THE CITY WHICH HAS FOUNDATIONS
[p. 406] THE CITY WHICH HAS FOUNDATIONS
Hebrews 11:10; Acts 1:9 - 13; Acts 9:6
I have been thinking, dear brethren, of the idea of a city as presented in Scripture. The thought stands out from the beginning as coming within the range of faith; it early came within that range, and so is understood by us as having faith, hence you will follow and be interested in what I may be enabled to present.
It is said that Abraham, the father of all who believe, of those of the present time as of those also who shall come in later in answer to a different testimony, “waited for the city which has foundations, of which God is the artificer and constructor”. Hebrews 11:10. Evidently it was quite visible to his faith, and what is recorded is that he waited for it, not merely that he looked for it. An important feature of faith is that it waits for the things presented. It never takes short cuts. Faith, recognises that if God has something, it is to be waited for, so it says later of those who had faith that “he has prepared for them a city”, Hebrews 11:16. Waiting is thus an important feature of faith; hence Abraham waited, and in waiting he sojourned in the land of promise and dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. In his waiting he was not unoccupied and listless. To faith time is one of the scarcest things; there is so much to do in the interval. In Genesis 18 the Holy Spirit gives us a picture of the manner of Abraham as he waited. It is said that he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; it would have been quite legitimate for him to have reclined; but being fully awake he becomes aware of three men standing near him. How touching are the activities of divine Persons! The Creator and Upholder of the [p. 407] universe, with two others, was standing near the pilgrim, the man of faith. Abraham does not miss that wonderful occasion. This was the manner of the man, and as the father of all believers, he is to be taken account of by his children, for he conveys the great initial features of faith, the manner of it. Faith does not settle down in this world; it does not take its ease, or seek the world, or pride itself in it. Thus Abraham was fully awake, and the three men stood near him.
How much was brought near in those three men! The God of glory had already appeared to Abraham, but now He is standing near him with two others, ready to wait on the pilgrim, the man of faith, until at his own suggestion he has prepared a repast of refreshment for the three. All is left to him, not a word being said by any one of them as to what he should do. What he does is what he proposed to do, and what he does is accepted. It is a lovely picture of one whom we should seek to follow so as to be in such an attitude of faith, in such wakefulness, in such watchfulness and readiness, that when a divine visitation is granted there is no perturbation, no nervousness, no unbecoming conduct. What he proposes is accepted, even to the very place in which they are to rest — that is, under, the tree. “So do, as thou hast said”, Genesis 18:5 they say to him. What an honour! That, beloved brethren, is the position of faith in this world. It knows what to do; heaven delights in it, and so here, heaven draws near — the Lord Himself in company with others — and accepts the proffered hospitality of the pilgrim. Abraham does not keep at a distance, but draws near, and so it is ours to be children of Abraham and to be characterised by faith. Without it we may as well make up our minds now and for ever that we cannot please God. With it we may entertain God, and it becomes us. Thus in Abraham we have portrayed faith’s manner.
[p. 408] Now, in his mind, Abraham had apprehended in some measure the thought of the city. As I said, it is the city, for there is no other which will continue. “He waited for the city which has foundations”; there is only one which has. For him the cities of the plain, Babel, Nineveh, or any other of the cities of men, had no foundations and would accordingly come to nothing. Now over against that city — the city — one would comment for a moment on the cities of the nations. The book of Revelation opens them up to us. We are living in a time that may be called the city period; all over the world the trend is towards the city; it is the city period in the history of mankind, and we are left in it with a view to our bearing testimony for God, and He has not left us without light in regard to it. The Revelation discloses much to us. In one passage we are told that a tenth part of the city fell; Revelation 11:13. Could anyone doubt but that that city could be measured so as to discover the tenth part of it? Again we read that “the great city was divided into three parts; and the cities of the nations fell”, Revelation 16:19. Here also the idea of measurement is alluded to. We are thus reminded that great cities are not, as under the eye of God, of vague limits or boundaries.
Then, too, in the Revelation we have the city which has foundations set over against these facts. It does not fall. I need not remind you how destructive earthquakes are to cities, for in the Revelation they are connected with the destruction and fall of the cities of the nations; but no earthquake can touch moral foundations, hence I want now to come to the opening of the Acts and to show you a little how this great thing called ‘the city’ began to take form, for in order to witness to the cities of the nations it is of all importance that we should have a right apprehension of the city which has foundations.
In the opening of the Acts, then, we are told that [p. 409] when the Lord had said certain things to the disciples, He was taken up, they beholding Him. He is altogether outside laws that govern matter. They saw Him go up. Then it is said two men stood by them clothed in white. Luke makes much of the garments of these heavenly visitants; in the gospel he tells us that the two men standing at the tomb of Jesus were clothed in shining garments; Luke 24:4. They were heavenly; it is thus Luke prepares for the heavenly. Two men in shining garments witness to what God has in mind. Stars as well as sand of the sea-shore were in the faith of Abraham, and the emphasis on the heavenly in the gospel of Luke shows how the former are brought in. Hence in the end of the gospel we have these two men in shining garments. What a suggestion! “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly”, 1 Corinthians 15:48.
But in Acts 1 the heavenly is not the point; there it is a question of white apparel; Acts 1:10. If I look toward heaven I think of what shines, but if I look towards the earth and the testimony in it, I must of necessity think of white garments. That is what God looks for, hence here we have two men in white clothing, who occupy us with Jesus coming back. “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven”, Acts 1:11. There is to be no change, none at all. The manner of His going up will be the manner of His coming back. We are thus impressed from the outset with the fact that God has reached in Jesus what is final, and there is to be no change. Nineteen centuries or more make no difference; He comes back not only the same Person, but in the same manner. Is there not stability here? Is there not assurance? There is, and one is reminded of Psalm 87:1: “His foundation is in the mountains of holiness”. Here in [p. 410] the greatness of Christ, in the stability that is in Him, we are reminded where God’s foundation is to be found. It is not to be found in changeable man here, in dying man; it is to be found in One who never dies. Stability lies in “this same Jesus”, Acts 1:11 and it is as I receive this into my soul that I cease looking at men and their doings, and look at the One who has gone up into heaven. For me, too, then, the faith period begins, because “a cloud received him out of their sight”. I begin, like Abraham, to wait for that which is presently to come out, the city which has foundations, and I begin to understand a little what the foundations are. They are in the mountains of holiness. I begin, too, to question myself about the mountains of holiness, not to theorise about them, but to arrive at them on this line. For this I must have my “fruit, unto holiness”. I cleanse myself from all filthiness, perfecting holiness in the fear of God; 2 Corinthians 7:1.
And now these men, not as apostles, but as believers who have just entered upon the era of faith, seeing the Lord go up, what do they do? They go back to Jerusalem, and as they go they look, we may say, at the city; they see the tower of the temple and all its buildings. The Lord had spoken about those buildings, and arriving at Olivet on His last visit to that city, He had looked upon it and had wept over it. He had said, “The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in, on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground”, Luke 19:43,44. This, then, must be their outlook, faith’s outlook, upon that city; in the government of God it must be erased. But faith knows more than this; faith is imbued with the thought of the foundations of God, and where they lie; they do not lie there, and so, being come to the city, they go to the upper room. In verse 13 we have the names of these men,
[p. 411] eleven of them. I look at them. What men they are! But, then, it is a question also of what they are potentially that I would think of, for presently I am told that their names are to be in the foundation of the wall, of the city. What! you say, the names of that small company of men, of that upper room in Jerusalem, without any worldly reputation? Yes, their names. Look at Peter, and then think of the history of that man. Neither in heaven nor upon earth is there his like. Look, too, at James, and then at John; God’s “foundation is in the mountains of holiness”. Psalm 87:1. These men correspond with this. It is thus that I apprehend what God is doing, and what is about to be manifested — the city which has foundations. “The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb”, Revelation 21:14. To find the foundations I have to get at these men, as we have it also in Ephesians 2:20: “Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”.
And so, if I question Peter, and say, ‘What do you think of Christ?’ what would he say to me? He would tell me something of a revelation he had from the Father, and how that, in reply to a question from the Lord, he had said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”; the Lord has said to him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”. Matthew 16:16 - 18. There, then, I see the foundation, and so in all the others. Each has his own feature, and linked with their names I have every precious stone, as it is said in Revelation 21:19: “The foundations Of the wall of the city were adorned with every precious stone”. Does this not speak to our hearts? How simple, and yet how wonderful that God should take up those men and work out in them and in their [p. 412] ministry His foundation! Christ is the foundation of the assembly, but then the foundation is also worked out in these men. God’s “foundation is in the mountains of holiness”, Psalm 87:1 and I find it here in Jerusalem, not in the temple, but in that upper room. There those men went, and there they stayed.
Now having said so much to convey to you something of the city whose builder and maker is God, a full description of which is to be found in Revelation, I want to touch briefly upon the cities of the nations, of the world, as being the spheres in which testimony is particularly to be rendered. According to Proverbs, it is “in the chief place of concourse”, Proverbs 1:21 in the most public places of the city, where men are, that Wisdom lifts up her voice. Now what I am speaking of is most practical. We live in an age of cities, as I said, and it is given to us to be here for Christ. How important then to have light as to how to be here, and how to take account of the cities in which the testimony is to be rendered. The Old Testament shows that from the very outset of the cities of the world, God has been witnessing to them. After the flood, Babel was the beginning of the kingdom of that great leader of the world, Nimrod, whose name means ‘Rebel’. He built Nineveh, a city singled out by God for witness to be borne to it. God would thus impress us how His grace surmounts evil, and where evil is at its height, there He is pleased to witness. Today grace reigns: it must be dominant, and is dominant through righteousness. The death of Christ enables God to witness to the most wicked cities on earth; He sent Jonah to Nineveh, and here in Acts 1 Jerusalem is in view, the Lord having said that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”. Luke 24:47. Hence Jerusalem has to be known; it is to be the starting-point of the testimony, just as the mount of Olives is the starting-point of faith. Hence [p. 413] they enter into the city, distant from the mount of Olives, we are told, a Sabbath day’s journey. They would understand the meaning of that; there they are to witness, and there they do. Hence, too, we must begin with faith and with stability, and then we must know and understand the area in which we are to witness in order to do so effectually.
Now I pass on to chapter 9, where we see the great vessel through whom the testimony was to come to ourselves. The Lord awaits his arrival in the neighbourhood of Damascus before He appears to him. That is not accidental; He might have smitten him earlier, but He waits until he arrived in the neighbourhood of the city, then He smites him. As smitten, Saul says; “What shall I do, Lord?” Acts 22:10. A very fine question! Here is the great witness whom the Lord is about to use to enlighten the gentiles, and he is saying “What shall I do, Lord?” This is a question that every one of us here should put to the Lord. If we have not done so, we should do it at once; we should then receive just such an answer as Saul, and be directed as he. The Lord’s direction to him is, “Rise up and enter into the city”, Acts 9:6. You may say He meant, ‘Go to the disciples’, but what the Lord said was, “Enter into the city”. Of course He had His people in view; He did not mean him to go to the magistrates or the mayor — they would not have the mind of God — but His word to Saul was to go into the city, to go into Damascus.
Now you see, beloved brethren, that what I am getting at is that the cities of the nations are under the eye of God, every one of them. He is constantly bearing witness to them, and if I am resident in one of them, and desire to be in keeping with the mind of the Lord, I must recognise the place where I reside. Not to do so is to disregard the mind of the Lord. Oh, you say, but look at the confused conditions [p. 414] among the people of God today! That is, known to the Lord, but my obligation is to recognise, as in a city, the principles intended to govern the saints there.
In directing Saul the Lord gave him no number of a house, no street, no locality. His word was simply, “Go into the city”, Acts 9:6. That, then, was the urgent obligation on Saul for the moment. To disregard it would be to disregard the commandment of the Lord, and to shut himself off from light and guidance. Within the city the Lord knows the streets better than the aldermen or the mayor do; He knows where His people are, where they reside, and the numbers of their houses. Accordingly He goes Himself to Ananias in Damascus, to prepare him to serve Saul according to His word. He directs him to a house in the street called Straight, and Ananias found that house and found Saul, and conveyed to him what the mind of God about him was. He told him how God had chosen him “to know his will, and to see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth”, Acts 22:14. I do not know anything more precious to the soul than the sense that God has chosen one. Aaron is said to have been the chosen of the Lord; Psalm 105:26.
But I do not dwell on that now, but rather on the fact of Saul having been directed to go into the city. Would he ever forget that? It was light to him that he subsequently acted upon. Presently we find him telling how that in every city the Holy Spirit was witnessing to him that bonds and afflictions awaited him at Jerusalem. Note, “in every city”. Acts 20:23. How definitely he had carried forward in his mind what the Lord’s specific directions to him implied, that the Lord would have witnesses in cities, that He would have assemblies in cities; and that those assemblies should be vessels for the Holy Spirit to speak His mind “in every city”.
[p. 415] This then is the mind of God. If men build cities, God sets His testimony in them, for grace reigns through righteousness. He would have not only the preaching of the gospel there, but that His mind should be given expression to there. How important then to recognise the city, if I am in one, so as to afford the Spirit of God the scope proper to Him in order that He may speak and the mind of God be thus conveyed. This is most practical; it is no mere theory. If there are two or three in a city who recognise the Spirit of God, there is room made for Him to speak, not only for the gospel to be preached, but for the mind of God to be conveyed, and that it may be owned that “God is indeed amongst you”, 1 Corinthians 14:25.
Well, this is what is within our range. It is a most important thing, and if I had the opportunity, I should like to convey what I am saying to every company of christians in every city throughout the world. The feature of the moment is the witnessing of God. If men congregate, God sets His testimony right down in their midst. In principle this must include every believer in the city. We cannot be in His testimony in a fragmentary way, but only as in keeping with the mind of God. In Antioch — perhaps the most concrete example of this — there were”in the assembly that was there” certain prophets and teachers, and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, what is recorded is that “the Holy Spirit said”, Acts 13:2. The Holy Spirit was free to speak there, and one great feature of this dispensation of God is that He speaks. What a favour to be the mouthpiece for the Spirit of God! It is within these limits that the testimony is set; in saints doing His will, God speaks by the Holy Spirit.