Revelation 3:9 “. . . and to know that I have loved thee.” This phrase is taken from the message to the Church at Philadelphia. It is linked with the Lord’s coming—“I come quickly”. With His coming imminent, He addresses these words to His Children. After all, the issue at the end, in the coming of the Lord, will be that there is that which draws His own heart and makes it possible for Him to say this kind of thing—“I have loved thee.” This is the discriminating statement. We must place emphasis on the “thee” because they represent a certain condition that does answer to the heart of the Lord. The Lord loves ALL His children, but there seems to be something special here. From this message to Philadelphia, which has the Lord’s coming in view, we know how a faith- ful testimony may find itself at the time of the end. Undoubtedly, the terms of this message indicate that the Lord’s testimony will be in straitness, in limitation, hedged up, shut in. These words “key” and “door” surely indicate that there is something locked up, something that men would shut out, lock out, something men would hinder, frustrate, curtail and limit; doors that men would close and lock. Over against this, though it may be like that—the Lord says: ‘I have the key. No matter what doors men may close, I can set before you a door which no man can close. Keys and doors, ultimately, are with me, in the midst of the presence of the severest, straitening, curtailment and difficulty. Then we have the word which says, there are those who “say they are Jews, and they are not”, but are “of the synagogue of Satan”. This implies there is something which seeks to simulate and represent what is of God, but which is not true and not pure. That is why the Lord introduces Himself as the One that is holy and the One that is true ,in contrast to that which is false and impure, which is not transparent, which will not stand up to the scrutiny of the eyes of flame, with which He is presented to us at the beginning of the messages to the churches. He is looking through and exposing the false. A true testimony will find it based upon something that is true, as over against the seeming true which is false, based on that which is a lie—a synagogue of Satan, a legalistic system in antagonism to a pure, clear, full, free testimony to the Lord Jesus. That is how it may be in any expression of the fullness of the Lord’s mind towards the end. It is not popular and all doors open in all directions, with everyone acclaiming and sponsoring. It is going to feel very much shut out and find many doors closed. ‘Never mind’, says the Lord; ‘I know, I have the key. The issue is with Me’. What is it that brings out this approbation? ‘I am going to make them know that I have loved thee’. There is a partiality with God—not just for persons, for people, as such: it is not selectiveness among people that draws out His partiality. The partiality of the Lord is toward faithfulness itself. It is that which draws out this word, “I have loved thee”. I am sure it must have been very encouraging to the saints as Philadelphia to get a message like that. It must have almost startled them in their difficulties. In everything that seemed to say that the Lord was not with them and was not prospering them, so many difficulties and then a letter arrives, in it the Lord says: “I have loved thee”. Almost startling! Why? Here are the oppressed saints at Philadelphia and the Lord says, “thou hast a little power”. They themselves are more conscience of weakness than of power, seeming to be very much weaker that otherwise, and yet there is that there which speaks of the Lord, something that the Lord can recognize and say:’in all consciousness of weakness, in the seeming overwhelming insufficiency, there is that which speaks of Me’. “Thou has a little power, and didst keep my word”—you have been faithful to My revealed thoughts and mind’—“and didst not deny my name”—the Name of absolute supremacy and honor and glory—, and “didst keep the word of my patience”. “The word of my patience” seems to be a strange phrase. What does it mean? Just this—that all down through the ages, God spoke a word to His servants, gave them something of Himself. Then, it seems He went away and left them. They had to wait and wait and wait. There were tested by the word, having to pass through a long period of waiting for the word to be fulfilled, for God to honor His word. “The word of the Lord tried him”, it says about Joseph (Psalm 105:19). He had visions from the Lord, now he is in a dungeon. His soul enters into iron. He had to wait but the word that came to him was fulfilled in God’s time and in God’s way. Here in Philadelphia, they had the word, and had not given it up: they had held on through difficulties, through the darkness until the word should be fulfilled.. “Kept the word of my patience.” Upon all that the Lord comes back and says: “I have loved thee.” We of this present generation are in that time of His patience. Everything points to the coming of the Lord and that the time is upon us. All around us, we can behold weak and beggarly churches, devoid of the Spirit of God, trudging on in the power of man. Never in our lifetime have we seen such a moving more and more into the trenches with Satan. Regardless of the condition of sinners and apostate Christians, the Lord holds the door open to those who will keep His Word, stand for the truth of His Word and will stand fast until the time when He comes for us. Rather than let the surrounding darkness discourage us, let us hear the words, “I have loved thee” and “look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Even so, Lord Jesus come!
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 12:13:54 +0000
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