THE SUPREMACY OF GOD
S. McCallum
I would like to refer briefly to the throne of God. It is remarkable how this book finishes in the last chapter with this dual reference to the throne of God, especially as we think of the whole subject of this book where evil is met and dealt with, both in the world and in men in an unregenerate state. As was referred to in London, it is the thought of divine supremacy, as the verse of the hymn says—
‘Evil’s challenge, long permitted—
Met by Thy supremacy’.
The thought of divine supremacy is something we need to be affected by more and more. A remarkable thing as to this reference is the way the Spirit of life is in mind, the Spirit, and the flow that is linked with the Spirit, and those who have Christ as the source of perennial food, the tree of life. As we sometimes sing—
‘Drink of life’s perennial river,
Feed on life’s perennial food’.
This book refers to the throne of God early in it. John was caught up, as we know, in the fourth chapter and he saw the throne. That must have been a comfort to John the evangelist to see, amidst all the difficulties and throes, and diverging scenes where man’s will and mind have wrought, and where the power of Satan has operated amongst the nations, to have a view, as he had, so glorious, of what is for ever settled in heaven, the throne of God. And it would be important for each of us in our local positions, with all that we have to work out in our exercises in God’s ways down here, to have a spiritual view of the throne of God. And to remember in thinking of it, and viewing it, that whatever arises in the history of God’s ways in the way of trial and difficulties, which we are not without, God remains supreme.
You will remember how Israel was reminded early in the vicissitudes of the wilderness that there was a force that was operating as to which it was said, “The hand is on the throne of Jah”, Exodus 17: 16. That was the time when they entered into conflict with Amalek, a foe that we have to face all the time in relation to the power of sin working through the weakness of the flesh, to which we are prone to yield. To carry in our souls a sense of divine supremacy, as suggested in the throne of God, is very important. We do not yield to what we have to face in Amalek, for the conflict is to be from generation to generation. It says, “He shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb”. You notice the two references to the throne of God are linked not only with God but with “of the Lamb”. How much is suggested, dear brethren, in that as to that holy Sufferer, the Lamb, that attractive centre of affection for us, as the Lamb is. It is remarkable how John’s ministry refers to the Lamb and that He should be linked with the throne. This thought of divine supremacy is very affecting, when we think of what He was in the days of His flesh here on this earth, the lowly way in which He came into the world in incarnation. There was no room for Him in the inn; He was born in a manger in Bethlehem. But as this book finishes, the One who walked His way in devoted service to humanity
and to the will of God, becomes the centre of glory with God.
It says of the city—we are affected by this glorious city—that it has the glory of God; invested with it, no doubt, through the searching and testing ways of God in this scene. No doubt the precious stones of this city are the product of the disciplinary ways of God with us.
Let us take account of the discipline of His ways with us and let us think of them in the light of the precious stones of the city, the wonderful formation that results through the action of fire through which the stones come, part of the glory of this wondrous vessel. There is no vessel like it in the whole universe of God; among the myriads of families named of the Father, this vessel stands out, formed as it has been by the peculiar character of the revelation of God in our dispensation. What gives every family its distinction and place in God’s universe is the manner in which it has been formed and capacitated in the dispensation in which it had its place. The assembly has a unique place in this unique dispensation. Never has there been a dispensation like it, where the glory of God in such wondrous grace has shone as never before, and the Lord Jesus has acquired a place in the dispensation, so unique, glory-crowned as He has been.
There was an issue raised at the cross—what an issue it was!—between the Jew and Christ, and God gave an answer in relation to that issue in raising Christ from among the dead and exalting Him at His own right hand. The issue was solved by God, as only God could solve it, by His wondrous operation in raising Christ from among the dead and seating Him in glory.
So you can understand the place that the Lamb has in the closing section of this book. We need to think of Him more in relation
to God’s answer to all that entered into His humiliation here and His sufferings at the cross. It says, “In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit; and the leaves of the tree for healing of the nations”. A wonderful reference that!—how much it stands related to what is current.
How needed it is, the healing of the nations! We think of the conflagrations, the upheavals, among the nations, racial distinctions, and racial upheavals—how the leaves of the tree are needed today! We have been referring to what is millennial, but how wonderful to think of the present bearing of it, what it would be today, the healing of the nations.
This stands related to the twelve fruits. We know the twelve was broken—at the end of the gospels we read about the breaking of the twelve; but in the first chapter of the Acts, as christianity is about to be set up in this scene, we read of the repair of the twelve. God will not have that numeral broken. It may appear broken in the hands of man in responsibility, but God sees that it is repaired; and in this city and in these closing scenes the thought of the twelve shines; it is a numeral of love, very divisible, as we know. God is showing us, through His servant John, how He has set out this thought of the numeral twelve in glory; how it shines in all its lustre in the day of God’s display of His complete triumph over evil in a scene where the flesh is still existent but where God has a system of glory in this city administratively that causes the grace of His heart to shine out in relation to men and the nations.
It says, “And no curse shall be any more; and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him”; it is the service
of God—wonderful this link with the service of God, evil’s challenge having been met, and the different facets of evil as operating amongst men and amongst the nations, all met in the wondrous operations of God. It is a wonderful thing to think that His service can be referred to in this scene of glory. It says, “His servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face; and his name is on their foreheads”. What a wonderful area this will be—the myriads on whose foreheads that name shall be, that wondrous name; and myriads who shall see His face. A wonderful thing, dear brethren, that we are going to see His face. We shall see the face of Jesus, and we shall see the face of God in Jesus. What a wondrous outshining this area will constitute!
We ought to thank God that, ere this book finishes, it gives us these dual thoughts as to the supremacy of God and of the Lamb; the clearness of the water of life, bright as crystal—no opaqueness, no shadow of darkness here. What a scene it is! What an area it is “going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life, producing twelve fruits, in each month yielding its fruit”. What variety, dear brethren, in this holy scene; glory that eclipses everything that we have ever known in the world in which Satan has had such power and such way, and the production of fruit the like of which has never been seen before; the tree of life yielding; no blight, and drought, as you have known in these parts, but every day marked by perennial freshness, linked with the working out of the supremacy of God and the throne of God.
May God help us to think of the privilege we have in our day to live and move and think in the light of the throne of God and of the Lamb. And
whatever may seemingly prevail in the world and amongst men, let us be reminded, dear brethren, that we can repair, as Jesus did in speaking to the Father the “Lord of heaven and of the earth” (Matthew 11: 25), to the secret of God’s sovereignty and the supremacy of His ways, and we can thus continue in confidence in such a God and in such a centre as love is, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Redbridge
19 October 1976