy holy criticisms and complaints. And we are persuaded, Lord, as we come to read these thy words now recorded for us, that these things too were written for us and for our learning. We would therefore now open our hearts before thee. And pray thy grace that we shall not feel superior in any sort to these, our fellow Christians of a bygone day. But rather, Lord, rejoicing in thy consolations and encouragements, we might find the courage to face thy criticisms. Search thou our hearts, we pray. Speak to our consciences. Assure us as we proceed of thy love, that in all thy goodness, thou dost seek our welfare and em- er progress, so that as we listen tonight to thy word, we might find grace ourselves, according to thine exhortation, to overcome and thus enjoy those lovely, glittering, gladsome rewards that thou hast promised to those who so overcome. To this end, sanctify our gathering with thy presence, we pray, and show us thy glory for thine own name's sake. Amen. Amen. We begin now by reading from our book of the Revelation and chapter one. The book of the Revelation, chapter one, beginning to read there in verse nine. I, John, your brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience which are in Jesus, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, what thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice which spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle. And his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. And his voice as the voice of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Write therefore. Now, let me pause to say that some of you reading an older translation might, uh, be reading a verse that has no therefore in it. That is the true manuscript reading, and we shall find it important later on to notice the therefore of verse eighteen that connects with what our Lord has just said. Because he is the living one, wa- became dead and behold is alive forevermore, and has the keys of death and of Hades, therefore John can and is to write. Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and the things which are, and the things which will come to pass hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are these seven churches. Then let us read the first of those se- seven letters that will show us something of the pattern that they, all of them follow. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, these things says he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. I know thy works and thy toil and thy perseverance, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them which call themselves apostles, and they are not, and didst find them false. And thou hast endurance and didst bear for my name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I come to thee and will move thy lampstand out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcomes, to him will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. May the Lord who dictated these words to John and to his churches speak directly to our hearts this evening. Last evening, as I said, I suggested to you that the book of the Revelation is composed of six major sections. Now, tonight we come in our study to survey the first section. Once more, I must warn you that I cannot a- attempt to cover all the many and very interesting details of this particular part of the revelation. All we can hope to do in the time available in this short series is to consider first the place that this section has in this particular book, and then to notice some of the leading principles that recur throughout these letters. Why then we ask ourselves, is this particular vision given to John to record just here? It is, as you see, the vision of the blessed Lord Jesus, like unto a son of man in all his risen exalted glory, appearing to his servant amid seven golden lampstands that represented at the time seven churches in the district of Asia Minor. And in those, uh, letters, you will see our Lord addressing through John these seven churches. Why is this particular vision here the first of all the six sections? The sections that follow, numbers two, three, four, and five, are full of the judgments of God, that like the plagues on Egypt will one day descend upon this world, and then climax, as the plagues of Egypt did in the final plague, climax in the great day of the Lord, the great day of his wrath and judgment upon a guilty and unrepentant world. But if that theme of God's judgment in the times to come upon the world fills the major part of this book, what then are these messages to the churches doing here in the first three chapters? There is, it seems to me, one simple answer if we are to understand how they connect with what follows. And to see what it is, we may refer to the word that the Apostle Peter writes for us in his first epistle and chapter four. The time has come, says he, my brethren, when judgment must begin at the house of God. And if the judgment first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? Here Peter is enunciating a basic principle of God's dealings, and particularly when they are to do with his judgment. Judgment, says Scripture, must first begin at the house of God. So in this, uh, uh, uh, uh, this book, the first vision is directed to the churches, because as we shall now see, our Lord appears to them as judge. You say, Mr. Lecturer, where do you get the idea from that our Lord is appearing to his people, his churches as judge? Surely, you say, I thought we all believed and were certain of it, that our Lord has promised us, verily, verily, I say unto you, he who hears my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life and comes not into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Well, yes, of course, glorious words. Shout a hallelujah in your heart. Marvelous words, absolutely certain, prefaced by the solemn assurance of our Lord. Amen, amen, I tell you. He who hears my word and believes will not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life. There our Lord is talking of the final judgment and of the penal consequences of sin that must be meted out to the unrepentant. And in that sense, there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. But that's it. The Lord presently judges us, doesn't he? So does God. If you pass, if you, uh, pass, uh, uh, call on him who without respect of persons judges each one according to his works. Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. For we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and God who gave his son and that precious blood for our sakes, to buy and redeem, not only to seek our pardon from sin, to to buy us and to buy our lives, to buy our eternity, but to buy our present sojourning here. Of course God is critical, isn't he? Do we suppose that God would spend on the redemption of our life the precious blood of Christ and then not care how we spend it? Why, of course not. The Father himself judgeth, critically judges, and has a right to judge, hasn't he? How we spend our redeemed lives. Once our lives on this planet are finished, they never come again, do they, in that same way. And he who has redeemed our lives has a right to survey how we use them and to let us know what he feels about our conduct and our stewardship. You say, surely when our Lord Jesus appeared to his apostle, he appeared to them in the dress of their priest. What else is that long robe that covered him down to the foot? Is that not a priestly robe? Well, so it may be. I suppose it is a matter of interpretation. But I draw my conclusions from what the blessed Lord says and does in chapters two and three. For already we have had one sample, and that same thing he does throughout these letters as he draws near to each church, and having presented some feature of himself for their encouragement, adds, I know your works. For he has been silently beholding each church, each individual member of each church, and watching what they do and what the church does as a church, and draws near now, saying, I know your works. Now this is good. Yes, this I love. And oh, with what generosity does he describe our feeble efforts, praising everything he can possibly praise, and admiring our persistence in our efforts to please him and live for him. Generous in his praise and critical assessment. Then, just as open as he points out the faults of his people, some of them serious faults. Calling on them, calls them to give heed to his criticism and repent. It is in that sense, I suggest to you, that our Lord in these letters to the churches is standing to judge his people. There's nothing unorthodox in that theory, I hope, because all of us, we have no option, do we? We shall one day, says Paul, we shall appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Better then we should open our hearts, both tonight and all through life, as for God, his redeemed people, and listen both to his encouragements, but also to his assessments and appraisals, and therefore to his criticisms. They are given us in love, are they not? For, for instance, when he comes to dictate the last letter to Laodicea, he says in chapter three verse nineteen: as many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. We are not to think of his chastening as coming from some hostile hand. Come from the loving hand of the blessed Lord who died for us. He calls on us that when he exposes our faults, we humbly repent of them. That is nothing odd either, is it? We shall recall what Paul tells us in one Corinthians chapter eleven, how we are to prepare ourselves to come to celebrate the Lord's Supper, Lord's Day by Lord's Day. We are not to come lightly, but we are to judge ourselves, to discern ourselves, and repent if we find any wrong deed or attitude within, and thus coming celebrate the fact he gave his body and shed his blood for our sakes. Now, says Paul, if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. But when we are judged, or if we don't judge ourselves, he will judge us. And when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord. This is what he's saying. As many as I love, I chasten. And we are chastened of the Lord. What for? That we should not be condemned with the world. Christ deals with his people now. The world goes on in its unrepentant sin to the judgment that then shall await them. We are therefore to think tonight of our Lord Jesus drawing near to us. Yes, of course, as our priest, who intercedes and prays for us and is able to succor us when we are tempted, but also as the Lord and head of the church, in all his glory and dignity, come to assess us, to praise, but also, where necessary, to criticize. If that be so, it gives great significance to the vision, does it not, of our blessed Lord Jesus. In all his majesty and official glory. When John comes under the Holy Spirit's guidance to tell us what it was like, he can give us no photograph nor paint any picture, and the impression the Lord made on him goes so far from anything we have ever seen, that he drains the universe of the elements to find suitable comparisons and similes and metaphors with which to describe the glory of the risen Lord. And first come descriptions of his purity. I turn, says John, to see the voice that spake with me. And having turned, I saw these seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like unto a son of man. That is John saying he was human. This is our blessed Lord Jesus, human still, though now glorified. Clothed with a garment, says John. And now we should notice that the order of his description is not starting with the head and working gradually down to the feet and there concluding it. It follows a different order, in which perhaps the first details are grouped to convey to us the purity of our Lord Jesus. And then the last details concerned to indicate his power. Clothed with a garment, yes, but we should notice the adjective each time with these things, not just clothed with a garment, but clothed with a garment down to the foot. Oh, what a stately garment and robe that was, be it priestly or of the robe of a judge. As we think of the significance of garments, how they denote the office, the work, the position that the garment wearer has. We notice that superb robe right down to the foot, and it isn't a centimeter lacking. One who in his office is no, not merely totally glorious, but totally and spotlessly pure. His personal righteousness. Purity, gird about the breasts with a girdle, not unusual in the attire of that day. Gird about the breasts, the word John uses is feminine, indicating, yes, this holy majestic one, yet he is not hard and unfeeling. He has all the tenderness that you might con- c- uh, attach to the female of the race. He's one that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He loves us with all the tenderness of a mother's love. But his love isn't profligate. It's girt. It's love, but it isn't indulgence. He's girt about the breast with a girdle, not just any girdle, with a golden girdle. The discipline of his affections are of the highest and most glorious standard. Oh, for our ugly, sinful world, that even between one another, men and women have forgotten how to be restrained, drag down their affections into the dust, and tarnish the gold that should control them. Our Lord then says it next, and his head and his hair were white as wool, white as snow. You may take it, if you like, to indicate his eternal being. When Daniel saw God Almighty seated upon his throne in the vision of Daniel seven, Daniel said that this was the ancient of days, the everlasting God from eternity to eternity. His hair, therefore, white as wool. But in addition to indicating his eternal, uh, uh, uh, being, it indicates, of course, his wisdom. Wisdom is attributed to the ancients, is it not? But this is no earthly wisdom. This is the wisdom that cometh from above and is first, pure, and impeachable. And his eyes were as a flame of fire, so that they did not merely perceive, but perceiving were able to penetrate, like fire does, into the very depths of our being. Eyes of fire that leap when they see evil to remove it. Everything is naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do, says the Epistle to the Hebrews. Wherefore we may seek grace to come boldly to the throne of grace. We come to the eyes, the penetrating, burning eyes of our blessed Lord. And his voice, and with this we turn perhaps to indications of his power. His voice as the voice of many waters. They tell me that when you stand near Niagara Falls, you can hear the thundering boom of those many waters for many miles around. So was his voice in volume and power, like the voice of many waters. It'd be marvelous to hear his approval spoken with that voice, wouldn't it? But what must it have meant when they received the letter at Ephesus, to hear that voice like the sound of many waters saying, but thou hast things there which I hate. Solemn, is it not? Voice of the sound of many waters, and out of, and in his right hand he had seven stars. And at this point you will know that John didn't know what the stars represented. It must have been an impressive sight to see this lordly figure standing there with stars in his hands. You know, earthly sovereigns, when they want to impress us, get hold of a bit of stick. Well, it's ornamented with gold, and it's got knobs on, and it's called a scepter or something, you see? And they expect us to be, uh, impressed. This man controls the stars. And out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. It is different now, isn't it? From when in the synagogue of Nazareth he spoke his words, expounding the prophet Isaiah, and all of them marveled at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth. Yes, it's the same Jesus, but out of his mouth now proceeding a double-edged sword. That is not unexpected, surely. Or to revert to Hebrews again, it says that the word of God is living and more sharp than any two-edged sword. This is the one we have to do with. His word is no mere plaything nor food for academic discipline merely. It is a sharp word, dividing the intents and the thoughts of the heart. And his countenance was as the sun. Oh, but notice the adjectival phrase, was as the sun shineth in his strength. You say this is a very different Jesus from what the gospels represent him, and you don't approve? Or you would like him to be different? Make sure of it before you go home to heaven, won't you? It's not different from the Jesus that was here, is it? Oh, how he veiled his glory most of the time in his mercy, that we might not be afraid to come near him, and sinners might seek him, and little children sit on his lap as he blessed them. But there came a time when he ascended the mount with three of his disciples. And against the background of his announcement that one day they would take him and reject him and nail him to the tree of Calvary, he took them up on the mountain, and all of a sudden he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, say the apostles. And we saw his glory and were eyewitnesses of his majesty when there came such a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. He's the one about whom the whole universe revolves. As the planets revolve about the physical sun in the sky, so the whole universe of God revolves around Jesus Christ, our Lord. Yes, he is no different from what he was, Jesus, for he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We deal with him now in his official capacity, not merely as my personal friend and guide, but in his official of capacity as Lord and head of the church, responsible for the churches all down the long, long centuries, and responsible for us now. We should not forget it, should we? It's one thing to say, and rightly we say, perhaps still have the humility to say, Jesus, gentle, meek, and mild. Look upon thy little child as we kneel by our bedsides and take our rest. He is the shepherd who loves us. But while we think of those things, let us not forget his official capacity. Lest we come to underestimate the person of our Lord. It is particularly as the Lord and head of the churches, he appears to us now, and it's a thing we shouldn't forget when we meet as churches, should we? In public capacity, as lampstands bearing the testimony to, testimony to our absent Lord. Who is this Lord? Upon whom to illuminate his, his glories, the lampstands function. He's not just the leader of a club, is he? Or a friendly daddy or something. He is the glorious Son of God, author of the universe, controller of the rolling spheres, marvelous in his purity, almighty in his strength. The fact that he loves us and cares for us, that is wonderful, isn't it? You say, is it he that is about to judge his churches, commend them, and then criticize him? How would we ever dare to stand in front of such a one and listen to what he has to say? We might well ask the question. For do you see, when our blessed Lord appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos, John tells us that in that split second, he fell at his feet as dead. We were warned just recently when the sun went into full eclipse, not to look at it. How could anybody for any length of time stand and look at the sun when it shines in its strength? How could John look upon a face that shone like the sun in its strength? He said, I fell at his feet as one dead. Overpowering was the weight of glory. Oh, my brother, my sister, don't be faint-hearted too quick. You've got to get used to it, you know. Yes. Don't think you always believe it or always remember it. When you get home to heaven, you're not going to look like you look now, I tell you that. You're glad that I won't, and I'm certainly glad that you won't. It was a... Ha. Uh, Paul tells us in two Corinthians, is it not chapter four or five? He says, you know, that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a nice little tinsel crown of... No, no, no. Worketh a far more eternal weight of glory. Glory is a magnificent thing. The Hebrew word for glory means something that is heavy. To bear the weight of glory in heaven, it makes your spine tingle, doesn't it? I confess to you, I don't make a habit of going to Buckingham, nor yet to Windsor, to dine with the Queen, you'll see. Mm. Nor to take part in that business when she opens Parliament and things. So I've got nothing against the Queen. I just said the cookery is good. But, you know, I'm not used to all that paraphernalia. Which knife do you use? Which fork, spoon? And anyway, what would you say to Her Majesty anyway? You can't say where did you go on holiday, um, Queen, and that kind of thing. What on earth do you talk about? And all that ermine and stuff and tiaras make you feel uncomfortable. I would prefer to have a close friend of mine and go down to Bangor and sit on the beach and eat my sardines, you'll see. And have we? To sit at his table as he promised. To sit at my table in the coming kingdom. Oh yes, nothing less than that. You're going to be a companion for this glorious Lord for all eternity, and share with him in his glory, and bear the weight of glory. Already we are told by the Apostle Paul that being risen with Christ, we're seated with him above all the principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. One day, where we are now in spirit, we shall be physically with bodies made like to his body. Oh, how you shall shine in glory, my dear brother and sister. What will you be like? C. S. Lewis used to observe, not up here you don't. You'll have to learn to behave, my boy. I'm only a fellow servant. Oh, but you look so gorgeous. You look so wonderful. You're an angel. Well, so I am. Nothing much in that. I'm only one of your fellow servants. The Epistle to Hebrews, chapter one dares to tell us that these angels, for all their glory, are sent forth to be even now ministering to us who are the heirs of salvation. And we're going to be like him. As the hymn writer put it, and is it so? I shall be like thy son. Is this the grace that he for me has won? Father of glory, thought beyond all thought, in glory, to his own blessed likeness brought. All the magnificence of it. You shall be kings and priests, you shall be princes and princesses in the royal family of God. Oh, it does us good sometimes to come face to face, as John did, with this vision of our glorious Lord. We're going to be like him one day. How then shall we stand and listen to his critiques? The answer is given us here, says John, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. This the same John who, as many have pointed out, on the night of the Last Supper, lay next to Christ upon the bank, on on on the dinner couch, and seeing he was next to Christ, turned over and leaned his head on the bosom of the Savior to ask him a question. That same John, when he saw the Lord in glory, fell at his feet as one dead. Met the Lord and head of the church, the judge of the churches. Ah, but he tells us where he found the strength from, that he might stand and listen to the judgments and the criticisms and the assessments, and of course the encouragements. And he says, he laid his right hand upon me. Oh, marvelous. We read that when he was here on earth, he touched the leper, and the leper was made whole. But now he's risen, glorified in the power of his resurrection, and he laid his hand on me, his right hand, that powerful right hand, and he laid it on me, says John, and thus did he strengthen me. Yeah. Nor should we think it's something altogether unusual, should we? The power of the risen Lord. In Ephesians chapter one, Paul tells us that he prayed for his converts, that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that they might know what is the hope of his calling, what the glory of the riches of inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power, that is God's power, that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. The power which God wrought towards you, says Paul, when he raised Christ from the dead. That is, there was set loose at that time of the resurrection of Christ, an almighty power of God in the risen Christ. God had in mind not only the personal resurrection of his son, but the power that should now be made available as we could bear it ourselves. Here is our blessed Lord putting his hand upon John, that in his grace he might strengthen him to bear the sight of the glory of the Lord. And get used to standing in his presence. Yes, that's the number one secret. Strength imparted by the glorious Lord himself. We can learn even now to stand in his presence and face him. And then he adds other reasons, does he not? Saying, fear not, John. He's not come to rouse us to any panic. Fear not, John. Lovely words, aren't they? In the presence of such divine majesty. Well, maybe sure, if ever Queen Elizabeth, um, uh, invited me to dinner and you thought about it. Ah, well, I expect you're used to it, but if I was there, as I was invited in by all her flunkies, my knees would be sort of shaking, you see. I don't know about you, whether you go in for these things. How shall we stand in his majestic presence and not fear? Oh, this is a true word, isn't it? Have you noticed in the epistles how they very carefully tell us God has not given us a spirit of slavery again to fear. No, if we should find ourselves on times beset with panicky fears, and thinking about spiritual things makes them worse, and we think that this must be then the Holy Spirit telling us we're terrible. Uh, the Lord in his kindness has said otherwise, hasn't he? The Holy Spirit will never produce in us that kind of panicky fear. God has not given us the spirit of slavery again to fear. Lovely thing. You'll see slaves, that's how they proceed in life, don't they? At least that's how I imagine they do. Slaves work for their masters. What for? Jolly well got to. So they do what they're set, because if they don't do what they're set, they expect to find the lash of the old taskmaster or the slave driver coming down on their backs. They live in fear of it and go to their work driven by that slavish fear and do no more than they have to, but they do a certain amount because they think I do enough so I shan't get, uh, whacked. You'll see. Not how we Christians live, is it? Fear not, says the Savior. God has not given you the spirit of slavery again to fear. But he's given us the spirit of adoption, the spirit of his dear son, whereby we cry, Abba Father. What marvelous, isn't he? Mm. If you detect a certain pride in my voice, well, you'll have to have mercy because I'm a sinner yet, and bearing the thoughts of these coming glories can sometimes tipple me over the edge into a certain pride. But there can be no sense of superiority, can it? It's true of you, sir, if you be a believer, and you, ma'am. All we are, have this spirit of adoption, the spirit of sons and daughters of the living God. And, uh, he's e- engaged in training us not to fear. And he laid his right hand upon me, and he said, fear not, for you see, I am the first and the last. Oh, I like that. I am the first and the last. Hm. Well, he's the first and the last of a lot of things. He existed before the universe, didn't he? He'll exist long after it goes to pieces, however it goes to pieces, by heat death or cold death or whatever. When it's long since gone, our Lord will still be there. This is an indication of his deity. In the Old Testament, Jehovah says, I am the first and the last. So does Christ say. You'll see, but I take comfort in this, you know, when it comes to me. He is the first and the last, you know. He is the alpha and omega as far as I'm concerned. The first letter of the alphabet and the last letter of the alphabet. Uh-huh. That makes up the story me. You know, if you would have to write the story of me? I don't think you'd ever think of doing it. You haven't got the time to waste. But should you start writing the story of me and you have to use the alphabet of some kind? Do you know what the first letter will be in my story? Well, not me, but Christ, you know. I'm his idea. He thought me up. You mustn't believe I created myself. You don't, do you what? Well, whose idea are you then? If you're not Christ's idea. In him were all things created, and through him. And what's going to be the last letter in all the story of my life? Where's it go? It's Christ, isn't it? In Him, through Him, and to Him were all things created. And when my life and your life is finished, and the whole story is told of what it's all been about here on Earth. If you are one of his redeemed, it will be shown how you and your life have been turned by the redeeming grace of Christ to glorify Christ for all eternity, part of the eternal program of the word of God, part of his glorification. He is the first and the last. What about the middle bit? While he and I are writing the story, as he has used maybe a servant like the Apostle Paul as a pen, and used the gracious Holy Spirit as the ink, and wielding a pen has begun to write on our hearts the very laws of God so that we keep them. A wonderful story. Not writing on dead, brute tables of stone, on living, quivering hearts. Now redeemed. Born again people. Now in process of writing the laws of God on our hearts, that little by little is changing us. Or to f- change the metaphor, as two Corinthians says, we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory into glory, into his image. Let us not be afraid then to approach the living Lord in all his glory. But should one fear remain, look what now is said. I am the living one, and I became dead. Behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and of Hades. Comfort well suited to John, wasn't it? For he lay at the Lord's feet dead, as though this were too much for him to bear. The weight of glory would destroy his quivering human spirit. Fear not, says the Blessed Lord. I am the living one. Author of life, source of life, who gets his life from nowhere else, but has life in himself. He is the living one. This did he say, according to John chapter five when he was here on earth. As the Father has life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. First man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit. All happy are they who have met this risen Lord, met him here in this life, have made contact with him, have heard his word and come to him and found he is the source of life. He is the living one. And the moment a soul comes to him in genuine repentance and faith, he gives them eternal life, his own very life. I am the living one. All to know him is life eternal. And I became dead. What a story lies in that phrase. Became dead. Not merely physically dead, but he died for our sins. What that means, who can know? He tasted death's waters, dark, bitter, offensive, and for his lost sheep went down to the grave. But now he's risen. And his word is, I am alive again forevermore. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. You see, I know where I come from, came from, says Christ, and I know where I'm going to. And he's on his way, says he. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, have the light of life. I shall take them where I came from. He that keepeth my word shall not see death. See dying, of course. Whether the dying process is painful or sudden. We shall see dying if the Lord doesn't come soon. Shall not see death. What it means to pass from this world through the article of death out into the next. As alas, many unrepentant people will. And discover now too late what it means to suffer eternal death. Or he will never suffer it. Know if you have trusted Christ, the guarantee stands there, and because of that guarantee, we can find the courage to come and stand before him and listen to his criticisms. They are not said in any malevolent, hypercritical spirit, but from one who loves us oh so well, and is determined upon our good, and is determined to make us one day like himself. And to add to the final part of the comfort, I think I hear him rattle the keys by John's side, don't you? Can you hear them rattling just now? Oh, I like the sound of those keys. I have the keys, says he. See them, John, my boy? See them? I have the keys of death and of Hades. Death, you see, is like the door, and uh, uh, uh, as you come to it, this is the door, and we see it as death on our side. Pass through it, and you are in the unseen world, the other side. I have the keys. I have the authority, says Christ. I control them. Not the devil, you know. Oh, no, no. Once upon a time, says Hebrews two, the o- the Satan and the devil, he had the power of death. That our Lord came and died to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He has the key. Say to let us in, to let us out, I think, more likely, isn't it? Yes, when we come to die physically, it's he that will control it. He shall control our passage into the world beyond that's unseen. And we have his blessed word as he gave it to the dying thief and to many since. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. That's how the believers of the New Testament talk, don't they? They're not so much concerned as whether their soul or their spirit departs. You can talk like that if you care to, but, uh, it's you will be with me in paradise. I want to depart, says Christ, and be with Christ. If we're absent from the body, we are present with the Lord. I got a letter from a dear lady in New Zealand just the other week, and at the bottom of her letter she said, I am ninety two, only a step to Jesus. That's it, isn't it? I have the keys of death and of Hades. We need not fear. Fear in the reverential sense, yes, but we have no fear or dread as we stand before this glorious, blessed Lord Jesus Christ, Lord and head of the church in all his official glory. He holds us by his right hand, and thus we shall find courage to listen to what he has to say as he assesses us and encourages us and exposes our faults, calls on us to repent, and then to overcome. It is with that very necessary lesson before us that tomorrow, God's willing, we shall turn to consider the actual judgments that Christ made when he talked to the churches, and through them to us. Shall we pray? Blessed Lord Jesus. We have tried, by thy Spirit's grace and help, to look upon thee. Though with feeble vision, we bless thee for all of thy glory that thou hast, thou hast shown us. Wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank thee for these assurances of thy love. We thank thee for not compromising thy glory, but rather art intent on raising us up to thy side, that we might be a fit companion then for Jesus, of him, for him, and like him made. And therefore, even as we praise thee and feel thy strong hand upon us, we pray thy grace, that as presently we shall come to listen to thy voice in these letters, we may understand what thou art saying and become more to thy pleasure than even we have been before. This we ask for thy greater glory, and for thy name's sake. Amen.