Could we read this evening in the prophecies of Isaiah once more—this time, Isaiah 60? I am reading from the American Standard Version of 1901.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon thee,
and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
And nations shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
they all gather themselves together, they come to thee;
thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms.
Then thou shalt see and be radiant,
and thy heart shall thrill and be enlarged;
because the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee,
the wealth of the nations shall come unto thee.
The multitude of camels shall cover thee,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
all they from Sheba shall come;
they shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praises of the Lord.All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee,
the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee;
they shall come up with acceptance on Mine altar,
and I will glorify the house of My glory.Who are these that fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows?
Surely the isles shall wait for Me,
and the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring thy sons from far,
their silver and their gold with them,
for the name of the Lord thy God,
and for the Holy One of Israel,
because He hath glorified thee.And foreigners shall build up thy walls,
and their kings shall minister unto thee:
for in My wrath I smote thee,
but in My favour have I had mercy on thee.
Thy gates also shall be open continually;
they shall not be shut day nor night;
that men may bring unto thee the wealth of the nations,
and their kings led captive.
For that nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish;
yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee,
the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together,
to beautify the place of My sanctuary;
and I will make the place of My feet glorious.
And the sons of them that afflicted thee
shall come bending unto thee;
and all they that despised thee
shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet;
and they shall call thee The city of the Lord,
The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated,
so that no man passed through thee,
I will make thee an eternal excellency,
a joy of many generations.
Thou shalt also suck the milk of the nations,
and shalt suck the breast of kings;
and thou shalt know that I, the Lord, am thy Saviour,
and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.Instead of brass I will bring gold,
and instead of iron I will bring silver,
and instead of wood, brass,
and instead of stones, iron.
I will also make thy officers peace,
and thine exactors righteousness.
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land,
desolation nor destruction within thy borders;
but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
and thy gates Praise.The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
but the Lord will be unto thee an everlasting light,
and thy God thy glory.
Thy sun shall no more go down,
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be thine everlasting light,
and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.Thy people also shall be all righteous;
they shall inherit the land for ever,
the branch of My planting,
the work of My hands,
that I may be glorified.
The little one shall become a thousand,
and the small one a strong nation:
I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time.
So, shall we gather in prayer?
Lord, we just want to thank Thee that we have found Thee here in Thy presence this evening. We thank Thee, Lord, for the songs that have been sung to us. We thank Thee, Lord, for the worship and praise that are in our hearts.
And, Lord, we would stand together that any work of the enemy may be broken in the atmosphere—anything that would rob Thee of what would be Thine in this last evening time.
We thank Thee, as we turn to Thy Word, beloved Father, that Thou hast granted to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth, to take of the things of the Lord Jesus and make them real to us.
We want, Father, to confess and recognise before Thee that without Thee we can do nothing. Lord, wilt Thou be our power and enabling, both in speaking and hearing tonight? Help us, O Lord, to hear Thy voice. Above all, may the eyes of our hearts see something of Thyself.
O make this a meeting with Thee, O Lord. We therefore give Thee thanks, and we praise Thee and worship Thee, that Thy grace is sufficient and that the Holy Spirit is well able to make this time, and Thy Word, live to us in such a way, Lord, that our lives are affected. So we thank Thee, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Now, we have considered quite a lot about Zion over this past week in the times that have been my responsibility. We have considered the battle over Zion, a little about the building of Zion, a little about the travail for Zion, and we have spent two times on the work, or ministry, of Zion.
How wonderful that ministry and work of Zion really is. I suppose, to put it in one word, it is liberation. Zion is all to do with the liberation of the earth, and the restoration and restitution of all things to the Lord. We are in a movement of the Holy Spirit for universal liberation. Praise God.
Because of that, we have a tremendous ministry entrusted to us even now: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. That is our job—our work. It is to liberate in the name of our risen Lord and Messiah, Jesus the King, Who is in Zion.
We are to proclaim liberty to captives and the opening of the prison house to those who are bound and fettered by the enemy. Then we are to care for those who are brought out. We are to share our bread with the hungry, bring the poor into our houses, cover those who are naked, and not hide ourselves from our own flesh.
Then we are to deal with the problems in our own midst: taking away the yoke from among us, taking away the putting forth of the finger and speaking wickedly, drawing out our soul to the hungry, and satisfying the afflicted soul. And, of course, the key to the whole thing is giving the Lord His rights. There can be no real power for deliverance and liberation unless the Lord has His place and His rights amongst us.
Now, this evening, in this last evening time, I want to consider the character and destiny of Zion. The character and destiny of Zion—a tremendous subject.
There is a little phrase in Psalm 87:3, very well known to all of you:
Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God.
That could as easily be translated from the Hebrew, “Things of glory are spoken of thee, O city of God.”
Then there is Isaiah 43:7, speaking of those whom He brings from the ends of the earth:
Every one that is called by My name,
and whom I have created for My glory,
whom I have formed;
yea, whom I have made.
Have you been born of God? Have you really been born of the Spirit of God? Then, if you are in that new creation which is in the Lord Jesus, you have been created for His glory. Wonderful phrase.
You have it again in Isaiah 43:21:
The people which I formed for Myself,
that they might set forth My praise.
In the chapter that we read together, Isaiah 60, this matter of glory comes again and again: “The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee”; “His glory shall be seen upon thee”; “I will glorify the house of My glory”; “He hath glorified thee”; “I will make the place of My feet glorious”; “Thy God, thy glory”; and “that I may be glorified.”
Now, this is an old-fashioned word, this word glory. What really does glory mean? I think that when we consider this word in our Bible, we are dealing with one of the most difficult realities to express in human language.
I am very sad that some of the new versions have translated this word by the English word splendour. Maybe they want to get away from the idea of glory because, certainly in Britain, when we think of glory, we think of old Victorian hymns like “Land of Hope and Glory.” We think of Queen Victoria pinning medals on the chests of men who have done well in war—all the fanfares, the vast bands, the drums, and national anthems.
Now, what is glory? I think the nearest we can come to an understanding of what glory is—and listen very carefully to me; you must ask the Lord to reveal it to you in your own heart—is this: glory is the manifested presence of the Lord; the manifested Person of the Lord.
There may be others who have expressions that could be used here, and I would love to hear them. We cannot go through everybody tonight, but I would love to hear some. Yet, to come right to the heart of this matter, I would say: What is glory? What does it mean, “I will be glorified in thee”? What does it mean, “I will glorify the house of My glory”? What does it mean, “I will make the place of My feet glorious”? What does it mean, “Thy God, thy glory”?
Surely it means that somehow the presence of the Lord has a manifestation. He manifests His glory. He expresses His presence. He unveils His presence in a way that it is seen—it becomes visible.
What is the destiny of Zion? The destiny of Zion is the manifested presence of the Lord. Now, if that does not mean much to you, I am sorry—really sorry—because I cannot think of anything more wonderful in the whole wide world than the manifested presence of the Lord.
When finally the Lord takes away all the barriers, all the shadows go, and everything that detracts from His Person or hides His presence is removed, then He expresses Himself in all the majesty and beauty of His being. Can you imagine anything more wonderful?
Can you imagine anything more wonderful? I mean, people go to July the Fourth Independence Day celebrations in Washington and look for hours at fireworks banging in the sky, mouths dropped open. Or they see one of those magnificent parades, such as we had at our Queen’s coronation. I think that is child’s play.
If you have been saved, if you have been born of the Spirit of God, you have one of the most wonderful, magnificent experiences in front of you—the most marvellous, the most magnificent, the most tremendous experience. You have no idea what is laid up for those who have trusted in the Lord.
The destiny of Zion is not to be a showpiece. It is not to be some antique exhibition. It is not to be some little trophy of grace, like one of those old hippopotamus heads in one of our great lordly manors, shot many years ago and now gracing the wall while someone stands there and says, “I shot this in Rhodesia thirty-five years ago.”
We have somehow got the idea that this city of God, this Zion, is something that God is going to exhibit—as if He will put it over there and say, “Now, this is an exhibit. This is a trophy of grace. I want all the angels and the whole world to marvel at this.”
Oh, no, no, no. Zion has a destiny which is unique. Her unique destiny is to become the vehicle for the manifestation of the presence of the Lord. It is to be the instrument by which the glory of the Lord shines into the whole universe.
Now I say that is something worth living for. That is something worth being educated for. That is something worth all the discipline. No wonder Paul said:
Our light affliction, which is for the moment,
worketh for us more and more exceedingly
an eternal weight of glory.
He saw something.
He did not just see himself strutting up in front of some great heavenly army with fanfares and trumpets, and the Lord pinning a medal on his breast. There will be rewards. There will be titles. There will be functions and offices given in that day. But, praise the Lord, there is something far, far more wonderful in prospect: it is the glory of the Lord.
The destiny of Zion is nothing less than the glory of God.
Listen to these wonderful words from Revelation 21:10-11:
And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high,
and showed me the holy city Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God.
And again, Revelation 21:22-24:
And I saw no temple therein:
for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb,
are the temple thereof.
And the city hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine upon it:
for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the lamp thereof is the Lamb.
And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof:
and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
Oh, what a wonderful prospect. The destiny of Zion is the glory of the Lord—not merely glory shining on her, but Zion becoming the lampstand that holds the Lamp in Whom the glory of God dwells for ever. In other words, the glory of God will replace the sun and the moon.
Think of the sun. If something happened to the sun, we would be finished. All life would end. Literally everything would vanish. The whole of natural life is dependent upon the light of the sun. The sun and moon have a tremendous effect upon the earth, do they not?
Yet He says there will be no more sun and no more moon, because Revelation 22:5 says:
And there shall be night no more;
and they need no light of lamp,
neither light of sun;
for the Lord God shall give them light:
and they shall reign for ever and ever.
How wonderful.
It is put another way in Ephesians 5:27:
That He might present the church to Himself
a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Zion is to be the eternal home and expression of God’s glory.
Dear friends, that gives me a limitless horizon. It gives meaning to all God’s dealings with us. Somehow it lifts up my head in days of darkness, trial, and tribulation, just to know what lies in store for the redeemed of the Lord—for God’s Zion.
Look at 2 Thessalonians 1:10:
When He shall come to be glorified in His saints,
and to be marvelled at in all them that believed.
Is that not wonderful? Zion is going to be an eternal cause of marvel, an eternal cause of wonder, and an eternal cause of praise.
Those nations that walk in the light of it, and all that great angelic host, are going to behold that Zion of God. They are going to marvel at the Lord in every one of those living stones. If you and I, by the grace of God, have been built into His Zion and have become part of His Zion—if the material out of which Zion is created is found in us—then, praise the Lord, Jesus our Lord is going to be marvelled at in us for all eternity.
Wonderful. Wonderful.
Our Lord Jesus put it beautifully in His great high-priestly prayer in John 17. Listen to these words:
Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self
with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.And all things that are Mine are Thine,
and Thine are Mine:
and I am glorified in them.And the glory which Thou hast given Me
I have given unto them;
that they may be one, even as We are one.Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me
be with Me where I am,
that they may behold My glory,
which Thou hast given Me:
for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
“The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” Are those not wonderful words? I can hardly believe it. If you are a child of God, have you ever realised your destiny? Have you ever realised the prospect before you, if you are prepared really to walk all the way with the Lord, if you are prepared for God to do a work in you, and if you are prepared to go through the gates?
The glory which the Father has given to the Son, the Son has given to us. He does not want to be alone in His glory. He wants to gather us all into His own glory, so that we share His glory and become with Him the vehicle—the instrument—of the manifested presence of God throughout all eternity.
No wonder the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 2:10:
For it became Him, for Whom are all things,
and through Whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
That is what the Lord Jesus is doing. That is the highway to Zion in our hearts. That is why we have been born and our birth registered in Zion: because He is bringing many sons unto glory.
I must say, I do not know just what the manifested presence of the Lord will mean. Perhaps our brother will speak one day and talk about this. I wish he would. I would love to know what the manifested presence of the Lord will really mean in consequence and experience.
But I will tell you this: I have walked with the Lord now for some years, and I have had a little experience of the Lord, and it has been wonderful. If I have any regrets, it has been because I have disobeyed the Lord, argued with the Lord, or held the Lord up.
Every time I have obeyed the Lord, walked with the Lord, and done the will of the Lord, something has come into my heart that has brought me joy, peace, life, and the power of His resurrection. O, it has been wonderful. Now, if I know something of that kind of ecstasy down here, what is it going to be like up there?
If now and again we have experienced something down here that makes us say, “No, Lord, do not give me any more,” what will it be like when His presence is finally, fully, and for ever manifested? That is glory.
We can have a touch of glory, but it would kill us if we had too much down here. But then, when we have new bodies, without sin, it will be like a million—like a trillion—volts of electricity bursting through us, and the whole universe will be lit up with the glory of God.
It will not be like a little spotlight shining on you. We sometimes think of it like that: the Lord up there with a spotlight of glory coming down, and we keep within the arc of the light. No, that is not transfiguration.
When Jesus was transfigured in glory, something was switched on inside of Him, and His whole flesh became transfigured in glory. His very clothes glistened with light, dazzling in brightness.
O friends, the destiny of Zion makes all the difficulties and collisions, all the difficult saints, all the problems, and everything else worthwhile. There is only a little pinhead of time down here in which we endure these things, and then ages upon ages of the manifested presence of the Lord.
I cannot believe what it will be like. My little finite mind just cannot grasp it. I only know that, to use the old word, it will be glory.
Think of the Lord coming home. Think of the fact that we are only engaged to the Lord at present. We are His bride, but only engaged; the marriage has not yet taken place.
If salvation here can be so sweet, if sanctification here can be so powerful, and if anointing can be so tremendous, what will it be when the marriage takes place? If engagement can be so tremendous in its consequences and results, what will it be when Zion, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, and the Lamb come together for ever?
Listen to the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:10:
And the God of all grace,
Who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ,
after that ye have suffered a little while,
shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
Did you hear that? His eternal glory in Christ—not outside of Christ, but in Christ: to share in the glory of God in Christ. You have been called unto His eternal glory in Christ. Wonderful, wonderful words.
I do not know what the final destiny of Zion is to be. I have often thought about it, because people come to us and say, “Heaven is going to be very boring, is it not? When you think of it—those endless, endless, endless ages. And all we are going to do is sing.”
But whoever gave you the idea that we are only going to sing? I want to tell you something: we are going to work. Oh, you say, “I thought we were going to rest.” There is going to be no nightmare! If you thought you were going to have long periods of sleep, you will not need it.
There will be no night, no withdrawal of the sun, and all the energy of the sun, because in place of the sun the glory of the Lord is going to energise us so that we are never tired. Do not tell me we are just going to sing all day and all night, using our language down here. No, no, no. God has some tremendous things to do.
I do not know what they are, but I know this: eternity begins with a marriage and a home. Eternity begins with a city. Zion is called, on the one hand, a wife—the wife of the Lamb—and, on the other hand, a city.
One speaks of marriage, of holy intimacy, secrets shared, and life shared. The other speaks of government, administration, and calling. I do not know what it is going to be, but I know the Lord has not gone through all this trouble simply to have us sitting on a chair for the rest of the ages to come.
I cannot believe the Lord is going to say, “Now, everybody, that song again. We have sung it for ten thousand years; now we will have another ten thousand years of it.” O my friend, do not let the little god you have devalue God and bring God down to something small.
God is creative genius, if I may speak reverently of Him—creative genius. See what He has created. See the universe. See the wonders of the stars. Understand the glory of the sun and moon. See the lake, see the sea, see a universe in a molecule of water. God is genius.
In all this He has planted so much. Am I to believe that somehow the creative genius of God is exhausted? No. It has been subjected to the cycle of vanity for a time. But when God gets His Zion, that vicious cycle of vanity will be broken for ever, and all that God originally designed and longed for, the universe itself will fulfil.
I find this exciting. They get excited about sending men up in rockets to the moon, getting out on the moon, and riding around in a moon buggy. I think the Americans and the Russians are marvellous to have done this kind of thing, but I think it is child’s play.
One day the Lord is going to take us on—conduct us through all that. The horizon is endless. All the pain, if I may so speak of God, that God has gone through will be justified: enduring a fallen creation and fallen mankind, giving His only begotten Son that He might redeem humanity and bring the bride of His Son into her place.
All His longsuffering patience will be vindicated and justified in the end when we see what lies ahead. I only know the prospect is joy. The Lord does not tell us what we are going to do, where we are going to go, what He is going to create, or the great new areas we will explore. He just tells us one thing, and that is enough: you will be married to the Son.
You will be the Zion of God. You shall be called “The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Dear friends, I find it so marvellous. What a calling. What a destiny.
All contained in a little phrase: “The God of all grace, Who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ.” O, the love of God. He could so easily have dispensed with us. We are a load of trouble, are we not?
You have not any power if you do not recognise yourself as a real load of trouble to the Lord. You think you are a blessing to Him? He may call you a blessing, but you ought to call yourself a trouble. I only know my own heart, and I do not think I am so different from you.
O, the Lord has had problems with me. Has He had problems with you? How we hold Him up, how we argue with Him, how we go our own way. O, we have such issues, do we not? They are all so stupid.
And yet, the love of God has brought us into this wonderful calling. Children, we have the calling, but are we realising it?
Let me go a little further. I can understand that Abraham is often thought of in some circles as some prehistoric, antique, nomadic shepherd wandering around in the deserts, who could hardly read or write. I think if we had Abraham here to take a conference or two for us, we might be surprised.
Abraham came from an aristocratic family, if we believe Jewish tradition—one of the great ruling families of Ur of the Chaldees. And something happened to Abraham one day: he saw something, and he was never the same afterwards.
Ur, with all its paved streets, beautiful shops, government offices, postal system, sophistication, culture, and education, did not mean a thing to him. He went out into the desert not knowing whither he went, because he had seen something and heard the voice of God saying, “Get thee out unto a place that I will show thee.”
The writer of Hebrews says that Abraham obeyed to go out, not knowing whither he went, unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance. Then it says:
For he looked for the city which hath the foundations,
whose Builder and Maker is God.
Abraham never lived in a city. He never even came to Jerusalem, except that Melchizedek came out to meet him from Jerusalem, this earthly Zion, and received gifts from him. But Abraham never came to this city. Why?
Because if Abraham were here, he would tell you straight away, “I was not looking for an earthly city, although I knew that my seed would possess an earthly city in this land. I saw the city of God, which hath the foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. And I was spoiled for anything less from that day onwards.”
He saw the Lord. That is the difference between us and Abraham. We often see things; he saw the Lord. We often see the church; he saw the Lord. We often see gifts; he saw the Lord.
I am not saying that he did not see the church, but he saw the church in the Lord. I am not saying he did not see gifts, but he saw them in the Lord. Do you understand?
Stephen said in his great message, inspired by the Holy Spirit:
The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham.
When the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, he saw the city of glory. He saw the glory of God in the God of glory.
He did not see a thing. He did not see a system. He saw, in the Person of God, the whole meaning of mankind, the significance of humanity, and the meaning of the universe. Suddenly he said, “I know. I know. I know that for which I was created and redeemed.”
Zion is to lie at the heart of a new heaven and a new earth. In 2 Peter 3:13 we read:
But, according to His promise,
we look for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness.
In Acts 3:20-21 we read of the restoration of all things:
That He may send the Christ Who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus:
Whom the heaven must receive
until the times of restoration of all things,
whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets
that have been from of old.
I find this very wonderful: a new heaven and a new earth. Dear believers, do not get so spiritual that you forget there will be a new earth. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. There will be the restoration of all things.
At the heart of this new heaven and new earth, at the heart of this new creation, there will be this Zion. The glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb will be the lamp. This Zion will be like a lampstand holding, as it were, the Lamb. Do you understand?
Zion is going to be at the heart of this. Remember the first time we spoke about Zion this week? I spoke about three things in Psalm 2: the King, Zion, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.
Why do the nations rage,
and the peoples meditate a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us break their bonds asunder,
and cast away their cords from us.He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
the Lord will have them in derision.Yet I have set My King
upon My holy hill of Zion.
I will tell of the decree:
the Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son;
this day have I begotten Thee.
Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance,
and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.
Here we have it: Zion at the heart of a whole universe that has been brought back to God. Praise the Lord. I think this is something to be here for. I really do. As I said at the beginning, Zion is the movement of the Holy Spirit for universal liberation. Praise the Lord for that. I want to be in on that, do you not?
That is why Revelation 22:17 says:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
Have you ever noticed that? The Spirit and the bride—as if the Holy Spirit, Who all down through the ages has watched over this matter of God’s Zion, finally, at the end of that great vision, says through John, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come.” It is done. God’s Zion has come home.
The whole natural creation waits for this. You know that passage in Romans 8, I think, quite well. Am I giving you too many references tonight? I do not know.
Listen to Paul in Romans 8:18-21:
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed to us-ward.
For the earnest expectation of the creation
waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to vanity,
not of its own will,
but by reason of Him Who subjected it, in hope:
that the creation itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
Now, listen to the way dear old J. B. Phillips puts it. I have always been very fond of his version of the New Testament. On the whole, it is a little more accurate than some of the other modern ones. Please, everybody, listen carefully.
In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.
The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited. Yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in the magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God.
It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that at the present time all created life groans in a sort of universal travail. And it is plain too that we who have a foretaste of the Spirit are in a state of painful tension while we wait for that redemption of our bodies which will mean that at last we have realised our full sonship in Him.
Not everyone will be happy with that translation, but my word, when you hear it in modern language, it suddenly comes home. This whole natural creation is waiting for you and me. Did you know that?
Those birds out there, poor things; those bushes, that grass, that sky—the whole natural creation has been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. It groans. It travails. The actual natural creation has a travail of its own. It suffers, and waits, and waits.
What is it waiting for? Not some sort of mechanical time clock in heaven. No, no, no. It is waiting for the manifestation—the liberty of the glory of the children of God. It is waiting for Zion to be completed.
O friends, hear it: the whole creation is waiting for the building up of Zion and the completion of Zion. No wonder there is so much in the Word about this.
In Numbers 14:21, in the very early books of the Bible, we read:
But as truly as I live,
all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the Lord.
In Isaiah 11:9:
They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all My holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
And Habakkuk adds that lovely word:
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
O dear ones, I find this so tremendous. I do not know whether it captures you; it captures me. I think of Isaiah 40:
Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
and the uneven shall be made level,
and the rough places a plain:
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
No wonder the prophets speak of trees clapping their hands, mountains and hills singing for joy, and fields praising the Lord. The whole natural creation will finally come into its own, as if with a great sigh it says, “At last, they have got there.”
The whole parenthesis of sin and time will be over. Then those wonderful words of the Lord Jesus will be fulfilled:
I am the Alpha and the Omega.
Behold, I make all things new.
Well, friends, that is your destiny—unless you throw it away. You cannot lose your salvation, but you can lose your inheritance. You can throw away your calling.
Let me say a little about the character of Zion, and then finally about the present calling of Zion. I do not really need to say too much about the character of Zion, because we have covered a lot in speaking about the destiny of Zion. But I want to underline something: the character of Zion is the Lamb.
The character of Zion is the Lamb. The Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb—they are the temple and glory of the city. The lamp is all gold, and the lampstand is all gold. Do you understand? All of a piece. One beaten piece.
That is what it says in Exodus about the great seven-branched lampstand. When you come to the end of the Bible, you have that lampstand: the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof. What is the city? The city is the stand, joined to the Lord for ever.
If this is true—that the character of Zion is the Lamb—then what I am saying is this: unless you are lamb-like, there is going to be very little, if any, glory. Did you get that?
Let me put it in New Testament words. Look at Colossians 1:27:
To whom God was pleased to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Did you hear that? “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The “you” there is plural. One modern version says “Christ among you,” in order to bring out the point. It is not just Christ in me, full stop—or period, as you say over here. It is Christ in you, and you, and you, and you, and me, if we are redeemed. It is Christ in us Who is the hope of glory.
There are only three materials out of which the city of God is produced, if I read Revelation 21 correctly: gold, precious stones, and pearl. Those three materials all speak of the Lord Jesus Christ—His life, His nature, and His sufferings.
Now, if I am right, it means this. Listen carefully to me. Wood, however polished, or however seemingly enduring, is not material for glory. Nor is hay, nor stubble.
Do we not all have to say that very much of our lives is made up of wood, hay, and stubble? Unless there is the gold, the precious stone, and the pearl of Christ in us, there is going to be little glory.
Character and destiny are linked. Think about that. Character and destiny are linked. Let me put it another way: origin determines destiny.
If your spiritual life has not found its origin in God, it will not end in glory. If you have a self-manufactured Christianity, it is wood, hay, and stubble. It will never go into the city.
But if your Christian life is that which is born of the Spirit, sustained by the Spirit, created and developed by the Spirit, it is material that is going into the city.
Jesus said to the church at Laodicea—that church which thought it was so fine and so great, with its great Bible studies, its great prayer meetings, and all its evangelism—I have no doubt about it. I do not think it was one of these nominal Christian places. I think it was a real Christian place. They knew the Lord there.
But they had all grown so middle-aged. They had the middle-aged spread. They were content. They said, “We have arrived. We have a history behind us. We were founded by one of the apostles. We acknowledge mysteries. We have understanding of the Scriptures. Secrets of God have been revealed to us.”
“Oh yes, marvellous Sunday school. Great youth work. Evangelistic meetings are full. Oh yes, we are very happy. Greatly blessed. Greatly blessed.” They did not know that the Lord, the Head of the church, was outside, banging on the door and saying:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock:
if any man hear My voice and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him.
They thought they were clothed and had all knowledge, when they were poor. He said, “Thou knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Then He said:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire,
that thou mayest become rich.
The Lord said that to believers: “I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich.” Did you hear the words of the risen Lord in the midst of the churches?
He may be saying to someone tonight, “Wood, hay, stubble. You think you have a Christian life. You think you have seen something, but you have never obeyed My will. You have never gone through the gates. You have never committed yourself. You have remained on the periphery, on the circumference, a spectator. Wood, hay, stubble. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold refined in the fire.”
It will cost you experience—deep, sacrificial, costly experience. But I counsel you to buy of it.
Where does a precious stone come from? It comes from the deep, dark places of the earth, produced by tremendous pressure and great fire—intense heat. It is not a nice place to be, down in the dark places of the earth, under intense pressure and great heat. But there a precious stone is produced.
How is a pearl produced? By a bit of grit falling into the softest part of the clam. Then all the energy of the clam is, as it were, put into operation to try to expel the grit and get rid of it.
The apostle Paul had the picture of that. He had a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh. He said, “Lord, take it away. Take it away. It will hinder me.” The Lord said, “No, My grace is sufficient.” Around the grit came a coat of grace.
Then a little later Paul said, “Lord, take it away. It will destroy my ministry and my effectiveness.” The Lord said, “No, My grace is sufficient,” and another coat of grace went around the piece of grit. In the end, almost unknown to Paul, a pearl was produced.
Is there anyone here who has really seen something of God’s Zion and given themselves to the building of Zion, to being a watchman on the walls, and then something inexplicable has come into your life? Something so terrible that you could call it a messenger of Satan—a thorn in the flesh, the agony of impalement, as Coleridge puts it in a rather imaginative way?
You go to the Lord and say, “Lord, this will be the end of me. This will be the end of my effectiveness.” God just seems not to hear you, and all you ever get is, “My grace is sufficient.”
Do not give up. Do not cast away your confidence. Every time you know that grace of God, it is another coating going around the thorn in the flesh. You are producing—or rather, the Spirit of God is producing in your life—one of the gates of pearl.
You will be so glad for it. I tell you, you will come to me in ten thousand years’ time, fling your arms around my neck, and kiss me. You will not be any more phlegmatic. You will kiss me on both sides of the cheek in a good Russian way, and you will say, “Brother, it was too much you said down there in the University of Richmond, in the family conference. I cannot believe it. I am part of one of the gates. I cannot believe it.”
God does not mock you. If God gives you something that is inexplicable, something beyond the normal, God knows exactly what He is doing when He says to you, “My grace is sufficient.” For His glory rests on such weakness.
Dear friend, is there precious stone in your life? Or are you playing at being a Christian?
This Christ in us, the hope of glory, is not just a personal thing. Somehow, we are related together. We have got to learn something about finding each other in the Lord.
Brother, are you playing at church? Sister, are you playing at church? Glorying in new truths—new church truth, body truth—but never letting God do anything in your life? Never becoming subject to your brothers and sisters? Never allowing Him to relate you to your other brothers and sisters in the family group?
You are not being built up, but you have all church truth in your head. O, you are not going to be one of those who weeps many tears in that day because you threw away your place in Zion.
You, of all people, had a knowledge of the purpose of God and an understanding of the church, but there was only wood, hay, and stubble in your life. Your knowledge puffed you up.
O brothers and sisters, what a tremendous thing this is—this matter of character. We need it, do we not?
My time once more has gone, but let me give you another Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:18.
But we all, with unveiled face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord the Spirit.
We see the glory of God as in a mirror. As we behold the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.
The Lord is very sweet and very loving. He puts it, “from glory to glory.” But if I had written it, I would have put, “from suffering to suffering.”
When we see the Lord, we are filled with a vision of beauty; we are filled with a vision of His glory. But then the work starts—of changing us. That is not easy. That is where the chastening comes, where the discipline comes, and where the breaking comes.
This city is transparent. You can see right through it from end to end, like an electric light bulb. If the light were not on, all you would see would be transparent glass. You see, it was not built to be looked at so much; it was built to reveal and manifest light.
It is the glory of the Lord that is going to be seen and marvelled at in us.
Well, we must come to an end. What is the present calling of Zion? We have thought about the character and destiny of Zion. I hope it has come into your heart a little. If you do not understand what I have been saying, I at least hope you will go back and pray about this, because I am on solid ground. There is a tremendous amount about this matter in the Word of God.
What about the present calling of Zion? Simply this: something of this work of the Lord in Zion, to bring her to His glory, ought to be seen in the earth today.
How wonderful it has been in the history of the church. Every time the Spirit of God has done something in His redeemed people, it has been a day of glory—as if the salvation of Zion had gone forth as a lamp that burns, as if her righteousness had gone forth as brightness, and somehow men and women had seen.
I was thrilled when I heard someone say here, in the baptism this afternoon, “I saw something so attractive in those believers that I found the Lord.”
We do not always find believers attractive. The trouble is, we see the believers and not their Lord. When we see the Lord in the believers, there is nothing old-fashioned, nothing square, nothing strange or queer about the Lord—His life, salvation, joy, peace, truth.
If a person has a heart at all for God, they are irresistibly drawn when they see the Lord in His people. O, do you not long that something could happen with Zion?
When I think of those words in Isaiah 60, I wish somehow here in the States, I wish in Denmark, and I certainly wish in Britain—as much as in Israel—that these words were true:
Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon thee,
and His glory shall be seen upon thee.
O brothers and sisters, is that not something to travail for? That Zion, somehow, even now in her incomplete state, will reveal something of the glory of the Lord. That there may be some touch of glory upon the nations in which we are found, upon the unsaved communities in which we meet and gather.
I think that is all we need to say for tonight. I believe God wants to do a work in us all, and unless He does, I think all our knowledge of church truth, in the end, is of no event.
Somehow the Spirit of God has to take us. Dear friends, I do not know if you have caught anything, even a little glimpse of the destiny of Zion, or something of the character that is needed.
Maybe now your heart is just a little bit broken. Thank God for that. If your heart is a little bit broken, perhaps praise God, because you are in a place where the Lord can start to do a work.
For what He has said is this:
Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling,
and to set you before the presence of His glory
without blemish in exceeding joy.
If you feel, somehow, “Can God do this in me? Can God do this in my company, where we meet with the saints? Can God do it in us?” Yes, God can.
If you are willing in obedience, if you will walk in that highway to Zion, if you will allow God to do this work, if you will go through the gates and commit yourself to the King in Zion, then He will keep you from falling, guard you from stumbling, and present you finally before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
Shall we pray?
Lord, we must say that there is very little of glory about us—about me, about any of us, Lord. O Lord, we fell short of Thy glory through sin. But, Lord, Thou hast saved us, and we are amazed, Lord, when we think of the destiny of Zion, the prospect before every saved one.
Dear Lord, bring this home to us tonight by Thy Spirit. Let revelation come into our hearts, and let a holy disturbance come unto our hearts, Lord—a discontent with anything that is just wood, hay, and stubble.
But, Lord, may we not descend on those things which will be burnt up, but on that which will be glorified. O Lord, hear us.
We pray that in some very real way the Lord Jesus may take up His residence within us all in a much fuller and deeper way than ever before. Thy Spirit, Lord, come upon us.
And we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.