WHAT WE HAVE COME TO AT THE PRESENT TIME
RT The exercise is to speak of what we have come to because it is very much under attack today, in the enemy’s effort to weaken both our apprehension and the enjoyment of it. I read more than that, however, because it is very striking the way it is encased in this chapter.
It is always interesting to look at the setting of scripture before we use the application. It is obvious that the writer has been affected by the previous chapter which illustrates persons who have gone through, in the spirit of sacrifice, for a better resurrection. The apostle is moved by the faith of those who have gone before in that chapter, and proceeds then in this chapter to encourage us. The chapter is full of the need of energy, “looking stedfastly on Jesus”, enduring the Father’s chastening, pursuing peace, lifting up the hands that hang down, watching—no room for complacency, and still less for carelessness, which Esau would represent. That is the background and the answer to that is, we have come to something that is superior to all that has gone before, and is established outside of all that can ever break down; we have come to it now. He is writing to Jews, and what a thing it would be for a Jew to come to the millennium; that is what they were looking for, and this chapter is referring to that. We have come now to what will pervade in the millennium on this earth, a rule of supreme grace and a dispensation of tremendous blessing. Then, after speaking about that, he goes back to the danger of refusing Him who speaks from heaven. So I think we would approach it dear brethren with a sense of our weakness, and the need for being watchful, and having a desire to embrace something of what we have come to in mount Zion, a great system of mercy. We feel weakness, but what meets us is not demand, it is mercy based on the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. That is what we have come into, we have to touch that in our lives and in our local meetings, something that is founded on Christ being exalted and all centred in Him as a glorious Man, able to sustain a whole system of blessing for us, but also for God’s eternal praise. I thought that would be an encouragement to us, yet reminding ourselves of the dangers, because the enemy is ever active to draw us away. I refer again to the carelessness of Esau, who for one morsel, (you might have said, Well it does not matter too much) but for one small thing he lost the blessedness of what he could have come into. Jacob got it, he valued it. May the Lord just speak to our hearts, dear brethren, to cause us to value what we have come to. It is so near, yet the enjoyment of it may be lost by us through just being a little bit careless and indifferent. Hebrews was addressed to the Jews but the apostle equally addresses the same principle to the Galatians; he says you have not come to what tends to bondage, but to Jerusalem above which is our mother, a great system there to protect us, and to form us in the enjoyment of divine favour.
JDG I was thinking of verse 5 where it says, “ye have quite forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons—My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves he chastens”—very touching to the heart that divine Persons should express affection for us.
RT Yes, and He is watchful, you get the impression he is very anxious to bring us into mount Zion, maybe more anxious than we are to move. We cannot help, dear brethren, but be affected by the hand of the Lord over us in these past years, in prolonged and protracted sufferings amongst the saints. It is not just what happens to men in general, or old people, but all ages severely affected, and I think the Lord is alerting us, to sober us, and stir us up from any element of carelessness or looseness there may be. God, it says, conducts Himself towards us, as towards sons. He is not conducting Himself towards us as towards sinners. God sees His work in your soul and mine, and He brings in His chastening which is always for good, to stir us up so that sonship may be more expressed in us, and enjoyed by us, for His glory.
GCMcK In the chapter, holiness has to be arrived at through God’s chastening. Would that preserve us from being a profane person like Esau who was careless about divine things?
RT Yes, I was affected that Esau should be brought in, he had the right to the birthright, indeed he was put in this place of tremendous favour, and I would say that all here have been put in a place of tremendous favour, as to the light of the truth and the enjoyment of it in the appeals in ministry as to the Spirit having His place with us. We have all been placed in a place of tremendous favour. But he brings in Esau, and he speaks of him in very strong language, saying, “or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his birthright”, a thing that happened in the space of an hour you may say. The enemy has his own ways of making some things very attractive to us and causing us to lose our sense of judgment and discrimination. These things are the background of what I would desire to speak of. The answer to it is not going back to law, not saying I will try to reform myself, that is Sinai; the answer to it is, “ye have come to mount Zion”. There are those who have gone before who have explained it in this way, that mount Zion is like coming to another country, the refugees leave a country where they are in bondage and they come into a country that has everything. They leave one set of circumstances to come into another, that is like coming to mount Zion.
You come into a country where everything is provided for you; the heavenly Jerusalem is like the capital of the country, it is where everything is set out, the capital sets out the grandeur of the country. In a prosperous country you would expect to have a beautiful capital where everything is centred and administration goes out. The company of angels is like the government, there is power there to maintain that country in all the system that has been established. The assembly of the firstborn is the society and what would a country be without its society? We, dear brethren, have come into this country, have come to enjoy the society (not man’s society, mere social elements) but we have come to the assembly of the firstborn, registered in heaven, to enjoy the great scope of the country. I only say that so that we may have some sense of its present application to us. Now, if a refugee comes to another country, he has to leave the country he was in, and its principles. The danger is (not to speak of politics) that persons have tried to bring these other principles with them and they are defiling it, there is no doubt about that. But, we have come to a heavenly country, and we have to leave the principles of Mount Sinai and the carelessness of Esau and all these things, to open our hearts into the enjoyment of this heavenly land. I trust the Lord will encourage us to do so.
DTP Is the appreciation of the grace of God a great help to us to be maintained in that land? It speaks earlier in the chapter of those that lacked that.
RT So it says you have to leave mount Sinai and the country that we have been in, we have to leave those circumstances, to open our hearts to the great mercy and grace of God in mount Zion. These are Jewish expressions, that is why I am perhaps saying so much to explain them, but mount Zion is the joy of the whole earth, it is what God established outside of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was man’s responsibility and it broke down, but in Zion God established a place for the ark amidst the breakdown, and it is there for persons to come to.
David sets out the grandeur of it, and really Zion is a home for the sons of Korah. If you look at the psalms of Korah, they are full of mount Zion, they appreciate the mercy and grace that brought them out of circumstances where they were under penalty and under death, to come into the freedom of divine arrangements. So, as I say, mount Zion is a home for the sons of Korah and such are we.
GBG Does mount Zion, therefore, underlie fulfilled responsibility? What I was thinking of is mount Zion as sovereign mercy. We have been redeemed, that is what God has done, we have been given the Spirit and that is how we fulfil our responsibility on the basis of sovereign mercy.
RT Yes, I think the gift of the Spirit helps us in enjoying sovereign mercy and appreciating mount Zion, where everything was furnished. These sons of Korah brought nothing. That man with the basket of first-fruits in Deuteronomy 26 says that a Syrian ready to perish was my father, he brought nothing with him; he says God brought us into a good land, and here I am enjoying the fruits of it.
JTB(Ed) It says, “ye have come to mount Zion”, does it leave space for us to exploit it do you think? Is “walk about Zion” the psalm you refer to? Is that really what the exercise in Hebrews is that we come into the good and gain of this elevated sphere, a beautiful elevation?
RT Yes, that is why I referred to this setting of the chapter, it is to stimulate us to come. You have to move, it is not just that Jesus died for your sins and you rest in going to heaven, but there is far more than that. He forgave your sins to come to mount Zion, it is for every believer, the gates are open, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, there has to be that in our hearts. God has this system all provided that we may be at home in His presence and enjoy the fruits of His love.
JDG We have to learn to live like these citizens in society, like heavenly persons.
RT We have to subject ourselves to the principles of the country and they are all established in a glorious Man.
NJH Did Saul of Tarsus find the system was established before he came into it? He did not make it, it was already there, established, and he was delivered from one system into another.
RT I think that is very beautiful, such a man found in the city someone praying for him. He saw the sovereign operations of God. He had a touch that removed the scales from his eyes, that he might apprehend the beauty of the city in function, all to prepare him to speak of the assembly in the way he did.
DCB Could you say further about this matter “ye have come to”—is that a matter of faith, and does it apply to everyone who has faith?
RT Faith is the answer to light. We are speaking here together to a very privileged company of people, the light of it has come to us all and the need, as you say, is for faith which the previous chapter demonstrates. You have come to it; now are you going to leave these things, lacking the grace of God? Are you going to strengthen the knees, the hands that hang down? Are we going to commit ourselves to what we have been given the light of? It is all there and the gates are open to receive these sons of Korah into a system, where they are not only protected, but they are in the full joy of heavenly blessing. Have you more to say about coming?
DCB No, just to establish us, it is ‘ye have come’, he is not inducing them to come to mount Zion. The believer has a right to these things, and you are emphasising we need to come into the enjoyment of them.
RT The gospel received tells us the gates are open for heavenly blessing, but the danger is we go back into what we were before. But the gospel, in the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit places us on new ground, and it is doubtful that a person could have the Spirit without some expression of it. In every one who has the gift of the Spirit, there should be something seen of this movement into the divine arrangements.
GAB Do you think in verse 18 onwards, “ye have not come to the mount” would correspond in some way with Paul’s address to the Galatian assemblies? They had not actually come to it but they had regressed; now that is not really what your proper calling is, there is something far greater for you than that. He goes on to mount Zion, which far excels mount Sinai.
RT Yes, we may have had exercises where we have made some move, then have gone back; these chapters speak of the danger of drawing back. We are not drawing back, but we have come to what God has proposed in the gospel. He has furnished us with divine light, and He would encourage our hearts in the gift of the Spirit to come into this area of things where divine blessing is enjoyed. It says, “ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem”. The capital would have an influence on us. In Galatians they came under a wrong influence, but we have come into a system of things that is to have a heavenly influence on us, instead of drawing back to the fleshly principles that cause so much sorrow.
GAB I was thinking about how Paul was very strong in how he speaks to the Galatians, because they were really settling for something far less than was their portion, they had a far greater thing in their hand.
RT It was divine jealousy lest we are deflected, and have our confidence in something less than the coming to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem.
RG I was going to ask if David, a type of the Lord, foresaw our place when he wrote Psalm 132, he says, “For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling—This is my rest for ever” (Psalm 132: 13, 14). Then he says, “I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her needy ones with bread; And I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy” (Psalm 132: 15, 16). Is that not the present enjoyment of Zion?
RT Psalm 2 says, “I have anointed my king upon Zion, the hill of my holiness” (Psalm 2: 6). God has established another system in Christ risen and glorified, and the Spirit here, for believers to be drawn into, and live in for their enjoyment, but, too, that God may have His portion.
JMar Is the leadership of the Spirit important in regard to these movements you are bringing before us?
RT Yes. The Spirit is not mentioned in the section we have read, we have God and we have Jesus, but like Colossians, underlying it all is the work of the Spirit, and the pleadings and activity of the Spirit too, to make us at home in these divine arrangements.
JMar How can we move spiritually without the Spirit’s power?
RT Well, I think what is in the teaching of Romans is what you are referring to; in the exercises of Romans we are able to distinguish what is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit. Romans goes on to show the believer is a victorious person able to present his body a living sacrifice. I think that underlies coming to Zion. You have gone through these exercises and now you are led by the Spirit to enter into this glorious domain where divine favour and grace is shining upon you.
JMar I was thinking “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”, Romans 8: 14. Then you get the injunction in regard to the Supper to follow the man with the pitcher of water.
RT That is very helpful, “as many as are led by the Spirit”. The Spirit would not lead us to be at strife with our brethren. It says, “Pursue peace with all, and holiness”, Hebrews 12: 14. It is the Spirit’s leading that helps us into that, so that as many as are led by the Spirit come to be at home in this great environment of divine blessing and divine favour.
CKR Say a bit more of the thought of the refugee, it is an interesting consideration, you obviously have been pondering it a little.
RT May I just say in passing, dear brethren, we should all make ourselves acquainted with the ministry that has been given in our localities by spiritual men. Mr. J. N. Darby, Mr. F. E. Raven and Mr. James Taylor all say the same as I have said about the country and the capital. Well, we have come into a heavenly society, but the refugee has to leave his old circumstances, and judge the confusion of introducing principles of what we are to flee from. That is just practical, we see it all around us today.
CKR There is the touch with Mephibosheth, David brought him expressing feelings and affections of divine Persons, but he never became careless about his faithfulness to David, did he?
RT No, his heart was enthralled as he appreciated what he had come to. He came with no regrets, sitting at David’s table and eating bread. He was in mount Zion continually.
JDG I was looking at Psalm 107, the redeemed of Jehovah, they had exercises in the wilderness, nothing to satisfy their thirst, but then “they cried unto Jehovah in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by a right way, that they might go to a city of habitation”, Psalm 107: 6, 7. Their exercises were fulfilled by doing it.
RT Yes, I think that is fine. Redemption and Zion are very much linked in the scriptures, and then we get daughters of Zion which shows how much they belong to the country that they have come to; they are no longer refugees, they are citizens of that country, and they have come into the wealth that redemption leads us into. All that has been before is for ever covered and our hearts are opened to enjoy divine favour.
JTB(Ed) It is the desire to be in this city of the living God, something in the believer that craves it.
RT Well, that is so, and we would feel the barrenness of where we have been. Korah had a great desire to be in Zion, the Psalms are full of it. He had a conscious sense that he had no claim on anything, but he appreciates all he had come into. So, dear brethren, we have to watch lest we bring some traces of these other things; “watching lest there be any one who lacks the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it”, Hebrews 12: 15. These things are not far from us, and then you get defiled by them. We are not only brought to mount Zion, we are fully satisfied with all that we have come into and we do not want anything less than divine love has provided, that we may be in the joy of it.
GAB Not only is Zion a fine place for us to be but God Himself delights in it, “For Jehovah hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his dwelling—This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it”, Psalm 132: 13, 14.
RT It is all what God provided, the first four things especially. It says “ye have come to mount Zion”. God established it; and the city of the living God, it is His home, heavenly Jerusalem; the myriads of angels are all
His; and the assembly of the firstborn, that is His property. These four things especially are all what God has provided, it is all there to be appreciated and lived in for God’s pleasure.
GCMcK The assembly of the firstborn are registered in heaven, they are not temporary residents, they have the right there. Should we lay hold of that in our souls? Registered in heaven, the divine thought for us should help us, so that we do not feel uncomfortable in the country where we are registered.
RT That is very beautiful. You could not see any rivalry amongst those persons could you? Registered in heaven, justified, reconciled, in full enjoyment of the divine favour.
The sons of Korah had a sense that they had come home. They had felt all that had gone before, but they had come to enjoy this company of persons. Now it would preserve us from seeking other company, dear brethren. Could you get any better company than the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven? What features mark them and what glory there is about the saints, the assembly in Christ Jesus.
JMar The disciples had a tendency to rejoice in their service, but the Lord says,
“rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, Luke 10: 20.
RT Well, it placed them beyond breakdown; this whole section is placed beyond what sin or Satan can ever mar, and he says that we have come to it. We have come to stay and to appropriate the great system that has been established, for God’s pleasure, but for our favour too, that we may be at home in it.
MC Do we need help to understand in a better way the greatness of every attribute of God in this sphere, as we are there in the presence of God, able to absorb it in a better way?
RT Yes. I think that comes out in the capital, the city of the living God, every day there is something fresh to occupy our attention. The city of the living God, and as if that is not enough, the heavenly Jerusalem, far above all that can be intruded upon; it has been established in the resurrection and glorifying of Jesus. There is a whole system surrounding Him and He is the Centre and Upholder of it all.
JSp My mind is going to what it says in chapter 10, “He takes away the first that he may establish the second”, Hebrews 10: 9. This is all part of the second that has been established is it?
RT Well, that is wholesome to refer to, maybe these exercises alluded to in passing have something of that character in them, taking away the first and establishing the second. I believe the Lord is trying to weaken our apprehension and hold on things here, which we may put undue value upon; He is taking away some of these things through exercises, but our Father’s hand is in it all to give us a deeper appreciation of what is eternal. He would weaken us as to our hold on what is so real to the flesh that we may come into the second. It is all established, never to break down.
GBG Psalm 125 says, “They that confide in Jehovah are as mount Zion, which cannot be moved; it abideth for ever” (Psalm 125: 1). It represents sovereign mercy and what is stable. Is that right?
RT Very good. I am glad you bring that word stable in, because that is what we have come to. Well, have we dear brethren? Have we come to it in our souls, have we come to it in the local meetings that there is something there that is stable? Yes, there are exercises and sorrows, but that is not to becloud what we have come to. Faith and the gift of the Spirit have been referred to and these are real matters that we may apprehend, not abstractly only, but we may apprehend in some concrete form in our own lives, that we have come to the assembly of God. It has been established and it is being carried through in these broken days by the Spirit’s power and grace if we give ourselves to it. So it is stable ground we have come to, we may feel very uncertain about local difficulties and exercises, but something has been established that we need in our private lives to lay hold of, and allow it to govern us so that we are not overwhelmed by the sacrifices and sorrows of the present time.
NJH It is stable because it is linked with God rather than man, is that right? It is Him that speaks.
RT Yes, it has a foundation, the hill of His holiness. God has established it quite apart from man having anything to do with it. The stability of it needs to be in our souls and come out in the way we order our lives.
DCB Colossians makes reference to giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light; is that something of the society that you were speaking of? But also we are translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love which is the authority, the affectionate authority of Christ as coming to this new kingdom.
RT Well, the passage we read refers to that, “Wherefore let us, receiving a kingdom not to be shaken, have grace, by which let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear”. It is all part of coming to this city that there is a kingdom and that would help us in the practical exercises we have been speaking of, and protects in our hearts the joy of mount Zion.
AMB I am feeling the importance of what you are speaking of. I was also looking at chapter 11, where the saints of faith are spoken of, “they seek a better, that is, a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God; for he has prepared for them a city”, Hebrews 11: 16. So these Old Testament saints sought something better, and they showed clearly that they sought their country, but then what you are bringing before us is something more than that, is it? What we have come to. We should seek it, and we are also to find and to come into the experience and enjoyment of what is better and heavenly. Is that right?
RT We speak about circumstances, and they are difficult and real, but those persons were in far more difficult times than you or I are in, and they had something very real in their hearts that gave them power to overcome the circumstances. God does not pass us through circumstances to overwhelm us, but to test His work in our souls and give us the power to overcome them. Those persons were overcomers, and they showed clearly they sought their country. Well, dear brethren, are we showing in the way we live that mount Zion is our country? Or, are there other things that show I have my feet or my heart somewhere else? The local meetings are to be some expression of it. Is my heart in it, am I committed to it? That is all part of seeking your country. Things come in and the devil will show you plenty of reasons and excuses, but these persons show that they sought their country. That would be my exercise today, that the country is so real to us, and precious, that we seek it above other things.
JDG Coming to the occasion today, with some exercise, is some evidence of a desire to seek this land. There is an element of where I gravitate to, where I find my life, so that my employment is amongst the saints, heavenly persons.
RT And you just do not go to the meeting but you bring something, and you bring yourself, if you heart is somewhere else you bring a weight into the meeting. This chapter speaks about that too, “laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus”, Hebrews 12: 1, 2. It is stirring up our hearts to encourage us that there is a great wealth that maybe we have not enjoyed to the full. He is encouraging us today to come into the enjoyment of the fulness of it.
RG It says in Acts 20, “there were many lights in the upper room where we were assembled” (Acts 20: 8); do you think they were like the heavenly Jerusalem? There was a youth who was sitting at the window and fell out. He did not bring anything to contribute to the wonderful atmosphere, what belonged to Zion and what belonged to heaven.
RT He fell asleep, a dangerous thing, but there in the presence of such things he fell asleep, very sobering. Through grace he was restored to the upper storey, where life was.
Maybe he had become a bit uninterested, his heart somewhere else, or he had an eye on something else. But here are these persons who have come, like sons of Korah, to enjoy the favour and richness and blessedness of all that is shining in the divine system. And there is some expression of it, you say there is not much, but there is some expression of it in the local meeting. If we complain about it, it is up to us to put that right. That is what someone told Mr. Darby, ‘You put it right by one’. So that, if we get some apprehension of it, we would be encouraged to bring our contribution of praise to God. That is what Zion is, a great system of praise and glory to God.
JMar What you are bringing before us is testing in regard to our affections. I am thinking of the scripture that says as to Jerusalem, “they shall prosper that love thee”, Psalm 122: 6. We might say we love the Lord Jesus, which is very good, but do we love the assembly? It is a challenge.
RT It is. Well, the Lord does not test us to depress us. You would never leave the brethren depressed. Maybe things come in that test us, and that is for our good, but He never leaves us without encouragement. This section is most encouraging, that there is something there ready to come into, and all the wealth of it is open to those who enter in by the gates.
TL Is it important to see as well that there are those there that are enjoying it, you come to “the spirits of just men made perfect”. I was wondering whether it linked with Paul in Philippians where he says, “Be imitators all together of me” (Philippians 3: 17), and it goes on there speaking of “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens” (Philippians 3: 20). Does that help?
RT Yes. So when you come to the meeting there is somebody ready to give out a hymn, you do not wait too long. In Zion, they would all be anxious to give their impressions, not too long a wait for a prayer, not even a long pause after the scriptures are read, but our hearts are touched and it is a vibrant system, everything is exuding divine favour and divine blessing. Well, it also says that we have come to “God, judge of all”. That is not God as a judge exactly, as we think of it so often, it is more referring to God as supreme over all. It is like what Abraham said about God, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”, Genesis 18: 25. The millennium will be an expression of God as the Judge of all, everything will be put in its place. So that we do not come with a sense of fear, but with a sense of confidence that God will put everything in its place. You may feel wronged, you may feel the brethren are hard on you, but God is the Judge of all; and this passage would mean that we have confidence to leave it with God, rather than pursue seeking to justify ourselves. But then, it says more than that, it says the “spirits of just men made perfect”; that is referring to those persons who had died before, Abraham, Noah and those persons who were made perfect through redemption. But then it says that we have come to “Jesus, mediator of a new covenant”. Would you not be at home where Jesus is? where He is the Centre, the Mediator of a new covenant, not the, but a new covenant. It means that we stand on entirely new ground in this system that God has brought us into, without any sense of insecurity in the presence of our Saviour. There He is, not now forgiving our sins, but maintaining us in the joy, the blessedness and the richness of this glorious system that is established in Him.
JMM A little further down in the chapter, the purpose of it seems to be “Wherefore let us, receiving a kingdom not to be shaken, have grace”. It comes back to the point that was made earlier that, as belonging to all this, the practical result of it is the people showing the evidence of grace.
RT I think that would be the enjoyment of this covenant, come to “Jesus, mediator of a new covenant”. It means they are on new ground and a new link that establishes our hearts in divine grace and favour. So that we have a kingdom for protection, and are able to work out our exercises in the blessedness that this is our home; we have come to what is established in the Mediator, able to hold everything in its place without any chance of breakdown.
JMM I wonder if, following what you have said, whether the expression of everything in this system will be according to the Spirit of God. That will be the tone that will be set, energy will be expressed according to the activities of the Spirit of God. It is perhaps worth remembering that the old system could express quite a bit of energy. Now the measure of Paul’s zeal before he was converted was for persecuting the assembly, but energy will be expressed here in the character that belongs to the Spirit, the character of grace.
RT Yes, more derived than worked up to. In Mount Sinai you try to work up to things; we learn that in the exercises of Romans as I said, but this is an energy that is derived from divine favour and divine provision.
JDG The law made for man, what man was before God, but now there is what God is for us, everything for us.
RT So you come into the kingdom, “If God be for us, who against us? He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, Romans 8: 31, 32. I think that is a heart imbued with the atmosphere of all that is shining in Zion.
JWeb I was just thinking of the end of Psalm 48, the sons of Korah, they walk about Zion, come to palaces, come to towers thereof. It says, in the footnote to verse 13, ‘Set your heart on’ and in the end “this God is our God for ever and ever”. Do you think, if we come to mount Zion our hearts go out to God Himself?
RT I think so. We become citizens, we become formed. That is why I referred to daughters and sons of Zion, it means they have that character about them. They go about their daily lives, but we can see there is a character about them in the way they do things that they belong somewhere else. So that their main consideration is their home country and the One there who has called them into it.
JWeb So, it does not make anything of us, but it makes everything of the One who has done it. I was thinking of Ephesians 1, we trace it all back to God Himself, do we not?
RT And we are in the blessedness of it. It is all for God but He has not forgotten blessing us on the way to it, indeed unless we are in the joy of His blessing God does not have His portion.
JSp Do you think we can stimulate one another? I was thinking of the Songs of degrees, how Psalm 122 begins with “I rejoiced when they said unto me”. We can stimulate one another in meetings like this on this line. The Songs of degrees have a certain upward movement which seems to lead to God Himself. That is what we want, to be in the flow of this spirit that would lead us up to God Himself.
RT To be at home in it, and that is the Mediator of the new covenant I think. It is very striking. Hebrews uses Jewish language but it always brings in Jesus; in priesthood, the Priest is Jesus; in apostleship, the Apostle is Jesus. The offices are all filled by a man who is well known and here He is, the central feature of this country, Jesus the Mediator, able to put His hand upon us and holds us each in our place in view of the service of God flowing without interruption.
TCM I was wondering if what follows on is “See that ye refuse not him that speaks”. Does that suggest it is not just a great established system but it is a living, operative system, and there is help currently to see that the principles are maintained at the present time?
RT Read the footnote there.
TCM ‘As verse 19, ‘excusing themselves’, declined’.
RT Does that not come home to us?
TCM Yes it does. That is what they did earlier in the chapter, they declined the word. Do you think we need to have the current word that is proceeding at the present time?
RT Maybe they did not go to the prayer meeting, excusing themselves, declined. Well, these things are to encourage us that there is a great system to negate the excuses. “See that ye refuse not him that speaks”. He is speaking in such grace, but the same God, our God, is a consuming fire. He has not changed from that point of view against evil, and against sin wherever it is working. But He is showing us here a great system of grace that we may come to be at home in it, and to be formed as sons and daughters of Zion.
NMcK I have just been thinking of what was said about Esau; let us not be profane as Esau was, he made these things common. I wonder if that comes close to us that we can make divine things common, even in a small way, maybe even as you are saying about the weeknight meetings. When dealing with divine Persons and divine things before us, we need to hold things at the right level, then we would be kept right in these things.
RT We are not trying to correct things through legality or toeing the line, but the correction of things is in coming to mount Zion. Any decline is because we have not appreciated the value of the system. I believe, dear brethren, we have not appreciated enough the value of ministry as to Christ and the assembly. Ministry has been given to elevate the saints, above what there is here in this world, over a very long period as to the place the assembly has in the divine thought, and there is a call to come into the enjoyment and the blessedness of it practically. That is how we are going to meet these other influences, through enjoying the blessedness of our place in Christ.
JTB(Ed) In Chronicles the exploits of the mighty men follow David taking the stronghold of Zion and dwelling there, is that how it operates do you think? He built right from the Millo and inwards and round about. Is that the principles of Zion being established in the citizens’ hearts on the basis of which they could go out into conflict do you think?
RT Very good. They saw the breakdown, there was not a place for the ark so they put it in Zion. That is the public position, there is not a place for Christ but in the local meeting there is to be a place for Him to be at home. So, in the midst of all the confusion at Jerusalem there was Zion, it was on a hill, it involved there was some exercise to reach it; but when they reached it, what blessing and joy they came into. I would just leave this to encourage our hearts, there is the blood of Jesus, the blood of sprinkling speaking better than Abel, the blood is speaking. The blood was sprinkled on persons, it means that blood is on you and me, dear brethren, the blood of Jesus. What a divine favour to be covered by the blood, not only free from judgment but to be sanctified by the blood. Peter speaks about the sanctifying effect of the blood of sprinkling; it means you have been set apart for divine purposes. May we value that blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel.
There may have been testing things said, but only to awaken our hearts to come to be at home in this place of tremendous favour. There has to be some expression of the enjoyment of it in my home. There are houses of Zion, and localities too, that are set in relation to this glorious system.
Reading at Edinburgh
8 January 2005
KEY TO INITIALS
A. M. Brown
J. D. Gray
T. C. Munro
D. C. Brown
N. J. Henry
D. T. Pye
G. A. Brown
T. Lock
C. K. Robinson
J. T. Brown (Ed.)
J. M. Macfarlane
J. Spinks
M. Cowan
G. C. McKay
R. Taylor
R. Gardiner
N. McKay
J. Webster
G. B. Grant
J. Marshall