WHAT IS HEAVENLY
C. F. Dadd
Mark 16: 19; Acts 10: 9–16; Revelation 21: 10
It strikes me as being very interesting that our brother has been labouring to get us to come into the enjoyment of the inheritance; it is the enjoyment of what is heavenly, and as we speak of these things I think the Spirit of God would impress us with the glory of what has come within our range. As we speak about what is heavenly in the purpose of God it may be that to some of the younger brethren this may sound very mysterious, but it really is not. Our brother referred first to coming into the house, and coming into the thoughts of God and the purposes of God for us. It is something like young people coming into their father’s house. If you are of school age you do not live at school, or if you go to business you do not live in business, but what you find is that when you return from school or return from business, you come into your father’s house, and there are wonderful things to be enjoyed there. Outside it is cold, it is a place where Christ has been rejected, but you come into the home and you find the warmth of affection, ample food to meet your need, every comfort, and our heavenly Father wants us to come into the enjoyment of all that our heavenly portion would make available to us. It is a marvellous thing to consider, and it is something that God intends even the youngest to have some impression about.
So we were reminded in the second reading of the spies who went to spy out the land, and reference was made to those that have gone before us. In the room where I was sitting just now there are five pictures on the wall—Mr. Darby, Mr. Raven, Mr. Stoney, Mr. Coates and Mr. Taylor—five men who have spied out the land for us. Our brother referred to Mr. Taylor’s ministry; in the English we have a hundred volumes to go through, and in those volumes you will find that Mr. Taylor had been into the land and brings us back a beautiful report. You will find that all these men have already been there and they have brought back the grapes and the pomegranates. Have you ever looked at the inside of a pomegranate? The fruit is compact together and you get an idea as to how the saints, and how Jerusalem as a city, are compact together; that is the pomegranate. Also the grapes are there; we are all to have part in that locally, and you find that the wine is for the joy of the heart of God and men; that is the product of the grape. You might think it is very difficult for young people to give God something that will be pleasurable to His own heart, but it really is not. You can bring a small offering to God; like a pigeon. You may say it is not very large but you will find it will give pleasure to the heart of God. A young brother can stand up in the morning meeting and he can say five words with the understanding, and God will find pleasure in what he brings.
Well, this section that I read first speaks about the Lord saying certain things to His own and then being taken up into heaven, and I just want to say a word about what goes up to heaven. Christ has gone up into heaven. Now one of the things you will find in Mr. Taylor’s ministry is that Christ as Man is there. It means that there is a real Man in heaven today. Your link with heaven is the Spirit of God, and it is a marvellous thing that Mark tells us this, that He “was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God” (Mark 16: 19). Mark was a young man, so he intends even the youngest of us to understand; he was not only a young man, he was a recovered man, and all of us here today are recovered men, and women and children, and divine Persons are labouring to give us a living link with Christ where He is. We see Christ going back into heaven and sitting at the right hand of God. Christ has already accomplished everything for God and man. He has been into death, He lay three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; He came out of death victoriously, and moved here amongst His own, and went to the right hand of God.
I believe, beloved, this victorious position of Christ, having gone back, having accomplished everything for God, is something that the Lord intends that we should understand and appropriate. You might say, What does appropriate mean? It means that it is something you take in, that you understand, and to enable us to do this God has given us the gift of the Spirit.
Our brother in prayer before we left home this morning referred to the fact that we have a living link with Christ where He is by the Spirit of God. Therefore I would like to challenge all of our hearts—there are many young here today—as to whether the Spirit is our link with an ascended Christ. Have you received the Spirit of God? In Christianity certain things are absolutely vital. Here we are in this room today; we are on the earth; Christ is in glory. He is in heaven; that is what it says, He “was taken up into heaven”. Heaven is where Christ is, and if we are to have a link with Him there you must have the Spirit of God. Therefore I ask every one here, especially the young, be very, very much concerned about the gift of the Spirit of God. Have you been to the Father, and asked Him for the gift of the Spirit?
In Ephesus there were twelve men, and when Paul came he said to them, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” (Acts 19: 2), and they said they did not even know that the Spirit had come; they should have known because they had the baptism of John, and John spoke about the Spirit of God. However, the fact is that they said they did not even know that the Spirit had come. This is not uncommon in Christendom, and, as forming part of that, we want to be concerned that we receive the gift of the Spirit of God, because you will not have a living link with Christ where He is in heaven unless you have the blessed Spirit. Paul speaks about God’s “unspeakable free gift” (see 2 Corinthians 9: 15), and the Spirit of God is what Paul is referring to; the Spirit has been given to us as a gift. Christ has been given for us, but God’s unspeakable free gift is the Spirit of God, the greatest gift that you or I could ever receive because He is a divine Person.
I now want to refer to Acts 10. When Christ came into manhood at Bethlehem the whole of heaven, the whole of the interest of heaven, was focused on that manger. It was not focused on Jerusalem. It was focused on Christ, He who came down, and now in our own time, Christ having gone back to heaven, Peter gets this vision about the sheet let down from heaven; get that now— down from heaven. This was the opening up to Peter of the truth that the Gentiles would come in; it was going to embrace persons like you and me. Gentiles would have part in a glorious realm of things which is all opened up in Paul’s ministry. But what I want to draw your attention to is that the sheet comes down from heaven, and where Luke records it, where we read, he says, “bound by the four corners and let down to the earth”. I would just like to direct your attention to the fact that it was bound by the four corners. Our brother has been emphasizing today that we have been introduced to, and brought into, a system of things which is unshakeable, which cannot be changed, where the gates of hades cannot prevail. This thought is found in this expression “bound by the four corners”. It has been suggested that the four corners as bound relate to the power and the strength of the whole system that God is introducing. Therefore we want to get in our souls the fact that this line of things which is of God can never be overthrown. It is wonderful to be related to something where victory is absolutely assured.
Young persons know what it is to want to be on the victorious side, and to be on the Lord’s side is to be on the winning side. Some of us were looking at 1 Corinthians 15 this week, and there you will find at the end of that chapter the One who has the absolute victory over death.
“Where, O death, is thy sting? where, O death, thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15: 55). The power of resurrection seen in Christ has for ever broken the power of death. The full enjoyment of this awaits our glorified bodies, but these are some of the thoughts that are being introduced by divine love as this sheet is let down out of heaven. So the assembly is of heavenly origin and heavenly destiny. What you and I have been called into is not related to the earth. We have to fill out our testimony here in righteousness; the Lord Himself did that; He is the Leader and Completer of faith, but He has marked out the path that we are to tread.
So He stooped into manhood, filled out His testimony, and went back to God. In John’s gospel it says that He came out from God and was going to God.
In Revelation 21 we have a touch of what will happen in the coming day. There are certain things going on in your soul and in mine which relate to what God is doing in the way of formation, the work of God going on. The ministry over this weekend is in view of formation in our souls. If we are to enjoy things it means that we have to have the work of God proceeding in us, and all that is going on in your soul and mine, in the secret side at the present time, God is going to bring out in display in a coming day. It is a marvellous thing to think about. Coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, will be the assembly, of which you and I form part, that which is of heavenly origin. What is that glory? It is all that has come out in Christ; all that has been established in the Spirit of God; all the way from Pentecost through, not one iota will be lost, it will all come out in display at that time. When this happens the nations will still be here, but God will show what He can do and what He has been bringing about in this dispensation to the wondering eyes of the universe. You and I will have part in that. Do you not think it is worth going in for?
So let us see to it that we are not held by the things of the world. I would appeal to all of us, especially our younger brethren, not to be earthly-minded. Maybe you are not worldly, maybe you do not have a lot to do with worldly things, and that is good. We are in the world where Christ has been rejected and crucified, and that has not changed, but there is a danger of being earthly-minded. You can get tied up in your studies, whether you go to advanced studies or whatever it is; you can be tied up in your business, or tied up in your profession, whatever it might be, and you will find that instead of being heavenly-minded you will be earthly-minded. Really it does not count in the end, it does not mean anything, because the only thing that is going through in you or me is the work of God, how Christ has been formed in us; everything else is going to go. So therefore let us put priorities where they belong; let us go in for the order of things that relates to heaven. We used to have an old brother locally who spoke about Mr. Stoney as wanting to push the brethren into heaven. What a fine service that was! As you read his ministry you find that that is true. He went through much in the way of conflict, but his ministry is full of the idea of getting the saints into heaven. So the time of our reward will come. Colossians was referred to today, and you will find there that for the time being our life is hid with the Christ in God.
So let us be prepared to be hidden, and relate ourselves to a world of things which can never be touched by the enemy. May it be so, for His name’s sake.
Address at Gothenburg, Sweden
2 August 1985