Good morning. I’d like to read some verses to you to begin. I think once I read these verses, you’ll know what the burden is.
Turn to Hebrews 12. We’ll begin in verse 18—there’s not an eighty-first verse—verse 18.
For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them;
for they could not endure that which was enjoined, If even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned;
and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
And then, this is all-important, verse 22:
But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to innumerable hosts of angels, the general assembly,
and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,
and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.
And the first phrase of verse 25: “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.”
I’ll read Hebrews 11:10, and I’ll read this from the King James Version. This is speaking of Abraham. All of you know this verse, chapter 11, verse 10:
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
And then I would like to read from the Old Testament a psalm that many of you may not be familiar with. It is Psalm 87, but I hope you become more familiar with it.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious things are spoken of thee,
O city of God. Selah.I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as among them that know Me:
Behold, Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia:
This one was born there.Yea, of Zion it shall be said,
This one and that one was born in her;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.
The Lord will count, when He writeth up the peoples,
This one was born there. Selah.They that sing as well as they that dance shall say,
All my springs are in thee.
Lord, we are so grateful for Your word this morning. We know, as we come to You, we have to look away. We cannot look to ourselves or trust in ourselves to give anything of real spiritual worth or value.
But we know You alone have the words of eternal life. As we come to You, we come in utter dependence that the Lord Himself—the One whom we heard about this morning at His table—would bring His word. What a difference it will make to our life and our walk in the Lord Jesus.
So we ask You to quicken us to speak and to quicken us to hear, that we may know what the Spirit is saying to the churches. These things we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Well, I have been inquiring of the Lord ever since I shared on divine assurance—I think some of you may remember those messages—about what He would have in His heart for me to share, if anything.
And this phrase came to me: “Onward toward Jerusalem.” It came quite strongly. I’ll never forget when I went to San Antonio, at the last conference where I spoke, it was confirmed. A brother there spoke on the gates of Jerusalem, and I knew. I knew this was the Lord.
I believe, in fact, that the Bible is a progressive journeying toward Jerusalem. It is hard to imagine otherwise. When you come to the end of the Old Testament, our brothers have been sharing every other Friday night in Nehemiah. It is all about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
It is all about that city that was in ruin, and just in a short while, God—because He is the One who does the great work—was able to transform that barren, ruined place into a place of glory and marvel, in just fifty-two days, we read.
So that is the end of the Old Testament. You see what the emphasis clearly is. When you come to the end of the New Testament, you begin also to see what appears to be on the Lord’s heart.
You remember the writer of Hebrews. We just read from that book. You remember how he shared those words we read in Hebrews 12. They were his concluding words. This writer of Hebrews—this was his summing up. This is what was on his heart.
And in that great contrast, we see God’s great work. Then you look at the end of Revelation. There is no mistaking—there is no mistaking. The last vision in Revelation, in chapters 21 and 22, after the end of the thousand-year kingdom, is about Jerusalem, the city of God.
I think it is quite clear. The Lord has something to say. At the end of the Old Testament, to those Jews who were tempted to go back to those old things, those shadows, and live in them, He was calling them back to Zion. And then, at the end of the Bible, I believe it is also quite clear.
I remember when we were at the Christian Family Conference just recently how that thought from Nehemiah 6:3 was embedded in my heart. When Nehemiah said to those enemies, “Why should I come down to you? Why should I do it? I am doing a great work, and I will not come down.”
Now, brothers and sisters, Nehemiah himself was not doing a great work. It was God who was doing a great work. And thank God, in His sovereignty, it is an unmistakable privilege: in His sovereignty, He calls man together with Him to join in that great work.
That is a phenomenal thing when you think about it. Who would have thought? God could do it all by Himself. Why does He need to call man into this situation and into this relationship, to be part of His great work?
And the simple answer is: this is what He has always purposed. This is the explanation of the creation of man. This is the explanation of Genesis 1:26-27, when He made man in His image and in His likeness, to have dominion and to be ones who were involved in that great work.
So this is the burden the Lord has laid on my heart. I’ll share it in three parts, because I can hardly get it in today. The whole burden is this phrase: “Onward toward Jerusalem.”
I think there is a march toward Jerusalem, a moving toward Zion, from the beginning of the Bible right through to that grand conclusion at the end of the Bible. So much is at stake.
Will the Lord get what He wants? I’m sure He will. Will man be involved in it, engaged in it as He wants? I hope so. It all depends on our response.
The three parts are a progression, just like the progression of going on to Jerusalem:
First of all, the phrase that comes to me is that one in Hebrews 11:10: looking for Jerusalem. Of course, it says looking for the city, but it is clear that what Abraham was looking for was Jerusalem—the heavenly Jerusalem, not the earthly Jerusalem.
Some are so hung up in the earthly Jerusalem. Thank God, it is a wonderful illustration in this world that God can keep people so resisted, so in conflict, and so much at the center of controversy. But nevertheless, earthly Jerusalem is not our end. Heavenly Jerusalem is our end.
So, number one: today we’ll look at looking for Jerusalem. I think that is quite important.
Another thing in the progression becomes clear in the Bible. When you see David, Abraham, Nehemiah, Ezra, and Haggai, you see ones who were longing for Jerusalem.
Think about it. Do we have that longing in our heart—that deep longing for Jerusalem? It will make a difference. It will make a difference.
And third, I think this phrase is very clear in the Bible: living in Jerusalem. It is not enough just to see something. It is not even enough to have a passion about something. If it is not part of the reality of your life, and you are not living in it, then you have missed it.
So in the grand end, the thing God is after is that we, as the people of God, just like in Nehemiah 11:1-2, would in the end be living in Jerusalem. We would be like those priests of old talked about in the Old Testament who lived in Jerusalem.
That is the overall burden. These three are a necessary progression to onward toward Jerusalem.
Now, I would like to talk about these verses I read in Hebrews 12. I think these are wonderful verses. They show all we have in Christ Jesus. They show the great work that He has done. They show the completeness of that work and the provision that is made available to us in Christ Jesus.
I believe these words are the concluding vision of this anonymous and anointed writer of Hebrews. You must be sick of me saying that by now, because I always say it when I talk about Hebrews. But this one never identifies himself.
Why does he not identify himself? Paul identified himself. I love you guys who say, “I’m sure it was Paul.” I’m glad you are so sure. But he never identifies himself because the message is more important than the man. That is the key.
This anonymous and anointed author had a concluding word for the people of God. You might argue with me and say, “Well, surely there are other things—the whole of chapter 13. Brother, did you tear your page out of your Bible?” I did not.
They were reminders, but they were not the concluding thought. He said in Hebrews 13:1, “Let brotherly love continue, and forget not hospitality.” He said in verse 7, “Remember them that had the rule over you, men that spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith.”
I think of that verse almost every day when I think of our beloved Brother Kong and his passing. Remember your leaders. Imitate your leaders. Walk as they walked.
And then, of course, in verse 18 he said, “Pray for us.” Pray for us as we persuade others. I believe these are points he made, but they were not his glorious conclusion. The conclusion was in chapter 12.
I thought that for some time, but I was so helped when I read Brother Sparks’ thought. I do not know if you have ever read Now We Have Come to Mount Zion. It is an old book, I believe back from the sixties. They were actually spoken ministries, preserved in that fashion.
But Brother Sparks said that the anonymous and anointed writer of Hebrews had all he had to say summed up here. He went on to say, “The concentration of the whole letter is in this one section, governed by these two words: not and but. They are the key words that open the mystery of what God is after.”
It is a contrast between the old covenant and the better covenant, but it is much more than a contrast. It is the writer’s conclusion. Let me put it another way, because I know some of you might not like this word, but I am going to say it, and I will say it more than once: it was the writer’s concluding vision.
This is what he wanted those Jews who had become believers, who were on the verge of turning back and turning away from the Lord Jesus, to hear. It was his concluding thought. It was his chief exhortation.
You know the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews says in chapter 13, verse 22, “Bear with the word of exhortation.” It is full of exhortations. It is full of warnings: “lest”—that is a warning—repeated again and again. And then it is full of exhortation: “let us.”
These two phrases show us what was in his heart. But brothers and sisters, in this word of exhortation, this is the exhortation. Do you understand what is in my heart? This is the exhortation: what we have come from and what we have come to; what this journey is about; where we are going from and where we are going to—onward to Jerusalem.
That helped me so much when Brother Sparks, a man who really had vision, said it. When I think of Brother Sparks, I think he was a man of vision. I hear heavenly music. He was a man of vision.
Some people said he was not so practical. I would dare not say that about Brother Sparks. So much we have gained from someone who saw something. Do you understand my emphasis? Someone who saw something.
That is the point of Hebrews. He was looking for a city. He saw something, and he was never the same after that.
So this is the burden that the Lord has put on my heart. Look at verse 18 again, in this concluding vision, chapter 12, verse 18: “For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched.” That is a very important phrase.
To those Hebrew believers, they were going back to the old covenant. They were going back to these things. But then you read verse 22, and this is the sense of his exhortation: “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
This was what he had to say. This was all he had to say. This is the journey onward toward Jerusalem. Two words, like Brother Sparks said: not and but. What a difference.
When you look at the first part, in those first few verses, and it describes that mountain, it says something astounding: it was a fearful sight.
And it says so much that in verse 21 Moses—now Moses, who had the vision, who had the revelation, whose face glowed when he came down from Mount Sinai—it says of Moses, “I exceedingly fear and quake.”
Thank God, that is not the vision we see in the rest of this exhortation. It was a fearful sight. It is a great contrast between Sinai and the better covenant. In Sinai, it is a fearful sight. They would not go near the mountain. It was so fearful, afraid they would be struck down to death.
But, oh, Zion is different. In Zion, everything is made available to us in Christ Jesus. Everything we need is made available to us in Christ Jesus. There is no lack, no want, no limitation. All is provided.
That is what I believe these two words, not and but, mean.
It says in Psalm 87:3, “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.” And when you read Hebrews 12:22-24, you begin to discover those glorious things that are spoken of thee, O city of God.
How glorious they are. In fact, when you read them, you begin to understand the depth of the glorious things we have been given in Christ Jesus.
When you read the word, you should read it carefully and meditatively. You should think about it when things are repeated. If you do not think about it when things are repeated, you will miss the writer’s emphasis. Repetition is often the key in Scripture.
At least in my version—the Darby that I use—there is this phrase: “and to.” “Ye are come unto Mount Zion, and to…” Seven times this phrase is repeated: “and to.”
Brothers and sisters, when I thought about that, I thought, that is the perfect number. Seven is the number of perfection. Here we see all the glories of God spoken of that have been done in Christ Jesus. Everything has been made available to us as we come to Mount Zion and as we journey toward Jerusalem.
Look at these things, at least for a moment. We will see how we do in regard to time. In verse 22 it says, “And to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
Brothers and sisters, no more is the vision we see that fearful sight. Sinai is gone. You could not keep it. It was a burden that you could not bear. It was simply that hard schoolmaster, as it says in Galatians, to prepare you for Christ.
He alone is the One who can do what is required. He is the only One who can do that great work. Do you understand that?
Sinai speaks of man’s efforts to get to God, and I think there is one word that works well. You could write over all of Sinai: Impossible. It is impossible. You do not want to hear my story about the Christian life again, but it is impossible.
But when you come to Zion, when you come to the city of the living God, you see a great work that the Savior does in a people that completely prepares them and brings them into all their inheritance in Christ Jesus.
Zion is the fullness of all that is available in Christ. The living God is with us, doing what we could never do under the old order of things.
Second, also in verse 22: “And to myriads of angels, the universal gathering.” Now, I will be quite honest with you. I did not quite understand this phrase, why it was there. But I think it is a wonderful thing that God put it there through this writer.
It means every divine provision is made available to you in Christ Jesus to bring you onward toward Jerusalem and bring you across the finish line. How wonderful it is.
You think of Luke 22:43. This is the Lord Jesus in His moment of darkest agony at Gethsemane, and it says a remarkable thing: “And there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.”
I do not know what you think about that, but all the resources were made available. The writer of Hebrews tells us in the early chapters that the angels are ministering spirits. God has made these myriads of angels, this universal gathering, available to bring us into all that is ours in Christ Jesus.
There is another “and to,” number three: “And to the assembly of the firstborn who are registered in heaven.” Thank God for that.
Do you know this journey toward Jerusalem is never a solitary journey? Some people wrongly think of the Christian life as a solitary walk. There is much that is solitary about the Christian life, but nevertheless, in the end, there is this great encouragement.
In this concluding vision of Zion, in the New Jerusalem, we have come to the assembly of the firstborn. The church is the place where we see Him the clearest.
My view of Christ is so little; it is not enough. Your view of Christ is so little; it is not enough. Jerry’s view, believe it or not, is so little. But in this gathering of the firstborn, in this holy assembly, there is a large Christ.
I always liked the way Brother Fromke put it. I do not know how many of you are aware of Brother Fromke, from Indianapolis. Brother Fromke talked about vision this way: he said it is like an elephant in a closet.
Now, I do not know how you get an elephant in a closet, unless it is a little elephant or a big closet. This is what Linda would like: an elephant-sized closet.
But in this, we all touch a part. Some of us grab that skinny old tail and say, “This is what the elephant is like. This is what I see.” And, by the way, I think he said in the dark, in the closet.
Oh, you touch that big trunk of a leg and you say, “He is like a giant tree.” Oh, you grab that long snout and you say, “He is like a big snake.” We see in part.
But when we are together, in this gathering of the firstborn, we see things fuller and clearer than we ever did. Just like this morning at the Lord’s table: we see things fuller.
The opening was precious. The remembering was even more precious. How thankful I am for the assembly. How thankful. When God thought of this journey toward Jerusalem, it was never meant to be alone. It was never meant to be solitary. It was always meant to be corporate.
Well, I am going to get in trouble if I am not careful. Number four: “And to God the Judge of all.” I am so thankful there is a righteous Judge.
I get sick most days—and I know some of you will say, “You listen to too much news.” I get that. I sometimes feel conviction about that myself. But you hear these judges all the time who think they have supreme power, making decisions after law has been invoked.
But we have a just Judge. He will judge the world righteously. He cannot fail. All of His judgments are right, and all of His judgments are true. We have come to the just Judge.
And number five—I like this very much—“And to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Have you ever meditated on that?
When we were brought into this city of Zion, into this Jerusalem, by birth we were made just men. We were justified. You are not going to be justified. You are justified.
The marvelous letter of Romans lays out that justification in such a spectacular way. We are justified, but that is not the end of God’s work. The encouragement in this concluding vision is: just men made perfect.
Now, do you understand? He is doing a continual work. He is making us perfect. I always think of Peter. You remember that first call to Peter: “Come unto Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
I am sure Peter forgot that line, “I will make you.” I am sure he roared into divine business, thinking he could somehow do the great work of God. And how he failed again and again.
You remember the Lord’s discipline of him. Can you imagine a disciple of the Lord, and the Lord looking at him and saying, “Get thee behind Me, Satan”? It is one thing for you to call me a bad brother. Dora calls me a bad brother about every day. But it is another thing—sorry, Dora—it is another thing to be called Satan.
I tell you, He is doing a work. He is making us perfect. He has given the Holy Spirit the singular responsibility to transform us and conform us into the image of the Lord Jesus.
Just men made perfect. Is that not beautiful? He could have said, “Just men—and you take it from there, boys.” How horrible that would be.
If it were not for His sanctifying work, if it were not for His transforming work, if it were not for His conforming work, where could we ever complete our journey to Jerusalem? It would be impossible.
Thank you, brother. And number six, in verse 24: “And to Jesus, mediator of the new covenant.” Is that not beautiful? That says it all. Jesus is all in all.
As a matter of fact, I love that verse—I think it is chapter 1, verse 13 of Colossians—when it describes what this all in all is. It says, “He is everything.” Now, what part is left out of everything?
If I were to give Linda everything—which, by the way, does not happen—what would she ask for? There would be no need.
In Christ, the glory of this concluding vision is: you have come to Jesus. And in Jesus, God has provided to you everything. Breathless. A breathless vision.
And I do not know why, but I have a better understanding why number seven is not number six, and number six is not number seven. In my wisdom, if I were the anonymous and anointed writer, I would have put number six as number seven: “And to Jesus.” What more can there be?
But he said something wonderful. I have come to appreciate it more. It says, “And to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.”
Think of that. When all else fails in your journey toward Jerusalem, the last thought he wanted to leave with you is this: there is always the blood.
The blood can never fail. The blood can cleanse us from every sin. Every detour we take, like these Hebrew believers, the blood can bring us back, cleanse our conscience, and we continue on our journey toward Jerusalem.
Do you understand? I will tell a story on my older brother, if he can even hear me. Are your hearing aids in, Jerry?
Jerry is the older brother, by the way. He is eight years older than I am. When we were saved and joined in this great work together, I used to marvel. Jerry would often pray, “Thank You for the blood of Jesus.”
I have to admit, I did not have the appreciation for it that he did. But as he kept praying it, I began to think there must be something to it. And when I see that the writer of Hebrews concludes with it, I know there is something to it.
The blood can right every course. The blood can rescue every fallen sinner. The blood can make us pure before God. No matter where we fail, the blood is always available.
These are the glories spoken of in Psalm 87: “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God”—O Jerusalem, O Zion.
And then there is this exhortation. There is always a responsibility. Remember, it is a letter about exhortation. Chapter 12, verse 25, first phrase: “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.”
Brothers and sisters, we can be hard-headed. Linda tells me that pretty often. We can be stubborn. We can be stiff-necked.
But brothers and sisters, I believe the one cure is not to refuse Him who speaks. When He speaks, things happen. When He speaks, His great work is done. When He speaks, everything is made right.
“See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not when they refused Him that warned them on earth, much more…” You all know that is a Hebrew phrase: “much more.”
Who turns away from Him? Think about it. If we turn away from Him, we will never make this journey to Jerusalem. It is impossible.
These Hebrew believers were a testimony of it, turning back to shadows. How we need the Lord to help us in this matter.
It is not the only concluding vision. When you look at Revelation, you see in chapters 21 and 22 this wonderful vision. I have already told you, it is at the end of the millennial kingdom, at the end of time, and it is all that is forever set before us for eternity.
Now think of that. Think how kind God is, that while we are living and sojourning as strangers upon the earth, we have a record of what eternity will be like—what it will look like, in part.
We will never, never imagine all the things He has prepared for those who love Him. But we can get a taste. Here is the last concluding vision of the Bible.
For those who are starting to get nervous, you know my first point is usually my longest. As we get near the end, they will get shorter. If you have the roast in the oven, I am just warning you.
If you look at Revelation 21, it says something wonderful in verse 1: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” That is the key. John saw it.
For us, the word of God is: Have you seen it? Are you looking for it? Has it dawned on you, the glories that are prepared?
“The first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.” Then in verse 2—notice repetition, very important—“And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.”
Then look at verse 9: “There came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, and he spoke with me, saying, Come hither.” He did not just say, “Come hither.” He said, “I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Dear friends, I know you might disagree with me, but I believe this is all about vision. This is all about heavenly vision. The only way we can press toward Zion, the only way we can go toward Jerusalem, is with vision. It is the key. What do you see?
To John, he was shown. Then in verse 10: “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.”
Just think of Psalm 87 again: the glories that are spoken of in her. Think of the glories. It begins to talk about the foundations—the twelve foundations—the gates, the walls, all those unbelievable, beautiful, precious stones in those walls.
Just think of the size of Jerusalem. Think of the magnificence of Jerusalem. It says it is twelve thousand stadia. Now, most of you do not go to Lowe’s and buy a stadia tape. You will have difficulty if you do.
But if you convert that stadia to miles, it is fourteen hundred miles long. Can you imagine? Fourteen hundred miles—a city fourteen hundred miles long. That is like Boston to Kansas City.
But this glorious city is so magnificent. It is fourteen hundred miles long, fourteen hundred miles wide, and, believe it or not, fourteen hundred miles high. That is glory—bigger than any city.
Now, I am an engineer. Most of you know that and put up with me. When you look at a city, you talk about square miles. You do not think about vertical miles; that is air. But this city is so glorious, it is three-dimensional in glory.
We always think in square miles. Richmond is not such a big city, but there is a city in China—you have to help me, Dora; you know how poor my Chinese is—Hulunbuir, China.
That city is one hundred thousand square miles. What a city. You better be glad you do not have your electric car and try to get to one end of that city. No, that was not political. Forgive me.
But do you understand that the city of Zion, the New Jerusalem, is one million nine hundred sixty thousand square miles? It is twenty times the size of Hulunbuir.
Brother Steve is on Zoom, and he lives in this little place, Vermont—only nine thousand six hundred square miles. And this city, in the glory of it, is one million nine hundred sixty thousand square miles.
How marvelous it is. What a sight. What a sight of unspeakable glory. Walls two hundred sixteen feet high. I have designed a lot of walls in my career, but I have never designed a freestanding wall two hundred sixteen feet high.
We call that a cantilevered wall. You know, the first wall I did was twenty-five feet, and I walked out, and there was no building around it. I thought, “Oh, this is a big wall.”
But the glory of Jerusalem is so magnificent. The scene is so magnificent in Revelation 21 and 22, it can hardly be contained. This is what we are journeying to.
All is there, and the best of all is that the throne of God is in that city. The best of all is that the throne of the Lamb is in the city. The best of all: the tree of life is in the city, and the river of life is there.
Can you imagine a more magnificent place to be? You might think Orlando and Disney World is the place of wonder and magic, but it is not. It is Jerusalem, with all of its glory—unspeakable glory.
I remember our friends from New York. Now, if you are from New York, please forgive me. New York people, I think, can be a little haughty. Do not all charge the podium at once.
They talk of New York—not the state, the city. They say, “The city.” That is all they will tell you. “Where do you live?” “The city.” As if this is the greatest city in the world.
I think people are moving out now. I am not sure it is the greatest place in the world. But the city, in God’s eyes, is Zion. The city is Jerusalem. There, it is magnificent.
Linda and I went down to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. I would recommend you go. You may not like it so much, but I thought it was magnificent.
It is the largest personal residence in the United States. This thing is almost two hundred thousand square feet. It is enormous: forty-three bathrooms. Can you imagine if Linda made me clean that many bathrooms?
Three kitchens, two hundred fifty rooms. It is magnificent.
I remember when we were there, the artist who did the official pen-and-ink drawing was there. There is only one. They do not give it to three and tell one guy one thing and another lady another thing. The official pen-and-ink artist was there.
He was a Christian. Linda and I found that out, and we had fellowship with him. I looked at that pen-and-ink, and I love pen-and-ink. It was beautiful. It was beautiful.
I said, “This is magnificent. This place is magnificent. But listen to me: there is something more magnificent.” I asked him if he would please write on this copy that he graciously signed for me, “Whose builder and maker is God.”
How much more magnificent is this Jerusalem? He was touched by that, and we left. It hangs now in our kitchen, over our breakfast table.
It will always remind me that there is nothing as magnificent. There is nothing more marvelous. Even when you can build the grandest thing in the whole United States, there is nothing more marvelous than Zion and Jerusalem.
That was the impression. Well, we must go on. There is a phrase I would like to draw your attention to about Jerusalem concerning the Lord Jesus. You will notice it says, “Onward toward Jerusalem.”
Our Lord was progressing onward toward Jerusalem. You remember in Matthew 16 when He said, “I must go unto Jerusalem.” Journeying toward Jerusalem is an actual phrase about our Lord.
He goes. He completes His great work. And because He completes that great work, Zion and Jerusalem are a certainty, not a probability. Do you understand? He did that work all alone.
Now, I want to take just a few moments and talk about ones who saw the vision. I am not just up here to tell you how glorious Jerusalem and Zion are. If we do, it can be helpful. But the key is, just like John, you need to see it.
Abraham is such a good example. You remember Abraham is described as the father of faith. In Romans 4:1, and I think in verse 12, he is described as our father.
Some people might think that is a little blasphemous, but he is the father of faith who went ahead of us. We know, when we read Hebrews 11, he was one of the main ones who exhibited real faith.
But that was not his motivation. When it comes to Hebrews 11:10, we see what motivated him. He journeyed as a sojourner in a promised land. He did not know where he was going, but it says this in verse 10: “He looked for a city whose builder and maker was God.”
Brothers and sisters, I think that is the key. Are you looking for that city? Has that vision, that concluding vision, so gripped your heart that you cannot look away? Does it fill your eyes, and do you yearn for it and long for it?
That is what I think explains Abraham. Remember, he never owned a piece of property. He finally bought one for his dear wife. Here was this man who was promised everything, but nothing would satisfy—only that city. He looked for it.
I believe that is a clear message of Hebrews. You know, he saw Jerusalem. Many people might debate that, but when Melchizedek appeared—the king—you remember when Abraham defeated the four kings and rescued Lot, who was always fumbling into trouble?
Melchizedek appears: priest of the Most High God, king of righteousness, king of Salem. Salem is Jerusalem. He saw something.
He did not just imagine it. When he saw this king, this one who had no beginning and no end of days, when he saw this one who had no father and no mother, he saw the King of Salem—Jerusalem. And that was his motivating force.
Not only that, he saw something else. When he went in Genesis 22 to Moriah, Mount Moriah, and God said, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him,” upon the mountain that I shall show you—you remember that.
How Abraham was tested. All he ever wanted was an heir. He had the heir, and God said, “Sacrifice him.”
But that day, when he went to Mount Moriah and the angel of the Lord—which was the Lord Jesus Himself, an Old Testament expression of the Lord Jesus Himself—held back that knife, he saw the one caught in the thicket. God Himself would provide the offering.
He saw Moriah. Mount Moriah, if you look, is the place of the building of the temple of God in Jerusalem. Mount Moriah is the place where God’s sacrifice would be made. That is what he saw. It was not Isaac.
There is another one, I think, in Nehemiah. I think Nehemiah is an amazing man. I love the fact that at the family conference they said, “Well, he was just an ordinary man.” I do not know about you, but that gives me much hope.
He was the king’s cupbearer, and he had it made in the palace of Shushan. He had anything he wanted, except maybe he would get a bad taste of wine and he would exit. He would lay down his life for the king.
But one day, he inquired of his friends. He said, “Come to me. Tell me about Jerusalem. Tell me about Jerusalem.”
His friend and the others came and said, “The walls are burned. It is in ruins.” And it broke his heart. He was never the same.
The palace meant nothing to him from that moment on. It was only Jerusalem that filled his vision, and that great work of God. He knew he could not do it. There was no question.
So the first thing he did when he heard this devastating news was fall down, it says, before the God of heaven. Why is that? Because there was no testimony on the earth. He was no longer the God of the heavens and the earth; He was only the God of the heavens.
But thank God, when His great work was completed, in a short time, when God did it, He was God of the heavens and the earth. Do you understand?
I will never forget: my whole life was changed when I read Brother Sparks’ book, The Recovery of the Lord’s Testimony in Fullness. I was changed forever. That was back in the early seventies.
Now, I know some of you younger people do not like us old guys revisiting the glory days, but those days changed me forever. I saw something. I read that book.
This world no longer meant what it had meant to me. Jerusalem—that glory that He was after—filled my thoughts and heart. It did the same for Linda, and it did the same for Jessica many years later.
I will never forget, Stephen, Brother Kong shared in December 1973 those three messages when he visited Richmond. He shared on Nehemiah, and I will never forget that word.
Just like Nehemiah’s life was uprooted, all that he had—which was enormous—no longer meant anything to him. What meant everything to him was God’s great work and Jerusalem.
Well, the last thing: what about the effect of this vision? Clearly, it affected Abraham. Clearly, it affected Nehemiah. The question is: will it affect us? Will it have the same kind of impact?
I always remember Lance, in his eloquent way of speaking, would quote to us—and Brother Kong—Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” That is King James.
Or in Darby: “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” Then I think what happens to the people of God is they become their own king and their own master. It is their own life, their own future, and their own family.
Now listen, I am not against any of those things. I love chasing my grandchildren around. I do not know if they love it, but I love it.
But here is what happens when there is no vision. It says in the very last verse of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
I think, in some ways, we are living in the days of Judges. It is not what God wants. It is not His great work. Everyone is doing what they think is right. We have become gods to ourselves. May the Lord deliver us.
Well, this is the burden the Lord has laid on my heart. I think of 2 Chronicles 16:9. It is about Asa, king of Judah, who was a bad man. It was really about judgment, if you read it. But it says something spectacular.
“The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,” looking for ones—looking for ones—that He can make strong.
I believe those who see this concluding vision are the ones our Lord is looking for. I believe these are just a few examples of what the Lord is looking for.
And what He will say in the end is that wonderful word in Psalm 87. I will read you just these verses as we close.
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Verse 5 says:
Yea, of Zion it shall be said,
This one and that one was born in her;
And the Most High Himself will establish her.
Is that not encouraging? Then he goes on to say in verse 6:
The Lord will count, when He writeth up the peoples,
This one was born there. Selah.
Will the Lord say of you and me in the end: You were born there? You were born there. Zion was your home. Jerusalem was your dwelling.
You now have a new vocation. You are involved in His great work. And that, I believe, is the story of this concluding vision.
Father, we come to You knowing full well we cannot explain these grand things. They are unexplainable for humans. But the Holy Spirit can explain them.
You can write these things into our hearts. You can cause us to be people who know this concluding vision and make it our vocation.
Lord, You can cause us to be not only those who know it, but people who see it, who are looking for it, who are longing for it, and who are living in it.
Only You can do this precious, great work. But You are looking. You are looking for ordinary men and women who can join You in this great work.
May You do that. We ask these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.