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The Cross and the City of God

by T. Austin-Sparks

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines 1930 (Volume 8). Messages as spoken.

Contents

Chapter 1 - A Consideration of Ultimate Things

Chapter 2 - The Gates of the City

Chapter 3 - Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty

Chapter 4 - The City of Light

Chapter 5 - The City of God

Chapter 1 - A Consideration of Ultimate Things

Rev. 21:9-11 "He carried me away in Spirit to a mountain great and high and showed me the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone clear as crystal."

Rev. 21:15 "The building of the wall thereof was jasper and the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass."

Rev. 21:21 "The street (way) was pure gold as it were transparent glass."

Rev 22:1 "And He showed me a river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."

Rev. 3:12 "I will write on him the Name of my God, the name of the City of my God... that cometh down out of heaven from my God, and my own new Name."

Heb. 11:10 "The City which hath the foundations, whose builder and architect is God."

Heb. 11:16 "God is not ashamed to be called their God; He hath prepared for them a City."

Heb. 12:22 "The City of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem."

Heb. 13:14 "We seek the city which is to come."

Gal. 4:25-26 "Jerusalem which is above is free which is our Mother."

Phil. 3:20 "Our citizenship in Heaven."

Our main difficulty in contemplating the City of God will be to get the literal and material out of mind, we are dealing pre-eminently with what is spiritual.

The City of God is not merely a place to which we are going, but is the Church of God of which we are part.

We are going to Heaven, a place; we are not going to spaceless clouds for all eternity; but in considering the City of God, the Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem, we are considering the Church, the Body of Christ; and are only dealing with the nature and characteristics of that City as related to the ultimate things. We are not now touching questions related to times and dispensations. The last thing in the Word of God is a City and everything heads up to that. He is related to the City and the City to Him.

It is a concrete and all inclusive presentation in finality of all the spiritual elements and features of divine life in the individual and in the Church; the full and final expression of conformity to the image of God's Son; "chosen and fore-ordained to be conformed to the image of His Son." Rom. 8:29.

Here in Rev. 21 we see the City of God, a realisation of that fore-ordination told of in Rom. 8:29, and it is only another way of contemplating the glorified Son of Man, in His corporate expression and all that is in Christ for the believer being realised.

We must ever remember, the one central and dominating factor is the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, because everything here is the expression of Calvary's work and is the realisation of all that the Lord Jesus came to do by His death and resurrection. The elements of divine life are spirituality, heavenliness, transparency, elevation, stability, fulness, love, fellowship, sovereignty, government, openness and exclusiveness, light, inwardness, glory, and many more.

We are dealing with spiritual factors that go to make up the Church of God, the New Jerusalem, and when you see the Church of God presented here in Rev. 21 you have it presented in its final fulness in Christ, to which we are now moving. Compare Eph. 1:21-22, as things are now it is the building of the Church, the growing up into Him.

Let us stay awhile with the features and the characteristics of the City of God.

The First Feature is Heavenliness and Spirituality

It "came out from heaven" therefore it must have been first in heaven before it could come down out from heaven.

"They looked for a heavenly city" Heb. 11:10. "He looked for the City which hath the foundation whose builder and maker was God."

"Our citizenship is in heaven" Phil. 3:20.

We find much in the Word of God about material for the heavenly City, and the suggestion runs clearly through the Word that since the fall, everything God has brought in is heavenly and not earthly. God's people are of heaven, a heavenly people, and not of the earth; a heavenly seed, and the heavenly seed began in type with Abel, and there can be traced out the heavenly line all through the Word.

Cain is a man of the earth and as such is rejected. Later Israel becomes the type of the heavenly people - they are a people taken out of the earth, extricated from the earth and its ways, taken out from Egypt, through the blood of the Lamb Who is now their true life and its source; cut off by the Red Sea and out in the Wilderness under government of the "Pillar of cloud" - the Holy Spirit; a people as out from the earth and unto God. This in type constituted a heavenly people, a people from above and not of the earth.

The predominating colour in Israel's camp was heavenly blue. Each had to have a piece of blue like unto the High Priest's ephod; typical of heavenliness.

John's Gospel is pre-eminently the Gospel for the Church and its main emphasis is heavenliness and spirituality - "born anew" "born from above" "born of God."

The word 'LIFE' in John is always related to the heavenlies, it is heavenly life "I am the life" "I am come that ye might have life." He came to give in His own person this life: "In Him was life" "I am came down out of heaven."

In John 2 He takes up the relationship of the Lord's people. John 2:4 literally is "woman what have you and I in common?" As in Matt. 12:48-50 "...but He answered Who is my mother and who are my brethren? For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother." Yes, the heavenly relationships of this born-out-from-God people transcend earthly relationships all the time; it is a bond in the spirit, deeper and more abiding than any earthly bond; the interests of the heavenlies and the Lord's things far transcends interests of worldly relationships and concerns. The more you have in common with the Lord, the less you have in common with the world, and the greater the strain when you have to be in it though not of it. You violate the laws of your spiritual life and nature if you ignore this spiritual relationship, and cripple your own spiritual effectiveness; it will be impossible finally for the heavenly people to have any fellowship in spirit with the old creation.

Rev. 21:22 "I saw no temple there" Why? The people are a worshipping people - they are worship; it is spiritual worship not localised.

John 4:20 "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but ye (Jews) say that in Jerusalem must men worship." The Lord answered, "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers." The Father is the seeker of the eternal City as well as its builder and architect.

The entire sustenance of the Lord's people is spiritual and heavenly (see John 6). Life, sustenance, development, maturity, the whole basis of life and growth of the City of God is spiritual. Spiritual growth by heavenly food and spiritual sustenance by feeding on the living Bread from heaven - "I am the Bread of Life."

And all service is out from above - heavenly, words and works from above; that which the Father doeth and speaketh, John 5:19,36. How does He see what the Father doeth? Only by the Spirit - Matt, 10:20. "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." All this is not of the earth, it is heavenly, and is all gathered up and related to the heavenly Person, the Person from above, the Lord Jesus "I came forth from the Father." John 16:28. "I came down from heaven." John 6:38, and yet having all abiding residence in heaven even while on earth. "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." John 1:18.

Pass to the Ephesian letter, written especially for the Church. How much it has to say about "in the heavenlies"; compare Eph. 1:3; 2:6; 4:10.

The Lord's people are so slow to accept the implications and cost of this. We do so want something on the earth, something of the nature of a quick return for our labour. Some gratification to our senses, something to see. We do groan so constantly under the labours of the Lord to get us cut off from the earth and to get us a heavenly people. We so often fail to see what the Lord is doing. We must be extricated from earthliness if we are to be made heavenly in character, and this is going to cost if we yield to the Lord's hand. The power that raised Christ from the dead, the exceeding greatness of that might is called into operation to get the Church into its right place in the heavenlies, cut off from the earth, in order that it might come down out from heaven (Eph. 1:19-20) God's great might called forth to extricate us from earthliness. Ps. 87 - "His foundation is in the mountain, the Lord loveth the gates of Zion."

Rev. 21:10 "He carried me... to a mountain... and showed me the Holy City, New Jerusalem... the bride and wife of the Lamb."

It is interesting to note, the same angel took him into the wilderness to see Babylon, Rev. 17:1-5. No need for a high mountain from which to see that wicked city, it is of the earth; but the Holy City is most high.

In Psalm 87 God's City is set over against all other cities mentioned in the Psalm.

Egypt and Zion

Rahab - Egypt: symbol of natural resource. Abraham comes into the land - God's land of promise by faith and found a supreme test of faith waiting him there; found the heathen in occupation, their idolatrous altars everywhere and a great famine in the land. So he turned to Egypt as an alternative to apparent contradiction and denial; to Egypt, the place of natural resource, Abraham turned under testing.

Whenever Israel's spirituality was low they turned to Egypt for help; when, because their faith was out of order, they found the Lord no longer sufficient.

A little natural resource will mar the City of God and bring a cloud. In the City of God all natural resource is cut off, not permitted by God, and by God cut off, brought to an end.

Egypt doesn't come into the New Jerusalem, they are two different worlds, one earthly the other heavenly.

"Glorious things are spoken of thee, O City of God." Ps. 87.3. Have you dealt with Egypt by knowing the cutting off from natural resources? Do we accept this law of the City of God? Natural resource in spiritual things is not admitted in the City of God, and all natural resource must come to an end. Once you know the Lord as your resource you are not depressed to hear natural resources are cut off, you don't want Egypt. Egypt has got to be smitten, and the Lord is smiting Egypt for us and taking away our natural resources in spiritual things.

The "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them." 1 Cor. 2:14. This cutting off from natural resource is foolishness to the natural man; is it foolishness to you?

"Things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into the heart of man... but unto us God revealed them through the Spirit"; "the things of God none knoweth save the Spirit of God"; "we received not the Spirit of bondage, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things which were freely given to us by God." 1 Cor. 2:9-12.

To see the City of God needs spiritual capacity. The Blood of the Lamb comes in between you and Egypt, the sea rolls between and after that the earth is but a wilderness, resourceless for them, they now live by a heavenly life in a whole and utter dependence upon God. Egypt has been smitten and is lying behind on the other side of the Red Sea; oh blessed position! "I will make mention of Egypt, but God loveth the gates of Zion."

Babylon and Zion

Babylon: the product of human effort and the glory of fallen man. "Let us build a city... let us make us a name"; Gen. 11:4; and in Dan. 4:29-30 "Is not this the great Babylon which I have built... by the might of my power and the glory of my majesty?"

Here we see the glory of natural religious man, for we note that Babylon is always religious. Turn to the book of the Revelation and we find Babylon dressed in religious garb. Babylon is always religious, the religion of fallen man, Satan inspired. Gen. 10:8-10, the beginning of this kingdom was Babel. What you can make or reach by your own effort, that is man's product by his own resources. Note, that Babel was the first city built on the new earth, the earth that had come through the flood of divine judgment on that ground, typifying the ground of regeneration, this religious construction of man's ambitions in the realm of religious activity. And this thing, this religion of natural man is with us today; yes, it will patronise God, even bringing His Name into it, as of old - Babel - "Gate of God," but touch it with the eternal fact and purpose of the Cross, bring Calvary's work and claim upon it and man will rise up in enmity against the preaching of the Cross by the Holy Spirit, and defend his natural religious work and worship, and in the background will be discerned the Satanic hate and rebellion against God; and we see also in it Lucifer's bid for universal worship. Isaiah 14:14. It is our own glory in the realm where things are exclusively of God; yet how often there is found even here a personal interest in the things and work of God. Is not this so with the spirit of jealousy, disclosing a secret reservation of some personal interest? Or it may be pride, and assertion of "my right," wanting to be something, wanting to see our efforts produce something for God. All this will result in confusion and loss of effectiveness.

See the difference between the Corinthian and Ephesian believers. At Corinth they wanted something with man's name on it (1 Cor. 1:12-15). In Ephesus it is in the heavenlies with God's Name on it (Eph. 1:3,22, 2:20).

Philistia and Zion

Philistia: type of man's natural mind intruding into divine things; the people of Philistia are always in the Word called uncircumcised. Man's natural mind taking hold of divine things apart from the Cross. In Babylon we see natural man's effort. In Philistia we find natural man's reason taking hold of the things of God and intruding into them.

There is a preaching a of the Cross in the wisdom of words that makes it of none effect (1 Cor 1:17). The Devil does not altogether put out the Cross; the Cross can be preached without the preacher having been to the Cross; this is a subtle work of the devil.

Tyre. Business world; expansion the order of the day, but expansion and activities under the authority of the Prince of this World, the commercial spirit brought into the things of God, using the World's way, advertisement, much machinery, organisation, etc., this is not the way that the City of God is built.

Ethiopia, turn to Acts 8:26-30. The Ethiopian reading from Isa. 53:7 - Philip meets him with the question "Understandest thou?" and he replies "How can I except one teach me." Here is the type of the darkened mind concerning the Person of the Lord Jesus. It takes the light of God to shine into our hearts, to reveal the Lord Jesus. It takes divine shining to show Who Jesus is. 2 Cor. 4:6.

Over against these cities, Zion is placed, and is different. It is not that which we see in the other cities, it is different, and those born there find also their well springs there. Zion is heavenly, and the Lord loveth the gates of Zion; and those born in Zion say "All my wellsprings are in thee; nothing now in Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, etc".

Zion and Jerusalem though inseparable are not the same, Zion is only a part of Jerusalem, the citadel where the King dwells. Zion typifies the Lord Jesus. He as Zion is altogether different from all these other things represented here. He is God's Ultimate, and that to which God is moving; the result of the spiritual process which is going on now.

The Lord is seeking a people cut off from the earth and its ways, and brought into relationship with Himself, and it must be true of them that their affection is set on things above, not on the earth. Col. 3:1,2 - "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

Remember resurrection and ascension is one act, see John 20:17. "Touch me not for I am not yet ascended unto the Father... but I ascend unto my Father and your Father." "Touch me not," "don't make of Me something earthly on the part of natural affections." He is now a heavenly Lord and that fact has got to be recognised.

We have got to be a people whose life is wholly on the things of God, living out from heavenly resources and fulfilling a heavenly vocation; partaking of a heavenly nature. This is made possible by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven, for the Bride, and to take her back to the Resurrection Man, that she may come forth as Bride out from heaven. Are we walking, living, in the Spirit, being cut off from the earth?

We are "in Christ," in the second Man, the Lord from heaven, are we living our life in Him? Is this true of us in life, nature, sustenance, service, are we looking for the Lord from heaven?

The City of God is most vividly distinctive from all that marks other cities of the earth; compare Rev. 21 with Matt. 11. "Woe unto you"; and it is not without significance that Matt. 11 closes with "Come unto Me." Come out from those cities upon which judgment is announced - come unto the city of Rest - that in which God finds His satisfaction. "Come unto Me and I will give you rest"; His City; in these Spiritual elements - where He is pleased to dwell.

"The throne of God and the Lamb shall be therein." Rev. 22:3.

Chapter 2 - The Gates of the City

We have seen that the Holy City, New Jerusalem, is the nature of God's own people consummated, perfected, and glorified.

He is now constituting this city through the Cross by the Eternal Spirit; shaping the individual members after His own image, the image of His Son; and for this we were ordained (Rom. 8:29). The people of God are a proclamation of Christ (2 Cor. 3 and 4).

The Gates of the City

In Revelation 21 the gates of the city are frequently mentioned as to number, measurement, position and nature; they are positioned by God the Builder and Architect of the city.

Gates throughout the Scriptures are symbolic of a spiritual feature; they stand for counsel. In ancient times the kings, rulers, and elders sat in the gate of the city and deliberated concerning the affairs of the people and the interests of the kingdom. Absalom met the leaders of the nation in the gate of the city.

Christ said, "I will build My Church and the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).

Wherever the Church is in power, there are active the counsels of Hades which seek to thwart, hinder and obstruct the power from going forth, but they cannot prevail against it, for the Lamb on the throne has the keys of Death and of Hades (Rev. 1:18). And He has said His church would upset all the counsels of Hell; and Hell's weapons have written on their blades, "It shall not prosper." The Lord hath decreed it.

In the Gates of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, are held the counsels of God; the administration of the Lord in the gates - the Lord united with His people in the secret counsels of His heart so these gates represent a coming into fellowship with the deep secrets of the Lord's heart. It is the Lord getting together His leaders, His elders, to discuss those inner secret things, known and understood only by those who are really one with Him in fellowship and desire; a talking over with these the affairs of citizenship and throne interests. All who will, may be included in this fellowship; it is for all who are with Him in His thought, intention and purpose. That is fellowship with the Lord in the inner things of His heart.

Trace the word "gates" through the Scriptures and you will find great richness, and as you trace out the Gates of God's House you will find spiritual elements there. "Thy gates praise" (Isa. 60:18). Always praise when there is complete fellowship with the Lord. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be lifted up ye everlasting doors and the King of Glory shall come in... strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle, Jehovah of Hosts, He is the King of Glory" (Ps. 24). Here is the Lord coming in through the gates of counsel, and unfolding of His glory.

Strength in the Word is also associated with gates and is there not strength in knowing the mind of the Lord? What strength there is in being in oneness with the will of God; admitted into fellowship with Him in His thought and purpose. What strength there is in that. Yes, there is strength in the gates when you know what the Lord is after; uncertainty always makes for weakness. Gates of iron and brass (Ps. 106:16) speaks of strength and resistance.

Suffering and Preciousness

Gates also speak of preciousness; "every several gate was of one pearl." How is the pearl formed? By a small piece of grit lodged in the opening of the oyster-shell. This wounds and pierces the oyster, so that it bleeds. This blood is acted upon by other elements and so the pearl is formed, but it has given its very life to make that value - a pearl.

In the Word of God, "pearl" is mentioned in terms of great endearment. He saw that in His church which was more than all the glory of heaven and He let go the glory of heaven unto suffering and death to secure His pearl, to gain His Church; He saw her as a pearl of great price, and He suffered and bled to secure her; Matt. 13:45,46; Phil. 2:1-11; Eph. 5:25-27.

So in thus sharing His secret counsels we must in measure know the fellowship of His sufferings. Every gate one pearl. Yes, there is only one way, death via the cross; but unto life triumphant over death, resurrection life.

The Lord suffered and died to get that people and bring them into fellowship with His own heart, endeared and sharing with Him His own counsels. Oh, to get to the heart of the Lord, to be endeared like that, oneness with Him in His own heart's desire; this is the strength, praise and glory of the gates of pearl.

There is only one way. Sin in the race called for something to meet the need of healing. Sin is disease, and the something to meet that is nothing less than the precious blood of the Lord Jesus; there is no other way, death to one means life to the other, the Cross is the gate of life.

The keepers of the gates, twelve angels. The Lord the Keeper, He gives charge concerning the gate of holy fellowship and counsel. He guards it.

"Open" access through grace into this fellowship; a coming into oneness with the Lord through grace. We get the openness of the gates and the exclusiveness of the walls. The gates are open, but it is a divinely guarded fellowship, nothing that defiles can enter by those gates. Sin, death, destruction cannot pass where the blood is, it has swallowed up death in victory.

Transparency in Everything

Transparency is a very prominent feature of this city -

"Jerusalem... her light clear as crystal" (Rev. 21:11).

"The city was pure gold like unto clear (transparent) glass" (Rev. 21:18).

"The street of the city pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21).

"The river of the water of life clear as crystal" (Rev. 22:1).

Yes, transparency is the very nature of this city, and it is the mark of the life of the people of God; crystal clearness, all clear, nothing dim.

Turn to Jer. 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart."

By grace we have been brought to renounce the hidden things of darkness, and God hath shined in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:1-6).

Mal. 3:3, "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and He will purify the sons of Levi as gold and silver." He does the refining necessary until He gets His pure gold. "The daughters of Zion... Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts" (Isa. 3:17, A.R.V.). "Jesus said, I have spoken openly in the world... in secret (under cover) I spake nothing." (John 18:20. "God shall judge the secrets of men... by Jesus Christ." (Rom. 2:16). "The secrets of his heart are made manifest." (1 Cor. 14:25). "Yea a sword shall pierce through thine own soul that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2:35).

All these passages emphasise an essential element in spiritual progress; for there can be no growth without absolute transparency. The entire history of spiritual things is the contrast of the state of light with darkness; truth with falsehood; purity with mixture; clearness with cloudiness; openness with secretiveness; reality with pretence; genuineness with imitation; sincerity with deceit; these two things are over against each other all the way through spiritual history.

Transparency on the one hand is utter, and has no degrees; there are no degrees of truth, only degrees of approach to truth and some go further than others in approach to truth, but truth is utter and final. So with transparency, it is not transparent if there is the most minute mixture in it, you get varied degrees of shades of approach to transparency but one shade of darkness, then all is not light. One little cloud (earth born) dims transparency; and these shades and clouds come from another realm than the realm of the glory of the divine nature.

God's purpose is to have a thing without the suggestion of cloudiness or mixture; and in order to build His City He must get rid of all that which is not transparent. Hence the necessity for the inworking of the Cross.

The measure of a man is what he is before God, and only that measure counts before the Lord. We may have measurements of one another in varying degrees, and we find something unsuspected that shocks us. The only measure is not our measurement of one another, but the Lord's measurement in that light which no man approacheth unto. If we would but adjust ourselves to that, we should find our rest there before the Lord. What is true in God's sight, that is finality. All the dealings of God with us are related to this transparency of character, and His purpose of securing a people unto Himself of utter transparency, pure gold, clear as crystal, partakers of the divine nature.

See Jacob and how God dealt with him. Why was it necessary for God to so deal with him? Was it not because he was bound up with the testimony of the Lord, and must he not therefore be transparent?

Jacob's scheming ways must give place to the Lord's openness. If Jacob deceives he will surely be deceived. "God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." It is a law. His purpose is to have a pure thing, and He will smite us to the ground with that thing within us; yes, that thing within us which is not transparent will be the very trap by which we fall. There is no secretiveness with God; all must come into the open before Him.

Delay, arrest, confusion, deadlock, these are all due to some secretiveness, some ulterior motive, something in the background not clear; that dark thing, that doubtful thing which is like a cloud or mist. That is the thing which is bringing the arrest, the confusion; that something that is not absolutely true, some secret thing that is not of God, not out from Him, but comes from the realm of our flesh and from the pit.

Progress is Hindered by Secretiveness

The city cannot proceed with anything like that. From the river at the centre to the walls on the circumference, all has to be utter transparency. All these thicknesses of our natural life, our soulish elements, arrest and confuse. There must be absolute transparency of spirit. Fogs come because we are not outright clear before God and man. Christian fellowships are wrecked upon this thing. Failure to apprehend spiritual truth is due to this. Lack of transparency prevents Divine revelation because there is not an open heaven.

Have you noticed the emphasis the Word puts on confession before God? There is no getting through with the Lord until there is confession. Why? He demands it; because it is a yielding up of that dark thing, an acknowledgement, a bringing of it into God's light for judgment and putting away. You will never get liberty before there has been confession before the Lord; it is a principle.

Fog is unredeemable and does not absorb one ray of heaven's radiant light; nothing can redeem spiritual fog but confession to the Lord, and cleansing by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. It is a law of spiritual growth that we have nothing hidden, nothing not clear and true.

This flesh of ours is a vaporous gaseous cesspool, and these exhalations of flesh blot out the face of God, put it in a mist, a fog, and there is no clear, strong going on in the way. Pride has robbed many of the Lord's children of fulness of life and light, and spiritual pride is pride in its worst form, there is nothing more blinding than pride.

Anger, a measure of the flesh rising up and pulling us earthward. Can you be angry and keep your flesh out of it? How often fellowships are spoiled by the uprising of this fleshly anger! Anger white and holy is a high altitude; but the cesspool of our flesh is behind much of our anger.

Unbelief, suspicions, blind spiritual eyes and doubt breaks fellowship; all these mists come from our flesh and blind us to the glory of God, and prevent that transparency which is essential for a clear witness. Transparency is the pre-eminent and predominant feature of God's people when He has them where He wishes to have them.

In the city there is only one street. "The street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (Rev. 21:21). Does this not speak of the fellowship of the Lord's people? The one way of fellowship... see in the Word how streets represent fellowship.

"The river of the water of life, clear as crystal" (Rev. 22:1) witness of an absolute transparent life; transparency begins within, then naturally flows out as such.

"Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Cor.. 4:2).

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light and then we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7, A.R.V.).

"Whosoever believeth on Me may not abide in darkness" (John 12:46, A.R.V.).

The Lord is compelling us to a plane of clearness; and the Holy Spirit has come to lead us into all truth. Only He knows the dark things in us, and He will convict of that thing in us which is not of God, and apply the Cross to all forms of self life, so that we may confess the evil thing and have it put away by the precious Blood.

See what God has in view for us; fellowship and service in the City of God: to be a people for His own possession: "Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love having fore-ordained us unto adoption as sons through Christ Jesus unto Himself" (Eph. 1:4-5, A.R.V.).

Chapter 3 - Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty

In the earlier chapters we have seen some of the characteristics of the "City of God."

1. A spiritual people with a heavenly nature. "According to the Eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Eph. 3:11.

2. The glory of God in the people of God; the revelation and realisation of His own nature in a people; "He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the Divine nature." - 2 Peter 1:4.

3. Elevation and holiness; ascendancy is a feature of the people of God after His own heart; "His foundation is in His holy mountains." - Ps. 87:1. "Like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves holy in all manner of living, because it is written, be ye holy for I am holy." - 1 Peter 1:15-16. Babylon is of the earth; Zion of the heights.

4. Life. The "River of Life," clear as crystal. This denotes transparency. The "Tree of Life," twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, Rev. 22:2 A.R.V. (Marg.) and the leaves of the tree for the maintenance of health in the nations; a life triumphant over death. Christ has conquered death; this "Life" within to be a feature of His people, beginning now and increasing day by day. To that we are called and in that "life" we should be moving.

5. The fullness and greatness of the city, "he measured the city, twelve thousand furlongs... the city lieth foursquare... the length and the breadth... and the height thereof are equal." - Rev. 21. You could not find land space for twelve thousand furlongs each way in the Western Hemisphhere in which to place the city: we turn to the Ephesian letter, 3:17,19, and read again the prayer of the Apostle Paul, "that ye may be strengthened with power through the Spirit... that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God," the fulness and greatness of this City of God - a people filled unto the fulness of God; here we find the realisation of the Apostle's prayer; and unto that we are called.

6. The feature of transparency; everything that makes up this city is said to be clear as crystal, transparent. So the people of God are to approximate to this thought of God, and transparency is to characterise their spiritual life now.

We now come to consider the characteristics of

Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty.

The foundations of this city, this people of God, are very solid; the foundations are tried stones, and the wall is great and high. All this speaks of strength and stability.

The throne is central, and is the manifestation of the might of God in weakness - the "Little Lamb" in the midst of the throne is greater than all the might of hell and sin; the Lamb hath conquered, and the Lamb in the midst of the throne is the LIFE that hath triumphed over death in all its range and depth, in every realm; a strength out of weakness, a strength that endures from eternity to eternity. And the people of God, who are the called according to His Eternal purpose are a people possessing this eternal life in Christ Jesus.

As God's people, ours is an eternal calling, unto an eternal purpose possessing an eternal life; a life that lasts out and triumphs in all and over all; "They overcame... by the Blood of the Lamb." - Rev. 12:11.

"God has given unto us eternal life and this life is in his Son, he that hath the Son hath the Life." - 1 John 5:11,12, A.R.V. John 6:53-56.

"The Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone clear as crystal." - Rev. 21:10,11.

"The city hath no need of the sun... for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." - Rev. 21:23.

Her light as a stone most precious, no need of the sun - the light was over all in its sovereign power. These features all blend and are all related to one another, strength and stability are related to light and all three lead to sovereignty; thus we are given to understand the nature of sovereignty.

"His foundation is in the holy mountains, Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion... glorious things are spoken of thee O city of God... the Most High Himself shall establish it." - Ps. 87. This - in relation to the City of God - is a key to a tremendous unfolding of the strength, stability and sovereignty of this city. See the significance of the Name of God which the Holy Spirit chooses to use here "Ey-Elyon" the Most High God Possessor of heaven and earth.

Turn to Isa. 14:12-14. - "How thou art fallen from heaven, O Lucifer Son of the Morning... for thou hast said in thy heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the most High." Yes, it was the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth whom Lucifer challenged; it was his aspiration to possess heaven and earth.

The Lord Jesus, when on earth, referred to Satan as the Prince of this world; and in Eph. 6 the church of God is shown her warfare is in the heavenlies. The establishment of the city of God is by El-Elyon, the Most High God and is unto the casting down to hell of all the powers of Satan; Satan and his sovereignty cast down for ever.

Trace the word "to establish," through the Scriptures. "The Most High Himself shall establish her." - Ps. 87:5.

"He brought me out of a horrible pit, (Heb. a pit of destruction). He set my feet upon a rock and established my goings." - Ps. 40:2.

"Beautiful for situation - (beautiful in elevation, A.R.V.) a joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion... the city of the great King... God will establish it for ever." - Ps. 48:2,8.

"He shall build a house for my Name and he shall be my son... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom... for ever." - 1 Chron. 22:10.

"I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations." - Ps. 89:3,4.

"He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises." - Heb. 8:6.

"Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin Thou wouldst not... lo, I come to do Thy will O God; He taketh away the first that he may establish the second." - Heb. 10:8,9.

"Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God even our Father... establish you in every good word and work." - 2 Thess. 2:17.

"It is good that the heart be established by grace." - Heb. 13:9. A.R.V.

"Now to Him that is able to establish you." - Rom. 16:25. A.R.V.

"Rooted and built up IN HIM and established in your faith." - Col. 3:7.

"Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." - 1 Cor. 15:58.

"Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to Him be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever, Amen." - Jude 24,25.

All these passages and many others teach us that this work of establishing is a working principle. Today the Lord's people need establishing, for on every hand there is going on a great falling away because of the pressure of the enemy. This could not be if the people were properly established in the Lord. Lack of assurance on the part of the people of God generally is the devil's weapon in his great campaign of error, false teaching, counterfeit, suspicion, etc.

Uncertainty, a Master-stroke of Satan.

To prevent assurance of faith is the devil's own work, it is his aim to get the Lord's people unsettled; and doubt is one of his most subtle means of working. It was so in the beginning, "hath God said?" - Gen. 3:1, and it is still his method. The way, and the only way, to frustrate this is by being established in the faith, Acts 16:5; Col. 2:7. "Stand fast in the faith." - 1 Cor. 16.

"A true heart in full assurance of faith." Heb. 10:22.

"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith." - 1 Peter 5:8,9.

"I know... where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat (throne, A.R.V.) is... and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith." - Rev. 2:13.

The great need of God's people is to be established in the faith, not just established in doctrine, in an orthodox gospel, or by acquiring knowledge of fundamental truth, but established by an inward knowledge of our standing in the Lord Jesus on the ground of His finished work and complete triumph over the devil and all his works. So many of the Lord's children lack this assurance of their position in the Lord; yet it is written: "God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world... in love having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself." Eph. 1:4,5.

"There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." - Rom. 8:1.

"He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Eph. 1:6. This acceptance has to do with warfare, all things in our "so great salvation" are related to God's Eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Eph. 3:11.

"Thanks be to God who leadeth us from place to place in the train of His triumph to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ." 2 Cor. 2:14.

The people of God are robbed of their fighting power when the enemy has got them to doubt and question their standing in Christ. God must build His city in certainty, and we must stand in the full assurance of faith.

"The foundations of the wall of the city were furnished with all manner of precious stones." - Rev. 21:19.

"The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold... though it be tried by fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 1:7.

Get the internal troubles settled, then you can get on with the work. To be established in the faith with full assurance enables us to strike a blow at Principalities and Powers; but the devil and his hosts have much power where there is uncertainty, doubt, question. When the believer knows the power of the personal "I know" because of full assurance in the Word of God, then that very knowledge is a weapon of defence against the enemy; hence he desires to prevent assurance by inserting doubt whenever he gets a chance.

Stand on God's facts and not on the quicksands of your own feelings. Some are doubting simply because of feelings! Salvation is not a matter of feeling, it is God's fact - "It is written" - God hath said. The word of God is "no condemnation". "There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." - Rom. 8:1. We are perfect in Christ the day we are born anew, that is as to our standing, we have good reason to be sorry for our state; but the word is "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" - 2 Peter 3:18. "My little children of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" - Gal. 4:19 A.R.V. Yes it is to be a day by day growing in grace.

Salvation seems for so many of God's children to be a matter of feelings, therefore there is no fighting force that counts against the enemy; (they have not put on the whole armour of God so as to be "able to stand against the wiles of the enemy"). "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward" - Heb. 10:35. Your great reward! - that ye might be filled into all the fulness God." - Eph. 3:19. There is an assurance of faith which sets us free from all the power of the enemy and self as well; enabling us to endure and be strong in the Lord. Having the ground of our salvation settled, we now have ground from which we can wield sovereignty in the Lord.

Here we are passing through trial, adversity, sorrow, suffering, and we are tempted to think the Lord has given us up; the enemy presses in on every side with accusation, condemnation, question, doubts, fears. "Be ye steadfast, unmovable," for beloved, this is the establishing principle at work, our faith is being exercised. We know anguish, travail. Remember the establishing work is done while our eyes are unto Him; when things are against us, seeking to press us down, then we look off unto Jesus now in the presence of God for us, having all authority in heaven and on earth, and a NAME that is above every other name, a title of Sovereignty above every other title of sovereignty.

"The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened (full of light), that ye may know HIM... and what the exceeding greatness of HIS power to usward who believe according to that working (in-energising) of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." - Eph. 1:17-23.

This is the ONE unto whom our eyes are. Faith is thus exercised and enables us in the very midst of pressure and contradictory circumstances to rise upward and stand in Christ Jesus in the position He has given us, "seated together with Him in the heavenlies." "Ye are made full in Him in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead in bodily form." - Col. 2:9.

So through trial, the establishing work is done; it is the manifestation of His Victory over all the power and pressure of the enemy, "God who giveth us The Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Cor. 15:57. Yes, it is HIS victory, a life that has conquered death - 1 Cor. 15:54.

The City of God is being built, and its very nature is Eternal life, indestructible life, this holds when we break down. He abides faithful. He still holds on because He is Eternal, unchangeable. There is that with us that persists, that goes through, "in all these things things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" - Rom. 8:37. It is the same with service; the conflict so great, the experiences through which we pass so strange and weird, so inexplicable, everything seems upside down, promises do not seem to be taking effect.

Abraham in the land... yet the very promises given him of God seeming to be denied. Was Abraham mistaken? Are we not sometimes bewildered with the Lord, and are not His ways past finding out? It all looks such a muddle, but as faith holds on, one day we shall praise Him, as we see the reason for it all afterwards; "the path of the just... shineth more and more unto the perfect day." - Prov. 4:18. Note "PATH" not things! These mysteries of the way contain some secret mystery of God; and are they not another opportunity to show forth His wisdom and power? When all seems gone, the conflict so great, the experience so strange and there is no key to the situation; we are tempted to question whether the promises were even of God; everything is so contrary to what we expected, we begin to wonder if we are all wrong! Just then, is the time for us to stand fast in the Lord and maintain that stand in faith.

After all, our experiences are very much alike. There is perplexity, there is apparent contradiction, there is conflict; the forms of experience may vary, but it comes to all of us in some way or another - still "He abideth faithful".

How does this establish us? By the very helplessness of the situation, and ourselves, which causes us to cast ourselves upon Him, and it is then we prove Him. You are coming to the place where you know the mystery of God, and it is a glorious opportunity for Him to show His wisdom and so you are established. It is all a matter of endurance.

Chapter 4 - The City of Light

"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might." Eph. 1:17-19.

This leads to Light, the second thing is a question of Light. Strength and Light are always related in the Word of God, spiritual strength is linked with spiritual light, illumination or revelation. Here we find Light and Strength related to "knowledge of Him". And in Eph. 3:16,18,19 "Strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man... that... ye may be strong to apprehend". Not to do, but to know.

Revelation in Relation to Power

We stand by revelation, "God who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." "God... called me through grace to reveal His Son in me." - Gal. 1:16.

How are we going to be made to stand, to be established? How is this endurance going to be put in us? By knowing the Lord Jesus in this inward way, by revelation. The people who are going to stand are those in whom this thing has become a living revelation; "God hath shined in our hearts," this is one side. The other is, "pressed on every side, perplexed, pursued, smitten down... yet not unto despair" - 2 Cor. 4:6-10. We are troubled and pressed down... why? "That the LIFE of JESUS might be made manifest in our mortal bodies" - 2 Cor. 4:11.

Is not that endurance? Pressed on every side yet not strangled! "In pressure Thou hast enlarged me" - Ps. 4:1.

What was meant to be "pressed down," God has made for enlargement. Cast down, yet a wonderful rising up. Why? How? It is "God who hath shined in our hearts... in the face of Jesus Christ," therefore you can go through and survive. Nothing can carry us through but the revelation of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit in our hearts; an inside knowledge of Him - not mental assent to a creed or a doctrine, but a living, vital reality in our very being.

For strength to overcome and press on, only a revelation by the Holy Spirit in us can suffice - but it can! A revelation that is within one's spirit and not a mental appreciation of truth even though it is truth about God. Oh, the power to be able to say "I KNOW," not I have heard or read, but "I KNOW". It is an experience nothing can rob us of. It is absolutely essential to have this revelation by the Holy Spirit because we have to meet forces of evil against which nothing can stand save that which is of God.

"In pressure Thou hast enlarged me." How? Because of the constant uprising of THE LIFE within. Trouble, trial, sorrow... we are subject to these things, they are common to all men, but we rise above them through the "strength of His might" within. We are strong because of the Light given in the knowledge of God - Eph 1:19. This is a growing revelation. Paul is writing to the Ephesian saints, and what a wonderful history these had! See Paul's words to them in parting (Acts 20:17-38). To such he says, "that ye may be strengthened to apprehend," showing the necessity for the mighty power of God in bringing through revelation. The enemy mightily withstands revelation; to mar or hinder that, he'll stop at nothing!

Light and Strength go together; endurance is by revelation, "I know". Establishment in the truth by revelation of the truth, this brings an impact on Satan and his hosts; light leading to might.

When the Lord opens eyes you see what happens, "the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that ye may know" this is the result of opened eyes. "Knowing that He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus" - 2 Cor. 4:14.

"I send thee to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God" - Acts 26:18. Paul was sent by the Lord Jesus with a message to open the eyes of the people that would turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to their inheritance in God; this, the inheritance of eyes being opened. Sovereignty follows opened eyes.

The City of Divine Government

Revelation chapter 21 is the very embodiment of Divine government in man, everything in the chapter is talking about the number twelve in something or other! Twelve is the Biblical number of government, and signifies perfection of government. And the City is that; a sharing of government, dominion.

We find here throne authority from centre to circumference, thus constituting the city a sovereign city; "and he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof" - Rev. 22:1,2.

By sharing the Lamb Life we also share the Throne Life, but the throne life is only possible where the Lamb life is shared; to share then we must know it now in our experience, and this is not a mental knowledge. All authority was given to the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, on the ground of His obedience to the will of God even unto death - Phil. 2:5,11. Even so He is able to give us authority over all the power of the enemy, as we too are obedient.

We have got to learn sovereignty now, we are called into throne fellowship now, and have got to learn to reign now; this, is spiritual ascendancy. But how can we live and reign in spiritual ascendancy? It begins by a revelation of the Lord Jesus in your heart by the Holy Spirit, and this strengthens our inner man unto ascendancy in the midst of pressure; it is in the daily test. Are we going under or rising up and taking position in spirit? The Lord never delivers out of, until our spirit is on top; we are not meant to be beneath, "thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath" - Deut. 28:13.

Look at Moses; "Jehovah said... lift thou up thy rod and stretch out thy hand over the sea and divide it" - Ex. 14:16. In other words, take a position in the name of the Lord and then you discover the way through. We learn to take everything in spirit, and having dominion in spirit, then, and only then, can we lift up the rod of authority.

When a thing comes from the Lord, grace comes with it; but take the thing out of its time, then the Lord is not in it. See how Moses was able to lift up the rod of authority where Pharaoh was concerned and with triumphant power; but only at the word of the Lord.

"Behold I give you authority... over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" - Luke 10:19.

"Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" - Matt. 16:18.

Chapter 5 - The City of God

Readings: Psalm 24; Rev. 21:9-21.

We now come to consider further features of this people of God as represented in this symbolic designation, the City of God; and we are going to have before us these features and elements which are suggested by:

The Walls and the Gates.

You will have noticed in the readings from the Book of the Revelation how much is said about the walls and the gates of the City. If you will just put a mark underneath these two words "walls" and "gates," you will at once see what is the place they get and how much attention is directed to them. "Having a wall great and high, and having twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels and names written thereon which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates and on the west three gates. And the wall of the City had twelve foundations." "And he that spoke with me had a golden reed to measure the City and the gates thereof and the walls thereof... and he measured the City with the reed twelve thousand stadia, the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal, and he measured the wall thereof 140 cubits according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel."

Now, what is the significance of the walls and the gates, in general? I think the significance is very rich and very searching. The walls represent the bounds of the city and the bounds of the city determine and define the inclusiveness of the city. Everything is gathered within those walls; they represent all the extent and all the content of the city. Those measurements are very interesting. The tremendous size of this city! We have already said that if you were to sit down and work that out you would have something to think about, you would discover that there is not a patch in the whole of the western hemisphere of this world in which you could put that city down without it falling into the sea. It speaks of immensity, greatness, the inclusiveness is tremendous.

Now, get these thoughts together. At once you see that this city, this people of God is immense in its inclusiveness, in its content, in its embracingness. But what is the inclusiveness of the Lord's people? Oh! that I could ravish the heart of any unsaved one with a true and adequate presentation of what the Lord gives to His people. The apostle Paul found himself so taken up from time to time with this thing, he saw it so plainly that he simply cried out "Oh! the depth of the riches."

Turn back again to the Ephesian letter, chap. 3 verses 14, 16, 19: "According to the riches of His glory... that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Listen, "according to the riches of His glory to be filled unto all the fulness of God." That is a big city. The language of Ephesians 3 is the language of Revelation 21 - "the breadth and the length and the height and the depth!" Mighty! Extensive! It is necessary to be filled unto all the fulness of God. That wants a big vessel, a big receptacle, a very big container. "Unto all the fulness of God!" We can't contemplate that, we have no conception of that, but evidently the apostle Paul, who had been caught up into the third heaven and shown unspeakable things - "unspeakable things," he says "which it is not lawful for a man to utter" knew something of it: and so he speaks here of the fulness of God. "I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that He would give you this mighty inward strengthening in order that you may be able to apprehend with all saints the breadth and length and height and depth, to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, to be filled unto all the fulness of God." Paul had some little idea of it - some big idea of it in comparison with ours, and yet even Paul will discover more than ever he knew.

Well! the walls represent the inclusiveness: they speak to us of the greatness and fulness to which God has called us. Oh! that this might come to us in the power of a great spiritual reality, for if you take up this thought of divine fulness for the people of God you will find it everywhere.

So, then, the 12,000 stadia, the 144 cubits, the four dimensions, the fulness of God, that is our calling, beloved. That is possible of being lost, and I think that poignant eternal remorse would be the more poignant by the discovery of what was lost than by perhaps many other things. I believe this, that once a soul wakens up to discover all that it has lost, hell is begun. If hell were only recollection that could be quite enough. To have been made in order to share the divine nature, made to enter into the divine glory, made to have all the fulness of God to share with all His people, and to have lost it because you have rejected the Lord Jesus, as the door, the way, the truth, the light - surely there would be hell in that! But, beloved, we, most of us, have a better outlook than that - "and I am persuaded better things of you. " This is our calling, this is what God is seeking to bring about, this is what God is doing - "according to the riches of His glory." We must leave that and pass on quickly.

We note the next thing, that these walls represent the character of the Lord's people, inclusiveness and then character. We have said that the City is the people of God and the walls are a presentation of the character of the Lord's people. You look at them! There is the jasper, the diamond of clear lustre; the sapphire in its beauty of ethereal blue; the chalcedony, the deep dark red of the carbuncle; the emerald, clear, pure, transient green; the sardonyx, black and white merging; the sardius, which is the ruby by another name; the chrysolyte, a light yellow, golden stone; the beryl, the crystal rock; the topaz, with its richest tones of yellow; the chrysoprasus, which is the agate; the jacinth, which today is called the ligure - orange, red and purple mixed - and then the amethyst, with its tender violet tones. That is all a wonderful, beautiful presentation, but what does it say to us?

Well! It says variety at any rate, doesn't it? You can arrange the rainbow there. All the primary and secondary colours are found here - marvellous variety and beauty. There is no sameness about the work of God, there is no dullness about the work of grace, grace is many hued. Grace has many phases, grace is many-sided in its glory; and the people of God are very different, hardly two alike. There is a vast variety gathered here, yet the Lord through grace can fit the whole variety into a unity and make it one complete, beautiful, perfect whole. You may perhaps have despaired of me, I may perhaps have despaired of you; the Lord's grace is going to fit us all in, however different we are. I do not believe that, in spite of the talk about doubles, there are two people exactly alike on all points in this world, you will find a difference somewhere. That is the problem of racial relationships. Now, the Lord has got over that problem in grace. We are all here, every variety is here, oh! and shining with lustre, filled with glory; that is the character of the people of God. God doesn't despair of you! Beloved, whatever you may think of yourself, however you may feel about yourself, however depressed with your own nature and constitution and temperament and character, the Lord has His way of getting you there to His place of perfection. The Blood of the Lord Jesus is sufficient, the grace of God is sufficient. Have you despaired of someone else, who is awkward, difficult, cantankerous, hopeless? The Lord hasn't given them up! I think it is going to be one of the glories of that City if we discover what the Lord has been able to make of "rough diamonds," as we call them; that He is going to make of them jasper, a diamond of clear lustre.

So, then, the stones speak to us of variety which God has blended into a unity and made whole. I go back over the old dispensation and read the story of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and for the most part it is a sorry story. I remember a very, very dark page in the story about Benjamin, one of the most awful stories in the whole range of the Bible; one of those stories that today the ethical people desire to leave out as not fit to be read. Oh! why put it there then? Does the Lord think it fit to be read? Why, Benjamin is here, in the City glorified, that dark thing is here glorified. If God can do that, what can't He do!

Go through the tribes and follow their history, and you will often wonder why God doesn't blot out this whole lot. Why is He so forbearing and long-suffering with wayward Israel? He will not allow Balaam to curse. Oh! what cannot grace do. The names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel are here shining with the lustre of eternal glory, and the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. I must confess that ofttimes I should have washed my hands of those twelve in the old days. They are very disappointing, they are always saying the wrong thing and doing the wrong thing. "Lord, wilt Thou that we call down fire from heaven and consume them?" The Master says "you know not what spirit you are of." "Lord, send her away, she crieth after us." Here is the woman who is distressed about her daughter - and the idea of Christian disciples is, "send her away." That is not the Spirit of Christ. "Lord, we have left all for Thy sake, what shall we have?" You see the avaricious spirit coming into the realm of devotion to the Lord. There is no disinterested service there - what are we going to get? Well, none of us like that spirit however it may be in us; and then Peter denies with oaths and curses at the end, and they all forsook Him and fled. And that is not the whole story by a long way.

They are all here in the walls, shining with their lustre God-given; diversity, variety, but all in glory through grace. These names of the twelve tribes and these names of the twelve apostles represent something, they represent the whole company in two dispensations of the redeemed. Saved, sanctified, glorified - through the Blood of His Cross. And what a humanity it represents apart from grace. You, I know, have had those problems of the scripture - why is Jacob given the place that he is. How we despise Jacob, the supplanter, the man who was so mean, the disreputable man, all that about Jacob that we hate. Why is he given such a place? To glorify the grace of God. There is hope for us all! "I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." It is the sinner who glorifies the grace of God; and yet there are none righteous, no, not one, in the eyes of God. So these names represent a very poor humanity saved and lifted by grace.

Those walls not only represent the inclusiveness and comprehensiveness of the divine fulness in the Lord's people, they not only represent the character of that redeemed company, but they represent exclusiveness. There at once has to be, has there not, the note of warning? For it is distinctly said here certain things about what is outside, and what shall not come in. "There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie, but only they that are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, for without are the dogs, the sorcerers, the fornicators and the murderers, the idolaters and everyone that maketh a lie." Indeed, those are strong terms. That is very strong language and you may say that surely relates to a very, very bad type, but if you would take the scriptures you would discover that those are also symbolical terms - fornicators, idolators. You say you are not that! Sure? What is that in the scripture? It is those who are called to be the chaste bride of the Lord Jesus, according to the eternal will of God, who have given others the place that He ought to have. That is all. He is the Bridegroom in the purpose of God!

Paul saw that his ministry and his mission was to present this Church a chaste virgin to Christ to be His bride and we are called for that according to the eternal will of God before the world was. Called for that, created for that, and then after the Son has come in He has redeemed us for that, and it is by His precious blood that this Church is secured to be His bride. The Word says so, and those who were created for that were redeemed for that, for Christ died unto that end. Giving something else His place - that is idolatry, that is fornication! Oh! Well, that brings it down to every one of us. What is taking the place of the Lord Jesus in our hearts? What is it that is having our love in His place? That may exclude us from the City of God. Fornication is spiritual, it is giving the place to something else, that the Lord Jesus ought to have. That is all.

Murderers! Oh! Listen to the Lord Jesus. You have not got to do the deed, you have only got to be angry with your brother and it is there. It is the sin of the spirit, beloved, not only the sin of the flesh that God is reckoning with. You see, this people in finality is a people whose spirit has been sanctified, whose spirit is sanctified, and murder is not the slaying literally of another, it is the spirit of hatred toward another. That is murder in the eyes of God. God sees the end of that, if it were unrestrained. God sees how that very thing has worked out all the way down the ages. Cain was angry with his brother first and then he killed him. He was guilty of murder before ever he struck his brother, it was in his heart. You see, it is the heart, and therefore this people is the people whose heart has been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and nothing contrary than that can come in here. Oh, then there is an exclusiveness about this which forbids anything which is contrary to the nature of God. "He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself." He must be pure. "I saw the Holy City." "Be ye holy for I am holy, saith the Lord." "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." But wherein lies our confidence, our strength, our hope? He hath sent forth His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts to do it, for God does not leave it to us.

Table of Contents

Author's Rights

Contents

Chapter 1 - A Consideration of Ultimate Things

Chapter 2 - The Gates of the City

Chapter 3 - Strength, Stability, Light, Sovereignty

Chapter 4 - The City of Light

Chapter 5 - The City of God