GO UP HIGHER
[p. 96] GO UP HIGHER
Luke 14:7 - 11; Revelation 4:1
The passage in Luke 14 was especially pressed on my mind in connection with the need for keeping lowly in this world, and that the testimony of God is connected with those that are lowly. You will find in the Scriptures that those who are thus lowly, and so qualified to be the custodians of God’s testimony, receive elevation. Now it is just with the thought that we might close with that, that I venture to say a word.
I believe it is a thought that is carried through Scripture from the beginning; that God in the sovereignty of His ways reserves a special place of blessing. You will find it in the garden of Eden. Eden was a wonderful place, but the garden was eastward in Eden, specially prepared of God as the abode of man. Then you will find in the ark, Genesis 6, an allusion to relative elevation. The ark was prepared according to divine appointment, and so was to be made with lower, second and third storeys; that is, God was indicating that in the order of things which should obtain before Him there should be degrees of elevation. And so in the tabernacle; there was the holiest of all, the holy place and the court. There you have, whatever way you view it, degrees of moral elevation, for in one sense the holiest of all refers to heaven. You get the same order in the temple, and in addition to that you have three tiers of chambers; the third more elevated than the second, and the second more elevated than the first. So in that way, I think, God indicates to us in the Scriptures that in the order of things that is to obtain before Him there are to be degrees of elevation.
[p. 97] Now what I wish should remain with us in a special way is that in God’s sovereign ways we come in for that which is highest. We cannot say why it is so. The parable in Luke 14 contemplates, in a sense, the whole universe. God is supreme in it. It is His house. There are high rooms and low rooms. What I would like to convey is, that God produces in this present dispensation an order of people that are morally qualified for the highest place; that is to say, they come into the house in the most lowly character. How do they come into the house? They come in by invitation. We have all come in by invitation. If you will observe one who has really received the invitation from God, so as to come to Him through Christ, he comes in in a lowly character. Christ was the lowliest of all who ever trod the earth, and the message takes character from the vessel. A man that has been really affected by the gospel has a distinctive character as he comes in; he is lowly; he takes the lowest room. That is a sure mark of one who has rightly received the gospel.
The gospel is God’s means of inviting; the house is large; it has many rooms, and the man who has rightly received it proves his reception of the gospel by the way he behaves himself directly he enters the house. So the moral of the parable is: “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. Now I think that in the house today the great effort is self-exaltation. Naturally everybody is set for that. If we cannot attain it in the world, very often it happens that the church becomes the field for our ambition. It is so in the history of the church. There is no doubt about it. The fact is this, that the conditions at the present time in Christendom afford a wide field for human ambition; from the See of Rome down to the smallest parish a wide field is [p. 98] offered for the ambition of man. Men often choose the church as a sphere of activity, and they come in with all their talents, with all their education, and what is the end? Self-exaltation.
Well now, God is the owner of the house. It is a very wide sphere, but God rules it and one day He will, as it were, inspect the house. The guests will be taken account of. These will include everybody in Christendom, for professedly all have responded to the invitation. But the upper rooms are all filled and the lower are nearly all empty. Now when the Owner comes in, things will be reversed. The few who occupy the lower rooms shall hear the words of Christ, “Go up higher”. That is what awaits those who, in humility, take the low place now. That is what awaits the remnant of God. The remnant are really brought into existence by the gospel. It is the gospel come to man through Christ that brings about a people here upon earth who are morally of heaven. A man who is morally of heaven, who bears the heavenly character, takes the lowest room on earth; and the lowest room on earth means the highest in heaven.
Now John in Patmos was in a very low room. He was there “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus”, Revelation 1:9. He represents the remnant. What produced John? Acquaintance with Christ. John was the product of acquaintance with Christ, and that is what the remnant is. John knew what it was to be near to Christ. He leaned on Jesus’ bosom. He lived near to Jesus, so near as to become like Him; he became heavenly, and if Jesus was away, every interest of His was precious to John. He was in exile for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. But he was visited there! He had a visitation. The Lord is the Owner of the house, and He was moving about in the house; He came to John, who, as I said, occupied, as it were, a low room. In that [p. 99] room he received the Lord. He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and he heard a voice behind him as the voice of a trumpet. He had a visitation from the Lord.
We may expect a visitation also. We can only get it in the lower room. Chapter 4 is the upper room; the Lord is up there, but in chapter 1 He is down below: He visits John in prison. If there is anything that I should like to make clear, it is the sovereignty of Christ. He acts according to His pleasure. You cannot govern Him. He is sovereign, and if He visits John it is according to His sovereign pleasure: He comes to him. Then He indicates to John what was going to happen: “What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia”, Revelation 1:11. But He had also a word for John’s heart. He says, “Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore”, Revelation 1:17. The Lord thus encourages His servant, and confirms him in his position. As suffering for the testimony we get divine visitations and fresh accessions of light.
When you come to chapter 4 John’s release has come. The Lord had been walking in the midst of the assemblies. Do you not think He took notice of the people in the upper rooms? Do you not think He took notice of the church dignitaries, of their pomp and their pride? He walked in the midst of the golden candlesticks. He was inspecting, and He knocks at the door of the last church. It does not say whether anybody lets Him in. He knocked, and if any man would hear His voice and open, He would come in to him. The man who would open would, no doubt, be in the low room. The Lord would come in and sup with one who opened to Him, and he should sup with Him. This refers to the Lord’s attitude at the present time.
[p. 100] When you come to chapter 4 He has gone on high; the trumpet voice heard on earth in chapter 1 is heard in heaven in chapter 4, and what does it mean? John says, “I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven”. The Lord is opening the door of the upper storey, so to speak. He has reserved the upper storey. Noah’s ark had a third storey, as I was pointing out, and the temple suggests the same thought. God in the sovereignty of His ways has reserved the upper storey for the saints of the present dispensation. They are a heavenly family; they are of heaven, and the Lord has reserved a place in the upper storey for those who are heavenly; but, as I said at the beginning, the heavenly are marked by lowliness on earth. They partake of the character of the heavenly Man on earth. “Behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet”. It was the voice that had sounded on earth. It is the same voice, it is the voice of Christ saying “Come up hither”. It is really, in the principle of it, what we get in Luke 14: “Friend, go up higher”.
May the Lord greatly help us! We have had before us as to the conflict for the testimony. It is a conflict, but the armour involves lowliness here. The conflict is not carried on by those in the high places of the earth, but by men such as John who are in the isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus; but the moment is coming when we shall see the door opened in heaven. The moment is near. It is not far off. John had to wait, and we may have to wait a little longer, but in the meantime, as faithful to Christ and His testimony, we shall get heavenly visitations; and we shall soon see the door opened in heaven and hear the voice like a trumpet talking with us, saying “Come up hither”.