THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN
[p. 149] THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN
We have now to entertain the idea of One who is speaking from heaven. There is an allusion in this passage to what took place with regard to those who disregarded the one who spoke on earth — Moses; and the point pressed upon us is, to be attentive to the One who is speaking from heaven. The great thing is that our hearts should be in connection with heaven. Christianity was established by a voice speaking from heaven — Christ speaking by the Spirit. It came through apostles, but it was Christ speaking. When God spoke upon earth through Moses He spoke to men of things connected with man’s responsibility; but when He speaks from heaven, He speaks of things which it is His purpose to establish, and I may say of things which He has established according to the Man whom He has brought in. That is the character of the communications now. In a sense, God still speaks, for the Spirit is here, and we have to regard the One speaking from heaven, and it is of great importance for us to be attentive to what is of interest to God, to regard what He has established.
God speaks of everything as about to be shaken. It is in the power of God to shake everything. A mountain may be shaken to its foundations and vomit out fire. Everything that is material may and will be shaken, but there is no shaking of what is moral, “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved”. To get a true idea of stability you must connect it with what is moral. What is of God and of Christ cannot be shaken. It may be humble and insignificant in the eyes of men, but when everything passes away, that which is moral [p. 150] abides. The character of the kingdom of God is “not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. That cannot be moved. “Our God is a consuming fire”; He burns up that which is not of Himself, He consumes the dross, but He does not consume that which He has built. If He builds a kingdom, that cannot be moved.
Now I want to point out to you what it is that God has established. The coming of Christ has brought in everything. Before He came there was nothing established for God. In the Old Testament you do not find anything established for God, but now, Christ having come, we have come to that which God has established. It is the consequence of Christ having come in. He came to accomplish redemption that He might be the centre and sun of God’s universe, just as our universe is centred in the sun. The foundations have been laid in redemption, and Christ is the blessed centre of the divine system. I want to show you of what that system consists. We read in verses 22 - 24: “But ye have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, the universal gathering; and to the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven; and to God, judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel”. Every one of these things is consequent on Christ having come in.
What I understand by mount Zion is a risen Christ. A mountain in Scripture is often used symbolically of a great power. The power of God is a risen Christ. Mount Zion took its character from the ark having been brought there by David after it had been taken captive by the Philistines and sent back. Mount Zion was nothing in itself, it is distinguished by what took place there. So [p. 151] with the mount of transfiguration, it is called the “holy mount” on account of what occurred there. We have come to the true mount Zion, not the material. The true mount Zion is really seen in Christ risen. One world was lost in man and was ended in the death of Christ. The princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory, and now is the judgment of this world; but Christ raised from the dead is the sun and centre of God’s world. That is what mount Zion means for me, and the practical effect is that I am delivered from the world and all in it and attached to God’s world. Our interests are in that scene of which Christ is the centre. We are “married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. Every hope connected with this world was lost in the death of Christ, but everything is established for the universe of God in the resurrection of Christ. Christ has taken up His place in God’s world on the ground of redemption, and all men may come in because redemption has met all that man was. Men were under death and curse, but a door has been opened by which they can enter that scene of which Christ is the centre. There is now a bond between Christ and us in the Spirit. We may have bonds down here, but every such bond will be broken by death; but there is a bond which unites us to Christ which cannot be broken. He is to us the mount Zion that cannot be moved.
Next we come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The city could not be until Christ came. I look upon a city as being the centre of an empire. The first city started with the idea of an empire; at Babel man would build a “city and a tower”. So Jerusalem was in a sense the centre of an empire; so also Babylon. When Babylon swallowed up all that existed it became a great centre. The heavenly Jerusalem is the centre of [p. 152] an empire such as the world has never seen. It is the city of the living God. We have come to it. I understand it to mean all that subsists here by the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, and in what He established you get the city of the living God; we get the good of it now. Men thought a good deal of Rome, as in the present day they think a good deal of London. They are much more struck by the cities of this world than by the city of the living God; in their eyes it is contemptible, but to us that city is the centre and seat of true imperialism — divine imperialism. Let us hold to imperialism, but let it be that of the King of kings and Lord of lords. A city is dependent on a covenant; Jerusalem of old was dependent on and characterised by mount Sinai; the heavenly Jerusalem is formed and characterised by the new covenant. Jerusalem above is free, because dependent on the new covenant. There are three things connected with the heavenly city; God is known, appreciated and approached; “God is known in her palaces for a refuge”. That is the value of the new covenant. There are cities in Germany which have a peculiar place of liberty and privilege; the heavenly Jerusalem is characterised by liberty, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”. There was no liberty under the old covenant because God was not known; where God is known liberty follows. The heavenly Jerusalem enjoys liberty and confers liberty on her children. Liberty depends on knowledge, it is reached in no other way. If a father going away for years on service leaves an infant, and the child grows up without knowing its father, it will not have liberty with its father when he returns. But with a child brought up in the presence of its father there is attachment and liberty of approach. The child has not the same liberty with a tutor, but it knows its father’s disposition towards it. The secret of liberty lies in the knowledge of God, and it is in the new covenant that God is known. Christians in systems do not enjoy liberty, they must leave their boats and come into the region of the Spirit to enjoy liberty. Liberty does not belong to those great worldly systems.
The heavenly Jerusalem was established in the power of the Spirit, and is enjoyed in the power of the Spirit. We have come to it that we might be characterised by the new covenant and have the enjoyment of liberty. We have the power to approach God which the knowledge of God confers. We are in the region of the Spirit; until Christ came there could not be the Spirit, but now Christ has been glorified and we have received the Spirit.
Now I come to the next point, “To myriads of angels”. Until Christ came, where was the man on whom angels innumerable could attend? The heavenly host sang and praised God at Christ’s birth; in His temptation angels waited on Him, and at the close of His course an angel strengthened Him. The angels waited for the Man — the Son of man. Now the Son of man is come. In the world to come angels will ascend and descend on the Son of man; everything will be put under His feet, as we find in Psalm 8. The angels now guard the city; they are ministers sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation. They are sent to guard God’s people; as they were attendant on the Lord when He was here, now they are attendant on those who are the Lord’s here on earth. We do not know how much we are guarded by angels.
Then follows, “To the assembly of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven”. That could not be before Christ came. The Firstborn had to be brought in first. Christ is the true Firstborn; He is the beginning of the creation of God — He must [p. 154] have the pre-eminence. In our physical universe the sun has the pre-eminence, so in God’s universe Christ is pre-eminent. The church of the firstborn is in accord with Him, they are pre-eminent in the thought of God, their names are written in heaven. Properly speaking we belong to heaven — we are raised up and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2). Our ability to have to do with God is dependent on our apprehension that we belong to heaven. If I understand that it is the pleasure of God to have me in His own place I can approach Him. It was God’s pleasure to have Israel in His land, not in the wilderness. It was God’s land, so in regard to us, it is His pleasure to have us in His own habitation, “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us, (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,) and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”. I love my children and would have them with me and feel it painful to be parted from them. I do not know a greater pleasure in a natural way than to have them return home after they have been absent, so it is “because of his great love wherewith he loved us” that He has made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Every believer expects to go to heaven. But why? Not because of their faith, or their deserts, but because the love of God will have them there. That is the thought connected with the church of the firstborn, and in apprehending that we have liberty to approach God now. But until Christ, the firstborn from the dead, had come in, you could not have the church of the firstborn, any more than you could have mount Zion, or the city of the living God.
Then we have “God, judge of all”. God could not take up this position apart from Christ.
[p. 155] How could He put Himself in touch with His creation until Christ became man? God whom no man hath seen or can see. All was dependent on the incarnation and resurrection of Christ. Now it has come to pass that God is judge of all, and we can apprehend Him in that light. God takes that place in regard to creation. Judgment will return to righteousness and it will be a great day for the meek of the earth. “The meek shall possess the land, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of prosperity” (Psalm 37: 11). Judgment has long been divorced from righteousness, but it will return to it, and the meek of the earth will follow it.
We have come to “the spirits of just men made perfect”. This could not be apart from Christ. They had to be made perfect through redemption. The great cloud of witnesses in chapter 11 — Enoch, Noah, David, Samuel — are made perfect because Christ has come in; their fear of God could not make them perfect. These righteous men are now made perfect through redemption; their spirits are spoken of because they have not their bodies yet.
Then we have “Jesus, mediator of a new covenant”. No one but Christ was competent for this, because He died for the transgressions that were under the first covenant, and the new covenant is really Himself. I have no doubt that Christ was the covenant the moment He became Man. He is the mediator of it by redemption; He is minister, too, of the holy places; He walks in the holy places. The holy places are the saints; He is concerned as to the saints, and ministers that He may present them in suitability to Himself, “having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”, that He may offer them up thus to God.
Then “the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel”. The blood of Abel defiled the earth,
[p. 156] and it has been defiled ever since. The earth looks beautiful outwardly, but looked at morally, ‘Every prospect pleases, and only man is vile’. Man gives character to the earth; how much since Abel’s day has the earth been defiled with moral abominations; but the blood of sprinkling is the divine answer to all the defilement.
Now God speaks to us of all these things, He is speaking from heaven. Nothing is displayed yet, but all has been established in the coming in of Christ, and is made known to us by the One who speaks from heaven. I pray you not to be inattentive to that voice. It is your obligation to pay attention to it. It is a great thing when Christ is dwelling in the heart by faith, it proves that you have listened to the voice that speaks from heaven, and have a divine apprehension of these things by the Spirit. There is nothing that God has not now in Christ. We come to it in the power of the Spirit in apprehension. God intends you to see all established in Christ, so that nothing can fail. These things should be the interest and food of our souls. May God grant that they may be.