The twelfth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, verse 22: "Ye are
come... unto Mount Zion". Yesterday we were mainly occupied with
that aspect of the heritage of faith which is found in the
spiritual counterpart to what God gave to man in the creation. We
saw that God Himself took in hand to bring into being a world for
His own satisfaction and pleasure. Concerning which He could say
without any reserve, "It is very good". And having completed that,
He put man into it and made it man's inheritance. The counterpart
of that is found in the first two chapters of the letter to the
Hebrews, the letter beginning as the book of Genesis begins, with:
"God...". Then the working out of a whole scheme and plan of
redemption and new creation in Christ and through Christ, the
second chapter of the letter, as the second chapter of Genesis,
brings man on the scene. "What is man that Thou shouldest put him
over the works of Thy hands... Thou madest him in order to have
dominion over the works of Thy hands". So that the believer is
brought into something that God has comprehensively consummated in
His Son: it is the heritage of faith. Now we are not spending any time on that aspect.
Last evening we
moved on to the second phase where Israel comes into the picture
and again the whole matter of a heritage is in view, offered to
faith. That stage and phase is arrived at with the extra word in
this clause, firstly, "ye are come" and that applies to
what God has offered to us in Christ: this marvelous new position
with its marvelous new inheritance as heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Then it follows, "ye are come to Zion..." and
we were saying that Zion is an inclusive and comprehensive
conception. Zion really comprehensively means that in which
God's full salvation and purpose is found - that is,
Christ and a people who are joined to Him partaking of the values
of what He is and what He has done.
Zion, spiritually interpreted, is Christ and His people in all
the good of God's perfected redemption and provision. Breaking up
that inclusive significance of Zion, we went on to see from the
history of the earthly Zion, the light that it throws upon the
spiritual Zion to which we are come, that it is the symbol of His
transcendent victory as Zion of old represented the great
victory of the great king, the greatest king of Israel.
It was the stronghold of Zion which stood out against him and
tested his faith, his real power, as nothing else did and then he
took it and made it his seat, his abode, the place of his palace.
It therefore symbolised the transcendent victory of the greatest
king of the old dispensation. And that is carried over spiritually
to the Zion to which we are come. This letter to the Hebrews sets
forth the strength of that which stands against the Lord in the
first place: sin, man's own nature, death, and "him that had the
hold on death"; that is, the devil. And in a very few words in this
letter to the Hebrews, all that is seen to be nullified:
"He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil,
and delivered all them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage" - what a triumph! That is Zion!
Ye are come to that.
Now we proceed with one or two more features of that to which we
are come, by the grace of God, and that is offered to us
for faith's apprehension. Zion, as we so well know from many
Scriptures in the Old Testament, became the place of God's
dwelling, or always represented the place of God's abode. The Lord
dwelt in Zion; was represented as dwelling in Zion. The Lord
speaks out of Zion. It is:-
His Habitation.
Now, dear friends, we
must draw very near to this matter in all its aspects, and not
just contemplate it as some set of beautiful ideas, truths, and
things that are in the Bible. These are not only grand and
glorious truths, doctrines, teachings; they are, every one of
them, a tremendous challenge to us. They are set forth in order to
find us out: whether we really are children or citizens of Zion,
that is, whether these things are true of us. There are
great values here for us.
And when we speak about Zion,
(remembering all the time that this is Christ and His own which we
are supposed, at least, to be) Zion being the Lord's
dwelling-place, we touch upon something of tremendous practical
importance and value. For you and I know very well that the one
thing which perhaps more than anything else governs our interests,
governs our lives, is where to find the Lord; where and how we can
find the Lord. You agree that that's an important matter, isn't
it, for us? To be in touch with the Lord, to know just where we
can be sure to find Him. That's a very important matter,
indeed, if we don't know that, we are certainly at a loss: life
will be all awry and confusion, weak and defeated, if we are not
really in touch with the Lord. Where is the Lord?
Now, remembering that Zion is a collective conception, it
is not just a matter of so many unrelated and unconnected units
and individuals, but Zion is always a collective
conception in the Word of God - it is the Lord's people together
with the Lord - that's Zion. Where there is a mutuality of Life in
the Lord, that is where you'll find the Lord. I do not mean that
the individual cannot find the Lord alone, that can be. And I do
not mean that if you have not possibly, possibly (and I
underline that) facilities for fellowship with the Lord amongst
His people, the Lord will not make some special provision, will
not meet you in some special way, but God's normal way of
being found in greater fulness in that measure which means
everything to His people, the normal way is the way of Zion, that
is, the way of spiritual fellowship in Christ.
It is absolutely essential to our Life that we have some
kind of relatedness with the people of God, which brings us into a
touch with the Lord, which is more than that which we can have
individually and apart. To our very Life this is essential,
imperative, that in some way, whether in the location or not, in
some way we have a relatedness, a vital connection, a powerful and
positive union with the people of God of a spiritual kind on the
basis that it is Christ - not that we are a society who are in
existence on some agreed basis of either teachings or practices,
but that we are a people based upon Christ who is our only
concern. It does not matter one little bit about the institution,
about the particular framework. The thing is that we are based
upon Christ and we are a people based upon Christ, where Christ is
wholly and fully apprehended, and honoured, and exalted, and is
recognised and acknowledged as the Son over God's House - there
we shall find the Lord. And we shall find the Lord in a very
special way. It will be, it will be our testimony, if that is true
of us, that whenever, whenever it is possible for me to enjoy that
fellowship, I somehow or other meet the Lord, and the Lord meets
me, and there is something more of the Lord afterward than there
was before. And, mark you, everything that the devil can do in
earth or hell to stop that, he will do; by every trick, and
cunning, and device and fury, he will prevent you from that
fellowship. He will keep you away from that, somehow he will just
see to it if he possibly can, that you will not get there, you'll
not get there. And dear friends, over this whole matter there is
such a need for vigilance.
Oh, how pained we often are when we know that such and such need
the time of fellowship, they're in desperate need of it, their
spiritual life is crying out for it, and then they decide under a
move of the Lord in their hearts to take advantage of the
opportunity and then, through lack of sufficient positiveness and
watchfulness, some little thing arises, some circumstance, some
trick, something happens, and they accept it that they're not to
be there, after all. Oh, there has to be a fight over this matter.
This is not going to be had cheaply. Zion is always represented as
something very precious.
We have to speak about that at another time in another connection
as something very precious, but you don't get precious things
cheaply, they just do not fall to you. You have got to be prepared
to pay a price for precious things. We are not talking about
salvation now, we are talking about this heritage of faith. And if
there's one thing that this letter to the Hebrews makes clear and
emphasises, is that these men, in that great caravan from Abel
onward toward the inheritance, one thing that characterised them
was their persistence, their determination not, not to be
robbed of the inheritance. Whoever it was: Abel let his blood be
shed, Abram left Ur of the Chaldees, Moses left Egypt behind with
all its treasures and learning - these men counted the reproach of
Christ greater riches than those of Egypt. They recognised the
tremendous importance of Zion in principle and therefore fought
for it, and let everything else go for it. And to find the Lord in
this way, we are going to have to be very, very positive in our
attitude over this matter of relatedness and fellowship. And don't
make any mistake about it, dear friends, if the devil can, by any
way, by hook or crook, destroy the values of related Life in
Christ, he will do it; and he knows what he is up to, he will mar
the glory of Zion if he can. That has always been his object.
So, where shall we find the Lord? Yes, we find Him in our own
room alone, praise God. Yes, we'll find Him far away there in some
remote place where we have no Christian fellowship, the Lord will
meet us, but we must not even so, even so, as individuals or in
remote places, accept that we are unrelated, that we are just
individuals. Let us remember that Zion is one, and we belong to
Zion, and we are not all Zion, either individually or in local
companies, we are not all Zion. Zion is something very much bigger
than that.
Then, a further thing about Zion was and is that in the old
literal presentation, representation, Zion was the seat of
government, the place of the Throne.
The Place of the Throne
Here in this letter to the Hebrews you make that tremendous move
almost in one clause: having tasted death in behalf of every man,
He moved to heaven, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty,
waiting... and ye are come, ye are come to the Throne, the
government. Christ and a heavenly people (note this) become the
governmental seat and instrument of the Lord. Zion is a
governmental conception.
His Throne is in Zion. He rules from Zion. His sovereignty
operates in relation to Zion. That is only saying in figurative
language that when the Lord, when the Lord has something after
this kind that satisfies His heart according to His Son Jesus
Christ, God is tremendously jealous about that and
puts His sovereignty, His sovereignty into action in relation to
that. It is there that His Throne is. It may not always appear to
be like that according to our human ideas of sovereignty and
government, it may sometimes seem that the enemy is on the throne.
It may sometimes appear as though the Lord has really vacated His
throne and the Lord is not looking after things, but oh, don't
make any mistake about it, it has been like that many times in the
history of the Church when it just seemed as though the devil and
his kingdom were running riot and swallowing up everything that
was of the Lord, so that what was of Christ seemed to have
disappeared in what we call "the Dark Ages". But, but that's a
phase; that passes. When the Lord comes back, He comes back to
greater fulness than He had before.
The Lord never does vacate His Throne. The Lord never does give
up Zion. The story of Zion in the old dispensation is a marvelous
story isn't it, of God refusing to give it up. Yes, it may fall on
bad days, enemies may overrun the land - God doesn't give up. For
a dark, long period of seventy years it looks as though nothing has
happened, but God comes back for Zion's sake and He acts again. He
does not give up, and His sovereignty is marvelously at work in
relation to Zion. And that in itself is something that could
occupy all the time that we have, to see how God
sovereignly and secretly works in His sovereignty in relation to
Zion.
Do we desire to have the Lord really and ultimately and supremely
on our side? Do we want to be related to the Throne, the
sovereignty, the government, of the Lord, the mighty, providential
overrulings of the Lord in relation to an end which He is seeking?
Do we? Where is the place of His Throne? It is centred in Zion. It
is there which is the focal point, that is the focal point of the
Lord's real concern and the real determination of God to have what
His heart is set upon. You are recalling, probably, some of those
words from the prophets on this matter when Zion had seemed to be
eclipsed, and oh, the Lord comes back... the Lord comes back.
You know in chapter 62 of Isaiah's prophecies (which we may
consider more fully at some time) it is the Messiah who is
speaking, it is the Messiah who is speaking and the Messiah says,
"For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace... for Zion's sake will
I not take rest, until, until, until..." this is the Lord
speaking: "I will not take rest, I will not cease". He comes back
for Zion.
If you really want to be in line with the movements of God
secretly, but very positively, toward His end - ruling and
overruling, and bringing all life's affairs under that sovereign,
providential government - then have your heart in Zion and you'll
find that it will work out like that, it will work out like that.
You do not see it perhaps in the stages, but with the long view,
you come to an end of a long period and look back and you will
have to say, "Had it not been the Lord that was on our side, when
men rose up against us, they'd have swallowed us up quite, had it
not been for the Lord..." this is something, this is something
which can only be attributed to God. Yes, the Lord is jealous in
His sovereignty for Zion - His throne is there. In a word, Christ,
Christ is going to be vindicated. We can say He has been
vindicated, but He is going to be fully and finally vindicated,
His life, His death, are going to be vindicated up to the hilt in
the end. Oh yes, it's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful!
You see the two bounds of Zion in the Word, as we pointed out
yesterday, the first reference to Zion came on that victorious
side of the Red Sea. Victory, yes! Victory over Pharaoh, his
hosts, and Egypt; mighty victory, then they sang the song. And in
the song they spoke of Zion, the beginning of the journey, but
Zion there right at the beginning took up the note of victory, the
note of the Lord's absolute sovereignty - let Egypt exhaust
herself and Pharaoh resort to his final device, and in the Red Sea
the Lord will bury the lot. That's victory! And out of that
victory, Zion comes into view, see? Zion comes into view. I think
it's very wonderful!
What is the last mention of Zion? Fourteenth chapter of the book
of the Revelation: "And I saw a Lamb upon Mount Zion..." a Lamb
upon Mount Zion! Now, that Red Sea victory was based upon the Lamb
of the Passover, it was the victory of the Lamb worked out. Here
at the end of the whole Bible and the whole story, it is the Lamb
upon mount Zion: victory, complete victory, through His blood.
This is sovereignty!
It's good to take final visions, isn't it, final pictures, final
representations - how is it going to be in the end? What will it
really be like at last? Not, how is it today, but how will it all
work out? What will be the final and ultimate conclusion to the
whole matter? A Lamb upon Mount Zion. That, that's the picture. It
will be like that, however other we may be feeling about it today,
it will be like that at the end, but that is presented to faith.
"Ye are come, ye are come, to that absolute sovereignty of the
Lamb upon Mount Zion" - "Ye are come to Zion".
And then one more thing which we have already mentioned and that is
that Zion was the focal point, the focal point of fellowship.
Fellowship on the Basis of Christ
But what was the nature of the fellowship in that dispensation as
based upon and centred in Zion? It's in one little phrase: "Zion,
the city of our solemnities". And what were the solemnities? They
were the feasts. It could be rightly translated, "the city of our
feasts" - the place where we come together and have a good time. Oh,
how they longed to go up to Zion, how they lived all the year round
for the time to go up to Zion, how Zion, whenever it was thought of
and remembered, just lifted the heart, even away in Babylon, "How can
we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land?" the songs of Zion.
And to think about Zion was a lift far away. It brought this sense
of festivity; festivity. And dear friends, there surely ought to be
a little more about this, of this, about us; don't you think so?
That our coming to the Lord Jesus and all that He has done for us
and offers to us and all that He has brought us into, placed us in;
all this that Zion means as a spiritual inheritance for us, we ought
to be a people of a more festive character - not superficially,
emotionally excitable and noisy, and all that, but really a people
who are enjoying themselves together in the Lord. I think we do have
just a little taste of that when we come together at these times
don't we? Drawn from far and near, to spend a day or two together,
and there's something good about it. And I think that many look
forward to the next time. It's good, it's good to have this
fellowship. Well, that is really Zion: practical, practical
experience and working out. But we ought to live more continually in
the good of Zion, "We are come" we are come. For us, Zion is
not a distant prospect, not something toward which we are going, or
from time to time we go, Zion is ever present.
If we were really in the good of all that the Lord Jesus is, and has
done, together, together, we would be a happier people, we
would be a festive people! "The city of our solemnities..." if you
like, "the city of our festivities", this is Zion, and Zion is so
much more. And although I am so concerned when I am saying all these
things, that they do not just remain good, pleasant, true ideas and
conceptions, and parts of teaching, if you knew, dear friends, the
background of these times together, you would know that there is no
just seeking of some subject for addresses, that it is a real, real
exercise deep and long before the Lord that a crisic thing should be
said; that every time we come together should have something to do
with the hour - be of that crisic character that relates to the hour
and God's thought for the time. We have no interest in anything
other than that; something for God's people in this day
according to God's mind. And I feel sure that this word, borne in
upon my own soul, is not just to fill up a conference with messages
and teaching - good, bad or indifferent - but a message from God to
us, to show us that God is seeking to recover the idea and
conception of Zion in a people, because His heart has always
been bound up with Zion. It is so: His heart is bound up with Zion.
He must have Zion, in other words, He must have that which is a
blessed, corporate, collective representation of what He has done
and has given in His Son. When He finds that, He is satisfied.
And so He would have us occupied with what occupies Him, that the
things that He desires should be our desire, and, mark you,
they are essential to our Life. They are essential to our Life, you
take these things as being life and death matters, they are, there
is no doubt about it. If you really are set upon the Lord, you'll
take note of these details which are presented; true, in symbolic
language, we are always afraid of symbolic language, because it does
somehow or other get people into a mystical air and realm. No, these
are very, very positively practical.
What I have said this morning contains tremendous issues, this
matter of relatedness and fellowship; don't you make any mistake
about it, your life depends upon it, your spiritual life depends
upon it, and the devil knows that too, and will spoil this whole
thing if he can in some way or other. Oh yes, he hates Zion with a
bitter hatred, and if the earthly Zion or Jerusalem has been the
focal point of the contest and conflict of the nations and the ages
all the way from its inception, that is only, only an illustration
in the temporal and material of something that is very much more
true in the spiritual, in the heavenly: that this thing is
contested, this thing is hated, this thing will be a battleground.
We leave that for a later time, but remember that we are represented
as having come. This is a present thing to faith - to be taken, not
as being now made, but as being completed in Christ and offered to
us.
So, go away, not thinking of Zion as a thing, do not contemplate Zion
as a thing, an object, but remember Zion is Christ in Person in the
value of all His work in His people. That's Zion, and that comes
very close to us. That is not the person even next to you, that's
you! And then it becomes the one next to you, and all the others.
It's very, very practical. Oh, that Zion should be in our hearts as
it was in the hearts of the people of old.... If it was so much to
them as a temporal thing, and at most a transient thing, ought that
which is the real thing, that of which the earthly is only, after
all, a poor picture, ought not the real thing (far more real
to us because so much more a matter of life and death) ought it not
to be of far greater store to us, to be cherished? To be cherished,
to be watched over, to be cared for, to be exploited for all its
wonderful possibilities: "Ye are come to Zion".