Chap. 21

EV 21{In the former part of this chapter we saw the glory' of the heavenly Jerusalem, and her own intrinsic blessing; now we have before us her relative position, and the blessing of which she is the vessel also for others.
In vers. 22-24 we have two thoughts presented to us, worship and testimony. In the Golden City we get both, and the worship is direct and immediate, for there was "no temple therein." Before Christianity came in, there was no testimony to the world; but when grace had come in, and God had shown out what He was to sinners, then there was a testimony to carry the know-ledge of it to the world. It was not so in the Jewish. system. God had then a temple, but there was no testimony in the temple to call the Gentiles in. There was a temple for worship, a testimony among the people in whose midst he dwelt; hut there was no testimony sent out to the Gentiles. God never manifested Himself, He was hid among the people He had formed around Him; even the. High Priest went in with a cloud of incense " lest he die." But now that the Gospel has come in, it is the reverse of this. God, being known in love to those within, sends forth a testimony of His love to sinners without; whilst those within can worship in perfect peace. The moment Christ came, God was revealed to men; and the moment the veil was rent by the death of Christ, there was immediate and perfect access into the presence of God, and perfect love flowing out to the world. And, therefore, we find these two things here; no veil, and perfect access into the presence of God, and necessarily the testimony of the love that brought us there. There is no temple there, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And if those within would speak of the temple, it is of God Himself that they must speak.
" And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine on it; for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof." There was no need of light from another medium, no need of sun or moon; for the glory of God did lighten it. There was the full display of His glory. It was not a mere testimony about God, but God Himself was there, filling it with light. " The glory of God did lighten it," but it is added, " the Lamb is the light thereof." The Lamb is the one in whom the glory is manifested, and by whom it is displayed. The glory is too brilliant, too absolute to lay hold of an affection, wonderful as it is, an object is still wanting for the heart, therefore I get an object which fixes me in the midst of it; just as I cannot fix my eye on the light which pervades a room, though I can on the candle from which it flows. If a blaze o glory fills a place, I shall be lost, as it were, in the midst of it; but here I get a known person who carries all the glory. Here, I find the Lamb, whom I had known down here in suffering love; and in the midst of all the brightness my heart is fixed and at rest.
The glory is divine that is needed for perfection, and that God may be everything; but God, in his nature, cannot be made an instrument of service-the Lamb is the light thereof. " And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it." Saved from terrible judgments, they no longer " sacrifice to their net, nor burn incense to their drag," nor yet " walk in the sparks that they kindled." They will see the light in us, and walk by it. We ought to shine in spirit practically now, the nations ought to see the light of God and of the Lamb in us now; but in that day it will be perfectly accomplished. If there be any light now from God in this dark world, it is in the Church, though the candlestick burns but dimly; but in that day, when there will be nothing in us to dim the light, what a bright light it will be for the world! We shall be the light; the perfect manifestation of the light in which we shall walk; for we shall see God and the Lamb, and be the perfect manifestation of it to others. Even now, to the extent that I am enjoying God in my own soul, I shall have power to manifest Him to another; for my only desire will be that God and the Lamb may be glorified in me. But though, now I find so many hindrances to this, in that day, without anything between me and God, I shall worship God without a temple and without a cloud. We shall see the glory in Him, and the world shall see it in us. Thus we have the double joy of first knowing Him for ourselves, and then of communicating this to others. If I could be more faithful to give out Christ's light, what a joy it would be! Seeing Him first for myself, and then giving out the light that others might see Him in me as the epistle of Christ, for such we are declared to be. We should not be satisfied with our own individual joy in Him, but, as we learn to estimate Him, desire that He might be glorified in us, and by others through us. In that day of glory, everything in which God has dealt with man, or in which he has displayed His ways and thoughts, will be brought out to manifest the stability of God. All that has been put into man's hand to exercise him, and in man's band has failed, will then be brought out in perfection; thus proving the failure to have been in man and not in the thing committed to him. Take man himself. How has he failed! In the second Adam God will be, and forever, fully glorified. Creation itself is witness to the same truth. The law was given to man, and he failed to keep it; but in that day it will be written on their hearts. Then take power, which God had given to man, to use for his glory, and how did he use it. To rise up in pride against God-enforced duty, and at last crucify His Son. We find all combining against Christ, both the Chief Priests, and Herod and Pontius Pilate. " The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Christ." But in that day, " the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." Then again, after His rejection, the only thing God had for a testimony, was the Church, failing though it be; as the only thing He can now own as witness, is that which owns His rejected Son. But in that day we shall be all that we ought to be now. In that day, " the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of the city," and the " Lamb is the light thereof." He will then attract every eye, and fill the heart of every worshipper within, and be admired in them by those without.
" And the gates shall not at all be shut by day." There is no fear there, no war or dread; all is perfect security. And night there is none! All that is ended, and there is no more darkness.
" And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it." There is not only the absence of evil, but the universal acknowledgment that " the heavens do rule." Both kings and people bring their glory and honor into it. Unto whom? To the poor despised Carpenter's Son, and to those who walked with Him. When He was in the world they could not see His glory; but they shall see it, and bow down to it, when He comes in glory. Those who saw it when it was hidden from the world, and were hidden too with Him, shall be with Him and share His glory when He shall be manifested. Love brought Him down in humiliation, but He could not clothe Himself in vanity; and so if God's glory is to be manifested, His person is to be the display of it. It is not the effort of man that makes much of a thing, but it is Christ alone that attracts; and those who will there be vessels of His glory, will be those who simply follow Christ in lowliness; making everything of Christ, and nothing of themselves.
" And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth." There is great relief in this. For if we speak now of our poor hearts, surely defilement gets in. And if we look at the Church while under responsibility-although God graciously keeps His saints-defilement creeps in, although it ought not. But there, blessed be God, nothing that defileth can enter! There holiness can rest. It has no rest here. Down here, in this sin-stricken world, these two things, holiness and rest, must, as regards what is without, be apart; because sin is down here, and Christ is not down here. Watching is not rest. It is faithfulness, and brings its joy, but it is toil and not rest, although, through grace, it is a blessing! But there holiness will rest, and that will be the highest happiness. Of course, God Himself will be the highest; but of that which flows from God, holiness will be the highest. It is that which characterizes our state; for God Himself is love.
" Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie." Here we have something more than the new nature. That we have now; but there nothing can come in to disturb it, nothing can come in to soil the golden streets of that city, nothing can enter to distract the soul as to God and His truth. There will be no abomination nor anything that maketh a lie; in the idolatry of an ordinance coming in between the soul and God, turning it aside from the simple truth, that God is love. For whatever is not entirely and wholly of God, is an abomination and maketh a lie. Then there will be no ornament worn which tells of the idolatry of the heart, taking something apart from God. O, if any one is really interested in the welfare of the Church of God, his heart Must be ready to break when he sees the many thousand things that come in to distract the affections of the saints; the many thousand forms of idolatry, " the abomination and that which maketh a lie," coming in to separate between us and the One God and Father, and the One Risen Head. It may be worldliness, ordinances, circumcision; in short, whatever makes a lie. Paul's heart was in an agony when he saw these things coming in. Look at his epistle to the Galatians, when they were turning away from Christ to circumcision; or at that to the Colossians, who were slipping away from the Risen Head and turning to ordinances, which is idolatry and worldliness; thus departing from Christ as the only object before the soul, which is an abomination against the truth, and therefore " a lie." But, blessed be God, into this glorious city there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth. No abomination shall enter there, no idolatry, not one principle to turn aside from God, or to make a lie, disturbing and distracting the affections from their one object, Christ. Not only what is good is there, but what secures it from the introduction of evil and all that brings in corruption.
All this, however, is negative; but we get what is positive as well. And what is positive? Who shall enter into this heavenly Jerusalem? " They who are written in the Lamb's book of life." It is not said "they who are clean," it is not by the cold fact that they are dean. that they are characterized; but the affections are linked up with the Lamb's heart, while we know that clean they are. They who are written in His book are according to His heart. And they are all there. All that the Lamb had in His heart from eternity; all for whom He had girded His loins and made Himself a servant forever, saying, " I will not go out free"; all are there; for they were associated with Him, and they shall be associated with Him, and with His heart and thoughts forever.
There are, also, the relationships of the place; and if our minds are ever so vague as to the understanding of the things, though they may be as obscure as the symbols used, yet we shall get positive thoughts by the Spirit of God from them, when we take what Christ is, and has taught us as the key to it all. The moment you get your heart and spirits into the tone of Christ's mind, and have your thoughts occupied with what He is, and with what has occupied His thoughts and His heart- with His house and His glory-then everything takes its proper place, and your heart and understanding become enlarged, to comprehend this blessed book. If I am living in a house, everything in it is natural to me, and there are every day details which fill up the mind; and if I have got the house, I know what I shall find there and what I shall not; and that is really spiritual under-standing. If I know, in any little measure, what exercise of heart is, I know that Christ is the answer to every desire that He Himself has awakened in my soul; and it is only those who are spiritual who can understand.
EV 22{In chap. 22 we get what is relative, because the aspect of the city towards what is down here on the earth-in connection with Christ, of course-but its blessings are towards the earth. The tree of life grows in heaven, and belongs to heaven, yet its virtues flow out towards the earth. And though the Church is in glory, as long as there is a need to be met, love is to be exercised; and the Lord uses the Church for this. It is in this sense that is said, "His servants shall serve Him," which implies that there are those who need serving. The nations get healing, but there will be no need of healing in heaven. This service brings in new joy, for the members of the Church will not there have lost this honor of being the instrument to others; we shall have the privilege of being the channels through which the blessings will flow to the earth. And so now we ought to be the channels of love and grace to the world, as also more especially to the saints, while needing it here below.
" And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." And there was also " the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits," etc. The tree of life was there, but there is no mention of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life was the blessing; the tree of knowledge of good and evil the test of responsibility, of which Adam ate and was lost.
These two principles, Life and Responsibility, have run on from that moment up to this very hour, and will continue to run on until God has made all things anew. Some, having eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, while in the nature consequent on this, cannot eat of the fruit of the tree of life. But God, in the aboundings of His grace, has given us more than ever we lost; for the spring of grace has flowed out to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who undertook all our responsibilities, took upon Himself all the wrath due to our sins, died under it, and rose again in the power of an endless life; in which new life, being first in Him and afterward communicated to me, I can eat of the fruits of that tree of life, once barred from me by reason of sin. Now that sin is forever put away, and in that new nature which is incapable of sinning, I can freely eat the fruits of the tree of life; as Jesus says, in addressing the Church of Ephesus, " To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God," thus bringing us into the enjoyment of the full result of all-of the full ripe fruits that everlasting life in Jesus can produce; the outward manifestation of it shall heal the nations, as, indeed, it has healed us. But I would again remark, that all this blessing is the fruit of free and sovereign grace. For if there had been no responsibility on man's part, there would have been no need of a Savior. It is because we were totally lost that grace has its place. It was because I had totally failed, having followed my own will instead of doing God's will, that God has come in in grace and brought me nearer to Himself in redemption, than I had been set at the first in creation and innocence; for now I am created anew in Christ Jesus.
" The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." The nations cannot eat of the ripe fruit of tree, because they need healing; but the Church, thus possessing the grace of life herself, will go forth in healing grace to those who need it. If you turn to Isa. 60, you will see the contrast between the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem shown in a remark-able manner, although in some respects the heavenly one is drawn from the earthly. In Isaiah, we find nothing about healing in the earthly Jerusalem, but the reverse. We read there-" The nation and kingdom that will not serve Thee shall perish yea these nations shall be utterly wasted." But in the heavenly Jerusalem -" the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." Thus we see that Israel will be a test of legal responsibility, as it ever was; but it will be the vessel of power and dominion. Israel of old had no ministry, because it had no love to carry forth to other people; but it had a priesthood within, because the veil not being rent by Christ's death, they could not get direct to God, and therefore needed a priest. But now with us we have no priest on earth, because by the death of Christ we are brought into the immediate presence of God, and therefore a ministry is committed to us; that is, we are called upon to testify of the grace that brought us there. And, therefore, when in the glory we shall be going forth to the healing of the nations, for whilst ourselves feeding on the ripe fruit of the Tree of Life up there, the outgoings of love will reach down here.
" And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God, and the Lamb shall be in it, and' His servants shall serve Him." God was saying to Israel under the Law, "If you defile yourselves you will bring the curse." But in the heavenly city, which will be a source of blessing, there will be "no more curse." It is not here, however, children with the Father, but the throne of God in majesty; not as Sinai, which brought a curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb-ministry and grace. That is, the throne of God and the Lamb is the spring and source of the blessing, whilst the channel through which this grace will flow will be the Church, and so it is said, " His servants shall serve Him," ministering to those who need it. It is not intrinsic joy, but service that is the characteristic here. And as there will be no flaw in the blessing within, so there will be no failure in the service without. If the light is perfect, so will the service be. I shall not have to canvass my conduct then as I now have to do, saying, " O if I had been faithful enough I should have said this or done that; or if there had been love enough in my heart I should have gone here or gone there;" but there it will be a perfect service flowing from a perfect source! What rest such service will be! For " they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads." Not only will they serve rightly, but men will see that they do so, the perfect witness to the name they bear, the full confession of it. " His name shall be in their foreheads." And here I would remark, that it is not that we should be doing so much service that should be before us, but that Christ should be glorified in what we do, and we not seen in it; God's mark being in our foreheads, that all may see whose we are and whom we serve.
" And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light," etc. The Lord God giveth them light, therefore they need no candle, no borrowed light, for they get immediate light from God Himself. He Himself giveth them light, so now, if at any time you have walked by the light of another's candle less spiritual than yourselves, you must have been led wrong, that other not having reached the same measure as yourselves; but when God Himself giveth us light, there is no uncertainty then as to what we have to do. If in any given case I have to say I do not know what to do, then immediately I say my eye is not single; for if it were, my whole body would be full of light, and my obedience would be as perfect as the light. What, then, am I to do? I am to bring my difficulty to God, even my Father, who will guide me, for He is perfect grace.
" And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to spew unto His servants the things that must shortly be done." Here the scene closes.
Then in verses 7, 12, and 20, the Lord, three times over, speaks of His coming quickly. In the seventh verse it is connected with the prophecy, and addressed to those who are connected with the warnings given. In the twelfth verse it is universal. And in the twentieth verse it is connected with another subject; it is in answer to the desire of the Bride for His coming, that He says surely I come quickly."
The position of all the parties is given. In the seventh verse it is those " who keep the sayings of the prophecy," after " the things that are." The Church, as a witness for God on the earth, having failed, the many antichrists having come in, God in His great mercy gives directions down to the very points where all is destroyed, and then all is closed. The mystery of iniquity Both already work, and will to the end, so that the last time is come. He is ready to judge, though longsuffering in mercy. That has been the position of the Church ever since. Corrupt men have crept in unawares; they were in already in the apostles' days, whereby we know it is the last time. Paul, Peter, John and Jude, all testify to the germ of iniquity as already existing; so that in the prophetic part, He says, " he that is unjust, let him be unjust still," etc. Yet mercy delays the execution of the judgment; and it is blessing to those who keep the sayings of this book. And the sayings of this book is a prophecy given to the servants, when Laodicea is judged and spued out of Christ's mouth.
In the twelfth verse it is universal: " to give to every man," etc. Here he has done with the prophetic part of the book, and goes far beyond it, " to give to every man." Not to those under the beast, but to the general condition of man on the earth. It may be questionable how far it refers to Gog and Magog, because it is not told us; but His coming here has a reference to all, " according to their works."
In the sixteenth verse we get a kind of exordium to the whole book; those to whom the prophecy was given and• the Church: we get Christ here in His double character, in respect of the divine government, as the Root of David, the source from which David sprung; and as the Offspring of David, David's heir to sit on David's throne. And then, besides that, He is " the Bright and Morning Star;" which is the character in which He presents Himself to the Church, before He arises as the Sun, to usher in the day of judgment to the world. He is connected with the Church before the day appears, so that we have our portion with Him before the day appears. And so, in the knowledge of this relationship, as soon as He says " I am the Bright and Morning Star ", " the Spirit and the Bride say come." He does not say to the Church " behold I come quickly." But, the Holy Ghost in the Church having given her the consciousness of this relationship to Him, the moment He presents Himself as the " Bright and Morning Star," she immediately replies " come!" There being nothing to be settled between Him and the Church, her whole thought is taken up with the revelation of Jesus Himself in this character. She has one simple thought, " He is coming," and she says " come 1" She knows very well that He is coming quickly to judge the world, but she is the Bride and not the world.
Then we get a lovely picture of the Church while waiting for Him. " The Spirit and the Bride say Come; and let him that heareth say Come." She calls on all who have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd to say " Come." She is not content that there should be any Christians who should not know this relationship in their own souls. " Let him that heareth say Come!" Is that all? No; " Let him that is athirst come." Her own affections are fixed on the Bridegroom, she is longing for His return; but meanwhile she would draw all to the fountain. She is thirsting for the Bridegroom; but she turns to the world and says " I have something for you to hear." For while down here, she has the Holy Ghost in her, and therefore can say to others, " I have something for you to hear; I have water of life for you who are thirsting." Her desire is for the Glorious One, and that all should be gathered in through grace to that water of life. The river being free and the Church knowing the power of grace, she says, " Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." The Church does not say " Come to me." Christ said " Come unto me." But the water of life flows there, and she can invite souls to come and drink, invite them to drink where she has drunk in Christ. And if any one is saying " Come to me," it is evident they have never had the water of life themselves; for if they had they would have such a sense of their emptiness that they would never say to any one, " Come to me." Then mark the three " Comes." He says, " Surely I come quickly." The Church does not say Come quickly, but " Come!" He is the One she wants, and He answers her desires, and says, " I come, surely I come quickly!" It is the Lord's own heart's answer to the desires He has kindled. And the book closes with " Amen, Even so come Lord Jesus."
How blessedly, when He has closed the testimony, does He thus bring the heart of the Church back from everything to Himself. So when you have done with your duties get back to Christ, or else your duties will get between you and Christ. It is no matter what occupies us. The judgments of God will surely come; but you cannot have your affections formed and fashioned by judgments. Conscience may be solemnized by them, but the heart can never be won. Therefore, whatever the duties, the service, or the trials, let the heart get back to Christ Himself, the one object for our affections. In the glory, though we have a part, it is put on, as it were, we are clothed in it, the one object Christ Himself. Let it be so here. The Lord give us, whatever we are occupied with, to get back, by the power of the Holy Ghost, in all our service to this sanctuary, even to Christ Himself, the once lowly but now exalted One, and to fix our hearts on Him! Amen.