First Works — G.W. North

The Revelation and the Church’s Priorities

Let us come together, shall we, to that which God has for us tonight, in addition to what he has already given us. I want you to turn with me to the book of the Revelation, and in chapters 1 and 2, we are on familiar ground, and I suppose, really, this is where we need to stay.

I expect that you are rather like me, that you have discovered that if we keep right, right on these great foundational things, that everything else comes right. It all takes its place. In vain we struggle to accomplish things for God if we have not got our priorities right.

This is a very simple thing for us to learn, and I only want to point out to you simple things tonight. It is concerning the revelation that was given to the Lord Jesus Christ, which when he wanted to make known unto us, he communicated to John on the Isle of Patmos the great vision of himself in the midst of the candlesticks.

The seven lampstands, candlesticks as it is translated, whichever word we use, and he is standing in the midst. You see, when John turned in verse 12 of chapter 1, the first thing he saw, and this was by the will of God concerning it, the first thing he saw was the lampstands.

You would have thought he would have seen Christ first, wouldn't you? But Jesus was presenting to him the revelation that he had. And Jesus' revelation, whatever else you want to say, is this, the seven churches, or the perfection of the church in its ministry.

And then when he saw the sevenfold, the candlesticks, then he saw in the midst of the candlesticks this one like unto the Son of Man. He was standing in the midst of the candlesticks, and the Lord wanted us to enter into a glorious picture of truth, which he takes from the Old Testament.

The Lampstand in Leviticus and Revelation

You and I will turn to it now in Leviticus chapter 24. I suppose that you have been acquainted at some time or another that the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus contains the great revelation of the feasts of the dawn, and that the feasts of the Lord cover the whole of earth's period, as well as covering that which should be the experience of every individual.

It is an amazing thing that God always works on the same pattern, whether he's working in the universe, in nature, or whether he's working in an individual, in redemption. The principle of action never changes.

And this is a great thing, this great invariableness, why you can always rely on God. Why, though you can never counsel him or comprehend him within your mind, you can always be sure of him. And though you may not watch him carefully enough to know his movings in details, you can be sure he will never depart from principles.

And so, at the end of chapter 23, we come into chapter 24. And the Lord speaks unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil, beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually, without the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning, before the Lord continually.

It shall be a statute for ever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually. Now, the lampstand stood without the veil. And if you go through the book of the Revelation carefully, you will find the tabernacle or temple there.

You will have to read carefully. You will find the temple, the ark. You will find the sea, the equivalent to the sea in Solomon's temple. You will find the altar. You will find the incense. You will find everything there.

You will even find the lamb. And you will find everything in the book of the Revelation. That would be a wonderful study, if we should take it up together. But meanwhile, before we come together again, because we won't do it this time, I expect, you read it yourself and hunt it all out.

You be a mighty hunter before the Lord. Neither be an Esau or a Nimrod, but be a hunter. And hunt out the truth. And, all right, the great picture of the temple and the tabernacle can be used in many, many different ways.

And what the Lord is showing us in the book of the Revelation, you will find it that there in heaven, we are told in one place that the temple of the tabernacle was opened and the ark of the covenant was seen.

You will find it there. But the lampstand is on earth. The lampstand is without the veil. It is standing on the earth. Inside the veil, they didn't need any light. You will find that in New Jerusalem, which is the holy of holies.

The holy of holies was four square. And New Jerusalem is four square. The perfect cube. In there, they never need any light of the sun. They don't need the light of the candlesticks. That is lighted by the Lord.

And you will find the light on the earth, the candlesticks. In the holy of holies, the light. And we are told that New Jerusalem does not need the light because the lamp is the lamp. That's your word.

The lamp is the lamp. We find the lamp in New Jerusalem. We find the lampstands on the earth. In New Jerusalem, it's broad glorious daylight. They have the glory of God. It was like that in the holy of holies.

They didn't need any natural light in the holy of holies. No windows. They didn't need any artificial light. No lampstand. The glory of God lighted the holy of holies. And that's where God lived. But if you took the lampstand out of the holy place without the veil, it would have been dark.

The first tabernacle, as it's called, or the holy place, was lighted by the lamps on the lampstand. And Aaron had to go in and order, that is the high priest had to go in and order the lamps on the lampstand.

He had to see that the golden oil representing the Holy Ghost was flowing down into every one of the lamps on the lampstand, seven in all. He had to order them. I like this great word order. You'll find that everything was in order.

And everything was under the ordination or ordering of the high priest. Now this is exactly what John was shown. He looks round and he sees the lampstand and in the midst the high priest. Now of course we know that he's the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

We're told about him in the book of Hebrews. But let's have a look at this high priest here, shall we? Our Lord Jesus. For I trust that you know that the high priest, he had to do his great work and he could only do it day by day continually because annually the great atonement was made and the annual atonement kept the glorious light shining in the Holy of Holies.

The Lord stayed there because of the blood and because the great light was shining in the Holy of Holies, that is God himself, then the light could be kept going in the holy place. It's very, very simple.

And the Lord then, this great Melchizedek in resurrection, he's in the midst of the candlesticks. And we're going to see him. Verse 13 of chapter 1. In the midst of the seven candlesticks there was one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the peps with a golden girdle.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. And his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters.

And he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Now that's the high priest as he stood in the midst of the candlesticks to order the lamps.

One Light for the Seven Churches

I want you to see that John saw seven candlesticks but only one light. He never saw seven lights. He saw one light. The Lamb, the Lord, was the lamp. He was in the midst of the candlesticks, the lampstands.

And here then is the testimony that the church, for you know, seven is the number of perfection. Seven. And the church has to show forth just one light. It doesn't matter where it is. It could be Aurora, Exeter, Newton Abbott, Edinburgh.

It doesn't matter where they are. The churches may only show forth the light and the light is Jesus. Now that's the light that has to be shown. And the blessed Lord Jesus in his great high priestly capacity as you will see, is giving daily attendance to his job.

There he is. It's wonderful. And I'd like you to see in verse 10 that this man John was in the spirit and it was the Lord's day. Amen. Now the churches always and only exist in the Lord's day. They do not exist in man's day.

They don't exist in the devil's day. They exist in the Lord's day. Are you in the Lord's day? You see, if you come from a certain background you say, it's the Lord's day. Listen, it's the Lord's day. That's what I want you to see.

The Lord had a night. You know when it was. He went into such blackness and darkness for man's sin. And everything went out. And even the sun stopped his shining in the heavens. And he went down into death.

Bless the name of the Lord. It was all so wonderful. But now it's the Lord's day. Are you in the Lord's day? Glory. Listen, in the holy of holies no night there. In the churches no night there. The lamb is the lamp.

No night in the churches. No darkness in the churches. The greater, fuller day, the most marvellous light is yet ahead for us, praise God. But we are not living in darkness. We are not travelling in the night.

The world's in the night. The devil's men are in the darkness. God's people are in the day. They're in the light. This is what we're told. That when God begets his children, according to James in chapter 1, that he is the father of lights.

When he brings forth a child, it's a light. It's a light because it's a light. That's right. Amen. And it's a wonderful thing. What a glorious and precious truth it is. No church, doesn't matter who you are, what name you call yourself, has a light of its own.

They share the common light. The blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And what a light. Amen. When we get to New Jerusalem, we don't have any need of the sun. Whilst we're on the earth, we do. But it's his countenance.

We don't need the sun in that day. It's his face in our day, in the churches really. It's his face that's shining as the sun. He's taken the place of the sun for us. Amen. He's our sun. He's our day. He's our glory.

The Holy Spirit’s Constant Supply

And you know, beloved, he comes right down into the midst of the churches. And the whole purpose of it is that he should take the precious olive oil that was beaten from him, the olive, on the tree. And he takes the glorious oil and he orders the oil, the blessed Holy Spirit.

Hallelujah. Isn't this the marvellous thing about the great blessed Lord? That the Holy Spirit supplies the means of light for the churches. And you know, on that seven-branched candlestick of old, there was, if we like to think of it in this way, there was the great baptismal fullness at the front, at the top.

And the oil flowed through golden pipes from the great central reserve of the spirit of the oil. And it flowed down to each one of the individual churches. Amen. So right at the top, you have the glorious Lord, you have the great baptism, the fundamental, glorious, original fullness, outpouring of the Spirit, and then the supply of that oil constantly to the churches.

Every church has to be under the glorious oil, the great outpouring. Nobody's in the church except they're baptised in the Holy Ghost. Nobody. And the supply of the oil is constant from the first great baptismal fullness.

The constant supply. This again outdoes, this outworn, and of course it negates it. This whole theory, it used to be written in a certain Bible, I won't tell you, but if you want to know, it's called the S Bible.

I'll leave it at that. And in the S Bible, I'll leave it at that, they propound the fallacy, which isn't true. And if you live by it, you've got to be very cool. They say, quoting authorities, that the story is one baptism, many fillings.

That's not true. You've got it in the picture of the lamp. One baptism, constant filling. There. That's different. The lamps never went out. They had to be kept burning constantly. One baptism, always filled from the great central supply.

So cross that lump out in your S Bible, will you? It isn't true. It's got that. One baptism, many fillings. It isn't to say you can't be filled again if you've lost your fullness, but God's not catering for such dismal approaches to truth.

Amen. You've got to know the truth, and that'll set you free from the idea that's so deeply gone wrong. Remember what our sister Christine said earlier. Her mother told her when she was a child about leaving footprints in the soil.

See what it's done to her until last night. Think of it. You believe something that's wrong. I'm not going to guess her age. I guess she's over 25. A little. Well, 25 years. That error has bound her. Be careful what you believe.

Be careful about your S Bible, you see, or your N Bible, or your T Bible, TC Bible. Be careful about it. You've got to be very careful and know what God is teaching. And in the great truth, then, He's in the midst of the churches.

This blessed high priest, chief priest, great priest, really, is better than high. You see, if not, we talk about high churches and low churches. Chief priest. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he's there.

And he's doing his great work. And he trims his churches and he orders the light, not by just doing it, whether they want to or whether they don't. Remember, the combination of sovereignty and free will, God and man, that I spoke of earlier.

He didn't say, I'm in the churches, zonk, zonk, zonk, zonk, zonk. All Aaron had to do of old was just tip, you know, play around in the bits of gold there because they were gold and the oil, and I suppose see that the wick was burning alright, whatever the wick was made from.

But not with God. Not with Jesus. He does it by writing a letter to the churches. He does it by saying, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. He does it by the call to obedience that hearts respond.

And do you know whether a church remains a living, bright, vital, shining witness anywhere in the world depends upon what the members of that church do when God speaks to them. Did you know that? Every individual member, it depends on what you do when God speaks.

What a tremendous responsibility then lies upon us all. Amen. Well, I expect too that you have read as I have read, in fact I distinctly remember that at times in this room we've looked at this great letter to the Ephesian church.

The Ephesians’ Lost First Works

And you will remember that one of the things that Jesus said to the Ephesian church was this. He said, if you don't repent and do your first works I will remove your lampstand. Your light will go out.

That's what he said. I will put it out. He didn't say, oh those members got so weak and pale and they gradually did this and gradually. Jesus said, I'll put it out. That's it. I won't have it. I won't have that kind of behavior.

That's it. I won't have it. You can come and sing your services and clap your hands and do this or that. I'll put the light out. You're just running around yourselves. But we keep coming. We've been faithful for 55 years.

It doesn't make any difference if the Lord's put the light out. You see, the great tragedy is this. That if a lampstand is not a light in the dark, it's a menace to everybody. People who are seeking the light fall over it, bang into it, can't see anything.

Instead of being a blessing to people it's a curse. Look, seven churches in Asia. What a tragedy. Only seven? Only seven churches in Asia? Minor? Surely there must have been seven. What has happened to all the others then?

Weren't they in existence now? You do some thinking. You know both the goodness and the severity of God. Paul calls our attention to it. The goodness of God is to call us into the wonder and the glory of this marvelous relation with him to be filled with his glorious spirit and shine with his wondrous light amongst men.

You remember that when John, who writes these great books, you know that the Revelation is not the last book he wrote. It's the last one in the sacred canon and he wrote it, he wrote his gospel after he wrote the Revelation.

So the scholars tell us. We better believe them sometimes. The great thing is this, this was his wonderful theme in his first chapter of his first epistle. He writes, this is the message. God is light.

That's the message. You turn to his gospel, which was the last book that he wrote. Hallelujah. I'm so glad about this. It seems that old John said, Jesus, the last word I'm ever going to write is about thee.

He loved Jesus. It's funny, you know. Well, it isn't funny really. It's wonderful how that if you get in love with God and you move with God, he will give you the desires of your heart, you know. He will.

He's promised it. If people don't get the desires of their heart, you know they haven't been walking with Jesus right. Because God promised. Of course the thing is, once you go on with God, your desires are reduced to such a minimum that you see, you never know what disappointment is anymore.

Hallelujah. You see, nothing can go wrong. Your desires are reduced to the minimum. What's your desire? I can ask old John, John, what's your desire? Oh, I just want to put my head on his breast. Hallelujah.

He'll give you your heart's desire. That's right. The further you go with God, the more you go on in his love, the simpler you become. Your desires are reduced to just Him. Glory be to the name of the Lord.

And it's so wonderful. But you see, if you turn to his gospel, this is the thing he shows you. In him was life. He started out in the first chapter. The life was the light of men. And he said, while I'm in the world, I'm the light of the world.

Men love darkness. They don't come to me. So God put him on the cross and put the light out. Went in the darkness that he might rise in a new world, in a new day. They'd had their chance for three years.

They didn't come when they had the chance. What a tragedy. And so he rose. He lived. He was light. The darkness praised the name of the Lord. And then he rose again. And now he shines. He's in the midst of his churches.

That's where he is. What had happened though to all these others? Whilst Paul was at Ephesus for two years, let's listen. The whole of Asia heard the word of God. The whole of Asia Minor. That's what the book says.

Amen. You know, I sometimes think about these things. For instance, I read in 1 Corinthians 15 that above 500 brethren at once saw the Lord Jesus when he was risen from the dead. Above 500 of them. All at once.

And yet, on the day of Pentecost there were only 120 present. Where were the rest? Where were the rest? Would you have been at all? I don't believe in this baptism in the Holy Ghost. That's right. You're one of the rest.

Where were they? 380 brethren. Wouldn't come. Wouldn't wait. Wouldn't tarry. Wouldn't do as Jesus said. Except God had been merciful to them. What would have happened? Only 7 churches in Asia Minor. Jesus comes into the midst.

Listen. He says and it must have broken his heart. I've got to take away one of these. Of course God removes churches if they aren't alight with the light of Jesus Christ. The fact that a candlestick is made of gold doesn't make it any less treacherous than if it had been made of lead.

If there's no light there does it? People groping in the dark fall over it, stumble. And isn't this the tragedy? People are stumbling because of the churches. Because the Holy Ghost isn't there. That's the tragedy.

Got their Bibles just the same. Got their hymn books. Believers and unbelievers.

They've got them. They have their preaching.

The Lord's put out the light. The lights are there. There's no light except by the Holy Ghost. None. Hallelujah. None. So beloved. We've got to be full of the Holy Ghost. Every one of us. To make the light shine.

Alright. You got that clear? Now he says to the Ephesian church. I think we ought to have a look at this a little more closely. When he had examined that church and this is what you must say. This is what you must see when you read these churches.

That every time the Lord started off by saying I know thy works. Now my friend listen. You are known by your works. Oh. Every tree is known by its fruit. That's right. Every church is known by its works.

That's what Jesus said. To every church he said Now I know thy works. That's the thing. I know the works. Amen. And you are going to be tested by your works. Rora. Belmont Road. Wherever you gather. You may go to a church in Newton Abbott.

You may go somewhere in Bobby Tracy. You may go to Exeter. You may go to Plimpton. Plymouth. Your church is tested by its works. When the high priest comes. And it is your works that are the test of your light.

Your light goes out into the world as much by your works if not more by your works than what you preach. He didn't say now I listen to all the sermons you preach. Or I listen to all the messages you give.

He said I know your works. So I'm going to ask you a question. I'm starting and I'm pointing at each one of you individually. You may not like me to do it. You better have your works tested now. Haven't you?

What works are you doing? Now there's a great fallacy fallen upon what we'll call the evangelical Bible believing churches. The fallacious notion is I was brought up on it. I know it. We used to use the phrase Oh so and so, so and so.

They belong to the good works brigade. You know. Oh they do good works. We don't do good works. We believe. We've got faith in Jesus Christ. What a nonsense. But I faithfully believed it because grown up people said it before me.

It's the same as I was saying about our sister Christine. Her grown up mother said it before her. She believed it. Oh beloved. You keep careful check on who stands up and preaches in this church or any other church.

Because somebody says he says he's got a word. You want to be very careful. You have liberty only for the truth. Nothing for nothing else. Put it down. Put him down. Put her down. If they don't say the truth you'll mark someone's soul by your words.

And here beloved is the great thing for you and I to understand. You see we used to sort of mock really. We thought we were so well taught biblically. I'm sorry to have to say this. But it's true. And it wasn't just the fault of the place where I went.

It was common in all the areas where we used to go off with big black Bibles to conferences under our arms. So it was common. Oh they belong to good works brigade. And so you know it's utterly wrong to do good works.

You mustn't do them. You've got to believe. Now when you're in that area that's wrong. There's another area that's wrong too. And let's have a look at that. It's in this great second chapter. Jesus says in verse 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first words or else I will come unto thee quickly.

I'm not going to allow you much time to repent now. What you've got to do you've got to hear me now and obey quickly. Instant obedience. I'll come quickly. And I will remove thy lampstand out of its place except thou repent.

Oh they got some fine things about them in this church. But they failed at the first works. Now what are the first works? It seems to me that people are as devoid of knowledge of the first works as they are of the knowledge of first love.

If I was to ask you to define first love how would you define it? If I asked you to define first works how would you define them? Would you know what's the use of reading the Bible what's the use of having a Bible if we haven't got a clue what it means?

Good Works as the First Works

What are the first works? Now if we belong to the Pentecostal branches we'll call it Pentecostal you know what I mean people that believe in the baptism in the spirit and believe in miracles and signs and charismatic and we believe in having freedom and so on and so on we, if we're not careful we go as far wrong as the others for we think that the first works and I must confess at one time I used to think this that the first works were doing the miracles healing the sick not being bothered about this, that and the other getting on and doing this doing that and doing the other well if they be the first works let me ask you a question how many people in the church where you attend now think carefully how many do these miracles.

How many of them heal the sick. How many of them how many. Well perhaps we ought to close the churches down then they're not the first works they're the second works. Everybody's aiming at the second works thinking they're the first works.

The first works what are they. I want to tell you that Jesus Christ had been doing the first works for thirty years before he started to do the second works. Everybody's trying to run before they can walk.

Why is it that Paul when he wrote to these great churches as he did you'll find over and over again let me take this one he wrote to the Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10 if you want to check them out by grace.

Are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. What's wrong with them. We've been created unto good works and created in Christ Jesus unto good works not miracles healings especially good works.

Why did he write and tell people to be careful to maintain good works for necessary uses. Why when Mary anointed his feet did he say let her alone. She hath wrought a good work on me. She never healed him.

She never performed a miracle. She never gave a message in tongues nor interpreted it nor prophesied nor gave a word of wisdom. But there seemed to be more love and wisdom in what she did than in anything else.

Leave her alone. He said praise the name of the Lord. Now what are these first works then. They are the simple works that flow from first love. They are works that you can do my dear. They are not works that must be reserved for the prophet or the preacher.

Don't think. Oh he's a mighty preacher. That's only one of the second works. It's not one of the first. You must understand this and get it clear. Have you ever thought why it is that of all the great martyrs of the early church only one was raised from the dead and put in scripture for us.

Have you ever thought why. I hadn't thought why. Until God showed it to me. The first great martyr of the church as we know was Stephen. That man full of faith and so on the Holy Ghost. I don't know what he did.

Miracles all sorts of things. Mighty fighter for the church. He died. God left him dead. James had his head cut off in Herod's prison and God left him dead. Antipas. You can read about him in one of these letters to the churches.

Died a martyr slain where Satan's seat is. He was slain for the faith. Marvellous got a marvellous a martyr's crown. Three great men. Now listen. Here's the fourth. She was a little old lady. Her name was Dorcas.

All she did was to make clothes for the orphans. All she did was make nice little garments. She just did the first works. And God said well we'll leave these three great mighty pillars dead. We'll raise up this one.

This is the example. This is what we want more of in the church. In the churches here little Dorcas. Well she might have been big Dorcas. Why wasn't she left to wear her crown. She she hadn't died as a martyr.

She just died. See. You know God's like this. All these great brethren. Oh my God you're a fool. But he says she's a little old lady here come. He puts up this little lady there. That's what I want. Oh you big brethren with your expositions.

Oh that's right he says. Come on Dorcas. We'll show them something. You read it. You read your bible. Let God teach you something. He always takes a woman to take the pride out of a man. Put something real into the church.

Serving Neighbors Outside the Church

Apparently you see beloved those first works those good works that you do for people. Oh of course not. The brigade that's trying to earn a front seat in heaven by their works. Not that. But you see what we do is to use the common phrase throw out the baby with the bath water.

That's what we do. How many of you engage in good works. How many of you do it. How many of you would miss going to a meeting in order to go and dig somebody some poor old widow's garden for her. Well I can't do it.

It's the meeting tonight. I have observed in fact I've been through the process. I know I know I'm talking from experience as well as observation. I have observed that there are people who they wouldn't miss a meeting.

You see. But you say there's somebody just down the road needing their back garden dug. So oh oh God expects me to be at the meeting. Humbug. I have observed that there are people perhaps who will gather on street corners shouting out texts preaching to no one in particular.

And nobody ever listens to them. And nobody ever gets converted. Yet they do it regularly. This is what I have observed. I've been through it. I used to be the leader of such bands. And I know. And there's a little old lady down that street you see.

And she's in vast need. Her garden's overgrown. She can't dig her garden. And a couple of fellas that go down the pub and play darts one day say let's go and dig her garden for her. And she says God bless you.

They've done the good work. You've wasted your time. So never say that never waste the time to preach the gospel. What do you think. You've been created in Jesus Christ to do good works. And they are the rays of light that have got to shine out from the church.

If you don't do the good works he said. If you don't do the first works I remove you from your country. He said. If you don't go out holding open air meetings and giving tracts away and all that. Now I know they have their place.

Please don't anybody misquote me. These are the things. When did you last go and do a good work for someone. And I don't mean just your pal in the church. I mean some old sinner out there. And I'm not using the term in a derogatory fashion.

I mean somebody out there. Jesus did all his good works on sinners. There wasn't one born again person on the earth while he was on it. Not one. Do good to them that despitefully use. You pray for them.

Go and do some work. If you get out and start doing the first things that he's commanded. Listen to me all you young people it doesn't matter what your elders tell you in your churches if they don't tell you this these are the first things that you have to do.

You are to go and do good works. Listen. You do good works for someone and you got your mission field immediately. This is why people aren't getting saved that despite the multiplication of tapes. And you say well people do get saved.

I hear somebody listen to such and such a tape. Yes. I could repeat that story. But how about all these people round here. Take an area of one mile from Rora. Five miles. The people that live in this area I tell you there are hearts crying out for somebody to come and do a good turn for them.

They might call it a good turn just crying out. You young people. Will you listen to me. I may be the oldest man in the room I've lived longest I've seen you got a mission field. If you go and do good works.

There's a missionary ex-missionary in the room I don't know if he wants to be called that he will bear witness with me. I who have moved amongst them that missionaries do more good works than preaching to get to the people.

That's right. Whether they succeed or not I don't know. And you when did you do a good work turn for your neighbour. When did you. You see we save it up for the saints. Well specially for the household saints.