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Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:12-18; 2:1-7, 12-21, 24-29; 3:1-6, 14-22; 17:4-5; 18:2, 4; 19:7-8
Now we come to the book of Revelation, where we also see many things concerning Christ versus religion. We must all realize that the Christ in this book differs distinctly from the Christ in the four Gospels. In the Gospels we see a Christ who is gentle, tender, and mild; but in Revelation we see a Christ whom we may describe as fierce. In the Gospels the apostle could lean upon Christ’s breast, but in Revelation, when John saw Christ, he immediately fell to the earth. The Christ we see in Revelation is One whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose voice is like the sound of many waters. Why is there this difference? It is because, when we come to the book of Revelation, the age has changed. Therefore, the aspect and attitude of Christ have also correspondingly changed.
In this book of Revelation we have religion, but this religion differs from the religion in the Gospels, Acts, and the Epistles. In all these books, the religion was the old religion, the Jewish religion. But here in the last book of the New Testament, religion takes on a new garb. It is no more the Jewish religion but the Christian religion, the religion of Christianity. Thus, in the book of Revelation, Christ is different, and religion also is different.
In the seven epistles of the second and third chapters of this book, we get a clear view of the new religion, Christianity. The Christian religion has become a real religion, and it has become so by steps. Here in these seven epistles we see five steps toward this new religion. Only two churches among these seven, Smyrna and Philadelphia, have nothing to do with religion. All the rest have very much to do with it, and with each there is a definite step taken toward its formation. There are five churches with five steps which together form the new religion of Christianity.
The first step toward this new religion of Christianity is an abundance of work for Christ without an intimate and personal love to Him. You may never have considered that an abundance of labor for the Lord could be something that would form a religion. You have probably thought that there is nothing wrong with working hard for the Lord. What is wrong with going to the mission field, teaching the Bible, and helping people to know the Lord and be saved? The Lord recognizes all the work, as He did that of the church in Ephesus, but there is a danger. You may labor diligently and accomplish much for the Lord without an intimate and personal love for the Lord Himself.
In the recovery of the church life we must all be on the alert. We must work, we must labor for the Lord, but we must be careful that our work is balanced with intimate and personal love for our dear Lord. Indeed, we need to love Him more than we work for Him. Our love for Him must be more precious, more dear, than the work we do for Him. We must not be so concerned for what we accomplish for Christ as much as to what extent we love Him. We need an intimate and personal love for the Lord Jesus, and this love must be the first love, the best love. The word translated “first” in reference to first love (2:4) is the same as that translated “best” in reference to the best robe (Luke 15:22). Hence, first love is best love, and this is the love we must maintain continually. We may forget to work for Him, but we must never forget to love Him in the first and best way. He is primarily not our Master but our Bridegroom. Hallelujah! We must never lose sight of our Lord Jesus as our lovely, precious, and present Bridegroom. To serve Him is secondary; to love Him is primary.
The Lord warned the church in Ephesus: “Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent...but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place” (Rev. 2:5). The Lord said that if they would not repent and return to their first love, they would lose their light, they would lose the testimony, they would lose the lampstand and be in darkness. In other words, without the first and best love, they would be finished as far as the testimony of the Lord Jesus was concerned. It is quite serious. Abundance of labor for the Lord Jesus does not prove that we have the testimony. It is by loving Him in the first and best way that we have the shining power, the light, the lampstand, and the testimony. The testimony of the shining Jesus is not in the labor for Him but in the intimate love for His dear self.
The Lord’s warning to the church in Ephesus was also coupled with a promise. He said, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God” (v. 7). These three words always go together — love, light, and life. If we love the Lord intimately, personally, and in the first and best way, we will have the light, and we will have the enjoyment of the life. The Lord Jesus promised that those who overcome to love Him thus would eat of the tree of life. This is not merely a promise for future enjoyment of Himself but a blessed promise to be fulfilled even today. The proper church life is today’s paradise of God — it is here that we may enjoy Christ as the tree of life. Christ is not a collection of teachings — He is the tree of life for our enjoyment. We must learn not to imitate Jesus, not merely to follow Jesus, but to eat Jesus as the tree of life in the church as the paradise of God. Undoubtedly, this promise refers mainly to the future, but we may have a real foretaste today. Hallelujah! Many of us can testify that we do have such a foretaste today of Christ as the tree of life in the church life as the paradise of God.
The first step of forming the new religion is that of working so much for the Lord Jesus that we lose the intimate and personal love relationship with Himself. Brothers and sisters, wherever we are, the first thing we must do in the local churches is to love the Lord. The first and greatest impression we in the local churches must give people is not how much we work for Christ but how much we love Him. Whenever we mention His precious name, we should simply be beside ourselves with love for Him. Let us aim at this, and let us be alert lest we lose it. The second impression we must give people is that in this love of Jesus we love one another. We love Him so intimately, and we love one another. The greatest impression people must receive when they touch the church life is the love in these two aspects — love toward the Lord Jesus and love to one another. Then we will have the lampstand with the shining power and fullness of light to chase away all the darkness. Then we will have the enjoyment of the tree of life and taste it even now in the paradise of God. Hallelujah! If we miss this, we are taking the first step to form a Christian religion.
From the church in Ephesus we go on to the church in Pergamos. Here in Pergamos we have the second step. All the steps are continuations: step follows step. If you take the first step, surely you will take the second step. The second step is composed of two main items: (1) the teaching of Balaam and (2) the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
What is the teaching of Balaam? Balaam was a prophet who worked for money. Thus, his preaching, his teaching, just became a job. Why? It was due to the excess of labor and work. When the church has an overabundance of labor and work, people surely will be hired to perform it. If we love the Lord first and foremost, not caring so much for the work, we need hire no one. The danger in Christianity has been and still is that of paying too much attention to the work without the love. Thus, so many Christian workers must be hired. In the church all those who work for the Lord should do so not for money but out of an intimate and burning love for the Lord Himself. We should serve the Lord because His love is burning within us. We simply love Him; we would like to give every drop of blood for Him. We want to serve Him, but this does not mean a kind of work or labor but an expression of love. We care nothing for money.
Christianity is involved in altogether too much work. “Let us organize something,” they say. “Let us open a mission field; let us send out so many missionaries; let us go to the seminaries and Bible institutes and solicit their graduates.” This is just the teaching of Balaam. Those who are hired, of course, must do the work according to their money. Thus, the service of the Lord is commercialized. This is not only religion but something worse. If any of us ever conceive of hiring someone in the church to accomplish some task, we are taking the second step in forming a new religion. Whenever we talk about money, we are well on our way. Let us not talk about how many dollars we have but about how many drops of blood we have. We would not work for money but for the love of Jesus. We care not for the abundance of money or the lack of money. We serve for the love of Jesus — not with dollars but with drops of blood. If we serve with a consideration of money, we can never do the work of love. If we go out without money, but prepared to shed our blood for the love of Jesus, we will raise up a church with the first and best love, a church which could never afford anything to form a religion.
How is it that Christianity today has become such a dreadful religion? Just because of the matter of money, the teaching of Balaam.
Inevitably following the teaching of Balaam is the teaching of the Nicolaitans. What is this? The word Nicolaitan comes from two words in Greek, niko and laos. The word niko means “to conquer or subdue,” while laos means “people.” Put together, these two words mean to subdue the people, or in other words, the clergy-laity system. Because the service of the Lord has been commercialized, the clergy-laity system spontaneously appears. This system annuls the function of so many members and kills the Body of Christ. It is a great evil. It has been developed to such an extent in some places that if any of the laity should pray, he would certainly be condemned. This is religion at its worst. Nothing offends the Lord so much as the clergy-laity system.
I have full assurance in my spirit to encourage all the Lord’s children to pray and even to shout in the meetings. I believe that this is the Lord’s reaction today. The Lord Jesus is reacting today against religion and culture. He is reacting to the uttermost. We all must hate the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
In the church in Ephesus the practice of the Nicolaitans appeared only as a kind of work — that was the start. But eventually, in the church in Pergamos, it was developed from a work into a teaching. When a work has been developed into a teaching, it means that the practice has been commonly justified. The people not only practice it but hold it as a teaching. What a grievous situation! Today we must put this detestable practice and teaching of the clergy-laity system under our feet. We must not only cast out the teaching but chase away every Nicolaitan work. If you come to the meeting and just sit there waiting for others to function, you are still under the influence of the Nicolaitans. You must be delivered, you must escape, you must break through, even if you have to shout. Today in the local church there must be neither “nico-,” nor “-laitans,” neither clergy nor laymen. All the brothers and sisters must be functioning, praying, testifying, shouting, and praising brothers and sisters. Do not think that to shout in a meeting is a small thing. I tell you, this is the reaction of the Lord. Down with the Nicolaitans, and up with Christ! The age has changed. The Lord will tolerate no longer the Nicolaitan, clergy-laity system. If you come to the meeting as a layman, waiting for others to function, you put the Lord Jesus to an open shame.
You may say that for anyone to shout “Jesus is Lord” or “O Lord Jesus” in the meetings is extremely wild. But, I tell you, when the Lord has reacted throughout history, He has always done it in a “wild,” or fierce, way. We have seen how John the Baptist acted. The Lord Jesus was ushered in, not in a mild way but in a “wild” way. Now the Lord Jesus in the book of Revelation is such a fierce Christ. He is fierce against religion, against unreality, against anything that would distract His people from Himself.
If we are much involved in laboring for the Lord without an adequate personal love for Him, we will surely take the way of Balaam and eventually fall into the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
When we come to the church in Thyatira, we meet an even worse situation. Following the second step, you will surely have the third. Thus, in Thyatira we see a woman called Jezebel, a woman who has gathered many teachings and calls herself a prophetess. Thus far, we have seen the teaching of Balaam, the teaching of the Nicolaitans, and now the teaching of Jezebel. This is why we say that we must drop the teachings. Thyatira, according to church history, typifies the Roman Catholic Church, and that false church is called by the Spirit here that evil woman Jezebel. It was she who brought so many pagan teachings and practices into the church and mixed them with the teachings concerning Christ. The result then was idol worship and fornication.
There are three abominations in the eyes of the Lord — idol worship, fornication, and division. Idol worship is an insult to the person of God, fornication is a damage to humanity, and division is a mutilation of the Body of Christ. God cares for Himself, God cares for humanity, and God cares for the Body of Christ. God would never tolerate any idols, any fornication, or any division. Here in the church in Thyatira, the woman Jezebel brought in her evil doctrine and caused much idol worship and fornication. God’s Divine Being was insulted, and the proper humanity was damaged. This is the Roman Catholic religion. It is dreadful to the extreme.
This woman by the name of Jezebel, after being fully developed, becomes the great Babylon. In chapter 2 of Revelation her name is Jezebel, and in chapter 17 her name is Babylon the Great. She is also called the great harlot and the mother of the harlots of the earth. This is the ultimate development of the Christian religion. Step by step was taken; one step led to another. The first step was a superabundance of labor; the second step was the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans; then the third step opened the door widely to paganism and led directly to Babylon. Babylon is the consummation of Christian religion. How desperate we must be to avoid anything religious!
Do not say that there is nothing wrong with doing missionary work, with organizing a mission and spreading the gospel for the furtherance of the kingdom. You must be careful. That might be the first step toward the forming of a religion. If you take the first step, you will take the second and then eventually the third until you topple headlong into Babylon.
Now we are in the age of the Lord’s recovery. My burden concerning the matter of Christ versus religion is very heavy. I fear that perhaps ten or fifteen years from now history will be repeated. We may soon be taking the first step in an overabundance of work and labor, losing our personal and intimate love for the Lord Jesus in the first and best way. Then we will be on our way to form some kind of religion. We will soon be taking all the teachings and going the full course in religion. May the Lord be merciful to us. Since we are in the Lord’s recovery, we must be clear: we must have nothing to do with the first step, the second step, or the third step; we must be on the alert not to have anything religious.
In the history of the Lord’s recovery, the Lord moved on from Thyatira to Sardis. Sardis was a partial recovery from Thyatira. But according to the word of the Lord, it was only a short time after Sardis appeared that she became a kind of dead religion. What was wrong with Sardis? There was not much wrong; the only problem was that she was dead. The Lord said to her, “You have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead,” and, “Establish the things...which were about to die” (3:1-2). In nearly everything Sardis was in a state of deadness. From church history we see how the church through Martin Luther experienced a certain amount of recovery, but everything soon became dead. To have anything right in a dead way is a kind of religion. If we are sound, fundamental, and scriptural, but dead, we have simply fallen into a religion. If you speak about justification by faith, it is good and right, but if you speak in a dead way, that also is a religion.
I have met a good number of so-called Lutheran believers. The Lutheran Church, we know, stands strongly for Luther’s teaching concerning justification by faith, and these followers spoke much with me regarding this matter. They were one hundred percent right, but only in doctrine. They could speak much about justification by faith, but I eventually discovered that they were not justified. They were absolutely correct doctrinally speaking, but they had no experience of what they spoke. This is just a kind of religion. Religious people hold certain religious teachings without any life.
Take this principle and check with various groups in Christianity today. You will find that with nearly all of them the principle is the same — they hold the teachings, but there is no life. Brothers and sisters, I fear that if we are not on the alert, we may hold the right teachings concerning Christ as the life-giving Spirit and yet not have the experience. We may even have the correct teachings concerning such a matter as this, but without the life itself. This also is a religion. Everything we teach, everything we minister, everything we stand for, must be full of life; otherwise, we are perpetuating the history of Sardis. What is the religion of Sardis? It is to hold something so right, so fundamental, and so scriptural, yet without life. Even the matter of the church life and the church ground can be held merely as a right doctrine, stripped of life and impact. Anything that is scriptural and even spiritual, yet without life, becomes religion. The Lord cannot tolerate those who are “dead right.” This is the fourth step.
In the history of the Lord’s move, following the recovery five hundred years ago through Martin Luther, another step was taken by the Lord about one hundred forty years ago through the so-called Brethren. At the beginning, that was truly the church in Philadelphia, but it did not last long. They soon degraded into Laodicea. Philadelphia is an improvement upon Sardis, but Laodicea is a degradation from Philadelphia. What is the problem with Laodicea? It is that Laodicea has everything; they are indeed rich yet, in the same principle as Sardis, just in doctrine. They thought they had everything, they thought they had need of nothing, but the Lord Jesus said that they were neither cold nor hot.
There is a danger in the church life that we too may one day become lukewarm, neither cold nor hot. We may say that we are rich, but we will be rich in doctrine, not in experience. We will be rich but dead. The Lord Jesus told Laodicea to buy gold that they may be rich and eyesalve that their eyes may be opened. We must be on the alert lest we too have many so-called riches, riches concerning life, concerning the Spirit, concerning the church, yet just in doctrine. We may think that we are so rich, we may think that we know, but we do not see. We may have the knowledge but not the light. We may have the doctrine but not the gold. We may not be cold, but neither are we hot; so the Lord will spew us out of His mouth.
Now listen to the promises of the Lord: To the church in Ephesus, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life” (2:7); to the church in Pergamos; “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna” (v. 17); to the church in Laodicea, “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me” (3:20). The Lord promised that if we are on the alert to avoid all kinds of religion, we will be kept continually in the enjoyment of the Lord, we will be given to eat of Him as the tree of life and as the hidden manna, and we will dine with Him and He with us.
In the seven epistles of these two chapters of Revelation, we see that something of religion has been mixed with something of the Lord. Throughout the centuries up to this present time, the Lord has been doing a separating work to divide all that is of Him from anything religious. All the religious things will be gathered together and consummated to the full in the great Babylon of chapters 17 and 18. Babylon the Great is the consummate development of religion. It is the place to which all the steps toward religion in these epistles lead. On the other hand, the consummate development of all the Lord’s separating work throughout the centuries is the bride, the New Jerusalem. The Lord’s separating work for His bride today is in the local church. The local church is the ultimate part of this separating work to prepare the bride. Thus, throughout the centuries we see that there has been a move in the history of the church toward mixture. The end of that is Babylon. But throughout the centuries there has also been a divine, separating work in progress. In the last part of this, the twentieth, century the Lord is recovering the local churches as a full separation from the great Babylon. Eventually, this will result in the final issue of the Lord’s separating work, the bride. Hallelujah! Following Revelation 17 and 18, we come to chapter 19, where the bride has made herself ready. In chapter 18 we hear the Lord’s call: “Come out of her, My people, that you do not participate in her sins” (v. 4), and in chapter 19 we have the word, “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready” (v. 7). Praise the Lord that we may be in the local church life today, fully separated from anything religious, and thus prepared as the bride of the Lamb.
In all these chapters we have been seeing Christ versus religion. The ultimate issue of Christ will be the bride, and the consummate development of religion will be Babylon. Thus, Christ versus religion will eventually be the bride versus Babylon. It is not a small matter to be separated from everything religious and to be in the local churches as a preparation for the bride. Hallelujah!
