Rev. 21:9-11. In this
passage we see the Apostle was carried away in the Spirit
into a mountain great and high, and shown the New
Jerusalem "coming down out of heaven...."
Rev. 3:12. "I
will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of
the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God...."
Heb. 11:16. "...he
hath prepared for them a city."
You will recognise the
tense and the position of that last statement. While it
is referring to those martyrs of the faith of the old
dispensation of Old Testament times, the word here
"he hath prepared for them a city" -
not, He prepared for them a city, as though they
inherited it in Jerusalem on this earth, but He hath prepared
for them a city - shows that they have not yet entered
into it. It awaits their entrance. I believe that the
city there, referring as it does to the Church, would be
very closely touched upon by that inclusive declaration
of the Apostle in that same chapter, that "These all
died in faith, not having received the promises... God
having provided some better thing concerning us, that
apart from us they should not be made perfect" (Heb.
11:13,39,40). So that the words "hath prepared
for them a city" really mean that they are coming
into this heavenly Jerusalem, the Church.
In chapter 12 of the
Hebrew letter, verse 22, there is this word: "...ye
are come... unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem...." In chapter 13 verse 14, there is this
word: "...we seek after the city which is to
come." Then back in the letter to the Galatians,
chapter 4, verses 25 and 26, we have these words:
"the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our
mother." The letter to the Galatians stands over
against the Jewish order of things, was intended so to
do, and Jerusalem was always regarded by Israel as their
mother. She was looked upon as the mother of all the
Israelites. Now over against the earthly Jerusalem, and
that earthly conception of Jerusalem, the Apostle here
says: "the Jerusalem which is above is free, which
is our mother": and in Philippians 3:20 we find
these words: "our citizenship is in
heaven."
You can see from these
various passages that the thought of heavenliness is very
strongly related to the Church, which is the heavenly
Jerusalem, of which God is the Builder and Maker. God is
building His heavenly Jerusalem now, and He is building
it with heavenly material, that is, the constitution and
the construction of the Church must all be heavenly, and
that which is employed (or, to put it another way, the
saints) must partake of a heavenly nature, in order to
become the heavenly City. The Great Architect and Builder
is, therefore, engaged with the saints in seeking to make
them heavenly in their whole constitution.
We have to see a little
further what heavenliness means, and we can do this by
way of illustration from the Old Testament again, by
turning to Psalm 87. The first thing which comes out in
that Psalm is the jealousy of God over Jerusalem.
"The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the
dwellings of Jacob." "Zion" is a word
which came to embrace the whole city. It was not always
so, but it came in the course of time to represent
Jerusalem, and is very often, in the prophecies
especially, synonymous with Jerusalem. "The Lord
loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of
Jacob. "There is a partiality of God, a jealousy of
God for Jerusalem. When you ask why the Lord is jealous
in this way, as to what is behind this Divine partiality,
the answer can be given in the word which we are using,
"heavenliness." The Divine thought about
Jerusalem concerns her heavenliness, and that feature
comes out, as you notice, with the very first sentence:
"His foundation is in the holy mountains."
Mountains are always features or types of spiritual
elevation, and if you want that borne out, you can turn
to another Psalm and read this literal translation:
"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the
city of our God, in his holy mountain. Beautiful in
elevation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount
Zion" (Psalm 48:1). Beautiful in elevation, the joy
of the whole earth! You see this is a matter of
elevation. It is a matter of a high position, a
conspicuous place. It is heavenliness, spiritual
ascendency.
We will speak about
that more from the spiritual standpoint presently, but we
will just go through this Psalm 87 step by step to see
that there is bound up with that initial statement about
the Lord's jealousy and partiality a contrast between
Zion and other cities, and the contrast is based upon the
spiritual features which they represent.
The
Contrast between Zion and Egypt.
First of all you have
Egypt. "Rahab" is the word used here, but you
may know that "Rahab" refers to Egypt. We
remember that when Abraham, the father of the city,
entered into the land of Canaan, the land of promise, his
faith was instantly met with a very severe test, for he
found the whole country given up to idolatry. He also
found a state of severe famine in the land. His faith
wavered, and some kind of question evidently crept into
his heart, which led him eventually to conclude either
that he had made a mistake, had been misled, or else he
was altogether out of his time. So turning from the land
he went down to Egypt, and Egypt, therefore, became the
place that typifies the opposite of faith. What is the
opposite of faith? If God, and God alone, is the object
of faith, then if faith breaks down it means that God is
set aside, and you look for something else to take the
place of God. So that Egypt is clearly seen to represent
resources of the earth, natural resources, to which men
turn when they lose faith in God. We know what happened
to Abraham, that his lapse of faith and his turning to
Egypt led to disaster, brought him into compromise, into
entanglement, into shame; and that is ever the result of
turning from God, as our one and only resource, to other
resources which are of men. Very early, you see, in the
history of the Church you have those elements which have
repeatedly all the way through been its danger, and too
often those to which it has succumbed. The history of the
Church is one sad story of repeated lapses from God to
human resources, natural means, natural methods, the
results of which have always been the same - compromise,
entanglement, shame.
What Abraham did as the
father of the race, Israel also did in the days of
spiritual declension; for when Israel's spiritual life
waned, and God therefore became distant and remote to
faith, Israel turned to Egypt for help in the day of
trouble. Egypt, therefore, always stands to represent
those resources which men employ when God appears distant
from them owing to the weakness of their own faith. You
can see how clearly this is a coming down to earth, and
therein is the contrast: "The Lord loveth the gates
of Zion," "His foundation is in the holy
mountains" (Psa. 87), "the city of our
God," "in his holy mountain,"
"beautiful in elevation," "the joy of the
whole earth..." (Psa. 48:1). There is a great
contrast to Egypt. Egypt is down below, Zion up above,
which is why the Lord loves Zion. The Lord has a special
partiality for heavenliness about His people.
The
Contrast between Zion and Babylon.
Passing that point of
contrast, we come to Babylon. We know what Babylon
represents. Babylon was the product of human effort and
human glory. The city was built not far from the Tower of
Babel, and the Tower of Babel was built with the object
of making a name for man. It was human effort for human
glory. That tower for ever speaks of the super-man, the
glory of fallen man, and the Devil's object has always
been to try to get fallen man to reach unto heaven. Just
as they sought to make that tower to reach unto heaven,
so Satan has always sought to make man a super-man by his
own effort, and in his own glory. Babylon always speaks
of that, "Let us build us a city, and a tower... and
let us make us a name..." (Gen. 11:4). Many years
afterward the great king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar,
uttered these words: "Is not this great Babylon,
that I have builded..." (Dan. 4:30).
How clearly, then,
Babylon speaks of man's power, man's effort, man's glory,
seeking to reach unto the very clouds. Babylon stands for
the glory of human power, but, of course, in a religious
way; for Babylon was very religious, strongly religious.
The idea here is of something glorious in this world,
with man's name upon it. When we recognise that, how
impressive are the words: "I will write upon him the
name of my God, and the name of the city of my God-"
(Rev. 3:12). Man's design is to have something glorious
in the way of a city with his own name upon it. God's
thought is to have a glorious thing of a heavenly order,
with His Name upon it, and this He will have. The Church
has God's Name on it, because it will be an expression of
God's glory and God's power and God's effort, and it will
be glorious indeed. But here is the difference between
Zion, spiritual elevation in heavenliness, and Babylon,
that which stands in the glory of man. No wonder God is
jealous over Zion.
The
Contrast between Zion and Philistia.
Next we come to the
contrast between Zion and Philistia. Philistia, we are
well aware, speaks of the natural mind intruding into
Divine things. We know the Philistines were always
impinging upon Divine things. Closely associated all the
time geographically with Israel, they were a most
persistent foe, yet repeatedly seen as peering into the
things of God, as, for example, into the Ark. Here then
is uncircumcised, or if you like, uncrucified flesh
taking hold of Divine things, and manipulating them. It
is, in a sense, the rationalistic line of things, which
does not recognise that the things of the Spirit of God
are only known by the spiritual, and will seek by purely
human means of intellect and reason to arrive at Divine
ends. That cannot be done. Philistia represents that.
Babylon in natural effort, Philistia is natural reason,
and all is down there on the earth still, standing in
contrast to Zion, because Zion is the expression, not of
any kind of human effort of mind or body, but of the
revelation of the Spirit of God.
The
Contrast between Zion and Tyre.
Tyre stands for the
business or commercial world. There were tremendous
activities in Tyre as a sea port. The one thing which
Tyre represented, and which the whole atmosphere of Tyre
expressed, was commerce, expansion, business, the affairs
of this world. We hardly need dwell upon that as over
against Zion. We know this, at any rate, that the enemy
is all too eager to get people so tied up in business
affairs as to have no time or strength for contemplating
heavenly things. Any business man will tell you that, and
I suppose anybody, except those people who really have
nothing whatever to do in business of any kind, will tell
you that responsibilities are so pressed home, that it is
a matter of supreme effort to get time for heavenly
things. Tyre is always a challenge to Zion. In spiritual
principle we are up against Tyre every day. Oh, how the
enemy through this world's affairs seeks to make inroads
upon our time for the things of the Lord. The Lord is
very jealous for the heavenly side of things, and His
partiality is to the detriment of Tyre.
The
Contrast between Zion and Ethiopia.
Finally, Ethiopia. Let
us recall the incident in chapter 8 of the book of the
Acts, of an Ethiopian who had been up to Jerusalem at the
time of the Feast, and was evidently deeply exercised
about spiritual matters, being in a state of inquiry, yet
not having found an answer to his question, and his heart
need. He was still in the shadows, still in the dark, and
the Lord recognised that need, that search, not satisfied
in the place where it ought to have been satisfied, the
official headquarters, and sent Philip from Samaria to
join his chariot in the wilderness, to open his eyes, to
lead him out of his darkness. So that Ethiopia becomes
there, and elsewhere in the Scriptures, a type of the
darkened understanding, the understanding needing
enlightenment, natural darkness; a type also of that
which is true of us all. The word of Philip to the eunuch
was "Understandest thou?" and his answer
"How can I..." How true that is of all men by
nature.
The Ethiopian here in
Psalm 87 is taken as an expression of the state of all
men by nature, having the understanding darkened, and
needing someone to teach. Over against that, Zion speaks
of the eyes of the heart being enlightened, the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. It says
the citizens of Zion are those who have had their eyes
opened, and the Lord loves that which expresses His
mighty eye-opening work, His work of illumination, of
enlightenment, of quickened understanding. The Lord
delights in the light, and in that which walks in the
light, while He does not delight in darkness.
So we see in this
five-fold contrast Zion is supreme, because of this main
feature of heavenliness. Jerusalem is the concentration
of the features of the whole land of Syria. In the same
way the Church is the concentration of the features of
Christ. Christ is our land of promise. The Church is a
concentrated expression of Christ, or is intended to be,
and it is not difficult to see that this feature of
Christ - heavenliness - is a very marked one. You touch
it wherever you touch the Lord Jesus. How constantly He
speaks of Himself as having come out from heaven, of
being in heaven, and of everything in His life being
heavenly. The great governing feature of Christ is
heavenliness, and you see from the Revelation that the
New Jerusalem, the Church which is the concentrated
expression of Christ, can be seen only from the vantage
ground of elevation: "And he carried me away in the
Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the
holy city Jerusalem..." (Rev. 21:10). If you look
into the context you will see that Babylon was also
shown, but no mountain was needed to view Babylon;
Babylon could be seen in the plain. If you are going to
see heavenly things you need to be in the heavenlies.
"He carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain
great and high, and showed me the holy city
Jerusalem..." To see Christ, and to express Christ,
necessitates a heavenly union with Christ in the Spirit.
The
Constituents of Heavenliness.
We will break up this
feature into its constituents. What are the constituents
of heavenliness?
1.
Spirituality.
The first is
spirituality. You cannot understand or enjoy heavenly
things unless you are a spiritual man or a spiritual
woman. A spiritual state is necessary for comprehending
spiritual things. Paul declared that when he said:
"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit..." (1 Cor. 2:9). The
natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of
God, he cannot know them, the spiritual judge all things.
A spiritual state is, of course, in the first instance by
new birth - born of the Spirit; and then there is a
progressive spiritual life. Spiritual growth is the only
way, but it is the sure way of grasping, knowing,
understanding, comprehending heavenly things. John's
Gospel is the Gospel of spirituality, and everything in
"John" is heavenly. You find it full of people
in difficulties. Nicodemus is in difficulty, he cannot
understand spiritual things at all and there is one great
question mark which holds him in complete bondage: How?
The Lord makes perfectly clear to him that he has to
become a spiritual man, to be spiritually born, before he
can understand spiritual things. The woman of Sychar is
in just the same case, in as big a fog as was Nicodemus.
The Lord makes it clear to her that what she needs is the
Spirit dwelling within, when she will understand the
meaning of life. And so you go through that Gospel,
finding a large number of people in the dark, and the
Lord in relation to every one of them touches upon the
one principle. What is necessary is spiritual
illumination! The man born blind needs the Lord to open
his eyes, and on their being opened, he sees better than
all the religious authorities around him, who are then
quite manifestly in the dark. It is the Gospel of
spirituality, which means that to comprehend heavenly
things you must be spiritual in your essential being,
born of the Spirit, indwelt and governed by the Spirit.
2.
Elevation.
That is spiritual
ascendency. Anyone who really does seek to walk with the
Lord, to have his life maintained in the Spirit,
understands quite well, apart from the technical words
used, what spiritual elevation or ascendency means. You
know what it is to have to battle constantly to maintain
your position spiritually above. You know what it is to
have almost everything brought upon you to press you down
and to get you under. Once your spirit is under, to
circumstances, to feelings, to appearances, to
sensations, or to anything else, you are beaten, you are
broken, you are useless, your testimony has gone. That
the Church is called to be in the heavenlies in Christ
Jesus is only another way of saying that this life must
be in spiritual elevation, spiritual ascendency. The
Lord, the Architect, is seeking to teach us every day how
to take and maintain ascendency. Many opportunities are
afforded each day of learning that lesson. Many times in
a day you and I could go under to something if we let go.
It is very easy to drop down, but the Lord calls upon us
day by day, again and again, to refuse to go under. He
urges us to take a strong hold upon Him, upon His Spirit,
to be strengthened with might into the inward man, that
we may not go under, but maintain our spiritual
ascendency. That is the elevation of Zion, that is the
elevation of the Church in all its members.
3.
Faith.
That is made very clear
by the father of the city, Abraham. If that city is
eventually to be reached, then Abraham must, as its
father (so to speak), be essentially a man of faith, and
we know that to be the particular factor for which
Abraham has stood all through history. "By faith
Abraham..." And when all has been said about faith
that can be said, it comes at last to this, believing in
God's faithfulness. It is standing solidly with God on
His faithfulness. Sometimes you can do no more than that.
All the other aspects of faith, or faith's expression,
may be impossible, and you simply have to stand back on
that one final thing, Well, God is faithful! Eventually
it will be proved! Once through the present perplexity,
problem, and we shall find that God is faithful. It may
look now as though He has let us go, as though He has
failed us, as though He has not answered, as though our
expectation is disappointed; but when we get through we
shall find that God had not forsaken, God had not
abandoned us, and God had not contradicted, but has been
faithful. You and I will steadily learn that. We do not
learn that lesson all at once. We are not incapable of
asking questions as to the Lord, and we sometimes have to
put up a fight against the suggestion of a doubt as to
the Lord's faithfulness; but God is faithful. That is the
final refuge of faith: but it is a mighty thing to stand
there, and Abraham came to that position.
Heavenliness is a
tremendous factor in the life of the Lord's people.
Heavenliness, which is spirituality, which is ascendency,
or elevation, and which is faith, is a tremendous factor.
All that is gathered up in Jerusalem. It means being on
other ground than on the ground of this world, the ground
of the natural man. Oh, that the Church had maintained
that position all the way through! What terrible
tragedies have resulted from coming down to lower ground!
We said that we would
give an illustration of the tragedy of coming down from a
heavenly position on the part of the Church. I found
this, written by Sir George Adam Smith. Speaking of the
Moslem invasion of Syria, by which Syria became swept and
dominated by Islam, he writes -
"The
Christianity of Syria fell before Islam because it was
corrupt, and it deserved to fall."
And again:
"In attempting
by purely human means to regain her birthplace, the
Church was beaten back by Islam because she was selfish
and worldly."
"In neither of
these cases was it a true Christianity that was
overthrown, though the true Christianity bears to this
day the reproach, and the burden of the results. The
irony of the Divine judgment is clearly seen in this,
that it was on the very land where a spiritual monotheism
first appeared that the Church was first punished for
idolatry and materialism; that it was in sight of the
scenes where Christ taught and healed, and went about
doing good with His band of pure devoted disciples, that
the envious, treacherous, truculent hosts of the Cross
were put to sword and fire. They who in His Name sought a
kingdom of this world by worldly means could not hope to
succeed on the very fields where He had put such a
temptation from Him. The victory of Islam over
Christianity is no more a problem than the victory of
Babylon over Israel."
That is a tremendous
statement. What history there is in a statement like
that! Perhaps the greatest problem today of Christianity,
of the mission field, is Islam. I do not think there is a
greater problem than Islam for the Church. Why? Well, Sir
George Adam Smith puts his finger right on the cause when
he says the power of Islam is due to the corruption of
the Church at a given point in history; divided, selfish,
and worldly. Islam gained the mastery because of that.
How, then, would Islam
be overthrown? How would the mischief be undone? Surely
by a heavenly Church, by that which has been
wholly separated from this world in all means and
methods, and united in one spirit as a great spiritual
force, under the government of the Holy Spirit. That, and
that alone, will overthrow the forces which have gained
their position by reason of the unspirituality and
unheavenliness of the Church.
If that applies to the
whole, it applies to us individually, that spiritual
power over any ground of the enemy demands detachment
spiritually from the world, a close walk with God, and a
heavenly life, a life which is above with Christ. The
Lord lay upon our hearts the tremendous importance of
this heavenly fellowship with Him from day to day, for
the sake of spiritual power and His glory.