THE PREPARATION OF GOD WITH REGARD TO THE WORLD TO COME
[p. 167] THE PREPARATION OF GOD WITH REGARD TO THE WORLD TO COME
I want to make clear the preparation of God with regard to the world to come. He has prepared everything for Himself in regard of it, and that is evidently a matter of interest to us. From the way in which things are spoken of here, it is evident that we have not come to mount Sinai, but to mount Zion.
Now, if God brings people to a mount, He intends them to be affected by that to which He brings them. He brought the children of Israel to mount Sinai, and He intended to affect them by that which was terrible to flesh. That comes out here. The people were affected; even Moses said, “I exceedingly fear and quake”. The people entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. They could not endure that which was commanded.
But now it speaks of our being brought to mount Zion, and God intends that we should be affected by it. It is of God that we should come under the influence of that which is presented to us. Mount Zion is presented to us not in literality but as a symbol. No one here probably has seen it, and therefore its introduction must be to us symbolic. And what follows is extremely important to help us to know what mount Zion symbolises. God presents certain things in order that we may be affected by them down here.
What God presents is His preparation in regard of the world to come. Mount Zion had not always a place, but now that it has we can speak of the world to come, and can apprehend the way in which God has prepared Himself with regard to it. If we had these things in view we should not be so attentive to the world that is. The introduction of the world to come involves the complete [p. 168] overturning of the world that is. The Lord, when here, said, “I am not of this world”, and, “Now is the judgment of this world”. You have only to turn to the prophets, or to the New Testament, to see how evident it is that the introduction of the world to come must break up and overturn the world that is.
Christianity is not adapted to the world that is, though men have tried their best to so adapt it. Christianity will not admit of expediency. Christ has loved righteousness and hated iniquity, or lawlessness, and there is nothing of human expediency in that. However sorely pressed christians may be as to holding the truth, the way is not to turn to expediency, because there is always an outlet. You may be pressed above measure, but you have an outlet, and that is, you can die. We are not really prepared for christianity except we are ready to die. Things in the world go on the principle of expediency and accommodation, but there is not expediency or accommodation with Christ. Men tolerate things in the world as they are, and hence they have to resort to expediency and accommodation; but when God brings in the world to come there must be the complete break-up and overturning of this world. Christ and this world cannot go on together.
What is before God in regard of heaven we do not know much about because He has not told us. We know a little of the Father’s house, and that Christ is going to take us there. The only one who went to heaven to return here was Paul, and he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter; and I think I am thereby justified in saying that we do not know much about heaven. But, on the other hand, we do know a great deal about God and His relation to the world to come, which must necessarily set aside the existing world. One point makes that very clear. In the arch of God’s dealings on earth, Israel, evidently, is the keystone. God has been pleased to make Israel that. The world today therefore cannot be according to Him [p. 169] because Israel has no place in it. Israel is not in view in the world. It knows nothing about Israel. It knows something about the Jews — a people under reproach — but Israel, at the present time, has no national existence.
If you turn for a moment to the prophet Hosea 3: 4, it says, “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days”. There we get two things: they were to abide many days without a king; but in the latter days they would fear Jehovah and His goodness. They are to be so impressed by Jehovah and His goodness that they will fear Him in the latter days. I quote this to prove that Israel has now no national existence. They have no king, no prince, yet, as a matter of fact, God has every true principle connected with Israel before Him, and therefore He can present to us the reality of the world to come. Everything which is proper to and characteristic of the world to come God has before Him, and it says we have come to it. We have come to the apprehension of it, and that implies that we have the capability of apprehension.
What I desire is that we may get some understanding of the things to which we have come. The world to come could not be manifested while Israel is scattered, and yet God can so present to us the reality of His preparation that it can be said you have come to it.
Now all this follows on the line that I have attempted to pursue; that is, to shew how God has been pleased to gather up every thread of His dealings in Christ and the church. The church is inseparable from Christ, and what is gathered up in Christ, of necessity, has its place in the church. The saints are united to Christ; therefore whatever is gathered up in Him must, of necessity, have its place in us.
[p. 170] If you read from verse 18 to 21 you will find that everything is leading up to God, while in verses 22 to 24 everything is working down from God. We are come to mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly, to the church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel.
Apart from Israel and God’s dealings with Israel, you could not understand these things. Every point that is touched upon here has some relation to God’s dealings with Israel, and to the issue of His ways in reference to them; and yet, after all, these things are effected in Christ and the church. The least intelligent of us know how mount Zion is bound up with God’s dealings with Israel. The allusion is probably to the bringing of the ark to mount Zion. The force of it is that, while everything has been forfeited by Israel on the ground of responsibility — they are suffering the consequences of it at the present time — yet, on the other hand, everything for God has been recovered in Christ. What has been forfeited by unfaithfulness on the part of Israel is recovered in Him. That is the principle of mount Zion. The people had lost the ark, and it was impossible for them to get it back, but God did so. He smote His enemies and put them to a perpetual shame, and the ark was brought back and placed on mount Zion. That is the first principle of God’s dealings with regard to the recovery of Israel. It sets before us the thought that God has established all for Himself in Christ. Everything has been lost in man, but all is secured, in the sovereignty of divine mercy, in Christ, so that man should have part in it.
A mount is symbolic of a great power. Mount Zion is a great moral power, and is presented to us in Christ,
[p. 171] where everything is secured for God, and we are to be brought under the influence of it. Israel will not be brought again to Sinai, but to Zion, to be affected by the sovereign mercy of God. They will respond to it, as in the utterance of David when he brought back the ark, “His mercy endureth for ever”. Israel will learn that lesson. We learn the principle that everything has failed in man, but God has secured all for Himself in Christ and the Spirit. Christ would be unavailable to us except by the Spirit.
Another point in the course of divine dealings with Israel is a city, and we are come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. I understand a city to be symbolic of continuance and permanence. A tent is not that. When God tabernacled with the people in the wilderness He dwelt in a tent, and there was no pledge of continuance as they were. They were on the move toward the promised land, but in the promised land there was a city, a most important element in divine dealings in the world to come. God comes down to man in that way, to give to him the pledge of continuance and permanence in the order of things which belongs to the world to come.
Now this is not the city of the great King, it is the heavenly Jerusalem. Mount Zion and Jerusalem were most important factors in God’s dealings with Israel. Jerusalem upon earth was called the city of the great King because it was David’s city, and God takes it up on that account. David begged God to dwell in it, and He responded to the request of David; but it was not the city of the living God. We are come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the city of the living God because everything in it is living, and in that way answers to God. The city of the great king answered to David, the city of the living God answers to Him. Jerusalem in the future will answer to Christ, the great King.
I am sure you can see how very evident it is that we [p. 172] have two most important elements in God’s ways in regard of Israel in mount Zion and in the city. We have them now not in a literal way, but in the principle and truth of them. The city of the living God is not material, but it is a real idea in the moral bearing of it, as being the pledge of security and permanence. There is nothing in it but what corresponds to the nature of God, and we get liberty in the city.
When there is instability in the government of a country there is not the sense of liberty. Permanence and stability are essential to the enjoyment of liberty. If there were not permanence and stability, life and property would not be safe, and people would not be in the enjoyment of liberty. The city gives the pledge of permanence and stability, in that all is secured, and we can stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. We want to look at the unseen things, and then we are brought into the sense of stability. You get the idea of that in connection with the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Things are very unstable here. No politician can tell what is going to happen in the world during the next fifty years. There is no pledge of stability in this world, for that you must come to the divine order of things, to the world to come.
We now come to another point, to an innumerable company of angels. Angels are very difficult to talk about because we know so little about them. I would refer you to a few passages for a thought in connection with them. The first is Psalm 91: 9 - 12. I refer to that on account of the place which the angels have in the psalm. Then you can look at John 1: 51, Hebrews 1: 13, Revelation 21: 10 - 12. It is not difficult to gather up from these passages the idea of the place which angels have in the administration of God. The prophet Elisha, when the Syrians came against him, prayed God to open the eyes of his servant, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. Elisha was under divine protection, and, in the history [p. 173] of Israel, God interfered on the part of the people by the ministry of angels.
Then we get the prophecy in regard of Christ, “He shall give his angels charge over thee”. He was in the charge of angels. In John, the heaven is seen to be opened, and the angels are attendant upon Him as the Son of man. So, too, in the first chapter of Hebrews they are spoken of as ministering spirits sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation. The guardianship of the saints may be entrusted to angels. And in the close of Scripture you get twelve angels at the gates of the holy city. All is expressive of guardianship entrusted to them. We have come to an innumerable company of angels, the universal gathering, and that cannot be left out. The point before us is, the ways of God in connection with administration down here, and as there are powers of evil which affect man, angels are sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of salvation. We read, “Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire”. So, too, in the harvest, they are sent forth to sever the wicked from among the just. In regard to the city they are its guardians, as they had that place in regard of Christ. He was under their charge.
We come now to the church of the first-born, which are written in heaven. This is important in connection with God’s ways in Israel. Israel was the assembly in the wilderness. The gathering of the twelve tribes was really the assembly. Here upon earth, in the ways of God, Israel will have that place. They are the assembly. There was that in Israel which was peculiar for God. When He undertook to redeem them He laid down that the first-born were for Himself. The first-born had to be redeemed, and the levites took the place of the first-born of Israel. With regard to Israel, God has now the assembly of the first-born. The remnant of Israel gathered into the church was the assembly of the first-born. “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. That was the assembly of the first-born, the assembly of those who were pre-eminent in the ways of God in Israel.
God has everything before Him in regard of the world to come. He has mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, to whom is committed the guardianship of the city, and the assembly of the first-born, which are written in heaven. All is there for God. He has the first-fruits of Israel.
My point is that we may have these things under our attention. I want our attention to be diverted from what is passing here: from the world, that it should have little place with us, and that we might be strangers and pilgrims here. Our attention should be taken up with what is of God so that we might be affected by it. It is surprising to see that while, apparently, everything that God ordained and instituted in this world has failed, yet, God has gathered up, in Christ and the church, everything for the world to come. Mount Zion is there in Him; the heavenly city is there too. He is the foundation of it, and the chief corner-stone. The innumerable company of angels attend on Christ, and there is the church of the first-born, which are written in heaven: the assembly is there before God.
I am not attempting now to unfold what is really proper to the church in its heavenly calling, what I want to make plain is, the things into the presence of which God has called us. I want you to see that which God has before Himself, all for the world to come. No further preparation is necessary, everything proper and necessary is now there before God in Christ and the church, and He can interfere at any moment to bring all into display. These things are all of them real, and we have come to them. God has given to us the power to apprehend them. If it were not so it would be of no use to say we had come to them. We have come to them by the Spirit, and if we apprehend them God intends [p. 175] that we should be affected by them. We should be deeply impressed by the wisdom and faithfulness of God, who has gathered up every thread of His ways in Christ and the church. Man has failed in every direction, and yet God has secured all for His glory.
We have now “God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. “Judge of all” is the attitude of God in regard of the world to come. He takes all judgment into His own hand. Many are much too limited in their idea of judgment. Judgment in Scripture often means government. In the Psalms it is used continually in connection with government. God takes the judgment into His own hand. In the same sense, in our own country, the king is the supreme magistrate. God has “appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness;” that is, in the way of government. He will govern in righteousness. There were judges in Israel, and they were called gods on account of their greatness, but when we come to God, He is Judge of all.
Then we have, “the spirits of just men made perfect”. They, too, have their part in the world to come. Now that redemption is accomplished the just men are made perfect. They have not yet received their bodies, but the spirits are there, and they wait for us.
Next we have, “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant”. That has its bearing in regard of man here on earth. Although the new covenant is the expression of God’s disposition toward a particular people, yet it has its bearing in regard of men universally. The covenant will be established with the house of Israel and of Judah, yet it is the expression of God’s mind in regard of man. In many of these expressions we are much too limited in our thoughts. What God establishes for Israel is His mind for man. The heavenly city will be the light of all.
Lastly, we have “the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. The blood of Abel was the token and witness of the guilt of man, but the blood of Christ is the means and witness of purgation. What has been brought in by man has really been purged by the blood of Christ, so that God has His own satisfaction with regard to the world to come. All is there for Him. God is Judge of all. He may not for the moment display Himself as such, but He has that place now. I do not want you to judge of these things by the natural mind, but by the Spirit of God, and if you judge by the Spirit of God you will apprehend that all is prepared for God. God brings Himself under our attention as the Judge of all, as having taken up every thread of government into His own hand. That is the place He has. Christ is the Head of all principality and power, and all principality and power is tested at the present time by Christ. We are not to be disturbed by the apparent glory of principalities and powers. Christ is the Head of all, and every principality and power should take its direction and character from Him.
Now these things are practical in their effect on us so that we may be apart from the world and the glory of it. There is nothing lost for God. “We see Jesus ... crowned with glory and honour”. He is the Mediator of the new covenant. We come now into the good of it, and Christ presents Himself to us every Lord’s day as the Mediator of it, and in that way we are familiar with Him.
It is a wonderful thing that we can pierce through the veil of providence which, for the moment, hides God, and can apprehend that everything is prepared for Him in regard of the world to come. But it is not possible to understand the preparation apart from Christ and the church. All is explained there, and only there can we understand the thought of mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and so on.
The fact is this, that, for the moment, the church [p. 177] holds the ground here for Israel; the Spirit of God would maintain us in the sense that God has prepared everything for Himself in regard of the world to come. I want every one to meditate upon these things that you may have the sense that we have come to them. God spreads them before us so to occupy our attention with them, and if we are occupied with them we shall be greatly affected by them. They are eternal things which will not pass away. They are stable. “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear”. We are to have our attention taken up with them so that we may be delivered from the influences of this world.
The world is christianised, but it is an evil world still. The principles of it are extremely obnoxious to God. I cannot conceive a greater working of evil than the connection of christianity with the world that is, or rather, the attempt to connect Christ with the world that is. In the very nature of things, if the Son of God comes into the world, He is the beginning of another world — God’s — and the attempt to connect Christ with the world that is, is to falsify the whole character of christianity. That is what the devil and man have succeeded in doing. The vision of many a christian has been so obscured by things here that be has not taken into account the world which is centred in Christ. No one of the things which have been before us has anything to do with the present evil world; but all have to do with the world which is of God, and that world has its centre and keystone in Christ.
May God give to us to understand these things, and the great importance of the church as that in which every thread of God’s ways has been gathered up, and to see that the church is the pledge of the accomplishment of all God’s purposes.