An Exposition of Revelation .pdf

shall rule them with iron rod, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also received of my
Father. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." The faithful will share
Christ's authority at His coming, and be associated with Himself in His kingdom. But even this is not
enough for grace. "And I will give him the morning star." This means, not association with Christ in
His reign over the earth, but yet more in that which is proper to Him above the world altogether. The
heavenly hope of being with Christ before the day breaks is promised, as well as part in His worldkingdom.
Only those who watch for Him shall see the Morning Star. All the world must see the Sun of
righteousness when He shines forth in His day.
Here the notable change takes place. The call to hear begins to follow the promise, instead of
being before it. The reason is that a remnant is here formed. The public state of the church now
requires the change. The Lord thenceforth puts the promise first, and this because it is vain to expect
the church as a whole to receive it. The address is to the overcomer, who is therefore put before the
call to hear. In the three previous churches, as all may notice, the call to hear is first, because the Lord
is still dealing with the general conscience of the church. This is given up now. A remnant only
overcome, and the promise is for them. The Lord henceforth takes notice of these in His call; as for
others, it is all over with their fidelity.
Accordingly, if Thyatira were not made the beginning, as perhaps in strictness might have been
best, the division of the next chapter (3) seems not to be unhappy at this point. For there is a marked
turning-point with the last three churches. The ground of such a thought lies in the fact that the
introduction to Sardis indicates the Lord beginning a new state of things. The ancient ecclesiastical or
catholic phase of the church terminates with Thyatira: nevertheless Thyatira has also the peculiar trait
that, though the close of the public state of the church, it is the beginning of those conditions which go
on till the Lord's coming. It is therefore transitional. Thyatira, it is hard to doubt, contains within it the
mystic representative of Romanism. This can scarce be denied to Jezebel; whilst "the remnant"
represents those who, without being Protestants, form a witnessing company apart from Popery before
the Reformation. The beginning of the third chapter introduces formally what may be called the
Protestant phase of things, after the film stand for God's word.
Thus we have had the general condition of declension; next the early persecution from the
heathen; then the power of the world patronising the church; finally, besides the remnant which in
simplicity resisted the evil, we have Romanism, which alone, by the mention of Christ's personal
coming, is supposed to go on to the end. The churches before do not continue. But Thyatira first
represents that which abides. This applies also to the churches which follow.
Revelation 3
"And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits
of God, and the seven stars." There is an evident allusion to the manner in which the Lord presented
Himself to the church in Ephesus, but with a marked difference. Ephesus was the first presentation of
the general public state. Sardis gives the rise of the new state of things, not strictly ecclesiastical —
the Lord acting in the way of testimony rather than in that precise order. Hence it is not said here that
He held in His right hand the seven stars and walked in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: this
was ecclesiastical strictly. But here He "has" the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. He changes
not, but does not describe Himself as before. Yet all power, all governing energy, is in His hands, and
the seven stars, that is to say, all the instrumental lights by which He acts on souls here below. Let
them not look to the world — to the powers that be. "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that
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