Chapter 9 - REPENTANCE IN THE APOCALYPSE
The book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ
fittingly closes the volume of Holy Scripture.
It deals with both the present age and the
coming era, climaxing all God's ways with man,
and bringing before us the eternal issues of the
long conflict between good and evil. It is the
Lord's last word to mankind until the voice of
the returning Saviour is heard from the heavens,
calling His redeemed to meet Him in the air,
preparatory to taking His great power in order
that the kingdoms of the world may become the
Kingdom of our God and of His Christ. And,
significantly enough, it contains a most urgent
summons to repentance. In fact, the call to
repent is found seven times in the letters to
the seven churches, and four times we are told
of men whom God had visited in grace and in
judgment who repented not, and thus refused to
give Him glory.
Time was when comparatively very few
Christians paid much attention to the book of
Revelation. As a result of the great revival of
Bible study in our day, however, this is no
longer so evident. Ministers and people are now
studying the Apocalypse, eagerly seeking to find
in it some explanation of the present difficult
times and some clear light on the impending
future.
Many believe that in the letters to the seven
churches God has not only given a message that
had a direct, literal application to the
assemblies named in John's day, but that there
is a hidden, prophetic meaning in them,
outlining in a very striking way the state of
the church from apostolic days to the end of its
testimony on earth. All, however, are not agreed
as to this.
But one thing is very evident, and that is,
that in these letters the Lord has given us a
diagnosis of every state or condition in which
His churches may be found at any time throughout
the Christian epoch.
Looked at in this way, we see in Ephesus a
thoroughly orthodox church that has failed
because it has left the freshness of its first
love. Smyrna is a suffering church, true to
Christ despite persecution and poverty. Pergamos
is a worldly church, yet reasonably sound in
doctrine, though tolerating much that is very
unsound in practice. In Thyatira superstition
and gross immorality prevail, save among a very
small minority who grieve over conditions, but
do not seem able to remedy them. Sardis is cold
and formal, with very little evidence of divine
life, though even in it a few are found whose
garments are undefiled. Philadelphia is a true
Bible church, where the authority of the Lord is
owned and His name revered. Consequently there
is an open door for testimony and faithfulness
is manifested in maintaining the truth of God.
Laodicea is lukewarm and latitudinarian. Its
members play fast and loose with eternal
verities and, while professing to have Christ in
their midst, He is actually seen outside the
door.
Now to all of these churches there comes the
voice of the Lord, declaring, "I know thy
works." Everything is open to His searching
gaze. It is noticeable that in each letter the
order is the same: First, the Lord presents
Himself in some special way suited to the
spiritual condition of the church addressed.
Second, He gives His own diagnosis of the state
of that particular assembly. Third, there is a
special exhortation or warning, as needed in
each case. Fourth, we have the promise to the
overcomer and the summons to harken. In the
first three letters, however, the call to hear
precedes the promise. It is the opposite in the
last four. That there is a divine reason for
this is evident, but it need not detain us at
the present time.
In five out of the seven letters we find the
exhortation to repent. Smyrna and Philadelphia
are both without rebuke, so there is no such
command given to them. Let us note carefully,
however, what is said to the other five.
Ephesus is rebuked because of having left her
first love. Orthodox to the core, this church
seemed to pride itself on its jealousy for
fundamentals. But there may be great zeal for
doctrinal standards where there is very little
manifestation of the love of the Spirit. It is a
grievous mistake to suppose that the Lord
delights in correct dogma and ignores the lack
of love. A cold, hard, censorious devotion to a
creed, however correct, will never make up for
lack of brotherly kindness and a tender
Christlike spirit. So we get the exhortation,
"Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works; or else I
will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy
candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent" (2:5). How affecting and solemn is this!
It is not a question of one who has been a
Christian losing his soul, but of a church that
once witnessed boldly for Christ now in danger
of losing its testimony.
Mere doctrinal correctness is not enough to
keep the Gospel light brightly burning. It is as
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Spirit that our words count with
others. Emerson said once, "What you are speaks
so loudly, I cannot hear what you say." And an
inconsistent, un-Christlike church will cause
the world to turn in scorn from its message. So
the Lord calls for repentance. That this is more
than a mere change of opinion is evident, for He
adds, "and do the first works." He would have
them turn from their supercilious
self-satisfaction to the love and earnestness of
their early days, when He Himself was precious
to their souls and for love of Him they could
toil and suffer that others might know Him too.
Surely to many of us today the same call comes,
coupled with the warning that unless there be a
new attitude, a turning back to the Lord in
contrition and confession, He will take away the
candlestick, and we shall be useless so far as
witnessing for Him in a dark world is concerned.
The condition of the Pergamos church is even
worse. For there positively evil things were
tolerated and unholy alliances formed, which
were an affront to the One they professed to
serve. Again comes the call to repent. Note the
words, "Repent; or else I will come unto thee
quickly, and will fight against them with the
sword of my mouth" (v. 16). What a solemn
alternative! Repent, or I will fight against
thee! He cannot tolerate unjudged iniquity in
His professed people. He will be sanctified in
them that come nigh Him. To boast of salvation
by grace while living in sin is detestable to
Him. The sword of His mouth is His Word. That
Word is positively against all who make a
pretence of godliness while walking in unholy
ways.
Could anything be more needed today than such
a message as this? Is not the church in many
places dwelling comfortably on Satan's throne,
settled down in the world, with no thought of
separation to Christ? Balaam of old taught Balak
that, if he could break down the wall of
separation between his own wicked Moabites and
Israel, their own God would have to punish them
for their backslidings. The iniquity of
Baal-Peor accomplished what Balaam's attempt to
curse could not do. It is indeed a serious
matter when the Lord has to take sides, as it
were, against His people. But He refuses to
condone sin in His saints. Surely we all need to
heed the call to repent.
When we turn to consider the Thyatira church
we are confronted with conditions so grave and
wickedness so shocking that we might naturally
hesitate to recognize it as a church of God at
all. Yet the Lord addresses it as such. It bore
His name. It professed to represent Him in the
world. Yet it condoned iniquitous practices that
were below the level of ordinary decency. On the
other hand, this church had once been
characterized by love and devotion of an
unusually high order, and there were in it still
a faithful remnant who mourned over its fallen
condition and who were as the salt preserving it
from utter corruption.
Are there not many such churches at the
present time? Is it not true that in scores of
instances known evil of the vilest kind is
tolerated in Christian communities, and no
attempt made to cleanse the leprous house? How
often have wealth and prominence protected
wrongdoers and seemingly made it impossible to
deal with them, lest whole families be disgraced
or the church be actually disrupted. But
desperate diseases require drastic treatment.
The voice of God is still calling to repentance.
Until there be a changed attitude toward unholy
practices there can be no blessing.
In Thyatira there was open immorality, and
that of the most revolting type. Like the
licentious orgies of the heathen Nature
worshippers, it was often practiced under the
guise of pretended piety. That wicked princess
Jezebel, who brought her hateful Phoenician
idolatry over to Israel and grafted it into the
perverted worship of Jehovah, is used as the
symbol of what had crept into this church.
Degrading and revolting behavior was thus linked
with the holy Name of Christ.
It had gone so far, and the proponents of
this corruption had been so persistent and so
determined, that the Lord says, "I gave her
space to repent of her fornication; and she
repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a
bed, and them that commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, except they repent of their
deeds" (Rev. 2:21-22). The last words indicate
that there was hope still. He had not utterly
rejected them. But blessing and restoration were
conditioned upon repentance. How marvellous is
the long-suffering of the grieved and offended
Spirit of God. And if today the churches would
heed the call, and repent, honestly facing every
wicked thing in the light of the Word of God,
there would come, we may be sure, revival and
renewal that would make the once powerless
assemblies a living witness for Christ in the
world.
In the church in Sardis we see a very
different condition prevailing. There all is
outwardly correct. There is no intimation that
vile practices of any kind were being tolerated.
But all is cold and formal. It is the
respectability of spiritual death. Yet it is
evident there was a time when this church was
aflame with passionate devotion to Christ. Hence
the admonition, "Remember therefore how thou
hast received and heard, and hold fast, and
repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I
will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not
know what hour I will come upon thee" (Rev.
3:3).
One thinks of many churches founded in
revival days or reformation times where the
light of truth shone brightly and the members
were marked by intense zeal and energy.
Evangelizing the lost and building up believers
were characteristic under a Spirit-filled
ministry that made such churches centers of
blessing for miles around. But little by little
all this has been changed. Formality has taken
the place of living power. Coldness has
succeeded the old time spiritual fervor.
Academic pulpiteering has displaced the Bible
preaching of the olden days. And smug
self-complacency now holds sway where once deep
concern for the souls of others was manifest.
O that in such former strongholds of
evangelicalism and active evangelism there might
be a great turning to God, a repentance that
would again fill nearly vacant prayer rooms and
bring the churches to their knees in brokenness
of spirit until God should open the windows of
heaven and pour out life-giving showers to
revive the barren wastes and give the world to
see again a mighty movement of His Holy Spirit.
"Revive Thy work, O God,
Disturb this sleep of death.
Quicken the smoldering embers, Lord,
By Thine Almighty breath."
Such a revival is sorely needed, but it can
only come in the wake of sincere repentance.
With the church in Philadelphia the Lord
finds no fault. He commends it for its
faithfulness and promises rich reward, so we
find here, as in the letter to Smyrna, no call
to repent.
But it is otherwise with lukewarm Laodicea.
Another has remarked that "a lukewarm state is
not a passing from cold to hot, but from hot to
cold" (Russell Elliot, in A Last Message).
And this is what has so often taken place.
Moreover, it is a state easy to fall into. Most
of us realize that true, spiritual fervor is
maintained only where there is a constant sense
of our weakness and the need of much prayer and
of nourishing the soul upon the Word of God. If
private devotion be neglected we will soon
become lukewarm, and the church itself is just
what its members make it. These Laodiceans did
not seem to know that their condition called for
any rebuke. Like Israel in Hosea's day it could
be said, "Gray hairs are here and there upon
him, but he knoweth not." Like Samson, their
strength had departed and they wist it not.
Backsliding begins so insidiously that one may
get far from God in heart and mind before some
terrible failure reproves and arouses him. Hence
the need of constant watchfulness.
The believer out of fellowship with God may
be quite satisfied for a time, boasting of being
rich and increased with goods and needing
nothing. Yet all the while the Lord detects the
sad lack of practically everything that makes
for vital godliness. In His grace He sends trial
and affliction to draw the wayward heart back to
Himself. "As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent"
(3:19). No halfway measures will do. There must
be positive, earnest endeavor to trace the evil
to its source and to take the right attitude
toward it and to the One who has been so
grievously wronged. For He stands outside the
door -- and mark, it is the door of the church,
not merely of the individual -- knocking and
seeking restoration of fellowship. The door is
unlatched only by repentance; it can be opened
in no other way. So long as there is pride and
arrogancy He remains outside, for He has said,
"To this man will I look, even to him that is
poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at
my word" (Isa. 66:2). He delights to dwell with
those who fear Him and cleave to His truth, but
he knoweth the proud afar off.
How touchingly He speaks to His disciples, as
recorded in John 14:23: "If a man love me, he
will keep my words: and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him." It has often been pointed out that
the word translated "abode" here is the same as
that translated "mansions" in verse 2. He has
gone back to the glory to prepare an abiding
place for us. Meantime the Father and the Son
delight to find an abiding place in the hearts
of the redeemed while still in this
wilderness-world.
Oh, the shame of keeping Him outside the
door! Like the bridegroom in the Song He cries,
"Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my
undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and
my locks with the drops of the night" (Cant.
5:2). But we coldly slumber on, or if barely
awakened find some flimsy excuse for not giving
Him admittance.
"Be zealous therefore, and repent."
Conditions are worse than we know. Lethargy and
drowsiness have blunted our sensibilities. The
hour is late. The end of the age draws on. And
we are indifferent and lukewarm still.
Repentance, if it be worth while, must come
soon. Otherwise it will be too late, and He will
say of us as of Thyatira, "I gave her space to
repent ... and she repented not."
Oh, what God might yet do with a truly
repentant church, aflame with loving devotion to
her adorable Lord!
Mr. Sunday, the eccentric evangelist so
recently gone to his reward, used to relate a
graphic story of a well known village atheist
who was seen running vigorously to a burning
church building intent on joining with others in
subduing the flames. A neighbor observing him,
exclaimed facetiously, "This is something new
for you! I never saw you going to church
before." The atheist replied, "Well, this is the
first time I have ever seen a church on fire."
Who can tell how many might be drawn to the
people of God if they were only on fire for
Christ and burning with zeal to win the lost?
"O kindle within us a holy desire
Like that which was found in Thy people
of old,
Who valued Thy love and whose hearts were on
fire,
While they waited in patience Thy face to
behold."
A lukewarm church is a powerless church.
There is nothing about it to make unsaved men
believe its testimony is worth while. But a
church characterized by fervent love for Christ,
and energetically reaching out after the lost
makes an impression even upon the most ungodly
that it is hard to ignore. When the churches
themselves heed the command to repent and get
right with God, we may expect to see repentant
sinners flocking to their altars.
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