THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD
[p. 364] THE CITY OF THE LIVING GOD
Genesis 13:9-13; Genesis 19:15-22; Hebrews 11:8-10; Hebrews 11:16.
You can readily perceive what I have in mind; it is to speak about the heavenly city: the city of the living God. In speaking of such a subject I hope you will understand that I do not mean to speak of it as apart from Christ, for I never would think of speaking of any subject except as related to Him. Christ brings the city into existence, and it takes all its character from Him. If there is one thing more than another that speaks of the greatness and ability of Christ, it is the construction of this marvellous city, that is to become the centre of light and blessing for the universe of God.
The heavenly city is a wonderful product of the quickening power of Christ, hence in speaking of it I only wish that our minds and hearts should be occupied all the more with Him, for, as I said, it is the evidence of His greatness. You will recall how Nebuchadnezzar exulted in the magnificence of his city. “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty?” Daniel 4: 30. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch, and he speaks of the city which he had built as the evidence of his power. He is figurative of Christ, to whom universal dominion belongs; the city He constructs will be in accord with Himself in every way, and with His kingdom; and it will also be the great witness to His quickening power, so that in referring to the city, what I have in my soul is the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. If He has formed that marvellous city, said to come down from God out of heaven in all heavenly splendour “having the glory of God”, (Revelation 21: 10) what a Person He must be! “Whose builder and maker is God”. Hebrews 11: 10. Christ is the Builder and Maker; He [p. 365] who builds all things is God, but it is Christ as Hebrews 3 clearly states, and this is true of the church at the present moment. The church as formed at the beginning by His own hand, to be in this world in such wise as to be absolutely free from its influence and power, and thus to be capable of illuminating man and bringing blessing to him, was an irrefutable witness to the power of the Son of God. We want to get into our souls a clear understanding of the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ; and His ability is at the command of His love, hence He has brought in that which involves blessing for man. It is from that point of view I wish to dwell upon the city that the Lord Jesus Christ has formed — a city for us. God has prepared things for them that love Him, and it seems to me that the city is pre-eminently what is prepared “he hath prepared for them a city” Hebrews 11: 16.
It is a great thing to understand that we have a city. It may be you do not attach importance to that, but every man of faith had a city before him. Abraham is the great model of faith in Scripture, and he looked for a city, and I think that what you get in him was what marked them all. Why did he look for a city? I believe that everybody in the world is dependent upon a city, and I think if you took away the cities you would find that most men had lost that which they require as their centre. It does not necessarily follow that you must live in a city to have one. Men as they are in the flesh are not self-supporting. In Genesis 4 you get the first mention of a city, and my belief is that the builder of that city felt that he was not. I refer to Cain, I think he felt, as banished from God, that he could not be self-supporting. He built a city, and called it after the name of his son. I think Cain’s city may be taken to represent the cities of this world. It was built by a murderer, and would of necessity bear the marks of its founder. The world-city of Revelation 11 bears Cain’s character; our [p. 366] Lord was crucified there. It is spiritually called “Sodom and Egypt”. Revelation 11: 8. Violence and corruption mark the cities of the world, and of course none of them is free. Do you think a murderer could build a free city? No murderer could be a free man. He is only free while he can elude the punishment of the law; hence Cain could not build a free city. He did not call his city by his own name, and I can understand that; I think he felt he did not have a very good one: he was a murderer. It is very intelligible that he should call his city after the name of his son, but his son was no more free than himself. His son could not liberate Cain’s city, and I will tell you why — he was under death. The fact is that Cain, his son, and their city were under the sentence of death, and freedom cannot be had in such a state.
I was saying that the cities of the world bear the stamp of Cain, and this is true. I think if you were to go into Cain’s city you would find a very peculiar state of things morally. I should not consider myself very safe in a city built by a murderer. If true to the testimony of God, I should not expect very much better treatment from that city than Abel received from Cain. I think that Rome may be taken as representative of man’s city, it is so viewed in Scripture. Its perpetual history has been one of murder and lawlessness. “I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus”, Revelation 17: 6.
Now what I want to come to is what marks the city of the living God. It is free. You could not have a free city except on the principle of resurrection. Those who compose the city are quickened together with Christ, and are seated in the heavenly places in Him. It is living, and in the heavenlies. Revelation 21 depicts its varied characteristics. It will be the sphere of highest privilege in the future. “Blessed are they that wash their robes that they may have right to [p. 367] the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”. Revelation 22: 14. The tree of life is there; it is in the midst of the paradise of God. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are in the city. We shall be at home there, and there will be perfect security. In contrast to Cain’s city, which, as we have seen, was built by a murderer, this city is built by the righteous One — the One who hated lawlessness.
I wish to turn to Lot for a moment to explain my point that everybody is dependent upon a city. The gospel is that which produces the desire to take the path of faith. If the light of the gospel comes into your soul, it leads you to refuse and turn away from the present world, and if it has not done that for you, you have not rightly received it. The gospel is the light of another and completely new system, with a new centre entirely (Christ), a new city, and directly the light of that enters your soul, your course is altered. Now Lot had taken up that position. He was really one of the Lord’s people. We are not told that he was called to forsake his country, and kindred, and his father’s house, but he did it, and he did what was perfectly right. He took the path of faith; he went into the land of Canaan; he took up the heavenly position in company with Abraham. He did what was perfectly right, as I said, and it is what every man ought to do. He took up the ground of faith. Now faith is simply this: the gospel brings to you the light of another system, of which Christ is the Head; another city, and another country; and the effect of this when received is that you make a move; you give up every single thing morally that you are connected with down here as in the flesh, whether the social, commercial, or religious phases of the world-system, and you plant your foot on the path of faith, shape your course toward the city of the living God. I hope everybody here has taken up that position: I would advise you to take it up. Do not tell me you [p. 368] were converted on a certain day, and so on; if you have not taken up the path of faith, the gospel has not had its proper effect upon you. The effect of the gospel is to turn you entirely from this present evil course of things. I want to see the man who has forsaken his country, his kindred, and his father’s house. Something has taken place with the man who has done that. The gospel has been received into his soul.
But, alas, the light thus received often grows dim to us: something comes in between your heart and Christ. It may be you have accumulated a little bit of wealth, or it may be that something else has intervened between the vision of your soul and the divine system. What is the next thing that fellows upon that? You will gravitate toward some worldly system or city. The world becomes very pleasing and attractive. Look at the light in which Lot viewed the plain of Sodom. It says: “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere”. It was “as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zoar”, Genesis 13: 10. Nothing to my mind more aptly evidences the demoralising influence of this world upon the soul of man than this. The paradise of God, which is the true garden of the Lord, is confused with the land of Egypt! It is an optical delusion. Alas! how dreadful to think of a Christian allowing the things of this world to dim his vision! Oh, Christian, do you ever take account of the world as the garden of the Lord? Do not do it, whatever you do. If you want to go in for the things of the world, do not degrade the garden of the Lord, which is in the paradise of God, and where the tree of life is, by likening it to a wicked place. It says that Sodom was wicked above all cities. Lot went into the plain of Jordan. It does not say that he got into Sodom all at once. I suppose he went into some of the smaller cities, and became a private citizen, simply a resident, but he pitched his tent toward Sodom. That [p. 369] was his objective. But Abraham had a different objective, he looked for a city. The Spirit of God records that that wonderful man sojourned as a stranger in the land of promise, and that he looked for a city “whose builder and maker is God”. Hebrews 11: 10. That was his objective. He died without receiving the promise, but he looked for it. Lot says, as it were, “I must have a city now”. How many a Christian is like that! They give up the path of faith. If you do that and thus lose sight of the heavenly city, you cannot get on without a city of this world — something visible, which becomes your centre. Lot lifted up his natural eyes, and Sodom came within the range of his vision; but Abraham saw with the eyes of his heart, and with these he did not see Sodom, but the city of the living God.
But Sodom is to be destroyed, and it is when the time of the execution of the divine sentence against the city arrives we see demonstrated how intensely possessed Lot was with the idea of a city, and how much he depended on one. The angel says, “Escape to the mountain”. Genesis 19: 17. Lot replies: “Behold, now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: oh, let me escape thither (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live” Genesis 19: 20. He depended upon a city, no matter how small, so he fled to Zoar. He says, “My soul shall live”; but Abraham’s soul had lived without a present city! He did not have a visible city great or small, neither did he possess a house, nor any outward support, and yet he was perfectly secure; he did not suffer any discomfort at all when the cities of the plain were destroyed.
I do not know that I can say much about Abraham, but he stands out in wonderful contrast to Lot, who is a figure of the worldly Christian. See him in Genesis 18. That chapter presents Abraham in the full position which the light that had come to him involved: he is outside of the whole course of the world, and is [p. 370] in the circumstances of a pilgrim — sitting in the tent-door. Such a man is fit morally to receive a divine visitation, and he does receive it. If you are connected with any kind of a city, even though it be only a small one, you will have no divine visitation; but if you live in a tent, if you take up the path of a man of faith, I can assure you you will get one. As apart from the world in the position of a pilgrim, it is your privilege to receive a gratuitous heavenly visitation. Do you not desire it? Abraham and Sarah were there alone in their tent and the Lord came without being invited. Look at the marvellous moral beauty of Jehovah coming down to a tent! No stylish abode, only the tent of a herdman, and Jehovah comes and partakes of a repast with Abraham and his wife. They were in the path of faith. They “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”. Hebrews 11: 10. I think they had what I should call an understanding of what is morally right. They say, as it were, if we cannot have that city we will not have any, but a visit from Jehovah, although in a tent, is infinitely more to be desired than the society of the world, and a fine mansion in the city of Sodom. The Lord, in John 14, speaks of the Father and Himself coming, and making their abode with the one who loved Jesus, and so kept His word. Wonderful privilege! The believer can well afford to stand alone, if necessary, for the truth — the Father and the Son will visit him. But there is not only this blessed divine visitation: God also prepares for us a city. We are not exactly in the position of Abraham. The city has already been brought in, in a sense, so that in a certain way we can enter into the city now. Blessedness in the future will lie in the privilege, as having washed our robes, to have right to the tree of life, and to go in by the gates into the city. We await by faith the actuality, but already in the power of the Spirit we may realise something of the blessedness of the city. Viewed as “our mother”, “Jerusalem above” (Galatians 4: 26) can only be understood in the Son of God. It is sonship that is in view in Galatians: but in Hebrews it is a city built and made. This is not an abstract thought, but a veritable city, having foundations, a wall, gates, a street, and, above all, a temple, which is the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb.
May the Lord engage our hearts with Himself as the One who forms this wondrous city, and as the One who will be known there, and who will give character to it!