Revelation 1;19 Missionary Conf. — J.M. Davies

Well, it's nice to be back in St. Louis, 54 years. It's last January since I took my privilege to be in St. Louis for the first time. Conference of the Bible Hall, full of speakers coming. Raksha approached me at the conference just to listen for the Word of God.

Six months just for the Word of God in Australia, New Zealand, with a very full program, and a son, with my daughter in Pasadena, and with my son in Perth. We came back to India for another six months, teaching there, teaching at Colombo.

Then, back to the Bible, to Sir Rubeshwar. At that time, away in the States, meetings every night, and also on the official to the Colossians in Prisbane. Talking from there of the fact that we shall bring the Word of God to the Persians out to do the work in Addis Ababa, and give a little help to our President serving the Lord in Ethiopia.

From there, down to Srinia, and down to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, it is twelve days with the assembly there, up to the archipelago, what are known as the spies. Very hard and difficult work to begin with.

It was twelve years before they saw any proof for their labor. There were over six hundred in assembly cellars. The capital, a town of about eleven thousand, and the assembly building is the biggest in the town.

I remember the Lord and about nine hundred to the gospel meetings, and about fifteen hundred to the annual conferences, lasting for a week in mid-November. In front of the building, on the Sunday of the gospel hall, with them for altogether about five and a half months.

With the assembly in Copenhagen, for nearly a month, more than a month altogether. We are here to call it Iceland, a visit with the assembly in Reykjavik. I remember there's a brother and his wife have gone there from the States recently.

Iceland is reported to be, but the island itself is absolutely barren. In Reykjavik, they would be glad for the fellowship of the saints and priests. His wife have gone there, of course they will take some time, but they're going to be able to communicate with the people at all.

Learning the Language for Missionary Work

There's no use for man going to any country in the south or north for any length of time unless he learns the language of the people with whom he visits the community. ...potential in connection with missionary work.

They can't get into personal contact with people. ...to include a truth for a moment in chapter one, verse 19. Verse 11. ...write in a book, send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. They're together to impede, indulgently, prison for that.

The Revelation of Christ and the Seven Churches

Verse one. ...of the word, chapter one. I've found here twice of the voices I've heard at the first conference talking with me, which said, from a pillar it must be thereafter, of the same true word, after this.

...symbolic of the overcomer. He says, I am his people. Verdict upon the assembly. He's one, he says, I know thy work. ...hundred nations. ...another throne. ...made with Noah. There's a church giving to the earth.

We have God given a vision of a... ...made with Noah. ...in verse three. He that sat upon must look like a jasper and a sardine stone. ...stone that represented gentlemen. The sardine stone was the stone that represented Reuben.

Use of these truths as a suggestion that Israel is coming into view. Look at verse...we end the verse at three. The sun of his genesis shines more and more unto the perfect day, or until the day be fully come.

When we come here, the day is fully come. ...promise of the prophecy that we have in Genesis, in teaching all along. Come here into the full-on light of the complete revelation of God, a glorified Christ, a God's right hand.

John is in the light. In verse 20. The mystery of the seven stars. It shall show it. Now here we have stars. There is no reference to deep darkness. John the John in his epistle speaks of darkness and light.

...darkness. And those that walk the world is in darkness. ...illustrated by the light of the moon. It's not in the picture at all today. The stars are there. Angels of the churches. ...God ministering the word of God, whether locally or in a wider sphere.

...close to whom the Lord, and through whom the Lord communicates his message, and his message is to their eminence. We have then, in the end of chapter one and others, chapters two and three, the deliverance help in the life.

Walking According to the Light

Children of the light. Children of the light. ...Christian, that's where we walk. 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 he that tolerates me shall not walk in darkness, he shall have the light of life. But he wants us to walk according to the light. So, when you see the picture we've got here, those of you that are artists, you may see on the one hand tremendous light of the sun at noon, and that's the eastern, mid-eastern sun.

Then, on the other hand, midnight gloom and midnight darkness. Two tremendous contrasts. That's the two and three periods spoken of. They are as the things that are. ...letters, apostolic days, right on to the coming of the Lord.

...just accept it because I've said so. Every church will give a reason for making a statement of that character. You must establish the ground upon which these thoughts are concluded. ...reasons for that.

Prophetic and Historical Readings of Revelation

Chapter one and verse three. The birth of this. ...of the book of Revelation. ...more on church history. Part of the way the witness has been born during these past nineteen hundred years is because there are many today what is called the prophetical Jews, way back from thirty years ago now, is that there was a prophetic element in these letters.

And, one day, by night, in the middle of summer, will I give these to the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God, the book of Genesis, and will walk in the name of the Lord, walking in the midst of the garden, and have in verse five those awful words, the number 21, 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.

...with joy almost, although in an allusion, a clear allusion to Genesis, with a clear reference to the exaltation of Christ. ...back over the letters to see if there was any historical sequence in the subject matter of the letters.

We turn. We'll pass over to Myrna for the time being. We turn on to the third letter in the letters of Church of Pergamon. There we have, in verse fourteen, a reference to Salem, and down in verse seventeen, to him that overcame it, I will give these to the hidden manna that are in the wilderness now.

Not only in the wilderness, but in the closing year of the wilderness, the beginning year of the wilderness, in the fortieth year of Israel's journey through the wilderness, is the concluding days of any period and of the period covered that we have specially referred to in these letters.

Keep that in mind, it will help us. The first letter is illustrated not in Adam and Eve before they fell, but in Adam and Eve after they had fallen. Remember, henceforth, fallen is the conclusion of a period in the persecution of Egypt of the day.

...nation that was to be the channel of communication and the channel of revolution and the channel through whom the Messiah was to come. And the devil, using all his powers 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 Pergamon. Satan again introducing confusion, idolatry, and immorality. We come into the last part. We come to Caiaphas. We've got Jezebel known by the name of Jezebel. It says, Jezebel, the wife, wife of Ahab, the apostasy of Israel of his work, told themselves to be initiated.

They had gone right down to the bottom. God abandoned them. Discovery was no longer possible. God raised up a witness against their idolatry. He said, I hope you'll affirm what you've got in verse 24.

He announced the word, and to you I say, and to the rest in Caesarea of not this doctrine, raised upon you none other burden for the first time you'll hear the promise of the coming again of the Lord.

There's a remnant now from beyond recovery. Just as the days of Ahab and Jezebel, the ten times were beyond recovery, and they were sent to Assyria in the days of the Reformation and over Samoth in verse 5, we shall be called to the kingdom.

You'll come down to Zechariah, chapter 11. You've got a reference to the tribute. The second day is the second group that came up under Ezra to the building of the walls in the days of Nehemiah. That little remnant that was so weak in women and children, without any political power behind them, without any military strength to preserve them on that long journey between Babylon and Jerusalem.

There was not only spiritual power, tyrants stood behind them, but there was a political power as well in the days of the Reformation. The people fought for the persecution of Huss, of Bernstein, the people of Bernstein and others.

But there was a military power behind the Reformation. The German government stood behind Luther. In other words, there is a historical sequence in the events that are referred to in these letters. You don't look to history.

It's not the history is not tumbled upside down here. You don't have the events of Malachi in the letter to Ephesus and you don't have in the letter to Nehemiah a reference to the book of Genesis. There is a historical sequence in the letters that draws attention to this fact.

Three Periods of Witness in Human History

There are a number of these here. Human history as far as goodwill for God is concerned may be divided into three periods of time. Let me repeat that. Human history is divided into three periods of time.

This does not contradict in any way the differentiational view of some with others. It's a statement of fact. The first period is covered in the book of Genesis, a period of about two thousand years. The mystery for God in the book of Genesis was borne by individuals from Jacob and Joseph.

There were seven men there in the book of Genesis. The family was a unit. Individuals were the mystery for God. Idolatry came in in Genesis 10. They built the tower of Babel. In recovery, seeing that that's the least impossibility, God gave them up.

According to Romans chapter one, God gave them up. God called out Abraham. Abandoned men. God called out Abraham. New beginning now. As far as the book of Genesis is concerned, you're still individuals.

Then, you have the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel and the witness borne by it lasted about two thousand years. The history of the church, the history of Israel came. Israel came. Israel was spewed out in accordance with the prophecy of the Leviticus twenty-six.

God warned Israel, if you don't obey the word of God, you will be spewed out. A thousand nations before you were spewed out. Now, for nearly two thousand years, mystery for God in the world has been born.

But not for any nation, but by companies of the Lord's people we are referred to, and by individuals referred to we are a star. The remarkable thing is that these three periods are exactly the same. Genesis begins with Eve.

Adam and Eve and the garden. And then we have Satan coming in to recognize, to acknowledge the truth of that scripture, not holding the head. He was, I think, the first president of what is called the women's midst.

If she had been independent they would have been spared. If she had been independent they would have spared. So, Genesis begins with Eve and and Eve Adam and Eve and Eve is confused sister Eve is understand.

It's been come an omen for. And look at Israel in the Jews, Jacob had one daughter, two sons, and he had one daughter, the daughter of Leah. There's only one event recorded of Leah of Zion in the book of Genesis, we have no record of her ever having been married, we have no record of her ever having had any children.

The only thing that is recorded of her is that there is ten events, the sons of Jacob,. The virgin daughter of Israel was betrothed by contrast with a Gentile. So technically, I have no doubt of the way Israel would be betrothed by contrast with a Gentile virgin.

The diner, the Jewish virgin. We have an analogy form between the fall of Eve, the fall of diner. The curse of the Christian purity and glory, the disease and turn away from simplicity and the things of maniful holiness and affection from Christ.

The Overcomer and the Decline of the Church

That's the beginning. Look at the end, it tells us about Zion this year, that picture we have in the church of Zion this year. Our vision in Jesus' book, the chapter about the delected one, the miserable one, poor, blind and naked.

Just like things about us, the delected one, the miserable one. Then two things characterizing it, blind. Clearly the picture of John chapter 9, naked, a beggar. Just as that poor blind man was a picture of Israel.

Here in the law of the flies, this is a picture, as a picture of the church of Laodicea. The overcomer in Laodicea gets to the throne. The overcomer in the book of Genesis is Joseph, and he gets to the throne.

The history of the king of Israel as a nation. We have the law of Jesus, the overcomer, and he gets to the throne. In the churches, the overcomer gets to the throne. There is a remarkable comparison between the beginning and the ending of these three.

Genesis history at the beginning, you've got Enoch, the priest and the child, the overcomer and the throne at the end. History of Israel, the dying of the child and the tree. Christ, the overcomer, on the throne.

In church history, we have Ephesus. Ephesus, the family of all the Ephesus, is a family. Turn the time, all of it, and at the end we have the overcomer. These are not coincidences. It would be foolish if these were just coincidences only.

They're divinely ordained. What we've got in the Old Testament is a foretelling of what we've got in the New. Look at some other pictures that we have here. Israel's history is divided into three periods.

Israel's Theocratic, Monarchical, and Remnant Periods

Israel's national history. There was a theocratic period, a period when God was exiled. It was a period of no justice for God. The men of Israel got covered in the Book of Promises, from the days of Exodus up until the days of Judgment, till the days of Tarbulus, God was their king.

And, when they tried for a change, the Lord said, Get them out of the camp of precious stone, you're treason too. They're rejecting. They're rejecting me. They don't want me to rule over them. They didn't want theocracy.

They wanted monarchy. What's the end of that period? How does it end? It ends with a blinded contempt. It ends with a blind Eli. He's no longer in the government that God intended the people to have. Monarchism did, in that monarchial period, what have we got?

Starting with David, ending with Zedekiah. Zedekiah, the son of Abel, he was the murderer of his two sons, and he saw his two sons killed before his eyes. We come down to the Remnants period that began historically in the days of Elijah.

The Remnants came more into the open, as it were, and recognized the Remnants' testimony in the days of Zerubbabel, and continued from there on to the days of the Lord. What have we got there? The leaders of the blind, so that when the Lord speaks to them in John chapter nine, part of the healing of that blind man, recognizing the darkness of the truth of our Lord's Word, they challenge him and say, Are we blind also?

Are we blind also? We are blind, and we come into the letter to the church to try and clear this here. He's blind. He's naked. Complacent. Utterly complacent. Rich and in peace with good. Oh, for some complacent in a poverty, complacent in a spiritual darkness, and spiritual in a village of spiritual foes.

Poor, blind, yet proud of the fact that he's rich and in peace with good. Having news of nothing. That's the condition of the end. If you live on stupid, even born upon a spiritual nature, after all, absolute complacency and of the characterized authorities.

They were the descendants of a very spiritual group. The authorities and the tribes were the descendants of men like Ezra, who was already strived in the law of the Lord. But the degenerate spiritualities that characterized the tribes in the days of Ezra have been lost altogether.

And that's a great danger. Let's look back and say, oh yes, we're in the line of men who have borne real richness for God's dinner today. For God's service in His grace and mercy from feeding upon the ashes of a burnt-out experience.

From the ashes of a burnt-out crop, historical things. They're ignoring the heat and the warmth, and the power, the spiritual power of these things in our control in the Old Testament. Tremendous pictures of what they've got here in these two chapters.

The Angel of the Church and Spiritual Responsibility

They're very touching letters. There's nothing like them anywhere in the Word of God. There's a lot within a little, in a small compass. Tremendous amount of material within a few verses. Bengali commented herself, we need nothing so touching for those who are the careful prose of these letters.

The Lord has said this before I close, that each letter is addressed to the angel of the church. To the angel of the church. You look in chapter one, chapter two rather. To the angel of the church. The angel of the church is Christ.

The treasury is sent to him. Paul wrote to Timothy. Timothy was there, and Paul writes to him. There is responsibility in the ministry. Apostles is a true illustration of the angel of the church. We read of him as a fellow laborer of the apostles, and we have him laboring in connection with Colossians, Hierapolis, and in Laodicea.

We represent those in the assembly who are responsible before God for the condition of the assembly. I know that the Lord is fully responsible for the spiritual condition of the assembly. Then we have the letter sent to the assembly.

You see, in the closing verses of the text, we don't have anywhere verse seven. Nothing here but the spirit sent unto the churches. The letter to Ephesus is sent to all the churches. No church can say, oh well, that's not sent to us, that was sent to them.

What came to Ephesus is sent to them all. There is no message to them all. They were all individual companies, autonomous in their government and character, not affiliated in any way into any denomination.

Nothing of that's about them. And the stars were not affiliated 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, and he goes.

He says to Paul, to Peter, rise and go, and he goes. To Paul, rise and go, and he goes. He says, rise and go, under the direct control of the Lord, responsible to the Lord. And he walks amidst the Lamb.

That's the Lordship of Christ recognized in a family. New Testament Christianity, true theocracy, is what you have there. The letter is sent to the churches, and then we have the words, Jesus hath an ear, so that he appeals to the individual.

If you apply the term angel to those who are the servants of God, timefully, or whether men were occupied in work as 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 those men responsible? Do they exercise responsibility in the assembly? Are my reasons for taking them to be the representative of spiritual leaders in the assembly? And in Christendom, generally, it is that in the prophecy of Malachi, angels are called, or rather, priests are called angels, and prophets from 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. They were those who should have been leading God's people, and they were, and here they are.

They're spoken of in this way. And I say to you that the term is a very questionable term which can apply to people who are even not converted, willing to live and ask death. We need to remember, those of us who seek to administer the word of God, whether locally or moving about among God's people.

This man gives a message, rather a postman comes along and drops a letter into your box. He doesn't know. It's nothing to him whether the letter contains bad news or good news. Well, it's the news of somebody's death, or the news of some money that's been left.

It's a bill or a check which makes no difference to him. He drops the letter in the box, and that's his worst thing. But no preacher can do that. No servant of God can minister like that. The word to the angel, or the word to the church through the angel, is first of all the word through the angel.

And the angel digests the Church of God and takes it down immediately. He eats it, and he masturbates with it. It becomes part of his very being. So, 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 marrow of our bones, is never made to minister in power to the heart of others.

Individual and Collective Responsibility in the Assembly

The word of God is the individual. Your family can't blame the elder. Your family is responsible, and the individual is responsible. It is chapter thirty-three, chapter thirty-four. He conducts a mass.

Once he said, look, Moses was away a month, forty days. And that period is said to be the end of the month, worshiping the golden calf. Apostasy has set in. Now Moses comes back. Look down into verse twenty-one.

Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people introduce? That thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Aaron felt responsible. He asked to give account. Who is the guilty? Who is the highest position of responsibility?

And nothing much was to be required. Poor Aaron. He was very naïve of people. He would almost think he was talking about Nehemiah. The voice of the people. The people wanted it to be. It's a case of a tail wagging the dog.

And it's on gold, and therefore it's in the fire. And the rest of the people passed him. Moses said unto the people, You have sinned against Aaron. But the people are to be blamed. And three thousand of them died.

To lower down this individual responsibility to the church is a material responsibility, a collective, a family responsibility. It is a contribution to the spiritual well-being of the family. We go into the letter to the church.

The letter is spoken in judgment and truth. He will come along tonight, in this morning, over at Naples. I'm at Maplewood tomorrow night. I'm Tuesday. And it will be going on with these letters. At Maplewood tomorrow night.

On Tuesday night. And in all likelihood then play at Naples.